Ezekiel 37:1-14
There is a song that led me to this passage.
Here, Ezekiel has a vision in which he is in a valley of dry bones. Can you imagine being there? Yeah, pretty disturbing. Anyway, the Lord tells him to prophesy to the bones and eventually they rise up, now covered in flesh. Well, the bones aren't really alive because there was no breath in them. Eventually, the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath and eventually the breath entered the bones and now there stood an army.
I admit I read this multiple times and didn't really get it. I got that the dry bones were dead and God brought them back to life again by pouring his spirit on them. Honestly that's all that I thought it was. After some reflection, I realized that I'm probably somewhere in this valley of dry bones. There are a few instances when things feel a little hopeless. School, work, and life is a pretty heavy weight on my shoulders sometimes. Life can become dry like those bones.
Not just me, but I thought about how AAIV might be down there as well. We talk a lot about not overworking ourselves too much when we're serving, but I feel like we still do it. I know I do. I don't really know how much this has to do with the passage at all, but all I know is I don't want to see AAIV in the valley of dry bones. Wherever we all are, it doesn't hurt to remember that only God can breathe life back into us and transform us into an army just as he did to the dry bones. I look forward to retreat in hopes that God will use it to pour his spirit upon us so that we will rise up as an army. I like that he turned them into a vast army, not just a vast group of people, but an army. That's what I'd love to see in our leadership team and even all of AAIV.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Distribute food?
Honestly, I don't know much about spiritual attack.
Acts 5 and 6, the really early part in the early church. (The Spirit came in chapter 2, so it still isn't too far down yet.) At least up to where I read, it was before Stephen was martyred, before Paul's conversion. The three main chunks were 1) Ananias and Sapphira lying to the apostles about the money they got from selling their land; 2) the arrest of the apostles; and 3) the dispute between Jews about their widows.
Satan attacks in many ways. He messes with people's heads making them compromise their integrity. He straight up makes authorities persecute Christians, flogging, passing anti-God laws, killing. He also uses something inherently good as distractions to the calling of the believers.
Acts 6:1-7 talks about two groups of Jews who had a dispute over the distribution of food to their widows. Pretty stressful deal. But the Twelve decided to let seven men who are full of the Spirit and wisdom be in charge -- they prayed and laid hands on them to do this work. Why? Because the Twelve knew that if they took care of this dispute, they would not be able to be obedient God's call for them for ministry of the word and for prayer (v. 2, 4). And what Satan intended to be a deterrent for God's word, it became a catalyst. The word of God spread, and the number of disciples grew rapidly.
This passage made me wonder how it relates to our chapter. Some of us are called to lead SGs, some of us to finances. Some of us are called to prayer, and some of us to disciple people. I think it's so easy as "the leadership team" to forget that we have our own specific calling and our specific posts. For me, it's so easy to jump in and distribute food, when that may not necessarily be where I am called to.
For this, I am so grateful for God's wake-up call to us last semester. With Connect, I feel like we can talk about our chapter and recognize different people's gifts. It has become a place where we exhort and encourage, remind each other of God's grace and regain passion and strength. May it continue to be a place where Satan is defeated and God is glorified, and a place where we can lay hands on each other to send each other out to places and positions that we are called to, bringing wisdom and the Spirit of God with us as we go.
Acts 6:7 concludes Satan's attack with this:
"So the word of God spread."
Amen!
Acts 5 and 6, the really early part in the early church. (The Spirit came in chapter 2, so it still isn't too far down yet.) At least up to where I read, it was before Stephen was martyred, before Paul's conversion. The three main chunks were 1) Ananias and Sapphira lying to the apostles about the money they got from selling their land; 2) the arrest of the apostles; and 3) the dispute between Jews about their widows.
Satan attacks in many ways. He messes with people's heads making them compromise their integrity. He straight up makes authorities persecute Christians, flogging, passing anti-God laws, killing. He also uses something inherently good as distractions to the calling of the believers.
Acts 6:1-7 talks about two groups of Jews who had a dispute over the distribution of food to their widows. Pretty stressful deal. But the Twelve decided to let seven men who are full of the Spirit and wisdom be in charge -- they prayed and laid hands on them to do this work. Why? Because the Twelve knew that if they took care of this dispute, they would not be able to be obedient God's call for them for ministry of the word and for prayer (v. 2, 4). And what Satan intended to be a deterrent for God's word, it became a catalyst. The word of God spread, and the number of disciples grew rapidly.
This passage made me wonder how it relates to our chapter. Some of us are called to lead SGs, some of us to finances. Some of us are called to prayer, and some of us to disciple people. I think it's so easy as "the leadership team" to forget that we have our own specific calling and our specific posts. For me, it's so easy to jump in and distribute food, when that may not necessarily be where I am called to.
For this, I am so grateful for God's wake-up call to us last semester. With Connect, I feel like we can talk about our chapter and recognize different people's gifts. It has become a place where we exhort and encourage, remind each other of God's grace and regain passion and strength. May it continue to be a place where Satan is defeated and God is glorified, and a place where we can lay hands on each other to send each other out to places and positions that we are called to, bringing wisdom and the Spirit of God with us as we go.
Acts 6:7 concludes Satan's attack with this:
"So the word of God spread."
Amen!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Proverbs 10-11
Momma told me to eat before I eat - to spend time in the Word before I eat physical food.
Today, I listened.
This passage was heavy and hard for me to read, but I think it's because it's hitting home. The main two things that this passage was talking about was that wisdom and controlling the tongue go hand in hand. The second thing is that the righteous will pursue righteousness, and they will be rewarded.
I think that as a team, we've been lacking in both of these things. Definitely, I personally have not had enough wisdom lately and have very often spoken before thinking things through. But, I think this problem is running deeper than just me.
We have all these opportunities that God allows us to make decisions. Some of them are small and others are huge. Some of them are simply administrative while others are dealing with people's spiritual nourishment and well-being.
I think that we've been trying too hard to rely on our own strength, reason and righteousness in making these decisions. These past few weeks, in Exec and Connect we've seen the repercussions of living like this. We've become hard-hearted to each other and have become more concerned about being right than what God wants for our fellowship.
During SLT (2008), one of the speakers told us, "I hope you have big, beautiful dreams for your chapter. Then, I hope that God crushes those dreams so that you can see the people in your chapter." I think we've reached the point of our own individual dreams being crushed, in one way or another. We can either mope about it or see how much we can impact the lives and the future of AAIV. So let's open our eyes to the people that we have been entrusted with and let's learn to pursue God's righteousness and not what we desire. Let's also see each other and remember the impact of our words when they are just hot air. Those little moments of heat have been nursed into tension and even bitterness. So let's love one another, consider each other's dreams and together figure out where God wants to take AAIV, even if we didn't see it coming.
Thankfully, I believe that God is working in this chapter and that in some ways, our troubles are a signal that Satan knows that kingdom work is being done here. So let's not let him steal our blessings from us, but let's be excited for all the great things God's going to be doing in us and through us for His name.
"Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs."
Let's love each other this week by caring for each other's feelings. Let's love God this week by caring for this chapter and all of His children that are in it. Love love love.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Breaking the Fast & Keeping It Fresh
Friends, my first blog. Ever. Sad that my invitation expired before I even started a la Tiki. Anyway, I've never blogged before, but here goes:
Rewind to last Monday, I remember fasting being hard. At one point, there was this strawberry pie (chocopie-like) sitting on my apartment counter and I swear it laughed at me. I also remember that I definitely didn't prepare for our fast at all. I didn't pray. I didn't really even think about it beforehand. I just kind of...did it. So, to be completely honest, no real convictions from that Monday. It was more about keeping away from food than letting go of distractions to let God speak. My real convictions came afterwards though. Pretty much like a flood, really.
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3)
This was actually a QT I did awhile back (Jan 20) and surprise surprise, didn't blog about it. In my defense, the passage didn't really hit me until this past week though.
I've been going through Oswald Chambers's My Utmost For His Highest in grand spurts and it's funny, for this particular QT, the first line read, "Sometimes we are fresh and eager to attend a prayer meeting, but do we feel that same freshness for such mundane tasks as polishing shoes?" In my case, the prayer meeting part should've replaced the polishing shoes bit. This semester I'm already feeling bombarded by this meeting and that meeting, that God feels mundane to me. It sucks. And you'd think that meetings that are meant to help you serve God and serve your brothers & sisters better would keep things fresh, right? Shrugs. I thought that, at least.
Oswald's blurb continued...being born again daily is so important to keeping life fresh and by jealously guarding my relationship with God and drawing my life from Him only, that's where I will most definitely find my joy-in that meeting, with that person, wherever, whenever. I think that's my missing piece to the puzzle: serving AAIV has been hard these past few weeks because I haven't been fully open to God and made sure He was in the equation everyday. Meetings have been nothing more than just that. And as much as I asked for God to have a hand in every conversation, things have felt more like work on my part than opportunities for God to do His work.
Connecting all the dots here in a practical way is still a work in progress, but I want to fast again with the above in my heart and mind. Updates will follow on this one, promise.
02.01.2010 Why the heck are we fasting?
Last week as we fasted, there was a point when I was wondering why I was even fasting anyways. Was it just because someone told me to do it? Honestly a part of me wanted to rebel. Instead of doing what I normally would have done, that is do what I want to do and make up an excuse, I decided to pray. When I thought about it, I realized that I had no reason not to fast. I'm at a point in my life where I really need to trust and hope in God. With graduation coming up, there are many uncertainties about my future and there are moments when I really freak out when I think about it. That is just one of many reasons why I needed that fast. In some ways, it was a lot about me but as I struggled to get through it, God became a lot bigger. That fast helped to me to restore God as the provider and to focus my thoughts on him. In the end, it was all to glorify God.
On to AAIV... (warning: i might get preachy)
I have no idea what the rest of us did while we were fasting last Monday. In addition, as prayer coordinator, I have no idea whether ESL spends a decent amount of time outside of AAIV meetings to pray for AAIV. Do I care? Should I care? Sort of, maybe. It's not my job to make people pray and it's something I can't enforce. I have accepted that. My hope is that people will value prayer for what it really is. This semester, we have been observing a lot of transformations in individuals and a bigger influx of hungry people than we normally get. Along with that, GIGs and discipleship meetings are happening. Just a year ago, we barely had anything like this! As leaders, how are we to serve everyone? In future fasting, I hope it will be for intercession and insight for AAIV and all the great things that are and will be happening. I hope that it will be for the sole purpose of seeking God.
On to AAIV... (warning: i might get preachy)
I have no idea what the rest of us did while we were fasting last Monday. In addition, as prayer coordinator, I have no idea whether ESL spends a decent amount of time outside of AAIV meetings to pray for AAIV. Do I care? Should I care? Sort of, maybe. It's not my job to make people pray and it's something I can't enforce. I have accepted that. My hope is that people will value prayer for what it really is. This semester, we have been observing a lot of transformations in individuals and a bigger influx of hungry people than we normally get. Along with that, GIGs and discipleship meetings are happening. Just a year ago, we barely had anything like this! As leaders, how are we to serve everyone? In future fasting, I hope it will be for intercession and insight for AAIV and all the great things that are and will be happening. I hope that it will be for the sole purpose of seeking God.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
John 8:21-30
This is another one of the passages where Jesus tells the Jews who he is. Jesus says that he is not from this world but sent from the Father to become the judge of the world. As usual, the Jews have no clue what Jesus is talking about (v. 27 "they did not understand that he was telling them about the Father"), but the interesting thing about this passage is that in verse 30, it says "Even as he spoke, many put their faith him".
I am like the Jews in that I don't fully take Jesus to heart. A lot of things are in my head. I know that faith in Jesus is the key to salvation, I know that my God is a great God who dearly loves me, and I know that he sent his only son to die for my sins, but that's it. I know it, but I don't believe it.
I want to be able to put my faith in Jesus like some of the Jews started doing in the passage. I want to trust that he'll take care of me and all my problems and truly understand what it means that my Heavenly Father loves me. It seems like that's the key. If we knowhow much God loves us, then everything just makes sense. This week, I'm going to bask in God's great love for us. I'm going to experience it and my faith will grow as a result of it.
Father, forgive me for being like the Jews. Even after everything that you have done for me, I still don't understand what it means that you love me. Have mercy on me, a sinner, and show your grace once more by allowing me to experience your love again. I ask these things in Jesus name, so that your name would be glorified through my absolute belief in your faithfulness and your unconditionally infinite love.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Pray big, pray BOLD!
One of the most memorable messages from Urbana for me, was undoubtedly Sunder Krishnan's "Pray Big and Pray Bold". And since we set goals for our chapter on Friday, I decided to use his model to pray for our chapter. I do realize that it's one of the scariest things I have done because things will actually happen!
Praying to the sovereign God of creation means that He is sovereign over all creation, over all obstacles like our lack of confidence, over academics, self-worth, even parents. His sovereignty puts Him in control of all these factors and He intervenes. It also means that we, however hard we try, are not going to be able to change these circumstances -- only God can. God the Creator has give us this thing called prayer as His way to "infer upon us the dignity of causality", which means God lets us partner with Him in His creative activities through my prayers! Things happen when I pray! Praying to the God of creation also means that He has the power to "unleash all His creative abilities". So I prayed that God would do that for AAIV, that our LG SG NINJAs and even smaller things like games and fellowship events would become irresistibly attractive to seekers and visitors, that I would have fresh ways to testify His love and love people.
To the God who speaks and acts even today, I did not pray for comfort or safety, but for boldness, for risks, for uncomfortable opportunities, to love radically and to testify boldly. I prayed that the Holy Spirit would be so at work and evident in my life that people will see and put their faith in God, that He would speak through the speakers who will be coming to LGs messages of peace, hope, love and mercy. I also prayed for the rising leaders in our community, that after a semester and an Urbana of plugging in, they would be eager and thirst for the Spirit just as Elisha asked that of Elijah. And I prayed for the transformative power of the Spirit to be in our members, that as we continue to serve, AAIV will be transformed into a community that is welcoming, God-centered and outward-focused.
So I'm challenging myself -- and all of us -- that God will open our eyes to really see the people around us -- their needs, their gifts, and God's image in their lives. And from there, that AAIV will become the strongest spiritual leader and pillar in the Asian American student body, because we are filled with God's sovereignty, God's creative powers, and His word and truth, overflowing with compassion and love for His world and His people. So as we pray, as we lead GIGs, as we lead SGs, as we run LGs, as we run meetings, let us pray that we will die to ourselves -- not seeing any purpose in glorifying ourselves or hiding our inadequacies. Instead, with full confidence in a sovereign God, we will march forth in prayer and in deed, and we'll see what happens!
"Intercessors have an essential role to play in creating a better future for our world, because intercession is spiritual defiance of what is in the name of what God has promised. The shape of the future will be determined by those who can survey all its various possibilities and who, by faith, latch on to one as inevitable. History belongs to the intercessors who thus believe the future into being." (Walter Wink, Sojourners Magazine, quoted by Sunder Krishnan)
Praying to the sovereign God of creation means that He is sovereign over all creation, over all obstacles like our lack of confidence, over academics, self-worth, even parents. His sovereignty puts Him in control of all these factors and He intervenes. It also means that we, however hard we try, are not going to be able to change these circumstances -- only God can. God the Creator has give us this thing called prayer as His way to "infer upon us the dignity of causality", which means God lets us partner with Him in His creative activities through my prayers! Things happen when I pray! Praying to the God of creation also means that He has the power to "unleash all His creative abilities". So I prayed that God would do that for AAIV, that our LG SG NINJAs and even smaller things like games and fellowship events would become irresistibly attractive to seekers and visitors, that I would have fresh ways to testify His love and love people.
To the God who speaks and acts even today, I did not pray for comfort or safety, but for boldness, for risks, for uncomfortable opportunities, to love radically and to testify boldly. I prayed that the Holy Spirit would be so at work and evident in my life that people will see and put their faith in God, that He would speak through the speakers who will be coming to LGs messages of peace, hope, love and mercy. I also prayed for the rising leaders in our community, that after a semester and an Urbana of plugging in, they would be eager and thirst for the Spirit just as Elisha asked that of Elijah. And I prayed for the transformative power of the Spirit to be in our members, that as we continue to serve, AAIV will be transformed into a community that is welcoming, God-centered and outward-focused.
So I'm challenging myself -- and all of us -- that God will open our eyes to really see the people around us -- their needs, their gifts, and God's image in their lives. And from there, that AAIV will become the strongest spiritual leader and pillar in the Asian American student body, because we are filled with God's sovereignty, God's creative powers, and His word and truth, overflowing with compassion and love for His world and His people. So as we pray, as we lead GIGs, as we lead SGs, as we run LGs, as we run meetings, let us pray that we will die to ourselves -- not seeing any purpose in glorifying ourselves or hiding our inadequacies. Instead, with full confidence in a sovereign God, we will march forth in prayer and in deed, and we'll see what happens!
"Intercessors have an essential role to play in creating a better future for our world, because intercession is spiritual defiance of what is in the name of what God has promised. The shape of the future will be determined by those who can survey all its various possibilities and who, by faith, latch on to one as inevitable. History belongs to the intercessors who thus believe the future into being." (Walter Wink, Sojourners Magazine, quoted by Sunder Krishnan)
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