I MUST DECREASE!!!

My heart was so humbled this morning at Starbucks. I was reading Radical by David Platts. Platts reminded me that God wants to display His glory through unworthy and weak people such as myself.

Let's think about the beginning of the Christian church in the book of Acts. After Jesus was raised back up into heaven after the crucification the further movement of the first church was left in the hands of the 11 apostles who were uneducated and whom had failed to become rabbis. They were of a rural area and of a low class.

What did God do with them through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit?

-Grow the church from 120 - 3000 people (Acts 1-2)
-Do miracles through the same power that raised Christ from the dead
-Continue church growth OUTSIDE of Judea (Acts 8)
-Conversion of Paul (Acts 9) (God uses Paul to preach the gospel to the gentiles!)

This list can go on and on. The story of the church is told through the rest of the new testament.
God uses the SURRENDERED to do miraculous things to display his glory. God does not need us, but he chooses to uses us because of grace - because of what we do not deserve.

John 14:12 says that Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

This reminder excites my heart like no other. God HAS already promised that we can come along for the ride of his display of glory. God has made it clear that I should be afraid of nothing. He has made it clear that HE CAN AND WILL do the impossible with and through me.

Failing two classes of nursing school is not so bad afterall. If anything failing has humbled me. It has shown me that Raymond Auyeung YOU ARE NOT THAT SMART. Raymond Auyeung YOU NEED JESUS. You need to be on your knees and ask that the living God to do what you cannot do on your own. You need to ask your heavenly father to provide you understanding to learn.

Reading this has helped me to PRAY for the impossible to happen. It has reminded me and even taught me that I cannot just depend on my own ability to do ministry because it would not be the work of God but the work of Raymond Auyeung.

Recently I have been thinking in my mind I am of no use to CCUC or to New Life in Little Village. I have been thinking man I cannot help my brothers and sisters at CCUC to change. I have been thinking that I cannot be of use in Little Village because of my background.

HOWEVER, my whole perspective has changed. It is not about what I can do but it is about how much I pray for God to move at CCUC and at New Life in Little Village. I have been so challenged to pray EVEN MORE now if I want to see God work. I do not need to be good enough or adequete enough to do ministry. What I need is to SURRENDER myself more so that I may decrease so that Christ may increase and display his power to the world.

Let us ASPIRE to do the impossible such as raising the dead to life. Let us aspire and pray that God would do the impossible through us. Let us pray that Christ will bring unbelievers into his kingdom by doing the impossible through us.

It is so good to be born again

As of recently I have been going to a church called New Life Community located in Little Village. I felt a need to go away to a church to relearn to love Jesus and learn to better love God's people. Little Village has an area of about 6 square miles with a very dense population of about 91,000 people as of 2008. I am sure that there are MANY people who still have not been yet redeemed by the Lord Jesus. About 30 percent of the population here live below the poverty line.

About 65 percent of the population has less than a high school education. About 20 percent of the population has a GED or a high school diploma. Less than 4 percent of the population has a bachelors degree, which is saying that out of 91000 people, only 3600 people have gone to college.

This area is plagued by gang violence and poverty. At times it feels like the city has given up on Little Village, there are like a million pot holes whenever I drive in this area! This past Thursday there was an incident of 3 murders within 8 hours. I read of a few more deaths by murder on the news. A body was found behind the church this week....

We spent part of small group on Friday morning praying for Little Village. Today in service I learned that someone who was affliated with the church was murdered by gang violence this past week. It was so beautiful to see the people of God continue to rejoice in the living hope that we have in Christ. I pray that we as the church can be a beacon of hope to the world and can play a central role in God's strategy to make all things new once again.

Since I have been worshipping with the believers in Little Village these past few weeks my passion for our great God has been renewed. I have been delighting in God's word again and have a renewed passion and intimacy for God. These lovers of God have retaught me that all we need and will ever need will only be found in Christ. Though we live in a world plagued with sickness, poverty , violence, corruption and what not - Jesus will be the only one who will MAKE US WHOLE and COMPLETELY SATISFIED.

For the people of Israel - God gave them a Torah to tell them and the future generations about himself. God wanted them to live life knowing that they have a God who wants to fulfill their every need

Exodus 19:3 Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

For us as believers God has given us instructions to lived the blessed life. It definitely is not an easy one to live - but it is the one that will allow us to take a ride with the creator of the universe. It is this life that will allow us to see the impossible happen through us because God is able. This new life in Christ is a call to a life of obedience. We must give ourselves fully and trust God. The end result is an empowerment to live life to the full.

Here are instructions for the blessed life.
Psalm 1 says that
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

(Psalm 91 gives us an idea of how good the blessed life is too)

We have all probably seen the Karate Kid right? (The one with Mr. Miyagi) Mr. Miyagi makes Daniel-Son wax his car, paint his fence, and all these other chores. One day Daniel gets fed up with it because it all seems worthless and stupid. Mr. Miyagi shows him in his frustration the importance of the discpline that Daniel has undergone - IT WAS NOT WORTHLESS after all because in the end Daniel won the championship in the fight.

I think that is an example about prayer and reading God's word that we should think about. We should be reminded that THERE IS VALUE in our obedience to God through seeking him. We should be thinking about the satisfaction that can be found in Christ - we must continue to thirst for the living water that only Christ alone can provide!

He works all things together for my good

ome take the providence of God and become fatalistic; whatever happens happens! I’m just going to sit here and not do anything. Everything is always the same. Every year is the same. It will always be as it has always been. It’s kind of like Eeyore, the pessimistic donkey character in Winnie the Pooh. There are some Eeyoore Christians out there.

There is hopelessness in their heart. Sometimes this is because things have not gone in the past as we thought. Prayers were not answered. The same issues creep up year after year. The same people still have the same flaws and do not seem to change. Perhaps the timing of things was off than we expected. We feel disappointed and sometimes in despair.



But the human side of divine providence believes that God is good and He is always working in situations and wants my best for His glory. It was Yahweh’s kindness through Boaz that propelled Naomi again. Believers, we need to look around again in our lives and see that God has been working! Therefore, I must look for opportunities in life and seize them, considering them to be possibly gifts of God, even if I have been disappointed in the past. Remember the enemy would want you in despair and not do anything. God would want to put hope in your soul.

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