Being the Cause of Thanksgiving

As we are nearing the Thanksgiving holiday, it is a good time to reflect on the many things you can give thanks to: for your health, for being able to live in a house, for having things to eat, for having great families and friends, getting good grades at school & etc. But besides giving thanks about other things, are you a person that other people would give thanks to?

One of the obvious ways to do this is to help a person on the street who has no place to live. When I see them, I just feel sorry and say “God, please bless them,” in my heart. But...

You say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well" but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
James 2:16

One day I was walking back home from school, it was around 7 PM and it was so dark. People were getting off at the Caltrain station and wanted to go home. As I walked among these people, I saw one man who went from person to person, asking something, but got rejected. As I neared him, I thought he would ask me, but he didn’t. So I just continued walking. But the Holy Spirit told me to wait and turn around. I watched how the man asked other people, and they all shook their head and kept walking faster. In the end, he looked frustrated and depressed. And like I expected, the Holy Spirit told me to go back and approach him. So I did.

“Excuse me,” I said as he quickly turned around in shock. “Do you need something?”

He looked so astonished that someone was actually approaching him instead of him being the one to approach people. “Yeah, I just missed my train and I don’t have money to buy a new ticket,” he answered.

“How much do you need?”

“Just one dollar would be fine.”

I was confused. I saw so many people neglecting him and telling him that they were unable to help. But all he needed was just one dollar, that’s four quarters that many people don’t really use anyway. But apparently we live in a society where even one dollar is too much to give or they are simply unwilling to help.

I reached into my wallet and gave him four quarters. His face immediately lit up and he said “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.” I simply smiled and wanted to walk back. Even so, he kept looking back and thanked me again. Then he proceeded to buy his ticket.

A small action as simple as giving out one dollar is able to make a huge difference in someone else’s life. For us it may seem like some unwanted spare change, to others it might be the greatest gift they could ever ask for. In the end when he said “thank you” I could tell that he was genuinely saying it with all his heart.

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
Matthew 5:16

Start living in a way that can make other people happy. You wouldn’t want to be the cause of their sadness or anger right? So in this month of Thanksgiving, lets be the cause of thanksgiving to others.

Being an Excellent Follower

What if tomorrow is the second coming of Christ?

Romans 13:12 “Each of us must give an account to God for what we do.”

You may say “I always go to church every Sunday, I pray to you, I read the Bible. Uuhm… I have a Christian cross necklace! If you look at my Facebook religion status, it says Christian or Jesus follower.” It’s good that you have the boldness to show to the world that you’re a Christian. But still, “What have you done for Me?”

1. Matthew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

We want to show that we are a follower, but what else are we showing? Are you putting angry Facebook status filled with complaints? Are you talking using rough languages and cursing all the time? Are you partying, clubbing and drinking? Do you procrastinate with your work and cheat on exams?

Action speaks louder than words. There are many unbelievers or new believers who don’t know anything. They will look to the mature believers for examples. So be a good example unto others.

2. Luke 9:23 “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

We are called Christians because we are little Christ. When you do something, just think “Is this what Jesus would do?”

When you have an appointment, would you delay and be late or come on time?

If Jesus had a meeting, would He be late?
The Bible says that God’s timing is perfect, He’s never too late.

The verse also talks about carrying the cross daily. The cross symbolizes Christ’ suffering. A journey will God will include some sacrifices and suffering we need to make for Him. When we follow Christ, we let go of our own desires, and let His will be done.

3. Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men”

My sister used a lot of utensils and pans without cleaning it because she was busy with school. When I saw all the mess and dirt that she did not clean, I started yelling at her and told her to clean it up.

God spoke to me. “Your sister is having such a hard time with her studies. Why can’t you help her to clean it up?”
If it was Jesus who used the kitchen, I would’ve gladly cleaned everything up for Him with joy. Why can’t I do the same for my sister?

I got so immersed with doing the “religious” stuff that I forgot to abide in the simple things.

A good servant of God = a good servant of people.

4. Matthew 7:22-23 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Many people view Christianity as some rules of do’s and dont’s. Many people know the rules, but they don’t know God’s heart and have no relationship.

Go to church – but is it to meet up with friends or to seek Him?
Ministering – is it to look cool in to others or is it to serve God?
Reading the Bible – because you have to, or because you want to know more about Him?
Come to Caregroup, because that is the place where you can grow in Him.
Attend prayer meetings, cause He doesn’t want you to think only of yourself, but to pray for others.

Abide these rules not because they are rules, but because this is what would make our heavenly Father happy. If you really love God, the willingness to please Him will come automatically.


Many people think that being a follower is hard. It comes with a lot of sacrifices. He will interfere with your life and tell you to do things you don’t want to. But...


The rabbit with small leaves are Christians - thinking they have no happiness because of many sacrifices they make. The other one are people who do things to make them happy instead of God. The one with the greater reward in the end are those who did God's will.

Sometimes we still fall into sin. I did too.

I prayed to God and I said “Lord, if human were toys, then I would be a broken toy right now. I’m just some trash that has no use to you. You should just throw me away!”
But God told me “Even though you are a broken toy, I would still accept you and fix you, and renew you again.”

At moments when we feel so disgusted and so worthless, our God still has high hopes for us. He never gives up on us. To Him, we are still valuable; His sons and daughters that no one else can replace. He is ready to accept you when you want to return to Him.


So back again to the question, “What have you done for me?”

I used to ask Him “Lord, if I died right now, would I get to Heaven?” Instead of saying yes or no, He said “Instead of worrying about that, why don’t you start living your life in a way that will ensure that you will get to Heaven?”

So if we continue to abide in Him, do His will instead of ours, make Him happy, and make sacrifices for Him… I believe that in the end He will say:

“Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and share in your masters’ happiness.”

My Time for God

This week is our final week. It is the moment when everything starts to get messy; you start to panic about your work. You spend all your time studying or working on your final project that you are getting some lack of sleep; in some cases, you don’t even get to sleep at all. Coffee, energy drinks and anything with a lot of sugar is your main consumption since it can restore your energy to do your work. You don’t have time to do anything for fun; it’s all just work, work, and work. It is basically the busiest moment of your life where everything is crazzyyyyy. Frankly, I don’t feel that way at all.

To be honest, I don’t really know why that is so. As everyone is panicking, I am somehow able to just stay calm and continue with my usual daily activities. No, in fact, I even have more free time during this final week. I used to think that maybe it’s because my major is easier compared to other people. You know, like for architecture you have to build stuff, in fashion you make all the clothes, for business you study and memorize textbooks for the final exams, and in advertising you create ads. But then I met up with my advertising friends, and they all complained about getting no sleep at all either. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t because of my major. Then what is?

One day, I noticed the one thing that I did that might’ve supported my excessive amount of free time. I don’t know whether the others are doing it, but it sure did apply to me. Before I do my work, I always make some time to pray to God. I know, some of you might think it sounds stupid. “What? In all this commotion where time is like super important you go waste your time by praying?” It might sound stupid, and yet, here I am, typing this blog post during all the stress of facing the finals. Isn’t that enough proof that I have a lot of time on my hand?

So anyway, I made a commitment where I would spend some time with him every single day and simply talk to Him. I also prayed about our final exams, to give creativity for the art students, and more wisdom to the non-art students, and give us better time management & etc. When it was Sunday, it was time to go to church. No matter how much work I had to do, I always went to church. When it was time for our caregroup, I went. I didn't skip any of the moments that I could spend with Him. And that is when I realized the key to all of this:

When I give up my time for God, He will give it back to me, but in an even greater quantity.

Even though a mountain of work awaited you, and you think that you will lose some sleep today from doing your work, whenever I spend my time with Him, He would always prove me wrong. I would be finished much faster than I had expected and would be left with a lot of free time.

Besides, when I do my work, I got all my ideas from Him anyway. Yes, it is really that moment of being still, thinking hard or maybe even not thinking at all, and somehow an idea would magically appear in my head. And the idea will be so amazing that I immediately start to execute it with the time that I’ve been given. And once I finished, it is not just some crappy low-quality work. I’m not bragging about me, I’m bragging about God’s creativity. The teachers actually liked it and I got a good grade for it! :D You can ask me if you wanna hear any of those testimonies.

So once again, I think that just praying for His help won’t be enough. But give up some of your time for Him, and He’ll give it all back to you, plus some extras. Don’t believe me? You can always try it out yourself. I hope this does apply to everyone and not just because maybe advertising is easier or something. Especially during this final weeks, who knows this might be the real energy booster you need instead of drinking coffee or sacrificing your sleep!

The Tears of Our Heavenly Father (Short version)

(I'm writing this short version for those who are too lazy to read the long one. If you aren't, then please read the other one. Cause it's important, and I hope you'll be able to understand it.)

What makes our Father cry?

1. When we sin

God can tell us what to do & what not
God cannot force us à We have free choice
Ex: Adam & Eve, apple

Story about scoreboards

1 Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Matthew 5:16 “Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven.”
Set a right example to the non-believers

2. When we forget Him

We ask God for help / fulfill our wishes
We make covenant
God gives
We enjoy what He has given & forget Him and the covenant
Analogy: kid want Playstation
Ex: Early Judges

3. When we don’t look for Him

It's easier to hear devil’s voice over God’s

Why can’t we hear God’s voice as clear?

- We live in a world ruled by evil, we are just temporary residents
We need a strong bond to break free from evil desires

- We help the devil to get to us
When we sin, don’t read our Bible, don’t go to church & etc
->We are pulling away from God, something the devil wants

- God’s voice is too small à we are doubtful & cannot recognize
If it’s not small, we wouldn’t need faith to believe in Him
He wants us to look for Him, build deep relationship
When we’re close, it’s harder to hear Him, because He wants to pull us even deeper

Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and that he rewards everyone who searches for Him.”

4. When we don’t spread the gospel
We receive so much blessing & recognize God
Many people feel hopeless & miserable
We need to share the blessing with them
God is sad if people don’t have chance to know or praise Him
Matthew 28:19 “Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you.”

5. When we don’t get along with each other

We are all brothers and sisters in Christ

Anger, jealousy, dislike à feelings associated with the devil

1 Corinthians 12:27 ^“Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of his body.”

1 Corinthians 12:20 “It takes many parts to make a single body.”

1 Corinthians 12:25 ^“He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others.”

The Tears of Our Heavenly Father

Our God is not someone who is happy-go-lucky all the time, but He has emotions just like we do. He is able to be happy, angry, sad, disappointed and everything else. A few weeks ago, God revealed to me the five basic things that could make Him sad - that could make Him cry. It might seem simple and maybe even like a basic teaching. Yet, this might be a good refreshing of our mind of what we already know and a reminder of what we need to do.


So, lets get to the point. The things that makes our Father cry:

1. When we sin
God has given us laws. We know that there are things that we should and shouldn't do. But just like every law that is created in this world, they tend to be broken. Indeed, God has given us laws, but he has given us free choice as well. We are able to choose whether we want to obey the laws or not. God simply makes them, but He can't force us.

The very basic example for this is the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He created the tree of knowledge. He told Adam and Eve that they can do whatever they want, EXCEPT eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge. He has given them a law and the rules that needs to be followed. But Adam and Eve both has a choice whether they will listen or not. They chose to go against the law, eat the forbidden fruit and fall into the deep pit of sin.

Everyone knows by common sense that sinning is bad. But it's easier said than done. It's hard for me to tell you what to do and not to do. If even God can't do that, then how can I possibly do it? What I can do, however, is to help remind you. Remember my other post about the battle between good and evil? If you don't, then read it! I hope that it will encourage you and make you think the next time before you sin. Think about how our Father in Heaven is watching with sadness.

1 Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Matthew 5:16 "Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven."

We should set a good example to people who don't believe in Jesus. If we are no different from them, then what makes our God different to them?

2. When we forget Him
We tend to ask God for things that we want and pray for it. You must be very familiar with prayers like "God, I pray that I will get good grades, or a boyfriend/girlfriend, get a promotion... If you do, Lord, I promise that I will do whatever you want me to do. I will surrender myself to You and promise to live for You." I'm sure that we all have prayed a prayer similar like that at least once in our life. So okay, we asked, we made a covenant, and God gives what we asked for. We enjoy what He has given us. And what happens after that? We totally forget about Him!

Imagine a small boy who really wants to buy a Playstation 3. He begs his father to buy him one. His father refuses because his son still has a lot of homework to do and everything. So the son promises that he will always do his homework if he will be given the new PS3. The father thinks about it and decides that his son can be trusted. He thinks that this might encourage his son to study harder, keep his promises, and maybe they can even have some bonding time together.
So the next day, the father comes home with the new PS3. The son is so happy and immediately starts playing with it. After a few weeks, every time the father comes home, he sees his son playing a game on his new PS3.
"Son, have you don your homework?" he asked.
"Oh, not yet. But I will after I'm done with this. I'm haven't saved it yet," the son answered, of course not doing his homework at all.
As time goes by, the father sees the same pattern. One day, he got off from his work. He thinks that this might be a good time to play together with his son on the new PS3. But after he asked whether he could join, the son coldly answered: "Sorry dad, it's just a one-player game.. You can't join"
Now imagine if you were the father. How would you feel? You gave your son what he wanted in the hope that he will keep his promises. But what happens is the exact opposite of that. Would you feel sad? Disappointed?

We are exactly the same like that son. And the father represents our heavenly Father. We ask and ask, we make promises, but once it's given, we are so pre-occupied with the gifts He has given that we forget about Him.

Apparently this isn't an issue just now. If any of you guys have read the early book of Judges, you'll notice the same pattern in the Israelites. They started to sin and worship other Gods. God got angry and punished them by letting another country attack them. The Israelites repented and asked God for help, promising that they would obey Him. Being the merciful God He is, He listened and stopped the attack. What happens after that? The Israelites continued to sin again and worshipped other idols. This now becomes a cycle that repeats itself for the first few chapters. I got so annoyed when I read this; annoyed that the Israelites could behave so recklessly and with disrespect towards God. But then I was reminded, that we are doing the modern version of this cycle up until this moment.

Our God is so great and merciful. This problem has been going on for like 4000 years maybe, and yet He still hasn't given up on us. When we ask Him for things, He still grants it in the hope that we will keep our promises. He is so patient even after a looooong period. I mean, if I were Him, I would just ignore everyone and whatever they wished for cause I know the same thing would happen again. But thankfully, I'm not God. Cause God isn't thinking like that, not even the slightest bid. He still loves us no matter how many times we have betrayed Him with our promises. That is because God loves us unconditionally.

3. When we don't look for Him
Do you realize that it's very easy for us to hear the devil's voice? The devil's voice is the one that tells you to do bad stuff. Things like when you have to wake up early to go to school, but you suddenly have a thought that you can as well just sleep in since the class isn't that important anyway. Or like when you're alone in a room, and you have this thought to watch inappropriate stuff on the internet. Those are some examples of the devil's voice, but there are much more ways in which he can tempt us.

So then one might wonder, why can't we hear God's voice as clear?

- We live in a world that is ruled by evil. We are just temporary residents of this world, our real citizenship belongs to heaven. So of course it's easier to hear the voice of the 'ruler' of this Earth. That's why this world is so messed up in the first place! We need a strong bond with God to break free from our evil desire. Once we know God's desire and read His word, we are able to recognize whenever the devil is speaking to us. In that case, we will be able to mute out the voice or simply ignore it. It's not worth listening to. Don't let it harm you.

- Sometimes, without realizing it, we are helping the devil to get to us. What does the devil want the most? For us to get distant from God. So when we don't go to church, are not in a fellowship, don't read the Bible, keep on sinning and everything, then what are we doing? We are getting distant from God. See the connection? We are helping the devil achieve its main goal. So you better be careful with your behavior and think about whether you're helping God, or the enemy.

- God's voice is indeed small - so small that we might sometimes be doubtful. That is exactly why we need faith to believe in His existence. If it's not small, then faith would have no meaning at all and we won't have the tendency to look for Him even more. He wants us to keep looking for Him so that we can build a close relationship with Him. When we're closer to Him, He will pull us even deeper and deeper into Him.

Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and that he rewards everyone who searches for Him.”

4. When we don't spread the gospel
"You alone can rescue, You alone can save
You alone can lift us from the grave
You came down to find us, led us out of death
To You alone belongs the highest praise"
- You Alone can Rescue by Matt Redman

Reflect on this song and the lyrics. See how God is saving us; how He has given us so much blessings and helps us. We are lucky to recognize God's existence and His availability for us. There are so many people who do not know about Him yet, don't know about this salvation. They don't know that there is someone who can lift them from the grave and lead them out of death! There is one saviour, which is Jesus Christ! But if we don't tell this to them, how will they know? We need to share the blessing with other people instead of being selfish and keep all of God's blessings to ourselves. God is sad if people don't have the chance to know Him or praise Him. He deserves the highest praise, how can He gain it if not everyone knows about Him?

The biggest mission for us is written at the end of the book of Matthew. Out of everything, it mentioned the mission to go out and teach the people around us about God. It is that important.

Matthew 28:19 “Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you.”

5. When we don't get along with each other
We are all brothers and sisters of Christ. Feelings of anger, resentment, jealousy and everything else is related to the devil. Remember point number 3? Don't pull ourselves closer to the devil. But let us bear the fruit of the Spirit and learn to love on another. If you are still having a dispute with someone, please work it out. Don't let the devil win!

1 Corinthians 12:27 ^“Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of his body.”
1 Corinthians 12:20 “It takes many parts to make a single body.”
1 Corinthians 12:25 ^“He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others.”

Lets stop making our Father cry. Instead, lets put a smile on His face with our actions. Cause He has given us so much, the least we can do is to NOT make Him sad.