Go Play!

As a college student, I believed leaving this city and joining in on spreading the gospel in faraway places was the Christian way of life.

I soon realized that it was only my desire to flee from my responsibilities.

To all the younger Christians: enjoy God, see the places Jesus has been through. That is the work of all the countless missionaries and disciples that were touched by the grace of God, done by obeying the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Now is the time for you to bask in all the joys and glories prepared with the cross.

For soon, you will be given the task of becoming that person, the one to bring about Heaven in this world. 

Give God a Chance

I was met with a classmate who asked me about Christianity. Events like these don’t come often, so I was quick to pounce at meeting him. 

Not knowing where to start, as I had not talked about the fundamentals of Christianity in a while, I started blabbering about my life and how I came to believe in Jesus.

Soon after I stopped talking, he began to share his side of the story, of all the heartaches and hardships he had endured: financial problems, health problems, family issues, parent's divorce. 

I was nowhere near the level of understanding his sufferings as I was simply a spoiled brat, having lived in the comforts of, well, pretty much everything. 

He had mentioned how he once acknowledged God, but could not bear to understand just why there was so much suffering in the world. He could not believe in the righteous God of whom watches over such disasters before His eyes. It was one of the classic comments made by non-believers, but as I was sitting right in front of him, I really had nothing to say to him. 

I managed to get his interest when I mentioned how C. S. Lewis had written a book on the precise issue in The Problem of Pain. 

Nevertheless, I had wanted to tell him to see that there are many good, faithful Christians out there.  I wanted to tell him that life was still beautiful and meaningful. I wanted to tell him to give God a chance. 

Reflections: What were they thinking?

8.23 Reflections: Mark 15:42-47

It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

After having thrown their lives and having followed a man preaching himself to be the son of God, what thoughts must have crossed the minds of the disciples when Jesus had finally passed away? What was Joseph of Arimathea thinking when he was asking for the body of Jesus? Did anyone really believe that Jesus would rise again after three days? Was it simply out of pity to have cared for the body?

Reflection: Find Jesus

8.22 Reflections: Mark 15:37-41

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

I began to imagine a Christian man who had just thrown his life to save another’s. In my mind, the man, with his last words, said, “find Jesus.”

Guiding My Life to the End

"And he blessed Joseph and said,
'The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,
the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys;
and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.'" Genesis 48:15-16

With frailing eyes do I want to say the Lord has been my shepherd all my life long. 

Miracle Proof Glasses

Medical school had turned me cold in several ways. 

One, most disappointing, is that I started to be less and less amazed by accounts of miraculous healing. I simply start to think about the physiology and the mechanism of how it could have occurred.

I keep losing sight. I keep forgetting my place. 

You are in charge. You are everything. 

Love Sick

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, becauseGod is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12

Verse for the second semester! I am really hoping it will be different this time.

Forest of

Walking in the forest that is You
Full of wisdom and grace
Each leaf shatters with sunshine
Each vine stretches out to caress
Animals come for comfort
Fruits abound, everything coming around

I am afraid, not because of the darkness, the unknown
But of the possibility that I may, one day, have to leave
With just a petal of flower in my hand
Yet, I wish not to walk backwards, but forwards
Hoping there may be something in the end, after all

I’m glad to have met someone like You
Glad to simply enjoy the clear woods
The comfort I feel when in your arms

Thank you, again, and maybe more

Collab: ReClaim, Part 5

[GrasDeo]
I saw in my dreams
what seems to be, to me,
beams of light shining through my dark nights,
countless nights, to be exact,
but, oh, magnificence has come to me,
my peace, my rest, my sanctuary


[ReClaim] 

Yo, Magnificence has come to me
My peace, my rest, my sanctuary.
We call him Jesus, the Christ
the one full of Glory.
I cried out to him, lord heal me, and save me,
for this pain and burden has brought me too much misery.
But the lord says to me to be patient.
To have patience, and perseverence.
So i awaited in reverence
and at last at his time 

his light shined through the darkness
with glorious trumpets and sirens.
That there was pupose, a good purpose.
A plan not to harm me but to heal me and deliver me.
We call him Jesus. The messiah, 

the one that saves us heals us.

Finding Love

Cold hearted monster
melting only within your arms

후아

야 이 나쁜놈들아
연락 더럽게 없어도
관심 눈꼽만큼 없어도
그래도 사랑한다

Amazing Grace, Amazing Love

It's been a while since I wrote something this late. It's been a while since I wrote anything with some effort and time for that matter. I went to a little service just now. I really enjoyed the worship. The message of God's never-ending love really got to me as well.

Nonetheless, more questions arose. The hymn, "Amazing Grace" was written around 1779. It has been around since then. As though it was a confession of a man, God seemed to have held it high among his loved Christians. A minor mind boggler was that in times of the Bible, slavery was somewhat acknowledged. Though I do not know what the culture of slavery was back then, but it certainly has a notion of negativity in present times. Slavery is commonly known to be an action despised by God in the present culture. It certainly seems to be that way as God has upheld the expression of love and repentance of John Newton and his actions against slavery, but what about the older times? What were His thoughts then?

Just some questions, hoping to be answered some time. 

Hello to You Too

One disappointment, I must confess, that I had recently circled around the value of community, one of meaningful relationships and family of church. 

I had lived a chunk of my life away from my family. Though my brother and I were together, most of our families were in another country. As I was still reaching maturity, not only the physical sense, but of intellectual and social as well, meeting a core group of people in church was a blessing. The church community became like family, and I learned about relationships, sacrifice and love. 

Like all, I soon graduated and moved away from the community of believers. Now, most of the people I met there swore to keep together, no matter the circumstances. However, just when I was having the most difficult time of my life, none of the members reached out to me. It was only a couple that bothered to keep in touch, and only one that actually stuck around. 

Sacrifice, love, family. All of the upperclassmen, all of friends, never came around when I was in desperate need. I really believed that it were through these people that God would show his love and support to me, but I was so very wrong. I have heard many times not to depend on people, but I never would have guessed that this lowest of lowest was the state of humanity. 

I like to believe that I know better to hold a grudge against anyone in such a situation, but I had met my limit when I heard a couple of my so-called friends share their thoughts on my outcry. 

When I was met with the chance to talk to them, I spoke of my disappointments, as I held them to be my closest friends, with higher expectations. However, none of them believed they had done anything wrong. They also began to call out on me, for having wrong thoughts and being the worse friend. They also hinted at my lack of being in a relationship with a woman, and implied that it is because of such a lack that I would not know their situation, that I was wrong to have expected more from them. 

There were more instances, less so direct than this. All in all, I simply realized that they really didn't need me or long for me. I stated to wonder if they ever really did in the first place. 

Was it so hard to reach out? Was it so difficult to simply say sorry? I too will admit that I must have missed out on a deeper relationship with an opposite sex, and how much effort it is to allow for any attention to other matters. Honestly, however, I think it's just an excuse, simply afraid to admit you were wrong. 

Yes, I am talking to you right now. Stop making excuses. If you really cared at all, you would know I would put it all behind and start building anew. All this additional silence simply adds to my belief that you never considered me a good friend in the first place. 

He

"he ran" Luke 15:20

"he wept" John 11:35

"he gave" John 3:16

"he loved" 1 John 4:10

Love (III) by George Herbert

LOVE (III) by George Herbert

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.