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Morning Star Awakening Center, Toronto, ON (2026)

06/23/2026

Mind Growth Camp · Week 8 Day 1

The Beginning and Completion of a Good Work

Philippians 1:6 is a verse that has marked my life at every major turning point. When I was baptized, a church leader prayed this verse over me. When we moved and were leaving that congregation, the same kind of blessing was spoken. In early 2020, before I left Vancouver, someone prayed it over me once more. Just yesterday, at the prayer meeting before worship began, the leader picked up on the verse and gave it a fresh application — because the meeting room was still under renovation, he said: we are all unfinished work.

And indeed we are. Our lives are in a continual process of renewal — carried forward by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and by our own deliberate practice: learning to listen, practicing obedience. The further we go, the more complex and subtle the lessons become. Luke 6:31, for instance, sounds simple enough — but living it out requires a great deal of thought, preparation, and practice, because the people we encounter are different, their circumstances and emotional states are different, and knowing how to express love wisely demands far more than good intentions.

Yesterday we visited our daughter — to celebrate Father's Day and to say goodbye before our trip. This morning, Jenny and I reflected together on how our relationship with her has evolved over these past few years, and we both felt that we have grown. On one hand, we have come to understand her thoughts and ways of doing things much better — much of that, I think, is the fruit of looking through the lens of the Enneagram. On the other hand, we have learned to hold our tongues: not only to respect her decisions, but to offer more encouragement and less commentary. Jenny and I also made an agreement for this trip — to remind each other often and to practice the Four-Step Method along the way.

But let me take a step back and speak to something else. Near the end of last year, a thought suddenly surfaced: I should develop The Renewal of the Mind — that small booklet — into a mobile app. What followed was an undertaking I hadn't quite anticipated. I bought two compact computers, one PC and one Mac, and started entirely from scratch — stumbling into countless obstacles along the way — until finally, in late March, I was able to submit the RenewLand app to both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Now, in addition to No More Self-Deception (Parts One and Two), which are already complete, two other course modules are nearing completion as well.

This project is only halfway done. When exactly it will be finished, I honestly don't know. But even as an unfinished work, I intend — the Lord willing — to keep going until the day it is complete. I am deeply grateful for how far it has come, and I trust He will continue to lead.

My old pattern has been to retreat, to withdraw from people, to avoid the risk of rejection. Going forward, I need to be more courageous, more active, more outward-facing rather than turned inward. I have come to define my ministry around the image of "repairing the breach" (Ezekiel 13:5; 22:30; Amos 9:11) — the church has needs, few people see them, and fewer still are willing to try to meet them. In that kind of work, knowing how to press forward with initiative while not overreaching — that truly requires wisdom and patience.

But perhaps that is precisely where I still need to grow. He will continue this work — in me, and through me.

06/21/2026

Mind & Will Growth Camp · Week 7 Day 6

Looking Ahead —— Growing into the Full Stature of Christ

Do you remember lining up in gym class? When the instructor called out, "Right, dress!" — everyone except the person at the very right end of the line had to turn their head, look down the row, and then shift forward or backward to bring themselves into alignment with that person on the far right. The key in that process was continual adjustment — physical alignment, made one small correction at a time.

God wants to shape us to be like Him. This doesn't mean doing everything Jesus did, of course — that would be impossible. No one believes they could pray and turn five loaves and two fish into enough to feed five thousand, and very few of us have ever witnessed, through prayer, the blind made to see or the deaf made to hear.

What the Lord asks of us, first and foremost, is to follow Him in our attitudes and our thinking — to be transformed into His likeness from the inside. This is exactly what Paul means: "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5), and "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16). Seen from this angle, we can understand why it is only those with a self-transforming mind — those who repent and whose minds are continually being renewed — who can actually become like Him from within. This is alignment at the level of thought and intention.

In other words, if we never change the way we think, never break through our old mental patterns, it is simply impossible to become like Him. It's exactly like the instructor calling "Right, dress!" while you stand there, not moving an inch. In everyday life, we even have plenty of expressions for people whose thinking never changes — "granite-headed," "rigid in thought," "stubborn beyond reason," and so on.

In today's increasingly globalized world, anyone who cannot meet others — or differing opinions — with an open heart and a spirit of tolerance will struggle to get along with people in the workplace, and their opportunities for growth will be correspondingly limited. Within the church, when we encounter brothers and sisters who hold different viewpoints and positions, we need all the more to cultivate this attitude and mindset of self-transformation. And of course, the best training ground for this is the family itself — because it is full of differences in age, gender, and generation, making it a natural, ideal environment in which to practice self-transformation.

I'm grateful that, as of today, I've completed seven weeks of this journey. Along the way I've gained a great deal, but what struck me again was the passage cited in the "Core Concept" of Week 4, Day 5 (1 Corinthians 10:24, 10:33). A comment about Dallas Willard left a deep impression on me: "He did not allow others to bully him, because he believed it was not good for the one doing the bullying."

For a person to genuinely consider others' good at every moment, in every situation, requires not only a high degree of awareness, but also the wisdom to know what "the good" actually is. This is the goal I want to set for the coming year — to consciously practice and grow in this direction.

Next week I'll be entering travel mode. The first couple of days I should still be able to write as usual, but for the days after that, I'll need to deliberately carve out time to finish this final stretch of the road.

06/20/2026

Mind & Will Growth Camp

Week 7, Day 5

Transcendence——Built Up in Love, United in Truth

The first sentence of the "Core Concept" names the goal we are pursuing — and it should also become the very motivation behind how we treat one another in the Body.

Under normal circumstances, if we're not careful, we easily slip into speaking and acting on autopilot. And yet it isn't true that people are incapable of "staying alert" and exercising self-restraint. In the workplace, for instance, the lines of authority, responsibility, power, interest, and rules are all very clear — and in order to keep their jobs, people will often consciously put on a mask, presenting only their "best" side. Of course, the moment a genuine conflict of interest arises, that mask tends to come off, and the gloves come off too.

Family and church life work differently. Generally speaking, home is where people are most relaxed, because the tension we hold ourselves under out in the world finally gets to release — and it is precisely in this relaxed environment that our instinctive reactions surface most naturally. At church, while "I" may still pay attention to how I'm perceived, even if I offend someone I don't have to worry about being "fired" — and the person I've offended may even feel some obligation to forgive me. So I may not take the resulting strain in the relationship all that seriously.

But the moment I decide that everything I do is for the sake of building up the Body, then I must be willing to lay down my own opinions or my own way of doing things at any moment. And that, in essence, is self-denial.

Looking back over this stretch of the journey: Weeks 3 through 5 focused on "the mindset of a child." This week's theme should rightly be the most mature mindset of all — self-denial that flows out of love. Isn't this precisely the heart and posture of a father or a mother? Isn't this exactly who our Lord is? And isn't this exactly what Paul calls us to imitate in him?

But after all is said and done, learning and practicing self-denial must begin with cultivating awareness. And here, if we can practice this together with our own family at home — watching over one another, reminding one another — then in the very environment where we are most prone to stumble, we can catch, in real time, just how easily our habitual thought patterns, attitudes, and words — our "old self" — can rear its head. Through this ongoing cycle of failing and correcting, we can learn what love and unity actually look like in practice. If we can master this lesson at home, then perhaps it becomes a little easier once we step outside the door. This, of course, is something I am saying to myself.

06/19/2026

Week 7 Day 4

Living Out Transcendence Through the Four-Step Method

Today's material brought to mind something that happened at least twenty years ago. Jenny and I attended a deacons' meeting at our church. I've long forgotten what was actually being discussed, but afterward I said to Jenny, "They're so inefficient — such a waste of time." In my mind, it was such a small matter — why did they need to spend so long discussing it, and still arrive at no conclusion?

That was a Canadian church. Apart from us "new immigrants," who were new believers, everyone else had grown up in Christian households from childhood. One memory that stayed with me: during a Sunday school class, the pastor happened to quote a verse and asked who could identify where it came from. An elderly man answered correctly — it was from one of the Minor Prophets. Before he retired, that man had spent his whole working life as a bus driver...

Afterward, I asked the leader who had chaired that meeting about it. He told me: of course it would be ideal if the meeting could simply reach a decision, but their policy was to make sure everyone agreed, to arrive at genuine consensus. At the time I found this hard to understand, because in my mind the operating principle was simply: "Subordinates submit to leadership, the minority submits to the majority." It was only later that I came to understand that their approach was meant to ensure that every voice was heard and respected.

That said, this isn't how things always go. I remember another meeting — about eighteen years ago now, not at this church — where two volunteers spoke up bluntly and expressed their dissatisfaction with how I had handled something. After hearing them out, I said to one of them: his accusation simply wasn't accurate, because the decision that had upset him hadn't been made by me, but by the leader who had previously been there, who had since been transferred to the head office in Toronto. To the other, I said: if the way I had handled things made him feel disrespected, I was genuinely willing to apologize and ask for his forgiveness.

A senior man later described that scene with the phrase: "All hell broke loose." Honestly, I never felt it was quite that dramatic. By the end of the meeting, we prayed for one another, shook hands and made peace, and then sat down together over dessert and tea, talking and laughing, before parting ways peacefully — and it never ended up affecting our ministry together afterward.

Looking back on these two meetings, I think: the best path, of course, is to be able to resolve disagreements using the Four-Step Method. But even when conflict has already broken out, we can still maintain unity by practicing mutual patience and mutual forgiveness, as Colossians 3:13 calls us to. If everyone could live this way, there would be far fewer conflicts.

Since I've been mostly shut in at home lately, with no real opportunities for practice, I'll have to let these memories stand in for actual exercises this time.

06/18/2026

Mind & Will Growth Camp · Week 7, Day 3

Turning Toward God — Guided Reflection with the Mind of Christ

Contemplation & Reflection

In the past, shaped by my environment, I was convinced that Catholicism was outright heresy. Yet four class sessions during my seminary years left a profound impression on me and caused me to lay down those old prejudices. The content of those four sessions was as follows:

The academic dean of Regent College used the contemporary state of the Catholic Church in a certain country as an illustration to describe the church in Martin Luther's era, making the case for the necessity of the Reformation.

The president of St. Mark's Seminary, pointing to the reality of more than forty thousand Protestant denominations today, argued that Luther was the great sinner responsible for splitting the Church.

A professor from an Anabaptist seminary contended that Luther's reform did not go far enough — he had failed to advocate for the separation of church and state and had retained the practice of infant baptism.

An Eastern Orthodox priest, dressed in a black cassock with a large cross hanging from his neck, traced his apostolic succession link by link: the one who laid hands on him (A)… the one who laid hands on A (B)… the one who laid hands on B (C)… and so on back through the chain — all the way to the Twelve Apostles. The implication was clear: his tradition is the most authentic, and it has never experienced a split.

There is also another way of telling this story from the Orthodox perspective: when the Catholic Church separated from Orthodoxy in the eleventh century, half the tradition was lost; when the Reformation began in the sixteenth century and Protestantism broke away from Catholicism, another half was lost again. By this reckoning, Protestant Christianity retains only one quarter of the original tradition.

From these examples, it is clear that people within each tradition hold a certain degree of "bias" toward the others. Of course, not all of these biases are necessarily wrong. And yet I remain convinced that God will gladly receive all who truly fear Him and follow Him from the heart.

Daily Practice

When I deliberately turned my thoughts toward someone who holds a different view from my own and practiced seeing that person with the mind of Christ, it genuinely softened the judgment and distance in my heart. This is a practice worth returning to often — consciously, intentionally, and with mutual encouragement. The result, without fail, is that a heart grown hard begins to grow tender again.

06/17/2026

Mind & Will Growth Camp · Week 7, Day 2

Insight — Distinguishing the "Core" from the "Method"

In older ideological language, this topic sounds rather like "distinguishing the primary contradiction from the secondary contradiction."

Many Pharisees were furious at Jesus for "breaking the Sabbath." Looking at this through contemporary eyes, what they cared about was the observance of the law itself — they had entirely missed the intention behind its institution, which was to give people rest. So the words "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27) corrected an inverted relationship between the primary and the secondary.

I once knew a very earnest new believer who had his wife wear a head covering at every gathering. When I asked him why, he said: "A woman must cover her head to receive blessing." I smiled and explained: "That was a cultural tradition from two thousand years ago — it doesn't need to be observed in the same form today." Sensing he was unconvinced, I said: "Go and read these passages — Romans 16:16, 1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:26, and 1 Peter 5:14. If you can find a church that actually practices that teaching, would you be going there to receive blessing?"

I have my own example of insisting on a "method" at the expense of relationship. A brother who had come from mainland China was not comfortable with the modern translation we used in our gatherings and suggested we switch to the Union Version. I asked him why, and he said: "Everything I've memorized is from the Union Version — it's what I'm used to." I felt his reason wasn't sufficient and did not agree to his request. Whether that affected our relationship, he probably knows better than I do.

Jenny has told me on many occasions: "In communication, words and language carry far less weight than body language, tone, and facial expression." For someone like me — a Type Five — this is genuinely difficult to accept. The truth is, my reluctance to accept this view runs deeper than mere disagreement: it is more of a defense mechanism. I do not want to admit that I am relatively weak in this area, so I dismiss her perspective instead. Yet even a moment's observation and reflection reveals the obvious — communication truly is an art, one that requires deliberate learning and sustained practice.

The statement in the weekly goal captures it well: practice meeting different viewpoints with a generous and humble heart. But to actually do this still requires being conscious — otherwise old habits will simply carry us along, and we will find ourselves clinging stubbornly to our familiar ways. There is no shortage of lessons still to be learned here.

06/16/2026

Mind & Will Growth Camp · Week 7, Day 1

Orientation — Understanding the "Self-Transforming Mind"

The word translated "repent" in Mark 1:15 (μετανοέω) means, most directly, to change one's mind.

Infants have feelings but no thoughts. In the same way, those who remain emotionally infantile find it nearly impossible to change their minds — because they do not think. For Esau, famished and desperate, only that "red stuff" could satisfy his immediate craving. What did a birthright matter to him? Similarly, our generation was never taught how to think. So when many people encounter a viewpoint different from what has been instilled in them, they ignite instantly — like an oversized infant.

Young children see only what they want. Likewise, people who are self-centered and driven by personal gain find it nearly impossible to change their minds, because for them the goal is to "gain the whole world" — and interest is everything. A classic example is the young, wealthy, well-educated official who, though he felt a genuine spiritual longing and came running to kneel at the Lord's feet, could not bring himself to let go of his possessions.

We have largely forgotten everything we went through during our adolescent years. Teenagers actually face enormous peer pressure, and emotionally sensitive young people can be deeply wounded in this season. But even in adulthood, relational pressure continues from every direction — above, below, and on all sides. Even a "mighty dragon" like Pilate could not easily overcome the local stronghold of the chief priests. Even those as spiritually seasoned as Peter and Barnabas played the hypocrite when representatives from the mother church arrived (Galatians 2:12–13).

When I was a child, something my father used to say left a deep impression on me: "You may have a thousand arguments — I have my old way of thinking." That is a portrait of the self-authoring mind, impervious to outside influence.

Romans 12:2 says "do not conform to the pattern of this world" — but the literal rendering is: "Do not be shaped by this age" — passive voice. Paul also warns against remaining like children, blown and tossed by every wind of erroneous teaching (Ephesians 4:14).

Yet if a person does not know that their own thinking is mistaken — like Caiaphas (John 11:49) — then even holding firm to their convictions and persuading others will ultimately place them in opposition to reality. The Church once insisted on geocentrism, but eventually had no choice but to change its mind and acknowledge its error.

And every one of us who has come to faith has had to go through this very process: laying down our pride, acknowledging our ignorance, and changing our minds. Indeed, the "renewal of your mind" spoken of in Romans 12:2 is precisely a call to continually change the way we think. Seen from this angle, the ongoing practice of changing one's mind is what it means to cultivate a self-transforming mind.

Everyone has changed their mind at some point — for various reasons. In other words, changing one's mind is a universal human experience, but the motivation behind it can vary enormously. When a person changes their mind under pressure, that is a passive, involuntary response — not the kind of "self-transformation" we are exploring here.

The self-transforming mind, as we are using the term, refers to a person's active, conscious choice — for the sake of a goal that transcends the self — to relinquish their own rights or revise their own thinking. One key to cultivating this kind of mind is to humbly acknowledge the limits of our own cognition and mental frameworks. Like contemporary "blind men touching an elephant," this recognition draws us toward humility.

The Scriptures actually offer many examples that can help us expand our mental frameworks. If you are interested in exploring this further, you may enjoy a short book: Shift to Complexity: Breaking Dualism & Embracing Paradox (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F711GJK6).

06/14/2026

Mind & Will Growth · Week 6, Day 6

Looking Ahead: Continuing to Take Root, Bearing Fruit Without Ceasing

Proverbs 3:5 is telling us to break free from the habitual pattern of "I think..." and turn instead toward "It is written..."

Imagine how Lu Ban (the legendary master craftsman) might have trained his apprentices—teaching them with words, demonstrating through action, and correcting their mistakes. In a similar way, how does God shape a person into His likeness? By having that person keep His word firmly in mind, meditate on it day and night, and carefully put it into practice.

To borrow a phrase that was once widely used: if we "engrave His word in our minds, let it dissolve into our bloodstream, and carry it out in our actions," then His Word will be made visible through our very bodies. In this sense, we too can say, "It is no longer I who live, but He who lives in me."

During my first semester in seminary, one of my professors had us meditate on a single verse each week (not each day). This was somewhat like Ezekiel 3:2—except that we "ate" considerably less. If we only read or memorize without meditating, it's like eating food without digesting it; it does little real good for our souls.

Even so, even after the word has been engraved and has dissolved into us, it still needs to be expressed in action. This sounds simple—it's just "Stop, See, Think, Act"—but actually carrying it out is difficult, because we are so accustomed to our old patterns, and often go through the day on autopilot without a second thought. This is precisely why the awakening of the soul, and remaining watchful, matter so much.

The one insight from this week that I most want to hold onto comes from Day 4, in the "Observe and Reflect" section of the "Spiritual Guidance": being careful of our tendency to insist on being right at the expense of relationships. The concrete step I'm taking is this: I've stuck a small note on the screen in front of me with the four-step method "Pause-Perceive-Ponder-Practice" written on it, as a constant reminder to stay watchful.

06/13/2026

Week 6 Day 5

Transcendence — Holding Fast to Love, Rooted in Truth

Whether it is "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15) or "love... rejoices with the truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6), both place "love" and "truth" together, rather than separating them. This is quite different from how many people understand "love."

Many assume that "love" = "bears all things... endures all things" = having no principles—but this is a misunderstanding. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 is a unified whole, with its various components complementing one another. The relationship between them is "both/and," not mutually exclusive "either/or."

In the past, because of my role as a pastor, I spent most of my time teaching and exhorting; whenever a theological disagreement arose, I almost always cited Scripture and sought to persuade the other person. Over time, it became easy to slip into an "autopilot" mode of always being right, with little conscious effort to deny myself or to speak words that build others up.

Only in recent years have I begun learning to speak in a different way. To be learning how to speak even at the age of sixty (耳順之年) is truly humbling. But thinking of Moses's experience brings a sense of release. As long as one realizes the need to keep learning and growing, it isn't too late—and at the same time, it's an opportunity to grow in humility.

For me, the key lies in "pausing"—that is, consciously pausing before expressing a different opinion or holding to one's position—to listen, observe, reflect, and then respond. The trip two weeks from now, whether meeting with relatives and friends or attending the CCCOWE conference, will be a good opportunity for intentional practice.

Be watchtfu!

06/12/2026

Mind & Will Growth Camp · Week 6, Day 4

Using the Four-Step Method to Calibrate Choices

Moses's reluctance and God's guidance took place after Moses had lived forty years in the wilderness. By that point, he had already passed through two-thirds of his life. If a person today can live to 81, then two-thirds of that is 54; if a person can live to 90, two-thirds is 60. Who would have thought that at such an age, an entirely new life and a new beginning could start?

When Moses was forty (the equivalent of 27/81 or 30/90), he was at the height of youthful vigor. At that time, he not only held a special status and position, but also possessed learning and ability (Acts 7:22). Precisely because of this, he believed he could rescue his people by his own strength—and as a result, he became a wanted murderer. That was the "old Moses."

During the forty years in the wilderness, his only companions were his wife, his children, and sheep. Perhaps because he had so few people to talk with, he rarely spoke—and even developed a stutter. But it was precisely because of this that the "old self" formed during his first forty years had truly died. By this time, he no longer had ambition or aspirations; all he had was a quiet life and the daily work of tending flocks. And it was precisely for this reason that God called him out to serve.

Not long after I came to faith, I drew a lesson from this account. My understanding at the time was this: if He calls you to do something, it's best not to make excuses or hesitate, because that is to fail to appreciate the honor being given, and it is also a failure to trust His judgment. One should agree without hesitation, and then move forward according to His leading to do what He calls you to do. Ever since I responded to His call, I have never looked back, because whoever keeps looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62).

When God calls someone to do something, it is, in fact, for the purpose of training them—and at the same time, testing them. Those who are called should not complain, and even more so, should not harbor doubts. Imagine: if Lang Lang or Yuja Wang offered to teach a child piano, how should that child respond to the teacher's instruction and demands?

Moses's second forty years were a time when the "new man" continued to grow. Through the refining of the first forty years, his raw temperament had been thoroughly worn away. By this point, he was like a blank sheet of paper, on which God could paint the most beautiful picture—shaping him into a leader who would later be revered by an entire nation. Although Moses was not perfect, and although he did not get to enter the land of Canaan during his lifetime, in the end he became, alongside Elijah, a representative of the Law and the Prophets, speaking face to face with the Son of God on the mountain (the Transfiguration).

What fraction of your life do you think you have already lived through? If you haven't yet reached two-thirds, what do you expect God's guidance to look like for the final third of your life? And how will you respond to His heart and purpose?

That statement is true: do not be afraid; only believe.

Morning Star Awakening Center

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