Wisdom 2

"My son, if you accept my words
    and store up my commands within you,
² turning your ear to wisdom
    and applying your heart to understanding—
³ indeed, if you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
⁴ and if you look for it as for silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
⁵ then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.
⁶ For the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
⁷ He holds success in store for the upright,
    he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
⁸ for he guards the course of the just
    and protects the way of his faithful ones.

⁹ Then you will understand what is right and just
    and fair—every good path.
¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
¹¹ Discretion will protect you,
    and understanding will guard you."

Proverbs 2

Lately, I've often asked God to show me His will and what is the right path I should take, but actually I haven't really sought for His wisdom seriously and earnestly--look at all these verbs from verses 1-4! What is beautiful about this is God's promise to give us wisdom and understanding, and that He will guide us so we can walk on the good path and understand what is right and just and fair.

1 Tim 4:12

Reminder from pastor's sermon today. As God's children, we do have an identity that we have to live up to, not by our own strength or wisdom of course, but by His grace.

Merry Christmas!

"...the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Matt 20:28

This Christmas season, I pray that each of you will experience the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who came to reveal His amazing love and salvation for mankind.

We have peace, joy, and hope.

^"1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ²Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
-Rom 5:1-5

As Christians, these are part of our lives now.
Peace doesn't just mean the absence of conflict like how the world would usually define it when they use the word as in "we want world peace" or just a nice feeling of serenity inside. "We have peace" is an "indicative sense of the presence of actual peaceful, harmonious concord", quoting my Romans class notes. :)
Same with joy/rejoicing, it's not just a happy warm feeling, but the confidence and joy that comes from knowing that as Christians, we are God's children and no matter what we go through now, the presence of God is still real and unchanging, and the hope we have in Him is unchanging either--which is why we can rejoice in suffering (cf Philippians 4:4; Rom 8:17).
The hope that we have is a "know-so" hope, not a "hope-so" hope. We don't hope that God will be true to His promises like how we use the word usually, but we hope because we know that He will but we are just not there yet (heaven is still to come for us in a sense).

*

This is what the LORD says: 'Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD.  That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.  'But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

Col 2

^"6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."
(NIV)

being confident of this

Salvation:
"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
-Philippians 1:6

Apart from You I have no good thing

Read: Psalm 16

Sometimes, we may think we have "good things" in life e.g. comfort, worldly delights, a bright future, etc...but apart from God we have no good thing, so don't trade your relationship with God for anything else.

This is what God is teaching me.

Isaiah 44

^"6 “This is what the LORD says—
   Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
   apart from me there is no God.
⁷ Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it.
   Let him declare and lay out before me
what has happened since I established my ancient people,
   and what is yet to come—
   yes, let them foretell what will come.
⁸ Do not tremble, do not be afraid.
   Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?
You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me?
   No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”  ⁹ All who make idols are nothing,
   and the things they treasure are worthless.
Those who would speak up for them are blind;
   they are ignorant, to their own shame."

God of all grace

 ⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
 ⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
 ¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹ To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 5

Wisdom 1

"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such 'wisdom' does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness." -James 3:13-18 NIV
living wisely = living in holiness

Read 2 Peter 1

slowly and understand what it says.
It's amazing.

On the road again with WCC...Washington

For WCC spring tour this year, we headed to the Pacific Northwest (Washington state) to sing about the Living Hope that we have in our God.

One of my favorite passages that one of the girls say before songs we sing is this one:

2 Cor 4:13-18

"13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. "

our first stop was Seattle

lots of beautiful bouquets at the Pike Place Market

People in Seattle bike more compared to Chicago

famous landmark in Seattle

Sara having fun at the Seattle airport

Lots of mountains and evergreens-amazing!

1 Thessalonians 5

"But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. ⁹ For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him."

Truth

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

-Romans 8:28

We know that this is true because God is loving and sovereign.
Hang in there with God and find comfort in Him!

Home is not here

"Keep thyself as a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth, and as one to whom the affairs of this world do not appertain. Keep thy heart free, and lifted up to God, because thou hast here no abiding city. Send heavenward thy daily prayers and sighs, together with thy tears, that after death thy spirit may be found worthy with much happiness to pass to the Lord. Amen." -Thomas a Kempis

"For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."
-2 Cor 5:1

Mary's Song

⁴⁶ And Mary said:
   “My soul glorifies the Lord
 ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
   of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
 ⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
   holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
   from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
   he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
   but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
   but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
   remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
   just as he promised our ancestors.”
--Luke 1

*

"...the skies proclaim the work of His hands..."
Psalm 19

If you're ever doubting your worth, remember that God made you and He is the Creator who loves you. Looking at how beautiful the sky is reminds me of my amazing Creator.

*pic from June 2010, at a rest stop on the way to St. Bernard's Pass.

stand firm in the Word

^"12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
2 Tim 3:12-17

It's so true that evil men and impostors are going from bad to worse (look at today), but as for us, we stand firm in the Scriptures, which are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ.

do it

"Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does."
James 1:23-25