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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

WOYWW: Of Awards and Saints

This is what I finished last night.
I need to do some "timing" to find out
how long it would take to make a background, the face, etc.
I am doing a workshop on Nov.7 and we only have an hour.
Possible? I'll find out!!!

Last week, my siblings and I attended
the SM Partner's Summit, an event to
celebrate 30 years of partnership with SM.

 papemelroti received the SM Green Retail Award,
along with Starbucks, Sanuk and Smart.
When Hans Sy congratulated me,
he said, "You are one of our pioneers!"
Yes we are! We were there when the first SM Mall 
opened its doors to the public in North Edsa 30 years ago.

"You are fellow citizens with the saints..." Ephesians 2:9
Saint Paul wrote this to the people of Ephesus, and I am sure if he wrote to us today, he would say the same thing. That we are fellow citizens with the holy ones, part of God's household. I could think I am no Mother Teresa who took care of the sick and dying, and who thought of herself as a little pencil in God's hand. I could tell myself I will never be a Pope John Paul II, a great man of God, who heard God call him as a young man, and followed Him to the Vatican, and helped bring down Communism. I'm not a Saint Francis of Assisi who left all his worldly goods to become a poor monk who built God's church at a time when it was crumbling. We may not be called to do something great, but like Mother Teresa, we can be God's pencil, and write what He wants us to write with our life. Nothing is impossible with God!




Joining the lovely Julia Dunnit for a 
peek at desks and projects!

I find a lot of inspiration
visiting my friends here:

Blessings!
Patsy
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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

WOYWW: Much is Required


 "To whom much is given, much is required." Luke 12:48


This is not only a Biblical principle, but holds true as well in business, in families, in much of life. In Jesus' parable of the talents, He reminds us that when we are entrusted with 10 coins or 20 coins, He expects us to "invest" and use it. We are not supposed to just hide it and make sure it does not get lost. As part of Jesus' household, we are stewards of gifts, talents, resources and time. Much like God the Father told Adam and Eve to go forth and multiply, we are also supposed to use what He has given, to multiply it. Sometimes we can get intimidated by all that implies, but if we start out by giving God the best and our first fruits, He becomes our working partner in whatever we do!







Joining the lovely Julia Dunnit for a 
peek at desks and projects!

I find a lot of inspiration
visiting my friends here:

Blessings!
Patsy
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Friday, October 16, 2015

Paint Party Friday: Nothing Hidden!

 "Even the hairs of your head are counted!" Luke 12:7
How precious are we to God? So precious He knows how much hair there is on our head. Now I do not know why He needs to know that, but that's what it says in the Bible! If He knows that, then He also keeps track of what we are doing every minute, every second of the day. In Jeremiah 29:11 it says that God has a plan for each of us, not just a mediocre plan, but a really excellent one. So it would be great to get to know what that plan is, to work with God, to make it come true.

 Nick Vujicic was born with the tetra-amelia syndrome. He does not have arms. He does not have legs. But he goes around the world preaching to millions of people. One time, he had a short meeting with the President of Ecuador. A few days after that, the President had to consider a law that would allow abortion of disabled fetuses. He vetoed it because he said Ecuador needed more Nick Vujicics! We may not have as big a challenge as Nick, but certainly we have as important a role to play in God's plan for the world!

"There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nothing hidden that will not be made known." Luke 12:2

When Jesus told this to the crowd of thousands listening to Him, it might have seemed like a threat, but I take this as a promise of freedom. The enemy likes to work in the dark, he likes us to hide thoughts, motives and intentions, so he can have power over us.

When I was young, I liked to read but we only had a few books in the house. Then my aunt went to the US to get married and left us boxes of her books. There was War and Peace and Gone with the Wind that I read innumerable times during my High School years. Unfortunately, the rest of the books were romantic novels by Lucy Walker and Barbara Cartland, mostly Mills and Boone. I kept a stash of my favorites under my bed for years, the ones that did not embarrass me. When I was in college, God told me to throw those favorites away. I did not want to. It was my guilty secret. It was almost as if I loved those books! I wrestled with God for months until one day, I told my sister Meldy what God wanted me to do. She said, "Then throw it away!" and just like that I was able to throw it all away. The hold the enemy had on me was broken.

Now I know if the enemy has a hold on me, all I have to do is bring it to the light!


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patsy
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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

WOYWW: Celebrate!

 Here is my desk with a painting I made for 
my friend Cristy's birthday.
Above it you can see some mark makers I bought last Monday.
They are actually a non-slip rubber mats that I cut up.

Here's a close-up of the painting and the mark makers.

 "Let Your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication." Psalm 130:2
There are times when I feel confident that God is listening to me. And then there are those times when I feel my prayers are falling on deaf ears. Sometimes a whole year passes and I do not hear from God. When we need advice, we go to an expert, is it not? Sometimes we even pay to learn some skill like calligraphy or bread making. How about prayer? 

 One of the experts on prayer is King David, and what's great about him is he left his prayers for us to study and dissect, but most of all to use to pray ourselves. There are Psalms where David confesses his sin before God, where he labors to see sin as God sees his sin. There are prayers where David pleads with God, where he praises God, where he asks for help, where he is despairing. There are 150 Psalms in the Bible. I think we will find one for every situation we find ourselves in. When we pray, if we cannot find the words, we can start with David's words, and then continue on with our own!

 "Since the creation of the world, invisible realities, God's eternal power and divinity, have become visible, recognized through the things He has made." Romans 1:20
Saint Paul says in this chapter that people have no excuses whatsoever for not knowing God, for God shows His existence by what He created. For me, the most compelling proof that God exists is the amazing, awesome design of the universe, of man, of a butterfly, of an ant, and how life could not have happened without all the details of space, time, and matter colliding. The distance of the earth from the sun, gravity, the position of our solar system, all these and so many more details essential to life, could not have been sheer, random chance! It is inconceivable that life would form without God's prodding if the "the odds of a single protein molecule forming by chance is 1 in 10243 (that is a 1 followed by 243 zeros). A single cell is comprised of millions of protein molecules."

If God took such infinite care with forming our universe, our solar system, our earth, to give life to us, what does that mean? We are infinitely precious to Him! He placed into our hearts a desire for eternity, a desire for Him. Our life on earth is just a stepping stone to a life with the Father who made us. If we can live each day knowing this, we will not merely exist, we will celebrate!



Joining the lovely Julia Dunnit for a 
peek at desks and projects!

I find a lot of inspiration
visiting my friends here:

Blessings!
Patsy
Posted by at 11 comments:

Wednesday, October 07, 2015

WOYWW: First Things First!

 Here is what I was working on last night.
I was doing something else when I had this urge to paint.
It was quite late, so I just painted for a few minutes,
and I used a brush I never used before
to make those white "fan" strokes!

 For those following my Shibori journey,
here is what I have come up with so far.
These are hankies.
I am planning to make bags and purses too.
All for a livelihood project.
Lots of fun and quite fulfilling,
although since I do this after work in the office,
quite tiring too!

 "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." Luke 11:4
I was just reading the Book of Jonah where Jonah was so mad that God did not punish the people of Nineveh for their sins. Aren't we in a good place that God is not like Jonah? That God is not like us? Isn't it ironic that we can be so condemning of others who are 'not like us'. The politician who is so corrupt he has to run for President so he can escape persecution. God, why don't You punish him?
Or perhaps someone in the office who wronged us, a neighbor who hurt us, a relative who lied about us. We don't want to forgive them because that would be letting them off the hook. That would be freeing them from the consequences of their actions. And Jonah desperately wanted the Ninevites to suffer for the consequence of their actions! But God is as Jonah prays, "...a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger,rich in clemency, loathe to punish." (Jonah 4:2) That is what we can depend on. He will forgive our sins and He asks us to do the same for those who have wronged us. Not only for their sake, but mostly for ours.

Corrie Ten Boom wrote in her book, The Hiding Place, “Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him....Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness....And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself.”


 "One thing is required..." Luke 10:42
What is that one thing that Jesus says is required?
Can you imagine if Jesus visits your home- Your name is Martha, and you welcome Him. Your sister Mary sits at His feet and listens to everything He is saying. You want to listen too. His Words pull You, and you want to learn from Him. But you have to be in the kitchen because you are preparing a big dinner for Jesus and His disciples. You get really frustrated, and you feel it is unfair that Mary is not helping in the kitchen. So you say something. "Lord, are You not concerned that Mary has left me all alone to prepare everything? Tell her to help me!"

I guess this is born out of Martha's frustration that she wants to be at His feet too! I would have thought that Martha would be happy Mary was doing the "entertaining" of their guest! Jesus rebukes her gently, " Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many things; one thing only is required. Mary has chosen the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it." Jesus, who knows Martha's heart and mind, knows she is upset about many things. He wants her to sit down at his feet too. Dinner can wait. First things first.


We know that Martha listened. In John 11;40, when Jesus returned to their village because his friend and their brother Lazarus died, he asked that the stone be rolled away. Martha protested, "Lord, Lazarus has been dead for 4 days. There will be an awful stench!" Jesus turned to her, "Martha, Martha,did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"Jesus' conversations with Martha and Mary have not been recorded, but we too can have our own conversations with the Lord. When we are bothered and upset about many things, Jesus knows. He calls us to have a conversation with Him. To sit at his feet. Dinner can wait. Laundry can wait. Worrying can wait. Only one thing is required. That we listen to him. That we believe. That is the only way we will see the glory of God.
Yes Lord, I will listen. I believe! I want to see Your glory!



Joining the lovely Julia Dunnit for a 
peek at desks and projects!

I find a lot of inspiration
visiting my friends here:

Blessings!
Patsy

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