Divine romance.

Hello family and friends.  Sorry for the lack of updates.  I've been on a busy schedule of work, studying, working out, swimming, prayer times with spiritual companions, housework, and etc.  

Things have been going well.  The weather has been gloomy and rainy, I'm guessing Vancouver has been the same.  I'm getting better at cooking.  I'm planning on buying a guitar over here.  At work I've been able to do some exercise prescription with head injury clients which has been pretty neat.

I don't know if you've noticed from my photos but the number of saints in Victoria have been decreasing since I came here.  3 families have moved, and pretty soon sister Jean will be going away for a few months.  Which will leave us with just 4 saints who meet regularly.  Despite the small numbers, the meetings have been quite enjoyable.  Everyone is functioning and everyone knows they need to bring their portion of Christ they have enjoyed from the week.  

Jerry and have been joking, pretty soon it might just be us two.  O Lord, but we won't let that happen though.  Next week there will be 20 saints visiting from the Lower Mainland plus 4 of our gospel contacts.  Please pray for this time that the Lord will strengthen His testimony in Victoria!  It's really not that bad here, you just need to visit!

I'll end with some enjoyment from our morning revival on the Minor Prophets:

The Lord went through all the difficult processes to gain and capture our love.  He's the one that stepped out of His glory and put on the lowly form of a man to fulfill His purpose.  He went through the sufferings of human life in order to be fully qualified as our Redeemer, living a perfect God-man life.  He paid the highest price with His own blood in order to wash and cleanse us so we could come to Him.  He resurrected and ascended and now He's in His heavenly ministry dispensing Himself to us, making us the same as He is so we can match Him as His bride!  And what do we have to do?  Simply love Him.  Don't be hardened, drop your concepts, eat that tree, take in Jesus every moment He's so sweet!

Also, I am appreciating what it means to be romantic with the Lord.  It means to be personal and affectionate.  Personal meaning we open and come to Him as we are, and share with Him what is on our heart.  Affectionate meaning we respond in time to His tender love.   And although we may fail many times, it's okay because His love is still eternal and unchanging (Jeremiah 31:3), and He is just waiting for us to respond to Him.  We just need to stop being disappointed about what's in us because the only thing worthy of marriage is the Lord's life in us.

Continue to keep in touch and I hope to be in Vancouver again during the long weekend in November. Much grace to you all.

Settled in

In hindsight, I realize that the Lord really does provide the best for us.  Reminds me of the verse, Matthew 7:11, 'how much more will your Father who is in the heavens give good things to those who ask Him'.  And I'm not just talking about the outward environment, but more importantly, He prepares us situations for our inner being to be open, making us desperate for Him, and experiences to work Himself into our vessels.  

The transition to Victoria hasn't been too bad, since I've had a full-time job and I've lived on my own before.  This lifestyle really allows me to have more personal time with the Lord.  At work, we deal with many clients who have been injured and are going through extensive rehab, and some of their attitudes are that they are just thankful for another day of being alive.  They are happy just to be able to walk and carry out normal daily activities.  It really puts things into perspective.  Every day, I want to go on my knees and thank the Lord for another day of breath, another day to experience and enjoy more of Him.

One of my favourite things about the place I live is that I'm literally across the street from a fitness centre/pool/basketball court, so I'm there pretty much every day (see photos above).  It's my second home, haha.  Starting to get into swimming with hopes to do a triathlon one day..

Also, this past weekend Jerry slept over and we played basketball, prepared for the prophesying meeting, toured Victoria and had some good fellowship during the night.  Praise the Lord for companions.

Chinatown entrance

And our meeting continues to get smaller, but praise the Lord it is still so enjoyable!  I really enjoyed hymn #499, 'all that I am came to an end, and all of Christ is all to me!'

Cindy's family is moving back to China, so it was their last meeting in Victoria :(

This painting was supposed to have a 3-D effect.  Do you see it?? 

Anyway, I can't believe I'm already in my fourth week in Victoria.  Time flies.  Hope to see you soon when I visit during the long weekend!!

College Retreat - The Lord's Return

I am so thankful for being able to attend this year's college retreat in Chilliwack on the Lord's return.  It was very heart warming to see all the brothers and sisters again and to pursue the Lord with other believers.  Here are some key points that I enjoyed:

1) We need to be those not only believing in the Lord's return, but more importantly those living a life waiting, expecting, long, and hastening His return (2 Peter 3:12), taking it as an encouragement.  This implies that as His Bride, we have prepared ourselves adequately and are ready to meet our glorious Bridegroom.

2) There are several signs that must take place before the end of the age such as:  the political situation in preparation for the anti-Christ, the economic situation, calamities, bible prophecy, and Matthew 24:14 about the gospel being preached to all the nations.  The first four signs, we have no control of but the one thing we can do is preach the gospel!

3) The way to prepare for Christ's second coming can be seen in the parables in Matthew 25.  First, the parable of the 10 virgins shows us that we need to be watchful in life, paying the price to buy the oil for our lamps (signifying allowing the Holy Spirit to spread into our soul), which is accumulated daily.  Second, the parable of the slaves shows us that we need to be faithful in service, by trading our talents (signifying using what the Lord has given us).

Overall, I'm appreciating that the subject of the Lord's coming doesn't just have to be a scary thing.  It's good to have a healthy fear, but we can also prepare for His return and hasten it because as His Bride we long to see our Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus.

(Photos credit to Robert Pranata)

Good companion reunited again

From left to right, Jason, Jerry, Robert, moi, Leonard, Dernanto

Other than the retreat, things have been going well in Victoria.  I spend most of my time after work doing chores or working out at the fitness centre across the street.  I plan to spend more time reading the bible/praying with Jerry on Skype now.  We got to know each other during our trip to Chilliwack and are burdened to pursue the Lord together.  Work has been going well and I feel that this position will provide me lots of opportunity to grow, since I'm working directly with both occupational and physical therapists.

Keep in touch and I miss you all!

Life on the Island

Praise the Lord for his testimony in Victoria.  May the Lord continue to gain His testimony here.  I was very much supplied by all the portions of the saints during our Lord's table and prophesying meeting.  In smaller meetings like this, you can't hide in the back row because there is none!  We enjoyed the morning revival series on 'The Vision of the Proper One Accord in the Church.'  

One point that touched me is that we need to serve the Lord with the one vision, the vision of the age that includes all the vision of the Bible, based on the teaching of the apostles.  We may love the Lord, serve Him, but if we do not have this vision as revealed in the Bible, we cannot be one and the Lord cannot pour out His commanded blessing (Psalms 133).  May the Lord give us such a vision that He may gain the oneness among us He desires.

We were treated for a buffet meal for lunch

Almost all Victorians tell me that Victoria is more beautiful than Vancouver.  Less rain, less clouds, more sun, more boats.  I'll post more photos so you can decide!

Lots of tourists

Horses are pretty common

Very similar to Vancouver's Granville island.  I kind of like this one better :D

Water-taxi.. only on an island would you find this

Seals at the harbour!

Water taxis.. and yep, water-homes as well!

Parliament buildings

Pretty random but we saw Darth Vader playing the violin

As for work, things are great.  Learning lots in the clinic and I'm fitting in quite well.  And I finally moved into my new place with Internet access so I can keep in touch/Skype with you all.  In my free time I'll spend most of my time in the fitness centre across the street from my place.  

Please let me know how you're all doing and I hope to see you soon!!

Victoria

Sorry for the lack of updates since I left.  For those who don't know, I recently moved to Victoria for work.  My prayer this summer was, 'Lord, take me wherever You want me to be this fall.'  And I experienced the Lord's faithful seeing Him working out everything for me to be here.  Lord, may my time here be worthwhile in Your eyes.

So during these past few days I've been living with the Lee family, a couple in the churchlife who are moving to the Vancouver area next week.  They are really sweet and have been taking care of me, making me breakfast and lunch even though I told them they didn't need to.  They don't have any internet so I have to find other places to get online.  I will be moving to my new place with Internet this Saturday so it should be easier to keep in touch starting from then!

Some recent enjoyment of a hymn I've been enjoying is that when we call on the Lord:
1) we participate in the Triune God,
2) we become joined to the Lord, and increase the element of God in us,
3) we grow with the growth of God,
4) the life of God matures with us,
5) we are built with others as His bride,
6) we bring Satan closer to the lake of fire,
7) and we speed up the coming marriage of the Lamb.

Calling in the such a simple practice, but it really allows the Lord to have His way to fulfill His economy in us!

May we all have such a simple life of calling, enjoying, and taking in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bibles for Canada + New Jersey Training

Montreal Bible Distribution - I thank the Lord that my limited-French skills were put to use.  Handing out bibles in French at Metro stations was such an enjoyable experience.  I realized that people there are hungry for the Word of God especially in French.  Often times we ran out of French bibles before our shift was over.  I had one experience of meeting a young man who was unsure if he was saved or not.  I told him about Romans 10:13, and we called on the Lord, and he walked away with a smile on his face. There were several contacts who really wanted further contact.  May the Lord gain some remaining fruit through this distribution!

New Jersey Chinese-Speaking Perfecting Training - Praise the Lord for the radio translation (btw, I don't speak or understand Chinese and I think even James Bruce knows more than me).  Anyway, the topic was "The Divine History Within the Human History," and the point that the Lord touched me on the most was the matter of consecration.  The highlight for many of the students were the public consecration times.  After seeing so many young people giving their lives to the Lord, I realized that no other way is so safe, rich, and full of enjoyment.  It was a release to consecrate my education, career, and future to the Lord because we belong to Him and He has to take the responsibility (1 Cor. 6:19-20).  Since everything is in His hand, He knows exactly what we need and will cause everything to work out so that He can dispense more of Himself into us.  Our only requirement is to "offer ourselves willingly" day by day to be produced as the dew that refreshes the Lord (Psa. 110:3).

College Training Overflow

What a summer!  Now that I'm back from all my travels, I finally have time to share some highlights.  Here's some college training overflow:

1. Learning the lessons on church history - God's heart's desire is to gain the church as His counterpart.  But how do we be the church that He desires?  We find the answer in reading Revelation 2 and 3.  There we see a letter written to 7 local churches with only 1 church, the church in Philadelphia, whom the Lord approved of.  Although it was written to 7 local churches, there is only 1 church in this universe.  The conditions of the other 6 churches show us the causes of their degradation.  For example, Ephesus lost their first love, and even though they had good works and endurance, the Lord still did not approve of them.  Oh Lord, gain our best and first love for You!

2. God ordained way - 1) Begetting = go, 2) Nourishing = visit, 3) Perfecting = gather, 4) Building = prophesy.  In our shepherding of others, the first three steps are to gather the material, but we must keep in mind the goal, which is the build up the Body of Christ.  Many testimonies were given by new ones of how they were brought into the churchlife through all of these steps.

3. Exercising our human spirit - Practically, how can we remain on the orthodox line of the church and practice the God-ordained way?  It is to simply exercise our spirit.  The brother shared that if we don't exercise our spirit, nothing happens!

I'm going to miss being in Montreal but...

“What matters where on earth we dwell?
On mountain top, or in the dell,
In cottage, or a mansion fair,
Where Jesus is, my joy is there.”
- Hymn 348

Hallelujah, it doesn't matter where I am.  Lord, as long as I exercise my spirit to turn to You, I can experience You as my true joy.