“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy…” 1Cor. 1:2
I have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, but I continue to strive to become more sanctified. I am a saint, but I will never be saintly enough. In fact, I am quite unhappy with the progress that I have been making as a saint. Unfortunately, sometimes I don’t even look or act like a saint.
I need to behold the face of Jesus more often, for I don’t have any light in and of myself; all I have is a dim reflection of his bright countenance.
I need to practice more diligently the precious reality of “Christ in me.”
I was in Christ when he was hanging on the cross, even though it took place about two thousand years before I was born. Time and space matter very little in this case. I was united with Jesus when he died and was one with him when he rose again. I am one with him in the heavenly realms despite the fact that I am flesh and blood. These are the realities of which we are hardly aware.
Nothing is more real than the reality that Christ is in me and I am in Christ. Unless we abide by this truth, the truth will not set us free. We still live in bondage for lack of knowledge of Christ.
I have been sanctified, and there is nothing I can do to make myself more sanctified or saintly. We are either sanctified or we are not. It’s a matter of us being either guilty or not guilty, and there is not a gray area in between. We walked out from the prison of our psychotic self-consciousness and self-absorption after we were set free. Are we experiencing the freedom of being a free man?
It’s the reality of “Christ in me” that makes this freedom real. This liberty in Jesus is so real and solid that we can actually touch and taste it in our daily lives. Christ is nearer to us than our heartbeat and more intimate to us than each breath we take, yet we often lead our lives in such a way as if he doesn’t even exist.
I don’t have to become more sanctified to see him; all I need is to sharpen my inner vision. I don’t have to become more saintly to hear from him; all I need to do is to tune my ears to match his frequency and to alter the rhythm of my heart to harmonize with his melody. I only cloud my vision when I sin, but Christ is still ever so near.
Let me not search for you up and down the world; let me not look for you in the ever-changing scene of various circumstances; let me not try to find you in life’s joy and sorrow; let me rather enter into my own heart where Christ sits on his throne. What Christ yearns for us to do is to return to where he is, and never depart.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Random Thoughts on Valentine
Love has become cheap; therefore it has become less valuable than it used to be and it is supposed to be.
Easy come, easy go. Does that ring a bell?
All the yearning for love is gone, and the sleepless nights and restless days pining for love is out of fashion, laughable even. We are into instant everything; romance surely is included.
Diamonds and gold aren’t forever. “I sold my wedding band from my previous marriage and got my money the next day,” a young lady beams in a commercial, with money in hand.
One out of two marriages ends in divorce and the average marriage span is five short years.
Ah, romantic love. The candlelight dinner, the moonlight walk, the longing, the panting, the bachelor parties, the wedding bells, the honeymoon. All those trappings surely don’t make love stay.
What makes love stay isn’t the sweet talk and vows you have given in exchange for something you yearn to possess or the physical pleasure you long to gratify; what causes it to last is your commitment to love and a strong will to keep your promises for better or for worse.
Love has become cheap; let’s make it expensive again by paying a great price, not with money but with something far more valuable than money. To love is to value the object of our love by not degrading her or reducing her into a mere object; to love is to commit to the one whom you love even when the feeling of love is no longer present; to love is to wait and not to rush the fruition of love by coercion and manipulation by words or deeds; to love is to wait and wait some more…
Love has become cheap; let’s make it expensive again. It’s a pearl of great price, so don’t trample on it like swine.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Being an Aggie Fan
Being an Aggie fan prepares you for life, for life has its ups and downs and, as you and I have experienced, mostly downs.
Being a tee-shirt fan, I do have the choice of taking this one off and putting another one on, but, akin to romantic love, this is such an emotional thing that we can hardly help it. I have fallen in love with the wrong person.
My first love was Ole Miss, where I was a legit fan, for I do have a degree to prove my affiliation to her. But being an Ole Miss fan was a piece of cake, because I had such low expectations for all things Ole Miss; therefore an occasional victory brought me unbelievable euphoria. Defeating Tech soundly in the Cotton Bowl was one of those few occasions that didn’t happen very often. When you expect to lose the war, winning a small skirmish can generate great excitement, but when you expect to win big, a small loss can really bring you down.
The Aggies are supposed to be one of the big boys, so I naturally expect them to win consistently, and to win big occasionally; but the sad truth is that we seem to lose most of the time and lose big almost every time when we play for something meaningful. We have a big brother who breathes down our necks, and a pesky little brother we seem to have great trouble handling. Truly we are caught between a rock and hard place.
Why can’t Sloan do what Acie had been doing consistently? Why did we let Jackie go – a coach who actually knew something about motivating a group of men to fight for their lives on the field by castrating a Longhorn bull in front of them before he took them to Austin? Guess what? They won! Why did we bring coach Fran home even though mama wasn’t even calling? Who in the world got the idea that man was a fair exchange for a Bear?
“Come on, just take off your tee-shirt!” I can almost hear you true Aggies yelling at me. No way, Jose. Not going to do it. Being an Aggie fan does prepare me for my life, because it has toughed me up a great deal. It really helps me to deal with all the trials and tribulations of life. Indeed life is a series of disappointments, and being an Aggie fan surely equips you to handle it more gracefully. Therefore Aggie fans, cheer on.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Hypocrisy and Courtesy
I suppressed my true feelings toward a person and made a valiant attempt to show affection to him, even though I had very few feelings of goodwill for the man. Does that make me a hypocrite? That is the question that I have asked myself repeatedly. If that is so, then the random incident that took place was just a reminder that I should have been true to my feelings and avoided the one against whom I still hold a certain amount of animosity.
I was merely trying to do the right thing, yet what I received from it was another insult that left a mark in my heart and an unpleasant taste in my mouth. Doing the right thing may not always be right, for people may not be appreciative when we cast a grain of rice before them.
Had I been placed in his position, I would have acted as if nothing had happened and would have tried not to call attention to the thing that caused both of us embarrassment. It would have been unpleasant to go through something such as that and, at the same time, be greeted so warmly by someone whom I still considered one of my enemies, but that is something we do routinely in order to survive in a society, with its intricate web of human relationships. Being courteous is to deny our ill feeling toward certain people and to treat them according to the standards of social norms. Does it make us hypocrites if our words and actions aren’t consistent with our feelings?
Had I been trying to be true to myself, I would have avoided going to the gathering all together or at least kept myself away from him. The problem was that I am not my own master.
Doing the right thing itself is its own reward, I suppose. Although the outcome of my action appeared to have made me a hypocrite and caused my adversary to become discourteous, I don’t believe the unfortunate incident made our relationship worse. Perhaps he at least came to the realization that I had made an awkward attempt to be friendly and, possibly, it might have even caused him dislike me less.
I was merely trying to do the right thing, yet what I received from it was another insult that left a mark in my heart and an unpleasant taste in my mouth. Doing the right thing may not always be right, for people may not be appreciative when we cast a grain of rice before them.
Had I been placed in his position, I would have acted as if nothing had happened and would have tried not to call attention to the thing that caused both of us embarrassment. It would have been unpleasant to go through something such as that and, at the same time, be greeted so warmly by someone whom I still considered one of my enemies, but that is something we do routinely in order to survive in a society, with its intricate web of human relationships. Being courteous is to deny our ill feeling toward certain people and to treat them according to the standards of social norms. Does it make us hypocrites if our words and actions aren’t consistent with our feelings?
Had I been trying to be true to myself, I would have avoided going to the gathering all together or at least kept myself away from him. The problem was that I am not my own master.
Doing the right thing itself is its own reward, I suppose. Although the outcome of my action appeared to have made me a hypocrite and caused my adversary to become discourteous, I don’t believe the unfortunate incident made our relationship worse. Perhaps he at least came to the realization that I had made an awkward attempt to be friendly and, possibly, it might have even caused him dislike me less.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Embarrassing
Against my every natural inclination, I was determined to reconcile with this Christian brother with whom I hadn’t been on speaking terms for a while. I was really struggling whether to attend a gathering where I knew he would be present, but the better part of me won out and I went, knowing it would be hard to see the guy.
I tried all day to fortify my heart with much prayer and to clean up whatever bitterness I had ever had toward him. When I got to the banquet, I was, in fact, quite anxious to meet him and to express to him my good will toward him.
He was late for the meeting and I was eating by the time he came. I leapt from my table when I saw him and walked across the hall to say hi to him. “It’s so nice to see you,” I said to him with affection. “Good to see you too,” he replied, rather emotionlessly. I was trying to say something else to him but, strangely, he kept looking at his hand, which was still in my grip. “Am I squeezing too hard?” I asked. He didn’t say anything. Then I saw there was half a grain of rice on top of his hand that I must have accidentally deposited there. “O, I am so sorry. Let me wipe it off,” I said, trying to wipe it off with the napkin that I had in my left hand, but he motioned for me not to do it and walked away without saying anything.
Embarrassing, wasn’t it. I laid awake last night for a long time thinking about what had happened. I guess many a time in our lives doing the right thing may not generate the desired result. The guy may be thinking that I did that on purpose and our relationship may have worsened after this unfortunate event.
I tried all day to fortify my heart with much prayer and to clean up whatever bitterness I had ever had toward him. When I got to the banquet, I was, in fact, quite anxious to meet him and to express to him my good will toward him.
He was late for the meeting and I was eating by the time he came. I leapt from my table when I saw him and walked across the hall to say hi to him. “It’s so nice to see you,” I said to him with affection. “Good to see you too,” he replied, rather emotionlessly. I was trying to say something else to him but, strangely, he kept looking at his hand, which was still in my grip. “Am I squeezing too hard?” I asked. He didn’t say anything. Then I saw there was half a grain of rice on top of his hand that I must have accidentally deposited there. “O, I am so sorry. Let me wipe it off,” I said, trying to wipe it off with the napkin that I had in my left hand, but he motioned for me not to do it and walked away without saying anything.
Embarrassing, wasn’t it. I laid awake last night for a long time thinking about what had happened. I guess many a time in our lives doing the right thing may not generate the desired result. The guy may be thinking that I did that on purpose and our relationship may have worsened after this unfortunate event.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Strength
“And his strength left him.”
Judges 16:19
Samson fell asleep on Delilah’s lap, not knowing that his strength would be gone when he woke up. He might have thought Delilah was playing some sort of game with him and wasn’t at all concerned about his safety. He was a man of supreme self-confidence who might have thought that he was invincible. Who could blame such a man who had absolute confidence in his own strength?
Our greatest strength can easily become our biggest weakness.
People who are endowed with intelligence may have an inclination to rely on themselves and believe that nothing is too difficult for them. Such people may accomplish much in their lives, but they will eventually hit a snag one way or another along the way and they won’t know what to do when it occurs. People who are not used to asking for help may become too arrogant to ask when they desperately need other people’s assistance. The ones who have never invoked divine aid their entire life will have difficulty praying when prayer becomes the last resort. Instead of praying for mercy, I believe there are many people who do what Job refused to do - curse God and die.
His supernatural strength was given to Samson, and it could easily be taken away. The man had always been strong his entire life; therefore, he had the wrong perception that it would always remain that way. Samson should have been more thankful for his gift than he was and guarded the secret of his divine power more closely than he did. Unfortunately he appeared to have a cavalier attitude toward his divine calling and the gifts that came along with it.
Beware of putting too much confidence in whatever strength you may have, natural or supernatural, or on God’s continual favor for you. What I am isn’t necessarily going to be what I will be. What we have is only the present and our future lies solely in God’s hand. Samson was the strongest man before he fell asleep in a woman’s lap, but he became the weakest person when he woke up. In a brief moment, Samson lost everything that he used to take for granted - his strength and his freedom.
Had Samson ever looked at himself with amazement and become overwhelmed by what the Lord had done for him? Had he ever thanked the Lord for his amazing power and learned to utilize his ability to bring glory to God? The biggest mistake that he committed was to take his supernatural nature too naturally. This is the mistake that we may be committing routinely.
All our natural abilities are, in fact, supernatural, and the way we perceive and utilize them tells who we really are. An infant who takes his first step is greatly amazed by his ability to walk, but as adults we have been walking for so long that the amazement is long lost and it probably won’t return until we manage to take a baby step after an accident or a stroke.
Judges 16:19
Samson fell asleep on Delilah’s lap, not knowing that his strength would be gone when he woke up. He might have thought Delilah was playing some sort of game with him and wasn’t at all concerned about his safety. He was a man of supreme self-confidence who might have thought that he was invincible. Who could blame such a man who had absolute confidence in his own strength?
Our greatest strength can easily become our biggest weakness.
People who are endowed with intelligence may have an inclination to rely on themselves and believe that nothing is too difficult for them. Such people may accomplish much in their lives, but they will eventually hit a snag one way or another along the way and they won’t know what to do when it occurs. People who are not used to asking for help may become too arrogant to ask when they desperately need other people’s assistance. The ones who have never invoked divine aid their entire life will have difficulty praying when prayer becomes the last resort. Instead of praying for mercy, I believe there are many people who do what Job refused to do - curse God and die.
His supernatural strength was given to Samson, and it could easily be taken away. The man had always been strong his entire life; therefore, he had the wrong perception that it would always remain that way. Samson should have been more thankful for his gift than he was and guarded the secret of his divine power more closely than he did. Unfortunately he appeared to have a cavalier attitude toward his divine calling and the gifts that came along with it.
Beware of putting too much confidence in whatever strength you may have, natural or supernatural, or on God’s continual favor for you. What I am isn’t necessarily going to be what I will be. What we have is only the present and our future lies solely in God’s hand. Samson was the strongest man before he fell asleep in a woman’s lap, but he became the weakest person when he woke up. In a brief moment, Samson lost everything that he used to take for granted - his strength and his freedom.
Had Samson ever looked at himself with amazement and become overwhelmed by what the Lord had done for him? Had he ever thanked the Lord for his amazing power and learned to utilize his ability to bring glory to God? The biggest mistake that he committed was to take his supernatural nature too naturally. This is the mistake that we may be committing routinely.
All our natural abilities are, in fact, supernatural, and the way we perceive and utilize them tells who we really are. An infant who takes his first step is greatly amazed by his ability to walk, but as adults we have been walking for so long that the amazement is long lost and it probably won’t return until we manage to take a baby step after an accident or a stroke.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
2009 Resolution
New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken. We know this to be true by experience, for we all have broken our share of resolutions. If so, why make another one to fool and to disappoint ourselves at the same time. Why is this time going to be different? Surely these resolutions will be different from all the other ones, because hope is what sustains us and we will have nothing to hold onto unless we still have high expectations for ourselves and optimistic views on life in general. All our previous relationships may have ended in tears and heartache, but it does not mean our next one will be a repetition of the last ones. Fitzgerald’s Gatsby was a true romantic because his dreams and aspirations didn’t die at the moment when all things seemed to be falling apart and he was hoping against hope that Daisy would come back to him against all odds.
Rambling aside, here are my resolutions, which can be summed up in two words: reduction and addition.
First, I will make an effort to reduce, not my waistline, but my frequency of doing something that I know, either through my conscience or revelation, is wrong. Putting it more bluntly, I will try to sin less (preferably of course, not to sin at all, which, realistically and experientially, is not possible).
Second, I will make an attempt to increase, not my wealth, but my love for God and for people, which is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Being a one-talent person, I really don’t have a lot to contribute to the world, but one thing that I can give out freely is love; and the more I give, the more my ability to give will increase. I therefore resolve to do one good deed of love a day for people other than my loved ones.
These are my humble resolutions for the year 2009 and I challenge you to do the same. Please do hold me accountable if I fail to keep my promises in my words or actions. This resolution, mind you, isn’t made to be broken like all my previous ones.
Rambling aside, here are my resolutions, which can be summed up in two words: reduction and addition.
First, I will make an effort to reduce, not my waistline, but my frequency of doing something that I know, either through my conscience or revelation, is wrong. Putting it more bluntly, I will try to sin less (preferably of course, not to sin at all, which, realistically and experientially, is not possible).
Second, I will make an attempt to increase, not my wealth, but my love for God and for people, which is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Being a one-talent person, I really don’t have a lot to contribute to the world, but one thing that I can give out freely is love; and the more I give, the more my ability to give will increase. I therefore resolve to do one good deed of love a day for people other than my loved ones.
These are my humble resolutions for the year 2009 and I challenge you to do the same. Please do hold me accountable if I fail to keep my promises in my words or actions. This resolution, mind you, isn’t made to be broken like all my previous ones.
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