But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
My Notes:
Actually, we discussed Luke 12:35 – 48 (Be in readiness) this week. It involves the discussion of God will come like a thief. Hence, I chose the related verses instead.
I get used to using house as a symbolism of our shield. We would usually equip ourselves as much as we can. Sometimes we may also stock many tools inside our shield.
Can you imagine you’ve always got a AK47 pointed outside? Or Your house is a military castle? It’s a side track, but I can’t stop my imagination la.
However, are they necessary? What will be left when God come again?
I’m starting to prioritise what should be important to me.
Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”
But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”
And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive.
And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’
Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’
So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.
For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!
And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span?
If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith!
And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying.
For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things.
But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.
“Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
My Notes:
In Parable of the sower, we were reminded to be deep soil to let the sower grow.
In this week, we were reminded what to be grown, our fortune or our inner spirit – the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23.
Our fortune is our bank account when we live while the fruit of the Spirit is our bank account when we live in the Holy Kingdom.
Hence, we were reminded the importance of growing the fruit of the Spirit instead of the fortune.
In this photo, I took a shoot of a decorated tree for Christmas to represent the relationship between the fortune and our fruit of the Spirit.
The decoration on the tree symbolises the fortune that we concentrated on. When the fortune grows, we usually will invest in decorations and put on ourselves. It may be jewelleries, properties, arts or bachelor degrees.
However, this tree is in condition, it is supported by external. It symbolises the lack of growing our inner soul – the fruit of Spirit.
If the condition goes on, the weight of the decorations on the tree will pull us down.
It is to remind us what is more important.
Updated on 10 Dec, 2019:
The Christmas is coming and the decoration for Christmas is fabulous.
It would be amazing when our fortune is growing with appropriate decoration.
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
My Notes:
This week’s service discussed the journey and the destination of following God.
That’s exactly what I wondered.
In Exacting Discipleship , God lead us out of our shield/house to start a journey. But then, for what?
In Genesis 12:1, God asked Abram to leave his country. Abram left his country at 75 years old and without a son.
After thousand years, Abram’s grand grand grand son, Jesus redeemed us all.
To conclude, Abram started from barrenness and cropped with Jesus.
Hence, it suggested that everyone started from barrenness?
My shield/house is built with years with extra cares. It equipped everything that I intended.
But barrenness?!
At least a garden ma………….
After studying Exacting Discipleship, I think I can keep my house with me. I can hide in my shield if anything goes wrong throughout the journey with God.
But now…….my house is barrenness? That’s meant that the journey with God is one way ticket?
Let me introduce the house in Exacting Discipleship. It was a gift of being the highest score in class in the first examination that I attended in my life.
The door of the house was broken for a long time. And when I seek help to fix the door, I was taught not to fix it because of reminding not to lock myself in the house.
In below photo, I smashed the house to symbolise my determination to start this one way journey to God.
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wow……..Do you think I’ll smash my house? Don’t be silly la, I smashed a house built with the kinetic sand as the symbol instead as follows.
10:1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.
And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way.
Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’
If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.
Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house.
Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you;
and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say,
‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.
Luke 10: 17-20 The Happy Results
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.
Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.
My Remark:
We discussed the exact wordings that Jesus told how to evangelise in this week.
“Peace be to this house.” will be the greeting when we visit people’s home. This just like the secret that shared among the Christians.
In this photo, I shoot the decoration that I put on the main door to symbolise the welcome of the peace in this house.
Updated on 16 Oct, 2019:
I confessed that I bought the decoration without careful consideration. But God let me know…… so I finally printed my recent favourite photo with the greeting on an aluminium plate.
In the photo, the flower was blowing up by a wind such that the shadow of the stamen was reflected on the petal. This is an amazing moment and I’m lucky to capture it.
But it is regrettable that the flower is not in perfect condition. You can see the spot on the petal which defected the shadow of the stamen.
Anyway, this is my recent favourite photo.
Updated 22 Aug, 2020
I learnt a new Hebrew word, Shalom, which is the original word used in bible to represent the greeting of Peace be to this house.
57. As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
58. And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59. And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
60. But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
61. Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”
62. But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
My Remarks:
Follow a KOL is easy nowadays. You can like her and her feeds will send to you for viewing automatically. She then gains popularity when many people liked her posts. Hence, she will prepare her feeds based on the likes.
It’s somewhat different to follow God as I experienced. He won’t scold you, but He’ll let you know something’s wrong. It’s always your choice to follow Him or ignore it.
We discussed the possible situations during the discipleship in this week’s fellowship.
1. Actively Following
Jesus’s response: I have nowhere to lay my head.
The house symbolises your shields and the door is the excuse to follow Jesus. In this situation, you’ve not only opened the door to let Jesus in. You also let Jesus take you out of your comfort zone. You can then find there’s a world outside.
2. By Invitation with excuses
Jesus’s Response: Let the excuses go and you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.
In this situation, your door is knocked by Jesus. You opened the door to let Him in and He asked you to go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God. You answered Him by knocking other’s door.
3. Actively Following with excuses
Jesus’s Response: You are not fit for the Kingdom of God.
In this situation, you trapped yourself in your house.
(Luke 9:23) And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
My Pave with His Mighty
This series has 2 photos: “My pave within the history” and “My pave in church”.
We discussed Jesus requested the apostles to remember HIS WORDS in the fellowship, but the apostles didn’t understand what He meant at that time. Jesus kept reminding the apostles that He would be in man’s hand and be raised on the third day. But like us, the apostles at that time did not understand and treated Jesus as a hero whom would save their lives. After Jesus was raised, the apostles realised their paves and built the church as if Jesus was with them.
Hence, as a Christian, we take up our own cross and follow HIM instead of looking for a hero to save us. The Cross isn’t our burden, it’s our relation with God and the relations among human. So we need to build relations with love
With this background, I started to think about my pave as a Christian. It’s summarised as follows:
My Pave within the History
In this photo, the sea symbolises the sea of the History while the footprint symbolises my pave. I’m so tiny and brutal like this footprint. Nothing will be left in the next wave.
Who am I in the sea of the History? Why am I living? What should I do?
My pave in Church
In this photo, there are many footprints. It symbolises the paves of brothers and sisters in the Church. We all burry our own cross and follow the God. Though the weather is stormy in a while, we will keep on our paves.
I baptised in Dec, 2018 and then continued to study the bible in the fellowship.
In Apr, 2019, I enrolled to an online photography course in coursera after taking photos as hobby for 20 years. I learnt how to take photos in a catholic school and my first assignment was to see the beauty and capture it with my camera.
I followed this principle for so long that I was stroke with light when I took the photography course which asked me to make photos instead of take photos.
Hence, I tried to put my understanding on the bible during the fellowship to the photos in this website.
In April, 2021, I’ve published part of this website into a book and placed on apple book store as follows:
And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
(For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.).
And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.
And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.
And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.
Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.
When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.
Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed.
Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.
Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying,
Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.
My Remarks:
When the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away. In the fellowship, we discussed extensively about the reasons why Jesus sent him away. I doubted about the reasons.
However, one day when I went out with my sister and saw a lady’s trousers was torn, I immediately wanted to step forward to remind her. But my sister hold me back and said, “She knew her trousers was torn in advance. Don’t bother.” I brushed her hand away and told the lady about her trousers.
In recent environment of Hong Kong, I feel the hatred increases exponentially with the degree of violence. That’s not the city I get used to. If everyone in the city just like my sister, the violence will stop easily with the guns. And I think this is what the mainlanders get used to.
I really wish the mainlander authorities have the wisdom to clean all the messes with love.
Spread the Love
This is a photo of spreading the bread. We are the grains of HIS wheat. With HIS wisdom, we transformed from individual grains of wheat and united together to become the bread. The jam is the love that we shared and make the bread delicious. Hence, let’s spread the love to all men like spreading the bread.
(Luke 8:4-15) And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable:
A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.
And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.
And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.
And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
My Remark:
This series is titled Parable of the Sower and its from Luke 8:4-15. The series consists of 4 photos in refer to the 4 situation of the seeds. When we were studying the bible, the reaction to the bible verse were different when we studied even the same verse in different time. Hence, this verse is highly recommended us to soften our heart and let the seed grow. It suggested us to study with deep soil.
Fell by the way side
The flower symbolises the seed which is fell by the way side. It’s fall down for some time. I’ve left many space on top to contrast to the trodden of the flower. I’ve used rule of third to concentrate the focus on the flower and balanced out with imagination of the trodden with the enough space. The contrast of the purple of the flower and the red on the road stimulates the imagination.
Fell upon a rock
This in condition little plant has more luck than fell upon a rock. It at least grows, but as you see, it’s in condition. And it’s foreseeable that it’ll soon die. Sometimes, we heard the verse without heart. So when temptation came, we will soon be suspicious. In this photo, I used symmetry to symbolises the evil and good. And we are the little judge as the plant in the middle. If you sense like this, the seed is fell upon a rock la.
Fell among thorns
When we go on our living, we somehow feel the emptiness. We somehow sense it, but we keep on living. This bible verse suggested the seed somehow grow but the fruit can’t be grown. What’s the fruit? It’s the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control from Galatians 5:22-23.
I used some spoiled flowers to symbolises fell among thorns. As we like the spoiled flowers sometimes that we don’t know why we can’t blossom. I’ve used golden triangle in the composition.
Fell on good ground
It’s the best situation when we study the bible. We take good care of the verse, practice on the verse and let it grow. In this photo, we not only grow the fruit, but also attracted the butterfly to our field. It always our choice on how we live. So don’t make regret! Live it UP!
Luke 6:45 – The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.
My Remark:
The flower symbolises our good treasure while the fountain is our speaking. I hope everyone can always speak for their good treasure and the good treasure of his heart will grow with his speaking.
Magic Moments 