During the holidays, two of my old time friends came from out of state to visit us. We had a great time together, reflecting our old memories in the past. Noticing the crawled grey hair on each other, we couldn’t help but sigh that time really flies since we haven’t seen each other for quite a few years.

Yes, time really flies! The year of 2013 is in its last two days. During the year, we saw many tragic events, such as natural calamities, random school/college shootings, Boston bombing, NSA snooping program leaked, etc. They result in many turmoil situations to the country and to people who were affected.  Facing with these situations, we could easily get discouraged and may wonder “Is the end of this world near”? Bible told us that these may be signs to the day of Lord’s second coming but the exact date is not known. Therefore, the author of the book of Hebrews encouraged us to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful 堅守我們所承認的指望，不至搖動‧因為那應許我們的是信實的 (Hebrews 10:23). This reminds me of a short story I heard recently from a radio broadcast. It says like this:

“In 18^th century, there was a research to find out how animals can survive from drowning. A group of researchers put a batch of rats into a pool of water to observe their behavior. Researchers discovered that the rats would survive 18 minutes, in average, before being drowned. In order to find its root cause of death, they did autopsy on some of them and find that all their blood was in their intestines.  The 2^nd test the researchers did was to put another batch of rats into water. This time the researchers would scoop out the rat which is appeared to be at his last breath, they would then put him back again a minute later. The average survival time for the 2^nd batch of rats is 36 hours. Subsequent autopsy of these rats found that all rats’ blood was in their muscle. The researchers conclude that the 2^nd batch of rats was exhausted to death instead of being fear to death as the 1^st batch. This tells us that the 2^nd batch of rats, which have experienced one rescue, held down their hope to be rescued again.”

This story teaches us that hope is a key factor to keep the rats alive and focused – when they have the hope to be rescued, they persevere. In our journey of life, we may encounter various difficult situations. If we are easily being discouraged and loose heart, we would experience the fear syndrome as the 1^st batch of rats did – just give up without a fight. Since we have been saved by our Lord once, we should not have forgotten that He is faithful and gracious, because Bible repeatedly told us so. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, let’s encourage one other and hold unswervingly to the hope we profess in the year of 2014.

May our Lord guide you and protect you as always, in 2014!

Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.

In this joyful season, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect a few things that were happening in my family during the year of 2013. In the year, we experienced heavy load of college tuitions and insecurity of my job due to the uncertainty of economy.  In parallel, we were also joyous to see the formation of a new family and the spiritual growth of our church. All in all, we are thankful for God’s provision and leading of my family.

When we learned my son gained an admission to one of his favorite colleges in last year, my wife and I started to worry about how to shell out two college tuition and fees, at the same time.  In the middle of our worry, our gracious Lord lets us receive partial financial aid from the school to help alleviate our financial burden.  In addition, He lessens our load in picking up and dropping off because my son is joining the same college with my daughter. Later of the year, we also find out that there is a family from the city where my kids’ college is has a daughter who is studying in our local culinary school. This makes our life even easier because we can carpool with the family. From this experience, I was once reminded by the name of God – Jehovah-jireh 耶和華以勒﹝就是耶和華必預備﹞. 

In last June, my working company held a large scale resource action (RA) to her workforce. I thank God for sparing me from this RA. One day when I was walking around the buildings at my working place during my lunchtime break, I rant into an old acquaintance. We chatted a little bit on the topics of family and work. He told me that he was shocked from this RA occurred in his department. It was hit hard and consequently he has to pick up more workload from his let-go colleagues. The bad is now he has to work on weekends. So, he sighed, “There is no fun in working here anymore, I would retire this time if my kids were not still in college.” “Me too!” I responded. Talking about job in this world, the author of the book of Ecclesiastes indicated that “it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.” 我所見為善為美的、就是人在　神賜他一生的日子喫喝、享受日光之下勞碌得來的好處．因為這是他的分。(Ecclesiastes 5:18).  It tells us that it is our lot to enjoy what we have labored, as long as we acknowledge that it is given by God. I realize that I am blessed to have a job under this uncertain environment. 

In last August, my wife’s niece had a wonderful wedding in our church. She came two years ago to study her graduate degree here. We are very happy to see the decision she made to accept Christ as her personal savior. We are also glad to see that she found a loving and trust-worthy person to accompany her throughout her future life. Her family and relatives came from Far East to attend her wedding and celebration. My wife also had a chance to have a reunion with her sisters and in-laws. We thank our brothers and sisters for the time and efforts they spent to pull everything together. Especially we’d like to thank them for their prayers. After the ceremony, my wife’s sisters and in-laws told us that they witnessed a very meaningful ceremony.  I trust that this will become a seed in their heart – to foretaste the concept of “It is a big loving family, when you are in Christ”.

During the year, we saw God’s hand continued to lead our young church. Our serving in various areas of ministry – the ministry of food management, finance, music, and teaching ministry – help my family to grow in Him continuously. We thank God for giving us brothers and sisters to co-work together.  Their dedication and love become our major thrust in serving Him. We feel that our church has a great potential in proclaiming God’s love, especially when we saw the huge crowd in hot-pot gathering for Chinese New Year, Summer BBQ picnic gathering, and Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. In this warped and crooked generation, our belief has been challenged from every angle. How can we foster a church that is standing firm against all the ferocious attacks is going to be a tremendous task to us. We pray that His name be lifted on high in this country. May this country experience what prophet Isaiah has prophesied: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)” 在黑暗中行走的百姓看見了大光；住在死蔭之地的人有光照耀他們。以賽亞書9章2節.

Shoveling out from last weekend’s snow storm at my driveway reminds me of Christmas is coming soon. My all-time favorite song, sung by Bing Crosby, called “White Christmas” came to my mind.  In its lyrics, there is a stanza like this:

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

For those of us who are living in Northeastern region, “white Christmas” seems to be a norm, though sometimes we may not have it right on the Christmas day. For those of you who are living in the West coast or South, your experience of a white Christmas may be quite different. Before I came to the Northeast, I used to live in a tropical area and therefore, snow in winter is an impossible event unless it is in higher mountain. Consequently, to dream a white Christmas in winter is like an impossible dream.

Last Friday night in our small group meeting, we were asked to share our dreams in our youth. Some of us shared that they had dreamed to enter certain professions but later on, changed their mind. My experience is we can have many dreams in our journey of life but they oftentimes do not come true!  They are more like “wishful thinking” or impossible dreams.  

In contrasting to our impossible dreams, Bible gave us an example of how Simeon and Anna realize their dream – witnessing the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:25-38). From reading the Scriptures, we see that Simeon and Anna had dreamed that they can see “the consolation of Israel以色列的安慰者”; “God’s salvation神的救恩”; “the Lord’s Messiah主所立的基督”; “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel是照亮外邦人的光，又是你民以色列的榮耀”.  At the first glance, we may think their dream is an impossible dream since they had been waiting for a long time as it seems to be forever. To them, however, is totally opposite – they have the confidence because it had been revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. This tells us that their dream is truly a “hope” that is assured by God instead of just a human “wishful thinking”.  Their impossible dream becomes possible because it was a God’s promise reveled to them.

Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks

“Ding dong…Ding dong” I was surprised to hear someone pressed our doorbell in one of the late nights last week as I was not expecting any visitor.  Opened the door and here came my son’s friend. I then realize that my son who just came back from college for a break was inviting his friends over to have a hang-out.

This experience reminds me of another unexpected guest entered our human world two thousand years ago. It was an angel of the Lord who was “ding dong-ing” the human world to tell us that today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord今天在大衛的城裡，為你們生了救主，就是主基督 (Luke 2:11). The announcement of the birth of God’s son – Jesus Christ – which was carried out by the angel is rather uncommon and peculiar. Because it was announced to the lowly shepherds, who were living out in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks at night, instead of high authority at that time. The reaction of the shepherds was, however, terrified initially when the glory of the Lord shone around them. I can imagine myself would be in the same boat when I see the glory of the Lord. In fact, prophet Isaiah had the same reaction – he cried out “Woe to me! I am ruined!” when he saw the glory of God in the temple (Isaiah 6:5). Bible told us clearly that a sinful man can’t approach the holy God without His merciful covering – His son Jesus. Seeing the reaction of the shepherds, we can observe that the announcement of the birth of Jesus is a glorious message from God. And, the announcement of the news is intended for general public instead of special people.

How about the response of the shepherds after they received this unexpected visit from the angel?  Gospel Luke told us that they “hurried off and found” Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child他們急忙去了，就尋見馬利亞和約瑟，又有那嬰孩臥在馬槽裡。既然看見，就把天使論這孩子的話傳開了。(Luke 2:16-17).  From the shepherds’ reaction we can learn two things.

Firstly, the shepherds decided to react to the message delivered by the angel. They didn’t just sit there shocked and amazed but instead, they hurried off to find the baby Jesus. However, the only sign that the angel gave to them is: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Have you ever wondered how difficult it is to find the baby during the late night especially when the names of his parents and location are unknown? These difficulties, however, didn’t deter the shepherds’ determination and enthusiasm at that time.  They found the baby!  I think God’s Positioning System (GPS) is definitely better than today’s GPS. 🙂

Secondly, the shepherds followed up with an action of spreading the word concerning Jesus to others after seeing Him. That means the shepherds become messengers of the good news. Again, let me post a question here. Have you ever wondered how confident people have in listening to the news told by the shepherds? Probably not very high, right? Luke told us that all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them (Luke 2:18). There may be a doubt exists in people’s mind, but the shepherds were not! Because they have seen God’s glory and they have seen Jesus personally!

From shepherds’ responses to the unexpected visit of the angel of the Lord, there is definitely something that we can ponder. The first one is “Have we taken God’s message seriously?” At this Christmas season, do we really concern about the news of the birth of Jesus – the unexpected guest to us or our own desires? Do we have the attitude of seeking Him first and follow His command to spread the good news?  My dear brothers and sisters, let’s learn from the shepherds to be a good messenger of the Lord and remember that He is Immanuel!

Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks

Last Thursday, we had many families come to our house to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was a joyous night with many new faces and old acquaintances crowded around our dinning, living and family room. I always thought that we have enough room for guests after our kids went to college. After seeing the crowd, I realize that my house is still far smaller than I thought for this kind of gathering. J A question then came to my mind: Is there a perfect house exists in this world – that is flexible enough to both fit as many guests as you want and after the party is over, it can fall back to as small as an one-bed room apartment for empty-nesters? I think there is one possibility – a small house with a large tent set up in its backyard. Well, even with this set up, I think it is still limited by weather and space of the backyard. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for us to find a perfect house with great flexibility and unlimited capacity. It is, however, very feasible from “spiritual” sense.

Before Jesus departed from this world, He comforted His disciples by telling them “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 你們心裡不要憂愁，你們信神，也當信我 (John 14:1)” He wanted His disciples to understand that He was commissioned by God the Father to complete the work of salvation. In reality, He and God the Father are ONE and therefore, He is omnipotent and won’t be limited by the space and time. And, He will triumph over the power of death. Yet, He has to leave this world in order for the Holy Spirit to come dwelling in the heart of all believers.  

Jesus fully understands disciples’ separation anxiety and He reassured them by saying, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 在我父的家裡有許多住處，若是沒有，我就早已告訴你們了，我去原是為你們預備地方去。 (John 14:2)”.  To me it is intriguing to perceive that God’s house has many rooms. Theologians and scholars think this can be either figurative speaking or literal speaking. If you take it to be literal sense, then this is a perfect house that we are looking for, because it is flexible enough to accommodate guests from zero number to infinite number. On the other hand, if we take it to be figurative, then Jesus is the true representation of God’s house. As apostle Paul indicated that Church is Jesus’ body (Ephesians 1:23), today’s church is considered to be the realization of God’s house – God’s tabernacle in this world. In other words, God’s house can be represented by the collection of all believers. From this sense, it is also flexible with great capacity.

In this Thanksgiving season, we were reminded of God’s love, through His Son Jesus Christ, makes it possible for us to dwell in His house. Let’s not forget that Jesus has paid a great price for us in order for us to enjoy the perfect house with brothers and sisters in His family. May we remember and thank the sacrificial love from our Lord. 

Now the question for you is: are you dwelling in this perfect house?  If not, then please come and receive Jesus as your personal savior. Then you will enter this perfect house with peace and joy in your heart.

Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.