We Live By Faith, Not By Sight

To all my friends and readers who patronize this blog, may I refer you to my good friend-Shiela of Bluebirdy with url: http://bluebirdyliving.blogspot.com/.
I'm sorry if I still don't know how to make the proper linkage to her blog. Just copy her url and paste it on the search engine of the internet to access her blog.

She is suffering from an advanced case of lupus, fibromyaglia, diabetes and God knows how many more illnesses wracking her frail body right now. She's living with her very sick mother and an equally sick brother somewhere in Canada, and her husband is working somewhere in the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan unable to complete his papers to officially emigrate to Canada.

The condition of my dear friend is so volatile that she lives in extreme pain almost 24 hours a day. But she has to take care of her ailing mother because they are only three very sickly people in their house. There are so many times that she would pass out without her noticing it.

I enjoin you all, my friends and readers, to visit her blog and offer your expressions of love and support for her. I also enjoin you, my beloved friends, to offer your sincere prayers for her healing and also for her mother and brother too.

We are all one, united in love and harmony, and the pain of one is suffered by everybody. Let us all pray that she will believe that the Holy Spirit can effect that miraculous cure in her ailing body. Let streams of living water flow from our hearts and refresh her tired body and soul. Let us all become channels of God's blessings to comfort her and give her overflowing joy in her heart.

Happy Easter To All My Blogging Friends. God bless you all.

The Phantom Of The Opera

You Are Loved (Don't Give Up) The Phantom of The Opera


Enjoy the music of The Phantom Of The Opera. I assure you, the music is so heavenly and the setting is so romantic that you will be lifted up from your seat. It is a passionate love story to end all love stories.

Posted by Mel Avila Alarilla
Philippines
YouTube/Inspirational

Personal Change - The Secret To A Stress Free Life

 THE SECRET TO A STRESS FREE LIFE
We are not happy with our situation in life so we change it. We are not happy with our work, so we resign and look for another job. We are not happy with our spouses, so we divorce him/her and look for another one. We are not happy with our children, so we try to distance ourselves as much as possible from them. When we are confronted with a situation we don't like, we immediately change it. But in the process, that does make us happy?

When we change a stressful situation- our work, our spouse, or anything else that give us stress, did that make us happy? No, it only made us happy at first but later on, the same symptoms reappear and we are back to square one where we wallow once again in stress and unhappiness.

Why? Because changing the situation is never the solution. Remember, we can never change another person. That person will change because he likes to change and not because we caused him to change. We cannot change the stressful situations in our lives either. Have we not noticed that life is never constant. It is always a case of ebb and flow, high and low, happiness and sorrow. One day you are up there in the clouds in happiness, and the following day, you are down there in the dumps with a desperate situation that threatens to tear you apart.

Why? Because life is like that. The only person who is truly happy and joyful in life irregardless of his external situations, is the person who has learned to make a personal change within and accepts whatever fate hands down to him. He can live in extreme equanimity through the good days as well as through the bad days. He does not attempt to change people, he adjusts to them. He does not attempt to change situations, he rides them through. He is like the bamboo tree that bends down when a fierce storm is present. Then he regains his full stature as soon as the storm is gone. The sturdiest trees are those that survived the strongest and fiercest storms in life.

You want to be truly happy in life? Then learn to trust God with all your heart and accept everything that He gives you whether good or bad. In the end, when we have passed His tests, we will surely attain true happiness and joy in life.

The Power Of Words

 THE POWER OF WORDS
Words can hurt. Words can build up and words can destroy. So let us be careful with what we say and how we say it. There are words that cut deep into one's soul and no amount of apologies can rectify the hurt that was done.

We may feel good when we give someone a piece of our mind, but though we may be relieved from the release of an intense emotion, we may have left someone devastated and with a broken spirit. Can we live with that?

Sometimes words can provoke anger and violence. It is better to hold our tongues when there is nothing good that we can say. As they say, silent waters run deep and a bubbling brook holds no depth.

Gossips, idle talk and back stabbing are some of the worse words that can leave our mouths. They do no good and destroy the reputations of others. Better to keep our peace and hold our tongues in check.

If we must speak, let us speak words of encouragements, words of inspiration, words of love and words that uplift rather than hurt and destroy others. Let us become harbingers of peace and joy to the world. Together with a genuine smile,
gentle words of approbation uplift the spirits and cause considerable joy and exuberance to those we come in contact with.

As the song says, "did we fill the world with love our whole life through."

Blind Spots

 BLIND SPOTS
What is a blind spot? It is something that others see in us that we do not see ourselves. Either we are not aware of it or we just pretend that it is not there. Usually, it is something that may have been an offshoot of a traumatic experience from the past. Or it may be an inborn trait that we have already drowned in our conscious mind but continues to linger on in our subconscious mind.

Almost all people have blind spots in their lives, one way or the other. We may not see it until others tell us about it. We may acknowledge its presence in us but often times, it is always denied by us.

The antidote to this blind spots is an honest to goodness self examination and acceptance of who we really are. We can ask our inner circle of family and friends
for inputs of our blind spots. We must be sincere in curing our blind spots by being humble and accepting everything that our family and friends will tell us. And in the end, we can resolve that we will reverse the process of blind spots by accepting the realities in our lives.

The Bible said, "you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." Are you prepared to acknowledge and correct your blind spots?

Posted by Mel Avila Alarilla
Philippines
Inspirational

Man - His Why's And Wherefore's

 MAN- HIS WHY'S AND WHEREFORE'S
There are so many mental, psychological, emotional and psychosomatic illnesses nowadays that science and doctors can't seem to cope up with the avalanche of these sicknesses. At the root cause of this problem is man's ignorance of the total constitution of man. We are living as though we are just a physical, mental and emotional creature with nary a thought about our composite being.

Man is tripartite in nature and the sooner we realize this, the better for us. Man's obvious nature is his physical nature where we are focusing almost all our attention to the detriment of our two other natures. But aside from our body, we also have two more important natures- the soul and the spirit. The soul is the animating principle of man. Without the soul, man is reduced into a mass of lifeless flesh and bones.

And the spirit is the divine principle of man. The spirit of man is the same creation that was created by God in His own image and likeness. But the big problem is, man's spirit is dead because of the original sin of our first parents at Eden. And so we function mainly as body and soul. And with these two vehicles, our inclination is to become spiritually evil and depraved. Until our spirit is brought to life by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we commit mistakes upon mistakes, blunders upon blunders, errors upon errors, and sins upon sins. And we stack up for ourselves the condemnations for all these sins.

We are like a mountain climber that climbs a mountain during peaks of "spiritual enlightenments" only to fall down at the first attack of worldly temptation. And after our fall, we become worse than when we first started our climb. Some of us try and try again until they develop spiritual fatigue. They climb and fall down, and climb again to fall down again, on and on, ad infinitum. Why? Because our spirit is dead and until our spirit is made alive and animated by the Holy Spirit, we will never ever succeed in climbing that holy mountain.

And so what do we do? We conclude that it is impossible to climb that holy mountain. We develop our own homegrown philosophies in life explaining the whys and wherefores of our failures to reach the summit of that mountain. So we say that we have so many lifetimes to reach that summit, there's no need to hurry. Let us just live this life the way we want it, anyway there are countless of lifetimes ahead of us. But is that the truth?

The Bible clearly states that, "it is appointed for man to die once and after that judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). God never lies. He is the repository of all truths. Whom shall we believe?

God gave man the ultimate solution to his problem. He sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross and pay for all the penalties of our sins. Jesus death on the cross satisfied God's demand for justice. And so the door to heaven was opened to those who will enter it through Jesus Christ. By availing ourselves of the divine grace of God, we can enter God's kingdom by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and surrendering our lives to Him.

Then the Holy Spirit shall empower us and bring to life our long dead spirit. Now through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus, we can climb the mountain of God up to the summit to meet our Father in heaven. The only solution to all our problems lies in the acceptance of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. He is the only key, the only door and the only way to the kingdom of God.

Shall we begin our new climb to the holy mountain of God?


Posted by Mel Avila Alarilla
Philippines
Spiritual/Inspirational

Our Legacy - Golden Steps In The Sands Of Time

OUR LEGACY- GOLDEN STEPS IN THE SANDS OF TIME
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.