The Stream of Continuous Living

Just as we physically feel dirty everyday and thus require ourselves to shower, we must also similarly be washed and renewed in the blood of Christ daily. His blood became our water. His death became our life.

Sometimes I try not to shower for as long as I can, as nasty as that sounds. You might be able to relate... (maybe) hahaha. It's not that I don't want to, but the motivations for me to shower usually have to push me hard enough out of my usual tendencies towards laziness and contentment with being dirty. I might only shower when it is absolutely necessary- like when I think that others might begin to take notice, or when I finally can't stand walking around in my own sweat anymore after exercise. Can anyone relate? The majority of guys I know are like this... I can't speak for the girls, but I definitely know my fair share who are.

The problem is, I often approach my walk with Christ this way too. The things that bring me back to Christ have similarly been for the eyes of others or when the overbearing guilt of my own sins eventually becomes too much. I might go about, doing whatever I want, giving into my passions and flesh throughout the day. When I come home, I'll distract myself for hours upon hours, knowing in the back of my mind that my soul actually thirsts to spend time with the Living God instead... However, I continue in the things that I feel like I have to do first, and essentially put my life with God last.

Is this wrong? Does Jesus Christ close His arms to me when I keep living my life this way? NO. NEVER. In fact, his arms are open wide. 

See? It's renewal that I'm lacking. It's the reliance and dependence that I'm missing. It's the opportunity to put every day in the "good" column, simply because I am living my life for Christ again (for that day), that is absent. Although I am still able to arbitrarily walk with God throughout the day, and worship Him in the things I do, it becomes wearisome after a while without renewal! It then becomes burdensome, if not outright impossible! The dirt in my heart begins to build up and my motivations for coming to Christ slowly become different. Perhaps, one day a portion of my messed up character might show out to someone, causing my fear of man to kick in again, or I might become so bogged down with guilt because of my various sins, that I'll finally begin to cry out for help.

I believe that the Christ is the only one who can bring new motivations into my heart. I have to remember that it isn't the act of touching His robe (synonymous to daily renewal) that changes me, heals me, or forgives me, but it's because of Jesus Christ himself. What do I mean by that? The act of daily renewal has power because the renewal is through Christ.

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? (Luke 9:23-25)

Fickle pickle

Have you ever gotten yourself into a fickle pickle?

Yes, that moment when you don't know which bball shoe model to buy and you end up choosing the "wrong" one. So you end up returning it and then getting a different one. And then you happen to do it again because this time you chose the wrong size. It was too tight and you should've gone for the slightly looser fit. Poor choice! And then your dad is with you when you happen to make this exchange and he sees the extraordinarily-long receipt that shows the previous attempted exchanges as well. Yup, and then it's lesson time in front of everyone in the store!

Ever happen to you?

Well the heart is very fickle. Now you know.

Stop the Candy Shop

An amazing, powerful film to raise awareness and stir action for child sex-trafficking in Atlanta and across the world. This makes me want to throw up... seriously. I have to believe there's some light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel.

Watch:


The Candy Shop from Whitestone Motion Pictures on Vimeo.


Find out more:
http://stopthecandyshop.com/

Good Advice

Don't you sometimes wish you could talk to the most knowledgeable person in the world about an issue you're having?

Well, I sought advice from the most well-respected person I knew for mine and got it. I knew the matter was such a delicate one that could cause all sorts of divisions and defenses... and good wisdom was too hard to find elsewhere... so I went to a guru.

Imagine not knowing someone too well... let's say... you shared the same basketball court with them. For this illustration, let's use Barack Obama. You guys happened to play basketball against each other randomly, you with your boys, and him with his secret agent squad. Then he allows you to be his friend on Facebook because you insta-added him so he wouldn't forget you. 6 months pass by... and you randomly chat him, not expecting him to respond. To your surprise, he responds, and not only responds, but decides that he wants to call you about some of the minor concerns you were having, even though it's 2am and he's at a UN conference getting ready for the next day tomorrow.

This is similar to the conversation I had with this guru person on Facebook... that then somehow got turned into an hour long phone conversation. The simple fact that this man called me really impressed me and blessed me.

Beyond the fact that he called me, I received so much encouragement and truth from him... it was one of the most overwhelming things. I was truly taken aback by the large amounts of one man's generosity, kindness, affection that he showed me. How was it possible that he would be willing to do this even though he was tired and didn't even know me well? I could not fathom...

My only conclusion was that all of those things I saw in him were fruits from his relationship with Jesus Christ. He had the Spirit... and I'm only thinking this because his relationship with Jesus... is very open. He's a pastor! Even still, he had no other real incentives, rather than to just genuinely help me.

I'm glad I got my question answered, but I think I got so much more out of it. This isn't the first time I've met someone who's made me feel this way, but I was reminded that Jesus transforms people into his likeness. I will become like him through my fellowship with him. I will become like this man too. It's one thing to hear about it, and another to experience it. We've been given a new Spirit inside of us! So... let hope... rise! A hope that does not put us to shame. A living hope.

Quote of the day:

-How, you do anything is how you do everything-
Wow, what a powerful reminder for my life.

"Calm Down"

Have I become a person who is continually saying sorry all the time? My actions have been warranting them these days...

I came from the dust

Jungmin, my roommate is sleeping soundly beside me right now. As his teeth chatter, he looks oh-so-cute. We got into a little argument today over housing. Good to see him in such peace now.

We won our intramural basketball game to make it into the 2nd round of playoffs. It was so exciting and intense as we played against a team that got two technicals and scratched us up everywhere. Jiwon showed his man side to the other team and we had his back, but nothing happened, which was good lol. Next game should be a lot harder as we face the #1 team in the league tomorrow...

I'm learning a lot. There is truly no growth without hardship. God, thank you.