"This is My Beautiful Struggle"

There's a War On the Inside

2007-08-13T00:11:00.000-07:00

There's a war on the inside

It's the arena

To demonstrate my love for You

2007-07-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

(Psalm 51:10-11)

Lately, I realized that there's nothing in this world that can satisfy. I've fooled around with so many things in this world, but there's nothing compare to being in His presence. I know there is no way I can describe being in His presence and be fair about it. I know one thing, that His presence is all I have. Mnistry and my desintiny is nothing without His presence. I just want to be in His presence at all time.

-Koske

You Name It

2007-06-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

One picture could say a thousand words and this is one of them...

-Koske

Psalms 145

2007-03-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

" The LORD is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy. The LORD is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The LORD is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works. The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them. The LORD preserves all who love Him..."

-Psalms 145:8-9, 16-20

No need to say. This verse speaks for God Himself. I love it. It refreshes my inner man, specially in times of hecticness. Even though I feel like I'm walking through a fire right now, I know He's there along side with me. He is building my character and loving me at the sametime, because He wants more room in my heart.
His mercy and compassion towards me is what keeps me going to this day. His love is the fuel of my heart. It reminds me of how good He is-- "what Hes done for me, what Hes done for you, what Hes done for us." (DCB, "Come and Listen")

-Koske

@ Epic Yo!!!!

2007-02-12T23:30:00.000-08:00

February 16-19 Epic did a conference at downtown San Jose. I have to say that God surprised me in that conference. I'm not really going to get into details about the conference, but it was simple and good. I liked alot. I was touched by God. One thing that was really stuck in my head that the speaker told me, that "the Gospel is very simple, you love God and you love people." Yeah, what a revelation. I love what he said, because it was so simple yet profound. What the speaker spoke about during one of the night has been on my heart for a quiet awhile now, which is basically letting God love on me. Recieve His love. I'm loving it. It will never get old. God's love will always get better from glory to glory. So I'm just gonna take a seat and let God take me for a ride.

Ohh yeah these are some pics from the Epic Conference

love,

-Koske

Let Us Glory in God

2007-01-21T22:06:00.000-08:00

Thus says the Lord:

"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches,
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising
loving kindness, judgement, and
righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight," says the Lord
-Jeremiah 9:23-24

This scripture opened my eyes to so many things. Sometimes through our walk with Christ we tend to think that the more spiritual we get the closer we get to Him. It is not our spiritual attainment that has brought us closer to Christ. The things that I do for God has not brought me closer to Him, but it was only through His love that brought me to Him. Sometimes we can get caught off guard and tend to think that the more we do for Him the more He can love on us. It is not our wisdom, strength, nor riches, that brought us closer to God, but simply knowing that He is ' the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth' and that is it and nothing else. Lets look at King David, this guy has simply commited one of the most sinful act in the Bible history ever, and yet he's called a man after God's heart and still mentain a close relationship with the Lord. Everyday as I live my life with God, I'm discovering that it is not about my spiritual attainment that I'm close to Him, but just His dedication to me. Yeah, He delights in me even though I can be really weak at times. God is just basically getting that through me right now and it's hard to grasp that sometimes, but I'm still learning to love Him and knowing His love towards me.

Love,
-Koske Kishi

My Love

2007-01-01T00:21:00.000-08:00

Year 2006 it's finally over and 2007 is here. What a great year I had. 2006 is the actual first year of my life being with Lord. I know I gave my life to the Lord at the end of 2005, but I didn't start knowing the Lord intimately until 2006. So many things happen in my life during that year. The Lord is just giving me a little taste of His awesomeness and there's more to come. Looking back at last year was just basically a year of "maturing," and a year of God breaking through, wether it's character, attitude, life style, friends, etc., you name it, He's broken in my life really big. I went through so many trials, tests, tribulation and all that, but that didn't stop God from proving me that He's almighty. I felt like He introduced Himself to me through Him showing me His character, love, compassion, power, mercy and grace. We've gone through a lot. I learned to love God through good times and bad. I love Him, because He loved me first.
For 2007, is gonna be awesome!!! I want to see God's fullness in my life! I want to see His glory. I want to see His miracles, signs and wonders. I want to see Him pour out His Spirit like He never did before. I want to see REVIVAL. But that's not all I want to see, but I also want God to really break through my character. And I know theres a lot of work to do. For my New Year's resolution is that I want to be more of a giver and be more of a blessing to others. More love and compassion. And the most important thing I need to do is to get to know Him more and Love Him with all my heart.

He is Love

His love is more real than anything I've experience in my life. I can't word His love enough in this blog. The only way you can find out is that if you experience His undeniably, unfailling, everlasting love in your own personal relationship. He fills that gap in your heart that no one else or material object in this world can fill. He satisfies, He sustains, He forgives, He delivers, He provides, He comforts, He loves, He's everything. This blog cannot do the justice of telling everyone on how good He is.
To my Love: "Thank You so much Lord Jesus for this awesome year. Thank You for my salvation. Thank You for Your love that never fails. I'm so thankful to have You in my life. You are so awesome!!! I want more of You in my life. Please break through even more than ever. I need You more than ever. You're all I want and You're all I need!!! I love You forever and ever."

'There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But fe who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.' -1 John 4:18-19

Love,
-Koske

9 Components of Successful Revival

2006-12-05T12:02:00.000-08:00

Components of Successful Revival

Lately I've been reading this book on revival and it soooo good!!! It has definately sparked something in spirit and ignited a fire for revival, weather its: personal, college campuses, city wide, nation wide, etc. Frank Demazio's book, Seasons of Revival, the book basically teaches us how revival started, how to do it, and how to maintain it.
In chapter 6 of this book, I've stumbled on something that I thought was really helpful to those who are fired up and wants to start a revival.

"If we are to hold on to that which is good during times of revival, we will need to understand what our attitudes and action should be as we seek a visitation of God's Spirit. In Crawford's book, The Emerging Movement, he gives nine components of any successful revival, and it bears quoting here. The nine components for successful revival are he gives are:

1. Humility- Revival is to serve God's purpose, not to feed on mortal egos.

2. Prayer- Pray before revival, during, and especially after, when excitement wanes and the novelty is gone, prayer is stil the key instrument.

3. Discernment- Listen carefully to God's call in order to generate a spiritual response, not merely an emotional one.

4. Genuiness- Firmly reject anything counterfeit.

5. Moderation- Extremists, even well-meaning ones, will seriously jeopardize the credibility of your efforts.

6. Propriety- Sins commited publicly must be confessed publicly. Private sins, especially or a sexual nature, must be confessed privately.

7. Empathy- Reach out to those in the congregation who are suspicios of or resistant to revival.

8. Bible Focus- Revival must be Bible-centered, not experience-centered. Experience and testimony are important, but must never overshadow the Word.

9. Maturity- Rely on spiriually mature people for testimony. Most newly planted Christians should not be tempted to pridefulness by sharing their testimony before they are ready.

If we can apply these components to our own lives and to our church bodies, we will find it much easier to root out the excesses and extremes of revival, while at the same time avoid quenching a move of God's Spirit.
Revival is a time when God makes known His inescapable presence as the only true God, as the One who is mighty and majestic. God's presence confronts His people, both to humble them and to exalt them at the same time. God's presence forces people to realized His awesome power and to assimilate into their lives His unchangable principles." (Seasons of Revival, Understanding the Appointed Time of Spiritual Refreshing, by Frank Demazio)

NOTES
1. Frank Demazio---Seasons of Revival, Understanding the Appointed Time of Spiritual Refreshing,
(Portland Oregon, Bible Temple Publishing), 112-114.
2. Dan Grawford, The Emerging Movement.

Hope you find these quotes helpful and be bless.

-Koske Kishi

Father's Love (Midwest Thanksgiving Conference 2006)

2006-12-04T00:42:00.000-08:00

The Father's Love Conference
I recently just came back from a trip to Chicago on a conference by CASC called "The Father's Love." This trip lasted for a week (from 11/22-28) and it was awesome. During the conference I'll say the majority of the preacher's sermon was about the "Father's love." Man!!! the preachings were really good, and every service the Holy Spirit would show up and everyone in the whole building would be touched by Him. I definately felt that genuine presence of love coming from the Holy Spirit.I felt like the whole conference took me back where I started in the beginning where everything is new. I felt like God restored my first love for Him. I was reminded by Him that the reason why I'm saved today is because of His love.

Also here are some pics from the conference:

awesome worship

awesome preaching

awesome people

also we got an awesome preacher, Quoc Nguyen with us

Looking at this conference was definately a cool experience: I met so many people (mainly chinese people); we got to hang out; ate at some awesome restaurants; learned so many things that are of God; and got to visit the city of Chicago. I would gladly return there for the next year's conference and to those who haven't should start thinking about it now and pray for next year's. Have fun looking at these pictures and be bless.

-Koske Kishi

2006-11-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

REVIVAL & INTIMACY w/ THE HOLY SPIRIT

2006-11-06T17:49:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been having this burden for our youth at VNCCC. I felt like our youth needs a break through and needs to be set on FIRE!!! I believe God is going to do something crazy with our youth. I'm also believing for the Holy Spirit to just show up and touch them and give them a new experience at Friday nights and Sunday school in church. So right now, Anh, Betty myself and probably a few brethrens from VNCCC and Freedom Worship Center are just going to cry our hearts out to God and ask the Holy Spirit to intervene in our youth. I feel in my spirit that the Holy Spirit is going to take our youth further. IT'S TIME TO GROW!!!
FIRE FALL DOWN!!! FIRE FALL DOWN!!! FIRE FALL DOWN!!! on us we pray. That's 'gonna our prayers. The Holy Spirit is just looking for an open vessel to go to and our response to Him is that we need to stay open and available to His call. We're going to have a room were we just worship, praise, pray, and just meditate on Him and on His words. We need to turn off our agendas for now. Our church needs to surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit and just love on and let Him love on us. We need a revival. We need to get intimate with God. "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." (James 4:8) That's our vision and we're definately going to stand on that Scripture. Please pray with us for this revival to happen.

-Koske Kishi