Counseling the Heart

In a bar, three men ordered three different drinks but one is priced higher than the rest. Since equality is their national mantra, the other two men had to reluctantly pay the higher price. The following week, they tried to bend the system by asking for separate checks. But the bartender insisted on following the equality rule. For weeks, the three men brought in more people to support using the lowest price for equality. Fearful of vandalism, the bartender went along, incurring losses, charging the lowest price to them all. Then one day, the men returned to find the bar closed and gone. That’s how it works in communism and how it will end.

The lesson? What’s fair for one may not be for another, whereas differences should not be immediately misconstrued as inequality Prices differ for a reason, just as rainfall differ depending on the time of the year. Indexes like grades, salary, work schedule, promotion, benefits, or needs differ for a reason. Some reasons are beyond one’s control like birth defects or natural calamity. Now, imagine cheese without the alps! But how do you equally parcel out the alps? It’s obvious that variety reflects realities of life. We see it everywhere, and not just for aesthetics. Individual ingenuity is challenged to turn even adversities into spice of life. Given time, if the hands are unshackled, it’s totally possible. In fact, the harder the task, the greater the motivation and the glory attained. We already know there are different degrees of difficulties in life. Nobody is saying we should have equality of difficulties. Most prefer lighter load, with big reward. Like an assembly line chicken for Michelin flavor. When will we ever learn that the goal is not equality of pleasure or wealth. Neither is it power nor access. For even children with access to modern medicine suffer incurable diseases. He dies because he ran out of time. Time is a real asset often ignored. That’s why Jesus promises abundance, not equality. At the core of God’s plan is to enable life to sparkle , and to satisfy which brings justice to human effort and glory back to God. For that, He promises unlimited time, eternity, thru faith in Christ.

Insisting on one size fits all is not justice but lunacy. It’s like insisting everyone order the same drink in the bar. Individual discontent eventually lead to system collapse. Treating the symptom not the root delivers only temporary relief. Respecting differences yield better measures of beneficial control be it culinary or governance. It uses brilliantly simple solution like — what you sow, you shall reap, in time. And there is a time to sow, a time to reap. Those timeless words from the Bible have built civilizations. For all lovers of justice, freedom and truth, it’s not too late. Start with the basics.

Quick check: Complete the sentence: No time to loose. When the solution is well intended but ill defined and too simplistic, the result is ___________. When did this happen to you? Or, when did you this happen?

Not if it can deceive you. Consider how skull and ghost costumes, skeletons, pumpkin and candy have lured so many until it is exposed! Thru the internet, it’s exposed that these are not just toys or symbols. Each is a tool for communicating with the spirits. Suddenly, candies are not innocent anymore, and some knowingly still engage! Question is, can you be exposed to it also?

Yes, just by joining Halloween celebration, it opens us to the influence of the devil, especially when Baphomet and checkered floors are part of the decor. Bold enough? Hollywood spellslingers do not hide their identity anymore. Check them out in the internet (Vanessa Hudgens, Megan fox, Ariana Grande, Gisele Bundchen, to name a few). As it turns out, witches cast their spells on pumpkin and other Halloween decorations sold in the store that we take home. A door is then opened for dark spirits. It’s documented that such homes have experienced depression, conflict, financial hardships, feeling of heaviness in the month of October, and so on. Even churches are not spared. The Satanist church high priest said :

To them, October 31st is actually the birthday of Satan, celebrating witchcraft and the devil. It’s like their Easter and Christmas combined. Celebration starts at dusk and the golden hour is eleven pm to midnight. It’s when demonic forces are out and active. People, especially children, go missing literally because blood sacrifices are needed for the devil. Unbelievable? According to a former witch turned Christian, participating in Halloween is worshiping the devil, intentional or not. Of course, since Satan never asks, he deceives, grabs or forces his way in. Reenacting what is shown on ghost movies, repeating the chants, invoking the powers for knowledge on a crystal ball – all out of childlike curiosity seeking fun lands one in contact with divination, new age occult, sorcery. It’s confusing because you’ve just tasted some sense of real power, even instant healing. But then this is also his tactic to amuse, attract, and gain your trust.

A documentary film – The Witches of Hollywood 2020, explains its allure for trans-feminism. Some ex-witches and ex-warlords testify to its devious ways. Check out Jenny Weaver, a former witch turned global voice for the gospel, and Bill Weise, author of 23 Days in Hell. Today, we can be in church for years and never hear specific warnings concerning the above. A whole generation of “Christians” have no in-depth understanding of what demons and Halloweens really are. Parents and teachers are clueless. No wonder modern demonic activities are able to pass as normal, harmless, fun, and profitable. Notice football half-time features occultism on the stage? It still sells, just like Halloween.

We are souls, but all Soul’s Day is not Halloween. Should we reclaim the celebration of All Soul’s Day emphasizing light, hope, martyrs and eternal life, and stop funding the kingdom of darkness? Comment below if you are also concerned.

Small step: What decor could you use to bring Light into your home and heart, so you can celebrate All Soul’s Day and have fun, but not at the expense of children deceived and sacrificed in the altar of the devil?

“If only you would greatly bless me and expand my territory. May your hand be with me! Keep me from harm so I might not endure pain.” Prayer of Jabez 1 Chronicle 4:10

Simple step: “For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37 Do you have a prayer request? Write it down so I can pray with you.

Do you check the mirror before stepping out? Dress for success. Walk head up even though you are broken?

We all want to be respected, to be seen, to be heard, to be known. It is a basic human need. Children grow up maladjusted when they lack enough good attention. It is a desire so strong that they often say, “Look at me.” Maybe you did that too as a child. What did you do to be noticed then? Adults are not spared the dis-ease. We might even act out, fake illness, play the martyr, crack a tired joke, just to get attention, any attention.

Sadly, we don’t always get the proper attention we seek. It could be too little, too late, or too much. (We could be pestered by unwanted demands and attention that we neglect our real needs.) When this need is unmet, some might fall prey to groomers, predators and bullies who take advantage of them. Not everyone knows how to give or get attention. But the need remains.

Sometime in my teen years, I realized it’s a dog eat dog world. I learned that paying attention to oneself is more practical and effective than craving attention from others. To be able to “look at me” with my own eyes, not somebody else’s, is more helpful.

Being able to take an objective look at oneself is a milestone to growing up. Who am I, how do I act when there is no one around to observe or impress, but me? Then it turns out this is actually a good thing. Self-awareness happens when we evaluate our motives, goals, ability, and make adjustments where needed. Not only that, Science tells us that how we perceive ourselves is projected onto others. It’s involved in pygmallon effect. Self-awareness gives us more control over how we want others to perceive us and behave around us, more than just the knowledge of how others think of us. Then we get the attention that is healthy and proper.

Lastly, once we understand how God sees us, we would want to prioritize it over the others. Because thru it, we get uninterrupted and undiluted attention so that we experience inner peace, almost fearless, even when ignored, maligned or rejected. And because He could see thru us and beyond. What we will be 28 years later! He said to Peter, you will be the rock. How to get to this condition? Simply learn to align ourselves with His values and purpose. It is like a button is pressed when a person aligns himself with Him. Make sense for how do you fill your cup unless you align it to the spout?

Small Step: Have you felt you’ve been less appreciated lately, working too hard to find approval? Try to align one of your purpose with God’s.

After reading all the news about war, do you still have it in you? Not just fear, how do we deal with increase in hate and losses? It might be ironic, but a poignant letter below from Einstein* to his daughter might shed new lights.

”I ask you to guard the letters as long as necessary, years, decades, until society is advanced enough to accept what I will explain below.
There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us. This universal force is LOVE.”

“Give me 100 men who love God and fear nothing but sin and I will move the world.” — John Wesley

“When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force.
This force explains everything and gives meaning to life. This is the variable that we have ignored for too long, maybe because we are afraid of love because it is the only energy in the universe that man has not learned to drive at will.”

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” — Apostle Paul I Corinthian 13:13

“I deeply regret not having been able to express what is in my heart, which has quietly beaten for you all my life.”

Changing one mind at a time: What’s the first thought you have after reading this. Is it about love? That’s the point.

In 1939, Einstein urged Pres. Roosevelt to pursue research into nuclear weapons, fearing that Germany might do it first. Later he expressed regrets for initiating its development. To his daughter, he wrote the above letter.

LET US, our children and our children’s children continue their legacy

By July 4, 2026, the USA would be 250 yrs old. It has the most recognizable flag in the world, its sacred treasure. Sad to say, it is the only national flag I have seen to be shredded and burned by its own. To say that it is just a piece of cloth so it can be burned and trashed is dishonest, childish, and disrespectful. It deserves to be protected from vandalism; to be spared from being used as a punching bag, a personal weapon or megaphone. As our symbol of freedom , it is to be displayed to represent such ideals and hope, so that when you look at it, you could almost see the faces of those who fought for it waving to you. What a beautiful reminder and a simple way to unify us despite our differences! So it is not ours to replace, to do as we please with it. Crafted by those who fought for it, it belongs to all who continue that fight even today.

Do you have a gnawing need to find validation? Do you go to great lengths to alter the parts of your body that you do not like to ward off any insecurity or sense of dissonance? Do you work hard on the parts you want people to notice, while unknowingly sacrificing your real assets? Do you constantly notice in others what you think you lack, then make comparison? Do you quickly become depressed because you cannot get the attention or acceptance you seek? Does a single negative comment change your mood and bring you down easily, disrupting your work and relationships? Do you then cry even for no apparent reason? Have you been binge-eating or self-cutting, drugging yourself, contemplating ending your life, and still nothing you do can erase your loneliness or dis-ease? Happiness seems so elusive.

If you answer yes to a few of the above, you could be obsessing. But obsession is marked by rushing, restlessness, repetitive intrusive thoughts and irrational, risky behavior. That shows the locus of control may no longer be within you. That which we obsess we serve. We’re enslaved. Freedom seems elusive.

Could such obsession be behind the rapid boom (emphasis on “rapid”) of surgical beauty, sex reassignment clinics, and cycles of fashion trends? Unfortunately, instead of progress, there’s downward spiral. How? The frenzy lifestyle feed anxiety, discontentment, self-alienation, and the delusion that having class, power, wealth, and success alleviate pain and poverty. These materialistic solutions have been used in both capitalist and socialist societies. And they always enhance disconnection with one’s soul, its essence and true purpose. So these pursuits exacerbate loneliness, as shown in the sketch above. This irony is manifest in first-world societies where there is greater sexual freedom and the freest expression of oneself, yet loneliness and social isolation are on the rise. Unity becomes more elusive.

Now what? In response, countries like the UK and Japan have appointed ministers of loneliness. Once again, do you see the missing part?

Hint: When hit with disillusion, the soul is in distress. Suggested reading: Psalm 40 and/or 90.

Mark Twain said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Good points. There’s one very critical day you would not want to miss though: the day you find out what could stop you in your tract. Paul clipped it:  

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.” (Romans 7:18-19)

Pause a moment and let that statement sink in. If it resonates, it is because the experience is all too familiar. What would stop us? It is ourselves. Yet, we’ve seen the ascendancy of the humanists view claiming that people are by nature good, quite the opposite of the reality. The humanist’s vision has inspired us to work tirelessly to bring progress. We have what it takes to thrive: education, science, technology, all fill our arsenal to conquer the world. That’s what we thought. Then World War II struck. It was like demons were let loose. The good man theory popped. Worse, the very means of progress and prosperity were used against humanity in gruesome genocides.

So as it turns out, knowing your purpose is not enough. Having an ambition is a start. You still need to have the power to actualize it. So, the next place Paul took his readers sealed it. No, he did not spit out condemnation nor pessimism for our inadequacies and imperfections. He talked of forgiveness and transformation. It’s a spiritual healing and empowering. That day is to become a turning point when we become aware of our true self, admit that we are spiritually poor, sick to the core, hopeless and helpless beings without God. As Jesus puts it succinctly in Matt 5:3, “Blessed (happy) are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of God is theirs.” In short, the day we acknowledge that we are sinners, torn and tattered inside out, that we can’t even save ourselves from harming ourselves, or our fellow humans and environment. To call it a day of salvation is not an exaggeration. It’s like a new day dawning for this salvation gives us a new nature: a new purpose, perspective, and power.

Quick check:  What experience makes you aware of your spiritual poverty?