***What You Must Not Die to Find Out***

         It is if Jesus is truly your Savior or not. Believe in him now is being super smart. 

***God's Transforming Love

        All sinners are self-centered, but the amazing love of the God of Christ can make us become selfless. Normally, when we find a treasure, we would want to keep it to ourselves. But once we discover that Christ is our greatest treasure, you become so joyful that you would want everyone to know about and have this treasure. In fact, you wouldn't mind a bit if everyone else loves the Lord a lot more than you do. Instead of feeling jealous, you feel great joy because now everyone loves your Lord.  

**Preparing for the Second Coming

         If Jesus is coming again, then we need to prepare for that day. Even if it does not happen in your lifetime, you still need to get ready for meeting him. Prepare for his Second Coming should take care of things. The following video shows encouraging words from our Holy Mother on this subject. 

**Making Heaven Sweeter

        After attending school for many weeks, the vacation that comes afterward is most welcome. After a torrential rain, the sunny day that follows appears especially beautiful. So after undergoing sufferings for the sake of the Lord, you can be sure that heaven will taste extra sweet for those who are on their way there.

**The Lord in Control

        It was a hot evening and suddenly, thunder roared and lightning flashed. Rain came later in the middle of the night. The next morning everything was back to normal. I know that God is in full control of nature and everything else. Also I know that our soul is under his full protection. 

**Caution, Would-Be Sinners

        Before you commit any sin, consider how it would affect others, you own soul, and above all, offend the Lord God. Sinning is never something to rush into. In fact, it's something you should run away from ASAP. Do you realize why our world is in such disorder and chaos? We are the cause, being the only creatures in this universe rebelling against God!

**Prophecies of Maria Esperanza

        I had personally visited Betania, Venezuela, where Maria Esperanza was from in 1993, and two years later was on the same pilgrimage to the Holy Land as she and her whole family. I met her and she probably read my soul and said something to me I exactly needed to hear at that time. So this video interests me and is worth listening too. 

***Warning Coming

        A review of the coming Illumination of Conscience. Awesome or Awful, that would depend upon whether we are ready or not.

*****Living in and for the Lord

        We should live for the Lord and this means we live for ourselves in the Lord and not the world. The ideal Christian living is to remain hidden in the Lord and unknown to the world. When the Lord and we become one, the Lord receives the greatest glory and we the greatest satisfaction. 

**Untrendy Christians

        Most people follow trends. They want to be popular and not look like oddballs. On the contrary, true Christians want to remain humble and do not care about what others think. They follow only Christ Jesus and care only about what he thinks of them. They are joyful, proud "oddballs" beautiful to the Lord.

*How Sinners Behave

        I've had the chance to tell others about Jesus. A few days ago, I met one person I'd witnessed to and she still seemed uninterested about the Lord. I could understand that. For she is still young, has a decent job, and is free to do what she enjoys doing. Even though she might realize that she is a sinner, the pressing need to think that she would need salvation is just not there. To me, those who do not want to face God behave just like those kids who have misbehaved and try to avoid facing their father when they can. Of course, the day will come for all of us to face the heavenly Father.     

***The Right Way to Know God***

         The good people who follow Christ want to know him better, but they go about it not in the most effective manner. They attend conferences featuring eloquent and knowledgeable speakers to encourage them to love God, they celebrate certain feast days of the Church, dedicate statutes of saints, hold Bible studies, read spiritual articles, etc. Let's realize that our goal is to know the Lord, so why don't we go directly to him to let him know us? You see, when we open ourselves up to him, we get to know him! If you really don't know the Lord well yet, doing all the other things shows that you don't really want to know him. It's like you want to go somewhere and you spend all your time getting your cart ready, but not going about looking for a horse to pull the cart. To really want to know the Lord, you must be willing to surrender yourself completely to him, no holding back. This is the basic challenge we all face.

***What Matters More*

         It's a happy day, for I finally got my laptop back and can start blogging again. The computer now works flawlessly. For months I had been getting double letters when I typed some of the single letters. Now I know that was caused by the swollen battery pushing on the keyboard from underneath. I shall date each posting as of the day I received the thoughts, so it may take me three days or longer to catch up totally.
        (1) How much you love God matters more than how you love God. (2) How willingly you accept suffering for God's sake matters more than how you suffer. (3) How much your heart is involved in praying to God matters more than how much you pray.

**Secure Your Soul First

        In Matthew 10:28, Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." If you have already secured you soul with Christ, then there is absolutely nothing for you to fear anymore. [I'll have to take my laptop into a shop to get its swollen battery replaced. I do not know yet how much time this repair will take. If you don't see me blogging, you'll know why.]

*Wise Move as You Age

        Do you get busier when you get older? Some old folks feel that there isn't much they can do and simply wait for death. This is rather sad. Others see that their time is limited and hustle to do all the things they enjoy doing. This is better but not necessarily profitable, depending upon their motivation. The wisest choice as you age is to serve God as best as you can in every way in the remaining time you still have left. This last effort may very well put you comfortably across the finish line to heaven.

**Death Is No End of Life

        If I die right now, how would I feel? This thought came to me this morning. I would feel all right because I see life continuing on. One difference would be the change of environment. When I leave this world, I simply let everything in it go. As for those for whom I am praying, I'll just continue praying for them from heaven if necessary. Of course, the environment up there will now be divine! So dying does affect serving the Lord; only your environment becomes infinitely better. Now you are in union with the Lord God more than ever. 

**Persevering to the End

        Encouraging, consoling words from the Holy Mother. She said, "Those who remain faithful to the end will receive great reward." Let's remember that!

*****Awesome Power of God's Will

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 6, on a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up and stand before us.” And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Looking around at them all, he then said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so and his hand was restored. It's awesome to see that when we let the Lord do what he wills, all that's good for us is done.