Seeing green grass started to grow around my lawn, it is really soothing. Combining with recent rains and cooler days than previous years, lawn grass is having a good growing environment this Spring. Naturally, it also means that it is time to take care of our lawn.

In light of dandelion and other broad-leaf weeds were rampant across our lawn last year, my wife told me that we need to use fertilizer with added weed control, as it is supposed to fertilize our lawn and suppress the growth of weeds at the same time. Then, in a morning after our application of the fertilizer, to our dismay, we saw dandelions and wild violet popped up from our lawn. We were not happy campers certainly. Apparently the fertilizer is not as effective as we would think.

Then, I recalled a visit to my friend’s house a while ago. I was impressed by her neighbor’s absolutely gorgeous lawn – emerald green and no weeds! It is like a green carpet! My friend mentioned that her neighbor’s lawn not only is beautiful but also has the advantage of low maintenance – no need to do weed control as most of us do and less lawn mowing too. It is really amazing.

After carefully looked at my friend’s neighbor’s lawn, I find that the lawn grass is so dense and fine that no weeds can grow in between. Also, because the growth of the grass is so slow that her neighbor does not need to mow the lawn as often as we all do. Isn’t this great? Yes! It is.

From this experience, it gives me a thought on our spiritual journey.  Analogously, our heart is like a spiritual lawn (心田). We need to maintain and do weed control on it in order to become a beautiful spiritual lawn. When we are diligent to spend time with our Lord, our spiritual grass would grow like my friend’s neighbor’s lawn – it is dense and fine and it will crowd out any unwanted weeds in between.

On the other hand, when we are too lay back, our spiritual lawn would grow weeds and our spiritual grass would be suppressed. Pastor Rob Smith once said, “Sin will find its way to us when we are idling”.  This reminds me of what God said to Cain in the book of Genesis after God rejected Cain’s offering to Him. He said, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it 「你為什麼發怒呢？你為什麼變了臉色呢？你若行得好，豈不蒙悅納？你若行得不好，罪就伏在門前。它必戀慕你，你卻要制伏它。」(Genesis 4:6-7)”

What does God mean “do what is right”? My interpretation is we have to do things according to His will. To do this, we need to be able to understand His will first. This would require time and effort spent to establish a good relationship with Him. In this way, we will have a good spiritual lawn that is pleasing to God’s eyes. Because there is no more unwanted weeds (sins) in the lawn! Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, have you done your “weed control” recently? Let’s be reminded that only through diligence we can have a beautiful spiritual lawn.

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

Last weekend, I had a chance to stop by a local creek to do some fishing. Seeing the patchy green grass, peeking-out tree leaves and budding flowers, I felt so “alive”, especially after the past lengthy cold winter. It looks like Spring is finally here.

Have you ever wondered why nature knows when is the time to be “alive” again? It is like there is a secret code being written into them. In a sense, this is somewhat similar to the DNA code scientists found in our body years ago. Looking at that elegant, complex and intricate DNA code, I can’t help but admit that God’s creation is absolutely amazing.

Last Sunday, we were celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus – He came to this world 2000+ years ago to save us from the wage of sin. Because of His resurrection, we have the eternal hope – whoever believes in Him will be resurrected upon His 2^nd coming. It means that we will be able to regain our physical body when our Lord returns.

Some of us may be baffled by the fact that we might be passed away and our physical body could be dissolved well before our Lord returns. In fact, this is one of the questions raised by the brothers and sisters in the Church of Thessalonica – when they saw their love ones died and Christ is still not return yet, their hearts are troubled. Apostle Paul comforted them, “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 論到睡了的人，我們不願意弟兄們不知道，恐怕你們憂傷，像那些沒有指望的人一樣。我們若信耶穌死而復活了，那已經在耶穌裡睡了的人，神也必將他們與耶穌一同帶來。(1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)”

Apparently, God has a secret code written on each one of us. It can be activated on the day of Christ’s return. For those who have believed in Jesus, they will be coming with Him and staying with Him forever; and for those who didn’t believe in Him, they will be judged and sent to the lake of fire. You may also wonder what the secret code is. This secret code is what apostle Paul indicated – The Spirit of God. And he told us that, ‘The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 你們所受的不是奴僕的心，仍舊害怕；所受的乃是兒子的心，因此我們呼叫：「阿爸！父！」(Romans 8:15)’ 

Now the question to you is “Do you have the “right” secret code – the Spirit of God – being written in you?”  If not, Bible told us that you need to open yourself and ask Jesus to come into your heart, accepting Him as your personal savior. Then, the Spirit of God will enter your heart! May you receive the right secret code as early as possible, because it will enable you to enter into God’s family and enjoy His abundance.

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

My kids and my wife used to share the same computer before they left for college. Sometimes confusion could rob in. For this reason, they asked me to set up different user accounts in the computer. It seems to work well for a period of time. However, once a while, my kids would claim that their files are missing from the computer.

One day, when I was working on the computer, I saw a directory called “Mom, don’t touch”. I was curious and asked who did that. My daughter then explained to me the reason she did that is to prevent mommy from deleting her files, accidentally. I was impressed by her ingenious act but not quite agree with it – as it implicates faults on her mommy, which may not be true.

The concept of her reserving a directory from being interfered by parents is kind of interesting. Incidentally, we may have a similar experience, as I recalled – we have our hiding place or secrets that we either were unwilling or didn’t want our parents to know, in the name of “privacy”. This kind of practice is similar to my daughter’s “Mom, don’t touch!” The problem is this practice usually leads to many misunderstanding and mistrust. The comment you may often hear is, “Why didn’t you tell me on this, or, why don’t you trust me?” 

In our journey of faith, do we have a similar practice that is keeping God from our secret closets? Have we told God that, “Don’t touch me!”? Probably yes, right? This is very likely coming from our flesh, as we are still under its influence. We resisted God to survey every corner of our life, thinking that it is none of His business and, we know what we are doing. The symptom is like Prophet Isaiah said, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way我們都如羊走迷，各人偏行己路 (Isaiah 53:6a)” Isn’t this sounding familiar to you and me?

Yes, it is. The truth is: we are uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of our Creator原來萬物、在那與我們有關係的主眼前、都是赤露敞開的, according to the author of the book of Hebrews. There is nothing hidden from God’s sight! Based on this truth, can we still want to tell God, “Don’t touch me!”? The answer should be “No”, unless we are stubborn and stiff-necked and it does break our God’s heart!

Understanding this, I can say that there is one thing we desperately need the most, and the one thing we most resist – We need God’s touch. When we are willing to let God touch our lives, Bible told us that we will be able to gain His wisdom and power to deal with life difficulties. His touch will then transform our lives into lives that are pleasing to His sight! 

Let’s don’t shut God out, my dear brothers and sisters. Please invite Him into your most secret place. Assuredly, you will enjoy His accompany, as He is Immanuel.

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

Last week, my wife and I had a chance to spend an afternoon with our college kids who are back for a break. We had a lunch together and then walked along a local walkway for a few miles. While it was a beautiful day with beautiful sunshine, we talked about their school life along the way. It has been a long time since they left for college that we can spend such a quality time together. Time really flies! I couldn’t believe that they grew so fast.

Looking at them, I am grateful that God entrusted them to be our children. This lets me think of our Lord Jesus has said, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day差我來者的意思就是：他所賜給我的，叫我一個也不失落，在末日卻叫他復活。(John 6:39)” This indicates that God entrusts us to the Lord and our Lord promised that each one of us will be raised with Him when He returns. What a great promise! This also tells me that I am responsible for taking care of my kids and most importantly, leading them to the Lord.

In today’s i-centered world, it is not easy to move focus from ourselves to God, when common mentality is “mine, mine and mine”. However, when talking about God’s entrustment, we have to realize that everything we have belongs to Him.  This includes our time, talents, wealth, family and our life. Being said that, we are merely temporary owners of God’s possessions. We couldn’t brag or boast anything but God’s grace and mercy.

In the book of Genesis, when Jacob met God the very first time at the place of Bethel, he made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth. 雅各許願說：「神若與我同在，在我所行的路上保佑我，又給我食物吃、衣服穿，使我平平安安地回到我父親的家，我就必以耶和華為我的神，我所立為柱子的石頭也必做神的殿。凡你所賜給我的，我必將十分之一獻給你。(Genesis 28:20-22)」”. We could see the obvious i-centered mentality of Jacob. This is a representation of our sinful nature – when we don’t know God personally, we are self-centered oriented.

Only after Jacob had worked for Laban for 20+ years, he then realizes that God is truly with him always (Genesis 31:5). He finally acknowledged God’s entrustment of his family and wealth. What a change! Oftentimes, we are so care about what we have at hand and we forget that everything is entrusted by God. Only when we can develop a close relationship with Him then we can be a good trustee of God. May you will hear our Lord say, “You are a good and faithful servant” when He returns.

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

Last Saturday, we went to pick up our kids at college for their Spring break. It was a cloudy and rainy day and roadway condition was not good. During the night on our way back, rain was heavy and our visibility to the road was very limited. With my whole family in the car and miserable weather outside, at times I was wondering whether we can make it to home safely. We thank God for keeping us safe, without running into difficult situations 🙂 I was again being reminded by our Lord that He is the “Lord of All” – He is a lamp for our feet and a light on our path, regardless of situations.

This lets me think of Andrew Murray, a pastor, teacher and writer, once said, “God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.”  Pastor Murray indicates to us that whoever is willing to surrender his life to God, he would be secure and safe, because God will take care of his life. We can see this is a promise conditioned by our submission. Last Sunday, brother George in his sermon encouraged us to “set our minds on the things above”.  He pointed out that the first step to do this is to realize “What we are”. Because, without knowing who we truly are, we would not be able to know where to set our minds on. Under today’s exploding information and attractions, family demands and workload requirements, we are oftentimes being consumed by busyness without knowing our priority with God is in danger. Therefore, examine “What we are” constantly would allow us to yield our life to God and set our priority in line with God’s will. 

As brother George indicated, we have been raised with Christ and therefore we are dead to this world. Since we were redeemed by Jesus’ precious blood, we belong to Him. The truth is we can set our minds on the things above because He is in us! With this mindset, we can do God’s will courageously, bear fruit in His name and dwell in the fullness of Christ. What a reminder!

My dear brothers and sisters, because of our flesh desires and temptations from the evil one, sometimes we may run into trouble in setting our minds on God’s kingdom. In the midst of this kind of trial times, there may be all sorts of voices are shouting orders telling us what to do, how to adjust our lives. However, we can be sure that our Lord will deliver us from these times, if we remain in Him constantly. As our Lord Jesus has promised us that in this world we will have trouble. But take heart! He has overcome the world (John 16:33)”, why should we fear in walking along with Him? So, my question to you is: Are you willing to “let go yourself” and “let God manage your life”?

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