God's Love in Little Packages

From a ray of sunshine

that wakes me up in the morning

To the sweet aroma of coffee

Roasting in mother's kitchen

Bacon and eggs for my breakfast

And the scent of lavender

On my neatly ironed clothes

From the clear, blue sky

to the warm, gentle breeze

A charming traffic policeman

Helps me to cross the street

From the shoes on my feet

To the smiles of all the people that I meet

In all these things, there is

A touch of God's love in little packages

"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us." (1 John 4:12)

A mother nurses her child

A young boy picking daisies in the wild

Grandma tends to her garden

And the old man kisses his wife

A couple falling in love

A young woman offering herself to God

In all these things, there is

A touch of God's love in little packages.

Tunnels & Bridges

Life is like a journey through tunnels and bridges. There are times when the days are so dark. They become almost like the night. You could not see what lies ahead of you. It is a deep, dark tunnel. It can make you forget that there is light at the end.

Trials are like bridges that you need to cross in order to get to your destination. They are like the exams that you need to pass. In school, you go through several exams before graduation. And each exam becomes more difficult that its previous.

But you can always hope to see the light at the end of the tunnel if you just continue the journey. You can make it to graduation if you only persevere in studying for your exams. You can be happy and successful in life if you only have faith and believe - in God in your self.

"Continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel." (Colossians 1:23 - NIV)

An Explosion of God's Love

It has been quite a while since my last blog. I am glad I am now able to find the time to write. Praise God for giving me inspiration once again. I've got some pretty explosive thoughts to share.

SERAPHS. Music Ministry of Fire of God Ministries

The Fire of God Ministries is a Catholic Charismatic prayer group of young professionals in Cebu, Philippines. They had organized a praise and worship concert and it was conducted just recently at The Terraces in Ayala Center. People were so very excited about the event because it was the very first time that the community will be conducting its ministry in such a large crowd. But just a day before the event, the strongest typhoon hit the country and devastated almost the entire region that we are residing on. 

People thought the event will be cancelled. We have ministers who had been gravely affected by the typhoon. They could not arrive in Cebu to come to the event. The places they live were hardly reachable. They had to take care of their families and restore their homes. But the wrath of the typhoon did not prevent us from pursuing our goal with the concert.  God indeed is with us. For the violent storm left just in time for our concert. We hardly felt its deluge. The city looks just as peaceful as it had always been. Praise the Lord!

GiGFest 2013 was no ordinary concert.  First of all, it was a concert for a cause. It's purpose is to reach out to the "unchurched" people with the love of God. It was an evangelization strategy.

Second, it was indeed a concert for a cause. FOG supports an underprivileged community in a certain part in Mandaue City by supporting some youth with their college education. One has already been able to finish a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. The congregation is currently supporting another one right now and still hoping to support more in the near future.

Third, it was a concert that provides spiritual input. It started with the Holy Mass presided by one of the SVD priests. A lay preacher was also invited to give an inspirational talk about God's love. His name was Ale Aguspina. He gave us a humorous but very substantial discourse.

And lastly, it was all for free!

Lay preacher, Bro. Ale Aguspina at GIGFest2013

I learned so many things from his discourse. But the story of that retired professor who was found playing around with his pet pigs by one of his students stood out for me. It was a very comprehensive illustration of what God's love is like. Brother Ale mentioned that one of the ways to express love is identification. We identify ourselves with the one we love. That is just what God did when he became a human being in the person of Jesus Christ. That is the meaning of the mystery of the incarnation. 

God loves us so much that he willingly came down from his throne in heaven to become like one of us. He experienced every human emotion, positive and negative. He identified himself with us. He felt our pain, our sorrows, our anguish. He even died on the cross for us. He was like that old professor who wanted to be identified with the pigs. It didn't matter what people would think of him. In the same way, God identified himself among us even to point of humiliation and mockery. 

How do you know that God loves you? Just look around and you will see. The earth's atmosphere has been uniquely created to sustain life. The gravity of the earth is there to keep everything in place. We have been spared from the wrath of a terrible storm. The earth had been terribly shaken a few weeks ago but we are still alive. The fact that you are still breathing at this very moment is an expression of God's love for you.

Credits to Miles Labella for this photograph.

After all the tragic events that took place in our country, I could no longer doubt of God's love for me. In just a short period of time, many homes have been destroyed. People are already starving for food. Others are even for the untimely demise of their loved ones who died in the storm. But God is good. He had never forsaken our country. Help from other nations are even outpouring. It is indeed an explosion of God's love for the Philippines in these tragic times.

PSALM 53:2 -- The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." Kung sa Binisaya pa, ang boang nag - ingon nga wala'y Ginoo. I sure don't want to be called stupid...

Love Your Enemies.

MATTHEW 5:44 - 45 "But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven."

MARTYRDOM - It's good to behold but difficult to do. It's bitter and painful. Our human nature would always urge us to fight back.

There are only two ways that our rational mind could respond to these trying situations: fight and flee. And our arrogant, self - indulgent ego would always insist on fighting back. Fleeing would imply weakness and defeat. Who would want to lose a battle?

Every one of us wants to win. Everybody wants to be a hero. Every body wants to be great. But the greatness in human eyes is vile in the eyes of God. Remember, many martyrs become saints.

Jean de Beaumetz, Jean Malouel and Henri Bellechose, working in Dijon, were successively the official artists of the DDukes of Burgundy, Philippe le Hardi and Jean sans Peur. Characteristic of their work is the combination of refined draughtsmanship with fresh, brilliant colours heightened by gilding, in an attempt to express deep emotion. It has been suggested that this painting was begun by Jean Malouel and completed by Bellechose.

A Commandment and A Promise

Exodus 15:26 - The Lord said to them, "If you will obey me completely by doing what I consider right and keep my commandments, I will not punish you with any of the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians. I am the Lord, the one who heals you."

Here is a commandment that comes with a promise. The Lord gave the Law through Moses but Jesus came to fulfill the promise that came with it. People heard of the miracles he has done and were longing to get an experience of his healing power. That is why many people came to him.

We all are sick people. We all experience suffering in our lives and we long to break free from this suffering. We all want to be healed from our sickness. That is why we should come to Jesus. He is the god who heals us. He is Immanuel - God with us.

Follow is a verb that means to obey, copy or imitate. Following Jesus simply means to imitate his ways, to obey his words. And all of Jesus' life had been lived in obedience to God. So if we follow Jesus, we are obeying God's commands. Then, we can be confident that God's promise will be fulfilled in our lives.

 

MATTHEW 4:24 - The news about him [Jesus] spread through the whole country of Syria, so that people brought to him all those who were sick, suffering from all kinds of diseases and disorders: people with demons and epileptics, and paralytics - and Jesus healed them all.

Faith is Personal Decision.

"They were in their boat with their father Zebedee, getting their nets ready. Jesus called them, and at once they left the boat and their father, and went with him." (Matthew 4:21)

Faith is a personal decision to follow Christ. It does not matter if you were born and raised in a devout Christian family or not. The decision had to be made. Will you choose to respond to Christ call? Jesus had already shown us the benefits of becoming his disciple.

"Faith is man's response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life." (Catechism of the Cathelic Church #26, definitive edition, p.19)

The Lord is my Light.

"No longer will the sun be your light by day nor the moon be your light by night; I, the Lord, will be your eternal light. The light of my glory will shine on you. Your days of grief will come to an end. I, the Lord, will be your eternal light." (Isaiah 60:19-20)

♥ Who am I? I asked myself. And I searched everywhere for answers but could not find a gratifying one. So I looked within but still there was darkness. I could not see a thing until I considered God. 

It is difficult to get an idea of who you are if you do not put God in the situation. It is like total darkness. Your mind could only go blank. No thoughts would come into your head. It is all black. You could not see a thing.

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; I will fear no one. The Lord protects me from all danger; I will never be afraid." (Psalm 27:1)

An Enormous Crowd

As I was reflecting on this message in the book of Revelation in the bible, a picture of the Vatican comes to mind. It is about the enormous crowd that was gathered in the temple around God's throne and the Lamb.

After this I looked, and there was an enormous crowd - no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation and language, and they stood in front of the throne and of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

They called out in a loud voice: "Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb!" 

All the angels stood around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures. Then they threw themselves face downward in front of the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power and might belong to God forever and ever! Amen!"

~ Revelation 7:9-12 (TEV)

Rome is probably the busiest place on Earth. Every year, people from different countries flock to the Vatican to see the Pope celebrating Holy Mass. There are plenty of organized pilgrimages all year round. The place never runs out of people. You can just imagine the enormous crowd that was mentioned in the bible. Here is another proof of God's complete knowledge and authority over our existence.

 

What is the meaning of life?

"The days of mortals are like grass; they bloom like a flower of the field; but the wind passes over it, and it is gone, his field will not see him again. But the Lord's kindness is forever with those who fear him; so is his justice, for their children's children... The Lord has set his throne in heaven; he rules, he has power. Praise the Lord!" (Psalm 103:15-17,19)

So, what is life? According to Merriam - Webster's online dictionary, it is the sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual. It is the period from birth to death. Stress, anxiety, boredom, frustration, happiness, laughter and tears are all part of this sequence.

How should we live this life? Accept the fact that all these experiences are part of the sequence of events that make up our existence. We would not be what we were made to be without them. As long as we are still walking this earth, our life is still not over. We are still a work-in-progress. God is not finished with us yet. We would not know what we would truly become until the end of our days when we finally come to meet our Maker face to face.

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10 -ESV)

 

How to live life on earth? A certain evangelical Christian pastor wrote that life is a preparation for the next. He also wrote that it is a dress rehearsal for the real show which is eternity with God. So that's it. Our purpose here on earth is to practice living life in communion with God to prepare ourselves for eternity. As Shakespeare had also written in one of his poems, all the world's a stage and we are all the actors. So we are but actors practicing our roles for God's eternal drama in heaven.

Here's a touching story about a young aspiring preacher.

A young preacher was walking with an older more seasoned preacher in the garden one day and the younger preacher, feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was inquiring of the older preacher. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the WILL OF GOD for his life and for his ministry. Because of his high respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to TRY to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact it wasn't long before he realized how impossible it was to do so. Noticing the younger preacher's inability to unfold the rosebud while keeping it intact, the older preacher began to recite the following poem.

Be still and know that I AM GOD - Psalm 46:10.

"It is only a tiny rosebud, 

a flower of God's design; 

but I cannot unfold the petals 

with these clumsy hands of mine. 

 

The secret of unfolding flowers 

is not known to such as I. 

GOD opens this flower so sweetly. 

When in my hands they die.

 

If I cannot unfold a rosebud

 this flower of God's design. 

Then how can I have the wisdom to unfold 

this life of mine? 

 

So I will trust in Him 

for leading each moment of my day. 

I will look to Him for His guidance 

each step of the pilgrim way. 

 

The pathway that lies before me, 

only my Heavenly Father knows.