**Focusing on Jesus*

        Christianity is all about Christ. Therefore, we should zero in on him. He is everything and all things to us. Going peripherally about him is a waste of time; you won't get to know him well. We need to live in him, breathe him, be wide open to him to be fed, nurtured, shaped, and molded by him, and become one with him. Then we'll be like him, fulfilling his loving desire and satisfying all our inner thirst and hunger.   

Love for All Eternity

        Communion experience. Relationship with anything or anyone in the world, no matter how enjoyable or intimate, can wane, grow tiresome, or become burdensome over time. With God, the deeper you enter him, the more you witness his beauty and splendor, and the more you fall in love with him. 

No Duplicity in Us with God

        Jesus said in Matthew 7.21: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." In other words, when we say "Lord, Lord," we must mean it, that he truly is our Lord and we obey him always. Otherwise, we are hypocrites. 

*Faith as Gift from God

         If I want to enlarge my house, no problem. I could do the work myself or hire someone else. If I want to plant more trees in my yard, again no problem. If I want to grow more muscles, I can join a gym to work out. With most things, I can do something about it. As to my faith in God, it is different. I can try my hardest to force myself to believe in him more and that won't work. Only by the grace of God can my faith grow. In this sense, faith is a gift from God.
        The above I blogged earlier. Then I thought about it. There is something we can do to increase our faith. Instead of trying hard, we simply relax ourselves and open up to God. With resistance out of the way, the Lord can increase our faith by drawing us close to him.

Bolder Prayers Please God

        I hear too many prayers that begin with "May...." They sound timid, too polite, or even wishy-washy. I venture to say that the Lord would rather that we be bolder, more commanding, or more resolute, especially when we know we are following his will. I particularly remember Jesus' parable of the persistent widow from Luke 18, in which the dishonest judge eventually caved in to the demand of the widow who persistently pestered him. Remember that our Lord is our dearest Father.  

**Power of God's Holiness

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 1, when a man with an unclean spirit saw Jesus, he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out. I see the power of God's holiness at work here. When we become one with the Lord, this power makes us holy, and fearless, shielding us from all evil. Let's use this power in loving and evangelizing others too.

*Obeying the Lord in All Things*

        It is super easy to follow the flesh and not God. For example, I came across an interesting TV show with many episodes. After I watched the first episode, my flesh urged me to go on and watch the next one, while the Lord let me know that it's time for blogging. The voice of the Spirit is always gentle, so we must learn to discern and listen carefully. Our goal should be to obey the Lord in all things at all times; as John the Baptist, pointing to Jesus, said, "He must increase; I must decrease."

Making It the Right Way

        People look at someone who has become rich and famous and say that he has made it, but I don't necessarily agree. What if he won't make it to heaven? Besides, if the person others admire is not even holy, what does that say about them? Jesus came to give us life—not to make us rich and famous. Obviously, to have life is to have life for all eternity. Let's make it the right way, not according to the ways of the world.

**Advice on Sinning

        Sometimes we sin and hurt ourselves only; at other times we sin and hurt others too. Then our sin can cause others to sin also or hurt them to the extent you can't possibly make amends, making you feel bad. Now, let's think fundamentally. Every time we sin, no matter what sin it is, what the cause was, and what its consequences are or will be, we hurt our Lord badly. Therefore, do not ever sin and you do not have to be concerned about all the implications of your sin.

**Fair Exchange

        Communion experience. The Lord even let me consume him, how could I not let him have all of me?

**Great to Be in God

        When we are in God or God is in us, we become pure in every way: pure in thoughts, words, deeds, our motivation, our love, etc. This is why being in God makes us feel so good. (He has made us this way.)

***Be Filled with God

        The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Joy! Anyone filled with the Holy Spirit can't help being on fire with great zeal for the Lord God. Without the Holy Spirit, we would appear to be rather depressing or pitiable. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to submit yourself fully to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. Anyway, whether it be the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, it is total submission to God that sets you free. Anyone or anything other than God can only enslave us. This is the spiritual warfare we're involved in. Be filled with God and you are saved and safe. Otherwise, you are lost and lose.

*Keeping Our Conscience Clean

        We are given a conscience by God, but that conscience gets muddy as we continue sinning, "trapped" in this secular world in which evil is real! To get our conscience cleansed and restored so that we can see clearly what's good and what's evil, we need to go to God from whom we received our conscience. A super sharp, clean conscience protects us from sinning, thus preserving our inner peace. The worst feeling is knowing that we have offended the One who loves us the most. Remain in union with the Lord is the best way to keep our conscience pristine. 

*What True Love Demands

        Do you really love someone (yourself)? If you think only about getting a good education, finding a good job, having good health, making money, seeking material comfort . . . do you think you can make your loved one truly happy? I think you know the answer, but you still hope that you can, as you do not know anything better. This is the common situation I see. If you truly love someone, whether it be your father or mother, your brother or sister, your own son or daughter, your good friend or yourself, you would want that person to be truly happy forever! Eternity is real and earthly existence only transitory. To truly love someone is to make sure that the person (yourself) will be happy forever, not just to seek only pseudo happiness on this earth. 

***God Calling and Waiting

        If Jesus bugs you in any way, it only shows that you are running away from him, that you need him, and that he is calling you. Solid proof: If you turn to him, go to him, become totally reconciled with him, you experience freedom, peace, and joy you never had before.

God Fills My Cup

        Communion experience. My cup overflows (Psalms 23.5). I love the Lord overwhelming me with his love!

**"Take Our Hearts, O Lord"

        At Mass, after the Eucharist Prayer is said, the priest asks us to lift up our hearts, and we respond by saying "We lift them up to the Lord." It's easy to picture that I take my heart, place it in my hand, and offer it to God. Then I thought it'd be more "appropriate" to just let the Lord take my heart and do whatever he wishes with it. That is, our hearts belong to him now.

**Godly Humility

        Today is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Jesus asked John the Baptist to baptize him. Of course, he is all holy and didn't need to be baptized at all, so it impresses me greatly that he should want to be treated as one of us all sinners. (Later, he also washed the feet of his disciples.) He humbles me, making me love him even more.