Discovering the Messiah through
Commitment to worship: lessons from Chinese believers Late Saturday night, I returned home from an incredible trip to China. We got to see God work in many ways. However, usually when you go somewhere to bless someone, you usually get blessed more yourself. :) This was definitely my experience with my interactions with Chinese believers. One weekend on the trip, our team visited a Chinese church. I learned three important lessons.
This church was pretty heavily monitored by the government, but no earthly government can keep God from accomplishing His work. Isaiah 55:10-11 states, "For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." This service was completely in Chinese. My Chinese is limited to "hello" and "thank you" in a pretty terrible accent. Needless to say, I was quite confused except when a familiar hymn was sung that I knew the English words to. But the power of the Holy Spirit is far bigger than language barriers. The prayers prayed in that church were some of the most powerful I have ever heard. God truly has a heart for all nations. In Isaiah alone, some version of "all nations" is mentioned 16 times. God is not a western God. He is not bound by western culture. He is not a white God, no matter what the stock Sunday School pictures of Jesus indicate. He is a God with wild, radical love for people everywhere to call out to Him. Lastly, the Chinese Christians are completely committed to their faith. At this church, people were waiting outside the door of the church almost an hour before the service started in a drizzling rain! Often as a college student, I can barely roll out of bed at 9 to get ready for church, but these brothers and sisters were so eager to lift high the name of Jesus that they stood in line to ensure that they would be able to have that privilege. Pray for the Chinese church. God is doing wonderful things in and through our brothers and sisters across the world.
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Broken vessels Leviticus 6:28A: The clay pot the meat is cooked in must be broken...... At Shiloh, where the yearly sacrifices were offered before Jerusalem, the people of Israel were required to set aside something special simply for the purpose of sacrifice. This clay pot had one purpose: to carry the sacrifice and to allow the fragrance of atonement to fill the air. This pot was consecrated for something special. Yes, it was broken at the end, but this pot was a key part in the reconciliation of an Israelite family with YAWEH. This pot did not have a comfortable, normal life. But this pot had a purpose - the story was not about the pot; it was about the work of the sacrifice it carried. The Lord has been showing me that I am like this pot. I carry the power of Jesus - the sacrificial lamb inside of me. And life is painful - I will be broken. But the story is not about me. My purpose is to live a life of sacrifice so that the fragrance of Christ's perfect atonement might fill the air. I am consecrated for something special - I do not want to live a comfortable normal life. I do not want my life to be about me. May I always remember that I am merely a vessel for the power of the perfect sacrifice to reside in. 2 Corinthians 4:7: But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. *Pottery shards from Shiloh - at least one of them is from the Judges era and may very well have been part of an Israelite family's sacrifice!
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