His Last Week

This week, we will be reminded of Jesus' last week before He was crucified.
Five days before the day Passover, Jesus entered Jerusalem.
He was welcomed with palm trees, and red carpet rolled out for Him to walk on.
The red carpet symbolized the honor and respect that Jesus received from the crowds.
The people shouted in what we see in John 12:13
"Hosanna!"
   "Blessed is he who comes in
the name of the Lord!"
   "Blessed is the King of
Israel!"
Jesus is our King.
Jesus is our Lord.
Jesus is our Savior.
He is the Messiah.
Jesus predicted that He would be betrayed and killed.
That is how it was.
It worried the disciples and upset them.
Jesus predicted that Peter would deny Him three times.
Therefore, He had to go alone.
Psalm 24:10 "Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory."

Jehovah's Witness

As I was devouring my congee and Chinese donuts, two elders knocked on my house door.
My mom opened it and they were talking about Jesus in front of her.
She didn't understand anything, so she told me to come up because I was "interested" in these things.
Okay, fine, I was interested in the spiritual conversations.
It seems they "knew" what they were talking about.
Anyhow, I didn't argue back.
I wasn't even ready to give good arguments since I was eating breakfast and focusing on what to do for today.
I especially didn't want to argue with them in front of my mom.
They said a lot of things that misinterpret the Scripture.
Animals have souls?????
Where in the world does it say that?
In their Bible (New World Translation), it talks about it but their Bible is mistranslated.
Not in my Bible.
They said a lot of things that gave me interesting in studying.
First of all, the difference between Soul and Spirit.
Second, Soul Sleep (Sleeping Beauty Entries in the past).
Third, their interpretation of Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit.
Anyhow, time to be ready for their next visit.
Jesus said, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and your will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." ~ Acts 1:8

Think (Psalm 62:1-2; 5-8)

Ponder.
Ponder...
Ponder......
A lot can go on in my head in just one day.
I cannot define it.
But there are quite a lot things that I can think about.
What gives?
If I am not willing to commit, then why does my heart want to commit?
I am having a dilemma.
I've been missing out on fellowship these days.
How I long to spend time with my bro and sis at church.
How I long to study the Bible with PJ.
O'Lord......
Whom have I in heaven but you?
Does it honor You if I go and meet up with my team as a way to show my appreciation by doing it for Your glory than to commit myself in studying the Bible with PJ?
Jesus, what would You do if You were on my shoes?
Lord, You know my inmost heart.
You know it.
My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will no be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
TRUST IN HIM AT ALL TIMES, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Calibrating Distress (Psalm 18:32; 55:22)

Just when I thought I have enough of insanity, I might be going overboard.
Can school work very drive me this way?
Perhaps it is not the stress.
Actually, there is more to it than ever.
If you could understand where I am coming from, then you won't be surprise of this situation that I am going through.
Never mind, you will probably not understanding anyhow.
When I go to school, my heart aches.
What are some of the causes that make my heart aches so much.
Hopefully I don't have cancer or illness.
It is troublesome.
Why am I so worried?
Or am I worried?
Am I trusting God to take me through?
I do believe and trust in His salvation.
Who can imagine that I could ever go through this distress?
The pain and longing to understand and know the truth.
The truth never changes - it will always remain the same in reality.
If it is not the truth, then why am I being dragged along in this game?
"Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar." Isaiah 33:17
However, I do look forward to seeing the king.
I do look forward to seeing the truth.
I can already ponder on that moment when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus had already went through that moment.
"He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply DISTRESSED and TROUBLED." Mark 14:33
I wonder if it is even possible for me to sweat in blood.
I believe this is the moment where I must yield to His will.
I must face before Him and the fact that this is what He wants me.
He wants me to experience this.
It doesn't mean He'll leave me here alone, but He is with me.
Can I trust Him?
Yes.

Psalm 18:32" IT IS God who arms me with strength,
         And makes my way
perfect."

Psalm 55:22 "Cast your burden on the LORD,
         And He shall sustain you;
         He
shall never permit the righteous to be moved."

Cheer up, Tommy =)

Do not invite Jesus into your heart (Proverbs 22:17-19)

Yup. That's not a typo. MASAO really said it.
Do
not invite Jesus into your heart. But rather, give your heart (and
your mind, your body, your future, your all) to Jesus.

The
phrase, "invite Jesus into your heart" is NEVER found in the Bible (This
phrase was invented by people in modern times to appeal to an
emotion-oriented and self-centered generation).

What we see in
the Bible are people giving themselves to Jesus to follow him. We see
Peter dropping his nets to follow Jesus. We see Paul ditching his
popular Pharisee crowd to follow Jesus.

The Bible speaks of
"receiving" Jesus (John 1:12, Revelation 3:20), but these verses do not
refer to inviting Jesus into our "hearts." These verses speak of
receiving Jesus as Lord, Saviour, and Friend.

The problem with
"inviting Jesus into our hearts" is that it reinforces a small, cuddly,
self-centered, action-less view of Jesus.

When you love and
honour a person, do you invite him into your heart? No, that's silly.
You give him your heart. You trust him with your heart. You persevere
to understand him. You wait patiently when he is silent. You smile
just to know that he is thinking of you. You let him plan your future.

Jesus
is not a "feeling" or an "idea." He is a person. He cannot fit in our
puny little hearts. He is God taking on human form. Sure, he is not
in front of us right now. But he will return, or we may go to him
before that. But he has left his words. He has given his Spirit so
that we may experience his presence.

Just as a friend or a family
member remains REAL no matter how far he is from us at the present
moment, Jesus is real. And we have faith in him not by inviting him
into our hearts, but by getting to know him and following him.

I was reading over my youth facebook group discussions or devotions that Masao Morinaga has kindly and lovingly posted. I have been challenged by a lot of this topics. This topic can struck a lot of people I think.

Anger (Isaiah 30:27-33)

Honestly, I can never be this angry.
The last time I was angry was at the end of last semester.
I was furious and irritated.
Why are things so unfair sometimes?
Like what a lot of people would say, "There's a reason."
Sometimes it is hard to accept that reason and get on with it.
I have to move on and start working hard.
I confess, I'm not angry because I can't finish the project.
I'm angry because of my partner.
This anger gets me so irritated.
I do love my partner though, and I do forgive him for making me go through this distress.
When I think about anger, I wonder how angry can God be?
Well, He's angry enough to destroy all of us out of justice and righteousness.
I can never ever be as angry as God.
Reading upon the Passage of Isaiah, sometimes it does get me frighten to picture what God's wrath is like.
I actually don't want to know how it might look like.
His anger BURNS.
Guess where you will see God's wrath?
We all get the idea that hell is ruled over by the devil...not true
We get the idea and ask this controversial topic, "Can a loving God create hell?"
You go around and see posters of devils or demons ruling over hell.
Watching the Simpson's Halloween Episode and seeing Homer being tormented by the devil or the chief warden by forcing him to continually eat donuts, and Homer enjoys this torment.
Paul Washer (search him up) quoted this, "Don't by in to this idea that heaven is heaven because God is there, and hell is hell because God is NOT there. No my friend, hell is hell because God IS there. Hell is the flaming, wrath, and justice of God. It is not the devil who rules over hell."

Addiction

Sitting here listening to students talking in lecture and contributing discussions to the Instructor is so boring!
Before, they were talking about banana?
Now, they are talking about facebook.
Anyhow, since they are talking, I'm going to get distracted for a bit and do a little bit of update.
I realized that I am addicted to food.
Not just quantity of food, but the quality of the food.
I don't feel like eating at home.
Now I feel bad for saying that because I don't want to sound like my mom's food are terrible.
Actually, she's a good cook and I love her food.
However, I do love to try good food in other culture.
I love all sorts of food.
For those who don't know, I HATE mushrooms.
What kind of food do I love to try?
Here are the lists I could name:
Greek dishes.
GUU with new different dishes.
All you can eat sushi or BBQ.
There are lists.
I want to let you guys know that this is becoming more of a problem for me.
I am spending too much!!!!
Not taking good stewardship that God has gracious provided for me.
Instead, I take advantage of it.
But in the end, I will have to pay them back.
Reap what you sow.
Please keep this in prayer.
I am desperately need to stop spending money and start eating at home more and learn how to cook.

Let's dig deep (Luke 3:21-22)

When were they baptized?
Baptism is in progress (being baptized)
What does it mean by “all the people”?  Who are they?
What was Jesus praying?
Jesus was baptized while the other were being baptized
What the descent physical?  Could the people see it?  “Bodily form” sounds pretty physical.
Someone saw the descent of the Spirit (but not Luke).
Happened before Jesus began his ministry.
Why
the dove?  In ancient near east, dove was a symbol of war.  Later Jesus
says, “I have not come to unite, but to divide” in Luke 12.
Who
baptized Jesus?  Was John the Baptist in prison during this time? 
Other gospels say John the Baptist did.  Luke writes in pericibes
meaning the chronicle order is not necessarily the same as the textual
order.  In the place in the text where Luke describes the imprisonment,
he sounds like he's talking about the future.
Voice came from heaven.  What does that mean?  Where's heaven?  How did people perceive the voice?
What does heaven looked like when it is “opened”?
God
is “well pleased” with Jesus?  How does that connect with the degree to
which he loves his Son?  God gives us grace, but Jesus doesn't require
grace from God.
Mark: Heaven is opened when Jesus came up out of the water.
Why did he put Jesus in a group of people (being baptized) rather than setting him apart?
Jesus didn't have his own private ceremony.  There was a lot of people there.
Baptism
was normal and happened often during messianic movements and Jesus'
baptism was normal until heaven opens.  Then Luke lists of his
genealogy.

Wow, I can never realize that reading only two verses can dig out so much questions.
In terms of school life, I really hate TECH 114, therefore, I have no good comment about it.
So far, school work is piling up - deadlines after deadlines.
God has been really good to me and I can never take that for granted.
I ask that He'll also bless others with the same experience that I am having.
No matter how difficult life could be, we could always turn to Him.
We should always turn to Him even though we're not in trouble.
This just came on top of my mind.
I want to list out one of my favorite Bible verse in each book.
That would be interesting.
I have been struggling with devotions these days and I am picking back up again.
Please do pray for me as I am continually working in my friend's life right now.
I can sense God is slowly working in his heart, although he does want to seek to be good and have good moral standards.
"Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an UNDYING love." ~ Ephesians 6:24

It's over

Yesterday, it was the last day of the Olympic.
I probably would not forget this moment that I experienced.
So much has happened, and so much excitement just around the corner.
But now, downtown will settle down this week.
Athletes and tourists are heading back home!
This is my first time that I have ever appreciated the Olympic because I never cared about it before.
I wish that Vancouver will host the Olympic again...which will take another century =(
Most importantly, God is coming.
Seeing all the excitement as Canada won another gold medal in hockey.
Imagine, people roaming in the street, yelling with excitement and tears...imagine they all worshiped God like that.
Jesus has conquered the grave, and that is far more better than just a gold medal.
Our true reward is waiting for us in heaven.
Crown Him with many crowns.