God's Choosen Make Choices

If we are “in Christ,” then we are among those chosen by God. Today, we are the “us” of that great assurance: “He chose us in Him.” Are you in Christ? Are you in His family? Then the names that once set Israel apart now find their fulfillment in you.

“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God…. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

Yes, you fit into God’s plans for “a chosen people.” God, even “before the creation,” chooses this family, which He calls “the church.” … God calls us His “workmanship” for which He has long prepared (Ephesians 2:10). Indeed, Christ and His bride, the church stand together as the glorious centerpiece of God’s “eternal purpose” (Ephesians 3:10-11, 20; 5:31-32). This is the family where you belong, or ought to belong!

Hmmm… “ought to belong”. This seems to say that I have a choice. Can I, as one of God’s chosen people, choose to obey Him or reject Him, choose to belong to Him or deny Him? In order to check out the truth of the thoughts in my mind, I went to the scriptures to read what happened when a people chosen by God chose to reject His way.

The book of 1 Samuel describes the choosing and anointing of Saul, the Benjamite, to be the first king of the Israelites – the family God had chosen to be the “ancestors” of His Son. The Israelite people had rejected God when they said they wanted a king. 1 Samuel 8:5–7 tells us when the Israelite people said to Samuel, the prophet,

“You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have”,

Samuel became “displeased.” Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel, “…it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.”

The story continues; Saul is anointed king. Then in 1 Samuel 12:12b-15, Samuel says to the people –

“… you said to me, ‘No, we want a king to rule over us’ – even though the Lord your God was your king. Now here is the king you have chosen, the one you asked for; see, the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve and obey Him and do not rebel against His commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God – good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against His commands, His hand will be against you…”

Samuel continues to warn the people about the importance of following God. He tells them what they “ought to do” and what would happen if they rebel against God. The people were convinced of God’s power and stood in awe of the Lord and of Samuel. Then in verse 24, Samuel gives these instructions to the people,

“Be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you. Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will be swept away.”

FEAR

The greatest obstacle to human progress is FEAR, and the various forms it takes in human lives are legion. Fear leaves the mind negative rather than positive, passive rather than active. One who is of this negative, fearful type, not only has his mental and physical energies weakened and even at times paralyzed, but he also, through his fears, connects himself with this negative order of thought in the world about him.

Fear is always unreasoning. One has only to pause and calmly analyze his fears to realize how little actual substance they contain and how most of the things we fear never "really happen". We normally call it as "guni guni", sometimes we create fear in us and become a monster in our mind that makes us unproductive and negative person. When the fear becomes habitual or sufficiently deepseated, we not only invite but many times actually bring upon ourselves the very thing we have feared and dreaded.

When i was little boy, i cannot sleep alone in the room, i need my father to be on my side. I used to tied up a piece of cloth in my arms to my father's arm just to make sure that when my father got up, i will got up too and follow him. Until my father assures me that he is always at my side, that word of assurance makes me comfortable and relieved from my fear. But then, i still tied up the piece of cloth to my father's arm, but when i fall asleep, my father remove the piece of cloth that tied up us together and keep his presence by his breath and warm hands that embraces me.

The bible says in Isaiah 43:1-2 " Fear not, for i have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be harmed, the flames will not se you ablaze."

John 3:16 " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believe in him will not perish but have eternal life."

God loves us so much as my father showed it to me, God's breath through His Spirit and His Word that embraces us will free us from all forms of fears. BE FREE FROM ALL FEARS IN JESUS NAME.

God bless us all..

Choose the Path You Live

As I surf the net, I saw this blog post of my very idol Bro. Bo Sanchez and I was really inspired. That's why I chose to post this also on my own blog. =)

“Bo, you’re wrong. Poverty is a matter of fate…”

He came up to me right after I gave a talk on financial literacy. The man spoke to me with the gravity of a Supreme Court Justice, it scared me.

“Why do you say that, sir?” I asked.

“Because there are people who are born poor,” the man said, “And there are people who are born rich. That’s destiny. That’s the will of God.”

I winced. How could I tell him that I’ve been working for years (no, decades) with the poor—and this was the exact kind of distorted thinking that has trapped a lot of people in poverty. “God made me poor,” is an invisible placard written on the foreheads of many poor people I’ve met.

I told him, “To be born rich or poor is not a choice, that’s true. But to become rich or poor—that’s a choice that God leaves up to us.”

He looked at me as though I spoke in Swahili.

I wanted to explain myself but he wanted to ask me a very disturbing question…

God Leaves The Choice To Us

Whether To Be Rich Or Poor

“Bo, why are you teaching us to become rich?”

His tone of voice was sharp. Like he was asking me, “Why are you teaching us to murder people, burn their bodies, and eat their liver?”

He continued, “If you’re really a Christian, you should teach us to be content with where we are. Bo, aren’t you content with where you are?”

I laughed. “Oh, I’m very content.”

I never told this to him, but I’d like to tell you: Right now, if I choose to, I can stop working, deposit my money in a bank—and live on the interest. Sure, I have to simplify my lifestyle even further, but we’ll still be very comfortable.

With the interest I’ll earn from the bank, I can maintain my small house and simple car.

And yes, I can still bring out my wife for our weekly romantic dates.

And I can still bring my kids for our twice-a-year vacations. No more Macau trips, that’s for sure. But Tagaytay would be just fine.

I can even pay for our homeowner’s association dues. (A whopping P120 a month! Yes, I live in a happy third class subdivision.)

But if I stop working and live on my interest, a few things will have to change…

Life Isn’t Just About You

Today, I send a number of poor children to school. That has to stop.

Today, I finance a few missionaries. That has to stop.

Today, I provide capital for livelihood projects for the poor. That has to stop.

Today, I finance my new ministry projects in its trial period. That has to stop.

This is the reason why I’ve chosen to grow, to expand, to increase, and to become richer because I want to bless the world more.

That’s why I work very hard today!

Here’s what I learned: (1) To be content and (2) to want to grow can co-exist in your heart.

That can only happen when love rules your heart.

May your dreams come true,


Bo Sanchez

Rain

There are now only 2 days before the English Fest; before our Jazz Chant presentation(Rain). We already know our group mates but we still tried to know them more.

We started to practice last Wednesday, at 9:30 AM up to the last minute of practice before the presentation(this Friday). And everytime that we are practicing, it seems like we're not really practicing; we're all just having fun playing Mafia (haha!). It seems like, if we are given 2hrs to practice, we only a lot 10 minutes for the practice and the rest for the Mafia & rest. (wahahaha!)
But inspite of that, we're all amazed because we didn't noticed that we had already finished the chant & are now ready & prepared to perform.

In the morning of Thursday, we had practiced our chant on the stage. Many students & many jazz chant groups saw our practice and as we see them, they were amazed. After the practice, Iahm went near me and even told us that, "You're gonna win!..". Many other good feed backs were given to us all. And this gave us the confidence that we're gonna win the first place!

And there, our awaited moment. We're not that afraid and we are all confident to perform and will be winning. But then, after all the performances, the awards were announced. And sad to say, we were not able to win the first place; we were just awarded second place. Almost all of them were shocked to hear that we were just second place because they all thought that we're gonna win the first. But then, it's just okay. God has given us what is really have to be with us.
We may have lacked something else that had caused us to lose the contest.

=)

Contemporary

Whew. This will be my first time to dance this kind of dance. Actually, I only dance hip hop and mostly, I am used to do folk dancing during my elementary days. Why elementary? It's because this will also be my first performance in Saliw. My first performance should be last October(as far as I can remember) in the street dancing, but I refused Ma'am Mays invitation because I'll be attending a youth conference at the date of their general practice. Now, this will be my first performance and then we will perform in front of parents and other former Saliw dancers. I'm a little bit shy about that. And especially because I have stage fright.

Going back, ahm.. it was difficult for me to adopt & condition myself to the steps and the moves of this contemporary. But later on, I was able to get it all. And I hope, during the performance, I can do better. =)

New Year!!

Hmmm.. I'll not make this blog entry any longer..
All I want to say is that my new year is happy! Happy together with my family! =)

We had our picture taking on our house and it was fun.

Then when it's about 1 minute before the new year, we all jumped and we're all happy. ^.^

That's all for this. =)