My mom so into her dramas

Someone once asked me if I ever got sick of this weather having lived here my whole life. And I said never, how could you get sick of this.

Shannon is no rice rocket but that tint makes her look mighty nice!

Just like my title states, we are all whores. I think I was watching a John Piper sermon a couple years ago and he was stating how we see God as our husband whom we beg for a dollar. Once we eventually receive that dollar out of mercy, we go and turn around to use that dollar to sleep with another person in the next room. As I read through Hosea 2, I realize that it wasn’t a story that John Piper had made up but instead he was referring to a statement that God gave to Hosea. We are really turning our back on God each and every time we fall into temptation. Each and every time we do this we are saying to God, Christ on the cross meant nothing to me.

Thankfully even though we aren’t worthy, God is still there waiting for us. 

And pin that day qI will answer, declares the Lord,

I will answer the heavens,

and they shall answer the earth,

 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and they shall answer rJezreel,1

 and sI will sow her for myself in the land.

And tI uwill have mercy on No Mercy,2

and vI will say to Not My People,3 w‘You are my people’;

and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

We are His and He is our God

‘nuff said

As I was showering today, I was thinking about what I did today. Something hit me though, as I was at SC practicing volleyball with KCM, I suck!

The worst part was that, even though I sucked, I still tried to act like I was some type of veteran player just because I have a little experience with Middle School volleyball. I acted like because of my experience, I had some sort of standing over my own peers. If anything, because I don’t even go to USC, I am somewhat below them on an academic scale. I should not be ordering around anyone, I should be asking how I could help.

In life I noticed that I walk around with a sense of ownership. I walk around like I did something to be more superior than others, but in reality I have done nothing. NO! in reality I did worse than nothing, I rebelled against God. I was born and from that moment on, I was marked as the walking dead. But because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins, we can be known as His children. 

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

We have no sense of entitlement to this gift of Grace because we never earned it, but instead it was given to us out of Love.

When we have the time, let’s remember to thank God for everything He did for us. For before Christ, we were only entitled to death, but now through Christ we are given life. We were ENTITLED to death, but GIVEN life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Soli deo Gloria

-AJP

I didn’t understand this Psalm at all until I re-read it about three times. It becomes clear to me at verse 10, where it shows God speaking and warning the kings and rulers of the earth. We shouldn’t go around plotting against God, but instead we should serve God with fear and rejoice. It explains how God can easily become a God on wrath and then it gives blessing to those who take refuge in Him.

We need to realize the place that God is in and how we fit into His plan. We are His servants and He is our master. I understand the point in which some people would explain that it is a bad way of looking at our relationship with God as so, but it reminds us of the situation that we are in. When we look at our relationship with God, we always expect something from God as if we were deserving of a prize. In the relation of a servant we have the illustration of continual obedience to Him and each and every thing that He has done for us as a gift. That is why God’s gift to Man is so precious. It was a gift that we did deserve, but it was a gift He gave to us.

Romans 5:8 says But God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

-Andrew Park

There are two types of people in the world. One who chooses the path to light and one who chooses a path to death and destruction. The latter choice does not sound pleasing at all and yet we still see that as more appealing than God at the end of the road less taken. For a righteous man, he does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, stands in the way of sinners, but instead he meditates on the Law of the Lord, day and night. It specifically says that he delights in the law of the Lord.

When we become a man or a woman of God that earnestly seeks the law of the Lord all day and night, then we can continue to see who we would become in verse 3. He is like a tree that is planted by not just nutrients and water that we absorb from the ground, but streams of water and we produce beautiful flowers in the spring and stand strong in the winter through the thick and thin of the seasons. We will not be shaken due to the firm foundation in which we find ourselves in which is the Word of God.

The latter person is wicked and cannot stand judgement from our Lord our God. He is like chaff that the wind blows away.

When judgement comes, as it says in verse six, the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish. When we genuinely understand what sin is, what the way of the wicked is, our eyes will be open to beauty of the Word of God and it is there where we will find joy and peace. As this year has just started, I have the honor of becoming a small group leader at my campus ministry of KCM, but I am scared. Do I fit the mold of this Righteous man that the first Psalm is talking about? Do I truly love and delight in the Law of the Lord? I think the willingness to serve and want to read the Bible is a sign that I have a foot in the right direction. Please pray for me that I may grow this year and help my small group kids grow towards Christ.

Not for us but for Him

-Andrew Park

:) I understand why I love Tangled soooo much

I love Zachary Levi from Chuck and who can’t love Mandy Moore!

It has been a long long time since I have done a devotion on tumblr and in general just giving a time to God in order for me to just read his Word. Being a long long time, I decided to start read from a new book. I decided to read the book of Joshua in which I am skipping the Torah. Something that has always been a wonder for me were the stories in the Old Testament that I heard of as a Bible study student but never myself dived into for myself. Now as I opened up Joshua, the first thing I notice is that God commissions Joshua to lead the Israelites into the Promise Land. If I were in that position, about to lead this group of people to a land in which they were promised 40 years prior. I would be petrified in that I was given a job to lead these people after such a man as Moses. Trying to fill his shoe, but we have to remember that God doesn’t just commission people for any odd reason. Joshua was put into this position because God had prepared the perfect life shape Joshua to become this leader that the Israelites would need.

The biggest thing for me while reading this wasn’t the preparation that God had already prepared or that Joshua was put into a position that he felt he wasn’t ready for, but it was verse 9. A verse in which anyone that may be going on missions this summer that has any doubts or anyone that is in a ministry that they are reconsidering may be truly encouraged by.

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” 

We need to remember that God has put us in these positions in order for us to give Him maximum glory. When given the opportunity to serve in a ministry, we often doubt the qualifications that we have, but we need to remember that everything in our lives have been planned out to His perfect plan. God is not a father in which he throws us out in the wild with a knife and tells us to take care of ourselves, but instead He throws us into the wild with a jeep full or supplies and equipment that we can use collectively. He has already taught us what we need to learn so that we can in turn go around and teach others with what God has blessed us to learn.

Soli deo Gloria

It has come to my attention how reliant we are on technology. As a day in which we only know someone’s birthday as reported on their facebook page or we will remember theirs if it is someone close and important to us. To find out that my pastor’s birthday was the day that I spent a whole day with is no bueno of a feeling. Able to make it up by spending the rest of the day of his birthday is a little bit bueno. As I think of this though, how reliant are we on God. Isn’t this sad to see that today, we are more reliant on the internet and social networks rather than God. Oh how proud Mark Zuckerberg must be of us.