“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Malachi 3:10
I am one grateful soul. Although I have been working online for a few years now, it was only recently that I decided to venture into a virtual assistant job. The Lord has allowed for me to have the most wonderful boss from across the globe, that I cannot be more convinced that it is God who has sent this person to minister to our needs.
Mandaluyong, Metro Manila (January 21, 2010) — OMF Literature joins in the celebration of National Bible Week by affirming the Bible’s value to everyday life and encouraging daily Bible reading.
On January 25-February 6, the OMF Lit Bookshop offers 30% off all imported Bibles. Customers also get a free devotional for every P1,000 single receipt purchase that includes a Bible.
OMF Lit hopes to help revitalize the Bible reading experience of many through these promotions.
Time. This is what I have been hoping to have more of. More time to be able to squeeze everything in my schedule. After having met with five of the girls that I disciple in church last Sunday, I still have a few that I wasn’t able to catch up with. Being online most of the time, I encouraged them to update me via email and so far this is also working for us.
While it is a given that there is no way that I could extend an hour to my day, I know I should get better at juggling my time to be able to do everything and be effective while I’m at it. I honestly cannot help but feel tired sometimes. Being a work from home mom is never walk in a park. What, with the things I do from homeschooling, article writing, the endless house chores and things in between. I pretty much have a valid reason to go nuts, but I choose to enjoy and love what I do.
What alone gets me going, is my daily time with the Lord, get that out of my schedule and I’m out of sorts. Although I happen to believe that I have valid reasons to get worn out, I would still find myself drained and even fuss over petty irritations. It is my default when my heart is not in tune with God. Everyone around me suffers too. Fretting and toiling over things that don’t really matter and the unimportant cares of this world can easily get the best of me, when I don’t spend time with my first love.
This is SBC-Makati’s brand new church sign. The framed tarp (18ft x 5ft) has been on display for three weeks now. This does mean that our local church is not transferring to a brand new address just yet. After a lot of searching throughout Makati, the Lord has led us to decide to stay in the same location.
The owner of the building allowed us to lease the place for another year for less than ten thousand pesos on our monthly rent. That is more than two hundred dollars savings per month and that is a huge deal for our local church. Although packing stuff into shipping boxes will not be a major concern for the time being, we are still praying for God to lead us to a better location for next year.
Yesterday, one of our members and I were discussing about praying for a more permanent location – SBC-Makati’s place of its own. By God’s grace, this will come to pass. Our core leaders put it upon themselves to meet regularly (weeknights) in our church for devotions, prayer and fasting. This has been a great encouragement to us even as we saw them grow spiritually.
SBC Makati is turning 6 years old this month and we are thankful for God’s faithfulness all these years.
I am so amazed about the Bible and how it is so unique. With its cover as common as other books, because of its content. However, it is not just like any other book. It stands alone among millions or even billions of books ever written.
The Bible is unique in so many ways. But I am amazed by its continuity, to think that it was written over a 1,500 year span, which is over 40 generations. It was not written by one man, but it was written by at least 40 authors who come from the most diverse walks of life. Â It was also written in different places, at different times and written in three languages. Its subject matter includes so many subjects that are considered controversial topics like adultery, homosexuality, sex, abortion, war and many others.
But from the fall of the first family, their wearing of animal body wraps that shows how sin was covered through the shedding of the blood, to the choosing of Abraham and a nation, to its disobedience, to the coming of the Messiah who came to earth as a baby with swaddling clothes as body wraps, to His living a perfect and sinless life, to his betrayal, death and resurrection, to the zeal of His followers who were martyred up to the written prophecies of how everything in this world will end – everything is so amazing.
With the facts mentioned about this book or should I say, this library of books, I am in awe that the Bible’s content, and despite its diversity, has harmony and continuity. It shows one unfolding story and that is God’s redemption of the human race.
It was during the first year that the hubby started pastoring the church in Makati when we started with the couples bible study group. It was the most interesting time for the both of us. It was a challenge, because our marriage was young back then, but the Lord was faithful. He used that time for us to learn while ministering to other married couples.
The Lord led us to use wonderful materials on marriage. Most of which were gifts from my uncle who is also a pastor in America. Â The one thing that stood out to be a big issue in marriage is surviving an affair. Others would even ask, does a partner even have to survive an affair at all. Unfaithfulness is hands down, the most devastating experience a partner can ever go through in marriage. Even after everything has been dealt with, it will take a real long while before the feeling of betrayal can ever pass. Sometimes, even never, especially if you try to press on without the kind of support that you need. It has its tendency to continually hunt you and your marriage. This is why in the sessions we have had, we work on the foundation, communication, everything that will keep the couple bonded to each other.
There are a handful of tell tale signs of infidelity. But it is not until the partner has confirmed it that it starts to really hurt endlessly. The thing is a partner only has to go through it once to be convinced that there is nothing more devastating than to be betrayed by your own husband or wife. The scope of infidelity in marriage goes beyond the surface of a wife drowning herself into all the weight loss pills that she could get, justifying her husband’s philandering ways. Thinking it was her fault all along, because she is too big. It even goes beyond the issue of co-dependency.
Although our God is the God who restores what the locusts have eaten, no marriage would want to go through that road of infidelity. I cannot even begin to type the words of devastation that goes along with it. We have always believed that we should at all times be vigilant. We encourage men and women in our church to guard their hearts and minds. In fact one of the favorite books that I use in my discipleship with women in church is Every Woman’s Battle. We cannot focus on repairing broken relationships without zeroing in first on how we were wired and define how the Lord has designed us. Created after His likeness and purposed for His glory.
And just when you might be led to think that this kind of lifestyle is utter boredom, think again. Without all the complications of moral damage, a marriage can enjoy the freedom that no bondage of immorality can ever but fleetingly give.
Emmanuel. King of King and Lord of Lords, came down to earth, before the cross and paid for our sins.
“You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold… but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:18-19
Well, who is this angry man I see
In the mirror looking back at me?
It’s a man who’s tired, a man who’s weak
And it’s a man who needs a Savior
And who is this fearful little child
Crying out for home, lost in the wild?
With a lonely heart that’s fading fast
It’s a child who needs a Savior
A child who needs a Savior
And what is this longing in my soul
That I get so scared and angry?
I need more than just a little help
I need someone who will save me
Come and save me
I need someone to save me
Who will save me?
Come and save me
And who is this one nailed to a cross
Who would rather die than leave us lost?
He’s come to rescue us, come to set us free
Hallelujah, hallelujah
It is Christ the Lord,our Savior
This is the outline of Jeff’s message last Sunday, A Closer Look at Jesus’ Death. Nothing can be more appropriate for the season. Be blessed.
Why was there so much blood?
Luke 22:20 Jesus said, “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.”
John 6:53-54″…Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood, he has eternal life.”
Leviticus 17:14 “The life of every creature is in the blood”
1. Jesus shed His blood because of our sins
Hebrews 12:4 “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
2. The blood means that Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins
Exodus 12:7″…Take blood and put it on the side and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.”
Exodus 29:12 “Take some of the bull’s blood and put it on the horns of the altar in that temple, with your finger, and pour out the rest of it at the base of the altar.”
Hebrews 7:27 “Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for His own sins and for the sins of the people.He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself.”
Hebrews 9:25 “Now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
3. Jesus saved us from our sins
John 3:17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
What exactly happened on the cross?
Wrong Idea:
*Jesus was dying just to give us an example of how we’re supposed to live for others
Biblical truth:
*Jesus’ death was a complete sacrifice
What does the blood of Christ mean to each of us personally?
*It means forgiveness
Hebrews 9:22 “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Ephesians 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
*It also means ownership
Acts 20:28 “Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood.”
*It means reconciliation
Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”
John 1:12-13 “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
One of the more prevailing things that I discuss with my youth counselees is of the nature of dating. Most of them are over their dating issues but it does not mean the struggle is non-existent. There are even issues that can be persistent, but we are happy that they find the support system from our church family to be able to wind up as victors through it all.
With a sexually charged society that we have, the young people are actually fooled into the fantasy of the dating game– a game that gets a whole handful of hearts broken, at the end of the day. It is important to be aware how to conduct oneself while dating. It is actually a good indicator of the kind of commitment that you want to have in your future relationships. The race towards engagement rings is really overrated. What are you going to do with a wedding, when you end up getting divorced sooner than you got engaged?
So far, I am happy with the progress my girls are showing since I started seeing them. If you knew the community in Makati that we are serving, you will be surprised that a big percentage practices common-law marriage. This erodes morality a great deal and if nothing is done, they will inevitably follow that path.
It blesses my heart to see they want better lives, after suffering the cruelties of dysfunctional families. As true as the world is but imperfect, the fact remains that God’s grace is sufficient and this is the core of whatever it is we share with them, whatever circumstance they are in. There’s nothing like dating God’s way.
For most of us Hallowe’en is nothing more than just a day filled with ghost stories and scary creatures. People all over the world carry with them varied versions of the tradition but how did Halloween really come about?
October 31st came to be known asAll Hallows’ Eve basically because the day after, which is November 1 is All Saints’ Day. “Hallow” means “saint.” It was in 988 that November 2 was made All Souls’ Day. It was a feast to honor the dead and not only those who were regarded by the church as saints. These events must have been measures to be part of an attempt to Christianize the old Eve of Samhain and to wean people away from the old pagan ideas and customs. The probability that people might remember more to pray for the dead rather than pray to them and focus their attention on the lives of saints of the pasts than spirits, whether good or bad.
During the Reformation, there was a serious attempt to cut out some of the ideas, particularly concerning prayer for the dead. There is clearly nothing in the Bible which encourages us to pray for the dead; they are in the hands of God and their eternal destiny has been determined by their response to God in their life on earth. So praying for them cannot alter their condition. As a result of this, All Souls’ Day was removed from the church’s calendar, and wasn’t restored until 1928.
“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?Ô
This is the message I sent to the universe at OperationImmortality.com which, according to the site will be archived in the Immortality Drive being sent into space in October, together with all other messages posted before the end of August this year.
I chose this motto, which you can check using my message ID which is 471, because this is the truth, uttered by a great man named Jesus, who claimed, both directly and indirectly, claimed to be immortal and to be God. He was tortured and killed for these claims but His resurrection backed His claims and the world was never the same again.
By His grace I try my best for this truth to be witnessed in my life. Having chosen a profession based on a calling and not on any other temporal reason I try to live this truth and encourage others to take a step back and look at their lives in light of this truth.
I encourage you to use the message ID above to check this motto out at OperationImmortality.com special campaign Operation Immortality: Leave your mark. Save Humanity.You can also try to leave your own message to the universe.
Proverbs 31:30 “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.â€Â
The world loves beautiful people and many people would do anything to become one of them. In Asia, our country, the Philippines, is the number one market for whitening creams according to some report I saw on the television a few weeks ago. The rise of many beauty clinics that offer whitening services, cosmetic surgery, warts removal and facial services show the great demand for beauty services. More and more people are finding ways to improve their looks and their self esteem as well through these methods.
Not to say that wanting to look better is wrong, but too much of anything can be dangerous. My wife uses products that make her more beautiful and I appreciate her knowledge in that (she even has a blog about it) and I myself use some products that my wife introduced to me. So there is nothing wrong with desiring beauty.
However, there is something more important than outer beauty. I believe that every person, not only women, should focus first on the inner beauty or what is in our hearts. In 1 Samuel 16:7 it says that “the Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.†More important than getting the approval of the people around us is the approval of our Master. Having a mindset that we live for the audience of one can radically change the way we interact with people and the way we look at ourselves. Just some thoughts to ponder on.
In whatever endeavor, we should give our best. Whether it has something to do with your spouse, your children and family or your work and your business we should always give the best we can offer. Wherever the Lord has put you, always give your best.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24
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Almost a week has passed since our Baguio trip. We are most thrilled having been able to getaway from our usual routines. But we are more thrilled that we were able to travel possibly a total of 500 kilometers (to and fro) aboard our trusty old car which honestly requires more than just a dent removal procedure.
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A couple of days back the hubby handed me a Suzuki leaflet with quite an affordable downpayment and monthly schemes. Seriously with the way things are going with our finances. Being down by health and medical expenses, plus a lot of bills to pay and have settled, it is just not happening in the near future. But it sure is something to pray about even as the hubby got his legs wet again when it rained yesterday. It usually pours as well on his side of the car when it rains hard.
