就是不爽怎么有这样的人一而再、再而三莫名其妙地伤害我心爱的男人。

其实是蛮生气的，如果当面遇到这个人，我还真不知道自己会做出什么事。

可当我的爱，用他那伤感、无奈的眼神对我微微一笑时，我忽然也觉得很无力。

为什么这个人会变成这样？当有人这样对待我们的时候，该要关注多少呢？

是完全当他是在乱吠而置之不理，还是全部挂在心上而把自己打得伤痕累累呢？

我是很倾向前者的，因为那是保护我的爱，最好的办法。

可是神放在我们心里的爱，不就是要把我们的石心变成肉心吗？

当我们选择去爱人，我们其实就是敞开自己的心，而被伤害的机会也就更大了。

就如基督耶稣在爱我们的同时，已经知道自己将被长钉刺穿、背负上古今所有的罪，而和祂至亲至爱从未分离过的天父暂时地隔绝。

那样的痛，我们可能永远都无法理解。但祂选择让自己被祂所爱的人们伤害，从而给他们新的机会来和创造他们的主和好。

该如何爱这个人才好？

或许，当我的爱正在学习去爱这个不可爱的人的时候，我应该沉默，然后忍住心中的疼痛来为他擦拭伤口。

祷告、陪伴、我的爱，这是我能给你，仅有的东西。

Written by William 

Hello one and all, I feel fortunate to be able to communicate with you on this platform so here goes! This article may not be as articulate or may not flow as well as some other articles you have read from me, but this is really what the Holy Spirit is stirring within my heart at present, so here goes! 

The title of this article may use a term that you are not familiar with a “community centre” which is a very British term for a building, in which the local council, city authority or local government own for lease back to the community for special events, parties and the like. 

Unfortunately, in both the UK and the US, many churches have become that also, the world out large really only interacts with them when they wish to hire facilities from them, this is a sign of an ineffectual church! 

Now, please do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with churches maximising revenues by hiring out buildings and the like, my wife hires out a building for a choir she teaches! But if that is the churches only involvement with the community, it seriously needs to re-think its outreach strategy! 

This in turn leads to an issue that we see in many “healthy” American churches, they get distracted by the “facilities obsession” the churches that have no building of their own, there is an overwhelming desire to get one, the ones that do, want to move to have a bigger facility, and the ones who have land near their existing facility, want to extend it! 

Now if this is done with pure motives to do the work of the LORD, and done with a prayerful approach, then I commend these brothers for wishing to have this enhancement to their ministry, if it is being done to be boastful, or to set the church up for “sheep stealing” or to jut be able to say, “we have a sanctuary that holds xxx” then you would be as well not doing it. 

I tend to take my lead from the good and bad things the early church was doing, there is no stories of “campus extensions” of “building works ministries” or any of the distractions we have today. They kept it simple, they met in folk’s houses, the ones who had more, they gave, and then they started a real community. 

Here is what I think, the church, as in the people and not the buildings should really get back to that community idea. Now community is a real “Christian buzz word” and as much as I do not try to appear trendy, this time, I appear to be on the money! 

What we need is a koinonia mindset, now koinonia is a Greek word that is associated with the first church, they were truly a community, in many ways they were like many modern day missions churches.

The reason I talk about missions churches is that when I was serving at Calvary Chapel Glasgow, that was something that attracted the wretched sinner off the street and back into the church, that wretched sinner was me and the church was one of love, of community, of true respect and regardless of your walk with Christ, you were welcomed in, trusted immediately and made feel as if you were one of the family. 

That situation is not commonplace; you won’t see in many churches the Pastors wife cooking all day on a Saturday to ensure the church as a whole eats lunch on a Sunday! You will not always see such humility, that you will see in that pastor, you will not see the good counsel, the exhortation and the correction delivered in such a loving manner. 

The argument I hear most often when I discuss this with American believers (who quite often belong to disconnected churches) is that the “fellowship has grown too large to know everyone! That may be true, but that also means we need to try harder, seeing folks from church is not just a Sunday pursuit, most folks will be happy to know someone cares enough to give them a call or send them a card! 

Which leads me to my last point, churches really should not be disconnected, you should be able to go up to anyone in your fellowship and have a loving talk with them, we are reminded often times to “love one another” what could be more loving that live interaction! Try it, you may find a new love for that person! 

I know I have went on a bit and I pray this finds you well 

God bless

William

In a short while I’m going to pack up, leave the school library and go home for some nice nice homey soups

This day has been a blessed day indeed~

Lovely breakfast in the morning with dear at Pasir Ris, went to NEWater Visitor Center at Bedok with Rich who came all the way from Taiwan (and flew back in the afternoon) and research in the school library for the rest of the day till now.

Finally finished combing through the materials I had intended to look through, which leaves tomorrow and Monday to do the full write-up. I should have been panicking, but somehow there’s a quiet assurance in me that tells me that it’ll be okay. So thumbing through the tedious Chinese local history records became rather therapeutic instead. (note: Green tea helps A LOT in keeping the brain freshly awake)

Onward to homeeeee~ Daddy and Mommy here I come ♥

1 Corinthians 13:4-8,13
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. …
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
—

I remember when I was a child, there was a one-panel comic in the newspapers called “Love is.” The comic was like “Family Circus” for the “flower children,” an outgrowth of the generation that grew up talking and singing about “peace and love.” Each day there would be these two figures – typically a little boy and girl, nude as if in the Garden of Eden – and they would illustrate some quality or expression of romantic love. The comic strip still exists today, and the ideas are cute and somewhat timeless: Love is being real corny, Love is 24/7, Love is patient. Every day, we get a little reminder of what romantic love is.

Today’s Scripture selection from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is one of the most quoted passages in the whole Bible. Millions of people every year mention those verses or hear them, have them hanging on a wall in their home, or even have a cross or a picture frame in the office with those words on it. And like that little comic, people look at those verses as a guidepost to romantic love. This passage is read nearly every day at weddings all around the world, as if to remind us all about how a husband and wife ought to behave in their romantic love for each other. But there’s a problem with that: Paul isn’t talking about romantic love!

This whole chapter of First Corinthians is talking about love in the context of the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the word Paul uses for “love” is not the “eros” of romantic love but the “agape” of divine love. Yes, by all means, we SHOULD love our spouses and our children with the same love we feel for God and our fellow man, but we should never narrow this passage down to just romantic or familial love.

Note that in defining this “agape” love, Paul speaks a lot about what love is not:

• Love does NOT envy
• Love does NOT parade itself
• Love is NOT puffed up, etc.

Why does Paul do this? Why use negatives to define something so positive? Because Paul is trying to guide his readers away from the kind of love and fellowship they thought they knew. Paul is directing them away from romantic love and toward a mature love for God.

• Love for God does not envy
• Love for God does not parade itself
• Love for God is not puffed up
• Love for God does not behave rudely
• Love for God does not seek its own
• Love for God is not provoked
• Love for God thinks no evil
• Love for God does not rejoice in iniquity

Get the idea? When we exercise the gifts of the Spirit – e.g. prophecy, healing, knowledge, and even faith – then we need to do these things with a quality of love like we have never known before. Where in a romantic relationship, we might be jealous of others who love our spouse, in “agape” we should INVITE others to love God as we do. Where in a romantic relationship, we might get angry at someone for mistreating our spouse or react badly to criticism of our relationship, in “agape” we rejoice in truth and should always keep our eyes upon our beloved God, knowing that He is the righteous judge, that He alone bestows vengeance and recompense for wrongs against Him.

Furthermore, Paul is telling us this: Love for God never fails. “Agape” love endures while all other forms of love will fail! “Agape” love is the one thing that we have now that will still be around even at the end of time. When Christ returns and Satan is cast down once and for all, when the New Jerusalem descends upon the New Earth, then our faith and our hope in Christ will become reality and will no longer be needed. But LOVE – that boundless and powerful “agape” love between God and man – will endure forever. THAT love is the conduit for God’s power in our lives. Where hope is the anchor that keeps us firmly fixed upon God, love is the chain between God and us. Where prophecy tells us a little about God, we know with complete certainty that God is love. Where healings hint at God’s power, love reveals God to us His full majesty and grace. Where faith is the substance of things hoped for, love is the present manifestation of that for which we hope. Where in my lifetime I may express God’s love in my humble way for a few individuals, God expresses His love for us in sending His only Son to die for all of us so that we might live.

So before we get too caught up in using Scripture to define love in our relationships with friends and family, let us remember that our first love is God. Our love for God needs to be all these things Paul writes for us and much more. Our love for God needs to be so strong that it “suffers long” and will endure through all things, never failing, just as nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Loving Father, I thank You for the love you have shown and shared with all of us. You alone can love us so powerfully and so purely. I pray, Lord God, that I might reflect that love, that the quality of my love for You would be as humble, gracious, holy, and unending as Your love for me. Amen.

I’ve surrendered to the ocean of love. Lying in the morning sunlight beneath white sheets reading the ecstatic poetry of Rumi.

Two days, and I am a different person. Except no, I am more fully me.

I’ve cried so many times in two days. Not wept, but just sat, moved and awed. Speechless.
The love of friends. The heart breaking beauty of acoustic guitar and Portuguese lyrics for a room of people gathered after a meal. The ecstasy of touching the divine in the face of the Beloved.

Forgive me, I’ve been reading Rumi all morning on the heels of the rapture of new love…
I’m hesitant to speak of it. And even more hesitant to write about it. He is not just a list of “Pros.” His face is love, his chest a warm blanket. Our conversation a deep muscle massage for my spirit.

I asked for this, but I didn’t dare hope for it to actually arrive!

He is open. He is love. We are, together, love. It illuminates every word, every touch.
Incendiary. Contagious. Joyful. Ecstatic.

I make no bold claims, although I am tempted.

…Okay, maybe one: in these two days, for the first time I thanked Olodumare, the Supreme God. I felt It like a sunbeam warming my skin. Joy bubbles up from inside and is obvious even through the phone, it seems! I can’t hide this from the people who love me. I am shy with it.
“This, too, is sacred.”*

The silence and the torrent of words. The stillness and the pressing, the kissing, the exploring. The patience. The sense of awe. The presence of the divine.

*Jacqueline Carey

The Need for God’s Love in our Marriage

If I sing “I Love You’s” with the voice of an angel and yet do not possess God’s love for my spouse, I am just an irritating hanger clanging on the closet door.

If I can capture the eyes of my spouse with mine, and know their deepest heart’s desires, and shower them with mountains of wealth and luxury, but possess not God’s love in my heart, I am just a vanishing vapor.

If I give everything I have to my spouse and even sacrifice my life for them, and yet I possess not the very Love of God, I have accomplished nothing.

A Pledge of Active Loving for TotallyMarried Couples

I will always react to hurt with a slow boil,
I will always be reaching out in kindness and showing favors,
I will always share and rejoice in the experiences of my spouse,
I will always seek to honor and give to my spouse,
I will always relate with humility and modesty,
I will always be orderly and controlled and comely (attractive),
I will always seek to serve my spouse without expectations,
I will always be emotionally involved with my spouse without being overly “touchy”,
I will always think good of my spouse and will vaporize any hurts and unkindness,
I will never think or speak of the wrongs of my spouse, especially to others,
I will courageously embrace truthfulness and honesty with my spouse,
I will always bear my spouses irritations and failures and will always cover them with God’s forgiving love,
I will always believe the best of my spouse,
I will never cease to hope for God’s best in our marriage,
I will actively stand against any attacks or failings that threaten our love,
I will actively love my spouse forever!

Based on 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, the greatest and most concise discourse on LOVE ever written.

Hip hip hooray to our Lord!

He has helped us all survive this crazy day

It was uplifting to see our young people put in heart soul and effort into something for the Lord and have fun at the same time~

I braced myself to get really stressed up today, but things just eased through! The Lord is good

Tired, but yay!

He loves us and helps us learn to love each other!

I don’t know why this popped into my head, but here are a couple of companies I’ve come across in the past few months. Maybe it’s because Thanksgiving is tomorrow and many of us have a lot to be thankful for (not to sound cliche or anything…) These guys are freakin’ awesome and literally give back to the community. Funny how it’s always the smaller guy who finds a way rather than the big companies, eh?

Hello and welcome one and all to you, the person who has sought out our wee place on the internet. In case you are a wee bit mystified by this all, let me explain in the next few sentences what this website is about. 

We are a Bible study that meets on Monday evenings (beginning on December 7th 2009) at Cappella Coffee House which is located at 132 N E St in downtown Exeter. We have been meeting since August 2008 in my family home, but after much prayer, we decided to change venue and night of meeting.  

This page you are reading, although entitled the “home page” will be our home page for articles, blogs and hopefully inspirational thoughts from William and Chelsea. 

The website really comes in two parts, this page and the other pages which all have an individual purpose to give you relevant information about this Bible study. 

The purpose of the website is to promote the Bible study and hopefully getting people to pray that it has a powerful impact in the community of Exeter for Jesus Christ. (And all surrounding towns, if the LORD wills!) 

I truly want to thank you for reading thus far and I pray that God richly blesses you today, please do not forget to pray for us! 

William & Chelsea Mc Cafferty

I had thought about going through the tired routine of defining the various Greek words for love.  However, after much contemplation, I have decided to spare you.  Yes, I am a benevolent ruler.  You may kiss my feet at any time.

It turns out that the various Greek words for love in the New Testament (eros, agape, philia,storge) can change in meaning based on the context in which they are used.  This shouldn’t surprise us.  Isn’t this true for English?  “Did you see the football game Sunday?  The other team was murdered!”   “I’m afraid I murdered the cake.  I used a cup of salt instead of sugar.” “The six o’clock news is doing a special on the mayor who was murdered by his wife.”  Words constantly take on new meaning.  Constantly.

Just look at how much English has changed in the past 200 years.  Have you taken a look at the Declaration of Independence lately?  Think about it.  Greek culture began to flourish around 800 BC and enjoyed its Golden Era around 400 BC.  Rome began to assert its influence around 100 BC, and then the authors of the New Testament began writing 150 years later, 50-80 AD.  Notice that this covers over 800 years.  And all this time, Mediteranean society (with its smorgasbord of languages) was mingling and meshing.  Here is the point.  Trying to find out the meaning of a word based on its etymology (the study of its origin) is fairly useless without primarily considering context.  Context is everything.  That goes for reading this blog as well as Scripture.

Very interesting!  The Septuagint (the Old Testament translated before Christ’s birth from Hebrew to Greek) should be expected to use the various Greek words for love depending on their context if the words themselves were heavily loaded with meaning.  However, a quick glance at the Septuagint tells us quickly that this is not so.  This is more evidence that the word which is used is less important to construct meaning than the context in which it resides.

For further reading:

http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1973/v29-4-article2.htm

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~moorea@ozemail.com.au/agape_definition.html

http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/test-archives/html4/1998-10/27956.html

http://randrfellowship.blogspot.com/2008/01/agape-and-porneia.html

http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Agape

Dear is a verger magnet, LOL…

We were just sitting there and the vergers just kept coming over to talk to him (they take turns!). Thanks to dear I got to see the really nice sides of our usually-serious (sometimes very fierce) vergers I also got to remember their names~ I used to be really scared of them, but dear reminded me that they are just doing their jobs and shared how he and Px made deliberate attempts to bridge relationships with the vergers by making their jobs easier and cooperating with them.

Which is why I now shoo the Musical people out of rehearsal areas at 9.30pm sharp so that when the vergers come around they don’t have to wait for us or force us out of the room. Indeed things have been much better and I am very happy that I can wave hello to them every time I see them in church (and not lower my head and avoid their eyes).

(As a side note, dear, we distract each other from work too much. I’ll have to control myself and not just interrupt you with the random ideas that bomb me )

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Skraj?

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Vilken power han har, Jonas Gardell!

Såg nyss “Debatt” på TV där första delen handlade om att Jonas Gardell blivit nekad att filma och kommentera inuti Peterskyrkan i Vatikanen.

Gardell håller på med en TV-serie som kommer att börja sändas i vår. “Åh, Herregud!” är namnet, och den ska handla om tro och vad jag förstår bygger den på hans båda böcker “Om Gud” och “Om Jesus”.

Ett av inslagen ska handla om just Peterskyrkan, och Gardell hade fått tillstånd att filma och allt var klart. Men plötsligt fick han veta att han inte var välkommen.

Och sen råder det delade meningar om orsaken. En del hävdar att det bara handlar om att man inte får filma och samtidigt kommentera inuti Peterskyrkan, en del hävdar att det är Gardell och hans kontroversiella uttalanden om Jesus som är orsaken.

Jag vet ju vad jag tror.

Handlar det bara om det förstnämnda, så går väl det att kringgå genom att lägga på speakertext i efterhand. Så troligast är väl att Gardell är obekväm som vågar ifrågasätta det vedertagna.

En av frågorna i boken “Om Jesus” är varför vår trosbekännelse hoppar över hela Jesu gärning.

“…Vi tror ock på Jesus Kristus,
hans enfödde Son, vår Herre,
vilken är avlad av den helige Ande,
född av jungfrun Maria,
pinad under Pontius Pilatus,
korsfäst, död och begraven…”

Men allt som Jesus GJORDE då? Varför nämner man inte det?

Jag tror på en Jesus som engagerade sig, som ville att vi skulle agera om vi kunde. Ta ställning, protestera, kämpa för rättvisa och framför allt vara kärleksfulla emot varandra.

“Is God a three letter word for love?” sjunger man i en vacker sång av Duke Ellington.

Ja så tror jag att det är. Gud är inget objekt, utan helt enkelt det som uppstår när vi öppnar våra hjärtan och sinnen och känner gemenskap med varandra och älskar och respekterar oss själva och hela skapelsen.

Agape.

Daemon.

“Ubi Caritas et Amor, Deus ibi est” sjunger vi ibland. “Varhelst det finns omtanke och kärlek, där finns också Gud”.

Och om katolska kyrkan kan jag inte uttala mig så särskilt mycket egentligen, mer än att jag bevistat ett par mässor och slogs av att jag inte var välkommen att ta nattvarden. Denna är endast förbehållen “äkta” katoliker.

Undrar vad Jesus hade sagt om det.

I min protestantiska evangeliska kyrka så kommer både hinduer, buddhister, muslimer och kristna med glädje och tar del av brödet och vinet varje söndag. Man öppnar dörrar.

För som Mamadou Sene, en muslimsk artist och tillika bekant en gång sa; “Vi har alla samma mål, men olika vägar att nå dit”.

Mamadou

Jonas Gardell fick in en underbar replik i debatten i alla fall. “När påven Benedictus är död och blivit kanoniserad, då kommer säkert det här att jag blivit nekad att filma att framstå som hans enda mirakel!”.

Jonas, aldrig ska jag sluta älska dig!

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I’ve got your picture, I’ve got your picture
I’d like a million of them all ’round myself
I want a doctor to take your picture
So I can look at you from inside as well
You’ve got me turning up I’m turning down
I’m turning in I’m turning ’round

I’m turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
Turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
I’m turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
Turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so

The Vapors, Turning Japanese

In the ongoing discussion with Vera a few more things have occurred to me (thanks Vera!)

Agriculture… Horticulture… Cultivation… whatever really does not matter. Sure, it is good for communication to be using terms that everyone understands in the same way (which was the originally premise of the other article), but the simple fact remains that for every rule there is an exception. So no matter the means of subsistence, the true, key factor isn’t a factor at all. It’s the total system.

I questioned, in our discussion, whether Egyptian agriculture was, in fact, agriculture at all by the terms of diminishing returns. And now that I really think about that, it may honestly be a valid question. But there is no question, whatsoever, that the Egyptians were civilized and subject to all of the issues of sustainability that are at the core of the discussion. Alternately, there is no question that the salmon based northwestern US tribes were foragers, yet they had the population and population dynamics (emergent hierarchy etc) that would be classified as a chiefdom and therefore, perhaps well on its way to becoming civilized. We’ll never know if their limitations were sufficient to prevent such a thing from happening, because Europeans stepped in and did what colonizers always do.

So if there is no one thing that can be pointed to as a baseline, where does that leave us?

I’m going to attempt to draw a correlation here, and we’ll see, once I am done if it works.

My friend Jason did a presentation at the Three River’s Bioneers conference last month? Two months back, maybe. In it, he discussed the fact that Europeans, as “colonizers,” have never become native to their place. Specifically, he was talking about North America. His family, after nearly four hundred years of habitation, is no more native to this place than the recent immigrant. Instead, we have tried to recreate Europe on American soil. And, to a certain degree we have succeeded (if you want to call what we have done “success”.)

Let me suggest a furtherance of that thought. European culture is no more native in Europe than it is in America. Bear with me.

If we look at native american civilizations: the aztec and inca, the mississipians, etc…. all of these cultures were native to the place where they existed. Many were well known for leaving local culture intact, even as they imposed outside economic control. So whether one was looking at the core, or the outliers of these civilizations, the inhabitants were very much a part of their land and traditional culture. Screwed up, violent, hierarchal, absolutely. But still, fundamentally, native.

In contrast, European culture, from the time that agriculture arrived, was fundamentally not native for one very specific reason: the food stuffs they were growing were not native. In order to embrace these new plants, new techniques, new life strategies the people needed to separate themselves from the natural ecology of their place. Civilizations were not born in Europe, they were imported. The agricultural system itself was the original “colonizer” of Europe.

What I don’t know – and I am too lazy to research at this point in my life – is how this idea relates to the other regions of the Earth where agriculture developed: primarily China (yellow river) and India. How much of their systems were indigenous, how much was imported? Specifically, did peoples in these regions walk away when their agricultural systems failed, or did they press on no matter the cost? Europeans always pressed on. Perhaps partly due to luck, but also, largely, because they could not imagine that any other way of living was acceptable. Is this true in other places, with indigenous civilizations? Obviously in the Americas, native civilizations led to sustainable after-cultures. (The mayans, the pueblo peoples/anasazi, the mississippians) What about the rest of the world?

If anyone knows – or is interested in taking the time to find out, that would be fabulous. I would be interested in the answers. But for myself, I am far more interested in trekking out into my backyard for further education than I am in delving into ancient history.

One final thought. Although I am proposing another possibility for “the thing,” this also comes with a realization on my part that there is no “thing” that can be pointed to as the end all be all of sustainable vs not. Looking at systems is more useful than looking at items, but systems, themselves are merely nested sets of greater systems. So looking at one, by itself, is simply another form of reductionism. And our answers won’t be found with reductionism. But perhaps this particular “thing” I am proposing is another piece of the puzzle.

My wife and I both agree that the first post was a little too short and that this post would be best placed within the intro…blah, blah, blah.  Ok, so who cares what love looks like?  Everyone knows if they love someone or not, right?  My position is that no they don’t, at least not the kind of love our God wants for us to show each other.

This leads us to why it’s important that we understand what love really looks like.  If we are admonished to love our neighbor, to let love reign in our hearts, to love each other just as Christ has loved us, then I think we better get this one right.

Oh great, another commentary on love.  I must be honest, if I were you, I probably wouldn’t give this the time of day if I were not interested in the subject.  However, if you are still with me, I will do my best to provide a new perspective on this topic, or at least a perspective you may have never encountered before.

A couple of years ago I began to think about this idea of what love looks like.  I mean, it must have some sort of substance, no?  It occurred to me that one could easily say that they love someone but consistently treat them in a hateful way.  This led me to consider hate and it’s appearance.  If one does not love their neighbor, could it be that by default he/she hates them?  Or, is it possible that there is a neutral category where one does not love nor hates their neighbor?  The purpose of this essay is to explore these questions and attempt to answer them from a biblical perspective.

O my luve’s like a red, red, rose.

That’s newly sprung in June;

O my luve’s like a melodie

That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

(first stanza from “A Red, Red Rose” by poet Robert Burns)

For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]. (Ephesians 2:10, Amplified)

For we are God’s masterpiece… (Ephesians 2:10, NLT)

We are God’s handiwork, His workmanship, His masterpiece.

The Greek word translated as workmanship in Ephesians 2:10 is the Greek word poiema. Greek scholar Rick Renner says this word “carries the idea of something that is artfully created” (from Rick Renner’s Sparkling Gems From the Greek)

He shared that “the Greek word for a poet, poietes, comes from this same word… one who has the extraordinary ability to write or create a literary masterpiece.” (Sparkling Gems From the Greek)

I think of God writing His masterpiece. I think of God writing a beautiful poem which is my life.

At the beginning of this post I included the first stanza from a very famous poem. See how beautiful it sounds with a lovely rhythm and rhyme.

Now imagine the poem, the life, being written saying, “I don’t like that line. Maybe we can do this instead.” Breaking the rhythm and rhyme of this beautiful masterpiece.

“I really don’t like that line about forgiveness. I really don’t like that line about loving and praying for my enemies. I really don’t like that line about living a holy life. I don’t really like that line about love not seeking it’s own way. I really don’t like that line about loving my wife. I really don’t like that line about respecting my husband.”

So this poem, this masterpiece, begins to try to write itself without the Master.

Without the Master, it is no longer a masterpiece.

With His leading, guiding and instruction in your life, He is writing a masterpiece. He is creating a thing of beauty. Let the Master mold you. Let the Master make you what you ought to be. Let the Master, through His Presence and through His Word, paint the picture that is your life. Let your life be His masterpiece.

I want to start this blog with the lessons that I have learned this past month. I learned that it is easy to do a great deal with very little sometimes, and that love makes a big difference.

Bright birthday cakes for bright children

On October 31st, Room to Grow organized a birthday party for 53 children at Agape boarding house. The house shelters orphans and abandoned children, as well as children from single parent families who can’t economically support them and children from extremely dangerous conditions who are vulnerable to trafficking and other dangers that haunt the border. Although R2G began organizing the party, our contribution ended up being perhaps the smallest of all the amazing flood of people who helped, donated, contributed, and participated. To all those people, whether you were present or not, I say a huge Thank You, because the party could not have been the amazing success it was without so much incredible support.

On the morning of the party, a group of about six humanitarian workers from different organizations got up early to decorate the 65 cakes that had been delivered the night before by the ZOA Refugee Care Vocational Training Bakery project in Mae La Refugee Camp. There were 55 small individual cakes for the students, and ten larger cakes for the guests. We had huge bowls of ridiculously bright icing crowding the table and before too long, we all had blobs of blue and crimson and orange all over our hands, our chairs, our faces and our mouths.

Help Without Frontiers was kind enough to provide a truck and driver to take the boxes and boxes of cakes down the highway and out to the school, which is located within view of the Moei River and the border between Thailand and Burma.

We arrived with the cakes just as Wide Horizons was setting up.

Wide Horizons is a school for young adults and adults from grassroots community organizations. In the 11 month course, the students learn intensive English as well as teaching skills and project management. The course is designed to help encourage and equip the leaders of tomorrow and I saw first hand how great the current group of students are doing in progressing towards that goal.

The Wide Horizons students did a fantastic job that day. They sung songs and told stories and played games. They helped in the kitchen and with getting the children bathed and clothed in the evening. They decorated a plain patch of ground until it looked like a place to party. I think the most important thing they did that day, however, was show the children the value of education, and what kind of future they can aspire to. Many of the Wide Horizons students were separated from their families at an early age and many lost parents and grew up in boarding houses or with extended family. Like the Agape children,

they started out with little and fought hard to gain much. I saw them

The Frog Jump Race

act as strong, enthusiastic and glorious role models for young children who often have

to make difficult choices between a desire for education and safety and a need to make money and support siblings.

All afternoon the Wide Horizons students sung songs and played games. There was a big bag of candy provided by Penny, a VSO volunteer, which lasted all afternoon and which brought so much excitement to the proceedings. The candy prizes lent a particular fervour to some of the races and games and a certain sugar buzz that grew as the day went on.

The Wide Horizons students were on the look out for older children taking care of younger children and had a team of students ready to take over that care so that the older students could have some time off to relax and play, too. They took over kitchen duties from some of the older girls so that they could join the three-legged races. They told stories under the shade of the trees when the day got too hot for races.

When the games and the stories were over, they helped the children bathe and get dressed in their best clothes. I think one of the girls must have brought a make up kit because the girls came out of the boarding house glittering and proud of their eye shadow, blush and lipstick.

As the sun set, the children played under balloons that had been sent to them from Canada and watched eagerly as we set out cakes on the long white tables under the streamers. Guests arrived, some of them on bicycles they had to peddle a long way out the highway and up a hill to the school.

Headmaster David led the students in singing their favourite songs, including a very loud rendition of “We Are the World.” Then we went out to sit by the tables.

The children’s face when we opened the boxes and started taking out the cakes was priceless. The cakes were quite small, but each child had one with a tiny flag sticking out with his or her name on it and that cake was for that child and that child alone.

The excitement grew.

Holding back the hoardes while the cakes are unveiled

It took quite some time to get all the children in place sitting in front of the cake with the right name. Then we had to get Wide Horizons students and the adult guests standing behind each child with a gift. There were speeches and more songs and a final singing of happy birthday when we lit the candles and the children blew them out.

There is a very sweet Burmese tradition of feeding cake to the birthday person, so the adults reached around and fed the cake to the children. Despite having such a small cake, most children then turned around and insisted on feeding a piece of cake back.

While the cakes were being eaten, adults distributed presents. R2G had put a call out to everyone in the Mae Sot community asking people to scour their houses for things which they didn’t use which might be suitable as gifts. The response was quite wonderful. It took me two completely laden motorcycle

That one's mine!

trips to get it all out to the school. In addition to all the people from Mae Sot who came up with wonderful toys and presents, people from America and Canada also sent packages. Packages full of crayons, hotwheels, tiaras and birthday cards. Randerson Ridge Elementary school in Canada had their students each make a birthday card for a student at Agape.

Some children clutched their beautifully wrapped presents fiercely and wouldn’t open them. Others tore them open. There was no present, no matter how strange, that didn’t elicit joy and smiles. One girl pulled a pair of green plastic heart-shaped glasses out of her birthday box with a grin that would have lit up her classroom for a month it was so bright. The gifts had been separated into boys and girls gifts but it was so confusing and wild that one boy got a girl’s box by mistake. I saw him gleefully examining a pink jewelery box with just as much happiness as the boy playing with the plastic truck.

Dinner was served but it took me a long time to notice, there was so much going on. The night was full of laughter and excited talking, and singing and kids running around, showing off their toys. Some women in Australia had sent us knitted hats, enough for every child and despite the heat, kids had their hats on.

There were big pots of Burmese noodle stew, full of mushrooms and vegetables, and bowls of fresh oranges, and crispy fish crackers and all kinds of delicious food. It was a testament to how excited the children were that they weren’t simply stuffing their faces. The food was hot and delicious and we ate under the streamers and balloons, watching the children play and the sun go down.

David brought in about twenty other children who attend school during the day at Agape and who sleep at night in the factory where their parents work. We brought over the extra small cakes and the large cakes for them and there was plenty of food to go around. They joined the general madness happily.

Sitting back and watching the guests play with the children and talk to each other I didn’t see a single person who didn’t have a huge smile plastered across their face. As the day got dark, the school had the feeling of a backyard barbecue birthday, one that you might come across in any corner of the world.

I have never been a big believer in parties. I think it’s more important to raise money for a regular supply of food than a silly celebration but this party made me question that stance. It’s important for young children to know that they are special and loved as well. A birthday is a day when family and friends celebrate that you came into the world and are in their lives. These children get too many messages telling them that they shouldn’t be here and they aren’t wanted, it’s important to tell them as often and as loudly as possible that there is hope for their future and love in their loves. Thanks to the Wide Horizons students, the Mae Sot community, and friends of Agape in Canada and America and most of all thanks to Headmaster David, his wife and the school’s volunteer teachers, I think we succeeded in sending the children of Agape that message on October 31st, their birthday.

Many who know me would also know my mantra for life – read above. I would be yellow Chinese trash if not for the grace of God. My life is one that is redeemed by the grace of God and it seemed a natural progression for me to be doing what I am doing right now.

A lot of Christians, myself included of course, have abused the grace of God in our lives. We revisit a sin because we know we’ll be forgiven. We entertain evil because we know God will still love us regardless. And we try to live a life by our standards thinking that it’ll get by God’s. Did we realise that by doing that we have unknowingly flouted one of the Ten Commandments is?

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

We somehow have a tendency to imagine God as a loving and doting father only. While that is true, it is inadequate. It would be dangerous to forget that God the Father is also God the Judge and the Righteous One who has no dealings with sin and evil. We often exploit the His loving kindness with our unrepentance. Be wary of this – do not fall into the trap of violating that commandment.

The last thing we want to do is to make for ourselves an image of God that is not truly Him. We take what we want from the Bible – usually people only want to hear the good stuff – and we snuff out the rest which doesn’t appeal to us. Are you sure that the God you are worshipping is the God that is written about in the bible? Or is it a figment of your imagination (or more like your fantasyutopialand)? Let’s spend a little time to, by the grace of God, make sure that the God that we are worshipping is really THE God!

RY preached a great sermon today on how much God loves us. He loves us even when we fail to love Him and delights some more in loving us in spite of that! That’s just mind-blowing. It brings agape to another level. For that, I cannot comprehend and I am guilty of how we have hurt God time and again by our actions and inactions. God’s love demonstrated through His grace alone should move us into desiring to hurt Him lesser with our sinful thoughts and deeds.

The grace of God empowers us to do what is righteous; it should not cause us to sin some more, but to sin no more.

Naturally I got home last night and listened to Phil Wickham’s CD, and today I completed over eight playthrough’s at work.

Wow. What an amazing night last night. Worshiping my Lord in Savior in good company has been something I’ve been missing. I was next to Julie and Colette, alternating jumping up and down, holding hands, and pressing our arms towards the Lord. Such cool people to experience something like this with. What a feeling to know that all the feelings you have are being shared by all those around you, by the people you are with, it somehow amplifies.

And then God pulled me down to my knees, and spoke to me in a way I had not heard in a while.

It’s silly to resist something like a pull from the Lord. But thats what I did for a while last night. I was standing, worshipping for a time, and suddenly I heard clear as day, “Kneel.” And I didn’t. I felt conspicuous with all of these people surrounding me. The worshipping went on, and I still felt a pull at my knees, sometimes causing me to bend them awkwardly towards the floor. I kept crying to the Lord, I kept calling to Him, but something in me knew he wanted me down on my knees to do this. And then Phil sang this verse, and the lyrics obviously called me – “so i fall to my knees
but i can’t bow low enough
i can’t bow low enough
at the vision of You my God
i can’t bow low enough
i can’t bow low enough
at the vision of You my God
i can’t hold it all inside”

So I did. I fell to my knees right in the midst of all those people, praising without worrying about what other people would think. Because that’s not what matters.

And God told me that it was ok. That he had forgiven me a long time ago for everything. That I am whole, and complete, and I’m being prepared for what he has for me to complete.

And it was so amazing to have that moment with my Lord on the floor, a hair away from everyone else, but far enough to hear.

So thanks Colette and Julie for being so supportive last night, and to you God, for not giving up, or slowing down. I needed that pull.

Looking to Cielo. I’m waiting anxiously.

9-16-01
11/13/09

In the Greek, His name is Paraklete,
Comforter, Spirit,One of God.
Hold Him explicit in your prayers,
He is an important part of our Triune God.He is an individual,knowing Gods heart and ours.

More than just a Spirit,
He is the Holy Spirit of our God.
Knowing him,and how he works,
teaches the whys of God.
His job, facilitator,of Gods wishes.

When this universe was chaos,
The Father spoke,and chaos became order.
The stars and the moon were hung.
God saw His need,and His Holy Paraklete created
those who would love,and worship Him.

Recognize our Holy Spirit,
for these last many days,and those to come,
He is drawn to Gods children,
To comfort the hearts of the many.
In this time of pain and suffering.

Gods glory will shine on this land, rising
from the hearts of His children out of Love for Him.
Not pride,Not patriotism,
Just Prayer to God, for Mercy and Healing.
By those He loves,and created
for just this purpose.

“And hope maketh not ashamed;
because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”.
Romans 5:5

Maranatha,

lampwickke
xxx