Once we become Christians by first repenting of our sins and accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we become a lamp into this world. As a lamp we are like a candle or oil lamp, we have to keep our light burning or on. That means we have to make sure we have enough oil and wick.
If you ask me, we can do this by prayers, reading the Bible, going to church, fellowshipping with fellow Christians, etc.
We need each other to strengthen one anotherand let us make sure our lamp has plenty of oil.
I remember when i was in the Philippines till I was 28 years old and did not even think of owning a vehicle because I thought I could not afford it. Then I migrated to the US and I found out i needed a car to go to work. I was taking the bus in California but some places are not covered or it will take me four hours to commute from home to work and back, of course I can look for jobs closer to home.Thirty three years laterI found and practiced and lived the principles of how to be blessed.
Anyway let us go back to the topic, how to be blessed including financially. Is it to work in foreign or modern countries ? the answer is no, I believe we can be blessed anywhere we are. In fact we are blessed now , if we are alive and movingwe are blessed. But we can be blessed more by seeking God first everyday in our life.
Next time if you are interested we will talk about how do we seek God.
I do not know if the title surprised you but we are used or familiar or have witnessed or heard the regular form of evil like lies, violence , theft etc. But I will be talking about other form of evil like achievement driven attitude. What 's wrong with that ? and how do I know that ? Answer: I just found that in me. We often view if something looks good, success in school, work, business, in churchthen it is commendable.
The problem lies in being achievement driven is it sometimes become the first priority with the neglect of others. In my life work became first that my family became just an obligation to be met. Success is first while others can wait. I surround myself with Bibles but rarely had time for family and fellow believers. I pursue trophies, paycheck etc. and less on people. These are probably what Jesus don't like about Pharisees.
After years of this attitude, our patient and merciful and gracious God caused me to see this self centeredness. What opened this is the first lesson of " Transformed' by Rick Warren where I saw that I am lacking in the area of loving others and service to community.
But there is hope, as a 61 year old person, I commit myself to be transformed. First by my confession to my small group and then upon going home I asked forgiveness from my wife of thirty three years who has been suffering in silence for all these years.
I can say to others "bear with me because God is not done with mefor God is patient with me.And if God is patient with me He can be patient with others.
Year 2014 is slowly rolling and I heard some stores in the US closing. The economy appeared sluggish. China's environment starts to suffer due to industrialization. The weather appears to be strange, too much cold in the east of US and lack of rain in California. The Philippines where I came from still dealing with trying to reform the government and politics. Man's knowledge and technology appeared not enough to deal with world's affairs.
Why not call upon the Lord ? or better still , call upon the Lord !
Know the true God. Know the true Jesus. Ask the true God and the true Jesus to forgive us and to accept us and to come into our lives. Live for God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Know the difference of the flesh (coming from self) and the Spirit (coming from God). Read,study, meditate on the Bible, pray to know and understand and obey God. Ask God's help when we fail and never give up. To God be the glory.
I was feeling good about myself because i am days away from reading the whole Bible in less than a year. The last time i read the whole Bible was around 1976about 38 years ago. Reading the Bible meant so much. As I resisted the truths or revelations in the Holy Book,i struggled , confessed and repented, i felt or sense cleansing going on and in on my being.Somehow my flesh tried to get credit for nearing what for me is an accomplishment.
But God put me back down through our pastor's teaching about holiness.Basically it is through God's work in us that we are able to accomplish God's will in our lives. As I ponder my life I could see how God patiently endured my sinful ways and prevented me from more sinful lifestyle.
Truly God shows infinite forgiveness , mercy, patience , love for us. He deserves our praise . He alone deserves the glory.
Is this reality or fantasy ? What we do next will reveal what we believe. But for those who awaits the return of Jesus Christ like me, we should make sure that we are doing the right thing.
In the Bible, it is said to occupy till He comes. When Jesus returns , He should find us doing His work. If you are a Christian you know what to do, don't you ? Keep praying , stay in the Word, love God and our neighbors, help others. Do what God tells us to do.
The best time to prepare for Jesus is before He comes. If you want to wait till He comes and do something,you may choose that but I will not recommend that.
Enjoy life but for me we enjoy life more when we have Jesus in the Spirit and when we wait for His return.
We all have dreams and goals, are we not ? Having observed life in over fifty five years (i am now 61), these are what I can summarize. We all want to be rich, no one wants to be poor, are we not ?. We all want to finish school or college, or some to succeed in business. We want to be known. We would like to eat our favorite food and drink our favorite drinks and be in good health. We want our own house. Some of us wants to be in a public office serving people. We want to be handsome or beautiful and stay young. Some or all of us want to have our own family. Some of us wants to retire and enjoy the fruits of our labor (I am retired by the way).
Let us say , you or we achieved all you/we are aiming for, then what ? or what then ? Can we say and we will happy ever after ? This is what life showed me, we will be gone someday or we will die someday whether we like or not, it is just plain reality, is it not ? And we will leave what we aimed for. You may ask is that all, am I here to depress you ? No, I am here to show you a wonderful life or everlasting life.
You may be saying, show me then. And let me show you.
Have you tried Jesus or do you know Jesus ? Some of you may be saying " Is He the one nailed to the cross ?" , my answer is yes, but He is no longer in or on the cross, He died and already rose from the grave and now in heaven. You may be asking, how do I know these ? My answer is it is written in the Holy Bible. Perhaps you are asking "how do I know it is true ?" Something in me tells me it is true and i believe God is the One who told or telling me through His Holy Spirit. God also promised that we will have eternal life when we believe in His Son Jesus Christ.
I remember long ago I read that people used to travel around the world seeking for the fountain of youth. Even now we try to look young or younger. But we know that no matter what we do we will get old and no matter how much we resist or not think about it we will die someday.
Why did i brought the subject of fountain of youth ? I will tell you, if we have eternal life or everlasting life, is it not the same as fountain of youth ? Eternal life means no more death, if we are to age and grow weak that is not fountain of youth.
God is forever so to live with God we have to have eternal life. And this eternal life is in His Son Jesus Christ. This sounds too easy but it is really hard because it cost God to sacrifice His Son that we may have life.
His Son rose from the dead and is alive forevermore and is coming back to take us unto Himself, are you ready ?
Here we are busy living or trying to live in this planet earth, but have we wondered who owns the earth ? For atheists , those who do not believe in God, they probably think that earth just appeared by itself. For others, they may say their god created it.
For Jews and Christians, they or we rely on the Bible to know the ownershipof the earth. The God of the Jews and Christians created the heavens and the earth according to the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
Before I go on is there anybody out there who claims their god created the earth ?
