worship is in spirit and in truth

"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth"

John 4:24

as a younger believer, i found worship to be largely based on my emotions. and we all know that emotions waver so easily. with my motivation and desire to worship based on fleeting emotions, my worship to the Lord also was fleeting - here today and gone tomorrow.

But the Lord is not fleeting.

the truth of who he is, what he is like and what he's capable of, the truth of what he's done and will do in the future is not fleeting.. and Jesus calls us to worship the Lord in these truths.

in implementing this lesson, i have discovered that worship demands a huge chunk of mental activity.. say that the praise team leads the congregation into worship with the song "nothing but the blood" by matt redman. as you sing the first line of the chorus, "what can wash away our sins?" you recall that God is Holy and does not tolerate sin.. you remember how God commanded the Israelites to make sacrifice for their sins through the killing of animals. you remember that God was very specific in describing what kind of animals were fit to be offered to the Lord..the animal had to be flawless.. then you remember that the animal sacrifices were only temporary atonements, and that the Law and the Prophets all pointed to the ultimate and final sacrifice, Jesus. You remember how Jesus, who being in very nature God, humbled himself and came to earth as a human to become that perfect, flawless, ultimate sacrifice. Then, you recall that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..except Jesus. and then, you realize that indeed, only the blood of Jesus was enough to wash away our sins.. then you remember the agony that Jesus went through in order to wash away our sins..

..and you sing, "What can wash away our sins? What can make us whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!"

..and perhaps you lift your hand in worship, awestruck at how your Creator loved you to His death - but not to remain in it, but to defeat it and rise victoriously from it.

as i began worshipping Him in His truths, worship had become a much more powerful and consistent experience for me than the days when worship was based on my emotions..

i am truly thankful to God for revealing himself to me.. but i do feel pity for those who seem so disengaged during worship(not in a derogatory way).. and i wonder, if the knew the truths of God as revealed through the Scripture(Which is unchangeable), could they really stay so aloof and disengaged during times of worship?

I think not.

my prayer is that more and more believers will learn continuously the truths of God through scripture and dive into a deeper level of worship as God reveals himself to them.

in light of thanksgiving..it is not enough to thank

i heard this analogy on why it's not enough to thank.

if your family member had a failing kidney, is it enough just to thank God that you have two healthy kidneys? no, it is not enough. you have to give what you have in order to bless others.

Hm i don't know if i phrased that right but i hope you understand the point..haha i'm too tired to rewrite it.. g'nite~

i like pastor greg laurie..

.. because he makes something complicated sound so simple. heard him saying this on the radio.

"In His holiness, He is unapproachable. In His love, He approaches us."

graduation cards

i stumbled upon the many many cards i received for graduation.

it's pretty funny how some people wrote as if we'd never be seeing each other again. when in fact i saw them numerous times after i graduated hahahaha

mm continued "on loving the Lord with the mind"

there are some teachings in scripture that are super difficult to accept.

i hit one of those teachings during today's qt.. and i prayed,

"God, this is a difficult teaching.. how can i accept/delight in this?"

well..for sure i accept it, b/c thats what the bible clearly teaches.. but honestly, i can't delight in it.

Jesus said that those who worship God worship Him in spirit and in truth.. but right now, i can't fully worship the truth of this particular teaching..; not only b/c its difficult to accept, but i dont' even fully understand it. hahahaha but i don't think anyone does.

so my prayer is.. Lord, help me to delight in you, worship you in truth, no matter how confusing/difficult it is to accept that truth..

before i go to sleep

one of my readers commented that my posts are too short/vague/secretive. i decided not to expose too much of myself online sometime in college but i guess i should elaborate more to keep my blog interesting. hahahah

on loving the Lord with my mind.

Matthew 22:36~38

³⁶"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" ³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment.

I think my early spiritual journey during 1, 2 years of college was when i learned to love the Lord with my heart and soul. that's not to say that i had such a pure, flawless love for him, but that my love for the Lord was very emotional, affectionate, and from the soul. I remember times of being moved to tears during times of prayer and worship. but emotions come and go. when emotions are not rooted deeply in a certain truth that does not change, the emotion eventually goes away.

near the end of college to post college, i realize that i've been learning to love the Lord with my mind. and this very topic "love the Lord with my mind" had been a very confusing topic until recently, when it's really quite simple. it's simply thinking and meditating on the Truth and truths of God, and discovering reasons to delight in it, which eventually leads to love, worship, adoration, gladness, and thankfulness towards God.

i'm thankful that God taught me this.. now my worship and love for God is not based solely on emotions. it's rooted in the Truth and truths about God that are found in the Bible. His inexplicable and inexhaustible grace, his unlimited knowledge and the perfect execution of his plans, how his words do not return to him empty but fulfills the purpose for which it was sent.. mm more and more.

so now, my worship and love for God does not waver, depending on my emotions.. because it is rooted in the truth of who God is... but i must say, i sometimes wonder if possibly, my heart has grown so cold to God that it refuses to be moved to tears. i kinda miss crying due to Godly conviction and emotions.

candle light shines brighter in the dark

jesus had no where to lay his head;

지치셨겠다.

being laughed at

i've heard of famous ppl who've achieved their dreams were "laughed at" when they used to talk about their dreams w/ ppl.

yesterday, i've had such an experience..and i kinda know what that feels like;

so i prayed,

하나님! i don't want the money, but 대박 나게 해주세요!

jesus my reward

it's biblical to enjoy the fruits of your labor - i believe it is b/c of this premise (and that we be rich in good deeds) that "it's ok" for Christians to be rich.

i still think it IS ok, but nowadays i've been feeling that for the Christian, it's NOT ok to make materialistic things be his reward. the bmw, the big house, the stable and abundant income shouldn't be his reward or the prize he seeks to acquire.

Jesus should be his reward. Jesus should be his prize, the goal of his life..

this wasn't my thought even until a year ago; a year ago my prayer was "Lord, I'll do anything for you as long as I have a stable income so that my family wouldn't have to struggle financially and can enjoy abundance."

i don't know what happend int he past year, but i am so glad and thankful that God has fixed my eyes upon himself, revealing himself as my reward, himself as my prize and goal of my life.

hs friends

i've been getting closer w/ my high school friends nowadays, which i am grateful for..

just spending time, having bible study, hikes, praying together for meals, talkin' about deep / spiritual stuff and such.

Thank you Lord.

quoting scripture

today, a dear dongseng who knows less scripture than me quoted scripture to encourage me.

i liked it.

it reminded me how i can be so full of head knowledge but not enough love and faith in the word of God.

when Jesus touched the leper

Jesus healed the sick in many different ways during his stay on the earth. some he told to go wash, some he just spoke to, some he used clay he made w/ his own saliva and dirt.

-i don't think it's a coincidence that Jesus touched the leper to heal him. Surely, he could've spoken the word, and the leper would've been healed.

the leper was "unclean" according to jewish traditions - never to be touched, but to be isolated from society and even their very family. because of this skin disease, the leper was robbed of the reception, or even the giving of any physical affection. the leper was physically exiled, emotionally void of love and affection, and hurting in the soul.

Jesus did not have to touch the leper to heal him. by his mere will, this leper could be healed. but by touching this leper, Jesus showed him affection. Affection that the leper was totally void of. and by receiving this affection that he had never received, something changed in the man's thought, and in his very soul.

his emotions of love and affection had been restored, and the hurting in his soul instantly stopped and began to heal.

so - we see that when Jesus healed the physical body, he not only healed the physical, but the spiritual and emotional.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

hebrews 4:15

what happens to unregenerate "Christians"?

.. man i've had too much theological reading today;

pure gold

하나님은 나를 비싼 금으로 만들기 위해 계속 refine 하시는거야!
(translation : God's refining me in order make me more a valuable gold! sorry for the korean, some feelings/thoughts can best / only be expressed in korean for me..)

danny boy

im gonna listen to take all of me by hillsongs and pray;; Lord, minister to me! i need help =.=

you raise me up by josh groban

many love this inspirational song but not everyone seems to recognize that it's a Christian song! this is evident in the biblical illustrations used throughout the song. the pronoun YOU is God..

another fact that many may not know - God stoops down to raise us up. he kinda bends down, meets you at your eye level.. kinda like how good dads bend down on their knees to embrace their child and stands up so the child can see new horizons.

Psalm 18:35

³⁵ You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great.

deeper

i remember in highschool, i had some pride concerning how "deep" of a thinker i was. i did indeed think a lot - probably more than i do now. it led me to develop certain "truths of life" that are wrong and unhealthy for the soul.

one 'truth' i held on to dearly was that the purpose of life was for us to be happy. i believed that everyone has this innate desire to obtain happiness. it's what drives us - it is the reason why we want to protect our loved ones, why we study so hard, why we get up each morning, etc.

in retrospect, i realize that i enjoyed this type of thinking - observing things and concluding with certain 'truths'. but i wouldn't stop there, i would continue thinking deeper and deeper about the subject, observing and analyzing, attempting to reach that more profound truth that would correctly explain the observations i had made.

i took pride in the fact that i thought so deeply about these things - depth had become the object of my thoughts and its very purpose.

and how destructive that was.

here's an analogy i heard that explains why that thought process is so destructive

"no matter how deep you dig, you wont' find the treasure if you're digging at the wrong spot."

zoom tool

i was editing some portrait shots for photography this morning.

we have to photoshop flaws out of the face..such as scars, acne, uneven skin tone, etc.

and my, when you're zoomed into the face, you see flaws that you would never see w/ your bare eyes!

i thought of three things as i continued to photoshop those faces..

1) skin is not as clean as i perceive them to be in real life - everyone has skin flaws

2) photoshop is magical

2) God sees all of our flaws(not just our facial ones) - yet, He welcomes us with open armss, just like the dad in the story of the prodigal's son. How amazing is this love!

essay

i have a bachelor's degree in english from UC Irvine.

however, the longest paper i've ever had to write in my life is a 10 page paper on Art Nouveau at FIDM.

newfound respect for josh mcdowell

i've read his apologetic books before but today was the first time i've heard him speaking.  He was being interviewed by a pastor and his excellent character just exuded through his gracious yet genuine speech.

"The greatest security that children can have is knowing that their parents love each other and will never divorce."

-josh mcdowell

yes, how true that is and how sad it is that 50% of children grow up without this security.

Lord, let there be healing of those children's hearts.

radio

i'm not emo or anything but there are times when i turn on the radio instead of the cd just 'cause i want some human interaction. hahaha

i'm the clay

"I'm captured by your holy calling, set me apart.." -Potter's Hand

His calling for me is HOLY - it is from Him, perfect and righteous, predetermined and a part of his good and acceptable sovereignty.

i am set apart - he chose me specifically for the part i am playing in the world right now. me.

i am his 00 agent.

devo track 13 blast from the past

man.. nothing even matters but You, Lord.
__
edit :
back when i didn't know how to play the guitar, i would pop in the cd by devo and have a time of worship -

i think those days were one of the sweetest days of worship i've had;

thus, it is verified that Jesus was right when he said that worship is done in spirit and in truth, not only in song and melody.

but quite frankly, it's hard to worship Him in truth nowadays.. it's difficult to worship the truth of his sovereignty..

outta the blue

i figured since i write so many notes on fb, i should just get a blog instead.
this reminds me of the days in xanga, when i used to write essays about my feelings. haha

cheers to the emo days of youth :)

thought -

ours is a representative democracy - a democracy where an elected official stands as the representative of a group of people. in voting, then, one should vote for the official that best represents the voter's values and opinions.

i have several christian friends that voted for barack obama. having observed obama's policies, i've learned that obama surely does not represent the values that my several christian friends hold onto.

yet, they enthusiastically voted for him.

from this, we can learn that what the youth of our nation truly yearns for is not a change of political policies, but a leader - a role model to look up to, a commander to follow, a person to place hope in.