28 people (including 5 kids) were present. 10 gospel friends are students and visiting scholars from China. 4 of 12 saints are recently saved. Baiqin is to be saved in the coming Lord’s day.
Chinese Hymn 444: Experience God as our shepherd 經歷神－作牧人
Bible reading: Mathew 1:18~25 由来与名称─生为神而人者，命名耶稣，人称以马内利, and Mathew 2 马太福音 第 二 章: 幼年与成长─称为拿撒勒人.
The meeting was a wonderful experience of Him.
Before the meeting, it seemed the enemies attacked us. Some area of Milpitas and San Jose lost power for a while. Both Sister Shelley (going to Pang Fei’s house) and Sister Nancy had to rush finishing cooking. Gary had a flat tire on the highway. However, the meeting was full of His blessing exactly as described in the verse 5 of the hymn (敵雖四佈，享恩如恆).
During the dinner time, everybody was introduced to each other. We had student coming from China studying in high school, and saints who graduated in early 90s.
The hymn background was covered in the previous meeting. It is from the old testament 诗篇.
23:1 耶和华是我的牧者；我必不至缺乏。
23:2 祂使我躺卧在青草地上，领我在可安歇的水边。
23:3 祂使我的魂苏醒，为自己的名引导我走义路。
23:4 我虽然行过死荫的幽谷，也不怕遭害，因为你与我同在；你的杖，你的竿，都安慰我。
23:5 在我敌人面前，你为我摆设筵席；你用油膏了我的头，使我的福杯满溢。
23:6 我一生一世必有恩惠慈爱随着我，我且要住在耶和华的殿中，直到永远。
William prepared an excellent brief introduction of 4 gospel books covering Jesus, the God and a man from different prospects. The name of Jesus was noted as below:
1章21节 注1 : “耶稣”是希腊文，等于希伯来文的约书亚，（民十三16，）意即耶和华救主，或耶和华救恩。耶稣不仅是人，更是耶和华；并且不仅是耶和华，还是耶和华成了我们的救恩。因此，祂是我们的救主，也是我们的约书亚，带我们进入安息，（来四8，太十一28～29，）这安息就是祂自己作了我们的美地。
Tony opened the study session to share his seeking the God to satisfy his very deep need. Jerry covered two the basic things why human seeks God. On the one hand, the human race could not overcome its sinful nature (sins inside, crimes outside if not suppressed) as discussed in Romans 罗马书. On the other hand, one could not really satisfied by material possession, soul purification.
Then the airtime was given to students and visiting scholars. Mainly two questions were raised:
- One scholar shared her opinion that Christian belief is good to person, and also to harmony of a society. She appreciated the opportunity to study Bible. Basically it is like the person 尼哥底母 in John Chapter 3 (道德人的需要─生命的重生).People in different situation have different needs. And she briefly touched different Chinese philosophies, and education/science to improve the human soul/spiritual satisfaction.
- One student asked is it true that man has to get answer for all the needs? Or no answer is the answer because we do not know the answer yet?
My sharing for the two questions is in the part 2 of this blog.
To respond Q1, Frank mentioned the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, see details in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs.
Gary shared his experience of God’s name, "I am who I am" (出埃及记3:14 神对摩西说，我是那我是). He pointed out that God meets our every need as described in hymn verse 1:
是愛的神作我牧人，
祂常餧養，祂常施恩；
祂是屬我，我是屬祂，
何來需要？何來缺乏？
After the long and open Q&A session, we prayed for the coming baptizing of Wang Baiqin, also prayed for the Lord to take care the daily needs of students and visiting scholars. In the end, we had some fruits and discussion in two or three people.
Continue to the second part.
No comments:
Post a Comment