Someone once spoke to me about life being like "Groundhog Day", it does feel like I've been waking up to the same day over & over again. Sometimes life seems like a song with the longest intro, we know it already started but when do I start singing? When do I get to do my part? We find ourselves always being in the proces of; in transition; planning toward; We're preparing for life, but unfortunately we never get to live it. One day, someday... but tragically never today.

I deem it of utmost importance that we learn as much as we can from yesterday, & always hope for a brighter tomorrow, but even greater still I pray, that none of us ever fail to live today!

I once again find myself on my knees, not quite knowing how to deal with some things that I face in my life. Having questions & knowing that some of them would probably never get answered. The why's, how's & when's, & every once in a while the "what the heck is happening in my life" :) Aaahhh, it seems frustrating not to have a firm grip on tomorrow, or even dealing with the struggles today. But you know what, who does? The truth is nobody knows what lies ahead, & most of us find security in the little predictable things we know. But most of us who have known how it is to be caught by surprise with a tragedy, have seen a glimpse of how things can change in a blink of an eye. In a moments time we're made to face the reality, not just facts about our circumstance, but truths about our limitations & our weaknesses. Weaknesses that have always been there but just never had the chance to be brought out into the light.

God has called us to trust in Him, to lean not on our own understanding, & to acknowledge Him in all our ways. Like a father who carefully instructs a child to hold his hand while crossing the street, God asks of our trust. It is never the child's ability to walk a few meters that is the issue. All of those times, it's always the child's comprehension & awareness of what's happening around that is in question. A weakness that a child might take for granted but his parents know is always there.

I have found refuge in coming before God in prayer. I found beauty knowing that there is a source of joy that is not dependant on circumstances, a peace so deep that cannot be disturbed & a knowledge that although weaknesses may never be avoidable, strength can always be found in God.

We always get fascinated by other people's accomplishments. Well, sometimes it seems as if they have something so much more than we do. Here's the reality though, nobody gets more than 24 hours a day, 7 days a week or 12 months in a year. And the truth is, all our minutes only have 60 seconds in it. How can other people do so much more with the same we all have? We can argue out that others are more talented, they know more people, better personality... well, the list can go on endless. We bear enough diffences to give a variety of beauty to how we do things & what things we do. But we live life not necessarily by accomplshing what great things other people have done, or being better than someone else. We live life by doing the best with what we have. Using our talents, our gifts & our resources to the best of its capacity.

We have to realize that life is not lived by those who dream, but by those who do. Often I hear people wish they can fly, or breathe under the ocean, but often they fail to even walk to exciting paths they've never gone before. Don't let fear keep you from living, but don't let foolishness lead you to the wrong path either. Don't let what you can't do keep you from doing what you can. Don't let regrets stop you from moving forward. Don't limit your life.

Live for God & He will show His idea of life that has no limits.

Wow! It's already 2005, it seems like yesterday when everyone was panicing about Y2K. Time is like a one way, non-stop trip... it neither waits for anyone, nor does it look back & make detours for anyone's convenience. It is the element in our lives that we can never gain back, & along with it it, the choices we've made, both right & wrong. It leaves us with either the regret & the consequence for our foolishness, or the rewards that come with our wisdom & hard work.

There are times when I find myself so deceived that just because our calendar somehow goes around twelve months at a time, doesn't mean that I'm really gonna get another shot in doing the cycle all over again. Time comes & goes, like the words we let go in the air that can never be retrieved. It's never how much time you're given that makes the difference; the real question is what difference you made with the time that is given to you.

It seems so heroic to find something you're willing to give your life for. Given the chance to be in that kind of a situation, I hope we all have something that holds that depth of value in our lives. But the sad truth is, our generation is plagued with hopelessness & depression. A generation that in reality, has a hard time finding things that are worth living for, let alone finding a cause to valiantly abandon everything.

There are two definites in our exsistence, being born & dying, but living on the other hand is a choice. It is a decision; a journey; a feat; a quest. Life is a gift & living it is a responsibility. There is no life in being passive & complacency is merely a slow process of dying.

God has provided us with the breath of life, a choice to live & the priviledge of living for Him. It's your choice, it's your decision. Seek God & let the giver of life show you how to live it.

I love that song that song that Stephen Curtis Chapman wrote "..there's more to this life, than living & dying, more than just trying to make it through the day...".

In my life, it seems so easy for me to fall into a passive state of mind. We get ourselves into situations were we are looking forward to certain things, but when we get ourselves involved in those certain things that we've eagerly look forward to, they seem to somehow just blend in & fall into the "ordinary" events in our lives. It's as if they weren't really that exciting after all.

Well, we have this natural tendency to want what we don't have, & take for granted what we do have. It's sad, but it is true. Society is somehow pushing everyone to crave for more. I don't have any problem with the dissatisfaction to a mediocre way of living. The problem is, society seem to be telling us what we need, but in reality those things are only there to passify the real desperation that's in us. "well, this passifier will stop the baby from crying" doesn't do anything with his hunger, but it'll at least distract him until he realizes that he's really not getting anything out of it.

Jesus died, first so that we may have life, & so we can have it in abundance. Don't settle for what the world serves you on a platter. Pursue truth, live life & seek God, & He'll show you that there really is more to this life. listen to clip "start today"

Believe it or not, when I was a little boy I used to think that the whole story was all about me. I thought I was playing the main role & the camera was somehow following me wherever I went. Well, just like in the movies, where everyone else just somehow shows up & play their part, I never really explored the thought that maybe they, just like me, have their own dreams, their own insecurities, hurts, likes & dislikes, well, that they had their own lives. That didn't necesarily mean that I thought so highly of myself or that I was better than everyone else. On the contrary, I actually had such a low sense of worth inside of me.

Selfishness is when you don't see anything else outside of yourself, wether it may be catering to your own hurts or pursuing your own dreams. We fall short in living out the fullness of our lives when we don't see the purpose why we're all put in this one planet called earth. Why everyone else's decision seem to affect us & why our's seem to affect others? Jesus died for us, so we can live for Him & for others. God doesn't only desire to bless us, but also to bless through us. That is why His heart has always been to give until we overflow, so that we don't only receive in full, but also that everyone around us & the people He brings to our path will receive as well.

Look around you & see everyone that God desires to love through you.

"As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," Proverbs 23:7

It seems so harmless to think about anything. After all, it's just thinking, right? Well, wrong!! A big part of who we are is a product of how we think, well, I would even say every part of who we are is. Our brain has been given the function of being able to direct every movement & action of the body. Look at your brain like a conductor of an orchestra. As much as every instrument has a function of it's own, it's the conductor that decides the difference between a majestic symphony & a terrible noisy ensemble.

We are a reflection of who we think we are. Every battle we lose in the physical is most of the time, just a manifestation of the battle we already lost in our minds.

It is important that we discipline our minds to look at problems as things that can be solved, obstacles as things we can overcome & weaknesses as a place for God to show His strength made perfect. What are you thinking?

How many of us make a big deal about getting our money's worth, or better than that, even getting a better deal for the things that we buy? Who wouldn't get excited about getting something for a price lesser than it really cost?

What God has offered to give us requires for us to give our everything. People are usually taken back by the thought that "everything" seems too much to give. I'd like to share a somewhat poor comparison, but a precise thought. Let's say someone offers to give you a 50 bedroom estate, & along with it, 10 luxury cars, a couple of yatchs, a private jet & as far as the house is concerned, it's fully furnished & tax free for the rest of your life. Here's the catch though, it's gonna cost you "everything" you have. If you have 10,000 $, well I guess it's gonna cost you every last dollar, & if you got 643.95$ I guess it's gonna cost you every last penny of it.

Do you get the picture? See, the real issue is not how much you have to give, but it's really on what you're giving it up for. I don't think anyone of us is really holding on to something more precious than what God is wanting to give us in return. We have to come to place where we begin to realize that what God has offered to give us in exchange for our "everything" is absolutely worth so much more.

God has asked us to give our all, because He knows that's really all we can give.

How many times have you seen yourself stop? You've stop trusting God, You've stopped praying, You've stopped listening for His voice, You've stopped reading His word, You've stopped paying attention to His will, ... somewhere, somehow, in something, you've stopped. Usually, everything would start to fall apart, you'd get confused, you end up in a situation where you have nowhere to go & you find yourself seeking the voice of God that you took for granted when everything seemed fine.

I'm so humbled by God's love & His faithfulness. He said that His mercies are new every morning & that He will never leave us nor forsake us. There are no words to describe how overwhelming it is to know even just a glimpse of God's love for us. See, even when you've stopped & now you realize once more that you absolutely need God, He's there to forgive & there to bring you back in His arms of comfort & peace. He knows we need Him, He knows He's the only hope there is. The bible says seek Him while He may be found, & to those who seek Him, He is faithful to reveal Himself. Whatever it is you're going through now, know that God is faithful to listen, to forgive, to restore, to heal... because even at times when we know we've stopped, God kept on... He kept on loving us.

There is no substitute to obedience. We have the tendency to want to try & find other ways to please God, especially when what He seems to ask of us is something we think we're not ready to do yet. Well, the truth is, the basis of obedience has nothing to do with being ready or not, but more on the fact that we are able to. The fact that we have the choice & ability to obey, makes our disobedience purely revolve around our unwillingness to do what He asks of us.

I can almost picture someone who's running out of clothes to wear because he needs to do his laundry, but instead of washing them, which clearly is the right thing to do, he decides to buy more clothes. Well, that does give Him clothes to wear, but it really doesn't do anything with His need to do His launndry. The truth is it'll enentually just add to the pile he already has.

There is no substitute to doing the right thing that God asks of us. Obedience is not only an act or a deed, it is an aknowledgement of God & His sovereignty. It is an offering of humility & submission. It is a gesture of love & trust. There is no substitute to obedience.

Notice how loud the clock ticks in the middle of the night. Sometimes I hear it so loud that I can't sleep. Did the clock all of a sudden become louder? No! But everything else became quieter.

It's the same thing with God's voice. He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us, but sometimes it seems as though we can't hear Him. Like a clock ticking in the middle of the day, His voice somehow disappears in the midst of the noise around us. The noise of our emotions, our guilt, our ideas & our own perception of things.

It's important that we know that He's always there. Sometimes we just have listen closely & sometimes it requires us to make an effort to quiet down every other noise. Anyone can hear, but God's voice can only speak to those who listen.

Whatever decision you end up taking this year, make life worthwhile by living with a purpose. We've heard this saying a lot of times "What you sow, you will reap", & we know that the real value is not what we do, but why we do it & who we do it for. Live for others, give, share, help, learn to love & never lose the desire to seek God & to know His heart. His promise is to reveal Himself to those who seek Him.

What good you can do, do it. What you can change, change. What you can't do anything with, lift it up to God in prayer. Always learn from yesterday, do your best today & make sure you face tomorrow with hope. Never stop learning, take time to listen. Whatever you do, do with all your heart.

Jesus died for a purpose, so we can live with a purpose.

It's an undeniable fact that we all go through life's transitions. We all started as babies, uncapable of taking care of our own selves. We learnt how to walk & how to talk. Then we've been taught in schools about math, history, science, languages & other things. We've grown, from being dependent on a lot of other people, into being able to do a lot for our own. Every step of the way, change was necessary to accommodate these transitions. The truth is, if we endeavor to live out the life that is set before us, change will always be necessary.

In God's hands, change is His way of telling us that there is more to life than what we hold on to, what we have, & even what we long for. It's His way of refining our priorities & molding our ideals. "From glory to glory..." He says, & into the likeness of Jesus. It's about giving up, letting go & moving on from what is, into what it was always meant to be. Don't fear change, instead embrace it, & see the beauty that it has instored.

Everytime something bad or unfortunate happens, there's always someone who manages to say the phrase "well, that's life". I've never really heard that phrase said when good things happen. Somehow, everyone has concluded that good things come from luck, & bad things come from life. There's just something wrong with that kind of perspective.

Reality states that we do have valid reasons for getting sad & troubled at times. We know that pain is real, but so is joy. God promises to bring us through the tough times in our lives, not always bring us out, because there is a valuable lesson in knowing His faithfulness through the hardships that we face. He wants us to find confidence, not in the situation, but in the outcome, & He promises that those who put their trust in Him will never be put to shame.

With that in mind, let your heart be filled with gratitude. Gratitude, not because of a superficial effort to convince yourself that everything is fine, but because of a deep trust in God.

How many people have you met that actually said "One of these days, I'd love to be miserable". Sounds funny huh? Well, we always manage to dream beautiful dreams & somehow fail to live beautiful days. The truth is, each day will never go as good as we want them to be, sometimes worse & other times better.

It's not how you dream about tomorrow that makes you happy, but it's how you deal with reality of today. Live life one day at a time.

Life, they say is filled with choices. Choices on what, who, when, where... whether it may be something grand that may redefine your very life, or something that may only change your next few minutes, life is filled with choices.

If you've managed to convince yourself that it's not easy to do right, well, maybe you should realize that it's not really any easier to do what's wrong. The pleasure of things may affect how easy or hard choices can become at the moment, but nevertheless, we are faced with the will to equally choose between right & wrong.

Choose to do what's right, regardless what circumstance, where, when, choose to do what's right, because the real power in freedom is not in having it, it is in using it to do the right thing.

I know! a lot of times it's almost worth wishing we can do things over again, or maybe not. It depends what it is I guess. Well anyway, whatever it may be, we all know that we can't really change what's already been done. Depending on the magnitude of things, we can go through different levels of remorse & regrets. It's just right to feel bad & appropriate to realize we've done wrong. But it's also a worthwhile effort to not be held back by the things that we can't change & change the things that we can.

We should continue to move on with life with the hope that we learn from our mistakes, do our best to improve, realize our weaknesses, but all in all, know that God's grace is sufficient, & intead of looking back, look forward to each new day as a chance, not only to do better, but to live our best.

The question is this, If someone was watching you live your life, would they be looking over your shoulder thinking they could have done better? We tend to have opinion about how other people should do their job, or how priviledged they are to have such influence, & fail to recognize that we all wake up to the same morning, & although we may encounter a million different circumstances, some more difficult than others, we are faced with the same choice to do what's right & do it with the best of our ability. The problem is not ignorance. The problem is when people have an opinion without conviction.

What good is your opinion about someone else's life, if you're not doing any better with your's?

We often say this phrase when we would want to tell someone to not even consider the thought, nevermind actually doing the deed. Well, I think in a lot of different ways that's really what God is saying when He tells us not to worry. He already knows it's not even gonna benefit us, neither will it really make a difference to what He has already planned. So He's basically telling us not to even make such of an effort to get ourselves warped up with emotions that wouldn't really necessarily provide us with a headstart in life.

So the next time you're just absolutely tempted to worrry, or when you feel like aimlessly tackling things with your mind that you can't really change, just hear His loving voice in your heart saying this phrase "Don't even think about it"

The world we live in is filled with so many voices. Voices telling us how to live our lives?, how to spend our money?, what we should want?, what we need?, what we shouldn't tolerate?, what's fine & what isn't?... voices that makes the attempt to influence us. & yes!, voices that have influenced us.

There's a voice that is beyond all the voices of this world. A voice that speaks truth & nothing else, a voice that calls us to life & freedom, instead of bondage & death, & that is God's voice.

Seek to know God's voice. Know that He is faithful to reveal Himself to those who earnestly seek Him.

It takes a full cup to overflow & that's the kind of life God has called us to live. It's quite common that we find ourselves squeezing out the last drop of life out of us. That's how we often get ourselves stressed, overworked, worried & troubled, & we can't seem to have that thought of giving out, I mean, we already see ourselves not having enough for our own needs.

Wether it's peace you're needing, or joy, or maybe a real sense of purpose, the invitation still stands. Ask & it shall be given, seek & you shall find, knock & the door will be opened, because God never called you to give out of your lack, but to live a life out of His abundance.

You can't do anything wrong that can make God love you less, or anything good that can make God love you more than He already does.

We are brought up in a society where our worth is usually found in what we do. But I was really apalled to see how vain our society has become when it comes to determining the value of people. I don't understand how athletes & musicians are celebrated as heros, & teachers, doctors & nurses don't get even the least amount of appreciation they deserve. Isn't it silly how the same society who doesn't know the difference between a diamond & a piece of broken glass seems to assume the responsibility of telling everyone what is good & what isn't.

Read God's word & find out your true worth, because we all know that the true value of a painting is never on how it looks, but it's in the artist who made it.