**Thanking God Always

        1 Thessalonians 5.18: In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. We might thank God when something good happens to us, but we really ought to thank him at all times in all circumstances. That he has laid all the groundwork for us to enter heaven is more than sufficient for us to rejoice and be thankful forever. Let nothing on earth divert us from our straight path to the loving Lord.

*A Hunch

         Christ came into the world to save us from sin. I sense that the fact that he had no problem with becoming one of us first is because we were made in his image. 

**Illuminated by Christ

        Communion experience. In John 8:12, Jesus said "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." After I received the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, I felt him as a light illuminating, cleansing, and healing my whole inner being. He always renews us thoroughly and from the inside out. 

**Sin Is Most Ugly

        First thought at church before Mass started: "This world would be so beautiful if no one sins anymore!" 

****Blunt Reality

        Time moves on. We are heading into the future, but we can also see it as the future coming to us—it's the same. What's approaching us successively are aging, death, and "heaven or hell." Since I believe that God exists, that we do have an everlasting soul, and that good and evil are real, there will have to be heaven and hell. This leaved us with just two possible final destinations and they are mutually exclusive. Of course, if you do not share my belief, you are free to dismiss everything I've said. But be aware that should you turn out to be wrong, the consequences can be disastrous.

***Obedience Test

        Christ teaches us to love our enemies, never judge, and always forgive. So what should we do with evildoers? Should we hate them? wish that they go to hell? eradicate them by force? If you answer one yes, then you are doing exactly what the Devil wants you to do! Christ would want you to just love them and pray for their salvation and conversion, for he loves all of us equally. The evildoers are the victims of the Evil One, and we must do our utmost to save them so that we may comfort and glorify the Lord even if it entails going against the grain.

****Holy Thoughts*

        To have holy thoughts always, we must let the Lord motivate all our thoughts. Thus we need to give our heart and mind over to him. As obedience to the Lord leads to our freedom, holy thoughts leads to our sanctity. 

**Hate the Sin, Not Yourself

       After one has sinned, repented, and been forgiven by God, it's still easy to start disliking oneself, especially if the sin committed had been a repeated offense. Is this how we should feel about ourselves? The answer is no. First of all, if you truly love God, you'll see how inadequate you are alright, but you'll never be unhappy with yourself, for you know that you are dearly loved by him. Once you have repented and been forgiven by God, you are made anew! Should you commit the same sin again, all the more you need to move forward and submit yourself to him even more. A good follower of the Lord never looks back—this applies here too. So hate your past sins, but be happy with yourself always.

***Focusing upon Christ Only

        In this past year or so, I have posted quite a number of videos showing messages that were purportedly received by various prophets of today from heaven. I posted them because they warn us about our sinful ways and urge us to turn to God in these end times. Then I wasn't always quite sure about the prophetic part of them. So I read more about some of these prophets online, and what I learned did raise questions about their authenticity. As a result, I decided to delete their videos. If we believe in and cling to Christ, we really don't need to worry about anything anymore no matter what happens. Reading too much about the various prophecies can make us look away from the Lord and possibly become confused. Focusing upon Christ alone unquestionably shuts out Satan completely.

**Disposing of Our Crosses

         We carry many crosses daily, and it's easy to lose our inner peace. Then I see that compared to the crosses Christ carries, ours are nothing. No cross can be heavier than the Passion he underwent, and he never complained and kept on loving us. Since then through all these centuries, he still suffers daily as we continue offending him. For the love of the Father, he endures it all! We need to endure our small sufferings for the same reason. In fact, if we offer our crosses up to the Lord, we are drawn deeper into union with him and all our crosses practically vanish.

***Making Christ Our Center

        Jesus, being the Lord God, must become our center. That is, we must do everything according to his will. This is not being extreme, only being right and proper. This is also being realistic and wise, for we came from him and must go through him for our final judgment. We need to make him truly our Lord, for he loves us with the greatest possible love.

****Praying for Trust

      We pray for our needs, but I see that it's fundamental to pray for our trust in God. Without trust, we pray in vain. With trust, all things are possible. So open up to God to let him increase your trust foremost. 

***The Way to Freedom

        We all worry or get anxious about things. Christ tells us to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first and not to worry or be anxious about anything. I've come to see that we either trust in ourselves or Christ, and to achieve inner peace we have no choice but to trust in him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. This entails total obedience and abandonment to him, setting ourselves totally free from ourselves. It may be difficult, but with God everything is possible.

**World's Sad State and Hope

         Rampant worldwide scamming plus the fact that law enforcement agencies are slow in going after the scammers is another sign indicating that the world has more or less accepted evil as a way of life. One needs to be keenly aware that once evil takes hold of you, you are on your way to perdition. Good and evil are as distinguishable from each other as day and night. If we lose this discernment, we are doomed. Wait, we do have the light of Christ shining among us; this is our bright hope! Remain in his light and we'll be going nowhere but heaven, come hell or high water.  

**God's Certainty

         Dealing with fellow human beings, who are all sinners, is not always easy. You can never be certain about what they might do to you. I've been let down numerous times by Christians too. Also, we can never be certain about what accidents or ailments might befall us through nobody's fault. This leads me to trusting in God who is the only one about whom I can be totally certain. I know that he'll always love me and is totally trustworthy. If I follow him faithfully, he'll without a doubt lead me to heaven. 

*****God Indispensable!

     Yesterday I blogged that another reason we need God is that he's the only one who can understand us perfectly. Here is a list of more basic reasons. Of course, I am talking about the God of Christ, our only God.

1. He created all of us in his image.
2. He's the one who keeps our hearts beating and lungs breathing.
3. Everything we need for our sustenance comes from him, including the earth we dwell on.
4. He loves us with the greatest possible love.
5. His sole aim is to save us from sin and get us to heaven.
6. Only he can take away our sins and make us pure and whole again.
7. Only in him can we find the joy that satisfies the soul for all eternity.
8. Only in him can our soul rest in true peace.

     I can give many more reasons. Anyway, let me just pause and ask if you can still possibly live without this God?

**Be Smarter than Evil Spirits

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 1, Jesus came to Capernaum. He entered the synagogue and taught. A man with an unclean spirit was there; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come our of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. 
          The unclean spirit knew exactly who Jesus was and obeyed him. On the other hand, many of us do not obey Jesus because we don't know who he truly is—this is most unfortunate. In Philippians 2, Paul wrote, "At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord." Be smart and recognize and accept who Jesus truly is, then no evil spirit will be able to touch you.

**Being Wise Early

        When you are young, you live and plan as if you have all the time in the world. Then when you get old and realize that your time on earth is limited, you start to wonder if you've done enough for the Lord—surely you don't want to appear before him empty-handed. This is the beginning of wisdom. To be most wise, look for Christ when you are young, start storing up your treasure in heaven and settle your eternal destiny early. Then you will live a life in peace.