Find Rest

I am pretty sure all of us is familiar with Psalm 23 from the bible:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
 he leads me beside quiet waters,
 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
 for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the
 shadow of death
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
 your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. 
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the 
 days of my life,
 and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Now, let me share you something from a book I am currently reading.  And antithesis of Psalm 23 which speaks for most of us.  I myself have experienced this:

The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest.
It makes me lie down only when exhausted.
It leads me to deep depression, it hounds my soul.
It leads me in circles of frenzy for activity's sake.
Even though I run frantically from task to task,
I will never get it all done, for my "ideal" is with me.
Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me.
They demand performance from me, beyond the limits of
    my schedule.
They anoint my head with migraines, my in-basket 
   overflows.
Surely fatigue and time pressure shall follow me all the
   days of my life,
And I will dwell in the bonds of frustration forever.
                      MARCIA K. HORNOK, "PSALM 23, ANTITHESIS
                             from the book: Living on Purpose by Christine and Tom Sine

Funny, but true.  Most of the time, we live a busy life that is never ending.  We try to book a vacation or file a one day leave in the hope that it will somehow recharge us.  But the moment we wake up the next day, just thinking of the task ahead zaps up our energy.

It is when you are in the Lord that rest comes in the midst of a busy day. He promised us this:

Matthew 11:29-30
Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Seek the Lord and surely you will find rest in your weary souls.  God bless us all!

Great Life Or Eternal Life?

If there's one thing the Lord had taught me that made me just look back and become grateful that He called me-  is the understanding that we are living in world where you can be trapped of the illusions of a great life and then spend your whole life running after it then realize that it can never satisfy you at all.

Life here on earth is short.  And eternity never ends.  How come I almost spent my entire life working on my life here and never even bother to think of how will I be spending eternity?

And I am grateful that God called me. And now He is teaching me everyday of how should I live my life here on earth in order to get the great reward I will be enjoying in the eternal life.

Guiding Words

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 


1 Thessalonians 4:11
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.


Philippians 4:13
I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.


Colossians 3:2
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Let God

There are still times when I worry too much and become anxious... especially when it comes to financial problems.  When bills piled up and our budget is too tight, I start to think of ways immediately, instead of praying to the Lord and trusting Him of his faithful promise- not to worry but to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be given to me (Matthew 6:25-33).


And so, for days now, whenever anxiousness and worry slowly creeps into my heart, I pray and lift it all to God.  I think of His promises.  I open my bible and read them.  And they never fail to soothe my heart and soul.

Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your request to God.  And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.


Hebrews 12:7
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.

I am learning to let God work on my life by trusting His love and mercy.  Sometimes it seems easy to say, but it really takes intimacy with God and knowing Him deeper and deeper that my faith in Him flourishes which enables me to surrender my every day to Him.  And so it has became a goal for me to get to know God and His Son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus.  To be able to trust Him fully and surrender every aspect of my life to Him.

I am praying that many will join me in my walk in quest of the great reward.

Another Reason To Be Thankful

If not for the challenging times, I would have not bowed down and sought God.  

I am thankful for the many challenges that went our way and those that are coming.  If it means these things happening to mold me and draw me closer to God, then I would gladly accept.  Because nothing compares to going through life with the security of His love and mercy.  

I thank God for drawing me closer to Him and making me know what Jesus did for me.  Truly, it is in your darkest hour when you learn to seek the one and only living God.  And I thank Him also for giving me those challenges because it means He had called me into His arms.  Just as Jesus had said:

John 6:44

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them and I will raise them up on the last day.

God had drawn me to Jesus through my brokenness.  And when I understood this and experience life with Jesus, I became thankful for those challenging times. 

Before Bedtime Fun

One of the many reasons why I feel blessed and thankful - being able to spend fun times with my fast growing kids:

Hide and seek

Kuya joining maxene in the closet

Miggy's funny face

And Maxene had to make one too!

Thank you Lord for these moments.

Safety Gate... Check!

Safety gate installed.  Little girl is not thrilled about it!

One Art Saturday

I plan to do this every Saturday morning with the big boy and little girl.  We had fun!  Although Maxene is really a challenge!  You can't keep her in one place.  She is all over the materials!

We started with colors then when they got bored, I decided to ask them to help me do another page in my long forgotten scrapbook.

Here's what we did-

Sharing you old pages of the book-

Another page next Saturday, and finger painting!

Guiding Words For Today

I am in the books of Colossians today.  Not the first time I read this, but  just like any other book in the bible, it always brings me fresh instruction and wisdom from God.

Let me share:

Colossians 1:10-12
And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way:  bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father....

Colossians 1:6-7
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.


Colossians 3:2
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.


Colossians 3:8-10
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these:  anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and out on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Colossians 3:12-14
...... clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against once another. Forgive as the Lord forgive you. And over all this virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Colossians 3: 17
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and Father through him.

Tomorrow, I am going to share verses from the same book on rules for christian household.

May all of us be blessed and empowered today to do the will of God!  We ask this through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who reigns and lives forever and ever.

Guiding Words

My morning conversation with God always brings me guiding words to live by.  And I want to put them on my blog which will serve a an e-notes for me, and also I want to share them to everyone.  

I've read so many self help books before, I even got a collection of them.  But none of them got close into the Word of God in empowering me to change myself.  His Word is living,  when you open the pages of the bible and read them, you hear the voice of God in your heart.  And those Words will echo to you through and through.

When Miggy Turns 7...

He turned 5 last April.  I don't know why I just blurted out to him that on his 7th birthday, instead of giving him a birthday party, we will just bring him and his sister to Hongkong Disneyland!  And his eyes twinkled with excitement.

Now I need to save for that promise.

Help me Lord.

Stumbled

Yes, I stumbled.  I got pissed off yesterday and was almost ready to take out on someone the big bad black dog in me.  I was so consumed with anger that the I can't barely hear the white dog anymore.  Thing is, I gave the reign to the black dog.  I did not pause and count one to ten to calm myself.  In my mind, I just had to do something about it.  And I somewhat got what I wanted.  My charming yet deadly words spurred the action I needed.

But I feel guilty nonetheless.  Not just for feeling so bad but for not praying and trusting the Lord that through His power, He give me what I wanted and spare me from stumbling.

I asked for forgiveness.  And during my quiet time this morning, He talked to me through His Word:

Psalm 37:3-4
Trust in the Lord and do good;
   dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the Lord
   and he will give you the desires of your
        heart.

Psalm 37:8
Be still for the Lord and wait patiently 
     for him;
  do not fret when men succeed on their
      ways.....


Psalm 37:9
Refrain from anger and turn away from wrath;
     do not fret- it leads only to evil.


I am guilty as charged.  But God is merciful and compassionate -

Psalm 37:23-24
If the Lord delight's in a man's way,
   he makes his steps firm;
though he stumble, he will not fall,
   for the Lord upholds him with his 
        hand.


I know God has forgiven me and I am once again given a new chance to change and learn from what happened.  And I ask for His patience and power to transform me and strengthen me to do His will in my life.  If ever I stumble again, it comforts me to know He will be there to catch me.  Because God loves me.

Family Devotional- Check!

Praise God we were able to do our first family devotional tonight!  And Miggy is looking forward to our next.  We agreed to do this every Saturday and once a month, our family devotional will be held somewhere where we can have a small celebration.

Happy!

Got to plan and prepare for our next topic!

Delayed Gratification

Opppsss... I am definitely not an expert on this when applied to buying/shopping.  But I definitely don't want my kids to follow after me.  And so I had to start to practice saving up for my wants and I will be doing it alongside Miggy who seems to be taking up from me when it comes to his spending habits!

And off we go to the bank to open an account for him where he agreed to save his weekly Timezone/Tom's World allowance.  Come Christmas, he will buy the toy he wants from his savings account.

And I, myself, need to save up for a lot of things!

Excited Miggy -

Anger

This is one thing I am totally guilty about and need to confess everyday.  I have a short fuse.  I get irritated so easily and can lash out a person to death by my words.  Before I became a Christian, I believed that my anger is reasonable... is justified.  I usually say - "this is me, I can't control it."  And I never knew it  was a SIN.   I never realized that when I get angry and do not hold off words from my mouth, it leads to people around me getting hurt, feel sorry about themselves or bringing them down.  It may ignite a fight or a feeling of resentment. All I thought before -  I was doing the right thing and that the person will learn not to do such thing anymore that can make me angry.  IT WAS SELFISH.

And so now, I am asking for God's mercy and power to guide me as I go through His anger management class.  I ask of the Holy Spirit to greatly convict me when my blood starts to boil.  I don't want to make a fool out of myself.  As the bible says-

Proverbs 29:11 (NIV)
A fool gives full vent to his anger,
but a wise man keeps himself under control


I am set to straight this thing out with me before I will realize that having no self control on my anger costs me my family or friends already.

I am going to make it one step at a time.  The very basic on how to control anger is to become slow to it.  And I want to share a devotional from Rick Warren that gave me the best action plan for my quest to controlling my anger:

When you’re angry, don’t respond impulsively. Delay is a great tool in controlling anger. I'm not saying delay indefinitely or even beyond a day; the Bible says don't go to sleep when you're angry. I'm talking about delaying it for five minutes.

When you start to get ticked off, take "time out" for a few minutes. Give yourself some time to reflect and think through the situation. If you don't stop and think, you are likely to do the wrong thing. You need to reflect before you respond.

When we get angry, we need to make a habit of stepping back, waiting a few minutes, and then looking at the situation from God's point of view. Notice how the Bible says a wise man lets his anger cool down (Proverbs 29:11). So, "cool it" is a Biblical term! A modern translation might be: “The wise man waits and chills out.” Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, said, “When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”

And so I pray,

Father, forgive me for sinning in anger and for hurting people I love because of this. Be patient with me and empower me as I go through the challenge of changing myself in Jesus Christ likeness.  I cannot do this on my own strength so I ask for your strength. I thank you Lord because you called me and saved me.  And I want to become a living testimony to your power of changing people.

I ask these in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen

Family Picture

I super love this picture!

Guilty But Forgiven

One thing about being a Christian is how you feel so helplessly guilty whenever you caught yourself being convicted about a sin you just committed - be it a simple lie or getting angry with someone.  Before I became one, I won't budge when I lie.  I won't regret getting angry to someone.  I rationalize and reason out why I had to do it. Now is a different story...

Revelation 21:8
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolater and all liars- they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.


Now, I know that the usual saying "liars go to hell" is true.  When I read the above passage in the bible, I just cannot believe it!  And what is more astonishing is this-

James 2:10
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.


There is no difference whether someone else murdered a person and I just made a simple lie.  In the eyes of God, both of us committed a sin and the wage of it is spiritual death - that is eternal separation from God, or in simple term: HELL.

As I was learning these things during our bible classes, I really got scared and at the same time, thankful that God lead me to gaining all these wisdom.   And when I finally understood the very essence of Jesus sacrifice for us- His suffering and death on the cross- the more I bowed down and thank Him.  Because he saved us from Hell.  He is the gift of salvation that we are to freely receive.

Everyday now, I struggle not to commit sin.  Everyday, I ask for strength to resist the devil.  While I am slowly beginning to understand that God wants me to lead a life of righteousness like Jesus, I became aware too that while I am in this world, I am in my sinful nature and it will take God's power and mercy for me to be able to take the right path.

While I am turning back from my old self and God is giving me a new one, I am faced with temptations that most of the time is too hard to resist using my own strength.  It is only by God's compassion and mercy that I can overcome them.

I am guilty.  And I confess I am a sinner.  I give harmless lies.  I am full of pride and at times self-righteous.  I get angry so easily.  Things of this world never fails to attract me. And there are times when I fail to be patient and trust in God.

But I take comfort in His love for me.  I take comfort in His promises.  During those times when I feel undeserving for his gift of salvation, I confess and trust in His promise of forgiveness and mercy.

1John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness


 And so I pray...

Father, please forgive me for my sins.  I ask you to be patient with me in renewing my heart. Forgive me for those times when I can't help but disobey your will and commands.  I feel so guilty Father for I am easily angered and oftentimes feels the need take revenge or hurl negative words to people who hurt me instead of praying for them and just lifting it all up to you.  I am also guilty of lying although I consider it harmless.  Help me Lord to resist evil and hold on to your teachings.


I thank you for your forgiveness and mercy.  For your work in making me worthy to receive your gift of salvation.  Please be with me always as I take the walk in the path that you want me to take.  Give me strength and wisdom to surrender into your will.


I ask all of these in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

Trip to Bataan- Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar Day 2

Breakfast at Cafe Marivent

Can't get enough of Csa Escolta as background

Maxene wanted to jump on the fountain water!

Walk thru the memory lane...

T

The pool

Can't get enough of playing in the sand

Enjoying the view

One of the old houses

Inside Casa Byzantina

The stair...

Mural inside Casa Byzantina