The Dutch Puritan theologian Blake wrote a book called The Christian’s Reasonable Service, the full title of which is “Christian Serving.” This name immediately reminds us of Romans 12:1: “Therefore, brethren, I exhort you, in the mercy of God, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, and it is natural that you serve so.” It was based on this verse that Blake formulated the title of the book. In his preface, he points out that before the fall of the first fathers, God called people to pleasing missions; After the Fall, this mission became difficult, but God’s will was still for everyone to faithfully do what God had called him to do. The key to whether the calling is spiritual or not is the state of mind and how we complete the calling. Man should willingly fulfill his responsibilities in this world to serve God and glorify God. The theme of this passage we’re going to share today is natural service. Next, I will share from three aspects. First, we are servants of Christ; Second, how servants should serve; The third point is what kind of mentality should be in service. Before sharing, we pray together.
We are servants of Christ
This parable is not so easy to understand. The whole story is short and the context is not contextualized. At first glance, it sounds a little harsh, a little harsh, as if it is not close to people. Our culture today is very different from that of the time, which makes it even more difficult to understand. Let’s start by looking at the context of this story. Luke 17:1-10 is Jesus’ teaching to His disciples on his way up to Jerusalem. These 10 verses contain four themes, tripping, forgiveness, faith, and service. All four themes relate to discipleship, with the first two involving relationships with brothers and sisters and the last two dealing with relationships with God. Today we want to share the fourth theme, service. As servants of God, it is natural for us to serve God.
“Doulas” means slave, slave in the original Greek. Slaves or servants were part of everyday life in ancient societies. In the Roman Empire in the first century AD, about twenty to thirty percent of the population were slaves. Slavery was not based on race in ancient societies. People become slaves for different reasons. Some were captured in war and became slaves, some were punished as slaves for crimes, some were sold into slavery because they could not pay their debts, some were born into slavery because their parents were slaves, and some even chose to become slaves as apprentices. The social or economic status of slaves also varied widely, and some slaves were the slaughters of kings or ministers, who were not only very powerful but also quite wealthy. However, no matter what reason they became slaves, and regardless of their social and economic status, they were completely belonging to their masters, and they had no autonomy. They must serve, be loyal to, and honor their master. This is their duty as servants. Today, we live in an age of egalitarian and rights-oriented times, and it is difficult to understand and accept the status of servants. However, for the disciples at that time, it should not be difficult to understand what Jesus was trying to say.
The Bible speaks of Christian identity from different perspectives. We are God’s children, God’s friends, God’s stewards, God’s messengers, God’s servants, and so on. Among them, servant or slave is one of our basic identities. The relationship between the disciples and Jesus is also known as the relationship between the servant and the master. Our Lord Jesus took the image of a slave Himself (Philippians 2:7), and He was an example of a servant in both word and deed. He became a suffering servant of God and came into the world to serve and even lay down His life (Mark 10:45). He humbly served and even washed the feet of His disciples (John 13:4-5). When the disciples fought over who would be greater, Jesus said to them, “Whoever among you desires to be great, he will be your man; Whoever wishes to be the head will be your servant. (Matthew 20:26-27) By following Christ, the disciples became servants of Christ and, like Him, became servants of all. Paul repeatedly refers to himself as a “servant of Christ Jesus” (Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1, Titus 1:1), indicating that he belongs completely to the Lord, is fully loyal to the Lord, and is supposed to obey the Lord, willingly serve the Lord, and please the Lord. Paul knew that Christ was Lord and had absolute sovereignty over Him because He was bought by Christ at a high price. After articulating the saving grace of Jesus Christ before Romans 12, he begins chapter 12 by exhorting his brothers and sisters to sacrifice the whole person as a living sacrifice, because such service is a matter of course. If we are saved by grace and still live for ourselves or still pleasing others, we are not servants of Christ (Galatians 1:10). In addition to Paul, Peter (2 Peter 1:1), James (James 1:1), John (Rev. 1:1), and Judas (Judah 1), the brother of the Lord, all called themselves servants of Jesus Christ. When the early church priest Ignatius referred to the representative bishops, elders, and deacons of the church in his letters, the word used to refer to deacons as “fellow slaves.” This designation is meant to indicate that service to God is the common bond that connects all Christians. Luke’s record of Zechariah’s prophecy makes God’s purpose for saving us even clearer: “So that since we are saved from the enemy, we may serve him in the holy and righteous manner for life without fear.” (Luke 1:74-75)
As disciples of Christ, do we realize that our relationship with Christ is one between servant and master? Do we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and are willing to obey His sending and arrangement? Do we know deep down that He brought us back with His blood to save us from his dark power so that we could serve Him? In fact, we are either serving the true God or serving the false God. May we all be like Joshua and decide to say, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Book 24:15)
2. How servants should serve?
Once we know that we are servants of Christ, the next question is, how do we serve Him? The four verses we share are made up of two questions and answers. The first question is, “Who of you has a servant who plows the land or herds sheep and returns from the field and says to him, ‘Come and sit down and eat?'” Verse 8 gives a clear answer with a rhetorical question: “Don’t you say to him, ‘Prepare me dinner, tie up a belt and serve me, and when I have finished eating, you may eat and drink’?” “Today’s people will read it and think that the master is excessive, and the servant is too aggrieved. However, the parable focuses on how the servant should serve the master, not how the master should treat the servant. The servants of ancient Palestine had many responsibilities, and the master needed him to take care of them inside and out. He not only had to plow the land and herd sheep outside, but also cooked for and served the master when he returned to his master’s house. Whatever the master asks him to do, he needs to obey. He cannot choose. He must put the needs of his master first, and can’t he say, I have just returned from plowing the land or herding sheep, shouldn’t I take a break first? I can’t say, I worked for a day, my stomach is hungry, I have to eat first, what is there to say when I am full! This is not the mentality and practice of servants. As a servant, he must first take care of his master. Whether it is plowing the land or herding sheep, it is quite hard work. However, even if he was tired from plowing the land or herding sheep outside, the servant had to tie his belt, raise his spirits, and prepare a meal for the master, so that the master could eat well before he could eat or rest. Whatever the master tells him to do, he must do it. All this he does is the duty of a servant.
We are disciples of Christ and slaves of Christ. Just as servants of ancient times served their masters, so should we serve Christ. From the servant’s service in this story, we can learn the following lessons about serving
First, work tirelessly. We are servants, not volunteers. Volunteers can choose to serve at a time that is convenient for them, and servants have no choice. The volunteer can choose what he likes to do, and the servant cannot pick and choose. Whether it is plowing the land, herding sheep, cooking and washing dishes, or washing feet, as long as the master lets it dry, the servants have to do it. Plowing the land and herding sheep is very hard. Plowing the land is to loosen the soil in the field with a plow, and it is necessary to control the oxen and grasp the direction of the plow. Sheep herding is also not as romantic as people in the city think. David herded sheep in his youth, facing the danger of the sheep getting lost or being devoured by wild beasts. He must be vigilant and try to protect the sheep, and if the sheep are lost, he will find them. After the servants are doing all this hard work, according to our common sense today, we should rest when we go home, How can we still let us cook and serve the master? However, the servant, who understood his identity and duty, did not complain and worked tirelessly to serve his master. No service does not require hard work. Pastor Xiaofeng mentioned in his sharing on Wednesday that he prepares sermons, sometimes sitting for hours. Then, it has to be revised over and over again. Despite his gift of preaching, the process of preparation was arduous. Many brothers and sisters work during the day and attend church services in the evenings or on weekends, which is also very hard. There are still many of us who go to school for a day and come home to cook, take care of the children, and help the children with their homework. We must not complain about hardships, let us not abdicate our duties because of fatigue. As servants of Christ, as long as the Lord tells us to do something, whatever we do, do it from the heart, as if it is done for the Lord, not for others so that we are serving the Lord.
Second, never stop. Service is not only arduous but can be long. The servant finished the work of plowing the land or herding the sheep during the day, and new services awaited him in the evening. The same is true of our service, where one service is completed and a new one comes. Sometimes we say to the Lord, Lord, can you stop and let us rest? When we are really tired and powerless, of course the Lord will give us time to rest, recover, and renew. But we can’t just because we’ve served for a while before that we can’t think we can stop serving. People who serve longer tend to develop a mindset that they feel tired and don’t want to serve anymore. We need rest and renewal when we are tired and sleepy, but rest and renewal are meant to regain our strength and continue to serve the Lord better. At the end of one service, we seek the Lord to understand what His next service to us is. Christ is our master, and He wants us to serve Him holy and righteousness before Him all our lives. We retire from certain positions of service for various reasons such as health and age, but as long as we live, we can never stop serving. In this sense, Hou Shiting once said that Christians never retire. Spurgeon even said, “By the grace of the Lord, I will not ‘retire’ until the four carry me on my shoulders to the grave.” As long as we breathe, we can still say a word for Christ, and we will never give up our service. ”
Third, the main purpose is first. After the servants returned from ploughing the land or herding sheep, they first prepared dinner for the master, served the master to eat and drink, and then began to eat and rest themselves. In service, we are to consider the Lord’s will, not our own. To consider the Lord’s mind is to prioritize what the Lord sees as important. We are often faced with the choice of thinking about the kingdom of God first or our own first. Sometimes we worry that if we take care of God’s business, we seem to sacrifice our own. But Jesus gives us a wonderful promise: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and these things will be given to you.” (Matthew 6:33) There are times when we know what the Lord’s will is, but because we are considerate of the flesh and unwilling to be considerate of the Holy Spirit, we put our own satisfaction ahead of God’s will.
Fourth, complete the entrustment. Plowing the land or herding sheep, preparing dinner, serving the master to eat and drink, whatever the master told him to do, the servants did. Verse 10 says that the servant “has done everything he has commanded.” For every service entrusted to us by the Lord, we need to be spirited, earnest, and hard-working. Patience is especially needed in service. Our physical body is really weak, and when we encounter stress and difficulties, we want to escape, we want to give up. Who doesn’t love a more comfortable life? Sometimes, I also want to let go of everything I have done and leave Beijing to live in a small place and live a peaceful and comfortable life. But I can only think that I am a servant of God, not my own, and cannot make my claims. As servants of the Lord, it is our duty to do the work the Lord commands, otherwise, we are unfaithful.
3. What kind of mentality should be in service?
The second question is: “If the servant does as he is told, does the master thank him?” “The answer is: No!” In this way, when you have done all that you command, you should simply say, ‘We are useless servants, and what we are supposed to do is our share.’ “If the servant has done what the master has commanded, should the master thank him and reward him?” Did the servant have merit, and the master owed him a debt for it? No! All this was originally the duty of the servant, and it was his responsibility. A person who does what he does should not expect the master to thank or reward him in his mind.
Generals or ministers in ancient China made great achievements, and they all expected the king to add officials to them. This is the normal thinking of the world. So James and John would initially ask the Lord that when the Lord would gain the kingdom, one of them would sit on His left and the other on His right. When we faithfully accomplish all the work that the Lord has commanded, we sometimes think to ourselves, should I not be rewarded and praised for accomplishing so much hard work, making so great sacrifices, accomplishing such great works, and blessing so many people? However, this is not the mentality of a servant. The servant should simply say, “We are useless servants, and what we do is what we should share.” The term “useless servant” in verse 10 is translated in most English translations as “unworthy servants” or “unprofitable servants.” This does not mean that servants are useless, but that servants do not deserve to be rewarded or rewarded, that masters owe them nothing, and that what they do is their duty. The servant should have in his heart an unworthy and humble attitude.
First, recognize your unworthiness. We are unworthy servants and must not feel that we deserve the reward of the Lord. Everything we have, our bodies, our souls, everything we have, is a gift from God that we can never pay back. God not only created us but also redeemed us, buying us with the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Everything we do is originally done by God’s grace and help. Our ability to do all this is also given by the Lord. God is sovereign and honorable, and everything we do does not gain Him. However, we often forget our status as servants, thinking that we should be praised and rewarded for accomplishing some of the master’s work. You may have heard the following story. A missionary couple returned to the United States after many years of service in Africa. They and Theodore. President Roosevelt was in the same boat. Roosevelt was returning from a hunting trip to Africa. When he landed in New York Harbor, bands were playing his favorite songs for Roosevelt, and dignitaries were there to greet him. When the missionary couple disembarked, they were cold and clear, and no one greeted them. The contrast was so strong that the husband felt devastated. He said to his wife, “That’s so unfair! It’s so unfair!
We gave everything to God, but what did He do for us? His wife replied, “My dear, I know it’s not fair… Why don’t you go into your bedroom and tell God all this and see what He will say to you? So he went into the bedroom and knelt down alone in prayer. After the prayer came out, his face lit up and he said to his wife, “Do you know what the Lord said to me? He said, ‘But you haven’t come home yet.’ When we return home, the Lord will personally greet us. Many times, we serve with the expectation of being affirmed, acknowledged, and even thanked and commemorated. If we don’t get affirmation or reward, we become discouraged and even angry. We don’t take service for granted. In fact, God does not need us to serve. He is God Almighty. He said that if there is, there is a fate. It is not that he cannot do his work without us. Yet He chooses us and is willing to let us work with Him so that our lives can be shaped and changed by serving Him. Being able to serve Him is the grace and glory He has given us.
Second, tie your waist with humility. Augustine once said that the way to Christ begins with humility, then humility, and again humility. If humility does not precede, accompany, and follow every good deed we do, pride will take away from us any good deeds we do. No matter how obedient we are in our service and how effective our ministry is, as long as our pride is together, everything is tarnished. Over the past few months, I have spoken to the two drawing teachers downstairs many times. They encounter confusion or problems in their lives and are willing to talk to me. After several conversations, they couldn’t help but praise me, saying that I was knowledgeable, wise, and humble. Words of praise temper people’s hearts. Sometimes, hearing other people’s compliments, we can’t help but have an irrepressible smile on our lips. But when I share with them, I am evangelizing them, trying to lead them to Christ.
How can I receive glory from people and not give glory to God? I said to them, You feel in me so much wisdom and life, and you are so admired, how amazed and praised you would be if you knew the Jesus Christ in whom I believed, and saw the glory in him! Indeed, our wisdom is nothing more than a drop in the ocean compared to God’s. What’s more, all this wisdom comes from Him, and all the good things in our lives are shaped by Him. What do we have to boast about? As Paul says, “Who is it that makes you different?” What are you not taking? If so, why boast as if it were not received? (1 Corinthians 4:7) Livingston preached in Africa and served the Lord for thirty-three years. When he returned home, people praised him and treated him as a “servant” like a superstar. Livingston himself said, “As far as I am concerned, I rejoice in the office that the Lord has assigned me so much. People say that I have spent so much of my life in Africa and made great sacrifices. I owe a great debt to the Lord that I will never be able to pay. This is just a small repayment, how can it be called a sacrifice? It should be said that it is my pleasure. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, combined with the renunciation of the convenience and kindness of this world, occasionally causes us to stop, causing our hearts to shake and our souls to sink; Hopefully, this is only temporary. None of this compares to the glory that the Lord will reveal to us in the future. I have never made a sacrifice. When we think of the great sacrifice of the Lord who left the Father’s highest throne and gave Himself to us, how can we mention His sacrifice again? Yes, as long as we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, what reason is there to be proud?
Summary
Finally, I would like to say to you, if you are still struggling and have difficulty making up your mind to serve the Lord, please truly face the obstacles in your life, earnestly ask God to remove these obstacles, and sacrifice yourself to serve the Lord, only in this way can you experience the meaning of life, and only in this way will you find that you are no longer a slave, but a son. If you have been serving for some time, let’s give thanks to the Lord for allowing us to serve Him, and also ask the Lord to have mercy on us so that we can serve Him to the end and not fall into slack and pride.
The house is not the most important thing, love is! Xiao Wangong
My husband and I both got to the top 2 from the Hubei fifth-tier small county, he was Peking University Physics, and I was Tsinghua Architecture.
I am currently in charge of high-end residential properties at a top developer in Beijing; He is a high school teacher and a physics leader in Beijing’s top high schools. We have been in Beijing for nine years since we graduated from undergraduate school, during which we have moved six times, and the latest seventh time is packing up and preparing to move back to Wuhan. Recently, I saw that my circle of friends was flooded by many articles by Tsinghua graduates who could not afford to buy school district houses and fled back to the second line, and the articles were full of questions, regrets, and dissatisfaction. I especially want to record our stories over the years, the same story about houses but with very different painting styles.
We moved six times in nine years, but every time we moved, we were happy.
After graduating in ’08, I moved from the Tsinghua Bauhinia Apartment to a new staff dormitory in Shunyi. The company is in Chaoyang District, far from the dormitory, 1 and a half hours by car. But I just graduated with a meager salary, I can’t afford to rent a nearby house, and I’m really grateful that the company provides dormitories. Less than 400 per month, small studio facing north. I spent almost all of my time at work, and moving from a four-person room at school to a small room for myself, I felt that my living space per capita had increased significantly. The deepest impression during this period was that my parents brought their mother to Beijing once, it was summer, my father insisted on not staying in a hotel, our family was bunk in my small single room, the two grandmothers slept on the bed, and my parents and I slept on the floor.
My parents were actually a little distressed when they saw my situation at that time, after all, the only daughter, although her family was working in a fifth-tier small city, also lived in a big house, and she felt that after reading so many books, the quality of life in Beijing was so low. I comforted them and said that I like my work in Beijing, my colleagues are excellent, the leadership is also very good, and I am alone, I can’t sleep in two beds, and the small single room is just right. In this small studio in Shunyi, I finished my first suburban small market, when Beijing house prices were just starting to take off, and 400 houses were sold out in a day.
The second move was a year later when I married my boyfriend, who was still studying for a master’s degree at Peking University at the time, and for his convenience, we moved to Wanliu and rented a small apartment. The landlord is an old Beijing couple, I heard that we rented a wedding room, specially painted the walls, green doors, and windows, and terrazzo floor clean. Posted with happy words, we held a grand and simple church wedding under the witness of relatives and friends, and we were happily naked. It was really a naked marriage, and I remember using that quarter’s bonus to pay for the rent and wedding, and I only had two thousand dollars on hand. But especially happy, the two of us met at the age of twelve, six years in the same class in middle school, six years in college love, and finally able to marry the person I love the most, it is really a feeling of drinking water. Wanliu is very close to our university, newlywed Yaner, too lazy to fire to ride to school to eat, weekend walks next to the unnamed lake, go to purple exercise to play football, although the living is simple, the memories are sweet. At that time, I passed by Wanquan New Home every day at work, and I also thought sourly whether I could live in such a good community one day, I remember that the unit price of Wanquan was 20,000 at that time, but it was already astronomical for us at that time. So for the house, just think about it, have clothing, food and love people to live together, it is very content. In the year I lived in Wanliu, Beijing’s land market was still very active, and in addition to being in charge of a suburban market, I did more than 30 land acquisition projects, worked overtime day and night, and finally obtained the first piece of land I handled through bidding.
The third time I moved was two years after marriage, I was pregnant and he was about to graduate, and considering that Wan Liu was too far from where I worked, and I didn’t have enough children to live in, we rented a two-bedroom near the company in Chaoyang District. During this period, I found that the children of the collective account of the unit could not settle down, so I put the purchase of a house on the agenda. In 2010, house prices had skyrocketed, and we quickly picked out the only small two-bedroom outside the fifth ring road that we could buy among all the real estate in the company at that time (especially the project I bid for earlier:). The down payment was 300,000 yuan, and the parents of both sides supported part of it, after paying the down payment and various handling fees, there was no money in the card, and they were a little worried that the next month’s salary would be enough for the cost of the birth and birth examination. We welcomed our first baby in the rented Unity Lake 2-bedroom house. My aunt came to help me watch the children, and when her daughter graduated from college, I invited my cousin to come to Beijing to find a job and live in our house. During this time, my good friend was evicted by the landlord and could not find a house for a while, so I asked her to live in our house first. So this small two-bedroom of 50 square meters in Unity Lake has lived with 6 people at most – it is so crowded that my mother said that it is not a good time for me to have children at this time, and I should wait until the house is ready. But every day when I ride home from work and see a cute baby, I feel very happy, as long as it is a child born of love, in fact, it does not matter what kind of house, it does not matter what good timing. In this six-person room in Unity Lake, I completed our first large-scale commercial complex project of 200,000 square meters, and because the company never found the right person to take over, I worked until the day before the birth of my child.
The child was weaned at the age of more than one year, and we finally moved to our own small house outside the Fifth Ring Road, from renting old and dilapidated to our own home far and new, seeing the neat and clean bathroom and kitchen, living happiness burst, children and the elderly are also very happy. At this time, my husband has graduated from graduate school, in fact, when I graduated from the physics department, I still have many choices, you can search for companies, large enterprises, and high school teachers – many offers in high school teachers are the lowest income. He asked me what I expected, and I said let’s see what you want to do the most. He said he still wanted to be a teacher, maybe he could earn more by doing something else, but he always felt that doing education was the most rewarding job. I said Okay, anyway, I’m busy with work so you can watch the child in the future haha, so he really became a high school physics teacher. When we moved to the south, he was originally in contact to transfer to the middle school at the doorstep, but it was the first batch of students he brought with him, and there was no college entrance examination yet, so he thought of sending them away and transferring them again and began the painful commute from the southwest fifth ring road to the northeast fifth ring road, and there was no way but to live in school in the middle of the week and go home on the weekend. I was in charge of Beijing’s first subway superstructure project, building commercial complexes, ordinary houses, and public rental housing on top of the subway depot, with all kinds of regulatory restrictions, and it was particularly difficult to do and often not be at home. After half a year, although we lived well, we all found it unbearable, and my children and I could only see my father once or twice a week – if the family can’t live together, what’s the point of a good house?
In order for him to be able to finish his senior year with peace of mind, we moved for the fifth time. They settled in the dormitory provided by their school in the East Fifth Ring Road, where all the furniture was a bed, a wardrobe, and a chair. My daughter is very opinionated, she likes our own house, but I told her that although living here is very small, you can see Dad every day. She thought about it and said: Well, the house is not important, or the family is the most important! So in this small house of less than 30 square meters, our family lived for ten months, and every day the father had time to accompany the child, although the things in the family were so small that the children could count it, so what – in fact, the things necessary for people’s lives are very few, and the space required is not much. In this small house, I completed the only project since I became a real estate designer – a large pension apartment; What’s more, in this little house, we have a second child of our own.
Before Erbao was born, the sixth move in the sixth year after graduation, we finally really moved back to our small home outside the South Fifth Ring Road, and my husband also began to work happily at the school at the doorstep. Our house is indeed very comfortable to live in, subway room, big shopping mall, big park, from kindergarten to middle school OEM full education. To be honest, looking at the scheme I saw in the model and PPT before, now it has become a real building, a living community, and living in it with my own family, is particularly wonderful and fulfilling, which may only be experienced by people who do architecture. Sometimes I think of living in this two-bedroom apartment with the lowest decoration standard of our company, in charge of the most high-end hardcover villa project in the Beijing market, and often laughing at myself as a “sericulture farmer”.
The aunt continued to help bring the second eldest child, and the husband was responsible for picking up the eldest who was attending the kindergarten next to him. The years are quiet, the world is stable, and our income is gradually getting richer. Thinking that his parents were about to retire and his children needed a private room when they were older, he sold the small house he had last year as a down payment and took out a loan to buy a four-bedroom apartment. We were planning to move for the seventh time to live in a big house with our parents, but we decided to return to Wuhan unexpectedly.
When saying goodbye to friends, they don’t understand that they have a house, a car, a household registration, and a career, and feel that we are the type of people who are the least likely to “escape”. But in fact, my husband has always wanted to go back, and when he returns to Wuhan, he can also go to the top middle school in China, and the children can be better-taken care of close to their parents. It just so happened that our company had an opportunity to transfer internally to Wuhan, I participated in the competition and found that the changes in Wuhan in recent years were very obvious, under the pattern of first-tier population restrictions, second-tier cities rose strongly, and Wuhan also had career space that was not inferior to Beijing. But it’s really tangled, after 14 years in Beijing, we all regard this place as our second home. After discussing with her husband for a long time, as far as the family is concerned, parents and children who go to Wuhan can have better care, improve overall happiness, and the quality of basic education in Wuhan is also good; As far as personal career development is concerned, the two of us have developed very well in Beijing or Wuhan. In the end, what prompted us to make up our minds was that the two of us felt that going to Wuhan compared to staying in Beijing, although there was a lot of uncertainty, definitely had a greater industry influence and could serve more people who needed better buildings and better education.
The only bad thing is that Wuhan is also limited in purchases, and it is estimated that I will continue to rent a house and continue to move when I go back. But now I feel that this is really the least important. I remember when my husband was working overtime to do physics experiments, in order to urge him to go home, I sent him a WeChat message: Feynman (winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics) said: “I want to thank my wife. In my heart, physics is not the most important, love is!” Later, I went to the real estate company, and I had to toss and buy various houses all day long, and he would ridicule me: “Wife, in my heart, the house is not the most important, love is!” I’m ashamed to say that many people think that house prices are rising, People in the real estate industry are at least beneficiaries, in fact, no, families without accumulation are difficult for anyone, From 08-17 years, we also missed countless opportunities to get on the car, and in the real estate company, obviously look at the lot of real estate they have done know that they will rise if they buy, but there is no money that feeling is so entangled! But so what, I really understand – the house is not the most important thing, love is!
In fact, we have been in Beijing for 14 years, and we really don’t live in any so-called good houses, The only houses that we may have lived in belonging to the so-called upper class are the dormitories of Tsinghua and Peking University. However, in the 9 years of my work, I have personally designed and built tens of thousands of sets of public rental housing, commercial housing, high-end villas, senior apartments, commercial complexes, and kindergartens, affecting and improving the lives of thousands of Beijingers. While these projects may not be perfect, I am truly in awe and do everything I can to take seriously the city I build and the people who live in it and do everything they can to buy homes.
Looking at a lot of recent discussions, it seems that everyone’s character setting for TOP2 is that TOP2 is branded by the upper class after graduation, and it is natural that they should stay on the front line to live in a big house, and their children go to a good school district, otherwise, there is a problem in society and no respect for knowledge. But I don’t think it’s like this, “Tianxingjian, a gentleman with self-improvement; The terrain is kun, the gentleman carries things with great virtue” – our education has never promised us a TOP-level material life, but more so that no matter what kind of environment we are in, we will not lose our morality and will not lose our will. Just like the sage Mencius said, “Wealth cannot be adulterous, poverty cannot be moved, and might cannot be yielded”; As Paul said in the New Testament, “I know how to be lowly and how to be rich, or full, or hungry, or surplus, or lack, and I have the secret whenever I want.” I can do everything by the one who strengthens me
My husband and I particularly liked the motto of Yenching University, the predecessor of Peking University, “Freedom for Service through Truth.” We firmly believe that our education is not just to stay in Beijing to obtain hukou, or for our own better material enjoyment, let alone just for future generations to keep the so-called TOP2 class, but because we have a firm will, since we know the truth through education, we can be free, do not follow the trend of the world, but strive to serve and influence more people, so that more people can live a better life.
As for our children, if they can always grow up in the love of their parents, then what about him in Beijing or Wuhan, or in the scum, or in the cattle, or in a mansion, or in a poor alley? He is always in a higher class than the so-called home-owning class, and he never has to worry about slipping down!
The family affection in the movie is real and touching, but the solution of time travel can only provide temporary comfort. While we were moved to tears by the movie, we planned to invite our mother to dinner and take our parents for a physical examination; I also look forward to going to work quickly, because the more I get along with my parents, the more difficult it is. The loss, dislocation, and regret of love require real answers. When reason saw no possibility, God worked in my prayers.
In 2001, Jia Ling, who had just entered the university a month before, received the news that her mother Li Huanying had died unexpectedly. Since then, her mother’s departure has become a wound that Jia Ling is unwilling to touch. In the New Year film “Hello, Li Huanying”, Jia Xiaoling, played by Jia Ling, travels back to 1981; In order to make up for her regrets, she tries all kinds of ways to make her mother Li Huanying happy in her youth, resulting in a series of ridiculous things.
Jia Ling left a young and beautiful image of her mother in the movie, “Since I can remember, my mother is the appearance of a middle-aged woman, in fact, my mother used to be a girl in the flower season.” At the end of the film, Jia Xiaoling drives the open-top sports car promised to her mother, carrying her mother in a fashionable leather jacket with a smile on her face; But as soon as the camera turned, the mother sitting next to her disappears permanently, and Jia Xiaoling also turned joy into sadness, moving forward alone on the track of time.
“Parents are here, life still has a place, parents go, life is only a way back.” The person you want to share and want to give is no longer there, which is Jia Ling’s regret and the pain in the hearts of many people. On the other side of life, we always seem to be unable to give what we really want when our parents are still alive, just as Jia Xiaoling in the film is difficult to make middle-aged Li Huanying happy. Our love in the world always has all kinds of shortcomings. Maybe it can be temporarily relieved in a dream-making movie, but when the lights turn on and the movie ends, everything seems to return to square one.
With parents, the more you get along, the more difficult it is
In the interview, Jia Ling said: “My mother is gone, and the happiness in this life is missing. “I used to think that crying until she was distressed was just a description, but when writing the script, she remembered her mother’s past and really cried until she was distressed. Jia Ling said that all she could give the audience was sincerity, and this time, the audience also received her sincerity. After watching the film, many people either hug their parents around them or call their parents; The audience expressed that they should cherish the time with their parents more.
As a post-80s generation born in the same era as Jia Ling, the women around me either got married and had children early, or they started their careers and rode the wind and waves like Jia Ling in the workplace. I am still unmarried, but I often fall into the distress of the mother-daughter relationship because my mother forced marriage. A girlfriend said that she did not have any conflict with her mother, but in fact, because she was careful to avoid it, and her heart was already too desperate to touch the wound. In the film, Jia Xiaoling, who traveled back, and her mother became girlfriends who ate and slept together, sticking cucumber slices on their faces, shopping, and drinking wine. Such a relationship is envious of others.
In the real world, we either have been going back and forth when communicating with our parents because of the harm to our original family, or we jump up because the other party wants to manipulate our lives in the name of love, or we fall into various problems caused by the dislocation of family order and the gap between three views. The dream of traveling back and being best friends with a young mother is wonderful, but the reality is always skinny.
I don’t know if Jia Ling’s mother hadn’t died, would she have been forced marriage every Spring Festival like my mother; I also don’t know if in the trough of Jia Ling’s life, before she became famous, her mother Li Huanying could endure her daughter’s heartache in Beipiao, instead of pushing Jia Ling back to her hometown to find a stable job, get married and have children. After Li Huanying’s death, Jia Ling’s sister Jia Dan replaced her mother, and she often took out a small amount of salary to help her sister, but she also said this to Jia Ling: “Look at you fat, can you be red just like you?” He even hated that he kicked his sister without steel.
Li Huanying on the screen said to Jia Xiaoling: “I hope my daughter is healthy and happy.” “Off-screen, when I was healthy and happy, my mother was still worried about me being older and unmarried and not making any money. In the film, Jia Xiaoling is always glued to “If my mother didn’t give birth to me, I must be happier than now”, She longs for her mother to sit in an open-top sports car, wear a mink coat, eat abalone bird’s nest, and give her mother a long face. Jia Xiaoling wants to give her mother what she thinks is best. Li Huanying said: “I think I have lived a very happy life in this life, why don’t you believe me?” ”
At the end of the film, Li Huanying, who traveled back, took flowers in his hand, jumped on the back seat of his lover’s bicycle, and walked away joyfully and contentedly. Many times what we want to give is not necessarily what people really want. Whether inside or outside the movie, whether it is 1981, 2001, or 2021, it seems that we are always easy to misunderstand the love that our loved ones need, and it is difficult to give each other what they really need, and even more difficult to live the ideal us in each other’s eyes. We desperately want to give, we desperately want to grab loved ones, but it is always self-defeating.
Or something sadder than sadness, such as Jia Xiaoling’s final shock, Li Huanying in her youth is actually Li Huanying who crossed back in middle age, she cried and ran to find her mother, but separation is doomed. She can’t change her mother’s fate, even if she is willing to pay the price of her own life disappearing; Li Huanying also decisively chooses to see Jia Xiaoling in the future, Although this fate is miserable, because of love, she is willing.
I used to feel panic, afraid that the regret of “not waiting for the child to be raised” would fall on me. I would love to work hard to bring a good life to my parents and try to spend more time with them, but the more we get along, the harder it gets, and we will never be able to understand and accept each other. My heart was like a boat adrift, and I could only embrace my loneliness, which in turn exacerbated the pain of living.
Who can fill in the gaps?
We can’t change others, and it seems harder to change ourselves. We have love, but we don’t know how to love properly; We have love, but it is easy to exhaust. The absence, dislocation, or defect of love is the norm in this world. We are not capable of giving complete love, let alone keeping love. The law of this world is to keep losing and letting us lose. Our love is always stolen too much and destroyed too much by the world; We are selfish, narrow-minded, and self-righteous, and we always twist love. Who can fill in such a gap? Who can help me overcome the laws of this world?
It wasn’t until I came to Christ that the peace Jesus brought into my heart, and His Word allowed me to discover the truth of the world. Later, my mother also came to Christ, and our mother and daughter had a new relationship—becoming sisters in the Lord. My mother is not only my mother, but also the daughter of God who has an equal status just like me! When this mother and sister of mine were still greedy for the world’s money, I stopped arguing with her, but prayed for her life. When friction arises in our relationship, I know that it is a stepping stone for our mutual growth and that trusting in God brings us closer together.
In the film, the middle-aged Li Huanying has traveled back to 1981 before Jia Xiaoling crosses over, and when Jia Xiaoling asks her, “Are you happy that I came?” She replied, “I’m happy! Jia Xiaoling said, “I can make you happier.” Li Huanying watched her daughter help her buy a TV, drive away the gangsters, and fight for her the opportunity to change her fate, and she also fully cooperated to make her daughter happy. When watching Jia Xiaoling’s performance offstage, she laughed and cried. Li Huanying’s love is silent. When Jia Xiaoling recalled her mother, she remembered the first time she went to school far away, after her mother put her in the car, she pretended to take the car home, but got out of the car after her daughter left, in order to save money, walking alone on a white snowy day.
Some viewers left a message saying that when they watched the movie, they felt that their daughter loved their mother, and after watching it, they understood that it was the mother who loved her daughter more. But the love of God the Father is to send Jesus, His only begotten Son, to lay down everything he had and go alone to a world full of pain, regret, and ugliness because of sin, to sacrifice his innocent life and be crucified as a ransom for the sinful, so that all who believe in Him can return to the embrace of the Father’s love.
He promised, “The resurrection is in me, and the life is in me; Whoever believes in me, though dead, will rise again. Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. “I no longer fear death and the separation of my parents, and I know that my mother and I are both travelers in the world and will one day be reunited with him. God is like an old father, leaning against the door, looking up, waiting for His children to come home.
If Christ is not resurrected, what we preach is in vain, and what you believe is in vain, [1 Corinthians 15:14]
Easter is preceded by Passover, and the Qingming Festival is preceded by Cold Food Festival. The Cold Food Festival seems to have similarities with the Passover, one is not allowed to make a fire, and the other is not allowed to make a face. But the difference, of course, is more and greater.
Just like Easter and Qingming Festival, the similarities are only that the dates are close, and this year it is the same day. Other than that, it’s completely irrelevant.
The Meaning of the Qingming Festival
Because the meaning of the Qingming Festival is mainly “death”.
This is a day when you have to “face death.” On this day, people will worship their ancestors and visit tombs, clearly facing the fact that “everyone has one death”.
Last Monday, my wife’s cousin died of drunk driving. We were the first to go. What surprised me the most was that for a whole day, none of the relatives and friends I saw shed a single tear, including his wife and his father. Only his mother and sister seemed to have red eyes. For the first time, I seemed to realize that, in a sense, the world seemed to be “stronger” than us. They are certainly afraid of death, but the way they fight this fear is more likely to be numbness than tears.
The police found his mobile phone, but could not unlock the password. His widow called the child’s teacher and asked her ten-year-old son to answer and ask for the password. The password is 518518.
This should be a homonym for “I’m going to send it, I’m going to send it”. He has been working part-time for years, rarely at home, trying to earn money outside the home. But he loves to drink, drives after drinking and does not listen to advice. Until this accident, leaving orphans and widows, elderly parents.
People who are numb to death really sometimes seem to be not afraid of death and dare to die. In order to “fa”, desperately.
But this also shows another meaning of the Qingming Festival, which is “timely happiness”.
As the Scriptures say: If the dead do not rise again, let us eat and drink! Because tomorrow is going to die. 1 Corinthians 15:32
In the face of a mortal ending, if there is no hope of salvation and resurrection, it must be the most reasonable choice to talk about life and death and enjoy pleasure in time. Therefore, in addition to ancestor worship and tomb sweeping, since ancient times, the Qingming Festival has also had customs such as planting willows and wearing willows, spring swimming, tree planting, flower picking, kicking, kite flying, swinging, tug-of-war, cockfighting, giving painted eggs, and eating Qingtuan. And the “Book of Rites and Moon Order” recorded: “In the moon of mid-spring, men and women will be ordered, and those who run cannot help it.” Timely pleasure has been the real theme of the Qingming Festival since ancient times, and today’s small long holiday is also proof of this.
But the meaning is still the same. Although it is bleak and soul-broken, what can be done? Let’s have three or five bottles, you can relieve your worries, you can forget your worries because tomorrow you will die, so there is wine and drunk today. Du Mushi is not Pastor Du after all.
The meaning of Good Friday
This year’s Easter and Qingming Festival are on the same day, which is worth noting. As many people know, Christmas and the Sun God Festival in ancient Rome were the same day.
Just as Christmas replaced pagan holidays, Easter needs to replace and renew Qingming Day. The meaning of Qingming Day needs to be reflected, and the meaning of Easter needs to be revealed. This is the latest meaning of “anti-Qing and restoration”.
The meaning of Easter begins with Passover and even Christmas.
We are familiar with the incarnation of Jesus and the crucifixion, acknowledging its mystery and greatness without thinking. But just as distance often produces beauty, “familiarity” often deconstructs the sacred.
Therefore, strange and archaic descriptions are often divine rigidity.
In fact, Jesus was utterly “humble to life, shame to die.” Although he was a king of heaven, he was born in a barn and had no bed, so he could deal with it by laying some grass in the manger. He fell into the grass as king.
Later, as a prophet, Jesus rose to fame far beyond that of Pharisees and scribes. But he spoke amazingly, often claiming to be God, and he was killed. The ancient Chinese people are cloudy, and it is not humiliating to kill a soldier. Jesus, on the other hand, was first humiliated and then killed. Punched in the face, slapped in the face by thick phlegm. Wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe, people play like monkeys. Covered in scales, naked, not even the last fig leaf kept. The Duan players burst into laughter under the ten: “You come down!” “O great Savior, save yourself first,
His death, slow and painful, was extremely undignified and extremely shameful. Archaeologists have found an “Alexanémnon graffiti” depicting a man with a donkey’s head on ten racks. Written crookedly below: This is the God that Alexammenon worships. Yes, people at the time were so satirical about Christians, thinking that the god they worshipped was like a stupid donkey.
The gospel of anti-Qing and restoration
This is how our most glorious God endured humiliation. We are indeed worshipping a God of shame and failure. So today some people on the Internet say that our god is no different from a plate of flying pasta and that we believe in the flying god face religion, which is actually much more polite than the jokers and soul painters of the past.
As nominalists in a sense, I believe that Christ is free to become flesh as He sees fit. For example, become a lion in the world of Narnia, and become the number seven of the Yangtze River on the screen. So this kind of malicious humiliation, in fact, does not humiliate me, it will only make me more grateful. Because my Lord died for me, even for those drummers and keyboard warriors. He endured the humiliation and punishment we should have endured. That’s exactly what we believe.
Yes, from the perspective of an unbeliever, Jesus was a complete loser. This is not surprising, this is the result and cause of their being unbelievers. Recently, I was surprised to hear that a self-proclaimed pastor said in a righteous manner that Chengdu fat man: He has all gone in, can’t he explain the problem? Doesn’t it mean that he just has a problem?!
Oh. Then Jesus not only went in but also hung up, you know? If you judge justice by success or failure, what Christ do you worship? He failed much more than the fat man. You should worship the strong, worship the victorious Buddha, or the blood-red war wolf.
As for me and my family, in our church, we still worship Jesus.
We believe that he is a great savior, far more than Dongfang Hong. The “incarnation” reveals that Jesus is like God. That is, God is like Jesus. God loves us. He is a merciful Savior, not a dictatorial tyrant. He sees us as fish, not fish.
The early Christians also used the word “fish” to represent our faith. Because the Greek word for fish happens to be an abbreviation of the words “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”
The gospel of anti-Qing and restoration
They may not be as comprehensive and profound in their theology, and they are all wild Reformed in today’s sense, but they truly love Jesus. They knew that Jesus was their lifesaver. They never knew Jesus from a logical and rational point of view. Like the writers of the New Testament, they did not hesitate to address this lifesaver by the four-character holy name “Lord.” They love Him, and He loves them.
The meaning of Easter
But how did all this happen, from shame to glory, from loser to savior, from humble prisoner to the Most High God?
That’s what Easter is all about.
If the story ends on Friday, the world is scarier than Ragnarok. If history stays on Saturday, the world will have to wait for salvation in a heart-pounding rest.
However, the time was set for Sunday. The day of the Lord’s resurrection became a day of glory, a day of rejoicing, a day of victory, a day of worship—the day of all days.
The resurrection changed all mindsets. It is no longer spring when Easter comes, but Easter when spring comes. From then on, we no longer subconsciously think that there is a spirit in the flesh. Instead, it turns out that man is a spirit, and this spirit has a skin bag. Since then, the covenant has been reinterpreted and history completely renewed.
Easter was as if the prisoners in the prisoner-of-war camp heard over the wall on their short-wave radios that the Nazis of the East had been defeated by the atomic bomb. So they rejoiced, knowing that they had won, even though they were prisoners, even though they would even be killed at once by their angry and corrupt enemy. But they still have to rejoice, knowing that their salvation is coming.
After the resurrection of the Lord, the meaning of “law” is renewed. Until then, there had never been a concept in the Jewish faith that man would rise in this world. Martha’s words are a representation. The resurrection of Jesus is a new and difficult event for all to accept.
This first time, the first Jesus who rose from the dead and never died, expanded the library of standard definitions of “law” and updated the underlying source code of “law”.
Chesterton said that believers receive miracles because there is evidence, and unbelievers deny miracles because their dogma denies miracles.
In other words, the dogmatic system in the brains and hearts of unbelievers is made of old leather bags, and the new wine of the gospel causes their systems to crash and their memories to overflow.
The meaning of resurrection is similar, but far beyond heliocentrism, relativity, quantum mechanics, and gravity. Since then, the two natures of god and man have changed the world and mankind more deeply and comprehensively than the wave particle two elephants.
So each Sunday is essentially a continuation of the first Easter, and the core is “to commemorate the resurrection of the Lord and worship the resurrected Lord.”
After the resurrection of the Lord, the meaning of “history” is renewed. The apostles, touched by the Christ-glorifying Spirit, tell us that the risen Jesus is the first fruit, and at the end of the day, all will be resurrected in order, after which Christ will be victorious, kingdom, and glorified, and finally, we will be with Him and be King together (1 Corinthians 15:22-25).
After the resurrection of the Lord, the meaning of faith is renewed. The paradigm of faith shifted, from a Deuteronomy system (but with Christ) to a Christian system (but with the fulfillment of the law). Jesus’ conversation with his disciples on the road to Emmaus describes this shift:
Jesus said to them, “What are you talking about when you walk with each other? They just stood still, with sad faces on their faces. Luke 24:17
The paradigm shift is the shift in focus, and from then on the core of the faith becomes the “resurrection.” Paul says:
If Christ is not resurrected, what we preach is in vain, and what you believe is in vain, [1 Corinthians 15:14]
After the resurrection of the Lord, the life of the believer is renewed.
Peter, who denied the Lord three times, the mean, weak, rude fisherman, received the command “You shepherd my sheep” three times before the risen Lord, and he did so.
Saul, who persecuted Christians, the fanatical, hard, and cunning scribe, became Paul before the risen Lord. He received the mission of the gospel and did it.
Countless believers whose lives have been changed by the resurrection of the Lord, as written in the Scriptures:
When we die in trespassing, we are brought alive with Christ (it is grace that you are saved). Ephesians 2:5
Even Easter directly renews the status of women. Today’s Christianity has inexplicably become the enemy of women’s rights, but it has always been the greatest driving force for the liberation of women. In ancient Rome, women’s testimonies were unacceptable in court, but the four Gospels consistently state that it was women who saw the risen Jesus first. The Holy Spirit ignored worldly standards and declared these women’s testimonies not only valid but earlier than men’s.
However, the most important reason why Easter should and has prevailed over Qingming is that after the resurrection of the Lord, the meaning of death is renewed.
Henceforth, death is no longer the supreme power:
For knowing that Christ rose from the dead, He would no longer die and would no longer be His Lord. Romans 6:9 And death no longer meant the misery and terror of yin and yang, Paul says:
If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, God will bring those who have slept in Jesus with Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 4:14
Those relatives and friends who slept first in the Lord, loved ones, will bring them to us and pick us up when we die. Then everyone went home together.
This is our communication on WeChat before our dear teacher Huo died:
The gospel of anti-Qing and restoration
For me, he left us for heaven, just as he used to leave us for America. The small difference is that Heaven does not use WeChat, so we can no longer communicate for the time being. But in a short time, we will meet. At that time, we will remember the Changchun Church together and remember the past of the earth.
Exhortation
So, this Qingming Day and Easter, I would like to exhort you:
No shame
I am not ashamed of the gospel; This gospel was meant to be the power of God to save all who believed, first the Jews and then the Greeks. Romans 1:16
Do not be ashamed of the gospel, do not be ashamed of Christ. It is a fact that He has suffered the greatest shame, and it is even more true that He has now received the greatest glory. He is my glory, so I am no longer swayed by other people’s opinions. Do not fear dishonor in Jesus’ name. Rest assured, if you don’t deserve it yet, you won’t. Don’t be afraid of other people’s strange eyes and judgments, pray when you eat, no matter if there are people or how many there are. Preach the gospel when you should, whether you know it or not. You invite as you should, even if the other person rejects you seventy or seven times.
The secret is: that as long as you are not embarrassed, it is they who are embarrassed. The day when they are not embarrassed, you will have them in the Lord.
Do not burn paper
Brothers and sisters, we are already new, don’t go back to the old. It is written in the Scriptures:
Another disciple said to Jesus, “Lord, allow me to go back and bury my father first. 【Matthew 8:21】
So don’t celebrate the Qingming Festival again. Let Easter replace Qingming Day. It can be commemorated, not mourned. You can mourn in silence and do not bend your knees. You can have flowers, don’t burn paper.
No more fear of death
Resurrection gives true life, and true life must produce true courage. From now on, Christians are not afraid of death, but why should they fear death? If someone threatens to kill you, you can say That’s just right, thank you, I can finally stop all my toil. If he threatens us even more descendingly: Are you not afraid that your wife and children will suffer? I hope that then I will smile and say to him: I am not afraid, because I will see them again in the future. I hope to see you there too.
The resurrection gives true faith, and true faith must produce true hope. Job said, “I know that my Redeemer is alive and will stand on the earth in the end.” Job 19:25
A foreign brother spoke of his witness to Christ. Once he was on a plane, he encountered severe air currents and lightning, and after ten minutes of bumps, everyone’s hope of survival was extinguished. But he suddenly found that the old lady next to him was smiling and did not care. So he couldn’t help but stop the pen for writing his will and asked her why she was laughing. The old man said that I was going to see my daughter this time. I have two daughters, one on earth and one in heaven. I laughed at the thought of not knowing which daughter I would see first.
It was at that moment that he came to Christ.
In fact, the testimony of the old man is also the testimony of my family. When I fly home, I always think about whether I will see Jiawen Jialin Jiamin first or Jiahe first.
Twelve years ago, my wife and I asked five-year-old Jiahe, if you leave your parents and go, what will we do? He said, God will give you better children.
Today, his blessings and prophecies have been fulfilled. I don’t know if these kids are really better than him, but three are more than one. Two sisters and one younger brother have not met their angelic big brother, but I believe they will meet in the future. I believe so much, I hope so much, that I work hard for it, hoping to lead the whole family, the church, and “work of our salvation” in Christ (Philippians 2:12)
May we live in the rhythm of Easter instead of dying in the Qingming festival? Live in the joy and hope of the resurrection, not in the joy and despair of clarity. The meaning of clarity must be reflected, and the meaning of resurrection must be revealed. May the Lord have mercy on us and deliver us and our friends and relatives from the curse of clarity and the gospel of the resurrection.
The gospel of anti-Qing and restoration
2nd floor singing (God’s unexpected peace, will be in Christ) Posted on 2021-5-7 08:33 Just look at this person
Grace 365 | May 7 Prophet of the Times – Jeremiah: God has love in his heart
Ko Shaun’s Daily Grace today
Scripture: If I can speak the tongue of all men and the words of angels, but without love, I will be like a gong and a cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1)
Grace 365, three hundred and sixty-five days, we live together every day in God’s love and God’s grace.
These days I will share with you what kind of person God uses. If you’re a company boss and you go to interview some people who are coming to apply, you probably have some conditions. You see, how is this person’s language ability? What about this person’s ability to coordinate with others? What are the professional conditions of this person? Can he work in a team with others…? If you’re a boss and you’re a supervisor, you probably have some conditions that you care about when you hire people. God also uses us, and God wants some of the qualities in us that He wants.
In Jeremiah’s body, these days we see what kind of person Jeremiah is. Jeremiah was in him, he had a lot of his timidity, he had a lot of his considerations, he had a lot of his own thoughts, but he was obedient to God. In the process of following the Lord to fulfill God’s trust in him, he will have doubts, and he will have times when he is afraid, but he chooses to keep walking even though I am afraid in me, I rely on the Lord. He didn’t stop halfway, ran away halfway, didn’t do it, no! He persevered.
I feel like I see myself a lot of the time in my talk about Jeremiah. In fact, I have this problem, I am the kind of encounter who does it smoothly, I do it desperately, but when I encounter some setbacks, especially when that setback may encounter some of the things in me that I care about the most, I may say, I don’t do it, don’t do it.
But Jeremiah was not. He encountered many great setbacks, and great difficulties, and may even endanger his life, but he chose to persevere for the Lord and persevere. What kind of people does God use, God uses obedient people, God uses people who persist for the Lord, and God uses people who shared yesterday and cared about. He doesn’t cry for himself, he doesn’t just care about himself, he cares about what God cares about. God wanted him to go, proclaim God’s warning to the Israelites, and then God would redeem him. Does he care about the Israelis? He cried many times for his country and for his people. I ask God to help us so that one of us cares and cares about what God cares.
And what’s behind the care? It’s love, love will care. I have two children and I love my kids very, very much, so I care about them. The happiest thing for me is to come home from a busy day of ministry, our family of four, I am with Qimei’s mother and two children. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as we are together, I am happy. Why? Because I want to see them, I care about them because I love them.
What kind of person does God use? I often talk to some young people in our church who are learning to serve, and everyone wants to say, Pastor Cole, teach me! Teach me how to preach, teach me how to govern, teach me how to. I often tell them that you can learn all these things, but the most important thing is, do you have love in your heart? It’s not indifferent, it’s not that I preach on stage very movingly, but I don’t really care about these people in the audience, I seem to be performing. I ask the Lord to help us, what kind of people does God use? With a person who has love in his heart.
To conclude with this passage, we can do many, many things without love, and without love, it is a gong ringing, a cymbal, only sound, no meaning. Pray that if we don’t have love, there is a very important connotation in it—love.
Overtime culture prevails, how to work hard and enjoy life at the same time? Keller et al. Oak Word Studio
Which is more pleasing to God for Christians to work hard or enjoy life? It is believed that the instinct of many people is inclined to the former, otherwise, there would not be so many members of the Christian community who have been hastily swallowed up in spiritual life; But there must be many people who are more concerned about the latter, otherwise, there would not be so many people who have nothing to do on the grounds of retreating to the inner room to be quiet and close to God. Today’s two articles can help us have a clearer understanding of how to work hard and concentrate on and efficiently, and also return to rest peacefully and enjoy the abundant grace that God has bestowed upon us. May all of us learn not to be burdened by all kinds of work and not to spend our days idle!
In this way, all things in heaven and earth were created. On the seventh day, God finished His work; On the seventh day, God stopped all his work. God blessed the seventh day by sanctifying it because on this day God stopped all his work of creation and rested. (Genesis 2:1-3)
Six days of toil, do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; On this day, you and your children, your servants and cattle, and the sojourners who dwell in your city shall not do any work. (Exodus 20:9-10)
The first thing the Bible begins with is work. It can be seen that work is very important and the basis of everything. The writers of Genesis regarded God’s creation of the universe as work and put the great work of creation in seven days of the week. He then shows us the work of humanity in the Garden of Eden. And we are also to realize that God Himself has rested after the work of creation (Gen. 2:2).
Many people mistake work for a curse and other things (rest, family, or even “spiritual” pursuits) as the only way to find meaning in life. Both from the biblical passages we have examined before and will be discussed later, we can see that this argument is nothing more than a lie.
But let’s also not fall into the other extreme, which is that work is the only important thing, and rest is forced to “recharge” in order to continue working. We see from God’s work in creation that God did not need to restore his strength but still rested on the seventh day (Gen. 2:1-3). Thus, for us who are created in His image, rest and everything we do while resting is good in itself and nourishes life.
Work is not the be-all of life. While life without work won’t be meaningful, work isn’t the whole meaning of life. If you see work as a purpose in life, even if it is church service, then you are creating an idol for yourself against God. A relationship with God is the most important cornerstone of life, and this cornerstone can keep everything else in your life (work, friendships, family, leisure) so important that it makes you addicted and distorted.
The twentieth-century German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper wrote in his famous essay “Leisure, the Basis of Culture”: “Leisure is not just letting go of work, but an attitude of the mind, in which you can simply focus on and enjoy things themselves, without considering their value or immediate utility.” In Western culture, work-oriented thinking allows people to see everything only in terms of efficiency, value, and speed. But people must be able to enjoy the simplest and most ordinary things in life, even if some of them have no practical value but are only pleasant to the body and mind.
Even Calvin, a notoriously stern Reformationist, surprisingly agreed with this argument. Speaking about the Christian life, he warns us not to judge the value of things solely on the basis of practicality: “Doesn’t God make us happy and happy when He prepares food for us, not only when he is full (providing basic nourishment)? The clothes on our bodies not only keep us warm but also dress us up dignified. In addition to their own functions, grass, green trees, vegetables, and fruits are also pleasing to the eye and exude a refreshing fragrance. Isn’t it pleasing to the eye that God created things, in addition to giving them the necessary uses? ”
In other words, we should look at all this and marvel, “The heavens of the universe may be dazzling or beautiful, the creatures on earth may be large or small, and all things in the world may be wise or wonderful, all created by God the Father.” ”
Only by constantly stopping our work and spending time in worship (which Pepper considers worship to be the first thing in “leisure”) can we truly experience the meaning of life simply by meditating and enjoying the world, including the fruits of our work. Piper writes: Leisure is the state of thinking about things with joy – a positive state of mind. It’s not the same as taking a break from work – leisure is more like the occasional silence when lovers talk, and that silence is part of the conversation. As the Bible says, when God “rests in all his work,” He sees that everything He has created is fine (Gen. 1:31), so leisure allows one to focus pleasantly and approvingly on the nature of creation.
All in all, hard work is essential to live a meaningful life. Work is God’s most precious gift to us, a pillar of purpose in life. But we must put work in perspective and not put it above God. We have to stop working from time to time to recover our bodies, and at the same time enjoy this world and ordinary life.
Work passionately, but don’t sell your soul for it
Leland Reiken, The Puritans Who Entered the World
Another legacy of the Puritan view of work is the idea of moderate work. At the two extremes of the attitude to work (one extreme is extreme idleness or laziness; At the other extreme, slavishly indulged in work), the Puritans theoretically tried to maintain the middle way. But in practice, they often tend to overwork.
One modern interpretation of the Puritan work ethic is correct—the Puritans despised idleness and praised hard work, and Baxter often showed impatience on the issue of idleness, saying, “It is despicable and sinful not to work.” Robert Bolton called idleness “the rusty, long ulcer of the soul.”
In his influential book, The Ordinary Man’s Way to Heaven, Arthur Dent wrote, “God does not allow anyone to live idle. Elizabeth Joselyn wrote in The Mother’s Gift to the Unborn Child: “You are a man, and you are ashamed of idleness; You are a Christian and are anxious for idleness. It is clear from these statements that Puritan ethics held that work was not only a social obligation but also an individual responsibility.
The Puritans criticized idleness while appreciating hard work, not because hard work was an intrinsic virtue, but because it was the means God assigned to mankind to provide for what they needed. Baxter wrote: “God commands you to somehow earn daily meals. Thomas Wattson envisioned: “Religion does not seal human idleness—God assigns all his children to work—and God blesses us for our diligence, not laziness.” ”
The Puritans had a strong aversion to idleness and praised work, in part because they were convinced that labor was the work that creation was ordained to do and that it was therefore necessary for the good of mankind. William Perkins wrote, “Adam could do whatever he wanted before he sinned, but God let him work.” In John Robinson’s view, “God allowed our first fathers to labor even in sinlessness—much less to let sinful human descendants live idle lives.” Man is destined to work hard – both physically and mentally, like a spark flying upwards. ”
Baxter writes, “Adam the sinless was placed in the Garden of Eden to govern the garden; In the flesh, both body and soul must have work to do. Work is both created and ordained to be done recognizing that labor itself and its response to God are honorable.
The Puritans believed that even “spiritual” was not an excuse for idleness. Richard Steele objected to “neglecting human necessity under the pretext of religious worship.” Thomas Shepard advises a religious fanatic who complains that thoughts about godly matters distract him from his work: “It is a sin to have earthly thoughts when God has appointed you to do spiritual, heavenly work; Similarly, from a certain point of view, when God has assigned you to work on earth, it is also sin to distract you and think about spiritual things. ”
But then, does the puritan ethic inevitably lead to workaholic syndrome? The Puritans thought otherwise. They try to find a balance for their diligence by explicitly limiting overwork. Their ideal is still moderation.
John Preston said: “Be careful not to overdo things, and not to work in detail and without restraint. Philip Stubbs cautioned that “every Christian should not allow “him to overwork before God” and “exceed the limits of true godliness.” Moreover, “the Lord does not allow us to be greedy or to work without restraint; We should not worry about tomorrow today, because one day of difficulty is enough. ”
Robert Woodrow, a Scottish theologian, commented: “I humbly believe that we have been too partial to work and neglected more valuable things, and such sins will be recorded in our verdicts.” ”
On the subject of “part-time,” Richard Steele points out that one should not “work two or three jobs just to increase one’s wealth.”
The goal of the Puritans was not to go to extremes and to conform to the middle way. Working passionately, but not selling their souls to work, is what they strive for. John Preston put it this way: “If you have pure love, then you can do all the things of the world without being defiled; But when you covet anything too much, it defiles your soul. ”
Neither idle nor workaholic, this middle-way idea is also John Cotton’s ideal:
In every living saint, there is a strange combination of two virtues, namely: on the one hand, diligence in the affairs of the world, and on the other hand, death to the world; The parties to this mystery will know, but others will not know. Although he worked diligently in the calling of heaven, his heart was not focused on these things; When he gets his belongings, he knows what to do with them.
二十世纪德国天主教哲学家约瑟夫•皮柏(Josef Pieper)在一篇名为《休闲,文化的基石》(Leisure, the Basis of Culture)的著名散文中写道:休闲不仅仅是放下工作,而是一种心灵的态度,在这种状态下,你可以单纯地去专注、享受事物本身,而不必考虑,它们的价值或直接效用。在西方文化中,以工作为导向的思维使得人们仅凭效率、价值和速度去看待一切。但是人们必须能享受生活中最简单和平凡的小事,即使有些并无实用价值而仅仅是愉悦身心。