Time to ease up

I heard some of you guys are feeling a little intimdated by the caliber of the posts on this blog. "I'm not a writer" or "I can't write in equal spiritual depth". Well then, let me be the first to ease up the reins a little and write something more simple.

Yesterday my parents and Melissa's parents sat down for dinner together for the first time in our half-decade long relationship (our 6 years is coming up in 2 weeks). I was terrified at the notion of everything that could've gone wrong last night but it actually went surprisingly well. My parents had chosen a place that unknowingly only recieved 2.5 stars on yelp and had plenty of bad reviews (there was only 2 positive reviews and one of them was from the owner posing as a consumer LOL). It was a Japanese restaurant and turns out Melissa's parents don't even like Japanese food, but the awesome part was that the owner also owned the Malaysian/Thai restaurant next door so we could order from both menues and Melissa's parents happen to love Thai food. Also, the owner happened to be a member of the church my parents went to back when I was still a baby in Redwood City so she was so excited for us to be there she kept bringing us all the best dishes she had. Our conversation was easy going, and in the end, they brought me a little bowl of green tea ice cream with a candle and sang me happy birthday. When I closed my eyes to make a wish, all I could think was Thank you so much Jesus. My only wish was that tonight would turn out okay and it turned out great. I was surprised that was the first thought that came to my mind, but then again this morning when I woke up and realized it was my birthday, my first thought was to bow my head and thank the Lord again and dedicate this insignificant 26 to Him.

All I can ask for this year is for a stronger relationship with Him and a weaker relationship with the secular world. I'm so thankful for our at-home Thomas group. Thanks for keeping me companionship in my spiritual journey!

What we could learn from the 49ers

 

"...But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people...

So I want to remind you, though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not remain faithful. And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them...And don't forget Sodom and Gomorrah...

But you dear friends, must remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said...

But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God's love."
(Jude 3, 5-7, 17, 20-21)

Oh how easy it is to slip back into our natural ways and do what we want if we aren't connected to Jesus through His Word and fellowship with Him. We forget so easily how good God has been to us, like the Israelites forgot that God rescued them from Egypt. Not only do we have short-term memory in our faith, the enemy tries to get us to reject our Lord Jesus with any opportunity he gets. 

Thanks to God's help, He's been giving me a desire to spend time in His Word consistently. But yesterday, I didn't make time to spend with Him even though I caught up with 1:1 time with two other people. So of course my dreams last night and temptations today have presented me with opportunities to reject Jesus as my master.  It's like the very moment I let God take second place, my faith wavers. God really made it so we would need Him every moment...


A huge part of our faith is playing DEFENSE. I'm not gonna act like I'm a hardcore 9ers fan all of a sudden because of their status this year, but word on the streets is that they got their defense on LOCK. And if our underdogs have been able to make it this far with their defense alone, they're doing something right. I don't know enough (actually anything) about football to be talkin strategies, but one of our strategies to defend our faith is to REMEMBER God's faithfulness to us in our lives. 


We gotta look back at all the ways God has been good to us, from saving us to our personal experiences with Him. Whenever David and I get together with our old college buddy-bestie Darren, we always share stories about "back in the day" (with the Ahmad track playing in the background usually...) We start our stories with, "Remember when....." and then we replay the same stories every time because they never get old. But that's what keeps our friendship together and we continue to form new memories. With God, we gotta have these "Remember when" moments and cherish them. They never get old, and they defend the enemy's attacks on our faith. 


Jude talks about the false teachers who were "like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction (10)...these people are grumblers and complainers, living only to satisfy their desires (16)...They follow their natural instincts because they do not have God's Spirit in them (19)..." The next time we are tempted to be like them and the enemy is going hardcore on his offense, to do whatever our instincts tell us, satisfy our own desires, follow our own instincts...play defense. Play back treasured memories with God. He is faithful.


And part of building each other up as brothers and sisters of Jesus is REMINDING each other of God's faithfulness. We gotta be like walking post-its when we interact with each other. Thankfully God has given us each other to walk in our faith together, encouraging each other as our brother Aaron has reminded us below. Remain faithful to God by remembering God's faithfulness! Now chant with me: De-FENSE! De-FENSE! When I say "De", you say "FENSE!" DE......