Category Archives: Affinity Groups

Interview with Kaitlyn Tou (Youth)

by Grace Wu

This Beacon interview, we get to know a staff member — Kaitlyn Tou. She describes herself as “a lover of Christ, a wife, a nurse, and a definite sinner.” She is married to Chris, who also serves on youth staff.

How long have you been serving on youth staff?

I’ve been serving on youth staff for about 2 years.

What made you want to join youth group?

When I was a youthie, I was very encouraged by older believers at Church who spent time to teach me, hang out with me, and love me in Christ. So I wanted to be that kind of encouragement and light in the lives of our youthies, so that they too may come know to the saving knowledge of Christ and how awesome He truly is.

How do you see your gifts being used in youth group?

God has allowed me to teach, admonish, encourage, and love the youth. I am always humbled by how He continues to use a sinner like me to build His kingdom. Only by God’s loving grace and perfect will do I serve in youth, which also means if anything goes wrong, it was His will…  =)

What has been one blessing in the past month that you’ve experienced in youth group?

Being able to spend time with my small group girls outside of church has allowed me to get to know them more. Not only are they so very interesting and funny, but their convictions and struggles have encouraged me as a fellow believer in Christ.

What’s it like to serve with your husband?

Being able to serve with Chris is great! It’s like having your cake, eating it, then serving on staff with it…haha, sorry. But seriously, it is wonderful to serve on youth together. I love to see him get excited when interacting with them and teaching them, it spurs me on to be excited as well.

What is the most important lesson you wish you knew when you were a youth?

I wish I knew back then that God is the Savior, I wish I believed sooner that He died for me by paying the penalty on the cross, and that through His death and resurrection, I have eternal life with Him!

Sonlight and Sparklers’ Resurrection Sunday Skit

by Abram Kim

I pray everyone enjoyed the songs and the skit that the Sparklers (preschool) and Sonlight (elementary) ministry kids performed this Resurrection Sunday. Every year the kids have some kind of performance. Usually it’s a simple song with body worship. But this year, I was hoping to step up the standard for our Children’s Ministry so I suggested to the staff a skit that portrays the gospel message, particularly highlighting the cross and the resurrection. We agreed, and what was produced was what you saw Resurrection Sunday.

The staff and the children took the past several Sundays to practice for this performance. It was challenging to work with the kids on this, but it was also a great opportunity to talk with the kids about the content of what they were practicing for, the cross and the resurrection. We hope that all we do in the Children’s Ministry would be centered on the core and essential aspects of the gospel. This is the message they need to hear, understand, and we pray would believe (place their complete faith in).

Special acknowledgements: Thanks to Tim Paik for the screenplay and music. Thanks to Keith and Kristyn Getty for those wonderful songs of the cross and resurrection morning. Thanks to Emily Kuo, Stephanie McAdams, and Grace Yi for costumes and props. Thanks to the LBC sound team for their help during the performance. Thanks to the parents for allowing the Sonlight and Sparklers staff to work with their children. Thanks of course to the Sonlight and Sparklers children for their participation. Great job boys and girls!

Grace Life Update

by Thomas and Karen Fong

We’ve been married since January and are enjoying married life and all that comes with it. In our short time being married, Grace Life has been a great help to us. In second hour, we are currently going through Peacemaking for Families by Ken Sande and Tom Raabe. As we intertwine our lives, we are finding areas where we differ in how we handle and approach things.

Since marriage is the joining of two sinners, there are bound to be conflicts and disagreements. Ours is no different. As single adults, decisions were a bit easier and less complicated because we didn’t have the other half to consider or consult. There are times when we differ in point of views, how we react, the approach we take, and struggle with selfishness. It has been hard dealing with disagreements and conflicts when both of us are escapists. It has been very helpful to be reminded that conflicts tear apart our relationship with each other, but most importantly with God. As escapists, it’s easy to think about ourselves and forget about the other party and see that the conflict can affect their worship to God. One thing we’ve been reminding each other as we encounter conflicts is that it’s a great opportunity for us to glorify God, serve each other and grow in Christ-likeness when we seek reconciliation to restore our relationship with God and each other. It’s been helpful reminding each other that it is also a time to be challenged and to grow together.

It’s also been humbling to constantly see how sinful our hearts are and how unforgiving we can be. We’ve been convicted of what forgiveness truly is, not only in our marriage relationship, but with family and friends as well. It’s so easy to just say “I forgive you,” but allow our actions, thoughts, and heart to dwell on the offenses. Sande and Raabe describes it very well,

“Forgiveness is not a feeling, not forgetting, not excusing. It is an act of the will, a decision not to think or talk about what someone has done. It is an active process involving a conscious choice and a deliberate course of action. It is the canceling of a debt that your spouse has incurred because of improper behavior or words. It brings us back together after an offense has separated us from each other.“ (p.85)

We’ve been challenged and convicted to actively decide to not dwell or talk about the other’s offenses, but to dwell on the positive. Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things.” This is the Replacement Principle and it’s a great reminder for us when struggling with an inability to forgive.

Grace Life has been a great source of encouragement for us as it has confirmed things we have been doing well in our communication and conflict resolution as well as teaching us other ways to help us effectively resolve our conflicts, negotiate, and come to creative and adequate options. We look forward to the upcoming chapters of the book and are excited for the challenges it brings.

Single Life Update

by Andrea Lem

Fridays are days that I always look forward to because 1) not only does Friday mean the weekend is here, but 2) it also means that I get to fellowship with other brothers and sisters that I haven’t seen during the week. In Singles, we have the opportunity to fellowship through receiving challenging teaching and of course, through the delicious refreshments and accompanying conversations. Not to say that I don’t enjoy the refreshments and chatting with others, but at this point in Singles this year, I have grown even more appreciative for the biblically-sound teaching that we’ve been getting each week.

On Friday nights, Pastor Patrick has been going through the book of Colossians with us, dissecting each verse piece by piece with in-depth explanations. In Colossians, Paul writes to the church in Colossae to warn of heretical teaching and encourages the Colossians to stand firm in Christ and their salvation through Him. During the last couple of weeks in Singles, I’ve been particularly encouraged by Paul’s writing and his love for the church and its people. After all, if he didn’t love them, why would he even bother writing this letter to them? Reading and studying Colossians has highlighted for me Christ’s love through Paul and it challenges me to desire to love the church and its people in the same way.

Another thing that I’ve been encouraged by and reminded of is how central the gospel is in my life as a believer. Oftentimes, with the busyness of life and just day to day things, it’s easy to be distracted from the gospel. But from this study in Colossians, Paul is constantly pointing the Colossians back to the gospel and the truth of it. The last two sermons – “The Tremendously Awesome Salvation We Have in Christ” – were taken from Colossians 2: 11-14 have been such a blessing. Pastor Patrick exposited each of the four verses in such detail that it helped me to understand what Paul was saying even more. From verses 11-14, I was reminded that before Christ, I was dead. Completely dead. But, out of His tremendous love for me, God has forgiven me of my sins and I have been baptized and spiritually circumcised to be identified as one of his own. And I didn’t do anything to deserve this forgiveness. I was completely dead before but because of God and his love, I’ve been completely forgiven and completely alive now. This is a “basic” truth but the more I meditate on it, the more I am in awe of God.

Now, that begs the question, what does that mean for my life? It’s easy to keep this all as head knowledge as I go through each day. But from the sermons, I’ve really been challenged to seek to take this knowledge and actually apply it in my life. I’ve been reflecting and asking myself questions such as, “Who am I living for? For God? Or for me?,” “How does a gospel-centered life look everyday, all the time?,” etc. I’ve been thinking about how it affects not just the big things in life but also the little decisions and actions that I make each day. Seeking to apply these things won’t be easy as I’m sure sins will continuously be confronted. But that just drives me all the more to depend on my God and to pray for His strength and guidance, which barely touches on what the Singles’ Retreat was about (Please feel free to come talk to me or any other Single about what our retreat was about!). So, if I had to wrap everything into a sentence or two, I’d say that being a part of Singles is a tremendous blessing as I continue to learn and seek to live as a follower of Christ, who desires to glorify God through complete dependence on Him.

Interview with Johnny Kim (College Life)

by Johnny Kim

Hi! My name is Johnny Kim and I have the privilege of serving as a staff member in the College Life ministry. Together with my beautiful, lovely, kind, and gentle wife Mimi (hopefully she’ll read this), we have the blessed opportunity to take part in the lives of our collegians and to witness God working in them in different ways. One side effect of serving in the College Life ministry is that it has also provided me with plenty of opportunities to think back on my own college experiences. I have found that spending time with the collegians can sometimes trigger some long lost memories from my days as an undergrad; some that I would actually prefer not to remember. One example is all the times I had to painfully endure midterms and final exams. Upon graduation, there was probably nothing that I looked forward to leaving behind more than all the tests associated with college.

For those of us out of school, academic tests are thankfully a thing of the past. Nowadays, the closest thing to academic testing we might encounter is the occasional “How Well Do You Know Me?” quiz on someone’s Facebook. However, as Christians, we know that when it comes to our faith, spiritual tests are here to stay. Likely for the rest of our lives here on earth, until we “graduate to heaven,” God will continue to test our faith through various trials and circumstances. It’s the way that He has designed for it to be and accordingly, He calls us to receive and respond to these spiritual tests in a way that is different from tests in school.

During our College Life Friday Night Bible Study, we are currently going through a study of the book of James. In his study guide, John MacArthur points out that the book of James can be broken down and seen as a series of guidelines which we can apply in our lives to test the genuineness of our faith. It’s quite fitting for us to be learning about the testing of faith in College Life since tests are never too far from the minds of our collegians. However, unlike the tests in school, tests of faith are for a greater purpose and have far more value. In particular, we learn that God uses spiritual tests in order to grow us and mature our faith. In James 1:2-4, James extols the virtues of spiritual tests and the subsequent attitude of joy that we ought to have towards them.

Whether we’re dealing with tests in school or tests of a spiritual nature, cultivating an attitude of joy in either case can be quite the challenge. However, having joy in the face of even the most difficult spiritual test is not impossible; otherwise God would not have commanded it for us! So then, what are some things we do to ensure that we face spiritual tests with a joyful attitude? Let’s take a look at how our collegians deal with tests in school to find a couple parallel, practical applications that we might be able to apply towards spiritual tests in our lives.

Do You Attend “Study Hall?”

What are your studying habits like when it comes to studying the Word? Do you set aside a specific time and place to read and study it without distractions? When it comes to preparing for a test in school, our collegians spend countless hours reading and studying their textbooks. On any given night during finals week, you can find the collegians pulling all-nighters during Study Hall at church. They sacrifice sleep and comfort to study and gain the knowledge needed to ensure success on their tests. In the same way, we ought to prepare ourselves to respond rightly to spiritual tests by equipping ourselves with knowledge from the Word that comes from studying it. With a better understanding of God’s character, His will, and His commandments, we can joyfully make the right decisions and have the right outlook on any spiritual test that comes our way. In fact, in passages such as Joshua 1:8, we’re assured that meditating on the Word day and night will lead us to success!

We All Need “Care Packages”

During finals week, the wonderful Care ministry of our church works hard to prepare care packages for the College Life ministry. Our collegians are greatly encouraged when they receive a care package and it helps them, even if in a small way, to study hard for God’s glory with the support of the church behind them. Even the most stressed out collegian will feel a little joy at receiving snacks, candy, and other treats! During the toughest of trials, we Christians also need the encouragement that comes from fellow brothers and sisters within the church family. Our hopelessness can turn into hopefulness and joy when a brother or sister is at hand to remind us of the Gospel and to pray for us to persevere through a spiritual test. On the flip side, we should also be looking to encourage others in the midst of their own spiritual tests. Whether it’s through prayer, a meal, or an encouragement slip, there is always some sort of “care package” we can give to spur them on towards joy. As 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 states, we can ultimately encourage one another with the great hope of salvation through Jesus Christ!

Spiritual tests are a part of the Christian life and we should be thankful that they are! While the rewards for passing tests in college might be good grades and a diploma, James 1:12 shows us that successfully facing spiritual tests leads us receive that which is infinitely greater. Let’s look forward to every opportunity to test and prove our faith, challenging each other to look to the Word for guidance and encouraging each other to respond with joy along the way!

Interview with John Yang (Youth)

by Grace Wu

Note: This week, the Youth affinity group brings us an interview with one of their staff members: John Yang. John has attended LBC since his freshman year of college, and has stayed at LBC even after graduating from UCSD. He is currently engaged to LBC member Melody Yu. In addition to preparing for marriage, he is also involved in an ongoing effort to get into medical school.

How long have you been on youth staff? What drew you to joining youth ministry?

Since March 2009 (~2 years). The simple answer as to why I joined youth ministry was because I became convicted that I needed to be willing to serve the church body and thought the youth ministry was a good place to cultivate this love for the church. I joined youth because I trusted JR, who was the youth pastor at the time, and knew he would encourage and help nurture this love for the body, and because I have always had an interest in investing in young men.

Now the long story: I came to LBC with a lot of jadedness and misinformation about Christianity. I hated church and I hated church ministry. I distrusted church leaders, and believed that leadership was rotten with corruption. With solid teaching and time (and grace and divine intervention), in 2007, I came to realize that Christianity and Christ are true. Not all Christians were phony, and certain members are even genuinely loving and trustworthy. Nevertheless, I refused to trust church as a whole, and was exceedingly distrustful and judgmental of the church. Throughout 2008, JR challenged me to love the church, not as a perfect entity, but as the object of Christ’s love and by His mandate, the proper recipient of my love as well. With much patience on his part, I was eventually convinced of the errors of my unbiblical and emotional way of thinking, and thus began to consider a more official ministry to serve the body in 2009. It was at this point that I decided to join the youth. I joined the youth because I struggled with loving church leadership, and saw serving the church in some leadership capacity as the most appropriate way to combat this sin. I joined youth because I trusted JR as a suitable overseer who would be mindful and understanding of my weakness in this area. It was a blessing that I loved the youth anyway, but I would be lying if I said it was because of them exclusively that I joined the ministry.

How has being on the youth staff helped you grow?

My love for the church has grown immensely since I joined 2 years ago. Certainly it was not exclusively the result of serving on staff, but where I previously would quite vocally express my distrust and hatred towards the church and its leadership, I now actively strive to love both the church and its leaders, endeavoring to kill the sin in me that judges them based on merit rather than grace. A lot of it involves learning humility. It is much harder to condemn the leaders when I realize how difficult it is to lead even in the simple responsibilities that I have been entrusted to. In summation, serving on staff has helped me to grow in humility and love especially towards our leaders.

What are some of your responsibilities in youth ministry?

Currently, my regular responsibilities are hosting and sharing a short devotional at the youth study hall on Wednesday nights. As for Friday nights, I am currently Zach’s small group leader and I try to be mindful of ways that I can continue to pray for and exhort him to godly living and worship.

Since you’re on youth staff, you have to be with them during Bible studies on Friday nights, which takes away time from being part of the Singles Ministry. How do you manage your time between youth ministry and Singles?

Certainly it is more difficult not having that default face time with the Singles by being there on Friday nights, but we manage. I live with 4 other LBC singles, I am part of a small group, and I try to mingle with them after youth Bible study and over lunch on Sundays. I also make it a priority to attend Singles events. Additionally, the Singles are diligent in reaching out, which makes it a lot easier for us. In terms of how I manage, I try to be purposeful in the scheduled times we do have with the youth, and I try to be intentional about being available for the unscheduled hangout opportunities with the Singles.

What is your encouragement to someone who is thinking about joining youth staff?

Pray. So long as your heart is set upon glorifying God and you believe joining the Youth ministry will serve that purpose, go for it. (Of course, this is assuming you love kids and are willing to serve the youth).

Hey Sonlight, We’re More Than Halfway There!

by Abram Kim

We are more halfway through the school year, which means Sonlight is more than halfway through the year too. It has certainly been an exciting year so far, and we are looking forward to what God has in store for our ministry for the remainder of the year!

If you have wandered into the Sonlight room at some point this year, you may have wondered why the room is decorated with question marks, footprints, and fingerprints. We are not giving a tribute to the Joker or Sherlock Holmes. We have been trying to figure out the greatest mystery of all time. It involves the most famous Person at our church (we talk about Him like every week). It is the greatest story ever told, starting at the Fall and culminating at Calvary.

This year’s curriculum by Children Desiring God is called “In the Beginning… Jesus.” It has been a great blessing. If you have ever wondered how the cool stories of the Old Testament relate to the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, you would benefit from this year’s curriculum. Though you may not be able to join us, you should certainly ask the staff and children what they are learning each week! The big question we have been asking is: why did Jesus of Nazareth have to die on the cross?

We started where the Bible starts, in Genesis 1:1 with creation. We have worked through all the familiar yet fascinating stories in Genesis like Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, and the patriarchs. We talked about the miraculous showings of God’s power in Exodus through Deuteronomy, specifically about the salvation of a chosen nation over slavery, the requirement of blood to atone for sins, the institution of the Levitical priests, and the building of the Tabernacle. We have now discussed the book of Judges, seeing evermore clearly the cyclical pattern of Israel’s sin, God’s judgment, Israel’s repentance, and God’s grace in showing grace, relenting of His judgment and renewing His covenant. We will be wrapping up the OT in the coming weeks, talking about David’s kingdom, Solomon’s kingdom, and the warnings of the prophets. With the OT as our context then, we will use the remaining weeks of the curriculum to study Jesus in order to help us solve the mystery of why Jesus had to die.

In Sonlight, as in any other ministry at our church, the emphasis is on teaching, preaching, and modeling the gospel. There is no other message that can save eternal souls from the eternal wrath we all deserve. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important news we need to share week in and week out. As Sonlight staff, we want to be committed to continue to keep the gospel central in all we do, especially in what we teach. Therefore, the goal of Sonlight isn’t to to get a confession of faith from the children, but for them to love God more than anything else (cf. John 21:15-17). This starts with knowing and understanding the whole gospel message, of course; as with the adult ministries, teaching is always central. At the same time, we don’t want to assume faith upon people just because they assent to a set of facts and ideas. We want to see genuine fruit before confirming someone as a true believer. Jesus said that was a good test so we’ll follow His advice (see Matthew 13, among other similar passages).

Please pray for our staff! The church has entrusted us with some of the most precious souls at our church. We, the staff, take this responsibility extremely seriously, and we need all of your prayers to grow in our knowledge and ability to minister to the Sonlight kids. Pray for the kids that they would understand and personalize the messages of Scripture. Pray for the parents of these kids, as the primary care givers, as they rear these young ones in the fear of the Lord.

Peacemaking for Families (Grace Life)

by Randy Sarmiento

Recently in GraceLife we have been going through the book Peacemaking for Families by Ken Sade and Tom Raabe. It is always great to have a tool that will point us back to God, and His will for the families.

We are a very young couple that have been married for only a little over a year, and have a 7 month-old daughter. To be honest, before this study we really did not challenge each other spiritually. Like many other Christian couples, when we got married we made the assumption that it would be at least a little bit easier to share what is in our hearts and what we are struggling with. We thought marriage would dissolve many of the communication problems that we had during dating. You know, since we are now joined together as one before God. But soon enough, the realization that “sinner plus sinner equals conflict” came. It’s not that we fight a lot or even come into conflict much, but the fact is that we do, and will get into it. Now the question being asked is, “How do we handle it?”

One thing the book reminds us is that through biblical ways to resolve conflict you can encourage your spouse and family members. In this way you can think of conflict as an opportunity to glorify God and serve others.

Another point that the book has helped us in is the realization of idols in our lives. Idols could start out to be desires for honorable and good things, but then they can turn into demands that must be met. We realized that this is something that could easily sneak up on us and cause conflict.  We know that we have to constantly examine our hearts and motives, because it may very well turn into actions and words that may not glorify God.

Consciously we needed to watch ourselves so that we may be an example to our daughter, even in her infancy. Prayerfully we hope that someday she will come to the saving knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. So we do not want our actions and words to be a hindrance to the testimony of God’s love and grace.

Personally for me, the book has reminded me that conflict tears apart relationships, and forgiveness is the restoration of a relationship made whole again.  With God and us, we were in conflict with Him due to our sin, and yet He had restored our relationship with Him by the blood of His Son. I also realized that my mentality is that if something is broken I need to fix it as fast as I possibly can. The same thing goes with problematic situations and especially when I think that someone else is clearly wrong and I am right. But after reading the first 5 chapters of the book and being pointed back to scripture, I realized and remembered that I can’t do anything apart from God, that I am not in control, and I have to first submit to God.

As much as I would like to think that I am a strong and knowledgeable person, the more I read God’s word, the more I realize how weak I am and how much I don’t know. It’s quite humbling. I truly need to grow up and be, “quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. (James 1:19)”

We all know that relationships are hard, and at times marriage can be even harder, but everyday I still thank God for the huge blessing of my wife and daughter. Once again, I am reminded of the sinner that I am, and how much I fall short of His Glory. But because of His actions of love, through His Son Jesus Christ, I am overwhelmed of the fact that I am even given the opportunity to lead and teach them. Having a family is truly grace on its own.

I look forward to the rest of the book in hopes that it will continue to be an eye-opener of how to biblically handle conflict situations.

Surprised by Prayer

by Stephen Rodgers

First of all, apologies for the lateness of the article today. I didn’t know I was writing it until a few hours ago. I take small consolation in the fact that our beloved pastor has apparently been so overcome by his guilt in surprising me in this way, that he has fled the country.

No…not really. See me Sunday if you don’t get the joke. But let’s skip over that and move on to something more substantial: reflections on a particular aspect of the recent Singles Retreat. The theme of the retreat was “Dependence,” and if you haven’t yet read Pastor Patrick’s article that he wrote in response to the messages, I would commend it to you.

One of the messages was particular focused on prayer, particularly in regards to Romans 8:26-27. For those of you who aren’t as familiar with that passage, it speaks of how the Spirit intercedes on our behalf in our prayers. This passage sits at a nexus of several biblical themes: prayer (as the act of every believer, verse 26), the will of God (and how the Spirit will assist us in praying within it, verse 27), and even the work of each member of the trinity (in this passage, the Spirit intercedes before God on the behalf of the believer, just as Christ is said to do in Hebrews 2:17-18, 4:14-16, and 7:24-26).

When those messages are added to the media archive, I’ll be sure to include a link here. (Editor’s Note: they have been added). Meanwhile, I wanted to highlight three additional ways that we are dependent on God in prayer. These aren’t drawn from the retreat messages per se, but I think that all of them underscore our dependence on God.

  1. God is the object of our prayers. Prayers in and of themselves are objectively useless. They may impart some sort of subjective experience of catharsis, but part from a deity who can both hear and respond, they are nothing more than baseless utterances. But we know from Scripture that God does hear our prayers, and that He is the final arbiter of that which will be. In directing our prayers to Him we can have full confidence that they are anything but useless. He may not always answer in the way we would hope, but we know that this is due to our own lack of understanding rather than a limitation on His part.
  2. God is the model for our prayers. Prayer can seem nerve-wracking at times; after all, what do to you say to someone who has not only seen the birth of our entire universe, but actually spoke the words that birthed it? Thanking him for a good day or asking him to impart His divine blessing on your pizza can seem downright trivial. How much more confidence should we have then since He has given us instruction on how to pray to Him? From the instruction of the Lord’s prayer to the examples of the psalmists, Scripture is full of models of prayer that please God. We have nothing less than the very words of God to tell us how to have words with God.
  3. God is the answer to our prayers. In Matthew 21:16, Jesus identifies Himself as the object of the prayer of Psalm 8:2. Hebrews 1:8-12 identifies Jesus as the object of some prayers in the Psalms as well. This may seem obvious, but think for a moment of what it means that we have a God who came down to us. We already touched on the fact that God hears and responds to prayer. But in His plan for redemption, God didn’t simply manipulate a few events; He personally involved Himself in the story. He condescended to His own creation. And before He left, He told us that He would one day do so again, and in the meantime we still have access to Him.

As I mentioned before, the theme of the retreat was “Dependence,” and I think it was a theme that was hammered home over and over again. But as I reflect on God and His gift of prayer, I can’t help but realize how this common experience ties us together as Christians. The first instance of prayer in the Bible is recorded in Genesis: the book of beginnings. The last instance of prayer in the Bible is recorded in Revelation: the book of new beginnings. Somewhere in between those two are the entirety of a people called by God, who in turn call upon Him. From Adam and Abraham to Peter and Paul to you and me, the same God has heard us all.

I’m not sure you can follow that thought and not feel very, very small.

What seem our worst prayers may really be, in God’s eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling. For these may come from a deeper level than feeling. God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when he catches us, as it were, off our guard. (CS Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer)

Reflections on the College Life Retreat

by Brandon Cai

As many of you probably know from the sudden inflow of pictures of cheery-faced collegians on Facebook, (or if you aren’t an avid user of online social-networking websites), are suddenly hearing ridiculous stories about snowball fights, pantyhose competitions (Editor’s note: it’s not what you think), and dance-offs…it’s that time of the year again. Assuming you’ve been to Lighthouse Bible Church before or personally know some of the collegians, (otherwise this introduction would have been quite nonsensical), Lighthouse recently hosted its annual February College Life retreat at Pine Valley, California.

If you haven’t already scrolled down the page due to lack of interest (I understand) then I must congratulate you. You already know more about the retreat than I did when I loaded my bags into the car and prepared for the trip down to Pine Valley. I did not expect to be pelted by snowballs in a wonderland of white. Nor did I expect to compete against an opposing team member with only a pantyhose over my head and improvised head-twirling techniques. Most of all, I did not expect to be heading off to retreat to be learning about a topic I already knew about, or at least I thought I knew.

The theme of this year’s College Life retreat focused on the grace of God. Reading this aloud to yourself, you may readily accept this given theme without any hesitation. But here already, we have an expression that is contradictory to the character of the God whom we worship. From what I discovered at retreat from our speaker, Dan Nah, pastor of Cornerstone Bible Church, the grace of God simply cannot be defined as “grace.” Rather, there needs to be a defining adjective which, quantitatively and qualitatively, only can satisfy the true attribute of our God’s grace. This is why our theme for this year’s retreat was phrased, the “Scandalous Grace” of our Lord God.

“Okay,” I said to myself, God’s grace can be defined as “bountiful,” “abounding,” “rich,” and the list goes on and on. But out of all the words that could be used to describe grace, why “scandalous?” The point is, Pastor Dan states, some of us one end of the spectrum may know how gracious our God is in our daily lives, but we do not realize just how far His grace encompasses us, even to the worst of sinners. From our reactions towards His grace, it is evident some of us may feel as if His grace does not fully satisfy our sinful nature; we work and work, often with futile efforts to satisfy the Law. On the other end of the spectrum, the nature of God’s grace is so foreign to some that they react in outrage and anger towards the grace of God, desiring to go as far as to murder the One who stops stones from being thrown and restores even adulterers to positions of righteousness. God’s grace is simply put, outrageous in every respect.

There are so many evidences of God’s grace in the Bible, from the splendor of the Garden of Eden given to man in Genesis, even to the last book, Revelation, written to give hope to those who suffer for Christ’s sake. Pastor Dan focused on several books of the Bible that shine the spotlight on just how outrageous God’s grace is. Genesis, 1 Kings, Hosea, Jonah, Matthew – these books all depict numerous accounts of God’s loving good will towards those found righteous or sinful in His eyes.

But what I found most compelling from Pastor Dan’s sermons on scandalous grace was how God’s grace reveals so much more of our Creator’s own character to us. What I discovered in my reflection were four aspects to God’s character that are depicted in the giving of His grace to us.

  1. God is true to His word when He gives it. When God tells Jonah to preach to the city of Ninevah, He does not go back on His word. He forgives all the people of Ninevah and the whole city is saved from disaster in the hands of God. (Jonah 3:10) When God provides Elijah with strength in the wilderness, He does not only give courage in words, but sustains Elijah with food and nourishment. Twice! (1 Kings 19:7) God does not relent in His grace when He decides to give it. He overwhelms us with His grace.
  2. God reveals His glory through His overwhelming grace. What God desires to show in His grace to us is the glory of His perfect, righteous, and holy being. (John 1:14,16) In bringing Elijah strength and sustenance, He reveals His glory to one man. In saving the city of Ninevah, God reveals His glory to a city. In crucifying His Son on the cross, God reveals His glory to the whole world.
  3. God pursues those He saves. In the whole book of Jonah, God graciously pursues Jonah from the beginning in his refusal to preach to the city of Ninevah, till the end when He rebukes Jonah for his hatred of the sinners of Ninevah. God never ceases to give up on the prophet He commissions even when he blatantly disobeys God.
  4. God gives because He loves. 1 John 4:19, states that “God first loved us.” He loved us before the beginning as He foreknew us, He loved us after the Fall of Man, and He continues to love us even when we sin against Him. He so loved the world that He offered as the ultimate act of grace to mankind, the sacrifice of His most precious possession: His Son. (John 3:16) And He gives not according to how righteously we live, but because He loved us first and fully.

Knowing the character of our gracious God not only reveals more of His glory and supreme being, but as Pastor Dan told all of us who went to retreat, the magnitude of our sinfulness as well. The degree to which they offends our Holy God is significantly magnified for us who live in the faith. To know and belong to a Father who loves us so deeply that He desires to give to us more than anyone else could ever give and more than we could ever deserve to receive – this knowledge should heighten our love and deepen our respect to our God who deserves more than we could ever give. It should be the driving force for our hearts in constantly glorifying Him in our daily walk, forever worshipping the God who so graciously extended His hand to sinners who were in complete rebellion against Him. All the glory be to Him forever.