What is love? Where is the love?

Valentine's day is near and everyone is talking about love. There are those who have their partners, and there are those who does not have. Well, I’m one of the people who does not have. I’ve been single for about 21 years now (and I’m 21 years old), but there are these questions that I have been asking in my mind: Is love all about having a partner? Can love be only shown to your partner? Why do many people think that love is all about these?

I had become curious and I’ve searched about the real meaning of love, then I started looking at our world right now to see the answers. Happenings in this world can now be easily seen through the internet, and as I’m browsing, another question was added into my mind. Where is the love?

Love. The real meaning of love is hard to find in our world right now. Many people around the world had just become so wicked. Murderers, thieves, corrupt leaders and terrorists are just everywhere. I mean, WHERE IS THE LOVE? Many people had been blinded from this truth. They thought love is only about having a partner, but it us not. Love is a serious subject. Love is what this world needs now.

Love can also be shown to your family, to your friends, to that poor man at the corner of your street, to your pets, and etc. This has been taken for granted by many these days as people narrowed the meaning of love into having a partner. Many forgot the broad and real meaning of love. Even me, I admit that I do forget the real meaning of love as there is hatred in my heart seeing the wickedness that people show. I really can’t contain myself as I see the wickedness that people do to their fellow human, animals, and the nature.

But the good thing is that there is this One who portrayed to us what real love is. As I’m browsing on my facebook account, I’ve found this photo and gave me the real meaning of love and valentine.

This is love. Love is when you give up something that is important for the sake of someone else. I pray that everyone would look at love this way. Jesus died for every man in the world! I pray that every man would look at another just as Jesus look at them. Jesus died for that person, so love that person! And not just that person, but every creation of God! God created those animals and the nature to show His love for us and for us to take care of, and they must not be taken for granted! I pray that every valentine, instead of looking for a partner or dating with your partner, all of us will remember what real love is. We must remember what God has done for us and show the kind of love that He has shown to us to His other creations.

Advanced Happy Valentine's and God bless. :)


Original link for the photos:
http://www.suhaibwebb.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/vQxdw8WwRokb36tfyOxoZCMzo1_400.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCA9NoDrX30VIvWJwyVSZxg_FGitE0nIy-8lkJYEI0S3Sqy-BnupmXiKjCf6kfgwZbg0tt3Q5SB3xW870zp4pq91pMYDS9QcIqruoV7ZCpxgTPHPeo6zoD2uoNsfnR_3mTo5iQ2yb9PuN7/s1600/valentine_john_3_16.jpg

Look unto Jesus

In the book of Numbers, Chapter 21 verses 4 to 8, the Israelites become very impatient as they travel from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea in order for them to go around Edom. They grumbled again against God and Moses, but because of this, God sent some venomous snakes. These snakes killed many of the Israelites. Now, the Israelites who survived came to Moses and asked him to pray to God to take the snakes away from them. Moses did pray to the Lord, and in answer, the Lord commanded him to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. The Lord said that anyone who looks at this bronze snake will live.

This event in the book of Numbers speaks so much in our lives. The grumbling of the Israelites, the snakes that killed many of the Israelites, and the bronze snake symbolizes things that are already existing in a human life. Now let’s look at them one by one:

1. The grumbling of the Israelites

-The grumbling of the Israelites happened a lot of times in many events at the time of Moses. This grumbling symbolizes nothing else, but also grumbling in our lives. As you can see, the Israelites grumbled because they become very impatient. Well, the same goes for us, we became impatient a lot of times in our lives and it causes us to grumble.

2. The snakes that killed many of the Israelites

-As the result of grumbling, God sent snakes that killed many of the Israelites. These snakes symbolizes the hardship we get when we become impatient and grumbled. The more we grumble in our hardships, the harder it is for us to overcome! It is not really the sufferings that can kill a man, it is his grumbling in these sufferings. Our grumbling in our sufferings are poisons that can kill us slowly.

3. The bronze snake

-But still, though the Israelites grumbled against God, God still provided a way for them to be healed, and that is through the bronze snake. Now, this bronze snake symbolizes Jesus. When we are poisoned by hardships in our lives, instead of grumbling, all we have to do is to look unto Jesus. We must not think about what we should do to overcome these troubles, we must look at what Jesus has already done for us on the cross! He is the only way for us to be saturated even in the hardest time of our lives. Jesus has already done everything, all we have to do is look unto Him and put our trust into Him. Only in this way can we overcome the hardships in our lives.

Life will offer us lots of troubles that will cause us to grumble. Yes, we would be facing a lot of them along the way. But when the time comes where we are being pressed to our limit, we must never forget to look unto Jesus. Jesus is our only way out.

Good day and God bless.

Original link for the photo: http://treetothee.com/product_pics/jesus_cross.gif

The Privilege of Being Faithful

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

-Psalm 16:9-10, NIV

What is the greatest privilege in being faithful in our walk with God? It is this: That we are rejoicing in both our life and in our death.

Everyone knows that life here on earth is too short, and this is the reason why many people are living their lives in a fast pace. People are hurrying up on many things, like on their marriage, or on getting the things they want, or on getting to the top or the position they wanted on their job. People lives in fast pace because they want to experience everything they want and to feel satisfaction in their lives before they die.

Fast pace living has become a cliché to everyone. It is true that we might regret it on the end if we did not do the things that wanted to do, and in my opinion, fast pace living isn’t really bad, but we must know that getting all these things or everything we want isn’t really that important. Many people focus on these things in their life that is why they live in a fast pace, but the man who faithful in his walk with God is different.

“What is different to a man who is faithful in his walk with God?”

Well, the big difference, I could say, is that he recognize the of move God’s grace in his life. This man can enjoy his life to the fullest because of his recognition to this grace. Even though this man can experience hardships and trials in his life, this man will never be pulled down because of his recognition to this grace. This man can feel security and not worry about anything his life! Even if he is dying in his flesh, this man continues to rejoice because he knows that at the time he dies in his flesh, he will be together with God. This man can enjoy every moment, every step and every fall in his walk with God, and still end up standing in the end. It is all because of his recognition to the grace of God.

Now, let’s look at a man who does not recognize the grace of God in his life. Well, he could be easily recognized as that person who worries too much about his life, especially if he is living in a fast pace. He could be the person who pressures himself too much just to accomplish something he wanted. This man focus on the things that are not eternal, that is why he could not be satisfied in his life, unlike the faithful man who has satisfaction with God. This man is afraid for his death to come, especially if he haven’t accomplished everything that he wants to accomplish in his life. This is all because he does not recognize the move of God’s grace in his life.

Being faithful to our walk with God gives us this great edge in our lives. Recognizing God’s grace, which is Jesus Christ, is the best thing we have that could satisfy us in our living. We could enjoy life to the fullest and without worries. And even in our death, we would still rejoice because we know that we have salvation in Jesus Christ.

So brothers, let us continue to be faithful in our walk with God. God bless you.


Original link for the photo: http://media.photobucket.com/image/faithful%20man/febeezz/PRAY.jpg

All good things are with God

All of us people wants to be blessed with good things in our life. In fact, many people are running for these good things! Fame, power, money and health, I think everyone wants to get these things. But the truth is that even though a man already gets his grip on something that he wants, he still longs and run towards to get more. It’s just that, I believe, it has been a nature of us humans to be uncontented with what we have, which I believe is a product of worldliness.

I am not saying that gaining these things are bad, I just want to say that running towards these things can make you bad. Greediness and uncontentment could be developed within our system if we still continue to run towards these things.

“So is there a way where we can gain these good things without being contaminated with greediness and uncontentment?”

I am happy to say “YES”, there is. Now let’s look at this verse:

I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."

-Psalm 16:2, NIV

The only way is to be with the Lord, just like what the verse above wants to tell you. Actually, this verse just compliments the preaching of our youth pastor, ate Faythe before, and I would just want to share it here. She used Psalm 34:10 for that preaching. That verse says: “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing” (NIV).

In her preaching, she said that true prosperity can be seen with the lions. The lion is called the “king of the jungle”, and he never grew hungry because the whole jungle is like a huge refrigerator to him. We all know that a lion is strong, but according to the verse, he still may grow weak and hungry. How ironic is it that the strong lion that can eat whatever he wants in a jungle can still grow weak and hungry! He still may lack his strength and could not find his food, but on the contrary, the verse says that those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing! Now, let’s reflect on this point and on the verse I’ve written above.

I want you to imagine a refrigerator and let’s use it as a representation of God. Let’s also look at a magnet and use it as a representation of all these “good things”. You can probably imagine that the magnet is sticking to the refrigerator, like all the good things sticking to God. And now I want you to think of a paper. This paper represents a man. Now, if that man runs towards these good things, he would never get a good grip on all of them. Just like a paper trying to stick itself to the magnet, you know that he would just fall. BUT if the man runs after God, he is like a paper between the refrigerator and the magnet. When a man is with God, all “good things” follows him, as these things follows God.

This is what it meant in the verse that “apart from God, we have no good thing”. So, if you want to be blessed with good things in your life, don’t run towards them, but instead, run towards God. Like what is said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (NIV).

Original link for the photo: http://www.turnbacktogod.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Seek-God.jpg