Persecution

Julia and I receive the magazine "Voice of the Martyrs". It is a powerful magazine speaking of the persecutions of the church all over the world. I was reading this morning and praying for my brothers and sisters and I thought about how we don't see too much persecution here in the USA. Then I started to think about how maybe what the USA has is worse in some ways. We don't have it worse physically. We are not tortured or beaten for our belief in Christ.
So how could it be worse? I think we are slack in our beliefs. Our freedom gives way to apathy and laziness. Many Christians don't pray or read their Bible. In places where there is persecution people will travel for miles on foot to read and worship with other believers in secret. There is no messing around in many other places in the world.

I have shared the gospel with a friend of mine from an Arabic nation. If he becomes a Christian and goes back home he could be killed. What happens in the USA? People pray a prayer and then thorns grow up and kill them. (Matthew 13:7) In the west the thorns are subtle. In North Korea the thorns have guns, fists, and prison camps. Here thorns have fun distractions that get you drunk and take your eyes off Christ; they lull you to sleep. Also, the thorns here are tolerance that attack the very fundamental core of what the Bible teaches.
A person in the USA professes faith in Christ and then gets lulled the sleep with all the toys of this world. In many other places people cry out to God to strengthen them against the persecution they endure. They depend on God everyday. We in the west need to do the same thing, but we need to pray that we don't get caught by ipods, youtube, and Desperate Housewives. I don't think people realize how toxic their lifestyle are. If people are believers they often take part in activities that retard their walks with Christ.
Let me give an example. Many Christian brothers and sisters love to watch movies. Who doesn't? Often in those movies sins that God hates are being glorified. If you say something to them about it they get defensive and say that your heart is "soft" and that it doesn't bother them. If the one Christian's heart is soft then what does that make the others heart?
This happened to me. I was watching a movie with my wife and she did not like it because it was very cavalier about sex. She was right. I could have done two thing. I could have said, "Oh you are too sensitive, it wasn't THAT bad." Or I could have, and did, repent and say, "You are right I should not have watched that."
Too often I harden my heart to things like that. Praise God for my wife!

Here is what the Bible says about having a hard heart.

Romans 1:21
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore s God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

I Thess 5:19 "Do not quench the Spirit"

So I want to encourage everyone to look at what they are doing. Are you justifying watching, listening, doing things that God hates and saying "These are holy" when they are not? Repent and turn to God. Pray like your life depends on it. He is your loving Father if you are his son or daughter.

Ok Ok Ok

So I have been told by my friend Jared, to update my blog. So a lot has changed since I blogged last. For instance I am married...and have been for over 4 months. Hmmmm yeah I guess it has been a long time. So what I want to do today is discuss the possibility of moving overseas at the end of 2009. Crazy as it sounds that is probably what we will do. If you want to know more please give me an email or comment below.
So that is a big update right? I will try to do more this week. I will leave you with a great video that will make you think.

Jet lag

Well I have been home for two days, and this is my third night. I slept well the first two night but night three I am blogging at 4:40 AM. Of course this is after being up for 2 hours and 40 min. So what does one do when jet lagged? Well he watches cable until he decides that it is all crap! Then he makes himself a sandwich..... I have not had bologna in a long time. I also read this ridiculous article about John McCain logging on to the Internet for the first time. Talk about lame, this article made me sad. I think it was attempt to say that McCain can be in touch. It actually worried me. I mean who cares about John McCain going onto map quest? I personally think it makes him look way out of touch because he is going to such lenghs to look in touch. Should I get excited about that? Meanwhile Obama is flying around Europe like some kind of rock star. Where is the news about Ralph Nader? Yes that is right I am probably going to vote for Ralph Nader. I was supporting Ron Paul but he pulled out so I think Ralph Nader might be my new candidate of choice. When I told people that I was voting for Ron Paul they asked me why I would "throw away my vote?" First of all it is mine to "throw away" secondly why is it being thrown away? Isn't voting about choosing the person you think would do the best job? I think so. Maybe it won't count for much but at least I am voting.
You really should check out his policy. From my view point McCain and Obama aren't that far apart in regards to their policy. Ralph Nader is a lot different. Check out this website it shows the differences between the canidates.

First time in LA

Yes I am finally back in the USA! It has been a LONG journey. I have had two 7 hour layovers. Yikes! So I had to get the Tmobile day pass for 9.99. So now I am blogging about how terrible LA airport is. At least the terminal I am in. It is pretty run down.
It is weird being able to communicate with everyone around. I am used to being in public places expecting that I cannot communicate with people. So strange.....it is good to be home....I think. Actually I really miss my fiancee. That is the main reason I miss the USA. It has been far too long. We will be married soon. Just 24 days and I will be married! I am so excited but it is hard to think of it now since it has been so long since I have seen her. If you have not RSVPed get busy. :)

Farwell Korea

So it has been months and months since I last posted and my reason for that? My blog has rated about zero on my priorities. It is currently 2:00 AM and I just finished scrubbing my bathroom. I can't sleep. I think it is because I am so excited to leave Korea and see my fiancee. I miss her a lot! I am excited to go home and start my new life. I have really enjoyed my time in Korea and I am really glad I came. I am going to miss a lot of things.
I am getting married in 29 days. I am so excited to get married. It is kind of scary to think that I am making a decision that will affect the rest of my life, but at the same time I cannot wait.
So goodbye Korea, I will miss you but I am ready to head back to the USA.

The Jew

Today was a fine Saturday filled with sleeping in, talking to my fiancee, working out, eating a wonderful dinner, and running into one of my students. I saw my student and we started to talk. She was very excited because she was going to see her boyfriend the next day. She told me that she was going to the jew. I could not get what she meant. I asked her several times to repeat where she was going until she said I am going to see the animals. I said ohhhhh the zoo. Wow, I felt bad. Maybe we will have to spend some time on the letter z in class.
This week some American students from Mississippi State University came to Catholic University of Daegu. It is very strange because everyone seems to be going bonkers for these people. They are like superstars. All my female students are lusting after the guys and all my male students are lusting over the girls. It is crazy. My female students were actually jumping up and down at one point because the MSU students were walking toward them.
In other Korean craziness. Korea is currently mad cow crazy. I read the newspaper yesterday and there were like 5 or 6 articles about mad cow disease. This is in one newspaper. That seems really strange. I did not read the paper today but I would hope that there wasn't that many stories in it. The reason everyone is crazy about mad cow is that Korea just recently started importing beef from the USA. That is it. Now everyone is worried about mad cow.
Finally some really good news. Yes, better than going to the jew. My lovely fiancee is coming to visit me in Korea. She will be here in about a week! I am so excited and I cannot wait.

Not too busy

I have not posted in a while and I am not sure why except that it is not a priority. I guess I have my head in the clouds most of the time thinking about my fiancée. Right now she is in Germany so with the time change it makes it very difficult to talk to her. The wedding planning seems to be going well....I guess I am not sure if I have any comparison, but it seems to be going well. Have a lot of things to be thinking about like where we will live, what job will I have. Things like that so prayers would be nice.

My job is going well. It was a little rocky at the beginning of the semester, but it is better now. The campus looks great! They have a lot of spring flowers on campus and it is beautiful. One of my coworkers will be having a baby so that is exciting too.

The best thing that has happened this month would have to be finding a new church. I found a new church a month ago and it has been fantastic. The church that I was attending I didn't like very much, because of preference mostly. This new church has been a huge blessing. I feel very much at home. I wish that I had found it when I came to Korea last year. I am sure when I leave in July that I will miss them. It feels strange but I will have to mourn the fact that I am leaving Korea. I have made myself a home with many new friends. I would say that my close friends all live in the USA but I will miss these friend too. Life is a lot different for me here in Korea. I don't have as much to worry about. For instance in the US I have lots of little expenses, but here in Korea I have zero bills to pay. ZERO! It is crazy. I use a cell phone but it is a prepay and I hardly ever use it. The only thing I buy is food for the most part. The food is wonderful too :)

Certainly things are often more difficult to do sometimes. Traveling can be a hassle but I use public transportation. It is a blessing most of the time. Sometimes I feel torn in two. At the same time I have "I don't like Korea days". I said earlier that my job was a little rocky at the beginning of the semester. Back then I would have loved to head back to the USA and never come back.

Most of my friends who are at my university seem to be in Korea for the long haul. They are settling in. My friend Jason is getting married to a Korean woman and he is getting a poetry book published her in Korea. Yes it is in Korean. I have a goal to learn another language well. I kinda gave up on Korean because of I am getting married and moving back to the States. I want to learn Chinese.
Ok I am starting ramble on and on. So this must be a good time to stop.