I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he
makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights."
- Habakkuk 3:1, 18-19
Pastor Lai gave a wonderful sermon on Sunday from this passage, so I was
reflecting on it while running around the mountain on Tuesday. Hidden away
behind Mission Peak is an old farm house that probably dates to the time
of the Great Depression or earlier. It has been abandoned for many years
and looks even more forlorn in the snows. Change has come to the mountain
many times as a family moved in with great hopes, but then later moved on
and abandoned the property. Now, this is a park to be enjoyed by wealthy
suburbanites. For the year, we have been given hopeful campaign promises
of change, but now we despair as change of a sort that no one expected has
come upon us. We have been raised to believe that change = progress, but
this is not always the case. One day, change will take me to the grave,
unless Jesus returns in his glory first.
Habakkuk too talks of change. He talks of environmental, economic, social
and political change of an extreme and terrifying kind. In spite of this,
he has joy in the Lord because he knows that the Lord will accomplish something
better for those who love Him. The kingdom we seek is a heavenly one, not
an earthly one, and this is what we should be seeking and praying for during
the Christmas season. Of this heavenly kingdom, the prophet Isaiah promises
this: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, ... Of the increase
of his government and peace there will be no end" - Isaiah 9:6-7.
All the material goods we receive in this season will eventually be broken and abandoned
like the house above. Even the wonderful memories will be forgotten as
Christmasses come and go in our aging memories. Only what is done for eternity
will count.
HIGHLIGHTED PRAYER
Pray that the Lord would cause His people to see opportunities in the change
that is happening around us. The Compassion Network certainly represents
one great opportunity for us. Like Habakkuk, we should individually seek
the Lord as we hear things on the news that disturb us or see things happening
around us which cause people to despair. A few weeks ago, we talked about
the persecution of the church after Stephen was stoned in Acts. The church
didn't despair, but instead scattered and spread the good news everywhere.
Give thanks to the Lord that we do have a group of Christian brothers and
sisters with whom we can fellowship and grow for a time, but pray that God
will grant us the opportunities and boldness to proclaim Jesus as our savior.
PRAY FOR OUR CONGREGATION
We are trying to re-enter the story of Christmas and celebrate it differently
this year: Worship More, Spend Less, Give More, Love All. Pray that we'll
find a way to live out Christmasùas a church with our own familiesùin a
way that will help Christmas "change the world" again.
Give thanks for the new little ones God is bringing into the world and pray
for the health of the children and parents: Little Darius who just arrived,
and there is a little girl who is still comfortably inside of his mother
Kathy. Pray for the Hui's as they adjust to becoming a family of 5 with
the arrival of baby Dylan.
Ponder the Winter Retreat and pray for this also - pray for your involvement
as well as the involvement of others. The experience and memories from
these are always a blessing as we grow closer to the Lord while getting
to know each other better, but it always seems like such an easy thing to
shove aside and say to ourselves, "I will do it next time". How about this
time?
Pray that others from our congregation will join us in by signing up for
the prayer list and participating.
PRAY FOR THE REST OF OUR CHURCH
The Mandarin group is planning to hold evangelical meetings during the Christmas
Holidays season. Pray that God's hand would be with them as they reach
out to others to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The Cantonese congregation has requested prayer for some of the members
who have attended regularly but not yet been baptized. May the Lord touch
their hearts ǔ along with others from the English and Mandarin congregations
ǔ to make this public statement of a relationship with our Lord.
Time to plan for next year's Taiwan mission trip! Pray for the planning
of this and that God would be preparing His mission field in Taiwan and
our church to participate..
PRAY ABOUT HOW GOD IS LEADING YOU ON HIS MISSION
PRAY FOR THREE (3) OF YOUR UN-CHURCHED FRIENDS/FAMILY
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen
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