I’m at it AGAIN

This is probably the third (maybe fourth?) time I’m writing a here’s-to-a-new-start-to-restart-my-blog-and-my-inconsistent-walk-post post. AND hopefully, it’s the LAST ONE!

So here’s a quick update on what’s to come (and what’s up) — prayerfully and Lord willing, of course.

1. I am most definitely EASILY affected by people. A friend of mine just moved to Toronto and he’s started a daily vlog and a blog.

YUP.

That means I am too!

(If you’re reading this, Jon — YES. I am encouraged with what you’ve done/are doing to redo what I said I’d do.)

I’m going to try my best to be more disciplined in my devotions and in my writing, PLUS I’m going to try to get a vlog up every now and then — details to come.

2. Again about being affected by others. Another Malaysian friend just awakened me to a reality I’ve been taking for granted: the fact that I am taking things for granted! Life in North America is a WHOLE lot more convenient, above everything else, and it has affected me in ways I never thought it would. Coming from a third world country, I was different in my pursuit of God … now? In a land where everything is — at the very least — superficially well, it’s been more than very easy to take even God for granted. Time to get more proactive — more so than ever. Lord willing, that means posts with a more deliberate tone in terms of digging into the word, struggling to know more of Jesus, and overall just hungry radical writing — again, LORD WILLING.

3. I was, and now once again am, a sociology student.

There are things I do, see, say, and think just because that is how I am trained in my discipline. Again, a friend of mine posted a note on Facebook (I’ll put a link here — not sure if it’s public, but it’s worth a shot.) and it reminded me of how the world is in dire need of Christians who have a sociological background. Basically, here’s a quick update: I’m a sociology major again (officially)! I just wanted to share that. Hopefully that translates into more socially relevant posts, if not, at least more posts with incorporated sociological imagination. I know there’s a reason why God wants me back in this discipline, and so here I am.

Lastly, I would like to plead my fellow saints to help me on this journey. Yes, I am aware this is most definitely NOT the first time I said this. But, by God’s grace, I pray you won’t give up on me.

I cannot do this alone. I would very much love to have this blog be a way for a community of Saints to commune, grow, and walk with Jesus together. I pray that God will send you to me, and me to you, to bring this about. Let me hear from you! The comments section and the message boards (which I will try to revamp) will be a great start!

God bless!

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!

 

Saint Patrick’s Day

I haven’t been able to post lately, my time management skills have yet to improve. But, I do find time to check my email, and consequently, my subscriptions. So here’s something I really believe would be a great read.

“Saint Patrick: Green Beer Has Nothing To Do With Him”  

is Chief of the Least‘s latest post, and I really liked it and strongly believed I had to share it. (Click on the title to access the post.)

Turns out, I have been missing out way too much — I SHOULD be commemorating St. Patrick’s Day!

God’s grace is painted in an awesome shade of green on this holiday. Green symbolizing growth for Saints everywhere who endure trials and persecution (even from other believers — Saint Patrick had to deal with his superiors’ doubts while being strongly persecuted by some Irish rulers, lawgivers, and commoners) in pursuit of God’s call.

Prayer

I’ve always wanted to write about Prayer, I have a draft and everything, but never got to finishing it. Then God showed me this, apparently, He’s moved someone else to write it.

The Chief of the Least’s post about prayer strongly reflects my view of Christianity: It’s a relationship. God wants us to be in a relationship with Him, to have our status back as CHILDREN of THE MOST HIGH. He’s our loving Father waiting for us, His prodigal children, to come back to Him.

*I’ll have Bryan Daniels’ (a.k.a “The Chief of the Least”) blog linked in The Communion of Saints page soon.

**That’s sooner than I thought, here’s the linked page: Chief of the Least

Chief of the least

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him…(Matthew 6:8)

I struggle with prayer.

Conceptually and practically.

Most of those struggles are probably because I put unwarranted credence on my feelings at any given prayer moment. If I don’t feel a tangible groaning, or a burning in my chest, or goosebumps on my neck, then my prayers must have been rendered ineffective. Right? If I voice my prayer simply and without a series of major spiritual manifestations then certainly my appeals never made it past the bedroom ceiling. Right?

Wrong.

I am submitting to the awful doctrine that unless my prayer experience “feels” right to me, then God is impotent to answer them. In a twisted way, that is putting emotional subjectivism on the throne and kicking a Sovereign King off of it.

On top of this, Matthew 6:8 raises a different objection in the conscientious Christian:

God already knows what we will ask, so why…

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You make all things work together for MY good.

I was casually browsing some comic videos on YouTube, and this appeared on the Suggested Videos panel

In the middle of the video, until the end, they kept repeating:

“You make, ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR MY GOOD.” 

It’s a coverage of a concert, so there were a LOT of repeats — which, I could just hear God telling me: “You hear that son?”

Just as I was listening to it, I was reading my friend’s blog: Believing the Unbelievable, with a post titled God’s Plans vs. Mine. I won’t be copying her whole post here, and I won’t be giving much comments either. I believe her words are more than enough encouragement on how much God loves us to have anything LESS THAN PERFECT planned for us.

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart; but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”-(Proverbs 19:21)

My plans are no match compared to God’s plans for me. I’m actually excited for what God has in store for me for this season of my life. He’s really a God full of surprises! He just surprised me yesterday that because of what happened,I might have to start my own clothing line already!AMAZING AND INDESCRIBABLE GOD.His right time is always perfect!Praying for it to happen if it is His will!In Jesus Name!:D All I can say is that we should not go before God, because we are nothing without Him in front of us.Don’t let God follow us, we should be the ones following Him.OUR PLANS ARE NOTHING WITHOUT GOD IN OUR HEARTS.

I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. [8] The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever—do not abandon the works of your hands.-(Psalm 138:2,8)
These words helped me a lot last night!:”>

— Louie Yao

So many things are still swirling around my head right now, some are even trying to cloud over my heart — BUT I refuse to stand down and let them overcome me. I don’t need to worry about tomorrow, my future, what it holds, and how I’m gonna get there — ALL I SHOULD BE WORRYING ABOUT IS HOW I CAN OBEY HIS EVERY COMMAND. He promised to bring us through, and He promised to be working in us until the day He comes back.

“God just reminded me that HE WILL NEVER EVER ABANDON ME!:) — Louie Yao”

“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? … Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matt. 6:27;34)

Obedience is a constant choice we have to deal with EVERYDAY; we have enough trouble struggling to obey God FULLY today to even start worrying about Tomorrow. God holds my tomorrow; He has new commands for me to follow tomorrow — I just have to take the commands a day at a time, and obey them fully through the power of His Holy Spirit.

Blessed Beyond Words (Part II): Matters of the Heart

I can’t believe how MUCH God is being gracious in answering my prayer!

I found one of my best friends writing a blog:

http://thegirlhewants.wordpress.com/

For those of you who’ve been following my posts, I keep saying that I hope to achieve a sense of fellowship and community with this blog — and He just keeps pouring in more people! He’s allowed me to reach people I would never have met without His leading; and, He’s re-connecting me with the people who mean a lot to me!

One of my best friends, whom I haven’t heard from in like — FOREVER — have recently started blogging again. And it’s just so overwhelming to hear how people very dear to you are doing, especially in their walk with God.

I can’t believe I actually went through ALL (well, there were just 4, but still, ALL) her posts and couldn’t stop myself from giggling and sighing all through the time I was reading! I was not only reading about how she’s been lately, but I’m reading about how SWEET God has been to her! IT’S JUTS EXHILARATING! I WAS STOKED — so of course, the only logical thing to do was WRITE ABOUT IT!

Check her blog out! I’ll be posting a link to her blog (along with her blogger profile) on the “The Communion of Saints” drop-down page. Her blog is mainly about her relationship with God, and how God has been teaching her the truth in RELATIONSHIPS. Yup, it’s a blog about love, heart-aches, Mr. Right, among other things a girl walking with God has to deal with. But NOPE, it’s not exclusively for girls —  as brothers and sisters, co-saints, we learn from the way God speaks to each of us — so I encourage you to check it out. Here’s the link again: http://thegirlhewants.wordpress.com/

Blessed Beyond Words

Last time I posted about one of my dearest friends writing about God’s Unfailing Love, and I even added a page so you guys can check out how she encounters God.

At that time, I was so happy to finally be able to start having more people write about His love, His grace, and HIM! I’ve always said that I want to keep blogging to 1) share what God has been revealing to me, and 2) to create a community where people could feel connected to one another as a united body in Christ.

Guess what? God has, AGAIN, been too gracious!

Just this morning God showed me how He was granting me my desires of having a community. Turns out, a couple of my friends are actually blogging too — blogging about Him! So, of course, the only logical thing to do… is to tell you guys about it!

Here are some of their posts that really struck me:

1) Denice Daily: My Constant Struggle to Glorify God

The best encouragement one can get, is definitely from someone going through the same thing. It’s like having someone say “I know how you feel.” — and they ACTUALLY DO! Glory is something we HAVE to always give back to Him, but with our humanity, it’s SO tempting (and a lot easier) to just embrace it all. We’ve all been given special “glorifying gifts,” and the temptation is always there to STEAL the glory from the One Who Actually Deserves It.

2) Believing the Unbelievable: What Should I Do When God Seems Far Away?

A good friend of mine shared with me her post after reading mine. It’s really amazing how God’s truths are REALLY alive. When I wrote the post Salt and Light: FOCUS! I wrote it as a reminder for me to always focus. When I was writing that, I was struggling to keep myself from making foolish choices. Then I got to read how she read my post, for her, it became a reminder of how God is so faithful. The reminder and caution God gave me to keep me walking forward, God used to reassure her that He is always there and would always be there. Same God, same Love, spoken differently. God knows us way better than we’ll ever be able to understand; and He’ll talk to us in the way He knows would be best for US. With God? Everything is personalized. 🙂

3) Dianne-amic Duo:Written for the Lord

Again, God used friends to remind me of why I’m writing: for Him and HIM ALONE. It’s so surreal to read about how someone actually shared the same struggles in writing. As I’ve written in More than blessed!, I have trouble with over thinking about everything I would be posting. And for the most part, it turns out to be my pride taking over. I want to take note of everything I write, and I want to make sure everything I write sounds really great and profound — all these were because I wanted it for myself. I had fears that what I wrote would offend others, would not be good enough, or would be “wrong.” God rebuked me. Now, He’s reminding me again. I am writing for Him and through Him! Read their post to make more sense of what I’m saying.

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It really is such a blessing to read about how God has been working in others, especially when you see similarities in how God’s been dealing with them and you.

I would really love for you guys to be able to read their blogs. We’re no bible scholars; we’re just saints talking about how we are BELOVED of the God of Love Himself. Read about how their relationship with Christ has been going, how He has been changing them, and how He shows his Love to them. It sure inspired me, I bet it would you too.

I am so in love with Love right now, He’s just too much! 🙂

I’ll be adding pages you can access through the drop down menus on top of the page under “The Communion of Saints.” I’ll be including their blogger profiles and links to their sites too.

God is working in so many ways, to even be allowed to see one is just AWESOME. 🙂 Pure bliss! 

The Saint Communes: Listen, flee.

“Son, I’ve been telling you. You are not meant to confront temptations HEAD ON. As much as My salvation for you is complete and victorious — you still are in this world. Yes, you are a saint, you are My saint. But as you know, even as a saint, you still are HUMAN. Son, part of your humanity is your sinful nature. I’ve freed you from it, but I do not offer instantaneous change. You need to learn.What good is your perfection if you did not learn from the process?

I want you to learn, I want you to change, but I do not want robots. Son, you of all people should know how good having someone love you feels like. I want OBEDIENCE OUT OF LOVE. I do not need machines that I can program and reset when they mess up. I want people who would follow Me, choose to obey Me, and hold on to Me.

You, My son, are a saint. I’ve set you apart from the world to be ambassadors of My love on earth. And son, how do you expect to do that when you keep falling? I am not expecting you to be perfect, I know your limitations, and I know how to test you. Every time you encounter temptation, I provide a way out.

Son, I give fire exits to burning buildings, not portal guns that can zap you places. I need you to make the conscious effort of FLEEING. No son, a burning building cannot be salvaged by cans of fire extinguishers, you have to flee from it — you are not equipped to fight it. Your sinful nature always keeps you vulnerable to being tempted; however, My grace is sufficient for you. Turn to Me, I can help you. I’m the fire fighter that rushed to climb the burning inferno of a building you’re trapped in to save you. Just choose to take my hand and let’s go. No, no, no. How many times do I have to tell you? Stop trying to fight the flames. You cannot win, not at your current state. You are not equipped, nor trained, to fight flames of this intensity. Listen to Me, My child, flee.

Son, you will always be tempted. You cannot just sit around all day and hope to not encounter any. The devil is like a roaring lion, seeking those he can devour. Don’t be sitting duck! Flee at the sight of him! In cases like these, fleeing is not cowardly, it’s wise. Sure, in severe cases, even in the wild, some prey gets to overpower their predator. But for the most part, even if they can, they’d much rather run away — it’s safer, more efficient, and saves a lot of trouble. PLUS! It’s a guaranteed safe option for them. If you run, and you get caught — then fight. But if you fight and you realize the opponent’s too strong, can you still run?

Son, being bound by your sinful nature is like swimming with an open wound in shark territory. They will always be able to find you, so keep swimming! Don’t laze around and hope they don’t find you. FLEE! I will never leave you nor forsake you, and your battles can be won with My power. BUT, you have to remember, I am not your guard dog. I am your Father. I will protect you when I need to, BUT, you HAVE TO OBEY ME. Run when I tell you.   I’ve made it clear in a lot of ways in the Bible to flee from temptation, to flee from the devil. Listen to me, child. FLEE!

Look at every time you get caught by temptation because you did not flee and tried to fight when I clearly commanded you to run. Every time that happens, the enemy succeeds in destroying you, your morale, your well-being, etc. What’s worse? I am the only one who can heal you and make you whole again, BUT you feel so dirty and broken that you assume I would not want you anymore! Look at the LIES you’re vulnerable to when you give in to temptation, when you allow the prowling lion to get a hold of you. Son, he is full of hate, he is miserable — and he sees how happy you are in me AND HE WANTS TO DESTROY THAT RELATIONSHIP! Do not, My son, allow him to do that.

Listen to your Father. “

— Love, God

“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22)

Whatever it is that’s “pulling you away from God,” as a friend of mine once said, never allow it to take over you. Always seek Him, and He will always be there for you to find. And as the verse says, “along with those who call on the Lord” — we can all work together at this, to help each other find our way back to our Father, and to STAY with Him.

In Jesus’s Name, we HAVE victory!

More than blessed!

So today I stumbled upon this:

http://unfailinglovee.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-witnessed-love-of-christ-for-his.html

It’s a blog by a really special person.

I’m used to calling her “my daughter,” and I remember the times when I would have to constantly remind her to pray and seek God above all else. But look now? She’s basking in His unfailing LOVE and even sharing it out!

It’s really encouraging to see other saints commune with the Father, and more so to see the courage to just be true and out there.

Because of  her, I realized an error I’ve been neglecting for the longest time:

I haven’t been as true as I can be. I haven’t been able to post for quite some time because I keep re-thinking about the things I would be posting. Trying to make sure it’s “good enough” to be posted for the world to see. I totally forgot about the “good enough criteria” that I should be using — HIS criteria. Whatever He would want me to say, whatever He has revealed to me to share, THAT is what’s GOOD ENOUGH.

So with your prayers and by His grace. I’ll try to do what this blog was supposed to do in the first place — to just write about what He convicts me to write.

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It would really mean a lot if you guys could follow her blog too, and I’ll do my best to keep you guys updated about her updates too. There’s no such thing as “too many believers communing together in His name” so let’s spread the love:

HIS UNFAILING LOVE.