Motherhood is a calling and a responsibility. It is a calling in the sense it is not earned; it is given unto us. The fact that we have a womb and a husband does not guarantee motherhood. Equally true is that it is a responsibility; we who are called to be mothers must fulfill our obligations to raise our children to adulthood, and to prepare them to face life’s challenges. Like any other roles, we who were nurtured by good and loving mothers are a step ahead of those who were not. We have a model to follow after. Sadly, we, who were not given the same privilege, must struggle to find another model, and along the way, sort the good from the bad.
But God is just. To all whom He calls to be mothers He also gives them the ability to be mothers. Motherhood can be taught, but if we asked our mothers where they learned to be mothers, many would say that they didn’t learn it anywhere; no one taught them; they learned most of it on their own. God has planted the seed in the mothers’ hearts; in the right environment the seed will grow.
I see that in Santy. Yes, she learned about basic mothering skills from her mother in the first five years of parenting. Afterward, she learned it all by herself. The next fourteen years while we were in Indonesia she somehow managed to mother our children well. It was God who planted the mother-seed in her. God called her, so God equipped her. And that is how women become mothers.
No one will dispute the fact that mothering is hard work. So, let me end with words of wisdom from Ruth Graham, “We mothers must take care of the possible and trust God for the impossible.” We do what we can and what we must, and then leave the rest that we can’t do to God. Mothers must trust God for the things they can’t.
Pastor Paul
On Wednesday, April 1, I celebrated my birthday. On Sunday, April 12, God called Heman Elia, my colleague in the Bible school, home. On Thursday, April 16, God called Andreas, Santy’s younger brother, home. On Wednesday, April 22, God called Tante Barbara home and on Friday, May 1, God called Vilma, my aunt in Indonesia, home. It’s true what Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted.” Amen.
Those who are not of the Kingdom of God might say that it is a curse to lose so many people in a short period of time. We who are of the Kingdom of God say that it’s a blessing to send so many of our loved one home to be with Christ Our Lord. Revelations 14:13 provides us with a clear perspective, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labor, and their work will follow them.” Not cursed, simply blessed!
We do not know when we will come into the world, and we do not know when we will leave this world. Nor do we know how God will take us from this world. What we know is where we will go after we leave this world. That is the reason we do not only see death as losing someone but also as sending someone, because literally we do send someone off. That’s also the reason we do not dwell on the “why” someone dies. Some deaths are harder to deal with because of the timing; to us, they are too young to go. However, in the end, we accept the fact that someone dies in God’s time and in His hand.
So, be sad and mourn, then move on, trusting that God “has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We may not see the beauty of it yet but one day in retrospect from eternity, we will. So, “eat and drink and enjoy the good of our labor—it’s God’s gift.”
Pastor Paul
On Wednesday morning, God called Tante Barbara home. She was getting ready to attend our Wednesday’s Bible Study when she fell and slipped into the presence of Our Beloved Savior. That day, she did not attend the Bible Study at Church; instead, she attended the Bible Study in Heavens, taught by Christ, the Living Word Himself. We are saddened but at the same we are comforted by the fact that she is now among the beloved of God and with her beloved John.
On Monday I still talked to her over the phone. Because she did not come to church, I just wanted to check in with her. She told me that she had begun to lose her balance due to her inability to keep food down. She looked forward to seeing a new doctor on Wednesday which she planned to see after Bible Study. She hoped this doctor might be able to figure out what the problem was with her body. We also talked about her singing with Tante Sophia on Easter Day; I told her that her voice was clear and audible. Little did I know that it was to be her last singing in our church. The next time we hear her sing again is when we get together in Our Father’s Reunion Hall.
Once again, we are reminded not only of the brevity of life but also of how little control we have over life. We make plans but it is God who makes the final decision. Each day is truly a gift, so cherish it, use it wisely, and present it as an offering to Our Heavenly Father. Since she was little, Tante Barbara had known Christ Our Lord. Her family was instrumental in taking her to church and introducing her to Christ Our Savior. Early in life she knew about ministry which in the end helped her be Pastor John’s faithful partner in ministry for decades to come. I was there when Pastor John breathed his last, with his head resting in the loving hands of Tante Barbara. Now I imagine it’s Pastor John’s turn to open his arms and welcome Tante Barbara into God’s Eternal Dwelling. Till we meet again, Tante!
Pastor Paul
Last Sunday afternoon a dear colleague of mine in the Bible school went home to the with the Lord. By the grace of God, he lived with Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer for six years and up till days before he passed, he was still teaching! God kept him alive and productive as long as He did, but for reasons unknown to us, God did not keep our loved ones alive for just a few more years. In his book Enjoying Intimacy with God, J. Oswald Sanders shares this poignant insight, “We are trusted with the unexplained.” Frances Ridley Havergal, the 19th century English song writer known for her hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be, sums it well in her poem, “The ills we see—The mysteries of sorrow deep and long/The dark enigmas of permitted wrong—Have all one key/The strange, sad world is but our Father’s School.” We are in the school of God with life as our classrooms.
Santy and I were privileged to be able to speak with him over the phone about a couple of days before he passed. Before we ended our conversation, we said goodbye and promised to meet again in Our Eternal Home one day. To the others who visited or called him, Heman Elia, this colleague of mine, also ended his conversation with the same goodbye, that he would see them again in Heavens. It was sad, but at the same time, it was peaceful. We shall meet again!
One of our reactions when something unexpected and bad happens is to seek as much information as we can—to know everything—as if by knowing everything we could have averted the mishap. Well, we must get as much information as possible but at some point, we ought to say, “It’s enough.” We still can’t explain it, but we know that God is in full control over the unexplained part. Our part is to trust Him and learn about a new material in God’s curriculum that He’s teaching us. Through my colleague’s way of facing death, God taught me to see Heavens as the house next door. So close, so safe.
Pastor Paul
On the night before His arrest, Jesus gathered His disciples for a Passover meal. It’s there that He taught them about service and spiritual authority. Instead of a lengthy discourse, He only spoke briefly about it. What’s rather lengthy was the time that He spent washing the disciples’ feet—all twelve of them! So, He taught them about serving by serving them, not by lecturing them. In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster insightfully comments, “the spiritual authority of which Jesus spoke was an authority not found in a position or a title but in a towel.” I thank God that in our church I see many walking around with a towel and a basin ready to serve.
God’s way is almost always the opposite of the world’s way. In the world the buzz word is leadership. There are plenty of books on the topic and there is an abundance of leadership training offered to us
who aspire to climb the corporate ladder. Interestingly what is so important to the world is not even mentioned in the Bible. There is no teaching on how to be a leader; there is only teaching on how to
be a servant. Servanthood, not leadership, is what is important to Jesus, as He once said that He came to serve, not to be served.
In the time of Jesus, the act of washing feet was considered one of the lowest jobs, so low that even a servant was not required to do it. The reason is while washing, one had to be positioned down on
the floor and the feet to be washed were usually covered with dirt. That’s what serving is at its truest and highest nature: we clean dirt and position ourselves much lower than the person we serve. God calls us to serve, not only the well and the clean, but also the dirty and the unwell. We clean up their mess and humble ourselves even to the point of having no dignity so we can be of service. And it all begins with a simple act of refusing to be served. Like Jesus, we too say that we come to serve, not to be served. “Where is the towel?”
Pastor Paul
I’d like to thank you for making me feel so special on my birthday. There were plenty of noodles, my favorite dish! I turned 67, which means it’s now time for me to begin transitioning out and to pass on the baton to a younger servant of God. The board of deacons has formed a pastoral search committee to start looking for another servant of the Lord to serve in our church. It is for that reason we are thinking about securing a place to live for the person God will bring. So, please give your votes; we want to hear your voices.
For my birthday, one of my grandchildren gave me a comic book. He wrote the story and drew the characters himself, page after page. I do not understand the story line because I do not follow the comic books that children read today but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that he loved me so much that he took the time to write a book for my birthday. I am thus reminded of what C. S. Lewis writes, “All our offering, whether of music or martyrdom, are like intrinsically worthless present of a child, which a father values indeed, but values only for the intention.” That’s how God values our offering.
Another thing worth mentioning is that I’m quite sure that when my grandson prepared the comic book, he truly thought that I’d enjoy reading it because I’d understand the story he’s telling me. Well, I don’t but it doesn’t matter because what matters is that he’s telling me his own story. God is so much greater than we, but He reveals Himself to us so we can know Him and tell our own stories about Him. To conclude, let me quote from the rendering of John 1:14 by Eugene Peterson in the Message, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” God became a man; He lived among us, so He could be with us, and in the end, die for our sins. Thank God that it’s not the end of the story; His death is only the beginning. His resurrection is the final part of the story.
Pastor Paul
Out of the four Gospels, the Gospel of John is the most theological. Instead of providing us with the narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus, it gives us the theological implications of the words and the actions of Jesus. Instead of tracing the life of Jesus chronologically, it zeroes in on the life Jesus topically and the topic that becomes the focus of John is the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Ten out of twenty-one chapters of his Gospel are wholly devoted for this topic.
The Gospel, which literally means Good News, is none other than the death and the resurrection of Jesus. It is good news for one reason only: The death of Jesus has reconciled us with God, and the resurrection of Jesus has given us not only hope but also assurance that death will not be the final phase of our life on earth. Death will only serve as a bridge to a new life with God in His Eternal Home.
We all crave good news. Once upon a time when we were young, we heard a lot of good news such as vacation time, trips to theme parks, visiting grandparents, etc. Now as we grow older, we still hear good news but not as many as before. Years ago, I remember talking to a much older man at the YMCA and asking him what he’d do that weekend. I just assumed that he’d do something exciting or at least different from his daily routine. His answer caught me by surprise; he said at his age every day was the same as yesterday; in other words, weekends or weekdays are just another day. There is nothing extraordinarily good about weekend. Such is life, isn’t it?
Once I talked to someone who was so depressed that she thought about dying. She told me that it was her faith in Jesus that stopped her from ending her life. Once upon a time we had a lot of reasons for living, things that we wanted to do in life. But there will come a time when we only have one reason: for Jesus. No other reasons!
Pastor Paul
In less than two weeks we will celebrate Good Friday, which with Easter become the central axis of Christianity. There would be no Christianity without the death and the resurrection of Jesus. As we focus our hearts and minds to the crucifixion of Jesus, we remember the pivotal role of prayer and submission to the will of God modeled by Our Lord Jesus, especially days before His arrest. The nearer He was to His death, the nearer He drew Himself to His Father through prayer. Rightly did E. Stanley Jones say, “Our circumstances do not decide our destiny, but prayer does.” Jesus was always in the hands of His Heavenly Father, never in the hands of men. And He knew it.
Once He talked about His relationship with His Father, calling God as His Father who had sent Him into the world, but “no one laid hands on Him. For His hour had not yet come” (John 8:20). His hour here referred to His time of arrest and crucifixion—His death! Jesus was secure in His Father’s hands but this security, which translated into peace, could only be harnessed through and in prayer. Hence, He prayed a lot. Here is another insight from E. Stanley Jones, “Our spiritual lives are determined by the power we take into them through prayer.” We can then say that we are as strong as our prayer. It is when we come to God fully submitting to His divine will can we then be strong and have peace to face days of adversity.
As we know, Corrie ten Boom was spiritually graced by her sister, Betsie, who died in concentration camp. One of the insights she often shared with Corrie was, “There are no ‘ifs’ in God’s Kingdom. His timing is perfect. His will is our hiding place.” Oh, how often, when facing days of adversity, we ask, “What if?” What if we never did this or went there? Perhaps we would have reaped a different outcome. Perhaps. But remember: God is almighty and He is never restrained by circumstances; He’s transcendent over our limitations.
Pastor Paul
Jesus began His ministry with forty-day prayer and fasting in the wilderness and ended His ministry with prayer in an olive grove. In between, He spent countless times and hours praying, usually in the wee morning hour. By doing that He gave us a model to emulate; He, the Son of God, prayed, so, we, too, ought to pray. However, more than a model, Jesus showed that He, the Son of Man, needed to pray. Through prayer He tapped the power of and the intimacy with His Heavenly Father. Prayer was the bedrock of His ministry; no wonder He never taught His disciples to preach; He only taught them how to pray. It’s no wonder that one of the lessons He taught His disciples before His departure was to keep watch and to pray.
Perhaps we wonder why prayer is central to our Christian life. I can think of a couple of reasons. Firstly, prayer reminds us that we are not alone. God didn’t t just create us; He is also involved in our life. He watches over us, He guides us, and He speaks to us. Secondly, prayer gives us a direct access to God. We cannot see Him, but He can see us; through prayer we can reach Him. Prayer is the keys to unlock the doors of Heaven and be in the Awesome Presence of the Almighty God. We, who do not pray, will remain outside of Heaven; we keep knocking while, in fact, we already have the keys. Rightly Bishop Robert Barron points out that we pray not from the outside but inside the Triune God. Prayers bring us in; we need not shout.
Isn’t it interesting that Jesus did not tell His disciples to hide and to develop a strategy for evangelism before His arrest and crucifixion? Facing the most sequential moment of their lives, Jesus told them to pray. It sounds so simple yet so true. Only prayers could stabilize their steps, so they would not run or falter. Only prayer could give them power, peace, and clarity. So, whatever the situation and the temptation, remember to pray. It is our only refuge and strength.
Pastor Paul
We haven’t ended one war, another war has begun, involving more countries and impacting livelihood far greater than the other war. Starting with gasoline, prices start to go up, adding another layer of pressure to many families who are already struggling. We can only pray that these wars will stop and life will return to normalcy soon.
Perhaps we wonder why we who are not involved in these conflicts must also suffer. Why does God not shield us from these problems just like He shielded the Israelites from the plagues in Egypt? Isn’t it fair and right to protect the righteous? The Bible tells us that in all cases, except the one in Egypt, the righteous were not exempted; all suffered along. Noah had to lose his home and lived in a boat for 150 days (Genesis 7:24). Lot had to lose not only his home, but also his wife, and lived in a cave with his two daughters (Genesis 19:30). Because there was no rain for three and a half years (James 5:17), Elijah had to drink from the brook and eat food brought by the ravens (1 Kings 17:7). But the brook dried up and he had to relocate to Sidon. There God used a widow to miraculously provide for him.
As long as we live in this fallen world, we will be affected, we won’t be spared. Life will be tough not only for some but for most of us. But the promise that Jesus gave prior to His ascension still stands, “And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus asks us to see that He is always with us not half-way, but till the end. We can hold on to His promise because it’s true.
There’s one verse that catches my eyes every time I read it, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed” (Romans 4:18). Against all we can think of and do to make us hope, we choose to believe based on hope. This is faith. We believe even though we have no reason to believe. We hope even though we have no reason to hope.
Pastor Paul