Hahaha, so funny.  Kids are the best.

This. was. DOPE.

Image from revolttowards.com

ANSWERED PRAYERS = MORE PRAYER. The last couple of days I’ve come across awesome, astonishing reports coming from Japan. The first one was about a baby who was literally swept away by the waters from the parents and against all odds was found alive.  The one I found today was about a Japanese student in California who could not get in touch with her family.  Incredibly, she finds them on YouTube!  In the video her sister is holding signs for the balcony of their house which is the only house standing in a row of houses!  One of the signs said: “Tell our sister we all survived!”

Wow.  I mean seriously.  Wow!!

There are a lot of things to pray for Japan, but these are reasons TO pray and to KEEP praying for Japan.  Could these be some amazing “random” answers to the prayers we are praying?  Could it be that these amazing “miraculous” reports are connected with  a prayer you prayed even thought it doesn’t “seem” connected?  Could it be that God is “fueling” our prayers to keep going with these “answers”?

THE CONNECTION. So many times throughout history the questions in the deepest parts of man, especially in times like these have been:  “Why aren’t you answering my prayers God?  Where are you?” But, often times when He does answer our prayers we don’t see the connection.  I urge us to see “the connection”!  I realize more and more that God answers prayers and it takes faith to see what’s right in front of our eyes.  Faith is choosing to trust God with the prayers we don’t “see” answered and seeing, rejoicing, and giving thanks for the answers He is giving us.

Perhaps so many times why we lack faith is because we are starving it to death by being in denial of the answers God is providing.  The reasons we are in denial could be:

1. When we hear of incredible reports we lack faith to accept that our prayers had something directly to do with it.  Or…

2. We are focused on God answering our prayers for exactly what we are asking for instead of trusting Him to take our prayers and then answer them in a way He sees best.

But, when we do make “the connection” we get excited and encouraged to keep praying because He IS answering!

WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON. I really believe this what’s going on: Somebody from somewhere in the world prays in their heart “God, please help those people in Japan.  Please help them.”  And then when that Somebody gets to heaven, God will introduce that Somebody to a Japanese person they’ve never met before, and God will say, “I heard your prayer and this is how I answered, I rescued this person as a baby.  Remember that news report on CNN you saw on Facebook about a baby miraculously found alive?  Yeap, this is that baby!”

Somebody: What!  Really?  But, I’m sure so many other people were praying that same simple prayer!

God: Yeah, they were.  But, so were you.  It was your prayer too and so this is your answer too.

MY LIST OF SOME ANSWERED PRAYERS. Here are four answers to my prayers that I’m thankful for and that has inspired me to keep praying:

1. Japanese student finds family alive on YouTube.

click picture to see article and video

2.  4-month old baby found alive.

click picture to see article

3.  Seeing friends rallying others to pray, give and help out in anyway possible.  Friends like:

Richard Kim, who has helped gather donations of IT equipment for the Japan disaster relief organization CRASH.  Quote from Richard:  “We can do small things to help a big cause.  Nothing is too small.”

Jennifer Kim, who has been rallying people to pray and give to organizations like globalgiving.org through her facebook and  her website.  Quote from Jennifer: “I can’t stop praying for Japan.  Give ’till it hurts, and give good.”

Louisa Mun, who is helping send others to Japan to give hands-on-help through giving financially to them and rallying others to do the same.  Quote from Louisa: “I’m thankful I can give people money to go and [still] be partnered to the works of helping the Japanese in this trying time.”

4.  All the countless numbers of family, friends and others who I know are praying unnoticed and uncredited…you are that Somebody making a world of difference, and God knows it.

Pastor Jaeson Ma shares some great thoughts about what it means to “walk with God.”

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My heart is heavy for Japan. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so moved by a national disaster.  I think it is due to my time ministering to typhoon victims in Taiwan during the aftermath of “Typhoon Morakot” in 2009.  Having been face-to-face with real people who have suffered a real catastrophe…who lost everything…and then to see Jesus minister to them and bring them hope.  Somehow, all of it together has made me care more, or maybe more accurately “braver to care more.”

It’s amazing to see the message “Pray for Japan” everywhere today:  on facebook, twitter, and a newspaper picture day of a Japanese girl in New York who had painted the message on her cheek.    I don’t think the importance and effectiveness of prayer cannot be overstated.  Prayer is what makes things happen from heaven to earth.  Prayer is the solution to the impossible.  Prayer is what grips the heart of heaven.

But then, heaven looks to answer. It looks for people to answer through.  We pray and then heaven answers through people…perhaps even us.  We actually might be the very answer heaven gives to our prayers.

God might cause us to pray more, that’s a great answer.  God might cause us to give, and that’s an great answer too.  Or, God’s great answer to our prayers is that He sends us to be hands on help for those we are praying for.

I’m in prayer right now.  Praying for Japan because there is so much…so much beyond us.  And, I’m also praying for “a great answer.”  Which will it be?  I am hoping all three.  I want to pray more.  I want to give.  But also, I am really hoping I will get the opportunity to go there and help somehow.

I’m reminded of the words to a U2 song that’s more like  a prayer

Please, please, please, get up off of your knees now.

When I think of those lyrics I always imagine someone praying and praying…and then God calls them to get up off there knees and go and be the answer to the prayer they’ve been praying.

Please, please join me in searching for a “great answer” for Japan and/or for yourself from the One who can save us all.

——–

There are many great organizations looking to help relief efforts such as World Vision.  I hope you find one you trust that you can give to.

Here is one from my friend Jaeson Ma called JEMS:

http://www.jems.org/

http://jaesonma.com/help-japan/

Here is

PRAYER: Prayer is spending one-on-one time with God.  Some people are using the word “encounter” to describe the dynamic, two-way, personal interaction that God desires to have with us in prayer.  It is true that prayer is partly discipline.  But, if that’s all it is and never goes beyond that, then it’s like a mechanical marriage that looks good on the outside but has nothing on the inside.  The discipline aspect of prayer should only serve the passion and intimacy of prayer – it should never ever replace it nor ever be the focus or goal.  It should not “rule” us.  It is the thing that serves not the thing to be served.  Jesus said that there is joy in prayer [Isaiah 56:7]. Our lives of prayer should be joyful.  It’s like spending time with your favorite loved one and being loved on by the one you are jealous for.

Check It: What is prayer to you?  What is your prayer life like?  Is it obligation and/or guilt driven?  Or is it joy driven?  If it’s time to upgrade your prayer life then start asking God to help you discover the reason and source of the joy that is “inexpressible and filled with glory” which he desire for your life!  A good place to start might be 1 Peter 1:8!

ETERNAL LIFE: John 3:16 says that those who believe in Christ will have “eternal life.”  What is “eternal life”?  It’s this: “The life of abundant joy and immeasurable blessing in the presence of God forever. Those who “believe in” Christ have that “eternal life” and already experience its blessings in this present time, not yet fully, but in some significant measure.” [excerpt from The ESV Bible Study Notes]  Now THAT’S awesome!!

Check It: Do you believe in Jesus and trust Him alone for the forgiveness and deliverance from all the penalties of your sin?  If so, then do you realize you can experience the “eternal life” now and not just “in heaven”?  If you don’t, you need to recognize that is exactly what God wants for you today.  “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!”

But, perhaps you will say that such saying like this motivates you to live more godly in your private life. True, it might motivate you.  But, it won’t change you.  God’s Word is very clear that it is only the Holy Spirit that can change you inside out in a way that is truly befitting of God’s heart for the kind of holiness he desires from us.  Anything else is a change on the surface at best.  So if there is any motivation I can give you, then I would say:  Be convicted by the Holy Spirit,  “run” to the Holy Spirit for help,  surrender and rely on the Holy Spirit and enjoy the Holy Spirit.

Joy out of repentance based on the lavish grace of the Cross, trust and dependency on the Holy Spirit, and hope in Christ. These are the sources of true transformation and holiness.  The Gospel is consisted of these; our worth is consisted of these.  It is not our efforts, our good works or our motivational talk that determines how much we are worth to God, but Jesus and Jesus alone.

Here is what the Bible says is the worth of everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ through grace alone:

John 15:15 - We are His friends
John 1:12 - We are His children
Romans 8:17 - We are fellow heirs with Christ
Jude 1:1 – We are His beloved
Revelation 21:2 – We are the “Bride of Christ”

As Apostle Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15:10,

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Amen and amen.

Check it: What is your idea of “feeling blessed”?  Is it self-centered or Christ-centered?  Or on the flip side, are you so religious that you think that any kind of “feeling blessed” is carnal?  Feel blessed God’s way and may your life be radically transformed!

Check it: Is your idea of maturity one of “obedience to God” and “being a good person” as the ultimate end goal?  Or, is it to be absolutely, crazy in love with God and so obey “for the joy”?  [John 14:15] There is a huge difference.