The Screwtape Letters - Chapter 1

The Screwtape Letters is a work of Christian apologetics by C. S. Lewis, first published in book form in 1942. The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior tempter named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of an earthly man, known only as "the Patient."

Screwtape (along with his trusted scribe Toadpipe) holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts more as a mentor than a supervisor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter; almost every letter ends with the signature, "Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape." In the body of the thirty-one letters which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin in his Patient, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine.

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in living out Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, as seen from the demon/devil's viewpoint. Wormwood and Screwtape live in a peculiarly morally reversed world, where individual benefit and greed are seen as the greatest good, and neither demon is capable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it.

Characters
Screwtape – old, wise demon, the uncle of Wormwood
Wormwood – nephew of Screwtape and novice demon who is being trained by Screwtape to help in causing a young man to lose his soul
“Our Father Below” – Satan
“The Enemy” – God
the patient – the young man who is the object of Wormwood’s mission
the old lady – the patient’s mother
Glubose – the demon who is assigned to the “old lady”
Slumtrimpet – demon in charge of the patient’s “young woman”


CHAPTER 1

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I note what you say about guiding our patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naïf? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still

connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" of "false", but as "academic" or "practical", "outworn" or "contemporary", "conventional" or "ruthless". Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.

The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy's own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it "real life" and don't let him ask what he means by "real".

Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy's!) you don't realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defence by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter-suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear What He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch.

At least I think that must have been His line for when I said "Quite. In fact much too important to tackle it the end of a morning", the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added "Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind", he was already half way to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man's head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of "real life" (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all "that sort of thing" just couldn't be true. He knew he'd had a narrow escape and in later years was fond of talking about "that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic". He is now safe in Our Father's house.

You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can't touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don't let him get away from that invaluable "real life". But the best of all is to let him read no science but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is "the results of modem investigation". Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!

Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE

Memories

I thought I've had enough of you
Thought I wouldn't be missing you this much
Yes... you...
The ones dancing around in my mind

Time had taken me away from you
And everytime I remember you
The warmth of love and the little things that had happened
Make me want to re-write the past once again

I thought I've forgotten about you
Thought you had dumped in the garbage
Yes... you...
The ones leaving scar in my heart

Time had taken me away from you
And how I want to leave you right there
But you just can't...
Because you're also part of my journey

All of you...
You made me learn about love
You made me learn about forgiving
You made me see my God within my previous foot prints

Sweet...
Bitter...
It doesn't really matter anyway...

N-O R-E-G-R-E-T
'cause I know that He was with me along the way

It's the one that truly matters...

(by Fay)

Overcoming Shame and Fear of Failure

Jabez

Pada saat saudaranya puas dengan keterbatasannya, Jabez inginkan lebih untuk melayani Tuhan dengan segenap hatinya. Tapi Jabez punya masalah yaitu ketidakmampuan emosional maupun fisikal. "Jabez" itu artinya kesakitan. Kata "Jabez" itu artinya kosong atau hampa. Jabez harus bergumul dengan perasaan tidak diinginkan dan ditolak.

Merasa malu dan tidak dikasihi merupakan tantangan yang besar dalam hidupnya. Dia sadar akan ketidaklayakannya sehingga dia mengalami depresi. Namun Jabez berhasil mengatasi rasa malunya itu. Jabez merintis suatu kota bernama kota Jabez dan membangkitkan suatu generasi yang bisa memelihara firman Tuhan sampai jamannya Ezra.

Pada saat kita merasa terkutuk dan malu, maka kita akan menyerah untuk masa depan kita. Menghadapi masalah malu, tidak hanya sekali dalam hidup kita. Menghadapi trauma masa lalu, harus terus dilakukan kalau kita ingin melakukan perkara-perkara besar. Lihat saja dalam alkitab hamba-hamba Tuhan yang sukses:

1.Yusuf
Yusuf ditolak dan tidak diinginkan oleh saudara2nya dalam keluarga. Dituduh dan difitnah bahwa dia memperkosa dan dimasukkan dalam penjara. Bisa dibayangkan betapa dia merasa tertotak dan malu. Tapi dia berhasil menghancurinnya dan menjadi perdana menteri di Mesir.

2.Abraham
Dimana dia tidak percaya kepada Tuhan pertamanya tentang anaknya. Begitu lemahnya, bahkan berbohong sarah bukan istrinya waktu bertanya. Tapi sebaliknya Tuhan masih menginginkannya contoh menjadi Imam. Harusnya malu Abraham, bagaimana mungkin dipakai oleh Tuhan. Tapi Abraham berhasil melampaui rasa malu itu, dan menjadi bapak imam percaya.

3.Musa
Seorang pembunuh dan seorang pelarian. Datang dan turun dari gunungnyna Tuhan. Dan dikatakan hai oleh orang Israel jangan membunuh. Siapa kamu Musa kasih kami perintah itu? Harusnya kamu malu mengatakan itu, karena kamu seorang pembunuh? Jangan kasih tau kami apa yang harus kamiu lakukan. Namun Musa harus melampaui masa lalu itu untuk menjadi pahlawan dalam iman.

4.Daud
Daud orang yang disebut paling dekat dengan hati Tuhan. Bayangkan Daud menjadi penjinah dan membunuh. Dan Tuhan mengambil putra yang pertama. Daud harusnya malu, dia tidak layak jadi raja. Namun dia harus melampaui rasa malu itu untuk mengejar dan mencari Tuhan. Bahwa Daud harus mendapatkan putra kedua, agar bisa menguasai dan memerintah di Israel.

5.Simon Petrus
Menyangkal Kristus dihadapan Yesus 3x. Salah satu terjemahan, dikatakan bahkan dia mengutukin nama Tuhan. Namun Yesus tidak datang dengan kalimat, "kamu seorang pengecut, harusnya kamu gagal Simon!". Namun Yesus berkata, "Petrus, apakah kamu mengasihi Aku? Berikan makanan kepada domba2Ku dan gembalakan mereka." Dan 50 hari kemudian Simon Petrus membangun sebuah gereja.

Setiap orang harus berurusan dengan masa lalu mereka. Ahli ilmu jiwa mengatakan, rasa malu adalah hal yang paling parah bisa menghancurkan kehidupan manusia yang paling sulit dihadapin. Rasa malu membuat kita merasa tidak layak. Bahwa Tuhan tidak mengasihi saya. Saya tidak layak untuk Tuhan. Bahkan mungkin, anda mulai percaya dengan diri anda, saya adalah orang yang bodoh, saya orang yang gagal.

Rasa malu membuat anda selalu menyalahkan diri anda atas setiap apa yang terjadi. Kita begitu takut untuk kehilangan muka. Begitu takut tidak bisa berpenampilan baik dihadapan teman-teman kita dan keluarga kita. Kalau belum berhasil, kita merasa malu dihadapan keluarga.

Ada 3 tantangan rasa malu yang harus dihancurkan dalam hidup kita:

1. Rasa malu yang diwariskan
Karena kita dilahirkan dalam kehidapan umat manusia, yang jatuh dalam dosa. Diatas kayu salib Yesus telah mengambil rasa malu itu.

2. Rasa malu yang coba ditempelkan oleh orang kepada anda
Mungkin karena masalalumu, mungkin seperti Jabez.
Ketika Yesus datang, bisa saja dia datang sebagai Tuhan yang perkasa yang menghancurkan dunia ini. Tapi untuk menjadi seorang juruselamat dia harus dilahirkan daari seorang darah. Anda bisa bayangkan bagaimana Yesus dilahirkan oleh wanita perawan dan orang2 bisa menertawakan dia, dll. Bahkan saudaranya laki2 tidak percaya padanya. Dia ditolak oleh saudaranya, jemaatnya, bahkan dikota dimana dia berada. Bahkan perampok yang disalibkan itu menertawakan

3. Rasa malu yang sesungguhnya
Karena kesalahan yang anda lakukan. Kadang-kadang anda merasa begitu bersalah dan berdosa.


Be blessed,
Kotbah by Kong Hee

(Taken from Suwandi Tanha's Note on Facebook)

Only Hope - My Prayer Now

There's a song that's inside of my soul.
It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again
I'm awake in the infinite cold.
But You sing to me over and over and over again.

So, I lay my head back down.
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only Yours, I pray, to be only Yours
I know now You're my only hope.

Sing to me the song of the stars.
Of Your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again.
When it feels like my dreams are so far
Sing to me of the plans that You have for me over again.

So I lay my head back down.
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only Yours, I pray, to be only Yours
I know now, You're my only hope.

I give You my destiny.
I'm giving You all of me.
I want Your symphony, singing in all that I am
At the top of my lungs, I'm giving it back.

So I lay my head back down.
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only Yours, I pray, to be only Yours
I pray, to be only Yours
I know now You're my only hope.

His Answer for Me

(by Max Lucado - from HERE)

Addressing the common fear of insignificance, Lucado said, "I really believe that the Amazon River out of which all other fears flow is this one. And that is the fear that I don't matter to God. And because I don't matter to God, I don't matter to anyone else. And my life has no purpose. We fear nothingness ... We fear coming and going and no one knowing."

He continued, "The big message of Jesus in one of his 'do not fear statements' is

Don't be afraid.
You are worth more than all the sparrows.
The very hairs of your head are numbered.

He knows more about you than you know about Him.

How can you know that you matter?
Look at the story of God who became a human being ... because He loves us.

------------------------------------

Yesterday and this morning I feel useless and unworthy because of some things that I'm going through right now. I feel I'm not good enough for Him and for everyone. I asked for His answer, and He gave it to me through unpredictable ways...

One of His answer is the whole paragraphs I quoted above...
Another answer He gave through a friend's encouragement (when we were chatting on Yahoo Messenger)...

Waw...
Thank You God... ^.^

Winners Never Quit???

(By Dan Miller)

We’ve all heard the old adage, “Winners never quit, quitters never win.” Is that really true? Does that mean that if you’re driving from Detroit to Miami and you suddenly realize you’re actually headed for Savannah you would simply continue on? Or even speed up? Or just “try harder?” Of course not – you would immediately correct your direction, even if it meant going back to Atlanta to get back on the right road.

Why is it that in jobs or businesses people often believe that if they just persist, somehow things will get better? And that they need to be loyal and never show signs of “giving up?”

In this week’s 48 Days Podcast I answered this question from Margaret:
“I would like to know what to do when you are working so hard and everything seems to continue to fail. Do you change plans or what?”

I QUIT

Quitting a job does not mean that you’re quitting your commitment to provide for your family. Quitting a business does not mean that you are walking away from the thrill of controlling your time and income. Quitting a ministry or non-profit organization does not mean that you’ve given up on your desire to change the world or help the less fortunate.

Your job, business or ministry are just tactics to accomplish your bigger vision. Your “purpose” or “calling” define the big goal. If your job is clearly a dead end, it makes perfect sense to quit, take your skills to a better fit and release your ability to provide for your family. If your business is failing, learn from the experience and start in a new direction. I constantly have areas in my business and personal life that are on the bubble. If they are not proven successful in a very specific period of time – they’re gone – I quit but keep moving on to success in other ways.

Here are my recommendations:

* If your job provides nothing for you but a meager paycheck, plan to quit and be gone in the next 30 days.
* If you have been running your business for one year and after expenses it’s only netting you $500 a month, quit and find a new venture.
* If you started a non-profit and after two years you find that you are spending 80% of your time on administrative work and have no real economic model for continuing, consider linking arms with an established organization.

Winners quit – they quit quickly and often.
Yes I know we hear that quote about nothing matters but persistence, but if you are a duck trying to climb a tree, all persistence will get you is web feet that are to sore to even swim well. Have the maturity and guts to quit the ineffective things in your life.

While we’re at it, ask yourself if these well-known adages are always true:

1. The customer is always right
2. Everything happens for a reason
3. Never judge a book by its cover
4. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks
5. Absence makes the heart grow fonder
6. Better be safe than sorry
7. Good fences make good neighbors
8. You can’t have your cake and eat it too

Don’t let commonly accepted clichés misdirect you from the unique path you are on.

What Kind of Daddy Do You Have?

(by Bo Sanchez)

A college student in Manila called up his Mom in the province.
“Mom, I need money,” he asked. “Can you send money over please?”
“Sure,” the mother said. “By the way, there’s a Math textbook you left here at home. I’ll send it over with the money.”
“Uh, oh yeah, Ok,” her son answered.
His mother sent the money and the book.

Later that day, the father asked his wife, “How much money did you send?”
She said, “I sent two checks. One was a P1000 check and the other was a P100,000 check.”
“What?” cried the father in shock. “That’s huge!”
His wife smiled. “That’s okay Honey. I taped the P1000 check on the cover of his Math textbook. I then inserted the P100,000 check somewhere in chapter 25 of his Math textbook. Believe me, he won’t find it.”

Your relationship with God is like a Math textbook. Because I believe the biggest blessings of God for your life are in “chapter 25” - when you go beyond the surface and go deeper in this relationship with God.

My goal today is to bring you to chapter 25 in your relationship with God.
Let me tell you how.
I want to start a new series today I’ll playfully call, OMG! If you don’t know what that means, LOL. (For those my age who didn’t grow up with chat and IM and facebook: OMG! means Oh my God and LOL means Laugh out loud.) For the next five weeks, I want to help you get to know God more—which will deepen your trust in Him. And the more you trust Him, the more you’ll be open to His blessings for your life.

I’ve met a lot of people who don’t trust God because they don’t know Him. They’re confused with misrepresentations of who God is.
Here’s what I learned: Your problems are big because your God is small.

Before Anything Else, God Is Daddy

I just arrived from the US the other day.
It was my shortest trip ever: Four days!
But I had to do it.
I was there to meet a very special man who was a spiritual mentor to Presidents, Kings, Prime Ministers, and other heads of government. In other words, he disciples them to follow Jesus. He’s awesome.

This spiritual giant has been working in the United Nations for the past 25 years. Each month, he holds 30+ face-to-face meetings with heads of government, ambassadors, and other high-level officials, guiding them how to lead their country using the Bible. So for three whole days, I sat around his table (we were just four students—myself, two bishops, and a secretary general) to learn one thing: How to disciple Heads of States. It was mind-blowing.

So on my way back, I felt very important too.
I mean, how couldn’t I?
I spent three days with a guy who takes phone calls from Presidents and Prime Ministers before he has breakfast. How cool is that?

But the moment my plane landed in Manila, everything became clear to me. I knew the first Heads of States I would meet. That entire day, upon arriving from the airport, I spent time with the two Kings who’ve conquered my heart since I saw them: My two boys—ages 9 and 4.

Together, we did very high-level, critical, world-changing, life-altering work.
We drew robots and airplanes.
We played with little cars.
We played a video game (I lost, as usual).
We jumped around the coach.

Why did I spend the entire day with them?
Because I believe that before I’m a preacher, writer, leader, missionary, and businessman, I’m a father.

And I suspect that God will say the same thing. This is just my personal opinion. I think before God is supreme judge and king of kings of the entire universe, He’s a Father. That’s why when someone asked Jesus, “Teach us how to pray,” He answered, “Say this: Our Father…”

The original word that Jesus used for “Father” is Abba, which doesn’t really translate to Father but Daddy or Papa. It was what a little baby would call his father.

But as I played with my boys yesterday, I began to think of all the other children who don’t experience what they experience. And I believe that one of the reasons why we don’t know God as Father is because of the wrong fatherhood we’ve experienced. Specifically, I thought of four of my friends: Emmanuel, Grace, Dulce, and Fides. I’ve changed their names to protect their privacy. But unfortunately, their stories are true.

Invisible Fathers

My friend Emmanuel’s father was a lawyer. Later on, he became a judge and was promoted all the way to the Supreme Court. Emmanuel was proud of his father. But when our conversations became intimate, he’d tear up, and tell me that he rarely saw his father. When he woke up, his father was rushing out for his breakfast meetings. In the evenings, his father wasn’t home yet.

Emmanuel grew up knowing his father was an important man doing very important things. But as he grew up, he realized he wasn’t one of these important things his father did. Years later, Emmanuel came to know God in a personal way. Yet for years, he wondered how important he really was in God’s heart.

Autistic Fathers

Some fathers are physically present at home.
But they don’t engage their kids.
Instead, they’re wrapped up in their own world. Either watching TV or surfing the web. That’s why I call them autistic fathers.

Many years ago, I met Grace. She told me that as a child, her goal in life was to make her father smile at her. Because he never did. Oh, she would find him laughing with his barkada. But never to her.

One day, she came home with very high grades on her report card. In her heart, she hoped that perhaps today, he would smile at her. But when she gave him the report card, all her father did was look at it for two seconds, grunt, tossed it back, and went back watching TV.
Not one word of affirmation or appreciation.
Her little heart was crushed.

For years, Grace had a hard time imagining that God was pleased with her. She always imagined God having a perpetual frown on his face.

Cruel Fathers

Dulce’s father is the most barbaric father I’ve ever heard of in my life.
When she was 3 years old, he raped her.

Years later, she always had this nightmare of her head being pushed into a toilet bowl. She realized why. Because her father warned her not to tell anyone of the rape or he’d drown her in the toilet.

For the next ten years, for the slightest mistakes (such as a spilled glass of milk), her father would whip her with his belt until blood flowed. When he was lashing her, her mother would tell him, “Don’t hit her below the knees!” So that the wounds would be covered by her skirt.

He would then grab her ankles, hang her upside down, and bang her head on the floor. He would do this for thirty minutes until she stopped crying and was a lifeless rag in his hands. He would do this each week for ten long years.

Here’s the absurd fact of this story: Until the day he died, her father was an elder and deacon in church. To everyone else, he was an angel. Upon arriving home, he was the devil incarnate - and no one knew.

Dulce is now an adult but suffers massive physical, emotional, and spiritual torments. She has gone through 9 surgeries in various parts of her body. Her doctors discovered micro-strokes in her brain, caused by the head banging she suffered as a child. But her emotional pain was even more severe than her physical pain.

I’m happy to say that Dulce enjoys an intimate relationship with God. God has healed and continues to heal her. But it took years of healing and learning to trust a tender loving Father.

Unfaithful Father

Fides was still a small child when she saw her father walk out of their house carrying his suitcase. At that time, she didn’t know that he was abandoning her, her mother, and her two brothers for another woman.

Unlike her brothers who rebelled and got into drugs, Fides became even more obedient. She became even more responsible. Her school grades shot to the moon. Everyone praised her for being such a good girl.

Later on, Fides realized she blamed herself for the separation of her parents. Inexplicably, she believed that if she were only a better girl, her father would have never left. And for years, she secretly hoped that if she became that better girl, perhaps her father would come back.

For years, Fides’ relationship with God was also about buying His love. She would always try to be good to try to please Him—so He would love her. She had this constant fear that if she made one mistake, God would abandon her too.

May The Real God The Father Please Stand Up?

For many Christians, it’s so much easier to pray to Jesus. After all, He died for our sins. He’s the sweet one. The Father was the mean guy who sent Jesus to die on the cross.

And for many Catholics, it’s so much easier to pray to Mother Mary than to God the Father. Because they believe Mary is more merciful than God. If you can’t go through the front door, go to the back door - Mary has the key.
Which is utterly preposterous.

We have these difficulties because we don’t know who the Father really is.
The Father and the Son are one. And Mother Mary is a beautiful reflection of God’s love for us.

May the real God The Father please stand up?
I changed the names of our four real-life characters. I chose each name deliberately to show you who God the Father is: He is Emmanuel, Grace, Dulce, and Fides.

Daddy Is Emmanuel

A tribe in Africa had a very scary manhood ritual.
When a boy turned 12, the entire community gathered around him for this once-in-a-life-time chanting and dancing ceremony. The elderly women painted red die on his face. His mother gave him a beaded necklace. And the tribal chieftain handed him a long knife with a carved wooden handle.

By nightfall, he was blindfolded and led by six men into the middle of the forest. Once deep inside, the men left him. Alone. In total pitch darkness. The instruction was simple. Survive until dawn, and he gets accepted as a real man in the tribe. But the young boy knew very well that the forest was an incredibly dangerous place. It was the home of tigers. Snakes. Bears. Hyenas.

And so for the entire night, this scrawny little 12-year-old boy was now all alone in the forest. The entire night, he held his knife trembling in his hand. Not for one moment could he rest. Try as he might, his eyes could see nothing but shadows around him. In his imagination, every little sound—even a leaf swaying in the wind—was a wild animal ready to pounce on him at any moment. The whole night, he could hear his heart pounding in his chest.

When his terror overwhelmed him, tears ran down his cheeks. He wanted to shout, “I’m just a little boy! I’m not ready yet to be a man!” But who could hear him now? He was all alone. But after many hours of fighting his fear and exhaustion, his eyes could see more clearly. Dawn was approaching. The first shafts of sunlight pierced through the thick canopy of leaves above him. That was when the little boy felt something move behind him.

In terror, he turned around.
And there, standing tall on a rock behind him, was the towering figure of a fierce-looking man holding a long spear.
The boy shouted, “Daddy!”
The father smiled.
“When did you arrive?” the boy asked, “Are you here to pick me up?”

The father said, “Before you arrived last night, I was already here. I stood guard, protecting you the whole time. I never left you for one moment, my son.” Daddy is Emmanuel - which means God with us.

Friend, I don’t know what darkness you’re going through right now. Perhaps you’re praying for your child who is on drugs. Or your husband is having an affair. Or you’re having financial problems right now. Remember that in your darkness, God is with you. He will never leave or abandon you. When you’re in pain, God embraces you and feels your pain. He weeps with you. Because Daddy is Emmanuel.

Daddy is Grace

When I think of Grace giving her very high report card to her father - and all he did was grunt - I remember my own experience with my report card. When I was in grade school, my report card had red marks. (At least, it was colored. Yours was just black and white.) Because I failed in Math and Pilipino.

That day, I went up to Mom and showed her my report card.
All she said was, “Show it to your father.”
Gulp. Oh boy. I walked up to Dad and gave it to him.
He read it, nodded his head, and handed it back to me, and said, “Son, just study some more.”
No spanking. No scolding. No disapproval.
He then said, “Let’s eat.”
That’s why for the rest of my academic life, I kept failing. (Hehe...)

I guess Dad knew that my brilliance wasn’t in academics. It would bloom elsewhere. (Ahem.)
I thank God for having parents who loved me whether I performed in school or not. They just loved me, period. Unconditionally.
Daddy means Grace. Grace means gift.

Two weeks ago, my son Bene came up to me and showed me his Math exam. He was sad because out of 100 points, he got 92. I couldn’t help but laugh. Because if I got 92, my mother would have fainted. Because when I was a kid, out of 100 points, I would get 36. One time, I got 28. I would show those test papers to Dad. And all he’d say was, “Just do better next time.”

Grace means “free gift”.

Here’s my point: You don’t have to please God so that He loves you. He loves you as you are. He accepts you totally. I don’t care what sin you committed. I don’t care how many times you’ve done it. God loves you and will forgive you of your sins. It will be this love that will bring you to repentance and a new life. Because Daddy is grace.

Daddy Is Dulce

Dulce means sweet.
I believe God is the sweetest Daddy in the world.
A few years ago, I was in a preaching tour in the US.

I remember one big event. After the last song, I was signing my books. There was an unusually long line of people who wanted my autograph. In front of me were four ushers telling people to wait for their turn.

That was when someone ran past the long line of people, squeezed himself in between the ushers, and ducked underneath the table. He then climbed on my lap, handed me a bottle of water, and said, “Please open, Daddy. I’m thirsty.” Bene was four years old at that time.

Obviously, I stopped signing books and opened his bottle.
How could Bene do that? Because he was my son and I was his Daddy.
He was confident that I wouldn’t reject him. He knew that I loved him more than the entire world.

This is what Jesus meant when he taught us the “Our Father”.
Like Bene, we too can run to God, climb on his lap, and ask for what we need.
Because Daddy is dulce.

Daddy Is Fides

I like to believe I’m a good father.
But I’m nothing compared to Dick Hoyt and his love for his son Rick.
In 1962, while baby Rick was in the womb of his mother, he was strangled by the umbilical cord—causing a lack of oxygen in his brain. He suffered cerebral palsy and couldn’t speak or control his arms or legs.

As an eight month old baby, doctors told Dick and his wife Judy to place the child in an institution. “Because he was going to be a vegetable all his life,” they said. But the parents refused and brought him home. Dick promised that he would try to give his son as normal a life as possible.

Fast forward today: Dick learned that Rick loved sports. After a lot of pain and exercise (Dick wasn’t athletic), he pushed Rick in a wheelchair in a 5 kilometer run. After the Run, Rick said that while he was in the race, he didn’t feel an invalid.

That was the start of a great adventure. Today, this father-and-son team has participated in 66 marathons and 229 triathlons.
While running, Dick would push his son in a wheelchair.
While swimming, Dick would pull him in a rubber boat.
While biking, Dick would carry him at the front of his bike.
When I watched the life of Dick and Rick Hoyt, I saw a glimpse of God’s love. This is the Father’s love for you.

I don’t know about you, but I must admit that I’m handicapped in many areas of my life. I’ve got weaknesses I still battle to this day. But in this adventure called life, I’ve experienced my God pushing me, pulling me, and carrying me in his arms. I know God does the same to you.

Fides means faith. The root word for faithfulness.
God has faith in you. He believes in you.
Daddy is fides.

Next week, I’ll talk about God as Leader.
May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez

Choose to Live Extraordinarily

(By Cliff Young - Crosswalk.Com)

This profound statement was made by the man who led a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence, depicted in the movie Braveheart. He was speaking not to seasoned warriors, but rather fellow farmers, tradesmen and landowners, as he challenged these simple men to step out from their rather routine lives to do something extraordinary—to stand up and fight against the tyranny of the English.

Likewise, God calls each of us—many out of what we think are our mundane everyday lives—to do something extraordinary, to really live for Him.

“We pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10).

Braveheart was shown at the outset of my church’s men’s retreat to encourage and inspire us, the biblically-called leaders in our church, to not accept the status quo of life but to lead and to live a life abundantly.

As believers and as Americans, we are blessed to have endless freedoms, a lengthy life span and the knowledge of eternal life. This gives us the foundation and capacity to change the world, if we choose. However, Ralph Waldo Emerson cautions, “It is not length of life, but depth of life.”

Who and what are you living for? How deep are you choosing to live your life?

A Life Worth Living

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
—William James

I recently saw a heartbreaking, yet encouraging short video called 99 Balloons where this statement was extraordinarily lived out. It can be viewed here.

This documentary chronicled the story of Eliot Mooney, a baby stricken with Trisomy 18 or Edward’s syndrome, a genetic disorder. Most fetuses diagnosed with this illness rarely survive to birth, Eliot did.

His parents, Matt and Ginny Mooney, lived by the aphorism, “You can’t change what happens, it’s all about how you choose to live your day.” What they chose was to celebrate each day of the life of their son, documenting it with a letter to him.

The Mooney’s story is not only inspirational, but serves as a lesson for us to receive and live every day as a gift from God.

Their story has been viewed by millions of people, and in Eliot’s short life of 99 days, he has probably touched more lives around the world than many of us will in 99 years.

Oftentimes it is difficult to find any positives throughout a day (especially from the media), and it becomes almost customary to focus on the negatives in our life. However, don’t allow your circumstances to dictate how you see your life or how you live your life. Our outlook, even in the direst of situations, can inspire, encourage and lead others to greatness.

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Ephesians 4:1).

Invest in Others

Focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose.
—Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

Through his best-selling book, Pastor Rick Warren changed the way many of us looked at ourselves by reminding us our life is not about us.

However, in the midst of all of the challenges we face each day—professionally, relationally and economically, it is sometimes difficult to take our eyes off of ourselves and to focus on a greater purpose. It’s similar to driving in a snow storm at night. Most of your attention becomes fixated on the falling snow in the headlights, rather than on the road and where you are headed.

I am reminded of a man who was personally and professionally in financial ruins. He was trying to support his family, had no money to his name, deficient funds in his business and was told he was worth more dead than alive. His name was George Bailey, the banker and protagonist in Frank Capra’s movie, It’s a Wonderful Life.

At the depth of his despair, George cried out, “Dear Father in Heaven, show me the way.” Despondently, he resigned himself to the thought, “I wish I was never born.” Through an angel named Clarence, George was given the chance to see what the world would have been like had he not been born.

Like George, have you ever wondered if you really mattered? Felt insignificant as an adult? Questioned if your life has made a substantial difference?

A sense that we don’t measure up due to a lack of something (i.e. spouse, family, material possessions, thriving career, looks, money, etc.) is just a misguided thought from the enemy to destroy our confidence and faith. Our indiscriminate feelings of doubt, inadequacy, unimportance and irrelevance are tools he uses to keep us from living our lives to the fullest.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).

Besides storing up treasures, we shouldn’t be worrying and consuming ourselves with gaining treasures on earth, but rather investing into people’s lives and souls, which are treasures in heaven.

On George Bailey’s journey through a world void of his life, he made a significant discovery. He had positively impacted many people’s lives and changed a community for the better through his honesty, kindness, and concern for others. Although he didn’t possess a great deal monetarily or materially, he had the respect, support and love of family and friends.

The antithesis to George Bailey in today’s world is Bernie Madoff, the billionaire financier who committed the largest investment fraud in history. He defrauded nearly $65 billion from his clients and with it purchased treasures on earth for himself. At his recent sentencing, not one person stood up nor spoke up for him. He is currently serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison.

If we were afforded the gift of seeing what our life has meant to the lives of others, I wonder how many of us would be surprised at how even a small act of kindness or word of encouragement had impacted those around us. It may even encourage us to do more, to the point of living more purposefully.

What I find most exciting (and agonizing at times) about living a life as a believer are the unknowns, stressful as they are. However, when I am able to take my mind off of myself (and my worries), cherish and celebrate each day, and search for opportunities to touch and impact others, the anxieties of my unknowns seem to fade away. I begin living outside of my comfort zone and within God’s. I begin to live an extraordinary life.

May you live every day of your life.

New Web

Last Sunday I made a new web (it's free hahaha...) at Weebly. Looks like I will write more there... Click HERE if you wanna see my new web. I put my profile, blog, some of my videos, and contact form there. It's cute and simple I guess... that's why I like it =p

Actually I can put some of my photos there too but I guess not now... =p

So... feel free to visit there =p

While You Are Waiting

There are moments in our life when we feel like we're in a waiting room.
Moments between our previous achieved goal (or finished journey) and the next destination.

Those are moments when daily things happen as usual... but there's nothing (according to our point of view) happen regarding to our next goal...
No open door ...yet
No shining chance ...yet
No signs...

...Everything just feels so silent...

And we don't know what to do
Sometimes even feel useless because it feels like we're idle

That's what I'm (kind of) going through right now

But He reminds me that it's not my idle time
Instead, this is a time for me to keep learning things I want to learn
Time for me to strengthen my faith muscles
Time to discern which thoughts I can allow to stick in my mind and thoughts I should throw away

Usually idle times ease a great war in our mind
...and it's not a chance to give up nor to be ignorant
But it's time for us to make sure that we're doing everything we can (in wisdom)
So that we will come out as a winner in Him

So...
Let's build and strengthen our body now
So that in time
We will be able to fly high

"Blessed [is] the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit."
(Jeremiah 17:7-8) - NKJV

Jiayouuuu!!!!

Doubt About Yourself?

There are moments in my life when I doubt about myself...
Doubt about my ability...
Doubt about my heart's motivation...
Doubt about everything in me...

But suddenly God said softly...
That every time I doubt about myself, it's the same with not trusting Him
Because He is The One who has unlimited power upon anything, and anyone...
Despite of the thing's or person's limitations

If He can rise a dead person who is totally don't have anything
...no ability ...no consciousness ...no control over himself at all
I mean, he's not even breathing...
How a whole lot more He can do with a living person who truly wants to live right and wants to please Him, even though he is having many limitations or have made many mistakes?

He is right... just as always...
That every time I doubt myself, actually I doubt about His power...
...and of course, His unfailing love...

I definitely can surrender all my hopes in Him...
and He who have started His works in me will make sure it will be done until it is perfectly finished...

^.^
Jiayou my friends!

The Little Things Called LOVE

It's when my dad repaired my watch, though many times fail but he kept trying until it was fixed well... I remember that moment everytime I wear my watch and look at it...

It's when my mom bought me chocolate fried cookies when she saw it at the store because she know I like it...

It's when my parents called me just to tell me to take good care of myself...

It's when God cheers me up by letting me go to Sinar Supermarket, to touch the soft furs of rabbits and hamsters sold there =p

*I'm learning to see and feel love in the little things*
^.^