Korean American Christian Blog
A short description about your blog
|
|
Posted by Jae in Untagged
|
|
Just read a bible passage and thought of people who have birthdays coming up, or have birthdays that just passed.
2 Corinthians says:
16Therefore we do not lose heart.
Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
--------------
You just turned 25, or you just turned 30 or 35. This has been the oldest you have ever been.
Go to the bathroom now.
Basically, even if you look at yourself in the mirror and see that "outwardly you are wasting away," we don't need to "fix our eyes on what is seen."
Don't worry about the wrinkles on the side of your eyes, or your asian eyes that are getting SMALLER every year.
Don't pay attention to your sense of fashion that seems to be deteriorating, where now you are mature enough not to spend too much of your budget on the new trend to keep up with your friends. (well, also because you don't have many friends left. they are all married, dead, or both.)
You see that expanding set of love handles? Look at those handles in love and know they are only "light and momentary troubles."
Soon "an eternal glory will far outweigh them all."
I'm not exactly sure what this eternal glory will look like but it will OUTWEIGH your fat, "your fat ugly body."
(I'm only mimicking your evil voice, the one that talks to you in the morning sometimes to discourage you)
So, don't lose heart. (not only because that too is going to deteriorate)
Don't lose heart because "what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
Amen.
|
|
Posted by Jae in Untagged
|
|
John 15:4 says, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." So, yesterday ... no, wait. It was 11 years ago, but it feels like it was yesterday. My mom got into an argument with my 12 year old sister.
|
|
Posted by Jae in Untagged
|
|
Mother Teresa once said that "God doesn't call you to be successful. God calls you to be faithful." J.I. Packer said something similar (I'm paraphrasing here), "God never promised success in terms of the worldly standards. God wants you to be faithful to him." It's interesting how when I read statements like this, I am more prone to accepting them when I am close to God, and am almost disgusted at them when I am far from God. Deep down everyone longs for success which include fame and power and wealth. Even at the level of altruism, we can use fame and power and wealth to further the next generation, especially our immediate offspring. We can use this fame to make God known. We can use this power to move people to God. We can use wealth to finance organizations and groups to act towards the goodwill that God intended.
|
|
Posted by Jae in Untagged
|
|
I hate people who say things like "I just came back from meeting God," especially when I never meet God myself. But this time, it was me! So I will proudly boast in this ever rare moment of something, I felt, was so supernatural. There is this Wednesday Prayer meeting I go to every week that is organized by a group called YNYA. They are a ministry of mostly Korean speaking young adults in LA.
|
|
Posted by Jae in Untagged
|
|
Tim Keller from Redeemer Church says, "When we do work,
We need to look to ourselves
(see what our gifts are), We need to look out to others
|
|
Posted by Jae in Untagged
|
|
I enjoy hanging out with selfish people.
They are people that are so self-absorbed, so self-centric that
you just cringe and wonder how they have become to be the way they are.
Selfish people, naturally, think about themselves.
They are not evil.
They just do not have the capacities to look beyond
their own self.
If there is food on the table with two chairs,
they are too fixated on the food to even know that there is one more empty chair.
If it is not empty, the person on that next chair is in his periphery.
If it is empty, the person most likely does not know it even exists.
There is only one objective of this person, and that is,
he will stare and salivate at the food, and consume it.
Most of the time, he is not aware of his surroundings,
or even care that there was competition for the food.
He will just take it, and think of anything else
only after he has been satisfied of which he had been fixated on.
Even then,
his eyes are wandering soon after,
and will grab onto its next prey.
These kinds of people do not bring intense joy, or grand fondness out of you.
In fact, they bring undesirable feelings of discomfort and sometimes annoyance.
They are like a two week old pot of soup that you forgot to wash.
Once you take a whiff of it, you are simply disgusted.
You would only care to wash it, if you did not want to throw it away.
However, if you had a choice between two pots, you would take another.
You may ask why I would love to hang out with selfish people.
You may ask why I would want to take a whiff at a pot of soup gone bad.
You may wonder at this point if there is a hint of sarcasm in the statement.
I love hanging out with selfish people because
at the moment of recognition that they are selfish,
I see that very nature in myself.
There must be a law in nature that states that one must give and one must take away.
CS Lewis once stated that something that takes up space,
is in essence, taking away space from something else (as in an analogy with
competing humans).
If one gives, one takes.
If somethings goes ten yards, there is something else that is subtracted ten yards.
For example,
If two people are in an automobile,
and the weather has reached 90 degrees,
one person may be hot, while the other might be cold.
At this point,
there is a decision to be made whether the air conditioner should be turned up or turned down.
If it is turned up,
it will cause one to be uncomfortable, while accommodating the other.
If it is turned down,
the same effects will occur.
There is always discomfort when the other person takes, and you are the giver.
There is always comfort when the other person gives in, and you are the taker.
This brings us back to the point of selfishness.
When I realize that the other person is selfish,
I am acknowledging that there is discomfort in me
by the very fact that the other person is acting in a way that is consuming to himself.
A label they have a name for - self-absorbed.
This very discomfort occurs when I am not naturally giving in,
but am forced to give in, or forced to be the giver.
Selfishness is someone who does not want to give, and feels discomfort when he is forced to,
usually at the hands of another selfish person.
A selfless person is one who does not mind giving in, and feels comfort when he is brought to give to another.
It is highly likely that when I feel discomfort (or even disgust) at the sight of a selfish person,
there are two of them in the same room.
|
|
Posted by Jae in Untagged
|
|
I wrote this entry in October, 2009 when I had to come to grips with my displeasure in worshiping two idols - the world and God. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While having 8 shots of soju the other night in Koreatown, I rambled on to my friend about my Christian walk this year. That might sound like a bad idea considering I was probably somewhat intoxicated by the 5th dose of Green Medicine (btw, they make it hip to drink by labeling it Fresh and Cool now), and it probably was.
The only alternative is drinking and NOT rambling on about Christianity but about girls, or the economy, or the economy of girls. But the only problem with that is, at the moment, I hate girls, and also at the moment, I hate this economy. Economy of girls? I don't even know what that means.
Ok, so I was talking to my friend about three things that I learned this year.
The first thing is that ...
1. Image is not everything
I have been for quite some time now aware of what
others think about me, and how I care about how people think about me. I've heard some people say I don't care what people think.
Do not believe these people, because EVERYONE cares what people think about them.
However, in my case, and in my walk with God, I think this principle comes into effect. Christians fall out of Christ like living for a few different reasons, one of which, is that they don't want to be judged by others, by themselves, and by God. Yes, to varying degree, image matters by all three persons.
For example, you love chocolate. (insert any addiction of choice) You eat tons of chocolate and you get fat. Not phat, just fat. Others will think you're fat and ugly, when they KNOW the bible says Christians should be skinny and pretty. And they think automatically Hippopotamus or Hypocrite. Both are not nice words to say the least.
You will think you're fat and ugly, and so will God.
Except that God will love you still. You and others won't love you.
My point is that when I stop caring about what people think about our dichotomy of our Christian life, I can then freely hang on to God even though others think I've failed, I think I've failed, God thinks I've failed. And the reason we can do this is because when image is not everything, I can focus on what really matters - His Grace. His grace is all surpassing. And when I see that his grace is in the lives of other Christians, who are they to judge? (of course, we cannot dismiss reckless living and stumbling other Christians or nonbelievers, but that is a matter for another topic)
So, the central truth is that I am able to hang on to God, and not fall away, when I stop caring (too much) about what others think about the seeming dichotomy of my life.
And the seeming dichotomy of my life allows me to absorb this next lesson.
2. I need an inside-out change.
An inside out change simply means that when I change on the inside, I can start changing on the outside.
A perfect example of this is when I quit smoking one pack of cigarettes a day. I started to pray every time I wanted to smoke. It started to change my attitude towards smoking and more importantly, it lessened my desire to smoke. I guess it’s almost analogous to whenever I thought about Kate Beckinsale, I closed my eyes and imagined Al Gore. When you think about Al Gore enough, Kate Beckinsale becomes less attractive.
All this is to say, that I could not change by myself. How about quitting smoking in the car in traffic versus moving mountains. I would have said it’s easier to move mountains, because we have bulldozers now. It may take years to move a mountain. It may also take years to quit smoking, but by the time you quit, you’re probably already buried … in that mountain.
It’s like that conversation in Before Sunrise. “Why do you smoke so much?” “Well, I smoke because I was on the patch for a few months. I got addicted to the patch. Now, I smoke because I’m trying to get off the patch.”
I cannot change alone. Only the Holy Spirit can change my heart, and my mind. And then the inside changes, your character changes, your soul changes, your thinking changes. And then your body follows your heart, and your mind.
The follow-up central truth is that I am able to hang onto God, despite the dichotomy of my life, because I know that the very act of hanging on to God (which entails a concerted effort to trust and follow Him), will bring about an inside-out change, and that change will lessen the seeming gap between my God walk, and my World walk.
And I can do this in good conscience particularly when I get on my knees, and say Lord renew me today, everyday.
|
|
Posted by Jae in Untagged
|
|
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."
- Philippians 2:3-4
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
- Matthew 22:37-39
------------------------------------------
In terms of loving my neighbor,
it is often more persuasive to think of putting others above myself
rather than putting them on equal grounds.
Because when I need to love the other as I love myself,
but there is only one piece of bread at a certain moment of hunger,
I would much rather consume it than give it away to my brother.
Even as I know the code of religion that states I should care for another as I care for myself.
If we are equally hungry,
I will default to my stomach as opposed to his.
I can more easily give it away when I consider my neighbor MORE important than I,
and that I am LESS important at that moment.
It is not that he is more deserving of a particular care than I,
but it is Christ-centered humility that spurs me to place his needs above my own,
simply in obedience to God's command.
So if we are in a cabin in the dead of winter,
and there is only one sleeping bag,
(because he forgot to bring one)
it means to either share it together,
or give it to him.
When we discover that we might have to give up something of our own,
our self-preservation instinct kicks in most of the time:
Why should I let him be warm, when I will be cold or less warm?
Why should I give it to him, when it is my possession and not his?
Why should I even share it, when that means I will be less warm?
Why should I show grace, when he showed ignorance in forgetting an obvious necessity?
Essentially it comes down to:
Why should I care for him, when I have myself to care for first?
And in other words:
Why should I love my neighbor as myself?
And, furthermore:
Why should I consider him better than me?
There is no real good reason when you think of it.
It is just thinking in the way Christ thought.
In fact,
many others on the outside have thought the same way.
CS Lewis says that most ALL religions (or even the basic law of human nature)
establish that being selfish is frowned upon,
and that thinking of others is highly regarded.
Aside from all the benefits being selfless may bring us,
and aside from it making us bigger hearted people and
here and then,
give us a warm fuzzy feeling that we are good people,
the act of loving others before we love ourselves
is simply a response to God's command.
It is something God wants,
regardless of whether we completely understand why at the moment.
To love God
means to obey him.
To obey him
means to love others,
even if it means it will bring us discomfort.
We should have known this when he said
"take up your cross and follow me,"
because, after all,
the cross is not the most comfortable thing in the world.
|
|
Posted by Jae in Untagged
|
|
I co-manage a convenience store.
It was a dream.
And I achieved it.
(insert sarcastic tone here)
But I love it. It brings me to a world and culture I always try to drive away from -
South Central Los Angeles.
As they say, don't wanna drive by where they have a lot of drive-by's.
And I have a heart now, which I am grateful for, for the inner city.
The poor, the sick, the drugged, the hurt.
However, sometimes, I have to catch myself thinking "How will this make me a better man?
How will I serve God and serve these people to make me feel better about myself? To gain for myself?"
Jeremiah prayed and went into the city of Babylon.
Other Israelites camped outside of the walls, desiring to remain clean.
Jeremiah had a heart for the city, and interceded for them.
He became the negotiator to God's Wrath, and the vessel of God's Good Fortune.
Am I like the other Israelites camped outside the walls of the inner city,
deathly afraid of prostitutes, gangs, and the homeless?
Am I too rich, too privileged to reach out my arm, open my hand, and grab on to
another soul that needs my help, my prayers, my care?
Am I too disillusioned to consider that loving God means to obey him, and to
heal the sick because there is no sense in healing the healthy?
Have I become a servant leader that has minimized his willingness to truly serve,
but lead himself into a position of attention, power, and prestige?
Am I a servant of God, or have I become a slave to this world?
The Lord says, "I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them."
(Jeremiah 33:26)
How will I, now knowing this,
answer his call?
|
