Category: Christian

Posted on

On the Lookout: James Choung’s Upcoming Book

I’ve met some great people in my college years… and one of them is James Choung, an MIT grad class of ’95. I’ve lost touch with everyone from those years but thanks to Facebook, I’ve found so many friends again, including him!

He’s now a regional director for InterVarsity in southern California! 😀 Not only that, I found out today that he’s coming out with TWO books!  First book is entitled True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In and the upcoming booket is entitled Based on a True Story and will be published under IV Press. (Duh!)

So if you know him, go represent and buy his book(let) in early 2008!! Awesome!

Posted on

Ask not what your God can do for you…

… but what you can do for your God!

That’s what I’d say now. I used to say, borrowing from the words of JFK, “Ask not what your church can do for you, but what you can do for your church!” But I am realizing lately that even that is a selfish statement and request. In fact, in light of discussion with PS after tonight’s Bible study, I am realizing how selfish I have been and am… and how selfish we all are.

We grew up with everything expecting to be certain way… be it same or different from what/how others perceive that as. And because of that, we, more than another person, are more prone to resisting change. That’s not necessarily bad… but it is when that change is mandated by God! I feel that more than often, that I myself am that factor that resists the change that God wants to bring.. for the good of His kingdom! John Ortberg spoke of many things in the following video from this year’s PGF (Presbyterian Global Fellowship) but one thing that stuck to me was when he used the word “conduits” to imply our role to bring God’s Kingdom to hear on earth.

The way double pane windows and thermos work is by using vacuum inbetween two materials. Vacuum is what prevents the heat from being transferred between two places. If you wanted the heat to be transferred faster, you’d either use better conducting fluid (like water) or just use metal inbetween. Sometimes, we Christians act more like vacuum than water and keep from God’s kingdom from coming down to here on earth. And we must stop that by being less and less selfish. More of Christ, less of me. Less of you.

Posted on

“Comatose” by Skillet

Very powerful lyrics… read it… esp. where I accentuated it… without God, I am in a comatose and only an “overdose of Him” will wake me up. Good stuff… I will get the song up later tonight…

===================================================================
I hate feeling like this
I’m so tired of trying to fight this
I’m asleep and all I dream of
Is waking to You
Tell me that You will listen
Your touch is what i’m missing
And the more I hide I realize I’m slowly losing You
Comatose
I’ll never wake up without an overdose of You
I don’t wanna live, I dont wanna breathe
‘Les I feel you next to me
You take the pain I feel
Waking up to You never felt so real
I don’t wanna sleep, I don’t wanna dream
‘Cause my dreams don’t comfort me
The way You make me feel
Waking up to You never felt so real
I hate living without You
Dead wrong to ever doubt You
But my demons lay in waiting
Tempting me away
Oh how I adore You
Oh how I thirst for You
Oh how I need You
Comatose
I’ll never wake up without an overdose of You
I don’t wanna live, I dont wanna breathe
‘Les I feel You next to me
You take the pain I feel
Waking up to You never felt so real
I don’t wanna sleep, I don’t wanna dream
‘Cause my dreams don’t comfort me
The way you make me feel
Waking up to You never felt so real
Breathing life
Waking up
My eyes open up
Comatose
I’ll never wake up without an overdose of You
I don’t wanna live, I dont wanna breathe
‘Les I feel You next to me
You take the pain I feel
Waking up to You never felt so real
I don’t wanna sleep, I don’t wanna dream
‘Cause my dreams don’t comfort me
The way You make me feel
Waking up to You never felt so real
Oh how I adore You
Waking up to You never felt so real
Oh how I thirst for You
Waking up to You never felt so real
Oh how I adore You
The way You make me feel
Waking up to You never felt so real

Posted on

Comatose by Skillet

Comatose by Skillet

I discovered Skillet back in late 90s when they were harder in terms of music…
I forgot about them but found out that they are still around and released a CD by the title of “Comatose” about a year ago… and I love it!! 

First track “Rebirthing” is sheer genius and joy to listen… they did awesome job of mixing classical with rock!  And the title song “Comatose” reminds me of how they have stayed true…  Go listen to it already! 

Posted on

Hot Choco and God

With the “colder” weather around, I decided to make hot chocolate for the kids for snack   What is interesting is afterwards.  Evidently, JJ decided to clean up after himself and wiped the spilled hot choco that was on the placemat.  I somewhat chuckled at seeing his rather lame effort at the clean up.

Then it reminded me of how God would look at my way(s) of cleaning up my own mess in life, only to come after my attempts and He does His own clean up.  I wonder if He chuckles as well seeing at His son’s lame attempt at cleaning up.    It also reminded me that I shouldn’t mock anybody else’s mistakes, but rather keep myself in check.  It’s rather funny how God can re-teach lessons of life in so many ways.

I am humbled… yet again.

Posted on

Visiting people at their home

Soojin has had an opportunity to get closer to someone lately at our church. Usually, she’s somewhat reserved as she’s a bit … afraid of what others’ perception is of her. However, Soojin told me that this sister doesn’t seem to possess any negative feelings towards Soojin. In fact, I know she doesn’t. So Soojin has been more open towards her each time she saw her and encouraged her. For the first time, Soojin called her this week.

I don’t know what they talked about but she was then very determined to make a meal for her and wanted me to deliver it. You don’t know or understand how determined she can be if and when she sets her mind on it. So she made her recent new recipe of version of Mapo Tofu. It’s got loads of tofu and mushrooms. Let’s not forget that she’s a health freak. So she finishes it and wanted me to deliver it to her but then it turns out that our Wednesday meeting wasn’t at Formosan Church like it has been but instead it was at our church. Upon hearing this, the sister tells me to just give it to some other people that she sees regularly and they can give it to her. I agree and relay that to Soojin.

Remember how I mentioned that she can be very determined?! She was insistent on my delivering it to her personally. That same night. Even after church as we hung out at Teahouse to pre-celebrate Eric’s b-day , others (incl. PS) tried to convince me to just give it to them to have it delivered. However, I saw Soojin’s side of things and understood (at least better than others) why she so insisted on delivering it. Korean Christians are old school when it comes to visiting people. There’s even a Korean word (shim-bang, ie. visitation) for it. One of the many things that I believe Korean Christians have been doing right is visiting people personally, as in face to face time. They go to where the person(s) lives, and at their home, they pray for the person(s).

Sure in Korea, distance is shorter, but I feel that as we yield to the excuse of “long distance”, that personal touch of visitation and praying for each other in person has been lost. That I think is an awesome Christian art. So for me, it wasn’t an ordeal for me to drive out further, to see where the sister lives, and to pray for her there, at her home. We need to bring that back.

American culture may seem nice at first, keeping the distance, but at the heart of it, it only asks for one thing: alienation. Christ told us to meet together, and where two or more are gathered in His name, there He is with us. So despite others’ thinking that it’s waste of time and resources (mainly gas), Soojin and I think otherwise.