It would be easy for us who were raised in a loving home to love; we have no reason to hate others. On the contrary, it would be hard for us who were raised in a harsh environment to love; we have lots of reasons to hate others. Corrie ten Boom was supposed to grow bitter and hateful toward others because of her experience. She and family were arrested for harboring Jews in their home during World War II. But by the grace of God, that harsh environment in Ravensbruck’s prison camp did not taint her soul; she harbored love till the end. She even forgave the prison guard and the man who turned them in. It turns out it did not go as smoothly as I thought.
In her 70s something happened; some Christian friends who she dearly loved and trusted did something that hurt her deeply. To her surprise, forgiving them was harder than forgiving those who put her in prison. She finally managed to forgive them, so she thought. Until one day, in the middle of the night, she was awakened and the memory of what her friends did to her flooded her mind. The same thing happened again the following night. She knew, then, that she had not completely forgiven them. So, she prayed for forgiveness.
Not long after, a friend, who happened to know what had happened between Corrie and these other friends, visited her and asked about them who had taken advantage of her. “It’s all forgiven,” but they continued to deny what they had done, Corrie explained. To prove her right, Corrie went to her desk to pull out all their letters as proof of their wrongdoing. It was then that her friend showed Corrie that she had kept their sins “in black and white.” She had never got rid of them. That night she burned those “evidence” letters. She writes, “The forgiveness of Jesus not only takes away our sins; it makes them as if they had never been.” On the cross, God nailed our sins; in the tomb, God buried our sins; so, get out of the tomb; it’s Easter.
Pastor Paul
Jesus knew that He had to be in Jerusalem on that Sunday. He knew that it was to be His final week on earth before He was executed. He still went because He knew that He had come to this world for that very purpose: to die for the sins of the world. Despite the fear, He walked on; He did not stop; He did not delay the trip to His death. Most importantly He did not change His mind when folks began to take branches of palm trees—and their clothes—and spread them on the road to welcome Him as their future king, the long-awaited Messiah. He stayed on the course that His Heavenly Father had set.
Thus, began the anxiety-provoking anticipation each day that Jesus lived for the rest of the week. No wonder in Gethsemane when He prayed, He did not sit and pray but rather He fell on the ground, as recorded by Mark. He was simply too exhausted, not only physically but also emotionally. He could not hold Himself anymore; He broke down; and He pled that He’d be relieved from this sacred duty. As He prayed, His sweat became like “great drops of blood falling on the ground” as described by Luke. He was terrified, but He stayed.
Jesus stayed and completed the mission that He came to the world for because of obedience to His Heavenly Father’s will. He knew He only had two choices: to obey or to disobey. No other choice! And that is something we can learn from Him: How we look at life, how we look at all decisions that we must make. It is always either we obey, or we disobey the will of God. There is no middle ground. We would like to think that there must be middle ground somewhere in between obedience and disobedience, but there is none. If Jesus had considered that there was middle ground in between going to Calvary or not going to Calvary, between death on the cross for the sins of the world and life as a king of the world, we would not have been freed from sin, and we would not have been here today.
Pastor Paul
First, thank you for celebrating my birthday and feeding me plenty of rice and noodles! This week I gained three pounds! My tummy is happy even though my doctor may not be 🙂 Thank you for all you
have done for Santy and me; thank you for your love and care. May God’s goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your lives.
As I reflect on my 66-years of life, I am assured that God has made arrangement for everything and what He asks of me is just to trust Him. He holds my future in His hands and will never drop it. As I ponder on this, I am reminded of Nathanael Ayers. Those of you who watched the movie, The Soloist, might still remember that Nathanael Ayers was a homeless man on the streets of Los Angeles when he was “discovered” by the LA Times columnist, Steve Lopez.
He was playing the violin when Steve Lopez happened to pass by. To make the long story short, Mr. Lopez befriended him, wrote a book about him, and later the book was made into a movie. The story of Mr. Ayers’ life is nothing short of tragedy but it’s also one of grace and redemption. It turned out that Mr. Ayers was a student at Juilliard, the prestigious music school in New York City, who had to drop out of school and later his promising musical career due to mental illness. But thanks to Steve Lopez, Mr. Ayers got the help he sorely needed and is now living off the street, in a nursing home.
There is another interesting fact that I just learned about Mr. Ayers: he was a classmate of Yo Yo Ma at Juilliard. The trajectories of their lives cannot be more different than night and day: Yo Yo Ma went
on to be one of the world-renowned cellists while Mr. Ayers went on to live on the streets. It’s not by choice that he suffered mental illness; it’s by design. By the same design, God brought Steve Lopez
to his life. By design God cares for us; by faith we live in His care.
Pastor Paul
We don’t always understand what God is doing in our life, but we do not always understand what we are doing to God either. We do not always know that we have hurt God and even if we do, we may not know how badly we have hurt God. But there is something else we must know: We do not always know the good that we have done for God, either. We may think that what we do for God is just okay but to God, it is more than okay. It is great and it is significant.
In Mark 14 we can read the account of Jesus’ being anointed by a woman in the house of Simon the leper with a very costly oil of spikenard. Seeing what she did some of His disciples were not too happy and criticized her sharply for wasting this much money on Jesus’ head. In response, Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me . . . . She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial” (Verses 6-8).
We do not know who hurled those criticism to this woman, but I do not think the reason for it was as pure as it sounded: do not waste money but use it to help the poor. I suspect tucked in their hearts was feeling of shame: that they never had that spirit of giving; that they’d never done anything special for Jesus, their spiritual mentor. Yet this woman, who was not a disciple of Jesus, would make this tremendous sacrifice to show her love and appreciation to Jesus.
But this is what is important: This woman did not know how good her deed was. She came to pour oil on Jesus’ head to show her love and appreciation but unbeknownst to her, she was pre-anointing the to-be-killed-and-buried-body of Jesus. For that, Jesus said, what she had done would be “told as a memorial to her” anytime “this Gospel is preached in the whole world” (Verse 9). She had no clue. Nor do we. We do not always know the good that we do to Jesus.
Pastor Paul
I cannot count how many times I have thanked God for my car; it’s a reliable car. And when I think about how I stumbled upon this car, I cannot help but be amazed by the way God guided me to this car, not to other cars. I may have shared the story with you but let me tell you again. I almost bought another car, had it not been for the confession made by the young man, the son of the car’s owner. He was asked by his sister to accompany me to test-drive the car, and it was then while we were driving around, he started talking about the car’s problems. Even after we got back, in front of his sister, he still tried to dissuade me to buy the car. Poor guy, he got good scolding! But thanks to him, I did not buy that car, which led me to this car.
When I look back on my life, I must say that all wrong decisions that I made were not caused by the lack of guidance from the Lord but rather by my ignoring the guidance that He gave. In retrospect I must admit that God had always given me signs; it was I who failed to notice. Sometimes I did not think that those were signs from God but there were times I failed to notice because I did not want to pay attention to these signs. I wanted to follow my heart, not His signs.
Sadly, I am not alone; there are many who are like me. I have seen those who follow their hearts, not signs from God. Their emotions or sometimes their ambitions got in the way; instead of seeing signs that guide them to stop or to re-route, they keep going, like Jonah the prophet who remained stubbornly angry at God for forgiving the people of Nineveh who had repented. Through this I learned that once we have decided what it is we want to see, it is nearly impossible to change our mind. We keep looking even though there is nothing to look anymore, just like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who insisted on seeing the Messiah of their choice. They did not see Jesus as the Messiah they wanted, so they killed Him.
Pastor Paul
In about a month we’ll enter Passion Week, the final week of Jesus before He was crucified and rose from the dead on the third day. Like a bull’s eye, Passion Week is the center of Christianity; it is the center the carries the whole weight of God’s work of salvation. In his book, The Strangest Way, Bishop Robert Barron stresses the fact that Jesus “did not simply pass away; He was killed, executed . . . .” It is one thing to die for the sins of the world, it is another thing to be killed for the sins of the world. But, as Barron highlights, “the death of Jesus is not the whole story. If it were, Christianity would be nothing more than a social movement and Jesus no more than a romantic and fondly remembered revolutionary.” Jesus rose again!
Many have tried to paint the sacrifices that Jesus made as sacrifices of a revolutionary and His message and act of love as merely a social movement. And many have tried to follow His steps to affect social changes. It is good but not good enough, but more importantly, it misses the mark; it misses the bull’s eye. Passion Week is not just a final battle of good versus evil; Passion Week is the ultimate face of love and obedience of the Son of God to the Holy Will of His Father.
Jesus did not come to bring about a political or social revolution, He came to bring about a spiritual transformation. He came to free us, who were imprisoned in our own cages of sin guarded by the devil. More than freedom, Jesus gave us a new way of life, a new purpose for living. His death gives us life; His resurrection gives us hope.
So, as we are walking closer to Passion Week, take time to reflect on the great love and sacrifice of Christ, and on the great victory of the cross over sin and the great victory of the resurrection over death. Take time to reflect on what God will do for us and will never do to us. If He did not withhold His Only Son, He would never withhold anything else from us. He gave it all and will give it all to us.
Pastor Paul
We have heard a saying that when God closes a door, He will open a window, which means God often directs our steps by either closing or opening a way. The fact that we have prayed for direction does not necessarily mean that we will get the greenlights all the way. No, there are times when God stop us or re-route our steps. Paul went through that, not once but twice, in one trip. Because he had been to the province of Asia, which is the modern-day Turkey, he planned to visit folks that he had won to Christ. A straightforward plan that proved to be more complicated than he had expected.
It was in Galatia that he first realized that the Holy Spirit might have a different plan for him. It’s there that the Holy Spirit forbade him to go to Asia. So, he decided to go to Bithynia, but as recorded by Dr. Luke in Acts 16, while he was in Mysia on his way to Bithynia, the Spirit of Jesus stopped him. So, he turned and went to Troas; and it was there that Paul finally received a clear direction by means of a vision that he was to go to Macedonia, now in Greece. Philippi, a city in Macedonia, became the Gospel’s port of entry to Europe.
When I read this account, the question that popped in my head was, “Wouldn’t it be easier for Paul if God had given him a clear direction from the beginning?” The answer is, of course, yes; at least he did not have to go around and around, wasting his time and energy. But that is not the way God works, isn’t it? There are times He lets us grope in the dark, wondering what He is doing and where He is taking us. If we are in this situation today, we must feel restless.
At the end of the day, I’ve come to conclude that what is important is not getting there, but being here, with God. We focus on result while God focuses on process. Unbeknownst to us, process brings out results that God wants—patience, faithfulness, and strength.
Pastor Paul
I think most of us do not know who Merle Oberon was. Well, I did not, either, until I came across this article about her. She’s an actor who was nominated for an Oscar in 1935, for her movie, “The Dark Angel.” But what caught my attention was not this part of her life, but rather the part of her life that she kept a secret her entire life: that she was half Asian! She was born to a British father, a soldier, and an Indian mother, from what is now Sri Lanka, and her name was Estelle Merle Thompson. Her elder sister was her mother and the mother who raised them was actually her grandmother. What’s sad is that when people met her darker-skinned grandmother, she’d tell them that her grandmother was her maid. She’s simply afraid.
When I read this, I could not help but feel for her. She grew up poor and being a mixed race made it more difficult. To alter the course of her life, she, then, created another story—that her father was a British officer and that her parents lived in India before moving to Tasmania. None of it was true but to survive in Hollywood, she had to create this story and lived this one big lie till the day she died! I could only imagine how tough it was to live with the fear of being found out, but perhaps I am wrong. Maybe she did have a good life.
We’d like to think that feeling guilty is the worst feeling we can ever experience, but the truth is, no it’s not! There’s another feeling that is far worse: feeling ashamed of ourselves. You see, even though it’s difficult we can still talk about our guilt. What we cannot talk about is shame—what we did in the past or like Merle Oberon, where we came from, and who we were before we became who we are today. Guilt drives us to hide from others; shame drives us to hide from us. Here is the good news: God’s grace calls us to come out of hiding. We come to God not because we have no place to hide from Him, but because as Our Heavenly Father, He loves us, just as we are.
Pastor Paul
Tante Bertha did not attend our church; she belonged to the Body of Christ in a different location. However, her daughter, son in-law, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and their families along with her niece and nephew, attend our church. This week, Tante Bertha, the mother of Tante Siem and grandmother of Tommy and Louie, went home to be with the Lord. She was 100. Not too long ago the family celebrated her centennial birthday, and she was still able to attend the gathering in the nursing home where she resided, but since then she began to weaken as she journeyed home with Christ Our Savior.
Also, this week Santy and I were asked to minister to a family who just lost their mother last Sunday after battling cancer for 12 years. She was half the age of Tante Bertha. When God says, “It’s now the time,” we cannot say, “It’s not the time.” When God says, “Go,” we cannot say, “I don’t want to go.” Death reminds us that there is no such a thing as “our time” because time is categorically God’s time. He is the One who is holding the timer; we are merely runners, who are running to the finish line in this race called life.
Some are called to run a short-distance race; some, a long-distance race; and some, a marathon. We do not know which is our race but like Paul, at the end of the race, we’d like to be able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7).
On the day we were born, God pressed the start button, so we ran. “Some through the waters, some through the flood. Some through the fire but all through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song. In the night season and all the day long.” Amen.
Pastor Paul
On Thursday, near midnight, Jesus Our Lord came to take Oom Tim home. He was several days short of 92. Oom Tim usually came to church with his son, John, and after the service, they did not stay for lunch. John normally took Oom Tim out to eat. Once a month I and several members of our church who live in Orange County gathered at his house for Bible Study. He was always happy to welcome us to his home for a time of fellowship. We will miss you, Oom Tim.
We are of course sad when a child of God dies, but we never despair because we know where he is now—in Heaven with Our Heavenly Father. There in His presence and surrounded by all the saints, we become the people we are meant to be. The imperfection of life that has tainted us is forever gone; as a result, we will be fully and authentically the persons God created us to be.
C. S. Lewis says, “We shall be true and everlasting and really divine persons only in Heaven . . . “ Just like “a color first reveals its quality when placed by an excellent artist in its pre-elected spot between certain others . . . so we shall then first be true persons when we have suffered ourselves to be fitted into our places. We are marble waiting to be shaped . . . “ C. S. Lewis further explains. The truth is God has begun shaping us now; each day we obediently respond to His Word, we become closer to the original design God has in mind.
Being a quiet man, Oom Tim hardly spoke in our time of fellowship. Once he shared his life’s experiences and gave thanks to God for guiding his life and blessing him beyond his imagination. When I heard his testimony, I could not help but see that God always had His eye on Oom Tim. From Central Java to West Java, to China, to Macao, to Los Angeles and Fullerton, God guided Oom Tim and his family. On Thursday, Oom Tim completed the last leg of his journey.
Pastor Paul