Showing posts with label 1 peter. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Water Baptism
It was February 2011 when I had my water baptism. It was in Siloso Beach in Singapore. For me, it was like a magical event. I was surrounded with friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. On that day, I felt that I made the right decision and that I made Him proud and happy. And behind those smiles was a heart of joy and fulfillment and it was so touching and I was so emotional. I was so fortunate to have my leaders around me that convinced, explained and made me realize the importance of public declaration of faith.
Baptism is from the Greek verb "baptidzo" which means "to immerse". So basically, when a person is baptized in water, his or her body is totally immersed in the water and brought out again. It also symbolizes the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our identification with Him in them. So what is the meaning and significance of being baptized? We can narrow it to these sections.
- Identification and Union with Jesus Christ. When a person receives Jesus as Lord, he identifies fully with what happened to Jesus. Water baptism is a physical act that should indelibly mark the mind of the person being baptized with the reality of his union with Jesus Christ.
- Public Testimony. It serves as an outward sign and testimony of inward grace. It is like given an opportunity to openly testify to others of his born-again experience. When a person is born again, he is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.
- The Old is Gone, the New Has Come. When a person being baptized is under the water, it is like a representation of being buried and a proclamation that the old you no longer exists. The symbol of coming up out of the water signifies our being raised to new life with Christ. It is now living and making Him the Lord of every aspects of your life.
- Not the Act that Saves Us. We should be reminded that water baptism is not the act that saves us. It is actually the act that symbolizes how we are saved! We have first to accept and make Jesus us our Lord and Savior and believe that God raised Him from the dead. Water baptism is an experience after salvation confirming and strengthening our commitment to live a godly life.
Credits to kcm.org
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Mending a Broken Heart thru HIM
Love, a four letter word that might comprise a thousand (or even million) definitions. We might have been fall in love and could have been gone crazy for it. But how do we cope up and why are we still pursuing love even if we experienced hurt before? They said, 'Love like you've never been hurt' is the exact description of what I am talking about. But beneath those happiness and pain, there are still those memories on how a person broke our heart and left a hole on it.
Breakup is such a painful experience; it can lead to depression and doubting yourself. You will also question yourself on what you could have done better and if there is something wrong with yourself. We might have also given them the stars and the moon and sacrificed a lot to a person just to show how much we can offer for love. The worst part of it all is that you have to separate ways and there's nothing you can do about it. The process of healing is not an easy timeline but it will be easier if we know who we should run for in times of heartache.
Primarily, God is the best source for an immediate medication to this kind of "condition". As stated in Psalm 147:3, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds". Just come to Him, He will show you the way and there will be a "holy surgery" that He will perform to your heart and be ensure that there will be no pain. Pray to Him and ask for wisdom and greater understanding about His plans. He will build you up and will reveal to you that He has prepared a better person for you. Jesus cares for us (1 Peter 5:7 - Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you) and He wants to take away all those sorrows and pains and stop the tears flowing from our eyes.
As we all know, He is the source of everything. He is the only who can provide the greatest strength and comfort that we need in these times of troublesome. Lastly, we can also pray and ask for Him that right person that He has prepared for us. We should be reminded that we should first seek Him and the rest will be give upon us (Matthew 6:33 - But seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well). The question is, can you commit your time to Him? Study His words and ways and live the way that He used to be while He was here. Keep in our mind that love is the greatest feeling of all and it covers everything.
Image taken from beliefnet.com
Friday, January 27, 2012
Commitment
Proverbs 16:3 - Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Commitment is following Jesus. I know that committing entirely to Him isn't that easy but we should always make it to a point to do the best that we can and to have an inner fulfillment. It is also a choice between following His ways or pursue our ways. Commitment builds up faith and develops character. It is a spiritual discipline requiring time, work and determination. For several instances, we can't really commit to God the way we want to be due to some factors. Such as time, as sometimes we prioritize "other activities" rather than serving Him and we always say that we don't have enough time due to work, household chores and the best excuse is that we were tired. Everyday is a blessing from Him, so why don't we commit our daily plans for Him as a start. Commit everything that we do and always put Him in our every action and let Him guide us. Some ways that will be helpful to develop our commitment are reading the bible, pray daily, serve Him, come to Church and focus to heaven which means give to Him your full trust and focus on Him despite the trials, let's set our eyes only unto Him.
1 Peter 4:19 - So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. In our Christian life, there will always be challenges, expect obstacles in life and be prepared for any trials. In these moments, we should be reminded that our Lord is bigger than our problems that whatever it takes, put your trust only to Him and continue to soar high by serving Him and totally commit everything to Him. Suffering is a temporary instance, but as soon as we overcome it, the fulfillment and joy is indescribable. The feeling that we were able to survive without compromising our commitments to Him will be a tremendous accomplishment.
Psalm 37:5 - Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this. In reality, we have multiple commitments, we want to be committed to family, church, personal growth, community, etc. These commitments are good but not equally good. Yes, sometimes we fail to commit on such manner that we consider family first before the church, girlfriend/boyfriend comes first before the church, etc. The best thing that we can do is to balance our time. Always monitor what we need to do at each particular moment. We should be reminded that there is one commitment that always takes priority, that should never be compromised and that is our commitment to God. This comes before all other commitments — and in fact it is because we are committed to God that we also want to keep our commitments in all the other areas. Commitment to God is the foundation for all the others, for why we do them - and how we can be successful in managing our multiple commitments. Put God first.
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