Archive for the ‘Devotional Notes’ Category

The Things That Choke Us

Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Mark 4: 18-19

I just got this insightful devotional from Charles Swindoll’s Day by Day Series in my inbox today. It’s about the parable of the sower in Mark 4 and how the hearers of the word were classified into four kinds of people. The first two groups were those who heard the truth but basically weren’t affected by it. The third and fourth groups were very interesting. Both heard the gospel, both were changed, but the third group’s conversion was short lived. These people reverted back to their old way of life. (more…)

Estimating God

Many Christians estimate difficulty in the light of their own resources, and thus they attempt very little, and they always fail. All giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on his power and his presence to be with them. (more…)

Victory Tacloban

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New Year Reflections 3: Starting Fresh

You’re familiar with the routine. Every year you promise yourself it’s gonna be a different year. We make lists of the things we want to change. Going to the gym, reading the whole Bible in 365 days, getting into serious relationship, changing unhealthy work habits, stop watching porn, quit smoking, treating your wife better. These are all nice goals. But then we drop the ball by the end of the month. We slip back to the same old habits we hated. It’s still the same old life, same struggles, same frustrations.

Why can’t we just succeed at this? Lord knows we are willing, can He at least help us?

While I don’t have all the answers (no one does), let me at least point out something. The probable reason why we don’t succeed at new year resolutions is that we are so busy trying to remove the FRUITS of sin (lying, cheating, lusting), not its ROOT cause (unbelief). Sin is a ROOT word, not a FRUIT word. You don’t kill a tree by removing the leaves and the fruits because even if they’re gone, we all know the tree is still alive.

Same thing with bad habits. The reason why they continue to pop up from time to time is that the root is still very much alive deep within. Deal with the root and the fruits will die one by one.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

New Year Reflections (part2): Ungrateful Basterds

Let’s face it, the biggest reason why people don’t say “thank you” is ungratefulness. No need to mince words here. And we don’t need to hide behind excuses like awkwardness or embarrassment.

Most of us have had our share of giving gifts that went unappreciated. You know the feeling- you did your best, gave your all, sacrificed a lot of things just to do something special for another person. You planned for a surprised, you ended up getting surprised, and hurt, and wounded. How could the other person be ungrateful?

Sounds like God’s story. He sent Jesus to save us, to die for us, to vacate the highest throne of heaven just to save humanity. He sacrificed a lot! But when he arrived, nobody would give shelter to Mary and Joseph, he was born in a manger and a king attempted to kill him. Worse, He was crucified 33 years later.

You know what’s painful about this whole thing? Every year 2000 years after his birth, people celebrate Christmas by paying homage to Santa Claus, not Him. That’s the thank you Jesus got.

In my previous post, I recounted the story of the ten lepers who were healed of their dreadful disease after they encountered Jesus. Only one came back to thank the one who made the miracle happen. Where are the other nine? That’s a searing question.

In a few hours, 2009 is going to be gone for good. It has been a good year. We are celebrating. We are going to have lots of fireworks. We are with our families, singing Auld Sang Lyne and getting drunk. In a few hours, we would welcome January, the Norse god Janus.

And Jesus is asking the same question: Where are the other nine?

New Year Reflections (part1)

If you’ve been blog hopping lately, you will notice that most bloggers posted anything Top Ten this week. It’s getting old actually. Most of us don’t know what to believe anymore, what with everyone telling us the ten best blah blah, ten worst blah blah, year in review, what to expect in 2010, everything along those lines. Then here I am, adding more noise to the confusion, trying to make up my own list, among thousands, probably millions of lists. Do I really have to write a post for this?

As I looked at my Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools today, I noticed that people are searching for Christian Reflections for New Year. These searchers landed on my site, obviously because my domain name is Christian Reflections. Amidst the noise of the holiday season, I am glad that people are still looking for Christ, for His words, for Biblical principles, for something that would feed their souls. If that’s you, read on. I got something to share with you.

This is something related to my previous post on the healing of ten lepers outside the city of Jerusalem as recounted in Luke 17: 11-19. What I didn’t mention in that post were my reflections why out of ten people who got healed, only one came back to thank Jesus. We know the story very well, but bear with me on this. Why indeed?

My pastor told us why last Sunday. Because nine of them felt they deserved the healing. They were Jewish, for crying out loud. They are sons of the promise. Maybe the Samaritan guy should really go back to thank Jesus, he was born an infidel anyway. Historically, culturally, spiritually, genetically, socially, he was a secondary citizen. Not them. It was Jesus’ obligation to heal them.

So they didn’t bother to thank Jesus.