Sweet Sorrow

        Christians, being human, feel sorrow like anyone else, but their sorrow is always lined with joy. Once the soul has experienced the joy of knowing Christ, no sorrow can ever crush his or her spirit anymore. Sorrow normally burdens the soul, but to the Christian, all sorrows experienced for the sake of Christ are essentially sweet, for they always draw him or her closer to the Lord.

Securing Our Soul

        What is most important to us is our soul. If you can entrust your soul to God, then you indeed have faith in him and your soul will be secure in his care forever!

The Best Part

        Communion thoughts. You watch the news and see everyone talking a mile a minute, nonstop, and you realize how infinitely more beautiful and peaceful it is to remain silent in union with Christ. The world is in total unrest because it does not know him. What came to my mind was what the Lord said to Martha who was anxious and worried about many things, while her sister Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet listening to him speak: "There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her." (Luke 10:42.)

*Extraordinary State

          Living in Christ is an extraordinary state, for it remains so, as everything around you passes.         

*Ruining God's Plan

       In today's Gospel reading from Acts 16, we heard read that at Philippi, the crowd attacked Paul and Silas, and the magistrates had them stripped and beaten with rods. Afterwards, they threw them into prison. About midnight, there was suddenly a severe earthquake; all the doors flew open and the chains of all were pulled loose. The jailer woke up and was alarmed when he saw the prison doors wide open. He rushed in, saw Paul and Silas, and trembling with fear, fell down before them. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved." God has truly made his plan for our salvation simple, but we often make it as complicated as possible. Instead of making his way straight, we make it crooked or set up roadblocks in our own way. A tragedy in the making!

Expecting God's Wonders

        It's true that we reap what we sow. The more we trust in God, the more we see how wonderful and amazing he is. Let God become more and more wonderful and amazing to you. The sky's the limit!

*Justice Without Guidance

       In the news today. A New York doctor who says he's done 40,000 abortions is accused of being negligent in saving the life of a mother who died after he performed an abortion on her. By the way, he charged $6,000 for the procedure. His lawyer says his client has not committed a crime and predicts that he'll end up with only months in jail when he is sentenced next month. In 2013, a Philadelphia doctor Kermit Gosnell was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after a patient got a fatal overdose of sedatives during an abortion. He also was convicted of murder for snipping the spines of several infants born alive during the procedures. 

       Our justice is warped. Killing the infant within the mother's womb is OK, but not outside of it. That life begins at conception is completely ignored. God created us out of love and loved us before we were born! Without the guidance of God, mankind further strays away from his ways. It is good that we'll all be judged by him in the end. 

*What Must Come First

        Communion experience. When Jesus was offering his own Body and Blood to us during the consecration of the bread and the wine, he was declaring his greatest love for us. And I saw that loving and worshipping the Lord must come before anything else in life.

**Simplest Formula

        How to succeed in loving others, attaining union with God, becoming free, receiving inner peace, losing the desire to sin, making life meaningful, getting into heaven . . . ? You only need to obey Jesus alone. 

God's Love, Our Truth

        In today's reading 2 from 1 John 4, the Apostle talks about God's love. God wants us to love one another, because God is love and he loves us so much that he wants us to be just like him. It is this love that makes us selfless, refrains us from judging others, and draws us to him. It is the key to freedom, inner peace, and eternal life.