Spurgeon

I found a book of sermons by C.H. Spurgeon in the library today and was comforted by this quote: "O how safe, then, is every one that trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not his faith that is the condition, not his assurance; it is the simple fact, that Calvary is set perpetually before the eyes of God in a risen and ascended Saviour." Taken from the sermon, The Blood, he preached on December 12, 1858.

Gospel Living

"Learn to interpret your life in terms of what God says about you because you're united to Christ instead of interpreting the Gospel in terms of where you are in your struggle." Sinclair Ferguson

Hudson Taylor, part 4

Hudson Taylor knew that living in China was going to require a strong faith. So he resolved to move men by God through prayer to the best of his ability. One example of this was at work. His employer was a forgetful man and often times forgot to pay him on time, so Hudson would have to remind him. There was nothing sinful about reminding him, but Hudson decided that he would no longer remind him; he would instead pray and ask God to remind him (and thus move men by God through prayer). This was not some form of manipulation on Hudson’s part – trying to use God to accomplish what he wanted – no, it was a form of trust. He was saying to God that he was totally dependent on him for all his needs. This form of trust stretched him greatly. The next time his pay was due, his boss did indeed forget to pay him. Hudson continued praying and waiting…until he had only one coin to his name. Then he gave that coin away to a man with a sick wife and hungry children (but just so you know, it wasn't easy for him to do that - he begrudingly did it at first, but soon realized the joy in doing so). Low and behold, he got a letter the next day from a stranger containing enough money for the week. But still he didn’t get his pay and the next week was in the same situation as before. I won’t go into the exact details of how his prayer was finally answered, because it would take too long. But I will tell you that his patience and prayer paid off. In the strangest of circumstances, his boss finally paid him!

As I wait to go back to China, not knowing how long it will be, I want to live a life of faith where I am. As Hudson reasoned, if he couldn’t live by faith at home, what made him think he would be able to live by faith in China?

A Glimpse of My Place

I promised that I would take some pictures of my apartment once I finally had it decorated. Well, I've probably done as much as I will get done to it and I finally got it cleaned up today, so here you go:

Labor Day Weekend

I got to go home this weekend. Not wanting to take the risk of my car dieing half way, I opted for the Greyhound route again. It actually wasn't so bad this time. The worst part is always the Atlanta station because it's so loud and dirty feeling. I had a great time at home though. It felt like it had been a lot longer than 6 weeks since I had last been home, so it was nice to catch up with my parents and to eat a lot of my Mom's yummy food :-) Thanks for everything, Mom and Dad.