Marriage and Beyond is celebrating its 4th anniversary and part of it is giving away exciting prizes for 4 winners.  I'm sure you'll definitely love the prizes at stake in their contest, just how they hooked my attention! :) This is made possible by their ever generous sponsors: Life as Experienced Daily and Church in Makati.

Here are the lovely prizes you would surely want to have in your bucket:

Yesterday, we had our church's monthly leaders' meeting in. Before we started to discuss all the agendas, our youth coordinator shared a passage from the Bible stating that we are Christ's AMBASSADORS. Meaning, we are representatives of Christ.

I opened my email and was pleased to receive a message from a site encouraging the youth to be more devoted to God. When I read the devotion for today, I feel very excited to share it to everyone (especially to all the leaders in church).

Last night, I made sure that I will rise up at exactly 4 o'clock in the morning. I set up three alarm clocks to make sure I won't be late for tomorrow  because honestly, I have a hard time going out of the bed especially when I feel really tired.

Thankfully, this morning, I was up to bed even before the time I set all the alarm clocks! (I think this was the first time. Haha!) I decided not to take a bath because we will be jogging around and will be sweating a lot this morning. I just washed my face, then have my teeth brushed, and hair combed, then I was ready for the said activity.

I just want to share to you my homework in our Baptist College of Leadership (BCL) class. Our topic was about debotional method since we are currently taking up the subjest "Methods of Bible Study".

“Prove yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” James 1:22

EMPHASIS:

Doers of the Word- I am a Sunday school teacher. Those of us who are called to preach or teach the Word of God must put it on first. To proclaim the Word of God as if it was true in our life, when it is not, is a LIE. Another point is that, once we hear/read the Word of God, we are obliged to do what it commands. Yes, it’s quite hard to be as holy as what God wants us to be, but we can always ask God to give us strength.

Hearers who delude themselves- Those of us who receive the Word are also vulnerable to self-deception if we fail to put it into practice. Let’s take for instance, we hear a sermon or a lesson, and say “Wow! What a great truth!” and hurry off to share it with someone else without processing it ourselves and applying it in our own lives. If I do not act on the truth I hear of my good heavenly Father, then I am deceived because the truth I heard does not stay before me, and I soon forget it and so forget myself.

PARAPHRASE:

A genuine Christian does not just listen to the Word and so deceive herself. The Word must be applied and reflected in her life.

PERSONALIZE:

I must not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive myself. I must do what it says.

SIN TO CONFESS: I must confess that there are times I am being pretentious. I listen to the Word and read my Bible, but me, myself is not reflecting what that specific Scripture is telling me, especially when I teach in the Sunday School. Also, I am afraid to admit it when my life does not completely match up to the Scripture.

ATTITUDE TO CHANGE: I must be true, not only to myself, but most especially; I must be true to the One who created me, to the One who gave me the gift of teaching. This verse made me realize that I have a perfection complex. I have this thinking that I have to model perfection and not admit to something else. I must accept the fact that I can’t model perfection, because I am not perfect; I can only model growth. The people around me need to know that I am a real person in the process of maturing.

COMMAND TO OBEY: It is clear in this verse that we are commanded to do what the Word is telling us to do. We must continue to grow spiritually by reading, listening, and applying God’s Word in our lives.

PRAYER TO PRAY: Lord, forgive me for the times I have placed the quest for earthly perfection ahead of growth in You and Your Word. Help me model growth in my life today.

ERROR TO AVOID: We are tempted when we are in trouble to believe that just hearing the truth, or "knowing" the truth is enough.

TRUTH TO BELIEVE: This verse reminds me that listening and receiving again and again the truth of God's amazing love and grace for us will help us to be more deliberate and faithful in our words and with our actions.

To act on the truth we hear is to live as if God is truly our gracious heavenly Father and that He alone gives us our worth, our identity. But this is to allow very deep habits of mind, words, and actions to be transformed.

To act on what we hear though, is not simply to try harder not to, say, not complaining or being anxious. James 1:22 is not encouraging me to simply try harder to live right. This is encouraging me to do whatever I need to do in order to feed my faith in my heavenly Father.

SOMETHING TO PRAISE GOD FOR: I praise God for His faithfulness to complete me. I praise God for His unchanging, generous, and completely good character.

Yesterday, Sumulong Baptist Church- Makati celebrated its 8th Anniversary. Usually, the morning service starts at 10:30 AM, but this time, we started at around 9 o'clock in the morning, because part of the celebration is the commencement exercises of the church's first Vacation Bible School entitled "The Lost World: Reclaiming the World for God". The auditorium was filled with persons of different ages: from adult to kids. The church anniversary weekend had a total of 180 attendees and we praise God for the 7 people who accepted Christ as their Personal Lord and Savior.

Below are some photos taken up during the service: (you can see all the photos here: SBC- Makati's 8th Year Anniversary)

Pastor Jeffrey Aspacio, welcoming the visitors

children praying during the opening prayer of the service

Dig Site 2 discloses the story of the INHABITANTS who were created in God's image and charged to rule the earth for His glory. God created Adam and Eve so they can be each others companion and share the responsibility of caring for the Garden of Eden, because "it is not good for man to be alone." Like them, we will learn to spend time with others, reach out to them and build friendships! Aren't you excited? :)

DAY 2 photos:

students making their own dino-masks

It was SBC- Makati's first time to handle a Vacation Bible School, and I am dearly grateful to be part of this event. What's interesting about this VBS is that all of us were volunteers. It's really happy to serve a living God!

On the first day of VBS, everyone was filled with excitement. With all the rooms decorated and all the materials prepared, i think everyone is ready for the said activity.

 

We started our day by devoting ourselves to God. Pastor Jeffrey Aspacio shared a verse from the Bible, and was really a great encouragement for all the volunteers.

Yesterday, JIVE Youth celebrated Hearts Day with a love banquet entitled, “Mahal Kita Period.” This special celebration of Valentine's Day zeroed in on unconditional love of God. Although we alloted 70 seats, there were forty people who came and celebrated with us. It was truly a fun night for the young people. A refreshing and unique way of celebrating Hearts Day than what our society would have us celebrate. I'm thankful that I was not intimidated by some of my friends who celebrated their day with their boyfriend/girlfriends. For I know that in God's Time, I would be able to celebrate this special day with the one I would truly love, my future husband. 

the beautiful ladies who celebrated with us

and the gentlemen 

Aside from the inclusive dinner, we also had a raffle draw to add up some excitement in the program. 

(Credits to ate Jen for the fantastic photos) 

Being a sister of 5 siblings who were not all raised by a mother is a hard task, yet very exciting. Since our mother is not living with us, we have to assume all her responsibilities. From preparing our breakfast up to telling stories to our younger siblings before going to bed.

Now, I have to be more responsible. I know there will be times when I will be tempted to give up. But God always reminds me that He is my Strength and He is source of Joyfulness.

This afternoon, my youngest sibling went home from school with a happy face, bearing the feeling of excitement to share what has happened in her class. Her name is Blessie Marian Reign. She is just 6 years old. You can really see how happy she was when she told me about their Spelling Contest. She got the 1st place!

I'm really proud of her because she is a type of kid who does not want to engage with those kind of school activities, but then she stepped forward to conquer her fear of rejection. As an act of appreciation, I treated her in a fast-food chain and let her pick anything she want.

When I was a kid, I also won in several competitions and I remember, my mother always bring me to restaurants to celebrate it. What I want to say is that, I also want them to feel what I felt when I was like them. I don't want them to feel the pain of this world. I just want them to enjoy their childhood.

I am very much thankful to God for giving me this little angel to make me forget the hurtful moments because of her sweetness and gentleness. Also, I am grateful that God is making a way to reach this young girl and enlist in His family. She, together with our siblings, is attending the Sunday School class at SBC-Makati. I am very excited for the plans God prepared for her. Again, to baby Blessie, ate is very proud of you. I love you.

December 27, 2010, another day full of experience and happy moments. It was another bonding moment with the members of the church I'm attending to. We had the SBC-Makati‘s ministry leaders retreat in Loreland Farm Resort. Some were not able to make it as they left for the province, taking advantage of the holiday break. Truly, it is a joy to fellowship with this church family.  Pastor Jeff and Ate Jen have always been good to us. I love their attitude of being appreciative, a wonderful character, indeed. We are thankful to God that He is using these kind of people to make us feel His love for us. 


We had so much fun! The place was fantastic! I wasn't expecting that it would be that wonderful. Honestly, i'm not into swimming(that's why I'm being teased by my friends and family that the fact that I'm tall, I don't know how to swim), but when I saw those beautiful pools, i was encouraged to take a swimming class. And hopefully, I could start it by summer. 


But above all else, our focus here is thanking God for the grace and strength that He is granting us to continue serve Him. I'm hoping that this experience will not be the first and last. :)


Here are some of the shots on that day. (Thanks ate Jen, ate Eloisa, and ate Cla for these photos)