A Familar Voice

Yesterday, after a long tiring day, I sat down in the shuttle bus that so faithfully takes me to my apartment - the good old Wilshire Express - Oh the comfort of consistencies. Exhausted, yet talking amongst some of my fine friends I received a phone call from an UCLA office number. Confused, I picked up to find someone saying something among the lines of...

This is UCLA Murphy Hall's administration - is this Cho Yim? Yes. We need you to come in to discuss your graduation requirements. It seems we may have missed something and we need to discuss your possible staying of one more quarter.

As you can imagine, I was pretty furious and outraged. My entire extremely well-thought out plan to graduate 2 quarters early... my set agenda to save $25,000+ of UCLA out-of-state tuition....

"You know that's going to cost me an extra $10,000+ ...right?! How did you guys mess up?! Where? Okay - when can I come in? I'm on the shuttle right now but I'm going to drive there as soon as I get back. I'm coming in right now so someone better be there." I was pretty much set and ready to beat down the entire system, show up, and pull a crazy. Anger, frustration, confusion, sadness, madness, and sin ran down my spine, all at the same time.

And then it hit me... or at least I thought it did. Hmm... a familiar voice... I sure hope its a familar voice. I thought harder and listened harder... and then I knew it - I recognized this voice! But I couldn't be sure... the situation was too drastic, the cost of being wrong too high. So I had to ask... "BILLY?! BILLY IS THAT YOU? THIS BETTER BE YOU BILLY!"

At the sound of his voice and his response I was so relieved. My burning heart cooled down, my anger seemed to quickly fade away. I had nothing left but relief... pure relief and a calming comfort.

Talking to Billy and even me looking back at it, we're both somewhat surprised that the prank went that far. I mean sure, Billy called from work with a UCLA #, but as one of my closest friends... I did not recognize his voice.... When the first sentence, the first word, the first utterance from his distinct voice should have caught my attention and given him away, it did not....
I sure hope that when God speaks to me I can recognize his voice right away. Because it seems to me that when you don't, it can lead to a whole lot of misunderstanding, trouble, and grief.

Dear God,
May I read, love, and study your word. May I soak in your presence, your fellowship, and your love. May I lay at your feet and bow to your throne. May I take in your grace and reflect your glory. May I know you more and more and more and more and more so that I never ever miss your voice. That out of all voices I hear, Yours would be the most familiar of them all - please don't ever let me miss your familiar, comforting, loving, true word.

Must Have CDs for Long Drives

My List
E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies) - Black Eyed Peas
The Wicked Soundtrack - Wicked
Epic Movie Soundtracks - Including the Rocky Soundtrack!
Call Me Irresponsible - Michael Buble
It's Time - Michael Buble
Lion King Soundtrack - Disney
Sarah Chong's CD Mix

What's your list?

*How could I forget?! I added the infamous Sarah Chong Mix!

The Valley of Vision

LORD, HIGH AND HOLY, MEEK AND LOWLY,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty
thy glory in my valley.

Quarter-life Crisis

Quarter-life crisis... who would have thought I'd be going through it?!

God is Sovereign... God is Sovereign... when one person said that to me, I brushed it off even though I knew it was true. So cliche. When a second person said that to me today, it hit me as comforting. So true!
Sometimes we need multiple reminders from multiple people.

God is Sovereign.
Its not cliche if its really true =]

Rest Stop

Wow it's been crazy lately! So much going on, so much more left to do - hecticness for sureeeee. But I love what Pastor Danny told me about a week ago.

Sometimes you just gotta stop and ask yourself, How's your prayer life? How's your devotional and quiet time with God? And you gotta just remember the former times when you first became a Christian, and you had no responsibilities, no leadership roles, no logistics. All you had to do was read the word, pray, and soak in God's presence.

I can't wait till today is over so I can do just that - I'm rather super super excited! I relish those moments.

How does free will exist with predestination?

Let's learn a lesson from a fish.




















I have a beta fish (back in UCLA) in the care of one of my friends (thanks). I love that fish and his name is Ninja. The above picture is not Ninja, but close enough (Ninja is definitely more good looking). He has lots of fun hobbies and he loves practicing his free will. He chases after little bugs/gnats that happen to get into my room (its awesome to watch). He makes bubble nests with lots and lots of bubbles (sign of happiness... and wanting to mate). He takes rests at the bottom on the rocks and swims between whatever he wishes. He also watches me study and encourages me as I work late into the night. With all that said - Ninja has 100% free will, HOWEVER he is CONFINED to his TANK as a FISH. He does whatever he wishes, but whatever he wishes to do is restricted by the fact that he is a fish. This means he needs water to stay alive, and he needs to stay in his tank. He cannot free will himself to be human, or free will himself to be a dog, or free will himself to fly, but he has free will.

Thus it is with humans. We have free will but we are bounded by the fact that we are humans. We cannot free will ourselves to be God or to fly ourselves out to space (without spaceships). But you can drop a pencil right now if you want or write a blog entry (like me) if you want right now. However, you definitely cannot free will yourself to salvation. You cannot free will yourself to believe. Here's WHY.

Humans in our NATURAL state of free will would NEVER choose God. Psalm 14:2-3, Romans 3:10-12. God looks down from heaven to see if there are any who seek God, there is none - no not one. We know that in our free will bounded by the fact that we are human we would never ever choose God. John 6:44, John 6:65. As a Christian, I am so glad that this be true because I know I would have never chosen God - I would love to rebel as that is my nature. Then the beauty of God's grace is that He pierces through that boundary and gives us grace and draws us to Him that we may believe. YET, it is not that God FORCES us to believe. Far be it from that. He as God draws us and wills us to believe through His grace and majestic wonder.

Thomas Watson in All Things for Good puts it this way:
"It is a sweet call. God so calls as He allures; He does not force, but draw. The freedom of will is not taken away, but the stubbornness of it is conquered. 'Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power' (Psalm 110:3). After this call there are no more disputes, the soul readily obeys God's call: as when Christ called Zachaeus, he joyfully welcomed Him into his heart and house."

And this... is my attempt to explain how free will exists with predestination =] Thank you Ninja for the help.

Question

Hello fellow readers! K, I REALLY need your participation on this. I am just curious and I want questions to study SO... please leave a comment with an answer to this...

If you could ask one question to God about God, what would you ask?

(Thanks in advance)!

~Cho