FOLLOW GOD'S DESIGN FOR YOU

It's has been awhile that I have not updated this blog. I have full of days recently, yes, not just busy but full of days. Yes, I have fullest of blessings. What I have declared, believed and claimed from God have already started. I have stepped up to what God has designed me for.

 I have full of days since I was started not just one, but four businesses recently. Indeed, the promise I claimed from God for 2011 was double blessings, and God has been doubling my blessings all the way. Instead of just one, He blessed me to start four - one was apparel business, another was my own creative designs studio, one is designs for churches, and the other was book publication. Isn't God great?

I am also starting my own advocacy and community project which will help impoverished youth to discover and harness their potentials in arts and creative designs. Indeed, it is not just "the best is yet to come" but "the best is already right now."

Contemplating of all I have gone through in life and the present blessings He has paved for me, I realized the following things -


About Potential
This is what I realized -

God will not give you a gift, a talent or a potential which He will not intend to use you to bless you and to bless others. God has given you this potential with a purpose. You need to believe God, harness your potential and unleash it in due time as paved by God.

Don't allow anyone to determine your potential. Don't allow anything to restrict your potential. Many people will try to design life for you but they are not the designer of your life. It is only God. You don't have to follow God's design for someone because you are uniquely different. Don't even let religion design your life because for sure it is just based on the preference of the leaders or the uniformity they want in life, but it is not God's design for you. Be the person God has designed you to be.

 Discover your purpose, calling, gifts, talents and experiences. Those will not intertwine without a purpose. For sure you have them because it is God's design for you. Be thankful for the potential God has given you. You were designed by God as a winner, as the head not the tail, as a victor and as a very blessed person. Follow that design.

About Preparation
This is what I realized -

All of your experiences are but preparations for greater things. Yes, even your past failures were preparations in molding you the person God wants you to be. There is no accident in God's sight. Don't call it "failure", it is just a molding point for our lives. I have realized that even irritations are but preparations for promotions. God always prepare us for blessings. I fully believed I was prepared for blessings and greater things. All the stories, the ideas, the people, the concepts, the improvement of skills and development are all but preparation for the breakthroughs God is preparing for you. You were designed by God not to be failure but to be a success. God designed you to overcome and win any challenges in life.

About Purpose
This is what I realized -

The purpose of my potential is not just for me but for others. The gift that I have are meant to be shared. I always believe that art is not art unless shared. So I can also say, "life is not life unless shared." This is why I am so excited for the advocacy which I will soon start. This is the new thing which I will do. It is an awesome experience when you fully understand your potential, your purpose and your life story blend into one. This is equivalent when dream and reality becomes one. This is enlightenment. I have realized that life is to be lived with joy, purpose, fullness and happiness. There is no need to be cynical about life for life can be enjoyed to the fullest. God has designed us to live life abundantly.

And just like the process of art- from concept, to actual painting, to revisions, to displaying to gallery and to the delight of the audience, our life is like that. But joy is not reserved at the start or at the end of the process. Joy is in the process. Joy is in the journey not in the destination. This is why I am enjoying every step of the way as I go along establishing the businesses, helping the community and being passionate in sharing the love of God to the world- in the way He designed me to be. Yes, I don't have to be completely like just the rest. Everybody has their own calling and design of God. This is how God designed me to be, then I will be how God designed me to be.

"When you follow God's design for you, God as the artist and you, as the artwork will be both happy and fulfilled."


So go. Discover God's design for you. Be inspired but you don't have to copy me. You are uniquely different. Follow God's design for you.

A STORY OF SECOND CHANCE FROM GOD - TED WILLIAMS, THE MAN WITH A GOLDEN VOICE

I cannot help but write about the story of this certain man with a golden voice whose video went viral through the internet. His video was viewed 11 million plus times in Youtube since it was uploaded. Below is the video when he was discovered. 

This is the story of Ted Williams, the man with a golden voice of America. Ted Williams was homeless, and was using his golden voice to collect money on passersby on the side of the road. Ted admitted his life was ruined by drugs and alcohol. He admitted that he has his "hard times" and was in jail for two years, but now he is clean. He was discovered by a Columbus dispatch reporter along the road of Ohio. Since his video went viral, it became an internet sensation, and this paved a way for him to have a comeback in life he was wishing for. Today, several employments have been offered to him, but according to the report, it was the Cleveland Cavaliers who employed him in a full-time job, and will give him a house. What a very touching and inspirational story of comeback. Watching his interview in the news where he is already a different man, dodging a new clean hair-cut, I was so inspired with the words he has said over millions live televiewers. It was a testimony of how God can radically change a life, a testimony of how God can give a person a second chance, and a testimony of how good God is to prove a person a comeback.

Ted Williams said in the interview:

“The difference between now and the time I did have some kind of a heyday or a successful life is that know I’m more appreciative of life, I’m not taking it for granted and I’m thanking the Lord every day. Even if this didn’t happen, I’m still on that road and thanked Him and I my hour with God.”

When he said those words, "An hour with God" it really touched me. He is pertaining to his hour on the road collecting money from the passersby. He was appreciative of every hour God has given him.

Indeed, everybody deserves a second chance. No matter how hard you fall, what matters is your rebound. And God will always help the person who chose to comeback no matter how impossible the situation is, who chose to be appreciative of life no matter how hard it is, and who chose to believe that there is God who always give a second chance.

Photo of Ted when he was homeless a year ago collecting money by using his golden voice. Below is his recent interview on the TV.

TOUCHING LIVES ONLINE [ AND OFFLINE]

Almost everyday, I am sharing inspirational and radical truths through this blog. It has already been a habit at 4AM after my solitude with God and meditation of His words that I always write something here in my blog to inspire people. I consider it a tremendous blessing to touch people's lives online. But somehow God impressed upon me that I got to do more than just touch people's lives online. God impressed upon me that I can do more when I leave this chair, go out and touch people's lives in a personal and incarnate basis. 

This is breaking the usual. This is getting out the comfort zone. This is going for the second mile in serving others.

5AM, I am already out. It was a long ride. I will speak to and inspire the whole security force of Rustan's, a big mall in Makati. It was a blessed experience to share the love of God to these security guards. I was thinking how we just ignore these people in many establishments and we often forgot that they too are people who need Jesus. And this was a big open door from God to introduce them to a new life. There in their gathering, I was enabled by God to share to them the radical love of Jesus. I shared to them that the Greatest Security Guard of their lives is none other than Jesus, and that every security guard must have a "Security God." Eventually, after the love of Jesus has been shared, all of them opened their hearts to Jesus and they received Him for a new relationship and salvation.

Today is another day of making this love incarnate to people. And it didn't stop there, after that, I have to go to Pandacan, Manila which is far from my place to conduct a Gospel service. It was a blessed night to share  the message of God's love to the people wherein they all received Jesus in their hearts.

For the whole week, it has been a joyous blessing to touch people's lives - counseling people, sharing the word of God in various small groups from one house to another. In one of our house session, three "gays" joined us. They thought they will not be welcomed but they were received with love. They were teary-eyed when they heard God's love for them. I know that their transformation will only start in salvation. The law cannot change them. Religion cannot save them. Only Jesus can. They accepted Jesus  in their hearts and their hearts were beaming with hope that they can have a better life with Jesus.

Somehow, I looked back this year, that God has given me this knack to reach out to selected groups of people. I remember at one early morning, our team has ministered to construction workers in one street giving them free breakfast and the Gospel. Also in another effort of love, I have ministered to suicidal "emo" students of one campus. In another engagement, we have fed and shared the gospel to tricycle drivers. God has indeed blessed this second mile of serving others.

I have realized these radical truths in going "offline" in order to do the extra-mile in serving others:

1. True happiness is when you make others happy.

2. There is always an opportunity to help people. Just go out and you will see.

3. Christianity must not be confined inside the church buildings.

4. The more you go out to help people, the less you will think of your own problems or struggles.

5. The more you see the plight of people out there, the more you will see how blessed you are.

6. And you are blessed because the blessing ought not to stop with you, it must be passed to others.

7. When you have the vision to help others, God will always give the provision.

8. Your work, your position, your office are not hindrances but ought to be avenues in helping others.

A friend of mine who is already with the Lord in heaven, told me when she was still alive and battling with cancer,  "I will not go to heaven defeated and sad. I am on my way to heaven helping other people. And if I die, I will die while helping people." I saw her victorious and enjoyed her life till her last breath.

These are thanksgiving and introspections of God's goodness in my life. To be a help is already a blessing.

And here I am again, writing these things with prayer that anyone who read this will be inspired and be blessed by God. I will keep on writing in this blog to help more people out there, but after writing a post, I will again be back in the streets and in the houses or wherever God will lead me to share His words, help and touch people's lives. It is indeed different when love becomes incarnate. 

God "wrote" the Bible.

Yet, He still came down, lived with humans, and died for them.

He cannot afford to be just online and sitting on His throne.

CHOOSE GOD'S POSSIBILITIES OVER YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES

The reason why we are oftentimes disheartened is because we allow the circumstances and the situation determines our joy when it should be vise-versa- our joy determines our circumstances and situation. Yes, I understand, hard times and difficult circumstances happen in our lives. I have my big share in the past of how it is to have difficult times. I have experienced how it is to be in the rock-bottom.

- I have experienced to sleep in a bus terminal because I was a vagabond;
- I have experienced to be in the streets, drunk and broken;
- I have experienced to be in bad places and lived with no direction.

But I finally realized just like what a certain writer said, "No one cares of you being miserable, so rather, be happy." And freedom and blessings came into my soul when I fully embraced that in all these difficult situations, there is a gracious God who loves me and planned my life to be abundant, prosperous and victorious. When I started to shift my sight from the circumstances to the possibilities, from crisis to where Christ is and from defeat to triumph, my life also started to shift towards fulness.

This is what I have learned-

Circumstances and situations should not break me but mold me.
Circumstances and situations are but platforms where God will bless me.
Circumstances and situations are but a stage where God will show His power in my behalf.

There is a verse in Isaiah which said -

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." - Isaiah 35:1

The circumstance and the place was unlikely and difficult - wilderness, solitary place and a desert. But what God was implying here was this -

when you chose to embrace God's possibilities and power, and you chose to be a winner no matter how your hard your circumstances are, time will come that even these circumstances will be glad and will rejoice for you.

Yes, God's grace picked me up and I chose to be victorious. Since then, I lived a forgiven, fulfilled, happy life with love and direction from God. I have experienced now the upward way of life. I have discovered my potentials and purpose. I have renewed relationships. I have found fulness in using my talents, time and potentials to help many people. Yes, I am living now a victorious life.

And you know what? One time I visited those places where I used to squander my life, and somehow I felt the truth of the verse. The circumstances and the situations where you once in will be glad and rejoice for you because they were not victorious over you, as if -

- the bus terminal is telling me, "You won. We didn't have you."
- the dirty streets are telling me, "You won. We didn't have you."
- the bad places are telling me, "You won. We didn't have you."

You know what got me?
God's grace.

You may have bad times, but the bad times ought not to have you.
You may have failures, but failures ought not have you.
You may have tough situations, but tough situations ought not to have you.

And what the next verse has said was true to me -

"they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." - Isaiah 35: 2

This is the actual bus terminal where I used to sleep six years ago- miserable, rebellious and vagabond. I took these photo when I recently visited the place. Just imagine what I look like at that time.

And this is where I am now - happy, forgiven, enjoying life and touching the lives of many. GOD IS GREAT!

WHAT IS THE TASTE OF THE WHITE OF AN EGG?

Good day! What do you have for breakfast?
I hope there is a fried egg.

It is because this is connected to this witty and radical truth -

Don't you know that the white of an egg was mentioned in the Bible? And we can get some valuable lessons from this truth? Well, it was recorded in the oldest book of the Bible which is the Book of Job. Job said in chapter 6, verse 6 -

Can that which is unsavory be eaten without a salt? Is there any taste in a white of an egg?

For sure, you don't like fried or poached egg without a salt. If you do, then Job is challenging you to answer his question- "If there is no salt in an egg, what is the taste of the white of an egg?" I give you time to think, or ask your kids, or maybe experiment with it by tasting an egg with no salt.

Whatever your answer is -

               actually, that is not the issue here.

The true issue in this verse was this -

             the severe suffering and poverty of Job that he didn't even have a salt to put taste to the only food he got and that is an egg. Don't you know that having no salt in a house in Israel at that time is the worst indication of poverty? This was what Job experienced at that time.

The worse was, three of his friends visited him but just gave him words but no actual help. My, they could have at least gave Job a salt!

Here are the lessons I got from this observation:

If you have a fried or poached egg for breakfast, be very, very thankful. Lots of people around the world cannot eat what you're eating because of extreme poverty. And if you're fried or poached egg tasted good because of the salt in it, also be very thankful. In some parts of the world, some may eat fried egg but they have no salt to put flavor in it. So be very thankful of your life if you can eat three times a day.

Sometimes, there are lots of small things in our lives that we need to appreciate because they are part of making our lives full and complete. Just imagine if there are no salt and eggs in the world?

Also, I learned a valuable lesson by observing what the three friends did not do to Job. They just brought words but no actual material help, not even a salt! This speaks to us to be more than just be thankful of the salt and fried egg in our breakfast table. This speaks to us to do something to participate in any effort to help the poor in our community. We cannot address the needs of poor people with our words no matter how religious it may sound. We must do something to help them for an egg with no salt still has no taste no matter how we persuade them that the egg tastes good.

Go outside and go to the poor areas in your community, ask a child the same question of Job -

 "What is the taste of the white of an egg?"

If the child answers, "Salty" or, "Delicious", then it means that they can cook fried egg properly because they have salt. But if the child answers, "I don't know. It doesn't have any taste." Then you can presume that their family is in extreme poverty.

In your work or school today, ask someone, "What is the taste of the white of an egg?" They may answer different answers and they will be puzzled why you asked that question, but the point here is the curiosity and the appreciation of simple things in life, and to be conscious of the blessed life we have.

WHAT DOES IT PRACTICALLY MEAN TO "HIDE IN GOD"

Can you see a little boy in this photo?

We always sing and quote these words in our worship - "Hide me under the shadow of your wings" but practically speaking I was wondering what it really implies. So I asked God in prayer and solitude, "Lord, what does it mean to hide me in your presence? "

Yesterday, this question was answered through a little boy in my neighborhood. This little boy is playing hide-and-seek with the other kids. The little boy rushed past from me to find a place where he can hide. He hid at the back of an old bicycle parked in the sidewalk. Though he tried to hide, part of his body can still be seen, and not to mention that he was saying words out of excitement or maybe out of fear. As expected, he was easily seen and tagged by his playmate. The boy tried to argue with his playmate, but of no avail. His playmates told him, "If you don't want to be easily seen and tagged, be sure you hide well."

This observation answered my above question what it means "hiding in God."

I learned the following:

I must hide all of me in God.

Hide everything in God- your past, your problems, your talents, your potential, your all in all so that either your enemy, your critics, your friends or any people will only see God in your life. When you hide in God, enemies cannot see you, critics cannot harm you, and praises cannot fool you. They see God not you.

I must be silent and just depend on Him.

Complaining and speaking negative words out of fear shows that you are not hiding in God. What is the use of hiding from someone when you are so noisy? No wonder we are easily detected and tagged by the enemy because of our complaints and negative words. When some people are against me and misjudging me, the answer is not hate and hurting words. The answer is just to hide in God in prayer and keep my mouth shut. That- is hiding in God.

I must chose something bigger than me to cover me.

That is common sense. I cannot hide at the back of a bicycle. It is smaller than me. If I chose some place to hide, I must be sure it must cover all of me. Talents are not enough to cover. Riches are not enough to cover. Influence is not enough to cover. All these things are not bigger than me. If I must hide myself, I must hide in God for He is bigger than anything in this world. Be sure where you place your confidence. Be sure it is enough to cover and hide you.

The little kids in my neighborhood played again a next set of hide-and-seek. This time the little boy I was talking about hid himself at the back of a big garbage bin. As I passed by, his playmates gave up finding him. He won the game.

He hid himself fully.

He didn't utter a word.

He chose something bigger than him to cover him.

He waited patiently.

He was not seen.

He fully hid himself.

Question answered.

[So about the above photo, can you see the little boy? If you can, then he was not hiding well.]

GOD WANTS YOUR EMPTY POT

The following story was shared to me by my friend and I know it is worth sharing to inspire you.

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business.  Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.He said, 'It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you.‘ The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued.'I am going to give each one of you a SEED today - one very special SEED. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you.

I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO.'One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing.  By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by -- still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - He so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room.

When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful -- in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him! When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.Jim just tried to hide in the back. 'My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown,' said the CEO. 'Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!' All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified.He thought, 'The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!'When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed - Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, 'Behold your next Chief Executive Officer! His name is Jim!' Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed.'How could he be the new CEO?' the others said. Then the CEO said, 'One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it.Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!' 

Aside from the moral lesson which teaches us to be honest in our dealings, this story also impacted me to look on how God deal with us in our life. God doesn't need our fancy presentations. God doesn't need our  service with wrong intentions. God doesn't need the grandeur of our performance. What God demands from us is our authenticity, our honesty and our sincerity.- even it means presenting an empty pot. 

When you give your emptiness to God, He will give you fulness.

Give your empty pot to Him.

And He will fill your life more than you could ever imagine.

A ONE-OF-A-KIND WORSHIP AND LORD'S SUPPER ON THE MOON [An Untold Account of Astronaut Buzz Aldrin's Testimony on the Moon]

All we know about that historic event of Saturn Flight in 1970 was when man first walked on the moon. Little did we know that there is a more significant event that happened on that day before they even set their feet on the moon.

What do you think what they did before they walked on the moon aside from the technical things they ought to do?
Guess what, what they did was, they worshipped God in prayer, and took the Lord's Supper on the moon! Isn't this amazing?

Buzz Aldrin, one of the astronauts who is a Christian testified about these things.

These are his words as recorded in Guidepost[October 1970] -

Now Neil and I were sitting inside Eagle, while Mike circled in lunar orbit unseen in the black sky above us.  In a little while after our scheduled meal period, Neil would give the signal to step down the ladder onto the powdery surface of the moon.  Now was the moment for communion. So I unstowed the elements in their flight packets.  I put them and the scripture reading on the little table in front of the abort guidance system computer.

Then I called back to Houston.

“Houston, this is Eagle.  This is the LM Pilot speaking.  I would like to request a few moments of silence.  I would like to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to invite each person listening, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his own individual way.”

In the radio blackout I opened the little plastic packages which contained bread and wine.

I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me.  In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup.  

It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were [Lord's Supper] elements.

And so, just before I partook of the elements, I read the words, which I had chosen to indicate our trust that as man probes into space we are in fact acting in Christ. 

I read: “I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me” (John 15:5).

Isn't it amazing that even on the moon, the words of God were proclaimed, the message of the blood of Christ was declared, and the thanksgiving to Almighty God was expressed!