My "Seven Cents"

It's my birthday today! Seventh of September.  Seven days before my birthday, I wanted to soak myself in on seven lessons from my daily devotions. Here are the "seven cents" I got:

August 31st:

• "I believed, and so I spoke." (From 2 Corinthians 4:13, ESV)

Really, if you experience the love of God and you believed, you can't not speak about it! You can't keep the story to yourself. When you have an encounter with the Lord Jesus, you want to share the Good News you had just experienced with Him! There is a fire inside that ignites you to speak about the transformation God made in your life.

September 1st:

• "Never give up" (From 2 Corinthians 4:16, NLT)

Just like Paul who wrote the book of Corinthians, I don't want to give up on doing the task assigned to me by God. 

September 2nd

•  My goal in life: to please God (From 2 Corinthians 5:9)

I am a goal oriented person. I write down my yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals. But what really is the goal of this temporal life? We get inundated with so many things listed in our goals list.  But really, the only goal we have is to please God in all we do.

September 3rd 

• One day I will stand before God for the good or evil I have done. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

What good can I do today?

September 4th

•  Work hard for the responsibility that God assigned to me. (From 2 Corinthians 5:11)

 Don't just do things just for the sake of doing them. Work hard with all my heart, mind and strength! I'm serving the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He deserves the best!

September 5th

• Look at people from God's point of view. (From 2 Corinthians 5:16)

 God looks at the heart. Look at others through God's eyes and heart.

September 6th

• I am an ambassador! (From 2 Corinthians 5:20)

As a believer, I represent Christ and His message to this world. Is my life showing the love of God?

From a Blog to a Book... a Journey

 Blog. I thought it was a word for a sound when something fell off! I first heard about it from my friend Jiggy.  Then my sister Che mentioned about it. They were both in the blogging world. It was a new internet platform.  I'm not much of a web person.  I had too much to do at home I can barely stay online. I got curious though.  So I checked it out, created my profile and began my journey in the blogging world. Fragments was born.

I always loved writing. I love words. I especially love and devour God's Word. It's a deep desire like an  unquenchable wild fire, blazing, burning, spreading in my soul, a passion pushing, crying out loud, insatiable. A holy discontent.  I can't just get enough of it. And so it overflows in what I write. It is what I boast about. My blog.

Blogging is exposing.  It is revealing.  It takes a great amount of courage to lay your heart open. Some will like it. Others will love it. But there will be those who will criticize and reject it. But this is all part of the call. Obedience to God's assignment over other voices is a battle. But in the end I am accountable to the audience of One, my God, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Just like fragments creating a whole, the dream of publishing a book began to permeate inside of me. Another cry. Another fire. Another nudging. So I prayed. God whispered words. He brought me back to my life story, my testimony, fragments of His love story.

Forty. A dream of writing something about the faithfulness of God in the four decades of my life began to sprout. But somewhere along the way, it laid dormant. I felt stuck. I wanted to write and publish a book for my fortieth birthday but it didn't happen. The dream almost died. But a still small voice kept ringing. "Fortyfied," a word posted by my friend Egai who passed away after two years of that post on my facebook timeline on my fortieth birthday kept coming back to me. I began to write again. I carved time early mornings, seeking, sulking in God's presence to give me the words.  Fragments Fortyfied was formed.

The process was harder than I thought. It was a time of digging, of learning, of purging, of molding, of purifying, humbling. I doubted. I hesitated. I cringed. I stepped back. Then stepped up again. It was a battle in my  heart, in my mind. I made mistakes. I worked by myself. But God sent help through people who pushed me up like Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' hands so they would win the battle.And the book was published by God's amazing grace. He is faithful! To the Lord Jesus Christ alone be the honor and glory! 

 

What is the dream God has put in your heart? 

Don't give up. 

Keep going. 

Keep seeking God. 

Keep listening. 

Your story matters. 

 

Fragments Fortyfied available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and xulonpress.com

On Life and Love

          Had my father been alive today, my parents would have celebrated their 55th Anniversary last month.   I was talking to my mother who's in the Philippines over the phone  and I felt a splash of sadness knowing that she misses my father especially on that very special day.  She candidly told me how she felt and how they could have celebrated the big day. But I admire my mother's inner strength that comes out of her strong faith and love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

          In honoring my parents and in time for Valentine's Day, I want to share some of life and love lessons I've learned from them:

On Life:

We are all capable of social mobility with God's grace.

          I love having conversations with my parents about their own life stories.  When my father was still alive,  I would ask him to tell me the story of his life and it inspired me when he enthusiastically related to me the events of his past that were important to him.  He came from an economically challenged family who lived dependently on fishing and a little farming.  He was the eldest and bore more responsibilities in helping their family.  There were days he couldn't go to school because he had to catch fish first to put food on their table.  He recounted how he went to school barefooted when he was in grade school because they couldn't afford to buy slippers.  But poverty didn't weigh him down.  I admired my father's brilliant mind and strong determination.  He left the little town and went to Manila, the economic center of the country, looked for a job and went to take a vocational course as a mechanic.  He landed a job in a commercial fishing business and gained favor from the owner who became like a father to him.  He eventually became the main man and managed the whole business.

         My mother also came from a family where she had to work hard to have food in their mouth.  She grew up planting vegetables.  Her mother made beautiful crocheted curtains, bedspreads, table covers, pillowcases, clothing and earned some income from them.  In order to help, my mother sold root crops in the neighborhood and even to her classmates.  My mother was and still is very entrepreneurial and people person.  She was my father's support and as the saying goes, behind every man's success is a woman.

         It always inspires me how my parents lived a life characterized with hard work and discipline.  I've never seen them waking up late.  They always rose up early and were never lazy.  This lifestyle reminds me of a verse in Proverbs 6:10-11 "A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber." Moreover, what I remember hearing from both of my parents were their recognition of the power higher than them.  I could still hear the phrases "Sa awa ng Diyos" (By God's Mercy/Grace) or "Awa ng Diyos" (God's Mercy/Grace) echoing in my memory.  It was God's hand of blessing and grace that brought them where God had planned them to be.

On Love.

Humility. Forgiveness. And a morning cup of coffee.

          It was not a perfect marriage.  It was so flawed, actually.  But what I saw was a tough love that endured the test and trials of heartaches and pain and the triumph of humility,  forgiveness, and love.  We all fall short and in our weaknesses we make choices that hurt the people we love. But because love is higher and tougher to conquer the pain, my parents victoriously passed the test and kept their love for each other stronger.  And I will always remember the image of my parents having their cups of coffee every morning, sipping, talking, connecting. Love.