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| This is Steve's speech on behalf of RP at my ordination last Saturday: [To the audience] It is a “long obedience in the same direction” that ultimately reveals the worthy purpose of life. For Bumble it all started more than 25 years ago. He saw 6 lost teens hanging outside the church, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. From these they formed a youth group. This small step of faithfulness has led Bumble down a path of commitment and endurance to care for God’s people. Today we are here at the milepost of his ordination. This is much more than conferring a title of leadership. It is confirming him of a life calling. A calling in which (for Bumble) was slowly revealed through the many years of choosing to be faithful. And today that youth group had grown into Redemption Point church. And Bumble had also grown from an ESL college student into a husband, father, friend, lover, manager at work, and pastor. [Turn to Bumble] For as long as many of us can remember, you have always been our leader. Today, just as you are making a commitment to God and this body of believers, we at RPC also want to commit some things to you, symbolize by this gift: First, we want to commit being a partner with you in God’s work – we know his work at RPC is not the responsibility of one person or a family, so we commit to working with you to further God’s kingdom. Next, we want to commit to supporting you in all different ways, but specifically and especially through prayer. We pray that God would lead you and bless you with wisdom and strength. And last, we also commit to growing with you in the gospel. That we would be captivated by God’s love; that we would grow in the Spirit and that we would express that through serving each other. And Bumble, thank you for making that first step 25 years ago.
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| On this day, I am joining a line of God’s servants spanning back thousands of years in history to men like Peter, David, Moses, Noah. These people devoted their lives to serve God, “Who wants all men to be saved, coming to the knowledge of the Truth: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus; who gave himself as redemption for all. This is why I am an ordained preacher."
People say it takes a village to raise a child. I say it took a whole city to make me a minister of the Gospel. My city includes first of all my mom and dad, Ba Me đã nuôi nấng và dạy con biết Chúa từ tấm bé. A long with them is a whole neighborhood of people who had poured themselves in me during the 80s revival in Vietnam, people like Mục Sư Hạ Hội Thánh Trần Cao Vân, các anh chị niên trưởng thiếu niên An Đông. Next are my chú dì Mục Sư Hồ Xuân Phú, who sponsored me to the State. Their concern for the future generation set the direction for me later. Then there is my younger brother Lee, who showed me what faith in real-life looked like during our college years with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Then during my youth work at Hội Thánh Santa Ana under the care of Mục Sư Đài, someone suggested the crazy idea that I could be a pastor: Thanks Mục Sư Thạch! Also thanks to the former Midway ELT members, for sticking with me through thick and thin – I received more from you, than what you received from me. Thank you Ban Điều Hành Hội Thánh Fountain Valley, quý vị đã tin tưởng và đồng công cùng tôi trong Chúa. Thank God for Redemption Point, and the guidance He gave us. I am grateful for RP’s fervor to help establish our church. Lastly, and most importantly, I am thankful for my family Jenney and Timmy. Thanks to Timmy for not fighting with your dad over who gets to use the computer, and for your challenging questions about faith. And Jenney: without your tireless support I would never be able to make it this far. I appreciate how you live out the Proverb 31 woman: It is amazing to see you run the household, entertain guests 6 days a week, cook for the church every other day, and still look good doing it. Truly “you’re worth far more than rubies. I have full confidence in you and lack nothing of value.” Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones was right: God never calls a married man into ministry, unless He also calls his wife to enable him. Thank you for embracing the call.
From this day onward, I will continue to pursue one thing: ‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.’
I thank all of you, my brothers and sisters and dear friends, for your affirmation today and being the people in my city.
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| I have been too busied to blog anything, but here is my collection of English Ministry related researches which were so helpful for me in the last decade:
Beyond these, I have my own documentation from my ministry from the last 15 years: EMbriefingPack2005, EMreports2000-2010, EMPastorSearch2009, RP-EMchurchPlan2010, and RP-FVpartnership2012. Since my stuff are just internal documentations, ask me and I will make them available to you.
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“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” (Jesus, Luke 6:43-45) Leading up to this moment, we saw a lot of hints of trees. Your “Save the Date” announcement pictured many trunks from a forest. Your wedding invitation framed many branches on the backdrop of a gray sky. And now the selected passage for the wedding homily also started with the images of trees and their fruits. The ecological friendly setting of a fruit tree garden was also the perfect setting for a wedding. The first wedding was in a garden: "Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man." (Genesis 2:8-9, 15-18, 22, NIV)
Marriage is first and foremost God’s design, like everything else in His creation.
There is the law of Cause and Effects in Marriage “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit” We reap what we sow. Nine years ago, if Eric didn’t gather the courage to ask for Cyndi’s number at Sport Fest, we would not gather here today to witness the fruit from that one simple act. Even the trees in the Garden of Eden required the work and care of the gardeners to continue bearing fruit. Your wedding today is just the starting point of the constant cause and effect cycles of nurture to make your marriage grow. Remember in the premarital sessions we had, you two have been practicing the Daily 5 A’s: Affirmation, Affection, Apology, Ask, and Amen. Don’t let the busyness of career, family life, and even ministry distract you from continue cultivating your love for one another. But the effects of marriage are not just for your sake “People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.” A strong, healthy thornbush could also produce nice flowers and then strong, healthy berry-like fruits as well. But this was not considered “good fruit” at Jesus’ time. “Good fruits” are figs or grapes, useful and valued by people. Likewise, you two could invest time and energy to cultivate a strong and healthy marriage; but your marriage will not be considered “good” if it does not become useful and valuable to God, the ultimate designer of your marriage. Eve was brought to Adam not just as a companion, but a “suitable helper” in the context of working and caring for God’s creation. You don’t get married just to “live happily ever after” for yourselves. God is calling you to a union for a bigger purpose. The tree of life in the Garden of Eden might have a humble beginning for the benefits of just Adam and Eve. But by the end of history, when we see it again in Revelation, it has become the tree of life that brought healing “to the nations”. So how will your marriage have the same great effect and be like what God envisioned? Will it automatically come if you practice the Daily 5 A’s, keep weekly date night, pray together, and follow other tips and tricks to a better marriage? No. A supernatural cause is required for an eternal effect of marriage “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart” In this passage the tree is the heart, and the fruit is the work and the word which come from the heart. So, the seemingly simple question is this: “What is stored in your heart: good, or evil?” It is interesting that in Matthew this passage occurs in connection with false prophets, but here in Luke it connects with the blind, arrogant fools who have beams in their eyes . Do you two have the confidence to say that your marriage will produce good fruits because you have good things stored up in your heart? If so Elvis has a love song for you, “Wise men say only fools rush in”. Or perhaps you remember how the first married couple Adam and Eve were too confident in assessing the good fruit, and sin. And so now you know better than Elvis: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure”. But if so, what is your hope of producing good fruit in your marriage when you yourselves are only bad trees? In agriculture, people graft trees to bring forth fruits in their splendor and magnificence they otherwise could not. The Apostle Paul used the same imagery when he wrote “if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root” Your hope for producing good fruit in your marriage when you yourselves are only bad trees can only come from God. Jesus is the root for your marriage. Only He would be able to enable you to bear good fruit. Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” If you stay in God’s love, that love would enable your marriage to grow, and bear fruit, impacting others now and forever. Now, “out of the overflow of your heart let your mouth speaks.” Are you ready to commit your life in Jesus’ love and to one another? [Exchange Vows...] | | |
| "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -Matthew 6:21  Joseph and Julianne chose this Bible verse for their wedding to convey a special meaning of their marriage.It means at least 3 things:
1) We all treasure something in our heart. 2) What we treasure will direct our future. 3) Marriage is a choice to follow our treasure, not just following our emotion. WE ALL TREASURE SOMETHING IN OUR HEART As human beings, we all treasure something.As kids it could be a favorite toy or hero.As adults, it could be the fun-filled excitements of a fast life.Or our education.Or our career.Or our family and our children. I heard a rumor that in the early days when you first dated each other, Joseph had a “treasured” purple bandanna, which he wore everywhere he went.But that bandanna was an abomination in Julianne’s sight.As Julianne became the treasure in Joseph’s life, the bandanna became less valuable. And one day, Joseph parted way with the bandanna so that Julianne’s love would reign supreme in his life. No doubt, right now you two have become each other’s treasure.But that’s not a coincident.Long time ago, God introduced Eve to Adam when He constituted marriage for the first time in the Garden of Eden. Today God played the matchmaker and have you discovered each other as treasure[i]. Usually anything we treasure will take times and efforts in our lives.An expensive Picasso painting will not be treasured if it gathers dust in the basement.No it must be in a prominent place.The owner may even need to take class in college to appreciate the wonder piece of art properly.So spend time and effort to learn about the treasure God had given you. You must treasure each other in your heart more than anything else in your life: your job, your reputation, and even your parents, or future children.God’s Word teaches that “the man shall leave his parents and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”[ii].This “one flesh” union is the most intimate union human being can have.You will be one heart, one soul, one mind; in social setting and aspiration.“What God put together, lest no human being separate”, until death does you apart! But there is only one thing you must treasure more than your other half: God Himself.Why? Because… WHAT WE TREASURE WILL DIRECT OUR FUTURE It is interesting to note that the wedding vow limits a marriage commitment “until death does you apart”.And Jesus taught that “Where your treasure is, there your heart WILL be also”.Our treasure directs our heart to the future.Therefore, if your spouse becomes the ultimate treasure – and I stress the word “ultimate” here – then that treasure will not get us anywhere beyond death. We often see it in even the best love story. Boy meets girl.They got married and live happily ever after; until one of them pass away.The other one was devastated and follow suit not so long after. As much as we treasure our soul mate, our love is for this life and not the next one.Jesus made it clear that in the next life “people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”[iii] Don’t mistake the gift for the giver.A gift is only pointing to the heart of the giver toward you.Likewise, as precious as the treasure of marriage, it only expresses a greater treasure, the ultimate treasure: that God loves us and wants us to be with Him forever. When God created humanity, we were created to be with Him for eternity.But humankind rebelled against God. Our sinful choice introduced death and suffering into our world.We were destined to separate from the Holy God forever. But truly as Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.We are God’s treasure.He loved us with the eternal love.Even as we failed Him and was banished away for our bad karma, God’s heart followed us.He became a man of our world in the person of Jesus.There He was punished and died for us, He paid our bad karma so that we could be reconciled to God and once again be with God forever. This is why the Bible said that if the supreme treasure of our heart is God, then ultimately our heart will be with God.Even the gift of marriage was only the foreshadow of this future.The Bible explained about marriage as “a profound mystery—about Christ and the church”[iv]. Strangely God uses the marriage between a man and a woman to describe the love between God and us.Very strange indeed.Why was that?It is because… MARRIAGE IS A CHOICE TO FOLLOW OUR TREASURE, NOT JUST FOLLOWING OUR EMOTION Have you noticed that Jesus said that “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” and not follow your passion “Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also”? Anyone could love, but not just anyone could marriage.The former is only love in the form of “infatuation”.The latter is love that made decision. This is also why marriage was not comparing to “Christ and the whole humanity” but to “Christ and the church” – the only the part of humanity who chooses to respond back to God. When you say “I do” you are not making a statement about how much love you feel now toward each other.Everyone already knows how you feel right now.In marriage you are making a decision to have and to hold, to treasure one another, regardless of how your emotion is up or down in the future.“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.”No matter the stress from work, the failing health, the fading beauty, or anything else you may feel.Commit to uphold each other as treasures, and your hearts will be there.Decide to put God first as your ultimate treasure and you will be with Him ultimately. Are you ready to commit your life to God and to each other?If so, let’s hear your vows…
[i] [The Bible says “The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord.” (Proverbs 18:22, NLT).] | | |
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