I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church...
(Colossians 1:24)

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, "If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn't object!"

But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed-you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service.

We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

(Taken from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost For His Highest, September 30th entry)

Gosh, doesn't reading that just make you mad?! It upsets me because it's so true. "Use anything, speak to me directly, Lord, but don't use people!" It's a lot more humbling that way and I believe it takes a lot more faith and builds a lot more character and maturity.


Before my last tour through Iowa, I sat down with an older confidante, and dialogued about everything that was happening with me at Keynote. We talked about how I was doing, how tour was, but most of all, about what God was doing in my life and where He was leading me.

I shared that God had recently been increasing my burden for overseas missions and the pursuit of social justice. I told her that what I really wanted to pursue was music with a social conscience. I want to be part of a music ministry that couples music with outreach to the poor, or raises awareness of issues of social injustice that is happening in our world.

I told her about a Ten Shekel Shirt concert I went to up at Cornell University, back in 2004. That was actually the night Clearview, my former band, got to open up for them. That was a real treat!

Anyways, their concert was part of their "Stop the Traffic" tour, which involved raising awareness of the sex trafficking of children that was happening in southeast Asia. They had video footage of undercover ministry leaders whose specialties were to go into these areas and expose the leaders of these sex trafficking rings and bring them to justice. It was such an eye-opening experience and really showed me the unique power music can have in affecting change.


After I finished my story, I said to her, "that's what I want to do."


She thought that was great and encouraged me to not suppress the desires and passions God had put in my heart, and to go after them. He put them there for a reason and it took coming here to Keynote, to really bring that up to the surface. And it's true...if I never came here, I would've never realized what I really want to do with my life and the kind of ministry I'm looking for.

I've been pressed, crushed, and poured out. God is pressing and pressing me down, closing in on those things in my life that need to be squeezed out of me.

Back in New York, and just where I was in life prior to full-time ministry, lent me to take things like pursuing social justice and ethnic diversity for granted because it was all around me! But being here has been like a pressure cooker that God has used to make all these things bubble up to the surface.

He's used people, situations, and very difficult circumstances to bring all these things to light. I am being more well defined as to who God has created me to be. He is teaching me how to live out of that truth and how to live out of my identity in Christ. I should not be ashamed. I should not just try to "fit in" and suppress these desires and passions just because very few or no one at all, may share the same values as me.

No matter what, I do not serve Keynote. I do not serve man. I serve the Lord. He is my God and I am His son. I follow Him and am not tied or pinned to one particular organization or set of beliefs. All that I do should flow out of my relationship with Christ and He is leading me. Wherever He leads me is where I should follow.


God's still got a lot to do in me in my time here at Keynote, but I feel that this time here is just a season in life that may pass after this year's new placement.

Nevertheless, I cannot look beyond this time. I must prepare for the future while fully embracing the present, soaking in and receiving all that God has for me while here. I must face the challenges, stand up to the test, and go the distance. I am facing the wind, walking right into the storm, with my Lord strong right beside me.

May we rejoice in our sufferings, our crucibles, as we are crushed by His fingers so that we may be "broken bread and poured out wine."

This entry was posted by Christopher Wu, on Tuesday, October 03, 2006. You can leave your response.