All Things

Remembering Us

2010-07-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

The past 3 years has been a difficult time (as God forewarned us before we moved to Houston) from the challenges of working with family and going through the loss of a child. There have been times, especially after the loss of Peter, that we felt like things were just taking a natural course and God wasn't actively intervening in our life.

I was reading through 1 Samuel 1:15-20 and following verses stood out to me:
1 Sam 1:19-20 (NIV) Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her. So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the LORD for him."

I've been praying that God will remember us in the midst of our struggles of going through the loss of child, possibly having another child, the struggles of the business, my parents coming to know God, and the Word we felt God give us before we moved to Houston of it not being easy, but that there would be blessing in it.

Counseling

2010-07-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some things that I learned after going to counseling with my mom to improve our relationship:
1. Mirroring - repeating what the other person said (until we get it right!). So often, we don't feel like the other party heard what we said or we're not listening to what the other person is saying. Mirroring requires that both parties listen to each other and comprehend what the other person is communicating.

2. Taking a timeout. When it gets too intense, take a break, and come back and resolve the issue later. It is important to come back and resolve the issue and not just take a timeout and not come back and resolve the issue.

3. Anger is a secondary emotion --- it is caused by something else. e.g. Feeling disrespected, wronged, or not appreciated. So often we focus on the anger part, but that does not get us any where. It is important to identify the issue causing the anger.

His presence is our reward

2009-11-26T12:37:00.000-08:00

A few months ago Nancy Southern gave a sermon. One thing she said that stood out to me was, "His presence is our reward." I can't remember the topic of the sermon, but that one thing stood out. Soon after that, we had a miscarriage. Both Grace and I were struggling through this period. We had a pre-term birth earlier in the year and now a miscarriage. We felt God was not actively listening to our prayers and intervening in our life. It seemed like things were just taking a natural course. However, in the midst of these feelings, the thing that Nancy said was in the back of my mind ... His presence is our reward.

Grace and I were keeping our feelings to ourselves; we were not even talking to each other about it. One Friday a member in our small group had a pray request. They had a friend who had experienced untimely deaths in her family and were not able to have children. As a result of these experiences, they were struggling in their faith about God.

When they shared that prayer request, we shared with our small group that we were going through similar struggles. That Sunday our small group prayed for us. The week before I would wake up in the middle of the night, struggling with questions of why and asking God for His mercy in our life and for God to come and affirm and encourage us. After that prayer, God miraculously gave me His peace.

I think one thing that Satan wants us to do is isolate ourselves from the body of the Christ. When he does that he can do his work more effectively. When we share our struggles with the church and have the church pray, there is power in that to overcome.

A few weeks after a lady shared in our small group about "practicing the presence of God". How true! We need to actively seek God's face and His presence in our life for His presence is our reward.

Where's Jesus

2009-07-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

This past Sun, we had a speaker who opened up the sermon with a passage from Luke:

Luke 2:42-45 (NIV) When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.

Do we sometimes go about our life, doing ministry, thinking Jesus is with us, then all of the sudden we realize we've been doing it on our own. We lost Jesus along the way.

God with Us

2009-07-23T20:06:00.001-07:00

This past Sun I went up for prayer with the ministry teams after service. I was feeling like I was missing intimacy with God amidst all the difficulties and conflict at work. The prayed one thing that really struck me: God is with me. In the midst of all we go through in life, God is with us. Emmanuel ... God is with us.

Finishing the race

2009-06-24T21:19:00.000-07:00

Our small group leader, Paul, was praying for us as the Spirit led him. One thing that he prayed for me was: God's purposes for our life would be accomplished and that we wouldn't be tripped up along the way.

That really hit my heart b/c we have been praying for God to reveal His purposes for us and that his purposes for our life would be accomplished. I don't want to get off course by getting distracted with conflict at work or spiritual warfare causing conflict or dissension in our family and work life. Or a myriad of other things like our preoccupation of our own stuff we have to do keeping us from ministering to others or our distractions in the stock market and financial investments pre-occupying us and keeping us from seeking first the kingdom of God and being generous.

1 Cor 9:24-27 says: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

At the end, I want to be able to say: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Tim 4:7

Same team

2009-04-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

For Married couples
We're on the same team. I'm not against you, you're not against me. Why do we sometimes act like we're against each other.

Prayer

2009-04-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

From Reagon Waggoner's sermon on 4/19/09:

Goal of prayer is gaining more of Christ

Prayer is coming to an all powerful God out of our need, not out of obligation (I must pray XX amount every day).

Things to pray for:
- Pray for relationships
- Pray for spiritual breakthrough
- Pray for protection against the strategies of the evil one

Hands and Feet of Christ

2009-02-01T19:23:00.000-08:00

Our small group at the Vineyard Church have really been the hands and feet of Christ to us during this time. In the midst of all this, everybody was praying, calling and checking up on us, visiting us, and bringing us food. Everybody had work and kids, but in the midst of all they had to do, they ministered to us. Through them, we felt the love of Christ. We were doing life together and supporting each other through the tough times. This experience would have been exponentially more difficult to go through without our small group and the church there to support us.

Mix of Emotions

2009-01-26T20:36:00.000-08:00

Losing Peter was a very sudden. We were half-way through the second trimester. We were half-expecting we might lose him in the first trimester, but didn't think anything like this would happen in the second trimester.

Grace was experiencing some bleeding on the Wed before New Year's. We called the doctor, but she didn't seem to think it was too serious and said you might have a couple episodes of that and to come in on Mon. We went in on Sat and she said we were dilated 5 cm and that we were going to lose our baby.

That first night in the hospital was the most difficult. Babies are not considered viable until 24 weeks gestation. We were at 21 1/2 weeks. We did not have any contractions, but part of the amniotic sac was already out of uterus. The doctors were saying its only a matter of time b4 Peter would be delivered and would not survive after wards. The doctor's wanted to induce labor, but we were not comfortable making that choice at the time b/c we felt like we were choosing life or death. At this point only a miracle could cause the sac to go back in the womb and close the cervix.

That night I was praying, "God if possible, take this cup away from me; not my will, but your will be done." I did not want to go through the pain and suffering of delivering our child, knowing we would lose him.

In an unexpected mix of emotions, I found myself overcome by grief, but at the same time saying, "thank you God" over and over.

Peter Gabriel Hsu

2009-01-26T20:20:00.000-08:00

We will be having a service and burial for our beloved son Peter Gabriel Hsu on Fri afternoon, Jan 9th 2009. Grace was pregnant for 21 weeks 4 days when Peter was delivered. He weighed exactly 1 pound, and was 11.5inch long. He lived about 2 hours after birth.

We named Peter after Psalm 18:1-2:
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Peter, in Greek is petra, which means rock. The Lord is my rock. Then we were looking for a Chinese middle name that meant strength. However, we couldn't find anything. While we struggled through this, Grace witnessed an angel twice the night before the delivery. Our son is the baby angel in the heaven right now; he came to the world, went to the heaven to be next to God and he is the purest of all. When Oliver thought about the name Gabriel, we both felt the name is so right for him. Later we looked up the meaning of Gabriel, which means God is my strength, which is what we haven been looking for all these time.

New Baby

2009-01-26T20:05:00.000-08:00

Before Grace became a Christian, she once went to a fortune teller. The fortune teller said she was not suppose to have any children, but b/c of her husband, she would have one child.

Grace and I have been trying to get pregnant for a while, but were not able to. What the fortune teller had told her was weighing on her heart. I really felt led to have our small group pray over us and break this pronouncement/curse the fortune teller had put on us, for our God is greater than any fortune teller or evil spirit behind the fortune teller.

That same month we conceived and Grace was with child.

Perseverence

2007-11-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

The previous week was a tough week with all the struggles at work. I was starting to wonder, "What are our purposes here?", "What are God's purposes for us and are doing what God wants us to do?" It was a week where I was ready for it all end and I was thinking "Your kingdom come..." :)

The lyrics of the song, Rescue, kept coming to mind:
This world has nothing for me
I will follow You
This world has nothing for me
I will follow You

That Friday, we went to a small group at Vineyard for the first time. The verses they were discussing really met me where I was:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. James 1:2-6

Our move to Houston was the first time I felt called to do something. It was a step of faith to do what we thought God was calling us to do. We knew that it would not be easy to do what we were doing. It was really the first time I chose the "not so easy path" to follow a calling.

These verses really encouraged me ... considering it joy, persevering, asking God for wisdom through it all.

Community

2007-11-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

In moving to Houston, one thing we really longed for is community. In Austin, we had a church family, relationships built over the years from international ministry, and many friends we had developed relationships with.

We went to many churches in the Sugar Land area looking for a church family. One thing we realized is that we were not able to see what the true character of the church is without going to a small group (i.e. community group).

We've been to the small group at two different churches in the Sugar Land area so far. It really has been the small group that has attracted us to the Vineyard church in Sugar Land. Several things that stood out abt the Vineyard small group are: 1) authenticity and venerability - people shared what was going on with their life and their struggles without the facade of "playing Christian", 2) Worship - people had a sincere heart and desire for worship, 3) sense of community, sharing, and encouraging each other, 4) Spiritual maturity of the leaders and members

Spiritual Gifts

2007-10-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. 1 Cor 14:1

One of the things that has really blessed us at Hope Chapel is the gift of prophecy. Hope is the first church that we have been to with members blessed with the gift of prophecy that actively use their gifts for building up the church.

Prophetic words we received has encouraged us in so many ways:
1. A missionary in our church that we never interacted with before coming up to me after prayer and saying God is pleased with your heart of worship and that God is going to bring something new into your life and not be afraid to leave the old, which we took as confirmation abt our decision to move to Houston to join a family business that we had been praying and seeking God's will on for about a year.
2. Our pastor sharing a word that he received to us after praying for Grace and me that there will be situations that I cannot navigate/handle by myself and that I will need Grace's guidance on. We are currently experiencing some of those situations now where Grace's sensitivity and insight has helped me better handle certain relationships.
3. During a night with a team of folks gifted in prophecy praying over us, one of them said that God would use us together in evangelism, more so than us individually. That was an encouragement for me b/c I had been kind of discouraged with the lack of relationships I felt being developed in the international ministry. This is also a promise that we pray about now and ask God to fulfill.
4. During that same night one person prayed for us about kingdom culture and kingdom values, which we took as placing a priority on God's values and not comprising God's values.

Thoughts on worship

2007-10-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

After visiting many churches in the Sugar Land area, I was reminded abt some thoughts I had on what makes "good" worship and a good sermon.

Good worship impresses on us how great God is and how sinful we are. A good sermon convicts us of change.

Not Easy

2007-09-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

God impressed on me three things as we moved to Houston:
1) He has called us to do what we are doing.
2) It's not going to be easy.
3) There will be blessing in all of this.

We're at stage 2 right now - It's not going to be easy.

We've joined our parent's company for abt two months now. We're at a difficult transition period right now. There's been a lot of conflict and hurt feelings in establishing expectations. A lot of times people are getting upset at issues initially rather than just discussing and resolving the issues.

We are also still in the process of finding a church. So many churches seem to be more about religion and ministry through human effort rather than worshiping and glorifying God and reliance on the Spirit and God's power.

Pls pray for the following:
1. God will reveal His purposes for us being here and that His purposes will be accomplished.
2. That we will be salt and light for my parents; that God would open their hearts to Him, and they can come to faith in Christ.
3. For our work - 1) It will be a joy to work together as a family, 2) We can set expectations clearly and resolve issues in a constructive manner, 3) That will will be more effective working as a team than as individuals.
4. God will provide a church home for us where we can have intimate worship, spirit-led teaching, community, and a place for us to minister effectively.
5. Protection and growth for our relationship and marriage. The transition - physically moving and settling down, adjusting to a new job and family, and taking care of Sophia have really put a strain on us. Pray that we can spend time with each other, support each other, and encourage each other. Pray that we can go back and build upon the foundation - our relationship w/ God and our relationship each other.

Values

2007-07-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

We've been going to different churches in the Sugar Land area looking for a church home. I've been checking out web sites of different churches to try to get a feel about what the church is like. One thing that I found is that the value statement of a church often reflects the character of a church.

What was interesting was that I compared the value statement of our church in Austin, Hope Chapel, with a community church in the Fort Bend area.

Here is a comparison of the value statements for the two different churches in areas of worship, discipleship, and evangelism/community outreach.

Worship

Hope Chapel exists to glorify God by:

worshipping Him with passionate and thoughtful celebration of our common faith and life;
asking Jesus, through prayer and intercession, to take His rightful position as Head of our church in tangible and supernatural ways;
inviting the Holy Spirit's empowering presence to work in our midst.

On Worship

We believe in expository preaching, which is “that method of proclaiming the Scriptures that takes as a minimum one paragraph of Biblical text and derives from that text both the shape and the content of the message itself.”
We believe in music in worship. Music has the unique ability to express thoughts and feelings too deep for words.
We believe in creativity. Audio-visual, audience participation, testimony, etc. can be effective means to communicate God’s truth.
We believe in planning ahead to bring about a unified worship service with each part of the service adding to, not canceling, the worship theme.

Discipleship

By growing devoted followers of Christ,

loving, accepting, and honoring individuals of all generations;
challenging individuals to radical spiritual formation as disciples of Jesus to be salt and light in our world;
equipping all believers in godly character, and in knowledge of the Word of God; releasing them in the gifts of the Spirit and in works of service;
building a multitude of communities that encounter God, meet relational needs, minister to fellow believers, and invite unbelieving friends to know the transforming Jesus;
modeling and equipping Hope believers for family life in a world that disintegrates families;
validating a high theology of vocation that empowers Hope believers to touch their diverse worlds with the power of Jesus.

On Discipleship

We believe in discipleship. People learn best in a mentoring relationship. God first, then people. People will apply the truth when they see it work in us. When people don’t apply the truth, they have not known the truth.
We believe in accountability.
We believe in the power of prayer. Prayer is one of the key ministries of the pastors and the leaders of the church.

4. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, without which nothing of spiritual value can be accomplished.

Evangelism / Community Outreach

Partnering with God's people to transform our city, and making disciples of all nations:

articulating the Epic Story of the Gospel to our culture in creative ways;
participating with other churches to transform our city;
creating an environment for the expression of the arts within Hope that also becomes a creative outreach to the Austin community;
assisting Hope believers in joining with other believers to glorify God in their vocational calling;
reaching out with all possible resources to the university worlds of Austin, evangelizing and discipling students and faculty;
serving and empowering the poor and disenfranchised;
planting 'worshipping communities of God' wherever He may lead;
sending and supporting a force of short, medium and long-term cross cultural servants to proclaim and live the full dimensions of the Great Commission;
carefully stewarding and lavishly releasing our natural, human and financial resources for maximum impact.

On Evangelism

We believe in cross-culture evangelism not only in the missions field but also here locally. God puts us here not just to evangelize the Chinese but the whole area for Christ.
We believe every Christian, not just a few, can do evangelism, if given proper tools and motivation. People want to share their faith, and evangelism is an integral part of Christian life.
We believe evangelism is not taught, but caught. It begins with the leaders.
We believe that any community services we may have serve as contact points to create a “fishing pond” for evangelism.
We believe in follow-up work for new believers. Every new convert should be contacted within thirty-six hours and taught the basic foundation of Christian life.

On Community Ministry

We believe that our community is the Fort Bend community, regardless of race and color. This is our home on earth and Fort Bend is our backyard. We will seek to serve this community and bring them to Christ.
We believe meeting the needs of Fort Bend community through prayer, community service, Christian school, and helping the family. The church is here to meet needs.

Human Wisdom

2007-07-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Paul in 1 Corithians 2:13 writes:
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

We've been visiting different churches in the Sugar Land area. The preaching is some of the churches can be summarized as this: I preach with words of human wisdom.

What do I mean by this? The pastor comes up with a message he wants to convey. He comes up with a three point outline and then looks in the Bible for scriptures to support his three point outline.

The end result? A message preached by words of human wisdom.

This is a far cry from the scripture teaching principles that we learned from Hope 201. Hope 201 taught taking a piece of scripture and meditating over the scripture, not just a few minutes, but sometimes for weeks and ask the question: What is God impressing upon me with this scripture? What does He want to say through this scripture?

When we take a piece of scripture, meditate over it, and then seek God over what He wants to say, the results are completely different. There is a level of spiritual wisdom, maturity, and insight that cannot be achieved by human means alone. As Paul says: This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

Be Still

2007-07-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

I came across this about a week ago at a time when I felt disconnected from God. It was at a very busy time --- we were trying to find a house and had lots of stuff going on at work.

The words BE STILL and KNOW I AM GOD struck me. I felt disconnected from God. I was too busy to seek God.

Being still seems like a pre-requisite to knowing God. If we're too busy and distracted with things, we cannot truly seek God, to enter in his presence, and know who He is.

One thing I seek

2007-07-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple. Psalm 27:4

We went to Sugar Land Family Church today. One thing they emphasized through their worship is presence ... God's presence.

As the song, I Love Your Presence goes:
In the glory of Your presence
I find rest for my soul
In the depths of Your love
I find peace
Makes me whole

I love, I love, I love Your presence
I love, I love, I love Your presence
I love, I love, I love You Jesus
I love, I love, I love Your presence

Surrender

2007-07-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

We were putting an offer down on a house in Riverstone. It was the first house that I really liked as much as the house we had in Austin after looking at around 40 houses in the Sugar Land area. I really wanted the house, although we did have some hesitations b/c it was a little further away than we preferred (10 mins to the freeway, 20 mins to work).

We prayed: God, we surrender this to you. If this house is good for us, then let the deal go through. If the house isn't good for us, then don't let the deal go through.

We saw the house on Sun; however, it was Wed before we were able to put an offer on it b/c we wanted our family to see it too. We put in an offer late Wed/early Thr morning. Unfortunately, they received another offer that same day.

I was a little on edge the entire day Wed b/c we offered a little lower and weren't sure if we were out of the game. I really wanted to house, but had to consciously surrender the entire house to Him.

The seller counter-offered both buyers late Thr evening. We accepted their counter-offer since there were two bidders Fri morning. Our agent knew the other agent and said the seller should accept our offer if the offers are the same. However, around Fri noon we were told that the other buyer offered full price after being told that the seller had verbally accepted our offer.

We had to make a decision on whether to up the ante. After discussing it w/ Grace, we decided to pass on the house b/c it was no longer a good deal. We could build a new house for the same price per square foot. We had given up on the house we really wanted.

Later on we found out that the other buyer was suppose to send the earnest money to the seller by Fri 6 P. That never happened. The seller then had a choice to either wait for the other buyer on a deal that they were starting to have doubts about or accept our lower offer.

At this point, I was finally able to surrender everything to God. I was ok if we got the house or if we didn't.

We found out late Sat evening that the seller accepted our lower offer. The entire process was a good lesson in learning how to surrender to God.

My Desire

2007-06-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced ; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, "Here I am, I have come-- it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."

Psa 40:4-8

Houston transition prayers

2007-06-09T20:23:00.001-07:00

Please be praying for us as we transition to Houston. Here are some things that I feel like God is leading me to pray about.

1. A spiritual home. We're looking for a church family in Houston where we can experience spirit-led worship, develop deep relationships, and have opportunities for ministry.

2. A physical home. Finding a house in the Sugar Land area has been more difficult than we thought. Pray that God will provide a home that is good for us.

3. Protection for our marriage. All these changes and close interaction with my family may cause stress on our marriage. Pray that God will strengthen and protect our marriage.

4. Pray that we will be a positive influence on our parents in our interactions with them and also salt and light for them. Pray for protection against any negative influences we may experience.

5. Pray that we will seek God first and that He will give us strength during the difficult times.

6. Pray for wisdom and consistency as parents and that we can impart His ways on Sophia and that Sophia would grow up to be a beautiful woman of God.

7. We really feel God has called us to do what we're doing. Pray for God's blessing and God's purposes to be accomplished.

Blessing and Confirmation

2007-06-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Eph 3:20-21

Praise God! Earlier when I thought God was leading us to go to Houston, I wasn't completely sure. I was more like, "God, I sure hope I heard you correctly." One of the things we were praying is that if God is calling us to move to Houston, that he would 1) confirm it and 2) prepare the way.

God has done both. In terms of preparing the way, God has blessed us in so many ways.
1) Grace getting laid off. Grace was going to quit her job. The drawback of that is that she had to pay back her signing bonus and relocation, since she didn't work there two years yet. Instead of Grace having to quit, she got laid off instead. This was a blessing, since we didn't have to pay back the signing bonus and relocation and got a package on top of that.

2) Selling our house. We sold our house in one weekend, had 4 offers, and got above our asking price. That's God's grace.

God also by His grace confirmed us moving to Houston. We had a missionary from our church share at our small group. After he shared, we prayed. After the prayer, everybody split up and started eating desert and chatting. When everyone split up, he came up to me individually. I had seen him at church, but we had never talked 1:1.

When he came up to me, he said two things:
1) God is pleased with you heart of worship.
2) God is going to bring something new into your life; don't be afraid to leave the old, just obey.

Later on I found out that that missionary is gifted in the prophetic. Wow! What grace God has shown me to give that missionary a word to speak to me. Worship for me is the main essence of the Christian walk ... to glorify God in worship, to "connect" with God, to lavish our love and praise to God ... and to have Him say, He is pleased. Wow, that's God's grace.

You can interpret "new" and "old" in many ways. I took the new to mean moving to Houston and joining my parent's company and the old to be leaving Austin and my current job behind.

For me, the entire process of moving to Houston, has been a step of faith in obedience.

Not Easy / Three things

2007-06-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

When we were taking Hope 201 in the fall, there was one class dedicated to talking about when we're following God, it's not always easy ... there are difficult times and suffering. However, God uses those times to transform us and develop us to people who can reflect His glory.

After that I class, I was telling Grace that I don't think it's going to be easy to join our parent's company.

There are also challenges associated with working with family --- being close as a family and yet maintaining professional work interaction.
Challenges of working for your own company --- making wise business decisions, creating innovative products, and staying ahead of the competition.
Learning the business, while growing the business at the same time.
Stress on our family and marriage with all the changes.
Balancing work with everything else, especially with a little baby.

After processing through this all, I feel like God has impressed on me three things:

There is calling in joining our parent's company. I feel like there is a greater purpose - more than just joining them and working in the business.
It's not going to be easy. There are the challenges of owning your own business, working with family, and potential stress on our marriage.
There is going to be blessing in all of this. I'm not exactly sure what this blessing is, but I feel like there will be blessing in this.

On the move

2007-06-03T15:12:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been about a year since we first comtemplated joining my parent's company in Houston. I remember having lunch w/ Cliff last fall and talking to him about this.

This year is my 10 year anniversary with IBM. When I first joined, I didn't think I would be there that long. It's been a great journey with IBM. It really is a great place to work --- there are a lot of great people to work with and IBM cares about and takes care of their employees.

After 10 years, I feel like I've done what I want to do at IBM. I went from verification, to verification team lead, to development, to development team lead, to release lead. I think if I were to stay at IBM, I would definitely want a change.

I was thinking and praying through two different things.
1) Joining IBM China. IBM is ramping up a software development group in Beijing and are looking for experienced software developers from the US to help develop that team.

2) Joining my parent's company, which is in the enhanced oil recovery business.

When I started praying through this, I had more of a peace about joining my parent's company than I did IBM China. That was very interesting b/c I always wanted to go to China, learn the language and the culture, and also see how the church is in China.

The timing seem right to join them --- a lot of different things are coming together.

Our project at IBM wrapped up at the end of May.
I'm at the point in my career at IBM where I feel like I've done what I want to do and it's not easy to go to the next level.
My parents business has grown to a point where they need help. There's too much stuff for them to do everything well.
Grace's materity leave ended in May, so it was a good transition point.
My parents are getting older and I desire to spend more time with them.
I have a desire to be a witness for them - to be salt and light for them.

After talking to Cliff about all of this, he encouraged us to 1) move in the direction of joining my parent's company, if we felt God leading us to do that, 2) Seeking God and asking for his confirmation.

Fundamentals

2006-12-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was having lunch w/ a dear friend of mine, someone whom I consider a mentor. We were talking about the changes and challenges that our first child will bring.

He gave a good piece of advice: Go back to the fundamentals --- our relationship w/ God and our relationship with each other. To provide a safe, secure family for our child, we must seek God and make sure He is at the center/foundation of our lives and the child must not replace our marriage or each other. If we don't adhere to the fundamentals, we cannot provide a healthy, growing family for our child.

Blessings

2006-12-10T15:01:00.000-08:00

I encountered an insightful way to bless somebody through prayer from church last Sun. Look at the person and see how they would be like if their life were completely under Christ’s lordship and their character were transformed to be like Christ’s character. How would they be different? What actions and character qualities of their life would be different? Think about those things and pray for them to happen.

e.g. Pray that they would be slow to anger, God would give them wisdom, they can communicate clearly with their spouse, God would increase their capacity to love by showing them His love.

No Fear

2006-12-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

As I've been reading and meditating through Romans, God has been putting the fear of God, or rather lack of fear, on my heart.

Rom 3:18 says "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Rom 1:20-21 (NIV)

Although we know God, do we recognize Him for who He is? His insurmountable power, His servant's heart, His incomparable love for us, His impending righteous judgement.

Do we recognize His greatness or do we have a small view of who God is? Do we fear God?

Spiritual Disciplines

2006-11-19T21:30:00.000-08:00

There are three spiritual disciplines in particular that God impressed on my heart from Foster’s book – meditation, prayer, and fasting.

Meditation
Meditation is what God impressed most on my heart, in particular, meditation on God’s Word. Too often I rush through reading God’s Word without calming my heart first and not thinking about what I read and processing through it afterwards. I treat it like some item that needs to be completed on a spiritual to do list.

I want to be able to hear God’s voice and obey his word. I need to grow in my “familiar friendship with Jesus” and to experience the transformation that comes with this type of fellowship and being in the presence of God. I desire to get into His Word and dwell in the Psalms about the greatness of God or find God’s promises in scripture and call upon their transforming power. I desire to put aside the noise, hurry, and crowds.

Prayer
Foster says, “listening to the Lord is the first thing, the second thing, and the third thing necessary for a successful intercession.” We are often too quick too pray. This is something I had not considered before our speaker on prayer, Sally, brought this out from Foster’s book. Sally really emphasized asking and listening to God about how to intercede for a person/situation before praying. Don’t pray until we hear from God how to pray. That night after class I had a wonderful time of asking God how to pray to different people and seeing how God revealed that to me in a very real way.

Fasting
Fasting is something I have not done before. However, God has impressed this more and more on my heart as I have been seeking His discernment on some very life-changing decisions. Fasting is something I would like to explore more of.

What am I going to do about this?
Grace asked me what I thought about our class on spiritual disciplines after Geno taught that day. I response was, “our lives would be very different if we actually did these”. I think that is so true.

I want to take time and to listen to God in meditation and prayer. I’d like to set aside 30 minutes of calm, quiet time to listen to God and write down what God is saying. I am going to spend time meditating on God’s Word, starting with the Psalms, which describe God’s glory. I am going to seek God and ask Him how he wants me to pray before I start praying. I will consider fasting as part of the process of seeking God in making major decisions.

Intentionality

2006-10-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Through the international ministry, we've learned how to intentionally build relationships. We invest a lot of time into getting to know people and developing relationships. The same prinicples of intentionality

This morning's sermon convicted me how we need to intentational develop our own spiritual maturity, just like we intentionally develop relationships. For me personally, I have been too busy w/ "stuff" and have not intentionally sought spiritual maturity. I need to take time to spend reading, in solitude, praying, seeking God.

Mature Believers:
- Walk consistently
- Expend effort to grow spiritually
- Display an increasing ability to discern right from wrong

- Accept everyday problems as God's means of character development
- Seeking interaction w/ God's spirit daily
- Spiritual disciplines are not a end in themselves, but rather bring us into Christ's presense, which transforms us
- Don't go from point A to point B directly. Go from point A to God. God will take you to point B, or C, or whereever else He wants you to go.

- Spiritual maturity looks like Jesus
- Intentionally, daily follow Jesus
- Helping other's grow up

- Being a spiritual juvenile is not an option

Convictions

2006-10-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

I was reading through Organic Church by Neil Cole. One of things it kept on emphasizing is change that Christ brings and areas of our life we need to grow in.

I didn't have a clear area of change/growth that God was directing me to, so I prayed about it. This is one of those immedidate answers to pray. The next day I had a strong conviction from God about two things in my life:
1. Develop compassion. Compassion for Grace, emphathizing w/ her abt all the physical discomfort from bring pregnant. Compassion/Care/Concern for my family and friends. Compassion for the poor. Compassion for the lost.

2. To seek God's purposes for my life. To develop the relationships and to fully-utililize the gifts God has given me.

Extravagant Worship

2006-08-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

We worship not to get us in the mood. We worship as a response to who God is. Worship is an act or our will.

Mark 14:3-9 says: While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly. 6 "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

This woman did not hesitate to give the very best to God as an extravagant act of worship in response to who God is. Often we are casual towards God because we don’t grasp who God is --- His greatness, His majesty, His forgiveness, His grace, His love, His compassion towards us.

Too often I give God the left-overs. I wait until the end of the day to pray when I’m tired, then I pray quickly so I can go to bed. I don’t spend time in God’s Word until I have all the other stuff done. I don’t give my best to God.

I’m challenged to give my best to God in extravagant worship of Him in response to who He is. I need recognize my own sin and how much God loves me and forgives me. I desire to spend extended time in prayer with Him; to spend the best time of day with Him before I’m tired; to give generously financially.

Critiquing God

2006-06-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think we get into the role of critiquing God. I know I have. It’s very subtle --- little grumblings towards God.

It may take the form of an unthankful heart. We either don’t recognize what God has given us or are not thankful for what He has given us. We may ask God, “Why don’t I have X” or “Why isn’t my life more perfect?”

Other times we blame God, as if God did something wrong. We ask God, “Why did this happen?”

We are not completely satisfied in God. We are not convinced of God’s goodness. We seek satisfaction in things other than God and then turn-around and blame God that we are not satisfied b/c we did not seek the one thing that will provide satisfaction --- God.

Today in worship, God made me aware of how I’ve been “critiquing God” and convicted me of two things. The first thing is that I think I’m a good person. If you would ask most people, including Christians, “Do you think that you are a good person?”, most people would say yes.

We do not recognize the depths of our own sin or the magnitude of God’s grace and forgiveness for our sin, b/c we think we are good people.

Luke 7:41-47 says:
Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

He who has been forgiven little loves little. Because we think we are good people, we are forgiven little, and therefore love little. We do not realize the depths of our own sin, our need for forgiveness, and God’s magnificent grace He has shown us in our life.

The other thing God convicted me of is that I’ve been trying to do stuff on my own. I’ve been relying on myself to accomplish the things I need to do each day instead of going to God and asking Him for help to sustain us through each day. As Piper states it, we need to consider our own inadequacies in light of God’s sufficiency. When I don’t do this, this takes away my join in God as the daily tasks become toil.

Some thoughts going forward:

To have a thankful heart
To recognize the depths of my sin and the greatness of God’s grace and forgiveness for my sins
To rely on God each day for the grace and wisdom to make it through the day
To hunger and thirst for God w/ passion and to desire after him

Thorns and Weeds

2006-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

Mark 3:43-4:8: Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, b/c the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so they did not bear grain. Still others fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.

Mark 4:13-20 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then can you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown in rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop – thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown.

When I read this parable, God convicted me that I let the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and desires for other things take me away from my focus on God. It seems like worries such as work, making sure I’m saving enough for the future, and the business of life distract me from God. I don’t listen to God, what He wants to teach me, and don’t seek God’s purposes for my life.

God's Purposes for Us

2006-05-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

God created us for a purpose. I believe there is more to life than just working, getting married, and having a family. If this is all we accomplish, there still seems to be something missing in life. I think it is very important to seek God’s purpose in our lives. For what purpose did God create us? How does God want to work through us?

Now that we enter the second week in our marriage, I’m asking the question: What is God’s will for us as husband and wife? For what purpose did God bring us together? How does God want to work through us as a couple?

These are questions I seek answers for as we strive to make God the center of our marriage.

Promises of Marriage

2006-05-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

I got married almost two months ago. While we were preparing for marriage through our pre-marital counseling sessions, I came to a fuller understanding of what marriage is about as we were reviewing our marriage vows.

Marriage is not about lovey, dovey feelings towards each other. Nor is it about physical attraction, nor emotional or financial security. It is a set of promises towards each other:

I promise to love you.
I promise to be faithful to you.
I promise to cherish you for the rest of my life.

This is the core of what marriage is about.

Pre-marital counseling

2006-03-27T17:54:00.000-08:00

One of the key things we learned during premaritial counseling is the concept for humbleness and forgiveness. Seeking forgiveness is different from saying, "I'm sorry". Being sorry is a feeling. Forgivness is a transaction. When we wrong each other, it is important to humble ourselves and seek the other person's forgiveness.

Two other concepts are also closely related to the first - the concept of mutual submission and seeking joy in the other person's joy.

Ephesians 5:21 says, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."

Philippians also 2:3-4: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

We have the entire idea of mutual submission and looking out for the other person's interest. Submission does not mean that we are weaker than the other person, rather it is voluntary act. Philipians says, Christ, even though he was equal with God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but humbled himself. Humbleness is a pre-requisite to be able to submit and seek the other person's interest. If we are both looking out for the other person's interest, then it should be easily to submit to each other.

John Piper in his book, Desiring God, also discusses the concept of seeking joy in the other person's joy. I will do what makes my spouse happy/joyful, because I am joyful because they are joyful. This is a very practical application of seeking the other person's interest.

Putting God First

2006-03-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

During the sermon today, our pastor asked us, "How has God changed you? What has God been teaching you?"

Initially, nothing was coming to mind. It seemed to me that I was so busy with the things of the world, that I didn't have time to listen to God. I had no idea what God wanted to teach me or how He wanted to mold my character.

It wasn't until later in the week, I reflected upon what God has been teaching me. It seemed like for the past several weeks, I was just busy … busy with work, busy with wedding preparations, and barely squeaking by with enough sleep so that I wouldn't get sick.

It was during that time that I was feeling dry … spiritually dry. I was not at peace and was worrying about a multitude of things. At this time God reminded me of what he has been teaching me: to seek first the kingdom of God, to put God at the center of my life and marriage.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

After this re-prioritization, God's peace, the peace that transcends all understanding once again guarded my heart and mind.

Marriage

2005-12-17T08:56:00.000-08:00

Quotes and Notes from Ch. 8 Marriage of Desiring God, John Piper

The reason there is so much misery in marriage is not that husbands and wives seek their own pleasure, but they do not seek it in the pleasure of their spouses. The biblical mandate to husbands and wives is to seek your own joy in the joy of your spouse.

Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of other. Love seeks its happiness in the happiness of the beloved. It will even suffer and die for the beloved in order that its joy might be full in the life and purity of the beloved.

The pursuit of our own joy in the joy of the beloved.

If you live for your private pleasure at the expense of your spouse, you are living against yourself and destroying your joy. But if you devote yourself with all your heart to the holy joy of your spouse, you will also be living for your joy and making marriage after the image of Christ and His church.

Desiring God, John Piper, pg. 205-221

Eph 5:25-31 (NIV) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."

Husbands taking the role as a spiritual leader.

Servant-leadership

Mutual submission

Pursuing our joy in the joy of another.

Walking w/ God

2005-12-08T22:49:00.000-08:00

Quotes from Finding God, Larry Crabb. Ch. 2

Seeking God
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. Jer 29:13-14

Walking w/ God
Gen 5:22 - Enoch walked with God 300 years. How is "walking w/ God" distinct from "living out" your allotted years? Am I merely living, or am I walking w/ God?

Our agenda is to fix the world until it can properly take care of us. God's agenda is to bring all things together in Christ until every knee is before him.

We treat personal discomfort (self-hatred, low self-esteem, insomnia, money pressures, loneliness) as the central evil from which we need to be saved. When we blend the pursuit of comfort w/ Christianity, Jesus becomes a divine masseur whose demands we heed only after we are properly relaxed.

But this is not the Christianity of the Bible. Christ offers hope, not relief, in the middle of suffering, and he commands us to pursue him hotly even when we'd rather stop and look after our own well-being.

Whenever we place a higher priority on solving our problems than on pursuing God, we are immoral.

I must surrender my fascination with myself to a more worthy preoccupation w/ the character and purposes of God. I am not the point. He is. I exist for him. He does not exist for me.

The question me must ask is this: Are we merely living, or are we walking w/ God?

Finding God, Larry Crabb. pg. 29-42

Seek First

2005-12-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I think its too easy to get caught up in the busyness of the world --- working 10-12 hours a day, kids, activities such as rowing, working out, and just doing "stuff" --- that we lose sight of what's most important.

UT President-to-be, Powers, tells a story:
A professor fills a vat with rocks, then asks his students whether it is full. Of course, they say. Then the professor pours pebbles into the vat and asks whether it is now full. Yes, the students say. He adds fine sand, poses the same question and gets the same answer. Finally, he adds water.

What, asks the professor, is the moral of the story? There's always room to add something, the students reply. Wrong, the professor says. The moral is if you want to get the big rocks in, you've got to put them in first.

Put the big rocks in first. Sometimes our hands are so full of fine sand, that we can't hold the big rocks.

But what are the big rocks? What is the fine sand?

For me, the past several weeks have been "busy". Work, family, and planning for the future take up so much time. However, the spiritual side - the things of God - have fallen by the wayside.

Jesus tells a story of a busy person in Luke:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)

While Martha was busy, albiet with good intentions, Mary has chosen to focus on Jesus. Jesus' response is: Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.

What are our priorities? What are God's priorities? Are the rocks we are focusing on big rocks or fine sand in God's eyes?

God's purpose is to build a spirtual kingdom. Our physical needs are inconsequential to our spiritual needs.

We don't want to trade the things that are eternal for the things that are passing.

Prayer

2005-10-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

Thoughts from Desiring God, John Piper

Prayer

Delight in the Maker
We sin when we do not delight in God
To humble ourselves and put no airs of self-sufficiency and come to Him for provision
We do not glorify God by providing His needs, but by praying that He would provide ours - and trusting Him to answer.
To wait on God means to pause and consider our own inadaquacy in light of the Lord's sufficiency

Prayer results in

Power to love
Connectedness to God
Admiting we can do nothing without Christ
Turning away from ourselves to God
Bearing fruit
Having the Spirit

All this results in fullness of joy. The fullness of joy we seek is the joy of overflowing love to other people. No amount of getting can satisfy the soul until it overflows in giving.

Love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others.

John 15:24: "Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will received, that your joy may be full."

Faith

2005-10-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Mark 6:1-6 (NIV) Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! 3 Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. 4 Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their lack of faith.

Jesus could not do any miracles there b/c of their lack of faith. This holds more true for us than we would like to realize too. How much more could Jesus work in our lives if we had more faith.

In Mark 9:22-24, where the boy's father is asking to Jesus to drive a demon out of his son, the father says: But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." 23 "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." 24 Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

This probably reflects our sentiments: I do believe; help me to overcome my unbelief!

Contrast this to
Mark 5:33-34 (NIV) Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Seven Principles

2005-10-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

Summary from The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, John Gottman

Knowing each other.
Admiration
Connect - Turn Towards each other
Making decisions together
Honor & Respect
Accepting Influence
Repair attempt
Shared goals/values

Watch out for defensiveness

What dreams do you have?

Spiritual Lessons

2005-09-07T22:44:00.000-07:00

Some stuff that God is teaching me that I wanted to share. The first two are questions I asked Pastor Gaylord abt.

1. How do you learn to love people more?

The answer starts w/ John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave...

Loving is giving. It is not be selfish for self-centered.

Choose 1 person, and choose to love them by giving.

Also, consider what Christ has done and his sacrifice for us and the depth of our sin. Come to a better understanding of who God is. Come to an accounting of our own sin.

2. What are some important aspects of being a spiritual leader?

Growth...

You cannot provide direction for your wife and children, if you are not growing spiritually.

Choose one are that you feel God is leading you to grow spiritually in and concentrate on that area.

Never put your children b4 your spouse. If both parents are ministering to each other and supporting each other first, they are more effective as parents.

3. Being humble b4 God, recognizing that everything we have, we have received from him. (1 Co 4:7)

To be child-like, having a trust and dependency on God
To be child-like, but not childish

4. Areas of growth
To grow in love - genunine concern, actively giving
To grow in prayer - pray for each person on team at work, to pray spirit-led
Being intentional - actively loving in relationships and evangelism
What is my gifting? What is my calling?

The Next Generation

2005-08-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

We had Children's Day at our church a few weeks ago. The kids helped us by leading worship and did a really great drama.

One thing that really stood out to me is that our children are the next generation of leaders in our society. It is really up to us as parents to bring up the next generation.

The verse that stands out is:
Deu 6:4-7 (NIV) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

It's a charge to parents and the church family to bring up the next generation in the Lord:
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Life Goals

2005-08-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Grace and I were talking the other day about a TV program she saw about time management. However, instead of the typical stuff such as coming up w/ a list of tasks, prioritizing the tasks, etc., it talked life goals.

It suggested defining five goals that you want to accomplish in your life time. I don't have five yet, but here are my three:
1. Being the spiritual leader of my family - loving my wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her (Eph 5:25-27), to make wise decisions w/ counsel, and to care for and lead my family in a way that pleases God.

2. To excel at my job, whether in the tech industry or whatever the future holds.

3. To influence people for Christ by sharing God's love w/ them and letting them know about good news about what Christ did for them and how they can be right before God.

My First Day

2005-08-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

All Things

I choose the name "All Things" for two reasons:
1. Phil 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. As we go through the seasons of our life, there are many things - big and small - that we go through and have to make wise decisions about. Phil 4:13 really reflects my core belief that we must rely on Christ and the wisdom and strength that He gives to make it through life.

2. The name reminds me of a NPR show called "All Things Considered". I believe that one of the most important things to do is to make wise decisions as we go through life. Through this blog, I'd like to document the major growing experiences and lessons I've learned.