{Wednesday, April 06, 2005 . CLOSED}

This blog is officially closed.

Entering a new phase.

God Bless You

liangwei fishing at 4/06/2005 12:03:00 AM
------
{Wednesday, March 02, 2005 . Leap Into God's Arm}

Do you sometimes long for a stronger faith - one that would help you live a more adventurous, fulfilling life? Do you sense that God wants more for you, but don't feel up to embracing it? Just as your body becomes stronger through physical exercise, your soul becomes stronger when you exercise your faith. It can be scary to take leaps of faith as you face an unknown future. But there's really no safer place to jump than into the arms of the God who loves you. Here's how you can learn to take leaps of faith:

Don't settle for a marginal existence. Decide that you want what God wants for you - a radical life that transforms you and significantly impacts God's kingdom.

Believe God's promises. Read the Bible to discover all that you are entitled to as a member of God's family, through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Then claim your promised inheritance by believing God will do all He says He will, and living accordingly. Survey the circumstances of your life and open your eyes to the potential for God's work there if you faithfully follow where He leads you. Know that, if God has placed dreams in your heart, He will make them come true. Put your God-given talents to use and do the best work you possibly can in whatever you do. Take time on a regular basis to thank God for all He has done - and will do - for you. Ask Him to develop contentment and peace in you.

Trade the "good life" for real life. Don't strive merely for our world's version of the "good life" - acquiring all the things and relationships you think you need to be happy. Realize that the best the world has to offer can only bring you temporary satisfaction. Instead, live for Jesus, passionately pursuing His purposes above all else. When you do this, you'll experience real fulfillment that will continue into eternity. Ask God to reveal the ultimate mission He wants you to accomplish during your time on Earth. Write your mission statement, and make decisions about how to spend your time, energy, and money according to it. Don't pin your ultimate hopes on any people, things, or circumstances. Realize that God is the only One you can count on - and the only One you really need. Don't be so caught up in the gifts that you miss the Gift-giver.

Look toward your eternal home. Understand that Earth is not your ultimate home; heaven is. Decide to spend your time on Earth growing in all the ways God wants you to prepare for eternity with Him. Be willing to leave things, places, and even people behind so you can follow wherever God leads you. Pursue joy instead of happiness. Happiness is based on your current circumstances, so it comes and goes. But the joy that comes from God is possible to have in the midst of any type of circumstances. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you experience this joy, that's more powerful than transitory happiness.

Go public with your faith. If Jesus has saved you, pass the lifeline along to others by sharing the Gospel message with them. Be alert to opportunities God gives you to do so. Ask the Holy Spirit to cause things that touch God's heart to touch your heart as well so you'll be motivated to reach out to others who need Him. Don't spend all your time with like-minded people. Develop meaningful friendships with non-Christians and model a life of holiness and love for them. Once you get to know them well, share the Gospel with them in natural ways.

Expect God to show up. Know that God is always at work, even when you can't yet see any apparent answers to some of your prayers. Approach every situation expecting God to show up - sometimes in unexpected ways. Trust in the wisdom of the One who made the universe to have perfect timing. Have confidence in His goodness and mercy. Remember that He hears every one of your prayers - even those offered in the midst of stress, doubt, or despair. Understand that God will respond to even a small amount of faith and meet you where you are.

Remember God's work. Keep traditions that remind you of powerful ways God has worked in your life in the past. Celebrate sacraments like communion that remind you of God's powerful work in history. Share family stories with your children so they can learn how God worked in their ancestor's lives. Commit to a church family and fully participate in it so you can recall and celebrate God's faithfulness together.

Leave the right kind of legacy. Don't be nearly as concerned with your reputation, job, or contribution to society as you are about who you are in Christ. Realize that the only that has lasting value is how well you loved God and other people. Take the time to invest in others as much as you can, sharing God's love with them. Pass on encouragement whenever you get the chance. Affirm other people's gifts and capabilities much more than pointing out their shortcomings. Spend your most valuable resource - time - serving others to accomplish things of eternal value in God's kingdom on Earth. Make reading, studying, and meditating on God's word a top priority. Then teach others how to discover the riches in the Bible themselves. Pass on the wisdom you've learned from your life experiences. Open your home to friends and family members regularly to talk about how God is working in your lives. Take as many leaps of faith as you can before God calls you take the final leap of faith from Earth to heaven.


Adapted from Leap of Faith: Embracing the Life God Promised You, copyright 2004 by Ellie Lofaro.

liangwei fishing at 3/02/2005 01:23:00 PM
------
{Sunday, February 20, 2005 . I Want To Be Your Vessel}

Isaiah 64:8
"But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand."

We must never forget that the Lord is the one that gives us the ability to minister in His Name. We must come to Him with a contrite heart and let Him be the Potter who moulds our lives to the shape He desires for them so that we may work in His perfect will. So often we try to do things our way, forgetting that this is not His will for us.

So let the cry of your heart be -
"Lord, you are the Potter and I am the clay.Mould me and shape me to do Your will each day."

I WANT TO BE YOUR VESSEL

I want to be Your vessel, Lord,
Filled to overflowing with Your love,
So people look and see not me but You.
And, because of my example,
May many others seek Your face
And find out all Your promises are true.

May everything I do, Lord,
Be pleasing in Your sight,
Bringing glory not to me, but You alone.
And if that is what it takes, Lord,
To see Your will is done,
I ask You now to break my heart of stone.

Then soften it with oil, Lord,
And remould it as You wish,
To be a vessel fit to do Your will.
Then please wash me white as snow,
With Your precious cleansing blood,
And send me out, Your purpose to fulfil.

I want You then to use me
To minister Your peace
And touch each aching heart I see in need.
And may each word I speak, Lord,
And everything I do,
Quench the thirsty or sow a fertile seed.

Lord, I want to feel Your Spirit
Flowing out through me,
To minister Your love and perfect peace.
May it touch each fearful heart
I meet along my way,
And from fear and sorrow may it bring release.

So use me as Your vessel, Lord,
And anoint me with Your oil
As You send Your Holy Spirit like a dove,
And I will worship You, Lord,
Until my work is done,
And You take me to my Father up above.

Copyright © 1998 Christine Chipman. All rights reserved.

liangwei fishing at 2/20/2005 11:23:00 PM
------
{Wednesday, February 09, 2005 . A New Leper Story}

Matthew 8:1-4

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

Mark and Luke chose to tell this same story. But with apologies to all three writers, I must say none tell enough. Oh, we know the man's disease and his decision, but as to the rest? We are left with questions. The authors offer no name, no history and no description.

Sometimes my curiosity gets the best of me, and I wonder out loud. That's what I'm about to do here - wonder out loud about the man who felt Jesus' compassionate touch. He makes one appearance, has one request, and receives one touch. But that one touch changed his life forever. And I wonder if his story went on something like this:

For five years no one touched me. No one. Not one person. Not my wife. Not my child. Not my friends. No one touched me. They saw me. They spoke to me. I sensed love in their voices. I saw concern in their eyes. But I didn't feel their touch. There was no touch. Not once. No one touched me.

What is common to you, I coveted. Handshakes. Warm embraces. A tap on the shoulder to get my attention. A kiss on the lips to steal a heart. Such moments were taken from my world. No one touched me. No one bumped into me. What I would have given to be bumped into, to be caught in a crowd, for a shoulder to brush against another's. But for five years it has not happened. How could it? I was not allowed on the streets. Even the rabbis kept their distance from me. I was not permitted in my synagogue. Not even welcome in my own house.

I was untouchable. I was a leper. And no one touched me. Until today...

I wonder about this man because in the old testament times leprosy was the most dreaded disease. The condition rendered the body a mass of ulcers and decay. Fingers would curl and gnarl. Blotches of skin would discolor and stink. Certain types of leprosy would numb nerve endings, leading to a loss of fingers, toes, even a whole foot or hand. Leprosy was death by inches.

The social consequences were as severe as the physical. Considered contagious, the leper was quarantined, banished to a leper colony.

In scripture, leper is symbolic of the ultimate outcast: infected by a condition he did not seek, rejected by those he knew, avoided by people he did not know, condemned to a future he could not bear. And in memory of each outcast must have been the day he was forced to face the truth: life would never be the same again.

One year during harvest, my grip on the scythe seemed weak. The tips of my fingers numbed. First, one finger then another. Within a short time, I could grip the tool but scarcely feel it. By the end of the season, I felt nothing at all. The hand grasping the handle might as well belonged to someone else - the feeling was gone. I said nothing to my wife, but I know she suspected something. How could she not? I carried my hand against my body like a wounded bird.

One afternoon, I plunged my hands into a basin of water intending to wash my face. The water reddened. My finger was bleeding, bleeding freely. I didn't even know I was wounded. How did I cut myself? On a knife? Did my hand slide across the sharp edge of metal? It must have, but I didn't feel anything.

"It's on your clothes, too," my wife said softly. She was behind me. Before looking at her, I looked down at the crimson spots in my robe. For the longest time I stood over the basin, staring at my hands. Somehow I knew my life was forever being altered.

"Shall I go with you to tell the priest?" she asked.
"No," I sighed, "I'll go alone."

I turned and looked into her moisted eyes. Standing next to her was out three-year-old daughter. Squatting, I gazed into her face and stroked her cheeks, saying nothing. What could I say? I stood and looked again at my wife. She touched my shoulder, and with my good hand, I touched hers. It would be out final touch.

Five years have passed, and no one has touched me since, until today.
The priest didn't touch me. He looked at my hand, now wrapped in a rag. He looked at my face, now shadow in sorrow. I've never faulted him for what he said. He was only doing as he was instructed. He covered his mouth and extended his hand, palm forward. "You are unclean," he told me. With one pronouncement, I lost my family, my farm, my future, my friends.

My wife met me at the city gates with a sack of clothing and bread and coins. She didn't speak. By now friends have gathered. What I saw in their eyes was a precursor to what I've seen in every eye since: fearful pity. As I stepped out, they stepped back. Their horror of my disease was greater than their concern for my heart - so they, and everyone else I have seen since, stepped back.

Oh how I repulsed those who saw me. Five years of leprosy had left my hands gnarled. Tips of my fingers were missing as were portion of my ear and my nose. At the sight of me, fathers grabbed their children. Mothers covered their faces. Children pointed and stared.

The rags on my body couldn't hide my sores. Nor could the wrap on my face hide the rage in my eyes. I didn't even try to hide it. How many nights did I shake my crippled fist at the silent sky? "What did I do to deserve this?" But never a reply.

Some think I sinned. Some think my parents sinned. I don't know. All I know is that I grew so tired of it all: sleeping in the colony, smelling the stench. I grew so tired of the bell I was required to wear around my neck to warn people of my presence. As if I needed it. One glance and the announcements began, "Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!"

Several weeks ago, I dared walk the road to my village. I had no intent of entering. Heaven knows I only wanted to look again upon my fields. Gaze upon my home. And see, perchance, the face of my wife. I did not see her. But I saw some children playing in a pasture. I hid behind a tree and watched them scamper and run. Their faces were so joyful and their laughter so contagious that for a moment, for just that moment, I was no longer a leper. I was a farmer. I was a father. I was a man.

Infused with their happiness, I stepped out from behind the trees, straightened my back, breathe deeply.. And they saw me. Before I could retreat they saw me. And they screamed. And they scattered. One lingered, though, behind the others. One paused and looked in my direction. I don't know, and I can't say for sure, but I think, I really think. She was my daughter. And I don't know, I really can't say for sure. But I think she was looking for her father.

That look is what made me take the step I took today. Of cause it was reckless. Of course it was risky. But what did I have to lose? He calls himself God's Son. Either he will hear my complaint and kill me or accept my demand and heal me. Those were my thoughts. I came to him as a defiant man. Moved not by faith but by a desperate anger. God had wrought this calamity on my body, and he would either fix it or end it.

But then I saw him, and when I saw him. I was changed. You must remember, I'm a farmer, not a poet, so I can't find the words to describe what I saw. All I can say is that the Judean morning are sometimes so fresh and the sunrises so glorious that to look at them is to forget the heart of the day before and the hurt of times past. When I looked at his face, I saw a Judean morning.

Before he spoke, I knew he cared. Somehow I knew he hated this disease as much as, no - more- than I hated it. My rage became trust and my anger became hope.

From behind a rock, I watched him descend a hill. Throngs of people followed him. I waited until he was only paces from me, then I stepped out.

"Master!"

He stopped and looked into my direction as did dozen of others. A flood of fear swept across the crowd. Arms flew in front of faces. Children ducked behind parents. "Unclean!" someone shouted. Again, I don't blame them. I was a huddled mass of death. But I scarcely heard them. I scarcely saw them. Their panic I'd seen a thousand times. His compassion, however, I'd never beheld. Everyone stepped back except him. He stepped toward me. Toward me.

Five years ago, my wife had stepped toward me. She was the last to do so. Now he did. I did not moved. I just spoke. "Lord, you can heal me if you will." Had he healed me with a word, I would have been thrilled. Had he cured me with a prayer, I would have rejoiced. But he wasn't satisfied with speaking to me. He drew near to me. He touched me. Five years ago my wife had touched me. No one touched me since. Until today.

"I will." His words were as tender as his touch. "Be healed."
Energy flooded my body like a water through a furrowed field. In an instant, in a moment, I felt warmth where there had been numbness. I felt strength where there has been atrophy. My back straightened and my head lifted. Where I had been eye level with his belt, I now stood eye level with his face. His smiling face.

He cupped his hands on my cheeks and drew me so near I could feel the warmth of his breathe and see the wetness in his eyes. "Don't tell anyone about this. But go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded for people who are made well. This will show the people what I have done."

And so that is where I am going. I will show myself to my priest and embrace him. I will show myself to my wife, and I will embrace her. I will pick up my daughter and I will embrace her. And I will never forget the one who dared to touched me. He could have healed me with a word. But he wanted to do more than heal me. He want to honor me, to validate me, to christen me. Imagine that.. Unworthy of the touch of a man, yet worthy of the touch of God.

The touch did not heal the disease, you know. Matthew is careful to mention that it was the pronouncement and not the touch of Christ that cured the condition. "Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, "I will. Be healed!" And immediately the man was healed from his disease" (Matthew 8:3)

The infection was banished by a word from Jesus.
The loneliness, however, was treated by a touch from Jesus.

Oh, the power of a godly touch. Haven't you known it? The doctor who treated you, or the teacher who dried your tears? Was there a hand holding yours at a funeral? Another on your shoulder during a trial? A handshake of welcome at a new job? A pastoral prayer for healing? Haven't we known the power of a godly touch?

Can't we offer the same?
Many of you already do. Some of you have the master touch of the Physician himself. You use your hands to pray over the sick and minister to the weak. If you aren't touching them personally, your hands are writing letters, dialing phones, baking pies. You have learned the power of a touch.

But other of us tend to forget. Our hearts are good; it's just that our memories are bad. We forget how significant one touch can be. We fear saying the wrong thing or using the wrong tone or acting the wrong way. So rather that do it incorrectly, we do nothing at all.

Aren't we glad Jesus didn't make the same mistake? If your fear of doing the wrong things prevents you from doing things, keep in mind the perspective of the lepers of the world. They aren't picky. They aren't flincky. They're just lonely. They are yearning for a godly touch.

Jesus touched the untouchables of the world. Will you do the same?


liangwei fishing at 2/09/2005 01:37:00 AM
------
{Tuesday, January 25, 2005 . A Proud And Noble Cause}

Chanced upon this interesting quote

"Remember all human lives get used up.
The lives of all kinds of people get used up for a multitude of reasons.
On the same token, my own life was spent on the weapons's I've made and the ones i love.
And now, you must find.. something that used up your own life.
A proud, noble cause to fight for!" - Diaz Ragu

I've found mine. Have you?


liangwei fishing at 1/25/2005 11:06:00 PM
------
{Tuesday, January 18, 2005 . Death of Man of God (1 Kings 13)}

Why did the innocent prophet recieved death? It was the old prophet's fault that he lied to him!

He may have been innocent, but God's command to him in 1 Kings 13:9 was very clear: "You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came."

Clearly, for a man with such a high office as a prophet, he forgot whose voice he was to obey directly. Sometimes, it can be a reminder for us that we must test all things, even if the source which the word comes to us may appear to be good. God does not contradict His own Word, and it's something we must always remember when we test a word, even if it may come from the most respected prophet you know.

I believe the key issue here is one of obedience. The higher the office the Lord gives us, the more critical it is for us to obey the Lord, because we (as fallible humans) can always turn God's anointing into something for evil instead of for good. As Spiderman also learnt, "The greater the power, the greater the responsibility."

If you take a look at Moses, when he asked God to show him His glory, the Lord told him that he must be hidden behind a cleft of rock, and that he could not see His face but His back. It might not have been a sin to step out from his hidden place, and a noble desire to see God's face directly, but if Moses had done that, he would have died. There are always consequences for disobedience to God's Word.

liangwei fishing at 1/18/2005 11:25:00 PM
------
{Monday, January 17, 2005 . Question to ask..}

Why?


liangwei fishing at 1/17/2005 11:59:00 PM
------