Whether you’re a Christian or a Non-Christian, how many times have you heard your peers call Christians Hypocrites? To many people, when you say Christians.. the first thing they think of would be “hypocrites”. I understand how they feel and that really upsets me that we would have that reputation.

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Colossians 4:5

“Outsiders”.. what does that mean? Non-Christians? But why do they have to be outsiders? Sure, they might not believe in God and have the same goal as you do but when we call them an outsider, we not only exclude them but we trap ourself in our own bubble, not allowing contact between the two – which helps the outsider lead to the thinking that Christians are hypocrites. “Aren’t Christians suppose to be all forgiving and nice?” They would ask. Just because somethings people do might not be your Christian morals doesn’t mean you have to go against it. Be wise. 

At encounter last night, Tim talked to us about Evangelism. Some of us went to DCLA last summer and they taught us all about Evangelism – Three story. Using My story to relate to Your story and God’s story. It was very useful but when asked if we had used it in the past year.. nobody raised their hand. We have so many chances and opportunities to share our faith with others but why is it so hard to talk about God?

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.  Colossians 4:2-4

God can open doors. As much as we think that something is impossible, that is not true because God can open doors… to opportunities, to people’s heart. Pray thankfully, that God will open that door for you to evangelise. For those who are wondering.. How can I do that now?

There will be a Christian Youth Conference coming up this November again. I know it sounds like a way’s out, but it will come in no time and prayer is needed for this conference. It can be big, real big. Pray about it! and let God do the miracles.

What Would Jesus Do?

 

 Years From Today.. HKIS Prom ’07

 

Starting from Encounter all the way to Monday, have been amazing. Prom went very well, it was very well organized and everyone looked beautiful. I didn’t go to after prom but we went elsewhere – and crashed at ThisMusicStudio for the night. Good times. Even though I only slept about 2 hours that night, it didn’t put me in a bad mood. It was amazing spending a whole weekend with Jon. Couldn’t have asked for anything more.

 

Click on the Link for more pictures.

 

Life. Wouldn’t you agree? Sometimes it sucks, and we can call it any word we want, but we love it nontheless. We’ve got good times, we’ve got bad times. We’ve got times where we just want to disappear into a hole and not come out until everything, all the problems and drama are gone.

I told my friend this the other day just out of the blue and it’s been quite real…

“Every day I feel like I’m standing tip toed at the end of the diving board just about to fall off. Trying to stand still and not fall but if someone just pushes me a little, I’m off.. and it takes so much longer to get back up again”

Don’t really know why I’m typing this entry up, just felt like it. Stirred up in me to write something while talking to my best friend about life in general right now. Not to be depressed or anything, but just to write what I feel.

Haven’t exactly been the most energetic person or perhaps the greatest person to talk so lately. Maybe I’m still hung up on the fact that I’m in school now. Haha. I mean…. I’ve always been in school but from Cambodia.

Not to say everything’s been bad. Many things have still been great and I’m so greatful for those things. I wish I could explain what exactly it is that composes these negative thinking but I just can’t.

Some of you might understand what I am talking about.

But stick together, we’ll get through it.

Church was great this morning, it was a sermon that we can all relate to and needed to hear. It was part of the “Growing” series the last couple of weeks, and this week we heard about being in “God’s gym“.

It was focused on scriptures from Hebrews chaper 5. Talks about having an expectation of growth. But being slow to learn, there is a gap between where we should be and where we are at spiritually. At this time, we are to ask ourselves three questions.

How Eager am I?

Eager to learn about God, eager to seek the truth and his word.

How Teachable am I?

Are we responsive to God? We are to have an humble and teachable posture. Through our humility, we are able to be molded and changed by God. Will we always have a change me, mold me and conform me attitude?

Meaning.. when people give us advice, or tells us something that we can change to be a better person and more Christ-like, do we just take their advice, and throw it out the window or do we think about it and change our ways? Do we take those opportunities to heart?

How focused am I?

“… let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseveranc the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning it’s shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

We have to constantly realign ourselves and fix ourselves back on Jesus CHrist, because once we don’t do that, we will DRIFT! We have to remember what is important and what is priority.

Thinking about those three questions relates me to Basketball personally. Because basketball is one of my main hobbies, I enjoy playing it, I enjoy watching it, I enjoy everything about it. We can all relate these questions to the thing we enjoy most.

When we do, we realize that we are eager to pursue that dream, that thing we want to do. I am eager to play basketball. I am willing to be teachable to the skills of basketball, because I want to get better. And we want to be focused , practice all the time or else we will fall behind, we will drift away from our skills.

There is always more for us to learn, to seek, and to change ourselves, because we can never be perfect, we can only strive to be Christ-like, so start today!

– j.lam

How do I explain how I feel? It’s one of those days where you just feel out of it. Weird? Sick? Tired? Maybe, I’m not really sure what words would describe it. It’s been a long week.. long days, they just seem to drag on longer and longer each minute. And when I feel this crankiness, I get easily annoyed.. and then little things just get to me.

I’m sorry to those that I’ve been cranky to, to those I’ve given attitude to. But thank you for all those who have messaged me, checking up on me and kept talking to me. Nate, who I met last summer at the DCLA conference, was one of the friends who checked up on me. This is one of his poems that I enjoy very much.

Burden of the Soul – Nate Kwong
when times get rough, and stuff starts to fall apart,
you try to get close, and they break your heart,
when your world starts falling, out of control,
and you just can’t handle the burden on the soul,
take a time out, step away from the crowd,
find a place of solitude and scream real loud,
confide in a friend, one you can trust till you die,
one you love like a brother, with whom you laugh and cry,
one who has a place, against their shoulder to lean,
who knows your secrets, your fears and your dreams,
but if they’re not around, to help you pull through,
just shout out my name, I’ll always be there for you.
but every now and then, if the burden is too much for two
then you take it to the heavens, cause’ God’ll carry you.

There’s something about this poem that gives me peace. It’s very well written and perhaps it’s the last line that jumps out at me. “You take it to the heavens, cause God’ll carry you.” God tries to tell us that all the time, He has arms wide open every minute of the day just waiting for us to run to him whenever we have troubles or even when we feel happy! But why do we feel this way still? Sometimes we forget… and that’s when Satan takes advantage of us.

So many times I ask myself, What am I doing? Seriously… Why? What? And I dwell on those questions as well as dwelling on this “feeling” I’m having. I know many of you out there know how I feel.

Perhaps this is a good way to explain it (also from Nate, Thanks!) – you get sick of everything, you get tired of trying, you get tired of the same tedious routine that happens all the time, you basically feel like you’d rather be somewhere else, doing something that mattered.

Sigh… we’ll get there.

– Joanne L.