Miah Learns to Write

There have been moments in my life when I became so engrossed by the busyness of my life that I spent little to no time with God. Losing focus on God diminishes the enthusiasm, energy, and the freshness of every single day. When we start to become entangled with the routine and habits of the world, our lives become so dull and pointless and without meaning or purpose. In these times, God set me back on the right track by allowing certain problems slip into my life that I cannot handle alone. There were times when God brings us to a point of desperation and total lack that we respond by turning to Him. There were times when God gets me out of my comfort zone and leads me into a hostile place where I have no one to turn to but Him. There were times when I lost those insignificant desires and possessions that I held more dear to my heart than my relationship with God. It was also in these times that I broke down before God and asked Him to forgive me and help me to align my life

The tomb was empty. The cross lays bare for the work that Jesus came into the world to do was finished. Jesus died to save us but it does not end there because after three days, He rose up from the dead and now, we have a testimony to share to the whole world: That there was a man who was sent to the world and did many miracles - healing all diseases, casting out demons, raising the dead back to life - and many believed in Him. He had no sin but He died so that our sins may be forgiven to those who believe in Him and receive Him into their lives. His Name is Jesus Christ, the Messiah. The Bible tells us that one man died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. Jesus laid His life down willingly as a sacrifice for our sins and God the Father gave Him the authority to take up His life once again. Jesus' sacrifice pleased the Father and He became the way

The moment that we accepted Jesus Christ into our hearts, many things started to change. Our lives have been renewed and will continue to be transformed by the Holy Spirit so that we might become Christlike. At that moment, our sins were forgiven and washed by His blood, we received salvation and eternal life through our faith in Jesus. We gain the right to be called a child of God and a joint heir with Christ, and much more benefits have been bestowed upon us. That said, we also become Jesus' followers or disciples and being His follower means that we must strive to live the life that He modeled for us and to obey the commands He gave us. Jesus told His disciples that, " If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself , take up his cross, and follow me ." To be a Christian or a Christ follower, we must surrender our lives to Him and make Him not just our personal Savior but our Lord as well who would take control over our lives and direct our paths. Now,

Lately, if you have been reading my previous posts, you would notice that I have been so captivated and enamored to share God's love and to be vocal about God's love that Jesus embodied. When Jesus entered into the world, He performed numerous miraculous signs among the people, and genuinely cared for those who were hurting, broken, and desperate, and He gave them hope and salvation through His death and resurrection. There is no doubt that the immensity of God's love for us transcends all boundaries. He just loves us so much and He showed His love for us by sending His Son to die for us and to save us in so doing. If you choose to believe in Him and receive Him, you would experience God's love in ways your eyes have not seen before. God brings tremendous change and revival through His love that nobody is the same ever again. If you choose to believe what the Bible has testified and what countless more people have witnessed and lived to tell their story - the r

I believe that a Christian's central character which motivates him to do good to those who hate him, to bless those who curse him, and to pray for those who mistreat him is due to  love  which was embodied by Jesus and transcended all boundaries. Being Christian means that we need to know how to love and that we love others just as God loves us, just as Jesus loves us. Jesus loves us unconditionally and when He died on that cross so that we may be saved from our sins if we believe in Him, He thought of us and poured Himself out lovingly. It is such a comforting thought and I think we need to constantly remind ourselves and meditate or reflect upon Jesus and His love for us especially in those moments when we feel so troubled. It will give us the strength that we would need to face our struggles and to overcome because if you believe that Jesus is there for you and He loves you, all fear will fade away. I would like to look at certain passages of Scripture that talk abo

Most heartbroken people adopt the view that there comes a time when love becomes pointless especially after risking it all countless times only to lose everything in the end. So they become fearful and somewhat skeptical of loving someone again, hoping to finally find their true love, and end up being deceived due to their vulnerability which develops through desperation. Some people close themselves off completely from love because they had one or multiple bad experiences with the wrong people. But I would like to encourage you to open yourselves still for love, only you would find that there is a more consistent, fulfilling, and genuine love than what anyone else can give us and that is the love that Jesus has for us. I remember that, before I became a Christian, I had this struggle wherein I searched for love in the wrong places and ended up being in a worse position than I originally was because I was in constant fear of uncertainty, of heartbreak, of failure, and of what

In remembering what Jesus Christ did for us 2,000 years ago, I think it is also necessary for us to know what Jesus came into the world to do. We know through reading the gospels about the miraculous signs that Jesus did in His ministry. All of these He did to fulfill the mission that the Father sent Him into the world for and also due to His unconditional love for us. He even said that the greatest act of love was for a man to lay his life down for a friend which Jesus exemplified by going to the cross for the salvation of all men through faith in Him. Today, I had quite a peculiar encounter with someone who shared to me about his doctrine and beliefs and at first, I was at ease with the direction of our discussion but as we moved forward into the meat of our conversation, I started to become wary of what he was trying to tell me. I knew he had good intentions and he was definitely trained well to share his beliefs through the Bible but what he was sharing to me had some relat

When we read the four Gospels in the Bible - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - we get a narration of the life of Jesus as He dwelt among men. He showed miraculous signs to them, taught profound lessons and reproof that came from God the Father. And ultimately, showered the people with love especially those who needed it the most such as sinners, women, sick people, outcasts, and those who have no other hope in life. Jesus became the Light for us all when He entered into the world and went to people. Jesus was not like the ordinary king of men but He was the King who approached His people and cared for them. He stepped down to our place, touched countless lives, healed and restored thousands or more people, and He gave us love, peace, joy, and all things that the world cannot which are those referring to the spirit, that which is deeper than our physical needs and perhaps more of the need for God in our lives. In this way, I am able to say that God is personal and He cares for o

Whenever we talk about worship in its purest sense, we not only refer to the songs that we sing or the time we gather together in church to sing these songs but rather worship should transcend the borders of a mere ritualistic or ceremonial activity that we do just because we have to do it or else God would stop blessing us and all sorts of bad things would happen in our lives. One line from the song " Clear the Stage " says that worship is more than just a song and it speaks of the truth because worship should be a lifestyle for us and not merely an obligation or duty that we have to do as a routine or part of a program. Worship should come forth out of our love for Jesus; God's love should overflow in our lives to the point that we merely break into tears and express our devotion for Him as we stand in His presence with utmost reverence to the point that you would be rendered speechless. It does not matter what language we use or what words we use to express tha

How do we know when someone loves us genuinely and deeply without any hint of self-interest or any hidden motivations behind the kindness and love they show us? In most romantic movies and shows we see today, it is very common to see the characters getting hurt and broken after being dumped by the one whom they thought was the One. When they gave their whole heart out to the other person, shared their most intimate personal secrets with them, spent every waking moment with them, and ultimately trusted them, then later getting dumped left a big gap in their hearts. I believe that the desire to find true love in life is innate in all of us. We are so eager to have someone fill our every need, someone whom we can exert all our effort and energy to, and someone who can give us joy that nothing else in the world could ever give. So we go on a frantic search for "Mr. or Ms. Right" to the point that we jump at every opportunity of love, only to find out in the end that we

As we near the celebration of Holy Week, let me draw you upon this thought: the Son of God who justly sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven came down into a sinful world and showed us His love by laying Himself down at the cross so that our sins may be washed through His blood. He loves and cares for us and the Bible takes note of this when the apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:7 : "Cast all your anxiety upon the Lord because He cares for you." We could not start to comprehend by reason the fact that God sent His only begotten Son to save the world by taking upon Himself the judgment well-deserved by the world so that the way may be opened for us toward reconciliation with the Father. Jesus did all that and more when He came to the world and when He left, He made a promise that where He is going, we cannot follow now but we will follow later ( John 13:36 ). Throughout the Bible, God's faithfulness and loving kindness has been exhibited in the live

Summer has bloomed for us once again and luckily for me, I have more than a hundred and four days but a little less than five hundred to spend the whole summer away. So I have come up with a list of what I want to do and experience this summer. 1. Summer Classes.  You might think summer is not the right time for books, homework, and tons of papers and reading assignments instead we should be frolicking in the beach, going on outdoor activities like mountain climbing or hiking, and doing extreme sports. But I will be taking advanced units this summer so that I would have a lighter load in the next semester which I guess would be enough reason for my taking formal summer classes. Besides, we would still have two more months of summer left after our classes end so it is a good bargain in my opinion. 2. Blogging and Writing.  I would continue to chronicle my daily adventures and experiences through blogging and perhaps even try to write some fiction in the process since I have wan

Have you been going through some difficult circumstances lately? Maybe you have bills to pay but have no money for them. Maybe you just broke up with someone and it hurts so much that you feel lost and without hope. Maybe you have no one to lean on. Maybe you have troubles within the family and it affects you deeply to see your parents quarreling or your children rebelling. Maybe you failed quite a number of times in life. Whatever circumstances you are facing right now, I want to tell you that you can choose to be victorious over them. Several months ago, I was reading a book titled Never Be A Victim Again  by Don Clowers and he speaks of how we cannot control what happens in our lives and there will always be bad moments or failures that we have to go through however we do have control over how we respond to these situations. The world we live in is a treacherous world and to be honest, the things that happen to us are often unfair. There are times that bad things happen to p

One important lesson I learned from my discipleship training was the concept of spiritual breathing . This is a very good practice to get into the habit of doing in your life and helps you to release whatever burden or heaviness you feel inside brought about my guilt, worry, or any kind of fear that entangles your heart. Spiritual breathing is a discipline that comprises of two parts which are similar to physical breathing. The first part is exhaling  which tells us to confess whatever sins we have committed knowingly and even those that we have unconsciously done to God and humbly accept that you have sinned against Him and ask for His forgiveness and mercy. In confessing our sins to God, I think Psalm 139:23-24 gives us a guide on how we can approach God regarding this: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." There are times when we know we have d

I commend those people who do not settle for less and are not satisfied with a mediocre life. Although it is good to develop an attitude of contentment and not wanting more material wealth or fame in life, we have to also study what the Bible tells us about God's plans for our lives. In Jeremiah 29:11 , God talks to the people through the prophet saying, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future.'"  These wonderful plans that the Lord God has for our lives may not be of the physical or material kind although God also blesses us in those areas but these plans speak more of spiritual prosperity and depth where God's unlimited potential is manifested and unleashed through our lives. He wants us to succeed in all areas of our lives and bring glory to His Name but that comes with so much sacrifice as well to the point that we actually deny ourselves t

Today, the message we received from our pastor revolved around the concept of time and the nature of God being eternal and transcendent. The passage of Scripture that we focused on was Ecclesiastes 3 where King Solomon pours out his thoughts and insight on time and how our lives are bound by it. Ecclesiastes 3:1 sets the tone for the whole chapter and it is written: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." The statement that King Solomon wrote is so prosaic and common to us that we sometimes forget that there is the right time for all endeavors and events in our lives. We know that we have to undergo through certain stages of development and experience all sorts of changes in our lives. King Solomon in the next verses enumerates the different activities that each have their own time. From verse 2 to verse 8, Solomon writes 28 activities and events that happen in life which includes 14 good moments and 14 bad moments. This

In my opinion, I think some or most people are somewhat wary and even hesitant of making commitments or promises to others because we humans tend to fail too often in honoring the commitments that we have made. The words that we give to other people may not be as binding as a legal document but it bears in it an amount of trust that the other person has for you to do what you said you would do. This is where the phrase "word of honor" stems out from because whenever we give out our word to someone, it is good as done. In many other aspects in life, the same thing can be expected. When we commit, we must count the costs and determine whether we have the capacity and initiative to persevere until our commitments have been fulfilled. We must be prepared to endure whatever hardships the road toward the fruition of our commitments would entail and show that we have integrity to respect and reciprocate the trust that others place on us with our actions. The same thing