Cast and Carry

“Only the lost can be found,” they said. God found me. We have a bond nothing can break. What about the others? Those still wandering. Heart check --- do I really care? I can only imagine how people around Jesus reacted, yet it didn’t hinder Him from getting along with ‘tax collectors’. I want to have a heart as that of Jesus, not in bondage of people’s approval. In my sphere of influence, there are those considered ‘sinners’. Although we all are but like the Pharisees, the society labeled them as ‘immoral’. At work, we have proud adulterers, thief, cheaters, gossipers, women become pregnant before marriage and they call it ‘love’, marijuana user --- name the worst sin you could ever imagine, it surely is present in our office. I mourn for them, but I have to be honest. Not 100% at a time I want to be with them sharing Jesus. Sometimes I want to flee for several reasons: I fear rejection, I’m too busy with other stuff, lastly and I think the worst is, I don’t want to befr...

I like this, "command was an opportunity to trust God, obey God." We can't tell someone is obedient if there is no command to obey. How does this connect with "the Fall". Eve's decision to listen to the serpent and Adam's willful act of conniving with his wife separated the whole humanity to God. And separation from God is "death". The Fall clearly defines 'sin' as great chasm between God and humanity. At present times, sin is classified as to either small or big, either deadly or not. Sin is sin no matter what. Even simple idleness is sin. I wonder what Eve and Adam were doing and how come the serpent had his chance of speaking to them. They should be busy caring for the garden. However, I have no means of proving myself right that indeed they were idle that's why Satan had his foothold. But I strongly believe that we should make our time worthy of God's trust with the tasks He appointed us. That way, satan won't h...

God is due our praise and worship - this is clear and indisputable. Yet, when David spoke about "vows", I had to pause in verse one and started thinking. "Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled." What vows have I made for God? Was I able to fulfill them? I also had to search the difference between 'vow' and 'swear'. " To swear is to make an oath - usually based on an appeal to God or to some revered person or object, that someone will do some particular thing -- like speak the truth, perform a particular act, keep a promise, etc. A vow is a solemn promise made to the Lord. It usually involves dedicating oneself or some possession to an act, service, or way of life. " - (source: http://www.learnthebible.org ) And yes, I dedicated my time to Him, my job, my family, my future, basically my whole life, my earnings, I want to serve Him, I want to live for Him, I will serve His people through ministries, ...

Topic: God the Son Speaker: Josh Date: June 25, 2016 by:  +Iya Bulos   The series of the Tri-Unity reflection continues as I am privileged to testify how my faith strongly believes that Jesus is God, The Almighty God. There has been a lot of misconceptions regarding the Lord Jesus Christ's persona. Some people say that He is just an Angel sent by God above to preach and heal the sick. Some thinks Jesus Christ is a Ghost that died and has a risen soul. Others believe that Jesus is a Prophet. Before I have accepted that He is the reason of my salvation, I myself had a foolish misconception that Jesus as the Son of God - only seconds God Almighty (The Creator) concerning all the powers in the universe. There is a hierarchal boundary between God and Jesus' ability in terms of reigning the world and eternal life. This belief of mine about Jesus is totally wrong! It was true that my perspective about Jesus Christ before is extremely shameful! Only when I came to...

Topic: God the Father Speaker: Herald Canlas Date: June 18, 2016 Tri-unity seems to be a very sensitive topic. I am afraid to give a wrong perspective of what it means. Let me just share with you this picture below, and I will allow the Holy Spirit to provide you with wisdom. Okay so before we lose our mind, how about we first discover who God the Father is? God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose (1 Corinthians 8:6). He is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love, and good to all He has made (Psalm 145:8-9). He is the Creator of all things (Genesis 1:1-31; Ephesians 3:9). As the only absolute and omnipotent Ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption (Psalm 103:19; Romans 11:36). His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. God the Father, who has all the authority in heaven and on earth, also ...

Friday, April 25, 2014 Speaker: Josh Subject: Apr 25 - Morning Light I've been too busy recently so I wasn't able to update my blog. Today we have a very special guest who talked about God's power. I just want to share a very brief summary of what I've learned: God is able: 1. to save us completely - He gives us eternal destiny -  Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. (Hebrews 7:25 NLT) 2. to keep us from sin - God can completely turn your life around - Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested. (Hebrews 2:18 NLT) 3. to supply all our needs - And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 NLT) - And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need...

Friday, March 14, 2014 Speaker: Pep Santos Subject: Mar 14 - Morning Light I, myself, is struggling with the way I think about things that are happening and the way I think about people around me. Controlling my thoughts is very hard for me, I am helpless and I really need God's guidance. I need God to touch my heart which, most of the times, brings negative thoughts to my mind. My heart really is deceitful.  With this in mind, lols, can't really share that much. But TL Pep taught us a lot about CONTROLLING OUR THOUGHTS. Am gonna share exactly what he told us as I don't want this very sensitive topic to be misunderstood. 1 Chronicles 29:17a. I know, my God, that You examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there. Psalms 15:1-2. Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Where do thoughts come from?  - outsid...

Friday, March 7, 2014 Speaker: Pep Santos Subject: Feb 21 - Morning Light "Character is what a man is in the dark." --- Dwight Mardy. "Character is the sum of his disposition, thoughts, desires, intentions, actions." ... "Character is not determined by isolated actions." ... "Character is based on general tendencies." What really is character and how do we define a person's character whether he has a good or bad one? We must look at the whole life, we shouldn't judge a person based on a single event. Kind David sinned but still was called "a man after God's heart". King Ahab, he acted nobly once, but he had a bad character. Excellence is not a single act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do (but ofcourse, God only has the power to change our character, and that's a different story). Choice influence character. So as character influence choice. Hmnn.... It is God's purpose to develop characte...

Friday, February 21, 2014 Speaker: Emmanuel Manansala Subject: Feb 21 - Morning Light The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? - Jeremiah 17:9. "WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT?" Even us can be fooled by our own hearts. In layman's term, we cannot trust ourselves. So who should we trust then? Our friends? Parents? Bosses? Partner? The Bible says, "...the Lord search all hearts and examine SECRET MOTIVES." People are bias and selfish. That's why you and I always have to ask ourselves, "Am I doing this in a pure manner?" or "Am I doing this with a righteous intention?"  Having an idol is a sin. Anything that goes into our lives that takes over God's place is a sin. When we face problems, who do we call first? Do we pray or do we post it on facebook first? Last week, we talked about: "Do I have a doubtful heart?" Now, let's again CHECK OUR HEARTS, "Do I have a mis...

Friday, February 14, 2014 Speaker: Emmanuel Manansala Subject: Feb 14 - Morning Light Today is a very special day --- it is Morning Light's 1st year anniversary. What a nice Friday, today is also Valentine's day. And AUX Team's Valentine's date, wanna guess? We dated Jesus, or Jesus dated us rather. And this is our perfect date ever! For the past few weeks, Pastor Manny, so as TL Pep have been discussing about characters --- our characters. And I believe that we all have struggles changing our negative traits, don't we? It is true that when we were young, our parents did their best to teach us what is RIGHT and not what is wrong because sin comes out naturally from us --- we were born sinners. If that is the case, how can we be victorious on this? We cannot change our character if we don't have a change of heart. Three things peeps, three things... 1. CHECK your heart 2. FIX your heart 3. PROTECT your heart Let's meditate on one of my most f...

  “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me ." Friday, January 31, 2014 Speaker: Pep Santos Subject: Jan 31 - Morning Light Let's have a quick recap. How do we follow Jesus' footsteps again?    1. deny yourself    2. take up your cross daily    3. follow Jesus  Now, we will try to understand what "take up your cross DAILY" means, and how Matthew, Mark and Luke's versions differ. Before TL Pep (I use to call him TL Pep, simply because he's a Team Leader) started our today's lesson, he asked us, "What comes into your mind each time you see a cross?" I and the rest of the BPO Ministry gave the following answers: God's love, grace, forgiveness, gift from God, faith, salvation, Jesus, sacrifice... All these answers are music to our ears. In short, everything TODAY is ok because Jesus already died for us so our past, present and future sins are forgiven. In Jesus ...

Friday, January 24, 2014 Speaker: Pep Santos Subject: Jan 24 - Morning Light “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me ." How many followers do you have on Twitter? How many do you follow on FaceBook? Are you one of Jesus' few followers? What does it take to follow Jesus? Following Jesus' footsteps requires three things:       1. deny yourself ,       2. take up your cross daily,      3. follow Jesus Let's talk first of what "denying ourselves" mean. There's what we call shallow denial: objects, hobbies, pastimes, food, marriage, etc. Well, those are the easy ones. If that's the case, is it really that easy to follow Jesus? What does DENYING OURSELVES really means?  First, we must deny ourselves of SIN . Repentance, it is. And repentance is a two-way process: first we turn away from sins, second is we turn to God.  Second, we must de...

Friday, January 17, 2014 Speaker: Emmanuel Manansala Subject: Jan 17 - Morning Light For the last two weeks, we have learned that in order to be victorious, we have to be CONNECTED to God and CONFIDENT with God. This time, we'll figure out if we are COMMANDEERED by God, and if not, then HOW? "We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments." (1 John 5:2 NLT) Jesus gave us the power to say NO to sin and obey His commandments. All we have to do is to believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and accept Him as our King and Savior. For those who did, death is already dead --- we look forward to eternal life. "Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3 NLT) If we obey, our burdens are lifted. Loving God = obeying God = being commandeered by God. None of His orders would make things heavy, rather, they are burden buster. Troubles would seem light...

Friday, January 10, 2014 Speaker: Emmanuel Manansala Subject: Jan 10 - Morning Light Are you under an evil boss? Are you in an evil relationship? Do you have an evil friend? How do you think would you be able to overcome evil things around you? How can we be victorious? “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:1-5 NLT) If we don’t have a relationship with God, we will always be a loser. We have to have confidence that we are connected to Him. But how do we know if we have a relationship with God? Are we conf...

Friday, January 3, 2014 Speaker: Emmanuel Manansala Subject: Jan 3 - Morning Light How was your 2013? Was it your worst year ever? Or could you say that your 2013 was the best so far? Or it could have been better? Are you confident for year 2014? Was it a victorious year? God wants us to be victorious in all aspects. Even if you think that you're physically or emotionally victorious, everything will come to waste if you're not spiritually victorious. Before you can be victorious outside, you have to be victorious inside. God wants us to be victorious. God wants us to overcome - our job, our horrible bosses, our debts, everything. it's impossible for you to overcome the world if you don't have relationship with God. Go ask yourself this question, " Am I connected to God ?" who are the children of God? Through Jesus alone, yes we have the right to be God's children. ... only through Jesus When we encounter hardships, we ten...

Friday, December 13, 2013 Speaker: Pastor Manny Subject: Dec 13 - Morning Light How do Filipinos celebrate Christmas? Lightly or stressful? It's the latter, for most, I guess. It could be because sometimes we forget the main reason why we celebrate Christmas. Traffic everywhere, no love-life, expenses, busyness ruin the excitement of this day, the burden of giving gifts, stress takes away the spirit of Christmas .  We should celebrate Christmas the way it should be celebrated --- by knowing why we celebrate, and why is it a time for celebration. Take time to read Luke 2: 1-20. Why do we celebrate? We should celebrate because of the good news . We should celebrate because the good news brings great joy We should celebrate because the good news is for all people .   Why is Christmas a time for celebration? It's for everybody It's a time for salvation It's a time for reconciliation On earth, we also receive good news, but their worth is ...