***Humility Essential

        Another wise Message from Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel. 

**Asking for Conversion (?)

         While receiving Communion, I asked the Lord to convert every single small part of me, whatever that means. (Words are not always adequate to express one's deep feelings.)

***Good Prayer*

         Pray that not only everything you do, but also everything that happens to you, will help you bear fruit for the Lord.

***Pray Right to Be Blessed*****

         When you pray the Lord's Prayer, if you mean what you say, you are surrendering yourself to him completely. Otherwise, you shouldn't pray and say "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Right? So surrendering to the Lord is our first order of business. If you haven't done so yet, then at lease say the prayer to help you achieve that goal. Once you mean everything you say in all your prayers, you'll surely receive abundant blessings from God!

*****How to Be Truly Carefree*****

         Every thought, every word, and every deed of each one of us is recorded in his or her book in heaven. So we'd better watch whatever we do. Again, I advocate that you seek to attain union with God through the Holy Eucharist. Once you reach that union, you'll be completely absorbed in the Lord and know that you are with him every step of the way. Now, you are not concerned about that book anymore.

*Interesting Conjectures

       Since those who had near-death experiences had reported that they saw beautiful trees, flowers, meadows, and the like in heaven, is it possible that the earth was modeled after heaven, considering the facf that we were made in the image of God?
          Among those who enter hell, I am sure some are truly evil and others much less so. This makes me think that possibly there are various levels of punishment in hell. (Actually, I remember reading about the different levels in a well-known book I can't recall now.) Being burned in fire might be the highest level and being left alone in darkness, possibly the lowest. Not being able to go to God ever is punishment enough. The dead souls the spiritualists can easily contact might be those souls suffering at the lowest level.
           Both conjectures are just conjectures, so don't believe in them.

**Beautiful Example for Us

         In today's Gospel reading from Luke 5, Jesus called Levi the tax collector sitting at the customs post to follow him. Levi, leaving everything behind, got up and followed him. I thought this immediate obedience to the Lord was just beautiful! We who are Christians should follow Levi's example in following Christ.

***We Are in God's Way (The Real Situation)***

         God can do whatever he wants with Satan, but for the time being we are preventing him from doing so, as many of us are being disobedient to him. You see, if he destroys Satan, they'd be destroyed too. If we all abandon Satan and follow Christ, we'll have instant peace and Satan will be totally crushed. Understand this situation and do what's right and wise so that we may have peace ASAP.

**Jesus Power*

         We are all shackled by the secular world we live in. Do you know that submitting to Jesus can sever all those shackles one by one until your spirit is set totally free?

***Church in Sad State***

         A crystal clear call we need to heed:

***Nowhere to Go***

         Communion experience. In union with God, you have nowhere to go anymore because you have reached the end of your quest. Besides, you don't want to go anywhere anymore as God has completely fulfilled you. Now you simply enjoy the Lord every moment! 😄 

****First Things First*

         Be pure first before doing good deeds. An unclean person doing good deeds is, strictly speaking, a hypocrite. It's also a waste of time, for doing good won't remove your sins. Be holy first and you'll automatically do good deeds. 

****What's Most Precious to Us****

         Apart from God, our soul is our most important possession. Without the soul, we wouldn't be worth much. God created us with a living soul, not a bunch of puppets. Our soul is way more important than our physical body and everything else you can think of. The Lord God sacrificed his only Son so that our soul might go to in heaven—that's how important the soul is to him. So safeguard your soul more than your body and all other possessions. Lose your soul and you lose everything!

***Joy Surpassing All Understanding****

         In Philippians 4, Paul writes about the peace that surpasses all understanding. I can vouch for the fact that the joy you receive in union with Christ is a joy that surpasses all understanding too. This is a joy you experience whenever the Holy Spirit touches your soul. It bursts forth powerfully from within your heart, completely taking over your spirit—you just know that it came from the Lord!

***Sin to Be Spurned

        Back to the basics—we must spurn sin or suffer eternal separation from God. Only Christ, who is God, can take away your sins when you repent of them and ask him to forgive you. He can even make you holy enough to stop sinning!

*****Our Momentous Day (Urgent Reminder)*****

         We'll all face God and be judged by him one day on which our eternal abode will be determined by him. So do not go on as if that won't ever happen. Instead, we need to take it most seriously and prepare ourselves for that momentous day while we still have time. I really feel like repeating this reminder a thousand more times because it's that critically important! It all comes down to us embracing Christ in this life or not. God bless you all!

***Why We Get Attacked

         A good short message for Christians to know:

**For God Alone

        To live secretly in the Lord is to care about only what he thinks. So we do good, suffer for his sake, and do everything else for him alone to know.