The Greatness of our God

I wanna share this very nice song which is close to describing the greatness of this Great , Big and loving God we serve.

Give me eyes to see
More of who You are
May what I behold,
still my anxious heart.
Take what I have known
And break it all apart
For You my God, are Greater still.

And no sky contains,
No doubt restrains,
All You are,
The greatness of our God.
I spend my life to know,
And I’m far from close
To all You are,
The greatness of our God.

Give me grace to see
Beyond this moment here.
To believe that there
Is nothing left to fear.
And that You alone are high above it all.
You my God, are Greater still.

And no sky contains,
No doubt restrains,
All You are,
The greatness of our God.
I spend my life to know,
And I’m far from close
To all You are,
The greatness of our God.

All You are
The Greatness of our God

And there is nothing
That could ever separate us.
There is nothing that can ever
separate us from Your love.
No life, no death, of this I am convinced.
You my God, are Greater still.

‘Til I see You

Woke up this morning, Just want to share this beautiful worship song “Til I see you” (by Hillsong) which has been one of my favorites for almost 5 years.

The greatest love that anyone could ever know
That overcame the cross and grave to find my soul
And ’til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I’ll trust in You

With all I am I’ll live to see Your kingdom come
And in my heart I pray You’d let Your will be done
And ’til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I’ll trust in You

I will live to love You
I will live to bring You praise
I will live a child in awe of You

You are the voice that calls the universe to be
You are the whisper in my heart that speaks to me
And ’til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I’ll trust in you

You alone are God of all
You alone are worthy Lord
And with all I am my soul will bless Your name

Lord, I need you

Id’ like to share this song by Chris Tomlin, this song has been in my playlist but only yesterday that I got to listen to it. Reminds me that everyday I need Jesus Christ in my life. “Every hour I need Him”.

Verse 1:
Lord I come, I confess
Bowing here I find my rest
Without You I fall apart
You’re the one that guides my heart

Chorus:
Lord, I need You, oh I need You
Every hour I need You
My one defense, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You

Verse 2:
Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more
Where grace is found is where You are
And where You are Lord I am free
Holiness is Christ in me
Yes where You are Lord I am free
Holiness is Christ in me

Bridge:
So teach my song to rise to You
When temptation comes my way
And when I cannot stand I’ll fall on You
Jesus You’re my hope and stay
And when I cannot stand I’ll fall on You
Jesus You’re my hope and stay

Our duty is to be satisfied in Him

What on earth are we here for? What is our purpose here in life? What is man’s ultimate duty? These are the questions that led me to write this blog.

Maximizing our joy in God is what we were created for because we are commanded to rejoice in God.

and the bible tells over and over to pursue joy: “Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart”- Psalm 32:11 (Psalm 67:4, Psalm 37:4, Luke 10:20) The Apostle Paul even encouraged us in Phil 4:4 to “rejoice in the Lord” while he himself was in the prison, for such a long time I’ve tried to ignore this verse because I never about this “duty of delighting ourselves” in Him.

Being satisfied with all God is for us in Jesus is the essence of the authentic experience of the authentic experience of worship. God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in.

John Piper once said in his book “The best news in the world… God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

because God’s passion to be glorified and our passion to be satisfied are not at odds. just as what the old Westminster catechism says “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

The radical implication is that pursuing pleasure in God is our highest calling. that means, If Christ’s honor is our passion, the pursuit of pleasure in Him is our duty. Being satisfied in God is our calling and duty.

“Take delight in the LORD,  and he will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4 It’s no more a question whether you are enjoying your relationship with Him because it is our duty, we are mandated at all cost to find our satisfaction in Him, find rest in Him and enjoy Him forever. Here are ways we can do that. you may comment or suggest if you thought of more….

In love

What about relationships of love with other people? The pursuit of pleasure is an essential motive for every good deed. If you aim to abandon the pursuit of full and lasting pleasure, you cannot love people or please God. We must receive and experience real love before we can express it to others, because we cannot give what we do not have. So even if I feel it or not, it’s my ddecision to love Him with all my heart , mind and soul.

We can’t find our true joy and satisfaction in the midst of hype, emotions or feelings.  Not only when we feel like we love him,  when we are “lovestruck” by Him. We find joy and real love from the true source of it all no matter what situation we are in.

Love is the overflow of our joy in God, which gladly meets the needs of others. Thus, it’s our duty to pursue full and lasting joy that can only be found in Christ Jesus.

In worship

Being satisfied with all God is for us in Jesus is the essence of the authentic experience of worship. Therefore worship the pleases God is the pursuit of God. Our heart, mind, body and soul rans after him.

This means we get ourselves excited with God, not worship. The Person of God and not the lyrics and melody of the song or the glory and experience we are during our time of worship or the tears that have fallen in our eyes. These are God but our focus should be in the Father, Spirit and Son Jesus Christ alone.

Worship is just our expression, our way of entering into His presence, the moment when we get to meet with Him. Because He is our exceedingly great reward. Let’s not worship worship but Christ alone. If the essence of worship is satisfaction in God, then worship can’t be a means to anything else.

In suffering

Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow Him, deny ourselves and make sacrifices for the sake of ministering to the church and presenting  His sufferings to the world.

We do not choose suffering simply because it is the right thing to do, but because the One who tells us to describes it as the path to everlasting joy. He asks us to trust into the obedience of suffering not to demonstrate the strength of our devotion to duty, nor to reveal the vigor of our moral resolve, not to prove the heights of our tolerance for pain; but rather to manifest , in childlike faith, the infinite preciousness of His all-satisfying promises.

Maturity is when even in times of pain we still trust Him, we still worship and find delight in Him. Even in times of doubt, confusion, pain, waiting, impatience and suffering.

In the pursuit of joy through suffering, we magnify the all-satisfying worth of the Source of our joy. Jesus Christ himself shines as the brightness at the end of our tunnel of pain. Try this and you’ll never go wrong.

Because God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.

Love for Real or Reel? “Quest for the Real Love” (part 1 of 2)

What is REAL LOVE? that’s what a lot of people we’re trying to find out.probably everyone wants to find out, and i’m not here to come as a “know-it-all kinda’ guy”. Just wanna share my hearts out.

Perhaps because we’re all a relational being as God created us to be. Our God is also a relational God. He is not just up there in a far away galaxy looking down and watching over us. God created us first and foremost to have our hearts and soul connected to Him.

” The second and most powerful way he wants to express His love to you, is He wants to bring another person into your life. He wants your hearts, minds and emotions to connect” -Chip Ingram

He wants us to understand and experience how to receive love and give love, to understand what’s sex is, where it should be and how it can be better, deeper understood and appreciated in the best way we could ever imagine. He wants us to meet the person who would be there even if all they see is our ugliness, our lack of patience and carnality. They will still smile, look at us and say ‘ I still love you anyway’.

We’ll some of us already found that person, while some relationships aren’t in that kind of situation. while many are still in the process of looking, praying and even fasting for the “Right person at the Right time and place?”. It’s the longing of every single heart.

It has been in the almost all of the songs, movies and mtv’s. And if we’re going to take a brief summary of Hollywood’s prescription about Romance, it’s this four (Reel) prescription;

Step 1 Find the right person - that means you gotta go out there on a hunt. We gotta “wear the right jeans”. And we have an entire world doing what? looking and looking and looking.

Step 2 Then fall in love - You will find this in a lot of movies. You don’t know how it happens but it magical, it’s mystical You might be just riding on the LRT and she walks by and your eyes meet. then you’re “in-love”. You might into a Starbucks or in a mall, You bumped into each other. you look he looks , there’s something about his eyes, there’s chemistry. then you go tell your friend, “I’ve met him!” (kinikilig!) Who? what? where? when? What’s his name? how old is he? I don’t know but i met Him and i’m in love.

Step 3 You start to fix your hopes and dreams with that person =)Your entire world now revolves around that person and trying to met him/her. He started not going to his class, she’s not doing her homework, her other responsibilities. it’s all about getting to meet that person. Then both of you started going out and the feelings are so powerful. Can you relate on this =)

 

Step 4 However if that failure occur, repeat steps one,two and three. When you found out something in them is rotten, they go out with another person and unsure of getting into marriage or a long-term or perhaps lifetime commitment. Here’s their assumption. Oh it was just for a season. He was not really the right person. Then we go out and “fish” again to find that what we hope and pray to be “GPC” God’s perfect choice for us!

We wonder How can we really find what’s God’ will is? His good pleasing and perfect will for us! Who is the right person, where can we find him/her, When can we find that person specially meant for us? We now know about the Hollywood’s prescription, How about looking at God’s prescription? God’s way of ordaining our relationships, Share me your thoughts on this …

Let’s give our “pen” to God and let Him write our very own Love Story! =)

Love for Real or Reel? “Quest for the Real Love” (part 2 of 2)

I was in the hospital while writing this down, I wander why do we call the sick people “patient” maybe it’s because they have to patient in order get treatment and then I was reminded of one of the mostly quoted verse in the Bible regarding “Love” in 1st Cor.13:4, The first characteristic of Love is Patient…. and it goes on in saying that it is kind, self-less, it trusts, hopes, and always perseveres…it never fails.

Somebody asked me,” Ikakasal ka na ba? ” what inspired me to write ‘em. I believe you don’t have to be dead in order to say something about death, you don’t have to married in order to say something about marriage and family planning, as long as you’re getting there and with all the lessons learned from others mistakes and experiences. =)

How do you develop your love life regardless of whether you’re single or married already?

on Part 1, we saw how Love that’s for REEL looks like, Hollywood’s prescription, Now i wanna share with you another model, what’s the difference between love and infatuation? Let me share to you the 3 different kinds of Love in God’s prescription;

Agape Love that’s the idea of being brother and sister in Christ.
That’s loving one another radically, That’s giving the other person what
They need the most when they deserve it the least. That’s cherishing and
Protecting. That’s being pure because you don’t want anything to damage them.

Agape love is doing what you choose is right because you care, not what you feel

Phileo
On the right side is Phileo Love, that’s being best friends, that’s time, and walks and communication and sharing hearts.

Eros
And then you have Eros, Erotic love and that’s being lover and nourishing in the marriage relationship what God longs for you to have.

But here’s what I want for us to see; all three need to go together,
All three needs to be nourished.

Keep your emotional and physical involvement behind your leading from God
And commitment to the other person.

I will not get involve physically until God opens the door, and I know it His will.

Not that coz they deserve it, not if they… or because they… but you do it because
You have been given it by God, and you begin to give it that way.

That’s because all in all Love never fails… (1 Cor. 13)

It’s patient it’s kind, it doesn’t bring up the past. It’s considerate. It’s not rude. It doesn’t brag. It’s other centered. It’s a kind of love God loves you with…. It might be hard, God is there to help us out…. as long as He’s in the center of our relationships…

Love is a choice . . . not a feeling.
Agape + Phileo + Eros = REAL LOVE