Hope

Spring brings hope to my heart no matter what the challenges are.  Even if others say otherwise, I still go on.  Patient endurance.

I was led to the Book of Revelations on my reading this morning and I felt at peace.

“This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.”  Revelation 14:12

No one but God can stop me from doing everything I can to fulfill my God-given destiny.  I am living up to my potential.  My potential will be an actual from now on.  Thank You Lord.

May the Spirit of the Lord come back to me.  This time in battle gear.  For I will not let anyone ever steal my dreams again.  This is the time to work and fulfill those dreams.  Ephesians 6 will be my guide:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 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 Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Magical

If I have only known what I have to go through, I wouldn’t go.  But oddly, it’s been so magical!  I feel loved.  I love.  I have been taken care of–by God’s army of angels.  God You are good all the time.  Thank You for Your love.  It’s been a great year.  I’m looking forward to more greatness from the Lord.  In everything, to God be the glory!!! 🙂

Saved to Serve

[ Praise to the God of All Comfort ] Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV

Fellowship with other believers can serve as the light in a dark tunnel–that we are saved to serve.  We are comforted to comfort others.  We are loved by God and His love is overwhelming that we are compelled to love others as well.  Because we are loved, we are more patient with others.  We are more willing to serve others.

Have you ever been in love?  Don’t you want to make others happy when you’re in love?  That’s how it is to be loved by God.

Commission. I am listening to the live stream of Colour Conference in Sydney via Hillsong Church.  It hit me.  Commission is done not by one but by the rest of other believers.  When you plant the seed, sometimes God will just ask you to plant the seed.  Then He will ask another believer to water it, then another to water it again until it grows.  Just do what God asks you to do. 🙂

Lord God, thank You for opening up opportunities to know You more, for fellowship.  Empower us to share Jesus with others so that they, too will have abundant peace and love that can only come from You.  In Jesus’ mighty name.  Amen.

 

Connect

I attended my first official connect group.  I feel so happy.  Like I can see clearly again.  Thank You Lord for making this happen.

My takehome:

1.  Pharisees, saducees, sanhendrins were created because they want the favor of God to go back to Israel.  For years, during the times when there’s Judah and Israel, the prophets warned them that God would abolish the kingdom if the people would continue to disobey God until such time when God has abolished the kingdom.  So to have the favor of God, to have the kingdom again, group of Israelites wanted to make sure that they would now follow the commands of God so God would favor them once more so that the kingdom will be built once more.  The Roman empire ruled Israel that time.

2.  People were expectant that God would bring the Messiah–the One who will save them just like David and all the other kings before.

3.  Pharisees and others were expecting a different Messiah because they were expecting that Jesus if He were the Messiah would recruit them instead because they are supposed to be closer to God because they follow God’s commands.

4.  As saved by Christ, we should reach out to others and show the love of God through our actions and love towards them.

5.  Share Jesus with others.  Go and make disciples. 🙂

6.  In connect groups the focus is taken out of ourselves we focus instead to Jesus. 🙂

7.  Because we are grateful for the love of God, we share it to others 🙂

3 Months

It’s been three months now.  Away from home.  I have appreciated Philippines more now that I am here.  But this place has been growing in me.  I know that if ever I would leave this place, I would miss this, too.

Everything that happens to us can teach us a lesson or two.  It’s just a matter of perspective.

Do not assume.  It’s better to be sure than to assume and make mistakes.  Have faith, yes, but do not assume i.e. have faith that God will give you someone who will love you–a reflection of God’s love for you but do not assume that this particular person is the one for you unless there is a confirmation.  What is that confirmation?  If that guy would actually lay down his intention for you. 🙂

Do not give up.  Starting over is hard.  But it will get easier somehow.

To a grateful person, nothing is wasted.  Avoid being proud.  Remind yourself about  humility.  There is a lesson you can learn from everything.  There is something good in everyone..

Without God, I am nothing.  Everything happens with God’s permission.  He knows what us happening in our lives. 🙂  It is His grace that all these favors have been given to me.

Wherever you are, if God is with you, you will be okay no matter what.  My loneliness and homesickness caused me to seek God more.  There are moments though that I feel okay.  How God loves me.  How God has been teaching me so many things–like how to love, like how to trust Him more.

Love these people.  God wants me to love the Australians by introducing Jesus to them.  I hope that there will be opportunities to do that and that I will finally overcome our language barrier so I can communicate with them more.

Walk by faith and not by sight.  The hand of God is upon my situation.

Surrender to God’s will because His plans are the best.  As Eli would say, “He is the Lord.  Let him do what he thinks is best.” (1 Samuel 3:18).

I anticipate what God is about to do in my life.  I am sure of the blessings He is about to give me–something great is coming my way and it’s going to be good 🙂

Courageous

I’ve watched two movies last night–October Baby and Courageous.  What a great monday night, right? 🙂

I was inspired to think about this on love:

Don’t worry about love, for love will find its way into the hearts of two people meant to be…trust that love will find its way 🙂

A love that you do not have to force.  That’s the beauty of love, it will happen on its own.  Staying in love takes commitment, though.  Loving a person is always painful because you’re opening up yourself to this person.  With this person you are vulnerable.  And as much as you want to, no one is perfect–everyone is flawed.  And these flaws hurt.  Except for the love of God.  God loves us and will never hurt us.  He may allow painful things to happen to us but it is always for our own good.  He only wants the best for us.  He will not let you cry by selfishness because He is selfless that He gave His life for us just to save us.  God’s love is restoring, refreshing, oh-so-good, it is gentle.  It is kind.  It is patient.  Read 1 Corinthian 13 and you will know the kind of love that God has for us.

In the final moments in October Baby movie, the girl was walking away from her father towards her dormitory with her boyfriend.  They were about to hold hands when the girl looked back first to her father then hold her boyfriend’s hand.  The girl loves her father more than she loves her boyfriend.  That’s how I would want to be if I enter into a relationship/marriage.  I want to keep God at the center–the first in my life, my One and Only God.  I don’t want to fall into idolatry.  I will always want to choose God over any other.

Transformed

God has transformed my heart. Looking forward, expectant of His blessing. More blessings and favors to come.

Thank You Lord for changing my heart. 🙂

Presence

Opening my heart to someone is really scary.  That is why it should be heavily guarded.  But same is true with the mind.  So we should guard it, too.

Never let me go astray

Let me rest in Your presence

The world is harsh

My heart deceived

My mind running wild

Don’t want to listen to them anymore

Just want to listen to your voice

In Your presence I am at peace

I am loved

I feel fine

I am safe

Don’t let me insist my own way anymore

Give me the grace to listen and obey You at all times

God I am tired

Let me rest in Your presence

You are still way better than any of this

I will be forever Yours

That has been my prayer and thoughts these past few days.

A Little More

Follow God’s example on how to love.

I can see the hand of God at work in my life.  But it would be better if He will allow me to get what I want, right?  But He knows better and I trust Him.  I am surrendering my will to His will.  For things are falling into place–like something has been revealed to you and that you have seen how everything is unfolding.

God is teaching me on love.  How to love God more and how I should love others through God’s example.

Based on what I’ve been reading lately:

Love is an action.  It’s not a feeling.  It is a decision.  It is action.  It is more than attraction and arousal.  It is a decision.  Loving one another is a command from God.  We can’t command our feelings though.  So love is not a feeling but an action.  “If love were just an emotion, then God could not command it.  But love is something you do.  It can produce emotion, but love is an action.” (Rick Warren)

Love is a choice.  You must choose to love.  You may have been brought to this moment.  You may feel like you have no choice.  But really, when it comes to love, you have a choice.  That is why we have free will.  God wants us to freely choose to love Him.

We love because God first loved us.  It’s a fact of life.  You go into a relationship if you know that that person loves you.  You’ve got to love each other.  But sometimes we are asked to show love to others even if they do not love us.  And we can do that because the source of our love is the love of God for us.  We can show kindness because we know how to love and love is kindness.

Love is a skill that can be learned.  The only way to be great at loving is to love.

Love is a habit.  We are called to love everyone even the unlovable.  It can only happen through God.  If we receive God’s love in our lives, we can then learn to love others.

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part,¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13 NIV)

What a great passage!  I’ve been reading this passage for years now but it is only now that I come to understand this.  Thank You God for Your grace, for letting me understand what this means.  I love You Lord.  I choose to love You Lord.

On Love

God is teaching me about love.

First, He reminded me of the story of Ruth and Boaz.  It made me think of romantic love.  Somehow I was thinking of this possible Boaz in my life.  It’s a bit far-fetched but it is possible.  But I don’t want to fool myself.  I don’t even feel anything which is good because I want my heart guarded.  Then I realized that my Boaz is God Himself and not just any man.  Maybe, my Boaz is not just one person but several people–those who are kind enough to give me favor. 🙂

Then for the past few days, the verses on my devotionals are about 1 Corinthians Chapter 13.  Just like this one:

“…love is kind” (1Cor 13:4 NIV)

It’s not just one devotional, several of the devotionals I’ve been reading focus on love now.

I was thinking of this major decision in my life when God reminded me of Proverbs 21:21 which is:

“Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity^[a] and honor.”

When I feel like giving up, God reminded me to pursue loyalty.  Loyalty and love.  Wow.  Is that even possible?

Then this morning, the daily verse on my phone is again about love.  I should still praise God in whatever situation I am in.  I should praise Him in times of sadness, fear, discouragement and not just during times of comfort and happiness.  According to my spiritual sister, if the door is still close, we should praise God even in the hallway. 🙂  So that is the key to have my praise and worship of God.

I would always tell God that I love Him.  Then this is what I have realized, that if I truly love God, I should be kind and loyal and do all the attributes written on Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians.  I should trust God and surrender to His will.  I should not insist on what I want but on what God wants for me.  Let His will be done in my life.

I also learned that in times of discouragement and I’m about to give up, I should:

1. Get some rest.  Exhaustion can cause discouragement.

2.  Focus on God.

3.  Know that God is able.

4.  Know that God is willing.

5.  Do not give up unless God tells you to.

I also learned that when God blesses, He adds no burden to it.  I remember all the difficulties I have to face and how easy it is when God really wants to bless me.  It makes me think that God really wants me to be where I am right now.

I can feel that I am about to meet my spiritual family now.  Oh how refreshing it would be.  I am looking forward to Sunday’s service!  My soul thirsts to praise and worship God through music and prayers with other Christians.  Help me God.  Thank You for all Your blessings.  You are worthy to be praised!!!  Amen.