1 Pet 1:22 "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart."

How am I to love one another deeply from the heart? What a difficult proposition since "the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure" (Jer 17:9)? I find that it is incredibly hard to love another person deeply from the heart all the time -- even those who are closest to you. The problem is not so much that I don't love them. I do. The problem is I love myself more than I love them.

My self-centeredness stops me from loving others deeply because I can't focus on the things I have to do, the things I want to do, my hobbies, my homework, my ministry, my sleep...loving others takes the focus away from ME! And to be honest, sometimes that is what my heart wants - self-gratification, self-satisfaction, self-promotion, self-exaltation... That is a disgusting heart.

What am I to do? I know what God wants me to do, but the good that I know and I sometimes want to do I do not do (Rom 7:19-20). "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death??" (Rom 7:24).

"Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom 7:25)

I can die to myself through Jesus Christ my Lord, daily carrying the cross. I can count on Jesus creating a clean heart within me and renewing my spirit (Ps 51:10). I can love others deeply from my heart - the pure and clean heart that comes from the Lord Jesus.

O Lord Jesus, give me a clean heart, that I might love you and serve you. Give me a clean heart so that I might love others as you have loved me, so that I might love another person deeply, from the heart. Help me to love my family, love the people in ministry, love the church...help me to love all people/things RIGHTLY.

Highlight of this past Thanksgiving

My brother Steven came to visit us from Austin this past Thanksgiving weekend. It's been the most consecutive number of days I've spent with my bro in probably more than 10 years. We cooked together, studied together, went to Walmart together, went to the mall together, went to church together, played with the kiddos together...it was a great weekend! (I'll put pictures on http://www.tangsgivings.blogspot.com)

As I reflected on this past weekend, I have to say that worshipping God alongside my brother was the most awesome experience. The reason I say that is I've never worshipped with my brother sitting next to me since when I was in junior high. And I am not sure either of us really worshipped God when I was 13. I think it has been more than 15 years since we've been in church together.

What was awesome about the whole experience was my blood brother is now also my spiritual brother -- and we are able to share in this experience of being able to show love to our great God together. I get a little emotional when I think about this.

For those of you who might not know, Steven is the prodigal son of my family. He returned to God and God welcomed him back. It is amazing to see how God has transformed him through and through. Sometimes I feel that he is more spiritually mature than me even though I've been a Christian longer. In some sense I know he is more spiritually mature than me because of what he has gone through -- he has had to trust God more.

As I reflected today, I gave thanks to God, the awesome, mighty, great, glorious, holy, good, loving, kind, grace-full God. I don't know enough adjectives to describe how great He is. He changes lives. Steven's. Mine. My family's.

How great is our God!

"Today I believe that the hardest task for the pastor is theoria rather than praxis, vision rather than activity." ~William Willimon, What is Right with the Church, p. 98.

I think Willimon is right. It is easy to have aimless activity in a church. It is easy to be putting out fires constantly without having a clear vision of what is causing things to combust into flames. Without vision, people perish. We need to provide a desirable picture of the future for people to focus on, so that together the church would strive and work toward accomplishing tasks that fulfill the vision.

It is hard to articulate visions. I think it takes conviction, boldness, passion, and clarity to do this well. Perhaps we can be clear on our own (or maybe not), but we can get the first three things only from God. May God give me these four things as I am in seminary. I need a vision from God of what he has called me to do!

Gospel: The Power of God

Romans 1:16-17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous shall live by faith.'

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Tonight I experienced the power of God. A friend of Jennifer & mine placed her trust in Jesus Christ as her Savior. We had shared the gospel with her and her husband during the summer, but they did not make a decision, but by God's power and providence, she became a Christian.

Jennifer met Jenny at the local public library during story time in fall of 2004. Through it, they developed a friendship, as Melody and Jenny's daughter Grace are about the same age. This past summer we had an opportunity to meet regularly to watch Rick Warren's sermons and had discussions -- this wasn't our idea...we were meeting with Jinook (my seminary buddy)'s family as a small group to fellowship, but the fellowship took a more evangelistic bent because of Jinook's heart for reaching others. We invited Jenny & her husband (Leon) because they had some church exposure, but weren't Christians yet. At the end of summer, Jinook and I shared the gospel with Jenny & Leon, but they did not place their trust in Christ. We continued our relationship with them though.

This past week, Jennifer invited Jenny to come to church because I was preaching in the Chinese service (in Chinese too, but that's another story). Both Jenny and Leon came, much to my surprise, because Leon had said he wasn't able to make it. They didn't fill out a visitor's card because they didn't want to be singled out later, but God is so cool...there was another visitor who filled out the visitor's card, and his Chinese name sounds almost identical to Jenny's Chinese name. So when the senior pastor (who has a thick Indonesian accent when he speaks Chinese) read the visitor's card, Jenny thought he called her name. So she stood up and both her & Leon were introduced.

I wasn't able to eat lunch with them, but Jennifer later told me that three church members "cornered" them and asked to visit them to share the gospel. Despite Jennifer's protests (because she didn't want Jenny to feel pressured), an arrangement was made for the Evangelism Explosion teams to visit Jenny & Leon. The EE team went tonight and shared the gospel with only Jenny because Leon was working late. They spoke to her for more than 2 hours, and Grace cooperated perfectly (unlike her usual behavior of running around all over the place -- chalk up another one of God's powers!). And at the end, Jenny accepted the gospel because there was no reason for her not to believe in Jesus Christ.

Jenny called us to tell us all that happened. Jennifer's jaws dropped, my heart thumped. What amazing grace! What display of power! GOD IS AWESOME! God orchestrated every part of Jenny's life so that she could be saved on this day.

Jennifer & I reflected on this whole experience, and we cannot help but praise God -- God who displayed his power and love and grace. At the same time, we wondered why we were shocked to find out that Jenny became a Christian...perhaps it is our lack of faith in God's power changing lives. We also praised God for even allowing us to be part of this process (although we really think we had little to do with what happened). God is faithful, God answers our prayers, God is amazing, God is worthy of our praise and worship.

I am reminded of another verse...

1 Corinthians 3:5-7

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

This is God's work. God pursued Jenny. I am just glad we didn't get in the way. Praise God who makes things grow.

I am reminded of what Bob Boyd, a chapel speaker, said: "If you want to experience the power of God, share the gospel." I was challenged by that statement, now I am convicted by that statement.

O Lord, give me an obedient heart to share the gospel, so that I might experience your power first hand. O Lord, you are worthy of my praise. O Lord, you are mighty and powerful. Continue to work in the hearts of our family and friends who have not trusted in your son Jesus Christ. Use me. I am willing, Lord. I want to see your power unleashed on the earth.

( ( a r d e n t ) )

Stages of Participation in Ministry

I think in general, there are different stages of participation in ministry for someone. Well, it could be participation in anything, really.

Non-participatory stages

A. Indifferent -- this is the stage where a person does not even care about what is going on in the ministry. The ministry is not even on the person's radar screen.

B. Ignorant -- this is the stage where a person knows that a ministry exists and may even be interested, but has no idea what the needs may be or how to help.

Passive Participation stages

A. Informed -- at this stage, a person has knowledge about the ministry and has an idea of what the real needs are.

B. Involved -- this is when the person becomes a part of the ministry. he is willing and available to help with what is asked of him.

Active Participation stages

A. Initiative-taking -- in this stage, a person is understands the ministry goals, visions, and purposes and starts to take initiative in serving the ministry.

B. Integration -- in this final stage, a person is not only part of the ministry, the particular ministry is part of her life. The ministry becomes a passion in her life and she is devoted to the ministry.

Reformatus Sum: Studies on Calvinism, Church History and the New Testament