Be Led Forth in Peace

"For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." -Isaiah 55:12

Yesterday Kim Potter shared this "seek the peace and pursue it" (Psalm 34:14) in her article. I felt that the Lord is telling me to be secure in peace by pursuing it fully. Just like how the Lord sent the angels to tell Lots and his family, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away."

Isaiah 55 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. In verse 8-9, it explains about how great God is and how His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. We had to (1) submit to His will to experience the best. In verse 10-11, it tells us about how God will bring down the rain and the snow to confirm that (2) His words shall not come empty, but it shall sprouts upon the earth. God is going to take care of the rest. Now God is telling us in verse 12 to (3) go out in joy and be led forth in peace.

Joyce Meyer said, "If you lose your peace, you lose your power."

The last verse basically tells us that (4) God will change everything into good- that is after we go out in joy and be led forth in peace.

Lift Up Hands

Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:8, "I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing."

I didn't understand how those several respectable people I knew had lifted up their hands in the church so often without offending anyone. I grew up in a home where my dad used to lift up his hands in order to act holy to stump us intentionally. He would then say something like, "Praise Lord, praise Lord!" It hurts so much that I grew up disliking the idea of lifting up my hands. I even observed that few Christians lift up their hands nearby the faces. Oh my, those persons seem to lose the desire to worship due to whoever stood between them with the hands in their faces. So much for insensitiveness and politeness.

I usually lifted up my hands when everyone else are doing it together- only on a few occassions. It just felt so right because everyone were comfortable with it. Well, that was what I thought. Until a few years ago, I was shocked to find myself lifting up my hands in private a bit often. I love worshipping God, yet I thought that I dislike what I am doing. I guess it is where God had healed my inner wounds. I would lock the door to be sure not to offend anyone unintentionally. After few years of worshipping in private and observing those respectable people lifting up their hands publically, I began to yearn to worship in public when it is proper as I do in private to bless Him.

Last night I attended NCC's Prayer and Praise- the kickoff for the 21 Day Prayer Challenge- which had turned to be one of the best nights in my life. After an hour or so of singing in the church, I finally lifted up my hands in an open space with such length of time . Yet when my hand felt the wind of the people passing me, I moved a bit to the left to give them the room without ceasing to praise Him. Then I realized that its a blessing to be able to bless the Lord yet offend no one. I believe that lifting up our hands is one of our way to love the Lord with all our strength. It felt great to my shoulders ache a bit from worshipping and they even felt uncomfortable in bed all night long.

It's not about whether we offended someone but whether we authentically blessed the Lord. A change in our perspective.

Psalm 134:2, "Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!"

Into the Jungle

"God, send me into the jungle" had been my prayer since I was nine. I attended Youth With A Mission children's education foundation school with my brother, who is two years older than I am, among 10-12 age group even though I'm one year younger. There was only one interpreter for two of us, so I skipped an age group! There I sat beside my brother to learn about an hero named Bruchko who went through the jungle. A seed of this story was being planted into my nine-years-old brian.

Forwarding six-and-ten years minus few days, I've been praying, "God, send me deeper into the jungle." Over the years, I've understood that God's not going to send me into a dangerous tribal place in Africa or something alike. For God had a thousand idea when I had one. Without a knowing prayer, I prayed metaphorically. And my prayer life has been evolving.

Paul wrote to a group of churches in Galatians, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me... the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Even to those who are culturally or personally different than us.

Far much more.

Is It the Will of God?

"There are so many today who are in Bible schools and seminaries who have a wrong motive for going to a Christian school. Many go as a last resort; it is the only place they can go. They think because the dean of the school accepts them, it is the will of God." -Like A Mighty Wind

This passage convicted me. Few months ago, I've applied for Bethel Seminary. When I learned that the application deadline was only two days away or so, I carnally thought that it must be God's leading. And so I completed everything in time and was mightly proud of myself with some compliments in my way. Time is in my hand. I rushed, holding prayer for later. I even ignorantly crossed a line. To me, everything was great!

Not So! After New Student Orientation, I came back home to find myself heavily lying on my bunk bed. Something was pressing me down. I felt choked. I am all toxicity. I had it, so I got up sometime after midnight to grab my basketball's warm-up jacket and pant to go out for a prayerwalk. Afterward I wearingly lied down on the cast away couch in front of my home to reread a passage on my phone device and pray some more. I half-concluded that it wasn't God's will. It was until a sister shared the same heaviness on the heart that I fully concluded.

Out of our sincere thoughts and feelings, we may deceive ourselves. For as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are His thoughts and feelings higher than our thoughts and feelings.

Some of us are called to the Bible school or seminary and some of us are not.

Back to the Simplicity

Mel Tari received the message from the Lord, "You have one message for the people in America: that is the need to get back to the simplicity of the Word of God. Not only back to the Bible, but back to the simplicity of the Word."

This statement amazed me as I read Like A Mighty Wind to learn about how the revival occured in the island of Indonesia, which is just south of the two countries I had visited as a child, below Thailand and Philippines. There something strange took place when 200 people gathered together on September 26, 1965 to pray. Like in Acts 2, they spoke in different languages and the police saw that the church was on fire, so he sounded the fire bell. And as the revival goes on, some crazy people began to confess their sins. Even a wife received the word of knowledge and she scolded her husband for his sins, but the Spirit of God came upon him and he confessed. Someone had also ministered to this angry wife so that she also confessed her sins, probably of her scolding! It was hilarious!

It's easy for me to begin analyzing those situations to understand why the revival had occured in this country. "Back to the simplicity" tugged me to stop. It's not about how many books I've had read. It's not about what I've had done. But it's all about forgetting.

"But that night those Presbyterians started to forget the written order and the prayers in front of them and began to pray in the Spirit - at first one by one, and before I knew it, they all began to pray at the same time."

250cc Ninja Disassembled

This morning I was looking through the 250cc Ninja forum to see how the new owner had handled my bike- 2003 Ninja. I learned that the new owner had actually disassembled it completely until it was naked. He also gave out a lot of details about the bike with his friends, there are approximately 150 blogs about it. It's almost as if there's a book written about it. Of course, I skimmed through everything. This guy is crazy. I couldn't do it like he did. He has this gift and dedication.

Now the new owner had assembled it with new parts such as adding the rail to it, repaired the frame, and adding the covering to the handlebars to keep his hands warm. This bike is not my own, it's being transformed into his own.

In the same way, God wanted us to be His own.

"Do not be conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve of what God's will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

Church and Parachurch

What is the difference between the church and the parachurch? It had been on my mind for few weeks as I struggled with this concept. I googled for some wonderful article about it, but I couldn't find any. It was until I found this article, "Church and Parachurch: Like families and soccer teams". Let me summarize what I just learned:


Church- It's where the families would come together to do many things such as caring for the elders, caring for the children, to give and receive family love. This ministry will continue a year around long and applies to everyone.
Ex: small church or mega-church
Parachurch- It's where the team would select the genders and ages to do the work for a specific time- just like a season of a soccer team. This ministry may cease for the summer and the winter season.
Ex: Campus Crusade for Christ, Chi Alpha, Youth for Christ, Athlete In Action and etc.

Thus this article strongly encourage the parachurch workers (PCW) to:

(1) Be active and deeply invested members of a LOCAL church, in fact most of the PCW's HR handbook required PCW to be member of a church, which most of us may have overlooked. It also may authorize you the ordinances just as Jesus first gave it to the church. Stay accountable.

(2) Share the vision with the church to help them broaden and enrich the church's vision, yet it will help them to pray for PCW's work. Yet the church may be the place and the support where PCW could locally fall upon whenever the parachurch organization fell apart. Be the influencer and encourager.

(3) Give the opportunity to the people at church to volunteer. Provide the training such as a small group or a Bible study that a PCW may have learned from the parachurch organization, which may bless them and help them to advance the kingdom of God. Be invested in the Family of God.

(4) Set the example by working with the body of Christ, the church. The others will be watching you in how you set the model. Unity.

(5) Maintain the organizational humility- being able to fight against the temptation that you are different than other Christians. Knowing that you are part of the Body not the better. Humility.

Those are the few of main point which I found significant in my searching for the accountability part of developing the strong Deaf Campus Ministries Connection team.

Any thoughts? Comment it below or email me at kari.olney@theaterchurch.com.