Jesus resurrected! He first showed himself to Mary Magdalene. He said to Mary, “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘ I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” (John 20:17) Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. It is our relationship with our God. God loves us so much that Jesus calls us His brother; we can call His Father our Father, and we can call His God our God.
Seekers often face a big issue, that is, they fear that their conversion to Christianity may bring crisis to their families, because the elders and their mates do not believe in Jesus. Therefore, they dare not go (or dare not admit going) to church even though they know our God is good and real. This is because they have doubt about God’s might; they don’t believe God can solve their problems. When Moses was leading Israeli out of Egypt, he would not have gotten out of Egypt if he focused on the problems they might face: the hardness of Pharaoh and the powerful Egyptian army. What is he going to feed those two hundred thousand Israeli with? What are they going to drink? Where are they going to sleep? If Moses saw only the problems, they wouldn’t have gotten to the Promised Land. God has done all the great works for us, all we have to do is to believe and obey and leave everything else to God.
The brother who is guiding today’s Bible reading received his training not even a month after he was baptized, and we all see how well he can convey God’s words. So, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a Christian, what matters is that you understand and serve God with your heart. Everyone can preach God’s words, so stop saying anything like “I’ve just converted to Christianity” or “Although I’ve long been a Christian, I just can’t.”It is said that nothing is impossible to a willing mind; people are so confident about things in this world, so why shouldn’t we be confident in God? Let alone that God has already sent the Holy Spirit to live among us and to help us. He has given us the Bible; He used all kind of laws, decrees, regulations, histories, metaphors and so on just to let us know Him better, and understand His will better.
People leave God, but He says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” It’s like we are falling from a cliff, and Jesus is on the edge, holding one side of a rope, while we are hold the other side of that rope. God says that He will never let go of the rope, but it is often us who loosen our grip, and we would just fall to the bottom. Hold firmly onto God and not letting it go is the key to blessings. The Lord says, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29)
Message by Elder Yeh / Summary and response by Jim Lin
