Gotta pull them weeds out!

So, im done exams, and im back in Markham! and waiting for my marks to come out to confirm that i can graduate with my Bachelors of Science! YAY! i guess... except now im pulling out dandelions on my 2 weeks off before i start working!! I pull out ALL the dandelions in my yard.. and then guess what? the next day... theres like 30 more!!!!... I pull those out.. and then more and more... I think ive pulled out at least 200 dandelions in a span of 2 days (about 2 hrs per day)

I know while reading this you sense frustration and maybe a little bit of anger on how weeds like dandelions exists!!!

For those of you who have been following my blogs... i wouldn't have written this frustrating circumstance for no reason!

So here it goes:

"The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeks come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, Do you want us to go and pull them up? No he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned: then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."

Matthew 13: 24-30

This passage is a metaphor where wheat are Christians who have that intimate relationship with God and are really desire to walk through the Gates of heaven and the weeds are those who don't believe in God at all and don't care about heaven or God.

In the end the wheat will be harvested and brought into the barn (heaven) while the weeds are bundled and burned.

Ive been challenged by my housemates to write a letter to myself, well the ME in 10 years.. when im lets say 32. Where would i be in life, what career, family? Kids? What would i expect to be doing, what would i expect to have? ( to my housemates: I will get to this letter.. maybe tomorrow)

Anyways my question for you all is Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Do you expect to be bearing good fruit like growing wheat (Matt 7: 15-20) through mentoring the youth, leading cell groups, making disciples of all nations, loving others, loving God, etc Or are you going to bear bad fruit like the weeds that everyone wants to get rid of on their lawns by turning away from God, living in negativity, induce suffering upon others, doing things that hurt yourself or others, and a big one, Hating on others.

Are you going to be like wheat and be taken to God's barn or are you going into a direction where you will be weeded out and tied into a bundle and burned?

Think about it, write it down and read it in 10 years hopefully you will have lived life to the fullest and in joy and peace and then you can smile at the letter and believe you re living life in the right direction.

I mean i dont expect myself to fulfill all the things that i will have expected myself to do in 10 years, but i will probably be reminded of what i still need to do when i read that letter.

Remember, its better late than never, I'm going to be bold and say that it is possible to become wheat after growing as a weed for a long time... All you have to do is .....

"ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be open."

Matthew 7 : 7-8

AND PRAY!

peace out!

A present? But its not even my birthday!

So today was Good Friday and its good to remind yourself on why its called Good Friday. This post is mostly inspired by Pastor Ken Taylor from Creekside church in waterloo by the way.

Its funny how its called good Friday since Jesus went through so much pain and suffering before getting nailed to the cross.

Good Friday and Easter Monday (Should be Monday since Monday is 3 days after Friday and not Easter Sunday, which is the day of the resurrection which confirmed that Jesus is the real deal and not just some other dude!) are days where we remember that Jesus died for us in order for God to forgive us of our Sins.

Lets look at the concept of Forgiveness. Forgiveness is what happens when you say its ok for another person who has done wrong to you. For example, if person A gets punched in the face by person B and person A say its ok don't worry about it... It can be said that person A has forgiven person B. In order for Person A to forgive person B, Person A had to absorb something... and in this case, it was pain, some suffering.. maybe a bruised jaw and hopefully not.. some missing teeth? haha

The point is, for forgiveness to work, one must absorb something negative.. such as the pain Person A probably experienced.

So in order for God to forgive us of our sins, He has to absorb something. Jesus, who is God in human form according to the Holy trinity where God, Jesus and the holy spirit are one and the same absorbed some HUGE blows as Jesus was first tortured, then he had to carry that huge cross up a mountain (imagine doing squats with barbells except holding that form and carrying that up a hill! That cross was probably way heavier that whatever i can squat!) Then he was nailed to the cross where he was left hanging with nails at his wrists. You've seen Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ.. it wasn't pretty..

So God took this blow in order to forgive us and the act of Jesus being crucified is our sacrifice, our ransom and our substitute.

Although we have sinned so much against God and have turned away from God time and time again He still did this for us.. to save us from our sins. He was our sacrifice as in the past the Israelites would sacrifice doves for God. He was our Ransom.. because we are being held captive in this sinful world, but his ransom set us free. He was our substitute because WE were the ones that were suppose to go through all that. We were the ones who was suppose to experience all that pain and suffering, but because Jesus was substituted in our place WE dont have to go through that.

Why did God do this for us? Because of the Gift of Grace (God's unconditional kindness) Because he loves us THAT much

"I urge then first of all that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is a good and pleases God our Saviour who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2: 1-4

And that is the basis of Christianity... Love.. " and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" 1 Corinthians 13:13

Now that we ve been shown this Love by God... its up to us whether or not we choose to accept this Love, this grace... Kind of like someone giving you a present, fully wrapped on a normal day (not even christmas or birthday presents just a normal day, everyday!) We can choose to accept it and open the gift to look at its Goodness or we can just turn it down. Same thing with God's love and grace.. its freely given to us, we can either choose to accept it or we can turn it down. And thats another way God showed love to us.. he made us into beings who have free will instead of creating a race of robots just accepting every command (I would rather be a being with free will than a terminator haha!)

So my question to you is... now that you know what good friday is about...do you want to accept that present? or are you going to turn it down?