Happy New Year! 2020 is the Year of Fresh Visions and Coming Announcements

Happy New Year! 2020 is the year of the rat, a year of creativity, clever thinking, energy, and optimism. I could use all of these coming months but not in a superstitious way ;)
    I have not done much with the blog because of an overwhelming amount of work: overload in teaching, heavy admin duties as chair of the biblical field at North Park, and some major research projects in the queue. I do plan on revising/relaunching the blog in the near future, along with relocating it, probably on wordpress.com. I also have some big announcements on writing projects that I hope to make soon within the month.
    Stay tuned! Until then, may the Lord give you a fresh vision and fresh fire for Him and His work this new year! MJL

Happy New Year this 2019!

Happy New Year! From everyone I've talked to, we all seemed to have a really tough 2018, full of disappointment, distress, sometimes tragedy, illness, and disaster. I'm grateful that through the valley moments in my life, Christ the Good Shepherd does see me through all the time. If there is one thing to celebrate in 2018, it is His faithfulness.
    I have been thinking about a Bible verse which encapsulates 2018 and leads me into 2019. I've landed on John 3:30: "He must become greater, I must become less" (NIV). I think one of the reasons why 2018 was so hard was simply there was too much of me, too little of Jesus. As I repent about how let so many other things and circumstances shape me rather than the Lord, I'm praying that in 2019, there will much more of Christ and less of me. 
    2019 is the year of the pig, a symbol of festivity and joy. Let's hope that as Christ increases and we decrease, the fruit of walking with Christ and letting him form us will indeed lead to inexpressible joy. Blessings in the New Year! MJL

Happy New Year! The Year of God's Favor and Strength

Wow! 2017 came and went. I know it's the same 12 months in a year, or 52 weeks, 365 days, 8760 hours, or 525,600 minutes, and so on... but it does feel like it goes by much faster as I get older. And before I knew it, 2017 raced by without many blog posts. My life just became too busy to keep up with weekly posts. I did not even keep up with monthly ones. Probably, for the time being, I will post randomly and occasionally. I hope this is just an interim period. As soon as I get some book projects off my desk, and perhaps finish my tenure as chair of the biblical field at North Park, I will come back to the blog and reignite it with a flurious succession of original articles, book reviews, pastoral reflections, and historical-cultural notes from the world of the New Testament and early Christianity. 
     But for now, blessings to all this 2018!

FYI, this is the year of the dog according to the Chinese Lunar calendar! It's the year of fortune and health. May the Lord bless the work of your hands and give you strength to serve Him faithfully this 2018. MJL

Happy New Year this 2017!

Photo Credit ©2016 Fengshui Beginner

Happy New Year! Goodbye to the year of the (fire) monkey, and hello to 2017, the year of the (fire) rooster! It's a Lee family clan tradition to begin the new year with prayer and to reflect not only on how we experienced God this past 2016 but also share how we hope to experience Him further in the next year. We all heard a good and challenging word from the evening New Year's Eve service and are considering three questions to pray through for 2017: 

    1) What has the Lord done in 2016 that I want to see continue in 2017?
    2) What do I want to change for 2017?
    3) What do I want to start for 2017? 

I found each question difficult to answer. In fact, I'm not sure how to answer these. But I will be on my knees praying through the questions tonight, today, and the next day. Probably the whole week. But I do know that seeking God's counsel is exactly how I want to spend my first hours of this new year.

May we all begin this 2017 seeking the Lord and His kingdom first with all our might and strength! Blessings!