Exceeding Greatness

 I find it hilarious that God knows the perfect season for everything. In this season of my life God has given me the opportunity to become a student leader at Emmaus. At first I wasn’t sure if it was where He wanted me to be this point in my life. Because I honestly thought I wasn’t ready to lead other students. So I thought long and hard about it, and alongside as getting encouragements from the Emmaus leaders as well as confirmations from the Lord that I finally knew that it was where He wanted me to be.

In the beginning I remembered thinking “What did I get myself into? I don’t know what I am doing!  I don’t even feel like I got my life all together, how can I be a student leader and lead other students if I don't know what I am doing!?” but then I remembered sometime last year one of the Emmaus staff named Matt Ko said that leadership isn’t a title but rather being an influence. Holding on those words of truth I gave no more thought to the deception that was seeping through my mind. Along with other edifying words from all the staff, I finally had accept that they knew what they were doing when they asked me to become a student leader.
I'm going to admit it was difficult at first. I had to learn the concept of being one with all the other student leaders. I had to learn to work with each one of them. With different personalities in such a small group it was going to be interesting to see how we would interact and communicate with one another.

A few weeks after getting to know each other better and only getting a glimpse of what God was going to do that semester, we were faced with different challenges as a group. We knew the semester was going to be amazing, we knew God was going to move, but when midterms hit I think we all felt the blow of academics and ministry at the same time.  It was hard to hold on to His promises when we felt like we couldn’t balance anything, and we didn’t have enough time to study and hang out with other students.

            It wasn’t until we were asked to listen to “Exceeding Greatness” by Pastor Benjamin that gave me a new perspective on looking at my current situation. He talked about how we always had greatness in us through Christ. When we accepted Jesus into our hearts He has already put that greatness inside of us. Its just that we don't see it manifest until maturity. I kinda thought of it as an inheritance. When we were born into our families we always had an inheritance. Just cuz we didn't see it when we were younger doesn't mean that we never had it. It is over time when we mature that our inheritance is given to us. That's the way I kinda pictured it in my head. Pastor Benjamin also said a lot of great things in the sermon, but one thing I loved was when he talked about the power within us is far greater than what we are currently going through. That set me completely free from what I was going through. Pastor Benjamin at one point asked "Do you wake up every morning knowing that you have exceeding greatness?" This made me realize that I wasn't expecting God to do great things. I got so caught up in what I was going through right now that I didn't bother to expect amazing things that were yet to come. "Yesterday's ceiling is today's floor" this basically means that what we experienced yesterday should be the floor expectation of what today is going to look like. We need to EXPECT God to do great things through us. We need to know that His power is inside of us and that we really do have the authority to do the things He has called us to do.

This podcast was exactly what I needed. I feel that there were many times I was tested in my position as a leader. Many times I felt discouraged because I didn’t feel like I was capable to make and sort of difference in given situations. Not only that I would question if I could even say the right things at that time. But after listening to this sermon I was totally set free. It encouraged me to know that I had greatness living in me. In one of my favorite movies “Megamind” the main quote was “You were destined for greatness”. That’s true to a certain extent but the truth is there is greatness already in each and every one of us, through Christ. Knowing that as I grow the greatness inside of me will manifest more and more excites me! Not only that, all the fear I had about not making a difference fell to the ground. Knowing that I lack nothing and I have access to all and more of what Jesus did in this world.  (John 14:12) The power that conquered the grave lives within me! (Romans 8:11) It is this living breathing truth that allows me not to be shaken in the midst of hard times, but rather will arise and shine!

After shifting my mindset I was able to see my daily tasks as a blessings rather than something I could get frustrated over because it added to another pile on my to-do-list. I had exceeding greatness inside of me, what more did I need? :)

Pastor Benjamin's Exceeding Greatness Podcast right here.

New Wine Retreat

This year's Emmaus retreat was at the end of March this semester. One month into school and we already had our retreat. It was much earlier than what I was used to, but there were many advantages to it having it at that time. Anyways I could write a thousand pages worth of testimonies on my blog about what happened that particular weekend, but sometimes seeing it for yourself is much better. So I'll just show the recap video of our retreat :)

Last thing I want to say about it  was that many things were broken off people,  identities were established, friendships were made, people were set free and most of all God's love was felt. Click here for the New Wine Retreat Recap Video :)

From Glory to Glory

It says in the Word in 2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

In the KJV ever increasing glory is also phrased as "from glory to glory". 

The verse basically says says we as His body will be transformed to His image and He will take is from glory to ever increasing glory. And well our Campus ministry has become a living testimony of that Word. God has just been taking us from glory to glory!!

His truly has a heart for the youth and revival on campus. We have just been increasing in so many aspects!! One aspect is the number of students that attend. Last semester we used to have 30-40 students come out and it always fluctuated throughout the semester. If they hear a good speaker was coming the numbers would go up, but if they had a lot of workload or if it was during midterm week the numbers would go down. Well that was last year and this year we are in a new DISPENSATION! Each week this semester we have been seeing our numbers grow from the beginning of the semester with a number of  around 30 students to having around almost 70 students come out each week is pretty crazy! 

Not only that we always have prayer meetings before large group and we saw a few people come out to that last year but every week we break the record when we had 29 people come out we were so excited but a few weeks ago we had 40! Can you imagine a group of 40 students before large group just praying and interceding for their peers? It just blows my mind away how God is just so good to us.

Emmaus Large Group at a church outside campus
Taken by Judy Choi

Not only that, but we have been having issues about getting a permanent room for our large group. So each week we would move from one location to another. As disappointed as we were at the beginning of it all we just knew that God was setting us up! We knew that the room we used to stay in could no longer hold the increase we were about to get. So in faith we just moved according to where the Lord lead. All throughout April we could keep the room we were in but after that we were on our own. We had a lot of difficulty finding a room that could match the normal time we have in Emmaus and many other things that lead us not to have a room. But God ALWAYS provided last min for us. The first week we were able to get a room by a church out of campus who's campus ministry who usually meets there happened to go on a field trip that particular week. And that was a powerful night where Pastor Erin preached about  A New Dispensation. Which was just the beginning of my heart and mind stirring towards a new direction.

The week after that God lead us to the campus gym building and that was when Pastor Benjamin Robinson (Pastor Christian and Erin's spiritual father) came to our Large group and ministered in such a powerful way; and the Holy Spirit came down and manifested on so many students. 

All that to conclude that God is truly moving here again this semester. I honestly couldn't believe that He would take us to where we are now. I remember last year loving it so much that I couldn't imagine what it would be like for God to take us to the next glory. Yet here we are again just in awe of how amazing He is. He is truly a God that can't be put in a box. He is a God full of surprises, adventure, and excitement! 

Let it Begin

The first month into the semester can be pretty crazy. It feels like holding your breath and plunging into the water. It can get a bit out of hand sometimes, but I always love new things :) Getting to know people, hanging out with them, trying to remember their names and all that. In my opinion its one of the best times! Just cuz its an awesome opportunity to make new friends. I love how everything is new and fresh. You make new connections to see of you know someone who knows someone and knows that person. It can be quite interesting. I personally like doing that just to see how small the world really is. Another addition to this beginning is the fact we don't have that much work to do since it's the beginning of the school year!!

It's all so exciting. But for some reason I felt weird this time around. I'm not sure what it was. Maybe I was jet lagged (which is highly unlikely cuz the Philippine is only an hour difference from Korea) or not fully liking how cold it was in Korea. I don't know the real reason. Like I explained in my previous posts I didn't feel anything. I felt like I was going through the motions. None of the things I used to do last semester seemed to work. The way I talked to people, the way I tried to spend time with them, the way I even communicated with God was different. I used to walk around the campus especially around the forest just talking to Him and I would hear what He wanted to say to me for that day. But this time around when I would walk I couldn't hear His voice. Instead I would get these flashbacks of my freshman year around the same time.

I was so uncomfortable with the change. I know I said I like new things and I do get pumped up about it but it's the feeling that comes after that makes me uneasy. As fun as the new things are, accepting them as the new reality is a totally different story.

Getting used to everything new can be such a challenge, but it's always setting me up for something more :)