Carrying Our Crosses

Gospel: Mt 10:34 – 11:1

Do not think that I have come to establish peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Each one will have as enemies, those of one’s own family.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me, is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life, for my sake, will find it.

Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes him who sent me. The one who welcomes a prophet, as a prophet, will receive the reward of a prophet; the one who welcomes a just man, because he is a just man, will receive the reward of a just man. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is my disciple, I assure you, he will not go unrewarded.”

When Jesus had finished giving his twelve disciples these instructions, he went on from there, to teach and to proclaim his message in their towns.

Reflection:

More things are piled up on the shoulders of those who choose to follow Jesus. It is as if pressures are calibrated to keep pace with our growing strengths. There seems to be no end in sight to all possible discomfort and pain one must be willing to take in order to be a disciple of Jesus. These probably are told in advance so that there will be no blaming afterwards when the going gets rough on the road to discipleship. Jesus wants His disciples to be wide- eyes with what they are signing into. He does not promise a life on a bed of roses. What He promises is a victorious glorious life in the end. He or she who desires that life must be ready to pay for what will happen in between.

Here in our Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus talks about His final instructions to his apostles. Here, we see that to be an apostle of Jesus, we must be ready to make sacrifices. Jesus is telling us that if we love other people more – even those dear to us, such as our parents and children – then we are not worthy of Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us that there will be times when we have to give up our own life for the sake of His Kingdom.

In other words, and in summary, we, as followers of Jesus Christ, must learn how to carry our own crosses. We have a lot of trials and difficulties in life, and we consider them as our crosses. But the most unbearable and hardest cross to carry is the cross of our own life, the cross of our own selves. ‘Yon daw po ang pinakamabigat na krus na buhatin, ‘yong krus ng ating pagkatao. Marami tayong mga pagkakamali, marami tayong mga pagkukulang at mga kakulangan. Pero itong mga kakulangang ito ang dapat nating laging pilit na binabago at pinapasan na aayon sa turo ng Ebanghelyo.

Maraming tao ang hindi na marunong magsakripisyo. Maraming tao ang ayaw nang makaranas ng sakit. They don’t like pain. One of the titles of a book of a certain author, best summarizes for us the problem of our own crosses. And the title is “The Pain of Being Human”. Napakahirap maging tao, mas lalo na ang magpakatao. Pero kung tunay na Kristiyano at tunay na mga anak ng Diyos ang turing natin sa ating sarili, kahit na anong bigat ay kakayanin nating pasanin.

Pero kadalasan, ‘yong pagkatao natin na madali tayong manghusga, madali tayong magparatang, ‘yong ating pagkakalat ng mga hindi magagandang bagay ukol sa ibang tao, ay sadyang napakahirap tanggalin sa ating sarili. Kung tayo ay nais maging alagad ng Diyos, maging kasunod ni Kristo, kailangang tayo ay maging banal.

Iisa lamang ang panawagan ng bokasyon sa ating lahat. Kahit tayo ay pari, relihiyoso, layko, may asawa o wala, iisa lang ang panawagan. Tayo ay maging banal, dahil ang ating Panginoong Diyos ay ganap at banal.

Source: Anonymous

The Relinquished Life

I am crucified with Christ. – Galatians 2:20

No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things. To be born from above of the Spirit of God means that we must let go before we lay hold, and in the first stages it is the relinquishing of all pretence. What Our Lord wants us to present to Him is not goodness, nor honesty, nor endeavor, but real solid sin; that is all He can take from us.  And what does He give in exchange for our sin? Real solid righteousness. But we must relinquish all pretence of being any thing, all claim of being worthy of God’s consideration.

Then the Spirit of God will show us what further there is to relinquish. There will have to be the relinquishing of my claim to my right to myself in every phase. Am I willing to relinquish my hold on all I possess, my hold on my affections, and on everything, and to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?

There is always a sharp painful disillusionment to go through before we do relinquish. When a man really sees himself as the Lord sees him, it is not abominable sins of the flesh that shock him, but the awful nature of the pride of his own heart against Jesus Christ. When he seems himself in the light of the Lord, the shame and the horror and the desperate conviction come home.

If you are up against the question of relinquishing, go through the crisis, relinquish all, and God will make you fit for all that He requires of you.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Someone Has Their Eye On You

There’s a young lady in Scripture by the name of Ruth. Ruth went through a great disappointment. Her husband was killed in a battle, and the future didn’t look very bright for her. She moved to a new city with her mother-in-law, Naomi. But instead of sitting around saying, “Poor old me” in self-pity, Ruth reached out and helped take care of Naomi. Not only that, she got up every morning very early and went out into the fields and gathered up the leftover wheat that the reapers had missed.

One day, the owner of that field noticed Ruth. His name was Boaz. He noticed how beautiful she was and what a hard worker she was. What’s interesting is that Ruth didn’t know anybody was watching her. She didn’t even know who Boaz was. She just kept working hard, doing her best, and caring for Naomi.

The point to think about today is that even though you may not realize it, somebody has their eyes on you. A supervisor is noticing your excellence. A manager is noticing your character. A friend is noticing your faithfulness. If you are single, you may think there is nobody to meet, but you don’t know who God is about to bring into your life. You don’t know who has their eyes on you.

Long story short, Ruth and Boaz fell in love and ended up getting married. Ruth no longer had to work in the field – she owned the field! Like Ruth you may have gone through a difficult time, but let me tell you, God has another Boaz out there. God has already lined up somebody to notice you, somebody to befriend you, somebody to promote you, somebody to make your life more fulfilled. That disappointment was not the end. It’s a new beginning. It may have been a setback, but God has already lined up the right people to help you come back. Trust and believe that God has His best in store. He has the opportunities lined up; He has good breaks and favor in store for your future. He has the right people in the right positions ready to give you a hand up. Always remember that someone has their eye on you!

“…She asked him, ‘Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me – a foreigner?’ Boaz replied, I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband – how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” (Ruth 2:10-12, NIV)

It’s Never Too Late

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8, NIV)

Have you ever thought, “It’s too late for me?” That’s what two sisters in the scripture thought, Mary and Martha. Their brother, Lazarus, was extremely sick. They sent word to their good friend, Jesus, to come to their city and pray for him. A day went by and Jesus didn’t show up. They asked the messengers, “Did you tell Jesus it was us?” “Yes, we told Him.” “Did you explain how sick Lazarus was?” “We explained it to Him.” They couldn’t understand why Jesus wouldn’t come immediately. Lazarus ended up dying. Four days later, Jesus showed up. Mary said, “Jesus, if you had been here sooner, my brother would still be alive.”

Have you ever felt like God showed up too late? If He’d just got there a little sooner, maybe things would have worked out. That’s the way these sisters felt. But Jesus spoke to Lazarus, and he came back to life.

The sisters wanted Jesus to come and heal their brother. But Jesus wasn’t thinking about a healing, He was thinking about a resurrection. A healing would have been good, but Jesus had something better in mind. Always remember, God has another option. No matter how bad your circumstances look, it’s never too late with Him!

A Prayer for Today

Father, today I choose to trust your timing. I trust that my days are in Your hands. I ask that You breathe life into my circumstances as I give You the glory for everything in Jesus Name. Amen.

#blessing

Leviticus 26: 4-5, 9-10, 12-13

4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.

9 “I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.

12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

Questions for discussion: 

1. What is God’s outpouring in your life right now?

2. What are you thankful for?

Being an Example of His Message

Preach in the word! 2 Timothy 4:2

We are not saved only to be instruments for God, but to be His sons and daughters. He does not turn us into spiritual agents but into spiritual messengers, and the message must be a part of us. The Son of God was His own message- “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). As His disciples, our lives must be a holy example of the reality of our message. Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God’s purpose to make a person’s life a holy example of God’s message.

There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is someone who has received the call of God and is determined to use all his energy to proclaim God’s truth. God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shapes us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples’ lives after Pentecost. The purpose of Pentecost was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them the incarnation of what they preached so that they would literally become God’s message in the flesh. “… you shall be witnesses to Me …. “ (Act 1:8)

Allow God to have complete liberty in your life when you speak. Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you. Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to “set your words on fire” for His glory.

Questions for discussion:

1. What inspires your Christian Spirit/ What led/leads you to live a life in the Spirit?
2. Everyday, how do you try to live your life as an example of His message?

How do you know if you are blessed?

If you own just one Bible… you are abundantly blessed. 1/3 of the world does not have access to even one.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness… you are more blessed than the 1,000,000 who will not survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation… you are blessed ahead of 500 million people around the world.

If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death… you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep… how blessed you are! You are richer then 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somewhere… you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If your parents are still married and alive, you are very rare, you are blessed.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful… you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them, or even touch them on the shoulder… you are blessed because you can offer God’s healing touch.

If you prayed yesterday and today, you are in the minority because you believe in God’s willingness to hear and answer prayer.

If you believe in Jesus as the Son of God… you are blessed! Your understanding of love comes from giving; you are part of a growing minority.

If you can read this message… you are mode blessed than over 2 billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.

If you can pass this along… you will be blessed for sharing God’s love and Jesus gifts with others.

Source: M&E Household Discussion Topic 4/28/03

God’s Blueprint for Singles

Why do people stay single?

Pressures of Family. Many singles are led to shoulder family responsibilities due to financial needs in the home, broken families, irresponsible parents, untimely death of parents and big families. Many singles are driven to work hard and even postpone or sacrifice their own personal plans and happiness to provide food on the table and education for their younger siblings.

Lack of Ambition or Direction in Life. There are single women and men who have been so greatly influenced by  overprotective parents that they become financially and emotionally dependent on them. They are afraid to decide for themselves, socialize, make plans for their future and run after their personal dreams.

Excessively driven by Ambition and Independence. The temporary success brought about by their careers gives single people financial freedom and independence that they delay marriage and fear commitment. This provides a measure of comfort, control and escape. Fear to take risks and make mistakes in getting into a  permanent, lasting and stable love relationship with someone may take over.

Fear of Relationships. Brokenness caused by previous relationships have marred their vision of marriage and have affected the way they relate to the opposite sex. They are suspicious, defensive and cynical of people who reach out to them to offer their friendship. They prefer to explore intimate relationship only with those of the same sex. Though they have so much to offer, scars and wounds have chained them from freely discovering and finding true love.

Endlessly Waiting for Miss or Mister Right. Their happiness is dependent on whether they are in a relationship now or not. They are also so meticulous or unforgiving of shortcomings they fail to see the potential and promise of lasting friendship with others. They constantly try to learn how to catch Miss or Mister Right that they end up criticizing or passing judgments on people they meet. They spend most of their time looking for the person who will make them feel secure and happy. They put so much emphasis on marriage that it has become their end all and be all. Only marriage can truly make them happy and complete.

 

God’s blueprint for Singles

God’s plan for you is to live a life of purpose and meaning even if you are alone at this time in your life. Yet, the evil one wants to take away your hope and  faith in God. And he will succeed if you indulge in your own feelings of being depressed, afraid, anxious, unloved, ugly and unwanted.

The evil one wants you to remain broken, shattered, unhappy and lonely. As a result, you punish yourself with self-inflicted pain. Satan will put you down into the pit of self-destruction until you find yourself making other peoples lives difficult as well.

God’s plan is for the best. He is committed to making you realize your full potential and experience the fullness in this life. He intended for you a lifetime of passion, excitement, challenges and purpose. There is no need to put your plans on hold just because you are single and waiting for a spouse.

You can claim God’s promise for your future. And He is committed to see it happen! He knows the exact timing for every love story, every perfect moment and every dream that you have! He is enthusiastic about your personal hopes and desires! He is deeply absorbed in seeing you stand up and run to pursue your dreams!

So many single people do not decisively fight for their faith and  convictions. In the same way that they lack strength and endurance to fight for the love of their life. In the end, they miss out and react by blaming other people and themselves endlessly.

Beginning today, offer to God his special area of great excitement for you. Let Him be the writer and author of this great love story! God is assuring you to live each day with the joy of knowing that God has your best intentions in His heart! He loves you deeply that He’s so excited to see you each day with sparkle in your eyes, with smart confidence in your poise, with that smile on your voice and with love and passion in your heart!

Source: Anonymous

The Risk Test

By John C. Maxwell

Last time I wrote about the difference between good timing and procrastination, and included some tests you could apply to find out whether you were putting off decisions that needed to be made.

Just like there are two sides to every coin, there are two extremes when it comes to taking action. Procrastinators are at one extreme: putting off actions or decisions when they really should be making a move. At the other end of the spectrum is the impatient person: one who rushes to make a decision or to take action, even when it is unwise.

Because I tend to land somewhere closer to the impatient end of the spectrum, I have devoted a lot of thought to the importance of good timing.

To evaluate a goal or decision, I like to apply the Risk Test, in which I ask,

Is This Decision Reasonable of Reckless?

Reasonable	Reckless
Built on Strategy	Built on Hope
Has Some Margin for Error	Has No Margin for Error
Is an Extension of What You Do Well	Has Little Connection to What You Do Well
Challenges You	Overwhelms You

 

Let’s take a look at these differences:

Built on Strategy vs. Hope

Have you spent the necessary amount of time planning and preparing for this decision? Or are you acting on passion or impatience, with only the hope that everything will work out?

Reasonable Margin of Error

Does everything have to work our perfectly for this decision to succeed? What will happen if (when) you encounter problems? Do you have a strategy in place for handling complications? Is there enough margin for you to survive if everything goes wrong?

Based on What You Do Well

When you take action, will you be working from your strengths? Or does the goal require effort in areas where you are naturally weak?

Challenges rather than Overwhelms

All of us want to achieve something bigger than ourselves. So a goal should feel challenging. But if it seems overwhelming or even impossible, then at the very least, you should spend more time in the planning stage to break it down into manageable steps.

Love deeply, live fully…

I.  Setting the Foundation

1.  Read the whole John 13:34-35

“I give you a new commandment:  love one another .  As I have loved you so also you should love one another.”

“This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Ask audience to ponder on :  why did the Lord give us this scripture verse as our anchor for this year’s theme.   After all, loving one another should already be a given specially for us in community and in service to the Lord.

First of all,  we need to be reminded that John 13:34 is a mandate.  Jesus Christ  did not say Love one another when you have the time; or love one another only if the other is lovable; or love one another when you are in a good mood.

–       have we been faithful to this mandate?

The condition that He placed on this mandate is, “As I have loved you, so also you should love one another.  Jesus places Himself as the model of loving one another.

Though many people know this verse, even by heart, the question is, do we really know how to love one another, the way Christ loves us?

2.  Love has two perspectives: Our own and the Lord’s

• Human Perspective:  Love is a word that has been:

–       misunderstood and misinterpreted (example)

–       overused, misused or abused (example)

–       kept at the level of emotion (example)

• Our perspective of love is based on our experiences and influenced by people in our lives.  These are basically human perspectives.

• However, the Lord has THE right perspective about love and He teaches us His perspective through the experiences He allows us to go through

• Share examples of people or situations that have come our way and we found it difficult to love and yet through sheer grace, we found ourselves loving
• point out that this theme verse came at a time when our love for another was put to the test (community crisis of 2007)

II.  What is the implication of this to SFC?

• As single people who claim to be for Christ, we are also given the same mandate to love one another.

• As your SFC council pondered on this, we realized that the single”s stage of life (where you are now) offers a lot of opportunities to love or not love.

•  Everyday you are faced with the choice of whether to love or not love.  (at home, office, school, community and other facets of a single person’s life)

• We also realized that the choice that we make – to love or not to love –   may determine the quality of life we are to live.

• God wants us to experience the fullness of life that He is ready to give us and the way to receive that fullness of life is through LOVE which is  the way of a true disciple of Christ , John 13:35

• And so, In Singles for Christ, we have made  “LOVE DEEPLY, LIVE FULLY” our battle cry

III.  The big question now is HOW ?

• First step is to receive the Love of God regularly; fresh in-filling of God’s love everyday

• Analogy of a car:  need to constantly put water, gasoline, oil to ensure good running condition – same with our Spirit

• We need to nurture our relationship with God to keep it strong and healthy (prayer, scripture, communicating with God directly) – so we experience His love through His words – (car analogy:  every ____kms we bring it back to checkup)

• Keeping our regular dates with God – Holy Eucharist; and if there is a need to reconcile because of little “breaks” in the relationship due to “sins” – sacrament of reconciliation (which is a healing sacrament – heals our soul/spirit) – (car analogy:  konting tunog na unusual, dala kaagad sa talyer/mekaniko)

• Being aware of little blessings that come our way (documenting these through a journal, if possible) – these are little whispers of God’s love for us.  Recalling God’s blessings (consolations) through our journal during times of loneliness (desolation) will keep the Spirit of hopelessness and despair at bay and will keep the flame of LOVE burning.

• Even Jesus went to the desert or to a quiet place to receive His Father’s love and it is this love from the Father that fueled Him to continue with His mission.  And knowing the many times He was filled by his Father’s love, He was able to withstand His agony in the garden and He was able to forgive those who did not know what they were doing, while hanging on the cross.

• Being constantly sensitive to God’s expression of love through people you encounter in and out of community.  Ordinary people who will say or do something that will lift our spirits.  These are the gentle touch of God.  Have faith that it is God through the Holy Spirit that prompts these gestures from other people.  And praise God immediately when you are the recipient of these loving gestures.

IV.  When we receive Love, then we are able to GIVE Love

• To Love is a personal decision…. Which becomes easier to make if  we receive it constantly from the Lord.

• In our everyday life (in word, and in deed) let us be “bringers” of glad tidings to all people that we encounter.  The little gestures that we receive from others as a message of God’s love, we pay forward so that the little gesture repeated many times over multiplies the love of
  God to others.

• When people we respect and love hurt us, we immediately surrender the pain to God and allow Him to carry the pain with us.

• We take up our cross, but Jesus carries the cross with us.

• Love heals:  Mother Teresa once said: “I have found the paradox, that if you love  until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only love.”

• And the love that is left in our hearts is “God’s pure, unconditional love that will transform us beyond the pain and will allow us to radiate love instead of anger or hate.

V.  When we are able to Give Love, then we can be Christ to others

• John 13:35 “This is how all will know that you are my disciples

• Then we can respond to the Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
• Through the love we give to others we become witnesses for Christ –
• Sometimes our witnessing and the way we relate with others will be the only bible others will read for them to know Christ

• Our witnessing of God’s love make us missionaries

–       Being a missionary is not a job description or a role that we play.

–       Being a missionary is not necessarily having to go to other countries.

–       Being a missionary is an active and purposeful decision to show Christ to others;  it is the state of our heart when we talk about Jesus to others.

VI.  What’s in it for us in SFC?

OPTION:  Ask audience to define Fullness of Life

Fullness of Life… What do we mean by this?

• New perspective about life and its trials
• Having joy amidst trials (desolation / consolation)
• Inner peace
• Looking for and enjoying God’s voice constantly in everyday events
• Service brings joy,not burden

VII.  The ultimate purpose of our life is: to know God, to love God and to serve God.  When we are faithful to these, then we can truly say that we LOVE DEEPLY, and LIVE FULLY!