Posts
"On some occasions I've struggled while speaking in Western churches. There seems to be something missing that leaves me feeling terrible inside. Many meetings are cold and lack the fire and presence of God that we have in China. In the West many Christians have an abundance of possessions, yet they live in a backslidden state."
"If persecution stops, I fear we'll become complacent and fall asleep."
"I can assure the Western church with absolute certainty that you don't need any more church buildings. Church buildings will never bring the revival you seek. The pursuit of more possessions will never being revival. Jesus truly stated, 'A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.' Luke 12:15
"The first thing needed for revival to return to your churches is the Word of the Lord. God's Word is missing. Sure, there are many preachers and thousands of tapes and videos of Bible teaching, but so little contains the sharp truth of God's Word. It's the truth that will set you free. Not only is knowledge of God's Word missing, but obedience to that Word. There's not much action taking place."
"All genuine revivals of the Lord result in believers responding with action and soul winning."
"They open their fat wallets and search for the smallest amount they can give."
"Just because you have a church building doesn't necessarily mean Jesus is with you."
"Of all the strong churches I have visited in the West I've noticed one thing they all have in common: a strong and sacrificial commitment to missions among unreached nations.....I'm talking about a heart to establish God's kingdom in the most gospel-starved and spiritually dark areas of the world, where nobody has ever heard the name of Jesus."
"If you truly want to see God move, the main things you must do is learn the Word of God and have the obedience to do what God tells you to do."
"Tears always come first before the Lord truly moves."
"In China, the greatest miracles we see are not the healings or other things, but lives tranformed by the gospel. We believe we're not called to follow signs and wonders but instead the signs and wonders follow us when the gospel is preached. We don't keep our eyes on the signs and wonders; we keep our eyes on Jesus."
"We learned a lesson that morning. When we arrive at the end of our own strength it is not defeat, but the start of tapping into God's boundless resources. It is when we are weak that we are strong in God."
"Pride had sprung up in my heart like a choking weed. Instead of obeying God's voice, I reasoned with human logic and based my decisions on my own wisdom."
"I feel so sorry that many Christians live in bondage though Jesus has signed their release forms with his own blood. When you've been set free, you should act like it!"
"If we truly claim to follow Jesus then we must do so without imposing any conditions or self-made plans."
"We're not called to live by human reason. All that matters is obedience to God's Word and his leading in our lives. If God says go, we'll go. If he says stay, we'll stay. When we are in his will, we are in the safest place in the world."
"Many people have said to me, 'Yun, you must really love Jesus.' You need to realize that any love I have in my heart for Jesus is only because of his love for me. 'We love because he first loved us.' 1 John 4:19
- All quotes by Brother Yun
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Realization
We think we know ourselves, but we don't. It is assumed that we know things and know ourselves even more. God says he knows us better than we know ourselves, and we've heard the saying, "Our minds are limited, and we know even less about ourselves." This is so true. Have you ever felt so empty, that this world is so boring and meaningless, but couldn't understand why you were feeling this way? You try to fill it with other things, i.e. eating, shopping, drinking, hanging out with friends, etc. We don't know ourselves and can't even comprehend our feelings, so there has to be a higher God. How can there not be? How can you say that you feel empty and don't know why and also say that there is no God?
There are times when we feel something and we just KNOW that "This is it." When we feel real love, you just know, this is it. You know? God shows and gives us real love. There's a reason why God didn't say, "Okay, buying lots of expensive things will completely fulfill you." With God, it's like "This is where I'm supposed to be." You can't get that feeling anywhere else.
End.
There are times when we feel something and we just KNOW that "This is it." When we feel real love, you just know, this is it. You know? God shows and gives us real love. There's a reason why God didn't say, "Okay, buying lots of expensive things will completely fulfill you." With God, it's like "This is where I'm supposed to be." You can't get that feeling anywhere else.
End.
Monday, February 9, 2009
What Life Would Be Like - Big Daddy Weave
I love this song. It's so honest. I can't believe he's just using his voice a guitar. It sounds just like the CD.
I wish I was more of a man
Have you ever felt that way
And if I had to tell you the truth
I'm afraid I'd have to say
That after all I've done and failed to do
I feel like less than I was meant to be
And what if I could fix myself
Maybe then I could get free
I could try to be somebody else
Whose much better off than me
But I need to remember this
That it's when I'm at my weakest
I can clearly see
He made the lame walk
And the dumb talk
He opened blinded eyes to see
That the sun rises on His time
Yet He knows our deepest desperate need
And the world waits
While His heart aches
To realize the dream
I wonder what life would be like
If we let Jesus live through you and me
What if you could see yourself
Through another pair of eyes
What if you could hear the truth
Instead of old familiar lies
And what if you could feel inside
The power of the hand that made the universe
You realize
He made the lame walk
And the dumb talk
He opened blinded eyes to see
That the sun rises on His time
Yet He knows our deepest desperate need
And the world waits
While this heart aches
To realize the dream
I wonder what life would be like
If we let Jesus live through you and me
All our hearts they burn within us
All our lives we've longed for more
So let us lay our lives before the one
Who gave His life for us
I wish I was more of a man
Have you ever felt that way
And if I had to tell you the truth
I'm afraid I'd have to say
That after all I've done and failed to do
I feel like less than I was meant to be
And what if I could fix myself
Maybe then I could get free
I could try to be somebody else
Whose much better off than me
But I need to remember this
That it's when I'm at my weakest
I can clearly see
He made the lame walk
And the dumb talk
He opened blinded eyes to see
That the sun rises on His time
Yet He knows our deepest desperate need
And the world waits
While His heart aches
To realize the dream
I wonder what life would be like
If we let Jesus live through you and me
What if you could see yourself
Through another pair of eyes
What if you could hear the truth
Instead of old familiar lies
And what if you could feel inside
The power of the hand that made the universe
You realize
He made the lame walk
And the dumb talk
He opened blinded eyes to see
That the sun rises on His time
Yet He knows our deepest desperate need
And the world waits
While this heart aches
To realize the dream
I wonder what life would be like
If we let Jesus live through you and me
All our hearts they burn within us
All our lives we've longed for more
So let us lay our lives before the one
Who gave His life for us
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
"Another Day In Paradise" - Big Daddy Weave
(Picture courtesy of Half the Sky Foundation.)
This song reminds me how lucky we are and how we neglect to heed to God's word that "You were naked, and I clothed you" and that if we feed someone less fortunate, we are feeding God himself. This song humbled me.
Another Day in Paradise
She calls out to the man on the street
Sir, can you help me
It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep
Is there somewhere you can tell me
He walks on, doesn't look back
He pretends he can't hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there
Oh think twice, it's another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise
... Just think about it
She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she's been crying
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet
Can't walk, but she's trying
Oh think twice, it's another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise
Oh Lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh Lord, there must be something you can say
You can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that she's been there
Probably been moved on from every place
Cause she didn't fit in there
Oh think twice, it's another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise
You and me in paradise
Think about it
Just think about it
Won't you, won't you please
It's another day, for you and me in paradise
It's just another day for you and me in paradise
It's another day for you and me in paradise
It's just another day for you and me in paradise
In paradise
In paradise
In paradise
In paradise
Trying a New Thing
Okay, this blog has officially become Angela's Blog to God. I find it really hard to sit down and pray for some reason. My heart is willing but the soul is weak...that's why I love the song "When Our Hearts Sing". Lol, jk. I do love that song, though. So, anyway, I'm going to write everything that is on my mind to God. I don't care who reads this. This is actually going to be impossible, because I already gave people links to this page. Hmm, what do I do? I think I'll create another blog. LOL. Forget what I just wrote!
- Angela
- Angela
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The Vision
So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this…
The vision?
The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn't even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.
What is the vision ?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers
choose to loose
that they might one day win
the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground
And the army is discipl(in)ed.
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ?
And the generation prays
like a dying man
with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and
with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.
Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive
inside.
On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.
Don't you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.
How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed.
http://media.24-7prayer.org/thevision/index.html
So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this…
The vision?
The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn't even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.
What is the vision ?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers
choose to loose
that they might one day win
the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground
And the army is discipl(in)ed.
Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ?
And the generation prays
like a dying man
with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and
with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.
Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive
inside.
On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.
Don't you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.
How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed.
http://media.24-7prayer.org/thevision/index.html
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Prayer
Lord,
I just want to thank you for my small group leader, Coco, Angela Liu, and Rachel. I want to thank you for teaching me the faith part of tithe...thank you for the breakthrough. Thank you that the hardest thing for me to give up right now, I have given up, and need you to provide for me instead. THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME WEAK SO YOUR POWER CAN SHOW THROUGH. Thank you for Coco's heart, Lord. I told her about my breakthrough and she started tearing up really badly and enthusiastically hugged me and said, "The Lord loves you so much! I just know it. It takes people a long time to learn this!" Thank you so much for her heart, Lord. Thank you for bringing her and Angela Liu and Rachel into my life. They are so genuine, warm, caring, funny, and self-sacrificing. Lord - just like family...maybe even better than distant family. Thank you that they have seen my bad/negative side and they still love me the same. Thank you that I've found a place and people I can be who I am around. Thank you for always being so incredibly FAITHFUL.
I'M SORRY for doubting that you aren't able to do what you said you're able to do. I'M SORRY for forgetting what you've done for me in the past. Why did I doubt? How could I ever have forgotten? Lord, I need you to do the impossible, because you make everything possible. Lord, thank you for teaching me to EXPECT. I EXPECT that you will make everything possible.
I'M SOLD OUT FOR YOU, and that's an understatement.
"Please know that I am God."
Quotes
1. Yang was surprised by the fact that there two gigantic trash cans in the middle of the shopping street.
Angela Yang : "Oh! Is that a trash can?!"
Angela Liu: Why? You want to get in it? (LOL)
Yang: Hahahaha. No! I was just wondering why it's placed there.
Liu: Yeah, it's just more obvious that way. (HAHA)
2. I always tend to wander off while I'm shopping, and once I started wandering off, and felt like I couldn't move. I turned around and Angela Liu was holding onto my scarf and looking the other way. (hahahahaha).
3. Rachel and Angela Liu are always trying to learn English, but they purposely try to say it with a really heavy accent, and it's so funny.
Angela Yang: So when can you use "ji1 che1"?
Rachel: Like, when someone does something to you and you're like "UHG!"
Angela Liu: Yeah, you know, (heavy accent) you are so motorcycle." Which translates into the Chinese slang, "Ni2 hen3 ji1 che1". (hahahaha)
MORE TO COME....
I just want to thank you for my small group leader, Coco, Angela Liu, and Rachel. I want to thank you for teaching me the faith part of tithe...thank you for the breakthrough. Thank you that the hardest thing for me to give up right now, I have given up, and need you to provide for me instead. THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME WEAK SO YOUR POWER CAN SHOW THROUGH. Thank you for Coco's heart, Lord. I told her about my breakthrough and she started tearing up really badly and enthusiastically hugged me and said, "The Lord loves you so much! I just know it. It takes people a long time to learn this!" Thank you so much for her heart, Lord. Thank you for bringing her and Angela Liu and Rachel into my life. They are so genuine, warm, caring, funny, and self-sacrificing. Lord - just like family...maybe even better than distant family. Thank you that they have seen my bad/negative side and they still love me the same. Thank you that I've found a place and people I can be who I am around. Thank you for always being so incredibly FAITHFUL.
I'M SORRY for doubting that you aren't able to do what you said you're able to do. I'M SORRY for forgetting what you've done for me in the past. Why did I doubt? How could I ever have forgotten? Lord, I need you to do the impossible, because you make everything possible. Lord, thank you for teaching me to EXPECT. I EXPECT that you will make everything possible.
I'M SOLD OUT FOR YOU, and that's an understatement.
"Please know that I am God."
Quotes
1. Yang was surprised by the fact that there two gigantic trash cans in the middle of the shopping street.
Angela Yang : "Oh! Is that a trash can?!"
Angela Liu: Why? You want to get in it? (LOL)
Yang: Hahahaha. No! I was just wondering why it's placed there.
Liu: Yeah, it's just more obvious that way. (HAHA)
2. I always tend to wander off while I'm shopping, and once I started wandering off, and felt like I couldn't move. I turned around and Angela Liu was holding onto my scarf and looking the other way. (hahahahaha).
3. Rachel and Angela Liu are always trying to learn English, but they purposely try to say it with a really heavy accent, and it's so funny.
Angela Yang: So when can you use "ji1 che1"?
Rachel: Like, when someone does something to you and you're like "UHG!"
Angela Liu: Yeah, you know, (heavy accent) you are so motorcycle." Which translates into the Chinese slang, "Ni2 hen3 ji1 che1". (hahahaha)
MORE TO COME....
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Adam Sandler in 'Click'
So, after I finished praying last night, the longest, most passionate prayer I had prayed in a long time, I turned the tv on. It was like 2 am or something. A new movie had just started and it was one of my past favorites - Click. I watched the entire movie, until like 4 am or something, and it really reminded me of what I always preach to myself and others about.
Adam Sandler fast-forwarded everything he hated about life - showering, traffic, arguments with his wife, his boss - but in the end, realized that if he deletes the bad, he deletes a huge part of his life, and that life is made up of the good and the bad. Sometimes we go through life and think "Why do I have to go through this?" or "Why is this happening?" but this movie made me realize that that is what life is about. Who would we be without all those things? Just like when someone tells us to turn the negative into positive - many times, good things come out of bad things. So, God teaches us, throughout our lives through different experiences and hardships, to embrace everything that happens, and turn it into good, which I think is amazing advice.
I'm saying this and I'm not even living in, like, Darfur or something. Can you imagine how BLESSED the persecuted are - that they live with such meaning, such fullness of life? We, who are materially blessed in every way, complain that we are empty. Why the contradiction? Only through our sufferings and hardships do we realize that we are so incredibly blessed and fortunate. Sometimes when volunteering to those less fortunate, I learn priceless things from them, like the joy I see in their eyes, even though they possess nothing of material worth. They give willingly and freely. Humans are so easily spoiled. We take things and hold onto them, forgetting who (God) gave those things to us in the first place.
CAUTION: MOVIE SPOILER!!!!!
In the end, Adam Sandler returned to the moment he fell asleep, like it was just a dream. He made friends with the quirky store guy, ran to his amazingly crappy car and sat in it with joy, drove to his parents' home, kissed and hugged them, went home to his family, kissed and hugged his wife, bought a companion for his dog because "Doggy years go by fast!", and started planning the camping trip he had previously postponed because of work.
It was a great movie. Lol. Yay. Praise God.
"Peace Be Still"
Rush of Fools
Come to Me, you who are weak
Let My strength be yours tonight
Come and rest, let My love be your bed
Let My heart be yours tonight
Peace be still, Peace be still
Please be still and know that I am God
and know that I am God
Come empty cup, let Me fill you up
I'll descend on you like a dove tonight
Lift your head, let your eyes fall into Mine
Let your fear subside tonight
Adam Sandler fast-forwarded everything he hated about life - showering, traffic, arguments with his wife, his boss - but in the end, realized that if he deletes the bad, he deletes a huge part of his life, and that life is made up of the good and the bad. Sometimes we go through life and think "Why do I have to go through this?" or "Why is this happening?" but this movie made me realize that that is what life is about. Who would we be without all those things? Just like when someone tells us to turn the negative into positive - many times, good things come out of bad things. So, God teaches us, throughout our lives through different experiences and hardships, to embrace everything that happens, and turn it into good, which I think is amazing advice.
I'm saying this and I'm not even living in, like, Darfur or something. Can you imagine how BLESSED the persecuted are - that they live with such meaning, such fullness of life? We, who are materially blessed in every way, complain that we are empty. Why the contradiction? Only through our sufferings and hardships do we realize that we are so incredibly blessed and fortunate. Sometimes when volunteering to those less fortunate, I learn priceless things from them, like the joy I see in their eyes, even though they possess nothing of material worth. They give willingly and freely. Humans are so easily spoiled. We take things and hold onto them, forgetting who (God) gave those things to us in the first place.
CAUTION: MOVIE SPOILER!!!!!
In the end, Adam Sandler returned to the moment he fell asleep, like it was just a dream. He made friends with the quirky store guy, ran to his amazingly crappy car and sat in it with joy, drove to his parents' home, kissed and hugged them, went home to his family, kissed and hugged his wife, bought a companion for his dog because "Doggy years go by fast!", and started planning the camping trip he had previously postponed because of work.
It was a great movie. Lol. Yay. Praise God.
"Peace Be Still"
Rush of Fools
Come to Me, you who are weak
Let My strength be yours tonight
Come and rest, let My love be your bed
Let My heart be yours tonight
Peace be still, Peace be still
Please be still and know that I am God
and know that I am God
Come empty cup, let Me fill you up
I'll descend on you like a dove tonight
Lift your head, let your eyes fall into Mine
Let your fear subside tonight
Rush of Fools - When Our Hearts Sing
Lord Father,
Give me the words when I don't have enough wisdom. Father, guide me and lead me to where you want me to be. Open my eyes to who I am in your view. Help me see myself the way you see me. Reveal yourself. Father, you are all-knowing, omnipotent. You can take the smartest person I know and make him search for you. Lord Father, I pray for those who are searching, for the empty, for the lonely, for the broken. One snap of your finger, and IT'S DONE. Father, hear my prayer.
On another note, Rick Warren is praying at Obama's inauguration! Yay for Evangelicals!!
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