Plans & Plants

I recently got a new baby — a new Apple Mint plant 🙂 Here’s a photo!

 

With so many things spiraling in my life right now (yes, I am a bit dramatic at the moment), I wanted something I could venture into. I wanted something I can focus my attention to and get joy and fulfillment by caring for it — and since I cannot get a pet, I settled for the next best thing: a plant.

I got so excited when a friend of mine got this one for me! She got a good deal on herbs and got me one too.

The moment I got it, I was stoked and frantic at the same time! I suddenly had all these plans in my head — I want to make mint tea! I need to put it in my room!  No! It has to be outside! I want … — ETC. It didn’t stop there either. I started Google-ing all sorts of home garden guides, YouTube-ing a bunch of videos on How to Take Care of Mints, and I even went on a Craigslist spree to look for bigger pots (my research shows that mints are invasive plants and need room to expand and grow)!

When all the crazy was over, I had a plan — I’d see how my plant grows in this pot. Test out my caring skills for about a month. Go thrift store hopping for bigger pots. Re-pot. And repeat! (Plus a little pruning and harvesting every now and then.)

Everyone has plans, we all know it; even the bible confirms it. —

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9

God, too, has plans for us.

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. Jeremiah 29:11

Difference is, not everyone who has plans has the ability to carry them out and see them through.

I have a LOT of plans for my new plant. But since it’s my first plant, I am not really sure if I will be able to fully see all my plans through — or if I will be successful enough to even be able to try to carry out these plans!

I really like this plant, and I do not want anything bad to happen to it. I want to care for it. I PLAN to ensure it will be happy, cared for, able to propagate, and have a fruitful (pun sort of intended — though I don’t think mints have fruits) life.

But the reality is, my plans are just plans.

I am not capable of ensuring that all these plans can come to fruition. Sure, I can look back in a year or so and say: “Wow, I did it!” But until then, there is no way for me to guarantee my plant anything other than a bunch of plans.

God in Jeremiah 29:11 says He has plans for us — amazing plans for OUR betterment and OUR future. And these are plans every parent who loves their children will make. Every parent, one way or another, has plans for their kids — plans to prosper them and not to harm them, plans to give them hope and a future.

But the reality is, their plans are just plans.

People can plan all they want, for themselves or for others; but not everyone is capable.

This is when I had my Aha!  moment.

I do not simply trust my Jesus because I know He has a PLAN. I trust Him because I know HE CAN SEE HIS PLANS THROUGH. 

The bible is also very vocal about God’s power.

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matt. 19:26

For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37

(Some more here: 100 Verses About God’s Power and 40 Verses About God’s Omnipotence)

The bible is filled with verses such as these, verses that declare the omnipotence of God. THIS is why He can make all these promises about having great plans for us — because when He makes plans, only He can undo them.

When God created the world, He had a plan for it and every single thing in and on it. When it fell into sin, He announced His plans for salvation right then and there. When the time came, He fulfilled His promise and sent His Messiah — Jesus. When He accomplished His sacrifice on the cross, He said it was finished, and it is. When He said He can save you, He did. Now? He said He’d come again, and He will.

So the next time you see a plant, may you think of HIM who can turn plans into plants.

Snippets

So after my last post which was really long,  here’s a light one containing a number of things God has been revealing to new.

Yes. I know. This is a bit I if a shortcut in that I try to put it all out there instead of creating a part for each of them. I’ll still try to do that,  but for now, these quick snippets should mean an easy read for you too!

I. Child-like is not teenage-like faith.
God is pleased with a child-like faith, not with a teenage faith. A child believes without question and trusts without fail. A teenager would believe with conditions and trust only in convenience. Being naive is not bad, but being blinded by yourself and forcing your wants and desires onto God’s plans is. Trusting God requires pure unadulterated faith.

Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB

Trust in the L ord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

Bible says ALL your heart — no room for doubt. It also says “not on your own understanding” — when you let the Lord drive, there’s only room for one in the driver’s seat.

II. There is no one like our God.
No, there is none like Him. You can neither find someone better for you nor be better for somone than Him. Jesus is the only one who can love and care for you beyond comprehension;  He is also the only one who can love and care for anyone more than you!

As Saints, letting go and letting God also means letting people go and letting God step in. Yes, it is important that Saints fellowship together and bear each other’s burdens. But. We should not try and replace God with them or replace God with them. All our relationships should point us to God and draw us closer to Him.

John 15:13-14 NASB

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do what I command

No one can love like Jesus can.

III. Saints don’t have religions.
God doesn’t want a bunch of people practicing religion. Saints are not simply nominally Christians — we are to be Jesus-lovers and Jesus-followers.

No. Jesus did not call us into a religion where He is God and we obey sets of rules He’s given. He wants a relationship with us. He wants for us to love Him — obedience out of love.

It’s about loving Him. Obedience, service, holiness, etc are simply by-products of a love relationship with Christ.

John 1:12-13 NASB

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

We are His beloved children.  He wants us to know that.

These are three of the many things God has been teaching me lately. I know there’s more, but I’ll save those for later.

Btw! I’m heading out later today for the Levite Worship Conference! So excited! So expect my next post/s to be on worship or on how the weekend was for me!

Belated Happy Love’s Day, Saints! We serve a God of love who’s call us into a love relationship with Him! Bask in it!

Hunger, Dating, Food, and Love

Since 2013 started, I’ve been trying to reorganize a number of things in my life, and at the top of that list is devotion/quiet time with the Lover of my soul.

I’ve heard it all (more or less … probably less) from people saying it should be done daily, every other day, once a week, twice a week, thrice a week, once a month, thrice a month, once every two weeks, etc etc etc. And I think I’ve tried most of it too — daily, weekly, and irregularly.

Back to my knees for 2013: “Lord, tell me. How often should I be doing my quiet time?”

Answer came in clear, it’s not the how often it’s the why.

I used to think of daily devotions, bible reading, praying, and allotting specific quiet times for God as spiritual disciplines. Well, they really are. But doing them as a form of religious and traditional rituals will burn you out and would not really result into anything.

When I realized that Christianity was a love relationship, devo time became something you long for — not something you HAVE to do.

Over time, I came to think of doing quiet time and devotions as me “hanging out” or “going on a date” with Jesus Himself. Sure, it got me doing my daily devotions. It got me to give a lot of thought to what I was doing. Suddenly, reading the bible and praying were not religious acts anymore — they were simply me communing with my Heavenly Father.

I love this perspective. I love the idea of being in love with Love Himself. I always emphasize that Christianity is a love relationship and not a religion mainly because of this too. However, I found a downside to all these. Seeing my quiet time as a date with God made me not so keen about doing it. The more I focus on the idea of hanging out with God, the less I actually did. My human nature kicked in, it came with whispers saying: “You know how dates are about quality and not quantity? Well, same goes for your time with God. It’s about the quality of the time you spend with Him, not how much you actually have for Him.” Sure. There is some truth to that, but it drastically decreased my desire to spend time reading His word and quieting down before Him — from daily, I reduced it to once a week.

This morning I got reminded of another aspect of spending time with God; while it is about a love relationship and spending time with God, it’s also about being nourished and fed.

While having my late lunch today, I was SO hungry that while eating I prayed in my heart saying:

“Wow, Lord! Thanks for food and the comfort it brings — actually, scratch that! Thank You for hunger and for the ability to feel it and enjoy food because of it!” 

And then it hit me. Doing daily devotions and quiet time isn’t simply for spending time with God — it is actually more for US than it is for Him! I believe He wants us to be engaged in His word and in communion with Him daily for our feeding. We are no strangers to hunger, but often we are not sensitive to how hungry our souls are.

We do not neglect to eat (for the most part at least). But only a few of us are actually eating RIGHT. Eating the right food, in the right amounts, and on right times. I have a body-builder friend and here’s a status update I got from her FB page:

When I’m on diet, I am strictly on diet mode. I control and stay away from unhealthy food. I don’t go for crash diet for it will decrease my metabolism rate. I still eat but in moderation. … I am telling you now, I will not eat any food other than my home-cooked-packed meal. What I eat during the day is almost strictly calculated in grams in terms of carbohydrates, protein and fats.

–KMACL

It’s all about knowing what to eat and when to eat. A healthy person eats regularly, something like 6 SMALL meals spaced out evenly in the day. They eat often, but they watch what they eat and moderate what goes into their bodies. Same should go for our spiritual bodies: we should eat regularly, moderate what goes into our bodies, and ensure a healthy regimen. 

It’s not about ritualistically being righteous — I AM AGAINST THAT.

It’s about feeding ourselves regularly with the right kind of food: God’s word.

We should be eating regularly: we should be doing devotions regularly.

We should be eating right: we should always feed on God’s word — NO SUBSTITUTES!

God loves us, He proved that on the cross and on so many other occasions. Spending time with Him in bible reading, quiet time, and/or devotion time, is our way of loving Him back, letting Him love us more, and growing in Him.

AND! Most importantly!

Spiritual things (though are usually similar to natural, physical, and earthly things) operate differently — YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH TIME WITH GOD, TOO MUCH COMMUNION WITH HIM, OR TOO MUCH FEEDING FROM HIM.

Ending 2012

Wow. 2012 is over in about 39 minutes! I’m cramming — yet again — to have this post filed under Dec 2012.

I haven’t had any time to do anything lately — Surprise. Surprise. Procrastination is still getting the best of me.

I’m really stumped right now, as far as writing goes. So, I’m going back to one of the most important reasons why I actually started this blog: to keep up a community of Saints.

If you’re reading this, then God has made it so that you are someone I am to share my life with 🙂

Here goes.

A community of Saints should keep each other accountable in prayer, so I’m dumping my prayer list on to YOU! 🙂

(For the most part? It’s just an update of how 2012 was… and what 2013 has in-store for me. :P)

2012 was quite a handful, and here’s why.

1) We (me and my loving family) have finally gone through a FULL year in Canada — January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012! By His awesome grace, WE SURVIVED!

2) I’m finishing my Associates REAL soon!

3) I got blessed with a job!

4) Still haven’t gotten over laziness and procrastination — did not get to keep up regular posts, did not get to keep up regular quiet time, and have not been as efficient in a lot of things.

5) Getting settled in also includes a LOT of drama.

Oddly, my mind’s really blank. K. I’m blaming being sick for my incoherence. haha.

2012 was a crazy roller coaster for me, ups and downs for EVERYTHING — from my grades, to my consistency with God. In all that though, He remained faithful.

You know how you can’t really point out a lot of instances where your parents were there for you? And yet you wake up every morning and just know that they are? SAME HERE. This saint is having a hard time recalling all the times that God has seen me through throughout 2012. Yet I get this warmth in me just trying to! I just know He’s there. It’s like you rarely feel exhilarated when you breathe, right? It’s cuz oxygen is constantly around you.

Words fail me. YET AGAIN.

I guess this is why sharing (and posting in a blog like this) cannot be procrastinated so much. I remember so many times that I have a TON of things to write about, but I ignored them. Now, I’m trying to make up for all of them — and, I can’t.

It sucks.

It’s annoying to realize that I’ve robbed God of His glory way too many times this year. He’s given me so many chances to write about His amazing Grace, and there I was being lazy.

Lesson learned for 2013: PUT MORE FOCUS ON GOD.

I guess that’s just how I’ll try to be better for the next year (which comes in 20 minutes!).

SIMPLY KEEP FOCUS ON GOD.

When my emotions are all over the place … think of how Jesus can calm every storm.

When the sheer thought of the amount of work paralyzes me … think of what I can do through Christ who strengthens me.

When I become unsure of how I am with people … think of how He sees them and how we’re all connected by His cross.

When I feel lazy to blog … think of how His glory and His works are not being proclaimed.

When I feel neglected and alone … think of how He’s always there.

When I feel unappreciated and ignored … think of how He loves me so and that I am His beloved.

When my world is upside down … think of how I am not of this world.

When I’m filled with glee and bliss … think of how all this is His blessing.

When I feel like going with the world … think of how much He’s suffered to take me back into His presence.

When I feel hurt … think of how His love should comfort me and how His love should flow through me.

When temptation haunts me … think of how I am already victorious by virtue of His blood.

When I feel inadequate … think of how I am fearfully and wonderfully made in HIS image.

When everything’s just going wrong … think of how His plans for me are to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me hope and a future.

I can go on forever with this, and I’m sure YOU could too.

9 minutes till 2013

I pray that I will have this saintly thinking practiced more in the days to come.

I pray that YOU too will keep these in mind.

The new year is not really that big of a deal. As SAINTS, we have to be renewed DAILY and be more like Christ, our Savior and Lord, EVERYDAY.

A blessed New Year to all you Saints out there!

 

Kari Jobe Preaching: Worship

Really, there’s no one like Jesus~ He draws us just when He knows we need it. Out of nowhere, I ended up chatting with a friend and she just sent me these… And I got reminded once again of all the things I have been neglecting and taking for granted, the most important of which: HIS PRESENCE.

Part 1 of 3

 

Part 2 of 3

 

Part 3 of 3

His eye is on the sparrow — His hand is upon me

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:29-31

Sparrow — Audrey Assad

While randomly watching videos on YouTube, I somehow got to watching this video — and I knew, God wanted to talk, I mean, that He’s talking.

Son, I know you know this. You know full well how much I love you, the hope you have in Me, the Joy I give, and all that stuff. However son, do not forget that these things are CONSTANT — no matter how you feel, it does not, will not, and CANNOT change the fact that I love you, I died for you, I saved you, I’m your strength, your deliverance, your perfect friend, your LOVE. It’s time to start singing again my son.

It’s the time the prodigal saint remembers he’s a SAINT. 

The Art of Procrastination

If anything, I believe I’ve mastered the art of procrastination and cramming — if not mastered, then at least I’ve gotten used to them. And I realized, there’s one thing I can’t cram no matter how much I put it off: my relationship with God.

The world is moving so fast — too fast, in fact — and I guess I just got caught up in the flow. With so many things happening, it’s not so hard to say: “Hey, I’m tired, too stressed and overwhelmed with a lot of things. Let’s work tomorrow instead.” It’s so easy to put off things until they can’t be put off anymore and work under extreme pressure and TADA pass with flying colors.

After doing that for years? It’s kind of hard to recognize any other way of doing things — I seriously do not know how to study weeks before an exam, nor work on a research paper months before the due date.

Sadly, I have to admit, it has affected how I am with God, too.

I’ve always had this lie filling me up saying,

“You wanna draw near to God? You wanna know more about Him? You wanna spend time with Him? Well, it’s past 12pm already. You don’t want to just spend half a day with God, right? Just go on YouTube, Facebook, and 9gag. Then wake up early tomorrow so you save the best for God — a whole day of nothing but communion with God!”

Since school ended about two weeks ago, that’s how my mind has been working. Two things SO wrong with that:

1) How can I keep putting off God???

and

2) Why do I believe that a WHOLE day spent with God would renew my Spirit? Why do I believe that ONE WHOLE DAY is enough?

For my term papers, that’s how I’ve done them. Put them off till the last minute, pull an all-nighter, and TADA submit it the next day. It works.*

Same goes for my exams, study the night before, make sure I get enough sleep, and show up to write the exam. It works, too.*

[*It works because God has been really gracious with me.]

If anything, that mentality has carried over to my Sainthood — I’ve been unconsciously believing that closeness with God is something I can achieve with one-time-big-time efforts. It’s like saying, “As long as I work hard on it? Like SUPER HARD? I could accomplish something that should take time to complete.” 

REALITY CHECK!

God wants a relationship, no matter how the world puts it, A RELATIONSHIP CANNOT BE RAILROADED TO COMPLETION. 

A relationship is like a plant — ask any gardener, farmer, or horticulturalist — no matter how miraculous your fertilizers are, IT WILL NEVER BLOSSOM OVERNIGHT. Okay, so I don’t know much about plants, but one thing I’m sure of — magnificent and sturdy trees are not grown overnight.

Spiritual Growth is not some paper or project that we just have to complete and can complete whenever we want — it’s growth, something that has to be worked on DAILY and CONSTANTLY.

The Art of Procrastination is NOT something a SAINT should master and employ in his/her sainthood. We’re working towards an ETERNAL GOAL. We’re serving the KING OF KINGS. We’re cultivating a relationship with the LORD OF LORD.

Can we really take it like“everything else”we have to work on?

“I am strong because I know my weaknesses.”

Saw this on my Facebook feed, it was by a school mate of mine, (Not really sure if it was hers or a quote from someone, nonetheless, NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.) and it just jumped at me!

Recently, inadequacy and self-pity has been my mantle and “I suck. (x3)” has been my mantra. All around me are people with amazing achievements and stellar life experiences — and no matter to whom I compared myself to, I was never up to par!

But God’s love was way too stubborn to let me wallow in my self-inflicted misery — He was flashing signs and bombarding me with wake-up calls when I least expect it; no one knows the “element of surprise” more than Him who spoke, and BANG the world came to be.

Here are two of the many ways God’s love tugged hard on my heart strings…

1) While talking to a good friend, who’s leaving this Fall for an Ivy League law school, about having 4.00 GPAs he said,
“you wouldn’t need those grades for seminary or bible school, for example.”

I was completely taken aback! I’ve totally lost sight of my carefree attitude towards my career and life goals and replaced it with worldliness-induced worry. I could just picture God looking at me with those eyes that go “uhm-hmm, is you forgetting something?”

My calling is special — whether it be law school, bible school, music school, etc — I am set apart from everybody else!

I am a Saint, and my Father in Heaven has a special plan JUST FOR ME — just as He has a UNIQUE one for all the other Saints in His family.

Who was I kidding? Worrying about fame and power was my sinful nature’s delight; I should only be worried about how much of His plans am I carrying out and how much am I pleasing Him?

2) We had scavenger hunt at fellowship and the question was raised:

So why were all of you running around for a prize you didn’t even know? Were any of you even certain it existed?

Our group won the hunt, but we never really saw what we were playing for until we won — but the fact that we won meant we played HARD. So, why did we play hard?

The hunt was planned out in that we were to find a series of clues that would eventually lead us to a key that opens a bag of “goodies.” I realised, none of us ever stopped and asked:

How do we know the clues are right?

or

How do we know we’d even like the “goodies?”

We never asked about the integrity of the game, we just TRUSTED that the game was planned out well by our churchmates, and that they were no trolls!

Before the night ended, I was smiling ear to ear — not just because of the pack of gummy bears that taste like the ones I grew up with — I was so overwhelmed by the thought of God not giving up on me. Did I mention, I actually was planning to NOT attend fellowship? Or to play? ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT HE HAD PLANNED A LESSON FOR ME THAT NIGHT:

Just trust in Me son, how many times do I need to remind you of that? You trusted the game masters for the hunt, Y U NO TRUST ME??

My life — the only thing humanity has ALL agreed to be of some importance — is in HIS hands, what am I worried about?

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. (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)

So what is strength?

It’s having your FAITH in the right place.

But 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. (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV)

Hence, I’d like to change the quote I saw on Facebook:

As a SAINT, I am strong because I know what weakness is — it is my strength to boast in, and my glory to bask in. In my weakness, He is magnified

Onward Saints!

… because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. (2 Timothy 1:12 NIV)

Shedding Petals, Growing Leaves

All of my life, in every season, You are still God.

I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship

(“Desert Song” — Hillsong United)

I haven’t posted in like forever, and my lovely daughter called me out today for that.

While we were talking, we got into the whole idea of me turning 20 and what growing up meant for the both of us. Turns out, she liked the idea of being seen and known as mature while I didn’t — I liked being a kid, being seen like one.

For the most part, I like the idea of being known as a kid. Kids don’t get judged and scolded a lot, plus, they get praised more for doing “big people stuff.” I’d lose all that when I acknowledge being 20 and start being the adult I’m supposed to be.

Also, I loved being God’s “needy baby.”

While walking down the street though, I saw these beautiful cherry blossom trees (I’m no botanist nor taxonomist, I call then out as I see them on TV. haha) and they were losing their cute pink fluff! The ground was littered with pink petals, and as I gazed up on the tree, I saw a pinkish green hue — the tree was losing its petals to make way for leaves.

Come to think of it, people take care of plants and adore them for their pretty flowers — for the most part, at least. But plants survive and thrive by being at the bottom of the food chain: by being the only creatures capable of producing their own food! They need their leaves, especially green ones; elementary biology would tell you that plants need chlorophyl for photosynthesis. The pretty pink petals can’t do that for the tree…

God designed that particular kind of tree to start of spring pretty in pink, and then grow leaves. Made me realize, sure, God allowed me to relish and enjoy my youth; now, it’s time for me to grow up.

Growing up doesn’t mean independence from God, I realized, it means more responsibilities and tougher choices — translation? TO SURVIVE AS AN ADULT, YOU’D NEED GOD MORE.

So what do I say to turning twenty?

Bring on the years that would allow me to see more of God’s grace, to understand more His unfailing love, and to strengthen me to serve Him better!

Because meme’s can be for worship too!