Hello J.T.,
May God bless you and your whole family. How are you doing recently? Time flies. June is coming. This month is a very special one for me.
First I want to tell you a good news. My wife is pregnant. She felt very sick, nauseous strongly and couldn’t eat any food in the first few weeks. Please pray for her. I am thankful that things start to go well this week and she can eat some food now, though still suffering from sickness. Also, I have a bad news to share with you. We have to move to a new place for church gathering. The government gave pressure to our landlord to not rent his house to us. Our church is facing difficulties in looking for a new house. Some houses are suitable for us but the rent is very high. Some places are cheap but hard to access. Please pray for us. We still have one month to find a new house for meeting. Pray God will prepare for us a place according to His will.
I am preaching on Chapter 5 of Galatians this month. Paul exhorted Christians in Galatians to keep the freedom in Christ. It reminds me of the fact that we already have been set free in Christ but the freedom needs to be preserved in Christ. Many times I didn’t have a sober mind for the freedom and even use the freedom as an opportunity for my own desires. The Scripture reminds me to guard the freedom in the gospel. We are studying the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith on Sunday afternoons. I preached twice on Biblical counseling on Thursday evenings.
I was grateful that David, a teacher and vice president in seminary who has been a pastor for 35 years, came to our city and stayed in our church for 15 days this month. His coming was of great help for our church. He preached many times in our church and encouraged brothers and sisters to love God and love one another. On one Sunday morning, he preached Mary anointing Jesus (our church has a translator). Mary loved Jesus so she was willing to pay great price to draw close to Jesus. It encouraged brothers and sisters to love the Lord at a great cost. On one Wednesday evening, he shared with us what is an intimate church life. It helped us to know how to live an intimate church life and reminded us to not just focus on ourselves. He preached the three phases of sanctification on two Thursday evenings.
May 29th was a national holiday, so all church members gather to hear his preaching on church charter. On one Tuesday morning, his wife taught sisters in our church and it greatly helped me. I was thinking hard on how to teach younger sisters for a long time. God provided this opportunity to help my lack. On another day, young preachers in our city gathered together in our church to hear David’s preaching on unfrustrated serving which encouraged us not to get discouraged but be strong and courageous. On one Saturday morning, he preached on how to deal with sin. The sermon helped young brothers and sisters to know how to deal with the situations when being sinned by others or sinning against others. These teachings helped us to grow mature in Christ. Though the gathering was a little frequent in these two weeks, brothers and sister were very joyful.
I spent 4 days on attending Reformed 500 in Hong Kong. The conference invited John Piper, Paul Tripp, and Richard Pratt as speakers. Their preaching greatly encouraged me. I enjoyed hearing their sermons which helped me know that God’s glory should shape my mind, affection, and preaching. They also clearly preached how gospel should renew every details in our life. They helped me know I live for the advancement of His kingdom. I am very thankful that God provided such a spiritual feast that we could be fed.
Sincerely, Gaius