remembering John 20:29 [April 14th]

I lived a day thinking about God today. There were three verses that I tried to remember whole day. They were Col. 3:23, John 15:5, Psalms 105:4. John 15:5 stood out the most. I think there is nothing I can do without Jesus. Not to make excuse about my lack of ability in academic career, I took the verse from the Bible. In Korean Bible, it says, "너희는 나를 떠나서는 아무것도 할 수 없다." I think what Jesus meant by nothing can be done does not mean when you fail at something, it means that Jesus was not with you. I think it means that if we do something that does not glorify him, we are misplaced and eventually realize that we cannot essentially achieve anything. Though temporarily, we can attain lots of stuff such as wealth, but when we look at it in the long-term, everything disappears. Only thing that remains is Jesus's Love.

I just remembered an article about Donald Trump giving speech to high school students. He was saying that having happy family is worth more than wealth, and he encouraged the students put more values on family rather than money. I think he is saying something that is right.

Jesus is more than a religion. He tells us that we are born with a purpose, to participate and spread gospel. Moreover, he has a specific plan for each one of us to glorify him. I am so thankful that we have a purpose. Otherwise, we would have been an animal that just follows the cycle of life and death. We are part of the cycle; however, we are image bearer of God who are created in God's image. We live and form relationship with God in this world and prepare for the eternal life beyond death.

Whether you believe it or not, I believe that heaven exists. It might be easy to say that life beyond death is absurd and unimaginable. But I will probably laugh at those people by saying that "not everyone will enter the heaven." Sorry, I will try not to laugh....

Anyway, I will encourage them to listen what their heart says. It might be crazy to tell you to listen to your heart. We are all born with something called heart that lives and grows with you. It often tells you what is right and wrong and speaks as if your friend. Do not be such a skeptical person to reject it unless you have experienced something terrible or traumatic. Maybe you were hurt after you started believing, or you had to live a life that is not beneficial, because it makes you to live righteously. But it will pay-off in the long-term. It may seem like you are losing, but you may actually start to find joy and happiness within.

What is most essential is probably faith. It is believing something what we cannot feel through five senses. The Bible teaches us that blessed is the one who believes without seeing. You can decide whether God is alive afterward. There is nothing to lose after believing that God is alive. I mean there is no cost of believing it. Just take it for granted and live with it. It is rational to live to accept that God is alive.

Finally, we live in a world where there is essence of deceit and lies that separate us from living faithfully. The existence of Satan or evil is real, and I cannot think of any other explanation. I am not referring Satan as a figure like a monster but rather something that is in the realm of absence of light. I wonder.

I am ending today through practicing God's presence. I did not want to start on my essays and other projects anyway. I like this better, but once I start to feel more pressure from all those work loads, I may lose. I need prayers.

John 20:29, "Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yer believed."