To Love More for the New Year

It's confirmed, my wife's pregnant with our 3rd child! I thank God for this wonderful gift of life specially this Christmas season.  Yet then as a father, a thought rushed to my head, "Everything's going to be multiplied by three from now on." I was thinking about the future expenses.  So I grabbed my handy pen and notebook and started drafting some plans.  Amidst the joy that I felt in anticipating for the coming of another Llaban into the world, I also felt fear. I'm imagining how St. Joseph felt when he knew of Mary's divine pregnancy. I would think that he also felt some fear.  Yet the Lord assured him,

"Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her." Matthew 1:20

Yes, the Lord wants to take away our fears and lead us to trust in Him more.

What do you fear for the new year to come?  Some of us are afraid that this Holiday break will soon be over and get back to a high tension, pressure cooker environment.  Amidst our celebration in greeting the new year, there is that lingering fear inside us.  And so we get our notebooks and draft some plans.  Here are some thoughts to help us in conquering fear:

1. Love drives out fear. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1 John 4:18). Let us look at our future duties and responsibilities with love.  Even in the middle of pressure situations, let us do things with love. Make your plans with love, do all your works in love. Your every act should be done with love (1 Cor 16:14).  Remember that Love is stronger than fear.

2. Act on your fears.  Before your fears act on you.  We can get caught up in "analysis paralysis." We become lethargic and devote more time in worrying rather than acting.  Procrastination is one fear's favorite food. The more we delay, the bigger the fear grows.  Answer that email, do your best to pay that debt, forgive, ask forgiveness, among other things that might catch up on us in the future.

3. The Lord provides.  "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)."  Let me stress: God works for the good of those who love Him. The Lord truly provides, we need only ask. Through earnest prayer, the Lord will open opportunities, send the right people, and enlighten our minds. In some references (whether exact or not), the phrase fear not is mentioned around 365 times in the bible. A reminder for us to fear not for each day of the year for the Lord provides.

I can say St. Joseph did a great job in raising Jesus.  Despite the overwhelming fact that he was looking after the Savior of mankind!  He loved more than he feared. That's what I plan to do, to love more.

Passion for God

Passion is a very strong word. It reminds us of two things. Christ's passion, which is His suffering and death on the cross. Also, it reminds of us of the things we love to do, the things we are passionate about.  In the dictionary, the meaning of the word passion is "any powerful or compelling feeling or emotion, as love or hate." I'd like to focus on the side of Passion, which pertains to the things we love to do.

 Passion is something God given, it is innate in us. Not all people have the same passions. Not everyone is passionate about music or art, nor are others passionate about numbers and algorithms. Since each of us have different sets of passions, we can conclude that God has uniquely planted in each of us a combination of interests and desires we can use for His purpose.

Purposeful Passion. Passion with purpose is very important. Without purpose, our passion will have no clear direction.  It can go wild and destructive, and to a certain point meaningless.  When it's meaningless, our passions often end up in sinfulness. Having a purposeful passion stems from knowing "Why we are doing what we love doing." Having a clear purpose will sustain our passion and even deepen our passion. Let's say a person is passionate about music.  This person will have then to ask himself, "Why am I passionate about music? Is there a greater reason and purpose behind my interest?"  Being able to answer this question will lead him to the enlightenment of why God planted in him the love for music.  We also have to watch out because our passion can end up having selfish intentions, like doing it only for money.  Money is not enough motivation.  You cannot derive creativity just by thinking of money.  For some this will motivate them in the beginning, but in the long run, it can become meaningless. That is why companies or organizations have vision and mission statements, so that those working will have a greater purpose and clear contribution to the world.

Powerful Passion. The result of purposeful passion is powerful passion. Power has a negative connotation, and it is often associated with greed.  But if we turn to the definition of power, we find out that in the field of science power means, "a measure of how quickly work can be done."  It is also defined as "the capability of doing and accomplishing something." God has a mission for each one of us, and he intends to use our passion gifts for this. With passion, we can get things done quickly and with greater capacity.  Passion is fuel to our purpose to be able to powerfully make a difference.

Passion for God. Having both purposeful and powerful passion for the Lord's mission is Passion for God. When we raise our hands or bow in reverence when we pray and worship, we are passionate.  When we serve Him through our God given passions, it is a form of worship. Passion for God is expressed in both prayer and action. Our passion for God is brought to its fullness with the Power of the Holy Spirit.  Often when we refer to the Spirit, we imagine fire burning in us.  Passion for God is the Spirit's Holy Fire burning in us to have the power to do our purpose.

May we discover and harness our passions for His purpose to make a powerful difference in the world.

Our Hearts as Mangers

Inside the Church of the Nativity. The star represents the spot where Christ was born

We were able to visit the birthplace of Jesus Christ, Bethlehem.  I was in awe of being able to touch the place where Christ's manger was standing.  One has to kneel and reach in to be able to kiss the area. There are latin inscriptions on the star saying, ”Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est” (Here the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ”).  I felt like one of the shepherds who witnessed the new born Christ.

Here are some of my reflections regarding this experience:

1. You cannot save someone without being there for them. Jesus, Son of God, out of His love for us came down to earth, became flesh, to save us from our sins.  We long to help others, but they need us to be present in their lives.  We want to help and save the poor, but we are only content with our donations.  We want to help our own family, but we do not give time to talk and heal.  The only way for Christ to save us was to be there for us by becoming human, so we can be brought to heaven with him through the saving power of His death and resurrection.

2. If we are to be like Christ, we are to be born out of humility.  My 4 year old son, Sev, can already narrate the nativity story in his own words.  He would stress that the place where Christ was born did not smell nice because there were animals around.  Following Christ is a nativity experience.  We will always be humbled and put in a "manger" instead of a comfortable or pleasant position. Truly the Lord blesses us in abundance. But without the experience of being humbled, we will never be genuinely grateful for what we have.

3. We kneel before the King to also be reminded of who we are.  We often kneel in prayer for reverence to God, but kneeling is also to remind us about ourselves and that we cannot be above our King.  When pride comes into our hearts, it is often difficult to kneel.  Although Jesus was just a baby, both shepherds and earthly kings knelt before Him.  They understood who they were in the presence of the One. Therefore the best way to know ourselves is not to psycho-analyze but to be in God's presence.  If we were to realize our purpose, we can only discover it from the reference point of God.

Experiencing Bethlehem made this year's Christmas extra meaningful for me.  I believe that what is important is that we are able to transform our hearts into humble mangers so that Christ will be born in us.  Have a meaningful Christmas season!

Pray, Share, and Advocate for Sendong Victims

Picture from GMA news network. Click pic for story

"There is a shortage of child coffins."

This is something that really shocked me upon hearing in the news about the devastation caused by typhoon "Sendong."  A few days before Christmas, and families are grieving. Many will be spending Christmas in evacuation centers with the fear of shortage of food, water, and clothing.  As of this writing the death toll is already 1,000. It's worse than Ondoy.

In a time like this, we can do the following:

1. Pray. Let us lift up to the Lord all those who died and are suffering because of the calamity.  We pray for God to comfort them, give them hope, and heal them. We pray for people to open their hearts and give generously to the victims.

2. Share. It is not enough to be thankful that God spared most of us from the typhoon, we must translate our gratitude into an act of sharing.  At any other time, in another circumstance, we could have been in their place. "Love your neighbor, as you love yourself (Mark 12:31)."

3. Advocate. Encourage others to also pray and share. Apathy has no place in a time like this.  It only takes one person to inspire another to do something great for others.

Pray, share, and advocate for the Sendong victims. Hear the Lord say, "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink...(Matthew 25:35)"

Donations are now being accepted online at www.cfchomeoffice.com/sendong

At the Lowest Point

We were able to visit Jericho (yes, the one Joshua conquered). As seen in the picture, it is claimed to be the lowest place on earth at 1300 feet below sea level. It's also the oldest city.  North west of the west side bank of Jericho is also where the Mount of Temptation is located.  It is where Jesus was tempted by the devil during His 40 days and 40 nights fast.

In life we go through low places or low points.  Some points in the past we consider our lowest or maybe at present we feel our lowest.

What can we learn from going through our low points?

1. Our life's low-points are tests of our faithfulness.  I can imagine how vulnerable Jesus was while fasting for so many days. He may have been at his lowest physical and mental state. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry (Mt.4:2)  And so the devil comes into the picture to test Him.  Just like us, at our lowest, the enemy comes and tries to deceive us. The devil offers us the deception that life apart from God is way better because of the convenience it offers.  We must remember that it is when we get to our lowest point that we must be most faithful. 

Behind us is the Mount of Temptation

2. When at our lowest, there's no other way but to go up.  When we've hit rock bottom, then we can only bounce back. We can never underestimate the Lord's mercy. If we accept His offer of love through our repentance, then our relationship with Him is restored.  I believe that there is no true success apart from Christ.  On our way up, Christ carries us along with His angels.

3. Christ restores us higher than our previous high-point.  Because of our "low-point" experience, we learn valuable lessons of faith and life. We come back with more wisdom, confidence, and strength.  It is like a line graph that dipped, but bounced back to even a higher point than the previous performance.  What is different now is that we rely on God's strength more than our own.  This is supernatural strength by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Life is a series of high and lows. Our faithfulness is constantly tested and even at times we wander away from God.  Let not our pride blind us from the love and mercy of God.  He alone restores us back to a life of fullness. Let prayer, humility, and hope be our way back to God and our way up towards our life's high points.


 

A Love Triangle with God

We had our wedding vows renewed in Cana of Galilee. Together with 17 other couples in our pilgrimage group, we experienced being where Jesus  attended a wedding feast. As we all know, it is where he actualized his first miracle of turning water into wine.  This was one of our highlights in the pilgrimage.

Here are my reflections on love and our special relationships:

For a relationship to be faithful and fruitful it has to be a Love Triangle: you, your loved one, and your most Loved One.  God has to be the third person in any relationship, your most Loved One.  There will come a time when the other can be almost unbearable to be with.  One only has to look on God and how He loves us, then we are able to understand how to love the other.  Without a relationship with God, a marriage or a relationship is bound to deteriorate and be "civil" and eventually might break up. We need God's grace to truly and fully love our partner.  True love can only flow from the One who is Love.  For God is Love, and from Him we receive love of which we give to the other.  We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

The bible teaches us how to love. St. Paul exhorts, "Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated,it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13: 4-7)."  This is how God loves us and more. It can be our own checklist. Just substitute the words "Love and it" to your name (e.g. Kirby is patient...etc.).  This simple guide can help us love one another.

We renew our love for another on a daily basis.  Through a couple prayer, we recommit before God each day for the strengthening of our bond and for the mission He has given us.  We need not wait to reach our Silver or Golden anniversaries for our vows to be renewed.  Special occasions can help us mark our milestones.  But our commitment to God for our relationship is a day to day renewal.  Just like Jesus turning water into wine, He makes what is plain into something sweet and special.  With Jesus, we are renewed and we are able to treat one another with sweetness and specialty. 

May God strengthen our relationships, not only to our spouse, but to our friends, family, and neighbors.  Let us seek Him who is Love, so we may truly know how to love. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God (1 John 4:7).

The Mosaic of Life

Madaba, Jordan is famous for its Mosaics. The process of making mosaics, specially the smaller art pieces, is painstaking. The artist has to carve each piece of stone with its natural colors and fit them to the plan for the mosaic. One has to see the big picture first before working on the details.
God sees the Big picture for our lives, while we only know bits of it. He is the Mosaic Artist and our daily lives are the small pieces of stone that contribute to the Mosaic of Life. God places us on His Mosaic board to fulfill a role and make His design and vision a reality.


Let's take these lessons from the Mosaic:



1. We are a significant piece of His grand design. Some people think that they are not important or special. In God's eyes, we are so important that He sent Jesus to save each of us from our sins.  The only hindrance is that if we choose not to realize our own greatness and significance as His sons and daughters, then we become discarded stones by our own doing.  Let us choose to be a "piece" of His plan that completes His great Mosaic. 



2. Let us be willing to be used for His purpose. This is not easy. It requires full surrender. We will go through "carving off" of our attachments to vices, materialism, bad attitudes and habits.  This process is painful but necessary. With our surrender, great things will happen through us, for we serve a great God.


3. Life is painstakingly beautiful with God. Like putting together the pieces of the mosaic, putting the pieces of our lives together is not easy to comprehend.  We painstakingly go through each phase of our life, trying to understand how that phase complements the next.  But through the harshness and joys of life, we just have to put our faith in the "Mosaic Artist of Life" that He has a plan, a design, and that it is beautiful.  A plan of which its fullness might be realized in our own lifetime or in the generations to come. Abraham really never understood why God was so harsh that He had commanded to sacrifice Isaac. But then Abraham passed the test of obedience and God stopped the sacrifice.  He then became the father of a great nation. Let us go through life with obedience to God, no matter how painstaking it can get, we will later realize His purpose.


Let today be a colorful piece of God's Mosaic for our lives!


1. Recall your significant past experiences and relate it to who you are today.
2. How has God used that piece of you life to make you a better person at present?
3. Are you willing to be used for His purpose and take part in His design? Why?

God Always Fulfills His Promise

We went to Mt. Nebo in Madaba, Jordan. This is the place where Moses saw with his own eyes, the promise land. As we all know, he was not allowed by God to cross it and he died on this mountain (Deut. 34:4). To this day, no one knows where Moses was exactly buried (Deut.34:6), so the mountain became a memorial site for him.
I believe that despite not crossing over to Canaan, Moses knew what was more important. He knew that the Promise Giver was more important than the Promised Land. The authenticity of God's promises for our lives is when we are led to the Promise Giver Himself. God's promises are meant to draw us closer to Him.
Sometimes, we are disappointed with God because we think that He didn't listen to us. This is an evidence that we have misunderstood
what God's promises are for. Let us remember these when we think of God's promises for our lives:

1. God's promises give us hope. When all else fails, God does not. God says, "I will never forsake you." When we feel that God is distant, it is because we have allowed sin to separate us from Him. But if we accept Christ as our savior and friend, our hope is restored and our strength is renewed.

2. A Promise is a Two Way Street. Attached to God's promise is our promise to Him as well. If we are unfaithful, then we delay the fulfillment of God's promise or forfeit it. The journey from Egypt to Canaan should have not taken Forty years if Israel was faithful to God.

3. Our Goal is to meet the Promise Giver. Our life on earth is temporary, but our life in heaven is eternal. Let us focus on the Giver, not the Gift or the Promise. Many times, the Israelites complained and said they were better off as slaves in Egypt. They lost sight of God and worshipped idols because they were too focused on getting to the Promised land. Let us not go into tantrums when we do not immediately get what we want. God is teaching us to value Him more than anything, so we are ready to receive the blessings of His Promises.

When God reveals to us His promises, our faithfulness is required. God never promises what He cannot fulfill. The timeline in fulfilling these promises is in His hands. It may be within our lifetime, some
even beyond our own.  Let us rejoice for we serve a God who is true to His Word. May we as well stay true to our promises to Him.


"But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same.  The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to tun away from their sins. (2 Peter 3: 8-9)"