“And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord . . . and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons'” (Luke 2:22-24). Under the law, the regular sacrifice was a lamb, but there was a provision for poor mothers: “If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons” (Leviticus 12:8). This is what Mary brought. Jesus, who had all the riches of the world at his disposal, chose to be incarnate into a family that could not even afford a regular sacrifice. Let us not love riches.–Bethany Jenkins

It is true that Jesus, the owner of the whole universe, chose to be born into this world he created, into a poor manger. The most stunning thing to me is that when the time came for offerings to be made for the dedication of the baby to God, his parents Joseph and Mary were in the category of the poor as they couldn’t afford a lamb offering. I guess, in today’s terms, Jesus would have been raised in the low cost housing of New York, The God of the universe grows up in the low cost housing. Is that incarnation? Is that implication for our lives?

I pray for myself and my church and my christian friends to know the incarnation of Christ.

This is December 2013, Christmas bell is ringing and 2014 is just round the corner. We are going to believe God for great harvest coming.

As we move into 2014, harvest awaits us but something has to change in our group. 2014 will be a crucial year for us and me.

Can you pray for hope New York church as we are going to start biweekly dinner cum short gospel sharing outreach meetings starting this Sunday? This is new which I learnt from my incubator course. Pretty radical .
Kick off this Christmas meal December 22. After that we will review and plan for biweekly outreach example Chinese New Year and new students intake in jan . Need a lot of prayer because we don’t have enough man power and contacts. Work is difficult and challenging.

Also starting a core team training and planning group weekly with prayers teaching and communion and offerings . Teaching rich gospel centered theology for internal transformation with grace and outreach focused and challenge . (No more Sunday or sat service, no church service until we launch with 40-50 people). Learnt that having service with less than 20 people does not retain Americans . We need to be good and ready to launch .

We are starting our weekly fast and a core group weekly brain storm and sharing and teaching cum prayer that’s closed group.
Thanks for praying and u appreciate that.

In God we trust

^{Luke 54} And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶ And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. ⁷ They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” ⁹ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 

God spoke to me as I was praying about the church. Astonishing word came to me as I just heard this thought went right through me. This is so encouraging as we begin to see signs of new ones coming to our church. May the Lord continue to work in amazing ways. We want to be part of God’s plan and purpose. His ways and not my way. The idea of total turn around only speaks of the glory of God, nothing of what men can do. I believe the Lord God will do great things as we put our faith in Him. Only after wearing out so much trying on our own, we begin to feel the stress and burden that it is such an uphill climb. Only that God breaks in and shows His glory. Praise the Lord He is never too late neither too early.

What does Incarnation mean to us? John 1

There is no way to approach God and see his glory in the old testament. The consequence of seeing God’s glory is death. Moses found that out very quickly. He spoke to God Ex 33: ¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” ¹⁹ And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence….. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” But deep inside Moses, he longed to see God’s glory.

Why couldn’t he see God’s glory? (That means he couldn’t see God’s face). Why?  Because the God of the universe is absolutely holy, righteous, glorious, beautiful, but humans are sinful. The center of gravity for man’s life is himself; his accomplishment, his goals, his desire. But God’s center of gravity is His holiness, beauty, righteousness. These two systems clash when they meet. It’s just impossible. It’s like 2 solar systems approach one another, with 2 different centers, they will clash & some will be spun out of the orbit!

 The missing chapter of all these is the incarnation of God. When Christ became man, he became like one of us, totally man, and totally God, a theology that’s hard to comprehend. Its like us in the kingdom of God, and in the kingdom of the world. We carry the divine nature, and the fallen nature of mankind too. The one who can redeem us must be a man like us because he has to be like one of us. However, he must be God too, because only the blood of God can redeem us. Not a human, who is sinful. Therefore only the incarnation of God to become a man can truly redeem us and save us. And by that incarnation, we can now behold God’s glory! Hallelujah! Because he tore away the veil. The veil in the temple is torn by his death on the cross. The barrier between man and God is abolished.

 You see all of us are running away from God, and at the same time running to God. Running away from God because of our anger and fear. Anger because things do not always works out the way we wanted it to be, and God seems to have his own way. Running to God especially when we need him, when we are humbled. In other words, we can’t live with Him, and at the same time, cannot live without Him!! What a wretched man!

 But now, Jesus has made a way so we can see God’s glory in Him. He brings all the forgiveness and restoration and healings in our lives. He is our savior! That’s why we can see God face to face in Jesus without being consumed. Because our sins are taken away in Jesus. The incarnation of Jesus made this possible. That explains why we are always in this tension of running away and to God. That’s why this world is always so full of turbulence and at the same time the beauty of God. The solution is in the incarnation of God to bridge that gap. He is our missing chapter. With Christ in us, that tension is gone, and only in Christ alone.

1 peter 1⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

 You have not seen him and you believe in him and rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory! That’s seeing the glory of God that eluded Moses. That’s our call today. How can you  be filled with that inexpressible joy? Do you feel that as a Christian? Paul said all his sufferings are nothing compared to the incomparable joy! 2 Cor 4: ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.^[1]

 How can Paul honestly take in all the punches of life like ship wrecked for 3 days, flogged, imprisoned for the gospel etc., and he calls it light and momentary troubles? That’s the biggest joke of the bible! Why? Because he sees the eternal glory that far outweighs them all. He sees the incarnated Christ, the glory of the risen Christ. Can we see that? Don’t think the river is it, no!  There is an ocean out there. Don’t mistaken the river as the ocean in our lives, go for the ocean. Rejoice with inexpressible joy with beholding the glory of the living God.

 John 1: ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.^[2] 

 We have seen his glory!! CS Lewis calls this as the weight of glory!

http://hopenychurch.org/sermons/2013/7/8/god-became-man-incarnation-john-114-18

I believe that all pastors should be trained in theological seminaries if they want to plant churches in the big urban cities successfully. A major problem in many churches: Many pastors in churches are not equipped to handle theology because they are never trained theologically (one that digs below the surface), which is a shame. This alone should be a BIG topic of debate and soul searching . 

 

There is a cry to be equipped theologically especially if Christians want to plant churches in the big urban cities of the West like New York, London, Paris, Sydney, Shanghai etc. We should respond to that and cultivate & empower a desire and hunger for theology, instead of inhibiting it. 

 

Judging from what I’ve read and observed, we can do with more theological training for pastors and church planters. If pastors are made aware of this, many would want to catch up! And we should let them and encourage them! We should let God do a new thing! The best way to equip the pastors, is to ask them to go to seminaries that are reputable and theologically sound. (like Gordon Conwell, Trinity, Westminster) Their churches should support them financially for such courses. They are the heros of our movement! The church planters! They deserve it.

 

 

We need to heed the call, and raise young generation of theologians, equipped to be pastors (& to assist pastors) of the 21st century urban churches of the world!

I had my 1st session Introduction to Theological studies. Amazingly the professor is a pentecostal. We had great conversations about the Pentecostal theologians…Reformed form about 95-99% of the theologians & thinkers of America today or the world!! Wow! Pentecostal theologians is like the new kid in the block like one pastor quipped to me. Where have we been?? I wonder? So I am glad I enrolled in Gordon Conwell with a good diversity mix.