many obvious thing happen that make many people come with an idea about the God who does not care. But is it true? that God doesn’t care about us?
what god is that?
check this video and see how the mind is changed from the thought that God doesn’t care to an ultimate truth that He does. He does care!
Only the fools who ignore the existence of sins. No matter how old you are, baby or adult, girl or boy, employed or unemployed, are sinners; have the desire to “play with temptations” to tempt our own self with the sin. Once God said NO! we keep testing Him by dong the YES. These are some simple funny example of how man have no power to control themselves from being tempted.
I do not know how many of you laughed when watched these videos. But let us go further than the funny things and learn something more deeply that just for the Marshmallow, we are tempted so easily. There are greater things than the marshmallow that always tempt us: our SINS. So, lets keep perseverance and endurance in always and consistently fight against the flesh desire.
To see our reflection we need a mirror and another basic component – light. If we stand in front of a mirror in complete darkness we won’t see our reflection. In partial light our reflection is vague. If we want a true reflection of ourselves we need to place ourselves under full light. Alternatively, if we want to imagine we are film star material, we should stand in dim light, hide our flaws and show our best side.
In order to see a true reflection of our spiritual self we need a mirror and light. The mirror is the Word of God and the light is God Himself. We may have the mirror (Bible) and look into it every day, but unless we have a personal relationship with God and let Him light up all facets of our spiritual life, then we won’t see ourselves as we truly are (a mirror is no good in darkness). Without God’s light we can easily hide the flaws and emphasize only our best side. We may convince many people we are spiritual superstars, but God knows we are just another ugly Christian who refuses to step into the light.
Five months ago, I was struggling with fear. Fear of not knowing what was going to happen next, fear of not being able to withstand the multiple trials coming my way, fear of failing and other fears too many to mention.
I remember being at this place before and the self destruction it caused as I allowed my fears to consume me. I did not want to go back to that place again. In my crying out to God and asking Him to give me peace and remove these fears, he heard my cry and reminded me of my purpose.
“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ~ Exodus 9:16
My purpose is not to be one who is afraid, but to be an encourager, to pray for others, to be a pillar of strength and a woman of dignity. God reminded me that His presence is my source of strength.
“It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” ~ 2Samuel 22:33
I’m sure many of you have read the story of Queen Esther in the bible. If not, then I highly recommend it. The movie “A night with the King” will also give you a good perspective as to who Queen Esther was and how she represents a woman of Strength and Dignity.
Meanwhile, Uncle Mordecai is against Haman, the King’s assistant, who decides in revenge to trick the King into declaring a sentence of death on all Jews in the kingdom, to be carried out at a future date to be decided by lot. Mordecai learns of the plot, and alerts Esther. She, at great personal risk, decides to accept the role of confronting the King about the plot and begging for mercy for her people. She is successful in this matter. Through a series of events orchestrated by God and her wise handling of the circumstances, Haman is shown before the King to be the villain that he really is.
In the end, Haman is hung on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. And the Jews of the kingdom are saved from extinction.
An illustration of Queen Esther telling her husband, the king, that Haman is evil and an enemy of her people, the Jews. Queen Esther was an amazing woman of strength and dignity. God had a plan and a purpose for her life. She knew exactly what her purpose was and she saved her people from death.
Is fear taking away your joy or causing you to doubt your purpose?
Ask God to show you what your purpose is, call out to him and spend time with him. He wants you to pour out your heart to him. He wants you to bring all your hurt and disappointments to him and lay them at his feet. When you’re afraid, angry or frustrated, express that to God and to tell him why.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”~ Jeremiah 29:11
The ultimate truth is that the Truth is always true, no matter people say it is true or not. God is the Truth. He is God and He exists, and it will not change as man say He is not. With the wicked, deceitful, and sinful thought they have will not ever change the existence of God. He is exist and it is proved by every single things He created. When man is busy debating on the existence of God, the stars and the wheel, His handmade praise Him and declare that He is God! He is exist! He is great!
Deceitful, battle, perseverance, crucifixion, tug of war; these are the things I sensed as I watched the A Beautiful Mind. It cannot be denied that life is all about the battle. It is not always the physical battle like war, conflict, etc., but basically the spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:10-20). This film has so amazingly showed the glorious and greatness of God through the complexity of human’s mind he created. But as the perfectness of human’s mind has fallen into the sin, it has its possibility to be trapped into deceitful thoughts the devil has.
This is what happens within the world nowadays that: what is thought is what is real and supposed to be. People be the slave of their mind and forget about what is truly the truth. The life is the battle. Every single moment, the sinful and spirit thoughts are fight against each other; in the mind. There’re always choices every single second to realize and follow what is true and what is deceitful imagination. The temptation is always in mind, every single moment.
Apart from the SchizophreniaJohn Nash had, what he experienced was reflecting the spiritual battle the Christians have. The deceit thought and imagination trap him into fantasy of what is unreal. It was all happen without he realized it. He did not know that he was facing the battle in mind every single moment. He saw everything as real; everything is true; everything is right. He used to see everything he saw in that way. The symptom had made everything looked real. What is unreal told John to do what is not supposed to be doing: worked with some secret documents. Without his realization, the impact of slaved himself into that unreal and deceitful thought has been a bad influence to the people around him; remember, he ever unmindfully harmed his wife and son.
In his mind there are great complex and deceitful battle between what is real (the truth/ Spirit) and what unreal and deceitful fantasy (the flesh). But this is when Love takes it place. Realizing that her husband cannot stand alone against his battle, John’s wife patiently loves him. In love with John, Alicia accompanied him to wake up and realize what the truth really is. She had been a faithful accountable partner for John Nash. She knows the truth and helped John to know that truth. They went along together to fight against people rejection, the underestimations from people and the mind itself. It is hard and really hard. But that is what the love does; patiently helping.
This is the picture that came to mind as we think what the Christian should do. The constantly battle that happen requires accountability to hold one another’s hand and fight against together. Take a baby step in tug-of-war to win the battle. But it has not stopped there. Fight together doesn’t going to make the battle disappear. The battle is still there. John Nash still saw the unreal imagination he has. But the most important thing he did is endure pretended that those unreal things were not there; that they are nothing and he did not want to car even listen to them.
He took a step ahead, instead of only knowing what the truly truth really is, he fight against his mind and said “there is none of them. I do not need to respond even listen to them”. Life is always about the battle. But the thing is that in love, patient and endurance be accountable for one another to fight against it.
In the recent Summer Games (2012), Kim Rhode won the gold medal in skeet shooting making her the first American to win 5 olympic medals in 5 consecutive olympic games. That’s a span of 20 years and not her only distinction. In the 2012 games, she hit 99 out of 100 skeet setting a new Olympic record and tying the world record for the event. Also, her first medal was in the 1996 Summer Games making her the youngest female gold medalist in Olympic shooting. How does one so distinguish themselves from the rest of the crowd?
In an interview with the New York Times, Rhode firmly answers the question of how. She shoots anywhere from 500 to 1,000 rounds every day of the week year around. To save you the math, this is 3,000,000 plus shots with a shotgun. That’s 600,000 rounds per medal. When you step back and look at that number, the medals and accomplishments really are not that surprising.
It would be interesting to know how much other Olympian medalists have invested in their training? How many calories have they burned? How much money have they spent? How many other things have they rejected so that it would not interfere with their training? Of course, there is the occasional rare, natural talent, but I imagine, in most cases, if these numbers were lined up, the favorites will have distinguished themselves well before the race ever began.
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul indicates that life is a race and its a race that we are all entered in so we might as well compete. We can choose to sit the race out but it is to our own demise. Our entry fees are paid, the starter has fired the gun, and our finish will still be recorded. Only those that complete the race get to advance to the next event.
Run to win. Run to finish first. At the very least run it in such a noble, honorable, and faithful manner that you are allowed to finish. Compete so that even if you do not win all of life, you will not be ashamed of how well you finished. And remember, the race isn’t won on the track, its won in the training and preparation.
There are roughly 775,000 words in the Bible. If we read one word ever day for every round Kim Rhode practices, we would complete the Bible every few years. These days, a person that has read through it completely just once has already distinguished themselves from the pack. How much more dominant would we be if we had read through it 5 times or a dozen times?
milestone 