Hatred

Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor (Matthew 18:23-35)

 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. ²⁴ In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.^{[c] 25} He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
²⁶ “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ ²⁷ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
²⁸ “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars.^[d] He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
²⁹ “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. ³⁰ But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
³¹ “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. ³² Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
³⁵ “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters^[e] from your heart.”

 
Today was a beautiful day outside in Austin, Texas. Imagine the perfect day: clear blue sky, bright sun, light breeze in the air, etc. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day that I was blessed to be alive in.

With this beautiful day, I spent some time with my sophomore class and freshman class. We headed over to get some frozen yogurt together. As we were walking on the sidewalk, a car passed by us. An African American male began to make racial slurs and gestures toward us.

For a good minute, I was very confused. 

Why did he make such hatred gestures and slurs? What was his reason? Why do I feel like he ruined my entire day? What's wrong with him? I didn't understand.

It reminded me of the moments in elementary school when we did dumb things for no reason. For example...

Teacher: Now Johnny, why did you hit Jim?

Johnny: I don't know. I just did.

As I thought about this, I began to think about how that person will never get a job. I began to hope that his immaturity will cause him to completely fail at life. I hoped he would suffer the consequences and live a life of constant suffering/pain/stress/etc.

Then it hit me. Why am I thinking these things? What am I doing? Why is my natural response hatred? I prayed. I prayed for forgiveness of my thoughts of hatred. I prayed for that individual as well.... I prayed for a heart of compassion.

I was reminded of the parable of the unforgiving debt collector. Funny thing is that my friend mentioned this parable to me a few hours after this incident.

Look, it doesn't mater what he did to me. What I did to Christ is far worse than what anyone will do to me. Just as Christ forgave me. I must forgive anyone and everyone. It doesn't matter what they do. If they don't know any better, then we should pray for that person. We should pray that God will soon work in his/her life.

Pray that others, who don't know better, will come to understand the love of Christ. Pray that the Story of Love and truth will be revealed to them.

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Don't waste your life.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."                        - 1 Corinthians 10:9

I guess you can say that this has been my motto ever since I've started college. We all wonder the same thing. What are we supposed to do with our life? And to find that answer, we look to society's answer.

Go to college. Get a degree. Get a job. Make and save up money. Raise a family. Use your money on your family. Save up more money for retirement. Retire. Do whatever you want until you die.

This is the "American Dream"... Chase your own ambition and then hope that you're satisfied at the end of your life.  
I don't know about you, but that sounds like a terrible life. If you follow this trend, you're risking your entire life hoping that you'll be satisfied at the end of your life. It's a gamble.

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Clever.

Clever Lee. A church friend of mine passed away yesterday. 
I received the news as I was returning home from a spring retreat in Austin. It is unbelievable how it happened suddenly.

I never got to really understand him on a personal level, but his cheerfulness and willingness to initiate conversations struck me as a gift from God. He wasn't "normal" by the standards of this world because he had autism. However, I know God gifted him with the ability to talk to anyone and everyone without the fear of being rejected or judged. That is a gift.

This may sound like one of those posts where a person feels obligated to write a sentimental testimony of one who passed away. However, I see it in a different way. I am happy to see that he has gone to the Father and has done his part in bringing: joy and happiness to many of us, and glory and honor to Him.

But of course, he will be dearly missed by his family and friends. I can only pray that his family will be comforted by the Father who is in charge of all things. It is no use by asking God, "Why did you do this". It wouldn't feel any better if He gave us the reason. Instead, we can only pursue Him for more comfort.

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Full of Grace and Truth.

So I thought I'd share another sermon I recently heard from Judah Smith. Again, I did not come up with any of this. I just want to summarize and share this amazing message.

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." --John 1:14

We learn to be respectful and courteous to guests right? We give strangers the benefit of the doubt. Think about it, and let me give you a scenario...
You're walking down a sidewalk and accidentally bump into someone. That stranger begins to flip out, starts yelling at you, and continues to walk. Your reaction is either: "what's wrong with him/her" or "they're just probably having a bad day, I'll forgive them".
You usually give a stranger the benefit of the doubt. Now let's look at the other side.

What happens when you personally know someone? You probably won't be as forgiving because you know what he/she is doing. Here's the scenario...
Your sibling is acting all cute and nice in public. Everyone loves your sibling and thinks that he/she is just the most precious, adorable, innocent person. They tell you: "isn't your sister/brother just the most precious person?" or "why can't you be more like your sister/brother, they are so wonderful!"
BUT YOU KNOW THE TRUTH. You know that your sibling is a manipulative, sweet talking, con artist. Unfortunately, no one believes you because they haven't seen the truth.

So as you can see, the more truth we know about someone, the less gracious we are to them. We can easily forgive strangers, but can't forgive our friends and relatives because WE KNOW how MEAN, CONDESCENDING, and MANIPULATIVE they can be (just trying to give a little humor... it's hard to show it when you write...).

We try and play this balancing game. To be a "good person" I need to balance my grace and truth. 50% Grace. 50% Truth. Now let's look at how Jesus would behave in our society.

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In Christ... So what does it mean?

Disclaimer: I am not taking any credit for this message. Judah Smith preached on this topic and inspired me to share. In addition, I am writing this to remind myself.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

Sounds like a very familiar verse right? Well let me try and share a different perspective of this popular verse. Here's a quick background. The apostle Paul is writing to the church of Corinth. He's encouraging followers of Christ with this verse

You become a follower of Jesus. You feel pumped up and passionate about Christ and the Gospel. After a few days or weeks, you go back to your old ways. This is the cycle.

1. Go to a church retreat/conference/mission trip and get very passionate about God.
2. Come back home to your normal life.
3. Get "burned out" within a few days or weeks.
4. Repeat.

You're wondering: Why do I go back to being normal again after a few weeks? Why do I not feel any different? Why is it still difficult for me to resist my old habits? Why isn't God helping me?
You're asking the wrong questions.

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Passion 2014: Houston, TX

The weekend of Feb. 14-15th was Passion. 
What is Passion? It's a huge Christian conference that occurs one time a year. I know what you're thinking, "Oh it's one of those weird, crazy religious things." Yeah, it may seem like it, but it's different when you experience it yourself.

Passion usually occurs in Atlanta, Georgia every year. However, they decided to bring it back to Houston this year. When I heard this announcement at our church, I signed up. I don't know why. I just did. I didn't think much about it. This was last semester.

After a couple months passed, Passion arrived. It happened so suddenly. I was so caught up with schoolwork and didn't realize that it was in a few days. Then it happened.

  The Experience
I have never been in such an intense environment. Here's what I mean. There is no way this "religion" is fake. There's no "religion" that creates an environment where people, who have never met each other, will worship together in joy. The environment was so loving, caring, and passionate for Christ. These feelings are all genuine. They're from the heart of every individual. Christianity doesn't MAKE us act like this. There are no rules that say, "You must be happy while you worship God." We do it because we want to. We do it because we experience the love of Christ. It's all genuine and real.

I felt so encouraged to see the thousands of people who love Christ. I even met some high school acquaintances at a random McDonald's before getting to Passion. There is no way that I met them by coincidence at Passion in that McDonald's. I was reminded that "coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."

There are so many things I could talk about here, but I'll end it here with some major points that I learned.

• Once you truly have your eyes opened, you experience God in a way that will forever change you life

• Every day is a day closer to Christ. Either we get closer to death, or we get closer to His return. Every day should be the best day of your life.

• We are made new IN Christ. Being in Christ redefines our position. We no longer have to live life trying to get a certain position (CEO, pro athlete, president, etc.). That's what society/the world tells us to do. Now that we're IN Christ, we are given the highest position. Our position IN Christ now defines how we live our life. For Him.

Everything feels so surreal. But I'm certain that this experience will not disappear like any of the other church retreats/revivals. This hit me at the right time and at the right place.

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1.19.14.

It's been a little over a week since a close friend has left me. She was always around all my life up until now. Unfortunately, it was time for her to go. Chocolate: my dog, my longest friend passed away on January 19, 2014. She's been around ever since I didn't really have any friends. 

I knew it was going to happen soon because she was sick all throughout winter break. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to say my goodbye as I left for another semester. I don't think I did. But hey, life happens. There's a process of life and death in this world. It's inevitable.


Last week, I didn't have much time to be sentimental. I know it's kind of sad, but I didn't have time to be sad and think about the good times. I guess now is my time to reminisce on the past. The weird thing is, I'm not all that depressed or sad that she's gone. And by no means am I trying to say that I don't care. I do.

I didn't really know how to react when I heard the news from my dad. All I knew was that I had too many things going on. I didn't have time to sit and think. So I tried to suppress those feelings in me for the time being. I held them in as long as I could up until I came to prayer meetings during the week. From that moment, when I started praising and praying, I began to ask God to let me see the good in what may seem bad. I asked for this burden of mixed feelings to disappear. Amazingly, it did.

You see, what's done is done. You can't change the past. Of course, everyone knows that. Even though this event is unfortunate, God showed me the urgency we need in our lives. Our lives our short. Dogs' lives are shorter.

Some of you may be thinking, "how can you NOT be sad, and how are you so emotionless?" It's not that I'm not sad or depressed or angry, I choose not to pursue those emotions. They lead to nothing. Instead, I think about how there wouldn't be death at all if sin had never distorted the truth and this world. That's what keeps me going; I want expose the truth that has been distorted by sin.

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