Bud and Flourish

Bud And Flourish

August 2018

Read

Proverbs 4: 23 (NIV/ESV)

Reflect

The worlds says, "follow your heart."  God's Word says, "guard your heart..."(NIV)

I had my share of failures in the past.  I'm sure exactly what went wrong, I failed to guard my heart.  I followed my heart instead, which led to ill feelings towards my self. It took me two years to forgive my self.   However, God is so gracious; He was ever present then as He is ever present today.

How do I guard my heart?
True enough, apart from God I have no good thing; and I am nothing.  It is when I spend deeper and more intimate time with His Word.  So the more I listen to Him the louder His words rings in my heart.

Why I should guard my heart?
Emotions are deceitful.  Our hearts our laid open when we are alone and when we are with others.  It tunes in to different rhythm everyday when we are with different people and situation. 

From where I should guard my heart?
I guard my heart from deceitful circumstance.

When pride eclipses our hearts instead of forgiveness. It is when selfishness presents itself instead of selflessness.

"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." 

Guard your heart.

                             #foodforthesoul

                             #soulkeeping

The Timeless TRUTH In Changing And Limited World

February 2017

Read

John 6: 1-14, 26, 35

Reflect

     The Timeless TRUTH in Changing and Limited – Crowd (vs.1—4)

     The disciples saw the miraculous signs.  Their curiosity  drew them to see what Jesus would do next.  Many were interested in what He did (healed the sick, drove out demons etc.).

     The crowd followed Jesus because of the outward fulfillment and satisfaction; not so because the crowd were curios who Jesus truly was.  Later, Jesus rebuked the crowd because of their wrong intentions (v.26)

     I’m not trying to say that following Jesus because of what He has done is sin or wrong. But I should say it is not whole.  We should follow Jesus because of Who He is in our lives. Then, we let praises and adoration overflows from our hearts because of what Jesus has done and what He can do in us and through us.  Sadly, there’s still that kind of crowds nowadays.   The crowds who are only after the outward satisfaction and waiting what will happen to their outward welfare.

The Timeless TRUTH in Changing and Limited – Disciples (vs. 5-12)

Philip was chosen to be tested and deepen his faith.  What did Philip see? Philip saw overwhelming concern – a great crowd coming and his faith was crowded by worry and problem.  And because of the problem he saw, he forgot Who was with him at that moment.  We are all like Philip sometimes.  We see problems and they overwhelm us.  We see worry and they weaken us and our faith.  We are struggling in many ways and they are slowly stealing our joy.  We see negativity, so often times we fail to recognize the ONE WHO is in us.  These concerns fog our vision of Jesus, Who allows all these to deepen our faith in Him and what He can do in us and through us.  We miss His presence because of the great crowd we are in. Thus, it’s a matter of perspective.  How differently Jesus and the disciples viewed the situation.  Philip only saw a large problem, but Jesus looked at the exact same situation and saw opportunity. Us – crowd: overwhelmed, worried, pessimistic.  Jesus –crowd: opportunity, compassion, solution.  Jesus did not fall into the pessimistic view of the disciples by being overwhelmed by the size of the problem.

     We’ll pray that each day as God allows us to live – we have the eyes to see the crowd, our own crowd like Jesus sees them.  The eyes to see like Jesus.  The heart to understand our situation, so we can turn our crowd into opportunity – opportunity to become like Christ.  Opportunity to walk like Jesus did in this crowded world.  

Respond

1. What are your reason/s of following Jesus?

2. Are you one of the crowds? 

3. What is a great crowd coming towards you at the moment?  

4.How did you respond to your crowd lately?