God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.

Life is about changes and learning to enjoy the adventure of journeying in life with Him. I can't see what's ahead and have no way of controlling how things will go. I can only trust Him, that He makes all things beautiful in its time.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Mark this date

Did you know that ... next month on Thursday 4th May, 2006, at two minutes and three seconds after 1-o'clock the time and date will be exactly: 01:02:03 04/05/06.

This will never happen again.

P/s: This took place on April 5th in North America because they write the date as mm/dd/yy.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Kissing Nonsense Goodbye

I've been giving thought to the issue of dating as I have the joy of watching new friendships develop among my friends. Here in North America, dating is very much part of the culture and it's quite a different concept. I'm trying to learn more about it ... before I open my mouth to speak to my young Canadian friends or offer counsel on this matter. This article has given me much food for thought. Since I am a faithful advocate of Joshua Harris' book 'Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship', it is interesting for me to read this critic and this author's take on the coursthip-dating debate.

Kissing Nonsense Goodbye

Is God's way "courtship" or "dating"? A slew of recent books try to provide the answer, but they're asking the wrong question.

Well, I kissed dating goodbye. But it sure wasn't by choice. For the last four years, I have lived in a very conservative Midwestern town of 35,000. Jefferson City, Missouri, is a place where it's harder for a college-educated, twentysomething, professional, Christian man to find a date than it is to find a good coffeehouse or bookstore. And Starbucks and Barnes & Noble are nowhere near this town, if that tells you anything.

Joshua Harris hasn't made my life any easier. In fact, thanks to him, my future wife—wherever she is— may very well have given up the idea of ever dating. Harris's surprise 1997 bestseller, I Kissed Dating Goodbye (penned when he was only 21), has caught the attention of hordes of young women of my generation—particularly those who are evangelical Christians.

In his book, Harris encourages young Christians to look beyond our Western culture's dominant paradigm for developing serial intimate relationships (namely, the process of "dating") and instead commit to "purposeful singleness." Romantic relationships, he suggests, should exist only as a means to preparing for marriage—what's commonly called "courting." Harris avoids that quaint-sounding term in I Kissed Dating Goodbye, but the idea is implicit in his promotion of relationships that emphasize long-term commitment and the supervision of the community of believers over and against traditional dating, which he feels emphasizes self-centered emotional and physical satisfaction.

Harris's book struck a chord with an entire generation of young believers. The book far exceeded the sales expectations of Multnomah, its publisher, and has spawned an entire genre of works on how to do relationships in a "Christian way." Recent titles include Dating and Waiting (Kregel, 2000) by William Risk, Boundaries in Dating (Zondervan, 2000) by Henry Cloud and John Townsend, and I Gave Dating a Chance (WaterBrook, 2000), Jeramy Clark's almost-as-popular response to Harris.

Though the semantics often differ (Harris's "principled romance" isn't all that different from Clark's acceptable kind of "dating"—they're both basically dating with specific boundaries), the message of the books is generally the same. To wit: in a culture that seems increasingly disinclined toward the self-sacrificing attitudes that encourage healthy relationships, those who seek to follow Jesus through their relationships need to establish unique rules for ensuring that those relationships do indeed honor God.

This is obviously a need. Even some academics at secular institutions realize this. University of Chicago professors Amy and Leon Kass recently edited a large volume titled Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying (University of Notre Dame Press, 2000); the title is taken from the closing line of a poem Robert Frost composed for his daughter on her wedding day. The readings, which range in origin from Genesis to Darwin, bring into focus a time when courting—of a rather different sort than Harris describes—was the norm for most in the Western world.

There's a reason why these books are generating such a response. In its popular iterations in our culture, dating can often become manipulative, confusing, and even abusive—not to mention downright frustrating.

For instance, I have one roommate who is legendary among the other three of us in the house for being a "Christian Casanova." Somehow, he manages to scrounge up dates almost weekly in a town that I thought was bereft of possibilities. He sees these dates almost as job interviews. If the first date works out and the woman maintains his interest, then great; he'll ask her out again. If he sees no romantic possibilities, then that's great as well; he'll remain her friend.

But more than a few of these women are confused by his ongoing friendship, and some of them have misinterpreted it, only to be sorely disappointed later when he has to give them the dreaded "I only want to be friends" talk. Although both parties involved are committed Christians, and although my roommate means no harm, some of these women end up feeling hurt and used after their hopes for a long-term relationship are dashed. After all, they thought they were dating.

Perhaps the ambiguity and angst that the prevailing model of dating can create point to the true problem with mere dating. One of the most striking things in the Kasses' book is that, under the old models of courtship, there was little ambiguity about the nature of the relationship. People who courted were doing so because they wanted to be married. Under courtship systems, there was never any agonizing about when to have that other most dreaded of dating talks—the "define the relationship" (or DTR) conversation—because that's how you began the courtship in the first place. If the relationship wasn't defined as "likely leading to marriage," then you wouldn't court. All those misunderstandings and hurt feelings were minimized by having them at the beginning.

However, the strictures placed on courting couples under these systems gave them little privacy to be open with each other. For this reason (and other more banal reasons, like changing sociological and economic models in the u.s. after the turn of the 20th century), this kind of courtship gave way to dating.

Harris and the other authors in this genre aren't doing away with dating—they just want Christians to date with more discretion and accountability than is common in the wider culture.

"It's Not Good for Man to Be Alone"
In 1998, however, Don Raunikar took Harris's idea to the next level. In Choosing God's Best (Multnomah), the Houston psychoanalyst seized upon the concept of courting and did to it what we evangelicals seem to long for these days: he made it formulaic.

In fact, Raunikar's philosophy in Choosing God's Best could be summed up as "courtship good, dating bad." And that's not an oversimplification. Consider these statements from the book: "Dating has a self-centered focus" and "Dating quickly leads to emotional and physical involvement without development of a deep, lasting friendship." Both of these statements may certainly be true, but too much hyperbole can be a dangerous thing. My parents dated before they got married, and they're still together. Don't their 30-plus years of marriage indicate that they managed to develop a "deep, lasting friendship"? Good thing that my mom didn't get a copy of Choosing God's Best from one of her sorority sisters in 1967 before she started dating my dad. Otherwise, my dad's prospects might have been as bad as mine are now.

Raunikar also tends to use God as the justification for his views, as if it is God who hates dating and blesses courting. Consider this observation from Choosing God's Best: "Although the Bible never mentions the words 'dating' or 'courtship,' it does give principles and guidelines for one-to-one, male/female relationships. The Bible says that after God created goodness all around, He looked at man and said, 'It is not good for man to be alone' (Genesis 2:18)."

No offense intended, but if Genesis 2:18 is the only biblical proof you can muster to explain why dating is evil and courtship is God-ordained, then your argument is fragile. After all, the courtship-versus-dating debate is simply a disagreement about how to get to the goal of linking two people in a covenant relationship with each other and God. There is nothing inherent in either convention that is either biblical or antibiblical. In fact, if I were relying strictly on the models of relationship-building I see in Scripture, I wouldn't be courting either. I would either be waiting for God to create a wife for me out of my rib or expecting my parents to select for me a comely bride from among the other families in our subdivision. The realities of modern life no longer permit us to choose our spouses this way.

I don't mean to dismiss the work of those who think that their ideas of courtship are an improvement on the culturally prevalent dating models. In fact, there are some people who have been so hurt in dating relationships that they may need Raunikar's rules to begin healing—not to mention the hundreds who say they've been helped by Harris's books or other works in the genre.

Harris, in his new book Boy Meets Girl (the story of the author's courtship and marriage in the wake of I Kissed Dating Goodbye), acknowledges that there are no hard and fast scriptural rules regarding dating—only general principles. And, happily, he gives a Christocentric reason (as opposed to appealing to decontextualized Pauline pronouncements or shadowy Old Testament references) for his philosophy: "Though our Lord never specifically addressed the topic of dating and courtship in his earthly ministry, He answered our questions about the right way to do relationships by answering the broader question of the right way to live life."

The Unspoken Problem
Nevertheless, for all of their merits, these works fail to address a much more basic issue related to the problem of dating and singleness: Why is it a problem?

As my friend Al Hsu notes in his excellent 1997 book, Singles at the Crossroads (IVP):

The average Christian bookstore has more than a hundred titles on marriage and another hundred about parenting, children, and family issues. In contrast, these stores stock only about a dozen books about singleness. Half of these are geared for "single-again" divorcees or widows. Of the remainder, most are about "how to find the right one." … Instead of dealing with problems that singles might face, these books seem to think singleness is the problem. They instruct the reader on how to bide one's time until the right person comes along. In other words, they imply that the solution to the problem of singleness is to get married.

Hsu goes on to argue convincingly that American evangelicals have all but made an idol out of the human concepts of marriage and family, thus marginalizing single Christians, who are just as complete in Christ as any married person.

The courtship books, it seems, don't begin with this premise. For instance, by stating in Choosing God's Best that "God's solution for man's aloneness is marriage, not dating," Raunikar implicitly labels singleness as something in need of a solution—in other words, a problem.

But these days it seems marriage may well be more of a problem than singleness. I have lost count of the number of friends and acquaintances near my age who either have already gone through a divorce or are in the midst of one. And the vast majority of them are committed believers who come from solidly evangelical congregations where divorce is not taken lightly.

This widespread reality doesn't jibe with the promarriage rhetoric I heard growing up in the youth group of a Southern Baptist megachurch. We were told constantly that "God has that special someone out there for you" and that "you should be preparing yourself for that person even now." My youth minister never said anything about how difficult marriage might be after we found that special someone. I can't blame him; he was too busy making sure that we would defer sex until marriage to tell us much about what came afterward.

Critics in non-Christian contexts have noted this aspect of the problem. Reflecting on the Kasses' book in The Atlantic Monthly, Peter Berkowitz articulates one of the things that has always troubled me about most Christian advice on marriage and dating: "If our anti-romantic tendencies persuade us to expect too little from marriage, our romantic tendencies seduce us into expecting too much."

In some ways, overemphasizing (and thus over-romanticizing) marriage may have created more problems among evangelicals than it has solved. Marriage is not always the solution, and singleness is not always a problem. In fact, singleness actually may be preferable to marriage in some cases. Just ask the apostle Paul.

Whatever the case, single believers should not fall prey to the world's trap of entering into dating relationships lightly or without accountability. By the same token, nobody and no book should elevate culturally bound ideas about courtship, marriage, or family over the family of God.

Rob Marus is the director of Mainstream Missouri Baptists in Jefferson City, where he serves as a coteacher of the Twentysomething Singles at First Baptist Church.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
June 11, 2001, Vol. 45, No. 8, Page 46

For more articles, visit Christianity Today.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

First Saturday night

What was the first Saturday night like?

Hopeless. Overwhelmed with grief. Emptiness. The pain of knowing that they will never see Him again, the one they have loved and followed the past 3 years. Guilty, for abandoning him when he really needed me. Ashamed. Maybe if I spoke up, he would not have died. Crushed dreams. Abandoned. Betrayed. Lost. Despair. Tears. Memories of the good times... his smile, his kindness to those who were usually ignored and outcast, his words and his look. His eyes would bore through me and felt like he saw right through me. He knew my every thought and deepest motives, yet there was no condemnation. They really hurt him. I could see his body writhe with pain. He didn't deserve to die, and definitely not like that. It's not fair!

Questions and more questions. Is this it? Was the past 3 years in vain and just a dream? Did he know this would happen? Why didn't he stop them? Why did he have to die and leave us all? Didn't he say he was the Messiah? Was that all a hoax, a lie, or perhaps a failed mission? But what about all the miracles? Where is Judas? What do we do now? Should I go back to my father's house and admit that I've been a fool? Peter goes fishing.

Silence.





Dead silence.





Sounds familiar?

A Future Not Our Own

“A Future Not Our Own” by Archbishop Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

In 1980, in the midst of a U.S. funded war the UN Truth Commission called genocidal, the soon-to-be-assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero promised history that life, not death, would have the last word. "I do not believe in death without resurrection," he said. "If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people."

Read more about Oscar Romero here.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Share in His Suffering

I always imagined that I need to be perfect in order for me to minister effectively. I look at my own hang-ups, issues that still need to be worked on, doubts that I battle and wonder if I'm any good for anything. Often chide myself that I should work on my own issues before I try to be hero and seek to help others with theirs. If I can't myself, the logic goes, who do I think I am to 'help' others? Yet as I come to the foot of the cross, I hear the mockery hurled at him, 'He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One"; "If you are the kinf og the Jews, save yourself"; "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!""So, You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!"; and"He saved others, but he can't save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel come down from the cross that we may see and believe." I realised that the way Christ came to save us is through brokenness, pain, shame, weakness, helplessness, and vulnerability. He did not assume power, the Prince of Peace did not take up the authority that is due to Him but chose to lay it down, so that I can be healed, redeemed and be a channel for His healing to flow in and through me to others who are broken like me.

I am learning not to shun my own weakness, despise my brokenness, or assume I need to be complete and whole before I can be used of him. But like Paul, say "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.... we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." (paraphrase 2 Cor 4:5,7, 10) Since I am His body, I should not be surprised that my life bears the marks of the cross - marks of a body broken and death. My prayer and hope is that I may know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, to become like him in his death, and so, somehow, attain to the resurrection from the dead (Phil 3:10-11). Through this, may His zoe life and healing flow to the nations and He alone be glorified eternally.

Hurts to Love

Having a heart is a precarious thing. Why does it hurt to love? If you have experienced a heartbreak you know what I mean. Yes, there are joys of love but is the pain worth it? Sometimes the hurt can be so painful that you are paralysed. Incapacitated. It's at this time when you realise how fragile the heart is. Have you ever experience the pain so great that it feels like a physical pain, so sharp that it takes the breath out of you? You can't seem to stop the tears from falling, almost involuntarily. How can any person have so much impact on us? The pain is intense and you wonder if it will ever go away? You pretend you're numb to it and try to move on with your life, but it just won't go away and haunts you every single free minute you have to pause. You're afraid to go home, knowing the pain will only come flooding and practically overwhelm you. You don't want to be with people either because it is too exhausting to keep up with the social obligations and takes too much to maintain a happy countenance. You assure concerned friends that you're ok, getting over it and will be fine in no time, punctuating with a big smile. You go on living, not knowing how long you have the strength to go on this 'existing' mode. You think of the shattered bits of your heart and wonder 'why didn't I protect myself'? Is Love worth all these pain?

One of our lecturers shared at the last chapel for the semester on this Holy Week. He told us of his experience watching his wife deliver his first child. When he raced her to the hospital, he was not prepared for the experience of watching the person he loved most on this earth suffer. She had a very long and hard labour which lasted almost 24 hours. The pain was intense and he felt helpless to remove or alleviate the pain. It nearly killed him to watch her tortured by pain as different waves of labour hit her. His heart was crushed and at one point, remember telling himself that no matter what came out of her... nothing can be worth putting her through all that pain!! But when their first daughter arrived, both their hearts were filled with a tremendous sense of unconditional love that poured out to this tiny little piece of life they were holding. They could not understand it since all she's done so far was cause her mother a lot of pain. Both of them knew that instant all his wife had gone through was worth every bit. I cannot identify with the intensity of those feelings but I could sense his love from his tone, body language and voice, as he shared with us. The next day after the delivery, he felt the Lord speak to him, so clearly that it stopped him in his tracks literally. The Lord told him, 'You know the pain you felt watching the one you love suffer is just a fraction of what I had to go through watching the One I loved suffer to bring life to you and the world. I want you to know that I think you're worth it!'

That touched me to the core. Words fail to express what my heart felt when I heard those words, words I know the Father is saying to me. Words I find hard to believe or accept ... that I can be worth all that Christ went through and His ultimately shameful and painful death. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour's blood; died He for me who caused His pain. I started by talking about the risk of pain that love carries. Although I don't fully understand but pondering on the Cross I realise Love and Pain often go hand in hand. I am glad that He, knowing full well the extend of the pain, did not seek to escape Pain but freely chose to go through it and loved me enough to endure the suffering so that I may live.

Love so amazing, so divine; Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Sweet Surprise

It's been quite a week. I finally finished writing my History paper. Still need to work on it further to fine tune it but the bulk is done.

I had a good opportunity to watch a couple of performance lately. The first was an Italian opera with 'subtitles' projected on a screen, Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. The cast was made up of 20 odd students, and a professional maestro conducting the accompanying orchestra. Then Handel's Messiah, which was free, performed by 50 UBC students. This was accompanied by an excellent pianist with the timpani and brass parts here and there. It was pretty amazing listening and watching these 50 students belt out praises to God in such a majestic fashion. All these were prelude to the final performance that I attended.

The Vancouver Bach Choir performed Bach's Mass in B Minor at the Orpheum. I was not at all surprised to meet some 20 Regent students there. It was an awesome experience as 160 singers sang praises accompanied by a full orchestra of about 40. Altogether these group of 200 have put in hours and hours of practice to perfect praise unto God! What commitment. I cannot imagine the nightmare it is to arrange the logistics for such a group. It is humbling. Although it was sung in Latin, we had the English translation of the text in the program. I pray the message of the gospel will sink in the hearts of these as they sing. Bach actually wrote these pieces to be performed at Mass in church. How many churches today put in half that effort to perfect our praise and worship? Of course, even Hallelujahs and Amens are masterpieces of music, lasting a whole five minutes or more. Singing the Apostle's creed took half an hour. Nothing is too small or insignificant. It's really amazing and mind-blowing. However that also means there is not much of lyrics in this kind of singing. I've heard people complained that modern choruses these days do not have 'quality' lyrics (as compared to traditional hymns I suppose), and keep on repeating cliché or the same lines.... wait till they listen to these guys!

One interesting incident to share. I went to a cafe to treat myself to a dessert before the musical. I had a place in mind, which had an outlet a few blocks from the theatre. It was raining that evening, and when I got off the bus, I realised there is a branch right next to the theatre, which I had not noticed before! As I was waiting for my order, I was feeling a little guilty, thinking of spending almost $10 on desert and coffee. Anyways, it felt good to chill out and it reminded me of the good times I had hanging out with friends back in KL during weekends. My order came but they got it wrong. They changed it without any fuss. When I got the bill, I was surprised when the waiter told me that they took out the dessert from the bill to apologise for the confusion!! My eyes nearly popped. So I end up paying $3 for dessert and coffee! Don't you think God has a great sense of humour? It made my evening, weekend and brightened up this whole stressful season!

Friday, April 07, 2006

Passion Week

God never fail to amaze me. I cannot comprehend why He would want to use an imperfect vessel like me - I should know I guess. How else will He get the glory? He's insisted to use me when I feel so lousy, inadequate and unfit for his service. He could always get one more qualified than me. When will I get it into my head that He qualifies us by His appointment, and it's never been, nor ever will be, about my worthi-ness. This is one army where you are drafted based on your disqualification. I look at the heroes in the Bible and sometimes I venerate them and make them out to be such a saint or demi-god. I believe that's why the Bible insists on recording their failures, and some may think this is to its own detriment and embarrassment. These records serve as a reminder throughout history that God is the real Hero of this story. I'm glad the Bible didn't censor these less 'glorifying' moments.

I just finished reading Soul Survivor and the last person featured there was Henri Nouwen. Yancey described the pain and struggles that Nouwen went through even in the midst of his acclaimed fame. He continued to experienced brokenness and strong fear of rejection, while his writing was encouraging many to grow spiritually. He continued to live with these struggles and fought them but never ceased to minister to others in spite of his pain. Someone commented about Nouwen, saying that it was disappointing to trace Nouwen's writings over the span of 10 years, and find that he was the same person, struggling with the same issues, only probably in a different situation. For Nouwen, there was no 'spiritual breakthrough' or dramatic deliverance. In his books, he does not provide a 7-steps to Freedom or 10 ways to cultivate Spirituality, nor a solution for getting out of the rut, but only the daily reliance on the Saviour.

So, yes, while I believe and know that my purpose in life is to live for the glory of God, it does not always feel like I'm living up to that. I constantly fall short and am mindful of my failures. When I focus on the failures, I feel so discouraged and almost prepared to throw in the towel. I tried and almost tired of trying; I am resigned to the fact that I cannot do anything good.... I cannot help but fail, and fail miserably. It is at these times, that I find myself at the Cross. Throwing myself at this 'helpless', vulnerable, weak, fragile God... He took my frailty, my humanity, my sin, failures, weaknesses, hopelessness and bore it all on the Cross on my behalf.

For that I am truly grateful. Thankful to be reminded that he works in me and through me. As I approach Passion Week, I am again brought to my knees as I consider the price He paid to achieve this. He did it so that I can be free from the need to 'achieve' His standards of holiness which are impossible, by my own strength. I know He will continue to use me as long as I am willing to be used by Him. Any fruit or result from such ministry is entirely a work of His grace. Nothing that I can boast about. May He alone be exalted and given all glory due to Him.

Tonight I am humbled again by the opportunity He offers me to particpate in the work He is doing. I am always conscious of my poor command of Mandarin and readily acknowledge that many others are more qualified than me in the Alpha group. However this evening I was called to sit in and to act as the translator, since the more eloquent ones happened not to be around. Me? God sure has a sense of humour. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the lively discussion with lots of input, comments and questions from the group which continued until we had to chase people out of the house. I always had a burden to minister to Chinese nationals but have felt unqualified to do so. It is amazing how He's brought me here and put me in this group, oblivion to my protest of my inadequacy! All He asks of me is to remain available, be faithful where I am and continue to offer up my 5 loaves and 2 fish. He can do as He pleases with what I have to offer Him. My part is to surrender myself to Him, and let Him take care of the rest.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Don't be afraid

Don't be afraid, my love is stronger
My love is stronger than your fear

Don't be afraid, my love is stronger
And I have promised, promised to be always near.

(By John Bell, Iona Community. Copyright © 1995, by GIA Publications, Inc.)

A lump rises up in my throat everytime I sing this. I need to know it deep in my heart... that His love is stronger than my greatest fear and will overcome. And to that, I can only say, Thank you Lord.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

What you see is not what you get

I'm still reading the book Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey. Reading book has been very uplifting for my soul. I needed the encouragement and reminder that faith is not always found in where we are looking, but we catch glimpses of it when we least expect it, sometimes amidst doubts, or disguised in suffering and even in the apparently faithless person. I know this book is far from perfect and Yancey speaks out of a certain agenda, out of his own struggle with the church and cynicism about Christians. In some way I resonate with that and find myself limping along as a fellow pilgrim, looking for hope in spite of my brokenness. My heart is filled with gratitude as I think of the luxury I have to read these books as part of my reading requirement, while my friends who are working and studying in other fields, have to squeeze time to fit in such readings. Besides being an inspiring read, it gives me a series of books I can follow up with and some pretty interesting quotes! (Link to some of them from my latest gleannings from this book.) Also this book has been giving me the same message as the sermon I heard today.

I am reminded today during the worship service that 'What you see is not what you get'. At the end of the sermon we had a time to pause to listen, where I felt the Lord impressed in my heart that I have been trying to look at the Christian faith and the church with my physical eyes. I seek to assess His Word from a physical point of view. Thus I’m often disappointed and disillusioned (these words are illustrative by themselves and this particular one is perfect-fit, and given a totally different understanding!) by what I see and I should not be surprise. I am assessing spiritual things through physical sight… and in fact am blind spiritually. It was a very powerful message as I sat there, so aware of my own blindness and reminded of the Lord's rebuke to the Laodicean church. He opened my eyes to my own blind condition! I can only humble myself before him and ask him for mercy to give me spiritual sight.

Then Ken, one of our worship leaders (featured in one of the pics below), stepped out and shared a very touching story. This morning he went down to the beach before coming to church, where he spotted a little beaver that seemed lost and struggling on the beach. Apparently these little ones get washed out from the river when it rains too much. Their system actually cannot take the salt water and it causes them to be disoriented and lose heat rapidly. Not knowing what to do (or even sure what it was) he called for wildlife rescue. As he waited for them to come out, he noticed that the crows tried to attack it and even dogs came up to it. He was fighting back the tears as he reflected on how the enemy is always looking for the most vulnerable ones in our midst and seek to bring them down. He stayed there, threw rocks at these vultures and waited until the rescue team came, even though he was running late for church (reminded me of the Good Samaritan). It was a powerful reminder that when we see those around us acting up and we don’t understand why they behave the way they do, messing up their life, hurting others, etc that they are simply lost, hurt and disoriented. The enemy is on the prowl, waiting to bring them down. Even if we cannot rescue them from their condition, we can stand with them in their pain and keep the enemy from tearing them into pieces. Hang in there with them until the mercy of God comes to rescue them. The rescue officer did arrive at last, tried to warm up the little thing and put it safely in a cage. May we stand faithful and watch over those that God has placed around us.