Word from the SENIOR pastor

January 29, 2012

Our Lord is the Prince of Peace. He is a Peacemaker. But our Lord is not a pacifist. When my generation was in our teenage years, people loved to sing anti-war songs. I was fond of those songs as well, such as “Where have all the flowers gone?”, “Blowing in the wind”, and “Give peace a chance”. At that time, I sympathized with pacifism. I felt sad when people died in wars. But as I grew older and after becoming a Christian, I have come to a better understanding of the Bible, and I now truly admire those faith heroes who willingly went into battle because of their love for God, for their country and for their own people. The Bible says, “A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3:8) The story of Caleb and Joshua going into the Promised Land teaches us to obey God and to be courageous when we face the battles in our lives. Nehemiah said, “After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.’ ” (Nehemiah 4:14) Today, even though we may not be fighting a physical war, we should still maintain the spirit of a Christian solider.

牧者心聲 

二零一二年一月二十九日

我們的主是和平之君。祂也使人和睦。但我們的主並不是一個和平主義者。在我十幾歲時的那個年代，很多人愛唱反戰歌曲。我也喜歡唱那些歌曲，例如 “花兒去了哪裡？”，“飄渺在風中”，“給和平一個機會” 等等。當時我認同和平主義。有人在戰爭中死亡的時候，我會感到悲哀。但當我成長之後，做了基督徒，對聖經有進一步的認識，我就更佩服那些信心的偉人。他們為了愛神，愛國和愛自己的人民，願意去爭戰。聖經說：“喜愛有時，恨惡有時；爭戰有時，和好有時。”（傳3:8） 迦勒和約書亞進入應許之地的故事教導我們，當我們面對人生的戰場，我們必須服從神，必須勇敢作戰。 尼希米說，“我察看了，就起來對貴冑、官長，和其餘的人說：「不要怕他們！當記念主是大而可畏的。你們要為弟兄、兒女、妻子、家產爭戰。」”（尼4:14） 儘管今天我們不用上戰場打仗，我們仍然需要保持一個基督精兵的心態。



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