IVLI/Awakening/NYC

Ah time for my super, duper awesome, long, updated post about my past 6 weeks!

Just kidding, I don't want to spend forever on my laptop so I'm gonna just churn out the thoughts as they come.

I'll talk specifically about prayer in all three of these places.

IVLI:
At IVLI, we had DPMs everyday. They would start at 5:30PM and go until 6:00PM. Dun Dun Dun...sounds like...our new prayer structure! The DPMs at IVLI merely modeled a little bit of what I liked to see in prayer meetings. More on why I chose this structure later.

Family groups (basically small groups) at IVLI would eventually lead two DPMs each. These DPMs were pretty structured; normally the meetings would include a person going up talking about praying for one thing which usually pertained to the morning and past evening session's topic. The people tried different styles of prayer such as conversational prayer within your family group, with your chapter, or with just random people you sat next to. They did FLOOD THE GATES, which is just "korean style" prayer. They did ACTS prayer. They did this one prayer which I forget what they called, but they gave everyone a notecard and pencil and they told everyone to just pray and whenever a distraction came to their mind, to just write it down. The purpose of it, I guess, was to help you see how many distractions come in a short amount of prayer and to help you think about how to focus during prayer.

So I asked around for how different campuses did prayer. Out of the entire camp of 90 campers....can you believe that I was only one of three prayer leaders? There were people who were anticipating how they would do prayer on their respective campuses, but there were only 3 official prayer coordinators. Crazy. Anyway, a lot of other campuses also do DPMs. U of I has a huge campus and separates their ministry into dorm groups. Each dorm group has a dorm group prayer meeting every sunday so that was the biggest corporate gathering of prayer that I found there. The most interesting prayer structure came from the College of Wooster. They called it Flash Prayer. The idea comes from a Flash Mob, where people get together online and schedule to do something collective usually through dance or just freezing in place in a public area for like 5 minutes together (UofM did one last year on the Diag). Basically, there was no set prayer meeting during the week. At the beginning of week, the leadership team would select one individual to lead a prayer meeting and during the week, that selected individual would text out to everyone, "Flash Prayer meeting at the Diag in an hour!" So you wouldn't know the date, time, or location until you get that text or get an invite on facebook the night before. The idea was to enforce the idea that prayer is spontaneous and you should be always ready to pray because of 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Wooster also had a DPM structure the year before but had a very low attendance. The girl told me that when they changed to Flash Prayer, the meetings would have several individuals show up, sometimes up to 20 (their chapter isn't really big, too). What she thought was awesome was that individuals not on leadership, even freshmen!, approached her later in the year to ask if they could lead a Flash Prayer meeting.

Several things about the prayer meeting I liked:
-spontanuity - continuously spontaneous (yeah I made that up). Yeah feed the 'P's! I'm not a P, but I enjoy doing things P :)
-Because they were so random during the week, they were kept short (they usually lasted around 20 minutes) so that people were actually able to make it out to them.
-Prayer in public because you would show up at the Diag and be praying outside and you could pray as a group for all the people walking through the area. It really feels like you're a part of the campus and that God is moving as you pray.

What I didn't like:
-I asked her if they started doing more than one Flash Prayer meeting a week and she said no. That's kinda disappointing because one twenty minute prayer meeting doesn't seem to encourage that we should actually be praying a lot more than just twenty minutes.
-Twenty minutes is a really short prayer meeting, especially if there's only one a week. Twenty minutes is definitely more doable one on one.

So yeah...that's my experience with prayer at IVLI...
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Chicago - Jesus Culture Awakening '11

So I didn't know that Jesus Culture from Bethel Church in Redding, California was part of the charismatic movement. The first day we went in for evangelism, they started talking about prophetic evangelism, word of knowledge and the alarm went off in my head hahahaha. I haven't looked too deeply into Scripture about spiritual gifts, but I am extremely weary since we have so many cessationists in our fellowship, I feel like I am just trying to find the Truth.

There was a lot of stuff on the Holy Spirit here 'cause that's basically what the charismatic movement is. I went with Jerry, Sam, and a friend from IVLI who also lives in Chicago. He brought a friend (her name is Santine) and they stayed over at Jerry's also. Both of them have gone to IHOP for the One Thing conference, but I also feel that they are in the same boat with me: both very weary, but also pursuing Jesus' heart and open for the Truth. They had been taught something called prophetic prayer from one of their mentors. The purpose of prophetic prayer is to pray over an individual and to let the Holy Spirit speak and to have you, their friend or random stranger, encourage them through what the Lord has to say to that individual. So it's to really build up and encourage each other because you are speaking words from God into their lives. This was extremely interesting because I wasn't sure if this was Biblical (which I still haven't found in the Bible after coming back), but they had some amazing testimonies about how encouraged they've felt in the past through prophetic prayer (I trust these two; the other 15,000 people in the stadium not so much). Many times, their friends would bring up something that they were struggling with in their life that they hadn't even shared with each other and their friends would speak encouragement for that struggle. They really felt that it took the connection with God to a new level because it really shows that God really, truly does know them and He loves them and wants to encourage them. They wanted to show me and Jerry so they prayed over us and they had us pray over them afterwards. Here's what they taught us:

-Empty your mind and invite the Holy Spirit in.
-Pray against distractions from Satan and pray that they Holy Spirit would speak uplifting words into the individual's life.
-Sit in silence. Whatever image crosses your mind, hold tight onto that image. Whatever shows up is usually good because it's usually things that you don't think of, even though they are probably every day things (race car, baseball, a seagull, etc.)
-Ask the Holy Spirit for interpretation
-When everyone has something, open your eyes and one person can describe what they saw and the interpretation they thought the Holy Spirit was impressing on them.

They said sometimes that the Holy Spirit would speak through all the individuals that were praying over the friend because there would be a theme in all the images that people got. Sometimes people would just get their own impressions of the person and they wouldn't be connected. Sometimes they got stuff and it just didn't make senese for the person. Here are my notes that I wrote down for their prayer over me:

-i'm a bear

God is the river

The current is the world

The fish are people

i'm clawing at the people but i'm unsuccessful

i need to dive head in, all-in, to catch the people

as i get more confident i move upstream

the current gets faster (maybe harder?) as i move upstream, but there's more fish where the current is faster

-i saw a river and that the river was God's love and I needed to dive all-in into God's love.

-jerry saw chinese characeters, maybe affirming a calling to go to China and stick with majoring in Chinese?

-Vince saw a plane lifting off and thinking of the fear of first riding on the plane for the first time; think of taking risks in the future. maybe pre-med? maybe following the Holy Spirit? 

all-in-all dive into God's love and when the time comes, take a risk with the Holy Spirit. 

-Vince saw a rocket ship going to the moon and thought of the word pioneering and paving the way for others

-Jerry affirmed that the chinese characters that he saw translated into the words "rocket ship"

*end notes

This was kind of a cool experience to try out. After we share all the images we have, we pray over that person to encourage them through what God had to say to them. That prayer was extremely significant; it really took encouragement to another level. I'm not saying this is right, especially since I have no Biblical evidence for this, but I'm saying we should be really open to hear some teachings on the Holy Spirit because we talk about it so little (especially in our fellowship). I understand our chapter doesn't want to take stances on such issues, but the Holy Spirit is what Jesus left us with (John 14, John 16) and to deny anything that comes from it is denying a huge part of our faith, I feel like.

But I think all in all, the fact was that we were praying for each other and I had just met these people, too. I don't think we, in our fellowship, pray for each other that often while we're together. I can only think of my DPMs because it was just me and Danielle. Praying together, for each other, is so encouraging and my hope is that we would have this prayer culture built up this year. 

So yeah...that was Chicago...

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NYC!

So I went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle! The pastor, Jim Cymbala, wrote a book called "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" and it's about how the Brooklyn Tabernacle started off with around 15 people in the church and how the church exploded through prayer and grew to it's current size of 10,000 people! I went to a Tuesday night prayer meeting, just like the ones described in his book that he wrote 15 years ago. It was a really structured meeting and I even took notes!

-Started off with praise and worship

-Shake hands and greet people (gender specific)

-Pastor Cymbala's talk on gossip

-Hold hands with person next to you to pray against gossip in the Church

-Hug people (gender specific)

-Pray specifically for one person (girl from Uganda here for heart surgery). One person prayed out loud while entire congregation shouted out amens and agreement

-Praise and worship (handed out prayer request cards for people; anonymous; dated; every card is different)

-Cards come from people submitting the requests themselves. 

Brooklyn Tabernacle is predominantly black so the worship was all Christian Contemporary Music (Chris Tomlin, Hillsong), but sang in a gospel version. The prayer was also very passionate. You'll notice that in my notes I talked about gender specificity. The pastor is very intentional that guys and girls do not undermine each other through their small interactions; he believes that prayer is a way into a person's heart and that praying together fuels a deep bond which is why we pray in gender specific groups. 

I stayed only for an hour; the meeting normally goes three hours I believe. As you can see, we got a lot done within only just an hour. All in all, it was a really great experience. It's awesome to see how structured how a prayer meeting can be at the large scale level (the theater seats around 3,200 people) so it's encouraging to know that structure is so much more manageable at our small scale level. 

Whew I guess it was a lot. 

Thankful that we can gather as we wish

Being home again reminds me of how lucky we are in Ann Arbor to be able to gather as we wish, sit down and begin praying out loud to God. The freedom that we have is a far cry from the oppression faced by the prophets and the church fathers we read so often in the Bible. So let's continuously thank God for letting us carry out all our AIV and Church activities freely. That is such a great gift and overshadows the structure and plans that we make to carry out those activities. We have surely invested alot of time thorough out the years until we have such a group called AIV, meetings called SG, DPM, LG, people appointed as leaders, events for NSO and so on. That all wouldn't have been possible if the society, government and school took an oppressive stance against what we believe in, Jesus our Lord and Savior.

Summer Outreach

Last week we conducted operation: freeze pop.

what is this you ask!?! WELL, LET ME TELL YOU! (reagan and andrew voice :)

it started with Lloyd and I going out on conversational evangelism (my first time!) and realizing that we need more ppl to do this...it's summer and people, for the most part, arent' cold outside or rushing to class. It's much more relaxing and easier to chat! So, bringing it up at the next prayer meeting...we realized we could give out freeze pops with flyers about BTB, especially to incoming freshman on orientation. What better way than to start the publicity NOW! We got alot of good conversations and people around campus for the summer etc..

Please be praying that we can continue this! Borrowing space for the freeze pops, finding materials/coolers, and the best pairing/plan of attack to effectively spread the word on campus!

Off to IVLI

Hey everyone,

I'm shippin' out to IVLI in the morning. Just wanted to leave a quick note before I left. I'm glad that this blog kept up with what it did and that everyone was keeping up with it. I hope you guys will continue to use it as an avenue to communicate with each other while I'm gone. I wish Jason Paul (if you stay) and Kelli Strong good luck for all the prayer meetings that they will lead in July. And for all of you, continue to intercede for our chapter and for our campus. Let us never be stagnant in our prayer and let us allow God to continue to work in our hearts as we pray for these things. K I hope everyone's time is well spent in July! Write to me, you shoulda got an email from me with an address in there. If you write, I will write back :) Peace.

-Mark

Korean(?) Style Prayer

Firstly, I don't really identify with the term 'Korean' style because I'm not from America and I've never heard of this term until Caleb mentioned it during the meeting. But I guess this is what a communal prayer where everyone is praying on their own at the same time is called here.

I believe the first time I experience this was sometime while I was attending the Assemblies of God Church back in Malaysia. I'm not sure if the AOG here is the same but I would presume so. I remember one event very clearly. My sister injured her knee or something and the people that ran the Sunday School decided to pray for her. That's the first time I saw what laying hands but I don't think I quite understood it then. I was about 10 at this time. So Ruth, a slim lady about 22-23 years old sat down with my sister on the floor and started praying and everyone started joining in and praying. Some out loud, some in their hears. The sight of this was somewhat amazing. Ruth you see, was kind of frail looking, always pale and never without her blue cardigan despite the hot weather in Malaysia. I sometimes wondered if she would just fall really sick and die. Not being in such a good shape herself I wondered how she could pray for others too, really believing that God can heal and with that, bringing others into prayer.

That was one event of the usual Charismatic flair that would occur at Church. When I'm praying with others, there are time when I really feel like praying outloud too. Praying outloud is something new to me because I never had the courage to do so until I joined small group last fall. Opening and closing a prayer is different, I mean praying outloud as in saying out all the things I'm saying to God in my heart at that moment of time. Here in AA, I had a couple, maybe 3 experience with a small prayer group where everyone was just praying outloud. Sometimes when I has things to say I'd join in, and when I had nothing to say, I'd listen to another person's prayer. I believe simply coming together to pray is something God really loves and I don't want to restrict anybody when they are compelled to pray. I pray that we're led by the Holy Spirit everytime we have a prayer meeting and if someone feels the Spirit is urging them to pray out I want them to be comfortable doing do. I also don't want them to feel awkward if we start going around in a circle and it comes to their turn. They shouldn't be praying because it's 'their turn'. I don't want them to be focused on coming up with a prayer either. I hope they can be relaxed and pray at their own pace and listen to prayers with a clear mind if they want to.

So I hope to lead my next and hopefully every prayer meeting this way. It doesn't matter if people pray outloud or not. I want to give everyone the freedom pray what their heart is calling out for. They can pray in their hearts if that is what they're comfortable with. And I will pray that they will have the courage to pray outloud if that is what the Spirit wants. I will just be praying and throwing out things I want to pray for as the meeting goes along. If there is someone who want to shout out praises that's great and if someone can play a worship song that's great too. I felt conversational prayer was awesome during small group but for the past week, the idea of something freer during a prayer meeting is just stuck in my head. All I need is for God to use me to gather people together in prayer and worship and I hope that God uses me to compel others to pray while I'm praying.

From Kelli: Finally

my first question is-where is jodi? did i miss something.. cuz i know she's in spain, but she has internet and such, no? and jimmy?

Sorry I've been MIA guys. my computer has so many downs since school got out and it's been a while for me to get it sorted out. Been trying to read all your guyses lovely posts, but that's been keeping me busy as it is!

just a little info on me: I'm staying in ann arbor this summer working at the hospital as a nurses' aid, solely by God's grace did I get this super de dooper job. So many great encounters with God and with the patients, though conflicted because the patient may say they believe, but then act horribly to the nurses. I know we are not perfect, but, for lack of a better way to put it, it looks bad on Christians. That's just the most recent story, there are many more good ones too :D

With work schedule, it's been a real time balance (having 3 12 hours days/week). I can honestly say I've been to every small group bible study! however, still need prayer/discipline for my own time with God. I've been making small steps such as downloading daily devotions apps on my itouch (since i'm on it so much as it is -.-) and journaling. Thanks guys for all the time you've already put into this blog! It's weird, but it makes me feel that we are all connected and thinking together, to an extent.

one point I'd like to make is the importance of sabbath. We read Hebrews 4 at sg this past week and It really struck me. I know all our sabbath's (-es?) are different, but what would a whole day of just listening to god and separating from the technology and distractions of people do for my spiritual life? This is especially do-able for me at least. Sadly I haven't put it into practice yet, but WHEN i do, y'all will be the firsts to know :D:D:D I really encourage you guys to do the same. we need to ENTER his presence and make every effort for Him.

AWESOME UPDATE. lloyd and I went and did contact evangelism on saturday. after lots of rejections, we met some really cool people and lloyd got a name to contact on fb with follow up and we met a phd student who just moved to aa from boston, hopefully he will be coming to some events over this summer etc. ps his name is jorge (hor-hey) pray for him!!! :]

ps- were we supposed to read a book/do fasting or something this summer? also, does everyone have oovoo? maybe we could attempt a group chat/prayer sometime! mainly with diane and caleb since idk about jodi. ESP before Mark leaves?! :D

Harvest Prayer Meeting

I just came back from Harvest's Prayer meeting. Wasn't planning on going initially even though Mark asked earlier in the Morning. Last minute God gave me some extra time and first thing I thought of was to go to the prayer meeting.

Still faithful

More than 2000 years later, we're still waiting for what the apostles probably thought will come during their lifetime. The hope that the day of the Lord will surely come remains. Aren't we amazed at the same hope we all share as we read about people who lived during days long gone.

Shawshank Redemption

So I just got back from watching "The Shawshank Redemption" at House China. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, it came just short of winning those awards because of "Forrest Gump". Just this past March, the film was rated as the favorite film by BBC Radio listeners which means this movie...is legit haha. 


The film starts with a flashback of a banker, Andy Dufresne, sitting in his car plotting the murder of his wife. Andy is on trial for the murder of his wife and her lover. He (nonchalantly) claims that he is innocent for the crime, appealing to a certain unfortunate series of events that "inconveniently" pointed to him as the murderer. The evidence is overwhelming and Andy is sent to the Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine with a back-to-back life sentence; two life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover. The main plotline of the film is the life that Andy spends inside Shawshank and how he uses the time that he spends in prison. It's a film that focuses on the fruits of hope and what a man (or woman :P) can do with time at his or her disposal. 


Why do I love this film so much? And why the heck am I writing about this on our prayer blog? Here's why:


1). Morgan Freeman. 

I like Morgan Freeman as an actor. Yeah in this picture he's God so it's kinda blasphemous to post this picture of him, especially on our blog, hahah but white is classy. Freeman plays the narrator (Red) in the movie. He was convicted a life time sentence at Shawshank at a very young age and he's the first friend that Andy makes. The movie develops the relationship of these two men as they spend years together at the Shawshank prison. I'm not a big movie critic or a judge on actors and actresses, but I'd have to say that Morgan Freeman does a helluva job in this one. 


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2). The Message of Hope


I have three questions to ask: How is hope defined in the Bible? Why do we hope? And what do we hope for as believers?


How is hope defined in the Bible? 

           "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."      

                    -Hebrews 11: 1

If we do some inductive (savvy) interpreting here, we can see that hope is that of which "we do not see" by a sort of transitive property; hope is the object of our uncertainty. The passage is defining what faith is and by its definition of faith, it depicts some of the characteristics of hope. As mentioned earlier, we hope for things we are uncertain about. If faith is what we are certain for, then hope is what underlies that idea; we hope for things that are uncertain, otherwise, it wouldn't be hope.


Why do we hope? 

"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith...If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."

 -1 Corinthians 15:14,19

I think we studied this passage in small groups during the first semester. It basically says, "Look, if Christ was never resurrected, all the things we're teaching you, all the things we sacrifice for, all the things we do, are useless. And because we do those things, we are 'to be pitied more than all men'." Why do we hope? Because Jesus' resurrection has given us a reason to believe in His Word and have a certain faith in His message of salvation.

What do we hope for?

"...But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure."

 -1 John 3:2-3

1. "But we know..." If we know that He will appear, then by our definition of faith (Hebrews 11:1), we also hope for his appearance. This hope is solidified into faith because His Word guarantees it. 
2. "Everyone who has this hope in him..." This hope is referring to the phrase before it - "...we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." We hope to be like God. If we are to "see him as he is" and as a result "be like him", then our desire or our hope is to be like God. 
3. "...this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." The fruit of the hope to be like in His image. We become pure, just like Jesus is pure.

**Honorable mention:

"But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation - if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel."

-Colossians 1:22-23 

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"Forget that...there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside...that they can't touch, that they can't get to...that's yours."

"What is that?"

"Hope" 

 -Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

These are the words that Andy spoke to Red after Andy explained how music is something that the walls of Shawshank couldn't take from inside of a person. I love this message of hope. I don't want to give away spoilers, but you can see how hope drives Andy in the movie. Andy's hope in the movie is to not let the prison get to him, to not be "institutionalized" as Red describes it. He settles his mind by helping people, like he did when he was a banker. He does their taxes, he builds up a new prison library, and he sculpts chess pieces out of rocks. Red observes that he did it "just to feel normal". 

We as believers here on earth have a hope for something. Something...bigger than the world. Something bigger than us; something bigger than what we know. And we are to set our hearts on it. 

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."

-Colossians 3:1-2

Our hope is for things above. We are hopeful for eternal life. We are hopeful to be like God. We are hopeful to be of God's image. God commands that we do not dwell on earthly things, but that we set our hearts and our minds on the things beyond what we know of here on earth.  Like Andy did, he set his hope on things that he knew that were beyond the walls of Shawshank. Somewhere inside of him, he knew that there was more to rocks and steel bars, even after each decade passed within the walls. And that hope drove him to live life inside behind bars. I think, as believers, we don't live life unless we have our hearts set on something we know is better than what surrounds us. We can't live without dwelling on the things above that God speaks to us about in His Word. 

"Better get busy living. Or get busy dying."

-Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

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3). Discipline

This is something I struggle reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeealz hard with. Not just spiritual discipline; discipline in general. Discipline of the body, discipline of the mind, discipline of the spirit. I believe discipline is a gift. Even though it is something possible for everyone to have, I believe discipline is a gift to individuals who use it well. 

Here's a crazy example of what discipline can do:

Read the description. 35 hours. On a pole. Imagine...imagine the discipline of both his body and mind that he had to have in order to stay up there for 35 hours. Cuh-razy. 

I've seen discipline work before my eyes and I've seen the fruit of that discipline. It's something hard to admit after you see the outcome; you simply don't want to face the truth sometimes: hard work pays off. 

I have a friend. Tall, built asian kid. Wasn't always that way. Entered high school just tall and skinny. Played for the football team in the fall, ran for the track team in the spring. He did hurdles with me; he was fast, but had pretty crappy form. The football team, as you all know, has offseason workouts for all the football players. This kid worked out everyday. Hard. Pushing himself in the gym, pushing himself in workouts, pushing himself in training. During the track season, he stretched hard (believe it or not, yes, you can stretch hard and you can just "reach"), he would stay after practices and ask for further advice on form, AND THEN hit the weight room (weight room not required during the season, especially during late season. Yeah...sprinters had it good). There wasn't a single year where I didn't hear kids talkin' behind his back like, "Why's he work so hard? It doesn't do him any good...he still sucks at football (don't know if this is true)" and "All he does is work out, doesn't he know it's not doing anything for him?" and "That kid works too hard for nothing." The result of his hard work? He cut his 110m hurdles time by a total of 3 seconds since his freshmen year to senior year. He holds the current 110m hurdles record at our school; he broke it at the end of his junior year and set his own record his senior year. He made states for the first time his junior year, was the regional champion for the 110m hurdles his senior year, and earned ALL-STATE just a week ago. Sorry to break his streak, but because he's visiting Korea for the summer, he can't go to nationals (our hurdles shuttle team took fifth at nationals last year with him as the anchor (the fastest person on the team)). Did I mention that he can do the freaking splits now because he stretched everyday, both at practice AND at home? Yeah. Discipline. 

In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy earns the role as the library assistent. He sees how pitiful the library looks and decides to ask the Warden for funds to build a new library. The Warden denies him with zero funds so Andy decides to ask the state government for funds by writing letters. Andy knows he'll get denied by the state, so he sends one every week in order to persuade them. He doesn't get anything until 6 years later: he gets a small check of $200 and some donated books. He wants more than that so he begins sending two letters a week, ignoring the state's request for him to stop sending letters. I forgot the amount of time after the first reply, but Andy eventually got the full amount he needed to fully fund a new library in the prison. 

Andy does many other things with the time that he has behind bars. I could go on a long list, but the thing that strikes me (and it may not be for all of you), is that he utilizes his time so well. He knows he has a lifetime sentence (double that actually) so he's OK with how much he'll need to persist; I mean, he's got the time haha. But he persists. He doesn't stop; he isn't discouraged. Time might have felt slower in prison for the convicts; they just had so much of it. What Andy did with that time set him apart from others. 

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Application? Spiritual discipline. Bible reading, prayer, fasting, Bible reading, prayer, and prayer. Did I mention prayer? Not sure. Oh yeah, and prayer. 

At the end of high school, I had asked myself, "What if, for the past four years of high school, I had actually read the Bible and prayed everyday? What if?" I always thought to myself "Oh hey, it's not a big deal if I miss one day..." which it really isn't...unless I think that way everyday. 

We are certainly impatient people. We don't see results, we don't see outcomes, we don't see change right away, so we give up. Not give up right away, but we lose a little hope with every passing day. I think if we realize that there's something more going on besides us doing a laundry list of spiritual disciplines every day, we would be more persistent in what we do. That, ultimately, the fruits of our disciplines shows years later, not right away. This is why we set "our minds on the things above", we know of God's transformative power to shape us and change us over time. We know there is something out there bigger than what we know, something we don't understand. 

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." 

-Isaiah 55:9

I want to trust in God; I want to have my hope in the things that are above. The discipline that is necessary for a believer can only be fueled by that hope; the Gospel Message is what fuels it (Colossians 1:22-23). And not only just do these things, but do them with the right attitude and the right heart. Like I said with my friend stretching hard, just "reaching" isn't enough; you gotta push yourself during your quiet times, your prayers, your fasting, your outreach. You have to go beyond the typical "Thanks for the weather. Help me for X, Y, and Z. Amen." And you gotta do it daily. This is my call for all of us to go beyond everyday, to set our hearts on the beyond everyday, to set ourselves apart from the world, so that we can be like God, purified in His image. 

"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will be with him in glory".

-Colossians 3:3-4

Glory awaits us.  

The Notorious "mhm"

The title says it all: I want to talk about the mutters and nods of agreement during a prayer meeting. 


So what exactly am I talking about? What are these "mutters and nods of agreement during a prayer meeting". I am talking about when you're praying and someone, next to you or across the circle, hums an "mhm" or whispers a "yes Lord" in response to the words that you just prayed. The contents of this post relate to conversational prayer, the way that AIV does a majority of its prayer. Conversational prayer is the prayer being carried out like a conversation; one person speaks, the other listens, and then they switch. In a group setting, one person prays and everyone listens. Obviously this would post is irrelevant for something like "korean-style prayer" aka praying in one voice. Here's what I think about the mutters and nods of agreement. 


"Prayer has everything to do with the agreement of the human heart with the words that are said." 


This quote was spoken by Jess Shao, the Chinese Director of IHOP. I had heard him speak at the retreat my church went on this past memorial weekend. I completely agree with what Jess says: you speak words from your heart so obviously your heart agrees with the words that are being said, but what does your heart agree with the words that others say? I think I could change Jess' quote a little bit and say: "Corporate prayer has everything to do with the hearts of the people agreeing with the words that are said." How much more aligned and in tune are two people when their hearts both agree with the words that are spoken during prayer? It has a powerful effect  on the relationship, I believe. When two people's hearts desire for the same thing and they pray about it together and the words spoken are words that both could interchangeably use for their respective prayers, God is among them and will answer that prayer. 


"Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven." 
-Matthew 18:19-20


So the question now is...why and how should we express our agreement with other peoples' prayers? Why should we express our agreement with others' prayers?
Simple. It works both ways. For yourself, if you're looking to agree with another person's prayers, audibly expressing your agreement is a way of making sure you're paying attention and your mind isn't drifting away. 
It also allows the person praying know that people are respecting their prayer, they are listening to their prayer, and they are agreeing with what their saying. Like the verse from Matthew says, when two agree, our Father in heaven will answer that prayer. So a person praying and the person listening know that they both agree. 
How should we express our agreement with other peoples' prayers?
Personally, I feel that the "nods of agreement", the mutters of "mhm" and "yes Lord" are good enough. I think it's overboard if someone is praying in a normal tone and someone yells "YES, PRAISE GOD" and while I love the enthusiasm, the focus of that interruption has gone from God to the person expressing agreement. 


So, in short, I encourage these mutterings of "mhm" and "yes Lord" during prayer meetings! I feel personally that I am encouraged when I hear the agreement from other people in a prayer meeting haha and I feel, for lack of a better word, "better" about the prayer I am making (not that I am to base what I pray off the reactions of others, but requests and desires backed by friends feels good nonetheless). Imagine a meeting where everyone contributes their own act of agreement to a person's prayer...how much more encouraged is EVERYONE in that group from the words that that person speaks and prays. 


Thoughts. 

Inreach

We're all to familiar with outreach. We set forth to welcome people who are not believers, people who are against Christianity, people who are interested, people who are falling out of faith, people who are in need and any other persons who hasn't known Christ yet. Carrying the same meaning, we have an array of reason for outreach such as spreading the Good News, spreading the Gospel, bringing glory to God, offering redemption and salvation from sin, preparing people for His second coming, demonstrating God's amazing grace, living out our faith, showering people with God's love and so on.

A certain experience I had this week though made me realize there is another kind of reaching going on here, on campus. It's what I'd call inreach. There are many churches around campus and there are many Christian focused campus organizations whose outreach sometime crosses over to inreach. This is where they reach out to believers belonging to other Christian groups or Churches. I believe their reasons are primarily comparative such as we have better activities, we're more fun, we're more friendly, we know the Bible better, out pastor is so awesome.

For me, this is sad. I grew up with a Catholic mom and a Methodist father. The first Church I attended was a Catholic Church. Then we went to a Charismatic Church, after that I went to a Brethren Church and had a short experience with the Revival movement. Infact, I've never failed to hear a sermon or remark from the pastor or elders elders in the Church about why they're the right way, the better way and it doesn't end without mudslinging at other denominations, particularly Catholicism. It is by far the reason my mom has given up on attending Church anymore.

The reason I'm writing this is because Intervarisity, as a non-denominational Christian focused campus organization will surely be filled by everyone from different background of faith and theological understanding. And surely we will encounter other Christians groups who may be denominational and have other differences with us, both small and big. Just a couple of weeks ago, we affirmed our believe in the Trinity, that Jesus is really God and also fully man at the same time. This is a position not held by all the people who call themselves Christians though. In fact, I can't be sure either that everyone who was at the Bible study session held that view either. In light of this, have you ever thought about your position when you're face with inreach, whether in within AIV or between other groups on campus? Have you anticipated the challenge being a leader in a non-denominational group may bring? When there exist a conflict between the truth you're convicted of, the interest of the group and the truth the person in front of your holds, what might be our action? And most importantly, internally, in our prayers, both in private and corporately, who are we willing to pray for and what are we willing to pray for.

Prayer Meeting On Saturday

I was prepared to pray alone actually but I expected at least a few people to come. I also didn't know how a prayer meeting goes, so my plan was just to keep praying the whole hour. Around 11:10 I got a call from Sara telling me she can't get into the building. So a problem with having the prayer meeting in East Hall on Saturday is all the doors except the "staff" door is locked and I assume no one else in AIV knows about the side door. So probably we'll have it at a different location next week.

So me and Sara prayed for out summer activities, NSO, the start of fall, preparing the hearts of the upcoming leaders, IVLI, the progress of AIV, the presence of God on campus, the recent disasters around the world, the end of the world mania, the seniors who have graduated and Jordan's baptism. We ended the prayer session asking God's to help us start by working ourselves for all the things that we prayer for and not laze back just because we know God's in control.

There are some specific things you might want to include in your prayers, namely;

For the 3 people going to IVLI, Jodi, Mark and guess what, Jerry is going too. So Sara is following all of them there. I don't want to be waking up at 7:30 for a month and coming humble and under the teachers and leaders at IVLI. So I'm guess it might grow into a struggle for them and umm IVLI is suppose to be something done with a burning passion and not a struggling heart no? So let's pray that they'll have strength and support through out IVLI.

There are quite a number of us whose families aren't Christian they will be going back for summer holidays at one point or another. Pray for their families. God hears us and only the people whom God calls to him can come to him. Let God hear our desperate cries for their families to be saved too! Time is ticking.

Pray for Joyce to get well. I think she'll still on the wheelchair and I don't know if her bones set well so she can't walk normally without needing to go for a major surgery.

Pray for the potlucks and Bible studies we have everyweek. We've got great leaders, great cooks and great jokers. We get to praise God together, study the scripture and have great fun.

And finally don't neglect to pray for yourselves. I don't know about you, but I often do that whenever I make a prayer list.

Sunday

Hi how is everybody? I haven't heard anything about Kelli and I saw Jodi come online facebook yesterday and posted a few pictures. Church was great today and guess what, my friend that we prayed for on Monday came to Church today. So please praise the Lord in your prayers tonight and pray for her continuous presence. Also thank God for having such wonderfully welcoming ladies at Knox. Sara, Grace, Tiffany, Stephanie and Christina did a great job at making her feel at ease and they even invited her over for something at Motherland after Church. And so when you guys get back, even before NSO, there might be another AIVer! Keep praying. Jodi, Kelli take care. Caleb uh, don't overeat in Taiwan. Jimmy I thought you were supposed to be in AA?

Happy Day?

'tis a happy day!


Jordan says he's decided to be baptized soon in the near future! Praise God!
But do I feel joyful? 


"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."  - John 15:10


Now I realize there are many factors that could contribute to my apparent apathy (sounds harsh, but I can't think of another word :( ). For Jordan's prayer request, he asked us to pray for his baptism that he planned on going through with and that he would have peace about it because of his parents' disapproval. I have never asked Jordan for how he came to know Christ, but I remember someone telling me that Stephanie Chang had spoken to Jordan about the Gospel and that was his first repentance. I don't know much from there, but I feel that I should be so happy for Jordan! But...I didn't realize that I didn't even process what Jordan said until after our prayer was over and Jason asked all of us, "Hey can I pray for Jordan? I want to pray for his baptism". So we all put our heads down (I know I was happy to hear Jason say that) and Jason began to pray for Jordan. And I just kept thinking during his prayer, 'Did I not hear that Jordan is getting baptized?! What was I thinking?!' I feel that sometimes, we as members in the fellowship, focus so hard on trying to evangelize, we forget that some of our consistent members are new believers. Our in-reach only goes to so far as, "Oh you're going to SG, LG, DPM, and church on Sundays? Good, good everything sounds good." Do we forget the powerful transformation of the Gospel that leads people to repent and what Jesus' salvation leads us to? Do we forget about the new believers that we have in our fellowship and do we realize the role we play on campus to further God's campus? That we, just normal college kids, are affecting other people's lives; that we, as average students trying to get by in life, are altering the course of people's lives as they go through this university? If Stephanie had not spoken to Jordan, what would he be involved with now? No idea, but LOOK at where Jordan is today! And I'm just using Jordan as an example, I'm not focusing specifically on his situation. We should CELEBRATE when we hear him say, "I want to be baptized". What does that mean?! He has repented and he wants to live a NEW life, washed clean of his sin and living purely in light of God's righteousness! LOOK at the work that we're doing here people. Isn't it exciting?! What sort of feeling do you get knowing that YOU, possibly YOU, are altering someone's life forever just by representing Christ, stepping out of your comfort zone once, and speaking through the Holy Spirit about God's gift of salvation? Can you believe that God would use us...US to be a part of how He is furthering His kingdom? I'm kind of ranting now with my thoughts so I'm going to return to Jordan's baptism. 


Let us celebrate. Let us rejoice! When a new believer comes to know Christ and repents and desires to be baptized, let's celebrate! You might ask why I brought this up? Because (from what I remember), the only reaction that I heard/saw when Jordan said he wanted to be baptized was, "oh cool" (and Jason's prayer afterwards). And that my friends...reflects the sign of apathy in our hearts. I'm not saying let's break out into gospel singing and dancing every time someone says they've decided to repent of their sins; no, but I want us to look inward and ask ourselves how much we care about furthering God's kingdom and how much we care about our fellow brothers and sisters. Let's ask ourselves...what are we really trying to do here? Where's our heart placed? 


Speaking of gospel singing...:

I LOVE this song :) Love me some gospel choir singing haha tell me what you feel when you get to 1:35 ;) hahahahaha

PS. I promise to not post in spurts from now on :( lol 

Prayer Meeting: Thoughts

I have a couple thoughts after leading the prayer meeting this morning (or after whenever I post this).


8AM is early. Go figure. It's not like I'm not used to it; I get up for 8AM lab every Tuesday and Thursday. No, I don't think the tiredness gets to me until I'm in the middle of prayer trying to focus on words to pray in accordance to God's will. Which didn't happen.


I grabbed my backpack and guitar and stepped out into the rain. My thoughts as I was walking? Who will come? To be frank (and Diane knows this), since Diane was the only one I was pushing to come and she had not answered my three phone calls before I left, I was bracing myself to be strumming my guitar in the open, empty hall of the Math Atrium. Lo and behold, the only person that came was.... Diane! Thank you for coming :)


That changed things a little bit. I had forgotten to remind everyone to bring a Bible in an email for prayer meetings because it would help with the nature of how I wanted the meeting to go (but luckily Diane brought hers anyway). I had scheduled the prayer meeting to go for two hours in the morning because I knew it would be hard for people come at 8, but at the same time I wanted to leave the option open for people who had to get up early for work or class to be able to come in and be a part of the meeting. This is what I'm saying when I say, "Are we doing everything we can to make it easy for people to come?" 8AM Mark? That's not easy at all. Well simply put, I'm quite selfish and my schedule would go 8AM/10AM-9PM most weekdays if I were to schedule prayer meetings at night. Waking up at 8AM is also disciplining me for IVLI since wake up is at 7:15AM on cedar campus (everyday)... But otherwise, that is why we scheduled a second prayer meeting for Saturdays at 10AM-12PM (or 11AM-12PM) so that anyone can make it out to that (except Kelli Strong :P). 


So having only Diane there meant we could discuss verses that we were reading for our QT while we were there. I started off by saying that I want to do a theme of Psalms for worship. I love the nature of the lyrics that David writes for his worship. Many times we hold back a lot of our emotions when we pray to God because we feel that we don't think it's right to ask God for such selfish requests. David thinks otherwise. One verse that I read recently was Psalm 6:5 - "Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave?" Before this verse, David sings, "Turn, O Lord, and deliver me. Save me with your unfailing love!" for God to save him from his enemies. He is basically saying, "Look God, save me from my enemies. If you want me to praise you, how can I do that if I'm dead?" I think David's nature in Psalms reflects what a believer's worship should feel like. There is an intimacy in his words, an acknowledgement of the Creator and King, and there is a closeness felt with his Savior. Although we might not be able to relate to some of his Psalms (stop me if you yourself have been attacked by neighboring nations and your enemies have closed in on you), we are still able to see how David prays and how he worships. 


I have not dived too deep into Psalms before, but I plan on reading it constantly everyday (and IVLI's morning devos are in Psalms! Yuhss!). I want to explore how David prayed and how David worshipped God and I feel that using our prayer meeting to go through some Scripture is an excellent way to do it. Our worship can be done using many of Psalms' lyrics because artists today write songs that come from Psalms! Hopefully this study in Psalms during prayer meetings will be fruitful for our chapter's prayer culture. 

David and his harp.

I plan on not leading the Saturday meetings, so you guys can lead however you want! I know I will be going through Psalms on Wednesday mornings and the praying will be pretty free, but Saturday meetings can run like this past year's DPMs. That's all I got for now....

Hope all is well! 

PS. David isn't our character that we're studying. We still need to choose one. Any suggestions?

PPS. I will hopefully have selected a book by the end of memorial weekend! 

Fasting - Desperate Seeking of God's Will

Ah yes...the famed topic of fasting. Let us begin! 

What is fasting?

Fasting is intentionally witholding or abstaining from a certain material, usually food. Fasting serves many purposes, many of which we will look at through examples in the Bible:

-Fasting in sorrow. Because you are extremely grieved for other people or for a particular situation, you fast because you are mourning and you desire for God to take away the reason for that sorrow. Nehemiah 1:4

-Fasting in desperation. When David's son was on the sickbed, David fasted for three days in hopes of changing God's will to save his son's life. We see here that fasting is a way to communicate to God our desperation for His power to work. 2 Samuel 12:16-17

-Fasting in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Matthew 9:13-17. Mourning = fasting = missing Jesus' Presence. How much would the disciples miss the presence of Jesus after He ascended?

-Fasting for God's discernment. Acts 14:23

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" 

- 2 Corinthians 12:9

When we fast, we are weak. No food = no energy. Our physical state is weakened because there is no physical energy to sustain us. We desire for God's power to be fully exemplified and glorified in our lives; therefore, we desire to set ourselves in that posture of weakness. With a lifestyle of fasting, we are posturing our lives to be weak so that God's power is made perfect in our life. This is why we choose to live a lifestyle of fasting; so God's power is constantly being perfected in our lives. This is also why fasting transforms the heart, for if God's power is constantly working in your life, over time, your heart will be like steel, hardened and willing to give up that which increases the Father in our lives; your spirit strong with the nearness that God brings when you distance yourself from physical, worldly things. 

In your moments of fasting, you don't just abstain from food and go about your day. Whenever a character in the Bible is fasting, it is always coupled with prayer. What is about fasting that intensifies the request that we make to God? Why was it that David fasted and prayed instead of just praying to God that God would save his son? As I mentioned earlier in the bullet about "fasting in desperation", David fasted so that God could see his desperation for His power to be at work. When David's son passes away, David gets up and goes and starts eating again (2 Samuel 12:18-22). I love David's mindset here because it really depicts his desperation; he did everything he could to try and persuade God's will. In the same way, when we have that prayer request that we so desperately want answered, do we, as individuals or as a fellowship, do everything on our side to allow God's power to work? How badly do we want our prayers to be answered? Are we desperate for God hand to work?

Another thing to note is fasting for God's discernment as we see in Acts 14:23. I feel like fasting is our way to try and listen to God's will and to try and sense how His Spirit is trying to move and work in our lives. More on heightened spirituality in physical weakness in two paragraphs. 

In our posture of weakness, there is something that happens behind what the eye can see. Something about weakening the physical state of your body strengthens the spiritual state of your mind. Wes Martin, a pastor at IHOP, spoke about the "Great Exchange". When we fast, we are weak and in that state of physical distress, our spirit is crying out to our Father for sustenance. You are saying, "God I will abstain from eating food, in order so that I free up time to spend more time with you, in order so that your power can be perfected in me, and in order for you to transform me into a more humble and willing servant." Truly, I say to you all, when you fast and you pray, over time, you will, indeed, develop a closeness with God. I am actually not one to really say if that's true; that came from Wes Martin lol. He says, "Don't observe the fruits of fasting until a decade later." Fasting is a trial of patience, patience for God's power to transform you over time; it's a lifelong process. 

Here is just a thought: When Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, He became extremely weak, but became spiritually strong and sound. Jesus fasts while He is in the wild and then He is tempted by Satan, but refuses Satan's offer for all the glories of the world. There is some implication here that Jesus' fasting heightened His spiritual sensation of God's will (I mean, I know He's God, but He is like-minded with God while He is being tempted) to resist Satan. Thoughts. 


Here is the link for the IHOP sermon on fasting. When you get to the website, click on the "Messages" tab and scroll down to the message titled, "The Great Exchange - Wes Martin", dated 12/30/10: 

http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=1000098570

*there are other sermons, too, if you want to check them out. They are interesting, if not thought-provoking, so I encourage you to check them out when you have time. 

Fasting, I believe, also changes your heart to be more gracious. Primarily of food, of course, but I am sure over time, you will develop a heart of acknowledging the grace of God. This is why fasting works; we don't only eat food for sustenance, but we eat because it is GOOD. And when you sit down to break fast and you're sitting there with your meal waiting in front of you and pray a prayer of thanksgiving to God, you PRAY a prayer of thanksgiving to God. Fasting creates a genuine spirit of graciousness. Ever wonder why God calls us in Phillipians 4:6 to do "everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving"? After fasting, thanksgiving seems to overflow into all parts of your life. 

Another principle of fasting is brought up in Matthew 6:16-18. Don't complain when you fast. Don't show it while you're doing it. Why? For all the reasons I stated above. You would completely contradict the reason why you're fasting in the first place. Besides, God promises a reward in heaven for the things you do in secret (which is great, but I think the former reason is more important for a better mindset). 

One other point that many have used Matthew 6:16 for. They interpret "When you fast" as a command; Jesus gives you no choice, it is implied that you are already living a lifestyle of fasting. Of course, while I say it's a command, we know that there are people with limitations that exclude them from needing to fast (people with eating disorders and pregnancy I should think, are two that come to mind). And the whole purpose of this blog post anyways is to get all the reasons for why we should be fasting down in writing. 

And what of corporate fasts? What does fasting corporately accomplish? I believe it aligns with why we pray corporately: when two or more gather and bring their request to God, God will answer that prayer (Matthew 18:19-20). In the same light, when two more gather and desperately bring their requests to God, God will definitely answer that prayer. And simply put, I believe fasting corporately brings the community together in a God-centered way. We, as a fellowship, are enduring this physical hardship together and because no meals free up time to pray, we would pray together (to pray for the topic of why we are fasting). And that I believe, is solid reason enough to fast corporately. 

And lastly, fasting for preparation for the return of Jesus, the Messiah. I do not know too much of the Second Coming (personally, I feel like I haven't looked into it enough to make any claims or to take any stance yet), but what I do know for sure is that Jesus is returning and we better not only ready ourselves, but also intercede that the rest of the world be ready also. Wes Martin delves deeper into the Word, interpreting Matthew 9:13-17. Jesus says himself that His disciples will begin fasting when He leaves them. Martin associates that with the longing and mourning for the absence of Jesus' presence. He says, "When your spouse passes away, or a family member, or close friend passes away, you mourn because you long for their presence; you miss their presence." And so he compares that to Jesus' statement of the disciples mourning for His presence when He leaves (described in the bridegroom comparison in v.15). We fast because we long for Jesus' presence. 

So where does this leave us? Right now, I encourage all of you to pick ONE day of the week to fast. I understand it's a jump to go from eating every meal to missing one whole day of the week. But I believe we can do it, and not only just do it, but do it good and do it until it merges with our lifestyle. Personally, I feel like missing one day of eating is easier to do in college because our sleep/eating schedules are sorta screwed up so I hope that is some encouragement to you.

And for the chapter? I had mentioned during CFW that I wanted to do corporate fasting during (or up until) NSO. We have several ways we can do this. We can pick a week and have everyone fast one meal on each of those days (or fast all day and eat when the sun goes down) and be in constant prayer as a chapter. We could also have a schedule and have people sign up for one day out of like 40 days to fast and pray for NSO (Caleb's idea). That way, there is at least one person in the chapter fasting and praying for NSO during the span of 40 days. Comment and let's discuss what you think! 

That's all I have for fasting. You're a champ for reading this entire blogpost. I was going to post pictures of food, but dangling food in front of people fasting is like a stumbling block. We don't do that to each other :) And I'm just keepin' this post reverent and righteously real haha. 

Thanks for reading!

Crossed Shaped Discipleship

So I have set spiritual goals for myself this summer and one them actually started yesterday when I met up with my accountability partner! She encouraged me to listen to sermons from the Apostle Church and I decided that I wanted to try to listen to one everyday [Mark, apparently you recommended it to her]

Anyways, listened to my first one today and it was quite good .. just decided to share some thoughts... or what the sermon was about.

The basic gist of the sermon was that as a true discipler of Jesus, you do not purely pursue glory. Instead you must endure a life of suffering and love unto God for the good of others. A life of service, life of humility, life of love before you can experience glory.

The disciplers of Jesus initially failed at this. In Mark 10, even after Jesus told them how he was going to die, they asked Jesus how they could become recognized, how they could gain higher status, basically they wanted glory.

So how does it look for us to become true disciplers of Christ?

Crucification was actually the most humiliating way to get punished. Romans didn't even allow their citizens to die on the cross because of how shameful it was!

So the speaker talked about how our discipleship is not a glory discipleship but a crucified discipleship. Jesus calls us death of our reputation and death of control. Basically death to ourselvers. We are to have faith that when we die, we know that He will raise us up from the dead. So He commands us to take up the cross and follow Him. We are always trying to make ourselves look good. But we have a calling to lose our former life. After that, we can truly live.

What does it mean to lose our life?

It's giving up our control over everything and letting God handle it. It humbling ourselves and living a life full of humility. And it's definitely not easy. But it wasn't easy for Jesus to die on the cross for us either.

I mean, personally, it's hard for me to be completely faithful. I mean I can be faithful and trust in God. But sometimes it's hard to give complete control to God to humble myself in His presence. Most of the time I want to do things by myself and most of the time I want to do it my way. But God always has a way to humble me and bring me back. But regardless, what would it look like to completely give my life up to God. It's so much harder said then done. But I hope as the days go by and I spend more time with God that I can truly take up the cross and die and be transformed. Like legit, put full trust in Him and that He will provide.

My friend once said, you know with your mind that you should trust in God but do you know with your heart?

bahaha I don't know if this post makes sense. butttt heres the link to the sermons! I listened to the most recent one and I am going to make my way down. You can download them onto itunes or use the podcast tool!

http://www.apostlesnyc.com/sermonsort/sermon-month/5-2011/

kk peace out girlscouts!

The Start of Something New

Here we go! Post #1


The start of the summer has ushered in a time where God has given us to rest and prepare for the upcoming school year. There is no doubt that there is much work to be done and many things to anticipate, but we are tackling each day one at a time, slowly pushing for the goal. 


I hope all of us will be able use this blog to its fullest potential. The hope is that it is our medium of connection and our way of staying connected with each other and our way of communicating thoughts to each other; it is a place of processing. 


So why did I pick "Illuminations and Revelations" as the blog name? If you had opened up the document that I had sent out a few weeks ago about Leadership Day, the first part of the document discussed the definition of prayer. I used John Piper's definition of prayer:


"Prayer is intentionally conveying a message to God"


Piper asked, "Why don't you just call it communicating to God?" And he replied to his own question by saying that "communicating" sounds like God responding to us with the same method of communication: prayer. The Bible never says that God prays back to us, only we pray to God; it is our one way of communication to Him. God doesn't pray to us, we call it "illumination and revelation". So I thought it was a fitting name to put how God may be "illuminating" our lives as we process His "revelations" on this blog. 


I strongly encourage all of you to post at least once a week. These posts can include anything from interesting readings in QTs, ideas or suggestions for prayer next year, thoughts on a book we're reading, or just daily insights that you have. 


Just a couple of reminders that I had mentioned in the email:
-Tag your posts!
-Post pictures and videos!
-Save the blog on your bookmarks toolbar so you have an easier time accessing it! 


So on a leaving note....


I've always had a small man crush on zac efron...:

no judging :)


anyways, when I think of awesome encouragement when being sent out to further God's kingdom, I think of this guy:

It's not really related, but this guy really knows how to give a pep talk haha.


Here's another great one: 


300 Final Scene - Call To Battle


could not get the video to work...




Until next time!