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Showing posts from 2015

Just to Close 2015

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On the last day of 2015, I am spending the night at a dear Christian home nearby Seoul, South Korea. In this home I came across a little booklet, an excerpt from Andrew Murray's The Spirit of Christ, chapter 5. I am on a 3-week trip to see my old friends who are all Christians with a heart to know and love the Lord. So tonight after meeting, catching up, and having small fellowship times here and there with them, the prayer that I read from the booklet truly becomes my prayer in the closing of this year. Now I hope to share this portion with you all. May this little prayer supplies you with a fresh dose of the Lord Himself. "Blessed Lord Jesus! I do believe, help Thou mine unbelief. Do Thou, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, perfect the work of faith in me too. Teach me, I prayed Thee, with a faith that enters the unseen, to realize what Thy glory is, and what my share in it is even now, according to Thy word: 'The glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them.&#

Learning a Lesson

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Naturally I prefer a tranquil situation, an isolated position where I only have to make myself comfortable in the Lord. No frills and no complications. But this is not the journey God has ordained for me to live on. God's mercy indeed for me to not remain the same and idle. I recently traveled back home and was met with many dramatic happenings. A relative of mine is going through a very difficult and sensitive circumstance, thus I can't elaborate. But such personal affair becomes quite center stage in some aspects of the church life where he and his family live. It's a profound episode in his life. Maybe humanly only he himself knows the dimensions of the catastrophe. All of our relatives empathize but no one can truly sympathize. We were brought up as Christians who would uphold the preciousness of the church, the Lord's Body. My relatives are not perfect people (they can get angry too) but they go through the matter in much fellowship and prayers for the sake

A Chat with a 14 Year Old

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I sat across from a fourteen year old, my youngest brother. We had dinner together at a nearby restaurant, just the two of us, before he had to catch a plane to go to school abroad. My youngest brother loves to eat and play computer games; he also loves spending time with me. I can't believe he's about a foot taller than I, and still growing. He's chatty but usually the topics revolve around food, going to the malls, his friends, or the best, newest fancy gadget he's been eyeing for a while. That evening, however, he nonchalantly told me more serious matters concerning his surrounding. At first he sounded like a tattletale, but when I put myself in his shoes, I immediately felt a great empathy toward him. The situation he mentioned was heavy to bear, but he spoke as if it was an ordinary part of life. The Lord reminded me right then: It is human to need God. That's a plain fact, even for a teenage boy. My brother received the Lord a few years ago, at night, on

Born Again

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I was "born this way" therefore everyone should accept the way that I am and come to terms with the lifestyle I'm naturally drawn to. Such notion is prevailing in society today. It's a right to live according to our inborn propensities, some say. But, we were all born sinners, and our chief inborn propensity is to sin. If sinning is a right, then we are truly living in an inverted world.  We were born sinful, but why do we think to sin is a rightful liberty? It's an illegal enslavement. Within, our own conscience convicts us with guilt, and without, the consequences of our sinful deeds ripen. But we keep on sinning beyond control. The world is confused and is blatantly confusing. In moments like this, the phrase "born again" brings me to tears, tears of deep gratitude. I was born a sinner but the Lord Jesus died for me, paid the highest price to redeem me from the wages of my sins. When I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my God and Savior, He c

Herein is Love

This week I've been enlightened, convicted, and supplied by God's Word. It's a privilege, a blessing, and a mercy to love God because He has first loved us. So I made a little tune to 1 John 4:10-11, 16. "Herein is love,  not that we have loved God but that He loved us  and sent His son as a propitiation for our sins. Beloved,  if God has loved us in this way,  we also ought to love one another. And we know and have believed the love which God has in us.  God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God  and God abides in him."

Serving God

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After serving the Lord for a few years, I gradually realize that none of my qualifications, whether it's integrity or skills, is worth anything in His eyes. According to Philippians 3:3, we must be ones who "serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh." I experience an outward change in my service: instead of serving full-time, I will serve part-time with the campus ministry I've been involved with for the past five years. I don't know yet what I will do with the rest of my time, but the Lord has not required any less of my genuine service and worship to Him. I still belong to Him and He is still my God. I'm not certain of what the future holds, but one thing I know, the Lord Jesus will never let me go and will always demand a resurrection-ly  living. And yes, I cannot attain the Lord's desire by myself but He can continue to be and do just that in me. This morning I had a time with the Lord and was touched

Genuine Freedom

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What a great deliverance we have: out of the authority of darkness. What a marvelous transfer: into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. Today I found genuine freedom. Freedom from flesh, freedom from self; freedom from striving just to be good. To live in God's kingdom is not a matter of outward teaching & regulation. In this realm we are ruled in love, with life, and under light. A realm that requires the divine life with the innate ability of life. The authority of the kingdom is in the flowing of this life, in the shining of Jesus, and in the sense of life. Here there is no fear. No more struggle to please others, 'Tis freedom to live solely unto the King. Personal notes from "The Ministry of the Word" Vol. 19, No.1 (Jan 2015)

Why Manna?

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This past week I was reading a study on the Book of Exodus for my morning time with the Lord. There were, of course, many climacteric points I enjoyed concerning the long-term mysterious miracle, manna , which was the bread that came out of heavens to feed millions of God's people. The Hebrew word for manna literally means "what is it?" In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus declares that He is the real manna—the bread out of heaven, the bread of God, the bread of life, the living bread, the true bread. Actually what's so miraculous is the fact that we can eat the Lord Jesus, the true Bread; furthermore that "we are what we eat." When we eat the Lord in His Word consistently, daily, we would be built up with Him and thereby express His life and nature. Amazing, isn't it? When we eat Manna we become manna.  And according to a footnote from Exodus 16:31 ( RcV ), here are the characteristics of Christ as manna given to God's people: Fine and smal

A Period of Quietness

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I wonder why it has been difficult for me to write even a single post these past few months. It seems like I lack utterance in many things. So I'd like to first apologize if this blog post doesn't quite convey a coherent message. The Closing of 2014 The year of 2014 was a very difficult year for me. I told a close friend that I started feeling uncomfortable with my own self: my way of life, way of thinking, way of living and serving the Lord, etc. I thought I was doing fine as a person but I wasn't. I thought I knew something but I knew nothing. It was a very humbling process of being scrapped into a blank page. This past weekend someone told the story of Moses being called by God. She shared how could this baby boy escaped Pharaoh's decree to kill all the baby boys born of the Israelites? How could he safely float down the treacherous Nile River and end up in the arms of Pharaoh's daughter who was at that moment longing for a child? How could he enter into Phar