Fave Songs

These 3 songs basically kept me going during rough times in high school:
1. Promise- Kapano Green (http://sherryberry224.blogspot.com/2008/10/promise.html)

2. It Is Well with My Soul- Horatio G. Spafford and Phillip P. Bliss:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed his own blood for my soul.

My sin, o, the joy of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Man, after reading the lyrics again, I REALLY REALLY love this song!

3. Everlasting God- New Life Worship:

One thing I know that I have found
Through all the troubles that surround
You are the Rock that never fails, You never fail

One thing I know that I believe
Through every blessing I receive
You are the only One that stays, You always stay

Chorus:
You never change, You're still the same
You are the Everlasting God
You will remain after the day is gone and the things of earth have passed
Everlasting God

I was reminded of this song after reading an entry on Emeth's blog:
"the steadfast love of the Lord never seizes. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness." =) crazy how many references there are to God's steadfast love and faithfulness through out the Bible. I used to not really like the name Emeth (sorry Hans and Irene =P), but now that I know what it means, his name will forever remind me of God's faithfulness. Thaaaaanks!!!

Walking in My Rain Boots

I went for a prayer walk out in the rain this afternoon, under my umbrella, in my blue poki-dotted rain boots. I had a lot of fun! It drizzled for a few minutes, poured the next. I love my rain boots. my sister gave em to me. :) I think I've written about this before... o well. I had a lot in my mind, mostly about frienships. but I gotta say, I had a hard time praying. I've been realizing more and more of my inability to pray with words. like, not only does it not sound fluent or elegant like some other people, but its just sometimes... so bleh. "Spiritual" or "Christianly" words just don't work with me any more. They ain't comin to me lately like they used to, you know?... maybe that's a good thing. That's why I really want to learn how to pray with the Words from the Bible. One of my commitments for lent is to memorize at least 2 verses a week. It's nothing big like memorizing one verse a day, but for me it's quite significant. Also, the prayer we did during women's mentorship was REALLY awesome! I don't think I've ever prayed through a passage before. I want to do that more, too.

As I was walking around, many songs popped into my head: Message of the Cross, Amazing Grace, It is Well with My Soul, and other ones I can't remember right now. I took about 10 minutes standing on the second floor of BSB (after you go up the stairs) to stop singing, stop praying, stop walking, and to just pause and listen for God. well, I didn't hear anything from Him. I don't know what He wanted me to get out of this prayer walk. but maybe next time, eh?

Today: Saw and gave a hug to Luci and Janaan. Studied Spanish with Jessica Price. Had dinner with Beth, Jeka, and Jai. Had Women's mentorship with Life Group women. Briefly chatted with Susan on AIM.

God provides.

Help!

I realized the past week I've been feeling a little weary, uneasy because I can't keep track of all the people God has placed in my life and those that He's been calling me to reach out to. there are those relationships I started in the beginning of the school year that I want to maintain, but it's hard because I'm spending a lot of time deepening those relationships within my Life Group (especially during 2nd semester). And on top of that there are those that I've just recently met that I want to share the Gospel with through building that relationship with them.

These are all the names that have been running through my mind even in just these past 3 days:
Kristine
Mike (from Nigeria)
Luci and Janaan
Amber and Grace
Dawn
Rim Pierre
Amanda G. (lab partner)
Aran (firsbee teammate)
David Dolvio and Tito
Susan Zhou
Hannah and Tia (and all the Life Group Girls)
even the Grad Life Group women (Joanna, Sandy, Danielle, and Lisa)
Evanston Freshmen
Eric Kao, Hus, Kevin
Peter and Nate
Elizabeth, Bethanie, Jeka, Jai, Gloria, Rebeccah, Sophia
my roommate Marty
Sharon Hong, Grace Yu, Juhae
Iris and Jeni
Ultimate Frisbee teammates
Sarah Kim (from ACW)
Jessica (from Bulls game) and Carline (from Spanish)

What I'm trying to say is that I need help. I feel like for a lot of the new people coming out to Life Group or visiting or wanting to visit that I'm the only connection they have. like for Susan, Luci, Janaan, Kristine, Amber, Grace, Aran, and Gisel. I have no idea how how yall can help. but maybe the next time they come out, get their number, make a harder effort to talk to them and get to know them, and help me text/call them up on Tuesday nights for LG, Friday nights for ACCESS, and Sunday celebrations. I know that they know me better, so I should be the one calling them up, and believe me, I have. But it does get a little discouraging when they keep saying "I can't" or "maybe next time." I know I need to keep trying to build that relationship, keep praying for them, and keep persisting to invite them out. I'm not feeling overwhelmed... yet. and maybe I'm just thinking about people too much. But I've had moments where I have this huge list of people in my mind and have no idea who to call or how to plan my days. I guess I should just take one day at a time, do whatever I can each day.

Reminder: it ain't about what I do either, It's ultimately God who calls His children to Him and He who initiates the relationship. He is in control!

Challenge of faith: to pray for every encounter /meeting I have with the names of people I've mentioned

God spoke to me this morning. He said, "Love others, just as I have loved you."
Love others sacrificially, with my time, money, energy.

Prayer Request: For strength and courage to continue to reach out and demonstrating a love that can only come from Christ.

My Re-Birthday

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! I had a blessed day. ^__^

Something that dawned on me at prayer meeting this morning was that... I wanted to celebrate not so much my BIRTHday, but my RE-birthday. I don't know what day it was exactly when I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, but how much more to celebrate on the day I found Truth and Purpose in my life. Therefore, I wanted this day to be a celebration not for my birthday, but my Re-birthday. A reminder of the day God delivered me out of darkness and into light. out of deserving punishment of my sins and into righteousness through faith in Christ. I would say that THAT day is more important and the better reason to celebrate than the day I was born.

I was so blessed to be able to share this day with my community of brothers and sister in Life Group, praising God together and worshipping Him for who He is and what He has done for us. This was the best way I could've wished for to spend the night. I pray that every Feb. 24, for the rest of my life here on earth, I would remember the Cross and Praise God for my Re-birthday.

Monday Morning 2/23/09

These two songs/lyrics came to me as I was praying this morning:

"All of life comes down to just one thing, that's to know You, O Jesus, and make you known."

biblical? I think so? and...

"Send revival, start with me."

humbling.

The Best is Yet to Come

You've shown Your love in a mysterious way
on a very random, seemingly-unspecial day
in a way I still don't fully understand
and definitely not according to what I had planned

I'm at lost for words to explain what's inside me for real
because I don't know how I am to feel
cuz even when I've revealed my sin to someone
does that mean the fight is done? Have I won?

In this instance, yes.
the battle in my mind, to share or not to share, yet...
the fight is not done done.
cuz only for this One instance, this One battle was won.

There will be many more Mind battles to come still,
especially when I'm alone, in the dark, unseen to others, with some time to kill
That's when those thoughts crawl in and grab hold of my heel.
Not even so.
cuz even when I'm around others, they don't know what's going on inside my head.
God, I hope they never will cuz If they do, I'd be dead
from my own shame, and drowning in my guilt while laying in my bed.

But you know what,
I'm glad I've shared cuz this burden is SO much lighter
Just as You've said, Confess your sins to one another and Pray for one another
So what?! SO THAT YOU MAY BE HEALED!!!

What more can I say now, but praise be to God!
for His light overcomes darkness
He draws near to us in our times of brokenness.
He is our hope, in our desparity
He is our rock, in our uncertainty.
We can never stray too far out of His sight.
AWAY from here, Satan! you have no place in the light!

Thank You, Lord, for this random, seemingly-unspecial, blessed, tearful, and joyous night. Amen.

Prayer Walk

Minnie and I went on a prayer walk today for our LCG even though it was windy and cold outside. I must have walked around campus at least 3 times. haha. The cool part was we ran into a lot of our Life Group members: Inhae, Hyung Seo, Peter, and Jay. We prayed for each person that we saw, plus Hannah and Jennifer, for ACW, for an awakening for this campus, breaking down of divisions, for broomball and ppl we know who are coming by name, learning to be a living sacrifice in our daily decisions, our LCG, for the Grad Life Group, HMCC leaders, school's admins for wisdom and direction, for us to dream bigger, to see more of God's vision for this campus and his ppl, for our hearts to break when we see the homeless or just the brokeness of this world and not become numb to them, .... i know there was more, but I can't remember =P Minnie, help!

One thing I realized during the prayer walk was that I kept looking down at the ground when I walked. it wasn't just bc it was cold. but I think I walk looking down most of the time. I was reminded many times to look up, look around campus, look at the people you're walking past. God was telling me, "LOOK UP! these are all people that NEED ME!" I was reminded to pray bigger prayers, knowing and trusting in God's mightiness and faithfulness. reminded through Exodus that God WANTS to dwell amongst His people. He desires to be intimate with us. and He accomplishes that through the Holy Spirit in the NT. Thank you, Lord.

Lord, You desire to break down racial/class/gender barriers. You are mighty to save. Amen.