Resurrection - Solidifying Humility

Our flesh is easily distracted by the perversions of this fallen world. Traps are set up everywhere to claw us in surprise, especially if we are ill-equipped of the scripture. Since we have not yet grasped the fullness of our potential (true sonship with God), we fall during our walk with the Lord. However, by the grace of God, we come to the realization of our short comings. From this revelation, we rid our stubborn ways and repent before God - trying our best to be "humble" by attempting to grasp the depth of our sin. I believe there are a couple things that can go wrong even from this point of revelation.

If we are drowning in the guilt of our sin, we are not practicing true humility. This probably offends God, as He has came down from heaven to die for us, and we are not allowing his blood to instantly cleanse us. His power should not take time, it is instant - as Jesus healed all the sick with a snap of His fingers when they begged for healing. We need to swim out of the pool of guilt that the demons have thrown us in. After we come to His presence, humbled, and we repent to our ways, we must resurrect to a new creation and push to do His will. This latter portion if what really solidifies humility!

False humility will hold us back from reaching our destination. True humility will ever hold us back from getting closer to His heart - Bill Johnson

I believe accepting (by repenting and realigning ourselves to God) and living out His will is true humility - this process makes us die to ourself and glorify God. If we do not perform the latter part of this process I believe we may be victims of false humility. What is the point of repenting if we are holding on to our desires to continue to live out in our subjective ways? If we are hit with the revelation to repent, we need to take action and start moving towards His heart. When our humility stops at repentance (by prayer) and we do not carry out the will of God, we are missing the mark.

It is still about us - still self absorbed - and we are simply attempting to satisfy our desire to feel cleansed - It's not yet about God.

My Romance - Rick Pino

Look at the way the flowers bloom for you

They want to show you their beauty, Lord

Running waters dance,

You and I romance

Unto you, be all the glory

Unto you, be all the glory

Angels dance around you

The earth it sings about you

Open up the heavens, Lord

Let your kingdom come to earth

My praises all surround you

My soul can't dance without you

Open up the heavens Lord

Let your kingdom come to earth

Kingdom Mindset

Living with a compass of objective morality is only the byproduct of Christianity. This is the minimum, most basic requirement of a Christian's life. When we experience His grace we cannot help but to desire to live according to His will, which is perfect objective morality. God is relentless in His love, and pushes us to perfection. This then sets the stage for humility. Not only does His grace burn our hearts to to live righteous, but also to be humble - as it is His grace that started it all. Humility should reign over all actions and thoughts, but we sometimes confuse mere repenting as humility. I'm not trying to understate the process that the heart presses through to soften and understand its illness. However, this repentance phase must be quick - as we have much more work to do. Mulling over our immoral ways has got to stop - it only allows demons to discourage us from walking towards God. We need to get up and start working for His harvest. We repent to be forgiven, but we do not repent enough to walk towards God's kingdom. As we move closer to God, our vision fades, and His eyes take over, transforming our reality. One of the biggest portion of Christianity, I believe, is living in His Kingdom mindset (God's perspective) - knowing that we were meant to live in Eden, and sharing (by producing action led by faith) the secret to do so, through Christ sacrificed. As we realize our original form - a masterpiece God created IN HIS IMAGE - we understand that God sent Jesus as a reminder of who we are.

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. " Romans 8:29.

In this verse, we see clearly that we are not created to be merely "humans", but of God, like Christ. When we realize this authority that God gives/shows us, we no longer live by reacting to the world (fashion, culture, diseases, etc.), but we invade the system and break the powers of darkness. Instead of praying for an open heaven, why aren't we living as if it is already open for us? Hasn't Jesus already died for us to open up the gates of heaven? Do we know what this really mean? I'm convicted that we are to live as if we are back in Eden. Even though we are in our human bodies, and in a world that desperately needs restoration, we need God's revelations to lead to personal transformation - to open up and expand realms where our faith can be exercised. Just because we are living in a fallen world, it does not have to dictate our minds - the power of God leaving impressions on our minds should rid our humanistic thoughts so that we may live in His kingdom NOW. Jesus died to restore our sonship (Godliness) - as we were created in His image - so that we may have the same authority, like Christ, over the world.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." John 14:12-14

If we are not representing Jesus, in the ways of serving and performing miracles like Him, we should feel uncomfortable. Especially, because we pray "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". Replicating Jesus in every way is an obligation It is not an option. We offend God when we sit there and pray for an open heaven, when it is already opened for us. We are not guests of His kingdom! Jesus gave us keys to God's house - to open and visit God whenever we wish.

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Jesus, help us to grow our faith. You've given us authority, through your blood, to work the will of our Father. We wish to continuously move towards God's perspective, so that christianity does not become living a "moral life", but to expand Your kingdom the way the Jesus, the perfect example, had done. Align us to your will and your heart God. Amen!

Perspective Please...

"I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it. Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished, I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences." - CS Lewis

As I was reading this, I was first reminded by how, as a non-christian, I had looked at the beam of light (Christianity) and packaged away many assumptions of the so-called "lovesick" life, but actually had no idea what it would be to be IN the beam of light. I had mentally and verbally persecuted christians for living such a straight-jacketed life - a life style that didn't "enjoy" life." "It's too radical," I would say. "It's not balanced. It's not meant for me. It's too ridiculous." I was really an arrogant hater without any perspective before truly experiencing the love of God. But as God unveiled the truth and I moved closer to the beam of light until the beam fell on my eyes, my perspective of the world changed. I was no longer looking at the sunbeam, but looking along the beam. I realized the "balanced" life I had in mind was incredibly skewed, as I needed to know the whole picture before knowing where the middle lies. I only knew a little of what is "good behavior," so my balance was definitely leaning more towards the wrong side in the holistic picture. I started to receive revelations and amazing epiphanies as I started to experience His love. The key to this was humility - giving the benefit of the doubt that my perspective had been wrong my entire life.

"If he had never looked along pain he simply wouldn't know what he was looking at. The very subject for his inquiries from outside exists for him only because he has, at least once, been inside. This case is not likely to occur, because every man has felt pain. But it is perfectly easy to go on all your life giving explanations of relation, love, morality, honor, and the like without having been inside any of them. And if you do that, you are simply playing with counters. You go on explaining a thing without knowing what it is. That is why a great deal of contemporary thought is, strictly speaking, thought about nothing - all the apparatus of thought busily working in a vacuum." - CS Lewis

I was secondly reminded by how, even as a christian, I continued to look at the beam of light (Christianity) and judged others by the way they sang praise, fasted, prayed, and even questioned their kingdom mindset. When people sang praise "spiritually" I questioned their motive, as from my outside perspective, it seemed like people were doing too much that it looked fake. From looking at the beam, repetitively fasting and going out of my way for intercessory prayers didn't appear powerful. And it definitely sounded silly to desire the end times, as I felt the compassion in my heart to spread His love to as many as possible before His return. But as I moved closer to the beam of light until the beam fell on my eyes, my perspective of christianity began to change. I no longer feared man, as Jesus says (in Matthew 10:27-28), "What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight: what is whispered in your ear proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." When I worship, I close my eyes, so that the world and the eyes of man fade, and I am alone with God. When I started to fast and pray, not only did I begin to see His powerful movement, but also began to understand His will more clearly - as repetitive fasting stirred constant humility to die more to myself. When I dropped my prejudice thoughts of christian eschatology (study of the end times), my kingdom mindset was changed - as a carpenter needs to have a clear picture of the final product as he works to accomplish his goal (which should also be used as a motivation). I became more motivated to serve His kingdom and to partake in the great harvest of the Lord. I'm now working with a goal in mind and I believe I am getting closer to His heart. I wonder what other beams of lights I am looking at, instead of looking along it.

I pray that we start with no prejudice against either kind of looking. "We do not know in advance whether the lover or the psychologist is giving the more correct account of love, or whether both accounts are equally correct in different ways, or whether both are equally wrong. We just have to find out. But the period of brow-beating has got to end." - CS Lewis

East to West

Lord, you came to break our culture. So please come, renew us with your Spirit and hit us with YOUR culture, so we may abandon our silly ways and follow the Truth.

I've been meditating on the differences of two cultures that I've been blessed to be very familiar with - the asian (eastern) culture and the american (western) culture. One thing in particular that stands out to me is the way the two cultures approach the idea of Respect. Growing up in an asian family, I understood at an early age that respect was something that was demanded and expected. You aren't really left with any choices - no ifs or buts. When you are asked to give respect, you reply, "how?". Then you are taught to perform all kinds of gestures and humbling acts to show what is due. This eastern idea of respect is extremely black or white - people do not need to perform anything to deserve your respect - you just give it. However, as I stand back and observe my current western surrounding, the idea of respect is exactly the opposite - respect must be earned. When western people are asked to give respect, their reply is "why?". Then, to earn their respect, you must present/act your reason to prove your worth. Because of the extreme capitalistic mindset, which is the heart our western culture, we are taught that we simply cannot give everyone respect before they perform some sort of a dance that is worthy of our clapping. This can come in many forms - school degrees, career positions, looks, or even a humble act that touch our hearts. Only then, when it is reasonable and "logical", can we gift them with the honor of having our respect. Now, I'm not here to point and weigh out the two cultures to see which one is superior. As a matter of fact, I believe that they are both very good, but they both also have fatal flaws that lead to their own ways of destruction. I believe God wants to tell us how important these two cultures are, but each one alone is not good enough. I believe God wants us to know that we need a super-culture that combines the eastern and western mentality, especially in regards to entering His Kingdom. And the chronologic matter - eastern (obedience) first, then western (understanding) after.

It's astonishing (and poetic) that God speaks to us in this manner when we open up His Word. Old testament is all about God saying, "I demand your obedience," and the new testament is when God comes down as Jesus, and explains, "This is why you should obey me." In another words, the old testament is extremely Hebraic (eastern) and the new testament is extremely Greek (western).

If we can think of ourselves as a parent for a moment, and having a child that we love, we would often tell the child, "Do as I say, because I am your parent" - we simply know better from experience, but cannot explain all the details of our reason because the child may not be at the age to even understand. So we put it simply for the child - "I know what is good for you. Trust me." And this is exactly what God does to us - He demands us to obey (have faith in Him and seek His Kingdom), and we will understand everything as we mature. If we look at it from a parental perspective, it'd be foolish not to obey first - for the child to demand answers to all his/her "whys?" before obeying. But isn't this what we often do? Don't we sit there, often demanding all the answers, and even fighting back as He is gracious enough to show us, obvious answers at that (because He knows how weak we are)? I think we've become too Greek...

Although the "obedience" performed by the eastern culture appears great, the problem rises because it lacks depth. Unlike the western mindset, the eastern mentality does not constantly ask "why?". I'm not understating the importance of obedience, but we also need to seek intimacy and depth by pushing to know more of God. Asian culture gives great respect, but often, it's extremely superficial, and this is because people perform "humble" gestures without having great substance to back their actions. Even when seeking God, everything becomes too religious and too much about sacraments. In regards to understanding His Kingdom, people with extreme eastern mindset (on average and from my experience) often lack biblical foundation because much of their faith is really blind and lacks depth. The western culture, however, has a tougher shell, and it makes leaping in to faith that much harder. Similar to needing a proper prerequisite to earn their respect (in the western mentality), when this is applied to the Gospel, the hearts of these people are colder, as they require deep reasoning for their faith. But as soon as they make the leap of faith, by risking their reasoning, they are able to see the warmth of God's embrace. We need to give our almighty God a benefit of the doubt, and trust Him, for He has created the entire universe, and put nature before our eyes as His witness. However, we cannot stop here! We need to solidify our foundation in the Lord, and understand his heart, his will, and develop our Kingdom mindset!

Can we break culture, please? Can we please break both, western and eastern, cultures? Jesus came down to break all cultures - societal and religious cultures! Let's make Jesus culture :)

Oneness

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." - Genesis 1:26-27

When God uses the word "our", I believe He is referring to the relationship of Trinity - God the Father, Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ, His Son. And as He states that He has made man in His image and likeness, he purposely uses the word "our" to make a point that we are replicas of God, not only in our reasoning capacity, consciousness of the mind, and physicality of the body, but also in regards to the relationship of Trinity that God cherishes.

God's trinity relationship (God, Spirit, Jesus) = Man "trinity" relationship (Mind, Spirit, Body)

I believe it is very important to note that His reasoning, His conscience, His body, and the relationship of Trinity may be similar to ours, but is infinitely more powerful. That, although we are made in His image and likeness, we are infinitely a lesser version of God. I bet He has eyes like us, but it's probably in a way we can never understand, as we cannot launch ourselves to His dimension. We cannot possibly explain the Creator with the things He has created - we're only able to speak figuratively of His Greatness.

More and more I think about the trinity of God, and how He places such an importance on this community of His, I understand why we need relationships, and why we are created with our spirit, mind, and body. Holiness of God, I believe, is the oneness of this relationship (Trinity). I believe in the Garden of Eden, before the fall of man, we were pure and holy like God. We were "real" human beings, as our spirit, mind, and body were in oneness. I mean this because, before the fall, I believe our spirit led us to be in God's presence and our mind and body followed our spirit's lead. However, ever since Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, sin entered, and a curse was put on mankind (more like we cursed ourselves). The entering of the sin did not only make us 100% insecure - which is shown by the realization of nakedness - but also broke down the oneness of mankind. Due to the fall of man, I believe our spirit, mind, and body separated.

Our spirit still longed to be in God's presence - to feel the 100% security in God - as we find our purpose here. However, our flesh started to long for the world - to desire the created instead of the creator - and to take pleasure in imitation of the true happiness, which we find when we are directly in the presence of God. And our mind is stuck right in the middle - battling to pick a side and to wave the flag of allegiance to either God or Satan. And this, I believe, is why discipline starts with the mind. True discipline is making a habit of the good and ridding of the bad. Our flesh desires the bad and it is with our minds (which should be led by the Holy Spirit that lives in us) that we need to force the good into a habit.

We may at times temporarily, with our flesh, desire the good out of emotional high - either it be to love our spouse, love our neighbors, or to obey God - but soon our bodies will go it's natural route and desire the bad. However, when Jesus comes and restores all things - when his will is done, as it is on heaven, on earth - I believe we (spirit, mind, and body) will no longer be separate with our spirit, mind, and body, but be "one" again.

Forbidden Fruit

"Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of he knowledge of good and evil... The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, " You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." - Genesis 1:8-9, 15-17

When I read this passage and connect the relationship to our current state of "reality", the "fall of man" we see in this passage hasn't stopped with Adam and Eve. It happens now - it's a continuous cycle of man being granted free will, but choosing to taste the forbidden fruit and allowing sin to enter in to our lives.

I believe free will is an important ingredient for the creation of man, which further confirms the just characteristic of God, so that we are able to worship Him by choice - out of love, not out of force. Without this ingredient, the purpose of creation would be meaningless to God, but with it, it means everything to God. And although the gift of free will to man has caused terrible heart aches for Him, apparently, He saw it worthwhile and perfect. Similar to a romantic relationship, God wants us to choose to Love Him for who he is, and what he represents.

Free will has great rewards for God when it is carried out the way it was designed to be, but because of its nature, it is inevitable that the contrary would be a part of this package. When we are given the choice to exercise our free will, and it's performed against God's will, we are basically choosing to taste the forbidden fruit. As I meditate on this concept, I can't imagine how much God's heart has been broken over and over again, as we constantly step over our boundaries and slap God in the face - "No I will not respect the line you have drawn for me! I will choose to disobey. I will choose to live my life with my subjective ways." Similar to Adam and Eve, even though we are well aware of the wrong, we often choose to disgrace God. When we disobey and taste the forbidden fruit, we allow Satan to enter in to our lives, and cast a curse on to ourselves - to be tempted by the temporary pleasure of the sin as long as we live. This temptation, however, would never be possible if we were to refrain ourselves from eating the "forbidden fruit," as we would not know of the temporary pleasure it may bring. For example, a person that's never had sex would never truly know the pleasures of it - only the stories heard from the others. However, once we allow sin to enter in to our lives, the temporary pleasure of the sin dominates our lives.

Not only does sin allow the world to invade our spirit, but it also makes us insecure.

“She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Genesis 3:6-7

As we see from this passage, we were created to be holy and totally secure in God’s glory. However, as soon as we allow sin into our lives, like Adam and Eve, we are immediately separated from God, and become instantly insecure. This curse is our own doing. We keep cursing ourselves to be distanced from God, as He is totally pure in Holiness, and we begin to die – like a plant that dies without sunlight. Death in this matter is caused by the absence of God, Who is the source of security, and we become instantly confused of our purpose, become crushed with insecurity, and begin to seek value (redemption) from the wrong sources.

If we can possible sum up all the ways we have slaughtered God's heart and separated ourselves from His Holiness, it really seems impossible for us to ever be reunited with God. But, that’s where Jesus comes in, and God proves there’s no economy in His kingdom – it is not by merit, but by Grace. Jesus pulls back the gap we created with sin and creates the one and only bridge back to God. Without Christ, all true happiness is destroyed, life is pointless, and we would be eternally doomed. And this eternal damnation for all His creation would have crushed God's heart in to millions of pieces.

Thank you Jesus for the cross. I am sorry for breaking your heart. Help me to live according to your will - Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.