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| [Passion DC 2008] Why does Chris Luk want to be a Fruitcake?!Hello everyone,
Some of you have asked me how Passion Regionals 2008 [USA]: Washington DC (February 22-23, 2008) <http://www.268generation.com/regionals07/>
went, some of you have heard my shortened spiel, others have heard the
whole thing, and some of you, I'm only assuming, that you would want to
hear about what amazing things God did there in a short 27 hours!
(Want to read the short and sweet version? Go to http://www.268blog.blogspot.com )
Grab your beverage of choice, grab a comfortable chair, and a pillow because this is going to be long!
First
off, this is by no means a review, a "put-up" nor a "put-down" about
this conference nor other conferences, I just hope to effectively
convey and share how I experienced God while I was there. I am not
going to be able to summarize anything of what God did this weekend and
do it any justice. He's just too amazing for that. I do hope,
however, to provide you with some resources and hopefully encourage you
along the way :D
One of the things I've always enjoyed about Passion Conferences <http://www.268generation.com/>
is how ridiculously Christ-centered they are. This is the fourth
Passion gathering that I have attended and every single time it
happens, it's always about one mission and one verse. Life is short,
so live for what matters most:
"Yes Lord, walking in the way of
Your truth we wait eagerly for You, for Your name and renown are the
desire of our souls." -- Isaiah 26:8
A Glimpse of Passion: http://youtube.com/watch?v=q-SBEvOSepA
... To lift up the Holy One:
His name is Jesus!
His name,
His fame,
Is what Passion is all about:
Are you with us?
But we are not here as many but as one:
Let's rise up as one:
Let's believe in this Holy One!
Could there be a day? When His name is the brightest,
And our campuses know His fame?
We believe it is possible,
We believe it is coming,
We believe it is time,
He's here.
He is ...
Everything bight and good,
Lasting and true,
Everything new,
He is ...
Price payer,
Shame bearer,
Grave ender,
Breach repairer,
Crown wearer,
Re-arranger,
Hope's anchor,
World changer,
Church builder,
Always sustainer,
Freeing,
Loving,
Never ending,
He is here.
Then next thing you know, you're proclaiming "Our God
is a God who saves". How true is that? Our God is a God who SAVES!
We are lead into a song taken from Psalm 68: "Let God arise, let his
enemies be scattered" -- that is the power that our God has! Then we
continue to proclaim "Saviour, He can move the mountains, Our God is
mighty to save, He is mighty to save! Forever, author of salvation, He
rose and conquered the grave; Jesus conquered the grave!" What a way
to start. Proclaiming the truth about Jesus Christ at the top of our
lungs with the focus not being on "famous people". Francis Chan jokes
about this later, "If only Chris Tomlin was leading me in worship, then
I could REALLY worship!" What a lie. Focus your mind's attention and
heart's affection upon the Lord for who He is and what He has done and
you can freely worship Him :D
Chorus:
We will sing, sing, sing!
And make music with the heavens!
We will sing, sing, sing!
Grateful that You hear us
When we shout your praise!
Lift high the name of Jesus!
What's not to love about You?
Heaven and earth adore You,
Kings and kingdoms bow down,
Son of God, You are the One,
You are the One we're living for,
Chorus
You are the love that frees us,
You are the light that leads us,
Like a fire burning,
Son of God, You are the one.
Chorus
Cool,
eh? A song written about singing and joining with the heaven's anthem
for Jesus' name above all things :) I like it! So that's what
university/college students end up doing when they realize that their
lives are short and that Jesus is the only thing worth living for and
proclaiming. I'm pretty sure that this video was taken at the last
main session at Passion DC (the video skips a bit). I remember hearing
people talking about how the risers/bleachers/seats were shaking from
all the people undignified-ly dancing :p Wonderful :)
If you were there, trust me, there's no way you could have danced
and celebrated there thinking "Chris Tomlin is still single, isn't
he?" No way! You'd be there screaming, "Thank you GOD that your arms
are not too short to save, that you are a real and personal God that
has saved us from death and given us life!" Undignified worship of
the Lord Jesus Christ who is worthy of it all. I'm pretty sure that
Priscilla really enjoyed it also <http://wholyyours.blogspot.com/>
Which goes to say, if you just need to dance before the Lord because of
the overflow of your forgiven heart or because you want to declare the
truth in the words that you are singing to Him, DO IT! If you feel
your church or fellowship is "dead", BE the change!
Anyhow! When Louie Giglio walks out and just introduces the
mini-conference saying that we aren't here for anyone "famous", or to
be the start of something, but rather to seek Jesus Christ above all
things and to merely join in and be a speck in what God is already
doing in the city, just wow. We are here to have an encounter with God
and something will happen only if we encounter God (not if we encounter
"famous people"). Nothing is going to happen -- nothing is going to
change unless we have an authentic face-to-face encounter with the
Creator of the universe.
The next thing we did was to get into prayer triangles. "And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken." -- Ecclesiastes 4:12.
So here's the idea: one person prays, the other two agree, this cord of
three in agreement is much stronger than just a cord of one. It's
just plain cool to see an army of so many join together agreeing with
one voice and seeking Jesus Christ all at the same time. It's times
like this when there's a spark in your head that realizes that Jesus is
building His church all over the world and that you are NOT alone.
There ARE others out there your age that love Jesus Christ and want His
fame to be the brightest thing in the whole world.
There were lots of prayer sessions where we prayed for lots of
things including our own home city, our own campus, cities around the
world that God has placed on your heart, for (Kampala,) Uganda London,
Paris, China, and Hong Kong specifically :D, for the campus and
students where the conference was held (where only 300 out of 30,000
students love Jesus), and so much more. It was great to be able to see
a student from mainland China who loves Jesus, who is not afraid to
stand for her faith in a place like China, and also a young couple from
Hong Kong who love prayer :D Lei <lyang13@hotmail.com>
will tell you much more about them if you ask him! Lei got their
contact information, prayed for them, and got prayed over by them! But
that's just not fair since he knows Mandarin :p
I know Benson wants to head over to Hong Kong and drag the rest of his
loving relatives to the upcoming Passion Conference when Passion
finally lands there. <http://www.268generation.com/worldtour/>
HONG KONG AND VANCOUVER:
Here's my shameless plug. When Passion comes to your city, whether it be Vancouver, BC (October 6, 2008) or to Hong Kong (October 16, 2008),
go! Don't go just to see what the "hype" is about. There is no hype
... there's just God. G-O-D period. Go, join, and seek Jesus Christ
first and foremost and just let Him speak to you and be saturated in
His presence. Go and just experience a snapshot of what God is ALREADY
doing in your city. Your city isn't taken over by darkness, there's
just not enough LIGHT. Go and be encouraged! There are other LIGHTS
shining for Jesus in your city. You are not alone. SHINE. Be the
light. Passion isn't going to bring revival to your city, only the
Holy Spirit can do that, but this is one opportunity where your city
can seek the Lord together as one voice and one body to do it! Who
knows, you might actually see some of us from Toronto fly over to your
city and join you lifting up the name of Jesus Christ! :D (Priscilla's
up for it, I know that! :p)
Do Something NOW!!! :D :D :D
Something both Priscilla and I were really looking forward to (and I mean REALLY looking forward to) was the Do Something Now campaign.
Last year, at Passion 2007 when it all started, Louie was saying that
if people that follow Jesus Christ are gathered together in one place
(especially 23,000 of them), the city should know that something
different is happening in their city, that people that love the Lord
are present and are making a difference in the world. We talk about it
all the time how when we are in the presence of God, we can feel it, we
are changed, and we leave different. Same thing, when people of God
are present, when we leave, the world should be different. As Dr.
Voddie Baucham says, "leave the world a better place than when you got
here". (You know I can't write anything without quoting Voddie).
This year, I came READY to give and do something to change the
world! Thanks to Uncle David, Auntie Emily, Uncle Hin, Auntie Astrid,
and Auntie Betty (and all my other American relatives) for their
continual donations in forms of Chinese New Year Red Pocket Money of
American currency. Just to let you know that your money was diverted
to something much more amazing than I could have ever dreamed :)
When we Christ-followers work together, we are a mighty force.
So
at previous Passion gatherings, there were many opportunities that you
could help out with to change the world for the better right NOW. When
you approach many inter-city homeless shelters, the two major items
they always need more of are towels and socks. Towels can be used as a
variety of things such as a blanket, a jacket, a mattress, or actually
as a towel. Similarly, socks can be used to keep hands and feet warm.
So why not show people in the city that people of God love them and
that Jesus loves them enough to provide for them?
So this year I went READY! I went to Walmart and bought a whack-load
of towels and a huge pack of socks that filled two-thirds of my
traveling duffel bag. I don't say this to make myself seem "better"
than others, rather I tell you that because I was soooooo excited to
see how God is going to use something so simple help better the
Virginia/DC community :) There's surprisingly a lot of infrastructure
related to homelessness in the Washington DC area alone.
Today,
Passion DC really begins. God has touched our lives in ways only He
can. Now, it's time to live the life. We will not be the same, and the
world has changed. Students this weekend are sending 11,117 pairs of
socks and 2920 towels to the shelters of Metro DC! Plus, they gave
$42201 to build 14 wells in Africa AND $36,217 for Passion Kampala.
Amazing! By the way, if you didn't notice (and haven't already cut
yours off), if you turn your DC wristband inside out Passion Kampala is
printed on the other side...hopefully a reminder to pray for this event
from now until May.
Cool,
eh? All that from "poor" college students :) That's a lot of towels
and socks. You should see what a big pile of towels and socks looks
like. It's really quite beautiful :)
Kampala is in Uganda, in case you didn't know. Passion
will be flying to Uganda, even with all this unrest, to preach the name
of Jesus, His saving grace, forgiveness, freedom, and how He can give
life.
The goal was 3,000 towels by the end of the conference. By the
afternoon session, there were only about 2,000 towels present. So
people went out after the afternoon session and bought towels like
CRAZY! It was amazing :D
"This was awesome! My new friends from The Loft went to K-Mart to buy
more towels. They contacted the manager about getting a discount for
buying tons of towels and if they get more than 10, they could get 15%
off. Well, they started pooling their money and then more Passion
attendees showed up and wanted to pool also. They ended up getting
someone to go to the front to have them make an announcment [sic]. They paged
the entire store for all Passion attendees to go to the home decor
section. Andrew told me that another 20 people showed up and they
cleared the entire aisle of towels! lol! Now, I'm at the lobby waiting
for the evening session to open when all of a sudden, there's just this
line of people with towels coming in! I was in shock and blown away,
lol! I hope the receipt makes it to Louie. That reaffirms even more to
me that God is ready getting this generation moving for His glory!"
So in slightly more detail here is the KMart story...Our group was
compelled to go to pick up more towels to help meet the goal. So we
called Rite-Aid and they had been cleaned out of towels! (I wonder who
could have done that?) So we went over to a KMart and actually went to
the manager asking if there was any way that we could get a discount if
we bought enough towels. He took us to a towel section in Home Decor
and said he would give us %15 off if we bought at least 10. So our
group of 8 started to pool money together and then some more people
attending Passion came around the corner and they contritbuted [sic] money as
well then we prayed that somehow God would provide more money...we felt
like we could give more. We sent someone up to the front to announce on
the PA system that anyone in the store from the Passion Conference
should go to the Home Decor section. We had 20 more people show up and
we gathered enough money to clear out all 103 towels left! PRAISE GOD!!!
Comments taken from www.268blog.com
There
was also a church group that called their church to help them buy a
truck-load of towels. Sure enough, their church stocked up a whole van
of towels ready to give. I remember standing in line to get in for the
main session, next thing you know, a red truck pulls up to the entrance
and you see an army of university/college students run in through the
side entrance to drop off all the towels they just bought, then run
back outside to get back in line (and park the truck) :p
As you read above, over $42,000 was given for Blood Water Mission
to provide water wells for African villages. Each well can provide
water for a village of 700 to 1000 people for their lifetime. Exciting
times. Did you know that the primary cause of death in Africa isn't
HIV/AIDS, it's actually water-borne disease. Clean and accessible
water is life.
Some of the organizations I really enjoyed partnering with at
previous Passion Conferences was OneVerse and Bibles Unbound. OneVerse
<http://www.oneverse.org/> is just a genius idea. See this at a SCAC near you! :p (Priscilla at Scarborough Chinese Alliance Church).
One Verse is simply this, there are still about 2,200 people groups
that do not have a Bible available in their native language.
OneVerse's mission is to provide those people with an accurate
translation of the Word of God. At roughly $24 a verse, you can help
create Bibles for people who do not have access to the Word of God. I
thought this was just the most amazing idea of all time. Imagine not
being able to read the Bible.
Bibles Unbound was great because it didn't require any money on our
part (although if you were to do Bibles Unbound with your church or
fellowship or group, you will have to pay for the postage). The
concept was simply this, they give you a Bible in a language, (say
Chinese,) an envelope, an address sticker, and a bookmark. The Chinese
Bible, the envelope, and address you put together and mail it off. The
bookmark, you keep. The bookmark tells you which city and province in
China the Bible is going to and the name of the person it is sent to.
Your "deal" is that you will pray for this person for one year, praying
that the Holy Spirit will reveal truth to them and that God's Word will
do what it was sent to do and not return void. (Isaiah 55:11). Kitty
and I had the opportunity to do this together last year.
There you have it. You can change the world NOW. Some things
might take some money, other things (such as prayer and diligence)
won't take any money at all, just your time and discipline (which for
some might be a bigger sacrifice than money). Towels and socks are
very affordable. Don't think that you as one person can't change the
world. You can. Especially since the Holy Spirit is inside of you.
Have an encounter with your Creator.
Onto what I learned!
Above are links to the messages for you to use as resources,
enjoy, and learn from. One thing we thought would be really nice is if
you decide to listen/watch these message, just donate $5 to Passion
Conferences since it is rightfully their property and it would be nice
to not steal their God-given resources <https://web.memberclicks.com/mc/quickForm/viewForm.do?orgId=268gen2&formId=28478>.
Although I would highly recommend that you check them out regardless :D
At
the end of every main session, there was a time for silent meditation,
to just allow the Lord to speak to you; stillness so that you could
personally seek your loving Father, to approach the cross, to write
down your cries and prayers to the Lord, for intercessors to pray over
you. I really enjoyed this time too, just listening for His voice and
for how He wants you to respond. No, this wasn't some 15 seconds of
silence, this was a blissful 10 to 15 some-odd minutes of glorious
silence listening to your Father.
I don't hope to summarize what they talked about, rather, you
listen to it and see what the Lord says to you personally :D I hope to
write about a few things that struck me and that I learned.
Life is short, live for what matters ... Fruit cake:
After listening to this talk, you just WANT to be a Fruit cake. So, listen to it :D
One of my favourite lines:
"And I don't need to know where,
I don't need to know what,
I don't need to know when,
I just need to know one thing:
Are you going with me, Jesus?"
He'll say, "Oh yea."
"Okay, yes."
And your parents are going to go:
"What are you going to do?"
"Don't know."
"When are you thinking of doing this?"
"Don't know that yet."
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Don't
know. I don't know. But I know who I'm going with, I'm going with Jesus
Christ. Wherever He goes, I'm going with Him. If He goes to the ends of
the earth, I'm going."
If
Jesus is the King of a kingdom, then the only thing we can say is "Yes,
Lord". Not, "Maybe, Lord" or "No, Lord", or "Maybe later, Lord". It's
just, "Yes, Lord". When a king tells you to do something, you do it.
(Isaiah 26:8).
That's what I got in my time with the Lord. "Make me a fruit
cake". I always love hearing stories of people coming to realize that
Jesus Christ is REAL and He truly is a Saviour who can save you no
matter who you are. Be light in this world. People will notice it.
They will laugh and scoff at you at first, but they will want to know
why you have "no life" :)
Christa is a real person! She is now married to Jeremy. I talked to her on Facebook :)
You
might feel like the only one in your campus, in your workplace, in your
home that loves Jesus Christ, but keep truckin'. You are not alone :)
There are other fruit cakes around to support you :)
Don't give up praying for your non-Christian friends even if it seems
like they're not receptive or interested in what you have to say.
There's new life in this song to me now :D
Everyone needs compassion:
A love that's never failing;
Let mercy fall on me.
Everyone needs forgiveness;
A kindness of a Savior:
The hope of nations.
Chorus:
Saviour,
He can move the mountains:
My God is Mighty to save!
He is Mighty to save!
Forever,
Author of salvation:
He rose and conquered the grave!
Jesus conquered the grave!
So take me as You find me,
All my fears and failures;
Fill my life again.
I give my life to follow;
Everything I believe in,
Now I surrender.
Chorus
Shine your light and let the whole world see!
We're singing for the glory of the risen King:
Jesus!
"If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us,
because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for
themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from
now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once
regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting
men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of
reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God
were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf:
Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." -- 2 Corinthians 5: 13-21
Tear-jerking happiness and joy.
The Holy Spirit:
This
message probably the most hard-hitting one :D Be weird in the right
ways. So many Christians are weird in the wrong ways. Sometimes we're
not weird enough :p When the Holy Spirit convicts you, be obedient and
just do it. "I've found a treasure so amazing that my life doesn't
even matter anymore." Now the kicker is to do something with my and
your life. Matthew 5:16 "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
How many times in life have you done good deeds and the praise bypasses
you and they give glory to the Father directly? I thought about how
things have been going on in (The University of Western Ontario's)
Asian Christian Fellowship this year.
Have you ever made statements like, "I love God so much, I'm going
to spend my life proving to God that I love Him"? That's not the way
it is, it's not about you, Chris, it's about how much He loves you.
"And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." - Galatians 4: 6-7
Francis jokes about how his testimony "sucks" and that's usually what I
end up joking about too. No so-called radical and exciting
transformation. We
know that God will forgive the sinner that didn't know better, but then
what if we already become a Christian, we have the Holy Spirit, and we
teach people, and then we screw up and caught up in sin?! That's
probably most of us! We already know the Truth, we know who God is, we
have the Holy Spirit within us guiding us and cleansing us, but we
still fall?!
How sure are you that God loves you? I really enjoyed this part. Be certain that God loves you. Just know it. "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God ..." - Galatians 4: 8-9.
Just think! If you could go to Heaven now and ask God, "Do you know
Chris Luk?" The Father above would say, "I know Chris! D'Uh! He's my
son :D I love that guy!" Isn't that CRAZY?! Father God above sitting
upon His throne, loves you, knows you, and calls you His son. 100%.
Now YOU know it. Wrestle with that. He knows you, He loves you, He
knows your name. Be sure of it. Be convinced. I am so loved by God
:) He's just crazy about me because He's just that good! He's one who
doesn't call me His slave, He calls me a son :)
Open the Bible for yourself. Open the book and ask, "God, reveal
truth to me". Don't just let people feed you theology. Don't have
"heads that feed you information". Believe in the Holy Spirit and that
He can reveal truth to you. Was a lot of your theology fed to you?
Read scripture for yourself. If you were stuck on an island with only
the Bible, what would you come away with? If you had never been to
church and you never met a Christian, what would you expect to see when
you finally saw a church or met a Christian? Would it be the church
that we go to today? Everyone was radical and insane for Jesus in the
Bible. "God, give me this Holy Spirit that you're talking about" --
that's what you would get out of reading this whole Bible.
I laughed at this part :D "Imagine if you were a disciple ... it
was so much easier to be a disciple! They had Jesus next to them, how
do you screw up with Jesus walking next to you? ... How hard would it
be to witness? There's Jesus. That's so lame! Of course I could've
been a disciple." :p Go make disciples and all that, but wait for the
Holy Spirit first. Could you imagine the anticipation that they had
for this Holy Spirit to come? The promise of Jesus coming like a
rushing wind and as fire. (Another funny part :p) Francis speaking
Chinese :D I learned a bit of Chinese :D When something this crazy
happens, people knows it's from God. It couldn't have just been human,
it was supernatural. There's no way that they could've learned
"Chinese" in 2 seconds and preach the gospel effectively to those in
the surrounding area. God got the glory right away, not the
disciples. Cool, eh?
Shouldn't there be a major difference between someone who doesn't
have the Holy Spirit and a person who has the Spirit of the Living God
inside of them?! What about people that don't know Jesus that actually
have a huge amount of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness (the Fruits
of the Spirit)? AND more so than "Christians"?! You're a temple of
the Holy Spirit. You should have a love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness like no one else on this earth. Otherwise, if you tell them
"I have the Holy Spirit within me", they will think you are LYING!
People come with an immense expectation from you if you have the Holy
Spirit within you. Doesn't that not make any sense in our current day
church? Especially when we do things with our own power. Was the Holy
Spirit even there?
Funniest thing of all time :D "Can you imagine what goes through your mind if you're a caterpillar?" <http://youtube.com/watch?v=D3H_-mHKIsM> Back to 2 Corinthians 5 from above.
You're not a "normal" human being anymore. You're a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come.
It doesn't matter if you're the only one, you have God inside of you. He can use you to transform lives.
"What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead
of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a
scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask him!" -- Luke 11: 11-13. Do you really
think that God's going to give you a dumb spirit or that God's not
going to hold onto His promise of putting His Holy Spirit within you?
How cool is this? A guy made a vlog about it :D http://youtube.com/watch?v=xfgrHadYaPA
God is most glorified in your suffering:
I say this with the most humble sensitivity that I can. I saw this
talk for the first time about a month before my grandmother passed
away. I suppose it was God's message for me to "brace for it". It
was perfect. I hadn't cried watching a sermon in a while. Louie talks
about Jacob, Ashley's brother (yes, they are real people, they actually
do exist!), who loves intercessory prayer, has seen God heal so many
other people, but when Jacob asks for his own sister to be healed, God
doesn't grant him his wish. This one time that Jacob prays as hard as
he ever has, for God to do something for the first time just for him,
God didn't say "yes". Instead, God let his sister die. Jacob wrestled
with this. How could God ignore his pleas? How could God ignore us?
How can we believe anything that He has ever said to us? Before we've
made a mess of our lives, God made a mess out of His Son's life. Be a
light in times of darkness. He is the light and He is in you. Focus
on the cross, you will KNOW that He loves you. He really, really,
really does.
Another great message. Big tear-jerker with no "pretty bow" at the end
of the talk. Knowing and living Christ for only 5 months is real
life. Life is short, live for what matters.
God of this City: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d61LamkXfwk>
An amazing song with an amazing beginning:
<http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Bluetree__Rock_worshippers_and_one_of_the_Greater_Things_to_emerge_from_N_Ireland/29468/p1/>
One
of the key tracks on the album is "God Of This City" from which the
phrase 'Greater Things' which gives the album its title is taken. I ask
Aaron about the song and as he recalls the circumstances his voice
breaks and he begins to cry, still moved by the events he's describing.
"There's a couple from Carrickfergus, Ian and Leslie, and they moved
out to Thailand to a place called Pattaya. We got asked to go and be
part of an event called Pattaya Praise. Pattaya is a seaside
town/resort place, and physically, it looks to be like the darkest
place you'll ever go to. And spiritually, it is THE darkest place we
have ever been to. You just feel the evil. You just feel the enemy all
over that place. It's a very small place; in Northern Ireland we have a
coastal town called Bangor and it's very much like that. But in that
small area there are 30,000 prostitutes and that figure excludes kids
and excludes anything that's outside of the range of, say 18-30, and
who are female. You probably hear of ladyboys and all those kinds of
things? It's got a ladyboy community and all this kind of stuff, and 90
or 95 percent of Thailand's income comes from the sex industry."
...
Aaron explains what happened next. "There was a bar
called The Climax Bar - on a street that's about 10 metres wide, it's a
kilometre long and it's filled with everything you can physically
imagine. And I promise you, as a red-blooded male, to keep your head in
the right place you've got to look down at the ground and walk down
that street and pray because it is just so in your face. People hit you
with menus about everything, flashing lights, just everything you can
imagine goes on in that place. You see kids as young as eight, nine,
10, just selling themselves, you know?! You see 60-year-old guys
walking down the street with two 13 or 14-year-old girls. Forget about
the Christian thing, you just get raging! You properly get raging when
you see that happening, you know?!"
He pauses to compose himself and continues, "But we got the chance
to play in this bar, a two-hour worship set in this bar. I don't think
the people in the bar spoke a word of English but we basically got to
go in. The deal was that we play and we bring a following of people
with us; so we're there, set up, really good gear! Amazing drums, the
biggest drum kit you've ever seen in your life. I walk in and my dream
amp is sitting there! Walk in and Rick's big Mesa Boogie stack sitting
there! I was like, 'Woah!' So we all set up and there was like 20
Christians all standing in front of us, and the deal was we play, they
buy lots of drinks, alright? I don't think the place has ever sold so
much Coke in its whole life in one night!"
He laughs and describes the scene, "So all the Christians are all
sugared off their heads on Coke.that's Coca-Cola by that way! The
drink! And we got to play for two hours. And just the way the band set
up, we like using loops, and at one point I just started singing out. I
started singing "Greater Things", something along those lines, almost
prophesying over the city. And without going into the band dynamics,
slowly this groove emerged from this thing. And long story short; we
walked out of that Climax Bar with pretty much a nailed song, as
strange as that sounds. Then we were on the way home. We were all. .
.it was that tumbleweed silence, you know? It was like, 'What actually
just happened in that time?!' It was one of the most powerful worship
experiences we've ever had. I actually remember looking out, and you're
looking down a wee alleyway, into the street, and it was just 50 or 60
probably British tourists and they're just sitting there listening
going, 'What is this all about?' Coming from The Climax Bar which is
pretty much a strip club. Just, here we are singing about Jesus in the
middle of this. You've got a German guy who's completely wrote off,
with a prostitute on each arm and he is just like your Number One Fan!
It was one of the most random experiences but it was a God thing, God
was there."
I'm so glad that God decided to birth this song into
our world. What an amazing prophetic word ... greater things have yet
to come and greater things are still to be done in this city.
Cities
are not just places on a map. Cities are made of people. This song
could be about the city you are in now, the city that the Lord has
placed on your heart which might be on the other side of the world, the
city might be your university campus, the city might be your hometown.
Pictures:
I uploaded a few pictures taken with my dad's point-and-shoot at http://chrisluk.myphotoalbum.com/
You
can see images taken with my DSLR from Passion 2007 here:
http://chrisluk.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=Passion07-AgenerationunitedforHisrenown
For His name and renown,
Christopher Luk | | |
| Passion07, ACF Winter Retreat, and Much MoreSo it's been a while since I've last blogged and it would sadly be impossible to recap it all.
First
off, I definitely still need lots of prayer and support. There's still
plenty of uncertainty kicking around: where am I going to live in the
next school year, what will I be doing in school next year, do I have a
summer job, when do I rewrite the MCAT, what does God have in store for
me after graduation, am I leading in love, the Word, righteousness,
selflessness, and intimacy better today than yesterday, better tomorrow
than today, ACF exec for the next school year, where do I go to church,
and plenty more questions. So thanks to everyone who has continually
be praying for me, it is much appreciated.
I must confess that
I haven't been doing my 'share' of support. I have been very
complacent and 'satisfied'. I'm a dry well, but I don't want to be
filled by Him either. I know I need Him, I have tasted and seen that
the Lord is good. I need Him so badly, but I just don't want to let
Him enter. I need to learn to love 'Pez' and not the container it is
in.
"All
Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God
may be adequate, equipped for every good work." -- 2 Timothy 3:16 NASB
I
want to be trained in righteousness, I want wisdom, I want adequacy, I
want to be equipped to do every good work and so much more; so then why
won't I invite Him in and give my whole mind, body, heart, and soul to
Him? Do I REALLY want to know the will of God for my life? (Francis
Chan, Passion07) If God was allowed to have complete control over my
body, send it to wherever He wanted, to make it say whatever it is that
He wants it to say -- if it was TOTALLY up to God to decide where I
would go and what I would do, do I really want to know? Well ... no.
It would freak me out. How stupid is that? God has the best
intentions and most amazing mind-blowing things in store for us. Why
don't I want to know? Why don't I want to be a part of the most
amazing, never-ending story of God? Why won't I just let Him do what
He wants with me and be obedient?
-------------------------
-- Passion07 --
A generation united for His renown (January 1st - 4th, 2007)
“Yes Lord, walking in the way of Your truth we wait
eagerly for You, for Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.” -- Isaiah 26:8
There's a lot that happened within the 4 days of Passion07. If I have time, I hope to write more about it.
Louie's first talk was about being rescued because a price had been paid (in Colossians 1). We were reminded of the gospel, the reality, and the Truth of what happened. Even if we are in the kingdom of chaos, we were bought, ransomed, He came for us, a life was given for us. So that we could go from ashes to beauty -- ashes to life. A great reminder of who we are. Louie had a great analogy where he had an ugly (plant) bulb which then grew into a beautiful flower. Ask either Priscilla or myself, we'd be glad to send you this talk (or ALL the talks!).
"For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth." -- Isaiah 53:2-7 NASB
A beautiful passage of Scripture that prophesied the coming of Christ and His suffering that lead to our freedom.
The thing that probably rocked me the most was going to David Crowder's breakout session called "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die". He was talking about how how his album, A Collision, is an album about the Christian viewpoint and appropriate response to death. Death isn't a calamity -- Jesus came to give us life. It just wacked me in the face. My grandmother isn't doing that well right now and she doesn't know Christ. So it's something that really struck me. So here I am listening to David's album hearing about what the band has experienced in their lives with death. Here I am realizing how deep this album truly is. David also shared a new song with us at Passion07 that blew my mind also. I wanted to share it with you all:
Oh the Glory of It All – David Crowder* Band
Verse 1:
At the start, He was there, He was there;
In the end, He’ll be there, He’ll be there.
PreChorus 1:
After all our hands have wrought, He forgives:
Chorus 1:
Oh the glory of it all is He came here,
For the rescue of us all that we may live
For the glory of it all, oh the glory of it all!
Verse 2:
All is lost, find Him there, find Him there;
After night, dawn is there, dawn is there.
PreChorus 2:
After all falls apart, He repairs, He repairs:
Chorus 2:
Oh the glory of it all is He came here
For the rescue of us all that we may live
For the glory of it all
Oh He is here for redemption from the fall,
That we may live, for the glory of it all,
Oh the glory of it all, the glory of it all, oh the glory of it all!
Bridge:
After night comes a light;
Dawn is here, dawn is here;
It’s a new day, it’s a new day;
Everything will change, things will never be the same
We will never be the same, we will never be the same,
We will never be the same, we will never be the same!
Chorus 3:
Oh the glory of it all is You came here!
For the rescue of us all that we may live!
For the glory of it all!
Oh You are here, redemption for us all,
That we may live, for the glory of it all,
Oh the glory of it all, the glory of it all,
Oh the glory of it all!
Something that Priscilla said when she was sharing about Passion07 at ACF the first night was her analogy that came from the Candlelight 'latenite' session. She described how if was quite windy that night and people's candle lights kept going out because a gust of wind would blow. But not to worry, there was always someone else close to you that would relight your candle. Nice! I thought about it and took the analogy even further: in the beginning, there was only one lit candle -- the Light of the World came -- Jesus came. There was darkness in the world because of sin, but Jesus came to shine His light and it started with only a few people, but then continued to grow throughout all the generations -- He transferred us from the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We are children of Light who are safely in the Kingdom of the Son, whom He loves.
Thanks to whoever took the above photographs (they weren't by me). (From left to right): First, the final 'latenite' session at Passion07 where all 24,000 of us walked to the field in silence and a single candle was lit which then spread to the rest of us. Beautiful. Second, bricks that were bought to help build the Freedom Center in Iraq to spread the love of Christ to those who have never heard of him -- freedom because Jesus paid it all. Thirdly, SHINE, one banner of graffiti art where students could write, draw, and express their cries, confessions, and thoughts to and for God. The names of major cities of the world and all the universities and colleges represented at Passion07 were on the banner also -- through it all, one word, SHINE. Fourthly, an image in the "Do Something Now" area where people could meditate, pray, write, and confess what has been holding them back. People could then pray with them and pray for them -- barriers, then breaking free. Fifthly, An image of something drawn on one of the graffiti art banners: Be Light.
-------------------------
-- ACF Winter Retreat 2007 --
Being Marked By Christ (January 19th - 21st, 2007)
To be "Marked by Christ" means to:
- Be clearly noticeable
 Be singled out
- Have a distinguishing characteristic
- Make a lasting impression
From Acts 1:8 (NASB): "but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
Pastor
Phil continued to say that a martyr = witness in this particular
passage. A witness is "one who does what he has seen, heard, or
knows"; in other words, they are a doer. In order to be true followers
of Christ, we must be doers. "When we are marked by Christ, we leave our mark and we get marked."Those who are marked by Christ are characterized by the Fruit of the
Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. When we are 'doers', we do the fruits of the Spirit: "Fruit to go".
True followers of Christ have the fruits of the Spirit manifested in
their lives. Pastor Phil attached this to living lives of freedom and lives of balance. Thus, the mark of a Christian life is that it has FRUIT, it is BALANCED, and it is FREE!
He
ended off with a pretty funny line: “We Shine like Stars and might pick
up Scars”. Although I'm sure he actually meant that we WILL pick up
scars instead of 'might', there seems to be a lot of "Shine"-ing this
year. 
So
here's the cool part that I hadn't really thought of before. I know
that we are filled with the Holy Spirit -- as a 'lead worshipper', what
would we be doing if we weren't filled by Him?! But then the
implication is: "we are to be marked by the Holy Spirit's filling" --
an anointing fragrance can come on you onto your head, lips, eyes,
shoulders, hands, heart, or feet. One's cup overflows. Prayer with
cupped hands. It was so cool to hear people share about what God did
with them at retreat :) Beautiful! Yay! So happy for Missy and her
void being filled with Him. So glad that Abraham encountered the Holy
Spirit overflowing his cup in a very obvious way. Like wow.
Saturday
night's worship set :D Woohoo! The darkness trembled ... a lot!
Prepare the way of the Risen One! Saturday night was definitely the highlight of retreat for me. It just reminded me of why I love being a 'lead worshipper': to be able to help people express their hearts of gratitude, thanks, and fear of the Lord with their whole body, mind, and soul. It isn't any thing that I do, but because God was present, filled the room with His fragrance, touched people and said: "Dance for Me. Sacrifice your body in the form of an active consumption of energy of unstoppable praise to Me.". Satan flees and darkness hides because Light owns this place.
My chains are gone! I've been set free! My God, my
Saviour has ransomed me, And like a flood His mercy reigns!Unending
love, amazing grace!
I'm
so glad that Kitty got to come and join us for the weekend. I was so
blessed by her support and her prayers before Saturday night's worship
set. What would I do without her? I was so busy all weekend I didn't
get to spend much time with her, but that's okay!
Yay
to the Holy Spirit working so
hardcorely in this fellowship. Of course, there were a ton of laughs
and good times! It was great to see Glendon and Caleb again AND to
have them help lead us to the throne of God Saturday morning. I was so
glad that I had a chance to pray with people Saturday night. What an
amazing opportunity! I love you all very much. Let what we do in
here, fill the
streets out there.
    All images available at http://chrisluk.myphotoalbum.com-------------------------
-- Kitty's 21st Birthday --:D (February 10th, 2007)
So officially, Kitty and I have been together for 1 month and 17 days as of today. Indeed, quite a short time, but for all of you that are so ridiculously surprised; we've known each other for almost 2 years, but we've officially been together for that long. So if you're like everyone else that said, "I thought you guys were together for forever!", now you know! So the idea was that I would come back to Toronto on Friday night to surprise her and crash her party (without telling her). All was set. Until I got into Toronto and realized that I didn't even look up directions to get there. Oooohhh .. so what do you do? Pray and hope for God to lead you where you need to go. Funny story, I circle the plaza twice, passing by Jack Astor's and everything not finding Demetre's, so I decide to leave, head out to Leslie St. and look for another plaza where it might be. I find nothing. That's okay, call people that know where it is! Call Caleb first ... he doesn't pick up. Call Kat second, she doesn't have any minutes left on her phone, so she doesn't pick up. Last resort. Call Kitty. I don't even say "Hello". Chris: "I'm not going to lie ... I'm lost." Kitty: "I knew it!" Suffice to say, I eventually found the place with Kat's guidance, parked, and being the smart woman she is, she knew that I was going to TRY and surprise her Friday night. Girls are impossible to surprise, they're just too smart! It was a great night! Got to see lots of great people that I hadn't seen in a long time.    Kitty was soooo sweet that she got me an early Valentine's Day gift. It's a scrapbook with pictures, quotes, song lyrics, Bible verses, and much more of things that are of significance to us both. Absolutely wonderful. Very sweet. Thank you :D Saturday night, we had a chance to go to a wonderful family run restaurant for dinner. Have you ever had a 32 ounce prime rib? No? Go here and try it! Peter's of Markham Steakhouse and Seafood. Amazing. Definitely my favourite place on the planet to have prime rib, especially 32 ounces for the low, low price of $40 (relatively speaking). We also got the mushroom caps and it was unstoppabley good with the sauce the prime rib was drenched in. Super hot fresh garlic bread with sesame seeds was served too! We also got a huge slice of chocolate mousse cake that was the perfect sweetness. Easily one of the best restaurants in Markham.  | | |
| A New Page is Needed 2Another new page is indeed needed.
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| A New Page is needed.Indeed, a new page is needed.
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| ThanksThanks for all of you who have said happy birthday to me! It means a lot even if you tell me late -- it just shows you care :) I know it's not always the best thing to do to post names, but I decided to this time to just give that extra oomph of thanks to you (in chronological order of me receiving a "happy birthday" message :p):
Kitty Lee, Rachel Wong, Ken Leung, Andrew Chow, Theresa Wong, Kimberley Lau, Shelby Chung, Adrienne Wong, Cora Cheung/Doreen Hsu/Jeff Cheung/Shirley Yip/Susan Park, Dayna/Jin, Hiram/Simon/Yvonne, Jeana Poon, Jon Cheung, Vanessa Ho, Sabrina Chan, Abraham Hum, Andrew Lam, Kay Lam, Sonja Ip, Brian Kung, Jonathan Tong, my family, Karina Lam/Sam Chiu/Yun-Ping Lee, and the many numerous others who said 'happy birthday' to me late and/or still got me presents (ie. Anita/Nishani/Sam)! :D
Thanks so much to everyone for going all-out and making my 20th day of birth something so special. You never really know how much two words, a smile, and a hug can do. Presents and cards are nice because you have them as tangible objects to keep and to hold, but a smile and a hug does amazing wonders.
HUGE massive insanely gigantic props go out to Kimberley Lau and Andrew Chow (and whoever else was in on the deal!) for organizing everything together to get Kitty to take the 2 hour bus ride here to London. If you were also in on the deal, let me know so I can thank you personally. That was one heck of a surprise. I was really, really, really surprised, you have no idea. I was speechless, wasn't I?! :p
Thanks especially to Kim for spending triple-digits on me, showing how much she cares for me (with using her time and a lot of money!), and for baby-sitting Kitty for a few days. It really means a lot to me that even words can't describe.
Thanks Andrew for sneakily giving hints throughout the day, especially, "are you suuuuure you want to go to men's cell?" haha .. You're making Delissio rising crust pizza right now as I type :p
Thanks Kitty for making the time in your busy schedule to come see me and chillax in London. You never cease to surprise me. Thanks for the apple pie and the ice cream -- there is still a LOT of it left! I hope you enjoyed carving your first jack-o-lantern pumpkin while being distracted with Smallville and Grey's Anatomy (two horrible shows that you shouldn't watch, by the way :p).
Thanks so much to the ACF crew that stealthily (haha) got inside London Hall to surprise me! The apple pie was really sweet (taste-wise and gift-wise) along with the ice cream! It's not that I don't like cake, it's just that it's not easy to find a cake that I like -- just ask Theresa! She's just as picky as I am about cakes! :p Thanks Adrienne for the book! I've started to read it and hopefully I'll be able to use more hymns that have such great Truth and combine those with music :) Thanks to everyone else for the pumpkin, carving utensil, and tea lights! It was really thoughtful :D It's amazing the things that people remember about you :p Thanks also to the morning prayer meeting crew for the song singing and just another great chance to pray and fellowship together :)
ACF Exec:
Wow. We've come a long way since the beginning of 2006. I love these guys and girls :) Hot pot day was defintiely a kick-off to something amazing :) It's been great to finally have a chance to share and pray with each other. It's been so heart-wrenching (in a good way) to hear what they have to share about and the struggles that they're going through and it makes me open my eyes and realize that I'm struggling with the same thing too. Thanks to Yun-Ping for his constant prayers, care, and for helping to open my eyes to my own downfalls. Thanks Jon for taking off my blinders again and for seeing how great God's love for us is, how we all struggle to love others with the kind of love Christ has for us. Thanks to everyone else, I definitely saw a bit of myself in everyone and it was absolutely eye-opening.
This fellowship means so much to me and I'm so blessed that God has put me in the paths of all these people. Talking to some of the grads, it makes me sad already that next year will possibly be my last year being able to enjoy the presence of so many solid believers and followers of Christ who are actively following Him and know what it means to be free from sin, have victory over death, pray with authority, and know Him in an intimate way. God has done amazing things in and through ACF and He will continue to do so when we keep Him as the centre. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!
Refinement
Titus 2:11-14 NASB
Pam and Roger's (P&R's) is tonight! I'm excited. Part 2 of what it means to be a man/woman of God. AND, P&R's at ACF this upcoming Friday (October 27th)! Even more exciting!
God's blow-my-mind message to me today:
Romans 12 NASB (emphasis added):
1Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 3For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. 9Let love be without hypocrisy Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. 14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17Never pay back evil for evil to anyone Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. 19Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord. 20"BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD." 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
-------------------------
I love rest. Love is rest. I love love. God is love. I love God.
"Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs." -- Proverbs 10:12 NIV
-------------------------
None But Jesus
In the quiet,
In the stillness,
I know that You are God.
In the secret of Your presence
I know there I am restored.
When You call I won't refuse;
Each new day again I'll choose:
There is no One else for me,
None but Jesus,
Crucified to set me free,
Now I live to bring
Him praise.
In the chaos, in confusion,
I know You’re sovereign still.
In the moment of my weakness,
You give me Grace to do Your will.
When You call I won’t delay,
This my song through all my days:
All my delight is in You LORD,
All my hope,
All of my strength,
All my delight is in You LORD,
Forevermore.
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