This past weekend after Christmas, I went with my sister to West Oakland to pass out food, clothes and prayers to the homeless. We went to Wal-mart the day before and bought a bunch of warm sleeping bags, got warm clothes from Goodwill and loaded up our car to do what we could the next morning. When I got out to the streets, my heart was shocked and broken at the same time. People were lined up waiting for us to give them any kind of help they could get.
As I opened up my bag full of clothes the homeless swarmed quickly to take what was best for themselves. All the clothes disappeared in a matter of minutes. I was sad, because I wish I had more clothes to give but I only had so much.
I met a grandmother “Franky” who had 7 grandchildren to take care of. Zara and Kimothy were precious young girls whom I met. One wanted to be a doctor, the other wanted to be a dancer and I only prayed in my heart that they would be given the opportunity to pursue their God given dreams. Every child deserves a chance in this life, no matter what their parents did, no matter what un-fair circumstances they are given, we must do what we can to give every child a reason and purpose to live out their destinies. They are all precious in God’s sight.
We also met beautiful Athena. She was such a sweet heart. On Christmas day, our friend Lee who has been going every Saturday out to West Oakland to feed and clothe the homeless - heard God’s voice to go out there on Christmas morning. He didn’t know if anyone would be out there, but he went anyways with hot cooked meals. When he got to the streets it was pouring rain, no one was around, except Athena who was standing on the corner shivering w/ hypothermia. He got out the car, embraced her and got her to a warm shelter. She had been mugged the other night and everything she had (food, sleeping bag, clothes, etc) were stolen. Yet, God knew her needs and sent a Good Samaritan “Lee” to help her that Christmas day. We were able to buy her new clothes, a new sturdy sleeping bag and other necessities. She said, “You are angels!” I responded, “No, you are the ANGEL!” She truly blessed my heart. Even what we gave to her, she immediately shared it with others on the street who needed what she had, even though it was a sacrifice for her. God bless Athena. Her son was murdered just last year on the streets. We must care for the orphans and the widows, this is true and undefiled religion. Pray for Athena, she will RISE UP again one day, I have faith for her!
Cool Whip Miracle
After hanging out with the homeless for the afternoon, we all prayed and went to eat lunch at a local Mexican joint. It was good food and fellowship. Lee the leader of this homeless ministry in Oakland told us one of the many miracle stories from ministering to the homeless. He said, “This past thanksgiving we fed over 400 homeless a full Thanksgiving meal. I heard Papa say, “Only the best for My children!” So, we bought over 25 big turkeys, cooked up mash potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce and we had 25 pumpkin pies. But on the way to the park, I heard Papa tell me, “Go back and buy whip cream for them!” I told Papa, “I’m not going back to the super market I’m already on my way, the best I can do is buy what they have at 7-11 it’s on the way!” So at 7-11 Lee bought only 4 cans of “cool whip” thinking others might bring some more. When he got to the park, no one else had brought cool whip but him. They only had 4 cans of cool whip for 25 pies. Lee told the volunteers, “Once the 4 cans of cool whip are used, that’s it, no one gets anymore!” After 4 pies, 3 cans were already used up. But for some miraculous reason, the 4th can of “Cool Whip” never stopped giving whip cream! He told us, “Everyone was shocked, we just kept scooping from this one can of cool whip the same normal scoops and every time we looked in the can there was more cool whip!” He said, the 13 year old who was scooping from the can shouted to her mother, “Mom, I just read how Jesus fed the 5,000
with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, but NOW I SEE IT WITH MY OWN EYES!” WOW! I could only praise God when I heard this miracle story, not only because it was an amazing miracle, but because even our PAPA in heaven cares that every one of His children gets COOL WHIP on their pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!
We all need to count our blessings. We all need to remember that we are blessed to be a blessing. Let us give to others in need, help those who can’t help themselves or those who need encouragement to get back on their two feet. Let us be Jesus hands and feet to a world that needs to know the Love of God for real.
the blind see, the lame walk… the wretched of the earth learn that GOD IS ON THEIR SIDE. — Matthew 11:5
"The message of Jesus Christ is a message of hope, a message of mercy, a message of life in a dark world."
Two years ago, I wrote a song called
"LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL" on my first album. I was listening to this song again this morning, and I was reminded of how life is not perfect, but life is definitely worth living. Many of us go through hard times, struggles and suffering. Many of us have had hopes that were shattered, dreams that never became a reality, and situations in life that never turned out the way we expected. Maybe our health failed, our relationships were broken, our finances tanked, our dreams slipped away, or we were wronged unfairly. Whatever the case, life never seems to turn out the way we think, but life can still be beautiful.
My Personal 9-11
7 years ago, I had what I call a "personal 9-11" where everything in my life that seemed to be going great, went wrong. I was 20 years old at the time and soaring with God as a new Christ-follower. I had it all. At the age of 20 I had a successful TV and Radio ministry, a great job at a Silicon Valley Media/Tech company, I was the top student at my Christian University, everyone at my local church loved me and I had my first girlfriend ~ the love of my life. It was sweet to be a Jesus lover at that moment, but I soon realized that I loved these other things more than Jesus Himself.
One day, something went wrong on our TV shoot and I lost my cool. I started getting angry at our production team and threw a fit. I caught myself in the midst of my anger tantrum and recognized I had gotten out of hand. The next day, I spent time praying in a church chapel and I heard God speak to me. He said, "Jaeson, what truly makes your life beautiful? Is it the blessings in your life or is it Me? I realized at that moment that many other things in my life satisfied my heart more than Jesus Christ Himself. When my circumstances were going great, I felt great. But if my circumstances around me went wrong, I would lose my peace. I was convicted by the Spirit that my hope was not in God, but it was in the things of this world. That day I prayed a very dangerous prayer...
I prayed, "Jesus be my only satisfaction."
I knew by praying this prayer, that I was going to give God complete access to strip away anything in my heart that satisfied me more than Him. It was a scary prayer, but I knew I had to do it. God answered this prayer immediately...
The next day was my 21st birthday and that night my girlfriend, the very love of my life, broke up with me with no explanation. My heart was crushed and I had no answers. The day after my birthday I had all my semester finals tests at the university, I nearly failed them all. I then got a phone call during the same week that the media company I was working at had to lay me off. I was devastated because I looked up to the CEO so much, I felt he had also failed me. A few days later I discover that my elders at the local church who used to praise me so much, were questioning my motives with the new TV and Radio ministry I had started. It seemed everyone had turned against me. To make things worst, when I got home I found out from my mom that there were violent threats made towards my family because of my father's past mistakes. The world had fallen apart all around me in a span of two weeks. I was devastated, depressed and without hope.
For the next year, I was completely depressed, angry at God and deeply hurting inside. I couldn't understand why things had happened the way they did. I would throw a pity party everyday, complaining towards God (mainly about my ex-girlfriend) about how my life was so horrible. I wanted God to take me away to heaven. Then something tragic happened that I couldn't explain.
One of my best friends, she was like a little sister to me, suddenly died in a car accident. Hanh was one of the most beautiful, hopeful, bright and optimistic 19 year olds you would ever meet. The night before she died, we talked briefly at a hospital. She said, "Jaeson so where have you been? Are you too busy to hang out with your little sister?" I told her, "I'm sorry, I've been out of it lately but we should definitely get together soon." She joked and said, "Sure, yeah right" knowing how self absorbed and busy I was. The next day she got in a freak car accident and died on impact. I was so shocked when I heard the news, I wouldn't believe it. I went with some friends to pray over her dead body, asking God to raise it back to life for 3 straight days. It didn't happen. I felt so guilty for not being a better brother to her, because I was so self absorbed with my own problems.
The night after her funeral, I had dream. In this dream, I was in front of the pearly gates of heaven. As the gates opened, Hanh was there to greet me. When I saw her I was so ashamed. I couldn't even look her in the face. All I could say was sorry for being a horrible friend. She looked back at me and said, "Jaeson, I've already forgiven you, just remember what is really important in your life. It's not the things of this world, but its your relationships. Don't worry about me, I'm doing fine, just look at heaven behind me!" She then waived her hand and I saw all of heaven filled with green hills, rainbows, bright shining sun rays and little animals running around freely everywhere. Hanh hopped, skipped and jumped into God's radiant love and I knew in my heart she was happy and going to be OKAY.
When I woke up, I knew I had a second chance to live my life in a different way. Interestingly, that next weekend I had an interview with a rock band called "Switchfoot" for our TV show. The band had just released their first cross over secular album called "The Beautiful Letdown". When I interviewed the lead singer Jon Foreman I asked him a simple question, "Jon, why did you guys title this new album The Beautiful Letdown?" He responded, "Jaeson, that is a good question. You see, everything in this life can let you down. Right now, the chair I am sitting in could break and fail me. In a few minutes I can go up and sing on that stage to thousands of people, but when I get off the stage my health could fail and I could lose my voice forever and never be able to sing again. I have a beautiful wife, but I could go home and find out she has been unfaithful. You see, everything in this life can fail you. Everything in this life is finite, meaning it doesn't last, but only one thing is truly infinite and will last forever. Yes, everything in this life can and will let you down, but the beautiful thing about it is this, when everything lets you down in this world it leads you to the one thing that is truly beautiful..... the unfailing love of Jesus Christ."
God was speaking to my heart. The next day, I went back to the chapel where I prayed, I wept and I repented before God for my selfishness. At that moment, as I was weeping before the Lord and starring at the Cross I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, "Jaeson, everything that you have suffered, I have suffered and a million times over. My love for you is true and it will never leave you. Be satisfied in My love."
Peace came back into my heart. I finally understood what it meant to make Jesus my only satisfaction. I finally understood what makes life truly beautiful. It's not what we achieve, what we have, who we know, or whether or not our dreams are fulfilled that makes this life beautiful. Rather, life is beautiful because God is beautiful. His love is unfailing and His love is the only thing that we can count on. When all else fails, His love is still there. What really matters, is that we have a "relationship with our Creator" and the love He gives to us, we are to cherish and give to others. Our success is not in what we achieve in this life, our success is in knowing Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. I love Him, He loves me, I am successful!
Hard times will come. Struggles will always be there. Life will never be perfect. But God's loves will always be faithful. If we want to live a life that is truly beautiful remember the following...
1. The love of people often increases with performance and decreases with mistakes. Not so with God's love - Don't put your trust in the world's happiness, but put your hope in God's love. He loves us no matter what we do right or what we do wrong.
2. God loves you with an unearthly love. You can't win it by being winsome. You can't lose it by being a loser - We often think that God will loves us more if we do more for Him. This is not the case, God loves us not because we are perfect, He loves us because we are His children. Whether or not things are going great, or whether you feel like all is lost, know that God's love for you will never change.
3. God can turn tragedy into a triumph, if only you will wait and watch - We don't understand why things happen the way they do, but we can put our hope in God that He can make all things beautiful. Even what the enemy intends for our evil, God can turn for our good.
4. Love God for God. Life is not perfect, but life is Worth living - We are promised nothing in this world. The things of this world are passing away, but the love of Christ last forever. Put your hope in God and God alone. Love God not for what He can do for you, but love God simply because He is worthy of our affection. When Jesus becomes our only satisfaction, nothing else matters. We can't fail in this life, because His love is unfailing. Yet, when we know His unfailing love, it makes everything else in this life, good or bad that much more beautiful and meaningful.
5. Does your self-esteem ever sag? When it does, remember what you are worth - Max Lucado
YOU WERE BOUGHT, NOT WITH SOMETHING THAT RUINS LIKE GOLD OR SILVER, BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, WHO WAS LIKE A PURE AND PERFECT LAMB. 1 PETER 1:18-19
23"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:23 - He was born to die, so we can live.
Loving Father, help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds and the wisdom of the wise men.
Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clean hearts.
May the Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy children
and the Christmas evening bring us to our beds with
grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen
URBAN ARCHANGEL - THIS IS HOW I LIVE MY LIFE EVERY DAY
CREATED BY MY NEW BROTHA IN CHRIST - WWW.JA-HAN.COM
We all desire change in our lives. Whether that is to change something about ourselves change our habits, or even change the world. There are a lot of things that we can’t change, but there are other things that we constantly try to change with success or to no avail. With 2009 before us, the word “change” keeps coming to my mind. I desire change, but what will it take to see this change happen?
10 years ago I had an encounter with a Higher Power that led me to change many things in my life. 10 years later, I realized I am changing yet once again. When I was 16 years old I thought I had everything a teenager could want. I had it all: money, drugs, power, friends, influence and everything the world could have offered a MTV adolescent. Yet, it’s when it seems we have achieved everything, at that moment, we feel that we actually have nothing at all. That’s how I felt. I had everything, but in my heart I had nothing.
I had everything a young man could want. At the same time, I felt more lost than ever. It wasn’t till that fateful day when I was faced with being arrested by the police for grand theft that I finally woke up. I had everything, yet I wanted more because of my greed. But when is enough truly enough? Sometimes, it takes a moment of “humbling” to bring us back to our senses. With the police on my tail, my Christian mother weeping over my wrong doings, I came to my senses and decided I needed to change. With my future on the line, with all odds against me, I made a decision to do what was right, take responsibility for my actions and turn myself into the police and confess the truth to the crime I had committed. It was a scary decision, but it was a decision that had to be made. Looking back, it was the best decision I had ever made, to put my trust in God and to change my old ways. By the grace of God, I was given something I didn’t deserve. Six months after turning myself into the police, the court let me go free with no charges, no record or jail sentence.
I always tell people when they hear my impossible story of how a convicted felon was let go with no charges that,
“Justice is getting what you deserve, Mercy is getting what you don’t deserve, but Grace is getting what you definitely don’t deserve.” We all need grace in our lives. We need grace from God, grace for our own selves and grace for others. No one is perfect; we all make mistakes, because we are all human. If we desire to change in 2009 we can learn from my own story…
1. Change starts with you – don’t try to change others or your circumstances around before you first learn to change yourself. Judge not or you will be judged. Before we try to change what is around us, let us look within us, with an honest heart and see what needs to be changed in our own lives.
2. Change requires humility – humility is being honest to yourself and others with who you really are. No need to justify your shortcomings or wrong actions, simply own up to your mistakes and recognize that you need help in changing them.
3. Change moves us to action – if we are really going to change, we must make a commitment to change followed with action. Change is not just talk, but it is walk. If you want to quit smoking cigarettes, or change a bad habit, stop eating so much, spending on what you don’t need, or change your own understanding of yourself you need to take the necessary actions to see the change become a reality.
The day I turned myself into the police for grand theft, I could have just told God and my mother “sorry I will never do it again”, but saying sorry wasn’t enough. I had to do what was right, turn myself in, own up to my wrong doings and walk out my repentance.
In the same way, if we want real change we must not just talk about it, but be about it. Change doesn’t start tomorrow, it starts with doing what you know is right today.
4. Change is not easy, so give yourself grace – We also need to understand that change is a process. It doesn’t happen over night, it happens with time. Just as it takes years for a child to grow to an adolescent and from an adolescent to a young adult and so forth, so it takes time for anyone and everyone to change for the better. Give yourself grace when you make mistakes, fall into temptation, or keep doing things you don’t want to do. God forgives you, so you must learn to forgive yourself. With grace, nothing is impossible to overcome. Pick yourself back up, let go of the past, don’t be so hard on yourself and keep moving forward. With a little grace, we can all change for the better.
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."Blessings,
JMA
We all need to find our center in life. The holidays is a time to get away and remember what life is all about. Life is more than work, life is more than doing, life is meant to be cherished, remembered, and enjoyed for every moment we are given.
I'm currently in Oregon having some down time in a retreat home with my second family the "Ainslie family" (Alisan & Karen above) they are a major blessing to me. Every Christmas for the past 3 years, they've invited me to come out with their family into the big mountains of Sun River Oregon and get away.
Man, do I need the time away. Things have been amazing lately, at the same time so many miracles and things have happened in the last few months I really need these next few days to simply reflect, wind down, find my center, have some good laughs, eat some great food, catch some fresh slopes, catch up with some wonderful family friends and have some sweet walks w/ Jesus in the beautiful snow :)
It's when we are away from the noise, that we can hear His voice and find our center. We all need time away to find our true selves. Don't be afraid to stop, be silent, reflect and listen. I'm looking forward to these next few days...
There are a few people in life that you will actually die for, Carl for me is one of them. We've only known each other for about 1 year now, but our chemistry, calling and commitment to one another is something that only heaven could have brought together. It's almost like we both walked the same paths in life, but finally found each other in our late 20's. Together, I feel like we are unstoppable and able to take over the world for Christ. He's only been a born again Christ follower now for 1 year, but homeboy is ON FIRE, carries the WISDOM of GOD and truly LOVES and LIVES LIKE JESUS.
Carl and I have been demon busting Hollywood into Holy-wood in the last year daily. He's the man with the rolodex, I'm the man who goes in for the spiritual kill.... since we've partnered up we've seen so many industry people come to know God in a radical way. We started a simple church in Hollywood & it's grown every week, touching lives, changing hearts and saving souls. We've now started more of these (GBS ~ Greatest Bible Study on Earth) in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea and the revolution in media & entertainment continues. It's FUN to be able to go on adventure with the Holy Spirit, seeing miracles everyday happen with a comrade, a brother, a team.... for two is always better than one!
I'm thankful for my brother Carl, he has made me a better man. We all need a brotha or sista from another motha. Life is a journey, don't walk it alone.
ON THE SET FOR OUR NEW MUSIC VIDEO "THANK YOU" W/ JIN THE MC AND MYSELF PREACHING ON BEATZ...WORD.
Dear Campus Leaders and Student Missionaries, I want to personally invite everyone of you reading this letter to seriously pray and seek God's will in attending our national student church planting gathering
"STUDENT CPX CONCENTRATE" at UNLV in Las Vegas Jan 16-19th. This will be a strategic and prophetic gathering of campus leaders and student missionaries who have a passion to establish houses of prayer & simple church movements to bring revival, reformation and revolution to their college and universities. This is a clarion call to those apostolic and prophetic forerunners on our campuses today, to those of you reading this who have a strong call to raising up 24-7 prayer rooms and a passion for starting new missional communities to reach this generation.
We need
REVIVAL. We need
CHANGE. We need a
REVOLUTION of JESUS CHRIST on our universities today. The campus is the most strategic mission field. It has and always will be, because if you can change the campus today, you can reach the world tomorrow. The future of our nation and the future of the nations are on our university door steps. The current body of Christ on most campuses is asleep, having fellowship & fun, but not contending for HEAVEN ON EARTH as turning our campuses upside down with the power of the Holy Spirit and the anointed preaching of the holy Gospel as we should. We need to RISE UP! Now is the time, 2009 will be a year of MIGHTY HARVEST and we need to come together as campus leaders & student missionaries who are willing to lose our lives for the sake of our generation to be saved. We need to start
PRAYER ROOMS, be equipped in
POWER EVANGELISM and be launched to
PLANT SIMPLE CHURCHES to fulfill the Great Commandment and Great Commission.
At
Student CPX CONCENTRATE our new
National Team Leader "ERIK FISH" and other national leaders will not only be used by God to equip you for the task, but will give you the ongoing spiritual support to succeed with other like minded student church planters. I highly encourage each of you to go, bring a new disciple and change history for God.
I support and ask each of you to support the new national team in putting on this strategic gathering to believe God for a new student missionary movement!
For His namesake,
Jaeson Ma
The hour has come for a new student movement to sweep college campuses across America and spread to be a blessing to the nations of the world. College students are:
Demonstrating the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit
Loving each other and living out the gospel daily
Baptizing other students in university dormitories
Preaching the gospel and healing the sick on campus
Starting simple churches on universities across America
God has placed a treasure inside YOU that is waiting to be released on your campus and in the world. Are you ready to live the adventure? Are you willing to love the lost with supernatural passion? Are you willing to give your life to see Jesus glorified in all the earth? Are you an adventurer with a heart to run to the darkness and see evil overcome with the power of love?
The adventure you've been longing for is here. We are calling for a student church planting movement to reach every college campus in America over the next five years.
"Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"
"Here am I, Lord. Send me."
You may feel small. You may feel weak. You may feel insignificant.
We say, "You are just the right person for God to use."
Will you go?
Register asap at: www.studentchurch.org & www.campuschurch.net
Dear Prayer Team,
Today I leave for South Korea, Seoul to preach and minister to a few thousand artist & entertainers. I will be going with a strategic mission team (Carl and Pastor Sam Lee). We need your dedicated prayers! This mission is heavy on my heart for a few reasons...
- New Revival Spirit in South Korea: When I preached in South Korea in September the power of the Holy Spirit was evident in a special way. There was a new spirit of revival and the hearts of both old and new were hungry for a new expression of church and revival. I believe a new wine is going to be poured out on this mission and a movement of new churches will be birthed in Korea to reach a new generation...
- Celebrity Suicides Heightened: There have been 2 major celebrity suicides in Seoul, Korea in the last few months. Celebrity suicide cases have been increasing in the last few years in the Korea media/entertainment industry. My heart is deeply saddened by these occurrences & on Dec 3rd we will be gathering 200-300 actors/artists for a solemn assembly of repentance and prayer to ask God to remove this spirit of death over celebrities/youth.
- Transformation in Korean Media & Pop Culture: Korean media and pop culture has now become an international phenomenon. On Dec 5th I will be speaking to over 2500 actors, producers, directors and entertainers to call them forth to radical passion and devotion to Jesus Christ and to release a vision to transform Korean media/entertainment for the Lord Jesus Christ before His imminent return. Pray that a spirit of holiness, supernatural faith, increasing hope and unconditional love is released amongst this community that will ultimately touch the world w/ new, holy, creative and positive films, TV shows, music, publications and most of all changed lives.
- Simple Church Training: Since we started our Hollywood Simple Church (GBS) we have seen other GBS churches started in HK, Taiwan and on this trip we will train our ministry partners there in Seoul Korea to start a simple church movement reaching out to artists in that city. Pray the training is effective, new souls are saved, disciples are made and a new church movement begins to reform pop culture in Korea. God's grace be in abundance!
Hong Kong Media Mission #2
Since we were in Hong Kong last, we have heard testimony after testimony of what the Lord has been doing in the lives of many artist in the media/entertainment field. We started a Artist Simple Church called the "LIGHT CLUB" and saw 6 new baptisms the first night. Different newspapers and magazines have reported that God is truly at work amongst artists in HK and many artists are giving testimonies of what amazing things the Lord has done in their lives to transform and bless others in the media industry. God is good!
I will be with our brother MC JIN shooting our new music video for our song "THANK YOU" in HK Dec 7-10th. Pray that God uses this music video to touch lives, change hearts towards abortion, and save countless destinies in Hong Kong and Asia. Read and pray below...
- Pop Icon - Sammi Cheng blog post & testimony on Nov 16th outreach in HK
- Pray that during our time in HK during those days that God will use us to encourage the believers in the entertainment industry
- Pray for revival to continue to spread in the HK media/entertainment changing lives from darkness to light
- Pray for favor with God and man, for protection from the enemy, for breakthrough in every meeting and encounter to further God's kingdom there
It is always an honor, a blessing and privilege to partner with each of you praying for this ministry. I'm reminded of how thankful I am to be on this adventure of God everyday when I wake up to another sunrise. Let's make this world a more beautiful place, by sharing the light and the life of Christ with all those we know each day. There is a time for everything under the sun. This weekend I had the blessing of enjoying time with family and old friends in the Bay Area with gratitude and thanks, tomorrow morning it will be a time of spiritual war and mission to contend for heaven on earth in Asia, specifically for the transformation of media/entertainment field. God be with us all, His mercy endures forever!
Blessings,
JMA
