pastordan's Xanga

Monday, July 20, 2009

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:28:58 GMT

Why not?

Just saw this on a twitter and felt that the message was extremely powerful. Mark Batterson, author of Wild Goose Chase, blogged this recently:

George Bernard Shaw once said: "Some men see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were and ask, ‘Why not’?”

I think we're called, as Christ Followers, to ask the why not question. We're called to take the why not approach to life. Faith demands it.

Any other parents have children that ask "why" when you ask them to do something? It can drive you crazy can't it? I wonder if that is how God feels sometimes. We're always asking why. It's like we need an excuse to do something. What if we asked why not instead.

I love the story in Acts 8 about the Ethiopian Eunuch who has a divine appointment with Philip. He puts his faith in Christ and immediately says: "Why shouldn't I be baptized?" That one question reveals a why not mindset. And it changes the course of history. He becomes the first missionary to Ethiopia.

I can only imagine what we'd accomplish for the kingdom if we had a why not mindset.

Why not.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Mon, 25 May 2009 10:54:56 GMT

The Summer Begins...

As the daylight hours grow longer, and our youth in the church look forward to the closing weeks of school, there's no denying the fact that summer is finally with us.

A blessed Memorial Day to all, as we not only enjoy a day off from our work, but remember the fallen heroes of our country who have paved the way for the freedoms enjoyed in our country and in defense of those freedoms around the world. As the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., reminds us, "Freedom is not Free." We ought to reflect soberly, what are we doing with the freedoms afforded to us? Let us never take these things for granted, as we serve as stewards of God's blessings entrusted to us.

The annual Faith In Art Show held at church will be on June 14! Get your artwork ready to show God’s creativeness and giftedness in your life. It’s another format to share your testimony of faith, especially for those who are not as at ease in using the spoken word. Many types of creative expression (paintings, drawings, sculpture, computer art, crafts, songs, poetry, etc.) are welcome. Sign up forms will be coming out soon. Group projects also encouraged.

Our church retreat at Messiah College is coming up in June, from June 19-21. Save that date on your calendars.

Lastly, this year's Guatemala Short Term Missions trip is scheduled for August 2-19. Keep track of the preparations of the team members as we train and get donations ready for our church's sixth trip down to Guatemala with Fe Viva World Missions. The G-Team 2009 blog is here.

Enjoy time with your families this summer and continue to keep our church, our members and our ministries in your prayers!

Monday, January 05, 2009

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:18:03 GMT

Happy New Year, Everyone!

And so, in the blink of an eye, six months have passed since my last post on Xanga. It definitely isn't for lack of things or experiences to write about, as many together in ministry with me would know, but how challenging it is to put all these things into words so that people can understand fully what I've (or we've) been through (without breaching anything said in confidence). Even so, 2008 has certainly been an eventful one for the church and frankly for practically everything else as well in this country and in the world.

Now that 2009 is here, our church kicks off a new theme and I launched it during our church service yesterday. The theme is a simple one: "Love In Action" with 1 John 3:18 as our theme verse: "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." I shared with my congregation that when my senior pastor and I came up with the theme several weeks ago, I was somewhat fearful in using this unless we were absolutely careful in how we explained this to people. With a church full of busy people, the last thing I want people to take away from the year's theme was that all they needed to do to meet the goals of this year was to increase in busyness!

"Love In Action" does not mean that if we do more things then we're loving more, though certainly that can be the first blush reading of it. Our 2009 theme is rooted deeply in the theme of last year: "Transforming Life's Values." This is a Part B to a Part A; an "Episode 2" following an "Episode 1." Unless we have truly had our core values transformed by Christ and by Scripture, then we will inevitably love in the wrong manner. It's possible to love, but to act wrongly upon that love. We ought to love the way God desires us to love. It's love done "God's way." Stripping away our own selfish desires, self-centered motives; casting aside our self-limiting fears and constricting inadequacies. If it really is not about us, and all about God, then we go about loving in the way that glorifies God, change ourselves and changes those we impact. A transformative value leads to a transformative type of love.

Good stuff. And I pray we'll be able to accomplish that to the betterment of our spousal relationships, parental relationships, familial relationships, church relationships, workplace relationships, community relationships, and more. I think that's enough typing for now...If anyone knows of a better blogging site, please let me know. I'm not enthusiastic about Xanga anymore which could explain my paucity of updates. Again, thanks to all who have encouraged me both subtly and oh-so-not-subtly to update my page. You've been good friends.

God bless!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:37:59 GMT

The Summer's Here!

I think I do Xanga updates every two or three months now. Again a shout out to a dear faithful brother at church who always reminds me to remember this blog...with the advance of internet tech, it's amazing now how much Facebook and Flickr have taken over a lot of communications and picture posting needs that Xanga used to fulfill (if you don't have a Facebook account, you can see our church pictures through the Flickr albums through our church website, in the photos section).

One of the things I still like Xanga for is for our blogging for our upcoming Guatemala short term missions trip coming up in less than two weeks, from July 13-27. Please keep us in prayer as we're making preparations to go this year, and we'll do our best to keep you updated while we're down there.

So for the next couple of weeks, please take a look at our G-Team 2008 Guatemala Short Term Missions Blog for more updates with what I and my church is up to.

Thanks for all your prayers!
PD

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:41:18 GMT

Happy Easter, everyone!

It's been a week since Easter, but now with all the preparations for Good Friday and Easter services over, it's a good time to just be able to sit back and reflect a bit. I was very happy to see how things went with the Easter celebration that took place after our worship service...instead of the usual assortment of testimonies and music offerings, we instead turned the after-worship celebration into a baptismal service so the baptisms wouldn't have to be rushed at the end of the service, which had been our usual practice. What better way to reflect on the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ than to celebrate the baptisms of brothers and sisters with the entire congregation?

The program was simply designed -- opening prayer and responsive reading, the children sang a few Easter songs (which everyone enjoyed tremendously) and congregational singing, much more than our usual one or two songs during service. What we also did, to solve the problem of a bilingual congregation listening to testimonies spoken in a single language, was to record all the testimonies beforehand on video and edit it all together with subtitles so everyone can get a translation in real time as they watched. Sure, a translator could be used, but it makes everything twice as lengthy and most people aren't used to speaking with a translator (the start and stopping makes it easy to lose one's place and it's hard to maintain a flow) that it gets very cumbersome. The videos were met with a lot of positive feedback, which I'm glad for since it took a lot of time to put together ;) so it was all worth it. Thanks to technology and some elbow grease, we were able to restore people's enjoyment of the testimonies and have a great church family time enjoying the Lord together.

I can't stop thinking about the implications of having a new life in Christ -- I guess that's why I'm a pastor. It's truly such an amazing thing which transforms our entire outlook on life. The concept that we're united again with our Heavenly Father through the incomparable death and resurrection of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It has an impact on every area of our lives.

Take families for example. It's a subject important to me in my ministry, especially at a Chinese church. One undeniable fact about families is that they are inherently inconvenient. It's complicated having all these people living and interacting with one another and trying not to get under one another's skin...which nonetheless still happens whether we try to avoid it or not. Sinful people bound together by a common bond and called to make the best of it. Now this can either be done in our own strength -- which ultimately offers little solution to the problem besides tiring us out and feel as if we're always dealing with an unchangeable situation, especially if we're the "younger" individual in the relationship: adults dealing with senior citizens, young adults dealing with older adults, youth and parents, etc. The younger always in the back of their minds feel that the older will never change.

It's profound that our Father God calls us all "his children," so we're all in the same boat. With each day being "new every morning," each day is an opportunity to enjoy God anew and we're all coming to God humbly and broken, to be restored by his Spirit as a new creation -- the old has gone, new creation! (2 Cor. 5:17)

New life helps us deal with the inconvenience of relationships, while restoring the importance of being in a family community. As such, our new life in Christ means that the intellectual and emotional conclusion to thinking about our family does not automatically equate to being a "hassle" or an "inconvenience" which is an all too common reply that I hear as I counsel young adults and teens as they think back on their own family experiences. Dealing with our families, even church families, is now a task managed with the presence and promise of Jesus Christ. This newness of families is now attainable through Christ's restoration. A brand new hope helps us persevere to get to the "not yet" in the midst of the "already." It's not yet where we want it to be, but by God (literally), we'll get there.

Have a blessed time with your immediate family and your church family, brothers and sister!

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:36:45 GMT

新年快樂!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

May the Lord bless you richly as you seek His will in your life!

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him and
He will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 3:5-6

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 12:31:39 GMT

Merry Christmas!

2007 really came and went so quickly, however the year's been filled with great blessings as I look back and think over the events, the growth in people, and the answers the prayers we've seen. Here's to a joyful 2008!

I came across this article giving a glimpse of Christmas in China. It's an interesting read:

http://www.reformedworship.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=1328

See you in the New Year!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:09:20 GMT

An Interesting Quote

Came across this recently which I liked a lot. Definitely something to think about.

"A hypocrite is a person who's not himself on Sundays."

I'm sure this applies to both genders. Thanks for checking in, and hope all's going well with you! Blessings!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:11:43 GMT

An Article by John Piper

It's been such a great blessing ministering at Trinity Church and I enjoy the challenge of building and sustaining a Chinese church with two congregations located out in the suburbs. But I'll be frank, it's not easy. We're not in a large city or located within a Chinatown (there are Chinese churches downtown to reach out there), and we're not located right next to a major university or a single major industry teeming with Asian students or employees (again, those are downtown). Those populations and environments bring a steady stream of people into an ethnic church. However we do have a good number of Chinese families out here in the suburbs working hard, making a home for their families, providing for their children. But it is the suburbs. People live farther apart. A car is needed for any type of gathering. Report cards, college applications, summer programs, soccer practice and music lessons are the major stresses of the youth. Two income families are the norm in order to maintain all the comforts of suburbia. Reminding members of the heart of the gospel, fostering their motivation for pressing on in living out the faith can be tough in the face of day-to-day routine and in the absence of great struggle.

I came across one of John Piper's short devotions for the morning and thought it appropriate to post in light of my musings today. You can take a look at the original from his site Desiring God.

What is the danger in being a middle-class comfortable Christian?

by John Piper, September 26, 2007
The following is an edited transcription of the audio.

Being a Christian these days in America is very comfortable, middle-class, and respectable. What are the dangers in that?

The Bible is really clear in 1 Timothy 6:9 that making godliness a means of gain--financial gain--is deadly; and the deadliness of it is in the desire to be rich. It says to not desire to be rich, because "those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." In other words, it is suicidal to want to be rich.

One of the main dangers in being comfortable in our Christianity is that over time comfort tends to begin to feel like something that God--or the world--owes us; and what we once called "luxury" is now called "need." More and more we want things, and securities, and comforts. And we find our conversations with people even drifiting onto the subject of special new things that we have just bought and we're not talking Kingdom language anymore. It's a creeping kind of gangrene with a smiling face on it that eats away at the heart of the Kingdom.

When Jesus said Matthew 6:31-33--"Do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For all the nations seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you"--he was pleading for us to not get into a situation where we're drowning in stuff. In other words, "Give yourself to mental and emotional energies that concern Kingdom issues, and let food and clothing and drink take care of themselves." And we get it almost entirely backwards.

We get into situations where we talk about what we wear, and about food and toys and houses, and only now and then a Kingdom issue arises and Christ comes into the conversation. I think Jesus is grieved by that and would have us turn it around.

Talk about Christ, and missions, and ministry, and making an impact for Jesus. Oh yes, you need a place to stay. Sure, you need a way to get around. Sure, you probably need a computer these days, so that you can communicate by email. But let your conversation and your energy flow mainly with Kingdom vision and Kingdom issues.

© Desiring God

Monday, August 20, 2007

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:59:10 GMT

Praise the Lord! Back from Guatemala

What a fantastic two weeks we've had in Guatemala. Personal thanks to Brother Tsai, Brother Wang, Ruth, Tian, Shida, Andrew, Jiahe, Lindy, Sitong and Anne for making this trip such a memorable one. Praise the Lord for all his faithfulness and his provision during this experience. I have personally seen each member of our team make tremendous strides in their faith and their personal relationship with our Lord and Savior. May we never forget the lessons that he has taught us and we continue to press on to enjoy his glory!

Take a look at our trip blog at the G-Team 2007 site.