The reason why I'm up here is because
the brother who was scheduled to be up
here, he was somehow unscheduled, an ambient scheduler.
Should we just bow our heads and look
to the Lord for our time together?
Lord, we ask your help because we know
that without you, there's nothing.
Without you, we can do nothing.
We can hear nothing.
And as we wait before you to be
in tune with you, help us to fix
our gaze on the Lord Jesus.
We look to you corporately to hear something
that's from your heart to our hearts.
Cover this time, Lord, with your blood and
also with your presence.
We give ourselves to you and the Lord
Jesus.
Amen.
This past month, a group of brother and
sisters, mostly from Taiwan and Hong Kong, and
a few from North American continent and two
from Australia and a few from Singapore, we
were together on a tour through Jordan, Israel
and part of Egypt.
And before we, in my own part, join
these two, I pray very much before the
Lord.
Just what I can learn of him.
Just wait before him and to be open
to the lessons the Lord would teach me.
And since we came home, I've been reflecting
on our trip and meditating before the Lord.
Just what I really learned on this trip.
So I just share a little bit of
what I personally learned during this trip.
And I hope what I learned will be
of help to you, brothers and sisters, and
also to encourage your heart.
So shall we turn first to a few
portions of God's Word.
Let's turn first to the book of Hebrews,
chapter 11.
Hebrews, chapter 11.
And we'll read verse 1, 1 and 2,
and 3.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen.
For by it the man of old gained
approval.
By faith we understand that the worlds were
prepared by the Word of God, so that
what is seen was not made out of
things which are visible.
And then verse 6, verse 6.
And without faith it is impossible to please
him.
For he who comes to God must believe
that he is, and he is the rewarder
of those who seek him.
And let's go on to read verse 13.
All these died in faith without receiving the
promises.
But having seen them, and having welcomed them
from a distance, and having confessed that they
were strangers in exile on the earth.
And let's go to verse 24.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to endure your treatment with
the people of God, than enjoy the passing
pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ
greater riches than treasures of Egypt.
For he was looking to the reward.
Verse 27.
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the
wrath of the king.
For he endured seeing him who is unseen.
And just pay attention to this last phrase.
Seeing him who is unseen.
And just one more portion, 2 Corinthians chapter
4, verse 18.
2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 18.
While we look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are
not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are
eternal.
During our trip to Israel, particularly, we saw
many, many wonderful sights.
These sights that we saw, we walked and
we touched, they are of great historical significance
on the human level.
We are told at present, yearly, about 2
million tourists enter into Israel.
Tourism is one of the biggest industries in
Israel at present.
Majority of the tourists enter into Israel, a
great percentage of them are evangelical.
Not only Americans, Canadians, people from the Western
world are visiting Israel, people in other countries,
particularly in the Far East, are also visiting
Israel in big numbers.
So while we were there, we ran into
quite a few groups of Korean believers, also
visiting Israel.
And even though we can't talk to each
other, they can at least say hallelujah to
us and we can say hallelujah to them.
Then we know they are true believers.
How we saw many beautiful sights, historical sights,
and the Lord seems to be speaking to
me, at least on my heart.
All these seemingly sacred places, one day they
are all going to disappear.
They are all going to be gone forever.
And the Lord said, can we see the
unseen?
Not just seeing the unseen, but seeing Him
who is the unseen.
There is a great difference, just seeing the
unseen, but we want to see Him who
is unseen.
So I was praying along the trip, Lord
can I see you beyond this, that are
perishing, that are temporal.
As we approach the end of this age,
we often heard it is that which is
spiritual that matters.
That which is spiritual is real.
That which is spiritual counts on God's side.
But we are told by Paul in 2
Corinthians 4, the spiritual things are unseen, and
the things that can be seen are temporal.
And one of the problems with believers is
that somehow we still not able to be
delivered completely from the seen.
The thing that we can see, that we
can touch.
We are still very much drawn by the
things that we can see and touch, because
we feel secure about them.
We have control over them.
The unknown here is beyond us.
We have no control.
We have no assurance.
So a real spiritual life is a life
of faith.
A real way of spiritual way is a
way of faith.
A real spiritual work is a work of
faith.
Because without faith it is impossible to please
God.
And he who comes to Him must believe
that He is.
He is the I am.
He is everything.
He is.
And because He is, all others are not.
No one else is.
But He alone is.
And we can only come to know Him
by faith.
So this trip, there are several things that
really in a way shocked me greatly.
Because some of those sites we call holy
sacred sites, that's where the Lord was born,
where He changed the five loaves and two
fish into 5,000.
We also went to Bethlehem.
We went to Nazareth.
We saw Joseph Carpenter's carpentry shop.
We saw all these sites.
But brothers and sisters, when I walked into
some of these sites, to me, initially it
was quite depressing.
It's quite oppressive.
Because all these sites, from all these different
sites, they built a shrine at Edifice.
And all the things in there were just
as pagan as some of the temples that
I saw in Taiwan.
No difference.
And yet Christians are flocking into these places.
And they think in these places they can
meet the Lord again.
And some seem to think that if you've
been to those places, you will never be
the same again.
Somehow those places have the magic to transform
your life.
And brothers and sisters, it just shows that
man as he is in himself is so
capable of creating his own God and worshipping
the work of his own hand.
And brothers and sisters, we believers, we are
not free from that.
We are being tempted every day to create
something with our own hands and obsess about
what we have created.
So the Lord already warned me.
It's so easy to make God sacred and
do something that's idolatry.
We all have that potential.
Now that's more on the negative side.
Now that's more on the positive side.
What amazes most of us is why God
in his sovereign wisdom chose to send his
son to that specific geographical spot in the
world.
We call it the Middle East or Israel.
When you look at it with your physical
eye when you're there and you look at
it more objectively, strictly speaking, it's not a
very attractive place.
It's not a very attractive place.
I think people go there because of those
sacred sites, not because of the beauty of
the land.
People go there because there is something sentimental
about those sites.
There are prettier sites in our country than
in Israel.
It's very true because for one thing there's
no trees.
It's very dry.
Everywhere you go you see rocks and rocks.
Now when you look at River Jordan, yes,
on the source of the river underneath below
the Mount Hermon, the Caesarea Philippi, the water
was very clear as crystal.
Gosh, not through the rocks, from the rocks.
But downstream it was very narrow and not
all that clear.
In fact, James River is so much better
than River Jordan in a lot of ways.
And no wonder, you remember in 2 Kings
5, Naaman the Syrian kept jungle.
When Elijah asked him to go to Jordan
and dip seven times to be cured of
his disease, he said, why should I go
there?
He said, in Damascus we have better rivers
than what they have in Israel.
And it was true.
Now you remember Nathanael, the comic Nathanael, he
said, did any good thing come out of
Nazareth?
Now if you go to Nazareth, you agree
with Nathanael.
Because it's a very insignificant place, very insignificant,
very humble, very small place.
A place, the least place you think a
great man can come from.
It's a very small place.
And it just shows that God's way is
so contrary to our ways.
And the reason why the Lord Jesus was
born there, lived there for 33 years and
died there, is none other than by divine
appointment.
It was God's appointed place for His Son
to be born.
Because He was God's appointed man.
The place was God's appointed place.
The time for Him to be born there
was God's appointed time.
And God knows what He's doing.
So a few of us, those who were
there for that trip, at least a few
of us, we came to the conclusion, the
only explanation for that land can not be
on the human level.
It can only be on the spiritual level.
Because humanly speaking, there's no explanation for the
things that's been taking place in the land.
So the things I learned from what I
observed is that the Lord Jesus in Galatians
4, He said, in the fullness time, God
sent His Son.
God initiated, born of the woman, born under
the law.
God was behind it, not man.
And then, of course, in John 11, we
are told that He came to those of
His own to receive Him.
Why?
Because He came with a specific mission.
He was appointed, anointed by God to accomplish
His will.
And so the Lord really speaks to me
in a very deep way.
For instance, I think as we live in
this life, we have to have a sense
that we are those that are divinely appointed,
to be at a divinely appointed place, at
a divinely appointed time for His purpose.
And so far, I just want to remind
you and myself, you here in Richmond, we
are in South Jersey, just why you happen
to be here?
Is it because of a job?
Or because here it's a good place to
raise a family?
Is this all we think about?
Or even say, we are here, we have
a wonderful family.
Oh shit, even that, even that.
But do you and I, for instance, we
have the inner sense that you are here,
it's by divine appointment.
This is God's appointed place for you and
I to be at this particular time.
Not for you and I to do what
we want, but to do His will.
And so this is a very strong, the
Lord really hit me.
Why He chose that place for His son
to be born?
At that particular time, at that particular place,
God is not very attractive.
We look at Peter's home, mud floor, and
the wall is stone, so low.
I mean, it's so primitive.
What a humble place.
Humanly speaking, you and I would never choose
to be born in that place, or live
in that place.
But God sovereignly chose His son to be
born in that place.
To undo all that Satan has done to
man.
And so God's way is totally contrary to
our ways of thinking.
And so what I came back from is
just to remind my brothers and sisters, we
need to have that sense that wherever we
are, we are there by divine appointment.
The place we are is His appointed place
for us.
And the time we are is by His
appointment.
For no other reason but for us to
do His will.
And this is first I want to share
with you.
I just pray and hope that we brothers
and sisters, even though you didn't have a
chance to go to Israel like I did,
but nevertheless, this spiritual principle holds.
This spiritual principle holds.
And particularly when I was in London, I
had a chance to fellowship with a group
of Chinese brothers and sisters, and mostly from
Hong Kong and some from Malaysia and Singapore.
A lot of them, they came out of
Hong Kong because they fear of the year
1997 when Communists would take over Hong Kong.
And so for the safety of their family,
for the future of their family, they came
out.
And so I was there, I also share
this burden with them.
If we came out of Hong Kong, go
to England or come to the U.S.,
just because we can have a better living,
have a better future for our children, for
us, our thinking is no different from the
thinking of other people.
But we are different people.
So brothers and sisters, it's very important that
we be reminded again and again.
Because we are so easy to be settled
down and live our own life in God's
house.
It's ignored.
We plan our own things.
Think for ourselves.
And God's purpose, we set it aside.
So I feel that as we gather from
time to time, we need to remind each
other again and again that however you find
ourselves, it's not by chance.
It's by divine appointment.
The place we are is appointed place.
And the time is for him to do
something, accomplish something in us, to us, to
the glory of his name.
Now the second thing I want to share
is that if you read the Old Testament,
there are several forests mentioned in the scripture.
For example, when Absalom was rebelling against his
father David, and he was in the forest
of Ephraim.
And because it was such a thick forest,
his hair was caught in one of the
branches, and later on he was perished.
But today, if you go to Israel, you
discover they don't have much trees.
And so one of the efforts they are
trying to do now is planting, replanting, reforesting.
So the friends of Israel, those who joined
their tour, each one is asked to plant
a tree somewhere in Israel for 60 US
dollars to reforest the country, to beautify the
country.
Now the impression I got from this trip
is that once we lift God up immediately,
we are in a state of ruin and
desolation.
Once we lift him up, then we are
in big trouble.
And that was the warning to the Israelites.
He said, when you enter into the land,
when you enjoy everything, you are going to
forget me.
And once you forget me, then trouble begins.
Curse will come.
We have it so good, we forget about
God.
There is a great danger.
Blessings are good, but blessings without seeing the
unseen.
Him who is unseen, we are in big
trouble.
So this time we went to Israel, one
thing I noticed, there is a lot of
stones.
It's a place of stones.
You look at it, everywhere is stone.
You close your eyes, you still see stone.
All the buildings are stone.
Everything is stone, everything is stone.
And beautiful stone.
And that draws my attention to Peter.
Now John 1, when the disciples encounter the
Lord Jesus, you remember, and the Lord looked
through Simon, and he said, Now, from now
on, you shall be called Cephas.
That means you will be Peter.
Those who come in contact with the Lord
Jesus, they will never be the same again.
So the Lord told Peter, he said, Now,
after this encounter, Peter, you will never be
the same again.
You are Simon, you will never be the
same again.
You shall be called Simon.
Something is going to happen to you.
Now you recall, Peter followed Lord Jesus for
a period, and then he left him, went
fishing, and looked back, and then he came
back and called the Lord Jesus again.
And when it comes to Matthew 16, I
hope our brother Paul will forgive me, because
he has a reputation of calling some people
a walking Matthew, because he knows that book
very well.
But anyway, chapter 16 is the only chapter,
one of the chapters in Matthew the church
was mentioned, by the very lips of the
Lord Jesus.
And he revealed his mission, what he came
for.
The place where he revealed this truth was
at Caesarea Philippi.
And what the Christian reminded us, again, reminded
us at the last conference in West Coast,
the Lord took his disciples to the very
source, to the headwater of Jordan, where everything
is clear and crystal.
In other words, he brings this to his
original thought for his people, for his disciples.
He said, who do you say that I
am?
And there Peter confessed, he said, you are
the Son of the Living God.
And then, of course, the Lord Jesus said,
this revelation has not come by blood and
flesh, but through my Father.
And then, immediately, the Lord spoke some very
few, few words to Peter.
Maybe we can turn to Matthew 16.
Matthew 16.
Verse 18.
And I also say to you that you
are Peter, upon this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of Hades shall
not overpower it.
Now in John 1, the Lord said, you
shall be called Peter.
And here in Matthew 18, the Lord said,
you also, I also say to you that
you are Peter.
That you are Peter.
And upon this rock, I will build my
church.
In John 1, he said, you shall be
called Peter, but he said, you are Peter.
But before the Lord called him, you are
Peter, Peter made that confession.
He said, you are Christ, the Son of
the Living God.
And then the Lord answered, said, blessed are
you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood
did not reveal this to you, but my
Father who is in heaven.
And so the Lord really spoke to me,
this particular verse, in a new way, this
passage in a new way.
The thought was, the Lord is changing us
from stones to living stones, transforming us, changing
us.
And he said, I will build my church.
But somehow, somehow we don't seem to sense
that the real spiritual building work is going
on.
And the real spiritual way.
Somehow we still sense that we are still
in the midst of seeming spiritual ruin and
desolation.
There are stones here and there, but there
is not a what?
There is not a building work together.
They seem to be scattered.
There is not a cohesion.
There is not a coming together.
And as I look at the land of
Israel, particularly around Jerusalem, all the buildings are
very beautiful.
They are all stone buildings.
And yet on the outskirts of Jerusalem, you
see stones everywhere.
And the thought that came to me is
that my brothers and sisters, without revelation, there
is no truly transformation.
We often want to be transformed.
We long to be transformed, but somehow we
find ourselves not being transformed.
We want to be changed, but somehow we
cannot change ourselves.
And the Lord doesn't seem to be able
to change us.
And I feel it's because we lack that
revelation.
Seeing Him who He is.
Because transformation is to be like Him.
So without seeing Him, transformation is impossible.
Transform into what?
We want to be changed into what?
So seeing Him must be first.
Because transformation is to be like Him.
He is our model.
He is our goal.
And I think the problem is we all
want to be transformed.
We look at ourselves, we are so sick
of ourselves.
We want to be transformed.
We try to transform, but we fail to
see Him who is unseen.
Therefore transformation cannot really take place.
And I just want to encourage all of
us, if you desire to be transformed, fix
our zone of Lord Jesus.
Seeing Him who is unseen, then transformation will
begin.
So revelation, transformation follows revelation.
And when there is transformation, then there is
true building work.
So we need to remind ourselves again and
again, some of these basic things that we
need to know and not to ignore.
And really ask the Holy Spirit to really
help us to be faithful.
Especially in these last days.
There are so many things that will detract
us.
They will divert our attention from the Lord
Jesus.
For example, what we saw in Israel.
Many, many believers still think those places that
we saw were really indeed the sacred place.
They do.
That's why they pay pilgrimage there.
At a great cost, just to be there,
to touch those things, and behold those things,
hoping those things will somehow transform their lives.
But Hebrew tells us, it's by seeing Him
who is unseen, in our life we transform.
Because what is unseen is eternal.
What is seen is temporary.
So, brothers and sisters, where is our focus?
What is our focus?
The seen or the unseen.
But not just unseen, but Him who is
unseen.
And that comes by revelation.
Then we will be transformed.
When Peter heard the Lord say, Now you
shall be called Peter.
I just wonder how Peter feels.
He must have said, He didn't say that
to Andrew.
He only said that to me.
So I must be someone quite special.
The Lord looked him through and He said,
Now Simon, you shall be called Cephas, Peter.
Our problem is that we think we are
pretty special.
And when I look at Israel, those stones
are everywhere.
There are Peters everywhere.
So there is no ground for people to
think that he is something special.
If Peter by himself is no different from
all the other stones, it's when he puts
himself in the hand of the master, he
becomes a precious stone.
So as I look at the fields in
Israel, the stone, if it's not a building
stone, it becomes a stumbling block.
Because those fields, when they are full, get
stones, the ground becomes very unproductive.
You cannot plant anything.
You cannot grow anything.
Because all the stones get in the way.
There is no way.
And for instance, the lesson I learned on
this trip, if we are not in the
master's hand for him to do the building
work, if we just lie there, we all
become stumbling blocks to others.
And we become unproductive spiritually.
No food.
And how essential it was to be a
committed people.
Totally for him to do what he wants
to do.
Now the third point I want to share
is very precious.
We also took a side trip to Mount
Sinai.
And Brother Kong had been there, and the
Muellers were there some years ago.
I'm sorry, but I didn't have the courage
to climb to the top.
But our brother Joseph climbed part way, but
not all the way to the top.
Pretty close to the top.
But anyway, we were at the southern tip
of the peninsula.
We flew from Tel Aviv to the southern
tip of the Sinai Peninsula.
And then that evening, about 30 of them,
they took a midnight bus to St. Catherine's
Monastery to get ready for their midnight climb.
Two o'clock, three o'clock climb to
the top so they can see the sunrise.
And I know I was tired physically, not
really able to do so, so we stayed
back.
But we joined them the next day.
And the trip from where we stayed to
the foot of Mount Sinai to the monastery,
I think it's about two and a half,
three hours drive.
And it's wilderness, rocks, mountains, all rocks, and
very few vegetation.
And so just before we arrived, a sister
from Taiwan sitting next, close to us, and
she turned to me and she said, Brother
Jose, he said, what is your thought after
seeing all this?
What is your deepest impression after seeing all
these sights?
And I paused for a few seconds because
it's the kind of answer you cannot answer
hastily.
So after I thought through for a little
bit, I responded.
I said, Sister, you see, humanly speaking, no
one in his right mind would choose this
way because it's desert, it's wilderness.
There's nothing that can sustain life.
First, there's no water.
There's nothing that can produce any life-sustaining
food, anything that we can survive.
It's a place of absolute desolation.
And you know, somehow in sovereignty of God,
he chose that route for his chosen people
when they came out of Egypt.
The way of Sinai, a way of faith,
a spiritual way, not man's choosing.
And so, brothers and sisters, God's way is
the only way.
It's hard.
It's hard for the natural man to accept.
God's way is the only way.
God's way is the best way.
It defies our reasoning.
We cannot reason it out.
God's way is the right way.
We know we can say it, but when
we face it, we shake our head.
We say, it's impossible.
If God is love, caring, how would he
choose this way for us?
How would he do that?
And brothers and sisters, again, it's faith.
Seeing who's unseen.
Seeing the end, not seeing the immediate.
And then we came to the foot of
Mount Sinai and we heard a little bit
of those who were up there and the
report they came back and shared with us.
It was horrible.
It was terrifying.
Because the first phase of their climb was
more durable, but the second phase is almost
undurable.
Icy, cold, and they did not prepare enough
food, not enough flashlight.
And it was an almost impossible walk.
And right up to the top, there were
icy spots.
And all the rocks, there's no stable foothold
that you can put your foot down.
So after I heard the Goddess' report, I
said, now Lord, what do you want to
say to me?
What is the spiritual significance behind this climb?
And how Moses somehow can get up there?
How?
You know, I mean Moses went up there
quite a few thousand years back.
It must be even more primitive, more rough
than what it is today.
Today that path has been walked through many
centuries.
So there somehow should be a natural path
for people to go up.
But even that natural path is still a
great, great danger to walk that path.
And the only thing I can think of
my brothers and sisters is because God called.
And when he called, he made it possible.
Without his call, none of us would make
it.
None of us.
It's impossible.
No way for this call.
And when he called, somehow Moses responded, and
he somehow made it.
And the same thing with us.
Without that call, none of us would make
it.
But when that call is there, for sure
we'll make it.
Because he was here through.
And the Lord's been saying to me, all
of us, we heard that call once.
You know, we follow a few steps, then
we hear other calls.
And that one call, we don't hear anymore.
Other calls come.
And we are diverted.
We stop.
We are rested.
No progress.
So already speaking to me, and South Jersey
Constitution, this past few weeks is that we
need to keep hearing that call.
We need to plead the Lord that he
will call us again and again.
And that we'll hear that call, then we'll
make it.
It is an impossible way.
It speaks not just in us individual lives,
but particularly speaks to us corporately.
We are together at divine appointment.
The Lord put us in Christ Jesus.
It's his doing.
It's his appointed place for us.
So in a sense, we have no choice.
It's his appointed place.
We have no choice.
So where can we go?
Peter said, where can we go?
You alone have the will to know.
Where can we go?
Christ is our appointed place.
The body of Christ is our appointed place.
Initially, when we come in, the love, the
fellowship, we enjoy immensely.
But when the building process gets going, and
that's a different story, we seek escape.
And many of us try.
But God says, where can you go?
You come back.
You stay.
You look at it, it somehow seems impossible.
And yet, the Lord is teaching us, again,
without faith, it is not possible.
God answers this, faith, always, faith encounters the
impossible.
Always face the unknown.
Faith, always faith, is the thing that seems
hopeless.
Faith always seems to face things that are
impossible.
But, as Hebrews said, without faith, it is
impossible to do.
And he who comes must believe that he
is.
Everything is impossible, hopeless, but he is what?
Our hope.
In him, all things are possible.
We can let go of everything, but we
need to hang on to him, and all
will be well.
And as we enter into the end of
this age, many brothers and sisters find things
will be getting tougher, and even more impossible.
So, what can we do?
What can we do?
And Hebrews, we read that passage, those who
die in faith, not having received the promise,
let's just look at that passage first.
Verse 13.
All these die in faith, without receiving the
promises, that seems to be negative, by having
seen them, and having welcomed them from a
distance, and having confessed that they were strangers
and exiled from the earth.
They die in faith, without having received the
promises, but having seen them.
That's the secret.
Confess.
That's faith.
Because what is not seen is what?
The eternal.
What is seen is, and that's faith.
And so brothers and sisters, cheer up.
And so what we see around us, in
ourselves, in our midst, thank God he is
building this church.
No question about it.
Because our God cannot fake it.
And he is true to his word.
And he is doing it.
We may not see it, but he is
still what?
Faking it.
And he is still doing it.
Not having received, but we what?
We welcome.
We confess.
And seeing them, for example.
As we move toward the end of the
age, some of us will get older.
And this country is a young man's country.
A country of youth.
Life, vitality.
Everything has to be fashionable.
And so when your folks are getting a
little bit old, there are all kinds of
facilities you can put them away.
In a very comfortable way.
You hear all this advertising now, for the
old folks.
For everything.
And I just want to say this.
Not really for myself, because I'm getting to
be that old, getting older now.
But I just come to a deeper appreciation
of the aged things in our midst.
The external beauty seems to be fading away.
Instead of an asset, nowadays it may become
a liability.
It's not easy.
The bottom line is, we need to see
the unseen.
I'll tell you some of these aged things.
There's something very beautiful beyond the physical.
Because all these years, there's much we cannot
do without it.
We cannot do without it.
Praise the Lord.
Seeing the unseen.
And sometimes when you see young people regularly,
as our brother shared when he was a
young man.
When he was a boy, he was a
naughty boy.
Now if you just look at the scene,
you say, oh, that boy, that man, hopeless.
You get him up.
You wash your hands.
But can we see the unseen?
In spite of what we see, we can
say and believe, what comes to the Lord
is faith.
Faith triumphs.
Faith is real.
Faith is spirituality.
Only faith can keep us.
And the work is faith.
The life is faith.
And the way is the way of faith.
And particularly just touch a little bit on
the work of faith.
It's so easy when we engage in the
Lord's work.
We want to see things happen.
We want to be able to count our
successes.
Now if it's your own work, you have
the right to do so.
But if it's the work of the Lord,
let Him do the counting.
Let us not do it.
Because we are part of His work.
And so count the Lord while He's here.
And let's praise the Lord.
This trip to Israel, even though it was
very taxing, it was very rewarding.
Because of the elogy of the saints.
All these living stones.
About 150 some of them.
We lived together for about three weeks.
We broke bread three times.
One in Tiberia, one in Jerusalem, and one
near the Garden of Eden.
And to me, it's a real testimony.
I believe personally, Israel will never be the
same again.
Because those who are now living in Israel,
they are truly the Lord's.
And when they go to that land, they
bear the testimony of the Lord Jesus.
And maybe this is one way the Lord
will open the eyes of His earthly chosen
people.
And count the Lord for allowing me to
learn and to be reminded of His spiritual
principles.
And they are very real.
The bottom line is, we are all still
prone to live by the Bible.
We all are.
Let the Lord deliver us.
We are all prone to create something with
our own hands.
And upset by it.
Let the Lord deliver us from it.
We are all living stones.
But if we are not in His hands,
we become impenetrable.
Stumbling blocks.
It's on Him, He can change us.
He allows us to change.
And the Lord's way is always impossible.
Impossible.
Natural man cannot live by faith.
Even carnal man cannot live by faith.
Only a true spiritual man can live by
faith.
And the Lord's one lesson He is teaching
all of us, I believe, is this way
of faith.
Because without faith, it is not possible to
please Him.
Now the problem is, don't we all want
to please Him?
If we want to please Him, the only
way is to live a life of faith.
And be in the way of faith.
And the work that we engage in should
be the work of faith.
To Him be all the glory.
And thank Him for His glory.
Thank Him.
It's all of it.
Father, we thank You for our time together.
We just pray that You continue to speak
to our hearts.
You know what we are in ourselves.
Lord, we cannot change ourselves.
Only You can change us.
So Lord, we pray that before You change
us, we see something of You.
Because we long for You, to be like
You.
And You can change us into Your likeness.
Help us to see the likeness of You
in ever increasing measure.
And draw us to You that we may
all follow You.