You should follow in HIS steps

May these help those who are struggling and hurting because of how other people reacts when they do things to be righteous. 

1 Peter 2:19-25

¹⁹ For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. ²⁰ But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. ²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

²² 

“He committed no sin,

    and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” ²⁵ For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

1 Peter 3:8-17

⁸ Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. ⁹ Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. ¹⁰ For,

“Whoever would love life

    and see good days

must keep their tongue from evil

    and their lips from deceitful speech.

¹¹ 

They must turn from evil and do good;

    they must seek peace and pursue it.

¹² 

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous

    and his ears are attentive to their prayer,

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

¹³ Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” ¹⁵ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. ¹⁷ For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED! Hold on to Him and He will deliver us. Stand up, be firm and smile for Him! :)

School days: Living Righteous

We all know that we must hate the sin, not the sinner. That means that we should care for the sinner, love the sinner. After all, we all are sinners. We are commanded to love one another (John 13:34).

But here's the thing: we claim our righteousness from Jesus and in Him alone, right? We are cleansed and our past sins have been wiped out of our records because of His great sacrifice and substitution. We are enjoying His righteousness--not our own!--that has been placed upon us because He accepted and literally owned all our sins and died for us. So now that we're righteous in our Father's eyes, how are we to react to our fellow sinners who haven't accepted Christ in their lives (or maybe, they already have) but continuous to sin?

Loving the sinner doesn't mean that we should overlook their wrong-doings. We shouldn't just shrug our shoulders and tell them, "That's alright. I still love you!' That's not love! Our God is a loving God. He's actually love Himself! (1 John 4:8) But even His greatness and overflowing love for us did not blind Him. He did not put His hands on His eyes to cover it from seeing how filthy we are; He actually used those hands to pull us out of that dark place called sin. He did not--does not and will not--overlook anything. He is just! (2 Thessalonians 1:6, 8) Yes, He forgave and saved us, and that came with a price. And it was a heavy one! He actually needed to sacrifice His own precious Son for us!

Having that in mind, loving the sinner doesn't equate to tolerating them. If we don't do anything about it, we're as good as supporting them. You might say 'Hey, I ain't supporting any sinner to do more sin!', but when you think about it, saying nothing is a muted 'go ahead' for them. If we truly care for them, a respectful but firm intervention is what we should give. Intervening doesn't mean that we should confront or correct them upfront. I believe that only God could correct them. It is our duty to be an example of how Christ lived and that we must let other people see that in us. Words has lesser impact than action does. If we'd talk to them but they themselves do not see anything good in us, we're being hypocrites and our righteousness is not genuine. We're actually setting a dangerous example for them.

Standing up for what God calls righteous is not easy. We may face bashing and even gain some enemies. But then again, we can never have an enemy if we won't treat them as such. They may treat you badly and mock you, but know that God is on your side and you're doing His will! (1 Peter 2:15) If we have truly given up your life to God, then must live as His son lived! It's our goal to be Christ-like in all our ways. Jesus Christ was the very sample God wants us to follow--and it's not an optional thing! We either live like Him or not truly live at all.

Personally, I'm encountering some struggles at present time about this issue. Other people see living righteously as living weird. But that shouldn't discourage us from pursuing a holy life. People nowadays are more comfortable on doing the wrong than the right. It's easier for them to sin than to stand up for what God says is right! We shouldn't let other's standards be our standards. He's the only One we should please--and pleasing Him does not require that we please and conform with the ways of this world! (Romans 12:2)

Fix your eyes on Jesus! He is our standard, not anyone else!

And though I may have cried about this, I now smile for He supplied me with the strength and courage to go through anything!

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:) count: 7

#2

I've got my last sem's grades a couple of days ago. They weren't my best. Actually, they're the worst that I've got since I entered college. I couldn't say that I did not expect this--I was actually anticipating for them to be much worse. I slacked off last semester. My mind did not and could not take any more of my courses mainly because... I don't love 'em.

I'd really like to be an educator. Or a writer. But I am now studying a pre-med program (Pharmacy). Well actually, Medicine's been my childhood dream. But ever since I fell in love with teaching way back in my high school days, I just couldn't get it off my mind on why am I doing and learning these things instead of pursuing my dream?

Well, here comes my frown: I'm disappointed at myself.  I haven't lived up to my own set of goals when I started that semester. I was determined to get my scholarship back (which can be obtained in our school depending on your GWA on the previous semester) since I was fueled because I got accepted in a school organization/program that I've been praying for to be in.

But as I contemplated on myself, it wasn't so bad at all. Firstly, I passed all of my courses/subjects. Not everyone in my class did. Actually, I feel blessed and humbled that though I have not done my best (I can say that in all honesty, but I am not--in any way--proud of it), God didn't let me fail. It's like Him saying, "Come on, child. I've seen you do better. I've created you to be better!" I may not understand why am I on this program, but I don't need to understand. I need to trust Him. And as bad as it is, my display of lack of confidence with my studies and my frustrations about not getting into the program that I wanted for myself is an outrageous display of my mistrust in Him. But He is so faithful that my inadequacies are filled by His sufficiency. I don't deserve any of it, and yet He never failed me (literally and figuratively), ever! So how come I fail Him all the time? But, no. Oh, NO! Not anymore!

I am gonna make Him proud. I wanna please Him. It's the very message of my rants: I gotta share Him and live for Him. And I will.

Secondly, with all of these revelations and wisdom that God has blessed me to read, listen and learn about (more of that on my next posts or so), I am always in awe of His greatness. It's like I'll never stop falling in love for Him! And I like--uh, scratch that--LOVE this feeling! There's always something new to discover, a new person to meet or read about and be amazed and inspired by their works for His name, sights to enjoy, moments to capture, and more work to do for Him! There's just so many things that I'm pretty sure that there's no language that can encompass His whole greatness and all the things that He blesses me with! Knowing Him changed my perspective a whole lot. Actually, I believe that He has given me a new set of eyes--I just sometimes couldn't believe that all my life, I have missed these things that are new for me (but are actually already laid in front of everyone since the beginning of time). That I'm seeing and learning just now. I've never seen or experienced anything like it before I started my walk with Him. And I know He has planned it all along for me.

Then again, the greatest step that I ever took in my entire life was the one that started my walk with Him. It always will be.

And I smile for that.

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:) count: 4