I am my brothers’ keeper…but who are my brothers?

True Christianity says, ” A responsible person has a sens of accountability. He is ever conscious that he will be answerable to God for himself, his family, and others.” Yes, it is very understandable that you are accountable for yourself. But what is confusing for me is that how about others? Who are those others…One thing that also confuses me is this Paul’s statement in 1corinthians9:22,” To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some,” in NLT version , ” When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common good with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ. I do all this to spread the Good News adn in doing so I enjoy its blessings.” I can’t understand this passage. Does it mean I should really find some commonalities between me and other people so that they can feel comfort on me and if it happens, I can inject them God’s Word. But what if we really don’t have a commonality. What if our interests are like south and west that is impossible to meet.  I can’t understand…I hope God will reveal it to me soon…

Marks of Maturity6…excerpt from True Christianity by Paul Caram with my little add – ons

6. Do we posses Patience?

Patience is a rare virtue! It is obtained by passing through many pressures and hard times(Rom5:3). Patience is one of the attributes of an apostle(2Cor12:12).Why do they posses that? Because they are the ambassadors or representatives of Christ here on earth. Patience is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit which is also the virtue of Christ. How can they be representatives of Christs if they lack some of the qualities of Christ?

It is the quality of spirit which pauses to weigh all the issues carefully and does not make hasty conclusions or quick judgements. “It is folly to form a conclusion when all the facts have not been thoroughly examined.”—(Prov18:13)

Marks of Maturity5…excerpt from true christianity by Paul Caram with my little add – ons

5.HAS PRIDE BEEN CONQUERED?

Satan is not our biggest enemy – self is! Pride is the number one problem of self and it is ast the bottom of most of our problems and torments. We cannot hope to be a  a mature Christian until pride has been leveled low. Why? Because it opposes to one of the characteristics of Jesus which is in the fruits of the Holy Spirit which is Humility. Let us put in our minds that our main goal here on earth is to be conformed into the image and likeness of Christ. You can’ t be Christ if you are pompous, stubborn, and prideful! My spiritual mother also says to me that spirit of pride is small tiny spirit that quickly jumps into a person which is very subtle that the person is not capable of noticing that the spirit of pride is already in him/her. So let us be very watchful and cautious on this bad spirit.

Pride makes us pretend to be something we are not and brings us uder unnatural strain. Pride demands recognition. When a proud man goes unnoticed, he bocomes angry and offended – bringing on hatred, depressions, self – pity, and bitterness. Remember, this is what happened to satan. He isn’t noticed by God so He becomes jealous to the other persona of God, who’s his son, Jesus Christ. So he makes conspiracy with other angels and starts a rebellion, however, God is omnipotent, he can’t be overthrowned  or subdued.Consequently, because sin starts on satan, he is putted to the fires of hell and he will never again enter the gates of heaven. Pride is also what satan uses to decieve eve. Remember, satan said to Eve, “You will become just like God!” So pride is also deceptive. We must always be cautious on our motives, actions, and specially with our thoughts.

Used of God But not Approved of God…

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? ANd then wll I profess unto them, I never[got to know] you: depart from me, ye that[practice lawlessness] – Mt7:22-23

All of us are active doing everything for the Lord. But the problem is, we are just Human doing and not Human being. Many of us have iniquities and because of those, they hinder our prayer to the Lord.Instead of God blessing us in quantity and quality, our flock has scattered and has decreased vastly. Yes, we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, done good for God’s cause, and other godly things. But so does the people mentioned here in the passage. But why does God asked them depart from them? It is because of their sins or iniquities. Remember, sin is the one that gives gap to our relationship with the Lord. How can they help restoring the relationship of God with people if they can’t even fix their relationship with the Lord! (Mt7:4-5).

How deceptive it is to think that our iniquities or sins will be overlooked by God because of mighty ministry. As we can observe, God asks them to depart from Him, and the reasons is that they practice lawlessness that points to the issue that their relationship with God is superficial. Yes, they were used of God as an instrument in His hand, but never approved of Him.God was never given the opportunity to get to know them.How could He? They had no time for Him. They were busy on their ministries. Busy on promoting themselves and their own kingdom. As we can see, ministry can be an idol. It seems to be for God, but reality it is not. They may don’t have prayer life! Because there too busy being pious to others. Remember, anything that is prioritized before the Lord is an idol. It could be a family member, friend, career, money, and as we said, ministry!

Are you a protector and champion of God’s cause?…really?!!!

I have read the book of True Christianity by Paul Caram and it really did pierce and stab the issues in my heart concerning ministries…

Here’s an excerpt with some add – ons and commentaries…

How many worksthat are “started for God” are birthed out of the motive of envy(Phil1:15)! Or should we say Pride, fame and other selfish stuffs. . Yes, there’s nothing wrong to do anything for God. The desire to be prolific or fruitful for God is inborn. The problem, however, lies in our motives. Are we willing to say ,”Lord, in what particular way can  I be fruitful for You?How can I serve You best?” OR, are we trying to “make our mark in life” at any cost? Is our motive pure? Is it really for God?Or is it for our own self – benefit. There are many who believe they are protectors and champions of God’s cause, but it is their own.

When the issues are evaded, taken for granted, ignored, and resisted over and over, spiritual dullness and deception gain a stronghold. And in the Long run they scatter the harvest, rather than gather in. If we fail to do it God’s way, but insist on doing it our own way, it will bring more harm than good to the kingdom of GOd. Therefore, may every endeavor be born, not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. Let us be in the light and allow our motives to be transparent before God and before our brethren. May all our works be “wrought in God” and established.

The passage can be founrd in James2:19 – 27…You can refer to this site for online passages: www.biblegateway.com

 

    v19: …be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry….

I have read an article that says,”There are already many ’speakaholics’ in our church. We don’t need too much of them. We also need hearers to whom the members will unload their burdens…” Sometimes we should asses ourselves if we are alreay speaking too much that ceases someone to bring to us his ideas, burdens, thoughts , and opinions. By speaking too much, we communicate too others that we think our ideas are much more important that theirs.James wisely advises us to reverse this process. Put a mental stopwatch on your conversation, and keep track of how much you talk and how much you listen. When people talk with you, do they feel that their viewpoints and ideas have value?

   v22-23 “And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself. For if you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at yourself in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance.”

   Whenever we have studied a verse or a lesson, we should not only stop on the process of knowing it or hearing it, we should step upwards on the process of doing it and obeying it. We shouldn’t only be hearers but we should also be doers of the Word! For what James have said,” For if you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at yourself in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance.” Jesus also said,” Anyone who hears my teaching and ignore it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash.”(Mt7:26-27)

v. 27  “a Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles,..”

   It is easy to love those who are lovables. It easy to be nice to nice persons. It easy to talk with socially – skilled persons. But are we just going to be good to those who are good at us. Remember, how can we tell that is love if we are just going to love lovable persons but neglect unlovables? Jesus said,”Even sinners love those who love them…” How can we say we are nice if are just nice to those who are nice at us?Let us put in our minds that the true worship is demonstrating our love to those 3L’s…Lost…Least…and Less…

v29b “and refuse to let the world corrupt us.”

    Plain and simple: We shouldn’t be conformed in the image of this world but rather on Christ alone!

   We shouldn’t love this world because we are just foreigners here. Our homeland is On CITY OF HEAVEN.

  PUT IN OUR MIND WHAT IS LIFE HERE ON EARTH:

-LIFE IS A TEST

-LIFE IS A TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT

-LIFE IS A TRUST

Spiritual food…

My devotion for today can be found in Psalms32…

Have you felt the undescribable feeling when you have confessed your sins to God and you have been forgiven. On my own experience, It was like the presence of God was overflowing on me. I wanted to share the love of God on the other people through any means – like greeting, helping, smiling and many more. I also said to myself,”Now that I am clean, I am very excited how God will use me to reach people.” There was really something ineffable feeling inside you. It was more than a joy that nothing and no one here on earth is capable of giving. It was very incredible. It was also what David felt so he wrote in in psalms,“Oh what a joy for those whose rebellion is forgiven. Whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lords has cleared of sin, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!

But whenever you have un unconfessed sin that has been for a long time, you will have a heavy burden inside. It seems that the only color you can see is black. You lose your patience, love, joy, and other fruits of the Holy Spirit. You are not productive. You feel lazy. You don’t have passion to do anything.In short, you are in total despair! That’s what also David writes in his psalm,” When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

So if there’s anything you are hiding to the Lord, remember, God is omnipresent. Surely, He has seen what you have done. But don’t be weary, He is just waiting for you to confess it to Him. He is faithful on His promise that He will forgive you. Even how big it is, God will still forgive you.Why?Because the Love of God who is Jesus Christ is bigger than any sin of man. Romans8:32,”Since God did not spare even his won Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God , who gave us Christ, also give us everything?” – our forgiveness?

“DON’T REPRESS IT;CONFESS IT!”

Journey to from Egypt to the promise land…(3)

Yesterday, The Lord lead me to tell it to my Godly friends. At first, I was nervous. My flesh was struggling and fighting back. It was telling me,”Don’t tell it to them. You will be scolded. They will undermine you if you tell it to them. Just tell it to them when your addiction is gone.But never tell them while it is there.” Unfortunately for my flesh, the Lord’s voice was very powerful! My knees were really shaking at that time. I knew that the Lord really wanted me to do so. Finally, after the struggle. Before we prayed, I had told them what I was fighting about. I shared to them what my problem was. Then, I have concluded that the flesh was really a minion of devil. Satan used it to make a lie. I was not undermined, in fact, I was encouraged and praised for my courage. They helped me and prayed for me. What the flesh was telling was really a deception. But I didn’t account their praises for my courage because without the Lord, I was not capable of doing so. The real hero here was the Lord, not me! truly! so I hope you would learn from my experience. Like what they have said ,”A problem that is shared is already half – solved.”

To elaborately explain why sharing your addiction or slavery to Godly friends was very important, here is an excerpt from the book “Purpose – driven life”

REVEAL YOUR STRUGGLE TO A GODLY FRIEND OR SUPPORT GROUP

You don’t ahve to broadcast it to the world, but you need at least one person you can honestly share your struggles with. Ecclesiastes4:9-10 says, “You are better off to have a friend than to be all alone… If you fall, your friend can help you up. But if you fall without having a friend nearby, you are really in trouble.”

Let me be clear: If you’re losing teh battle against a persistent bad habit, an addiction, or a temptation, and you’re stuck in a repeating cycle of good intention – failure – guilt, you will not get better on your own! You need the help of other people. Some temmptations are only ovecome with the help of a partner who prays for you, encourages you, and holds you accountable.

James5:16,” Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”The only way you’re goint to break free.

Do you really want to be healed of that persistent temptation tha keeps defeating you over and over? God’s solution is plain:Don’t repress it;confess it!Don’t conceal it;reveal it. Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.

Hiding your hurt only intensifies it. Problems grow in dark and become beigger and bigger, but when exposed to the light of truth, they shrink.

Let me ask you a tough question: What are you pretending isn’t a problem in your life? What are you afraid to talk about? You’re not going to solve it on your own. Yes, it is humbling to admit our weaknesses to others, but lack of humility is the very thing that is keeping you from getting better. James4:6-7a, “God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble, so humble yourselves before God.”

RIGHT NOW…if you have temptations that you can’t overcome, find a godly friend to whom you are accounted to. Share your struggle with him/her. I assure you, that is the start of your freedom!

Training101:Emotional Strenghtening…

A while ago, there was a sutbtle test given to me by God. I just noticed it when I prayed and listened to God’s voice. The test was about sensitivity and emotion. I told to you in the past that I was emotionally weak and easily be depressed. God gave me this test to strengthen my emotion and to train me for future purposes. God used my classmates to train me so I didn’t account the bad feelings I felt on them. The thing was that I felt lonely and it seemed to be my communicational skill was taken from me by God. I can’t have conversation with my classmates. I felt that they were taking me for Granted. There was the devil saying to my thoughts, “It is because you are not handsome, you are not intelligent or bright, you are not interesting. Be fashionable and be someon else so they will get notice you.” But I took it out of my mind. I remembered that I shouldn’t get my confidence on something else but on God alone. You shouldn’t try being cool by impressing someone with your material things and accomplisments. Be cool by making a difference to your world and by making someone feel that he is special. That is how to be cool! But here, satan was really trying to get me to his lure. So I prayed to God. Suddenly it came to my mind what my spritual grandmother told to me. That I was emotionally weak. I should pray for God to strenghten it. Yes, I prayed. And at that time, it was the answer of my prayers. God put me on the training. The scenario was appropriate for my training. Then God spoke to me that nothing should be a hindrance for you to enjoy. Nothing petty should make you depressed. It was a matter of choice. It was a matter of choice of being jolly or being sad. Everything was a matter of choice. And I must remember that the presence of God was present anytime and anywhere. “God will never leave nor forsake me.” So after that, I convinced myself to chat to my classmates and be merry. I shoul enjoy each day given to me by God. Everything was a test!

So I think, I have passed the test. But still, there will be still trainings that will be given to me by the Lord. I am not sure if i am going to pass it but there are somethings I am sure of ” GOd will never leave you nor forsake you”, “If God is with you, who will be against you”, “I can do everything in the name of Jesus Christ who strenghtens me.”

Journey from Egypt to Promise Land 2

Guess what, Like the israelites, I failed again. You know of the following of starting over again. It really was irritating! Starting over again. My goal was to stop this for 4 months because some people said that after 4 months of not doing or indulging in your addiction, it will not be hard for you to get over it, or should they say, you have overcomed it. But here, me, starting over again. When am I going to break this cycle?I’m tired.

Ok, here was my mistake. A while ago, when I was resting after I had arrived from school, I watched on T.V. As I was watching, There was Satan again, tempting me, injecting evil thoughts to my mind again so as to avoid temptation, I went upstairst to my room.”Yes I have passed the test!,” I said on my mind. On my room, there was a television. So as a mode of relaxation, I watched again. Unfortunately or maybe God intended to, I can’t find a remote so I was stucked to the same channel. Suddenly, that station showed a very enticing series. I got no choice(or just turn – off the T.v. or just carry my butt and go to the television set and change the channel) but to watched it. Eventually, satan used it to trapped my thoughts. He was injecting evil thought to my mind and me, the victim, seems to be enjoying that at extent of allowing satan to fill my mind with evil thought. Conseqeuntly and obviously, I gave in to his temptation. I failed! My mistake was that of not choosing to refocus my mind or to change the channel by going near to the television set or just to turn it off. That was my mistake! So to readers(If I have), here’s an exerpt from Purpose – Driven Life with my little add ons. I advise you to read so that you will not fall on the same mistake as I have done…

REFOCUS YOUR ATTENTION ON SOMETHING ELSE

We are advised to refocus our attention because resisting a thought doesn’t work. It only intensifies our focus on the worng things and strengthens its allure. Let me explain:

Every time you try to block a thought out of your mind, you drive it deeper into your memory. By resisting it, you actually reinforce it. This is especially true with temptation. You don’t deafeat temptation by fighting the feeling of it. The more you fight a feeling, the more it consumes and controls you.You strenghten it every time you think it.

Since temptation always begins with a thought, the quckest way to neutralize its allure is to turn you attention to something else. Don’t fight the thought, just change the channel of your mind and get interested another idea. This is the first step in defeating temptation.

Most diets don’ t work because they keep you thinking about food al the time, guaranteeing that you ‘ll be hungry. In the same way, a speaker who keeps repeating to herself, ” Don’t be nervous!” sets herself up to be nervous! Instead she should focus on anything except her feelings – On God, on the imprtance of her speech, or on the needs of those listening.

Temptation begins by capturing your attention. What gets your attention arouses your emotions. Then your emotions activte your behavior, and you act on what you felt. The more you focus on “I don’t want to do this,” the stronger it draws you into its web

Ignoring temptation is far more effective tahtn fighting it. Once yoiur mind is on someting else, the temptatin loses its power. So when temptation calls you on the phone, don’t argue with it, just hang up!

Sometimes this means physically leaving a tempting situation. This is one time it is okay to run away. Get up and turn off the television set… To avoid being stung, stay away from the bees. Do whatever is necessary to turn your attention to something else.

BIble reapetedly tells us to keep our minds focused:Phil4:8,”Fill your minds with those tings that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.”

If you’re serious about defeating temptation you must mange your mind and monitor your media intake. Don’t allow trash into your mind indiscrimately. Be selective. Choose carefully what you think about.By the help of Holy Spirit you can reprogram the way you think.