Being in America for this holiday season has been absolutely wonderful. I haven’t celebrated a Christmas in America since 2007, and despite Asia’s efforts to acknowledge the holiday, it just isn’t the same over there! I give them credit for trying; during my three years of living there I saw a gradual increase of decorations [...]
About a month ago my wife and I moved into our new apartment. When I say new, I mean new to us. It’s actually quite an old building, and the apartment has what you could call character. It has its fair share of quirks and improvements that need to be made, but despite the character [...]
Every year as I get older I keep expecting to feel like an adult. As if there is some magical age that will make me feel mature, refined, confident, and established. I keep expecting to reach a certain point and suddenly know what I want to do with my life. As I inch closer to [...]
One of the greatest things about living in Asia is the complete disregard for copyright and trademark laws. I live in a place where I can buy movies for less than a dollar that people in America are paying $11 to see in the theater. I can buy a Rolex for $5, a Lacoste polo [...]
Yet from the beginning His love has never failed and never changed. In an act of unconditional love, He sent His only Son to endure His perfect judgment and wrath to restore hope in the hearts of us all. In light of that, maybe I’m better off leaving my résumé as is and just asking Him to soften my heart and renew my perspective.
Feature: Salvation
One of the major traditions of Spring Festival, besides overeating and drinking too much, is the setting off of fireworks. And because of the non existent restrictions on them, the city takes on the feel of a war zone. For a week straight all I’ve heard, besides Dinner the rooster, is a series of explosions, with the flashes of light coming through the windows of my apartment.
I was fascinated by the idea that a college English class here would actually be reading that book. He was telling me some of the stories he’d read. He told me what he could remember with his limited vocabulary, and I filled in the gaps with what I knew. Something about a girl that lived in a garden that was curious about an apple, a man that lived in a big boat, and another man that led a group of people through water that had separated. But then he started asking me about Greek mythology and other cultures’ legends, and I realized that his English class was reading the Bible as if it were The Odyssey or The Iliad. To him it was just another piece of literature or classic mythology. He didn’t realize it was so much more; it’s actually the greatest love story ever written.
I met Sunny through my roommates who have gotten to know him pretty well and have been studying the Bible with him. I sat in with them a few weeks ago and was impressed by his desire to learn & understand more. But because his English isn’t that great, it’s hard to know how much he’s really comprehending. Last week though, I heard about how his PSP was stolen, but when he caught the guy who took it he gave the credit to God. So he’s already developing a sense of God’s character & His justice, which is something that people seem to have been struggling with from the beginning.
I’ve said it lots of times before; God’s heart beats for the lost. If I was to lay my head upon His chest, I’d hear the quickening sound of “that none should perish.” This message of hope & good news is going to reach the world, with or without me. So why not with me?
All love originates from God. It’s simply what He is. So love is about what He desires and what He has planned. It’s about the burdens of His heart. It’s about what and who He loves. And because He loved me first, my only response, the only one that would make any sense at all, is to love Him back with all my heart, mind, and soul. True love for Him is never going to be about what I want or what I think is best.
