Pastor Noel's sermon:

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.


Some thoughts:
The purpose of mourning is not to suffer the loss but to be grateful that one person came to your life and change your world.

Is heaven not boring? I mean, out there we won't feel any pain.. no more problems. And we already know everything according the the book of Corinthians. Isn't it boring that we don't have any problems any more? In short, is heaven worth it?

As I began to ponder on this thought, I heard a voice in my heart saying " maybe heaven cannot be fathom by your mind". Probably heaven is so wonderful that my mind cannot even imagine/comprehend/fathom its beauty, its make-up, its content, its time boundness, etc.

Is heaven worth it? For sure hell isn't the best alternative so knowing that hell isn't a very nice place to be then heaven is worth it. :)

Venditta

Remember remember the fifth of NovemberGunpowder, treason and plot.I see no reason why gunpowder, treasonShould ever be forgot...

Quote:

Evey Hammond: Who--who are you?
V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what... and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey Hammond: I can see that.
V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation, I'm merely remarking on the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

Bleach

Bleach, keeps me entertained during my relaxation time. :) I have to admit I got bored with it for the first few episodes but when the guy(Ishida) with spirit arrow appeared everything went very interesting. I end up watching a bleach marathon.:)

C.S. Lewis on Love

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable... The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love... is Hell.

March 22, 2006

with 97.something%-99% accuracy rate we could say we are alright.
we passed the test and at the same time we failed.
margin of error = 0.01

translation:
we will survive!

Quote of the day:

"I need a map because I get lost whenever I look into your eyes."

In your arms I found my place in this universe.
In your touch is a song in my heart.
Your every breathe is an eternity unfolding.
Your gaze is a future to behold.

Take me to our small world.
Where time stops and there is only you and me.
Take me to my deepest dream.
Where this world seems as faint as a yesterday.

Take me... take me away...

Joyce's Avatar

my Avatar

There are so many things to worry about. Right now, I'm worried. I am worried... scared... terrified... of my future. Somehow, I can say that God is not on my side. It's my fault... I have no one to blame. I did this to myself. When I read the Psalms... I often search for somebody who has sinned against the Lord and still was rescued. I couldn't think of anything else but David. Somehow I feel like how David feel. He felt that God is not on his side. Yet he run to towards God and ask for help. Somehow, that's what I did, I run to God asking for His deliverance and mercy. "In your loving kindness, remember me... Oh Lord". It is my prayer that God will hear me... "that my cry won't fall out in vain." I believed in a BIG GOD who solves big problems. Somehow doubts came to my mind to steal my faith away. It steals my joy also. I need to pray... pray some more for rescue and deliverance. I have always looked on God and he has always rescued me but still I cannot help but look at the wind.

Oh Lord, look at me as if you are looking at the Lord Jesus Christ. Wipe away my transgessions. Clean me and I will be whiter than snow. Wash me clean and deliver me from my sins.

Amen.

Written during my vacation leave....

It's over... I mean, what we waited for happened two nights ago. It didn't came as a surprise... it came just like a flashed number... another person added to the dead list.

I don't know what to feel... all I'm feeling now.. are pressures from what happenend. I got stressed out plus my girlfriend keeps on whining. It drives me nuts. "Da panguyab pa!!!"
Lets just say, its part of the game. My officemate and I call it, "Signning the License Aggrement".
It's just sickenning sometime; It dries my soul.

On the lighter side, it's almost my birthday. Should I be happy? I don't know, but I think I should be thankful to God that I'm alive and thriving. I am grateful... I am blessed. I achieved my (short term) goal and pursueing for the long term ones. I enjoy God's mercy and faithfulness every single day. God has rescued me many times in my life and has lifted me out from certain dangers.... etc. Praise the Lord for what He has done and for all that He is going to do. I am a 23 year old miracle!!!!

Crawling Notes

This week was tough... I thought it was an easy week (with a two-day vacation) but it got hard..
Still in everything... God is still God and He is still good no matter what happened.

As of this moment... the worst has not happened yet but it is already anticipated.
It's like an enivitable event happened in fast tracked... At first, my hard choleric emotion
really puffed up but later... I softened and begun to understand that sometimes we need to take some necessary risks (even illogical ones - necessarily illogical risk) at some point. It happened that for some people it is hard and costly. I reflected on what happened and I could say that if I were in their position, I would have taken the same risk.

God bless them.

Running Notes....3

Another Sex story
I just overheard of a story of a Filipina who is used as a sex toy by two American nationals. I heard more than one stories just like this before and hearing it again and agin makes me feel sad.
Questions flow in my mind. Whys and Hows. It's sad... Somehow I want to dismiss my feeling that they are in that situation because it is their choice to be there. But what if they are there because they don't know any better. They don't know that there is a way out and there is a better way to live. Maybe that should be our role as Christians, to show people that there is a better way to live. There is a better way to enjoy life. There is a cleaner and better way of living and that is God's way of living. We don't have to rut while living.

Giving what we don't have
We cannot give what we don't have... so if we don't yet realize/know they better way then we cannot help others as well. it will be like "blind leading the blind".

God is good and His mercies endures forever.
You know, I read a book that says that if you kept on saying that God is good and His mercy endures forever, it will sink in our spirits. And our eyes will begin to see that God is good. "Taste and see the Lord is good". After everything that happens to us, I believe that God is still good.

Running Notes part 2

Walk OUT!!!
UP students are planning to have a class walk-out today. For 4 years I have heard of the same crap! Walk-out? For what? For the President to resign? Duh???? I have heard a looot of complains against the government.. against the budget... against the program.. against "self-expression"... against everything.

Blame it!!!!
I think some of the UPians are fun of playing the "blame-it game". It's easy... you can play it too. All you have to do is... to say "Blame it!!!!". Blame it to... the sun.. the moon the stars.. the teacher.. the president.. the government. Blame it! Blame it! Blame it! Don't do anything... just blame it. Don't take resposiblity... just blame it to anybody but yourself. I love UP and I love being a UPian. However, I think I have grown enough to realize blaming anybody to for any
situation will not do any good.

God will make way
I believe that the President is accountable to God and if the opposition's complains and allegations against the president is true then, God will be the one who will make the president pay. I believe God can take charge and God can build up a president or take a president out of power.

Pro-Active Protest
If you want to make a protest then make a pro-active protest rather than a re-active protest. What is a pro-active protest? A protest that does not use much mouth, a protest the uses the mind, heart, and spirit. A good example of that is, Mother Theresa; she made a protest against poverty and apathy. Now, her protest was made known. There are many more.. I just can't think of any other for now.:)

Summary
I believe we can count on God in this case. Let us be like David, that even, when Saul would throw a spear on us, we will say "I will not do anything against God's annoited".

running notes

Lifesigns
Last week has been a tough week.. i've been on the rocks..
inspite of everything.. i could say, I will live; i will survive.

Writing
I'm thinking of writing something about "The God I serve and the people I know".
This week I look back about a lot of events in my life and I would say that many of the things
happened to me revolves around the "The God I serve and the people I know".
I'm sure that my future experience will also revolve on this.

Radical Worship
I missed those times... just worshipping God all out.. to the last breathe of the energy He gave me.
Even though, during those times... I struggled with a particular sin at that time, yet I would say
God was pleased in my heart. It was all out... it was like an explosion from within...uncontained passion.
Today, I am no longer such a worshipper... people probably call it.."mature" but
I think its mediocrity in terms of worship.
It started when I begun to think of what people think and look more on how sinful I am... rather than thinking of what God thinks and how merciful God is and how awesome He is.
I need to unlearn this.. get this out from my system.. it would take time but I'm sure it will happen.

Sex and sexuality, and lust
In UP, we talked about sex and sexuality often. I think about it a lot of times... Someone told me that men thinks more about sex more than women. I haven't ask a woman to confirm this but I think men think of sex more often than women. It's probably because men are very visual creatures. I could say it is a weakness of most men - I mean, not weakness for sex but weaknes in the perversion of the sex[lust].

Love and love-making
My friend said that studies show that hotels and inns have more customers during valentines day than any other day. I'm not sure how true this is but i think it makes sense; People are confused between the difference of loving and love-making. People think that just because they love each other... they can now make love. I think.. people should get married before having sex.
No marital seal, no sex.
One person told me that marriage is just a licensed to have sex. She went further on saying that marriage is a licensed prostitution. Do i agree? Well, i think it depends on how you view sex. If you look at sex as just a physical intercourse then those statements above have a good point. But if you look at sex as more spiritual union than physical union then your opinion might change. I heard one prostitute said something like, it's like a part of her is taken everytime she has sex with men. I think, such statement is hint/rumour that there is a part of sex that's spiritual. If having sex is also spiritual then isn't getting married a rightful seal to that pact?
I think God (inventor of sex) intends sex to be is special.
I have read an article that cited studies upon studies that couples who waited to have sex after marriage enjoyed sex more than those who didn't.
When I get married I think I'll write more of this.:)

Play of words

Patient: you know... what... im really nuts..
Patient: if im going to look at myslf... im going to wack myself down..
Patient: still with all the common sense.... it seems that there is no common sense at all.
psychiatrist: why?
psychiatrist: are u going to wack urself?
Patient: no way.... i am nuts but sane enough to know... that it's crazy.

Thr3e

Thr3e by Ted Dekker.

My mind got twisted while reading this book.
Good, bad, and everything in between. :)

Some thoughts:

After reading the book, I thought of people [including myself] who might be like Kevin Parson.

Failing Forward

Failing Forward by John Maxwell

Some Thoughts:
Before, I view failure as an enemy; I am afraid of failing. But I realized that failure is a good teacher, only if you listen. You can fail backward or fail forward; how to do either of them is determined by us. Today, when I fail [though it often hurts] I feel a since of joy knowing that I am growing and learning. In that way, I can say I fail forward.

Your Best Life Now

I enjoyed this book: Your Best life Now by Joel Osteen.

Some Thoughts: Waiting for God's timing. Waiting is not easy for me. I'm an impatient young man. I want answers and I want it immediately. However, God has an appointed time and God's timing is always the best. I realized that I don't have to be pressured when it seems that things are turning up so slow. Or when things seemed not moving. God has His own timing. We should pray and let God do His thing. Sometimes, I do things to sort of "help God" make my dreams come to pass. But you know, we cannot "help God", because God doesn't need our help. Waiting on God means "confident expectation". We are waiting and we are doing it with great confidence that what God promised will surely come to pass. The Bible says that the vision will happen and it will not be a second late.

Rich dad Poor Dad and Rich Dad's Cash Flow Quadrant

Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Rich Dad's Cash Flow Qudrant by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lecter.

These are the first books I've read concerning Financial education.

Some Thoughts:

• Rich Dad would ask," How can I afford it?" instead of saying "I can't afford it." He doesn't mean buy anything you want but He is pointing out to the mind set.
• Money is a tool. It is not a god. So don't work for money, let your money work for you.
• FEAR and GREED - these drives people.
• Control your emoption, esp when it comes to money.
• Do not be afraid to be disappointed.