Let the Lord lift you up and carry you.
He is your strength.
A great worship song with powerful lyrics called "You Are My Strength" is on the new playlist that I've added to the left.
In the fullness of Your grace, by the power of Your name,
You lift me up...You lift me up.
...He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless (Isaiah 40:29)
...those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31)
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Matt 5:44-45 (NIV) “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
ReplyDeleteWe arrived in Taipei early Friday morning just as a typhoon was about to strike Taiwan later that morning. There are two types of typhoons, fast moving typhoons that cause allot of wind damage and slow moving typhoons that bring lots of rain and flooding. This was a big typhoon, they say the biggest typhoon in Taiwan in 5o years, a category 4, but it was slow moving and on the southern part of the island dumped over 5 feet of rain. When we finally arrived on the campus of Taiwan Adventist College on Saturday night we were told that we brought the rain with us when we arrived to Taiwan.
We did not understand what they were insinuating at first, even slow moving typhoons can be hazardous, we had been told that 14 people had been killed by this typhoon alone. Were they saying that by coming we brought evil upon them? No, it turns out that in the Taiwanese culture, rain is considered a blessing, and they were telling us that when we came we brought them a blessing. In fact, before the typhoon hit there was a shortage of water, the government was considering rationing water. But with the Typhoon came the blessing of fresh water.
Because God cares for the unrighteous as much as the righteous He causes the sun and the rain to be a blessing to both the evil and the good. God is love and God’s love is unconditional. Likewise, as sons and daughters of God, we are told in order to be like our Father in Heaven we should be a blessing like the rain, unconditionally falling on everyone around us.
My family and I have taken on an enormous challenge here with this new move to Taiwan. There are 24 million people living in Taiwan, and only 2700 Seventh day Adventist attending church on a given Sabbath morning. There are few young people in the Adventist churches here; it appears that they get caught up in secularism and leave the church. Couples here are choosing not to have children or just one child and focus their time and energy into working, making money and enjoying life, so the small little churches are shrinking smaller and smaller year after year. In the past Buddhism and Taoism have been traditionally the dominant religions in Taiwan. But now we are facing a force that is even more of a difficult challenge to confront, which is secularism and a post modernism combination added into the Buddhist culture. We need to make Christianity appealing to the secular, post modern Buddhist; how do we do that?
The only thing I can figure out to do is to lift Jesus and proclaim Him as the true blessing, the God who loves us so much that He pours out His grace like rain down on us. Lift Him up in prayer and ask Him to give us wisdom, strength and guidance to know what to say how to act and what to do. Lift Him up in faith and trust in the Lord that He will make us into a blessing and accomplish mighty things through us because we trust in his power and strength.
Hey Dan, glad everyone is there safe and sound.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the updates here on the blog, spiritual insights and concerns.
I think using the talk of "rain" is an excellent place to start in your conversations with ALL people there, because everyone will be talking about it anyway.
You mentioned the sun and rain coming down on EVERYBODY.
It reminded me of the passage in scripture that says "I will pour out my SPIRIT on ALL flesh!
Everybody is getting wet, even those who haven't yet had a revelation of Christ, sons and daughters to prophesy and dreams being dreamed.
...like trying to hold up an umbrella in a fierce storm and wind...you still get soaked!
(think "singing in the rain", Gene Kelly)
...and I believe you're right, lift up Jesus, lift up the Spirit(for in Him we all truly live and move and have our being), show love to ALL.
..."for if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing out of the ordinary?"Matt.5:47
The apostle Paul talked to EVERYONE and sought to find some connection with them first on different levels like cultural, tradition, spiritual.
THE SPIRIT in us and our lives will testify of Him(Jesus). We've generally been programmed to say "Jesus, Jesus" in every comment. I'm not saying to downplay in any way the power that is in that name that I profess, but we need to trust that the Spirit in us and with us working in every part of our lives and the connections we have with people will also testify of Him.
Showing people the way of the Spirit will ultimately lead people to see Jesus, for if you see the Spirit, you also see Jesus and the Father.
Invite the youth, and others to simply worship Him, simply come, enter in. Jeans...ok, jewelry...fine, tatoos...whatever. People just need to GET INTO HIS PRESENCE! Like you said, His grace like rain falls on ALL!
People need to experience Him in the freedom of the Spirit!
I agree and say that wisdom, strength and guidance is already yours as you lift Him up. You are blessed when you go out and come in, you are enabled by God, and that living water flows out of you to your peers and the community. May God accomplish mighty things through you all in His power and strength.
The angel of the Lord surrounds you and yours!
Peace!
Hello - This is Karl's cousin, Emily, dropping in to enjoy this great blog, and wow! Dan you and your family are doing AMAZING things! I heard a nice saying recently that has kept me driven.... "To have things you've never had, you have to be willing to do things you've never done". I like that saying. And it's not the mateiral things I think of having in this statement, it's more than that. I will keep you & your family (you too cuz) in my prayers. Keep us posted of your incredible journey and thanks for being there, God is with you!
ReplyDeleteEMILY
Heyyy, thanks Emily, really happy you dropped in and for your words.
ReplyDeleteJust spoke with Dan, after midnight in Taiwan, said he read your note Emily, and he will try to write later.
ReplyDeleteFor those who pass by here, I am also on Facebook.-Karl Cobos
Thanks Emily, what a great quote, "To have things you've never had, you have to be willing to do things you've never done". This quote reminds me of when Christ’s disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, after that they were able to do things with boldness that they had not been able to do before.
ReplyDeleteWe often want to do things our way rather than God’s way, God’s way is not the natural way we often think about, so to do things we have never done is in many ways parallel to trying it God’s way, something we cannot do without being led by the Spirit. The NT talks often about individuals like Paul and Philip being led away by the spirit. This is something we need to ask for from God on a daily basis, for God to redirect our plans through His Spirit in all that we do. Then be willing to do whatever God directs us to do no matter how crazy it may sound at the time.