If your Gospel isn't touching others, it hasn't touched you, yet.
~Anonymous
Convicting, eh?
~Victoria
Friday, December 17, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Acknowledging God working in your life...
I've joined The Pocket Testament League, which is basically a Gospel Tract organization, that has the actual Gospels of John pamphlets, you can order online and then share with people. You know how, sometimes when you share the Good News, you really wish you could give them something that they can read or learn from until they get connected with other Christians or a church? This organization is awesome :D ...
But I did not mean to only give advertisement for TPTL. The other neat thing about them is their Daily Devotional. Yes, I know - there are millions of websites like that, but since it comes with the tracts, I'd figure I would read them anyway. Turns out - they're short enough and to the point (I hate it when people beat around the bush to give a simple and practical point) that I can gain quite a bit from them.
Day 17 was about "Celebrating Miracles". Basically, the guy talked about what it's like when God gives us trials, He leads us lovingly in them, but when we "cross the finish line", we say, "Whew, so glad I got through that by my hard work," or "That was fortunate." No doubt, God's in heaven, pulling His hair out, screaming, "ACK NEIN! How am I going to get you to acknowledge that I'm working in you!?!? I love you and I want you to be blessed and in that way, I will be glorified." Can you sense His disappointment, but oh so great love? Can't we at least say thank you? Can we not acknowledge our God is a God of miracles and makes the impossible happen? It was not chance or my persisting efforts. It was His mercy, grace, and glory.
For me, like many of my college friends, each test, school assignment, and project is/was a trial. Isn't it amazing, God just put that lesson in front of me daily? Sadly, a lot of times I didn't give God praise for leading me through.
Father, YOU guided my hands and cleared my mind as I answered each question and solved each problem of each CLEP, DSST, TECEP, midterm, homework assignment, final exam, project, pop quiz, and lab report. Every moment was miracle. Glory to You for using me, an ignorant, foolish child. Praise the LORD!
~Victoria
But I did not mean to only give advertisement for TPTL. The other neat thing about them is their Daily Devotional. Yes, I know - there are millions of websites like that, but since it comes with the tracts, I'd figure I would read them anyway. Turns out - they're short enough and to the point (I hate it when people beat around the bush to give a simple and practical point) that I can gain quite a bit from them.
Day 17 was about "Celebrating Miracles". Basically, the guy talked about what it's like when God gives us trials, He leads us lovingly in them, but when we "cross the finish line", we say, "Whew, so glad I got through that by my hard work," or "That was fortunate." No doubt, God's in heaven, pulling His hair out, screaming, "ACK NEIN! How am I going to get you to acknowledge that I'm working in you!?!? I love you and I want you to be blessed and in that way, I will be glorified." Can you sense His disappointment, but oh so great love? Can't we at least say thank you? Can we not acknowledge our God is a God of miracles and makes the impossible happen? It was not chance or my persisting efforts. It was His mercy, grace, and glory.
For me, like many of my college friends, each test, school assignment, and project is/was a trial. Isn't it amazing, God just put that lesson in front of me daily? Sadly, a lot of times I didn't give God praise for leading me through.
Father, YOU guided my hands and cleared my mind as I answered each question and solved each problem of each CLEP, DSST, TECEP, midterm, homework assignment, final exam, project, pop quiz, and lab report. Every moment was miracle. Glory to You for using me, an ignorant, foolish child. Praise the LORD!
~Victoria
Saturday, November 27, 2010
MORE party in heaven!!
It happened all again tonight. More little kids were led to Christ tonight. Some who weren't sure of their salvation and others who had never heard the Gospel. Unfortunately, I wasn't there as Alice told the Good News using the EvangeCube, since I was downstairs playing piano accompaniment for the adults. But I was able to pray with the kids. Just did a count, there was a total of 7 kids who joined God's family. WHOOT!!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!! HALLELUJAH!!
Cupcake Tour!
Last night, while I was blogging, Jane was busy decorating cupcakes (Alice did a few). Each one was a work of art - so I figured, I should be nice and share the love :) .
Note: I had one chance at each of these cupcakes, so forgive the low quality :P ...
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| General Overview 1 |
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| General Overview 2 |
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| This one I call "brains", but Jane says it's just "squigglies" :P |
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| Note the change in saturation of brown for the middle ring. |
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| A form of basket weaving? |
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| Jane's second favorite |
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| Frosted leaves |
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| Simplicity |
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| I think Al made this one |
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| Alice likes single or duo tones |
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| MY FAVORITE!! |
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| Twirling leaves |
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| I think this looks like Lion Brand "Homespun" yarn :P It's cool nonetheless. |
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| Jane's attempt to use up the white and light brown |
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| Jane was trying to do a leaf pattern, didn't quite work, but whoever gets this cupcake is getting a lot of icing :) . |
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| Daisy/Sunflower/Black-eyedSusan ... we aren't sure which. It's pretty neat, isn't it? |
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| Boring... jk, I think this was Jane's first and her creative juices weren't flowing yet, heehee. |
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| Jane calls this "fireworks". |
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| JANE'S FAVORITE II |
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| JANE'S FAVORITE I |
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| Braids |
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| Alice said she messed up on this one, so Jane added some white streaks. I think it's original. |
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| This one makes me dizzy... |
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| GRAND OVERVIEW!! |
*skips away after publishing post*
Friday, November 26, 2010
And the angels are rejoicing in heaven...
I haven't posted for over 2 months, but here's something exciting - last night, one of my piano students (the son of my piano teacher) accepted Jesus as his Saviour and LORD!! Party in heaven!! (insert Skype rock and party emotes) This boy (Elliot) is 8 years old and his 9 yo brother (Redmund) had just accepted Christ as his Saviour 2 weeks before (my sister shared the gospel with Redmund as I was giving Elliot lessons). Supposedly their father claims to be Catholic and I think their mom is Buddhist. Strange situation, but our God is great! :D
Anyways, last night my family and their family met up with some other families for "Thanksgiving dinner" where turkey and stuffing were side dishes. :P We ate mostly Chinese dumplings with fresh chives from our yard (yummmmmmmy)... and were stuffed. So, we kids (7 of us) decided to play for a bit before desserts. After several rounds of hide-and-seek I made the kids sit in a circle in the playroom with me. I had no idea where I was going, but I hinted to Alice that I wanted to share the good news with these kids and she was really helpful in making sure I was clear in everything I explained thereafter.
I started out with asking what the kids knew about Thanksgiving. They kind of mumble something about Pilgrims, Squanto, turkey and cranberry sauce, etc. One little Muslim girl, named Tajin (sp?), did say we were supposed to give thanks for all our food, clothes, friends, family, etc.
Me: "But, who are we supposed to thank?"
The kids are looking at me like they never thought they had to thank anybody on Thanksgiving day. I tell them that we should be thanking GOD for all things. We went through some other things we could thank God for and then I asked, "And, do you know who God is?"
A couple coherent answers were "Supreme being," (impressive) and "Creator".
I grabbed the word, "Creator" and told of how God created the universe in 6 days and how He created Adam and Eve, the first 2 people on earth. (We stayed on this for a while, since they couldn't get "creating life out of dust and ribs" :P ). I continued with the story of the fall of man, of sin and its consequence, and its effect on all mankind.
Me: "But God loved us, so He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and on the third day, conquered death and rose from the dead. If you believe this and pray for Jesus to come into your heart, you can have eternal life with God. If you don't, you will have to go to hell." I had unintentionally scared Elliot with some simple descriptions of hell. So he was practically begging that we pray immediately. And I quote, "Can we please just pray now!?!" I almost chuckled at his fear, but it is so real for him and he had every right to be afraid. I'm just so glad his heart was open then. Alice prayed a "prayer" and Elliot repeated after her. It was a beautiful thing to see.
And why can't joy be free from the taint of regret? *sigh* Remember the Muslim little girl? Well, she was very active in all the discussion above. I even spent extra time to make sure she understood what I was talking about, since I knew it would conflict with her religion. Initially, she was ready to admit she was a sinner and that she was open to accepting Christ as Lord and Savior. She first asked, "Can Jesus just be my prophet?" I firmly replied that she had to have Jesus as both LORD and Savior. We had a little more talk. She sat and thought for a while. Suddenly (I don't know what was going on in her mind), she said she couldn't become a Christian and burst out crying bitter tears. She said she was a Muslim and could not become a Christian, that Muslims were good people and would go to heaven, etc. But I think, deep down, she knew she had sinned and they were not cleared off her slate. She also feared hell.
On the side, I'm not sure if Tajin already knew, but Muslim parents frequently abandon or disown their Christian children. Later this afternoon, a friend told me, in the Koran, it is taught that any Muslim who leaves or believes something other than Islam, they must be killed. Oh the power of Satan... why can't you leave the little children alone?
And perhaps, if you think of it, please pray for Tajin and her family. As well as for me, so that the next time I see her, I won't let the opportunity slip again to pray with her into the arms of our Heavenly Father.
Everyone have a blessed Thanksgiving weekend! 感恩節快樂!!
~Victoria
Anyways, last night my family and their family met up with some other families for "Thanksgiving dinner" where turkey and stuffing were side dishes. :P We ate mostly Chinese dumplings with fresh chives from our yard (yummmmmmmy)... and were stuffed. So, we kids (7 of us) decided to play for a bit before desserts. After several rounds of hide-and-seek I made the kids sit in a circle in the playroom with me. I had no idea where I was going, but I hinted to Alice that I wanted to share the good news with these kids and she was really helpful in making sure I was clear in everything I explained thereafter.
I started out with asking what the kids knew about Thanksgiving. They kind of mumble something about Pilgrims, Squanto, turkey and cranberry sauce, etc. One little Muslim girl, named Tajin (sp?), did say we were supposed to give thanks for all our food, clothes, friends, family, etc.
Me: "But, who are we supposed to thank?"
The kids are looking at me like they never thought they had to thank anybody on Thanksgiving day. I tell them that we should be thanking GOD for all things. We went through some other things we could thank God for and then I asked, "And, do you know who God is?"
A couple coherent answers were "Supreme being," (impressive) and "Creator".
I grabbed the word, "Creator" and told of how God created the universe in 6 days and how He created Adam and Eve, the first 2 people on earth. (We stayed on this for a while, since they couldn't get "creating life out of dust and ribs" :P ). I continued with the story of the fall of man, of sin and its consequence, and its effect on all mankind.
Me: "But God loved us, so He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and on the third day, conquered death and rose from the dead. If you believe this and pray for Jesus to come into your heart, you can have eternal life with God. If you don't, you will have to go to hell." I had unintentionally scared Elliot with some simple descriptions of hell. So he was practically begging that we pray immediately. And I quote, "Can we please just pray now!?!" I almost chuckled at his fear, but it is so real for him and he had every right to be afraid. I'm just so glad his heart was open then. Alice prayed a "prayer" and Elliot repeated after her. It was a beautiful thing to see.
And why can't joy be free from the taint of regret? *sigh* Remember the Muslim little girl? Well, she was very active in all the discussion above. I even spent extra time to make sure she understood what I was talking about, since I knew it would conflict with her religion. Initially, she was ready to admit she was a sinner and that she was open to accepting Christ as Lord and Savior. She first asked, "Can Jesus just be my prophet?" I firmly replied that she had to have Jesus as both LORD and Savior. We had a little more talk. She sat and thought for a while. Suddenly (I don't know what was going on in her mind), she said she couldn't become a Christian and burst out crying bitter tears. She said she was a Muslim and could not become a Christian, that Muslims were good people and would go to heaven, etc. But I think, deep down, she knew she had sinned and they were not cleared off her slate. She also feared hell.
On the side, I'm not sure if Tajin already knew, but Muslim parents frequently abandon or disown their Christian children. Later this afternoon, a friend told me, in the Koran, it is taught that any Muslim who leaves or believes something other than Islam, they must be killed. Oh the power of Satan... why can't you leave the little children alone?
And perhaps, if you think of it, please pray for Tajin and her family. As well as for me, so that the next time I see her, I won't let the opportunity slip again to pray with her into the arms of our Heavenly Father.
Everyone have a blessed Thanksgiving weekend! 感恩節快樂!!
~Victoria
Monday, September 20, 2010
The second greatest commandment...
So everyone knows the 2 greatest commandments of the Bible -
First off - who should you love?
In Luke 10, the lawyer asked Jesus how to obtain eternal life.
Jesus returned with the question: "What is written in the law?"
This expert in the law quickly answered the 2 greatest commandments.
Jesus affirms the answer.
Lawyer asks: "Who is my neighbor?"
... [talking and parable] ...
Jesus asks: "Who was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"
Think on it for a moment. Commonly, God answers questions with a questions, like in the case above. But not only does Jesus ask a question - He turns the issue and responsibility of actually being a neighbor onto us. We don't look for neighbors to love, we be neighbors to everyone around us by loving!!! This is crucial - at least for me.
Secondly - how should we love these neighbors? By following the Golden Rule, of course, right?
IF the command was, "Do to others as they want you to do to them," we would have to give that man what he wanted, because Jesus commanded it. (And that would be bad!!)
But no - turn it around: if you were the alcoholic, what would you want to be done for you? You would want people to help you stop your evil ways, you would want prayer, you would want accountability.
Therefore, that's what you will do for the alcoholic.
Ok, so the alcoholic was NOT the best of examples, but if you think about it, you can help people who reject your act of love, because that is what you would have others do unto you, it builds others up, and it pleases God, provided you do it with the right attitude, in all love and humility.
It's a whole new mentality (at least for me) and it's strange to apply, but I think it makes sense.
And I'm not sure what made me post it. I should go to bed now... :P
Good night world... *signs off*
~Victoria
- You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
- You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
First off - who should you love?
In Luke 10, the lawyer asked Jesus how to obtain eternal life.
Jesus returned with the question: "What is written in the law?"
This expert in the law quickly answered the 2 greatest commandments.
Jesus affirms the answer.
Lawyer asks: "Who is my neighbor?"
... [talking and parable] ...
Jesus asks: "Who was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"
Think on it for a moment. Commonly, God answers questions with a questions, like in the case above. But not only does Jesus ask a question - He turns the issue and responsibility of actually being a neighbor onto us. We don't look for neighbors to love, we be neighbors to everyone around us by loving!!! This is crucial - at least for me.
Secondly - how should we love these neighbors? By following the Golden Rule, of course, right?
Luke 6:31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.As YOU want men to do to you... YOU are God's Child and you want God's will to be done. Ideally, you will what God wills. And you are bound by the command to do to others as God wills you to do unto them. Sadly, many people twist this command and say, "Well, what should I do for a penniless alcoholic? He wants money to buy more liquor. He wants the money for that."
IF the command was, "Do to others as they want you to do to them," we would have to give that man what he wanted, because Jesus commanded it. (And that would be bad!!)
But no - turn it around: if you were the alcoholic, what would you want to be done for you? You would want people to help you stop your evil ways, you would want prayer, you would want accountability.
Therefore, that's what you will do for the alcoholic.
Ok, so the alcoholic was NOT the best of examples, but if you think about it, you can help people who reject your act of love, because that is what you would have others do unto you, it builds others up, and it pleases God, provided you do it with the right attitude, in all love and humility.
It's a whole new mentality (at least for me) and it's strange to apply, but I think it makes sense.
And I'm not sure what made me post it. I should go to bed now... :P
Good night world... *signs off*
~Victoria
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Just because...
Posting - just because... It's the end of the month and I haven't posted anything... :(
Well, 7 is a good number - biblically it indicates "completeness", so I'll stop there.
And... I was going to post pictures... but they're not on this computer... ;(
It'll just have to wait until August. At least I'll have something to post about by then.
~Victoria~
Since there's really nothing to post about, I'll give updates/random statements. And I think in lists, so -
- I'm on a break from school and a sort-of break from the computer (which I'm obviously not following in order to post this).
- Piano students are fun to teach but it's difficult to accommodate for all the different situations... and piano recitals are interesting things to plan for.
- Preparation for church camping trips and week-long conferences back-to-back provide for terribly confusing excitement and aggravating inconveniences.
- I really really really like studying for the MCAT... even though I don't know if I'm going to take it or not...
- At my orthodontist appt. yesterday, I was reading Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul Jr. (excellent book, btw) and it was soooo funny to see Dr. Meyer's face. "*gasp* Are you reading for fun?!?! You always come into my office with a textbook!!" Haha... then he went on to ask how my studies were going and be shocked that I'm going to be done with my whole degree soon. Heehee... I love CollegePlus! and its ADL methods.
- Being a newbie at pranks can be frustrating... you can't think of anything evil enough... and then you think of something brilliant... and are scared of the consequences... *rolls eyes at self*
- Isaiah is a vividly descriptive book. It really shows how much evil and sin displease God and what He will do if we continue to wallow in our unrighteousness. And then it also depicts and reminds you how He will be the strength of the needy and a tower for the righteous.
And... I was going to post pictures... but they're not on this computer... ;(
It'll just have to wait until August. At least I'll have something to post about by then.
~Victoria~
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