There's just so much to write about! But I'll try to make this blog entry as concise as possible.
Second Sunday of Advent Thoughts. First off. It's the second Sunday of Advent. There is a prayer that reminded me at the beginning of this Christmas season of God's amazing power to give peace and hope. It’s called the Serenity Prayer, generally attributed to Reinhold Neibuhr. I’m certain most of you have heard it or read it; it begins this way:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
That’s the part that’s most well known. But it continues like this:
“Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is…not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to his will; that I may be reasonably blessed in this life, and supremely blessed with Him forever in the next.”
Coming across it again a day ago, I thought it sounded like an Advent prayer. It’s a prayer about truth and hope that could become our own if we are willing to open our minds and hearts to the promises we proclaim in the coming weeks of Advent. Don’t be anesthetized by the food and the parties and the travel. Don’t be hounded into a shopping blitz. Instead, pay attention; stay alert; keep awake.
GCF Christmas Concert. For three consecutive years, GCF has presented the Singing Christmas Tree Festival. This year's theme is Emmanuel- Celebrating Heaven's Child. I'm so proud of our Choir, drama team, musicians and technical people! I praise God for their commitment and discernible heart for worship!
At every presentation time the auditorium was packed! The three weekend presentations gathered a total of close to 5000 people, which the Lord has blessed with a sum of 700 new professions of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! My statistics are raw at this point, but the numbers are somewhere probably somewhere higher than mentioned.
I simply couldn't imagine how huge that harvest is. Now the Lord tasks the church to follow these people up, disciple them and help them grow in the faith for the building of God's kingdom, ultimately for the glory of God.
In addition to not-yet-Christians who came to watch were some folks from other churches- some came to observe and get ideas, some came for tradition, some were invited by GCFers.
The Spirit of the Lord used the presentations to clearly issue a call for some people tro salvation which is amazing!
Friends and a new friend. A man from Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada came by Manila to spend a weekend to visit and speak with some folks. Sixty-one-year-old, cattle rancher Richie Davies came for that purpose alone, and I believe he got some of the most vital information he needed from his less-than-a-3-day-long trip.
He goes back to Canada tomorrow morning and present a report to his church concerning his very fruitful and meaningful trip. It was pretty hard to shake his hand, say "goodbye" and see him walk away at the end of the day today following the last Christmas Concert presentation because the Lord has beautifully allowed friendship and brotherhood to forge over a simple and short weekend eventhough I know I would see him again.
My GCF co-workers and fold riends helped me in playing a good host to him over the weekend. This afternoon, Cindy Camungao, Kit and Ruth Paraso, Ross Tan and myself had an amazing fellowship over lunch with Richie. Cindy brought her famous chicken - pork adobo and sinigang na hipon, while ate Ruth and tita Boots took care of the rice and desserts!
I will hear from my new friend soon.
Creating authentic community is a driving concept for our cultural moment. Of course, in a very real sense, this has always been the case, if not expressed in the same way across the generations. Human beings have always striven to make sense of how individual identity corresponds to the collective – to family, tribe and nation.
Well you can see how this longing for authentic community relates to Jesus’ summary of the human agenda: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind' - this is the great and foremost commandment, and there is a second like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
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