On the previous Sunday the church celebrated Mother’s Sunday and today Pastor E’s preaching was about Jochebed, wife of Amram and the mother of Aaron, Miriam and Moses. The scriptural verse was from Exodus 2: 1-10, Pastor E talks about Jochebed’s selfless love for her children.

[Image source: huntercastle.com]

Anyway, Pastor E continue his preaching about things to see in Jochebed’s life which are enumerated in four C’s: The first one was her credentials, she was born to the Levites in Egypt and wife of Amran. Jochebed’s credential was her deep relationship with the Lord. She and her husband were evidently very dedicated and religious people. They were willing to defy the order of Pharaoh and keep the commandments of God. Secondly, courage, she was very courageous woman this could be seen in  Verse 2 where Jochebed refused to give in to a godless system that would have cost her the life of her son. Thirdly, Jochebed has confidence to resist the world and was strong woman motivated by a strong faith for God’s will and the last C is charity, she has a wonderful way on how she gave herself to her kids.

Have you ever had to give up and let go of someone or something very precious to you?

When you let go, when you released that person or that thing, did you feel like part of you was breaking; now there was some new emptiness in your life, isn’t it? As what we can read in the bible, Jochebed  give away her 3-month-old baby, not knowing what would happen to him, she placed baby Moses in a papyrus basket and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile…

This Sunday, Pastor E’s scriptural topic was about Faithful Christian Service based from scriptural verses Matthew 25:21, 1 Corinthians 4: 12 and Galatians 5: 22-23. Pastor E told the congregation that it is our duty to serve God but we served God in a voluntarily phases, in short we see ourselves as volunteers.

God put us in our particular place to be faithful and with a purpose, these purpose can be found in the following bible verses and what God encourages us to be:

[Photo courtesy of tnvalleytalks.hoop.la]

1. Hebrews 10: 25 – God wish each of us to be faithful in our attendance in church
2. 2 Timothy 2: 15 – Be faithful in reading the bible
3. 1 Thessalonians 5: 17 –  Be faithful in praying without ceasing
4. 2 Timothy 2: 19- 22 – Be faithful in our moral lives
5. James 2: 14-18 – Be faithful in serving others

Pastor E elaborates more and shared a story how King Henry III became an obedient King. He finishes his preach asking everyone a question “Will God find us faithful?”

It was first Sunday of the month and as usual the church service started early, during this day there was no Sunday school for all levels. Pastor E scriptural topic is about “Becoming People of the Towel” which literally means becoming servant of God. The scriptural verse was from John 13: 1-5 and John 13: 12-17

Pastor E tells about the story of Epaphroditus, a servant who risk and  gamble his life to serve Paul, he gambled everything for Jesus Christ so that the man of God would be served.

[Photo courtesy of journeychurchgillette.com]

On the book of John chapter 13, on the eve of His death, Jesus assumes the place of a slave and serves His disciples. While they were eating the Passover, Jesus gets up from the table and dons a towel. He poured a basin of water, and He began to wash the disciple’s feet.  He took the place of a slave before His men when Jesus did this. He took the place of the lowest kind of slaves, who were called “the people of the towel”. They were called this because it was their job to wash the feet of those who were superior to them.

Pastor E says Jesus did this to call His disciples to become people of the towel as well. He wants every person who follows Him to be a servant. He wants us to be a people of the towel. If we are to achieve that goal in our lives, we must develop a heart for others and we must learn from Jesus through His Labor, Lordship and Love.

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.

Today, the service was different, Pastor E did the Sunday school service for youth and adult since the women were the one in-charge this Sunday to celebrate World Day of Prayer.

World Day of Prayer is takes place internationally on the first Friday of March every year but it was fine to celebrate on different Sunday if it isn’t possible on first Sunday and the host country for WDP 2016 is Cuba with the theme, prepared by the women, is “Receive children, receive me” with a focus on children. The scripture readings for the service are Isaiah 11:1-10 and Mark 10:13-16. The Bible study texts are Mark 10:13-16 and Luke 19:1-10.

The program started by the leader reading about a short background about Cuba,  the leader was my older cousin and it was a heartbreaking start since she was crying and sobbing because my aunt’s eternal reposed was brought home a moment before the proper service started, the church was just in the neighborhood so they saw it when the funeral parlor came. After a short introduction about cuba,  Cuba’s national flower “butterfly jasmine” was introduced and then the service runs according to a program written by World Day of Prayer Committee of Cuba.

The church was decorated in Cuban theme, there were different colors of paper butterflies adorned the pulpit. It was said that they should be look like butterfly jasmine but they end up looking like butterflies.

World Day of Prayer is a global ecumenical movement led by Christian women who welcome you to join in prayer and action for peace and justice.

Today is the last Sunday of the month and the church is celebrating its 51st Founding Anniversary and Thanksgiving, it should be also Easter Sunday but due to some circumstances some members didn’t agree that there should be a separate devotion at early morning, welcoming Easter.

[Image source: biblepic.com]

Anyway, Pastor E’s scriptural topic is Remember, Rejoice and Rededicate from scriptures of Deuteronomy 8:18, Deuteronomy 32:7, Psalms 64:10 and Romans 12:1. He started his preaching from remembering back the old days on how the church was built and started. He recalled how the older members served faithfully in the church, how united and active they were. Then Pastor E shared some reasons to celebrate and rejoice, on 51 years that had passed the church produces four daughter churches and it is progressively ahead than the mother church in the province.

[Image source: lifencanvas.blogspot.com]

Rededicate, Pastor E told everyone that along the way we have lapses on our relationship with God, we are sometimes discourage with our relationship between ourselves and our brothers so we should settle this issues, restore our faith and commitment with God.

May our hearts be truly grateful and may we show our gratitude by the ways in which we live and care for others.

Well, after the church service, there is a small feast. Every zone bring food to feast but I went home and didn’t eat since I have no contribution in the food that our zone prepared.

When I wake up this morning my head still feel so sensitive and a bit painful when I speak but I have no plan of not going to church today. I was planning to take a bath early but there isn’t water coming from the faucet yet, the water supply wasn’t good since December. Anyway, the church service  is very early today since it is the first Sunday of the month, I was late when I came it is already on scripture reading gladly I was still able to get the scriptural verse which is from 1 John 4:7-12 [God’s Love and Ours].

“True love is rare, and it’s the only thing that gives life real meaning.” ― Nicholas Sparks

The preaching for this Sunday is about love, since it is love month. Pastor E talked about God’s love for all of us, how He sacrifice His life for everyone. He elaborate too the facts of God’s love where it is described in the context that it is unspeakable, unending (eternal), unselfish, unmerited and unconditional.

Secondly, God’s love was demonstrated in Calvary when He sacrifice His life for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21), His love was also displayed in the Christians. Some people in the bible who demonstrate different types of love are Joseph to his brothers (Forgiving love), Hosea to his wife (Redeeming love), God to Peter (Compassionate love).

When the love of God is present in the life of a believer, it will be visible in five different areas which are love for the Savior, love for the scripture, love for the sanctuary, love for the saints and love for the sinners.

The Challenge for this Sunday:

Love does not actually count the cost, it does not keep a ledger of profit and loss. Love is spendthrift. It does not measure itself out with an eyedropper. Love is extravagant. Love seeks out a need and never stops giving. Love is a risky business, for it costs …. costs EVERYTHING!

Yesterday was the last Sunday of the month, and it is National Bible Sunday. The church has foreign visitors too, an older couple. The older woman is well-known missionary who is translating the bible in one of the local dialect of our Province and as what I have heard when she’s introduced by our Pastor that she first arrived in the island in 1980’s and was still single that time so no wonder she spoke the local dialect fluently.

The theme of Philippine Bible Society for National Bible Week celebration is “God’s Word: Hope for the Family and Strength of the Nation” so the scriptural topic is about how amazing God’s Words, it was said God’s word is more precious than gold so it must be desired.

[Image source: www.bible.org.ph]

According to Psalms 19: 7-14, the word of the Lord revived us, it enlighten our eyes and lead us to God’s forgiveness. We became energetic and lively through reading the bible and when we read it helps us enlighten our path and see our lives clearly, the bible help us to see and clear us from our hidden faults, it brought us to light from the dark. Pastor E says each time you read the bible you are revived, enlighten, and forgive. All in all you will be bless and in return you will be blessings to others.

When the church service ended the visitors has some goods to sell like bookmarks, key chains and wall decors which are laminated I think the proceeds will go to the  funds needed for translation of the bible to local dialect.

It was been my habit to say “always look at the bright side” but when I passed through the dark tunnel of life I have closed my eyes and I can’t see any light like I am blind; there is no bright side it is pitched black.

Today is the first Sunday of the month and as usual the church service started at 7 o’clock in the morning the spiritual topic is Fulfilling Life Purposes from the book of Psalms 90: 12.

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All of us have different purpose and mission in life, have you found yours? What is God’s purpose in your life? Are you fulfilling that purpose? These were the question raised to us by our pastor and after which he informed everyone that we could find our life purpose if we remain teachable throughout our brief life span, by learning to manage our given time well and allow ourselves to be transformed as God intends.

Today, is the third Sunday of the month and the last Sunday before Christmas, before the service proper started there is a short meeting on what to do after the Christmas program on the 23rd.  It was decided to have an exchanged gift and to already draw the names so everyone could know the person they picked and everyone could buy the right gift.

The scriptural topic for today is the continuation of the topic on the first Sunday of the month which is Seeking Christ at Christmas our Pastor told us, he has to cut it in two parts because there is a church hopping to another town after the service that Sunday. He stated that life is easier today because there is a lot of transport but still people goes farther away from God, unlike those old times where there isn’t a lot of transport yet and people only uses lamp but people always found a way to go to church to attend prayer meeting or church service.  We are told that there are three types of people in the Bible who seek God, we are told not live like King Herod or the inn keeper, we should live like the shepherds and the wise men who seek for Jesus, the shepherds leave their flocks without thinking if the sheep’s will be eaten by wolves or their employer will fire them and while the wise men traveled far leaving their home and family just to see Jesus. At the end, our Pastor encouraged everyone to go to church every Sunday,  to stop the excuses of being busy at work or nobody will be left in the house, we must turn away our old self-centered life and seek God whole heartily and after the church service is the drawing of the names for the exchange gift.

Anyway, it was my grandfather and Cody’s death anniversary on the 19th, I recalled being in a dark room inside my grandparent’s house on Christmas and New Year’s eve while everyone is making noise outside, fireworks are flying in the sky, people are laughing but we are hiding in the dark and I remember being alone on Christmas a few years ago when J has to go home, crying while singing Christian songs, well this is two of my unforgettable memories of Christmas.