"Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions." -Matthew 7:20
The deeper the root, the better the fruit.
Confession
"Whatever you confess won't make Me love you less." -God
***THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION***
295. Why did Christ institute the sacraments of Penance and the Anointing of the Sick?
1420-1421
1426
Christ, the physician of our soul and body, instituted these sacraments because the new life that he gives us in the sacraments of Christian initiation can be weakened and even lost because of sin. Therefore, Christ willed that his Church should continue his work of healing and salvation by means of these two sacraments.
296. What is the name of this sacrament?
1422-1424
It is called the sacrament of Penance, the sacrament of Reconciliation, the sacrament of Forgiveness, the sacrament of Confession, and the sacrament of Conversion.
297. Why is there a sacrament of Reconciliation after Baptism?
1425-1426
1484
Since the new life of grace received in Baptism does not abolish the weakness of human nature nor the inclination to sin (that is, concupiscence), Christ instituted this sacrament for the conversion of the baptized who have been separated from him by sin.
298. When did he institute this sacrament?
1485
The risen Lord instituted this sacrament on the evening of Easter when he showed himself to his apostles and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:22-23).
299. Do the baptized have need of conversion?
1427-1429
The call of Christ to conversion continues to resound in the lives of the baptized. Conversion is a continuing obligation for the whole Church. She is holy but includes sinners in her midst.
300. What is interior penance?
1430-1433
1490
It is the movement of a “contrite heart” (Psalm 51:19) drawn by divine grace to respond to the merciful love of God. This entails sorrow for and abhorrence of sins committed, a firm purpose not to sin again in the future and trust in the help of God. It is nourished by hope in divine mercy.
301. What forms does penance take in the Christian life?
1434-1439
Penance can be expressed in many and various ways but above all in fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. These and many other forms of penance can be practiced in the daily life of a Christian, particularly during the time of Lent and on the penitential day of Friday.
302. What are the essential elements of the sacrament of Reconciliation?
1440-1449
The essential elements are two: the acts of the penitent who comes to repentance through the action of the Holy Spirit, and the absolution of the priest who in the name of Christ grants forgiveness and determines the ways of making satisfaction.
303. What are the acts of the penitent?
1450-1460
1487-1492
They are: a careful examination of conscience; contrition (or repentance), which is perfect when it is motivated by love of God and imperfect if it rests on other motives and which includes the determination not to sin again; confession, which consists in the telling of one’s sins to the priest; and satisfaction or the carrying out of certain acts of penance which the confessor imposes upon the penitent to repair the damage caused by sin.
304. Which sins must be confessed?
1456
All grave sins not yet confessed, which a careful examination of conscience brings to mind, must be brought to the sacrament of Penance. The confession of serious sins is the only ordinary way to obtain forgiveness.
305. When is a person obliged to confess mortal sins?
1457
Each of the faithful who has reached the age of discretion is bound to confess his or her mortal sins at least once a year and always before receiving Holy Communion.
306. Why can venial sins also be the object of sacramental confession?
1458
The confession of venial sins is strongly recommended by the Church, even if this is not strictly necessary, because it helps us to form a correct conscience and to fight against evil tendencies. It allows us to be healed by Christ and to progress in the life of the Spirit.
307. Who is the minister of this sacrament?
1461-1466
1495
Christ has entrusted the ministry of Reconciliation to his apostles, to the bishops who are their successors and to the priests who are the collaborators of the bishops, all of whom become thereby instruments of the mercy and justice of God. They exercise their power of forgiving sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
308. To whom is the absolution of some sins reserved?
1463
The absolution of certain particularly grave sins (like those punished by excommunication) is reserved to the Apostolic See or to the local bishop or to priests who are authorized by them. Any priest, however, can absolve a person who is in danger of death from any sin and excommunication.
309. Is a confessor bound to secrecy?
1467
Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to people every confessor, without any exception and under very severe penalties, is bound to maintain “the sacramental seal” which means absolute secrecy about the sins revealed to him in confession.
310. What are the effects of this sacrament?
1468-1470
1496
The effects of the sacrament of Penance are: reconciliation with God and therefore the forgiveness of sins; reconciliation with the Church; recovery, if it has been lost, of the state of grace; remission of the eternal punishment merited by mortal sins, and remission, at least in part, of the temporal punishment which is the consequence of sin; peace, serenity of conscience and spiritual consolation; and an increase of spiritual strength for the struggle of Christian living.
311. Can this sacrament be celebrated in some cases with a general confession and general absolution?
1480-1484
In cases of serious necessity (as in imminent danger of death) recourse may be had to a communal celebration of Reconciliation with general confession and general absolution, as long as the norms of the Church are observed and there is the intention of individually confessing one’s grave sins in due time.
312. What are indulgences?
1471-1479
1498
Indulgences are the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. The faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains the indulgence under prescribed conditions for either himself or the departed. Indulgences are granted through the ministry of the Church which, as the dispenser of the grace of redemption, distributes the treasury of the merits of Christ and the Saints.
1420-1421
1426
Christ, the physician of our soul and body, instituted these sacraments because the new life that he gives us in the sacraments of Christian initiation can be weakened and even lost because of sin. Therefore, Christ willed that his Church should continue his work of healing and salvation by means of these two sacraments.
296. What is the name of this sacrament?
1422-1424
It is called the sacrament of Penance, the sacrament of Reconciliation, the sacrament of Forgiveness, the sacrament of Confession, and the sacrament of Conversion.
297. Why is there a sacrament of Reconciliation after Baptism?
1425-1426
1484
Since the new life of grace received in Baptism does not abolish the weakness of human nature nor the inclination to sin (that is, concupiscence), Christ instituted this sacrament for the conversion of the baptized who have been separated from him by sin.
298. When did he institute this sacrament?
1485
The risen Lord instituted this sacrament on the evening of Easter when he showed himself to his apostles and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:22-23).
299. Do the baptized have need of conversion?
1427-1429
The call of Christ to conversion continues to resound in the lives of the baptized. Conversion is a continuing obligation for the whole Church. She is holy but includes sinners in her midst.
300. What is interior penance?
1430-1433
1490
It is the movement of a “contrite heart” (Psalm 51:19) drawn by divine grace to respond to the merciful love of God. This entails sorrow for and abhorrence of sins committed, a firm purpose not to sin again in the future and trust in the help of God. It is nourished by hope in divine mercy.
301. What forms does penance take in the Christian life?
1434-1439
Penance can be expressed in many and various ways but above all in fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. These and many other forms of penance can be practiced in the daily life of a Christian, particularly during the time of Lent and on the penitential day of Friday.
302. What are the essential elements of the sacrament of Reconciliation?
1440-1449
The essential elements are two: the acts of the penitent who comes to repentance through the action of the Holy Spirit, and the absolution of the priest who in the name of Christ grants forgiveness and determines the ways of making satisfaction.
303. What are the acts of the penitent?
1450-1460
1487-1492
They are: a careful examination of conscience; contrition (or repentance), which is perfect when it is motivated by love of God and imperfect if it rests on other motives and which includes the determination not to sin again; confession, which consists in the telling of one’s sins to the priest; and satisfaction or the carrying out of certain acts of penance which the confessor imposes upon the penitent to repair the damage caused by sin.
304. Which sins must be confessed?
1456
All grave sins not yet confessed, which a careful examination of conscience brings to mind, must be brought to the sacrament of Penance. The confession of serious sins is the only ordinary way to obtain forgiveness.
305. When is a person obliged to confess mortal sins?
1457
Each of the faithful who has reached the age of discretion is bound to confess his or her mortal sins at least once a year and always before receiving Holy Communion.
306. Why can venial sins also be the object of sacramental confession?
1458
The confession of venial sins is strongly recommended by the Church, even if this is not strictly necessary, because it helps us to form a correct conscience and to fight against evil tendencies. It allows us to be healed by Christ and to progress in the life of the Spirit.
307. Who is the minister of this sacrament?
1461-1466
1495
Christ has entrusted the ministry of Reconciliation to his apostles, to the bishops who are their successors and to the priests who are the collaborators of the bishops, all of whom become thereby instruments of the mercy and justice of God. They exercise their power of forgiving sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
308. To whom is the absolution of some sins reserved?
1463
The absolution of certain particularly grave sins (like those punished by excommunication) is reserved to the Apostolic See or to the local bishop or to priests who are authorized by them. Any priest, however, can absolve a person who is in danger of death from any sin and excommunication.
309. Is a confessor bound to secrecy?
1467
Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to people every confessor, without any exception and under very severe penalties, is bound to maintain “the sacramental seal” which means absolute secrecy about the sins revealed to him in confession.
310. What are the effects of this sacrament?
1468-1470
1496
The effects of the sacrament of Penance are: reconciliation with God and therefore the forgiveness of sins; reconciliation with the Church; recovery, if it has been lost, of the state of grace; remission of the eternal punishment merited by mortal sins, and remission, at least in part, of the temporal punishment which is the consequence of sin; peace, serenity of conscience and spiritual consolation; and an increase of spiritual strength for the struggle of Christian living.
311. Can this sacrament be celebrated in some cases with a general confession and general absolution?
1480-1484
In cases of serious necessity (as in imminent danger of death) recourse may be had to a communal celebration of Reconciliation with general confession and general absolution, as long as the norms of the Church are observed and there is the intention of individually confessing one’s grave sins in due time.
312. What are indulgences?
1471-1479
1498
Indulgences are the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. The faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains the indulgence under prescribed conditions for either himself or the departed. Indulgences are granted through the ministry of the Church which, as the dispenser of the grace of redemption, distributes the treasury of the merits of Christ and the Saints.
Labels:
Love
The Seed of Choice
[Genesis 2:4 - 3:24]
He placed one scoop of clay upon another until a form lay lifeless on the ground….
All were silent as the Creator reached in Himself and removed something yet unseen. “It’s called ‘choice’. The seed of choice.”
Creation stood in silence and gazed upon the lifeless form.
An angel spoke, “But what if he…”
“What if he chooses not to love?” the Creator finished. “Come, I will show you.”
Unbound by today, God and the angel walked into the realm of tomorrow…
The angel gasped at what he saw. Spontaneous love. Voluntary devotion. Never had he seen anything like these… The angel stood speechless as they passed through the centuries of repugnance. Never had he seen such filth. Rotten hearts. Ruptured promises. Forgotten loyalties…
The Creator walked on in time, further and further into the future, until He stood by a tree. A tree that would be fashioned into a cradle. Even then He could smell the hay that would surround Him…
“Wouldn’t it be easier to not plant the seed? Wouldn’t it be easier to not give the choice?”
“It would,” the Creator spoke slowly. “But to remove the choice is to remove the love.”
They stepped into the Garden again. The Maker looked earnestly at the clay creation. A monsoon of love swelled up within Him. He had died for the creation before He had made him. God’s form bent over the sculptured face and breathed. Dust stirred on the lips of the new one. The chest rose, cracking the red mud. The cheeks fleshened. A finger move. And an eye opened.
But more incredible than the moving of the flesh was the stirring of the spirit. Those who could see the unseen gasped.
Perhaps it was the wind who said it first. Perhaps what the star saw that moment is what has made it blink ever since. Maybe it was left to an angel to whisper it:
“It looks like…it appears so much like…it is Him!”
The angel wasn’t speaking of the face, the features, or the body. He was looking inside—at the soul.
“It’s eternal!” gasped another.
Within man, God had placed a divine seed. A seed of His Self. The God of might had created earth’s mightiest. The Creator had created, not a creature, but another creator. And the One who had chosen to love had created one who could love in return.
Now it’s our choice.
(From In The Eye of the Storm by Max Lucado)
Labels:
Love
Fearless
Joshua De Gracia
Part I of the “Fearless” series
Feel free to answer and e-mail us your answer to this question: “what do you fear?” –KnowGodknowlove808@gmail.com
A phobia, (from Greek “fear”), is an abnormal, persistent fear of situations, objects, activities, of persons. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject.
The term phobia is also used in a non-medical sense for aversions of all sorts and types of fobias and fears. A number of neologisms have appeared with the suffix -phobia, which are not phobias in the clinical sense, but rather describe a negative attitude towards something.
There are well over 1,000 different types of fears in the world. Let’s take a look at a few: Angrophobia is the fear of anger, Gamophobia is the fear of marriage, Tropophobia is the fear of moving or making changes, Scolionophobia is the fear of school and Anuptaphobia is the fear of being/staying single.
In the definition of “phobia,” its main symptom was an obsessive desire to avoid the feared object. In a spiritual sense, this is the goal of the devil as he brings fear into our lives. F.E.A.R. means “False Evidence Appearing Real.” Like it says in Jeremiah 29:11, God has a plan and a purpose for our lives and Satan will do whatever it takes for us to fall out of that purpose, no matter what it may be.
Suicide is a major tragedy that is happening in our world as we speak. Last year, statistics showed that an individual took their life in the United States every 30 minutes. You do the math and it comes out to 48 people a day. The sad reality of it is suicide is a sin and the Bible says that if we sin without repenting, we will not be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
On the topic of suicides, what would cause someone to take their own life? It could be lost purpose, gave up on living, different stresses amounted and the list could go on and on.
We weren’t made to be alone, however, there are times in which the enemy makes us feel like we have nothing to live for and no one to turn to but death itself.
God’s answer:
Deuteronomy 31:6
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
For those of you who feel like you have no sense of purpose in life. Let me be the first to tell you that God has a plan for your life, no matter how much you think your are dealing with. Don’t give into the lies of the enemy who wants to oppress your life. You were made in God’s image and be assured that no matter where you go and what you do in life, God is always right there by your side. Fight that fear with faith.
----------
Krinda Joy Carlson
Part II of the “Fearless” series
The English dictionary is too small! In our modern language, we lose the depth of meaning which so many words were meant to impart, and the word “fear” suffers the same misunderstanding. When speaking of fear and the fear of the Lord in Biblical terms, we must consider the origin of this word to fully comprehend this concept.
Original Origin of Biblical “Fear”
Since the Old Testament’s original text was Hebrew, let’s embark on a mini Hebraic lesson. First off, when looking up the word “fear” in Hebrew, you will not find one word, but about a million! (Ok, so it seems like a million). However, the one most commonly used in the Bible, especially in reference to the Lord, is yir’ah, or ya’re in verb form. Psalm 33:8 gives an example: “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere Him.” This verse actually defines for us what fear meant for the Jewish community – it meant actual fear, combined with “awe” or fear at the awesomeness of someone/something!
I have heard many times that the “fear of the Lord” simply means respect, but in actuality, one who fears the Lord really does possess a form of dread. For to have true respect and awe for God means we contain some form of understanding that His judgment is to be feared if we turn against Him. After all, even our Webster’s Dictionary defines “awe” as “an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime.” Thus, we must understand that He is THE ONE whom we should concern ourselves with, for His authority deserves both our honor and our dread; we are to live in fearful awe of Him simply because He is God – the sacred and sublime not for His actions, but because He is Alpha and Omega. This is true fear of the Lord.
Re-Defining Fear in English
Now! Unless we compare the Hebrew definition of fear with our modern definition, the above paragraph could hinder the intimate relationship we are meant to have with the Lord. Our, understanding of “fear” and “dread” is misconstrued because the origin for our word comes from the old English word synonymous with “calamity, disaster”; and, the Germanic verb meaning, “to terrify, take by surprise.” Thus, today when we think of fear, it involves an event which inspires the emotion of fear. It is the exterior world working upon our mind and body in a way that causes disaster to us either physically or emotionally. This is the type of fear God commands us NOT to have, when He says, “fear not.” And, THIS IS NOT THE WAY WE ARE TO FEAR GOD.
The fear of the Lord must be understood from the Hebraic origin so that we can truly have life, and life abundant as God promises. To ya’re God is to have an inherent awe, dread, and wonder in who He is, and realizes He is supreme over all things! It’s not about events, actions, or “punishment” He can invoke, for that misrepresents God’s heart and causes us to run from Him, not to Him. For example, when we have a healthy fear of our parents, we understand that they have the power to affect our lives so we obey and honor them, but we know they act only out of love to ensure good flows into our lives. This is a relationship mixed with respect. (I understand that, sadly, all parents do not posses this type of love intended by God, but it is the model).
We are to approach God with this same attitude! “I will give them singleness of heart and action so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me” (Jeremiah 32:39-40). Living fearless is to not have fear by modern day definition, it is to have a “ya’re-fear” of the Lord, because with it, we understand that He will “never stop doing good” to us! This releases us to love and live in confidence, and no longer tremble at the disasters and calamities of the world!
Part I of the “Fearless” series
Feel free to answer and e-mail us your answer to this question: “what do you fear?” –KnowGodknowlove808@gmail.com
A phobia, (from Greek “fear”), is an abnormal, persistent fear of situations, objects, activities, of persons. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject.
The term phobia is also used in a non-medical sense for aversions of all sorts and types of fobias and fears. A number of neologisms have appeared with the suffix -phobia, which are not phobias in the clinical sense, but rather describe a negative attitude towards something.
There are well over 1,000 different types of fears in the world. Let’s take a look at a few: Angrophobia is the fear of anger, Gamophobia is the fear of marriage, Tropophobia is the fear of moving or making changes, Scolionophobia is the fear of school and Anuptaphobia is the fear of being/staying single.
In the definition of “phobia,” its main symptom was an obsessive desire to avoid the feared object. In a spiritual sense, this is the goal of the devil as he brings fear into our lives. F.E.A.R. means “False Evidence Appearing Real.” Like it says in Jeremiah 29:11, God has a plan and a purpose for our lives and Satan will do whatever it takes for us to fall out of that purpose, no matter what it may be.
Suicide is a major tragedy that is happening in our world as we speak. Last year, statistics showed that an individual took their life in the United States every 30 minutes. You do the math and it comes out to 48 people a day. The sad reality of it is suicide is a sin and the Bible says that if we sin without repenting, we will not be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
On the topic of suicides, what would cause someone to take their own life? It could be lost purpose, gave up on living, different stresses amounted and the list could go on and on.
We weren’t made to be alone, however, there are times in which the enemy makes us feel like we have nothing to live for and no one to turn to but death itself.
God’s answer:
Deuteronomy 31:6
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
For those of you who feel like you have no sense of purpose in life. Let me be the first to tell you that God has a plan for your life, no matter how much you think your are dealing with. Don’t give into the lies of the enemy who wants to oppress your life. You were made in God’s image and be assured that no matter where you go and what you do in life, God is always right there by your side. Fight that fear with faith.
----------
Krinda Joy Carlson
Part II of the “Fearless” series
The English dictionary is too small! In our modern language, we lose the depth of meaning which so many words were meant to impart, and the word “fear” suffers the same misunderstanding. When speaking of fear and the fear of the Lord in Biblical terms, we must consider the origin of this word to fully comprehend this concept.
Original Origin of Biblical “Fear”
Since the Old Testament’s original text was Hebrew, let’s embark on a mini Hebraic lesson. First off, when looking up the word “fear” in Hebrew, you will not find one word, but about a million! (Ok, so it seems like a million). However, the one most commonly used in the Bible, especially in reference to the Lord, is yir’ah, or ya’re in verb form. Psalm 33:8 gives an example: “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere Him.” This verse actually defines for us what fear meant for the Jewish community – it meant actual fear, combined with “awe” or fear at the awesomeness of someone/something!
I have heard many times that the “fear of the Lord” simply means respect, but in actuality, one who fears the Lord really does possess a form of dread. For to have true respect and awe for God means we contain some form of understanding that His judgment is to be feared if we turn against Him. After all, even our Webster’s Dictionary defines “awe” as “an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime.” Thus, we must understand that He is THE ONE whom we should concern ourselves with, for His authority deserves both our honor and our dread; we are to live in fearful awe of Him simply because He is God – the sacred and sublime not for His actions, but because He is Alpha and Omega. This is true fear of the Lord.
Re-Defining Fear in English
Now! Unless we compare the Hebrew definition of fear with our modern definition, the above paragraph could hinder the intimate relationship we are meant to have with the Lord. Our, understanding of “fear” and “dread” is misconstrued because the origin for our word comes from the old English word synonymous with “calamity, disaster”; and, the Germanic verb meaning, “to terrify, take by surprise.” Thus, today when we think of fear, it involves an event which inspires the emotion of fear. It is the exterior world working upon our mind and body in a way that causes disaster to us either physically or emotionally. This is the type of fear God commands us NOT to have, when He says, “fear not.” And, THIS IS NOT THE WAY WE ARE TO FEAR GOD.
The fear of the Lord must be understood from the Hebraic origin so that we can truly have life, and life abundant as God promises. To ya’re God is to have an inherent awe, dread, and wonder in who He is, and realizes He is supreme over all things! It’s not about events, actions, or “punishment” He can invoke, for that misrepresents God’s heart and causes us to run from Him, not to Him. For example, when we have a healthy fear of our parents, we understand that they have the power to affect our lives so we obey and honor them, but we know they act only out of love to ensure good flows into our lives. This is a relationship mixed with respect. (I understand that, sadly, all parents do not posses this type of love intended by God, but it is the model).
We are to approach God with this same attitude! “I will give them singleness of heart and action so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me” (Jeremiah 32:39-40). Living fearless is to not have fear by modern day definition, it is to have a “ya’re-fear” of the Lord, because with it, we understand that He will “never stop doing good” to us! This releases us to love and live in confidence, and no longer tremble at the disasters and calamities of the world!
Labels:
Faith
Dinner
“Some of the most Important conversations in your life,
Will happen at the table in which you share food at.”
The stories that you share with those who care after a long wait,
The most exciting thing that you may do the whole day.
All of which are spent in a place that is designed to talk at.
Extensive work goes into what to serve and who to invite,
So much goes into what happens at the place we see so often.
It would only make sense that amazing things tend to happen.
Amazing joy, great sadness, future success, great failure,
Huge fights, understandable compromise, bitter silence, unbearable noise,
Morbid break-ups and beautiful engagements to name a few.
Even one of the greatest events in our Faith occurred at a dinner table.
For some reason I always relate everything with food and music.
What could be better than food and music you ask?
Friends, Family and Loved Ones. (and great conversation)Eat Wisely.
Labels:
Virtues
Correction
“Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it.” - Psalm 141:5.
"Correction is a soothing medicine. Is that my everyday perspective? I don’t know about you, but I struggle with allowing pride to get the best of me. Yet, in his Psalm, David demonstrates his humility by refusing to refuse correction. He understands that correction builds character and nourishes growth. Medicine makes us better when were sick. In the same way, correction makes us better people when we make mistakes. I want to be more like David.
//Proverbs 10:17// People who accept discipline are on the pathway to life, but those who ignore correction will go astray.
//Proverbs 12:1// To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction.
//Proverbs 13:1// A wise child accepts a parent’s discipline; a mocker refuses to listen to correction.
//Proverbs 13:18// If you ignore criticism, you will end in poverty and disgrace; if you accept correction, you will be honored.
//Proverbs 15:5// Only a fool despises a parent’s discipline; whoever learns from correction is wise.
//Proverbs 15:10// Whoever abandons the right path will be severely disciplined; whoever hates correction will die.
//Proverbs 15:32// If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding.
God has a lot to say on correction."
Labels:
Virtues
Salvation
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." -Ephesians 2:8
"I said to myself, "Relax and rest. God has showered you with blessings. Soul, you've been rescued from death; Eye, you've been rescued from tears; And you, Foot, were kept from stumbling." -Psalm 116:7-8
"Only fools would indicate that Salvation can only be achieved by those who do good deeds but what if the intentions were wrong?, you see the truth is Salvation, can and would only be achieved by the mercy of God and God alone." -Anonymous
"God didn't save us because He made us, He saved us because He loved us." -Mikey Raymundo
"I said to myself, "Relax and rest. God has showered you with blessings. Soul, you've been rescued from death; Eye, you've been rescued from tears; And you, Foot, were kept from stumbling." -Psalm 116:7-8
"Only fools would indicate that Salvation can only be achieved by those who do good deeds but what if the intentions were wrong?, you see the truth is Salvation, can and would only be achieved by the mercy of God and God alone." -Anonymous
"God didn't save us because He made us, He saved us because He loved us." -Mikey Raymundo
Labels:
Faith
Expectations
"Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give." -Matthew 10:8
"I don't think it matters if the people you put first puts you second. The fact that you are put in their life, and they're put into yours is a blessing. And when you grow to have no expectation, and you're still friends... love just grew in your relationship. Why ask for more? If you're hurt its your fault for having so much expectation in the first place." -Alo Galedo
"Put your expectations on God, not on people." -Joyce Meyer
"Do you feel a need for affirmation? Does your self-esteem need attention? You don't need to drop names or show off. You need only to pause at the base of the cross and be reminded of this: The Maker of the stars would rather die for you and than live without you. And that is a fact. So if you need to brag, brag about that." -Max Lucado
"Why is it that when PEOPLE let us down we're so quick to turn our backs on God? People will choose to walk out of our lives, boyfriends and girlfriends will come and go, bestfriends will sometimes become enemies…and in some cases even family will turn their backs on you when you need them most…but its truly amazing to know that GOD never never will. “….Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5). Forsake means to quit or leave entirely; abandon;desert. God is never going to abandon us, NEVER! He is the only constant in this crazy thing called life. It took me too long to come to that understanding. It was my belief that people, money, and material things could take His place..and was I ever wrong. There is absolutely nothing comparable to GOD’s love. He cant be replaced, substituted, or duplicated. Don’t ever punish GOD for other peoples failures. He is the ONLY one that can and will be there for you always.
"I don't think it matters if the people you put first puts you second. The fact that you are put in their life, and they're put into yours is a blessing. And when you grow to have no expectation, and you're still friends... love just grew in your relationship. Why ask for more? If you're hurt its your fault for having so much expectation in the first place." -Alo Galedo
"Put your expectations on God, not on people." -Joyce Meyer
"Do you feel a need for affirmation? Does your self-esteem need attention? You don't need to drop names or show off. You need only to pause at the base of the cross and be reminded of this: The Maker of the stars would rather die for you and than live without you. And that is a fact. So if you need to brag, brag about that." -Max Lucado
"Why is it that when PEOPLE let us down we're so quick to turn our backs on God? People will choose to walk out of our lives, boyfriends and girlfriends will come and go, bestfriends will sometimes become enemies…and in some cases even family will turn their backs on you when you need them most…but its truly amazing to know that GOD never never will. “….Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5). Forsake means to quit or leave entirely; abandon;desert. God is never going to abandon us, NEVER! He is the only constant in this crazy thing called life. It took me too long to come to that understanding. It was my belief that people, money, and material things could take His place..and was I ever wrong. There is absolutely nothing comparable to GOD’s love. He cant be replaced, substituted, or duplicated. Don’t ever punish GOD for other peoples failures. He is the ONLY one that can and will be there for you always.
“It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.” -Psalm 118:8
-Adriana Maravilla
"Is your love selfless or selfish? Selfish love demands something in return. Love, acceptance, kindness, concern- something. It gives, therefore it wants to get. Selfish love is always thinking, “What’s in it for me?” And it’s always asking, “Why should I love you when you won’t love me back?” But selfish love isn’t really love at all, because true love thinks nothing of itself but focuses on loving others in order to serve them and Christ, who is our example of selfless love. Unconditional love is something we all want as human beings. We want to be loved no matter what we do, but how often are we willing to return love the same way? We make demands and set rules on our love, but true love doesn’t make demands. It is given freely and abundantly. The only rule when it comes to giving love is that love for a human can never come before our love for Him. Our love should never try to replace the Holy Spirit but should flow from his presence. How many times do you give kindness and then scream when you get anger in return? How many times do you give advice and then complain when it isn’t followed? Do you resent it when you give return? The love you give to others should never be conditional on what you get back but should come from knowing the man above who first loved you. You should be compelled by his love, not the response from other people. You should be defined by his love, not the actions of others. When your focus is not getting but giving, then your love will grow, and through that all other virtues will flow.
Spread Love because EVERYONE deserves it." -sspreadlove
"Expectation is the root of all heartache." -William Shakespeare
Labels:
Love
1 John 4:20
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
Labels:
Faith
Compromise
"Compromising is a sure sign of not possessing the truth. When a man yields in matters of ideals, of honor, or of faith, that man is without ideals, without honor, and without faith." -St. Jose Maria Escriva "The Way, 394"
"Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." -Matthew 6:8
"Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." -Matthew 6:8
Labels:
Virtues
Listen
"For God is greater than any human being. So why are you bringing a charge against Him? Why say He does not respond to people’s complaints? For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it." -Job 33:12-14 // NLT (via adarkhorse)
"We wonder with so many miraculous testimonies around us, how we could escape God. But somehow we do. We live in an art gallery of divine creativity and yet are content to gaze only at the carpet.
"We wonder with so many miraculous testimonies around us, how we could escape God. But somehow we do. We live in an art gallery of divine creativity and yet are content to gaze only at the carpet.
The next time you hear a baby laugh or see an ocean wave, take note. Pause and listen as His majesty whispers ever so gently, 'I’m here.'" -Max Lucado
Labels:
Virtues
Wisdom
"People know where to mine silver and how to refine gold…But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding?…Wisdom is more valuable than gold and crystal. It cannot be purchased with jewels mounted in fine gold…God alone understands the way to wisdom; he knows where it can be found…And this is what he says to all humanity: ‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding.’" -Job 28:1, 12, 17, 23, & 28 // NLT (via adarkhorse)
Labels:
Virtues
Plowing & Planting
"I’m in the middle of a refining season. If I looked around me, I would easily get discouraged by all the things that seem to be narrowing in my life. However, with my gaze set on Higher things [things above me and in front of me], I am excited [literally looking forward to my future], knowing that this is the time right before something incredible will be birthed [the contraction before the expansion]. 2011 is going to be an explosive year of growth for me.
I had already been thinking to name 2011 ‘Growth’ and it has now been confirmed in multiple ways.
1. I was reading Ezra 3 about preparations to build the Temple. In the middle of this passage, my Bible has this commentary:
“The people of Israel spent months just preparing to build the Temple…How much prep time do you take before doing a project? Most of us would rather do a job than prepare for it. Preparation time may not feel heroic or spiritual, but it is vital to any project you want to do well.”
Since I am now His temple & He lives in me opposed to dwelling in a building, I take Ezra 3 as a metaphor for the season I’m in. It confirmed that I am being prepared for some major [re]construction. Before you rebuild you have to tear down, and I’ve been in a season of tearing down lately.
2. That same night, I read this verse:
You drench the plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling the ridges. You soften the earth with showers and bless its abundant crops. -Psalm 65:8
It really resonated with me, but I couldn’t quite place my finger on why [Holy Spirit, anyone?]. So I researched plowing:
“The plow…is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil IN PREPARATION for sowing seed or planting…The primary purpose of ploughing is to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds and the remains of previous crops, allowing them to break down. It also aerates the soil, and allows it to hold moisture better. -Wikipedia
Wow.
God is plowing my heart, refining it, redefining it. He is burying & breaking down the weeds in my world. He is overturning things I once clung to and bringing fresh nutrients to the surface. He is plowing and planting in my soul.
And it says that He drenches the plowed ground. Not just sprinkles, not just rains on; drenches. When this season has passed there will be abundant crops.
3. I was talking with one of my best friends, who has been going through similar seasons as me (as in, we are on the same sentence of the same page of the same chapter of our lives) about a month or so ago. We had both named our year this year the same thing, and I mentioned that I was thinking about naming next year Growth. She just looked at me, and said something like, “That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking for me.” To have someone I’m on the same page as be thinking similarly to me signifies that I’m heading in the right direction.
I’ve got a colossal future ahead of me." -adarkhorse
True Self
"When I find You, I'll find me." -Anonymous
"For me to be a saint means for me to be myself." -Thomas Merton
"You can do something I cannot do. I can do something you cannot do. Together let us do something beautiful for God." -Mother Theresa
"...Holiness consists of being true to the person God created. In other words, being holy means being your true self." -James Martin, SJ
"The problem comes when we begin to believe that we have to be someone else to be holy. We use someone else's map to heaven when God has already planted in our soul all the directions we need. In this way we ignore our own call to sanctity. When admirers used to visit Calcutta to see Mother Theresa, she would tell many of them, "Find your own Calcutta." In other words, bloom where you are planted. Discover sanctity in your own life." -James Martin, SJ
"But by the grace of God I am what I am." -1 Corinthians 15:10
"To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting." -E. E. Cummings
"We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God." -Thomas Merton
"12, 15, 25, 39, 40, 54, 101. Since when do numbers define how old we have to be to love? Fat, ugly, skinny, pretty, gorgeous, disgusting. Since when do adjectives define our physical appearance? A+, B-, C+, D-, F. Since when does one grade define how smart we are? Nice clothes, cheap clothes, decent house, mansion, luxary car, iphone, $100 purses. Since when does the stuff we own define how happy we are? Since when did you think everyone will hurt you just because one person did? Since when did you lose your smile because of one bad thing that happened? Since when did you change yourself because one person didn't like who you were? Since when did you start thinking and acting a certain way because you saw someone else doing it? Since when did you become the same when you were born to be different?" -Anonymous
"For so many years, as stupid as this may seem, I didn’t understand what it meant to be me. I found that a good portion of my life I had spent it trying to please others and strive for their approval. I couldn’t find the fine line between doing what’s right, and doing what’s right in everybody else’s eyes. But the truth is, I only need to please one Being." -Ria Manansala
"There is someone that I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me." -C.S. Lewis
"Every man who seeks the kingdom of God finds himself." -Pope John Paul II
"For me to be a saint means for me to be myself." -Thomas Merton
"You can do something I cannot do. I can do something you cannot do. Together let us do something beautiful for God." -Mother Theresa
"...Holiness consists of being true to the person God created. In other words, being holy means being your true self." -James Martin, SJ
"The problem comes when we begin to believe that we have to be someone else to be holy. We use someone else's map to heaven when God has already planted in our soul all the directions we need. In this way we ignore our own call to sanctity. When admirers used to visit Calcutta to see Mother Theresa, she would tell many of them, "Find your own Calcutta." In other words, bloom where you are planted. Discover sanctity in your own life." -James Martin, SJ
"But by the grace of God I am what I am." -1 Corinthians 15:10
"To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting." -E. E. Cummings
"We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God." -Thomas Merton
"12, 15, 25, 39, 40, 54, 101. Since when do numbers define how old we have to be to love? Fat, ugly, skinny, pretty, gorgeous, disgusting. Since when do adjectives define our physical appearance? A+, B-, C+, D-, F. Since when does one grade define how smart we are? Nice clothes, cheap clothes, decent house, mansion, luxary car, iphone, $100 purses. Since when does the stuff we own define how happy we are? Since when did you think everyone will hurt you just because one person did? Since when did you lose your smile because of one bad thing that happened? Since when did you change yourself because one person didn't like who you were? Since when did you start thinking and acting a certain way because you saw someone else doing it? Since when did you become the same when you were born to be different?" -Anonymous
"For so many years, as stupid as this may seem, I didn’t understand what it meant to be me. I found that a good portion of my life I had spent it trying to please others and strive for their approval. I couldn’t find the fine line between doing what’s right, and doing what’s right in everybody else’s eyes. But the truth is, I only need to please one Being." -Ria Manansala
"There is someone that I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me." -C.S. Lewis
"Every man who seeks the kingdom of God finds himself." -Pope John Paul II
Labels:
Love
Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
by Max Ehrmann
Labels:
Hope
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year”
"Legendary quotes blown away into the blue;
We say what we want but it’s the opposite of what we do.
We could all be happy if we really wanted to.
But — “if I’m not being happy… then, well, why should you?”
Selfishness kills you,
Selflessness builds you.
So do what you want but make sure you’re still true.
We forget about how Jesus died for what we used to do;
We still sin every day but He still loves you.
Caught up in the act of doing what we do;
We party, smoke, blaze and we get drunk too.
Getting home late, past our curfew.
What happened to family, love, and virtues?
We live every day without thinking it through;
Our ultimate goals in which we want to pursue.
So take these words and put it into your view;
"I'M OKAY!" I can see past your lies — it’s like they’re see-through.
Just sit back with your family and have some fondue,
This time of year is when God comes to the rescue."
-Kim Nguyen
Labels:
Hope
Where Do You Draw The Line?
"Come on, I know we're just human and all that jazz, but yes, if humans have the ability to falter and submit to temptation, then humans were given the gift to fight back and do something about it." -Jeffrey Gache
The excuse "we're human, we're not perfect" can only go so far. Using that excuse to get over your guilt like *snap* is settling into complacency. Not to mention denial.
Can you imagine if you kept hurting your mom and dad and you just said "oh, well I'm not perfect!" and did nothing else to change? Would you keep running away, forever held down by your guilt, denial, depression and bitterness?
Sometimes we have to face God and humble all that we are and admit our wrongs.
"What can I say? What can I do? But offer this heart O God, completely to You." -The Stand, by Hillsong
What can you say? What can you do? A sin is a sin. No reason or explanation can get you out of something you've committed. All you can do is just pray and repent...
...and never forget that nothing that you do to God can make Him love you less.
God will always love you, but it's up to you whether you want to be with Him or not.
It's your choice where you want to finish. And in accordance with popular belief, fate really is in your hands. That is one of the greatest gifts God has given Man: freewill.
So where do you draw the line?
The excuse "we're human, we're not perfect" can only go so far. Using that excuse to get over your guilt like *snap* is settling into complacency. Not to mention denial.
Can you imagine if you kept hurting your mom and dad and you just said "oh, well I'm not perfect!" and did nothing else to change? Would you keep running away, forever held down by your guilt, denial, depression and bitterness?
Sometimes we have to face God and humble all that we are and admit our wrongs.
"What can I say? What can I do? But offer this heart O God, completely to You." -The Stand, by Hillsong
What can you say? What can you do? A sin is a sin. No reason or explanation can get you out of something you've committed. All you can do is just pray and repent...
...and never forget that nothing that you do to God can make Him love you less.
God will always love you, but it's up to you whether you want to be with Him or not.
It's your choice where you want to finish. And in accordance with popular belief, fate really is in your hands. That is one of the greatest gifts God has given Man: freewill.
So where do you draw the line?
Labels:
Faith
Holiness
"Holiness is not the luxury of a few. It is everyone's duty: yours and mine." -Mother Theresa
"You are called to holiness. That may mean that you are a nun or a lawyer. You may be a mother or a single professional. But God’s will for your life is the same: holiness, no matter who you are. That is why we are created. We are created to be holy in love, in love with God, in love with other people, and in love with the community of believers. That’s what we are all destined for - holiness in love." -Allen Hunt (Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor)
"You are called to holiness. That may mean that you are a nun or a lawyer. You may be a mother or a single professional. But God’s will for your life is the same: holiness, no matter who you are. That is why we are created. We are created to be holy in love, in love with God, in love with other people, and in love with the community of believers. That’s what we are all destined for - holiness in love." -Allen Hunt (Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor)
Labels:
Love
Hurt
"Hurt people hurt people." -RevRunWisdom
"When you're hurt, you want to hurt harder who's hurting you. But I'll tell you: it will only hurt you even more. And believe me, I don't want to hurt you, because what hurts you, hurts me more." -Anonymous
"Yes, God hurts when we do not love Him back, but it’s not because He needs us; it is because He knows how badly we need Him." -via Adriana Maravilla
"When you're hurt, you want to hurt harder who's hurting you. But I'll tell you: it will only hurt you even more. And believe me, I don't want to hurt you, because what hurts you, hurts me more." -Anonymous
"Yes, God hurts when we do not love Him back, but it’s not because He needs us; it is because He knows how badly we need Him." -via Adriana Maravilla
Labels:
Love
12 Sins We Blame On Others
Ben Reaoch (KnowGodKnowLove)
It started in the Garden. Adam said to God,
The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.
See. (Genesis 3:12)
The first man, caught in the first sin, turns to blame his wife. And he extends the blame to God as well! He implies that he would have remained innocent if God hadn’t put Eve in the garden with him.
The blame-shifting in the Garden continues today. Our proud hearts send us desperately looking for someone else to point to every time we’re confronted with our own sin. There must be someone else—our spouse, sibling, parent, boss, co-worker, pastor, friend, or God, himself.
We are so desperate to justify ourselves that we become irrational. Here are 12 examples.
1 Anger
I wouldn’t lose my temper if my co-workers were easier to get along with, or if my kids behaved better, or if my spouse were more considerate.
2 Impatience
I would be a very patient person if it weren’t for traffic jams and long lines in the grocery store. If I didn’t have so many things to do, and if the people around me weren’t so slow, I would never become impatient!
3 Lust
I would have a pure mind if there weren’t so many sensual images in our culture.
4 Anxiety
I wouldn’t worry about the future if my life were just a little more secure—if I had more money, and no health problems.
5 Spiritual Apathy
My spiritual life would be so much more vibrant and I would struggle with sin less if my small group were more encouraging, or if Sunday school were more engaging, or if the music in the worship service were more lively, or if the sermons were better.
6 Insubordination
If my parents/bosses/elders were godly leaders, then I would joyfully follow them.
7 A Critical Spirit
It’s not my fault that the people around me are ignorant and inexperienced.
8 Bitterness
If you knew what that person did to me, you would understand my bitterness. How could I forgive something like that?
9 Gluttony
My wife/husband/roommate/friend is a wonderful cook! The things they make are impossible to resist.
10 Gossip
It’s the people around me who start the conversations. There’s no way to avoid hearing what others happen to say. And when others ask me questions, I can’t avoid sharing what I know.
11 Self-Pity
I’ll never be happy, because my marriage/family/job/ministry is so difficult.
12 Selfishness
I would be more generous if we had more money.
Making excuses like this is arrogant and foolish. It’s a proud way of trying to justify our actions and pacify our guilty consciences. And it keeps us from humbling ourselves before God to repent of our sins and seek his forgiveness.
Consider James 1:13-15, which leaves us with no way of escaping our own sin and guilt. We cannot blame God, for he “cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”
Instead, we have to accept the humbling truth that “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” This will end the blame game, and it will send us pleading for Christ’s mercy and grace.
Application: From the twelve examples, which is your prominent area of “blaming” and what can you do to minimize that in your life?
It started in the Garden. Adam said to God,
The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.
See. (Genesis 3:12)
The first man, caught in the first sin, turns to blame his wife. And he extends the blame to God as well! He implies that he would have remained innocent if God hadn’t put Eve in the garden with him.
The blame-shifting in the Garden continues today. Our proud hearts send us desperately looking for someone else to point to every time we’re confronted with our own sin. There must be someone else—our spouse, sibling, parent, boss, co-worker, pastor, friend, or God, himself.
We are so desperate to justify ourselves that we become irrational. Here are 12 examples.
1 Anger
I wouldn’t lose my temper if my co-workers were easier to get along with, or if my kids behaved better, or if my spouse were more considerate.
2 Impatience
I would be a very patient person if it weren’t for traffic jams and long lines in the grocery store. If I didn’t have so many things to do, and if the people around me weren’t so slow, I would never become impatient!
3 Lust
I would have a pure mind if there weren’t so many sensual images in our culture.
4 Anxiety
I wouldn’t worry about the future if my life were just a little more secure—if I had more money, and no health problems.
5 Spiritual Apathy
My spiritual life would be so much more vibrant and I would struggle with sin less if my small group were more encouraging, or if Sunday school were more engaging, or if the music in the worship service were more lively, or if the sermons were better.
6 Insubordination
If my parents/bosses/elders were godly leaders, then I would joyfully follow them.
7 A Critical Spirit
It’s not my fault that the people around me are ignorant and inexperienced.
8 Bitterness
If you knew what that person did to me, you would understand my bitterness. How could I forgive something like that?
9 Gluttony
My wife/husband/roommate/friend is a wonderful cook! The things they make are impossible to resist.
10 Gossip
It’s the people around me who start the conversations. There’s no way to avoid hearing what others happen to say. And when others ask me questions, I can’t avoid sharing what I know.
11 Self-Pity
I’ll never be happy, because my marriage/family/job/ministry is so difficult.
12 Selfishness
I would be more generous if we had more money.
Making excuses like this is arrogant and foolish. It’s a proud way of trying to justify our actions and pacify our guilty consciences. And it keeps us from humbling ourselves before God to repent of our sins and seek his forgiveness.
Consider James 1:13-15, which leaves us with no way of escaping our own sin and guilt. We cannot blame God, for he “cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”
Instead, we have to accept the humbling truth that “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” This will end the blame game, and it will send us pleading for Christ’s mercy and grace.
Application: From the twelve examples, which is your prominent area of “blaming” and what can you do to minimize that in your life?
Labels:
Faith
5 Ways to Love/10 Ways to Love
Joshua De Gracia (KnowGodKnowLove)
Get out there..love and be loved because God is LOVE.
1. Listen and think before you speak. Your tongue has the power of life and death.
James 1:19-20
“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
2. When in doubt, love. When in even more doubt, give more.
Proverbs 21:26
“All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.”
3. Pray without ceasing.
Colossians 1:9
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
4. Love through good times and bad.
Proverbs 17:17
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
5. Love no matter what because love covers all.
1 Peter 4:8
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
10 Ways to Love
Get out there..love and be loved because God is LOVE.
1. Listen and think before you speak. Your tongue has the power of life and death.
James 1:19-20
“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
2. When in doubt, love. When in even more doubt, give more.
Proverbs 21:26
“All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.”
3. Pray without ceasing.
Colossians 1:9
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
4. Love through good times and bad.
Proverbs 17:17
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
5. Love no matter what because love covers all.
1 Peter 4:8
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
10 Ways to Love
1. Listen without interrupting. (Proverbs 18)
2. Speak without accusing. (James 1:19)
3. Give without sparing. (Proverbs 21:26)
4. Pray without ceasing. (Colossians 1:9)
5. Answer without arguing. (Proverbs 17:1)
6. Share without pretending. (Ephesians 4:15)
7. Enjoy without complaint. (Philippians 2:14)
8. Trust without wavering. (Corinthians 13:7)
9. Forgive without punishing. (Colossians 3:13)
10. Promise without forgetting. (Proverbs 13.12)
Labels:
Love
Availability
"God doesn’t ask your ability or your inability. He asks only your availability." -christiangirlnz
Labels:
Love
God's will.
"Never confuse the will of the majority with the will of God." -Adriana Maravilla
Labels:
Virtues
Loving yourself. Part 2
Sometimes I get in those moments when I see something so amazing, so creative, so imaginative and instead of raking up that motivation and inspiration, I take the opposite direction.
We all know it, discouragement.
These people, in the perfect and blessed environment doing what they love in… well… what we see as perfect and blessed.
The usual thoughts of “oh man, they’re so good………………” or “wow… some people just get all the talent….” or “I suck.” and also “I don’t even want to do this anymore…” and even “I think I lost the passion to (insert talent)…” and even as far and selfish and ungrateful as “Why didn’t you bless me with that, God?” BAM.
Sometimes, when the environment is right like in a dance studio, a classroom, a field, a gym, etc. its easy to get sucked into that environment and forget the rest of the world.
Think about it, say you have a lot of dancer friends? Well obviously then dance is a huge impact in your life and may seem like the only thing that you need to be good at to get that happiness, that attention and love, that circle of friends. This could go for anything: academics, sports, instruments, singing, art, drama, writing, leadership, certain personalities, ANYTHING!
In the end, no matter where you are in the world, whatever environment you are brought up in or live in will have a huge influence on determining what you admire and value.
…And so, with that perfect environment, its easy to get sucked into that one specific one and forget the world. The more your eyes are closed the easier it is for lies like discouragement to seep in and set their place. But, God gave you eyes for a reason. And not just for the physical reasons.
Look around you, and look at all the friends God has blessed you with. Each with their own talent to share, their own passion to inspire others, their own views and ideas to open doors, and their own life to love others. There are so many people with passions of all kinds and talents of all levels that it seems impossible that one talent or skill is the determining factor of whether you can be happy or not in this lifetime.
God has truly blessed His people with mysteries and wonders to shape and shock the world and in the end, no matter what you say, WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED.
Everything that we are, everything that we have been, and everything that we are to be is a gift from God.
So take it in. Cherish that. Like blessed Mary may we always say “YES” to His gifts.
Love yourself. God loves you. Is that not enough? Could you dare to say that it’s not?
But it’s okay, like anything, it takes time. Sometimes our minds know the answers but it’ll take however long it takes for your heart to set it in. For others, long, and for some not. We are all on the same road.
Different stories, same roots.
Labels:
Hope
Passion
"God created us to live with a single passion to joyfully display His supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without passion." -Anonymous
"It's not a passion anymore if you're willing to sacrifice friendship and values. At that point it's an addiction. Be hungry, not gluttonous." -Keone Madrid
"It's not a passion anymore if you're willing to sacrifice friendship and values. At that point it's an addiction. Be hungry, not gluttonous." -Keone Madrid
Labels:
Hope
Courtship
"Courtship is not “let’s get to know each other.” Courtship happens when he takes the time to sit down with your parents and tell them “I have every intention of marrying your daughter.”" -Lorna Richardson
rayahrealista:
I have 5 minutes to get this off my chest.
Courtship, to me, is not just “a pursuit of one’s heart”.
Anyone can try to pursue your heart.
I think it takes a certain maturity to say, “Let’s pray together about our friendship and the possibility of an actual relationship.”
Why? Because, It is not just about feelings, brightening each other’s days, making each other laugh or sharing your days with each other.
I have close friendships that serve the same purpose. I have brothers and sisters who fill my life with as much joy as any other guy could. My life is full of Love because God is in it.
So what’s the difference between a courtship and a friendship?
I think it’s surrender.
Regardless of the way I feel about anyone, what God thinks matters most to me and so, surrendering everything I think and feel to God is making the difference here.
Tomorrow, a week or a month from now…we could find that “this” does NOT work and that God doesn’t approve, and that would be okay with me.
His joy is my joy. Therefore, if this isn’t “it” I’ll be more than okay. I’ll still be happy regardless of not getting “my way.”
So sisters, guard your hearts. Do not stir up love before its time. If a brother is trying to “pursue your heart” sit high on your pedestal and make him work for your heart. Let him prove to God that he is worthy of your beauty. Just because a brother starts paying special attention to you does not mean you’re obligated to reciprocate.
Pray pray pray! If he hasn’t stated his intentions, hasn’t clearly stated that he wants to pray with you about starting a relationship, then be ON GUARD.
Don’t settle for the grey area. You’re either JUST friends or CLEARLY in a courtship. If you’re just friends, make sure you act accordingly (and if he’s acting beyond the lines of friendship, CALL HIM OUT!)
Don’t trade your heart for compliments, presents and late night phone calls.
Your heart belongs to a jealous God. He won’t give your heart to just anyone who thinks you’re beautiful.
Surrender your heart to God and hide beneath His protection. Let any brother who wants to seek you out, settle the matter with God.
Annnd….with that, 5 minutes is up and I need to go to school.
"Courtship: a new season of friendship. The purpose of this time would be to deepen our relationship so that we could prayerfully and purposefully explore the possibility of marriage.
rayahrealista:
I have 5 minutes to get this off my chest.
Courtship, to me, is not just “a pursuit of one’s heart”.
Anyone can try to pursue your heart.
I think it takes a certain maturity to say, “Let’s pray together about our friendship and the possibility of an actual relationship.”
Why? Because, It is not just about feelings, brightening each other’s days, making each other laugh or sharing your days with each other.
I have close friendships that serve the same purpose. I have brothers and sisters who fill my life with as much joy as any other guy could. My life is full of Love because God is in it.
So what’s the difference between a courtship and a friendship?
I think it’s surrender.
Regardless of the way I feel about anyone, what God thinks matters most to me and so, surrendering everything I think and feel to God is making the difference here.
Tomorrow, a week or a month from now…we could find that “this” does NOT work and that God doesn’t approve, and that would be okay with me.
His joy is my joy. Therefore, if this isn’t “it” I’ll be more than okay. I’ll still be happy regardless of not getting “my way.”
So sisters, guard your hearts. Do not stir up love before its time. If a brother is trying to “pursue your heart” sit high on your pedestal and make him work for your heart. Let him prove to God that he is worthy of your beauty. Just because a brother starts paying special attention to you does not mean you’re obligated to reciprocate.
Pray pray pray! If he hasn’t stated his intentions, hasn’t clearly stated that he wants to pray with you about starting a relationship, then be ON GUARD.
Don’t settle for the grey area. You’re either JUST friends or CLEARLY in a courtship. If you’re just friends, make sure you act accordingly (and if he’s acting beyond the lines of friendship, CALL HIM OUT!)
Don’t trade your heart for compliments, presents and late night phone calls.
Your heart belongs to a jealous God. He won’t give your heart to just anyone who thinks you’re beautiful.
Surrender your heart to God and hide beneath His protection. Let any brother who wants to seek you out, settle the matter with God.
Annnd….with that, 5 minutes is up and I need to go to school.
"Courtship: a new season of friendship. The purpose of this time would be to deepen our relationship so that we could prayerfully and purposefully explore the possibility of marriage.
Ultimately, it wasn’t the word itself that mattered. What did matter… was that our relationship have a clearly defined direction. I didn’t want to play games with her. Although I wanted us to start going on dates, I wasn’t interested in dating for the sake of dating. I wanted more than anything else to please God and find out if marriage was His plan for us. And I wanted this process to be one we could look back on with fondness and without regret— whether or not we married each other.
Some people asked why I bothered to initiate a defined season of courtship with her. Why not just ask her out and see where it went? I did it because I didn’t want another undefined relationship. Too many times in the past I had separated the pursuit of intimacy from the responsibility of commitment. I had learned that this was neither a wise nor caring way to treat a girl.
From the start, our pursuit of intimacy was paired with an openness to commitment. The difference was that now our activities and time we spent together had a purpose beyond mere recreation, and that purpose was clearly defined… We were walking toward the commitment of marriage, not simply seeing how romantically involved we could become for the sake of good time… We weren’t simply trying to get swept up in our emotions. Instead we were letting our feelings grow naturally out of our deepening respect, friendship and commitment to one another. Setting clear course for a defined season of courtship helped us keep from rushing into involvement with our hearts and bodies before we had time to get to know each other’s mind and character.
So even though a courtship shouldn’t be too serious, too soon, it shouldn’t be embarked on lightly either. In one sense, courtship is a commitment— It’s a promise not to play games with another person’s heart. In that sense it’s serious. It’s a willingness to honestly explore the merits of a lifelong commitment.
So what is courtship? It’s dating with a purpose. It’s romance chaperoned by wisdom. It’s a way of approaching relationships that can help us live out the truth of God’s Word as we persuit our heart’s desire. It’s a story of boy meets girl, where— whether you choose to marry or not— you can get to know each other in the confidence that you have only God’s very best ahead for each of you." -Joshua Harris
Labels:
Love
Authenticity
"If the person you project to others isn't the same as who you are on the inside, you'll never be happy." -Dr. Luyten (via Abby Zaporteza)
Labels:
Virtues
Moving Towards a Goal
He has a dream
"Warning: this is going to be long :)
Sometimes I feel like my heart is so full that it’s going to consume my entire abdomen. My chest swells and I feel like a giant hand is inside there in a fist, and it’s slowly opening itself until it’s fully extended. Like the fingers are so straight that the sinews going from it’s palms to web to fingernails are stretched to the point of almost snapping. And every time I breathe it’s like I’m overwhelmed with silent joy. I don’t know what to call it, inspiration, passion, blood pressure, but I do know that movement in there is there pushing me toward something beautiful.
Recently I took a trip to Washington D.C. in the midst of listening to the new John Legend & The Roots album called Wake Up! Walking around the capitol of this country, around these giant monuments, these enormous tributes to things that have happened, you can’t help but reflect. Combining that with John Legend’s almost angelic voice drifting old activist lyrics through my mind, I felt the overwhelming expansion in my chest, that familiar feeling, and I felt it pushing me. There’s so much in my head that has swum upward from my heart lately. So many thoughts and ideas that I feel like are stuck in my brain right now treading water. I need to get them out and I’ll try my best to tie them all together because to me they all swim together in harmony.
In D.C. we walked around the new WWII monument, looking at the names of countries and cities that fought, certain ones struck me, Colorado, California, the Philippines, all for personal reasons. We kept walking, up to the stairs of Lincoln monument, where I came across the picture I took. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous words “I have a dream,” were engraved on one of the steps. By chance it was still in the shade and some water had stayed inside its crevices, leaving those historic words I have a dreamstaring at me from the ground. I felt like I was the first person to ever see those words carved into the steps, I was so excited to discover them there. Somehow they sort of planted themselves on my shoulders and followed me from that moment, even until now as I sit and write this. We continued, We took pictures of Lincoln, the Washington monument across the water, and the Korean War memorial. It was really heavy by the time we got to the Vietnam War memorial, something about seeing all the names of the people who lost their lives made them more real, then thinking about their families, and thinking about the countless Vietnamese people and their families and the losses they experienced. With each step two thoughts kept nagging me. This country is so young, yet so many bad things have happened, so many people have sacrificed there lives, have fought to be treated right, and thinking about the pain and suffering made tears well up in my eyes. Yet at the same time, I heard in my head that even though yes, bad has happened, that historically not that long ago our country was still segregated. Look how much has changed with each generation. I was teaching that weekend at a workshop run by a Filipino-American and a Spanish-Chinese-American, the instructors were African-Americans, and then me, a Caucasian-Filipino-American. As sentimental as it is, I couldn’t help but tell MLK Jr. in my thoughts that his dream was real. That it was happening, it wasn’t finished, but it is real. Now my question to us, being young people now: to our generation, what will we do.
Now this brings me to 2 main things I want to say. One is dance. If you are reading this blog, there’s a 97% chance that you’re a dancer. You know how it feels to run through your sneakers until there a hole in them, you love it when you wake up the morning after a tough rehearsal and you feel like you got run over by a truck, your heart beats to be on a stage. I cannot describe how much dance means to us dancers. I don’t believe any of us can accurately make another understand, only to know that someone who isn’t passionate about dance is probably passionate about something else and can relate on that level. Even if you see dance as a hobby in your life, or maybe it competes with other things for your time, you know that love and how deep it can go. For me dancing is a blessing, it is a gift that God gave us in the world and put it on some of our hearts and in our bodies to desire to do. That’s my belief and I am so grateful and thankful for it whether I keep dancing for another 50 years or for another week. Dance is a gorgeous thing not just to watch, but what you can do with it.
In September, a friend and great leader in the dance community, Melissa Adao, threw her 2nd Annual Outreach Through Dance’s Dance for a Wish show. Her charity show works with the San Diego chapter of the Make a Wish Foundation to help grant wishes for children in need. Not only does this show help give light to a child’s life and family, but she has the wish child participate in the show. This year Emely, a sweet 4-year-old ball of energy who has gone through more medical treatment than most adults, came to rehearsals, tech, took pictures with the cast, and came out for the bow at the end of both shows. I know for me, other dancers at the show, and maybe even the audience, we felt humbled, motivated, and had our eyes opened to the potential of our gifts. Outreach Through Dance brought together all those people who love dance to do something good for someone else. That was more rewarding than any trophy, youtube views, compliments, money; you name it. And I know we all gotta work, we all gotta survive, and I don’t want to make you feel guilty for not giving away all your money and time to charity. I believe in the resources that God provides for us and that we are to use them wisely. But what I do want to ask is how are you using what you’ve been given? Do you use it only for yourself? Or do you include others?
We are a new generation in dance. So much has changed (that is an entirely different blog haha), but out of change can come good. Movement Lifestyle is one of my resources, you reading this is a chance to say something worthwhile. As a person, I have so much to work on, but let’s do this together. How can we do good with what we have? I want to encourage our community toward togetherness. So often I travel somewhere and I hear about rivalries between studios, between crews, and even animosity between styles, but where does that get us? Nowhere. It’s sad to hear that there are students who want to take class, but are prevented from learning because a leader (and that is very disappointing) is telling them not to go because it supports the rival studio, crew, etc. You need to let down that pride, let down those barriers, and let people grow together. When you do, when people can get over differences, we can work together to make our particular kind of dance more legitimate, but also to do something amazing in the world. If we all did a little bit, what could we do? It’s nice to think about it, to be moved, to be inspired, to pray about something, to write about it, but it’s another to do it.
In light of all of this, the holidays are coming up. I might be being a Westerner to think that people identify with the “holiday spirit,” and I don’t want to assume that anyone believes in anything or celebrates anything. I am nostalgic about Christmas, but I do think a good amount of people relegate the winter months with a sense of giving and peace toward our fellow man. This is my challenge for all of us. If you felt anything reading this blog, if the words touched you or made you feel like getting up out of your chair and doing something good, then act on it. Give to somebody this year that you normally wouldn’t. Be creative, use the gifts that you have to benefit someone else. Here’s an idea for people in SD: Cye Bongolos, a young dancer here is throwing a charity show, Thank You for the Music, on November 12 to raise money for VH1’s Save the Music Foundation to keep music programs in school. All the info is on facebook, go and you’ll be helping another person who may be making the music your children end up dancing to. Here’s a link to the fb page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128396210514867&ref=ts If you’re a person of faith: Keone and I are going to participate in Operation Christmas Child put on by Samaritan’s Purse where people pack shoeboxes with gifts and they are delivered to children in poverty all over the world. Last year they delivered 8 million boxes to children in over 100 countries and had countless opportunities to share the gospel. Go tohttp://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/ for more info. You could even let down your pride or fear and reach a hand out to someone, someone at your rival studio, someone who you has hurt you and you haven’t forgiven, someone you forgot to tell how much you appreciate what they do. There are so many ways, runners run races to raise money for all sorts of causes, I know our dance community can spread that love that we feel from dance, that power of unity that it has, and use it to make this world even more beautiful.
So what will you do? Whether you take some change out of your wallet and put it in a little plastic bin for breast cancer, or you hold your tongue and don’t assume things about people you don’t know and instead bother to find out, or you start a huge campaign to help people far away who don’t know what it’s like to drink a cold glass of clean water, let’s do it. We can all contribute. If you’re reading this now, you are given enough in your life to have eyes to read this, a hand to click a mouse or hold a phone, and an education that enables you to read. Let’s do something guys. That beautiful dream that MLK Jr. had, I think that dream was from God. And I believe that God gave us each other so that we can come together to do amazing things.
Heart,
Mari"
Labels:
Hope
Perseverance
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body." -2 Corinthians 4:8-10
"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget." -Arundhati Roy
"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget." -Arundhati Roy
"Sometimes God pushes us to our limits. It’s because he has greater faith in us than we have in ourselves." -Anonymous
Labels:
Faith
Transformation
"Life forms us. Sin deforms us. School informs us. But only God transforms us." -via Lorryzel Badajos
Labels:
Faith
Values
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -Luke 12:34
"Every virtue in your soul is a precious ornament which makes you dear to God and to man. But holy purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic virtue, is a jewel so precious that those who possess it become like the angels of God in Heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh." -St. John Bosco
"Every virtue in your soul is a precious ornament which makes you dear to God and to man. But holy purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic virtue, is a jewel so precious that those who possess it become like the angels of God in Heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh." -St. John Bosco
Labels:
Virtues
Pokemon
"Haha come to think of it, God is like a good pokemon trainer, [be]cause a good pokemon trainer will never put [H]is pokemon through a battle they cannot win. [A] good pokemon trainer will always know the best moves for the pokemon, whether or not the pokemon knows it or not. A good pokemon trainer is with the pokemon every single time their exp[erience] goes up, always at their side. He’ll never hold just one pokemon, [be]cause [H]e knows that a pokemon will always need a team to help [H]im. [A]s [H]is pokemon, [H]e works through us to capture wild pokemon so that [H]e can also take care of them." -Sean Santos
Labels:
Love
Math
"101%
My being a person who LOVES math, I found this little math thing very enjoyable as well as something to think about - i hope you enjoy it like I did
From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:
What Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?
Here’s a little mathematical formula that might helpanswer these questions:
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
If:
H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K
8+1+18+4+23+ 15+18+11 = 98%
And:
K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E
11+14+15+23+ 12+5+4+7+ 5 = 96%
But:
A-T-T-I-T-U- D-E
1+20+20+9+20+ 21+4+5 = 100%
THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:
L-O-V-E-O-F- G-O-D
12+15+22+5+15+ 6+7+15+4 = 101%
God Bless"
-George Francis
Labels:
Love
Unity
"Just as Philosophy unites Religion and Science, Faith unites the Heart and the Mind."
"You have to choose to be happy. Don’t sit back and expect outside forces or God to stimulate your emotions all the time. Just as you choose God, then you choose love, you choose hope, you choose faith, you choose happiness.
Fight the good fight. Offer ALL that you are to Him. Offer everything that you are to Him. Don’t give him pieces like just your heart, or just your mind, or just your body, because He wants ALL of you. Not part of you.
That is faith, uniting all that you are, and giving it up to Him.
Uniting the rules, uniting the freedom, uniting the self."
“Once you master the rules, you can be free.”
"God wants unity, not uniformity." -Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life
"…Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in Him. We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; He raises us to what He is." -1 Corinthians 10:15-18
Labels:
Hope
Appearance
"Humans look at outward appearances, but the LORD looks into the heart." -1 Samuel 16:7
Labels:
Virtues
Acts 1:8
"Are you lost? Do you call yourself a Christian, but act like a completely different person outside of Church? Are you afraid to talk to your friends about God or what He has done in your life? Do not be ashamed to let people know you're a Christian and to let God's light shine through you. I want to reach the people I know who can't answer no to the first three questions. I want them to know what I know..." -Acts 1:8 (Msg)
Labels:
Hope
Punishment
I will correct thee in measure. (Jeremiah 30:11)
To be left uncorrected would be a fatal sign: it would prove that the Lord had said, "He is given unto idols, let him alone." God grant that such may never be our portion! Uninterrupted prosperity is a thing to cause fear and trembling. As many as God tenderly loves He rebukes and chastens: those for whom He has no esteem He allows to fatten themselves without fear, like bullocks for the slaughter. It is in love that our heavenly Father uses the rod upon His children.
To be left uncorrected would be a fatal sign: it would prove that the Lord had said, "He is given unto idols, let him alone." God grant that such may never be our portion! Uninterrupted prosperity is a thing to cause fear and trembling. As many as God tenderly loves He rebukes and chastens: those for whom He has no esteem He allows to fatten themselves without fear, like bullocks for the slaughter. It is in love that our heavenly Father uses the rod upon His children.
Yet see, the correction is in measure: He gives us love without measure but chastisement "in measure." As under the old law no Israelite could receive more than the "forty stripes save one," which ensured careful counting and limited suffering; so is it with each afflicted member of the household of faith-every stroke is counted. It is the measure of wisdom, the measure of sympathy, the measure of love, by which our chastisement is regulated. Far be it from us to rebel against appointments so divine. Lord, if Thou standest by to measure the bitter drops into my cup, it is for me cheerfully to take that cup from Thy hand and drink according to Thy directions, saying, "Thy will be done." -C. H. Spurgeon
Labels:
Love
Death
“You can shed tears that they are gone, or you can smile because they have lived. You can close your eyes and pray that they’ll come back, or you can open your eyes and see all there’s left. Your heart can be empty because you can’t see them, or you can be full of the love you shared. You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. You can remember them only that they are gone, or you can cherish their memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back. Or you can do what they’d want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.” -David Harkins
Labels:
Love
Self-Respect
"Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body." -1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (Msg)
Labels:
Virtues
Princess
"No man will ever claim you unless he claims you from Me. For I reserved a man for you who has my heart and loves Me even more than he will ask for you. For I won’t give you unless he asks you from Me. He’s asleep; don’t wake him. He’s busy for Me, My kingdom. Soon you will know him, but I have the perfect time. You are my princess, my daughter. Let no prince claim you unless he asks you from My hand, for I am your Father, the King of Kings. You, my princess, are worth waiting for." -via Grace Alonsabe
Labels:
Love
"You ask and you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." -James 4:3
"If we cannot say no, then our yes means nothing." -Alexis Paguio
"If we cannot say no, then our yes means nothing." -Alexis Paguio
Labels:
Faith
10 Things Forgiveness Is Not
And I say this … with a tremendous sense of love and empathy and compassion and hope for you. But you need to forgive that person or those people who have wounded you most deeply. …
Because I think many Christians do not rightly ascertain what forgiveness truly is and is not, and so I’ve got a long list for you:
1. Forgiveness is not approving or diminishing sin.
It’s not saying, “Well, it’s okay. Nobody’s perfect. Everybody makes a mistake,” or, “It’s not a really big deal. Worse things have happened.” No, it is a big deal! It’s so big that God died for it. So don’t dishonor the cross of Jesus and approve or diminish something that required the death of God.
2. Forgiveness is not enabling sin.
I see this frequently with wives who misunderstand submission. “Okay, the husband is the head of the home, he’s supposed to lovingly lead.” Great. He’s supposed to lovingly lead by following Jesus, and if he’s not following Jesus, the wife shouldn’t follow him because her ultimate allegiance is to Jesus and the first job description of the wife is to be a helper. And sometimes husbands are foolish. They make stupid decisions financially. They make reckless decisions spiritually. They buck godly, spiritual authority trying to correct them. And in the name of forgiving them, the wife comes along and enables him. She just is complicit in his rebellion and sin and folly.
You can forgive someone without enabling their sin, participating in it. You can have a friend or a family member who is an addict, for example, you can forgive them without enabling them. Forgiving is not enabling. Forgiving can even include confronting and rebuking, and sometimes it must.
3. Forgiveness is not denying a wrongdoing.
“It didn’t happen. I forgot all about it. I just moved on. I pretend like it never happened. I didn’t let it affect me.” That’s not true. It’s not the denial of a wrongdoing. Forgiveness is not denying that you were sinned against.
4. Forgiveness is not waiting for an apology.
Some of you say, “I will forgive them as soon as they say they’re sorry.” I hate to break it to you, some people are never going to apologize. Some people are going to continue in their destructive, rebellious, and foolish life course. Some people will be stubborn and religious and self-righteous and they’ll never confess or admit. Some people will move away, you’ll never speak with them again. Some people will die before they articulate repentance. And so you forgive them before they apologize.
5. Forgiveness is not forgetting.
This is one of the great Christian myths. “Well, we forgive and forget.” No we don’t! You can’t forgive and forget. You can’t. You were raped, molested, abandoned, beaten, abused, cheated on, betrayed, lied about. “Forget it”? You can’t forget it. It’s impossible. And some will appeal to Bible books like Jeremiah, where it says that God will remember their sin no more. And they’ll say, “See? God doesn’t remember our sin.” And let me tell you this, God does remember our sin. He’s omniscient, he’s all knowing, he forgets nothing, he knows everything. Right? It’s not like God’s in heaven going, “I forgot a whole bunch of things.” He would cease to be God.
What does it mean that God remembers their sin no more? It means that God chooses not to interact with us based upon what we’ve done, but instead interact with us based upon what Christ has done. It means that he chooses to see us as new creations and he chooses to work for a new future. It means that at the forefront of God’s thinking toward us is not all of the sin that we’ve committed, but all the work that Jesus has done for us and in us and, by grace, will do through us. But it’s not like God has no idea what you did yesterday. He forgets nothing.
And I see this sometimes in counseling, where one person will sin against another person and they’ll say, “Well, you shouldn’t even remember that.” It’s impossible. I had one situation recently. I looked at the husband, I was like, “You slept with her best friend. She’s not going to forget that ever. Now, she can choose not to interact with you in light of that. She could choose to forgive you. She can choose to not be stewing on that every minute of every day and seething. But she’s never going to forget that this happened because it was cataclysmic.”
6. Forgiveness is not ceasing to feel the pain.
Just because it hurts doesn’t mean you’ve failed to forgive. It still hurts. Some of you have had horrible things done to you. Horrible things done to you. With all sincerity, I’m sorry. And it would be so cruel to say, “Well, if you’ve forgiven them, it shouldn’t hurt anymore.” Well, sure it does. See, we don’t hear in the Bible that all the tears are wiped from our eyes until the resurrection of the dead in the final unveiling of the kingdom. It means people are crying all the way to Jesus. It still hurts. It’s okay for it to bother you.
7. Forgiveness is not a onetime event.
It’s not like you forgive someone and it’s over. Sometimes, they keep sinning, so you need to keep forgiving. Or sometimes you forgive them, but there are emotional moments where it feels fresh.
There’s one woman that I know, her husband committed adultery on her. And he earnestly repented and she honestly forgave him and they have sought biblical counseling and they have worked it out. But she confesses there are times, sometimes even at church, where her husband is doing nothing wrong, and it’s been some years, that she’ll just see him talking to another woman, maybe even a mutual friend, and just the sight of him with another woman causes her to feel all of that betrayal again and it rises up in her soul. And she needs to forgive him again for what he did in the past. Sometimes forgiveness is something that is regularly required.
8. Forgiveness is not neglecting justice.
You can forgive someone and call the police and have them arrested. You can forgive someone and testify against them in court. Romans 13 says to obey the government. They’d say, “I thought you forgave me.” “I do. I forgive you. But you’ve committed a crime. You’ve broken the law. And so these are the consequences.” If you’ve stolen, you need to pay it back. If you’ve lied, you need to go tell the truth. It’s not a neglecting of justice. You can forgive and pursue justice.
9. Forgiveness is not trusting.
I hear this all the time. “My dad molested me. He said he’s sorry. Can he babysit my kids?” Answer? No way. No way. “My boyfriend or husband hit me, but he said he’s sorry. Should we just pick up where we left off and keep going?” No way. See, trust is built slowly. It’s lost quickly. Trust is built slowly.
Those of you, now hear this, I’m your pastor who loves you. Let me put an airbag around this. For those of you who are naive and gullible, trust is to be given slowly, lost quickly. Some of you give your whole heart away and never take it back. Give it away slowly and if someone sins against you grievously, trust has to be rebuilt over time. It’s not trusting. It’s not trusting. Some people can be trusted in time with fruit and keeping with repentance after they’ve gotten help. Other people should never be trusted because the risk is simply too high. This is particularly true with children who are vulnerable. We need to be exceedingly careful with who we trust.
10. Forgiveness is not reconciliation.
It’s not that you’re friends and you hang out and everything’s okay. You’re close and it’s back to normal. Not at all. It takes one person to repent. It takes one person to forgive. It takes two people to reconcile. That’s why Paul says, “In as much as it is possible with you, seek to live at peace with all men.” Here’s what he’s saying. Do your best, but you can’t be at peace with everyone. But if it doesn’t work out, make sure it’s their fault, not yours. Right? It takes two people to reconcile.
This is where I’ve got a friend right now who’s in the midst of a divorce because she is acknowledging her own sin, her husband really is the problem, and she’s saying, “I love you, I forgive you. If you’ll meet with counselors, if you’ll submit to the authority in our church, I extend a hand to you and we can reconcile and save this marriage.” He’s saying, “No. I don’t think I did anything wrong. I don’t think I need to listen to the pastor. I don’t need to meet with a counselor. I don’t need to listen to anyone. It’s your fault.” There will be no reconciliation. Not with a man like that. Repentance takes one, forgiveness takes one, reconciliation takes two.
Forgiveness and Justice
Now, in hearing this, some of you, like me, will have strong sense of justice. You say, “But if I forgive them, where’s the justice?” Justice comes, friends, ultimately from Jesus. Either they will come to faith in Christ and you will get your justice at the cross, where Jesus’ blood was shed in their place for their sins as Jesus’ blood was shed in your place for your sin, because Lord knows we’ve hurt people too, or, if they remain unrepentant, your forgiving them does not mean that they are ultimately forgiven.
They’ve sinned against you and God, and as you forgive them, you’re leaving them to Jesus. And if they live in a state of unrepentance and they don’t come to Jesus for forgiveness, they will stand before Jesus in the end. And they will be judged and sentenced to the conscious eternal torments of hell to suffer forever for all of their sin, paying their eternal debt to the living God.
So, in forgiving someone, we are not neglecting justice. We’re leaving it to the perfect judge to enact perfect justice, either at the cross or in hell, but either way justice will be served. And we forgive in light of that.
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