Does It Matter to God?

"Doesn't it matter to you that we are going to drown?" Mark 4:38

A few years ago I read a news story that sent shivers down my spine. It was about a Filipina and an Australian man who would entice little girls with a good life, coerce them into doing awful things, torture them, and videotape all this to sell on the internet. These are the stories that make men into atheists. They ask the same question the disciples asked when they were on a boat with Jesus and a bad storm broke out. Apparently it was a really bad storm as these were experienced fishermen, as brawny as they come, and Jesus was asleep. "Teacher, doesn't it matter to you, don't you care that we are going to drown?" Jesus woke up, rebuked the wind, and spoke to the sea. "Be quiet! Be still!" Yes, God can make the wind, the sea, fire, volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, explosive sun storms all obey Him, but He gave us, man, free will. He said He stands at the door and knocks! 

It boggles my mind that God would "sleep" while horrors are going on in the world, in my country, perhaps even in my neighborhood. But another mind boggling thing is God created man to have a relationship with Him. You can't have a genuine, intimate relationship with a robot. I can't have a kinship, a connection with my computer. That's why God gave man free will, the freedom to choose to have a close bond with Him or to reject Him. God gave man a choice to choose evil. 

But the whole Bible is a love story. It is His story of how God loved us even before we knew Him, even while we are sinners. It is a story of a God who is committed to us, who is willing to die for us. Yes, Jesus died for that awful woman and that pervert of a man who are now, thank God, in the hands of authorities. 

The devil tries to make bulwarks of evil all around the world. It's easier now with the internet that can spread lies, pornography, anger, discontent just with a click of a finger. But we should never make the mistake of thinking God does not care. He is busy too, making bulwarks where we can be protected, and where we can venture out to "save" others in the clutches of darkness. Those bulwarks are the communities, prayer groups, churches, and congregations preaching and teaching the authentic word of God. 

"And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near." That is what is said in Hebrews 10:25. God knows we need to be encouraged and inspired, and we need to be taught to obey the written word of God. It is very important that we belong in one of God's bulwarks. Because it matters very much to God that we do not drown in the sea of evil. 

Look at the Birds

"Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns yet your heavenly Father feeds them." Matthew 6:26

There are millions and millions of things our heavenly Father does for us, provides for us, that we take for granted!

If He took care that we have a philtrum so that we could express ourselves with a wider range with our lips, what more did He think about for our good? Have we thought of how many joints and hinges are in our skeleton? How is it lubricated? There’s a jelly like substance produced at just the right amount at the right place it is needed! I call my husband and son my sweathearts. Their cooling system is so efficient, they perspire a lot when it is very hot. Our bodies have an automatic thermostat that keeps us at the right temperature. The human body is so wonderful and awesome. Just examine our brains, our eyes, our hands, our heart! No way is the design of our body not an expression of love by our Creator! 

Jesus is the limitless wellspring of all we need...fed by the river that flows from the very throne of God. (from the Word Among Us)

If we sit still and ponder all what God has done for our good, our hearts will well up in gratitude! 

Where Your Heart Is

“…store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” Matthew 6:20-21

Jesus told a man in the crowd in Matthew 12:15, 21, “One's life does not consist of possessions...Be rich in what matters to God." 

God placed eternity in our hearts. That is why sometimes we have a yearning for something more. We belong in heaven, and we are here to prepare to be citizens in heaven. The easiest way to learn is to go to the Master and read His words in the Bible. He tells us that we should not accumulate earthly riches because we can't take this with us where we are going. We should invest in treasures in heaven. We can exchange our pesos, dollars, euros, yens, not by going to the foreign exchange but by giving to God's work. Tithes, donations during calamities, having a birthday party in the prison, buying soap and books and cookies for orphans, helping widows, helping to build a home for the aged, etc. Heaven's treasures are PEOPLE! That's why Jesus paid the ultimate price for us- His very life!

It is not easy to stockpile heavenly treasures AT FIRST. Just as it was not easy for me to pray and read scripture for 5 minutes when I was young! It seemed as if 5 minutes was an eternity! But now an hour flies by so fast. It is the same with money. Give a little at first, partner with God, and He will train us if we tell Him that we want to invest in treasures in heaven!

We should try to listen to God's financial advice and try to put our money where there is no risk!

I Choose to Forgive

"If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” Matthew 6:14-15

In February 1993, the only son of Mary Johnson was fatally shot by 16 year old Oshea Israel. 20 year old Laramiun Byrd was shot in the head after an altercation at a party. Israel had been involved in drugs and gangs, and was tried as an adult. He served prison time for 17 years.

Mary Johnson was just consumed by hatred. She called it a "tsunami" of hatred. I think most of us would just plain understand this. I can't imagine not hating someone who shoots my only son!!! But Mary Johnson stayed in church and it would be 10 long years before she would be able to look at her heart and choose to forgive. Her Pastor asked her to teach a lesson on forgiveness and she heard Jesus say to her, "Mary, pray for him like you are praying for yourself." And she did. Then she heard, "Every time his name comes up, say, 'I choose to forgive." She repented and forgave him with a true forgiveness. She did not know that as she prayed for Oshea, he changed too.

She went to visit him, and they talked. To love your enemy means you have to feel their pain. You have to get to know their story. You have to understand their history. And the more Mary and Oshea talked, the more they got closer. When Oshea was released from prison, Mary threw him a homecoming party. Her friends were there to support him too. Today, they live next door to each other, and share a porch. They go around sharing about the power of forgiveness.

There are many stories about how people are able to rise above their "humanness" and become superhuman. Loving is the only super power that we need. It is creative. It is transforming. It is redemptive. It is freeing. It is healing.

Cheerful Giver

“…whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully…God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

Tithing is an Old Testament concept found in Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:26; Deuteronomy 14:24; 2 Chronicles 31:5, etc. The Jews were supposed to give 10% of their produce to the Lord. In the New Covenant, nowhere does it mention 10%, but Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9:7, that  man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

To me, tithing or giving has a lot to do with partnering with the Lord in His work. It’s like investing some capital in the Lord’s business. Whether we give or not, His Kingdom will grow, just like the tiny mustard seed would grow into a tree in Matthew 13. We would like to be a part of that for surely there is much gain involved, eternal profit!

If we happened to invest $10,000 on Apple’s IPO back in Dec. 12, 1980, today our stock would be worth more than $7 million dollars. In God’s “stock exchange”, it’s a very different ballgame as God’s measuring stick is not the same as the world’s. If two people invest the same amount on God’s stock, the value in God’s eyes would be dependent on how much we had left in the bank!!!! 

In Luke 21, we see how Jesus thinks. He sees many rich people putting their offerings into the Temple treasury. But of all the people, some of them giving huge sums of money, He pointed out the poor widow putting in two copper coins. “I assure  you, this poor widow has put in more than all the rest. They make contributions out of their surplus, but she from her want has given what she could not afford- every penny she had to live on.” When the poor widow gets to heaven, she will find that the value of her stock generated dividends and a tremendous return of investment! Let us remember the words of Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7: “The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” What does the Lord see in our heart? 

Lord, help me to sow bountifully and cheerfully. I want treasures in heaven! 

Love Your Enemies

“Love your enemies…” Matthew 5:43

Sometimes our enemies live with us. Think Cain and Abel, Luke Skywalker and his dad, or the countless stories of fathers and sons trying to kill each other because one is a Taliban warrior and the other in the militia. I remember back in college when I would tell my classmates that I was working in the family business. Some would then respond adamantly, "I'd never work for my parents!!! We would just quarrel every day!" Most of the time our enemies are those who are close to us. After all, how can anyone hurt us if we do not care about them? It is those we love who have the most power to wound us. 

How do we love our enemy, our mother, who deeply injures us when she compares us to others? Our enemy, our dearest closest friend, who told our secrets to someone else? Our enemy, our father, who abandoned us when we needed his protection? People always disappoint. That's what people do. People are made of clay, easily broken, in need of redemption. WE are made of clay, we disappoint. We usually cannot give what others expect of us, most of the time, or some of the time. 

What we need is God's love shining through our brokenness, our cracks. After all, we can only love because He first loved us (1 John 4:9). We cannot give what we do not have. To love our enemies, or our friends, or our family, we need to be confident in God who loves us immeasurably, forgives us unconditionally, and will walk with us till the end. 

I Will Praise Him

“Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; ​break into song; sing praise.” Psalm 98:4

I started numbering my blessings after I read Ann Voskamp’s book, “One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are”. But I had to stop when I ended up in the hospital for three weeks without my journal. I think I was up to 9,000 plus when I stopped. Every day, I start with counting my blessings, but now, I write them on my iPad. There is always plenty to thank God for even on days when there is bad news or some horrible disaster. 

I have learned not to take things for granted. There was a time I could not eat, nor talk because I had so many mouth sores. Then there were those months I had to wear those thick, hot, ugly compression stockings. Now I am still on oxygen. My foot is still healing and I have to walk very very carefully. The fact that we can walk, even carefully, that we can remember things, that we are able to love, forgive, get excited, smile, we should never, never take that for granted. We should wake up every morning and praise and thank God if our husband and children are safe, healthy in body and mind, interested in life, and we have a home and a roof over our heads. So many, myriads of things we have to thank God for! His gifts are endless! 

A friend on Facebook started her list with thankfulness for coffee. My list doesn’t even contain the word coffee. Yet. Or chocolates! Salmon sushi! My son’s paella and Napoleones! I like the way Ann Voskamp writes, and speaks. “How,” she wondered, “do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties? What does a life of gratitude look like when your days are gritty, long, and sometimes dark? What is God providing here and now?” When she started chronicling life’s gifts, it was transformative. 

She starts her storytelling when she is four years old and already enveloped in grief. Her little sister Aimee was crushed by a delivery truck with a heavy load when she wandered close after a cat. The driver sobbed that he had not seen her and her mom had witnessed it all with a blood curdling scream. How do you get through something like that? 

“Can there be a good God? A God who graces with good gifts when a crib lies empty through long nights... where is God really? How can He be good when babies die, and marriages implode, and dreams blow away, dust in the wind? Where is grace bestowed when cancer gnaws and loneliness aches and nameless places in us soundlessly die...Where hides this joy of the Lord, this God who fills the earth with good things, and how do I live fully when life is full of hurt?” Many ask these questions. Years can pass and sometimes there are no answers.

For Ann the answer came in “eucharisteo”, thanksgiving which has as its root word, “charis” meaning grace, “chara” meaning joy. “Deep joy can only be found at the table of euCHARisteo, the table of thanksgiving. As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible.” 

Lord, may I remember everyday to give you a sacrifice of thanksgiving, especially especially during dark days. 

Mustard Seed Faith

"The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed." 

Mark 4:31

If Jesus were to start a business, He would have started small. He wouldn't have borrowed money. He would have worked out of his garage or even out in the fields. He wouldn't have looked for PhDs or business people with a lot of experience. He would have trained His people well, and He would have grown this mustard seed business slowly but surely, showing His people by example, and then sending them out two by two. God never looks down upon small beginnings. In Zechariah 4:10, God asks, "For who has despised the day of small things?"

We can start with a mustard seed faith, really tiny, but in God's hand, the Master Gardener, it can grow and develop into something so mighty, the devil cowers in fear before it. We can and should grow our faith. I remember listening to Aliss Cresswell. When she started on her journey, she had a mustard seed faith, but she wanted the gift of healing, and she would bravely pray over people all the time. Nothing happened at first, and some people even died. But she kept at it for 10 years. Now when she prays, 90% of the people get healed or some sort of miracle happens. 

When someone asks us to pray for them, most of us will nod our heads and say yes. Seldom do we put out our hand and lay hands on the person. But laying hands is stepping out in faith, and telling God, "Here I am, use me!" If we do it more often, if we pull out our mustard seed faith out of its protective covering more often, we will see it grow. 

Lord, here is my mustard seed faith! Help me to grow it into a mustard tree, mighty and pleasing to You!

Ambassador Me!

“We are all ambassadors for Christ…” 2 Corinthians 5:20

I was reading about Salma Hayek teaming up with Unicef to eradicate tentanus. “Several years ago it was so hard to get media attention for this,” the Unicef spokesperson said, “Enter Salma, and here we suddenly had 30 media outlets hanging on her every word."

There was a John 3:16 challenge back in 2015 or 2016, where the challenge was for Christians to share the verse once a week with a lost person with the intention of leading them to a relationship with Jesus. After Football superstar Tim Tebow put John 3:16 on his eye black during a national championship game, this bible verse was googled 94 million times!!!!

We don't need star power to be ambassadors for Christ. We just need to KNOW Him,

really KNOW Him!

Do we know that it is love that He desires, not sacrifice? That He prefers that we know Him and have a relationship with Him rather than fasting, and alms giving?

"Embedded in every work God does in our lives, is an invitation to an intimate relationship with His son." (From the “Word Among Us”.)

If we get to know Christ more and more, our words and our lives will be so compelling, that we would not need to be a popular actress or a famous athlete to be an ambassador for the One who calls us to be His very own! 

As ambassadors for Christ, what creative thing can we do so people will want to know Christ more? These days it is not so difficult because there’s Facebook and Instagram and a myriad other social media platforms where we can set up our soap box. When we share about God’s love, we are scattering seeds far and wide, and God will be the One who will give the growth. 

God’s Love

Let us claim Saint Paul's prayer for the people of Ephesus for ourselves: “I kneel before the Father...that He may grant you in accord with the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power... And that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend ...what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory...forever and ever. Amen." 

Eph. 3:14-21

What a powerful prayer this is! No one can conceive how rich God is. No one can comprehend His power. His love is limitless and all-encompassing. He can easily grant any of our prayers and nothing is impossible for Him. 

Paul KNEW Christ. He received a revelation from Christ Himself and He is praying the same for us. That we would know Christ and that He would dwell with us. If Jesus said He wanted to live with us in our home, what would we do? I would clean up for sure! 

Jesus wants to live in our hearts! We need to be rooted and grounded, established, 

stable in God's love, not in the love this world offers so that we may be overflowing with His fullness and grace and spirit. Impossible? If we want it enough, God is fully able to do all this and more!

Freedom

“…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17

After Jesus died, the apostles saw Him several times. He told them that they would receive power, and that they were to proclaim the good news to all the ends of the earth. From timid, scared men who were in hiding, they became bold and fervent, and witnessed every where. They preached and performed many miraculous signs. Some people would get healed just from being under Peter's shadow. So you can imagine the crowds and commotion that followed them!

The High Priest and the Sadducees were not happy about this! They were jealous and threw the apostles in jail. But an angel came in the night and set them free. "Go out now ...and preach to the people about this new life!" And so Peter and the apostles went back to the Temple at dawn and started preaching!

Do we realize that we too have been set free? It may not be from an actual jail cell, but sin and death can be as real and confining as a jail cell. If we have no addiction to sexual sin, if we have no need of inner healing, if we are free from depression, if we are not bound by a desire for alcohol, that is by the grace of God! We live in a broken society where so many are in need of freedom. If we are free, let us help others who are not free by giving them the message of life like the apostles were driven to do. If we have need of healing, let us go to Jesus and say, "Lord, I want to be free! Pour down Your grace upon me! I need You! Forgive me and heal my brokenness!" Truly God's lavish and extravagant grace, His unmerited favor, is available to all!

The Smallest Part of the Letter

 "Until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter of the law, not the smallest part of the letter, shall be done away with until it all comes true." Matthew 5:18

Verse 21 in the same chapter reads: “"Whoever is angry with someone will be liable to judgement." We have all gotten angry with someone at one time or another. Anger is defined as a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure or hostility. It can go from rage to irritation or a slight exasperation. Before Jesus said this about anger, He gave this strong proclamation: "Of this much I assure you: until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter of the law, not the smallest part of the letter, shall be done away with until it all comes true." 

How much more emphatic can Jesus be! Does this not mean that every little yodh (the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet), and the tiniest serif (stroke at the end of a letter), is inspired by God and has His imprimatur, His official approval?!!! We definitely need to understand clearly what Jesus means by anger because He says that anyone and everyone who grows angry with his brother will be liable to judgment the same way that a murderer is liable to judgement. If we are abusive with our maids, if we belittle our employees, if we show contempt for others, feeling they are beneath us, this all falls under Jesus' definition of anger. 

I was listening to someone describing a woman in church. She knew her as such a nice and gentle person, she said, but she was shocked when she visited her at home. She treated her maids with disdain and would shout at them!  I suppose there are parts in our character we are not aware of, shadows that can't bear the light of truth.

Lord, make me aware of whatever there is in my life that is not pleasing to You. Help me to surrender all to You. It is impossible to obey all the yodhs and serifs of the law, but my hope lies in You. You are my righteousness! 

Luminous

"You are the light of the world." Matthew 5:14

Pope Francis said in his 2014 Angelus message that Christians should be luminous people who always give off light. We should be shining lamps, burning lamps in a dark world. How?

I think it should be by discovering our spiritual gifts, developing them, practicing and using them, and even asking God for more gifts! There are so many gifts that I’m sure there is one, two, three or more that would fit our personality and character. There is administration, celibacy, craftsmanship, discernment of spirits, encouragement, evangelism, faith, generosity, healing, helping, hospitality, intercession, word of knowledge, leadership, mercy, mission work, music, pastoring, prophecy, service, teaching, voluntary poverty, wisdom, writing, tongues and interpretation of tongues, and probably many more! We should get excited going through this list because it is God's way of empowering us to be channels of His goodness, His truth, His loving presence in the world! Imagine receiving a gift from somebody and not opening it. Highly impossible if it was me! I love opening gifts!

Imagine receiving many gifts from God and not knowing about it, not opening it, not using it! Lord, may I be determined and purposeful in finding my spiritual gifts! I want to use them and be a light of the world! Thank You for all my gifts and may I help others find their gifts as well! 

Poor in Spirit

“Blessed are the poor in spirit...” Matthew 5:3

What does blessed mean?  Partly it means that God turns His face towards us with divine favor. With all the good in Him. To be poor in spirit, what does that mean? It's not that we have no money or resources.

I think it means being aware that we are spiritually bankrupt before the Lord. That we have absolutely nothing that we can offer Him because He is awesome, and mighty and does not need anything from us. There is also nothing that we can boast of. Our good deeds are as rags before Him. 

Sometimes I give talks about our business to students. In the last talk, I had to do a recording. I never fail to mention that God is a partner in our business, and we are successful because of Him. Prayer is always a part of the way we do business.

After one particular talk a long time ago, I was feeling inordinately pleased with myself and sort of congratulated myself for doing a good job.  Immediately, God took me to task and showed me verses from Luke 17. 

In it the master says, “When you have done everything that was assigned to you, you should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have simply done our duty." Although I felt ashamed for awhile, our Father never condemns. When He teaches us a lesson it is always with love and for our own good. 

The Beatitudes are not about what we do. If we are a CEO, or a garbage collector, a priest or a toilet cleaner, that is not what is important to God. What is important is what we are, our character.  Are we becoming like Jesus every day? Because for all our roles and duties, God can raise up stones to do it all better than we can! 

Eukharistia

"How shall I make a return to the Lord, for all the good He has done for me?" Psalm 116:3

Indeed my whole life is a testament to God's unfailing goodness and love. He surrounded me with people who love, support, and encourage me to be the best I can be. He put me in a place where I can use my gifts and talents. He answers my prayers and speaks to me when I need His help, and even when I feel I don't. He forgives me seventy times seven and assures me that nothing shall ever separate me from His love. I do not know which Saint said that God showed His love on the cross for us then when He sacrificed His mortal life for us, and continues to share His life and love with us through the Eucharist. Eucharist is from the Greek eukharistia "thanksgiving and gratitude. Eukharisteo is the usual verb for "to thank, to be thankful" in the Septuagint and Greek New Testament, and kharis is “favor, grace," 

How do I repay the Lord for all the kharis He has shown me? By being faithful to Him, by being sincere in my desire to follow Him, by returning again and again to the fount of living water, so I can be washed clean. Lord, I may never deserve Your love, but may I always try to be Your daughter in every way, to follow Your teachings, and to care for those You care for. 

Every Penny

“...every penny she had to live on." Luke 21:4

Of all the people in the temple, Jesus was impressed with the poor widow who put into the offertory two small coins. He saw the rich putting in their big offerings, but it was the poor widow he called attention to. Why is that? I think it was because Jesus saw her heart. Her heart was bigger than the hearts of the rich people who gave out of their excess wealth. Jesus saw her faith. She trusted in God more than all the ones who gave so much more than she did. What does Jesus see when we give? 

It doesn't have to be money. It can be time. Do we spend time with Him, reserving the best time of the day for Him, or do we just give Him the dregs of our day, after we've spent all our energy on our work, and family, hobbies, friends, or telenovelas? 

Lord, I know You see my heart. I know I have a lot to learn. Thank You for Your patience with me. Thank You that I can trust You to finish the work You started in me!

Praise the Lord

“Praise the Lord, O my soul; ​I will praise the Lord all my life; ​I will sing praise to my God while I live.” Psalm 146:2

I loved what I read in my meditation guide, “The Word Among Us”, a long time ago. “Sing aloud, yes, but don’t limit yourself to what your voice can do. Sing with your pen. Write down what you want to praise the Lord for...Sing with your paint brush—paint your praise, joy, and thanksgiving. Sing with your musical instrument or your feet. Dance, as David did before the ark of the Lord (2 Samuel 6:5,16). We are wonderfully made, so we can praise the Lord in song or with any of the other talents He has given us." 

A preacher I was listening to on Youtube said that praises to God was like a huge, eternal Mexican wave (the rhythm achieved in a packed stadium when successive groups of spectators briefly stand, yell, and raise their arms). We need not initiate it, we just need to choose whether to join in. I like that, at any time anywhere that I choose to praise God, I would be part of this wonderful cloud of praise going up to heaven. One with Sandi Patti, Don Moen, Suzy Yaraei, Kim Walker Smith, Chris Tomlin, Kari Jobe, etc. The list goes on.... Isn't that exciting? Even if our voices are not as beautiful as theirs, God still delights in our praises. 

Praise is a very powerful spiritual weapon. If we are experiencing some difficulty, we need to turn up the praise. Praise lifts our eyes from the seemingly desperate situation to what is possible with God! And nothing is impossible with God!

There is an example of a hopeless battle in 2 Chronicles 20. After King Jehoshaphat realized that the battle was not His but God's to win, he appointed people to praise God. And the battle was won!

Is there are a battle you are fighting now? Perhaps a sickness or addiction that has plagued you for years, anxiety or fear, envy, or unforgiveness? Whatever it is, praising God gives the arena over to the Lord and allows Him room to move. 

Well Said

 "Well said, teacher!" Mark 12:32

What an amazing exchange this is between Jesus and a scribe! The scribe tests Jesus with the simplest question: "Which is the first of all the commandments?" And Jesus gives the obvious answer that we should love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. And Jesus adds that "The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Then the scribe PRAISES Jesus enthusiastically: "Excellent!!! You are soooo right!!!" Perhaps this is accompanied by a clapping of hands, or a pat on the back! Do you not find this exchange amusing? I do! But Jesus does not view this man with amusement. He congratulates the scribe with approval, saying, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."

To me this shows that sometimes we make faith too complicated. We should just go back to the basics of what God wants from us. Basically it is a heart issue. God wants our heart. He wants us to be like little children who desire nothing less than to love Him and to love others as well. After all, is this not what anyone who loves desires? To be loved in return? In the Cathechism of the Catholic Church, we can read: “God Himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and He has destined us to share in that exchange” (221).

Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, may I see Your love for me for what it truly is- all-encompassing, all forgiving, all accepting! Your loving kindness and graciousness can never be measured. May I love You with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength. And may I see my neighbor through your loving eyes, so I may love him too!

Alive and Well

“As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of the living.” Mark 12:26-27

We have all lost loved ones and it is a reassurance for us for sure that Jesus says irrevocably that God is God of the living. One day I will see my parents again, and my brother-in-law Jing who was very instrumental in the growth of my faith. He died of melanoma when my niece was very young. We were all very young. 

I remember the first time I saw Jing. My sisters, my mom and I attended an Easter celebration of the Catholic community I am now a part of, Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon (The Joy of the Lord). He was up on stage and part of the vibrant music ministry. One couldn’t miss him! I remember being so exhilarated, so high and happy. When my sister saw him in the same school she studied in, she gave him a big smile. He invited her to Ang Ligaya’s evangelistic Coffee House events for young people. 

Eventually when he started visiting my sister, he gave us The Joy of Discovery bible studies. When a guy starts courting someone in the family, he is usually very careful. Not Jing. He was a very dominant personality. Our bible study was not your boring bible study where the teacher goes on and on and the students nod off. We had to be very creative! I was assigned the Book of Maccabees and I made paper dolls of the mother and seven sons. While I told the story, I cut off their hands and feet with scissors and put them in a frying pan. I forget who made a shadow play and who had to enlist my father as a sound talent. Even my mother had to make some effort presenting her bible story.

When we asked Jing to help us with our Christmas performance in the small prayer group we were attending, he had us audition for him so he knew the range of our voices. That did not sit well with one of my sisters who stomped up to her room in protest. Come the day of the performance, Jing “conducted” us, and it went very well with all the different voices. My sister relented and joined us as she could hear all our practicing. 

I have very fond memories of Jing, and how he loved to matchmake, and get involved in everything. Even when he lay, weak and in pain, in his hospital bed a few days before he died, he called me over to ask me how I was doing and what was happening. He stayed in the UST Hospital for a month before he left us. People in the reception of UST thought there was a celebrity in the room because of all the visitors and flowers. 

It is wonderful to know we will all see Jing again. He composed the most beautiful praise songs! I can imagine him singing with the choirs of angels and probably bossing them around! Ha ha! Yes, he is alive and probably just as involved in our lives as he was before. He now has a beautiful grandchild and I am sure he is in fellowship with his parents and my parents, and with the saints and angels praying for him and all of us.

Whose Image is on You?

“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Mark 12:17

This is one of the most satisfying encounters of Jesus with the Pharisees and Herodians. These people were the trolls of Jesus’ day. They pretended to be righteous and truthful and wise, when all they wanted was to trap Jesus. They asked Him whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not. How we all wish Jesus’ answer was different! 

Back then, their taxes were even more crippling than ours. There was not only the income tax, there were crop taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, emergency taxes, and a tax collector could even stop someone carrying a load to pay taxes on that as well. The taxes and the grain were sent to Rome and it was used to support the lavish lifestyle there. No wonder there were riots because of the taxes imposed on the Jews. 

Jesus’ answer utterly amazed them. He was not trapped. On the contrary, His answer still resonates with us today. It is so dismaying and disheartening to see how our taxes are being wasted, stolen even, by people in government with no conscience. The government borrowed billions of pesos with almost no account made of how it was spent. It feels like some won the lotto with this pandemic upon us! 

Jesus asked His questioners to show him the Roman coin, the denarius. “Whose image and inscription is this?” On one side, the face of Tiberius Caesar Augustus was inscribed, on the other, the words, Pontifex Maximus or “Highest Priest”. “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” Pay Caesar his taxes even if we do not like what he does with it. We are citizens of two kingdoms. One kingdom, in which we are exiled for a little while, will not last. We are also citizens of an eternal Kingdom. 

Whose image is on us? In Genesis, we read that each one of us, is made in the image and likeness of God. His fingerprint is on us, just as a potter’s fingerprint is on his clay pot. You and I, we belong to Him. Kingdoms come and go. Caesars, no matter how much power they seem to have over our lives, decay and become dust. Let us just follow the instruction in Jeremiah 29:7: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”