I've been busy these days - encouraged by many Christian Students on the campus

My apologies to all the readers of this blog, but these past few days and the next few days coming up I've been / will be very busy. Almost every night before going to bed I am thinking to update the blog, but there are some other things that recently came up. As many of you know, there are many Christian students on the campus all around the world, and here in London there's a bunch of them also :) so I've been helping with them, and there's the College Age Conference in Bower House coming up next weekend... Anyways, before getting into details, here's the picture for today - if you follow me on twitter and on instagr.am you will be up-to-date with the pictures I take and share :)

The Houses of Parliament - on the 5th of November 2011

Remember, remember, the 5th of November - on Guy Fawkes night here in the UK I went to see it with my own eyes, and it's true - the Houses of Parliament are STILL up and there was no blowing up! It's still a conspiracy ;) and V for Vendetta didn't take place. Anyways, that's a simple picture of the Houses of Parliament in London, UK, very close to Big Ben :) Read more about the Palace of Westminster, visiting the Houses of parliament, tourist information, etc.

Encouraged - the Christian Students on Campus, their testimonies

When you go to university that's when "life starts", or at least the part where you are FREE from your parents, you're on your own, and you can basically do whatever you want to do. But if you love the Lord and enjoy Him every day, even though you're free to do whatever you want to do, you still fellowship with the Lord about the little things, the big things, the invitations and words of your colleagues, the matter of having certain people as your friends, the relationships with the other students, the morality and ethics of the other students of professors... - there's so much to talk to the Lord about! And even more - you can enjoy the Lord with the other Christian students on campus! You can "flee youthful lusts and pursue" the Lord with those who call on Him out of a pure heart!

But as our experience tells us, our life is full of ups and downs, happiness and sadness, lots of failures, giving in to our friends, etc.... Also, university keeps people VERY busy, and the assignments, course study, essays, seminars, course work, etc... - so that even after classes are finished you need to stay up late at night to study... What's worse is seeing all the other students at the end of the week or at the end of the day going out, doing things, getting involved in things - and you may think, O, Lord, maybe it's OK to do this or that, or to go there with them... Or maybe you feel like, I have no time for the church life or meeting with the Christians on campus - I'm too busy with work, with the clubs I joined, the coursework, friends, etc... Well, along this line, a dear Christian student asked me this question,

How do we balance our Christian life / church life with our study life? How do we give the Lord the preeminence in all our studies?

I thought about it, and it really makes sense - is this possible? Should I take care of ONE, or the OTHER? Are they mutually exclusive? Does loving the Lord help or hinder your studies? Can I study without paying attention to the Lord, and when I finish university, I will come back to Him? - there are so many questions like these... - so I found some very good answers given by some dear Christian students on campus via, Being a Christian Student on the Campus (some of which I'm quoting below):

God, our education, and our character - We as human beings need to fulfill our duties. As students, we need to study and do our best while we can. However, we need to strike a balance between these two things. We cannot say that we only want to love the Lord and attend all the meetings but cast our studies aside. This is not right. On the other hand, we should not love education more than God. God must have the first place in our being.

Practically applying the Life-Giving Spirit to Our Lives - Recently, I’ve been learning to enjoy the Lord as the Life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). We’ve heard this many times, but so many times in my experiences I do not stand on this fact. I’ll wait until the Friday night home meeting to enjoy the Lord, or wait until some sister calls me to read the Word. But the Lord went through a marvelous process so that we can enjoy Him anywhere, anytime, and at any place. We can practically apply this through prayer – 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tell us to “unceasingly pray”.

take care of the Lord first and make a schedule! If you give the Lord one hour, He will give you two hours back. Writing an essay is not a matter of ‘quantity’ of time, it’s a matter of ‘quality’. I’ve found that once I’ve enjoyed the Lord, my mind is calm and I’m able to sit down and actually get something done! If I start an essay without touching the Lord, it’s really like untangling a big ball of spaghetti!

Love the Lord and gain Him – there is no other way! Given the insurmountable workload, the constant stress, and the many “attractions” that university life has to offer, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we have been called out of the world and into Him – we have been called to be a lover of Christ. To this, I have many a times fallen victim. Yet, the Lord is gracious. If we only turn back to Him (by reading His word, calling on His name, and touching Him in our spirit), He is faithful to be our daily moment-by-moment supply.

seeing our studying in the light of God’s economy - In Matthew 6:24 the Lord says “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon is usually associated with wealth and riches, but as students our “mammon” can become our education. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God and live according to His purpose (Rom. 8:29). Therefore we should not be anxious but diligent to study and not neglect our love of the Lord Jesus.

enjoying the Lord and testifying Him! Throughout the years there have been many difficult situations both in university and in my personal life, but the Lord has been shepherding me to turn to Him, to just take Him as my All, my Person, the living One in my spirit. Through Christ in us we have access to the Father, and in Christ we lack nothing! He doesn’t “dispense virtues” to us – He dispenses His very Person into us and this wonderful One solves all the problems! My top enjoyment from my college years is learning to turn to the Lord and leaning on Him in everything, from small things to big things – practical things and things I’m going through inwardly.

[I hope YOU enjoy these testimonies - read them in full via, Being a Christian Student on the Campus - and leave me your comment below concerning the question above. How is it for YOU as a student / working saint / parent / child? How is YOUR enjoyment and experience of the Lord and the church life?]

gifts vs ministry, big vs small, supernatural vs normal and divine

I was thinking these days that I don't want to push it - I finished that "30-day challenge" and it worked out well, so now I don't need to blog on this site daily. I write my enjoyment of the Lord on the agodman.com website - please subscribe there to get portions of the Word emailed to you whenever they are posted. By the way, in a few weeks there will be a college age conference in the UK, in Bower House, and I have the feeling that after this conference we will have some sharing from the students of their top enjoyment in this time. First, pray for this time, that the Lord would unveil us to see the full ministry of Christ in three stages - especially in the first stage, the stage of Incarnation. Second, keep an eye on agodman.com - a God-man is a normal Christian!

The Ripley's Believe It Or Not in Piccadilly Circus, London

Apologies again for the quality of the picture - this is the building of the Ripley's, Believe it or Not, in Piccadilly Circus in London, at night. All lighted up, lots of people even after 9pm on Saturday would go into the museum... It's kind of pricy, I think, but for £25 I think they will show you the most amazing inventions and the coolest things in there. Basically, you won't believe it - Home to 700 peculiar, amazing and fun exhibits across 5 floors, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is the London attraction sure to excite, delight and thrill the whole family. With everything you can imagine and plenty more you can’t, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London is certainly the place to visit and definitely a day out of the ordinary!

Gifts vs Ministry; Big vs. Small; Supernatural vs Normal and Divine

This week and in the past weeks I have been considering the difference between these two types of things - on the one hand there's the supernatural, the gifts, and something big; on the other hand there's the ministry, something small, normal, and divine. People today when they think about God they think of something supernatural, and especially when they hear "the Holy Spirit" they think of some amazing and great power that falls upon man and does things... Even as believers and as genuine Christians we may have this concept that God needs to do something supernatural and something big - at least from time to time.

What's even more deeper than this is that many believers, just like the rest of the people in the world, appreciate a GIFT in the Body more than they appreciate or promote the MINISTRY. Let me define these terms, at least the way I see them in the light of the Bible. A GIFT is supposed to be something normal, according to the Psalm that says that "He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men" - here we see that each member of the Body is a gift to the Body. But in 2 Corinthians and in Ephesians we see that God gave some specific gifts to the Body of Christ, like: apostles, shepherds and teachers, evangelists, prophets. These are gifted saints who function in their measure to release their portion AND to perfect others to do what they also do.

On the other hand, MINISTRY is not something peculiar and specific that someone has, as we see today in Christianity so many "ministries" - no, Ministry is "the ministry of the new covenant" about which Paul was speaking. The ministry is produced through our enjoyment of the riches of Christ and having these riches being wrought into us through all kinds of sufferings and consuming pressures, so that we have a priceless treasure in an earthen vessel (2 Cor. 4:7). This ministry is produced in a long period of time and is different from the gift - the gift is almost "natural", in the sense that there's a human capacity filled with God's life, while the ministry is being produced in someone who may not be that capable but cooperates with the Lord.

The question is, what do we prefer / promote / desire: do we want something BIG, something SUPERNATURAL, and do we desire to be a GREAT GIFT to the Body? Or do we take the other way, keeping it small, desiring to be ministers, and living a normal and divine life? It is SO TEMPTING to take the large / big / great way - it is humanly natural to choose this. Even if someone doesn't know the Lord and an apostle speaks the word to him, he will be impressed and will say - wow, what a gift, so rich and so high! But in the church life saints may experience the Lord in a hidden and sweet way, not very outward and open, and may even pass through all kinds of sufferings that can't be explained humanly - and we think something's wrong, or maybe they need to do something to get out of this situation... - but the ministry can be produced in such ones!

I am praying that the Lord would open my eyes to see things the way HE sees things. The Lord Jesus, God living on earth as a man, did not do a BIG work - He lived and worked in a small way, in the tiny country of Israel, and did not make sure that everyone in the world heard about Him when He did something! No, He spent time with the Father, He expressed God, and when He did something He tried to tell people not to publicize it. At the same time, the Lord Jesus did something else, something most people didn't notice: He took 3 years and a half to train 11 disciples to be with Him, to be together as a group, and to love Him. That's what He did when He was on the earth, and when He died and resurrected, He had these 11 to be His continuation! He didn't train several thousand people - though He could have... but He trained 12, and one was "lost"!

The disciples followed in the Lord's footsteps - even though at the beginning of their ministry, there were some signs and wonders, some healings and some miracles, the disciples "remained small", and grew in a normal and divine way. Paul was moved by the Lord to go all the way from Israel through all Asia and even into Europe (Acts 16:9) - yet he himself also took the way of the ministry, of being produced as a minister of the new covenant. He passed through a lot of sufferings for the Body of Christ, meeting from his part what was lacking in the Body. Not it's us - "brother we", and it is so tempting to follow or swarm around or appreciate a gift, a genuine gift in the Body. But WHO will pay the price to tell the Lord,

Lord, give me the experiences I need that this ministry may be produced! Lord, I want to be a minister of the new covenant, one who ministers You into people and who cooperates with You in Your ministry today!

[ what do YOU think about this? Do you still appreciate the gifts in the Body more than desiring to be a minister? Do you see the difference between the gifted ones and the ministers? Do YOU want to be a minister, or is it better / more interesting to be around someone who has a great gift in the Body? How do YOU feel about all this? - let me know in your comments below]

contacting God in our spirit and confessing our sins(college meeting) - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today (30-day challenge)

Even though the university has not yet started in the UK - it starts on the 1st of October - today we had our first "monthly college meeting" with the students and A level saints + the burdened saints. So good to be together again and see the saints! It is so refreshing and revitalizing to meet with the saints at the end of the week, even on a Friday night. You may be tired, filled with all kinds of stuff, wearied, or even feeling wore out... but then you get yourself into the meeting and the next thing you know you praise the Lord and enjoy Him with the other God-men who "call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart"(2 Tim. 2:22).

If it would be you, what would be the first thing you need to get into and emphasize, when it comes to "working for the Lord", "serving the Lord", "preaching the gospel", or even in doing your best to do something for the Lord? It may be some special skills or guide on how to speak to people, maybe some more Bible verses to memorize, some more Bible knowledge, some organizing of things, practical matters, organizing an event.... Well, we started today as Christians on the Campus - that's right, we are Christian Students at University :) - with getting into,

A Deeper Understanding of Prayer - Confessing our sins and Contacting God - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today

What is prayer? Is prayer just asking God for things or telling God to do things for us? Is prayer just bringing our problems to God? Is the real meaning of prayer being us talking to God and Him listening to us? Is prayer a one-way conversation where we talk to God about anything? Why is prayer so important? ... tonight we saw a deeper meaning of prayer - as brother Nee said,

Why do we work so much and pray so little when we can accomplish much more by our prayer than by our work? 

Before we do anything for God, we need to pray! Our work needs to issue out of a life of prayer with the Lord. Instead of working much, we should pray much... but what is prayer? First of all, the real significance of prayer is to contact God in our spirit and to absorb God Himself! To pray is to contact God with our human spirit - since God is Spirit - and to absorb God(John 4:24). The first thing we need to know about prayer is that it is a matter of the spirit - our mingled spirit! When we want to pray, we just need to turn to our spirit! And that's where everything happens - in our spirit!

What we all notice is that whenever we turn to the Lord in our spirit, He shines on us and exposes us - we see how sinful we are, we see how much we live our life without the Lord, and we see how many things we do that displease Him. In the Lord's light in this way we can confess our sins - and the Lord is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from any unrighteousness(1 John 1:7-9). How can we pray to the Lord and absorb Him into us if we have guilt in our conscience - if our conscience accuses us of our sin? We need to break through - every morning we need to Confess Our Sins!

This is the first thing - we need to agree with the Lord's light when He shines on us! As human beings in rebellion against God and as sinners, we don't really like the Lord's light - we try to stay away from the light, from the Lord's shining, because it exposes us. But when we come to the Lord as we are, He shines on us and we can confess our sins! When we confess our sins, when we agree with what the Lord exposes, He forgives us, cleanses us, and He FORGETS about it! Praise the Lord, when it comes to "remembering our sins", God has "amnesia": He can't remember them anymore!

Confessing our sins is a matter we practice every day - so that we may have a clear conscience, a conscience void of offense. What we really want is to touch God and contact Him, to absorb Him and be infused with Him - and for this we deal with anything that's in the way! Once we touch God through prayer, through an intimate conversation with Him, we can receive His element into us! We then need to talk to Him - this is the real conversation with God! You can tell Him everything - He's your Friend, He's there to listen to you, to understand you thoroughly, and to comfort you.... And as we open to Him to "give Him our problems", He gives us more of Himself: He infuses us with His very element!

Praise the Lord - we can contact God in our spirit by simply confessing our sins and then conversing with Him! Sometimes in the morning or during the day we even need to tell the Lord, "Lord, make my heart happy in You! I'm NOT HAPPY, LORD!" - admit to it. We may put on a happy face, have a joke ready, something funny to say, but inside we're not happy. We need the Lord as JOY Himself to make this verse real to us "the joy of the Lord is my strength"(Neh. 8:10). The Lord will definitely listen to prayers like these,

Lord, make my heart happy in You, so that I may also make others' hearts happy in You! Lord, warm up my heart towards You that I may love You! I need You, Lord!

We just need to be open and genuine with the Lord. He knows us anyways - and He knows whether we try to cover up things or sugar-coat our prayer. We can't really lie to the Lord - even if we pass the "human lie-detector", the Lord knows our inner being, and He knows our heart. That's why we need to be honest with the Lord will bring about the Lord's blessing and His presence. The more honest you are with the Lord, the more honest and genuine you become as a human being.

And you know what? When you're honest with the Lord - just as when you're honest with your spouse or your best friend - He opens up His heart to you and tells you what's on His heart. How about that! All we do is agree with the Lord's light and open to Him, confessing our sins, touching Him, talking to Him, being in His presence... and He imparts His heart's desire into us! O, the prayers that we will pray then! Not just BOLD PRAYERS and COMMANDING PRAYERS, but even prayers that will move God's hand to accomplish His will! When we become one with the Lord in this way there's no limit to what the Lord can pray in us...

Wearing my, Christians On Campus T-shirt Today - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today (30-day challenge)

This may not mean much to some people, and it is definitely not "an item of the faith" or something that everyone should practice or else.... No, this is just my recent experience with this. The United Kingdom, and Western Europe in general, is not just in "open rebellion against God", but many people hate everything that is Christian while at the same time they declare themselves to be atheists.

If you try to talk to someone on the street about the Lord, you get looked at, rejected, talked back despisingly, ridiculed, and even hated. The Muslims have more effect or impact on the society than Christianity. Someone from the USA recently, after going out with the saints to speak to people about the Lord, asked, "WHY are people here so rude? If you don't want to hear about this, just say NO THANKS, but don't be so RUDE!" People are not afraid to show their real feeling towards God / Christians...

What I have been impressed with while being in Western Europe / the UK, among other things, is that people don't feel shy to express themselves, to express how they feel, even if this means being almost naked, staying up late on streets, drinking, putting on a lot of make-up, trying to copy all the latest fashion or pop stars, having lots of tatooes or piercings, etc. One of the main things they do is they WEAR stuff - some wear simple stuff, others more bright colours, some classy, while others wear all kinds of T-shirts with all kinds of inscriptions / slogans. Sometimes just by reading what those T-shirts are saying you are defiled and filled with death - and young people wear them, recommend them, and boast with them! This is why I'm now coming to,

One Meaningful Thing I Did Today - Wearing my Christians On Campus T-Shirt!

Christians On Campus at UC Berkeley -
similar to the T-shirt I wore today 

I walk about in London, travelling to work, to meet saints, visiting, sight-seeing, etc, but I very rarely see anyone wearing anything that has a "Christian message / text" on it. Rather, the heavy metal, skull bones, rock inscriptions, and all kinds of dark and weird writings can be seen on people that look relatively normal. Just like Lot(2 Pet. 2:8, For that righteous man, who settled down among them, in seeing and hearing tormented his righteous soul day after day with their lawless works), my spirit has no rest, and you are stirred up within...

The only ones that wear something related to God are either pastors, evangelists, street-preachers, ... and they are mainly older ones. If they are young and wearing something Christian-related, it is so "cool" and complex that you "have to think about it"... - there's no life, divine life, that you receive from reading something like that....

Even us as lovers of the Lord many times have no problem wearing what's sold "on Oxford Street" in Next, Topshop, Accessorize, Burton, Halfords, JJB sports, JD Sports, House of Fraser, French Connection, Topman, Uniqlo, Gap, Banana Republic, Primark, etc, - even in the meetings! So when I went to the gym these past few months I gladly wore my Poland Camp T-shirts - The Birthright, The Nazarites, the Testimony of Jesus, The Spirit, And The Rock Was Christ, etc. Though it's just a "piece of clothing", I felt like it sanctified me, separated me, and kept me.... People would look at me, some trying to read the writing, some were curious what's written / what's that, while others turning their head from me... but I believe there's something of the Word that's infused!

Actually this week I was wearing The Testimony of Jesus Poland camp T-shirt and someone approached me and said, Nice T-Shirt! After I conversed with him it turns out he's a brother and he's looking for fellowship with believers - since he has a hectic schedule at work! I have been praying and I am praying + enjoying the Lord at the gym, and may the Lord continue to sanctify the environment we're in even in this way! We don't know who is seeking, but we can be a testimony! I'm looking forward to meet this brother soon!

But today as I went to the brothers mtg I wore my Christians on Campus T-shirt(I received it as a gift, Christians on Campus at the University of Oklahoma), and I really really felt people looking at me. Who would wear a T-shirt with the word Christians on it? I felt the people stare at me as I was walking, but this only encouraged me to pray and continue enjoying the Lord. Even in this simple way, wearing something with the Word of God inscribed on it, we can preach the gospel! I may not have the courage to go speak to a stranger on the street, but I can wear something that gives him Christ! If someone is hungry, he knows where to go and get some real spiritual food! I would feel people's looks and pray for them as I was walking...

Again I say, this is not to "promote" this, even though it would be good - as the brothers have advised in some conferences - to have some T-shirts or jackets / jumpers with "O Lord Jesus!" or "Taste and see that the Lord is good", or another call to salvation and drinking... But I realized that even what I wear can preach the gospel, or at least can be an entrance to the gospel! Yes, people will stare at you, but some also will look and smile approvingly - this is how you know where the believers are! And if there are seeking ones, they will come to you - or you will see them being ready to talk to you!

Praise the Lord for the Christians on the campus! Praise the Lord for the Poland camp and the T-shirts we receive there! Praise the Lord for all the saints who are consecrated to the Lord and know how to and can design some clothing / inscriptions on clothing - with God's economy! There are so many who wear the "SUPERDRY" stuff (what is THAT all about?) but WHO wears something that tells people about God's economy? How will people hear or see or know about God becoming a man? How will man know that he needs to repent? ... This is why I love this series of Students Testimonies, Christian Students on Campus facebook fan pages / web pages collection, or Christians with a blog online - compilation of links. If we don't speak, WHO will speak?

.... Lord, what about the things I wear? Lord, make my living the preaching of the gospel, expressing You even without words! Make us living testimonies, Lord, and sanctify the things we wear! Save us from wearing what the world wears - save us from BEING like them even in this! O LORD! We open to You even in this matter...