Philippians 3

I'm stressed. Midterms start next Monday for me and I have FIVE for the next 2 weeks. Please pray for me, that I'll be able to keep my sanity and try my hardest during this time! I'd appreciate that.


Philippians 3:

The latter section of the two of this chapter caught my attention. Being focused on the goal, and being encouraged that there are others that are on the same boat, was nice. For the last few days, I've been watching bits and pieces of this guy's lecture titled, "Chasing Your Childhood Dreams." I'm sure you've heard of it. It was given by a science professor named Randy Pausch, who had to decide on his last lecture of his life (he was diagnosed with terminal cancer) and decided to talk about how he followed his childhood dreams and even helped others realize it. One thing that he said that really encouraged me was the fact that we always hit brick walls when we try to reach our goals. During those times, most people give up. But the brick walls are there to help us realize how badly we want to reach our goals.

We face so many brick walls in our lives. With school, with families, with friends, and most importantly in this context, in keeping our focus on Christ. Do you feel like giving up when you have difficult times focusing on Christ? Or do you get the drive to try harder? Try to focus on the latter and give it your all.


I'll send out the song list tonight, both via email and on this forum. Stay posted!


Roh

I hope you all had a good Monday..
Work is slowly piling up.. so is my stress... woohoo

I thought I'd take a break from my homework and do my devos.

Philippians 3.

verse 7 & 8. "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord..." Through this verse, Paul tells us that living selfishly for ourselves is incomparable to living for God. I find this to be so true because, when we go through each day fulfilling our own desires, it's not as satisfying as when we live according to God's will and please Him. I'm not sure if I'm making any sense here, but this verse stuck in my head after reading this passage. The fact that everything is a loss compared to knowing Jesus, I found that really powerful. I guess everything is a loss because it is all temporary. However, through God, we learn to love Him, each other, and develop relationships that last forever.

verse 13 & 14. "...Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." We've all been ashamed of the sins we've committed in the past, and, sometimes, they hold us back from growing deeper in our relationship with God. Paul says that we should forget the past and work towards spreading the gospel and living for God because God forgives every single sin without hesitation. This verse reiterates God's love and grace for His children; His ultimate want is for each one of us to accept Him and look only to Him.

verse 20. "But our citizenship is in heaven." This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, and it reminds us of where we belong. Because our citizenship is in heaven, we have to live according to God's rules and depend on Him. This verse also shows us that we cannot rely on earthly things.



ciao.

omg...... i just went backward and deleted my devo... im soooo pissed. I actually took time to do a full out thought process and emotional one...
you know whats ironic? at the end i said "karmas been on my ass as of late... its really annoying"....
I know.... ironic isnt it?
Forget it im not redoing it i have a test first period tmr.
Heres the just
My life before Jesus = sucked
I loved money but after i got a job and went out to church more realized money isnt everything
Jesus holds us a room in heaven = really happy and was mind blown after i pondered about how we have a life after we die...think about it. we actually have a place to go....
im so pissed. im actually going to kill karma.... like take a knife and go ape shit on it....

Who has a hair appointment at 9 in the PM? Hannah does. That's going in my journal just for the sheer spontaneity of it all, haha.
Anyways,

PHILIPPIANS 3

v.8 "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things."

This verse was pretty powerful for me and put things into perspective - my life as an insignificant, 1 in 6 billion human being, as compared to the Christ Jesus we have the privilege to understand and have a relationship with, is a pretty small thing. And like Denise said, so often in my life, I'll get caught up in and about 'me, me, me'. But at the end of the day, what do worldly satisfactions leave me with? They'll slip away from my fingers and it's just a matter of time. So, theoretically speaking it makes a lot more sense for me to be devoting every bit of my being to Christ Jesus, because we get to, and because there's nothing greater. But self-admittedly, it isn't an easy task, so the latter end of this verse where Paul says that for Christ' sake, he has lost all things, is encouraging for me, to see a man of mighty faith who carried out what he believed in.

v.20 "But our citizenship is in heaven."

I love this verse. Our citizenship is in heaven. God has already prepared a place for us, where we can one day come join him and his son, and that in itself is awesome. But, akin to Denise's point again, having been promised this, our citizenship in heaven comes first before the callings of this world. A silly comparison perhaps, but when we go overseas, as a "Canadian", you have the sense that you're representing your country. I felt exactly like this when I went to Ecuador, where a Canadian, nonetheless a Korean-Canadian, is not exactly a common thing. So I felt almost like a little ambassador and felt a certain level of responsibility, understanding my power to leave an impression that they could forever associate with every Canadian, which led to my being very careful and conscious about my actions. The same applies to our citizenship to God's kingdom - All that we do in front of our non-believing friends has the power to influence and shape their views on every believer...hopefully this isn't just making sense in my perm-chemical-infused head, haha. Anyways, so this verse affects me on two counts: 1. It allows me to once more recognize and appreciate the awesome grace that our God shows. 2. It challenges me to take pride and care in this citizenship I have been given.

Have a great day tomorrow, guys!

- H

yo yo yo yo
wachaoo?

I kinda learned something from this chapter indirectly, Paul kinda sounds like he's striving for perfection, and i think this itself is kind of... weird because it's kinda trying to become an entity like Jesus or God
I remember this Simpson's episode when Homer said to Ned, "Be Human man!" or something like that (smth stupider sounding tho hahaha) because you know, we are human... we always feel, and we always think, and we always sin, so kinda hiding that nature is sorta being two faced without intending to be I guess. I mean, I always let loose my emotions and that always costs me... but I don't care, it's me and it's my nature so I won't try to tame myself and change who I was created to be!
I just sort of go with the flow... ya... never do things outside of my comfort zone, though I really should, I'm missing out on a lot... but it's hard..
Damn.. I'm a solved rubix cube that is locked in place..
"Do you know what angels dream of? To be human." That's a quote from a game that I've been playing on PSP (gamer up) and I like this because it kinda relates to what I leanred today...
We dream of being perfect and angellic because we are not, when we live we commit so many sins, do so many stupid things, and we ALWAYS regret... but our lifetime is limited so everything is very spontaneous, interesting, and fun and everyday is a new adventure and a chapter closer to the end of our life, EVERYDAY. THEN, we get to bask in eternity, in a way we've earned it.
Angels are always perfect, they don't commit sins, they don't do any stupid things, they don't have any spontaneous fun, they have a whole lifetime of this boringness, and they just go on with the ebb of time being prefect entities and (in a way) just strange things to us (we could fear them even though all they want from us is love). SO, the angels are jealous of us who live life and bear much fruit, while they live in eternity doing same old same old things... I'm sure they've been living long enough to have seen multiple of the same things over and over again...
That's what I leanred today woot? see ye guys~

I hate mondays.
today was the longest day in the world
the viva strike SUCKSSSSSS

PS on sunday I was at bathurst clark library, and you all know that it is a HARDCORE JEWISH area.. And I was studying for chem when these two university students came and sat beside me.. And it turns out that both were Jewish, and they started talking to each other about thier faith. And as creepy as I was being totally eavesdropping on their convo, I got a lot of insight on their religion. I guess it sort of reminded me that although they don't believe in Jesus and wont go to heaven, that the roots in our religions are so similar: the passion with which they talked about God and their community really reminded of our faith. This girl started talking about 'Rabbi Rob' and how much fun he was everytime they got together and he spoke for the congregation. And it really reminded me of our "Pastor Sam". Haha
I think I have a lot more respect and insight on the faith now, more than my world religion course ever gave me
Just thought id share

Philippians 3:
Paul says that he considers everything that is not knowing God a loss. By doing so, he really stresses how much more important knowing God is in comparison to all of our frivolous everyday activities. That whenever we do something else, that we are in a way, 'wasting' the time that we could be using to glorify and build our relationship with God. Well, I know that God doesn't expect us to go into a desert with a bible and spend all of our time getting to know him, this really challenges us to change our perspective on our prayer time and daily devotions. TO be honest with you, devos are always something like. 'OH I GOTTA DO THAT NOW' for me.. But if I saw getting know God the same way that Paul did, devos would always be the first thing that i would WANT to do, and eveyrthign else should follow. Paul explains later that many people are against Jesus, that they long only for their stomachs to be filled, and they revolve completly aroudn earthly things. But he says that we are CITIZENS OF HEAVEN
I tried thinking about this literally.. cause it helped me to picture things. And if you think about ourselves as citizens of heaven, our duty in our life is much more clear: to be faithful to our God, to contribute to the kingdom.
Haha our national anthem would be like. a hillsongs song.

LOL well have a great tuesday tmrw, all

!!!!!!!!!!
My devo didn't post. What the heck!
what a break fomr homework taht turned out to be.

Basically here's the straight up version. the emotinal one is gone....
Throw away your past and purify yoursleves before Christ.
and umm, oh yah
In the Secret came into my head, becase of the part " pressing onward pushing every hindrance aside out of my way, cause i want to know you more"
Our GOAL is to know Christ more and share others about it.
SO dont lets distractions get to you, tear down thosehindrances WITh God and all is good buddy

Cheers.

Cathy, I think it's about time you join the club and hook yourself up with a neat avatar. That is all.

Sup k Bi

Forget the past and push forword. Man I wish I could of done that alot sooner. As you know from my previous posts I am a super worrier/prone to guilt trips easily etc. etc. I always had that guilt of doing something bad, even if somebody forgave me. I don't know why I do that, but I think I can remember almost all the negative things I have done from grade 1 to 11. I once reflected back, and my goodnss all the guilt just started to pour in like a tsunami. I was overwelmed and I believe I cried that day don't know when it was but I just remebered the guilt I felt, but God does not want that; like Sam said, God never intended for Guilt to be a signal. God is not going to say Ohh!!! You sinned when you were 6 years old Tsk tsk tsk. He forgives us when we ask and he says to forget about it and don't dwell on it.

K

Sry about the late posts havent been on my for 3 days