Huwebes, Oktubre 18, 2012

Knowing the True God

"Love God above all things" is the first commandment of God. This was the first commandment given to Moses in a tablet during their exodus to the Promised Land. According to Deuteronomy 6:

(6)I am the LORD your God,...(7)You shall have no other Gods before me. (8)You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; (9)you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, (10)but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The above message of God was very clear, but still a lot of human create images and any likeness of God and made those images their God. We do not know if these images the people made like woods, carvings is really God. So Paul told the people of Athens who created image of God which written -to unknown god, that God does not stay in those images and taught them about God. God does not want anybody to share His glory for He is a jealous God. Perhaps there are lots of people who were not taught the right way of venerating God. They would kneel and pray before an images or graven images , wipe their handkerchief, kiss the images  and put flowers and perfume in it. We may read from the Bible about those graven images as requested by Yahweh to Moses to make a bronze serpent, so that the people who were bitten by snakes could look upon it and be healed. Now it is true that centuries later King Hezekiah destroyed it; however, this action was done because the people worshiped it as a god (2 Kings 18:4) Also , in the Temple of Solomon, it was created with graven images of angels and palm trees. God may not forbid creating those images, because based on  the stories it was some form of decorations in His temple. In the catholic church, those images are not decorations. According to the Catholic  Church , it does NOT compel her members to kneel or pray before images. No one is allowed by the Church to pray to images since they have no ears to hear or power to help us. The Church allows for the veneration of images as long as the honor is directed towards Christ and His saints. However, there was no such messages from God that we can venerate images as long as the honor is directed towards Christ or any saints. Any alteration on the words of God is not coming from Him. What most people are doing are focus on their prayers to a certain saint. ie, St Jude:patron of lost causes, etc. If we analyzed it, a certain person instead going directly to Jesus , they use saints. One  reasons of the catholic-if others pray for you , why can we not go to saints to pray for us. Have not Jesus said in John14:6

  "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.


I also noticed that Jesus has come to a lot of names, like the Sto Niño, Padre Nazareno, etc. There was never any of that name in the Bible that pertains to Jesus. During the celebration  of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, a lot of people would come  from near and far places just to visit the Nazarene on it's festivities believing their prayers will be answered or their health will be restored. Most of them would try to come nearer , kiss the Nazarene, wiped the image with handkerchief, towel, etc. Imagined they have even changed the name of Jesus to Black Nazarene or Padre Nazareno. As the song goes "Jesu Padre Nazareno...." .When I was a child , I used to kneel before images, kiss and  wiped my handkerchief in it. I was thinking that it was the image of God in heaven. Everywhere I see those images of saints , I would felt in my heart, respect. I felt respect for the images, until I learned the truth about it.I once believed that Catholic was the number 1 religion in the world. Was this the reason why Satan used the catholic church to deceive people of God? On my researched I found out that the Catholic religion originally was from Rome who used to be pagans believers. Without those images of saints, rosary and the cross sign is the perfect epitome of church of Christ. It combines the old and new testament. The temple of Yahweh with the Covenant in the middle and place for burning incense and offerings, just like the catholic church.The catholic priest who wears 'Soutane' in French word, is almost like the robe wore by priest during those times of Israel. Aaron, the High Priest wore a richly decorated garments with ornaments and  with symbols only for God purposes.  Not only that, in the new testament, Paul requires the women to wear veil on their head in  Corinthian 11:2-6. You can only see this scene in a catholic church. It is also the catholic church that do what Jesus Christ did in the last supper , Matthew 26:28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. This is included in the mass  ceremony of  the catholic church. Just like in the old testament in Moses times Exodus 24:8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." 

Sometimes I would think that the beast with 10 horns and  7 heads-Revelation 13, would identify to Rome, because Rome is famous for it's 7 hills. Remember Rome rose into power even  before Christianity and was in power for almost 500 years according to History. During the spread of Christianity Rome was very powerful. Thus Catholic church was created.Remember Rome was a pagan believers.


Wasn't it that Satan came here to deceive people, so he brought distraction to the church so people would be confused and go to the wrong way of venerating God. Wasn't it Rome the one Try to check this video, you will be surprised with amazed what you will discover 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITzDHXiS86g


I also believed that those visions like the  dancing  Lady of Medjugorje was not from God Remember that God doesn't want to share His Glory and Satan is a good mimicker. Satan is a good deceiver of mankind. So, let not be deceived. Let us seek the Kingdom of God , so Satan will stay away from us and we can felt from our heart if whatever is happening around us is coming from God or not. We can also make the right decision once we came closer to God. In our current society , there are so many things that we have to give attention to which affect the future of our family and the nation as a whole. Ex. the RH bill, the Divorce bill. Satan came here muddling people of God , so we can be taken to his way and not to the way of our God who has the right to have us.  Remember that wisdom is better than intelligence, and Wisdom starts in reading the Bible. 

What was written above were based on my own opinion and observation.

Sabado, Oktubre 13, 2012

A Serenade to God (from the hym of My Serenade)

My serenade begins in the night  
When life begins to gloom.
My serenade becomes a delight 

When God was on my side

All the things became too light
For You have taken all my fright.
I'll sing my serenade.

The Lord has heard the song of my heart
I felt Him by my side.
The Lord  has heard the song of my heart
I felt a great delight

All the things became too light
For You have taken all my fright
I'll sing my serenade

-josephine
 

Living with God -Part 2

A lot of people doesn't really know who God is. Yesterday , It was not clear to me the reason why Jesus let Himself seriously suffered and died on the cross. Now, I know the reason. Preachers, priest, and the like always says 'Jesus died on the cross to save us? To save us from death? How many people know the meaning of death. In the Bible death means three(3) things: when Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit , which means a separation from God. God used to be with people. They never saw his face, though, but He talked to them and stayed with them: Second death is the physical death (self explanatory) and third : Death to eternity - to Hell, a place prepared by God for  Satan and his angels, however due to the wickedness of man, this will also be a place for them, as well. A torment place of  eternal fire that is never quenched and brimstone with big never-dying worm. As Jesus says in the Bible Mark 9:45,46…

“And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”


The preceding verse seemingly states,  that if a person  dies unprepared, he or she immediately  goes to hell. Does this also means there is no purgatory? No wonder why some of those people who experienced near death  saw a lot of people falling into hell. Some people say hell is the suffering you experience here on earth. I visited one time a dying friend (they're like family to us). When she was still strong , she had a lot of vices and she cohabited with the same sex whom she deceived a lot of times. She was suffering from diabetes and it's complexities which was also the cause of her death. I told her mother about the hell and told her ( the dying daughter) to ask forgiveness to all the people she had made wronged and to forgive herself and asked for Jesus to be saved. The mother said, hell was not true. That hell was what she (the dying daughter) was suffering now. Had the mother believed in what I said, perhaps the daughter might still be saved. I doubt her soul might suffer forever.

When there was fight in heaven, Satan and his angels were cast out from Heaven. So they stay with us. It was through Satan's angel that people were deceived and will be deceived.

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceived the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (Revelation 12:7-9).

Fallen angels were scattered here on earth and each and everyone has it's own orders and responsibilities (we are never aware of this , unless we seek)They are spirits , so we never see them. However, they deceived people in so many ways. They were actually the  reason for confusion, fight and troubles of humanity. They are great mimickers -the voice, the face. Remember they also have power. A lot of people believe in ghost and a returning dead person. The Bible never says something about it. Our belief should always be based on The Bible which we believe are the words of God. Even those apparitions. According to the Bible, Yahweh, the Almighty Father God is a jealous God. Therefore, He doesn't want anything or anybody to share His Glory.

 "I am YAWHWEH ELOHIM: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." -Isaiah 42:8

So, if we believe in these apparitions and anything that will give our focus to that thing that we believe was the reason for us to be healed in our sickness , then think first where did those apparitions or  miracle coming from? Was it from God or from the Devil? Let not be deceived for many will come in My (Jesus) name. According to Luke 21.8 And he said, take heed that ye be not deceived,.... With false Christ, and false prophets.

If you still believe in: ghost , miracles or apparitions, think first if these are coming from our Almighty God on Heaven or from something else. If you start reading and understanding the Bible, you will no longer be deceived by these things and in fact you will gain the power of discernment. A special power of spirit not given to all man.


 

Huwebes, Oktubre 11, 2012

HOW I CAME TO KNOW GOD

I started seeking the Kingdom of God when my mother died in 2009. My mother bought The Bible during my teenage days. I tried opening and reading it, however as much as I want to understand what the verses means, I can't. From then on  I never bothered to touch it. 

When my mother died, I tried asking the meaning of Life. I suffered so much emotionally. It was too painful for me, unlike when my father died in 1986. I have 7 siblings, and I'm the second to the eldest. Our eldest died in 2003. One of my brother whom I stay with, in our parent's house is still single while one of my sister who also is  with us , is a single mom. She has a daughter who is married and has 4 kids which she support financially. I'm a single mother of a 17 years old boy who is now in first year college in Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology in our place, General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite. My sister who stays with us , is working abroad for 27 years. She is the primary financial support of the family, however on some cases my married sister who is a teacher at EARIST helps us financially, as well.

I have no job during those times so I made a habit of watching television. One time, while I was watching the TV, I came across the show on Channel 11 entitled 700 Club Asia. The presentation was about black magic and people who were possessed. I used to study tarot, numerology, palmistry, and astrology. Since these things had my interest, I got stuck on the show. I enjoy watching it until I made sure that I watch every episode. Since I was so much in grief due to my mother's death, I was so much enlightened by the prayers and the inspiring stories of the show. Watching the show has triggered me to read the Bible again. I read and reread. Some parts were still not as easy to read as it is today. Reading and rereading the Bible had changed my religion. I used to be a Roman Catholic.  I do believe religion would not save you, however it is a help to grow spiritually. I have learned to share some of my earned money  to the show because I believe it helps people to Glorify God. It may be a small amount, but added to the many blessings of others who shares theirs to OB(Operation Blessings) is of great help to a lot of people who prayed to God , to help them alleviate their miserable life. 

I have PC at home with internet connection. Internet has helps me gain lots of information of so many things including,  The Bible. I became too much obsessed to read about futures as was told in the Book of Revelation. I even emailed some authors for clarifications. The Book of  Revelation which is too hard to understand, because of it's too much complexities of objects and creations shown to John, has  now  became  easy for me  to understand . I became interested in watching videos of people who had experienced near death or temporary death  and came back to life. With all these stuff I was doing, I became aware of what God really wants us to do. I realized later, it's hard to live because you really cannot live life to the fullest, if you believe in Heaven and Hell, and if you really want to live with God. It is compromising to live and live with God. Sometimes how I wish I was not born at all. It was too hard for me who was born in an urban life. How I envy those people in the remote areas who hasn't been reached by modernization. But, I don't want to go to hell and I believe in the existence of the Powerful Almighty Father (Yahweh) who gave power for our Lord Jesus to rule over the world and humanity for us to be saved.  

We grew up a troubled family because of misunderstanding. It was still the same environment until, I came to know God. My patience was  practiced in our family. Dealing with my brothers and sisters needs a lot of patience. Sometimes I would questioned myself , if I was the problem. I realized that each of us has a problem and until one would not recognize God there will always be problem. I learned from dealing with people that people are generally good. Maybe because he was created in the likeness of God. Somehow , I would also think that people generally also takes care of themselves , first. I came to a conclusion that God made His second command, 'Love thy neighbor as you love thyself" because this is the foremost of what people has to do to make Him happy and to Glorify God. Of course the First Commandment: Love and honor God above all things; if obeyed , everything follows. Obeying the second commandment would also mean of your faith in God. Imagined a neighbor , a friend or anybody who approaches you and borrow some money for important reasons. However, you have money, but was already allocated for something. You would say, "I'm sorry , I really don't have money because.......(so many excuses). I was also guilty of it. One time my brother came to ask for some food. The food prepared was just right for us, although I can still cook. I told my brother, "I'm sorry, the food is just right for us". Have you given your favorite pants, t-shirt, blouse. bags or shoes to a charity? How many of us who has allocated money for the charity even we have very limited resources. No, I can't give this to charity. I still have to buy food, or so and so....( so many reasons). Why can we not give the money allocated  for something and  belief that God will take care of that problem. God sees what we're doing.We, sure don't have that thinking because we really do not know how to live with God. However, people always think of themselves , first.




FATE OR DESTINY



Of Fate and Destiny

by Josey Miller on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 9:24am ·

First thing that comes to my mind when I started to learn things about life is, " Do we really have control of our life? Do we really have our own choice or is life a flow where you just want to follow using all your potentials to fulfill your destiny? The Bible says,"Everything that happens in the world is made to work out according to God’s purpose. Evil exists, but it is not allowed to thwart God’s providence. God uses even sinful men for His purposes. “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD;He directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases” (Proverbs 21:1). God worked in the hearts of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:36) and King Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:27) to bring about His purpose. Even when Man’s intent is purely evil, God can still bring about His will, as in the case of those who crucified Jesus (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28).

Therefore, it's God's will for the Egyptian Pharoah to stop the Israelite from leaving and through God's power that He brought plagues to Egypt so that Israelite would believe that there is God who created them and to whom they shall avow obedience.It is also God's will for Peter to be blinded and to spread God's love and salvation. However, is it also God's will for a person to be in totally living a very distressful life so that he soon discover that there is God whom He should trust to direct his life? Is it also fate while on the process of choosing your destiny suddenly died of an accident?

The Bible teaches that Man was created with the ability to make moral choices and that he is responsible for those choices. Did Adam and Eve predestined to disobey God?. On the contrary, Adam and his wife had the ability to choose obedience or disobedience . They knew what the result of their decision would be, and they were held accountable .The same thing when we make decision to the choices presented to us.

There are many of us who are wandering around aimlessly through life, wondering where we are meant to go, and we look at other people's success and wishing they were ours. No matter with our own exhaustive effort aiming of following our dream destiny, plans are still thwarted due to unavoidable occurrences? We may have choices, however choices presented are limited and no way to reach your aim destiny.
Example -you dream to be a doctor however, your parents cannot afford to send you to school. You work hard , but still not enough to support your ambition.

On the Psychic point of view,our own fate may be said to be determined by the time, date and place of your birth. We may say that in some ways it outlines the things to come which are out of control. However, Other aspects of fate are not out of our control. They deal with our inner mind, our conscious ideas and beliefs, our moral standards and other aspects you can recognize as the like. example: when we chose a partner we know what would be the effect in our future- we chose to go with a lazy, drug addict person or to cohabitate with a married person.

Destiny is something we choose to go after.... Fate is something that happens to us, and seemingly takes away our choices, but in fact actually leads us back towards the choice of Destiny we already made before we were born. Does this ends to saying, each one of us has our own destiny?

A Poem Dedicated to God

DEDICATED TO GOD
Words of adjectives are not enough to
describe you lot.

Songs are not enough to praise you
God.

Because You are the Beginning of all
the words and songs.

And You are the end of Everything.

So how am I going to praise you and
how am I going to describe You.

All I know is You are the fullest of
all good and beautiful things who

give me love and what is best.

You are the help, You are the food,
You are the water, You are the sun,

you are the air, You are the house,
You are my mother, my father, my brother, my sister , my friend and everything
that keeps me going , going through life
until the end. The end of loneliness and beginning of everlasting happiness.

I cannot forget when you were by me in
times of sorrow , in times of loneliness to keep me happy and keep me warm.. Warm
to keep me going, going through life till the end.

How I wish I could be as what you want
me to be. For Your Honor, it’s my honor to be chosen as the one, one who
will be Angel of Destiny.