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.