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After taking about a 10 day hiatus from blogging, I decided to post a poll and let you decide what I should write about this week. There’s only 24 hours to vote in the poll as my first post for the week goes live on Monday, January 5th. Help me decide what to blog about by taking part in the poll by clicking here.

Thanks so much! Happy New Year!

With our eyes focused on bringing in the new year, I am becoming anxious for continuing in the work of helping to share the love of Christ and his grace and mercy in our city through our church plant’s official launch in 2009. It’s been something I’ve been really waiting patiently to see birthed and I am feeling like it is imminent. No matter what I do, I can’t stand between God’s vision for this city and his people. I’m trusting in the Lord to empower our team to move forward in boldness, seasoned with grace and love. I’m trusting that we are equipped to be faithful and steadfast to glorify God in these tough economic times and to have compassion to those outside of the traditional church. Through the grace of the Lord Revolution Church Sacramento will be announcing our monthly preview services very shortly.

What are you looking forward to in 2009? Is there something you are relying on God to get you through? Is there a breakthrough you are hoping for? A healing to be delivered? Someone you pray will come to know the Lord? I’d love to hear about it and help pray with you for God’s hand of providence in your life.

Let us look forward to a powerful year of goodness from our Lord in 2009!

Sharing the joy of Christmas and the message of the birth of Jesus through the words of Linus from A Charlie Brown Christmas :

Thank you for the blessings you have been to me through our connections via this blog, twitter, facebook and myspace. May you and your families know the peace and joy that comes in knowing Christ and have opportunities to share his love with those around you. Merry Christmas!

I just read a blog post that basically stated that maybe it’s time to throw out the Bible because it could be standing in the way of Christ and his love for others. Specifically, it was mentioned in the dialog of people living a gay lifestyle and being no different than those not living as homosexual. The author of the post plainly states that if all we can do as disciples of Christ is to quote Scripture from Leviticus or Romans, then he says, “Enough with the Bible already!”

Before I respond, let me first state something for the record. Living in the world with no one ever seriously preaching the gospel to me for the first 37 years of my life, I wasn’t really fond of the argument (most) Christians made by condemning gay people to hell. I thought it was quite insensitive and ignorant. However, since coming to know the Lord and really studying and seeking truth in this issue, I truly believe that God clearly reveals homosexuality to be a sin that will prevent some from entering the kingdom of heaven. One of the biggest issues I had in coming to accept myself as an evangelical was the issue of homosexuality. It is a decision I did not come upon lightly or by blindly following others. It is a decision that I felt like there was no middle ground on and needed to be made–either I believed the Bible or I believed the world, but I couldn’t believe both.

Homosexuality is not the greatest of all sins nor is it the only thing that separates one from God. This is a little lengthy, but let me cite 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 from The Amplified Bible:

9Do you not know that the unrighteous and the wrongdoers will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived (misled): neither the impure and immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who participate in homosexuality,

10Nor cheats (swindlers and thieves), nor greedy graspers, nor drunkards, nor foulmouthed revilers and slanderers, nor extortioners and robbers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God.

11And such some of you were [once]. But you were washed clean (purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin), and you were consecrated (set apart, hallowed), and you were justified [pronounced righteous, by trusting] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God.

Therefore, if we as Christians say that those professing to be gay are not going to heaven, then we also must remember that neither will liars, adulterers, users of profanity, or idolaters. So, let it be known this is not another rant on how gay people are going to hell, nor is this in judgment of someone for being gay.

I’ve never professed to be gay or lived a gay lifestyle so I really have no idea what it is like. However, I did grow up as one of three Asians in my graduating class and one of about seven minorities total out of something like 180 students from my high school. I grew up in a town during a time where the KKK was visible and crosses were being burned in the front of people’s homes. I witnessed a lot of hate and was persecuted many times just for looking different than 99.9% of the other students at my high school. There were many times I wished I could change and be white like the other kids just to avoid the racist insults and fights. I wondered why some people had so much hate towards me for no reason other than my appearance. Heck, I didn’t even have a Japanese last name because I was adopted by a white father after my birth.

So, if you are gay and believe you were born that way and there is nothing you can do about it even if you wanted to, I know what you mean. I have compassion for all of those that are outside of the social norms.

While you may not agree, the strongest evidence in my mind of homosexuality being something that can be overcome was the testimony of people that lived a gay lifestyle and turned away from it by the power of the Holy Spirit. If these people were born gay, how could they now live as heterosexuals? I have yet to hear a legitimate argument that proves otherwise.

To use my life as an example, I can say that within every fiber of my being was an atheist. That I never imagined the day would come that I would admit that God was alive and the Creator of the universe. I never thought there would be a time when I profess Jesus as my Lord & Savior, not even as a joke. I was not at any low point in my life, in fact I was living a great life and didn’t feel as I needed help with anything. However, a solitary train trip to Grand Junction, Colorado one week in October 2004 changed my life forever. It was just me and God and it was indescribable.

As it states in 1 Corinthians 6:11, we were formerly liars and cheaters and idolaters, yet the Holy Spirit brought us from that life and made us dead to sin and alive in Christ. Now when we sin, it is not our spirit that sins, but our flesh. We will struggle with living in the light every day of our lives, yet through Christ we are made clean and through our repentance it is as if we never sinned…he has erased that memory from his mind. I was never gay, but I did lie, idolize money & success, drink in excess and use lots of profanity, along with several other things that would not have honored God had I been a Christian. I really believe that if I can be changed in ways that the Bible describes, anyone can!

A homosexual that never repents for sin is no different than an adulterer or thief or liar that also never repents from sin. When one chooses to live in what they know rather than what Christ calls them to, how can we look to him when we won’t follow him except in time of need?

There are denominations, churches, pastors, priests, bishops and ministers out there that believe they are doing the Lord’s work and encouraging those in a homosexual lifestyle to believe that loving someone of the same sex is honoring God. Even some of these people in pastoral ministry are openly gay as well. I am not here to judge anyone nor state that I am the ultimate authority in the matter of unrepentant sins. However, I believe that the Word of God is for us today and it is how we can know God and get insight into his plan of redemption. I believe that God uses his Word for great things! In fact, in Romans 1:16 it reads: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” The gospel is used by God so that those that believe will be saved. How can one simply just throw that away when it is convenient for their purposes anymore?

If the Bible states homosexuality is a sin, but we choose to ignore that because we say it was written in a different context or that God loves everyone and therefore would not single out homosexuals, then what is next? Can we then commit adultery, engage in sex with multiple partners at the same time, steal, lie, revel in drunkenness and say that these honor God as well? How can we look only at homosexuality in such a context? It’s not possible and only a matter of time before other aspects of Scripture are downplayed in order to make us feel better about our lives.

Whichever way you feel on this issue, please know that while God did create all of us, he did call some to be in light and some not to be. It’s his way of showing that all things can be used for his glory. I find a stark warning to those that live in ways outside of the Scripture, yet believe that God won’t judge them at the appointed time. It is in Matthew 7:21-23 and states: 21″Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

Please don’t be deceived by those that tell you what you want to hear. Look beyond yourself and seek God to reveal the truth to you. If you come away with a view that goes outside of Scripture I won’t submit to your view, but I won’t turn you away or ridicule you or condemn you. God’s plan is not up to me and I can’t let my feelings or emotions get in the way of his righteousness. It’s not my views that will be relevant and your choices are between you and God. His justice will prevail and some will call upon the Lord in the final moment, but hear the words, “I never knew you.”

Check out the post from DJ Chuang and chime in with your opinion

http://www.djchuang.com/

This is just so hilarious

Here’s the wordle for November 15, 2008:

When we are facing adversity, many times we just keep pushing through it hoping we can overcome it. It’s our nature to do so. It’s rooted in pride and being self-centered. Sometimes we get through the problem and praise ourselves for finding a way to deal with the problem, but is that the way God intended for it to be done? Remember what is written in James 4:6:

“he opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Maybe, just maybe, you’ll make it through okay on your own, but you’ll definitely make it through if you just call upon the Lord to overcome your circumstances. It could be that you need a job or your house is getting foreclosed on and you have no where to go. It may be that some things are going wrong in your church or ministry. How about trying to deal with an addiction on your own? Maybe you were viewing some pornography right before you read this and you try to stop, but you just can’t. For some of you it may be some physical illness or even something terminal like cancer. Don’t try and hang onto it and hope that it gets better through your ways. Just invite God to take over and commit to trust in him and wait on his timing. It’s called prayer and it’s something we should force ourselves to go to first in any situation. Prayer is unbelievably powerful.

James 5:13-16:

13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

In each of the 4 verses above, we see the answer is prayer. In trouble, or sick, or stuck in sin? Pray, pray, pray, pray!

Of all things to reference, I was up late last week and I came across an infomercial. A guy is selling some program to help people live a life of faith. I caught it at the exact moment he was telling a story:

A businessman was at home when he got the call that his wife was headed to the hospital to have a baby. As a businessman, he had a personal car and a company car in his driveway. His instinct was to take the personal car since it was personal business he was on. However, something caused him to stop and pray about it. So, he asked God and God responded to take the company car. The businessman didn’t understand the reasoning, but heeded God and took the company car. While he was traveling down the freeway on the way to the hospital, a car slams into him from behind. As they both pull over, the businessman wants to get out and go see how the other driving is doing. He’s concerned as any of us would be. However, something causes him to stop and pray again. He asks the Lord if he should go check on the other driver. God tells him no! So, the businessman stays in his car and waits for the police and ambulance to arrive.

Why was prayer so important during those two times? Well, it turns out that the other driver was a convicted murderer that was out on parole and could have potentially been a threat to the businessman had he confronted him at this car. As for taking the company car instead of the personal car? After being injured severely in the accident and the other driver not having insurance, the businessman received $1 million in coverage from his insurance company because his company car had a high level of insurance. This allowed him to get medical treatment and to cover expenses as he could not work any longer. His personal car only had basic liability coverage of $25,000.

When we pray, we must not only listen for God to respond, but we must be faithful to follow what he asks of us. We must put our trust in God and not in ourselves. May we purposefully humble ourselves before God in all things so that we may seek his hand and carry out his will, giving him all the glory.

While responding to a blog post recently I was compelled to introduce a concept to those that follow my blog. It’s a story that was briefly introduced awhile ago, yet only engaged new Asian readers into the discussion, while most of my readership is not Asian. Asian or not, this is an issue that we must face within the church and I’m curious what you all think.

A reply to one of my comments on the blog was:

“In the short-run, you are right, i don’t think you’ll see much positive growth at all, but ethnicity needs to validated as a gift from God and our inheritance from our immigrant parents. so while i agree with your implication that many would benefit from a multi-ethnic or missional church (culture/ethnicity can be viewed as an inefficiency from many people’s eyes, but), an honest exploration into the question of why God created us to be from a certain place and of a certain people should inspire us to discover our ethnicities and cultures in a redemptive light.

This is where i think the example of the people of israel and the biblical practice of remembering, remembering what God has done, who God is, and who God has made us to be, a very real practice to engage in the ethnic context.”

First of all, let me state very clearly that I am extrapolating something from a post that had a larger context. It is not my intention to argue or criticize the blog author or anyone that shares his viewpoint. I am just taking the statement and inflecting my experiences and ideas in the hopes of engaging in some dialog about the subject (hopefully) from both Asian and non-Asians.

Okay, so I’m Japanese, but I’ll admit there were some times in my life where I wished I could have been born looking like Brad Pitt or Joe Montana (nod to my NorCal upbringing) or David Cassidy. Usually it was so that I could have a girl attracted to me that wouldn’t date me because I was Japanese or so that I could avoid the words and violence associated with racism and prejudice. However, I am who I am and all that I am is for the glory of God.

However, do I want to celebrate my heritage in such a way that I need to have everyone around me be Japanese and understand my culture and my language when I’m in a Sunday church service? Is preserving my heritage in such a way something that can honor God much in the same way that the Israelites were true to their place as God’s chosen people? Did God create me as a Japanese person to engage only other Japanese people and rally us around a common cause of preserving who we are?

The Israelites were in-fact God’s chosen people. They were to inherit the earth as Abraham’s descendants. They were not to intermarry or in anyway corrupt the lineage. However, even in the Old Testament we see evidence of something that goes against this notion. Ruth was a Gentile that came to faith in the one true God. Not just any Gentile, but a Moabite and therefore hated by the Israelites. Ruth marries Boaz and bears a son that can be traced to the family line of Jesus himself.

As we see here, introducing Ruth into the Israelite culture of Judah had a profound place in history. Therefore, what is my place as a Japanese person living in the United States? Am I to segregate myself to a place where I can teach the things of God based on the context of my Japanese culture for those that will understand it because they too are Japanese? Or should I celebrate who I am in Christ and share my culture and experience with others so that they may benefit?

Let me shift to a different scenario to help me make my point. With Barack Obama’s candidacy the discussion of black church and white church came up in the media. There were some black churches (I personally dislike this label even though it is socially acceptable) where the message was preached against white America. It was almost an us-against-them mentality that was glorified. However, what if instead of trying to empower African-Americans in the church to stand up to social injustice from the caucasian world they tried to share their stories outside of the black church in a way that brought attention to what has gone on and continues to go on in their lives? How can white America know what is going on in the black community if the black community segregates themselves from the rest of us? The same is true with Asian-Americans in my opinion.

I talk to so many people today that have no clue what I go through as an Asian-American in society. So many think that racism and prejudice is a thing of the past. You wouldn’t believe how many people think I must be smart in math or must have gone to college at UCLA or Cal or that I must be an engineer or know all there is to know about computers or ask me questions about sushi. The outright hatred of me due to my Asian features has diminished greatly over the years, but the stereotypes have not. How does being exclusively with other Japanese people on Sundays help me to make a difference? What if I could take the fulfillment of one of God’s Ten Commandments to honor your mother and father to a whole ‘nother level by introducing my Japanese culture of being there for my parents in ways that aren’t the norm here in America?

I believe that God created me more to honor him and bring glory to his Son Jesus through my unique perspective of a Japanese person with my own individual experiences than he did to see me perpetuate my ethnic values and cultures at all costs. As the Great Commandment in Matthew 25 calls us to do, we are to preach the gospel to all nations and teach them what Christ has taught us. He didn’t say each nation is responsible for the preaching of the gospel to themselves. Three thousand didn’t come to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and believe so that they could go back to their nations and keep their faith within the borders of their individual nations. Paul didn’t preach there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile only to see us reverse that in order to preserve our ethnic culture in a new land.

I should not have the viewpoint that I am Japanese and you are not so I can perpetuate my culture and heritage in my church and you are excluded, therefore you lose out on all that you could gain through knowing and understanding who I am and what I experienced. Through knowing my struggles with racism and prejudice and the pressures I faced in school here in America you can have some insight on persecution for who I am and how I dealt and continue to deal with that now that I am a Japanese person and a Christian. You can learn how some of the values revealed to us through the Scriptures have been in place in the country of my birth even though less than 1/10th of 1 percent of its people are Christian and how that breaks my heart. You can learn how to look at me as a brother or sister in Christ with individual experiences I can bring to the table and share rather than someone you have no idea how to address since you couldn’t be as mathematical or technologically savvy as me or because you don’t like sushi or whatever.

The harsh reality is that I am different from most of you. Heck, I’m different from many Japanese people as well. However, not only do I truly believe that you can learn from me, I absolutely know that I can learn from you. Together we can celebrate all of God’s people and all that he is doing in this world as the brothers and sisters he created us to be.

Here is my October wordle:

Keeping up with the (church) joneses:

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/best-church-websites/