Morling Tuesday Chapel: The Fullness of God

The place where the missionary Dr. George Leslie Mackay came ashore onto Taiwan! Looks like he was kneeling in prayer in this artwork! Photo taken from a trip to Taiwan in 2016.

Speaker: Rachel Stuhr

Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-19

Have you ever had someone come to you and say, “I’ve been praying for you a lot” (in a serious way, not just out of politeness)? Rachel had a lady whom she doesn’t know well said to her she has been praying for her. She prayed for her marriage, her being a good exemplar for others, her faith, her spreading the word of God, etc. This prayer of Paul is similar.

The prayer is motivated by the many blessings we have in Christ.

V14: “I kneel before the Father.” People kneeling to pray. To kneel to pray is to indicate urgency/desperation/earnest.

The Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name… We pray to the Father, the origin of all creation.

Greek: Pater=father, Patria=family. The two words have similar roots. We derive our origins from the Father, the One whom we come from, the source of everything we know.

Sometimes we are focusing on the things/issues we are praying for, but not on the One whom we are praying to. It’s about God.

It is the Spirit, and Christ in us who give us the strength we need. “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Without Christ dwelling in our hearts, what do we have? Exams and assignments are less urgent compared to eternity.

Know and understand the love of Christ. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” It can be quite unconceivable that God can love us this much. What would happen if we all kneel on our knees praying urgently for the people in our lives?

“That you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God”. The fullness of God. The Spirit will strengthen us when Christ lives in our hearts.

Take this prayer and read it again at home and ask ourselves, “what would it look like if I was doing this?”

Often, we pray for people to feel better/do better/other practical things. What happens if we pray that Christ dwell in their hearts, and change them from the inside out? We can’t force anyone to come to Christ, but we can pray for them. Pray this prayer for them because that is what we can do.

Personal thoughts and reflections:

Today’s Chapel resonated with what has been happening in my life lately again. Last week I made an urgent trip to Taiwan to visit my terminally ill aunt. Although she became stable enough to be discharged from the hospital, she still doesn’t have the desire to be visited by church people or get baptized. So, although the practical aspects of my intercessions for her has been answered, this amazing extension of life is pointless if there is no growth in faith. After all, she is in great agony from the effects of the cancer itself as well as the side effects of the cancer treatment, and an extension of life means an extension of these physical and psychological agonies. Meanwhile, no one can force my aunt to come to Christ. Therefore, I should make the prayer more Christ focused, and praying for Christ to dwell in her heart, so that she can be changed from the inside out.

The emphasis on “kneeling” in today’s talk reminded me of the time I went on a government funded CPD program to Mackay Memorial Hospital in 2016. In my spare time, I went to the Barnabas School of Missions and heard a message by Dr. Allen Lien, a famous evangelist/ medical doctor in Taiwan who went to Africa, who exhorted us to “Pick up the lost tradition of getting down on your knees to break the ground with the groundbreaking prayer!” And a prophetic prayer by another organisation where the intercessor told me “get down and pick up” some of the things I’ve dropped!  At that time, I already knew in my mind the Spirit was telling me to get down on my knees and pray with urgency every day, but my flesh found it hard to do because I was either in the situation of excessive comfort during holiday times, or excessive busyness during Morling College semester times.There didn’t seem to be any stimuli of enough magnitude that made me felt I had no choice but to drop down and pray with urgency.

Well, the situation has changed lately. Ephesians 3:14-19 is a good prayer I can do when interceding for my family in Taiwan… on my knees that is!

Addit 8May 2018:
After a week of break from the hospital, my aunt got admitted into hospital again on Saturday 5May, bleeding more profusely than before.
On Monday 7May, she decided to get baptised.
On Tuesday 8May, she got baptised.

ships

I have been thinking a lot about ships since the first intercessory prayer ship to set sail around the whole Taiwan Island last week during Rosh Hashana. My friend's aunt was on the ship and she photographed a cross appearing on someone’s flag.

My parents told me that the first time I saw the ship, I exclaimed, “a swimming car!”

I moved to the United States when I was eight, and rode on a ship for the first time. Immediately I realised I get seasick. I can never stay inside the cabin because I’d vomit. Therefore, even if someone pays for me to go on a cruise, I will not go.

In 2015 marked the greatest number of times I rode on a boat in one year. I went back to Taiwan in June because my paternal grandmother suddenly passed away in June. There was a typhoon coming to Taipei, so to avoid the typhoon, we went on a trip south to Sun Moon Lake, and that was the first time rode on a yacht in that lake. The Sun Moon Lake is often called “the heart of Taiwan” because it is located in the centre of Taiwan geographically. Furthermore, it plays an important role as water plants and power plants for Taiwan. In the centre of the lake is the Lalu island, where the Aboriginal tribe of Shao practices ancestral worship. This island gradually became smaller and smaller as the water level in the lake rose. There used to be a Taoist temple (“The old man under the moon temple”) on the island, which got moved elsewhere when the island sank too much. There was also a tragic yacht disaster in the Sun Moon Lake in 1990, and one of my friends was a survivor of that disaster.

During the Feast of Tabernacles in 2015, I was on the Jesus Boat in Israel (exactly two years ago today). During the flag raising when the boat was preparing to set sail, a cross suddenly appeared in the Israeli flag!

https://youtu.be/w7J_m23ZTCc

During the Christmas/New Year holidays in 2015, I visited Taiwan again and took my maternal grandmother on a round-island tour group. I did a marching prayer during that trip. Coincidentally the first stop was the Sun Moon Lake, where we rode a yacht around the lake.

On the day before the “Twelfth” (Orangeman’s Day, Orangefest… usually a time of instability in Ireland because of potential clashes between the Catholics and the Protestants) in July 2016, I visited the Museum of Titanic in Belfast. The Titanic was built in Belfast, and I learned of many heroic and sad stories from the museum, which gave me a deeper understanding of shipwrecks. As soon as I returned to Australia, there were nonstop incoming of speakers talking about missions both in the church and in Morling College. The most profound thing I remembered during that time period was watching a shipwreck film produced by Reinhard Bonnke’s ministry, which used a rescue ship called “Corpus Christi” (Latin, meaning "the body of Christ") to describe the church.

https://youtu.be/FBUI5oOdpXQ

In November 2016, I went on an educational exchange with the Mackay Memorial Hospital. I gained a deeper understanding of the missionary George Leslie Mackay from the Mackay Museum and the hospital library. In his diary, I saw that he was constantly seasick and vomiting! It is hard to imagine! I get sick just staying on a boat for minutes, and those missionaries had to stay on ships for weeks! No wonder so many people died on the ships in ancient times!

In Rosh Hashana, 2017, I began to reading a book about church leadership for a Morling assignment. The author also used ship as a metaphor for the church. He said that the mission is the direction of the ship bound, the vision is a picture of the destination port, the core values ​​are the navigators’ souls, and the strategy is how the ship will actually sail to the destination.

Just as a navigator cannot guide a ship from port to port without a compass, strategic leaders cannot guide their ministry ships toward their desired destination without a ministry compass.[1] The church is a "ship without a compass" when it doesn't have a good visionary strategic planning.[2] The vision provides us with a picture of what the mission will look like as it is realised in the life of the community, a picture of the port where our boat is headed. The mission states the direction and the vision supplies a picture of it.[3] The navigators not only sail ships, they also have a soul. Churches, like people, have a soul: a collective soul.[4] Core values explain who you are. They form the foundation on which the mission and vision are built. They function like the GPS. Eg. Acts 2:42-47.[5] The ministry strategy is, “How will the leader-navigator guide or sail the ministry ship to the designated port?”[6]

Interestingly, many of the church vocabularies have “ship” in it: worship, fellowship, leadership… and even sheep sounds like ship. The Chinese character for “ship” is interesting too. It’s composed of three simpler Chinese characters: ark + 8 people. This is reflective of Noah and his family on the ark. Our ancestors were on a ship to escape a flood of mass destruction once upon a time (since we are all descended from Noah)! We are all people of the ship! Paradoxically, “waves” are often used as the metaphor for revival, even though waves pose as one of the greatest threat to ships! And we do see that historically, revivals tend to happen during times of great instability where the church were persecuted!

Been thinking about "fear of the Lord" lately from my Psalms studies.

In Ps34, “fear of the Lord” is the psalm’s most profound insight, where one simultaneous trembles in dread and joy due to the paradoxical awareness of one’s fragility, mortality and sinfulness as opposed to God’s almightiness, immortality and graciousness (V10).Lions is a metaphor for those who do not fear or seek the Lord (V11).

In Ps36, the wicked is not described as a violent threat to the psalmist but pictured as one who lives life by setting up the self as the autonomous standard, living life according to “what seems good to me.” Another word, one who is self-dependent instead of God-dependent.

Revival has to start from the self first. I really need seek God more and to pray for the Holy Spirit to help me better align of the word of God with real life actions.

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[1] Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning, 30.

[2] Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning, 32.

[3] Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning, 128.

[4] Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning, 145.

[5] Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning, 146.

[6] Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning, 195.

Revival of my Fitbit alta during Rosh Hashana 5778!

Last Christmas, one of my housemates gave me a Fitbit alta which was on sale. Loved it, because the watch gave me lots of information about how I am going with my exercise and sleep routines. When I went back to Taiwan in June, there was one time where the wristband came loose by itself. On the 21^st of June, after swimming in my mom’s new apartment, the watch disappeared. I tried to search everywhere I had been that day with the Bluetooth detector and asked lost and found, but couldn’t find it. I could confirm it was stolen because subsequently the device disappeared from my Fitbit account, which happens when someone else resets the watch. Last week I decided to ask Fitbit customer support for help. Then, last Wednesday (coinciding with the Rosh Hashana), I received an email saying they decided to send me a complimentary replacement watch! Felt extremely thankful for this! Today I received the watch, and noticed even the wrist band is an improved version, which will not fall off as easily. May God bless the housemate who gave me the watch with new opportunities in life!

The photo is taken on the “revive and shine” cruise ship which set sail last Wednesday. It was the first intercessory prayer ship to set sail around the whole Taiwan Island once.

https://www.ct.org.tw/1312638

Round Island trip Taiwan 2015-2016

I had the honour of coming back to Taiwan and taking my grandma for a round island trip. With the presidential election coming up shortly, I also did a marching prayer.

Day 1 December 28 Sun Moon Lake:

Sun Moon Lake, the heart (centre) of Taiwan. A very globalised tour, with people from the US, Australia, NZ, Germany, Norway, Austria, etc!

As we waited to board the boat at the dock, the melodies of “Amazing Grace” floated in the air, played by some street artist. The weather was great.

Got to the highest point in the Sun Moon Lake region. It looks almost as if there is an island floating in the sky, like Laputa!

https://youtu.be/GAkz6mDzubA

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

Our hotel room number happened to be 921, which reminds me of the 921 earthquake which shrunk the Lalu Island in the centre of the lake! Today it is sinking to the point where people cannot board the island!

Day 2 December 29 Ji-Ji, Buddhist Memorial Centre, Kaoshiung:

Yesterday my hotel room number at the Sun Moon Lake was 921! Today the tour guide suddenly had a new idea and added something not in the itinerary: go to the very centre of the 921 earthquake disaster region, Ji-Ji, to see a temple destroyed by the quake in 1999! They built a new temple in front of the destroyed temple and coincidentally they were celebrating some sort of temple ceremony and it was very noisy.

There is only one kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28)!

Then we drove along the Jianan plain (the largest plain in Taiwan, the producers of rice) towards the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial Centre. This place is like a theme park: with Starbucks, 4D movie, foodie map, etc!

We visited three temples today, and there are no more temples on the itinerary: the rest of the trip will be national parks and natural sceneries.

In the evening we arrived in Taiwan’s second largest city, Kaoshiung!

Day 3 December 30 Kenting, Taitong:

Today, the tour guide began talking about the tragic history of Taiwan (from the Aboriginal people to modern day). He mentioned “Orphan of Asia”, a novel written by Zhuoliu Wu, which accurately describes Taiwan’s multilayered identity crisis. There are many countries that helped Taiwan in order to maintain stability in the Asia Pacific region, but tragically, it seems Taiwan can never choose its own fate.

But is fate really in our hands? Can we truly control it by our own power?

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. (Job 1:21)

 

Day 4 December 31 Taitong, Hualien:

The tour guide told us that the East Coast of Taiwan is pretty different from the West Coast, one of the most prominent differences being all the crosses on the tombstones. In the past, the Han Chinese did not dare to cross over the mountain ranges into the East Coast because the Indigenous people do head hunting, and there are many high cliffs that drop directly into the sea. So, who are the people that were not afraid of being beheaded? The western missionaries! So most of the indigenous people are Christians these days.

In life, sometimes it's as if the ghosts of the past keep coming back to haunt us.

Sometimes it appears so real, that we feel as though we are stuck in a vicious cycle endlessly.

This is the history of Taiwan. 400 years ago, the last remnants of the Ming Dynasty escaped from China onto the island, along with other Han Chinese that did not want to be assimilated by the Manchurians. They drove the indigenous people up the mountains, kicked out the Dutch, and ruled the island for approximately 40 years. Then the Ching Dynasty took over Taiwan. Shortly after that, it was given to Japan in a fashion not unlike cutting out an appendix. Having been under the control of various political powers we did not choose, the population is in an acute multilayer identity crisis. History keeps repeating itself, conflicts between the different tribes on the land continues, it is as though the wounds of this land never closes.

In actual fact, all of this has passed. The inhabitants of this land are moving into a new unique identity. May God heal this land.

We cannot change the past. We can only accept it and let it go. Look at today in the eye and move on forward.

How many times have we projected wounds from the past onto future relationships?

Moving on, not just physically in time, but emotionally and spiritually.

Happy 2016