Today we went to church on Shamian Island at the non-denominational church. It was a great service and the first time the girls have been to church. The service was bilingual with English and Mandarin.
I want to share a few versus we read during this service and the pastor talked about in his message to us. Hebrews 4:14-16 I will quote only verse 14 as these versus a quite long in completion. Hebrews 4:14 “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” This sums up our faith and hope as Christians.
Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” The other versus along this same point are Exodus 23: 10-12. I want to share with you a few points that I like to try to live by each day. First, these versus are about God’s love for us. He knows we need rest. He rested on the 7th day himself. We need to take time to rest and spend time with God to grow in our relationship with Him. Second, we need to love others and share in God’s love. Real happiness comes from sharing with each other. We can only gain when we give. Lastly, we need to love ourselves. This is not meant in a prideful way, but in a Godly way. When we become greedy and refuse to take time to rest and be in contact with the Lord, we simply are not loving ourselves. When we keep too busy for rest, we have no time for God. This will not deepen the relationship you have with God. I really liked the perspective on these versus about the Sabbath day as it is not to keep us from doing what we want but a gift from God in giving us what we need—rest and time with God!
After church we went to the Jade factory here in Guangzhou. We were told this is the largest factory in China. People from all over the world come to this factory. The girls were able to find a jade stone they liked. Jade is very important to the Chinese culture so we wanted the girls to have a jade pendant as both Lily and Enoch have gotten as well.
Tomorrow we will go to the Safari. This is a wonderful outing, and I know the girls will really enjoy seeing the pandas. :-)
Captions: First: Church at Shamian Island with girls and Annabelle; Second: Girls at jade factory
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