sun

picture taken from the golden gate bridge from last year's SF biking trip. =]

"I want to glorify God with my life"

Consider this statement: I want to glorify God with my life.

It is Biblical in that our lives are to glorify God. However, when I say this statement am I focusing on the I and the my? Am I more concerned on what I'm doing than on the One receiving the glory? When we give a gift to someone we enjoy being with, our minds and hearts are on the person... not on ourselves. But I think when I think about my life and my plans... even though I know God is to be glorified... my focus is way to often how I make my steps rather than trusting in the Lord and fixing my eyes upon Him... (and His glory... not my own whether it's religious or not...) being more concerned about Him and how my life is is not my own. Does that make sense?

I can do the same stuff whether the statement is on myself or the Lord... but it's the heart that counts. Plus we know that life is much easier in a sense when we fully and joyfully live for Him without being too concerned about if things go our way. We're just too stubborn to do it. 

(I'm inarticulate in expressing my thoughts. This may have been incomprehensive. sorry.)

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

1 Corinthians 8:6

*shake shake shake*

one day i was webcamming with Eunice and i decided to show her this little toy that belongs to my roommate. it spins in a circle as if it were doing the holla hoop. =P

washing

wash one another's feet realization:

Although I emphasized that washing the feet (serving/loving/being humbled towards) of younger Christians or easy to be prideful over ones can be difficult sometimes, doing the same to those who are more mature, godly, older... those whom we respect is difficult too. We feel unworthy to do such a thing becuase they serve us in different ways and we know they love us, but we are just afraid to disappoint them. Christ is our example as He served His Father. His mind was always on the Father. He loved and loves Him. We are not like Christ in that we cannot do this by our strength and by merely doing it just because it is right but by His strength and by our desire to glorify God. Pray that we (I) would serve our Lord by washing the feet of those who are older, younger, same age, immature, more mature, we are prideful over, who we are ashamed to disappoint etc. 

"The Word of Contentment" chapter 7 of The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross by Arthur Pink

"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit"

1. Here we see the Saviour back again in communion with the Father.

This is exceedingly precious. For a while that communion was broken - broken outwardly - as the light of God’s holy countenance was hidden from the Sin-Bearer, but now the darkness had passed and was ended for ever. Up to the cross there had been perfect and unbroken communion between the Father and the Son. It is exquisitely lovely to mark how the awful "Cup" itself had been accepted from the Father’s hand:

"The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11). On the cross, at the beginning, the Lord Jesus is still found in communion with the Father, for had he not cried, "Father, forgive them!" His first cross-utterance then, was "Father forgive" and now his last word is, "Father into thy hands I commend my spirit". But between those utterances he had hung there for six hours: three spent in sufferings at the hands of man and Satan; three spent in suffering at the hand of God, as the sword of divine justice was "awakened" to smite Jehovah’s Fellow. During those last three hours, God had withdrawn from the Saviour, evoking that terrible cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But now all is done. The cup is drained: the storm of wrath has spent itself: the darkness is past, and the Saviour is seen once more in communion with the Father - never more to be broken.

"Father." How often this word was upon the Saviour’s lips! His first recorded utterance was, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?" In what was probably his first formal discourse - the "sermon on the mount" - he speaks of the "Father" seventeen times. While in his final discourse to the disciples, the "paschal discourse" found in John 14-16, the word "Father" is found no less than forty-five times! In the next chapter, John 17, which contains what is known as Christ’s great high-priestly prayer, he speaks to and of the Father six times more. And now the last time he speaks ere he lays down his life, he says again. "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

And how blessed it is that his Father is our Father! Ours because his. How wonderful this is! How unspeakably precious that I can look up to the great and living God and say, "Father," my Father! What comfort is contained in this title! What assurance is conveyed! God is my Father, then he loves me, loves me as he loves Christ himself! (John 17:23). God is my Father and loves me, then he careth for me. God is my Father and careth for me, then he will "supply all my need" (Phil. 4:19). God is my Father, then he will see to it that no harm shall betide me, yea, that all things shall be made to work together for my good. O that his children entered more deeply and practically into the blessedness of this relationship, then would they joyfully exclaim with the apostle, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God" (1 John 3:1)! 

picture of the week:

wash one another's feet

Respecting and doing things for older and people we respect is easy. We were trained since we were born to obey our parents and our teachers. And then we teach those who are younger than us and discipline them. We do have to be patient and sacrifice for them. I'm not a parent yet so I don't know exactly what it is to sacrifice for a kid. But it doesn't matter whether I'm a parent now or not, God commands us to serve one another whether they are more mature or less or our mentor or mentee etc. Christ who is the king washed the disciple's feet with his own towel on himself. We already know this but it's difficult to be humble and serve those younger than us and put them above us. Think of them more highly, more important, to put them first. Christ could have just commanded us, but He literally washed the feet Himself. He walked on this earth to serve. 

John 13
⁵Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. ... ¹⁴"If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. ¹⁵"For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.

pictures of the week

ahh kids are so cute!