(1Pe 1:19)  but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

In the previous verse, Peter calls us to be holy just as God is holy; holiness being one of God’s distinct attributes. Now in verse 17, Peter talks about our Father’s action-one who judges impartially. Even though at first glance it seems like Peter is making a qualification by saying “if you call on him as Father…”, it seems more like he is assuming that it is something we should naturally do as a Christian, because he says in the next verse we “know that we were ransomed from the futile ways…”.

So verses 16, 17 seem to point out to the simple yet profound truths of God – God’ holiness and His justice. Focusing more on v.17 and God’s justice, Peter says that we need to  “conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile” (1 Peter is talking to believers dispersed Israelites provinces of Asia Minor and the general topic is Christians living among the Jews, as pilgrims and strangers on earth).

This past verse really stood out to me because I feel like I do not live with fear as I should in this time of “exile.” It is so important to have a healthy fear of God even as it says in proverbs fear is the beginning of wisdom, and in phillipians – live out your faith with fear and trembling. Knowing that God is a JUST God and realizing that I am a Sinner should be enough to bring me to my knees. And I think many times, this lack of fear and even respect for God stems from not knowing fully who He (holiness) is and what he has done (justification through Christ).

I remember my old small group leader few years back mentioned he is able to overcome lust/temptation just by thinking of WHO God is and knowing that he created the universe and just putting things into perspective. I admit that this has not worked for me and I think it is because I can’t fully comprehend the greatness of God is my daily living. Of courses there are flashes of His glory when I’m surrounded by nature, but for me i realized I still struggle with this understanding of His attributes in my mundane everyday walk.

BUT, if Peter stopped just at v.17, it would be pretty dang depressing because, like I was saying before, I know I’m sinful and if God only judges according to my every deed, I would be in big big trouble. The next two verses 18-19, our only source of hope and only true encouragement in this world,  is the simple Gospel truth in how our salvation has been bought by Christ’ blood and our redemption through Christ. At the same time, this doesn’t take away from God’s justice by condemning sinners like us, but his justice is maintained even more so with love and sacrifice.

So all in all: Our God, who is Holy, judges accordingly through what Christ has done in our lives and deserves our fear and reverence.

Prayer requests:
1. School/personal – I realized this week that if I have something to do (eg. exam, project), I kinda drop everything else and do whatever that thing i have to do for that week. So please pray that I may really effectively manage my time and be diligent in not only studying for school but studying for God and to really try to focus and rely on God.

2. Family- that i may not be a burden to them at home because i feel like my stress sometimes seeps out of me and builds up an aura, and i seem to take out my stress at home.

3. missions- I have to keep missing meetings and activities but that I may have the right heart even now to prepare myself.

monday: finished pursell project, read articles for laser project

tues: running and lunch with jenny, shopping and reading with brian and dinner with brian and chris

wed: lunch at zenko sushi for steve with hary vania jen wayne then shooting range with steve and wayne, pho and dollar theater movie with eric

thurs: running with steve, lunch with kevin, dinner and karaoke with regena

friday: lunch with wayne steve ro hary and josh, movie 21, wayne bought rockband so played that for an hour, church and mexican food for dinner, hang out with hs friends until 4am

sat: small group then moon’s bachelor party bbq/basketball until 10pm, talking till 11pm

sun: church then new phone (took few hours)

so… in other words, I didnt get much studying done as i wanted to and spent a lot of money and met with lotta people. fun but tiring…

finally i have time but no one can meet up. its not often i try to plan things but those times i do, ends up me coming home and eating dinner- which is what happened today. But truly a great reminder of the things i do have – esp family. my timing is so off.

And seriously I got to stop thinking that I’m clumsy because the more i think of it the more i become one- ie. dropping all my coins at school in front of Carl’s Junior, almost spilling coffee all over my friends computer, etc… oh and dropping 2 plates of bench press on myself and having to tilt the bar to get the weights off… lucky i didnt hurt myself at least.

does attitude matter?

what’s the difference between obligation and free will? One thing may lead to another.

late night blabber while waiting for LOST to load

cheered so hard for A&M only for them to lose in the end.

Just feels like wanting to wake up in a new place where i’m not me

Attempted to study somewhat at Panera today with some people and I actually got some stuff done. But it’s definitely difficult studying at home. My brother came out to church with couple of his friends which was cool since it actually made him stay afterwards. They even went out to get ice cream with some church people. It’s interesting how none of the church’s siblings look alike. Although there are so many of them, I never picked out a single one until somehow told me that they were. People said my brother and I look pretty different… weird how people used to say we look like twins.

tick tock tick tock time’s a tickings

Partly I was so tired and was having trouble staying awake during Bible Study tonight since I only slept for about 4 and a half hours last night. With my procrastinating and I was also downloading this program I will need later for my project. I think I may gotten some viruses with it.

Hard to say highlight of my day wasn’t necessarily my brother coming back since I technically haven’t seen him yet. Just piles and mounds of his luggage and clothes. Which brings me to mr. Joe which I got to go over the Bible with today. It was brief but it was good. Just teaching him how to “use” the Bible. I told him to read over John and Psalms and also referred him to Psalm 73 which I used to read everyday before class. It was really good to share since I honestly wasn’t even planning to do it today- although I’ve been meaning to for a long time. Hope that God opening opportunities will out-balance my laziness to do things.

Let’s see… my left fingers really hurt from sleeping wrong. Probably put pressure on it for quite some time. Still sore from working out yesterday. I did 4 reps of 195 which is still less than what I did two weeks ago. That one week hiatus brought me down. Enough with random shallowness.

Back to UN-procrastinating.