Amazing Race to LET

Magdadrama lng po aq ng konti pra mag thank u! Dpat secret i2 eh, kc pra lng aqng athlete na ininterview sa tv na ang sabi, " Mayaman na aq sa karangalan, pro hindi sa pera." Aq, ang dialogue q- "Mayaman lng aq sa work experience." haha

E2 na ang drama:

Marami pong salamat sa mga nagpray pra sa akin. Higit sa lahat, di kayang ipahayag ng mga salita q lamang ang pasasalamat q sa Lord dhil He helped me through the examination. I emphasized the words "He helped me" dhil sa mga sumusunod na pangyayari.

1. 2 license exams ang dpat qng i-take - RPM and LET. Sa di maipaliwanag na kadahilanan na kinalimutan q ndn dhil di q ma-explain, I missed the RPM sked of exam.. So, LET nlng.

2. Sa katalinuhan q, I didn't noticed the Appointment Date of Filing for exam registration ng LET. In-short, ayaw tanggapin ng PRC ang application q, but blessing...20 pla kaming teachers na out-of-date of filling. Dhil natuwa sa galit ang PRC sa aming 20, ini engaged kmi sa mala amazing race na balik d2-balik doon, Robinsons' and PRC. Mag i stage na ng rally ang 19 sa aming grupo. Nanahimik lng aq. Iniintay pla aq ni Pat na sumama sa planned rally pra solid kming 20! Sabay sbi ni Pat sa akin na, " Ma, what happened? You've changed? Di kba bubunot ng tabak?" In reality, pagod na aq that time pra makasali sa sigawan..or malamang nagbago na nga aq. Hahaha..whatever!

Blessing ulit, huling balik nming 20 sa PRC, out of kahihiyan cguro, binaba kmi ng director , pinaakyat kmi sa opisina nya at cya mismo nag process ng applications nming 20! Magrereklamo sna ang mga nalampasan nming applicants pro cguro naawa ndn sa amin dhil pra kaming mga galing sa taniman ng gulayan sa Benguet! At 3pm, pasok lht ng applications nmin for exam. Nag-intayan ang grupo na pra bang pinagdikit na kmi ng glue dhil sa pangyayari.

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3.. 3 days b4 the exam lumabas ang room assignment... hanep, Values ang major q, pro inilipat aq sa Social Studies! Kya from now on, Social Studies na major q. Sapilitan tlga! Khit may alam aq, biglng palit ng major, ayy kalokah!

4. At ang math.... hahaha alam na! Hi-tech ang calculator q, aq lng ang nakakakita! hahaha

" Ma'am, ang bilis mo natapos ah?"

" Eh paano, mahirap magcompute kung di mo alam paano iko compute ang problem."

Oh, di ba himala? Sa aking mga junakiz na kasama q sa lahat ng i2. salamat sa supporta at pag-alalay skin sa amazing race at suportado ang lahat ng trip q.. borger na toh!!

The Effects of Our Bad Choices in the Past

How Our Wrong Choices Affects Us?
A Devotional Study on 1 Corinthians 10:1-15

I was watching a medical show on television, it was featuring ebola virus, SARS  and HIV, which the resource person stated that they were originally  transmitted to humans by eating monkey's meat. I heard and read about this fact from the internet and other magazines, but only this moment I thought of two things: One, was it poverty and famine that drove those people to eat monkey's meat? Second, if those meat were not eaten by the very first people responsible for transmitting the diseases, is the existence of these diseases a probable zero?


HIV Originated from Monkeys, not chimps


The show led me to think  about Adam and Eve:  What if Eve didn't eat the fruit of knowledge and instead disperse the Satan in the form of snake to leave her alone? What if Adam chose to be with his wife, Eve at that time? Perhaps, Eve would not be tempted?

Eve's choice to eat the fruit of knowledge and persuade her husband Adam to do the same, led to the fall of mankind, making all generations born after them sinners and predisposed to do evil more than good. The couple's choice led to their being driven from the garden of Eden, closing the door of heaven to all mankind. But their choices led God our Creator sent the Savior Jesus Christ, to save mankind from the consequences of our ancestors' wrong choices.

The Bible, Romans chapter 5 (NIV)

The choices we make always have effects to us and to the people surrounding us, even to the environment where we live. It is a law in nature called The Law of Cause and Effect.

Going back to the past before generations were born, the Bible, the early men made choices that impacted the generations to come, whether for good or for bad. The New Testament attested to this fact, as it discussed in the writings of Apostle Paul in ! Corinthians 10: 1-15. Paul exhorted the people to make right choices to reap good effects. To this I drew a table to clearly understand what Paul wants us to learn:


The Bible, 1 Corinthians 10:1-15

1. Desired Action: To Have  Something ---> Right : Ask, Work for it  -> Effect: pleases 

                                                                                 God. He will aid you to have what you desires.
                Wrong  :  Lust After things --> Effect: Displeases God, You hurt yourself & others.


          2. Desired Action: To worship --> Right : To God    --> Effect: blessings
                                                                Wrong: To idols  ---> Effect : calamities, plagues, perversions


          3. Desired Action : Sexual Intimacy ---> Right : Within Marriage --> Effect : love, harmony
                                                                                                                                      blessings
                                                                            Wrong: Outside Marriage ---> Effect: STD's,
                                                                                                          unhappiness, unwanted children


           4. Desired Action: Obey Christ ---> Right:  Obey & Follow ---> Effect: blessings
                                                                     Wrong: Tempt Christ ----> Effect: Death, plague


           5. Desired Action: To be Thankful ---> Right: Be thankful. Be grateful -->Effect: People will
                                                                                                                                  always care
                                                                     Wrong: Complain, Nag -->Effect: destruction



If only mankind has made right choices in the past, perhaps there's no global warming, no incurable diseases like HIV, ebola, SARS and the like. If only we made right choices in life, we avoid relationship failures, unwanted and unhappy children, depressions, and suicides. If only we used our knowledge to make right choices in the past, perhaps things are better today. This might be a euphoria-kinda-thought, but hard truth knocks hard. Now, we are living, with the past cannot be undone, lets make right choices, not out of emotions or principle but out of the context of what is truly right and good.

       
Finding it hard to make the right choices? God has promised that even before we make a step to choose, he assured us that His wisdom is available for us to seek, and in His omniscience, He knows the outcome of our actions...yet in His faithfulness to us, He reminds us not to copy or follow the wrong choices of the past. Enough is enough, but in case our frailty overtook us, Paul  said,
" No temptation has overtaken you except such is as common  to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." 1 Corinthians 10:13.



"To admit a weakness is the key to be stronger."

What Hinders You From Doing Your Best?

You received spiritual gifts from God..
A Devotional Study on 1 Corinthians 4:1-12

(cloud hunting by Jessie dela Cruz)

What hinders you from doing your best?
Is it education?
Is it inferiority feelings?
Is it lack of opportunity?


Do you have questions like:

"Why do others succeed, while I don't? What's our difference?"

This post is a simple enlightenment.
We tend to forget important things when our minds get distracted by the sub-goals we make. These sub-goals are not the secondary objectives we make out of urgency, need to flight or escape, need to cope up with others's success, the tendency to be the "savior", and lack of focus on what we truly want to do.


To answer the questions above, we need to know what is in the mind of the One who created us- God. He created man, He knows man's limits and capabilities, He knows man's forgetfulness and frailties. But best of all, when He knows all of these things about us, In his omniscience, He knows the answer to all our questions.


" Now, dear brothers and sisters,
regarding your questions about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don't want you
to misunderstand this.
You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in 
worshiping speechless idols.
So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one  can
say Jesus is Lord , except by the Holy Spirit.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.
There are different kinds of service , but we serve the same Lord.
God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

The spiritual gift is given to us so we can help each other.
To one person, the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advise;
to another the same Spirit gives the message of special knowledge.
The same Spirit gives great faith to another, 
and to someone else, the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.
He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy.
He gives someone else the ability to discern whether the message is from the Spirit of God  or
from another spirit.
Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the
ability to interpret what is being said.
It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts.
He alone decides which gift each person should have. 
Yes, the body has many parts, not just one part;
if the foot says "I am not part of the body because I am not a hand.", does that not make it any less
a part of the body. 
If the ear says, "I am not part of the body because I am not an eye." , would that make it any less than
a part of the body? If your whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell?
Our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where He wants it.
How strange would a body if it had only one part.
Yes, there are many parts but only one body.
The eye can never say to the hand, "I don't need you." 
The head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you."
In fact , some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary."   ( I Corinthians 4: 1-12,14-22, NLT)



The gifts mentioned above are the basic and foundation gifts given to us by God through the power of the Holy Spirit. All of us have our innate talents and potentials, untapped or already in use. Yet when we begin to live our lives in faith in Jesus, the innate potentials and talents we have will undergo enhancements and we receive more gifts according to our use of our talents. We don't know this, because we never ask, and worst we never observe ourselves. Some of the talents and abilities you may have are being used by you without you noticing it.

There is no man without talents and abilities.
There is no man born with no IQ.
Walang taong ipinanganak na bobo, pero maraming tao ang lumalaki at tumatandang hindi alam mag analisa ng kanilang sariling kakayahan kaya hindi nila mapakinabangan ang kanilang mga nalalaman.



Many people grow up and grow old who don't know how to analyze themselves to found out that they have certain abilities which they can use for their own benefit and success. We rely too much on what other people says we must do and where to go to succeed. Actually, it's not bad, but passion will not be borne on something you do which is not you.


You don't need a higher degree of diploma to find our your way to success. You just need to analyze your God-given potentials and talents by taking a time to study yourself. Once you discover what you have, then take a training to enhance it, and devise a plan on how to use your God-given talent to benefit you and other people.


Remember, we are all part of one body. Our God-given talents were purposely designed so we can share with other people, not  just to ourselves, for all of us humans to reach the heaven's goal for all humankind.


God bless us as we take the time to study ourselves. Then we can say, "We don't lack in anything. God has provided everything for us to succeed."

Your choice.
My choice.


" I never knew I can write books, until a friend noticed the way I construct my sentences in my reports.
One day, she asked me, " When you retire, what career would you like to do?"
I said, " I'll go back to painting, since it was my first choice of profession before I got to education and psychology."
She said, " Why not become a writer?"
I said, " It's a difficult stuff. I don't think I can."
She kept quiet but the following years before she died, she told me how she writes books ( she was a writer of a prestigious publication in the country). Because she's much like my grandmother in age, I just listened to her. never knew that her words sank in my spirit.
Two years passed after her death, I got an accidental offer from a friend editor to write a book with her team. I was hesitant but my friend insisted that I can do it. Through her guidance I was able to do so. And I write since then. Every time I hit the keys on my keyboard, I remember her last words to me, " You know so much but you don't know it. Take time to stop and be quiet with yourself."




" Father in Heaven,

   Thank you for the gifts and talents You gave me. Help me to know them all and teach me how to use them so I can help myself, and my family and be able to bless others also, thus I may give glory to You. In Jesus' name. -  Amen

 

The Power of Zero Principle

The principle of zero is dying to self.
A devotional study of Isaiah 20:1-6

" In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Zargon the king of Assyria sent him), and fought against Ashdod, and took it; At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying: "Go and loose the sackloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoes from thy foot. " And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

And the Lord said, "Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian prisoners, and the Ethiopian captives,young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. And the inhabitants of this isle shall say on that day, "Behold such is our expectation,wither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?"

Isaiah 20: 1-6 ( AKJV)

A brief look at the history tells us that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the grandson of Manasseh, of a royal family, is the prophet of the time when Israel was divided into two kingdoms, and is looking forward to captivity. Because at that time, Assyria, (which is the modern Syria today) was the dominating power . To both kingdoms of Israel, Assyria was a posing threat. At that time, both kingdoms were submerged in idolatry and evil. God again and again called on to the people of Israel to forsake their evil ways and turn to Him for their salvation but they would not so. The people and its kings would rather trust their allied countries Egypt and Ethiopia for their safety and security.

God seeing the posing invasion of  Assyria (713 BC) , God spoke to Isaiah to bare naked himself as a sign of what will happen to Israel if they would not listen to Him.... for three years, Isaiah has to walk around the cities, bare naked! Did the invasion happen? Yes, in 2 Kings 15-16 in the Bible described the Assyrian invasion of Israel. If only Israel listened. 

So much for history. What does the passages tell you personally?

the bridge to the shinning glory of Jesus is to be zero

     

To walk bare naked in Israel is unlawful. But Isaiah obeyed the Lord. He was a prophet of gesture. Gesturing what will happen to the people as what the Lord reveled to him. Knowing his purpose, and faithful to it, he didn't mind what will be its outcome to him. Of course, we all know what bare nakedness brings --- it's shame, dishonor, humiliation. A royal blooded Isaiah walked bare naked for three years around the cities! What will make him dress up? The people's positive response to God's calling will. 

To "walk bare naked" is becoming "zero" in the eyes of the Lord. It simply means shedding all of "what is you" .... your position. your glory, your job, your honor, your selfishness, your internal motives, yourself...yourself..and yourself. My " me, myself and I", stripped of glory. 

 The principle is difficult to comprehend in the midst of achievement. We  have seen and heard people in the success level impressing us with their holy allegiance with God, only to be exposed by how they treat others lower than them. That is the reason why Jesus summed up the 10 commandments into two:

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 

-Matthew 22: 36-39 (NIV)

The second commandment is the test of the first commandment.

The Principle of Zero is the gateway to a closer encounter with God. We all had a close encounter with God, but the I mean, closER. Seeing the God, your Maker actively working with you on the day to day basis is a different story from the occasional experience we have with Him. It will take a very intimate relationship with the Almighty God to see Him active with you daily.  This principle is the secret to the " undying oil" of the anointing in you. And most of all, the closer walk with God creates a transformation within us that no psychiatrist nor psychologist can ever do. It's the key to a no-return-to- the- past attitude and behavioral transformation. And when you're in the ministry, you badly need to be zero. We cannot fully obey if we are not zero. I mean "fully".

But never forget that we can only relate to God through Jesus Christ. No other way, no other person-- only through Jesus. And when we do, let's zero ourselves.

Enough explanations. Let's desire it.