It's a Beautiful Day!

It’s a beautiful Sunday . . . and I am missing the Sunday fellowship today. I am just home with my son AJ. We had  been coughing since yesterday.  I find it so distracting especially last night, because I wasn’t able to sleep well. Every time AJ coughs as well as I do, we both have to sit down and perform, “inhale and exhale”   a little bit. It seems we’re both gasping for breathe. I have to drink water again and again, and I have to let my son drink water too to have both of us pacified. 

 

We’re taking up our medication since yesterday. Just needed rest I guess, from all the stresses the past days . . . plus the unpredictable weather. It’s scourging  hot in the morning and before we know it, rain pours down in the afternoon.  My son and I had been taking up vitamin C, but yet; I got runny nose, I had headache and now I am coughing. 

Nevertheless,  the whole thing  is good! I am feeling great in spite of the cough and everything. I was sitting down this morning in front of the television set  while watching the Touch Ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley’s Sunday message in Atlanta, Georgia. Though I haven’t started the program, but what struck me was when he said, “Nothing a person does can touch another person’s life not unless it is done by prayer and completely a product of a real love embedded through God’s amazing grace!” Those words awakened me completely, and I thank the Lord so much!

  

It really takes God’s grace to love a person who’s unlovable. And it takes God’s love & conviction to swallow one’s pride. It feels great being with God because even with imperfections and many failures committed, He never pinpoints, He never condemns, and He is just there, waiting for us to come to Him with all humility and sincerity.

God is awesome.  His ways are so heartwarming! We may marvel at what happens. But no matter how painful God’s ways are just to settle things in its proper perspective, yet, the joy inside is bubbling. There is comfort and buoyant feeling. 

Indeed, God is a God of order! Everything happens for a purpose and nothing happens by chance. To Him be glory forever!

A Matter of Acknowledging . . .

I came across with three erstwhile pals this morning when Sha and I went to the City Hall to give to the City Mayor’s office an invitation for the upcoming “Voice of the Youth” National Oratorical Contest sponsored by STI College – National Headquarters. This will be on November 26, 2010 at STI College, J. Catolico Ave., Lagao, General Santos City. 

Though too little time of saying Hi and hello, but yet, I find it as really so gratifying! It had been several years now since the last time we had a great talk together when we held our get-together at a friend’s house for a thanksgiving celebration. We were like grade schoolers sharing the weekends escapades after being in school from Monday to Friday, and on the Saturday, goes somewhere for a relaxation and attend the Sunday service celebration.

  Whewwww . . . reminiscing those great rewarding days with friends and classmates made me realized how awesome God was, and is and will be in everything our lives had been and will be into. He made us all reach this point in our lives with great joy and fulfillment, knowing that He had never left even a single moment in our daily survival.

 

We may pass several messes,  struggling moments, pains and bruises, and emotional mixed up. But never did I ever experience even in a single time that God’s grace loosened and His favor slackened off. . . They’re all abounding in package.  God provides, God removes, and God  holds back, but He blesses more!

The long-gone days will remain to be part of our past no matter how we evade from it and no matter how we refuse to acknowledge its being part of our present. Those days maybe painful or joyous, maybe shameful or heartwarming, but what is important is that, God allowed them to happen to us to let us grow mature and totally become dependent on Him.

 

And one remarkable thing is that . . .  along the way, God is using the negatives to develop us to become a really deserving and growing mature person. Moving on and facing what’s up for the day optimistically, and totally dependent on God in every way and every situation will prove that the Lordship of Christ in our hearts is our  priority more than anything else . . . it’s just a matter of acknowledging!

1 Peter 5:10 (New International Version)

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,

after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you

strong, firm and steadfast.

The Best Thing in Life . . .

One thing in life is that it changes! There’s no such thing as permanency. We are told in the book of Psalm 90:10 says, “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.” The past was a real different thing than the present.  As we tread forward, we encounter diverse occurrences and we come in contact with new as well as old acquaintances. People come and go but friends though remain even if there are disparities and struggles along the way with meeting both ends.

Indeed, every one’s life is a real story to tell. One good thing about this is that God always sees the best outcome at the end of the tunnel. No matter how painful the experiences we are getting in, and no matter how intense the bruises wallop our inner feeling, light springs forth that will change the flickering shadow along the way. And this is something that only God’s intervention can make it possible. 

Often, man’s pride eats him up. And this, from the point of analysis and experience has brought an individual into the pit of worse emotional and spiritual distraction. It’s our passion to please God and our passion to make a difference that matter. Realization, acceptance, and forgiveness . . .  these we should be aware of and these we should observe the most!

 

Looking up to God as the author and the finisher of our faith, can make us realize that we are nothing apart from his grace and mercy. Everything we are is God’s . . . we can’t boast on our own;  not with what we have, who we are and where we are. But it is who God is in our lives, and what He did that makes us the person we are and the person He wanted us to become!

 God’s great plan for His people is amazing! We already have a blue print of our lives and it’s up to us to have it realized through our choices in life. God has already opened the door for us . . . it is the door that leads to life everlasting! But as has been said, choices are ours to make!

          The best thing is,  come to God and make Him the ruler of our lives and invite Him to be the Lord of our lives. And in everything we do, let Him be our guide!

 

Psalm 23:1-6

1The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  6Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Hillsong United - Lord of Lords - With Subtitles/Lyrics

Power of Your Love with Lyrics

Chris Tomlin - Unfailing Love (with Lyrics)

Our kind of giving matters . . .

Isn’t it that when you help, you don’t count the time you have spent? You don’t even remember the time you’ve stretched  out just to save somebody from shame.  When God uses someone as an instrument for someone in need, God blesses the person, who by heart responded without grudging but full of joy and kindness. 

When you thought that somebody is around offering a help, a shoulders to cry and a hand to tap your shoulders and say, “hey, I’m just here for you”,  and you discovered that it was not at all real, really, really pains. When you realize that what has been extended to you were accounted in every detail . . . hurts! 

 Nobody can avoid the thought of regret, that should you only knew then, you should not have accepted such help. But it happened, and you have been there. The mere fact of hearing that somebody telling you something blistering, is actually a torn . . . a bruise . . .  in your heart! The giving and the helping that are full of regrets are just the same as never had given anything!

When your right hand gives, you don’t even allow your left hand see it. because God blesses the giving in secret! Somehow, let’s still be positive! God is adding more patience as He allowed these kind people to come in contact with us. Let’s get back to the 90/10 principle. Giving wholeheartedly gives us peace that passeth all understanding!

2 Corinthians 9:7, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, [so let him give]; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”