Day 15

1 Thessalonians 4:3

It is God's will that you would be sanctified.

Sanctified means to be set apart, holy, free from sin, consecrated.

God wants us to pray to him and he also wants us to live a pure and holy life.

If we are having trouble with such a thing as this, we need to pray that he may reveal this to us.

God promises us all over the Word that he will answer us.

He told us that anything that is asked in His name and according to His will will be answered in His timing because he knows what's best for us.

Matthew 7:7 is one of the promises, "Ask and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you." All we have to do is ASK.

Asking takes another step and effort also. It takes confidence. When we pray, we need to pray confident prayers. Prayers knowing and trusting God that he will reveal himself to us, bring us into a deeper level with Him, loving others,  and freeing us from anything that holds us down.

Psalms 51:10 -- Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

When we pray we need to start off with sincerity and truth, going to Him and asking him to renew the Spirit that gets so easily entangled with worldly passions and allow the spirit to stand firm in the faith and knowledge of God.

It is God's will for us to be sanctified, now it's our choice to allow God to do this miracle in our life or not.

Day 12

Romans 12:11

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Amen.

Day 11

1 John 5:13

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Many people look at this and say this is not true. This "religion" everyone follows is false because I will only believe it if I see God. And eternal life? Please stop living in fantasy world. 

People always want to hear about the unusual and the spectacular. They want to hear about everything exciting and what's more exciting than hearing about the Truth, the word of God?

Yes, it seems like just a Bible filled with words written by dead people who proclaimed they were inspired by God. But in the Bible are amazing things that talk about everything for our lives, now that's unusual. Where in the world will we find a book like that, ever?

Jesus dying on the cross for us is even more spectacular. We will never again see a human being suffer and shed his blood for the sake of mankind. Now that's love. Excitement mixed with love? Even better.

Many think Christian life is boring, that Christians just pray and go to church and sing hymns. That may be true in some aspects but there's so much more to this walk then meets the eye and  some people just haven't seen it yet.

Day 10

Revelations 7:13-14

"Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes -- who are they, and where did they come from?" ... "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

Revelations 6: 9

"...I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained."

We all know that suffering for good is always worth it and of some kind of value.

Wouldn't it be awesome if someone were to know you as a person who followed the two verses up there? To say, though all the trials and tribulations have been put in front of him, he withstood is with the power of God, maintained his faith, and were able to claim victory over the devil. His testimony is that he remained faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Day 9

Revelations 4:8

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.

How amazing is it that we have the wonderful privilege to say this to the most highest of highs, the King and our father.

From the beginning he deserves all the glory, and in Heaven, that's exactly what everyone is doing, spending eternity with him. Giving him all the praise and honor and worshipping him with spirit and in truth.

We do that now, back in our churches, in our retreats and conferences and most of come back stating that it's always a blessing. It's always so great to see the people of God sing in one accord, lifting up their hands, and crying out to God. We always have an awesome time doing that and it's always such a spirit filled moment. Now imagine that in Heaven, how would it be like?

And how do we get into heaven? It's simple, just open the door of your heart and let Jesus Christ come in. Revelations 3:20 states, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the odor, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

God only rebukes the ones he loves, and he shows them his care and grace for them. We have the most precious gift of all and let's not take it for granted.

Day 8

Revelation 1:8
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

John 7:17

"If anyone many will do his will, then he must know the doctrine."

If we want to be certain of God, we have to believe first and then we will be certain. Reversing the order will be insulting to God. Someone may say, "Well, I will only believe if I have proof" But God says, "I ask you to believe because I am speaking." That is the only way we will be able to witness God and experience him. 

If we don't fully believe that he is God, has is he going to reveal himself to us.

If we have doubts, how are we able to let God work through us even if we wanted to.

There are many passages in the Bible which are absurd if read by an unbeliever because things like that just cannot happen in our lifetime. But we believe that all things are possible through God, we believe that even donkeys can talk, and that everything that is written in the Bible is true no matter how crazy it sounds.

I'm about to read Revelations and for one thing, that's the only book in the Bible I actually never read. Reason being could be because I never got the chance to, I'm a little scared because it talks a lot about the end times, and some things may be hard to believe.

But I do believe in the God who created the heavens and the earth who gave us a purpose for living this life. Therefore, all the words written, I pray that I would understand through wisdom and knowledge from God and believe all is true.

Day 7

1 John 5:16

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.

When I first read this verse I was SO confused. What does that mean? There is such thing as sin that does not lead to death. And they should be prayed for? I did not get what that meant.

Then I read on and it said, "All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death."

So what sin is it? Does that mean some sin is better than others? A little baffled here.

From reading a couple of things, the answer one would give is 

Sin that does not lead to death is sin that is within our inborn nature. Sin that can never be removed but we can pray about it so that we would stay away from anything sinful in our being.

Sin that leads to death is sin that is almost intentional. For example, stealing, adultery, lying, etc. These things can be controlled and we will be punished for any of our wrongdoings because these things we are able to stop.

Hm, that is so true. Let's say I have a bad thought in my head about murdering something, I'm able to pray for God to let me love the person and try with His strength to help me do something about it. After all, it's in my inborn nature to want to take revenge and do something not worthwhile, but if I actually committed the act of murdering somebody then that leads to punishment which leads to death.

Hm, I sort of kind of understand it a little more now. Hopefully I'll understand more about it as I read on.

Day 6

1 John 2:6

Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.

What a dare! What a challenge! Whose ready to take up this challenge?

What does it take to "walk as Jesus did"?

- 1 John 1:5 - "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all....If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another..."

- 1 John 2:3 - "... obey his commands. The man who says 'I know Him' but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him."

- 1 John 2: 15 - "Do not love the world or anything in the world... The world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

- 1 John 2:27 - "... remain in Him."

- 1 John 3:7 - "... he who does what is right is righteous."

- 1 John 3:11 - "... we should love one another."

- 1 John 3:18 - "Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

These are just a few. They don't sound too hard, but in this world, we have obstacles we need to face in order to stay faithful to walking as Jesus did.

-The world is darkness. 

-Satan is powerful.

-We were born with sin.

If we can take up this challenge, it's like fighting the right battle. We are fighting a battle that is worth fighting for and in the end we will be rewarded for it.

Day 4

2 Peter 3:15 

Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means s a l v a t i o n...

How amazing is that. God has extended his invitation for us into his kingdom and he is patiently waiting until those he has chosen to be with him eternally will finally turn their life around to choose eternal life for good.

Sometimes our memories need to be refreshed (1:13), to really remind ourselves that we are not the ones waiting for God to meet with us but instead God is waiting for us to finally go to him for everything instead of this world. He wants us to realize that after turning to every corner of this world, we will never find the life we want until we go to Him. He is giving us the time we need to reflect over our lives and what we need to do to use it to glorify him.  He wants us to realize that "His divine power has given us everything we need for life...(1:3)."

It's all written in the Bible, that we have to 

   "... make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. (2 Peter 1: 5)"

How much greater is that then to be "slaves of depravity -- for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. (2 Peter 2:19)". We want to be slaves to righteousness instead of slaves to sin. We want to add value into our lives and Jesus Christ is the only missing element needed for the value to be complete.

Now, people wonder and ask, God is real, and he breathed into men what to write into Scripture. But people are not perfect so they must've made a mistake when writing this holy book. Not so, because "for prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)"

There is no way that everything in the Bible could've been a mistake. It was all written the way God intended it to be and just enough for us to understand the concept and just enough information to make us want to yearn for more and to learn more about the truth.

All that we need is in the Bible, and the Bible lets us know that the invitation of grace is extended out to us, how blessed are we!

Day 3

1 Peter 3: 15
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respsect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good beahavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

As I was reading this book, many things stood out to me, but this was in particular.
I remember back then people asked me, "Joan why are you always so happy?" and things of that nature. Or "Joan, why do you really believe in God and go to church every Sunday?"

I used to answer them very blankly. Not really knowing exactly why I did, I knew why but I didn't know how to put it in words. My response to them would be ... blank stare, clueless sort of... and say "Just cus." or ".. Because of God." But those were such vague answers, answers that can not show anyone why I really do what I do, how I feel how I feel and how God can be revealed through that.

So what is my real reason for hope that I have? While I was reading the chapter, I read it again a couple of times to understand the Bible's reason for hope, the reason to always do good and suffer for it.

1 Peter 2:25 --"...By his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."
1 Peter 4:3 --"For you have spend enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do..."

The 2 verses above speak about how we were before we had a relationship with God. We were like sheep going astray. We were doing things displeasing to God. And what I realized was that, none of that had purpose. It wasn't worth it although it was fun at the moment. Where was the value? What are we going to gain from that or how can we help others with that?

We want to "suffer for what is right (3:14)" and we will be blessed.

On top of that, after already knowing the truth, and knowing how important it is to live a holy life, 1 Peter 4:7 says to "be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray."
We have to turn away from things that keep us away from God, so that we are able to go with him just as we are, sincerely and earnestly to pray to God and ask him for his mercy and grace.

When we go to God and pray to him, we have the priviledge of "(5:7) Casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." Doesn't that make us feel so great, to know that we do have a God who truly cares for us.

Lastly, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? (4:18)"

Man, hearing that kind of makes me scared. I remember someone once told me,
"Joan, if you were to turn bad, what would the rest of world be like."

God entrusted us to follow Him and the least we could do is that.

Day 2

James 5:11

As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered.

Only by faith and my dependence on God will I persevere the goal I have set for myself.

Just like Job persevered and have seen what the Lord had finally brought about. And just like Elijah who prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three and a half year, then he prayed again and the heavens gave rain.

If we persevere and remain faithful, God will answer our prayers of faith and he will bless us.

Before having the need to persevere, we will have to face trials of many kinds. And this is all so that we may be refined by fire; that our faith may have greater worth than gold. This will prove that our faith is genuine. We need to "Be holy, because I am holy" (1 Peter 1:15).

Also if we can persevere in the small tasks God has entrusted us with, then we would definitely be able to overcome the larger ones, and of course, all through the power of God.

Day 1

1 John 5:5

Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

What am I thinking? That I can overcome the world on my own. That I, out of everyone else in the history of mankind can try to fight the world immediately and hope that it will be done. Obviously I learned that I am no where near strong enough because I am definitely using it with my own strength. The best solution: Run away. The Bible says "flee from evil desires."

I never realized how weak I am and how powerful this world is. "The world conquers and masters everyone who is born into it, for indeed we have been born in sin and 'shapen in iniquity'.

Psalm 51:5 -- "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my  mother conceived me."

This means the world is in us the moment we were born, how powerful. 

All this time, I come before God thinking, I'm righteous enough, I'm holy enough and there is not much farther I can strive, but no, "There is none righteous, no not one (Roman 3:10)". And I'm only starting to understand this concept now. The whole world is guilty before God (Romans 3:19), and now I really understand that yes I am definitely guilty before God, the more I search myself, the more is revealed, the sinful nature in me. 

We who believe in Jesus Christ, the son of God has this precious gift and it is called faith. We have the ability to exercise this faith and put it into practice. This faith is a force and strength and power that we do not have on our own but through God alone. 

And through this, we have and are overcoming the world.

The Savior

And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
-1 John 4:14

When people are asked what does "Savior" mean to you, many times, they would say someone who is here to help, assist, lead, or teach a person. Let's say, someone is about to drown after falling off a boat and a lifeguard comes along and saves this person, immediately their reaction would be, "Whoa you're my savior!"



Many times this word is taken lightly. The Bible says that Savior means more than just a mere helper. The dictionary states that savior means, someone who saves, rescues, or delivers. Jesus Christ is the one who saves the world and everything in it. Isn't that amazing?

That means we have a person who had died on the cross for us, paid for our sins, and did it all because he loves us. That also means he will be here every step of the way, not just to encourage us and lead us in our Christian faith but be there in every part of it together with us.

So whenever we are afraid, Jesus is here to watch over us. If we are happy, he will laugh with us. He is just like a friend but more than one because he is our savior.

If only we knew the depth of our sins, we would just appreciate this gift of Jesus Christ even more, and really take our Christian living seriously.

Jesus Christ did not just die on the cross for us to save the people in His time, but even for people now and generations to come. This death was the most painful death and it was one no human would be able to bare, so we have to learn to take this seriously, really live the life according to His will, and praise God for this gracious gift.

Trust and Obey

We know that we live in Him and He in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. -1 John 4:13

Because God's spirit dwells in us, we can receive God's blessing, but when? We never know because it always happens during God's timing. The gift is given by God in His own way and time; this gift does not come of necessity at once. It is God's gift, and He knows when to give it and when to withhold it. On our parts, all we have to do is pray and stay consistent with his word, and just trust and obey.

The Spirit dwells in us once we accept him into our lives, and in time, he'll work in us and through us at any time of the day.

It makes me think of "The Heavenly Man", and brother Yun would pray for hours, weeks, months, and almost years, to ask for ONE Bible because he knew it was the truth. It didn't come to him when he wanted it, he had to fast, pray, cry, beg for the Bible and finally one day God revealed himself in the most miraculous way. But all he did was trust and obey, and wait.

I feel that in my life, the Spirit is already in me, he works through me all the time even without me realizing it. But there are still some things I need to stay consistently faithful to Him and to trust Him that he will make things happen. I need to live my life accordingly, and like Brother Yun, really be earnest and urgent about it. And until that day happens, I'm going to wait and be excited that God is going to work wonders because he dwells in not just me, but so many around me!

We're being dealt with.

Shining as Stars

12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Are we aware of the fact that we are being dealt with; it is not that we decide to do things.

"Moralists and religious conformists are doing it all themselves, and that is why they are so proud of themselves. They get up on Sunday morning instead of spending the morning in bed, and they go to church. They do it because they have decided to do it, not because they have been moved. They are in control the whole time; and having done it, they preen themselves with their wonderful, ennobling ideals."

Sounds sort of self absorbed, they can do it on their own, independent kind of mentality, no?
For me, I know that God has been working through me and in me in all different ways possible these past couple of month. But in me, I still have that sense of I can do everything all by MYSELF mentality and I'm afraid to ask for help, or it's more like I'm too stubborn to. But from the quote above, I realized the mentality I had before, it was to dress up Sunday's best for God and I was letting God allow me to dress nicely for Him. He was my focus. More and more as months passed by I let the idea of God slip away from my mind and I get up on Sunday morning because I decided to do it and I decided to wear something nice. It no longer became a God thing but a me thing.

God said it is God who works in us to WILL and to ACT according to his good purpose.
That means we are aware of the power of God dealing with us, surging and rising within us, and we are amazed and astonished.

I don't want to be a moralist or a religious conformist, I want to be the one who can say, "In everything I do, God is working in me." He's the one who causes me to act the way Iact and he's the one who causes me to will also.

And out of all this, "It is not I. This is not the sort of person I am. It is God doing something; it is Christ dwelling within me; it is the Holy Spirit who is in me. I am taken up beyond myself, and I thank God for it."

Every time I see the work of God working in me, I get so moved, astonished and it just draws me into more mystery about why God would choose such a horrible person like me because I really don't deserve any of this, especially now.
I don't want to forget the Holy Spirit, I don't want to forget God and have him stop working in me, and in order to do that, I must let Him instead of letting myself walk in this journey called life. I'm willing to let God work, and I know many times I still want to do things my way, but I know that way would lead to disaster.

Lord, please let me know that you're the one dealing with me and let me allow you to because I know I can't do it alone and I know that if I continue to do it on my own, it's not going to look good.
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I thought this was kind of funny. Maybe Batman has even heard this verse, Phillipians 2:12 before, cus he used it the right way. If we want to damn ourselves, then we do it on our own.

In His Time.

"For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised." [Hebrews 10:36 (Amplified Bible)]

On Tuesday, 10/21, I was in school waiting to return a laptop. The line was so long, there was a shortage of workers, and it was just taking up too much of my time. I started tapping my feet and getting a little impatient.

Nichonar was standing next to me and said, "you need to be patient".
I said, "Well it's wasting my time and I'm going to get to class late."
He said, "You got to wait on God's timing instead of yours. Hebrews 10:36," and so he whooped out his pocket Bible and showed to me.
I said, "Haha, funny, God's timing is going to get me to class late"

It was something like that. But I just disregarded it and went along and did my own thing.

Later on during the day I was rushing somewhere, and George was walking extremely slow. I told him I like to get from place to place quickly, we're business people in a business world, I'm impatient. Everything he was doing was slow. He was thinking slow, walking slow, and it got me quite impatient because he was just taking too long. so I said George, you're taking too long, and he said something about being more patient. It was just small talk.

By the end of the day, around 6PM, Richard texts me and said "Patience and perserverance is key this week. Gluck studying."

Right away, something hit me and I was like, wtheck? Richard hasn't seen me or talked to me for a couple of weeks and that's the first text he sent me. Something must be going on. I must be crazy impatient. That was the end of it for the day, I just let it be and knew that I should be more patient.


On Thursday, 10/23, I went to 7:30AM IVCF Prayer Meeting. We were asked to for everyone to circle around and share something because that's something tha thasn't been done for a while.

It was funny because for that week I wasn't thinking too much, I didn't have much on my mind and I was just doing things to get things done. I didn't have much to blog about or post which is odd because on a weekly basis I always want to write about something but never have enough time to write about it, so it lays there, piled up in my forgetful train of thoughts. I was thinking really hard about what to share; nothing was really bothering me and severely striked me as of late. People were going around; some sharing very encouraging stories, others, about things they had to work on.

Finally the topic of patience popped into mind, so I decided to share, but what more about patience. God, you must've spoken to me about something this week. I know I learned something crazy this week. Help me out here.

So it started off like this;
I realize I am a very impatient person. Impatient in the sense that I don't like to wait for things to happen, I want it to happen soon.

Waiting for a laptop on a school line, I can't stand it, it takes way too long.
People walking way too slow or thinking too slow, it gets me just a little tense, I need to get to my destination and I want to get there quick.
Last but not least, I realized God is trying to teach me patience while waiting on souls to be saved.

The past month I've been extremely grateful for my friends to even STEP IN to a church building. It makes me so excited and happy that souls that I've been praying for have took action even if it is for the wrong motive. It just makes me glad to see that they don't mind being around this environment and they are not too much against it. Even if I don't see them change or see them realize that God is good, it still makes me glad that they are accepting what I believe in, well sort of, because they don't really care. But that's something else.

The past month gave me hope; that hope to know that God never fails me and I just have to hold onto his promises. It's hard because I know that he will bring my friends to him, but when? Because it's taking forever. The fact that my friend who never enters church for 10 years but just for once a year events, and another friend who comes to see her friends even if it is in a church building makes me know that I shouldn't give up, keep going, keep enduring, have patience and God will definitely work for the good of those who love Him.

God's tell me I have to be patient when doing His work and I have to do things in His timing and not mine. My feelings will never bring me far, but His plans will; but until then, I must presevere using God's strength because I cannot do this on my own.

"The Hebrews badly needed both conviction and perseverance to meet and overcome their problems. These virtues go hand in hand, and they really cannot be separated because we operate on a different concept of time than does God. Compared to God, we operate on fast time. Almost everything in our lives seems to have to be done or received right now, or faith begins to evaporate and we lose heart. True faith, though, operates in a rhythm closer to what God does because, due to conviction, it is more in tune with Him.
Therefore, a convicted person not only believes that what God says is true, but he also trusts and willingly endures trials in an attitude of realistic hopefulness. He does not restlessly complain to God to fix things right away on his schedule. A person develops conviction by thoughtfully processing a great deal of God's truth and yielding to the evidence He provides."
ref: http://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/30170/eVerseID/30170

Then, when I receive His promise, I will be the most JOYFUL person in the world. You have no idea.

God said is, and BANG it happened.

This is my Bible Study prep//disregard it - no need to read it.

Questions like 1) Why aren't dinosaurs mentioned in the bible,
2) What about cavemen?
3) What should you do in class if the teacher starts talking about how the world began?

We're going to learn how to answer questions like these using our number one source , The Bible, which we depend on for all the answers.

[Chapter 1]
Why Begin at the Beginning?

What do you think about the phrase: Everything has a Beginning. Is it true?

Stories, People, and Stuff do.

What about the universe?

Every effect has a cause.

If that's not true, then either, 1) You don't exist
2) You have always existed
3) You created yourself.

Think about the universe, if there was no effect, then, 1) The universe doesn't exist
2) The universe has always existed.
3) The universe created itself
OR 4) The first cause.

There has to be a "First Cause" because:
-Everything in the universe has a cause.

So either 1) The universe is the first cause or 2) God is.

God is the reasonable answer because he is only being who ever lived who is self existent.

Self existent: God has no beginning and therefore no cause. By definition, every efet must have a cause, but God is not an effect. He has always been and He will always be. God does not need outside support to exist. King David understood this when he wrote; "Before the mountains were created, before you made the earth and the world, you are God, without beginning or end. (Psalm 90:2)

So what if he's self existent and he is the beginning? What's the big deal? Why do we need to know this?
-You don't have to believe that the universe came here by accident or by chance.
- You can put your faith in a personal God rather than some kind of "impersonal force" or "cosmic energy."
-You can trust the Bible, because the Bible is the only "holy book" that correctly describes how the universe began.
-You can believe that God the First cause has unlimited capabilities, and that He chooses to use His power for your benefits and your future.

[Chapter 2]
So What's the Big Deal about God?

Shine Your Light.

(Romans 1:11-13 ) I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

Paul wrote this to the church in Rome to let them know how he felt about them. When I read this, I felt that it related to my life immediately because it's exactly what I'm going through.Paul said, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong -- that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith." In Paul's life, after he got saved and after he gave his whole life up for the sake of the gospel, his goal was to help others and let their faith increase. In my life, I love to help people, to see them grow makes me think of a mom taking care of her kid and being so proud of how she has raised him. After devoting so much time, focus, and attention to be a supporting friend to others, in turn, I would like to see them grow and to see that after all that hard work, we can mutually encourage each other instead of it just being a one way thing.

The past two weeks I have been very encouraged by a friend whom I've been talking to more. Seeing how she has grown in her spiritual life and how now we are able to communicate about anything with the same focus and goal in life makes me so happy. It allows me to see that there is a God who changes lives, who can do all things and that he will never forget about us. This, in turn, gives me hope to see my friends who still need to be fed in all different ways, that one day they would grow and understand, and one day the encouragements would not just be going one way but it would be going both ways.

On top of that, the past two weeks, working with TEAMLIGHT has been a blessing. Though my team wasn't big at all, it was actually just one-to-two people helping me per day, it was a blessing to see how they've gotten out of their comfort zone so fast. In the first week, I had Renee in my team, and we both went out to do outreach and try to get raffle tickets signed. in the beginning she was telling me how she was very uncomfortable doing this, she wasn't good at outreaching and she wasn't good at talking to people. So we did it together so that I could help her and encourage her in becoming more bold for Christ. On Thursday Nichonar was on my team and I also went out with him individually to help him and to show him how to speak to others and how to reach out to others using raffle tickets. He said the first time he ever did it, he didn't know what to say to people, how to approach people, and what to do when they asked questions. After a couple of runs doing it with him, he became more comfortable approaching people. So although my team wasn't big, I got to work individually with two great people who were opened in taking the next leap of faith, evangelism.This week, which is a week later, we had to continue on doing our TEAM LIGHT outreach. In my mind, I really wanted our team to show that as Christian, we are considered light of the world, we can shine no matter how weak we are, for Paul said, when we are weak, then we are strong. So what really made me smile was, on Monday I went to Renee's small group to support her while she leads. She was talking about boldness and how we should pray and fast to do things even like evangelism and how important it was. On Wednesday when I went out with her to do outreach again, she said she didn't mind doing it by herself anymore, in fact, she actually went by herself the other day and started from the 13th floor and was outreaching all the way down. I was so proud and happy to see that after just a little push and encouragement, she turned around and encouraged me all the more. On Thursday, Nichonar was the same thing. After more information and understanding how to reach out, he was able to go on his own and talk to other people more comfortably. Though he still needed a lot of work he said, it was getting a lot better.

These two things really made me smile, to see that people I invested some time in helping, God worked for the good. It reminds me that I should never give up in helping a soul, helping a friend, helping someone God calls their child, because in the end, it will all be worth it.

"Did you pray about it?"

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18).

Praying always means pray at all times, on every occasion (whether it is outside, inside, hot, cold, whether your sad or happy, whatever it is), inwardly without ceasing. Many times we pray for just the requests that would come true to us, a prayer for ourselves, but we need to pray for others, pray for the world, pray for God's kingdom, pray to thank God and worship him, etc.

In the Spirit means letting the Spirit lead, guide, direct, and help us to know what we have to pray for, because the Bible says "...we do not know what we ought to pray for but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."
We need to be alert by seeing how God is currently blessing us with answered prayer requests while we are praying right now.

I thought about prayer recently, how I haven't been doing the actual kneeling down and praying or really just devoting one special time of praying to God. This verse says to pray continuously, and in my mind I know I'm praying continuously about how I should be as I continue my day on with God by my side.

Recently I've been talking to others about my "job dilemna" and it's so crazy how the first question people ask is, "Did you pray about it?" I guess God's really trying to tell me something that I NEED to pray and it's a must, not just to pray about the issue itself, but to continue to develop that loving relationship with him. It really encouraged me and touched me to see my friends help me include God in my life as they are trying to include God in theirs. Normally that question is a question we don't want to hear, but prayer is definitely powerful and through prayer, I know that God has got my back.

How much love?

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law." Romans 13:8


The bible tells us to love love love and to let that be the only thing that you never stop doing.

I was reading about the verse and stumbled upon this, I thought it was explained wonderfully!:

"Did not our failure to meet our obligations to God and man accrue for us an unpayable debt? Now that the debt has been paid, we are obliged not only to strive to avoid further indebtedness, but also to expand and perfect the giving of love.

This paradox is more apparent than real, because love is not an added duty but the inclusive framework within which all duties should be done. Love is the motivating power that frees and enables us to serve and sacrifice with largeness of heart and generosity of spirit."
(Copied from "http://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/28275/eVerseID/28277"

Recently I've been thinking about care. My problem is that when I love someone or if I really care for someone, I'll show it to the most fullest extent. There are just a few people in my life that I care for like no tomorrow, I care for them so much that if something happens to them, it feels like it's happening to me also. If they are happy it makes me happier to see them happy. If they are going through some sort of emotional struggle, I'll feel them also and it hurts me a lot. Even if they don't consider me their friend I'll still feel for them.

An example; I have this friend who I care for VERY deeply whether this person notices or not. I treat this person like I'm living their life. I'll call this person Nancy for the sake of not naming their real name. There was one day Nancy came up to me and said that she was scared because she found out that she had some weird bodily condition and she never experienced anything like this before. Normally she's a very joyful girl, but that day, her mood was SO off and it was affecting me too because I felt her pain. That night during praise all I was thinking about was how God can help her in a time like this and how I, as a friend, can help her also. It was hurting me a lot and it made me tear to see her like this. I didn't know what to do but just to react normally and continue on being a regular friend, because that's all I could do -- listen to people's problems and nod. So recently Nancy has been exceptionally happy because there has been some positive changes in her life. Every day I see her, she has a smile on her face and this dream of hers was actually becoming reality. Seeing her eyes twinkling and grinning from one ear to the other couldn't make me any happier! When I love and truly care for someone, I feel everything they are feeling and I would truly go out of my way to always be their for them no matter what the cost is.

So the Bible tells us that that is love. He tells us to love one another and I'm pretty sure that means all. I love some. That "motivating power that frees and unables us to servce and sacrifice with largeness of heart and generosity of spirit", I have that only to limited people. Sometimes I feel that, hm that's life deal with it, I'm just a limited human being and I only have the ability to love some; other times I think, what if Jesus was to only specifically love some and not all? Yeah, that's not right, that's not what living this life is all about. Though I'm just mere human, I live a life to follow Jesus, he did it and because of Him, I should be able to do it also.

Lord, please help me to genuinely love & care for all and not some because I know Your love is unconditional and I want to share that with all those around me.

Proverbs 16:3 -- God got us.

Proverbs 16:3 (New International Version)
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

We must submit all our plans to God before it even gets executed; before during and after the situation all should be in God's hands before anything.

This is a verse that's always on my mind when I am doing something.

Though school is something I haven't really committed fully to God, I'm working on it with His help.
School is one of the things that is hard for me to focus on and to use to glorify God because my grades are just average and the amount of time I dedicate to school work is not enough.

As of right now, I don't know where I'm going in my college career and what I want to major in and what I want to do in the future. This is something I want to leave to God to take care of as long as I'm committing to my responsibility and following through with it. I know that God will never let me go and that he's there to guide and direct me every step of the way, I just have to walk in the light. :)

Galatians 5:1 -- FREEDOM :)

 

I wanted to start this blog site with a verse and while I was looking through my old book trying to find a good verse to put out there, I found th

is one. Why? Who knows.

In my own words, this verse says: 

Jesus died on the cross for us for a reason and that is so we can live an abundant life, to not worry about earthly things but to take up our cross and follow Him.

This verse really means:

Freedom is ours because of the accomplishment of Christ. Paul didn't tell his readers to fight to be free through work&deed, but that we are already free. Back then, many false teachers had Galatian converts under intense social pressure to become Jews by being circumcised. Yoke of slavery means the law.

I think:

I read this verse and thought about my own life. About how free I've been and always will be because of the love of Christ. The reason why my life is always so "awesome" and how I can still continue and endure in this life is because of Christ's love for me. 

I thank God so much for raising me up in a Christian surrounding most of my life. It made me view life in such a different perspective. One that allows me to not let any problems, hardships, or trials hinder others or myself from seeing the glory of God. This verse is the exact reason why I don't worry 

and stress a lot and the only reason why I can put a smile on my face even when I'm not always in the mood. Knowing that God has always got my back, knowing that we are already free just gives me the assurance that everything is okay.

I read somewhere:

"Imagine a prisoner who is suddenly surprised to find out that he has been pardoned and set free. He did nothing to accomplish this. He was not even aware that is had happened. But there he stands outside the prison walls, a free man. Now it is his responsibility to live as a free man."