See the Lord, See My Sin

I am thankful that we debuted our first musical on the life of Paul, See the Risen Lord. last Sunday – the Resurrection Sunday! After Paul saw the risen Lord, his life made a 180-degree turn. He then spread the gospel to the gentiles, so that today we may also see the risen Lord and be His witnesses. This is a great grace from God to us. At the end of the musical, a list of the names of apostles of different times appeared on the screen, and unexpectedly, C-Mo and I were included. We were deeply touched!

One of the most touching scenes was when Jesus appeared to Paul in a light and said to him, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Paul discovered that Jesus was truly the living God, and he went into deep repentance for persecuting churches and Christians. He saw that he was the chief of sinners! But freely, Jesus forgave him, what a grace! Therefore, Paul devoted himself to preaching the Gospel, he even died for the Lord and sacrificed himself for the Church, caring nothing for himself. In this scene, the co-worker acting Paul was weeping, and I was also deeply moved.

Thinking of the heart of the Holy Spirit, we see that He has been leading our church into the flow of repentance. On 8-9 Feb this year, during our first global live broadcast with 33 branch churches, the whole congregation knelt down together, humbled ourselves before God, confessed our sins and pleaded with Him to forgive our sins, to heal the land, and to stop the pandemic. Later, God moved us to hold the second global live broadcast on 4-5 April, bringing 43 branch churches to confess sins and pray for the pandemic again. Together, we also received the core value of “More Love, More Trust,” and then we confessed deeply of our lack of love and trust in our relationships.

Through the musical of Paul, God also showed us that repentance was the key to transformation. How important it is for us to see that we have sinned and that we are sinners.

Why does our church confess sins often? Why do we urge people to confess sins instead of blaming the government for her mistakes? My view is that the bible teaches us to remove finger-pointing and to reflect on ourselves instead. We are all sinners who desperately need the forgiveness of God. Besides, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5) When we confess sins, we receive grace!

In my nineteen years of leading the church, I have always preached that we are weak. But as long as we confess sins, God shall forgive us and use us greatly.

Rarely do the people of the world confess sins. Some believers think that as Jesus has forgiven all our sins; we simply need to confess our sins once, making frequent confession uncalled for. Yet, my dear brothers and sisters, we commit sins very often even after believing in Jesus. If we say that we do not sin, then there is no need for us to follow God. Repentance is a way of life. We can restore our relationship with God if we are willing to confess sins.

In these wars of the end times, the enemy attacks God’s Kingdom continuously. How can Christians find peace? It is through repentance: as we put on the cloak of humility of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will have peace! Thank God that we have been at peace through the pandemic and through all kinds of difficulties. This is because we repent and return to God very often, we find protection in God.

May I urge brothers and sisters to wait on God more in this pandemic, to reflect on our transgressions and confess them as led by the Holy Spirit, and to be filled by the Holy Spirit. I hope everyone sees the risen Lord and experiences repentance and transformation, to become a vessel mightily used by God.•[2020.04.19]