Apr 5, 2022 | Wens Pen
Undone and redone.
My Grandmother was a bit of a genius with sewing, knitting and embroidery (somehow, I didn’t get that gene). One of my most vivid memories was going into her room to find a pile of mangled, tangled wool on the floor after her cat had been living its best life playing with the jumbo ball of wool that Grandma was using to knit some beanies. Much of what had been knitted had been undone and the wool had turned into a jumbled, twisted, matted pile of mess. The cat made a very quick exit, leaving the chaos it created behind. What had been undone needed to be redone. My Grandmother gathered up the tangled mess and began to patiently loosen the knots, tame the tangles, untwist the entwined loops, straighten the crinkled strands, and blend the frayed ends. The matted wool that looked like an impossible mess was undone and redone in her gifted hands. Finding the end of the wool, she began to carefully wind it around her fingers, drawing the twine close and creating a new, cohesive ball of wool. She was gentle, patient, and unwavering in her commitment. She did not express frustration or pull and yank the strands. Once the ball of wool was restored, she began to knit the piece again, creating three super cool beanies for her grandchildren, to keep us warm for the coming winter.
The enemy is somewhat like the cat, always on the hunt for victims, stalking those of us who belong to Jesus, poised and ready to maliciously pounce on our lives like a predatory feline who intentionally seeks out its prey and when no one is looking or the room is empty, it makes its move, aiming to unravel us through discouragement and disillusionment, knotting us up through heartache, taunting us through trauma, entangling us in the snare of suffering, trying to undo the strands of our lives. It hopes to leave us lifeless and in a messy pile on the spiritual floor. Don’t forget the career of this enemy is to steal, kill and destroy. BUT! Let’s not give this one too much attention because there is a far greater story of the true Hero who personally steps into the middle of our mess, restoring us and helping us to flourish in all seasons: JESUS! Jesus holds the original knitting needles of life. He was the one who knit us together in our mother’s womb and He knows how to best keep every strand of our existence woven into His finest garment. He has the original pattern and knits us according to His design. In Jesus we are undone and redone.
Jesus, the one true Lord holds all power and authority and is exalted and seated on the right-hand side of the Father, and He knits life together, and in His hands, we become His handiwork. He is our maker and the only one capable of gathering up our mattered, tangled strands, gently winding us in close, knitting us into a new garment by restoring us one stitch at a time to be exactly who He made us to be. Ephesians 2:4-10. The heart of Jesus is to bring life and life in abundance. John 10:10. But Jesus goes one better. He takes what He knits in us and joins us to what He knits in others, and we are clothed and connected as one unified garment as a grand work expressing Jesus together in God’s community and like our beanies kept us kids warm, so too the warmth of Christ is expressed to others as He holds all things together in His hands. In Jesus we are undone and redone.
So, friends, get your “redone” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 29, 2022 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
One way: Jesus. As humans gather on the plains of life, there is a collective cry that wells up as an insatiable thirst for truth and meaning that leads to fulfilment. It has been echoing in the earth since the greatest liar visited the creational home of humans and cast a shadow of doubt on ultimate truth. Since then, the cry for truth and meaning can be heard echoing in generations past, in the present age as a ceaseless hum chanted loudly and silently by every soul, and a rumbling cry that can already be heard in the yonder years. There is an answer, but it is exclusive in its claim. There is only one way: Jesus. John 14:6.
God has tapped His grand tuning fork and it reverberates with perfect heavenly pitch across all creation. God designed all of life to be tuned to Jesus who is the one perfect pitch for all things. Every note of life was designed to give distinctive expression to the great composer of life, Jesus. However, the original song became disharmonious and discorded as a result of sin. In this dysfunctional ensemble of people, there is a universal need for all of us to be re-tuned to Jesus and every life changed (or redeemed) in order to once again sing the inaugural anthem that God designed humans to proclaim. There is only one way: Jesus. Jesus is the only one credentialled to lift the veil of sin off our humanity and to let in the light of truth for all who turn to Him. Only Jesus can bring souls back into alignment with God. Only Jesus has personally answered the call to redeem the broken instruments in the orchestra of life; us. It is only in Jesus who alone can answer and respond to the quest for truth and re-tune souls to Himself because as Romans 11:36 tells us, everything finds its purpose in Jesus, “for from Him and through Him and for Him are all things”.
No matter how many worldviews claim that all roads lead to God, the resonation of truth is only ever finally found in Jesus. It is Jesus who conducts the grand story of life. It is Jesus who tells us of our origin. It is Jesus who defines the exquisite nature of our humanity and our identity. It is Jesus who gives us dignity, purpose and meaning. It is Jesus who describes the friction of sin that has changed the way the entire symphony of life was intended to be played and it is only Jesus who has prescribed the solution to our human dilemma by giving Himself as the answer when He personally gave up everything glorious, and pure, and suffered agonisingly in our place. Jesus will take our broken instrument if we offer it to Him and replace it with a new one when we ask Him to be our master (at His cost). No other god but Jesus personally performs and sings the song of truth right in the middle of the orchestra pit. It is only Jesus who plays the accompanying song of comfort for us during our days on earth. It is only Jesus who can restore us and open the gates to His eternal home where He will welcome His servants to sit at His feet to sing His forever song, in unison with the saints, to Him alone. This is the only way to play and hold the resolving chord of truth; one way: Jesus. All other “gods” are aloof and lip-sync to their own pre-recorded soundtracks of truth. Jesus is the song.
Do you know any other god who did this? Do you know any other way that so comprehensively answers the cries of our hearts and restores us under His hand of immeasurable grace where we had nothing in our hands to bring except instruments with broken strings? I don’t. There is onlyone way: Jesus.
So, friends, get your “one way: Jesus” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 21, 2022 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
God is always on time. As the pendulum of time swings back and forth across our lives and the cosmic clock ticks with perfect precision, we live our days by its movement. Within space and time, we find ourselves moving forward along the highways and byways of life, always against the clock and this often influences our assumptions about God’s timing. As we etch our desires into prayers to God, making our good plans, we hope in Him, wait for Him, and trust Him to fulfil the desires of our hearts, all according to our timeframes. Proverbs 16:9. Yet could it be that we are so regulated by time that we filter our expectations of God through a finite, time-bound lens and periodically end up disappointed or discouraged that God seemingly hasn’t answered our prayers within the time periods we set (as reasonable as our timings may appear)? Yet, what God calls us to is trust; trust in His perfect wisdom and His perfect timing as sovereign Lord over all things, including time. God is always on time.
God is eternal and not constrained by chronological time or by the boundary walls of space. His timing is shaped by His eternal master plan. The difficulty for humans is the finite nature of life on earth and the pressing in of time. So, when we conclude God hasn’t responded to us on time and hold Him to account, we risk short-circuiting what He ultimately seeks to achieve. Imagine the things that would be missed if God simply delivered His answers according to our expectations. Yet what God does within the realm of our time is quite miraculous. Not only does He achieve His purposes for us, He also casts His eternal net wide and knits together all the threads of his Kingdom plans and although we may have waited, when God answers according to His perfect timing, His answers are immeasurably more than we originally imagined. It is true that God’s timing doesn’t always synchronise with our time clocks, but it is equally true and nothing alters the fact that God is always on time in all spheres of our lives. Any perceived delay from God is never a permission slip to give up but a call to trust Him. God is God and is always capable of achieving His purposes for us in the confines of time, but it is always His prerogative to enact His plans according to His sovereign will and timing and God is always on time.
God doesn’t want us to live only by the second hand that ticks around the clock face but by The Hand that can be most trusted: His hand. For His hand not only moves time but also moves His purposes through time. Time then is not our master; God is. God wants us to know He is not numb or unaware of the limits of time for human beings. He knows we are walking along a defined and limited timeline. But when we realise that God has not only created time but has also set eternity into our hearts, it reminds us we don’t need to fret over things that don’t happen according to our time clocks (Ecclesiastes 3:11-14). God’s perfect timing frames our time and puts everything into an eternal context. There is then great comfort in the knowledge there has never been a time where God hasn’t been on time with every detail of our lives and can do more in the final seconds of our circumstances where He miraculously transforms things as only He can do.
So, friends, get your “God’s time” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 15, 2022 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
This is our King, King Jesus. In the galleries of life, we find the portraits of many a king who claimed their thrones as ruling earthy lords, walking on their own streets of gold where their feet never touched the dirt of the common lands. They ruled from their vaulted chambers, shielded from the real world, and only hearing at a distance about the lives of their subjects. Positioned in power, dripping in riches, their coffers were sealed, and their golden coins of wealth never benefited the impoverished and the defenceless. With their kingdom doors ultimately closed to the realities that fell upon the everyday streets of life, these kings lived behind their royal cloaks of protection and never looked into the eyes of the broken, the lost or the marginalised. BUT … there is grand gallery found in Kingdom courts of God that boasts a living portrait of a King supreme; a magnificent, eternal monarch who is royal and rules but also resides and remains with His subjects. He is not just any king. This is our King, King Jesus. John 10:10-18.
This is our King, King Jesus, who put aside His glory, crossed the threshold of heaven and earth and came to live in the confines of the earth. It is virtually impossible to really understand what it meant for Jesus to exchange His Kingly garments for an earthly tunic, put on His sandals and walk in all the dust and dirt of the broken world. He would have smelt the stench of sin in the world He made; His beautiful creation that was originally intended to be a fragrant expression of His handiwork. Jesus sacrificially served His subjects, as He loved His enemies, bought the outcasts in close, touched the untouchable, dignified the unlovely and loved the unlovable (that’s all of us by the way). This is our King, King Jesus. This King, Jesus was brutalised without retaliating, spat upon, heard all the vitriol poured out as He was moving towards an unimaginable death for every human; yet He was always the supreme King of the universe. In His resurrection, He opened the gate of salvation to the lost. In what world would you see an earthly king treated like King Jesus was treated? Why? Because this King could not bear to leave His creation in such devastation and because He loved unconditionally.
Today, this is our King, King Jesus, who gives us a royal robe to wear, places a crown of His glory upon our heads, lifts us up from the squalors of sin and failure and gazes deeply into the eyes of our souls and declares “I love you no matter what.” This is our King, King Jesus who forgives the unforgivable, sits at our tables, walks in our streets, bears with us in the grime of our lives and beautifully polishes up His marred image in us. He holds our hands tightly, He weeps with us, whispers His words of love, lifts us up close, places His cheek against ours and listens to our deepest desires, our innermost heartaches and He hears the heartbeat of our beings. He makes a move of love on us every single moment and reminds us who(se) we are. Do you know of any other king like that?
This is our King, King Jesus. Doesn’t this just make you want to bow before Him, place your crown at His feet and then jump up, throw your arms around His neck, weep upon His breast, thank Him and tell Him how much you love Him? This is our King; King Jesus – unmatched, unparalleled, and ever-present.
So, friends, get your “King Jesus” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 7, 2022 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
Formed in the fire. Psalm 66:8-12. As Newcastle kids there was always great excitement when we went on a day trip to The Rocks in Sydney to visit the various arts and crafts shops. Our first stop was always the glassblowing gallery. We would watch the craftsman take some molten glass and fashion it into an extraordinary art form. As the glass become molten in the fire, the master craftsman would scoop it up and begin to form a vessel by turning it, blowing air into it, carefully shaping it, and finally slowly cooling it to prevent it from shattering. What could have remained a blob of molten glass after being in the fire became a unique and exquisite piece of art in the skilled hands of the glassblower. It was a vessel formed in the fire, and embossed with the artist’s signature, identifying the creation as uniquely his work.
Our journey of faith is similar and so often we are transformed by God into distinct and beautiful expressions of His image when we go through difficulty. We are mostly formed in the fire. The wonder of God as the magnificent master craftsman of all things, is His love and passion to never leave us like the blob of molten glass after we have encountered the fire. He faithfully gathers us up, turns us, breathes on us, attentively holds us, delicately shapes, and transforms us into beautiful vessels who bear His signature, refreshing us in the streams of His living water to ensure we don’t crack and break. We are formed in the fire.
As God’s vessels, formed in the fire, refined, and transformed into resplendent expressions of our Master, we are on display to all who pass by God’s windows of life, as art works and vessels of perseverance, strength and hope who were formed in the fire and came out beautiful in the hands of heaven’s almighty Artisan.
So, friends, get your “fire” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Mar 1, 2022 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
God is safe. As we set sail out of the harbours of our lives each day to embark on the voyage of life, there will be varying waterways we pass through. Some waters will be smooth and crystal clear, allowing us to glide through with ease. Other waters will be rough and challenging, with strong tidal pulls, minimal visibility, and ocean debris that all threaten to shipwreck us and inhibit our passageway. In all the waters of life, only God is safe. He is the only safe harbour we can anchor in and remain in place.
Psalm 62:7-8 reminds us that God is safe. As our “granite-strength” God, He is our safe harbour. (MSG) If we begin each day knowing that God is safe and that no wave or storm is bigger than God, and He rules and manages every aspect of life, we can keep the more torrent waterways in perspective. We can trust Him with our lives, knowing He will be our rescuer and our refuge. When we rely on Him, come-what-may, we cannot sink.
We can never forget, that in our drowning state, where we were once untethered from God, He threw us our lifeline, Jesus, who became the tender Captain of our vessels. Jesus roped us in, rescued us, repositioned us to sail north in our boats of redemption and now He reinforces our faith every day. We are safe; you are safe, all because God is safe.
So, friends, get your “safe God” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
