Spiritual Sundays

Are you feeling rejected? Alone? Wishing you look better than ________?[another person]... Broken heart? Hopeless? Weak?

The truth is....you are never alone...There is Someone Who's always there for us. All He wants is for you to acknowledge His offer of love and friendship. The word "surrender" has an ugly meaning from this world's vocabulary. It feels like a total loss to surrender to someone or something.

But in God's vocabulary, "surrender" is victory in Christ Jesus. He already paid the price for your sins, for your pains, for your brokenness.

There is a door in your heart. And if you are willing to accept His visit, all you need to do is open that gate and let Him in. And as you start a life living anew, may you open your heart to let the good things grow and let go of the bad things that do not have room in your Spirit-filled heart.


Search our hearts Lord and help us have a swinging gate in them. So that we can let go of the bad things and only let the good things come into them. May we refrain from judging others, as we see them, but instead, may we remember that we are all Your creations and that You love us all, no matter what our physical appearances are.


1 Samuel 16:7 -”But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord look at the heart.”

For more Spiritual Sundays, visit here and be inspired by other awesome encouragers of the Lord. Be inspired by their stories, poems, songs or prayers. Spiritual Sundays is hosted by two encouragers themselves, sister Charlotte and sister Ginger. May you all have a wonderful rest as we reflect on the Lord's love, not only on this day but every day in our lives. Thank you for visiting me and God bless.

Find The Way Of The Lord

I found the Clinic almost empty except for one person whose work was equivalent to being a medical secretary. I had just walked in and was prepared to tackle another night of work.


“Where’s everyone?” I asked that coworker.


“They had a Code Blue [a code meaning the nurses are trying to revive an unconscious person] few minutes earlier before you walked in,” he replied.


“Was it Mr. O?” I wondered.


“Who’s Mr. O?”


“Remember? He would always play around with staff, claiming that he swallowed razor blades? He was unpredictable. We would send him to the hospital and x-rays would show no razor. Other times, he did swallow one. He was in and out of the jail’s Suicide Watch.”


“Yeah, yeah! I remember him now.”


The sheepish smile was widely painted on this young man’s face. The look on his eyes always beamed with pride that he would always have things his way, no matter what. Nurses couldn’t do anything, he knew. That even if his claim that he swallowed razor blades were false, the nurses had no choice but to send him out to the hospital. He seemed to have enjoyed those frequent trips. But most of all, he enjoyed getting things done his way!


His psychiatric medications were constantly changed, adjusted to his level of moods and behaviors. But every time, Mr. O always claimed he did something to try to hurt himself. The medications seemed to not have reached its full potential to help his mental state.


That night was not a unique one. It was another typical night of him playing around with his own life. He reassured the deputy from that unit that he wouldn’t do such a foolish thing. But it was the duty of deputies to check often cell per cell, every hour.


The body was motionless. [Pardon me friends, I wouldn’t write the manner of how he did it]. The deputy frantically called over the radio for a “Code Blue”. The Clinic was only across from that unit’s hallway. But their effort that was going on for a few minutes, almost an hour before I entered my workplace, remained futile.

He finally had it his way. And it resulted to a devastating loss. He was a young man, whose life was ruined by the use of drugs. His mental capabilities deteriorated over time.


God only knew if he meant to just play around, like the usual. But this time, he couldn’t get out of his own scheme.


How many of us are the same? Wanting to do everything with our own strength and effort - having things done our way, not God’s way? Doing so, most of the time, leads to a DISASTER! Stop now while you can!

Proverbs 3:5,6 -"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths."

The Painting Project

My family and I embarked on a project together this week. The summer temperatures soared to higher degrees that my son didn’t feel like traveling, not even to go to the nearby beaches to cool off. He would rather stay inside the house and do his passion of drawing cars and making his own models in the computer.

[picture of the finished wall in our living room]


My husband and I had been wanting to paint the walls of our house into a different color. It might seem like a "foolish plan" to paint the walls when it still looks good, but painting a new color over it would make it more beautiful. When my son heard it, he got excited and wanted to help us out. So, off we went to the nearby home improvement store and got all the materials we needed. Choosing the color became easier as my son, also had given his input.


The plastic was laid all over the tile floors as my husband brought out the cans of paint and the brushes of different sizes. He put a scoop or two of the paint into the container with the handle and with the brush. He gave it to our son, not knowing what to do at first. Patiently, my husband and I guided him. Awkward with his strokes of going up and down, sometimes, sideways, the wall started to emerge in a different light.


“I’m sorry, mom and dad,” he uttered.


“Why?” my husband and I wondered with his apology.


“’Coz….I’m too slow. I had only painted a small area and I’ve been here for a few hours now.”


“Son,” I said without hesitating, “This is your first time to paint, don’t forget. Dad and I think you’re doing a great job because look! There was no splatter on the floor or anywhere else and look at your area, it might be small but it looks great because the paint is even. I would rather have you be slow but you’re getting the things done in proper way than be fast but messy and the wall would look with uneven layers of paint. You’re doing a good job! I love you.”


“Thanks mom and dad. I love you, too,” he replied.


The following day, my son was so confident and was ready to paint an area all to himself. He knew what to do now. And this was the wall he painted by himself and my husband and I were so proud of what he did as he learned patiently the day before. He might be a "beginner" in this project but putting his heart into it, learning patience and endurance at the same time, made him ready for the work that needed to be accomplished.








Laying on the couch, resting with sore shoulders, God brought something into my mind as I started to talk privately with Him. He has a painting project, too that’s been going on and we, His children, are also a part of it. We tend to be slow and awkward but He is always there, our Dad, guiding us, cheering for us.

When we splatter and mess up, He lovingly roots for us, despite our weaknesses. But when we triumphantly are able to accomplish things well, He is the first One to cheer. He is always faithful and patient and His “I love you’s” endures forever.


Look at Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 1:25 -30:


25- “This “foolish” plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans and God’s weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength. 26- “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes, or powerful, or wealthy when God called you. 27- “Instead, God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28- “God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important, 29- “so that no one can ever boast in the presence of God.” 30- “God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom.”


Yes, God’s plan of salvation sounds “foolish” to those who don’t believe. But the “foolish” people who simply accept Christ’s offer are actually the wisest of all, because they will live eternally with God. God’s way of thinking is far above ours. We are not to value the “painters” more than what is “painted”. Christ’s painting project seems so “foolish” to you, who doesn’t believe. Our society worships power, influence and wealth. Jesus came as a humble, poor servant and he offers His Kingdom to those who have faith, not to those who do all kinds of good deeds to try to earn salvation. Christ is the mighty power of God and the only way we can be saved. Knowing Him personally is the greatest wisdom anyone of us, can ever have.


So, are you willing to join in and be a part of Jesus Christ’s painting project? Are you willing to trust in His plan and help out painting the walls of this earth?

Rest

This past weekend was calm at my workplace. The familiar unscheduled sick calls were nowhere to be seen. Even the phones were eerily silent!


I arrived at work with the bins empty. Usually, they would be full with the charts with doctor’s orders that needed to be carried out by nurses. The PM shift crew had just gotten done and I was grateful for the completed work.


It was seldom that we had these quiet moments and no! I wouldn’t feel guilty for sitting around. My co-workers and I knew that we needed this kind of solace in order for us to recuperate and regain our strength and energy.


We cleaned the place and I wiped the counters with anti-bacterial wipes from those huge plastic tubs. When morning came, I volunteered to help out the LVN’s do the morning accuchecks of those inmates who were diabetics. It went smoothly and before we knew it, everyone was done.


God, too wants us to enter His place of rest. Back then, in Moses’ time, this meant finding the Promised Land. But for us, Christians, it is peace with God now and eternal life on a new earth later.


We don’t need to wait for the next life to enjoy God’s rest and peace. We can have it daily now! Our every day rest in the Lord will not end with death but will become an eternal rest in the place that Christ is preparing for us. [Jesus said, “Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in Me. There are many rooms in My Father’s home and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will always be with Me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there.” –John 14:1-4].


Let us stop struggling in doing good to enter that place of rest because Jesus had already provided that through FAITH.


“God’s promise of entering his place of rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to get there. For this Good News – that God has prepared a place of rest - has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t believe what God had told them. For only we who believe can enter his place of rest.

As for those who didn’t believe, God said,
“In my anger I made a vow: They will never enter my place of rest.” Even though his place of rest has been ready since he made the world.” – Hebrews 4:1-4