"As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like livingstones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." -1 Peter 2:4,5
Living Stones. The idea is that we're stones building up a spiritual house. Even though so many times I find myself thinking that I don't need to rely on others as much or at all, this verse really reminds me of how important it is to rely on each other as brothers and sisters so that we can build up a spiritual house.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Nothing short of a 10
Reflections on a long plane ride home.
~~
Wow, I’m turning 21 soon… This year has been amazing. The best thing about turning 21 isn’t that I can finally drink or gamble or anything like that. But it is that, when I turned 20, I prayed that this past year God would turn me into a man that chases after God’s own heart, and to know what it meant. This doesn’t mean I am a man that I have become that, but rather it means that I think I finally have an idea of what it means.
As I started to pursue God with this mindset, he slowly revealed to me that a lot of living life isn’t about trying our best, but rather giving our best to live a righteous life. The word righteousness came up a lot in my prayers and devotions in this past year. Through serving the church, serving missions, and my family, I’ve come to realize that I had the wrong mentality of “just getting by.” I have lived my life up until this point by giving enough effort to “just get by.” And even then, God has blessed me well beyond what I deserve.
I want to become a man that chases after God’s own heart by giving everything that I have. I believe it is only then can I really become a man that is after God’s own heart. Time is too short for us to live by just getting by, God definitely deserves more from us than the minimal effort to pass.
A Chinese brother of mine told me that in China, on a scale from 1-10 that 6 is passing. And that many Chinese people are satisfied with just getting a 6 because it means that you’ve reached the passing point. I’ve reflected on this quite a bit, and I came to the conclusion that I don’t want anything less than a 10.
From now on, I pray that I will give a 10 effort in every aspect possible. Whether it’s playing sports, academics, serving the church, the list can go on forever. But in short, I want to live a life where I am giving everything I can in my God given ability so that he can be glorified. This is what I think it means to be a man after God’s own heart.
~~
Wow, I’m turning 21 soon… This year has been amazing. The best thing about turning 21 isn’t that I can finally drink or gamble or anything like that. But it is that, when I turned 20, I prayed that this past year God would turn me into a man that chases after God’s own heart, and to know what it meant. This doesn’t mean I am a man that I have become that, but rather it means that I think I finally have an idea of what it means.
As I started to pursue God with this mindset, he slowly revealed to me that a lot of living life isn’t about trying our best, but rather giving our best to live a righteous life. The word righteousness came up a lot in my prayers and devotions in this past year. Through serving the church, serving missions, and my family, I’ve come to realize that I had the wrong mentality of “just getting by.” I have lived my life up until this point by giving enough effort to “just get by.” And even then, God has blessed me well beyond what I deserve.
I want to become a man that chases after God’s own heart by giving everything that I have. I believe it is only then can I really become a man that is after God’s own heart. Time is too short for us to live by just getting by, God definitely deserves more from us than the minimal effort to pass.
A Chinese brother of mine told me that in China, on a scale from 1-10 that 6 is passing. And that many Chinese people are satisfied with just getting a 6 because it means that you’ve reached the passing point. I’ve reflected on this quite a bit, and I came to the conclusion that I don’t want anything less than a 10.
From now on, I pray that I will give a 10 effort in every aspect possible. Whether it’s playing sports, academics, serving the church, the list can go on forever. But in short, I want to live a life where I am giving everything I can in my God given ability so that he can be glorified. This is what I think it means to be a man after God’s own heart.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
change is never a new thing in AGT
We just got news that this summer camp ends tomorrow. Originally we were planning for a Friday closing ceremony, but now the school wants us to be done by tomorrow. So all classes are finishing up right now as I type this e-mail. This year for TGA has been a year full of last minute changes. Ruth said to me today: "You're not even phased anymore by these changes because of everything these past few weeks huh?" At first I wasn't sure how to respond, but after thinking about it a while, I've come to realize that it's all in His will. Even though it's easy to see these things negatively, this year has shown me that even though we don't like these changes, God always brings us to where we need to be.
I'm sure that even though we'll be done here, our work as missionaries in China will not end until we set foot on the flight back from HK.
God has answered many of my prayers in the past couple days.
Prayer requests:
1. That God will show me where I need to be
2. That I will continue to give my everything as long as I'm here
3. That God would bring peace to the team here in Cheng Du
love you all,
YY
I'm sure that even though we'll be done here, our work as missionaries in China will not end until we set foot on the flight back from HK.
God has answered many of my prayers in the past couple days.
Prayer requests:
1. That God will show me where I need to be
2. That I will continue to give my everything as long as I'm here
3. That God would bring peace to the team here in Cheng Du
love you all,
YY
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Blessings from above and a Farewell in the ancient city
Since my last update, too many things have happenned. I know that Father has provided so much, and that He is always watching over us. During our last days in the school , we had 3 people come to the Lord, and those 3 each got baptized. Please pray for them to continue to grow! I've been so blessed by what they've showed me these past 2 weeks. I'll share with you the story of one of our new brothers:
A little background: He attends school in a major city. He came with a couple others to be a volunteer, but he is pretty young. He was at the other school before I got there and was poured out to a lot by the volunteers.
When I got to the school, I was assigned to teach a class with Jonathan as my assistant. After the first day I spent with him we were able to get along really well. It was funny because even though he wasn't our roommate, he would come and go into our room as he pleased like our roommate. We spent a lot of time together talking, joking, playing card games, etc. But I never had too much of a chance to talk to him about deeper spiritual things. Especially since I was usually leading songs and playing guitar, I never got to talk too much to him during devotions.
As we neared the end of camp, 2 sisters accepted Christ were born again on 8/4 in front our office after a praise night. After their baptism, I pulled Jonathan aside cause he looked a little sad and in deep thought. I asked him what was going through his mind, and we went to the basketball courts and just sat and talked for 2 hours. He shared alot of his thoughts and concerns about facing his family and friends if he got into a relationship with Christ. And I was able to share my thoughts and also more of my testimony with him. We talked and talked, and at the end I challenged him to challenge God to prove that He's real. And he said "I did." I was like whuuut. And he said during the prayer before I asked if anyone wanted to accept the Lord, he said that he told God if God could answer these questions and prove that he's real, then he would believe it. And said that I had answered that prayer and challenge.
The day after was our last day together, and at night I asked him how close he was to accepting the Lord. And he said 6. And he explained that in the culture it means passing, and that he believed. After double checking if he believed in God's love, that Jesus died for him and rose again, he said yes. I was pretty happy, and then I followed up with asking him if he wanted to get baptized. And then he said that he was at an 8. He said he thought he needed to grow more before getting baptized, and asked what I thought. And I told him it varies on people and churches in America, but many people usually get baptized after. And then it looked like he understood, then I asked if he was willing to get baptized, and he said "it would be an honor." But since he didn't ask when or where, I wasn't sure if he understood, so I ask how about tonight? And he said he needed 5 minutes to think about it.
I went into the room and told my roommate we needed to pray for Jonathan. And immediately after we prayed, the door knocked and he had a smile on his face and said "let's do this." I ran and gathered all the Christians and we gathered in our room to listen to his testimony and then I had the honor of baptizing him.
Praise the Lord!!!
Now since the summer camp has ended, I'm at another school now, and our Volunteers are all together. I dearly miss all the other volunteers and my students at the old city. I really miss them so much. As I was listening to a Chinese song yesterday on the bus to the next city, I was thinking if I really gave my 100% to the volunteers and students at the old city. I never really came to a conclusion on whether if I did or not, but I know that I want to be able to leave China knowing that I've done everything I could've.
Please pray for me!
1. That God would give me peace here at the new city, and that I would be able to be led by the Lord to do His will here.
2. That I would continue to lift up the new brother and sisters daily so that they could grow.
3. That I would not dwell too much on missing my kids and volunteers, and that I would keep praying for them as well.
4. That God would give me the strength to finish strong.
Sorry for the long post! Thanks for your prayers!
Love from China,
YY
A little background: He attends school in a major city. He came with a couple others to be a volunteer, but he is pretty young. He was at the other school before I got there and was poured out to a lot by the volunteers.
When I got to the school, I was assigned to teach a class with Jonathan as my assistant. After the first day I spent with him we were able to get along really well. It was funny because even though he wasn't our roommate, he would come and go into our room as he pleased like our roommate. We spent a lot of time together talking, joking, playing card games, etc. But I never had too much of a chance to talk to him about deeper spiritual things. Especially since I was usually leading songs and playing guitar, I never got to talk too much to him during devotions.
As we neared the end of camp, 2 sisters accepted Christ were born again on 8/4 in front our office after a praise night. After their baptism, I pulled Jonathan aside cause he looked a little sad and in deep thought. I asked him what was going through his mind, and we went to the basketball courts and just sat and talked for 2 hours. He shared alot of his thoughts and concerns about facing his family and friends if he got into a relationship with Christ. And I was able to share my thoughts and also more of my testimony with him. We talked and talked, and at the end I challenged him to challenge God to prove that He's real. And he said "I did." I was like whuuut. And he said during the prayer before I asked if anyone wanted to accept the Lord, he said that he told God if God could answer these questions and prove that he's real, then he would believe it. And said that I had answered that prayer and challenge.
The day after was our last day together, and at night I asked him how close he was to accepting the Lord. And he said 6. And he explained that in the culture it means passing, and that he believed. After double checking if he believed in God's love, that Jesus died for him and rose again, he said yes. I was pretty happy, and then I followed up with asking him if he wanted to get baptized. And then he said that he was at an 8. He said he thought he needed to grow more before getting baptized, and asked what I thought. And I told him it varies on people and churches in America, but many people usually get baptized after. And then it looked like he understood, then I asked if he was willing to get baptized, and he said "it would be an honor." But since he didn't ask when or where, I wasn't sure if he understood, so I ask how about tonight? And he said he needed 5 minutes to think about it.
I went into the room and told my roommate we needed to pray for Jonathan. And immediately after we prayed, the door knocked and he had a smile on his face and said "let's do this." I ran and gathered all the Christians and we gathered in our room to listen to his testimony and then I had the honor of baptizing him.
Praise the Lord!!!
Now since the summer camp has ended, I'm at another school now, and our Volunteers are all together. I dearly miss all the other volunteers and my students at the old city. I really miss them so much. As I was listening to a Chinese song yesterday on the bus to the next city, I was thinking if I really gave my 100% to the volunteers and students at the old city. I never really came to a conclusion on whether if I did or not, but I know that I want to be able to leave China knowing that I've done everything I could've.
Please pray for me!
1. That God would give me peace here at the new city, and that I would be able to be led by the Lord to do His will here.
2. That I would continue to lift up the new brother and sisters daily so that they could grow.
3. That I would not dwell too much on missing my kids and volunteers, and that I would keep praying for them as well.
4. That God would give me the strength to finish strong.
Sorry for the long post! Thanks for your prayers!
Love from China,
YY
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)