How God Saved Me

Our testimonies about how God has pursued us, found us, and saved us are a testament of God’s amazing grace in our lives. Every time we remember how God delivered us from our sinfulness, we are pointed to the awesome reality of God’s saving help that He extended to wretched people like us. Through our testimonies, we bask in the grace, love, mercy, and kindness lavishly poured out on our lives. Because of that awesome reminder, we also get excited and are interested to hear the testimonies of others.

It should be pointed out that testimonies are always a means to an end: the awesome glory of the majestic God. It is not about our sinful selves but it is about the only wise Father who graciously and lovingly sent His Son to die for the penalty of our sins on the cross on our behalf, to live a life of perfect obedience to God’s law to earn the perfect righteousness that is given to us, and to be resurrected from the dead to prove that He indeed is both Savior and Lord. This gift of salvation is freely offered to all who would turn away from their sins and trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Kindly give me the opportunity to share mine. Hope you would be patient enough to read it. I told myself that if God would allow me to write more than 100 posts in this blog then I would prayerfully consider to share how God saved a wretched like me. It is my prayer that my sinful and dark life would be completely overshadowed by the radiance of the pure Light; that everything will redound to His glorify alone.

Like all of us who have truly experienced the depths of God’s love, grace, and mercy, my testimony is simply about a wretched man whose heart was restless until it found its’ rest in God as Augustine aptly put it. Since, I am a sinner by nature and by choice, instead of making God as my source of rest, my sinful restless heart wandered and sought its rest into sexual immorality, impurity, relationships, achievements, and entertainment. It really goes to show that if the one true God is not who we worship then we would worship something or someone else. That is just common sense. If our relationship is not right vertically (us and God), then we would seek it horizontally in relationships, achievements, sinful pleasures, entertainment, and so on. This is the heart of sin; exchanging the most beautiful Being to infinitely lesser created things which could never satisfy our souls, save us from the misery that we are in, and most importantly from eternal damnation.

I would just like to fast-track to my college life because this is the climactic part of my life. I was saved when I was in my fourth year of college. When I stepped into college, I told myself that I really wanted to achieve something academically. If possible, I want to try even for one time to be number one in something; to achieve something great or excel in something. I studied with all my might; relying on my self-effort and ability. I prayed to a god who is not in line with what the Bible teaches. It’s silly because I just treat this god as a genie. Praying for it to bless me as I seek to achieve my aspiration in college. To make the long story short, the cumulative and persistent effort in aiming to be top of my class from 1st year to 3rd year bore fruit when I was in third year. I remember seeing on the honor list that I was top 1 in the course that I am in. The happiness was just fleeting. Sadly, it didn’t fulfill the void that was in my heart. My heart was still empty. I told myself, “Is this life all about?” “Setting goals, achieving them, and setting goals again?” This seemed to me like a never-ending cycle and I didn’t want to be a part of that prison cell. Deep inside, I believe this eternal longing could only be found in the One who alone is eternally satisfying.

The thirst and hunger of my restless and longing soul multiplied because I also simultaneously sought to find the thirst and hunger in sexual pleasure at that time. My life was just so empty and miserable. I was trying to search for a drink to quench the thirst in my soul in relationships, achievements, validation, and recognition from others. It never quenched the thirst of my insatiable soul. But praise be to God that during the fourth year, someone shared the good news of Jesus Christ to me. I was so skeptical about it at first. I attended church but I have lots of questions in my mind. I am a type of see-it-for-myself kind of person. And for me, since my eternal destiny was at stake, I should take this quest for truth seriously. As I look back, I believe that this is not my pursuit of truth but rather God’s pursuit of me. As I searched for the truth, it was actually God’s way of drawing me. I asked lots of questions from my Christian friends, listen to debates, meticulously researched stuff from credible sources on the internet, read books, and most importantly searched the bible to find answers.

I held onto Hebrews 11:6 which says: “⁶But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Even though I was so lost and blinded in the darkness, I believe that God will shed light into my heart and my mind as I diligently seek Him. I deeply desire and hunger to know and find the Truth and genuinely experience Him in my life.

As I read the Bible in my search for truth, I was so skeptical as I read it because I thought that it was written 2,000 to 3,500 years before. I asked myself, “What would be my assurance that it was not tampered with?” In the providence of God, it’s a wonderful thing that He sent friends into my life who gave me books which answered my questions about the: existence of God, reliability, infallibility, and inerrancy of the word of God, the historicity of Jesus and His resurrection. God patiently and slowly answered all of my questions. From a a doubter and a skeptic, I am now a believer in the undeniable existence of the glorious God, deity of Jesus, and the ultimate authority of the word of God. But I was still one step short from the most important question: “How would I be saved or accepted in the eyes of God?” “If there is heaven, how will I get there?” I think this is the most important question that I need to answer because it involves my eternal soul. Personally, I don’t want to go to hell, but deep inside, I know that I am too sinful and flawed to go to heaven. So, this was the question that I tried to answer. Praise God for the Holy Spirit who taught me and guided me to the truth. As I ask God to give me answers as I read the Bible, I came to the conclusion that the most important doctrine that we should be correct is justification. Justification is the act whereby God legally declares a sinful person righteous in His eyes on the basis of the perfect obedience of Christ. As I look at other religious worldviews, most of them suggest that God declares us as righteous by faith and good works or by our good works. For me, this was the primary issue because what the Bible teaches is justification by faith alone. Faith is the only instrument or medium through which we receive the righteousness of Christ, thereby, making us righteous in the eyes of God. Faith is like the pathway which God sends the righteousness of Christ. God guided me to the realization that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. I cannot earn it for myself. I cannot contribute any good works for my salvation because even my best deeds are filthy rags before the eyes of God. Nevertheless, this awesome truth was settled in my mind but not my heart.

It was timely that it was on Christmas break in the year 2013 that I searched out the answer to these things. Day in and day out, I read the Bible wanting to take hold of the eternal life promised to all who repent from their sins and trust in Jesus. As I read God’s word every day, there’s a particular verse that struck me. It was John 6:44 which says, “⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” I wanted to come to Christ but I couldn’t. This verse struck me because it dawned on my heart that I am so utterly broken because of sin that I couldn’t come to God unless He grants me the power to do so. It caused me to cry out to God to enable me to come to Him. Amazingly, God gave me the sober realization that I couldn’t come to Him on my own because I was so sinful. I have no moral ability or capacity to do so because my sinful nature needs to be changed first by the sovereign grace of God. I begged and cried out that God would draw a sinful man like me to Him. I asked God to give me the grace to turn away from my sins and trust in Him as my Lord and Savior. It is His faithful promise in His word that once I genuinely do this, He will seal me with the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 1:13) And, that the Holy Spirit will testify and assure me that I am a child of God and that I have eternal life. (Rom. 8:16)

There is now no more condemnation for me because Christ died for my sins on my behalf to absorb God’s wrath against my sins. I am now declared as righteous in God’s sight because of the robe of righteousness of Christ that’s been on me the moment I turned from my sins and trust in His life, death, and resurrection. The unquenchable thirst and hunger of my insatiable soul has been satisfied by the Bread of life and the Fountain of living water. My restless heart now finds rest in Him. It’s as if I haven’t drank water for such a long time that when I received the drink that Jesus offers, the thirst in the depths of my soul has been fully quenched. It would seem that I pursued Him but in reality it was all owing to the Good Shepherd who left the 99 to find the one lost sheep who is me to take me into His fold so that I would experience forgiveness of sins, life eternal, and fullness of joy in His presence forevermore. Jesus saving me is all by His grace. The only thing I contributed is my sin which made my salvation necessary.

Truly. Rightfully. Eternally. God alone deserves all the glory, honor, and praise!

I still fall, stumble, struggle, and sin. But God’s grace is sufficient to cover all of these sins. His mercies are new every morning. And day by day, by God’s grace and His power, I am putting sin to death and pursuing to display Christ in my life. Though I am so far from Christlikeness, His grace continually changes me and never gives up on me. I am not the person who I used to be, but I am still so far from the person God wants me to be. The faithful God will finish the work that He has started. I might still be a mess now. But in Christ, I am a work in progress. My life has so much detours but God has made sure that I will arrive on my ultimate destination because He is my all-knowing, sovereign, perfectly loving Pilot who have the power to give me safe landing.

And, the awesome reality is, I am not who I was. In Christ, I am made new.

I was a slave of sin, but now, I am a slave of Christ.

I was dressed in filthy rags, but now, I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

I was lost, but now, I am found.

I was blind, but now, I see.

Praise God for the His free gift of salvation which is:

All by grace alone. Unearned. Unmerited. Undeserved. (Rom. 11:6, Eph. 2:8)

Through faith alone. No other human contribution. No room for self-effort, self-confidence, and self-sufficiency. (Eph. 2:8-9)

In Christ alone. No other mediator and savior. No other name. No other truth. No other way. No other life. (John 14:6, 1 Tim. 2:5, Acts 4:12)

For His glory alone. No other creatures’ glory. Not especially mine. All pointing to His glory. (Rom. 11:36)

Your Soul is Precious

“³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37)

Jesus asks a rhetorical question. Our soul is more valuable than all of the riches, experiences, kingdoms, and pleasures than this world offers. If we try to combine all the things found in the world then it could still never compensate our soul. Our soul is that precious! It’s more valuable than the world. Only the precious blood of Christ can pay for the valuable price of our sinful souls and set it free. (1 Cor. 6:20)

We also need to notice that gaining the world means forfeiting our soul. We cannot have both. Gaining the world means giving up our souls. We cannot retain our souls and gain the whole world at the same time. We ought to choose which is more important to us. Is my eternal soul important or the temporal world? The reasonable choice should be always our eternal souls. Sadly, we are helplessly blinded by our sinful nature that we are magnetized and drawn to the things of the world. Apart from the grace of God that opens our blind eyes, we easily chase after money, pleasure, experiences, and anything that this world could offer. We are far too easily pleased. We are effortlessly deceived by the world because we don’t realize the infinite value of our souls and the price it costed God to pay the price of the eternal souls of His people.

Grace is free but it is not cheap. It costed God the Father to send His Son Jesus Christ to come down into this world. He lived in perfect obedience to the law of God to earn the righteousness that God requires. God freely gives this gift of righteousness to anyone who would repent from their sins and trust in Him as Lord and Savior. He also died on the cross in behalf of His people to pay for their penalty. The perfect Lamb shed His blood to pay the price of the eternal souls of His people so that we would be with Him to experience Him in all of His glory and be joyfully satisfied forever.

The King of Heaven came into this world to be born in a pitiful manger. He chose humiliation rather than exaltation for the souls of His people. He did not speak a word when He was brutally flogged. He was like a sheep who has been slaughtered. All for the sake of the valuable souls of His people. Sadly, here we are, thinking that what the world could offer is better than what Jesus offers. Let us not buy into this lie. The world can never satisfy the deepest longing of our souls. Only the One who created our souls knows how to satisfy it fully and completely.

Before Jesus asked this question, the preceding verses say, ^“34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

If we don’t want to lose our souls let us offer it to Jesus. We offer it by denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Him. Denying ourselves of the bad things that the sinful flesh wants us to have and denying ourselves with the good things for the best Thing. Self-denial involves daily repentance. The cross is the symbol of suffering and death. Faith unites us in the death of Christ. And since we are dead with Christ, we no longer live for ourselves but for the sinless Savior who died in our place. (Gal. 2:20) Following Christ means obeying His words and following His life. The call of Jesus is a call to die to ourselves so that we might experience new life in Him.

Repent from your sins and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Your soul is precious. Offer it to Jesus. He is infinitely worthy of it.

The Vastness of the Night Sky

Walking while gazing at the nightsky is one of the humbling moments that I have in my life because it reminds me that the universe is just so staggeringly vast for it to be about a speck of dust like me. It’s never about me but it’s all about the One who created it and holds it all together.

It’s about the One who is the:

all-powerful Creator who created the universe out of nothing. The One, who in the beginning, spoke the universe into existence with His powerful word. He speaks things out of existence.

intelligent Designer who intricately designed the universe and fine-tuned it for life. The all-wise Planner who established natural laws in place for the universe to function in a consistent manner. He prepared a place for human life to flourish. Everything is interrelated and interdependent to each other to display His infinite intelligence and awesome wisdom.

Sustainer who holds it all together and apart from His power would cause the universe to disintegrate. The stars in the night sky are in place because He puts it in place. Apart from His power, all the stars in the universe will fall out of its place and result a catastrophic impact in the universe and on the earth. Every heartbeat, breath, and fiber of our being continue to exist because of His sustaining grace.

Sovereign who is in control of every molecule in the universe, history, nature, human actions, and the littlest details of our lives. Nothing is outside of His sovereignty. Since, He fills all things with His majestic presence, there’s no place outside the universe wherein He cannot call it “mine”. Everything belongs to Him. He is not just a there in heaven, sitting in His throne and just observing His creation, He is the One who governs everything to accomplish His eternal purpose for His greatest glory and greatest good of His people.

sinless Savior who came down into this world to perfectly live in my place to give me the righteousness that God only accepts and vicariously die in my place to pay the penalty of my sins. He is the spotless unblemished Lamb who takes away the sins of His people. Though our sins are red as scarlet, He makes us white as snow. We receive this gift of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Capture our hearts with awe of You so that we would live for Someone who is so much bigger than us. So that we could say with John the Baptist, “He must increase, I must decrease.” (John 3:30) That we should find contentment in obscurity for us to marvel more of Your glory. May we exist for Your glory and point others to Your glory because You are ultimate and Highest Joy.

Daily Dying

Are we dying daily to sin and self? Do we do our best with help of the power of the Holy Spirit to put death the deeds of the body? Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” It’s either we live under sin and according to the flesh or we live by the Spirit of God. There’s no middle ground. If we are not abiding in the Spirit then we are abiding in sin. If we are not putting to death the sin that is in us then we are feeding it for it to grow and give birth to more sins in our lives.

That’s how ridiculously infectious sin is in our lives. If we don’t put it identify it, make a way to stop it, get rid of it away, and make ways to prevent it then it spreads and grow bigger. The beauty of killing sin is that God’s grace and mercies are new every morning. Everyday is an opportunity of grace that God gives to us for us to kill sin and put it to death. Praise God for this grace that never gives up on us. Praise God for this unmerited opportunity to kill sin and pursue holiness. Then and only then, we would be truly happy as Christians because there’s no happiness in sin and true happiness is only found in holiness. That’s why the promised new heaven and new earth is the happiest place to be because it’s the holiest place there will ever be. It’s the place where sin is no longer present so there’s a million reasons to be happy. If we would not convince ourselves that sin will make us miserable then we would always be deceived by its empty promises. So, we should grasp this reality not just with our minds but most especially with our hearts. May it be deeply rooted convictions that hold us and transform the way we live.

The next question is how do we die daily? I think basically the physical reality of how we treat physical diseases that plague us help us also in our fight against sin. Diseases are first identified and labeled before being addressed by a medical professional. If we would live lives in constant denial that there’s no sin in our lives then we would never think that we are in need of a doctor. The first step is always admission that we are sinners and that we are always constantly in need of redemption. Even though we are saved from the power of sin the moment we genuinely repent and trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we still have the presence of sin in us because we are still in the flesh. There’s still fleshiness that manifests in our lives. So, our need of redemption is not just a thing of the past but also a thing of the present and of the future (where we will be fully freed from the presence of sin). So, we need grace everyday because we fall short everyday. After we admit that we are sinners, we should identify areas in our lives where sin is still evident. After identifying these areas, we try to think of ways to put this to death and stop it from happening again. We need to daily identify sins in our lives, daily confess our sins, daily grieve our hearts because God is grieved over our sin, daily repent from our sins, and daily trust in Christ Jesus. As we leave the past and move forward, there’s future grace that God provides to help us in our battle of sin.

Sanctification is a process. It takes time. So, we should be patient with ourselves and of others as well. We should be hopeful that our present reality will never define us because God will mold us to Christlikeness everyday. We ought to not just be hopeful but also serious in our pursuit of holiness by daily dying and daily living like Christ with the help of God’s Spirit. We strive because God gives us the grace for our striving.

Let us not crucify others for their past and think that they’re hopeless because God is still not yet done with their lives in the same way He is not done with yours. Let us be gracious with each other because God has been gracious to us. Let us rid ourselves of this demeaning, harsh, and critical attitude that make us loathe other believers because of their failings and sins.

Vagueness to Clear Light

All of us have been in vague, uncertain, and unclear situations wherein it would seem like we are totally in the dark. The vagueness, sometimes, causes us to overthink things hoping that through thinking, we would obtain clarity. Unfortunately, due to our finite minds and the deeply humbling reality that we are not all-knowing, we would never ever obtain absolute certainty of our vague future and uncertain circumstance. That’s why it’s important to “walk by faith and not by sight”. (2. Cor. 5:7)

Sadly, because of our indwelling sin, our sinful tendency is to walk by sight and not by faith. We want to absolutely know all things and leave no room for faith. We want to account possibilities and factors so as to be totally aware of our circumstance and situation. This is impossible and at the same ridiculous because we are men and not God. Our sin nature wants all the vagueness to be brought into much clearer light. We want to be like God because we want to be in control and self-autonomous. But, reality hits hard and we would now readily admit that we could never be. There would be experiences and tragedies in our lives that would crush our pride and our sinful tendency of wanting to know all things and be in control. Our Father will make all kinds of ways to discipline His children to oppose their proud selves and humble them down to receive His grace.

So that, instead of wanting to know all things, we would now rather trust the One who truly knows all things and He orchestrates every detail under His loving and caring hand. So that, instead of wanting to be in control because we want to have our own way, we would now rather surrender all things under His control because He alone is sovereign and He alone ultimately rules everything.

All of us could relate to this because we all have made choices in light on our depraved thinking that we know better than God. God is always on time on proving us wrong and slapping our faces with the reality that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. (Isaiah 55:8) And the gap between our thoughts and ways with God is infinitely wide that we should be utterly ashamed as we truly grasped the reality of His perfection and our imperfection and His eternality and our limitedness.

In my own case, I personally struggle with this. I want to know things unhealthily – more than the normal human level. I have this godlike tendency of wanting to know more than necessary – to know absolutely rather than reasonably. There wouldn’t be no room for faith anymore because of this sinful tendency. By God’s grace, I repent and ask forgiveness daily, striving to lay aside self-reliance and cultivating faith by the power of the Holy Spirit.

If you can relate to me, let us humbly beg God on our knees to increase our faith and for us to recognize the foolishness of self-reliance. Let us cultivate a heart that readily surrenders to God all situations that we have in life instead of walking by sight and trying to accounting all things base on what we see. Let’s cling to the One who is truly all-seeing. Let’s cling to the One who alone has perfect knowledge and infinite wisdom. Let’s cling to the One who alone truly knows what’s best for us. Let’s cling to the One who is truly sovereign and has His own timelines for everything. Let us beg God to increase our faith as we walk by faith and not by sight. Let us humble ourselves before God by constantly reminding that we are frail and limited and He alone is strong and eternal. Let us remind ourselves that there’s million reasons that serve as reminders that God is so much bigger and we are so much smaller and that it is all about Him and not about us.

The transition of vagueness to clear light will only happen when there’s no room for faith. And, that will only happen when we will see the Object of faith face to face. It will only happen when we die and be with Jesus or He calls us home when He comes back again. Until then, let’s accept the vagueness by faith knowing the One whom we trust has perfect clarity over everything that makes us fearful, suffer, in pain, and, anxious. He is our heavenly Father who perfect loves us to give us the best. And He is our good Shepherd who will protect, nourish, and lead us to the path of righteousness and joy.

Guard Your Heart

Lately, I have been contemplating Proverbs 4:23 which states, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” I was really struck by what one of the pastors in church advised me when I asked him for advice on how to improve upon my preaching. He told me to “Keep your heart to God and the rest will follow.” This is one of the statements that I try to put to heart and apply in my everyday life. By God’s grace, I want to have a heart that is kept for Him alone – a heart that is totally devoted and is freely and willingly given to Him.

That’s why King Solomon exhorts in the proverb to guard our hearts with all vigilance. We should be watchful and always be aware of what influences our hearts because what influences our hearts determines the course of our lives. Everything flows from our heart. So, it’s essential to have a heart devoted to God. So, the things that would flow from it are the things that God has in store for us. Good thoughts, good intentions, and good actions flow from a guarded heart. As we rely on the empowering and transforming grace of the Holy Spirit in our hearts for us to do the things that are pleasing to God for His glory and the good of others, may we be vigilant in keeping, devoting, and guarding our hearts to God; giving it to the One who made it and the One who could only satisfy it.

As I ponder about ways to guard my heart from the world, sin, and the devil, I have thought of gateways through which our hearts could be influenced. Knowing these gateways and trying to guard our hearts by closing, limiting, or filtering these gateways could be helpful as we seek to obey the said proverb.

For the purpose of this blog, I could just think of four gateways in my life that I should be watchful for me to be able to guard my heart better. The first gateway is the eyes. What we see influences our hearts. If a man or woman’s eyes are saturated with sexually titillating images, horrible scenes, and sinful and wrong things then we are have failed in guarding this important gateway of our hearts. Our hearts would be adulterous, covetous, foolish, and wicked as long as we continue to fill our eyes with unprofitable and sinful things.

That’s why Jesus said in Matt. 6:22-23, ²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, ²³ but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” This is in the context of filling our eyes with the treasures of this world; to be so drawn to it that it becomes the master and ruler of our lives. It says afterward that our body will be full of darkness. Indeed, what we see influences our inner being. So, it’s best to focus our gaze on God, instead, and submit to Him as our Master over everything.

The second gateway that I think influences our hearts is our mind. What we think shapes our hearts. If we think of nonsense, sinful, and unprofitable thoughts then it shapes our hearts to be the same as well. That’s why it’s important for our minds to just be continually renewed by the word of God so that we can discern what is pleasing to God. Our mind is a battleground. May we push off sinful thoughts and replace them with godly thoughts. Defeating sinful thoughts with better thoughts and fixing our gaze on the Savior who died for us. Let us picture out Jesus’ suffering and punishment on the cross as our mind travels into the sinful path that Christ saved us from. Let us remember in our minds the image of the Savior who absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf.

The third gateway is ears. The music we listen to and the teachings we listen and consider. And, all other things that we allow ourselves to hear have bearing on our hearts. Hence, we should be discerning in the things that we listen to because it influences us to be drawn closer to God or away from Him.

The fourth gateway is our body. How we use our bodies influences our hearts. If we are using our bodies for sexual impurity then our hearts become more impure. Having a sexually impure heart produces sexual impurity. And, the action itself brings greater corruption and deeper depravity to our human hearts. Lust in our hearts which produces lustful actions will lead to more lust in our hearts. Therefore, what we do with our bodies is also important as well. We should commit our bodies to be honorable, fit, and profitable vessels for the Lord.

As we guard these four gateways, we guard our hearts better. As we monitor everything that gets into these four gateways, we would know the things that might potentially influence our hearts. May we set up walls and barricades and even close and lock the gateways so as to avoid the sinful influence of the world, indwelling sin, and the devil. May we keep our hearts devoted to Him because He strongly supports the people whose hearts are devoted to Him. May we be men and women of God who are after His own heart and who have a devoted heart for Him because He is worthy of our hearts and devotion. Through this devoted and well-guarded heart, we would be more equipped, fit, and useful for the work of the Lord. May we seek to maintain it and guard our hearts with all vigilance because our Lord is worthy to be served with our all because He has given us His all: Jesus Christ our All in All.

Devo (31): Love and Truth

Scripture reading: “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,” (Eph. 4:15)

Observation: I just love this verse because we could find here one of the things that we could do in order for us to grow as mature Christians. Speaking the truth in love is the hallmark of Christian maturity. We have attained maturity if we have developed this virtue. As Christians, we are to be people who genuinely believe, stand firm and are deeply convicted of the truth. We are to learn and teach what is true and what accords to sound doctrine. We are to be people that is rooted and grounded in the word of God. We are to be people who value truth because our Lord and Savior claimed to be not just the Way and the Life but also the Truth. Jesus suffered, bled, and died for the truth and proclaimed the truth and He calls us to do follow His footsteps. He is also the perfect embodiment of the truth lived out. He did not just believe what is true but lived out what is true. But the best thing about Jesus is that He is not just full of truth, He is also full of love. Love is best known when we study what Christ did for unworthy sinners – dying in our place on the cross to take God’s wrath and living in our place to earn God’s favor. Christ has epitomized the balance of truth and love and we are called to do the same. Having truth without love is just so easy because we could just read all the books we could put our hands into and memorize the Bible. Love puts truth in its proper place. Truth without love makes people arrogant, harsh, and critical. Love stabilizes truth by making us humble, gentle, and patient. On the other hand, love without truth is deceitful and self-serving. Truth strengthens love by grounding love to reality and to the best interest of the person loved. We cannot have the one without the other. Both are needed for us to grow as Christians. This is not impossible because we have the Holy Spirit who is also described as the Spirit of truth (John 16:3) who teaches, guides, and makes us remember the truth. On top of that, the first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. This is hard to cultivate but we have the Holy Spirit who empowers us to do the impossible because of His supernatural work in us. We just only need to seek for His help and abide in Him.

Application: Let us study God’s word with a right and loving heart. Reading, meditating, and praying over God’s word not for the sake of knowledge, self-satisfaction, or argumentation but to know and love God more and love others as Jesus has loved us. Let us always be discerning with how we speak the truth and the manner upon which we speak the truth. The loving, gentle, and gracious tone that accompanies our truthful words makes us not judgmental and condemning. Let us always seek for the help of the Holy Spirit. Asking Him to control our lives as we surrender our lives to Him. Let us be dependent on God’s empowering grace as we seek to cultivate bible-rooted convictions accompanied by love. As we try to engage and converse with people, let us pray that we would love them because we too are unlovable and unworthy of God’s love. Let us be reminded that what we have is undeserved and we should also extend this grace to others in how we treat them. Let us commit to grow in maturity as we seek to develop speaking the truth in love to each other who are also blinded of their sins and flaws. All of us need to be corrected for us to grow more in the knowledge of Jesus.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we are sorry for the times that we have spoken truth harshly and arrogantly. We are also sorry for the times that we are too loving at the expense of the truth. We want to show that we love people by affirming and tolerating their wrong behaviors even at the expense of truth. Almighty God, sorry for grieving your heart. Holy Spirit, help us to be truthful and loving to everyone seeking their good and always wanting to lead them to Jesus and the righteous path. Holy Spirit, help us to look to Jesus as we seek to be transformed in His likeness. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

The Blessing of Bus Rides

It has been more than a month now that I have been transferred to another office. Our new office is roughly 45-minute away from my house. I ride a bus everyday going to my new designated official station.

Before I was assigned to our new office, I thought that traveling everyday in buses is just so tiring. I experienced this beforehand, so, somehow, I dread the tiredness associated in riding buses again. Thankfully, I was reminded of the verses in 1 Thess. 5:16-18 which states: “Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. “

Rejoicing, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks are commanded regardless of the situation. As I try to correct my wrong thinking in focusing the negative aspect of riding buses, I sought God for help to let me see it in a positive light. It dawned on me that the time I spent as I ride a bus everyday could be spent to God in prayer. Each bus ride has now become a blessing in my life because each of them has become an avenue of grace for me to converse with my Creator. Usually, I make it a habit to finish the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples. This is one of the prayers that I have memorized but in each bus ride, the prayer becomes deeper as I ask God to use this prayer to change my heart everyday.

This is the prayer Jesus taught His disciples found in Matt. 6:9-13, it says:

⁹ Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread,
¹² and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.

This has blessed me so much because this prayer reminds me that the Creator who made the awesome and magnificent universe is my heavenly Father who cares for me. Before my work starts, through the bus ride, this prayer has reminded me that I am child of God; that I have a loving Father who guides the details of my life and is relentless committed to give me what’s good for me. This prayer has blessed me to ask God to create in me a clean and pure heart that seeks to hallow God’s name – a heart set apart for God and is committed for the glory of His name. This prayer has blessed me to seek to be involve in the advancement of His kingdom and obedience to His will. This prayer starts with God. So, it’s really nice to be reminded each day that it is not about us, people who are as small as specks of dust, but about the infinite God who fills the universe with His majestic presence. This prayer has blessed me to thank God for His sustaining grace through the food that I eat, clothing that I wear, air that I breath, every heartbeat, and so on. This reality reminds me that I need God and I need to depend on Him every second of my life. This prayer reminds me that I am a sinner in need of forgiveness. And, since, I have received the grace of forgiveness, I should extend it also to others as well. This prayer reminds me to beg God for His protection as He guide me in the path of righteousness to not swerve to the road of temptations that corrupt one’s soul. It reminds me as well to seek protection from satan and his influences in the world.

This prayer reminds me that as I seek to do the will of my heavenly Father in heaven and advance His kingdom, I need a heart set apart for Him. I need sustaining grace, God’s daily provision, a forgiven and a forgiving heart, to resist temptation and the evil one to participate in the cause of His kingdom.

Riding buses has blessed me so much because it has become an avenue for me to develop my dependence on God. It has become an avenue to beg for His grace each morning and evening on bus rides through prayer. I vary my prayers from time to time but I make sure that I remind myself of God’s goodness through the prayer Jesus taught His disciples.

Bus rides have become an avenue for me to also recall and meditate verses stored in my heart. And seek God’s wisdom to apply it in my life. This moments have now become dear to me that I am now looking forward to it. Indeed, giving thanks in all circumstances make us see the light at the end of the dark tunnel. It recalibrates our minds to focus on the good and the bad, the opportunities and not the deficiencies.

Bus rides have also become an avenue for me to sing songs to God as I anticipate to go to work for His glory; working for Him as my ultimate audience. It has become an avenue to prepare my heart and remind myself that I am in the presence of God and that I should fear no one except God. That I exist for His glory so I should live for Him.

Praise God for the blessing of bus rides. Praise God for the time spent to rejoice and bask God’s goodness in my life, to pray without ceasing because the One who listens also never ceases to listen, and to give thanks in everything because He is in control over everything and He uses everything for my good.