YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE FOR A REASON

You are who you are for a reason.
You're a part of an intricate plan.
You're a precious and a perfect unique design,
Called God's special woman or man.

You look like you look for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb,
You're just what He wanted to make.

The parents you had were the ones He chose,

And no matter how you feel,
They were custom-designed with God's plan in Mind,
And they bear the Master's seal.

No, that trauma you faced was not easy.
And God wept that it hurt you so;
But it was allowed to shape your heart
So that into His likeness you'd grow.

You are who you are for a reason.
You've been formed by the Master's rod.
You are who you are, beloved,
Because there is a God!

By: Russel Kelfer

ONE LIFE

ONE LIFE








I love life
not because of what the world can offer
but because it is only through this 'one life' that I can be with GOD. It is only through this 'one life' that I can witness His glory, greatness and majesty. It is only through this 'one life' that I can see His beauty and experience to be under his Kingship. It is only through this 'one life' that I can capture His heart, his joy, his pain, his love.

I love difficulties
not because I enjoy the pain
but because it is only through tough times that I can see God's love the most; the father's exceeding care; 'My Everlasting's" incomparable friendship. It is only through tough times I can feel God's healing, God's hands, God's cares the most.

I love being humbled
not because it's glorious to be lowly and down
but because it is through this humble times that I can be nothing and God is my everything. It is through this humble moment I feel closest to my God.

Yes, I love this ONE LIFE because everything in it is an opportunity to be with my first LOVE, my JESUS, my LORD.

Moments

God's creation or Chemical reaction?

I find this article from 'Korea Times' very interesting. It's a contention whether our belief to God is factual or not; whether our thoughts are mere by-products of chemical reactions or created by God's intelligence and creativity.

No Delusion on God
By William Roger Jones

Last year, ``The God Delusion'' by Richard Dawkins appeared as ``The Created God'' in the Korean language. In the third chapter the author presents ``arguments for God's existence.'' Of course, he refutes each and every argument, as he is an adamant atheist.

I wish to respond to ``the argument from personal 'experience,''' which the author depreciates. He writes, ``You say you have experienced God directly?'' He then disparages such personal experiences by invidious comparisons like ``George W. Bush says that God told him to invade Iraq.'' I think cheap shots do not elevate his refutations.

Dawkins states, ``This argument, from personal experience, is the one that is most convincing to those who claim to have had one. But (it) is the least convincing to anyone else, and anyone knowledgeable about psychology.'' I'm a bit knowledgeable about general psychology and developmental psychology, as they were collegiate courses. All that I know has come to me by personal experience and/or that which I believe on authority.

Furthermore, I say the rhetoric, trumps, anecdotes, and selective quotations of the prosecution (Dawkins) do not escape the eyes and ears of the defense (me). Not that God requires defense, but that I wish to give grounds for my ``God-ism.'' And, I say it that way in order that I might overcome the contention and dissension of semantics concerning the words ``belief, religion, and faith.''

For example, it was put to Carl Jung, the renowned psychiatrist, by one interviewer: ``Dr. Jung, a lot of your writing has a religious flavor. Do you believe in God?'' ``Believe in God?'' he mused out loud. ``Well, we use the word 'believe' when we think that something is true but we don't yet have a substantial body of evidence to support it. No. I don't believe in God. I know there's a God.''

I further my response to Dawkins' work with: ``If you are a Christian you don't have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong (throughout). If you are an atheist, you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake.'' If you are an agnostic you don't have to commit yourself one way or the other. However, this dubiety sets you upon a search and that's good. For if you never set the nagging question aside, i.e., if you never give up your search, then one day you shall receive your answer. At least, that's how it was for me.

Different people believe in God for different reasons. Of course, some people believe in God for the same reasons. C.S. Lewis mentions this one: ``Suppose there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen for physical or chemical reasons to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It's like upsetting a milk-jug and hoping that the way the splash arranges itself will give you a map of London. But if I can't trust my own thinking, of course, I can't trust the arguments leading to atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I can't believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.''

According to the Christian view, the final step in evolution, i.e., the step to something beyond man, has already happened. A super-biological fact: ``In Christ, a new kind of man appeared; and the new life which began in Him is to be put into us.'' Nevertheless, how this happens or is done is different among different people. He somehow puts a little bit of Himself into us. I don't know what are the arrangements for atheists and agnostics who are as yet unable to subscribe.

One story I relate from Jostein Gaarder goes like this. A Russian astronaut and a Russian brain surgeon were once discussing religion. The brain surgeon was a Christian but the astronaut was not. The astronaut said, ``I've been out in space many times but I've never seen God or angels.'' And the brain surgeon said, ``And I've operated on many clever brains, but I've never seen a single thought.''

As a final note, the evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers proposes that ``the human brain is, in large part, a machine for winning arguments, a machine for convincing others that its owner is right _ and thus a machine for convincing its owner of the same thing. The brain is like a good lawyer: given any set of interests to defend, it sets about convincing the world of their moral and logical worth, regardless of whether they in fact have any of either. Like a lawyer, the human brain wants victory, not truth; and, like a lawyer, it is sometimes more admirable for skill than virtue.'' I think it is okay to be an atheist, but better still to be an agnostic, and should one believe in God, I certainly hope he/she is not guilty of thinking they have God in their back pocket.

When 'why' is not the right thing to ask

Amongst the 5 WH- questions 'why' is my favorite because it requires not just a simple answer but an explanation. It makes every question clarified and verified. It does not leave a trace of doubt and uncertainty.

One way or another, I wish life provides the same certainty or that God would answer every question and doubt. All these years, I get myself bombarded with WHYs and I am struck of how time and again the Lord would not answer me. It drives me to insanity because no matter how much time I would wait there seems to be no vivid answers for the trials and tribulations I or even the humanity encounter.

I would read news about the hunger and clean-water shortage in Darfur, how Zimbabwe falls into the dark era of political manipulation of its President, President Robert Mugabe, therefore, throwing the economy into disarray leading the people to starvation, not to mention the pitfalls of unemployment in Iceland and/or throughout the world down to the corruption of high and small government officials in the Philippines not minding its effect to the citizenry.

True enough that some griefs are man-made and answers can be easily known through change amongst the people themselves but how about heartbreaking circumstances that suddenly pops-out from nowhere and hit us? Situations that we feared of happening, truth is we even do anything we can under our power to avoid it, yet it came and continuously haunting and taunting us everyday for years that neither facing nor overcoming this fear isn't even enough for an answer. You ask why and cry a bucket of tears, you feel pain in the chest and maybe even turn the world upside down just to get an answer however, in the end all you get is silence.

A leader in the church once gave a sermon saying "God is a God of process. There's no easy answer nor an easy way out. You have to go through the process to learn the value of what you are going through. And in the end you will be more than satisfied with the result." I have believed this in a while until I reached the point of not believing any of it anymore. I guessed my heart grown weary of waiting. I've grown colder even to the point of questioning God's real existence. I couldn't find the right heart no matter I try. I couldn't find the Spirit no matter how i search. I've made a pact on myself to persevere to have my faith back on tract, read my bible everyday but to no avail i failed.

My heart is as hard as a stone and as cold as the winter wind. I've lost the heart of attending the sunday service because no matter how warm the people are in that place and no matter how beautiful the sermon is and was eloquently delivered there seemed nothing to melt my heart until this afternoon, I was browsing the net trying to look for a picture of an eidelweiss and what i searched was rather a scripture. It's Hebrew 12: 1-3, which says "Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith...". After this, i was motivated to look and write a lot more of scriptures and stick them on my desktop screen (my unused computer set beside me) and the last verse i saw was Gal.6:9 with my eyes focus on ... DO NOT GIVE UP.

I realized, sometimes not asking why is the best thing to do. Why? Because it is then that we are truly surrendering everything to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. There are indeed circumstances that are beyond our understanding and the control are out of our hands. Asking why can never help instead it leads us to asking more whys and the disbelief and doubt that accompany it will also never end.

When no answer seems significant SURRENDER IT TO JESUS
... and do not ask WHY. (",)

The Right Heart, The Right Spirit

For the past few days, I am tormented. I have been mad, infuriated with my dad's aggressors. Every time i think of my dad's pain and my family's emotional battle I couldn't help myself but to think of vengeance. Words would not be enough, imprisonment is not satisfactory enough, i wish they'd feel the same physical and emotional pain my father felt. But despite this resentment I could not go completely deaf to the voice within; not able to turn away from the peace, love, comfort emanating from a holier and a more powerful persona.

I ask, am I wrong to hate? is it a transgress to be vengeful to detestable people? Is it a sin to act and talk unrighteously when hurt and wronged?

Last Sunday, I attended our church service with a heavy heart but with a searching spirit. I prayed to seek for a right heart to worship Him at least by that time, to sing praises and listen to his words devoid with my own personal circumstances but unluckily, the prayer was not enough. My heart and spirit were the same. So heavy, so unwilling though inside I am already crying. The spiritual battle was fierce. I am aware of what is happening in the spiritual world. The devil has already had a foothold on me because of the anger and hatred i feel though the Holy Spirit is too unyielding to give up on me. I knew. I feel it.

While i was on this state, i had also been thinking of what is the best offertory message I can share on the last Sunday of November, because I was tasked to do the offertory then. Should I share my father's accident and how to give in times of difficulties like this? I was thinking, thinking, taking down notes of all the ideas coming in my head until a bible verse (though not exactly the same but these words just enters my head that time) struck me suddenly, it says "what is it for a man to love his brethren who loves him and hate his brethren who hates him, do not the evil doers even do that?" ~ (Bible verse: Matthew 5:43-48 "Love your enemy")

Right. It changed me in the inside. Not all at once but I must say I am in the process of change. The bitterness is slowly eroding, the hurt ego/pride facade, as i have thought we were impenetrable, are slowly melting down, and the hard block of hate and revenge are slowly drowning. All praises and glory to my Lord Jesus Christ.

It's not an easy process, i will never know when these vengeful and hatred spirits will hit me again but am praying the Holy Spirit guides not only me but all the members of the family. It's so easy to do and say wrong things at times of trials and tribulations especially when the lives of loved ones are involve but I knew too that i'll make no difference from these people if I will continue hating them, cursing them. I know justice will still serve by God's grace but now, what is important is my father is alive and he's recuperating fast. God's mercy, blessings, and protection is still with us.

These will all be a learning experience to my family and i hope to all of you who are reading my blog. May you be blessed by continue loving your brethren whether they be your loved ones or your enemies.

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A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (John 13:34).

But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you (Luke 6:27-28).

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse (Romans 12:14).

We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it (1 Corinthians 4:12).

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:17-21).

Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing (1 Peter 3:9).

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble (1 John 2:9-10).