from Diane

Hi Acfers!

I got a change of heart and I needed to tell you guys before school started. I am so greedy. I never thought I was until this past week. But of course God tells me that I am. I wanted to become someone BIG but now I have realized that God wants HIS name to be known not mine. I am completely nothing without God. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

God has opened my eyes to certain areas in my life that I have never realized until this week. Well, I am not returning to Emory University but I am going to transfer to Perimeter College and after a year, and pursue in nursing. (hopefully at Ga State) So I am able to build up my foundation but this time with God. During the whole time thinking about the situation I was in, I thought I was lost but I am found.

This journey is going to take more than just trust, but faith. “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:6 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” Hebrews 11:1 God has been teaching me about faith and how I should completely put my trust in Him. I had a lack of faith and God has made my path clear. Thank you for the cross.Luke 9:23-27 This week I have been worshipping God more than usual and the more I praise His name, the more I realize the areas I have to build up on. I want to be consumed by Him.

What an awesome God. How magnificent! Praise to His name FOREVER! He is always at work and all we have to do is listen and obey. Thank you so much, each of you guys for everything. There was a purpose and a reason why we met. No doubt about it. Just keep reading the Bible and follow Jesus. Have a great year at Emory and I will talk to you guys soon!

In Christ,
Diane Ma

P.S. I am going to miss you guys.
P.P.S. If there is need for another leader, I have one person in mind. She was my former roommate at Oxford and she loves the Lord and she will be a joy to work with. Tim knows her, Christine Lee.

For the sake of His Body...

ACFers! How's everyone doing!! After much time away from InterVarsity stuff, I am back. As some of you know, my time was swallowed up for our Presbytery's CHI RO conference. What a blessed time! 225 students/counselors from Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida gathered together at Oxford College of Emory University for 5 days and 4 nights worshiping God. I am exhausted but rejoice in knowing that God used this conference. Check out my Facebook if you want to see some pictures...

But I am back to see what the Lord has been stirring up in all of you during my unexcused absence, and I see some deep theological reflection, but mostly good natured sharing of our walk with the Lord....

....as I was reading Colossians, I came to Chapter 1:24 and became even more amazed and astonished at Paul's statement. ...I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is his church. What could possibly be lacking in the afflictions of Christ? What could possibly be lacking for the salvation for those who believe? And can Paul really fill it up? By extension, can WE really fill it up? Hmm...

To preface, Paul is not saying that his afflictions add to the atonement of Christ. We understand from Paul's other teachings that his sacrifice is once and for all without any equivocation. Christ's sacrifice is not somehow lacking in efficacy. His afflictions & death is the only sufficient work to purchase salvation.

But there is true sense that Christ's work is just the beginning of the church and Paul's duty was to work out all the fruits & implications of Christ's death, resurrection, & ascension. So for the church to advance, he must work and sometimes suffer for the church that he desperately loves. Thus, he was working to see the fulness of the gospel worked out in his life.

And so should we! Afflictions are a true part of the Christian life. Struggling or suffering for Christ's sake builds up the body of Christ and strengthens all of us in our understanding of salvation. Why do I bring this up? Let us pray that we do not take the easy way out as we seek God's guidance as servants for ACF. Let us suffer not for our own sake--our reputation, our grades, our resources---but let us suffer for Christ. As we work for HIM, He will comfort us (cf. 2 Cor 1) and strengthen us with the same grace that he gave to Paul and the other disciples after him....


That's it! I hope this is not a downer. I just believe that we must continue to challenge ourselves to see HIM and not ourselves.....

Love you guys!
P Young

alliances?

hey everyone,

sorry for the late thursday post (or early friday morning). it looks like the small group decision my be too big an issue to resolve through blog comments, as any of us would expect. i'll tell glenn it's probably too big of a move for the upcoming school year.

as for something else, i think as we explore the gospel in more dynamic ways, we'll want to find ways to escape the privileged bubble of emory. my question is do we want to work with a group such as the center for pan asian community services, or a non-ethnic oriented social services group.

credits to Nike

hey all,

it's been a while, yeah? my apologies, after the mcat i sort of went on a mini-hiatus. i took some time for myself. i figured i was due some respite. just relaxing, resting, and just...breathing.
anyways, here's my picture of joy (for eunice's festive friday entry):

(click to enlarge)

yeap. i finally took it. i just hope i don't have to take it again. but we shall see in a month.

which very vaguely relates to my thoughts on today's "deep" entry: just do it. a week or so before i took the mcat, i had so many thoughts and doubts on whether this career field was right for me. i was wondering if i was ready to invest 10+ years of my life learning/training to become a doctor to help the seemingly poor (though rich in spirit, no?) inner city or developing countries. why do i necessarily have to become a doctor? couldn't i just become a social worker to help the needy? needless to say, i was getting cold feet.

i think we could all use some wisdom from nike (and possibly from Knocked Up, if you guys saw the movie), especially those christians living in the Bible belt where the Word becomes so dilute and twisted it loses focus on Christ. many parents, students, and even pastors mold the Bible into shapes that fit comfortably into their lives and it ultimately changes the face of THE church and christians in general. anyways, i believe it's so important for us living in the south to truly do what the Bible tells us to do. James said it best, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."(James 1:22) i strongly believe that for us to be set apart from the rest of the crowd is to ACT on what the Bible says. not merely to talk and study about it but to get up and do something about it. faith and deeds! if we're not convicted (not necessarily emotionally) to do something about our faith, what good is it? and how are we different from the rest of the world? we can say and talk all we want about Jesus but in the end, what difference have we made?

it's unfortunate but i'm a victim of this. when i read the New Testament (especially the epistles of Paul), it makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. i begin to look at my life and think, i can't even compare to what Jesus is calling us to do. i've created this huge buffer of real self-sacrificing Christianity and comfortable suburban Christianity. so in sum, i need to learn to just do what the Bible tells me to do, regardless of the consequences. i have to learn to bite the bullet, jump in, and trust that God will carry me through.

i'll end with these verses:

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder."

-James 1:14-19

most of this thinking came after i read irresistable revolution, if you can't tell.

tim

addendum: this is the fun i'm having tomorrow. yay!

imagine that you are me

jane, the lord of the rings obsessed (particularly the first movie) girl. then recall the first movie (if you've seen it, because apparently there are some people who haven't seen it yet) when they go to Lothlorien, it's towards the end when gimli (the dwarf) says "i have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox" and then gets an arrow pointed in his face. yeah so imagine that and whabam! you get why i was excited to be in this part of colorado.



if this post was a bit confusing, it's because i was a wee bit excited.
that's me in the blue hat and my mom in the red jacket in aspen, co.

happy festive friday!

hi guys. how are yall doing? i hope you're doing well. festive friday today will ask a bit more involvement, so i hope you're up for it! it'll also require that you make another individual post (rather than hit reply with comment to this post). feel free to take your time--as you've prob noticed, i take my sweet time responding to posts= P--as this may require you to do a little thinking/hunting if it's something that's not already been done yet.


OKAY, so enough with the cryptic intro--for me, festive = fun, happy, etc. in light of that, please post a photo taken this summer of something that has made you happy and explain to us what the picture is and why it makes/has made you happy. here i go with mine:


this little piece of my hometown is called pioneer courthouse square. it's in the middle of downtown portland and a block away from where i'm working this summer. this makes me happy because i come here to sit and eat lunch and looking at flowers while eating food, i've discovered, is a highly pleasurable experience.


this courtyard is sort if a funny little anomoly in downtown portland. the rest of downtown definitely doesn't look this pretty or lively. in particular, there's all these flowers and trees set up because there's gonna be a sale in a couple weeks or something. anyhow, the designers thought it appropriate (i guess?) to add some plastic deers to the flowery landscape so there are random plastic deer all around (visible if you enlargen the pic).


anyway, around noon everyday, tons of people come out and sit on the steps and eat lunch, feed the pidgeons, talk on their cell phones, or just sit and soak up the sun. they've made a faux-grassy knoll (ah yes, which we need since we're sooo urban= ) that some people sprawl out and take naps on. one time i saw someone standing atop the knoll holding a sign over their head that said "free hugs." pioneer courthouse square draws a mix of bums, ceos, hippies, skaters, pregnant moms and starbucks drinking messenger bag toting types. it's great people watching. i'm getting acquainted with the heart of my hometown for the first time and it's been fun.

[p.s. tim--hope your mcat goes well!]

interrupting our schedule

hey all,

this is a discussion that will sort of break our routine but it's fairly important for planning purposes not just for ACF but all emory IV. during chapter camp, there was some talk among the emory groups about joining our small groups across chapters. what are your thoughts?

here's the thinking, in glenn's words:

yes, this would be for small groups across all fellowships that are part of IVCF. The idea would be to have one common small group program for IVCFers. Each small group would intentionally choose an area of campus to reach as a mission field and we would organize, pray, train and celebrate what happens in our small groups together.

I could see organizing it in such a way that there are still groups that focus on reaching black students or Asian/Asian-American students, but also groups with a mix of members focused on reaching a particular dorm or department or Clairmont Tower floor. Greek IV house ministries could also be seen as a special case of missional groups focused on reaching Greek houses (where it is essential that all small group members be in the house).

Danny said I could share anything....

well he didn't exactly say that but I'll take the liberty to do so anyway. I wanted to share with you the recent exploits of Billy Donovan. Most of you probably have never heard of dear old Billy, but he is a man near and dear to the hearts of all Gator fans. Billy led the Gators to two consecutive national basketball championships with a starting five that no one noticed until two years ago. Recently he felt the lure of coaching Pro-Ball for the Orlando Magic, a team that has lost its identity since its Shaq and Penny Hardaway glory days.

Last Thursday he appeared excited to move on to the (more lucrative) "next level" of coaching. However, the next day, sporting fans saw an about face: apparently poor Billy had followed his head instead of his heart. Donovan publicly stated his desire to remain with the Florida Gators, afterall he and his family had spent 11 years among the Gator faithful. The sporting nation was shocked if not highly amused (the Gators aren't exactly the most popular athletes, simply because they rock, of course). The Orlando Magic were not in the least amused and ecked out a deal with Billy that forbids him from coaching any NBA team for the next fives years.

I share this with you not only because I am an insane Gator fan, that you already knew, but because I wanted to share one of my pet peeves, flipfloppers, and also one of the traits I really admire, consistency. Consistency is an admirable characteristic in any person, and something I really try to achieve everyday. Consistency reflects commitment and commitment is HUGE when it comes to relationships (whether among friends, special friends, or family). But consistency is probably the biggest indicator of discipline. In our relationships with God, consistency is one of the hardest aspects and requires an extraordinary amount of discipline. Maybe for some it's only something that comes with age, but for others it's a gift. I've been trying to be more disciplined in QT, Meditation, and Prayer, but there's a fine line between doing something out of routine and doing something out of desire.

Just something I wanted to share. BUT there's more! HAH.
I want to know the traits that you guys admire and hope to obtain, specifically with regard to your relationship with God.

And a little bit of fun on youtube.com. His accent is pretty good.

colossians 1

so we're a bit behind on reading, and i may have been ambitious about scripture memory, but take a few moments to read colossians 1 before proceeding.

here's a few things i noticed. i like bullet points.
• the faith of the church is famous because it bears fruit
• the faith of the church is derived from hope in the future
• because the church is doing well, paul continues to pray for them
• v10-12 tells us how to please God
• the matchless supremacy of Jesus the Son
• the fullness of God dwells in Christ
• reconciliation and redemption happen through Christ
• the full word of God = Christ in you, the hope of glory

re: ACF, our efforts must draw inspiration from that idea-- Christ in us, the hope of glory. our decisions and actions in life are no longer determined by the past, but rather by our future. how will we let our future shape and realize our present?

thoughts?

musings

hey all,

sorry if i'm posting out of order but i feel like i need some clarity on ACF. i've been wrestling with these thoughts for a couple of days and i was wondering what your thoughts on these issues were. maybe i'm slow or not attentive because these issues seem to be very basic, at least at first glance. or maybe i've been too distracted MCATing. regardless, i'd like to hear some of your thoughts and possibly help me gain more knowledge and reshape my understanding on these issues. i'll try to make it as concise as possible because the more i write, the more complex and disorganized my writing gets (i basically ramble). here are some of the issues:

1) what exactly is ACF? yes, it's a fellowship group but what specifically does that entail? how close are we to the "line/boundary" (if there is one) between a college church and an on-campus Christian organization? based on our preliminary mission statement, we should be doing similar things a church ought to be doing-- building a "family" within acf and [hopefully] lead other students to Christ. i guess most importantly, does it matter what acf draws so close to being a college church on campus?

2) how involved do we want to get with fellow acfers' lives? this question might seem a little odd but are we looking to be almost a "frat/sorority" style of an organization or something on the opposite side of the spectrum, say...an anime club or something. i realize it's not black and white and we're probably aiming for the middle somewhere but if we want to encourage our acfers to grow in Christ, i think there needs to be a level of intimacy in acf, more specifically in small groups. does acf call for that level of intimacy or is that "going too far" for "just" a college Christian organization?

3) what's up with jca and acf? the majority of the time i bring up acf to other emoroids (emory students), more likely than not, they bring up jca and the whole ordeal. then they ask me if i'm mad at jca or something ridiculous like that. personally, i think it's great that jca is doing the work they're doing. yeah, they "took" members away from acf but is that necessarily a bad thing? they're doing the work of God and a lot of students are attracted to it so what's the big problem? is there a level of resentment between jca and acf? maybe we could do some sort of reconciliation thing on this and possibly do a joint event sometime with them.

my apologies if these things are supposed to be quietly assumed but some of these things are ambiguous to me at the moment. alright! well, hope you guys had a great sunday. i'm off to take another mcat diag.

p.s - are we assigned a certain day of the week to post for the entire summer? because i noticed we didn't have a Festive Friday entry and i was wondering if that's because it was me who didn't post...

from diane

Hello ACFers!
To be honest I totally forgot about this blog. I have been busy with school and my internet at home is currently not available. So, I have not read any of the posts yet. Sorry.

Well, on a lighter note, I have been really just focusing on wanting to change my way of living, my attitude, and the way I perceive things for the glory of Jesus.
(For some reason, when I hear a Christian strayed away or when I see it, I receive strength to live out my life for the way Christians should be living and of course I get worried)--> I 'm not saying that I am the right person to follow or even listen to, but when my life or attitude reflect Christ, that is all I want other people to see.

1 Corinthians 10:24: "Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others."
MAN, I seriously lack this and I always concentrate on what I want, what I want to accomplish and what is in the world for me? This should not be the center of our hearts but with the God and His will, we are able to live a life for Him because we are His. The dreams and goals that we all have are obtained with Christ and the results are always better than what we can even imagine!

So, to keep this, we should all spend time with the person that made this available to us. Spending time in His word is seriously where our foundation should be. John 1:1-2 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."
So the more you meet with Jesus everyday or second, your life is meaningful and we are full of life. YAY! :)

For example, it is in a way related to the concept of exercising.... or studying, sport, etc.
It takes time for humans to become good at something...so in that time we have to prepare and there is a lot of practice. What about practicing the Bible? With practice everyday, writing notes (on Sunday...I encourage everyone to write notes because we tend to forget..I know I do and later when we are able to reflect and look back at the notes when we need it), journaling......the Bible becomes more and more real to us.

BUT Exercising is very hard to start and to maintain a regular routine for everyday.
BUT once the person crosses over the line, to have a healthy diet, the person is able to enjoy and accomplish this goal. (I talk about exercising because I gained 10+ pounds in my last semester at Oxford College....Great huh?)
Anyways, if you have a stable daily routine to exercise.......to read the Word, then seriously we would all be jumping for joy and gladdness that Jesus is our Savior.
I am really hoping, when any one of us are down or depressed....etc, we would all have a verse in the Bible to say from memory. :D How Wonderful!

God is so wonderful that He gives us MORE than one chance to praise Him and to give our hearts to Him. So, from a Sunday service from the New Orleans trip I went on, the pastor mentioned about the fig tree in Luke 13:1-9 (please read, it's too long for me to write here).
The man with the fig tree did not destroy the tree right away but he gave it time to grow and fertilized it.
"The church is our fertilizer, it gives us nutrients."-pastor

This opens up the idea of having a second chance to do things better.
"We as Christians tend to not believe in second chances."--pastor (forgot his name)

This is SO true, after my "Dark Ages", I realized that I was unable to let go the sins I committed. Man, I shared this with the small group at Oxford. I hadn't thought about it until that second but man, I bursted up in tears. I realized that no matter how many mistakes I made, or will make, God will forgive me and He loves me no less but more and more because HE is wanting to grow me in His name.
So, this comes to repentance. After knowing this, I repented my sins and my heart had changed from then.
And from then on, I have been praying for a passionate heart. If the prayers we pray are for God, He will answer them.


To grow in our walk with God, to have a passionate heart, we all should PRAY, READ the BIBLE, and PRACTICE (meaning apply it to our lives and live it out!)
So in conclusion, we follow the examples of other Christian leaders to help us with our walk with God, and we feed our minds with the kingdom of God. Corinthians 11:1 "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ."

SO, hang in there, God knows your troubles, disappointments, failures, and everything BUT why is it we only pray when we need something?
We should also pray and praise God when our prayers have been answered and even without a reason, we should all be able to pray to God because HE is worthy and is what we were made to do.

P.S. Would you guys email me your address to dianema@gmail.com, so I can send you guys a copy of "The Present" and "Sharing Christ"?
Thanks.