This week has brought about several interesting encounters. One of which provided a nice segue into this entry. During lunch on Monday, I was eating my subway sandwich in Price Center and I was glossing over my notes for the midterm that was in an hour. I was a little startled when a guy and a girl who introduced themselves as Ryan and Christina came up to me and sat down at my table. They were doing “Campus EV[angelism]” and I guess I looked like a prime target. I didn’t really mind chatting with them and so we had a conversation that consisted mostly of them asking me questions about my faith and inviting me to their church/fellowship. It was a bit awkward for me because I felt like I was viewed as a rogue Christian since I didn’t attend church in a established building. I just listened as they gave me their pitch and told them it was cool that they were stepping out.. in their own way.

I never really thought I’d become involved in student church planting, simple church, or whatever you want to call it. It sounded like an interesting idea when I first heard it in high school, but I thought to myself, “This isn’t for me.” Now, I can’t imagine having church any other way. I like how simple it is and how I feel like I belong. I am not restricted to having church in one place at a designated time. Church is happening in real life in real time wherever I go. Jesus went to meet people where they are and didn’t set up his ministry in one location at a certain time. Outside of human imposed rules, I can carry Him in me to encounter people even in the most unlikely places. I’ve been learning more through rawthentic experiences in the past few months with people and God than I have in the past decade in the pews of Church. I have nothing against buildings, but when church becomes more about a building and programs rather than relationship, then we have a problem.

Yonggi Cho, the pastor of the largest church in the world, says that revival is happening everyday in his church. That is what I live for. I live in church and revival everyday.

There’s been a deep well inside of my life for quite some time now thats been running dry. Full of disappointment, fear, and isolation, I’ve never gone near it, too afraid to discover what could be laying deep within after all these years of neglect and
abandonment. I’ve been able to get on by without this well, searched the nearest places in my lifetime for some provision of water and provision I found.

I thought I’d found the answer to all my needs, perfected all the cracks and edges of my life. Created some theories, some advice, wise words to live by. But I never laughed, I lived through time wary of everything. I thought I found God, I had first heard of Him, rejected him, drew closer to Him, heard Him, prayed to Him, and relied on Him. I wasn’t ready to drop my valuables in my hand in order to take only His. But then I did, because I was tired of an emotional life that rode between the worst and the good.

And so He showed me the well. He let me hear the sound of its emptiness with my own tears.

Love.

There’s a power behind our words that I have only recently discovered. It was like learning language all over again. I have graduated school, had my share of heartaches and laughter, written well on exams and essays but to grasp the meaning behind a few words I have never truly learned.

Father.

To speak it in English; no problem, to hear it, okay. Its something I’d become accustomed to, explained plenty of times in my lifetime as questions came up about my family. The role of the word in society, no problem. I’d cross examined it plenty of
times in my classes.

父親. 愛
and in chinese? Its a side of me I learned to push aside as irrelevant in years of  american society. I had never possessed much of my cultural inheritance, it was a part of my life that was just not relevant.

我的父親愛我,
I heard, and I spoke I still get shivers hearing that from my own lips, spoken to my ears. The more He told me, the more I wept, the greater I laughed.

The first few drops down the well, were painful to hear. It only reminded me of the emptiness it held, of the lack, the thirst and desperation inside my mouth and my heart, for water, for a Father.

Then something broke. The well was cracked, the well was useless, it was only a shell, an opening for the water. And out came living water, endless, limitless, streaming, pouring over and into me joy, relief, and peace.

- His daughter

In my heart, there is a secret place to which only God and I know the way. There I find rest and paradise for my soul – to rest in the affection and joy of Jesus, forever finding shameless intimacy. Out of this river overflows an unquenchable desire to chase his heart. It is a light yoke – easy, attractive, and full of peace. One upon which we need not strive for validation by what we accomplish, but one by which we may powerfully obey as a fruit of love.


 Kim Walker says that when we encounter the love of God, we’re never the same. It is the cry of my heart for God to pour out that ancient promise over our fellow students; to turn the heart of our nation back to him; to see every heart, mind, and soul at UCSD captivated by Christ. To receive mercy instead of justice; to receive transformation instead of what we deserve.


 When I connect with God’s heart, I can’t help having a passion for what he is passionate about – the harvest. Jesus also calls us to be careful and wise in how we live, making the most of every opportunity. I believe the college campus is an unbelievable opportunity. I also believe that it is no accident that we, as college students, have ended up precisely where we are via happenstance. Every divine fiber in our destiny has been intertwined and carefully woven to herald the moment we are living in now – a moment in which we must choose to survive timidly or thrive passionately.


 I know a beautiful truth in which I place my hope and faith: God desires to partner with imperfect people to perfect his work. When the accuser thrusts shame upon my heart, I am sustained and refreshed in the hope of God – that my life has a great purposeful work to be revealed and that I have been given authority to do it. I can do all things in Him who strengthens me for we did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father!”. His spirit is the sole source of transformational holiness, and I have faith that he pours it out freely to his every single one of his faithful to this very day.


 Though I wrestled thoroughly with the theological validation and soundness of student-led simple churches, it became increasingly clear that a brilliant (though man-made) strategy and infrastructure cannot supplant the holiness and obedience by which harvests are reaped. Through student-led simple churches, the word comes to life in relevant and life-changing ways bringing forth the living waters to every member of the body because they so deeply require complete dependence on God. In the simplicity of an intimate setting, guards are dropped, lives are exposed, and real-talk resounds. Where resources lack, the Spirit provides. Where theology divides, Godly obedience unifies.  Where there is dependence on God, there is power. By handing over the reins to the Lord, the long due fruit finally ripens and we make space for the heavenly gardener to do only what He can.


 I see God connecting the lines and uniting the living body parts. He is courting a generation to fall so in love with him that all it wants is more and more of Him. They do not care about owning a movement of God or taking credit as so many with power have already done. Because they are so incredibly head-over-heels for God and his heart for the nations, they simply want to obey – even if it means being forgotten. They don’t care because they already have the best thing – the easy yoke – the love of a savior king.


 Children do not forget the love of their father, and all other shiny things pale in comparison to Him. Their love is too fixated on Him; their eyes are still. 

Environments shape us or we shape them. Whatever environment Jesus found himself in, he changed it, no matter what it was. When he walked into a town, the atmosphere shifted. When he encountered a leper whose environment was sickness, Jesus changed it to healing. Why? In the Kingdom of God, there is no sickness. This is why Jesus would say when he healed someone, “the Kingdom has come near you today”. Jesus functioned in the power of the Holy Spirit, the same one that raised him from the dead, and oh yeah, he is within anyone who follows Jesus (Romans 8).


Jesus laid aside his deity (Godness or special abilities, including the ability to perform miracles, signs, and wonders) [Philippians 2]. Jesus was filled and baptized in the Holy Spirit in the Jordan river (Luke 4) and went into the wilderness filled with the Spirit but came out in the power of the Spirit (different). It wasn’t until this moment of power that Jesus performed ANY miracles. It was through the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus changed environments. Hmm, interesting isn’t it?


He has given us the same Holy Spirit and in John 14 says we will do “even greater works” than him. John 20:21 he says, “as the Father sent me, now I send you”. 1 John 3:8 says, “the Father sent Jesus to destroy the works of the devil”. We have been given the assignment of destroying the works of the devil…or, change the environments around us. The devil was called the prince and power of the air, so he has had influence on environments. It’s time for Jesus’ kids to have GREATER influence. Jesus has already paid the price for this, it’s just about his kids walking it out on earth…as it is in heaven.


No matter what environment we find ourselves in, we have the opportunity to change it because we CARRY the Kingdom with us. Ephesians 2:6 says, “we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms”. Right now, yeah, right now. So, we are living from heaven to earth. On earth as it is in heaven. Jesus’ death and resurrection has given us full access to the heavenly realms, which holds a limitless Kingdom that has no lack, sickness, or work of the devil.


Walk your campus, yes YOUR campus with full confidence in what Jesus has placed within you. He is the Holy Spirit. He comes in us for us, but he comes UPON us for others. He has come in, but he wants out. Allow the Holy Spirit to flow through your life to shift and change the environments around you. You are a Kingdom Environmentalist.

I have been thinking more and more about our lives and the lives around us. I’m sharing this with you specifically because we have something in common, we’ve come to know Jesus Christ as our savior and our friend. but as I’m continually living life with those who those have not, I’m curious to understand myself ,why I am saved. In a world where contentment can easily be sought but true satisfaction never to be found, where did we understand (and how) to meet our beautiful Jesus and filled by Him? Without doubt we stumble when the world shakes but before we pick ourselves up, do you ever ask yourself why? Surely, we are no more special and unique than those next to us but somehow when we heard His promptings in our hearts, we responded. Why do, and did, you make the choice to accept Him in your heart when He asked you? What keeps you in wait for Him?


Without doubt, it is difficult to put our answer in words, for our lives are the true evidence to our answer. But I feel, if we are able to consciously realize and comprehend why we have accepted Him, we are also closer to truly appreciating and understanding more of our relationship with Him. We’re living in a world where love is everywhere, from the romances we believe too good to be true to perversions of love exhibited for market appeal. Our existence originates and thrives from love. The vows of your parents, the childhood crushes and teenage heartbreaks, the relationships in your family that shape who you are, to the indescribable excitement of seeing the one you love (or think you love)…Love? is one of the greatest questions in our lifetime. And the most difficult to discern.


And yet, we have found true love, in our Savior. And for those we do love, but who do not know about His love.. For many are happy, they are content, they are sufficient on their own, but they have not the greatest love of all.


Perhaps if we can better understand why and how we came to love Him we can also better understand what His relationship means to us, understand ourselves as humans, understand those around us- how we can better reveal His love.

The joys of being in San Diego for summer school are far and between. One thing that I do love is trying to catch waves at La Jolla Shores with or without a boogie board. Beaches down south are great. The sand is fine, the water is warm and the waves are great during high tide. As I was bobbing in the waves the other day, I thought about how catching a wave is like catching revival. I wrote about how I “don’t wanna miss it” on facebook earlier in summer. This is a continuation of that similar train of thought.
When I go to ride a wave, it involves several things. A large part of it is just watching and waiting for signs of a big wave. Sometimes seeing people around me reacting to seeing a wave will alert me that it’s incoming. Once a large one is spotted, I position myself to face the same direction as the wave and I kick/paddle to gain some momentum so that when the wave breaks behind me, it’ll carry me speedily towards the shore. It’s awesome and addicting. Once I ride that first wave, I can’t help but get excited to catch the next one, no matter how long the wait may take.
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