Churches...

Pastor Jim talked about importance of churches in his first sermon in 2008. He talked about the humble beginning of his Faith Community Church... He talked about NOT just growing his church in numbers, but how to properly planting them in God's word and just allow the Holy Spirit to make them grow and bear fruit. He warned us that today, it is much harder to be a Christian compared to couple of decades ago... and he further warned that in another couple of decades, it'll most likely be even harder to be a Christian!!!

One thing that grabbed my attention was Pastor Jim described bars, clubs, and even gangs are just counterfeit churches!!! There's really no need for people to drink at bars or clubs..., they can drank much cheaply alone by themselves at home!!! However, people go there for 'fellowship'. Same with the gang members. Most probably come from broken family. So gang ends up being their 'family'.

Anyway, I think this is one area I'm kinda lacking... wife and I don't really have that sense of belonging just yet, but at least we have each other for now... and we know we belong to Jesus!!! Finding a peer group that we can 'click' with won't be easy..., but I suppose wife and I probably still need more time to click with each other first anyway! ;)

I'm still hoping that I can outreach to my own parents, but with them not really at all interested in Jesus and with wife's lack of interest to spend too much time with my parents, what can I do, Lord? Can you change my parents' hearts?

Speaking of things getting tough, I just heard from George that something 'nasty' happened at his former church in Seattle. I couldn't believe it at first... because I really loved it there while I was up there for a few months. I wish my own church could be like theirs... I wish we could have a pastor like theirs at home... I thought that'd for sure fix the problem at my church at home!!!

But who knew..., I don't know exactly what happened, George didn't say specifically, but all I know is that George left and pastor resigned... I'm not even sure if this is a recent event or perhaps happened a while back and he just mentioned to me today...

I just hope that not too many brothers and sisters fell because of this incident.

Today's scripture reading about Luke is at least kind encouraging... Luke warned that all those who want to live a godly life will be persecuted. Like Pastor Jim said, Luke also warned that things will go from bad to worse...

2Tim3: 14 但 你 所 學 習 的 ， 所 確 信 的 ， 要 存 在 心 裡 ； 因 為 你 知 道 是 跟 誰 學 的 ，
15 並 且 知 道 你 是 從 小 明 白 聖 經 ， 這 聖 經 能 使 你 因 信 基 督 耶 穌 ， 有 得 救 的 智 慧 。

2Tim4:5 你 卻 要 凡 事 謹 慎 ， 忍 受 苦 難 ， 做 傳 道 的 工 夫 ， 盡 你 的 職 分 。

Lord God Almighty, we will certainly try our best. May Your will be done...