Not too long ago, I realized that I have logged in more than 25,000+ hours of sermon preparation and preaching within the last 20 years. On top of that, I have probably logged in more than 15,000+ hours of counseling sessions ever since HMCC of Ann Arbor got started in 1996.

As I was doing the calculations, I had to pause for a second. It is a bit striking to realize that a big chunk of my life has been dedicated to preparing and preaching sermons.

It is easy to think that after doing ministry for some time now, a person has finally “arrived.” But in many ways, I realized that I still have a long way to go. I am thankful for people who are further in the journey than me. As I look at their lives, I continue to be inspired to remain faithful in my calling.

Also, when I look back to my younger years in the ministry, I recognize that I do not have the same level of ability to pull several all-nighters in a row. My physical body is slowly telling me to pace myself for the long marathon of life.

I don’t know.

Maybe as I am slowly getting older, some wisdom is kicking in, and now, I am learning how to do ministry more effectively and reflectively. In my younger years, a lot of what I did was out of just pure passion and adrenaline. Even though I was able to get a lot of things done, I could have done things better.

This is a good reminder for me to keep on growing and to keep on learning as I get older. The generations are constantly changing and different aspects of ministry are expanding. If I stay stagnant or too satisfied in my comfort-zone then I will slowly deteriorate and become ineffective for Christ. I want to always stay hungry.

This is why when I saw this video, it made me think about the years of ministry that I was privileged to experience. The video is a Gatorade commercial where it depicts a 23 year old Michael Jordan playing against the 39 year old Michael Jordan in a game of 1-on-1.

Oh, what it would have been like if the 23 year old Jordan had the wisdom and the experience of the 39 year old Jordan.
 
 

 
One of my dreams is to experience the Aurora Borealis in person, either in Alaska, Norway or Finland. There is something fascinating about these “dancing lights.” It just reminds me of God’s incredible creativity when He created the world. It just leaves you in awe.

Recently this year, on January 24th, there was a massive radiation storm which was produced from an intense solar flare that erupted from the sun. It unleashed a wave of charged particles and caused some of the the strongest solar radiation storm since 2005. This has sparked a phenomenal northern lights show.

Even though we cannot be there at this moment, we can at least see it via video. The video below was taken by Chad Blakley, who captured a view of the Aurora Borealis in Sweden. I wish I could have been there.
 

 
 
 
This next video is a compilation of various views of the extraordinary Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). It is just awesome to see all the different backgrounds and the lights bouncing around with elegance and grace. It is truly breathtaking!
 

 

Photo from ransomfellowship.org
 
 
 
As some of you know, we are doing M’Cheyne’s One Year Bible Reading Plan. But many of you might not know who he is and what impact he made in history. Robert Murray M’Cheyne was born in 1813 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was a pastor in the Church of Scotland starting from the young age of 22 until his death in 1843.

It is humbling to know that M’Cheyne only lived until the age of 29 due to an illness.

But within his short, yet full life, M’Cheyne became a catalyst to challenge the Church of Scotland to engage in missions to the Jews. He was also well-known for his life of prayer, as well as his life of holiness. With his love for God’s Word, M’Cheyne contributed to the Body of Christ by creating a method of reading through the Bible in one year.

Andrew A. Bonar, a friend of M’Cheyne decided to write a biography of M’Cheyne. Some of the materials came from M’Cheyne’s original manuscripts and it was titled, “The Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne.” Even to this day, this book has influenced many people in their spiritual growth.

Bonar in his book, shares something that M’Cheyne said when he was alive. M’Cheyne wrote about the importance and the advantages of having a broken heart. He writes,
 

 
I have always been an advocate about the offense of the Gospel. In fact, I have made it clear on many Sundays that if I don’t offend people through the preaching of the Gospel, then I have failed to really preach the Gospel.

The Gospel is offensive to the proud, arrogant and self-sufficient person.

The more we understand the Gospel, we will realize that it is a complete antithesis to our human nature. We always want to be right. We think we are better than we really are. We try very hard to earn our worth and affirmation. We don’t like to admit that we are weak.

It is interesting that M’Cheyne mentions that there have been people who have left the church because they were enraged with the preaching of the Gospel. The incredible part is that he anticipated that more people will leave due to the preaching of the Gospel.

But his delineation of a broken heart was inspiring and insightful. When a person is broken, they will have no reason to be offended. They are already in pain. They are struggling with shame and guilt. They realize that they cannot save themselves through righteous acts.

It is at this point, when Christ’s righteousness and not our works is preached, it will bring healing to us rather than offense.

This is also a good remember for us the next time we get offended, not only from the Gospel but when someone does something to us. If our hearts are broken, then we will realize that we have been saved by grace and that person needs the same grace and forgiveness.

 

Photo by HMCC-AA Documentation Team
 
 
 
It was a tremendous joy to host Pastor James and Faith Cha, as they spoke at our church’s congregational revival meeting this past weekend. Normally, we would have a retreat at this time, but we felt that God was calling us to have a revival meeting instead. The whole church came together to seek after God and it was a powerful time of experiencing God’s presence through worship, prayer and the preaching of the Word.

Now with several days to process everything that God was doing at the revival meeting, here are some lessons that God reminded me of through the revival experience:

 

Photo by HMCC-AA Publications Team
 
 
We started a new series for our Access gathering this past Friday. It will be a semester-long series where we will cover some of the basics of the Old Testament and the New Testament. As the campus ministry executive team and I prayed about what to address in this season of ministry, we felt convicted that we had to help our college students have a strong biblical foundation.

After doing college ministry for many years, there have been some trends which started to disturb me. The four that stick out for me are: 1) lack of bible literacy; 2) lack of holiness; 3) lack of strong convictions; 4) lack of tenacious resolve.

While doing college ministry, it is easy to get focused on behavior modification. We assume that people are getting transformed because they exhibit all the “right” Christian behavior. But our HMCC history tells us that having all the right behavior is not the best indicator of how they will do once they graduate.

When the focus is placed too much on behavior, then we either produce spiritual Pharisees or discouraged followers of Christ. Correct behavior is always produced by correct feelings; and correct feelings are produced by correct thinking. To put it in another way, how we think affects how we feel and how we feel affects how we behave.

This is why the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Roman Christians wrote, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Ro 12:2).

I believe this series, “Blueprint” will help in the process of transformation for our college students as they renew their minds with the Word of God. We are going to give them a framework that will help them in reading and understanding God’s heart through His Word. Ultimately, we can provide the treadmill and dumbbells for working out, but the person has to do the exercise to see the results.

As the 2012 is fully underway, we are expecting God to do great things as we do our part!

 

Photo on wikipedia.org
 
 
With each and every passing year, I am constantly reminded of two things: God’s faithfulness for the past year and the realization that I am closer to my death (I know, a bit morbid, but it is reality – one day closer to seeing Jesus face-to-face). With these two things in mind, in the new year there are two things that I always try to do. First, I spend some time with Christina to come up with goals for our marriage and family. We have been doing this ever since we got married and had kids. Secondly, I come up with some personal goals that I want to achieve throughout the new year.

Here are some things that I try to keep in mind as I look back and then look ahead:

 
 
Let’s dream great dreams in 2012 and achieve extraordinary things because we have an extraordinary God who is always for us!

 
It is always encouraging to see people who have experienced God’s work of transformation at HMCC-AA and are now placed at different parts of the world. I am constantly humbled and amazed at God’s work in people’s lives.

There is something special about meeting up with people who want to stay connected to the HMCC vision after graduation. Not only do they want to know what God is doing in our church, but we are discussing about different ways we can live out the vision together.

Kuala Lumpur has couple of former LIFE group leaders and a few people who have experienced salvation for the first time in Ann Arbor. This is why there will always be a heart connection for me with the brothers and sisters in Malaysia.

We are praying that God will do greater things in Kuala Lumpur, one of the global cities in the South East Asia region. If we can see more disciples being made in this city, then there will be a greater possibility for us to start up a HMCC community in the near future.

The possibilities are great!
 
 
 

Our drive into KL to attend an international church
 
 
 

The alumni are sharing what they miss about Ann Arbor
 
 
 

Our drive into Putrajaya, the new governmental center city
 
 
 

The Putra Mosque is one of the largest in Malaysia

 
Malaysia just might be the food capital of the world. As soon as I landed, the former HMCC-AA guys took me to Melaka (the Malay spelling). The craziest part of it was that Melaka is 2 hours away from Kuala Lumpur! People in Malaysia are serious about their food. But there was a kindred spirit because if something is that good, then I would be willing to drive even 4 hours for it.
 
 
 

My first meal in Malaysia. The Malaysian are serious about their food!
 
 
 

The craziness of the streets of Melaka
 
 
 

The power of music. It is an universal language

 

Arrived at Jayapura
 
 
 

Met some former Papuan professional soccer players
 
 
 

Overlooking the city from the highest point of Jayapura
 
 
 

The food was incredible in Papua
 
 
 

I think this can be categorized as a FTG food

 
Even though I had only 12 hours in Jakarta before heading out to Jayapura, I was able to reconnect with some people. I was a bit sad that I was not able to meet up with more people because so many of them were vital a part of my experience in Indonesia back in 2009-2010.

It has been an awesome time hanging out with Pastor Andrew and four of the HMCC-JKT businessmen who joined us on this trip. I am looking forward to sharing with you all the different things that God has been showing me here in this part of Indonesia. I took some videos so that I could post it on this blog but the internet speed is so slow. I am going to wait until I get back to Jakarta. In fact, to upload the video below took me a whole 1.5 days… I kid you not!

So come back and check out the other video that I will post up in a few days.

Met up with some of the HMCC-JKT guys who were from Ann Arbor

 

 
 
In all my travels throughout Asia for the last 15 years, I have never stepped on Japanese soil. The closest I have been was Narita Airport. It is amazing to think that I have been in Narita airport well over 50 times, but never visited Japan; therefore by spending some time in Japan after all these years, it has been an incredible experience for me.

In my younger years, I was always interested in Japan due to my fascination with the Samurai warriors, the Yakuza gang (I know, I’m crazy) and my love for Japanese food. But after I realized that there were many Japanese people in Ann Arbor because of a Toyota car plant nearby, God started to place a burden on my heart for this nation.

Christina also started to develop a heart for the Japanese people because she would tutor the Japanese moms with English, as a way of building relationships and sharing the faith. Our prayers were accentuated even more when the earthquake and tsunami hit in Sendai. It was at that moment that I began to pray for an opportunity to visit Japan. Then, God opened this door.

Here are some of my limited observations that I have made in my four days in Tokyo and Nagoya. I am thankful to some of the missionaries and people that have helped me process some of my observations. It is interesting how everything is linked together.

 
 
Overall, the needs of Japan are tremendous. In a population of close to 130 million people, when there are only 0.22 percent Christians (including all types of Christians), how can we not be concerned? The words of Jesus are true – “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Mt 9:37-38).

May our lives be transformed by the Gospel message so that we can transform the world by bringing the Gospel to the nations, especially to Japan.

 

This is a glimpse from one of the busiest train stations in the world
 
 

A view from center-city
 
 

A band performing on the streets is an expression of the Japanese youth
 
 

A random street drummer who had some skills
 
 

We even had some dancers practicing on the streets
 
 

The honor system here in Japan is incredible