*Life Is Like a Dream

        If life seems to be like a dream, that's because you have gotten to know Christ and found that he is the true reality.

Most Signifiant Statement

        If you ever want make a significant statement in your life, make the statement that you are with God all the way, known to him alone.

On Approaching the Lord

       There are many beautiful articles, statues, pictures, etc., in many religious gift shops, aimed at aiding you along your spiritual journey, but there is also the hidden danger that attachment to them can hang up your spiritual progress. If you are able to focus upon the Lord, I would recommend that you bypass all such possible distractions and go directly to him. Never let the trees blind you so that you lose sight of the forest.

*More Than Forgiving Us

        Communion experience. Not only Jesus can take away our sins, he's the only one who can remove all our prejudices as well.        

*Heart-to-Heart With God

        We can only touch the heart of God with our own heart and never with our mind. That's why preaching with the mind is never effective. It must be heart-to-heart communication all around.

Sad State of Souls

        In the city I visited, mentioned earlier (6 posts back), I also saw homeless people everywhere. This made me think that if we live from day to day, not thinking about nor knowing where we are going, we are basically lost. Even if we have set goals, we are still lost if the these goals are worldly ones. Sadly, many people do not realize this until their moment of death. This city also shocked me somewhat when I read in its visitors' guide not only where to shop for fashion, jewelry, souvenirs, etc., but also where to get tattooed and buy sex toys! What Jesus said in Matthew 24.37-39 comes to my mind: As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. 

God Our Liberator

        Without God as our light and guide, we become followers of the world and/or ourselves. It's only by following God (the God of Christ) that we can be liberated from sin and it's enslavement.

What We Should Look Forward To

        Since we were created by God, returning to him would be going home to the Father. How can we possibly not feel happy about it? It is what we should look forward to with great expectation and start rejoicing now.

God Indispensable

        As surely as we need food to sustain our life on earth, we need God to have life after death.  By the way, even our food on earth comes from God.

Total Dependence

        Today, while praying the Our Father, the words made it crystal clear to me that we are to depend upon God entirely and that we have no say in anything nor any contribution to make. 

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.