Love Is Our Common Ground (Discovering Love All Over Again Series – Day 3)

When confronted with Christians who hold different views from us on a wide range of issues – from the nuclear arms’ race to baptism in the Holy Spirit or the second coming of Christ – we are presented with a wonderful opportunity to check the true motives and desires of our hearts. If, for example, personal opinions about music, clothes, or politics hinder us from relating to a fellow Christian, then we are forced to conclude that our opinions are more important to us than our fellowship with another brother in Christ.

Sadly, around the world today, many Christians have become so entrenched in their own opinions that they have refused  the unity found in the cross of Christ, with all the healing and acceptance which that brings.

IT is not wrong to have differing opinions on a matter, but it is wrong to allow these opinions to divide us.

Questions of doctrine are important, but never so important that we refuse to have fellowship with other Christians – unless they blatantly deny one of the essentials of the Christian faith.

In the essentials let there be unity, in the nonessentials let there be liberty, and in all things let there be charity.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, Paul lists those doctrinal issues he considers to be of “first importance,” or essential to the Christian faith.

• Christ died for our sins.
• He is the Christ of the Old Testament Scriptures, which means He is the Son of God.
• He was raised on the third day and appeared to the disciples.

Just because people from other groups fail to dress or act according to “our” standards doesn’t mean they are less of a Christian. We have been saved by grace through faith so that no one may boast. No body does Christianity better than anybody. Every now and then, we need to check our hearts every time we come to a point where we question a Christian’s actions or decisions because he or she is not doing it the way all the members of your group do it.

Today, I shall begin teaching myself not to look at a Christian based on actions alone. I shall begin to see every Christian as someone who is loved by Him who has loved me too. Every person has faults but that should not hinder me from acknowledging the fact that the person has received Christ and no matter how superficially inconsistent his or her actions are to whatever personal standards I have, I shall bear in mind that God is not yet finished with each one of us. That each one of us is still undergoing the process of becoming a person that God wants us to be.

Discovering Love All Over Again (A Series) – Day 1

I am on a journey. I am on my way back to Love. As I course through the difficult road with my Map, the lessons that I shall be learning will not be left unwritten…

When A Word Loses Its Meaning

How sad that a word expressing the greatest beauty and enrichment we can know has become trite through overuse.

The true meaning of love dawns on us when we find ourselves required to love someone who has hurt us or mistreated us.

The challenge is to love and keep on loving, even when it is hard.

I chose to pause and allow Him to hear the cry of my heart. I had to admit that I was no longer that person who always chooses NOT to feel pain, frustration, anger, humiliation, and disappointment. It felt like I just had a terrible accident. I allowed the doctor to treat the wounds that are visible but I chose to hide those that can be hidden just because I was too proud to admit that I am weak. But He knew I was hurting and He never stopped until He was able to make me realize that I needed His aid..or else, I would die.

I am on a journey. I am on my way back to Love. The healing has begun. His hands has touched me where I hurt the most. The pain is beginning to ebb away…but it hasn’t gone just yet. Still, I’d say there’s a lot of therapy that needs to be done.

I lost something while I was struggling in pain. I lost Love. And I know that I can only find peace when I find it again. I shall be in Love again. I will learn to love again…even when its hard, even when people are unlovable. Because that is what He wants me to do. Because He is Love.

It is not going to be easy. It will not take me a day. But I am on my way there…I am treading slowly but I am on my way there.

Random Reflections

This entry in Our Daily Bread really had me thinking. I have been wanting to post this for some time now but I only got the chance to do so just now.

A Church That Cares
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. -Philippians 2:4

While traveling together, my wife and I started talking with a delightful young woman we met. The time passed quickly as we chatted about lighthearted topics. But when she heard that I was a minister, the conversation took a heart-wrenching turn. She began to share with us that when her husband left her only a few months earlier, she had struggled with the pain of that abandonment.

Then she smiled and said, “I can’t tell you how much my church has meant to me these past months.” her modd and countenance changed dramatically as she recounted the ways her church family had wrapped their loving arms around her in her season of heartache. It was refreshing to hear how that local assembly had surrounded her with the love of Christ.

Far too often, it seems we limit the significance of church to what happens on Sunday, but the church is to be so much more. It is to be a safe haven, a rescue station, and a training center for spiritual service. The church is to be many things, but it is particularly to be an expression of the concerned heart of the Lord of the church for the hurting, broken people, such as our young friend. We are called to “love one another” (1John 4:7).

Sometimes we confuse activity with productivity. I believe that we are most productive when we are able to get to the heart of people – when we actually get to know the deepest part of them; when they are always free to tell us how they really feel because they know we understand. We are most productive when we are able to give even when we know we are not going to get anything in return. We are most productive when we can succeed in making people feel that with us they can be safe and that through all the challenges and turmoils that life throws at them, we are their comfort, their refuge, their rest. We are most productive when we are able to share the comforting and concerned heart of God to those who need them the most.

Uncertain Yet Untroubled

Life is full of uncertainties. But we need not be troubled.

I once talked with a friend about the future. We were mostly daydreaming then. And then I asked, “Would you prefer that you knew what the future holds?” His answer was a resounding no. He said life would be too boring if that was the case.

It has been two years since that conversation and much has changed. We grew up… matured might be the more appropriate term. We talked about what we wanted to happen but then things did not turn out the way we dreamed it would. Our wants from back then faded through and changed with time. It’s funny how we want something to happen so badly at a particular time and become convinced that we don’t want it to happen at all in another.

I have always been amazed by the fact that there is a future to look forward to. I’m amazed by how many tomorrows there still are and how fast todays happen and how yesterdays continue to fill our memories without really filling them up to the brim. There is one thing I have learned through time though. I realized that when you become too anxious about taking a peak at tomorrow, you will miss the beauty of today, and end up wallowing in regret about the yesterdays that have been wasted.

“Today is a gift. That is why it is called ‘present’.” We should live our lives one day at a time. We should forget the former things and not dwell on the past. And we should face life’s uncertainties with the hope of God living in our hearts.

God has plans of prosperity and hope for us. Our future is totally in His hands so we need not worry. The uncertain should motivate us to go on, to look to the future, and to be excited about what God has in store for us.

I am ending this entry with a beautiful quote:

“Neither go back in fear and misgiving to the past,
nor anxiety and forecasting to the future;
but lie quiet under His hand,
having no will but His.” ~H.E. Manning

Reflections (on Ezekiel Chapter 4)

“3…turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.”

The promise of revival is true. The harvest is plentiful. There are a lot of people waiting for answers and explanations. The people of the Lord are supposed to be reaching the lost. But only a few are willing to forsake their own desires to join the others in working for the cause of Christ.

I have often prayed that God would grant me that unwavering passion for God and compassion for people. As of the moment, I believe that what I have just isn’t enough. I am not yet bold enough to face rejection. I am not yet courageous enough to just bring the Gospel into conversations with unbelievers. I am not being who I’m supposed to be and I apparently am not doing what I’m supposed to do. And then God gives me this: “..being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus(Philippians 1:6).”

Of this I am sure, it is only by the grace of God  that I will be able to do what He wants me to do. As of the moment, I shall be holding on to the fact that because I have surrendered myself to Him, He will use whatever He finds in me for His glory and for His purpose.

The Power of the Vision

The vision of making twelve disciples and equipping these disciples to make twelve of their own would only be realized if:

1. You have an intense desire to catch and be caught by the vision.

Believers should have a heartbeat that is one with that of Christ’s – that is, to have a passion for God (as the Father and the Creator of all things) and compassion for the lost. If we are determined at keeping our faith, then we must be able to stand up for what we believe in and begin doing what we are supposed to be doing. Time and time again we are reminded that the Great Commission in not a suggestion, it is a command. Our everyday goal should always include these: win souls and make disciples (Matthew 28: 18-20). We have been commanded to love God and to love others as ourselves (Mark 12:30) and so there are two things that we must constantly do: strengthen our intimacy with the Lord and have an intense desire to win souls.

2. You are inspired by the Holy Spirit to understand the vision.

It is not enough that we know and understand the knots and bolts of the vision. Without divine illumination, our labor would still be in vain. Jesus has made this clear In John 15: 5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” This would require a great deal of submission and obedience on our part. If we really are determined to implement the vision then we should start looking to where God is looking and join Him. We only need to obey before we can see God working mightily in our lives.

3. You will implement the vision.

Let us simply put it this way: A vision not implemented would remain a vision through time.

4. You will impart the vision.

The vision should not only be made known to those who have submitted themselves to full time ministry. The Great Commission was not only addressed to pastors and missionaries and priests and bishops. It was a command that concerns ALL believers. Now is the time to dream big “For God did not give us the spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7).”

What you see is what you will always get. What you believe, that you will become.  Change will start within us. We only need to believe in the vision and have the passion to implement and impart it.

(Main points discussed by Ptr. Frank Santos during the G12 Pinoy Conference, October 9-11, 2008)

of tHings reVealed…

There was much to learn from the G12 Pinoy Conference.

It was a time when church leaders have come together, humbling themselves before God and opening up their minds into working with the other denominations to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission. Finally, the Body of Christ has come together.

This was only one of the most compelling verses we were given: The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to ALL the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river Euphrates. See, I HAVE GIVEN YOU THIS LAND. GO IN AND TAKE POSSESSION OF THE LAND THAT THE LORD SWORE HE WOULD GIVE TO YOUR FATHERS – to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and to their descendants after them.” (Deuteronomy 1: 6-8)

It is true that the people of Lord have long allowed fear to overcome them. First and foremost, there is the fear of rejection.  Christians are either one of these: (1) They are afraid that the  world would hate them when they start manifesting Christ-likeness; (2) They are afraid that their beliefs would be rejected; or (3) They are just willing to receive the blessings of God but are not willing to work for His glory and honor.

The conference was an instrument that led people to repentance from complacence and mediocrity; for taking Christ’s command for granted. The knowledge imparted was more than enough to till the hearts of God’s people that it was time to cease being a bench warmer in the church. It is the time to become a mighty warrior of God!

Funny

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. 

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how everyone wants to go to heaven, provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says.

Funny how someone can say “I believe in God,” but still follow Satan who, by the way, also “believes” in God.

Funny how we are quick to judge, but not to be judged.

Funny how you can send a thousand ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week.

Are you laughing?

Funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me.

Are YOU thinking?

 

(quoted: http://www.inspire21.com/site/stories/Tell_God_out.html)

Divine Foresight

Ecclesiastes 3:15

Whatever is has already been, 
       and what will be has been before; 
       and God will call the past to account.

 

The mystery of God’s foresight lies in the fact that He has already determined every single event in our lives and that He has done it with utmost consideration of the fact that because He has given us free will, we will either be obeying or disobeying His commands. To every act of obedience, He releases blessing: to disobedience, he administers discipline enveloped by mercy and love.

Take heed people-pleaser!

“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” -Galatians 1:10

We humans have the tendency to assume that God looks at us through the scrutinizing eyes of other believers. Sometimes, we perceive Him as somewhat like a “frustrated coach throwing up His hands in dismay with us – the underachiever.” With these conceptions of God, we grieve over the times when we are spiritually awkward and clumsy. The question is: Are we grieved because we are certain that we have displeased God or are we dismayed because we failed to meet the standards that people has set before us?

This we have to know: We can always be thankful that God is the more perfect Parent, Teacher, Counselor, Judge, and Leader than anyone of us could ever hope to be. Having the perfect understanding of His creations, He is patient with the fact that we grow at different rates with different strengths and weaknesses.

Condemnation and guilt doesn’t come from our altogether loving and merciful Father, it comes from the enemy. So, the next time we’ll feel guilty about not having achieved what we think we are supposed to achieve, we need not torture ourselves to death. What is important is that we recognize that we have fallen short and we could still fall short of His glory, come to Him with a repentant heart, and submit to Him our desire to be made perfect through HIS power. “For if willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. (2 Corinthians 8:12)”

No amount of work can buy His favor, His goodness, His mercy, and His grace. “God’s love for us is the same, but He works with us as individuals.” HE CAN NEVER LOVE US MORE BECAUSE HE NEVER LOVED US LESS. HE JUST LOVES FOR HE IS LOVE HIMSELF.