The Book of John - This Time Around

When I read the Book of John this time around, I was highlighted in full, the unity of God the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. Not the emphasis on Loving one another, which I always thought the Book of John was all about.

The recurring theme that I noticed was "the Father has sent me, so I am sending you" that the Son and the Father are One in truth. And So are His Son and us as followers of Christ.

20:21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

17:18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

What I get out from the Book of John this time around is that Jesus really wants us to be like Him (Christ) and God the Father because they are one in Truth. What's interesting about verse 23 is that, to forgive someone and to say that their sins are forgiven, almost sounds like we have the authority to erase sin because God bestowed that authority onto us. And that authority is contingent on whether the Holy Spirit is in us.

I sense that as we become more in tune with God, we must also recognize and awaken the authority that's given onto us. We are powerful because just as the Father sent his Son into the world, His Son is sending us into the world. 

Yolk is Easy and Burden is Light 10/17/16

The verse in Matthew 11:30, finally made sense to me.
When I think of life as Christian, it is so difficult and frustrating to go against your flesh and blood, always fighting and putting up a guard.
But this week I tasted and experienced this verse come alive.
I believe His yoke is easy and His burden is light, when our appetite changes. When my desire to not want to sin heightens and my burden of doing God's will decreases, it's easy to resist sin and it's difficult to go against God's will. I think the secret here is transformation.
I worked twice as hard and studied twice as hard. The circumstances were actually against me. But what was for me was the power of the spirit. In John it says flesh gives birth to flesh and spirit gives birth to spirit. Since the Holy Spirit was working in me, although the circumstances were against me, I was able to firsthand experience spirit giving birth to spirit. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

*Update 10/18/17
This still holds. When you adore and look at someone with affection. Things aren't tedious any longer. Preparing for cell group, praying long hours, it becomes easy and the burden is light.

Prayer 10.13.16

It dawned on me the value or the significance of prayer. Praying for someone is humility. It allows us to bring our biggest desires for someone other than yourself and ask God to bless them. We humbly ask God and God only without the credit being due to us.It's a humble and a generous act because God honors it. He's a God of the humble.

My God is Big 6.16.16 Europe

My Father is big enough, so that no matter what we do, we can glorify Him. He's in every inch of our thoughts and actions. So we can glorify him in our attitude, thoughts, and in everything that we do. Corinthians 10:31. Inspirations from drinking good beer in Munich, I am able to enjoy without guilt, I praise him for the blessing. Every gift can be used in the wrong way. The giftor or gift is not the problem, it's your motive and attitude.

The Danger of Vacationing 6.14.16 Europe

The danger of vacationing is that the focus is solely on you. The purpose is to find rest by removing yourself from the stress of the world. However, as Christians we believe that this life is not about us. So when it comes to holidays, we find ourselves being in th center of focus, when really, it's God whose in the center. The two conflicting ideas emerge and create tension. We need to believe that finding rest and vacationing is good, but we cannot let it define our even for a few weeks, or a weekend. We do not ever vacation from being a Christian.

Forget the Past and Move On? 6.13.16 Europe

Give Glory to God Always. That's our purpose. Through the good and the bad, that's who we are. Worshippers. We move on, not dwelling on the bad, but learning from it. We are taught to focus on the good, but in times of our reflection, should we sweep the bad under the rug and cope with displeasure by outweighing with the good? Or simply by ignoring? Being optimistic is different than being grateful. We acknowledge the bad also and still give praise to the one that deserves. If we get in a habit of just simply trying to forget the bad, we may miss something God may be trying to communicate to us. When something bad happens, we cope by worship and we learn from them. Also bad events may act as agents to realize our spiritual conditions. 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 says the fire will test the quality of each man's work. Only through the fire and trials we are able to see if Jesus indeed is truly our Lord and apply what we have learned. Every storm is an opportunity to give glory to God.

-learn from the bad, give praise in every storm, dwell in his blessings and move onward to give glory to Him.

It Was Never Mine 6.6.16 Europe

Mother Tersea once said, "It was never mine to begin with, so love them anyway". Throughout my Eurotrip I keep running into the issue of spending money and feeling ill. Maybe not necessarily because I feel like I'm being a poor steward of his money, but because I feel like I'm losing something of my own. It's important to keep my heart in check. It's not mine to begin with and He's a dad who is willing to give me so much more if and when I do run out. He has so much of money... He is the definition of eternity.