Pathway to Peace

Please view the beautiful presentation of

Pathway to Peace

The Devil's Beatitudes

Many people should be familiar with what has been termed The Beatitudes, the "blessed" passages of the Bible. Please read them in Matthew Chapter 5, verses 1 to 12.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
虛心的人有福了！因為天國是他們的。
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
哀慟的人有福了！因為他們必得安慰。
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
溫柔的人有福了！因為他們必承受地土。
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
飢渴慕義的人有福了！因為他們必得飽足。
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
憐恤人的人有福了！因為他們必蒙憐恤。
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
清心的人有福了！因為他們必得見　神。
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
使人和睦的人有福了！因為他們必稱為　神的兒子。
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
為義受逼迫的人有福了！因為天國是他們的。
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
人若因我辱罵你們，逼迫你們，捏造各樣壞話毀謗你們，你們就有福了！應當歡喜快樂，因為你們在天上的賞賜是大的。在你們以前的先知，人也是這樣逼迫他們。

Now, Take a look at The Devil's Beatitudes
「魔鬼八福」

Blessed are those who are too tired, too busy, too distracted to spend an hour once a week with their fellow Christians - they are my best workers.
「無暇聚會的人有福了！他們是我的部下。」
Blessed are those Christians who wait to be asked and expect to be thanked - I can use them.
「期待別人稱讚的人有福了！我用得著他們。」
Blessed are the touchy who stop going to church - they are my missionaries.
「臭脾氣的人有福了！他們動輒不返教會，是我的宣教士。」
Blessed are the trouble makers - they shall be called my children.
「愛生事端的人有福了！他們得稱為我的兒女。」
Blessed are the complainers - I'm all ears to them.
「愛埋怨的人有福了！我必垂聽他們。」
Blessed are those who are bored with the minister's mannerisms and mistakes - for they get nothing out of his sermons.
「愛挑剔教會的人有福了！他們必繼承我在地獄裡的產業。」
Blessed are those who gossip - for they shall cause strife and divisions that please me.
「愛講閒話的人有福了！他們是我的偵探。」
Blessed is he who has not time to pray; for he shall be easy prey for me.
「無閒禱告的人有福了！他們是我的獵物。」

Blessed are you who, when you read this think it is about other people and not yourself - I've got you too!
「如果你聽了這些話，覺得我在說其他人，而與你無關的話，你就有福了！因為你已經是我的人了。」

Prayers for Your Family (in Chinese)

Read more »

Father's Love Letter

天父愛的信

Read more »

Unreserved Love

This heart touching theme song is from the movie "The Miracle Box (天作之盒)". The movie is a respectful portrait of Dr. Joanna Tse who was the first public hospital doctor to die from SARS in Hong Kong.

(Listen On-line - Cantonese Version)

(Listen On-line - Englishe Version)

愛是不保留
Unreserved Love

詞、曲：盧永亨
English Lyrics: Jacky Li

常聽說世界愛沒長久，
We've always heard that love could not last,
哪裡會有愛無盡頭？
Nowhere there's love everlast.
塵俗的愛只在乎曾擁有，
The love we have is just a short-while grasp,
一刻燦爛便要走！
A minute brilliance, burning blast.

而我卻確信愛是恆久，
Yet I believe God's eternal love.
碰到了你已無別求；
Meeting with you more than enough.
無從解釋、不可說明的愛，
Cannot explain, cannot be understood,
千秋過後仍長存不朽！！
It lasts forever through a million years.

誰人受痛苦被懸掛在木頭？
Who had suffered painf'lly hanging on the wood?
至高的愛盡見於刺穿的手；
Supreme love was reflecting by nailed-through hands.
看！血在流反映愛沒保留，
Hark! Flowing blood showed love was all to give
持續不死的愛到萬世不休！
With never dying love for ever more.

惟求奉上生命全歸主所有，
Wish I'd offered all my life to God my Lord.
要將一切盡獻於我主的手；
Everything of mine into your hand, my Lord.
我已決定今生再沒所求，
No more should I ask for rest of my life.
惟望得主稱讚已足夠！
But the appreciation from the Lord.

More Links:
Movie MV Version（電影版）WMV, QuickTime Format
Flash Animation （Flash 動畫）

Character Training is So Important

For parents who like to character training their children in a godly way, here is an interesting article written by a homeschooling mom. Many character training books and resources are reviewed in this article. Some of the materials could be used for children's Sunday School too.

You may also find this article from the author's website.

Top 100 Educational Web Sites of 2005

Homeschool.com asked their 7,000 product testers which web sites they found the most useful, both for homeschooling and for after-school help. From a statistician's point of view, 7,000 sample size is large enough to provide a good assessment of these web sites even though it's not a random sample. Their top 100 picks are now listed here.

Probably not many people know that this week (2/13 - 2/19) is Random Acts of Kindness Week, there is a great resource with stuff to print, activities and more in RAoK web site. All to inspire you and your children to perform random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

釘十架過程身體變化的探討

（A Physician Analyzes the Crucifixion )
從醫學的觀點來理解耶穌死亡那日所遭遇的痛苦

原作者C. Truman Davis醫師　　 編寫者：曾履元。

幾年以前我讀到Jim Bishop寫的〔基督死亡那日（The Day Christ Died）〕裡面關於釘十字架的那段敘述之後，開始對耶穌受難時身體方面所產生的變化發生了興趣。我猛然發覺這麼多年來竟然把釘十架僅僅當成一個事件，對那個過程中經歷的可怕情狀既沒概念、也缺少什麼特別的感覺。甚至，身為一個醫生，我從來也沒想過祂真正的死因是什麼。福音書的作者對這些都沒有清楚的交代。在他們的時代，釘十架和鞭打是很常見的事，過程人人都曉得，沒有必要詳細描述，因此聖經上只寫著：『彼拉多 … 將耶穌鞭打了，交給人釘十字架』。

雖然聖經上沒有紀錄細節，但是從生理和解剖的觀點，我們還是能夠深入看到主在受難過程中所必定經歷的事情。拿撒勒人耶穌的身體在最後幾個小時所遭遇到的怎麼樣的折磨呢？

Read more »

YCF Chinese New Year 2006 (Photos)

Dear YCF Members,

The photos were uploaded to Flickr. Please find the photo link from the "Recent Photos" section on the left side bar of this blog. 17 photos with 5 different sizes each are currently available for you to download (click "all sizes" on the upper left corner of each photo).

If you need sizes larger than 1280x960 (upto 2272x1704), please let me know the photos and size you want.

If you do not want your photos to be viewed publicly as they are now, please also let me know and I will remove them.

CW

So Why Did God Let This Happen?

The following is the complete part of the story I shared during our last YCF meeting on Jan-20.

Billy Graham's daughter was being interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?"

And Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said

"I believe that God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman that He is, I believe that He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to Give us His blessing and His protection if we demand that He leave us alone?"

Read more »

The Christian Paradox

- How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong?

Please read this interesting article from Harper's Magazine.

Bless Your Children Every Day

by Dr. Mary Ruth Swope

This is a book which "shows you how to activate God’s blessings in the lives of your children and grandchildren by proclaiming verbal blessings over them. A must read for every mother and grandmother!" (from BCCN).

Now you may read or download the book in Simplified Chinese.

You may also purchase the book in English or in Traditional Chinese.

「蒙福的兒女」是一本幫助您天天藉著禱告給您孩子祝福的書。在此分享給願孩子蒙福的父母 ...

「簡體中文版」在線閱讀、下載

「繁體中文版」在線購買

「英文原版」在線購買

20 Things God Won't Ask

- Author Unknown

God won't ask what kind of fancy car you drove.
He will ask how many people you took to church who didn't have transportation.
上帝不會問你開甚麼牌子的汽車，祂會問你：「曾經載過多少沒有汽車的人？」

God won't ask the square footage of your house.
He will ask how many people you helped who didn't have a house.
上帝不會問你住多大的房子，祂會問你：「歡迎了多少人進入你的家？」

God won't ask how many fancy clothes you had in your closet.
He will ask how many of those clothes you gave away.
上帝不會問你在衣櫥裡有那些衣服，祂會問你：「曾給多少人送過衣服？」

Read more »

三顆珍珠

[以下轉載自小牧童說故事,版權歸橄欖出版社所有]

作者：施以諾
發行日期：2005.12.25

相傳，在耶穌降生時有一群博士去看他，獻上了黃金、乳香、沒藥做為賀禮，然而，有另一位博士帶著三顆珍珠做為禮物也準備去朝見祂，但他中途遇到了一個帶著個瘦孩子的可憐寡婦，於是便分了一顆珍珠送給她們過冬，但也因此耽誤了行程。

他好難過！因為等他帶著僅存的兩顆珍珠到伯利恆時，約瑟和馬利亞早就帶耶穌走了！他只見到一大隊希律王派來的士兵在屠殺城裡的嬰兒，於是，他又用掉了一顆珍珠，從一個武士的刀下換回了一個嬰孩的生命。

Read more »

Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?

If you want to enjoy your Christmas Day in a more spiritual way, you may consider to visit bible.org which has a huge collection of Christmas resources, including Christmas sermons, Bible study resources, illustrations and stories.

Twelve Days of Christmas

The twelve days of Christmas are the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th), which is when the three wise men supposedly arrived on the scene. These are NOT the twelve days before Christmas,.

Most people know of The Twelve Days of Christmas from the song of that name. Below is a popular tale about the

ORIGIN of "TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS" - An Underground Catechism

Read more »

The 21 Rules Of This House

家規二十一條
by Gregg Harris
Chinese Translation by Chinese Christians' Home Education Association

In this house ...

1. We obey God.
我們順服主耶穌基督

2. We love, honor and pray for one another.
我們彼此相愛、彼此尊重、彼此代禱


3. We tell the truth.
我們說實話

4. We consider one another's interests ahead of our own.
我們考慮別人的利益，更甚於自己的利益

Read more »

Mary Did You Know?

This is a song which deeply touched me when I first heard it in a Christmas concert. Here are several versions about the song and I think it's best to share them in this grateful Christmas season.

Mary Did You Know?

• performed by Mark Lowry
• performed by Kenny Rogers & Wyonna Judd
• karaoke version (download the midi file)
• guitar chords
  
• story behind the song
• search Amazon.com for "Mary Did You Know?" CDs and Books

Read more »

Thanksgiving Recipe For Happier Days

( Take each ingredient and mix well into each day.)

T ~ Trust God
H ~ Hug someone you love
A ~ Appreciate the day
N ~ Nip your bad attitude
K ~ Kindle Kindness
S ~ Share a Smile
G ~ Grasp the joyful moments
I ~ Implement creativeness
V ~ Value people, not things.
I ~ Improve your relationships
N ~ Notice the goodness of God all around you.
G ~ Give a soft answer

Source: Thanksgiving At The Paver's Nest

How does the Bible say about "Thanksgiving"? Please read "Bible Scripture Study Guide for Thanksgiving".

Name Above All Names

We studied the topic of "What is God?" from the shorter catechism in our YCF group last week. During our discussion, it reminded me a song (which is not really a song, but a poem) about names of God in every book of Bible. It's called ...

Name Above All Names
(from the album God With Us - 神同在)
by Don Moen (Chinese Translation by 章啟明)

Read more »