Your Plans, Your Way

I find that sometimes I want things to go my way. That I have to make them happen. "Maybe they're part of God's will", is what I tell myself. I justify my actions through that reasoning. Truth is, we don't know God's will so why would we try to guess what it is when we know that we'll never understand His plans for us? And if what you're trying to make happen is part of God's will, then if you don't try, it'll happen in the end anyway because God will lead you in the way you should go. This is a very frustrating thing to keep in mind because we want things to happen according to our agendas that we don't care about what's on God's agenda.

Proverbs 16: 1-3
People may make plans in their minds,
but only the LORD can make them come true. 
You may believe you are doing right,
but the LORD will judge your reasons.
Depend on the LORD in whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.

I find that the reason why we're so weak in letting God "take the wheel" is because we don't have enough trust in Him. We aren't dependent enough. We think that we can fix our problems ourselves and are scared of where God might take us when He fixes them for us. Sometimes even, it's because we're too selfish to want to stop sinning, or even give up our own plans for the LORD. We find comfort where we are although we ignore the pain, suffering, guilt and regret that come with our decision. We also tend to struggle with peace when we depend on our own plans. We get frustrated easily because so many things get in the way of our plans.

Isaiah 26: 3
You, LORD, give true peace 
to those who depend on you,
because they trust you.

There are those two words again: depend, and trust. When you depend on the LORD fully and have enough faith, your plans will succeed, as says Proverbs 16: 3. Now you might be thinking, "Wait a minute Anny, didn't you just tell me not to be so dependent on my plans?" And I did, but when you make God the LORD of your life, then your plans will be His plans. Do you see where I'm going?

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Before I go on talking about this verse, let's break it up. What does it mean to delight yourself? It means to enjoy Him and to enjoy doing what He called you to do. To enjoy serving Him. So if you enjoy serving Him, then all your desires will come true. Let me use an analogy to help you understand what that looks like.

You just got into a relationship with the love of your life. You enjoy doing what they enjoy and you love to make them happy. You start wanting to do the things that they like to do because you just love them so much and love pleasing them. You don't care about what you used to want, now you want what they want.

This analogy may not be the best, but it kind of outlines the relationship situation that you would be in if you delighted yourself in the LORD. His desires become your desires. So they do come true in the end.

So in order to have this awesome type of relationship with your God, you need not to worry about your plans, your future, or your past. You need to work on understanding the Scriptures and what God wants from you. You need to study who God is. You can't go into a relationship without knowing who the other person really is. Finally, you need to live out what you are called  to live out. You need to do what's commanded of you in the Bible. This is very hard because there's a lot of pressure from the world to hide your Christian life, but when you start to grow your relationship with God, it'll be much easier to do what He wants you to do. Eventually, what you desire will match what God desires of you.

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The Story of the German Artist

Today at church, the teen Sunday school teacher told us an interesting story. This is what I can remember of it:

There was this German man who used to fight on the German army in WW2. He escaped the battle and ran away to another country. While he was there, he took up the job as a floor sweeper at a particular church. He worked this job his whole life. He never said a word, he just did his job. He would observe the people around him and their lives. All he did his whole life was sweep and observe. One day there was this really amazing evangelist, named Peter who came up to him and asked him a series of questions. “Where did you come from?” “What do you like to do?” “Tell me about your family” So the German man answered these questions and said that he used to be a painter in Germany. The evangelist was surprised. So he asked the man to paint his portrait. At first he was reluctant, but after much begging, he agreed. But he made the evangelist promise that he won’t look at it until it is completely finished. So Peter sat week after week as the painter painted his portrait. This took very long and many weeks had passed. Peter asked day after day if the painter was finished. He replied, “Almost, it’s just not quite finished”. So one day, as the painter was painting the evangelist, the evangelist’s wife was standing in the doorway and the painter didn’t see her. She saw the painting and shrieked. “This painting is horrible!!” The evangelist was confused. He asked to see the painting. The German painter replied, “Sure, but it’s still not finished”. When the evangelist saw the painting, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The painting looked terrible! He asked the painter why he had painted him that way. The painter replied, “all my life, I have been observing people and how they live. How they act everyday and what they do. I realized that it was the truth of God that made them as they are. So as I observed the people I wondered what they would be like without God, and this is what I see.” He finished motioning to the painting. 

                                                            (This is not the painting)

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Give All Of You

This is what “Worship” is:

• you coming before God in humility
• sacrifice of all that you are and have
• giving God ALL the glory
• mentioning of God’s attributes

The pre-requisite to worship is:

• we are in the holy place of God when we worship so we must have “Redemption”

Psalm 24:4:

Only those with clean hands and pure

hearts, 

who have not worshiped idols,

who have not made promises in the 

name of a false god.

When you worship, you are forgetting yourself and putting your focus on the LORD and what He has done, and you are also praising Him for all that He is. So what is forgetting yourself and giving your soul fully to God?

This, I think is a nice analogy to use when explaining to someone what it looks like to NOT give your full soul and life into the hands of Christ. Then the picture of what it should look like will be very clear.

It’s like you bought a house from someone who was selling it and was moving elsewhere. Once you sign the papers, it’s yours and you could do whatever you like with the house. But the previous owner who had sold his house and no longer owns it, constantly keeps coming back. They use your kitchen, your backyard, the family room, the bedrooms, even the shower! Sometimes even, they take your furniture and put it in their own new house and replace it with their old furniture. 

God is like the person who moved in. And we are the former owners. 

You give your soul to God when He redeems you. So if you hold anything back, then you’re claiming that part of your soul is still yours, although God is the permanent owner of every single part of your soul.  You cannot worship properly if you still take control over your life. 

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My Psalm to the LORD

I was at a grade retreat at a Christian camp with my school and I went to a prayer workshop and read one of David’s Psalms. Then they asked us to write one of our own. I thought this was a really good idea because you can write about what you’re struggling with and how the LORD can help you through that. You can also add what the LORD has helped you through and praise Him for it. Then when you’re done writing it, you can reflect upon it everyday or whenever you’re struggling and be encouraged. You can pray it everyday or you can just use it as praise. I think it’s a great idea and encourage you to make your own Psalm!

Anny’s Psalm

After all You've done for me,

I should not hold anything back.

What I have is Yours from the start,

So I should not treasure them

as if they are my own.

At times of conflict and shallowness,

I shall remember Your sacrifice

and how undeserving I am.

How foolish am I to hold on to things in my life

when You promise to provide more?

May others laugh at

me and rebuke me for being Yours.

They hated You first,

let them hate me next.

It's hard to allow it,

but you give me strength.

LORD you are my help.

I shall rejoice for the life that I have found in you.

It is far greater and richer than any life others may seek.

O LORD teach me to surrender all to you.

And to live not for this life, but for the one to come.

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God's Globe

It seems like recently I’ve been writing about nature, but that's what I’ve been amazed at this past month. I have opened my eyes to the wonders of God’s creation. Now this post is about the Earth itself and how it has amazed me this past week as I was helping with my church’s VBS.

On a bright blue, clear day all you need to do is look around. 

You will see that what God saw at the beginning 

was true.

“Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass,

the herb that yields seed,

and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind,

whose seed is in itself,

on the earth;”…"

“And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:11, 12b)

When I looked around,

I saw the clouds spinning around me.
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/clouds-gif
(Do not spend too much time though looking at the beautiful clouds)

I remembered that the earth was spinning,

but we do not realize it because of gravity.
Just looking up, knowing that I am spinning
with the earth but do not feel it,
just bring shivers up my spine.
It’s an AMAZING thought.

I find that I could just walk for
hours observing the creation of God in silence.
Taking it in, listening to the little sounds
we do not take notice of daily.

When I was younger, I would do anything
to get a globe for my birthday or Christmas.
I just badly wanted one.
But as I was looking up this past week,
it looked as though we were living in a globe.
The atmosphere was like the glass, around us
and space was like the world outside of the globe.
It’s like we're living in God’s globe.

 It’s like when he shakes it, it snows.
The clouds move like gas contained in a sphere.
It’s just marvellous!
The different shades of light that move by
either slowly or quickly as the clouds move in front
of the sun.
Just all those obvious details that we miss everyday
are enough to show me how amazing and artistic
my God is.

Today, the clouds were moving quickly,
like a race around the globe.
There would be sunlight for a few seconds,
then dark shade, then sunlight.
It made my own heart race.

It reminded me how even creation
cries out to God.
When God turned His face away from His own
Son, Jesus Christ,
and poured all His wrath upon Him,
the sky was very dark.
It’s like the earth globe
reflects the mood of our God.
Isn’t that just an amazing thought?

Nothing in God’s globe is consistent
as I have observed.
Not even the plants, animals, waters, and not us.
The water is always flowing and new minerals are found
in the water each second.
The plants do not have a consistent growth.
Their growth depends on the amount of
precipitation (which is not constant),
and the sunlight.
Animals are not the same as they were 100 years ago.
This showed me just how consistent God is.
By that, I mean He IS the same yesterday,
today, and forever.

He is the only thing in this inconsistent world that never changes.
Once you realize how inconsistent everything is,
the fact that God is consistent and never changes
will seriously blow your mind.

God created the earth so that it never ends.
It’s eternal in a way.
You could keep going around it and you’ll never find the end or beginning.
It reminds me of how God does not have a beginning or end.
The more I observe God’s globe, the more it screams
out to me the name of God.
There is no way this could have been a product
of just one cell.

Please, and I am asking you, pleeeaaase look around you. 
Observe God’s globe and how it just reflects the character
and being of our creator. A masterpiece always reflects the handiwork of the artist.

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The Majesty of God is Evident!

Look at the clouds...how they're densely compressed together. It's hard to think of them as gas just floating in the air. One state of matter that is not usually visible to us, is gas, yet there's so much gas in the sky, enough to make us able to see it. And even though it's just gas, it's strong enough to hold rainstorms and yet light enough to stay in the sky. This was taken on my way to California, and it just marvelled me as I looked in awe and realized what I was looking at was the art of God. Just looking at it floating on different levels of the atmosphere. At some points we were above a lot of clouds but there were still more above us. And sometimes we were engulfed within the cloud. It looks so opaque yet within it, it's just gas and is quite translucent. They are really marvellous and I never really noticed how amazing they were until I paid attention to them.
This is just like anything else in God's creation. We just take what we see everyday for granted and categorize it as normal. We wonder why people waste their lives studying the things around them. It's until we start paying attention to them that we actually see God's majesty and beauty in the things he created and how marvellous they are.

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it’s the best or worst it will ever get

I had received a birthday card in the mail today and within it was a square piece of pink paper that said this...

In this life,

no matter how BAD things get,

if you are a believer in Christ,

and know Christ as your personal Saviour,…

this is the worst it’ll ever get.

if you are not a believer in Him,…

this is the best it’ll ever get- for all eternity.

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Blessings in Disguise

I had recently sent an email to a friend of mine because I just wanted to encourage her for no reason at all. I love others to be encouraged to live with hope, joy, and love. So I was thinking of what to send her and my fingers just typed in the subject box “Blessings in Disguise”. Now as a writer, I tend to write about things I don’t know yet. I start with a word, work to a sentence, then develop a character and come up with a purpose for each paragraph. So I was used to writing unexpected things, but I didn’t want to write the wrong thing down, so I just waited and reflected on what that meant before I started typing up my email. This is an explanation of what I developed:

When negative things happen in our lives,

we tend to look through a negative lens 

and be negatively influenced by all the occurrences

of that day. 

We ponder on the actions of others

and turn them into hateful acts

of mockery.

However, they are not.

But we are blinded.

Blinded with shards of negative glass

showing us all negative things.

A smile

turning into a disgusted look.

A compliment,

turning into mockery.

What shall we believe?

The compliment,

or the mock?

We cannot break through

and see clearly

what we are supposed to see.

Human nature has fallen hard.

So hard that it wants to linger in the negatives

and struggles to find positives. 

It somehow wants to feel anger more than peace,

hate more than love,

sadness more than happiness.

Then when it gets what it wants,

it weeps.

It weeps for love, joy, and peace.

What we need to do, 

is push away all our desires of feeling anger,

put our focus on being in the likeness of our God

and break the negative lens that we’re looking through.

It is a hard task and takes a lot of work

maybe even practice,

but look at your values again.

I value love, joy, and hope.

But when I am using my negative lens,

I push away my values.

I tell them that they don’t matter to me anymore.

And if we continue looking through the lens,

then we are showing God that his Word is not useful.

God has given us His Word to not only show us the truth,

but to offer us solutions to our struggles.

The greatest help we can receive

in order to push away the negative lens

and look through the positive lens

is realizing and recognizing our blessings in disguise.

When we are feeling negative and the

world seems to be influencing those feelings 

instead of providing a remedy,

 we hardly recognize

 our greatest blessings:

our blessings in disguise.

One of these blessings is life.

You are breathing as you read this post.

God has provided you life for a reason,

so do not forget its importance.

The greatest blessing is having a God

who loves you.

Although, you may not know it,

it’s very true.

To be loved by your own creator.

Enough even that he gave his life for your salvation.

Another is your senses. 

I can have assurance that all who are reading this

have the ability to see. 

To be able to witness the majesty and glory of

God in his creation. 

Other blessings may be 

food, shelter, a family, warmth.

Without all these, or some of these,

you would not be able to experience life and enjoy life

in such great quality.

You may not be the most popular,

or the best at different things,

but you are precious and you have life.

I encourage you to acknowledge the importance of these blessings.

For when you are looking through

the wrong lens,

you will remember the blessings in disguise.

They will no longer be in disguise anymore

for you gave them quality and importance.

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Christianity: Our Prescription Lenses

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The Easter Story

For He shall grow up before Him as a

tender plant,

And as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;

And when we see Him,

There is no beauty that we should

desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men,

A Man of sorrows and acquainted 

with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from

Him;

He was despised, and we did not

esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our

transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was 

upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own

way;

And the LORD has laid on Him the 

iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was 

afflicted,

Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is 

silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from

judgement,

and who will declare His generation?

For He was cut off from the land of 

the living;

For the transgressions of My people

He was stricken.

And they made His grave with the

wicked-

But with the rich at His death,

Because He had done no violence,

Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;

He has put Him to grief. 

When You make His soul an offering

for sin,

He shall see His seed, He shall

prolong His days,

And the pleasure of the LORD shall

prosper in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul,

and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous 

Servant shall justify many,

For He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion

with the great,

And He shall divide the spoil with the 

strong,

Because He poured out His soul unto

death,

And He was numbered with the 

transgressors,

And He bore the sin of many,

And made intercession for the

transgressors.

Isaiah 53

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10 days in the New Testament: Day 1

I want to study my Bible deeply and get used to using commentaries and understand the importance of every verse. So in my Bible, there's a Bible plan called "50 days in the New Testament". I want to get through it all, but I might not be consistent because I can’t be committed to this everyday as school is getting more stressful.
(using NCV, similar to NIV)
Day 1

Acts 1:1-11
Written by: Luke
When: Around A.D. 63
Theme: The First Christian Church

In the first verse, he is addressing Theophilius. Who is he? Well I did some research and looked at different commentaries and they say that no one knows who he is but his name means "Friend of God". And Luke goes on after addressing him by saying, "The first book I wrote was about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up into heaven." So Luke is continuing his writing from where he left off in the book of Luke. As he goes on, writing to this man, he talks about what happened during the ascension of Christ into Heaven. If we go back to Luke, he only has 4 verses about Jesus going back to Heaven and in Acts, he has 11. He ends Luke with this, "Jesus led his followers as far as Bethany, and he raised his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he was separated from them and was carried into heaven. They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem very happy. They stayed in the temple all the time praising God." (Luke 24:50-53) 
No details were given here. From this reading, we can draw out these questions:

• What was the blessing?
• How was Jesus carried into heaven?
• Why did they worship after seeing Jesus get taken away from them?

I think that Luke starts out Acts the way he does so that he could address all these questions that we drew out from the end of Luke. So let's turn back to Acts and find the answers.

What was the blessing? 

Question found in Luke 24:50

Answer found in Acts 1:8

(NKJV) this is the Lord Jesus speaking "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me. (or in the NU-text it reads, My witnesses) in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

So the blessing was that they will receive some power, not revealed yet, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. So when will the Holy Spirit come upon them?

In Acts 2 we can find the answer. Let's take a look:

Acts 2:1-4

When the day of the Pentecost had fully come,

they were all with one accord in one place. 

It says that the Holy Spirit had come upon them on the Day of the Pentecost.
So the Disciples had been waiting quite a while for the Holy Spirit to come and the Spirit eventually comes. Let's continue on with the passage in Acts:

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven,

as of a rushing mighty wind,

and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Then there appeared to them divided tongues,

as of fire,

and one sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak

with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

This goes into depth of the blessing that they received. It said that they received spiritual gifts. The gift of speaking in tongues. Paul goes on later in one of the Epistles talking about how the gift of "Speaking in Tongues" is one of the greatest gifts you could receive from the Spirit. So the disciples received a great gift. 

Let's go to the second question:

How was Jesus carried to heaven?

Question found in Luke 24:51

Answer found in Acts 1:9

Now when He had spoken those things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

He was taken up, but it doesn't mention how. It does mention that a cloud received the Lord.  

Why would a cloud be sent to take the Lord? 

Well the "Acts of the Apostles" commentary says that it may have been designed to answer a main purpose:

To make the ascension of the Lord more distinctly visible to others not just the disciples so that there may be a recorded day in the Jewish history in which the skies were dark and there was a dark and luminous cloud on that specific day. Although it did not say that it was dark or luminous, we can assume that it was. For if the cloud was small and white, like all the others, there wouldn't be any significance to it. No one would know about any unusual events that had happened on this very special day in Biblical history. God would not put a cloud in the picture unless it had some significance. Luke could've pointed out any other random clouds but he pointed out this specific cloud. It must've been very unusual or unique for him to add it in the passage. 

But in this other commentary that I found (http://www.biblecentre.org/commentaries/fbh_48_acts.htm),

it references us back to Luke 9:34:

While he was saying this (speaking of Peter),

a cloud came and overshadowed them;

and they were fearful as they entered the cloud.

And a voice came out of the cloud saying,

"This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!"

So this commentary says that doubtless, this was the same cloud. This picture of God's voice in the cloud, and we can know that it is God because Luke had capitalized "My", is similar to that of the burning bush in the Old Testament. I think by comparing these two commentaries, that they are both correct. I think that the Spirit of God had come down in the form of a cloud to receive His Son. And the reason why He used a cloud to represent Him is for the reason explained in the commentary above and because of Luke 9:34. Now I am not sure that what I had said is right, so don't take what I say as facts, I am still learning and growing in the Lord. 

Lets look at the last question:

Why did they worship after seeing Jesus get taken away from them?

Question found in Luke 24:52-53

Answer found in Acts 1:10-11

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."

Now I think that the reason for their rejoicing is their eagerness for their friend and saviour's return. This news had brought joy and hope into their hearts. Little did they know that the "angels" which I think the men were, were referencing Christ's second coming as talked about in Revelation, but that is a whole different topic. They would be already in heaven before the Son of Man comes again. But I think that it was relief that washed over them for it was not the end. Their friend would return someday. 

This is the end of Day 1. It was very long. I don't think I'll be doing another long one, but I do hope that I could stay committed to this plan. 

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Why Do I Blog?

Faithful Bloggers wanted to do a group blogging project so I've decided to take part in my very first one(i didn't even know they did these...). So I want to take part in this one and they asked:

Why Do You Blog?

Well my purpose for starting my blog was something totally different than what it is used for now. I had a vision of starting a group of bloggers who will provide evidence and proof that Jesus is really the Christ and to show others the actual truth. 

Here was my first post called "Now's The Time":

I wanted to create a christian group to help me and send in evidence from the bible to prove to others that the Word of God is True. also to prove that Jesus is the Son Of God and the Messiah that the Jews are still waiting for and that he has already come and is coming again. Even though I'm only 13, ever since I was little i have always wanted to do this and i have prayed for years for God to give me the courage and wisdom to do this. And here i am. and i thank him now for this.

Obviously, my blog did not end up how I wanted it to, rather it ended up quite well. I didn't really understand blogging all that much before but now, my blog's sole purpose is to walk through life with other Christians and find out how God wants us to live our lives so that we can be the reflection of His Son.

My blog is kind of like my diary, I could never keep a diary when I was younger, even to this day! I wouldn't make it past the first week and the entries would be years apart, but with my blog, I find that I could stay a bit constant and blog once in a while.

I blog because God put it upon my heart to. If you really want to go far back, I wanted to be a child missionary and travel the world preaching to others at the age of 12, but it was very unrealistic for me. I just couldn't sit still and not do anything with the salvation that God has given me. So I was kind of stubborn when I prayed and prayed and prayed about what was on my heart. I knew that I wanted to do that and nothing else. My sister had already started a blog on which she was writing a Christian story (the blog is called Congaisa) and she occasionally asked me to read her new posts. So when I was reading her post a few days later, God put it upon my heart to start a blog and do my "mission" work on it. I called it "Lost Sheep, Get The Evidence", you can tell that I have changed the name since, for the road God took me on was different than the road I was hoping to travel on. I still don't know for sure what God wanted the main purpose of my blog to be, but it definitely wasn't what I had in mind before. All I want is for him to use me through it and he has. And through it, I have grown in the Lord and uncovered new mysteries about him that I never had before.

My blog is something that keeps me connected to my Brothers and Sisters through my communication on it, and it helps me understand God more and how he wants me to live (the Bible does most of that work, of course). It encourages me to read his Word often and he speaks through me on it. Now, I don't know where he'll take me with it but I know it's worth the patience and wait.

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peace given in the worst of times

Tomorrow, I'll be going to a funeral, for the death of the daughter of my piano teacher. She's the most precious thing, such a little princess. Only 6 months old. When I heard this news, I just balled. My piano teacher is the sweetest woman and she always has such peace and patience especially when I don't do my piano homework. But this was the last thing I would ever think could happen. I thought, "she doesn't deserve this", but we all deserve death but God gave us life because of his great mercy. And what God decided to do with this precious life after he gave her life, was to call her back home. Maybe he missed her too much. ;) ahaha but today, I went to the visitation at the funeral home and I saw her lying in her little casket and she looked like a doll, I couldn't help myself I started crying. I needed peace in my heart even though I wasn't the parent of this little soul. I couldn't look into my teacher's eyes or her husband's, I didn't want to cry even more in front of them. That was probably the last thing they wanted. But what took me by surprise was how calm they were. There seemed to be peace within their hearts. That's the amazing thing about our Lord. He offers peace when you most need it, when it seems nearly impossible to have. And the only thing my piano teacher said to me before I balled again was, "I wish you could've seen her more often." I had never got to see her once, and my family had. So she had promised me in the second week of January that she was going to bring her in for one of the lessons. But the day never came, and it never will. The thought just made me cry even more, I really needed strength. I felt silly because I felt like I was struggling more with keeping myself together and strong than they were. Then one of those awesome moments where God puts that random verse in your mind happened. (ps. I wanted to put that verse on their card, but it was too late)

Colossians 1:11

God will strengthen you with his own

great power so that you will 

not give up when troubles come,

but you will be patient.

My teacher and her husband sure had that verse down because they were very patient and seemed like they had strength provided by God so that they could keep strong. And I think I need some of what they have because I am just breaking down. The thing I love though, is how God designed us. He designed us with feelings for one another, we may not be close to a person, but when they're hurting, we hurt too. We don't have to be identical twins to feel each other. We know how depressing death is and how it could affect one's life. We know that many people's heart were dear to the dead's. Sometimes though, we might need help ourselves, and I'm not just talking about girls (my brother couldn't hold himself either and he's a strong person, we had to leave because he couldn't bear to see her lying there). We sometimes look for things to help us through our sadness like food or friends or music. But there isn't always assurance that it will keep you strong. One thing is sure though. That is the Bible. We could relate to it one way or another no matter what our problems are. In this situation, my teacher, her family and her husband and his family, can relate to David. His son was very ill and was going to die, so he grieved and prayed until the day came when his son was called home. Then David did something remarkable, he got up, cleaned himself and worshiped the Lord then ate for he fasted while the child was alive. Everyone was wondering why he wasn't grieving because of his son's death. He said that what was done is done, he can't do anything about it. But while his son was alive, there was still hope that he could become well. He also said that he will see him one day and will be reunited with him. Just like how all those dear to this precious girl will be reunited with her again one day. So all we could do now is clean ourselves and look towards that day when we shall see her again. My teacher and her family will be in my prayers and thoughts, and I am also motivated to work harder on my piano so I don't give her a hard time with it anymore. She has really encouraged me in the 5 years she's been working with me and she has set great goals for me and so far we have accomplished them and I want to continue to accomplish them for I don't want to let her down. This little girl will always be in my heart and she'll always remind me to stay strong and patient when trials come. I just pray for their peace to continue through the funeral ceremony. 

This post I think really gets the idea about strength in devastating times.

(click on the sentence above to get to it)

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Looking back...

I like to look at my old posts to see how I was touched by my God to write them and one of the posts that I found that touched me most in the past was this one. I loved using the analogy of roads to represent our lives. So why don't you take a visit to the past and click on the black "this".

I have decided to follow Jesus,

I have decided to follow Jesus.

I have decided to follow Jesus,

no turning back,

no turning back.

The cross before me, the world behind me.

The cross before me, the world behind me.

The cross before me, the world behind me.

No turning back,

no turning back.

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If Your Hand Causes You to Sin, Cut it Off

Sometimes it's hard for us to get rid of things that may seem important to us. For me, it was my Ipod. I didn't realize it but it mattered more to me than anything else. I had even gotten to the point where I told myself, "I don't know what I'd do if I lost this." And now, that thought sickens me. Yesterday, I did a lot of thinking, and I realized, nothing should be more precious to me than unraveling new found mysteries about my Lord and saviour and getting to know him personally. I found that my Ipod took me away from what gave me life, it took away my life. My marks in school didn't matter to me anymore, I found no time to practice piano(one of my passions) because of spending too much time on my Ipod! I was texting too much and because my Ipod gave me social access, I spent way too much time living out my social life, which is fine, but I needed to prioritize myself. I was making my social life my priority over my relationship with my Creator and Heavenly Father. So yesterday as I was thinking, the verse,

Mark 9:43

 ^"If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off."

popped in my mind. It's amazing how God gets your attention by putting thoughts and verses in your mind that you normally wouldn't think about. So I realized that I have been idolizing my Ipod, I needed to cut it off. After I thought these thoughts I decided to consult my mom about my idea of getting rid of my Ipod permanently and she told me something really interesting. She told me that getting rid of it won't change anything, I have to make that change within me. So I need to be committed to Christ and on fire for him always and if I won't do that, then getting rid of my Ipod won't change anything. So I made the decision inside that I'm willing to  live for my Lord and not idolize any more material things.

So here's my challenge for you, I want you to think of the following things during the year:

• what are your priorities
• how important is reading your Bible to you
• how long do you spend praying to your Heavenly Father
• is there something in your life that's taking up too much of your time
• are you finding yourself not having enough time for important things like The Lord, school, work, talents,, etc.
• do you want to serve the Lord with all your heart but find that it's not going to be easy for you and requires a lot of dedication

If you find that your answers are not satisfying and are ashamed of them, then I want you to re-evaluate yourself and see what's standing in between your main priority(the Lord), your other priorities and you. Is it a hobby that you need to get away from for a bit? Or a material object? A sinful act?

My mom also mentioned something that night as well that never came to thought. She said that anything, good or bad, that stands in between you and God is not good, and might need to be prioritized. It could be electronics, reading books, maybe studying. As long as it takes away time for you to spend with your loving Father, it is something you would need to change in order to restore your relationship with God. It doesn't mean don't spend time studying or don't read books. But instead of reading one of your books, read the Bible in between. Instead of straight studying, read God's Word and hear his encouraging loving words. Pray to Him to guide you through your studying, then it wouldn't be taking away time from the Lord, instead it would be learning from him and seeing his work in your studies. Sometimes though, the situation could be like me and my Ipod and could require a permanent action in order for you to get back on your spiritual walk with the Lord. Whatever it is, I do not want you to wander away from God without you realizing it. I want you to figure out if something in your life is taking away time from your relationship with God and do something about it. Do not let the problem grow, control it. 

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The Imperfect Loved By The Forever Perfect

And that gives me an even GREATER reason to rejoice

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Did You Know That You Could Find Pretty Cool Christian Quotes On The Internet?

I was looking on the internet for some friendly Christian encouragement, and I found some pretty cute quotes. Like one says "A real man prays". This made me think that sometimes we think we could bring one to Christ through a relationship, but since God is our rock and foundation, it's easier to be pushed off that rock than to pull someone onto it. That is because so many people are against us. As Jesus says in Matthew 5:11:

"People will insult you and hurt you. 

They will lie and say all kinds of evil things about you 

because you follow me."

If this is the natural reaction towards our faith, then being in a relationship with someone who does not follow God as well will discourage you and it would be very easy to lose your faith. Even if you don't lose your faith, there's no guarantee that your partner will follow Christ as well and that will be a hard relationship for you to live through. So the "real man" that you should be looking for is not just someone who loves you because of your heart and mind, but loves Christ more than he will ever love you. That relationship is a relationship that will grow and be fruitful and healthy.

There's another cute quote that I found that says, "You call it religion, I call it a relationship." I really liked this one because being a Christian shouldn't be because your ancestors were Christian, it should be something that you want to be, you choose to be. Being a Christian is all about your devotion to God and the Son of God, Jesus. It should be this relationship that you want to take over your life. That defines who you are. You are a Christian because you realized that without the death of Jesus Christ, you were nothing, you were on your way to eternal death, but he gave you eternal life. And you accepted it, and now you're living your life all for him, praising him because of what he did for you. That's what Christianity should mean to you. If it doesn't mean that, then maybe you need notice that what you're doing is creating a stereotype because the true Christian is what I just explained previously, they aren't a person that just carries the title, they live it out. Which leads in to this other quote I found, "I'm not a Christian because I'm strong and have it all together. I'm a Christian because I'm weak and admit I need a saviour." 

This other quote I found is probably one that you've seen before, but I really like it. I'll just let you see it first: 

I really like this because if Christ is everything to you then praying should really be your "go-to" when you're struggling in life. You know, when you pray,  you are actually communicating with God. That's pretty insane! Like you are having a one-on-one with the God that created you! I find that pretty awesome. 

This last picture I have is just this really funny/interesting thing I found:

Haha I thought the last one was pretty cute. 

Well God bless you all and it is the time of exams here in Canada so I just wish everyone God's blessings as they head into their exams, and turn to prayer when you're too weak to stand. ;)  

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