Word

What Kind of Testimony...?!

2010-01-13T00:17:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thought that your Christian life is not exactly winning some people to Christ, sometimes even turning them off to Christianity? Have you ever felt that your testimony was always tainted and as a result you were being a “stumbling block” (Romans 14.13) to others? That your light wasn’t so “shining before men” (Matthew 5.16) no matter how you tried?Yes, we were made in the image of our Father (Genesis 1.26-28), thus created to remind the world of Him (Philippians 2.14-16). But when our focus shifts from loving God and loving people (Mark 12.28-31) to putting on a performance good enough to be accepted by God and the people around us (Luke 18.9–14), we miss the entire point of living for God and end up allowing condemnation to turn God’s beautiful purpose for creating us, into an ugly judgment on Christianity that will forever contain us.

If you’ve ever been challenged by these thoughts, throw a huge party because you are not alone (1 Corinthians 10.13). Guess who’d be the guest of honour? Jesus, Himself. Jesus, the very One Who fully depended on the Holy Spirit to make it in this life (Isaiah 11.2, Acts 2.22), the very expressed image of the invisible God (Colossians 1.15, Hebrews 1.3), still ended up being hugely misperceived by – take this – not just anyone, but by the very people He was closest to: His disciples (John 14.9)! So bad that God had to shake some sense into Peter before he could even figure out Who Jesus really was (Matthew 16.13-19)! Jesus also had to have a sit-down with Paul before he finally made the slightest sense of God (Acts 22.1-8). Paul, of all people! He could argue his way to becoming the Scriptures’ biggest fan (Phil 3.4-6)! Alas, some people just won’t get it, not because they cannot, but because they don’t want to (Acts 22.9, John 12.40). Even sadder, what they do about what they see (or don’t see) is still entirely their own responsibility (John 5.34-38, Proverbs 19.11).

Nonetheless, our life of following Jesus made available for God to use as a wake-up call to those around us is the whole point of our witness (Isaiah 8.1-2) – yes, we overcome with our testimony (Revelation 12.11), but the Holy Spirit is the One Who freely makes it powerful, timely and effective (John 14.26) to those who run after Him (Hebrews 11.6). Jesus knew Whose opinion mattered (John 4.34, 5.30,34-38, 8.28-29), which then let Him perfectly hit His target without a single miss (John 17.4, 19.30).

Indeed we are to put on our best behaviour (Philippians 2.15, Romans 6.1-3), but this conduct is already the fruit of us loving God and people out of gratitude for God loving us first (Ephesians 2.10). As we continue to exist in and draw from this love relationship with God we get to become more like Him – daily being transformed from our imperfection to His perfection (Colossians 3.10, 2 Corinthians 3.18). Our calling is to be blameless (Philippians 2.15), not sinless – that is God’s department in us (Hebrews 10.14, 1 Corinthians 1.8, Romans 4.5). The heart of the matter is devotion, not perfection – the matter of which is our heart, our direction. So don’t look at where you are at and beat yourself up. Instead, look at where you’re headed, because the image of God is seen in us changing and becoming, not in our arriving. As long as we are changing, people have the chance to see God working in us.

Running out of gas because of all you see around you? Load up on God and look to Him to keep loving Him and the people around you. Don’t know what to say or do to make things better and speak life into a rotten situation? Just love. And keep loving out of God. You’ll know how to do it.

Reality is for the “now”, immediate and fleeting; the Word of God is always true. We believe the truth not to get results; we believe the truth because it’s true. We live for God not to please people; we live for God because that’s living.

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copyright © 2010 by romel r. saplaco. all rights reserved.
do not use without permission.

Satisfied Much.

2010-01-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

Looking for an Internet Domain Registrar? Internet.bs. Me satisfied much.

I could've said state-of-the-art domain registration service, perfect bundled features, domain locking, comprehensive zone-editing tools, spot-on customer service, comes with free WHOIS privacy, total freedom when it comes to web host providers and domain transfers, all at the best bargain price (no kidding), etc...

But methinks "Satisfied much," does a better job. So once again,

Me on Internet.bs. Satisfied much.

* By the way, this is NOT a paid advertisement.

Spammer Schmammer

2009-08-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

In order to help fight spam and spare your contacts and you from spammers, exercise caution in using and distributing email addresses. Learn some start-up email etiquette for internet users like you:

1. Don't reply to spam.

2. Don't click on any link in spam.

3. Don't send mass emails / forwards.
- don't fall for chain letters, petitions, etc. NOTHING MYSTICAL WILL HAPPEN. Most of these are just started by spammers to harvest email addresses.

4. Scrutinize Mailing Lists, Forums and/or Guestbooks before joining/posting anything with an email address.

5. Use BCC for extremely necessary group messages.
- If you REALLY have to send important mail to a number of people, place their addresses in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) instead of the TO field. Write ONLY your own address in the TO field. This way, everybody gets your message but they only see your address.

6. Clean-up your important forwards.
- If you REALLY have to forward a message, COPY AND PASTE the content to a new message and leave all the unnecessary clutter of address lists behind.
- Follow the previous guideline (#5, use BCC) in entering recipient addresses.

7. ANONYMITY is key.
- You don't like your home address being publicly listed, right? Neither should you publicly expose someone else's electronic address.

8. Do your homework. Check out the following links:
- Your E-Mail Responsibility: http://www.randomterrain.com/possible-truth-your-e-mail-responsibility.html
- Use BCC: http://www.hamra.net/fun/bcc.htm
- How Can I Prevent Myself from Getting Spam? http://www.spamlaws.com/prevent-spam.html
- How to prevent spam: http://www.wordsandpeople.com/security/how-to-prevent-spam.htm
- Google this: how to prevent spam
- and this: choosing a good email address spam

'Nuff nag, 'nuff spam.

=====
copyright © 2009 by romel r. saplaco. all rights reserved.
all other copyrighted material © by their respective owners. all rights reserved.
do not use without permission.

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Rhetorical Abortion

2008-11-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

found this simple yet solid post on abortion. definitely worth electronic space:

Embryo, Fetus, Baby ... Have we missed a possibility?
(re-posted from http://weekendfisher.blogspot.com/2008/10/embryo-fetus-baby-have-we-missed.html)
18 oct 2008, 20.15

Governor Palin is definitely re-energizing the Right to Life movement with her courage and decency in having her son Trig, so I wanted to revisit a few of the terms in which the current debate has been argued and show where I think we have made some mistakes that have given too much ground to the Abortion Rights folks.

The Abortion Rights movement systematically refers to what is growing in the mother's womb as an embryo or a fetus, depending on the stage of development. Actually, as far as it goes, that is correct, by which I mean those are the suitable scientific terms to refer to those stages of development. It has long been noted that the point of using the scientific terms "embryo" and "fetus" is to argue that what is being aborted is not a baby, since "baby" is the next stage of development after embryo and fetus.

This is why I think the Right to Life movement has made something of a tactical mistake in referring to what is growing in the womb as a "baby" -- while of course we all know what is meant here and besides that I agree with the general point behind using the word "baby", please hear me out as to why I think it was a tactical mistake to argue only in those terms and what we might do to communicate our point more effectively.

When we call what is growing in the womb a "baby", not only does that invite the argument over birth status and stage of development, but it also unintentionally concedes the ground that if something is not yet a "baby" then it can have no right to life. From there, all that the Abortion Rights supporters have to do is maintain their stage-specific terminology about human development. An "embryo" is not a "fetus" is not a "baby", even though those three stages of life lie in an obvious developmental sequence. The fact that people go on having abortions and arguing for their legality and acceptability should demonstrate to us that people have taught themselves to base their thoughts on "human" status solely on the stage of development or birth status; the fact that a fetus is not a baby is all they need to know to hold onto their beliefs that aborting this fetus is morally neutral.

Do you remember a few months ago all the furor over a legendary creature called a "chupacabra"? This animal was said to prey on farm animals. Scientists had insisted that a chupacabra is a coyote with a severe case of mange. Those who had seen them insisted it could not possibly be a coyote. Recently a woman found a dead chupacabra; DNA samples were sent off for testing. DNA test says: coyote. Badly diseased, not easily recognized as a coyote, understandable why someone would take it for something besides a coyote, but still a coyote.

Remember the recent people who claimed to have found a dead Sasquatch? That one was settled out by DNA tests too. Fraudulent.

Do you know what you get if you run a DNA test on an embryo, a fetus, and a baby? Human, I expect, and I would be very shocked to hear anyone even try to maintain otherwise. Too easy to take samples to labs and have the matter settled once and for all. I mean, you could hardly screen for Down Syndrome in utero if you didn't know where in the human DNA sequence to look for the genetic problem, could you? In the case of a human pregnancy, "embryo" is an early stage in human development. "Fetus" is a later stage in human development. "Baby" is, in Abortion Rights terms, a still later stage in human development. What cannot be so easily escaped at this point is that we are talking about an early stage in human development: the developing human being is not fully developed but is fully human. The Abortion Rights supporters have long confused the two issues, equating "human" with a certain developmental stage. This is the ground on which they are, factually, simply wrong. We have some options in bringing this to light. We could factually call that which is aborted:

* human life in the early stages of development
* the embryonic (or fetal) stage of human development
* developing humans at the embryonic (or fetal) stage.

Here we will bring home the entirety of our point, what is occurring during a pregnancy is that a human life is growing through different stages of development. The life that is ended is not fully developed, but it has been fully human all along.

(view comments on author's site)

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copyright © 2008 by weekend fisher. all rights reserved.
do not use without permission.

Does God Talk Cheap To Me?

2008-08-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

god's plan is not about a job, a course or a person.
it's not this company or that university or this career.
his perfect will is not about the next "significant" person i'll meet,
nor is his best plan what eventually turns up or what just works out.

he doesn't think in terms of names, dates or events;
it's not the brand of my clothes or the size of my bible,
not the next professor or boss i'll have being better than now,
or the "different life" i may have had if only i "made that choice".

because whatever happens to me, 'round me, and with the rest of the world,
it's not the situation being with me, but me being in the situation
so with god, what matters is not what i've done, am doing, i'll do
but the person inside - the "why" - my character.

no matter what job or career or pain or joy i will be in
whether i eat at this restaurant or shop at that store
if i write this song or watch that movie
i would still have the same character issues in me.

i may be in a situation that i regret right now and say,
"maybe my life would be better if i were in another planet."
but whether i'm studying or working or married or single
i would still have the same character issues in me.

and these character issues are what he works on,
what he forms, deals with, works with and finishes
it's my attitude why i work with this person --
my motive why i do this, serve him, talk to her, show them.

it's how i deal with a choice given to me
how i approach a matter and react to the stimulus
why i made the decision, not really the decision i made
my heart, my motive, my mind, my thoughts.

and that's why i have the bible!
not to look for my course in it, or my job or position
not to use it as a spelled-out map of my life
but to grab it as a pattern that i mold myself into.

that solves how i could reconcile my life with god's word:
just because the bible has no computers, magazines, mp3 players,
watches, skateboards, cheesecake, photo printers
does not mean that it will now be irrelevant in my life.

it may not have job titles as "production manager" or
"professor 7" or "genetic operations assistant";
it may not have names as lizzie, drew, jennifer, cow, chicken;
or flights to l.a. or train rides to venice.

but see, it's not about the things, not about the situations,
not even about the choices that are made,
but it's about how the people got to a decision
how they made a choice, approached a situation - the "why".

it's about why abraham made that difficult trade-off
why peter vehemently denied real facts about him
why esther went on a diet even if she had no need to lose weight
why samson killed that lion, why david wrote that song

why paul did excellently in his studies
why moses hired assistants
why saul burned the meat on the altar
why the blind man cried.

since god's will is about my heart, my attitude, my motive
that's how i will get to know what his plan is for me
it's not so much about what choice i make, what situation i'll be in
but the reason why i made that choice, and how i'll handle the situation

it's how i could make him nod his head with my words
how i could bring a tear to his eye with my hands
how i could puff his heart up with my thoughts
how i could make that sweet face of his smile with my whole being.

that's why god's timing is "lousy", because he's not bound by time;
that's why his plans are perfect, because they have real joy;
that's why it's not about things done or not done; because he's the love story;
that's why i can't make it without him, bec he's my perfection.

so the next time i read my bible or listen to god's voice
i'll know better than to look for specifics when i don't need to;
more of the bible i'll read so i could train myself to think --
to think the way jesus does. that's when his perfect will kicks in.

then i'll know what to do.

=====
copyright © 2008 by romel r. saplaco. all rights reserved.
do not use without permission.

Place In This World

2008-06-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

"Their cries... ascended to God. God listened to their groanings... God [never forgot] His [promise]... God saw what was going on... God understood." Exodus 2.23-25 (MSG)

hey sojourner, your circumstances do not determine the sovereignty of god. trust his word over your feelings. separate emotions from truth. see, there are no right or wrong emotions, all these are understood by god. he may or may not agree with what you feel, but he perfectly understands them all. however, it's that very property of emotions (being neither right or wrong) that invalidates them to be the basis of anything, much less decisions/indications of god's relationship with you.

that's why when you look at elijah and david, god allowed them to pour out their emotions to him, he didn't invalidate what they felt, but at the same time he did not use it as a basis of dealing with them. he just allowed them to vent it all out, and then what he did next is what should catch our attention - he washed them over with the truth when they were already sober from their bout of emotion.

he told/corrected elijah that there were still a lot of worshipers of god, he rebuked him to go back to what he's supposed to be doing all along as a prophet. he talked to david and reminded him of his identity in him, such that what he did cannot be tolerated but at the same time god assured him of his presence always.

so god is always there guarding you in his hands, knowing perfectly how everything he made works - not primarily for you, but really for him. you can ask from him to fill your personal time with each other with a greater and deeper revelation of himself to you, and you can always expect a "yes" to that prayer.

keep on keeping on, because the master is at work in his best craft - running the lives of everyone and everything surrendered to him - and we are all created for his goals to be accomplished. life here on earth is not really about our happiness (our happiness is in heaven, life there in heaven spending face-to-face sinless time worshiping him, and enjoying everything he has prepared for us). no, life here on earth is all about his happiness to see what he wants done done. and when you see it this way, you'll know that life here on earth is just a teeny tiny bit of time compared to eternity that we'll spend in heaven with him - just a bit of time for us to worry about his happiness here on earth, and the whole endless, nonterminating, forever forever time that he's taken care of our happiness with him there in heaven.

so as we learn to flow WITH him, to really live FOR him, ABOUT him, and seek and run after what makes HIM happy, what makes HIM smile, that's where we find OUR meaning, significance, and fulfillment, the very "revelation" that we're looking for in our quiet time.

=====
copyright © 2008 by romel r. saplaco. all rights reserved.
do not use without permission.

Perfect Church? No Such Thing.

2008-06-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

when christian believers gather in churches, everything that can go wrong sooner or later does. outsiders, on observing this, conclude that there is nothing to the religion business except, perhaps, business – and dishonest business at that. insiders see it differently, just as a hospital collects the sick under one roof and labels them as such, the church collects lost people. many of the people outside the hospital are every bit as sick as the ones inside, but their illnesses are either undiagnosed or disguised. it’s similar with the lost outside the church (Peterson, 2002).

so christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior. they are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced, and dealt with (Peterson, 2002).

perfect church? no such thing. a church we all can love? definitely.

Reference: Peterson, E.H. 2002. Introduction to the Book of James. The Message Remix. Colorado: NavPress Publishing Group.

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copyright © 2008 by romel r. saplaco. all rights reserved.
do not use without permission.

FAQ For The Soul

2007-03-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

1. if god were such an all-powerful ever-caring god, why is there so much “bad” in this world? wars, diseases, crime, quarrels, accidents, injustice, poverty, hate, pain, suffering, death?

simple. yes, god is king of all, but not all acknowledges him as king. where he is not acknowledged, where he is not respected, there what he wants DOES NOT HAPPEN! this is what KINGDOM means - RULE. REIGN. the kingdom of god is in its FULL extent where? in heaven. there, everything he wants - his perfect will - happens! everything is peaceful, everything is beautiful, everyone truly rejoices over and in him.

here on earth? huh, tough luck. if you haven’t heard yet, the kingdom of god is NOT FULLY ENFORCED here on earth, and that’s because of SIN (defined: outright choice against god) - where there is outright disobedience to him, where there is deep-seated rebellion in the hearts of people, of nature, of everything and everyone against him, there what he wants DOES NOT HAPPEN.

there you have your wars, your diseases, your crime, your quarrels, your accidents, your injustice, your hate, your pain, your suffering, your death.

sad to say, when man takes matters into his own hands, and takes the place of the real KING, man ends up with a ruler who is in NO WAY capable of ruling - man ends up with himself. (and when he messes up history, he blames it on god? how dare you man, how dare you me.)

this is the very reason why when jesus taught us how to pray, the VERY FIRST thing he asked for was, “...hallowed be your name...” he PLEADED with god, “oh GOD!!! may your name be RESPECTED by everyone, everywhere!!” he saw the unfathomable need to ask for that, the one request of UTMOST importance. because where god is respected, there he will reign, there he is king, there he has his kingdom. which brought jesus to the next request, “...your kingdom come, your WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” you get it now?

it’s a good thing that god is all-powerful and sovereign, but it’s even a better thing that he DOES SO - he ACTS all-powerful and sovereign. because no matter how man messes up everything, god summons it all up and remarkably still makes everything beautiful! - still having the FINAL SAY in all things, no matter how everything and everyone tries to shove him out of the picture.

“why doesn’t he just STOP it in the first place?” let the question be brought back - “why do you still START it in the first place?” response: “I DIDN’T START ANYTHING!” response brought back to you - “NEITHER DID YOU STOP RULING.”

so self, stop whining about your unfair life, the unfair world, and start owning up to your responsibility - abdicate the throne of your life, your family, your world, your all - to the one true RULER, the KING OF ALL, and let HIM call the shots.

2. if god already is my master, why is there still no change in my life? why do i find myself hurting him over and over again?

change is two-fold. one causes and enables the change, the other use the other one for the change happen. for instance, the simple change in the physical state of water from liquid to gas happens because heat causes and enables the evaporation, while the water uses the heat to excite its molecules.

(CAUSE + ENABLE) + USE = CHANGE

in the same way, god is the one causing the change in us, by everything he tells and does to us. he’s the one who enables us, by equipping us with the power to do so (2 timothy 1.6-7). however, we have to allow that change to happen. we have to choose to change, we have to be willing to change, and - this is what i’ve missed for so long - we have to USE that power to change!

this power god gave us is in the holy spirit who lives in us. take one step back and imagine this - if i had the power to freeze time or pass through glass or transform into another person, how do i use the power? i just USE it! i FREEZE time, PASS THROUGH glass, TRANFORM into another person!

now take this - we have the power to SAY NO to whatever displeases god! the power to CHANGE from being someone he doesn’t want into the person he wants us to be! he has already CAUSED and ENABLED us with the power to CHANGE, we just have to USE that power!

how? just USE it! i SAY NO to sin, i CHANGE my undesirable character! i SAY NO to accusing thoughts, i SAY NO to hateful anger, i SAY NO to obscene imagination, i SAY NO to wrong motives, i CHANGE pride, i CHANGE self-gratification, i CHANGE my foul language, i CHANGE my untransformed mind, i CHANGE my undesirable character, i SAY NO to sin.

no incantations needed, no finger formations, no spells, no background music necessary, no magic. just real power from the holy spirit.

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copyright © 2007 by romel r. saplaco. all rights reserved.
do not use without permission.

Holy Different 2: Faith

2007-03-25T23:32:00.000-07:00

“...Be holy because I, God, your God, am holy...” Leviticus 19.2 (MSG)
“...this faith...is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.” Hebrews 11.1-2 (MSG)

last time, i couldn’t sleep because god just blew me away me with how holiness really meant “differentness” - him being holy refers to how different he is, not just being one of a kind, but him being the only one of his kind - the reason why he deserves the most wasteful and excessive devotion far above all.

now i can’t sleep again, because not only is god holy, not only is he different, but he wants me to be holy, he wants me to be different too! he wants me to stand out, to be one of a kind, set apart, positively different in his eyes from my generation. he wants me to live life differently - like among others, when situations are hopeless, i will be filled with hope; when circumstances are favorable, i will be filled with joy, humility and respect; when opportunities to move forward by conveniently cheating comes, i will use his strength to say “no” and do the right thing. he wants me to live life differently from everything and everyone who does not respect and is not even remotely aware or would not even care less of or grossly goes against his awesome “differentness”!

but how do i do this? how do i become different the way he wants me to be different? given all the talk about living through the strength of god, having nothing impossible with him, the new man replacing the old self, living a life of victory, etc. - how do i really, practically, become that different, holy follower of god who stands out above the rest?

one word - faith.

it’s the faith of those who came before us that set them apart from their generation. it’s their faith in the one who was ultimately different that made them ultimately different too.

and it’s faith that will absolutely make me different today as well!

what is faith? it’s the ability to believe that whatever god says he will do, he will do. again - whatever he said he will do, he will do! faith is deeply knowing that god won’t quit on me, won’t bump me off, he won’t leave me hanging, he is no lunatic who just gets his kicks from standing me up. more appropriately, faith is deeply knowing that god won’t quit on himself, won’t bump himself off, he won’t leave himself hanging, he is no lunatic who just gets his kicks from standing himself up - when he says something, he’ll stand up to it, and stand up fully and majestically with all his terribly awesome godness! not because he has to for any reason at all, but because that is his very essence! that is the basis of faith.

see, everyone can do “church stuff” with all “excellence” and “perfection” - gather with fellow believers in perfect harmony, sing, write and play songs excellently, talk to others about jesus passionately, etc - but it’s faith that strikes the difference. it’s faith that gives meaning to routine, devotion to religion, power to practicality, truth to action - faith is the engine behind everything coming from and directed towards god. faith in god gives the proper context to all matters of god, because without faith, everything would just be another noble task in a service organization dedicated to some commonly extraordinary person or devoted to some commonly extraordinary cause. it’s unholy - there’s no holiness, no differentness, nothing that sets it all apart.

that’s why faith is what catches god’s attention - it brings him so much pleasure. because then we are able to be the holy, different people that he wants us to be, just as he is different from anyone, he’s above everything - he is holy, and we are holy because he is holy.

now i can finally answer god’s call for me to be holy, because he is holy. i will be that cut above the rest, because of this faith in him that came from him.

“...Be [different] because I, God, your God, am [different]...”
“...this faith...is what [made them different from] the crowd.”

looks like it’s gonna be another sleepless night, spent in awesome wonder and terrifying respect for this ever-different god...

=====
copyright © 2007 by romel r. saplaco. all rights reserved.
do not use without permission.

Holy Different

2007-03-03T23:44:00.000-08:00

“...I, God, your God, am holy...” Leviticus 19.2 (MSG)

i can’t sleep.

when i tell god, “you are holy,” do i really know what it means? in an age when holiness is religiously overrated, does this word “holiness” still arrest me? when i hear that holy means “set apart”, “consecrated”, does something even remotely stir in me?

MEANING DIFFERENT

then god hit me with this - “holy” means “different.”

different. as in, god, you are holy - “god, you are different from me.” god, astig ka! iba ka!* i'm so out of your league. god, you are perfect! i’m not; god, you are patient! i’m not; god you are powerful! i’m not; god, you are gentle, i’m not; god, you are generous, i’m not; god, you deserve that all humans, stars and planets would bow down to you, i don’t; god, you are you! i’m not you. no one else is, nothing else is, no one or nothing has or ever will be like you.

he’s different from me. the god whose mere voice created sound waves to reverberate molecules into existence within nullness. he’s different from me, the god who thinks and reacts in ways i could never even do on my own. he’s so different from me, the god whose very nature flashes perfection at my own inadequte old nature. he’s different from me.

and this difference is the very foundation on which the whole matter between god and man has always been, and is as it is right now, and will always be – why he was able to create everything, why he was able to give me my freewill, why i was able to hurt him so bad in ways he had always known i’d do to him but he could never do to me, why he needed to bend down and reach into that ever deep pit i’ve fallen into and hew me out of it with all his might, why he was able to squeeze me out of my mess and back into his fort, why he was able to render my old humanity inexistent and replace it with his very own nature, why everyday there is a need for him to transform my mind into thinking the way he does, why his very word is more than powerful enough to bring me to life, nourish, sustain, grow, develop, defend, fight for, recreate, revive, renew, fire up, settle down, encourage, bring to places, compel, secure, humble, stop me wherever i am and just let me bow down before him – all because he’s set apart, consecrated, different. different from me. different from everything.

SHOOTING AT THE DIFFERENCE

now this made me wonder how man has been fighting to invalidate and abolish this difference between him and god. since adam and eve, that first choice to disobey god was about “being like god.” the tower of babel was all about reaching heaven in a way god did not want humans to. human kings, kingdoms and leaders from pharaoh to rehoboam to hitler to lenin have tried to rule humanity by replacing god with a person, an animal or a heavenly being or a piece of metal, a race, a concept – all to destroy his very difference from everything he created, which is the basic reason why he’s supposed to be the one ruling. even all unbiblical beliefs from popular religious dogmas to eastern religions to satanism are aimed at destroying that very difference between god and man by espousing the rule of self, cleverly disguised as paths to eternal freedom and self empowerment. “you will be like god…” and still some – some just totally ignore the concept of a “different” god – one they cannot manipulate – and turn him into a commodity they can encash, claim good things from, twist the arm of, and invoke like a genie anytime good fortunes are needed.

STOOPED DOWN

what made me equally wonder from this “differentness” is a matter so dumbfounding, stupefying, dreadfully horrible, utterly absurd and astonishingly unthinkable – that this very different god from all he created, from man himself – this different god transformed, mutated, recreated, refit himself to become man! that very thing he’s so different from! to buy me back from the choices i’ve sold myself to, to brand me as his own again, he himself built that instant superconnection from him to me so i could reach him the way he has always meant me to touch him. to be able to relate to him again, to be able to stay in a place again with him and just stare at each other and let everything else fade away. and all the while he kept his integrity, his wholeness, his differentness from me. it was all pure him, nothing added, nothing removed, nothing marred, nothing defiled. the differentness between him and me has never been so stark, so pronounced, so remarkably emphasized as when he became what he was so not. now, i have just had a newfound understanding of what he has done – what he really has done! that differentness, that holiness, that just brings me down to my knees in front of him, losing all words, nothing good enough to express my gratitude and respect and honor for such holy, different god.

no wonder the very first thing jesus asked for when he prayed was for god’s name to be respected. “hallowed be your name!” god! may you be respected whenever and wherever that name is mentioned! jesus asked for that “deleted” and/or damaged concept of difference between god and man to be properly and immediately programmed once again to human minds – for it to command the respect and reverence among anyone and anything and everything that his presence pervades.

DIFFERENT MEANING

once this concept of a holy, “different” god sank deep enough into me, everything really took on a totally new meaning – everything! work, play, service, interests, skills, family, hobbies, reasons, frustrations, achievements, failures, faults, offenses, motives, lyrics, pictures, stars, planets, water, fish, colors, everything! changed! forever changed. each and every single bit of my existence, my thoughts, my breath – is now stamped with such great respect, such great gratitude, such great honor, such pure and great homage to the one who truly, truly deserves all. just the mere mention of his name as i start my day already wells up a rushing gale of waters within me in gratitude. god! thank you for even letting me address you this way! such awe and wonder literally pulls out physical heaves and lumps in my chest.

oh god, may your name be respected – in my life, in everyone around me, in everything around me. as they see me, i really hope they can’t help but have such a profound respect and honor for you. everyone has to know about this… everyone has to be captured by you – their hearts arrested by your holiness, seized by you… everyone has to, has to - be ruled by you.. respect and revere you.

now, the songs i sing are just so much more meaningful, directed, fresh and deliberate… every mention of “you…”, “god…”, “jesus…” is just so meaningfully different now… “there is no one else for me…” “all my delight is in you…” “you’re all that i seek…” “cover the earth with your glory…” “everyday, it’s you i live for…” “blessed are those who dwell in your house…” “one day in the house of god is better than a thousand days in the world...” “find rest, my soul, in christ alone…” “there is no one like you, there will never ever be anyone like you…” “i will worship you for who you are…” “humbled i bow down in your presence at your throne…” “in my life, be lifted high, in my world be lifted high, in my love be lifted high…”

now my mind, my being, my perspective has been instantaneously changed. now i know where i stand before such mighty god, now i know my real place in this world, my meaning, my significance – all these “me”-ness really revolve around, take existence, begin and end in “him”. now the branch knows why it has to be connected to a vine, now the stream knows it has to flow from a mountain, now the tree knows why it bears fruit, now the earth knows it has to be held together by a supreme being, now the wandering heart knows that it’s time to come home, the pilgrim has found its destination. the holy, different god, has finally found his rightful place in me. and respect and honor will forever be gushing out of me to him every single moment of my life, everywhere i am.

* Filipino colloquial; equivalent to, "you're awesome! you're different!"

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