Kingdom Greatness

 After a long weekend, today is workday again. 

Last Sunday, our pastor preached about greatness in the kingdom of God.

I learned the following points:

1. God gave us gifts for us to use in serving and blessing other people and to glorify Him.

2. Gift is an inborn/built-in talent, a seed of greatness and freely given by God. This is something that we are passionate about. While skill is something we can acquire by training

3. Those who run from responsibilities, they will lose the opportunity to be great because they will not be able to refine their gift

4. Work is different from job. It is about becoming the person that God wants you to be. It is about fulfilling your divine assignment.

5. Job can be used to refine our gift

6. Refining our gift will lead to greatness

7. We can lose our job but our gift is irrevocable.

8. Purpose, skills, talent and gift -> we all need these things to fulfill our work/divine assignment

Proverbs 18:16

"A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before the great."

Application:

We need to discover and refine our gift. Moreover, we should use it to serve others and glorify God. Embrace every opportunity to develop yourself so that you can give more value to people around you. 

Link to video - Kingdom Greatness

Will Do Blogs Again

Back to Blogging

 Hi! Finally, after a long time of not being able to update my blog, I now decided to be active again. I will post my journey as a wife, as a QA tester, as an eldest sister and as a disciple. Hope I can keep up with it again!

7 Steps in Making Plans to Achieve Your Goals

As the eldest child in a family of ten siblings, as a cell leader and a leader in our church, I have lots of goals to be mindful of this year. And by this time, I realized how important it is to set your goals clearly and be intentional in making a strategy on how to achieve those goals.

Below, I would like to share these simple steps on how I was able to be make sure that there is a progress everyday towards those goals and might work in you, too :)



1. Make a list of your major goals for the year.
       In making goals, I divide them into these categories: Family, Ministry, Finances and Career. I used Trello in listing down my major goals by adding each category as list and adding cards to each list as I go along.
2. Identify the phases of your progress per month or per quarter.
       This will help you narrow your focus and not to be overwhelmed much by the details that you need to think of for the whole year. I simply used Excel to lay down the things that I expect to happen per month.
3. Make a habit of weekly planning by writing them down.
        I used to do it every Sunday evening and prepare the things that I need to do from Monday until next Sunday. I'm using a thin booklet instead of a planner so that I can carry it wherever I go. I'm also using Asana in defining my tasks for the week to have a better view of my weekly calendar. I also love to create projects per category and list down the tasks I have in mind in each project before I make a schedule when to do them. I only choose to schedule tasks that I think I would still have enough time to do and schedule the other less important tasks the next week. Here, it is important to learn how to prioritize.
4. Review your weekly and daily goals every morning.
         Here I learned that it is very important to wake up early and start reviewing your goals early before you do anything else. In this way, you'll have a better perspective of what to do within the day.
5. Check those to do lists whenever you're done.
6. Review your achievements for the day and celebrate.
7. Repeat the process in step 4 to 6 until you see progress in achieving your major goals.

I hope these simple steps will help. But please note that these steps are also still subject to improvement as I go along the journey of achieving my goals and I hope that you, too. Thanks!

Book Reading Notes: Guidelines to Help Us Add Value to People

In my pursuit of personal growth, I was reading the book of John Maxwell about the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and found these great points to share

Guidelines to help us add value to people:

1. Truly value others
-"Effective leaders go beyond not harming others, they intentionally help others. They must value people and demonstrate that they care in such a way that their followers know it."

2. Make ourselves more valuable to others
- "Adding value to other people depends on the idea that you have something of value to add."
- "The more intentional you have been in growing personally, the more you have to offer."

3. Know and relate to what others value
- "Inexperienced leaders are quick to lead before knowing anything about the people they intend to lead. But mature leaders listen, learn and then lead."


In these guidelines, I learned how important for us leaders to give help and show genuine care to the people we lead. It is also important to impart something to them to help them to grow and be developed. Moreover, the most important way to lead them is to listen first on them and learn about what they value in life so that we can connect and lead them correctly. I learned that leading people is about helping others win.

Life

Life

Who are you to say that I am a loser?

When God says that I am more than conquerors.

I am received a new life because of someone has given it up

And now my life is now destined for a greater purpose

A purpose that is way too far than I can ever imagine

I am created not just because it happened

But I existed because someone have planned every details of my life

I was given with a journey to take

A journey that involves laughter, pain, troubles and learning

And as I take my path, every step leads me to wonder

That the reason why this journey is hard to take alone

Is because this life is meant to be shared with a Companion

Someone who has the light, the answers, the power and direction

Until such time, the journey became a series of encounter

Until I learned who actually devised the path

And to my amazement, I realized that

Even before I began this life

All of my needs, my longings have already been prepared for

And not just prepared for but even died for

To purchase the life that someone wants me to enjoy

A life of joy, everlasting love, freedom, grace and peace

And all this time, through it all, someone hand is already guiding me

Teaching me, whispering to me

That all the gaps, the bumps, valleys and even the prizes of this life

Are not actually the real life itself

But the real life begins when I start to journey with Him

As He unfold how this life should be lived

As He unfold how He died for this life for me to live

G12 National Conference 2017 - Day 1 Review Part 1

G12 National Conference 2017 - Day 1 Review Part 1

Finally, this is the day that I've been waiting for! Truly the annual G12 National Conference is really a must for everyone who wants to be immersed more in the G12 vision. The first day of the conference which is for the pastors and leaders was held at PICC today, October 23, 2017. And I can say that I am really blessed and challenged by God to move on to my next level. The following are my learnings from each topic.

Topic 1  - Pastor Art Sepulveda


He gave emphasis on the importance of a father or husbands in preservation of families. There is a

great impact on what the society would be if there is an absence of the father role in a family. It is not only important that a family has a father physically but it is even more important that the role of a father which God has established should be visible. The love, care, guidance, discipleship and good the husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing.More to that, husbands should be all out in their love for their wives exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting. In summary, because God purposed in his heart to raise families, it is important that the image of being a father should be restored in the heart of every men in order to produce a better society.
example should be available to the wife and the children. Marriage works in God's way so every marital relationship should be patterned according to how God designed it to be. Otherwise, we will only have imitation marriages if we don't go back to the original. The commitment of a couple should be founded in the Word of God. In doing the vision, it is very important to be intentional in family formation because that is what the vision is all about. Discipleship is restructuring a culture of society by changing one person at a time. And discipleship is what the world hungers for because it breaks purposelessness of an individual. In Ephesians  5:25-28, The Message Bible version says that

Topic 2 - Pastor Bert Pretorious

The theme of his message revolves around Philippians 1:1-11. I learned that like Paul, whenever we think of the disciples whom God has entrusted to us, we should give thanks to God. And whenever we pray for them, we should be filled with joy and not with fear, doubt or pressure. Another point that was mentioned is that we cannot disciple people whom we don't believe in. Like what Philippians 1:6 says, we should have faith in God's work that has began the life of our disciples and be confident that He will bring it to completion. So in discipleship, it is important that we have faith in our people for us to unleash them to their potentials.

What is the command? It was mentioned in Matthew 22:37-39 that we should love God and love people. And how should we love God? It was mentioned in Matthew 28:19-20 that we should go and make disciples of all nation and part of our mission is to teach them to obey everything Christ has commanded us which falls back to loving God and loving people. As we continue in this cycle, we are considered remaining Christ's love. Meaning, if we are not doing the vision, we are not remaining in the love of God. Just as how Christ revealed to His disciples everything He have heard from the Father, we should also do the same by making disciples.

I still have to add four more topics to share for day 1 but I already lack time because I still have to sleep early tomorrow for day 2. I'll add them tomorrow as well as the other new topics that I will learn. I'm praying for everyone who will attend to receive more to make a bigger impact as light of the world.

Remaining in Christ: Key to Fruitfulness

Devotional Entry - Oct. 11, 2017

Remaining in Christ: Key to Fruitfulness

"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." -John 15:5

"But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father." - John 15:7-8

"I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!"- John 15:9-11

"You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name."

John 15:16-17

Message:

- The first key to fruitfulness is to remain in Christ. As we remain in Him, He will remain in us. And once we unite my whole being to Christ, we become fruitful in Christlikeness and Christ-multiplying ministry. We should focus on living the life that Jesus wants us to live and the multiplication of the people whom God will entrust us shall follow.

- We cannot be fruitful if we separate ourselves from Christ

- The Word of God that remain in us is the key to unlock provisions and blessings from heaven. The Word of God that is planted in our hearts will result into an answered need of prayer. Therefore, we should work it out that the Word of God will remain in our hearts. By having God's Word planted in our hearts, we become confident to ask and receive anything from the Father. For faith comes from hearing the Word of God.

- Remaining in Christ's love means obeying His commandments. Jesus has loved me us even as the Father has loved Him. So we should remain in His love. His commands are an expression of His love and care for us. And if we continue to obey, we allow the love of Christ to serve and bless us because the benefit of obedience is  a blessed life.

- Jesus chose us to go and bear lasting fruit. We are called and chosen to be fruitful. Jesus has given everything to give us such an abundant life.

Prayer:

Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for Your Words that give life. Today, I pray for your help so that I can remain in You, Your Words remain in me and that I remain in Your love by obeying Your commandments. I commit to You my heart and soul. May Your likeness be developed in me. And I declare victory as I crush Satan under my feet. Thank You Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.