An apology first re: yesterday’s emailing
Jam Kids Focus episode 2 of The Armour of God unfortunately the wrong link was sent out yesterday –for any who didn’t find it –this is it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8k9Fu7a5g4
Jesus spoke some amazing words to His followers at the Last Supper the night before His crucifixion two thousand years ago. He said: 9‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command (John 15:9-14).
We come to this passage today in our own context of concerns over the spread of Covid-19 virus around the world and its impact on the health systems of the various countries. In addition to the many people who have needed some kind of medical assistance, there have been a rising number of individuals who have sadly died. In the United Kingdom this included last week a doctor, Dr Adil El Tayar, an organ transplant consultant from London.
However there is one doctor I particularly want to highlight today Dr Li Wen Liang, who raised the alarm about this new deadly virus on 30 December 2019. Unfortunately at first, the police in Wuhan harassed him and seven doctor colleagues who sought to raise the alarm within the medical profession in that city. Dr Li courageously continued the fight against this disease despite knowing the risks to himself and his family and sadly died on 7 February 2020. Thankfully the other infected members of his family regained their health and strength.
Jesus’s words here from John’s Gospel were a personal testimony of His own dedication to serving God and serving others that included His willingness to die in our place on the cross. He challenged these first followers to live their lives dedicated to serving God and other people as He had done. Will you and I say ‘yes’, I will commit my life to following Him? Take time to reflect today on this question: What might this mean in practice if I follow Jesus and live this way?
I want to finish by allowing Dr Li to speak to us through the poem and Bible verse he wrote down shortly before his death to allow us to get some insight into the convictions of this courageous medical doctor.
“The Hero Who Told The Truth”
“I don’t want to be a hero.
I still have my parents,
And my children,
My pregnant wife who’s about to give birth,
And many of my patients in the ward.
Though my integrity cannot be exchanged for the goodness of others,
Despite my loss and confusion,
I should proceed anyway.
Who let me choose this country and this family?
How many grievances do I have?
When this battle is over,
I will look up to the sky,
With tears like rain.
I don’t want to be a hero.
But as a doctor,
I cannot just see this unknown virus
Hurting my peers
And so many innocent people.
Though they are dying,
They are always looking at me in their eyes,
With their hope of life.
Who would have ever realised that I was going to die?
My soul is in heaven,
Looking at the white bed,
On which lies my own body,
With the same familiar face.
Where are my parents?
And my dear wife,
The lady I once had a hard time chasing?
There is a light in the sky!
At the end of that light is the heaven that people often talk about.
But I’d rather not go there.
I’d rather go back to my hometown in Wuhan.
I have my new house there,
For which I still have to pay off the loan every month.
How can I give up?
How can I give up?
For my parents without their son,
How sad must it be?
For my sweetheart without her husband,
How can she face the vicissitudes in her future?
I am already gone.
I see them taking my body,
Putting it into a bag,
With which lie many compatriots
Gone like me,
Being pushed into the fire in the hearth
At dawn.
Goodbye, my dear ones.
Farewell, Wuhan, my hometown.
Hopefully, after the disaster,
You’ll remember someone once
Tried to let you know the truth as soon as possible.
Hopefully, after the disaster,
You’ll learn what it means to be righteous.
No more good people
Should suffer from endless fear,
And helpless sadness.
‘I have fought the good fight.
And I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith.
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness.’
2 Timothy 4:7, Holy Bible.”
Brian Talbot