The Beautiful Precious Pearl (The Oyster Story)

A speck of sand entered an oyster.
The oyster suffers and covers it with its own body fluid to heal itself.
But no matter how the oyster tries to heal itself, the sand still irritated it.
Years and years go by, the oyster carries its pain.
Then an oyster-fisherman comes and collects the oyster,
opens the oyster and out comes, not a sand, but a beautiful precious pearl.

Just as the oyster suffered, Jesus Christ suffered on the cross.
The oyster tried to heal itself with its secretions, Jesus shed his blood.
Like the oyster-fisherman collected the oyster, Jesus ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Father.
We were that sand that turned into a beautiful precious pearl.
We didn't turn into a pearl by ourselves but God alone did.

"And this is my story." - 丽珍 (Li - "beautiful"; Zhen - "precious pearl")

Reflection on Deuteronomy & Thanksgiving for Dec7'13

Deuteronomy is an account re-announcing what God had done to Israel since He brought them out of Egypt, and in the wilderness, He's preparing them for His promise for a Land flowing of Milk & Honey.

Reflection: It's Christmas. It's the end of the year. Time to look back and remember what God has done, His faithfulness, His holiness, His reigning AUTHORity, and what we did, our good & our bad, our need for a Savior. And a reminder of Christ's coming just as the OT people looking forward to the coming Messiah.

Thanksgiving:

1. Working w/ fellow Christians from other churches and different ministries.
2. Spiritual family. Found in the WWW (Whole Wide World). Though not present in the flesh, but present in spirit with one goal & one desire: To glorify the One True God. Supplementing one another with love cos God first Loved us.