Soli Deo Gloria

A little more than a month ago, I wrote about creativity and how all the glory belongs to God. And since then, it's been such an exciting journey! God opened doors to things that I never thought I was interested in or dared to even try. I attended the prophecy seminar at Grace Retreat and I was really touched by what my partner spoke over me. Ben Armstrong told us to get a taste of the person - and my partner said that she tasted butter. She told me that butter is in all kinds of food - adding flavor to it. She said that in the same way, my creativity will add flavor to many things. It was really encouraging to hear. Since then, God has also been giving me amazing opportunities throughout the summer to be able to serve through my talents. There have been so many opportunities to photograph families and I definitely learned a lot from these experiences (some pictures can be found here)

Also, there have been limits that I consciously and subconsciously have placed for myself. However, God's been surpassing these limits and have been placing new things into my heart. Recently, I've been interested in design and typography (I didn't know you could download free fonts online until a few weeks ago!). I learned that with Adobe Illustrator you can scan an image you drew on paper and just trace it. Then it'll be an electronic file. How cool is that? And this summer has been full of video projects. This is one of the boundaries I wasn't trying to cross. I told myself I was a photographer, not a videographer and that videos took too much work. But now I am involved in a fitness video project at the Eppley Recreation Center! I'm excited for greater things God has in store for all of us as we learn more.

Also, my camera equipments have been going through a roller coaster right now but I am trusting God that good things will come out of brokenness (broken lenses).

(I was randomly reflecting on my blog title and I realized how fitting it is. Walking with the Lord is such a journey - a journey full of all kinds of emotions, but with full hope and confidence in Him. It's never like I quite imagined it to be, but it's exciting walking with God!)

Grace Retreat (Part 2)

Above is a well-made recap video of Grace Retreat 2014 by Jerico. He did such a great job capturing the main points of each speaker!

At the retreat, I learned a lot from Pastor Stephen Chandler's seminar and message. The seminar, titled "Death by Distraction," was based on Judges 4 when Gideon fought the battle with only 300 soldiers. I learned that God prefers to work with 300 people who has his heart rather than 10,000 people who don't know his heart. Pastor Stephen emphasized the importance of knowing what gifts we receive as Christians because if we don't know what gifts we are supposed to receive, we won't receive it. As Christians, we are not called to fight people, but we are called to fight against the lies the enemy has established in our world.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12)

I really liked when Pastor Stephen said, "Grace Retreat is where God taught me how to war. God will teach you how to war - how to fight for people." Our life isn't supposed to be easy and comfortable here on earth - that's what heaven is for. We are not civilians, but soldiers for the Kingdom of God. And here are the three main points he made:

To be an effective soldier, you need to:

1. Remain focused. There are so many Christinas abandoning what god has in store for them because they forget that they are not a civilian. They are soldiers, but they forget what they were fighting for. Gideon's soldiers who went home because they were afraid forgot that they were slave at home. As soldiers, God has called us to fight for others. 
2. Remain alert. Do not compromise on your relationship with God. I learned that the relationship I have with God is far greater than anything else.
3. Remain fearless. Everybody encounters fear, but how do we deal with it? Go to God. 

Faith of a Centurion

This was from today's early morning prayer meeting!

Matthew 8: 8-10

“The centurion replied, ‘Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go.’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this.’ and he does it.”

I wonder how the centurion must have felt when Jesus told him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” The Bible rarely mentions the phrase that  Jesus was amazed; and whenever it does mention that Jesus was amazed, it was always due to great faith or lack of faith.

In verse 5, a Roman centurion came to Jesus, asking for help. He was not an ordinary citizen - he was a centurion, a high ranked Roman soldier in charge of 100 soldiers. He knew his power and authority very well, but in this circumstance he was helpless. He came to Jesus and said, “Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” The centurion had two confessions. First, he acknowledged that Jesus was Lord. By confessing this, he believed that Jesus had power and authority over him. Second, the centurion acknowledged that the servant was paralyzed and he could do nothing to save him. He had no faith in his ability to help his servant. His faith was not in himself, but was fully on Jesus and Jesus’ authority and power to heal. “The centurion replied, ‘Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go.’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this.’ and he does it.” This amazed Jesus and then Jesus told the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would” and it was done.

The centurion believed that Jesus’ words had authority and could heal his servant - he had great faith in Jesus. We see that all Jesus required was faith and obedience in order to work through the centurion. In the same way, Jesus does not have a list of qualifications we must meet before he uses us or does miracles through us. Instead he requires faith and obedience. But often times when God calls me to do something, I first look at my qualifications. If I feel qualified, I’ll do it, but if I don’t feel qualified, I struggle to accept what God calls me to do. However, I must put my faith not in myself, or my abilities, but fully on Jesus, trusting that he will fulfill the promises he has given me. Although God calls each of us to do different things occupation wise, but he calls each one of us to have faith in Him. Despite the circumstances we may see in front of us, we have faith in God - trusting that he will fulfill the promises he has given us - not because we are able, but because God is faithful. There are promises God has given me that seems impossible when I look at my abilities. For example, I believe that God has called me to the medical path of becoming a doctor. It was easy to say before I entered college that I was going to be pre-med. However, as I entered freshman year, I was hit by the reality that college was hard, really hard. It was much harder than high school and challenged me in many ways more than just the difficulties of school work. Even though I was only a freshman in college, I felt the competitive spirit in the pool of pre-meds. For example, in curved classes as organic chemistry, it feels like while your friends want you to do well in the class, they secretly want you to fail so the curve will be in their favor and vice versa. It’s so easy to compare and see that others are already in research labs, volunteering, getting involved in clubs, and whatever else people are doing and feel behind or unqualified. In the middle of both semesters, I told God that it seemed impossible to do well in some classes - and it would be only by his grace that I was going to do well. And I can assure you, it was only by God’s grace that I did well in those classes. During my freshman year, I realized that the journey to become a doctor is long and hard and it is only possible through having faith in God alone. I have faith that if it is God’s will for me he will carry me through, not because of my abilities, but because he is faithful.

One word: have faith.

Grace Retreat (Part 1)

As always, Grace Retreat was such an encouragement to me. I loved my small group and I was encouraged by how God leads each one of us in his unique ways in our lives. All the girls in my small group were so sweet! In the past, I always saw the media team taking pictures and making videos and told myself that one day I would join the media team. And this year, I joined the team and took pictures for the Grace Retreat! I really enjoyed photographing the attendees and it was a really good experience in general (the pictures that Ann & I took can be found here).

The Grace Retreat was always a time and place where I encountered God in the past. Each year, I was encouraged by the speakers and the prophetic words spoken over me. I hope each person who attended this year had an experience with God; however  I hope that it doesn't end there. The same God we encounter at Grace Retreat is with us today because God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Throughout the year, I've been learning (again) that Christianity is not just about reading my Bible every day, going to church, attending Bible study, etc. It's about a relationship - it's about having an intimate relationship with God, who created the heavens and the earth (which is an amazing privilege and you just have to accept His invitation!). I was actually going to write a blog post about this a few weeks ago, but I didn't and now here it is. I believe that the last school year, God was just telling me to sit in his presence. Throughout the semester I was reminded of the passage of Martha and Mary.

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. (Luke 10: 38-42)

While Martha was cleaning and preparing food for the guests, Mary chose to sit at Jesus' feet. While Jesus was calling me to be like Mary, I wanted to be like Martha. I wanted to do something my freshman year - join an organization, club, do something exciting, make an impact, etc. Yet, Jesus was calling me to simply sit in his presence. However, I really struggled to just sit still and listen to his voice. Simply sitting and doing nothing seemed not that important and it was hard to set aside time to spend time with God. I was too busy running around doing things that seemed important at that time. (It reminds me how Aug used to always tell us that we had to make time to read the Bible and pray instead of wishing for more time in the day.) And as the summer began, God kept calling me to sit still and just spend time with him. Yet, I kept pushing it back. Although I knew how important it was to spend time with God, it was easy for me to keep pushing it back. Setting aside time in His presence is absolutely crucial to my relationship with God. I believe that in this place of intimacy, I will be reminded of who I am in God. I believe that God will show me the blueprints of my future directions and even more.

...to be continued