The 2nd day of the Bible Crusade and the first C-YA Session
The second day of the Bible Crusade has started. Today as well, the venue was filled with the souls that God has prepared for the gospel.
The performances by the Gracias Choir for each session gifts the audience peace of heart. When Jin Young Park sang the hymn, “Amazing Grace”, every single member of the audience was completely captivated and were reminded of the grace that had washed away their sins.
Pastor Park continued his sermon series on the Prodigal Son of the parable of Luke 15. The Prodigal Son returned to his father house when he realized, “I will die here”. He was only able to return when he realized that his father was the only way for him to live. Pastor Park explained that we can look upon the cross only when we realize that our good works cannot wash away our sins and that we need a savior, Jesus Christ.
“In the trial for our sins, God has found us righteous. When God, the judge, finds something, then that is the finding. The difference lies in what we choose to believe in. Please do not reject the love of God. Jesus has received all the punishment for sin and our sins have been ended on the cross. That is the reason why God tells us that we are righteous.”
When Pastor said, “I am righteous”, everyone in the audience began to clap and responded loudly with “Amen!”
After the sermon was over, it was time for individual counseling. Many were able to empty and share their heart and ask questions that were in their mind.
“I attended the Crusade last year and when I heard that they were having the Crusade again this year, I decided to attend once again. Last year, I could not receive the word of God precisely. It was because I always thought we must do good and become good people to be righteous. However, I realized this year that all of our things have passed away and there is nothing more for us to do. I learned that I must cast away my thoughts and receive the word of God. Many people talk about Romans chapter 3 verse 23 but they do not mention verse 24. Pastor Park focuses on explaining verse 24. We have a problem seeing this because we live in the realm of time. However, God is living in the realm of eternity and that is why this word applies to us forever.” (Isaac Rodriguez, New York City)
“I love when Pastor Park talks about what the Bible teaches. Most people don’t realize these things, even pastors and church leaCarlders. They hear something but they don’t really explain it or go through it. Christ forgave us for our sins. Most people accept the fact but they do not really put this in their heart to believe it. So they do not have an answer in their hearts. Pastor Park was talking about this when he was lecturing about the Bible. I agree with him and that is so true. We cannot just know it but we must connect it to our heart by accepting the word. We must believe the word and then we can feel it and know that it is true.” (Carlos Rios, Brooklyn)
From morning until late evening, volunteers spread across the streets and promoted for the crusade. Their efforts to seek for lost souls to the very end was beautiful. As they promoted, the sadness and grief of their heart melted into thankfulness.
C-YA (Christian Youth Association)
In 1857, a young man by the name of Jeremiah Lanphier started to pray alone in his small chapel on Fulton Street. People that heard him praying alone came by and joined him in prayer. This started the trend of having prayer meetings at their businesses and in churches. This prayer eventually was connected to D.L Moody’s Mass Revivals. The prayer of one young man changed a city and then changed the country.
Just like how we invited pastors from all over the New York area for the CLF meeting in March, we started C-YA (Christian Youth Association).
Before the Bible Crusade, we visited many churches to invite the youths to this meeting and had mindset development sessions with them. Then, we had our first “Sesh” at the Metropolitan Baptist Church.
“When I first heard that we going to start C-YA, I was burdened in my heart because it was adding to the workload I had to shoulder along with my school work. However, our pastor told us that behind the burdens lies the blessings and those words made me want to challenge myself. At first, even the motto for our organization (Waking up the City that Never Sleeps) seemed to vague and like a dream. However, we could see God opening the hearts of the people in front of us every time we took a step forward by faith. We are so thankful that through C-YA, we can reach out to people that we reach out to before. (Grace Kim, Manhattan)
Pastor Terry gave his testimony of how he met God in his life and explained the heart of God towards us through Matthew 22.
“People try to change themselves. But they come to soon realize that it is impossible. A person must receive a new heart to truly change. The king invited all the people in the highways to his son’s wedding feast because he wants to give them a new heart and freedom. That is why God washed away all of our sins forever: he wanted to give us freedom. The garments that the king provided is the righteousness of Jesus. When we do not try to accomplish anything ourselves but rely only upon the works of Jesus, we receive strength from the heart of God.”
Students who would pay no attention to the world of the heart had their interest kindled. Many of them expressed that if they did not come to C-YA and participate in its activities then they would have spent their entire time at home playing video games and flowing towards the flesh.
We have great expectation in C-YA, which will revive the hearts of the youth and unite the young Christians