Bragging is Alright With God, Just Do it the Right Way

I was in church today and we sang a song during the Breaking of Bread meeting in the morning. It was "How Deep the Father's Love For Us". And as we were singing, the lyrics just touched me and made me think.

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that left Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Verse 5 stood out the most to me. I had come across a verse that mentioned that as well as I was looking through my Bible.

So, as the Scripture says,

"If people want to brag,

they should brag only about the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:31

The part of Scripture that was mentioned there came from Jeremiah 9:24, which states

But if people want to brag,

let them brag that they understand and know me.

Let them brag that I am the LORD, 

and that I am kind and fair,

and that I do things that are right on earth.

This kind of bragging pleases me," says the LORD.

Sometimes we find that we want to brag about what we've done to show others how good of a person we are. We always want to brag about earthly things. Things we've accomplished and things we're involved with. But have we ever taken a moment and tell others about how great our God is? Just like how easy it is to brag about ourselves, we need to be able to brag about the LORD that way. It is quite hard since many people reject the LORD. But what is keeping us from bragging about how awesome our creator is? And when we brag about ourselves, do we then take a moment and thank our God for giving us that opportunity or talent in front of everyone? Our God has done more than is comprehendible for us. We've failed him numerous times and dishonoured him. We cursed him and yet he accepted us and forgave us. So why can't we brag about the God who loves us so very extremely much that he rejected his own perfect son just for us to have a way to be with Him? 

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One Moment

Some people say that God is always just, merciful, loving, kind, and generous, but

There was one moment when God wasn't just, when God wasn't merciful, when he wasn't loving,

when he didn't show kindness and turned his face away, when he wasn't generous.

That moment was when he sent his son to die 

for the sins of man and suffer on the cross.

God did not show mercy to Jesus, 

he was not just, 

he wasn't loving and turned his face away,

he was not generous and kind to Jesus. 

When Jesus bore our sins upon himself, 

God could not bear to look upon his son.

He did this so that WE may be forgiven,

So that WE could live and praise him forever and be with him in eternity,

so that WE could have a second chance

so WE could walk with him like we once did.

He loved us SO MUCH that he allowed this to happen:

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Kindness that lasts a Lifetime

Just this past weekend, I was at a teen winter camp retreat in the States. It is called camp Li-Lo-Li and I was looking through my Bible during chapel time and I found this one verse in Psalm that caught my eye and brought peace to my heart.

Sing praises to the Lord, you who belong to him;
praise his holy name.
His anger lasts only a moment,
but his kindness lasts for a lifetime.
Crying may last for a night, 
but joy comes in the morning. 
Psalms 30:4-5


Right away, I fell in love with this verse. How it expresses that God's Kindness lasts a LIFETIME. Isn't that just amazing? Sometimes, when you read the Bible, it talks about God's anger, but even in anger, he expresses grace towards us. That grace lasts longer than His anger. The last section of this verse, "Crying may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning" reminds me of a song I mentioned in an earlier post called "Before the Morning" by Josh Wilson. It says in the chorus, "The pain that you've been feeling, is just the dark before the morning." You may find yourself asking God "Why? Why did you let that happen?" But know that whatever happens, God is using that to work out your relationship with him. And even the pain, sorrow, and guilt that you have come across, instead of being those awful things that they are, can be used to bring glory to his name and all the wrongs that you have committed will be forgotten. Isn't that just amazing to know that he will forget the terrible things that you have done that bring guilt upon you? This doesn't mean that it's okay to commit them though.

The almighty, powerful God, that created the world from the smallest insect, to the largest mammal. The God who created you and I. His anger ONLY lasts a moment, whereas His kindness lasts a LIFETIME.
It still marvels me! His kindness outweighs his anger. Our God is quick to forgive and slow to get angry, and that's how we should live as well. I know for a fact that I’m the opposite. I'm struggling to forgive as much as I get angry, let alone forgive! I, as a sinner, am great at holding grudges and bringing it up every time I see the person that I'm holding the grudge against. It's a terrible "Habit" that we as sinners cannot get rid of easily. I called it a habit because truthfully it is something we can't control. We all struggle to forgive and do what is easiest, get angry.

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Loving others (Behind the Scenes)

I had just started my first year of high school a couple of months ago with excitement and anxiousness.
Not knowing what I was going to face, whether God was going to use me or use others to help me grow strong in character, what adventures he might bring upon me and what troubles and stresses I might go through. All these thoughts were running through my head as I took my first step into the building with my friends.

It looked normal, but what was behind the scenes at my high school? What were the students like?

High School is a major leap from Elementary school. More work, bigger facilities, more students, more studying, gym everyday (I'm not much of an athlete, I just like Thai kickboxing and Brazilian Jujitsu), more rotary, and harder teachers.

But what was so good about high school was that you can find more people who you enjoy to be around, whereas in elementary school, you were practically forced to be friends with the people in your grade since Kindergarten until grade 8 graduation. This was an advantage for me. I figured, the more people who would listen to me, the more I can share God's love, and in a Christian school! So they've already had some background knowledge from chapel.

I would like to share with you a heart changing experience that I've had in my first semester of high school.

My homeroom is science which I have with one of my close friends, I didn't really get to know much people then because we were just settling in and getting to know our teacher, but one person caught my eye right away, and I'm pretty sure he caught everyone's eyes too. You can't miss him. He was a boy about 6"5 and here I am 4"11 or maybe 5"0. About double my height. WOW. I know. All my life I've dreamed of being tall, but I never thought about being that tall. When you think about Goliath, he sounds pretty tall, but you don't actually see his height, you just get a written description. Now, I think that Goliath was massive because the boy is only 6"5 and Goliath was like 9 feet!

See, this boy, I got to know him as the days went by, he is actually the sweetest boy I have ever come across, but what I didn't know about him was all behind those eyes of his.

I was talking to him one day in one of the classes we had together and another girl as well and we were talking about our elementary school years, the girl was telling me about how she wasn't treated properly because she was born in U.S.A.! Isn't that crazy? People will try to find any reason to bring you down and to raise themselves up. The boy on the other hand wasn't treated well either because of how tall he was! That tore my heart away, all the stories I have heard, it was unbelievable! I started to pray for them, for them to find someone whom they can trust and someone who will treat them as a friend, a true friend. I also gave them my link to my blog.

Later I asked the boy if he looked at my blog, he told me that he didn't have time but he always had that piece of paper with him that had the link on it. That brightened up my spirit. It told me that I was doing the right thing.

That night I went on my blog and found that i had a new follower. I took a look at my comments and found one by a person named Tall but small. I laughed, surely this was the boy. I was so happy that he commented. I clicked on his name and on his profile it showed that he had a blog. I decide to read it and follow it because he didn't have anyone following it. What I read in the next 10 minutes broke my heart. It showed me what I was missing. People in the world look like they're having a great time and enjoying their lives, but once you look behind the scenes, its a whole other world that they're living in. But at the end of each post, he wrote about how he could always count on God to help him get through his pain and how He'll always be there for him. This showed me that I had really impacted someone. After he took a look at my blog it inspired him to make one of his own and I think that through this process he was strengthening his faith in God. Before it seemed as if he had given up on God but now he's a whole new person. I feel like God had used this boy in my life to show me that there are many others in the world who need this type of love and understanding, and a friend. He had also recently added a post called  Friends, it was about me and it showed me how much I impacted his life and how much he impacted mine.
If you want to visit his blog, and know more about him, here's the link:
http://goodformegoodforu.blogspot.com/

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Verses of Love

Love is one of the most important things in our lives; that we show love to others.

“I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. (John 13:34 NCV)

1. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. (1 John 2:15 NCV)

2. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. (1 Corinthians 13:4 NCV)

3. (for men) Husbands, love your wives and be gentle with them. (Colossians 3:19 NCV)

4. Most importantly, love each other deeply, because love will cause people to forgive each other for many sins. (1 Peter 4:8 NCV)

5. Hatred stirs up trouble, but love forgives all wrongs. (Proverbs 10:12 NCV)

6. And God gave us this command: Those who love God must also love their brothers and sisters. (1 John 4:21 NCV)

7. The second command is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’  (Mark 12:31 NCV) (neighbor in this case means your enemies or the people you ignore, in other words everyone else whom you do not love)

8. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8 NCV)

9. This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us. He sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins. (1 John 4:8, 10 NCV)

10. (what love isn't) Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs that have been done. (1 Corinthians 13:5 NCV)



Take a look at number 5. It says "Hatred stirs up trouble, but love forgives all wrongs" see how powerful Love is? Think about it...is it easier to hate someone you don't love or to love someone you do not love already?

Most of you would probably say to hate someone you don't love, that's probably what I would've picked. You don't know this person, so why bother with trying to humiliate yourself and bugging yourself to love this person?

Love can change many people's lives. You may not know the girl whose locker is 5 down from yours and may have seen her once in a while in the hallways, not know her name, never had a conversation with her...so why does it matter if I show love to her?
You don't know what is going on in that person's mind, she could have problems at home, being abused by her parents, or even witness abuse from her father towards her mother, her family is never around, always at home alone, mother lost her job and can't pay rent so they are having financial problems, think that she's not worth anything and cuts herself wishing to die...well that's not our problem, is it?

We may not need to know what is going on in a person's personal life in order to show love to someone. Just a small act of love towards a person like an occasional smile when passing by in the hallway or at work, or saying "hello" to them every morning, maybe even including them in your little group during lunch. This could truly change a person's thoughts or feelings, it will give them a hope to keep going on in life, it will give them something to look forward to in their life, it will give them someone to trust and to love back.

Take a look at love verse number 8. It states " Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." If we know God, it says we should love.  Whenever you see someone whom you never talk to or acknowledge, remember this verse and show love at every point in your life and the Lord will truly bless you.

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