Favorite Quotes

I told my son, “You will marry the girl I choose.”
He said, “NO!”
I told him, “She is Bill Gates’ daughter.”
He said, “OK.”
I called Bill Gates and said, “I want your daughter to marry my son.”
Bill Gates said, “NO.”
I told Bill Gates, My son is the CEO of World Bank.”
Bill Gates said, “OK.”
I called the President of World Bank and asked him to make my son the CEO.
He said, “NO.”
I told him, “My son is Bill Gates’ son-in-law.”
He said, “OK.”
This is exactly how politics works . . .


“Till sin be bitter; Christ will not be sweet.” Such is the testimony of Psalm 32.
- Thomas Watson

Love is the key

Joy is love singing

Peace is love resting

Long suffering is love enduring

Kindness is love's touch

Goodness is love's character

Faithfulness is love's habit

Gentleness is love's self-forgetfulness

Self-control is love's holding the reins.

-Donald Grey Barnhouse

Homosexuality

Erika
God loves you so much regardless, so that's great news. Gay, straight, weird (yay), short (yay) or tall. He's our father... would you, if you had a child, not love your child? Going back to the greatest commandment, which sums up all other commandments, Christianity at its core is to love God with all your heart. Even the first commandment God had uttered was not to have false gods (idols). Everything else is secondary. When we're talking about premarital sex, we're talking about just one of the sins. Even a relationship with a straight partner with no premarital sex could become your false god. It’s about your heart Erika. Not having premarital sex doesn't warrant intimacy with God, let alone, a ticket to heaven. It's all really petty shit, when Christianity is really just about your relationship with God. It's difficult to talk about Christianity to people when majority of the conversations are about whether if they're going to heaven or hell. Essentially, were saying we love God only because he will let us into heaven. Imagine if you had a child and she only loved you because of your big house. Then we have missed the point and broke our father’s heart. To me, pre-marital sex or not, gay or straight, I don't think that's what sends you to heaven. It is whether if He is your Lord and whether if you love him with all your heart. So, no such thing as double doom. But here's the thing. If you can tell me you can love God with all your heart, by dating her or marrying her, I will be the first one to support you in this. If anyone can find a way to love God honorably by intentionally exercising sex outside of marriage and homosexuality on a regular basis, I will not only support it, but will promote it. Maybe there is a way, but my best guess based on what I study, I’m not so sure. I personally do not think this is a phase, I do think this is what your heart desires. And I wish I can tell you to follow your heart, but often times, our hearts are deceitful. How can I be disappointed in you when this is something that you feel in your heart?  Don’t only listen to what people say, or ignore them completely, but please find intimacy with the Lord and hear his voice. I know this may not be what you want to hear, but please don’t feel that I don’t care for you from the bottom of my heart. Whatever choice you make, I will love you because I know that’s how our Father will feel towards you. Miss you Erika and your beautiful morning face.


Kurt
This is my personal belief and I hope to answer the issue of Homosexuality without pinpointing one sin over another, but in Christinaity as a whole. As I mentioned before, homosexuality is not a greater sin than premarital sex, watching porn, and lusting- even thinking about any other women in a lustful way (and the list goes on and we're all guilty). This is because we're all born in sin (the fall of man - Adam declared indepednece from God stemming from pride)
So it's not that we don't accept homosexuals, we just want to take back our love for God again. There's these words we refer to as justification and sanctification. Justification is what Jesus already did, bearing our sins and offering us salvation. Once we accept Jesus as our personal savior, we're on our way to sanctification, where we're now in the process of being transformed to the image of God himself (his characteristics: loving, faithful, trustworthy, just etc).  I think the key here is the sanctification process. Where we are being transformed naturally by hanging out with something supernatural and divine, we're getting rid of anything that is not of God: Masterbation, premarital sex, lusting, and homosexuality in part. So there are homosexuals that have accepted Jesus as their savior, but are transformed (No not brain-washed, but supernaturally transformed) and genuinely happy by not being homosexuals anymore . No, we're not changing who they are are, because at the root of all things, God made people in the image of God. We celebrate shedding off Every form of sin (sin basically means anything that's not of God: cheating, lying, steal, lusting etc) and becoming sanctfied into his image every day. Once you experience this love and peace that surpasses understanding, you can't help but to find more about him, hang out with him, and pray to him. The heart of Chrisitinaity is not to become better people, but the essensce of Christianity is your relationship with God. And everything else that you see - becoming better people, doing nice things - these are just byproducts of our relationshp with God.


FYI, this will all make more sense once we develop a good understanding of Christinaity (not religious Christianity, but a relational one), but from on outsider looking in, oh man I know how offensive and injustice this may sound because I've been there and I was pissed off. Dude, my best friend from college is gay.

Genuine Losers 10/18/17

Genuine Losers are the ones that are content. Complacent. The ones that have the knowledge and choose to settle. The ones that rely on their own understanding. The ones that aren't hungry for truth. The ones that after they have been fed the truth, that go home, and stay the same. People that don't try when regardless of whether if they're up or down

The Losers that God uses are the ones that try. It doesn't matter what circumstances they're in. They do what is in their control and do not bank on the results because that is not theirs to worry. They are the ones that do whatever they can, within their control, do whatever it takes to pursue Jesus. Over and over again because daily bread never stops.

The Book of John - This Time Around

When I read the Book of John this time around, I was highlighted in full, the unity of God the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. Not the emphasis on Loving one another, which I always thought the Book of John was all about.

The recurring theme that I noticed was "the Father has sent me, so I am sending you" that the Son and the Father are One in truth. And So are His Son and us as followers of Christ.

20:21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

17:18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

What I get out from the Book of John this time around is that Jesus really wants us to be like Him (Christ) and God the Father because they are one in Truth. What's interesting about verse 23 is that, to forgive someone and to say that their sins are forgiven, almost sounds like we have the authority to erase sin because God bestowed that authority onto us. And that authority is contingent on whether the Holy Spirit is in us.

I sense that as we become more in tune with God, we must also recognize and awaken the authority that's given onto us. We are powerful because just as the Father sent his Son into the world, His Son is sending us into the world. 

Yolk is Easy and Burden is Light 10/17/16

The verse in Matthew 11:30, finally made sense to me.
When I think of life as Christian, it is so difficult and frustrating to go against your flesh and blood, always fighting and putting up a guard.
But this week I tasted and experienced this verse come alive.
I believe His yoke is easy and His burden is light, when our appetite changes. When my desire to not want to sin heightens and my burden of doing God's will decreases, it's easy to resist sin and it's difficult to go against God's will. I think the secret here is transformation.
I worked twice as hard and studied twice as hard. The circumstances were actually against me. But what was for me was the power of the spirit. In John it says flesh gives birth to flesh and spirit gives birth to spirit. Since the Holy Spirit was working in me, although the circumstances were against me, I was able to firsthand experience spirit giving birth to spirit. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

*Update 10/18/17
This still holds. When you adore and look at someone with affection. Things aren't tedious any longer. Preparing for cell group, praying long hours, it becomes easy and the burden is light.

Prayer 10.13.16

It dawned on me the value or the significance of prayer. Praying for someone is humility. It allows us to bring our biggest desires for someone other than yourself and ask God to bless them. We humbly ask God and God only without the credit being due to us.It's a humble and a generous act because God honors it. He's a God of the humble.

My God is Big 6.16.16 Europe

My Father is big enough, so that no matter what we do, we can glorify Him. He's in every inch of our thoughts and actions. So we can glorify him in our attitude, thoughts, and in everything that we do. Corinthians 10:31. Inspirations from drinking good beer in Munich, I am able to enjoy without guilt, I praise him for the blessing. Every gift can be used in the wrong way. The giftor or gift is not the problem, it's your motive and attitude.