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
This is a very depressing story indeed. One that shatters a life long myth that I hold so close to my heart. Even though I am hard up financially since I could no longer actively work for a living, my house in our town has been some sort of a haven for people who have less in life. My friends who are in need would readily find a giving heart from me. I never consider it a loan but a love gift. I do it not for myself but to become a very small channel of God's blessings to others. Oh don't get me wrong, we are far from having an abundant and prosperous life, but whatever we have, we were willing to share them with our less fortunate brethren. Of course, there were occasional cases of abuses by others, but I immediately put a stop to any form of abuse.
There was a particular case of a little girl who would ask for plastic pet bottles from us to sell them to junk shops. There were times when we would have surpluses of bread which normally go to waste. When I asked her if she wanted bread, she said yes. And from that time on, she would be at our gate every morning to get her bread. There were times when we have a surplus of viands and I would be including them with the bread.
This morning, something happened that shattered my belief in an established norm of society. A little boy appeared at our gate very early in the morning. I asked him what he wanted. He did not say anything. I was about to ignore him when I remembered that the little girl used to have a younger brother with her in earlier times. I asked him if he was the brother of the little girl. And he said yes. I asked her where her sister was. He said she was still asleep. I gave him the usual share of bread for the day. Going back inside the house, I resumed my interrupted breakfast. After a little while, I heard the voice of the little girl who used to receive bread from us everyday and I realized I was gypped by that little boy. I explained to the little girl what happened. But I was crestfallen with what happened. That little boy shattered the myth that I long believed, that little innocent children never tell a lie. I was totally wrong. What poverty can do to the scruples of a young not so innocent boy.
ARE THESE THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES? TO GOD BE THE GLORY! Tags: Poverty, Street Children, Hunger, Deprivation, Charity, Love
There is power in the spoken words. When God created the universe, He used two processes. One is ideation or fixing in His mind the exact thing that He wanted to create and secondly, is the power of the spoken words. He said, "let there be light," and there was light. When Jesus ordered the storm to subside, it obliged Him. And when He commanded Lazarus to rise up and live, Lazarus did just that.
But you may say, He is God that is why He could do that. What about me, I am just a mere mortal? Ah, ah, ah! Do not forget that man was originally created by God in His own image and likeness and was given dominion over all creatures of the earth.
But man lost that likeness of God when he sinned at Eden. And the race of man was born under a curse. He became depraved and brutish by nature. But God remedied that. He sent His only begotten Son to save us from our own fallen nature and the curses chained upon us by Satan. Only by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and savior and become born again can the Holy Spirit revive our dead spirit and bring us back into our original blueprint in life.
So if you are born again, you are privileged to become a child of God and co-heir with Christ in all the rights and privileges of heaven, including the power of the spoken words. We can decree a thing and in the name of Jesus Christ, it shall come to pass. So we must be careful in what we decree, for our tongues have gained a tremendous power incomprehensible to man. We can decree blessings or curses, but whatever it is, it will surely return to us as blessings or curses too.
Why is it that not all Christians experience the victorious Christian life? Why is it that some Christians are underground Christians and you can not detect any sweet fruits from them? Did not the Bible say that by the fruit you will know the tree? And did not the word of God promise all Christians that if they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior, they will be transformed by the Holy Spirit from glory to glory until they reach the whole measure of the fullness of Jesus Christ? What happened?
Because their being born again were only half baked. They probably accepted Jesus Christ with their mouths but not with their hearts. Or probably they did, but the allures of the world beckoned upon them and they forgot their first love and have backslided.
The Bible said in Romans 12 verse 2 that the way to our transformation is by the renewing of our mind and conforming it with the mind of Christ so that we will be able to test and approve God's perfect will in our lives. We cannot continue to do things on our own. Everything that we do must be done in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus' righteousness and holiness were imputed upon us when we accepted Him as our Lord and savior and we must focus on that.
"The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day." (Proverbs 4:18)
Tags: Jesus Christ, Lord, Savior, Righteousness, Holiness, Glory, God
To be able to get the maximum benefits of Christ's crucifixion and death on the cross, let us not focus on our own finite love for God. That love is imperfect and waning just like any other human emotions. Let us focus instead on the love of God for us, for that love is infinite, beyond measure and beyond comprehension.
Ponder this. If God did not hesitate to send His beloved and only begotten Son to save us, how could He ever withhold all the wonderful things that we ask from Him in the name of Jesus Christ? The problem is, we do not know how to ask. Most of the time, we ask impossible things from God and expecting nothing in return as if God is some sort of a modern day genie. And when we fail to receive the imperfect things we ask from Him, we say that God is unjust and does not hear and answer our prayers.
In order to get the things that we ask from God, let us be sure that the conditions for God's answering our prayers, as contained in the Bible, are met. These are:
1) God gives us what we need and not what we want. 2) When we pray, let us believe that God will hear and answer our prayers. 3) We must have a clean heart and soul. We must confess all our sins and accept forgiveness from God. 4) We must forgive the sins of others to us. 5) We must address all our petitions to the Father, in the name of Jesus, and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 6) We must focus on God's love for us and must maintain an expectant attitude that our prayers will be granted.
Do these and focus on God's immeasurable love for us and we can expect miracles to unravel in our lives.
Tags: God, Love, Father, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, expectant spirit
Scholars through the ages have debated the true identity of the Leviathan, the creature mentioned in the Book of Job (from the Bible) chapter 41. Verse 1 says, "Can you pull in the leviathan with a fish hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?" Verse 7 further states, "Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?" What creature could you envision in your mind than a huge creature of the sea, the whale? But wait, the author made further descriptions at the later verses that will throw your assumptions off.
From verse 14 to 31, the author made other descriptions of this creature that are totally out of this world. Let us summarize them: Verse 14, "Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth?" Verse 15, "His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together." Verse 18, "His sneezing throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like rays of dawn."
Verse 19, "Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out." Verse 20, "Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds." Verse 21, "His breath sets coal ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth." Verse 25, "When he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his trashing." Verse 26, "The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin." Verse 27, "Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood." Verse 31, "He makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment."
What creature could you conjure in your mind with the above descriptions? Yes, a fire breathing dragon. It seems that chapter 41 of the Book of Job was mentioning two different creatures instead of one. The first one named the leviathan was probably a whale, but the second one which was unnamed was more of a fire breathing dragon. We can never discover the veracity of the second creature for we have not seem the remains of this fire breathing monster.
The Book of Job was the oldest written book of the Bible, even older than the Book of Genesis believed to be written by Moses. Genesis was placed ahead of every other book because it speaks of the beginning of creation.
There are so many legends around the world about dragons. Even China and medieval Europe have their own legends of this fire breathing monster. Are they myth and a pigment of man's imagination? But why would God mentioned the creature to Job? Was it just to impress him? It is not likely, for God does not boast nor indulge in tall tales. Who can ever solve this mystery?
Tags: Leviathan, whale, dragon, Book of Job, Bible, legends
Paradigm is what people originally think about us. It is what people associate us with. It is the representative idea that is evoked in the minds of people that is readily associated with our name. Paradigm is practically the first impression that people associate us with. It is a built in reputation surrounding us and is very hard to erase in the minds of people. Even if we have already changed, we are still associated with a particular paradigm.
Those who have been truly born again and had a complete turnaround in character are particularly vulnerable to this kind of name association. A person who was known to be a drunkard, a womanizer and a heavy gambler, and who had a complete change in his life because of the power of the Holy Spirit, will have a hard time convincing people that he has really changed. The best thing for him to do is to stop convincing people about his miraculous change and just show them his transformed self.
Yes, it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can completely change ourselves from our shameful past to our present glorious life. If only we could change our individual paradigms or the first impressions of people about us, that would be wonderful. Ah, but who cares. So long as we have already changed and are doing the will and purpose of God in our lives, that's all that counts.
Tags: Paradigm, First Impression, Holy Spirit, Glorious Life, Inspirational, Motivational, Uplifting, Feel Good
They say that laughter is the best medicine. And it can never be truer than that. Have we not enjoy the company of people with a good sense of humor? And haven't we felt so good after a good laugh? Laughter secretes a hormone that makes us feel good and euphoric. This hormone can also deaden the pain in our body.
But how can we evoke laughter if our situation is less than pleasant? We cannot laugh at the expense of others. Those who do that makes a good laugh at a gathering but loses the friendship of the butt of his joke. If we ever have to make fun, see to it that we make fun at our own expense rather than on others. People love to laugh at jokes cracked on others rather than on themselves. That's why a good stand up comedian always cracks joke at himself rather than on his audience.
But if we are not a professional comedian, how can we evoke laughter in ourselves? Laughter comes from a healthy spirit. We laugh because we feel good inside. We laugh because we are at peace with ourselves, with our neighbors and with the world. But most of all, we laugh because we are at peace with God and we are so in love with our present life.
To evoke laughter, one must be very observant. Look at babies and small kids. They are so laughable in their own ways because they are so satisfied with themselves. Look at a cute pup or kitten or any baby animal and you can feel the joy and laughter bursting inside them. Hear the singing of the birds, the swaying of the leaves as the wind passes by. They bring the melody of joy and laughter to the world.
If our inner being is joyful, then we can laugh to our heart's content and the whole world will laugh with us. Ha, ha, ha, ha, *lol*
"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?
