Easter 2012

I got up the earliest I can and

quickly put my hair up

with a do I've never tried before.

Then pulled in those fab purples

to complete my outfit.

It's the time of the year again!

When everybody at church gets excited 

to wake up earlier than usual on Sunday mornings...

Our Easter Service, otherwise known

as the "Sunrise Service" started at 8AM. 

Besides the most awaited br-unch,

I was very blessed with the fellowship,

and the message preached.

But most of all,

we celebrate Easter 

to remember

the significance of the Cross and 

the triumph of the Resurrection. :)

Okay now...

I need to dust off cobwebs from everywhere here… You see my previous post has been sitting in my drafts folder for a week now and SO I realized I needed to post it before it decomposes to something forgotten.

Soo, it’s Tuesday! I had the next longest weekend to our July 4^th one. No, we have not gone on a trip out of Lexington. It started on Thursday, not because it was a holiday but simply because revival service at GFAC started that night. We were blessed to have visiting Evangelist Norman Brian preach on our Thursday, Friday and Sunday night services.

Evangelist Brian Norman

Thursdays is our midweek service. Service last Thursday ran longer than usual. The Evangelist had so many things to teach about that the church can forget about the time and just enjoy his teaching. We had section E youth rally held on Friday night. The church was crammed full with beautiful people of God from different towns in Kentucky.

Saturday was an outreach day which was joined forces together by 54 people. One group went out to visit the backsliders; another group went out to Sunday school children’s parents and another handed out flyers and music CDs to some neighborhood. I wanted to go see the Sunday school children’s parents but hubby was burdened to visit a friend and his family who have backslid in countless ways. We were given three cards, each with the backslider’s name and address. Two of them have no definite address so we finished up visiting only our friend. I got several flyers so we handed them out and inserted some on car wipers in the same neighborhood. Although others showed respect, some of the peoples’ responses were sarcastic. Even our own friend declined our invitation to Sunday service. It is sad but as the Evangelist puts it, it is between them and God. I believe it doesn’t end there. More than the flyers, it needs prayer, fasting and dedication to win a soul.

I regret missing the Saturday evening’s seminar held by the Evangelist on how to pray for someone during altar call. We simply ran out of time shopping and window shopping until the time have come for us to go home, eat lunch then meet Morgan before the circus. We met with other church folks at Rupp Arena and enjoyed the show together. Nobody was too old for the circus show as we laughed, sang and fooled around with Tom the clown.

We went to church early on Sunday, actually way too early than usual. We knew there will be many visitors due to outreach the previous day. Lo and behold, we were not mistaken. Most seats were already taken but we managed to find a spot for ourselves. The church was once again crowded. Visitors came as well as the backsliders.

I cannot put into words how awesome the outpouring of the Holy Ghost was. Like the prodigal son, many responded to the preacher’s call for repentance and sought for the face of the Lord during altar call. It’s amazing how the Father can simply wrap His arms around this son who have failed Him numerous times. He knows the depths of our hearts and yet, loves us the same.

A time for EVERYTHING

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)

So it's June!

I feel like it’s always this time of the year when I start cramming to accomplish my goals for the year (if indeed I have any). I am not the type of person who really set them- maybe general plans, but not those target-to-detail type objectives. I am one of those who go-with-the-flow-on-whichever-path-life-leads-me-to people. In fact most things that happened in my life were not planned accordingly.

I’d say I’m simply unworthily amazingly blessed.

My contract with my current employer is about to end- in two weeks or so, I believe. Will it be renewed? I can only give you a blank stare for an answer. I haven’t heard from the recruiting agency and I have not heard anything from my manager too. I have not been busy with anything lately. There have been plenty of days like this, so I am not sure if being idle gives me the right idea.

Of course, I’m scared. I’m worried. But who am I to paint a picture of my future on my own? As someone accurately stated, “I do not know my future, but I know the One who holds my future!” Isn’t the grip of the One who has it firm enough to keep me secure? That gives me a reason to let go and let these tiny little hands relax.

Memo from God

To: YOU
Date: TODAY
From: GOD
Subject: YOURSELF
Reference: LIFE

This is God. Today I will be handling All of your problems for you. I do Not need your help. So, have a nice day.
I love you..


P.S. And, remember...
If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do Not attempt to resolve it yourself! Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours.

Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.

Should you decide to send this to a friend; Thank you. You may have touched their life in ways you will never know!

Now, you have a nice day.
God


God has seen you struggling, God says it's over.

****

BEAUTIFUL!

Received this email from Lerrie. I thought it would be nice to share it here.

God is...

still God.

My circumstances may change

but

He never does and never will.

Wait

It has been taught and said that prayers are answered in three ways- yes, no and wait. Probably, all would agree that yes is what most of us desires from the Source of the answer, as we usually petition for something we badly want and seldom need. No is not desirable but rather preferable over wait. It offers a straightforward dissent to a plea, rather than just prolonging the agony when waiting without even an assurance that there indeed, is a light at the end of the tunnel.

But really, is it really worth the wait?

People with different experiences and different attitudes may have different answers. Although a bit sad when given this answer, I personally believe that when He says wait, He meant for me to WAIT and TRUST. It could be hard especially when you feel like you are trying to beat a deadline but then the request was just appended to a long queue. How long, why and what if's can come raging your mind and stress you out. Frustration comes in and you lose your motivation. You lose hope, you lose faith, and you can wait no more.

It’s tough but we should realize that we prayed for it because we cannot do it on our own to begin with. We once surrendered it to Him. We acknowledged our need for a greater ability than what we can do and being told to wait does not really change anything. We are still nothing on our own.

Maybe we need to surrender it all if we have not already done so. Sometimes we think we did but we really did not. In fact, it remains in our to-do list. Why not let go of it- drop it all in His hands that's absolutely bigger than ours? Pray for patience; pray for guidance; pray for wisdom; pray for strength; but most of all, pray for His will. Remember, we surrendered it all so it must be His way, not ours.

I believe He's telling me to wait because He wants me to trust. He wants me to trust so He can show me great and mighty things- so I may share a testimony that it’s all worth the wait!

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. Psalms 130:5

Fingers Crossed

I am anxiously waiting for something, thrilled but scared. I wish I could conceal myself from reality and drift away to dreamland. I wish I have infinite chances to undo the past misfortunes and opt for better choices. I wish I have the power to transform reverie into veracity. I wish life is less complicated- simple as those wishes granted by the great ginnnie in the bottle.

I am waiting for something- something I find unattainable on my own; something I am so unworthy of; something that I have to surrender to the One with greater power than that of ginnie in the bottle, with whom nothing is impossible, the One with the supreme knowledge of what’s best for me.

I keep my fingers crossed, prayers resounding deep within. Strengthen me, fortify my faith. Equip me with enough patience to wait on You- for Your will in my life. Help me trust in You come what may.

I keep my fingers crossed letting go as You take charge.

Jesus Will Provide

Nini, as I call her is my not-so-little sister. While chatting with her this morning, she asked when could we possibly go home. “I don’t know” was my answer followed by a narration of all my pessimism and worries. Before I could pound my keyboard any longer, I glanced at our chat window and her reply was “Jesus will provide.”

Her words were simple yet powerful. I always remind her to pray. I feel responsible to be her guide in her spiritual walk. Yet this morning, she’s seen the apprehensive side of her big sister who was taken over by anxiety and all she could say is “Jesus will provide.” It was an unsolicited advice but that is what my spirit exactly needs to be reminded of.

Jesus will provide. I’m glad to have heard this from and be reminded by my not-so-little sister. I am so blessed! I may not have a perfect family but we rely on the Lord’s great work in our lives. I believe we are still in an on-going process for refinement and it isn’t always easy but He’s always been there through it all.

Jesus will provide. He always has and I know He still will.

Thanks sister dear...

Smack Me!

For some foolish reason, hubby and I got delayed with our daily bible reading schedule and missed prayer and fasting this month. Restlessness shrewdly sneaked into the picture. I personally felt dry and distant from the Lord in our efforts to reach out for Him once again.

Add to that, I have been disturbed with the long idle hours at work. It brought me surfing from one site to another, blog-hopping, checking all my four email accounts several times in a day and even getting online to chat with whoever is available, simply because I wanted to kill time.

When I think about my job, I’m scared. I can’t afford to lose it. Nobody will take the responsibilities I have for my family back home. Who will pay all the bills, all the debts? What will happen to my contract when July comes? Or even before that? These and so many more questions… I want answers and I want them ASAP.

Then many more thoughts...

Before I could muster my stubborn thoughts into something wilder, the Lord interrupted me. He made me remember the lowest times in my life- those times when I did nothing but cry out to Him for help, times when I can only draw my strength from Him because I have nothing left on my own, times when I'd talk to Him all day long because nothing and no one else could comfort me but Him alone. “That was tough!” I uttered to myself. “Yes, tough indeed! But I did take care of everything. Didn’t I?” His reply left me speechless.

I do realize that I cannot thank Him enough for all the good things He’s done and still about to do in my life, yet, here I am worried with my own little world. Could someone please smack me n the face and tell me how BIG the GOD I serve?

Carelessness

We woke up earlier than usual this morning. After taking a shower, I decided to call Joan because I have always been postponing my calls to her since last month. We had a long chat until I finally have to leave for work. I was still happily talking with her on the phone when I closed the apartment's door.

At work,I turned on my computer and logged on then went to the restroom to comb my hair. Back to my desk,I looked at the phone wondering if hubby is already home. The routine would be- he calling me so I would know that he is home then we eat our breakfast after we hang up the phone. But it seems like it's taking him forever to give me a ring this morning. I have already prepared my breakfast and ready to eat when the phone rang."You won't believe what I saw when I came back," his tone somewhat uncanny. I didn't know what to expect but I wanted him to go straight to the point. Our next door neighbor was in our apartment! Hubby caught him in the act of looking for more things in our room while his watch was already on the table, the laptop closed, its cooling pad with two cellphones on the bed and another one already removed from the charger.

Click photo to enlarge

However,he was not ready to pack and leave yet. According to hubby, he seemed to be still searching for more stuff he could bring with him. Too unfortunate for him, we don't have anymore costly possessions other than those he had already found. Hubby claimed to have madly interrogated him and his alibi was he thought it was his apartment because it was unlocked. What kind of excuse is that? All doors in the apartment are numbered clearly that even a grade school pupil will be able to distinguish one from the other. Given the benefit of the doubt, he should be able to tell if he mistakenly entered our apartment as soon he opens the door. If so, he would not get himself farther than the living room and do what he did.

Hubby called security and the news reached the management. Their measure was replacing the door lock with a new one. Cops came and interrogated the guy. Their conclusion- the guy being disabled (Yes, one of his legs is artificial and he can't walk straight. I saw him aided with crutches one time.) was just being opportunistic and the door could have been possibly left unlocked. Okay, I admit maybe it was my fault being the last person to get out from the apartment. I clearly remember locking it although I know I should have double-checked it. Hubby couldn't tell if we lost anything yet. He asked the guy to show him his wallet and pockets and there was nothing in there except for some dollar bills and I don't think any of those is ours because I don't usually withdraw money and keep it in our apartment.

Thank you Lord, it was JUST that. Nobody was hurt and we lost nothing. I know You were already there even before hubby arrived.

Sunday Blessings

I wake up on Sunday mornings looking forward to chat with my family back home. It gives me peace and joy to know that they are well with the Lord's providence, protection and guidance. I usually wake up late than our normal appointed time to chat but not yesterday. I got up earlier than usual despite the previous day's tiring relaxation. It worried me that they never came online even after half an hour already. I resorted to buying a phonecard to contact them and see what's happening. Hearing my not-so-little sister's voice relieved me from my paranoia. It was just the usual network problem they were having with their internet at home. I talked to my mother and learned that her foot was hurting since Thursday and was asked to refrain from walking as much as possible. I need not know the reason nor care whether it was due to carelessness or not. What I cared for is her need to recuperate from it. It is always hard to console a feeling of concern+worry to a loved one who is hurting, especially that you are separated miles and miles away from them and you really can't see the actual situation. You know they usually keep the whole truth from you to loosen you up from negative emotions.My father made it up to me with the news he's brought with him. His retirement has moved one step up in the process. The course of a military's (or any government employee's) retirement application usually takes forever in the Philippines. I always tell him to pray about it and let the Lord take care of it. And he always agrees and reminds me that the Lord will always be with us.For this, I was blessed to realize that I have put my God aside and was taken over by my worries again. I praised and thanked the Lord after our conversation was cut off.

I did hubby's haircut for fun while cooking rice, sinigang and pancit guisado for our lunch and dinner. At church, Sunday school was finished early so I asked hubby if it would be okay with him that we go to one of the shopping places we went to the previous day. Hubby never says no to wifey so off we went. I agreed to make an express shopping and I did it in approximately 30 minutes for all three shops.

A pink dry highlighter, another pantyhose and a lovely pair of sandals

We were back to church just a minute before the awesome Spirit-filled service. Thank You Jesus!

How big is He?

I went for a walk around the company's facility with my Iranian officemate. Her objective is to lose weight while mine is to kill time. Coming back to my desk, I was approached by an Indian officemate asking to check my IP address. There was a virus outbreak since last week and it seems like this has not been resolved yet. Thank goodness, it wasn't my development nor test machine!

I sat down to check the bugs on our team's list and can't find anything fixable for me- not even the lowest priority ones.I switched to our local IM window and everybody else in our team except myself and a teammate are already offline. I looked at the clock and it's not even 3 o'clock yet.

"Bored?"- an officemate accross my desk finally noticed how bored I might be. I smiled and confirmed I was. He asked me if I read about the company's website article and again I said yes. "Kinda scary huh?" And again, I said yes. He said that the regulars are currently having a meeting about it. That's probably the reason why all my teammates are offline and the other one just had his status changed to away, I thought.

The article mentioned something about "restructuring" and that 375 positions will be affected. Who wouldn't be alarmed with that? If them citizens or even regulars can get distressed with this news, what more tension would that mean for us with temporary visa?

Indeed, no job, profession, house, car, not even any amount of money can conceal the insecurity this world brings. I'm just grateful that I have a God much bigger than all the troubles this world can give. "How big is He? GREAT BIG GOD!" -mercy over me

Still Sleepy BUT Hopeful

Ho-hummm.. I haven't been promoted in my job. I still get upset with holidays because I don't get paid as a contractor. Hubby is still jobless and I am earning just enough to pay for the bills and send some to my family in the Philippines. And ohhh yes, I still feel the pinch of the US economy's unstable disposition.

Thus, the anxiety of what my future is in this land remains. People put their hopes on Obama to make the change that this nation yearns for- to recuperate and regain its grandeur. But I am putting my hope in my God Who has always been faithful no matter how unfaithful I have become.

I hold on to His words and believe that He'll forever be my great Jehovah Jireh.

Unseen Purpose

Hubby and myself were invited to someone's ministry from church to feed the homeless yesterday. When we were given directions on how to get there, part of me got scared of the place. I have been fetched and brought back to my apartment by the the church van for 3 months. And I remember exactly, one of our stop overs was that very same place. I saw how our van driver would invite people there and be laughed at, ignored and sometimes even threatened. There was once when a drunkard insisted that he wanted to go to church with us but the driver very kindly explained that we don't bring intoxicated people to church. Myself, being new to this foreign country, was literally coping with my breath due to nervousness. I was so scared they'd all come to the van and get us all to trouble. Yeah, sounds exaggerated I know.. Maybe it's just this worrywart in me again.

Anyway, when we got there, hubby was anxious where to park or is it even safe to park there. We called a brother from church and he met us outside of the building. As we entered the building, I couldn't and would not dare to look at any of them. A guy or two approached hubby asking for coins but I didn't look at them either. At the kitchen were people from church preparing the food and I finally relaxed myself. We prayed and the head of this ministry told us that whenever he's doing this, he would always think that he's doing it for his very own brother.

The word was preached with the same message as my title. The young preacher got emotional as he emphasized over and over about each one's unseen purpose. It doesn't matter what each one's past was or what his life is all about today. What's the most important is to realize that each one still has a purpose- a relationship with Jesus. I knew not all of them were touched by the message, maybe not even after the preacher burst into uncontrollable tears during the message. I admire this young man's concern for the homeless people in that building. I admire the group's commitment to this ministry and I'm glad to be part of it yesterday.

I went out of the building relieved from the kind of fear that I always have to deal with whenever I hear anything about the place, get near to it and especially when I'm inside that building. These people's physical appearance may be really scary for me but I know Jesus loves them just the same.