Going Through a Tough Time? Ignite your Faith!

Amazing! Praise God! This post will be partially dedicated to the Passover, and it will also detail our experience in a Korean church on April 1, 2018.

The pastor preached about hope and expectation. He talked, in English, about how Jesus was expected to be a military commander, leading armies to victory, restoring Israel to its former glory. A personal connection was made to the audience when the pastor talked about how we –as humans–subdue ourselves to sin without putting forth a fight. Without considering Jesus died on the cross not just to cleanse us from our sins, but to offer us an olive branch of eternal life.

On a daily basis, we allow negativity to cause influx in our lives. Not only that, we allow ourselves to focus on negative (sinful) energy. Turning to the scriptures, we can see that the 12 disciples gave up everything to follow Jesus. They heavily invested in Jesus, and Jesus heavily invested in them. When Jesus was crucified, the disciples lost all their hope.

Equal to our own lives today, everyone has experienced this form of loss one way or another: death of a family member, a lost puppy, a murdered child. Fear takes hold of us by the throat, and our failure hinders us from success. We swamp ourselves with guilt, bringing it past our brow, allowing us to drown in the filth. Sucking for air, our lungs become encapsulated with muck. Worms eat away at us, fill our nostrils, wiggling their way up to our brains. All of it is distracting us from our purpose. We allow ourselves to feel fear. We allow ourselves to drown in the swamp. We allow negativity to penetrate our hearts.

Murder and losing a child may seem unfair. Please understand, I am not trying to downplay your hurt, but instead, offer a different perspective on how passover can rekindle your faith with God. When a son dies too soon, or a loved one is murdered,  we may begin to question our Holy Father.

“Why, God, I have been faithful to you all these years. Why me?”

When all our expectations and hope for God is dashed to the ground, we lose faith. Satan thirsts for us to be in this position. Satan wants the worms to penetrate not just our lungs, but engulf our heart. What’s amazing about these battles we face on a daily basis? It does not matter how engulfed we feel in negativity and sorrow, Jesus and God will always be at our rescue. Let us again turn to scripture to cite evidence of hope being restored, even during what may seem to be the darkest hour.

We must remember, Jesus refills his disciples’ hope. John 18, 20-23 shows how Jesus resurrect and breathes the Holy Spirit back into his followers. . He bestows his disciples, saying “peace be with you.” Peace. Not a word chosen by mistake (obviously). A word with many interpretive meanings: Be peaceful, find your tranquility. Why? Because at the end of the day, Jesus and God tag team and come through in the end. Feeling hopeless? I’m not sure how God will do it, but I know He will rekindle your hope. God rekindles our hope with a new life, a new creation, by blanketing us with the holy spirit.

Passover occurs during one of Jesus’ darkest hour– his crucified  on the cross. As Christians, we can analize, elaborate, and explain how Jesus died on the cross. This denotes a painful occasion (the death of Jesus Christ (the negative side of the coin)), and a positive– the prophecy is fufilled, and Jesus resurrects. We do not talk enough about resurrection. We do not talk enough about being refilled with hope. Through this resurrection, Jesus offers us a tree bearing the most amazing fruit: that fruit is juicy, pungent to the core, tangy when licked on the chops; that fruit is eternal life.

Yes, our earthly problems are difficult for us to conquer. Sometimes we feel like we are drowning in a swamp of despair (and, quite frankly, that’s ok. After all, we are human). But next time you find yourself wallowing, try to see a thick fruit branch dangling right over your head that Jesus has draped over your swamp for you to grab. The fruit of eternal life is ours, and given only by the Son of Man. We need only to bite into the fruit. And this time, it is not a temptation from Satan.

 

 

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Adventures in Korea– Day 1

For the next 6 days, this blog will document my travels in Korea. I am perched in an economy class on a bumpy flight enroute to Gimpo airport—a small airport in Seoul. Beside me is my sleeping beauty, and lovely Korean American girlfriend. Today’s entry will document the transport part of our trip. We are coming all the way from Apartment One in Shenzhen to Seoul Korea.

 

Transport, in my opinion, is always the worst part of any adventure. Day 1 proves to my original theory. Our adventures have been stale thus far. Sweaty armpits, jogging to board a flight, and being congested in China travel are adjectives used to describe our experience.

 

In terms of perks, we were lucky and blessed to make a ferry ride to the Hong Kong International Airport from Shenzhen. A calm sea met us, with little to be wary about at this point in our trip. Priase the lord for allowing us to make all our flights today.

 

Then the fun in transportation started—we made our Air China flight, but were delayed. For some reason, we thought it a great idea to fly from Hong Kong to Beijing, and then to finally landside on Korean soil. We probably did this to save money, but after a discussion with my girlfriend, we both forgot why we booked it “this way.” Am I making her forgetful too?

 

We made our international transfer flight from Beijing, and are flying to Soeul now.

 

My fatally terrible memory cannot seem to recall whether or not I confirmed the booking for our Airbnb. Ahhh. Stupid. Again, everything feels so last minute.

 

To give some context: my girlfriend is Korean American. She has travelled to Korea before. If we are to apply a label to her, she would classify herself as a foodie (and proudly so, I think). I’m not just talking about someone who enjoys eating and food in general, I am talking hardcore Foodie that watches YouTube videos of other Koreans taking big “bites” of food and consuming large dishes are restaurants. Yeah, that’s here.

 

And God has blessed me for having the opportunity to travel under the guidance of her foodie itinerary. Tonight, after we are done “transporting,” we will hopefully have time to sink our teeth into a famous chicken Korean restaurant.

 

Seriously, though, why can’t I remember if I booked the AirBnb for us or not? Am I seriously going senile? It is not that I am unrealiable (at least I like to tell myself I am not), but… Come on!

Blogging: A 40 Post Reflection

Compiling all entries into montage on the Pledge crossed my mind briefly, but I realized wordsmithing is the objective of this game– improving it at that!

Perhaps I do not give myself enough credence: I have successfully written 40 blog posting. Though inside my heart I have this unknown trepidation that all is going to crash and burn. I mean, once you get so high, you have to fall, right? Or so the cliche goes anyway.

What are the noticeable results that can be gleaned from writing so much, all the while juggling a 60 hour work week as an English teacher, going to church 3 times a weekend (yes, you read right, weekend), and still finding time to read books?

The results, quite plainly, are amazing! Proof is in the years of writing. Let’s look at something I wrote in 2008: hey all, This is my best attempt at crush by David Archuleta (very hard song becuase it has such a great vast in vocal range).

What the heck, right? Now look at my writing! I can feel the inspiration flow from my brain down to the tips of my fingers. Fingers are dancing across the keyboard in an awe of written fluency.

Even after I read my first entry, which is here, I instantly spot strides made in my syntax and flow of the written word. As of today, I feel like my vocabulary is stretched to levels I have never reached before. And then there is the pressure of producing writing for a small audience; it is kind of cool that I have subscribers.

In the profession of teaching, I have noticed that my ability to teach writing, including several styles of essays, and grammar, has all increased threefold. As an educator, I feel more confident than ever in my written word– thank you blogging (and reading).

 

Is Starbucks Really Anti-Christian?

 

 

In short, the answer is no. On the surface, it could appear to be so. Before refuting Christianity, lets delve into what the accusations are.

Accusations have been made over cups, and how stores do not value Christmas ideals. Though Christmas is an important part of Christianity, Starbucks has the right to remain as impartial as much as possible. Tailoring business practises to one faith would not make it a culturally acceptable business. In fact, And moreover, if Starbucks did honor Christianity, it would be argued that it was trying to convert people.

Yes, Starbucks encourages same-sex marital couples to work. Although this value could be seen as not Christian, it is too far of a stretch to explicitly state that Starbucks is anti-Christian because it supports homosexuals. If anything, Starbucks is doing what we Christians should do: show love for others, no matter what. If a Christian coffee shop owner refused to hire same sex couples, wouldn’t that make them discriminatory towards another group of God’s people?

Even further, God wishes us to follow the law, in some states and provinces, same sex marriage is legal. Ah.. You can see how this event becomes convoluted, yes?

I think as Christians are best route is always turn to the scriptures for God’s counsel in times of adversity and challenge. This scripture comes to my mind with the Starbucks issue:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

There’s the words of God, in plain English: love them. That’s the solution– love. As Christians, we can do better than condone hate and promote anger towards an organization that is following the law.

 

The Best Books I Read Before I Became an Avid Reader (and Writer)

Until this year, I rarely read a book. I was an ironic, not well read, skipped all the readings in university English teacher. Thus stated, there were rare instances where a book did captivate my interest when I was not a reader. Below is a list of my pre-avid reader books:

1) Battle Royale- Koushun Takami

Translated from its Japanese origin, Battle Royale sparks debate today. It is argued to be the first and better Hunger Games. Warning to future readers of this book: it is gruesome (tweens killing and raping other tweens gruesome). The action in this text is non-stop.

It is interesting to note that the page count for this book is 666… A lucky number in China, but in Japan…?

2) Halo: The Flood-William C. Dietz

After playing the Halo Combat Evolved video game for a majority of my childhood, it was really neat to read how William C. Dietz imagined the campaign. Bonus material of the surviving marines is pertinent throughout the book, and makes it an enjoyable read. Contrasting the images from the series with the sensory details and description in William C. Dietz text was a thrilling read for me back in my tweens.

Yes, you guessed it, this book was the one that kept me awake until odd hours in the night when I was a child. Maybe you weren’t thinking about odd hours in the night, but I took a guess anyway.

I have not read this book in about 10 years. It would be interesting to pick it up and give it a read to see if I still feel the same about it… Hmm, possibly add this text to my reading list?

3) The Hatchet-Gary Paulsen

Now a book with a medal attached to its front cover, The Hatchet earns my personal medal as the first novel I ever finished reading. It really is sad, isn’t it? While in school, I remember reading books in class, but I also remember just skipping pages during partner reading to crap my way through the assignments– my love for reading was non-existent!

A short list of books! Wondering how these texts will fare now that I am 15 years older…

 

 

Vocabulary Game Update–March

As of today, I am playing the vocabulary game by my lonesome– that’s alright, but eventually it would be cool learn that this game is not my chattel. Instead, let it be a public avenue for bloggers to increase their lexicon

Enough jabber. Into the rules, yee?

Writers will earn points for every vocabulary word they use. All the writer has to do is link this blog entry with the word they have used. I will then visit the post, read it, comment, and then award a point to that writer for their wordsmithing.  You will only gain one point per word, so bloggers will be encouraged to heighten their lexicon by broadening their vocabulary. Your blog will also be publicized on the list. The winner of each month will also earn an entry that  hopefully directs the small traffic from my blog to yours 🙂

Are you feeling a sense of trepidation from this post? Game on, writers:

 

Word Bank	Definition	Used by…
Conviviality	Friendly, lovely, and enjoyable
Chattel	Personal possession	The5kpledge
Cogitate	To think deeply about something
Muggle	To be very trite; boring
Affectation	Behavior, speech, or writing needed to impress
Cant	To be hypocritical in politics or religion
Heady	Potent or intoxicating

How I am Trying to Read A lot

Note a hint of uncertainty in the title: I am tying to read more. Over the past month and a half, I have implemented strategies that force me to read on regularly. At this point, I feel like I going through tingle-like- addict- withdrawls if I’m not reading.  Here’s an entry dedicated to the strategies I am implementing to reach my 2018 Reading Goal.

A bit tired of numbering and heading sections of my blog. Today, I’ll be writing a good ol’ fashion wall of text to (hopefully) be read by millions (naw, try a handful– thanks followers). AH-Uhm. I digress. Sorry.

First, I always try to slip my Kindle into my backpack. In the rare instances where I forget, I ensure applications on my phone offer plenty of reading options. One I use is the Bible app to develop my faith. Another application worthy of downloading is BBC News. Together, these applications provide many opportune moments for reading.

A question arises, right? With reading materials readily available, how do I find the time to read? Stephan King answered this question for me: down time equals reading time!

Downtime, for me (and probably King), is time in a lineup, waiting for a bus, and the bus ride to work. Some people experience vertigo when they read on a tin can with wheels. Don’t vomit on your lovely book. Instead, find alternate strategies to add in some reading time.

Any book that I start, I vow to finish. Some people think I am making an inane strategy. Pushing through a terrible read is beneficial for my writing. What helps me push through is the very fact that I usually have three books in progress at the same time.

One of those books is a risk-taker– it is a novel that I might enjoy, but its way outside my typical interest zone. These books are not usually recommended by friends, do not have many reviews on Amazon. Some of these books are self published, or outside the realm of genres I am used too. Captive in the Dark is an example of a risky book.

My second book in action will be one of personal development. Because I don’t want to waste time reading useless information, I always research these books before I invest the time reading it cover to cover. These books are usually recommended by friend, have high ranks on Amazon, and are of used to develop my life (whether that be spiritually, through writing, or any other facets).

The last book in progress is a story that I am confident that I will enjoy. It is fast paced, or taken from a series that has impressed thus far. On my rating scale, a book that is no lower than an 8/10 can be selected. My current book for entertainment is the Shadow Children series

For me, having two or three books in progress at once helps ground my ping pong mind, and keep me interested if one of those books is dry. As of today, I have not ran into a position where all three books are dry. I am curious how my reading habit would fare against those odds!

Lastly, tracking which books you read is imperative to continue reading more. For me, this strategy helps give me a benchmark. It is a constant reminder of my end goal, and allows me to book budget to meet said goal.