The Virus of the Heart

“You will begin to live 
with an unshakable certainty 

that everything you 
do today matters forever"
-Bruce Wilkinson”

          Today the world is facing an undeniably alarming situation. This Covid-19 has taken the world in panic, fear and worst death.  People of all ages can be infected by the new coronavirus (2010-nCov). Older people and people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus.

          WHO advises people of all ages to take steps to protect themselves from the virus, for example by following good hand hygiene and good respiratory hygiene. COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity. That means more people are susceptible to infection, and some will suffer severe disease.

With this information and media’s influence people tend to cave into anxiety and disquietude. How about you? What has been Covid-19 doing in your heart lately? Are you also coupled in worry that if this virus takes over yourself, your family and the ones precious to your life what will it be? If death knocks in front of you? Are you sure of your eternal destination? More likely many people cannot answer with confidence with this question. We are not eternally sure of our salvation. We are not ready for death and that is the reason why we are anxious.

                This sounds spiritual to say, but this is found in the Bible and it teaches us that salvation is found in Christ Jesus. “Ephesians 2: 8-9 tells us that “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

                This teaches us if we place our faith in Christ and what He had done for us on the cross, we can be saved from the penalty of sin and death. He died for the cross for our sins so that we can have eternal life. “2 Corinthians 5: 21, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. You can make a choice today to trust and place your dependence on the finished work of Christ on the cross. You can be sure of your eternal destination. Trust Christ. Be free from the bondage of this pandemic!

                As Bruce Wilkinson said in his book, “A life God rewards,  “You will begin to live with an unshakable certainty that everything you do today matters forever. Leaving us a reality that this life is fleeting. This is not what we should invest in, we should care more of what we are heading to than be overly consumed by this virus that only kills our physical bodies and not our soul. Make a choice today there is more than this virus spreads eating up our soul, it’s the virus of sin -the virus of the heart.

Oblivion (CitiLights)

Oblivion

You caused me to pen down again

Unearth the buried words

Succumb to construe

Of my odes and sonnets

My poems and narratives

Written in the bask of you

You caused me to sing a new

To hear a strange sound

From my chants and hymns

To your loud melodies

And hard core ways

Far from what I used to play

You caused me to laugh hard

To bear the feeling of risking

To take turns, to jump over, to fly above fears

And run as I can

Get bruised, fall hard and learn again

Far from my calculated spheres

You caused me to love

And hope in the desert

yet in the midst of it fell

Distance came

Silence grew

The lyric turned an elegy

Awaken to be true

That we had was just a “borrowed time”

Passers by…

A Shakespeare playwright;

Just a midnight summer dream of you

Now daunt me that its over

Polite as you may my lover

Cause I can’t just move on

Without these oblivion

Bare your Heart (Semester ender)

   

    I just love the days, when I can just sit crisscross facing my laptop, sipping  a cup of coffee and writing down random thoughts about life. Its been a decade I guess, since I was not able to write again and so glad for free days when I can just bare my heart.  I just love to be silent, gaze, meditate and pen down, at times draft all the crazy wild thoughts without being so cautious of what I am trying to express, rather what I really want to say.
    A line of a corny song crossed my mind, but had a truth on it, "Honesty is such a lonely world, every one is so untrue. Yes, you can always fake things to people even lie to yourself but you can never lie to God. When the lights are off and you cant still sleep and you are daunted with so many unsettled issues, sins, burdens, baggages then that is the time that you need to be real  and honest with God. Reality is we can never handle things alone, we need Him. At times solitude is essential where it is a furnace of transformation, and one of the wonderful things of having a relationship with God is that- in the silence you have the  full access to Him, you have the liberty to be who you are and His assuring presence of comfort and peace.
   I'm currently reading a book, by E.Elliot,  "Love has a price tag" and I quote what she wrote: "Life is full of things we can't do about, but which we are supposed to do something with. "He himself endured a cross, and thought nothing of its shame because of the joy." And I agree with her, (Not just because she is one of my favorite writers, needless to say one of the heroes of my faith) because life is always composed of pain, discouragements are inevitable, cliche to say, there are so many things we wish do not exist but they are. What if our prayers are not answered? what if our circumstances does not change? What if the pain does not go away. We need to learn the discipline of being "real" with God, when we don't put up a mask to Him, when we don't hide what we feel, rather we just pour out all the injustices of this world. Automatically it does not change after that, but our heart does, and I think it matters when our perspectives are driven to what we do not see but what lies ahead.
  Baring your heart to God, does not just appease your emotions but it draws you closer to Him, to His attributes, to His being and  for me that is sweet.

(Heart-to-heart)

Godly Pursuit

I should be studying for my VBS (Vacation Bible School) teaching load and preparing my lesson plan, art crafts and visuals when I stopped doing at my work when a thought came to my mind and series of words just flushed speedily. I opened my laptop and started drafting this entry.

Yes, we are living in this sinful world where wrong becomes right and what should be is not the popular. It is filmed in movies and epidemic in media about stories that shows and promotes relationships between married men to a single, and biblically this is called, “adultery.”

But what about courtship dealt nowadays? Even Christians take these things in a manner that is contrary to Gods word. I had a talked with  young guys in different situations, the other one was in the church, and he confessed to us that the girl first told  him of her likeness and desire towards this young guy. And because of that the guy took advantage and began to have mutual attachments. They say they don’t have a relationship but, the girl demands “time” from him and gets annoyed if the guy talks to other young girls. The other young men shared this same topic a day after that conversation, it happened in our staff center  when they had a conversation with  a particular lady through sms leading him to feel that the girl liked him, subtly throwing some attraction and possibilities.  Is this true? Yes and at times discouraging, all these things are happening inside the church of God.

To all single and young ladies, you should keep your heart. (Proverbs 4:23) Proverbs admonishes us to keep our “hearts” for out of it, springs the issues of life. No matter how intense your attraction to a guy maybe, do not make the first move! Do not flaunt your likeness; do not wear your heart around your sleeves. Keep your heart to be given only for the right man that deserves your heart. It is not a commodity that is sold over the counter that you can just give away. Your heart is priceless and there is no medicine over heartaches, scars and pain.

To all single and young men, have a backbone! Naturally it is easy to take advantage and just respond when girls show attraction. And even worst, don’t take initiative when they can’t see positive signs before their eyes. It just reflects how coward and immature you are right now, not to make a step of faith! Man are designed to pursue and initiate not to be the one sought for, most guys even are simply throwing some flirtous acts without the motive to pursue only to get something from them.  Having the so-called, “friends with benefits”, but this is not what the picture of God has for us.

In the beginning, the Lord made man and woman in His likeness, He crafted us into His design, and living out of His design is sin!  This cannot be thwarted, this is not a high standard but this is God’s standard. If you are a single man or lady, would you desire to fall into the hands of the wrong person or would desire to be with God’s best.  The choice is yours, at the end we make our choices, and these choices make us.

“If you’ll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.”- Vince Lombardi

“If you believe that Love is best when it’s pure and new, you will wait patiently for it.”

Come what may, DO the right thing!

Jumping over fears ( a Holy week experience)

     Clumsy, not-sporty, un-athletic, so feminine, sensitive, always

last in running, hiking, jogging, afraid to swim and crawl,cant

sustain long walks and run, in one description -fearful and that

is me.

     I had a privilege this holy week to overcome that fear. We went to the mountains with the staff and experience such great long walks and adventure. For the first time in forever, I was able to sustain such hiking, walked a long way up to the mountains and the highlight was to jump over a river. I end up laughing to myself how fearful I was to take risks.

     Sure this is not a new thing to many, even not that great risk but for me a big time accomplishment, more than the success I gained before in my past journies, this one is a triumph with trembling hands and feet I remember when I jump over that cliff it was a sign that when you take the step of faith- the Lord will meet you, way to go "Pees", way to go.

Self Repair

(A Journal Entry:
August 12,2013)

"Beautiful lives don't just happen
They are made every single day with much
love, prayer and sacrifice.
The many tasks we face each day can burden and exhaust us;
But spending time with God each day can bring relief from stress.
Let us be reminded that in the end, three things matter:
How fully we lived...
How deeply  we loved...
and how gracefully we let go of the things not essential in life."

     There are a lot of things in our lives that we want to change, if only I am like this, if only my circumstances are different, if only people change but at times these things do not. What will you do? Lately this truth has been pounding in my heart and I have come to a great conviction of my own negative responses to life, if you commit these things to prayer the circumstances does not automatically alter but you do. And most of all, when you bare your heart and seek God's word then the lies you are allowing yourself to believe fades away, then that is self repair found in God not in the change of your circumstances but your heart.

Weddings

         What do you feel when you attend weddings? Especially when the music starts to play and everyone turns their eyes as the brides walks  down the aisle, a moment of splendor. But there is someone out there who happens not to fully witness that moment, the one who makes sure the details are all correct, that nobody is lacking in the entourage, that the flowers are delivered on time, makes sure's nothing is over-looked and everything is set for the ceremony, well... well, that is the wedding coordinator, and it happens to be me.

It started with my close friend in college, who happens to marry the best friend of my sister and the list goes on the line.

Simply&Benzel 
"Faithful"

This wedding is memorable not just because its my first time, but because I enjoyed helping the couple realize their love story. It is a wedding that remarks that God is indeed faithful.

Jubal&Mona

I never expected to sing during weddings, its like one of the impossible things that will happen to me, and surely this was my first time to sing, not just any other song but sang the bridal march. I Thank God for His grace.

Agar&Beth
The coolest wedding I ever planned, yet the most stressed scheduled I had prior to the wedding date. It turns to be my LET Exam, and my mind is set on the review not on the wedding. But I was delighted  in attending the wedding not just to coordinate and sing but more to support my close friend who delayed the date just for me to be around.
  I thank God for His sustaining strength.

Brian &Adel
Literally we had just few hours of sleep just to make the wedding possible.  We made all the necessary details and program the night before the wedding. It was awesome after everything, that things were putting in its place as people lend their hands.  Yet this is the most light wedding I ever coordinated. ;) The venue was in a private resort near the beach. I thank God for the experience.

Ptr. Romeo& Aileen

Traveled seven hours from Cebu to Negros to Sta.Catalina. It was the wedding that I did not expect I will still have strength afterwards. Woke up early the next day and helped with the venue. And was not able to practice with my song, but was able to sang in the entourage. :) Weeeh! Indeed a remarkable one.

  

Ptr. Mark&Ate Yen
This is an exemption. I did not sing nor helped with organizing the event. I was expecting for the first time in my life just to be a spectator and just sit and let each sequence flow, but to my surprise the bride asked me to help with the ushers team and guest for the reception. Looks like wedding prompting will be weaved in me. :) I took it as privilege to help and be a blessing though unexpectedly.

Jonafe&Jomarie

One of the weddings that I helped in coordinating that is special because this is my discipler's sister wedding and my best friends brothers wedding. Both sides huh? I enjoyed helping it to be memorable. :)

Why did I all of a sudden made a post out of all the weddings I attended? Hmmm. Its just unbelievable through out those years, the Lord has used me  to help in weddings. Weddings are not just events but a start of a life-long commitment of forever. If you are planning, I could be of help. :)  This is my February post in the month of hearts.