Pastor Ryun Chang (AMI Teaching Pastor, Ph.D.) will present a series of blogs, dealing with various issues raised in the recent election that showed a deep divide, impacting both society at large and the church. The thoughts presented are processed through the lens of the Radical-Middle (both/and), personal narratives, and pastoral concerns. Your rational feedback is welcomed.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the respective views of AMI pastors.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT FOR TODAY
Finding God in the Midst of a Long Nightmare
2 Kings 24:15-17 (NIV)
Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. He also took from Jerusalem to Babylon the king’s mother, his wives, his officials and the prominent people of the land. 16 The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon the entire force of seven thousand fighting men, strong and fit for war, and a thousand skilled workers and artisans.
Having lived in Mexico for many years, I have many friends there, including two men who were deported from the U.S. after living here for many years as illegal immigrants. One is “Javier” who had lived and worked in California long enough to buy a modest house and raise a family. The other is “Carlos,” a pastor who was held at a detention facility for undocumented aliens for several months before being deported—it was a nightmare for him. Overnight, they lost everything.
I consider them “buenos amigos” and I know how devastating the deportation was for both. Now, I understand that what I’m about to say would make zero sense, even be offensive, to those who don’t adhere to a biblical worldview; but for those who do, realize that deportation was the best thing that could have happened to Javier and Carlos from the standpoint of eternity. How? Javier came to believe in Jesus Christ during the aftermath of deportation and in the midst of a crumbing marriage at a retreat where I was the guest speaker. He would eventually enroll in a local Bible institute and become a leader in the church; once, he seriously considered dropping everything to go to China as a missionary. As for Carlos, after initially taking a factory job to support his family, he met a boss who later helped him to join the largest Baptist church in the city that, in time, installed him as the pastor of its daughter church. (Once, a short-term team from Church of Southland worked with him.)
The Old Testament is not silent on this matter, for many Israelites in antiquity would readily empathize with the likes of Javier and Carlos, because they themselves were deported to Babylonia following its crushing invasions of Judah; most of them would never set foot again on their homeland. One such person was Daniel, who was forcibly taken when he was still a teen. While Javier and Carlos at least were never separated from their families, Daniel would never see his families again. How devastating this experience must have been for Daniel, but when seen through the lens of spirituality, deportation was God’s way of drawing Daniel near to him, so much so that he would later become a great prophet of God, while serving as a top official in three different administrations.
I write this neither to the advocates or denouncers of deportation, but to those who see the world through God’s Word. Jesus says that “in this world you will have trouble” (Jn. 16:32), and often it is through these trials that we learn “not to rely on ourselves but on God” (2 Cor. 1:9). I hope you would agree that being drawn to God (Jn. 6:44) is far better than anything material that America has to offer. Don’t get too enamored by America; instead, go where there is a real need and tell those who think that America is heaven that it isn’t so; then tell them about the mansion Jesus has been preparing (Jn. 14:1-3) for the past 2,000 years for those who has placed their trust in him. Go!
Prayer: Lord, I praise and glorify Your wonderful name. I pray for all the undocumented immigrants held in detention centers in the U.S., that they would turn to You and trust Jesus for their salvation. Please remind those who work in these centers to be civil and decent toward those who are held up. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: 2 Kings 10
LUNCH BREAK STUDY
Read Daniel 9:7-8 (ESV): “To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 8 To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.”
Psalm 137:1-6 (ESV): “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! 6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!”
Questions to Consider
- According to Prophet Daniel, what is one key reason why God drove out the Israelites to all the lands (i.e., Babylonia)?
- Psalm 137 is sung by these Israelites who were forcibly deported to Babylonia. What spiritual effect did this devastating experience have on this once rebellious Israelites? What does this suggest?
- Are you going through a difficult moment in your life, like being on the verge of losing your job or marriage? The root (but not necessarily casual) problem may be vertical (you and God), not horizontal. Pray about it.
Note
- Daniel minced no words here: the treachery (NIV: “unfaithfulness”) that the Israelites committed against God. In verse 5, Daniel adds, “We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name.”
- This Psalm indicates that the Jewish deportees had repented: whereas before they drew away from God, now they longed to sing the LORD’s song in Babylonia. This suggests that trials and difficult moments can draw us nearer to God.
- Personal response.
EVENING REFLECTION
We began the day talking about undocumented workers who occupy the low end of the social ladder. So, before you look for one to shower him or her with compassion, why not start with people in your life whose job is to serve you, like your employees or people who work in the service industry. Paul says, “Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited” (Rom. 12:16). How did you fare today? Were you proud and arrogant? Or were you humble and compassionate? Only you know—and God. Why not pray for a better living tomorrow.
I first met Jaime Echaveste, a middle-aged man and a father of four children, in the mid-2000s when I spoke to a Hispanic congregation in Southern California. That day, I talked about how God told the Israelites, exiled in Babylonia and Persia for nearly 70 years, to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Lord’s temple that had been destroyed. I noted that those who returned possessed two things that they didn’t when they were first taken to Babylonia: faith and money.
First, it was because of Israel’s faithlessness, “hav[ing] turned away from [God’s] commands and laws” (Dan. 9:5), that God allowed her to “become a desolate wasteland” (Jer. 25:11). Yet, it was during the captivity that the Israelites returned to God, weeping and longing to “sing the songs of the LORD” (Ps. 137:4); their faith in God had been renewed.
Editor’s Note: The AMI QT Devotionals for January 7-8 are provided by Tina Hsu. She is a graduate of Biola University and Talbot School of Theology (M.Div.) and currently serves in E. Asia as a preaching intern. 
Every new year, I look forward to fasting and praying with my church for the first several days of January as a way to seek the Lord. What frightens me, though, as the new year approaches is that when the fast begins, I will have to temporarily separate myself from coffee, which I have grown to rely on too much on a daily basis. However, I can count this challenge a blessing, for it pushes me to rely on God and to consider the rich purpose of this spiritual practice.
This short account of Levi’s calling (also known as Matthew) and life after responding to Jesus shows us that Levi had a genuine encounter with grace, leading him to true repentance and transformation. When Jesus personally approached Levi at his tax booth, Levi met someone who was ready to embrace him and to give him a chance to start new again.
In February of 2016, just before my greyhound bus left for Bakersfield from Los Angeles (a 3-hour ride), I was told that my connection bus, which would have taken me to the small city where I was scheduled to preach the next day at a Hispanic church, was cancelled. I quickly called the host pastor, who was returning from a conference in Nevada, to see if he could pick me up. Fortunately, I only waited an hour before the pastor, along with his congregant (“Hugo”), arrived to collect me. Later, we dropped off Hugo at his weather-beaten, single-story house; he seemed eager to get home, mostly because his wife just had their second child.
We began the morning devotional talking about the fears of illegal aliens, especially those who have lived in the States for a long time. Let’s not kid ourselves—we ourselves have plenty of fears of being found out. Perhaps you’ve heard of the impostor syndrome—it’s when people believe their achievements are fraudulent, which causes them to fear that one day, others might learn of their incompetence. What fears do you secretly harbor? I invite you to go to the Lord right now for a fast and long-lasting relief; and don’t be afraid to be vulnerable with those who are trustworthy and truly care.
The Yali people, pygmy cannibals in Papua, Indonesia, and several tribes living near them have had an interesting custom. Once a man fleeing from his enemies enters the place called Osuwa, he is immediately granted protection and safety—no one could touch him, much less hurt him as long as he stays there. The cities of refuge in ancient Israel served a similar purpose: God told the elders of those cities to admit anyone who kill[ed] a person accidently and unintentionally “into the city and give him a place to live with them. If the avenger . . . pursues him, they must not surrender the one accused” (Joshua 20:5).
Having crossed different US-Mexico borders hundreds of times in several states, I’ve seen tall fences and even walls. So, President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile US-Mexico border isn’t an entirely new idea. In contrast, some push for open-borders, while others advocate—in effect—a similar stance by opposing measures aimed to curve illegal immigration. Regrettably, Trump’s wall (a logistic nightmare) beclouds the more fundamental question of whether America, as a sovereign country, has the right to secure its borders. How should a believer think on this matter?
Whether we like it or not, Donald Trump will be our next president—and the whole world knows about his many flaws. So, why don’t we start praying that our next president will experience a profound spiritual change. If the wicked king Manasseh was not outside of God’s reach (2 Chron. 33:12-3), then, the President-elect is well within God’s range of encountering His grace. We, as Bible believing Christians, should cease from taking our cues from the media and academia that clearly have a different vision for what constitutes justice, freedom, and free speech; instead, let’s start listening to God who commands us to pray for “kings all those in authority” (1 Tim. 2:2).
I first saw the image of the infamous duck/rabbit in a book touting the merits of postmodernism, a worldview that sees the world as ambiguous, as shades of gray; unsurprisingly, the book saw the picture as not a duck or rabbit but both. The other image shows a world of black and white, colors that represent an unambiguous world with absolute objective truths and values where things often cannot be true simultaneously. One or the other must be true or false.
When it comes to the beliefs of our fellow human beings and even those who “claim to live in Christ” (1 Jn. 2:6), we can be greatly perplexed at the diversity of opinion—how is it that people, many of whom are educated and of goodwill, can believe so vastly different things about the nature of reality?
Paul told Timothy, Pastor of the church in Ephesus: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim. 2:1-2). This wasn’t an easy thing to do, since Paul was referring to the Roman Emperor Nero—a madman who murdered his own mother Agrippina to secure his power. The President-elect Trump certainly has done foolish things, but matricide isn’t one of them. If the early Christians could pray for Nero, we should also pray for Trump (as well as Mike Pence). Would you pray that they would become humble people who would take God’s Word seriously and govern our country with His wisdom and compassion?
According to an article in Forbes, over 40% of Americans make some kind of New Year’s resolution. I’m not sure if you’re in the 40%, but here is a daunting statistics: only 8% of people actually achieve their resolutions. This means that out of the estimated 322 million people in the US, only about 10 million people make and achieve their New Year’s resolutions. So what drives us to continue this, despite the low rate of success.