Let's strive for Him...

To all who stumble upon this little blog, I hope you will find something here to encourage you in your travels along the way...something to comfort you, something to help you, something to uplift you.

Jay Bruce


“Self-sacrifice brought Christ into the world. And self-sacrifice will lead us, His followers, not way from, but into the midst of men. Wherever men suffer, there will we be to comfort. Wherever men strive, there will we be to help. Wherever men fail, there will we be to uplift. Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows, it means absorption in them. It means forgetfulness of self in others. It means not that we should live one life, but a thousand lives—binding ourselves to a thousand souls by the filaments of so loving a sympathy that their lives become ours. Only when we humbly walk this path, seeking truly in it not our own things but those of others, we shall fined the promise true, that he who loses his life shall find it. Only when, like Christ, and in loving obedience to His call and example, we take no account of ourselves, but freely give ourselves to others, we shall find, each in his measure, the saying true of himself also: 'Wherefore also God hath highly exalted him.' The path of self-sacrifice is the path to glory.”

-- Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, from his sermon Imitating the Incarnation

Struggle for Him...

What about your struggles? Is there any chance, any possibility, that you have been selected to struggle for God's glory? Have you ever been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, but also to suffer for His sake (Philippians 1:29)?

Here is a clue. Do your prayers seem to be unanswered? What you request and what you receive aren't matching up? Don't think God is not listening. Indeed he is. He may have higher plans.

Here is another. Are people strengthened by your struggles? A friend of mine can answer yes. His cancer was consuming more than his body; it was eating away at his faith. Unanswered petitions perplexed him. Well-meaning Christians confused him. If you have faith, they said, you will be healed.

No healing came. Just more chemo, nausea, and questions. He assumed the fault was a small faith. I suggested another answer. It's not about you,I told him. Your hospital room is a showcase for your Maker. Your faith in the face of suffering cranks up the volume of God's song.

Oh, that you could have seen the relief on his face. To know that he hadn't failed God and God hadn't failed him-this made all the difference. Seeing his sickness in the scope of God's sovereign plan gave his condition a sense of dignity. He accepted his cancer as an assignment from heaven: a missionary to the cancer ward.

A week later I saw him again. I reflected God,he said, smiling through a thin face, to the nurse, the doctors, my friends. Who knows who needed to see God, but I did my best to make him seen.

Bingo. His cancer paraded the power of Jesus down the Main Street of his world.

God will use whatever he wants to display his glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems.

Rather than begrudge your problem, explore it. Ponder it. And most of all, use it. Use it to the glory of God.

Today is the day...

Today is the day, Xu Yuan moved in.

Today is the day, that we should welcome our new member into our house.

We did a hot pot for the welcoming. We have done this for Janette too, for her farewell.

There were people living with us that have to say goodbye, yet there are people coming to live with us. Episodes by episodes, they seems to never end.

Today is also a day, which our heavenly father had plotted to send his only son to be crucified on the cross the next day. He did this for demonstrating his love for us. How much pain he had had to make the decision to send his one and only son, how much pain Jesus had had to suffered just because of the sin that he had never done. His skin peeled off, His blood dried out, His heart torn, and His soul cried for His father in heaven to take away His pain... How much pain our God had had to see his only son dying for his helping hands...

How deep the father's love for us
How vast beyong all measure
That He should give His only son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosend one
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why shoud i gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Father, we know we have failed to demonstrate your love in one episode, but we know that we will be success at the other, for we say sorry and repent, and we ask for your help. For you are gracious and merciful, and you are all mighty.