The Choice is Yours

An officemate shared this beautiful prose to me early this morning and I just can’t help but post it for everybody else to read.  So, here it is.

He placed one scoop of clay upon another until a form lay lifeless on
the ground.

All of the Garden’s inhabitants paused to witness the event. Hawks
hovered. Giraffes stretched. Trees bowed. Butterflies paused on petals
and watched.

“You will love me, nature,” God said. “I made you that way. You will
obey me, universe. For you were designed to do so. You will reflect my
glory, skies, for that is how you were created. But this one will be
like me. This one will be able to choose.”

All were silent as the Creator reached into himself and removed
something yet unseen. A seed. “it’s called ‘choice.’ The seed of choice.”

Creation stood in silence and gazed upon the lifeless form.

An angel spoke, “But what if he …”

“What if he chooses not to love?” the Creator finished. “Come, I will
show you.”

Unbound by today, God and the angel walked into the realm of tomorrow.

“There, see the fruit of the seed of choice, both the sweet and the
bitter.”

The angel gasped at what he saw. Spontaneous love. Voluntary devotion.
Chosen tenderness. Never had he seen anything like these. He felt the
love of the Adams. He heard the joy of Eve and her daughters. He saw
the food and the burdens shared. He absorbed the kindness and marveled
at the warmth.

“Heaven has never seen such beauty, my Lord. Truly, this is your
greatest creation.”

“Ah, but you’ve only seen the sweet. Now witness the bitter.”

A stench enveloped the pair. The angel turned in horror and
proclaimed, “What is it?”

The Creator spoke only one word: “Selfishness. “

The angel stood speechless as they passed through centuries of
repugnance. Never had he seen such filth. Rotten hearts. Ruptured
promises. Forgotten loyalties. Children of the creation wandering
blindly in lonely labyrinths.

“This is the result of choice? the angel asked.

“Yes.”

“They will forget you?”

“Yes.”

“They will reject you?”

“Yes.”

“They will never come back?”

“Some will. Most won’t.”

“What will it take to make them listen?”

The Creator walked on in time, further and further into the future,
until he stood by a tree. A tree that would be fashioned into a
cradle. Even then he could smell the hay that would surround him.

With another step into the future, he paused before another tree. It
stood alone, a stubborn ruler on a bald hill. The trunk was thick, and
the wood was strong. Soon it would be cut. Soon it would be trimmed.
Soon it would be mounted on the stony brow of another hill. And soon
he would be hung on it.

He felt the wood rub against a back he did not yet wear.

“Will you go down there?” the angel asked.

“I will.”

“Is there no other way?”

“There is not.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to not plant the seed? Wouldn’t it be easier to not give the choice?”

“It would,” the Creator spoke slowly. “But to remove the choice is to
remove the love.”

He look around the hill and foresaw a scene. Three figures hung on
three crosses. Arms spread. Heads fallen forward. They moaned with the
wind.

Men clad in soldier’s garb sat on the ground near the trio. They
played games in the dirt and laughed.

Men clad in religion stood off to one side. They smiled. Arrogant,
cocky. They had protected God, they thought by killing this false one.

Women clad in sorrow huddled at the foot of the hill. Speechless.
Faces tear streaked. Eyes downward. One put her arm around another and
tried to lead her away. She wouldn’t leave. “I will stay,” she said
softly, “I will stay.”

All heaven stood to fight. All nature rose to rescue. All eternity
poised to protect. But the Creator gave no command.

“It must be done…,” he said, and withdrew.

But as he stepped in time, he heard the cry that he would someday
scream: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He wrenched at
tomorrow’s agony.

The angel spoke again. “It would be less painful…”

The Creator interrupted softly. “But it wouldn’t be love.”

They stepped into the Garden again. The Maker looked earnestly at the
clay creation. A monsoon of love swelled up within him. He had died
for the creation before he had made him. God’s form bent over the
sculptured face and breathed. Dust stirred on the lips of the new one.
The chest rose, cracking the red mud. The cheeks fleshened. A finger
moved. And an eye opened.

But more incredible than the moving of the flesh was the stirring of
the spirit. Those who could see the unseen gasped.

Perhaps it was the wind who said it first. Perhaps what the star saw
that moment is what has made it blink ever since. Maybe it was left to
an angel to whisper it:

“It looks like … it appears to so much like … it is him!”

The angel wasn’t speaking of the face, the features, or the body. He
was looking inside – at the soul.

“It’s eternal!” gasped another.

***
Within the man, God has placed a divine seed. A seed of his self (A
seed of choice). The God of might had created earth’s mightiest… And the One who had chosen to love had created one who could love in return.
Now it’s our choice…

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)

Does God Exist?

Human beings are (I would refuse to say by nature) as entirely inquisitive as they are equally determined to get the answer to their questions.

(Note: I would have to save the discussion of why I say man’s ability to develop endless inquiries is not natural.)

The scientific method is man’s attempt to answer every question there is, and if we try to look at it deeper, this man-made approach tries, in one way or another, to disprove the existence of a God.

Paul E. Little says this: ” We must be clear from the onset that we cannot put God in a test tube or prove Him by scientific method just as we cannot prove that Napoleon really existed. In order for something to be proved by the scientific method, it must be repeatable. But the fact that certain events can’t be proved by repetition does not disprove the reality of those events.”

We call the Theory of Evolution a theory because, in itself, it is a “hunch” backed by a series of admittedly only almost accurate calculations, yet many people are blinded by it and have consequently succumbed to the idea that our present human appearance developed by chance. Are we, therefore, also to embrace the idea that in a few million years, our appearances – our body structure and our system functions – would change by any chance?

Consider this: “As biochemists discover more and more about the awesome complexity of life, it is apparent that its chances of originating by accident are so minute that they can be completely ruled out. Life cannot have arisen by chance (Sir Fred Hoyle, The Intelligent Universe).”

Let us now take the issue of cause and effect into consideration. Everything has to have been caused by something. Flowers bloom because of the process of pollination. But how did it have to be this way? Why is there such design? Why are certain events, certain organisms interconnected?

Yes, the law of cause and effect exists but we cannot and must not subject the cause of all causes to such law. God would cease to be God if He is caused by something. We have to cease seeing God as a corruptible, measurable, and an intangible being and begin to acknowledge His ultimate dominion over everything in and beyond this world. God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, holy. God is eternal. He cannot be created by anything or anyone.

The scientific method is only for things that can be measured but He can be experienced. We cannot at all fathom the mysteries of God, after all, “Secret things belong to the Lord (Deut. 29:29).” Unless we acknowledge that a God exists,”we are doomed to confusion and conjecture.”

” I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Revelations 22:13