My Spiritual Suitcase

"Self Control" This is the big hitter. Hits home, right to the heart. Self Control. I think each and everyone of us fight to have this. I remember this was like the overarching goal in my childhood. My parents always talked about, learn to have self control. We all face temptation. That is Satan's most powerful tool. He lures us in because it so appealing, bringing temporary satisfaction, just for us to take it in, and to realize the truth. How it isnt. Afterwards the guilt just sets in and builds as you feel horrible for what you've done. I've fought it so many times, i see it in a different yet similar light. Just like Adam and Eve. Before eating the apple and falling into sin, it looks so good. It looks like the best thing one can ever get on the earth. You just have to have to have to have it. You reach in, and give up, ready to dig right into that apple. The second you bite into it, a wave of truth rushes through you, and your eyes are opened as you see thi

"Gentleness" When i first read this. What could gentleness possibly be in here for... After looking at dictionary.com, i think i have a more interesting view on it. Gentleness talked about staying calm, being tamed. And this reminds me of a bible verse. 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. - Psalm 103:8 This states THE LORD. not us. But we as Christ followers have to follow his example. Christ. God. Jesus is the greatest example we can follow. Our lives are dedicated to him, committed, to live out his light, his love, and his life. Just to side track a little, i had a little poof of "omg-madness", dont know why that came to mind first. Anyways. Friday, my mentor, and my pastor, HM, shared his top ten moments of the year with the fellowship. And he talked about baptism. Are you baptized yet? Baptism does NOT equate to salvation, but its a time of public proclamation to everyone about your complete dedication to Chris

"Faithfulness" For me, from the top of my head at the moment, faithfulness is loyalty. Are you being loyal to your friends, but more importantly, to God? To have faith is the ability to trust in something/someone. If you have faith, you can give up everything, your problems, your materialistic things to stay by one's side. Are you faithful? How faithful are you? I think its so important to have faith and be faithful to your friends. Everyone hates it when they are betrayed, back stabbed, and went against. We all want someone in our lives that will stick it through with us. Through the highs and lows, the happy, the sad, the hard, the celebrations. Faithfulness will also show eventually in university. When we transition from high school to university, we go separate ways. School friends, church friends, extra-curricular friends, we all head in separate directions and for myself, i always worry about my friends. I hope we do not lose contact. And sometimes i feel like th

"Goodness" Oh no. I think this is gonna be a tough one. Goodness vs Kindness. Whats the difference. Usually i write these knowing what im going to write, but this time around... im kinda diving it blinded.. i dont want to repeat what was said previously :S Lets check the dictionary. Kindness: the state or quality of being kind Goodness: the state or quality of being good Well. Thats helpful. But if you look carefully, there's one big difference. Kind and Good. This is how i interpret it at the moment. Kindness, thats the act of showing your love towards someone. For instance, helping them out with homework when they dont understand. Whereas goodness, its more of obedience. When someone says your kind, you're nice. When someone says you're good, you're obedient. Thats what im going to talk about. Goodness is one of the fruits of the Spirits. I guess this means to be obedient to God's word and commands. Before we dig into any type of fruit, watermelon, o

"Kindness" RAOF. Random Acts of Kindness. Have you tried that before? I challenge you each day to do a random act of kindness. To a friend. To a family member. To a stranger. It doesnt have to be grand, it doesnt matter if its small. Something as simple as unfolding chairs for a group of friends, inviting someone to eat with you, standing up for someone, or giving money to someone in need. Be kind to one another. I love the phrase "killing someone with kindness". It completely constrasts. Killing is usually referred to hate, death, revenge, evil, but why do we kill with kindness? Kindness can so a lot. I get comments all the time saying that "im so nice". Its good. As Christians, we are told to live in the light, live outstandingly in a world of the "sames". Everyone nowadays is conforming with the media, doing what they think is cool or in. Having sex, doing drugs, smoking, but as Christians, we live according to Christ. Not the gospel. And th

"Patience" Waiting. I honestly believe the world hates waiting. Look at society. Always always look at society and examine the changes made. Especially with technology. Computers are constantly trying to become faster and faster, for instance, the MacBook's have had this new feature where its like "lightning speed" or something. Also think about internet. The changes in price depend on one thing. SPEED. Is patience even possible nowadays? My computer broke down as i've told you, and its so annoying. I've been sharing the newer computer with my brother, and its FASTer but even sometimes it lags, and you realize. When you go fast, you dont go back. I was so annoyed, while my older computer was x10 slower. When you get used to the speed you've been granted with, when something goes wrong, when its slow, you complain and you get frustrated. First and foremost, be thankful that you even have this kinda stuff. Patience. The first thing that comes to mi

"Peace" Every single day we are surrounded by commotion, by noise, from hearing the honking cars just outside our windows, the constant chatting at school, the printers and scanners at work, and the buzzing of the bees. Today's modernized day, there's practically no space and no time for silence and peace. At the moment, i have to be playing music. Its hard for me to work in silence. Look at how media and society has changed. I cant study in total silence, i have to have something playing. When was the last time you experienced peace or silence? When was the last time you sat, lied down, stood, closed your eyes and heard nothing? I believe that we have to always have this time of silence. To reflect on our lives; what to improve, what to change, what we've done wrong, but more importantly, to spend time with God. God speaks in wondrous ways. Its usually a whisper in the wind, and with all this environment of din we are constantly, in, its hard to hear him. Somet

"Joy" Oops, forgot the post yesterday. Joy. What does JOY mean to you? In my introductory post, i wrote that Joy is "happiness and satisfaction". Dictionary.com says: "the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying. Eh. Thats along the lines right? But first and foremost, what does joy mean to you? Joy. May it fall under everlasting satisfaction. I was writing my final Grade 12 English project, and essay on perfection and dystopian worlds. I came to realize and learn that nothing. Nothing in this world is perfect. Nothing brings continuous and full satisfaction. Really! think about it. Simple and complex. A Pen. A simple writing utensil used to write, to draw, to design. Eventually runs out of ink. It may be your favorite pen, but to see it stop working, and have to be thrown out sucks. This year, i used my Muji pens for school. Taking notes. And in biology, i wrote my notes in different colors. The worst fee

"Love" I honestly feel like the word and meaning of "love" has been manipulated, has been changed, has been mutated by society, by media, and by all of us. Just try google-ing "love", see what comes up. I just did, and the results were, hearts, a few inappropriate images here and there. What has love become? God is love. That is how it all started. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. - 1 John 4:8 When we google love, the first image should be Christ. He has demonstrated love the most throughout EVERYTHING he has done, and the most important, the most significant, is his death on the cross. The ultimate sacrifice. Sacrifice best describes what love is. If you can give up something for someone, may it be time, a pencil, money, your effort and strength, thats already showing love. But Christ gave up the biggest thing he had, and everyone has, his life. For you. For me. For us. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that so

Lately, i've realized that i havent really been using my devo book to write these daily posts. Its more like, reading an entry, being inspired, and writing my thoughts on the topic, or writing about something that happened during the day that gave me something to write about. And thus, starting tomorrow, i will start this new series, "The Fruits of The Spirit", where each day i'll talk about a fruit a day. And of course, the over-arching verse is Galatians 5:22-23; 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Love - attachment or affection for something/something Joy - happiness and satisfaction Peace - the state of calamity Patience - the ability to wait, to be still, Kindness - random acts of goodness towards others Goodness - the state of being "good" (dictionary.com) Faithfulness - being loyal towards something/someone Gentleness -

"Cheer Up Friend, Your Sins Are Forgiven!" Falling short of God's glory sucks. It really does. If you think about it, every time you sin and disobey God, you're committing an act of betrayal. And constantly, us as human beings, who are never perfect are constantly betraying our mighty God. The worst is how sin works. a) temptation - it easily can start off with a thought. The thought sparks, curiousity, and then it can lead to actions. b) fight - this is where it is. If you can conquer this, you're safe. Fight off the temptation, shake it off, call the devil away. c) action - if you fall into temptation, you act upon it. d) sin - once the action has been committed, you've sinned and fallen short. e) guilt/consequences - guilt eats you up. This is the worst stage. There are things that needs to be cleared up. Temptation isnt sin. Thinking isnt a sin. Its when you ACT UPON IT, it becomes a sin. Fight fight fight. Its hard but its a fight. Now, why is th

5 And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; 7 and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything'? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. Luke 11:5-8 This is the parable Jesus talked about while he was praying. He was relating this to prayer. This section includes the all famous, "Lord's Prayer" and the "Ask, Seek, Knock" verse we all know. Through this passage he's trying to say that God will come and give you want you need when you ask for him. Which leads into prayer. there are two things that are key in the passage. Because He Is His FRIEND Th

"Lord To Give Up I'd Be A Fool" This morning, i attended sunday school for the gr 1s and 2s because my friend invited me to help her teach one of the sessions, and we wanted to take a look-see of what we're up for. It was pretty cool, i love being around kids, especially the ones in gr 1 and 2, they were my day camp kids from last summer. Im actually REALLY looking forward to summer. Im so happy that June 1st has finally hit and that we're inching closer and closer day by day to exams... and FREEDOM. Jam packed summer, all for God, all for the kids. From the Quebec missions trip in July, to day camp, end of July, Overnight camp with the older 5s and 6s in August, what more can i ask for. I cant wait to be free and enjoy life and not care about work. Anyways, so today in the session, we were worshiping, and the song "All in All" came up. This song appeared and wow it was hard-hitting, right at home, in the heart, a stab of awakening, and a slap in the

"Time For Pizza!" This is the one liner that inspired me to post today. I havent posted the past week because i was pretty busy with stuff. that is NO EXCUSE but... that was the result. The past few days i've been telling myself, dont lose this routine or posting. Keep it going. This weekend i didnt have as much to do, so i decided to revive my postings today. family. Just now, my dad came back in from planting his plants for the past who knows how long. All i know is that he's been planting since the sun was up and now its dark outside. He came in with a smile, completely satisfied with his accomplishments, ready to dig into the pizza left for him. I felt HORRIBLE. I ate like 3 pieces. And when he got back we left one for him. He was actually so genuinely excited. Like a little kid. He has so many problems with his health and tonight was his one chance to veer away and be bad, eating junk food, but the fact is we left just one last dangling slice for him. I'v