peanut's big launch

heyy guys!!
4th entry of the month! praise God!

anyway..

it's really wonderful when God starts a good work in you.

and the fact that He's not done with you yet just adds to the wonderfulness (is there even such a word? no matter! i'll make up my own dictionary from here. haha!)

the bible tells us in Philippians 1:6 that He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. that's why i find it just so awesome when God causes me to grow in Him. it just proves the fact that i am His work-in-progress and He's not done with me just yet =). greater things are to come. greater distances are to be taken.


the reason why i said this was because not too long ago, God placed in my heart a longing for emotional wholeness in Him. yea..that's it. emotional wholeness. let me elaborate more on that. emotional wholeness can only be achieved when there is ever-increasing oneness with God in spirit. it made sense too because God (being our supreme maker and stuff) fashioned us in such a way that there will always be a part of us that longs to be with Him. till then, that part of us will remain void until we unite ourselves with Him in spirit.

are you with me?

metaphorically speaking, God made us to be like a jigsaw puzzle. Him being the missing piece that completes us. and when i say "Him" i meant Him alone. no substitutes. if you've ever tried assembling an entire jigsaw puzzle on your own for hours and hours you'll actually realize that each piece is irreplaceable and ONE of it's kind. (that's why some people get upset when one piece goes missing).


so it made so much sense to me that God completes us and if ever we seek wholeness we should be able to find it in Him.

so..back to my topic..emotional wholeness and being one with Him in spirit. you see, i used to really let my circumstances get the better of me and somewhat overtake God. i used to let the really difficult things shift my focus off God. it made me dwell in self-pity a lot and God knows how many hours a day i spend wowing about the things i had to go through in life. and the worst part was..it was getting more and more evident. i used to have people asking if i came from a troubled home. haha. ironic. moving on.   

but praise be to God for my Youth leader who came to the rescue. what she said slapped me so hard in the face that i tend to break down every time i hear it. it was love at it's best i tell ya!. she reminded me of the fact that i HAVE a GOD who was and is far greater than my circumstances. she reminded me that i'm allowing myself to get in the way of the great things He has installed for me and that i must make a personal decision first and foremost to God and to myself to LAUNCH above my adverse circumstances in order to take hold of Him and His will over my life. i said it once and i'll say it again. that rocked my world. =)


so God gave me that desire and a whole lot more. sure, let me be the millionth Christian to say that it wasn't easy. but let me be one from the very few to say that things have never been the same and every step was worth it. i had enough of letting every petty downfall rob me the great destiny He has installed.
the bible amplifies this even more by stating that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the future glory that is ahead. i may not understand the crazy stuff i go through everyday, but one thing i'm assured of is that His word stands true. Isaiah 64:4 states "no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him."


i guess that's my new year's resolution. to be able to focus on Him and take hold of His will for me over my life when things around are crumbling away. thank You Lord, that Your Word states that You will be with me through night and day and no wave will sweep over me, no flame will set me ablaze.
i encourage you (yes you, the person reading this) to launch from the cannon of faith. trust me, it's a lot better than keeping you feet on the cold, depressing ground. *winks*


*Romans 4:19-21* teehee.

rolling up cables and other stuff

hey friends! hope all is well. apparently this is my third entry of the month! and this entry goes to another darling friend of mine form youth.

i was talking to her the other day and out of much appreciated honesty she shared something i believe is worth thinking about-how do we actually surrender to God / what is it really like to completely lay our burdens down?


i bet over a million Christians blogged about this..so i'm just gonna write as God guides me and enables me to.

but first..a real-world illustration:


the other day after youth service, when it was time to pack up, i decided to help out with the cables. apparently this was something i've never done before and even if i did, it wouldn't have been a real long time ago. so i grabbed a long cable and tried to roll it up my way. ( you see, i'm no good with cables). then, a friend of mine, who has a whole lot more experience than i do in packing instruments and knows a whole lot more about cables, came up to me and
helped me to do it the right way. he even thought me what not to do and simply told me that what i was doing just now was silly (or something like that).



you see, if i were to disregard this friend of mine (the cable guy, i mean) and take things into my own hands, i would have messed the cables up and the guys and girls that needed to practice on the following day would have had a hard time unwinding the cables. 


the new oxford dictionary defines the term "surrender" as to stop fighting and admit that you have lost


you only truly surrender when you admit to the fact that you could not have done any better and things are beyond your ability to change. it's when you lay down your pride and know that there is nothing you can do or could have done to change things.   


am i making sense?


the first act of surrender in our salvation is when we know that there is nothing we can do to make ourselves presentable before God. we need to leave it to Jesus to take our place and cleanse us of our sins. 

for me surrendering to God is a result of acknowledging who He really is in our lives. this friend of mine has no idea how to truly surrender to God despite being told again and again to do so. it's all about admitting to defeat (in a positive way) and giving God rightful ownership over our lives.


so take over Lord, i know that things are beyond me in every way and that there is nothing i can do or say to change things. i trust that You are who You say You are and Your Word is true. i know that You have only Your greatest good for me in mind. i hereby laying my burdens down. take Your rightful place Lord. You are God above all and You are in complete control over my future, my past and apparently my present. amen.

broken beyond repair (a true story)

hola friends! let me start of this blog with a question. have you ever broken something you just bought? if you did, how did it feel?



you see, i was going through a pretty rough time yesterday. as a fragile piece of work in progress, i let myself fall victim to something called "insecurity". it was one those moments when you just feel hopeless inside because deep down you know that there is nothing you can do to change one's view of you. crap. it was depressing. so i  decided to take it up to God in prayer. before i went to bed, i find myself feeling awfully disturbed inside to the extent that i couldn't get myself to pray. even if i did, it wasn't like before when there was perfect communion with Him in spirit. i find myself trying hard to focus on Him. thought after thought  came that somehow prevented me from seeking Him. i sought for the same peace and assurance i felt before every time i lay myself down at His feet. in the end, feeling a sick combination of hurt and exhaustion, i find myself saying these words before i was knocked out: "Lord, i can't put this in any other way..but i'm wounded and broken inside.."   


unable to seek peace and rest from the True source, i defaulted to another nasty outlet that i thought was a quick "substitute".. .sin. 


in the morning, i find myself unable to face Him in anyway. i didn't set apart time that i was suppose to spend with Him. i find myself running and running.



things got worse in the evening however. and i gave way to hatred towards myself and towards the people that i thought were responsible for the pain i had. once again, sinning even more.



i was at the church office for the Christmas rehearsal. it was late and i was waiting for my dad. the epic craziness continued devouring me from within, somehow increasing the size of the crack. i realized i was a fool for not remembering something. you see, the bible tells us of how God will graciously forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness if we confess our sins and repent. so i sat in a small corner all alone and asked God for His forgiveness and grace. then, when i got home i started reading my bible and praying again. i find myself repeating the very same words i said to Him last night. only this time, God helped me to finish it. i find myself praying: "Lord, i'm wounded and broken in ways i cannot fix..look at what this separation from You has done to me..".and that rocked my world. =)  

it's amazing how the Holy Spirit helps us to pray when we find it most difficult to express ourselves before God.


i realized, i was only making things worse when i tried to fix myself by defaulting to sin instead of running back to God. an amazing man of God by the name of isaac deitz  once said: "maybe one of the reasons why God hates sin so much is because it makes us loose sight of who He really is -a loving and forgiving God ". we tend to run away from God when this happens. kinda like how adam and eve hid from God when they sinned.



when an iphone is broken, it needs to be returned to it's creator to be fixed or traded in for a new. and when this happens, someone needs to pay for the cost. we can surrender our broken lives to our Creator who is God. and thankfully for us, He paid it by giving His Son Jesus to die for us on the cross.  

so thank you Lord, for peace. thank you Lord, for healing. thank you Lord, for reminding me that there is hope in you. and that there always will be. last but not least, thank you Lord, for loving me even when i'm at my worst and graciously taking me in even when i screw up and mending me when i'm broken.


*Rom 15:13* "May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Spirit."

God loves the Impossible

hey friends!

 i guess when many of us see the words "God" and "impossible" in the same sentence we will probably have something cooked up at the back of our minds on how the article is gonna be about God overcoming epic circumstances in someone's life..



Well, it's true that God is above all things and that He is greater and bigger than every impossibility in our lives. more importantly we know that He is able. *Mark  10 :27*





Today, i'm gonna be bloggin' about somethin' a little different. haha! today i'm gonna seize this opportunity to share on a different perspective on how "God love the impossible".



Credits first and foremost to God Who awesomely used a darling friend of mine to share this with me during youth camp! (that's right Debbie. i'm talking about you! =D)




okay..so let's begin! Jesus said in Mark 10:27 on how with man, it is impossible but with God, all things are possible. and once again, adverse circumstances comes to mind. God used this special friend of mine to change my normal perspectives on the word "impossible". Instead of using it to refer to something difficult we're going through, try using it to refer to someone you find practically IMPOSSIBLE to love.





I can't help but to bounce back on the Gospel on this one. Maybe it was God's way of fully explaining this to me.



So in the Gospel, it tells us of how God gave His one and only son, Jesus to die for our sins on the cross. as human beings, we are creatures of habit. we tend to point fingers when we do something wrong or think about how awful other people's sins are just to make ourselves feel better and somewhat "cleaner" before God. i know. i'm guilty of this as well. i used to despise prostitutes, porn-stars, mistresses and so on. i used to harbor deep hatred for them and every time i hear about them an instant urge to point a gun just runs through my spine. this shows what a failure i am at loving people.


But praise be to God that He made me realize that i'm no better myself.  friends, remember that we are all being judged by God's standards and not ours. no matter how we try to make ourselves presentable before God, we'll never make it to heaven on our own. we may think that if we don't smoke, kill or sleep around or any of those stuff we will earn our righteousness before God. the bible tells us that our righteousness are like filthy rags before Him. the bible also tells us how ALL of us have sinned and fallen short of  the glory of God (Rom 3:23).



this might sound crazy..but the more worthless and unworthy i feel..the more i can see God as Who He really is. a loving and forgiving God. this brings us to the concept of forgiveness. a wise man of God once said forgiveness is defined as unmerited grace. forgiveness is not earned nor is it deserved in anyway by the debtor. the truth is..we couldn't do any better if we tried. God loved us even when we were at our worst. thus, there's nothing you can do to make Him love you more.. sometimes, i ask Him.."and you still love me even after all that?".


am i making sense now? we represented the impossible. what was impossible before God has made possible  by sending Jesus to die for our sins and taking our place that we may be made presentable before God. 


so friends. the next time you tell someone "ugh! you're just impossible", think about how God loved you when you were impossible and at your worst. the other day, my friend told me something i never expected to hear and she was afraid that my perspective on her as a friend and as a human being would change. but praise be to God that He placed something in me to tell her this: "listen, what you said the other day doesn't change what i think about you and it doesn't alter the fact that i love you. as a matter of fact, i love you even more and if there's anything i could do to help you through this..". God commands us to love and he even gave us perfect, self-explanatory descriptions on what love is..*1 Cor 13:4*. Our Heavenly Father is in the business of loving and forgiving unconditionally and He expects His children to do the same.