In these past few days, I just found myself being rebellious. I didn't open my Bible and never took the opportunity to pray and devote my self to Him. Then, discouragement and disappointment came. I tried to talk to God, yet I am not willing to listen. I cried. Still, GOD's FAITHFULNESS is indescribable. He did not let me fall away. I am reminded again of HIS love, HIS UNDYING love for me, for us.

Then, a sister in Christ texted me. She said,

GOD takes us into deep waters not to drown us, but to CLEANSE us. And HE disciplines those HE LOVES.

Almighty God, I stand in awe of You, Lord. Thanks YOU for Your unconditional LOVE. Thank YOU for Your MERCY. Thank You for the FORGIVENESS that You gave. I love You, because You have loved me first with Your everlasting LOVE. In JESUS' Mighty Name, Amen.

And now, let me share to you this beautiful song that really touched my heart. May the message inspire you, too. GOD bless, and let's BLESS GOD with our decisions.

When God Ran

Philips and Craig

Maybe you've come to a point wherein you sought advice from your friends about some "love life thing", and all they said was "FOLLOW YOUR HEART".

I must admit. I, myself, experienced that scenario before. I, being the “inferior” type in the group, tried to follow my heart, as what they have recommended. You know what happened?

I found myself losing my purity, emotionally and spiritually..

After everything that has happened in my life, I am really praising GOD that He let me realize some of the most important things I should always keep in mind.

About our HEART:

The Bible warns us that our heart can lead us in wrong, even DEADLY directions.

Our hearts lie.

Something can “feel” right and be completely wrong.

As what Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

We need to constantly evaluate the purity of our hearts in Prayer. We can always ask GOD to reveal the things that contaminate us, our hearts, our whole being. And as GOD reveals our wrong attitudes, longings, and desires, we MUST remove them from our hearts.

Of course, I’m not exempted in this. But, my only hope is that my Father in Heaven is FAITHFUL to complete me.

Yes, there are temptations. I cannot deny them. That’s why I’m really praying that GOD would continue to help me guard my heart. I know there is really One who is in control of all the unknowns. We can trust him to lead us through it and protect our hearts in the process.

Let me end with this:

 

 The world takes us to a silver screen on which flickering images of passion and romance play. As we watch, the world says, “This is love”.

GOD takes us to a foot of a tree on which a naked and bloodied man hangs and says, “THIS IS LOVE”. 

 Yesterday, our Pastor challenged us to personalize a chapter in the Bible and make it our personal Prayer. I am really touched by this chapter so I decided to share it to you. I am working on memorizing this so that I will never forget how God saved me from death and gave me a new and wonderful life.

Romans  6:1-14

Sin's Power Is Broken

6 Well then, should I keep on sinning so that God can show me more and more of His wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since I have died to sin, how can I continue to live in it? 3 Or have I forgotten that when I was joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, I joined Him in His death? 4 For I died and was buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now I may also live a new life.

5 Since I have been united with Him in His death, I will also be raised to life as He was. 6 I know that my old sinful self was crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in my life. I am no longer slave to sin. 7 For when I died with Christ, I was set free from the power of sin. 8 And since I died with Christ, I know I will also live with Him. 9 I am sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and He will never die again. Death no longer has any power over Him.10 When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God. 11 So I should also consider myself to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

12 I will not let sin control the way I live;* I will not give in to sinful desires. 13 I will not let any part of my body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, I will give myself completely to God, for I was dead, but now I have new life. So I will use my whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer my master, for I no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, I live under the freedom of God's grace.               

15 Well then, since God's grace has set me free from the law, does that mean I can go on sinning? Of course not!16 Don't I realize that I become the slave of whatever I choose to obey? I can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or I can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once, I was slave of sin, but now, I wholeheartedly obey this teaching they have given me. 18 Now, I arm free from my slavery to sin, and I have become slave to righteous living.

19 Because of the weakness of my human nature, Apostle Paul is using the illustration of slavery to help me understand all this. Previously, I let myself be slave to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now I must give myself to be a slave to righteous living so that I will become holy.

20 When I was a slave to sin, I was free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? I am now ashamed of the things I used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now I am free from the power of sin and have become a slave of God. Now I do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Lord Jesus, You said in your Word that You are faithful to lead us on, to complete us. Lord Jesus, I'm praying that You will give me strength to overcome all temptations in my life. Oh God, give me a heart that is pure and teach me Oh Lord to deny my flesh so that I can completely follow You, Oh God. Jesus Christ, I will never stop thanking, praising and worshipping You for You have saved me when I was in darkness. I am able to love You because You loved me first. In Jesus name, I pray all these things. Amen. 

This puzzle caught my attention after having the practice for Sunday's service. Although it took me several minutes to find all the 30 books, I enjoyed the time haunting for those books. :) And what I love the most is the fellowship time with my church mates. :) With that, I decided to get a copy of it and share it to everyone. I suggest you put a timer so that you could really test how fast can you find those books. :)

There are 30 books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours.He enjoyed it so much, he passed it on to some friends... One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it that she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving. She brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That's a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During our recent fund raising event, which featured this puzzle the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new record. The local paper, The Chroncicle surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, "the books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight". Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus, there really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found. God bless.