Repentance

I hear so many people say something along this line
"Since we are forgiven as christians, why bother doing good works then?"

I learned this week that we often forget that we are forgiven through the cross and that God is behind the cross. It didn't come up randomly or all of a sudden but it was plan by God. We are often too selfish to think that we are forgiven already so why bother putting so much effort in being a good person or doing good things.
We are forgiven through Jesus and because of God. Not because we have been forgiven, we can be slacking off and live the way we like to live! We need to repent when we think this way or act this way. We are not saved because of our works in the first place so we need to live a life that is worthy of that salvation. We should live a life that is pleasing to him who saved us!

When a doctor successfully saved someone who was diagnosed with horrible lung problem because of smoking, the doctor would expect he/ she to stop smoking rite?? The same idea applies here. We had been saved from eternal death so God is expecting us to stop doing things that will lead us to that death again.

As part of our sinful nature, we would do things that shifts us away from God. An act of repentance is an ongoing process and action against our sinful nature and leaning towards Godliness. It should be our high priority as christians even though we have been forgiven because too often we forget that we are saved by God's grace and that we need to live worthy of the salvation given to us.

Do you think you need to repent??
How sure are you that when we return to God, he will forgive you??

The Great Escape

I was listening to one of the talk from equip conference 2010 because i just got the mp3 from camp last week. What a great timing to hear the talk from Di Warren about "the greatest escape" as i have been wanting to escape from the business of this life. I had a hectic and tiring weeks and all i wanted to do is just sleep more and escape!!

Di said last night in her talk that we live in a broken world that is caused by evil desires (2 peter 1:4). Because we live in this broken world, we long to be saved from this condition and constantly wants to escape from this situation. I thought to myself " thats so true!" (dont u agree too??) I continuously feel tired from the things that i have to do and even if i have rest, it is temporary because sooner or later i will need to rest again.. the whole rest and tired cycle would go round and round in a circle and i often feel tired of going around in that circle pattern.

I was reminded that as a christian, Jesus saved me from this broken world. I have escaped the corruption of the world which means that i have hope in the eternal rest where i wouldnt have to go through the emotional feeling involved in the circle pattern anymore.

The true escape is not all about going away on a holidays or running away from the business of life but the true escape can be find in Jesus alone because he saved us from the corruption of this world through his death on the cross. Holidays and rest are great and thank God for giving us rest and relaxing things to do but lets be reminded that the true escape from this broken world relies on Jesus!

I am now ready to face the second half of the year by remembering the greatest escape story i  have in Jesus. Life will deff gets busy or even busier (maybe) but when i feel tired or burden, i have Jesus that i can come back to and gain my strength to persevere from.

My 3 Wishes

I was watching the aladin cartoon last night and when it comes to the bit where the genie pops up and said that he would grant 3 wishes. I thought straight to myself "what would my 3 wishes be" What a surprising thing that was for aladin to only have 2 wishes and the last one he would wish for whatever the genie wants. I thought that was sweet... How many of us lets be honest would give away 1 wish for the sake of others?? It certainly didnt came across my head!

The last time we had similar question at bible study, my asnwer was a selfish answer too and i am surprised and glad to hear that some people are not as self centered as me. The questions goes like this, " if you are guaranteed a success in the next 5 years, what would you do?"

Would you have similar self centered answer like me too when u are faced with similar question?? i was rebuked through this simple thing that i am a selfish person and that i need to change that habit! God is not self centered and so as Jesus. If they are self centered, there would be no such things as grace and salvation. And if there is no such things as grace and salvation then what would this life be like?

My 3 wishes now would be:

1. to live a NON self centered life
2. to give away one of my wish
3. still in the process of thinking my thrid wishes :D:D