{"id":3447,"date":"2016-08-22T20:15:47","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T04:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/?p=3447"},"modified":"2016-08-23T06:34:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T14:34:18","slug":"called-by-the-love-of-the-lordoffered-as-living-sacrifices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/p\/3447","title":{"rendered":"CALLED BY THE LOVE OF THE LORD\/OFFERED AS LIVING SACRIFICES (Yvonne\u2014My One and Only Beloved)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2016-01-19
\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

By:\u00a0 Yvonne & Paul Lai <\/strong><\/p>\n

Translator:\u00a0 Agnes K Y Tai <\/strong><\/p>\n

At a revival conference when I was eighteen years old, I received God\u2019s calling in that revival meeting that was led by a Pastor Lee from Malaysia.\u00a0 Offering my whole being to the Lord as living sacrifice, I was willing to walk with God just like Enoch in the Old Testament.\u00a0 During prayers I could visualize myself as a little child, standing before the Lord, hoping that He would use me.\u00a0 I knew, standing in front of my almighty Father God, that I was so minute and insignificant and yet I firmly believed that as long as I offered up my life that He would definitely be able to use me.\u00a0 So I offered myself to the Lord based on simple pure faith, letting Him work His perfect will through me as I relied on this simple pure faith. <\/strong><\/p>\n

At the age of twenty-two, God\u2019s calling arrived upon me again. During my quiet time one day, God called me again to offer myself as His servant.\u00a0 Based on faith, I promptly responded to His calling.\u00a0 I believed that only with faith like that of Moses while leading the Israelites through the Red Sea would God be able to fulfill His perfect will through me.\u00a0 Our God is a mighty and amazing God.\u00a0 In the thirty years that followed, He has been guiding me faithfully.\u00a0 He selected a preacher as my lifelong companion.\u00a0 We knew \u201cCan two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?\u201d (Amos 3:3)\u00a0 A preacher and the spouse have to share the same vision, the same burden and hence be able to go through good times and hard times together.\u00a0 (Yvonne) <\/strong><\/p>\n

********** <\/strong><\/p>\n

At that time, when I was studying theology in Hong Kong, I mailed the pamphlet titled \u201cDedicated to the Unknown Preacher\u201d written by Mr. Bian Yunbo to my beloved one in East Cambodia, hoping that she would resonate with me after reading it and would be willing join me to become an unknown preaching couple.\u00a0 Thanks to the Lord, while she was pursuing an education in France, she became very clear about God\u2019s calling on her life and agreed to embark on the missionary journey with me.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Prior to taking up theological studies, God touched me profoundly in many ways through this poem, calling me to identify with the aspirations of the author.\u00a0 I give thanks to the Lord for this and am grateful for the reminders and encouragements of the author.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Several years ago at a revival meeting in Vancouver I was fortunate enough to meet the author \u2013 the elderly brother Bian Yunbo.\u00a0 I held his hand, telling him excitedly that it was this poem of his that emboldened me in being loyal in my ministry, and how early on it was used by the Lord as a catalyst to stir our prayers for life partners.\u00a0 God was so faithful to answer, giving such a crystal clear response from my beloved one to come join with me in the missionary journey.\u00a0 I am so thankful to the Lord.\u00a0 (Paul) <\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

AFTER AN EIGHT-YEAR WAIT, MARRIAGE FULFILLED <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a long wait of eight years, just when I learned that she also liked me, we faced objection from her father, all because people in that era called those who offered their life to preaching as \u201cpoor preachers\u201d. As he deemed a preacher\u2019s earnings as meager, he worried about uncertainties in his daughter\u2019s <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

livelihood after getting married. And I was also anxious about my unclear future, there were several times I couldn\u2019t get approval in my application to study theology abroad.\u00a0 (Paul) <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

************ <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I posted a letter seeking my father\u2019s agreement to my marriage, and also mailed a letter written in French to my 4th younger sister, asking her to carefully observe the response of our father when he was reading my letter, and then write to tell me.\u00a0 My sister wrote back to tell me, \u201cAfter reading the letter father continuously paced back and forth at our place.\u201d This was obviously nervousness and a restless mind, not knowing how to handle the matter.\u00a0 On top of that, my 3rd younger sister has written a very long letter in France to explain in details how I felt, asking father to agree to our marriage.\u00a0 But thanks to the Lord, after some time, he finally replied.\u00a0 Thanks to the Lord, He listened to our prayers at the end.\u00a0 My letter to father had said, \u201cI\u2019d like you, father, to joyfully agree and bless us.\u00a0 Then would I leave France for Canada to be married to Paul.\u201d Father truly listened to his beloved daughter.\u00a0 His letter back to me was written like this, \u201cI am joyfully agreeable with your union in the Lord with Paul Lai\u201d and his seal was impressed on his personal stationery.\u00a0 When I got father\u2019s letter, I couldn\u2019t help but to cry a good bit.\u00a0 Thanks to the Lord, God finally listened to our prayers and the next day I took the flight to Canada.\u00a0 We were so happy, so excited while waiting for our wedding day.\u00a0 (Yvonne) <\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0 Yvonne & Paul Lai Translator:\u00a0 Agnes K Y Tai At a revival conference when I was eighteen years old, I received God\u2019s calling in that revival meeting that was led by a Pastor Lee from Malaysia.\u00a0 Offering my whole being to the Lord as living sacrifice, I was willing to walk with God just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3447"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3447"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3463,"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3447\/revisions\/3463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rainbowpaullai.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}