He Deserves My Best

Scriptures
"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." Matthew 10:37-38

Observation
Obviously, Jesus wants all of me. All of my love, all of my devotions. A father, a mother, and a child is one's closest family, and Jesus wants me to love him more than i love my closest family. It sounds so selfish in a way, but isn't what you would say on your wedding day? That you would love your spouse till the end? either poor or rich, sick or healthy, that we would love our spouse?
In the first place, Jesus has shown his love to me, his commitment, his devotion, and his sacrifice for me. YES, for me. He deserves my best, he deserves all of me, all of my talents, all of my love.

Application
Time and money are clear indications of what I treasure most in life. The keyword here i think is priority. I need to give Him the best part of my day to him for just simply spend time with him in prayer and word. Being faithful to give him the first priority of my finances, even during tough times. And the only motivation is because he has loved me first, and has given His best for me. Why shouldn't i try to do the same?

Prayer
You gave your all on the calvary, Jesus. That's an evidence of your love to me. You love me more than anything. Thank you for showing it to me first how much you love me, that what empowers me to love you. Help me to grow in love with you, day by day. Just like i'm entering marriage life soon, and i need to continually work out my marriage, i want to to do the same with you. I want to work out my relationship with you.

Take it for granted...

Last Friday I lost my iPhone, and I can't tell you the mix feelings i have been having this week. Firstly, i feel like condemning myself of being careless, put my belongings in random places. Secondly, I almost forget that we are all (Christians) still under construction. Aren't we all? Things can go missing in Church. All week i felt something missing, being a 'little perfectionist' person I am, having a full details of all my contacts in my iphone, calendars, things to do lists, my ibank transactions, having the access to google map wherever and whenever. Oh! Only after I realized that I lost it, Suddenly i forgot how I used to be frustated with my iPhone, how it always disconnects whenever it wants, how slow it is refresh pages, how it can't COPY and PASTE, nor send vcard to other people. All i could think of was how I MISS MY iphone, all the advantages and qualities of that gadget, despite of who know how many times i almost slam that phone to the floor everytime it frozen on me.

It's funny, we always see the bad quality of something, when we have it in our lives; and take it for granted all the great qualities.
From this I learned something basic yet so important. PEOPLE are way way way more important than iPhone. iPhone will be a merely piece of junk in another year or two. But people that God put in our lives... wow they are precious. But, don't we realize, we often take people whom God put in our lives for granted. We always focus on their bad qualities, their weaknesses, those annoying things they do. Until suddenly they move town, or simply just lose contact, or even worse... they leave this world; then we will miss them the most, then we will realize what a great friend, great husband, great wife, great pastor, great boss, he/she is..

Opa John Ollis in ENCOUNTER meeting reminded me tonight, that People whom God put in our lives, especially our fellow believers, are our Brother and Sister SANDPAPER. Of course we can get hurt when we get close with a sandpaper brother/sister, but without we realize it, all the hard edges/surfaces of our lives are being rubbed off.
however it all depends on us, whether we want to be better or to be bitter. As I quoted Opa John "“If you don’t forgive, you don’t get better, you get bitter”

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

God's love that He has poured so free to us through Jesus Christ, is the very thing that empowers us to love other people. It takes our commitment to change our perspective about people; focus on their strength and their qualities instead of their weaknesses. if we do so, I believe we won't look back one day and regret "I wish i spend more time to get to know that person", instead we will cherish the all the great memories and celebrate God's works in that person's life.

iphone is just a piece of technology that people will forget and laugh about one day. But people are so SPECIAL. Let's focus on each other's strength and continue to add value to one another, edify one another, and most importantly love one another, BY THIS all men will know that we are Christ's Disciples.... when we love one another.

Lesson Learned.