Love Is Our Common Ground (Discovering Love All Over Again Series – Day 3)

When confronted with Christians who hold different views from us on a wide range of issues – from the nuclear arms’ race to baptism in the Holy Spirit or the second coming of Christ – we are presented with a wonderful opportunity to check the true motives and desires of our hearts. If, for example, personal opinions about music, clothes, or politics hinder us from relating to a fellow Christian, then we are forced to conclude that our opinions are more important to us than our fellowship with another brother in Christ.

Sadly, around the world today, many Christians have become so entrenched in their own opinions that they have refused  the unity found in the cross of Christ, with all the healing and acceptance which that brings.

IT is not wrong to have differing opinions on a matter, but it is wrong to allow these opinions to divide us.

Questions of doctrine are important, but never so important that we refuse to have fellowship with other Christians – unless they blatantly deny one of the essentials of the Christian faith.

In the essentials let there be unity, in the nonessentials let there be liberty, and in all things let there be charity.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, Paul lists those doctrinal issues he considers to be of “first importance,” or essential to the Christian faith.

• Christ died for our sins.
• He is the Christ of the Old Testament Scriptures, which means He is the Son of God.
• He was raised on the third day and appeared to the disciples.

Just because people from other groups fail to dress or act according to “our” standards doesn’t mean they are less of a Christian. We have been saved by grace through faith so that no one may boast. No body does Christianity better than anybody. Every now and then, we need to check our hearts every time we come to a point where we question a Christian’s actions or decisions because he or she is not doing it the way all the members of your group do it.

Today, I shall begin teaching myself not to look at a Christian based on actions alone. I shall begin to see every Christian as someone who is loved by Him who has loved me too. Every person has faults but that should not hinder me from acknowledging the fact that the person has received Christ and no matter how superficially inconsistent his or her actions are to whatever personal standards I have, I shall bear in mind that God is not yet finished with each one of us. That each one of us is still undergoing the process of becoming a person that God wants us to be.

What Have I Done – Adie

What have I done lord Jesus to deserve your endless love
What have I done lord Jesus to be worthy of your grace
What have I done lord Jesus to be standing here with you
What have I done lord Jesus to be worthy of you

For I am nothing yet You love me
I am no one yet you care
You thought of me when you died
What have I done to deserve this love

And I lay down my will
To do yours until
My life I give hence forth to live for you alone

For i am nothing yet you love me
I am no one yet you care
you thought of me when you died what have i done to deserve this love

What have I done lord Jesus to deserve your endless love
What have I done lord Jesus to be worthy of your grace
What have I done lord Jesus to be standing here with you
What have I done lord Jesus to be worthy of you

Gracias! :)

To those who made my birthday extra special, thanks, thanks, and more thanks. This may come a bit late but I want you guys to know that I feel so blessed to have you as friends.

To Joyce, Agnes, Tin2, and Queency.. thank you for the beautiful hand bag and for spending time with me @Tata Benito’s on Monday evening.

Lovely, isn't it?

With Agnes and Tin2

Super thanks to Ate Marsh, Dudz, and Mom for treating me out to dinner @Bigby’s SM on December 8. I wasn’t able to really celebrate on the day of my birthday because I had to organize an office event.

Special thanks to the waitress who took this pic.

Ate Marsh never stopped reminding the waiters and waitresses that it’s my birthday as the restaurant prepares a free treat to celebrants. Aside from singing the birthday song at the top of their lungs (the singing was loud enough for everyone in the restaurant to know that it was my birthday), they also brought me this special treat:

Mom, me, and the birthday treat!

And that’s basically how my 23rd birthday went. The next year will be a challenge but I’d say “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me!” Thank you Lord for another year. Thank you for the gift of friendship, life, and love. May I never tire of living and loving. May I never be wary of anything. To You alone be the honor for all the things that you’ve done and all the things that You are yet to do in my life.

To God be the Glory!

The Power of Love (Discovering Love All Over Again Series – Day 2)

Childlike acceptance can melt the hardest of hearts.

Acceptance is loving others as they are, regardless of the sin in which they’re involved.

ACCEPTING LOVE

God loves people, not programs or good causes. He died for people, not for the cause of world evangelism.

By loving us, even in our rebellion against Him, God demonstrated His acceptance of us. It is accepting love which gives us the motivation and strength to repent of our selfish ways and return to Him. And it is accepting love that reassures us that He cares and understands when we fail.

TRUSTING LOVE

Through us He has chosen to communicate His kindness, mercy, hope, and forgiveness. We, in essence, become God’s way of saying, “I love you” to a hurt and dying world. This is a task that will keep each of us occupied for a lifetime.

How amazing that God, the Creator of the universe, has chosen to trust us with the message of His salvation.

Trust – that is what we all need.

Trusting love has the power to make people believe in themselves. It releases our true potential and turns us from discouraged failures to those who aspire to great things. It creates an atmosphere which releases creativity and stimulates the imagination. Trust motivates us to work harder than nay program or set of rules could. True trust brings freedoom striving to gain acceptance, since acceptance has already been received. It produces gratefulness toward those who believe in us and wins the loyalty of hearts for a lifetime.

Trust is the key that can unlock a person’s full potential.

THE POWER OF HEALING LOVE

Sin, whether our own or another’s, can scar the emotions. But God’s healing love is able to renew and restore our distorted memories and battered emotions in such a way that we no longer have to suppress our feelings of failure or carry them with us through life. God can forgive us and completely rebuild our emotions.

We all, at some point, need to experience the healing balm of God’s love. Throughout life people hurt us, through thoughtless comments, rejection of our work or ideas, and other ways that leave their mark on our emotions. But we are not left to ourselves, with no hope. God steps into each individual situation with His healing power and gives a fresh start.

HE is the great Creator and Re-Creator. He creates new beginnings for us. He draws a line behind us and forgives everything in the past. He heals the wounds we have accumulated along the way and starts us on a new path.

God’s love gives hope to a despairing nation, brings embittered enemies together, restores alienated friends, unites divided churches, renews backslidden Christians, and gives us all a reason to live.

God’s love can conquer the heart of the hardest criminal, change the lifestyle of a selfish pleasure seeker, set free the most ardent terrorist, and heal the wounds of an abused child. God’s love is the power that can make the difference.

This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ~1 John 4:9-10

 I am now coming face to face with the hardest thing one must do but I trust that He will be there to grant me the strength that I will be needing to do what He needs me to do.

 

Take my heart and mold it, O God…until it becomes one that would only be after You and You alone.

Discovering Love All Over Again (A Series) – Day 1

I am on a journey. I am on my way back to Love. As I course through the difficult road with my Map, the lessons that I shall be learning will not be left unwritten…

When A Word Loses Its Meaning

How sad that a word expressing the greatest beauty and enrichment we can know has become trite through overuse.

The true meaning of love dawns on us when we find ourselves required to love someone who has hurt us or mistreated us.

The challenge is to love and keep on loving, even when it is hard.

I chose to pause and allow Him to hear the cry of my heart. I had to admit that I was no longer that person who always chooses NOT to feel pain, frustration, anger, humiliation, and disappointment. It felt like I just had a terrible accident. I allowed the doctor to treat the wounds that are visible but I chose to hide those that can be hidden just because I was too proud to admit that I am weak. But He knew I was hurting and He never stopped until He was able to make me realize that I needed His aid..or else, I would die.

I am on a journey. I am on my way back to Love. The healing has begun. His hands has touched me where I hurt the most. The pain is beginning to ebb away…but it hasn’t gone just yet. Still, I’d say there’s a lot of therapy that needs to be done.

I lost something while I was struggling in pain. I lost Love. And I know that I can only find peace when I find it again. I shall be in Love again. I will learn to love again…even when its hard, even when people are unlovable. Because that is what He wants me to do. Because He is Love.

It is not going to be easy. It will not take me a day. But I am on my way there…I am treading slowly but I am on my way there.

Flawed and Frail

God is glorified by showing Himself strong through our weaknesses. It shows us that He desires to work through our lives not because we are perfect but because HE is. And since He uses weak and foolish things (1 Cor. 1:27), it means you and I are prime candidates for His work.

The Lord isn’t looking for superheroes. He uses those of us who are flawed and frail, so that He can show His strength and grace. He wants those with a willing and available heart.

~Bill Crowder

On Waiting

What we wait for…is far less important than what God is doing while we wait. In such times He works in us to develop those hard-to-achieve spiritual virtues of meekness, kindness, and patience with others. But more important, we learn to lean on God alone and to “rejoice and be glad” in Him (Psalm 70:4).

F.B. Meyer saud, “What a chapter might be written of God’s delays! It is the mystery of the art of educating human spirits to the finest temper of which they are capable. What searchings of heart, what analyzings of motives, what testings of the Word of God, what upliftings of soul…All these are associated with those weary days of waiting, which are, nevertheless, big with spiritual destiny.”

~Our Daily Bread, Nov. 7, 2009

The True Vine

I am the true vine, and my Father the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ~John 15: 1-5

Today, God gave me a brand new understanding of this verse. Once again, I am reminded to never confuse activity with productivity and that too much activity can result to you pleasing people instead of pleasing Him. Then again, God gave me the assurance that no matter what happens, I can always count on Him. No matter how painful the pruning process is, and even when He decides to uproot me from where I am right now, I will always end up a better person, a better daughter, a better Christian. I can never be better than the others. I can never be perfect. But even then, I know that by simply choosing to always abide in the One True Vine, I can do all things.

I am currently in the process of reconnecting with Him. I am trying to find that which I have lost. And I’m glad God has allowed me to meet people who, in their own little ways, have encouraged me to move forward, to never let guilt overtake me, and to always look to Christ no matter what happens.

I’m still running the race. I’m taking a different track, but I’m still running, trusting that even when I’d be the last person who’ll reach the finish line, He’ll still be there, with His arms open wide. And He will hug me and tell me that it is not about how fast I ran but how far I’ve gone.

All of Me – Selah

His Word for Me Today

1. God can make great things even in darkness.

2. He is working even though you cannot see Him.

3. Trusting Him during dark times lets you exercise your gift of faith.