An Easter to Remember

Last weekend was Easter (4/4/10) and probably an Easter I’ll never forget. I grew up in a household in which my parents were not Christians. Yet they still allowed me to attend church with my neighbors. On July 11, 2002, about a year after I began attending church, I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior and have been pursuing Him ever since. A lot has happened in my life since then. I’ve been really involved with church, different ministries, attending many Christian events and conferences, and sharing my faith with others for the past 8 years.

Despite all this, I had never followed through with the first act of obedience that Christ calls us to, in being baptized (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38). After accepting Christ at Crossroads Worldwide Summer Camp, I told my parents about my decision to follow Christ and they simply did not understand. I asked them if I could be baptized and they said ‘No.’ They believed baptism would be my lifetime commitment to the church. In some sense, that part had already taken place in my heart, I had already made a commitment to follow after Christ and build His Church on Earth. I decided to honor and respect my parent’s decision and not be baptized.

As the years went on, I honestly forgot about it. I am now 21, and over the past year God had really been pressing on my heart to get it done, be baptized! I did not know when or where I wanted it to be done. I wanted to be baptized with my sister and for my friends and parents to be there. Eventually, I realized: I was putting an act of obedience to God into a box and making it about me.

On Easter Sunday this year, I attended The Summit Church, where I attend when I am home from school. I love this church and it’s vision to reach others and the world. For Easter, Summit was doing baptisms on the spot, all day long. Pastor J.D. Greear’s message was the testimony of the first African to become a believer (Acts 8:25-40). At the end of the African’s testimony, the African accepted Christ and was baptized immediately. So at the end of J.D.’s message, he called for everyone who hadn’t been baptized to come forth and be baptized. It doesn’t matter if you accepted Christ 5 seconds ago or 20 years ago. The first act of obedience is to be baptized. It is seen throughout scripture and especially in the book of Acts. Whenever there is conversion, there is baptism almost immediately. God impressed on my heart to do so. Wrecking whatever I had planned to do for me being baptized. I was so joyful and on the verge of tears at first, because I had waited so long for the moment to be baptized and it had come! I went up front and went outside to be baptized (Summit provided an extra set of clothes to be baptized in and a towel!). It felt great being dunked that day! It was a great day to be baptized on too, as I celebrated and remembered what Jesus Christ did for me. Dying on the cross for our sins, raising from the grave and conquering death, then being lifted to heaven giving us hope!

What acts of obedience to God are we trying to make convenient to ourselves?

The testimony of the first African believer:
Acts 8:25-40
An Ethiopian Receives Christ

25 So, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back toJerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. 26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, ”Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalemto Gaza.” (This is a desert road. ) 27 So he got up and went ; and there was an Ethiopianeunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, ”Go up and join this chariot.”30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand whatyou are reading ?” 31 And he said, ”Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And heinvited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was readingwas this : “HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER ; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITSSHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. 33 ”IN HUMILIATION HISJUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY ; WHO WILL RELATE HIS GENERATION ? FOR HIS LIFE ISREMOVED FROM THE EARTH.” 34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, ”Please tell me, ofwhom does the prophet say this ? Of himself or of someone else ?” 35 Then Philip opened hismouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along theroad they came to some water ; and the eunuch said, ”Look ! Water ! What prevents me from being baptized ?” 37 [And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And heanswered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."] 38 And he ordered the chariotto stop ; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptizedhim. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away ; and theeunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came toCaesarea.

Checking the ABCs for CPR

As I was taking my CPR review class for summer camp and we were reviewing the ABCs – Airway, Breathing and Circulation, my mind began to connect on how this relates to the Gospel and our lives with some challenge questions for each.

Airway – What do we surround ourselves with? Friends that encourage and challenge us in faith or friends that tear us down? How does the music we listen to affect us? How about the TV shows we are watching?
“But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
-Hebrews 3:13
“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
-1 Corinthians 10:31

Breathing – What are we taking in? Are we spending time with God? In His word? In Prayer?
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
-Psalm 119:105
“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
-Colossians 4:2-4

Circulation – Are we circulating the message of the Gospel and telling the world? Not just in telling but are we worshiping God in every aspect of our life?
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
-Matthew 28:19-20
“He [Jesus] said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’”
-Acts 1:7-8

Summer 2009 Goals

I am taking summer school before I head off to work at Crossroads Summer camp and I have a lot of free time on my hands so I came up with a list of goals/challenges for myself this summer BEFORE I go to Crossroads June 24 and I will keep everyone posted on how I am doing with each. All of it is for the practice of discipline and to not be a “sloth” this summer before camp.

-Run 3 miles – I am currently up to 1.5 miles without stopping, but this is out of learning discipline and I am a pretty fast runner when it comes to short distances, but i would like to build my cardio-endurance

-Memorize Romans 6 – A great passage on salvation, and I believe you can use just this passage to lead someone to Christ

-Memorize Campus Crusade for Christ’s “Knowing God Personally” pamphlet/track – 1) Part of going to East Asia on Summer Project in general is to memorize this 2) As a bible study leader for Crusade in the Fall I am required to be familiar with the 4 spiritual laws found in the KGP. 3) It is a very effective evangelism tool.

-Finish ‘Wide Awake‘ – Honestly I’ve been reading this since October. McManus has a lot of really great points and ideas in this book, but it just never really ‘hooked’ me and I’ve been slow in reading it. Personally I have a thing for finishing things I have started.

-Start reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ‘Cost of Discipleship‘ – I read a chapter of this in high school for Summer Forum at Gardner-Webb University, and it was a really challenging book and went over my head, I would love to tackle it again now that I am in college and have matured more spiritually.

-To be a DIFFERENCE this summer at UNCW – God has been challenging me the past couple days to impact UNCW this summer for Christ. Walking around on campus this past week, it seems we have taken a break from reaching out to the students. There are a lot of students still here, and as believers we have seen and heard, so we are responsible for letting others know about the love of Christ. Are we as believers reaching the ones who don’t know Christ this summer? If you are reading this and here in Wilmington for the summer or would like to help in general, I would love to serve with you, please contact me (kdb6310@uncw.edu). I am thinking of starting with something very fundamental first, a weekly prayer group. How can we have a movement of God, without first going to God in prayer? Prayer must be our foundation.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
-Colossians 4:2-4

dream BIG, pray BIG

This past year I was Co-Vice President of Invisible Children United at UNCW and what a year it was. I became in charge of communications (email and facebook), helping run meetings and plan events. 2 major events that we put on was the annual ‘DISPLACE ME’ walk from our campus to downtown Wilmington and spend the night in front of the courthouse. The 2nd event was an Invisible Children Benefit Concert that I took charge of with the help of a magnificent Co-Vice President and friend Kristen VanDeusen. Both of these event could not have come together except by the grace of God and His might power through us.

The Benefit Concert in particular is something that I began to dream back in October and pray, pray BIG. Boy did God provide!

In the midst of this past year, I’ve been reading ”Wide Awake” by Erwin McManus (still am cause I am slow and could never find the balance of ‘fun’ reading and school). I’ve seen the principles that he proposes about living Wide Awake come to life and God has just blown me away and I am not afraid to dream BIG now. And this is my testimony to some of McManus’ Wide Awake principles through the Invisible Children Benefit Concert:

DREAM: I was given the dream of this benefit concert in October and thats just where it began. I dreamed of packing out the local concert venue, the Soapbox for Invisible Children, free of charge to us as a club and to simply raise money with the door entry fee.

DISCOVE: Since the dream was in place, it was time to DISCOVER and EXPLORE how it was going to be put together. God helped out by 1st by providing a partner! Kristen! We began searching and asking bands if they would play for free, brainstorming and planning fundraisers in general, think about advertising the concert, date/time, etc. and yes we believed we were in over our heads at some points.

ADAPT: Adapting was HUGE for us…we got the Soapbox for our venue, but dates didn’t work out, calling/emailing/facebooking/myspacing/whatever form of communication you can think of was EXTREMELY hard with the Soapbox as they never responded it seemed like, Patience was so key. The Soapbox asked for $300 for the rent of the space/lighting/sound which is really good! We turned to the Residence Hall Association on our campus for some money at first they were going to provide, but then withdrew their offer later. We adapted, we would just use some of how much we made from the concert to pay the Soapbox and trust that God would provide and overwhelming amount to us.

EXPECT: As everything started to fall into place, it was time to expect great things to happen at the concert, but little did we know, God’s plans were bigger and He provided.

FOCUS: Along this process, both Kristen and myself did lose FOCUS. We were trying to put the concert together on our own will. We hit rock bottom and the process slid backwards. At the peak of realizing we were not going to get any funds from any organization on campus, not able to get some fundraisers in place, the Soapbox not responding to our messages, and bands asking for money, we finally realized “We got to pray before our little concert committee meetings, and leave it up to God.” That 1st day we did so, there was relief and comfort that God was in control. Later that week, a band came to US and asked to play at our concert for free, same with another from Michigan, but at that point we only accepted the local one, who would eventually headline, Crimson Refuge.

CREATE: The week came for the concert, we had 400 flyers and several posters printed and began tabling on our campus to advertise, and interest/awareness was raised. Concert day: we got there early to set the area and make sure everything ran smoothly. Some of the bands arrived, set up the sound for the first performance, Jason Andre, and we asked the band members that were there to pray with us. We laid the concert at God’s feet, and it was time to ENJOY…

ENJOY: There’s no easy way to explain the satisfaction of just sitting back and watching God do His work. After months of planning, trials, valleys and mountains….the concert was actually happening. I had dreamed something so huge to myself, but I was really throwing pebbles at God, He threw boulders back. We raised a $240-$260 for Invisible Children. For the year $1030…I really have no clue where all that money came from, but God DID WORK!

There are a lot more little things that could be explained and happened but I really cannot put it all into a blog post, you’ll have to ask me. Our God is a powerful God! If we dream BIG, and pray BIG, and BELIEVE He can make it happen, then if its by HIS will, He will use us and our pebble dreams, to turn into AVALANCHE GOD-sized dreams and it will go down.

God is so good!

So I have not updated this blog in a VERY long time and a lot has happened in my life as I have seen God do so many things in/through my life this year already. I seek to open up my life and share how God is moving. All glory to Him!

1) East Asia and my heritage/cultural background Challenge
-God has been working on my heart and given me a burden for my own heritage/culture of Vietnam/China and for them to know the love of God. In this process, I  applied to go to East Asia on Summer Project with Campus Crusade for Christ. I got accepted to this project, but long story short: my dad was not going to allow me to go this year for financial reasons. ‘With our economy the way it is he didn’t like the idea of me asking others for support. Attempting to go forth with the project, and ignore my dad’s wishes, God began to truly close the door in my disobedience to ‘Honor my father’.

My dad’s father and youngest brother in Vietnam became very ill and may pass away very soon, calling for my dad to go home to Vietnam this summer.

Loving my family and after lots of prayer, if I went to East Asia I believe it would cause a big stress strain on my family as we have extended family of 3 living with us and my mom vents with me as I listen and comfort her.

Seeing all this ‘fall-apart’ was really rough as I had poured out so much spiritually in prayer over the trip and the softening of my parents heart for it. A truth spoken by Paul that really has been my crutch for this spring semester reminded me to have hope:

“But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;”
-1 Peter 3:14-15

With nothing to do for summer and going through so much, I still had hope that God would still use me this summer, and He provided MANY opportunities. The door was opened for me to work at Crossroads Worldwide Summer Camp again, take summer school and take a ‘Biblical Distinctives’ course through my church, Crossway Chapel of Wilmington. Accepting these opportunities for this summer,  I look forward to what God is going to do this summer at Crossroads as I minister to teens and at the same time preparing me to to go to East Asia next summer! Oh God is sooo good!

Set Jesus apart in your hearts and continue to have to have hope if you are suffering for the sake of righteousness! Be patient, the Lord provides!

“Fight for the heart of your King!”

Today I picked up the book The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus. Only a couple of pages in and I am blown away. He just jumps into it right away and the simply put, the barbarian way is to “fight for the heart of your King!” coming from the story/legend of James Douglas, a close friend to Robert the Bruce (Braveheart). Forgetting everything and putting our faith out there, taking chances.

Erwin tells of the story of his daughter wanting to become rich and then just giving it all away to the poor and in need. She didn’t understand the concept of saving some, so she could invest and give more to the poor later on; she just wanted to give it all at once. Leaving all of herself out there at the age of 12, being “raw” and a barbarian. Erwin was trying to convince her and “civilize” her to the investing, but she was a barbarian for Christ.

Dictionary.com defines ‘barbarian’ as: 

1.	a person in a savage, primitive state; uncivilized person.

2.	a person without culture, refinement, or education; philistine.

 

I ask myself this: am I ready to be a savage? uncivilized? cultured and forgetting all that “religion” has taught me? dwelling in the possibilities of every day life? being someone different? Christ was a barbarian and died for us… WOW!

“FIGHT for the HEART of your KING!”

Dwell in Possibility

I just got this poster for my room with a quote from Emily Dickinson at the bottom “Dwell in Possibility”:

The thing about being in college there are always possibilities open for you to do something new, even when things seem desolate and empty and there is no way something can come out of nothing. Its something I’ve learned to grasp better as I am a “leader” on-campus in being a Seahawk Link and helping transition freshmen into college. We are required to be at certain freshmen events in which seems like is pointless to be at, but it is what I make of that and the possibilities in that event that make it meaningful.

If we keep in mind that we are serving God in the situation, then the possibilities are great, and through those possibilities God will be glorified and shine. Even if the possibility of complete boredom or failure are so clear to us, God looks to work through it and change that possibility to something small like making someone feel loved or making them smile for the first time that day making that possibility you decided to follow a blessing onto others. As we dwell in the possibility of the situation we love onto others like God loves us.

Dwell in Possibility of God breaking through you to do something amazing and supernatural.

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life – in order that I[Paul] may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if i am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I[Paul] am glad and rejoice with all of you.”
-Philippians 2:14-17