Thursday, June 24, 2010

moving on

Technology is a strange thing. You love it. But a year from now... you'll hate it cause the latest and greatest has arrived.

Sometimes it's worth upgrading.  Other times... it's best to keep what's working now.  After all... upgrading doesn't mean something stopped working... it's just that something else is better.

Time to upgrade.

Thanks Blogger.

elevatejh.tumblr.com

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Pursuit of Happiness - A Guest Post

The Pursuit of Happiness by Chris Choe (7th Grade, 9:30AM service)

Happiness is the thing almost everyone chases after, or not.

Luke 21:1-4
As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gift into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. "I tell you the truth," he said "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."

The Mexico Mission Team went to Mexico a few days ago and we saw little Mexican kids who lived on almost nothing. Was happiness their goal? Not at all. They were happy already, but why are we yet still whining about the things we don't have? Think about what they don't have compared to us. Almost nothing. I thought about it and questioned, is happiness just another obstacle to keep us from God? 100% No. Happiness is a gift from God. So we should be smiling and become happy now. It is a gift that we should respect a little more than caring about what we do not have. God has told me things through my sight and trust me, seeing things is a lot different than hearing about them.




Monday, May 24, 2010

Give cause it's not yours.

My dad is the richest dad in the universe.

A Christian can say that.  How cool is that?

You are not poor.  You are rich.  You live in the US.  You live in Southern California.  You live in LA.

But forget all that... your Father in Heaven... he owns the universe.  And he will take care of you if you honor him.

Honor him with your money.  Honor him with your attitude.  Honor him with your heart, body, mind, and soul.

That has been the whole point of the "RED Letters from Jesus" series.  Jesus said some crazy things in the Bible... but more than anything, he asks us to do as he commands, and there will be a reward.  Honor Jesus... Honor Father God, and he will take care of you.

That's reassuring. That's life changing.

That's the Bible.

-P. Kev

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

LOST

I'm a huge LOST fan.  I'm not even going to pretend like I'm not geeking out about the series finale (Sunday, May 23rd, 9:00pm - 11:30pm) or the simple fact that ABC is devoting almost the entire weekend program to one show.  Seriously... here's ABC's LOST schedule for this weekend:

Saturday May 22nd
8PM - 10PM - LOST Pilot (The two hour First Episode that started it all!)
Sunday May 23rd
7PM - 9PM - LOST Recap of the entire series
9PM - 11:30PM - LOST the LAST EPISODE!
11:30PM - 12:30PM - Jimmy Kimmel Live, a tribute to LOST. (And quite possibly the last time that the producers ever discuss LOST! If we don't get answers by 12:30... we may never get the answers we want!)

Crazy, right? Yes. I am a fan. And clearly... I want you to be a fan too.  But why?  Cause LOST is an awesome, life changing show about some weird, mystical, magnetic island?  Cause LOST is a GREAT show with GREAT characters and GREAT writing insights?  Maybe.  But I think more than that, I want you to be a fan so I can talk to you about it.  So we can experience it together.  So that there's something that we share together.

In fact... that's how it is with all good things in life, isn't it?  That when we run into something awesome, or we hear/see/taste/feel something amazing... we want to share it with the people we care about.  If you eat something amazing, you offer a bite to someone else so they could share your excitement and enthusiasm for it.  Or when you watch a movie, you bring people with you to share that experience.

But what about Jesus?

Isn't Jesus magnificent? Perhaps even more so than a TV show? Than any person you know? Than even life itself?  Don't we sing worship songs at church that talk about how much Jesus means to us?

So how come we don't talk about it him? Why are we ashamed to admit it? Why are we so inclined to hide what we do every Sunday morning?  Why shy away from what we're doing on Wednesday nights?

Maybe Jesus doesn't mean as much to us as we say he does.

But can I tell you an incredible secret?

Jesus loves you more than you can imagine.  Even if you never say a word about him... he loves you.  Even if you HATE him... he loves you.

Romans 8:38 - 39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Not even your lack of love for Jesus can separate you from his love.

And THAT... is worth talking about.

-P. Kev

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Do Not Worry - A student blog!

WHAT WHAT?! ANOTHER GUEST BLOG?

THIS TIME FROM A STUDENT?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen... from a student!  I'm excited to share our very first blogpost from a student.  Hopefully this will be the start of many more to come!



"Do Not Worry" by Alice Choi (6th Grade, 9:30AM service)
Matthew 6: 25-34
"Therefore i tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ...
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet i tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Jesus is soo right.
Why are we worrying all day and night about what we should wear, eat, or drink the next day?
What we CAN eat, drink, and wear are all gifts from God.
Shouldn't we be spending more time with God, rather than worrying about tomorrow?

In this passage, Jesus is saying that our Heavenly Father already know that you need them. He is asking us to not worry, but to seek his kingdom and his righteousness.
"Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself."

-Alice Choi (6th Grade)

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Are you really?

Does eating kimchee make you Korean?
Does eating at a Korean restaurant make you Korean?
Does eating at a Korean person's house make you Korean?
Does syling your hair a certain way make you Korean?
How about what you wear?
What about speaking the language?
The car you drive?
The friends you have?
The things you talk about?
Your grades at school?

None of those things unfortunately.  You're born Korean... or you're not.

What about being a Christian?

Does reading the Bible make you a Christian?
Going to church once a week?
Singing a praise song?
Not singing a praise song?
Pretending to listen to a sermon?
Participating in small group?
Not participating in a small group?
Praying for your meals?

None of those things unfortunately.  You're born again... or you're not.

Are you a born again Christian? Or not?

-P. Kev

DWELL

Here's a treat for everyone! A guest post from Connie Su teacher!




“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
– Philippians 4:8

This is good advice.
I mean, sometimes, bad things happen and we come to dwell on the negative.  Sometimes I feel completely misunderstood and betrayed by my friends, I get all disappointed in myself for not doing as well as I’d like to academically, or I read something really stupid online and get all hot and bothered about it.  And I mean, not to say that feeling these things is unjustified (depending on the circumstance)… But really, dwelling on the negative only makes me bitter and not so nice to be around.  It’s actually embarrassing how ugly it gets. 
It’s so different when my thoughts are on the good.  And it’s not even just thinking about “good things.”  I can dwell all day about the goodness of myself and of this world – the good things that happen to me me me, and the goods things that I I I have done, the happy things of the world we live in…but you know, I’m forced to recognize everyday that the only thing in this world that’s really good – is God.
When I’m dwelling on the REAL positives – on how good God is in my life, how good God is PERIOD for just being Himself – my heart is changed and I am transformed.  Crazy awesome.

And you know, this is actually more than just good advice.  The verse in Philippians says to DWELL. It doesn’t say that you should dwell, or that it would be nice if you could dwell. It simply and clearly commands you to dwell on such things. 
So, you need to do it.  Not you should do it.  But you MUST dwell on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise.
Let’s take God’s word and really put it into practice.  And this too is a command. (Philippians 4:9)  The Bible promises that the God of peace will be with you.  In fact, check out verse 7: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  How cool is that?  Our God is so good. DWELL my little friends. Let’s dwell.

Happy dwelling!
-Con.