{"id":2431,"date":"2021-12-31T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T17:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2021-12-31T10:37:47","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T18:37:47","slug":"ascending-to-meet-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/blog\/ascending-to-meet-with-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Ascending to Meet with God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading of the Psalms and spiritual devotion: <\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A new year is coming.\u00a0 From January 3 to 28, 2022, every Monday to Friday, we invite you to join us for a reading of the Psalms and spiritual devotion; and use the “Ascending Poems” in the Psalms to draw near and\u00a0<\/span>meet<\/span>\u00a0with God.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Psalms 120-134 are poems of “ascension,” also known as “pilgrimage” poems. Some biblical scholars point out that according to tradition, Jews would sing these songs when they went up to Jerusalem for festivals. Some also point out that Psalms 135 and 136 are\u00a0<\/span>also<\/span>\u00a0hymns used in conjunction with the ascending poems, so these two Psalms are also included for the devotional series.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When reading the Bible, we will see that the Israelites often use\u00a0\u201cwent up to” Jerusalem, not only because the city\u00a0was\u00a0high up and surrounded by mountains, but also because God\u2019s\u00a0Holy\u00a0Temple was\u00a0there.\u00a0 It symbolized\u00a0the presence of God.\u00a0 We can read the ascending poems, ascend and advance together with the poets:\u00a0 experience how the poets yearn for the presence of God, why their hearts are so eager to see God,\u00a0why\u00a0they worship so desperately, and praise and trust Him\u00a0at the\u00a0Holy\u00a0Temple.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In our daily life, we should also learn to raise our eyes “high\u201d\u00a0and move\u00a0upward and\u00a0forward. The main purpose is not to improve our status, but to acknowledge that God is\u00a0in the \u201chigh\u201d place.\u00a0\u00a0Once we get to the\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>high\u201d place, we will meet\u00a0and\u00a0communicate with him,\u00a0which\u00a0helps\u00a0us withdraw from the world.\u00a0 In everyday life, we must make up our minds to rely on God and walk in the direction of\u00a0His\u00a0way, so as not to be bothered and held back by our “low<\/span>”\u00a0<\/span>or worldly\u00a0thoughts!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This devotion\u00a0series\u00a0includes hymns made by our choir, scripture reading\u00a0recorded by our sisters, meditation, and prayer.\u00a0I hope brothers and sisters could set aside a period of time each day to see\u00a0God’s face, receive His teachings, draw near to Him, and commune with Him.\u00a0 This is our first task\u00a0of the new year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us ascend to meet God together, draw near to the\u00a0almighty\u00a0true God, and experience the beauty of God’s presence<\/span>!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0<\/span>Christ<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor\u00a0<\/span>Hs<\/span>iao<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading of the Psalms and spiritual devotion: A new year is coming.\u00a0 From January 3 to 28, 2022, every Monday to Friday, we invite you to join us for a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ascending-to-meet-with-god","category-pastor-mickey-hsiao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2435,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions\/2435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}