gracedgirlandie-blog

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So I’ve been watching Netflix’s The Good Place, and this is one thing I learned. Shows aren’t always accurate, but The Good Place was actually right in something.

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Whenever I meet people who have such sense of exclusivity and superiority when it comes to Christ’s love and salvation and try to cultivate a sense of hopelessness in others unless they toot the other’s horn and bow down to their ego to finally be accepted as someone Jesus would love and save, I assure myself that Jesus is not like them. Jesus is actually good. And then I have my hope back again.

Me

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True. This is why I don't join certain churches. Some are the most prejudging groups you'll ever know. They won't even give you a chance as a person. They literally introduce themselves to you with forced robotic smiles and handshakes by asking you what's your religion and literally make their first five minutes with you calling you a sinner and stating all that's wrong with your church and about how theirs knows the Bible more and then they pick on even the tiniest most insignificant traditions of your life like celebrating birthdays and mentioning the name of Santa Claus and they conclude the whole chitchat by stating that unless you're in their group of people, they won't have shit to do with ya because you'll just drag them to Hell. It's like the entire chitchat was just a commercial for self-promotion of how they know the Bible better and are more knowledgeable on it scholastic-wise and barely even here about Jesus in the entire sermon. And then finally it comes to the testimony that they have to share and I take a sigh of relief that finally I can hear about Jesus for once. But, no, it's another session of rubbing in your face how they don't really feel God in your church but He's so evident in theirs and another five minutes of how they used to be total criminals while they were in your church but when they registered to this one, all of a sudden, they became "better than you". Like... dude... I came here to learn about Jesus... not learn every five minutes how you are "so much better" than me. And then they laugh about news of refugees dying because they "didn't have God with them" but "they did". And then they'd cheer on Donald Trump for putting up the wall to prevent entry of the "demons" that will drag them to Hell. The only two things you'll ever learn from being with them is that they're "better than you", and how to give the perfect BJ, because apparently they studied the Word and digested it and read clearly in the rules that it's only immoral when you stick it in the other end so then you're a sodomite and have no chance of being forgiven (unless you join their church that is) and are going to Hell. Before them, I never even knew what a BJ was, but they proudly brag about how they do it ten times a week. So studious of the Word indeed and of it's clear-cut rules and also so studious about Sex Ed. Ten minutes later, they're there giving you the hottest tips to the perfect one-night stand and their top-ten list of the perfect guys (including someone else's husband) to bang in their own bedroom because Queensland is apparently immoral and only for those who celebrate Sinulog, a tradition for "outdated barbarians". Thanks for telling me how you got the latest software update on Jesus Christ. Is the list of guys updated too? Because I also hear from some of them how there are those who are "too ugly to get laid by". I mean, those things don't even enter my mind. I look at a person and see someone beautiful and don't even analyze if he's even good-looking enough to get it on with. And if he's not, it's not like I will stop mingling with him like he's another demon that will drag me to Hell. And then with such confident smug smiles, they'd challenge you to list down what your church has that theirs doesn't that can make you study the Bible more conducively in yours, and they'd be ready to rebutt. I mean, I'd rather listen to the continuous gospel on Jesus by a grown guy wearing a tunic who sticks his privates into little boys' butts and then asks people to "mana po" to him later than to not learn a sentence straight at all and without the lesson being paused for another commercial of themselves. I mean, it can be pretty distracting to the lesson hearing every few verses how "I was once a Catholic too, but I got the software update so you can never call me lame and old-fashioned." get rubbed on your face. I'm not saying either that the other is holier with the way they completely disrespect their perfectly-working bodies and blame it all on chivalry and heroism and being the perfect spouse and yet contradict it with the way they treat and make to look like the very people they claim they're being chivalrous for, and as if that's even the only thing to love and completely ruling out the things of the heart which are what really matter and what really make up a person... and then judge their members' relationships whether rightfully or by their made up rules of physical heirarchy basing on their own looks of who's a bigger treat to who and who deserves who and who doesn't give justice to someone else's chivalry and who's an overall unworthy spouse... and then use their assumed righteousness to gain position and then assume this position as a sign of popularity which they also assume is a sign of attractiveness and then they ostracize who they reject as if it's a popularity show of who has the most supporters when really it's a religious community not American Idol. But at least that one is ad-free. But the sermon I'd wanna listen to the most is from someone who preaches it with his life and actions, because how you see Jesus in someone ain't from what is written on the religion section of their birth certificate if he got the "updated" label or the "barbaric" one. Words are so unnecessary and don't always prove anything. Neither does religion. And I'm sorry to tell you that yours is one too. And it's not gonna help if you give me another debate where in you lay down all the scholastically-defined rules of how you're not a religion. In fact, that just proves my point. I don't exactly see Jesus in you. I see Donald Trump. I see Hippocrates the Third, but at least the real dude is actually smart. And if you don't give other people the right to love Jesus with their lives unless they are part of you as if His name is under your copyright, then I'm sorry to say that you really are a religion. Nothing special. I came here to love, not to be fought and then made to feel like shit... only to gain nothing in the end. I never heard of Jesus preaching that way. For all I know, He gained His saved souls with love... just love. 🤷🏼‍♂️ And when you reject their offer to take you in their church, they have to let you elaborate with an impromptu speech. And when you just tell them it's because you can't see Jesus in them, they let you elaborate further. Then they whip out a Bible, a highlighter, a notebook and a pen and just go quoting all sorts of verses and making very scholastic equations and references that even stray so far into becoming no longer what the Bible even meant (Yes, I've read the Bible in full... word for word... cover to cover... over and over... with all my heart and asking Jesus to send me His Holy Spirit to guide me every so often. But they also bashed me all with a very plastic laugh of how "cute" it was that I thought I was doing it right and how I'm so "murang korek" attempting on my own the official Bible study their church would do and how "cute" it was that I tried to get all the steps right on my own without really an official brand and an offical program and an official strategy and criticized my order of reading the books in it like they even laughed how I should have read John first and then so on and so forth and then do this silly activity between those books by beating up a piñata superhero to teach me a Biblical lesson the fun and "fancy" way which my church never can because it's so "lame" and "outdated" and traditional.) but just stretched those words to sound so fancy just to prove to prove to you that Jesus is really in them all with a very forced plastic smile as they really rub it on you how Biblically undeducated you are which you wouldn't have been if you just joined their "perfect" program. And if you just leave and say sorry and do not want any more to deal with them, they give the most plastic smile and handshake and say they were just looking for their fellow saved souls and were just trying their luck if you were one of them but they realized they were wrong. Which is really another way of saying you're going to Hell. All with that very plastic smile on their face before they leave you. Last time I checked, Jesus never inflicted that much hopelessness into other people's souls... all for the sake of a self-promoting club. Last time I checked, He came to encourage and give hope even to the worst of sinners... even the one crucified beside Him... and on the very last minute. And that was what He loved for, to give them hope. And that was what He unified us all for... our shared hope. The fact that we're all sinners and we're all different and we're all sinners sinning in different ways... but we all share a hope. And that is what's supposed to unify us. And if you read the Bible, it doesn't exactly talk about hopelessness at all... like at all. If you read between the lines like you claim you do, we all fit the definition of sinners that should be burning in Hell... yet we all fit the definition of the kind of people He died for. We all fit the definition of people who deserve a second shot at life... and not just if we're registered in your club just because you think you copyrighted official repentance. Which is why the Bible never terrified me for all my life even when I think it's the scariest book there is but even inspired me and gave me a renewed sense of hope. It's literally the sweetest love story ever if you read between the lines. And this is the love story that's supposed to bind us all... because it's for us all. But what you're doing is just defeating the purpose. When I got exempted by an Ivy League college from taking the IELTs as a teen for reading comprehension results in the SAT, I immediately grew proud and thought of myself as better in reading the Bible than other people and I thought this was the actual blessing. But then I realized the real gift God gave me to really understanding the Bible was the ability to approach His Word with a HEART. It's not always about updatedness and being "scholastically better". Always, it's about heart. And that's the essence of being truly someone that is in Christ. You really don't need much brains or even any to have a heart. And that's exactly all He's asking which is exactly all you're trying to kill... in exchange for the qualities that don't even matter in anyone's journey to Christ... to the point that being RIGHT now means more to you than being RIGHTEOUS. You're killing all the qualities of heart for the qualities of ego. And that's defeating what Jesus has been trying to accomplish. What people are doing trying to form their own clique of who they think would be better than the other clique reminds me of the story of the Tower of Babel when people used the language they were even blessed to have to unify them to build themselves up in their pride rather than the name of God and used the gift of unification for division and so God took that unification away. They used what God gave them as a bridge, flipped it sideways and turned it into a wall. Ironic. Like the real Iron Wall. It was meant to be a bridge, it looked like a tower, but, really, it was a wall. I don't see anything different with what people are doing these days. God blessed us with His Son to unify people of all descriptions in the name of Love which is Himself, and we used it for division all over again. It's like a clique competition all over again to be the greatest... this time, using the name of God for the gimmick instead of a tower. This time, they're using churches. And the resemblance to the former story is uncanny. It's like the Church of Babel, and now the real one thing we're supposed to be bonding over has lost His spot in the story. Ego has taken His place. Fortunately, God does not take this gift away. He gives it freely, so we should share it, not copyright it. So what's really dividing us all is the lack of heart and the presence of ego in it's place. Creating a heirarchy and drawing the lines of what makes who better and what makes who less is literally segregating people on a shelf and is in no way reaching out to embrace each one in the same group hug... all out of the desire to be on the highest seat like a game of natural selection when He clearly said He's in it to save each one and go through all means for that goal... the goal our individual prides are trying to kill. Even Charles Darwin on his deathbed knew and said he was wrong... so why can't you? I guess that's why He in all His genius crafted out the first step to accepting Him... as humility. As what my 2016 documentary, Loved Biochemically and Beyond, pointed out... love finds it way in absolutely everything, even the science we know, to be the answer to everything. And the real meaning of Jesus who Himself is God is that Himself is Love. But now, I realized something else... the source of all the problems in the world: humans and their clashing egos. And this is real idolatry... when the God you worship is your own ego. And the worst thing that can happen to humanity is when we remove God who Himself is Love from His spot on the altar and put our individual selves on the spot. That's the perfect recipe for World War III. And so the real name of the devil... is ego. And many churches and even non-churches worship that beast.

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So I Just Watched Birdbox rRight on Time

That Birdbox movie teaches us that we should never give up on hope. It is there as Jesus promised. Even if now it may seem like we have our blindfolds on and it's hard to see anything including what's in store for us if it's even there and it's hard to find the way to go... the way is easy... it's Him. And we'll see that hope one day. But we'll see it together. For now, just hold on and don't lose hope by taking the blindfold off and end up getting hypnotized by the creature to end yourself and end hope once and for all. We'll see that hope together. For now, keep holding on. And don't be deceived by evil's tricks to make you feel hopeless and that letting go of hope or the blindfold is the only way to live or even by it mimicking things to trick us like false visions or voices of long departed loved ones not making it to Heaven. That's a lie. If it's not of hope, it's not of God. Know to know the real voice to trust. Like in the movie, no matter how precise the mimic is, you can really still tell that it's the voice of a liar... because like in the movie... Tom would never tell you to take your blindfold off... just like God's voice would never tell you anything not of hope. If it's not of hope, it's not of God. And I pray Christ grants all of us that gift of discernment. Hope is there. And we will all see it together... not like in the movie. Hope is there and we will all see it together. Trust me. Trust Jesus. 🙌🏼❤️

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Get to the Root

When I asked someone who used to drink beer a lot why he used to, he said it's because he's trying to numb himself from his problems. I thought it was pointless. That doesn't solve anything. In fact, it causes more problems not just to your health and not just in the fact it sucks out your life and not just to your wallet, but it's actually just making the problem just sit there and linger for longer just so you can keep forcing yourself with substance to get you to ignore it. I recalled a thought that entered my head from when I was in Health Class back in high school. We were taught about how people with depression were given a brain surgery to help them get better. And I just thought the ones who do it are the ones insane. Once the person gets back in his right mind, he realizes his problem again, then gets depressed again. It's like a never-ending cycle. So I thought... why not solve his depression by helping him solve his problem? Get to the root of things. Don't solve things in the superficial level. The depression is a side-effect of the problem, not the problem itself. So the sadness isn't the mastermind you should kill. And this made me realize about the alcohol thing... problems call for solutions, not substances.

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The Doctor is In

Being traditionally Catholic, I went with my mum and dad to mass. I wondered why my mum refused to take the communion and she said it's the rules that if you're late you can't take it. Because of that little ill you can't approach your doctor now? You see, Christ is there for people who make mistakes, be that mistake being late for mass or having mass murdered an entire village. Don't let anything stop you from running into His arms! That's a lie from the devil... self condemnation! Sweetie, you may be the most awful sinner in the world, but you're not condemned! Run to Him! Run to Him! You were never perfect, but that's exactly why He's there.

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We're so temporary in this world. Why settle for this world? What will stay is the footprints we've made as we check the replay there in Heaven.

Andie

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When people tell you about their Jesus, sometimes, it can be that they're not trying to seem sin-free and holy. Sometimes, they're simply giving you the calling card of the only person that can ever help you.

Andie

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If a Christian disappoints you enough to make you lose your faith, then your faith was in people, not in God. So have faith in God. Then you'll never lose your faith.

Andie

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You don't have to compare your life with others' lives. Yours is a different book. The chapters are different. The plot twists are different. Who are you to find out if his novel is a better-written story than yours just because in this chapter he's a multi-millionaire businessman and in this chapter you're still trying to figure out your ambitions? Novels don't always follow a specific blueprint. But when written by the One who wrote the starts, they always are perfectly-ending, but perfectly-written altogether with all the parts, with all the plot twists. So enjoy the journey and enjoy the book. And most of all, trust the Writer. Believe me, no matter what your chapter may look like right now, this one's a best-seller.

Andie

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This Dude's Been Often Overlooked... But

EYES HERE. ❤️ This ain't another irritating Godly religious fanatic post. This one will actually give you hope no matter who you are. Do you sometimes ever wonder if you're too awful to go to Heaven? Well guess what? God has already laid out the answer for you 2,000 years ago. This guy from the Bible is often overlooked as if he was just a random character in the story of the crucifixion that played no major purpose, but he actually depicts such a HUGE picture of HOPE for every single sinner in the world. It's the guy crucified beside Jesus. Crucifixion was laid out for the worst of the worst criminals. Yet here is the picture: The worst of the worst criminals... REPENTED on the last minute of the last minute (like really, the dude was DYING)... but he was the first of the first that JESUS took with Him to Heaven. Isn't that such a GIGANTIC mesage of hope for the whole world? ✨ Even 2,000 years ago, God already knew that 2,000 years later, there would be people who would wonder if they're even good enough to get to His place. Truth is, we're all sinners... awful, awful sinners, no matter our religion, no matter our background, no matter how good or bad we think we are. But seriously, THAT is not a hindrance to our HOPE. At all. Ever. 🙌🏼 That crucified dude wasn't just there at random. God had a plan and purpose for him there. His life and the picture it depicted serves as a story of HOPE for the whole world... even 2,000 years on. 🎉

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Yes, every good and perfect gift comes from above. But what if some things are good and perfect gifts that just need time and patience and a whole lot of faith? Didn't all good and perfect gifts start out that way? Not all good and perfect gifts come from just giving up.

Andie