August 27/28, 2022
From the Pastor’s Desk:Pastor Mark Liu
Dear brothers and sisters of RCAC,
Hello brothers and sisters. Thank God for the opportunity to share with you my thought through this platform.
Recently I have been reflecting on a question, what is God’s will for us? We have to have an awareness of this to know why we are here today. Behind this question represents a manifestation of a relationship. If we were not children of God, we would never want to know His will. We want to know because we know that the purpose behind this is especially given to us. What is God’s will for us? In my understanding, that’s for us to grow in Jesus Christ, and that growth is what discipleship is all about.
Discipleship is not a bunch of courses, but through the content, we build up our knowledge of God, and through our lives, let this knowledge be experienced in our lives three-dimensionally. A pile of words cannot change our lives, but through relationships. And this relationship is not the relationship between people, but the relationship between us and God. When we are babies, we know the world, we know ourselves, through our relationship with our parents. However, when we continue to hope for approval from people, we lose our freedom, because we become slaves to people and constantly hope to gain approval from people.
To truly know ourselves is to know from our Creator, and because of Jesus Christ, we can become children of this Creator. Through Jesus we know what love is and how much God loves us. This is not a matter of reading between the lines, but a manifestation of life, and that is the purpose for which Jesus Christ came to the world. He came to show God’s love concretely in front of us. And it is through the cross that we can truly know ourselves and how much God loves us. So why do we need to be disciples? It is to grow in Jesus Christ. We think that growth is about things we can do. A person, despite having many talents, inner-self can still be a child. That is, growth is not through what we do. True growth is not relying on the world to tell us who we are, but relying on God. This cannot be expressed in a few words, it can only be understood through the experience of God in life. Discipleship is about deepening our knowledge of God. Participating in the Bible Study group is not enough, to become disciples, we must know God more deeply. This understanding does not only stop at the systematic absorption of knowledge, but at the same time, one must start putting on new glasses to see everything. These glasses are the glasses of salvation. When faced with difficulties, we need to start reminding ourselves that the challenges are given by God on purpose for us to grow. Why is it deliberate, because of the purpose behind it, and the reason is that God loves us and wants us to grow. In order to have joy, we must grow up. This is the deep meaning behind the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.
May the brothers and sisters of the RCAC grow in Jesus Christ and discover that growth brings joy, the joy that the world cannot give.
His Servant,
Pastor Mark Liu