God Loves Me

This is a picture of the clouds from the 11th floor deck of my block after I went for morning prayer with the Brothers...

It has been an awesome week with God! Often I have asked God whether He truly exists and if He can manifest Himself to me. However, the more I ask, the more frustrated I became. For God does not reveal himself physically- for He knows our unbelieving nature-instead He chose to reveal Himself in a way that is totally unmystical. Without any pageantry and ostentations, God has revealed Himself to us through our Christian brothers and sisters. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?..." (1 Corinthians 6:19). The Bible- the Word of God- says that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, which is from God. The Father does not confuse us. His Words itself says that He lives in us throught the Holy Spirit. We are His temples. Therefore, we do not need any grand and miraculous sign that God exists! No, sign and miracles are for the unbelievers to believe. But for the children, whom the Father has chosen to reveal Himself, He has given us our brothers and sisters as the living proof of His love and existence.

And so it is with this truth that I believe we should lay our foundation of faith. God asks us to put Him as number one priority, and since in our hearts we harbor God, the Father then requires that we love each other. It is the love for our neighbors that signifies and concretize our faith. "...I tell you the truth, whatever for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40).

So as children of God and heirs of Christ, we need not look elsewhere to find God and show Him our love. He is within us and among us. All He commands is that we love each other, and by that we are expressing our love for Him.

My Christian Family

Justin at the Spider Web

I had to climb all the way up just to take this photo. But I think it's worth it.

ZZ with his zeal...

Jeremiah gives a big smile...

Brother David with Jeremiah

Christ is Risen!!!

A good friend of mine has e-mailed me the following essay. I'm not really sure who the author is, but I felt it good to post it on my blog, seeing how lagging I've been since my last post. Anyway, hopefully I will have enough time in the future to make my postings a bit more up-to-date. HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!!!


"Humanity has always had a deep craving for truth about the larger questions of life:
Who are we? Why are we here? How then shall we live?

We are here because we struggle with these questions as the disciples must have as they watched the life, ministry and death of Jesus. When you look at the life of Jesus, especially this past week of betrayal, suffering, torture and death, Pilate's question echoes eerily throughout it all: what is truth? Where does one find truth? What leader, or king, as Pilate called him, would choose this path as "truth?" What truth can possibly be found in the life of a man who willingly walks into suffering and the death of a criminal?

Pilate was worried about whether Jesus thought himself a King who would threaten the Roman rulers. Indeed, many followers wanted Jesus to be that king who would liberate them from occupation and oppression. But Jesus wasn't as interested in the temporal power of earthly kingdoms as he was about deeper truths. Neither Pilate, Jesus' disciples, nor his enemies could foresee that the path to truth and new life would first go through a dark tomb. His followers must have been shattered on that Friday. Mary Magdalene must have been devastated and confused, and she didn't recognize the truth when Jesus came to her face to face on that early Easter morn.

For me, the truth is the empty tomb. The truth is resurrection.

"He is not here, for He is Risen!"

The truth is the unexpected which comes out of nothing, the hope that comes out of nowhere when all light has gone out. The truth is what gives life, hope, joy and purpose. The truth is the love that God poured out into the world in Christ to bring light to all the dark corners where pain, hatred, suffering, injustice and death dwell.

In our globalized world, Pilate's question echoes for us, to "What is truth?" We have all kinds of experts telling us their truths. More and more, media giants seem to create waves of "truths" that sometimes actually obscure what is actually happening. The political pundits face off in the media writing or arguing their perspectives. How do we judge which is right? If we speak out against popular views, we are labeled as trouble-makers or worse. Yet it is these popular views, the "common wisdom," that has brought us again and again to violence and conflict and to the brink of nuclear war. Who has any truth to give us, now that so many leaders are under investigation for corruption and scandals or indicted for crimes. Our young people cry out, "Who can we trust?"

In the last weeks, the Discovery channel presented a documentary film claiming to have found the tomb of Jesus, with family members, possibly even a wife and children, based on names inscribed on the ossuaries. This has created a stir among some believers who wonder whether this could possibly be true. For me, these kinds of excavations do not shake my faith or create doubts because the truth was announced and witnessed on that first Easter morning: "He is not here. He is Risen!"

We Christians have built our lives and faith on the truth of the empty tomb. No one can find his DNA, for He is Risen!

It is hard to live Easter hope in a Good Friday world. It is hard to believe that the paths of truth and righteousness will one day be recognized by those who are called to lead. We are, in the end, like Mary in the garden, blinded by fear and burdened with grief, yet brought to see, in the dawning light, the face of truth in the Risen One. May the tears of pain, of oppression and fear be wiped from our eyes by the mighty acts of our just and righteous God. May the Risen One bring light to your darkness, hope to your fears and new life where you have grown weary. Amen.

HAPPY EASTER !"