Today I was going to read through the entire book of Ephesians like it is meant to be read for it is a letter from Paul to the church of Ephesus.  Of course this is a universal letter since it isn’t really addressing any issues to any particular church, but is the most magnificent of all of Paul’s writings for in six packed chapters of goodness, the whole plan of God is revealed from beginning to end.  God is the main character in history, it is His Story.  A proper understanding that God is the main character of the Old Testament leads us to a proper understanding of Jesus being revealed as the main character in the Gospels and the Holy Spirit being the main character until Jesus returns.  Paul understands this, he understood that God created, he understood that Jesus was the solution to the woes of mankind, and he understood that the Holy Spirit is the power that transforms lives.  

What stood out to be more than anything today while reading these three chapters was the prayer that Paul prayed after laying a complete picture of God’s plan to unite the body, the church, under one headship, Christ’s.  Ephesians 3:14-21 reads this 

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.²⁰  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. 

When I read verses 16 and 17, my heart burned inside because today was one of those days when I knew that my inner being was strengthened with power through his Spirit.  I knew I needed his help because I had to go eat dinner with a group that had never ate together before and I had to arrange it which is always terrifying for me because in the past I haven’t been very good at arranging fun dinners.  Social gatherings and being in the spotlight in non-Bible and not serious  times but chill hang out times is not my strength whatsoever, but rather it is my weakness as I usually resort to someone that just listens and is really quiet.  Today though, my heart had this reassurance constantly throughout the night that He was in our presence helping us out in all our weaknesses.  Romans 8:26 says Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  There wasn’t even that awkward period of time when you gather a group together that has never hung out together.  There was lots of laughter and great conversations.  I felt my inner being was burning so that when I read this tonight, I knew that it wasn’t just feelings, but rather it was the power of God living within me declaring that in me, Christ wants to dwell fully.  This might sound strange to some people, but in past times, these moments have always occurred during moments of ministry usually where I connect with brother’s in the faith on some deep personal sharing that leads to prayer, but never during a social situation where it was just a hangout/dinner event.

Lately, I’ve been hearing many reports of praise of people saying that some of my brother’s and sister’s are good and exemplary people.  They have also said things like “I’ve never met anyone like you guys before.”  It brought up to mind the story where a young ruler proclaims that Jesus is good, and then Jesus responds, no one is good but God alone.  (Mark 10:17-21)  Or when Jesus did miracles and then the crowds marveled and praised God in the Gospels.  Those same things are happening now.

I am stoked to be honest because I have never seen many situations where my brother’s and sister’s have been filled with the Holy Spirit and driven to do his works in America, so that this what is written is actually fulfilled, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  (Matthew 5:16)  I think it shows that true Christianity and Jesus living in his people is not dead in America.  I was so encouraged over the last month that God isn’t done with America, he hasn’t left us to our own ways that are leading to destruction but just maybe is raising up true men and women of the faith.

Here are some of the stories that I’ve witnessed lately that testify of God’s goodness and Him living in his saints.

1.  Some brother’s that were cooking for their own dinner saw their neighbors outside studying by the pool and they went outside and served their neighbors tacos.  And it built an immediate relationship that is going to last because God led his people to go take their faith outside the walls of the church.

2.  Two sisters in the church were praying spontaneously on campus when a brother walked by and they asked him to join them in praying for their missions to Asia this summer.  That brother is going to be my future roommate next year and he is the most legit Korean guy I know because he is every bit as passionate about Jesus as Koreans are prideful about being Korean :)

3.  My brother during midterms week stayed with a sister to study for hours and went and brought back her and her friends In and Out to their study room.  And his sisters responded that he was good.  A faithful and humble servant, that doesn’t speak many words but his actions speak much louder.  

4.  A woman touched by some brother’s kindness and keeps offering to cook for them food.  Spring rolls, Pho, Cajun Pasta from Scratch, offering to drive them to school when its 100 degrees outside, offers to help them make beads for their Home group, offers to help them find an apartment.

5.  Random bros that haven’t spoken in a while since their last super heart to heart conversation.  Immediately turns into a prayerful and deep conversation where both brother’s get prayed for and loved upon mutually demonstrating God’s plan that he always designed brothers to dwell together in unity until all achieve maturity in the faith through the Spirit which makes us holy.

God is GOOD

So I haven’t been very inspired to write in a very long time, it has been months of dragging through these last few months.  It has been God doing works in my life despite the fact that I haven’t exactly been super close to him, nor necessarily living the most holy lifestyle.  I have found these last 4 months impossible to pray consistently and to seek him on a regular basis.  There have been moments where I just ask him for what to do and he answers in amazing ways, but I guess what it comes down to is that you don’t have to feel close to God in order to know that he is always there by your side.  He has been arranging these things in my life for his specific purposes in a way that maximally glorifies his name.

Here is the inspiring story that gave me the desire to write once again. About four years ago, on a night not all that different from this one, I ran into an old lady at an internet cafe that was old, beaten up, weary, and walking with a walker.  This lady had the entire world collapse on her shoulders and she showed it, but she had something that not many people have, a glimmer of hope in her eyes and in her voice as she shared her stories.  I believe this woman was a woman that had faith, I don’t know if she knew Jesus, but she certainly was used by God to be instrumental in helping me recognize that if a lady like this who had nothing could be joyful, why was I so sad, depressed, and lost?  She mentioned about God exactly once in a very nonchalant way, but that was enough for me because no one had ever told me that God was involved personally in our lives.  She had hope and inspired me in my first steps to pursue after God.

Four years later, my dad is once again in the psych ward in the hospital.  Despite the fact that he is saying odd things that do not make sense and seems really confused, and stares off into space.  He isn’t destructive like he once was when he would go through advancing stages as his Parkinson’s gets worse.  Three years ago, everyone including myself thought my dad was on his death bed.  Today as I got home, I was talking to my mom about her latest visit of my dad, and she told me this, “There is a guy at the hospital that tried several times to commit suicide, but Mon (my dad) inspired him to live life again for his 14 year old daughter.  During the group sessions where the patients talk with each other, the man told my dad that he is in so much better health than my dad but yet he is depressed and keeps trying to kill himself.”  My dad inspired him to stop trying to kill himself and to be there and raise his daughter who needs him.

I don’t know if my dad knows Jesus personally, but he like the old lady at the internet cafe four years ago has the same hope that I do.  He knows God is in control of his future.  Even in the midst of his situation, Jesus is using my dad as a light to draw men to Him.  

My friend Chris from the HUB told me to my disbelief that 75 percent of marriages in Southern California end in divorce.  To be honest, I was amazed and saddened, but as I looked up the statistics for myself, they seem pretty credible.  75 PERCENT OF MARRIAGES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA END IN DIVORCE!  

In my conversation with my friend, he stated how he believed Fundamentalist Christians can be the worst of people, and he is right to a certain degree about some people, but after reading many different websites about divorce and seeing just how much our society has decayed, I am not ashamed to call myself a Fundamentalist Christian because there is no such thing as a Christian except one that lives by the fundamentals set forth by the Bible.  The real reason for our societies decay is the lack of moral principles and the lack of willingness for people to live by God’s decrees and commandments.  When people follow Peter’s example and ask God how many times they need to forgive, people don’t like Jesus’ answer to be honest because he says  “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times,” which means unlimited times.  The reason why there is an Irreconcilable differences option on the divorce papers is because people refuse to believe in what the Bible says, Jesus says forgive unlimited times, and people say I can forgive 5 times before they are done.  The reality is that people are the God’s of them self, and in this day and age; the pride of humanity has taken forms previously unimaginable and the sad truth is that people are fully convinced what they are doing is justified.  Divorce has gotten so out of hand that according to the Washington Times, the federal government has stopped collecting data on marriage and divorce rates.

Lately, our church has been going over 1, 2, and 3 John, and our pastor has been preaching that the truth comes before love.  Truth is the foundation on which love can stand.  What is the truth that the Bible teaches about marriage?  Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.” (Matthew 19:8)  What was God’s truth and plan for marriage from the beginning?  Adam and Eve walking together with God in the Garden and being in perfect relationship with one another being in constant communion with God first, and then to each other second for all eternity.  I pray that people in the church will stand firm and believe what the Bible says as being true, that there is no legitimate reason for divorce at all whatsoever outside of adultery, and GOD EVEN commanded the prophet Hosea to marry an adulteress woman and forgive her and take her back unlimited times for that was his relationship to Israel, they would always sin and rebel against God.  In other words, ADULTERY might not even be a legitimate excuse for divorce.  Men and women need to realize that they need to subject themselves to Jesus Christ and his word, especially those living in Southern California because it is obvious that the forces that drive people that live here to divorce are stronger than anywhere else in the country.  Here’s a taste of perhaps what people in Southern California are being exposed to, I was just having a chat with my another friend who is a filmmaker, and he shared his disgust with the things that teenagers are being exposed to nowadays, while he was watching Nickelodeon growing up, teenagers today are watching shows that glorifies cutting one’s wrists, and also many other TV shows that we watch for entertainment which glorify adultery such as Californication which is perhaps the most blatant of examples.  The one thing God hates and tears down marriages is the very thing that we glorify in the programs that we watch.  What does this say about us?  Aren’t the television programs that we watch and enjoy and glorify pretty much a pretty good reflection of married couples life in Southern California and all over America?

True followers of Christ, men and women, we need to stand firm and be the light to this world, and what does this mean?  Be wary of what entertains you, and also be a living testimony of a God glorifying marriage that is founded upon his principles and the unchanging truths of Jesus Christ.  This will be the greatest example and testimony of Christ’s power in us which will be on display if we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ and to ingrain principles such as this one within us that He has been the ultimate example of, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3) Be Faithful to God and be faithful to each other, but understand that our relationships been subjected to this world, but I say unto you, be subjected unto Christ and Him alone. 

I had so much fun tonight at New Capital with my HG people from Riverside and HOC/A-Life friends.  It is cool when sitting on the left of you is a bro that can be a comedian, a spiritual brother, a man that randomly sings praise songs like Alabastar Jar in the middle of restaurants that you just join in singing with, and also a guy that randomly texts you about Bible verses like, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another,” and the same guy that tells you, bro I didn’t want you to live on your own next year without a Christian brother.  I forgot to mention he loves and adores the work of Charles Spurgeon who has had a huge influence in his life, and he loves Kimchi as well :-) 

And to my right, obviously God wanted me to get to know this brother for my two years at Riverside because day one of the Fall Quarter, first day of UCR, I sat next to this big fella with the shirt that says “Empire of Love, Jesus Christ.”  Two quarters later, his 12 old year cousin tags along with us on our fun trains.  Haha, I love this bro so much to be honest because his potential to love people loudly and boldly is something rare to see when you are surrounded by quiet and shy Asians out at UCR.  People that are willing to speak about Christ openly and freely just have something that I admire greatly, they have the potential to be guys like Jeremy Lin and be a real spokesman for the faith.

And a few seats left of me, a sister that has one of the biggest hearts of faith that I know.  I really respect and admire woman of faith that live holy life styles that are willing to share whatever knowledge or wisdom they accrue and impart it onto younger women.  Of all the qualities of godly men and women, there is nothing like a saint that sees discipleship as a lifestyle, that sees people not as who they are at this very moment, but sees who they can be as God intends down the road and ultimately in eternity as God does that sweet sanctification work that is just beautiful to watch.

The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers.  Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable.  Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy.  It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you.

It is the traveler’s map, the pilgram’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, and the Christian’s charter.  Here Paradise is restored, Heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed.  

Christ is its grand subject, our good the design, and the glory of God its end.  

It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet.  Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully.  It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure.  It is given you in life, will be opened at the judgment, and be remembered forever.  It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents.

Gideon’s Introduction to the Bible

Is a musical produced by the Covina Assembly of God congregation with really high production values.  It is amazing how many months that some of the cast had to practice to be ready for Palm Sunday, the first live performance of the play.  The play is narrated by a man portraying the Apostle John, well beyond his years and no doubt near the end of his life.  John was known as the beloved one, the one whom Jesus loved.  It was only fitting that the life of Jesus would be narrated by one who knew him closest.  John put on a beast of a performance and his acting really drove the play.  Singing, narrating, and hobbling around with a walking stick, I was really impressed by Mr. McGowan for his performance as John.  His opening and closing number to the musical, “I Will Follow Christ,” was very moving and there was something magical in the air of the theater as the play drew to an end.  The altar call and the call to follow Christ was all to evident as the fruit of entire cast’s hard work paid off.  Encouragement for everyone that attended and perhaps the Gospel shining into darkened and hardened hearts.  

Some of the noteworthy scenes were the temptation of Jesus before he began his public ministry.  Jesus casts away Satan when he was most vulnerable in the wilderness using the word of God, in particular, the book of Deuteronomy.  Jesus overcame the temptations which the Israelites failed to do throughout their history as a nation.  While the Israelites grumbled and complained to Moses after leaving the relative comfort of Egypt where they were in for the rough road that they must follow in order to reach their land of honey and peace.  Jesus drove off true physical hunger and comfort with the powerful phrase “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”  The three temptations were portrayed in song and expression with the final temptation ending in the crying out I Will Worship the Lord over and over again as Satan is cast off the stage and forced to flee from Jesus. 

The next noteworthy scene was the Samaritan Woman at the well which expressed  the compassion of Jesus.  Tears were flowing down every where I looked in the faces of men and women in the theater as they could all so relate to the woman at the well for they could imagine putting themselves in that same position for that is the true state that Jesus finds each of us as he offers living water to a woman that can offer him nothing in return.  He offers eternal life and peace to those that will follow him.  This broken woman, not ever finding what she has been looking for all her life as she searches for it in the various ex-husbands that have all left her or passed away in some shape or form.  Jesus came to associate with such people, he came to say, I am He that you have been looking for, and the actor that plays Jesus and the actress that played the woman nailed it right on.

 Finally, Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.  A real donkey was awaiting his grand entrance onto stage carrying the man destined to change the world forever.  Loud praises, people celebrating, the Jews will finally be free from Roman oppression.  Jesus goes straight to the temple and throws out the thieves and money changers that have corrupted the place where God was to be worshiped.  However, all the pomp and celebration is short lived as a sinister plot is unfolding as Judas sells his soul to the devil and the Jewish religious leaders in exchange for gold.  Jesus as he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane overcomes the final temptation which prepares him for the suffering that he must endure.  As Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, with the the cross before him as the Roman soldiers whip, beat, and mock him, he is nailed to a tree and left to die, abandoned by his Heavenly Father and bearing the weight of all our sin, he cries out, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me,” and the Godly man, the only one to ever live, pleads to God that he would have mercy upon all that have crucified him.  Finally, it is finished as Jesus commends his Spirit up to the Father even after having the Father’s face turn away.  Satan comes onto stage once again as he thinks he has been supervising this entire thing, he has finally had the victory, the Son of Man is dead.  This is portrayed with green laser lights and music that fill the dark stage as Jesus is slowly taken down from the cross and put in a tomb.  Of course that isn’t the end of the story, after three days of much weeping, there is a ruckus going around town, there is a rumor that the guards have fled, the stone that sealed the deal was rolled away.  Mary finds herself at the tomb, and the man in the gleaned robes says to her, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”  Jesus is alive, he has risen as he bursts out of the tomb to applause as many women rush onto stage whispering he is Alive, Christ is Risen, He is Alive.  People can finally be free, they can be free from sin, it is not the oppression of the Romans that Jesus needed to overcome, it was our sin that needed to be overcome and the death that is owed for it.

I highly recommend anyone in the area to check out any of the final three performances of I Will Follow Christ at Covina Assembly of God on Saturday at 3 P.M. and 7 P.M. and also on Easter Sunday at 7 P.M.

Hope everyone has a wonderfully blessed Easter, it’s time to celebrate our risen Lord.

Ah, so Spring Break was a difficult week.  Actually the last month has been really difficult, whether it is wondering about what I am going to be working as in the future or wondering if I’ll ever meet a woman that loves me for who I am.  I’ve found it extremely difficult to be happy and everyone knows that life is a lot easier when you are happy and things are going well for you.  This month hasn’t been like that at all and it has taken a whole lot of days of feeling down and kind of sluggish with many of those days having some defining moment where I pray to God something along the lines of, “God, I don’t know what is wrong with me, but obviously my heart isn’t in tune with you and I need you to give me something worth while to live for today.”  And then all throughout this last month, within a hour or within minutes God has put some Bible verse or some person on my heart to pray about or to call up and hang out with.  

Today, I was again in that sluggish mode, then I took a walk to Stater Bros to withdraw some cash when I again asked God, “what do you expect of me today God?”  Then he reminded me, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…”  and I filled in the rest of the sentence because he then reminded me of my bro that wasn’t at church.  So I went and called up this bro, and I found out, that he got into a car wreck, and that I was the first person to call him up.  Again, my day changed from that moment on, but slowly by the end of the night, I am once again in that sluggish state again.  

I came home tonight, and wanted to hide in my room and surf the web and chill, but then my mom’s boyfriend came home, and then I knew well, I’d rather go talk to him, then just sit here doing nothing.  It was a nice chat, nothing major or significant, but some days during this last month, I chose to stay in the room during the same situation.  I still feel sluggish and things like that, but then God does remind me of verses like “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philipians 3:14)

So if you are going through one of those rough times, press on!  God doesn’t require anything more or less from you when you are happy or when you are sad, it is still possible to abide in him and obey him even when your feelings tell you otherwise.

Romans 3:1-4

What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? ² Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. ³ For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? ⁴ Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written:

“That You may be justified in Your words,
And may overcome when You are judged.

I was recently emailed a question about Romans 3:3-4 about God being faithful, God being Just, and yet God being Merciful at the same time.  Also I had the privilege of watching a video by Josh McDowell yesterday in which he stated people always ask the question, “If God is benevolent and all loving, how can he send people to Hell?”    In response he said, he had never heard anyone ask the question, “How can God let sinners into his presence?”  Two completely different attitudes, one is Man-centered, and the other is God-centered.  Paul addresses this very issue when addressing the topic of the unbelief of many Jews through asking several rhetorical questions, “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?”  After establishing in Romans 1 and 2, that Jew and Gentile alike have all embraced the flesh and sinned.  Because of this, Jews have no right to judge people for they like non-Jews are all guilty of doing the same things.  (Romans 2:1)  He rebukes unbelieving Jews and says they aren’t circumcised for what God desires is them to be circumcised inwardly by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 2:29)

Now Paul quotes King David from Psalm 51:4 in Romans 3:4 as his answer to the rhetorical question, ”Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.” I was quite confused by this passage because I had Psalm 51:4 opened as well which states, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” I know that the OT is written in Hebrew while the NT was primarily written in Greek.  I wondered where Paul was quoting from because although part of the verse seems to match word for word, a lot of it doesn’t seem to convey the same thought, which led me to go do some research on the Hebrew and Greek languages.  The simple answer that made the most sense was that the Greek translation of the Book of Psalms from which Paul was quoting from conveys the cultural and spiritual significance of the verse which is similar to the liberty that some modern translations also employ.  In this case, the main point of what David is saying in Psalm 51:4 is that God is the just judge, his word is final, he is justified when he judges.  Paul in Romans 3:4 is taking the same stance as King David as he recognizes that God is true, just, and faithful, and he can never lie.  This is the answer to the original question that Josh McDowell proposed that people always ask.  The correct attitude/prospective is the God-centered one, in which a person approaches God, with King David’s attitude in recognition of who he is in light of who God is, he doesn’t say, I reserve the right to judge who should go to Heaven and Hell, but he acknowledges that right belongs only to God and God alone.  Man’s view of God is corrupt, he like the unbelieving Jewish person in Romans 2 believes he deserves the right to judge people.

Now moving onward to the second part of the question, how can God be merciful, just and faithful, and loving?  Josh McDowell presented this illustration in which I agree with him is the best illustration of the Gospel I’ve heard.  He stated that a girl was pulled over in the state of Nevada where you are immediately taken into court and forced to pay the ticket or spend a night in jail to pay off the debt.  The girl appeared in court before the judge, he read the charges against her, and she pleaded guilty.  She was charged with the violation and ordered to pay 100 dollars and as the judge laid the anvil down and finalized the verdict.  However, the judge did something unexpected, he took off his judicial robes, walked over and stood next to the girl, and pulled out his wallet and paid the 100 dollar fine.  The judge was the girl’s father, he loved her more than anything in the whole world, but yet he could not let her off the hook especially as a judge because that would be unjust, and so he paid the fine for her and satisfied the debt that she owed.  She was redeemed.  

Likewise, this is the Gospel, God the Father sent his son Jesus into the world in the form of man but without his sinful nature, was tempted in every way like us but yet without sin.  We who by nature rebelled against God and owe a debt for our sins which is death as Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  We deserve death, physical and spiritual, we are separated from God, but yet here is Jesus, he  offers his life a sacrifice for our sins to satisfy (propitiate) God’s righteous standard that sin be paid for, and what a great price it was on that cross.  God the Just, laid down the verdict upon his Son whom he loved more than anything in the whole world, and in doing so, he demonstrated that he was both Just and Merciful.  In doing so, he redeemed us, he purchased us by his blood, and when he rose from the grave victorious, he conquered sin and death once and for all, for all that would believe in Him.      

 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

I was reading Ephesians 5 which starts off with the verse, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. ² And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” and ends up with a depiction of how husbands and wives are to be imitators of God in their relationship.  I realized that the one thing that is hardest for me to do with people that I care for, in particular, brother’s in Christ, is the phrase “bears all things,” which according to one commentator means, protects by covering over the faults and frailties of others, bearing with them.  Gosh this is really hard to do, to protect by covering over the faults and frailties of others and bearing with them.  I am sure my brother’s ans sister’s feel the same way about me, especially those closest to me.  I’d say this is most difficult in trying to be patient in understanding the things that Christ may have overcome in my life, but yet seeing others still struggle with it, and just knowing what to say without coming across as judgmental or even how to act.  It makes me really want to just like dive right in and tear up a new one and be angry and point out the obvious things.  I’ve tried that a few times, a few times it worked, but more times than naught, it burned bridges that took some months to heal, or other times it had no effect at all.  

This naturally leads to the second point I put in bold about love that stood out to me while reading this commentary, “hopes all things,” which is looking at the bright side of things and not despairing.  If bearing all things was hard enough, the skeptical, realistic, pessimistic or whatever side of me that you want to call it that comes naturally to me has a really difficult time at looking at the bright side of things.  Even though there is a lot of evidence of the great things God is doing through his imperfect children and the obvious work he does in their lives, when my brother’s are in the rut and struggling with the same ole things over and over again, the natural fleshly side of me always without fail loses hope in them to be honest, but the part of me that is being transformed by Christ is like PRAY, HOPE, ASK Him how to encourage him, think about him, look past what you see and ask God to help you see where he is taking them.