This Weekend

Our Moderator Lawrence and Secretary David S.L will be attending the 30Th anniversary of Burmese Christian Fellowship Church in Los Angeles. They will be taking flight to Los Angeles by Sunday morning. Let us rejoice with B.C.F. for their celebration and thanksgiving on 30 years journey as a church. May God continue to bless and use them for His ministry.

We will be having 12 Baskets ministry activities this Saturday at 6:00 PM again in OBMBC. Come and find out your own compassion in other areas. Right after that we will continue with prayer time.

12 Baskets Ministry means;

(T-Shirt is available soon)



Our motto of 12 Baskets ministry...

Offer to God with a little thing that we have for He will multiply it.

Serve God with however we can even though it may be small.

Do more in things that we do when we serve God.

Well, tax rebate check is on the way to our tax payer families, said Uncle Sam today. However, they still need to sign into law for that rebate. Some of us are already thinking about how to spend it. I heard on the radio, a lady said that she will spend it for vacation trip or something else. True enough that rebate check will be in between $300 to $1,200 per house whole. Additional money will be there if you have dependant children. Wow! Hold your thought. First of all the check will not be in your hand till mid July 2008 that’s what they said. Second we have to pay first our tax due on April 10th. Whoop! Happy feeling gone! Anyway, when we are blessed with extra things, remember to bless other who may be in “between blessings.”

Self defense lesson?

True that we are to be good steward of our processions, time, etc… including our body. Thus we must be responsible and right to protect ourselves. Self defense means to me is just being responsible. But I did not mean that you should go buy weapons and over zealous our selves.

Jesus indeed asked disciples to carry weapons. However, He did not tell the intent of it. The disciples were assuming that it must be for the enemies (in this case for the high priest soldiers). The difficulty about this text is that why Jesus still rebukes Peter when he uses the sword? Jesus said that those who use sword will die by the sword (Matt.26:52). Meanwhile, disciples asked Jesus before they strike one of the soldiers whether they should use the swords (v.49). Yes, Peter went ahead before Jesus even replied. Then Jesus stopped Peter. Jesus asked to bring sword and He rebuked when they used the sword. How can we understand Him?

This text (Luke 22:35-38) do not teach about self defense at all. Disciples assumed that it was for self defense lesson, just like they miss-understood Jesus when he warned them about Pharisees’ doctrine. (Matt. 16:11; “beware of the leaven of the Pharisee and Sadducee.”)

Moreover, Jesus was keep telling the disciples to watch and pray so that they may not fall into temptation. Temptation like compromising faith; when they rejected the Son of God on the way of cross, Peter denied Christ before rooster crow (v.31), etc… They were tempted to abundant God (Master) or their faith when trial came. On the other hand, Jesus teaches us to rely on God with prayer when hardship come not self defense. In reality, our self defense is not good enough to fight back or "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph.6:12).

Therefore, this text is about mission work of God. When you look at context, Jesus referred back to the “two by two” evangelism trip of disciples (Luke 10:1-4). Before, Jesus told them not to bring any items such as money bag, knapsack, or sandals for the trip but now He said bring those items pulse to bring sword. It is to emphasize the seriousness of mission work which is at hand. Beside, Jesus their Master is going to be taken away from disciples. Now they need to be supported or led by themselves in the mission work. It can even suggest that this day onward the job going to be difficult and prolong. It is harder for the disciples to follow Jesus compare to previous experiences.

Hope this will bring us into the realization of our dependency upon God's protection and guidance in our daily life.

Be depths and color of God's art work

It is amazing to know what is going on in the mind of artists. By seeing these art works on hands, I was blown away. They see what we normally do not see. Giving detail to the existing objects with color and depth bring out the reality. Well, look in the spiritual point of view; we could be that art work. People normally will not see God and His existence just looking at His children. However, we can bring forth God and His handy works in us by giving depth and color in our lives. That means we are to be the living proof of God glory. We are to be depth and colors in the art work of God to make people see who He is. Romans 12:1-2 expresses this idea that we are to offer our lives to God as “Living Sacrifice.”

Field Trip for Compassion

A few of us made a trip to visit some of our members who were not feeling well. The purpose of this trip is to learn how we response compassionate way to the needs of other. We want to activate our sensitivity of mind toward others. So little things that we discover out of vast needs of people, will at lease stimulate our compassionate heart. Most of us feel closer to the families when we get closer to their struggles. We start to realize that we are so blessed and taking granted for a little thing that we have.

Our prayer after tonight is that Lord fill our heart with the compassion; fill our basket with compassion.

Prayer requests

Please pray for Aunt Thwe Wa (Antonio's Mom) for her breast surgery on Feb.8.08. Apparently, she is tired and down hearted. Please encourage her any way that you can.

Pray for Daw Nyunt Nyunt (U Saw Soe Aung's wife) she had just finished surgery for her back pain. She is still suffering from urinary infaction. She also is depressed. May the Lord bring healing to her sicknesses.

Continue to pray for Ma Win Kyi, she also is undergoing with treatment to her sickness. Please encourage her and pray.