Simply Katherine, a Christian blog

Mrs. L 's husband once said that in our following the Lord, what would divide us were actually not the major things but the minor things. Should we print the gospel tract in yellow pamphlet or blue pamphlet? Should we pray out loud or pray silently in the meetings? Questions such as these are minor details in serving the Lord Jesus, yet often they become the divisive factors in our laboring together with fellow serving ones. I have many examples and experiences that I could share with you concerning the temptations of being divided over the small things in my Christian service, but today I just want to share with you concerning a more minor thing that happened in my life. I live far away from home, so I don't get to talk to my mom that often. Recently I traveled across the ocean to visit my home. There was this one night when my mom and I got into an argument over something so silly. It was about what kind of water I should be drinking in Texas. Within me, I was burni...

Last year I attended one of the college-age gatherings with Christians on Campus. I learned a new Christian song called, Our Human Spirit.  The lyrics were directly taken from several verses in the Holy Bible. So I just want to share it with you all. Please note that I obviously did not write this song. Our human spirit is different than our soul.  "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23) It is the innermost part of our being that is specifically created by God (Genesis 2:7), to contact God (John 4:24). So here's the song lyrics. Our Human Spirit  It is in our spirit that we were born again (John 3:6);  it is in our spirit that we were made alive (Ephesians 2:5; Romans 8:10);  it is in our spirit that God has come to dwell (Ephesians 2:22; 2 Timothy 4:22; Romans 8:1...

Today I did my usual reading from the Life-Study of Exodus, an in-depth exposition of the Book of Exodus. As I was reading Message Eighty-One, I came across this quote: "Presenting an offering to God is a matter of experience. All the materials prepared by God must become our possession, enjoyment, and experience. Then, through our experience, we shall have the right and the position to offer these materials to God as a heave offering." Many times when I read about the offerings, all I could picture in my head were lamb, doves, rams, etc. However, I never really thought about how the children of Israel possessed those animals. For sure, they did not obtain them by stealing. That would be both a sin and an insult to God. A lamb was created by God and prepared by God, but the person who would like to offer that lamb had to first properly possess that lamb. Then not only gain the lamb, he had to properly   handle the lamb.  In our experience, I found out that the princi...

In this trip back home, I got to spend some time with my lovely grandmother. I missed her so much, I actually still do. She missed me a lot too. She won't directly ask me to just stay and live in my hometown, but I always have this sense that she's always waiting for me. Whenever I tell her that I and my sister are coming home, she will start counting days until the day we actually come back home. Thinking about my family all day is too sad, that's why I'm not doing that.  I'll tell you later why I choose to stay in Texas and live here. It's not because I don't love my family or anything like that.  Today I just want to write a short post on my grandma reading my blog post.  I told you before that my grandma knew Mrs. L. My grandma used to send Mrs. L organic bird's nest for health purposes.  My grandma doesn't really speak English but she took some English classes before (in her sixties). So I showed her my blog post about my conversat...

Sorry for the long delay of this post. I finally arrived safely, back to Texas. I think I arrived on Tuesday evening. Then I had a bad jet lag. Well, there's about 12 hours difference between Texas and back home in Southeast Asia. It's the ultimate jet lag. Total opposite. Day and night. Check out this post for some documented adventures that I had with my siblings during our travel to Asia: Singapore's Chinatown Frog Porridge I'll get back to my blogging routine soon, everyone.

I'm taking an extra week or so off from work, so I was reading this book called, " God's Need and God's Goal, " by Witness Lee . The first chapter is very touching. While man (humanity in general) has feeling only for his need, God has a greater need. The chapter begins with Luke 14:17, "Come, for all things are now ready."  This verse is then followed by Luke 15, the passage concerning the forgiving father and the prodigal son. In this story, we often focus on the hungry, filthy, poor son who desperately needs to return to his father. However, if we read more closely, we will soon realize that the father himself has been longing for his son to return.  The prodigal son realizes his need after he has squandered all his possessions, yet the father has been longing for his lost son since the day that son left his house. The father has probably prepared the best robe  for his son's return long before the actual day of the return.  ...

I haven't added more posts on my series, Conversations with Mrs. L . Honestly, I didn't spend that much time with Mrs. L. During those two years in California, it was so busy that I only had time to visit Mrs. L maybe twice a month. There was this one day, I was sitting in Mrs. L's living room. I asked her concerning a semi-real scenario, "Mrs. L, in the event of a confusion in the church life, for instance, if there's someone dissenting against the leadership in the church, what should we do as sisters? - I mean whom should we believe and stand with?"  Like always, she never failed to smile and calmly answer, "Keep eating the tree of life. Just enjoy the Lord." Yes, it's Mrs. L. Her answers were always elegantly simple. She continued, "And just pray." It was like a heavy burden lifted up from my shoulders. We all know that there is only one Body of Christ in the universe and we have to keep the oneness of the faith at...

I wish it would stop raining. Po, I, and my brother are in Singapore. We're trying to visit as many places as possible in Singapore but the weather isn't cooperating at all. It's been five days since we got here in Singapore. The trip from L.A. to Singapore was remarkably filled with obstacles, due to Po's passport problem. United Airlines refused to fly us to Singapore because Po's passport is expiring soon. Long story short, our brother helped us from back home. So five minutes before missing the flight from L.A. to Singapore (via Tokyo), the airline cleared us to fly. Then we got stuck again in Singapore, trying to get Po to pass through immigration. It was the most difficult airplane trip I've had thus far. The encouraging part was we still managed to pass a gospel tract (which includes a free Bible offer) to the airline counter's staff in LAX. She was quite receptive, although we didn't get to speak about it much (we were in a hurry, almost miss...

This post was scheduled to be published right when I'm boarding to fly to LAX. I'm very excited to go home! We're going to lay over in L.A. and Tokyo, then Po and I will meet our brother in Singapore. We will spend about a week there in Singapore. I will definitely update you all. Coming into this winter break, I'm reminded again that I can't afford to take a break from the Lord. I hope that this break will be a season of refreshing , where the roots of my personal relationship with the Lord would go deeper and richer.  Going home is never easy for me. There are many complications of feelings, situations, and many more. However, I'm looking forward to be able to fellowship with my family. I remember my fellowship with Judy ( the wife of the older couple whom I met through Christians on Campus ) when I was a freshman in college. I was having a hard time being with my family back home because at that time we were having some family issues.  ...

I can't wait until the D-day. I'm going back to Southeast Asia this winter! Adios, wintry mix! We will spend our winter break on a tropical island. I have been waiting for the past two years - to go home. Po and I are going to bring tons of stuffs home. Our tiny dwelling here is too tiny to house all of our belongings. Usually we'll fly with some Asian airlines but this time, we're going to fly with United Airlines. Po complained a lot but I told her those were the cheapest tickets I could get for our trip home. Well, let's see. I've packed the sugar-free cookies and candies for my grandma, tie pin for dad, bag for mom, bunch of random items for my brother, and some cocoa mix for cousins. I told Po that we would not spend any more money on anything else, but failed. Today I went out with my awesome companions and ordered "chicken katsu bento" for lunch.  Random gifts for my family! Did you see that emergency freeze notice? T...

These days I've been so busy that I feel like I have a spiritual indigestion. I mean throughout the years, I've developed a habit to read the Word and to have a small morning time with the Lord on a daily basis. Yet I feel like my brain is cluttered with so many things during the day that I usually forget what I've read from the Word or what I've enjoyed in my morning time with the Lord. Even worse, often I already forget what I read as soon as I step out from the door to go start my activities out there. The Lord has been reminding me to stop and have some selah. The word "selah" is used in the Bible. In Hebrew, it can have multiple meanings but one of the most commonly accepted meaning can be found in the Amplified version of Psalm 46:3 . In this verse, selah means "pause, and calmly think of that." So that's what I need. Just to stop, to pause, from my busy mind, my busy soul,... And calmly think, consider, meditate, digest the Word of God tha...

"Concerning the faith , we must be definite. But as for doctrines such as immersion, sprinkling, head covering, foot-washing, eating, keeping days, and so many other things, we must be general. If we would not be so general, we will surely be divisive." - Witness Lee I had dinner with my friends and we got into this topic about why Christianity fell into an endless division, into so many denominations.  One of them read 1 Corinthians 1:10, "Now I beseech you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion." In  verse 13 the Apostle Paul wrote, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?" My friend pointed out that divisions in Christianity contradicted these verses. I truly appreciate our time together that Friday evening. We all speak the same thing, t...

All throughout my college years, Christians on Campus has taught me to contend for the common faith . I've heard rumors before about members of Christians on Campus being exclusive, but whoever has come to their gatherings would quickly realize that Christians on Campus receives all genuine Christians. Yes, all genuine Christians who believe in the common faith (this term is used in Titus 1:4 and Jude 3 ). The common faith is not a doctrine that someone wrote. I didn't come up with it, nor Christians on Campus, nor Martin Luther. It's the Bible, it's God Himself, who defines our faith. Thus, I simply appreciate the fact that I was given the opportunity to learn how we need to fight for the faith and not fight for anything else that is not part of the common faith. According to the Bible, there are eight items in our common faith: The Bible is the complete divine revelation inspired by God, word-by-word, through the Holy Spirit. ( 2 Peter 1:21 ; 2 Timothy ...

Cherry picking God's Word is definitely faulty, yet it seems impossible for me to apply God's Word in its entirety. For instance, the Bible tells me not to covet but "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" ( Romans 7:24 ). I continuously fail in fulfilling this matter of not coveting. So what then shall I do? There is a particular fellowship from one of the Christians on Campus gatherings that has greatly helped me. I can't remember exactly which gathering but at that time, one of the speakers mentioned about the passage of a rich young man trying to enter into the kingdom in Matthew 19 (please read Matthew 19:16-26 for context). This rich young man asked the Lord what good deed he must do to have eternal life. The Lord pointed out that there is only One that is good and that if he would enter into this life, he should keep all the commandments. Afterward the Lord showed him which commandment he should do, to sell his po...

The question from my last post on Christians on Campus Fall 2011 College Conference - how can we join ourselves to God's desire through His Word? Many times our application of God's Word is a cherry-picking business. Yes, it's a fallacy indeed. Let me explain what I meant by that. Believe it or not, most of us have a hidden motive when we come to God's Word. That hidden motive varies with every person but usually it's in the form of expectations, hoping for certain things to be found in the Word. For example, a couple years ago a Christian man was sharing with me a story about his mother. His mother had to work hard to feed her many children. So one time, she told people that her favorite verse in the Bible was 2 Thessalonians 3:10, "... If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat." Actually I knew another hard-working person who appreciated the Bible's encouragement to labor for our living in a similar way. But a lazy person may take Psalm ...