Dear Listening Friends, Welcome to our program 愛的凱歌Adore Him, I'm Judy. As the seventh lunar month is approaching, many Taiwanese people observe it as the ghost month, with taboos, fears, and worries. However, as a fourth-generation Christian, I pay little attention to this and prefer to call it "The Month of Peace." I remember my church sister's experience growing up in a conservative family with folk beliefs. She felt like she would never have the chance to trust in Jesus. As a child, she faced many problems at home. Every time she walked home from school, the closer she got to home, the heavier her steps became. There were several occasions when she wanted to run away from her family, but she didn't know where she could go. Even though she tried to ignore everything and run away at first, her mother's excessive dependence on her, driven by a sense of responsibility, accused by the conscience of morality, and various feelings of guilt, made it difficult for her to escape. In the end, she had no choice but to go back home. One day, when she was in sixth grade, she couldn't take it anymore. She looked up at the sky and cried in her heart, "If there is a true God in the world, if you see my sorrows, if you see all the fears in my heart, please help me." A few years later, under the guidance of a Christian teacher, she went to church and came to know Jesus, who gave her true peace. At the beginning of today's episode, I talked about the seven lunar months and shared a personal story to introduce my upcoming plan. In the upcoming episodes, I plan to feature Christian songs performed as piano solos to encourage contemplation on God’s peace, particularly during the "Month of Peace." Even though the “Month of Peace” is NOT a festival in the church calendar, it reminds us of the church's role in Taiwanese society and culture, emphasizing mission, evangelism, and caring for those who have not yet believed in Christ. Yet, when it comes to evangelism, it is not easy to share the God who gives true peace with the people around me. Sometimes, I can be a little timid personally. The following is a personal experience from the past, hoping to inspire each other. Once, I rode my scooter to and from work every day, passing by a small bungalow not far away. For some reason, that seemingly inconspicuous little bungalow always caught my eye. Instead of considering the opportunity to get to know the people who lived there, I prayed for them, hoping they would find peace and salvation through Jesus. Since then, I prayed for the family every time I passed by that little bungalow. Eight or nine years later, after a church Sunday service, I talked with a man who had visited our church for the first time that day. As we chatted, he shared his story of how he came to trust in Jesus. ...... Also, he mentioned that even though he was a local, he had spent most of his young life working in the city and rarely lived in this area. However, he recently returned one or two times a week to share the gospel of Christ with his other relatives. And when he told me the location of his residence, I felt amazed and grateful for God's wonderful work. It turned out that the small bungalow I used to pass by and pray for almost every day was his home. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 says: "For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." At the end of today's program, I would like to share a Christian song, "Peace Is Like Starlight," which consists of four stanzas. In the first verse, lyricist Mary Ann Snowball describes peace in terms of God-created nature: flowers blooming in spring, falling leaves in autumn, melting snow covering mountains, and stars in the night sky after a storm. The second stanza uses symphonies, paintings, poems, and stories as metaphors for peace. Verses 3 and 4 talk about God feeding the crowd with manna, our heavenly Father answering prayers, and our savior redeeming us on the cross to take away the sins of the world, all to illustrate what peace is or what it is like." The Chinese and English ...
