What About the Women?

First of all, let me express my thanks to those who responded to my previous blog entry. Although it was primarily aimed at the men, I am pleasantly surprised to see the women responding positively to it.

Well, I believe God wants me to post something about the women, seeing as it is the month of mothers.

Instead of writing a standalone post however, allow me to reproduce here my answer to an atheist friend of mine who asked in his blog "Why would any woman want to be a Christian?"

It is a legitimate question, deserving much thought. Both Christians and non-Christians alike should carefully take the time to go over what they believe the role of women should be in our society.

The following is what I think the Bible wants us to believe:

"Well Bruce, suffice to say, you've raised some very interesting points here to say the least. The last time we talked about women's rights, I almost got kicked out of your blog. So I'm going to tread here really carefully.

Bruce, I can understand how people can see the Bible as anti-feminist/woman. You've pointed out some classical problem verses that seem to relegate women to a position of subservience to men.

My take on this is that it is not the Bible itself that is anti-feminine, but the culture prevalent at that time. As I've mentioned in another post, NOBODY took women's and children's rights seriously until only about the latter half of the 18th century. And I think its rather unfair to put the blame solely on Scripture for that being the case.

Let's face it: men and women were born with different attributes. Those attributes are meant for certain functions unique to our gender. Man was not born to bear children, much the same way tha a woman was not meant to carry semen and the biological means with which to impregnate another woman.

Current studies are also showing that it is not only our biology that is different, but our psychology as well. Men are naturally more aggressive and foward looking, well suited to their historical role as leaders and protectors. Women on the other hand, are generally more patient and present oriented, making them great managers and nurturers. Do any of these psychological attributes make one superior to the other? I don't think so. Rather, these attributes make it clear that we have specific roles to play that the other cannot.

Furthermore, these differences are not meant to be competitive, but COMPLEMENTARY. The most obvious example is of course reproduction. Biological reproduction, unaided by science, cannot occur between two persons of the same sex.

Men and women may not be equal in attributes, but they are both ESSENTIAL beings that cannot live without the other. They are meant to become and act as one unit.

The Bible recognizes this, as early as the Book of Genesis:

"So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them." - (Genesis 1:27, NLT)

Neither man, nor woman alone represent the perfection of God. BOTH of them together make for the image of perfection.

One last point I'd like to make is that I think that many of us underestimate the high value that the Bible places on women.

Women are much, MUCH more powerful than many of us think. They are so powerful in fact, that they can literally start and end wars.

We men like to act like we have power over women. But the truth of the matter is that it is the women who have the power over US.

Do you want to know what happens when this power is misused? Why, just look at how women are used to manipulate men into becoming mindless consumers.

There is not a day that goes by that I am not bombarded with sexually charged images of women enticing me to buy into a product or service. The illusion being that if I buy into the product, I am somehow getting intimate with the woman advertising it, and also confirming my manhood in the process.

A woman, who uses her sexuality to seduce and manipulate in exchange for profit is nothing more than a prostitute. I believe that a woman is made for more nobler purposes than that, much the same way that we men are made for more nobler purposes than to become willing lackeys in an abusive system that seeks to expoit women for profit.

Men are known to do crazy things for a woman. The Bible takes note of such occasions. The most famous of all being the story of Samson and Delilah. Samson, with all of his vaunted physical strength, is reduced to a subservient lackey who threw away his God-ordained power and responsibility to protect his people in exchange for Delilah's favors.

Remember Helen of Troy? How many Greeks died because of the "Face that launched a thousand ships"?

And last, but definitely not the least (at least for me as a Christian), we are told that Satan himself used Eve to tempt Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, which led to the downfall of humanity.
Oh, women are powerful all right. They are so powerful, they can cause the rise and fall of empires, make or break homes, ensure the success and cause the breakdown of generations of families. They literally have the power over life and death.

That is why I believe the Bible takes great pains to remind BOTH men and women of the dangers of their powers being misused. Women are NOT meant to be prostitutes. Men are NOT meant to be lackeys to prostitution. They are meant to behave in accordance with the purpose for which they were made: as partners working in tandem for the promotion and protection of LIFE. They were NOT meant to be used as tools for the destruction of life.

"The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." - (John 10:10 NLT)

So my message to the women is this:
Blessed are you daughters of Eve.

Blessed are you if you are treated as the least in this world, for in God's kingdom, it is the least who are the greatest.

Blessed are you for your meekness, for it is you who will inherit the Earth.

Blessed are you for refusing to have your bodies used as tools for destruction, for you will be called Mothers of all who live.

Blessed are you when you persevere in raising your family, for your children will grow up to crush the Serpent under their heels.

And finally, blessed are you, for it is through you that the Savior was born so that salvation might come to those who seek it.

Mabuhay ang mga kababaihan!"

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..."(Ephesians 5:25 NIV)

Becoming a Real Man

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
(1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV)

There comes a time, when every human male comes to a crossroads in his life, and will have to make a fateful decision that will determine how he lives the rest of his life in the future.

I am not talking here about marriage, although that is part of it.

I am talking about the decision of becoming a real man.

Again, just to set the record straight, I am not talking about men who have a problem with their gender, although this too is related.

What I am talking about here, is the conscious decision that a male adolescent makes, to take full responsibility for his manhood.

And just in case you brush me aside and tell me that I’m dealing with something too big for me to handle, I am confident of my authority on the subject matter, because I am speaking from personal experience.

I know it, because I myself have made the conscious decision to be a man.

An explanation is in order, and I will make a simple one that I hope that my contemporary male readers can easily relate to.

About three years ago, I was very impressed with the movie “300”. I thought that it was everything that a young, testosterone-laden human male of the twenty-first century could want in a movie: a group of larger-than-life men, with larger-than-life physiques, doing battle with a larger-than-life enemy.

Violence? Check. Sex? Check. Super slo-mo action cutscenes? Check. Dark brooding angry Caucasian hero ready to mercilessly decapitate faceless non-caucasian henchmen? Oh yeah.

No doubt about it, this was my kind of movie.

I lapped it all up at the theatre when my wife and I went on a date to watch it. And a few months later, I decided that it deserved to be part of my Blu-ray collection. It was just that good, I thought to myself.

This was what a real man was all about, I thought. I wanted to be that big, angry Spartan with a chiselled body, screaming angry invectives, and looking ridiculously good whether it be during a steamy sex scene or in blood-soaked hand-to-hand combat.

Yeah, I wanted to be that kind of man.

Until I came to know Jesus Christ, and allowed Him to show me what a real man was all about.

Before you start shaking your head and tell yourself: “here’s another one of those fellows who got brainwashed by a fanatical evangelist,” let me just tell you this.

It is true that Jesus coming into my life was not my decision. But allowing Him to change my life was.

And the moment I made that decision, a veil was lifted from my eyes and I saw the truth.

I saw that many of the things that my culture is telling me is a lie. And that one of those things was what a real man should be like.

As soon as I realized that, I made the conscious decision to start becoming a real man.

And slowly but surely, Jesus Christ is helping me become that man.

I know I’ve made progress because this year, I saw and appreciated a real man’s movie.

Does it have violence? A bit. Does it have sex? None. Do the heroes have chiselled bodies? Couldn’t really tell since they were all wearing clothes most of the time.

So what’s there to see in this movie?

Real men.

The movie’s title is “Courageous”.

And in my mind, it blows “300” completely out of the water.

If you honestly and truly want to know what a real man looks like, then you owe it to yourself to see this movie.

This is not some shameless plug or paid advert on my part. I make this recommendation freely and voluntarily.

And please, if you do decide to see it, please help the producers of the movie by buying a legitimate copy.

Because this too is part of being a real man.

I pray, that those of you who read this will likewise come to make the decision that I made, and ask the Creator to become the real men that we were meant to be in this life.

For humanity is threatened by an enemy far more intimidating and relentless than any that Hollywood could conjure up.

We are told that many men have died having lost in the battle, and that many more will.

But we are also told, that if you will allow the One True King to lead you, nothing less than a glorious victory is granted to those who will have the courage, determination and endurance to see the battle to its end.

So rise up men of God. His Kingdom needs you.

Soli Deo Gloria!

This is My command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
(Joshua 1:9 NLT)

All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

(Matthew 10:22 NIV)

The Passion

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. - (Isaiah 53:3-5 NIV)

The Holy Week in the Philippines is an occasion to be joyous. It is a weeklong vacation spent with family and friends and a welcome break from the daily grind of work and responsibility.

But like that one other great Christian holiday, the spirit of the Holy Week has become somewhat lost in the excitement for a holiday spent in the cool highlands or warm summer beaches of the country.

As I took my daily commute this morning, I was reminded of how full of sorrow this world of ours is.

Sure there is the daily experience of seeing the less fortunate of our countrymen, both young and old, darkened by the grime and soot of the metropolis as they go about their business of begging for alms.

Sure, there is the seemingly endless news about how disaster after disaster seems to come upon our people, what with the storms, floods, and landslides hitting various parts of our country on a regular basis.

Sure there is the rampant crime, the petty thefts, the daring robberies, the unsolved murders, the allegations of corruption, and all sorts of heinousness that man is capable of inflicting on his fellow man.

Sure there are the wars, and the threat of wars, of civil unrest, of rockets being fired, of territory being fought for, and the cleverly disguised and not-so-cleverly-disguised barbs thrown by the world’s most wealthy and influential against each other, even as the least and impoverished continue to outnumber them in an ever increasing ratio.

Humanity it seems, has for too long lived under the shadow of these things that we have become almost desensitized to them.

After all, a man who loses his sight will eventually get used to the darkness. Given enough time, he might even forget what it means to see.

And that is the most sorrowful thing of all.

That is what I saw on the faces of my countrymen this morning, on the eve of the Holy Week holiday.  I did not see faces full of joy and hope. I see faces of resignation.

And why should not they be resigned? Life could be so much better. Humanity could be so much better. But here we all are, forced to live off the unwanted dregs of a life and humanity that has somehow gone terribly wrong.

We have been living this way for so long that it is likely that most of us have already forgotten what a better life and a better humanity SHOULD look like.

Oh, but we do get glimmers of it once in a while.

Every time we react with angry indignation at how we’ve been mistreated and our rights trampled, that is actually a longing for the ideal. It is the deep seated instinct for light that even the most jaded blind person has within him.

But even that is not enough to show us that we were meant to live as creatures of sight and light.

Without something real and tangible representing the ideal, then we can only have muddled and confused ideas of what it looks like. Not unlike the blind who can only make out bits and pieces out of a hazy vision.

And that my friends, is what the message of the Cross of Christ is all about.

It is about giving sight to the blind. It is about light being brought to those in darkness. It is about slaves being given their freedom. It is about love given to the unlovable.

It is about a God who took all of our pain, all of our suffering, all of our indignities and shame. He took the worst that humanity has to offer in order to redeem what was once considered lost.

All of this is told by the Cross of Christ. And it would be foolish of me to try and even put into words the passion by which He fought for our freedom at great cost to Himself.

Few of us can bear shame. Fewer can bear pain and suffering. And even fewer still will bear death. A few might bear them for the sake of a loved one. None will bear them for the sake of the evil and unrighteous.

Christ bore them all for all the evil and unrighteous.  And that means all of us.

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

- (Romans 3:23 NIV)

This is why we celebrate the Holy Week. This is why we should be joyful, not just in the next few days, but all of the days of our lives.

For if we celebrate Christmas for the birth of the Savior, we celebrate the Holy Week for His very act of Salvation.

So whether we go to the highlands or beaches, or stay home, or wherever we may be this week, let us be joyful and happy and celebrate the life that He purchased for us. Let us remember with passion that the reason why we live is because of Him alone.

 “…the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

- (Psalms 118:23 NIV)

All Honor and Glory therefore be to His name.

Soli Deo Gloria!

An Aborted Revolution?

“Where are the youths who will dedicate their innocence, their idealism, their enthusiasm to the good of the country? Where are they who will give generously of their blood to wash away so much shame, crime and abomination? Pure and immaculate must the victim be for the sacrifice to be acceptable. ‘Where are you, young men and young women, who are to embody in yourselves the life-force that has been drained from our veins, the pure ideals that have grown stained in our minds, the fiery enthusiasm that has been quenched in our hearts? We await you, come for we await you!” – Jose Rizal, El Filibusterismo (English Translation by Jose Ma. Guerrero)

I have just finished reading the English translation of Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo, which was translated by Leon Ma. Guerrero. I have read the El Fili before of course, it being a required reading during fourth year high school in the Philippines. The text I had then was in Tagalog, which made it difficult reading for me, sad to say.

My thanks go to my father who got me Guerrero’s translation, although he did it a bit begrudgingly. He had initially insisted that I get a Filipino translation of it. I remember telling him that it mattered not the language in which it was written, as long as the spirit of the writer is communicated intact. Truth after all, is still truth, even though it comes from the mouth of the devil himself.

Prior to my coming back to the Philippines in June last year, I also read El Fili’s predecessor, Noli Me Tangere, which was also translated into English by Guerrero. After having read both, I now am fully convinced of their relevance to all Filipinos and understand and agree with the intent of our educators to make it essential reading.

Perhaps it was because of the impatience of youth. Perhaps it was my own lack of proficiency in the grammar of my native tongue. Perhaps it was the lack of years of exposure and experience living in Filipino society. But is it only now that I truly appreciate Rizal’s work.

The reading was still difficult, but not because of the language. No, the difficulty lay in the theme.

I have heard it said that many consider Rizal to be a visionary or prophet, due to the uncanny way in which he captured the spirit of our times. The themes he tackled are the themes we still face today as a society: ignorance, greed, apathy, resignation, abuse of power, indiscretion, lack of morals, and lack of true spirituality.

But then again, I should not be surprised. After all, the Bible, which was written way before Rizal’s work speaks of the same themes.

I believe that prophecy is not really anything supernatural. Most of the time, it is merely an extrapolation based on a truthful assessment of our present conditions.

We know the consequences of evil. It is just that we wilfully choose to suppress that knowledge, afraid of the price required to correct our ways. In so doing, we blind ourselves to the future. More importantly, we blind ourselves to our impending doom.

Again I have heard it said that the present condition of Filipino society is exactly what we deserve. After all, we only reap what we have sown. One cannot expect to harvest sugar if one planted rice. Similarly, one cannot hope to harvest the benefits of a just society tomorrow if one sows indifference and discord today.

God, who is truth, cannot be mocked says the Apostle Paul.

Rizal might be a prophet, but he was not the first. Rather, Rizal was the first Filipino to tear the blindfolds across his own eyes to see truth for what it is.

Some of our academicians and historians have said that Rizal’s writings were instrumental in kindling the Philippine revolution against Spain, and that that revolution was “aborted” due to our experience in history. I humbly beg to disagree.

The revolution Rizal was talking about has yet to fully manifest itself in our society. For it is the same revolution that the Messiah Himself foretold. It is the same revolution that all of humanity must undergo in order to regain what was meant as our birthright.

When that spark is kindled in our hearts by Him who shed His own blood for us, then even the most jaded society shall be consumed by the fires of His revolution: the revolution of the spirit.

I pray that God’s revolution would ignite in the hearts in each and every one of my countrymen.

Soli Deo Gloria.

 “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'" So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.” - (Ezekiel 37:1-7 NIV)

 "I tell you the truth; no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." - (John 3:3 NIV)

Made to Worship

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. - (Romans 1:20 NIV)

Human beings are the highest form of physical life on our planet, if not our solar system.

Whether you take that statement from a naturalistic standpoint or a spiritual viewpoint, it remains true.

We humans are meant for great things.

Which begs two fundamental and existential questions for humanity:

What are we made for? And more importantly WHO made us?

The naturalist will tend to digress at this point, and say that human beings are NOT made. They have evolved as a result of the interaction of the natural laws of the universe, namely the interaction between time, matter, and a rather unscientific sounding thing called “chance”.

If you ask a naturalist what chance is, chances are he/she will tell you that it is but the result of the random interplay of events and matter in our physical world.

In other words, human beings, from a naturalistic standpoint, are an accident. There is no conscious purpose behind the laws of nature that sought to bring human beings into existence. We simply came to be as a result of the interplay of those laws.

If this sounds straight out of a science fiction novel, let me point out that apparently, this is what leading scientific figures in the world’s most influential societies are thinking. And what the scientific community thinks, the rest of the world tends to follow.

There are certain logical conclusions one can draw from the naturalistic explanation for human existence. First, since humans are the result of a mindless process (remember, lack of consciousness means lack of a mind), then humans by inference cannot have a mind or consciousness.

The logic behind this is simple. You cannot create something out of nothing. If the process by which humans were formed was a mindless one, then you cannot expect that process to impart a mind to that which it had formed. Put another way, I cannot give you a million dollars, if I don’t have a million dollars to begin with.

Sound reasonable enough?

The second conclusion is this: if human beings are without a mind or consciousness, then human beings do not have the capacity to be self-aware.

Again the logic here is simple. You cannot be aware of anything if you do not have a mind or consciousness to be aware with. I cannot spend a million dollars if I don’t have a million dollars (this is different from loaning a million dollars which I do not have the capacity to pay for. While technically, I could spend a million dollars on credit, I still NEED the actual million dollars to spend, despite the fact that I’ve loaned it.)

Do you see where this is going?

The third conclusion one can draw from all this is as follows: if human beings do not have a mind or consciousness to be aware of themselves with, then who the heck wrote and is reading this article?!

The answer: nobody. There is no mind or consciousness outside of humanity that is capable of being aware of humans, since creation or “nature” (which is the politically correct way of describing reality from a naturalistic viewpoint) is a result of a mindless process. And since humans are a part of nature, humans themselves do not have the capacity to be aware of their own existence.

Therefore nobody has written or is reading this article.

This is problematic in so many different ways that it would take reams and reams of philosophical discussion to tackle properly. And even then, it wouldn’t matter because as the arguments above show, nobody would write nor read them anyway since no one has the conscious capacity to do so in the first place.

The question that needs to be asked at this point is this:

Where did all these words in this article come from?

Perhaps the naturalist would say: they’re just the mindless result of the interaction of the natural laws of time and matter, plus chance.

To which I would ask: then where did the naturalistic explanation for reality come from? To whom is it addressed to?! And for what purpose?

See, as much as the naturalist worldview would like to believe (the word “believe” here is crucial) that everything that exists does not have an underlying purpose behind them -- being the result of a mindless process -- the naturalist’s very explanation for the existence of nature in itself serves a purpose.

What purpose does it serve?

To explain the nature of reality!

To whom?

To someone who has the mental capacity (i.e. a conscious mind) to process that explanation with!

And who in nature has that mental capacity?

I do not doubt that even the naturalist would say that nothing less than a human being would suffice for the job.

The naturalistic viewpoint therefore is self-defeating. It does not and cannot sufficiently explain the nature of reality to accommodate for the phenomenon of the simple act of presenting its own explanation for reality to someone.

If we reject the naturalistic explanation for the existence of reality, then what alternative are we left with?

I have to point out that at this point most naturalists would turn agnostic and say that they do not know.

Well, the alternative to me is rather plain and obvious: if a mindless process cannot account for the existence of reality, let alone consciousness in humans within that reality, then something with a consciousness MUST have been there in the first place to impart consciousness to the human race.

If this makes sense to you, then you are faced with the inevitable conclusion that a Creator exists.

And if you’ve accepted as fact that a Creator does exist, not only would you have made it easier to answer the two existential questions at the beginning of this article, you would have already given the Creator honor by acknowledging that you have indeed been created by Him.

If you’re a human being, and you’ve come this far in reading this article, I want you to know that the Creator is waiting with bated breath at the conclusions you will draw from all of this.

Because in the end, you and I were meant to know Him. You and I were meant to give Him honor.

You and I were made to worship.

It is my sincere prayer that you will come to know Him and cherish Him as I do.

To Him be all the glory.

The State of Humanity

For God's wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who in their wickedness suppress the truth. - (Romans 1:18 ISV)

2012 is going to be a very interesting year.

According to a Mayan legend, the world is about to end this year.

My comment to that is, so what if it is?

If the world does end in 2012, it does so because we had it coming.

I’ll say it again:

WE HAVE IT COMING.

Now I don’t want you to mistake that as coming from an arrogant, self-righteous, doomsayer wannabe.

I want you to take that as something that needs to be seriously considered, not just for our sakes, but for the sakes of the generations that follow us, namely our children and their children.

Because this will be our legacy to them should it come to pass.

Yes, a devastated earth is going to be OUR fault.

This requires no beating around the bush. I’m throwing out political correction and sensitivity in favor of the cold and hard truth. The emperor be damned, but someone has to point out the fact that he’s wearing no clothes.

How many catastrophes have hit humanity these past few years? How many financial crises? How many wars? How many uprisings?

How many people suffered as a result?

These past few months alone, the Philippines counted over 1000 casualties from flooding and landslides.

I’m not being insensitive here. My own family was a victim of flooding in 2009 when Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy in the Philippines) washed through my wife’s home in Cainta, Rizal, destroying most of her family’s belongings.  These are things that hold value for her, not just in the monetary sense, but also in terms of the memories attached to them. Photographs and other memorabilia of her family, irretrievably gone.

She was lucky. Many had lost family members, relatives and friends.

But then here’s the thing: Is it really just a matter of good and bad LUCK?

Or is there some other underlying reason for the occurrence of these types of events?

Some of you might already be saying: look Chris, humanity and our planet has seen and have been through many of these types of catastrophes in the past. Our history confirms it. And if there’s anything to learn by our history, it is that we have managed to survive, even thrive, despite these events. And just as our ancestors did before us, we will survive and thrive through these events as well.

Now who’s being arrogant and self-righteous?

It is precisely this type of arrogance and self-righteousness which will result in humanity’s eventual downfall, Mayan prophecy notwithstanding.

The fact of the matter my dear friends, is that humanity is messed up.

Left to our own devices, we will be evolving ourselves into extinction, blissfully ignorant of it all the while.

This is no tired sociological cliché. This is the truth. And the sooner we throw away our ignorant pride and learn to accept this truth, the better it will be for us and our children.

Okay Chris, we’ve heard this one before. Go ahead, finish your rant with your so called Gospel. Tell us how our only hope lies by reconciling ourselves with a wrathful God by accepting His Son Jesus Christ who supposedly died 2000 years ago for our sakes. Tell us how having faith in Jesus can save us from our oh-so-imminent destruction. Tell us how we need to be born again into the spirit, and learn to look beyond the apparent and the material, into how everything that we do has much more far-reaching effects than we can realize.

Tell me Chris, about God’s love for me. Tell me how He loves me so much that He sacrificed His one and only Son for us, the very sinners He hates and despises, and is currently pouring out His wrath upon.

Tell me how I just need to accept His grace, His free gift of reconciliation, and how I would end up living for eternity in heaven because of it. Tell me that all my sins, my shortcomings, my failures to live up to God’s standards will be forgotten, wiped away by the blood of Christ, and how God Himself will come running with open arms to receive me into His embrace.

Tell me how all the angels, saints and the heavenly hosts will rejoice in my having turned my back onto my destructive lifestyle, in favor of living a life of love where I sacrifice my own self-interests in favor of others.

Tell me Chris, do you really believe in all that crap?

Yes. I do.

I do because the scathing words I wrote above are my words. The very same words I rejected the Gospel with prior to my conversion.

I carried within me that same spirit of selfish ignorance, arrogance and self-righteousness, and used it to life a lifestyle of blind self-indulgence.

I eventually found myself broken, in the midst of despair when everything I was living for came crashing down around me as a result of what I perceived to be a great injustice to myself.

GREAT INJUSTICE.

I was made to realize that I did not know what those words truly meant.

I was made to realize that the one true injustice is that we turned our backs on our Creator.

The one true injustice was that a man by the name of Jesus Christ, came unto the world preaching love, self-sacrifice, adherence to truth, and living in peace and harmony with all of humankind and creation, and that by living such a life would we be reconciled with our Creator…

AND WE KILLED HIM FOR IT.

I did not choose to understand this by the way. I was MADE to understand this. Not by human wisdom, but by the wisdom inherent in all things.

At the very depths of despair, I was made to understand the real problem in creation:

THAT I AM A SINNER.

That I had fallen short of the purpose for which I was made.

And that purpose is to know and cherish the Creator, and have a lasting relationship with Him as He unfolds His grand design for all of creation.

I have exchanged that relationship for a lie. The lie that I am whoever I want myself to be. That I can determine the course of my own existence by myself. That as long as I believe solely in myself and my dreams, everything will be okay.

2012 is going to be a very interesting year.

It is the year that God will once again prove His love and mercy for humanity, by showing them that despite His wrath, despite how He will continue to pour and rain down destruction from the Heavens on humanity, despite how many human lives He takes away in the process, He is still giving us a chance.

He is still waiting with open arms that are eager to embrace, for the return of the prodigal son.

May humanity soon come to realize the state that we are in.

Soli Deo Gloria.

A Dental Encounter

There is nothing more humbling to me than to be put in a situation where I have no control whatsoever.

And with that humility comes a need for a Savior.

Yesterday, we took our daughter Ahlana to the dentist to have several of her teeth removed. It was the first time our daughter would have a dental extraction, let alone have several at the same time. Aside from the extractions, she would also have several teeth fillings.

The procedure, along with our daughter’s age, required that she be put under sedation.

Needless to say, that as a concerned parent, I had more than a passing worry about the whole thing.

What if things go wrong? What if something happens to my daughter? What if we end up losing her during the process?

Those of you who are parents could perhaps understand and excuse my pessimism. We have only one daughter after all.

I cannot tell you how much I hate not being in control. I was raised by my family to be a man in charge and independent. I was made to realize that in this world, you cannot really trust anyone to do anything right, and that the most qualified person to do anything for myself was myself. There was no one else to help myself other than myself, and I had no one else to blame if something goes wrong, other than myself.

My family had their reasons for raising me this way. Conditions within Philippine society are such that it pays to be self-reliant.

But this upbringing did come with a price. And that price was that I found it hard to ever completely trust anyone. That and the fact that I hated not being in control of anything.

So when my wife and I were talking to the chief pediatric dentist and her anesthesiologist prior to the procedure, the foremost thought running through my mind was: “Can I really trust these people to do what is best for my daughter?”

The answer of course was that I can’t. Their waiver, which I had to sign prior to the procedure, said as much. There were too many unseen variables. Too many possibilities that things could go wrong.

It was a grim and sobering reminder that no matter how much we fool ourselves into thinking otherwise, the cold and hard fact is that we are not really fully in control of anything in our lives.

In a world where anything could go wrong, doubt is the quintessential posture that one adapts to.

And doubt was what gnawed at my soul the moment my wife and I gave the go ahead for the procedure. And like a ghastly bride accompanying her undead bridegroom, that doubt came with the cold touch of fear: the fear that something indeed might go wrong.

My daughter is old enough to realize that this was going to be an uncomfortable experience for her. She clung to her mother instinctively the moment the nurses came for her. The anesthesiologist tried to speak soothing words to her even as he hid the needle and syringe containing the sedative behind his back.

I tried my best to brace myself for what was to come. But as any parent would know, you can never truly prepare yourself to see your child in pain.

Hearing my daughter scream and cry as the needle plunged into her little arm was hard enough. But seeing her slowly go limp as the sedative did its work was beyond anything I’ve experienced before. I personally had to carry her to the dentist’s chair where the nurses strapped her in. I tried to speak words of comfort to her as I carried her. But instead of hugging me as she usually would, she just lay there limp in my arms, her dazed eyes looking up at me with her mouth half open. I had never seen her in this state before.

It was an incredible struggle fighting off the urge to just run out of there with my daughter. I fought desperately to keep my tears in check as the nurses calmly told me to leave the room.

It was at this moment that I realized why I needed God in my life.

When your loved one’s fate lay outside of your own hands, to whom do you put your trust in a world where nothing is ever certain?

My wife and I had been so agitated by the experience of seeing our daughter be put under sedation for the first time that we both had to go back to our car. There, we let ourselves go and cried to God to protect our daughter during the procedure. It was a trial of faith like none other we have experienced so far.

I would be a hypocrite if I said I believed in God and yet did not acknowledge His Sovereign Will over everything. He wouldn’t be God otherwise. And it was this Sovereign Will that I appealed to with prayer: that He would allow no harm to come to my daughter, and that the very same God who blessed us with her, would not choose to take her away at this moment.

Through the turbulence and swirling storm of my soul, His voice spoke in answer to my pleas:

Would you still love Me if I took away your daughter?

My thoughts were then filled with the image of the crucified Christ, hanging bloodied and dying, offering everything He had for love of His Father and of mankind.

God gave His one and only son for us. Could I do the same?

I realized that I could not.

In that moment, even as my heart was breaking with worry over my daughter, I acknowledged God for who He really is.

He alone is God. There is none like Him. There is no other Force who keeps the universe from falling into random chaos; no other Being who purposefully creates and destroys, and puts everything back together again.

If I couldn’t trust Him, then who can I trust?

“Let Your Will be done Lord. I will trust in You no matter what.” I prayed as my heart bowed down in worship.

And even as I continued to cry, my soul settled within me. It had found its solid ground.

My daughter is back to her old bubbly self again, sans four teeth of course, and with a few tooth fillings added in as a result of the experience.

As for myself, I too walked away from this dental encounter with a filling of my own: A God-sized one filling that hole within my soul that only He could fill.

To Him be all the Glory.

PS. Our thanks go out to all our relatives and friends who prayed with us over our daughter. May His Glory fill your lives as well!