Undercover- An Unwanted Package

"Many times God will send us what we need in a package we don't want." -Undercover

We, Christians, often thought that we will get what we want when we walk in obedience to God. Which isn't always true. Let us remember that two thousand years ago the religious teachers thought so! When Jesus first began his ministry, he went to Galilee and then to Nazareth where he was rejected due to their wrong mind-set. For he directly told them that God has not sent him to them. Likewise, God has sent Elijah to none of them, but to Zarephath the widow and He sent Elisha to none but Naaman. After hearing this, they threw him out in wrath! They didn't want that Jesus. The package was unfitting for them.

John Bevere stated that he once had a youth who had a wrong image of who a youth pastor should be. He was a youth pastor for nearly four months when Tim approached him:

He asked sincerely, "Pastor John, will you be my buddy? My last youth pastor was my buddy."

His question was not to be taken lightly, and I looked inside to hear how I should respond. The answer quickly came in the form of a question: "Tim, Jesus said, 'He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward' (Matt 10:41). Well, this applies to a youth pastor as well. If you receive a pastor in the name of a pastor, you'll receive a pastor's reward."

I continued, "Tim, you have a lot of buddies, don't you?"

He responded, "Yes, sir."

"But you have only one youth pastor, right?"

He responded, "Yes, sir."

I asked, "What do you want: a buddy's reward, or a youth pastor's reward? Because the way you receive me is what you get from God."

It was as though a light went on inside him. I saw his eyes register the revelation, and he quickly answered, "I want a youth pastor's reward. I see what you are saying." He flourished from that point forward. He moved a few years later, but he still sought me out whenever I came through his city.

What kind of package do you want within the Church? Do you want a buddy's reward or do you want a minister's reward? Then let us honor them as a minister.

Pre-Fast and Fasting

Our fathers had proclaimed a day of Pray-N-Fast hundred years ago. National Community Church had proclaimed a week of Pray-N-Fast few days ago. I proclaimed to myself, "Pray-N-Fast."

I've decided to fast from coffee and chocolate this week as I continue to explore for more options. Maybe I could skip a meal on a specific day. Maybe I could do a juice fast in the last few days. Or maybe I could eat cheaper. We don't have to limit ourselves with our pre-decisions, but to get deeper and deeper throughout the week. We could even increase our vows to Him throughout our calendar. Start with something small and then increase it according to your hunger for the depth. Let your vow be a vow and your refusal be a refusal, don't overdo yourself with big vows (Matt 5:37). Look into your heart and it will tell you of it's desires. Slow and steady win the race.

What may we replace our fasting with?
I love how Isaiah 58 reminds me that if I fast with greediness, then "fasting like yours this day will not make your voice be heard on high." God is saying that it is not the fasting that God had chosen for us. But God chose the fast that will enable us to give more. To loose the bonds. To break every yoke. To share your food with the hungry. To bring the house to the homeless. To clothe the naked. To be the light to those dwelling in the dark. To take away the pointing of the finger. And to be guided by the Lord in everything you do.

"Deep calls to deep," the 42nd psalmist reminded us. "Yes sire," we said.

Repentance = Rechanneling

"Who can I blame?" Job debated against himself. Should he blame himself? Should he blame his friends? Or should he blame God? Morever, his friends added some ingredients to his confused-mind. Nothing came right to him from his own mind.

Suddenly God came out of the whirlwind to remind him, "Of course, nothing right may come from your own mind!" He went on to say that Job cannot take His place to bring the sun up, to pour down the snow, to cast the thunders or to observe the living things. Then God went on to tell him to quiet down and listen.

I love how Job responded, "Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth." (40:4)

Job's Confession & Repentance (42:2-6):
"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn't know. 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.' I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

In his repentance, he decided to let his mind lose the battle and allow God to take over the rest.

Final Solution

If you wandered into South Africa in the early 1900s, you may simply enjoy your tour. That's until you go into the innermost part of South Africa. You may see the violence between whites and blacks. It's cruel. It's messy. But in "Final Solution" two persons in this story made their decisions. The white ex-persecution made his decision to seek reconciliation between the races. As a result, the black guy who was once violently attacked by this very peacemaker decided to forgive him. He chose peace over the bloodshed. Through this action, they've teamed up for the reconciliation. They both finally understood that they are both one in Christ Jesus. This story is still being passed on to us, making the impact upon us today.

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." -Galatians 3:28

The ministry of reconciliation takes battle. It's the harsh reality.

At An Impasse

We all at some point in our lives found ourselves at an impasse. There was no way out. No way around. No reasoning escape. No possibilities in the situation. Our whole life cannot be perfectly expressed with our limited choice of words. We are at the point of giving up the knowingly-confused unavoidable calling. We tried to step out to find it cancelled. We tried to move and we fall down flat. We stretched to be squeezed. We are powerless. We are tempted to give up and leave the Jezebel-like environment to cry like Elijah.

When we are caught in impasse, we may choose to escape or to be persistence. Either ways, God will faithfully continue to redirect our path. God restored the escaping Elijah to his calling after His angels fed him water and food and his 40 days journey. God answered the persistent widow by softened the unjust judge's hard-headed that he finally gave the justice. God is merciful.

While nothing seems possible, let us respond with full consciousness of one's unavoidable calling yet boldly believe that new possibilities beyond our imagination can be given. As we faced this impasse, let us find a way to express, identify, face, and live with this impasse until the Answer.

"Energy and persistence conquers all things." -Benjamin Franklin

Leading Peers

Last night I received a direct feedback from a valuable person. She warned me that she will be direct with me. I told her to bring it on. When we ended our conversation, I told her that it doesn't harm me a bit, but it lifted me up instead. It gave me a hope of an improvement. Well, I won't bite. But I will bite those people who won't respect those people I respected the most by harassing them with reasonings when they said no- back off!

I pondered about many changes in my life this morning. I realized that I am surrounded by the people I respect the most this year. I respect those people because they are the ones:
-who would simply said, "No."
-who would say, "You need to do this because it is your turn to do so."
-who would say, "This habit had to change, here is what you could do..."

Those people are willingly to take risks. They would hesistate before they could be direct with me. They would strive to say it out due to their experiences. They are correct in what they are doing. They earned my respect. They led me when I am leading them. Or the other way around. That's what I call leading peers.

Are you leading your leaders? Or are you leaving your leaders standing alone by not being direct with them? Do you ask your followers to lead you by being direct with you? Do they know that you won't bite?

Deceiving Necessaries

Last night I got up in the middle of night to pray. I prayed about whether what I am doing is right. I felt something oddly heavy that it was hard for me to sleep or to pray. I decided to grab a jacket and a pant to take a walk at 2AM. It was a nice prayerwalk. I feel lightened. I slept.

This morning I tried to look for something about what I'm discerning. My eyes fell upon Under Cover by John Bevere. It's one of my top ten books, which had helped me throughout my homeless months in my senior high school year. It's precious.

"Adam and Eve were no exception. They didn't have physical covering or clothing; rather, they were 'crowned' with glory (Ps. 8:5). The word crowned means 'to circle or surround.' They were covered by it. The very glory that God placed on them was so overwhelming that, in their eyes, it concealed their physical nakedness. For this reason Scripture says, 'They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed' (Gen. 2:25). They were not ruled by self-consciousness; rather their lives were before God. The thought of wanting clothing didn't cross their minds because it wasn't necessary.
That changed the moment they disobeyed. Prior to their disobedience, their spirits completely dominated, whereas afterward their flesh would dominate. The first words recorded in Scripture after they ate were, 'Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.' (Gen. 3:7). The key words are they knew. They had knowledge they did not have before.
The principle of the knowledge of good and evil is to live life according to what is right and wrong. Before the Fall, their actions were governed not by the knowledge of good and evil, or by right and wrong, but by the knowledge of God."

Here is the questions that I asked myself:
1) Did anything unnecessary become necessary to me now? What caused them to become necessary to me? Was it of God?
2) Was my action governed by my logical thinking or by my spiritual hunger? Could I decieve myself by combining them both into my own direction?

It's time for us to rediscover the true inner peace. To get above the clouds. To see God's path outlayed for us.

Why Bethel Seminary?

I just got accepted into Bethel Seminary of the East. I applied for this seminary two weeks ago with only one day deadline to apply. It's amazing how the people replied quickly about it to help me in my completion, especially the Bethel recruiter.

Now the question lies- Why did I apply for M.Div program at Bethel Seminary? How did it comes into my head to do so?

Three weeks ago, I was in Olathe, Kansas with the IgniteASL team finishing a filming project for Deaf youth. One member of the team challenged me to apply to seminary to see if God was leading me to enroll in a Master of Divinity program. She saw that I was passionate and smart, skills that should not go to waste. For this reason, I took her advice into consideration. After returning to District of Columbia, I reviewed one of our draft films called “God’s Gift”. It talked of how we may possess confidence and humility at the same time. It made me realize that I was partly resisting a higher Christian education in my yearn to stay humble, like those uneducated fishermen in the Bible, when I did not need to resist. For few days after the trip, I began to get restless and so I applied after learning that I have a chance to do so.

Books surely fill my learning mind, but they don’t challenge my opinions as my classmates and teachers would. Thus I seek to re-immerse myself into the wolf pack.

"I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name." - Rev 3:8

The Greatest Life Lesson

I believe that the greatest life lesson occured within the Church whether it is in a building or not. The great life lessons are to be learned from our brothers and sisters. Although their criticism may be correct or incorrect. Those criticism may come from person with wrong attitude or person with right attitude. It all had to come with some filtration, not of our own, but with the help of the Holy Spirit. For our err, for both the person and the self, often left our Church to stray. There is no such thing as a perfect Church. The greatest life lesson will come to us when we stay within the Church to wait upon the Lord. The Church may be our roommates, our family, or our co-workers who believed in the Christ.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Hebrews 10:24

When we stayed, we may find ourselves getting more and more frustrated with our errs. We began to get off our "nicey" masks. We showed our true color. We pointed. The great thing about pointing is that we get to see our true color.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Matthew 7:3

I once found myself pointing toward a person rather than toward God when things get heavier. I couldn't point to God longer in my own effort not to blame, probably out of love. I began to lower my painful arm to point at the speck of sawdust in my own brother/sister's eye. As you know, when you are pointing your finger (index finger) at someone, you are also pointing three more fingers (middle, ring, and pinky fingers) toward yourself. And that's your plank within your own eye. When you finally pointed, you finally learned. Boy, I hate that!

Some of us avoided blaming one another, but we forgot to spur one another with respect. Some of us blamed one another, but we forgot how to love. Those lines are fine. When we spur correctly, we learned healthly.

The Scars of our Solo Achievements

I pondered about when my bad habits had begun. What were the roots of those struggles? When did they began to take an ugly shape?

It all begins way back. When I was an eighth grader, I took the role as an assistant English teacher because I was ahead of all students in mathematics. I had no choice but to attend mainstreaming school for math class with interpreter or to attend high school class for math. I begged for high school. Obviously, I held my head up in pride of my older peers. I was a teenager!

In my attempt to catch up with the challenges I faced, I began to form a bad habit. I worked alone as an assistant teacher and I even got ahead of some high school students that I began to work independently in the high school class. Occassionally I would have a question in my head, but I realized that my teacher is too busy teaching that I cannot get a help. I learned how to push myself futher, I had to depend on myself only. I stressed. I started to pick on my face to get my focus sharp. It worked!

I am an achiever. Everyone around me knew it. I am persistent. I am steadfast.

Of course the ugly truth followed. Scars began to form on my face. The scars of my solo achievements.

It's not about me. It is not about you. But it is all about His kingdom. His kingdom requires every part of us. His kingdom requires us to come together in a pack.

My independent streak, as an achiever, left me with scars or newly reddish spots on my face as a reminder.

Does your independent streak leave you with some scars in your life?

Ad Fontes

The Reformation calls us to "ad fontes", which means "back to the sources". It is a movement back to the source. For us to follow the "ad fontes", we will have to know the Hebrew and Greek texts. That means we will swim back to the origin against the stream of status quo.

We mightn't notice the Christian fish symbol on Christians' car, pin, and etc. Those five Greek letter forms the word, "ixthus". Okay... So what. It's just a Christian fish symbol.

If we studied those letters, then we will cherish those fishes. The first letter represents the word Jesus, the second represents the word Christ, and the next two represent the words God's Son, and the last letter represents the word Savior. Thus those five letters stand for "Jesus - Christ, - God's - Son, - Savior". Amazing, isn't it?

Luther said, "In proportion then as we value the gospel, let us zealously hold to the languages. For it was not without purpose that God caused His scriptures to be set down in these two languages alone- the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New in Greek."

Do we love the Christ and the gospel? If we answer yes to those questions, then we may also love the original Hebrew and Greek texts in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 8:1 stated that "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." I concluded that it may be necessary to study the original biblical texts for the love of learning not for the desire to politically know-it-all.

Billy Graham adviced us to "study more, preach less, avoid politics."