Well I have finished my 1st quarter (3 months) of SBS by the grace of God and thanks to your prayers. As I sit down to write this update on what God has been teaching me throughout the last month, I am reminded of the song “Shun Hypocrisy” that my band “24x7” had come up with.
“God please break into our lives and save us!
Shun hypocrisy! Shun hypocrisy!
May we not live our lives like the Pharisee!
Shun hypocrisy! Shun hypocrisy!”
And then the song fades with this cry for believers to return to the truth of God,
“Why have we exchanged truth for lies?
Why did we ever have to compromise?
Why did we let go of our inheritance?
For all the pleasures temporal instead.”
Last month we did study 1 & 2 Corinthians, 2 Timothy, Hebrews, 1 & 2 Peter, Jude and James. I am amazed to see how God desires that we stand firm in His truth and walk in it despite all costs. And this theme of living out the truth of God in holiness and love and enduring suffering because of it came up over and over again all through these books. I am humbled to see the unconditional love of God in the writings of Paul that pursued the Corinthian church in all of their wickedness and sins so that they would repent and return to the truth and reflect the holiness of God. The author of Hebrews exalts the Supremacy of Jesus over all things to challenge the readers to stand firm in what they’ve believed and to endure suffering because Jesus is the ultimate truth. Peter, Jude and James all emphasized the same thing and challenged their readers to pursue God in truth and persevere in it. All because they knew that God is Holy and there is absolutely no shadow of deceit or corruption in Him. And Paul in his final words to Timothy challenges him with the same truth as he writes,
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:3-5)
As I look into my life and in the church today, this is voice of God crying over us and urging us to return to Him and to pursue and persevere in His truth because He is the TRUTH. And how can we who have tasted this truth not be changed by it and reflect the same in our lives? I pray that we would ponder on this and desire to live it out.
Well I also want to thank God for His faithfulness towards me in providing all my needs beyond all my expectation and I am choked when I see Him move. By the grace of God I got my resident visa, which means I can now stay in Taiwan till the end of SBS. Hurray!!! And so I want to thank you for all your prayers and support in this journey of mine. I am right now enjoying my 1st break getting some rest and reading Francis Schaeffer. Keep me in your prayers that God would pour out His grace and strength for me to know Him better and I head into the 2nd quarter finishing the New Testament and entering in to the big Old Testament books.
Blessings,
