True Success

        An interesting BBC article tells the story of Carl Rodrigues, a successful Canadian IT consultant, who in 2001 decided to quit his job and retire to his basement to develop a best-selling computer product. After a month of working "crazy hours," he came up with the idea of a software system that would allow the user to control his or her mobile phone from their laptop. Today, his company named Soti is worth $1billion. Again, I cannot help thinking that when we place our trust in Christ (no need to spend crazy hours), we can "achieve" eternal life with no effort on our own!

True Cool Person

        Just visited a city where I saw many hippies and hipsters in so many of its neighborhoods. You see tattoos on exposed body parts of almost everyone. I cannot help thinking that the true cool person is one who does God's will in private, not influenced in the slightest by the world.

*Tragic Ignorance

        People reject God because they do not wish to be controlled by anyone, not knowing that the true God only wants to set them free and give them eternal life! 

**Union With the Perfect One!

         Communion experience. The Lord is perfect. When I received him, I was receiving the Perfect One who could make me perfect – a stunning experience!
            [Note: I won't be able to blog for the next week or so, so please check back for new postings after July 18. Meanwhile, let's continue to pray for all souls, living and deceased, and yourself too, unceasingly. Since I mean it, I don't consider it cliché to say "God bless you" to all of you out there who read my blog regularly.]

Prioritizing Praying for Yourself

        We pray for others and often neglect to pray for ourselves. We need to pray for ourselves for the sake of God! If we do not become holy first, how can we effectively change the world for the glory of God? To be humble is to acknowledge that we need God to make us holy and strong. So put God first, yourself next, and the rest all after you.

**God Also Suffers Like Us

        Today Tuesday is the day to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. It dawned on me that it's not just us sinners suffering on earth, but God also suffered and still suffers. When we think of God, we tend to think that he's got everything . . . he can do whatever he wants to do and and create whatever he'd like to have, and besides, he lives in heaven! Why would he want to suffer? Of course, he sacrificed himself on the cross all because he truly loved us. How can you not be moved by such a loving Father? Yet there are still so many of his children today who couldn't care less about his existence, so he continues to suffer for our sake. 

*God Comes Before Heaven

        Communion experience. I was completely occupied with being one with the Lord. Not even heaven could have distracted me. After all, we don't get to heaven to be one with God – we seek union with him now in order to get into heaven.

Faith With Full Confidence

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, a woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, "If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured." Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, "Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you." From that hour the woman was cured. I got to thinking about the kind of faith we should have. I've been praying for some loved ones to become great believers in Christ for many years. This woman showed me that I must go beyond believing that nothing is impossible with God and believe that God will grant me what I ask for without a doubt. If I have to "force" myself in any way to believe that it will happen, then my faith is not there yet. So it must be a faith with full confidence. Let me quote Mark 11.24, in which Jesus said, "I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours." Amen.

*Winers and Losers

        Jesus repeatedly gave the message "To anyone who has, more will be given; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away." This also applies well to anyone seeking the Lord. If you are closed to God, how do you expect him to ever enter your heart? So you will remain being cut off from him to the end. But to those who search for him sincerely with humility, they will be richly rewarded.

*Worst Wake-Up Call*

        If we remain asleep and aloof from Jesus in this life, we shall wake up in shock after we die to see that every knee of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth shall bend before him (Romans 14.11 & Philippians 2.10). This is not good.