30 December

What a year! Definitely one for the books. I've discovered a lot of things about myself, have new additions to my bank of knowledge, have met and spent time with wonderful people, have experienced another heartbreak, have overcome the heartbreak, there's just a lot!

I am thankful. Thankful to God's amazing grace, His great love. God has been really good. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Though I asked myself, "Had I own an account that barely keeps with the maintaining balance, would I be this thankful? Had I lost a job, a family member, a car, a home, would I still rejoice?"


2 Corinthians 12:7-9

⁷To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

God says His GRACE is sufficient. Like the analogy that Max Lucado presented in his book "Experiencing the Grace of Jesus": A plane is about to crash and the pilot has been giving each passenger a parachute. There's a passenger who asked if she can have a pink one, another if he can have a larger one, still another asked if he could jump when the plane is close to the ground. But the pilot only offered parachutes, nothing more, nothing less. The parachute is what's going to help them land on the ground safely and that's all they need.

I may not have had a new vehicle like I expected this year, the new, more promising job, the chance to meet the man of my dreams (naks!), a trip abroad, stored relationship, more developed friendship. I neglected to do what is right most of the time, I had been a disappointment, I was judged, I judged. But in the end, when I sought Jesus, I find him with his arms open and his eyes holding the expression of warmth towards me. His grace is all I need and there's no reason (and no way!) to be satisfied with things of this earth.


J.B.

29 December

Time is best spent waiting on Jesus

I. How must we wait?

A. By reminding ourselves of our role

John 1:12 - "To all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God."

1 John 3:1 - "The Father has loved us so much that we are called children of God. And we really are His children."

Since we are children of God, there is no point for us in trying to know everything that's happening or that's suppose to happen because our Father knows what he is doing.

B. By trusting Him

Jn 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me."

Even the return of Christ must not trouble us because it is a day to be anticipated.

C. By patiently hoping

Like Simeon in Luke 2:25-35. Since it had been revealed to him that he wasn't going to die until he sees the Messiah, waited everyday as if he was always at the edge of his seat, wide-eyed, expectant, patiently vigilant. He is described as righteous and devout.

Like Simeon, we also know that Christ is coming. How must we wait?

II. What are we waiting for?

A. Our own room

Jesus has made a perfect place for us that's why we shouldn't feel too comfortable in this world. He made a perfect place for us, a room just for us in heaven. (Jn 14:2)

When the people betrayed him, stoned him and crucified him, they were telling him that he doesn't have room on this earth. There's no room for a prophet or a messiah in the world. Still Jesus made it a point to knock on our hearts (Rev 3:20). Do we have room for him?

B. Seeing a bridegroom

(Luke 12:35-37)

Watchfulness

35"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.

God will be so thrilled to find us eagerly waiting for him that he will take the form of a servant to serve us!

Imagine how a groom would be waiting so expectantly, with full anticipation, to the approaching bride. That's how the Lord will wait for us.

C. Having a heart like Jesus

Romans 8:17

17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Romans 14:8 "If we live, we are living for the Lordm and if we die, we are dying for the Lord. So living or dying we belong to the Lord."

Those who believe in Christ belong to God that when we find ourselves in heaven, something marvelous will happen. We find ourselves loving with a perfect heart, worshiping with radiant face, listening and talking to God as if our words are made of jewels. We will be like Jesus.

III. Are we ready?

"Is your trust, your attitude of dependence sufficiently stable to sustain you regardless?(....) Should your Lord be please to turn you into a Job, would He still be your Treasure and your Triumph? Don't let the answer slip off your tongue too easily. Think about the implications of that question to your own life, health, job and family. Should your Lord make you an Enoch, would you be reluctant to make that eternal journey?"

Titus 2:11-13

11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

As an engaged couple prepare for their wedding date, so must we when we look forward The Date when we get to be with the Father. We must be obsessed with it and must not let anything make us forget.

12 December

It's all over the campus. The faculty and staff will receive some hefty surprise bonus for the holidays. It circulated in the department, but nobody seemed to have claimed the said bonus. When asked why, some said they aren't sure whether to claim it from the cashier, or that they are too embarrassed to get it because it might not be there, or it may be some trick the administration is pulling, or they don't really have a need for the extra cash.

Maybe we can do without the extra money, but can we say the same things to why we don't accept Christ's FREE gift? Are we oblivious of the fact that it is free? Are we too embarrassed to admit that we need it? (Just like grown men who have the habit of stepping outside church when the priest starts the homily.) Do we think that there is a catch? That it is too good to be true?

⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. (Romans 6)

The payment for sin is death. Death for prisoners is a way for them to pay their sins. But it already happened when Jesus, the Son of Man, died for us. We have been set free. When we were sinners, we were given love. When we were selfish, we were given grace. "How can we who have been made right not live righteous lives? How can we who have been loved not love? How can we who have been blessed not bless? How can we who have been given grace not live graciously?" This is what Paul was trying to say in Romans 6.

There is no reason to believe that just because God's grace is a free gift, we can do what we want now and later ask for forgiveness. That since there is church on Sunday, we can live on our selfish desires for the rest of the week. God's grace is there before us, teaching us not to live against God, to serve Him which is what we are called to do. So really, why would we want to live otherwise?

¹¹For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. ¹²It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age... (Titus 2)

I remember this one sin that I repeatedly commit and that each time I do so I feel really frustrated, ashamed, and very far from God. I gave up trying to change. I compromised. I spent less time praying because I was too ashamed I felt I didn't have the right. I felt I was stuck in some murky, contaminated, depressing place. Until one day I realized that it had been long since I committed it. It surprised me at first because I thought I wasn't really doing anything, and in fact, I stopped trying to change. Then I found out that it is only by God's grace. The Holy Spirit zoomed in on that area of my life and changed me. I do experience times when I get tempted to do it again but then I would think of the murky, contaminated, and depressing place and say, "I don't ever want to go back." It's stupid if I go back.

¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6)

The vow that we make with God should not be too fragile, like a groom flirting with another lady besides his bride. If we are in our right minds, we should know better than to forget our vows and play with fire. We know how God freely gives His grace and what it is like to live with this grace. We can experience a new life. Why in the world wouldn't we accept it?

--J.B.

8 December

Psalm 103:9-14 (New International Version)

⁹ He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;

¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;

¹² as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

It just blows me away. I thought I have a clear grasp of it, but it never fails to stun me each time. GOD'S GREAT LOVE. Jesus showed it to me. He didn't wait til I overcome my sins, til I reach perfection (which is never going to happen), til I confessed - but He did it. He thought that whatever state I am in, I am worth it. He accepted me just as I am.

There are so many things that have happened to me in the past weeks. I asked God to instill in my heart the lessons that H e wants me to learn. The trip to the shelter was one of the highlights of my November. I met good people with unselfish desire to reach out to young ones. The shelter accepts each kid who knocks at its doors with no questions asked. The shelter does not choose the right kid, those who are bright, strong and cute. The kids were accepted just as they are - hungry, thirsty, without a bag of clothes, without slippers for their feet.

Just as we are.

We were accepted. Perhaps the only "validation" why we were accepted is that we are hungry and thirsty. If we seek to make it right first, to clean up our act first, we may not be qualified because only God can make us right, only He can remove any stigma that comes with our name. He had done a great act of dying for our sins and giving His name to replace ours. There's no reason for us to ask Him to save us because He already did. "His covenant is not invalidated by our rebellion." The only thing left for us to do is to come to Him, hungry and thirsty.

We seek after this world, with hunger for fame and thirst for passion and romance, which leads us eventually to nothing. The hunger and thirst is never satisfied. Then we realize that what we are hungry and thirsty for is righteousness - a clean conscience, a fresh start. And only when we knock on the doors, lost for everything but our spiritual hunger and thirst, can we find a hand that will lead us in.

"Come back to the Lord your God, because He is kind and shows mercy. He doesn't become angry quickly, and He has great love." (Joel 2:13)


---J.B.