Rules of Life

        When I was very young, my grandfather already started telling me some of the rules of life he had learned which he thought would benefit me too in my life. As I grew up, I began to learn many more rules from my own life experiences. Later, after I came to know Christ, I had to discard or modify many of them. I now see one rule that a Christian must follow, that is, no matter what I contemplate doing, it must be according to God's will. Naturally, I am excluding the usual routine chores; I am talking about the more unusual ideas that pop into my mind. It is easy to brush God aside and follow your own intention. Therefore, the rule is to make sure that whatever we attempt to do, we are prompted by the Holy Spirit. The sign that we are following God's will is that we'll have inner peace.

Being One With God

        Communion experience. I already have the Lord, so I am back to my creator, the only Creator of the universe and all other things. With him, I am at the center of all creation.

To Be Assured of Salvation

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 13, Jesus tells the need to repent and to bear fruit to be assured of salvation. So, essentially we have three requirements to fulfill: accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior, repent, and bear fruit. Actually, if we fulfill the first requirement faithfully, the other two will automatically be fulfilled too. But there are Christians who slack off and think that their sins are OK, thus putting off repentance, and easily fall into living a more self-centered life, no longer bearing any fruit for the Lord. Their salvation is now no longer assured. It comes down to following the Lord closely to remain vigilant. 

**Knowing Yourself

        Communion experience. I was shaken, not our of fear, but because I was awed by the fact that the Almighty One should love and care for me so much. Who am I? Now I know.

Who God Is

        There are many answers besides being our creator, Lord and Savior. Today I see that he is the one to whom we can confidentially submit ourselves for completely healing in every way to make us whole.         

To Be With God or Not?

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 12, Jesus announced that he had come to establish not peace, but rather division, on earth. But Jesus is the prince of peace, so any division could only be caused by whether we accept and believe in him or not, as we all exercise our free will. The truth remains the same, and it is because he is the truth that this division matters gravely to both him and us. (Know that the devil aims to get us divided among ourselves.) 

Christ the Savior We Need

        Do you know that without our Lord and Savior, our souls are heading for eternal death? But his love and mercy can change our course to put us on the straight path to heaven when we accept and believe in him.

To Be Prepared Our Duty

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 12, Jesus said to his disciples: "Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." Even if we know when the Lord will come, we still should be prepared. To be prepared is to be holy. Consider it to be your duty. Just know that he will come. When he will come is not the real issue here.

*Christ Becoming More Beautiful

        Christ is already perfect and most beautiful. If he is becoming more and more beautiful to you, that's because you are opening up your heart more and more to him.       

*The Happiest Person on Earth

        God has so made us that we'll never be completely satisfied until we possess all of him – this I know and can assure you. Therefore, to know Christ fully is to be the happiest person on earth!

Joy of Christ's Coming Again

        Christians look forward to the Second Coming of Christ. As time goes by, their joy intensifies, for they know that the waiting is getting shorter.

Feeling Good About Knowing God

        Resumed attending daily Mass this morning. I felt so good about knowing and obeying Christ. The entrance antiphon from Psalm 17 perfectly stated what I wanted to say to the Lord: To you I call; for you will surely heed me. O God; turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me.

What Is Death to You?

        We all face death one day. Some of us may buy our own burial plot and/or plan our funeral in advance, but more of us don't think about it until we have to, for it is not a pleasant thought. If you don't know God or have only a weak faith, you are basically heading into the unknown and I imagine you'll definitely experience anxiety and fear in going through possibly the greatest uncertainty of your life. On the other hand, those who have come to know the Lord intimately as in union would look forward to meeting their most beloved face to face with great joy, for to them death is merely a portal through which you enter paradise.

God Most Essential to Us

        He is the only one without whom we cannot possibly exist, let alone live.

*Living Your Age

        I am at the age my body tells me that I can no longer grower stronger with muscles sagging, skins wrinkling, and any bruises showing up easily. I can no longer recover from any physical injury as fast as when I was young. I get out of breath easily doing any physical work and trip over things while walking if I don't pay extra attention. By all these signs the Lord shows me clearly that I am living my last days on earth. Not living our age is not realizing that when we are 20, we have likely sixty more years to live and when we are 50, perhaps 30 more years. The big foolish mistake we make is that we plan and live as if we shall last forever. Then when the time comes and we have nothing to show that we have done anything for the sake of God, we'll have wasted our entire lifetime. (I was not able to attend Mass this morning, so I just looked up the Gospel reading from Luke 12 for today. Interestingly, Jesus told the crowd the parable of the rich fool, in which God said to him, "You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?" Jesus commented, "Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.")

No Lonely Christians

        A Christian who knows Jesus intimately or is in union with him is never lonely, while those in the world who have a lot of friends are deep down much lonelier, for their relationships with others are often superficial or transitory, carried on at the mind level, touching the heart at best, but never the soul. 

***Secret of Knowing God

        To know if God is true or not, all you need to do is to trust in him with all your heart and you will know! Obviously, you'll never know him if you do not believe in him. It may not be obvious to you that the more you open yourself up to him, the more he will reveal himself to you, until you and he become one. Now he becomes more real to you than yourself! Now you know him because you know him, not because you've seen some kind of proof. The only way to know God is to allow him to reveal himself to you, to your heart. This is the God to be experienced personally.

*Perfect Prayer

        The Lord's Prayer (the shorter original version without the Doxology) Jesus taught us is as perfect as a prayer can be – you cannot add or replace a line to make it better. It defines perfectly how we should relate ourselves to God.