Acts 19

So today in English my friend started talking about how he thought that religious people are less intelligent.. and how he notices from his 'observations' that most religious people are those that are poor and have no education. So he concluded that ppl can only be religious if they're stupid, have no logic, and have no ability to think for themselves. hahaa ohh man was there a debate! Near the end I realized that his whole argument and ideology revolved around materialsm - because he believes that money and success brings you happiness, he thinks that there's no reason to turn to this ' imaginary god', because you become self-sufficient. And today I realized just how dangerous money can really be - that when you have all the money, education and success that you want in your life, it's so easy to ignore God and all attempts at spiritual fulfillment because you get so caught up in fulfilling your materialistic desires. And not to judge or anything, but it scares me because the way that his life is completly shaped by his materialistic desires - he saved up for years to buy a car, and now he has one he keeps feeling the need to upgrade it. He skipped a lot of school and a bunch of close friends' birthdays because he didn't want to waste time he could have spent working on his car, and now he feels the need to get a new turbo (whatever that is) because 210 just isn't fast enough for him. I hope one day he realizes that no car is ever gonna make him truly happy. but for now all I can do is pray, because no arguments or facts or fantastic persuasiveness will get to him if God doesn't get to him.

Anyways I thought that today's chapter tied in nicely.
"they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor"
I thought it was interesting how all of these sorcerers and sinners confessed and repented when they were feeling great FEAR. It's funny because it's usually not in the GOOD times that people are inspired to turn to God - because, as i said previously, people tend to get cocky and relient on their own strengths to bring them happiness. But when there's great fear and pain, it often acts as a reminder that we need God and that we need to lift our lives up to him and let HIM guide the way. I still haven't read the shack, even though I got it for Christmas.. But I know that it's all about pain and why there is pain from a Christian perspective. And i'm excited to read it because I know it'll give me much more insight on this topic. But yeahh let's just remember that we should rely on God all the time, not just when we're in pain. Because when things are going good, it is all by God's doing, not our own. And chances are, bad times are about to come. So pray hard!

Alright im out. English seminar tmrw! DUM DUM DUM DUM
ps i had like the big mega bowl of cupramyun yesterday at like 1am. and it was GREATTTTT

good news: got 94% on my civics rap YEEEE HHAHA
bad news: im pretty sure i ACTUALLY failed my summative... like not korean fail.... canadian fail..... :S shoooot LOL
so i got all excited cause i got this invite to this worship confrence at onnuri, its called "the green room" and basically its hooked to this satellite and you get to hear really cool speakers like Ross Parsley from newlife BUT its on feb 19... friday... school day....all day.... booooo.....man it'd be cool if our praise team went...

13Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." 14Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15(One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. 17When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. 19A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.[d] 20In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
okay so i got a few things from this one section.
1. the evil spirit asked "I know Jesus, I know Paul... but who are you?" i think at this time, you need to be confident. This time you need to know for sure that Jesus' name conqueres over all. Evil spirits know and fear him. Paul was "famous" so it heard of him. But when it asked "but who are you?" I think thats when you should say "I am a daughter/son of God and a follower of Christ" really strongly without a doubt in your mind. There should be no fear in your heart because God is watching over you, protecting you and in the name of Jesus Christ, evil will be drawn out and stomped on!
2. Jesus' name was lifted high! The believers confessed, the non believers turned to God. Amazing. Let's keep spreading God's word, and lets just devote our lives to Him! God is the reason we breathe, God made the heavens and the earth. What cant He provide? I think thats whats awesome about being Christians and knowing God. You get to live without fear. You have hope and comfort.

ahaha... cathy i hope he runs into a wall going 210

"16 Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered."

This actually made me scared. The thought of a demon saying that... creeps
Imagine that... "I know God.. BUT WHO ARE YOU???" thats liek some steven king book

With this whole spiritual warfare stuff, its important to stay calm. LIke grace pointed out.
However, if anyone has experienced major spiritual warfare (not like girls pms'ing during missions because thats not spiritual warfare... thats just hormones all going off at once :p) they can tell you its easier said than done.

I know that some of the members on this team are a little more spiritually sensitive and we should ask sam more about this topic, its important to be prepared.

ahah so i pretty much got what Cathy got but i would like to add a little bit more onto it.

Yeah people go to God when they are feeling down or just not 100%. And when we're are happy and confident, we feel too nice and think we don't need God. It's amazing how much we get full of ourselves and we don't we even realize it. So to continue on about needing God, we mostly need him when we have troubles. Some people ask, if God is a God of love, why are they're people who are less fortunate than us, are we "extra" special to god? I think that God just puts sin and pain in this world because God chose to. He wants us to be in need of him so that we go to him. Because if we had no troubles, we would never go to God asking him for help but God wants us to rely on him and know that he is able to help all of us. So if we ever feel great about something and confident, instead of thinking we don't need God for now, we should think that it's because of God we are able to do all these great things we're doing,

YES!! Finished 2 PRESENTATIONS TODAY!!! English presentation was a Final project and people
kept telling me i did well. I realized today, everytime i do a project or jst when the class is having a
big discussion, I always put my faith into the topic. my teacher and my class mates also noticed that...
and even tho my teacher isn't a religious person and neither are my class mates, we always have a decent
discussion with my religion. I had to choose a movie and start a discussion with it and my movie was
a korean movie "Thirst/박쥐" This movie has alot to do with religion and i have to say, i think god was
always supporting me in school. Except for math which i'm failing horribly in... TEHEE!!

kk, this chapter was interesting. ASIA!!! YEEEEEEE!!! haha this chapter made me realize, without all this
non beliefs and evil spirits lerking... I kno all these stuff are something that we should prevent but think about
it, if the evil spirit didnt control and attack the people, nobody would have been afraid of them and less people
would have started a relationship with jesus. and there's a quote, " Without light, there is no darkness and without
darkness, there is no light." Kinda like Ying and Yang thing. Two opposites that match but wont exist without the other..
If the whole world was christians from the begininng, we wont have a job to do and there wont be challenges in our
life. EVERYBODY will go to heaven without doing anything special... So we need to look at the bright side of this world
and make the best out of it... Listen to god and build a stronger relationship with him...

There is a hole in my nail...great!

powerful stuff today.

Satan is not stupid. He knows so much, and if we are not prepared he will just laugh at us. I learned that their is a huge difference in knowing what chrsitianity is, and knowing who God is. Anyone can study religion, but not everyone knows who God is. I am pretty darn sure that Satan studies the christian religion, and because of that if you only rely on the laws and philosophy of chrisitianity, you will hit a wall, but Satan does not know who God is, in terms of having a relationship with him. I've learned that in personal spiritual warfare, their is a certain point in your life, where you pass a "Wall of God" where Satan can't get you. You can feel his presence, but he can not lay a finger on you. You will still sin, and he will still use it against you, "feel his presence", but you know that God is there with you, looking over you. He knows when Satan is trying to harm you, but I am pretty sure God is watching him to.

Without a realtioship with God, you are just a walking encyclopedia.

k that is all

c ya all

So um reply to my email please? haha
TODAY was one of the days where i DID NOT have basketball practice. FINALLY.
So i went to the library which i thought i got some work done.
i studied beside a pretty girl

That demon stuff is some scary stuff. But lok how instantly people started sharing about their struggles
and God's name was lifted up higher.
"20In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power."
I noticed as a praise team, we haven't been getting togetehr as much soi my apologies, we've been busy and what not
but we need to be more transparent with each other. Be more comfortbale and talk to each other like real family.
Just because you feel uncomfortable or you think its "Gay" to share because you might loojk stupid is not the right way!
Rememebr, we are a community of christian who all struggle.
No one is better than anyoen else, and rememebr it all takes initiative.
When your'e Bold, God is with you!

I HATE ENGLISH
I HATE POETRY
I HATE STUPID ASSIGNMENTS WHERE TEACHERS ARE ABLE TO MAKE YOU DO AN ESSAY + PRESENTATION SEMINAR + HANDOUT + MEDIA COMPONENT ALL AT ONCE. thats like MEGA PROJECT X 500

Almost done. Keep trucking, Cathy Pak.