*Comforting Words

         In today's Gospel reading from John 10, we hear Jesus say to the Jews, "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father's hand." These ironclad assurances are such a comfort for those who follow the Lord to hear!

***Ultimate Warning************

       I started this blog in 2009 and out of love have posted more than 11,200 messages, always extolling the God of Christ. Today, out of love I am going to post a most serious warning to those who consciously reject Christ. This needs to be made known. I don't intend to offend anyone. On the contrary, I wish everyone to get to heaven to enjoy eternal life.
         Jesus has come as the Messiah, fulfilling all the Old Testament prophecies. He claimed that he is the Son of God and had come to save us from sin. He proved that he has the power to forgive our sins by miraculously healing the lame and the sick. Here's what John wrote about Jesus in John 1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be." In John 14, Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." In Matthew 14, Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Wow! That so many had seen the Resurrected Lord is undeniable. Back in John 10, Jesus knew that he was going to die and rise again, for he said to the Jews, "I lay down my life in order to take it up again. I have power to lay it down and power to take it up." Finally, the Apostles witnessed the Ascension of Jesus into heaven.”
         If you reject Jesus, then you reject all I've said above and more. This would amount to saying that Christ is not only not God, but that he is a liar, a phony, a false teacher, and that he never rose from the dead. If you turn out to be right, you gain nothing and still remain lost. But if you turn out to be wrong, then I know you'd wish that you were never born! Think about it. [Please help spreading this message to as many as possible for their sake and for the glory of God.]

**Evidence of Life After Death

        We have the first 20-minute video with a Scott Drummond sharing what he saw and how it changed his life forever after he was pronounced dead for 20 minutes. You would enjoy watching it, for it shows that life continues on after death and God exists. Scott also tells about the peace he experienced on the other side. The second 25-minute-long video is a follow-up, the first one being the main one to watch. I feel so blessed that I do not need to die to know that the soul lives on, God exists, and that I am going to enjoy peace and joy with the Lord forever.

***Jesus Is My Shepherd!

        Today's Gospel reading comes from John 10 in which Jesus spoke of himself as the good shepherd. He said, "The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. He walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice." And I realized that I am one of his sheep! I can indeed claim that "the Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack" (Psalm 23:1). 

**God's Great Mercy*

         God's mercy endure forever (Psalm 106:1). His mercy is infinite, for he does not judge you as long as you still have time on earth or before his Second Coming. Accept this mercy, and heaven is yours. Reject it and you gain nothing and can lose everything. The wise take full advantage of God's great mercy by praying for it unceasingly.

*A Depiction of the World

         It's estimated that we now have 7.9 billion people worldwide. I wish I can say that all of them are in total obedience to God. A realistic description would be that we have 7.9 billion people at various stages of rebellion against God. If I plot a graph, I am likely to get a bell-shaped normal distribution with the most number of people in half rebellion against God. This is why Jesus came to us. Our prayer and hope is that the peak of this distribution will shift to the right toward total obedience to God. Surely God can beat statistics!

***Divine Mercy Prayer

         In these times when God desires that we pray, pray, and pray, besides praying the Rosary, I suggest you pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy too if you haven't done so yet. In the main part, you begin each decade by saying, "Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world." Then you recite ten times the prayer "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." Last night the Lord made me see that this short prayer is neat, clear, and to the point. Of course, we can make other specific requests, but mercy is what we generally need the most for now. We can pray for that and let the Lord administer it as he sees fit. Click here to learn how to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. God bless you all.

***Secret Blessings*

         As times goes on, many things continue happening and we don't even realize it until some time later. I used to live in a different city and heard that the neighbor across the street just had a new baby boy. I saw him once in a while in the following years when he played outside his house. Then one day the mother told me that her son was getting ready to go to college—I couldn't believe it! How could time have gone by so fast? Things have a way of sneaking up on us. I've mentioned that Christ is more real to me than any other living person I know and see. Apparently, I've been aware of his holy presence at all times for quite a while, so this feeling isn't new. Today, it dawned on me that before 2009, the year I started this blog, I never exactly felt this way. I now know that God's blessings can also sneak up on us without our being aware of it. When we live a secret life in the Lord, we receive his blessings in secret too. 

***Only One Savior

          In today's reading from Acts 4, Peter declared to the leaders of the people and elders that other than Jesus Christ, there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved. We know that only God can save us, so Christ must be God. And there can be only one God, so Christ has to be our only Savior. Seeking salvation through anyone else is doomed to failure.

***All or Nothing with God

        We pray to God for many things, why not pray to him about everything? Would the Lord who loves you so much be happy if you are not with him completely? I don't think so. He has given all of himself to you so that you might live, shouldn't you give all of yourself to him too?  As I've said, with God it has to be all or nothing! We won't feel totally satisfied until we possess all of him. He has made us so that only complete abandonment to him can make us completely happy and content.   

*Cost of Rejecting the Best

        Again, I look at extreme cases to make me see things clearly. Suppose God has made salvation extremely difficult for us. Say we must go through many loops and meet all kinds of stringent requirements. Then even if we don't make it, the consequence understandably probably wouldn't be so bad. Now that the Lord has made salvation so simple and direct for us: basically, all we need to do is believe, I intuitively see that the consequence of not appreciating his great offer would be a lot more severe too.

*Jesus Tests Our Heart

        Jesus came to die for us so that we might have eternal life. Our proper response should be gratitude and joy, yet many ignore or outright reject him. I see that our hearts are being tested by the Lord. To a good extent, how we respond to him reveals how hard our heart is.  

***The Sad and the Beautiful

       Two things from today's first reading from Acts 9 stirred my heart. First, verse 31: "The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit she grew in numbers." The Church today is in trouble precisely because so many of her hierarchy no longer walk in the fear of the Lord. They spew heresies and their own opinions, no longer following the teachings of the Lord, and as a result, have lost the consolation of the Holy Spirit.
        Next, verses 36-41 tell the raising of Tabitha to life by Peter. Tabitha had fallen ill and died. After Peter got to her bedside, he sent everyone out and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to her body and said, "Tabitha, rise up." She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. There's something very beautiful here. Peter knew that he could raise her by the power of the Lord, but he still turned to him and prayed first. I see the oneness of Peter and the Lord. Being in union with the Lord and turning to him—this was the beauty I saw.

***Demons Exist

        On most days I walk outside the house, the weather has been quite nice since spring began. When the sky is blue and clear, you see fresh leaves sprouting from all the branches and hear the birds singing all around you, and the temperature is perfect, you can't help feeling good and happy. But this morning was different. The sky was cloudy and grey, the wind rather chilly, and I heard strange sounds made by various animals. Since I am not a wildlife expert, I can't tell you what I heard. One sounded like an owl, but do owls show up in the morning? Anyway, I realized that things around us in life could change unexpectedly. I recalled how people lost their lives when a natural disaster suddenly struck. Worst yet, evil had caused many to lose their soul. Demons do exist! You may enjoy eating, drinking, partying, and doing all the fun things in life, but if you are not aware that evil, demons, and hell also exist, you are living in great danger, for things can change quickly and unexpectedly. There is only one in whom you can find security for all eternity and that's Christ our Lord and our God. [I posted the above 4 days ago and had found out that one strange sound I heard was actually the cooing of wild doves communicating with each other.]

**Way to Know God

       The fact I seem to know God well had made someone think that I must have worked hard at wanting to know him. True or false? It is true that when we want to find out about something, we often need to do a lot of searching and digging. To know about Jesus is the same; you need to do a lot reading or asking others about him. But to know Jesus is different. No searching, digging, or any labor-intensive work is required: you simply remain open to him to let him draw you to or into him. It couldn't be simpler. This also shows that learning by the heart is a lot more efficient than learning by the mind.

**Know the Truths

         Just saw Fr. Corapi's short video uploaded today. It's a joy to listen to him because he doesn't waste words and goes directly to the point. You can't possibly not know what's he's trying to tell you. This is refreshing. Let me give you the direct link to this video on YouTube so that you can see the four sites he lists under the video that can help you stay faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Holy Catholic Church: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCrU7WLf7O4

***Be Masters of the World

        Many things such as our upbringing, the neighborhood we live in, the kind of family we were born into, economic conditions, government policies, social norms—in fact, all our life experiences—influence and shape us. My point is we must let the God of Christ alone influence and shape us so that we may in turn influence and shape everything around us. We must be masters of and not slaves to the world! Start with Christ, ground yourselves deep in him, and do his will always to be free of the influences of the world. Let the Lord be your master first, then you'll become masters of the world. 

***Ready to Go to God?

        Simeon, after seeing Baby Jesus at his presentation to the Lord at the temple, was ready to die in peace. For the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord. Am I ready to go in peace too? Yes, because although I have not seen Jesus, I have gotten to know him so well that seeing him is not going to help me believe in him more. Besides, there's nothing left in the world worthy pursuing anymore. If Jesus is not ready for me to go because his work for me is not yet complete, that would be fine too. The important thing is that we be ready for him.