Sorry that I haven't been able to write in the recent weeks. It would be great to hear some encouraging notes about what you are learning from the newsletters, what you would like me to write about, and what things are going on in your lives so that I could write better entries!  

My church in Baltimore is doing a series on the question "Why?" and it's a series about really getting down to the reason we do all the things we do when we go to church on Sunday. Sometimes we do things because we've always done them, and we don't take a minute to go back to the Bible and understand why we do the things we do. We start to follow a predictable pattern and routine.

This past Sunday, my pastor talked about communion.

What we find in many churches (regardless of how each congregation, church, or denomination decides to practice communion) is that people are partaking in communion for themselves, when really it should be all about God. Reasons could be: they see everyone else doing it, and they don't want to feel left out; they have been baptized, and the baptism class told them that they should do communion; they really do want to come to God with their sins, but just see it as a ceremony for them to focus on all the bad things they have done; their  parents told them that they have to take it or else they are not good  Christians. There are many wrong reasons why people partake in communion, but at  the heart of everything, we find that our self-centeredness gets in the way of  truly worshipping Jesus when we do communion. This starts to happen for almost  all church activities.

And the reason for this is because we are sinners. Sin is taking what God intended for one purpose, and using it for a  purpose other than that. In this case, taking what Jesus intended to be an  intimate and symbolic activity to remember what He did on the cross, and using  it for something selfish. Avoiding the feeling of being left out is only trying to protect ourselves; doing things because of routine excludes a relationship with Christ; focusing on our personal sins instead living in the freedom that Christ has already saved us from our sins. These are all examples of how we sin when we selfishly partake in communion.

Everything we do is to glorify God, not ourselves.

Take some time this week to examine why you do all the things you do. If you find that you have been doing things selfishly, pray and repent. Ask God to remind you that He has already forgiven you and then ask Him to give you the wisdom how to change your heart so that you are doing things for His glory. Always go back to the Bible and see what Jesus has already done for you on the cross.

Until next  time,

Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.  Psalm 127:1

This past weekend, you probably got an extra day off!! Why? Because it was Labor Day!

According to the United States Department of Labor, Labor Day was started to pay tribute to the "contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."  Basically, we take a day off of work so that we can remember all the work that is being done all over the country all year!

However, if you read the verse above, you see that unless God is the ultimate worker in everything we do,
all the work that we do is in "vain." What does it mean for something to be "in vain"? It means that all the work that we do is basically useless, not worth the effort.

That means if God wasn't doing the work when you did all of your homework, it was almost not worth the effort. That means if God wasn't doing the work when you went to play soccer, there was no point. That means if God wasn't doing the work when you practiced for hours to play an instrument, it really wasn't worth the time.

Now before you go to your parents and tell them, "Chi Van-Kim told me that I shouldn't do anything unless God is doing it!," you have to understand what I mean. The whole point of this verse and this message is that we, as Christians, need to keep an eternal perspective. An eternal perspective means that what we are doing here on earth isn't what is going to last forever. The grades we get, the songs we play, the work we do here on earth will eventually fade away. Instead, what we do to glorify God on earth will last for eternity, and that's what really matters. Because of this, we have to always be glorifying God in EVERYTHING that we do. There is no part of our lives that could or should be separated from God. By allowing Him to be the worker, to be a part of what we are doing, to guide us through all of our actions, we really aren't doing much for eternity.

Keep this in mind as you do your homework and as you labor. Don't let it be in vain! 

 Only one life will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.

 Until next time,