God-Thirst, is the name of our house church on campus. It's actually a cell group, but since they've called it a house church from the beginning I'm just going to call it that as well. We meet at my place every Monday night and there are always delicious food made by Brian/David/Karen, and sometimes me. I've actually got in touch with this group since my first year of college. It was small, but good. But because of the faithfulness of these leaders and their prayers for this house church, is has grown not just in size, but in the intimacy with Christ and maturity in spirit. It started with just three people, but now it's around seventeen. (My room is getting too crowded! >.<) This Monday, we have done something that we've never done before. And it was amazing. This girl, Maria, just had her cousin passed away last Friday. He has a family of two boys, and now they are without a dad, and the mom has to take care of them by herself now. Maria couldn't stop crying even when she thinks about him. After the message David shared, God just moved me to get everyone to pray for Maria. We were in a circle and she was in the center. After we prayed for her, everyone still had their eyes closed and just in the spirit. God led me to lead everyone to ask God for revelation, words of wisdom, and pictures for Maria and her family. Right after I said that, David said he was thinking of the same thing. That was a confirmation. So everyone started to wait upon the Lord for words or visions to speak to Maria to comfort, encourage and edify her. There were four messages for Maria: 1. Huge waterfall, representing how every member in the family's heart felt like for Maria's cousin's death, and also representing how God will let His living water fall from heaven into their family. 2. Sword, representing the fight their are going through, the struggle they are going through right now and they will be able to concur it. It represents strength. 3. Jesus' love for them is unconditional, He always has a purpose for His ways of doing things. Don't lose heart. Don't lose faith. 4. Angel wings on Maria's back, representing how Maria is an angel in her family, and her mission is to bring hope, peace, and joy into the family. Not to grief with them. These messages were very encouraging for Maria. She said after we all prayed for her that, "Thank you, now I realized how much God loves my cousin. For the six months he has been suffering in pain with the cancer he has. God is full of compassion for him that's why it is best to take him away from his pain." God You are awesome!! That's right, You are letting the young men see visions, the old man dream dreams! Let Your bride know You more and know You better! Amen.
Just a few hours ago, me, my roommate, David, Brian, and Ruth were at David and Brian's place worshiping God. Harp and Bowl style! It was so fun and so cool! We started singing freely to God and just flowing with the Spirit, praying, worshiping, praising Him. We sang with Psalms 23, Psalms 27, Psalms 63, asking God to break the chain, praying for spirit of wisdom and revelation, and just simply dwell in His presence. His presence was so strong, I was filled by His love, Ruth had tear all over her face, and everyone were just earnestly seeking His spirit during the Harp & Bowl. Afterwards, Brian told us about his struggles with his spiritual walk. He has been a Christ follower for years but he can't really feel God's love. I believe that God will pour out His love for Brian in a way that he can't imagine. Because Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matt 7:7). Amen.
Lord, I thank you for this house church and every one in this family. Thank you for Diana, for her faithfulness in Your kingdom and the gift of teaching that You've given her. Thank you for David, for the music anointing that You've given him, and the love for You and for people that seems to never run dry. Thank you for Karen, for letting her lead me into this group of God-thirst people, and her heart that has been set on fire for You. Thank you for Brian, for his wonderful cooking skills, for his servant heart, for his faithfulness in following and walking on Your path even though he hasn't been feeling Your love. I pray that You will let him experience an extreme personal encounter with Your love! Thank you for Ruth, for saving her entire family since her grandmother. Thank You God for opening her heart and leading her onto a path of loving and seeking You earnestly and wholeheartedly. Also thank You for her family, who has been providing me lots of yummy food and Lord I pray for Your blessings to pour unto them abundantly. I pray for this house church, God. Let Your fire of passion keeps burning us, let Your hands keep molding us, let Your presence keeps overwhelming us, let Your Spirit keeps stirring our hearts, let Your power manifest in this group with signs and wonders. Let Your will be done in God Thirst House Church as it is in heaven. Let us become radical God chasers! In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen!
-sala<3
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
New Baptism Movement on Campus
I received this e-mail from Jaeson Ma today, I believe that many of you received it as well. This letter talks about the revelation that God gave to Jaeson about a New Baptism Movement that will begin soon, and basically, next year would be a crazy harvest year on campus salvation! Get your seatbelt on and start reading!
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Dear Campus Church Leaders,
This is a word to every leader in our campus church planting movement. This is a word also to the Body of Christ. Tonight, I received a direct prophetic word from my older spiritual brother, Pastor Philip Mantofa that was confirmed twice by the Holy Spirit. The word was, "Jaeson, get ready for you will witness 100 new baptisms in your movement very soon. This will be the beginning of a baptism movement in your sphere of influence that will spark a movement of radical obedience to God's Great Commission to immediately baptize new converts to Christ. By obeying God's command to baptize new disciples, it will release a new wave of divine healing, miracles and great numbers of salvations in your movements on campus, but not only the campus, everywhere. Get ready, prepare for 100 and PROCLAIM it to all and make a contract with God to baptize 100 within this next year and He will honor it."
My heart is full of faith and expectancy. When Pastor Philip gave me this word, the presence of God came all over both of us, we knew the Holy Spirit was speaking clearly.
The other night, Pastor Philip showed a video of their last miracle crusade in the worst slum of Indonesia. Over 9,000 heard the Gospel and 500 were immediately baptized the same night in baptism coffins. On the video, the new converts were literally shaking, manifesting demons, barfing out blood as they got near the baptism waters. The moment, these new believers were baptized they were immediately set free from demonic oppression and made new born babes in Christ. As I watched this video I was deeply stirred, I said "God this is truly the book of Acts, the New Testament way of making disciples, Lord I don't just want salvations of souls, I want sound salvations that remain, Biblical conversions that shake hell and fill heaven with praise!"
For the past few days the Lord has burdened my heart to see the lost come to Christ like never before. But I will not be satisfied with only seeing new converts say a prayer of repentance unto salvation, No, they must fully obey God's command and be immediately baptized. One of the greatest travesties of the Church today is the doctrine that we are to wait until someone is ready to be baptized. This is a heresy and it must be exposed against Holy Scripture. Where do you find once in Scripture that someone is baptized the second, third or fourth day? Or even months later or years later? You can't find it, it is not in Scripture. Every person in the New Testament, who was converted to Christ after the day of Pentecost, was baptized (immersed) in water on the same day. Salvation and Water Baptism in the New Testament was synonymous, not separate. If you study Church history the early Jewish converts never separated water baptism with true repentance. For if you truly repented you would prove your repentance with water baptism. Faith without works is dead. Therefore, praying a prayer of salvation without being water baptized does not make any Biblical sense. If you believe by faith, you must prove your faith by action. That action that God gave us as a command is "water baptism."
Does this mean that we are not saved if we are not water baptized? That question does not need to be answered because if there is nothing stopping us from being baptized, why are we not water baptized? This is God's command and do we question His own command? To not be baptized is simply an excuse to not trust in Christ finished work on the cross, but to trust in our own strength to somehow "be ready" to be saved. We can do nothing apart from Christ. We can never be more ready to be baptized now or later, if we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, like the Ethiopian Eunuch confessed in Acts 8:37, then nothing should stop us from being baptized in water. Now, did not the Ethiopian Eunuch when he believed on Christ say, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized them." Acts 8:35-38.
The problem in our Western Christianity today is that we still worship the tree of Knowledge & not the tree of Life, which life only springs from perfect obedience to God. We think we need to get more knowledge for everything before we can do anything for Christ. To say we need more knowledge, or to hide behind the theology that we need more knowledge in order to be more obedient is absurd. We are called to be obedient to Christ commands, period. No questions asked, His Word is final, it is clear and it is to be obeyed. We are not to worship more knowledge, we are to worship God by being obedient to His commands. Our Churches are weak because we have much knowledge and less obedience, much teaching and no application, much theory and again, no obedience. What God wants is obedience, not our excuses to not do what He commands us clearly to do.
Did not Peter preach to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, when they asked him what must we do to be saved? "Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." …"Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them." Acts 2:38-41 On that first day of the New Testament Church, 3,000 were convicted of sin, 3,000 repented, 3,000 were water baptized and therefore 3,000 were soundly saved. I don't think Peter held a 4 week baptism class to make sure they all knew for sure, for sure that they knew what baptism meant in order to "be ready" to be baptized. No, Peter preached the Gospel, the crowd believed Jesus as Lord and in order to publicly display their commitment to Christ, to confirm their commitment was true, not just some emotion or adherence to another god, they were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.
There is a spiritual power and vital victory in water baptism that stamps ones salvation with finality. It is a public declaration not only to those on the earth, but to those in heavenly places. It is a cutting off, a burial of the old self and it is a resurrection, a birthing of the new self in Christ (Rom 6:2-9).
To not baptize immediately is to directly disobey Jesus command to "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." "teaching them to obey all things I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always to the end of the age." Amen. Matt 28:18-20
Jesus does not call us to wait to be baptized. He commands us directly to be "baptizers." If we are not baptized in water we are directly disobeying Jesus command. Read the Great Commission for yourself and ask yourself if you are being obedient or disobedient to it. Then talk to me. No where does scripture say, you must be baptized by a pastor or professional clergy. No where in Scripture does it say you must have a formal baptism service. No where in Scripture does it say you must have a signed certificate verifying your baptism of some sort. No where does it say you must go through a baptism class to confirm your understanding of baptism. Instead, it is clear that every disciple of Jesus Christ is called to be baptized and to baptize others. Go, make disciples, baptize them and teach them all I have commanded you. Those are four commands and four action verbs from Christ Himself. Yet, we read through this Scripture as if it were only to be something memorized and not obeyed. This is a travesty! If you are a true disciple of Christ, one who studies him/herself to be approved, then be a student of God's Word and let Scripture be the final authority. Do not let the traditions, dogmas or doctrines of men that have deceived us for generations tell you what to think about water baptism, study the Scriptures diligently yourself and you will see clearly, scripturally and historically that water baptism is a command of Christ, that it is to be obeyed immediately and by faith. To not be baptized or to not baptize others because your church organization or para-church ministry says you can't because of so and so, again leads me to ask you this question, "Are you obeying man's tradition or Jesus command?"
I want to proclaim to every leader in our campus church planting movement across the nations that you are given authority by Christ to baptize new converts immediately and radically. We are to destroy the works of the Devil in this generation, and one of the most significant keys to see revival break out in this hour will be a return to the apostolic practice of immediate baptism. When this happens we will see true conversions, where every converts faith is proven by their obedience in baptism. In the early church, if you were not baptized those persecuting Christians would not kill you. But if you were baptized in the name of Christ you would receive persecution, and literally be killed for your faith. Why? What's the big deal about baptism? It is because if you are a true disciple who follows Jesus with all your heart, you will obey His first and most basic command, which is to be baptized. It proves your commitment to Christ. It is an automatic response, to a truly devout heart that belongs to Christ. "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me (John 14:21)."
When I get back home from my trip in Asia, I am buying 100 brand new Bibles. Because I am making a contract with God that in the next year I will witness 100 new baptisms through our campus church movement. Let this be so. I have full faith this will happen, because when I take God's Word seriously, and obey it faithfully, He will honor His Word, honor my faith and give souls to be baptized unto His name, for His glory.
Brothers and sisters, disciples of Jesus Christ, GO, MAKE DISCIPLES, BAPTIZE THEM, and TEACH THEM TO OBEY all Christ has commanded. Let us be radically committed to obeying God's Word and we will experience the blessing of doing so.Campus Church Leaders: When you baptize someone immediately in the coming days, email or tell me ASAP because I want to keep track of the first 100 new converts who are baptized in this movement from this point on. I know when we hit 100, we will begin to see the hundreds, then the thousands radically return to the Lord on campuses, cities and nations in this divine hour of revival and awakening!
Also, attached is a systematic Bible Study on Water Baptism & also scriptures below for your study and reference.
Blessings,
Jaeson Ma
Baptism Scriptures:
Q: Why do we baptize (hint: obedience to Jesus):
Matthew 28:18-20
Mark 16:15-16
Q: When do we baptize (hint: immediately):
Acts 2:37-41
Acts 8:36-38
Acts 9:17-19
Acts 10:44-48
Acts 16:30-34
Q: What is the meaning of baptism (hint: the death of our old self and being
a new person in Christ):
Romans 6:1-4
Galatians 3:26-28
Colossians 2:6-15
1 Peter 3:18-22
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Thank God for this letter. Remember on my last post I led a girl to Christ? She asked me, "So does this mean I have to get Baptized now?" I can't believe I answered her, "No, you don't have to until you are ready." Gahhh.... what have I done? = =||| Ok Wen, if you are reading this, I'm sorry I gave you the wrong idea about Baptism. I wish I'm at Taiwan now so I can baptize you, but noooo... I'm million miles away, so I guess... baptize yourself? LOL. Can we do that?? I don't even know. Anyway, next time when I lead someone to Christ, I would be sure to baptize him/her right then!
The four action verbs of the Great Commission:
GO
MAKE DISCIPLES
BAPTIZE
TEACH
Lord I pray for UCR for the great awakening of campus revivalists that You would rise up prophetic/healing evangelists. Burn in their heart the compassion for the lost, the passion of Christ, so they would become lovesick people that walk in the fullness of God, in Your power and Spirit. Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done in UCR. In Jesus' Name let the floodgates of heaven be swung wide open and Your Spirit and the consuming fire pour down like rain, that there will be signs and wonders breaking out right here in Riverside. Let people's hearts turn back to You and be Baptized in Your Spirit and in water. Let Your will be done, not my will. Thank you my Lord. In Your mighty Name I pray, Amen.
-sala<3
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Dear Campus Church Leaders,
This is a word to every leader in our campus church planting movement. This is a word also to the Body of Christ. Tonight, I received a direct prophetic word from my older spiritual brother, Pastor Philip Mantofa that was confirmed twice by the Holy Spirit. The word was, "Jaeson, get ready for you will witness 100 new baptisms in your movement very soon. This will be the beginning of a baptism movement in your sphere of influence that will spark a movement of radical obedience to God's Great Commission to immediately baptize new converts to Christ. By obeying God's command to baptize new disciples, it will release a new wave of divine healing, miracles and great numbers of salvations in your movements on campus, but not only the campus, everywhere. Get ready, prepare for 100 and PROCLAIM it to all and make a contract with God to baptize 100 within this next year and He will honor it."
My heart is full of faith and expectancy. When Pastor Philip gave me this word, the presence of God came all over both of us, we knew the Holy Spirit was speaking clearly.
The other night, Pastor Philip showed a video of their last miracle crusade in the worst slum of Indonesia. Over 9,000 heard the Gospel and 500 were immediately baptized the same night in baptism coffins. On the video, the new converts were literally shaking, manifesting demons, barfing out blood as they got near the baptism waters. The moment, these new believers were baptized they were immediately set free from demonic oppression and made new born babes in Christ. As I watched this video I was deeply stirred, I said "God this is truly the book of Acts, the New Testament way of making disciples, Lord I don't just want salvations of souls, I want sound salvations that remain, Biblical conversions that shake hell and fill heaven with praise!"
For the past few days the Lord has burdened my heart to see the lost come to Christ like never before. But I will not be satisfied with only seeing new converts say a prayer of repentance unto salvation, No, they must fully obey God's command and be immediately baptized. One of the greatest travesties of the Church today is the doctrine that we are to wait until someone is ready to be baptized. This is a heresy and it must be exposed against Holy Scripture. Where do you find once in Scripture that someone is baptized the second, third or fourth day? Or even months later or years later? You can't find it, it is not in Scripture. Every person in the New Testament, who was converted to Christ after the day of Pentecost, was baptized (immersed) in water on the same day. Salvation and Water Baptism in the New Testament was synonymous, not separate. If you study Church history the early Jewish converts never separated water baptism with true repentance. For if you truly repented you would prove your repentance with water baptism. Faith without works is dead. Therefore, praying a prayer of salvation without being water baptized does not make any Biblical sense. If you believe by faith, you must prove your faith by action. That action that God gave us as a command is "water baptism."
Does this mean that we are not saved if we are not water baptized? That question does not need to be answered because if there is nothing stopping us from being baptized, why are we not water baptized? This is God's command and do we question His own command? To not be baptized is simply an excuse to not trust in Christ finished work on the cross, but to trust in our own strength to somehow "be ready" to be saved. We can do nothing apart from Christ. We can never be more ready to be baptized now or later, if we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, like the Ethiopian Eunuch confessed in Acts 8:37, then nothing should stop us from being baptized in water. Now, did not the Ethiopian Eunuch when he believed on Christ say, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized them." Acts 8:35-38.
The problem in our Western Christianity today is that we still worship the tree of Knowledge & not the tree of Life, which life only springs from perfect obedience to God. We think we need to get more knowledge for everything before we can do anything for Christ. To say we need more knowledge, or to hide behind the theology that we need more knowledge in order to be more obedient is absurd. We are called to be obedient to Christ commands, period. No questions asked, His Word is final, it is clear and it is to be obeyed. We are not to worship more knowledge, we are to worship God by being obedient to His commands. Our Churches are weak because we have much knowledge and less obedience, much teaching and no application, much theory and again, no obedience. What God wants is obedience, not our excuses to not do what He commands us clearly to do.
Did not Peter preach to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, when they asked him what must we do to be saved? "Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." …"Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them." Acts 2:38-41 On that first day of the New Testament Church, 3,000 were convicted of sin, 3,000 repented, 3,000 were water baptized and therefore 3,000 were soundly saved. I don't think Peter held a 4 week baptism class to make sure they all knew for sure, for sure that they knew what baptism meant in order to "be ready" to be baptized. No, Peter preached the Gospel, the crowd believed Jesus as Lord and in order to publicly display their commitment to Christ, to confirm their commitment was true, not just some emotion or adherence to another god, they were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.
There is a spiritual power and vital victory in water baptism that stamps ones salvation with finality. It is a public declaration not only to those on the earth, but to those in heavenly places. It is a cutting off, a burial of the old self and it is a resurrection, a birthing of the new self in Christ (Rom 6:2-9).
To not baptize immediately is to directly disobey Jesus command to "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." "teaching them to obey all things I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always to the end of the age." Amen. Matt 28:18-20
Jesus does not call us to wait to be baptized. He commands us directly to be "baptizers." If we are not baptized in water we are directly disobeying Jesus command. Read the Great Commission for yourself and ask yourself if you are being obedient or disobedient to it. Then talk to me. No where does scripture say, you must be baptized by a pastor or professional clergy. No where in Scripture does it say you must have a formal baptism service. No where in Scripture does it say you must have a signed certificate verifying your baptism of some sort. No where does it say you must go through a baptism class to confirm your understanding of baptism. Instead, it is clear that every disciple of Jesus Christ is called to be baptized and to baptize others. Go, make disciples, baptize them and teach them all I have commanded you. Those are four commands and four action verbs from Christ Himself. Yet, we read through this Scripture as if it were only to be something memorized and not obeyed. This is a travesty! If you are a true disciple of Christ, one who studies him/herself to be approved, then be a student of God's Word and let Scripture be the final authority. Do not let the traditions, dogmas or doctrines of men that have deceived us for generations tell you what to think about water baptism, study the Scriptures diligently yourself and you will see clearly, scripturally and historically that water baptism is a command of Christ, that it is to be obeyed immediately and by faith. To not be baptized or to not baptize others because your church organization or para-church ministry says you can't because of so and so, again leads me to ask you this question, "Are you obeying man's tradition or Jesus command?"
I want to proclaim to every leader in our campus church planting movement across the nations that you are given authority by Christ to baptize new converts immediately and radically. We are to destroy the works of the Devil in this generation, and one of the most significant keys to see revival break out in this hour will be a return to the apostolic practice of immediate baptism. When this happens we will see true conversions, where every converts faith is proven by their obedience in baptism. In the early church, if you were not baptized those persecuting Christians would not kill you. But if you were baptized in the name of Christ you would receive persecution, and literally be killed for your faith. Why? What's the big deal about baptism? It is because if you are a true disciple who follows Jesus with all your heart, you will obey His first and most basic command, which is to be baptized. It proves your commitment to Christ. It is an automatic response, to a truly devout heart that belongs to Christ. "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me (John 14:21)."
When I get back home from my trip in Asia, I am buying 100 brand new Bibles. Because I am making a contract with God that in the next year I will witness 100 new baptisms through our campus church movement. Let this be so. I have full faith this will happen, because when I take God's Word seriously, and obey it faithfully, He will honor His Word, honor my faith and give souls to be baptized unto His name, for His glory.
Brothers and sisters, disciples of Jesus Christ, GO, MAKE DISCIPLES, BAPTIZE THEM, and TEACH THEM TO OBEY all Christ has commanded. Let us be radically committed to obeying God's Word and we will experience the blessing of doing so.Campus Church Leaders: When you baptize someone immediately in the coming days, email or tell me ASAP because I want to keep track of the first 100 new converts who are baptized in this movement from this point on. I know when we hit 100, we will begin to see the hundreds, then the thousands radically return to the Lord on campuses, cities and nations in this divine hour of revival and awakening!
Also, attached is a systematic Bible Study on Water Baptism & also scriptures below for your study and reference.
Blessings,
Jaeson Ma
Baptism Scriptures:
Q: Why do we baptize (hint: obedience to Jesus):
Matthew 28:18-20
Mark 16:15-16
Q: When do we baptize (hint: immediately):
Acts 2:37-41
Acts 8:36-38
Acts 9:17-19
Acts 10:44-48
Acts 16:30-34
Q: What is the meaning of baptism (hint: the death of our old self and being
a new person in Christ):
Romans 6:1-4
Galatians 3:26-28
Colossians 2:6-15
1 Peter 3:18-22
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Thank God for this letter. Remember on my last post I led a girl to Christ? She asked me, "So does this mean I have to get Baptized now?" I can't believe I answered her, "No, you don't have to until you are ready." Gahhh.... what have I done? = =||| Ok Wen, if you are reading this, I'm sorry I gave you the wrong idea about Baptism. I wish I'm at Taiwan now so I can baptize you, but noooo... I'm million miles away, so I guess... baptize yourself? LOL. Can we do that?? I don't even know. Anyway, next time when I lead someone to Christ, I would be sure to baptize him/her right then!
The four action verbs of the Great Commission:
GO
MAKE DISCIPLES
BAPTIZE
TEACH
Lord I pray for UCR for the great awakening of campus revivalists that You would rise up prophetic/healing evangelists. Burn in their heart the compassion for the lost, the passion of Christ, so they would become lovesick people that walk in the fullness of God, in Your power and Spirit. Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done in UCR. In Jesus' Name let the floodgates of heaven be swung wide open and Your Spirit and the consuming fire pour down like rain, that there will be signs and wonders breaking out right here in Riverside. Let people's hearts turn back to You and be Baptized in Your Spirit and in water. Let Your will be done, not my will. Thank you my Lord. In Your mighty Name I pray, Amen.
-sala<3
Monday, November 26, 2007
More testimonies
Last night was amazing. Lord. You are amazing!
Opera & Rock
Yay, my uncle finally sold his keyboard to me! Wahaha, now I got my own keyboard!! I brought it back to Riverside, and while me and my friend were carrying my guitar and keyboard up the stairs of my apartment, this guy that's walking in front of us turned and asked us if we're musicians. I said yea, and he said he is too. I found out that he plays the piano, guitar, and he sings. Also, when I asked what kind of music does he do, he said Opera first. I was like, wow, ME TOO! If you see this guy you wouldn't thought he would be an opera kinda guy, because his style is very rock. (Leather pants and jackets. Long hair. You think.) He is a song writer as well. He said he has had bands before but now he's in grad. school he can't continue because of his limited amount of free time. By the way, his name is Adam. Then I found out that he also loves rock and heavy metal musics. Guess what, me too!! This is pretty rare. Not a lot of people that loves rock or heavy metal loves opera music as well. This is so cool! So then he lend me two CDs of two different bands that combines opera and rock. I'm listening to one of them right now. The vocal is a soprano opera singer. This is the kind of music that I have been trying to write, but because of my lack of knowledge for chord progression on different types of music, it's been difficult to write them. Now I found myself a teacher! Yay! God you are amazing. Just by us carrying some instruments up stairs, You opened a door and gave me the opportunity to meet Adam and lead him to You. I'm going to get my house church leader, David, who's a crazy guitarist and drummer, and my friend, Ruth, and a few other Christian musicians together and we'll bring Adam to Christ through jamming and "caring network"!!! Pray for Adam's salvation guys!!!
Msn Salvation
People who I chat with on msn knows that I don't go on msn as often now. However, last night because I had a computer problem so I logged on to ask law shi how to solve it. And right after I logged on, my friend from taiwan started to talk to me. A little background of her. She just entered college this year and we have been friends for a pretty long time. Her family is Buddhist so the children just followed their parents' footsteps.She tells me that she just read my blog this morning about the healing at ride aid, and she told me that she has seen miracles like that with her eyes and on TV. I was thinking, wow, and she is still not saved? So I asked her, "After seeing these miracles, you should believe that God is real right?" She said she doesn't know about religions or gods very much, so she doesn't really understand what was going on. So I explained how and why the healing happened, who Jesus is, about His love, and I shared the gospel with her. (Actually she went to take a shower while I typed everything down.) She read what I wrote and said, "I understood." Then I asked her, so would you like to invite Jesus into your life today?" She said ok and asked me, "Then I would have two religions now? Because my mom said I'm 皈依 already." Then I explained how Jesus is the real and only God, others are not, only through Jesus can sins be forgiven and it's ok if you have already 皈依. God can break that relationship you have with the Buddha because He is greater than any other gods. So after a long explanation and that she finally understood the basics about God. I led her to pray for Jesus to come into her heart, wash away her sins, and then we thanked Jesus. Amen! See? Jesus is pretty modern too! He used msn to save a girl with another girl that's millions of miles away! Praise Him!!! You just go do what you have to do, tell the world about Him, and whether they accept Him or not, is God's job to change their hearts, not yours. Let's go to what we're doing everyday! Try and take over the world! Gooooooo Jesus!
Lost & Found
So I lost my student ID card 3 or 4 weeks ago when I went to the gym. (I do go to the gym ok!) Right when I realized I lost it that night, I told my friends and they were more worried than I am. I just told them, I'm not worried at all because I know that I have God backing me up. He said, "Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything." So that's what I did. Last night I was checking my e-mail and one of the titles was, "Your ID card". I almost forgot about my lost ID card until I saw this e-mail. It says, Hi there, Did you lose your student ID card today? Our building maintainance found your ID card in gym and he asked me to see if we can find the owner. I'm doing experiment just now, so I only have time to write to you now. We are in Chanpman hall, the first floor. You can visit tomorrow either in the morning or afternoon, I will keep your card for you. Don't worry. Have a good night. Wow... I knew it!! I knew God would take care of this little issue of mine for me! Yay Jesus You rock my socks! Muah* When you are doing God's works, seeking His kingdom and will first, everything else will be add onto you! Everything will just fall into its place, no worries sons and daughters of God! Wohoo~!! We got a cool daddy huh???!! xD YEAH! (When I told jack about this, he said, "Wow... Cool! God owns lost and found. ya?" Hahaha Jacko you are funny.)
-Sala<3
Opera & Rock
Yay, my uncle finally sold his keyboard to me! Wahaha, now I got my own keyboard!! I brought it back to Riverside, and while me and my friend were carrying my guitar and keyboard up the stairs of my apartment, this guy that's walking in front of us turned and asked us if we're musicians. I said yea, and he said he is too. I found out that he plays the piano, guitar, and he sings. Also, when I asked what kind of music does he do, he said Opera first. I was like, wow, ME TOO! If you see this guy you wouldn't thought he would be an opera kinda guy, because his style is very rock. (Leather pants and jackets. Long hair. You think.) He is a song writer as well. He said he has had bands before but now he's in grad. school he can't continue because of his limited amount of free time. By the way, his name is Adam. Then I found out that he also loves rock and heavy metal musics. Guess what, me too!! This is pretty rare. Not a lot of people that loves rock or heavy metal loves opera music as well. This is so cool! So then he lend me two CDs of two different bands that combines opera and rock. I'm listening to one of them right now. The vocal is a soprano opera singer. This is the kind of music that I have been trying to write, but because of my lack of knowledge for chord progression on different types of music, it's been difficult to write them. Now I found myself a teacher! Yay! God you are amazing. Just by us carrying some instruments up stairs, You opened a door and gave me the opportunity to meet Adam and lead him to You. I'm going to get my house church leader, David, who's a crazy guitarist and drummer, and my friend, Ruth, and a few other Christian musicians together and we'll bring Adam to Christ through jamming and "caring network"!!! Pray for Adam's salvation guys!!!
Msn Salvation
People who I chat with on msn knows that I don't go on msn as often now. However, last night because I had a computer problem so I logged on to ask law shi how to solve it. And right after I logged on, my friend from taiwan started to talk to me. A little background of her. She just entered college this year and we have been friends for a pretty long time. Her family is Buddhist so the children just followed their parents' footsteps.She tells me that she just read my blog this morning about the healing at ride aid, and she told me that she has seen miracles like that with her eyes and on TV. I was thinking, wow, and she is still not saved? So I asked her, "After seeing these miracles, you should believe that God is real right?" She said she doesn't know about religions or gods very much, so she doesn't really understand what was going on. So I explained how and why the healing happened, who Jesus is, about His love, and I shared the gospel with her. (Actually she went to take a shower while I typed everything down.) She read what I wrote and said, "I understood." Then I asked her, so would you like to invite Jesus into your life today?" She said ok and asked me, "Then I would have two religions now? Because my mom said I'm 皈依 already." Then I explained how Jesus is the real and only God, others are not, only through Jesus can sins be forgiven and it's ok if you have already 皈依. God can break that relationship you have with the Buddha because He is greater than any other gods. So after a long explanation and that she finally understood the basics about God. I led her to pray for Jesus to come into her heart, wash away her sins, and then we thanked Jesus. Amen! See? Jesus is pretty modern too! He used msn to save a girl with another girl that's millions of miles away! Praise Him!!! You just go do what you have to do, tell the world about Him, and whether they accept Him or not, is God's job to change their hearts, not yours. Let's go to what we're doing everyday! Try and take over the world! Gooooooo Jesus!
Lost & Found
So I lost my student ID card 3 or 4 weeks ago when I went to the gym. (I do go to the gym ok!) Right when I realized I lost it that night, I told my friends and they were more worried than I am. I just told them, I'm not worried at all because I know that I have God backing me up. He said, "Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything." So that's what I did. Last night I was checking my e-mail and one of the titles was, "Your ID card". I almost forgot about my lost ID card until I saw this e-mail. It says, Hi there, Did you lose your student ID card today? Our building maintainance found your ID card in gym and he asked me to see if we can find the owner. I'm doing experiment just now, so I only have time to write to you now. We are in Chanpman hall, the first floor. You can visit tomorrow either in the morning or afternoon, I will keep your card for you. Don't worry. Have a good night. Wow... I knew it!! I knew God would take care of this little issue of mine for me! Yay Jesus You rock my socks! Muah* When you are doing God's works, seeking His kingdom and will first, everything else will be add onto you! Everything will just fall into its place, no worries sons and daughters of God! Wohoo~!! We got a cool daddy huh???!! xD YEAH! (When I told jack about this, he said, "Wow... Cool! God owns lost and found. ya?" Hahaha Jacko you are funny.)
-Sala<3
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Indescribable feelings
I went to the Thanksgiving sales with Karen and her friends on Thursday night. Or was it Friday morning. Anyhow, while me and Karen were waiting, I saw this guy limping towards the end of the line. His right feet was on a cast and he was using crutches. Right at the moment that I saw him, I felt a wave of compassion inside of my heart. My heart aches so hard that I wanted to cry for that guy. It was so random, I didn't even talk to him yet! It made me really wanted to go pray for that guy, but I did not do it right then. In the line me and another guy started to discuss about evolution vs. creation. It was pretty intense stuff, lol. I was trying to say that God created everything and evolution is not true. He was trying to say that, God could create the beginning and then evolution took its place afterwards, so evolution is still true. I realized, I didn't know enough about evolution to debate with him. The other thing was, I didn't like to debate from the start! Bleh! This teaches us that, ALWAYS BE READY TO FIGHT FOR THE ONLY TRUTH!!Then the store finally opened at 5am. (We were there since 1 ish am!!) Anyway, after we were in the store, I was still thinking about that guy on crutches and my heart still aches when I think about him. Weird eh? Actually in the one hour that we were at the store, I saw him like three times. The first two times I still didn't go up to him. When we were just about to go pay leave, I said to God, "God if you really want me to pray for him, let me see him again." Right after that, he just appeared in front of me. The thing was, my roommate was looking for flash drives, and that guy was just standing right next to the shelf of flash drives!! Alright God you win! So I asked him what happened to his feet. He said on Tuesday he was playing soccer and he broke his ankle. Then I shared about how I got heal before and how God can heal him as well. I asked him if I can pray for him, he said sure. I prayed for the feet and nothing really happened. But as I tell him more and more about Jesus' love for him and that God was moving my heart to come talk to him from way back when we were lining up at 1is am, he was really touched. He is also a believer of Jesus. Praise the Lord! It's interesting how the people God led me to meet recently are all believers already. That encourages me a lot! I didn't know what was going on with those feelings that God gave me, I didn't know how to interpret them. Even now, when I'm thinking about that guy, I can still feel the same feeling. Maybe I didn't explain the meaning of those feelings I got so well, but I believe that just by me going up t o tell him that, "JESUS LOVES YOU VERY MUCH!" means a lot to him already.
Man I still wants to know what was it that Jesus wanted me to know... I was just thinking about it again earlier, and I thought that, it might be the feelings that the guy, by the way his name is Jose, is feeling. Maybe something happened to him, and he felt really heart broken. I don't know. No matter what, I know that Jesus' got His back for Jose. Hallelujah to the king! Amen!
On another level, I was thinking, "Hum, it's actually easy of what God sent us to do here. Just telling everyone about the salvation! And then basically God will do the rest." (Of course loving God and people, discipleship, caring networks, and other stuffs are what we're supposed to do as well, but spreading the gospel is our main mission and goal) I wish to let everyone I know hear about the gospel at least three time in their entire lives. (So they can have second and third chances to accept Him! Yay!) My family, friends especially. When we are striking for God's will and kingdom, everything else will just fall into its place. You don't even have to worry about anything like getting a job or being in danger. God's got your back for life! Even after your short life here on Earth! Awesome isn't it? Now i'm going to treasure my temple of God, my flesh, and go sleep. Woohoo Sunday tomorrow! Can't wait! :)
//Edit//
This just popped into my head. When we went to watch Jeremy's, Momo's friend's, gig on Wednesday night, I was sitting on the sofa, feeling so zoned out and numbed by the extremely loud music that was playing. I was really tired, and I realized I was immune to the loud and noisy sounds that, not Jeremy's band, but another band, was playing. I started to think about how many people in this world are immune to the sinful surroundings that's full of cuss words, violence, drugs, sex, depression, suicides, dark and negative musics and many more. Demonic power is truly overtaking this place that we're at right now. Just as those people are numbed by the messages of darkness and sins that they are constantly exposed to, many of us Christians are also numbed by God's goodness and His promises. Is it a good thing to be numbed? Scientifically and logically numbness is really an "abnormal" syndrome of a human body. When your legs are numb it is not a normal feeling for the legs. It is normal when everything flows and works continuously in the body right? The cycles of nature. So going back on the subject of Christians. Many of us are just satisfied with what we have and stopped moving forward, stopped seeking for more, stopped being hungry and thirsty for God. It is not healthy and not normal. We need to get the blood circulating in our body constantly, just as we need to be refreshed by the Holy Spirit and have the desire for more of God constantly. Imagine yourself as a tunnel of blessings. God gives you blessings after blessings, and you, if you are the numb ones, decides to be satisfied for the amount of blessings and He's been giving you, and of course you turn those blessings out to bless others. Your tunnel will not get wider because you are not asking for more and wanting for more. (It is worse if you don't receive and then give to others, your tunnel will get stuck and water runs dry) God loves us so much that He wants to bless us! He wants to give to us! He wants to expand us tunnels of blessings! So, don't settle for what you have already and get numbed, get up and break free from your bubble and start running after God's own heart and blessings! I believe you will experience much more than you can imagine! Bless.
-sala<3
Man I still wants to know what was it that Jesus wanted me to know... I was just thinking about it again earlier, and I thought that, it might be the feelings that the guy, by the way his name is Jose, is feeling. Maybe something happened to him, and he felt really heart broken. I don't know. No matter what, I know that Jesus' got His back for Jose. Hallelujah to the king! Amen!
On another level, I was thinking, "Hum, it's actually easy of what God sent us to do here. Just telling everyone about the salvation! And then basically God will do the rest." (Of course loving God and people, discipleship, caring networks, and other stuffs are what we're supposed to do as well, but spreading the gospel is our main mission and goal) I wish to let everyone I know hear about the gospel at least three time in their entire lives. (So they can have second and third chances to accept Him! Yay!) My family, friends especially. When we are striking for God's will and kingdom, everything else will just fall into its place. You don't even have to worry about anything like getting a job or being in danger. God's got your back for life! Even after your short life here on Earth! Awesome isn't it? Now i'm going to treasure my temple of God, my flesh, and go sleep. Woohoo Sunday tomorrow! Can't wait! :)
//Edit//
This just popped into my head. When we went to watch Jeremy's, Momo's friend's, gig on Wednesday night, I was sitting on the sofa, feeling so zoned out and numbed by the extremely loud music that was playing. I was really tired, and I realized I was immune to the loud and noisy sounds that, not Jeremy's band, but another band, was playing. I started to think about how many people in this world are immune to the sinful surroundings that's full of cuss words, violence, drugs, sex, depression, suicides, dark and negative musics and many more. Demonic power is truly overtaking this place that we're at right now. Just as those people are numbed by the messages of darkness and sins that they are constantly exposed to, many of us Christians are also numbed by God's goodness and His promises. Is it a good thing to be numbed? Scientifically and logically numbness is really an "abnormal" syndrome of a human body. When your legs are numb it is not a normal feeling for the legs. It is normal when everything flows and works continuously in the body right? The cycles of nature. So going back on the subject of Christians. Many of us are just satisfied with what we have and stopped moving forward, stopped seeking for more, stopped being hungry and thirsty for God. It is not healthy and not normal. We need to get the blood circulating in our body constantly, just as we need to be refreshed by the Holy Spirit and have the desire for more of God constantly. Imagine yourself as a tunnel of blessings. God gives you blessings after blessings, and you, if you are the numb ones, decides to be satisfied for the amount of blessings and He's been giving you, and of course you turn those blessings out to bless others. Your tunnel will not get wider because you are not asking for more and wanting for more. (It is worse if you don't receive and then give to others, your tunnel will get stuck and water runs dry) God loves us so much that He wants to bless us! He wants to give to us! He wants to expand us tunnels of blessings! So, don't settle for what you have already and get numbed, get up and break free from your bubble and start running after God's own heart and blessings! I believe you will experience much more than you can imagine! Bless.
-sala<3
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
He's done it again!!!
JESUS IS TOO AWESOME!! Right now it is 4:30am. Me, my roommate, and Christine just came back from experiencing a crazy God encounter. Here is the story...
Me and Karen made a Thanksgiving card for Carmen, the Ride Aid cashier that I mentioned in my previous blog, and we went to Ride Aid to give the card to her. Today is supposed to be her usual shift, but she wasn't there because she has to work on Thanksgiving day. Poor girl. After we are done shopping at the store, we went to the check-out. The cashier, Steve, was a totally nice and funny guy. We were having so much fun talking to him. When suddenly I realized I'm constantly moving my left leg and trying to ease the pain on my left thigh. It's weird, I didn't notice I was doing that, but appearantly I've been doing that since we started talking to the cashier, according to Karen and Christine. At first I thought I did something to cause the pain, but then I couldn't remember doing anything that i wouldn't do normally. Then I suddenly remembered what we learned in city invasion: When you suddenly feel a pain in your body that was not there before, it could be the Lord speaking to you about another person's pain. Then, just before we were about to leave, I took a step of faith and asked the cashier, "I'm just wondering, but do you have a pain in your left thigh?" The guy's facial expression changed 180 degree (from xD to @___@). Christine was like... what? huh? Karen thought I was kidding. But Steve immediately leaned forward and asked, "Why do you ask?" I told him that sometimes the Lord lets me feel what other people are feeling. Because He knows how they feel. The security guard that was standing right next to the check-out was like... What? God let you feel what? What did you just say? So I repeated what I said to him. Right after that the cashier said, "Yes I do. And I have been having that pain for a long time." At that moment, everyone was shocked. Including me, Karen, Christine, the security guard, and the store manager. Steve then asked, "Do you feel the pain on my back too?" I answered him no, but is it ok for me to pray for him. He looked so touched and red-eyed, and said yes. I prayed a super simple and short prayer for him and just commanded the pain to leave him and for the kingdom of God to fall on him right at that moment. Afterwards I asked him to test it out and he said, "It felt a lot a lot better now!" Everyone was still very shocked at what happened. Me and Karen were totally shocked and excited at the same time. It turned out that Steve is a believer. We asked Steve to pray for Carmen for her salvation, and we believe he will definitely pray for her. The funny thing was, I didn't notice that the store manager was behind us the entire time of this God-encounter, and he dropped the can of drink that he was holding after he saw what happened. He was like, "Oh you made me drop my can!" lol. Extreme experience man!! I could not hold the excitement any longer so even before we stepped out the store I was jumping and shouting and praising God!! Hallelujah!!! God you are simple too amazing!
I just feel like I'm so tiny and God is so enormous right now. My heart is still pounding hard as I type this entry. God is too good. Another friend of ours, Ruth, just came to write her essay with us and we shared this with her. She was totally excited and shocked as well. Praise God~!!! Karen said something that totally touched my heart. Made me go, "YES JESUS YOU'VE LISTENED TO MY PRAYER!!" I was praying that signs and wonders would happen at Ride Aid so people would see and believe that Jesus is the Lord. Karen said, "Sarah, I think just by that miracle, God just used you to raise up a Christian in that store. I think he will totally pray for Carmen and people in the store." Wow, I think this totally encouraged Karen so much. She has been telling everyone to not worry and just pray, for like 4 times since we've came back from the store. LOL. Go Karen! I pray that through this experience it would breakthrough the fear that Karen's been having to do city invasion. Thank you Jesus~!!! This is such a humble experience at 4am!! haha... LOVE YOU GOD<333
That's right, expect the unexpected and just DO IT FOR JESUS! :)
-sala<3
Me and Karen made a Thanksgiving card for Carmen, the Ride Aid cashier that I mentioned in my previous blog, and we went to Ride Aid to give the card to her. Today is supposed to be her usual shift, but she wasn't there because she has to work on Thanksgiving day. Poor girl. After we are done shopping at the store, we went to the check-out. The cashier, Steve, was a totally nice and funny guy. We were having so much fun talking to him. When suddenly I realized I'm constantly moving my left leg and trying to ease the pain on my left thigh. It's weird, I didn't notice I was doing that, but appearantly I've been doing that since we started talking to the cashier, according to Karen and Christine. At first I thought I did something to cause the pain, but then I couldn't remember doing anything that i wouldn't do normally. Then I suddenly remembered what we learned in city invasion: When you suddenly feel a pain in your body that was not there before, it could be the Lord speaking to you about another person's pain. Then, just before we were about to leave, I took a step of faith and asked the cashier, "I'm just wondering, but do you have a pain in your left thigh?" The guy's facial expression changed 180 degree (from xD to @___@). Christine was like... what? huh? Karen thought I was kidding. But Steve immediately leaned forward and asked, "Why do you ask?" I told him that sometimes the Lord lets me feel what other people are feeling. Because He knows how they feel. The security guard that was standing right next to the check-out was like... What? God let you feel what? What did you just say? So I repeated what I said to him. Right after that the cashier said, "Yes I do. And I have been having that pain for a long time." At that moment, everyone was shocked. Including me, Karen, Christine, the security guard, and the store manager. Steve then asked, "Do you feel the pain on my back too?" I answered him no, but is it ok for me to pray for him. He looked so touched and red-eyed, and said yes. I prayed a super simple and short prayer for him and just commanded the pain to leave him and for the kingdom of God to fall on him right at that moment. Afterwards I asked him to test it out and he said, "It felt a lot a lot better now!" Everyone was still very shocked at what happened. Me and Karen were totally shocked and excited at the same time. It turned out that Steve is a believer. We asked Steve to pray for Carmen for her salvation, and we believe he will definitely pray for her. The funny thing was, I didn't notice that the store manager was behind us the entire time of this God-encounter, and he dropped the can of drink that he was holding after he saw what happened. He was like, "Oh you made me drop my can!" lol. Extreme experience man!! I could not hold the excitement any longer so even before we stepped out the store I was jumping and shouting and praising God!! Hallelujah!!! God you are simple too amazing!
I just feel like I'm so tiny and God is so enormous right now. My heart is still pounding hard as I type this entry. God is too good. Another friend of ours, Ruth, just came to write her essay with us and we shared this with her. She was totally excited and shocked as well. Praise God~!!! Karen said something that totally touched my heart. Made me go, "YES JESUS YOU'VE LISTENED TO MY PRAYER!!" I was praying that signs and wonders would happen at Ride Aid so people would see and believe that Jesus is the Lord. Karen said, "Sarah, I think just by that miracle, God just used you to raise up a Christian in that store. I think he will totally pray for Carmen and people in the store." Wow, I think this totally encouraged Karen so much. She has been telling everyone to not worry and just pray, for like 4 times since we've came back from the store. LOL. Go Karen! I pray that through this experience it would breakthrough the fear that Karen's been having to do city invasion. Thank you Jesus~!!! This is such a humble experience at 4am!! haha... LOVE YOU GOD<333
That's right, expect the unexpected and just DO IT FOR JESUS! :)
-sala<3
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