A Fresh Start

I miss home a lot. I really do. Though it's not my first time being away from home anymore, I still get homesick from time to time whenever I am away from home. I guess it is not just missing the comforts of home and loved ones, but also the sense of security in a familiar surrounding.

Being away from home is a great challenge for me because I am forced to learn different methods to meet my needs in a different way and with different people around me. Therefore, there is always this longing for things to return the way they were as I am forced to step out of my comfort zone.

Nonetheless, I believe there is a positive side to homesickness, too. At least I know that I have family, friends and loved ones worth missing and a place where I can always return to when my little adventure is over.

Oh wells, many busy, busy days ahead. Yet, in the midst of all the busyness, I pray that God will continue to show me the lessons He want me to learn. No matter what the circumstance, I want to put in my very best to fulfill whatever responsibilities that have been and will be entrusted to me. I need to constantly remember that this is all part of my journey towards Christ, for Christ, and with Christ.

The Greatest Valentine

Love is certainly in the air. Valentine’s Day never fails to bring out a definite sweetness in the air with pink and red as its colour theme for the day; a day about love, when people would do romantic things to show their affectionate feeling. It sure is fun to be part of all the excitement, passing out valentines, giving/receiving roses, chocolates or fancy candy hearts from loved ones, but, there are also others who would feel lonely, unlovable, forgotten, and unloved.

Perhaps what these people are missing is the experience of the kind of love, where its magnitude is so strong, so incredibly strong, that it would go to the extent where one would willingly lay down his life for another. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”. In other words, the greatest love any one can have for their friends is to lay down his/her life for them.

Our life is probably the most valuable thing we have. Therefore, when a man is willing to lay down his life for his friends, he is showing the utmost extent of love. There is no other way for any man to love farther than this, for when he gives up his life, he is giving up all that he has for the cause of friendship. And this love was demonstrated by Christ himself, when He freely and voluntarily worked his body not only to the point of exhaustion, but to death, that we may experience his love in its highest expression. He has not only equaled, but exceeded, the most illustrious love one can ever find on earth.

Today, Christ’s love continues to live in the hearts and souls of those He calls His friends- a people who love, believe & obey Him. It could be that Jesus is the greatest Valentine of all for His love is the deepest one can ever find, a love above every other love, the best. More so, the joy and happiness that He brings is of everlasting value.

A Father's Loving Kindness

It sometimes just boggles my mind when I think of the privileges that I have being part of God’s family. To be His children, is also to be His heirs. And of course, an heir will eventually inherit all of his father’s estate. In other words, all that the Father has will one day be mine! It seems unbelievable that I will one day possess all of God’s glorious inheritance. It’s harder to believe when I think of how God still wants the best for me even though I’ve disappoint Him over and over again.

One does not necessarily have to adopt a child before he can show love towards children. Likewise, God can also love us without adopting us, but still, He chooses to adopt us the moment we place our trust in Him, placing every newborn believe in a family of which He is the Father. It is a privilege that He gives to all believers- the privilege to be part of an eternal home; the privilege to call him “Abba, Father”; the privilege to address him with warm affection and endearing confidence.

This is the Spirit of adoption or sonship that allows us to have this Father-son relationship with God. It is a special relationship, which can only happen by God’s grace for it is out of His pure and sovereign love that we are now under the heavenly Father’s protection and care. By nature, we were strangers and had no claims on Him, yet, God chooses to embrace us as His sons & daughters; giving us the rights to possess His estate.

Nonetheless, it is not by natural birth that we become His child for through natural birth we are merely born as children of a human father. It is only through spiritual birth that we can be born as children of the Most High God, the true Father. And, it is only when we have received Him into our hearts and believe in Him that we can experience this new birth. No parent will ever acknowledge his child if the child despises and have no confidence or trust in the parent. Similarly, God cannot acknowledge us unless and until we have put our trust in Him.

Test of Simplicity

I sometimes wonder if it is true that the more we have, the harder it is to live a life of simplicity that is in Christ. Simplicity in Christ speaks of a simple and single-hearted devotedness to Him, but, since we now live in a lifestyle that is greatly defined by the material things we possess, perhaps the discipline of simplicity is really not that simple after all.

God warns us from being preoccupied with material things, yet we are surrounded by them. It is not wrong to have a life that is flowing with material blessings but it is wrong to be obsessed with them. When one starts to find satisfaction in material things rather than the spiritual, the simple and single-hearted devotedness to Him is lost because the heart is making room for other objects. How then can a heart still be called single when there is more than one aim, purpose and goal filling the heart?

I have to admit that I am very much materially blessed by God. I have so much more than I really need in life and sometimes, it does scare me because I wonder if I have lost the simplicity that Christ speaks of. I need to constantly remind myself that life is so much more than the abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15) because our true life is not made up of the material riches that we own, but the spiritual ones.

The man who stores up treasures for himself can never be rich towards God. Thus, I pray that the Lord will continually teach me how I can use all the blessings that I have to bless the lives of others; for the advancement of His kingdom.

One can only truly enjoy the material blessings of God when his/her heart has decided to surrender the material and embrace the eternal. What is your decision?