It was the first Sunday of the month and as usual the church service started very early.  Pastor E invited a new speaker in the person of Reverend R, he preaches in three languages, English, a bit of Tagalog and a bit of local dialect from his place of service but he speak mostly with English language.

The scripture reading was found in Matthew 22: 34-40 with a scriptural topic of Congregational Health. It tells about the Greatest Commandments, how a Pharisees expert in the law asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment in the Law.

Reverend R focuses on relationship and love, God’s love to us, our love to God and our love for one another. He says, it is very hard for everyone to ask for forgiveness because of the so called PRIDE. The person who first asked for forgiveness and fixes a relationship wasn’t always the sinner; mostly it was someone with love in his heart. He added relationship is an important teacher, so we should be mindful with our relationship to God and to our neighbours. A good relationship with God but with no meaningful relationship with fellowmen doesn’t do good; in vertical aspect it has no power if we didn’t fix our relationship with others.

Reverend E says that the foundation of every relationship is love and the essence of foundation of relationship is God.  He aslo says love is more important than understanding and mysteries. Love enhance and increased the harmony, love is not become angry.  We are expert in adding pain in someone’s heart so he challenge everyone to be mindful with our relationship because what’s the point of collecting bad feelings when it doesn’t do good to us, it will just make us old. Reverend E ended his preaching by telling that let God take care for ourselves and let us take care with one another.

Christ is our peace, those who are divided are made one. Christ has broken down the barriers of separation by His death and has built us into one body, with God. To whomever repents and believes, Christ has promised reconciliation. So love as people reconciled.

Reverend E left after preaching since he needs to do another service in the nearby town as speaker. There is a church hopping after the service, and after which the church will go swimming in the well-known beach shore but I didn’t go with them, I went home after the service.

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!

Days seems goes by so quickly, it feels like it was only Sunday the other day and it is already Sunday today. Today is Pastor’s Sunday and unlike those previous Sundays I sit in the front today beside my grandmother so I could hear and understand the sermon. The preacher wasn’t our Pastor but one of the church well-known member (L), I think she was previously a church president.

The scriptural topic topic was “Courage to Continue” and it can be found in the book of Haggai 2:1-9,  our preacher for today started by giving definition of some words and  telling a story of a well-known writer for being fearful of his family’s future because he think he isn’t giving them the best things that others can provide.  I have learn from our Sunday’s preacher that Haggai is the portion of the Bible where the people became contented in their home and forget about the temple, they become busy living that they forgot God.

Why We are Discourage?

The preacher says the first reason why we are discourage because of insecurity, we compare ourselves to others and we always think that other people are better than we are, secondly we felt insignificant that we are not needed, we felt useless, thirdly we felt unaccepted like we do not belong, we are an outcast and nobody loves us and understood us.  It was indeed true because that’s what I felt, I felt all of them when I was dropped like a hot potato, I felt so discourage that I felt like I have no space in this world.

How to Find Encouragement

We can find encouragement through groups like friends, through getting achievements like masters degree, promotions and etc. and by boosting ourselves and raising our voices but all these encouragement mentioned above are leading to nothing but to camouflage our insecurities in life.

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It is the third Sunday of the month; the service will not start early so I didn’t hurry that much.  When I went inside the church, they are still announcing church concerns.  The praise and worship seems not joyful like the previous Sundays maybe because the congregation are being disturbed by the leader swiping her phone while leading the team,  it looks like she didn’t memorize the lyrics that she needs to look at her phone all the time. It was so much better when other youth members lead the praise and worship team, I guess I should just be thankful that there is someone who lead the praise and worship team, isn’t it?

The scriptural topic for this Sunday is about “The man who forgot to be thankful“.  All of us forgot to be thankful when our life is well, we forgot to say thank you to our parents who sacrifice a lot for us, waking up early to nurse us when we are still very young and vulnerable,  they gave us a better life, they brought us to school so we could learn and get a good life when we grow up. When was the last time you say thank you to your parents? We also forgot to say thank you to our friends and benefactors who are always there to help us emotionally and spiritually, and lastly we forgot to say thank you to God for all the blessings He showered to us.

It was said we must thankful for everything, it is either small or big.  We must count our blessings and name them one by one, blessings are not always material things, the love from God and people who love us is enough for us to be thankful.

It’s second Sunday of thanksgiving month, I have thought I will not be able to go to church today because my younger sister and mother went to town to shop for vegetables that our father could carry on his workplace since he said things were expensive over there and then my father went to the field, I was left alone at home and I could not live the house empty. Gladly,  my mother and younger sister came on time the Sunday school was just finished and the Sunday service was just about to start so I immediately put on my jeans and blouse and left. I’ve already prepared while they are away so all I need when they came home is to get dress.

When you need, God knows.
When you ask, God listens.
When you believe, God works.
When you thank, God gives more.

The topic this Sunday is about Thanksgiving, and it was said that the first mention of thanksgiving is found in Leviticus 7:12. Thanksgiving offering must be given voluntarily, in your own free will, private and there should be no regrets and hesitation. To be thankful to God we first must believe in Him and accept the truth that all things come from Him, our life, the earth and all the blessings we are enjoying everyday. We can show our gratitude to God by proclaiming God’s greatest and praise to others, through public worship services and testimonies of God’s faithfulness and goodness and through giving offerings to the Lord.

The scripture reading this Sunday is in book of Psalms 192: 1-6, it was written by David, it was said that the David has great achievement but he also face failure and trials before he became victorious.