Stuff That Matters In Life

In Bible Study Fellowship today, in the study of Isaiah 58-59, I had an insight.

Religious activities – fasting, praying and keeping the Sabbath were the context in Isaiah, can be a cover for the sins that we need to deal with in our heart.

“Religious people” run the risk of thinking that they are good enough, and fail to see the “respectable sins” of the heart.

Let’s say I am very involved in my church, teach Sunday School, go to prayer meeting, etc. It would be reasonable for me to think I am pleasing God. What if my church involvement makes me THINK I am pious such that if I have no concern for the poor, I don’t feel convicted. After all, I’m a “good” Christian, so not helping the poor doesn’t have to be a priority. I do enough as it is, I can’t be expected to help the poor too. Someone else can do that.

God won’t hear our religious prayers, if we don’t care about things that really count.

The safest investment is probably gold. IRA gold is a good long term investment. In today’s economy of the devalued dollar, gold will hold its value.

You can also invest in gold by rolling into a 401k gold account. I don’t know how that works, but I’m sure some expert investment company can help you.

You can buy gold coins, and store them in your safe deposit box, but I wonder how that would work as a gold IRA account. Gold as jewelry is practical; it’s an investment as well as usable, it’s not just sitting in a box.

I believe in investing in real estate also. Despite the ups and downs of the market, people still need a house to live in.

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I read this in my Bible Study Fellowship lesson on Isaiah this week:

God’s people were to live in the hope of His final outcome and in the confidence of His present faithfulness. … “My salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed” Isaiah 56:1.

I am learning to lean on God’s daily presence and faithfulness with me, even in the small challenges that I face in my little suburban life.

I pray throughout the day about things that come into my mind, and about immediate happenings as I encounter them, but if I don’t have a time where I simply sit and pray, I feel that something is missing. Praying while walking, praying while driving, praying while doing dishes, folding laundry, vacuuming, are all fine, but just sitting and praying should also be a part of my day.

I came into this book with high expectations. It’s a book by a New York Times best-selling author, and it’s a Christian fiction. Since I do not read much Christian fiction, I was really looking forward to a good read.

The Final Summit by Andy Andrews is not what I expected at all. It’s the story of David Ponder, an ordinary man given the quest to find the answer to humanity. Angel Gabriel tells him to come up with the two words that answers the question: What does humanity need to do, individually and collectively, to restore itself to the pathway toward successful civilization? In this quest, Ponder meets past great historical figures such as Winston Churchill, Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, and the like to help him find the correct answer. In the process, they discuss the various values that humanity depend on most to succeed.

Learning about the historical figures is certainly the biggest appeal of the book. One person in particular, Eric Erickson, is someone I had never heard of but is said to have hastened the end of WWII. It’s sort of a “Night at the Museum” where historical figures come alive and talk to each other about the world in which they lived.

However, the premise of the story to find two words that will save humanity is rather silly. Since Gabriel already had the answer to the question, what’s the point of having Ponder trying to guess them? There is just a lot of dialogue and discussion about what the answer may be, but there’s no action that I would expect of a story about a “quest” with time travel involved. The writing I estimate to be about a 4th-6th grade level, so maybe it’s a book more appropriate for a younger age. This book is more like an allegory or inspirational book to gain insight into living with strong values.

Disclosure:  Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for this review. Opinions are entirely my own.

1. Mouth sores – I get them all the time. Have one right on the tip of my tongue right now.

2. Rotten food in the refrigerator that I can’t locate. – The frige smells every time I open it, but I can’t find what the culprit is.

3.Post nasal drip. – I have allergies year-round and post nasal drip is a way of life with me.

4. AT&T dead zones. – Everyone can relate.

5. Waking up early when I can sleep in. – Like Spring break this week, I’m trying to sleep in, but the biological clock is too strong.

6. Having to adjust to waking up early. – By the end of the end, I’ll probably be adjusted to sleeping in, and then it’s time to readjust to waking up early again.

Thoughts for today:

Nothing is a surprise to God – that’s right, He’s never had a surprise party….

Unlike God, we are often taken by surprise when things don’t turn out the way we planned. We have hopes that things might be a certain way, or that things should be a certain way.

But to God, everything is fine, the way He ordains it. I can’t wrap my mind around that. There are too many variables, how can He has it all in control? Well, that’s why He’s God, duh!

I learned this week that when things do not turn out as we expect, God is steering us towards something that we ourselves would not have chosen, or maybe would not even have thought of.  The detour sign is taking us down another road, the road that we in fact should be taking. So actually, calling it a detour is our perspective, but to God, it’s simply “follow the arrow” sign to move forward.

What’s the difference between a jeweler and a jailer?

One sells watches, one watches cells 🙂

What kind of car does Luke Skywalker drive?

A Toy-Yoda

While visiting my father at the assisted living facility today, we saw the son of one of the residents. He said his father moved out because he had to be hospitalized. The father is 93 years old.

That’s life, isn’t it? No matter how well you live, how long you live, death will catch up to you. We move down one step at a time, from assisted living, to hospital, to … the final resting place.

In a testimony I heard last weekend, the speaker said that while people complain about God being unfair, God is fair about two things – whether you are rich or poor, young or old, in any country in the world, we all have 24 hours in a day, and we will all die.

I want to maximize my time. Each day, each hour, is moving me closer to the next step down …

I was inspired by our speaker at church on Sunday to reflect on every day and write one sentence. I’m too verbose to keep it to one sentence, but this takes the pressure off of having to write a full length post everyday.

Today’s reflection: I attended a gathering of Asian English ministry leaders. I remember attending this type of meeting about 25 years ago when I was seminary, and how awkward and intimidated I felt. Today, this type of meeting is probably the easiest type of thing I do. It’s no big deal for me to stand up and speak in front of this type of Christian setting. For this I am thankful that I am “older” and have the confidence that I lacked when I was younger. There are not too many benefits of being old, but this is one of them.

Don’t let the cover and the size of this book fool you.

The Story of the Bible by Larry Stone is a beautiful over-sized hardback book that sits like a coffetable book but it is not just for looks. Flipping through it you may think it contains dry historical museum types of information.

But in fact, this book reads like a paperback, explaining in plain layman language, the entire history of the Bible. It comprehensively covers from the beginning of how the Old Testament was transmitted through oral tradition, to how and why it was translated to Aramaic, all the way to the persecution of the Christians in the 1st century, the reformation, and how the Bible came to be translated to modern languages today. And it’s not just about the Bible. I learned so much about Christianity, about the story of the Jews, the apostles, early church fathers, the Roman Catholic church, and much more.

The illustrations in the book are beautiful works of art, but the best part of the book are the 23 life-sized pull out pages of copies of Bible manuscripts and Bible pages from old printings. For example, a page of the Great Isaiah Scroll, Genesis 1 from the Latin Vulgate Bible, a page from the Geneva Bible first chapter of Ephesians, this is stuff you don’t normally get to see up close.

This is an excellent book as a resource. Use it to teach Sunday School, and to answer questions such as, “How do we know the Bible we have today is reliable?” It’s the best book about the Bible I have ever read.

Disclosure:  Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for this review. Opinions are entirely my own.

My daughter thinks trying to decide what classes to take in high school is hard enough. Then she’s got to decide her major in college. These decisions determine the course of her life.

But as I advise my daughter about her academic path, I told her that in the end, it doesn’t really matter. She’s got her whole life in front on her to change her course.

It is certainly not uncommon for, say, an engineer to later decide to go to law school. Or a teacher to decide to be a stay at home dad. Or a paralegal to become a real estate agent, or a hospital planner to become a business owner. I know all these people and more who has changed their career.

When you are young, you have time in front of you to change the course of your life.

When I was younger, I changed my work a couple of times. But when I get older, there’s not much time left to make multiple changes.

A missionary I know wrote, “I am 57 years old. I expect that I have one more opportunity for “building” left in me; that is, one more decade of service (at least at this level of energy!). Given the “costs” of an international move, financially as well as emotionally and physically, if we are going to change this is the approximate time frame. Otherwise, wisdom would dictate remaining (where we are) until retirement.”

I feel the same way. I’m not quite that age, but making my way there soon.

I think I have one more opportunity left in me or wisdom dictates I remain where I am.

What change do I want to make? Do I want to make an international move? What kind of “kingdom” building work can I do for the next 10 years?

On Saturday, a friend shared her favorite verse – Isaiah 41:10.

She said she did not know that verse, but she heard God speak to her in similar words when she was feeling overwhelmed and distressed about her job. When she got home and told her husband, he showed her Isaiah 41:10 – almost the exact words that came to her when she was driving home.

Recently I’ve been inspired to memorize verses. This is a discipline that I have not attempted for a while.

So I decided, after hearing from my friend on Saturday, to start with Isaiah 41:10. It’s a familiar verse, but I’ve never memorized it in full.

“So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

I wrote those words on a Post It note, and put it on my mirror. I did this because that’s what people say you’re suppose to do to memorize verses.

But something else happened that I did not expect.

To my surprise, when I look at that verse on the mirror, I felt immediately encouraged and comforted. Each time I look at it, God spoke to me. “Do not fear, for I am with your, I am your God, I will help you, I will uphold you.”

There is nothing weird about God speaking to you. He speaks in various ways by various means.

God spoke to me in that verse as I memorized it, and He spoke the same verse to my friend without her memorizing it.

After talking to some friends about finding friends for support, it got me thinking about my journey of friendships through life stages.

It’s easier to have friends when you are single, in college. Everyone you see daily are in the same stage of life, with similar issues, and it’s easy to find people who understand you, a meeting of the minds. As a Christian, I naturally gravitated towards finding friends for support in a Christian fellowship group.

After college, single and working, it’s still relatively easy to find support from friends. Everyone is basically on the same schedule – I had friends from church and we hung out after work, no homework to do, our weekends were relatively flexible. We liked going out, doing things, and in the course of playing tennis, miniature golf, rollerskating, skiing and going to the beach together, we had many occasions to talk and support one another. We used to get together to cook. One of the guys was and still is a fantastic cook.

But after marriage, it was a totally different experience.

In our church fellowship group, there were some married and some who were still single. We still hung out, but there was a difference. I think that being married, my husband and I didn’t have as much a need to go out and do things as we did when we were single. We were content to be with each other, there was always stuff to do at home. There was a sense of having a family and being settled, even though we didn’t have kids yet. When we were single, we sought opportunities to go out, but being married, we didn’t make the effort. If the occasion is there, we’d go out with friends, but if not, we had each other. As there were fewer get-togethers with friends, there was less and less support from them.

Where did we find our social support as a couple? Well, we didn’t. Not in the sense of having a group of close friends who were couples like us. A few married couples we knew moved away. There were church friends that we knew we can count on. We got together with them occasionally, we saw them at church, and we talked. Most of the time, it was chit chat, but through that, we knew if there was a crisis, they would be there for us. And maybe that type of friendship was enough to satisfy our needs.

I think finding friendship as a couple is a tricky thing. It requires that both the husband and wife has to feel comfortable with the other husband and wife. There are too many variables to align.

On the other hand, each having a friend of the same gender to talk to is more doable. I had girlfriends that I talked to that helped me tremendously during times of trials. However, I would have to say that while I found support with them, they were not necessarily my best friends.

It was not until I had children that I made better friends.

A few friends and I met up weekly with our little ones as a way to get out of the house, and to form a play group for our children. We all share the same values. We were committed to stay at home with our children, though most of us worked part time. We had conservative Christian values. We all strive to hold Jesus in the center of our lives. We attended different churches, and that added a little diversity to the group. This group formed organically.

One more thing, probably the most important thing – we were all pretty desperate to find friends when we were new moms. So we made it a priority, not an option, to meet up.

Another note of interest – We had a couples fellowship group at our church for a time. While it was a good to get together with other couples, we weren’t a tight group with whom I would open up freely.  But again they were friends I could depend on in a crisis, which is a good thing.

As I look back, here is what I learned:

– Good friends are hard to come by.

– But it doesn’t mean you can’t find friends who can give you love and support.

– One or 2 friends are all we truly need.

– God brings people into our lives, some will be lifelong friends, and some will not.

– Being married makes it hard to make friends. It’s easier to find separate friends. And that’s ok.

– It takes initiative to have friends, and a real desire and willingness to share of yourself. Otherwise, friendship do not just happen.

– Friends do not have to be in the same stage of life to give each other support. I am blessed to have friends who are younger who gives me much encouragement.

Recently, I took the initiative to ask a friend to walk and pray with me once a week. This friend is someone I’ve known, we talk on occasion, but we’ve never made a point to get together before. When I asked her to meet with me, it was a risk. I didn’t know what she thought of me, but it turned out she was happy to pray with me regularly. I think it’s been a year since we started praying together.

I count myself fortunate to have many friends in my life. Not all are on the same level of closeness, but all have contributed greatly to the quality of my life. Thank you to you all.

–

I’ve been attending a small church for the last 20 years. Everyone in a small church has to wear several hats, and I had taken on some leadership roles. I don’t think I’m gifted as a leader. I’ve always seen myself as a teacher and discipler. But since there are many needs in a small church, I do whatever needs to be done.

I think serving at church is my way of helping the church.

But it dawned on me that it’s not that way at all. God is not saying, “That church needs a VBS director. Katy, why don’t you do it to help them out?”

I think it’s more like God saying, “I think Katy would really have fun planning a program for kids. I think I’ll put her in a small church and let her be the VBS director there, so she can have some fun.”

While I think of serving at church as a way to fill a need, God’s perspective is that he knew in advance where to put me so that I can have a place to do the work that he’s prepared for me to do.

This year, my husband is in a leadership position at the church. It may seem like he happens to be available to fill this position but in fact, I think God has prepared this for him in advance, knowing that this experience will be a blessing  to both himself and to the church.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

God’s sovereignty is beyond our comprehension. I can rest in knowing that I am doing the work that God has prepared for me to do.

Thank you, God, for knowing what I need, and putting me in a place where I’m needed.

Same Life, New Story by Jan Silvious has the subtitle “Change Your Perspective to Change Your Life”. It is indeed a good book for women who are going through difficult circumstances and need encouragement to change. The book is also said to be a Bible study. But it’s not a study guide as I expected. It’s more just a book with discussion questions.

There are 10 chapters, each based on a woman in the Bible, and the characteristic she displayed in overcoming an obstacle and choosing a better way. Each theme of the chapter is illustrated by many stories of contemporary women facing a problem, usually a problem of her past. The Bible woman is an illustration of how we can rewrite our story to live a better life.

After each chapter, there are personal reflection questions and group discussion questions. There is also a journal prompt to have you write down the action you will take to change.

The book is very readable with some good insights, but I wouldn’t use it as a Bible study.

Disclosure:  Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for this review. Opinions are entirely my own.

Another book given to me by B for my birthday. She warned me it’s a tear jerker, and it is. I cried at several parts of the book.

Same Kind of Different As Me is a true story of the friendship between Ron and Deborah Hall, an affluent white couple, and Denver Moore, a rough, homeless black man. I am glad it made it on the New York Times Bestseller list; I hope lots of people read it and get inspired by the message in the book.

The message is not just about friendship and love – you know, all that good stuff. But the gospel message is there, about human sin, redemption, forgiveness, and the realities of life here on earth. Real life does not always end with happily ever after, but God has a purpose for all that happens, true for the Halls and true for us.

Ron Hall started with a careless and pompous attitude towards the homeless. He said he was acting much like Henry Higgins. But Denver Moore changed his life.

I am convicted that I don’t often look past the exterior of the needy. This book allowed me to see that they are in fact a “same kind of different as me.”

Josephine Tey, the pen name of Elizabeth Mackintosh, is a contemporary of Agatha Christie. I’ve been trying to request her books from the library, but it seems not many of her books are in print. The first time I requested a book by Tey, it arrived in Chinese! That was interesting.

A Shilling for Candles is a whodunnit type of mystery. I like the way it’s written, good character development, believable plot, and a satisfying ending. But I did guess who the killer was, without reading the ending first.

Tey is not as good as Christie, but, hey, of course no one can match the Dame. The book was entertaining enough that I will request another of her books again, not in Chinese please.

I am not a good housekeeper. I suppose I could clean my house, but I don’t have a natural knack for it. I have a couple of my friends who keep an immaculate house. You can drop by their house unannounced and their house looks as if they’ve been cleaning for days, all ready for company.

Within the last few years, God has given me the opportunity to open our house for people from our church to come over. I feel so blessed that God allows me this opportunity even though I don’t deserve it. My house is not nice and clean and pretty that anyone would want to come, yet, I am given the privilege of having laughter and noise of friends here.

I am pretty sure that if I attend a big church, our house would not be used as a meeting place because there would be other families who have nicer houses.

This is a picture of how God gives each of us gifts and places each of us in the Body of Christ to use that gift. The opportunity that I have to practice hospitality despite my unattractive home is really a picture of how God can use anyone, our deficiencies and all. Therefore, serving God by using whatever we have is a privilege, not a burden.

This also reminds me that small churches that remain small are not necessarily “unsuccessful”. The goal of a church is not to be a big church. The goal of a church is to use our gifts to serve one another. I am blessed that God placed me in a small church so I can experience the blessings of hospitality when I otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.

My friend B gave me this book for my birthday on Tuesday. I finished reading it today. That tells you how engaging this book is. In fact, I even set aside my mystery novel to read this book.

I’ve heard of 90 Minutes in Heaven and have seen it as a New York Bestseller in the bookstores, but I thought it’s another one of those NDE (near death experience) stories about seeing a light at the end of the tunnel which I am not interested in.

But Piper’s book is different. He only spends about 2 chapters on his experience in heaven, and the rest of the book is about his struggles with being back on earth after the accident that killed him. A Baptist pastor, Piper is honest with his struggles of doubt, of pain, and of depression. The book is very inspirational, especially for those who are going through health problems and loss. He gives no glib answers, but he himself has lived through long term excruciating pain and shares how God worked in his life.

The fact that Don Piper is a Baptist minister makes me believe his account of his 90 minutes in heaven. Also he said it took two years before he told anyone of his experience because it was a private experience he didn’t want to share. It took him another 15 years to write a book about it. That tells me that he didn’t make up a sensational story to make money. He is also very clear about his belief in Jesus, so his experience is not just a “spiritual” experience but a Christian one.

Thanks, B for giving me this book. I liked it a lot.