Just the HEM of Your PRESENCE

(Mark 5) A large crowd followed and pressed around him [Jesus]. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. ³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” ³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” ³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

       The Lord deals with all of us in different ways just as he had treated the sick people in the New Testament times. But sometimes we have to intentionally touch Him like what the bleeding woman did. We have to touch His heart as we align our plans with His for our lives. We have to simply touch His glory with every simple things we do: with our corporate worship, with our giving, with our cell group and discipleship, with our family, studies, career and even with  our personal and private lives.

      Good thing about our Lord Jesus is that, He hears even the deafening silence of a humble spirit or even in the midst of the raging crowd of prayers thrown at Him. Every act of faith, every act of worship, every soul thirsty for Him to fill, every obedience and sacrifices will never go unnoticed. Crowd will not overcome Him, all sins will be blotted out and He will give us fresh start; we just have to come to Him just as we are: BROKEN.

Isaiah 59:1
  Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.

"I didn't see it coming!"

Browsing over my Bible this morning and praying that the Lord will give me His word for the day to which I will reflect, I went over the Book of Luke. I have read it many times and heard preachers preach from this book but this time I felt it's different. I resolved to learn again from the very word of Jesus Christ and His life on earth so I started from the first chapter. Chapter 1 talks about the birth of Jesus Christ, the first Christmas ever celebrated. But in the very first passage, it's the promised birth of a servant to prepare the way of Christ: The birth of John the Baptist, as foretold.

The plot of the story goes like this: There was a priest named Zechariah with his wife Elizabeth (who was a cousin of Mary), who had no child borne to them. They prayed for it but still they had none until they got old. When it was time for the LORD to bless them with a child [John], Gabriel, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah while he was doing his chores at the temple. The birth of his son was foretold by the angel but Zechariah didn't believe at once because of their old age. Because of his disbelief, he was made mute until John was borne. His wife, however, believed and afterwards conceived a child and gave birth to John.

There are few things that made impact on me, something that is very personal.

     *** Zech, my man was a priest, a servant of the Lord, ordained and anointed to perform such a heavenward duty but sad to say he didn't see the answer to his prayers coming. Sometimes, even leaders can be very disbelieving or to some extent, most Christians are. Instead that we become example of Faith, we can be those who are doubting. This only confirms that we are not excused to have doubts. I sometimes doubt and it's my prayer that the Lord will bring me to a higher level of faith and say, "I believe Lord, please help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)

     *** God has His own time-table and He never forgets. We may have forgotten that we ever prayed for it, but God doesn't. He will do it in His perfect time and nothing can ever shut the door of favor once He opened it. (Revelation 3:7) I am blessed by the movie The Perfect Stranger. When Nikki got an invitation to have dinner with Jesus Christ, she was totally in disbelief. The Lord told her that she actually asked for it [to talk with Him] which Nikki forgot, but the Lord didn't.

     *** Our disbelief will not hinder the Lord from doing what He has planned doing, it can still happen, only to other people's lives who believe. Zech's wife believed and so it still came upon his family. As members of family [especially when we are the only ones Christian], it is crucial that we don't lose our faith even in the midst of unbelieving parents and siblings. Every seed of faith we do counts in heaven, and the Lord never rejects an offering of a righteous [thru Christ]. We can be the only representative of our family, our campus, our offices, our friends.

     *** It's for the Glory of the Lord that we will see it materialize. Every fulfilled promise is for the Lord's glory to be visible in our lives, every answered prayer is a manifestation of God's saving grace.

The Lord sees every single tear, he sees the sacrifices we've made...and He never cease to care.

Catching Up

Catching up. . .catching up. . .with what? almost everything. Review is a whole lot different than studying in college. There are plenty of opportunity cost - full-time earnings, ministry, relationships, rest, family, among others. Things are tough and even gets tougher. But that's how it is.When we want something, we work hard for it to the point of being inconvenienced.

I can't be hypocrite to say that review is getting well with me cause definitely it's not! I just can't let myself be drowned by all the details and lose heart. I have to stay focused despite the pressure. Whenever I answer some handouts, I am reminded of the lapses I had during college inasmuch as studying my lessons. I felt the guilt that I did not at all go the extra mile rather I stayed at the status quo. That's what we all are I guess.

These days are tough. I just pray that the Lord will grant me the strength to continue with what He has started in me. I can't deny the reality that I envy those people for being given the chance to review full time. But I am not at all bitter because with the little I have, I know that the Lord is still faithful. Maybe He doesn't want me to review full time at all because He wants me to learn the attitude of continued reliance upon His grace every single day. Maybe He doesn't want for me to be very comfortable to be complacent and trust my own wisdom and strength. I can't tell what could I be today had I given all the comforts. With this I do praise Him.

"If I Pass, I'll praise God. If I Fail, I'll praise God!"

Carrie Underwood - Temporary Home

Pavement to Christ

Months have gone by, thoughts have taken flight and have been forgotten, and now I just find myself writing this note. I forgot how it was to write, the trail of thoughts seem to conflict one after another. I feel dumb. All I know is I have to pen my thoughts just to ease myself from this melancholy. Reflect. Tick-tack, tick-tack. Think!

Pavement to Christ. You know why I titled this note this way? For some reason that I have to constantly remind myself that there is no such thing in a Christian life. Had there been such a pavement to eternity, we could have taken the easy and comfortable road that leads to Him. It's always an irony where a promise stands in this chaotic and decaying world. But that's just how it works. (John 16:33)

Saturday night was it, we were on our way out of Trinoma with Maeve & Bry when three kids were a bit disturbed. One of them was shouting quite a noise in tears, "Am so tired. Am so sick of walking!" T'was funny though. But most of the time we are liken to that kid. Our deepest complaints sometimes just echoed resoundingly in the silence. At least the kid was honest with what he feels. At least he was able to blurt it out.

Indeed the road is long. Sometimes it's rocky and most of the time we stumble in it. Sometimes it's quicksand that we go through. Sometimes there's mountain before us that we need to climb up. Sometimes there's valley of green pastures, fresh waters that we just want to find rest and thought of settling on the convenient.

We can just sit and enlist all the possible metaphor we can think of about Christian life. But something is most comforting: that the One who has gone before us will help us through it all. He was insulted, beaten down and rejected. He felt the pain at most the agony of torture. He was deprived of His throne but he reigns forevermore. His name is Jesus.

Lord Jesus, thank you that whenever we experience the pain, the rejection and insults we know that you understand better than we do. Thank you for not leaving us all the way, for being our comfort and Saving Grace. Remind me that when things seem incomprehensible, I don't need to understand everything to trust you rather I just have to simply trust and obey. Whatever you're doing inside of me. I yearn to you and lay everything bare in your hands. My dreams, my plans, whatever I aspire, may it be for your glory and praise!