In Your Season

River Thames at Christ Church Meadow, Oxford, in Early Morning

Although God has spoken powerfully to me recently through different people in different places, it seems like He is silent to me when I asked Him some personal questions, like what He wants me to do and where He wants me to be next year. I was desperate if I am honest, I found it hard to hear from God.

Having an advice from Emily, I decided to do something different, something I don’t normally do – early walk at Christ Church Meadow after breakfast. It just turned bright and the sky was so fresh, and so blue. To my surprise it wasn’t cold at all, just a gentle breeze of the morning wind. Anastasie, Paulina and I were supposed to have our own quiet time in the meadow, but Anastasie and I ended up chatting! We talked about a lot of things, our lives before the internship, why we would love to stay in England (if we could), a bit about family, our ministries and life in general really. But we spent quite a lot of time talking about the future – things like what we would like to do in summer, next (academic) year and even next year summer! Through the conversation we kinda share the same frustration that we simply don’t know God’s will and plan for us individually. What direction is He guiding us to? What is it that is on His mind? We simply didn’t have any answers for all those questions, and we want them, now!

It wasn’t my first time walking in the meadow, so all the scenery and buildings are not unfamiliar to me and they are gorgeous, you will never get bored of looking at them! When we were walking past those familiar scenery and buildings, I remember the photos that I once took some time back. If I took the same photos at the same spots where I was, the photos would be quite different even though they are the same Christ Church College and the same River Thames, because we are now in different season! I felt like God was speaking to me saying that although I am now at different season of my life, He is still the same in every season. He is still the God who guided me through the lows of my life. He is still the same God that loves me. He is still the God whom I could always trust and rely on. Maybe I just need to be patient and let Him do His will in His own time and in His own way. I remember my friend said to me once that if God tells me everything I am gonna do in my life, life won’t fun anymore! I laughed when she said it because I know she is right! Once again I was reminded by God of this verse in Romans 8:

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.

Romans 8:38

Oxford

08.01.2013

Worship, Glory and Shine

We were looking at the subject of Worship the other week. Worship is of course glorifying God by giving Him praise and adoration; in modern days worship is mainly through music. In the Old Testament era, sacrifice of praise was the main form of worship alongside instrumental worship. Peace offerings, burn offerings were the main form of worshiping God and through sacrifices sins are forgiven. Of course we don’t do any animal sacrifice anymore as Jesus has been the perfect sacrifice for us once and for all[1], we can have a gist of what it is like in 2 Chronicles 5-7 which recorded the dedication of the Temple that Solomon built.

Here is the account of the temple dedication:

Solomon assembled the Levites to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion. Then Solomon and all the congregation of Israel were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered (2 Chronicles 5:6), hence worshiping God. The priests then brought the Ark of the Covenant to the Most Holy Place, followed by singing praises to God through songs with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments. Then the house of the LORD was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to ministry because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God (2 Chronicles 5:14).

Solomon then blessed the LORD and people, and stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel praying to God

“And now arise, O Lord God, and go to your resting place,

    you and the ark of your might.

Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation,

    and let your saints rejoice in your goodness.

O Lord God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one!

    Remember your steadfast love for David your servant.”

2 Chronicles 6:41-42

As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 7:1-3)

Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord. King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep (that’s a lot of meat!). So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the Lord that King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord—for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises by their ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood. (2 Chronicles 7:4-6)

Can you imagine (apart from the amount of meat being burnt!) the whole scenery of worship and dedication (it lasted for 7 days!)? It is glorious (and pretty glory too I can imagine)! But what strike me the most lies in here - the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. Wow! The glory of God was so full that the priest cannot even enter the Lord’s house! Have you seen anything like it before? Can you imagine what it is like to be filled with God’s glory? However the question that I asked when I read it was: What is the glory of God? We have said it hundreds and thousands of time about the glory of God, the glory of God; but what is it exactly? Moses asked similar question and let us see how the Lord God answered him.

And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Exodus 33:17-23

“I will make all my goodness pass before you… I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious… show mercy to whom I will show mercy”

The glory of God is all about God, it has absolutely nothing to do with us! It’s not about how great the music is when we worship God; it’s not about how good you can deliver a sermon; it’s all about Him! It reminds me of the chorus lyrics of Heart to Worship, and it does sum up plainly what worship is all about:

I’m coming back to the heart of worship,

    And it’s all about you, all about you Jesus.

I’m sorry Lord for the things I’ve made it

    When it’s all about you, it’s all about you Jesus

Matt Redman – Heart of Worship

I went to Student Night one Thursday. At the end of the night we had time to wait upon the Holy Spirit to speak to us as the talk of that night was about desiring to seek God. I could feel the overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit at church; I saw people knelt down on their knees seeking God, people praying for one another, arms in the air worship God at the top of their voices. We had people sharing what God has spoken to them, scripture and pictures, for encouragement. The meeting was overrun by an hour and a half as we kept on praying and worshipping!

I was thinking is it something we want to say after we went to a Christian meeting, that we could say “I could feel the presence of the Spirit”, “I know God has spoken powerfully to me”, and most importantly, proud to say “I surely have met God in this place!”? Sometimes I think we often are too easily pleased with our normally ‘church activities’, but not grabbing hold on God and say, “I am not letting You go unless I have seen Your presence and Your blessing flooded in this place!” I believe once you have seen His glory shining through the sky, you would hook on it and hungry for more of Him! This is what we are made to desire for!

You may ask, “If God’s glory is all about Him, then how is it to do with us?” I believe we can find the answer in Act 27. Paul was in Athens and he saw the city was full of idols. The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers heard that Paul was preaching about Christ and His resurrections, so they came to him and ask what the new ‘strange’ thing that Paul was presenting as the Athenians who lived there would spend their time doing nothing but telling and hearing something new. And this is what Paul addressed to the Athenians:

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

Acts 17:22-27

“Yet he is not far from each one of us”. Indeed God is close to us. How close? Very close! It is written in Ephesians 1:

In him (Christ) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:13-14

We are sealed with Holy Spirit as it is promised by Christ, and now Holy Spirit is in us, so how close are we from God?

If you have ever been to churches that have beautiful glass windows with paintings painted on them, the images look so much alive and real if there is light shine through those windows from outside. I believe this is the perfect image that describes who we really are – glass windows with beautiful paintings. God is often describes as light, “God is light, in Him there is no darkness” (1 John 1:5). As His light shine through us (the glass windows), the image that are painted on us can be shown. It is God’s glory that is shown on Earth, but through our images. God doesn’t need us in order His glory to be shown, but beautifully He chose to! I believe there are three reasons why God chose this way: He is not ashamed of His created being which are made in His own image, despite our own sinfulness and imperfectness because Christ has already dealt with it on the cross. Secondly I believe God wants to let us know the beauty that He has stored in us, through our images! God wants us to know that we are truly loved and treasured by Him, because this is His nature and character.

Remember the answer that God gave to Moses about His glory?

“Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Exodus 33:21-23

The following is final reason but also the most important one:

But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord

2 Corinthians 3:18

Because of the His Spirit that God has put inside us, we are now transformed into His likeness and hence able to shine in God’s glory. This is what God intended us to be: to transform us into Christ-like and shine in God’s glory through worship.

I end with the same ending and prayer that is written by A. W. Tozer in his book The Purpose of Man:

May God grant us a desire for God that supersedes all other desires.

Dear heavenly Father, the world is very evil, times are waxing late and we are running out of time. Oh, God, lay hold of us. We pray that we may have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand. We pray that we may be saved from the routine and rut. We pray that we may have eyes inside and outside, anointed understanding. Help us, Lord, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

A.     W. Tozer – The Purpose of Man

05.01.2013

Oxford

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[1] Although Paul talked about offer ourselves as living sacrifices in Romans 12, we won’t go into details here

Church Experience in Paris

 Night View of Eiffel Tower, Paris

I guess you must be intrigued by the title. For those who have little idea about France’s spirituality, France is descried as ‘mission graveyard’, especially for Paris because of the highly materialist society.

I was in Paris to visit two of my fellow interns this holiday, and I went to their church (in which their father is the pastor at that church) on Sunday. This church isn’t what the church building you have in your mind, we met at a local café shop! Maybe you are thinking it must be a really big café in order to cater the whole church; in fact there were only 20 people (max) in this church! We didn’t have a band playing during worship; in fact there wasn’t anyone playing any instrument at all (apart from the tiny little instrument that was played by my friends’ father)! Worship was sang by just vocals (us interns sang Here For You in English to kick start the worship), and occasionally followed the song that are played by iPod. If it were in St. Aldates with no band, no instruments, songs played through iPod, it’s gonna be disaster! None of the leaders would allow this to happen. But don’t look down on this little church, it taught me a lot!

What I saw were 20 authentic worshippers praising God, prayers came out naturally from their mouths. Even though I don’t understand French at all, I could feel the passion that they have for God, for the people and for the nation. It just kept on going and going for ages, worshipping and praying and praising. During worship, one of the ladies had a Scripture of Revelations 3:7-12 – Jesus spoke to the church in Philadelphia:

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Revelations 3:7-12

The lady spoke from the French bible, but when I read my English translation I was in tears, because I know that it was what God was saying to His beloved church who perseveres in the mist of sufferings. I know of the story of this church from them how previously church leaders were corrupted and turned against each other because of sin. They are broken people because they were betrayed by those they once trusted. But there is one thing that doesn’t change, their love for God, which can be shown fully in their worship. I am humbled by their faithfulness, their heart for God, their love for one another and their willingness to trust Christians again. I am also humbled by my friends’ father who simply perseveres, remind faithful to do what God has entrusted him to do – minister to the sheep whom God has given him. They are just simple people with pure and sincere hearts.

I looked back to this tern being an intern at St. Aldates, there are times that I just don’t feel like doing what I am doing, especially those ‘tasks’ are so tiny that nobody would notice! But if we are not faithful to small things He has encountered us, how would God entrust us with big things? A couple weeks ago I asked God to show me what it is on His heart. It seems He has already answered me through this trip, in His own way, as usual.

03.01.2013

Paris / Oxford