CMA Thoughts

Revelation 21:4 NKJV

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Many tears have I shed for friends and relatives gone for broken dreams and hopeless situations. Tears were always a way of release for me a way of cleansing the parts of my once sorrowful, aimless, confused, disjointed life. I never got to live my dreams or experience love or to even have an adventure. I always felt my life was worthless. I cried out in anger because of the frustrations, ridicule, chastisement, hatred that I used to receive from people I met each day. No one seemed to care, I felt so alone.

But not anymore. God is now a part of my life in a much bigger way than ever before. He has become my best friend and definitely my source of Hope. Ever since becoming a part of the New Hope Ministries, I have been in a wonderful Life Journal Bible Reading Plan. I takes me through the Bible in a year with twice through the New Testament. Pastor Wayne Cordeiro developed the plan and I have not been more immersed in God’s word as I have been the past year and a half going on a 2nd full time through. I’ve learned more about God and the people in the Bible more than I ever have. I have mentors in the Bible who have felt what I have felt, who have sinned the same sins I did, who prayed the selfish prayer of “Why me of Lord”, and I find myself very blessed to have gotten to know them. Moses got angry out of frustrations over the ever wavering, sinful Israel nation, David was so frustrated of being pursued by constant enemies, Joseph being accused of wrongs he did not commit. These people and more had lives full of challenges and yet they all came out victorious. How? Joshua 1:9 says “Have I commanded you? Be strong and courageous, Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you where ever you go.” When I was blessed by God with a trip to Europe in 1990, This scripture was given to me for the first time. I was both excited yet fearful of going to Europe because I don’t know any languages, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but yet I wanted to see Europe. When God presented this verse to me I felt relieved. I was so excited because I knew the trip was definitely blessed by God. This is how our Fathers and Mothers in the bible were able to make it through their already difficult lives. They were conquerors of wars, hatred, prejudice, remorse, death and wilderness. They knew from “whom your (their) strength comes” Judges 16:6 God is our help in every aspect of our lives. He will provide the strength, He is our source of Hope. Let Him into your heart today and He will wipe away the years of tears in all our broken lives.

Thank You Lord, for wiping the tears away. Thank You for Life in me through Your loving grace.

Old wooden stool in the Hawaii Plantation Chinese House

PSALM 5:11-12
11 But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You.

12 For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield.

I recently became involved in a networking for people with a common interest in Photography. And I really started to get so immersed in that virtual world. I was so obsessed with it that every empty waking second I was on that site checking in on my new world. Until an incident happened that really opened my eyes to the fact that I was probably spending too much time in there. You see I was meeting and making “friends” with the participants on this site through making comments to the postings of their photos. It was a lot of fun to give and receive interactions from these “friends” all over the world and to even almost enter into their stories of life and some of them really stories. But then so also did I so I felt so connected to them offering my virtual prayers and words of hope and encouragement because I understood their hurts. I got so involved with some of them I began to see them in the faces of people I encounter on the streets of Honolulu everyday. My thoughts were possessed with “I wonder what everyone is doing right now, let’s see what time is it over there?” I wanted, I needed to be with them when they woke up in their mornings and went to sleep in their evenings. But, deep down inside of me was an ever quiet, but, pleading voice saying, “come back to Me”. Jesus was calling out to me. It wasn’t that I wasn’t spending time in my daily Bible reading and journaling, but, I knew that I would often rush through it just so I can visit with “my friends” online. Well, God evidently needed to get my attention and He did. An incident with an almost evil intent entered into my world, this evil started to spread disease and people who I enjoyed “talking”  to began to enter this realm of corruption. I got so upset! It was just that my new world was being destroyed, devastated! But I am thankful that through this I have returned to the reality of who I am that of being a Child of God. God is my true source of hope, He is the One true friend, why? Because He knows me more than anyone in this world and that those network friends will never really know me let alone even ever meet me, so how could I spend so much time with them and less and less time with my Best Friend. In Exodus 33:11 it says “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend…” When I read that verse this morning during devotions, I realized I came out of a near death experience. I will still visit “my friends” online, but I will not get so immersed in them as much as I will get more and more immersed in God who is and will always be the Biggest, Bestest friend I could ever have.

Thank you Lord, for coming into my disoriented, worldly life, loving me, knowing me, walking with – me wanting me to spend eternity with Him. Guide my ways oh Lord, and please Lord, do send your loving hands upon those people I have met online Lord. Their hurts are in abundance, and my heart aches for them. Help them as you have helped me. Thank You Lord.

Will you bloom?

Gladys Aylward, Mother Teresa, Father Damien, and so many others gave their lives to their strong belief in God to serve those less fortunate. Journeying to distant lands to teach others about God offering Hope in spite of the hardships in the lands they live in often torn apart from wars, dominations, poverty and disease.

All of us are given gifts of varying kinds, of varying capabilities. It is up to us to discover those often hidden and sometimes surprising gifts. But once we have discovered these gifts, will we use it to glorify God, ourselves or to gain approval of others?

Jesus tells us that we are here TO serve not to BE served just as He set the example when He washed the feet of His disciples. Missionaries over the centuries have done just that, many, giving their lives up in torture, persecutions or disease just to bring love and hope to the masses. They were not afraid to bloom for the love of their God. Just as Jesus gave His life and ministry to die for our salvation.

Many of us, too often, seek the approval of others so that we can live the plush life filled with comfort and acceptance. We use our talents to benefit ourselves so we can raise wealth to live the good life. We  find ourselves in debt most times or if blessed we find ourselves living in overwhelming comfort, but we claim these rewards as our own gotten on our own. But research the lives of those who gave themselves to live mostly in poverty and under the demise of hatred or mistrust and often times danger. Jesus the greatest of these, the apostles also being among the most honored but greatly persecuted, and the missionaries who went abroad. Their blossoms are beautiful and as pure and white as this hibiscus bud. They all know where their gifts came from and where their strength lies.

May your bud bloom into the Love that God bestows upon us and share it with others in our lives whether here in our homes, businesses and hearts or abroad among the dangers and threats of an abandoned world. May God bless you in all you do and may you find the gifts that God has blessed you with.

Snakelike?

This image caught my eye on the grounds of Byodo En, temple in the Valley of the Temples in Kaneohe, Hawaii. It look so much like a snake, though fortunately dried up and not real at all. It reminded me, though, of the Snakes in our lives that can harm us by leading us down the wrong paths. In fact we are warned constantly in the Words of God, to be wary and discerning of such things.

Temptation to sin is one of those snakes in the grass, but more than that, the words of Jesus in the book of Mark, chapter 13 verses 5 & 6 says this about the deceivers, “And Jesus answering them, began to say, “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He’, and will deceive many.” Then later in Mark 13 verses 21-23, “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed; see I have told you all things beforehand.”

So be warned, be cautious, take heed to not be deceived by those snakes hidden in the grass. They will be hard to distinguish at times, and can even come in the form of great leaders of nations…”the elect”…so be careful and discriminatory of possible lies and probable false hopes. Put your faith and trust in God and learn discernment through the very words written by God and about God in His Holy Bible the ONLY true source of wisdom.

Discouraged?

Do you sometimes feel alone and discouraged with all that life’s challenges throw at us??? Be encouraged to know that you are not the only one. Not only are there a lot of people like us out there, but moreso, there are many through the ages who can, by their experiences, be great examples of how to live a more fulfilling life. Abraham though in years past youth, was prophesied to bear a fruitful nation of countless heirs and Sarah his wife who reproduction years seem long gone, and futile, was to give birth to that son.

Moses, was a man who was displaced from his birth mother and placed in the household of the Pharoah who enslaved his own people. He eventually led these of his own kind (and others) to freedom from slavery but had to put up with their impatience and complaints (and sinning) while God prepared their hearts in the wilderness. His anger got the best of him and he did not get to cross over into the land of promise, but he DID get to experience the miracles of God all around him including hearing and seeing the glory of God firsthand.

David, though an adulterer and murderer to some degree, because he constantly sought the forgiveness and advice of God, his Lord of lords, was constantly given hope of redemption by taking his just punishments and fulfilling the will of God. He was called the man after God’s own heart and was greatly favored by Him. Being protected from his constant flow of enemies.

Paul was a persecutor of God’s anointed people was called and blessed by God to lead the Gentile Nations to the hope of God through Jesus Christ. The list can go on and on, but most importantly is the One of whom Paul and the other Apostles lived to serve and teach to everyone who had an ear to hear and eyes to see…the One named Jesus the Christ.

Jesus, of all, had the most to be discouraged about, because He would have to die a most gruesome death and all for the sins of people who did not want to believe and for those who have yet to believe [namely US]. Jesus would be persecuted, whipped, ridiculed, nailed, and left to hang on a cross (without the ropes that movies portray), and all the while feeling forsaken by His own Father in Heaven. But with the tear from God, His Father, Jesus died for us, and rose in 3 days to live for us that we can live through Him.

Be encouraged, Jesus is with us each day, even when we feel alone, He carries us through the tears of life.

What do you See?

Shot at Foster Gardens  in Honolulu Hawaii, this dry tree bark located near the pavilion caught my eye. I got lost in my imagination, as I saw a unique facial feature in the decaying stump. It resembled to me a mystical head of the Unicorn or in the more realistic world the head of a deer. It brought to mind that imagination instills in our hearts and minds the challenge to keep on dreaming. Where there are dreams there is hope, where there is hope we find joy.

God created all of us to be unique in every way because He wants to give us the ability to make our own decisions and allows us to make choices with hopes that we will choose that which leads to the gifts He has provided for our well being. Though we are prone, as those in ages past, to make the wrong choices, He gives us many opportunities to accept His ways for us, to rely on His truths, to live in the realm of His Love. As stated in Job 33:28-30 Elihu reminds Job that “He [God] will redeem his [our] soul from going down into the Pit [hell]. And his [our] life shall see the light. Behold, God works all these things twice, in fact, three times with a man, to bring back his soul from the Pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.” God doesn’t want any to be lost to the pits of hell, but He wants us to make our own choices. So He created us in His likeness but gave us minds of our own. Minds to think, to create, to learn, to inspire, to love and sadly even to hate and curse and die to the threats of sin. He prays for us, as He did for the ancients, to be encouraged to live the better life in His love and care, but our minds causes  our hearts to drift from the Creator.

May you, May WE find our ways back to God with minds of joyful hope in the Freedom of the Grace that God has given to us through His son Jesus Christ who as Paul teaches was our final sacrificial lamb when he hung from the cross for atonement of our sins. Galatians 4:3-5 teaches, “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

He gives us almost endless chances, but there will be a time of pruning. So let us die to sin and live for Christ.

Mossy Steps

Do you ever feel like you are seeking and searching for life’s meaning? Feel like you are on an endless, mindless journey because you don’t know where you are heading? Do you feel lost, constantly climbing steep pathways into places unknown and being reminded of your inadequacies? Are you afraid of pursuing those dreams and hopes, because you don’t know whether you will succeed? Or are you fearful of the darkness lying ahead of you in that deep dark tunnel of questions lacking of directions and solutions?

Our lives are always filled with decisions to be made where most come out wrong and we have to pay the price because of incorrect choices. Often times these wayward paths we take cause a lot of pain, discomfort and anxieties. How do we survive? How can we go on? What is the best solution to get out of it? Should I do the extreme or do I play it safe? What do I do to get back on track. HELP!!!!!

Life is not easy. A lot of times we only want to do what we want to do, and who cares about anyone else’s opinion or experiences. Most times we seek the fastest or shortest way to accomplish the biggest results to be ahead of others. However, many of these choices bring us to downfall due to our decisions. One of the prime examples in the Bible about just such a character was Saul. He chose to pursue David out of jealousy and hate that he lost his favor with God. David though, also a sinner, committing adultery and murder, differed from Saul. David was constantly asking forgiveness of God even to the point of asking God to appoint his punishments, where as Saul continued to hate and pursue David on his own leading to his eventual demise. Saul did everything by his own power, but David consulted God — he always brought it back to God the source of his strength.

All our lives we are faced with difficult situations, but there is a way to get through these times. In John 14:5-7 Thomas asks the question we so often ask, “Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way?” Jesus simply answers, “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the father except through Me.” Allow Jesus to lead you like David did. My favorite story in regards to David’s trust in God’s way was when David had sinned in the sight of the Lord, and he begged forgiveness through the prophet Gad. In 2 Samuel 24:11-17, God gave him three punishments to choose from, David left it up to God. God, therefore, sent a plague on the people of Israel, but David cried out to God saying, this is MY sin put the punishment on me not the people. Therefore, David was punished for the years that follow, but, David willingly took the punishment and trusted that God will see him through these troubled times.

Lord, may we find our true way for our lives, through Your Way, Your Light and Your Truths. May we conquer those stairways and narrow paths which will lead us to You! Thank You, Lord.

Golden Carp alone in Pond

Have you ever felt like you were alone in a crowd? Or have you ever felt like you stood out among an ocean of others not knowing your significance or even doubting your existence?  Who am I? What am I doing here? WELL, did you know that King David felt the same way (read David’s Psalms). So did Jeremiah, Moses and Elijah even JESUS Himself.  So many of our biblical Patrons (and Matrons) felt that same way. They were frustrated because they were being pursued by enemies against the Lord OR given a daunting task of the Lord and no one heeded their warnings. There were even those people who were afflicted with disease or a disorder, and therefore shunned by the crowds of uncaring citizens around them. One such woman is the hemorrhaging woman in Luke 8:43-48. She was a lady who bled for twelve years of her life. Doctors couldn’t find out the cause and because she was consistently bleeding, she was considered unclean, and NOONE could even touch her else they become unclean also. She was even afraid to touch the Lord, for fear of afflicting Him as well. But out of faith she secretly touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was instantly healed. She didn’t think He would even notice her, but He did and asked “who touched me?” His disciples responded in awe with so many people surrounding Him and touching Him, what concern is it to Him the ONE who specifically touched Him. More so, how did He feel THAT particular touch. Jesus makes even the most insignificant soul feel important because He DOES notice us. He does feel our touch and hears our heart providing we faithfully and firmly believe in Him and Him alone. In fact, He says that if we have the faith of a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed known, much can be accomplished, because this tiny seed grows into a mighty bush which houses many birds of the field.

If you ever feel overwhelmed, think of King David and how even in the midst of the people that believed in him being a mighty king, he was hated and pursued by Saul, a brethren, AND enemies of Israel (mainly the Philistines). When you read his Psalms, you are constantly hearing him pleading with God to protect him from these enemies and you can almost hear the loneliness in his prayers because he couldn’t freely be who he was meant to be, King of Israel. Though he was a man of God, his life led from one challenge to another. But he always relied on God to see him through it all unlike Saul who only believed in himself and in his own power.

Even Jesus cried out in loneliness when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane as He faced His eminent death. He prayed that this “cup” be lifted from Him, but more so when He hung on the cross, He felt abandoned by His own Father in heaven. But the beautiful part of this whole experience, is that Jesus actually knows how we, as humans, react to loneliness and He understands our frailty. God IS ever mindful of us, no matter how we so often feel alone, He IS there with us, carrying us and guiding us, leading us through the mazes of life.

Jeremiah and many of the prophets and apostles were criticized and tortured for their service to God, but, they all found their strength in Him. They continued to faithfully serve and believe in Him no matter how alone in their plight they may have felt.

May we also feel God’s everlasting presence in our lives, so we can continue living, loving and sharing God’s love to others as well as feel His love for us also.

Banyan Tree at Liliuokalani Gardens

Rooted deeply and radiating expansively into the ground, the banyan tree is actually a mystifying living entity. The banyan is actually a fig which germinates itself into crevices and cracks of a host tree, buildings, bridges or structures.  Eventually, at some point, it sends escalating roots into the ground until it entirely encompasses the host. In legend and folklore, the banyan is often referred to as a spiritual tree as well as representing one of strength and protection because of it shady expanses. It is a sturdy tree which is very intriguing and poetic. Here it can set an example for us. How deep and radiating are your roots for the Lord? Are you encompassing the glory of the Lord. Do you, like the original fig plant, grasp onto the “Host” God and then, being grounded in Him reach out to others extending those rooted arms to bring others to Christ?

This tree is found at Lili’u’okalani Gardens right there growing out of the bridge by the garden’s tiny parking lot. It, in its most obscure location, seems so out of place being a tree usually of magnificence and grandeur.  But have you considered the life of Jesus? This tree takes on a deeper, more meaningful image compared to Him. Jesus, who was prophesied as being a King above all kings, (In Zechariah he is called the BRANCH) and was thought to be someone of magnificence and grandeur, but He came as a baby born in a simple manger in a barn. He didn’t live in palaces nor did He inherit a majestic, earthly kingdom. In fact He didn’t even have a place to lay His head. He was chastised, ridiculed, persecuted and hung on a cross (“a tree” in poetic language). He was used, abused, neglected and rejected especially in His own home town. He came and died for us so that our sins would be forgiven by the grace of God. So He implanted and embedded Himself into our lives and all He asks is that we embrace Him and love Him with hopes of us spreading His love to the world. He calls us to radiate our roots reaching out to others in love offering God’s redemption of our sins.

Thank You Jesus, for encompassing us with your grace and love. May we constantly be reminded of all You tolerated for us as You hung painfully on that cross. May we stand as tall and magnificently as the mighty banyan tree relying only on Your strength and hope and peace. Help us to radiate our roots to reach others bringing them also to the knowledge and understanding of who You are. Thank You, Jesus for Your glorious gift of life.