Loving With Pure Love

        In union with God, we see ourself as children of God. The love of God purifies all our emotions and we see the world and its people as God sees them. No more maudlin sentiments and everyone is the same to us. This is not being harsh, only fair, as God loves us equally. Pure love is motivated by obedience to God alone with no meddling by our own emotions or views and carried out with no fanfare. Perhaps that's why God might mistakenly seem to be cold to some. 

How We View Ourselves

        I am already old and can remember that in the old days, most news was domestic. News about giving aid to some foreign country sounded rather foreign. In those days, various countries were pretty much isolated from each other and as a result, we felt more nationalistic. Later, as communications around the world opened up and we saw that what happened in one country could easily affected the rest of the world, we saw ourselves more as citizens of the world. What I hopefully expect is that we would evolve to the point we see ourselves as children of God and not of the world. This is the highest and correct view, transcending all other views. 

Our Most Crucial Relationship

        How we get along with God.     

**Man's Greatest Achievement

        No doubt, the surrendering of oneself to God, enabling him or her to return to the Father in heaven.

Our Tragic Role

          Happy Easter to all who read my blog! I pray that you will always keep your hearts open to God's blessings so that he may enrich you in every way to the fullest. If you are with him, all he has is yours (Luke 15.31) – a mind-boggling promise, so take advantage of God's generosity!

     Today's Gospel reading from John 20 is about the empty tomb. The Resurrection of Jesus together with all his words and deeds are most powerful statements, but they won't do you any good if your heart shuts them out. Truth ages, but remains true forever. If the Resurrection changed the lives of the Apostles and numerous others, it can change yours today too. Yet many not only ignore God, they also avoid examining or looking into themselves. This is a generation that is so blind that they don't even see that they are taking part in a tragedy that would end with their own death.

It Comes Down to Faith

        How much you believe in Christ is so much more important than how you believe in him. Once I used an object I mistakenly believed to be authentic to pray for the healing of someone and the Lord still brought about a miracle. I was later puzzled, and then realized that it's how much you believe in him that counts, not so much the way you express your belief. At the fundamental level, it comes down to your faith, which is how your heart is connected to the Lord's heart. 

**Freed by God

        Once you know Jesus Christ, you'll find that he is the most awesome, most inspiring, and most beautiful Being of all beings. That is why no other person in this world, no matter how awesome, how inspiring, and how beautiful the people of the world think he or she is, no longer attracts me in the least. This is how the Lord frees us from the clutches of the world. Know God and you are free.

*It's Now or Never

        I was never very good serving on any kind of committee, for most people on a committee love to spend time talking and not getting to the point. I see things in a simple way and like to get to the point right away if possible. Now, life is brief and will come to an end sooner or later. It doesn't make any difference whether you count your time in years or seconds. So, in this limited span, do you want to remain as is or change in some way? Time is ticking away. If you don't grab Jesus, you'll miss him for all eternity and all the good things and good times you enjoy now will mean absolutely nothing. On the other hand, if you let him capture you now, all your sufferings, pains, and miseries of this life will become nothing and be forgotten once you are with him for all eternity.

God's Big Cross

        It's easy for us to be unhappy about carrying our little crosses in following the Lord, but know that on the way to the Cross Jesus had to carry all of our sins and hardships, including every heartache and pain, every injustice and illness, every oppression and poverty, every human misery; and he did it willingly in obedience to the Father out of love for us. We need to thank God for that unless you already believe that you do not need to be saved.

**Are You a Good Person?

        You may think that you are basically a good person, but that depends upon how you measure yourself. None of us is qualified to judge anyone, including ourselves. Anyway, even if the whole world thinks that you are a great person, it's no proof that you'll make heaven. As a matter of fact, the world usually gets it wrong. Therefore, do not judge or exalt yourself, but remain humble and let God alone be your judge. Only what God thinks of you matters.