Our culture has lost the art of conversation and debate and has instead gone to attack and demean.  Scripture calls us to use civil conversations, even in this sharply polarized world.  Let's listen to today's message on 2 Timothy 2:23-26.

During this season of shelter-in-place, more people are spending time on news, social media and instant messaging. Listen as Elder Jimmy Lee shares his experience and how we can easily get distracted from our true focus - our relationship with the Lord.

Using the book of Philemon, Dr. Hans Wilhelm teaches us why forgiveness is so central to our Christian walk.  Just as God forgives us, we are to forgive others. We are also reminded that if we do not forgive those who have wronged us, there are consequences that impact our relationship with others, and more importantly, with God.

Listen as Betty Chan talks passionately about her job as a math teacher and how blessed she feels to be hosting a new cohort of "strangers" each year.  Sharing one of her favorite verses from the book of Hebrews, Betty wonders if she has unwittingly showed "hospitality to angels" in her classroom. In true teacher-form, she enlists all her children, Bethany, Isabel, Lauren and Elijah, to participate in our first interview-style podcast.

Talents from God

Hi my name is Laynar, and I don't want to further elaborate who I am, just that I am a child of God, and I wish to share with you a little of what God has been doing in my life lately.

In these uncertain times, with COVID19 & the California fires, I am thankful knowing that I am His child. It really depresses me to see polluted skies, trees being burned to the ground, animals killed and their homes destroyed, people losing everything, people fighting people, people suffering, and people dying.

Without God, I am nothing really and I have nothing to offer, as what I have deep inside of me is pain. I have never stopped hurting and I have never stopped grieving my loss. The way I take control and live my life is to surrender all to Him. Whatever I can't handle and is beyond my control, I will throw it back to God, and let Him deal with it. Whatever God has given me to deal with, whenever possible, I deal using His Love, His Grace, His Peace and all of His Goodness. But I have to admit, I am very human, and I fail and make lots of mistakes.

In my daily walk with God, the Holy Spirit has taught and encouraged me every step of the way. It amazes me to see and know first hand that I'm being used by the Holy Spirit to be part of God's mission to reach out to the lost. I love it when God takes control of my life, especially what comes out from what I write. I know those words are not from me, but from Him. I have been led by the Holy Spirit to specific people, to speak and minister to them ... to show them who God is. The people never see my face, they only see the words I write. In the past pandemic months, three have come forward and acknowledged Christ as their Savior, and I thank and praise God for that. I know there are more and I patiently wait for God's timing to reach out to them.

I like to share something I wrote to a person who is suffering from depression. In this forum, he never mentioned his name, just some random letters put together. This is what I wrote.

I'm sorry that you are suffering so much pain. Praying for you and hope you feel better soon. I don't know what to do about migraines and back problems, as I am no doctor, but I do know what depression means.

Depression means de - press - ion .. "de-press" means 'not to press', 'letting go', like letting go of those helium balloons, letting them float and fly up towards the sky ... you just have to let go of the strings ... and there's a reason why depression ends with 'ion'  ... well, 'ion' stands for 'I Ouch Not', meaning you are no longer in pain. Great definition, eh?

I wrote more than this, but what I am trying to say is that I was amazed I wrote those words, for I know they are not from me, and I also know I needed these words in my life myself too.

Through the hard times, I have to say that His love, grace, mercy and provision have manifested in so many ways ... in every person I meet, in everything I see, and everywhere I go. Most important of all, His Words have brought me peace, strength, hope and encouragement.

One of my favorite God's Word is the Parable of the Talents found in Matthew 25:14-30. In the Parable of the Talents, the word 'talent' literally means the unit weight of silver or gold in Jesus' times. In this parable, the master gave his servants different amounts of talents, and each of them used what was given differently. To me, the use of the word 'talent' is more than 'gifts' or some say 'skills' given to us from our Master.

At first I took these talents as things or gifts that God has given me, like my hubby, my son, my indoor plants, which have been working super hard these days to help purify the air, my music, the money I have ... BUT these are NOT the gifts I think these talents mean.

Then I realized God wanted me to look at what can't be seen with our eyes, but what can be seen from our hearts: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control ... and so much more. Now, a gift only becomes a gift when you start giving it away. How much time I put into giving these gifts to the people around me will determine how my 'talents' will multiply. When I start giving time to develop patience by listening to others, start giving away love, kindness and goodness, helping others in need, committing my time to staying faithful in my marriage, to spread love, joy and peace to the people around me, and most important of all, to always spend time with Jesus, to walk with Him, talk with Him, and play with Him ... as His child. It is only in the recent years I have learned to do that.

The day will come when I have to be accountable to God, with what I have done with these 'talents' that He has given me.

Now, I love to share His blessings (talents) with you too ... the only way I know how to ... play and sing for Him and for you ... May The Lord Bless You ...

May the Lord bless you and keep you

May His love and His grace and His perfect peace

“Why Wait?” by Pastor Ron Chan

Our modern culture is averse to waiting. We have quick drive through meals for food. Same day shipping for our packages. Instacart for our groceries. On demand movies at the finger tips. All of this has conditioned us as a people that do not know how to wait. Just look at how sometimes you become frustrated when you wishes are not immediate granted. When “your wish is my command” is not the answer?  

But the theme of waiting is an important one in the bible. Abraham waited for God’s promise of God’s blessings to fulfill. The Israelites waited for 400 years for salvation in Egypt. They then had to wait 40 more years to go into the promised land. The Jewish people waited for the Messiah. Joseph and Mary waited for the birth of a special child. Our Lord Jesus waited 30 years to begin his ministry and waited the for the cross. The disciples waited after Jesus died to experience the resurrection. They then waiting for the Spirit to come at the Pentecost. We, as believers now, living in what theologians says the time of “already, but not yet”, we have experienced salvation, but complete salvation is yet to happened. We are waiting for the second coming of our Lord. So the bible is full of waiting.

And biblical waiting teaches us some important lessons. But perhaps one of the most important lesson is that waiting teaches us that we are not in control. We are finite creatures and God is indeed the creator. Psalms 130:6 “my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning.” The watchmen recognize his smallness in the dark of night. He, not matter how brave or powerful, cannot make morning come. So he waits in silence, trusting that the God of creation will bring light to dispel the dark of night. What are you waiting for right now? Waiting for new employment? Waiting for a vaccine? Waiting for things to get back to normal? Don’t be impatient, let the waiting form you so that you relinquish the desire for immediate gratification and for control. Instead let waiting form your character, so that you will have a deeper trust in God’s ultimate control.

One of the greatest joys of a parent or grand-parent is adoring a new baby. Similarly, as God's children, He delights in each one of us because he sees us as who he created us to be, before we were stained by sin.  Just as we love babies even though they are helpless and dependent on us, God loves us unconditionally in spite of our flaws and weaknesses. He loves us all the time, even when we feel that He is absent.

There are many Psalms of lament.  The psalmists talk about their suffering and grief, how they are in trouble and danger, and they ask God for help, for rescue and deliverance.  Almost all the lament psalms have some positive elements of expression of confidence in God and praises of Him.  And they often end in a positive note of renewed hope or rejoicing for what God has done.  But not Psalm 88.  Psalm 88 stands out among the lament psalms for its lack of hope, a seeming lack of God’s presence, and for the psalmist’s complaints that God is the source of his misery.  In this sermon, we’ll explore how we can be honest with God about our emotional darkness, keep our connection and commitment to God when in suffering, and face and emerge from darkness.   

Presenter: Michael Wong

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During shelter in place, I have been able to pick up a few books which I previously did not have the time for.  The one that I am reading right now is The Mortification of Sin by John Owen.  Shoutout to Owen Yau!  John Owen was one of the greatest Puritan theologians and like other Puritans, he taught passionately about the nature of sin and the destructiveness of sin.  There’s even a story that John Owen was so convicted of his sin that he could barely talk for 3 months.

Owen’s passion against sin is apparent in this book.  In it he clearly lays out the human condition with the words “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you”.  These words come with a sense of urgency as Owen pleads with us to be an active participant in our sanctification.  To not fight against the indwelling sin that even we as Christians have is to admit defeat and to surrender the battle, leading only to the death of our souls.  Even if we don’t realize it, sin is never stagnant, it always seeks to grow more and more.  It is our responsibility and duty as faithful followers of Christ to wage war against the sin that resides within us, the sin that our Father despises.

Abound has been growing through Romans and it is clear from the words of Paul that the rejection of sin is a key part to the new life that we have.  In Romans 6, it say “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin.”  We as people who were once children of wrath, have been adopted into the family of God and have been set free from that terrible thing called sin.  However, we know that until the Day of the Lord, we still have sin within us, trapped in a battle against our desires that never seems to end.  I have found that there are two harmful mindsets that one can fall into when they become tired of this battle. 

One, is the complete forgetfulness of the battle itself.  We forget that we are even waging war against sin and start to become more and more oblivious to it.  We either become so distracted by the things that surround us or our conscience become so seared that we lose the very ability to distinguish good from bad, especially when it comes to our own actions and thoughts.  This is a guaranteed sign of defeat in this fight against sin because how can someone win a war when they can’t see the enemy or refuse to pick up a weapon?

The second mindset is hopelessness.  We realize that we can never defeat this enemy that this enemy is always going to be with us until we die.  Therefore, we begin to view sin not as an enemy but as a roommate.  Sure, we may fight against our roommate sometimes but in the end, we always give it room.  This is directly contrary to the words in Galatians 13:14 says “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires”.  Although we know that we can never fully destroy sin in ourselves, we must never stop fighting it.  We must strive and contend for the faith, running the race with endurance.  We must seek to destroy sin completely and at all times.  Although the battle is long, it has assured victory because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

I believe that professing Christians in America need to hear these words.  In this country we take it for granted that we can freely practice our religion and that there will be no backlash to public declarations of faith.  Sure there might be some judgmental statements or questions of how could we actually believe in God, but our lives are not in danger because we proclaim to be Christian.  And I think that these conditions have made us lazy.  Our faith is not tested by persecution and we do not act contrary to culture.  We end up looking like the world and the world accepts us.  We can profess Christianity and live with the many comforts that America promises us.

I definitely have felt this laziness.  With so many distractions and with little emphasis on God’s holiness in our culture, it is easy to live my life with little regard for eternity.  It is easy to let each day pass me by while rarely thinking about the state of my soul.  In the past few months, shelter in place has only increased this laziness.  By God’s grace I can work from home but what that really means is that I can work from my bed.  I can wake up 5 minutes before my meeting, keep the camera off and attend these meetings all without putting on pants.  After my meeting I can then take a nap because, after all, I earned it after all my hard work from the morning.  Most days I don’t even get out of bed to eat until after noon.

After work it’s not much better.  I do get out of bed!  However the extent of my travels consist of moving to my desk so I can watch Netflix.  This lifestyle of having everything I may need within a 5 foot radius means I truly am never in want.  And when I have everything I need, my reliance on God is forgotten.

However, that is a false sense of security.  I may have every thing I need from a human point of view but sin is slowly overtaking me, getting a foothold in my heart.  When my love for the world grows, my love for God grows more cold.  These comforts are a blessing from God but serve as the devil’s tools when I forget the one who blessed me.  They only serve to distract me from the very present war that is within me.  As Owen has reminded me, we are at war with the flesh and when we forget that, sin only grows stronger.  Sin never rests and seeks the complete destruction of our soul.  But we in turn are called to not just fight it but to kill sin.  And we fight not by our own power but by the Spirit.

And because we fight through the Spirit, we can win.  Jesus has conquered the grave and freed us from both the power and dominion of sin.  I pray that in this time of isolation and comfort that we do not grow lazy or forget about the great battle that is raging inside of us. Instead let us strive to kill our sin, knowing with confidence that Jesus has promised final victory.  Let’s care about holiness and righteousness as people redeemed by Jesus.  And let us care about the state of our souls, to the praise and glory of God.  To repeat the words of John Owen, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”