Hope, Faith & Love

  'But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ' Matthew 13:8 My senior pastor spoke on these verses a few weeks back and I have been thinking about it. What is "good soil" for growing? So I am doing what anyone these days would do, I googled. Soil is where the plants live, where they take root, weather the seasons, absorb water and nutrients . The composition of the soil, density, and structure may vary depending on the plant you want to grow but plants' needs are the same. If the seed is God's Word, the soil is my heart and how I respond to it. With this, my thoughts wander to my spiritual life and how this could be applied to my life? Firstly, the seed needs to soil where it can take root and weather the seasons - the heart needs to soft and malleable. If the seed is God's Word, my heart needs to be prepared for God's Word to take place in my life. If the soil is well-prepared, it allows the root ...

  27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ~ Matthew 14:27 - 28 ~ We all go through phrases of life and I think with mine, these verses have been in my thoughts. Somehow, somewhere. In the midst of lockdown, fear somehow has creeped into my psyche.  Somewhere in the midst of the last months, I have grown more fearful of moving forward, of things changing and the uncertainty of it all. I thought about Peter and the other 11 disciples in the boat. It is so easy for us to read the Bible and skimming over the words and pages. But my imagination tends to run when I read things and ask questions. In this situation, couple questions come to mind: Only Peter stepped out of the boat, what about the other 11? Were they not even curious at all? Has anyone ever seen...

  'Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life. ' Proverbs 13:12 This was something I hesitated to write about because it is a hard topic. But the time has come, so here goes: "Hope" is defined as " a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. " Everyone needs hope. Hope fills our souls with expectations, passion, desire, and dreams. We all need it to live a fulfilling life. But what happens went hope is prolonged and unfilled? Could that have the reverse effect? I am the worst-type of wait-er. I am impatient, and the thought of waiting drives me crazy. The pain and ache that is felt in the waiting, along with the slight of joy when things seem to be moving. What happens when this goes for too long? There is a limit to it. The Bible talks a lot about hope, here is my struggle. This verse almost feels like it contradicts the other verses, but I don't feel it does. It is true that unfille...

  'And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.' I Corinthians 13:13 Continuing from lessons learned from watching a Columbian drama series. One of the more interesting (and annoying) parts of the series is the mother's obsession with her ex-son-in-law, who she marries later. I know, I know, put aside all that weirdness, haha. That's why they called it "drama". What is interesting, is her blind obsession which she calls "love and faithfulness" for this guy to the point where she pushes aside her own daughters and father's well-being. The second part is her pride and how far she will push to deny that she has made a mistake. Firstly, what she termed as true love she has this guy, which she terms as "love and faithfulness". In the series, as evidence piles up against him - gambling addiction, unfaithfulness, drunkenness, abuse, and the list goes on. She continues to defend him and deny all the evidence ...

  'Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ' 1 John 4:7-8 OK, I have to come clean. Don't judge me but I have been watching a Colombian TV series recently and talking about learning lessons from unexpected places. The whole series is about 3 brothers who went out for revenge on a family when they felt their sister was unjustly pressured to her death by the family. And as you have it with dramas, the brothers end up falling in love with the three sisters. The mother of the sisters hates the 3 brothers, calling them 'thugs', 'criminals' and other names. In turn, the mother would do almost anything to keep her daughters away from the brothers, even if it means hurting and cause harm to her own daughters. Alright! I am coming to a point with all this. One of the lessons I learned in watching this drama play out, is the love...

  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10 Okay, I am a scarily cat when I am waiting horror movies, there is it out. But in terms of life, I am a bit adventurous. I will try anything at least once and maybe, that is the reason I love to travel and experience things. Traveling is interesting because you are heading into another country, different surroundings, different languages (potentially), and cultures - it is this that makes it exciting and at the same thing, dangerous if you are not careful. And it is this thought that got me thinking about this verse in the Bible. I have heard this verse preached and taught in so many ways, exercises made that "it isn't what we think it is", "God is not so scary", blah. Alright, I am going to do a little study.. The word "fear" in this verse "yir'at" - origin from the word "yare" which is attached to mean morally, reve...

 'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Matthew 6:34 Okay. Let's get the fact out there. I am a dreamer. There are things spinning in my head - plans, dreams, where is the next place I want to travel to, etc. Day-dreaming away. I am forever thinking and dreaming about things to come, the what-if, the plans for the future. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with setting plans. Actually, I think it is important for us to plan for the future. In Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps. We need dreams in our lives. It gives inspiration, hope, and drive to achieve things in our lives. Dream stirs in us the vision and hopes to strive for the greater plans which God has for us. As much I am a dreamer, something I am learning from Matthew 6:34 - Being in present. As great and wonderful are dreams, by spending too much time daydream - we can miss so many oppo...