Archive for the ‘My Family’ Category
It’s the same thing as Video City
November 3, 2009What Would a Follower of Christ Watch?
October 30, 2009
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I had originally started to put this together for a movie night for a group of teens. They wanted me to get this movie list to them a lot quicker than this. However with such a short time left I know that they will not be able to use my recommendations now. So, my primary purpose for composing this is more for reflection and prayer. Most of them will not get to see this until ‘after’ the JCF get together.
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I will have to review this later.
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*to help you decide what movies you can both enjoy and ’should’ watch.
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The Laundry Woman’s Husband
October 15, 2009Just got information about our laundry woman’s husband. She showed up here in tears just a couple of hours ago when I was not here.
One of the problems after the flood is so many people with previous problems (like diabetes) have had wounds that were infected by the dirty standing water as they attempted to save items from their homes and/or clean their homes. Her husband’s wound on his leg has become ’so’ infected that it is already purple now all the way up to the knee.
They may need to amputate later, but for now he needs a shot that will ease the infection and the pain. Our laundry woman is only asking that she can borrow the money. That she will work it off later. But for now her husband is in urgent need.God has given us enough to help with this but it is still hard. I think about the money that I have set aside for the purpose of helping others according to God’s will; but then I also think about money that we were saving for other medical and education “needs” of the family and how that is going down faster than it is going up.
Like most people I have this part of me that wants to believe that it is money that I need in order to provide for what my family needs. The part of me that is unfaithful to God’s promises wants to trust that the money we have set aside is what I will find my security in. However, just as my phrases ablove alludes to, I know that instead I need to trust in God.
Though there is an unfaithful part of me that wants to say trusting in what God has given me is the same thing as trusting in God; I know better. I know that “trust” is intricately bound to the very essence of “love”. So, if I trust in what God has provided me (and my mind is on the wealth that He provided me) then what I am actually trusting in is the wealth itself; as if God was only able to work through money. Though there is nothing wrong with money, the ‘love’ of the stuff is the root of all things that separate us from God.
God has given us the opportunity to give. And moreso I need to remember that He loved me so much through His son to give us life eternal. That was a very hight cost that was paid. And it’s not this world that we are taught by Him to invest in. It is the kingdom that will be prepared for all those that believe.
How Can There Be A God If
October 2, 2009I think mothers and fathers look at the pain that their children go through a little differently. I think, in general, mothers would do anything so that their children would not have to experience pain. Father’s on the other hand, with varying philosophies, believe that certain amounts of pain and hardships are good for their children and prepare their children for future hardships that they might have to endure in life.
Consider for a moment the many scriptures that speak of our faith being refined the same way that fine metals are refined (through intense heat) … 1 Peter 1:6-9 is one of them. Intense heat is ‘not’ comfortable! :-) Now consider a God whose long term objective is ‘not’ our comfort in this world (though He does often comfort us), but rather a goal of the eternal salvation of our souls.
If we allow the tragedies in life to turn our hearts toward God then what we call tragedies have not been wasted. Look to the long term objectives and promises … 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Windows One thru Twenty-Nine Please
September 11, 2009I was very “pressed upon” and tired yesterday, but today I feel surprisingly well. Don’t get me wrong; my feet still hurt, my toe on my right foot feel like it’s bruised, and I’d happily take on about three more hours of sleep if I didn’t have so many other things that I believe I should attend to. Yes yesterday was quite a day.
Got there a little after ten AM. First I went to window one and was told by someone in line that I should go to window three to complete my “previously approved” 12(a) visa. At window three I was told that I needed to have my tourists visa extended by one month. But before I go to window twelve I needed to make two copies of several of my documents. Ok at window twelve I was told I needed to go to window fourteen, who politely explained to me that I needed to go back to window three to get something called an “Agenda”.
Back at window three and he showed me that the document which I already possessed was signed by the director and so I didn’t need an Agenda. Knowing about beurocracy at it’s best I requested that he write a very short note that I could give to the guy at window fourteen so Mr. Window Fourteen wouldn’t think that I simply didn’t know what I was talking about. Mr. Three didn’t seem to want to give this to me however. So after I did my best three to four minutes of unsucceful persuasion I finally just got his name (MacDave) and accepted another printed document that was different than what I had but wasn’t what Mr. Fourteen was asking for.
After taking this to Mr. Fourteen he looked at what I got from Mr. Three with an expression of “This isn’t what I asked for”. After a few seconds of that he seemed to come up with a way that he could make this do and gave me some paperwork to fill out. After filling out the paperwork I went back to Mr. Fourteen who promptly sent me to window sixteen to pay for my one month visa extention. This was about P3,100 (but I don’t have the receipt in front of me right now). Going back to Mr. Fourteen with the receipt I was told I can pick up my passport and visa later at 1:30pm (a bit more than an hour and a forty five minutes). So I walked to Manila SM to run some other errands.
1:33pm I went to window sixteen to pick up my visa. Now back to Mr. Three and was given another form to fill out and the task of getting two copies of a handful of other documents. Now back at window three who tells me to go to window six to pay (another P5,300) and then back to window three. Mr. Three then tells me at 3:45pm that I can pick up my passport and this new visa at window one. Ahrighty another hour and a half to do something, back to SM Manila (which is a brisk ten minute walk by the way).
Three forty-five PM; your friendly neighborhood “Hey Joe” (as they call all Americans) makes his way back to window one and waits there for ten minutes for his turn. After getting to window one I am told to wait while the clerk goes to the back and gets something that has nothing to do with me and then comes back. My visa (and various paper work) is on the top but I am asked for P8 and the task of making two more copies of several documents and then to come back to window one. After waiting in a short line for the copier (pleasant surprise) I come back to window one and am told that I am not done yet (what?!?).
Ok, now at window number twenty four where I am give another document to fill out and the task of going to the other side of the building to get two copies of seven different documents. I come back to window twenty four a few minutes later and am told that I missed one. So I go back to the copier and come back to window twenty-four with what I think is everything however Mrs. Twenty-Four says that I have the wrong copy of the visa page of my passport. Now back to the copier to get this corrected and then back to Mrs. Twenty-Four.
Everything is completed so I take a finger print card to a make-shift finger print station behind me where I wait for five minutes before going back to Mrs. Twenty-Four who points at two chatty women sitting down about six feet from the station. I just thought they were there just like me, neither one of them said “How may I help you” when I was standing right beside the finger print station for five minutes.
After the finger printing is done I go back to Mrs. Twenty-Four and she tell me that I should go to Window twenty-six to pay an additional fee. Oh no!; when I started this fiasco I had printed out a page from the Phil Immigration website that said my total fees would be P5100. So like a good little Boy Scout I thought I would double that amount just so I could be prepared. Well that wasn’t quite enough and at this point I was P700 short; where would I get this money?
With a smile Mrs. Twenty-Four said “oh no, you’ll just have to come back tomorrow. We will be open at 9am.”. Well I smiled back politely and said “ok well I’ll just come back tomorrow then”. But that’s not what I was thinking. I was trying to figure out how I could get out of this situation without having to make the nearly two hour trip back to Marikina only to do this again tomorrow.
I thought of the lawyer that helped us with this process in the beginning. So I went up to the forth floor to his office and talked the matter over with him. After I was somewhat convinced that I wasn’t being treated unduly in this matter, I remembered that I had P1000 in my BPI account. So I went down to Mrs. Twenty-Four and asked if there was a BPI ATM near by and if I had the time to go to it. “It’s just over there but you’ll need to hurry; it’s 4:30pm already.”.
Ok so I hurry about fifty meters to the ATM and then hurry back; pesos in hand. Mrs. Twenty-Four reorganizes my paperwork and sends me to window twenty-six to pay P2991. The middle age woman at window twenty-six was about the most disinterested and slow employee I’ve ever come across. I waited there patiently for a very full five minutes before she ever got to me. She simply sorted and organized the other work that she had there, not once making eye contact with me. My paperwork simply hung there over the edge of her side of the window (I wanted to make sure that she knew I was there). And once every ninety seconds (about) I would shift my paperwork in front of her. Again with absolutely no eye contact I had no idea that she even knew I was there.
Paid the P2991 and then was told to proceed to window twenty-nine where I would have a picture taken for my new iCard and my contact and identifying information was inputted into a computer. The only piece that was incorrect was my age. It said 39 (I’m only 38) but it had my birth date correct of course but the age was still wrong. The explaination?; “The computer calculates age based on year”. They apparently had no way to correct this. And finally, about seven hours after I got there, I was given a telephone number to call to find out the status of my iCard tomorrow. But no one knew (I asked three of the people involved) whether the card would be ready when I called or whether it would take two days, three days, one week or three weeks .
Am I unhappy about this situation? Well no, was just tired and felt that my patience was quite tried. But as the old saying goes, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”; or the scripture says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
There area lot of details to this story (like the cost of everything) that I have left out. I spent nearly P12,000 yesterday and hopefully I’ll collect the receipts from upstairs and add those details another time as I think it will be useful for others in in the same situation.
Benefit of Suffering
July 7, 2009
MY DEAR W OR MW OOD,
It is a little bit disappoin ting to expect a detailed report on your work and to receive instead such a vague rhapsody as your last letter. You say you are “delirious with joy” because the European humans have started another of their wars. I see very well what has happened to you. You are not delirious; you are only drunk. Reading between the lines in your very unbalanced account of the patient’s sleepless night, I can reconstruct your state of mind fairly accurately. For the first time in your career you have tasted that wine which is the reward of all our labours—the anguish and bewilderment of a human soul—and it has gone to your head. I can hardly blame you. I do not ex pect old heads on young shoulders. Did the patient respond to some of your terror-pictures of the future? Did you work in some good self-pitying glances at the happy past?—some fine thrills in the pit of his stomach, were there? You played your violin prettily did you? Well, well, it’s all very natural. But do remember, Wormwood, that duty comes before pleasure. If any present self-indulgence on your part leads to the ultimate loss of the prey, you will be left eternally thirsting for that draught of which you are now so much enjoying your first sip. If, on the other hand, by steady and cool-headed application here and now you can finally secure his soul, he will then be yours forever—a brim-full living chalice of despair and horror and astonishment which you can raise to your lips as often as you please. So do not allow any temporary excitement to distract you from the real business of undermining faith and preventing the formation of virtues. Give me without fail in your next letter a full account of the patient’s reactions to the war, so that we can consider whether you are likely to do more good by making him an extreme patriot or an ardent pacifist. There are all sorts of possibilities. In the meantime, I must warn you not to hope too much from a war.
Of course a war is entertaining. The immediate fear and suffering of the humans is a legitimate and pleasing refreshment for our myriads of toiling workers. But what permanent good does it do us unless we make use of it for bringing souls to Our Father Below? When I see the temporal suffering of humans who finally escape us, I feel as if I had been allowed to taste the first course of a rich banquet and then denied the rest. It is worse than not to have tasted it at all. The Enemy, true to His barbarous methods of warfare, allows us to see the short misery of His favourites only to tantalise and torment us—to mock the incessant hunger which, during this present phase of the great conflict, His blockade is admittedly imposing. Let us therefore think rather how to use, than how to enjoy, this European war. For it has certain tendencies inherent in it which are, in themselves, by no means in our favour. We may hope for a good deal of cruelty and unchastity.
But, if we are not careful, we shall see thousands turning in this tribulation to the Enemy, while tens of thousands who do not go so far as that will nevertheless have their attention diverted from themselves to values and causes which they believe to be higher than the self. I know that the Enemy disapproves many of these causes. But that is where He is so unfair. He often makes prizes of humans who have given their lives for causes He thinks bad on the monstrously sophistical ground that the humans thought them good and were following the best they knew. Consider too what undesirable deaths occur in wartime. Men are killed in places where they knew they might be killed and to which they go, if they are at all of the Enemy’s party, prepared. How much better for us if all humans died in costly nursing homes amid doctors who lie, nurses who lie, friends who lie, as we have trained them, promising life to the dying, encouraging the belief that sickness excuses every indulgence, and even, if our workers know their job, withholding all suggestion of a priest lest it should betray to the sick man his true condition! And how disastrous for us is the continual remembrance of death which war enforces. One of our best weapons, contented worldliness, is rendered useless. In wartime not even a human can believe that he is going to live forever.
I know that Scabtree and others have seen in wars a great opportunity for attacks on faith, but I think that view was exaggerated. The Enemy’s human partisans have all been plainly told by Him that suffering is an essential part of what He calls Redemption; so that a faith which is destroyed by a war or a pestilence cannot really have been worth the trouble of destroying. I am speaking now of diffused suffering over a long period such as the war will produce. Of course, at the precise moment of terror, bereavement, or physical pain, you may catch your man when his reason is temporarily suspended. But even then, if he applies to Enemy headquarters, I have found that the post is nearly always defended,
SCREWTAPE
Letting Scripture Interpret itself
June 25, 2009From time to time I hear someone tell me that the bible is up for interpretation. What they refer to as the bible is something that I more literally refer to as scripture. I do this because I think that it is important to let the scriptures interpret themselves. Very similarly to the way a specialist takes an unknown language and then begins to compare the symbols with each other until he eventually find meaning in the previously unknown symbols.
I wonder what target he 'is' gonna hit?
Someone more familiar with this idea than myself listed this idea in these terms –> The text of Scripture must be interpreted by historical exegesis, taking an account of its literary forms and devices, letting Scripture interpret Scripture and not relying on the knowledge of man. The reason we should let the Scripture interpret itself is because the bible always tells the truth concerning everything it talks about, but man continually makes errors. If man interprets the bible then the interpretation is open to error, but if the bible interprets the bible, it will always be completely true. This is why the exegesis of passages is important, so that we know what the scripture is actually saying, contrary to what we think it is saying.
It’s usually the people that have something they don’t want to give up that like to adopt the idea that the scripture is up to interpretation. Of course if they ever accept the idea of letting the scriptures interpret themselves then they’ll probably resort to some other form of poking holes in the idea. They would rather do that than think that they themselves are not living up to a mark that the believe is true. “The mark” obviously has to change, because they certainly are not going to change :-)
It’s Good to Ask
March 27, 2009It is good that our family is going through things that require us to ask for help. “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” – Luke 18:17 … Think about it for a moment. Have you ever seen a child that had difficulty asking for help because of their pride and their desire to be self sufficient
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I was originally looking up something else in connection with pride when I found a blog entry about becoming like children. And then I believe that the Unique Person of God (the Holy Spirit) began to teach me as I was reading that scripture above in the context of pride. And I started to think how much I really need to set aside my pride and become more like a little child in so many more ways.
I should start getting to know the children that God has placed in my life and looking at them more. I should start learning from the way that God has made the ones that are closest to me before they lose too much of their innocence. And hopefully before that happens God will have given my wife and I another child that is old enough that I can learn from. Well actually wife to be, just nine more days to marriage.
Overheated
March 26, 2009
It was running just a little hot :-)
There are so many things that are happening that are pressing the faith that God has given me. First of all I wasn’t planning on getting married so soon, but we both know that God had other things in mind. Before I had plans on getting married I had looked at the money that God had given me and thought to myself “ah ok. If I live frugally it looks like I will have enough money here to live in the Philippines for six months before I really must look for a job. And I already think that God is leading me to start looking for work much sooner than that, maybe a month or two, so it will be quite easy to do this.”
But then God put the burden on my heart to get married much sooner according to His timing. So I had to spend a little over half of what I had saved up to buy the ring and pay for what I thought was going to be half of the wedding (but it keeps getting bigger). But I thought to myself, “Well that still leaves me 3 months of provision and I still have my last paycheck and my tax refund that is left. And I also have two hundred in the U.S. that I can send a check to Malu so she can deposit in her dollar account.”. But then this hope of provision has also gone away, at least temporarily, because of the fraud that has been occurring on my accounts.
And then lastly I had been thinking; “Ok, maybe instead of directly through me, God will be providing for the remainder of our needs for the wedding through the Honda that will be sold”. But then this overheating thing happened today where the water cap must have been placed back on the radiator too loosely and I did not look at the temperature gauge as I should have. So for almost an hour my faith was shaken and I was struggling to keep my desire and hopes upward. It was shaken I believe because I had, once again, been putting my faith in what I could see instead of what I could not see. God has taught me that it is foolish to trust in myself (man). As one scripture puts it “It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes.” PS 118:9 . And another one that says “Woe to those who … trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!” ISAIH 31:1
So I started to feel better. And I knew though it was all so difficult, that everyone still had food and clothing. And even though it would make me feel sad I would still have that joy 2Cor 6:10 in knowing what God has promised is more than anything, even a wedding, that I might get in this world. It was only the provision of food and clothing that God had promised. And that not even my wedding is something that He had promised beyond the provision of those. However I still think that He would see to it that this wedding is beautiful because our desire is, this time, to honor Him in this wedding and not ourselves. We hope to point to all good things coming from Him. Without just assuming this, like so many people like to use as an excuse not to recognize God in everything.
Lastly, just a few minutes ago. I found out that the car was ok. Malu’s brother tried the car and it cranked just fine and he said the engine was not any worse than it was before. I was concerned because I had tried the car one time before and it had trouble cranking at that time. However the car must have cut off before there was any real damage that was done. I was going very slowly at the time, and when I noticed the gauge was in the red I stopped the car by placing my foot on the brakes. But when I stopped the car with the brakes, the car then stalled on it’s own and the engine halted. So it’s good that it must have just got in the red for a very short time. And once again, as God would have it, I had stopped right in front of a home where a woman was outside already. And she was able to help me by fetching a pale of water that I placed in the radiator after the engine had cooled a little.
An Email from my WTB
March 10, 2009Just thought I would share one of the emails that my WTB (Wife-to-Be) just sent me. Just another reminder of who God has chosen for me :-)
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Hi HTB,
Thought I would share this bible study with you. It reminded me of the verse that we were talking about last Sat. after we came from Quiapo – when the parking attendant took advantage of us.
Today, I have decided to keep praise & worship songs and bible study lessons going continuously in an effort to be sensitive to God’s voice, hear Him more, and start living as God wants me to. I was affected by one of the discussion questions in the devotional I was reading: “Imagine for a moment, Jesus would replace your life with His life for one day, with His heart’s desire; He would go through your one day routine – wake up on your bed, drive your car or commute through road traffic, talk to your peers, pay your bills, etc. – would people around you see a radical difference in you? Or would there be no difference from what you’ve been doing on a regular day because, Jesus already lives in your heart always?”
Malu
