Freedom Blog

Jesus tells us that “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24 NIV). Now this isn’t a suggestion that Jesus makes, but more of a non-negotiable declaration. If we are to be worshipping in the presence of God, we must be filled with His Spirit and Truth. I’ve often heard this statement, “The only way to approach a holy God is to do it His way” which is true. Now if the Father desires true worshippers, who will worship Him in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23), who are we to deny the Creator and Giver of life by worshipping Him in our own way. Do you think that He will accept our worship? Probably not. I mean that’s why there are so many religions in the world because people are deciding for themselves who, how and why they worship. But, Jesus is adamant about Him being the only way to the Father (John 14:6). It’s interesting that Jesus says “the Father” and not God. Because Jesus isn’t inviting us into some objectively impersonal notion here, but rather a subjectively intimate familial relationship.

What I find interesting in today’s churches (without getting too ecclesial) are the two extremes of friendship with God and reverence for God. On the one hand, there are churches that solely emphasize that through Jesus people are now friends with God, while on the other hand, there are churches that only emphasize having reverence for God. Both are true, but what my heart longs to see a great blending of the two. To see the people of God in a vibrantly deep and intimate familial relationship with the Father while they stand in awe of His majestic glory. After talking this over with some friends over lunch yesterday, we concluded that it’s through our friendship with God that should draw us into a deeper and more vibrant worship of God in which we experience a greater depth and magnitude of His majesty, beauty and glory. But, something is getting lost in the translation.

I can only imagine what it would be like to be in the throne room of God. What comes to mind is Ezekiel 1 where the heavens open and Ezekiel sees visions of God. Without going into the details of the vision (I recommend reading through the chapter yourself), what seems to stand out is the sheer magnificence of God and the glory that radiates from Him which moves Ezekiel uncontrollably facedown (Ezekiel 1:28). All this is pretty amazing, but it’s the next verses that have drawn my attention: the Lord says to Ezekiel, “‘Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.’ As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me” (Ezekiel 2:1, 2 NIV). The only way that Ezekiel was able to stand in the presence of God was by His Word (command) and Spirit.

Through Jesus, believers today do have the Spirit of God living within them (1 Corinthians 6:19) and are hopefully filling themselves with the Word of God. So, we are able to stand in the presence of God. And as the writer of Hebrews tells us because Jesus is our High Priest, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16 NIV). Maybe what needs to happen is more of God’s people need to be meditating on the the throne of grace where Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, sits (Revelation 5). I believe the more we envision this, the greater we will see Jesus not only as our beloved Savior and Friend, but also as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings (Revelation 19:16).

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Today, I’ve been meditating on what it means for God to be the Creator and Giver of life (Genesis 2:7), who literally dwells within me (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Timothy1:14) . The reason being is that lately I’ve been struggling something fierce with my flesh (Romans 7:15). I’ve come to the conclusion that all my flesh desires is to satisfy itself whether it be through greed, lust, gluttony, comfort or laziness (to name some of the usual suspects). But, just today God gave me this revelation: that He is closer to me than even my own flesh. Hearing these words has electrified my spirit and begun filling me with great hope. If I truly am a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) which I am, then it makes perfect sense that because of this I am no longer a slave to sin, but a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:18). This means that the righteousness of Christ is closer to me than the sinfulness of my flesh, right?

To take this a step further, I believe that the life that we are living here on earth will be completely paled in comparison to the eternal life all believers in Jesus get to look forward to. I mean can you even imagine what it will be like to be literally standing before the throne of God? The amount of glory and life that must radiate from God must be simply awesome. I mean He is the very Creator and Giver of life, the one and only true Living God. Everything that God does has eternal ramifications. He holds all of life in the palm of His hands. When He speaks life or death happens. And it is this same fully alive almighty God, who literally dwells within us and is actively breathing more life and glory into us day by day as He recreates us into the image and likeness of His Son, Jesus, through His Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). What an amazing truth! When I really sit down and think about this, it blows my mind. The very notion of this can’t help but to create awe and splendor towards God within me.

So this is my prayer: “Help us Lord to recognize the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and the amazing truth that You are closer to us than even our own flesh, that it is Your righteousness that now defines us, rather than the sinfulness of our flesh. In Jesus Name, Amen.”

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

What is it that defines you? Throughout my life I’ve allowed a variety of things to form me. To use biblical language, I’ve allowed a variety of things become my potter, rather than allowing God, the Creator and Giver of life, be my Potter. For the better part of my life drugs formed and defined me. But, even before I started using drugs, I allowed anger and bitterness to control the way I lived my life which when left unattended steadily grew into hated and vengeance. Some of the outward fruit of this showed itself through lying, stealing and eventually drug use while inwardly this hatred and vengeance slowly, yet, relentlessly ate away at my soul; suffocating it from faith, hope and love.

The day I came to faith (solely by the grace of God), the fragrance of Christ invaded my being and a miracle happened, I became a “new creation in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17). From that day forward my spirit became eternally joined with the Holy Spirit and He has begun to bring healing, salvation, redemption and restoration to my decaying soul. In many ways the process of sanctification has been like a great airing out of my soul. No longer does hatred and vengeance control the way I live, but rather peace, love and kindness. No longer am I defined by drug addiction, but rather God is my Potter and His Truth defines who I am. Faithfully, He has been purifying my soul by peeling away the many layers of sin that has been suffocating my soul. Do you feel like your soul is suffocating?

The bible says that Jesus offers freedom to those who choose to believe and following Him. I have experienced (as many others have) this freedom. As the Apostle Paul puts it, freedom from the slavery of following the law (Galatians 5:1ff) which can be interpreted as freedom from the yoke of religion. The Creator of Heaven and Earth is a relational God who loves, likes and enjoys spending time with His creation. I believe a lot of people believe God to be a distance, stoic God who angrily puts up with us. But, I don’t think there could be anything further from the Truth. “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5). This same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11) will also teaches us how to live a life out from under the law (Galatians 5:18). A life based on Truth (John 14:26) which Jesus says will set us free (John 8:32).

My prayer is that by God’s grace the Holy Spirit would help you to surrender more of your life to Jesus, so that He can breathe greater measures of faith, hope and love into the areas of your soul that are suffocating. I proclaim freedom over you in Jesus Name, Amen.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Trying to live between two cultures is much like being in my own cult. The lonely feeling of ostracism is almost palpable at times. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wrestled with my internal editor about you name it, we’ve debated or argued about it. You see, my internal editor identifies more with the Chinese culture while I tend to identify more with the American culture. I’ve struggled with this inner conflict for as long as I can remember. I believe it was because I was racially teased and bullied as a child that I learned early on that to fit in, I needed to be American rather than Chinese. So, as a young child I became ashamed of my Chinese heritage and learned to disconnect from that part of me and voilà! My internal editor was born.

It wasn’t until after I came to faith in Jesus, that I became aware of how much this inner conflict has effected the way I live and see myself. Jesus has blessed me with a greater self-awareness where I’ve begun to literally hear the inner dialogue between the two cultures living within me. He has also helped me to reconnect with my Chinese heritage and embrace my internal editor rather than being combative with him. You see, what I always thought I needed to do was to just continue denying that I was Chinese and just become more and more American which only created more disconnectedness rather than healing. What I am learning today is that I need to embrace that I am Chinese, but to also embrace that I am American and allow God to redeem all that is good in both cultures. This has helped me to see being bicultural as a blessing, rather than an annoyance or even a curse.

Why I feel this is so important is that the burden of this inner conflict was one of the factors that pushed me towards drug use in the first place. Because if I consicously knew it or not, I wanted an escape from the inner struggle of trying to understand myself. It was just easier to stop dealing with it. Inwardly, the pains of rejection and the failed attempts of fitting in only fueled the growing inferiority complex that was first birthed in my heart through the racial teasing and bullying of my childhood. I feel like I am really only beginning this journey of becoming who God created and redeemed me to be. I am learning more and more everyday that He loves that I’m a Chinese American and wants me to embrace all that is good in both cultures. It’s who I am and I need to begin to celebrate this because when I do I also embrace and accept how God sees me. I feel like I’ve spent most of my life asking God why – rather than simply telling Him thank you for creating me and giving me life.

 ⁹ “What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator.
      Does a clay pot argue with its maker?
   Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying,
      ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’
   Does the pot exclaim,
      ‘How clumsy can you be?’
 ¹⁰ How terrible it would be if a newborn baby said to its father,
      ‘Why was I born?’
   or if it said to its mother,
      ‘Why did you make me this way?’” (Isaiah 45:9, 10 NLT)

I’m learning Lord, I’m learning… ~Gerry

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

So I’ve begun working on a TIMEline of my life. Currently I’ve just finished documenting most of my academic achievements as well as some of my spiritual landmarks like water baptism. What I’m coming to realize is that so much has happened in my life over the last 40 years: good, bad and ugly. Granted these first steps are a bit easier because I have certificates for most of these achievements. The only real plan I have in filling this TIMEline is to document the events that I have solid dates for hoping that this will help pinpoint some of the other not so clearly dated events. So the next steps will be documenting my criminal escapades that are on record. Next, will be figuring out when and where I lived throughout my life.

One of the main reasons that I’ve begun this endeavor is to clarify the many God moments in my life. But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I it would be so much more beneficial to document the whole of my life because in clarifying where I’ve been will help to show all the more the immensity of God’s grace and mercy towards me. This TIMEline is only the beginning, the skeletal framework in which I will then begin to flesh out by adding the many details to various events and how they impacted my personhood: my identity, my understanding of love, my longings to belong and be accepted, even my sense of purpose or lack thereof. To be honest, all my memories seem to be swirling around in this gigantic swirling whirlpool of thoughts and emotions. And though this seems like a monumental task, I’m filled with an eager expectancy because I know that God will be glorified in all of this and people will be blessed.

“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:11 TNIV).

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!