My purpose....

I just want to apologize to all my fans (mainly Ryan) out there for not updating my blog for a while..hehe... I know that you anticipate reading my journeys in life...:P :P :P

Firstly, I want to just thank God for what he is doing in my life recently. I thinkHe's really answering my prayer regarding something that I've been struggling with for a while. The word is: contentment. I can often complain, be filled with desire for something, and even compare myself with others. Though it is fine to grow and be held accountable to others, it would be unhealthy to be ruled by complaint, wrongful desire, and comparison.

I thank God for giving me contentment: satisfaction in God, my identity in Him, and in what He provides and gives me. I have a sense of peace in my heart and it's such a wonderful feeling. Praise God for this!

God has also been teaching me my purpose in life which really comes down to two things: To Love God, and to Love others. We all have different paths that God has allowed us to choose, whether it be being a teacher, musician, or a marine biologist :) but at the end of the day, through these paths, I want to be able to say that I loved God and loved others like I was supposed to.

John 15:1-17

The Vine and the Branches

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.

1 John 4
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

When I read this passage I learn a few things that I must do:
-prayer and dependency on God
-words of God in my heart, and to treasure them
-intimacy with God, knowing his love, and giving love to Him
-Love others like Christ loved you to the point of sacrifice and even to death
-Love is passionate in emotions and feelings
-no grudges in heart towards brother/sister

Results of doing the above:
-joy, bear fruit, answered prayer, intimacy, friendship, partnering with God, impacting the world for God, spiritual growth

So onwards I go....knowing my purpose and living it out the best I can with His grace and strength....

-Amen-