Simply Katherine, a Christian blog

I've been reading my last post again and to my surprise, it has helped me quite a bit this week because I was rather thrown into a complex situation, mainly from within.  So basically, the beginning of every school semester is one of the busiest months of the year for me. I'm helping with a Christian club. I have responsibilities and practical services to do. I feel like the Lord is telling me, "Katherine, Katherine, you are anxious and troubled about many things." ( Luke 10:41 ) The Lord has reminded me again and again that it doesn't matter how great the need is, how marvelous the service is, we need to turn to the Lord and sit at His feet, loving Him and ministering to Him, just like Mary did.  But then, when the rubber meets the road, when I do need to bear the responsibility to coordinate and serve with others, I was reminded of the account in the Gospel of John chapter 12. It's an account of the Lord Jesus having supper in Betha...

Have I ever mentioned how challenging the Christian life is? Mainly it's because every day our Christian life is full of choices. Yes, our God is so great that He has given us the capacity and opportunity to choose. However, we must know what determines our choices because eventually what we choose becomes the daily practicality of our consecration to the Lord Jesus. "As such, how we choose depends upon our valuation of things, and our valuation of different things determines and is related to the degree of our consecration. In this sense, we are consecrating ourselves each day by the choices we make." -  Andrew Yu What determines our choices is our concept of value. This is simple logic: you would always go for the more valuables, wouldn't you? So that part is easy. Now the more challenging piece is the presence of the proper vision to assign the proper valuation . If we do not see the value, we won't bother to pay the price. The question is "...

The Lord Jesus Christ is the unfading One!   Many things have transpired since the last time I wrote a blog post. I went to Mrs. L's burial service, went to Maine for a trip, my paternal grandmother passed away, and I've had a super busy summer being a staffer for a UT Christian club in Austin. Also I just got back from a long family trip. As every day went by, I was lamenting on the fact that my time with the Lord diminished rather fast. My body was just tired from all the activities in these past few months. I think almost everyday, I simply told the Lord how tired I was.  One night during my family trip, I was sleeping after a long day of driving up to the mountain. In my dream, I met my late paternal grandmother, a true person of prayer, worrying about her children and grandchildren. Now I'm not into dreams and all that but my spirit was stirred up in my sleep.  I told her not to worry, not to look back. I told her, "Our Christ wil...

It's been one year and a half since I wrote a post on this series, " Conversations with Mrs. L ." Yesterday morning, Mrs. L peacefully went to be with the Lord at the age of, I believe, 95. Days prior to her departure, Mrs. L was still memorizing Ephesians 1:17, pray-reading His word, and asking some young sisters in the Lord to sing hymns to her. I had been trying to see her whenever I could but in these recent years, she was too weak to receive out of town guests so I did not get to meet her. It is okay, I have no regret. I treasure the rather brief time that I've had with her. Although my tears have not yet stopped flowing, Mrs. L's passing was peaceful, graceful, inspiring, humbling, and fragrant. Mrs. L, we called her "our dear sister Lee," had a very particular portion in the church. She is a true pattern for us, the young sisters. The loss is massive because she was a pillar in the church. Her prayer life was strong and stable, both weapons an...

I know. It's not a game, it's a war. On one hand, Christ has won the victory through His first coming. He died an all-inclusive death that took care all the negative items in this universe, including Satan himself. Not only that, He resurrected and became the life-giving Spirit to indwell us and be everything to us. He also ascended, proving that indeed He had successfully accomplished God's redemption plan. However, as long as practically He has not yet become the centrality, the center , and the universality, the everything , of our lives, of this whole universe, there's a war. It seems like the whole world is going against our Bible reading time, our prayer time, our morning time with Lord, and on and on. It seems like we lose our temper and run out of patience all the time. There's a war. The way to fulfill God's ultimate plan in the divine history is by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit in our spirit. (Please see references under th...

I apologize for the long pause I had from blogging these past months. I moved to a new place so I've been incredibly busy and still am. So in the midst of my busyness. My sister sent me a message telling me, " I think I do not love the Lord ," and there she was in the middle of her stay in an intensive Bible truth and character training. I wrote her back, " Did you mean you do not love Him enough ?" Few minutes later, she replied, " No, I mean like I don't ." Then we decided to pick up the phone and have a little fellowship while she was roaming around the grocery store and I was in the parking lot of another grocery store in another part of the country. I asked my sister to clarify what she meant by not loving the Lord, and she explained how suddenly it hit her that she may love the Lord because she wanted something from Him. As I was listening to her, it dawned on me how often I felt like "I don't love the Lord" myself. Yu...

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a ministry series meeting for Christian students in college. The topic was about Christ's second coming and what our response and attitude should be. According to Daniel chapter 2, the destiny of the great human image (which symbolizes the totality of human government: past, present, and future) is to be crushed by a stone cut without hands, which signifies Christ who was crucified and resurrected. Throughout the ages, human government has been part of the world system, which lies in the evil one ( 1 John 5:19 ). This does not mean we are now rebels against our own government but in essence, we must see that in His second coming, Christ will establish His kingdom on this earth by crushing and replacing human government with all its unrighteousness and corruption. There is so much to be said about human government and its destiny but more importantly, how does this vision relate to us? We do not want to be rooted in the world and oc...

"Where the church is, there is Christ, and where Christ is, there is the church. You can never separate Christ from the church. Whenever we speak about the church, we must know what Christ is and how He is related to the church." ( The Life and Way for the Practice of the Church Life , p. 33) The Church Life The church life needs practice, not just theory. Thus my attempt to expound on this matter will never be adequate. Nevertheless, I have been recently touched, convicted, and adjusted in my view concerning Christ and the church. Usually when I see the church, I simply regard it as a body of believers, who are related by and in the divine life. In other words, I see the church as a living entity, the enlargement of Christ Himself because Christ is our life (Colossians 3:4) and our being together to express His Person is literally the extension of His days on this earth. The Lord Jesus is living again on the earth through us. Yet there is a practical side of ...

In my other post, The Application of the Law of Revival , I quoted that it is very simple to open ourselves. We can tell another sister or brother in the Lord that we are oppressed and old. Actually in the same book, The Law of Revival , the author even specifically mentions how we may see each other everyday and talk about many things yet are not aware of each other's spiritual condition. Then the section continues, "To be open does not mean to speak a frank word or to rebuke others. That is to spread death. To be open is to pour out and speak forth our true condition." Our God is Flowing Last week I wrote about being practically revived by persevering in prayer. In a sense, persevering in prayer to break away from our condition and to press on to care for the Lord's need is a personal exercise. Yet since we are members of one another, in the Body of Christ, the Lord will not allow us to be self-sufficient even in the matter of revival. This practice of ope...

I've been waiting to be able to write this one. I think I'm still digesting all the things I've read from The Law of Revival , endeavoring to practice being revived. A practical revival should follow, don't you think? It's been few weeks where I've been, let's just say, down . I just felt so worn out within and without. I wish I could be burning and zealous for the things of God. You know, contacting and shepherding people, going on the gospel, be involved with a Christian club on campus, and so forth. Yet I just could not attain to whatever I was supposed to be or do. Does this sound familiar to you? The Lord Jesus is good. He has provided two ways for me to go on and be revived. Persevere in Prayer Recently some of us have been endeavoring to develop a prayer life. So I'd say it is not a coincidence that there has been a continuous stream of obstacles and oppositions coming our way.  Ephesians 6:18 says, "By means of all p...

Israel National News (January 9, 2013) Yesterday one of my friends posted a link from Israel National News regarding the claim of Israel planning to build the Holy Temple on Temple Mount, the current site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It was such a wake up all for me. I mean I knew that the end time was near but now I realize that it is truly just around the corner. 2012 Winter Training: Daniel and Zechariah Just a few weeks ago I was attending a Bible truth training on the Books of Daniel and Zechariah. These two books of the Bible are known for their end times prophecies. Of course, I'm not here today to argue with you concerning the different schools of eschatology. I'm here just to present thoughts and facts. For the " abomination of desolation " prophesied in the Bible (in the Book of Daniel and the Synoptic Gospels) to come into being, the physical temple must be re-erected. On one hand, Christ needs His church to be built up as the reality of the Templ...

Dear Readers, I guess I need to take a selah here at the closing of the year 2012. I will be travelling for the next two to three weeks, so I won't be able to blog then. I have to apologize for this long pause, but I think it's a good break for my eyes as well since I've been working in front of the computer a lot these days. Finally, I'll have to end with a quote from " The Law of Revival " that I happened to put into practice today. Yes, I testify that this quote worked! " Whenever we feel deadened, weighed down, or oppressed, or when we suffer the attack of our environment, we should draw on the Lord's great power, and we will be revived immediately ." p. 47 In the paragraph right before this, the author declares that the Lord who indwells us is in resurrection and is full of power. The Lord is able to break through death! We have to see, believe, accept this fact!  Have a blessed closing of the year! Grace to you all, ...

An anonymous reader has helped me put up some quotes from the book I recommended last week, The Law of Revival , by Witness Lee . I'm about to do the same in this post. Pardon the length of the post, but I promise you'll appreciate all the quotes I will include. Seriously, if I could, I would memorize the whole content of this book.  The book begins by presenting the need for the Lord's serving ones to have a new beginning (see Chapter 1), to be delivered from living according to feelings , and to open to the Lord to bring in a new revival (Ch. 2). Then it further elaborates on the Law of Revival (Ch. 3) and its application (Ch. 4). In the final chapter, the book concludes with the matter of knowing the Lord's resurrection through being broken . In the beginning of the book, drawing from multiple Bible verses (mainly from Song of Songs), the author profoundly explains the existence of stages and cycles in our Christian journey, which consists of many be...

I've been reading a book entitled " The Law of Revival " by Witness Lee . Originally published in Chinese between 1960 and 1961, I consider the content of this book extraordinarily profound yet practical.  I'd be glad to do a book review or summary, but I genuinely believe that this book is a must-read for every Christian out there who desires spiritual growth. In other words, you must buy and read it yourself to get the full impact. I believe that in recommending a book, one must build the author's credibility and reliability. This is basic etiquette. So please allow me to briefly tell you about this book's author. Although in the past, some have misunderstood Witness Lee and thus isolated him from Western Christianity, this book is a strong confirmation of the most current statement by Christian Research Institute   that " the local churches -  the congregation associated with Witness Lee's ministry -  are an authentic expression of New Tes...

These past two weeks have been hectic. I'm a person who can only do one thing at a time, but it seems like life is always a whirlwind of simultaneous happenings. Now when things get busy, it's very easy to shortchange my personal time with the Lord, my Bible reading, my spiritual nourishment. Not a good thing. Yet thanks to the training I have received from FTTA , regardless of my current condition, deep within I always know where I need to be. I need to MAKE TIME for the Lord, to be in His presence. So everyday, I would be pressed with desperation to make time , even if it's only few minutes, to stop everything else and be before the Lord, in His word . Also, I thank the believers whom I am practically related with in many different ways. This morning when I woke up, I received seven text messages from multiple friends. All of them were Bible verses that these ones had enjoyed early in the morning. I couldn't help but use these verses to utter prayers back to ...