Day 4 - 7/3/16 The Word of God

Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
                                Jeremiah 3:15

          Good morning all! This is Jeremy, picking up after Josh. Our fourth day here in beautiful Taichung was exciting and educational, and we are all so grateful that the trip is going so well thus far. Today's blog post will revolve around one of our favorite experiences in Taiwan so far: attending a service in brother Hwa-Chi's church. 

          The day began like any other, as Edward and I woke up to a delicious breakfast at around 8 o'clock. Today, rather than walk around the block to one of the countless neighborhood breakfast stores, we stayed home and shared a few unique pastries and breads with one of the Zhen family's sons, who is actually planning to visit Australia this year. It seems that here in Taiwan, everything from furniture and homes to the day's food is made with such care and creativeness; the three breads we tried this morning included an indescribably soft roll that was stuffed full of a creamy cheese, a loaf of bread filled with a spiral of sweet taro, and a crunchy pastry flavored with peanut butter. After breakfast, we left for the church at around 8:40.

          Once we got there, Edward and I wandered up to the youth room to wait for the others to arrive and for service to begin. After a few minutes, Josh and Emily arrived, and people soon began flooding in. At around 9:30, Sunday school started, and all the youth filtered out into their age groups. Edward, Emily, Josh, and I stayed in a room with the college students and Hwa-Chi, who led our Sunday school lesson.  

          Hwa-chi opened his lesson with a word of prayer and an introduction for all of us. He then launched right into a very practical message about seven vital survival skills. Below are the most important points we took from Hwa-chi's lesson:

• Manage your life by dealing with the gap between expectations and reality, whether by lowering expectations or by improving your reality.
• The gap between expectation and reality is the main cause of burnout among young professionals.
• Find your own path in life, especially when others' expectations of you begin to have an excess effect on your thoughts and actions.
• When Christ comes, you will be judged according to your own circumstances and standards (see Matthew 25 14:30, the parable of the talents).
• Everyone's blessing unto the world should be proportional to the blessings given to you by the Lord.
• Know what God has given to you and build your life off of those talents rather than others' expectations.
• Finding your personal career niche is a long process, and should include the following:
• A feeling that all things go smoothly.
• When the schedule becomes strenuous, your job should still feel comfortable.
• Experiment with your niche before age 30.
• Critical thinking and personal effort are of greater importance than academics.
• Seven survival skills:

1. Critical thinking and problem solving
2. Collaboration and leadership
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurship
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information
7. Curiosity and Imagination

• Asking the correct question is of greater importance than producing a correct answer.
• A good question should not have a clear answer.
• There are two types of working environments: individual and collaborative.
• Resolve issues and understand needs when beginning a project to ensure that it is completed smoothly.
• A humble, guiding leader is more effective than one who only issues commands and is unwilling to take criticism or advice. 
• Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet is a powerful example to take to heart (see John 13:1-17).
• Practice this collaborative mindset by working with parents, building logical arguments and creating productive discussions.

            I think we all agree that this lesson will be very helpful to us in the future, and I'm sure that it will stick in our hearts as we grow and age. We are so grateful that brother Hwa-chi is inspired by the Lord to give young people such impactful advice.

             After the Sunday school lesson, we went down to the sanctuary to attend service. Two things we all noticed while we were at Hwa-chi's church were the enthusiasm for prayer and the overall joy of the people of the church-passion and awe filled their service from beginning to end. It really was something amazing to see, and I hope that we can bring a little more of that into our church, especially the group prayers that are so important in Hwa-chi's church. 

           For worship, we sang four songs: We Will Love, The Path of Grace, Open Heaven, and Abiding in You. The singing was loud and clear, and you could see that everyone was burning with reverence for the Lord, which was very inspiring for us. God's plan is clearly at work in Hwa-chi's church, and we all hope that they continue to bear fruit. 

           Hwa-chi preached about the fruit born by believers of Jesus Christ in today's sermon. He explained to us that his church carefully examines God's word one chapter at a time, and that this week, they examined John 15, which relates a story of vine and branch, of Christ and his disciples. Below are some of the key points we pulled from Hwa-chi's sermon, as well as an audio file that includes the complete sermon. 

• The Purpose of the Vine Plant is to Bear Fruit.
• The Branch's Relationships:
• Vine and the Branch - to bear fruit
• Branch and Branch - working together
• Branch and World - persevering 
• God is the gardener, Jesus Christ is the vine, and we are the branches.
• The condition for bearing fruit is salvation and living in Jesus Christ.
• The results of bearing fruit is glorification of the father.
• The reason for failing to bear fruit is leaving the vine and Christ.
• The results of failing to bear fruit is being burned in the fire.
• See 1 Corinthians 3:15 for more.
• Types of Branches:
• Non-fruit bearers.
• Fruit bearers.
• More fruit bearers.
• Most fruit bearers.
• Types of fruit: 
• Fruit of spirit, salvation, and life (Matthew 7:10).
• Fruits of the spirit appear when one begins to abide in Christ (Galatians 5:22-23).
• Physical fruits are grown as well. 
• The Road of Growth:
• Bearing no fruit → bearing fruit.
• cutting fruit branches (i.e. world-lovers, fleshly people, and sinners need to be cut and manage. See (John 15:2)
• Bearing fruit → bearing more fruit.
• pruning and curating fruit branches.
• reflect and think on God's word.
• Bearing more fruit → bearing most possible fruit.
• Growing and maturing in Christ.
• Abiding within Christ.
• In Christ vs. Abiding in Christ:
• After salvation, Christ enters the soul and never leaves.
• Being in Christ is respecting and living like Christ, but abiding in Christ is doing so always and giving the Holy Spirit freedom in the soul to correct and criticize.
• Living in Christ long-term → God's word residing permanently within you → Abiding in God's love → God's joys and blessing will live within you. 
• God's Commands for Us:
• Love one another (agapao) 
• Obey Him unconditionally
• Become his friend
• Make your fruit long-lasting.
• Branches and the World: Believers are hated by the world.
• Sin is without excuse on Earth.
• Testify to the world.
• 葡萄一生的事

http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=78544664272328726950 (the full message)

          After the sermon, we got back together in the youth room to practice our curriculum. Despite our struggles yesterday, I think that God has given us a great team with members that inspire one another. We are very grateful to God and to each other for being able to build up a cohesive program.

          Once we finished refining our curriculum, we went back to our respective homes to take a break before going out to eat dinner. Today, Mrs. Wendy, Linda and Vicky's mom, treated us to a dinner at a udon restaurant. The owner was a very kind woman who treated her guests excellently, and the food there was quite delicious as well. Because the variety of the appetizers and the range of entrées was so expansive, the hosts urged us order as many different dishes as possible to taste 

the many options. We all enjoyed the food a lot and are so grateful to our hosts for bringing us to such 

a wonderful place for a relaxing dinner.

           I think that the Taiwan STM team saw the power of God in action today, as Hwa-chi's church is

so wonderfully, vibrantly fervent for the Lord. We are so blessed to have this opportunity to work with 

these wonderful followers of Christ and can't wait to start our VBS tomorrow! 

Prayer Requests: 

• Our VBS begins tomorrow, so please pray for a successful first day and for the hearts of the children.
• Please pray for continued focus, strong faith, and accurate analysis as we continue to improve on our curriculum.
• We also ask that you pray for Hwa-chi's church, that they may hold their passion for the Lord up and that they may keep that enthusiasm with them as they grow in numbers and understanding.
• Thank the Lord for another beautiful day in Taiwan and for Hwa-chi's powerful lesson and sermon.
• Thank the Lord for giving us such generous, kindhearted hosts.
• Thank the Lord for the generosity of Wendy's family, who shared with us another aspect of Taiwanese life and culture.