Hlaf way of the 50 day with intention coming closer to God

Thank you for remembering me. Time flies it is already half way since I would like to be intentional draw closer to God. I found out that working for Him as I thought was is much more then rest as He commanded.

I came across a couple sermon videos and articles/reading. I wish I can put down some of my notes an thought earlier. I just finished watching the video by Timothy Keller about "Faith and Work"
I found it is helpful to help me to rethink about work in three points:

1. Work is good,
2. work was corrupted, men in charge to bring glory to themselves(as Babel Tower event)

3. hope of work - Jesus' work and not ours.

I got another consultant invitation and need to prepare for the consultation coming week. My colleague is ready to work with me on TBTA Chinese next week. Plate is quite full again. I am still taking the course about "Lean data approach measuring social impact" I hope that I can put what I learned in context of Bible Translation. There are three modules, the first one about concepts about lean approach, which align well with human centered design. I think there would be other similar courses about that. It's not uncommon to have similar/common concept in the introduction of different courses sharing the similar goal and methodology, especially for NGO and social enterprise setting.
Exercise of preparing short survey is good, but working on survey questions would easily take long time, but good and right questions are crucial. How can we guarantee that?
I think some material about current technology can be helpful, especially if team project can implemented in a short time. Or else I fear that those technology of app would obsolete or outdated in a very sort time.

I didn't participate much in the forum discussion in this course.

My son will graduate tomorrow. I am expecting next few weeks can be quite busy. Hopefully I can have a restful spirit. I'll appreciate your prayer.

My news letter(in Chinese) just relieved yesterday through MailChimp. You're welcome to subscribe.
http://goo.gl/1o4anN

Being Aware of God Self and spiritual danger and Examining self - Day 7 and 8 of 50

Miracle and Being Aware of God

Yesterday morning I came across a passage about Peter's healing Aeneas and raising Dorcas from the death in Act 9. There can be a lot of discussion and controversy about miracles in different places. Here I think the most important is that the focus of the miracle is not for our curiosity, but for our awareness of the supernatural God with his power override the nature as His will. I did not come across the raising people from dead nor miraculous healing by myself. I think certainly God is able to choose to do this in whenever and wherever. With nature and our own experience, the miraculous moment is our awareness of God's presence, His Glory and Work.

Evening my family celebrate mother day with my children's mother, as I got back I was not feeling well. Then I went to bed early.

Self and Spiritual Danger Awareness

As I started deciding to come closer to God, I think there can be more obstruction, temptation, self-deception or destruction in the process. I tend to face more temptation to be angry and do what ever against holy life, the fruit of spirit and the characters mentioned in the Beatitude. Thus, I think I have to be careful and I think it is important to aware of this and aware of the dark-side of myself.

Temptation and Trial can come from self, from the circumstances, from others, or from the enemies. Knowing the source, can also help us to deal with the root of issues for longer term. Struggling with sin, temptation, trial and frustration is part of the journey of the rest of our lives.

On the other hands I think I have to be thankful for my sinful nature and dark-side and the potential temptation to be shone under the guidance of the Spirit. At the same time I have to be careful and tried hard not to following those traps. Thus, I would appreciate if you can join me in prayer for God's power and mercy over sin and prepare my day by day encounter with the presence of God.

Examine Self

I have been traveling quite a bit and I missed the Lord's table occasionally. However last Good Friday week because of my traveling, I had three times of lord's table in the Good Friday. I have been pondering what does it mean to me. I fear that we forget the meaning of something that we do in the routine of our every day life. The meaning of the Lord's table can be taken for granted without really think through it. Thus, I think that is something I will keep contemplating in next couple weeks. One of the highlight of my meditation about what happened during that week and the preparation of the Lord's table is about "we need to examine ourselves" I think in the couple of weeks, it is important for me to examine ourselves. In the whole journey of Christian journey, we may need to stop at certain point and really evaluate and examine ourselves before God. One thing that I am planning to do is to reread the book "If ... " by Amy CarMichael.
I hope you can also have a break and similar reflection opportunity. Please also pray for my reflection and my examination.

"Being Faithful to the Calling" Josiah S Mann Lectures by Rev. Siu - Day 6 of 50

I have just finished a series of 4 sessions with total 8 hours 2016 China Graduate Theological Seminary 萬崇仁教牧學講座 Josiah S Mann Lectures on Pastoralia. 

The theme is "Being Faithful to the Calling"

The topics are calling, pastor's personal growth-liberty with the expectation/evaluation from the congregation/public,  pastor and authority, pastor and ministry.

萬崇仁教牧學講座：忠於牧職呼召（一）回歸呼召
萬崇仁教牧學講座：忠於牧職呼召（二）牧職成長－公眾評價中的自由

萬崇仁教牧學講座：忠於牧職呼召（三）教牧與權威－從自處到相處

萬崇仁教牧學講座：忠於牧職呼召（四）教牧事奉－從耗盡到安息


Thank you for Rev. Gordon Siu S. W.'s sharing. I am still pondering a number of points. After being away from Hong Kong, I really appreciate this serie to help me understand some of the struggle of Hong Kong's churches through the sincere sharing, response and discussion about many relevant and practical issues. I haven't read Rev. Siu's book about the topics. I hope there can be more concrete Biblical ground for the practice.  I hope that I can learn more about theology, Biblical Studies along with these practical guidance and recommendation.
I think a number of issues is not just applicable to pastors, but also to the missionaries. A number of friends from U.S of other places have been asking me about the churches in Hong Kong, I think these series can be a snapshot for some of the essence of issues of Hong Kong's church from the perspective of pastoral staff and professors of the seminary. Rev. Siu already pointed out that the view of calling and calling as the admission requirement of Seminaries can be different between Hong Kong and the West. CGTS started with faculty trained in the West and planted the theological education institute in Hong Kong context. I hope the video of these lectures can have English subtitle for English speakers. I think the  global mandarin speaking Christians can also be benefit from it with Chinese subtitle as well.

I started with session 4 with the following observations:

1. Churches system mentioned seems to be rather top down. I just wonder whether that's because Rev. Siu's CMA denominational background.
2. Pastoral(Missionary) calling is special and superior than other calling to layman participating in ministry.
3. Pastoral with Christ-like characters, integrity and strong spiritual dimension are crucial for authority.
4. There  are crisis with the divided political opinion within the church, the authority of the church and pastors are being challenged.
5. Knowing self and understanding/empathy is crucial for the ministry and personal growth.
6. The difficulty is the reality of pastoral ministry by default. Pastor grow through the dependence upon God and going through the path of growing in the pastoral ministry.
7. Temptation and dark sides of human sinful nature, such as pride, jealousy, power/authority, unhealthy esteem, desire prevent pastor from serving faithfully.

I hope I can have more reflection in next coupe days or weeks.

Serving God, serving people or serving self -- Day 5 of 50

Every one being brought up with different background and one's own story. Our life may sharp our world view, and the way we interpret the Bible. Mission and calling is from the Bible, and yet we have to be careful about what we are doing or serving, even if we consider serving is our primary calling and mission.

How do we serve? I think we can serve though our profession, through our volunteer work in the community, ministry in the church.

I think before the question of how to serve, I think it is important to know what do we serve and why do we serve. And it is also very important to figure out the priorities in the lists that we serve. It would be great if we can get principle from the Bible to answer these questions.

Why do we serve?

I think it is important to have the motivation of love or motivation of God.

During the process of our services, I fear that we are intentionally or unintentionally led astray to serve ourselves, serve the people without the love of God, rather than serve God himself. How can we serve the invisible God? I think we can serve God through serve the people, but we can also serve the people or ourselves with merely the name of serving God and without God’s heart.

Are we serving because of fear or love? We can serve because we are afraid of the voters, of the congregations, of the leaders, of God. Can the fear of God be a kind of motivation? I think yes, but I think the fear of God can be a kind of motivation for us not doing something rather than doing something? I fear that fear someone other than God as our motivation can be problematic. I prefer not to say that fear of God is a motivation, but a kind of status of a godly Christian, but what motivates us to serve is the love of God, so that we can love the people and serve the people.

Whom do we serve?

One of my concerns of promoting crowd sourcing is that the crowd would be the decision maker together through collaboration. If the crowd is not godly but powerful, I fear that it will cause more destruction rather than construction. Please pray that while postmodern reality and context can confuse people, God will keep the next generation to read the Bible and understand it carefully and apply it in some relevant ways to glorify God.

I think the methodology and strategy is relatively less important. I hope I can commit more time to pray for the next generation and I will be able to spend more time to study and understand better God's word and hopefully I can pass that on. Sometime it is very scary to serve as Bible translation consultant for quality control and approve the publication. May the Lord have mercy to me and show me the way.

Indigitous.org -- Replacement of GOSP4EL Day 4 of 50

The Lord put all thing in His time.

Recently I am very excited to know the existence to indigitous
https://indigitous.org
This is a platform for Christian online collaboration free projects, which is very similar to the concept and core value of Global Open Source Projects for Evangelical Laities.
Please go there to have a look and see how can you contribute in different projects through online collaboration for mission and ministry.
I am so glad that it has Chinese interface. I hope there will be more languages interface be developed and the localization power will increase. e.g. adding Korean.
I would also like to see translation, Bible translation, Language technology will be added as the domains of projects/topics.
I would like to see more non-English development in the website and engaging more global South Christians and diaspora communities to contribute, so that we can foretaste the gathering of worship and ministry through multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-national collaboration. 

Calling to Minister/laity, Burning out and Rest - Day 3 of 50

I was listening and Watching a couple session of Rev. Gordon Siu's sharing in the areas of calling to the pastoring ministry, Burning out and Rest.
It is a timing lectures/sermons for me. I just wonder whether I am in a mode of burning out without noticing it.

Stress, Burning Out and Rest

I recalled reading a book by Rev. Philip Teng, in one incidence Rev. Teng asked him how did he handling stress. Rev. Philip's replied is "I refuse it."

I also recalled one of my teacher in SIL school told me that stress test might increase the stress. I think when we are coming across difficult time, we need to focus on God, and not the issues/circumstances and be self-pity.
Thus, I will suggest going/praying to God, physical exercise, changing your job/task of different nature, rest and seek for help. Humorous and laugh at yourself may help, if you are already good at that. I think that is kind of cliche.

I just wonder what are the burnout rates of pastors or missionaries. Which one would be higher?

Calling to laity

As I have been thinking the topic of engaging Chinese diaspora. Most of the people would agree all Christians have their calling. Whether the calling should be different from other calling, I am not sure. Based on the priesthood of all believers, I think all calling are equal.
Rev. Siu and the panel seem agree that the calling to be pastor should be different. I just wonder whether that's from their observation or there is Biblical bases.

I think many of the Christian institutes and organizations nowadays are build for some pragmatic reason and not necessary based on the biblical ground. Thus, I think we may need to reconstruct the structure of Christian church and organization but still make sure the function and essence of the Christians communities are still there.

One of the topic is about the persistence and continuity of the calling from God. Since the calling is from the sovereign God, He can choose to call for different role in different time.

Dissatisfaction with leadership and despicable me - Day 2 of 50

In the beginning of this year, I was asked to write about leadership based on the book of Jeremiah. Since then, I have been thinking what does it mean leadership.As I tried to do some work study, I think God empowered servant, rather than worldly leader.

As we are dissatisfied with a leader, we might find that once this leader was follower of another leader who disappointed her/him and he had a dream of being better leader.

Sometimes, we may see areas of the leader, government or authority above us have rooms to be improved. And I wonder, what would we be different in the place of the leadership with authority. We may be right to see a piece of structure need to be fixed, without understanding this fix associate with the whole architecture.

Who can see the whole picture of these global connection and the development through these history? If the road of leadership is the path of failure, the issue is not about who is the leader.
I am not sure how true is that "Absolute power would be absolute corrupt". Absolute is often a concept beyond reality. After these years of services, I fear that my observation is align with most of the time about the premise that power corrupt.

As Peter Drucker mentioned that if there is a position or job that no one can fit it well, the issues may not only be the people taking the position/job, but the one who define the job.

The authority or membership of church and NGO prescribe a perfect pastor/leader with our imagination and expectation from us,the fallen human being. I think that's one of the reasons why it is so difficult to find leader finishing their job well. I fear that the initial prescription or definition of leader can be problematic.


There is only the Architecture of the universe can lead with all knowledge and all power. There is only Father and one Teacher. We all are brothers and sisters. We all are fellow students of the Master knowing all.

What we can do is to serve the One by serving others. I don't think the world need more leaders, I think we need more humble servants, who are aware of their servant hood, brotherhood and studentship. Thus, you can see why I have the passion to mobilize laity and ordinary people.

At the same time, let's left up our hands and pray for those servants with authority, serving their follower well with wisdom for their making decision, trouble shooting, problem solving.

Calling to come close to God for next 50 days -- Day 1

On the 2nd day of the fifth month of fifty one year since I was born, in the evening I was walking with Loretta at the court yard of our residential areas. I found there was an urge for me to come closer to God in next fifty days, until my family going back to Hong Kong on Jun 22nd as planned.
This year will be a special year of my family, as my son will graduated from high school and leave the family for his studying in a university in Hong Kong.

Since my last half-marathon, I have been gaining weight and gaining more spiritual fat. I think it is time to focusing on God the Father, focusing on Jesus, focusing on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I hope in the coming 50 days besides my routine, responsibility of work and family, I spend my time to focus more on listening to God's word, pray to Him, communicate with Him. I would also like to spend more time to pray for His plan on me, my family and ministry and the development of GOSP4EL, or other things as the Spirit guiding. I think I also need more time to reflect about what happening and what I learned last year.

I would certainly appreciate your prayer. I'll try to write down my reflection and what I learned through this blog. In next 50 days.

I am sure His plan is give us hope.