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Tuesday, 13 October 2009

  • envy vs. gratitude

    The second week discussing the "7 Deadly Sins" in the sermon series titled
    My Own Worst Enemy" by pastor peter ahn of metro community church of englewood.

    the message went something like this:

    envy is discontent over someone else's blessings.

    it is destructive because you get angry with God, and when you do, you do things to hurt people dear to you.

    i had a very candid and humbling moment as i realized it was so me. I had to struggle to keep tears out as I was humbled before the Cross that my life was not reflecting the truth of "Jesus is more than enough" for me... for us all.

    We'll NEVER have enough. We'll be envious and we'll keep wanting yet more. The key to kill this envy... is to be thankful for what God has already given us... and the biggest of it all... the Cross.

    Jesus IS more than enough. That is the truth that I hope to live...

     

Sunday, 23 August 2009

  • Effort vs. Grace

    Today at worship, God has truly convicted me today with the message. I have been lacking greatly in prayer and in my quiet time. I need to stop being so busy doing my little things and focus on having quality time with God. Thank you Lord. The following is an excerpt that the pastor shared during sermon, written by Dallas Willard.

    Live Life to the Full

    Appears in Christian Herald (U.K.) 14 April 2001.
    "Beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. Instead, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (II Peter 3:17-18)

    Is there a path of steady growth in the presence and power of God for the one who has placed their confidence in Jesus? Should we assume that it is God's intention our lives would be increasingly pervaded by the action of his hand, until "all we do in word or deed" would be done "in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him"? (Col. 3:11) Is this something we can arrange for, so that the command to grow in grace makes sense?

    We are told repeatedly by Paul to put off the old person and to put on the new. How does one do that?

    The answer is actually rather simple. One must intend to do it, and then one must sensibly implement the means. Putting on the new person, growing in grace, is something we must do. Appropriate action is the key. True, as Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing." (John 15:5) But it is also true that if we do nothing it will be without him.

    The path of spiritual growth in the riches of Christ is not a passive one. Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is attitude. You have never seen people more active than those who have been set on fire by the grace of God. Paul, who perhaps understood grace better than any other mere human being, looked back at what had happened to him and said: "By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." (I Cor. 15:10)

     

     

Friday, 14 August 2009

  • Married... with my angel.

    Wow, been a while since I blogged. I guess you could say I was really really busy.

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    So I got MARRIED in mid-July... and... in Korea...! Who would've known...? ^^; God has funny ways of doing things. I was visiting for the first time in 17 years of me being in the U.S. God's providence 17 years in making. I guess I certainly learned the virtue of patience through this... and when I went, boy, was I in there for some exciting times! It was so surreal that I was finally back... I visited my old hometown... my elementary school... with my wife. I visited my father's and grandparents' graves, reunited with relatives, old friends.... practiced special wedding song with bride, finalized last minute wedding details with the hotel, took studio pictures, met wife's parents at last, did fam-to-fam meeting, visited in-law's home for lunch, walked down the streets of myungdong with my girl to finally do those couple-things I've always wanted to do in Seoul.

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    We also met up with our presiding pastor for mentoring, met up with her church friends, drove around seoul with kick-butt gps, had a m'nice room all to myself, raspberry juice in the morning, got married of course!, spent the first night in Hyatt Namsan, went to worship service at wife's old church along with my mom & the in-law's families (yeah!), and more.

    All that happened in 8 days.

    collage

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    Then 5n6days at the beautiful valley isle, Maui, Hawaii... cruising down the coastal roads, through the jungle, cliffs, valleys, beaches, and plains on our mustang convertible. Snorkeled with turtles, snorkeled in the deep sea, swam in underground caves, blacksand beaches, went boating, magic show, luau dinner shows, and just plain relaxed in the Sun with my lovely wife.

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    view from our hotel ~

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    newly wed husbands' hula dance.! i guess i did well cuz i got compliments afterwards... hehe.

    our mustang, "silver bullet", underground cavepool swimming~

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    at various gardens, markets & blacksand beach

    P1040713_resizeP1040772_resize P1040792_resize and we had a 65ft waterfall all to ourselves~

    last breakfast at hotel (leftover~ ^^) and me after missing our flight to U.S.~ but no probs, i got there earlier than the usual schedule, thank God.

    Wow, already almost a month ago...! Married life with my one and only is truly wonderful beyond description... God is good and he answers and gives you the very best, always. Much to learn and grow together now for this next chapter in my life. Thank you Lord! Til next time~

     

Saturday, 30 May 2009

  • Surpass

    It's a truly hard struggle as a believer when...

    I do not believe I am the most generous nor that I am too learned in the ways of serving others first. I still have much to learn on that. But when it comes to not forgetting the grace bestowed upon me by others, I am on point. Most of the time, I'd say. Think King Saul and the Kenzzites(1 Samuel 15:4-6), He was an outstanding role model of not forgetting to repay the acts of grace.

    But at this time, God is calling me to something greater : to return grace even when given malice. He asks me to surpass the ideological boundaries of cause and effect, give and take... and be like the fool who does not regard one's own benefits or status quo - completely letting go of logical self-preservation.

    Be like the fool who keeps his peace and silence when treated unfairly or even persecuted. A fool that keeps on with the way that he knows to be right with the One. A fool who gives love in return instead of retribution and revenge. The biggest fool that has ever lived on earth in that respect... without a doubt was Jesus the Christ.

    It's not easy... sometimes it can eat away at my soul, but more and more I practice this goodness, the less painful it becomes... because I know the great, exceedingly rich reward awaits from the One above. So the little pain and ache that I may experience here on earth, is very temporal when put in context with that crown of life. Now, I wrote that as a fact that I know, but not as a fact that I've lived. I struggle momentously to truly achieve that - meaning, you truly put to death any regard for yourself. Too often it turns into a venting session to vent my anguish. So I don't know if I've ever truly succeeded. No.

    I am far from being the perfect Fool, but it is my ardent prayer... to be that fool.

    It is a truly hard struggle as a believer... when God asks me to surpass ... the self.

     

Saturday, 16 May 2009

  • the Kim Choi Lee problem

    When Korean girls get married here in US... I often see names such as: Moon-Sun Kim Choi, Elizabeth Hyo-Joo Cho Kang, Vivian G Yoon Lee, and so on.

    Why don't we just keep it simple...? Drop the family name, or continue using family name only. It sounds a bit overdone in my opinion.

    On another hand, I discovered that self-centered (married) couples really irk me. No matter what they do and no matter what circumstance they are in, it's all about themselves, never learning to put themselves to the sidelines for a moment in respect for the others - they got all the time in the world to be the center of the world when they're by themselves, don't they? Immature, Blind, and Know-it-all are some words to describe such peeps. First two are self-explanatory, but the last one is so because often, many people who care for them have tried to tell them, either the husband or the wife from the time they were still single, yet they never listen and get mad at them for trying to tell them the right way, so people gave up. And now that they're married, double team action. It's a hopeless downward spiral of "you did nothing wrong honey, they are wrong", "yeah, you're right. you're the best!", and so on. Such couples do not bestow blessing unto others around them, they just become a pest because they are eager to receive, but blind to give, both financially and mentally. Soon they will learn because there will be no one around them to lend help or to hang out with them. No one will give good report of them. Who would when all they do in response to your help is just to goad in themselves with no regard to others? They will be in their own disconnected world.

    My hope is that they'll wake up before that happens.

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