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 !"

Partnership with the Good Shepherd

Paraphrased from the Lesson of John Louis 11/03/07

John 21:15 Jesus Reinstates Peter

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”

“Yes Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”

He answered, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”

Christ has called us into partnership with him. As Christians, He employs our hands and our bodily functions to do His work here on earth. Like the good shepherd, Christ needs ‘good sheepdog’ to tend His flock and feed His lambs and sheep. It is because of this that we must ask ourselves the question whether we want to take on the responsibility of taking care of God’s people

As partners in Christ’s ministry, we must remember two points. First, is to stop wasting our time. Second, is to delight in trust and obedience.

The first point: Stop wasting our time. This point is likened to a sheepdog that does not use its inbred skills for the proper purpose. Instead it wastes its time chasing cars and bicycles. This analogy is used to describe how we, as human beings, have wasted our time doing unproductive things that we were not meant for. A glaring example is how, on average, a person can spend at least 24 hours of every week watching TV and playing computer games. Which in aggregate is equivalent to ten years of a person’s 70 years of living!

Part of the reason why we have fallen to such wasteful practices is because we were ‘in the wrong hands.’ In 1 Peter 4:3, Peter says “For you have spent enough time in the past in the past doing what pagans choose to do- living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.”

The passage clearly says that we have been exposed to practices in the past that have caused us to sin- practices that even today the world is not free of still. The same passage, though, speaks of ‘having spent enough time’- an intonation of both command and hope. It is God’s way of saying “It is over. I have forgiven you,” and reiterating His call for us to abandon our wasteful practices and seek a productive partnership with the ‘Good Shepherd.’

The second point asks of us to delight in trust and obedience. Again, this statement is likened to a good sheepdog that enjoys and ‘delights’ in his relationship with the shepherd. From this relationship, the sheepdog has ‘committed’ itself to be of good use to its benefactor. Similarly, we must make a decision to be of good use to our ‘Shepherd,’ our Lord Jesus Christ.

Delighting in trust and obedience in the Lord only brings about God’s grace and blessings. We must trust Him to make full use of our hands and mouth for His purpose. In turn, we receive ‘true liberty’, ‘true freedom,’ and ‘total fulfilment’ in God because only He knows what we were truly designed for.

In the gospel of John 15:14, the evangelist also compounds to this relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ for it states: “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I have learned from my Father, I have made known to you.”

Indeed, this partnership with the Good Shepherd is no longer a case of a master and a servant, but rather a personal relationship between two friends. For Christ have made known to us all the knowledge that we need to do our task here on earth, like a sheepdog being trained for His work in the field, and we are so familiar with God’s works that like the sheepdog responding to a simple gesture, we respond to God’s Words.

Prayer after teaching:

God Almighty Father, thank you for sending Jesus Christ to us as the Good Shepherd, and thank you for choosing us to be his partners here on earth. As his “sheepdog,” teach us to be good Father that we may have the right tools and the right knowledge in the form of the words of the Bible, that we may feed and tend Your flock. Thank you for making us friends with Christ, Father, and teach us to be of good use to You, to fulfil our lives’ purpose and to delight in trusting and obeying You. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen

Micah 5:5

Ms. Joyce Tan and son Kevin

Exactly today 27/03/2007, I prayed before opening the Bible. I prayed "God, let me read what teaching You want me to know for this day," for I still remember that everytime I randomly opened the Bible, I always manage to read verses about sin, God's anger and destruction (of Israel). Back then, I thought that that was just by chance, and God is not really surreptitiously saying that He is angry with me.

Looking back now, perhaps God did want to say that He was not pleased with how I was leading my life of sin, that the random Bible verses were a way for me to realize that. I did not live a life God has mapped out for me. He tried to reach out but in my own stubborn way, I kept to myself.

Fortunately, God did not give up on me. He found a way for me to come back to Him freely, my own heart seeking Him. He waited until the day that my heart is soft and my mind is open. That was a period after I had a turbulent time with my career, a time when I felt lonely with me being alone and had no succesful relationship with women, an episode in my life that I begin to doubt my abilites and what I can do. It was a lonely time- just the right moment for God to show the silver lining.

I love the story of how I was found! It's a story I keep telling and will continue telling as long as there are people willing to listen. I found God, or rather God found me, through this rather cheerful lady, who happened to need running shoes and ended up in my shop (of the hundreds of sports shop in Singapore). I could see that she is no ordinary person, just by the way she spoke in her very fluent English, and in the manner she spoke to me. She had wide inviting eyes, a gentle but rather carefree smile, and a voice that had the color of sunshine. I do not remember who asked who first, but I got to know she was from America and now lived in Singapore, and I got to tell her that I'm from the Philippines. She asked if I was Catholic and I said yes, and if went to the church here and told her that I used to but got really disillusioned by it so I stopped going. Then she spoke the words I will never ever forget. She simply asked me "Well, maybe you would like to come to my church?" For some reason, the gravity of those words weighed heavily on mind. I'm not sure either what made me come two weeks later on that very sunday that this guy named Douglas came to Singapore after two years. I was amazed, I was awed, hooked by the way these people sang and praised God. Moved by the way they whipped out their PDA's and notes to write down the lessons. Inspired by the sermon of Douglas about softening our hearts. And most of all touched...by the gesture Ms. Joce Tan, the lady who invited me, and Siew Hee, her husband, showed- it is as if I am one of their own.

" And he will be their peace." Micah 5:5. This is what God wanted to tell me. One simple line. One simple verse that sums up everything that God has done for me. I am at peace with God, at last.

I therefore dedicated this blog to God, and to the people whose hands, mouths and in Ms. Joyce's case foot, God has used to get me back into His Kingdom. For my brothers and siters at Central Church of Singapore, this blog will be postings of my own narration of the sermons for every sunday (I am able to attend, i might add), as well as some of our collective prayers. God bless us all, that we may know God more, and through us make Him known.