“ FAITH  like staying in the Ark of Noah ”

      In the Bible, “ Faith” is  defined as being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ( Hebrews: 1)

     Noah was  one of the forefathers who have strong faith in God. Some said that his faith was a blind faith.   In the time of Noah, there was multiplication of the wicked.  The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth.(Genesis 5:6 )   The LORD repented that he made man and would like to wipe out the sins of man from the earth by the flood. Among them, Noah walked with God (Gen 6:9). Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD (Gen 6;8).

     Grace  is the gift from God. God made provision to the righteous man, Noah. The LORD said all flash on earth will be destroyed and commanded him to make the Ark with instructions such as the length of the Ark, material of wood and detail measurements.

    There was no rain on the earth before the flood.   In Genesis 2:5  it is written,          “ – -  The LORD had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work ground.”. Therefore, people in that time did not believe  a flood would come. However, Noah believed what God said to him. Therefore, some said that Noah’s faith was a blind faith because although he had never seen rain, he believed the flood would come.

     From my point of view, Noah’s faith was absolute faith. His faith was being assured in God’s word though he had never seen the rain on earth. “ Faith is being assured what we do not see.”; said in Hebrews 11:1.  Thus, Noah had absolute faith in God.

     Noah built the Ark, and when God commanded him he went into the Ark with his family, pairs of clean and unclean animals, birds and the creatures on earth.  After seven days the floodwaters came on the earth, and continued for forty days and forty nights. When the earth was overwhelmed by flood, Noah who obeyed God’s commands, and his family together with birds and living creatures were saved.

     The more increased the water on earth, the Ark  floated on the surface of the water and they all were saved in it (Gen 7:17,18).   The Ark never sank under the water though it contained many living creatures as Noah built  the Ark by the instructions from God.  Relationship with God leads not only to obtain salvation but also to obtain protection. Noah walked with God revealed he had relationship with God.

     Genesis 7:19; “The water rose greatly on earth all the mountains under the entire heavens were covered.”  The ark had already been above the mountains because  the Ark was on the surface of the water.  When people face troubles or problems beyond  our control, have faith in God like staying in the Ark of Noah. It will save you from the problems . Your physical, mental, spiritual and your life on earth will grow higher and higher by obeying His commands and having faith in God .  

“ Staying in the Ark”  does not mean nothing to do in the Ark.  Noah and his family had a responsibility to look after the creatures  whilst they were staying in the Ark.

  Genesis 7:20; “ The water rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet.”  When the flood came, the Ark was not on the mountain it was above the mountains more than twenty feet.  Having faith in God will lead a man to live above  the pick of the mountain not on it  during hardship.  On the other hand, people need patience.   After raining forty days and forty nights, the flood remained on the earth for a hundred and fifty days.(Gen 7: 24). The family of Noah had to stay  in the Ark  to wait receding flood. It reminds a man needs to wait patiently for the time of God to save.   After the flood, God made covenant with Noah, and blessed him and his sons. (Gen 9: 1)

    Sometimes we cannot understand whether the troubles come from God’s punishment, man made disaster, natural disaster or from the power of darkness.

      Nowadays, at the time  of Coronavirous (COVID 19) pandemic on earth, we need patience for self quarantine, heed the instructions of Governments, and Ministries of health  in the countries.  During the hardship, we will have new ideas and ways to survive. Our faith in God and heeding the instructions will be rewarded by God with blessings and provisions, protection and direction to each of us, our families, our nations.                    ( 3/ May/ 2020 -  jujulay )                                                                                                        

      

THANKSGIVING

       

 “ THANKSGIVING”

    In America the first thanksgiving was celebrated by Pilgrims, new settlers with native Indians Wampanoag  at Plymouth, Massachusettes in 1621.  Some historians argue that  the first celebration of Thanksgiving was in Florida. Some Spanish people came to America in 1565. They, 800 Spanish people, celebrated and shared  a festive meal with native people named Timucuan. This message will not be emphasis upon  where Thanksgiving was started.

     In the Bible the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by Cain and Able, the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. Cain offered the fruits of the ground to God.  Abel offered the first born of his flocks and of their fat portions.  The LORD looked with favor on Abel. Cain was angry and his face was downcast. ( Genesis 4:4) Cain brought Abel to field, then  he attacked and killed him.

     Let us compare between Thanksgiving of very first settlers in America and Thanksgiving of Cain- Abel in the Bible.

     Both celebrations have the same purpose that was to give thanks to God with GRATITUDE  for His blessings. There was one different fact between these two matters – ATTITUDE. There was positive attitude among the new settlers and native Indians. Therefore their Thanksgiving feast lasted three days in Plymouth.  In Cain- Abel story , negative attitude was in Cain – angry and attack. It leaded him into sin. 

     What is Thanksgiving? In my point of view, the word “ Thanksgiving” has two meanings;          “Thanks” and “ giving”. Thanks to the ONE (God) who is giving.  In dictionary this word was defined , “ The expression of gratitude, especially to God”. 

     How to express our gratitude to God?    In  Psalm 9:1 ; “ I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart, I will tell of  your wonderful deeds.” This is the best way to give gratitude to God. Whilst we are sharing food and telling  His wonderful deeds, we give thanks to Him with all our hearts. He will be satisfied and accepted our gratitude of Thanksgiving. In the season of Thanksgiving, may you all have blessings from God.

Jujulay. ( 22 November 2018 )

 Note: This is one part of Thanksgiving message to those who gave thanks to God together  at home on 22nd November 2018 in New York. 

" A song touches my heart"

In the season of Easter, one song always touches my heart as a season bird.  In Myanmar, there is a bird called “Ook Awe”, has charming voice. The bird sings “Ook Awe, Ook Awe- - -Ook Awe, Ook Awe”, we can hear this voice under the  scourging   heat in dry  summer. Some people named it  “Summer Bird”. Their singing voices made people’s hearts to recall old memories.      

Likewise, one song comes into my heart in the season of Easter entitled  

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”               

Was I there when Jesus was crucified? Were I there - -? Were we there --?  We were not there surely in those days.  Nevertheless, we are still nailing our Savior Jesus nowadays.  

1 John 3:15; “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”  We are still doing hate not only our siblings but also neighbors, ethnic groups. We make a war at home. We make a war at society. We make a war in the world. We are still nailing Him on the cross by our pride and proud and demanding rights.  

Another lyric from that song touches my heart is “Were you there when they laid Him in a tomb?”  We still make Him laid in the tomb by our beliefs, concepts and bias.  Though God gives us two ears to listen to both sides of  the stories  only one ear hears,  two eyes to see both sides but bias makes one eye blind. God gives us one mouth to speak loud for fair and just but we speak loud for our desires instead of our needs.  Are we still laid Him in the tomb by our natural inclinations, beliefs, concepts and bias among family, society and nations?  We are still laying Him in a tomb by spreading gossips, propagandize one sided messages on media and social media like a big stone which in front of the tomb. 

The last line touches my heart from the song is “Are you there when he rose up from the grave?” We were not there when Christ rose up from the grave.          Someone blocks a big stone in your way like a stone which in front of the grave of Jesus Christ. Pray to Jesus. He has the power to rise up from the death and open the grave stone. Jesus will help you and raise you from your dead life in a tomb.           

We believe and we have many testimonies that Jesus is living God, eternal God. Let Him walk with you, with us. Without Easter, Christmas celebration for Jesus’ birth could not last for centuries until today. Jesus arose from the death.

HAPPY EASTER !                                                                                                                                

JuJuLay. (25 /  3/ 2017)

" God is not a man "

God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind.
 ( Number 23: 19)

The ears of God hear a cry.
The eyes of God have indeed seen the misery of his people.(Exo 3:7)
The heart of God knows our pain.
The hand of God holds his people's hand to show His way.

The mouth of God speaks  ensured promises:
"Do not afraid.I go before you always.I will be with you and never leave you nor forsake you."
"I will come to you to fulfill my gracious promises.
I have a plan for you declares the LORD. Plans to give you prosperity and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future."
"For the mountain shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you."

The mind of God is firm.
" The faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousands of generations! " (Deu 7:9)

The son of God ,Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,today and forever. Jesus is our righteousness.

The word of God never fades.
"The grass withers, the flowers fades, but the word of God stands." (Isaiah 66: 22)

God is not a man.
God is King of Kings.
God is  LORD of Lords.
God is " I AM WHO I AM."

Jujulay. ( 30 / 8 / 2027 )

Let this Voice be Heard from Heaven and the Universe

   

      Last week, I had a chance to meet our Voice President in New York.  I was very excited to meet him not only  as a Vice President but also I have already known that this position is God’s plan for him. 

     Since 1997, a lady named Daw Hau Khan Luan , known as Nu luan had a dream that one day a man from Chin ethnic nationality  will become one of the top leaders in Myanmar. She was a lady from Zomi tribe and lived in 12^th street in Yangon. She passed away. There are various tribes among the Chins. The Vice President belongs to one of these Chin tribe,but not from Zomi. Here, I describe this in detail to express God’s blessing and plan in the land of Myanmar. She and her prayer group, and her family, and some of her relatives prayed without bias because God said to her a man from the Chins will become a leader. They prayed to God for His plan. When does God bless us? In the bible, Psalm 133: 1; “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. It is like precious oil poured on the head running down on the beard, ---. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.  For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”      I really want to share this blessing to all who read this article and other Myanmar ethnic groups such as Kachin, Kaya, Kayin  and so on.The blessing from God will come to us when we are united in prayers.

 The Vice President urged us with three words during his visit, “Work hard : when others go one step, we need to go two, three steps according to the needs of our country. Good will: when we work, we need good will on our jobs. Unity: live and work with unity.”

    We do not want anyone left behind because of armed conflict. While Myanmar’s future has a glimpse of hope for democracy, every Myanmar nationality has an opportunity to work for our own states and divisions as leaders or good citizens.

When do we get this opportunity?  In the bible, Abraham who was one of the fathers of faith did physical circumcision before he got a son Isaac.  This son came from the promise of God.   (Genesis 17:11)             The blessing from God came into his life after he did circumcision by the command  of God.                                                      

 He obeyed God and then Abraham obtained the promised son at the age of a hundred years.

 (Genesis; 21: 5 ).  

      Nowadays, we do not need to circumcise physically to obtain God’s blessings but we must circumcise our heart from envy, hatred, greed, pride, racism and chauvinism.

     On the road to Democracy, some  passed away and some are still alive.  Why don’t we give our lives for Satan and the power of darkness?  I met one man coming back from one of rebel groups. He is now taxi driver in Yangon. Everybody has own purposes, beliefs and convictions. I accept it but I want to know the answer from his heart. I asked him. What is a big difference between living as a rebel and living a new struggled life as a driver?

He answered; “You’ve been working experience in the dark without any light and also working in day light. So, you will know the difference between them. ”                                                                 
 This is the answer from his heart. His answer was very clear and touched my heart.   How many of our siblings are still walking in the darkness?     How long will they walk in the darkness?  Please come back to walk in day light.  There is a glimpse of hope for democracy in Myanmar.Siblings who walk in day light should give our hands to them.  Therefore, we can walk path by path on the road of Democracy.

  I can also hear and feel their parents prayers by the echo of the pastor‘s prayers in our church every Sunday. 
The prayers of Pastors around the world may be the same.                                                             
 “ Dear LORD, save our children’s lives who are in the front line and in the battles. Please bring them back home safely after their duty.”

Let this voice be heard from Heavens and the Universe.

JuJuLay. ( 22 / 7 / 2017)

"Only by the grace of God"

 “Only by the grace of God”

(From the darkness into the love of the light, Jesus Christ)

   In 2016 April, we had to move from Ottawa, Canada to New York for temporary for a few months.  Our colleagues from Ottawa worried about our health. Everybody knows that living without health insurance could have many unexpected affects.  I told them; “Don’t worry. We have the best insurance, that is, Jesus.”

   After arriving New York, in a few weeks, a new colleague gave me a present that I have never received before in my life.  That was an emergency hammer.  According to this present, I realized that New York has not only heavy traffic but also people who live there need safety.  Later on, our friends who work in New Life Insurance Company visited us and gave two cups with their company logo as presents. I told myself in my heart “My insurance is Jesus.”

   One month later, we went to a church nearby our residence and talked about this new experience with the Pastor of the Church. The Pastor prayed and said; “Your insurance is Jesus Christ as you said.  Your faith is assured in Jesus.  So, Jesus will ensure to keep you during your temporary stay in N.Y.”  That was true we never had health problems in that time.

    Three months later, my husband got transfer from Ottawa to New York. We moved to New York officially in middle of 2016 . We have had  many new experiences among the experts in various areas and the expatriates from my country and around the world. We also have health insurance now.

   To continue about my faith in life insurance, we cannot control situation to be assured whilst our faith is assured in Jesus.  According to the bible in 1 Peter 5:8; “Our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  Last week, I was involved in car accident and had minor injury on my upper lip, but only by the grace of God  we are saved. My great life insurance is Jesus. The devil cannot devour our life. God has already destined a birthday and the date of leaving from the world  for everyone since in the mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).  The devil cannot devour our faith and our life before God’s time. The devil can disturb only the situation, when we are weak. Do not worry about your weakness. The more you are weak, the more you see the power of God and His grace. Whilst the devil prowls for someone to devour, God will not let your foot slip. The God of Israel, he who watches over you will not slumber nor sleep.

   King David had good relationship with God.

 In the Bible, Psalm 27:1, 2; “The LORD is my light and my salvation – The LORD is the stronghold of my life  -- .”  King David built his kingdom among the enormous enemies. His stronghold was The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. If the leaders who have been appointed by God in any areas have a good relationship with Him, they will succeed more than their effort. Sometimes leaders cannot do everything though they have good desire for their countries or communities. Take refuge under the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. He will lead you, protect you and make straight the way before you.

 The LORD is watching over us coming and going both now and forever.

JuJulay .( 8/ 4/ 2017 )

ျပာမွဳန္ ဗုဒၵဟူး ေန ့

  ျပာမွဳန္ ဗုဒၵဟူး ေန  ့  ( Ash Wednesday)

    ျပာမွဳန္ ဗုဒၵဟူး ေန ့သည္ လူအမ်ား သိေန ေသာ ရွင္ျပန္ထေျမာက္ရာေန ့(Easter Sunday ) မတိုင္မီ၊ရက္ ၄၀ ၏ အစ ပထမေန ့ျဖစ္သည္။

   ထိုေန ့ ကို ျပာမွုန္ဟု သမုတ္   ျခင္း မွာ - လူသားသည္ ေျမ မွဳန္ မွဘုရားသခင္ ဖန္ဆင္းေတာ္ မူေသာေျကာင့္ ေျမမွဳန္၏ သဘာ၀- ဇာတိစိတ္(ပင္ကိုယ္စိတ္) သည္  လူသား တြင္ ပါလာသည္။ စိတ္ပညာ ေ၀ါဟာရ အရ အတၱ စိတ ္(id)ျဖစ္သည္။ ဥပမာ- ဆာေလာင္ေသာစိတ္၊ေဒါသစိတ္၊လိုခ်င္ေလာဘစိတ္၊ ကာမစိတ္၊ စသည္တို ့ျဖစ္သည္။  သဘာ၀ပင္ကိုုယ္စိတ္ ျဖစ္သည့္အတြက္ ဆာေလာင္စိတ္၊ လိုုခ်င္စိတ္ စသည္တို ့သည္ အျပစ္မဟုတ္ေသာ္လည္း ဗိုက္ဆာသျဖင့္သူတပါးကို ရန္ျပဳ ုျခင္း၊ လိုခ်င္၍ ခိုးမိျခင္း၊ သူတပါးသားမယားကို အာရံု ငါးပါး ျဖင့္ ျပစ္မွား မိျခင္း တို ့သည္ အျပစ္ ျဖစ္သည္။

      အျပစ္ဆိုရာတြင္ မိ္မိ၏ ဇာတိစိတ္ေျကာင့္ျဖစ္ေသာ အျပစ္မ်ား သာမက သူတပါး၏ ေသြးထိုးျခင္း၊ စာတန္၏ ေသြးေဆာင္ ဖ်ားေယာင္းျခင္း နွင့္ မလြန္ဆန္  နိုင္ေသာ အေျခအေန မ်ား ေျကာင့္ က်ဴး လြန္ ေသာအျပစ္မ်ားလည္းရွိ သည္။ မိ္မိကိုယ္ကို အျပစ္ကင္းသည္ ဟု ဆို လွ်င္ အာရံုငါး ပါး အျပစ္ႏွင့္ လြတ္ မလြတ္ျပန္လည္ဆန္းစစ္ဖို ့  လိုသည္။ မ မွားေသာ ေရွ  ့ေန၊ မေသ ေသာ ေဆးသမား မရွိ ဆိုေသာ စကားပံု ကဲ့သို ့ ဘုရားသခင္ ေရွ  ့ေတာ ္ တြင္ အျပစ္မျပဳ ေသာ လူသားမရွိေပ။

      ျပာမွဳန္ေန ့သည္ မိမိ တို ့၏ အျပစ္မ်ား ကို ျပန္လည္သတိရရန္ နွင့္ ေျမမွဳန္ နွင့္  လုပ္ထားေသာကိုယ္ ျဖစ္သျဖင့္ မာန ေထာင္လြွား စိတ္နွင့္ အထက္ေဖၚျပပါ အျပစ္မ်ား ကို မိမိခြန္အားျဖင့္  မပယ္ရွား နုိင္သျဖင့္ သခင္ေယရွဴ လာေရာက္ ကယ္တင္ျခင္း ကို ျပန္ အမွတ္ရျ႔ပီး၊ အားနည္းခ်က္မ်ားကို ျပန္လည္  ျပဳျပင္ျကရန္ျဖစ္သည္။ ထို ့အျပင္ လူသားသည္ ေျမမွဳန္ မွ လာသျဖင့္ ေျမမွဳန္သို ့့ျပန္ရမည္ ကို အမွတ္ရ ရန္ နွင့္ ကိုယ္ခႏၵာသည္ ေျမသို့ ျပန္ေသာ္လည္း ၀ိဥာည္ ကယ္တင္ျခင္းကို ေပးေသာ သခင္ေယရွူ  ရွင္ျပန္ထေျမာက္ေသာ ေန ့ရက္ တို ့ကိုျပန္လည္ေအာက္ေမ့ ျပီး၊   ျပဳ ျပင္သြားျကဖို ့ျဖစ္သည္။

     သခင္ေယရွဴ ကမာၻေပၚ တြင္ ရွိစဥ္ကာလ၊ အစၥေရး လူမ်ိဳး တို ့သည္ ေမာေရွ၏ ပညတ္ခ်က္ေအာက္တြင္အျပစ္ေပးေလ့ ရွိ ေသာ ဓေလ့ တစ္ခု မွာ- အျပစ္ရွိသူ ကို ခ်ိဳင့္၀ွမ္းထဲတြင္ ခဲနွင့္ေသသည္ အထိ ၀ိုင္းပစ္ျခင္း ျဖင့္ အျပစ္ေပး ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။   ေလာက္စာလံုး ေသးေသးေလးျဖင့္ ထိ္ မွန္္လွ်င္ ပင္ အင္မတန္နာျကင္ လွ်င္ ေက်ာက္ ခဲ မ်ား နွင့္ပစ္သျဖင့္ခံ ရသည့္ ေ၀ဒနာ ကို ခန္ ့မွန္းျခင္းျဖင့္ သိရွိနိုင္ပါသည္။

   ရွင္ေယာဟန္ခရစ္၀င္က်မ္း အခန္းျကီး (၈) တြင္ ျပည့္တန္ဆာအမ်ိဳးသမီး တစ္ဦးကို က်မ္းျပဳ ဆရာ တို ့ႏွင့္ ဖာရိရဲတို ့ က သခင္ေယရွဴထံ ေခၚ လာျပီး ထိုမိန္းမ ကို ေက်ာက္ခဲႏွင့္ ပစ္ရမည္ေလာ၊ ေမာေရွသည္ အကြ်နု္ပ္တို ့ကို ပညတ္တရား တြင္ စီရင္ ထံုးဖဲြ ့ေစပါျပီ၊ ကိုယ္ေတာ္က အဘယ္သို ့မိန္ ့ေတာ္မူမည္နည္း  ဟု ေလွ်ာက္ျက၏။ သခင္ေယရွဴသည္ ေအာက္သို ့ငံု ့လွ်က္ေျမတြင္ လက္ညိွဳးေတာ္ႏွင့္ ေရးသားျပီးေနာက္၊ သင္တို ့တြင္ အျပစ္ကင္းေသာသူသည္ ေရွး ဦးစြာ ေက်ာက္ခဲႏွင့္ပစ္ေစဟု မိန္ ့ေတာ္မူ ျပီး မွ၊- တဖန္ေအာက္သို ့ငံု ့၍၊ ေျမ ေပၚတြင္ေရးသားေတာ္မူျပန္၏။ ထိုသူတို ့သည္ ျကားရလွ်င္ မိမိတို ့စိတ္ႏွလံုးသည္ မိမိတိို ့အျပစ္ကို ေဖၚျပသျဖင့္၊ အသက္ျကီးသူမွ စျပီး၊ အငယ္ဆံုးေသာသူတိုင္ေအာင္ တေယာက္ေနာက္ တေယာက္ထြက္သြားျက၏။ ေယရွဴသည္ တေယာက္တည္းက်န္ရစ္ေတာ္မူလ်က္ ထိုမိန္းမသည္  အလယ္ တြင္ ရပ္ေန ၏။ ေယရွဴသည္  အခ်င္းမိန္းမ သင္၏ အမွု ကို အဘယ္သူမွ် မစီရင္သေလာ ဟု ေမးေတာ္မူ၏။ အဘယ္သူမွ် မစီရင္ပါ ဟု ေလွ်ာက္ရာ၊ ငါသည္လည္း သင္၏အမွဳ ကိုမစီရင္။ သြားေလာ့။ ေနာက္တဖန္ ဒုစရိုက္ကို မျပဳ ႏွင့္ ဟု မိန္ ့ေတာ္မူ၏။

ယေန ့ အျပစ္ျပဳမိသူမ်ား (ေနာက္တဖန္ အျပစ္မျပဳေတာ့ေသာသူမ်ား =စစ္မွန္ ေသာ ေနာင္တရသူမ်ား) ၊ အျပစ္ႏြံနစ္ေနသူမ်ား (မိမိတို ့အျပစ္မွ ရုန္းမထြက္နိုင္ေသာသူမ်ား ) မ်ားစြာထဲတြင္ အကြ်ုန္ုပ္ ေရာ သင္ေရာ ပါ၀င္ေနဆဲလား။ ကြ်ုႏု္ပ္တို ့လူသားမ်ားသည္ အျပစ္ျပဳ ျခင္းမွကင္းေ၀းရန္ ကူညီမည့္အစား၀ိုင္းျပီး အျပစ္တင္ရွံဳ ့ခ် ျကသည္။ ထို လူစုထဲမွာ ကြ်ႏု္ပ္တို ့ပါ၀င္ေနသည္လား။  ျပာမွဳန္ ဗုဒၵၵဟူး ေန ့ မွာဆန္းစစ္ျပီး၊ျပဳ ျပင္ျကပါစို ့။

ဂ်ဴး ဂ်ဴး ေလး ( ၁ မတ္လ ၂၀၁၇။ ျပာမွုန္ ဗုဓၵဟူး ေန ့။)