Last Sunday I had the rare opportunity of meeting Dr. J in London. He had just spent a few days speaking at the University of Oxford Said Business School as their Skoll Fellow. Before flying off to another engagement in Sweden, he stopped by London for a couple of hours to address Thai university students studying in London about various social economic issues back home. I managed to catch a brief conversation with him by accompanying him in the train journey to the airport.
This is the man who inspired me to join Hope 15 years ago. His zeal and enthusiasm about advancing God's Kingdom has not waned after all these years. I sensed an even greater intensity and urgency in his mission spirit. His 2-hour address was only punctuated by a few questions from the floor!
"My heart is stirred by a noble theme .....You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your side...... In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness; let your right hand display awesome deeds......You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." [Ps 45:1-7 NIV] Although this psalm was ascribed to our Lord Jesus, I use it to pay tribute to Dr. J whom God has anointed to do great things for His Kingdom. I believe God has installed for him an even larger role in impacting the nations in the years to come!
God looks for a lasting and unbroken relationship with His people. "The LORD said to Moses,"Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually. "Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread......Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the LORD......This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant.....". [Lev 24:1-9 NIV] Dr. J's lasting commitment to the Lord is an inspiration to us all Christ followers.
The secret of this longevity is found in Paul's exhortation to the Corinthian church. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.......All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." [2 Cor 4:7-18 NIV] Indeed as we build God's church, although it is tough going, "the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God" should powerfully motivate us to keep going!
My dear brothers and sisters, let us persevere in ploughing the land and sowing the seeds, because "he who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty." [Prov 28:7-8,10,13,18,19,26,27 NIV]
Amen and amen!
This is the man who inspired me to join Hope 15 years ago. His zeal and enthusiasm about advancing God's Kingdom has not waned after all these years. I sensed an even greater intensity and urgency in his mission spirit. His 2-hour address was only punctuated by a few questions from the floor!
"My heart is stirred by a noble theme .....You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your side...... In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness; let your right hand display awesome deeds......You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." [Ps 45:1-7 NIV] Although this psalm was ascribed to our Lord Jesus, I use it to pay tribute to Dr. J whom God has anointed to do great things for His Kingdom. I believe God has installed for him an even larger role in impacting the nations in the years to come!
God looks for a lasting and unbroken relationship with His people. "The LORD said to Moses,"Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually. "Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread......Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the LORD......This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant.....". [Lev 24:1-9 NIV] Dr. J's lasting commitment to the Lord is an inspiration to us all Christ followers.
The secret of this longevity is found in Paul's exhortation to the Corinthian church. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.......All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." [2 Cor 4:7-18 NIV] Indeed as we build God's church, although it is tough going, "the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God" should powerfully motivate us to keep going!
My dear brothers and sisters, let us persevere in ploughing the land and sowing the seeds, because "he who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty." [Prov 28:7-8,10,13,18,19,26,27 NIV]
Amen and amen!
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