Day 324

Sep 20: Acts 1-5

In chapter 5, some of the apostles had been arrested and put in jail for preaching the gospel. During the night, an angel of the Lord appeared and opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. Instead of running away to safety, what did they do? The angel directed them to "Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life."

Two things stood out to me in the rest of the story.

1. Did the guards and priests not wonder how ridiculous it is that these men were arrested for preaching Christ's resurrection, but went about preaching it again in plain sight upon their escape? This should trigger major questions like what exactly are these apostles preaching about? What if there's more to this Christ than what we think?

This shows how difficult it is to evangelize to people who aren't seeking. We can't provide them with answers to questions they're not looking for. We can only pray and live out our lives hoping to provoke questions by being radical like the apostles. Francis Chan says "Something is wrong if our lives make sense to nonbelievers."

2. I'm jealous of the power these apostles had. Having been with Christ firsthand, the aggressiveness and boldness of the apostles is unmatched.

chap 4 vs 13 says "When they (sanhedrin) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."

We take the easy way out, saying the apostles were so powerful b/c they were with Christ firsthand, and accepting that we can't be as influential as them. But Christ says, "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." If we at least try to tap into this eternal power at our fingertips, maybe we'd be as influential and impactful for His Kingdom. If we don't even try though, we waste that amazing resource.

Finally at the end of chapter 5, it says, "The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name." I can't imagine this scene: a bunch of apostles rejoicing upon being flogged. How is that possible? How are they doing this, while I sin against God over and over? I pray that God brings more knowledge and understanding of His nature into my heart, that my love for Him would result in reverence and obedience.

Day 317

Sep 14: John 1-4

Food is what keeps us nourished, sustained and energized right?

In chapter 4, Jesus talks about HIS food. I love these few verses b/c its profound and kinda funny at the same time seeing the cluelessness of the disciples as they are just getting to know Christ.

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." 33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" 34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."

It's amazing how Jesus portrays things. Doing the Father's will and to finish that work is like food to Jesus. This love He has for the Father is what keeps Him going and is what ultimately gives him purpose and drive in His life. Just as God gives us this vast universe to see his sovereignty and gives us senses to feel his beauty, God also gives us food - something we rely on daily to keep us alive. Christ uses this analogy to show how much we should rely on that love which produces that will to do all things for His kingdom.

Are we as reliant on doing God's will as Christ was? We know that no one's life will ever be as purpose driven and as flawlessly executed as Christ's was, and maybe thats b/c He was eating a different kind of food than we are. In our struggles to become more Christ like, we ought to just look at what He was eating to keep him going. It's easy to go to church every Sunday and pray for every meal, but our daily lives need to be immersed with this urge and yearning to live out God's will. Only then will we see our lives becoming fruitful and impactful for His kingdom.

Day 311

It's been a hectic few months going to Korea, moving out etc etc...and I noticed that my intimate, personal time with God has been lacking as a result. I may have gotten too busy for myself and lost a little focus but I thank God for providing me with some devotionals and good company that sharpens me and helps me reflect on my shortcomings as His servant. If anyone still reads this, please keep me accountable as I'm closing in on my goal of reading the bible in a year. Weird that it's flown by like this but I know that I've grown so much this year and the Word is in me more than ever.

Luke 16-18

The Parable of the Persistent Widow found in chapter 18 really hit me.

¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

⁴"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "

⁶And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

This text encourages me to pray and not give up just as Jesus had intended it to do. I have tasted how powerful prayer has been in my life and how quickly God answers, but just a few distractions here and there have hindered my prayer life. One verse that portrays the detriment that distractions has to me is Galatians 5:9 "a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." Am I going to let a few distractions derail the power of prayer in my life?

If anything, in the last month, I've learned what it means to guard my heart more. Without intentional intimate time and prayer to God, I've seen how sinful and needy I am of God's grace. I see glimpses of my old life knocking at my door and it is a harsh wake up call to how powerful sin is. In the end though, I'm reminded of the cross and the hope and restoration it gives me. I pray that I would keep praying, that I would persevere, and that His love would continue to be the thing that gives me purpose in my life.

Day 255

Jul 13: Daniel 1-3

Reading the first few chapters of Daniel reminds me of the identity we should have in Christ. If we truly believe ourselves to be liberated servants of Christ, we will always be exalting his name and proclaiming his glory. We will not miss a chance to witness about His goodness or evangelize about his nature.

In chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar is growing impatient trying to interpret his dream and no one can help him out. Daniel prays about this and the dream is revealed to him. When the king asks Daniel if he can interpret it, Daniel states: "No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries."

Before Daniel even interprets the dream, he sets it up, he plants the seed to make sure the king knows that this power is from God in heaven. Once the interpretation is explained, King Nebuchadnezzar replies, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries."

Are we setting up our God like this? Do we plant seeds wherever we can? Do we truly have the mentality that we are servants of Christ? If we really analyze our day to day lives, there are probably many opportunities for us to at least plant seeds into the hearts of our friends, our co-workers, and random strangers. As servants of Christ, this is our job. This is a challenging chapter but a necessary one. I pray that God would give me boldness everyday, that He would help me look at these opportunities as a means of worship and praise, as a way to bear fruits for his kingdom.

Day 254

Jul 12: Ezekiel 36-38

Chapter 37 is the chapter that has the story of the Valley of Dry Bones. I love this story because it shows the hope that God gives us, that even when we are super dry in our spiritual lives, we can be revived through God's Word and Spirit.

What is needed for this revival to happen though, is honest assessment about our current state, and the realities of that present life. If we are struggling with lots of things and are in a dry spell in our lives, but don't realize it, there will be no healing and renewal that can occur. We need to come before God, knowing that we are totally depraved and expose ourselves to our sins as ugly as they might be. When we realize this and we are true to ourselves and more importantly true to God, he will bring the healing and revival that we need so much.

Vs 4 says, "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!" and vs 14 says "I will put my Spirit in you and you will live"

It's important to see that God's word and Spirit are so necessary in this revival. God is the one that is bringing us this transformation, not ourselves. We need to cling and love his Word passionately and allow the Spirit to enter and move in our lives.

I pray that we would we learn to be honest with God. What can we really hide from him? Does he not know us more intimately than even we do? Although we want to feel like we are in control of our lives, we need to realize that being dishonest about our current state only makes us suffer more in the end. Bringing our total depravity before God shows great humility; we trust that He will be the one that renews us as our power comes directly from the eternal strength that He has.

Day 228

Jun 16: Jeremiah 30-43

Theology leads to doxology. The more knowledge we have of God, the more we want to praise and worship him. This has been tugging at my heart the past week and the more I dwell on it, the more I see how true it is.

Because we have a God that is perfect and good, when we come to know more of his being, we will naturally want to praise him more. Essentially, this means that we are limited in our ability to worship God, when we have lacking knowledge of him. An analogy I thought of that kind of illustrates this is our speech. We are limited in our speech by the vocabulary we know. We can't speak words we do not know and hence we can only go so far in our speech because of that. Likewise, if we only know 10% of God, we can only worship up to that 10% we know of him. However, if we know say 75% of our God, we have that much more knowledge and basis to praise him from. We'll never know God to the fullest extent, we'll never know 100% of him, but we should strive to know all of his goodness in order to exalt his name as much as possible. What that also means is that God, through the holy spirit, is a never ending giver of knowledge. I read somewhere that the knowledge of God is like a treasure chest with no bottom to it. There is no limit to the amount of knowledge God can release to us through the Word and Spirit if we are continually seeking. How amazing is that?

Jeremiah 33:3 - "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know" The first word there is CALL. How can we find something if we're not looking for it? I pray that I may seek out more knowledge and understanding of God every day, so that I can praise and worship my creator better than I did the day before.

Day 219

Jun 7: Jeremiah 12-14

In chapter 12, Jeremiah gets pretty angry and upset at his people and society:

vs 2b "You are always on their lips but far from their hearts. 3 Yet you know me, O Lord; you see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter!"

God wisely answers; vs 5 "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?"

What's going on in this passage? Jeremiah is just straight up complaining. Although his motives for complaining are most likely out of holy anger for the evil doings of his fellow people, he is looking for a quick solution, he is looking for God to just wipe these people out.

Our generation definitely relates to this. In a society filled with technological advancements, we're so used to having things done quickly that we have no perseverance or grit. We burn out easily and give up easily, not seeing things through to the end.

As Christians, this poses big problems on our ministries and our walk with God in general. We may stumble often, quit our ministries, give up on relationships, maybe even leave the church. Instead of relying on our own strengths though, we must rely on God to fill us. We shouldn't hold back or be fearful of burn out or exhaustion in serving because it is exactly in those times that God will take control and show us why He is so sovereign. Do we doubt that God will fill us when we are serving his kingdom wholeheartedly? Do we doubt that he'd leave us hanging, exhausted and wiped out for serving him?

In 1 Kings: 18-19, Elijah is busy serving God, putting on the spectacle at Mount Carmel, showing up all the false prophets of false gods as God brings fire down on the water drenched altar that Elijah set up. After this, Elijah runs away as Jezebel hears of the news and is out for his life. Elijah was really afraid and comes upon a broom tree "and prayed that he might die. I have had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life" What does God do then for the exhausted and burnt out Elijah? He sends an angel and feeds him twice and "strengthened by that food, [Elijah] traveled forty days and forty nights."

God's provision for Elijah here is pretty astounding. Elijah goes from complete exhaustion and despair, to being able to travel forty days and forty nights in a matter of an afternoon. How great is God's power in our lives? What do we have to fear? When we plug into the eternal power source that we have in God, we can serve wholeheartedly without a worry in the world.

Day 214

Jun 2: Jeremiah 6-8

A lot of the chapters I've read of late have been somewhat depressing and dark. An example of this is Isaiah 24:3 "The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word." Also in Jeremiah 8:13 God states, "I will take away their harvest, declares the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine, there will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them." The pattern is consistent, God's people continually turn their back on Him, and God keeps telling them to repent through his prophets. Jeremiah in particular confronts the people for having false religions and as a result predicts the curses that will be put on them from breaking God's commandments.

Although a lot of the chapters have been gloomy and discouraging, the message of the Gospel should be the thing we are focusing on and we should be encouraged instead. God loved us so much that he already had a rescue plan in place for us in Jesus. Isaiah first prophesies of Jesus in chapter 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." His name means, God with us. How much more encouragement do we need to fix our eyes on God as He has sent His only son to save us? Instead of neglecting God's voice in our lives as the Israelites did, we should read the Word, learn from their mistakes and our own mistakes, and know that God is with us in everything we do. We don't need any more proof or assurances because we have the cross and we are already redeemed through it. I think reading about the failings and shortcomings of the Israelites through the major and minor prophets will be rough, but reading about Jesus and how he saved us in the new testament will be that much sweeter when I get to it.

Day 193

May 12: Isaiah 1-8

Finally on Isaiah! I've been waiting to get to this book because I know how much there's going on in it. Reading psalms, proverbs, song of solomons was great and all but I need to get back to some old testament stories.

Something we all think about, something that a lot of people struggle with these days is vision, purpose and ultimately our calling from God. As Christians, we all want to know how we can serve God with our lives and sometimes it drives us crazy when we don't feel that this is revealed to us. I think this is ok initially, after all, what is more important than our calling through Christ? Sooner or later though, we must turn our attention away from ourselves and onto God. In Chapter 6 of Isaiah, God shows us how we can get our calling.

King Uzziah, a good king has just died, and Isaiah is worrying about the future of his country when God reveals Himself to him in a vision, "seated on a throne, high and exalted." At the sight of this, Isaiah immediately cries out, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips." An angel then comes down, touches his mouth with a live coal and says, "your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then the famous verse comes when God asks, "Whom shall I send?" and Isaiah owns up to the call saying "Here am I. Send me!"

Pastor Jae has preached on this passage a few times and it's awesome. Our calling comes through 3 simple steps. First, God reveals Himself to us. Then, we see who we are, and finally God heals us and gives us our calling. Isaiah sees God in his vision, immediately realizes he's a sinner, an angel of God heals him, and finally God anoints him as one of the most influential prophets of the old testament.

Another example that shows this exact sequence is found in Luke chapter 5. Peter, as a professional fisherman, had been fishing all night and didn't catch a thing. Jesus comes along, tells him to toss his nets a different direction and Peter ends up catching so many fish that his nets started to break. Peter kneels down and says, "Go away from me, LORD, I am a sinful man." Then Jesus says to Peter, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." Peter sees who God is first, sees himself as a sinner, and then Jesus gives him calling, just as he did for Isaiah.

It's amazing that everything we do, still needs to be about God. For us to know OUR calling, we must know GOD first. I think a lot of us, including myself, have directed this attention to ourselves first. We ask God what we can do, instead of asking what HE wants us to do. We still have our own selfish agendas and convince ourselves that God wants to use us in the areas that we want to be used instead of being open to His will first. When will we learn that even our own calling is really dependent on God?

I have been trying to be open to this area of my life more and my trip to Cali to see Dr. Kim reinforced what I thought God had been revealing to me lately. Dr. Kim repeatedly told me to serve the church wholeheartedly to start, quoting Ephesians 5:25 also which states, "Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." I am gaining more and more faith that future visions and purpose will be revealed to me while I am serving the church. I pray that I may just continue to seek after Him and know Him first and trust that all else will be given to me.

Day 178

Apr 27: Proverbs 1-3

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,

and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

I want to be hungry for this God given wisdom, I want to understand the fear of God and find the knowledge of God. As Christians, we should be so desperate for this type of understanding that only God can reveal to us, yet we're so consumed by this world and all the distractions that we have. We live in this worldly mentality that brainwashes us into seeking stability, status, and power that we forget about our infinitely more important Christian virtues such as humility and love. How do we hear powerful testimonies and powerful sermons of how God is working, yet fail to remove ourselves from this world's grasp, unable to break the chains that hinder us? A lot of us get comfortable living this double standard of life where we come to church on Sundays and agree and nod our heads to the sermons but throughout the week nothing changes. It's like we're stuck in this cycle and we're so numb to what's being preached to us. We need to ask God to break our worlds apart. There should only be one mentality and one culture that we live in. A mentality that is driven by God, a mentality that does not compromise to this world's desires, and a mentality that only seeks God and his wisdom.

Day 172

Apr 21: Psalm 104-118

How amazing is it that we have a personal God that listens to us, speaks to us, shows love, mercy and grace to us? A sovereign God that is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, yet is willing to have a personal relationship with us. It's overwhelming at times but this is our God.

Psalm 116

vs 1 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.

2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.

We have a God that listens to us and turns his ears to us, he deserves everything we have, and it still wouldn't be enough. Lately I've been trying to live out 1 Thessalonians 5:19 "Do not put out the Spirit's fire," and it's amazing the things the Spirit does through you when you let it flow. You feel in tune with God and what He wants out of you, what your purpose is and the Spirit just dictates your life. The Spirit then keeps you passionate, inspires and encourages you to be obedient to God's calling in your life and you can be sustained in this way, not by your own humanistic strengths or desires, but by the Spirits.

On the contrary, what we need to avoid is this: Galatians 5:7 "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." The analogy is profound. All it takes is something small, something minor to throw you completely off track and persuade you to neglect the Spirit in your life. What does this mean for us? We need to be sensitive and watchful of the Spirit in our lives, protecting that relationship at all times. We must let the Spirit do its job.

Day 171

Apr 20: Psalm 95-103

Psalm 101

vs 2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life - when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart.

3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.

4 Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.

Day 170

Apr 19: Psalm 84

vs 8 Hear my prayer, O Lord, God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob.

After listening to Pastor Jason's sermon today online, I was convicted of praying so much more specifically than I have been. The power of those testimonies from Bergen are amazing and show how much God can do with intentional and heart felt prayers.

I think I thought my prayers were specific, but I realize that there's so much room for improvement there. By asking God for specifics, we almost take a leap of faith that He can do it, just by asking Him to. If our hearts are pure and our prayers are for His kingdom, would He not have the power and love to answer us? I don't think so...we need to look inward first and wonder why our prayers aren't being answered. We lack faith and specificity in what we want from God in our lives. We'll make such general prayers not meditating enough on what we want and just expect God to take care of everything when we're not putting in the effort up front.

After thinking about the prayers that have been consistent in my life these days, I realize how much more robust I can make them. I can add SO much detail to these prayers and make them that much more meaningful. One of my prayer requests lately has been for God to make my prayers more powerful and God has sent Pastor Jason to remind me of how I can do that. This is the start, the catalyst, to so many more of my prayers being answered, I'm sure of this. I challenge you guys to think about your prayers and how you can enrich them. God will deliver.

Day 169

Apr 18: Psalms 56-77

Psalm 62:2 - He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Day 156

Apr 5: Psalms 9-17
Psalms 9:1-2 - I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
One of the things I've been really convicted about lately is having strong fellowship with other brothers and sisters of Christ. Pastor Jae has given a few sermons stressing the importance of investing time in each others lives and having that deep sense of unity with each other, not just some superficial friendships. I want to be a blessing to my friends and I want them to bless me as well. I think a good way to do this is to just flat out tell your friends of the wonders God is working in your life. Just taking time out of our busy schedules to catch up and grab some food can do it.
Hebrews 10:24 says, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."
Let's really consider and think of how we can do this too. I hope that what I write about is encouraging to even one person out there and that they'd be blessed as much as I am through the reading. This is great and all but it's still not enough. How else can we spur one another on? How else can we encourage each other?

Day 152

Apr 1: Psalms 1-8
"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in seasons and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers"

I read a good article by Tim Keller on the Authority of Jesus and it asks a lot of good questions. Questions like, "why should we believe that the bible is God's word, written and inspired through the Spirit?" This question leads to more questions such as, why do we obey God's law sometimes but not other times? Do we feel like we can pick and choose which ones to obey and which not to? If we believe in Christ as our Savior, we can't do this. How can we not accept all teachings of our Savior and Creator? Are we wiser than Him? It's so hard to obey in all facets of God's teachings but I think the first steps to doing this is knowing the laws, and then acknowledging that all of the laws are good and true. We can't let our own subjective thinking and past experiences dictate what we follow as far as God's laws goes. God and his laws are the absolute standard to what we should be following in our Christian worldview and there's no arguing that. It's imperative we show our loyalty to Christ through our obedience and when we do, we will prosper and be fruitful.

Day 150

Mar 30: Job 31-42
Reading the end of Job is so humbling because God is so sovereign, powerful, and loving. Throughout the book, Job is questioning God and wondering why he's being inflicted with all this turmoil when he has been blameless in his ways. When God finally answers him, He lays the smack down on Job and Job becomes speechless, realizing how sinful he really is before God. Some of the first lines in God's response goes like this:
vs 4: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone - while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?"
God goes on with things of that nature for two chapters and I can imagine Job afterwards, completely dumbfounded and humbled by God's amazing power. What can you possibly respond to that with?
We will never in our human minds be able to understand the true sovereignty of God, but do we spend enough time thinking about Him in that sense? It's easy to say God's omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and whatnot, but when you actually think about what that means in more literal terms, it becomes a little more real in your life. When God reveals Himself to us, when we really start to see who God is, we see who we are as well. We see how sinful we are and how little we are compared to Him and as a result, we want to praise and worship Him more.
The best part of the book of Job isn't how God owns Job and shows him how powerful He is, but how amazing and loving He is afterwards. Job had so much before Satan took away his family and health, but after everything, God gives him double what he had to start. There's no better week than this week to think about how sovereign and loving God is; how good is God in your life?

Day 144

Mar 24: Job 1-16
Reading the beginning part of Job made me think about friendships and how important they are. I've had a million friends come and go, but how many of these people were my true friends? Does the fact that they came and went say anything? Most of them were probably superficial with weak, unsustainable bonds that connected us, but how much greater are the real friendships that are founded in Christ then?
When Job's friends come and see Job while he is ill, they are so adamant that he must have committed some act of sin to be feeling the wrath of God and are not encouraging to him in his time of suffering. Not only are they bringing him down further, but they're bringing a misconception of how God works, thinking that God only rewards good behavior and punishes bad. I would want the opposite of this from my friends. Friends who know how to listen and encourage, and friends who bring sound Godly advice. I pray that I'm humble enough to receive criticism when necessary, with confidence that my friends are truly looking out for me. That confidence comes from investing time in each others lives, not just superficially but on a deeper level and really getting to know what that person is like.
Is it possible for our friendships to be so strong and rooted in God that we could go about correcting each other with no hard feelings? I think about how much stronger we could be by continually lifting each other up in this way and hope that in our lives the answer would be yes.

Day 143

Mar 23: Esther 1-10
When I finished reading Esther again today, all I could think about was God's unfathomable strategy for her and Mordecai. I want to give a quick summary in list form to show how many events there were:

1. King Xerxes is displeased with Queen Vashti for not showing up to a banquet when asked.
2. Queen Vashti is removed as queen.
3. Esther is made the new queen as King Xerxes was attracted to her God given beauty.
4. Mordecai uncovers a conspiracy and saves King Xerxes's life from his two guards.
   
5. Haman, King's right hand man, plots to destroy the Jews and tricks the King into allowing him to create a law to kill all Jews.
6. Mordecai asks Esther to help save their people.
7. Esther, Mordecai and all the Jews in Susa fast for 3 days.
8. Esther requests a banquet with just the king and Haman.
9. Haman sees Mordecai going home one day and is filled with rage. His family and friends tell him to build a gallows and to ask the king in the morning to have him hung on it.
10. That night, the king can't sleep, so he has the book of chronicles read to him. He sees that Mordecai saved his life (see 4) and decides to honor him.
11. Haman is exploited by Esther during the banquet and is ordered to be hung by the king.
    
12. A new law is created to allow Jews to defend themselves from the first law created by Haman.

All these events basically sum up the story of Esther and Mordecai and it shows how God is in complete control the whole way to save his people. Each event is necessary for the final result and God's design in all of it is perfect.
When I look back on certain times in my life, I'm able to see God's hand controlling it as well. During the hard times, it's difficult to understand that God is in control, but inevitably looking back, it's so blatantly obvious. Every event is just another piece of the puzzle that God is maneuvering and designing. I hope that these past experiences will allow me to trust in God in the present time without worrying or having doubts. I'll worry about what's going on now and continue to seek guidance and direction through the Spirit and have faith that God will provide in the end.

Day 135

Mar 15: Ezra 1-10
Ezra was a really quick book to read but I enjoyed how faithful and how wise he seemed to be. One part I was encouraged by was when Ezra and his followers from Babylon were about to head back to Jerusalem. Before they left, Ezra "proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children."
The reason this jumped out at me was the wisdom and understanding that Ezra demonstrated. He knew that him and his followers were in the hands of God and he wanted to fast to show God that he was humble before Him. He then asked God for a safe journey knowing that He could provide this.
The other admirable thing about Ezra was his passion and fervor for repentance. When he heard that some of his followers and even some of the priests had been intermarrying neighboring people with detestable practices, Ezra "tore [his] tunic and cloak, pulled hair from [his] head and beard and sat down appalled." Can you imagine doing that as a leader because of what your people had done? I picture Ezra doing this and it's crazy; he starts with pure anger ripping out hair from his head and beard and then it seems like he's defeated when he just sits down appalled. He must be so invested in his people to do something like this, and also be so ashamed and angry for the sins against God. He eventually confronts his people and they're able to redeem themselves by removing the neighboring people from their lives through deep repentance and forgiveness from God.
I want to be able to share this kind of investment with God, knowing that I need Him more than anything and having that kind of wretchedness when I sin against Him. I want to have the passion that Ezra had for God and I hope and pray that I can slowly remove the distractions in my life that prevent me from having that just as Ezra did for himself and his people.

Day 135

Day 128

Mar 8: 2 Chronicles 21-31
2 Chronicles is a little depressing and discouraging at times because there were so many kings that didn't walk in the ways of the Lord. They were so caught up in the world, sinned against Him and worshiped other random gods. One of the kings though, Hezekiah, did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as he sought God and worked at this wholeheartedly and so he prospered.
What Hezekiah got right was that he sought God and worked at it wholeheartedly. It sounds so easy but putting this into action is another thing. Our time is the price we must pay to have intimacy with God. A verse that reinforces this is 2 Corinthians 9:6 which states,
"Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."
We need to be willing to sacrifice our time to God to be able to grow and mature in Him. One thing I read about recently was how everyone has imperfect ideas and thoughts about who God really is. We may have been taught incorrect theology, or just conjured up some random incorrect thoughts in our heads. Either way, the only way we can purify these thoughts is to put in the time to do so and allow the Holy Spirit to work within us to rid ourselves of the previous misconceptions we may have had. Slowly, the truth will become clearer and clearer and our ability and capacity to serve God and His kingdom will become stronger and stronger. I pray that I would continually be willing to reserve time for God every day and that my understanding of Him would grow too.

Day 124

Mar 4: 2 Chronicles 5-7
Chapter 5:13:
"He is good; his love endures forever."
God is so good to us. He gives us life we don't deserve, gives us a chance to experience his pure joy and saved us from our sinful nature. It's also so amazing how his love endures. It's not just that his love trods along or just goes forever, it endures forever. It withstands all obstacles that confronts it and is able to sustain itself and last an eternity.
When I think of how good God is, I want to be more and more obedient. Faith without obedience and faith without action doesn't really reveal much about that faith. It has no character or grit. It's impossible for us to be completely obedient in this lifetime, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be sanctifying ourselves and striving for perfection right? In another devotional I'm doing, I read over Luke 6:46 which reads:
"Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?"
There is no way we can ultimately satisfy this question that Jesus asks us. What we can do is understand that if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are submitting to Him in all areas of our life and not just a few. We can't compromise and give ourselves leniency when we feel like it and think we're loving God with our whole hearts. As hard as this may be, I pray that I would come to understand God's grace and love better and that with this increased knowledge and understanding, my capacity to obey would expand as well. I will be able to understand why He is so good to us and how His love can endure throughout eternity.

Day 121

Mar 1: 1 Chronicles 10-19
I've been praying a lot for direction in my life from God and asking Him for a vision on how I could serve His kingdom. I feel like God has revealed to me that I'm in a sort of a training phase in my life the past year and that I should remain patient and continue to be built up through His word before He uses me. All of this was good with me, except today I got really impatient. I've been feeling really detached from work and continue to realize that there's not enough passion there to really sustain me and I had this longing for something more fulfilling. I still don't know what I'll do but God continues to tell me to be still and patient.
In chapter 17, King David was hanging out in his palace when he realized that the ark of the covenant is under a tent. He wanted to know what he should do and that night, God revealed to the prophet Nathan that David's son Solomon would be the one that would build the house of God and not him. King David had good intentions to serve but God works on his own time and his own methods. Similarly, I know my intentions and motives to serve God are good, but I need to be patient and really trust in His provision for me. I don't know if He wants me to stay where I am, or if He plans to use me elsewhere. I just know that I need to be selfless in following Him and have faith that His plan is perfect for me.

Day 116

Feb 24: 1 Chronicles 1-9
1 Chronicles makes me think of how crazy it is that all the lineage is captured in the bible in such detail starting from Adam. It just branches out exponentially and you see how many people and generations are produced. On top of that, it makes me think of my own family and how their future generations will be. I think my parents did an amazing job of raising me and my siblings, primarily by showing us how to love each other through sacrifice and actions. A lot of pressure and responsibility is now on our shoulders (just me and ernie actually) to ensure that the future Park generations are rooted and grounded in Christ.
I used to have some minor insecurities about being a bad dad, thinking I wouldn't be patient enough or as sacrificial as my parents to properly show my love to my kids. Instead of worrying about all this though, I know that I should be worried about something else and that is my relationship with God.
Matthew 6:33 says:
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
If we seek first God's kingdom, ALL things will be given to us as well. More and more I'm learning to believe in this, putting God first and letting Him take care of the rest. How do I become a good father? By seeking God first...his love will live in me and my love to my kids and I will have no choice but to be an awesome dad. Showing my love to my kids will then hopefully transfer onto their kids and to all the generations that follow. It's so important now for me to have a rock solid relationship with God so that God will look down upon me with favor and bless the future generations to come. Let's make sure our walks with God are so strong that it is inherited onwards. Think of the movement God can create through us!

Day 115

Feb 23
It's been a really hectic past 2 weeks with a lot going on in all aspects of my life but God has shown me how amazing He is during that time. I just want to say thanks to all my friends that continue to push and encourage me to seek God's kingdom first, I really couldn't get through everything without you guys.

I'll start blogging again tomorrow when I start 1 Chronicles, please continue to keep me accountable!

Day 103

Feb 11: 2 Kings 4-8
In chapter 4, a widow who revered the Lord, had debt to pay from when her husband was still alive. The creditor was now coming to take her 2 boys as slaves for that debt. She went to Elisha to see how he could help and he asked her what she did in fact own. She replied, "your servant has nothing there at all...except a little oil." Elisha told her to ask her neighbors for all the empty jars she had and no questions asked, she did it and was able to fill all those empty jars with the little oil she did have. She sold off all the oil she had and was able to pay off that debt and keep her 2 boys.
It's amazing to see how little God can work with at times, but the thing that caught my attention more was this widow's desperation. When we're pushed to the edge with no options, we have no one left to go to except God and that's what she did; she consulted Elisha the prophet for advice, and faithfully followed his directions. I want to have that same sense of desperation at all times, not just when I'm struggling. The kind of desperation that leads us to seek out God with urgency and purpose. Ever since I started this blog, I've asked God for a burning and passionate zeal for his word and he has helped me keep that fire. I want to add to this and ask for desperation for his word and take it to the next level where I almost need to read His word everyday. I've been listening to Desperate People by Hillsong a lot lately too so this passage today fit right in. Enjoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VuGzjpszHQ

Day 102

Feb 10: 1 Kings 21-22, 2 Kings 1-3
There are so many types of sins in my life that I commit repetitively. Over and over again, I fall into these sins and it's so hard to snap out of. You would think that the repetition would bring about awareness and change, but more often than not, I just become numb to it and my pride clouds me from correction.
Ahaziah, son of Ahab, falls into a similar trap. After his father Ahab died, Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room and injured himself. Ahaziah sends out messengers to seek out answers from idol gods, but Elijah confronts them and sends them back to Ahaziah telling him that he will certainly die. Ahaziah then sends a captain and 50 men to find Elijah and when they do, the captain says, "Man of God, the king says, Come down!" Elijah answers with, "If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Fire immediately comes down and consumes the captain and his men. Ahaziah hears this, and for some reason sends another captain and 50 men. Again the same exact thing happens, and the next captain and 50 men are consumed by fire. Ahaziah hears this once more, and sends out a 3rd captain with 50 men. This captain though gets wise and asks Elijah for respect on his life and Elijah follows him to Ahaziah.
This story may seem ridiculous, but are our sins so different? We know the consequences and outcomes of some of these sins we repetitively commit, but go on committing them nonetheless. What can we do to stop this? We can make intentional decisions that keep us away from these sins and temptations. Instead of just saying, oh I'll try harder not to commit this sin, we can think of concrete steps that will help us avoid that situation altogether. Another mentality that can help is that every time these temptations come about, let's not look at it as another chance for us to fail, but another chance for us to resist and show our obedience and faith to God. We can show God that we're willing to make real changes in our habits b/c of the love we have for Him.

Day 101

Feb 9: 1 Kings 19-20
I love reading about this story when God comes before Elijah. Elijah just traveled 40 days and 40 nights and reached Horeb, the mountain of God. When he's there, God tells him to "go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." When Elijah is out there, a great and powerful wind tears the mountains apart and shatters rocks, but the LORD wasn't in the wind. Then an earthquake came, but the Lord wasn't in the earthquake and next a fire came by, but the Lord wasn't in the fire either. Finally, after the fire, came a gentle whisper. When Elijah hears it, he pulls his cloak over his face and hears God speak to him.
God is so awesome like this. You'd think if you had omnipotence, you would present yourself like a powerful wind, earthquake or fire and God kind of plays around with that and teases Elijah with it. But at the end, God shows us that He's a loving and gentle God when we are obedient to Him. This is such a comforting passage to me, it makes me want to be more obedient and experience this kind of love that God has for us.

Day 100

Feb 8: 1 Kings 16-18
Praise God that I made it to day 100 ahead of schedule! (only by a little bit) Anyways, I'm really glad I committed to reading the bible consistently, it's done a lot for me and has taught me some more discipline, although I still need to be better at this. Thanks again to people who read/post and encourage me to keep it going.

I think we all know or at least say we know how important and powerful prayer is. But in case any of us forgot how much of an impact it really can be, chapter 17 clearly demonstrates this. In that chapter, Elijah is staying at a widow's house when her son becomes ill. She becomes extremely worried for his health and asks Elijah if he came to her place to remind her of her sin and to kill her son. Elijah then takes the son to the upper room of the house and cries out to the Lord asking Him to return the boy's life to him. Verse 22 is the key verse which states, "The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived."
God heard Elijah's cry; essentially, God reacted to Elijah's cry. If Elijah hadn't cried out for this boy, I'm not sure he would have lived... In any case, Elijah didn't just pray or ask God for help, he cried out for Him. He showed how invested he was and how much he cared for this boy's life and in turn God heard Him. God wants this kind of passion from us and from our prayers! It shows how much it means to us and how willing we are to cry out for help, asking God to take our burdens upon Himself. The result of our genuine prayers could be enough to save someone's life, nothing is too small for God to handle. Let's cry out to God for all that we're struggling with, for all that we need help with, and be assured that He will listen and He will react according to His will and His awesome plans for us.

Day 94

Feb 2: 1 Kings 6-9
Chapter 7 goes into great detail the construction of the palace and temple King Solomon creates. The innermost room of the temple holds the Most Holy Place and I thought that was fitting. God's room is the core of the temple and everything else is around it. Our lives should really mirror this design. God should be at the center of our hearts and of our lives and everything should resound off of this.
One of the main themes from our retreat this past weekend was repentance. I've realized that I'm lacking in this department immensely and was humbled by the speaker Dr. Kim's message. When doctors told him he was terminal in his thirties, he went up to Big Bear Mountain in Cali and just struggled with God for over a week. During this time, God humbled him and told him to repent for all the nastiness in his life. Dr. Kim ended up writing down 52 pages of sins on paper, coming clean with God, and is still alive at age 70!
I don't think I could come close to that many pages of sin on paper, not because of the lack of sin in my life, but because of the lack of true repentance and true understanding of my sins. I ask God to forgive me for things here and there, but I'm not really digging deep or getting to the root of these sins. I need God to help reveal ALL my sins to me, even getting to the real nasty stuff. I'm confident that God will help me develop this area of my life and I'm assured that once I ask for true forgiveness, His blood and the cross will wipe me clean and finally God will be able to be at the center of my heart and my life.

Day 93

Retreat was awesome, Dr. Kim was awesome, I am super sad I missed church on Sunday but God used that day to test my patience and to build me up in other areas (because it was a nightmare of a day). Sora also told me I can still become a member next week so I'm glad!

Feb 1: 1 Kings 1-5
In chapter 3, God inquired newly appointed King Solomon, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." What would your reaction be? It's almost as if you're being granted 1 wish from a genie (photo dedicated to dlaevee's blog), and you can have anything you want...I'm sure most of you know what King Solomon asked for, and it's most definitely different than anything we would ask for:
"So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"
I love this passage because it shows me what kinds of things I should ask for and what kinds of things I should be praying about. Instead of seeking out things that will only fulfill my humanistic desires, I should be seeking out things that fulfill God's heavenly desires, things that will glorify his Kingdom. I've been learning more and more how it's not about me, it's all about God. I need to learn to mature as a Christian and be able to understand the greater scheme of things. If something difficult and frustrating is happening in my life (like yesterday), I shouldn't ask God to change my circumstances, I should ask God to change me and to help me develop and mature through it. I'm going to put this into practice by analyzing and being aware of what my prayers are about, making sure to pray more for God and His desires than for my own.
At the end of this passage, God grants Solomon with wisdom as he asked for, but God ALSO grants him with what he did not ask for: riches, honor and a long life. That's how God works...he gives us even more than what we ask for, if what we ask for and what we do will glorify Him.

Day 87

Jan 26: 2 Samuel 20-24
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior.

King David always seemed to get it. He knew that God was the one blessing him and providing him with victories in war and he always let that be known. Even when he sinned so he could have Bathsheba as his wife, he was quick to admit guilt when Nathan rebuked him and repented for it. When he sings a song of praise to God towards the end of his life in chapter 22, he starts it off with the verse I have above and it just shows me how aware he is that God is the foundation and rock in his life.
Just realizing this reminds me of how God is the same in my own life. God is always the rock and foundation that I'm grounded on even when I'm unaware of that fact. If I fall away, I have this foundation to rely on and I'm inevitably drawn back to it. Through hardships, God adds and adds to this foundation making my relationship with Him stronger and stronger. If we want to be closer to God and be in his presence, He will not deny of us that and our foundation can continue to flourish.

Day 85

Jan 24: 2 Samuel 8-13
God reminds us so many times throughout the bible how He is sovereign and He is in control. Chapter 8 goes over the countries that King David and the Israelites conquers, among them being the Philistines, the Moabites, and the Arameans. The part where God reminds us of his greatness comes in the last parts of verse 6 and 14 which say the exact same thing: "The Lord gave David victory wherever he went." It doesn't say David had victory wherever he went, it says the Lord gave it to him and that makes such a monumental difference for us Christians.
It's becoming natural for us to be too proud and boast about our accomplishments in our society. Success has been defined by materialistic gains and educational status and the whole mentality of this has been set in stone in this secular world. It's all about looking out for yourself and furthering your career to have that status and recognition by your peers and in all of this, God can easily be lost. We lose ourselves in our own personal endeavors and forget what Christ called us to do. If we become really wealthy through our own perserverance, what's left in the end if we use it for our own comfort and pleasure? I'm not saying it's sinful to have great careers and be making lots of money because God needs and calls these people to support his causes too. The more important thing I believe is the motivation and intent which drives us to that point.
To us Christians, success should be so much more than how much money and material things we possess. Someone who makes millions but does nothing for God's kingdom is not successful. People like Missionary Jonathon who I got to meet in Costa Rica, who lives off of supporters and probably doesn't have much money, but is living out the Great Commission, to me he is successful. I pray that our hearts would be motivated by Christ and that whatever we do in our careers and in our lives would be driven by God. Let's give Him control and let Him give us victory in the things He wishes us to pursue.

Day 82

Jan 21: 2 Samuel 4-7
King David married Saul's daughter Michal earlier in 1 Samuel. In chapter 6, Michal sees David leaping and dancing before the Lord as they were bringing the ark back to Jerusalem. Seeing this, Michal becomes extremely upset as he did this in front of all of Israel. When David returns home, she tells him how she feels and David replies "I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes."
What David does is completely lose himself before God. He doesn't care what he looks like by anyone else, all he cares about is worshiping God with all he has. Our pride makes this something difficult to do, but unless we reach this level, I don't think we give God everything we have. When we're alone, it's easy to do whatever and praise God because no one is watching, but when you're at church or wherever else, it's easy to hold back and not really let loose. Let's ask God to help us be undignified before Him, to show Him that worship isn't about us or what we look like, but that it's about Him and how we can praise Him.

Day 80

Jan 19: 1 Samuel 28-31
In the past, when I lost sight of God in my life, I noticed that I became someone different, not who God intended me to be. I began to lie, to fall into my insecurities, and to an extent disown who I really was. I put up a tough exterior to mask my inadequacies and put up a thick wall to guard myself. That's the kind of impact the absence of God had on my life.
King Saul, in chapter 28 makes me think of this. He goes through something very similar from what I had experienced. The Philistine army assembled to confront Israel and when Saul saw this, he became afraid and terror filled his heart. He tried to inquire of God, but God didn't answer him at that time. So his next reaction was to seek out a woman who was a medium, almost like a gypsy or witch type person. He disguised himself and asked her to consult spirits for him because he was so afraid of what was going to happen to him. It's almost sad to see how desperate a once great man had become. The absence of God in his life put him into a neurotic frenzy and he went to the length of disguising himself and summoning witches to weather his fears. Later, Saul ended up killing himself after being injured during war, not being able to stomach the fact that the Philistines could kill him.
This could sound like a depressing or discouraging story and it is for Saul, but I think God is paving us a path to understanding his grace through it. The most important part of this story to me is that the bible never says that Saul asked for forgiveness for all his past sins. When he finally comes before God, it's for his own selfish agenda, and God in turn ignores him. We can be different from Saul at this point in our own lives. Instead of looking for other ways to fill our voids or to feel accepted, we must come before God with a repentant heart and He will listen, comfort and purify us and we will be able to see his amazing grace then. God shows us that the other path, the one lacking Him, isn't so great in the end.

Day 79

I was able to read before I went to bed and on the plane rides on my trip to Costa Rica so I've been keeping up with my readings. I'm excited to get this back into my routine, but please give me any ideas on how I can keep this fresh for myself as it gets tough at times.

Jan 18: 1 Samuel 22-27
Obedience is driven by strong faith and love for God and this is demonstrated so many times by David starting with him killing Goliath. The storyline I want to focus on though in these chapters is how David spares King Saul's life twice when he has a clear chance to kill him. Saul has become incredibly jealous after hearing his people say that "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands," and has been on the search to find and kill David.
Both times, David catches Saul sleeping. The first time, he cuts off a piece of his robe and the second time, he takes his spear and water jug to show Saul that he has no intention of killing him.
This kind of obedience and faith by David is what I need to strive for. One that puts God's law above all else, even when there is a direct threat on his life that he could do away with. It's not easy but I think the way to get to that level is to be obedient with little things first. As you become more and more in tune with God's laws as opposed to your own desires, it will become easier and easier to follow Him regardless of what the situation is.

Deuteronomy 28:1 says, "If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth."

Costa Rica Recap

I just got back from Costa Rica yesterday, Saturday night and wow what a trip it was. I'll give everyone a quick summary of what we were doing there.
We went to serve at the Abraham Project which is a site that takes in children who have been stuck in a cycle of poverty and abuse. A lot of the kids have been abandoned by their parents or they were taken away from their parents b/c they are drug addicts, prostitutes, or are in jail. What we did there was to help and empower the local missionary named Jonathan to do things such as construction, VBS, or whatever he asked us to do. He's an awesome person with a huge heart for God and did not look anything like I expected. I actually pictured an older man for some reason but you can see what he actually looks like below. We had a decent amount of free time to hang out so here are some pictures of what we did:

Here's this market we went to in downtown San Jose. Jonathan is on the right with the sweet goatee.This place was just one lane, about the length of a football field with random shops.

On the way to the volcano called Volcan Irazu. This bus ride was amazing, Costa Rica is beautiful.

This is the bottom of the main crater at the volcano.
This picture does the volcano no justice. Beyond the volcano, all you see is clouds. It's one of the most peaceful things I've ever seen.
Soaking it in.Hanging out at the market, volcano, eating awesome food was all great but the trip was so much more than that. I didn't really know what to expect on this trip but nonetheless I went with the perception that I'd just be serving the people there by helping the kids, workers, and local missionaries. I hope I did bless everyone I encountered, but the reality is that I was blessed more by all of those people than I could have imagined.
Jonathan translated a speech to us by the foreman of the construction workers named Orocu on the first day at the jobsite. He was such a humble man and I was blessed to hear how he had been praying for us even before we came. He also took time to have devotionals with his workers during the day and it was great to see how passionate he was for God and how he took everyone under his wings.
One of the workers named Nilton also brought in his 12 year old son one day. He was also named Nilton and was one of the cutest and kind hearted kids I've ever met.
I got to hang out with this kid all day. We played soccer with some others and afterwards he just walked over to me and started helping me do construction work all afternoon. We had a really good bond despite the language barrier which was really cool. My spanish was ok but he spoke so fast and it was hard at times to understand him. When the day was coming to an end, I went over to say bye to him and his dad and just as I was about to leave, the dad stops me and says his son wanted to say something to me. He translated for his son and said that he wishes that God would bless me and my family and was tearing up while doing it. I was so humbled by this kid and had to fight back some tears b/c it was so awesome. The next day, the dad told me how his son went home and was telling his mom about the whole day and how he made a good friend and it really made my day.
The best part of the whole trip by far was the children. A lot of them were very guarded at first and you could tell that they had rough times in their past but I was so happy to see them open up throughout the trip and by the end, we couldn't get a lot of them off of us. All they wanted to do was play. I wish I could post pictures of them but we were asked not to so you'll have to come by if you want to see them. These kids were adorable though and full of life. I pray that this awesome project site really reveals God's love to them through the local missionaries and house parents there and that they would realize one day that they never need to fear rejection again b/c God accepts and loves us forever.

Day 67

Jan 6: Judges 9-13
Chapter 11 has a pretty interesting story to say the least about Jephthah who I've never heard or read about before. For some reason he vows to God that if God delivers the Israelites from the Ammonites in war, "whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering." Well the first thing that came out was his only child, his daughter, and eventually he sacrifices her to the Lord. Anyone have any insight on this story?

I was also reading the book my sister got me for Christmas. John Piper's "Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions," and I liked this one quote which is made by John Stott:
"The highest of missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God) but rather zeal - burning and passionate zeal - for the glory of Jesus Christ."

I want to make that my prayer for my trip to Costa Rica. Everything I do down in Costa Rica, whether it be fellowship with my teammates, to VBS'ing with kids, to construction on the multipurpose center, I want it to be for His glory.

Day 65

Jan 4: Judges 1-8
I enjoy reading the story about Gideon in Judges. It always shows me how much God really does for us and how we need to be open to that. Gideon was called by God while the Israelites were being oppressed by the Midianites for all the evil they had committed. When God called him to save the Israelites, he was so tentative and hesitant to follow God. He questions God first asking him why all this hardship was happening, then asks God for signs so he knows that God really is calling him. Once he sees the sign where the piece of fleece is wet and the ground is dry, then the fleece is dry and ground is wet, he finally goes forth in doing God's work.
This makes Gideon seem pretty weak to us but I think that's the point. God chooses Gideon who is the least among his family and whose clan is the weakest to show that God himself is the strongest. He can defeat a mighty army of Midian with Gideon and just three hundred men. During Pastor Jae's sermon this week, he told us how we should have so much peace in our lives knowing that God is on our side. The greatest being or God in the universe fights for us, what should be ever be afraid of? I'm being reinforced more and more these days that God is in control and not us. All we need to do is to acknowledge this and leave our lives open for him to use and he will do work. I hope I remember this during my missions trip to Costa Rica which is obviously on my mind a lot these days. I need to understand that God will use me whichever way he wants. I shouldn't push too hard to do great things, I'll just keep an open mind and heart and remember that God is the one that does everything.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! It's been a hectic few weeks and Costa Rica is coming up next week too so there's a lot going on right now. I feel like after the Costa Rica trip, everything will slow down a bit. It's still important for me to stay focused and keep praying and reading though.

Jan 2: Joshua 21-24
There's been so much going on lately and I haven't been able to devote as much time as I want to on my readings. It's normal and expected around this time of year but still not a good excuse. Spending time with family Christmas time, spending time with friends, meetings for Costa Rica, going snowboarding yesterday(awesome but so sore today) it all adds up and takes up time. During our last Costa Rica meeting last weekend, we were talking about how Satan can distract us right before going on missions and at that time I felt pretty focused, but in the past week I've been hindered by everything going on. In my reading today though God lifted me up: "the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. So be very careful to love the Lord your God."
I need to be very careful this week and be prepared for anything that can distract or hinder my preparation for Costa Rica. I feel encouraged that God fights for me though and will help me stay focused on what's important. Please pray for myself and my team and the kids in Costa Rica if you have time as we head out Jan 11th. Thanks everyone.