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.

Recently, our big pet goldfish suffered from an unknown disease – her tail is bulging up with scales protruding. As a result, she would just sit at the tank bottom motionlessly, most of the times. Seeing this, my wife and I decided to take some actions to save her from her misery. So, we stopped by a local pet store to inquire any possible cure for her. The clerk of the store suggested a fish medication for us to try. He also recommended that we cleaned the fish tank every two days. By following the suggestion and recommendation, we invested money and efforts in fish medication and changing tank water for the fish, during the following days. The initial result, however, turned out to be less effective than we would expect. Thus, we had to try another fish medication accompanying with the water changing routine all over again. After all the hoop-jumping, the fish’s condition finally improves significantly and she starts to eat and swim well. What a relief!

From this experience I learned a few things. Firstly, I find that the transparency of the water tank is very important. Without it, we couldn’t detect the initial symptom of sickness of our fish easily.  We may mistakenly think that our fish is just sitting there lazily because she is big and getting old. Secondly, we are willing to take action to save her – this costs us time, effort and money.

If we drill deeper a little bit, the transparency of the water tank is depending upon the effectiveness of water filtration system and availability of fresh air pump in the tank. The water filtration system is supposed to filter out fish’s excrement and keep water clean and free from poisonous deposits. The fresh air pump, in the same time, would provide oxygen into the water to support fish’s breathing in the water. Those two important systems would keep water in a transparent and healthy condition. When the water quality is deteriorated, its color becomes opaque and the fish would start to suffer.

Analogously, we can consider the condition of our faith journey is like the water in the water tank – either transparent or opaque. In other words, do we open ourselves to the Lord acknowledging our wrong-doings or do we harbor them without confessing to Him? Like the water in the fish tank, my wife and I couldn’t detect and solve the problem of the fish if it is NOT transparent. Similarly, when we harbor wrong-doings in our heart, we are also NOT transparent to our God. When we didn’t come before our Lord to confess our transgressions daily, our spiritual condition deteriorates. And, without daily devotion in reading God’s Word – the manna from heaven – we are like fish lacking fresh air and would suffocate quickly. The end result is we suffered from our iniquities. King David’s miserable experience is worthy for us to learn. He said, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 我閉口不認罪的時候、因終日唉哼、而骨頭枯乾。(Psalm 32:3)”

So, the question we need to examine ourselves is: Are we transparent to our Lord? When we live a transparent Christian life, our Lord can then fulfill His promise to clean our sins as He promised that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.我們若認自己的罪，神是信實的，是公義的，必要赦免我們的罪，洗淨我們一切的不義。(1 John 1:9).

Last week, I had a discussion with my son because of his school performance. I asked him to pay more attention to his school work instead of his computer games. His response is “Dad, I know what I am doing.” So I told him, “OK, I certainly hope you do. I just don’t want you to get angry and frustrated next time.”  As a parent, this kind of discussion is not a pleasant one but is necessary because “Children are a heritage from the LORD 兒女是耶和華所賜的產業” (Psalm 127:3a)

Parenting is certainly not an easy task for most of us – it requires tremendous love, care and time in order to bring them up. When they say “they know what they are doing”, it usually means either “they have grown up and become independent” or “troubles are forthcoming”, depending upon their maturity.  The difficult part is they mature physically does not automatically imply that they have matured spiritually. How to tell when is the right time to let go of them, considering their maturity, requires a close relationship and constant reality-check between us and children.

When Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent and ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they knew what they were doing. The result is they committed a willful sin by violating God’s command of “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die. (Genesis 2:16-17)”.  They chose to ignore God’s command and it results in the fall of humankind. This tells us how powerful the temptation is and how weak we are in front of the temptation. God, as the creator of humankind, knows how vulnerable we are and because of His love, He provides His Son Jesus Christ as the propitiation of our sin.

When we say, “I know what I am doing”, the keyword “know” reveals our motivation and intention. Sometimes we may not know how severe the consequence of an action we took is. In the example of Aaron’s negligence in following Israelites’ request of creating an idol, the golden calf, for worshipping because Moses was not in their amidst for 40 days and nights,  the consequence is about 3000 Israelites’ lives (Exodus 32:15-29). Do you think Aaron did not know what he was doing? I don’t think so! So, my question here is “Do we really know what we are doing?”  Before we say yes, we need to do a reality check of our intention. Then, how can we check our intention before taking an action? The answer is we need to develop a close relationship with God.  With a close relationship with our Lord, we can come before Him asking for help in directing our path. Then, you may ask, “How can I develop a close relationship with God?” Reading His words and obeying His words is the key to a close relationship with God because His word is a lamp for our feet and a light on our path (Psalm 119:105).

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

Oftentimes, we would run into such response – “I don’t care”, when we ask our youngster’ opinion. This could happen when we stop by either fast food restaurant for lunch or shop for clothes for him. Sometimes I was wondering is he really has no preference or he really doesn’t care because what we have provided is good enough for him. This lets me think of a recent event.

The glitches in federal Affordable Care Act dubbed Obamacare website, which is supposed to provide general public a “better” healthcare insurance plan, draw numerous complaints and criticisms.  The complaints and criticisms are mainly from three areas. One is: the experiences of “unfriendly and often unavailable” access from users. Two is: some 12 million Americans whose individual policies don’t meet Obamacare requirements for more comprehensive care were cancelled. The last is the Obamacare plan itself does not provide a better choice, economically, for those who already have an insurance plan. As a result, the President Obama has to offer an apology to the public.

As we all know that it is imperative to have a good healthcare plan for our family nowadays. However, at the same time, we also feel the burden of hefty insurance premium. I think these may be the reason why Obamacare was proposed originally in order to confront these issues. Nevertheless, we saw many problems surfaced when rubber meets the road. Apparently, the care plan is not perfect for everyone even its original intent was good. So, the question is “Who really cares about you and therefore, can provide a perfect plan for you?”

Truth is when we are searching for a healthcare plan in this world, we always end up a compromise – trade lower cost with lower coverage. Sometimes we even give up plan for medical coverage because we can’t afford it. So, is there a perfect plan that could offer everyone to his full satisfaction? Yes, there is a “perfect plan” that was already devised for us and everyone is affordable. That is God’s plan – the salvation plan carried out by His son, Jesus Christ! When we subscribe to this plan, we don’t need to pay the premium because Jesus has paid it in full for us. In addition, we will receive a resurrection body that is free from death and pain (Revelations 21:4). Isn’t this a wonderful plan? I am sure it is!

Now you may ask, “How can I subscribe to God’s plan?” The first step is we need to acknowledge that we have problems – we are sick. Jesus told us that “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 康健的人用不著醫生、有病的人纔用得著. (Matthew 9:12)” Apostle Paul also indicated to us that “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God 因為世人都犯了罪，虧缺了神的榮耀 (Romans 3:23)” As a result, we can’t approach God as a sinner and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). This is the reason God sent His only begotten Son Jesus to pay the price for our sins. The second step is therefore, we need to receive Jesus Christ into our heart, personally. The process of subscription is then complete with an acknowledgement, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children聖靈與我們的心同證我們是神的兒女 (Romans 8:16)”

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

Looking at all the falling leaves on my backyard, I know it is time for us to prepare for winter. Each year, we have to spend weeks in collecting the falling leaves because they don’t come down at the same time. For sure, it is a laborious work for us. 

Those falling leaves on the ground lets me think of an old Chinese saying, “A falling leaf returns its root落葉歸根”. This also refers to an expatriate returning to his / her hometown in old age. For most of us, there is always such a special sentiment when we go back to where we were coming from originally, especially when we have left home for a long time. The desire of going back to our originating home is always fascinating to me – why we have such a strong desire to go back to our originating home even we know its surrounding may be completely different from our memory?

Tell you the truth; it has puzzled me for years. Not until when I met God I finally realize its answer – we were created to search for our originating creator. Henceforth, we are always having a desire to go back to where we are coming from. The question is can this inner longing be quenched when we go back to our earthly hometown in old age? I would say “No”.  Because the author of the book of Hebrews told us that there is a “better country” desired by the people in faith. He indicated that “they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 他們卻羨慕一個更美的家鄉，就是在天上的‧所以神被稱為他們的神，並不以為恥‧因為他已經給他們預備了一座城 (Hebrews 11:16)” This gives us two very important aspects. One is the eyesight of a person in faith is different. He / She would consider himself / herself to be a foreigner and stranger on earth. Therefore the earthly home to him/her is just temporary. The other is they are confident that God will prepare a city for them in heaven, which is eternal. What a beautiful faith!

If you are like me that have moved abroad from your hometown for years, you may align with me the sentiment of “a lone ranger in a strange country with homesickness in each festive day獨在異鄉為孤客，每逢佳節倍思親”。However, the witnessing of faith from the book of Hebrews tells me that I don’t need to be in this sentimental stage anymore. Because I have a caring and loving father in heaven and He will prepare a beautiful home for me. Also, I don’t need to long for “fame and wealth in this world” because they are temporary. The attitude toward living like a people in faith is exactly what our God wants us to have.  When we can see things from God’s eye, then we will not be troubled by this world’s view of position, fame and wealth.

My dear friends, are you still searching for a better country (更美的家鄉) in this world? My answer to you is: you will never be able to find it. It is only when you know God personally, then you will find your longing being fulfilled. May you find what you are longing for – a better country. 

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

Last week was a busy week for me. I was pressurized to finish my job assignments in order to meet a deadline. So, I was grouchy sometimes to my family. The good thing is I’ve got a chance to attend my colleague’s retirement gathering in one night. It was a small gathering and several of us enjoyed dinner together. We talked about a lot of subjects, ranging from families, new house purchasing, sports, current politics and new insurance system, etc.

My retired colleague told us their recent experience in purchasing a foreclosure house, which they planned to use as their retirement home. He mentioned that the house was badly damaged but is situated in a good location. Their plan was to tear it down and then build a small new house on it. With a considerable confidence after did his homework, my colleague went to bid the house. In the end, he was surprised and lost the bid. Apparently the highest bidder, who had paid a substantially higher than original sticker price, was more eager to get the house than him. This lets me think of our recent small group topical studies in “Christian Values”.

In essence, a “value” has two aspects of it. One is “price” and the other is “worth”.  In our daily life, we make a lot of decisions based on our own value system. For example, when we don’t think the thing is worthy of its price, we wouldn’t want to buy it. On the other hand, when the price is right, we may over-purchase something that we don’t need. I myself sometimes would fall into the price is right trap and as a result, my wife would complain that our garage is stuffed with rarely used tools 🙂

Consequently, a personal value system can be very subjective and it involves personal preferences. The question is “How can we make a correct call?”  This is where “Christian Value” system comes into play. When our decision making process invokes Christian Value system, we will see thing differently – from God’s view. The Christian Value system would put something on an “eternal” scale like this: “Is the thing of my interest, measured in the eternal scale, worthy of my attention?”  If not, then I should pay “less” attention to it. Otherwise, we would again waste our time and energy in pursuing it. This is just a simple example of practicing Christian Value system. The fundamental principle of the system, however, is as our Lord Jesus instructed: We need to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33a). When we follow this instruction, we would put our value system always in the “right eternal scale”.

My dear brothers and sisters, let me ask you a question here, “Do you use Christian Value system to make your decision everyday?”  Let me offer a prayer below:

“Lord, please open my eye to see what you see, to do what you want me to do. Make me a truthful follower to your will. Amen.”

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

Yesterday was a beautiful day and several families of us went to a local lake to have a hiking. Walking along the hiking trails, we could observe the wonderful foliage and serene lake surface.  The trail is rather flat and easy to walk. It is interesting to see children were running ahead of us and led the way. But quickly they felt exhausted and said “they are hungry”. So, we gave them “power bars” to recharge them. “Isn’t this like us too?” I said to myself. Oftentimes we think we are strong and can do everything ourselves but in the end, we learn that only God can do everything. What we need is, like those children, coming before Him to be recharged everyday.

In the middle of our walking, we saw several beech trees.  Each of them has a sign “Do Not Cut, Scars keep forever”. Surprisingly, you can see there are many engravings beneath the sign, such as “Jessie loves Mary, John + Ariel,” etc. Apparently, they ignore the warning sign except the 2^nd part of the sign “Scars keep forever” 🙂

If you think a little bit, you will find this is rather ironic. Because the act highlights two things: One is “to ignore the warning” and the other is “to desire a forever love”.  Isn’t this what our world is doing now – to ignore God’s warning but still longing for a forever relationship? The question is: Can you find a forever relationship in this world? Reading statistics from the news and media, you can find divorce rate is rising to an alarming range each year. The foundation of family is heavily damaged by both broken relationships between husband and wife and by the same time, homosexual marriage legalization. We learn that both fronts bring disaster to a family and the biggest causality is always its children — the scars left in the children’s mind keep forever. As a result, the society suffers from a bad cycle of broken relationship.

God has warned us throughout the Scriptures in the Bible. Do we heed His warnings? Not really! When we naively think that with our own strength and preference we can have a forever relationship with someone we love, we bound to run into difficulties, and obstacles and soon we give it up. The author of the book of Ecclesiastes told us that “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. 三股合成的繩子、不容易折斷。(Ecclesiastes 4:12b)” The important element of a strong family relationship, as the author indicated, is the third strand – God as the foundation of the family. When both husband and wife have a forever relationship with God, the family is under God’s protection and their mutual relationship will last forever.

My dear friends, are you looking for a forever relationship? Then please devote yourself to build a forever relationship with God. It is everlasting and fulfilling as long as you receive Him and believe in His name, because He will give you the right to become His child (John 1:12).  

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

Yesterday, I had a chance to attend a conference with a brother. We attended some good workshops and had a good fellowship with brothers and sisters. One of the workshops we attended gave a very good analysis and insights of unique culture for an age group.  I didn’t realize its uniqueness until the speaker painstakingly illustrated from his observation and experience. One of his observations is the heavy influence from their family, the speaker said.  The age group has a heavy attachment to their parents and they have “little to none” trust to others, because of their parents’ traumatic experience from the past. The other observation from the speaker is the age group is the decision maker in the family in terms of daily living, purchasing, etc. because they are the generation of only child in the family.  The third observation is the utilitarianism. The age group was taught to focus on results, achievements and wealth.

The analysis opens my eye to see this age group of people would behave, though there will be exceptions as always but it won’t lose its generality. To know the unique culture of this age group could help me to interact with them better. Apostle Paul set a good example, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people向軟弱的人，我就作軟弱的人，為要得軟弱的人‧向什麼樣的人，我就作什麼樣的人 (1 Corinthians 9:22a)”  The sole purpose, as Paul indicated, is for the sake of the gospel to save some and share its blessings .

Interesting thing is we Christians also have a unique culture too – we believe in Jesus Christ, we worship Him and we follow Him. We are “from this world” but are not “of this world” because we have been set apart by God. We focus on how to live a life that is holy and glorify our Lord. We are commissioned by our Lord to make disciple of all nations. These belief, focus and purpose make us a unique species and oftentimes disliked by people who have different views and beliefs. But as apostle Paul reminded us, we need to become all things to all people, to learn unique cultures from various age groups in order to interact with them and win them to the Lord.

The speaker of the conference also indicated that people of that age group are always trying to be “different but not weird 異而不怪”.  Apparently, they want others to acknowledge their uniqueness and “coolness” but are still longing for acceptance from others. It is a challenge and certainly would put a lot of pressure on them. If we look at Christianity, we would find the uniqueness of Christianity makes us Christians different – we become light and salt of this world and bring hope to others even modern pop culture prevails. This is our uniqueness that we should cherish. I pray that we all can be a vessel of God’s love to them.

May our Lord lead you to where He wants you to be!

One afternoon in the last week, my wife and I decided to have a lunch together at the local culinary school. We were celebrating our wedding anniversary, privately. While we were waiting in the line of ordering, my wife saw a familiar person walked by but couldn’t have a chance to confirm it. Then we found that her husband and her in-law were waiting behind us in the same line, what a joyful surprise!

It is great to have an afternoon bathed under sun and strolled along the school’s campus, especially with my wife’s accompanying. She said, “I couldn’t believe that we have been together for so many years already.” I nodded my head. Yes, time really flies and it is going so fast that it seems to be yesterday. We thank God for His protection on our marriage.

This lets me think of the Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s royal wedding which was hailed as the wedding of the century.  Certainly, it is a wedding with great splendor – it attracts 3500 honorable guests with millions of TV viewers in addition, not even mention how much time, wealth and resources had been spent.  Sadly to say, the marriage didn’t end well as we all know.  The familiar childhood dream of “love each other forever and happy thereafter”, which we all have a chance to read before, was not materialized. A question then came to my mind is “Can we find a true loving and ever-lasting marriage in this world?”  Good question! I am afraid that this is going to be a tremendous challenge as I see God’s definition of marriage, one man and one woman, has been severely confronted and altered around the world. I do hope there exists true loving and ever-lasting marriage, as is defined by God, as many as possible.

For those who believe in Jesus Christ, however, don’t have to just hope—they are assured of a royal marriage in heaven.  It is going to be splendorous and the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be the Bridegroom. This is exactly what Apostle John indicated to us, “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. 我們要歡喜快樂，將榮耀歸給他‧因為羔羊婚娶的時候到了，新婦也自己預備好了‧就蒙恩得穿光明潔白的細麻衣 (Revelation 19:7-8)” This marriage is going to be a true loving and ever-lasting. The question is “Are you one of the believers?”

My dear friends, an “earthly” royal marriage will certainly let you gain the status of royalty. But it couldn’t assure you of a true loving and ever-lasting marriage. To gain both, the only way I know is to accept Jesus Christ’s invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb. It is a “heavenly” royal marriage, which is glorious and splendorous, and it will give you the status of royalty to be God’s children. Isn’t this worth us to seek for?

Last week, I went to see a doctor for my weeks-long coughing problem. Initially, I was not inclined to do so until it begins to impact my normal daily life. Interesting thing is my wife and I held a different opinion on my problem. She kept saying that I am having an allergy but I don’t think it is the reason. So, we let the doctor to be the judge. After a physical checkup, the doctor prescribed cough-suppressing medication and antibiotics for my case.  His explanation is a persistent coughing could damage small tubes inside my lung and left blockages there. And, the original cause of the coughing could be either viral or bacterial. He told me that I need to go back to his office if my symptom does not improve. It looks like he is trying to cover all the bases.

Sometimes, I am wondering how many of us are listening to doctor’s prognosis and taking his prescribed medication seriously? I know once a while I may opt to stop my medication when I feel fine already. The other times, however, I did follow the prescription faithfully. This brings up a fundamental question, “Do we really know our own physical condition?”  From my observation, in some cases, we may “perceive” that we are fine but in reality it is not. On the other cases, we may recognize that we do have a problem but we don’t want to see a doctor because we are either lazy or stubborn. In conclusion, we don’t know our physical condition truly.

Another related question is “Do doctors in this world really know your physical condition?” I don’t think so, either. My observation is they have their own limitations too – based on limited information they can gather and diagnostic tools they can use, they make their best prognosis of our surfaced symptom. Therefore, the prescribed medication may or may not cure our illness.

These can be applied to our spiritual realm too. In the Gospel Mark, it records one of Jesus’ responses to the Pharisees and teachers of laws’ criticism. Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. 康健的人用不著醫生、有病的人纔用得著．我來本不是召義人、乃是召罪人(Mark 2:17)”  Jesus indicated that the Pharisees are the ones who do not know their status and condition. Because, they are no different from anyone else from His eye – they are all sinners. If we ponder a little bit we may find that on one hand, they perceive that they are fine – the righteous – so they don’t need a doctor. On the other hand, their stubbornness in tradition and letter of laws prevents them from seeking the true doctor, Jesus Christ.

In our life journey, we may or may not seek doctors’ help in alleviate or cure our physical illness unless we learn the first imperative: we know our physical condition is either sick or healthy. Without knowing or recognizing our problem, we won’t be seeking for help for sure. On the same token, when we don’t know our spiritual condition well, we may assume that we are OK and this is exactly what the devil wants us to believe. He is working diligently to put a blind-fold on us to prevent us from recognizing our spiritual illness. Apostle Paul indicated to us that “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God 因為世人都犯了罪，虧缺了神的榮耀 (Romans 3:23)”. Consequently, my dear friends, we are all having spiritual sickness and there is NO exception. We all need a true doctor to cure our sickness and he is Jesus Christ. He knows us inside out because He created us. He cures us because He loves us. May you realize the existence of spiritual sickness and seek for His help!