How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

The beginning of the end. The final culmination of the 8 year long conference where many lives have been stirred and touched. Resolved has had a special place in my heart for a few reasons, the most important of all being that it is here that the Lord saved me from my path of eternal damnation.
John MacArthur has jump-started this conference with a sobering reminder of the history of the church. Pastor John took us through the lives of John Hus and Martin Luther and how they paved the way for sound doctrine in regards to the headship of the church. "it is important that we remember that these truths sailed down to us on a sea of blood." We cannot take lightly the importance of such a pivotal anchor of doctrine, especially one that such Godly men have given their lives defending.
What an amazing way to start off this conference: seeing our doctrine through the lens of church history, and refreshing our perspective of what it means to be a Christ-follower.
my prayer is that this weekend, the lives of the men and women in this gym will be changed so that they cannot walk away from here thinking about 'what a great conference it was' or 'how great the music was' but that they would be challenged to live a life, dedicated to serving Christ. After all, isn't that the very point of our existence?


http://vimeo.com/42067595
ps: there will be no live stream this year (sad) but the audio downloads will be available that evening, and the videos have been promised to follow shortly after. find this and all previous Resolved sessions here

Santa Clarita - just mostly dead

I was encouraged to go out and evangelize with my friend from the seminary Matt Todd, even though it was mostly him sharing and me listening. This trip brought up many questions and insights into the area that we live - and even for the rest of the U.S....that it is mostly dead. Either people are comfortable in their Catholic church, don't want to hear anything about God, or simply think that they have done enough to earn their own salvation. It is truly disheartening to see, but also challenging me to ask how I am reaching out here and now into our communities, or is everything just related to the bubble in which I live? At the least I could be praying for the people, at the most actively involved in the community, any portion of the community, showing them Christian love and sharing with them the truth of the gospel. If I keep on saying that I will take care of it later, when I graduate, or depend on circumstances and events to drag me out of my little shell, it will never happen. So I guess that this is just to point this out, and to encourage you all to encourage me to step and be a light. To look for chances to reach out to people outside of my church and school. Also to encourage you to look outside at your own communities, or groups, and see how you might share the truth, be salt and light, show who Christ is, especially over the Summer. (Also, don't forget to be light into the lives of other believers, to encourage and continually bring things back to Christ, who is the greatest thing in our lives).

Resurrection Sunday

Hello Dear Friends!
How was your Easter weekend? Celebrated with many heretical egg-laying rabbits? Or making trips to wal-mart the day after for 50% marked off candy? The joys of living in a first-world country :)
Easter for me this year has been quite memorable. I spent the day with extended family. Not many of you know that my grandma is suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease, and has difficulty recognizing even her own children's faces. Names are unimportant and non-existent to her, as she can't even remember how many children she has. However this Sunday, she got to see her only son, out of a family of 9 kids, who came all the way from Brazil to see her. Now her son, my uncle, has suffered from a stroke several years ago that paralyzed half his body and left him unable to talk. Since then, he has made great improvements for a man his age (65) and is able to slowly walk with the aid of a cane, and he can say simple things such as obrigado (thank you) and aigoo (oh my) with much effort.
This Sunday, I got to see one of the most heartwarming pictures I have witnessed: my grandma, who can't remember to turn the light off before going to bed, saw her son, whom she has not seen for almost 20 years, and she recognized him. Her son has no problem recognizing her as his mental capacities are quite lucid; he just can't express his happiness to see her. They begin this long hobble down the hallway to finally be able to grasp the other's hand, only to have the surprise on my grandma's face turn to joy, then turn to anger as she sees how crippled her son is. She starts hitting his arm with tears in her eyes, saying "I gave birth to a healthy boy, what happened to you? Are you really my son?" my uncle has tears in his eyes as he cannot bring himself to say anything but 'oh my', and he can see how grandma is questioning his identity. Grandma gives him an ultimatum: "if you truly are my son, say your name. Say Kim Yung Myung." Now this is a hard name to pronounce even for me in Korean, but for a stroke victim to say, is neigh impossible. The effort that my uncle put into forming the words was painstaking, the emotion that he had was almost tangible, even as his voice has no tone. His face was twisted with the pain that he knew he was causing his mother, and with a super human effort, he finally muscled out: "Kim. Yung. . . Myung!" Grandma demanded that he say it over and over again, until she was satisfied that he was finally her son. At last, recognition set in, and he was accepted by her.
It was both the most heart-wrenching and heartwarming moment-The mother cannot remember her son, and the son cannot say his name or call her 'mother'. yet, by the grace of God, they both were able to overcome their disabilities, and the son says his name, and finally says 'mother', to which the mother replies '..my son.'

Encouraging Tidbit

"To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God." - William Temple

Interesting to think about...

=)

Hey Everyone!
Thought it was time to get a new pic up :) Sunday afternoon waiting for evening service . . . Just got back from a great weekend in Davis. These two studied all weekend and slept. Joseph requests company for a hike next weekend. Hope you all are having a great semester so far!

Erie, Not So Dreary Today

This is the beautiful view I get to enjoy every day from my east window :)
And the not so beautiful temperature reading of 25 F that goes along with it!
Last night was 1 degree... just 1 lonely digit. Brr! I guess things could be worse (*cough*Alaska*cough*).

Preparation for another semester

Many of you throughout the next week will be traveling, such as I, and I would encourage you to think through this coming semester as it quickly approaches us. To pray through how to treat it, what to pursue during it, how to treat others throughout it. Everywhere you go, you really limit how much you get out of it by how much you put into it. Growth, friendship, maturity, fun, all of these are determined largely (not totally) by how much you invest in the intentional pursuit of them. So I would again encourage you, as I encourage myself, to consider and pray through how we can most glorify Christ, encourage each other, grow in maturity and knowledge all throughout this upcoming semester. It can only happen through prayer and intentionality on our parts, passive growth at TMC usually just means lack of anything at all.

You may not agree with me, but I bring it up as something to think about, to consider, and at the very least provoke you towards prayer. As well, if you are not able to be with us this semester (we misssss youuuuu!) I would encourage you to consider these things were you are at, as well as to encourage us remotely :P

Luke 19:11-27? Not sure if that applies, but still something to think about...(when I get back, I'll see what Jmac says about it, since he is the ultimate authority on everything ;) )

P.S.
I miss you all!!!