Chapter 13

Where should I start?

I have no idea. There's just too many things to write about. I can't just summarize the whole thing. Or maybe I should stop talking and go straight to the point. But I can't help it, I like to talk.

Anyway, I got my driving learning permit on the day before I headed to Missouri for All Nations Conference. All I have to do now is to schedule a driving test and I'm done!

Sometimes things just happened and you don't understand why. But now when I look back at all those things, it really did happen for some reasons. We always say that God has a plan for your life, and everything is in God's hand. I used to doubt it, and I was confused. Now I can see the big picture, and everything does make sense after all, and all the small pieces of puzzles are starting to fit together.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11

I always believe that God has been taking care of me and being faithful at all times. He takes control of my future. Let's take my current situation as an example: I will be getting a car soon, and obviously I need somebody to be there for opinions/advice.

My housemate, Mathew, does not really have many friends. We would just hang out and sit around the living room all the times. Once in awhile, his friend (Arthur) would come by and hang out with us. Arthur is working part-time in a car workshop, and he knows about cars, has been fixing cars for years. And Arthur lives just one block away from our apartment. Arthur is just one of the few friends that hang out with Mat. Amazingly, both Mat and Arthur is not taking any classes this summer, but they are still staying in town for the whole summer.

You can say that it is just a coincident, for Mat and Arthur being here, and Arthur who works in a workshop being Mat's friend. But there's just too many coincidences, don't you think so? And yes, Arthur has agreed to help me out in searching for the best car deals in town.

I was in Springfield for the past few days. All Nations Conference totally changed my life. There's just this weird thing (in a good way) about Christianity. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. I never understand why do they use the term "brothers and sisters" until I went for this conference. 165 students of 30 nations, from different universities across the States. Even though most of us met each other for the first time, we have so much to talk to, as if it feels like you know this person and have not talk to them in years. It makes me realize that we are not as different as we thought we would be, but in fact, we are all so similar (even though all of us were born in different places).


Springfield is a beautiful place. I think it is a place full of talents, with all the theaters and shows which are located along the street of Branson. Not forgetting the Silver Dollar City, and shopping. I'm a shopaholic, a rational shopaholic. I would only buy a tee which is less than $10.



Like I said, I do not know where to start. Maybe I would just talked about 2 things, out of that X number of awesome things.

#1 God is a funny person.

I used to think that God is a powerful, and authoritative God. I always refer to Him as a father, a fierce father. But when you get closer to Him, you will find more about His personality. He is a funny person, and He does have emotions! Just like us.

So there's this session where I felt so bored, and I'm so not interested with everything. I just tell God that, "this is bored, I need you to touch my heart, 'cos I can't even feel your presence."

I'm that kind of people who always expect something to happen during a service, that I would weep so hard, for His presence is too strong for me to handle.

Guess what? Next day I wept so hard for a session. I felt that God is trying to tell me, "so you want to cry? Here you go..."

That's so funny. HAHAHA

Why do I cry? I felt that there's really a God who listens and know about everything of your life. Every single details of your life. I felt His presence. As you know, I don't like to study Engineering. How God changed my life during these 5 months makes me want to change my major and just to serve Him, concentrate on missions and helping people. But I don't know what should I do, should I stay with whatever that I'm studying, or choose other major? So when the speaker of the night said, "There's some of you guys come to the States to study this major, but something happened and you feel like you don't want to study this anymore..."

That's another coincident?

For me, it's a "no."

#2 God is with you all the time

So there is this morning where I read the Bible and my faith was being tested. Everyone knows that God and Allah is different. Somehow Satan gives me the thought that Muslim and Christians serve the same God.

Book of Genesis (First book of the Bible) tells us that Abraham has 2 sons. Ishmael and Isaac. Jesus Christ is the lineage of Isaac; Muhammad is the lineage of Ishmael (according to Islam). Sarah (Abraham's wife) chase away Ishmael because he mocked God. Ishmael was sent to the Arabic dessert. Abraham was sad, but God tells him that he will make Ishmael a great nation.

I was confused. It's impossible for Ishmael to have a great nation, which means that Islam is in God's plan and we all serve the same God?

I was looking for answers but no one could help me. So I decided to go for the elective workshop and just leave my questions alone. There is a total of 5 workshops and we get to choose whichever that we wanted to. I believe that God will lead me to whatever workshop that He wants. So, there is this particular speaker who was supposed to talk about "The Baptism of Holy Spirit", which I am not interested to go, changed his topic to "The Word" in last minute.

God knows what I'm facing that morning, and obviously the session is for me! Because I was confused in The Word (Bible)! And thank God I found the answers! The Bible also said that,

"He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." -Genesis 16:12

It makes sense though. And later on it says that they will turn away from God. Do you know how accurate is the Bible in prophecies? The Bible is written way before Jesus Christ was born. As in few thousand years ago, and it predicted that the descendants of Ishmael will be very wild. Islam is one of the newest religion, and the Bible tells us in the first book that "he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." Look at the time line of the Bible and Islam. It does not make sense. How can you write about something that is going to happen in the future?

The Old Testament has 330 prophecies about the Messiah (Jesus Christ). There is a total of 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament where no prophets in that time received any dreams/revelation from God. In the first chapter of the New Testament, the birth of Jesus Christ fulfilled all the 330 prophecies. It's not 98% or 99% but 100% of all prophecies being fulfilled. Isn't that amazing? There's not a single religion book/scripture prophesies as accurate as the Bible. In 1948, archeologists found the "Dead Sea Scroll" which contains the Book of Isaiah, and all the 150 Psalms of the Bible, in Hebrew. Then they compared the writings of the scroll with the Bible, and every single words are exactly the same. Which proves that the Bible is not just some people who writes it in the modern time. Book of Isaiah is believed to be written in 8th Century BC, and we are talking about 1948. That reminds me of a Bible verse again:

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." - Matthew 24:35

Many people think that the Bible is just another book. It is a living book, of living hope. You can read it for so many times and every time God will reveal new things through His Words. Truly there is no one like God who loves us so much and cares about our daily lives.

2 of the most important day of your life:
the day you were born;
the day you find out the purpose of your birth.

-I believe to see, walk by faith and not by sight.