57 Years of Life

Yesterday was my birthday, but it was bittersweet because Millie and Alexandria (my middle daughter) were not in town. Alex is on a missions trip to Romania for a month and Millie is at a conference, so I decided to postpone any celebration until they returned. 

Against my wishes, my other children forced me to go out to dinner. Though it felt incomplete without my better half and my favorite daughter (just kidding, Zozo, Jabs, and B), it had a great time celebrating the years of my existence. 

After dinner the kids went around the table and shared a special memory they shared with me. Some made me laugh, others made me cry, but in all I felt proud to be surrounded by my children and feel their love. 

Chu, Jabs, BB, Seb, and Zozo, I appreciate you guys and love you more than you'll ever know. Thanks for scrumptious dinner and birthday dessert. 

Year of the Ox (part 2)

Options and choices. Just like life, the decisions we make throughout our lifetime can have lasting effects. A quality decision requires data, experience, knowledge, caution, divine wisdom, godly prudence and discretion.

 

If you were tilling the ground for a living, and if you had to make a choice to have either a clean barn or maintain oxen, which way would you decide?

1)      First, oxen eat a lot. They can be costly and ever time-consuming to maintain.

2)      Without oxen, one can save quite a lot of time and expenses.

3)      And for sure, a clean, unsoiled and sanitary barn is there for you.

 

As there are always two sides to every quality decision, let’s look at the other side of the coin.

1)      Oxen are the tools for an abundant harvest.

2)      Their cost and inconvenience does not compare with their productivity.

3)      But by spending time and money to feed and clean up after oxen, you will have plenty of food, an abundant harvest, because of the strong oxen’s plowing. Meaningful results of any kind require investing time, money, and work.

 

Solomon is basically saying that, although a barn can be messy and hard to maintain, the end results would be beneficial and fruitful.

 

Why an ox, and not a horse, mule or other type of beast of burden?  Throughout the bible, the ox is the most profitable of all the beasts used in the science, skill and art of farming.  Except merely for speed, the ox is almost in every respect superior to the horse.

1. He is longer lived.

2. Scarcely liable to any diseases

3. He is steady and always pulls fair in his gears.

4. He lives, fattens, and maintains his strength on what a horse will not eat, and therefore is supported on one third the cost.

5. His manure is more profitable.

6. When he is worn out in his labor his flesh is good for the nourishment of man, his horns of great utility, and his hide almost invaluable.

It might be added, he is little or no expense in shoeing, and his gears are much simpler, and much less expensive, than those of the horse.

Have but patience with this most patient animal, and you will soon find that there is much increase by the strength and labor of the ox.

 

The Year of the Ox—how appropriate for Calvary Chapel Montebello!

Year of the Ox

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!!!  Happy Chinese New Year (year of the Ox).

Though I do not adhere to this celebratory, astrological event, I did find it interesting in that it’s a year dedicated to the ox.

Proverbs 14:4 says, ‘where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.’   By the ox is meant labor, and by the crib the barn, meaning, without labor there is no profit.

 

Ever since the genesis of CCM, waaaay back to our times at Taylor Ranch, we always celebrated the Day of the Ox. On a specific day of the busy annual commitments and rigors of ministry, the church leaders would trade places with all of the servants (the church’s oxen, if I may) for one evening.   On this distinctive evening the oxen would be seated and served food and beverages, and be publicly recognized by all the pastors and ministry leaders as acknowledgement of appreciation.

 

To be referred as oxen within the realm of church service is a great honor. But from outside the biblical meaning it can be interpreted as a derogatory term.  I mean, who would be gleeful over being called an ox?

Tomorrow I'll discuss the benefits in being an ox for the Lord...

Enduring Temptation

Enjoy this clip from Pancho as he shares personal victory in living out James 1:12.

For more information about Calvary Chapel Montebello, click here. 

Be blessed,

OTL Media

Ephesians 5:25

Husbands love your wives. 

Oh sure, we've all know that admonision from the Bible. But what kind of love is Paul talking about? Bear with me as I tread gently on this issue, my friends. Paul is talking about agape love, a love that is birthed from the Lord. We are called to love our wives as Christ loved the church; sacrifically, unconditionally, willingly. After 36 years of marriage, I've learned that I'm horrible at loving like this. But many moons ago I read some phrases that have saved me from tarnishing my relationship with Millie.

Let me share twelve simple words that will nourish and save your relationship:

1. I am sorry

2. I was wrong

3. It's my fault

4. I love you

Write them down, engrave them on your skin, memorize them, whatever! Just put them into practice and you'll see how the Lord begins to work. You'll thank me later......

From My Heart to Yours

Blessings to each and every one of you—

 

Praying, hoping, and wishing that your new year starts with God’s might and mercy and His favor; even now I'm acutely aware that some of our church members are already in the very clutches of grief and experiencing sadness, mingled with uncertainty. 2009 has nothing short of despair and other insurmountable maladies for more than a few of us. It is only through God’s assurances, promises, along with His divine hope, love and mercy that we have to be able to hold on to… and through such endowments, I pray you all may experience His grace and His Joy in the months to come. 

Let's hang on to what we got... don't let go of God... we've got a lot. Got a lot of love between us... hang on, hang on, hang on, to what  we've got (Yeah, yeah, I know! Hehehe.)

  

This morning I was prompted to go over a casual read from the Book of Lamentations (I ended up reading the entire book!) J. Vernon Mcgee says, “Lamentations is composed of five chapters, and each chapter is an elegy, almost a funeral dirge.  These elegies are sad beyond description. In them we see Jeremiah as he stood over Jerusalem weeping.  This book is filled with tears and sorrow.  It is a tribute of pain, a poem of pity, a proverb of pathos.  It is a hymn of heartbreak, a psalm of sadness, a symphony of sorrow, a story of sifting.  Lamentations is the wailing wall of the Bible.”

 

When I finished reading chapter three, I was overtaken and moved with much emotion. The pathos expressed by the ‘crying prophet’ were part of my emotional-lot in 2008.   However, while glancing back to the chapter, specifically focusing on verses 18 through 33, my longing, my soul, my hope, my joy, my calling, my future... all of a sudden, an unexpected sentiment seemed to ‘click’ and implode my insides and insight with much rapture of hope, trust, and enthusiasm for this coming year, a year of much endeavor and labor. 

 

I know that without God’s compassion and multitude of mercies, there’s just no way will Calvary Chapel Montebello (and this pastor, too!) be able to be sustained and nourished, prepared for the upcoming obstacles aimed straight for our personal lives, as well as the corporate life of the church.   It is now my personal constant prayer and yearning to "Wait for God. Have hope in Him; for my soul to seek Him and to ‘wait quietly for Him.’”

Love you,

panch