"Clear the Stage" -- Clear Your Heart and Make Room for Him

What is worship to you? Ross King reminds us that worship is not just about singing praises to the Lord. It is not limited to the 'Praise & Worship' portion in church every Sunday. Worship is more than a song; more than uttering glorification to the Lord. It is a way of life where it reflects what is in our hearts.

Clear the Stage is a great song by Ross King. It is a reminder for me to put God first before anything else. A reminder to hate sin and live a life for Jesus. Every single day is an experience to witness God's love in our lives. Let the love of the Lord be the inspiration to do all things and let it be that our mission in life is to glorify Him in every single thing that we do. It is also a reminder to focus our attention not to the world but to our Creator whom we will be reunited some day. Thank you God for your grace, mercy and love. =)

Anger Management

What should we do when we are feeling angry? When our blood begins to simmer then boil over that turns our faces bright red and our head swimming, what do we need to remember? Hmmm..

"Anger exposes foolishness and lack of discernment" -- Hugh Hefner

Proverbs 14:29 - A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.

Ecclesiastes 7:9 - Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

Proverbs 19:11 - A man’s wisdom gives him patience;it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 16:32 - Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.

* Anger produces STRIFE.

Proverbs 15:1 - A gentle answer turns away wrath,but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:18 - A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.

Proverbs 30:33 - For as churning the milk produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.

Take note that not all anger is bad. Anger towards sin is good because in that way, we reject sin in our life. But more often than not, we can't control our anger. So we should avoid having dissension/conflict even if it resulted from 'righteous anger'.

* The Bible makes it clear who is in control

Ephesians 4:31 - Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Ephesians 6:4 - Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Colossians 3:8 - But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Psalm 37:8 - Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.

Here, we see it clearly that we are commanded to remove any anger and rage from our life. As discussed in the first point, anger just exposes our foolishness. Even if it is a good anger, we may not be able to control our emotions which can lead to evil (Ps. 37:8). The Bible also tells us who is responsible for our anger. Usually, we blame other people for it, we blame our situation, we blame life and sometimes we blame God. We can say that it's not our fault since we were only provoked that's why we went crazy mad. But God tells us that we, ourselves, are the who should get rid of all emotions of anger and bitterness in our hearts because we are the one responsible for our actions. How do we do that? Read on..

* Wrong ways how to handle it

1. Ignore it

2. Just let it out - dangerous

3. Store it - explode or death

These three are the common misconception when it comes to dealing with our anger-related conflicts. Ignoring it doesn't resolve anything. Letting it out is just as useless, once we've lashed out hurtful words, it would be difficult to take it back. Keeping the anger to ourselves and not letting it go is like a sleeping volcano waiting to erupt.

Matthew 5:23-24

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift."

* Value of Man's Anger

James 1:19-20

19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

* Bible's golden principle

Ephesians 4:26 - “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry

What to do: Be honest with yourself and God (Example, Jesus in the garden)

1. Identify sources of anger

2. Determine to settle it

3. Release it

a. Spiritually - pray and seek answers in the word; seek for Godly counsel

b. Mentally - accept the situation and leave in God's hands

c. Emotionally - forgive and let it go

d. Physically - exhale, sports, time alone, sleep, movie, laughter, shop, clean

The next time that you feel that you will be angry, remember how you can release it (spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically).

God bless!

Detox Your Life

In a fast-paced world that we live in, stress is no stranger to us. We sometimes even embrace it as part of our lives. I remember the time when I was so stressed that my heart was palpitating for a day. It didn't even bothered me since I had a lot of work to do, I just ignored it. That was when I put my work first over everything else. (Talk about wrong priorities!)

B1G Nights introduces a 7-part series on work-life balance entitled 'Making It Work'. The first topic is about detoxifying oneself from stress. Let me share to you some points that I picked out from Pastor Bong's message.

What are the problems with worry?

1. Worrying is unhelpful. Have you ever heard of the saying that worrying is like a rocking chair, it never gets us anywhere. In short, worrying never solved a problem. I liked the quote mentioned in the talk, 'We can't change the past and we can't control the future' so why do we need to worry?

2. Worrying is unreasonable. Why on earth would you worry when you can pray?

3. Worrying is unhealthy. A very good example is the palpitations I had because of stress. Stress can also makes us age faster. Do not worry if you want to stay young. ;p


You may be thinking 'i can't help it but to worry' or 'what can i do besides worrying?'. Pastor Bong tells us the cure to worry.

Believe that God will take care of me.

And that's the truth. According to Psalm23:1 'The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need.' Since God is our shepherd, He is the one that:

- provides for our daily needs
- protects us from danger/evil
- guides our path
- corrects us if we sin

When we trust in the Lord and depend on Him, we will surely see that the truths above happening in our life. We should let go and let God work everything for good.

"And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

- Philippians 4:19

Our faith in Him plays a big role in this and our belief can be expressed in simple ABC:

A - admit that you are in need of a shepherd. We need to acknowledge that God is the one who is in control of our life. If you will be able to understand everything in this universe, then you can be in control. But since we are not God, we should leave it up to Him to work in our life.

In Matthew 6:33, it says 'Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well'. What God wants for us is beyond what we could ever hope for so there is no reason for us not to trust in God.

B - bring all your concerns to you shepherd. It is commanded to us not to worry. If you find yourself worrying, that's ok but be sure to bring all our worries to God and He will surely take care of you.

"Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

- Philipians 4:6-7

C - concentrate at one day at a time.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
- Matthew 6:34

Have a worry-free life! To God be the glory! =)

A Speck

Can you see what I'm pointing at in the picture above? (I'm the one in the blue shirt, by the way) I was pointing at my friends who are at the bottom of the mountain on the left. Pretty small, huh? Can you also see the mountains, valleys and rivers beyond the mountain I'm standing on? Amazing view, right? That's the wonderful creation of our creator and I felt so small seeing it all. I am nothing but a speck.

This is Di, my fellow mountaineer

We are all specks in this world.

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?" -- Psalm 8:3-4

Oftentimes, we see ourselves bigger than anything else in this world. Even bigger than God! This leads us to our independence from Him. Our success, prosperity or luxuries we experience in life would sometimes lead us to be blinded from the sight of God. But what are we compared to God's creations? Seeing the mountains, the plants, animals and the sky, we look so tiny compared to it. But still, God loves us. So much that even if we are sinners Jesus still died for us on the cross.

Today, I am reminded. A dear friend once told me that not all material blessings are blessings from God. The enemy can make it a weapon for us to break away from God. If God takes away something from us, let us be thankful because He is reminding us to turn to Him again. Isn't God wonderful? It gives me the assurance that He will never leave us and that His love is unconditionally true. Having taken something from my life, I am humbled. Once again, this is His way to tell me He should be in control in my life and that I am small. So let us not lose sight of God.

Lord, thank you for this reminder. Please guide me as I restart my journey in knowing you more. =)

Ouchie!

Where is God when it hurts? The question, 'why me?' would often if not always accompany the former. We tend to blame God if things go wrong or if a tragedy befalls the family or in any bad situation comes into our lives. We go down memory lane and think things that we did as to deserve this kind of punishment from God. 'Oh God, what did I do to deserve this?', 'I'll be good from now on', 'God doesn't love me, He's not kind after all' are some of the thoughts that will run through our minds when we are hurt or disappointed with God. Tough times just proves how faithful we are in the Lord. A test that a Christian faces in life inspite of being a loyal and faithful servant.

The book entitled 'Where is God When it Hurts?' (a pretty long title but appropriate nonetheless) explores the world of pain and suffering of mankind. It tries to explain pain skin-deep (literally and figuratively).

The first part of the book shows us how pain is useful to us. Think about it, pain is triggered as a warning of an impending injury. We know not to touch a hot pan because we can feel the heat. We know that we need to rest our feet after a whole day walking in high-heels because we can feel our feet hurting. We know that we need to brush off the ant on your leg because you can feel the pain of the ant bite. As I read the book, I felt lucky to feel pain because it tells us that there is problem area in our body. Just imagine the victims of leprosy who have lost sensation in their skin. Their toes are literally chewed off by rats in their sleep because they don't have any sensors to warn them of the danger. So let us be thankful that we are able to scare off rats that might want to chew our toes!

Maybe you're thinking, well, that's just physical pain but how about the emotional and spiritual pain that we experience? Well, like in physical pain, God is telling us something is wrong in our lives. It's a wake up call that let us know that we need to reflect on our life. Although even if we love God and are faithful, bad things may still happen. We need to turn to Job's story in the Bible. Remember Job? The guy who was a faithful servant even though he lost it all? He had everything, a house, a family, a livelihood and a healthy body but calamity befell him one by one. He lost his livelihood, his family (only his wife survived) and even got boils. God did not explain to Job why but in Job 38-41, God describes to Job His wonderful creation. In the book, it says (I love this part),

God wanted, simply, an admission of trust. The message looming behind the splendid poetry reduces down to this: Until you know a little more about running the pysical universe, Job, don't tell me how to run the moral universe.

This teaches us to depend on God and trust Him fully because He will never leave us nor forsake us. We only tend to trust Him with the good times but when the bad times roll in, we question God. But we should always remember that He should be the master of our lives. Christianity is not about having everything we want in life (usually material things) when we follow Him but we also need to know and obey the will of the Lord for us.

Matt. 6:³³ "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Passage lookup: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=job%2038-41&version=NASB