I've moved.

A little bit about my friend Shelly: continued

(Why am I using this weird purple-red color?)

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)

So Sunday Chris talked about "Trust" and the five-step how people come to Christ through us: trust, curiosity, openess, seeking, conversion.

Shelly and I have been friends since high school, but I felt that we were kind of far away from each other, especially after I received Christ. I wanted to rebuild that trust and friendship so I asked her to go to school today to check out the textbooks.

I was waiting for her in front of the bookstore and I suddenly remembered the message on Sunday. And I was thinking about if I would have a chance to tell her about Jesus or just invite her to life group tonight. Later she came, and we checked out our books.

While we walked out of the bookstore she mentioned The Da Vinci Code on the bookshelf. And I told her that I bought the book too but didn't start reading yet. We talked a little bit more about it, and Shelly said she didn't really care about what the book said because she knew nothing about Bible except Jesus was resurrected after three days. In my mind, I have not yet thought of a reaction to it, but my mouth said it already: "In the Bible after Jesus was resurrected He lived with his disciples for 40 days and He went back to Heaven." Shelly seemed interested and continued to ask why it was 40 days. I didn't know why but I just told her that 7 and 40 are special numbers in Bible, like, God created the world in 7 days, Jesus was put in desert for no food for 40 days, etc. She actually was amazed by that, and I felt like those information was good enough for her by now so I quickly closed this topic.

The story didn't just end here. We got all the things done and about to leave, I finally invited her to life group. And she said no. I was feeling disappointed. But then, Shelly said something that's toally shocked me, even now: "Just keep inviting me, maybe someday I will go to church." At that moment I was like "WHOA is this reality?! Is that really what she just said?!" I was/am totally shocked.

I've never thought Shelly would say something like this. That is just CRAZY!!! God is amazing!!! He planned all those events and they just happened before I could notice them. What I have learned is, before we build our trust with other friends, build trust with God first. Trust and be faithful and ask Him, and He will guide us through.

A little bit about my friend Shelly

One of my best friends, Shelly, I knew her since high school. We have been friends for seven years now. We went to the same college, then transferred to the same university, and studying in the same major. She is not a very open person; in fact, I think she's closed to her own little space.

Last year, when I told her that I became a Christian, she was really surprised. But she didn't say anything but just accepted this fact. Then one day I was reading the book called "Following Jesus without Dishonoring Your Parents" while I was waiting for the class. Shelly had the same class with me, and she saw me reading that book. She told me not to read Christianity books before her. I was a little shock and sad while she said that. But then I realized that she just never actually get in touch with any Christians before. I know she doesn't like church, but to me she is just the same person I know. We are still very good friends.

In the Fall quarter I got to know this friend called Fanny. She's a Christian too. Last quarter before final week, we talked about her fellowship group and I was saying that I wanted to go check it out. Shelly stepped in and questioned that why we were so in love with Jesus.

Before we could answer, she asked another question: is Jesus same as Buddha? Are they both Gods? I told her, Jesus is the ONLY God and He became a human and came down to help us 2000 years ago.

Shelly then asked again, why Jesus came down. So Fanny told her this wonderful story: there's a man, his family are Christians but he's not. He doesn't understand the whole thing about Jesus and God. Then one day, it's raining really bad outside, and this man saw a bird was hurt and couldn't fly. This man felt so sad for the bird and walked towards the bird, tried to help it. But the bird was afraid of him, it kept stepping back while the man was approaching it. The man couldn't understand and said "why are you afraid? I just wanted to help you."

The story ends here. But both Shelly and I understood the story very well. God is the man who is trying to help us, and we are the bird that are afraid of him. That's why God sent Jesus, His only son, as a human form to the earth and helped us.

I believed the story touched Shelly's heart, as least a little bit. When Fanny and I asked her to join us for the fellowship group, she didn't quickly reject it. Instead of that, she said she would think a little bit before coming. From how much I know her, I know that means she is having very little of interests in God now. She is one of the friends who I truly hope can know God. I will invite her to Easter Brunch and pray for her. No matter how hard her heart is now, as long as I pray to God and I believe God will answer me and open Shelly's heart more.

Last night's LG

Last night we had a wonderful discussion for the message in John 13. This part of scripture is about the last words and things from Jesus before he is betrayed by Judas; but, even though Jesus knows that, he still serves Judas. Jesus serves his disciples because he wants them to serve other people like he does: be humble to serve.

And we got into this question: Why Judas gets to the point of betray? From this question, I came up another question: we all know God plans everything, so doest it mean that God plan this betray? On top of my question, Alan asked another question too: if we do know God plans everything, why do we bother to pray?

We all know God plans the best for us; He plans everything good for our life. However after we stepped in to the world, we were influenced by things around us: media, parents, friends, etc. Because of those influences we slowly walked to a different path, face a differnt direction. In order to know God's best plans for us, we must receive Christ and keep praying about His messages and plans for us. Then, it's up to us to choose the path ahead, the God's way or something else. Judas sees how Jesus serves him, but he made his choice to follow devil to betray Jesus; God made the best plan for Judas already, but it's Judas' choice to choose the path he wants to walk.

December 21 2005 Wednesday LG

A few quesions were asked during sharing time.

-- Special memories in 2005?

A lot... The time when I prayed and received Christ, the day I got baptized, church retreats... so many.

-- The most challenging/difficult things?

First of all is putting total trust and faith in God. I know that I should trust God, but someimes I just doubt about it. Second is acceptance from families and friends. Most of them aren't Christians. When I told them about me being a Christian, they were really suprised. My family seems open to this issue, but there're times when I was reading Bible or spending time in church too much, my parents were not that happy about it; they said that I should put more time in studying than church. Some of my best friends could not understand why I became a Christian; and there was one time that my best best friend asked me not to read Christian-related book before her. That was really sad. But inviting her and other friends to my B-day party and seeing all my brothers and sisters in Christ, I truly believe that their minds are changing. My friend Meta starts to go to church after I became Christian. Praise God.

-- Main lesson that God taught me this year?

It's love and patience. For love, it is about loving someone that's hard for me to love. Since I work in JJ Bakery in Arcadia where a lot of rich people live, some of them are very nice people but some of them are nightmares. Dealing with them is a pain.-_-" But I learned how to love and be patience with them; if they are rude to me, I will do my best to calm myself down and forgive them. I join the Children's Ministry months ago. I found out spending time with kids need a lot of patience, seriously. I think I am still in a learning process, but I am sure I will do better next time.

-- In what way God wants me to grow?

To be totally faithful to God and trust Him all the way.