So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. –John 8:36 (NIV)

I’ve heard this verse many times in sermons and bible studies. But my life then was not a life of freedom. I was a slave of my past.

Although I knew that God has forgiven me of my sins, I still felt guilty and the devil would always tell me that I am still on my sins and will not be able to get over it. Even if God forgave me, people would not trust me anymore. I believed these lies for a long time.

God has already set me free. The cold gate of the prison cell is wide open, the only problem is I don’t want to step out of the cell. God has forgiven my sin and loved me yet I still chose to listen and believed all of Satan’s lies. I am a freedman yet I still consider myself a prisoner, slave of my guilt and past.

God has freed us and we are free indeed. He has opened the gate and broken off all the shackles and continuously telling us to be free. And since I understood this truth, I stopped dwelling in the past and took hold of my freedom. I got up and step out of the cold and dark prison cell and enjoyed the warm and bright life of loving and serving God. And I will not go back to that prison anymore.

We should all continue to walk in this freedom that God gave us. And let us use this freedom as an opportunity to let others know that they can also experience freedom from the curse of the past and delight in the presence of our loving Father.

Do you also want to experience this freedom? click here

Here was this man I knew back in high school which our society said to be delinquent. He got into many school fights, had many vices and got a girl pregnant at the age of 17. As others would say, the world would be a better place if he would be gone.

Now there was me. A girl with a good standing at school, never been in a fight, people don’t like me that much but at least no one hated me.

If you would to pick who would be the “righteous kid”, surely, you would pick me. But the truth is…I am not.

His sins were vulgar, but I was as sinful as he but I was doing mine in secret. I would think badly of other people, I would lie if the situation pushed me to and do more sins if no one is watching. Although I may look nicer in the outside, I was as rotten as him in the inside. And God saw all of them.

Sin is still sin no matter how big or small it may seem. And unless we repent, we will all die in our sins. (Luke 13:3)

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

-Romans 4:8 (ESV)

We are all dead to our sin but thanks to God that He gave us forgiveness through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

God has imputed Christ’s righteousness in us so that starting from the day a person receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

So from that day onwards, God no longer sees the unrighteous, sinful me but He now sees the righteousness of Christ in me. (Romans 3:22)

Thank You Lord for Your grace and lovingkindness upon your children!

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

-John 4:13-14

What does an athlete need after a hard training? Water. Candies can’t help him quench his thirst. Water is irreplaceable.

The same with our spiritual thirst. Jesus is our life-giving water and He is irreplaceable. But admit it or not, most often, we try to quench our thirst with some other things. We try to do so many works in the church, help others out there thinking that these works could get us more closer to God. I’m not saying that these things are not good but we forget something. The thirst that you are feeling inside of you can only be quenched by a deep relationship with God.

When we seek other things to quench our thirst other tan Jesus, we fail. The thirst may be quenched for a while but surely it will return. Jesus has promised that whoever drinks of the water that He gives will never again thirst.

Come to Jesus for He alone can quench your thirst…

Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. -1 Timothy 4:7-8

In order to excel in any sport, one must spend hours and hours in training. It is also true of artists and musicians. No one achieves excellence in any field without tremendous self-discipline, hours of rigorous training and a willingness to suffer great hardship in order to achieve the goals he has set for himself.

If people who have average abilities train hard to excel, how much more those who suffer severe handicaps. There are now athletes who have excelled even though they are physically challenged. They have disciplined themselves to endure great pain and have trained themselves to overcome their handicaps.

In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he used athletes to illustrate our Christian walk. We must train ourselves to be godly the same way athletes train for competition. Athletes must overcome physical barriers, we also must overcome personality barriers.

I was a timid person before and I do not feel good about myself, I felt that I was good for nothing. But when Christ came in my life, I realized that He is all that I need. He will be my strength when I am weak, my joy when I am sad and my everything when I am in need. And with Christ in me I am sure that I can do all things and overcome everything.

One of Satan’s primary weapons against Christians is the weapon of discouragement. Sometimes we feel that we are not worthy to be used by God or following Jesus is not worth the price, we lose our friends and jobs, we are misunderstood, we are persecuted. At times like these we need discipline. Study God’s Word for encouragement.

“YOU see the depths of my heart and you love me the same, YOU are amazing GOD”

Those line in the song Indescribable by Chris Tomlin made me feel God’s overwhelming love for me.

God sees right through us. He knows what we are doing, what we think and how we feel, even right now. He knows even our deepest and darkest secrets. There is nothing that we could hide from Him.

Admit it or not, what the world knows about us is only a fragment of who we really are. We try to hide our darkest parts to them thinking that they may not accept us or love us if they knew about that.

But that is not the case with God. He knows exactly who you are but still loves you with an everlasting love. There is nothing we could do to make God love us less. He gives us the same love that he have for Jesus. A Father’s love for His child.

Stop running away from His love. He will accept you no matter what you have done in the past. His arms is ever wide open to embrace you if you will return to Him.

He is waiting for YOU!