Encountering God in the silence

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. (1Kings 19:11-12)

Flew to Taiwan for my aunt’s funeral in September. When she fell into the downward spiral in the last week of August, Apostle Maldonado was holding an "Encounter" conference in Taiwan which was web broadcasted. Just seeing him praying for people to get lots of money pissed me off big time. However, I still prayed along pleading for a miracle to occur upon my aunt, because I knew that in her situation, nothing other than a miracle can help.

In the broadcast, I did not feel the presence of God. And neither did any miracles occur. In the middle of September I flew back to Taiwan for my aunts funeral with an extremely heavy mood. Strangely enough, when I first stepped out of the Taoyuan Airport, I felt a change in the atmosphere in the air! It became a lot lighter and fresher than before. No, I don’t mean the pollution level itself, but the actual spiritual atmosphere of this land. This is very strange because many crappy things had just happened to this nation, and I was feeling extremely unhappy at that time.

The funeral went smoothly. The following day my mom and I went on a trip to Penghu to lighten our mood. Coincidentally we had a pair of sisters in the tour group with the younger sister suffering from terminal cancer. She was very yellow in colour and could hardly walk. This reminded my mom of her sister.

This week, there had been a Puyama train derailment tragedy in Taiwan. And I heard a great sermon on 1Kings 19 in the introductory sermon class from a classmate who had just lost his sister to cancer, reminding me of my aunt's recent passing... that this time, he did not find God in some wind-shattering/earth-shaking/fire-burning miracles even though he really wished for one for his sister, but encountered God in the silent times... This week’s events had stirred up a lot of emotions for me...

After class, I went for coffee, and got given a smiley faced mocha... like an encouragement from God!

breaking the silence

Interesting Psalter assignment coming up, and found some interesting books to read. Our lecturer Andrew Sloane, who used to work as a doctor, told us: Although we are studying Psalms now, in the end the Psalms are not to be studied but to be used (in our own relationships with God and in helping others in their relationship with God) ! Poems are not given to us to be interpreted, but to be read. Psalms allows us to express the fullness of our faith. Life is not always happy, we are not always happy. Sometimes it is appropriate to say “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Otherwise, when we find ourselves in those places, we are silenced. Psalms give us the words when we have none. When your life has fallen apart and you don’t have words you can use, the Psalms give us these words. The Psalms is a gift from God that allows us to express our faith in “God authorised” ways. One of the way the Psalms is useful is in breaking our silence!

希伯來文詩篇解經作業看起來蠻有趣的，也找到幾本有趣的書。我們的老師之前是醫生，他說雖然我們現在在課堂研讀詩篇，但詩篇的最終目地是拿來始用的，不是來研究的。