What do you see?

When you see 2 girls holding hands in mall, what do you see?
Do you see 2 lesbians getting to know one another?
Or 2 sisters taking care of each other?
Or maybe a friend, giving moral support through a simple gesture?

When you see a couple, sitting at the table, what do you see?
Do you see a date on a dime?
Or 2 friends, catching up on old times?
Or perhaps, waiting for a friend who is taking his time?

When you see a person, dressed in a particular way, what do you see?
Do you see a bookworm, out to see some sunlight?
Or a lady getting a stroll in the moonlight? *wink* *wink*
Or perhaps simply you have pre-judge by what seems to be right?

When you see a prostitute on the street, what do you see?
Do you see a slut who'd sleep with everyone and everything?
Or do you see a slave, trying to survive doing anything?
I see a life, calling out for help, who needs the Lord who can do all things.

When you see a rock band, what do you see?
Do you see a group that has given themselves to the dark?
Or a bunch of pretentious people, catering to those with that mark?
Or perhaps rage and aggression that does not have an outlet with which to park?



For who we are on the outside is by no means a reflection of who we are on the inside. When we dig deeper, we find a first impression masks a whole lot of hurt, pain, joy, attitude and character. So the question is:

When you see a person, what do you see?
Do you see impressions, character based on what's on the outside?
I prefer to wait, meet and discover what's really on the inside.

I want to know you - Ronald Wong

Keeping the faith

God helps those who help themself

That was what I used to believe back in my teens. As I continue to learn more and more about God, I've realized that this is not true. But at the same time, God isn't asking us to sit back and not do anything. So what exactly is God asking from us?

Today in my quiet time, God showed me what it's all about. It's about having faith in Him and keeping the faith. We don't do good works or be successful to futher our faith; it is because we have faith that we do good works and be successful.

There's a difference there. It's not very apparent on the outside but it's very different on the inside where it matters. God looks at a man's heart, not his works. The Bible doesn't say man was saved by their works. Rather, they were saved by their faith (2 Timothy 1:9).

If we could work out our salvation with just good works, the Bible would be full of laws on how to live our lives. In addition to the 10 commandments, we would have laws governing sex, lies, smoking and every social issue we have to the detail. It would just be a book of law. In fact, we wouldn't need to believe in God; we would just need to have good morals. We would just need to be like the Pharisees!

Now, no matter what was said about the Pharisees, we have to admit that they were very good in keeping the law. In fact, you can say they were about the most morally right people in those days. They were not only leaders, but leaders of upstanding morals. Think of all the good moral things we should do, they probably did them all. They wouldn't smoke, they wouldn't lie, they wouldn't sleep around. They don't steal, they don't kill, they don't break any laws. They give according to what the law say to give. They were very good morally!

Then, why did Jesus rebuke them? Because He saw their hearts. They were more concern with being seen as morally upstanding citizens. Their love of the public's adoration surpassed their love for God. They weren't in it to glorify God, they were only interested in glorifying themselves. What they did was all for themselves, not motivated out of love.

In the same way, we can be the same. We can do good works without having faith in God. We can even do it for good reasons like because we want to help others. Even non-believers can make a stand not to have sex outside of marriage. Atheists can live a life without telling lies. There are many non-profit organizations that help people but are not run by Christians. So quite clearly, we do not need God in our lives before we can help man.

So then, why is faith so important that God would say, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)" Jesus even said that the first commandment is, "you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Matthew 12:30)" In fact, without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6)!

So if faith is the priority, then there's a very good strategy! We'll just live life how we want and then, only confess and have faith in God on our deathbed. That way, we get to live a carefree life and we can still go to Heaven. And it's something that can work! One of the thief who was hung with Jesus confessed that Jesus is God. And Jesus replied that the thief is with Him now in paradise (Luke 23: 39-43).

But why would you want to do that when there's a better option? It's to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God today! After you have done that, you'll live a life with Him in you and you find that, life is so much better after that. You go from strength to strength and you find a life worth living for. As I said earlier, God looks at our hearts. When Jesus comes into our lives, He will give us His love. And His love enables us to go out and do good works. James 2:14-26 explains that faith with works is dead. We show our faith by doing good works.

But wait a minute, you say. Doesn't that bring us back to the fact that we need to do good work? Isn't God asking us to help ourselves and work for it? While that is partially true, it's not the whole truth. We don't help ourselves and do good work to further our faith, rather our faith enables us to help ourselves and do good work! With faith, we know that God is with us and will bless us when we walk in His path. So we do our best knowing that God is in control. We do not fear about the results or the future because we know that God has taken care of it. We do good works because God has given us a heart to reach out and do good works.

It's very hard to do good works without faith. In whatever we do, there will be those who interpret it as being bad as well as those who see it as good. Take any big decisions in history (American Civil War, the bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, US invading Iraq, etc.) and you'll find opinion is divided on it. With such diverse opinions, can we actually tell what is good works and what isn't? We can, with God. Because God will show the way and God is good. So whatever He asks of us, we know that it's good works. We know it will bless people. We know, it will glorify His name and lead others to know of His love.

So good works does not lead to faith, good works justify our faith. We must first have faith then we must do good works to prove our faith. But it's not a burden, because God will give us the passion for the good works. We will want to do it because God has freed us from anything that would hinder us from doing good works. We do not do works and say God is with us; where is God in works that man can do? Nor do we sit back and let God take care of our lives; how would we show the world that God is good when we do nothing? We do good works and we believe by faith that He will bring about the result from the good works. We embark on projects He gave us knowing that we cannot do it with our own strength but He will make it happen. We trust Him to work it out. All our part is: to follow His instructions to the letter and let Him make it happen.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11

I love you too much to not hurt you

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - John 10:10b

God said that. And God is good. He keeps His promises. The question isn't whether God will give us this. The question is whether we want to receive it.

For to walk in God's path, it will take supernatural movement. In other words, God must fulfill His plan for our lives because we can't. It's a dream too big for us. But for Him to do so, He'll lead us to the "valley of dry bones". We will come to a place where it seems that He's not there. A place where we have nothing to hold on to except faith like a mustard seed; trusting only God to bring the breakthrough we so desperately need.

And we cry. We moan. We shout out against Him. The same question repeats over and over again in the life of Christians everywhere: How could such a loving God do this to me? Why would such a loving God do this to me? We can't fit His love with our situation. We moan against the cruelty and injustice of it all. We go as far as to doubt that God actually loves us.

Here is the truth: It is because He loves us that He allows such calamity to befall us. Take note that He didn't cause it, just that He lets it happen. Even then, we can't understand why would He allow it at all. Isn't He our protector? How is allowing bad things (in our eyes) loving us?

Bad things happen because God wants to take us to the next level in His loving plan for us. Times like this, we learn to depend totally on Him to be the answer. Times like this, we seek Him earnestly, discovering something new about Him. Times like this, we see His glory manifested in our lives. We see God do His work and show how little power Satan and this world actually have on us.

He is our best friend. And best friends don't allow you to backslide. Best friends don't allow you to stay where you are either because they know that you can and are meant for much more. Best friends will slap you if it will make you go forward. They do their very best to make sure we stay on the right path and we're doing the right thing. If it means rebuking us, they'll do it because they care that deeply for us.

He is our Father in Heaven. Fathers don't sit back and let their child live a lousy life. They push you onward and upwards; grasping all the potential you have to reach the heights you can. They don't allow you to stay "comfortable" because they know there's so much more you can do. They want to you achieve all that you desire and more. They want to make sure you live a life worth something.

And does it involve hard work? Yes. Does it mean sacrifices and tears? Absolutely. Would we be push into a corner, having no other dependence then on God? You can bet on it. For without such push, we would never know the heights which we can reach. The marvellous thing about humans is really we can do anything when God is with us.

But to go higher, we need to first go deeper. Spend more time with God. Talk to Him more. Learn His ways. Discover Him. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead us. In our hurt, in our darkest days, run to Him. Let Him take control. And we will see a breakthrough the likes we would never have seen. We will see our hurt just disappear for good. And we look back and thank Him for delivering us from it. We learn more about Him and we hit the next level in faith. We glorify Him and grow more in love with Him. And at the end of the day, we leave behind a legacy that will uplift many others, for generations to come.

"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." - Matthew 16:24