Monday, July 30, 2012
FLOURISH
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God... This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [1 John 4:7-11]
Friday, July 27, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
a million little PIECES
Thursday, June 7, 2012
the saying is TRUSTWORTHY
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
RING by SPRING
"When over the years someone has seen you at your worst, and knows you with all your strengths and faults yet commits him- or herself to you wholly, it is a consummate experience. To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us." [Tim Killer]
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
#YOLO
Hey man I don't think you should hook up with that girl, what if she has STDs or something. Whatevers, YOLO!
You sure you could drive drunk? I dunno who cares, YOLO!
#YOLO - You Only Live Once. A phrase commonly used (and shouted) to defend an incredibly reckless and often idiotic action you are about to commit.
It's a cultural phenomenon. So ingrained in today's generation that oftentimes even I find myself thinking (sometimes shouting) this phrase, and doing certain things that I regret either the next day or whenever I sober up. Looking back I think to myself, "Wow that could've been really bad." Not only that, I realize it's so stupid in relation to the bigger picture of eternity. Our time on earth dictates where and how we will spend the all of eternity, which in our feeble, short-sighted minds we can't even begin to imagine. All we see and live for is this 70-100 years on earth--and actually, we don't even know if we will live to see tomorrow. All in the name of "F it. I need to experience it all. Here and now.~". Often forgetting it determines our fate in being in perfect joy with the Lord or in agonizing misery, for years on years with no end.
Yes, You Only Live Once. So let's make it count. Don't get caught up. Let us live eternally minded. Let us live for the Lord.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
men are like TRUCKS
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
24 years of grace
Friday, January 13, 2012
SINister minister
Sunday, January 1, 2012
2011: Growing Pains
Monday, November 14, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
EX·CRU·CI·AT·ING
Monday, August 29, 2011
he is JEALOUS for you
Saturday, August 13, 2011
REALITY check
CNN then asked Vaughn's grandmother to speak about Aaron. She recalled their last conversation together, when she told him to be careful. Aaron replied, "Granny, don't worry about me. I'm not afraid because I know where I'm going if something happens to me.' Aaron was a Christian and he stood firm in his faith," she said, her voice heavy with emotion. "He's with the Lord now and I'll see him again some day."
Friday, July 8, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
what the HELL?
I recently heard about this guy who approached a pastor and asked, "God’s so powerful and so good, why does bad stuff happen?"
The pastor replied, "I’m not going to answer the question, until you ask it correctly."
So the guy says, "How do I ask it correctly?"
And the pastor answers:
Here’s how you ask that question properly. You look me in my eyes and you ask me this. How on earth can a holy and righteous God, know what I did and thought and said yesterday and not kill me in my sleep last night. You ask it that way and we could talk.
But until you ask the question that way, you don’t understand the issue. Until you ask the question that way you believe the problem is out there. Until you ask the question that way, you believe that there are somehow, some individuals, who in and of themselves deserve something other than the wrath of almighty God. Until you ask me the question that way, until you flip the script and say “Why is it that we are here today, why has he not consumed and devoured each and every one of us? Why oh God does your judgment and your wrath tarry?” When you ask it that way, you understand the issue.
When you ask it the other way you believe in the supremacy of man. How dare God not employ his power on behalf of almighty Man. You flip the question around and you believe the supremacy of Christ. How dare I steal His air, because the last breath I took I borrowed it from Him…
We don't deserve anything. God doesn't owe us anything. YET, Christ still chose to love us and sacrifice Himself for us. That's what makes GRACE so amazing. Instead of asking, how can a loving God send people to hell, what about asking how can a perfectly holy and just God not send a sinner like me to hell? How can the almighty, sovereign God love me and even die on the cross for ME? It's a humbling thought. Don't cheapen GRACE.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
MISSION impossible
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
yet not YOUR will, but MINE be done
Monday, September 28, 2009
jesus had a POTTY MOUTH
Monday, July 6, 2009
PHILIPPIANES 2:9
Sunday, June 28, 2009
for though a righteous falls seven times, he RISES again... [proverbs 24:16]
I used to unleash my fury on the Bobo Doll with flying kicks, reverse kicks, scissor kicks, karate chops, 15-punch combos, my yellow plastic baseball bat, and even wrestling moves. And just when I had thought "Surely this time I hit him hard enough" or "He'll never rise again"... Just when I thought I had finally defeated this balloon baffoon... I would turn around, only to see it slowly rising and giving me that annoying smile again, as happy as ever...
"Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me,'Where is the Lord your God?' My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets." [Micah 7:8-10]
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
if i'm the HUNDREDTH sheep, then...
Monday, June 22, 2009
the real PROSPERITY gospel
That's called grace my friends. When we deserved nothing, Christ died for us while we were still sinners. He gave us eternal life, eternal joy, and eternal love. The King of Kings has made us His children so let's live like we are sons and daughters of the most high God! Quit living as if this world could offer you everything. As C.S. Lewis would put it:
"Our lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are half hearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday by the sea."
Let's live like we're millionaires, amen?! We're owed nothing, and we've received everything! What's holding you back? The Apostle Paul writes that "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." [2 Cor. 9:8] God already loves us perfectly, and He has already given us everything we need. Money, sex, popularity, it all means nothing. Maybe in this lifetime we won't make too many Benjamins, but we sure are rich in our hearts. Better believe it. Now live like it.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
our FATHER deserves a little more than a hug
Saturday, June 20, 2009
how to lose a faith in 10 DAYS
Friday, May 22, 2009
they say the difference between HEAVEN and HELL is 11 INCHES
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
to HYMN be the glory - come thou fount of every blessing
Thursday, May 7, 2009
the day JOHNNY CASHed in everything he had for CHRIST
In early October 1967, Cash hit rock bottom. He said, “I never wanted to see another dawn. I had wasted my life. I had drifted so far away from God and every stabilizing force in my life that I felt there was no hope for me.” At that point Johnny Cash climbed his way into a Tennessee cave with one thing in mind: suicide. And then he found Jesus again. Johnny describes in his own words:
From His side it came down
From His feet it came down
And ran to the ground
Between heaven and hell
A teardrop fell in the deep crimson dew
The tree of life grew
And the blood gave life
To the branches of the tree
And the blood was the price
That set the captives free
And the numbers that came
Through the fire and the flood clung to the tree
And were redeemed by the blood
From the tree streamed a light
That started the fight 'round the tree grew a vine
On whose fruit I could dine
My old friend Lucifer came
Fought to keep me in chains
But I saw through the tricks
Of six-sixty-six
And the blood gave life
To the branches of the tree
And the blood was the price
That set the captives free
And the numbers that came
Through the fire and the flood clung to the tree
And were redeemed by the blood
From His hands it came down
From His side it came down
From His feet it came down
And ran to the ground
And a small inner voice said "You do have a choice."
The vine engrafted me and I clung to the tree
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
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
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
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
Monday, April 20, 2009
the POTTER and the clay
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.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
for I am not ASHAMED of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes [romans 1:16]
However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. [1 Peter 4:16]
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
so i WONDER...
2) If everyone at church was just like you, what would it look like?
Monday, April 13, 2009
HIGHSCHOOL dances
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
i wish all those cute bunnies would eat all those ridiculously colored eggs and get sick and never show up again for EASTER
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
too holy for that SIN stuff
Monday, April 6, 2009
hUrriCANe ENDURE
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]