Dr. Charles Stanley Passing On: Reflection

Through out my spiritual journey, there were many pastors and spiritual leaders who helped mentor me through their books, sermons, and way of living. Dr. Charles Stanley was one of them.

InTouch ministry daily devotionals were somethings I have been reading for many years now. Praise God for using them to speak to me daily. I love that they arrived early in morning and they always were used by God to speak to me directly – guiding me, warning me and always encouraging me before I move onto the days’ events.

Nonetheless, I was sad for the initial moments when I read the Facebook post that he passed on however I was so happy to see the team write the post like this:

“Now he is receiving the joy of his soul-seeing his Savior face-to-face.”

I don’t know who wrote this beautiful words of encouragement but Praise God for this gentle reminder — the joy of our soul should be seeing Jesus face to face!

How much joyful are we? Are we feeling this in our daily lives?

I’m not due to burden of sin sometimes and also due to the busyness of life where I don’t sit down to feel different emotions sometimes. Regardless, this encouraging reminder has blessed me — just as Charles Stanley and his ministry blessed me with their life and service.

Continued thanks to the InTouch ministry team. May God continue to give you the guidance and wisdom on how to move on from this to further faithful service to God’s kingdom.

I also pray for his family members and friends as they mourn the earthly loss of Charles Stanley’s relationship as a father, grandfather and beloved friend. I pray for Holy Spirit to comfort them and bless them with peace and joy that comes despite the current circumstances as they continue to serve you faithfully.

Praise God throughout it all!

New Year 2023: How God is leading

In the last week of December, I was praying for more wisdom in the new year as there seem to be many things that are new and challenging coming up that I wasn’t sure how I would be able to tackle. Praise God for being my guide!

The new series at church is about godly wisdom! I’m looking forward to hearing and applying to my life obediently.

Here’s a quick summary of wisdom:

Wisdom = Knowledge + Obedience

I’m going to need all the grace I can get with this. If you pray, please keep in prayers as well. Thanks!

Do you need any prayers? Comment below

Consideration: Analog Journaling Notebook Tip

Physical writing is a MUST to just gather thoughts in a nice fashion.

Some Recommendations for journaling

If you are lacking space and want to be minimalistic, I still recommend physical (analog) journaling using something like Rocketbook.

I journal in multiple ways – Morning Pages, Bullet journaling in Daylio app and private and semi-public digital blogs as well. The minimalistic side of me tried to use one thing like bullet journal at beginning and after forming the good habit of journaling, I realized how much can be made digital for more efficiency and how much should be written down for my own sanity sake.

After awhile of analog and digital journaling, I found Moleskine Classic XL Ruled notebooks Soft Cover from Costco as a budget-friendly bundle. I love the set but after finishing one book, I realized that it’s useful to buy these in hard cover rather than soft cover.

Life Tip: Use hard cover books for more convenient analog journaling.

You can more easily write in bed or any other area than a desk. This is especially important IF the goal is to more conveniently journal physically. (The same idea goes for any type of physical writing you’re trying to do – like for bible study, buy hard cover notebooks than soft cover).

Having digital journals are also useful for entirely different reasons but this post focuses on quick tip for physical or analog journaling.

Are soft cover notebooks still useful? If you’re studying on a desk or some hard surface, then definitely they are useful however, if you’re still trying to form habit of journaling, then you really should start with hard cover journaling. I highly recommend Bullet Journal to start off so it’s easier to get in the habit anywhere.

What other lifehacks have you learned?

Confession: Lack of consistent Devotional Study System

I have previously lived in different houses that were not permanent residences (i.e. my own house) so as I slowly got into journaling, I didn’t exactly get into Bible study so much.

I had Life Application NLT Bible for awhile and was using app on phone for Bible (Youversion Bible App). As family, we would read a Bible chapter at end of day daily. So I didn’t really “study” much of Bible. I thought listening to sermons, prepping rare sermons when requested to preach, reading spiritual books occasionally was enough. So I had saved some notes digitally in blog or Evernote. However, I realized that I should have a physical notebook system as well for many reasons:

• to be a good example for kids as they read and study Bible as well,
• to help slow down and study Bible better,
• to not waste time getting sidetracked with other online things,
• to not accidentally lose any of my notes online due to password issues or site going down

Therefore, once we finally have our own home now, I have been trying to be consistent Bible study and set up a long-term organizing strategy in our bedroom and closet space. I was a bit stressed in between as I usually get at beginning of projects of thinking up all kind of what-ifs.

What if my journals get read by other family members (especially kids)? What if I’m writing things that are wastage of paper (like daily chores)? What if I have too many unfinished notebooks and end up cluttering up my room? What if (gasp) I write in Bible and mess it up????? What if I suck at Bible study and learn just head-knowledge than application? What if I just buy a bunch of supplies that I don’t use? What if my system gets too complicated to use consistently….?

So many what if’s had me stressed out. I prayed a bit and asked for advice.

Then, I finally landed on a system with things I already mostly have and a system that’s easy to maintain. I hope this helps anyone looking to set up their own devotional study system.

I hope to share what I have come up in next blog post. Stay tuned!

Have you tried Bible study with success? What struggles did you go through?

A Visual Guide to Choosing the Best Bible Translation by Logos

https://blog.logos.com/best-bible-translation/

You should have formal, moderate and functional versions to study from. My favs are NLT, NASB, NIV and AMP. Yours?

Confession: WordPress again sucks

Trigger Warning: *This is a rant post*

There are times I simply want to share my thoughts as I do some reading… thoughts like comments on a quote, or ridiculous news, or a sudden epiphany that I wish jot down.

Most the the time, such things might even be interesting of helpful to others.

But they are sometimes fleeting thoughts…. things I don’t want to attach to my name and then later defend my opinions as if what I thought at one point in time about something meaningless in overall scheme of things deserves to define my person so much so that if ever someone asks about it, then I have to defend it….

Lol! and yet defending what you want to share about might mean integrity to one’s morals….

But defending somethings that are so meaningless in the long journey of life seems such waste of time and effort….

Yet the irony of me writing down a full blown rant about my momentary dissatisfaction…

and Why does WordPress suck again?

Because it’s such a good way to journal or blog long forms of thoughts like this. But often, I don’t want to do long forms of thoughts – I just want to “tweet” but I don’t want twitter, I just want to write anonymously so I don’t want Facebook. Don’t get started on tumblr with its “vintage” niche-community focused world…. I love it the user experience but hate that everyone is as weird (dare I say as me! ) 😀

I want to journal but I don’t want private. I want to share but I don’t want to with my name.

So that’s why I’m on WordPress and writing out a page worth of stream of consciousness blog post impromptu.

Tell me I’m not alone in this frustration of social media!!

How to preach a message or sermon?

Recently, I had to do message for Women’s Prayer Mtg online and I’m so thankful to God for giving me the wisdom and the words so that everything came out even better than I hoped for.

Here are some practical process tips for any sermon or message:

Before Preparing

• Pray if you should be the one doing the message at all in the first place
• Pray for message topic and getting second confirmation to be sure as well if needed
• Pray for God to guide you throughout the message preparation

During Preparing

• Study manually from AMP study Bible and/or your preferred versions with Rocketbook or large enough notebook on side to physically write notes (especially with Inductive Bible study techniques)
• Then transfer notes or write afresh on Notion so that notes look good. (Tip: Format with toggle blocks so that it was easier to focus on a section, and expand or consolidate on different areas.)
• Then, use Google Slides so that each slide captures a minute or two worth of talking points
• Have any offside notes in the Slides notes section so it won’t show up on screen just in case you need to show slides on screen
• Ensure you’re prepared with enough notes for allotted time. Note: ~30 slides are ~30 minutes of talking.
• As much as possible, ensure you have salvation message somewhere ideally.

Before Speaking

• Practice talking with recorder on phone or computer your message. You will quickly notice where you are getting stuck in this way and can adjust your notes accordingly.
• Before actually speaking, pray to God to help you speak the intended message thoroughly and to prepare the listeners’ hearts so that what God wants them to receive will be received by them without any distractions or misunderstandings.

After Speaking

• Once done with message, answer any questions anyone may have but afterwards
• Try not ask people if you did well on message (as Jesus said “let those who have ears hear”).
• More importantly, don’t “humble-brag” about how hard you worked on message since without God’s help, we wouldn’t understand any relevant truths even if they look plain on surface.

May God bless you and make you a blessing to others!

Planning 2022 New Year Resolutions?

I have reviewed last year’s resolutions and am fairly satisfied with how many I was able to accomplish by grace of God.

This year, I have planned few resolutions as well. But this post is about how you should plan your resolutions.

First, create different life categories:

Life is pretty short once we get in 20s and 30s therefore, have a quadratic view of your life in these categories

Recommended life categories:

• Personal
  • This encompasses health, self-improvement and self-care, finance and more.
• Spiritual
  • If you are not much of a spiritual person, you can switch this to finance or Health category by itself depending on which plays more important role in your life
• Relationships
  • From relatives to acquaintances
• Professional
  • Whether career or education

Feel free to adjust the areas as you think best for your life.

Next, create 3 goals in each life category

Now that you have decided on your 4 major categories, I now recommend having 3 goals in each category.

Why 3 goals?

If any less:

you might not stay busy enough in everyday life which means spending loads of wasteful time on unplanned and unimportant things. Life this way can seem stagnant and meaningless if you remain like this too long.

If any more:

then you risk being too burnt-out that you can procrastinate on most of the tasks. This can also indicate that your categories are not sufficiently explicit enough for your needs and may need to get tweaked further.

Examples of goals in different life categories:

• Personal
  • Lose weight to X lbs
  • Read a book once a month
  • Get out of debt 100%
• Spiritual
  • Read a chapter of Bible everyday
  • Encourage someone daily
  • Memorize or Reflect on a verse a day
• Relationships
  • Date with significant other biweekly
  • Catch up with friends or parents or coworkers every week
  • Do fun things with kids every week
• Professional
  • Learn a career-related course
  • Become a subject matter expert in an interesting area
  • Finish a career related project at work that’s outside of primary responsibilities

Have you become sure of your goals yet?

If you are Christian, have you considered if your goals are God-honoring?

Still unsure what goals you should plan?

Why not ask God for wisdom?

James 1:5
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

Proverbs 2:6
6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 3:13
13 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,

May God bless you with wisdom to create meaningful God-honoring goals and May He help you throughout the year to fulfill them successfully!

In my next blog post, I will talk about steps to make sure you ARE fulfilling goals successfully. Stay tuned!

Mark 1:1-8 Bible Study

In my last blog post, I mentioned about finally getting started with Bible Study on the Gospel Mark.

I finally have the chance to share my little bible study contributions. If you also have any study notes, please do share!

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Mark Overview

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Mark 1:1-8 Amplified Bible Version

The Preaching of John the Baptist
1 The beginning of the [facts regarding the] good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written and forever remains in the [writings of the] prophet Isaiah:

“Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You,
Who will prepare Your way—
3 A voice of one shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight!’”

4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins [that is, requiring a change of one’s old way of thinking, turning away from sin and seeking God and His righteousness]. 5 And all the country of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem were continually going out to him; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a [wide] leather band around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he was preaching, saying, “After me comes He who is mightier [more powerful, more noble] than I, and I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the straps of His sandals [even as His slave]. 8 As for me, I baptized you [who came to me] with water [only]; but He will baptize you [who truly repent] with the Holy Spirit.”

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Study Notes

of one shouting

• boáō  I shout, call aloud, proclaim.
  • exclaim (“cry out”); to make an urgent distress-call; summon intensely, because sorely needing a response (assistance).
  • (“shouting with intense feeling”) is a very emotional term (Abbott-Smith), “manifesting deep feeling” (J. Thayer).

Wilderness

• Context: John the Baptist asked people to prepare while living in this place
• (érēmos) as an adj: deserted, desolate, waste; hence: the desert, to the east and south of Palestine; of a person: deserted, abandoned, desolate.
  • Note: Deserted of people but not God’s presence; it’s not an evil place like connoted in most stories

Baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins =

• requiring change of one’s old way of thinking;
• turning away from sin
• seeking God and His righteousness

Water Baptism	Baptism of Holy Spirit
– Repentance, humility, willingness to turn from sin	– Transformed by Spirit’s power
– Prepared people to receive Christ message	– Forgiveness of sin + power to live for Him
– Beginning of Process	– Continual; with some periods of faith journey up and down till goal of becoming like Christ

Q/A

• Why not begin with Ancestry of Jesus like in Matthew and Luke Gospel?
  • Roman Christians don’t care as much as Jews about ancestry of Jesus. Also culturally, important people are heralded by messengers announcing arrival.
• What’s the significance of John the Baptist dressed in large belt, camel hair clothes?
  • He dressed like Elijah physically and was distinguished from Pharisees who had grand style of clothes

Summary Life Application:

Notes from Life Application Bible:

• Turn away from worldly attractions, sinful temptations and harmful attitudes.
• Be where “the people” are and explain the need for Jesus and prepare the Way.
  • Explain need for forgiveness
  • Demonstrate Jesus teaching by our conduct
  • Tell how Christ can give our lives meaning
  • Correct any misconceptions people may have about Christ

My Summary:

Be fervent and effective in proclaiming like John the Baptist for people to repent of their sins and recognize the need for Christ to save us from our sins. Be prepared with help of Holy Spirit to effectively proclaim while also doing my own homework of studying the Bible diligently.

References:

• AMP Bible
• Life Application Bible
• Strong’s Concordance

What’s God saying to me about Bible Study? *Confession time*

Recently, I bought Amplified Study Bible that I was excited to use for notetaking purpose. I have always been brought up to not deface any book other than occasional highlighting (*ahem* to resell the books for fair price). So though I loved the thought of journaling IN Bible, I was always afraid if I would deface it disrespectfully.

But getting comfortable with Bullet Journaling led me to the world of symbols for quicker visual learning. I got excited to have my own custom symbols for various topics that made sense for me and were quick and easy to draw.

This led me to also get a system for using different colors for highlighting different types of sentences.

Formatting like underlining or boxing with squares or curves also led to my very OWN SPECIAL way of learning Bible!!!

Add to all this, I recently learned different note-taking methods to aid in studying on Youtube.

So this got me all excited for sure! But where do I start?

The Bible is made of Old Testament (before Christ’s birth) and New Testament (Christ’s birth onwards). They are further divided into subdivisions:

Old Testament	New Testament
Books of the Law (5) – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy	Gospels (4) – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Books of History (12) – Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther	Book of Acts (1)
Books of Poetry (5) – Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon (also called the Song of Songs)	Paul’s Letters to the Churches (13) – Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon
The Major Prophets (5) – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel	General Letters to the Churches (8) – Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John, and Jude
The Minor Prophets (12) – Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi	Prophecy (1) – Revelation

As you can see there are many books I could choose to start from.

Genesis is great to start but I also liked Psalms and for some time I have done some of those chapters and have gotten used to a system of notetaking.

But I was always unsure where God wanted to spend some time on. And now, the answer became crystal clear!

God gave me direction:

• Randomly, I recently discussed with Husband about how much I have no remembrance of Mark Gospel compared to others which have more distinctive themes
  • Matthew: Jesus as the Messiah
  • Luke: Jesus in History
  • John: Jesus as Beloved King
  • Mark: (*blank memory*)

• A Youtube preacher I recently discovered recommended Mark Gospel to start studying
• At Family prayer time, we read a chapter out loud and it ended at Matthew with Mark Gospel beginning tomorrow

I had my three “coincidental” evidences to confirm on where to start my study. Praise God!!

Join me in my study on Mark Gospel. I hope we’ll be able to share confessions, considerations and our contributions to others who may be searching for insights and inspiration.