Last Saturday was the first day of summer. It marks the beginning of summer vacation period to many of us. For students, summer could be a new milestone to their life journey if they are graduating from schools. Last night, we had a chance to watch Youtube broadcasts for speeches of convocation ceremony from two well-known universities. I find that they are quite interesting and somewhat amusing. The two energetic speakers used their opportunities to address challenges that graduates may run into during their new adventures. They also provided encouragement to the graduates in their future endeavors and at the same time, advices when facing challenges and difficulties. I don’t know how well the graduates received from the speeches but, I am certain most of them would be glad to receive their diplomas. Their parents, especially, would be delighted to have a relief in paying hefty tuition and fees 🙂

As we all know, a diploma is an official document that proves you have successfully finished all the work in a course of study. It is also an important document, though is not always imperative, that may qualify you for certain types of task / job. If the diploma, by any chance, has an error on it – either your name or school name is incorrect, or your study major is misspelled. You can imagine many confusions and inconveniences, between you and the school, could be resulted. Unfortunately, this kind of incidence does happen. Recently, a typographical error for the name of the department from a famous university was discovered on every diploma that was issued by the university. As a result, it becomes an instant viral in the internet.

You may say, “What’s big deal!” My response is: “Yes, it may not be a big deal. However, it will be a big deal when we are talking about our salvation”. Just imagine this: When you are entering the heaven gate after your current life,

“How do I know you are my child?” God asked.
“I have my proof, my Lord”, you answered and show Him your “diploma”.
“I don’t know who issued this to you. You didn’t have the right Savior’s name! Therefore, I don’t recognize you as my child”. God responded.
Then, what should you do, if it were you?

Bible clearly told us that there is no second chance left for us to correct it, after our current life is ended, because we shall stand in front of Jesus’ glorious throne to face judgment (Matthew 25:31). Isn’t this a big deal?

If we consider our life journey is like a “school of life”, each one of us is supposed to graduate from this school at the end of our current life. The question is “Do you have the “right” name who has the authority to issue you the diploma when you are graduating?” If not, then you will be definitely blocked from entering the heaven gate. Isn’t this a big deal?

Apostle Peter indicates to us that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. 除他以外，別無拯救，因為在天下人間，沒有賜下別的名我們可以靠著得救。(Acts 4:12)” Therefore, my dear friends, please remember that you need to have the right name on your diploma – it is “Jesus”!

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

Last Sunday was the Father’s Day that many of us celebrate. My kids called me and gave me a beautiful greeting card with some nice words in it. They used phrases such as, “you are special”, “I appreciate what you have done for us”, etc. to express their appreciations. I felt touched and thought, “They finally know how to honor their parents.” 🙂 This lets me remember apostle Paul’s teaching to the Church of Ephesus. He gave us a good principle of relationship between parents and children for us to follow. He said, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth. 你們做兒女的，要在主裡聽從父母，這是理所當然的。「要孝敬父母，使你得福，在世長壽。」這是第一條帶應許的誡命。” (Ephesians 6:1-3).

Traditionally, we were taught to obey our parents as filial piety is one of the virtues emphasized by Confucius in our culture. From my experience, filial piety does help in maintaining proper relationships in a family and stability of a society. Its origin, if we look at it deeper, can be traced back to the reasoning that we were asked to have a thankful heart to our parents because of their laboring for bringing up each one of us. The question is: we thank our parents because we were told to do so or because we “want” to do it? There is a subtle difference in between the two motivations, I think. When my kids said to me “I am special”, it prompts me to think it over what does it really entails.

We all have our experiences in job hunting. I recalled in one of the interviews that I had been through. The interviewer asked me a question, “What makes you so special that I should hire you?” I stuttered for a moment as I wasn’t prepared for this kind of question. Similarly, I wasn’t prepared to answer the intriguing question – apart from I am father to my kids, how special I am to them? Oftentimes, we would say someone is special. This usually does not mean that he / she is perfect or wonderful “in every aspect”. It may very likely mean that he or she possess certain rare traits that are special to us. So, you may ask, is there a person who is special and at the same time, is perfect and wonderful? The answer is “yes” – God!

God is not only special but also is perfect and wonderful! He is special because He loves us so much that He is willing to sacrifice His son — Jesus Christ’s — life for us (John 3:16); He is perfect because He is holy and blameless (Leviticus 11:44-45); He is wonderful because He does marvelous deeds (Psalm 86:10). Apostle Paul reminds us that we received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15). And, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). Therefore, when we acknowledge that God is our “Heavenly Father”, we would be called God’s children. The question here is do you want to be His children or not?

My dear brothers and sisters, I am not sure whether you are familiar with a hymnal called “Abba Father (阿爸父)” from “Melody of my Heart”,  or not. It depicts a longing desire of the author to meet our Heavenly Father. I do hope that we have the similar desire too! The truth is when we realize that how special our Heavenly Father is, we will love to meet Him daily. I pray that you can realize the truth and have His peace and His love surround you, as always….
Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.

Last Saturday, we had a summer picnic at a local park. It was a beautiful day with many families presented. In the park, there are playgrounds, a beach and two ponds. We had a great time. After lunch, I took the advantage of the ponds to practice my fly casting. It is fun to practice it on water instead of grass lawn. There are bluegill/ Sunfish in the ponds too. So, I used the catch and release practice on those Sunfish. A sister of our group saw what I was doing, asked me to let her keep them. With no bag is available at that time, she has to put the fish through a thin monofilament that I have. It was ok in the beginning but it soon becomes a problem when the third fish was caught. In the middle of pushing the monofilament line through the newly caught one, the ones on the other end of the line struggled. As a result, the line dropped and the previous catch escaped. We were all laughing and thinking it is fish’s lucky day that they got away.

This interesting event reminds me of our own life experience – How often were we surprised by things that we thought are safe and sound? Probably a few times, right? Recently, my son got a penalty fine surprise from a bank, because he used his debit card with insufficient fund. He later told us that he “thought” he still has money in the bank. This is a minor example, how about recent school / college shooting incidents? Aren’t we thinking our kids are safe in those schools as those incidents occurred in seems-to-be-safe neighborhood? After all, we may possess a false sense of security about things if we are not careful. It is not until we were surprised then we realize that there is no sure thing in this world. Yet, it is sad to say that we continue to make the same mistake over and over again.

In the era of Northern and Southern kingdoms, Israelites rely on prophets to give them guidance. However, false prophets would lead them into danger and eventually being captivated by Assyria and Babylon, even prophet Jeremiah and prophet Ezekiel warned them about the imminent judgments. In the book of Jeremiah, God warned Israelites through prophet Jeremiah, “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace. 因為他們從最小的到至大的都一味地貪婪，從先知到祭司都行事虛謊。 他們輕輕忽忽地醫治我百姓的損傷，說『平安了！平安了！』，其實沒有平安。(Jeremiah 6:13-14). In the book of Ezekiel, prophet Ezekiel announced God’s judgment to the false prophets, “My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord. 我的手必攻擊那見虛假異象，用謊詐占卜的先知。他們必不列在我百姓的會中，不錄在以色列家的冊上，也不進入以色列地，你們就知道我是主耶和華。』 因為他們誘惑我的百姓，說『平安！』，其實沒有平安，就像有人立起牆壁，他們倒用未泡透的灰抹上 (Ezekiel 13:9-10)” The false sense of security created by the false prophets make the Israelites believe that God is with them and they are safe. How wrong it is!

Therefore, the real question here is: “Is there any sure thing? Where can we find the sense of security that is “true”?” The answer is “yes!” It is God who can give us the true sense of security. I do hope that you can know Him personally.

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

I was working on several things last Saturday. One of the things that I have to do is to help my wife build a supporting frame for her garden vegetables, which has been on my honey-to-do list for quite a while. My idea was to set up the frame quickly without spending too much time and money. So, I used a few pieces of left-over lumber from my garage to build it, only to find out later that I couldn’t finish it without additional material. The project was therefore delayed. What a drag 🙁

In the middle of my constructing the frame, my wife pointed to me an interesting behavior she observed from the area where two rows of snow pea were planted – she was amazed to see how the snow pea vines could, by themselves, find a supple metal skeleton that she put into the area a week ago, as there is at least two-to-three inches in between the skeleton and the snow pea. And, she didn’t even force / arrange them intentionally from the beginning. Our conclusion is apparently the snow pea vines know how to find support that they can cling to, without human intervention. It was an amazing instinct from God’s creation.

As the snow pea is a type of herbaceous plant, they need certain support in order to stand up and bear fruit nicely. Without the support, they would cripple on the ground. This behavior of dependency reminds me of us. When we were young, we depend upon our parents to provide various supports – this includes both physical and emotional aspects. However, when we are getting older, our parents would expect us to be mature and independent as a responsible adult. The idea is for us to make decisions, hopefully the right ones, independently, based on our learning and experience. We will then be responsible for any subsequent results. In this aspect, the independence is meant to be mature both physically and emotionally.

The expectation of independence was found in our spiritual journey too. When apostle Paul heard quarrels and chaotic behaviors occurred in the Church of Corinth, his heart was saddened. He then wrote a stern letter to brothers and sisters in the Church and criticized them as “spiritual infants” instead of “adults” in Christ (1 Corinthians 3). We can imagine how hard it is for Paul who as a spiritual father to the brothers and sisters in the Church of Corinth – He was expecting them to be mature spiritually. Instead, he saw them still live in flesh desires. Then the question is “How can we mature spiritually?”

As is God gives the snow pea to find support, so is for us to find support in our journey of faith. Prophet Jeremiah indicated to us how God desired His people, the Israelites, to repent from their rebellion and return to Him. He said, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. 因為我的百姓、做了兩件惡事、就是離棄我這活水的泉源、為自己鑿出池子、是破裂不能存水的池子。(Jeremiah 2:13)”. He wants Israelites to realize that there is a consequence in depending upon false gods instead of Him. This tells us that not only there is a need to find support in order for us to be mature spiritually but also finding a right one is absolutely crucial.

In His last speech to His disciples, Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)”. Therefore, He is the right one whom we can depend upon. He is the true vine and whoever remains in Him will bear fruit (John 15). When we root ourselves in Him, depending upon Him in every aspect of our life, we can grow into maturity. As the Holy Spirit speaks, we follow. This is the kind of dependence that is expected from our Lord, my dear brothers and sisters. So, my question to you is, “Are you depending upon Him or yourself?”

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