God’s people here on earth…

James and I were talking this morning and he mentioned about a new post on his blog. The weird thing about it is that those same ideas have been bugging me for a very long time. Instead of commenting on his post, I decided to blog about it and finally get this into writing, then link the post through a comment on his. lol!

I realized the same thing when I read Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing About Grace. I learned that we may not agree with somebody’s principles or way of life but we don’t have to condemn him either (This does not apply only to Christians but to everybody). Most of the time, Christians have become more active in pickets and movements against a principle than sharing God’s word and letting other people experience God’s love and grace.

But what struck me even harder was when my best friend told me that she is hesitant in coming with me to a Christian support group because she felt uneasy everytime we go there. That she can’t really grasp what we are talking about (God’s grace, God’s love, etc.) and the more that she gets uneasy and ends up more confused.

Then it struck me (Again! Hahaha!). Sometimes we (Christians, that includes me) have this unconscious way of ostracizing non-Christians by talking about the things they can’t relate with. We talk about “relationship with God”, “God’s people”, “God’s love”, “being in constant conversation with God” whenever we are around non-Christians, thus the “holier-than-thou” attitude.

When I heard her say that, I couldn’t utter a word. I didn’t know what to say. I know I am guilty and I can’t redeem myself and the Christians in general (or maybe just those who are guilty of this too. hehe.). It was a real shocker (hahaha!). It was an eye opener for me.

Sometimes, people get disappointed with God because God’s body (that’s us) disappoints them. They don’t see compassion from God’s eyes. They don’t think God’s ears hear them. They don’t hear encouragements from God’s mouth. They don’t receive help from God’s hands. They don’t feel God’s feet walking towards/with them. Is God on a coma?

I am so glad we had that conversation. I am humbled, or maybe embarrased. I am sorry I made her feel that way.

Come to think of it, Christians are no better than ordinary people in terms of intelligence, strength, or physical appearance (among other things). The only thing that makes us different is that we know that we are imperfect and that we need help and that only God can help us.

Suddenly it made real sense…

If you are checking my Currently Reading page, you will notice that Philip Yancey’s book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, has been there since… forever, I think. Haha! This day, I finished the book. Yey! This book revolutionized my life and how I view the people around me. Embarrassing as it is, it is the only book that helped me understand what grace really is, and how God has loved me, all of us, more than anything else.

It also taught me that, as God has forgiven us, we should forgive other people. Extend to them the grace that God has showed to us. In this world full of ungrace, we, Christians should be the vessels of God’s grace into this world.

 There are lots of points I learned from this book  that are worth noting. But I want to share to you this one point that really struck me. Suddenly, it all made sense to me.

This is what Yancey wrote… 

For a long time, C. S. Lewis reports, he could never understand the hair splitting distinction between hating the person’s sin and hating the sinner. How could you hate what a man did and not hate the man?

But years later, it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life – namely myself. However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself. There had never been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact the very reason I hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things.

Christians should not compromise in hating sin, says Lewis. Rather we should hate the sins in others in the same way we hate them in ourselves: being sorry the person has done such things and hoping that somehow, sometime, somewhere, that person will be healed.

In this paragraph, Yancey was talking about the saying, “Hate the sin but love the sinner.” But along these thoughts, another quote came to mind, the very quote Jesus Christ spoke about…

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

 Suddenly, it all made sense to me. When Jesus Christ said this, He meant that we should think well of others, treat them well the way we wanted to be treated. But not only that, He also meant that we should be able to forgive and love other people, no matter how harsh, mean or threatening they have been to us, the way that we will love ourselves even if we think we are so mean or harsh ourselves. We should be able to separate the sin that the other person have done to us to the person himself, the way we move on and forget our own flaws.

Knowing the best person who has exhibited this trait of love and grace, we Christians should be able to exhibit this as well, especially to people who have been rejected by the world. Easier said than done, right? But if you will look around, you will see how this world, your own society needs grace. And you could be that person that God may use to show grace and love to other people.

Here is the story Yancey wrote at the beginning of the book. The very reason that moved me to buy this book. I hope that it will make you think and be moved as well, not to buy the book (hehe!) but, more importantly, to start living in grace and share that grace to other people, in this world of ungrace.

A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter – two years old!- to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable – I’m required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say about this woman.

At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

Isaiah 40 : 28 – 31

The Lord is the everlasting God,
      the Creator of all the earth.
   He never grows weak or weary.
      No one can measure the depths of his understanding.

He gives power to the weak
      and strength to the powerless.

Even youths will become weak and tired,
      and young men will fall in exhaustion.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
      They will soar high on wings like eagles.
   They will run and not grow weary.
      They will walk and not faint.

Amen…

Older and Thankful…

To tell you the truth, one of the reasons why it took me this long to post something in here, besides being busy and.. uhm.. being busy (haha!), is that I already forgot where I left and continue my storytelling. Hehe. So I decided to start over at this timely moment, where everything, supposedly, starts anew for me… A new year, a new beginning.

During the last hour before my birthday ended, I sent out a text message to almost everybody in my phonebook. This is what I, more or less, told them.

“Today, I realized that I have a lot of things to be thankful for. I’m not thankful for the long years that I have lived, those 24 long years. What I’m thankful for is that in those years, I met a lot of people who have been instrumental to a lot of realizations, learning, joy, pain, growth and maturity both spiritually and emotionally…”

The truth is there is so much to be thankful for. God has blessed me and my family with so much that I don’t know where to start. Sometimes it just leaves me speechless. I’m not saying that everything is well and good, problems are always present and sadness and pain has their ways in getting in, but God is faithfull. He has rescued us from all of them and I know He will do the same for the years to come.

A friend greeted me by saying I am a year older to God. Haha! But my prayer is that as I get closer to God in terms of years, my relationship with Him will be intimately closer as well…

“Still alive and kicking, Sir!!”

That’s the answer we used to give whenever we were asked by our Cadet Officers during our Citizen’s Army Training (CAT) in high school. I’m giving the same answer now. Haha! Thanks to Kuya Ganns for giving me the wake-up call. Hehe.

A lot of things has happened and currently happening (haha!). I promise to tell you all about them when I have the time. We just moved in to a new house (maybe a couple of months now), I just transfered to a new job (and currently on training for about a month) and some things on the side. Haha!

I miss this place so much *looks around*. I also missed a lot on what’s happening with you guys. Hay.

I will be back soon. Maybe not as regular as before (until things settle down) but I will try to visit and post as much as I can.

For now, I have to run. Haha! God bless you guys! See you around!

Miserable

I did a very terrible thing today. I lost my temper to a group of children during our class at church. I got angry to them when I am supposed to be teaching them about the day’s lesson. It doesn’t feel right but I don’t know what else to do.

I’ve been struggling with this for a long time now and I’m starting to lose heart.

I love children and I feel privileged to teach them. But I don’t think I have the capabilities to be their teacher. I just don’t know where to draw the line. I’m trying to befriend them, be a big brother or a buddy to them, so they won’t feel awkward when I am around. But then they seem to lose the respect they should give me during our classes. I can’t get them to take notes, I can’t make them answer when I ask them questions. They don’t do their assignments and they don’t seem eager to attend my class. I’m not even sure if they are learning anything from me. *sigh*

I feel so useless and ineffective in a task that was given to me. I don’t want to be a miserable teacher but I feel bad when I get angry at them. *sigh*

I’m in Cebu!!!

…but I’m not having the “time of my life” experience. Lol! I flew in yesterday afternoon and, since then, all I’ve been doing was work, work and work. But people at work were nice, even if they didn’t talk that much. I’m not sure if I’ll have the chance to go somewhere or buy pasalubong after I’ve finished everything. Oh well.

I’m currently on the road on my way to Cebu City. I just came from the town of Balamban, which is located on the other side of Cebu Island. We (me and the driver) are traversing this long and winding road over the mountains with the speed of 80 km/h, almost the speed limit in South Super Highway (one of Manila’s major highways). Lol! This is quite dangerous because one single mistake can send us flying down the deep, green (because of the trees below) chasm just beside us. Lol! I should be scared, but I’m not. I’m getting nauseous. Should I tell the driver to take it easy or should I stop typing? Nah!

This is a spur of the moment post and I don’t have any plan of letting go of this laptop. I don’t care if I get incoherent or anything, I’ll just type and type and type.

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Unfortunately, this is the second part of the post. I fell asleep during the travel and when I woke up, we were already there at the place. Lol! Right now, I’m in the airport, waiting to board in the plane. I’m so excited to go home, primarily because I am going home. Hehe. Second, because I’m looking forward to that moment when the plane takes off the runway. Ahh…

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go back here in Cebu. Some things might change at work and a promise of going back here is quite impossible. Oh well, at least I got blessed with this one chance.

P.S. While traversing the long and winding road, i got to see lots of beautiful views of the mountains. I tried to take some pictures but I got frustrated because the driver was driving too fast and I couldn’t hold still, and I dont have any nice camera with me except my phone cam which is quite low res. This is the best and only picture I managed to take. Lol!

Blahs

I’ve been very silent, and I can explain the reason in two ways.

If I want to give you a short answer, I can just say, “Well, I’ve been very busy with a lot of things lately. So many things to say, so little time.”

But if I want to give you a longer answer, I think this is how it will go:

Lately, everything has gone crazy that I didn’t get much time to sit down, compose my thoughts, and blog about all of those things. My mind has been completely filled up with four major things: family-dispute-gone-wild (that resulted to a weeklong house hunting, and still running), job applications to other companies (that demands lots of  requirements and vacation leaves), workloads at my present job (that got more intense and uncomfortable), and my ministry (that, I suddenly realize, is much much much bigger than I thought it would be).

But I wouldn’t want to tell you that. It’s not proper to go ranting about things that frustrate me, right after a very long silence. Lol!

I just pray that things will be much clear and still in the days to come. I hope to be back soon..

Tagged!

I’ve been tagged by Liza. Woohoo! It took me a long time to do this so I have to make this good. Haha! The challenge is to tell 5 things that people don’t know about me and I wouldn’t mind them knowing. Hmmm… I think this is going to be tough and messy. Oh, help me God! Again, I am plunging into another enjoyable-and-stressful-all-at-the-same-time experience so please bear with me. Lol!

Here it goes:

1. When it comes to books, I don’t read as much as I crave. I have lots of books at home, lots of books in my to-buy list, and lots of good books that I haven’t even seen or heard about. I want to read each and every one of them but, for a few reasons, I can’t. I observed that it’s taking me a very long time just to finish a single book. Maybe because I only find time to read when travelling (which I can’t do anymore because, everyday, my travelling hour from home to office, and vice versa, is 15 mins), or when I’m about to sleep (which often results to dozing off after reading 2 lines). I need to work on my reading habits.

2 . I prefer playing volleyball than basketball. I used to be a volleyball player in high school. Most people I meet assumes that I play basketball because of my height (5′11). The truth is I’m so dumb in it. And I can’t stand the abundance of tackling and injury-inducing body contact involved in the game. Lol!

3. I don’t usually say this here but I’m a big fan of Josh Groban. Yes I am. He has an awesome voice that I would want to have for myself. I was first captured by his voice when I heard “To Where You Are” and “You’re Still You”. The fanaticism got more intense when I heard his unequally beautiful rendition of “O Holy Night”. But somehow that appreciation starts to wear off as he starts to shift genres. I think Pop and his voice doesn’t sound too good together. Haha! Oh look, here comes Michael Buble! Hahaha!

4. When I was on my First Grade I got the opportunity, together with two more classmates, to compete in a Mathematics Quiz Bee againts the other Elementary Schools in the district. In that competition the quiz master will ask the question and we will try to answer it as a group and write our final answer on a piece of illustration board. At the end of the difficult round, our school got tied up with the defending champion so we had to go head to head and the first one who gets the right answer wins. When the first question was asked, I had a moment of stupidity where I thought aloud. Haha! I actually shouted off the answer. That’s why we lost and landed on the second place. I was so embarrased, and darkenning (that’s what you get when you’re not of fair complexion and you blush. Haha!) The funny thing about it is I transfered to that school the following year and my new teacher was the quiz master during the competition. Good thing she didn’t remember me.

5. Lastly, I’m so poor in color combination. As a matter of fact, I’ve been trying to change my blog banner above but I can’t seem to pull it off. I don’t know how people know what color goes with another set of colors and what doesn’t… Ahh, that’s why i can’t design announcements or websites, it will be either dull or an eyesore to the viewer. Hehe.
There! There goes the five things about me that you don’t know and I don’t mind telling you..Uhm, I think I’m not sure about the latter. Lol! Thanks Liza, I had fun.

Okay, these are the people that I tag. There’s no pressure on you if you don’t want to do this, or if you have done this before. We’re cool. Lol! but it will so much fun if you do.

1. Kuya Ganns
2. Ate Jayred
3. Ate Gigi
4. Karen
5. Joy

Video – Welcome to Our World

Last year, I wrote about my new favorite song for the Christmas Season. I created a video for it that I want to share in here. I really love the song. I hope I was able to give justice to the song through this video. Enjoy!

Note: Sorry about ‘fragiled’, it was a typo. Lol!

 

Merry Christmas! God bless!