One of those Moments

Today is quiet an extraordinary day for me. I guess I’ve lost the opportunity of sharing the love of God to others. My friend and I were on our way home from SM after buying some personal and home stuffs when we meet a lady in her fifties or sixties around the curb. We were walking quiet fast that I wasn’t able to recognize what the old lady were saying. When I turn back, her eyes were on me and, call me melodramatic but it just tore my heart. So, I hurried back to her. At first I wasn’t able to hear what she says because her voice was so soft. She was asking for some pesos for her to go home. She wasn’t one of those filthy guys roaming around the city streets asking passerby some pennies to supply their fleshly desires. What I saw was an old lady cleanly dressed asking for some small peso for her to able to go home. I pulled out my purse from my pocket and gave her four 5-peso coins and told her to go home already coz it’s late already. She was so obedient, so genuine that it even made me feel so concerned about her. When I asked her why she’s still in the city at that time, she said she was roaming around the city looking for some customers who wanted to cut their hair but she had none the whole time she was in the city. It felt awful for me, I was so sorry for her that I didn’t even noticed that my tears fall. When I looked back I saw here walked very slow using her umbrella to support her counting the coins I have given her. It was moment of deciding between going back to her and offer her a dinner (bet she was hungry the whole day looking for customers). But I walked right to where the jeepneies are and headed home. I had a heavy heart. A burden, till now while I’m documenting this event. So, while I was on the jeep, a said a little prayer to God to take good care of her and bring her home safely. However, despite all this, I still feel bad because I could have done the best I could have on showing the love of Christ, but I failed. I guess I failed.

I realized why I felt that way, I don’t wanna see my mother on that situation one day begging other people for some graces because her son is so irresponsible to gratefully return what her mother had done for her. And I pray to God that this won’t happen. I wish I could bring the old lady home and give her a hearty meal...

Cheers to the Day

Cheers to the night when i was with you
When everything else are too good to be true
When the night is long just lying beside you
While i sing you to sleep, my love, my beau.

Cheers to the day while I walk with you
Just holding your hands as the sun sets in view
With sand under our feet and bottle of champagne in one hand
A moment so sweet, nothing else I could demand.

Cheers to this day, when I go blue
When I'm holding nothing but memories of you
When my eyes are dry for missing you
And knowing that there's nothing else I could do.

Cheers to the night when I was with you
When everything else are too good to be true
Cheers to the day, while I walk with you
'til the sun sets again and I go blue.

Longings of a Tortured Soul

The night cries, pouring down tears
to the one abandoned
Sharing the burden too heavy to bear
weightless as it seemed.

The smiles and the laughter
Hides the agony and pain
As time goes yonder
Grows heavy as it gains.

The bed cushions the fragile skin
of a forlorn figure
Darkness basks his beauty within
no light could endure.

When daylight turns to dusk
The nocturne dance, and sing, and grin
But the dawn puts on the mask
And the masquerade begins.

Oh what glory is this when you are torn?
What grace is there yet to be born?
For darkness fades when light shines
And light is shun when darkness reigns.

The glamor that this face received
The trophies that this wisdom achieved
Makes no use to a tortured soul
When all there is have been unfold.

Long Way Home

Things aren’t good for me lately. Though I enjoyed most of it, some are worth remembering with a grudge and some are just happiness to be forgotten.

I was in a hurry last Saturday trying to catchup the last ferry trip to Bacolod after school because my class ended later than it should be. Fortunately, I was able to grab a good seat and slept all the way to Bacolod. I wasn’t on my right mind when I arrived, though nothing serious to think about (or big problems). So I took a tricycle from port to plaza and rode a jeepney going to shopping, out of my route. (That’s a 90-degree angle to the right of where I should be going.) Arriving at the South Bus Terminal, I climb up the bus heading for Kabankalan (that’s an almost two-hour drive south of Bacolod). The bus was very crowded as it is the 2nd to the last trip, 7:20 PM, and everybody is trying to squeeze in just to be home. I was in the corner of the bus with nothing in my mind, no plans of an exact place to go nor any place to stay. I just felt like I wanna be away for a while. Neither sleepy nor interested at the sight of the countryside, I took my ipod out and listened to music.

The night seems to fade,
But the moonlight lingers on
There are wonders for everyone
The stars shine so bright,
But they`re fading after dawn
There is magic in kingston town

Oh kingston town,
The place I long to be
If I had the whole world
I would give it away
Just to see, the girls at play...

This made me feel relaxed and I did to close my eyes and just to savour the sweet sound of music. Some good memories flashed back and made me smile. (How I wish I was back to the days when I was young and free – high school days! Missing it a lot!). Then another UB40 song played and it carried me away – it just felt good.

I got down the town of Binalbagan, went into one of the bars their, it was a cozy place made of bamboo and hardwood... drank beer, listen to music, watch the full moon over the clear night sky. I let the night passed and early morning I went to the bus terminal and too the 5 am trip back to Bacolod. It was nice and it made me fine.

While I am writing these, I got pissed off by a colleague of mine. Why? Coz her jokes are not jokes at all. I wasn’t hurt by the joke but by the way she delivers it. It makes people look at as a tactless person. So I got out of the office and proceeded to mine.

Now my line of thinking is blurred.

The Abiding Word

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. - John 15:7 (KJV)

Many of us have been wondering how come our prayers are not answered while the prayer of others are. We have walked the mile and stumbled in most of our steps while others do not. How come other people’s lives are so blessed and mine is not.

If we look back and try to reflect on our daily walk, we see the difference as to why other people’s prayer are full of aroma that it pleases the Father thereby granting their prayers. And we see in ourselves that what is lacking is the abiding Word. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “ ...without faith it is impossible to please God...”. The word is very important. It is a defining factor that separates us believers from non believers. Can we pray for faith then? we may ask. The answer is a BIG no. Faith cannot be asked from God but “faith comes by hearing, and by hearing the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) Faith therefore cannot be taken out of anything but by hearing and not seeing the word of God. Having set that a prayer is answered when we have faith and we have faith by hearing the word of God, how do we start? John 15:7 teaches us that we can ask whatever we wish and it will be given us if we abide in the word and that the word abide in us. Can we ask then for whatever we want even things that doesn’t glorify God? We will answer this question as we try to understand each phrase in verse 7.

If ye abide in me
The Bible is clear when Jesus said in verse 7 of John 15 that whatever we ask, it will be given to us but we have to understand that there is a premise, a condition, that we abide in Him, and that the word abides in us. It is a stage by stage process of which there is no acceleration. Everything can be unto us only if we first abide in the word and the word abides in us. How do we abide then?
1. Meditate on it day and night - Joshua 1:8
Even in our busy schedule, we should take the opportunity to study and meditate on the word of God during our free time rather than using it for some worthless conversation which do not edify our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Keep in our hearts - 1 John 2:24
Some would ask why keep in our hearts and not in our mind when Jeremiah 17:9 says “the heart is deceitful above all things”? It is clear to us that the Bible never contradicts the truth that it says. You see, when we know the word only in mind, there is a tendency that we logically find some reasons or flaws which leads us to question the very identity of God and eventually lose our faith. We become Pharisees and Sadducees: self-righteous, knowledgeable of the Law yet fail to live it. However, if we keep it in our hearts, it is more alive. It speaks to us. How is it possible? We refer to the second phrase.

And my words abide in you
The word of God is alive before and even today. It speaks to us. When we keep his words in our heart and it becomes abundant; our actions, lifestyles, desires and even the words we speak are changed. When we asked previously why keep it in our hearts knowing that it is deceitful, I believe that our heart’s desires are changed in accordance to what God desires for us. Thus, our whole being is directed by God. When the word is abiding in us, we live in Christ likeness. We forget our earthly body including its earthly desires. We are sanctified and everything in us desires only to please and glorify our Father. The word causes us to speak in faith. It is our power to overcome all the taunting of the enemy (Ecclesiastes 8:4), it is the truth that sets us free from bondage (Psalms 33:4), it is our righteousness the teaches us what is right and wrong (Romans 10:4-5), it is our Lamp and Light that guides us each day (Proverbs 6:23), it is our hope for things to come (Psalms 130:5) and most of all, it is our life (John 6:63).

Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
By the power of the word that is abiding in us, we may approach the throne of God and ask whatever we may wish “by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving we let it made known to God” (Philippians 4:6) This is all to bless us and for the glory of God.

We will see that our lives will be transformed. Blessed, in peace and contented in Christ. We get to answer why our prayers before are not answered as compared to when we have the word that is abiding in us. Therefore, when we abide in Christ and his words abides in us, whatever we asks are in accordance to His desires which eventually He would grant us.

May God grant us the desires of our hearts according to His riches in Christ Jesus!