我们生命中的属灵标记
魏师母
• 经文：诗篇77:11-14
• 2025年1月16日晨祷会
1 月 10 日是我父亲的忌日，1982 年他去世了，享年 55 岁。今年和每年，我和姐妹们都会分享爸爸，
我的父母总是带我去教会，我决志信靠耶稣，并在 9 岁时受浸礼。
上周，当我想起我的父亲时，我开始思考我们生命中都有的“
我和魏牧师经常和我们的孩子和孙辈分享我们的属灵标记，
我们刚到台湾两年半时，我爸爸就得知自己得了癌症，
当我们彼此分享属灵标记时，我们都会得到坚固并充满盼望！
今天在晨祷中，我分享了我生命中的一个属灵标记！
亲愛的上帝，请帮助我们识别我们生命中的属灵标记，这样，
• 2025年1月16日晨祷会
1 月 10 日是我父亲的忌日，1982 年他去世了，享年 55 岁。今年和每年，我和姐妹们都会分享爸爸，
我的父母总是带我去教会，我决志信靠耶稣，并在 9 岁时受浸礼。
上周，当我想起我的父亲时，我开始思考我们生命中都有的“
我和魏牧师经常和我们的孩子和孙辈分享我们的属灵标记，
我们刚到台湾两年半时，我爸爸就得知自己得了癌症，
当我们彼此分享属灵标记时，我们都会得到坚固并充满盼望！
今天在晨祷中，我分享了我生命中的一个属灵标记！
亲愛的上帝，请帮助我们识别我们生命中的属灵标记，这样，
Spiritual Markers in our Lives
Elinda West
- Scripture: Psalm 77:11-14
- Early Prayer meeting January 16, 2025
January 10th is the anniversary of my father’s death in 1982. He was 55 years old. This year and every year my sisters and I talk about daddy and what he and mother meant to us and how thankful we were to grow up in a Christian home! I’ve shared a little about this event before in Early Prayer meeting. For all of us losing our parents is a significant time in our lives and a sad time. Wei Mushr and I left America the day after Father’s Day on June 17, 1979. There was a Commissioning Service at our home church for us to be sent out as missionaries to Taiwan. Later, when it was time to say good-bye to my parents I gave daddy a Father’s Day card. In that card I shared with him that it was through his love that I realized what the love of God the Father must be like. I told him he had loved and cared for my needs and guided me and prayed for me as I grew up.
My parents always took me to church, and I professed my faith in Jesus and was baptized at 9 years old. I said more things in that Father’s Day card expressing my gratitude and love to my daddy and I told him my prayer was that my life might reflect the same love that he had shown to me! It made my daddy weep. I had never seen my daddy cry until that day and I was 31 years old. It was good for my daddy to hear me say those feelings to him. He was proud of me but sad we were going away for a long time.
As I was thinking about my dad this past week I began to think about the “Spiritual Markers” we all have in our lives. They don’t happen often. These Spiritual memories are crucial in our Christian life. These times in our lives IDENTIFY A TIME we know God clearly GUIDED US by the power of the Holy Spirit or gave us a CLEAR CALL to service! SPIRITUAL MARKERS REMIND US OF THE POWER OF GOD! THEY GIVE US CONFIDENCE TO FACE TODAY’S BATTLES (as we look back on how He led us in the past). THEY GIVE OUR CHILDREN CONFIDENCE TO FIGHT TOMORROW’S BATTLES! (as we share with them God’s work in our lives). THEY WITNESS TO THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD! REMEMBERING WHAT GOD HAS DONE HELPS US GIVE HIM ALL THE GLORY! We go away from these experiences as a stronger and better person than we were before. We might not feel stronger immediately after the event or season, but with the passing of time we look back and see that God used it in our lives to strengthen our faith and trust in Him AND FOR THAT WE PRAISE HIM!
Wei Mushr and I often share our Spiritual Markers with our children and grandchildren because we think it is important for us to do that. They need to hear these stories and be challenged to trust God themselves. We want them to see the value and blessing of walking closely with the Lord! In the process of telling others about Spiritual Markers we ourselves receive confidence and courage for today and hope for the future! These markers have spiritual significance, like the Passover for the Israelites and The Lord’s Supper for us, Paul on the road to Damascus, Moses and the burning bush. Wei Mushr and I discussed that our own spiritual markers include our conviction of sin and salvation experience, our marriage, our call to missionary service and separation from everything and everyone we knew… to live in another country for 30 plus years.
We had been in Taiwan for only 2 1/2 years when my dad learned he had cancer and only lived 4 months after that. I could not return to the U.S. to support my mother and sisters and other close family members and attend the funeral. We were attending a Chinese Church in Taiwan and the pastor wanted to hold a service for our family. They sang the song “Victory in Jesus” because it was sung at the service in America. They prepared a large portrait of daddy and had a cross of real flowers at the front of the church. The pastor preached from Genesis 12 where God told Abram to “leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you”… and he read on through verse 3… “and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” I know he shared many words to comfort me and all the people came one by one to take my hand and I saw their tears! They didn’t know my daddy at all but they loved our family and we had only been in that church 2 years. I was touched so deeply. Our missionary family also held a service for us. It brought us so close together to share this sadness, my grief. A stronger faith was established in my heart in those days and months. These loving brothers and sisters built up my faith by their love, their care, their own spiritual markers and their prayers…. as we walked and worked together in daily life… and time went on.
When we share our spiritual markers with each other we all are strengthened and have hope! You know, even though I was so hurt that my daddy passed away so young I learned about trusting God no matter what. I had God’s wonderful peace and presence. God is never unkind. He lavishes us with His love. His ways are higher than ours. Maybe some of you remember another time in Early Morning Prayer I shared about my struggle with separation from my family in the early days of being a missionary. The Lord showed me during this difficult grief and sadness He had prepared 2 other wonderful families for me in the place he called me to serve Him……My fellow Missionary Family and My Chinese Church family! I look back and am overwhelmed with His Faithfulness. In the same year daddy left us.. God gave Wei Mushr and I another son. We were so excited and grateful for God’s Goodness to us which He saved for that time in our life.
Here in Early Prayer today I’m sharing a Spiritual Marker in my life! What are your Spiritual Markers? Think about it! We are FAMILY so let’s share together our lives, our prayers, our answers to prayers and be Blessed and Encouraged!!!
Dear Lord, help us to identify the spiritual markers in our lives and as we do that help us develop spiritual memory in our walk with you. As we remember these events in our lives help them to continue to strengthen our faith and keep us consistently on the path. Help us share with others so we can encourage each other. Thank you Father that you are constantly working in our lives and that these markers are reminders to us that we belong to You and our future is secure in You! Thank you Jesus for the Body of Christ ….Our Family! In Jesus’s Name Amen.
My parents always took me to church, and I professed my faith in Jesus and was baptized at 9 years old. I said more things in that Father’s Day card expressing my gratitude and love to my daddy and I told him my prayer was that my life might reflect the same love that he had shown to me! It made my daddy weep. I had never seen my daddy cry until that day and I was 31 years old. It was good for my daddy to hear me say those feelings to him. He was proud of me but sad we were going away for a long time.
As I was thinking about my dad this past week I began to think about the “Spiritual Markers” we all have in our lives. They don’t happen often. These Spiritual memories are crucial in our Christian life. These times in our lives IDENTIFY A TIME we know God clearly GUIDED US by the power of the Holy Spirit or gave us a CLEAR CALL to service! SPIRITUAL MARKERS REMIND US OF THE POWER OF GOD! THEY GIVE US CONFIDENCE TO FACE TODAY’S BATTLES (as we look back on how He led us in the past). THEY GIVE OUR CHILDREN CONFIDENCE TO FIGHT TOMORROW’S BATTLES! (as we share with them God’s work in our lives). THEY WITNESS TO THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD! REMEMBERING WHAT GOD HAS DONE HELPS US GIVE HIM ALL THE GLORY! We go away from these experiences as a stronger and better person than we were before. We might not feel stronger immediately after the event or season, but with the passing of time we look back and see that God used it in our lives to strengthen our faith and trust in Him AND FOR THAT WE PRAISE HIM!
Wei Mushr and I often share our Spiritual Markers with our children and grandchildren because we think it is important for us to do that. They need to hear these stories and be challenged to trust God themselves. We want them to see the value and blessing of walking closely with the Lord! In the process of telling others about Spiritual Markers we ourselves receive confidence and courage for today and hope for the future! These markers have spiritual significance, like the Passover for the Israelites and The Lord’s Supper for us, Paul on the road to Damascus, Moses and the burning bush. Wei Mushr and I discussed that our own spiritual markers include our conviction of sin and salvation experience, our marriage, our call to missionary service and separation from everything and everyone we knew… to live in another country for 30 plus years.
We had been in Taiwan for only 2 1/2 years when my dad learned he had cancer and only lived 4 months after that. I could not return to the U.S. to support my mother and sisters and other close family members and attend the funeral. We were attending a Chinese Church in Taiwan and the pastor wanted to hold a service for our family. They sang the song “Victory in Jesus” because it was sung at the service in America. They prepared a large portrait of daddy and had a cross of real flowers at the front of the church. The pastor preached from Genesis 12 where God told Abram to “leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you”… and he read on through verse 3… “and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” I know he shared many words to comfort me and all the people came one by one to take my hand and I saw their tears! They didn’t know my daddy at all but they loved our family and we had only been in that church 2 years. I was touched so deeply. Our missionary family also held a service for us. It brought us so close together to share this sadness, my grief. A stronger faith was established in my heart in those days and months. These loving brothers and sisters built up my faith by their love, their care, their own spiritual markers and their prayers…. as we walked and worked together in daily life… and time went on.
When we share our spiritual markers with each other we all are strengthened and have hope! You know, even though I was so hurt that my daddy passed away so young I learned about trusting God no matter what. I had God’s wonderful peace and presence. God is never unkind. He lavishes us with His love. His ways are higher than ours. Maybe some of you remember another time in Early Morning Prayer I shared about my struggle with separation from my family in the early days of being a missionary. The Lord showed me during this difficult grief and sadness He had prepared 2 other wonderful families for me in the place he called me to serve Him……My fellow Missionary Family and My Chinese Church family! I look back and am overwhelmed with His Faithfulness. In the same year daddy left us.. God gave Wei Mushr and I another son. We were so excited and grateful for God’s Goodness to us which He saved for that time in our life.
Here in Early Prayer today I’m sharing a Spiritual Marker in my life! What are your Spiritual Markers? Think about it! We are FAMILY so let’s share together our lives, our prayers, our answers to prayers and be Blessed and Encouraged!!!
Dear Lord, help us to identify the spiritual markers in our lives and as we do that help us develop spiritual memory in our walk with you. As we remember these events in our lives help them to continue to strengthen our faith and keep us consistently on the path. Help us share with others so we can encourage each other. Thank you Father that you are constantly working in our lives and that these markers are reminders to us that we belong to You and our future is secure in You! Thank you Jesus for the Body of Christ ….Our Family! In Jesus’s Name Amen.