thankful: sleeping in (rest)

Today, I am thankful for being able to sleep in. It is one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy just lazily waking up in the morning. I enjoy it when I can take a full hour  to just slowly wake for the day (reading, praying, listening to music, scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, sleeping some more). I especially enjoy being able to actually go back to sleep after I wake up for a bit: this is the best. Life can be so incredibly full and busy. I mean, most everyday I have lots to do and if I'm not presently doing something, I am planning and preparing for something in the near future. So when I get the opportunity to sleep in, I take it, without feeling guilty. I receive it as a nice gift from God to enjoy.

There's lots of places in Scripture that talks about rest. But, the one I enjoy most comes from Jesus. He says, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light" (Matthew 11:29-30 NLT). I love it! Jesus offers us rest anytime we are in need because He knows how desperate we are for rest. But, He offers us more than just physical rest for our bodies, He also offers us emotional, psychological and spiritual rest for the burdens of our heart, mind and soul. So, the next time Jesus blesses you with some rest, instead of filling the time with more busyness, but receive it as a gift and rest. 

thankful: my wife

Today, I am thankful for my wife. God has truly blessed me with a very thoughtful and supportive wife. She has a big caring and compassionate heart. When God put us together I knew that we were a good match, but each day  I am seeing more and more how great a match we really are. I love that she supports me in prayer and is my best friend in whom I can confide in. But who is also someone I can joke around and relax with. She helps me to be better. I know that we have only just begun our journey through life together, but honestly, I couldn't imagine life without her now. We are a team and my prayer is that we would grow stronger and stronger in our covenant to be partners for life.

In Genesis 2:18, God says, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him" (NIV). I am learning just how true these words are and when we wait on God to bring us to our spouse and our spouse to us, it is always on time and just right. Both of us have spent our fair share of time chasing after people, hoping that they would be right for us, that they would be suitable for us. But, each time all we found was a distorted and broken love. Then, we met God and He began filling us with His love and an amazing thing happened, our own hearts began to heal. And with the healing of our hearts we were transformed into the suitable helpers that each of us needed. God always knows what we need, even when we are clueless - God knows. Have you every prayed that God would transform you into the suitable helper for your spouse? God has someone very special for you, but we need to learn to trust that God knows who that is and that He will join you with that person in just the right time. So keep praying and trusting! God knows!

thankful: Cisco Webex

Today, I am thankful for the on-demand webinars that Cisco Webex hosts. I am currently in the process of compiling some teaching sessions for a church staff retreat and was glad to have these free resources available. I listened to a webinar: "Don't Let Your Ego Hijack Your Career" with David Witt and Randy Conely. The speakers spoke with great insight on the topic. I highly recommend spending an hour listening to this webinar from The Ken Blanchard Companies. 

Here are a few highlights. First, a quote from Ken Blanchard "The human ego gets in the way of people becoming their best selves." So true! Because the ego: 1) distorts relationships; and 2) separates people by getting in the way of people forming mutually beneficial relationships. Secondly, a key solution is increasing "self-awareness" while holding three attitude: 1) humility; 2) curiosity; and 3) veracity. And lastly, it is crucial that you "be kind to yourself while you grow because too little ego is just as bad as too much ego."  

Have you ever though about how your ego may be getting in the way of your growth? To be honest, I haven't ever really directly confronted my own ego. Sure, there are times that I wrestle with certain issues in my personal life or in some interpersonal relationships but I never really directly attributed this to my ego. I used different names like my pride, my selfishness, or even my sinful nature. What I enjoyed about this webinar is that it helped me gain a greater understanding of the place of ego when it comes to leadership and interpersonal relationships while helping me to see that my ego is more complex than I originally thought and most importantly that if you approach your ego honestly and humbly it can be directed (with God's help of course) towards our good. 

We really are fearfully and wonderfully made by God and very complex beings. But, also fallen beings distorted by sin. But, nevertheless God in His mercy still loves us and calls us into relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. Here is an excerpt from Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV): "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

thankful: The Book of Eli

In resurrecting my blog after a long hiatus, I've decided to begin posting each day on something I am thankful for. Today, I am thankful for the film, "The Book of Eli." It has been a while since I last watched this film, but in viewing it today, I was again impacted by the resolute determination of Eli to fulfill the mission God had given him. I think this is why I appreciate this film so much. I long to have this same kind of resolve as I also live to fulfill God's mission and purpose for my life. 

There are lots of good moments in the film. I especially like the part where Eli tells Solara that "All the years I've been carrying [the Bible] and reading it every day...I got so caught up with keeping it safe I forgot to live by what I learned from it." Such a good reminder that just knowing what the Bible says isn't good enough, we need to be living what the Bible says by applying it to our lives. 

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" (NLT). God has a plan and purpose for each and every person. But, in order to truly fulfill this purpose we need to fully commit ourselves to the plan and mission God has for each of us. Have you ever wondered about the reason you were put on this earth? Maybe today is a good day to start asking God to show you the plans and purposes He has for you while you live out the rest of your days here on Earth. 

Today, I am thankful for "The Book of Eli" and I leave you with his prayer: "Dear lord thank you for giving me the strength and the conviction to complete the task you entrusted to me. Thank you for guiding me straight and true through the many obstacles in my path, and keeping me resolute when all around seemed lost, thank you for your protection and your many signs along the way, thank you for any good I may have done and I'm so sorry about the bad. Thank you for the friend I've made, please watch over her as you have watched over me. Thank you for finally allowing me to rest I am so very tired. But I go now to my rest, at peace knowing that my time on this earth, I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith."  

Mobile Prayer Station Day 1: Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Today marked Day 1 of the Mobile Prayer Station here in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. My friends Andrew and Taylor joined me today. To catch you up to speed, a few of us from the Bilingual Community Church found a print shop and then designed and ordered some prayer flags. Currently, we are set up in a nearby park by the corner of Heti and Mingren Streets. It's a pretty ideal location because there is a lot of car and scooter (moped) traffic as well as foot traffic. Just down the road is Yucheng Street which has many places to eat and drink, so many people are constantly walking to and fro. 

Since today was the very first day, I did a little teaching on the heart behind street prayer and coaching on some of the ins and outs of street prayer ministry. The reason the Mobile Prayer Station exists is to bless and serve the community. We are on the street in order to release the presence of God and make known His Kingdom to people. This can take differing forms and is not always about forcing Jesus onto people. The reason I say this is that sure, we would love to share Jesus with every single person who comes by (and we do tell people that we are Christians who love Jesus and are here to bless people with prayer), but we are not here force the Gospel on people. Rather, we are here to listen to people's needs, show them the love and compassion of Christ and pray for them. That is our agenda. Now, if there is an opportunity we will talk about Jesus with people, but we allow them to freely choose to ask us about our faith. 

I also shared with them some of the insights the Lord has taught me in terms of street prayer ministry. Oftentimes, the window of opportunity with praying with strangers on the street is anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes. So, I encourage people to be mindful of the time and to remember that because of the prayer flags when people stop they already know what we're about. Also, when we do pray, I remind them that prayer can be a bit awkward and intimidating for anyone (especially for those new to prayer), but add to this that we are praying on the street and in public, well, the awkwardness and nervousness increases tenfold. I reminded them to make sure they prayer for the person's requests and anything else the Holy Spirit might add, but to keep it simple and to the point. Long prayers are for inside the church and not the street. 

As to the day, we spent most of the time praying for the area, praying for God's Kingdom to break in love and in power in both the immediate area and in people's lives. We prayed for one another as well as for people walking by. I've come to realize that there are two kinds of prayer, we can pray for people and with people. Since, no one stopped for prayer, we spent the day praying for people. Something that I enjoy doing is helping cultivate and develop prophetic gifting in people. So, as people walked by I lead Andrew and Taylor in asking God to bring prophetic revelation about people, so that we can pray for them as they walked by. Afterwards, we would share what we each felt the Holy Spirit was saying and in a sense compared notes and then prayed what we heard. It was neat to see some similarities in revelation which is always encouraging. Today, was only day 1, I am envisioning many more days ahead, but am definitely glad that the Mobile Prayer Station has begun here in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Please pray for Divine appointments and favor both with God and people. 

a new year: engagement

With the passing of the New Year (both Calendar and Chinese), I can't help but to wonder what this coming year may have in store. So far, a lot has happened. The biggest news this year is that I am engaged to a wonderful woman I met last year while in Australia. I proposed to her here in Taiwan. I took her to Kenting, which is one of the most beautiful places in Taiwan. I spent a couple weeks planning the trip. This meant driving down with a friend who knew the area. He showed me the good scenic lookouts, beaches, restaurants and helped me book a hotel. I needed to get a reasonably priced hotel because I needed to book two separate rooms (one for her and one for me). So, I ended up booking two rooms at a "Minzu" which is like a little boutique hotel. The funny thing is, I booked  the nicer suite for her with a nice view while I booked a room down the hall from hers without a view which was half as much. I figured we would spend most of the time talking in her room on the balcony and at the end of the night I would go back to my room which worked out well. 

So onto the night of the proposal. I had a couple options running through my mind which were contingent on the weather. It looked like it might rain or be a but cooler, so I was preparing for this. But, thankfully there was no rain and the temperature was alright. It did end up being a bit windy though. I told her I wanted to dress up a little and go out for dinner. But, before heading out I brought her flowers that I secretly bought earlier in the day and hid in the trunk of the car. Needless to say, she was totally surprised! White flowers are her favorite, specifically lilies which is what I brought. Score!

Next, we went to "Smokey Joe's" which is a Tex-Mex type of restaurant. It was nice, I asked the hostess seat us away from people so that we could have some privacy. At this point, I think she knew that I may propose to her (and afterwards she said that she thought I would propose to her in the restaurant), but as I have kidded with her over the previous weeks: "she will not know the time nor the place that I will propose, but it will happen." So needless to say, it wasn't ever in my plan to propose to her in the restaurant. After dinner, we drove to a little beach area down the street and ended up sitting on a blanket while looking at the surf and stars. 
It was a very romantic moment and this is when I popped the question. While we were holding each other I pulled out the ring and asked her in Chinese: 你願意嫁給我嗎？which is "Will you marry me?" She said "yes!" But this special moment didn't last too long because the wind really picked up and started blowing sand everywhere, so we decided to head back to the hotel. This is where we took some more traditional photos of me on my knee. After spending some time talking on the balcony, we said our goodnights and I headed back to my room. All in all, the night was quietly romantic. No big fanfare, just me and her spending a very special moment together. We spent the next day at a white sand beach where we were the only ones on the beach for a couple hours. It was a sweet first moment together as an engaged couple. God truly blessed us throughout the trip. He made it a very, very special time for us. One that will be an endearing keepsake we will both remember for the rest of our lives. We truly are feeling blessed by God to be in each other's lives.
There is a amazing future waiting for us and we are excited to walk into everything God has planned for us as a married couple. But, as my fiance prayed for us just tonight was that we would always be a Presence driven couple that consciously makes room for Jesus to lead and guide us by showing hospitality to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and marriage. Now I don't say this naively like we are going to live some fairy tale life where there will be no trials, testings or trouble. No, I say this understanding that all of these will come but I say this from a place of faith, believing that no matter what happens Jesus will be with us releasing love, grace and faith to us as we go through whatever trials, testings or even trouble that may come our way. This is God's promise to us: that He will never leave us nor forsake us, but will be with us always even to the end of this age.
 Jesus gave up everything to make sure that there is no space, no gap between us and Him. Jesus sacrificed everything so that we could be close to Him. Not close in the sense of being next to Him, but so close that we are literally in Him and He is literally in us. That's why He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within everyone of His followers. I can't tell you how excited we both are to spend the rest of our lives together with Jesus. If you know anything about either of us, you would know that it's a miracle that we are even together. We have both been through quite a lot journeying through this life, but those stories are for another time. 
There's a very special song that has deep meaning for both of us called "Bless the Broken Road" by Selah. You see, we have both spent our fair share of time searching for true love, but ended up only finding heartache and heartbreak. It's only after we found the perfect love of God that our journey ended and a new one began. A journey that has brought us into the very heart of God which is not only where we have found each other but also so much more. Do you think it's time for your current journey to end and for a new one to start?

thinking about you...

I know that it's been awhile since we've connected. But, today as I was spending time in God's presence I was reminded of you. I was reminded of the importance of sharing life together and because we are separated by a great distance, sometimes sharing life together means writing and reading about each other's many life adventures. So, here are some highlights of the past couple months and please forgive my absence. 

November: a month of transition. I spent much of this month adjusting to both the culture of Taiwan and the church I am serving. Every church is different. Sure most all church believe the same truths (some may place a greater emphasis on specific truths), but all in all the basic tenants of the Christian faith are in place. What differs from church to church is their core values (what drives the church) and philosophy of ministry (how they minister to people). This is what I have been adjusting to here at the church in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. 

Being Chinese, you'd think I would flow right into the Taiwanese culture, but alas that has not been the case. It took some time for my brain to adjust to hearing and translating Mandarin and an even longer time in growing more confident in speaking Mandarin. Talk about rusty. Though I grew up hearing Mandarin all my life from my parents and their friends, I've always spoken English back to them. So, let's just say it's been awhile in actually having to speak it. 

But even more than the language has been adjusting to a technology laden Pre-Modern society. Pre-Modern in the sense that there are temples and shrines at even turn. Pre-Modern in the sense that many store still offer food and drink offerings to various gods of fortune and prosperity while trying to buy their favor through burning "hell money." Now, I'm not just talking about small family owed businesses but stores like Subway, McDonald's, Nike and Adidas to name a few still practice these traditional offerings. 

December: a month of inner healing and deliverance ministry. God opened up so many opportunities for me to minister to people by bringing both inner healing and deliverance to them. A real consequence of all the idol worship that happens in Taiwan is that people's lives get enshrouded by darkness where suffering and tragedy happens in great frequency. Also, the amount of demonic activity I've seen and experienced here is truly disturbing. But, even so, I've also seen the tremendous compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ come and bring deep healing to people's hearts and great freedom to people's spirit's. God is so faithful and good! 

I wish I could go into some detail here, but let me just say that I have seen demons manifest themselves in people by physically controlling their bodies and by speaking. If you asked me which is more disconcerting I would say both. But, when these demons start speaking, let's just say that it is a bit more challenging. But, I have seen King Jesus time and time again come and exercise His Lordship over these demons by setting people free of them. Sometimes, it's been through Him releasing authority to me through His Name and power to me through of the Holy Spirit. Other times, I've seen Him come and set people free Himself where I haven't had to say or do anything. These times are particularly amazing! 

"You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross" (Colossians 2:13-15 NLT).