The same God...old and new

I wake up, thanking God for another day. I shall live by His grace.

I praise the LORD who created the heavens and the earth, who made us in His image, who gave us freedom - we are free to choose to do the right things (even choose to love people my flesh doesn't really care for - because God loved us first - it is different from pretending), giving us the new insight to see things differently through His words (can't see right with only our own eyes, we need the Holy Spirit), who clothes the naked, who releases the oppressed and the bound, who raises the downtrodden, who provides all our needs, who guides us on our path, who encourages us (yes, our God is an encourager!), and who restores hope and vigor to the weary, mending the broken reed, causing dying wick to flame.

Isaiah 61 (New International Version)
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God.

You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.
Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. "For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed." I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

Jesus read this portion of Isaiah at church in Luke chapter 4.

17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

The New Testament is like a commentary for the Old Testament sometimes. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever so the NT is connected to the OT. I want my ears to hear what Jesus taught about the OT.

I sometimes get the feeling that people look down on the Old Testament. We modern Christians have a certain image of the Old Testament. The Bible is about our God who worked in the lives of Abraham, Elijah, Peter, Paul, etc... It is not about those people who walked with God.

So I read the Jewish prayer book with a fresh mind, using it as a way to understanding God more, and read it with my heart, and wrote my prayer based on it. That's what I wrote at the beginning of today's blog. If I didn't say so, no one can tell it is from the Jewish prayer book.

May it be about God and our Jesus, not about Jew or Gentiles...

"For we are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians)

Time to go on

Today is my special day.

Over twenty years ago I remember seeing Heald College and wondered what it would be like to start going there.

In Oct. 08 when I was laid off from my part time job and could not get another part time or full time job, I decided to go to get educated more through a diploma program.

The year 2009 was a blast! I thank God for the opportunity. I never thought I had a good brain, but I could do it because of Him. I embraced every hour of it. I loved even my homework.

I had so much fun at graduation for just being there and breathed in every moment of it this evening! As my friend said in another occasion, I was floating in God's grace.

Thank you, my Father.

Hanukkah candy dish

I love this dish. The color and design and everything is perfect. It is a candy dish for Hanukkah.

I remember you, Devorah. If you ever see this blog, leave a comment!! Years ago when I first started to be attracted by the Jewish culture and the Old Testament, I was listening to a message on a tape. She challenged the audience to love a Jewish person. I prayed that God will send me a Jewish person that I can love because I didn't know anyone. Then, out of nowhere I met a Messianic Jewish lady, Devorah. I gave her one of my favorite CDs, Old and New, for a Christmas present that year and she gave this dish to me. We didn't know we had gifts for each other. After awhile she moved away and we didn't continue contacting each other. I hope she is doing well.

I haven't looked into the Jewish festivals all these years because I am trying to understand how they started first. Then, of course it will take a long time... But when God wants to show it to me more in detail, I think the right timing will come. In the meantime, I keep studying the scriptures.

This year my daughter saw a Hanukkah cat bed at Target and we bought it because our cat doesn't have a bed. I will have to post a picture sometime.

Fertile Crescent and God's trace

Here is a quote from Wikipedia.

The term "Fertile Crescent" was coined by University of Chicago archaeologist James Henry Breasted in his "Ancient Records of Egypt", around 1900.^[1] The region was named so due to its rich soil and crescent shape.

"Due to its rich soil and crescent shape," it says!
Here is the map that shows the Fertile Crescent. I was amazed to see the map!! It is as though God has blessed Abraham wherever he went! I think it shows how God was truly with Abraham! It is as though God was already blessing him, and the rich soil is the evidence.

It is just like Christians because we carry God's light.

My son took me out to dinner last week when the rest of the family was out of town. His choice was an Asian restaurant where they displayed the whole body of so-called gods. He said, "It's a little dark, not so crowded, and some statues of Buddha are there." And he smiled. At first I resisted, then decided to go along with him because he said that we carried the light of Jesus and go in there. We had a good time and enjoyed the food.

I need faith

"Where is your faith?" my devotional book says.
I see the overwhelming big wave coming my way because my faith is suddenly in the surroundings. Jesus says to believe Him.

Abraham believed and he was counted as righteous.
When he believed God for the promise, there was no signed paper or any thing to prove that it would come true. He had only God's promise, and he believed.

'Faith like Abraham's ' is what I need lately.


(12/01/2008)

God is bigger than any trouble

I am looking for a job right now and I started to feel pressure just because days are going by quickly and feel the need to rush and go to another chapter of my life quickly. The timing looks bad now that a lot of American people are in trouble financially and I feel like everything is going downhill. But I was forgetting that my God is bigger than any trouble around the world. A friend of mine sent me an email with a very encouraging words of God. It was not specifically for me, but it was very encouraging to be reminded that our God wants to give us peace that comes only from knowing Him.

(from 11/7/2008)

to be free

I worry too much even after I came to believe in Jesus. My son is being free spiritually more and more, and he is telling me not to worry. By his words I realize I am worrying or being in the negative mode instead of praying.

My motto is, "let the Baptists reach out to people through potlucks (they are known to have potlucks), let the Evangelicals reach out to people through their serving hearts (they are evangelicals), let the Charismatics roll, be healed inside, and give testimonies (they are called 'holly rollers' sometimes)." I did not know what the denominations were when I started going to church. In fact, because the name sounded similar, I went to a Catholic church when I was looking for a protestant church someone told me about. I even talked to the priest there and explained who had told me about his church. He had no clue. The following week I realized that it was a wrong church, and I never went back there. I didn't know the difference. My church I went in Japan was a pentecostal church. There were gentle missionaries from Europe. I took a lot of notes which I sill have and look sometimes. Looking back, I learned a lot from them. After I moved to the States, my husband I went to a traditional church. My husband is Baptist/Presbyterian as he was growing up. Then we moved from church to church for some reasons that I am not going to write here. You know what. I have friends in a lot of different churches. When we talk about Jesus and the Bible honestly, I feel that the Holy Spirit is indeed One. I don't want to look down on other churches even though I may disagree with what they teach. They are also believing Jesus. Wherever we go, if we believe in Jesus, we can be one. I need to be reminded of that because it feels good like sweet honey in my throat and my flesh enjoys it when I talk negatively about what is wrong with some churches. (The ones that don't deny Jesus as the Savior are what I am referring to here.) I want to love them as they are, but I was struggling to be free to love them, because I could not be free to be myself.

This morning I listened to Joseph Prince on Youtube.com. His message gave me energy and freedom. I had been trying to be a 'good, regular christian'. I tried to fit in the traditional churches. But I feel like an ugly duckling. Listening to Pastor Joseph Prince simply showed me I was bound by my own idea of what a christian should be and somehow I decided the way I was was not right. Pastor Prince said to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit. When we follow the Holy Spirit, we are led to the only one place - the victory.

I want to walk the path in front of me with the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I want to be free to be in the Holy Spirit and be free to love others without worrying about them to love me back.
Please, Holy Spirit, come and guide me. I cannot do it myself.

(from 09/14/2008)

memorizing scriptures

When I started going to church many years ago, I didn't even try to memorize scriptures. I felt like my brain would burst if I tried to quote a verse even though I heard one many times, like "God so loved the world that He gave his only son..." John 3:16. I still can not say it perfectly after so many years..But I know what it means and where it is.

Then when Vineyard music came into my life, I sang their songs and worshiped whenever I had a chance just like my kids listen to Hillsong a lot nowadays.. After a while, I realized I knew some scriptures mentioned in the sermon. That was because of the Vineyard songs I was learning. A lot of their songs are directly from the Bible. I was singing some scriptures. While singing Vineyard songs, I was singing scriptures without knowing it. I was hitting two birds with one stone! Nice.

Then I found out it is true that one goes closer to God when she/he is having difficult times. I was in a pit. My dear friend told me to be free in my worship time at home. Then she recommended to read Galatians because Paul's letter to the Galatians is about being fee. I was in trouble. I had never told anyone that I had a problem with Paul. Yes. Paul in the New Testament. He is difficult. He doesn't make sense. I cannot read his writing without being frustrated. But the majority of the NT is his letters. Ah...am I really a Christian? ( I knew I believed Jesus and my salvation has nothing to do with who I am, yet I was feeling I was not a 'normal' Christian because I had a problem with Paul.) I said 'OK' to my friend.

During that time another friend of mine was leading a women's group at church. The title of her group was something like 'memorizing scriptures'. I felt terrible for her. It didn't sound very interesting. I thought, 'I hope some people would come..'. After a while there was a women's conference at church. Ladies who memorized scriptures shared their testimonies and their memorized scriptures. It was not a verse here and a verse there. It was either an entire chapter or an entire book! I looked around. No one was asleep. Everybody's eyes were staring at the front, and everybody's ears were listening. There was a great quietness in the whole place. It was one of the most pure, joy experience I ever had.

It took me 3 years to memorize the whole book of Galatians. I said Galatians 1:1 over 1000 times!! (1:1 is "this letter is from Paul, an apostle") Now I am working on a slide show to go with it.

I am also working on the book of Revelation because I have a wonderful study tool: a CD set of Karen Heimbuch. My goal is to go up to the end of the letter to the seventh church. (chapter 3)

(edited from 9/4/2008)

Upon studying the Scriptures

My knowledge is not so broad but I love talking about the Bible. When we talk about the Bible, we can not ignore the Israelite people. When I was studying the Bible in a group, sometimes we were confused because different translations say different things. It is an endless discussion if we study every translation... then we add our own. Then I thought going back to the original language (Hebrew) would be the best way to study the Bible. Crazy thought? Even at my slowest level, having that knowledge I learned from the original scriptures makes it delightful to study the scriptures more. Then I am discovering that the Israelite people (or the Jewish people) are not really included in the picture when we hear teachings from the pulpit. I notice that as I read the Bible more. It is a strange thing. Then I became critical about teachings we are getting through some well known preaches.

When I study the Bible, I am reminded of what my friend said to me as I was pointing out some misunderstandings in the Bible we have been taught in Christian churches. She pointed out that a lot of people have come to know Jesus even through those messages...

I must have been becoming too proud and also too focused on details. I should look up often and make sure that I am saved by the grace of God, not because we know the Bible more. I understand that. And I will also keep looking up the words and studying because my heart rejoices as I do that. I am full of joy when I understand something....and I believe it is not because I am trying or I am 'getting there' or I am diligent. I believe God is revealing certain things to me when I go into the word of God. Anyone who go there will receive something from God!

So today I went to youtube and looked for some Hebrew teaching material. A lot of people are studying. I was encouraged. I haven't made much progress since I started learning the aleph-bet (Hebrew alphabet), but I am not giving up...



(edited from 9/1/2008)

my day today

Reading Phinehas inspired me to go back to Genesis and see what kind of background he had... I am using a roll of an old fax paper to do this because I figured it was going to be long. This is very interesting to me. If I can figure out how to input my picture of my genealogy project, I would like to upload it in my blog.

Today my son's friend came over and cleaned my son's room! My son helped him, of course. His friend was so good. His mom left the family long ago and he has been in charge of cleaning and other things around the house. This young man had a difficult time when he was a little younger, but now his life has changed because of Jesus. He told me. I am usually too shy to jump in and talk with teenagers (even among my kids' friends), but I sat with them while they came home from their part-time summer job for late dinner. We may think that those life-changing stories are only on TV shows or only in another country but it is happening around me (around my son). God is doing something in the next generation and they are inspiring us, the older generation, to dig into the Word. I have to admit that I am not as evangelistic as they are, but I am very encouraged!

They also inspired me to clean the laundry room today. That's good. ヽ(＠^ー^＠)ノ
(edited and transferred from 7/24/2008)