Oh the Graciousness~!!!!

It was Mothers day just yesterday but on that Friday of that week, Jon and I met up with her again and had dinner with her. We had went to the Tomodachi restaurant for dinner and had a shared meal with her. So we ordered some okonomiyaki (pancake), chicken bento, and and clay pot rice. Took some photos and had a good catch up with her over the meal. After the meal we went to Ikea to look around at the furniture display. Mum and I wanted to discuss about the curtains to replace. As the shops were closing we headed home and despite the time we found our meeting with mum pretty profound and challenging but at the same time worthwhile.

As I had my quiet time, finishing The Radical Disciple by John Stott, I found an interesting point in the book.

"Then the apostle Peter, whose first letter was written against the background of growing persecution, found it necessary to distinguish between those who suffered ‘as a criminal’ and those who suffered ‘as a Christian’ (1 Peter 4:16); that is, because they belonged to Christ. Both words (Christian and disciple) imply a relationship with Jesus, although perhaps ‘disciple’ is the stronger of the two because it inevitably implies the relationship of pupil to teacher."

As Christians, we suffer for Christ. We live for His purpose and in His accordance our relationship with Him is the most important or rather we don't deserve be saved but we are. I knew when leaving that Friday night in opposite directions will be another time lost not seeing our mum again but God has a plan for us. My brother and I were born in and born with a new life in God's grace.

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,^{a]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."

(Romans 6:1-14)