Hidden Treasure

Logos 4 Giveaway

2010-08-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

Logos Bible Software is giving away thousands of dollars of prizes to celebrate the launch of Logos Bible Software 4 Mac on October 1. Prizes include an iMac, a MacBook Pro, an iPad, an iPod Touch, and more than 100 other prizes!

They’re also having a special limited-time sale on their Mac and PC base packages and upgrades. Check it out!

walk by faith

2010-02-28T21:47:00.000-08:00

posted by Priscilla

Beland and I spent some time today with the Kondo-sensei, the head pastor of Hamadera Bible Church. We wanted to take him somewhere fancy, so we went to Burger King :) We sat in the fast-food booth with loud children running all around us, and we chatted about life.

For those that do not know, Grace Community Church sends short-term ministry teams every summer to countries all around the world. We send teams to our missionaries that request help for that summer. Since college, Beland and I have had the privilege to go on several summer short-term ministry trips to Hamdera Bible Church, located in Osaka, Japan. This church has a very special place in our hearts, and God has placed Beland as the leader of one of the Japan teams for summer 2010.

Anyway, back to lunch. We were talking to Pastor Kondo about our future plans, in particular Beland's aspiration to go into full-time ministry. Since we have been married, Beland and I have been praying a lot about if and when to go into seminary, and more importantly, whether God is leading us toward full-time ministry. At this time, God has put it on both of our hearts to move in that direction.

One large factor in our decision has been finances. I'm sure most would agree that it's a valid factor. We have spent time calculating out how much we would need in order to survive, how much we would need to dip into our savings until we have no more savings in which to dip, how to make a secondary income, etc. I would love for Beland to get seminary training, but my heart recently has been pondering a lot about the money part of the whole decision. I think I even told somebody recently that finances would be the only reason we wouldn't go to seminary in the fall.

When we were talking to Pastor Kondo, I blurted out "well, we'll see if we can afford seminary this fall." Kondo-sensei told us how he came to America from Japan to get seminary training. He had no money when he came, and he could not ask his parents for money. But he knew that it was God's will that he get trained to be a preacherl. There were no scholarship programs in place and no financial aid, but somebody reached out to him and gave him a special scholarship that allowed him to go to seminary. He told a number of stories like that about how God provided for him every step of his life.

And then he said, "I'm glad I don't have enough money, because then I would think that I didn't need God." In my own life, I always felt like my parents had "enough" money. I couldn't help thinking to myself that I was like the person who thought they didn't need God. Kondo-sensei spoke to us about the joy of depending and trusting in God. He sees these things as great opportunities of faith. I was reminded of the apostle Paul, and how he had learned contentment regardless of his financial circumstances.

On a similar note, Beland and I had heard of some spiritual and financial struggles going on with Hamadera Bible Church recently. We asked Pastor Kondo about these things. Again, he went on about what an exciting time this was for the church to exercise their faith in God. It was like he completely saw beyond what the natural man sees, and appraised the spiritual situation correctly. It was so encouraging to see how clearly he understood the spiritual reality of what is really going on with his flock, and how he entrusted the church's future and well-being to God.

In the end, Pastor Kondo encouraged us to make our decisions based on what is God's will. And if we are doing the will of God, then we must have faith that God is not limited by our financial situation.

As we left our meeting with Kondo-sensei, Beland and I agreed that we are going to change how we pray about the whole full-time ministry/going to seminary decision. Please pray for us, that (1) God would show us and convince us of what He wants for us and where He wants us to go next, and that (2) we would have faith that He will provide the means for us to get there.

Giver

2010-01-25T21:29:00.000-08:00

posted by Priscilla

I wanted to start my own blog today, but Beland wouldn't let me. So I suppose this "Hidden Treasure" site will now be our shared space. I might do some housekeeping with this site to make it look a little more cozy.

Yesterday, Tom Patton preached about our hero of the faith, Abraham. The message was on Genesis 22. It was exactly the message that I needed to hear. He spoke concerning Abraham's devotion and Abraham's sacrifice, and how these were fruits of his extraordinary faith.

Tom defined devotion as what you are willing to hold on to. He defined sacrifice as what you are willing to let go of. The trickiness lies in the fact that oftentimes we should sacrifice the things are hearts are sometimes unknowingly devoted to.

"Hold on to things loosely, " Tom said, "so that it won't hurt when God tears it from your hand. We must hold loosely to our possessions, positions, dreams, and ... relationships."

How could you hold on loosely to a familial relationship? How could you hold loosely to a relationship with your own child? And what if it was not just any child - it was the son that was to bring forth a chosen people, to bring about blessing to all the nations of the world? Abraham saw in Isaac all the potential and promises of God's covenant with him. After many years of waiting and even after stages of disobedience, finally, the miraculous birth of Isaac. Abraham saw the joy of God's words to him finally to be fulfilled in his Isaac. And yet Abraham was willing to sacrifice this relationship. He was willing to let it go in order to show true devotion to his God - and Abraham showed it through complete obedience when he raised his hand to slay his son.

My closest human relationship in this earth is with my husband. We have been married just a little over four months. I love being married...I really do love it. I enjoy our marriage so much - I enjoy our conversations, I enjoy coming home to one another, I enjoy working together as a team to accomplish tasks together, I enjoy remembering our past and thinking of our future, I enjoy Beland's leadership over me, I enjoy my own feelings of love for him, I am even enjoying just sitting together in the room with him right now even though we are doing our own separate things!

Lately, life seems to be full of happiness. The world gone right. I am challenged in my own heart to consider if I would love God just as much if my marriage and the seemingly happy things in my life were taken away by the His sovereign hand. Would I willingly sacrifice my attachment to my possessions, positions, dreams...and relationships, in order to live a life devoted to God? I want to say "Yes yes!! No questions about it!" And yet, I know in my heart there are many weeds that must be uprooted before I can really say that with a genuine heart. You know those stories you hear of people who lose loved ones, and yet they shine in those circumstances because of their hope and trust is in God? You know, the stories you hear at church that make everybody cry. I am thinking of one in particular of a woman who lost her husband and was left with two little ones to raise on her own. I cry because it is sad, because it is admirable, but I think I cry partly because I feel like my hope would not stand against such a test.

I must daily put on my spiritual eyes to see the Giver of every good and perfect gift, instead of focusing merely on the abundance of gifts that I have before me. I think more and more I realize that I do not deserve the mortal life that I have, and cannot even wrap my mind around how much I do not deserve the eternal life I have.

Thou, my everlasting portion, More than friend or life to me,

All along my pilgrim journey, Savior, let me walk with Thee. - Fanny J. Crosby

Double Honor (resurrected from 2007)

2008-03-06T22:47:00.001-08:00

"...He said to him the third time, 'Do you love Me?' And [Peter] said to Him, 'Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.' Jesus said to him, 'Tend My sheep..'" - John 21:17

An Introduction

To put things in moderate terms, there has been a persistent desire in my heart ever since the Shepherds' Conference (I will explain what that is) to write this post and express not only my appreciation for pastors in general but also touch on the enormous weight of ministry that I felt just by participating in two of the night sessions as a layperson who aspires to be in ministry. After being tempted during many late nights to abandon sleep just so i can write about this topic... here I am, 3 weeks after the fact, finally scratching that itch in my mind/heart that I've displaced deep within that cloudy blurb called....finals. ah, but the events and the sentiments are so fresh that they almost seem to have occurred just last night.

It has always been a treasured tradition for Grace Community Church to sponsor Shepherds' Conference every year. The purpose of the conference is to build up the men who have spent their lives building up the churches in which they serve: through offering the pastors and their staff a wide variety of ministry-related seminars; supplying them with theological resources for their studies at a low/no cost; encouraging them with a strong dosage of their own medicine, the Word of God, taught by America's most faithful and renown expositors- John MacArthur, John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, Albert Mohler, Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, R.C. Sproul, and many other men throughout the years. You can imagine the magnitude of the conference not only in the sheer number of its attendees, but the awe for the Word of God this type of conference draws from both the shepherds and the laity of God's true church.

Why I LOVE the Shepherds' Conference

I have to be honest. I would MUCH rather hear 3000 men sing praises and hymns than to hear 3000 women do the same. Not to say women do not have beautiful voices, but I think there is some unexplainable affinity that human ears have towards the masculine-human-sound portion of the audible frequencies. I believe it's the same reason why the cello is such a popular instrument for a wide range of audiences who generally don't have much knowledge of music, because the cello performs at a similar range as the male human voice. Furthermore, if you've studied biology, you might know that the audible sounds to the human ear ranges from 20 Hz to 20 kHz; but did you know that the human ear is most inclined or most "tuned" to the frequency of the human voice? In other words, if there were a bunch of sounds withing 20-20k Hz playing next to your ear, you would hear the human voice most clearly. I think that's amazing.

Anyway, the reason i bring up this point is not to discourage all female vocalists, but to express my love for the part of Shepherds' Conference where the whole worship center of men sing in unison as an act of worship. I will explain why the corporate singing time is my favorite part Shepherds' Conference. Ok fine, besides the preaching.... As a curteous act of hosts, the non-attendees are asked to view the conference through closed-circuit TV in other rooms on the church campus, so in all three of my Shepherds' Conference experiences, I was only able to watch a digital projection of the pastors singing and hear the melodies of their heart filtered by artificial speakers. But even still, every hymn and every song was an exhilarating experience of worship to me. No, it is not simply based on my forementioned acoustico-aesthetic appreciation of the male voice, but it is because I think that outside of heaven, there is probably no other congregation who can sing with such deep conviction of the truth in their lives, who can utter humbling words with such a clear view of their own sin, who can echo along in their hearts the resounding greatness of grace, than a group of pastors.

My ears perceived 3000 voices that evening, but in my mind I can only imagine all the sin-revealing/grace-abounding events from 3000 hard-laboring lives that might stimulate such magnificent praise. I am sure that the pastors cherished those sweet moments of ministerial comradery: these men share the same desire to deepen their church members' love for Christ while they trained themselves to preach the written Word by loving the incarnate Word; these men yearn for the same experience of worship and sanctification; perhaps they share the same tears and scars earned from ministry, many sleepless nights over a soul or a convicting verse; they share the joy derived from answered prayers and repentent hearts; they share the understanding of God's command to love their families above their ministries; they share the same aching back and dry eyes from long hours of studying; they share the same temptations that comes through ministry; they share in the gravitas of the call to ministry; they share in struggling to be ready in and out of season; they share the same spiritual armor in the good fight. (I appreciate the conversation that Sarah Kang and I had in the car on the way to the conference. As a fellow PK, she has a very disillusioned but positive outlook on pastoral ministry. I must acknowledge her input into my thinking as well)

When a pastor who has shepherded a church for 20 years sings these words below (a hymn sung at the 2007 Shepherds' Conference), he expresses praise, thankfulness, and committment in a completely different context as you and I (the laity) might ever be able to sing. Think about it.

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee;
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise;
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.

My friends, pastors are NOT ordinary people. Pastors are NOT simply Christians who score better on some imaginary ministry aptitude test. Pastors are NOT in ministry primarily because they are incompetent in the secular work force. They are NOT necessarily godlier people, but they DO deserve double the honor you should give to any human being, as it is commanded in Scripture (1 Timothy 5:17). So, take a moment and think of a pastor you know and love, and pray for him! If you go to Grace On Campus, the next time you see Justin McKitterick, tell him you appreciate him! If you are a girl, give Juli a hug when you see her and tell her you appreciate her support for Justin!

I hope we all want to get recordings of the Shepherds' Conference singing now. haha.
Maybe now you understand why I love Shepherds' Conference so much! (I'll let you in on a little secret dream I have. One day, I hope to stand at the first row of the worship center during the Shepherds' Conference as an attendee and let the live singing of 3000 men behind me blast me into exuberating worship!!)

Extrabiblical Pastor Stereotype/Qualifications(?)

on a less serious note... from growing up as a pastor's son, interacting with a lot of my dad's pastor friends, observing the men at the Shepherd's Conference, and just knowing my own pastors, it seems to me that ALL pastors have certain intangible traits about them. Wouldn't you agree?? So here's my attempt to make the intangible tangible. It obviously isn't going to fit 100% of your pastors... but I think it quite accurate to a very comical extent.

All pastors wear cologne- Good-smelling cologne. You would be convinced of this if you were standing outside of the worship center with 3000 men around you.
All pastors can sing well- perhaps this is some special gift. You would be convinced of this if you stood next to any singing pastor. He is either has an amazing voice, is harmonizing, or just sounds like the manliest man you've ever known.
All pastors have a great sense of humor- have you ever met a pastor who doesn't crack jokes?? I mean, the jokes actually turning out to be funny is a different thing but, all pastors can either crack great jokes or can take jokes real well. If he can't, he probably hasn't been a pastor for very long.
All pastors marry amazing women- This is perhaps the truest item on the list. Behind every hard working pastor who is respected by his flock there is an even harder working pastor's wife who actually helps him keep his life together. She serves tirelessly at church potlucks and attracts the praise and respect of all the women in the church. Maybe being a pastor's wife causes the woman to be amazing. either way, she is amazing.
All pastors have great smiles- Ministry deals with people, and when dealing with people, the Bible commands us to love. Experienced pastors are never depressed, but they always seem to have a constant and calm smile on their face. It must be because they have learned to love people when they are most unlovable. The smile has gotta be a sign of this "God-taught love" written in 1 Thessalonians 4:9.
All pastors are/were athletes- Except for maybe John Piper. How many times have you challenged your pastor to a friendly game of whatever... and he thoroughly dominated you? I'm not saying it has to be a very popular sport, but somehow at the end of the day you will hear stories of how he was once the state champ of this and that in his youth. it could be anything like football, basketball, wrestling, badminton, ping pong, chess, etc.
All pastors have 10 million ties- this is because they pretty much only receive ties for gifts... some of them are straight up ugly and you know it. So if you want your pastor to look good, buy him nicer ties!

Thinking about becoming a pastor now? : )

"It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do." - 1 Timothy 3:1

Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

2007-10-20T23:07:00.001-07:00

"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

Genesis 1:27

There's a reason why it's "recovering" and not "rediscovering."

To my understanding, to "rediscover" something denotes the process of gaining a fresh perspective on an idea or an object which has existed for a long period of time while its worth has been unknown or neglected prior to its "rediscovery." To "discover" is to gain knowledge of an idea that was unknown beforehand; thus, to "rediscover" an ideology would be to simply have a renewed appreciation or curiosity towards it. For example, the Discovery Channel is interesting for me to watch because it teaches me new ideas, laws, principles, facts based upon/derived/related to old ideas or objects that I am used to. Every time I learn a fact from the Discovery Channel, I am gaining a fresh appreciation.

Unlike "re-discover," the normal English meaning of "recover" is not explained by its seemingly compounded shape, "re-cover." Or does it? English borrowed this word "recover" (it's not a compound word) from Latin, recuperare. Sound familiar? Yes, like its synonyms "recuperate" and "restore," "recover" denotes a retrieval/return of a state-of-being or an idea to its rightful state from a position of reduced value. That's why we only need to "recover" from sickness, we only need to "retrieve" something we lost, we only "restore" broken relationships... because something of worth has been taken away---to recover Truth, thusly, is to honor its Author by obeying and loving that Truth, even when it has been demeaned by others.

Biblical manhood and womanhood does not need to be "rediscovered," because humans knew since his and her creation that men and women are different; HOW to stare at these revealed differences and point to the Creator God in worship is what needs to be "recovered" by the church today. To the non-believer, understanding God's divine roles for men and women might be a discovery, but to the Christian in the year 2007, it should be a recovery of God's Truth--Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is not new, it has always been in the Bible, and it's been demeaned most severely by a group of people called "modern Christians."

The purpose of the this post is not for me to give an etymology lesson, stir up controversy, or even to try and explain the details of biblical manhood and womanhood. I just want us to be aware of the attacks today on biblical gender roles AND be on fire to be in the business of restoring it. If we don't fight it and try to understand God's truth clearly, we will be influenced and weakened in our church/family lives.

Honestly, as a Christian who understands the purpose of God's creation of humans, do you want the world to be more convicted than you about how you "ought to behave" as a man and how you "should be able to behave" as a woman?

With that said, I just wanted to share with you one of the most comprehensive summaries I've seen on this issue. Take a while and try to think about and understand every phrase he's saying:

It is clear that the upcoming generation has not been introduced to the church's time-honored understanding of the Scriptures on matters pertaining to gender roles. To this new generation we must stress that complementarianism is cause for celebration rather than apology because it provides the relational framework in which men and women experience covenantal privileges and responsibilities. Both men and women are image-bearers of the living God and equals before the cross. When male and female live and work together as God intended, there is nothing more beautiful, satisfying, delightful, and God-glorifying--a truth to be lived and celebrated, shouted from the rooftops, and proclaimed in the streets.

-Preface (2006), Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood,
John Piper/Wayne Grudem

Backseat Boys- I'm Gonna Be

2007-07-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

Backseat Boys fever sweeping the nation of Japan....

Aaron Bitzer, Beland Huang, Timothy Jin, Brandon Jones, Shinsuke Hashimoto (in order of appearance)

A Day at Hamadera Bible Church

2007-07-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

Today, 4 of the 7 short-term team members shared their testimonies with the Hamadera Bible Church congregation. Here we are: Tricia, Ashley, Brandon, and me.

The person standing on the right side of us is Daisuke Okada, one of our missionaries in Japan. We call him Okada sensei ("sensei" means "teacher)... sometimes I just call him "the OS." He graduated from the Master's seminary a while back and is one of the assitant pastors at HBC. A faithful man. From his expression in the picture, he's probably enjoying his time translating my testimony into Japan, and he's probably thinking in his head, "Beland, your face is funny looking."
The following is what I shared with the HBC congregation this morning:

"Minnasan ohayoogozaimasu! (good morning everyone)

This is my forth time at HBC, so you probably thought I was going to be able to continue my testimony in Japanese…. Haha, well, no. Here it is in English.
You all know that I’m very happy to be here at HBC again, whether it be for Joy Joy 5 Days ministry or college evangelism. Thank you again for your hospitality, for your patience, and for your example of faithfulness to the work of the Lord. Some people back home ask me, why do you always go back to Japan for your short-term ministries, why don’t you go somewhere else? I tell them, “Well, it’s because I have a group of brothers and sisters in

Japan

that are very dear to me, and I HAVE to go visit them!” By the time of my fourth short-term trip here to HBC, I’ve already figured out that when I’m here for 2 weeks, no matter how exhausted I feel from doing “ministry,” I’m really not doing too much help….because the rest of the 50 weeks of the year, God is doing great things in His kingdom through your hands. As Okada sensei puts it, us Americans are just “the bait” for your ministry. Bait or not, I’m happy to be here again and see a lot of familiar faces.
It’s been about one year since I last saw you. In other words, I have lived the Christian life for another year since I last stood here sharing my testimony. That’s one more year of knowing the person Jesus Christ; 365 more opportunities to see God’s grace manifested in my everyday life; and a lot time to realize and be convicted of my own sin. This year was full of lessons of turning what I know into what I love. I know it is God’s grace that I was born into a missionaries family, I know I do not deserve to have come to Jesus as my Savior and Lord at a young age, but does seeing the gospel in my life in the past and present translate into a deeper love for Christ? This is a great challenge for me: it’s been a year, do I love God more?....the God that I’ve been getting to know more of. I can tell you all these cool things I’m learning in my New Testament Greek studies; I can tell you how amazing of an experience it is to sit down and try to exegete a passage with group of guys and finally figure out the Word meant after hours of study…but if I can’t burst out and tell you of my genuine love for my Savior, whether in the U.S. or in Japan, my ministry is at best hypocritical.

This year, God showed me a lot of my weaknesses. When I am not growing in my love for God, it’s usually because I am not letting what I do know for sure, that is, the truths of Scripture, to translate into a devotion in my heart. Instead, I found myself anxious over many things I do NOT know for sure: Can I finish my last quarter in college with good grades; will I have enough fun in my last quarter of college; I worry about my relationships with other people, I worry about working full time; I worry about one day supporting my own family; I worry about in what capacity the Lord is going to use me in the future, etc. Even while I am on this trip, I am tempted to worry. A couple of days before I came to Japan, I found out that I have to report to work at 8:45am the day after I get back to America. As you can see in my life and probably your own life, learning to love God through trusting the truths in His word is not as easy as.. say, just memorizing a verse. But thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit who indeed works through our knowledge of the Bible’s truth, and turns it into a love and worship of our God. The Lord dealt with and is still dealing with my weakness in worrying about the future. My prayer is that my anxiety over the unknown will transform into diligence for revealed truth; and that my knowledge of the revealed Written Word would in turn produce a love for the Incarnate Word. It’s been one year since I last told you about my Christian life, and perhaps many more years to come for me to learn this lesson well. In God’s greatest commandment to us, the first part of us that the Lord requires of us to love Him with is our hearts. This is the summary of my testimony of God’s love to me in this past year of my Christian life. While our team is here at HBC, please tell grab one of us and tell us…tell me…about your Christian life in the past year. Really! That’s why we are here! Thank you."

This is the HBC adult choir. Each and everyone of these brothers and sisters have ministered to our Japan STM team and teams past in tremendous ways. Some of them opened up their homes for us to stay in, some of them drove of two a city 2 hours away from HBC and gave us a guided tour, some of them translated our written testimonies into Japanese for everyone to read, some of these ladies cook absolutely the best Japanese food in the world.
This is me and Nathan Okada (Okada Sensei's youngest of 3 sons). The first time I came to HBC 3 years ago, this buddy wasn't even born! As you can see, Nathan is very photogenic. I told him to smile and he did! I do not know the girl on the bottom left of the picture and I don't know why she is so surprised that I'm taking a picture with a cute kid. I think I will go meet her next week.
This is the "elderly men's fellowship" singing a hymn. I sat with a few of these cool Japanese dudes during lunch. Over a bowl of the best-tasting curry in the world, Toda san, the man standing in the middle with the gray jacket told me he had been coming to HBC for about 40 years! These are very precious members of Hamadera Bible Church.
Here is the man himself, Shuji Kondo (left), aka Kondo sensei, the head pastor of Hamadera Bible Church. He faithfully studies and preaches the Word here week in and week out. Expository preaching is not popular in Japan, but the Lord is using Kondo sensei in tremendous ways to impact lives. We call him the "Japanese John MacArthur." If you're interested, please refer to an earlier post I made on this blog titled, "Double honor." Kondo sensei has all of those things I described at the end of the entry. No joke.
Here's Jun (center) and Hideki (right). Two "younger" members of HBC. I snuck up on them to take a candid picture while they were talking because all our clothes were matching. Jun, a fourth year seminary student who lives at the church, is the key Japanese staff to our ministry here and all STM teams in the past. Without him, we would have no direction, no guidance, no liaison, no ride, no food, no answers to "American" questions, no one to go to the onsen with, no in-car entertainment.... no ministry to the students. As you can see, he's very important. He faithfully works in trenches all the time, figuratively. I'm really thankful for him.
Takoyaki (octopus balls) for dinner! Osaka is famous for this unique food... I know what you're thinking, "eww..octopus?" it's good, trust me. From left to right: Tricia (you already know her), Shinsuke (visit www.xanga.com/japanstm2k7 for info), Akiko (she's a cooking teacher), Mochiko, and Leah (Master's College grad teaching English at HBC).
I'm trying to flip this giant seafood pancake thing called Okonomiyaki...with Tim's help, we eventually flipped it and finished cooking it. Then we tried to be little creative with the sauce....

There you have it. A day at Hamadera Bible Church. I posted these pictures for your impression so that you can know who you're praying for.... please pray for the spiritual growth of HBC. Japan is a very dry land.... yet our God reigns sovereignly in Japan. Pray for more workers to be sent into the harvest.

Japan Short-Term Ministry 2007 Picture Update #1

2007-06-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, here are some pictures from my first 2 days in Osaka. enjoy!

Here is the team sitting inside LAX. From left to right: Timothy Jin (team leader), Tricia Lam, Deborah Wong, Ashley Louie, Priscilla Chang, Brandon Jones, and Beland Huang (that's me).

there's a secret to this picture... can you see it?

Yes. I am actually not sitting on the chair!!

Long story short. We were supposed to take a flight from LAX to SFO to catch a 12:33pm flight to Osaka. However, due to a "disappeared" flight and a delay, we arrived in SFO at 12:45pm, just in time to sprint across the airport terminal to see our plane glide away from gate 96. (the name of the airline company shall remain unrevealed......)
Yeap, there goes our ride our Osaka mission trip.... what are we gonna do now???

This is me praising God with my passport and boarding pass in hand. After standing in front of the United Airlines (oops, did i say that??) counter for 2.5 hours begging the service rep for any possible way to get to Asia, the supervisor finally showed up and decided to give us seats on the 8 o'clock flight to Shanghai. From there we would be able to catch a connection flight to Osaka. The problem is, the Chinese government doesn't like people who don't have a visa to stay around too long, so we weren't sure if we were going to get into any trouble. But as you can see, I was pretty ecstatic nontheless.

We arrived in Shanghai safely and we did not get in trouble with the Chinese government... our flight to Osaka was set to leave 8 hours after our arrival, so we all got free hotel rooms to rest in for about 4 hours.

I told everyone to look Chinese in this picture....then I realized there was only one person who wasn't Chinese.... the rest of the team seemed to not have too much trouble figuring out what I meant by "acting Chinese."

Yes, we arrived in Shanghai safely, but I was still pretty confused as to why I was there.... there I am again, holding my passport and scratching my head.

As little as I saw, Shanghai was a pretty cool city. It was like Taipei (the city I grew up in) except everything was written in simplified Chinese and people spoke in slightly different accents. This was my first time stepping on mainland China soil.

Jesus said that if we drink from the Living Water, we will never thirst again. But I guess they have Saving Water in Shanghai.

A bird's eye view of the beautiful western Japan.

It looks like I'm riding in a World War II Japanese fighter jet, but it's not... It's just a Boeing 767-300 of Japan Airlines, a MUCH better airline company than the aforementioned.

Two hours after our arrival in Osaka, we've already met our first group of unbelieving college students, here are two of them.

Left to right: Ashley, Kazuma, Hiroshi, Deborah

Kazuma and Hiroshi are both engineering students (shout out to Steve Tu) at Osaka Prefecture University, which we will be visiting on Tuesdays and Thursdays whil we're here.

Being a Christian in Japan often comes with a social stigma: you subtly become a "westernized social outcast." It's pretty big step for these college students to even come inside a church to attend an event..... such as our food-tasting game.

we had a very fun afternoon playing games and getting to know the students.

my "mystery food" was a mix of ketchup, kimchi, chocolate, and taco-flavored Doritos. (sounds like things my roommates like to eat)

This is the Sunday morning worship service of Hamadera Bible Church. Pastor Kondo is the Senior pastor and missionary at HBC. He's really cool. They call him the "Japanese John MacArthur."

During lunch, each of our team members were able to have some fellowship with HBC members.

here's Tim talking to two very sweet elderly ladies.

here are the team girls hanging out with the church's girls.... most of them are in jr. high or high school.

after 2 days without her luggage (because United left her bag in SF), Priscilla is pretty happy she can now wear her own clothes :)

Me, Brandon (the non-Asian dude) and some of the church's young guys. It's always a highlight for me to see them in the summer.
On Sunday night, the team guys and the church's guys had a guys' night out at the bowling alley while the girls stayed at church for a cooking competition. It was a very fun night and it helped build our relationship with the church's believers, who will be the people continuing the ministry with unbelieving college students long after our team is gone.

This is the special Mario Kart arcade game at the bowling alley. It takes a picture of you and puts your face in place of the characters'. Yoshi and I won first place in this race!

Who else besides Japanese people would think of wearing bowling pin suits while you bowl???

I think Tim and I look pretty cool in them.

Tonight, I set my personal record of 170 points.... must be the suit... it gives you powers to get turkeys.

suddenly, I became very afraid of bowling balls... must be the suit...

For dinner, 16 guys went to Rotating Sushi... you can imagine the amount of raw fish being consumed.

In this picture, I am eating a piece of horse sashimi... i.e. raw horse. yes, the kind of horse you ride on. (it didn't taste that great)

Momo(right), the sound guy at HBC, is unimpressed by horse sashimi... he's probably thinking, "i eat it all the time!"

Me and one of the missionary kids, Hikari Mortimer. His name means "light" in Japanese, and he has 4 other brothers with the names, Truth, Faith, Hope, and Word. pretty awesome huh?

That's me updating you in our Japanese-style missionary room. Stay tuned for more updates this week of our ministry time on college/high school campuses!!

Thanks for your prayers, keep em going!

The Best Is Certainly Yet To Come...

2007-06-04T01:32:00.000-07:00

hello. It's been a while. As my college career comes to an end, I feel it's an appropriate time for me to post my testimony in order to remind myself and you that everything in life hinges upon the glory of God, and the first and foremost way of bringing God glory is to become saved by repenting of your sins and submitting to the lordship of Jesus Christ (I briefly described how I came to that point in the paragraph below). In terms of how to glorify God for the rest of our lives and with the rest of our lives in Christ, He did not leave us without instruction. God's will for every aspect of your life is not hidden, so we don't have to seek too hard: Read the Bible and obey what you DO know that God requires of you. If one can have a truly biblical mindset, then his will becomes the Lord's will, his desires becomes the Lord's desires.

Let's run hard together.

"Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it."
- Psalm 37:4,5

Since the very moment of my sinful birth, my family sought to counteract my ungodly nature with a strongly biblical upbringing. Besides intuitively calling out “mommy,” “daddy,” and “yummy,” “hallelujah” garnished my infant vocabulary. As soon as I was old enough to intellectually comprehend the words of the Bible at around the 3^rd grade, my father, in his care, initiated a 7-year-long, father-and-son daily devotion time. In addition to being equipped with scriptural knowledge at a young age, weekly church attendance was mandatory and greater obedience to elders was almost expected, to say the least, of a missionary’s child. From a human perspective, nothing in my seemingly impeccable Christian upbringing could have possibly caused any sort of rebellion in my heart against the holy God whom I have never overtly denied. Even into my early teenage years, I took refuge in my Christianized background, believing that merely acquiescing to the gospel and not verbally denying Christ as Lord would somehow rescue me from my sin and my punishment for sin, God’s wrath. I did not deny Christ as Lord, yet I neither trusted Him as Lord. Beyond the surveying eyes of my spiritual leaders, I defied God by fiddling with the lust of my eyes, the lust my flesh, and the pride of my life as much as a Christianized 14-year-old could without being completely given over to the depravity of the world. In retrospect, God’s grace to me in life through godly parenting and strong biblical influence was like a chain, as it were, binding me close to God Himself, who mercifully restrained me from breaking free in my own will and run full speed into the gates of hell. I cannot recall the exact date or even any strong sentiments surrounding the time of my salvation, but until now God has faithfully revealed to me through a more mature understanding of His Word that He saved me not based of my Christianized upbringing or the good deeds I have done, but because of His great grace that caused me to recognize my sinfulness and my need for a Savior AND Lord. Along with God’s promise to save anyone who repents and believes in His Son, taking hold of God’s promise to sanctify those who have trusted in Jesus Christ has also been a growing lesson in my Christian life. In particular, experiencing growth throughout college by means of the ministries at Grace Community Church was like witnessing myself mature through the process of moving from being nourished by little sips of milk to actually tasting and seeing the sweetness of more solid spiritual food. Praise God for His goodness!

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for thy courts above!

The 4th Dimension

2007-04-17T01:02:00.000-07:00

1:15am. In the usual act of walking down Kelton, I find myself in an unusual context: covered in unusual clothing, surrounded by unusual silence, moving at an unusual pace, conjuring up unusual sentiments. Instead of a t-shirt, an untucked business suit; instead of striding, I strolled; instead of determination, relaxation; instead of inhaling sharp surges of alcohol, occasional whiffs of my own cologne; instead of obtrusive party music, I hear only the sound of my unhurried shoes meeting the unoccupied surfaces of the sidewalk...

click. clack. click. clack.

rhythmically imitating the subtle and irreversible footsteps of time:
click, moments cherished. clack, times wasted.
click, valuable encouragements. clack, empty words.
click, kindness extended. clack, selfishness paraded.
click, loving gesture. clack, hurtful behavior.
click, Christ honored. clack, self exalted.

click. clack. click. clack.

Time does not stop for you. This life will soon pass, only what is done for Christ will last.

"Redeem your time, because the days are evil.
So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of Lord is."
-Ephesians 5:16-17

Double Honor

2007-03-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

"...He said to him the third time, 'Do you love Me?' And [Peter] said to Him, 'Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.' Jesus said to him, 'Tend My sheep..'" - John 21:17

An Introduction

To put things in moderate terms, there has been a persistent desire in my heart ever since the Shepherds' Conference (I will explain what that is) to write this post and express not only my appreciation for pastors in general but also touch on the enormous weight of ministry that I felt just by participating in two of the night sessions as a layperson who aspires to be in ministry. After being tempted during may late nights to abandon sleep just so i can write about this topic... here I am, 3 weeks after the fact, finally scratching that itch in my mind/heart that I've displaced deep within that cloudy blurb called....finals. ah, but the events and the sentiments are so fresh that they almost seem to have occurred just last night.

It has always been a treasured tradition for Grace Community Church to sponsor Shepherds' Conference every year. The purpose of the conference is to build up the men who have spent their lives building up the churches in which they serve: through offering the pastors and their staff a wide variety of ministry-related seminars; supplying them with theological resources for their studies at a low/no cost; encouraging them with a strong dosage of their own medicine, the Word of God, taught by America's most faithful and renown expositors- John MacArthur, John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, Albert Mohler, Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, R.C. Sproul, and many other men throughout the years. You can imagine the magnitude of the conference not only in the number of its attendees, but the awe for the Word of God this type of conference draws for both the shepherds and the laity.

Why I LOVE the Shepherds' Conference

I have to be honest. I would MUCH rather hear 3000 men sing praises and hymns than to hear 3000 women do the same. Not to say women do not have beautiful voices, but I think there is some unexplainable affinity that human ears have towards the masculine-human-sound portion of the audible frequencies. I believe it's the same reason why the cello is such a popular instrument for a wide range of audiences who generally don't have much knowledge of music, because the cello performs at a simliar range as the male human voice. Furthermore, if you've studied biology, you might know that the audible sounds to the human ear ranges from 20 Hz to 20 kHz; but did you know that the human ear is most inclined or most "tuned" to the frequency of the human voice? In other words, if there were a bunch of sounds withing 20-20k Hz playing next to your ear, you would hear the human voice most clearly. I think that's amazing.

Anyway, the reason i bring up this point is not to discourage all female vocalists, but to express my love for the part of Shepherds' Conference where the whole worship center of men sing in unison as an act of worship. I will explain why the corporate singing time is my favorite part Shepherds' Conference.v As a curteous act of hosts, the non-attendees are asked to view the conference through closed-circuit TV in other rooms on the church campus, so in all three of my Shepherds' Conference experiences, I was only able to watch a digital projection of the pastors singing and hear the melodies of their heart filtered by artificial speakers. But even still, every hymn and every song was an exhilarating experience of worship to me. No, it is not simply based on my forementioned acoustico-aesthetic appreciation of the male voice, but it is because I think that outside of heaven, there is probably no other congregation who can sing with such deep conviction of the truth in their lives, who can utter humbling words with such a clear view of their own sin, who can echo along in their hearts the resounding greatness of grace, than a group of pastors.

My ears perceived 3000 voices that evening, but in my mind I can only imagine all the sin-revealing/grace-abounding events from 3000 hard-laboring lives that might stimulate such magnificent praise. I am sure that the pastors cherished those sweet moments of ministerial comradery: these men share the same desire to deepen their church members' love for Christ while they trained themselves to preach the written Word by loving the incarnate Word; these men yearn for the same experience of worship and sanctification; perhaps they share the same tears and scars earned from ministry, many sleepless nights over a soul or a convicting verse; they share the joy derived from answered prayers and repentent hearts; they share the understanding of God's command to love their families above their ministries; they share the same aching back and dry eyes from long hours of studying; they share the same temptations that comes through ministry; they share in the gravitas of the call to ministry; they share in struggling to be ready in and out of season; they share the same spiritual armor in the good fight. (I appreciate the conversation that Sarah Kang and I had in the car on the way to the conference. As a fellow PK, she has a very disillusioned but positive outlook on pastoral ministry. I must acknowledge her input into my thinking as well)

When a pastor who has shepherded a church for 20 years sings these words below (a hymn sung at the 2007 Shepherds' Conference), he expresses praise, thankfulness, and committment in a completely different context as you and I (the laity) might ever be able to sing. Think about it.

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee;
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise;
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.

All pastors wear cologne- Good-smelling cologne. You would be convinced of this if you were standing outside of the worship center with 3000 men around you.
All pastors can sing well- perhaps this is some special gift. You would be convinced of this if you stood next to any singing pastor. He is either has an amazing voice, is harmonizing, or just sounds like the manliest man you've ever known.
All pastors have a great sense of humor- have you ever met a pastor who doesn't crack jokes?? I mean, the jokes actually turning out to be funny is a different thing but, all pastors can either crack great jokes or can take jokes real well. If he can't, he probably hasn't been a pastor for very long.
All pastors marry amazing women- This is perhaps the truest item on the list. Behind every hard working pastor who is respected by his flock there is an even harder working pastor's wife who actually helps him keep his life together. She serves tirelessly at church potlucks and attracts the praise and respect of all the women in the church. Maybe being a pastor's wife causes the woman to be amazing. either way, she is amazing.
All pastors have great smiles- Ministry deals with people, and when dealing with people, the Bible commands us to love. Experienced pastors are never depressed, but they always seem to have a constant and calm smile on their face. It must be because they have learned to love people when they are most unlovable. The smile has gotta be a sign of this "God-taught love" written in 1 Thessalonians 4:9.
All pastors are/were athletes- Except for maybe John Piper. How many times have you challenged your pastor to a friendly game of whatever... and he thoroughly dominated you? I'm not saying it has to be a very popular sport, but somehow at the end of the day you will hear stories of how he was once the state champ of this and that in his youth. it could be anything like football, basketball, wrestling, badminton, ping pong, chess, etc.
All pastors have 10 million ties- this is because they pretty much only receive ties for gifts... some of them are straight up ugly and you know it. So if you want your pastor to look good, buy him nicer ties!

Thinking about becoming a pastor now? : )

"It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do." - 1 Timothy 3:1

The Road to the Grace of Life

2007-03-15T04:42:00.000-07:00

2:58am. In my overly-simplified and romanticized youthful state-of-mind, i first heard Edwin McCain sympathetically sing his now popularized line, "I'll be your crying shoulder...the greatest fan of your life."
after a few t-shirts where the would-be "shoulders" are dampened with tears and stained by mascara, i wish to have a talk with Edwin, so that he might give the whole story in his song:
"i AM the problem and the reason you cry, so I'LL be your crying shoulder... the greatest fan of your life."

apparently, there's no room in a godly relationship for boys w/o big shoulders to cry on, or more importantly, to bear responsibility...because that is a man's calling and joy.
the reward is a renewed trust and a labor-worthy smile,
and the prayer is truly, "let me be better when i'm older!"

"Your husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit."
-1 Peter 3:7-8

The Beaming Night Sky

2007-03-06T00:53:00.000-08:00

2:57am. I chose to walk right in the middle and straight down Kelton Ave to avoid its treacherous and ironic pedestrian "sidewalks." No need to dodge from speeding cars and image-driven joggers, the only hint of bustle that typified the City of Angels at its waking moments came from the halogen lamps dimly illuminating Richard Ho's living room.

while we slumber, creation sings with its full but inaudible volume to the Creator:
the moon conducts the heavenly chourses of the night sky with her gentle rays; Ursa Major at bass, Sagittarius at tenor, Cassiopeia at alto, and Venus makes a special soprano cameo high in the east.

"sing to the Creator who knows us by name! to the Lamb who for these slumbering sinners was slain!"

if we are slient, even the [space]rocks cry out.

"When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
For You have been my help,
And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy."

Psalm 63:6-7

Affections

2007-02-14T02:03:00.000-08:00

(i assume my audience to be Bible-believing Christians for this post)

Conventionally, people call today either Valentine's Day or Single Awareness Day. Couples who are married or dating have surely spent a great amount of effort anticipating and planning for tonight's _______. (date, romantic experience, make-up time, festivities.... whatever have you) On the other hand, godly single men and women out there who believe that they do not possess the gift of singleness are perhaps praying earnestly for God to not only strengthen that very conviction, but to manifest that conviction into sight by means of what we called, the one. Well, whether you are dating or not, no one knows for sure that they do NOT have the gift of singleness until his and her wedding day. So, if you are dating, keep at it and may the Lord sanctify the two of you in preparation for your marriage if it be His will. If you are not married/dating, don't be discouraged. Think about it this way: the fact that you DON'T have the gift of singleness will be verified on your wedding day... on the flip side... you don't have to worry about this too much because you will never know for sure that you DO have the gift of singleness until you die. And when that happens, you won't even be thinking about singleness cuz you'll be in glory!!

Speaking of affections, I must mention what I've experienced recently at Grace Community Church. If you go to GCC or know anything about it, you understand our church to be one of the strongest conservative-evangelical-Bible-believing-Bible-preaching-megachurches in the U.S. At GCC, "the Truth is everything," as our pastor would say, and there is absolutely no room for compromising the soul-saving truths of the holy Word of God. For this reason, we the Bruins of Grace On Campus UCLA have come to learn to wield the Sword of God offensively and defensively with all the resources God has given to us through the teaching at GCC. we have worked hard at our Extra-Jesus... oops i mean, exegesis!! we have gotten used to quoting Scripture to enhance our prayers, we have perfected the skill of reciting verses while we share the Gospel, we are even convicted about the importance of spedning personal quiet time with the Lord in the Word. Praise God, the authority of His Word is upheld at GOC and GCC.

However.... in my 11 quarters at GOC, I have heard relatively few discussions and expressions on our affection for the Word. By this I mean that at least within the student circles of GOC, believers' love for God's Word is not often articulated. Sadly, my heart also infrequently tells me of its affection for the words by which the brain has been excited of. Loving Bible-study and the process of exegesis is NOT equivalent to loving the Word! "Oh man, you know what deep theological concept I just understood after 6 hours of exegesis? I love it!" what is "it?" Is it the theology or the Savior? When was the last time your heart shouted out to you after drenching itself in truth for a period of time, "I LOVE the Jesus Christ MY Savior!!" A true love for God must be fueled by Truth; a true love for Truth will reflect its affections for the Author of the Truth.

consider our pastor, John MacArthur. Lots of Christians in America love him, lots of Christians hate him. Listen to MacArthur for 5 minutes or read 5 pages from any of his books and his strong conviction and almost stubbornness for adhering to the Truth will not escape your notice. He is a warrior on the pulpit. John not only spent his whole life guarding the truth of the Bible, but he attacks un-truthfulness from the pulpit. Not many preachers have the guts or the skin to do that. To be honest, you might not think he's the nicest person if you just seem him preaching, because he absolutely loses himself when he preaches. But I think he is an affectionate person. How do I know this? Well, first, I go to evening service. I really enjoy evening service (sometimes more than morning. sometimes. I believe Sunday morning services have a special place in the Bible). I love going to evening service for the baptisms and the testimonies and I love hearing pastor John share his heart. Surprisingly, he is a lot more open during evening service concerning his ministry convictions, his view on current events, and with his personal walk with the Lord. He does not merely reference the Truth with a roaring shout, but also with a very tender and mature affection for the Word. He once told the evening congregation of his ministry goal and summarized it to be something along the lines of: "loving the written Word as loving the Incarnate Word, since they are One in the same." To be honest, although I've heard these words before, it almost surprised me to hear it from John MacArthur. But now I understand, the reason his ministry in the Word is so powerful and oftentimes uncomfortable is because of his affections towards his Savior. Interesting. If you want to know John more, go to evening service. yes, this has been a public exhortation for people to go to evening service. :)

secondly, everyone who knows John MacArthur personally, whether they be pastors, family members, missionaries, church members, has vouched for his affection towards people. He is considered and respected to be one of the nicest people around when he's off the pulpit. I just had an endearing semi-personal encounter with him a few weeks ago. Thanks to my brothers Mitchell and Ed and their sacrifice, I was able to sit right next to John MacArthur during morning service on the first-row pew. Those seats are normally reserved for pastors, elders, or Mrs. MacArthur... but on that day, it was for Beland Huang. I must say, even in his few words of appreciation to me for sitting next to him and being his pal for the day, I was impressed with his kindness and good sense of humor. I think a Christian can only be truly affectionate to one another if we are affectionate to the Lord. I've heard pastor John preach for roughly 220 hours ever since I came to college, and I see a mature affection for the Lord even in his most fiery sermons.

To conclude this post, I would like to present to you some facts about the English language. Almost all of us have read at least a few of Shakespeare's plays, and most of us enjoy singing praises out of the good 'ol hymnal. If you have been paying attention to any of the words at all, you will inevitably notice the usages of that antiquated 2nd person singular pronoun: Thou, Thy, Thine, and Thee. Some of us don't particularly enjoy singing songs with these words precisely for that reason. But let me remind you, that Thou, Thy, Thine and Thee, in pre-modern English was the set of pronouns one would use for close friends and companions. In fact, if you were referred to as "You, Your, You," then your relationship with the one who has called you is probably still distant. more distant than the one who is called, "Thou." Somehow, the English language as we know it today has retained to royal "you, your, you."

But in light of today's post on affection, the next time you are standing in God's house singing those old words, do not be afraid to consciously sing phrases like "I love thee" with an extra bit of affection in your voice.

"How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"
-Psalm 119:103

Moth-ball free treasures

2007-02-12T01:04:00.000-08:00

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy..but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" -Matthew 6:19-21

ok. so i started out slow and i did not post even a word for a week. sorry i didn't keep my word about posting a paragraph everyday... but, somehow i don't think too many people are expecting anything. that's ok. we'll do what we can.

please pray for me. i have a job interview on Thursday morning. Pray for me to trust in God's sovereignty: His hand is not too weak to close or open any doors he wants to. The position i'm interviewing for is a management trainee position with East West Bank. If you know me, you understand that I do not major in economics and have very limited practical knowledge about managing finances... much less any sort of investments. The only thing I know about money is what the Bible says about it: you cannot serve it and be a Christian; use it wisely for eternal purposes; pay taxes; a virtuous woman knows how to use it to make profitable investments; people with a lot of it have a hard time finding themselves inside the Kingdom; the servant who used it well was considered faithful by his master; it is the root of all evil; there's a time to receive it; a worker deserves to have it as his wage; a bank is a good place to put it; false teachers always seem inclined to have it, etc. sometimes, i think i am scared to handle money because i think it will decide how i live the rest of my life... which is true to some extent. nevertheless, the Lord gives and He requires of me to be a responsible steward of His gifts, money is one of them. maybe this job will teach me lots of spiritual lessons.

speaking of spiritual lessons concerning provision and anxiety over it.... I really appreciate Joe Penberthy's sermon today:

"if you call yourself a Christian and have entrusted your SOUL to God. How is it that you can be so inconsistent and hypocritical to worry about these things ?"

these things refer to anything you would worry about on a daily basis: food, shelter, clothing, etc. we Californians have augmented this issue into more than mere anxiety regarding the availability of these things, but we have made it into an art and a lifestyle to obtain a high level of comfort and ease by means of these things. what should i wear today to impress my friends today? which dining hall should i eat at? which apartment building should i live in? which roommates will i get along with the best? which video game should i buy next? which classes should i take next quarter? where do i want to work? who should i marry?
these things are not bad things and there is nothing wrong about making these sorts of decisions everyday. perhaps you even know somebody who needs to spend more time thinking about these things. after all, doesn't the Bible command us to glorify God in every little thing?

i don't think the issue resides in the nature of these decisions, given the fact that many of these seem like pertinent decisions for a college student make concerning his stewardship in order to honor the God. But as a young-asian-american-californian-evangelical-christian-man, i find myself and others who identify with me in at least 2 out of these 7 categories... on the one hand acknowledging the mundaneness, or perhaps even "unspiritual-ness," of spending time making decisions about these things; yet on the other hand, abiding by a twisted Christo-cultural hybrid of ideals that have subtly become our criteria for decision-making. i understand the Bible has its cultural context and we live in a cultural context that requires proper interpretation of the text... but practically, our generation is compromising more and more in our daily decisions. we have become experts at spiritualizing. you know how it is. our problem is not just being anxious over these things, but we seek these things instead of the Kingdom, because we care about our bodies more than our souls.

i hope my job interviews and actually having a job will not make me gold digger. honestly.

I want the treasure in heaven!

no wonder Jesus provided this context (treasure in heaven) before He spoke about anxiety over these things. the key word is "so." pretty awesome and comforting truth if you think about... especially for people who have a job interview coming up this week.

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:33-34

(for more insight on the real meaning of the text, consult a Holy Spirit near/inside you)

Namesake

2007-02-05T01:42:00.000-08:00

it was 4 years ago when i first took up the habit of randomly posting thoughts on the internet. after a few months of spilling my guts over cyberspace, life got busy in college and there were simply too many things for me to decide whether it was "post-worthy" or not, so i stopped. in retrospect, it would have been nice if i had kept an auto-graphed record of my life, even if it did not contain little details from the milestones of my soon-to-be-past college years. too many thought-provoking and worship-inducing events and words occur within 24 hours to be fully captured in a blog, but i will try my best to produce at least 1 paragraph in summary of my daily experiences with the Lord's kindness to me. This is in effort to:

like i said, keep a general record of my life for myself and those dear to me
help me digest my thoughts and discern my intentions by communicating it in words to you
encourage you, if some things strike a chord in your mind or mirror your experiences
for you to encourage me and have more information about me to pray for me (thank you in advance)
stir up conversation when i see you in person. i do want to see you, i promise.

so here goes.

my name is Beland Isaac Huang. if you don't know me, the only thing in my name you would pronounce rightly is probably "Isaac." "Isaac" means "he laughs," because Abraham and Sarah had a good laugh when God told them they were going to have a kid at age 100 and age 90. I'm not sure if my parents laughed when their prayers for a second child were finally answered 10 years after my older sister was born, but they appropriately named me Isaac in appreciation to God's gift. that's a really really really humbling thought for me.... i was God's gift to my parents and an answer to countless prayers?! did they know that i was going to grow up to be a big sinner?

Beland, pronounced [bei 4 lan2], was a name given by name father with a very special meaning to it. [bei] literally means "shell." at one point, shells were the currency for ancient chinese societies, which is why [bei] denotes the meaning of "treasure" or "precious thing." No, i was not named after Mammon. My dad had been saved by the Lord at a young age and by the time i came around his relationship with the Lord was one who has "tasted and seen." My dad named me after the very gospel that saved him and his whole family from eternal punishment:

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves" - 2 Corinthians 4:7

[lan] is the color blue. In many cultures, the sky, or, the heavens, is often associated with Divine presence and loftiness. If you look up at the sky during a good day, you will notice that it is blue. in addition to that, my dad brilliantly referenced [lan] to the robe of an Old Testament priest. One of the layers of the levitical priest's ephod was commanded by the LORD to be blue. apparently, my dad had thought through of all this and wrote a short poem about [bei lan] prior to my birth. i don't think he had much of an idea that his son would be telling people about how he was named on a virtual space, almost 22 years later.

[huang] is my family name, and it simply means "yellow." No, we were not named that because one of our ancestors had jaundice nor because we lacked courage in the family. Yellow, not purple, was the color of royalty in chinese culture. ok, maybe not yellow yellow... perhaps gold-ish yellow. either way, there were many Huang emperialists in the past. funny thing is, my family did not live up to that name. my parents are poor missionaries who have no affiliation with any earthly power or ruler to grant them riches to live by....their apartment in Taipei, Taiwan is nothing like the forbidden city or solomon's palace in terms of its beauty and architectual genius... but my parents serve the King of Heaven and i believe He will reward them with untold treasures in eternity. please pray for their missionary work in the prisons and juvenile delinquency centers in Taiwan.

there you have it. that's an introduction to my name... and the legacy of ministry that my parents are passing on to me, which has been sovereignly unfolding within my lifetime. by the mercy of God, I have not lived up to it and don't think i ever will.... but by the grace of God, He saves and transforms sinners from earthen "filthy" vessels into "honorable vessels" (2 Tim 2:21). I don't think that in my dad's mind he expected himself to fill the shoes of Paul's ministry when he read 2 Corinthians 4:7, but he did believe in the gospel and God's power to grace, so he named me after this ministry to remind himself... and now that i'm at an age of understanding... to remind me of God's power.

therefore, the proceeding posts of this blog will be dedicated to describing and presenting the things of the Kingdom of God... at least this very small portion of it that surrounding me.... my life. the treasure has been found and purchased, now let's see how this treasure will validate itself to be of the supreme value, even though it is placed within the most unworthy of containers.