This is the product of my fertile thoughts. I am recreating them here and am sharing them with you, dear bloggers, for whatever benefits, if any, you could derive from them. I wish you could be more open and share with me your comments and suggestions so that I can improve on my blog. Thank you, God bless and have a nice day. Mel Avila Alarilla
The
choices we make in our lives will determine what we will become. They
are some sort of a crossroad where we choose whether to go to the left
or to the right. First of all, we have to choose which will we will
exercise. Is it our own personal will or the will of God? We have been
trained and nurtured by worldly wisdom to learn to exercise our own
will in everything that we do. As the poem goes, "I am the captain of
my ship, I am the master of my soul." In the competitive world in which
we live, it is the battle of wills of different individuals with
different vested interests and persuasions. But the Bible says, we have
to follow in and walk by the will of God. As the Lord's Prayer says,
"let Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That is the first
choice we have to make.
The second choice we have to
make in our lives is how we should live our lives. Shall we live by
faith or shall we live by sight ( the senses)? We have our senses to
use and we are so dependent on them. But in difficult and trying times,
when our senses tell us of the impossibility of things, shall we not
rely on our faith to carry us through? Remember, the Bible says that
faith can move mountains. Those who hold on to the functions of their
senses and those who exercise their own will are limited in the things
they can accomplish. They cannot go beyond the possible. Not so with
those who surrendered themselves to the sovereign will of God and have
exercised their faith rather than their sight (senses). Nothing is
impossible for them. They will experience out of this world
possibilities. NOW WHICH OPTIONS WILL YOU CHOOSE?
Tags:
All Things Are Possible With God, Divine Will, Personal Will, To Live
By Faith Not By Sight, Miracles Do Happen For Those Who Believe
There
are so many voices that compete for our attention. Which voice we will
heed will determine the path that we will take on our journey through
life. The earliest voices that we heard were those of our parents.
Theirs were the voices that nurtured us in our formative years. Then,
there were voices of tiny angels like us who dreamed and wondered with
us when we were groping for answers for the unending questions of life.
We have encountered the different voices of our teachers and mentors as
they instilled in us the disciplines and idealism that helped shaped
our formative years. Yes, theirs were the voices of our heroes of the
past, the ones we placed in our pedestals. Then, there were the
cacophonous voices that proliferated our world when we competed with
other wannabes as we climbed the stairway of the corporate world. Those
were the voices of intense rivalries, of backstabbing and rumor
mongering, of idle talks and gossips, of dressing downs and praises for
jobs well done. There were even sinister voices that led us astray,
who promised pleasures galore, but led us to the decadence of our souls.
But there is one particular voice that we must heed and take
to heart. That is the still small voice that whispers so softly in the
stillness of the night when everything is so quiet. We can only hear it
when we are at peace with ourselves and not agitated. It is the voice
of God coursed through our consciences. Continuous disregard of that
small soft voice will result in the hardening of our hearts and losing
the ability to hear that still small voice. Which voice we follow will
determine our destiny for eternity. SHALL WE HEARKEN TO LISTEN TO THAT STILL SMALL VOICE? Tags: God. Jesus Christ, Conscience, Still Small Voice, Voices
Have
you not consider how wonderful it is to be alive? How thoroughly
rewarding it is that we are loved by people that mattered most to us?
Have we not appreciated that the sun shines after a stormy day or the
light dawns after the darkness of the night? There are so many things
we ought to be thankful for. Surely, we thrive in the fresh air we
breathe. We hear the singing of the birds in the morning and the
swaying of the leaves and grasses as the wind passes by. We are
thrilled by the surging of the waves in the picturesque seashore. And
have we not gotten the thrill of our lives by journeying to the imperial
mountains that stand majestically amidst the clouds. The tiny
creatures of the day and night show how wonderful it is to be alive.
Have you seen the flying eagle as it soared ecstatically among the
clouds, impervious of all the din down below? How we love to stroll by
our favorite baywalk as seagulls come flying by? How we marvel at the
majestic sun as it sets in its golden halo as the night slowly creeps
in? And how we savor our favorite ice cream bar as we exchange pleasant
stories in the moonlit night?
Ah, the earth is so
peaceful as the light of the moon encompasses us all. And yes, have we
not felt the presence of an Unknown Being who have made all of these
things possible? How wonderful it is to be alive and cared for by an
Almighty God who is so gracious in providing all of our needs. ITS A
WONDERFUL LIFE.
Tags: It's A Wonderful Life, It's Wonderful To Be Alive, Life, Love, Cherished Memories, God, Divine Providence, Divine Grace
Your most productive years may have been behind you now and
you spend your time in utter loneliness and isolation, reliving your
glorious past. Before, you were used to the praise and adulation of
your millions of fans, but now you are left alone, staring on a blank
wall where the sound of silence seems so deafening. Ah yes, you could
still hear the applauses, the laughter, the celebration every time your
name was called during curtain calls. Your name was on everyone's lips
and dashing gentlemen made a beeline to hand you their bouquet of
flowers. You have them all, boxes of chocolates, endless greeting
cards, love notes- everything that reminded you of the tumultuous glory
days of your life. People swooned when they heard your voice, and
each end of your production numbers were greeted with thunderous
applauses and endless calls for an encore.
Ah, you
remember your past loves, the endless queues of men in your life. The
fabulous places you have reached, the how do you do's with the high and
mighty in your heyday. You have been around the world living in the
adulation of your legions of fans. You savored each inebriating moment
of your existence. You transferred from arms to arms, intoxicated by
the love abundantly poured on your lap by your countless lovers. But
you had your final curtain call. You are no longer famous. You are no
longer beautiful. The voice that has so captivated millions of souls
have now been reduced to a croaking and melancholy voice.
And as you look at the empty wall on a cramped room you are renting,
you felt the hot tears of loneliness and grief falling from your eyes,
gliding down your face. You closed your eyes and relived once more in
your mind the glory days of your youth, when the world adored the
beautiful and marvelous you. That was your very last curtain call.
Early next morning, the porter of the hotel found a lifeless corpse of
an old and emaciated woman still clutching in her hand her favorite
photograph.
Tags: Vaudeville Superstar, Rich and Famous, Last Curtain Call Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla
Every
year as the new year approaches, we make a list of our new year's
resolutions. At the advent of each new year, there is always a stirring
in our souls to break free from our wretched past. But
after only a month or so of futile attempts, we always end up a
miserable failure. Why? Because by nature, we are weak and prone to sin.
By nature, we are prone to violate our own moral standards. And even
if we honestly want to change and take on a new path in life, it is
almost impossible for us to do so without assistance from a higher
supernatural source.
True transformation, wherein we finally
break free from our wretched and sinful existence, is done only through
the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can effect a
genuine and lasting change in our lives where we choose to live a godly
life rather than a sinful existence. This is what is termed a born
again experience and it can be effected only if we accept Jesus Christ
as our Lord and Savior, confess our sins to Him and let His most
precious blood wash clean all our sins in life.
By doing this, we
invite the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and our long
dormant spirit suddenly becomes alive and active. Thus we become a new
creation. Our old sinful selves are dead in transgressions and we are
now alive in the grace of God and declared holy by the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. That is true transformation wherein we live a new life
dedicated to loving and serving God and becoming a vessel and a conduit
of God's blessings and grace to others.
THE HARVEST IS PLENTY BUT THE WORKERS ARE FEW. WILL YOU HEED THE CALL OF THE LORD TO BECOME A WORKER IN HIS VINEYARD?
Posted by Mel Avila Alarilla Philippines Spiritual/Inspirational
We associate Christmas with endless shoppings, with sumptuous foods on
Christmas eve and Christmas day, of never ending gift giving, of going
to carnivals and fairs, and other forms of merry making characterized by
wanton display of one's affluence and goaded on by crass commercialism.
That's
why every year, when Christmas season approaches, 3/4 or more of the
world's population feel dejected and lonely. Why? Because they lack the
resources to buy all the nice things that will make them and their loved
ones (especially their children) happy on Christmas day.
Why?
Because they have accepted in their minds that Christmas is all about
the ostentatious display of one's wealth come Christmas day. The world
has accepted the gross commercialism and materialism that the western
countries have ingrained in the minds of all the people in the world.
Everywhere
in the world, people associate Christmas with Santa Claus and his
gifts, with white Christmas characterized with snow and all the fun
games of winter, with Christmas trees, with colorful Christmas lights,
with fireworks, with fine new clothes, Christmas caroling, and with
plenty and sumptuous foods.
But what is the real meaning and
essence of Christmas? It seems that people have lost track of the true
reason why we celebrate Christmas.
Luke 2:8-14 says, "And there
were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their
flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel
said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that
will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has
been born to you: you will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a
manger.' Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with
the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace to men on whom His favor rests."
The birth of Jesus Christ in a humble manger have presaged the opening
of heaven's gate for all people to be saved by His eventual death on the
cross and His resurrection from the dead. Thus, we should be
celebrating Christmas in memory of the birth of our Lord and savior
Jesus Christ whom the Father sent to redeem fallen mankind.
We
should celebrate Christmas in our hearts as we feel God's presence in
our lives. The real merry making and the indescribable joy of the true
Christmas will be fully experienced by us when we come face to face with
our Savior in His kingdom, to live in blissful existence with Him
forevermore.
Let us rediscover the original joy of Christmas by letting Jesus Christ enter our hearts.
We will not be always here to stay. Tomorrow, we may be gone from this world. What legacy would we want to leave behind?
We tread the sands of time but once in our lifetime. Good or
bad, people will remember us for what we stood for. How we stood amidst
the tremendous pressures that pushed us down? How we managed our tears?
How we survived the pains? How we overcame all the bitterness and
sorrows that welled in our hearts? And in the end, how we made peace
with our Creator?
We move along the sands of time but once, to measure each and
every song that influenced our lives. We recalled the lonely verses that
pulled our hearts burning with fervent hopes of a bygone love. How
strange that we faced the unfathomable horizons beyond, never knowing
what lies behind the curtains of time. With each heavy steps, our feet tread on the golden steps of the sands of time. Then we leaved our legacies behind.
"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" (Hebrews 4:7b)
DO YOU NEED HELP? ARE YOU IN THE DARK? CAN'T FIND YOUR WAY AROUND? NEED A FRIEND WHO WILL STICK WITH YOU THROUGH THICK OR THIN OR WHEN EVERYBDOY ELSE HAS DESERTED YOU?
