Posted by: thaishin | November 25, 2012

Focused Emotions

Mark 12:30

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. -kjv

Meditations:

Of this command, one portion of it tells us to love God with all our heart. It means we have to love God with all our emotions. For me, the means through which I can do that is to reflect on how Jesus endured the pain of the nails driven through his hands and feet. He did that for me. Jesus suffered the pain as a man does. That puts a tear in my eye. As I do that, I question the motive behind my tear. Was it for self-pity? I have to channel my emotion solely on Jesus by focusing on His love for me. We loved because He first loved us. For me, that’s the discovery of emotion for I have lived a rather emotionless living for quite some part of my life even up to now.
With that discovery of emotion comes tears when I would shed a tear for the love of someone close to me or when I encounter a type of Christ in somebody else lives. Selfish tears still exist though because that is our humanity but I have come to feel more genuinely.

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Posted by: thaishin | October 30, 2012

God’s secret with you

If God has a secret to share with you, He will somehow make it known to you. On your part, keep it only to yourself and don’t blabber it to others like Esau who cheapens his birthright. But look backward to your secret as you journey on in life to reinforce and strengthen your faith because this will please God.
The good news of Jesus is an open secret for all believers and ought to be shared with everybody unlike the secret that God shared only with you. Jesus is still a secret that needs to be revealed to those who has yet to believe because they wonder what’s the good news about and we need to bring the good news to them because they can’t help themselves.

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Posted by: thaishin | October 1, 2012

Contempt or Living Water?

Familiarity breeds contempt

John 7
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. -kjv

Meditations:

When one becomes familiar with another in a relationship, does it lead to contempt for your partner or does it lead to mutual edification? The former speaks of the fallen nature of man when sin comes into play. Because of sin, selfishness sets in and one would become bored of one’s partner easily and looks else where for fulfillment or the relationship becomes strained because of differences. However, if Jesus is present in the lives of the couple, the husband/wife can encourage each other. The spouse is not easily bored of his/her partner. The spouse will stand by his/her partner until death parts them. Gentleness and transparency will be the norm in the relationship. There will be complete trust for each other and each will seek the good for the other. Each will want to follow God’s will for them.
Even if Jesus is present in only one of the spouse, that person becomes a source of encouragement for his/her partner. It is going to be tiring for the christian spouse but pray that through his/her testimony the non believing spouse will come to believe in Christ one day.

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Posted by: thaishin | August 20, 2012

Giving thanks as a first step

I was listening to christian radio when the preacher was preaching that giving thanks is a form of worship. Then it struck me that giving thanks can serve as an evangelistic tool as well, which in my case I use for my son.
My son prays before he sleeps. It came to me that I can encourage him to give thanks, which he is doing now, but I think he has to be more specific.
By giving thanks specifically, it does the following:
1) It instills in him a grateful heart.
2) It helps him to recognize his blessings the past day. It helps if he is specific.
3) It helps him to ponder what he had done the past day. It helps him to look inward and be more reflective. They say a child has short memory. Maybe this reason is more applicable if the child is older.
4) It helps him to not take things for granted.
A child thinks concretely. If he is not able to give thanks for what he has in this life, how can he give thanks to Jesus for saving him and that he has to do it by faith? So, giving thanks for what he has now is a first step toward giving thanks to Jesus for what the child does not see physically.

1 Thessalonians 5
18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. -kjv

18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. -niv

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Posted by: thaishin | July 13, 2012

New Tires

My corolla clocked 75,092 miles and I got the 4 tires changed. They say the old tires are flat.
The new tires are Firestone Affinity Touring package with 70k mile limited warranty. Each tire cost 110 bucks. Labor cost 73.96 bucks. Included in the package is 66 bucks of road hazard protection whereby free plug patch will be done to the wheels if there are nails stuck to them. The package is buy 3 tires get 1 free.
I feel pulsations at the brake when I stepped on it. They say there is need to resurface the rear brake drums. So I got that done as well. The labor suppose to cost 70 bucks. Since we bought the tires, they gave us a discount on the labor charge.
More spending on the car as it ages.
They also say it is better to do an alignment after installing the 4 wheels, which I also did.
I spend a total of 594.11 bucks for the repair

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Posted by: thaishin | July 10, 2012

More than that

I have this notion: That people can be source of stress or people can be a source of encouragement.
After listening to a preacher preached on Ephesians 6:12, I realized that it is more than that.

Ephesians 6

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. -kjv

The stress that some people bring with them when they interact with us is because they are sinful people but we must realize also that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood and such a situation has spiritual roots. Demons might exploit the situation and blow it up to turn it to his advantage to entice men with greed, lust, evil desires etc. Or demons might want the ambiance to reflect his demonic values.

Christians have to be on their guard and realize that everyday situation is a spiritual battleground, especially in these last days.

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Posted by: thaishin | May 20, 2012

An example

Philippians 3:17

17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. -kjv

17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do -niv

Here, Paul is asking the philippian church to follow his example in living out the christian life, specifically regards to not to put confidence in the flesh and putting Jesus first. I have actually resolved in my heart that I do not want anybody to follow me but to follow Jesus. This is because I think that it is pride to want to have followers and pointing at myself most of the time. I need to point that somebody to Jesus instead. But come to think of it, in an earthly sense, I will at least need to set an example for my son because I am in close proximity to him and I can influence him by setting an example for him. This sets me thinking – in what ways do I want him to follow me. I think I will want to pass on to him the values that I hold and that can only be passed on by living it out in everyday life.

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Posted by: thaishin | May 11, 2012

Going to the end of himself

My son is able to express himself well enough in English. Well enough to be confident of his own abilities. Well enough to be proud of himself. But not well enough to experience God’s strength. To experience God’s strength, he has to come to the end of his own confidence in himself and know about his own inadequacies. Then I will come in to encourage him to depend on Jesus and depend on strength from God to power him instead of his own confidence. That’s the game plan.
So he will have to start on something new, something challenging to show his inadequacies. I hope to do that this summer to do something more difficult, more challenging so that his inadequacies will show.

Matthew 5:3
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. -kjv

If he is able to be poor in spirit, then the strength of Jesus comes in. I intend to sign him up for basketball. He will continue to swim. He will read more difficult books. He will learn more mandarin. I hope these activities will push him to the limit to show his insufficiencies. Then Jesus comes in.

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Posted by: thaishin | May 1, 2012

Person and method

One thing I learned about the difference between God and men is that God recognizes the person and accomplishes His will through results via the person but men recognizes the method and attempts to accomplish their will through the method that gave results.

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Posted by: thaishin | April 27, 2012

With Door Guard

For a few months, there was this rust on the edge of the door on my left rear side of the car. This door was retrofitted due to an accident earlier and was the only door that showed rust at the edge. There was a warranty that came with the retrofit but excluded rust.
So I went to a repair shop and they recommended to install door guards on the car. I decided to install only on the door that showed rust. They quoted around 20 dollars for the job and offered to touch it up but I have to buy my own paint.
I bought the paint from the dealership for 9.86 USD and sent the car in for the repair. They filed off the rust, touch up with paint and applied a layer of clear and sealed the edge with a transparent door guard. The door guard is supposed to prevent water droplets with coming in contact with the edge of the door. The final cost: 21.75 USD.
There’s no warranty to the repair and the manager says it is a band aid repair. It is not a foolproof repair where the whole car door is sand blasted and painted which will come to hundreds of dollars.

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