February 11, 2024

The Shepherd's Corner

First, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to visit my mom in Indonesia.  Thanks to your prayers, she is now making good progress.  While there, I flew to Malang and spent a day to visit with friends in the seminary who are ill.  By the grace of God, they are weathering the storms of life; they live one day at a time and do their best to remain active while they can.  It was both joyful and painful to see them.  I pray that I will be able to see them again.

While in Malang, I also got together with some old minister-friends.  Because our children are about the same ages, we used to go out to Batu and Tretes together in the early days of our stay in Malang. But now they are retired, so the topics of our conversation are different.  Now they asked among themselves questions like, “Hey, are you still able to put on your pants standing up?”  One answered, “I have to sit” while another answered, “I must lean my back against the wall.”

Hearing that I chuckled, not because I can still put on my pants with my two feet on the ground, but also because I remembered hearing the same conversation between Oom Tek Bien and the rest of the gang that used to sit at that corner in our dining hall, which they nostalgically called, Warung Pojok.  Never did I imagine that I would be engaged in the same conversation fifteen years later!  Time flies and I am catching up.  We may have come from all over, but we are headed in the same direction and traveling on the same road.

Psalm 71:20 gives this assurance to us who are already on that road, “Though You have made me see troubles, many and bitter, You will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth You will again bring me up.”  What lies behind this earthly destination—the depths of the earth—is this new life in heavens.  God will bring us up; He’ll restore our lives again; and He’ll make us see bliss, many and sweet.

Pastor Paul

More Shepherd's Corner Articles

The Shepherd's Corner - May 5, 2024
Oliver, our dog, has been with us for the past 15 years.  A neighbor found him wandering on the street and offered him to us.  We took him and ever since then he has been a part of our family.  He is now around 16 years old, or close to 90 years our human age.  […]...
Read More
The Shepherd's Corner - December 8, 2019
THE SHEPHERD’S CORNER On Thursday at 8 o’clock in the morning, Our Lord Jesus came and took our brother Tensas to his final and eternal home. Just two Sundays ago he was still here with us but today he is in heaven with our brothers and sisters who have gone before us. To quote the […]...
Read More
The Shepherd's Corner - January 12, 2020
THE SHEPHERD’S CORNER During a Bible Study with some of you this past week, somebody asked a question, which I had no answer for, “Why do some good people have to endure misfortune so badly and so frequently?” I know God is good and He loves us so much that He gave His Only Son […]...
Read More