Salt

1:30 AM. I arrived home after a really blessed Sabbath. A lot of things happened from morning till late night. Sabbath truly is the busiest yet the most blessed day ever. 

The morning greeted me with the old paintbrush. Once again, Joey Velasco (whom I recently discovered died three or four weeks ago) touched the innermost sanctum of my thoughts with his gripping take on the prodigal son. Who would envision that the prodigal son could be an old man? Besides, the Father in the famous parable represented God, isn't it then possible to have an old man come back to his Father? After all his aimless wanderings in the world, and after tasting all the temporal things the world has to offer, he has decided to return to his Father even when he was at the sunset of his life. My eyes were further opened with the testimonies of two former inmates in New Bilibid prison (now active members of the church) who were given an nth chance, and was finally able to return home to their Father.

Afterwards, I was bombarded by the naked truth that though the ideal is to be responsible as a Christian, a lot of people fall short of doing so. A lot of people seem to try to take the fast and easy lane even if it takes them to bend a lot of rules. In the same manner, we should also be responsible Filipinos and not take the easy way out of the country just because the president did everything from increasing the prices of gas to combs. After all, we ourselves should take the lead in the country and not the president. We should live responsibly not just as Christians, but as Filipino Christians. 

The bulk of the hustle and bustle came from the Deaf Ministry. Once more, I could only stand in awe at the Lord for blessing this struggling ministry to be accepted in the world. Not many Christian denominations are fully aware or fully up to the challenge of meeting the needs of the deaf, not to mention the disabled. Likewise, not many Seventh-Day Adventist Churches would be up to the big responsibility of answering the call to minister unto the deaf brethren, even though the Bible tells "Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation,tribe, language and people." - Revelation 14:6

Yet the Deaf Ministry has developed once again as a caring group for people with hearing impaired.They have been constantly developing into an organized ministry, something that we, the hearing members could not even think of doing. New rules were set as we went along, at the same time, the ministry had a shot in leading the Youth Ministries program. It was a stand-out program with the whole congregation participating in the simple songs and lessons that we taught!

The culmination of the day was by far the best. Right now, my mind still could not rest. It has had its refill of information, emotion, and action. It's one thing to enjoy a Sabbath of service, but it is entirely another thing to strike up a balance between serving and being served. 

Though the day had already expired, the mind seemed to be ready for input and that's just what I got. This was just one of the few moments I really appreciate with people in church. They'd be more than willing to listen to your burdens in all aspects of your life and at the same time offer you timely advise or offer you a listening ear. While those advises and topics that we have talked about simmer in my head, some of which could never be uttered out of the circle, one thought really stuck to my mind. While talking at Wendy's tonight, our pastor who was with us told us that as the youth of the church, we have to stand up and have a say in some of the matters regarding the directions of the church. It's the way we should be salts who would season the church with the way that it should go. How ironic that I was holding a bag of salt at that time. 

I'm still holding it right now. It's true. We should be salts. 

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses itssaltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." Matthew 5:13

Let us all continue in our respective ministries and keep all the corners of the church with fresh ideas to improve our spirituality.

Basketball Fever

I once quipped during the height of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, that if Filipinos embraced football, we could have been contenders for the World Cup. We could be twice as fast as any World cup players. There's no need to measure height since the height isn't a real big deal in football. If we ever decided to join the World Cup, we could probably be at par with the best teams in the World. We're better off playing football.

Yet a few months after, here I am watching old clips from old PBA games particularly the Toyota-Crispa Reunion in 2003 where most of the old guys sweat it out like they were in their mid-20s. It was a fun match full of heart and passion. Those were times when most of the players wore short shorts and could really fly (yes, guys could wear short shorts and get cheered at by beautiful girls). I don't know about now since I never get to watch any of the games.

Moreover, I bought a PSP three weeks ago. I loaded some games. If you'd look at it, you'd definitely laugh. I have two different versions of an NBA game and I get to play those two more than the other games on my device. I just caught myself today, and had a good laugh out of it.

In another note, the book by Rafe Bartholomew is now out in the Philippines. It's called "Pacific Rims." (The author didn't pay me to promote this. I haven't even read the book yet.) As the author put it, this is about the Philippines where basketball is ingrained in every street in each of the 7,107 islands of our country. In an interview, the author even says that the most basic aspects of our society revolves around basketball, politics for one, is also affected by the hard court.

True enough, this country may not boast of tall players, but watching the game of old guys bumping and bruising each other to get an orange ball inside a hoop is exhilarating. Sure, catching the one point lead of one team in football gives you the thrills as well, but the action of basketball seemed to be more appealing to the hearts of every Filipino.

Sure, anyone could enumerate wonderful reasons why Filipinos should take up football instead. Yet once you hear the "swooop" of the ball hitting the net, the reasons fade and the game begins.

Mis mo!

Zeroes

Shaq was one of the best centers of the NBA. He was a great player. Yet now he finds himself seeking a team to play with. It seems that no one wants him. Clearly life doesn't always offer you diamonds and gold, sometimes you have to accept the bricks and mud. 

Same goes for most of the blog sites, social networking seemed to have taken the upper hand. I once had a lot of visitors to my site and multiply was once buzzing with people. Now, it's already busy if you get two or three people posting a week on their multiply accounts.

We all get zero moments. One time we see ourselves at the top of our game only to find out that we're at the lowest the next day. Think about it, Bible heroes, rich moguls, famous celebrities, they've all gone from the brightest to the darkest.

One amazing thing about zeroes is that the more zero you add after a number, it's value increases. The same way with life, the more zeroes you get after a feeling of high, the greater the experience you get. In some ancient cultures, a zero is called zefiro which means "west wind" or, simply,  "wind." We all know what winds do to boats, it gives it power and direction. Same goes with zeroes. When we reach the lowest and darkest moments in our lives, take the easiest and most practical direction: straight up! 

Recently, the  Praise Team was selected to lead the singing to a video recorded crusade. It would happen in a two weeks - ten nights event. We practiced for weeks on end even sacrificing our personal time. Yet as the event rolled on, morale became low somewhere along the way. Things like the schedule, miscommunication and lack of appreciation seemed to have taken its toll on the group. Most of us, including me, became discouraged and opted out of the event and give it to another group. Yet I realized that it would be a big embarrassment to God if we left Him hanging. It's not about taking the spotlight or the center stage, it's about doing what God has sent you to do and doing it with joy.

As people get all the ups and downs, God never fails. Throughout the Bible, the rise and fall of the people always reveals a high God behind it. It's not about the rising and falling but about the high God who cares and shows that all would go well when you abide in Him.

Would you abide in him? 

The Real Never Ending Story

I remember the movie as a kid. A boy named Bastian acquired a book with a story that claims to have no ending. It turns out that Fantasia, the land in the book needs a savior and the only person capable of saving the day was none other than Bastian himself. Thus he was transported in the book, saved the book world and lived happily ever. That is, after Bastian sends the mystical dragon that looks a lot like a dog to literally trash the neighborhood bullies.

Thus was the story within a story called the neverending story. It never does end since the story in the book was connected to Bastian’s story. The story really is never ending.

Read More

TV Appearance for a Price.

Cameras and lots of wiring were the main attractions of Pasay Adventist Church (PAC) from the 17th to the 30th of July.

 

The Central Luzon Conference (CLC) of SDA decided to conduct their More Abundant Life In Jesus Crusade and TV program in cooperation with PAC. What seemed like a simple task of conducting a program became an overwhelming project. Cameras were set up, the sound system was given an upgrade, various wiring and contraptions were set up on the pulpit, and the worst part was that the internet connection was given up for them to upload a live stream of the production. It was all for the production.

As part of the program, PAC was given the charge of arranging the praise team for the program. Since the only praise team available (and the only one at PAC) was the Youth Ministries Praise Team, we were the ones tapped to do it. With the help of some import singers and musicians from MAMC College Church, we were set to learn the songs including the theme song "How Great Is Our God" of Chris Tomlin. We had two weeks of practice with some inconveniences when it came to the musicians. We had trouble getting musicians, but we were able to settle for a guitarist from the neighboring college church.  

The first night was a night of revelations. Television wasn't as glitzy or glamorous as I thought it to be. Rather it was more like a toxic time bound environment where people could easily snap if you just pulled the wrong strings. The deadlines were by the minute and things like professionalism and ethics were either taken very highly or taken for granted by most of the people. 

We were able to sing, although I leave it up to you to judge if we did well. None the less, for the next few nights, I expect to get home later than usual. It's a sacrifice we had to do to serve God in our own little ways. But that wasn't the price I had to pay for my first international TV appearance, it was the virus I couldn't get out (yet) on my notebook. I had the honor of arranging the powerpoint slides for the praise team. Apparently, in my haste to set up the slides, I plugged my USB to a virus infested computer and then to my notebook without scanning. Now, I can feel the presence of this virus whatever it maybe, but I have to let it stay there for now, until I could get time to scan the whole system.

If you're interested to look at what happened from the first night of the crusade until tonight, visit http://www.adventist.ph

Lessons from the Dead

A sad moment comes to any family when death knocks at their doors. For our family, it happened a day after my birthday. Our uncle who was battling against a lung disease succumbed to the disease on a Sabbath morning. It came as swift as it went. We buried him three days later.

All throughout those nights, I was there often taking part in the service for the comfort of the living. I haven’t been to many funerals so there are things that I don’t know. Of those that I have attended only two had great significance to me the others, I merely came as an observer. However, in those two times, I have learned a lot of lessons. This last one probably opened up my eyes the most... [READ MORE]

24

24 is the name of a famous television action drama series.

It is also the number of hours in a day 

the number of books in the Hebrew Tanakh

the atomic number of chromium.

the number of ribs in the human body

the number of hours needed by a hen to produce an egg

the number of hours needed for the green algae to reproduce

the number of furlongs in one league

the number of carats that make up pure gold

the number of cycles in a Chinese solar year

Talking about this number and years, it also my age this July 9th. There wasn't any grand celebration as these days are just meant to pass for me. I never even received that much greetings since I never bothered to put it up on facebook or any other social networks. I figured it would have been better to just let the day pass peacefully with only the ones who really could remember it would remember to greet me. I thought of it also as a test if you really value me. (Don't worry though, it's not a grave offense and it is not offensive at all to forget my birthday) 

24 years of existence is too few for a person. It is still considered young by modern standards, Though in my 24 years of existence, I have seen people younger than me die of disease, accidents and many other thing and I have seen people taking a wife or husband at an age younger than 24. In some cultures, this age could mean a person is at his peak or a person is already near maturity. 

For me though, it doesn't seem to mean a thing. I still remain as one goofy guy with lots of things on his mind including a nice meal at World Chicken or a nice glass of blended fruits (these aren't my favorite food). I still remain as a guy dreaming of owning a lot of gadgets and a solitary cottage on the edge of a cliff facing the vast ocean with me enjoying the view while writing reflections of each kind.

Looking back at my 24 years of existence, I find it reassuring that God trusted me to live this long to learn a lot of things and to overcome a lot of obstacles. I am still limited I know and I still fail a lot of times (hey, my birthday sermon in church turned out to be an epic fail because I prepared a longer sermon than necessary).But I am willing to accept the defeat if it's the only way God could teach me things in life those are the biggest blessings. If there's anything I could wish for right now, it's for me to enjoy a meaningful life of fellowship and devotion to God. 

If you're thinking when I celebrated my birthday, I wouldn't tell you here. One thing is for sure, it's not today.