The Lord Exalts the Humble

Lyric by Morris Chapman/ Claire Cloninger
(Hymn inspired by Ps 113)
~~~~~
From the rising of the sun,
until it's going down,
Praise to the Lord, praise His name.

Fill the morning with Your joy,
fill the evening with Your song;
Praise to the Lord, praise His name.

From the barren house He comes
to make of it a home;
Praise to the Lord, praise His name.

To the empty heart He calls,
saying, "Come and be my own;"
Praise to the Lord, praise His name.

Praise to the One who is high,
above every nation;
Who has raised us from the dust to reign with Him.

Praise to the One who is Lord,
above all creation;
Praise to the Lord, praise His name.

Otium Sanctum

At the Huntington Library.

輕輕聽

I thought long and hard, revisited how my reaction and decision came about.   Anyway, I need to cultivate a habit of listening to God, praying for at least a full day especially before all major decisions.

20 min.

Vancouver Trip

I can't thank God enough for showing me that He's not forsaken me and that He's with me through blessing this trip in every possible way.

Plan A didn't work.  I was somewhat devastated.  

Then came Karena's pronouncement, "God'll give you a vacation," and on the following day I contacted some friend/relatives in Vancouver and booked the flight.Cynthia quickly found me a nice and convenient place to stay and took care of me.

I haven't traveled solo for since many years ago and so I was unsure if I could really enjoy it.  I prayed to God to bless my trip ....   Not only did I want a blessed trip, I want the assurance from the One who bestows blessings.  Well, as I mentioned, God has blessed my trip in every possible way:  weather, itinerary, Cynthia (smoothie, laundry, airport/bus/contacting Sylvia and family), Kitty and Anson, alone time.

Thank you, my heavenly Father.

Learning about Fasting, finally

Monday morning.

Celebration of Discipline, a book that I bought and signed in 1985, has a chapter on fasting.

Vision, clear spiritual vision.  "Open my eyes ....", the tune of this old hymn played in my mind.

Is that about acquiring wisdom?  SS's making me study Proverbs.

It's Lord Jesus

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31–32)

From time to time, I experienced a surge of spiritual energy to overcome feeling downcast.  I used to think someone must have prayed for me.

I feel that burden removed -- burden that I have felt in recent months, which climaxed/resolved after the Vancouver trip.

It's Jesus.  He prays for me, and/or he prompts someone to pray for me.  Jesus:  I pray that I can use my experience to empathize and edify other people.

Patience

If the previous lesson which God intended for me to learn was "humility," the lesson He may want me to learn now is "patience." How do I know? I don't know how but the idea just came to mind this morning. I even saw a John Piper quote on a photo on FB later today about patience, as if to affirm it. Is God speaking?

It's been difficult for the most part in the past two months.

Seek and Listen

This morning I was thinking to seek for God's voice, rather than telling him over and again what I needed, when I come forth to Him through prayer. Throughout the morning, I read some meaningful and encouraging quotes on FB. Around lunch time a fragment of this song floated in my mind (i.e. some tune and I only remember the lyric 釘痕手), and I searched online and found the Youtube link and music.

Message In a Bottle

This is some of the gift that I prepared for the students, with the helps from Janet who gave me the "message in a bottle" idea and her sponsoring of 24 glass bottles, Monica who did 99% of the craftwork, and Emily who furnished beautiful pouches to wrap the bottles.



May God bless each one who received these bottles. God bless the makers of these bottles as well!

5000 fed, then 4000 fed, the disciples .....

So, I was thinking about if I would go to Anhui in 2015.  As of now, my summer is clear since I've preemptively turned down my usual summer teaching job.  But then I have other plan which takes priority over the Anhui trip.  I hope my other plan is aligned with God's will and guidance.

One reason I felt able to turn down the summer teaching job is that my library job has increased from 15 hrs to 30 hrs, with benefits.  The news came towards the end of last year.  Some people got the hours increase in January.  I got mine in February, after the Old Testament Boot Camp.  To me, it's God's perfect timing.  I AM RECORDING IT DOWN lest I forget.

Like the disciples who seemed to forget and gave the same response to Jesus when facing the task of feeding the 4000, I forget God's providence and perfect timing upon the slightest change of my piano teaching or my library job.  

Thank God for the lesson in the Gospel according to Mark from the Word Of Life class.  Thank God to remind me from the mouth of a non-Christian friend at work to be grateful.