To Achieve True Freedom

        Today's Entrance at Mass from Psalm 18: "The Lord has been my strength; he has led me into freedom..."  

        How to be truly free?  Anyone in slavery himself has no power to free himself.  It's like trying to lift yourself up by pulling on your own boot straps.  He needs someone greater than himself, a master, to free him.  And that master is God, with whom nothing is impossible.  It is in letting ourselves be captives of God that we become free ~ one of those paradoxes that are true.      

On Expecting to Be Rewarded

        If you expect to be rewarded for what you do, you'll surely have disappointments; but if you do not expect any reward for what you do, then you'll be free to enjoy whatever surprises coming your way. 

        A footnote.  Do everything for the glory of God and you'll always be rewarded. 

All in Your Hands

        I was inspired to pray "all in your hands" before Mass.  Believe it, desire it, and submit to it, and freedom begins.

Living by Faith

        I prefer living by faith in this life because the joy of seeing the Lord face-to-face later will be greater.

We're Living on Borrowed Time

        Photography used to be my hobby and I thought of the many hours I spent in the darkroom.  When I was deeply immersed in developing and printing pictures, I didn't think of anything else.  I was fortunate that I survived those hours ~ what I mean is that I didn't die or anything like that happened during those hours; for life is so unpredictable and fragile.  As if to confirm my belief, yesterday out of the blue an electric outage occurred in my neighborhood ~ the storm did it.  The power was not restored until 24 hours later.  I am now keenly aware that we are all living on borrowed time.  Only God knows the length of each individual borrowing period.  Not making good use of this time is like not reading a book we have borrowed from the library, and that's wasting time.  Jesus' advice on always staying awake and be alert is to be acted upon.

Yearning for God

        At the beginning, you yearn for something to fill the void in your heart, to make life meaningful ~ you're actually yearning for God without knowing it.  After you find him, you yearn for him still more because you have now beheld his beauty and tasted his sweet love.

Jesus Can Make Us Whole

        Today at Communion time, when I heard the priest declare, "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," my thoughts ran like this ~ if Jesus can take away my sins, surely he can take away my imperfections and all the other little warts.  This gave me great confidence in asking for him to make me whole. 

Where Is Your True Home?

         This early morning as I drove on the road, I noticed an eerie beauty in the distant scene as I gazed ahead, for there were grey clouds and the sun was not fully up yet.  I  thought of the many other beautiful sights and things in the world and the question "Would you want to live forever in this world?" popped into my mind.  Let's say that you will not even age or get sick, what would your answer be? 

        I know I wouldn't want to remain in this world forever.  There are beauties and pleasures around, but there are also wars, natural disasters, accidents, and worst of all, evil.  As time marches on, I sense more and more that I am just journeying through this world.  Now that I have known Christ the Lord, my true home is definitely not here below anymore.    

God Smoothes Our Way

        Today's Responsorial Psalm (119) starts out: "Those who love your law have great peace, and for them there is no stumbling block."  I couldn't agree with that more.  May I add that for those who love the Lord, it's smooth sailing all the way. 



Move Forward Always

        Today the Lord made me see that I should not lose peace over my imperfections as long as my intention is good.  We are imperfect and this is a fact.  To feel bad about it is being self-centered.  Let each slip be an opportunity to put even more faith in God, knowing that only he can make us perfect.  Therefore, move forward always, following our one and only bright, shining light.

Rejecting Christ Is...

rejecting the greatest possible love that could be ours for the asking.       

Amazing Universe by Amazing God

        I saw the picture of the earth from the space on one TV presentation.  It's covered mostly with water and I could imagine it rotating and traveling through space around the sun consistently for perhaps billions of years already. This is truly quite amazing.  If you go back far enough in time, people would have a hard time believing in this, but today it's a known fact. 

        Like that is the revelation that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.  This is also amazing and hard to believe, but true. 

        All I want to say is that we live in an amazing universe created by an amazing God.  

To Live Without Fear

        I see people living in all kinds of fear; but do you know that when you rest in Jesus, all fears vanish?  It works, not because it happens to work, but because Jesus is the truth!  He simply takes care of all who trust in him. 

To Know God Well

        Have you ever been in awe of God?  If the answer is no, then your probably don't know him very well yet.

        What is the love of your life?  If it's not God, then you probably don't know God that well yet.       

All God Asks

        All God asks of us is that we let go in him so that he may freely mold us into new creatures pleasing to him.  Then our estranged relationship with him will be no more and we are welcomed back as sons and daughters of his family. 

Enjoy God

        God is to be worshipped, adored, and loved; but he is also to be enjoyed at all times, especially when he teaches you a lesson or fills you with joy.

The Past No Longer Relevant

        I realize that if I don't know Christ today, I would be a pretty unhappy person.  That's because looking back, I see that my childhood wasn't exactly happy, I studied the wrong subjects in college, didn't work at any jobs that really suited me, and wished that I had done so many things differently.  I rather felt sorry for myself for having wasted most of my own life.  Do I regret my past?  Now that I have found Christ, the answer is a resounding "no."  It's this past that lead me to Christ.  The joy has wiped out all the sorrows!  What the past was like is no longer relevant because having Christ is all that matters.

Sorrow to Gratitude to Joy

        It's Friday, the day to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.  When I thought about the suffering Jesus underwent, I felt great sorrow.  Then after I realized that he did it so that we could be saved, gratitude followed.  Finally, when I saw that I had been saved and was to return to the bosom of the Father, gratitude turned into great joy.  A beautiful progression.  And the best is yet to come!