Nov 16, 2021 | Wens Pen
Don’t you just love Jesus? One of the most exciting things in our childhood was the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the seventies when she came to Newcastle (yes, Newcastle). Our family perched on one of the best vantage spots in outer Newcastle just to get a glimpse of the Queen. Excitement mounted and the crowd went wild when her black, royal Rolls Royce car was approaching. As she whizzed past, she waved at us and in a few seconds, she was gone like a phantom in the night. Five seconds of a royal encounter, at a distance and it was all over.
The visit of Jesus to the world was the most defining royal visit in human history. Jesus didn’t just whizz past humanity, giving us all a royal wave from a royal chariot on His way to making a speech about the Kingdom of God on earth. There were no protective barriers between Jesus and people and no royal protocols that banned people from touching Jesus and there certainly was no crowd control. Jesus, the highest, royal, majestic King in the universe stepped into a broken world bathed in the stench of sin and full of kingdom outcasts; a place which offended His perfection, put on His cloak of love and grace, and welcomed everyone as the crowds pressed in on Him. Luke 9:11. Don’t you just love Jesus? Jesus crossed every boundary and validated every displaced, sick, disabled, possessed, marginalised, and oppressed person He encountered. He dignified every human. He touched the lepers. How many of us would do that? He protected the vulnerable. He dined with the rogues of society. How many of us would be seen in the house of society’s greatest offenders? And then our Royal King died for His undeserving subjects; us! Don’t you just love Jesus? Luke 19:10.
Jesus sent us a powerful message that rang loudly in the first century and still rings loudly in the 21st century, that He had come to save us at our worst and love us unconditionally, knowing He would pay a price of unprecedented pain, body, mind, and spirit for every human soul. And we end up blameless thanks to Jesus. Only love so immeasurable and extravagant could love us, the unlovable offenders as Jesus did. The more I grow in my understanding of Jesus, the more I find myself exclaiming “don’t you just love Jesus”? Everything about Jesus fires every part of my being. I find my place in Him, my purpose in Him and my passion in Him. I don’t deserve it, but that’s the nature of this royal King. Don’t you just love Jesus?
So, friends, get your “love for Jesus” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Nov 9, 2021 | Wens Pen
God, the master story-maker. Sitting around our family fire at night in winter, our mother would read us stories and what a storyteller she was. She brought every character to life and made the story live through her creativity and imagination. She invited us into the stories to enjoy the adventures of the characters. I still vividly remember my childhood stories and the impact they had on me. My favourite story was Little Tommy Purr, a naughty kitten who would regularly escape school to go on his own adventures (I love that kitten). What’s your favourite story? Think about stories and how they impact us, shape us, connect us, and communicate meaning. We see ourselves reflected in stories.
God, the master story-maker created an elaborate, exquisite story for us to dwell in. As in every story, the elements of a brilliant narrative are present; a beginning, a meaningful storyline, characters and identities, mystery, intrigue, an evil villain who wreaks destruction (the story-faker), tragedy, the unparalleled Hero (the story re-maker), rescue, the mystery revealed, romance, love, redemption, hope, destiny, the annihilation of the enemy, and in this story the end is eternal. What a brilliant story-maker. The story of God, the master story-maker enables our stories to make sense in God’s overarching story of reality, especially where our stories intersect with God the master story-maker who indwelt our human story, incarnate in Jesus. He wraps His story around each of us, giving us a part in His story of creation and in turn we become His storytellers who invite others to come and meet God, the master story-maker.
God’s story is not a mythical tale that leads us down a rabbit hole and into a fantasy land of misrepresented reality and confusion as many of the cultural stories of today tell. Rather, it is the only authentic story about truth and reality that conveys meaning and profoundly emits the light of the Creator on the paths we tread. God, the master story-maker can be trusted. His credentials stack up as He is the authentic author of the story. He is the ultimate authority on every detail of how the story goes. He has placed His signature on the great storybook of life and when we bring our stories to Him, He signs our personal life storybooks as well. We get to encounter God, the master story-maker up close and personal.
God, the master story-maker is the only author who can finish His story for His redeemed people with the words “and they all lived happily ever after”. What other story do you know that is so compelling as it moves towards a grand finale of ultimate victory and eternal redemption? That’s why the title of God, the master story-maker is exclusively Gods.
So, friends, get your “God-story” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Nov 2, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
The Son-rise and the promise of hope. There is something spectacular about watching a sunrise. Standing still, waiting, and watching as our all-powerful God lifts the sun, there is a sense of hope as God takes His heavenly paint brush and tips the horizon with those brilliant first colours that cause the sky to blush in colours of orange, yellow and gold. As God paints the morning into being, it is a majestic moment, full of promise for another day of life under the physical sun and life under the Son who authors all of life. The Son-rise and the promise of hope is the signal of a fresh start every time we open our eyes and step into a new day as we live in relationship with Jesus. Romans 1:4.
One of my favourite CS Lewis quotes lays claim to the truth of the Son-rise and the promise of hope. Lewis states “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” The sunrise is a daily marker and expression of God as sovereign creator as it shines like a radiant galactic ball of fire in the sky. Life is visible as the sun shines to light the day. The Son-rise and the promise of hope is the expression of God as redeemer of His creation that allows us to see all of life from God’s perspective which builds our faith and hope. The very fact that Jesus, the Son has risen alters everything in creation and births a hope for restoration of life. Just as God takes the sun and awakens a new day, so too Jesus, the Son, rises over all things in incomparable power and authority as He breaks through the darkness of a broken world with rays of hope that remind the spiritual forces of darkness that He is above all things and rules from his heavenly throne with everything under His feet. Ephesians 1:18-23. But it also reminds us that we belong to the risen Son, Jesus as we live in His light. He sparks our spiritual vision and enables us to know the hope of our calling, and the abundance of our inheritance in Him in all aspects of life under the actual sun. The Son-rise and the promise of hope restores us to life as God intended, producing a hope that remains unique to the risen Son, Jesus.
So, friends, get your “Son-rise” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Oct 26, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
Truly human. I’ve heard it said that we humans are the sum or our experiences. Whilst it is true that our experiences help to shape us in life, our humanity is far more exquisite and defined than just being the sum of our experiences. Stepping inside the shape of an-experienced based definition of our humanity, is a hollow shell that ultimately echoes a sense of hopelessness, particularly when life sifts us. It might sound all sweetly philosophical to say we are the sum of our experiences, but it is a sugar-coated view of our personhood and misses the dignity and sacredness of life as being a grand creation of God. Psalm 8:3-6.
God’s definition of what it means to be truly human is rather magnificent and reverberates with powerful chords of truth across our souls. God’s Word affirms every human being is created by God, and for God, made in His image and likeness. Genesis 1:26. Think of that for a moment. We are made by the very hands of God, the great master and creator of all things. As resplendent as creation is, it is us, human beings that are made in God’s image. It is no small thing to come into an understanding of what it means to be truly human, bearing His likeness. This revelation is transformative as we realise our value is not determined extrinsically, measured by our circumstances or experiences. Rather it is intrinsic, where God seeded worth and value into the DNA of our personhood which means our worth and value will never be diminished. But that is not all. To be truly human is to be granted the privilege of living in relationship with God, our maker, as His finest jewel in all creation, here on earth and into eternity. Although we broke relationship with God, He remains as committed as He ever was to polishing up or renewing His image in us so we reflect His essence to others.
So, it’s quite a relief that it is not up to us to become truly human by being the sum of our experiences. Even in our fallen state as “cracked” image bearers, Jesus does a work of transformation in us as He returns us to our original creative purpose. To fall for the premise that we are the sum of our experiences is a huge burden to live under when God has already made us truly human. It is counter-productive and way too much work to keep pacing it out on a treadmill that requires us to continuously reinvent ourselves through every experience we have to ensure that we remain intact as human beings and feel worthwhile. What a consolation it is to have the gentle, patient, loving hands of the Father to both define us and to refine us by making us truly human .
So, friends, get your “truly human” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Oct 19, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
It is well with my soul. As I have pondered the idea of being able to truly exclaim “it is well with my soul” when we face difficulty, the words penned after Horatio Spafford suffered such a swipe of tragedy that deeply gashed his life, it became clear to me that there is only one possible set of shoes we can ever stand in to make such a declaration in all seasons of life and that is to stand in the truth and reality of Jesus; in who He is and what He has done for us. It is easy to say “it is well with my soul” in seasons of flourishing and not so easy in the face of grievances. In life’s more strenuous times, our only hope of declaring “it is well with my soul” is to cling to Jesus and to know with deep assurance that He will faithfully hold us close to His own heart as He identifies with any broken threads in our lives and walks us through to the other side of the troubles we face.
Not only does Jesus identify with the splintering of our lives when we crash against the rocks of hardship, be it minor or major, His own life was offered up for our sake as a sacrificial redemptive act. No one gets the agony of adversity like Jesus does as the scarlet strands of pain have left Him scarred on our behalf. As He invites us to hold fast to Him and enables us to whisper “it is well with my soul” in our distress, we do so knowing that He is our compassionate, faithful, comforting, good and honourable Saviour whose formidable love compelled Him to suffer on our behalf so He could save us in our own times of crisis. Jesus knows our pain firsthand. In that single moment, when we turn to Him and either hasten or hobble towards Him, He is already running to gather us up in His strong and tender arms, to draw us close, to bear with us and to pour out His healing balm on our needy hearts.
Without Jesus, the ability to say “it is well with my soul” in the midst of trials seems like a contradiction in terms. But with Jesus, there is a transcendent peace that He fuses into our souls that eclipses our pain and marks us with His hope, light, and rest. It is not easy to declare “it is well with my soul” when hardship hits, and it doesn’t negate our pain, but it becomes possible because of Jesus. Isn’t He a magnificent Saviour?
So, friends, get your “it is well” on in Jesus today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Oct 13, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
The heartbeat of God. 1John 4:10. As children, our family doctor would occasionally let us listen to our own hearts through his stethoscope. It was quite mesmerising to tune into the sound of our hearts pounding, and as we listened intensely, the beating was magnified with such clarity by the medical device. We were attuned, captivated and attentive. There was no other sound. As I recalled that memory, it made me realise what an incredible thing it is when we come to an understanding that the God of all creation has a heart that beats for us in a continuous rhythm of love. The heartbeat of God pulsates endlessly with a depth of love that can never be plumbed by finite minds.
As the heartbeat of God beats consistently and ceaselessly for us, we also realise that God is the incurable lover of our souls. Even if God wanted to, He could not change His love for us because the nature of God Himself is love and the heartbeat of God towards us, His children, is unbreakable. God has bound His own heart to our hearts and never has there been one who has pledged to love us without qualification, where we, the unworthy recipients become the beneficiaries of a love that is irreversibly ours.
The heartbeat of God flows down in love to our hearts that have been shattered by the fall. It flows down with an awareness that it may not flow back from those God loves unconditionally. But this does not change the heartbeat of God as it is unstoppable in its flow. As we search with lanterns in the depths of our own hearts for a love that will define every part of our beings, we become aware that it is only God who can and will love us perfectly. No other person can give this type of love. The heartbeat of God bathes us in His love moment by moment and when we realise even a small measure of the dimensions of His love, we are changed forever by the incurable Lover of our souls. Can you hear the heartbeat of God?
So, friends, get “God’s heartbeat” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
