I have been struggling lately and as usual, it took the Lord to show me the source of my struggle. Anger. I have been angry at my friends here for their stubborn hearts, at the way they blame God for their lack of faith. "It is hard for the Chinese people to believe in Jesus, because that means many of our ancestors are in hell now". I have heard this thought many, many times from my friends. They want to know why Jesus came to the "western" people and not to the Chinese people. In essence what they are saying is that because Jesus did not reveal Himself in the way they think He should have, they can't believe.

Stop blaming God for your hardened hearts! Repent and turn to Jesus! Stop rejecting this gracious gift He is offering!

Then there is my atheist friend that believes science holds the answer to everything and if we wait long enough all of the questions we have will be answered. Can science fill that big, gaping wound in your heart? No. And while you are waiting for your questions to be answered by science, you will find yourself separated from the true answer for eternity.

Stop looking for solutions within yourself! Repent and turn to Jesus! Stop rejecting this gracious gift He is offering!

Now to myself, does the fact that my friends (and myself) are stubborn, unrepentant sinners mean that Jesus loves them (and me) any less? Does it mean that they are less deserving of my prayers, love and tears?

"I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent" Luke 15:7

No, it does not.

Stop hardening my heart to these souls crying out in anguish! Repent and turn to Jesus! Stop rejecting the gracious gift he is offering!

Praise God that He is everything we are not. His love, mercy and patience knows no bounds. He hears the cry of anguished souls and gives himself.

Please pray for my friends here, that they may repent and turn to the source of all, our Lord Jesus Christ. Please pray for me that I may repent and turn to the Lord to be cleansed and used as He would see fit. Lord draw us all closer to you for the sake of your Son, Jesus.

Amen.

More fun involving an oven

A couple of weeks ago, Ruth graciously let us use her apartment to have a party. We played some games, ate some food and baked cookies. Here are some pics from that night.

One funny story to share with you. Since I have been here in Macau, I have been inundated with information about what is good for my health and bad for my health, what will make my skin pretty and what will make it have pimples, what will make me fat and what will make me skinny. I get the complete nutrional run-down of anything that is seen entering my mouth. This night, however, was the first time I have been told that water will "make you fat". Hmmmm. My response "Uhhhh... no it won't". After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that this is one of those instances where a lack of language lead to miscommunication. She probably meant that if I drink too much water, it will make me bloated or something like that. I am pretty sure my friend has never really needed to use the word bloated before, and believe me, I will not teach her. Who knows what I would learn about the food I am eating then.

Anyway, back to the pictures.


I am sure that by taking this photo, I interrupted a deep conversation about the meaning of life, but they seem ok with the interruption.





Joe, Molly and May on the other hand are learning to make cookies.


Dereck always hides from the camera, but I caught him this time.
More kitchen photos. I know why little baking is done in this part of the world. It is because they have no air in the kitchens, so it gets unbelievably hot with an oven on.





I think Joe was the master chef on this night.

I recently acquired a small oven that with a temperature setting. This modern marvel allows me to make cookies, cakes, brownies... and just about anything else you can think of that is loaded with sugar and therefore doesn't make it past the boarder into this country. Here are some pictures of the first time I made homemade chocolate chip cookies in about a year. My friend Channel (as in TV, not the designer), her husband Ray and son Owen came over to help with the cookies. Most people here do not own an oven so they have few opportunities to eat any type of homemade-baked goods. In my opinion, this is a tragedy. I mean does anything taste better than chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven with a glass of milk? I am trying hard to think of something, but nothing is coming to mind at the moment. I think Owen would agree with me too. I think we made enough batter for over 125 cookies and my oven is small (only room enough for nine cookies at a time), so the entire cookie making adventure took around three hours. But I think you can see that it was well worth the time. Owen loved the cookies and kept saying "mmmmm, so sweet!"