Who am I to not love You?

By: Uel Ceballos

In a humid, claustrophobic dungeon,

In floor of mire, I sat alone.

My weeping bounces off in the wall made of stone.

Tears are my water, silence is my companion.

I rip my clothes in sorrow.

I shave my head in shame.

I’m nothing but a disappointment,

I’m a sinner.

No one loves me except You.

You stretch out your hand with tears on Your face.

You bath me with Your own blood.

I come out clean; not the same person I used to be.

You stretch out Your hands and You struggle.

I reach out for it and I see the reason.

You stretch out Your hands in the cross for me;

To free me out from the dungeon; to take me out of the darkness.

While my tears are my water, yours is the bitter wine.

My suffering is nothing compared from yours.

Who am I to not love you when you have given us your all?

Jesus is the Bread of Life

We eat foods to fill our hungry stomach and drink waters to quench our thirst. Food and water are among the basic necessities of human to survive the life on Earth, thus we have been working hard every day to provide these needs. You often hear it to most workaholic persons that their foremost reason for working more than eight hours day and including even the Saturdays and Sundays is to put foods on the table. We stuff our belly with sumptuous meals from feast and drown ourselves in various beverages. There is nothing wrong with this brothers and sisters. In fact, God wants us to enjoy life that is why He’s been gracious to provide all our needs. Feasting and revelries are good activities because through such things we are glorifying Him who has given all those foods and drinks that are laid on the table. But let’s not overdo things and forget the right thinking and manner over such things that we acquire here on Earth. Foods and drinks fill our body and give us strength but it can never give us an eternal life. But there’s a food that does – the bread of life, Jesus.

In John 6:27, the scripture says, “Do not work for food that spoils; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life. This is the food which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father, has put his mark of approval on him.”

Jesus is referring to himself as the food that lasts for eternal life because He is our salvation. In today’s time, many are suffering from hunger. This kind of hunger is not the physical starvation but the famine of the soul. Jesus is teaching us to work for the food that will give us the everlasting life. When we eat the bread of life we are strengthening our soul which would make us last forever. The scripture is not saying that you should resign from your current job now and refrain from working but instead, it is only saying that you should know better than to focus much of your time and energy to things that only make you lasts for certain number of years. Wealth will give you good life on Earth, but you’ll soon get old and die. In the judgment day the living will be gathered and the dead will rise to life and they will all be judged according to how they had lived their life. While you assured a better life for yourself on Earth, you should assure all the more a better life beyond death.

John 6:28-29 So they asked him, “What can we do in order to do what God wants us to do?” Jesus answered, “What God wants you to do is to believe in the one He sent.

What God wants to do sounds simple and plain, but we people finds it difficult to establish our faith. Because as we grow more rational we are affected by certain things and events and we learn to always look for concrete evidence of truth before we believe. God knows this of course, thus He gave us the Holy Book, the bible to where we can feed our soul with the Words of God. Because the Words is Jesus, He is the Messiah and Jesus is the bread of life. The truth is laid there inside the bible, all we need is the wisdom and the will to read it and understand its message. Read it and understand it, because in understanding comes respect and love. You can’t love someone you didn’t know but the spreading of the Good News is all enough for you to ponder things through and get yourself all the more curious to know about it. Who wouldn't want to be saved?The Good News is there is a Salvation and Jesus is our Salvation. Get to know Him deeper, Communicate with Him, Accept Him – once you do, there’s no way that you can’t love Him after you’ve learned everything that He has done just To Save You.

God wants us to believe in the One He sent us and by doing so, believing in Jesus means accepting Him in our lives, in our Hearts. With Jesus living in us, we are living the life according to His teaching. Jesus is sent here on Earth to teach us and most of all to save us and give us eternal life. Living the life according to God’s will is living the life according to the sample and teaching of Jesus, the One that God sent. Let’s eat the bread of life brothers and sisters and let Jesus lives within us. Amen. 

Jesus is our Salvation

Many disasters and calamities have been happening in the world now and these unforgiving acts of nature are driving us all crazy with fear. Well who wouldn’t? For the recent tragedies that happened in various parts of the globe there were thousands of people that had died, millions of properties devastated, and numerous lives were shattered. Many are having the dread that the end of the world is already coming – the judgement day of both the living and the dead. Maybe yes, maybe no but who knows? No one really knows when that time would exactly arrive as what the scripture says in Luke 12: 39 – 40.

And you can be sure that if the owner of a house knew the time when the thief would come, he would not let the thief break into his house. And you, too, must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him. – Luke 12: 39-40

The day will come like a thief who comes at night where everyone’s sleeping and in the comfort of their bed. It is important therefore that we are ready at all times just in case the day finally arrive. We never can tell. It could be on the next hundred years, or next month, or tomorrow or maybe it’ll arrive any minutes now, no one can really tell. So what should we do? Get ready. We mustn’t fear about the coming of the end, but we must worry about the judgment that will happen then. The world will meet its doom and all the people will be judged according on how they have lived their life on Earth. Let’s all worry not about the world finally coming to an end...but worry on where we will find ourselves after that. Because next to our mortal life here on Earth is a life of no ends and there could only be two possible places that we could be into – in the Kingdom of God or in the place of fire and darkness.  

Is it coming? No one else knows. So better change that question into, “Am I ready for the judgement day?” 

Signs have been given in the Scripture, but those same signs we have already seen and read about and yet the Final End is still not here. Signs have been showing for thousands of years now since the date of scripture. Though the anticipated end hasn’t coming yet in spite of the mentioned signs that we thought had already happened or have already happening, it doesn’t mean that we all now have to relax and take all things light and easy.

“There will be strange things happening to the sun, the moon, and the stars. On earth whole countries will be in despair, afraid of the roar of the sea and the raging tides. People will faint from fear as they wait for what is coming over the whole earth, for the powers in space will be driven from their courses. Then the Son of Man will appear, coming in a cloud with great power and glory. When these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your salvation is near.” – Luke 21: 25 – 28

I’m sure that while you're reading the scripture the pictures of past tragedies are flashing back into your mind. Many events similar to these things had also happened far way back in the times of our ancestors, even stretching back to our ancestors’ ancestor and yet the End is still not happening up to now. Many people have been anticipating the End of the World without thinking too much of their readiness for the situation. When disasters happened and you survived it, be thankful because you have been given another chances to fix your life and be a better person. You still get chances to get yourself prepared. On the Salvation day everyone will be judged – both the living and dead – on how they have spent their life on Earth. Meaning while you’re alive and breathing you still got loads of opportunities to get your path straightened and be the best person that God wants you to be. Realize it now and don't waste your time about things that really don't matter. Don’t miss the chances to arrange your life. You don’t know what’s waiting there in the afterlife but when you submitted yourself to Lord our God and accept Jesus to your life, you are saved from whatever dooms that lies there beyond. Jesus is our Salvation, our only salvation. Let’s put all our hope and faith on Him.