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For the past two consecutive Saturdays, I have been learning how to share the hope that I have in Christ. Last Saturday, I participated in Send Saturday, organized by Church of the City in Manhattan. Today, I joined a half-day training led by Live Second Labs.

You might wonder, why am I doing this?

2 Corinthians 5:17–20 says:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

I am a new creation, and I am an ambassador of Christ. And what does an ambassador do? I’ll let you answer.

The Three Circles Gospel presentation uses three circles to tell the story of the gospel. The first circle represents the good world without sin that God originally created. The second represents the broken world we live in because of sin. The third represents God’s rescue plan: sending His Son, Jesus, into the world to redeem us from our sins through His substitutionary death on the cross and His resurrection three days later.

But how do all these circles connect with one another?

That was exactly what we practiced during part of the training. We went over the story again and again, hoping to be able to tell it clearly. Christians may know this story by heart, but communicating it in a way that someone who has never heard it before can understand surely takes wisdom.

Here is how I would tell the story:

If we look around us, we see so much brokenness in the world: disease, crime, poverty, broken families, and even war. But that is not how God originally designed the world.

In the beginning, God, the Creator, made the world good and without sin. He then created us, human beings, and we had a close relationship with Him. However, humanity chose to disobey and sin against God. Here, sin is anything we think, say, or do that dishonors Him. Sin caused brokenness to enter the world, and that is why we see what we see around us today.

So what do we do to escape this brokenness?

Some people might pursue success, money, or relationships, hoping that these things will fulfill their lives. Others turn to religion or spirituality, trying to earn God’s favor and blessings through good works. But none of these things can ultimately rescue us from sin and the brokenness it causes.

The good news is that God loves us. He knew that we could not deal with our sin on our own, so He made a way for us to be rescued. He sent His own Son, Jesus, into the world.

Jesus lived a completely sinless life. During His lifetime, some people followed Him, while others rejected Him. He was eventually handed over to be crucified on a cross. But His death was not an accident. It was God’s plan from the beginning to rescue us from our sins.

There is nothing good enough that we could do to pay for our own sins, and we deserve the judgment that sin brings. Thankfully, Jesus took our sins upon Himself on the cross and bore the judgment that we deserved. He died the death that our sins deserved, and through His death, He paid the penalty for our sins.

But that was not the end of the story.

Three days later, Jesus defeated death and rose from the grave. He is alive and now sits at the right hand of God, and He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Jesus has paid the price for our sins, and salvation is a free gift. But we must personally receive this gift through repentance and faith. How? In the middle of our brokenness, what we need is to turn toward God, repent of our sins, believe that Jesus died and rose again, and surrender our lives to Him as Lord and King.

When we do that, God makes us a new creation. Our relationship with Him is restored, just as He intended from the beginning. And importantly, we have the hope of spending eternity with God.

That is the gospel.

And that is literally the story that saved my life.

In August, I got to visit Dallas and check out the UPPERROOM prayer room. I was encouraged to learn that they have continuous live worship from as early as 6 in the morning until 8 PM, Monday through Friday, and on Saturdays too, although for a shorter time.

I remember taking a morning and afternoon off from sightseeing one Monday just to soak in the presence of God at UPPERROOM. I remember thinking to myself, “If I lived in Dallas, I would probably be here almost every day.”

I even told God how much I longed to have something like this where I lived, or perhaps for Him to move me to Dallas. Three weeks later, I found myself moving to New York City instead.

I recently officially called Church of the City home. They have prayer sets Monday through Friday at 6 AM, 7 AM, 12 PM, and 7 PM, except for Wednesday evening. Today, I went to their prayer room at noon for the first time.

As I sat there, I thought back to that prayer I had prayed in Dallas.

I am deeply encouraged to be surrounded by New Yorkers who are hungry for God and who are faithfully praying for this city. And I am grateful that God has led me to a church that makes both individual and corporate prayer a priority.

Here’s a quote from David Fritch:

“Don’t despise your small prayer gatherings… Every major revival has its origins with a small band of intercessors faithfully crying out! Small gatherings precede big breakthroughs! When we gather to worship and pray, regardless of size, we convene the very court of heaven on earth. Our prayer gatherings are the most important and powerful gatherings in our city.”

I stand in agreement that every revival begins with a prayer movement. I moved to NYC just a month and a half ago, and I am still learning about what God has been doing in this city and what role He might allow me to play in it. One of my favorite prayers is simply asking God to consider me for His work.

Whatever that role may be, no matter how insignificant or mundane, I would be grateful if God chose to use me in any way. And so, we will keep praying for NYC. I pray that God would awaken more and more of His people here to intercede for this city.

O God, we want revival.

Let it stir!

And pssst… I also somehow ended up in their IG post (2nd and 3rd slide) :D

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Today, I was listening to a sermon on biblical courtship by Paul Washer titled The Parent’s Responsibility in the Home. Please don’t tease me, y’all. I prayerfully want a family in the future, and as a follower of Christ, I think it’s important for me to deepen my understanding of these things.

There was one statement he made that really struck me:

“I don’t want to take anything away from all these things of just defining exactly what is the will of God, and how do we do this, and how do we do that, and how should we practice courtship, and what should marriage be like, and how should you discipline children, and all of that is very, very good. But if you get all that kind of stuff without the big thing, you’ve missed the whole picture and you’ve just become a bunch of sad Pharisees. You don’t want that. The goal is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.”

I could really relate to that. There was a season in my life when I was overcomplicating and obsessing over God’s will for my life. I was constantly asking myself whether what I was doing, and even how I was doing it, was what He wanted me to do.

But over time, I learned something important: when I become too fixated on figuring out God’s will and getting every little detail right, it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Seeking His will and living in obedience matter, but I believe they should flow from loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matt. 22:37), not out of fear of missing “the one perfect path.”

That realization has even changed how I approach my day-to-day life. I have come to understand that my biggest priority, every day of my life, is to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33), fixing my eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:2). I trust that as I seek Him, I will know Him more. And the more I know Him, the more I love Him.

And again, this is the part I want to keep coming back to: the goal is to love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Everything else will follow.

That’s it.

Today, I went to my Church of the City small group, where we discussed last week’s sermon on the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:13–26).

Galatians 5:22–23 says:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

One of the discussion questions was:

“The fruit of the Spirit is produced through union, not imitation; by beholding, not striving; and in community, not isolation. Which of these ideas challenges or encourages you most?”

I was particularly intrigued by the idea of not striving. It made me think about how easy it is to approach the Christian life as if it were a matter of performing better. Like, I need to try harder to be more loving, more joyful, more peaceful, and so on. However, I have learned that those “fruits” are produced through inner transformation, through the work of the Holy Spirit in me, and are not the outcome of my own effort.

Romans 12:2 says:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The Scripture is clear enough that I am the person to be transformed, and not the person causing the transformation. God is the one who renews my mind.

And what leads to this inner transformation? From previous sermons, I learned that it is through abiding in God. It means that, like a branch connected to the vine, which is Christ, I bear fruit because I remain in Him. Being gentle, faithful, and good are not things I have to manufacture on my own. They are the natural consequences of remaining in God.

I watched a sermon a while ago by Pastor Peter Tan-Chi, and he said something that has stayed with me:

“The Christian life is not hard. It’s impossible. The Christian life is not difficult. It is supernatural.”

Let me close with a personal experience of mine. During part of my graduate studies, I had drifted away from God and found myself becoming a prodigal again. I was also struggling with a destructive habit that truly felt like bondage. Then, when I hit rock bottom early last year, I repented and turned back to God.

What happened afterward was something I couldn’t really explain. Somehow, my destructive habit no longer had the same hold on me! I no longer desired what I used to desire. Something in my heart had changed.

It wasn’t me who did the changing. God did.

I certainly tried to break that destructive habit on my own in the past, relying on my own strength, but I kept failing and failing. And now, I am completely free.

Supernatural, indeed.

Greetings from New York City!

I usually share my life updates and reflections on social media, but I’m hoping to transition out of them. I am not joking when I say that my Instagram posts and stories are already essay-like!

I’ve always loved writing, whether it’s simply typing behind a screen like what I’m doing right now, or sitting down to write an actual handwritten letter to a friend. I think slowing down and reflecting by writing down my thoughts helps me be a little more intentional about how I live.

And I’m giving myself a very ambitious goal for this blog: to write every day. Some days, it might be a longer post. Other days, it might be nothing more than a sentence or two. Let’s give it a try, shall we?