A Blessed Sunday: The Revolution of Character

Today, after drinking  a cup of coffee and eating "kakanin" I head on the church without much to take care of. The scripture verse this Sunday was from Colossians 3:1-4. Pastor E talked about character, how it is our inner strength. He says character is not what we do but it is who we are and it defines us, the expression of our faith.

Pastor E didn't speak so much he just elaborate the importance of character as a Christian and how Christian should be after accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior, that the old has gone and the new is here, we must live like Christ like. A Christian a completely changed person, transformed in character.

The responsive reading was very touching and it reads like this -

Father, During this coming week there may be times when I shall not be able to sense Your presence or to be aware of Your nearness.

When I am lonely and by myself I TRUST YOU TO BE MY COMPANION.

When I am tempted to sin I TRUST YOU TO KEEP ME FROM IT.

When I am depressed and anxious I TRUST YOU TO LIFT MY SPIRITS.

When I am crushed by my responsibility and overwhelmed by the demands of people on my time, I TRUST YOU TO GIVE ME POISE AND A SENSE OF PURPOSE.

When I am rushed and running I TRUST YOU TO MAKE ME STILL INSIDE.

When I forget You I TRUST THAT YOU WILL NEVER FORGET ME.

When I forget others I TRUST YOU TO PROMPT ME TO THINK OF THEM.

When you take something or someone from me that I want to keep; when You remove the props I lean on for comfort in place of You; when You refuse to respond to my questions and to answer my selfish prayers, I WILL TRUST YOU EVEN THEN. Amen

A Blessed Sunday: The Beat of A Thankful Heart

It was been a long time since I blogged about Sunday, I have been procrastinated on doing so. I have planned to just write a late post but my mind was too busy and can't focus.

How are you going to describe your heart today?  That's the question asked by Pastor E to everyone and I could write a long sentence to describe mine but I'll just skip that.  The scriptural verse for this Sunday was from Luke 17: 11-19 with the scriptural topic of "The Beat of a Thankful heart".

Pastor E shared  that the thankful heart beats for those who are without.  We see hurting people all around us and yet we are paralyzed to help because our hearts are telling us:

[Photo courtesy of greatergood.berkeley.edu]

• “Why bother…nobody will change”.
• “It’s too risky…you might fail or get hurt.”
• “Someone else can a better effort at helping than I can.”

Secondly, the thankful heart beats with a faith that things can change no matter what the circumstances. As Paul  said on Philippians 4:6-7 ~

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

It is with a heart of thanksgiving that we are to pray and let God know our needs. When we pray, God can do two things:

1. Change our circumstance
2. Give us His peace in our circumstance

Thirdly, The thankful heart beats for the Giver…not just the gift and lastly the thankful heart beats with thanksgiving and more is given.

A Blessed Sunday: What Are The Things you Have that you can Trade?

There was a different Pastor today at church since Pastor E was assigned out of town, Pastor J talks about the things you are willing to trade for something else from the book of 1 Peter 5:8-11. She said if we are experiencing good life and doesn't experience problems we should be already nervous what path are we already walking. Maybe we are already walking a path to Satan's lair, Pastor J set Job as example how he was tempted by Satan and how he remained faithful to God.

[Photo courtesy of pinterest.com]

Pastor J shared some insights or ways to know if we are already trap by the enemy, first she said we are trapped when the things we want were given without struggle because it is true that when a person life is well he forgot God. He encouraged every one to be vigilant, to focus and be observant and secondly to meditate God's words.  A life without trial is an enemy's way to trap you.

A Blessed Sunday: A Firm Foundation

Home is the first institution God had created. Pastor E's topic on his preach this Sunday is about A Firm Foundation from the book of Joshua 24: 13-15. When building a home we always want it to be safe and productive, we always first create a solid foundation.

[Image source pastorbrianlamsermons.blogspot.com]

Pastor E shared three D's that are integrity of the home, the first one is discernment (verse 13), which talks about God's blessing, Him being compassionate and merciful. We become what we rare because of God's bountiful grace, we are blessed beyond measure but unfortunately we overlooked God and cast  Him aside our home. The second is duty (verse 14), we must fear the Lord and recognized His position in our life. Most of us fear the Lord but we are not committed, we have no consideration we live according to our own desire.

The last D is decision (verse 15), we must choose God's will and serve the Lord and when we serve the Lord faithfully He is being praised. Pastor E ended his preaching asking if Jesus is the priority of your life.

A Blessed Sunday: Serving in the Shadows (Epaphras)

This Sunday is different from the other Sundays because today I am not just part of the congregation. I am the liturgist today and it is making me nervous, since this will be my first time to be speaking at the pulpit in front of the congregation.

[Photo source: vimeo.com]

Today is the third Sunday that Pastor E talks about people who serves in the Shadows, and this Sunday he talks about Epaphras life from the books of Colossians 1: 7-8 and Colossians 4: 12-13 , his faithful dedication , cooperation, conviction, commitment and consistency.

A Blessed Sunday: Serving in the Shadows (Hur)

The topic of Pastor E's preaching this Sunday is a continuation of his topic the previous Sunday, it is about Serving in the Shadows but today it is about Hur, from the book of Exodus 17: 8-13.

[Photo source: vimeo.com]

Pastor E talks about Hur's character,  Hur has support and cooperation, potential and his participation is persistence. He encourage everyone to be faithful in their  place serving God and use everyone's God given talent to serve God,  he said that a potential without participation is a little value and participation is essential but without persistence you will not see victory.

Today, my mother and sister went to church with me after a long years of her not going to the church. I have been inviting her but she doesn't want to, but one surprising day she just said she want to go to church and it happened today.

A Blessed Sunday: The Confidence in Discipleship

It was first Sunday of the month and it was raining hard, the church service started very early. There were only few people inside the church maybe because of the heavy rain, people were trap on their home. I was a bit soak in rain despite of having an umbrella.

Pastor E's scriptural topic was continuation and the last part about being a good disciple of Christ "The Confidence in Discipleship" based of scriptural verse John 15: 7-11. According to the bible to be a Gods disciple we should do three things - forget about our self, bring the cross and follow Him.

On the scriptural verses 7-8 we are told to be confident in our position, we should abide God and His words and when we do it God is glorified. Secondly, on verses 9-10 there is a provision, God's love us and He challenge us to remain in His love, while on verse 11 we have the confidence in our position in life since God equipped us with many talents and abilities, along the way God provided for us even though we challenged Him by doing nothing, for not growing as a Christian.

A Blessed Sunday: The Cost of Discipleship

It's the last Sunday of the month and Pastor E's topic on his preaching today was from the book of Luke 14: 25-33 with a a topic of "The Cost of Discipleship". Blessings are free and costly and there is very little blessings require in serving the Lord conveniently, Pastor E asked the congregation that considering God's investment in us, what God have received from us?

Pastor E also gave some points on the cost of discipleship like the criteria, God says on verse 26 to love Him more than we love our parents, brother and sisters and whoever do not so cannot be his disciple then on verse 27  it was said that in following Jesus there will be a cross to carry, it means responsibility and on verse 28 we have to sit down and think if we can continue serving God given the responsibilities and cost.

A Blessed Sunday: A Portrait of Fatherhood

Today, is Father's Day Sunday. Instead of Pastor E preaching it was his wife who delivered God's message, the scripture reading was from the book of 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12 with a topic "A Portrait of Fatherhood.

[Photo courtesy of fathers-days.net]

Pastor E's wife shared the traits of a father, according to her a father is able to express genuine love, he has transparent life where he isn't ashamed to cry in front of others, he has unselfish diligence, genuine spirituality and positive influence in his child's life.

There was some testimony from other members for their father, they were called to share something in front of the congregation.

A Blessed Sunday: Service that Pleasing the Lord

Hospital was our second home for a few days already, my father and I go home in the morning to collect water, do the laundry, cooked food and do other household chores and then we returned during lunch and went home again in the afternoon and went back to the hospital at late afternoon. It was been our routine for several days, it was hard to sleep during the night because we have to monitor my mother's urine every hour, by draining her catheter and measuring it. I sleep a bit at night and do the task during early morning but I can't sleep well at all because I was worrying with my mother's condition.

Anyway, I am not planning to attend church service today but my sister texted that if I want to go to church I just have to make sure that everything is right at home, so I immediately searched for my jeans and went to church with a cloudy mind, lack of sleep and non-stop worrying.

[Image source: mbchiawassee.org]

This Sunday is my father's birthday and it was exchanged pulpit Sunday which mean different Pastor will do the preaching, the preacher was a woman pastor (Pastor E.F) from sister church, her topic for the day was about "Service That Pleasing the Lord" based on scripture reading Matthew 25: 14-31.

What kind of service pleasing the Lord? According to Pastor E.F, productive service pleases the Lord, a service that is effective and fruitful, God gave us talents and ability for us  to flourish, He expected us to level up. Secondly, passionate service pleases the Lord, it is a service that is burning, committed, eager, excited, enthusiastic, hot and emotional in short it is a service that is from the heart. We should work with love to the Lord, our motivation should be love to glorify God. Thirdly, a faithful service pleases the Lord, it should be close, consistent, devoted, loyal and trustworthy. A faithful servant never retired, he served faithfully as long as he is alive. According to Pastor E.F a good servant acknowledge God as the owner and him as a steward and faithfulness is keeping promises.

A Blessed Sunday: The Call to Discipleship

Today, is the first Sunday of the month so the service started 7 o'clock in the morning. Pastor E topics is about the "The Call to Discipleship" based on Matthew 4:19 when Jesus invited Peter and Andrew to follow him to be fisher's of men.

[Photo courtesy of relationaldiscipleship.wordpress.com]

Pastor E encourages the congregation to strengthen their faith and live like Jesus wanted His children to be, to follow Him and live on His words. He also discuss about Jesus invitation to Peter and Andrew,  he said it was not only for them but for everyone. Peter and Andrew followed Jesus without hesitation, they trust and became obedient.

A Blessed Sunday: Our Legacy Getting Right in a Culture that Has Gone Wrong

Yesterday was the last Sunday of the month and my morning doesn’t started right, I had a small fight with my sister because I didn’t like the way she speak towards me after I insists of fetching water so I could watered the plants early so I could prepare for church.

Anyway, despite my early misunderstanding with my younger sister I still went to church to asked for enlightenment and forgiveness, to asked God to remove the anger in my heart. Honestly, lately I have noticed that I tend to collect anger in my heart and I wasn't the same person anymore who can't be angry, well I guess I have changed a lot for the past few months I became strong emotionally.

There were three speakers in the pulpit yesterday, two of them are young people who went to Kasapulanan and then Pastor E, the scriptural topic was based on the topic in the Kasapulanan which is "Our Legacy Getting Right in a Culture that Has Gone Wrong" derived from scriptural verses of 1 Timothy 1: 1-6 and Daniel 3: 16-18.  The first young speaker talks about the end time (Revelation 5:5 and Revelation 1:3) as well as the wrong culture of many Christians today by going to church wearing improper clothes.

[Photo courtesy of  Lynn Babcock/pinterest.com]

The second young speaker who is a lot better than the first speaker talked about the Gospel and what Gospel shows, she firstly shared that Gospel is word of God (2 Timothy 3:16), it was a strong force against bad and even questioned how other people go to church but doesn't changed their attitude.

Anyway, second Gospel is the Kingdom of God (Matthew 4:12 and 1 Timothy 4:16) and lastly the culture, it was said as time passes culture changes, during biblical time church officers were appointed and not elected (Acts 1: 12-26 and Genesis 14:20). Pastor E then elaborate and speak a little about the topic that was spoken by the first two young speakers, and says that in Daniel 3: 16-18 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego the three people that were mentioned in these verses have three beautiful things in their life they have a strong answer, strong faith and principle.

A Blessed Sunday: Time is Precious

It was first Sunday of the month again today and the service proper started as early as seven o'clock. Pastor E scriptural topic was about "time" and the scriptural verse was from Ephesus 5: 16 that says "Making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil."

[Photo source: quotesgram.com]

Pastor E says that time is precious because it is short and when it passed it cannot be recover that's why there is always regrets at the end when we didn't use our time wisely. God give us certain set of time (Matthew 12:36) to do good but how much time we have wasted?

Time is also an opportunity to do good (redeeming time), it is God' special gift to us, it was God given opportunity with purposes (Hebrews 3:15).

A Blessed Sunday: Building a Legacy that Lasts

The church proper service today didn't started early because there is a small meeting on what to do next Sunday and who's to send as delegates in the convention of Baptist churches next month. I was asked by older women member if I would like to go but I declined since it is going to held in far away town of our province. The convention usually take three or more days but everything from fare, registration and food will be shouldered by the church.

[Image courtesy of slideplayer.com]

This Sunday is also Baccalaureate Sunday so there is a recognition and dedication of graduates from all levels. One graduate also gave testimony on God's faithfulness on her struggles while studying. Anyway, Pastor E finally delivered the scriptural message this Sunday and his scriptural topic is Building a Legacy that Lasts which can be found at Mark 12: 28-31. He asked everyone if it would make a difference if you learned you had very little time left? Would it change your priorities if you felt life slipping away?

[Image courtesy of boardofwisdom.com]

Just like Reverend R's message a few Sunday's ago, Pastor E's basis of topic was about a person who's expert in the law asked  God what is the greatest commandment and Jesus replied that it is to love God and to love the people God puts around you. Pastor E says Jesus modeled this perfectly, and his legacy has had more impact on the world than any individual in history. He didn't leave a legacy of money, property or power. Instead, he left a legacy of loving God completely, and sacrificially loving us and a legacy of loving others.

Would it make a difference if you learned you had very little time left? Would it change your priorities if you felt life slipping away? We are all running out of time. The opportunity to leave the legacy we want is one day shorter than it was yesterday.

Pastor shared a few stories and parable about the goat and lamb and then asked everyone if what is the legacy we are leaving on earth since we are leaving foot prints behind us.

A Blessed Sunday: God's Love and Us

It is the last Sunday of the month today, Pastor E and his family is already home but the church already invited a new speaker, which is Pastor J.

The scriptural topic this Sunday was from the book of 1 Corinthians 13: 3-7 and 13 with the scriptural topic about God’s love. According to Pastor J, love is sacrifice. If we love God His words reflect to ourselves, if we have something to sacrifice for God it would be our time.

[Image credit: pinterest.com]

Love is trust (1 corinthians 13:7) without trust there is no faith. We should always trust God and let Him rule with our life. Pastor J says that trust is also important among married couple so that their relationship won’t fail and prosper.

Love  doesn't fade away (Psalms 136), Pastor J says we should go far away from God's love and we should love God as always. She set an example how a young couple started their lives together as very sweet couple and they go to church together and how they ended walking to church separately after 50 years of marriage.

A Blessed Sunday: Faith and Prayer

Today is the second Sunday that Pastor E wasn't around, it is quite noticeable that the church wasn't the same as when he is around, there is a lot of vacant chairs. Anyway the speaker this Sunday was a friend and school mate, she is licensed and practicing teacher and I expect a lot from her but like a saying says don't expect a lot so you won't get disappointed.

[Image credit: brandinicolejm.wordpress.com]

It was like I was attending a seminar about smart phones and the applications you can installed in them. She focused in this topic a lot rather than to the bible verse which is to be found at Luke 18:1 and Matthew 21:22. It was only the latter that she was able to get on the topic when she shared a educational video how God left the cross to us and how He help us go up when we are down.

Well, I understand that she would like to pin point how important smart phone to every one and how people neglected the bible and how convenient it would be if God has His own Facebook and Instagram account but explaining the ratio and how these mobile applications works isn't too important when you are speaking in front of the congregation, if it was seminar that's given but people go to church to be blessed and not to learn about modern technology.

Disclosure: The above written post was my own personal opinion and might be different from yours. 

Commitment, Love and Sacrifice

Today is wider mission Sunday and it is the 4th Sunday I went to church to attend the service and it is the third time I have to wear eye glasses when going to church because I can’t see well from the distance.

The service started with praise and worship, I don’t know what have come to me but I was thankful that I am alive. The scriptural topic is about commitment again, when we heard commitment we always imagined a wedding, where two people are being committed to each other through thick and thin, and until death do they part, but our pastor also give an example how an athlete being committed on practicing every morning without fail. How about you? Are you committed? Do you know how to honor a commitment or do you turn your back the moment a trial came?

[Image courtesy of Maciej A. Czyzewski/en.wikipedia.org]

Remember, that when you are committed to serve the Lord, whatever trials may come you are strong and will not be shaken because His Love is our strength. We must remember that God challenged us to focus and we must commit to His works to be done on His ways.

To love is to sacrifice, when we love someone we must be willing to sacrifice and honor thy commitment, we must be dedicated and loyal. If we love God, we are willing to sacrifice our time for Him, Sunday is for God's glory.