JESUS: the greater kobe

Every kid who has ever grown up in SoCal watched the Lakers. And when the Lakers played on the road, every kid watched it on KCAL9 (for those of us w/o cable, away games were the only thing we had haha). At dinner time, my family used to watch Stu Lantz & Co. commentate the games as Kobe and the Lakers battled it out on the other team's home court. Oh there were exciting games...where the Lakers and the opposing team seemed like they were tied throughout the whole night. Sometimes you never knew who would win. They would trade baskets--a fadeaway shot for a fadeaway shot, a block for a block, a dunk for a dunk, and a fastbreak for a fastbreak. It was a straight up battle!~ Who will win? But I already knew...

Haha here's the catch: KCAL9 was never in real-time. The away games in the East Coast were always recorded and then played back at dinner time in Los Angeles. So I would always check on espn.com to see who won that night (they had already played 3 hours ago), and then I would watch the game.  At times I would get so consumed by the game that I would totally forget the Lakers had already won earlier in the day.  But then I would remember. Even though some of the games got close, even when the Lakers looked hopelessly doomed to lose, I knew the final result already. I knew that in the end, the Lakers would pull it off. Some say that's no fun? Well, it was fun for me. :)

Recently I've been getting mad spiritually attacked. Sometimes I wonder, will God rescue me from this? Will I ever escape suffering? I feel so overwhelmed, I wonder if I will just end up giving up... just succumbing to sin. It's definitely a spiritual battle and it can be disheartening at times. Satan comes at me with full force: pride, anger, lust, apathy, you-name-it. But you know what comforts me? I already know I win. Because Jesus defeated Satan, sin, and death at the cross. So I cry out, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the VICTORY through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." [1 Cor. 15:55-58]  So remember brothers and sisters, if you feel like you're being attacked, like there's no way out, nor any way for victory. Remember... we already have victory. In Christ. :) Never forget that.

p.s. - I used to try to trick my brother by betting him money on who would win (when I already knew the score). Hehehe. But dangit, he never fell for it...

"Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!" David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands." [1 Samuel 17:44-47]

the POTTER and the clay

I took ceramics for two years in high school. Got all the way to Advanced Ceramics (ooohh~), but my teacher got angry at me because all I ever made were pots. Pots, pots, pots. The same size, the same cylinder shape, the same style. Haha I never moved on from that, but hey, I was damn good at makin' those pots.

When you're on that wheel (the spinning thingy where you make pots), it's important to keep the clay wet. When the clay gets dry, it becomes hard--and it's extremely difficult to mold. It doesn't make the shape you want it to make. Sometimes it takes a prolonged period of soaking to get the clay moist again if it's been out there too long. And in some cases, the clay is so hard and brittle that you just have to start over with a new piece of clay.

God is the Potter. I am the clay. When I'm soaked in the Living Water, I easily surrender to God's will for me. God can use me so effortlesslly and I'm joyfully willing to do anything for Christ. But oftentimes my heart becomes dry and hard. The Bible is like water, and the more I immerse myself in it, the softer my heart gets. Yet right now I feel like my heart of clay is so hard. It's dry. It's brittle. So change my heart oh God, make it ever true. Change my heart oh God, may I be like You. You are the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.

This is my prayer. But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. [Isaiah 64:8] Soften my heart Lord. Saturate it with the Word. Fill me up with the Holy Spirit. Or heck, even throw out my heart of stone and give me a new heart.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. [Jeremiah 18:1-6]

70 x 7

The NUMBERS of FORGIVENESS.

for I am not ASHAMED of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes [romans 1:16]

"If a lame man laughs at you for walking upright—will you therefore limp?" [Thomas Watson]

However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. [1 Peter 4:16]

so i WONDER...

1) If you had never seen/heard of a church, religion, Christian institution... And someone gave you a Bible--after reading it, would the Church look like what it is today? Would Christianity look like what it is today?

2) If everyone at church was just like you, what would it look like?

HIGHSCHOOL dances

Remember all those dances in high school? Homecoming dance, Backwards dance, Sadies, Prom, etc. Ooh~ I used to just love them. And I still remember, we would all dress up nice with our TJ Max suits and go out to eat in some fancy 2-star restaurants. Then we'd come back to school, to find our North Gymnasium decorated and transformed to the appropriate theme. We would check in our coats/shoes with the teachers, and then run off into the dark, misty, strobe-lighted, music-blaring dance world.

The young little 13-17 year olds that we were--my friends and I always came in thinkin' like we were the hot shots, the studs. It was always, how many girls can you dance with tonight? How low can you get? Watch this new move.~ What's the maximum number of girls you can dance with at the same time? Look how dangerously low my hands go. Hey bro I need backup my legs are getting tired. Haha there was more bumping and grinding than the 405 freeway during traffic hour. But it was oh so fun! Until suddenly....it ended. Oh it always came so abruptly.

As we were dancing and freakin', the teachers would always turn on all the lights in the Gym to make us leave. It was such a rude awakening. The music was still blaring, but the fun was gone. You got to see everyone's sweaty oily faces. With the lights on you realized you were in the North Gymnasium, not some fancy nightclub. Suddenly dancing didn't look so cute when all the lights were on. Eww. And the girls felt awkward with everyone visible. Hahaha. I remember those times...

I feel like sin is the same way. In darkness, sin is oh so fun. No worries, no shame. It's all fun and games walking in the darkness. Until BOOM. You're reading the Bible and God turns on that proverbial "light switch". Suddenly the light hits you like a roundhouse kick to the face. Just like when King David was in sin with Batsheba, and then wabam! God reveals to him his sin using the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 12. Gotcha! David says in Psalm 90:8, "You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence." Hahaha I hate it and I love it. My prayer: Lord reveal to me the hidden sins of my heart.

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [2 Corinthians 4:4-6]

i wish all those cute bunnies would eat all those ridiculously colored eggs and get sick and never show up again for EASTER

Bunnies and Egg Hunts are a myth. But I recently discovered a recurring Christian myth about Easter:

On Sunday I heard an advertisement on KFSH 95.9 fm that said, "Come join us on the holiest day of the year for a special concert at ___ Church." 

Holiest day of the year?! How is Easter holier than any other day?! Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. [Romans 6:8-11]  In Christ we are no longer dead to sin but alive to God. And that means every single day we are crucified with Christ. Every single day we take up our cross. Once for all Christ was resurrected, which means every single day our souls are counted perfectly holy because of the perfect blood of the Lamb.

Easter ain't any holier. However... it should still be special. As humans, we forget so easily that if we don't have a special day to remember the resurrection, we probably wouldn't do it anyways. We often say Jesus died for us, He died for us, died for us. But we often forget Jesus was resurrected. 

All the difference in the world lies in this one question: Was the tomb empty? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:14, "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." The entire Christianity could be disproved and dismantled by one historical event. If the resurrection never happened, Christianity would mean nothing. Brother, your life would mean nothing. But it did happen. And the world was changed forever. Everything matters because of the resurrection. So remember that this week.

On that note, I'll leave you with this from N.T. Wright:

The message of the resurrection is that this world matters! That the injustices and pains of this present world must now be addressed with the news that healing, justice, and love have won... If Easter means Jesus Christ is only raised in a spiritual sense--[then] it is only about me, and finding a new dimension in my personal spritual life. But if Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, Christianity becomes good news for the whole world--news which warms our hearts precisely because it isn't just about warming hearts. Easter means that in a world were injustice, violence and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things--and that we will work and plan, with all the energy of God, to implement victory of Jesus over them all. Take away Easter and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christanity of ignoring problems of the material world. Take it away and Freud was probably right to say Christanity is wish-fulfillment. Take it away and Nietzsche probably was right to say it was for wimps.

too holy for that SIN stuff

Ye whose love is fervent, whose faith is constant, whose hopes are bright, say not, "We shall never sin," but rather cry, "Lead us not into temptation." There is enough tinder in the heart of the best of men to light a fire that shall burn to the lowest hell, unless God shall quench the sparks as they fall.

[C.H. Spurgeon]

hUrriCANe ENDURE

So last night my Dad was dropping me off at school and we had a nice little conversation in the car. I was telling him how I get busier and busier every quarter, and that I don't know how I could possibly add more to my already overflowing plate. He laughed and replied get ready--life gets progressively more difficult. There's no threshold that once you pass a certain level, it's all smooth sailing. There's always going to be more responsibility, more bills, more relationships, more ministry, more everything. To sum it up my Dad said "Young man... Life never gets easier." And then he started laughing again "You'll see, you'll see..."

Haha. I feel like our Christian life is exactly the same. I hear many new Christians (including myself) ask, "When does this Christian life get any easier?" The answer: never. Atleast not until we die. I feel like in many ways, the Christian life is like a HURRICANE. Hurricanes are weakest on the outskirts, and get stronger as you go in. The strongest point is right outside the eye of the hurricane, aka the eyewall. The eyewall is a circle of strong thunderstorms that surrounds the eye; here is where the greatest wind speeds are found, where clouds reach the highest, and precipitation is the heaviest. The heaviest wind damage occurs where a tropical cyclone's eyewall passes over land.

Imagine you live on an island and a hurricane is projected to pass above where you are. At first, the sky gets gray and the breeze starts picking up. Then the palm trees start shakin' and it starts raining cats and dogs. Soon you see roofs getting torn off so you hide in your flooded basement. The winds are howling, the sky is dark, and the rain feels like bullets. When will it end? Until you hear silence...you walk outside to see the most eerily beautiful tranquility you've ever dreamed.

Our lives will only get tougher. Suffering will only increase. But Jesus says, "the one who endures to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24:12). So stand firm brethren. And don't worry, Jesus promises us at the end of Matthew, "behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Hang on tight, we'll get to the eye soon. Where perfect peace and tranquility await. No more tears, no more sorrows.

Eye hope to see Christ soon.

"being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" [Philippians 1:6]

Currently listening to:

There Will Be A Day

Jeremy Camp