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Showing posts from October, 2011

Christians on Campus Fall 2011 College Conference (Part 3)

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Continuing from my previous post on the Christians on Campus Fall 2011 College Conference : On the second day of the conference, we gathered early to listen to a 15-minute fellowship on early rising to have a morning time with the Lord. Then we went to find a private place where we could spend a personal, intimate time with the Lord. This fellowship was very healthy and helpful. As young people, many times we all love to sleep late and wake up late.  Actually that morning, our fellowship began with this quote by a sister in the Lord:  "How much a person loves the Lord can be judged primarily by the way he chooses between his bed and the Lord. Do you love your bed or the Lord more? If you love your bed more, you sleep a little longer. If you love the Lord more, you rise up a little earlier." This quote stings, like putting salt on my wound, my weakness, but I realize that it's very true. Of course, striving in ourselves to wake up early can only work f

Christians on Campus Fall 2011 College Conference (Part 2)

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I'm back from Christians on Campus College Conference (Fall 2011) , which took place just this past weekend. I've attended this conference many times since I first joined Christians on Campus as a freshman at UT, but this last one had adopted a different overall structure so it was very refreshing indeed! The structure now encouraged the attendees' active participation in smaller groups. It'll take a while for me to explain all the details but just to give you a picture, by the end of the day on Saturday, almost everyone who attended the conference had spoken at least once. Of course, I don't mean speaking with each other about random things. Almost everyone had spoken concerning Christ to one another, at least once. There were apportioned times for personal morning revival/devotion, group Bible study, presentations on the Bible study material, and campus clubs' reports. Seemingly all these were just outward adjustments to the old format, which was m

Christians on Campus Fall 2011 College Conference (Part 1)

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Everyone is packing to go to the college conference tomorrow. We're having a regional college conference. Students from several universities, from all over Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas, and more, will be gathering together to worship the Lord, listen to life-changing messages, fellowship, pray, and interact with each other. This fall, Christians on Campus is revamping their college conference's structure to a more engaging, interactive format. The conference will definitely put more emphasis on active participation in smaller groups, especially on the practice of speaking. There will be many opportunities for college students to share their experiences with one another. Mutuality is very much encouraged.  Christians on Campus Fall 2011 College Conference I'm quite excited myself to be able to go and participate in this conference. My right foot is still recovering from a recent injury, but I just can't miss out on this one. The topic

Giving by Taking

This week, I had fellowship with one of my friends on campus. This is her second year being part of Christians on Campus at UT. We were reminiscing how the Lord had been very faithful to bring us back to Himself. I don't have the liberty to share with you her story, but she shared with me from Psalm 116:12-13. There's a short hymn written based on this psalm ( click here to listen to the tune ): "What I shall I give unto the Lord  For all, for all, for all He's done for me? I'll take the cup of salvation,  And call, and call, and call upon the name of the Lord." When my friend was younger, an older Christian spoke to her concerning this hymn. He pointed out how the psalmist began by asking what shall he give unto the Lord to return all the goodness, all that He had done for him, but ended with taking the cup of salvation and calling upon the name of the Lord.  In one of my previous posts on God's salvation to us , I shared a si

The Auxiliary Evidences of Christianity

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In the previous post, I wrote on William Paley's work on the evidences of Christianity . In this post, I'd like to continue with Paley's auxiliary evidences of Christianity in mostly his own words. Paley considers his two propositions as the main defense of the Christian faith yet he believes that their argument is also supported by auxiliary evidences, of which the most important include: Prophecy - Prophecies, which no natural means could foresee, came to fulfillment in history, such as Isaiah chapter 53 and the Lord's prophecy on the destruction of Jerusalem.  Morality - Although not the primary design of the mission, the depicted morality in the Bible is unprecedented. Paley points out two noticeable facts: first, the Gospel omits qualities that are often praised and admired by mankind but have been prejudicial to human happiness, such as friendship, patriotism, and active courage; second, it has brought forward highest intrinsic values, but commonly overloo

A View of the Evidences of Christianity

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William Paley (1743-1805) Recently, I read a summary of a book written by William Paley, A View of the Evidences of Christianity .  Paley was a British Christian apologetic, known for his teleological argument in his 1802 famous book, Natural Theology , or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, which prelude included  the watchmaker analogy  (i.e. the analogy that argues design implies a designer). There has been a long chain of philosophical debate on the latter book, so I'm not going to get into that right now. I'm more interested in the content of his previous book. In A View of the Evidences of Christianity , Paley has two propositions on the historical evidence of Christianity: Proposition I : 'That there is satisfactory evidence that many professing to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles passed their lives in labors, dangers and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, a

God's Perfect Will

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It's early October but in about two months, I'll be flying back to the other side of the globe. Over there I'll probably have limited access to the Internet. I just bought my ticket this afternoon. Honestly, I got butterflies in my stomach, thinking of some possibility of me not being able to go back to Texas. It's a small possibility but I don't do well with surprises. So please keep me in your prayers. My hope is to come back. This is not the first time. I've had similar experiences in the past, not knowing what will happen to me next. So I'm learning just to trust in the Lord, trusting that His heart is always good toward us. Thus far, I have the full assurance that where I am now is where the Lord has arranged for me to be. I'm most grateful because until today, the Lord has not let me veer off from the journey that He has specifically designed for me to take. When I was younger, I had lots of dreams. I wanted to be an architect, an entrepren

Conversations with Mrs. L - Helping the Younger Sisters to Love the Lord More

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I finally wrote a card and sent it to Mrs. L . She's recovering from a surgery but I have no clue how she's doing right now. So I decided writing a card would be the best way to reach her at her convenience. While writing the card, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Mrs. L about serving the Lord.   On my previous post, I mentioned about how sisters should let the brothers take the lead . Well, actually this was not all. On that day, Mrs. L also encouraged me, "Katherine, help the younger sisters to love the Lord more." After a long pause, I thought to myself - I had to be the first one loving the Lord more. I found no other way. In my experience, my heart grows colder toward the Lord rather quickly, especially when I'm so occupied with daily human responsibilities or even, spiritual responsibilities. Yes, I'm talking about Bible reading, sometimes I just want to whiz through it without stopping my busy mind and turn my heart to contact the livi