The Significant Things I Have Learned This 2007

My life would be empty if I know I didn’t learn on a life that I have lived this year. I am asking for more. I am not yet satisfied. But I need to practice right now of having the positive attitude: seeing the life hall full rather than half empty..

So here are the top Five significant things I have learned this year:

1. The best thing that you can do to your friend is not to give yourself, not to give a shoulder in times of despair, not to give them support when they need it, but to let go of them when you think they need to grow.

-In this year, three of my significant left me to explore the other places. My friend Con and Nikki are now in Manila. My friend Jane is now living in Canada for good. Her family left the Phils last July. And now, another new friend is about to leave to stay with her family in Manila. I will be sad. It will cost me tears and pain. But just like scars caused by this hurt of leaving, our friendship that we have is hard to destroy by distance. My friends, no matter how far they are will always have a soft spot in my heart.

-When I get to hear them after long months of not getting in touch with one another, it makes me happy knowing that they are becoming a better person. I know my friends deserve to receive the blessings God has showered for them. And I cannot provide it for them alone.

2.) Happiness will not come if you will just wait for it. Happiness is in you when you choose it. Choose happiness. In order to choose it, you need three things: the power to shift your perspective into a positive one, love for yourself, and inner peace.

-It’s inevitable we are having a bad hair day. If you still choose to be happy despite that you are having a shitty day, it will save you from the hours of frustration. You can’t simply choose. Look for something that will make you happy. If things are not going well, you just have to ask, what can I gain/learn from this? By changing your perspective, you will loose if you choose to loose, rather, you will gain more.

-Love yourself first and happiness will come naturally. You don’t need people to make you happy. Because even if you have them, you will still feel a huge void of emptiness and dissatisfaction if you don’t love yourself.

-Happiness starts from a heart that feels nothing but abundant joy, love, and peace. A heart where hate and grudge has no space for it. Let go of hate. Forgive often, and you will find the inner peace that will give you the happiness you can never imagine existed.

3.) Faith and Hope co-exist. Faith without hope is useless. Hope without faith brings uncertainty, doubt, and confusion. Hope strengthens faith. Faith justifies hope.

-Faith springs from the longing of the soul and so is hope. Hope allows us to enter on the world of the impossible, and make it real.

-Who says faith and doubt are opposite? Doubt is the element of faith. When you are hearing a bad gossip about someone you know? Do you usually believe the ones who tell you the gossip immediately or doubt if he or she is telling the truth? When you have faith on person, you always have reservation ..oh he may be like this or like that..he’s not like that before..maybe he is… When you have faith on someone, he is the only truth for you. You postpone your judgment unless you hear him speak.

-Hope is believing. Hope is overstepping on the realm of the unknown. Hope and expectation are different. When you expect, you push to see the outcome. Hope believes more than what is visible. Expectation springs from mind while hope gathers strength from the heart.

4.) You want to spend money with while feeling significant? Spend it with people you really love or someone that is so special for you and the outcome and result are more rewarding that what you expected. If you are to spend on the less essential stuff, make sure you share it with someone who shares the same interest with you.

-I know I am not the only one in this world who feels like this. For most of the breadwinners like me, we sometimes complain, thinking that we don’t have much left for us. We work and a big portion of our salary goes to our family. Sometimes, it is hard to buy expensive clothes thinking that it can still add up for you family expenses. But I realize I don’t have to worry. I am not earning that big, I don’t usually buy grand clothes every time I receive my salary, but I am still happy knowing that I helped them. Buying pasalubong to my family brings us closer together.

-I love bands and I love to but their CDs. But I don’t have a player. So I let my brother use it and so his old time friend. When I went home, that’s our bonding time, listening to the music only the two of us can appreciate.

5.) For the book readers, don’t just read. Don’t just memorize what you’ve read. Don’t just store it inside you brain. Learn from the books. Share it or discuss it with somebody. And most of all, transform it to the fabrics of your life. Yeah! You heard it right! Use what you’ve learned and practice it on your daily life.

-I have read so many books. And so far, there are so many things that I’ve learned from them. And most of their theories, I have already concretized it on my own life. I choose to share it with you. I hope you learn something from it. Most popular authors that influence me a lot are Stephen Covey, John Maxwell, Jonathan Kellerman, Ayn Rand, Ron Jenson, Deepak Chopra, Kahlil Gibran, and philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Friedrich Hegel, Soren Kierkegaard, St. Thomas Aquinas and a whole lot more.

And this learning is just a few. But hence, a proof that I am applying what I read on my practical living and finally share it with you.

i choose to be happy!!!woohooo!!!

I don’t know how to start my day without writing. I don’t know..i just want to release this..I don’t know if I pity myself .. I don’t know if im angry.. I don’t wanna blame anyone except myself for feeling like hell once again… One thing I know for sure is I don’t want to start my day with gloomy mood like this or it will just ruin the rest fo my day..

Wow! How can I be so cruel to myself again when I just read a book about being happy.. But first, I wanna thank God for this wonderful day.. for giving me another chance to fell how much He loves me and how much he want me to enjoy the kind of life that He prepared for me today… Whatever happens, I wanna thank Him for this brand new day..I praise Him and thank Him for the life that I have….

I think its about ll the power to choose.. I nid to choose to be happy…by shifting my paradigm to a positive perspective.. for me it really takes a challenge..

Im suppose to hate a guy..but my heart refuse to..why is that??I am not like this…!!my old self will feel this.. but I don’t want to take care of this hate inside my heart for it will only poison my soul..well, the miracle of faith..you will never know how faith works until you experience it…

Im happy today..listening to the song Your Guardian Angel by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus..Am I looking for someone to be my angel that will sing this song for me? Or I want to be an angel for someone? I don’t know but I know this was dictated by my subconscious and unconscious…

I will never let you fall, ill stand up with you forever…ill be there for you through it all..even when saving you sends me to heaven…

How cute!!Well thanks for this song for it makes me strong in spite that I am experiencing emotional disturbance…hmm,, well well well!!!I guess I just want to enjoy my life today.. nobody wants to be lonely..hahahaha!!who wants to be lonely? Certainly nobody unless you choose to be..no way highway!! I am soo tired of crying for guys who are not worthy of my tears..

Yeah I think I have to recognize that I am hurt..but that’s how life is gonna shove us if we choose to..its the hardball of life but I nid to keep on moving..keep living..and kip believing in love!! It’s the only way for you to gain true inner peace within yourself…

a WOndERfuL sOLemN vIsIT

Wew!Im not in good mood to write today but my why is my fingers are urging to touc the keyboard.. I guess this bloody mind has something to say again…Go ahead..I’m not able to read the book because I just had an important date with the Lord last night…But I guess that won’t stop me from having another non sense entry on this blog.. Shall I post it??

I think I just have to choose to be happy.. Why not? My boarding haws becomes an essential part of my spirituality now.. not just a place to rest, sleep, and live while I’m hir in Legaspi… Last night, my roommate and I become the host of Bible study. We regularly meet at Dunkin Donuts. But I guess things need to change a bit.. We need to look for more conducive place to worship Him..

Oh my gosh! I can’t believe how happy I am because my room is organized for a couple of days now. wow!! Unbelievable..!!! I always see to it that my room is clean and all is well before I leave it. That’s why when we are anticipating visitors; it wasn’t hard for me to prepare our room for solemn worship. My Lord is about to come to our house, it needs to be special!!! So I clean the room again, scrub the floor, put a white cloth on it and keep the things on its proper places.

But I have to confess that I am thinking of the grup first.. Not really the visiting of the Lord.. I am thinking if they will be comfortable.. I am first and foremost considering the conduciveness and the warmth of the room so everything goes very well during the study..Although its not that bad..but He must come first..Did He like it?How I accepted these pipol to worship Him? Oh my!Forgive me Lord God..But I still have vigil candles left I bought last Holy week.. So I ignite the three little candles and put them on a cute blue sky plate to make them more attractive..

Can I make up to yah Lord? I’ll do it better next time…I’ll do it for you and the group will just be my secondary goal next to you.

Before I end this blog, I need to say this to You Jesus, my Savior, thank you for coming into my life when I choose to accept You.. Thank You for sharing Your precious time with us.. I thank You from the bottom of my heart.. And right now, I wanna thank you for visiting our simple room. It’s so simple. We don’t have grand possessions to welcome you..Only our warmth and sincerity to welcome You is all we have..Only Thank You so much my Dear Lord..just don’t make me cry at this very moment plssss….You just don’t know how much You make me happy.. I am sooooo very blessed in thousands ways I could never imagine..I feel I don’t have the right to deserve You..But I am wholeheartedly overwhelmed by Your love my Lord.. Oh how I miss You..Oh how I miss the solemn nights..It was a couple of years ago…Thank You my Lord for visiting us.. Hope to meet You again next week.

The Bondage Breaker Insights Continues…

I’m moving on to the chapter two of the Bondage Breaker by Neil Anderson entitled Finding Your Way to the World. This chapter talks about the presernce of spiritual dark forces existing on this earth. I am not forcing anyone to belive nor I am hir to convince you of their reality. Whether you accept it or not, these dark spiritual forces keep on lurking on our world.

We are alive in flesh and we have spirits. So as these dark creatures. They have spirits, they don’t have flesh but they have the power to hurt us without knowing it. If we try to live on the extreme, we are in deep trouble. One pole is living on a two tier world and living in the excluded middle. Both of them are trying to exclude or ignore the presence of these spirits on our material world. The opposite extreme is trying to be spiritual without the presence of God. This includes the New Age Movement, mysticism, chants, sorcerers, parapsychology, and numerous cults. If we try to live spiritual without God, this is the easiest path to ignore His presence, and worse, you are leading to worship Satan. But you need not be afraid for there are ways to combat them and win the battle by God’s will.

The author identifies 6 ways:

1.) denying yourself: denying oneself is denying self-rule..this means that you try giving up the desire to be God. We can be God-like but we can never be god no matter how hard we try…it entail a complete dependence of God so you may function according to how God designed you to be..this is one of vitals of spiritual

2.) pick up your cross daily: it doesn’t mean that you have to suffer. It is carrying the Christ’s cross, not your own. It means that we acknowledge that we belong to God. Carrying the Christ’s cross is affirming that our identity is based from our relationship with God.

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20)

3.) Follow Christ: this is to follow Christ in everything that we do..by His will and by asking His guidance, we can follow him little by little although this journey is not easy.

4.) Sacrifice the lower life to gain the higher life: our modern world focus on the material things. We nid to give up the desire to get all of them. Seek things that God wants you to have. the things that you will need fro eternal life

5.) Sacrifice the pleasure of things to gain the pleasures of life: use things and zero in on caring pipol, not care with your possessions and use pipol for your own greedy interest. Can you trade you title, power, position, wealth and fame in exchange of enduring love, patience, health, peace, happiness and so on?

6.) Sacrifice the temporal to gain the eternal: this is giving up the tings that are tangible, the things that are temporary for they are so easy to vanish.. focus cultivating enduring and long lasting values that will guarantee us an eternal life..

These ways many not be easy. There is no even shortcut. Through this challenging journey, we are inviting the courage, perseverance and commitment to stand amidst all consequences that might threaten us not to pursue them. You can start this little by little and by believing on yourself.

The Bondage Breaker

I am currently reading the book by Neil Anderson entitled The Bondage Breaker. The book generally talks about overcoming all the strong destructive elements that keeps on trapping us to habitual sins. Such factors would include strong bad habitual patterns, irrational thoughts and feelings, as well as the external forces brought by environment but most specially the dark forces.

There are several books that allows me to become more mature but I think this will be one of the most challenging and controversial book that I am about to read for I will be equipped with powerful tools to battle the evil forces.. Yeah, the evil ones.. I started the very first chapter and something bad happens. Well I am not insinuating that the Bondage Breaker has a curse. This book serves as an offensive move. Last night, I dreamed of two snakes. I used to drim snakes but now they bite me. I know this is not going to be easy. But I remember my frend said to me. This is the only way to win d battle, to meet them on the eye. Not to keep on running from them.

This book is not mine. I am borrowing it from my workmate but I loose my patience on try borrowing it again and again. Well, needless to say, I am bound to read this book even though my intention to borrow it simply fade away. But God is good. After few days, my workmate brought this Bondage Breaker book and got the chance to read it right after my work.

To begin sharing what I read from this book, well I am just starting but I feel the need to share it with others..

=let me share with you the common misconceptions about the bondage..these are the faulty ideas that keeps my fellow Christians in darkness

1. Demons were active when Christ was on earth, but their activity was subsided

2. What the early church called demonic activity we now understand is the mental illness

3. Some problems r psychological while some are spiritual

4. Christians cannot be affected by demons

5. Demonic influence is only evident in extreme or violent behavior and gross sin

6. Freedom from spiritual bondage is the result of the power encounter with demonic forces

According to the author of this book, we don’t need to defeat the demons because Christ has already did it for us when He died on the cross and resurrect on the third day. All we need to do is to believe that Jesus Christ is our true savior. Faith. Faith in belief and action. This is what we need.