Quotes: Nick Vujicic in Manila

Born without arms and legs, God is using Nick Vujicic to touch people otherwise crippled by fear and hopelessness. Two days ago I was blessed to hear this amazing man live in Smart Araneta Coliseum.

http://instagram.com/p/ZkmidWD7Na/

Here are the snippets I managed to write down. May you be inspired and encouraged as I am. :)

• Put your faith in action.
• Courage means doing something even if you fail.
• You don't need courage to win, you need courage to fail.
• F.E.A.R. --- False Evidence Apparently Real
• F.A.I.T.H. --- Full Assurance In The Heart (of the Truth)
• Courage starts with purpose.
• You can have arms and legs and not know what to do with them.
• Try again.
• Failure = Education. (Teci: In direct contrast to today's mainstream educational system)
• Never give up!
• Don't believe you're a failure:
• Thomas Edison invented the light bulb after 10,000 tries. He didn't see himself fail 9,999 times. Instead, he just learned 9,999 ways to not make a light bulb.
• Nick himself contacted 52 schools and got rejected before being accepted to his first speaking engagement. Now he has to say "No" to 28,000 speaking invitations.
• The bigger the dream, the bigger the opposition.
• Was that a failure? Yes. Was I a failure? No. Try again.
• Obstacles = Opportunities.
• We have storms and clouds but it's always sunny above the clouds.
• Sometimes you may have a dream that has to die, but don't let it kill you.
• Take steps, no matter how small, towards the right direction.
• Be thankful: See what you've been blessed with!
• My circumstances didn't change; my heart did.
• If you're not happy single, you won't be happy married!
• I'm happy today because I'm thankful for the things I do have.
• Fame, fortune, sex, drugs, gangs, being in the cool group... Happiness is not in those things. Love is what you're looking for.
• Life is not just about success. At the top of the mountain it could get very lonely. Build each other up in love.
• When Nick was a boy, he wanted to see someone who was like him, with no arms and legs. Sadly, that wish was never fulfilled. But now as a speaker he once met a child with the same condition as him. The boy looked at him and knew that he himself can be happy and okay.
• You can be a miracle to someone right now.
• Australians helping Australians... Filipinos helping Filipinos.
• What are the three greatest/dearest things in your life right now?
• Who have you not forgiven yet?
• At 19, Nick had his first speaking engagement: the first time he had compassion on a group of complete strangers, 300 teenagers.
• A teenager asked if she could interrupt Nick's talk because she wanted to hug him. She whispered, "Nobody has ever told me that they love me. Nobody has ever told me I'm beautiful."
• Nick got home, realizing what he wanted to do for the rest of his life: He wanted to be a speaker.
• My parents constantly planted seeds of love and hope and truth. If parents don't do that to their children, who will?
• You are beautiful just the way you are.
• Life without limits... Unstoppable... Limitless
• Unconditional love
• Don't take any day for granted.
• Dream big.
• You can't buy hope.
• Faith as first. Faith as last.

Nick Vujicic is the author of Your Life Without Limits, Unstoppable: The Incredible Power of Faith in Action, and Limitless: Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. He also encourages Christians to never miss an opportunity to share the Good News in this article.

Reminders for the 30-year-old ;)

Because I'm officially turning 30 tomorrow ;)


11 Famous People Who Were in the Completely Wrong Career at Age 30
Heehee :) Quite encouraging. ;)

Letter to an Incomplete, Insecure Teenager
From tadpole to half-mature to complete... Beholding (God) is becoming (more like Him).

J. I. Packer's Advice To Aspiring Writers
Go deep in personal worship; Write to hit hearts; Write from a sense of calling.

How to Glorify God at Work
Honoring God wherever we are.

Questions to Ask When Preparing for Marriage
Hey, I'm just asking...

Too Soon Old
Every age and season is significant.

A 30-Year-Old Dream I Have Outlived By One Year
Surely my reward is with my God.

Build up the kids, you build up the future :)

The constructive approach is constructive; the destructive/punitive approach is destructive.

This is a very good read whether you're in the academe or not. It explores the psychological, emotional, and biological effects of constructive education:

Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tries new approach to school discipline — suspensions drop 85%



“If you are struggling with depression or anxiety, you’re going to have a much harder time concentrating in school and being able to complete your work.”  

“We tell our kids we love them. They’re important to us.”

“When students understand they’re not responsible for the family they were born into, but they are responsible for who they will become as adults, and when they can see the power in that, it’s just amazing what happens.” 

"We accept them for who they are. Their future is more important than their past.” 

"One of the keys has been a staff that embraces two basic concepts: toxic stress prevents kids from learning, and moving from a punitive approach to a supportive, educational approach changes behavior. Gordon says it’s also the unconditional love that the teachers at Lincoln High show the kids on a regular basis."

The God of my future

"My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me."


My friend says, "The concept of a future husband is not biblical." I disagree. My whole life is oriented toward the plans that God has for me --- plans, to the best that I understand them. (Indeed, I should be anchored on God, not on the plans! But the point is I trust God, in what He has revealed, and in how I respond.) Thankfully I've never stopped being friends with the person who said that. God speaks (and we move) in different ways.

I don't know if God tells every person who to marry, what job to take, what country to live in... I can only speak for myself. He revealed many things many times, in that still small voice. And those revelations have only drawn me closer to Him.

I can also say that:
- it's not my will (I've gone through issues that I'd rather not have);
- nor self-delusion (well, let circumstances back my words up),
- nor my own knowledge (I usually see the wisdom of the Leader after I obeyed).
(Not that I'm required to justify how I live my life to other people --- it's not their business.)

Indeed, what is biblical? ==> The fact that God is acting on our behalf, and making it known to us! Is not the Bible a compilation of revelations about the past, present and future?

This blog is called "Teci's Testimony". Here I'm supposed to tell of how great, how good, and how amazing God is. Indeed He is great, He is good, He is amazing --- in my past, in my present, and in my future.

Some people advise not to speak about the "revelation" (in whatever area that is) until it already happened. But by then, what's the point? Isn't that silence a show of unbelief? ("I'll say it only when I'm sure, and I'll be sure only when it happens, *if* it happens...") And how would that convince others that "I am God, who speaks before it comes to pass, that you may know that I am He"?


There is a God, the God of Heaven and Earth,
I know because He made Himself known to me.
He redeemed my past
He is lighting my present
He knows my future
(and sometimes lets me in on it)

True, I don't have to say *everything*. For example, in matters of the heart, men are called to initiate and women are called to respond. Suffice it to say that God speaks to us for our welfare, and God speaks through us for the welfare of others.

In the future, I'll be able to say more
about what the God of my future has always known.
:)

When vision is given, action will follow

If you want to build a ship don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "Wisdom of the Sands"

Ordinary? No such thing.

I believe every one of us can be more EXTRA than ORDINARY. ♥

I believe we all start as seeds that have the ability to grow

But we also have the ability to choose to grow (or not)

If we abide in the Tree of Life

Our source, our literal "roots"

If we recognize our origins

We will determine --- and fulfill --- our respective destinies.

No more frettin'

I keep on forgettin'
That I shouldn't be frettin'
'Coz I already know the (awesome) ending

Born to do it: Writing

It's confirmed. This online quiz tells me what I was born to do.

You Should Be A Poet

"You craft words well, in creative and unexpected ways.
And you have a great talent for evoking beautiful imagery...
Or describing the most intense heartbreak ever.
You're already naturally a poet, even if you've never written a poem." 

But wait, there's more... I took the quiz again and got this:

You Should Be a Film Writer

"You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind.
You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life.
Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling.
And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen! "

Interestingly, five years ago this same quiz told me I was a romantic writer.

"You see the world as it should be, and this goes double for all matters of the heart.
You can find the romance in any situation, and you would make a talented romance story writer...
And while you may be a traditional romantic, you're just as likely to be drawn to quirky or dark love stories.
As long as it deals with infatuation, heartbreak, and soulmates - you could write it."

Hmmm. Confusing? :) Not really. It seems each of these options are equally possible, equally exciting, and equally fulfilling for me. 

Which simply confirms that I was born to write, period.

I entered college fixed on getting a graduate degree in physics. Physics was my calling --- it still is --- so imagine my surprise when I felt God tell me, 

"Write for Me."

I had enough previous experience to confirm that it really was God speaking to me. But what happened next served as even stronger confirmation --- ideas started to appear, skills started to develop, my voice (my personal writing style) began to take shape. Eventually I even remembered that I used to write for the student paper in elementary and high school --- the talent and the desire were there all along, I just forgot.

And now, this blog is five and a half years old. :)

Dear Lord,

Thank You for revealing Your plans for us, and for me

Thank You for showing me that all gifts come from You alone

Thank You because You give us the desire and the ability to do Your will

Thank You because the greatest fulfillment is in following You

(And now, back to doing the work I love. :) )

Steadfast love? Yes and yes.

This month has been *such* an emotional roller coaster. 

(Side comment: I can't even say that this month has been the "most emotional ever"... which leads me to realize just how emotional I am. And I'm in an intellectual field. I'm adjusting still, but the more parts of me alive, the better, I say. :)  )

Three weeks ago, I yearned for steadfast love.

Two weeks ago, tired and discouraged, I was blessed with, in rapid succession:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Chapter 1.

• I finally got to start at the very beginning. Impatient, selective me previously just read and re-read the victorious glorious parts :D
• "It is scarcely wise when bringing the news of the death of his heir to a mighty lord to speak over much of the coming of one who will, if he comes, claim the kingship. Is that enough?" - Gandalf
  "Kingship?" said Pippin amazed.

 

2. Serendipity

• Like the lovers in the movie, it's been a long time since I last saw this. It's a most welcome encouragement to hear that all will be well.
• "If we are to live life in harmony with the universe, we must all possess a powerful faith in what the ancients used to call "fatum", what we currently refer to as destiny."
• "You know the Greeks didn't write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: 'Did he have passion?'"
• "I think we make our own decisions, I just think that fate sends us little signs, and it's how we read the signs that determines whether we're happy or not."
• "Life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. Uh-uh. But rather, its a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan."
• "When love feels like magic, it's called Destiny. When destiny has a sense of humor, It's called Serendipity."

3. Slumdog Millionaire

• Simply a masterpiece. :) Pursue good in the good, righteous way. Pursue love, seeking what's best for the beloved. Take care not to treat money as a god, and God will provide for you.
• "I know I have sinned. Forgive me." - Salim
• "God is great." - Salim
• "So are you ready for the final question for 20 million rupees?" - host
  "No, but maybe it's written, no?" - Jamal
• "I thought we would meet only in death." - Latika
  "This is our destiny." - Jamal

Last week:

The LORD your God is with you,
       He is mighty to save.
       He will take great delight in you,
       He will quiet you with his love,
       He will rejoice over you with singing.

- Zephaniah 3:17 


And this week:

One thing God has spoken,
two things have I heard:
that You, O God, are strong,
and that You, O Lord, are loving.
- Psalm 62:11-12


My heart can rest, for it is in the right place.  :)

 

crystal balls, crystal clear

When you're given a glimpse of a wonderful future,

wouldn't you be impatient?

But the best way to get there is one day at a time...

"When I first started, everything seemed curious and full of wonder..."

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1281

"When I first started, everything seemed curious and full of wonder..."


"He wrote short stories and poems while still in grad school..."


"People only remember him for his non-academic work."

Our lives are made in these small hours :)

Last night, I "met the Robinsons" again.
Thank You God, for leading me to the best life possible, in my past, my present, and my future.
Thank You for my destiny, for glimpses of my future,
and for the choices and actions that lead to this glorious tomorrow.
Thank You because we can afford to learn from the past yet keep moving forward;
for with You, each new day is better than the last.

(Thank You also for science fairs, notebooks of ideas, for magnificent failures, for big loving families... and for telling my future husband that I'm always right. :p )

http://torpin.blogia.com/upload/20070126141910-robinsosns.jpg

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
- Walt Disney

Little Wonders
by Rob Thomas
featured in the movie "Meet the Robinsons"
video here


Let it go
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in
Let your clarity define you
In the end
You will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain

Let it slide
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine,
Till you feel it all around you
And I don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain

All of my regret
Will wash away somehow
But I cannot forget
the way I feel right now

In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Yeah, these twisted turns of fate
Time falls away
Yeah, but these small hours,
These small hours
Still remain

Yeah, oh they still remain
These little wonders
All these twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These little wonders
Still remain

clean slate: september 21 2007, 3:21 pm

I desire to do Your will, O my God;
Your law is within my heart.
-- Psalm 40:8

dear God,

i don't know if it's satan who planted this idea in my head (...or You...)
but the point is godly
i should let You decide.
not tell You my plans and ask You to bless them.
isn't that what i don't like about those who don't like Josh Harris, and the Ludys?

Not my will but Yours be done.
Not my will but Yours be done.
Not my will
Let Yours be done.

• Gethsemane
• the Lord's Prayer
  

Lord,
i give You
my PhD plans
my postdoc plans
my hubby/bf/marriage plans

i give You back my life, a clean slate

as a Godservant
my ultimate dream is to serve You
and to endeavor for Your plans to come to pass
Your kingdom to come
and Your will to be done
amen, and amen.
=)

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying,
"My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;
nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."
-- Matthew 26:39

Teach me to do Your will,
for You are my God!
Let Your good Spirit lead me
on level ground!
-- Psalm 143:10

For I have come down from heaven,
not to do My own will
but the will of Him who sent Me.
-- John 6:38

it’s for God to know…but God reveals stuff to us!

from Randy Alcorn's HEAVEN, though the discussion applies to any topic that has been closed off by people as “not for us to know” even when the pertaining truth has already been revealed in the Bible.

A pastor visiting my office asked what I was writing. “A big book on Heaven,” I said.

“Well,” he replied, “since Scripture says ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him,’ what will you be talking about? Obviously, we can’t know what God has prepared for us in Heaven.” (He was referring to 1 Corinthians 2:9.)

I said to him what I always say: “You didn’t complete the sentence. You also have to read verse ten.” Here’s how the complete sentence reads: “‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ --- but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit” (emphasis added). The context makes it clear that this revelation is God’s Word (verse 13), which tells us what God has prepared for us. After reading a few dozen books about Heaven, I came to instinctively cringe whenever I saw 1 Corinthians 2:9. It’s a wonderful verse; it’s just that it’s nearly always misused. It says precisely the opposite of what it’s cited to prove!

What we otherwise could not have known about Heaven, because we’re unable to see it, God says He has revealed to us through His Spirit. This means that God has explained to us what Heaven is like. Not exhaustively, but accurately. God tells us about Heaven in His Word, not so we can shrug our shoulders and remain ignorant, but because He wants us to understand and anticipate what awaits us.

Other verses are likewise pulled out to derail discussions about Heaven. For example, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Heaven is regarded as a “secret thing.” But the rest of the verse --- again, rarely quoted --- completes the thought: “But the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.”

We should accept that many things about Heaven are secret and that God has countless surprises in store for us. But as for the things God has revealed to us about Heaven, these things belong to us and to our children. It’s critically important that we study and understand them. That is precisely why God revealed them to us!

Another “silencer” is 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. Paul says that fourteen years earlier he was “caught up to paradise,” where he “heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.” Some people use this verse to say we should not discuss what Heaven will be like. But all it says is that God didn’t permit Paul to talk about his visit to Heaven. In contrast, God commanded the apostle John to talk about his prolonged visit to Heaven, which he did in detail in the book of Revelation. Likewise, Isaiah and Ezekiel wrote about what they saw in Heaven.

Although it’s inappropriate for us to speculate on what Paul might have seen in Heaven, it’s certainly appropriate to discuss what John saw, because God chose to reveal it to us. If He didn’t intend for us to understand it, why would He bother telling us about it? (When was the last time you wrote someone a letter using words you didn’t expect them to comprehend?) So, we should study, teach, and discuss God’s revelation about Heaven given to us in His Word.

Certainly, not everything the Bible says about Heaven is easily envisioned. Consider Ezekiel’s description of the living creatures and their wheels and the manifestation of God’s glory that leaves the prophet groping for words (Ezekiel 1:4-28). Still, many other passages concerning Heaven are much easier to grasp.

Isaiah 55:9 is another verse often cited in support of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to Heaven: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” God’s thoughts are indeed higher than ours, but when He reduces his thoughts into words and reveals them in Scripture, He expects us to study them, meditate on them, and understand them --- again, not exhaustively, but accurately.

“Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). This is a direct command to set our hearts on Heaven. And to make sure we don’t miss the importance of a heaven-centered life, the next verse says, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” God commands to set our hearts and minds on Heaven.

seek ye first :)

from Randy Alcorn's HEAVEN

Perhaps you’re afraid of becoming “so heavenly minded you’re of no earthly good.” Relax --- you have nothing to worry about! On the contrary, many of us are so earthly minded we are of no heavenly or earthly good. C. S. Lewis observed, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”

We need a generation of heavenly minded people who see human beings and the earth itself not simply as they are, but as God intends them to be.

new.

Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43:18,19

Behold, I make all things new.
Revelation 21:5

…I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses.
Ezekiel 36:25,26-29

[The LORD] set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Psalm 40:2,3

For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create…
Isaiah 65:17,18

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
All this is from God…
2 Corinthians 5:17,18

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
Galatians 6:15

…To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Colossians 3:5-11

For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Hebrews 9:13-15

Since all these things are to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2 Peter 3:11-13

And they were all amazed, so that they asked among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
Mark 1:27

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35