Monthly Archives: April 2009

Time to Reflect (Week 3 Wednesday)

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We had some friends visit yesterday. While crazy due to many factors, we were able to share some of the things we’ve been learning over the past few weeks. In particular counseling to battle sinful behavior and patterns. Using the framework of the Sunday school book “How People Change” and comparing it to various other counseling techniques. The HEAT – THORNS – CROSS – FRUIT illustration is simple yet powerful in describing the world we live, the way we react, and our need to challenge our idols (or co-dependencies) and worship the true and living God… and then how worship leads to responding to those situations in a Christ-like way.

We saw how sanctification worked on many different levels. Using what we’ve learned in the past few weeks, we were able to share some of our own personal struggles as well as suggest and encourage to seek Christ. It is in this dual nature of removing one’s logs that we can see clearly to help remove the speck from our brother’s eye. This time of fellowship was particularly sweet in that we were able to share a meal and talk in a very natural way.
One thing I wish we would have time to in the future would be to pray together more and to truly turn our eyes to God. One thing I’ve been reading in numerous places is that “we talk to men about God so often, but we fail to talk to God about men.” This is a convicting and a serious failure on our part.
PRAY! Onward, Christian Soldier :)

Time to Worship (Week 3 Monday)

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We had three guests over today so our church service started kinda late.  First my sister came bearing gifts and then Jack Bauer took up the 9PM time slot with 24.  But we did have church, it started around 10ish along with a friend from church.

We started with “How Great Thou Art“

When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

We continued reading from Revelation 2 where Christ is addressing sins within the church and how he calls them to repentence.  After looking at the early church in Revelation, we considered our current situation and at our church.  It was a call for corporate and individual repentence.  The sins as mentioned to the different churches could very well apply to us today.  We forget Christ and we forget our first love as mentioned yesterday.  We also are led astray from false teachers and tempted with many things.  What sins do our church need to repent of?  How will this type of repentence look like (on the corporate and individual levels)?

Christ calls us to repent and to remain in him to the end.  It is only with our union with Christ that we are able to endure to the end.  We sang the second verse again.  Remembering that it was the finished work of Christ on the cross that took away our sins and that is where our faith is in.
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:

We prayed together and concluded with a benediction and doxology.

Time to Worship (Week 3 Sunday)

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This past week was crazy with family stuffs, friend stuffs, and more baby issues.  My two year old daughter was bullying the other kids today at church and things just went downhill fast.  Mommy was extremely tired from the previous day’s activities and so we had to go at it alone today for Sunday worship.  This along with my parent’s lunch with my siblings and significant others.  This really put a dampener to my day.  More talk of weddings as well as having to deal with other issues. 

So it was around 8PM that I was having my pity party (partly due to fatigue and I think mostly with my spiritual condition) that my wife told me to stop it.  I asked her to pray for me and also with me.  It was then that we began our worship service.  We sang “All Hail the Power of Jesus Name” and ”A Mighty Fortress” and prayed.  It was a good reminder of the greatness of our God and how he is our strength.
Verse 2 of A Mighty Fortress:
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

Is a good reminder that it is not in our strength that we confide, but it is in Jesus Christ.  He is our strength… the author and perfecter of our faith and the one who we fully rest in.
We continued our reading of Revelation 2.  We looked at the church of Ephesus and Smyrna.
To Ephesus he says: “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” And to Smyrna he says: “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life”
To Ephesus, they were commended for being doctrinally pure but they had forgotten their first love.  We asked each other how it was like when we first became Christians, when we first experienced the love of Christ.  It was sweet.  We were on fire and read the scriptures, we thirsted and longed for it.  But it was also within fellowship and we loved the people we were with as well.  The commentaries said it could have been that they were not loving one another which meant they were not loving Christ.  I think this is evident with our church and with us as individuals.  The passage to Smyrna was really pertinent today as I felt down.  It was a reminder that Christ has overcome this world and that this church will face persecution.  It is only in having our eyes set on Christ will we be able to endure it.
We prayed for this coming week and for family and friends.
We concluded with Glory to God (chinese version).

Fellowship Saturday

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We had a wedding earlier today and a fellowship meeting in the evening.  Only I was able to attend the fellowship, so our family church time didn’t happen until our car ride home.

Main points from the fellowship meeting was:

Whenever problems arise, they are the tip of the iceberg… there are underlying things that are not as clearly seen.  The level directly below the problems are how we deal with problems and some of this requires skill.  It includes communication, conflict resolution,  etc.  But if we only focus on this level we begin to manipulate others.  This type of manipulation is bad…
The underlying level to all problems is worship…  We are either worshipping God or something else.  It’s when we worship something else that brings us conflicts.  This stems within marriage or other relationships.  

We looked at a few passages: Romans 8:28ff, Matthew 7:1-5

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

It is within this self-examination that helps us to be compassionate to others. Only Christ can remove the log from our eye and when we realize that, it requires Christ to remove the speck from our brother’s eye.

So the question was what were some logs in our eye? Even though my wife wasn’t there tonight, we did have brief time of worship in the car ride home.

We sang Amazing Grace again and went over the fellowship points as well as asked each other about the logs in our eyes.

Time to Worship (Week 2 Thursday)

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We began with two hymns: Amazing Grace and The Old Rugged Cross.

We decided to read through Revelation. Today we read Revelation 1. And discussed Christ, his true and current state and how we are united with him. Oh, how often we forget we worship and risen and powerful God who has conquered sin and death. How often we live each day without this reality in front of us. Revelation 1:12-18
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and(AM) with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Again, we confessed our sins, brought our lives before God and asked Him to move in our relationships and in our lives.
We concluded with Glory to God.

Time to Worship (Week 2 Wednesday)

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We started around 8:30 after watching a television show. I think we’re getting more and more tempted to push things off, but I’m reminded that I’m head of the family which means it’s my responsibility to make a call to worship. My wife had no problem with that.

We started with two hymns:
#163 I Surrender All
#105 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

We couldn’t get the tune just right with O Come, but it was okay. In “I Surrender All” the verse that says “Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now” stood out most vividly since that was where we were being tempted most yesterday.

As a brief intro, I said to my wife that we’re jumping around a lot just so we can figure out what works and what doesn’t. So far, singing a few hymns and reading scripture and prayer seems to be a proven formula, but we will try reading through a book or having more aids later.

We read James 1:1-18, the second portion of scripture from chapter 5 of How People Change.

We again looked at the four main stages as described by Lane/Tripp:
Heat – Thorns – Cross – Fruit

It is within the situation HEATthat we are either tempted or turn to Christ. So we continued looking at how James encourages the believers to turn to Christ in the midst of deep persecution. Afterwards we talked about what areas we were struggling with and when was HEAT greatest or when we knew that our THORNS were evident.

This was a really good time, we shared with each other and then prayed for one another. Little did I realize that my wife’s biggest time of struggle as of late was also mine. We ministered to one another last night. We also encouraged each other to turn to Christ, bring to him our troubles and fears, bring it to him in prayer.

We concluded with another hymn:
#488 What a Friend We Have in Jesus

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

The third line of the first verse “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear” is pretty much how we are when we don’t turn to Jesus during times of trial and temptation. We should never be discouraged to take it to the Lord in prayer.

We finished with a time of prayer (small potty break interruption) and then benediction and doxology. This time we sang Glory to God (chinese version). Our girl really liked it and danced with us to finish it off around 9PM.

Time to Worship (Week 2 Tuesday)

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Today, we were tired. We made it quick one. We sang two hymns: O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing and something else… need to look back in the hymnal.

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

We confessed that we had not thought about God most of the day and it was during this small time of worship that our hearts were brought back to him.

We read Psalm 88 together. This is one of the darkest Psalms and it ends with the writer alone in darkness with his friends all shunning him.

Striking verses were 1, 9, and 13 which calls out to the LORD for help despite the darkness. I wondered why he would do that. The commentary stated that the Psalmist attributed the situation to God (v. 6, 15, etc.) and that only God could comfort and protect him.

We finished with prayer and again interrupted by potty break and with a benediction and doxology.

Time to Worship (Week 2 Monday)

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We had a little disaster the night before mainly due to failed potty training and exposure to food allergies. But we managed a quick time of worship today (Monday).

Again, after dinner seemed like the best time to have our church time. We sat on the couches and enjoyed one another’s company.

We began by singing two hymns from our church hymnal “To God be the Glory” and “All Creatures of our God and King.”

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

We did pause at the third stanza referring to mother earth. But other than that, I think it was okay…

Dear mother earth, who day by day
Unfoldest blessings on our way,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
The flowers and fruits that in thee grow,
Let them His glory also show.

We read the first half of Deuteronomy 6 and discussed impartation of the God’s word to our children. We recalled what we learned in the past week and talked about the sermon on Hell, recalled our blessings and praises for the week.

v. 11-12 “and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD…”

It is our nature to forget God. This was a good time to remember the goodness of our God and his ever present help in time of trouble and our deliverer. We also came to the conviction that unless we knew the word of God, unless we are so steeped in his word and converted by his Spirit that we would be impudent in imparting a faith to our children. We prayed for each other to be such parents who desired after God.

We were interrupted just at the end of the scripture portion by my eldest daughter who needed to go to the bathroom. We both took her, spent a few minutes praying and interceding for our friends and family, for church and various ministries we supported.

We concluded with a benediction and doxology.

Sunday Worship

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On our car ride to church we heard a sermon from Lon Solomon head pastor of McLean Bible Church on the radio. He talked about Matthew (Levi) and tax collectors. The scum of society and how Jesus reached out to them.

It’s interesting how even the religious teachers looked down on “those” people. Jesus responded with a remark that surprised even his own people.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax
collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed
him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors
and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw
this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors
and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a
doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not
sacrifice.’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew
9:9-13)

Jesus calls people to “Follow Me” and this call is not just a call for the upright, moral citizens… He calls all people, from all walks of life, from all professions and calls them to follow him. This following is not one time thing, it is not a once a week thing… it’s not even Monday through Friday. Jesus call to follow him is a lifetime thing. A following that requires supernatural power in order for it to succeed.

We look at our lives and can be tempted to judge others or look down on others because they don’t match up to us. But what Jesus desires is true worship from his people. People who would follow the shepherd just because he calls us. We are to not look at the sinners around us, but we are to look at our shepherd who leads us and guides us. That is what following is about and that is his call to each and every person.

My prayer is that Jesus would call you to follow and that you would hear it and follow.

Time to Worship (Week 1 Thursday)

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This was a special day for me. Usually we watch The Office around 9PM, but instead, we were in the middle of our family devotional time. I was really glad all our hearts were focused.

We started off with the Sunday School material we were going through entitled How People Change by Tim Lane and Paul Tripp.

We went over the Lesson 4 where it reviews and summarizes the basic components of life.

HEAT – THORNS – CROSS – FRUIT

The HEAT is our situation, whether good or bad, we all go through something.

The THORNS are how we would normally react in such a situation, this is how we “instinctively” react and respond using our wisdom, our insight. Which is poor because it leaves out a major factor.

The CROSS is that major factor. Remembering the CROSS and who God is and how God sees the situation not only changes our hearts but gives us power. We are united with Christ, we have a community to encourage us, we have the power of the Holy Spirit, and we have Heaven in mind.

With this in view and empowering us, we bear FRUIT. FRUIT is how we respond to the situation but with God’s love working through us. This is what we hope to come out of the situation.

We began worship with this in view. We read through 2 Corinthians 1:1-14 where the Apostle Paul was under a great deal of duress. Instead of fleeing, giving up or falling into depression, Paul remembered Christ, remembered God who raised him from the dead, and all these things that he was able to encourage and comfort those around him…. even in the most difficult of situations.

We concluded the time of study with some pointed questions: What are some current situations that is bearing down on us (HEAT)? How are we responding to it in an ungodly way (THORNS)? What do we know about God in this situation (CROSS)? How can we respond in love (FRUIT)?

We sang hymn #271 Come Thou Fount. The last verse really stuck out to me and continues to stick out in my mind.

O to grace, how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee;
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Amen!