STRESS!!!!! @%^&#@%&^@@$ (Part 2).

2. Paul's response

a. “Three different times I begged the Lord...”

b. Paul BEGGED the Lord, he not only prays, but begged (pleaded) the Lord to take this thorn away.

c. After he begged the Lord three times and………………nothing happen.

d. WHAT??!! Nothing happen!

e. But let’s look into the Book of Acts:

i. 19:11-12 God gave Paul the power to perform unusual miracles. When the handkerchiefs or aprons that had merely touched his skin were placed on sick people, they were healed of their diseases, and evil spirits were expelled.

ii. At Paul’s times, he had to travel from town to town to preach the Gospel by only WALKING.

iii. Throughout spring, summer, autumn and winter, and less chance to bath, can you imagine the conditions of his handkerchief after come into contact with sweat, dust, mucus and dirty things?

iv. Yet......God gives his handkerchief to have the power of healing! Simply because he is obedient and faithful to God.

v. Acts 20: 9-12 whereby apostles Paul raised a man who fall at a height of three stories and continue preaching to the Gentiles.

f. God has given Paul the power to perform miracles but when he pleaded God for three times and nothing happen! So how??

3. Paul's solution

a. When he had experienced all this, he CHANGE HIS PERSPECTIVE and no longer look at the thorns.

b. Instead, he delights in his weaknesses when God reply his prayer.

c. In verse 9, we can see how Paul change

i. First, he looks at his struggle at a different perspective and grows bigger.

ii. Second, he boasts about his weaknesses so that the power of Christ can be made perfect in him.

d. Why does God say His power is made perfect in our weaknesses?

e. Who will need God’s healing power? If you are healthy physically, will you need a doctor?

f. Who will need God’s provision? You will experience it when you are in need.

g. If you are stress, you can solve it by

i. Removing the source of stress- you can always quit a job when stress come from you career. BUT…..what if your wife and children are your source of stress? So we need the other solution.

ii. GROW bigger than you stress!

h. God sometimes may place stress over your level so that you can come to Him, UPGRADE your processor so that you can GROW to higher level than your stress.

i. Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Conclusion:

When you’re stress,

· Pray and bring your problems to God

· Hear and listen to Him, yes, he may not able to solve your problem, but absolutely he will help you to overcome.

· Think and look at your struggle, problems at a different perspective.

· Obey and do what God tells you.

my dear brother and sister and whoever read this post, i do hope to encourage u all with this post. Hope you continue to grow in Christ, depend on Him more and love more (if you're a believer). If you aren't, i hope that you can change your perspective on your current problem if you found no way out, indeed, you can grow BIGGER than you problem.

STRESS!!!!! @%^&#@%&^@@$ (Part 1).

STRESS! A lot of times we are frustrated over things happen in our life, when things start to piled up, when things which supposed to be finished are unable to finished on time, when things doesn’t go as how we plan or expect, STRESS!!

Then we start to question and blame, what is God will for us? Is this what God want me experience, is this ‘blessings’ that God want me to have, is this abundance life that He promised, is this hope and future that God wanna give me???!!!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God for you in Jesus Christ.

Huh?? Be joyful always? Are you sure God? BUT I’m STRESSFUL! How can stress and joy come together?? How can joy come when I’m stress??

Now, the bible says yes! Let’s learn something from someone great, the apostle Paul.

2 Corinthians 12: 7-10 ⁷even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. ⁸Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. ⁹Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. ¹⁰That why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

1. Paul’s problem (v.7)

a. In verse 7, Paul said there is a thorn in his flesh.

b. What is this thorn? What is this that torments him?

c. When we refer back to Numbers 33:55

i. Numbers 33:55 but if u fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live.

d. Paul had been appointed as apostles to the Gentiles!

e. When he comes to a new town, he will first attend the synagogue, then get chased out, then he turns to the Gentiles, preached and taught them, gather them and appoint elders, then he da pao, and left to another town.

f. He had been doing this to each and EVERY TOWN he stepped in, but each and every time he left the town, Judaism believers will come and destroy his work.

g. When Paul tells the gentiles, “When u become Christian, you don’t need to be circumcised.” But when Judaism believers come into the church and said, “You all have to be circumcised!”

h. So have you experienced what Paul experienced? When you almost complete or reach your goal, someone something just come into place and destroy everything!

i. How?! WHY!?

Ancient China -- Is christianity there before buddhism?

Well, last post we talked about the story of Noah's ark. So what happens after Noah's ark? The world is completely empty, and The Bible said that Shem, son of Noah traveled east from Mount Ararat.

So, today, we are gonna explore the real secret behind Chinese (China people), their origin, and to discover their original religion. Is Buddhism really their 1st religion? or is ancestor worshiping or animism? Or are they people that came after the worldwide flood? which means that they are Christians at first! We need to travel back into time, to the very origin...their writtings.

What's so special about Chinese writings?
Chinese letters are make up of pictures, they are drawn based on what they saw. which means that a tree in Chinese word will be similar to how a tree would look like. It is through time that Chinese wordings simplified and we got the simplified version of the Chinese wordings today (after few evolutions). But some remains unchanged, and whether it is traditional handwriting or simplified, lets explore how Chinese words can possibly relate to God.

God in Chinese language
If ancient Chinese worship God, than how do they name God?

They name God 'Shang Ti'

Emperor Shun from the Han dynasty worshiped Shang Ti. In fact, the word 'shen' -- God in Chinese has an origin

  Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed -- Genesis 2:8

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,

their starry host by the breath of his mouth. -- Psalm 33:6

 For he spoke, and it came to be;

he commanded, and it stood firm.--Psalm 33:9

Tian can refer to the sky or heavens, but when we look at the etymology of the image, we see something even greater. It speaks of the One who is beyond the sky! The two characters used to create Tian are GREAT and ONE. Indeed, ShàngTi is the GREAT ONE!

Garden of Eden:

the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. -- Genesis 2:7

  The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." -- Genesis 2:18 (referring to creation of Eve for Adam)

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. -- Genesis 2:8 


   

In the Bible, Devil (the serpent) was inside the garden of Eden, He know about the secret (which bought death) about the tree of knowledge of good and evil (commonly known as the apple..-.-) and It tempted Eve to ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge in stead of the tree of life. Genesis 3:1-6   
    
   

So the Chinese word for tempter is merely the devil inside the garden of Eden in the vicinity of the tree of knowledge and tree of life where it tempted Eve to eat the fruit from the 1st tree. 

 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. -- Genesis 3:6 

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” -- Genesis 2:16-17 

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. -- Genesis 2:9(b)

 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; -- Genesis 3:7(a)           

 The Great Flood

And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood -- Genesis 7:7 (Noah has 3 sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth)

 

 The Chinese word total talks about eight person left on the earth after the great flood. And interesting enough, the word flood just add in water to that word.

This word means to hand down, or to pass down the stories. Interestingly, it consist of eight person, passing it down by mouth after the flood.

Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. -- Genesis 9:14-15                                             
(Rainbow signify ending of the rain)


Extra Links
There are more words that points ancient China to Christianity before actually there is any ancestor worshiping or other religions, if you want more proofs or you are still doubting what I said is true, check out Chinese words on the links below :

1. God in Chinese Language

2.Creation of Man

3.Garden of Eden

4. Cain and Abel

5.Noah's Flood 

6.Tower of Babel <-- where the language of the world is confused

7.Migration of People to China

Conclusion:
At a rough count, there are about 40-50 chinese words that we re-discover it is related to Christianity. But how can we confirm this is true? It is because These people that created those Chinese words, derived their words from stories up until Noah's Flood..That means, Chinese words related to Biblical stories are created even before the Bible is created!! That means what is told in the Bible is actually not just fabricated!

So, reflect this, if we say we worship our ancestors, if we say we worship gods and deities or follow Buddhism because our ancestors do so, try tracing it back to here, because our ancient ancestors worshiped God at first, not their ancestors, so why are we worshiping them? o.0???

The Chinese word of alone talked about Adam and Eve chased out of the garden of Eden because of sins. They are alone, separated from God, and if separated from God, that means only Hell...

But God gave us more grace, although we sin, God doesn;t wants us to go to hell, therefore He send Jesus to die on the cross for us.

"Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! -- John 1:29(b)

The ancient word for righteousness 'yi' told us about how Christ had come to give us salvation, so that we can enter heaven. It depicts on how Jesus as the perfect lamb was above us, covering us.

He always long for us to comes back to HIS arm, He don't care what you have done or what you are or how worthy you are, He gave this gift of salvation to all.

God loves, God save, Ask Him to be your LORD and Savior today~

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. -- Revelation 3:20

You have heard His voice today, what say you