by Sam | Jan 5, 2018 | Guest Blogger, Inspiration
I once heard that after their formal education and college years, the average adult does not pick up another book. And if they do, it is just a fraction of that minority that actually finishes a book. Mark Twain keenly noted, “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” Elsewhere I heard Jim Rohn remark on stage that only three percent of adults in the U.S. own a library card. A mere three percent! Can you imagine? Which is why I suppose the Christian real estate billionaire Peter J. Daniels observed, “Never before have the libraries of the world been so full, and never before have they been so empty.” 'The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.' - Mark Twain Click To Tweet The last verse of the Gospel of John (John 21:25) still leaves me flabbergasted, years after I first read it. No doubt when my time on Earth comes to an end and my new life begins, you will find me perusing through God’s library (good thing I’ll have eternity to do it!) In fact, I hope God’s current librarian plans on retiring when I get there, so I can fill those wings. I am a voracious reader. I picked up the habit of reading books (cover to cover) in my early 20s, because I had many mentors encourage me to. In reading I found even more mentors, and I expanded my awareness, thinking, and consciousness through swimming across a wide ocean of subjects – psychology, philosophy, personal and professional development, leadership,...
by Sam | Oct 17, 2017 | Guest Blogger, Reflection
by Andrew Min The essential vice of man through history has been to please himself, to bring himself joy, to accomplish his own will, to receive his own glory. But when a person meets Jesus, everything changes; the Holy Spirit breathes a miracle into their soul, the curious reorientation of their entire life, turning it upside down. In the heart of a Christian, God plants a simple, small desire, a quiet Voice, that says, “I want to serve You, God. I want to do something meaningful for You. I want to do what makes my Father happy.” Your life is no longer about loving the things that that bring yourself pleasure, but to bring pleasure to the One you love. Surrender is no longer a reluctant yielding, but a joyful offering. It’s the upside down, backwards nature of true love, the beautiful foolishness of carrying the cross. It’s extraordinary. It’s silly. It’s divine. And the worldwide Kingdom revolution is going to begin with this holy desire. But I’m frustrated by the idolatry we practice as believers toward the position of pastor. I feel like a subtle lie persistently influences our church world, a thought that most of us would never explicitly agree with yet somehow continue to propagate: a person’s love for God is measured by their involvement in church. When you first start loving God, you become a greeter for Sunday service; and then when your love for God grows, you become a small group leader; and then if you’re really passionate about Jesus, you’ll be a volunteer staff to give announcements and plan events; and one day,...
by Sam | Aug 28, 2017 | Guest Blogger, Testimony
Written by Brian Lee (originally posted here) From Aug 13th-16th, I had the opportunity to serve as leader at a youth church retreat. However, I want to share a story – a story of someone who will be called Mark. Upon getting on the bus to go to the retreat center, I knew Mark was different. Unlike the other kids who all gave up their phones, he refused to give up his. He also didn’t want anyone to sit next to him, regardless of the bus being full. I eventually forced myself into the seat beside him, exclaiming that by the end of the bus ride we would be best friends. He responded by saying he hated me; I don’t necessarily blame him. I probably freaked the kid out and was “extra” someway or another. Quickly, I found out we both shared lots of similarities. We both went to Murchison Middle School, we both watched Naruto, and we both liked sports. And then, he started to share more. Little did I know that Mark moved from place to place, school to school, difficulty to difficulty. Mark’s step-father was in the army, which caused his family to move often. Instead of going to one elementary school, Mark went to five. He described for 1.5 hours how he struggled with friends, loneliness, and an unstable family life. Later, I found out that Mark’s biological father passed away when Mark was starting elementary school. That night, we had our first worship service of the retreat. After a couple of songs, I looked to my side and I noticed Mark. I saw Mark...
by Sam | Aug 11, 2017 | Guest Blogger, Reflection
by Natalie Walker Our wedding was in two days. It was ten o’clock at night, and we had a million things left to do on our checklist. Yet, my fiancé and I found ourselves standing in an aisle at Home Depot debating how much we should spend on a plastic tarp, dishwashing soap, and a garden hose. The need, of course, was urgent. We were picking up supplies to create a slip and slide at our rehearsal dinner. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t entirely confident in our plan. The wedding funds had been spent, and the details for the weekend had all been arranged. My bride’s mind began to play out every worst-case scenario that could possibly go wrong: injuries, scrapes, scratches. I could picture myself walking down the aisle to my groom, only to be met with some kind of freak facial injury because we just had to have that slip and slide. Right about the time I was encouraging my future husband to drop the soap and make a beeline for the door, I stopped to remind myself why we were doing this in the first place. We knew that the ceremony would be sacred, and that the reception would be memorable. But, we also knew that this weekend was our first chance to make a statement about who we were, and who we wanted to be, as a married unit. And, we wanted to be fun. During our engagement, my husband and I came up with a list of five core values that we hoped to prioritize and embody, one of which was fun. It’s not...
by Sam | Jul 18, 2017 | Guest Blogger, Inspiration
by Jason Voong A few years ago I was having a conversation with a friend of mine. I was telling him a dream that I had to one day preach at a specific church. He responded, “Who do you think you are?” and “What makes you think they would even let you?” The combination of that conversation, struggles I had, and events that had occurred up to that point – led me to a place where I began to lay that dream down – and other dreams with it. I thought I was disqualified. I thought that maybe I wasn’t the right guy for the job. Because if I was, shouldn’t everyone be on board and everything line up exactly the way I want them to? We buy into lies like that all the time don’t we? As a result, many of us have laid down dreams that we were never meant to lay down. There’s a guy in the Bible named Peter. In the very beginning of the Gospels, Peter is sitting in a boat and fishing. Jesus comes and calls Peter out of the boat. He gives him an invitation to not fish for fish, but to become a fisher of men. This is Jesus inviting Peter into a dream. And not just any dream, but a dream that’s bigger than himself. God’s dreams are always bigger and better than anything we could ever imagine. God’s dreams are always bigger and better than anything we could ever imagine. Click To Tweet A little bit later, Jesus blows the dream up (in a good way), and says, “Oh...
by Sam | Jun 20, 2017 | Guest Blogger, Testimony
Testimony by David Yi, Youth & Children’s Pastor at DKUMC Sam was our guest speaker for our youth revival in May. Our theme was “Victory” and so the goal was obvious – to get our youth group to have a shift in mentality towards the battles they face in life. As we prayed together, we both felt the sense that God wanted to really encounter the students and attendees of our event. If you saw in Sam’s recent video blog, he came with his mentee, Danny, and their weekend in Delaware began with God’s healing power in the middle of a restaurant! So, it’s no surprise that the healing power of God broke out through our revival. The kids were timid to approach the front to receive prayer for healing but by the end of the evening, the front of the sanctuary was full of students and overflowing into the center aisle. Kids were all on their knees earnestly seeking the love of God and it was a beautiful sight. The two major topics of healing were for knees/ankles and family. As time passed, I had the chance to talk to some of the kids about what happened. A lot of them actually experienced partial healing in the knees and ankles and several of them commented about how God really changed a struggling family dynamic! So I decided to keep pressing in. We asked God to continue to heal the students and I was surprised to see that they were instantly completely healed! We went one step further. I prayed that they would all receive the gift of healing. ...
