we; the clay

so i had this dream few nights ago, i was at this massive concert and i met Jesus ( he wasnt’t exactly a person nor do i remeber his face but in my dream i knew it was him) so anywho he called me and we went up a hill overlooking the crowds. then he said to me ‘if you’re going to follow me, take off your shoes.’ so i took my shoes off, and i woke up.

this may not be anything significant or from God or what have you but i just felt it made sense. following Jesus means surrendering everything, even something as small and essential as your shoes. walking with Jesus may mean you get cuts and bruises walking on the rocky path, but it also means enjoying the soft grass of the fields. or even more, walking on water with Jesus, feeling the uncertian currents of the waves but having the assurance you won’t fall by just fixing your eyes in Jesus. of course i don’t mean this literally nor am i really going to walk around barefooted. but i do want to surrender my life daily to Him. 

a verse that kept popping up this week was this

2 Thessalonians 3:5 (NIV)

‘May the Lord direct your heARTs into God’s love and Christ perseverance.’ 

i believe it is through God’s love that we will be able to do all things, from perseverance to obedience. all i have to do is surrender. 

God bless.

-marieto3

Hello!

  Man i blog here more then my own blog. This is sad. :/ Still, this was something I got from BSF lecture on tuesday, and I wanted to draw it out before it, ya know, gets away. :/

  So basically, we were going through 2 Thes 2:1-17, and *be warned- mayy be a little touchy*, we were basically talking about how 

1. we should be careful of the lawless one coming
2. to stand firm in our faith.

  Something I want to share here is about the second point. We were talking about application- I mean how do you apply it? The first thing that came to my mind was to, obvious, stand up for him like literally, when people talk bad about him and stuff.

  Then she mentioned it’s to stand firm in behavior, actions, language- and how much other stuff may influence us. Like music, books. How because the world says,” it’s okay, “, we start to slowly but surely believe it. It’s not even how much you say you wouldn’t. 

  This totally stuck me. I mean like. I truthfully don’t enjoy music with lyrics I don’t agree with, I’d skip them unless I’m working, and I read books with like, literally anything. I tend to hate horror shows, but always felt it’s personal preference, and I’ve always eflt pretty okay with gore. With people I have met in life, I always saw myself as a pretty open-minded person, and always been pretty open-minded to like anything, everything and you know, just felt- it’s okay. You’re you, I’m me. And that even if I read any gruesome books, it’s not like I’d do it.

  I guess it really hit me. I mean, I still have really old songs on my itunes that sometimes ends up in my iphone- I hardly delete any song unless i REALLY hate the lyrics. So like, Beep, Promiscuous, touch like that, Some song called God doesn’t exists- maybe, I tell myself, I wouldn’t get side tracked but I mean— what if all these have been slowly poisoning my mind? I mean all these is on a purely subconscious level. I must admit, sometimes, these songs just makes you feel ‘better’- but is it, really? Is there a point of feeling sexier/more confident with this kind of songs/lyrics leading to it? I guess it’s the wrong sort of confident.

  I now want to remove the songs with lyrics I don’t agree with, and truthfully I think it’s A LOT. I’m also not saying the entire playlist should be christian songs/related - though it’s definitely safer! But at the same time, I don’t want to listen to lyrics I seriously don’t agree with. I’m seriously struggling with the book thing ‘cos I just got stuck on this new series called Ladies Murder Club— don’t worry it’s like detectives CATCHING the murderer, though I do admit it can get a littlee dark, and I really want to read the rest! I still don’t know what to do. :/ meh.

  Anyway I was trying to depict in the picture was you know, how we slowly get poisoned by the stuff we listen. Very basically. Hope you guys get what I’m trying to say here! I’m sorry there’s not the verses to refer with so that this is more legit- I need to find my notes. Shall edit post when I get the correct verses ‘cos I feel it’s really important to be able to be sure with the Bible- which is the MOST important, and to be able to reference/back it up with other parts of the bible too to makes sense. Something from my inductive bible study. (:

/edit : Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 

-Phil 4:8

Got a few more— The one we studied was different too. Will write down when can remember!

Till the next time!

G’evening (:

  Evening here in Singapore.. er scratch that, more of late really. Meh. Work is taking up A LOT of time. :/

  Anyway, I was inspired to do this after my bible study class last saturday, when we were discussing Prayer- the part with the ‘template’ of how to pray, etc. Basically remembering my youth classes (meh sound old), I was telling them about the five finger concept- an easier way to remember. We were like racking our brains trying to remember the simplified versions of why we could remember them and ended up laughing like crazyy. (:

So for notes if people would like to know!

• First, the thumb for Praise- Thumbs Up! (Hallowed be thy name)
• Index for Thanksgiving, to God be all glory! 
• Middle for Confession- the joke was, you know, middle finger.. seriously though,(Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors)
• Ring, also representing relationships, can also be remembered as Intercession - praying for others! Friends and Family (: 
• Lastly, the pinky! for yourself in Petition. It’s the smallest and last, to remind you that you aren’t the important factor. 

Anyway this is a very very basic thing; it’s not compulsory to pray in this format. I do admit while i try to follow it because I feel it’s a good reminder also to set priorities straight, there are days where I just spill everything to God, of course, or even make it all about me. Which is although not good per say, I do feel God understands. After all, we are to go to him about everything and anything at anytime. And personally, I think it’s worse to just keeping to format making it priority rather then how you truthfully feel and have the heart for. Still, it’s a good habit to praise God and thank him- truly set’s the day straight to surrender all to him. (:

Have a great day tomorrow!

P.S - I have this awesome free app by my friend with daily devotions and plans included inside and I’ve been using it daily. It’s super handy! It’s called Bible but finding it was a real pain. :/The icon is of a reddish-brown bible with gold capital fonts stating “Holy Bible” . Id try figure out who did the app etc to make it easier to get too!

  To start things of, I decided to use Isaiah 64:8; seeing how it’s our tumblr address. Actually today in sermon Pastor Michael (guest pastor! Mission month. :D) mentioned it too. However, he used it somewhat differently, using it in context with missions. You know, like how even when God does want to mould us for better- sometimes we stubbornly think we are correct. Or when he wants to mould us for missions, and we don’t wanna go, scared of everything forgetting that he knows everything and we’d be made wonderful. Or sometimes, we don’t even think that we’d be perfect- forgetting in the potter’s hands he wants to make us beautiful. Which artist doesn’t want their artwork beautiful? 

  I’m not too sure if I manage to explain my thought process/anything, but anyway I was imagining if we were like that- how shocking it may be to God! Ironically, we are just stopping ourselves to be better christians just ‘cos we can’t see the big picture. Etc if we were that sad little half made whatever in the picture thinking we were so perfect… 

Of course, it’s still really cool (And kinda touching) to remember that God still loves us, and he’s doing this ‘cos he does love us and that he loves us anyway. So sweet, eh? (: