Since Sunday morning I've been thinking a lot about Pastor's message about God's choice being the right choice. Especially verses 19-20 where the Israelites

“..refused to listen to Samual. No! They said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to go out before us and fight our battles.”

It seems to me that underlying the Israelites disobediance might have been a sense of fear or insecurity that they were not safe or not measuring up to their peers in some ways. So sunday night I was eating Chinese food and I got a fortune cookie. Normally I don't pay much attention to them but for some reason I decided to read it and it said: “Your courage will determine your future”.

This struck me as being kind of profound in the context of Pastor's message. In my experience, ultimately it takes a lot of courage and dedication to remove my human sinful nature or peer pressure from those around me from my heart and let God take control. It's an art that I have not fully mastered yet, but by the grace of God I hope to get better at it. So in some ways I guess my fortune cookie was right ?

……….and yeah, it's hard to follow Christ.  He never said it was easy.  But we must stand firm, be bold and courageous.  I have learned that it is a daily thing, to give up control and let Him lead.  A devotion sometime last week said: “I must decrease, and he must increase.”  More of Him and less of us. But hang in there we are changed from glory to glory, it's a process!

haha…fortune cookie? Neat. ahahah Just dont go buying a bag of them or anything!

haha sure yea whatevers!!!

haha jellybean!!!