Mary, Mother of God

The Assumption of Our Lady to Heaven
August 15

Going Kung Fu Christian! (Part 3 of 3)

Good morning everyone. This is the last part of my article. I hope you are still enjoying what’s the story. Let me finish it now ….

I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:25-27).

How did he train? We’ll the basic moves that we need to practice with relentless discipline are:
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart (Colossians 4:2).

How can a young person live a clean life? By carefully reading the map of your Word. I’m single-minded in pursuit of you; don’t let me miss the road sings you’ve posted. I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won’t sin myself bankrupt. Be blessed, God; train me in your ways of wise living (Psalm 119:10-12).

I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ (Philemon 1:6).

Just like martial arts, these techniques are not complicated, but they required extreme discipline and constant repetition for us to excel.

Do you want to be a kung fu Christian? Then keep a constant conversation with Jesus Christ going all day, every day. pour yourself into God’s word more than Facebook, texting, movies, music, and games. Then as a result of being prayerful and knowledgeable about God’s word, stay active in haring the gospel, and the scenes from your life movie on earth will look like this in heaven:

We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. we use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Be the best… around!

Praise in the Dugout

Orel Herschiser pitched an unbelievable 1988 season for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Following a complete game shutout in August, he pitched multiple shutout innings and hurled five more complete games through the end of the regular season. He did not allow his opponents to score and earned run in 59 consecutive innings. When the Dodgers faced the New York Mets in the National League play-offs, Orel continued to dominant hitters, leading the Dodgers to victory by pitching more than 24 innings, crowned by a complete game shutout in the final game! In the World Series his complete gave victory over the Oakland A’s in game five clinched the series for the Dodgers. No wonder Orel was awarded the Cy Young award and two MVP awards, one for the National League play-offs and the other for the World Series.

During the play-offs the TV cameras zoomed in on this legend in the making. They caught Orel in the dugout between innings singing softly to himself. Unable to make out the tune, the announcers merely commented that Orel’s record certainly gave him something to sing about. Johnny Carson replayed that tape on the “Tonight Show” a few days later when Orel appeared. Johnny asked him what song he had been singing during the game and if Orel would sing it again right then and there. the audience roared its approval over Orel’s embarrassed reluctance. So on national TV, Orel softly sang the tune TV crews had barely caught on tape:

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above ye heavenly host,
Praised Father, son and Holy Ghost. Amen.”

Orel Herschiser was simply doing what Christians do – praising God for everything that he’s achieved. Paul urges the Colossians, “Whatever you do… do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (3:17). Not only at church, but in the in-between moments, thank God for your gifts, talents and every blessing you have – he gave them to you. - Beacon

The Packaging

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car.

Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his Father called him into his private study and told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man’s name embossed in gold. Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, “With all your money you give me a Bible?” and stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man was a very successful businessman.

He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away and had willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things.

When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father’s important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. In tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. His father had carefully underlined a verse: Matthew 7:11 “And if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father, who is in heaven, give to those who ask Him?”

As he read those words, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer’s name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words… PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God’s blessings because they are not packaged as we expected? - Beacon

Message of Butterflies' Wings

Good morning friends. I just remember when I’m still young, I just love to see a butterfly specially when she is resting on a flower. I wonder how why she love to rest on it. I ran to the butterfly and try to catch it. The butterfly just flew away. It rested again on another flower. It is sucking the nectar of the flower. When I look at its pretty wings, it folds its wings when it rests. And it opens its wings when it flies. I asked myself why butterflies did that. There are times in our life we experience a situation even we don’t want, but in every situation God is always in our side and He will always care for us as we least expected.

At that point, I was pondering whether there was justice from heaven that allows such tragedies to happen. But, even in my desperation, I knew that i wanted to believe in God and His love. So prayer is the one that ease my feelings. I fervently prayed every day especially before I went to bed.

I asked for a sing with butterflies, although I hadn’t heard of butterflies signifying the soul or spirit. I sometimes even asked for specific colors—blue, yellow and green butterflies.

My agony of being alone without someone on my side just passed. I was very heartbroken, and remained under. I doubted now if I have really lost my faith in God had He not done so, but I am more certain at that point of His love.

I believe now that He loves me more than I do ever love myself. And I also know that He loves me for He answered my prayer in my hour of need. He ended my suffering for being heartbroken. And I’m really grateful for what He did. I praise Him so much. I love you God!

Enlightenment and enrichment

Good morning everybody. I was reading a newspaper when I came across with one good article. First of all I should give you the simple meaning of enlightenment . Enlightenment is the realization of the truth.. How about enrichment. It means to fill with things of value.

We need not feel impoverished in times of economic difficulties. Here are gems of wisdom to enlighten and enrich your life:

1. If a man empties his pursure into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. --(Benjamin Franklin)

2. It is in knowledge as in swimming; he who flounders and splashes on the surface makes more noise and attracts more attention than the pearl diver who quietly dives to the bottom in quest of treasures. –(Washington Irving)

Wisdom

3. You can buy education, but wisdom is a gift from God.

4. For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her. –(The Bible)

5. Gold there is, and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel. –(The Bible)

6. Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gets understanding. – (Solomon)

7. A mind enlightened is like heaven; a mind in darkness is like hell. –(Chinese proverb)

8. Whom, then, do I call educated? First, those who control circumstances, instead of being mastered by them; those who meet all occasions manfully and act in accordance with intelligent thinking; those who are honorable in all dealings, who treat good-naturedly persons and things that are disagreeable; and furthermore, those who hold their pleasure under control and are not overcome by misfortune; finally, those who are not spoiled by success. –(Socrates)

9. That jewel of knowledge is great riches. It isn’t plundered by kinsmen, nor carried off by thieves, nor decreased by giving. –(Bhavabhuti)

10. To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge. (Benjamin Disraeli) – R.Valencia,S.Bismark

The Theme ... All Saints' Day - 1

The Roman Catholic Tradition of honoring the dead underscores the paradox of earthly existence and the needs of communicate with the mysterious parts of being. The theme confirms the universal longing for the ultimate knowledge. It subverts the science that governs the mind, for it announces that we live in order to die and die in order to live. Millions who follow the light of the belief continue to rely on its promised benevolence. We honor the dear because we want to be honored when we die. The ritual materials with which we manifest our belief – flowers, candles, prayers, vigils, meditations – strengthen our resolved and fortify our spirit, so that we vanquish without complaints the hardship attendant to the c celebration. We sweat through heavy traffic and under the noonday heat, we bear the din and the foulness of the marketplace into which the cemetery has been turned, we suffer the blast of radios and vocal chords that fracture the essence of our prayer, but these are insignificant when considered against the magnitude of hope that their toleration gives us.

For tolerance of pain is a desirable form of salutary martyrdom. It is loss with the promise of gain, or pain to be washed away by pleasure, of something emerging from nothing. But first there must be the realization of things as they are, rhapsodized by Wordsworth thus: “The rainbow comes and goes,/ And lovely is the rose;/ The Moon doth with delight/ Look round her when the heavens are bare;/ The sunshine is the glorious birth;/ But yet I know, where’er I go,/ That there hath pass’d away a glory from the earth’- before the vision comes of things as they will be: “Though nothing can bring back the hour/ Of splendor in the grass of glory in the flower;/ We will grieve not, rather find/ Strength in what remains behind.” In the theology of hope, every suffering accepted is a digit toward the required sum for salvation, for “God doth not need/ Either man’s work of His own gifts: who best/ Bear his mild yoke, they serve Him best.”