Sunday, January 16, 2011
thoughts
really praying for my church and myself. recall from my baptism class--about half of those in my baptism class don't even go to church anymore. really praying that God will bring them back. sorta depressing, but pressing on, knowing that God can do miracles.
Pastor John preached this morning about the the worship empowered by the Holy Spirit. really hoping we can later in the futre have ministry time where we lay hands on one another, seeing the power of the holy spirit.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Daily Thoughts
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
A Lesson from an Older Guy
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Reflection
Monday, February 1, 2010
Yes and No
I'm sure many of you would be upset if your friends are constantly canceling on you after agreeing for the hundredth time to meet up, especially if its for a school or work project.
The converse is the same: if a friend says no, but ends up changing their mind. It's a pleasant surprise, is it not? They say they won't come to your graduation ceremony, but end up freeing up their schedule and making it in time just brings a smile to your heart.
Jesus actually tells a parable about something like this back in the halcyon days of Ancient Jerusalem:
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Matthew 21 (Biblegateway.com), NLT:
28 “But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway. 30 Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But he didn’t go.
31 “Which of the two obeyed his father?”
They replied, “The first.”h]">[h]
Then Jesus explained his meaning: “I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do. 32 For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins.
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I used to think that this was a passage about obedience; and it is to a certain extent. Whenever my parents, friends, or authorities would ask me a favor/request, I would do my best to somehow finish the task, regardless of my verbal agreement or refusal to do so.
This morning, however, as I read, I couldn't believe how blatantly I missed Jesus' true meaning of his parable: salvation and the Kingdom of God.
Here is a short, simplistic breakdown:
1. There are many "sons" of God who say "yes" to God, but refuse to go out into the field and work for the Kingdom.
2. There are also many sons of God who say "no" to God, but end up obeying because they change their mind.
3. There are NO sons of God who willingly say "yes" to God and enthusiastically labor for the Kingdom.
Wow!!!! This is unbelievably convicting and true. Jesus isn't trying to discourage the Christian body and our efforts to follow Him. He is saying that it is naturally against our flesh to obey God.
Paul infamously wrote in Romans how his flesh often makes him do the things he does not want to do, and don't do what he wants to do. Jesus is acknowledging the sinful nature of man and granting grace! The first son refused to do so, but the father did not persist! This is our God, friends! He doesn't force us to do anything. The pursuit of holiness is through work of the Holy Spirit living inside of us, which changes our mind.
Jesus is saying that he KNOWS you won't say "yes." Actually, he probably knows you'll say "no" when he tells you to stop doing your work or errands to evangelize to that person standing in line/sitting across from you. But in the end, even though you initially outright refused, YOU are the son he wants. As I said before, he is just so pleasantly "surprised" that you ended up obeying! God is so good.
On the other hand, there are the Christians who follow #2. We think saying "yes" one time to Jesus is good enough. A sinner's prayer, one mission trip, and reading our Bible once a month is satisfactory. Shouting "OH YEAH! I'M SO GONNA DO THAT!!" every time a preacher challenges you at church is not what brings the fruit (which is the context of chapter 21). Just like Jesus says in v31 and v32, we are missing the Kingdom because of our religious spirit and practices.
Haha, but guess what's amazing? Jesus says "the [sinners] will enter the Kingdom BEFORE you." Does that mean we won't enter at all? By no means! It means that the church rats who play games with God and Christianity will/probably know what it means to have true salvation eventually, but they will be much slower in getting it. After all, there were a few Pharisees, Roman centurions, and other "pagans" who grasped the concept of the Cross and salvation through Jesus!
Isn't God unbelievably gracious?
Friday, January 15, 2010
Apnea
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All throughout my childhood and adolescent years, the guys would always pick on the individuals who would fall asleep first at sleepovers and snore loudly. I still have a collection of hilarious pranks caught on video and silly pictures that were elaborately set up. Ah, the memories of rudely taking advantage of my poor slumbering friends. Good times. I don't know what exact the reason is, but I simply find listening to people snore incredibly amusing. Even now, I periodically giggle while typing as my good friend Jensen is grunting away on my bed.
Not too long ago, I learned in my Psychology class that snoring was merely a combination of improper sleeping posture combined with heavy nasal cavity pressure which emits a distorted sound of breath. The professor, Prof. Dickinson, also noted that the compression that is created through the throat actually interrupts our cardiac rhythm for a temporal period of time whenever the snoring bursts would occur. In other words, the heart skips a beat. This puts immense pressure on the heart and, over time, can be cause of nocturnal heart failure (dying while asleep).
When I heard this, I did not think much of its spiritual significance. After all, many people wish to die in their sleep to avoid a painful death. However, I felt the Lord telling me that many common church goers today are not only falling asleep, but also snoring away. We are unaware of what is going on around us and the enemy laughs at us. We are no threat to the kingdom of darkness! When a bunch of weak, comfortable, slumbering Christians get together to worship and warfare against Satan, it's equivalent to a bunch of 5'5 guys trying to out-jump a 6'0 guy in Jr High basketball (True story. I actually managed to get a solid 12 pts and 10 rebounds that game though!).
It's a joke.
And that's what our faith has come down to. Christianity today has since become a punchline for cinema, comedians, and books; dismissed as uneducated, ignorant, and judgmental. And the worst part is that as we're being lulled into this deep coma, we are not even aware that our hearts are slowly weakening!
Well, we aren't the only ones. The disciples (haha, these guys are so funny) struggled with sleeping too. When Jesus was praying in Gethsemane, he was interceding with all heart and mind to the point where he was sweating blood (that must have been one intense session with the Lord, but that's another topic for another post). As Jesus wept and cried out to His Father, his loyal disciples were snoozin'! Unbelievable!
I mean, think about it: The disciples publicly VOWED that they will stay loyal and defend Jesus' honor to the death. Jesus took a select few of his disciples, the cream of the crop (Peter & crew), into the last and most critical phase of prayer in Gethsemane before the ultimate plan of crucifixion that would ensure the salvation of all mankind--and these guys decide to take a nap?! LOL! Can these guys get anything right?
Unfortunately, this is a perfect picture of American Christianity today. Jesus is constantly praying and interceding for the nations. What are we doing? We are off in our careers, academics, and own interests in order to benefit our families, our friends and ourselves. It is so easy for us Christians to doze into our religious form of Christianity with little to no fruit. And when we get become hypnotized by the enemy into only caring about our own matters, we won't have the power to influence others'.
Satan ain't a fool--he won't directly confront the saints in face-to-face combat. He fights dirty and attacks when you least expect it. We must, as it says in Isaiah 62, become like watchmen on the tower who gets no rest. Samson wasn't taken captive while he was awake, but rather when he was asleep!
It's time for the church to WAKE UP!
...and, while we're at it, make a trip to the sleep clinic to get one of those snoring mouth guards.
Monday, January 4, 2010
New year, new decade
2010, for me, will be the start of my 20s. By 2020, I will be hitting 30 years of age and the very thought of me being 30 is scary, considering that I am finally managing to close my teenage years. May God take me and you on a wonderful journey for the next 10 years to stay strong in His presence and love!
I do have a few resolutions, but to summarize, I simply want to continue to pursue the destiny God has called me to and not the one that others expect of me. I also will continue attempting to enforce a time schedule on my life with conjunction to Mike Bickle's The Power of a Focused Life.
The past 10 years have been extremely hard on the church and they are only going to get harder. Many pastors, prophets, and preachers believe that the upcoming decade will show who truly remains in God and who simply goes to church for the blessings and religion. This is not to point fingers, but to encourage those who play games with God to get serious and get moving. Time is of the essence. It doesn't take a physics engineer to figure out that the world is in chaos and danger of ending at any given moment.
On a more positive note, I believe that the grace of God will shower down even more heavily upon those who abide in Him. Favor unending will pour out like never before for Christians who serve God wholeheartedly and remain clean before him. Things like famine, recession, disease, and death will plague the body of Christ like never before, but the power and light of Jesus will shine through even brighter!
Keep praising the Lord and charge the throttle to full speed ahead! Pastor Grace Chiang described it as boarding the bullet train. There will be those who opt to freely riding the train to get to where they want and many who choose to bike everywhere and struggling with manual labor on a dirty piece of metal. I don't know about you, but if all I have to do is surrender everything to have God make everything easier sounds good to me!
All aboard!