metamorphosis.

annniieee: I’M BORED!!! SO I MAKE STUPID GIFS THAT NO ONE WILL...

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 08:48:02 -0400

I’M BORED!!! SO I MAKE STUPID GIFS THAT NO ONE WILL REBLOG.

jobicray: Oops. I don’t know why I did this. Maybe it’s...

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 23:32:36 -0400

Oops. I don’t know why I did this. Maybe it’s because TDKR was awesome.
;______;
~~Do they have a ship name?~~

Feel free to use!
(Not my pictures/quote)

messagetohumanity: the plants name is called “makahiya” and...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:43:21 -0500

messagetohumanity:

the plants name is called “makahiya” and hiya in tagalog means “shy”.

whenever you touch the plants leaves, they immediately fold up together looking as if its really shy hence the name.

I used to play with these all the time in Ghana

cat-eyes: this is the greatest meme of all time

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:43:11 -0400

cat-eyes:

this is the greatest meme of all time

devotional: Colossians 3:12.

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:23:38 -0400

Throughout this entire study, one theme that Scripture likes to point out when talking about one’s identity in Christ is this idea of being chosen by God. Something about being chosen makes me feel like I’m loved, that there’s some sort of worth in me, which is especially highlighted when I feel like I’m worth nothing at all.

I know this is a story that has been romanticized in movies and stuff, but it’s something that I experienced that makes sense whenever I think of the idea of being chosen. I’ve been the fat kid all my life, so being chosen last to play any sport was a normal occurrence for me (at least before I found basketball, when people would kill to have me as a center). I would watch all the sporty, athletic guys get chosen first; then the girls with the angry face (which translated into kicking the ball really fast and far) would get chosen; then, me, the fat kid who everybody was still friends with, but not totally into having on their sports team.

Once in a while, they would choose me before it got to the end, but I would feel a sense of responsibility to make sure that they made good on their choice, that I was worth choosing to be on their team of superstars. Inevitably, however, I would end up screwing up something … I think I remember getting so angry that I threw a baseball bat in the air, which effectively hit someone right on the forehead. Maybe that explains why I don’t like baseball that much.

I wonder if that’s the same way we treat God and His grace. God is some cosmic deity floating in the sky, choosing the best and most spiritual-looking ones to be a part of His team of ethereal superstars in heaven. However, Jesus makes it very clear that the criterion for eternal life is not mere earthly spirituality on our part, but love on His part. In the Gospels, he makes this point very clear by saying the following in Mark 2:17:

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

At the end of the day, there is nothing really inherent about the human race that would make God love us the way He does. In His eyes of holy righteousness, we are criminals unworthy of carrying the name of the Most High God (Rom. 3:23). However, we must understand that our worthiness and “chosenness” before Him is functional upon who He is. If we understand that He is the embodiment of love (1 Jn. 4:8), then we will understand what Paul writes in Romans 5:8:

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The fact we are chosen in God is functional upon the fact that God Himself is love and He desires to pour out His love upon us, despite our unworthiness to be called His children. Since Jesus died on the cross to remove our sins from us and now welcomes us into His family by faith, we are now worthy before God because He chose us. We “choose” Him as a function of understanding that He has saved us for a greater purpose than we could ever dream. This is what brings us to our verse for this morning, which Paul writes:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Since we have been chosen by God to be His people, set apart for a greater purpose in His Kingdom and incredibly loved, far beyond our shame and sinfulness, we must then choose to honor our God by showing compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience towards others. To show these characteristics on their own, sourced by our own personalities and strength, is an impossible task. It’s hard for me to show compassion to the girl in the street who cuts me off and kindness to the guy who makes fun of my voice.

However, I know that because God chose me when I was still a sinner, loving me when I was still rebellious against Him and setting me apart for a great work in His Kingdom, I will choose to be Christ-like to the people around me. The verb “clothe” implies that having these attitudes towards people is a function of our choice as believers. We have to choose to be Christ-like to the people around us, putting on these attitudes like clothes. Pretty soon, our hope is that these attitudes will become a part of our personal character, just as our clothes reflect our personal style and characteristics.

By God’s grace, we have been chosen. In His grace, I shall choose to be like Christ for the sake of the Gospel and to reflect His love for me and others. May the Lord be praised always!

bigtimerushlover2125: When somebody at school says they like...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:05:05 -0400

bigtimerushlover2125:

When somebody at school says they like Big Time Rush, and you’re just like…

I could not NOT reblog this. :-D

dirtycrazybeatz: Big Time Rush- I Wanna Hold Your Hand Amazing...

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:47:35 -0400

dirtycrazybeatz:

Big Time Rush- I Wanna Hold Your Hand Amazing Quality Hardly Any Screaming At All :P <3

departure.

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 01:01:04 -0400

So I’ve decided to leave Tumblr.

It’s a personal decision that came with much prayer and revelation from the Lord. Starting on Tumblr a year ago, I came with a prayer that God would jumpstart my spiritual life through constant prayer and study in the Word of God. I came with a pure heart seeking God’s presence in my life and because God is faithful, He truly did change the way I saw Him through the study of His Word.

I came on Tumblr hoping to not only document all that God was doing in my life, but hopefully, share to others in the process. I know that the Lord has used some of my stuff to bless some people and I am grateful to God for that.

However, as time went on, I believe that due a mixture of my own sinfulness and the amount and nature of content on Tumblr, the original purpose of my Tumblr was lost and now it has gone on without any new content from yours truly. At the end of the day, I have come to desire that all that I have and maintain would bless my God and others and I believe that my Tumblr is no longer doing that as a function of my own inadequacies.

I’m planning on moving to a new website that has less distraction attached to it and will purely be for the advancement of God’s Kingdom through the preaching of His Word; that website will be available to any of you who would like to know, just leave an ask in my inbox.

I truly desire to live according to what God wants me to do and while this may seem like an inconsequential decision to any of you who may read this in the future, believe me, it’s a step in the right direction for my spiritual life.

I desire to follow Jesus in every single area of my life, including that on the Internet. I hope this would become your desire as well.

heartdialog: O, God. London… God help London…

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:21:42 -0400

heartdialog:

O, God. London… God help London…

harvest 2011 (Philippines): day 6 - July 1.

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:00:05 -0400

This is not gonna be a super long post but it is definitely one of the highlights of my trip here in Butuan.

Before I get to the actual concert, I just wanna put some things about Butuan and the Philippines that I thought were interesting and maybe should be done in the US. One thing here is that tax is included in all the prices here, meaning that tax is not calculated and slapped on you at the end of a meal or shopping spree. It’s already there in the price and you can calculate exactly how much you’re spending without all the hassle of change. It definitely helps people like me who only look at the list price and forget about tax. It would also help people like me buyer better, but then again, that’s my responsibility really. :-P Secondly, can you believe that a haircut here can cost you 85 cents an they do a good job and they give you a short massage at the end? What kind of service is t that?? Awesome, I tell you.

Anywho, the concert went excellently because there was just a very thick move of God in the place. The concert was in free Methodist Church in Butuan and the place was pretty huge. The place seats about 500 people but I think there were a little bit more than that last night. Honestly, seeing all these kids and adults coming to a church with only a few electric fans to worship God is amazing. Their faith and passion for God is so palpable that really to see hands lifted high, hearts open to a movement of the Holy Spirit, voices raised up so loud that even Heaven is rocked by the noise, is really what heaven is like in he presence of God. One of the joys I have as a worship leader is to see the congregation worshipping for themselves without any guidance or minimal leading. I live for those moments where the band just becomes a backing track for the worship that freely rises to the Lord. Where I can just pet go of my piano and just sing with the rest of the angels in Heaven and all of God’s people on Earth are places and time I wanna be a part of.

It was definitely worth sweating through three shirts that day, fully soaked. It was worth giving my bet to God because He gave us a swath of people to minister to. People came to the Lord that night and people were willing to pack in next to each other, sit in the balconies and even stand outside to to listen and hear the music of the Lord. THAT IS AWESOME.

And here we go to the day that lies ahead. Worship workshop in two hours and I’m excited to see God unfold his will and plan in some people’s lives today!

Praise be to our Lord and Father who has given us His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be the payment of sins and assurance of salvation and His Holy Spirit to be the agent of regeneration and renewal for all who come to the Lord seeking restoration. The Lord is faithful indeed!

harvest 2011 (Philippines): day 5 - June 30.

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 08:00:06 -0400

So today was a day filled with emotion, but a day I believe was put together by God Himself. I definitely reaffirmed a bunch of things about myself, especially some things that God has revealed about me and my future over the years.

Yesterday was the day of our medical missions to the Muslim community in Butuan. As has been the trend for the past two days, I was tasked to do another thing. There was a small part of me that was a little bit jealous (maybe?) but more curious at the fact that God was calling me to another function than I originally expected myself to do during this trip. I ended up filling the role I normally do by helping the girls practice for the concert happening tonight (I’m writing this in hindsight at 4am since I can’t really sleep :-P). Anywho, so after getting instructions from Tita Tiny, we split into our separate groups and went off to Vineyard to begin practicing.

During our practice, a bunch of girls from the local high school (Agusan High) came to the church during their two hours break at school. Their leader, Tita Honey, let me know that these girls were Gospel contacts from a youth outreach they did only a few weeks ago; she had only known them for three weeks. They come into the church freely and during the time we were using the church to practice, they would have Bible study (they called it sharing time).

I felt in my heart that God was leading us to share to them. I’ve learned to let God take control of our program when people need to be ministered to and so I let God take over (at least, in my opinion). I asked the girls to give their testimony and shared with them a word about staying in season from Ecclesiastes 3 and 12 . Afterwards, I had the girls lay hands on them and pray while the boys prayed for the girls as they prayed.

In the moment, I sensed that God was leasing us to minister to them because the circumstances were so perfect! I mean, you got a bunch of girls randomly watching you practice for a concert that they will ALL attend, so why wait until the concert when you can minister to them now? In my ministry, I never will assume that a person is a Christian or is perfectly in step with God in their life. I would rather take the time to minister to them and ensure that God’s work of salvation and restoration are completed, but that is just me. At the end of the day, I had and have faith that whatever God started, He will complete, so our practice was just a refresher for things we may have forgotten for the concert. Again, my opinion.

Anywho, after that, the team united at Vineyard and practiced through the whole concert and the same thing happened again with the students coming into the church while we were practicing, so Tita Joanne did the same thing I did and ministered to them, which was awesome. There was a boy there who received the Lord into his heart that second time, so that was great.

I just wanna let you know I’m writing this two days in hindsight because some stuff went down behind the scenes that I wanted to process before I wrote it down. While I have my opinions, I never want to let those opinions cause a spirit of dissension and division among our group, especially when the unity of our team is so necessary for missions. I’ve also realized that at the end of the day, some people and others just have different viewpoints and callings and God has imbued us with different tendencies that come at the forefront for what God has called us to do. Understanding those differences and the managing them effectively for the sake of the advancement of God’s Kingdom is what will make my leadership in the future much more effective.

In the evening, we went to LSI, the creators of the Kairos World Missions Course. It is always a privilege to bless the ones who poured out into your life and we had that opportunity. These people come from all over the world as missionaries and trainers of missionaries to Butuan to get training and equipping for their work in the mission field. Some of these people I’ve only heard of before and now I get to meet them in person. It’s exciting to hear and see what God is doing and know that people like me, equippers as much as goers, put the same effort and have the same passion to see lost people come to Jesus.

There was a woman there named Linda (the leader of Kairos in Europe) who spoke a word of prophecy over me saying that God’s will for my life was gonna unfold into huge, marvelous things in marvelous places, but it’s gonna be one door at a time. She told me that God’s only gonna let me see one door at a time, but in the meantime, have faith and be faithful with the door that IS open. I thought that was awesome and pretty much describes my life in a way. So often my growth has occurred in stages and the things God has allowed me to do has happened in stages so that’s something not new to me but definitely NOW to me.

I’m excited to see what the future holds for me in God’s kingdom!

harvest 2011 (Philippines): day 4 - June 29.

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:05:05 -0400

So today was a rest day for me, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t doing stuff for the Lord. I pray that my interactions with all these people were seasoned with God’s grace and brought them a little closer to Jesus.

This morning, our team went to speak to the Mayor of Butuan, which I thought was awesome. To see a bunch of Filipinos from Miami speak to the leadership of Butuan is an amazing sight, because we know that we honored the heart of God by honoring the leadership that He Himself set up. And to see the sons of our pastor exhort kings of the world to follow the ways of Christ is an even more incredible thing. They planted seeds of harvest for positions of leadership in the future and I’m excited to see what God will do in their lives.

Around this time, I met Pastor Ian, the pastor of Butuan Vineyard, the church that is helping sponsor our work in the Philippines. This man and other pastors in the city are helping to transform their city into one of influence and power under the guidance of he Lord Himself. The mayor is a Christian and has sponsored a groundbreaking program called the Moral Recovery Program, a program enacted by Congress under the Ramos administration in the ’90s. This program is drained to eliminate corruption city-wide, starting in government offices all the way to the barangay level. Pastor Ian reported that corruption in Butuan has decreased significantly because of this program and Christians in Butuan are the ones spearheading it, which is incredibly amazing. I honestly told pastor Ian that I couldn’t envision it happening in the United States but God knows we need it there. Seeing it happen in Butuan gives me hope to see it implement something in our own city the same way, if only the church in Miami would rise up for the cause of Christ; a prayer point indeed.

I mean, the program legally protects Bible study and Christian values within the government and I think the Lord is truly honoring this city with influence to other municipalities in the Philippines. This is something truly remarkable, a Christian government that’s getting it right because of Jesus. Awesome.

Today was interesting for the fact that I got diarrhea from stress or something, I dunno; in that, I had to stay home today, but I did a lot of stuff and interacted with a lot of people when I was home. I met more people from the church we’ll be ministering at, talked to Denice’s grandmas, finally got our luggage, and had a lot of good rest.

I took advantage of the opportunity to stay at home by helping to care of the house while I took care of myself. There was one person I met today who totally poured so much encouragement into my life and her name is Tita Peachy. Heck yea, what an awesome name. She validated so many things for me in my life and I took it all in. She, like me, is single but 30, which for a Filipino is like committing social suicide. She told me about what she’s experienced about singlehood and I’ve felt a little bit of It come my way. The thing about following God is to follow Him in the season you are in and not letting people pressure you into a season that you’re not prepared for. When the time is right, she and I are convinced that we will know it because the Lord will fill us with a deep desire to see His will in this area come to fruition. Right now, I’m single and loving it, so I ain’t gotta worry about that. I love it when people speak into my life. She encouraged me to pray prayers for the final girl, a wife from the Lord who fulfills the best that God wants for me. I’ve set my heart: I don’t want a dating relationship, I want a marriage.

To hear all these things come my way is an incredible thing, something that can only come from God. It doesn’t hurt that I’m totally enjoying my experience here, not to mention eating at Jollibee and ChowKing. Not a shabby time here in Butuan, can’t wait for all the things God has in store for me, whether I’m in the house or in the field!

harvest 2011 (Philippines): day 2+3 - June 27/28.

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:00:06 -0400

Since we crossed a little thing called the International Date Line, we’ve technically crossed into the third day of our missions trip in Butuan. It’ll probably be obvious to you that I will repeat many themes in my blogs about our trip, but I wanna be able to stay current in all that God is teaching me.

One thing I noticed coming into Butuan is how excited I was seeing the province as we began to touch down. I don’t really know if it’s because it was an “End of the Spear” moment for me or anything, but I do know for sure that it was one more incredible declaration that we were all meant to be here for this missions trip, these moments where we reach into God’s heart by reaching to His people.

I’ve also noticed how much God is teaching me how to be more patient and courteous and generally more people-oriented than I think I am. So often my kindness and general good demeanor is overshadowed by the demand for perfection from those who I already consider normal. Let me explain myself for a second.

When I meet new people or interact with those who I haven’t known for a very long time, there a very courteous and well-demeanor Pat that comes out. However, with people who I’ve known for a while, especially if they are Christians, there is a standard I expect those around me to uphold, not in a “follow-me-as-I-follow-Christ” kind of way, but more of “what-the-hell-is-up-with-you” way. I find that around people who I know, I find that I take the disciplining role not to encourage as much as fulfill my own self-righteousness. That’s something I really need to pray to God for transformation about.

However, I’m learning more and more to not sweat the small things of life in favor of focusing on what needs to be done. I’m done worrying about how things SHOULD be and what things I SHOULD be doing in favor of following God an serving Him in the place and season He wants me to remain in. At the end of the day, I’m relying on Him to guide my steps and guard my heart.

I’m writing this a day behind so I’m starting to forget about the very small incidences but trying to remember all the general stuff that God is placing on my heart. I’m pretty sure that stuff will come to me as time goes on …

EDIT: So coming off the plane in Manila was a very interesting (and humorous in hindsight) time for me. It was a thirteen hour flight and my brother was already having trouble sleeping; he essentially didn’t sleep the entire flight. I was the secondhand victim because not only did he move like a restless beast on my left, people passing me in the aisle kept on bumping me to the right, so it was very hard for me to sleep long. In this, my brother and I, groggy as ever, begin to fumble for our stuff and try to get out to the plane. To say the least, we became the laughingstock of a bunch of Filipinos (all have been there before) from our church.

My brother, being his wonderful self, didn’t care about the impact of the incident like I did, but I took it a little bit personally. As it happened and we were walking into the Manila airport, all these identity issues starting flowing in anger toward everyone involved. Honestly, I thought it was a piece of crap thing to do treating us like an idiotic bunch of Americans in a country we haven’t even seen before, much less lived in. The fairness level of this interaction was dangerously low in my opinion, but I only have myself to blame for the anger I was harboring in my heart during that time.

This is why I tried to keep a straight face, focusing on getting stuff done and keeping my eyes on the goodness of the Lord. I laughed about it all later, and thanked God I didn’t blow up on anyone at that time. I knew that my emotions were all over the place and I was incredibly fatigued, so i decided to take the high route and let God take care of it instead, which should really be out default mode of thought anyways.

What really brought me back to what God was doing in my life was when I met my Ate Mariz in the airport. She prayed over us and spoke a verse over us, where Moses proclaims to God that if His presence doesn’t go with us, then we would not go. Landing in Butuan fulfilled thus Scripture in my hearing.

How great God is!

harvest 2011 (Philippines): day 1.5 - June 26.

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:05:06 -0400

Considering we haven’t even left the plane yet, this shall be a half day post. I just wanna put some of my stories in here to chronicle our trip so far, because it has indeed been an adventure.Flying over the Pacific has reminded me of all those times in the Bible where the Israelites or important people in the Bible have entered into a new season, if not something life-changing at the least. People like the Israelites during the Exodus, the Israelites during the conquest of Joshua, or Elisha and Elijah: all these people had to cross a major body of water as a passage into something new that God had promised for them. I can only dream of the fullness of what God is bringing us into; all I know is that God is gonna bring a huge harvest for the gospel. I’m content with leaving the rest of those details to the Lord above.

Concerning our actual flight leaving Miami, we were delayed almost three full hours because of some hydraulic problems with the plane. I imagine that while we were sorely inconvenienced (we were already strung out from waiting), it was truly the providence of the Lord over all of us. Imagine if they went on with the flight and we found out about those problems mid-air. Let’s not even think about that and focus on the grace of God. :-P

I also find that my attitude towards people and situations is slowly starting to change. My brother’s been in MacGyver (sp?) mode all day, trying to take charge of things when he clearly has no idea what to do. I know he’s feeling the same anxiety as me to get everything done without a hitch, but the challenge is to teach him to trust God in addition to teaching myself to trust God to calm my temper and need to take control as well. God definitely needs to take everything; so far, He’s been showing me that, in addition (I hope) to the rest of the team.

Praise God, our second meal is coming, so I might stop here for now. Hahaha :-)

kateoplis: White Man Contemplating Pyramids, Richard...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:00:05 -0400

kateoplis:

White Man Contemplating Pyramids, Richard Misrach, from The Life and Death of Buildings at Princeton University Art Museum

Next destination! :-D

devotional: Ephesians 2:19.

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:05:06 -0400

It is a privilege to be able to call yourself a citizen of a country; once you become a citizen, you are able to enjoy the best of what that country has to offer because you are considered a legal part of that nation. In the sense that we are privileged to be both citizens of a country and (even more importantly) citizens of heaven, we are tasked with an incredibly unique responsibility.

As he is writing to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul includes this morning’s verse as an integral part of his letter to the church. In order to introduce this concept of citizenship in God’s Kingdom to the Church, he reminds them of their past state of relations with God. Looking at our lives before Christ in terms of political entities, we were once at war with God, rebelling against all of His ways and commandments.

It was only through Christ that we found peace with God, for it was He who satisfied the justice of the Father, He who is eternally righteous and just to require death of us (Romans 3:23), but eternally loves us to forgive us of our sins so that we may have a restored relationship with Him (John 3:16-17). Upon this premise, Paul writes the following in Ephesians 2:19:

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, …

As always, it is incredibly helpful to look at the Bible in the cultural context in which it was found as well as in light of other Scriptures in the Bible. Doing some minimal Wikipedia research this morning, I wanted to look up the implications of the word “citizenship” in light of a Greco-Roman context. We know from the letters of Paul that he was a Roman citizen by birth and used this fact to his advantage several times.

As a part of Roman citizenship, the person holding citizenship had the following rights:

The right to vote in the Roman assemblies.
The right to stand for civil or public office.
The right to make legal contracts and to hold property as a Roman citizen.
The right to have a lawful marriage with a Roman citizen, to have the legal rights of the paterfamilias over the family, and to have the children of any such marriage be counted as Roman citizens.
The right to preserve one’s level of citizenship upon relocation to a polis of comparable status.

· The right to have a legal trial.

· The right to be exempt from torture, whippings, and the death penalty.

As citizens, we know that we have been given rights, but so few of us understand that our rights come with responsibilities should be fulfilled if we want to properly honor the citizenship that was given to us in the first place. Some of the responsibilities of Roman citizens that we were implicit in my superficial Wikipedia search was the responsibility to uphold the law; not only was it the right of any Roman citizen to sue others but to BE sued as well.

Now in the scope of Scripture, this is something that is inherent within our Christian lives as it pertains to salvation. We know that the rights and privileges we have as citizens of the Kingdom of God are not simply for us, but are for the sake of the advancement of the Kingdom and the glorification of the Name of the Most High. We can see it in several passages in the New Testament. For our purposes, we will look at Galatians 5:13, which states:

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Paul admonishes us to not merely glory in our freedom for the sake of promoting nice cars, comfy houses, and the perfect family or “American dream,” if you will. Above all things, the freedom that we have as citizens of our own country as well as the Kingdom of Heaven merits a level of responsibility attached to serving others.

I write this devotional long after I had scheduled myself to write it and I suppose it was in God’s timing for this to happen. This year, I celebrated July 4^th in a foreign country, doing missions work in the Philippines. That day, we traveled to Cagayan de Oro, a city four hours away from our home base in Butuan. In that city, we ministered to a bunch of streetkids, kids who are forced to live without a home, normally in the streets, or squatting in buildings that are vacant and unoccupied. These children look for food, being fed rice porridge and given school supplies by the church we were ministering with.

As an American, I enjoy the privileges of having at least twenty different food options in addition to having several different options of paper, pencils, pens, and whatever other school supplies I will need from the Wal-Mart two minutes away by car. As a citizen of the United States, I realize that as much as God has blessed with so many things, it also means He has given me an incredible responsibility to use all that I have for the Gospel.

If I ain’t blessing people with what I have, through service and ministry within God’s Kingdom, then what am I here for? What am I still doing on God’s green earth?

At the end of the day, our freedom is meant for service, our citizenship is meant for the advancement of the Kingdom, and our rights are meant to help us fulfill the responsibility we have to share the Gospel with the rest of the fallen, broken world we live in. At the end of the day, all these pretty things we own will fade away; God forbid that I use them for more else than the advancement of the Kingdom and the glorification of the Most High One.

Blessings to all of you!

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Cover) - Big Time Rush I don’t...

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:00:05 -0400

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Cover) - Big Time Rush

I don’t understand why they keep on trying to ruin my life. :-P

harvest 2011 (Philippines): day 1 - June 26.

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:05:05 -0400

This is the beginning of a series of posts that are my raw yet mildly edited blogs from the Philippines documenting our church’s missions trip (my first international missions trip). Content after the jump!

I’ve got a lot on my mind so I want to put it down somewhere.

This last weekend before the missions trip has been a whirlwind of emotion for me. I don’t love it when I go through the gamut of emotions in a 48-hour period, but it’s happened to me more often in the past month than in months prior. If God’s ever taught me anything, it’s in those crazy moments that force me to trust Him for everything, including my sanity.

I definitely had my moment on Saturday afternoon and night, when God came to my rescue using [an unnamed friend] as we stood outside my house. I suppose the reason for my despondency is really in the fact that I didn’t trust God to take care of me in my season away from my friends and family back home. I seriously was worried (in the normal exercise of my insecurity) about losing [this friend] and, I suppose in the process, thought that I was losing God too. However, being embraced by [this friend] as I cried into his shoulder (yes, I had my movie moment), asking him if he was gonna be there, and him reaffirming his commitment to me as my best friend, brought me to the face of God, the face of the One I know will never leave nor forsake me. I know there will be times when [this friend] won’t be there, but I sure know God will be. That gave me so much comfort as I walked into the unknown territory of missions, confident in God’s plan and protection over my life, but still feeling the excitement and anxiety of walking into the unknown.

I realize this is very stream-of-consciousness, but I wanna put all my thoughts somewhere.

Dealing with all the checkpoints, making sure my brother didn’t walk away from the group in addition to making sure of a thousand other things really teaches you to rely on the provision of the Lord. At the end of the day, it was God who brought us to the new plane, kept us safe from the possible problem we might have encountered if we had rode that plane with the broken hydraulic parts, giving the staff of the Airport clear and safety-oriented minds to guide all of us, keeping us safe on our flights to Los Angeles and Manila, and keeping us healthy and rested. I’m convinced that if I really took time to enumerate the precision of God in all these moments, I would run out of room on this phone to write them all down.

Jesus, help me to make the most of these experiences, and give me Your eyes to see all that is happening around me. Give me chances to share the Gospel in what I do and say. Make me fully aware of what I need to do in You and through You. Jesus, use me as You wish. I know You’re gonna take care of me!

Amen.

random thoughts: beginning again.

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:59:41 -0400

So I’m back from the Philippines with a lot of stuff from the Lord. It’s time to make some changes.

In the Old Testament, the narrative records several instances of when a person erects an altar because of some act that the Lord has done that reveals Him in a new light to mankind. Abraham liked to do this a lot and one instance that comes to my mind right now is found in Genesis 22:14, right after Abraham’s faith was validated by the Lord as he prepared to kill his own son. After finding a ram in the bushes, Abraham sacrificed the ram on the altar, after which:

Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.”

Moments like that come and go in our lives and they really are markers of a life that is being changed by the Lord Himself. It makes you wonder about what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, in that we are changed from “glory to glory,” a life with God that is changed on a moment-by-moment basis as we victoriously walk with the Lord according to His Spirit.

Going on this missions trip to the Philippines merits an altar-building moment, in that the Lord Himself changed me while I was in the Philippines. I refuse to go back to the person I once was, a person who relied on pornography and masturbation to get out of a funk, who relied on criticizing others based on his righteousness to get approval and self-esteem, who relied on dishonesty to protect his own image.

I refuse to be the man I once was and desire to see the glory of the Lord unfolded in my life.

In any case, I thought about my lack of a habit of devotional time in the morning like I normally had before. Knowing what I know about the Gospel, I understand that God will still love even if I do nothing to study His Word or anything like that. I also know that the command to “meditate on the Word day and night” is a command that I will not perfectly fulfill on my own because I am a sinner. However, I realize that Jesus has saved me and the only way I know about that is because His Word revealed that to me. In this, I understand that because I love God and am in a relationship with Him, I study my Bible to get to know Him better. I have value and worth because of what He says about me in His Word. This is why I do devotionals in the morning: to start my day off with the Word of God and set my mind in the way that He thinks about me and I think about Him and His people.

I desire to return back to a place where a habit and love of studying God’s Word reigns in my heart because I desire to love God more by getting to know Him better. I love Jesus and I desire to grow more in the relationship I have with Him. If I believe this all to be real, then it better have an impact on my life because the Lord is the One ordaining all of this.

In this, I started writing devotionals on here because I wanted to remember what God has taught me in everything that I experience on this Earth and study in His Word. I fear that I have made my worship through the study of God’s Word into something that will either bring me followers or satisfy my self-righteousness. I desire to be like God so I shall return to the real reason I started my devotionals: to seek God and become like Him through the study of His Word. I love God way too much to have a tenuous grasp of His Word.

I shall remain in the Lord.

That’s all I got for now. I will be queuing my daily blogs from the Philippines, hopefully with pictures. They’re pretty raw, in the sense that a lot of it is coming from what I was experiencing in the moment, so they truly note much of the transformation that God enacted in my heart.

In any case, the Lord is good! Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

thatkindofwoman: Splitscreen: A Love Story by JW...

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:45:18 -0400

thatkindofwoman:

Splitscreen: A Love Story by JW Griffiths

“Nokia asked filmmakers to use its phones to shoot a movie, and one stellar result is this surprisingly gorgeous and tender short that brings two lovers together from across the Atlantic.”

Awwww, I love short films. :-)