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Eshcol 以实各谷When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. （Num 13:23） 他们到了以实各谷， 从那里砍了葡萄树的一 枝， 上头有一挂葡萄，两个人用杠抬着, 又带了些石榴和无花果来。出13:23 December 04 Sino Ako - Who Am I?
November 09 This is my Father's World It's Sunday, and at this hour, this song rings in my heart, "This is my Father's World". Oh yes, when all your children comes before you and we declare to the seen and all the unseen that indeed this is my Father's World. Let us not forget. . This is my Father's world.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ5Jkz2FBS4&feature=related November 01 Falling Sofa & Wardrobe I have a friend who is in full-time work. When she was renovating her flat, God gave her (through people) marble tiles for the floor and aircons. These were not in her plans. She only wanted rubber tiles and fan. And since that day, we joked about how God showered manna from heaven and threw down marble tiles and aircons as well. What else can he not throw down? Well, this week, my mother suddenly told me that a distant uncle had to give up his beloved sofa and wardrobe because his wife is ill and they needed to change their furniture to suit her medical needs (e.g. putting in a metal bed for patient etc). He didn't want to throw them out coz they are in good condition. He spent nearly $700 on the sofa. So he wanted to give them to me. Actually, I had no plans to buy a wardrobe. I was thinking I would use a pole, put in a shower curtain, and i can stuff all my things behind the curtain. That would be my wardrobe. Well, it looks like this distant uncle not only wanted to give these to me, even offered to hire a mover and moved them over yesterday. I don't even have to worry about taking leave and the logistics. All Done! So I guess the list has extended. Not just manna, marble tile and aircons, now sofa & wardrobe too. I am looking at heaven and wonder what else is coming down.... caution... wear a safety helmet. October 29 Take China This is crazy but it is like a revelation to me after all these years. I had lunch with a friend who just went on a trip to China. She returned telling me that after coming back there were lots of complaints about services, hotels etc and some don't see the point of the trip. There is perhaps only one person who wants to stay there. And she said, "Not everyone can take China." I know this must be common sense and obvious to people but it never occurred to me that the ability to be able to "take China" is anything special. And if a person is able to "take China" should go there coz not everyone can. October 24 《沙漠中的赞美》 10 月 15日第一次听到这首诗歌。今天又再次提醒我，他必带领，不能失去盼望。 http://www.musicsky.org/MusicPlay/2/2ba7927667445c14.Html 神关起一扇门，他必开一条新路 不疑惑，不软弱，我心仍要赞美 凡事信靠主，不失去盼望 因为我的主仍然在掌权 他必在沙漠开江河，在旷野开道路 虽四面受敌却不被困住 我要在沙漠中赞美，在旷野中宣告 我的主永远掌权 赏赐的在于你，收取的你必代替 神旨意不能拦阻，我心仍要赞美 凡事信靠主，不失去盼望 因为我的主仍然在掌权 他必在沙漠开江河，在旷野开道路 虽四面受敌却不被困住 我要在沙漠中赞美，在旷野中宣告 我的主永远掌权 October 20 How you run & How you build?I read the following a few days ago about Discerning the Call
By John Ortberg - If you want to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat. "One of my favourite pictures of the "deep gladness" that God intends for his creation is in Psalm 19, where the psalmist says, "In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy." I love to think of the strong man -- a champion, some translations put it -- exulting in the race. He knows he's going to be taxed and stretched; he knows it will take everything he's got. But he loves the race. He relishes the challenge. He competes, not for the trophy at the end, but for the love of the game."
Read Habakkuk before service this morning and was attracted to Hab 2:12 -14, "Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." How we build matters to God and the purpose of building is that the nations will be filled with the knowledge of God's glory.
Interestingly, these topis were brought up today at Church again. Scripture reading was taken from Psalms 19. What would I do so that I will run the course with joy? And the message preached is from 1 Cor 3:10-15. How one should lay the foundation (which is Christ) like a skilled master builder. And the work which is built on the foundation will be tested by fire. "..let each one take care how he builds ..." (v3:10).
October 19 舍不得下山时间过得真快。在这里住了一个星期，就快回家了。说实在的，舍不得下山。
很感谢朋友们这一星期来的祝福。昨晚吃了阳城湖大闸蟹。爽！
尤其是那位让我使用了她美好温馨空间的姐妹。虽认识不久，但也可以叫老友啦！心理很感激也很珍惜。时间到，还是要下山了。
October 18 CompleteIn these 3.5 years, there are so many times when things get so tough that I have asked God if I can leave. And there was this time when He gave me 4 words, 2S and 2E, "Stewardship; Steadfastness; Entrusted; Endure". Another time He said, "Wait, wait for the Lord". Since June this year, He has been telling me about His glory. And recently about "Hope" as I select the theme for the Christmas Booklet and as I read John Pipper's "Desiring God". Romans 15:13 " May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
On Wed, went to the International Church worship. And the songs chosen are all from the Streams of Praise album about Praise in the Dessert. For a very long time I feel I am in the dessert. The verses chosen that night were from Romans 5:1-5, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. THrough him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. " It is like depicting my journey for the last few years. I know that the Lord is telling me that my training is complete. THank you Lord for your love.
October 16 Get Out Of the BoatBy John Ortberg
Take your calling seriously.
"I can wear my calling lightly. I can live free of the fear of failure, without being preoccupied by how my career looks to others, knowing my salvation and worth as a person are not at stake in my job title."
"Callings are usually not easy to discover. You will have to be ruthlessly honest about your gifts and your limitations...You will have to be willing to let some dreams die a painful death. You did not arrive on this planet with your calling pre-clarified and your gifts pre-developed. You arrived with a little warning: Some assembly required."
"... calling is "the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need".."
" As Arthur Miller says, "It's the lifeblood of a person, the song that her heart longs to sing, the race that his legs were born to run..."
"If Palmer had taken the job, think of what the results would have been in his life: fatigue, discouragement, a loss of joy, lack of energy and a sense of inadequacy. This is one of the causes of what psychologists have come to call the "imposter phenomenon" - the sense that people (especially successful people) often have of spending too uch time and effort trying to conceal their inadeqaucy from others. "
""You cannot choose your calling," Palmer says. "You must let your life speak." ... an enormous part of following our calling is not so much choosing as it is listening.
"It is very important to distinguish what I love doing for its own sake from what I may want to do because of the rewards it may bring me."
"His own unmet needs for acceptance and wholeness blinded him to acknowledging his limitations. he did not truly love the job ..."
"When I do not honor my raw material, reality becomes my enemy. I close my eyes and ears to all the indications that I am trying to pursue what I am not called or gifted to do. But underneath I am condemned to live in chronic, low-grade anxiety that whispers to me that I am tryingto be someone I'm not."
"If I have the courage to acknowledge my limits and embrace them, I can experience enormous freedom. If I lack this courage, I will be imprisoned by them... I have a few lmitations that are exceedingly painful to me. They involve dreams that I have carreid with me for as long as I can remember. Acknowledging those limitations has felt a lot like dying to me. It has sometimes left me wondering whether I have a true calling at all."
"What is your most painful limitation? What is the limitation that frightens you most to acknowledge and accept? Where do you most avoid seeing the deep truth about yourself?"
What do I enjoy doing for its own sake?
What do I avoid doing? Why?
For what do I wish to be remembered?
How might the offer of money or promotion sidetrack me from my true calling?
What would my life look like if it turned out well?
"Sometimes, in the providence of God, the end of career is the beginning of a calling."
Let Your Life SpeakPalmer writes about his own struggles with ambition and depression. One comment that resonated with me was his admission to having a "tendency to get so conflicted with the way people use power in institutions that I spend more time being angry at them than I spend on my real work" (p. 29). His advice? "We must withdraw the negative projections we make on people and situations-projections that serve mainly to mask our fears about ourselves-and acknowledge and embrace our own liabilities and limits" (p. 29).
My life is not only about my strengths and virtues, it is also about my liabilities and my limits, my trespasses and my shadow. An inevitable though often ignored dimension of the quest for "wholeness" is that we must embrace what we dislike or find shameful about ourselves as well as what we are confident and proud of.
The divided life comes in many and varied forms. To cite just a few examples, it is the life we lead when:
• We refuse to invest ourselves in our work, diminishing its quality and distancing ourselves from those it is meant to serve • We make our living at jobs that violate our basic values, even when survival does not absolutely demand it • We remain in settings or relationships that steadily kill off our spirit • We harbor secrets to achieve personal gain at the expense of other people • We hide our beliefs from those who disagree with us to avoid conflict, challenge, and change • We conceal our true identities for fear of being criticized, shunned, or attacked The divided life is a wounded life, and the soul keeps calling us to heal the wound. Ignore that call, and we find ourselves trying to numb our pain with an anesthetic of choice, be it substance abuse, overwork, consumerism, or mindless media noise.
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