干!

中國有一份特別的職業, 就係幫老闆"頂酒". 在中國做生意, "關係"是舉足輕重的. 而跟生意伙伴建立關係的其中一個重要的原素, 就是要跟"話事人"食飯飲酒. 吃的當然是山珍海錯, "話事人"要你飲, 你一定要干杯, 否則是不給他面子. 於是, 中國出現了這份幫老闆頂酒並和其他老闆飲飲食食的職業. 聽起來這是一份很好的工作, 每天約不同的人吃飯即可. 但這也難為了自己的身體, 膽固醇直線上升, 不斷的醉酒亦嚴重傷害自己的肝功能. 終有一天身體負荷不了.

人為了有生命而生活工作. 但諷刺的是, 人又為了生活, 反而失去生命.

凡 要 救 自 己 生 命 的 ， 必 喪 掉 生 命 ； 凡 為 我 喪 掉 生 命 的 ， 必 得 著 生 命 -- 太16:25

馬 太福音這句金句大概就是這個意思. 人為了生活, 不好好照顧自己, 就喪失生命. 反而當你放棄你一直重視的工作, 金錢, 榮譽, 地位, 反而能得著生命. 放棄這些以後可以得著什麼, 不是我這些凡夫俗子可以回答你, 這需要你自己親身去經歷神的大能. 但若你願意放棄, 你絕對會發現自己得到的比失去的更多. 神沒有應許跟從祂後一切會風調雨順, 但祂應許不論境況如何, 祂都與我們同在, 祂的恩典都夠我用

在你的生命中,有什麼是你重視的? 這些事真的值得你的重視嗎

一個問非所答的耶穌

耶穌在某些人心中是個教師, 或是一個智者. 聖經記載很多有關他的事跡, 其中有不少人問過耶穌一些難題, 或有過不少不同種類的要求. 但當我們細心讀這些事跡, 都會發覺耶穌很多時候會問非所答.

一個癱子求耶穌醫治他, 他沒有對癱子說: 我會醫好你的腳. 反而耶穌回答說: 你的罪赦了

門徒遇上大風浪, 波浪打入船內, 甚至船要滿了水, 他們向耶穌求救. 他沒有起來幫門徒把水倒出船外. 反而耶穌回答說: 你們還沒有信心麼?

彼得三次不認主, 感到既內疚又羞愧. 耶穌沒有怪責他的背叛, 也沒有安慰他令他不致羞愧. 反而耶穌對他說: 你餵養我的羊

這幾件事之中, 耶穌都沒有直接回應這些人要求. 因為耶穌看見的, 不止是他們表面即時的需要, 更能看到他們內心真正的需要. 癱子需要的不只是身體的健康, 更需要心靈的完全. 門徒怕的不只是外在的大風大浪, 更因為他們不信耶穌有能力拯救他們的生命. 耶穌知道彼得是愛他的, 只是沒有自信可以做得到, 於是耶穌接納他, 並要建立他的信心.

還不到兩個月, 聖誕節又到了. 小朋友向聖誕老人求, 都希望他兌現小朋友心中的清單. 但聖誕節真正的主人耶穌, 看到的是我們心中真正的需要. 並且應許一定可以辦到. 耶穌是看人內心的主.

Window shopping

Have you ever seen a hand bag that you love so much, but you cannot afford to buy it. Everyday when you walk pass that store, you take a long time to look at it. You bring the hand bag in front of the mirror and imagine how wonderful it would be if you could bring it home. Some time later, you think that you have already fallen in love with the bag, and you believe the hand bag has fallen in love with you too...

But what happen is, if you take the hand bag without paying, no matter how much you and the hand bag love each other, the salesperson is going to call the police.

Here is the problem. We need to clarify who has the ownership. You may rent a house and live that for 10 years, but it does not mean you gain the ownership of the house. You are merely a tenant.

Many people want freedom. They think they can do whatever they like because they are the owner of their life. In fact, we are not just responsible to ourselves. We must acknowledge that God is the true and only owner of our lives. God loves us so much that He gives us the freedom to make decision on what we would like to do in this life. However, we are only a tenant. God is the owner.

Lamp Stand

Last night I watched a DVD with my husband. A Hong Kong Artist, Zac Kao, who is also a Christian, shared a very good parable, which I would like to share it here.

Imagine in a very dark room. There is no light. You happen to be the only one who has a torch. What would you do? I believe no sensible person would think that because everyone is in the dark, I should also turn my light off. What this person should do is to bring the light into the room, and try to find out where the power button is so that this person can switch on the light.

As Christian, we are the one who has a torch.

Jesus said that we are the light of the world. In Luke 8:16, Jesus said,

No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

For instance, your workplace may be full of darkness. Power and politics are inappropriately exercised and you feel that you are manipulated by your boss. You are afraid of telling your colleagues that you are a Christian because helplessness and loneliness make you think that you are unable to show good testimony that glorifies the name of God. You eventually give up showing Christian's qualities - love, care, hope ...

As Christian, we should never cover up our true identity. Because there is no love, no hope and no one cares about others, we should be the one who bring light into the room. We should not just keep our light on, but also find out the switch of the light so that the whole room is bright and warm. Let Jesus comes into their lives so that they will also become the light of the world.

1 Corinthians 1:22-25

Jews and Greeks seek for signs and wisdom. These are their own way to prove God's existence and they believe signs and world's wisdom are important. However what Christians preach is the thing that the Gentiles consider as folly - Jesus is crucified and raised from the dead.

• What we learn from this passage -
• God does things in ways that we may not understand, or even does things that are considered as folly by the world. Yet the power of God is much stronger than man and His wisdom cannot be understood by man.
• There may be things happen in our life which seem to be unreasonable. We cannot understand why God lets terrible things happen in our life. However God has His own plan. We need to humble and trust in God anytime anywhere.
• God is faithful and He loves us. What we need to learn is to put faith in Him.

1 Corinthians 1:18-21

In these verses, God reminds us that we cannot have a relationship with God through our wisdom or our knowledge but through only the gospel, that is through His way, through His wisdom. However, God's wisdom is often misunderstood.

For nonbelievers, His wisdom is seen as a folly. For believers, we often drift away and forget to humble ourselves and fail to acknowledge the gospel is His powers. When believers read the bible, we may often lack the correct attitude in sincerely seeking God to transform us, but merely seeking knowledge or read out of responsibility.

Verse 21 reminds us that: For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For non-believers, you will not receive God's gift of salvation by your own wisdom, you will need to embark on a faith to believe in the gospel. For believers, you will not know Him through wisdom and your relationship with him will not grow. Have a humble heart to allow transformation to take place.

1 Corinthians 1:14-17

In these verses, we can learn how humble Paul is. In his journey to share the gospel, he must have done a lot if things. Although it sounds like he thanks God for not having done certain things such as baptizing, if read carefully, it means he was thankful that he has really done it in a way that did not misled people in thinking he did things for himself:

• Verse 14 - he said he didn't baptise but in verse 15 he lists out the handful of people that he baptized.
• He clarifies he is called to share the gospel but quickly acknowledges that he did not do it out of his own wisdom (made in eloquent speech), and diminished the importance of Christ in the big picture (the power of the cross).

This tells us a number of things:

1. You may be talented and called to do certain things in the name of God, but this is not an excuse to shy away from other roles that you may not be so good at from time to time.
2. When good deeds are done, has God been honored or do people get the impression that you are doing it for yourself? Have you glorified God's name or diminished the true power of the cross?