Si Lord pala, parang Basurero (Can God Really be Compared to a Garbage Collector??)

This was a very weird yet amazing revelation to me while I’m eating few moments ago. I just recalled the news yesterday about the basureros . It was highlighted that they find their treasure with the garbage they gather. They manage to generate money out of these worthless and disgusting trashes.

Having this analogy, I saw the Lord’s character in their lives. Just as how the garbage collectors are eager to find usable things out of this garbage, so is the Lord, as He is so much eager to find precious value out of the worthless lives that we have.

Our lives are just like pieces of trash compared to God’s Greatness and Holiness. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). But the amazing fact is that the Lord is so much desperate to express the importance of our lives. Despite of the situation that He is being highly revered and adored in heaven, He still chose His pursuit to win our hearts by surrendering His throne and by offering His Own Life for us; for we are the Lord’s great delight (Zeph. 3:17). He finds His treasure in our hearts that’s why He perseveres to win our lives.

What an astonishing and heartfelt act of humility by the Highly Adored Person in Heaven.

A kind of act to pushes us to abandon a life of worthlessness and to pursue a life of holiness!

Let us all pursue a life that brings back all the glory and honor to Jesus! =)

The Faithful God I Know; Sufficient to make Us Whole

Would just like to share my profile.

I'm a man who was born to a Christian family. Truly it is a blessing to have a family like what I have today. They are one of the reasons why I still keep on clinging to God's sufficient grace.

I've been actively involving in the ministry of our Lord since I was 13. For God's glory, I serve as a life group leader and worship leader in our church today. But I believe there are still lots of things that must be molded and must be changed in my life.

With these flaws I have in my heart, I've still proven in my life that no matter how stubborn we are not to pursue God's perfect purpose in our lives, God is far more stubborn than we are, for He loves us and He wants us to capture the best life that we should be experiencing..

Yes, He is a God of grace, yet He is a Father, ready to rebuke us, to correct us, and to mold us, for us to reach a Christ-like living.

Blatantly I say, I'm very very far from that. But His grace is so near and overwhelming. He would always mildly say, "Just forget the past and accept that you are forgiven, I will give a fresh start. Forget all of your achievements and short comings. Just look up to Me, and I will give everything that you really deserve."

How amazing it is to have a God who is firm to His Word; that He will do everything to extend His arms to reach us. It is only because of our sins why He can't penetrate. But once we are cleansed, believe that He treated everything as if nothing happened.

With all these experiences, I'm just asking God that in every day of my life, He would be the source of my strength, for without Him, I always see myself losing in trials and temptation. But having Him in my heart, I believe that I will be on the winning side. =)

Faith is the Key to Blessing

"Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24

In great need of something? Jesus said in John 14:14, "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." But sometimes, we come to feel that our prayers are powerless and are not answered. Why do these things happen?

I believe the secret is wholehearted faith. There is no such thing as half-hearted or partial faith. I may describe this in a situation wherein we come to plead to God, but still impulsively manages everything on our own way that we would be able to find the solution to our problems by our ownselves.

To have a whole-hearted faith is to fully depend on the ways of the Lord. We just have to be sensitive to hear from Him. To be sensitive enough to hear what He is telling us to do, not that we will say a prayer and then immediately act on our own way.

We may ask a prayer that delays so much. But God is a God of perfect timing. I remember the situation in our church that there were 2 air-condtioners installed but it can't run because it needs a 3-phase transformer which costs a huge amount of money. We've been praying for it for almost a year, but still it seems that our prayers are not heard. But we never stop on believing. Then, here comes the electric company, telling us that they would install the transformers without pay. Wow, a great blessing from the Lord. During the waiting time, our church administrators have nearly acted to loan for money, believing that God would supply the payments for it. If they've decided to loan for it, we wouldn't receive such blessing in our church.

That's the power of whole-hearted faith, that God will supply everything, in His ways, not on our ways. We just have to sensitive enough to hear from Him, have a wholehearted faith to believe, and have total dependency on His revelation..

His Absolute Strength Rooted from Our Total Submission

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." 2 Chronicles 16:9

Through the life of Paul, God declared that He will surely strengthen us in our weaknesses (Phil. 4:13). Claiming those verses, I find confidence that God will strengthen me in all the temptations, trials, and worries that I will be encountering. But, when these situations come on my way, I see myself falling away from God and dumped once again in my shortcomings.

"GOD! What's the problem?" I exclaimed. "I do claim that your strength will be upon me? How come that I can't feel it?? I can't use it??"

But with a verse I've read enligthens my mind. From 2 Chronicles 16:9, it says that His strength will be poured upon those whose hearts"are fully committed to Him." I began to wander and think of the shortcomings that I have, and with a snap, God slapped me with a voice saying, "Gary, I need your total obedience. If you skipped some of my commands, you're allowing the enemy to find an entry point in your heart."

Come to think of the situations wherein we fall. We will see that these are the situations wherein we lack guidance, submission, or trust from the Lord. True enough, right?

For us to gain the absolute power of God to overcome weaknesses, we must allow ourselves to submit every details we have in our lives. Only then will we come to experience the benefit of His strength.

Jesus, My Best Buddy

Jesus said, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." John 15:15

Our friends and our colleagues are the persons with whom we want to allot the majority of our time. We love to be with them, to talk them, to share each other's interest and to help one another in times of problems.

I have friends with whom I enjoy a lot of time being with them. We have a hobby that connects us together; basketball and we call ourselves as the stars team. It is very nice to remember those days wherein we play together in different places, eat together as we share our individual interests and bond together outside our schools.

But gone are those days for we departed ways when we choose different schools when we entered college. It feels a little bit sad whenever I would think about it. That's the significance of the friends we have in our lives. We treat them as our best buddies and we feel something is missing when our time being with them are lessened.

Now, come to think if your friend is the king or president of your country? What would it feel? If I have a friend like him, I would abuse my friendship power to be able to be with him in their palace all the time; and I would proudly say, "hey, my friend is the president of our country."

Isn't it great to have that kind of friendship. But we neglect the fact that it is really possible for us to have a friend like them. Much more, this Person who is inviting us to become His friend is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. None other than Jesus!

No one could ever overtake the friendship that he could offer. If you begin to explore the promises of God in our lives, His friends, we would see the Best Buddy that we could ever have.

The dictionary defines friend as a person whom one knows, likes, and trust.

Maybe we'll ask, "hey, maybe God really knows me. But does He really like me and trust me?

Reflect on these verses:

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zep. 3:17 - the Lord indeed delights in us

I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. Jer. 24:7 - God, with confidence boldness, affirmed that we will still return to Him even knowing the fact that we, who accepted Christ, have a decision of our own. Why? because He believes that we will still walk for the good; He believes that our conscience and our love for Him is true.

Now, we as His friends must also do our part. As friends of God, we have the responsiblity to know him more, to delight in him and to trust Him in everything that we will do(Isaiah 55:6; Psalms 37:4; Proverbs 3:5,6).

Aim to have a closer relationship with Him, and you'll find the Best Buddy you cannot ever compare! To have a quality time with Him will surely be the best!