FAIR SUNSHINE

I did not feel well this afternoon to go out and minister after yesterday, and I have made up quite a number of convenient excuses in my head why I should not go. It is only with a closer examination of the heart that this minute speck of “self” or dirt as I may call it, exists like the afternoon dust that quietly settles on any fabric, disguising itself as a  “ good" excuse. Yet duty calls, and obedience binds me to a most grievous thought that somehow, I am responsible for one particular soul tonight that God wanted to reach out to, even without me having any proof of it. I fell on my face once again before the Lord of all mercies, pleading for the privilege to lift up Christ and only Christ, that his words be my words, and that he should not send me, if he himself will not go before me. His words echo deep,   “ Lo, I am with you always..” My own frailty as an unlearned bearer of the Gospel always getting the best of me, the enemy heckling me,  “ You're not a past...

I found myself at this stop at the corner of Taft and Vito Cruz on my way home on the commute. I opted to take the bus and train to work yesterday, first, because my coding day falls on a Friday, and second, it is a good excuse to minister along the way. I may do this on a regular basis and simply walk to where people are, since the tracts I had just flew off my hands and were gone in the first half and two kilometers, I found that people minding their stalls on the sidewalks tend to receive more readily than those who are merely passing by or walking. I get the benefit of both worlds, one advances the Kingdom, the other benefits my health. 9,898 steps. After securing permission from the enforcers present I went up to my pulpit. This particular intersection is perfect since the stoplights for both vehicles and pedestrians are mostly red at length, those in the cars got to hear portions of the Gospel as well, the same with the people waiting for the light to turn green to c...

From my journal entry, Monday, July 24th, 2017 I would, as I have previously been persuaded, want to put into record by way of observance, in reading the posts of those who daily wrest instead in such social media, Christians of whom I see abounding in zeal but severely lacking in Christ-like love and compassion. One instance is there of a South Korean pastor exhorting me at the start of our exchange, but suddenly transitioning to the variance between Arminianism and Calvinism, insisting to what side am I on, to which I replied, I am neither but am of Christ. He went on to a lengthy message, one that is obviously not of his, stating why Arminianism is better and more truthful. I couldn't spare any interest, received no conviction to reply nor did I deem it profitable to engage his rambling. Another instance was when a brother declared that he does not consider those who hold on to Calvinism to be his brother in the Lord, as they are hell bound. I have a bitter distaste to suc...

It has been laid to my heart since two weeks ago, a continuance of the Lord's burden when we first started last April: Bulacan would be our area of ministry. It would only be proper to claim our area of responsibility, with regards to the proclamation of God's coming kingdom, before moving out to other locations, that land which is right in our own backyard. According to Google Maps, Bulacan is a province in the Philippines, located in the Central Luzon Region in the island of Luzon, 11 kilometres north of Manila, and part of the Metro Luzon Urban Beltway Super Region. Bulacan was established on August 15, 1578 and has an area of 2,775 sq.km. I have already mapped 20 towns that we will visit in the coming weeks, God willing. Indeed, we have made plans, but I trust the Lord will direct our steps, as I am sure there will be plenty of populated areas that are not indicated in the map, where we can sow seeds just the same. The first stop of this route is the Ricardo N...

One day around the middle of 1995 a friend who courted me for the Lord went with me to a bookstore along Pasay Road. It was my first time to be inside what turned out to be a Christian bookstore, specifically Philippine Christian Book Store, or more affectionately known as PCBS. I can still recall the serene freshness I felt stepping into that room: peacefully quiet and soothingly calm, and soft worship music was in the air. I was amazed to see such an array of books and titles about God, the sight of which I have never seen before. Tracts were plenteous and of different sorts. I was on the edge of my Catholic life then, nothing dramatic to affect a sudden change of my worldview, but randomly I picked up two tracts: "Why Is Mary Crying?" and "The Death Cookie." I did not pick any title after that. Those two tracts were mightily used by the Lord to break the chains that religion had on me, the story of which, is worthy of another long post. But I walked on to the fu...

Leonard Ravenhill wrote, "No man is greater than his prayer life.  The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.  The pulpit can be a shop-window to display one’s talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off. Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer.  We have many organizers, but few agonizers;  many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters.  Failing here, we fail everywhere." The great saints of God labored in prayer.  George Whitefield said, “Whole nights and weeks have I spend in intercession before God.”  John Wesley would rise every morning at 4 AM to seek God for the first four hours of his day.  David Wilkerson “tithed” his day to the Lord by spending the ...

Saturday afternoon found me in the rain with barely a bus ride's worth of sleep from two nights straight since Thursday at work. I broke off from the usual drive to and from Pasay City and took the commute instead as I needed some time to think and flush my mind from the deluge of worldly matters at work. By the Lord's providence, the bus ride home gave me time to rest and sleep. Had I driven myself home I wouldn't have the strength to go out again after just an hour between arriving and going out again to meet my brother Miguel some miles away to preach to the people. Common sense will tell me to rest after wearing myself out, yet if I can wear myself out attending to worldly matters, how much more effort should I give to my Lord's work? The weather also does not seem to be appropriate for such a task, but as I later found out, rain is one of a street preacher's best friend. It forces people to seek shelter and renders them immobile for some time, enough t...

Spent a good while on my face before the Lord yesterday and this afternoon for this week's ministry. Was assisted with my voice mightily, despite the reluctance I had in delivering such a dreadful message; I cast myself instead unto the mercies of his good grace that no word should come back to the Lord void. The first spot we had in mind in Tala, Malaria, didn't really yield any space with the sidewalks barely accommodating two people and so we drove back again to Muzon to take the Word there for the third time.  We seem to have struck a cord with the traffic enforcers there whose kindness towards us now seem to grow evidently more than the last time, with some of them breaking off from their stations to listen intently from a distance. Along with the common folk who listened from their stalls, the people dining outside the convenience store right across us, the tricycle drivers who broke from their queue and did not take passengers just to listen, giving their full audie...

Upon study of the life of some giants of the faith, one thing is both evident and consistent: they were ALL men of fervent, persistent and constant prayer. Much of today's Christianity leans upon the strength of the flesh. More study, more conferences, more speakers, more activities, more preaching - all riding on the frailty of man's intellect. It is safe to say the Lord will but little bless efforts that take the glory away from him, and the only channel for which he ordained his Spirit to be imparted to men is by hiding away in the secret place. Most ministries today are like Davids going out to meet Goliath hoping somehow by any means he might defeat the giant, instead of saying, "You come against me with sword and spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts." No Spirit of God, no strength. No prayer, no power. These are excerpts from Edward McKendree Bounds' Power Through Prayer. "Study universal holiness of life. Your whole us...

From my journal entry, afternoon of Tuesday, July 4, 2017. Halfway through this good book I am reading, I am fully convinced that God hath little use for one who is only half given to the work of the Lord. Not that it is sin to work to provide for family, but that so long as a man is employed in a profession wholly opposed to the Spirit of God such as I am in, even if it is for the welfare of his bodily needs, he can only at best wish to partake in the fields of the most High God. How I yearn, and that is my only consolation, to be sent to the Master's vineyard. That at least there is but a few to none that covet with a searching heart to proclaim the salvation of God, and that He would still have use for me. But I fear yearning does me no good, except there be a definite separation between what I presently do and what the Lord would have me do, as there was for Barnabas and Paul. I do not wish to be a shadow on the sidewalk lifting my voice while none take notice, but should ...