Answered Prayers

God is so amazing and his love is really unconditional. Even though I'm not a perfect servant I have lots of answered prayers that I'm really really thankful. I remember when we planned for a second child we prayed 

for a baby girl since my first born is a boy. We have Rhaine now who will be 4 years old this year. 

We used to live at my mother-in-law's house and we prayed for our own. Here we are now living at our own 

house for almost two years. 

I've been praying for a promotion at work and I just got promoted to Team Leader Post a few days ago. 

Thank you Lord for your love and guidance everyday, thank your for my family, thank you for everything. My next prayer is to have our own car. yey!!! To God be the glory!

Our House on Fire

Almost.. thats what happened yesterday. Due to storm Gener we don't have electricity last night. My husband slept at the other room with our little girl who has a slight fever. Me and my son David slept in the other room. Robin said Rhaine would wake up and cry searching for light so he decided to lit a little candle.

But then he fall asleep and forgot the candle. It started to burn the small plastic box with toys in it. Most of the toys are made of plastic too. He woke up with lots of smoke and the box of toys already melted with fire. Good thing its leaning on a cement wall and the fire did not spread. The big orocan box with curtains, bed sheets, blanket and pillow case is under the toys of box and its cover is starting to burn too. The melted plastic also started to fall on the floor that melted the extension wire that we have for the electric fan.

It was past 3am when he woke me and shouted, "sunog! sunog!" He asked me to get Rhaine and bring her out of our house. Without thinking I immediately run to the other room and there I saw the fire. I went out without even wearing slippers while the rain is still pouring a little. He wake up David who also went out without slippers. He immediately filled the big plastic container outside our house with water and asked for help from the neighborhood. He throw water to the fire which stops it a little though there is still some small fire falling from the melted plastic. He put more water on it and that stops everything. The strong smell of melted plastic is all over our house so we stayed to a vacant house just beside us. We stayed their for more than an hour until the smoke goes out. 

Only one person from the neighborhood woke up, who is his friend, and everyone I guess is sleeping soundly with the cold weather. While here we are, sitting in a dark vacant house, we almost lost our life and property. It makes me realized that everything that we have can be taken away easily so we should not value things as the most important but rather value God, family and friends more.

Thank you Lord that the fire did not spread and for keeping us safe. With lots of not so good things happening this 2012 I feel that God is reminding me to spend more time with Him and be a better servant. Though I am not a good child He still blesses our family and always helping us. Truly God is wonderful!

Jesus You Are So Good

Jesus, you are so good
Jesus, you are so good
There's nothing to fear
Cause I'm here in Your presence

Jesus, you are so good
Jesus, you are so good
And I just want to thank you
With every beat of my heart

You've given me eternal life
And Your Word to light my way
You've given me Your Spirit
With new mercies every day

You've given me a confidence
And my soul is filled with peace
For You are a provider
You supply my every need


*******************************************************

I was at work when someone asked for a little help and all of a sudden I felt that Jesus is so good to me. In spite of all the problems that I have financially since I am the only working I can still send my kid to a good private school, we can still go out and eat in a good restaurant once in a while, we eat three times a day, I can still buy some vices (blouse, make up etc, hehe), so many things to be thankful for. Truly God works... sometimes we don't understand why bad things are happening to us. Just continue to be faithful to Him and you'll see how faithful He will be to you as well. Thank you Jesus for your unfailing love even though I am not a good servant you always shower your love to my family. 

Heart of Worship

(For so many months I haven't attended church and it seems like I am forgetting my first love. This is the cry of my heart as the year ends.)



When the music fades 
And all is stripped away 
And I simply come 
Longing just to bring 
Something that's of worth 
That will bless your heart 

I'll bring You more than a song 
For a song in itself 
Is not what You have required 
You search much deeper within 
Through the ways things appear 
You're looking into my heart 

I'm coming back to the heart of worship 
And it's all about You 
All about You, Jesus 
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it 
When it's all about You 
It's all about You Jesus 

King of endless worth 
No one could express 
How much You deserve 
Though I'm weak and poor 
All I have is Yours 
Every single breath 

I'll bring You more than just a song 
For a song in itself 
Is not what You have required 
You search much deeper within 
Through the way things appear 
You're looking into my heart 

I'm coming back to the heart of worship 
And it's all about You 
All about You, Jesus 
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it 
When it's all about You 
It's all about You Jesus 

Its all about you 
Jesus 

Interview with Rick Warren

Got this e-mail from a friend and just want to share it with you...
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An  Interview with Rick Warren (REMEMBER, HE WROTE  'PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE') 
  In  the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren,  Rick said:  People  ask me, What is the purpose of life?   And  I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation  for eternity. We were not made to last forever,  and God wants us to be with Him in  Heaven.  One  day my heart is going to stop, and that will be  the end of my body-- but not the end of  me.  I  may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am  going to spend trillions of years in eternity.  This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.  God wants us to practice on earth what we will  do forever in eternity.  We  were made by God and for God, and until you  figure that out, life isn't going to make  sense.  Life  is a series of problems: Either you are in one  now, you're just coming out of one, or you're  getting ready to go into another  one.  The  reason for this is that God is more interested  in your character than your comfort; God is more  interested in making your life holy than He is  in making your life happy.  We  can be reasonably happy here on earth, but  that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow  in character, in Christ  likeness.  This  past year has been the greatest year of my life  but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay,  getting cancer. I  used to think that life was hills and valleys -  you go through a dark time, then you go to the  mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe  that anymore.  Rather  than life being hills and valleys, I believe  that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad  track, and at all times you have something good  and something bad in your life.  No  matter how good things are in your life, there  is always something bad that needs to be worked  on.  And  no matter how bad things are in your life, there  is always something good you can thank God  for..  You  can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on  your problems:  If  you focus on your problems, you're going into  self-centeredness, which is my problem, my  issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to  get rid of pain is to get your focus off  yourself and onto God and others.   We  discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers  of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not  going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It  has been very difficult for her, and yet God has  strengthened her character, given her  a  ministry  of helping other people, given her a testimony,  drawn her closer to Him and to  people.  You  have to learn to deal with both the good and the  bad of life.  Actually,  sometimes learning to deal with the good is  harder. For instance, this past year, all of a  sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it  made me instantly very wealthy.  It  also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never  had to deal with before. I don't think God gives  you money or notoriety for your own ego or for  you to live a life of ease.  So  I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with  this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me  two different passages that helped me decide  what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm  72.  First,  in spite of all the money coming in, we would  not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no  major purchases.  Second,  about midway through last year, I stopped taking  a salary from the church.  Third,  we set up foundations to fund an initiative we  call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip  leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and  educate the next generation.   Fourth,  I added up all that the church had paid me in  the 24 years since I started the church, and I  gave it all back. It was liberating to be able  to serve God for free.  We  need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for  possessions? Popularity?  Am  I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt?  Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be  driven by God's purposes (for my  life)?  When  I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my  bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else  done today, I want to know You more and love You  better. God didn't put me on earth just to  fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in  what I am than what I do.  That's  why we're called human beings, not human  doings.  Happy  moments,    PRAISE  GOD. Difficult  moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet  moments,     WORSHIP  GOD. Painful  moments, TRUST  GOD. Every  moment,      THANK  GOD..

Work of the Devil

I just noticed that within our neighborhood and even at work a lot of couple are struggling on their marriage or I would say on their relationship. Some are already broken while some are mostly likely going there. I never deny that we also had a fight before that almost lead to separation. I looked at this as work of the devil. Satan is trying to destroy families since it is the main unit of every community. If he is successful in doing that a lot of evil things follow. A lot of problems actually occur.

This comes in to my mind when one day there was this religious group giving away small comics about different issues that we encounter as an individual. But the front page is about separation. I read the part about it and then this came in to my mind that the devil is actually working hard for this. It was mention there that most couple think that if they no longer feel love for each other or they always fight then the best resolution is separation. In the bible it was mention that what God has combined no one should separate. It was also mention that you will not commit sin if the reason of separation is your partner committed adultery.

It is really hard to recover specially if there is no more trust between the couple. Spiritual guidance is needed. I believe if the couple even though no longer feel any thing for each other but has a willingness to follow God will be able to restore their relationship. There are lot of couples that have been in to these situation and when they recover they have better and sweeter relationship. If you have this problem right now seek God's guidance and better have someone (a good servant of God) to give you counseling.  

Don't allow Satan ruin your relationship.

Footprints in the Sand

I love this poem. I remember seeing this on one of the wall display at my grandma's house before. Several authors were claiming that they wrote the poem. For me it doesn't matter who the author is. What is more important is the contents of it.

Footprints on the Sand

One night a man had a dream

He dreamed he was walking along with the Lord

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life

For each scene he noticed two sets of foot prints in the sand

One belonging to him and the other to the Lord

When the last scene of his life flashed before him

He looked back at the footprints in the sand

He noticed that many times along the path of his life

There was only one set of footprints

He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life

This really bothered him

And he questioned the Lord about it

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,

You'd walk with me all the way.

But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,

There is only one set of footprints.

I don't understand why I needed you most you would leave me."

The Lord replied

"My son, my precious child,

I love you and I would never leave you.

During your times of trial and suffering,

When you see only one set of footprints,

It was then that I carried you."

3 L's that we should do about the Word of God

Bible - "Word of God" ; There has never been a book written like it. 

Some Facts about the Bible:

1. It was written over 40 Generations

2. It was written over 40 Authors from many walks of Life (kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, phropets etc)

3. First book to be printed in 1454

4. It was written from about 1450 BC to 100 AD

5. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek but now the bible is written  in 6,000 different languages around the world.

6. The word "Trinity" is never mentioned in the Bible

7. Last used word in the bible is "Amen"

The Bible is really amazing.  It is the word of God for all generation.  If you have questions about life read the bible.  It is advisable to meditate on God's word so that when problem or temptation occurs you have a word of God to cling on.

We should:

1. Love the Word of God

2. Learn the Word of God

3. Live the Word of God

Having Faith in Midst of the Impossible

Faith, believes in things that is unseen, like believing in God. We actually have faith on a lot of things that we maybe are not aware of. Example, sitting on chair believing that it can take our weight, riding a bus or jeep believing that it will bring us safe to our destination, eating food in restaurant believing that it's clean and would not cause any disease etc. How is your faith in God? Or do you have faith in Him? Do you only worship and give thanks to Him when everything is smooth in your life?

I think it is human nature to only pray when things are not doing right. We must change that attitude and learn to pray no matter what the situation is. Most of the time we pray more often when we are having difficulties in life. If everything is all right we just say "Thank you, Lord or forget about Him. We tend to relax and think that everything is under control.

How do you think we can improve our faith with God? Romans 10:17 (King James Version) says "So then faith cometh by hearing, hearing the word of God." If you don't know God's word or I would say God's promises how would claim it or believe in it. We should do our part as children of God. This is what I learned last Sunday service. We should KNOW God's word, BELIEVE in God, OBEY God and PRAY with thanks giving.

True faith is tested in times of trial. Let say you are praying for healing of your love one but instead God take him away, you are praying for financial help but it seems like its getting worst and you are losing more, you are praying for your husband or wife but instead they betray you and leave you for someone else. When God says no to your prayer, how do you react? Do you blame God or do you still continue worshipping and praising him?

"Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" this is Job's answered to his wife when he was told to curse God and die. Right now I am having financial problem. My husband doesn't have a job, I am thinking of hospital bills when I give birth this coming July, how will be able to survive for 2 months during my maternity leave when I don't have income, my credit card bills, enrollment of my son this coming June... etc. Though I am not getting enough sleep, sometimes I am not feeling well, my back hurts due to pregnancy I couldn't afford to absent because of our financial needs. A lot of times I wanted to give up but I know there is no escape and things will not get better if I will not be strong enough to face this trial. I also don't want my kid to suffer if I give up. After the service, it was then I realize I was having a very big burden because I am carrying all of these all by myself and forget about God. I walk on my own ways, look for my own solution and forget that there is a big God who is bigger than my problem.

I pray to God to forgive me for neglecting Him and I know we will be able to surpass this trial. No matter what happen I don't want to lose my relationship with Him. I know God's in control and He knows what is best for me.

What I learned on March 1 Sunday Service

We as a grown ups spend much of our time in the work place.  5 days a week are spent at work and some have 6 working days.  Do you go to work just to earn money?  How do you to treat your boss, co-employees and people under you? What do you think God wants us to do in the work place?

After the service it come to my realization that I should value my job so much , it is God's blessing to me.  Now a days there were a lot of lay offs everywhere and I should be thankful that I do have a good stable job. I should show respect and obedience to my boss since God put him there for a reason.  

We should be good steward, use our job for God's glory.  Change our focus, instead of thinking that you are working for your boss, look at it as you were working for God.  Since God gave us this job then we should know how to cultivate it.  Do not be hypocrites by doing your job well when your boss or someone is looking at you.  We should be doing our best at all time and always remember that there is God who sees all our hardwork. 

As good christian we should have integrity.  We should have integrity in our private life and in the work place as well.  Having this we will gain trust and respect from our co-employess , our boss and the company.  Most of all God will be glorified because we are doing the right thing. 

In short, we should be different and everybody would see that we are exceptional.  It is because we are working for God and not for men. Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

For more info about this sermon Click on the link below.

Sermon by: Ptr. JP Masakayan (CCF Alabang)<---- (Click here to access the sermon)

Why Does God Allow Evil?

"Why Does God Allow Evil?" - This is a common question asked by everyone and even me I have that question. While browsing the web I found this article by Rick Warren, famous author of Purpose Driven Life and it enlightens me about Why Does God Allow Evil. Read the Article Below and hope you learn from it too.

Why Does God Allow Evil?
by Rick Warren

The horrific mass murder of innocent Americans leaves all rational people shocked, angry, grief-stricken and numb. Our tears flow freely and our hearts carry a deep ache. How could this happen in our nation?

As mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors and coworkers begin to share their stories of the horror, this tragedy will become even more personal. As it becomes more personal, it will become more painful, and as our pain deepens, so will the questions. Why does God allow evil to happen? If God is so great and so good, why does he allow human beings to hurt each other?

The answer lies in both our greatest blessing and our worst curse: our capacity to make choices. God has given us a free will. Made in God's image, he has given us the freedom to decide how we will act and the ability to make moral choices. This is one asset that sets us apart from animals, but it also is the source of so much pain in our world. People, and that includes all of us, often make selfish, self-centered and evil choices. Whenever that happens, people get hurt.

Sin is ultimately selfishness. I want to do what I want, not what God tells me to do. Unfortunately, sin always hurts others, not just ourselves.

God could have eliminated all evil from our world by simply removing our ability to choose it. He could have made us puppets, or marionettes on strings that he pulls. By taking away our ability to choose it, evil would vanish. But God doesn't want us to be puppets. He wants to be loved and obeyed by creatures who voluntarily choose to do so. Love is not genuine if there is no other option.

Yes, God could have kept the terrorists from completing their suicidal missions by removing their ability to choose their own will instead of his. But to be fair, God also would have to do that to all of us. You and I are not terrorists, but we do harm and hurt others with our own selfish decisions and actions.

You may hear misguided minds say, "This must have been God's will." Nonsense!

In a world of free choices, God's will is rarely done! Doing our own will is much more common. Don't blame God for this tragedy. Blame people who ignored what God has told us to do: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

In heaven, God's will is done perfectly. That's why there is no sorrow, pain or evil there. But this is earth, a fallen, imperfect place. We must choose to do God's will everyday. It isn't automatic. This is why Jesus told us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

The Bible explains the root of evil: "This is the crisis we're in: God's light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness ... because they were not really interested in pleasing God" (John 3:19, Message Translation). We're far more interested in pleasing ourselves.

There are many other questions that race through our minds during dark days. But the answers will not come from pollsters, pundits or politicians. We must look to God and his Word. We must humble ourselves and admit that each of us often choose to ignore what God wants us to do.

No doubt houses of worship across America will be packed in the coming days. In a crisis we cry out for a connection with our Creator. This is a deep-seated, universal urge. The first words uttered by millions on Sept. 11 were "Oh God!"

We were made for a relationship with God, but he waits for us to choose him. He is ready to comfort, guide and direct us through our grief. But it's your choice.

Churches and ministries may reprint this article with the following attribution: Used by permission of Pastors.com, c. 2001.