Be perfect, not do perfect.

This sounds confusing at first. I was thinking God doesn't want you to be perfect but then I came across the verse Matthew 5:48, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” So what does this mean? This verse is talking about love. Loving as He loves. You can do perfect all the livelong day. Look at the pharisees. According to the law, they looked like they were doing just fine. But, according to grace and love and mercy, they were missing the mark. In the same way, He's more interested in you loving truly than in your offering of “perfect works.” Your works aren't what get you into heaven. He's interested in your heart. (Psalm 51:16-17). The only way you can be perfect is if you're washed in Jesus' blood, saved by grace, filled with the Holy Spirit. That is the only way. Jesus is the only way. Our righteousness comes from Him. And as we're filled with the Holy Spirit our hearts get changed and transformed to be more like His.

Love fulfills the Law:

Romans 13:8-10 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. 

cow sunset :)

Refinement?

Are you being refined? Do you even know what that means? When we talk about refinement we think about getting rid of all the impurities, making something pure. But did you ever think of the process? When gold is being refined it looks melted! It looks hot and liquid-y. It looks moldable. In the same way, while we're being refined by God, He's getting rid of all the impurities, all the stuff that should not be there. On top of that you become moldable by Him. He's making you more into the image of His Son. He is making your heart more like Jesus' heart. The refining process may not be fun or pleasurable at the moment but the outcome is far more beautiful than you could have ever imagined. It's Agape love -- loving expecting nothing in return. Even more, loving with the possibility of receiving negativity in return! It's laying down your life for someone, unconditionally. Jesus knew that He would go to the cross. Yet, He found it worth it knowing that people would be saved through it. The process is painful but the end result is beautiful. Have faith in letting Him refine you to be the person He created you to be. 

Some verses:
"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." -Isaiah 53:10-12

Jesus suffered for us. He found it worth it because the end result was beautiful.

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." -John 15:13

Greater love has no one than JESUS! None other than GOD! 

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." -Matthew 5:43-48

This does not come naturally. Loving your enemies does not come naturally. You need God. You need refinement. 

"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." -1 John 3:16 

We need to be refined to be like Jesus, to love as He loved. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." -John 3:16

"Real gold fears no fire." - a quote from the book Safely Home by Randy Alcorn. If you're one of His kids, if you believe in Him, you are GOLD!! You will not perish. You will enter His kingdom. And part of being His children means being refined! You will be more refined to be like Him! It hurts but ultimately you will not perish! Gold does not tarnish. Gold is anticorrosive. 

Juan and I visited a gold mine... very timely.

First post.

Hey guys. :) So, I decided to make another blog since I had a good experience with the first one, my blog abroad. In this blog I'll post about what I'm going through, life lessons, and just everything that's happening in this time of life. I just want to say, I miss my time in England. I learned a lot and met lots of nice people. I'm excited to be back doing the things that I've missed here and carrying on with my life in SoCal, getting ready for senior year. It is, however, getting stressful as I feel the pressures of real life -- finances, careers, relationships, commitments, responsibilities, etc. There's a lot I'm learning, and a lot to be learned. One thing I'm learning is that God answers prayers in a way you don't expect. For example, you pray for patience... you get trials and opportunities for you to develop patience; you pray for love... you get opportunities to love people (and love isn't easy! It's not a fairy tale!); you pray to learn something and you'll get the opportunities that can teach you what you need to learn. We don't always think this way. If you're like me you're a "cut to the chase" type of person. You want something now, you want to learn / develop something now, you want to know things now. But that isn't always the way it works, especially for a godly lifestyle. God wants us to be patient. He wants us to love. And love and patience is about long-suffering. It's about joy and hope and expectant waiting. And if you're one of His children, He wants you to be a person of character and integrity. He doesn't want you to compromise in your convictions. He wants you to follow Him along the narrow path, the difficult path, the path followed by few. It's not easy, but it's worth it. James says "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Now I gotta admit, I don't fully understand what it means to be perfect and complete. C'mon, perfect and complete! We can find so many imperfections in ourselves and so many needs we want fulfilled. But what I do know is that if you have Heaven you have everything. If you have Jesus you have everything. And guess what? JESUS is perfect! GOD is perfect! (Mark 10:18, Matthew 5:48). He is Love! He is Perfect Love! (1 John 4:8). His love casts out fear. His love is real. His love is genuine, impartial, unconditional. His love has perspective. He is able to take JOY in loving because He sees the greater outcome. A lot of times we draw the line to loving someone as soon as that person becomes an inconvenience to us. But that's not love. Jesus saw the cross before Him with Joy because He had faith in the outcome (Hebrews 12:2). A lot of times we don't think about the cost, we don't want the cost. But Jesus counted the cost. It cost Him the cross. Now that's suffering. That's long-suffering. And He did it with a good attitude. He did it willingly, not grudgingly and grumpily. Back to the verse in James... count it all JOY when you fall into various trials. Joy?! That sounds crazy! But it's our flesh that doesn't like the struggle. If it's suffering according to His will, we should consider it joy in our spirits knowing that He will get the glory and we will be made more like Him and know Him more. So when you fall into these various trials, try having a different perspective. He could be using them to complete His work in you. He could even be using them to answer your prayers, maybe not the way you expected. 

Some practical lessons I'm learning: 
-when you have something you need to do or deal with, don't put it off. Deal with it now. 
If you wait on that (the sinful type of waiting, aka delaying or procrastinating) the problem could get worse or a problem could arise. For example, I was supposed to finish some forms to turn into the Financial Aid office. I didn't understand the forms so I thought to myself I'll come back to them. As soon as you know it, months go by and now I'm still not done with the forms, which has affected my financial aid. This problem could have been avoided if I had taken the time to find out how to do those forms and made the effort to ask people for help. 
-don't judge or be critical of a person and their struggles and imperfections. 
Truth is, we all struggle and are in need of grace. Have you heard the verse "why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye; and look, a plank is in your own eye"? (Matthew 7:3). We can be so critical of other people but in reality we're all sinners and in need of God's saving grace. Don't be a hypocrite. I challenge you (and me) to extend more grace to people. The only way you can do that is if you've received it. Grace may not be understood but once you've received it there's nothing like it. My parents could have been really upset at me for not being responsible about my financial aid. But instead they extended grace. My relationships could sour if we did not shed grace upon each other. A little grace goes a long way. Have you received God's grace today? 
-don't be lazy. 
You'll regret it. Don't live for the comfort of today but rather the celebration of tomorrow. It takes hard work, dedication, willpower, mind power, and even suffering! But in the end it's worth it. Don't neglect or put off what is important. Your flesh will tell you to ignore, forget, or put off that thing that demands your attention. But in the end you'll deeply regret it. Your flesh doesn't see the outcome or the benefit of persevering through the difficulties. But you have to believe you'll see the goodness of the Lord. (Psalm 27:13). He rewards the faithful and the diligent. You reap what you sow. Think about the future and the consequences to your actions (or inactions) and your choices. What are you doing with your life?