***Do It For Your Soul's Sake

        We all have a soul. We can take care of our own souls, but can only help others to take care of theirs. Taking care of your own soul is all God asks of us, for if we all do that, there'll be heaven on earth. Of course, to get the best care for your soul, you would put your soul under God's care. So for the sake your soul, abandon yourself to God totally. 

*****Source of All Beauty

        Here's the Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos playing a Rachmaninoff song. He is a master at making the melody sound achingly beautiful. Anytime I see or hear something beautiful, I think of the source of all beauty, our Lord, who holiness is the most beautiful of all beauties.

**Hoping to Become Perfect

        God can transform us into a new creature when we are on earth. What I look forward to is that once we are in heaven, God will completely renew us, wiping out even all our inappropriate involuntary reactions that have been ingrained in our nature while we're on earth so that we'll become perfect like the Lord.

**Preparing for Meeting God

        Think of it, we are always in our last days on earth. So what should we do with the time we still have on earth? Do we want to show up before the Lord God empty-handed? I think not. This is what we want to hear him say when we see him: Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master's joy (Matthew 25:21). If you long to see the Lord, you are probably ready. 

**To Be Free of Nonessentials

       This early morning I dreamed that I walk by a room in a large building, entered it and found a box on a bookshelf that contained something I knew would be useful to me. I learned that the room would be emptied and everything in it discarded. Since I had to do something, I thought I would come back a little later to get that box. When I returned, that box was not there anymore, and I felt distressed. Then I realized that all along I never had that box and I got along fine. I saw that we all accumulated things that may be useful, but not essential. So we needed to learn to detach ourselves from all nonessentials. That was the lesson I learned. It comes down to that only God is essential, the only one to whom we need to attach ourselves.

***How to Love God More

         If you love the Lord, do you best to glorify him, and still feel that you fall short, your can always surrender yourself to him more perfectly to strengthen your union with him. That would be most pleasing to him and beneficial to you too.

***Saddest Day of Our Existence

        When we no longer hope in God, that would be the saddest day of our existence! 

**Loss of Respect for Life

         Today's biggest crimes committed against humanity are abortion, human trafficking, and suicide. The sanctity of life is no longer upheld by many. Human life is most precious to God our creator. Only by believing in God and knowing his love for us can we hope to treasure life. Those who know Christ the Lord are never lonely and rejoice about their existence always.

**Prayer Intentions

        We pray to show that we not only trust in God, but also are obedient to him. 

***Most Soul-Shaking Events***

        There have been many earthing-shaking events happening throughout history, most of which are pretty horrible. But there are two events that are most relevant and critically important to the whole human race we may not realize, but ought to. They are (1) the coming of Jesus into our world to save us from sin and (2) his Cruxifixction on the cross to complete the work for our salvation. This makes all the difference to us. Because of it, our eternal life is now assured. 

***We Can Be Talented and Amazing!

         As you know, I have an interest in piano music, although much less now than before. Currently, two talented pianists are most amazing. It's as if the piano was invented just for them. One is Japan's Hayato Sumino. He plays the piano as naturally as a duck swims on water. The other is Russia's Zlata Chochieva. Playing the difficult Chopin and Rachmaninoff etudes looks like child's play for her. So what are my thoughts? Well, we can be equally talented and amazing in living for Christ. Even better, we don't ever need to practice hard on any instrument—we simply remain in the Lord and let him make things happen! When you have Christ, you get the best of everything! 

***We'll Never Die!

        Looking out of my bedroom window, I can see the wild buckeye tree behind the huge boulder. Not receiving any irrigation, all its leaves turn brown every year about this time in the summer, then it comes back in the spring with even more fresh growth. So it's half of the year alive and half of the year looking dead—pretty amazing. My thoughts are that when we live in Christ, we can die on earth, but we'll never really die and will live forever with him in heaven. God takes care of the trees; so much more will he take care of us!

**Food for Thought*

        To know God is to know yourself.

***To Think As God Thinks

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 16, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly, and be killed and on the third be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." To think as God does, we must know God first and learn from him. This is where seeking union with God can precisely help. Surrender to him to become one with the him first. Then you'll know how he thinks and understand everything he says to you! Now you are completely in tune with the Lord. What a great joy!

**Christ in Our Insane World

       Fo those of us who follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we begin living our heavenly joy right now on earth, for our journey to paradise has begun and the best is yet to come. In this insane world on earth, Christ is the only one who can keep us sane and safe from all evil. You can't be sane if you believe that you can find happiness in this sinful world without him. If you are lost, you need to find him and he'll save you forever. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), our only bright hope in this insane world. 

*Happy and Grateful

        Today I am so happy and grateful that I have Christ to lead me. By following him, I know I'll do everything right, and get to heaven. You can never trust anyone with a big ego, but Jesus you can totally trust because he is forever meek and humble despite being Almighty God.

***The Lord Doing What We Wish!

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman came to Jesus to beg him to heal her daughter tormented by a demon. Jesus tested her first, but she persisted. Jesus then said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." Her daughter was healed from that hour. It just shows that if we have faith and persist, the Lord hears us. "Let it be done for you as you wish" has to be one of most comforting sayings filled with love you can hear coming from the Lord.

***How to Follow Christ*****

        To follow Christ, you are given so many rules. I wouldn't be surprised if you can come up with a list showing hundreds of these rules. Anyway, it'd be impossible to remember and practice them all. So how do we get around this? My answer: ignore all of them an go straight to the Lord himself to learn from him. Once you attain union with him, he'll shows you what to do and what not to do at any time, without a single rule to memorize. The Lord always makes things easy for us to understand when we go to him with an open empty heart and and open empty mind, ready to absorb whatever he wishes to reveals to us.