Breakfast with my Mom and TinaPA
Every Tuesday nights is our Bible study at our humble yet so blessed home but for some reasons only TinaPA would know, she was only able to muster her energy until dinner. She said goodbye before we could begin our usual light, insightful and happy story book telling like mood. So this morning at breakfast, TinaPA is ok and we talked about a lot of stuff about her family, children and her own journey. I kind of mad at her because I have a strong feeling she was not being honest about last night but my mom said to be patient as I was advising my sister too to do the same in her situation that when logic fails all you have to do is shut up, do not react, be patient and pray for enlightenment for it will come. And to me it did come and as we wind up our breakfast, I brought to the table one of the side lessons last night which is Mat 5:3..The first of the Beatitudes.....Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven...For a good measure we are blessed to have our own morning rigodon of just preparing the breakfast and after that our schedule is at our mercy for we are so wealthy with time. And for a good measure too all of us three suffered severe losses in our lives too, for a start both are widows. Materially, all of us were in one way or time or the other were stripped literally. Now we live simple lives. TinaPA is a doyenne of a pedigreed family with a rich history of a father whose kindness is legendary to the needy in his lifetime... Must not be easy for her really for as protected as she was before..it came to us too that good intentions are not always for the good. Mat 16:22-23.. I now believed God has made us so to become depleted in spirit and wealth so that all that was left to us is our thirst for Him and His words, our thirst for our own gift of deliverance..in our own needy lives, it is only His words that man doesn't live by bread alone Mat 4:4 that became so real and meaningful. So this is it. This is our journey. Our own transformation, our own restoration and His Kingdom come in our lives. From a human perspective of neediness and searching state to a continuously being spirit filled life where we all three believed did happened for a very good reason. And how we all met is one for the storybook of how really everything was planned out by God long before we've met.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Breakfast with Mom.
At the breakfast table with my mom.......A closer look at my mom's piece of mind on having peace of mind.
Like many of us, my mom had her own share of catastrophic falls and fair share of glorious moments. After 78 years, what unfolded was something she never expected. She got peace. One morning while tending to her plants, she was shaken upon hearing the words of Pastor John Hagee that the greatest gift one can receive in this life is peace of mind. Mom's hearing is no longer as great and specially so when she's so focused with her plants but then surprisingly with that one statement she resonated very well. She screamed in joy like one time when she found her missing heirloom at the potted plants. I thought it was but told me instead "I think I found it", I asked what did you find , she said Peace of Mind....Looking back from her past, really she really did achieve much but lost a lot too. When she moved to Kauai she (so we thought) crept her way to prominence. Kauai was both a humbling and glorious experiences. She started from scratch stripped with everything and left only with her faith and a fair amount of fear of the unknown.. She even took a second job as a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant Kintaro where she has to deal with huge pots and pans and hundreds of dishes at a fast pace and to think I've never seen her wash dishes before out of privilege and esteem accorded to her. Yet she didn't mind and took them in as part of her own learning process. Until an opportunity came that she moved to Prudential and became a star insurance agent in her own right. If you can come to our humble home, I placed her numerous plaques of awards and appreciations in our wall to remind her of her colorful achievements. After Prudential, she had all the body repairs...heart by pass, hip replacements, pacemaker and has to deal with her diabetes and heart issues since then....Finally her wings were clipped and again this time she can no longer assert her will as she used to. Five years ago she joined me here in LA and slowly her transformation began. I saw how she slowly accepted her new lifestyle and with all humility she accepted the big change. I am a loving yet I am also a contentious strong willed son having lived on my own for the last 16 years in LA plus 10 years before that after she she migrated in Hawaii. It was a process for both of us to start and build a communication line and we have always referred to our faith...It was almost tumultuous but we both hold our horses and tried to see common grounds and always the words of God comes out. Slowly we decided to now focus our thoughts to His teachings and words. We decided to go to the mass as often as we can. We devoted more time to listen and watch TBN for God's words, we joined Bible studies, and started one in our own home with some friends. Evidently our auto pilots has changed. It is now a growing grateful awareness and automatically and in effect I know it is subconscious. The time probably has come and it came with a process....First of all there is this unfailing faith that so sustains us in our five years of some roller coaster together. But the last two years has started to shift for with faith we hoped for our own deliverance and for our dreams, with hope we decided to be obedient or we do our best to be, with obedience we endure, we became patient and in time with more and more Words and prayers we slowly became still and more dependent on God. Slowly surrendering our will to Him and all our dreams and hope. and slowly Peace came in our hearts. At this point.. worry, anger, doubt, fear became less and less prominent.....Though we still experience them like hard rocks that comes and hit us yet it has become easier to discern and avoid as already they became signs of spiritual poisons. This is actually why I love Mat 6:33 Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God and all His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. It speaks of the journey of seeking asking knocking of that elusive truth. I thought it was just a restless sinful beingness but it is a part of a personal journey to seek the Truth, the state of grace the state of the Kingdom.
Like many of us, my mom had her own share of catastrophic falls and fair share of glorious moments. After 78 years, what unfolded was something she never expected. She got peace. One morning while tending to her plants, she was shaken upon hearing the words of Pastor John Hagee that the greatest gift one can receive in this life is peace of mind. Mom's hearing is no longer as great and specially so when she's so focused with her plants but then surprisingly with that one statement she resonated very well. She screamed in joy like one time when she found her missing heirloom at the potted plants. I thought it was but told me instead "I think I found it", I asked what did you find , she said Peace of Mind....Looking back from her past, really she really did achieve much but lost a lot too. When she moved to Kauai she (so we thought) crept her way to prominence. Kauai was both a humbling and glorious experiences. She started from scratch stripped with everything and left only with her faith and a fair amount of fear of the unknown.. She even took a second job as a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant Kintaro where she has to deal with huge pots and pans and hundreds of dishes at a fast pace and to think I've never seen her wash dishes before out of privilege and esteem accorded to her. Yet she didn't mind and took them in as part of her own learning process. Until an opportunity came that she moved to Prudential and became a star insurance agent in her own right. If you can come to our humble home, I placed her numerous plaques of awards and appreciations in our wall to remind her of her colorful achievements. After Prudential, she had all the body repairs...heart by pass, hip replacements, pacemaker and has to deal with her diabetes and heart issues since then....Finally her wings were clipped and again this time she can no longer assert her will as she used to. Five years ago she joined me here in LA and slowly her transformation began. I saw how she slowly accepted her new lifestyle and with all humility she accepted the big change. I am a loving yet I am also a contentious strong willed son having lived on my own for the last 16 years in LA plus 10 years before that after she she migrated in Hawaii. It was a process for both of us to start and build a communication line and we have always referred to our faith...It was almost tumultuous but we both hold our horses and tried to see common grounds and always the words of God comes out. Slowly we decided to now focus our thoughts to His teachings and words. We decided to go to the mass as often as we can. We devoted more time to listen and watch TBN for God's words, we joined Bible studies, and started one in our own home with some friends. Evidently our auto pilots has changed. It is now a growing grateful awareness and automatically and in effect I know it is subconscious. The time probably has come and it came with a process....First of all there is this unfailing faith that so sustains us in our five years of some roller coaster together. But the last two years has started to shift for with faith we hoped for our own deliverance and for our dreams, with hope we decided to be obedient or we do our best to be, with obedience we endure, we became patient and in time with more and more Words and prayers we slowly became still and more dependent on God. Slowly surrendering our will to Him and all our dreams and hope. and slowly Peace came in our hearts. At this point.. worry, anger, doubt, fear became less and less prominent.....Though we still experience them like hard rocks that comes and hit us yet it has become easier to discern and avoid as already they became signs of spiritual poisons. This is actually why I love Mat 6:33 Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God and all His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. It speaks of the journey of seeking asking knocking of that elusive truth. I thought it was just a restless sinful beingness but it is a part of a personal journey to seek the Truth, the state of grace the state of the Kingdom.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Now I can tell why my mom's smile glows and unending these past few days. She got a golden time with her Apos Isaiah and Aaron. God just simply made it so. We are all oblivious to this great opportunity when suddenly I asked the two boys... if they knew why their flights were delayed. As polite and courteous as they are, they said no and there it is wide open the reason why is because this is the moment to bond with them both genuinely without their mom and dad who went home ahead in Hawaii. These are very important crossroads that this event shall happen among us that I believe God so engineered so well. In my heart I understood but I am not just privy to the bigger picture. But it just simply showed God's infinite glory and majesty in our lives. Really a golden opportunity is really golden even if it is mired with mud or any filth for in its extreme heat or challenges, the pureness of it comes out shining. Is it the power of or the gift of obedience. Thank you Isaiah and Aaron for giving mom your most loving and comforting gestures, for making her very special and for making her feel so loved. Thank you Ferdie and Tanya...In God's love and time, all is good.
On Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg
In this Bible study we talked about blessings.......I asked what did Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg did to have been blessed enormously? Pastor ...Herbie replied that it is what you sow. So what makes them different with other people who sow great seeds too that at the pyramid of worldly wealth, they are at the tip lording it all over 7 billion people. Incredible fate and seemed like they were singled out for this incredible feat. Yes everyone has their own blessings and one should not compare but the magnitude of their blessings is undeniably anoint them as heavily favored beings. But that conversation didn't escape my mind ...IT IS WHAT YOU SOW!!! SO what did Bill Gates or Mark Z sow?...My own thinking says their works is what they sow and the effects to the entire creations is unprecedented. It has changed the way the world do its business or daily activities in a very positive way. It has made life easy in a quantum leap. Their works have been so revolutionary that made life far convenient, mind bogglingly finger clicking easy that created life enhancing discoveries, communications so sophisticated that made a year technology easily obsolete too soon....There their works has propped up life enormously and their rewards are equally enormous. So I was thinking these guys must have thought, focused, sank their teeth to their works but little did they knew that the effects will be this spanking sophistication and revolutionary and life changing. But what I am sure now of is any work is great as long as it is dedicated for the greatest good will become like a prayer and will be answered like a prayer too. Because works that enhances and protects and works that are LIFE CHANGING are blessed in maximum grace imaginable. SO is a life in sincere philanthropy is blessed a life in sincere tithing is obedience and this renders us needless and become heirs of the Kingdom for we become givers and not receivers."
In this Bible study we talked about blessings.......I asked what did Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg did to have been blessed enormously? Pastor ...Herbie replied that it is what you sow. So what makes them different with other people who sow great seeds too that at the pyramid of worldly wealth, they are at the tip lording it all over 7 billion people. Incredible fate and seemed like they were singled out for this incredible feat. Yes everyone has their own blessings and one should not compare but the magnitude of their blessings is undeniably anoint them as heavily favored beings. But that conversation didn't escape my mind ...IT IS WHAT YOU SOW!!! SO what did Bill Gates or Mark Z sow?...My own thinking says their works is what they sow and the effects to the entire creations is unprecedented. It has changed the way the world do its business or daily activities in a very positive way. It has made life easy in a quantum leap. Their works have been so revolutionary that made life far convenient, mind bogglingly finger clicking easy that created life enhancing discoveries, communications so sophisticated that made a year technology easily obsolete too soon....There their works has propped up life enormously and their rewards are equally enormous. So I was thinking these guys must have thought, focused, sank their teeth to their works but little did they knew that the effects will be this spanking sophistication and revolutionary and life changing. But what I am sure now of is any work is great as long as it is dedicated for the greatest good will become like a prayer and will be answered like a prayer too. Because works that enhances and protects and works that are LIFE CHANGING are blessed in maximum grace imaginable. SO is a life in sincere philanthropy is blessed a life in sincere tithing is obedience and this renders us needless and become heirs of the Kingdom for we become givers and not receivers."
Now I can tell why my mom's smile glows and unending these past few days. She got a golden time with her Apos Isaiah and Aaron. God just simply made it so. We are all oblivious to this great opportunity when suddenly I asked the two boys... if they knew why their flights were delayed. As polite and courteous as they are, they said no and there it is wide open the reason why is because this is the moment to bond with them both genuinely without their mom and dad who went home ahead in Hawaii. These are very important crossroads that this event shall happen among us that I believe God so engineered so well. In my heart I understood but I am not just privy to the bigger picture. But it just simply showed God's infinite glory and majesty in our lives. Really a golden opportunity is really golden even if it is mired with mud or any filth for in its extreme heat or challenges, the pureness of it comes out shining. Is it the power of or the gift of obedience. Thank you Isaiah and Aaron for giving mom your most loving and comforting gestures, for making her very special and for making her feel so loved. Thank you Ferdie and Tanya...In God's love and time, all is good.
Life is a challenge. It is filled with incredible and overwhelming problems we face or escape everyday. It was meant that way. We try to solve each challenge where we have little knowledge or solve it with what other people say and definitely a hit and miss experience. But Pastor Bobby Schuller of Hour of Power Ministry said in a manner like this that for those who have little knowledge or relationship with God, it will be chaotic and depressing but for those who have faith in God will look at problems differently as an opportunity to grow spiritually with no fear or doubt that God is in charge. Faith is the key to grace. And to have faith is a long tedious process of self evolution and purification. It is not something you read and know and have it else you are lying to yourself. Faith is something personal that you achieve. It comes with suffering, in suffering you hope, when you hope you endure when you endure you achieve patience when you have patience you defeat your demons and when you defeat your demons you achieve peace and when you have peace you start to have a relationship with God and this manifests the faith and because of this faith you are now ready to receive GRACE... You will know sincerely if you have it. There is no short cut for this creates the real and authentic you. Or else you will just be a split personality who knew so many things, proclaiming so much yet empty inside because it is not authentic.
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