Isaiah

Yesterday I finished reading through Isaiah (well, I had originally started with chapter 37 so really I read just under the last half of the book.) This morning I reread 37-66. So good! A couple of things I noticed as I read through such a huge chunk like that: 1) God is all about the Israelites telling other nations about Him. He loves Israel and they are His chosen people but it's all for the point of them being a light to other peoples. It is so obvious that that's what He's talking about. 2) God does choose! He speaks of the Israelites as His possession all over the place. Even that He overwhelms them with grace despite their bad behavior but because they are His. And at first I thought how mean of God to only choose some... but then you remember back to note #1 and realize that it's just His perfect plan. So cool. So beautiful.

A few of my favs:

"And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them." (42:16 - emphasis added)

"...You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you..." (43:4a)

"In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory." (45:25)

"Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save." (46:3-4 - emphasis added)

"And he said to me, 'You are my servant, Israel in whom I will be glorified.'" (49:3 - footnote says, "I will display my beauty." - emphasis added)

"I have seen his ways, but I will heal him..." (57:18a)

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. ...Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult..." (60:1-3, 5a - emphasis added - 5a footnote, "Your heart shall tremble and grow wide.")

"...and you shall be called Sought Out." (62:12c)

"In all their affliction he was afflicted..." (63:9a)

"For thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice...'" (66:12-14a - emphasis added)

"For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord. ...all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord." (66:18-21, 23b - emphasis added)

@ Temple

"God is looking for people who have fallen more in love with His face than His hands." - Rev. Wyder

"God is still in the delivery business." - Rev. Wyder

EXPELLED!

Sam and I just went and saw the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed by Ben Stein. It was pretty good although not excellent. But the entire theme of intolerance (although this word was never used) for god PLUS science was excellently displayed. It reminded me of the article that Dr. Cashin told his class about (several times) written by a guy in the UK saying that if Christians (or the Christian worldview) keeps getting pushed as being unacceptable it will simply prove that there is indeed something very acceptable about it! I wish Stein would have defined evolution, intelligent design, and creationism a little bit more; of course, I suppose that is the reason for all this debate in the first place. I mean, what is science? When Stein was interviewing the evolutionist (mainly atheists) I would always want to yell, "Why no god? Why does science mean there cannot be any god?" Because that's silly. But I cried. Once for this poor old atheist man that claimed he didn't care that there was no god and that he would be nothing after he died. In fact, he said he would commit suicide if he was ill because that would simply end his existence. Stein says that after that interview this man found out he had a brain tumor. My crying over him was one of fierce anger more than anything. I was angry at the powers of darkness. I even questioned the Creator, my God, asking why He allowed such a horrible untruth to suck the life out of people. The other time I cried was when Richard Dawkins (one of the big atheists of our time) read an excerpt from his book of his rendition of the God of the Old Testament: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” I am fuming with anger right now!!!!!!! I want to go through every book store in Columbia and buy all of these books and go to the Pointe and burn them. I was actually planning on doing this and then I realized that my money would go to profit them so maybe I won't do that. ...As the Creator has been revealing Himself to me as of late especially through the words of Isaiah - God, the God, the One True God is beautiful, majestic, holy, eternally loving, overwhelmingly gracious, longs for us to be joyful and happy, amazing, and just freaking awesome. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!


Days Of Elijah

These are the days of Elijah,Declaring the word of the Lord:And these are the days of Your servant Moses,Righteousness being restored.And though these are days of great trial,Of famine and darkness and sword,Still, we are the voice in the desert crying'Prepare ye the way of the Lord!'

Behold He comes riding on the clouds,Shining like the sun at the trumpet call;Lift your voice, it's the year of jubilee,And out of Zion's hill salvation comes.

These are the days of Ezekiel,The dry bones becoming as flesh;And these are the days of Your servant David,Rebuilding a temple of praise.These are the days of the harvest,The fields are as white in Your world,And we are the labourers in Your vineyard,Declaring the word of the Lord!

There's no God like Jehovah.There's no God like Jehovah!

Copyright © 1997 Daybreak Music Ltd.

in the lobby

there are two turkish brothers attempting to play heart and soul on the piano. it is hilarious! one guy said, "i ran out of fingers!"

God is cool.

Thank you for praying for my bug bites. They ate me when I spent four hours with Jennie at the Pointe last Thursday night. Totally worth it but next time we'll have to go indoors or at least be more covered. But Jennie is precious and we hadn't had time to catch up since before spring break. So again, totally worth it.

Friday morning I met with the Nakamuras and showed them around CIU and then took them to breakfast. It was great to spend time hearing about their ministry and sharing with them about what God has been doing in my life. Mitsu is doing translation work which was super amazing to hear about.

By midday on Friday I was about read to pass out and practically did on the lounge sofa outside of my office where Angela, Donna, and I were scheduled to have a meeting. Hanging out with them is always fun though.

Friday evening there was a huge Grad/Sem cookout at the Pointe with different international student ministries coming as well. I helped out for awhile and stayed and fellowshipped for about 2 hours. I love so many of these people - overwhelmingly blessed. But I was exhausted and headed home early.

Saturday morning I spent some amazing time with the Lord. It was rich and healing.

Saturday midday I met with Andrea and Jen, fellow TEFLers, and we went to the Columbia Museum of Art. It's free on Saturdays and there is an exhibit on Egyptian Mummies that they both had wanted to see. It was small but interesting, albeit kinda creepy. It was fun to do something out of the ordinary.

Saturday evening Sam and I went to an A Capella concert here at the school. We sat with the LeTexier's and Hannah sat on my lap for a good portion of it. My dear friend Rachel arrived and we talked well afterwards. So fun.

Sunday morning I took Melody to Temple Zion with me. She loved it. I loved it. I love her. And Jesus was praised. Christian was handsome with his books-of-the-Bible tie.

Sunday evening I picked up Mika and we headed over to grad. house #10 where Joshua was fixing Nigerian food! Jonathan was host, Marc and Holly came (Marc is a fellow TEFLer who reminds me of Dagwood Bumstead and I think he is absolutely adorable and Holly is his wife), Benito arrived (Filipino undergrad who makes me laugh soooooooo hard), and then Cannis (a grad who has preached before in grad. chapel and loves Jesus sooooooooooooooo much), and also Tim (an undergrad who wants to teach overseas so I was trying to persuade him to go to Chuuk). And we sat on the floor and ate with our hands!!!! It was sooooooo fun! I had a great time. I love them. Too bad Jonathan is the only one that will still be around next year. You don't understand how much I adore hanging out with these people. It was rich, rich fellowship.

So how could this be followed? Then Christian, Rachel, Noah, Ryan, and a few others showed up around 9 to have their normal Sunday evening prayer time. So Mika and I stayed for that. Um, yeah, obviously narlical.

Suffice it to say, I am exhausted. I seriously feel like I am overbooking my life now and need to slow down. On Monday I did stay at home all day but mostly worked out this huge presentation I had to do in class last night. Tuesday was prayer day which is always packed and then I had class in the evening. And today besides chapel and work, I was upposed to have coffee with a friend from last semester (although it ended up not working out but I went to Starbucks anyway and read), I had lunch with an undergrad from my small group Bible study, and after work I'm hanging out with Melody again (yes, I really do enjoy hanging out with her.)

God is wonderful... always.

I desperately need your prayers!

I have 31 mosquito bites. 30 of them are below my knees, mostly on my feet. I could hardly sleep last night even though I was exhausted and my feet are ON FIRE! Please, pray as it is making my whole body sick.

Guess what I'm eating right now?!?!

my weekend

Jennie tonight, Nakamura's tomorrow for breakfast, meeting w/Donna and Angela, grad/sem night at the Pointe (hopefully I'll see some of the people that I hung out with on Easter), Saturday I'm going to brunch and then the Museum of Art with Andrea and Jen (two TEFL buddies), Saturday evening there is an A Capella concert here on campus, Sunday I'm going back to TZ and taking Melody with me, Sunday night I'm hanging out with a Nigerian, Japanese, Filipino, and MK from Mexico City and eating Nigerian food!

And on Tuesday I'm the first and only presenter in my Community Based Language Learning class.

Pray for me, please!

Martin Smith

"What if God does not demand prayer as much as gives prayer? What if God wants prayer in order to satisfy us? What if prayer is a means of God nourishing, restoring, healing, converting us? Suppose prayer is primarily allowing ourselves to be loved, addressed and claimed by God? What if prayer means opening ourselves to the gift of God's own self and presence? What if our part in prayer is primarily letting God be giver? Suppose prayer is not a duty, but an opportunity to experience healing and transforming love?"

3.21.1995

I was going through a box of old papers and ticket stubs and such last night and found this paper that I wrote in 5th grade for school. As I write it for you on here for you all to be encouraged, I won't correct my errors for your enjoyment. (Note to Rebecca: I also read my "diary" from 3rd grade - "I don't know! I don't know if I am going on the field trip today!")

They person I respect the most is my good friend Jesus. I know that he is there, in my heart or where I am. Jesus comforts me when I, my family, or my friend is going through hard times in our lives. He keeps me company when I am board. Sometimes when I did something wrong and I know someone will find out sooner or later he asks me why I did and directs me toward the way I should go. When I ask him for forgiveness he will always forgive me and my heart feels fresh whith love when I have asked him. Jesus makes me realize that he loves me and when I am home at night I think I am all alone but Jesus is there and maybe I might think a robber is going to murder me I know that either Jesus will protect me from harm or that will be the time he wants me to die so I can live with him. When I am lost in my worries and it feels like I can't find him he finds me in my clustered mind. The most important reason that I respect Jesus is because when he came down to earth he died on the cross for my sins. On Easter I celebrate him raising from the dead so many years ago. I can keep him in my heart because he loves me and I love him.

Isaiah 40-43

God has been speaking to me through Isaiah lately. The bold is Scripture and the italicized are my notes.

Comfort, comfort my people, say your God. (He wants us to be comforted.) Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, (He wants me to know this.) that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. (40:1-2)

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; life up your voice with strength, (Don't be ashamed!) O Jerusalem, herald of good news; life it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; (protection) he will gather the lambs in his arms; (gentleness) he will carry them in his bosom, (loving care) and gently lead those that are with young. (tenderness) (40:9-11)

To whom then will you like God, or what likeness compare with him? (You cannot even begin to compare God.) (40:18)

To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like Him? says the Holy One. Life up your eyes on high and see: who created these? (Our God.) (40:25-26a)

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God"? (Do not complain. It is not so!) Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (God's grace to us.) (40:27-31)

Listen to me in silence... (41:1a)

...and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved. (41:7d)

But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are my servant, I have chosen you and not case you off"; (Praise be to God!) fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (41:8-10)

For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "fear not, I am the one who helps you. (41:13)

...And you shall rejoice in the Lord; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory. (My longing!) (41:16c)

...that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it. (41:20)

"I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them." (42:6-9)

And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the thing I do (Ah hah! I LOVE THAT!) and I do not forsake them. (42:16)

But now those says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. (43:1)

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Amen! Amen!) (43:3a)

Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you... (Aaaaah!) (43:4a)

everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. (43:7)

"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. (Hallelujah! The highest calling!) Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and I am God. (our roles) Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?" (43:10-13)

...the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. (43:21)

"Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with you sins; you have wearied me with you iniquities. (Oh, God, merciful God, please forgive!) (43:22-24)

"I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins." (Praise God!) (43:25)

Columbia International Festival

After going to TZ to see precious Pastor Flynn baptize my dear brother Christian, Melody and I went down to the annual Columbia International Festival that's held at the fair grounds down in the city. We walked around, met a lot of people, asked a lot about different languages (Melody is in the Russian language study program at CIU), watched really cool Mexican and Russian folk dances, and ate baklava, lumpia, and kimchi! I was exhausted after three hours but we had a great time. You can check out more here.

a precious Chuukese student

vanity is graduating from high school in pohnpei in may. she's looking into ciu. you can pray.

reflection for cross-cultural communication class

I want to be real. I want to be a real person. I want to be “radiant over the goodness of the Lord” (Jeremiah 31). But after everything we’ve talked about, I think this is really hard. The idea of being this real person is extremely desirous and I think once someone’s there, life is better, fuller, happier. But I also think that the underlying theme of becoming this real person is the hardest thing a person ever has to do – become humble. The idea of humility seems possible, doable, something that especially us Christians eagerly seek for; but that is not the reality of true humility, at least not for me. It is an extremely scary thing to be open and honest about self. Of course, the result would be (or should be) more glory to God – in our weakness, He is strong.

It is good that we discussed the basic principles for acceptance of self and the discovery of person. You say, “To be truly personal is to acquire liberty.” I state it a little differently – “Honesty breeds freedom.” Humility is basically being honest with your self, with God, with others. It is only through Christ that someone can be free, though, and God wants this for us. And as it is the Spirit of God who opens others’ hearts to know Him, so He opens my heart as well.

To love as I have been loved. To give grace as I have been shown grace. This is a hard concept. But “truth without grace kills. It is only truth with grace that builds.” Grace is what all humans need. So God has been enlightening me with how I work out my own faith, how others would perceive it being worked out, and how I can work it out to best show (or only show) the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

I went to THAILAND last night!!!

My friend invited me to her church for a Wycliffe Dinner Theatre. It was sooooo cool. It was extremely well done. When we walked in everything looked like we were in Thailand. The stage was in the middle with a huge bamboo frame all around it. There were two screens on either side of the room with a picture of Thailand showing on them (as the show progressed the pictures would change to help give setting.) They served as a traditional Thai dish called Kai Kang Dang - very good. We also had green tea. Then they did the first act. Then they brought out dessert - pineapple sorbet - oh my gosh, so good! And then they did the second act. The play was called "Sunong" which was the name of the main character, a man from Thailand. The play told the story of two linguist missionaries going to Thailand and trying to translate the Bible into this specific dialect in this extremely segregated Buddhist region. God sends them Sunong who will help them in exchange for them teaching him English. He is not a Christian. Through some persecution, the missionaries end up being sent home, Sunong thinks it was retarded of them to ever have come in the first place, but they leave their Bible with him. Second act: the missionaries end up going back to Thailand years later as linguistic professors in the university. Guess who shows up? Sunong! And, awesomely, he has become a Christian. The rest of the story is how Sunong wants to go back to his people now and translate the Bible for him now and the missionaries keep telling him that he needs to have more training in linguistics before he can do that. So at the end more people are translating the Bible and learning to translate the Bible and it's just super cool. And the whole production was excellent and my little rendition of it is not even comparable to the real thing. SO COOL!

Stone Lee

This was written by a guy in my Cross-cultural Communication class. I thought it was good.

"I was born and grew up in Hong Kong, quite a westernized metropolitan. I
accepted Christ in my age of seven. My faith was bounded by the intellectual
approach of Western thinking. I understand clearly sin and salvation, much
knowledge about Christianity through Sunday school and reading. But my worldview
was lack of Spirituality. I heard about prayers, but never really believed in
prayers. I seldom prayed for over ten minutes in my private prayer time. I
believed in real actions baring fruits. I rarely heard about spiritual gifts in
the first decade of Christian life. Exposure to Mainland China, South Korean
culture and worldview, and reading about Spirituality (like Charismatic
movement)have helped me to re-orient my approach to my Christian Faith. I met
many people who pray for hours and fast for days, some even fast for 40 days.
Many of them go to prayer mountain to pray at 4-5 a.m. nearly every day. Many
miracles happen in these community. I started to know many of them who possess
spiritual gifts. One who has spiritual gifts is not a super apostle, it is
common in their community and for the sanctification of disciples. In short, I
learned to re-orient my Christian faith to a more spiritual aspect. Faith is not
only knowledge. God still communicate with modern believers, not only by
understanding of text. Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.
Spend more time in prayers, worship and fasting, to experience God who is not
only an intellectual God."