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“For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.” - 2 Corinthians 4:11

The Christian life is filled with so many mysteries and a paradox of opposite things. If we are truly in Christ, we will suffer and get rejected. However, if we live without Christ, we will have a life without spiritual hardships but will suffer eventually. So, we can really think that Christian life is indeed a life filled with opposites. Sometimes, we will just ask why can’t we have a perfect life? A life with no problems, and no struggles. Other people even thought that being in Christ means having a perfect life, but real Christians know the struggle. 

Again, this is not to discourage us from not accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior, but this is to open our minds that Christian life is not easy. Just like the life of Paul, it is actually an example of the Christian life that is blessed by God, but also an example of how hard it is. It is hard because just as Paul said in our verse today, we are all alive to be always given over to the death of Christ. That is why the Christian life is full of opposites. We have life in Christ, we are fully given a life everlasting in Him, but we are also targets of the enemy. The enemy will always want our deaths and hates us. Just like Jesus, we will be hated by the world. Through the cost of the blood of Christ, we have been bought by the blood of Christ. We will live, but we will die and pass-through this temporary life. 

So, we will really face all of these challenges because we are the bringers of light. The darkness of this world, the evil forces of this world will always try to take us away from the light. Then we will have to die in Christ so that His life will be revealed in us. After all, we died with Christ when He died, and we will also live and resurrect together with Him. So, we must expect to have a lot of struggles in this world. We will be rejected and persecuted, but we must not worry for we will have to be given into the death of Christ, we will have to die in Christ so that we will live in Him, and live through Him. 

Therefore, we must always remember that our sufferings are not wasted. We suffer not because we are being persecuted by God, but we suffer because we are bringing the light of Christ. Let us be encouraged that we are suffering, we are weak here, but we are strengthened in Christ, and we are alive in Christ. May we always put in our minds that we are saved by grace through faith and that we are alive in Christ. We must live our lives in Christ, and offer our lives as living sacrifices to God.

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This was on my heart today. If you read my last posting, I was talking or chatting with this woman who claims to be a “CHRISTIAN WITCH”. At first that very idea of it sounds laughable, but she was sending out a teaching weekly or daily (I unsure of how often) but I read the post and she listed everything she would talk about but at the end she put that she would discuss, witches, occult and spiritism. I went to her tumblr and she called herself a christian witch. GOD CLEARLY warns about christians practicing witchcraft or anyone for that matter, divination, occultism (how in this of GOD??), spiritism, consulting spirits, mediums. She told me that as long as you use it for GOD it is ok. But you can’t use it outside of GOD. I showed her scripture after scripture where it EXPLICITLY shows that it is NOT OF GOD. She was clearly twisting the word.

Then she put all of these scriptures of where she said it did. I looked them up. The information wasn’t even there in most places OR it what it spoke about was attributed to a wicked person or nothing at all. Person and person was asking her to send this material to her. EVEN some who claimed to be a pastor leading a progressive church!!!

Last night, my mind was moving and I couldn’t sleep. It bothered me. Anyone that deals with witchcraft, occultism, spiritism, mediums are NOT OF GOD and she knows that. She is leading people to HELL. Instead of them reading their bible and praying for guidance, they are lazily blindly depending on her to tell them the truth. A person doesn’t have to have a theology degree to teach the word because we were all as christians told to spread the word all over the world, but she is responsible for telling LIES. I reminded her that her judgement would be more harsher than theirs becauses she lead them if she is wrong and she is. This is just another way for Satan to capture souls because if she leads them the wrong way, who will be blamed? All christians. God. Only because they were TOO LAZY to open up the bible and read for themselves.

There is NO such thing as a christian witch, light witch, good witch and any other madeup name that they use to rebrand witchcraft and occultism. 

In God’s eyes it is wrong and anyone who practices this will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. These are not my words but HIS.  (If you don’t believe me, study for yourself..please do!) 

“We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.” - Hebrews 3:14

It’s a tough call that our conviction will remain the same even after suffering in the cruel world. A lot of times we were influenced by this world, but most of the time we succumb to all the ideologies of this world. Even if we already know the truth, we will act dumb and ignorant just to play nice or to play by the rules of this world. It was hard when we were unbelievers, but that life before Christ was easier compared to the life we have now in Christ. However, this is not a discouragement, but this is pointing out the truth. We will not have an easy life while we are in Christ. 

During the time of Jesus, He was rejected by everyone. He was despised, rejected, and ridiculed. So, why do we expect to receive roses while our Savior and our God received thorns? It is not because God wants us to suffer, but that’s just how the world is. The world hates Jesus and everyone who follows Him. So, we must expect that the world will also hate us if we are in Christ. That is why, we have to understand that we will have a hard life while we were in Christ, not as a discouragement but just for us to know the truth. It is easier to blend in with the world than to be against it. However, we have to understand that blending in the world will mean becoming the enemies of God. So, what will you choose? 

Now, our verse today is actually reminding us that if we have come to share in Christ the conviction we received from Him, then if we hold on to it firmly, we will share also His victory. We all know that we are saved by grace through faith, and God has fulfilled His promise to us that His Son will be our Savior. Thus, we also must know that to be in Christ, we must understand that we have to continually hold on to His promise as our old self died with Him on the cross, we will also then resurrect with Him if we will continue to hold on until He comes back. 

Therefore, we must understand that His grace is indeed sufficient. We must understand that as we live in this cruel world, we would just want to give in to its sinfulness, but we must be reminded that we should hold on to Christ. Let us focus on Christ as our center, and make Him the Lord of our lives. May we hold on to this conviction and let Christ have control of our lives. Let us reflect on His righteousness and fight the good fight of faith.

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“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” - John 3:17

As we celebrate Christmas to remind us that Christ is the reason for the season, we will then understand that God died for us and to save us. However, a lot of us think that God is like a teacher who brings sticks to punish all his students. God is not like that at all. He came to save us and not to condemn us. Our verse today is proof and a declaration of Jesus that He was not sent by the Father to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. If John 3:16 is such a good verse to remind us that God loves the world, so He saved it through Christ and everyone who believes in Him will be saved, then the following verse which is our verse today focuses more on explaining that it was because of love. 

Love was the reason why God saved us. He is just so loving, and His love for us is unconditional. We are the reason why Christ died, we are the reason why He suffered and forsaken and it was all because of love. God just loves us so much that He doesn't want us to suffer. We deserve everything we will receive. We deserve condemnation, we deserve punishment, and we deserve our sufferings because we are sinful. However, God still chose to save us because He is loving and forgiving. So, we may not see Him as someone who wants to punish us, but we must see Him as our God who loves us and who will save us from our sins. 

So, we must always put in our minds that the God who made the heavens and the earth, decided to save us even if there’s no reason to save us. Our God came into the world, became a baby, and suffered in this cruel world to save us. He did not come to condemn us or to punish us, although we are deserving of it, He came to save us and make sure that we will rise with Him when He will resurrect. 

Therefore, let us not forget who we celebrate this Christmas and we must not forget that we ought to be thankful. May we never forget the goodness and grace of God that was acted and fulfilled by Christ. Indeed, He did not come into the world to condemn us, but to save us from our sins. We don’t deserve His salvation and His grace, but still, God chose to save us and forgive us even if we do not deserve it.

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“In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” - Psalm 56:4

During the time of David, his enemies were flocking like birds. He was threatened and the kingdom that was given to him by God to rule was being threatened. However, as human as he is, he got scared and even doubted for a moment. Yet, he realized that what mere humans can do to him? In God, he has set his confidence in. In God, his feet are grounded and that no one can take it away from him. So, why would he be afraid? Indeed, David has nothing to be afraid of because the God who created the world is his back up. 

Now, our verse today is not just the statement of David. It is not just his experience or his declaration about his confidence in God, but it can also be us. We have to understand that our God has our back and we don’t need to be afraid of anyone because it is He who promised us and He who promised us is faithful. If we have the God who created heavens and the earth and has planned our salvation, what indeed mere mortals can do to us? We are protected by our God, and no one is greater and better than Him. 

Therefore, we must understand that everything we do and even if we face a lot of enemies, our God will stand by us. Indeed, He is the God of promise that even our enemy which death itself and sin, was defeated by Him because He is a miracle worker and a promise keeper. He will not let any harm befall us, and He will always rescue us. Thus, to whom are we going to be afraid of? We have our God, and He is always there with us and through Him, we will always be safe and in Him we are saved through grace. After all, it is He who promised us eternal life, and it is He who will grant it through Christ our Lord. 

So, we must never be afraid. There’s nothing that humans can do to us. Even our biggest enemy has been defeated and there will be nothing that will stand against God because He is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. He is our eternal God, our protector and our one and only defender.

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reflection “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.” - Psalm 119:18

Our eyes are always closed. We might have it literally open, but the eyes of our hearts are closed from the calling of God. The moment we become so sinful and horrible, the eyes of our hearts are closed because of how we desire to sin more than to follow God. So, we must be reminded that our hearts’ eyes should be open so that we will see the calling of God and we will follow Him. It is just right for us to know that our hearts are indeed so calloused that even if our literal eyes are open, we would rather see ourselves indulge in sins. 

However, today, our psalmist wants to remind us of the prayer he once wrote and can be our prayer. We must also ask God to open our eyes so that we will see the wonderful things in His law. It is just right that not just our literal eyes are open, but also the eyes of our hearts. If the eyes of our hearts are closed then we won’t be able to see with our real eyes the path of God and how wonderful the things in His law are. We won’t be able to appreciate or acknowledge that we need His help and that we need salvation. Now, we have to know that everything we do, we must do it by heart. 

So, we have to have the eyes of our hearts open. Before we can see clearly the path of God, we will have to open our hearts and let Christ enter and minister into us. We must accept Him as our Lord and Savior so that we will clearly see. So, for our eyes to open, we have to open our hearts first. We have to open it for our eyes to be fully open and see the salvation of God that can only be procured through Jesus Christ. We can never appreciate the law of God or His Gospel if our hearts are not ready to accept it. 

Therefore, let us make sure to open our hearts so that our eyes will be open to see the wonderful things of the law of God. Let us declare this prayer too that God, may not just open our eyes, but also open the eyes of our hearts so that we will see His law and His way. May we always remember to seek Him through His Word so that we will be able to tread carefully in His way. Let us always remember that we are under His grace and we can always have Christ in us as long as we first accept Him as our Lord and Savior.

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As Paul cared for all people, when he wrote his letter to the Thessalonians, he mentioned a very loving prayer for them. He said that may our Lord direct our hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance-- thus, our verse today. He cared for the people and he wanted them also to know that their hearts can also go away from God. We are all sinful people and all we do is to walk away from God, even if He calls us to go near Him. 

Many passages in the Bible that state that our hearts are very treacherous and it really tends to walk away from God. We tend to always choose to walk away from God, but everything we do is all sinful because we are naturally sinful and bound to die. Yet, Paul still prayed for the people in Thessalonians, and even for us, that may our Lord direct our hearts to God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. Now, as our hearts are directed to God’s love, we will then realize that understanding God’s love while sinning can now way be done together. We cannot continue sinning while appreciating the love of God. Our hearts cannot love God and at the same time love sinning. 

So, for us to be fully in God’s love, we have to fully understand that we have to let Christ dwell in us. We must let God dwell inside our hearts and let Him rule our lives. After all, Paul’s prayer was for our hearts to be directed in God’s love. Now, for our hearts to be directed in God’s love, we must first be freed from the bondage of sin and death. So, for us to be freed from that, we need Christ as our Lord and Savior. Thus, which brings us to the fact that the bottom point is we need Christ. Through His death and resurrection, He has saved us from our sins. As we are saved by grace through faith, our salvation will then manifest that will make us obey God above all else. 

Through this, our hearts will be in line with God, so indeed, may the Lord direct our hearts towards God’s love. Also, for us to be directed and to be kept directed in His love, we must see and focus on the perseverance of Christ and imitate Him. Let us let Christ dwell in us and persevere to fight the good fight of faith and let our hearts be anchored in God’s love and let our perseverance be inspired by the perseverance of Christ.

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