Posted on Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Am I A True Follower?

I came to know Christ in 2001 when I was on my last day at collage before I took a year and a half off because my parents couldn’t afford to pay my school tuition anymore. It was hard days after that. Though this time I went through those hard days with Jesus. I am thankful.

I read the Bible every day, dug into deeper searching for what God really wanted to teach me. I follow Him since the very first day of I confessed my sins and pasts to Him, asked Him to forgive me and help me to live the new life He gave me in Christ.

I am a follower of Christ….

But what does it mean? What are the characteristics of a follower of Christ? And yesterday, I read this beautiful post from Roy Lessin at Meet Me In The Meadow.

He shared some verses that describe those characteristics of Jesus’ follower:

A follower of the Lord is led to do the right thing.
“Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the Lord.” Isaiah 51:1 NKJV

A follower of the Lord is motivated to do good.
Those also who render evil for good, They are my adversaries, because I follow what is good.Psalm 38:20 NKJV

A follower of the Lord makes Him known.
Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 NKJV

A follower of the Lord counts the cost.
Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” Matthew 8:19-22 NKJV

A follower of the Lord shoulders a cross.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25 NKJV

A follower of the Lord gives all (because the greatest Treasure has been found).
So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Luke 18:22 NKJV

A follower of the Lord enjoys the Lord’s presence and favor.
If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. John 12:26 NKJV

A follower of the Lord has a single focus.
Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” John 21:20-22 NKJV

A follower of the Lord knows His Master’s voice.
And when He brings out his own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. John 10:4-5, 27 NKJV

A follower of the Lord identifies with his Master’s suffering.
But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps. 1 Peter 2:20-21 NKJV

A follower of the Lord places his feet in his Master’s footsteps.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Revelation 14:4 NKJV

Reading all these truth, I ask myself again… am I a true follower of Christ? I am so thankful to know these truth! On these verses I build my life to live a life of a true follower. I pray God will help me to love him and to obey him. I pray God will help me to hear His voice clearly.

Posted on Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Remain in Christ = Unity with God

In the last few days, this verses from John 15:1-8 fill my heart and mind… Jesus said,

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

But if you remain in me and my words remain in you…

That phase speaks loud to me. Nothing that Jesus wants more from all of us, who follow Him and trust in Him, is simply to remain in Him and His words remain in us. In other word, we stay in Jesus and have His words live in and be part of out lives.

Later He says that we may ask for anything we want and it will be granted! This is not about “whatever we want” in our flesh desire, but when we live in Jesus and His words live in us, everything we want is align with God’s will and desire. Because He is working in us with the power of His Word and Holy Spirit. We live by the Holy Spirit and not by flesh. And anything we ask in Jesus’ name that what will be granted to us.

At the end, we will produce the fruits of the Holy Spirit, becoming the true disciples of Jesus and that brings the great glory to God! The goal is to bring the glory for God only!

Remaining in Jesus leads us to live in unity with God. Isn’t that amazing truth? I want to live in unity with God all of my days. One way to remain in Jesus and have His words in us is to read the Bible, memorize the verses and meditate them all day.

When I read the Bible and some verses speak loud to me, I will write them in my small note book, a note card and tape it on the wall right beside my desk, and sometimes even I scrapbook it 🙂 So that I can read it all the time, remind me of God’s promises and His presence, and that is my bread.

Another way is I join HelloMornings challenge. This has been an amazing challenge for me to wake up earlier that anyone in my house, have some time with God in His word and prayer time. I love the to see how God speak through all the lades in my group and WOW… always get a surprise encouragement from them every single day! I am so thankful! There will be a new challenge this coming February! And I hope you all can join us and be blessed!

I found this these free Bible verse quotes downloadable desktop background at Meat Me In The Meadow blog yesterday.

Aren’t they beautiful? You can go and download them HERE and have God’s word always on your screen every time you turn your computer on. This is just one of many ways to have God’s word alive around you, that you can read all the time….

So, share with us, how do you have God’s word in you every day?

Posted on Friday, September 13, 2013

The Lord’s Plan

Up until now I still cannot figure out what’s the next step for us to take in this Partnership Development journey. I just know that this journey we have been taking since 16 months ago is not as easy as we thought.

Not knowing the certainty of our next steps really bugs me a lot. Then this verse came back to me since couple of days ago. God reminded me that his plan for me and my family. That He never ever forget, nor forsake, nor abandon us.

He is the one who gives us the desire to serve Him as missionaries and supporting Bible Translation works.

He is the one who leads us to where we are now.

He is the one who put this plan in our lives.

He is the one who will work it out.

For He is the one and the only one who can make it happen.

For His faithful love in our lives.

For He made us.

For He is GOD!

For once again, He speaks to me, “Why worry, my daughter? For I will work out My plans in your life, for I love you so, for I made you.”

In a 2 hours I will be go to a ladies’ retreat with my ladies friends from church at Scioto Hills Christian Camp, we will be rejuvenated, refreshed and reconnected with God. I pray for His new revelation of Himself to me and all the ladies.

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I link up this post at:

Posted on Saturday, September 7, 2013

Prayer of Trust

It has been about 3 weeks I have some things that trouble my heart and mind.

I scare.
I worry.
I feel uncomfortable.
I feel lost.

Instead of praying & be still in Him, I focused my eyes on those feelings that distract me from God & who He truly is.

I found this prayer post back in May from Roy Lessin. I even bookmarked it on my iPad screen. Today, I clicked on it and prayed to God. Pray of trust in Him and in His promises for me, my family and the mission work He has put in our lives.

Prayer of Trust
Lord, I trust in You. I believe in You. I hope in You. You are my confidence, my assurance. I lean upon You, for You are my Rock; I depend upon You, for You are my Provider; I delight in You, for You are the joy of my life. My heart rests in You; my faith responds to You, my soul rejoices in You.

You are the true God who cannot lie and will not fail. You are the Lord, the Almighty God, the Creator of all things. You are my Lord, My God, and my Creator.

You are my Keeper, and I am secure; You are my Father, and I am cared for; You are my Counselor and I am guided; You are my Shelter and I am safe.

I trust You in life—for the wisdom of Your ways, for the blessings of Your favor, for the sufficiency of Your grace, for the power of Your Spirit, and for the endurance that comes from Your strength.

Lord, I trust in You—my mind trusts in You, my will trusts in You, my soul trusts in You—from the depths of my being, I trust in You.

I trust You for all things.
I trust You with all things.
I trust You in all things.
I trust You through all things.
I trust You above all things.

Father, I entrust my future into Your hands, for You who are the Beginning and the End, know the end from the beginning; I entrust my hopes into Your hands, for You never lie; I entrust my labors into Your hands, for You are my exceeding great reward; I entrust my life into Your hands, for You are the only one who does all things well.

Scriptures: Psalms 5:11, 7:1, 9:10, 18:2, 20:7, 25:20, 34:22, 36:7, 37:40, 62:8, 91:2, 118:8, Proverbs 3:5-6 (source: Meet Me In The Meadow)

I am thankful that we have the God who is trustworthy and faithful.

We can trust Him.
We can trust in Him.

We will have peace when we put our trust in God. Because Jesus has overcome the world!

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NLT)

We will have peace to go through our every day life when we trust in Him and fix our hearts and minds in Christ and His words.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:6-9 NLT)

I pray for you today, may your put your trust in God & He strengthen your faith in Christ Jesus, our Savior. I pray He will bless you as you walk with Him. Amen.

Posted on Saturday, August 31, 2013

New Identity

We finished our HelloMornings Week 2 study. This week study an eye-opening for me. I don’t know how many times I have read this Ephesians 1:1-14, or heard someone preached about it, or I shared about it to others at a small group meetings, but this week God showed more deeper understanding of who I am, who we are in Christ Jesus when we trust in Him and follow Him.

One word that pop up to me every time I read this passage every day is PREDESTINE, in another word decided in advance.

he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will (Ephesians 1:5, ESV)

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (Ephasians 1:5, NLT)

God has predestined us to be His children! Isn’t that an amazing truth to know that He has in planned since the beginning to make us His children, be part of His family? That’s the truth I wanna know and remember forever.

Knowing that God decided to choose me to be his child secures me. That truth gives me freedom. He is my Father! What could be more amazing than having the Best Dad ever, the One who has the power over everything, the One who controls everything?

He renew our lives. Through Jesus, His only Son, he forgave us, redeemed us and gave us new life in Jesus. We have new identity in Christ.

We are who we are in Christ now because of God’s grace and will. We are not who we were in the past or what people say about us. For a long time, I lived believing who I was under certain circumstances and what people told me who I was. I often asked my friends this question, “who do you think I am? what do you think I can do?” That because I didn’t have Jesus and the truth. That because I didn’t have self-image and didn’t feel secure. I lived to only make people to like me. That was temporary.

When I read this passage on my NLT Life Application Bible Study, these truths reveals who we are in Christ when we come to believe and trust in Him:

We are blessed with every spiritual blessings from heaven (Ephesians 1:3).
We are holy and found without fault (Ephesians 1:4).
We are adopted as God’s children (Ephesians 1:5,6).
We are redeemed and forgiven from our sins (Ephesians 1:7).
We are brought under Christ’s authority. He controls everything. (Ephesians 1:10,11)
We are identified as belonging to God by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13).

I hope today, God will show you more of Him and give you wisdom to understand who you are in Him. I pray and ask God to continue enlighten your hearts and mine with His Holy Spirit as we read and search His word.

I link up this post at HelloMornings blog. Over there you will find lots of amazing ladies who link up their posts that will bless you! And if you would like to check out on the Bible Study that we are doing for this season, check it out here.