sufficiency of grace...

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Cor. 12:9

Thank you for working thru my weaknesses and struggles…

AWCA banquet

When I arrived, I hardly knew anyone. But, few minutes later, some of the church members started to show up – little more comforting.

I’m realizing more and more that the people whom God’s calling me to minister is very different from the youth group kids I’ve been dealing w/ most of my ministry career. At times, I feel lot more comfortable talking to the teenagers/college people. Now that I’m interacting w/ people mostly w/ finance industries in nyc, I’ve gotta start learning the stuff they’re into – kinda learn their language and understand what’s going on in their lives…at the same time, I won’t go as far as learning to play golf! I know JO’s been hinting that I should learn…but, hey, I lived thru youth ministry w/out learning how to play basketball! I just can’t picture myself on the golf course…real musicians don’t really play golf you know…

Well, the banquet was pretty interesting. Towards the end of the night, they started playing techno and people, mostly middle aged Korean men and women, started dancing, while most of the young couples sat around watching them. And ones in my table felt really uncomfortable as the bass frequency was so strong. I got extremely annoyed b/c they were serving tiramisu, one of the few cakes I really like, but the booming bass was giving me a sensation of indigestion! I did managed to finish tho…

lecture on calvinism

Just got done reading…here’s one of many memorable quotes:

There is found hidden in Calvinism an impulse, an inclination, an incentive, to scientific investigation. It is a fact that science has been fostered by it, and its principle demands the scientific fact.

How unbelievers try so hard to drive a wedge between faith/Christianity and evidence/science, when all along, the scientific mind has been fostered by Christian mindset of trying to find out more about the God’s glorious creation…

joyce meyer conference

It was a quite an experience going to a conference ran by a woman preacher…I think there were 1:4 men to women ratio. Moreover, most of the men there came w/ their wives or girlfriends. So, it was kinda weird feeling to be walking around w/ 2 other men. But, overall, her messages seemed very good. JO confirmed this – I could see a lot of what CCEF teaches…things like identity in Christ, fear of men, inner selfishness. So, you could say that we were all pleasantly surprised by the type of message she was giving…she’s definitely not Joel Olsteen.

Hillsongs…hmm…I guess they were okay. But, I’m not sure what to make of the fact that the praise leader had a Jimi Hendrix shirt while leading worship. I know I consciously do not wear shirts w/ secular rock stars so I won’t offend people. But, the biggest problem I have w/ things like Hillsongs and Passion are – a) their lyrics seems very shallow; b) they unintentionally
promote cultural reductionism; c) their mass appeal to commercialism.

On the way back, we had a choice between going fishing or going to an all-you-can-eat fried chicken restaurant. Fishing won over – yeah, it was a touch choice. But, we ended up catching 13 rainbow trouts and 1 golden trout in one hr! But, ended up spending close to $70. But, it was a good catch. I guess having 2 pastors definitely helped ☺.

passing away...

TZ’a dad passed away this week. Few years ago, his dad was only given few months to live. But that ended up being few years – he’s grateful for that. At least he thinks it coulda been lot worse. At church, it felt like he was doing well and that he appreciated the way our church has been praying for him. But, I know that he still feels certain grief and loss.

Quite a feeling tho…the message for today was about making God the main thing in our lives and not wasting our lives. In it, I had to deal w/ a lot of ‘death-meaning’ issues of life. I kinda felt somewhat uncomfortable delivering it. What’s more, this message was actually scheduled for last week, but b/c of missionary testimony, we had to push it back this week.

public enemy - christians; hate-literature - bible…

Well, it’s already happening in the England, Canada along with various parts of western society. Liberals w/ homosexual agenda are trying side their case w/ racial discrimination, in spite of the fact that those who fought for the equality and human rights in 60’s are appalled by their attempt.. What's more alarming is that people in Christian circles are predicting that sermons, a form of public address, against homosexual sin is going to be seen as a form of hate speech, and the Bible which contains anti-homosexual lifestyle as a hate literature. It won’t be long before pastors could be sued, fined or thrown into prison for preaching against such sin.

Irony is that while trying to be tolerant and accepting, west is becoming more intolerant to God [and w/out God, there is no basis for any morality]. A. Solzhenitsyn once addressed the prestigious Harvard audience that the main difference between west [U.S.] and the east [then Soviet Union] wasn’t the political system. Rather, it’s that one has God and the other is devoid of God. Isn't it funny how, the nations who suffered so much violence under communism are looking desperately for God, while those who held onto God as basis for their identity are fighting furiously to lose such identity…I fear what would become of the place I’m living now…

a day of worship services...

Rough start today—
I was printing my sermon and I ran out of the paper. Reloaded, and got a paper jam! Took me 20 minutes just to print this one last page!!

Svc1 – River Church: definitely an off day! 1st song went well. But by 2nd song, I just couldn’t feel it; we weren’t together; choices of songs felt very disjointed.
We had P’s father in law who’s a missionary to China/N. Korea come in and spoke – took up the whole time and didn’t get to preach. But, it was a powerful testimony!
Spoke w/ SB about possible financial aid for 2nd bachelors’ degree…she said some schools like NYU don’t even let you get a 2nd bachelors, let alone financial aid!...hmmm…a curve ball…

Svc2 – TEOTEC: rehearsed my sermon 4x. Went in very confident. But, the microphone was placed in a very awkward position. But, God came thru and I felt people were blessed. Lord, if you made me into a preacher, let me preach and make a living off of it for the rest of my life.
They forgot my honororium… Yeah, that’s kinda awkward situation…times like these, you just have to smile and walk away, and act like you're not expecting anything, hoping that God will supply the needs. Came home and HY sent me a message that they’ll send it over via mail – yep, he pulled thru…

Svc 3 – JY’s church: not a full church yet. Helped out w/ songs [playin’ guitar]. Met his wife and her cousin. Very nice, yet small group. I think I’ll be joining there more often. Lord challenged me once again, thru JY that I need not to be afraid for future goals…Lord, if I had certain level of success in the past, may be I won’t be this afraid…I’m blame shifting, aren’t I?

After tackling 3 services, I came home very tired. But, I must say, it wasn’t a bad day all…