In England, there is a psychiatric center. They use a simple method to determine whether a patient has been cured by the treatments or not. They bring the patient to a pot of water under a running water faucet. Then, they ask the patient to scoop out the water in the pot, ladle by ladle. The patient is considered to be cured – in his or her right mind – if he or she turns off the running water faucet first before starting to scoop out water. Otherwise, the patient is considered to remain out of his / her mind if he or she proceeds to scoop out the water without turning off the water faucet.

The story gives us an illustration of how to detect behavior from an “out of one’s mind” person after his treatments. Analogously, it can be used to detect Christian’s true repentance too. This let me think of a Bible verse from the epistle of 2 Corinthians that Apostle Paul addressed to the church at Corinth.

If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. (2 Corinthians 5:13) 我們若果顛狂，是為神‧若果謹守，是為你們‧

The zealous behavior of Apostle Paul and his co-workers in preaching the Gospel signifies their fervent love to God. It was, however, mistakenly viewed as “out of their mind” by some people in the Corinth. Hence, Paul said “If for you (the Corinthians), we will keep our right mind” to avoid misunderstanding.  So, let me post a question here, if I may. From your recollection of your love /courting experience, were you always calm and normal? Have you ever done something that is out of ordinary might be qualified as “out of your mind”? Very likely, right? You yourself may not realize that until someone points it out. May be some day we can share a little bit more among ourselves. 🙂 Based on our own experience, we can infer that the more we love someone, the more we want to do something for (focus on) him / her. This is somewhat similar to apostle Paul’s passion for God.

From another case, in the Gospel of Mark, we see that Jesus was accused by his family that he is “out of his mind” (Mark 3:20-21) because he was too busy to eat but serving the crowd. While outside representation of Jesus’ behavior may confuse His family but it tells us how much He cares about His people and ultimately, mankind. With His passion, He gave His life to us. This is one of the reasons that Paul and his co-workers were so “out of their mind”.  It should be one of our reasons to live for Him too. The other reason we should have the same enthusiasm as Paul and his co-workers is we are the new creation, as Paul indicated, and we were forgiven and redeemed.

“…..if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 若有人在基督裡，他就是新造的人‧舊事已過，都變成新的了‧(2 Corinthians 5:17)”

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, let’s live a zealous life that is worthy of our grace. Because in Christ, we received our salvation; we became a new creation (a Christian), we have a new status (heir of His kingdom), we have promised blessings (inheritances), we have a new living style (sanctification), and we have His abundant love. The degree of our “out of our mind” for Him would indicate how much we love Him. May we have the same zeal as apostle Paul and his co-workers!

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Last Friday, my wife and I went to college to pick up our daughter for her Fall break. We had a chance to enter her dormitory and met her roommates. I was amazed how clean it is in her room. Later she told us that her roommate is a neat type. So, she began to build a good habit as her roommate. You can call it peer pressure but it is certainly a good one. We are quite pleased to see this happening.  Funny thing is we had been on her case in asking her to manage her room neatly for quite a while. Her selective hearing approach, however, has always blocked our request.

Hearing is one of the important senses that God created for us. Without the sense of hearing, we couldn’t listen to beautiful sounds (music); we couldn’t communicate with other people; we couldn’t tell whether danger is coming or not. Basically, we could lose our ability to communicate with the outer world. Even with the ability of hearing, does one always pay attention to what he heard? Not necessarily, I believe. We as parents probably had so much experience with our children. From the day they were born, we started to communicate with them and wanted them to follow our instructions. How many times we told our children to listen and they didn’t? Probably countless, right? I would imagine this would be the same frustration that our parents went through with us too 🙂

I was always thankful that God gives us the sense of hearing and the ability to filter what we heard. The ability of filtering is sometimes causing us trouble too – we could listen to something that is destructive, such as rumor or gossiping, instead of something is constructive, such as commands and instructions from God. From the Bible, there are numerous examples that we can learn from. For example, if Adam and Eve had listened to God’s command, then human race would not fall into the control of the evil one; if Israelites had listened to God’s instruction, they would not need to wander in the wilderness for 40 years; and, they would not be captivated by their enemies later.  In reading the book of Jeremiah, the LORD repeatedly warned the Israelites, through Prophet Jeremiah, that they have to listen to His commands and instructions; otherwise, serious consequences would follow. Did Israelites listen? You can check it out by yourself.

Is God listening to us? Certainly! He listens to what we say attentively – this includes what we said to others and what we said to Him. Therefore, we need to be watchful and listen to Him carefully. There are two verses that caught my eyes in the recent daily Bible reading. Hope they can serve as a reminder to us. May we continue to be His beloved ones!

I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Each pursues their own course like a horse charging into battle. Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD. 我 留 心 聽 ， 聽 見 他 們 說 不 正 直 的 話 。 無 人 悔 改 惡 行 ， 說 ： 我 做 的 是 甚 麼 呢 ？ 他 們 各 人 轉 奔 己 路 ， 如 馬 直 闖 戰 場 。空 中 的 鸛 鳥 知 道 來 去 的 定 期 ； 斑 鳩 燕 子 與 白 鶴 也 守 候 當 來 的 時 令 ； 我 的 百 姓 卻 不 知 道 耶 和 華 的 法 則 。(Jeremiah 8:6-7)

Recent rains and floods caused a lot of property, roadways and farming damages in the Northeast. Complaints from all directions are swiveling in our local community rapidly. One of my colleagues has to drive additional hour daily to work because of roadway blockages. Sometimes, he may have to turn back home if there are newly blockages. Manager at my working place even told me that her family members were having stomach problems in the past few days, suspecting it was due to their well water overflowed by recent rains. I still remember last winter; there were a lot of complaints about “snow” accumulation. The bulletin board from a local First Baptist Church even posted a sign saying “Whoever was praying for snow, please stop now!” I think now we can change it to “Whoever was praying for rains, please stop now!” Or, please send it to “Wherever is suffering from drought”

Chinese learned man, Confucius, once said to his disciple “過猶不及 (Overshoot and shortfall problems are two sides of one coin)”. It emphasizes the concept of a “just right and proper” balance (中庸之道, 恰到好處) in daily living. Essentially, it indicates that anything is overdone or done incompletely / insufficiently would be a problem. For example, over-eating would cause obesity and on diet improperly would cost one’s health. How to maintain a right balance in everything we face with is always a challenge to most of us, I think.

In the Gospel of Mark, there is a phrase that was commented by our Lord Jesus to a Pharisee’s challenging question (Mark 12:28 – 34) – “You are “not far” from the kingdom of God. 你離　神的國不遠了”  The “Not Far” is an interesting adjective to describe the condition of the Pharisee. You can interpret it either positively or negatively. From the positive side, the Pharisee has known how to enter the kingdom of God because of his knowledge. On the negative side, however, he has NOT entered the kingdom of God yet (不及).

Last Friday’s joint small group meeting, we were asked to share our youthful aspirations and “how far” had we achieved. Some of us said they had achieved their aspirations already. Most of us were struggling – had either abandoned or changed our original aspirations. It is good to set an aspiration for our life and then pursue it. However, it is even more important to set a goal that is eternally valuable. Wealth was my youthful aspiration due to my family condition. Since then, it has become a constant struggle in my life until I met our Lord. I realized that all the “true wealth” is in Him – peace and joy. In recent small group study, the teaching from Apostle Paul to the young Timothy once again reminds me:

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 然而敬虔加上知足的心便是大利了‧因為我們沒有帶什麼到世上來，也不能帶什麼去‧(1 Timothy 6:6 – 7)

My dear brothers and sisters, let’s examine our self daily: are we “far from this world” or “far from our Lord”?  Let’s encourage each other to be persistent in following Him closely – aspire to be mature in Him (作大人):

Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.弟兄們、在心志上不要作小孩子．然而在惡事上要作嬰孩．在心志上總要作大人。(1 Corinthians 14:20)