Here comes September...

For us we always know that there is spirit of Christmas in the air when September comes. People start to listen or play Christmas songs.  As we always say, "ber" months is here. Wherein we are in the last quarter of the year. Time went so fast right? It seems yesterday that we have Christmas and New Year, now here comes again the days is fast approaching. It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air. 
Now I hear Christmas jingles on TV's, neighborhood and shopping malls as well. How come every time we hear more about Christmas it uplifts our spirit and get us excited? It is because the essence of Christmas is not just in gift giving, family gatherings but the real essence is we feel Christ Jesus in our hearts. Let us not forget that the real meaning of Christmas, is not just simply the traditional ways that we're used to it in celebrating the season. Now I can't imagine when was the last time I clear up my Christmas tree and now I'm getting excited putting it up again. I remember 2 years ago, I almost forgot how does it feel to be happy or look forward in celebrating Christmas. During that time Christmas for me is just an ordinary day, no holidays during my work. I am not with my kids and family, sadness almost covered my heart the moment we count down for midnight and yet what I am up to, working at midnight. I get doubled pay but the joy or essence of Christmas was lost. The next day was the 25th, people gathered with their family, but where am I... in the four corners of my room need to get some rest and sleep for I need to regain my energy for another day of work. So, that was an ordinary day for me... two Christmas celebrations I almost forgot that there is Christmas. I couldn't imagine that I would experience that in my life. I almost hated it.
This year, all I want is a gift bag filled with laughter & joy, with my kids. I am planning again putting up my Christmas tree in a motif of blue and silver. Last year I have it red and silver. Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.
Then What else with September? Remember the 9/11?  This were series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people from 93 nations. 2,753 people were killed in New York,  184 people were killed at the Pentagon and 40 people were killed on Flight 93. The collapse of the buildings left the site devastated, with ruins towering roughly 17 stories and spread beyond the 16-acre site. Thousands of volunteers came to Ground Zero to help with the rescue, recovery and clean-up efforts, and on May 30, 2002, the last of piece of WTC steel was ceremonially removed. Now, The Memorial park surrounds two enormous reflecting pools set within the footprints of the North and South towers. This is where the towers used to stand. The pools feature 30-foot waterfalls – the largest man-made waterfalls in North America. The water cascades into reflecting pools, finally disappearing into the center voids. The names of people who were killed in the 9/11 attacks in New York, at the Pentagon, and on Flight 93, as well as in the 1993 bombing at the WTC, are etched in bronze around the edges of the pools.

What always reminds me of this tragedy makes me very very sad, for a special good friend died on this, she used to work in  Marsh & McLennan Companies at the 99th floor of WTC. With all the success in her career all of a sudden this tragedy brings her to death. So every time September is here, it reminds me of a special friend that once I shared a friendship like more than a sister I could have. 
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
So let's welcome September with good vibes and look forward till the end of the year!

Let Love Find You...

I was thinking for a topic, when a friend told me about this. Says, usually people trying to look for love, chase for love, hunting for love and yet ended being hurt. Then told me why not write the other way around of letting love finding you. Many are anxious and only concerned with finding love. Whether they think that the time is right in their lives for love, or that they are lonely, or that they need to find love because everyone else around them has found love, it is important that we all must realize true love isn't something that is forced, it is something that just happens. Don't be a fool for love, choose your love as best as possible. 
All our young lives we search for someone to love. Someone who makes us complete. We choose partners and change partners. We dance to a song of heartbreak and hope. All the while wondering if somewhere, somehow, there's someone perfect who might be searching for us. I think that definitely is a better way of putting it, because more often than not they are saying it to that one person who is absolutely desperate to be with somebody. It's not healthy to be that consumed into finding a relationship, and nor is it conducive to finding one. So it's not a matter of not looking, but rather a matter of not trying to force it and not letting it consume your life and beat your heart into a fine pulp.

When people say, "Stop looking for love and let it find you," it is not meant in a literal sense. It means you can look around, but don't look just for the sake of finding love. Look for the sake of meeting people. Also, in the meantime, find things to do that you enjoy and make you happy. Doing things you enjoy and improving yourself will make you feel good about yourself. People will see that and will naturally want to be around you. Don't seek love. Let love seek you. But love yourself enough to receive love with an open mind when it visits you!! Don't be a slave to your past experience. Collections of experience are called wisdom. Life is not about the past, we cannot do anything about. It's about the present that we can do something about. Sometimes in our lives we had stories of love, which we had thought one of those was for us. But life is an interminable journey of affection until you have finally found the one in God's splendid era. In your life time you will find and meet one person who will love you more than anybody you have ever known and will know. They will love you with every bit of energy and soul. They will sacrifice, surrender and give you so much that it scares you. Someday, you will know who that is. sometimes, people realize who it was. Search a good heart but don't waste life in searching a beautiful face, because beautiful things are not always good but good things are always beautiful. Believe in your instinct, trust yourself and you will find someone trustworthy to share your inner world and your secret dreams in life. 

Love is never finding a hand that perfectly fits yours. It is finding the one who is willing to hold your hands no matter how unfit it may be. Love begins with our thoughts. We become what we think. Loving thoughts create loving experiences and loving relationships. Affirmations can change our beliefs and thoughts about ourselves and others. If we want to love someone, we need to consider their needs and desires. Thinking about your ideal partner will help recognize him or her when you meet. No one wants to be hurt or played, but you have to go through a few losers before you find someone worth keeping. 
The moment you decide that you don't need a man to complete your life. Is the same moment that God decides that it's time to show you him. People say just enjoy life and say if it meant to happen, it will. It is very true that sometimes love takes us over, and catches many by surprise. But for many love is something that they search for many times over and never really find because they never let it find them instead. Let your love find you, and you will be so much more grateful for it.

"And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."- Colossians 3:14 

Work and God's Eternal Purpose...

Life Management. Work and Destiny. Your work matters to God. This is the lesson we have been studying in our Immanuel Institute every Saturday night at Immanuel Christian Fellowship church. Last night we discussed about lesson 9 of Life Management 3, "Promotion through Excellence". It inspires me to write about this because it helps me or let me say give me that knowledge that work does not only mean for money or a career. I have learned that there are many wrong reasons for working which will never bring us into an area of true fulfillment and purpose achievement. We only know some reasons why work is to make a living, to work to rest let me say for leisure. To accumulate wealth for luxurious living, to secure the future, to enhance social status and yet all of these reasons are basically selfish. In this lesson of Life Management, I found out that in the perspective of God, there are many right reasons for working that will bring personal fulfillment to us and, at the same time, to glory to God. There are Godward reasons; to serve God and cooperate with His purpose for our life. To bring glory to God and honor to His name and to fulfill the dominion mandate and extend the kingdom of God in the earth. There are Manward reasons as well; to benefit mankind, to bless others, to meet the human needs. And aside from Godward and Manward, there is this Selfward reasons, which is to accomplish the will of God for our life. To become all that God has made it possible for us to become in Christ. To receive the reward from the Lord. 

Many people despise work because they don't understand the purpose of work. They see work as punishment, so they are unmotivated and as a result get little or nothing at the end of the day. That is why they complain and grumble about their work. Every man who lacks this understanding lives under punishment and pressure all the days of his life. Work is the Ladder to Elevation. Your work determines your rating and your rating determines your promotion. Nothing gives you the opportunity for promotion like work and nothing attracts promotion for you like work. Many people today make career choices and determine job loyalty on the basis of the amount of money that they will receive for their efforts. No matter what you do, your job exists for a reason. When you know that reason and when you fully understand how your efforts make the world a better place for someone else, you have found your job's purpose. Now, this isn’t one of those you must live in the moment posts. What I’m saying is that I discovered my purpose in work when I finally realized that it’s the experience of what I’m doing and living my work with passion that defines my purpose. Giving in to that idea is how purpose finds you. It is a true saying, that the highest reward for any kind of labour is not what you get from it, but what you become by it.

Let me share a quote from the book, Work, Work, Work! by Ben Patterson: "If we truly believed and ordered our lives according to  the biblical idea of work, we would also take in a new attitude toward both work and leisure. If we really believed that work is something for which God made us-- that we live to work, not work to live-- then we would not look upon our work as something we must hurry up to get done so that we can get on with our play. We would look upon our play and rest as a change of pace or rhythm that refreshes us for the delightful purpose of getting back to the work God created us to do. "
Regardless of  your specific job or career, every believer has a general call from God that will affect how he or she functions in the marketplace. If your job is your calling, it is the only one in which you can fulfill your destiny. If we are to understand and appreciate God's working in our lives we must come to an understanding of His will and purpose. Everything which God has and will do is to one glorious end.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters," - Colossians 3:23

The Heart's Deepest Cries

We discover in life that no amount of money, fame, possessions or power can satisfy the longing within or fill the emptiness. History has proven that whatever man attempts to use to fill that void never brings permanent fulfillment or genuine inner peace. Instead, there is an acute dissatisfaction with what was thought to be the solution to fill the emptiness within. Life is lived in a lonely Shadow land, unseen by others, but seen and understood by God.

As we live our lives here on earth, each day we desire for more. Yes, admit it or not, each day we rise up, we grow hungry for more; we desire for more- and these things and affections that we desire more in each day, are the things which are the deepest cries of our hearts. Living each day may make us desire for more earthly things. And the topmost of these are money and power – the longer we live, the more we hunger for more love, especially for the earthly things. But then, the Lord sees it all. He knows and sees every detail of the things that we need and the things that we want. He hears the deepest cries of our hearts – even the things that we never know that we ever wanted and ever needed. And many of us have been living that way. We never take the time to listen to our inner selves for what we really needed and wanted, and we let our worldly desires rule us, thus, giving us the wrong words to ask from the Lord. Know the right things to ask from God.
When you cry, cry from the deepest of your heart! Cry all you want because by doing so, you renew your spirit and your feelings. Cry...because by doing so God almighty stands closer to you. Cry...because by doing so, God will be waiting to hear your words. Cry from your heart! Cry from the deepest of your tender heart. When you Cry, do not wipe your tears away...for that's God's job. Cry because by doing so your'e freeing your pain's and sorrow's away.

In reality, that aching inner yearning is the heart cry of the human soul that is searching for God. It awakens in a child like a tender flower, but sadly, through time, it is quelled, suppressed within and often silenced throughout the growing up years. Every person who has ever lived has experienced the awareness of a profound inner thirst, deep within the heart. Our deepest need is to bask intimately in the fullness of God’s love. There is nothing apart from God that can truly fill the inner void, because that place within that was lost, was created by God, for His Spirit to fill, and only He can dwell there.

The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35: “Jesus wept.” But for all its grammatical simplicity, it’s packed with unfathomable complexity. Except that Jesus had come to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. He knew that in a few short minutes all this weeping would turn to astonished joy, and then tearful laughter, and then worship. God is timeless, yet He pauses, draws near to our hearts, and listens to what we are truly saying when no one else is really listening. Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.
Now I am living life to the fullest, no more worrying about the little things. I'm going to enjoy my life the way it is, with the people I have in it! To God Be the Glory!
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”- Revelation 21:4

ICF Turns 11...

 August 18, 2013, 4:00 P.M, Venue 88, Mabuhay Road, General Santos City, Philippines : IMMANUEL CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 11TH ANNIVERSARY
It has been months of preparation. Everyone is looking forward and so excited with this big event. And now the day has come with God's abundant blessings everything falls into place and indeed it was a great Success!!! 
Thanksgiving is a time when the world gets to see just how blessed and how workable the Christian system is. The emphasis is not on giving or buying, but on being thankful and expressing that appreciation to God and to one another.

Immanuel Christian Fellowship-Gensan is a Christ-centered, family-based church. We exist to glorify God and advance His Kingdom. To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer.

We are honored for Capt. Gerry Gambala who is one of the prominent figures alongside Navy Capt. and now Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, during the failed Oakwood Mutiny on July 27, 2003, as the event guest speaker. It is truly amazing how the Lord works in people's lives. The price to pay for the mutiny was huge...prison...life sentence! But with God's grace, his life is now being used by the Lord to pierce through the hearts of multitude and impart the message that there is hope and fulfillment in the Lord...no matter what! I thank Bro. Gerry for sharing his life and mission in life to the ICF Family. At this point in time he continues to spread the Word of God through the Military Ministry. Really God has changed this man from a rebel soldier to a soldier of GOD.

All the effort, time, talents and provisions are highly appreciated. God knows how big our hearts is be in service with his ministry and Church. Indeed having this family-based church is more than enough of all the  blessings God has given us. Coming up with this post inspire me to share how Proud I am to be part of this great Family. Now, I know inspite of what is happening in my life, the lost that I have was filled by all my brothers and sisters in this church. Thanks to Pastor Josiah Tan and Mam Mary Gay Tan for being there always, both of you are gifts of person from God that help me a better person and strong enough to face life challenges. 

Let me share as what Pastor Josiah Tan quoted via mobile in his status, "To GOD b d Glory!!! 11th years ago on d 3rd Sunday of August 2002, officially IMMANUEL CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP of GENSAN, was organized n had there 1st Worship Celebration in Maruz Subd. Mabuhay Rd. San Isidro, GSC, with Rev. Joanie Sumagaysay as der 1st Pastor till of May 31,2004. On June 2004 till present, I became der Pastor together w/ my wife n Kaye, serving d Immanuel Family! GOD s doin great things in d Ministry n I thank GOD for d Leaders He used in Advancing His Kingdom... Thank u Lord for all d Great n Amazing Things u done w/ d ICF. It will b a Year of Abundance!!! Happy 11th Church Anniversary..."

ALL ABOUT ICF

Three Sunday Worship Celebrations

We give importance to the next generation so we also have 2 KIDS Church Celebrations and Sunday School classess at 8:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M

The iConnect, our Youth Group Fellowship, meets at 2:00 P.M. every Saturday.

Small groups for men, women, and yuppies take place during the week.

We also meet up every Wednesday for the Prayer Meeting at 7:00 P.M

Immanuel Institute every Saturday at 7:30 P.M. Be in learning and in knowledge as what the Bible says.

The perfection of Christian character depends wholly upon the grace and strength found alone in God. Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion - it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ. The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.

THIS IS ALL ABOUT YOU LORD! WE BRING BACK ALL THE GLORY AND PRAISE TO OUR GOD ALMIGHTY! 

"From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."-Ephesians 4:16