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true beauty

Do not let your adornment be merely outward-arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel, rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 1 Peter 3:3-4

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Saturday, April 16, 2005

“Searching for True Love”>

Just thought of sharing with you some points I learned from the 3 part video series of Joshua Harris about True Love, Purity and Trust.

On True Love

Selfless. If you love him, you will think of his future and will be careful in all your actions. You will not do anything that will damage his future.

Sincere. You will not put your best foot forward. You will be yourself. And you will not manipulate other people’s feelings.

On Purity

When you get closer to someone more than what you should be, you are actually robbing him from his future wife.

You should consider his closeness to God. How can i help him get closer to God? Or are you actually distracting his relationship with the Lord. If he is walking with God, don’t refocus his attention to you.

Treat him as you would treat your brother.

Check the way you dress up. It’s hard to keep men’s eyes away from sexy and revealing clothes of women. (Makisama ka naman!)

On Trust

The hardest part is waiting for God’s perfect timing...

If you wait for the perfect timing, you will get something better.

You must redeem the time. Make the most of today. If you rush things, you will not learn and understand what God is telling you “now”.

View singleness as a blessing. You can use this time for serving God. This is a perfect time. No distraction!

Be content in any circumstance. Complaining is a sin. When you complain that you don’t have a this and that (boyfriend or girlfriend), you are actually telling God... “God I don’t think you are sure of what you are doing. Why does she have a boyfriend while I don’t? Are you ok, God?

Make God your source of hope, comfort and refuge.

God has given His only begotten son... Isn’t it enough proof of His love for us? He can provide our lesser needs.... we must trust.

Some other learnings....

When you are too close...
God might be preparing someone else for you and you might not realize the right man has come because you are so focused on the wrong man.

When you are thinking so much about him...
The time you spend thinking of him can be the time you might have spent in memorizing verses, extension for your quiet time, sharing the gospel, teaching in Sunday school etc.

# posted by Viviene | 2:33 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, April 14, 2005

God allows us to wander>

Last week, I bravely experimented on making a dessert. I researched the ingredients on the internet and started to play around the kitchen. I had been there for more that an hour and it seemed to be a hopeless case for me! I messed up with the ingredients and the procedures. I mixed the eggwhite instead of the egg yolk. I used a powdered milk instead of evaporated milk. The crepe does not look like a crepe. Everything was a disaster! The whole time i was cooking, my mom was just there looking at me... I finally gave up and asked my mom's help! That's the only time she got involved with my experimenting. She said she wasn't helping because she wants me to learn.

That's the same way with our relationship with God. We mess up with our life. We experience problems we feel we cannot solve. And when life seems hopeless, we cry out for God's help... He is there with you along the way. Everytime. God would just like to experience His lesson for us first-hand but He's there with you for sure..........

# posted by Viviene | 4:03 PM | 0 comments

When "temptation" becomes more intense>

When i accepted Jesus to rule over my life, i thought that He would bury all my problems and be happy forever. That's how i see Christians. Always happy and problem free! Little did i know that when you become a Christian, that's the time when great testing becomes more difficult and even more intense.

Here are some realizations and some personal learnings as God allows me right now to go through irresistable temptations!

·You are Satan's prospect. I remember my sister telling me that when you become a Christian, expect more of Satan and his allies to be bugging you all day long. No holidays! He is always on the lookout in tempting those who are faithful and those who are Christ's followers.

· Temptation starts when you entertain them. When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, Eve allowed the serpent to lure her through their conversation that eventually led to sin. Like Eve, if we allow and merely entertain evil, it will attack us aggressively until such time that we can't resist it anymore.

· Do not take it lightly. Temptation leads to serious damage. Do not ignore temptation. They can seriously injure your relationship with God. The moment Adam and Eve knew that they have sinned (which is disobedience), they hid from God. The close relationship (as in personal conversation) was damaged.

· Have conviction. Even Jesus was subject to temptation. But Jesus has conviction. He has clear distinction between right and wrong.

· Find comfort in God's Word. The Scripture is not there just for the sake of Literature. God speaks through the Bible. It is made available for us to find words of encouragement and strength from it so make the most out of it.

· Pray. Acknowledge your weakness and ask God's help through prayer. It is our way to talk to our Father.

· Ask help from a friend. Find an accountability partner. Friends are there to support us in times of irresistable tempting. Tell them everything and ask them to pray for you too. That way, it will be harder for you to play with fire knowing that your friend's eye is on you. However, make sure that this person whom you are accountable to has the same belief as yours or else it will be useless to find someone whom you think will make things worse.

· If it's going to be it's up to me. Help yourself. Make a decision that you will NOT ALLOW or merely entertain evil thoughts. You know what is right and wrong. Stay on the right track.

· Do not be a hypocrite. If you say you love God yet you are still doing your old ways, you are what Jesus calls hypocrites!

# posted by Viviene | 3:59 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Is God trying to tell you something?>

God is dying to talk to us. We just need to make our ears wide open. Don't let the noise of the world stop you from hearing God's message.

"Speak for your servant is listening"
1 Samuel 3:9

"And the Lord said............"
1 Samuel 3:11

Father, please help me focus on you and you alone. Allow me to hear your message...
I want to obey...

# posted by Viviene | 4:07 PM | 0 comments