Deaf Dragonfly & Hearing Butterfly

Scientists have discovered and named about 6,500 species of dragonflies that exist today. And there are around 450 of them in North America, mostly surrounding the fresh water. They are usually, as with birds, colored more brightly as adults than juveniles. They are beautiful allright.

What's so special about the dragonflies?

They are deaf! They don't respond to sound. Therefore you don't need to whisper when you near them. But it doesn't end here. The scientists also assumed that they probably have a poor sense of smell due to the small and not clearly visible pair of antennae. Thus, they probably have a deaf nose.

God somehow had created them for a greater purpose.

All dragonflies have two large compound eyes, of about 26,000 lenses with individual sensors capable of 360 degree vision, and three small simple eyes. Unbelievable! They are able to see all colors that we could see, plus ultraviolet light and polarized light. They detect the flickering of light at twice the rate that we can! They also all used their camouflage differently. They create a kind of optical illusion, which is called motion camouflage, to trick their prey. Their prey may include 600 mosquitoes a day or even some small insects like moth, butterflies, and sometimes each other when no food are available.

They are unique! They are not like butterflies who mightn't know that they are hearing til they are buried underground. Well, it is a Deaf joke. For when we called ourselves Deaf while the hearing doesn't call themselves as hearing. It is until they have learned more about the Deaf culture that they might finally call themselves hearing. Thus, they finally acknowledge their ability to hear!

A friend of mine claimed that she became hearing when she was 14-18 years old when she was being immersed into the Deaf. This hearing butterfly told me of those deaf dragonflies.

God's Sky Pencil

A "Sky Pencil" Japanese Holly tree is being planted in the garden when God drew a line for the outpouring rain to come!

My friends and I felt the breeze and we knew that the rain will come soon. So we dug as fast as we could and put things into order before the rain comes. We were halfway through the project when we ceased, but before we left, our landlords pointed toward something. We looked. We were amazed when we saw the line, few hundred yards away, between the drought and the outpouring rain! I quickly grabbed my phone to capture this moment.

I couldn't help it but to connect those two illustrations, the Sky Pencil and the Rain Line, together. The rain came from the sky, forming a line as if God drew the line! I began to imagine about how Moses saw how God wrote on the 10 Commandments with His own finger.

After a while, the outpouring rain came into our way. Get ready for the 41. That is my definition of the outpouring blessings. Actually I am being taught by someone else whom I had never met. And even more, I don't remember why 41 is the number for it. Maybe a verse or a symbol. Anyway, let's get back to the point, the rain came!

And with a sentence through this blog, a 6.0 earthquake also came when I was in DCA airport! Shaking my head.

Baptism at the Bay

Nothing is better than experiencing something with someone. At the bay, I had the opportunity to walk beside someone who is ready for the new adventure. And I heard her story about her decision before we walked together, and then she shared her experience:

"When Pastor Mark and you shoved me into the water, I felt as if you both were throwing me down. It is as if I sank without anyone holding me. But I realized that you both pulled me out of the water instantly. I was amazed by the feeling, it symbolized that I am a new born Christian who is now so clean, being washed of the old sins." -Chani (baptized on July 10, 2011)

After hearing her saying this, I immediately looked at the pictures. I was amazed to see how deep she went into the water! I laughed. I was double-amazed after hearing her story. Then I shared my story with her:

I thought about applausing her among the audience with hands lifted high in Deaf's way to cheer for someone. I wanted all NCCers to cheer for her without clapping. But when I was asked to walk alongside them, I gave that thought up and hoped that they will do it in that way. I was amazed that all of them actually lifted their hands to cheer Chani after she came out of the water. It brings me a joy when I saw Chani cheering back to the audience. It's my favorite moment.

After this I began to ponder about what Pastor Mark shared, before the baptism. That I now could claim that I agreed:

"Not sure if anything rivals the joy of baptizing someone. That moment when someone goes under the water is so miraculous. It symbolizes death to self and new life in Christ."

Our Boundary: Stop Over-Helping

"What do you mean, 'boundaries'?" the father asked.

"Look at it this way. It is as if he is your neighbor, who never waters his lawn. But, whenever you turn on your sprinkler system, the water falls on his lawn. Your grass is turning brown and dying, but Bill looks down at his green grass and thinks to himself, 'My yard is doing fine.' That is how your son's life is. He doesn't study, or plan, or work, yet he has a nice place to live, plenty of money, and all the rights of a family member who is doing his part.
"If you would define the property lines a little better, if you would fix the sprinkler system so that the water would fall on your lawn, and if he didn't water his own lawn, he would have to live in dirt. He might not like that after a while.
"As it stands now, he is irresponsible and happy, and you are responsible and miserable. A little boundary clarification would do the trick. You need some fences to keep his problems out of your yard and in his, where they belong."

"Isn't that a bit cruel, just to stop helping like that?" the father asked.

"Has helping him helped?" I asked.

His look told me that he was beginning to understand.

-Boundaries, Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend

Braided Crown Hairdo

I played with my hair this morning after I saw a friend at Ebenezers Coffeehouse last Saturday, before the 5pm service, with a braided half-crown hairdo. We talked about trying a full one. She learned about a braided quarter-crown from me, then I was challenged by her half-crown. Today I accomplished a full one!

I started with my left side above my ear and the braided upward across the forehead and then down under to finish a full circle. Ta-Da!

Starting Over in a Difficult Land

"You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough" -Haggai 1:6

I love how my NKJV Chronological Study Bible expanded upon this verse about how Israel returned to difficult land after their years in Babylon. It claimed that, "achaeological surveys suggest that Judah lost 90% of its population during these years". Thus Judean society in the land of Judah had collapsed, but that is not the whole picture. If we zoomed out to zoom into the land of Jerusalem, we will see that the land was neglected for approximately 50 years. I don't know what that means for I am not an agricultural guru. I could say that the land of Jerusalem may have been covered by debris from the collapsed buildings, wild animals' manure, dirt, and weeds. The exercept in NKJV added, "Land would have grown hard and become overgrown with brush. It must have taken intensive manual labor and a lengthy time to get the fields to return to productivity again." Despite the difficulties, Israel continued. They moved back to this land and strived. They sowed much and reaped a little. They knew that they had to start somewhere; they sow.

Two days ago, I began to work on the city garden at my place. It had been abandoned for years. The problem was that I don't have any history of this garden. Let say that it was neglected for 50 years. Well if an American decided to adopt a foreign kid without a birth certificate, then the doctor had to estimate the age to create an estimated birth certification for the kid. And so I think I have the right to say so until someone interfere. It was covered with some 5 feet tall weeds! Few weeks after the weeds had been trimmed down, they sprung back up to approximately 3 feet tall. The soil was in a heap above the ground level. I decided to dump the heap of the soil to turn the garden into a ground level garden. It wasn't easy as I thought it would be. When I dug it up, I found some hidden debris. It looked much worse than the start for it looked like a dirty road now... Oh only if I had kept my motorcycle! I could park my motorcycle upon the garden as a garden, it would be an easy way out. Anyway I bought a beautiful "Sky Pencil Japenese Holly" for this garden to learn that it shall die or grow brown in this garden; I held it back.

You see, if you had no choice, then you had to sow. It is between famine or toil. Obviously the toil is the best choice. Israel had to work hard over their crops. They had compose the soil, mixing human hair, horse manure, ground coffee, vegetables leftovers and peels and more. But they mightn't effect the soil til few years later. The soil was malnutrition. But they sow anyway.

Moreover, as they began to struggle to settle down in their land, God send the prophet to warn them about their establishment. "Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 'Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?' Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Consider your ways!'"

We began to warm our comfortable seats, but before we warm our butt, God butted in to tell us to keep moving. It is either a spiritual famine or a spiritual toil.

Made of Steel

As I read the book of Job, I began to create an analogy between Job and Asahel. Let me start with Job:

Though the storms, Job told God, "Only two things do not do to me... Withdraw Your hand far from me, and let not dread of You make me afraid." Job didn't want to lose his focus. He didn't want to get off the path God has destined for him. He also thought of something tough to guard his thoughts, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there." Job toughens his thoughts in the battlefield to keep blessing the Lord's name through it all.

When Asahel was in the pursuit of Abner. He chased him with the full focus, ignoring Abner's urging voice. Abner told him to take a shelter for he doesn't want to make Abner's brothers mad by killing him. But Asahel didn't even turn aside to the left nor to the right. Thus Asahel died by Abner's spear. And this story was written.

Job's thoughts were toughened through the voices of his three friends. He knew that he may lost everything, including his life, but he believed that God may respond. And so the Lord did! He answered Job out of the whirlwind and He restored Job twice as much as he had before. Job didn't die like Asahel, but he sure ran like him in the battlefield of thoughts.

Instead of letting the Satan defeat us by throwing us down, let us stand firm in our blessings. Let us remember that we are blessed to have clothes to wear, food to eat and the Body of Christ. Let us tell the Satan, "If we are sick, so what. If we are homeless, so what. If we are lonely, so what. If we are incapable of something, so what. For we came naked and we shall go back naked." That will keep the Satan away when he learned that you are made of steel.

God is Jesus' Mean Father

Imagine Jesus saying, "Our Father is mean!" C'mon, I am sure that Jesus would say that if he hasn't understood his Father's will. Do you know what his Father did to him? His Father literally forced him to suffer on the earth to test his loyalty to the Father. He wanted us, the people, to see how Jesus suffered for His sake. What kind of Father is He?

A lot of us once had to submit to the mean parents, the mean coach, the mean boss, or even the mean spouse. I don't think any of us ever gleefully submit to anybody's will. That is until we finally understood God's will behind those mean parents, mean coach, mean boss, or even mean spouse, that we will gleefully submit to them. Or maybe we never did. Well, why should we?!

How did Jesus gleefully submit to his Father?

The answer lies in Luke 2:40, "And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the FAVOR of God was upon him." What is the other word for receiving the favor from God? It is grace. According to the definition, grace is a special undeserving favor coming from God in assistance for a special purpose. So if we replace the word "favor" with "grace", we will see that God's grace was upon Jesus. It sounds ironically doesn't it? Jesus' Father strengthens him for His meanness. Jesus even temporarily cried to his Father, "Please take my cup away!" It was the most greivous time for Jesus, the evidence came from his bloody sweat. The science indicated that we also have a small ounce of blood in our sweat whenever we grieved, but a very few of us ever experienced a hematidrosis. But it also sounds like Jesus experienced a silent therapy from his Father for Jesus once cried, "Father, why had you abandoned me!" Oh how much more does Jesus have to suffer? Then he died. Thus the ministry of reconciliation came into the picture!

If Jesus didn't undergo those past sufferings, then he shall suffer in the eternity as he grieves for each one of us. He is now gleefully watching us in the heaven above and walk among us on the earth as we learn His ways. He prays that each one of us will also takes up his cross and finish the race. We are called to be persons of influential.

How can we gleefully submit to our mean someone?

The answer lies in John 1:16, "And from his [Jesus] fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." Luke says that Jesus began to do and teach so that you all may continue to do and teach. In the same way, Jesus received the grace from God so that His grace may be upon you and you. By His favor, we will learn more and more about His will, His mysteries, which shall strengthens us to takes up Jesus' cross.

To be an influential person: "A dead seed produces many."

John 12:24, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Prepping for the lesson of "Grace" in IgniteASL.com

Persistent Prayer in Action

One of National Community Church's core values is, "Pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you". I love trying to combine both pray and work into one element. I believe that this one element is a persistent prayer in action.

A persistent prayer can be learned from the persistent widow in the parable. Luke 18, Jesus said, "they ought always to pray and not lose heart." Then he tells us a story about her, "there was a widow in that certain city, where a judge fears neither God nor respectful man, who came to the judge, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' Yet because she keep bothering the same judge, he gave her justice." If the unjustice judge gave her justice, then how much more will our God give justice to His elected? And how much more will a justice judge gives you justice?

In reality, getting the justice may not be that easy. Even though some of us may be persistent in asking. Only few of us would stay in one place, asking the same person the same request like the persistent widow. Most of us would ask different persons with the same request or ask the same person with different requests.

This persistence widow walked like it depends on her and asked like it depends on the Judge.

Position Your Sheep for Blessings

Jacob asked for the speckled and spotted sheep from his father-in-law, Laban. I love it when he didn't ask for the unblemished white sheep. But he chose the secondary. It is just as how the faithful Abraham allowed his nephew Lot to pick the best part of the land, leaving Abraham with the secondary, the least.

But Jacob somehow knew that he will receive the blessings through those blemished sheep. He reposition them in faith. He takes the rods and stripped the browns until the whites appeared on the rods. Then he put the stripped rods among the strongest blemished sheep as they breed so that they may breed more.

"Whenever the stronger livestock conceived  that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might concieve among the rods... so the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's." -Gen 30:41-42

Was Jacob clever? Does he thinks so? In Genesis 31:9, Jacob responded to this question, "[No,] God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me." Jacob simply knew that God will bless him as He had done. He took the blemished so that God's name may be glorified through this.

Jacob positioned the least, God poured the blessings.

Self-Shepherding

We often find it easy to shepherd the others and have the others to shepherd us. But we often find it hard to be a self-shepherd.

What does it mean to be a self-shepherd? And when will that role have to take place?

Of course, it takes place when there was no shepherd to watch over you in a pericular area. You are a lost lamb. But since we received Jesus into our heart, we earned the gift of self-shepherding as we allow Him to shepherd us within us. So we may either decide to be a lost lamb or to be a self-shepherd.

What does a shepherd do?

A shepherd shall abandon all 99 sheep to look for a lost sheep.

What does a self-shepherd do?

A self-shepherd shall walk back into the flock and say, "HEY! I am back!" Instead of remaining as a lost sheep, we walk right back in even if those 99 sheep keep leaving, we continue to shepherd self back in. It's "an ugly lost sheep in pursue of those beautiful 99 sheep" to please our Shepherd.

The Forgotten Interdependency

I just talked with my dad and done a lot of journaling for a lot of things had come and go. One thing in our conversation had striked me about many Christians in America. It is that we are too independent that we forgot how to be interdependent.

He shared with me about a missionary at Thailand who was a former wrestler and who used to live in Maryland before he became a missionary at Thailand. He shared his frustrations with the Christians at Thailand and the people for they are too independent. Thus their communication was being misunderstood many times, which fractured the harmony within the Body of Christ. He claims that the spirit realm was influenced by Thailand's hundreds years of being a self-govern country. For other countries in Asia had been captured and/or ruled by other country or so. Thus the interdependency was forgotten.

I don't know if the story is very accurate, but it came from dad's memory. But the point is that we all were raised in a culture where we had to be independent in order to survive. We all need to relearn how to be interdependent like the kids. To repair the fractured harmony, we had to be interdependent once again.

"All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ." -1 Cor. 10:3-4

It's amazing how Israel ate and drank the same spirit through the leadership of Moses. Which came from Jesus.

The Path to Coffee

I poured the boiled water over the ground coffee in the half-broken white dripper. Two mugs were filled. I am drinking one as I type this blog, and the other mug was topped with the silicone cover. It came to me that I have been drinking a coffee or two almost daily. I guess I am a coffeeholic now. How can it be?

Two years ago, I came into the offices of National Community Church in the second floor of Ebenezers Coffeehouse as a Protege. I found gallons of coffee available on every Tuesday mornings, so I drank one. Later it became two or three. Once a while, one staff would make coffee for herself or himself and I would ask them to make an extra for me. I depended upon them to make coffee for me because I didn't know how to make a mugful of coffee!

One day, for some reason, I decided to ask Kurtis Park about the amount of ground coffee I will need to make a coffee or two. He said two tablespoons (or is it spoonful?), so I made my own coffee, beside the instant coffee, for the first time. Or was it the only time that I remembered. But it certainly set the foundation for my life.

It all started with the taste and observance. It then led me to question. With the answer, I finally set the foundation for my life.

Try replacing my coffee story with the story of the path to salvation.

Seek the Will of God

There's nothing better than pursuing the will of God. If we aren't pursuing His will, then we are pursuing our own. We may think that we are doing the right thing, but it's actually us who are assuming. Seek Him in everything you do.

'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.' -Jeremiah 33:3

This morning I read my subscription email that reads, "Remember Kathryn Kuhlman?" in its paragraph. It talks about her choice that turned out to have a devastating effect in her life, call and ministry. It was until she decided to repent by divorcing her husband after eight long years of being trapped. God totally restored her after this and increased the anointing on her life. Why did that happen? I recalled that her husband divorced his wife for her. I was befuddled when I learned about this, I couldn't believe that Kathryn Kuhlman would do that.

Today it seared deeply into my heart and I decided to look it up again. I learned that Kathryn Kuhlman didn't know. Although she sensed that God's will wasn't with her through it all. It reminded me of Bathesheba, I questioned about whether Bathsheba knew about the murder of her husband or not. Here's the answer to Kathryn Kuhlman's life:

Burroughs and Kathryn decided to wed. While discussing the matter with some friends, Kathryn had said that she could not "find the will of God in the matter."These and other friends encouraged her not to go through with the marriage, but Kathryn justified it to herself and others by believing that Waltrip's wife had left him, not the other way around. On October 18th, 1938, Kathryn secretly married "Mister," as she liked to call Waltrip, in Mason city. The wedding did not give her new peace about their union, however. After they checked into the hotel that night, Kathryn left and drove over to the hotel where Helen was staying with another friend. She sat with them weeping and admitted that the marriage was a mistake. She decided to get an annulment.
The three women left Iowa for Denver in hopes of explaining what had happened to the congregation of Denver Revival Tabneracle. The congregation, however, was so furious with her for the secrecy of the marriage that they drove Kathryn "back into Waltrip's arms."

It doesn't matter if the story is accurate or not, but this story taught us something. That we cannot expect God to clearly warn us about the dangers ahead of us, but us discerning whether we are in the will of God.

It sadden me to learn that the congregation drove her to remain a failure for eight long years rather than remain a failure for only a night. It's not in our saying, about anybody's situation, but God's.

Watch Over Our Seeds

"Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel [bigger garden] and the house of Judah [smaller garden] with the seed of man [the plants] and the seed of beast [the weeds]. And it shall come to pass, that as I [the gardener] have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I [the gardener] will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord [the gardener]." Jer31.27-28

If I want to be like Him, then I probably have to build up garden, and then let them be destroyed. And then build them up again. But I will have to look at them even if they are ugly and full of tall weeds or if they are bare. The Lord kept His watch over us even when our forms are hidden under those tall ugly weeds, being an eyesore to our neighborhood. He watched over us and cared for us who are being trapped below. He watched us daily. I love that! I want to watch over the garden daily and spot every sprout of weeds and leave them be when needed and pluck them when needed. Summer will come and go. Winter will come and go. And so will the weeds.

There is one thing that I won't do to my garden is to sow the seed of weeds! I know that I am unwillingly. What should I do? Repent?