Monday, April 28, 2008

A link and a sermon I would like to share.

Happy rainy monday you all.

I mentioned a website about apologetics in class on sunday.  The site is Stand to Reason.  

www.str.org

Greg is guy who gives very profound arguments to help you defend your faith.  If any of you have time check it out and please share any thoughts and ideas.

Also, if you have 25 minutes or so please listen to this sermon.  It was from the MeHarmony series from a church that I sometimes visited.  It really lightened an emotional load on my life and maybe it can do the same for you.  It's called the Judas principle.

www.newsong.net/irvine.resources/audio/meharmony/09.mp3

Enjoy!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Pitch and putt - No experience or clubs required.

Thanks to Tam, Nam and Andy for heading out to Evergreen with me yesterday.  It was a good time.  I came in 4th, I had a tough time with my pitching wedge, but I did manage a par on the 7th hole.  So as I always say, it takes one good shot to make you want to play again.

I was talking to Andy about trying to do this every other week or so.  It's pretty cheap to do,  I think  its $8 on weekends and $6.75 on weekdays.  You can borrow their clubs for free.  All ages are welcome and all golf levels are encouraged.  We are thinking about pairing up with a partner and play best ball and see which team has the best record by the end of summer.  This will be open to anyone not just the YA group.  Let me know if you are interested....

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Class Podcast - Sunday April 13, 2008









Download
00:15 The price of rice
06:29 Thuy: School update
07:18 Online all day; can you still do your job?
08:45 Chau: job update
09:46 Regarding the blog
10:56 Mai: Wedding updates
13:53 Dan: A wedding mishap
15:37 An: On the Delaware River
18:51 Where is Liberia?
22:06 Tam: School
23:10 Complaint bracelet
26:11 Tam: Book mention
28:52 Let's read "A Complaint Free World"
31:00 (Maryland) Crab Party @ Dan's
32:26 About the sermon
32:51 Is Christianity a minority religion?
33:45 If Wikipedia isn't accurate, why is it so popular?
35:00 Daring to be different
35:30 It's about not wanting to be judged
36:31 Is it sinful to smoke?
38:42 Do you take opportunities to share your faith?
43:18 Mai: Recounting a "thou shall not" story
47:01 "It's not what you say, It's what you do"
49:30 Being Christian the rest of the week
51:44 Andy: A good Christian follows Christ
54:00 John: Would I be called a Christian? Myspace story.
56:13 It's a walk [ongoing, lifelong]
57:05 Closing prayer

[Nice discussion about what it means to identify yourself with Christ]

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Can we do Prayer requests on this?

Hi everyone!

First and foremost thanks to everyone for making me feel welcome here.  It is really nice to be in a close knit church community, I still am getting use to it though.  For a long time I was the quiet guy who was attending a mega-church and being the quiet guy on the sidelines.

I just wanted to share with you all that over the past few months, prayer has really been the starting point for my walk with God.  If you put it into a perspective of how to improve any relationship, you need to communicate.  The more you communicate, the better understanding you have for one another.   That included outward and inward bound communication.  

It has been said that when you talk to God, it's called prayer.  If God talks to you it's called Schizophrenia. 

What I learned so far in my prayer walk is when He speaks to me, is that I need to decipher from open doors and temptation.  I use to think when I prayed for certain things and an "opportunity" came in front of me, I would rationalize that this is from Him and I would justify my actions or behaviors to steer me to what I wanted.  I changed my prayer behavior, I pray for the wisdom and grace to make the right choices when they are presented to me.  I stopped praying for specific things.  I began to pray for what he needs me to do in my walk.

I stopped looking for the big picture of my reason for my return to the east coast.  I do look back and see what steps brought me here and it's starting to make sense to me a little more.   Step by step is all I can really do.

So where am I going with all this?  I hope we can all support each other in prayer.  If you post I will pray for you.  Maybe if it works out we can find a better way to do this for one another.

Of course, I will start. hehe.  I have a phone interview on wednesday for a company in the industry that I would very much like to work for.  The other plus is that it would keep me here in Lancaster.  My brothers would like me to stay here and help with the ministry and this job would enable me to do so.  I have been looking all over the northeast for the right opportunity. I have had much interest from the finance industry, but it's not what I want to do.  

So to make a long story longer ... I am not praying for this job specifically.  I pray for where God needs me to be, whether it's here or elsewhere.  So please keep me in your prayers for my next step.  I would love to hear and discuss your thoughts on prayer.  I am sure we can enlighten each other with our thought process on this matter.

Thanks and have a great Tuesday everyone!

Johnny


Monday, April 14, 2008

All right everybody today is now DAY 1

Even though I may not be doing the bracelet deal, I have now started reading the complaint free world book. !D wish me luck everyone hehehe! I tease.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

1 Timothy 6 :3-10

Lets keep this going guys! I figured I should post something up and start some discussion.

"6But godliness with contentment is great gain"

This section is about the Love of money. Many people focus on v10 "For the Love of money is the root of all evil" but verse 6 really stuck out to me. This world is all about getting more. Companies making more profit than last year, growing and expanding in size, people getting more stuff. But verse 6 really tells you what makes a Christlike person different from the world. I think the great gain that paul talks about refers to the peace and hope that only God can give. Don't get me wrong, having money isn't a bad thing but where your heart dictates your life.

I find it very interesting that we talked about people finding hope in temporary things vs hope in God in sunday school (5th and 6th grade who talk a lot... a whole lot...) God is teaching me all the time!

What do you guys think Paul is referring to by "great gain"? what do we gain?

*note .. i am not a pastor or teacher, just a guy trying to live like Christ so pardon my misinterpretations and poor grammar*

First Podcast! (Sunday, April 6, 2008)

00:00 Welcome
00:36 Mai: Wedding updates
05:18 Braxton's hair
07:22 Minh's new job
10:56 Kim: baby adoption
15:10 Work conditions
17:50 Max's Gap pillow
20:50 ESL classes
21:33 Chau: job news
22:01 Tam: my car has "fish eyes"
25:56 Tam: new job news
27:07 Health / Medical benefits
27:43 When should you get a physical?
30:00 Dan: my brother John
31:29 Dan: on turning 40
32:10 Thuy's book (refers to this)
33:20 Sermon discussion: "Defending Your Faith"
34:53 Minh: my experience
36:47 Not a religion but a relationship with Jesus
40:23 The straight and narrow is actually liberating
41:06 Living the Christian life will attract and bear witness
43:13 EE: Evangelism Explosion (website, the two key questions)
44:11 Where do Chinese people come from; tower of Babel? [here is a resource]
45:28 How do we engage and give folks honest answers?
46:02 "You only live once" : a most dangerous statement
47:01 New movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" (trailer, blog)
47:58 Andy: book "When Jesus Returns to Jerusalem: Will You Be There to See Him?" [link?]
48:47 Does Christ return and reign on earth for 1000 years? [ Yes Jesus will. Revelation 20]
50:00 Prayer
---
This podcast allows us to extend our class to those who aren't able to be with us in person. It also allows us to continue the conversation beyond Sunday morning as well. That's the intent anyway. Would love to hear your comments and suggestions.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

church website

thanks sooooo much dan for setting up the church website. I like the color scheme. (cheers to temple school of art! )

www.vietnamesealliance.org if you haven't gone to it yet

i like how tam is covering my face :(

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Complaining Less - Sunday's Class (March 30th)


My trip back required an extra 12 hours with an overnight stay in Chicago due to the heavy thunderstorms that delayed a lot of flights this past Monday. So the photo captures how I spent most of my time on the plane.

It was really good to visit last Sunday's class, seeing old acquaintances and meeting new friends.

This topic is very practical in that, being followers of Jesus, frequent complaining ought not be part of that profile.

If I may review and request comments on two points I was trying to make...

One.
Complaining is expressing discontentment. The object of discontent may be the situation we're in, or the people in our lives. It may be about the kind of person we are - For instance, folks ask me all the time, "how do deal with being so beautiful?" (if only)
What I'm saying is complaining is ultimately about the One who allows us to be in the situations we're in, who puts the people in our lives that he does. Habitual complaining says to God "I don't think you're doing a good job running my life!" This notion I think, can really undermine your Christian walk.

Two.
When you catch yourself complaining, in addition the wristbands, say a short prayer and ask "God, why am I complaining about this? Help me understand if it's trivial or if it is something deeper? Could this affect my faith in you? is it hindering me from a deeper relationship with you?

Thanks again for letting me part of the class. I'm talking it over with Dan to see if he'll let me become a "virtual member".