Seeing Worth in Bible Reading

  
 
We don’t know what’s good for us. Really, we don’t. We drink substances that increase our heart rate and blood pressure, but we find it trendy on Instagram and what is delicious in our fast food restaurants. We watch programs that endorse murder, rape and violence and then pull our hairs when we see it manifested through the headlines. 

When did it feel good to be bad become acceptable? Since when did it become appopriate to justify evil? He was selling drugs and even murdered some people but it was to save his family because he was dying of cancer. 

I’m looking at the man in the mirror and realizing that what he enjoys is not healthy. 

What I delight in is not only bad, but it is also short-sighted. It’s Sam posting a picture of her daughter playing with a box disregarding all the toys she has in her room. Or the child I saw in her Sunday dress wallowing in the dirt in front of a playground. 

Our pleasures are not just bad in most cases but just sad and pathetic. C.S. Lewis calls us “half-hearted creatures” because he understood the truth that “the Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak“. We live our lives, “fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy [that is Jesus] is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” ( C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory and Others Addresses (New York: Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company), 3-4).

I jumped between Facebook and SMS one night, because I didn’t desire God, then I fancied myself in opening a book called When I Don’t Desire God. Fancy that. 

I streamed through the pages halfheartedly thinking reading it would justify my apathy. Then I stumbled on Psalms 19:10 which speaks of God’s Word: 

“More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb” (Psalms‬ ‭19:10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

Then it dawned on me: My desire for the Scriptures is pitifully small compared to its true worth. God said of His Word that is it more desirable than precious metals. My eyes drew from the pages towards the ceiling as almost it had rolled back and I was gazing at the beauty of Christ. 

Could I have been someone that has been spectating the glorious splendor of God through a keyhole? 

The Bible, if you let it speak for itself will reveal to you that beyond the collection of grand and captivating pleasures we relish, Christ is the epitome of all that is treasured because He is the ultimate Treasure. 

Upon returning to Israel from exile and 70 year captivity in Babylon, rebuilding the temple was a momentous yet extraordinary task. The older generation compared the restored Temple to the grand splendor of Solomon’s Temple and were downcast.They were downcast at the pale sight of the temple, so God had Haggai prophecy to encourage them that this will not be the permanent face of their sanctuary. One day it will indeed shine in glorious array. 

God commissions Haggai the prophet at that time to call the nation to take courage and depend on God, for though the Temple was unsightly, they must look forward to when the place will be filled with glorious array at the coming of “the Desire of all nations”: 

“For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts” (‭‭Haggai‬ ‭2:6-7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

God promises to shake the heavens and earth. Judah had experienced the shaking of the earth before at the voice of God on Mount Sinai (Hebrews 12:25). God promises they will experience the shaking of the heavens and the earth by the voice of God’s Son at His coming (Hebrews 12:26). Following the shaking of the nations comes the desire of all the nations. If you let yourself, your spirit almost frolicks within this jar of skin at hearing the desire of all nations, like this anticipation has been inside us the whole time anxiously waiting for this desire which will satisfy us completely. 

This desire answered not acutally by something but in someone. 

A desire in Whom all the nations will be blessed (Genesis 12:1). A desire that will endure forever  as a holy mountain that will not fall but cover the enitre face of the earth, shadowing it with awe and glory (Daniel 2:35). A desire that Whose presence is fullness of joy (Psalms 16:11) and will satisfy every heart with His abundance (Psalms 36:8). A desire that has all creation panting and groaning with impatience for His arrival (Romans 8:19-22). A fortune that unfolds in the sincere pondering of His name. 

“Jesus”. 

I looked at a commentary by Bible professor Walter Kaiser on this passage and what I glean from his observation is that Jesus is the desire of the nations as He is the Source of everything, therefore He will be most precious of all that the world holds as valuable. He will answer the desire of the nations by being the what they actually longed for. 

One way God is magnified is how He appears to our understanding. Because God’s “thoughts are not our thoughts ” (Isaiah 55:8), it can then become difficult for us as finite beings with finite minds to comprehend God. God ordained for the earth to be full of the knowledge of God (Isaiah 11:9); therefore, God reveals Himself in various times and various ways to us and communicate to us.  A very special way God has God revealed Himself to us is through the Bible. 

The Scriptures were written so that real and eternal life may be accessible to man through faith in Christ (John 20:31). It produces and preserves life, because it produces faith so that man is capable to live. All life depends on the Word of God. All life was created by it (Psalms 33:6). Life is sustained by it (Hebrew 11:3). The new life (spiritual regeneration) is produced by it (James 1:18) and is accessed by it (1 Peter 1:23). Interpretation is very important, because life depends on it to live (Matthew 4:4). 

His words should not be sweet perfume we take in and regard, but oxygen we take in and depend to live. 

The life that inhabits Him is the light of men. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (‭‭John‬ ‭1:4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). His light shines as a hope that penetrates the darkness that wants to swallow us in its doom. He is the light of the world. He who follows Him shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life” (John 8:12 NKJV). He is the Word that reveals to us God and He immortalizes His words in a collection of 66 books for them to be a “a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” (‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:105‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). 

It’s almost like God’s Word is one delicious, filling meal before you and Jesus bellows, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalms 34:8 NKJV)!!!

It’s His Word that purifies us of sin (John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26). It’s His Word that protects us from sin (Psalms 119:11), that which will result being ashamed of things. It’s His Word that leads us to true delight (Psalms 1119:174). 

Surveying these words, I see more sharply that my appetites need to change. The lenses that are distracting my vision from enjoying what is really worth my time and behold the wondrous truths in God’s instructions (Psalms 1119:18). 

Behold these words of life and be won over to delighting in Christ as true life. Let your appetites be wet to want to see and savor Jesus and testify: “How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Psalms‬ ‭119:103‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)! 

Or go back to sharing with the world what you had to drink today. That never gets old. 

Try One Thing

 Smart phones have completely changed my life. 

I’ve been empowered to do many things at the same time: I can listen to music and text while I’m talking to someone as I’m finishing my lunch. 

While I can do more at once is amazing, I can’t say that it always produces my best work. I have several shirt stains to prove it. 

I can listen to music, text, while I’m talking to someone as I’m finishing my lunch, but does my friend really have my full attention and is he or she convinced that they have my attention as I am staring mostly at my “black wife” aka my iPhone? 

One of Jesus’ close friends, Martha, was busy making everything around the room pretty and welcoming for Jesus but was it the best thing to do at that moment? Honestly I don’t come down on Martha; I mean if you had God sitting in your living room wouldn’t you want to tidy up? 

But while Martha preoccupied herself with “many things”  (Luke 10:41 NKJV), she missed a priceless moment with Jesus. I’m sure she had future opportunities to be with God, but that single opportunity where Jesus physically sat in her living room and spoke the Word (v.39) was lost forever, never to be regained. 

Should there be a time to multitask? Yes, but I feel certain that focusing on one thing is becoming increasingly a lost art. 

While my phone is great, it does rob me of moments to completely engage and enjoy it. I see it worse in my spending time with Jesus. 

I want to dispense my prayers, break the silence with my worship playlist, have my bible app open, listen to a sermon podcast, quickly answer a text, stop that itch in the middle of my back, and somewhere at the bottom of this “to do” list: be still for the quiet voice of God. 

How much of your life is passing away while I swipe through your newsfeed? 

May be the best resolve is to see the possibility of each moment especially with God as irreplaceable; therefore urgently be all there. 

Try one thing. 

Not only can it be stress relieving and stain free, but it can also be rewarding. 

I forgot how cool the ocean was until I was taken out to surf. While I spend most of my time under the board, I was enjoying every minute of the clear water, the soft sand, the bright sun and deep ocean bottom. 

When King David realize how fully satisfied and joyful one can be with God he exclaimed, “You have put gladness in my heart, More than in the season that their grain and wine increased” (‭‭Psalms‬ ‭4:7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). With all the demands of being king, David took time alone to be with God (Psalms 27:4). 

Is me being always busy really that urgent? 

Should seeing and savoring Jesus be the center drive of my day because it is what completely satisfies me? 

How many of us have yet to relish this encounter? 

I made an excellent discovery: the best way I found to save battery life for my iPhone is to turn it off and let it sit there for a while. 
Why take some time and unplug and tune-in  to what’s around you and (more importantly) Who is in you. 

Answering Why am I Here?

Problem with us today is not that we are perturbed waiting on the “Next Big Thing”.

The problem is that the “Big Thing” has happened but we looking for something else. 

A thing about us humans is that we are never satisfied. 

I have a new iPhone and I want the Apple Watch. I have a cookie but I want two. Well eight. I have a girlfriend, but I want her to give me more thrill in the relationship. I have a job, but I want high pay grade and a better office space. And a Ferrari. 

It’s like we are born with a void, a chasm inside our souls that never can be filled. Or that it can be filled but not with what we are filling it with. 

What happens when I kept my dog Sharp in a bird cage for a week. Well, he starts tearing everything inside the cage, barking at every two feet that passes by him, and poor him spinning in circles until he spills his water bowl and then falls into a “doggy depression”. 

He is a dog. While I had him in there to protect him from the poison that had been placed in the yard that would kill him, he wasn’t made to live in a bird cage. He was made to bark, frolic and run, and slobber my face with his wet licks. 

Maybe the problem in your life is not that you’ve grown tired barking at squirrels but that you are in the bird cage trying to squawk. 

We’ve have been pitched by books, speakers and speakers with books to live life on purpose, but how can I live a “purpose driven life” if I don’t know what my purpose in life is? 

Have you asked yourself yet: “Why am I here?” 

Even if you were made by a cosmic accident, what reason do you have to roll out of bed and make most of the day? 

I don’t know about you but it is bothersome to dress differently each day just to quiet the noise of bothersome people who noticed I wore the same pants twice. 

The one great thing about college is that your “Monday, Wednesday and Friday” class doesn’t know what you wore on “Tuesday and Thursday”. I did take this advantage. 

What is your reason for living today? 

Can I say that I don’t have the faith that I am an accident and therefore life is really meaningless. What meaning is there if your origin was meaningless? 

I grew up in church, and I never asked these questions, because theology just has this “God is” answers to my internal curiosity. 

It wasn’t until one day in high school that my art teacher kept me in class to finish a project. While we sat in silence, we attempted to break the sound barrier. Soon enough she asked me about my life and being a son of a pastor, religion instantaneously became a centerpiece in the conversation. 

She wasn’t rude but very perturbed. She was perturbed that most my answers to her questions was “because”. 

“Why are you living in Antigua?”

“Because my family were called to be missionaries” 

“How do you know you were called?” 

“Because God told my parents to leave America to serve here in Antigua.” 

I stood behind my answers until she asked me what I wanted to do with my life. 

I told her a pastor. She asked why and I told her because I always wanted to be pastor “because” my dad was a pastor and “because God called me”. 

She turned from me and  watched the sun beams glare from off the table. It seemed she was gathering energy from that beam, because she brought her eyes up and then gazed deeply into my eyes. She pierced into the window of my soul with her sharp blue eyes. 

Her wrinkled lips drew opened. Drawing a breath, she calmed the frightening silence but yet stirred what will be a tempest in my heart. 
“But what do you want to do?”
Her simple question complicated my life. I confidently knew what I want to do in life and still today I am still want to pastor. 

It’s wasnt what she said but what she meant by what she said. 

My high school art teacher struck an unsung cord in me, for the first time in my life, I challenged my beliefs. 
Let pause to say this: If you have beliefs and cannot challenge them, then they aren’t worth believing. 
Even the Bible says test what you hear. Her question wasn’t divine inspiration, but I did began testing my belief. 

I openly questioned the inconsistencies I saw in church. My pastor thought I was being defiant, but I recognized a frailty that did not match their convictions which they were persuading people to adhere to. 

I did ask myself that question “why am I here?” 

Last year in high school was complied with depression and apathy. My parents saw it best that I changed my geography for a little bit. 

A cruise is a good idea. Being clergy, I was sent to a Christian ship. But this ship carried a genre of Christian that most of us in the world have yet to encounter. 

Day one, my brother and I learned that ties and a tucked in shirts weren’t not the symbols of a righteous person. Love was the shirt men and women wore. 

Men like Alex from Uruguay who at the break down of our faithful ice cream machine, stilled the angry mob with a ray of unearthly compassion. The forecast of their faces turned with burning red to beaming as they clustered around him as he laughed, apologized and touched them with a warmth of sincerity. 

I lost my composure, because I never spectated such compassion all in one being at one moment. Besides mother of course, that’s a given. 

I grew up impressing people with my theology on Sunday morning then fighting with my siblings on Sunday night. I boarded that ship with the demand to be on the fore front of ministry. 

“I want to preach to the people” but they sent me to their little snack booth. I stood mystified in my little red uniformed shirt at Alex, because I had earlier yelled at some customers. 

He received the same harsh words and rude language that I received, but he responded differently. He didn’t fight for his right to be treated properly. He humbled himself and made the word “love” into an action. 

I cried in my cabin, beating my chest while I chanted “I want that. I want that. I want that.” 

He has something that I don’t see much on our planet. 

Could one posses something more pure than  religious piety and ceremonial ritual?

Is there something underneath the surface of human harmony that is deeper and more sincere than social tolerance? 

I realized for him to live this way he had some purpose to his life. I wish I can say that in my search to find his purpose I did so in a “piteous manner” (Christian way). 

I attempted to get him angry, make him stumble. I wore the devilish horns for a week, but he always maintained this gracious responsive manner. 

Then I threw down my hands and stopped “barking” and just watched him. 

I watched him play football (soccer) and when he was fouled though angry he reacted positively. I watched him converse with his friends, and he always seemed to me to be the central figure, because he lived in this constant loving way that drew people around him. 

I coveted his life and soon enough he started to answer my question. Providentially, he started to work more with me. There I saw his humanness. He did “sinned” like he lose his patience, and few days didn’t pull his share of the work, but what I didn’t see him was his gracious behavior. 

It came out in him saying, “John, I’m sorry”, and “John, you’re right”. I’m not trying to make him a deity but there was something internally differently about him. He was graciously kind enough to share it with me. 

It was Jesus. I worked for him the next month and saw he was just as human as I was but there was like two Persons living inside him. There was Alex and there was this Jesus. 

Jesus would come out of every time he apologized. He would come out every time work was hard, but there he would burst into a joyful rave and inspire us to push the day through. He would come out of his conversations where at the sound of his name, his eyes would expand with such delight and thrill like “this Guy is amazing John, I’m telling you”. 

Some nights, I stayed up under a light and read the books that talked about Jesus. The more I read the more I saw that this Man had some purpose that outlived His work and earthly life. A purpose that endured the rejection, the scorn and persecution. A purpose while he hung accused, sentenced, left to die, He could look at each person that unjustly kill Him and say “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”
I dived deeper into the Bible, and I saw that I was closer to the Truth than I thought but yet still far off. I realized that we all have a purpose but it isn’t found in ourselves. It’s found in God. 

He made us for us as His masterpiece, intended to live a life of doing good things he planned for us long ago (‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭10‬). He planned a life for me and you that wasn’t disastrous, but it had a future and a hope that was worth living (Jeremiah‬ ‭29‬:‭11‬). 
I realized my depression in high school that climaxed in not graduating was just a moment that did not define my life. I realized on that old rusty ship that I wasn’t made to be somebody but to know somebody. 
You can say Jesus is some kind of thought up idea to control society, but I say seek Him for yourself.

I had to listen to atheistic art teacher and question my beliefs enough to see the purpose to why I build my life around them. 
Maybe you can’t see yourself walking into a church building. Maybe that’s too much. 

But Jesus isn’t a steeple with a cross. He is a Person that relates to all our weaknesses, for He faced all the same hardships as we as humans face (Hebrews 4:16); yet He is also God Who made a life for you that outlives the useless pursuits of happiness in a life that on average ends at 75. 

And He is the purpose that filled the chasm of that Urguain man. 
What if today you gave in to my appeal and just looked for Jesus? 

What if you for one day diverted from your regular routine and charted a different course? A course that led into the presence of Jesus. 
Sounds wild. Maybe not yet. 

Maybe this whole time God has been Someone behind the door at the end of the hall that you only knew as much as you can see through the little keyhole. 
Maybe you just needed an opportunity such as this and be invited to open the door and see Him fuller. 

Maybe it will be end of how you live life and what you call freedom. But what if losing yourself you found a greater gain? 
A purpose that fulfills you. Someone that completes you. A life that satisfies you. 
A book in the Bible says: 
“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (Psalms‬ ‭34‬:‭8‬ NKJV)
Give God a chance to give you His promise to completely satisfy you. 
He has promised to direct to a life that will bring meaning and joy to you. 
“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalms‬ ‭16‬:‭11‬ NKJV)
If Jesus does exist as God that makes Him the source of life and pretty everything. And if that’s our conclusion doesn’t that make Him the source of all pleasure? 
And if He is the Source of all pleasure, what meaning is there for us to be content with a life that is short of this experience?

Your purpose in life includes a plan that will satisfy you. 

And you know what? If you really look for it, I think you will find the “Next Big Thing”. 

Seeking Jesus for the first time, read the Gospel of Mark. Meet a Man that wasn’t just a Man. 

Seeking Him again? I invite you to read the book of Philippians. Encounter a joy that cannot be robbed by bad days, a joy found in being with Jesus. 

Fatten by Future Joy

The joy that is set before us (in the presence of God) is beyond the delights of the present.

The eyes of those that desire God are satisfied in the life to come than the fleeting pleasures of the present.

In Psalms 17, David seeks the Lord for refuge from his encroaching enemies. He resorts to God to relieve him of their intents to prey on him. He protests his right to be preserved by listing his faithfulness to God. What speaks as the voice of delighting in future joy is the psalmist’s comparison of the wicked’s present appeasements and the righteous future joy.

He says -the wicked- they have their portion in this life. They can only advantage in preserving their gratifications by passing their treasures down to their children.

David’s response shows us where his eyes are. His delights is not in what’s around him. There are anticipating the complete satisfaction he will experience in God’s presence:

As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness. (‭Psalms‬ ‭17‬:‭15‬ NKJV)

David confesses that he will be satisfied when he is eye to eye with God in his glorified body. This is the eyes of joy in God. When the seeker realizes that pleasures around him are not fulfilling.

They have their peaks, but they plateau eventually with their heart thirsting for more. They eventually reach an anti-climax at the seeker enjoying thoughts that their children will find similar excitement in their toys as they did as they pass away. This is vanity. To seek for joy only to die never to be full, only content to imagine others to meeting your “highs”.

There is fulfilling joy! It is in God whose “presence is fullness of joy” (Psalms 16:11). The heart of seeker in God sees this and is delighted. He knows that one day he is going to be fat with joy one day. One day, his joy will be full and never deplete. It will be a joy that will fill his eyes as he beholds the face of God.

The joy that is ahead of you is beyond what you can enjoy now!

Eph 2:8> Joy of Grace!

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, “(Ephesians 2:8 NKJV)

Don’t forget your roots!

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…”(Romans 8:1 NKJV)

You are justified by God’s grace. God had not “dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.” (Psalms 103:10 NKJV)

Rather, He gave freely His Son Jesus to pay the wages of sin. The gift of God is eternal life (Rom 3:23)!

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7 NKJV)

You are redeemed. “…He made us accepted in the Beloved”. (Ephesians 1:6 NKJV)

Take pride in it. Brag about it. Facebook!

Let Jesus know your joy too:

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You. (Psalms 5:11 NKJV)

Phil 1:21 vs Phil 2:21 Christian

My buddy Carlo in our prayer group commented, “There are two types of Christians: A Philippians 1:21 Christian and Philippians 2:21 Christian”.

Philippians 1:21 Christian lives by the verse: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21 KJV)

This Christian understands God is passionate for His glory. He looks at the Scriptures and accepts the fact that he was created to exalt God. His life channels through this verse:

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (I Corinthians 10:31 NKJV)

This person sees and reflects the glory of God as the Spirit makes him more and more like Christ (2 Cor 3:18). He accepts that his life was predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29 NKJV).

He leaves behind the past and sees himself in the aftermath of his choice to follow Christ. He accepts that he is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17) and that the life which [he] now live in the flesh [he] live by faith in the Son of God, who loved [him] and gave Himself for [him]. (Galatians 2:20 NKJV).

To him, salvation wasn’t an insurance of eternal security from everlasting damnation, but a sorrowful repentance of his rebellion against God and a sincere acceptance of God’s offer of mercy by believing in Christ’s shedding of His holy blood, he is remitted of his sins and is imputed Christ’s righteousness.

Being born again to him is to be an imitator of God (Eph 5:1). He realizes when 1 John 2:6 says, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (I John 2:6 NKJV), he sees that he must “deny himself, and take up his cross and follow [Christ] (Luke 9:23 NKJV).

To him, he counts all things as loss for Christ (Phil 3:7). He views the mercy God had on his life, and he gives up his wants, dreams, ideas, presumptions, goals, plans, ambitions, desires, temptations to live for the wants of God (Rom 12:1). He isn’t entangled with the culture of this world (2 Tim 2:4; Rom 12:2), rather he aims for Christ always to be magnified in [his] body, whether by life or by death. (Philippians 1:20 NKJV).

Suffering for Christ is not a trifle, but a privilege (Phil 1:29).

His joy is unconditional. His delight sings the same song: Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. (Psalms 73:25 NKJV).

Death is not a dead end to him, but the obviosous anticipation to desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. (Philippians 1:23 NKJV).

The profile of the Philippians 2:21 reflects the verse: For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:21 NKJV)

His life is centered on himself. He abuses the grace that Christ dreadfully purchased for him (Rom 6:1). He lives totally to gratify himself. Although his pattern of lifestyle can be affiliated with a follower of Christ, his true colors are as the Apostle Paul describes:

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame— who set their mind on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18, 19 NKJV)

He is hindrance to the advance of Christ, because (pretty much) he is in the way. His religion is impure and defiled (James :27), because he lives well and sees others in need and takes no pity on them (1 John 3:17). His wealth is stored for the here and now. He is so ineffective to share the Gospel because he is so preoccupied with life here on earth. Every success he makes, he perceives it as a blessing and blames the Devil or even God for any discomfort.

He is pretty much useless to the cause of Christ (Luke 14:34-35). These words of Christ label his worship: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. (Matthew 15:8 NKJV)

He believes that he is a valuable asset to God, but he is actually nothing more than a whitewashed tomb (Matt 23:27).

What he says in his heart is what Christ condemn to the Church of Laodicea: Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— (Revelation 3:17 NKJV)

Both profess Christ, but they don’t walk the same path. Which of these profiles address to you?

…When you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.
-Francis Chan, Crazy Love

HAPPY NEW YEAR! + NEW YEAR V. BEST YEAR EVER

The best year is Jesus coming to break through our darkness

Every year is a hope for a better future. For us who are God’s children, every year is the hope for the best future to come! The return of Jesus!

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (I Thessalonians 4:16, 17 NKJV)

One day, maybe even today at the eve of a new year, we will see Him breaking out of the sky in radiant glory. There all our sadness that glued us to mourning and hopelessness will fade as we open our eyes in a brilliant joy that will outweigh all excitement this world had ever or could ever muster.

We will rise when He calls us. The world and all its sorrows will look strangely dim to us, as depart from it to join Jesus Who will lead us to place He has prepared for us.*

And we will be with Jesus! Insecurity is be swallowed by eternal security. Doubt is shadowed by everlasting hope. Darkness is hidden by the Light of Jesus, for There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.(Revelation 22:5 NKJV)

He will wipe every tear from our eyes “because the former troubles are forgotten….they are hidden from [our] eyes” Isaiah 65:16 NKJV).

“There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4 NKJV) All the things that once troubled us and weighed us with sigh and concern will be erased, leaving behind only the memories that lighten our hearts to the greatness of our great God.

Then as the it has been foretold in the Word of God, we will altogether cry in joyful praise and celebrate, singing this song to the Lamb:

“Great and marvelous are Your works,Lord God Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints! ^{” **}

2013 sounds great and promising, but THE BEST IS STILL YET COME!

So honestly I want to go Home! So if Jesus can today, I’m hoping in the best future I can ever enjoy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I HOPE THIS YEAR WILL BE THE YEAR THAT JESUS COMES BACK!

LET’S BE READY FOR HIM!

*Luke 14:1-4 NKJV: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

**Revelation 15:3

When the Simple Things Matter Most

Lead 5 people to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. Have 2 kids every Sunday run into me and hug my leg. Listen to a friend across the sea laugh through her text.

I shared with you some things that inspired me recently and they took a turn striking me on my head. Because I have this idiotic assumption that contentment is somewhere on the other side of the sea waiting for me to open it.

These little things made a big impression on me: Maybe life isn’t so expensive. I guess we don’t have to fight for joy. It’s happening all around us. We just have to know where to look. 

Gratitude has finally grabbed me by the face and made me smile. God found it fitting that I discovered this before I die and see Him.

Value isn’t cheap but it’s free. You make the investment. But don’t wait for the big moments. Create your own memories, because the simple things can make the greatest difference.

Very Good Counsel

“Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law does he meditate day and night.” – Psalms 1:1-2(NKJV)

How good is a believer that doesn’t conduct himself to the world’s standards. This however can be very difficult. As we draw closer to the end of all things, the world plummets deeper in things that displease God. And as this happens, the world’s influence becomes stronger. The psalm’s author, David praises the man that does not follow the ways of the ungodly.

Romans 12:2 says,“And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

It’s important that we don’t become so well adjusted to our culture that we fit right in to it. God calls us to be the salt of the earth: meaning He wants us to be a godly influence and not the other way around. Rather than following the crowd- so to say-, our pleasure in life should be to obey God’s commands.

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he mediate day and night.”

A continual study in God’s word is the happy ambition of the character David blesses. Throughout the day his mind is on the things of God.

David compares such a person as a tree planted by river (Psalm 1:3): prosperous and fruitful. What we can expect from a person who is close to God and seeks his will is a successful ministry and an abundant life.

A tree needs water to grow. Even so, for us to mature spiritually we must draw daily and continually from the Living Water – Our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

God desired for us to prosper. We can experience prosperity in our lives only when we align ourselves to God’s counsel and guidance.

A life conformed to God and His Word is safe from being deformed by sin and the world.