In the aftermath of Sandy

A quick overview of the situation at our home in Whitestone:

• No power (probably for another week or so).
• We have water but we can't use sinks, toilets, showers, or other appliances that drain water because the pumping station that serves our block lost power. So we have to minimize toilet-use or risk sewage getting backed up into our basement and bathrooms.
• Gas shortages all over the city, Queens, and Long Island. My car might have enough for Jovi to drive to work until gas stations open up again (hopefully by sometime next week).
• A bunch of ocean debris washed up onto the backyard.
• Nights and mornings are getting a lot colder.

Anyways, what I really appreciated was last night's joint CG praise and prayer night. Some words of prayer that stuck with me,

"Father God, I know wickedness and evil love the darkness and hate the light. We need the glory of your grace to shine in a world bent on abusing and taking advantage of each other. We pray for those left in the darkness, the men, women, and children living in fear, the elderly and sick who are unable to leave even if they wanted to, and for the vulnerable and suffering that are living and sleeping out in the cold. We pray for your Spirit to work in us and in the relief efforts, so that this time and place can become a better place, a more kingdom-like place, a shalom place."

Stuff.

He Loved Us Then: He'll Love Us Now - This blog post got me thinking back to a couple weeks ago in CG when we did a little exercise and asked ourselves, "As God thinks of you right now, what is the look on his face?" More times than I should, I imagine God as disappointed (#smh kind of look). And this reveals in me a performance-based mindset. So this blog post I found was a good follow-up to that. Of course as one of the commenters pointed out, which I struggle with as well, there is the temptation to "take the grace of God for granted and abuse it by ignoring it and not repenting of our sin." So how do we move away from performing and pretending? Also sort of discussed in CG, a consistent pattern of repenting of sin and believing anew in the promises of the gospel.

Dear Moms, Jesus Wants You To Chill Out - I don't want to start any rumours. Jovi is not pregnant. At least not very soon (@Peter C.). But I thought this bit of advice was nice, so I shared it with my wife.

(about) 7 years ago

While I wasn't doing anything in particular at work yesterday, I realized that it has been 7 years since I had been found and chose to follow Jesus Christ, my Shepherd. Looking back, it has really been quite a journey since that night during my sophomore year.. with many joys and pains, and so much grace from my God. Who else would I follow?  "Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.'" (John 6:68-69 ESV)

Stuff.

How to Share a Believable Gospel - I really appreciated this blog post from Desiring God. Makes me wish that I could just sit down with some people one-on-one, listen to their stories of joys, pains, and brokenness, and then talk about how Jesus Christ is such Good News for all of us. Maybe I should read his short book, Unbelievable Gospel. "When the gospel is communicated in preachy, impersonal, intolerant, know-it-all ways, people find it hard to believe. Typically, this style of evangelism is reduced to information. We content ourselves with "name-dropping” Jesus or telling people doctrine, but rarely do we draw near enough to people to know how the gospel applies to their actual lives. People want to know why the gospel is worth believing. In the information age, people are used to seeing through words. Most evangelism offers a sound bite gospel, which is easily screened, distrusted, and dismissed. In order for people to see something of substance in our words, our gospel communication needs depth."

King's Cross Church - We're launching at PS 20 in Flushing and having our first service this coming Sunday, October 14th at 11am. Pray for us, the visitors, and the surrounding community. My faith is being stretched. Pray for God to do something awesome in and through this church plant.

Stuff.

Working to Behold - Not just our initial conversion but also our sanctification is in God alone. To me this is related to the discussions and prayers we had last night at CG about pretending and performing, shrinking the gospel in our lives, and increasing ourselves with false righteousness. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Stuff.

Birthdays! - Maybe the older we get and the "more married" we become, the less SHABANG! we expect on our birthdays. Unfortunately for Jovi, she was feeling a bit under the weather, but at least she didn't have work, spent time with a couple close friends doing errands during the day, and had a family dinner celebration (yo, this family I married into loves their all-you-can-eat-sushi. We checked out a new one called Era.) And the rest of the night, she and I spent together just chilling in our PJs. I hope she can say she had at least a good birthday. I enjoyed it..haha. I love this girl- my wife. =)

Kindle Paperwhite - My first kindle is expected to arrive this Thursday! I'm really excited to have a lot of the books that I've been meaning to read so conveniently with me on my daily commutes. However, I am sad that I can't trade or lend good books to friends (Kindle does allow lending of your ebooks but to a very limited extent). I might have to buy both physical and ebook versions of really good books.. Also, I don't understand this trend of ebooks being more expensive than their paperback counterparts. It doesn't make any sense!! Ugh...

Fostering Friendships (from Boundless) - Starting new friendships really is more difficult post-college. Well, college was 4 years of intensely packed shared experiences of joys and trials with a whole lot of people around your age and just as clueless (more or less) as you are in life. But some say it isn't impossible post-college. "It takes time... It takes effort... and it takes prayer."

Stuff.

The Question That Changed My Life - Oh, my God! (I rarely say that, but I couldn't help it after reading this.) "What would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail?" Ok, I'm not posting my answer to this here. Partly because it's scary, and because I don't really know what I'm thinking right now. "You’ve got to beg him for revelation on this . . . and when he gives you the Word, you’ve got to act. God doesn’t reveal himself to us so that we can just 'consider' it, but rather, so that we will be consumed by it and obey his voice!" Read the whole post. It isn't tl;dr.

From an interview with Vaughan Roberts -  "It’s important to recognise that very often God’s power is seen, not by him removing our temptations and difficult circumstances, but by giving us the strength to persevere and live for him in the midst of them. Understanding this profound principle of God’s power being seen in weakness will transform our attitude towards all our battles as believers."

Update on the King's Cross church plant

So we're heading into our second pre-launch service this Sunday at LFCC. On October 7th, the King's Cross launch team will be commissioned by the LFCC congregation. And then on October 14th, we'll be officially launching at Public School 20 in Flushing at 11am!! So soon!

This week, our Community Groups have begun or will begin the first study in Gospel-Centered Life. We're excited for this study. Looks like it'll be challenging and encouraging. According to the other 2 CGs that already started, they got some new visitors and a few new non-believers. Please pray for them and that the CGs would be a place to encounter God and the gospel.

Other things we need prayer for:

• Financial giving - We are still a long way from financial stability and every act of sacrificial giving will help the church focus on the work of ministry and also to be generous to others within the church and outside the church.
• As we grow, we are going to have to prepare for the integration of newcomers and possibly multiplying into more CGs (which would mean new hosts/locations and new leaders).
• That God would bless this work for His glory.

Stuff.

Raucus Joy! - Woooohoo! It is better to celebrate and enjoy with others the great things that life has to offer. No holding back! "Paul, in another letter to another young Christian (Titus) reminds us that the way we live life is to make attractive the teaching about God our Savior. We adorn doctrine by our joyous celebration of life."

Just sharing some things I've read today

Community is formed and sustained by the Gospel - Several weeks ago, we discussed our hopes and visions for this season's CGs. My hope is that our CGs would be a place where we could hear and learn from God's Word, and from there be driven to go out and do things in love and pray a lot as a CG in the local community. "What forms and sustains Christian community is, perhaps paradoxically, not a commitment to community per se but a commitment to the gospel Word... An exclusive focus on community will kill community. It is only the Word of God that creates an enduring community life and love."

Desiring God 2012 National Conference - Got nothing to do this weekend? Watch the live-stream of each of the main sessions! When you follow the link, the "Upcoming" section on the right lists the schedule. I'll be busy with a wedding and other things, but I'm hoping to catch one of these.

Just stopping by.

Hello again. It's been over a year. Just stopping by.

I recently transitioned from Intern to Contractor status at my company. And with that came a nice big salary bump, more commensurate with my level of education and experience. This has brought my wife and I some more freedom in terms of buying things; especially things that I've been eyeing for awhile like the new Kindle and a more grown-up looking wardrobe...haha. But combined with purchasing our first home, I see very clearly how easy it can be to spend so much so quickly. We feel guilty sometimes that we are able to have so much. So I really hope (I guess I should also be deliberate in making sure) that these things will somehow be beneficial to the care of my family, the credibility of my testimony of God's joy in my life, and to the community of believers and non-believers in our lives.

We've been blessed. So we want to be a blessing to others. Which means...when our apartment is ready, people should come and visit and hangout with us! =)