Today's Passage - Ephesians 5:28-30

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Ephesians 5:28-30   "In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church - for we are members of his body."   What is love?  In marriage our love is often self-centered, but love is simply to pay attention to your wife.  Real love is not about what gifts you give to your wife or what you do for her, but it's about how much you pay attention to her.  After the wedding, the wife often feels that she will live happily there after with the husband, but the husband would feel that one big milestone has been achieved and he can finally turn his focus back to career.  I don't mean career is not important, but I need to ask the husbands, how much to you value your wives and care for her needs?   I used to think that I really cared for my wife, until one day I heard a speaker who asked: "have you prayed for your wife today?"  Suddenly I felt that I really have forsaken my wife; I often pray for other people and I even pray for others along with my wife, but I seldom pray specifically for her.  Let me also ask this question: "As a husband, how much do you care about your wife's needs?  Have you prayed for her today?"  No matter what your reasons are - whether it's work, life, career, family or even church, no reason is sufficient for you to neglect your responsibility for your wife.   Moreover, husbands also need to pay attention to understand the wives.  Many husbands complain: "I don't get my wife, she's always so moody!"  Actually, it is precisely the responsibility of husbands to understand their wives' emotions, to know their personalities, how they like to express their feelings, their fear as well as their likes and dislikes.  Compared to the time you spend on studying about computers or stocks, how much time do you spend on studying your wife?  As we face increasingly serious issue of divorces among Christians, husbands must face the challenge of becoming a real man and courageously take on the responsibility for the success of the family.   I've seen two great books on marriage, one is "winning your husband's heart" and the other is "winning your wife's heart."  I found that in bookstores "winning your husband's heart" is always sold out, but no one seems to be interested in "winning your wife's heart."  Is it because there's no need to win a wife's heart, or is it that husbands don't adequately value the needs of the wives?  Husbands, are you willing to love your wives by focusing on her needs starting today?                                                                                   Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, please help each and every husband to know how to love their wife like how Christ loves the church.  In our daily life, let us pray for our wives, and to know how to satisfy their needs.  I thank you and I pray for the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Ephesians 5:25-27

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Ephesians 5:25-27    "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansingher by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."     God's will for His church in the world is to "build His glorious church". I grew up in church. The pro is that I was already familiar with all the biblical teachings and participated in all kinds of ministries long time ago. The con is that I have seen too many problems inside church. So when God called on me to become a full-time minister, I didn't consider pastoring a church at all. All I wanted was to do campus ministry, because I was thinking that working among those young, energetic and teachable students was very promising, while working in a church could be complicated and problematic. However, two years later, God took me away from campus ministry to serve in a church in a very clear way. At that time I was still not completely confident about my switch.     After several years of fumbling in church, even after certain achievements, I was still wondering which direction God's church should go in, and what God's will for His church should be, until I went to a retreat. During that retreat, Senior Pastor Chou of Bread of Life Christian Church Taipei portrayed an unforgettable picture for me in his sermon "Build God's glorious church": In the future wedding banquet of the Lamb in Heaven, Jesus is the bridegroom while church is the bride; Jesus awaits at the front, while angelic hosts are in the audience. When the bride appears, according to the Bible, she will be a holy, blameless, and glorious bride, worthy of being married Jesus. God taught Pastor Chou not to look at church from people's point of view to only get more and more discouraged, but to look at church from God's point of view according to God's eternal plan to get more and more excited.      By the vision God entrusts him with, Pastor Chou started to become more and more joyful in his ministry. From then on, God also planted the same vision deeply in my heart. The most important work of the Spirit in this world is to cleanse, equip and build up church to become holy, glorious and satisfactory to God until the day Jesus returns. Can you get such a vision? Are you willing to work with God and build up His church together?                                                                                   Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we thank you for once again planting this vision of glorious church in our hearts. You will in the end times is to build glorious church. May you lift us up so we can dedicate ourselves to your Kingdom ministry in our daily life and our ministry until you come. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Ephesians 5:22-24

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Ephesians 5:22-24 "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." Such a teaching is really a challenge to the weakness of men and women's sinful nature. By nature, men are ready to submit by taking an action for each order. Therefore men are suitable to become soldiers. However, women are born with the tendency to ask "why". Therefore, in the Garden of Eden God said "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." After hearing that, the man didn't eat from that tree, while the woman would wonder "how come the fruit is so pretty and tasty, but I am not allowed to eat it". After she ate it, she told the man to follow her. And the man obliged. Nevertheless, it is very difficult for men to be loyal, while it is natural for women to wholly love and be loyal to anything they treasure in their lives.     Therefore, as a challenge to men's weakness, God tells them to wholly love their wives as husbands. Likewise, as a challenge to women's weakness, God tells them to submit to their husbands. The submission mentioned here in the Bible is by no means unconditional. So it is applicable to any situation. The so-called submission in the Lord is actually out of reverence to the husband. Whenever I do marriage counseling, some sisters would always ask me "how can I change my husband". As wives, they are always eager to change their husbands, no wonder they are always nagging. In fact, nagging and complaining will never change a husband. What can really turn him around is your respect. What should you do to respect him then?     First, encourage him more. Many wives would ignore their husbands' good performances, but catch them in their mistakes and exaggerate "Look, you are hopeless!" Actually a husband always expects compliments from his wife, just like a wife who expects compliments from her husband. So always encourage. Second, don't compare him with others. Comparing is something that hurts a man the most. As a wife, your job is not to make a perfect husband. Rather, as a good helper, it is your job to acknowledge your husband's capability, not his incapability. So a wife must be aware of her husband's gift and talent, and encourage him to use them, so that he can become someone after God's heart. All the wives amongst us, are you willing to submit from now on?                                                                                   Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, bless each wife in your name. Put the spirit of submission inside them so they can step forward by faith. After they submit to their husbands because of you, you will bless them with more grace. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Ephesians 5:18-21

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Ephesians 5:18-21 "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."    How can we receive the spiritual wisdom? Paul gave us a tip, which is to be filled with the Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit doesn't necessarily mean you have to have some kind of unique experience. Some people will link it to people rolling on the ground while speaking in tongues when being filled with the Spirit is mentioned to them. So most Christians would rather prefer to be common rather than to be filled with the Spirit. Paul didn't tell us that to believers, being filled with the Spirit is just an option that doesn't matter. What he said was a directive "Be filled with the Spirit". If we want to testify for the truth in this wicked generation, our skill or experience is not enough to rely on. We have to rely on the Spirit.     The true meaning of "being filled with the Spirit" is to acknowledge and honor the Spirit's absolute authority on us. In our daily life, we have to absolutely follow the Spirit's guidance and honor Him as the Lord in our hearts. Whether or not to speak in tongues is not the most important thing. We don't have to stop others from speaking in tongues if we don't do so. The most important thing is that we have to bear fruits in our lives from being filled with the Spirit. The four signs of being filled with the Spirit actually can happen in our daily life. First, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit is to show that we are in one body in church to enjoy the joy together as believers. Second, singing and making music from our heart to the Lord is to show that we enjoy the joy of God's presence during our worship. Third, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord is to show that we enjoy God's presence at any time and place in our personal lives. Fourth, submitting to one another is to show that we enjoy the joy of willingly serving the Lord in our families and careers. Only when we are willing to sacrifice ourselves and completely submit to the Spirit's guidance, will we be able to know God's will for everything, and be strong enough to live a victorious life.                                                                                   Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we know it is your command to "be filled with the Spirit". Help us open our hearts to you and welcome the work of the Spirit. May the Spirit rule in everyone's heart, and fill us greatly and fully. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Ephesians 5:15-17

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Ephesians 5:15-17   "Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." The wisdom mentioned here is not the worldly one, but the spiritual one. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 1, Paul pointed out that the biggest difference between believers and non-believers is that they have different kinds of wisdom. Worldly people cannot understand spiritual things for their lack of spiritual wisdom. Only the spiritual people search all things, because the Spirit provides teaching and guidance from within. A person with the spiritual wisdom knows how to make the most of every opportunity and knows God's will.     Grace from God will always become richer and richer. However, the time He gives us is getting less and less. If we don't know God's plan for us, we will waste the time He gives us. Eventually we will be overwhelmed with the world, and our lives will get harder and harder. We will need to spend most of our time, energy and money to barely keep our complicated lifestyle. Eventually, when God calls on us to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness", we will find ourselves with no time or energy to live for Him. I am not trying to ask any of you to quit your jobs and go back to the simple life in the old days. However, do we really know what kind of role God asks us to play in this wicked world? Do we really know how to dedicate our skills developed over the years to God? Each and every gift, talent and skill God has blessed us with is directly involved in the expansion of God's Kingdom. May God provide us with wisdom so that we can see the mission He gives us and run forward with all our might.     In the book "Don't you gloat, Death", En-Pei Su described her life like this: "During the borrowed time, I have been motivated by a kind of urgency. I don't want to simply relax. I can't allow time to pass by in vain." En-Pei Su uniquely treated the time as "borrowed". This kind of paradigm has been the motivation for her ministry. Actually, isn't our time borrowed from God? Who knows when God will end our ministry in this world? During this borrowed time, don't we have to really seek God's will and make the most of every opportunity to live for Him? May God help us to do so from now on!                                                                                   Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, thank you for giving us a new day everyday, which is the time borrowed from you. May you be our motivation so we don't waste our lives every day. Rather, we can know your will and follow your will. May you anoint us with the spiritual wisdom. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Ephesians 5:11-14

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Ephesians 5:11-14    "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible-and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: 'Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'"   God is the light. When the light shines, all hidden things will be revealed. When the light shines, you will find that something originally quite valuable in the darkness turns out to be simply valueless. When you turn to the light, there is no darkness between the light and you. However, when you turn your back to the light, you will see the darkness you generate, which is your shadow. If we want to live a holy life, we must learn to "turn to the light" everyday. In God's Holy light, all of our hidden thoughts such as pride and lust will be revealed to make us feel shameful. We will be like Adam whose first feeling was shame after he committed sin so he tried to cover himself with clothing made of leaves. His first reaction was to avoid God because he was afraid to face Him.     Many people don't want to face God, so they simply deny that God exists. As much as you may deny the existence of God, you cannot deny the guilty feeling inside your heart. Were it not for Jesus' precious blood, we would not be able to come to God fearlessly. If you still think you can anyway, that is because you haven't really got to know this living God.  The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice for sin, the redemption God has prepared for the mankind. He sacrificed Himself once for all, having obtained for us the eternal redemption, so that our sins can be forgiven by God, and we can be cleansed again. By His redemption, the broken relationship between the mankind and God was restored, so that we can come to our Heavenly Father and call Him "Abba Father" and "our Father in Heaven", which proves His most precious Grace between the lines, in our prayer.     If you are really aware of your sins and the redemption by His precious blood, you will not live a casual life, unlike some Christians who commit sins right after their confessions and confess right after they commit sins. His precious blood never fails to not only forgive our sins, but also lead us into a more intimate, open and honest relationship with God. When we come to God, His light will shine on us. His precious blood will also cleanse us. Are you willing to bring yourself into God's light?                                                                                   Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, thank you for being the true light so that when we are in the darkness, you shed light onto our inner world to reveal our sins. May you cleanse us with your precious blood to help us turn around from sins and receive the peace when our sins are forgiven. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Ephesians 5:4-7

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Ephesians 5:4-7   "Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person - such a man is an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient.  Therefore do not be partners with them."   In this passage, Paul mentioned a few things that believers should take part in.  First of all, we must stay away from "obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking."  It doesn't mean that we need to carry a serious and pious look all the time.  Christians should be humorous because our God is filled with humor; He made the donkey speak to Balaam, and he disciplined Jonah through a fish.  Also, Christians should be filled with joy, because Psalm 16:11 says that "you will fill me with joy in your presence."  We can sing and dance in joy before God, but it's different from foolish talk.  Those who carry foolish talk don't fear God and respect people, for they manifest self-centered arrogance.  As Christians, we ca be different from others, but we must respect them.  No matter how different we are from each others, we are all made in the image of God.  When we don't respect people, we do not fear God.  Therefore, we must be cautious with what we say and beware of speaking words that hurt others.   Next, we must not be greedy, because being greedy is just like idol-worshipping.  When one is greedy, his desires form the center of his life, and he will do whatever it takes to satisfy his desires, thus desires become the highest priority in his life.  Greed has no end, the more you have the more you desire, and you will never be completely satisfied.   Third, we must pay attention to what kind of people we're spending time with, and stay away from those who are evil.  If you are always with people who are negative, you will become negative; if you are always with people who go after things of the world, you will also go down the same path of the world.  Therefore, we must stay near those who have fire inside so that our hearts will not cool down.  When you thirst for the Lord, you should seek to have God's fire light your life.  This fire can only be passed onto you from others who have it.  I used to go back to Southeast Asia every year to meet with a group of brothers who are devoted to God, because I envy their dedication and fire for God.  Whenever I went back I would talk with them about God's Kingdom and pray together.  My heart was greatly encouraged and the fire in their hearts was passed onto me.  Brothers and sisters, you need to pay attention to the person you are following, because the people you are spending time with will definitely impact your life.                                                                                   Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, please guard our heart and mind.  Let us be in you all the time and be molded by you.  Keep us from saying words that don't please you.  Help us to distant ourselves from the evil ones in our daily life, but be close to people with fire inside them so we can seek your way together.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!