You are everything

hey guys,

So a song that's been stuck in my head for a while is--You Are Everything by Matthew West. I've recently found out about this artist, and he's really great.

Here are the lyrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvY-7iXX1Ok

Matthew West
You Are Everything

I'm the one with two left feet
Standing on a lonely street
I can't even walk a straight line
And every time you look at me
I'm spinning like an autumn leaf
Bound to hit bottom sometime

Where would I be without someone to save me
Someone who won't let me fall
You are everything that I live for
Everything that I can't believe is happening
You're standing right in front of me
With arms wide open
All I know is
Every day is filled with hope

You are everything that I believe for
And I can't help but breathe you in
Breathe again
Feeling all this life within
Every single beat of my heart
I'm the one with big mistakes
Big regrets and bigger breaks
Than I ever care to confess
Oh but, You're the one who looks at me
And sees what I was meant to be
More than just a beautiful mess

Where would I be without someone to save me
Someone who won't let me fall
You are everything that I live for
Everything that I can't believe is happening
You're standing right in front of me
With arms wide open
All I know is
Every day is filled with hope
You are everything that I believe for
And I can't help but breathe you in
Breathe again

Feeling all this life within
Every single beat of my heart
You're everything good in my life
Everything honest and true
And all of those stars hanging up in the sky
Could never shine brighter than You
You are everything that I live for
Everything that I can't believe is happening
You're standing right in front of me
With arms wide open
All I know is
Every day is filled with hope
You are everything that I believe for
And I can't help but breathe you in
Breathe again
Feeling all this life within
Every single beat of my heart
You are
You are
Jesus, You are

You are everything

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The reason I really love this song a lot is because it reminds us that what we have with God is a relationship consisting of unconditional love. We often live our lives with 'two left feet' and often fall, but it is God who picks us back up. It is God who gives us a hand in times of trouble. It is God who trains us and equips us to become better people. However, we often neglect God's roles in our lives and try to find more material substitutes such as a 'best friend' or 'girl/boy-friends.' But, this song reminds us, in its own love-song lyrics, that our relationship with God is everlasting and that He promises to watch over us and has been doing so always.

So, I hope you find this song as touching and meaningful as I have found it.

death.

R.I.P. Dakota, I don't even know you, but your death brings me great sorrow.

Whenever someone dies, I feel as if God's throwing another punch at me, getting my attention to say--"hey, Jaeyoung, have you been saving any more souls lately?" When someone commits suicide, I feel Him talking to me --"hey Jaeyoung, have you been reaching out to lost souls lately, or better yet, have you been reaching out to your brothers and sisters?"

It's really sad whenever I hear of someone's death, even if it is someone that I don't even know who it is. It reminds me of the fact that, God really does give and take away. No one can predict what can happen tomorrow. Your best friend, God forbid, can be gone in a flick of a second. Better yet, we can be gone in a flick of a second.

It's even more sad how some of these deaths occur to people who don't know God. So, they're literally gone forever. We'll never see them again. Ever.

Dakota was a bronx high school senior, just like me, going through college applications (assuming so), who committed suicide. My friends tell me that he was acting all normal until now, because he's not here anymore.

It's really sad how we live in such a secular society, filled with struggles and pain and a community that largely doesn't even know who Jesus Christ is. We live in a world where the majority claims there is no God and questions His existence. We live in a world where we're driven by our own personal ambitions, and when they disappear, we simply fall apart. We live in a world where unconditional love does not even exist in fairy tales.

We live in a world where friends would simply talk about video games and girls and guys and fun. It is only if you're lucky, you would have a friend that comes up to you and has the nerve to say to you, "hey man, whatsup? how's it going? you dont seem that happy lately. what's been happening?" Instead, we get into convos that start with, "hey, can i copy your homework?" or "hey, yesterday night was so much fun. are you going again tomorrow?"

It is sad. Really.

It is time's like these, when a death occurs, it haunts us. It is now when we finally remember--we are God's children. we are His light. It is through us that people will come to know more about Him. It is through us that people will learn what love really is. And, it also hits us. This guy who just died; he might be burning in Hell. Where were we to help him learn of the kingdom our Lord has promised entry upon us?

My prayer is that we as Christians can rise up and truly spread His word. There may be a person contemplating with the idea of suicide and nobody can even see it coming. Not even his or her closest friends. Let's make sure that he or she knows Jesus Christ and the love he has shown us.

There are even some people out there who are simply lost because they don't know what love really is. Being so submerged in society, filled with hatred and chaos where love means having sex, love becomes almost equivalent of evil. Let's teach them about love by caring for them and loving them the way the Bible teaches us.

Let us also pray that we will be able to meet the girl who asks you for help with Calculus or the boy who simply sits on the last seat of every classroom after death--in heaven.

Let's start working. Our time has already come.

seekers leadership

Second post of the year! haha

Lately, alot of things have been happening.
Although stress never fails to plummet me; God does not fail to keep me up and running.
About a good two-three weeks ago, I came to my first encounter with what I believe was a demon-possessed man. People say that meeting God has changed their lives, but I never thought meeting the devil would change my life. It came to my realization that God is REAL. IF the devil is real, then there must be a God. It's also interesting how this ties up to Romans 3, the very chapter Seekers is doing a Bible Study on this week. It starts of talking of how our sinful nature constitutes for God's holy appearance; bringing up the idea of polar opposites and how one can not exist without the other.

As for my encounter with this demon-possessed man, I was on the seven train going home with mee young. In front of me was this man, sitting, reading a book by MacArthur on the Doctrines of Jesus Christ. He was all dressed iin black and kept on looking around with a cold yet lifeless stare. His eyes looked like how a person's eyes look when they space out but yet there was some life to his movements. I told mee that he must be a drunkard or insane and we left it at that. When mee young left at Woodside, it was just me and him and a whole bunch of commuters. I started to pray for him that hopefully whatever he's going through, he will find God and that God will bless his life, etc.. and then, all of a sudden, i felt his cold, lifeless stare just striking at me, almost as if he had sensed a holy appearance. I do not which came first but I felt like I was filled with a spiritual presence, probably the holy spirit, but at the same time, I felt my heart paining and fighting with evil and satan. I didn't know what to do. One side of me told me to continue praying for him and to interrogate / exorcise the demon; but another side told me to stop praying and play it like nothing has happened. I eventually took the middle route, I started praying for God's strength and tried to brainwash myself telling that nothing will happen as long as I stay calm and pray. In the end, I came out of the train in shock and just could not think straightly. The man walked away too.

If the devil is real, then God is real too. I started to think more of God and His graceness and His presence. I always knew God is real, but then it hit me, as sort of a reminder that it's not just something i believe in, but rather it's the TRUTH!

During praises, I can feel God's grace working through me as well as the people around me. During sermons, I can feel His words speaking to me. It's as if I am seeking God more and more.

Another great thing that I have found out is that my childhood friend who used to go to the same church as me has become an active member of the church she goes too now. Her brother, who also went to the same church is now a teacher at a church too. It's really great to know that when the youth firsthand experiences God, they (or we) will turn out to be the leaders of tomorrow, carrying and sharing God wherever we go. This motivates me to try to make great things happen to Seekers. I pray that the youth in NYC will be touched by God's Grace and will be molded into Soldiers for God.

Hey ya'll!

hey ya'll!

I think that this is my first blog since... quite a while actually!

I just wanted to take this time, with the encouragement of Paul Han's wish for me to write this blog, to reflect on today's Seeker's Leadership Conference (Seminar/Retreat)

I would have to say that the overall experience was pretty great. It wasn't as 'great' as I had expected it to be, but was still a worthwhile event. For one, it definitely got me even more pumped for Stuy's Seekers and the GREAT potential that we hold for this year.

First off, it was definitely pretty cool to meet some of the pastors that previous Seekers' leaders have been talking about such as Pastor Doug and Edgard and even Alan Chiusei (I don't think anyone knows how to spell his last name correctly haha). I even got the chance to meet with other cool pastors such as pastor Angel from the Brookyln Tabernacle.

The first half of the conference was dedicated mostly to setting up a vision and the goal plans for the new year. They offered ideas on bringing in guest speakers and actually publicizing them so that people will be likely to come. They also challenged us to think outside of the box and do events that can reach out to the school to actually show that Seekers is an existing and a very alive club/fellowship. I think that is something that we Seekers leaders can definitely consider. They talked about having a can drive for Thanksgiving or having a huge banquet of some sort for the holidays and those are actually pretty great ideas that we should consider. As for the speakers, they offered that we can invite doctors, scientists, pastors, and even Bernie Williams and have them give testimonies. Also, we can invite special groups or organizations to give seminars on hot topics such as evolution or homosexuality or teen pregnancy which is definitely something we should consider. Their final noting words were pretty much 'Dream Big!' because anything is possible with the grace of God!

The second half was devoted to workshops. I took a workshop on evangelism and another on leading Bible Study. Pastor Angel from the Brookyln Tabernacle led the one on evangelism. I would have to say, that it was definitely quite a noteworthy experience. He introduced the concepts behind evangelizing and the 'four laws' that one can rely on to express when evangelizing. He then took a good chunk of time to pose himself as an actual person that he had met when he went evangelizing. What he wanted us to do was try to take the role of an evangelizing and try to lead a conversation with him. Some of his role plays were as quiet folks while others are even as obnoxious, self-centered people. Some were even demon-possessed people and others were people who were simply running around. It was very indeed interesting because they were situations that I have never been encountered with. This role playing actually encouraged me to even try street evangelizing in public. I think that he will be a great speaker to have in Seekers in this upcoming Fall.

Another workshop that I took was the one on Bible Study. The information given was pretty much straightforward; mainly that we should be prepared for each Bible Study and that we should recognize that it is the Holy Spirit talking within us as we converse. A key pointer was that we should never ever argue with anyone during the Bible Study because it kills the whole point of it. Another pointer was that we should lead personalized 1-on-1 Bible Studies with non-Believers who can not relate with the text. I believe that Bible-Studies are great ways for us to pretty much edify each other's knowledge of the Bible as well as to share a good time of fellowship.

One of the things that I remember the most from this whole conference was the idea that we can not have fellowship with one another IF we can not "touch" each other. In other words, by having prayer with one another or even having Bible Studies with each other allows ourselves to open ourselves up to each other, formulating a sort of physical contact with each other. This led me to the idea that is to reinforce my opinions that Seekers should not lead "fundays" in our Thursday meets. Sure we can have fun with one another, but we really don't get to touch each other's souls. Simply, extra, specialized fundays will be sufficient enough to make our club spiced up.

I also got the chance to talk with Angela, who will also be the Vice President, and she noted that we leaders should have discipline in what we do. For instance, we should be able to read the Bible on a regular basis and be able to fast when necessary. She also noted that we leaders should be able to testify ourselves to Seekers and that the logic behind that is that this will also encourage others to open themselves up to. I think that these are pointers that we should all definitely consider and definitely try.

Overall, to keep this long first post not that long, Seekers does have ALOT OF POTENTIAL this year. We really really do. We are all bursting with ideas, and the great thing is that, most of them have been written on paper or on the web. I pray that we will be able to get even more ideas and that we will all have the courage to help bring all of our ideas up front to the battlefield and successfully bring them out. We should always remember, however, that, none of this is possible with God's help. It may be us doing the labor, but it is God who produces the results. Let's do this guys! We have God! =D