Loving God - Part 2

Lately, I've been feeling weak; not physically, but emotionally and spiritually. A small incident would send me reeling into the depths of a pit, where I would wrestle and struggle to get out without much success. And honestly, it's easy for me to keep wallowing in self-pity and despair.

But reading His Word today, I realized that loving God means following His commandments. (See the book of Deuteronomy.) It means remembering His promises to us, even when I don't feel like it. It means trusting and having faith that He is good, even when the circumstances around me don't seem like they'll get better. In Joshua 1:9, God commands us to "be strong and courageous." He commands us not to be terrified, because He is with us wherever we go. So if I love God, I need to follow Him in His commandments of being strong and standing firm.

And you know what? After a few hours of reminding myself of this truth, it doesn't seem so dark anymore. :) I pray that regardless of your situation or the circumstance, that you would remember His goodness too!

Jaeson Ma!

Just by typing the title of the blog makes me feel like a groupie! And as a disclaimer, I'm not here to encourage anyone to worship celebrities or idols, or even be followers of people who bring the Good News of the gospel (see 1 Corinthians 1:10-17), but I merely wanted to do something as an act of encouragement for someone who has encouraged me.

I knew that Jaeson was coming to town for the Kingdom Advance conference, and my super inspiring friend invited me to one of the night sessions, so what better way to give him some encouragement than that night? So, after hearing Jaeson give an awesome talk about how to make disciples of all nations (as per the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20) and after worshiping and praying our hearts out for the city of Hong Kong, I very timidly stood in line hoping to just thank Jaeson for being an inspiration, and to give him the Love Cheer game (see below!)

Honestly, as I was waiting in line, I wanted to back out every other second, but my super inspiring friend encouraged me to keep at it. I'm sure Jaeson has his fair share of groupies and crazy people stalking him, and after a long night, I'm sure another giddy fan is not what he needed, but he graciously accepted the gift and said thanks! :) I really do hope that I could have been a tiny bit of an encouragement to someone who has encouraged so many around the world...

Love challenge: Being encouraging takes courage sometimes, but remember, God commanded us "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

The Love Cheer game goes like this:

A cheerful heart is good medicine Proverbs 17:22

You’ve heard before that laughter is the best medicine. Here in your hands, you hold the world’s best drug-free medication for the body and mind. Your objective is to heal as many people as you can, spread as much love as you can, by creating and sharing as much laughter as you can with those around you.

Instructions:

This game is like telephone pictionary, except with a twist.

It is played with an odd number of people; 7, 9, or 11 people work best. If you have an even number of people, one person can act as the time-keeper and judge.

Everyone starts with a piece of paper and a different colored pencil.

Write your name on the bottom of your piece of paper.

Choose 3 words or phrases (some have been provided for you below), and make up a complete sentence using these words. Remember, the objective of the game is to spread joy, so the funnier and more creative the sentence, the more laughter you will be able to create!

After you have written down the sentence, pass the paper to the person sitting next to you. This person now has to draw out the sentence that you wrote down!

When they are finished drawing, they need to fold down the paper, so that it covers the sentence that the first person wrote, and pass the paper showing just the picture to the person next to them. That person then has to write a sentence based on the pictures that were drawn by the person before them. Continue doing this, drawing pictures and writing down sentences, until the paper with your name on the bottom gets back to you.

Unfold your paper, and have a good laugh!

Suggestions:

• Juggle the difficulty by limiting the amount of time you can use to write your sentences and draw your pictures. For starters, you may limit sentence writing to 30 seconds, and picture drawing to one minute.
• Rotate sitting places to switch people up
• Everyone’s a winner in this game, but to up the competition, you may want the judge to keep points for the piece that has the most number of words correct at the end, whoever has the best drawings, the piece that is the most hilarious, or even give extra points for those who can guess which Scripture passage some of the verses are from.

Word list:

Some words and phrases to get your creative juices flowing:

• jamming with the band
• beat boxing and break dancing
• galloping horses
• Toy Story 3
• meting the president
• colorful & bright
• The Yellow Brick Road
• couples figure skating
• stand firm
• Love never fails
• helping someone in need
• praying for someone
• you & me
• heaven
• exchanging marriage vows
• best friends
• mom & dad
• yesterday
• afternoon tea
• Noah's Ark
• ... add your own!