God loves you more than just solving your problem...

We all know that God is Almighty, God is able and there is nothing impossible with God.
We know if we pray to God, God will answer our prayers.

Then why is there unanswered prayer?

I believe God is not just wants to solve our problems, God wants to transform the hearts and turn hearts toward Him.
In His good timing when everything is in place, the transformation will take.
His glory will come and every knees shall bow and every tongues shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Wow... it will be amazing!!!

For those who doubt, the wall of Jericho. Has any war won in that manner if God is not battling for them? All they have to do is obey by walking around the Jericho for 6 days without saying anything and on the 7th day, they circled it 7 times and with a loud shout, the wall came down.

Believe your 7th day is here soon...

When situation look so bad that there is no hope, hang on there because you do not know in that corner is your breakthrough...

When Jesus is crucified on the cross, all the believers were in despair what future will hold for them. They were confused, felt hopeless as unable to do anything, the overwhelming sadness and hurt... Even satan thought he won.

Have you ever wonder when satan know he is defeated?

I believed it is when Jesus gave up his spirit into His Father's hand.
Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Satan must have waited for the glory to come to him... but none came. Then he knew Jesus is glorified.

Wow... Jesus did that so that we can have his victory. Satan is a defeated enemy. Do not be afraid for death has no power over you.

The question is, Jesus did that for you so that you can have life in eternity with him, so that you can return home to God.

What are we going to do with that gift of life?

Do not waste it... do not let Jesus die in vain.

Like the story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

29“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30“ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

A lot of people will state the obvious - hell is a place of torment and agony in this fire...

But a lot fail to see this... the memory of the rich man and Lazarus is still with them even after they died. The things that you do while you are still alive and who you are.... you still have the memory of that.

According to some who visited hell and back, you still have the same senses and feelings as when you are still alive but it is more sensitive when you died.

One will ask what is the torment that is in Hades? Then we should ask why we still have memories and the sensitivity of the senses?

Why when we died it don't get erase? I thought when people especially those committed suicide want to end their lives because they are done with this life and the torment they felt in this life?

Imagine... your memories follow you even after you died.

I believe the torment that is in Hades are the torment of the wrongdoing that we done while we were still alive... the wrongdoing where Jesus already paid the price for it and ask us to repent before God which we did not...

The whole sensitivity of our senses magnified the feeling of regret.... the evil that was not pardon for which could have.... forever nonredeemable.

Imagine that feeling forever, the hopelessness...

Jesus said it before "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near". Some may say ai yoh.... already more than 2000 years and still this ah?

Each is given a freedom of will. Freewill is God's gift to mankind. Choose wisely.

If you cannot say God is the one that ask me to do this..... then you know it is not of God.

God is more interested in you than your problem. God wants to transform you not just solving your issues.

Trust Him. "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near".

Imagine if we are in heaven with Him... our senses magnified the glory of God. Confirmation in our hearts that we choose wisely and the righteousness feeling of thankfulness and of love. And live in that forever glory where there is no hurt, pain and suffering.

Wow!!! That is why it is worth dying for. For those who are martyr, Jesus said in Luke 9:24
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

Be brave and live in victory for Jesus.

Article: Redemption: Rescued from wilful sin By Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Unbelievers don't "struggle" with same-sex attraction. I didn't. My love for women came with nary a struggle at all.

I had not always been a lesbian, but in my late 20s, I met my first lesbian lover. I was hooked and believed that I had found my real self. Sex with women was part of my life and identity, but it was not the only part—and not always the biggest part.

I simply preferred everything about women: their company, their conversation, their companionship and the contours of their/our body. I favored the nesting, the setting up of house and home, and the building of lesbian community.

As an unbelieving professor of English, an advocate of postmodernism and poststructuralism, and an opponent of all totalizing meta-narratives (like Christianity, I would have added back in the day), I found peace and purpose in my life as a lesbian and the queer community I helped to create.

Conversion and Confusion

It was only after I met my risen Lord that I ever felt shame in my sin, with my sexual attractions and with my sexual history.

Conversion brought with it a train wreck of contradictory feelings, ranging from liberty to shame. Conversion also left me confused. While it was clear that God forbade sex outside of biblical marriage, it was not clear to me what I should do with the complex matrix of desires and attractions, sensibilities and senses of self that churned within and still defined me.

What is the sin of sexual transgression? The sex? The identity? How deep was repentance to go?

Meeting John Owen

In these new found struggles, a friend recommended that I read an old, 17th-century theologian named John Owen, in a trio of his books (now brought together under the title Overcoming Sin and Temptation).

At first, I was offended to realize that what I called "who I am," John Owen called "indwelling sin." But I hung in there with him. Owen taught me that sin in the life of a believer manifests itself in three ways: distortion by original sin, distraction of actual day-to-day sin and discouragement by the daily residence of indwelling sin.

Eventually, the concept of indwelling sin provided a window to see how God intended to replace my shame with hope. Indeed, John Owen's understanding of indwelling sin is the missing link in our current cultural confusion about what sexual sin is—and what to do about it.

As believers, we lament with the apostle Paul, "For the good I desire to do, I do not do, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who does it, but sin that lives in me" (Rom. 7:19-20).

But after we lament, what should we do? How should we think about sin that has become a daily part of our identity?

Owen explained with four responses:

1. Starve it. Indwelling sin is a parasite, and it eats what you do. God's Word is poison to sin when embraced by a heart made new by the Holy Spirit. You starve indwelling sin by feeding yourself deeply on his word. Sin cannot abide in his word. So, fill your hearts and minds with Scripture.

One way that I do that is singing the Psalms. Psalm-singing, for me, is a powerful devotional practice as it helps me to melt my will into God's and memorize His Word in the process. We starve our indwelling sin by reading Scripture comprehensively, in big chunks and by whole books at a time. This allows us to see God's providence at work in big-picture ways.

2. Call sin what it is. Now that it is in the house, don't buy it a collar and a leash and give it a sweet name. Don't "admit" sin as a harmless (but un-housebroken) pet. Instead, confess it as an evil offense and put it out! Even if you love it! You can't domesticate sin by welcoming it into your home.

Don't make a false peace. Don't make excuses. Don't get sentimental about sin. Don't play the victim. Don't live by excuse-righteousness. If you bring the baby tiger into your house and name it Fluffy, don't be surprised if you wake up one day and Fluffy is eating you alive. That is how sin works, and Fluffy knows her job. Sometimes sin lurks and festers for decades, deceiving the sinner that he really has it all under control, until it unleashes itself on everything you built, cherished and loved.

Be wise about your choice sins and don't coddle them. And remember that sin is not ever "who you are" if you are in Christ. In Christ, you are a son or daughter of the King; you are royalty. You do battle with sin because it distorts your real identity; you do not define yourself by these sins that are original with your consciousness and daily present in your life.

3. Extinguish indwelling sin by killing it. Sin is not only an enemy, says Owen. Sin is at enmity with God. Enemies can be reconciled, but there is no hope for reconciliation for anything at enmity with God. Anything at enmity with God must be put to death. Our battles with sin draw us closer in union with Christ. Repentance is a new doorway into God's presence and joy.

Indeed, our identity comes from being crucified and resurrected with Christ:

"Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, so shall we also be united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we should no longer be slaves to sin" (Rom. 6:4-6).

Satan will use our indwelling sin as blackmail, declaring that we cannot be in Christ and sin in heart or body like this. In those moments, we remind him that he is right about one thing only: Our sin is indeed sin. It is indeed transgression against God and nothing else.

But Satan is dead wrong about the most important matter. In repentance, we stand in the risen Christ. And the sin that we have committed (and will commit) is covered by his righteousness. But fight we must. To leave sin alone, says Owen, is to let sin grow—"not to conquer it is to be conquered by it."

4. Daily cultivate your new life in Christ. God does not leave us alone to fight the battle in shame and isolation. Instead, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the soul of each believer is "vivified." "To vivicate" means to animate, or to give life to. Vivification complements mortification (to put to death), and by so doing, it allows us to see the wide angle of sanctification, which includes two aspects:

a. Deliverance from the desire of those choice sins, experienced when the grace of obedience gives us the "expulsive power of a new affection" (to quote Thomas Chalmers).

b. Humility over the fact that we daily need God's constant flow of grace from heaven, and that no matter how sin tries to delude us, hiding our sin is never the answer. Indeed, the desire to be strong enough in ourselves so that we can live independently of God is the first sin, the essence of sin and the mother of all sin.

Owen's missing link is for believers only. He says, "Unless a man be regenerate (born again), unless he be a believer, all attempts that he can make for mortification [of sin] ... are to no purpose. In vain he shall use many remedies, [but] he shall not be healed."

What then should an unbeliever do? Cry out to God for the Holy Spirit to give him a new heart and convert his soul: "Mortification [of sin] is not the present business of unregenerate men. God calls them not to it as yet; conversion is their work—the conversion of the whole soul—not the mortification of this or that particular lust."

Freed for Joy

In the writings of John Owen, I was shown how and why the promises of sexual fulfillment on my own terms were the antithesis of what I had once fervently believed. Instead of liberty, my sexual sin was enslavement. This 17th-century Puritan revealed to me how my lesbian desires and sensibilities were dead-end joy-killers.

Today, I now stand in a long line of godly women—the Mary Magdalene line. The gospel came with grace, but demanded irreconcilable war. Somewhere on this bloody battlefield, God gave me an uncanny desire to become a godly woman, covered by God, hedged in by His Word and his will. This desire bled into another one: to become, if the Lord willed, the godly wife of a godly husband.

And then I noticed it.

Union with the risen Christ meant that everything else was nailed to the cross. I couldn't get my former life back if I wanted it. At first, this was terrifying, but when I peered deep into the abyss of my terror, I found peace.

With peace, I found that the gospel is always ahead of you. Home is forward. Today, by God's amazing grace alone, I am a chosen part of God's family, where God cares about the details of my day, the math lessons and the spilled macaroni and cheese, and most of all, for the people, the image-bearers of His precious grace, the man who calls me beloved, and the children who call me mother.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield is a former tenured professor of English at Syracuse University. After her conversion to Christianity in 1999, she developed a ministry to college students. She has taught and ministered at Geneva College, is a full-time mother and pastor's wife, and is author of Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert(2012) and Openness, Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ (2015). Rosaria is currently writing a book on this theme, titled Openness, Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ (Crown and Covenant), due out this summer.

Jesus said "Follow Me..."

Jesus said "Follow me and I will make you fisher of men".

Jesus is the only one that asked people to follow Him. Most will ask to follow their teaching only Jesus said follow me.

My father used to say, follow what I said but don't follow what I do. This is basically saying I cannot be accountable to what I said because I myself cannot do it even though I know it is good. Therefore I can give you sound and good advice but I cannot be an example for you to follow or show you how...

Does it sound like most of us?

Thank God my heavenly Father is not like that. Instead He shown us all who He is. He said the word and His word never return to Him in void.

Therefore my Father in heaven is trustworthy and whatever He said is the truth.

Philippians 2:7- 11 (NKJV)

but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knees should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is fully man while he was on Earth.

Therefore we are able to live like Him, walk like Him and hold ourselves in obedient to God even to the point of death like Him.

Don't ever sin and expect God to understand...

Jesus did not die so that we can live in sin.

His abundant grace and mercy will convict us of our sin.
He came so that we can have life and life abundantly.

By His grace, we can live as sons and daughters of God.
By His mercy, our sins are forgiven.

Come to repentance and change your ways by obeying God first and not your flesh.

John 14:27 (NKJV)
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Let God's peace be your guide.

Numbers 6:24-26 (NKJV)

"The LORD bless you and keep you;
  The LORD make His face shine upon you,
  And be gracious to you;
  The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
  And give you peace."

God bless :-)

So you would come...

Someone wrote... to know is to know that you know nothing and that is indeed true knowledge. What an ignorant comment.

Imagine, you know God and you claim that you know nothing about Him and that is true knowledge? How deceitful is the heart.... excuses for one to continue in willful sinning... For one to justify himself/herself.

People that deceive themselves are those who do not know how much God loves them. God is love and His way is just. Why we cannot judge well...because we do not love like His love. Because He loves perfectly, His judgement is always trustworthy. He is Holy and Righteous.

Therefore, after all He had done for us... there is no more excuses. That is why the judgement is forever...
It is futile to say God will understand, I cannot do the right thing.... He knows me and He loves me therefore I will be forgiven. Think again...

After all He had done...



So You Would Come - Hillsong

Before the world began
You were on His mind
And every tear you cry
Is precious in His eyes
Because of His great love
He gave His only Son
Everything was done
So you would come

Nothing you can do
Could make Him love you more
And nothing you've done
Could make Him close the door
Because of His great love
He gave His only Son
Everything was done
So you would come

Come to the Father
Though your gift is small
Broken hearts, broken lives
He will take them all
The power of the Word
The power of His blood
Everything was done
So you would come


John 14:23-24
Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.

Think again... Obedience is a must.

The right to do something, doesn't mean doing it is right?

It is interesting that we are living in a world where self-rights are very important.

Have you heard these statements?
It is my right!
I have the right to do whatever I want.
It is between me and God, who are you to tell me what I can or cannot do?
I have the rights to clean air, to education, to my expression of my opinions.
It is my right to die whichever way I want.

And the classic of all, Jesus came and die for my sin, I can live the way I want because I have already been forgiven... He understands. There is no sin He cannot pardon. Jesus has free me and I live as free man... who are you to judge me!

The truth of the matters, I once believe all that. I believe Jesus paid for my freedom therefore I am no longer under law but under grace. He will understands what I am going through, therefore I am permissible to do whatever I want in the name of the truth.

Interesting enough, that my salvation begins when I saw this statement:
God is Love.

I asked Him, God? Who are you? You are love? What does that mean?
Imagine seeing that statement since you were 10 years old and kept seeing it almost everyday on the way to school. I was curious who is this God? And He pursues me... Imagine that a God who pursue His creation. Amazing....

I told God, why should I surrender my life to You? What will you do for me? What can you give me?
Talking about lack of knowledge :-P this is really *tsk *tsk *tsk..

But He is gracious and merciful, He promised me that I will live life to the fullness. I will not live in regret and He will never leave me nor forsake me.

I take that literally and live life so proudly. I am my God's daughter, who dare to touch me...
:-P

I wake up everyday eagerly anticipate what lessons I will learn today... I begin to neglect people and pursue God in the way I think it is right... people are too troublesome. Full of problems... why they cannot seek God on their own? Why they always need to be prayed for?

God answers my prayers, gives me revelation before things happen. Warning and forewarning before certain event happens. I struggle and I fight with God for the things I think is good for me... I use scriptures to answer Him. *Talking about using knowledge and use it to our advantage even deep down knowingly that words come from God? Really ignorant to the max......

That is me. That is my right in God... so I thought...
I settle to pursue my education and fly high... it never cross my mind to build family. I settle to conquer the world with God :-D  * the reckless youthfulness...
I already have the image of who I want to be... I am not afraid of hard work, just live life to the fullness. I really thought that is the way to go... it is unfortunate for me or rather fortunate for me, that God thinks otherwise...

Today, with the situation that I am going through, I told God, you see... this is the reason why we should not put hope in man... You should not punctuate my life like this? What for? This is the promise You gave me? Life to the fullness? Which part? I already prayed and asked You, Lord if it is not your will, do not let me go through it when I am 22 years old. Is it because I am disobedient that you let me walk this path? Every major decisions I make, I pray and ask You, You answered... Why?

God just reminded me again the statement that started it all....
God is Love.

Something struck me deep within.... suddenly there is a deep revelation within my innermost being...

I can only smile and thank God. It is amazing how God works...

If I am god, I would have kill "me" so many times in the name of truth... It is good that I am not god.
If I am god, I would have not bother with "me"... don't even talk about salvation.
If I am god, I would not have love "me"... and even create me.

What is love? When He first formed me in His thought, He has designed me to be who I am in Christ, taking all the risks of who I can turn out to be and yet patiently guiding and loving me all the way till I reach where I should be...

God is Love. Yes truth is important. Because Jesus answered "I am the way and the truth and the life".. But what is truth? if it is not done in love....

Despite my circumstances, I thank God, I still live a fulfilled life because now this life does not depend on others and it does not depend on circumstances... it depends on my being.

When we meet God face to face, He will not ask us how important we are in the world or how much good work we did for others but rather individually who are you in Christ?

It has and always be.... about being... about who we become in Christ.

I thank God that He did not give up on me when others do. Because of that reason alone, it is worth living.

Get our perspective right, align it to God's perspective.... You will see the world in a whole different way.

I begin to love people, they are no longer troublesome... they are souls so loved by God.
I begin to learn to forgive those who hurt me... that is a process I am so convince that it pleases God :-D
I begin to pray for my enemies that they should choose life rather than death... that God of love will awaken them from within and they receive word of revelation from God. That I truly believe is love from God.

I would like to correct the title of this posting as below:
The right to do something, doesn't mean doing it is right if it is not done out of love.
Do not love like how the world love, love like God.

So blessed to be alive again :-D

It is indeed a fulfilled life, I am witness to it.
Daily I will wake up and find myself learning new things again from God. This time I am not alone, with me are 2 young souls that God placed under my care so that I can demonstrate this principle to...

*Stress.. in a way. I don't always understand ler....
But I have faith in my God, He will never leave us and forsake us even if others do.

I am excited to learn to bring up a generation that focus on love for God and for souls despite any circumstances with GODLY love which will never fail.

They will never forsake their love ones and will not depend on their own feelings but rather on promises of God.
*WAH..... stress ler.... Holy Spirit please lead me. I need all the wisdom to do this right.

Why I feel a test is coming? *sweat....

This is God's way, after learning, there is a test, pass the test with flying colours then continue learning new things... fail the test... learn and resit again!!!  Thank God, we have Holy Spirit to teach us, the best teacher :-D

Have faith in God means have faith in mankind... regardless how the world turn out to be and how hard are the circumstances that life presents to us, know this...Jesus said in John 16:33 (NIV)

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world".

We are over comers in Christ... and the promises are in the book of Revelations.

"He who overcomes...." focus on that and live life to the fullness.

Amen!

Learn to suffer well...

Is it true that Christian does not suffer well?

Are we under the notion that Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly therefore we do not need to suffer?

Interesting isn't it. How we can be deceive that when we suffer we are not in God's will. For He is love therefore He will not allow His children to suffer but always be happy.

Are we that delusional?

Even Jesus came to do the will of the one who sent Him. He has a purpose to fulfill so are all of us.

Having said that... what actually happen when we suffer?

We grow into maturity.

We grow from someone who only know how to take take take from God into someone whom can understand God's heart. Our hearts will break when God's heart is breaking, what He is concern about, we too will be concern.

This is how we know we have grown and how we love Him when we choose to walk through suffering in obedience. When we be better instead of bitter.

Let's focus on Eternity...

We are created for God and only for God.

Why? Because we are the bride of Christ, the body of Christ - the Church is the bride of Christ.

Therefore we are created to be with God for eternity. Remember why God created Adam and Eve?
He created them in His own image. To have fellowship, companionship and family.

AMAZING!!!

Watch this youtube in describing heaven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5QBZU870Ms

How awesome is heaven!!! It is awesome because God is there. What we do on Earth determine our resurrected glory... let's invest in eternity :-D things that last forever.

View life as though it is a learning process. In the making of becoming more and more like Jesus!!!

Therefore, do not lose heart, God is please when we focus on becoming more and more like Jesus.

For those of us who think that when we stand before God, we want to ask Him questions... think again. I don't think we need to even ask God anything in His glory and in His presence. It is too wonderful for us to comprehend.

But be afraid if God has question to ask us :-P
I don't want to be in situation like Adam and Eve.