Category Archives: Family Life

Etched on His Hands

Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands. (Isa 49:15-16a)

Our parents step into their new role the day we are born, yet their official capacity ends on the day they (or we) pass away. God, on the other hand, was our Father even before the beginning of time, and will continue to be so into eternity in the heavenly kingdom. His loving presence is permanent.

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Good Family Relationships – Love and Respect

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But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.” (Ruth 1:16)

The relationship between Naomi and Ruth is a beautiful example of a good family relationship. The key ingredients of good family relationships are love and respect. They consist of mutual commitment with freedom from each other and a relationship in which each person tries to do what is best for the other.

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Spiritual Heritage

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Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong, and do it. (1 Chr 28:10)

As King David saw his dream of building the temple would not come true, he passed it on to his son Solomon. David had asked to build a temple for God (2 Sam 7), but God denied his request because David had shed too much blood as a warrior. But God allowed David to make the plans and preparations for the temple. David bought the land for the temple, gathered most of the construction materials, and received the building plans from God. It was Solomon’s responsibility to make these plans a reality. Solomon’s job was made easier by his father’s exhaustive preparations.

King David not only passed on the torch of building the temple to his son Solomon, but he also gave Solomon principles to guide him through life. Continue reading →

While We Still Can

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As we get older, we begin to realize that life is so fragile. More and more people that we know of, are acquainted with, or are even really close to have passed, and we know that it’s not even always someone that is well advanced in age.

I recently talked to a brother who told me how he had been reflecting on how much time he had been spending with his parents since he got to college, keeping up with them and making sure that they were doing well. Or rather, I should say, he had been reflecting on how much time he hadn’t been spending with them. Recalling a heart-breaking account of someone that he knew, this brother told me that he would never want to regret not being able to have a good relationship with his parents until it was too late as well. Continue reading →

God Provides

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Through the past few months as we immigrated from Japan to New Zealand, we truly experienced the grace of how God provided for us. Through our experiences, we found out two important things which were that God provides if: 1) what we asked for is in accordance to God’s will and 2) we have the faith and courage to carry it out.

Keep Goals Simple and Aligned to God

We loved it in Japan but there is a dream of a more ideal life. Our reasons for immigration were merely to be nearer to church, to have more family time and nothing more. By being nearer to church and living a simpler life away from materialistic and busy lifestyle, we believed that we will be able to draw nearer to God as stated in James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Our home in Japan is 1.5 hours drive away from the nearest True Jesus Church and we could only attend church once a week on Sabbath. We held daily family altar and have home services to introduce Jesus to friends but I have always yearned to live closer to church. Continue reading →