(nothin’ fancy. just a picture of a tree in the front yard. taken with a point&shoot, altered slightly.)

something i thought about today was that our God is an entity that practices “classy vengeance”. the phrase sounds contradictory and ridiculous, but it’s also quite logical if you think about it.

take Stephen for example. one of my teachers back at the internship I participated in at IHOP told us a story about this awesome guy. steph was God’s hot-shot, right hand guy for a time. the Word says he was “full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8 NKJV). the guy was anointed, spoke with fire, and often said controversial yet truthful statements about God regardless of what people thought of him. in Acts 8, steph gets stoned to death. yikes. in similar situations, many peoples’ first reactions sound something like: “why did God let someone so legit die? you’d think the omnipotent creator could stop a couple pebbles from killin’ a brother, right?”

well it’s true that our God is one who can stop even an avalanche from the most epic mountain from tumbling, but that’s not the important part of this story. God wasn’t lazy, nor did he let steph’s death go without cause. imagine this scenario. can you imagine satan going nuts with joy over owning God’s right hand man? he just saw God’s own people stone the man that God had sent to them to help them; our slithery (non)friend must have been ecstatic!

fast forward to the next scene. i see the father with a smile on his face. not the kind of smile that He probably will flash at us when we die and meet Him. but the kind of grin that says something along the lines of “watch what i do next”.

then God says: “Ok, you got my main man, that’s fine. but it’s gonna cost you. :) I’m taking your main man; some bloke named Saul, that’s been owning all the churches i’ve been trying to plant, as my new main man!” 

vengeance with class. chyea

“Truth is not a personal choice. Truth is true, whether we follow it or not.”

We live in an age of relativism. If the true God is too absent-or too present-for us, we’ll just make one that “works” for us. That way, our god can command us only what we want him to command us. And we can follow him only when it makes sense for us to worship him. That’s the antithesis of worship. That’s self-worship, the worst form of pride, and the worst form of self-deceit. Know the human tendency to make our own idols, and resist it every day. Never try to “manage” God.

-Chris Tiegreen

The concept of “God” has always been a little difficult to grasp for me. You read what you can from the Bible, and try to go with that, but there are still so many questions that remain unanswered. Unfortunately, sometimes I tend to make God “the way I want him to be”. I begin to tell myself “God says to do this”, “God would want me to do that”, when in actuality it’s really just a justification of what I want to do.

During this season of prayer (I’m stuck in the prayer room anywhere from 6-10 hrs a day) I hope to learn more about the character of God. I hope that instead of trying to put a face on Him, i’ll develop the will to dig deeper to try and find His real face. In turn, I pray in faith that the Lord will reveal to me more of His character, His personality, His humor, and His Love.

Truth is true; just because you try to mask it, doesn’t mean that it changes. It is what it is.

Today I had the unique (but unfortunate) opportunity to find out that one of my regular customers had a daughter that was also his granddaughter. After putting 2 and 2 together to realize what he had done, for the first time I felt the feeling of wanting somebody to die. For a split second I wanted to be Yagami Light from Death Note, and write the dirty punk’s name and watch him have a heart attack. It isn’t my place or within my rights to feel this way, so I do feel stricken with guilt, but I can’t help but angrily and sadly think, what the hell has this world come to?

NC is getting real tough. When you’re being put through the fire, man it really is fire. It’s not in a particular aspect of your life that you need to work on. There is no bias, there’s no favors or discrimination. You go through the “fire” in every which way that is possible.

First is the family. Parents aren’t getting much sleep and there’s so much to be done. They have to work ridiculous hours from the getgo and still have to find a way to get our luggage fully moved into the house. Of course it’s difficult to deal with them, and it’s also difficult to have to live that lifestyle.

To pile up to the stress, the house is in horrible condition. It’s tiny, half-broken, plumbing, electricity is all jacked up. Our team down here who came to help with making a second bathroom (since there’s only one in the entire house) was scheduled to finish work around tuesday or Wednesday. We are heading into Friday with many tasks remaining.

Community. Nonexistent. Fail. I’m not really a big fan of using improper grammar for the most part, but there really isn’t a better way to describe how I feel about this dry and barren land. Almost everybody that I have met so far is either a drug addict, alcoholic, or a sex-offender. It’s not uncommon to meet people who fit all the above too. I have not met a single Asian person (not saying I can only hang out with Asians but itd be nice to meet someone I cn relate to) let alone a Korean. I do not yet have a church, nor do I know of any Korean-American churches around. We also have no connections around where we live.

As for the location itself, it really is a dry and barren wilderness. The nearest town is a good 25 miles away. 20 minutes to see lowes, 35 to get to walmart, i haven’t even seen a Starbucks yet. The area is second only to over-the-rhine Cincinnati in terms of how ghetto it is. Found a bag of weed on the floor of the store only a couple days ago. There was a drug-bust with cops chasing criminals yesterday afternoon right across the street. Despite so many churches being nearby, this is a place that desperately needs Jesus.

The fire is in every aspect. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. We’re all so drained. Forgive me friends. I don’t write to complain and be a bitch about my seemingly unfortunate situation. Please take this as my petition and cry for prayer and support. The journey is only beginning, yet I already feel like I’m gonna crack. Help us God.

First of all, it was fun to watch. Not sure I’d consider it an all time favorite or anything but it wasn’t a complete waste of time either. Anyway,

1. It was really long so I haven’t processed whether I liked it or not.
2. Really long GM ad.
3. Thought it was funny how they focused so much on the girl’s legs. Victoria’s secret ftw.
4. Also funny how every girl (office worker or flight attendant etc) was hot with very fit bodies. 
5. Everything optimus prime says is an epic motivational speech. 
6. I’m noticing a recurring theme in each movie. 2 hrs of stuff that leads up to an epic battle fought by optimus, who appears to lose for a second, but then makes an epic comeback to win. This is epic comeback no.3
You would think by now the guy is holding back on purpose.
7. Carly has an awesome body (as expected) but is pretty awful at acting. 

ㅋㅋ, 이젠 모든겄을 다 일었다. 정말 아무겄도 업다는 사실을 드디여 깨달았다. 근데 이상하게 마음은 아주 시원하고 가볍다 ㅎㅎ. 어제의 악몽을 잊으고 내일의 아름다움을 바라보며 열심히 다시 시작해보자.

lol, it seems i’ve lost everything. seriously, i finally realize that i have nothing left anymore (regarding the nightmare that turned winter quarter turned into). but strangely, my heart feels light and i feel a coolness within it. I think it’s time to begin forgetting the nightmares of yesterday, and look forward to a beautiful tomorrow, a brand new beginning.

idk when it will be, but these will definitely be the next pair of basketball shoes that i’ll purchase. 

My goodness it sucks.