Is A Donkey Better Than You?

What is your excuse for not being a great man or woman of God? You are imperfect? You are sinful? You lack the talents?

If God wants to raise you up to be His witness, He can. With all of your weakness, God still can work miracles through you. God can speak through an ass if He wants to. And He did. That is how he spoke to Balaam the prophet at the book of Numbers (Num. 22:28-30).

And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said: What have I done to thee? Why strikest thou me, lo, now this third time? Balaam answered: Because thou hast deserved it, and hast served me ill: I would I had a sword that I might kill thee. The ass said: Am not I thy beast, on which thou hast been always accustomed to ride until this present day? tell me if I ever did the like thing to thee.

And that is encouraging!

My friend once said, “God does not call the equipped, but equips the called.” You don’t have to be a genius or to be super holy to do God’s work. The only thing God needs from you is a willing heart. From there God will give you the grace and the talents that you will need to do His work. God is the God of the impossible.

God is not limited by your limitations. In every one of us lies the seed of greatness, waiting to spring up. He is only waiting for you to say “Yes Lord, I am here to do your will."

Your greatness lies before you.

If an ass can do it, so can you!



A blog by Daxx Bondoc
from Inspirationalblogs.com

The Perspective

I've got this email this morning and yeah, like its title, this has brought me a new perspective that I often forget in seeing my life..

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip
to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people
live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be
considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, 'How was the trip?'

'It was great, Dad.'

'Did you see how poor people live?' the father asked.

'Oh yeah,' said the son.

'So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?' asked the father.

The son answered:

'I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they
have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go
beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to
protect them.'

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, 'Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are .'

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would
happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of
worrying about what we don't have.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your family and friends!

Knowing The Risk & Reward

If you're an entrepreneur or the one who are in your journey toward your goal, there's a great insight from Prime Time with God I wanna share with you here.

We often feel confused whether we have to go ahead, take a break or even back off from the 'game' we're playing in life. But this insight -hopefully- gives you a good perspective to think about before you decide anything..

Enjoy!

"David asked the men standing near him, 'What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?'" (1 Sam 17:26).

Every entrepreneur must determine the risk and reward before entering a venture. This is not the only consideration. We must determine if God is leading us after we consider all factors. We also must consider if the timing is right to proceed.

David was a young shepherd when he was bringing food to his older brothers in the army. He had already killed a lion and a bear during his days as a shepherd. David understood the risk/reward principle. When he heard about Goliath and that no one was willing to fight him he was angry. However, he didn't just respond out of pure emotion. He asked a very important question. "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?" He got the answer he was hoping for: "The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel." (1 Sam 17:25).

Do you see the reward? He gets financial wealth, a wife, and no longer has to pay taxes! What more motivation does a young Jewish boy need? Does this take away from the spiritual significance of the story? Absolutely not.

The religious spirit always tries to make the business side of faith evil. Money and profit is not evil. It is the love of money and the pride of life that gets man into trouble. David understood the proper balance of these co-existing to accomplish God's purposes. To avoid getting into trouble simply ask this question of yourself: "What is the true motive of my heart?" If it does not have the spiritual element balanced with the business element, you may be in trouble. Ask God four questions before you proceed in any venture:

1) Is the Holy Spirit leading me?

2) Is this the time to be involved?

3) Is the risk and reward worth it?

4) Do I have what is necessary to be successful in the venture with God's help?

After you've asked these questions, go about your task with all your heart..

BYBS - Count My Blessings!

After being absent for a few weeks, here I am posting my blessings for BYBS meme.

I am addicted to digital scrapbooking (again!) these past days, so yeah.. I think this is such a creative way to blog my blessings this week.. :).

If you want to know more about Blog Your Blessings Sundays, please click here..

Hope that y'all have a blessed weekend!

The Power of Crying Out

I am a real dog lover.
From them I've learned a lot about life. Friendship, loyalty, love, cheerfulness, happiness, even a new way of thinking and seeing something!

You may have known that dogs are loyal. There's no doubt about it. But more of it, I like the way they see everything around them. Dog lives in the present. They enjoy anything around them, without ever get worried about tomorrows. If you take your dog for a walk, you'll see that they are interested for everything. They like to smell the flowers, they like to investigate, they'll chase whatever gets their attention, the follow their instinct, they really live in the present!

Especially puppies. Puppies will take anything they've got as their toys. Anything. Whether it a comb, brush, pillow, tie, blanket, pencil, old newspaper, anything in this world are indeed a puppy's toys! We have a puppy here who likes to bite everything, including our hands and feet! It's waste to tidy up the room if you get your puppy there, because they'll easily find a way or two to screw it up again!

Like I say above, or if you read my posts before, you'll know that we found a puppy that we care for eventually. Her name is Velve. (I named her after the Spanish term 'vuelve' that means return, cause she has returned my cheerfulness -smile-). Oh my, I can't imagine a naughtier puppy than this one. Even my mom has sooo many scars because of her biting and nails' scratches on her hand. Oughh, sometime I feel that I want to put this tiny monster down, but every time I look at her face, I'll always feel a deep sympathetic. I love her so much, no matter how naughty she is.

Couple days ago, she cried out loudly. By hearing that, I immediately jumped out of my bed, ran to her and found out why did she scream like that. And I got my mom stood behind her, told me that she tried to 'escape' when my mom hold her with her hand (My mom got stroke so her left hand has been immovable), cause she wanted to open the door for somebody was there. It's too risky to let the puppy runs outside the house. And the result was, she fell down and got pain. My mom was incapable to handle her because of her 'actions' that were too much.

I realized that I always run out to get my dog anytime they cry. Sometime they cry for an uncomfortable situation, but other time, they cry for an unimportant thing because of their stupidities. But still, I'll get them immediately by hearing their screaming.

I assumed this experience with God. He can't help hearing our crying. I'm really sure that. What I dealt with dogs, I believe God will do likewise. He hurts when His people get hurt. He can't wait for answering our prayer, but sometime He delays. I know that He must have reasons for that. He won't do it incoincidently. History has proved it. Whenever God made a delay, He was doing a miracle. As time goes by, I started to see it in my life. The longer He delays, the bigger the miracle.

When Abram got his son, for example. Can you see the miracle there? A son from a 90 years conceived mother? Or when Jesus delayed to come to Bethany, when Lazarus was sick. What He did then? He raised him from the death! It wasn't enough for Him just to heal him. It was too ordinary. (But they needed something more hurt and bad in their circumstance to receive the miracle). If you are dealing with delaying, just believe that God's preparing a great thing for you. He'll reveal it when the time comes. He's keeping the answer till you're ready for that. So, get prepared for His surprise. He wants us to know Him in a new and better way than what we have known about Him.. Never be enough if it comes to knowing Him. We need to know Him more and more and more through our experiences..

Oh, please, I can't be preaching here :). Just want to share my experience. If my dog cries, I'll immediately get it, wherever it is. I'll never delay even a second to get 'em. I can imagine how's my God reaction if He deals with the same problem. He'll jump over to get you, my friend. So, don't be ashamed. Keep crying till your prayers get answered..

Happy Sundays, everyone..

He Knows My Name

Actually, I wanted to post this on Then Sings My Soul Saturdays meme, but I'm late. Has been so busy all day long. Yeah.. but, I keep pushing to post this song. I love this song, although I can't find any better video than this one on YouTube (yeah, it's not bad either).
Here I post the lyric so you can sing with me.. :).

I have a Maker
He formed my heart
Before even time began
My life was in his hands

He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
and hears me when I call

I have a Father
He calls me His own
He'll never leave me
No matter where I go

He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
and hears me when I call

Do you get what I mean?
Every time I feel sad, abandoned, or hopeless, I remember this song and I feel strong and get refreshed again. My life was in God's hands, even before time began!

Many people fail in life because they think their lives aren't going well. I do feel the same often time, but I keep remembering that struggles in life does mean something. It can be used to increase my capacity to handle my dreams. If I strong enough, expanded enough, the time will come when everything will get better. The best is yet to come!

Thanks Jesus for calling me Your own, and thank You for never leave me alone.
Thank You also for hearing my calls and prayers all the time.
I thank You for everything You've done in me!

Self Expression!

As a romantic person, I always admire beauty. I love music, movies, books, paints, pictures, any other beautiful things!

Scrapbook has been my hobby since few years ago. Although sometime I feel that I have no enough time to do my hobby, I still love to 'sightseeing' or do blog walking to my favorite digiscrap site.

For some people, doing hobby is a wasting time activity, but for me, it's a good thing. It's a self expression, creative job, and such a fun thing. Even, doing my hobby is one of the reason I survive! :).

If you are like me, love to capture your moments through scrapbooking, you can visit Scrapbookflair.com, one of the best digiscrap site, which provides free embellishment and any other thing relating to digital scrapbooking.

The Work of God

God takes ordinary people and does extraordinary things through them because of their devotion to Him. A look at the 12 men Jesus chooses to be His disciples does not reveal a "Who's Who" in Judea. Rather, the men seem to be unknown and undistinguished.

The work of God does not depend on talent or intelligence. Different people have different strengths, but God uses all of us to accomplish His purposes. The body of Christ is made up of many parts -- some highly visible, some hidden, all useful. God makes the most of the talents and spiritual gifts He has given each of us.

This is an insight from crosswalk.com.

I absolutely agree. Sometime we think that we can't do any useful or meaningful works for The Kingdom of God. In fact, the work of God doesn't depend on our talents or intelligences. Each of us has special purpose, tasks and destiny to fulfill. We are different, but we do have one purpose in God : glorifying His Name through our lives.

I learn not to worry about who I am anymore. Yes, am still discovering myself. Am still finding who I am in Him. I also still need to know about many important things in my journey, but I learn to surrender my life to Him. Have been soo tired to count on myself and lean on my own understanding. I still haven't seen my future clearly yet, but it makes me keep hoping. And my hope in Christ won't be disappointing. All I need is just patience. Waiting for His perfect time to reveal all the best He has in store for me.

I always thought that talents, intelligence, and ability matter. I have so many regrets and disappointment buried in my heart. I tended to blame, complain, and critique anything happened to me. I'd never seen it as a God's process in my life. (Oh, how embarrassing has my life been! :)). So I thank The Lord that He has been patient and kind to me. He sent me a puppy. He surrounds me with lovely things I can enjoy. He blesses me with talents and abilities I supposed to use for His glory. He fulfills me with precious info, news, knowledge and promises He knows will be needed for my days ahead of me.

I thank God for being my Lord. In my days ahead of me, I'll do my best and let Him do the rest. I know I am basically just ordinary, but I know that He, Who abides in me is Extraordinary and Almighty, so I can cast all my cares upon Him, and He'll reveal His purpose and intention in creating me as His masterpiece..