Everyday, Accounts, Supernatural, Encounters

PROMISES

2011-09-07T03:24:00.000+08:00

RedOrangeYellowGreenBlueIndigoViolet

I was walking one afternoon coming from a warehouse visit when this perfect rainbow was painted in the sky. I will always associate this natural phenomena as God's way of keeping His promises.

In Genesis 9: ^12-13The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever. ¹⁴When I send clouds over the earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, ¹⁵I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures. Never again will I let floodwater's destroy all life. ¹⁶When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature. ¹⁷The rainbow will be the sign of that solemn promise.

We often made lots of promises to everyone, it might be to a love one, a friend or a customer. The question is will you keep a promise just as God keeps His?
The next time you'll see a rainbow, it is not a pot of gold which is at the end of it but it is more than a treasure to know that we have a faithful God who keeps His promises.

2010-11-06T10:13:00.000+08:00

YEARS OF LIFE: MORE IN LOVE

Efren Tagudan Salvador

In a billion of faces, you are most special

Seeing you in the morning makes me smile

You make my heart beat, like a horse running a mile

In my heart it burns like a fire.

Life with you has a lot of meaning

Being with you never made me boring.

That even you don’t stop snoring

I will still keep loving you and never ending.

You will live in a million years

Please lived it with the Lord with fear.

For there is no better life I know

Than to be with the one who created you.

As for me your better half,

I will make you my queen and will never stop.

To commit to the love we shared, twill age like rock.

Where season's will just leave a mark.

Our dreams and future will tell

How Good our God is to dwell.

That in His presence we swell

Like living waters filling our well.

I will Love you till the end.

As I promised and it will not bend.

Till death I will stay and will not fray

Happy Birthday! My LOVE much MORE!

CRUEL INTENTIONS: GOD'S PURPOSE

2010-11-03T09:44:00.000+08:00

It is in my heart to share my devotions through this blog for the past days. And has been quite sometime that I was not able to do it. The day job is requiring me to be on my feet running for the earliest time possible. But this morning is different, as always I need to spend my time with the BOSS in heaven first. Knowing your priority is the keyword. As expected today, I will be ending my day late due to a scheduled meeting with the Kidapawan Chamber of Commerce, arranged by my colleague.

My reading is in the book Genesis 49 and 50 and the first chapter of Exodus, it was the end and a new beginning. The death of Jacob and his sons, the 12 tribes of Israel. The new beginning of a season for the Israelites who are growing into a mighty nation in a foreign land.

One verse caught my attention and this is Genesis 50:20

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. "

In the beginning God revealed Joseph's purpose.

This PURPOSE God gave us is realized through a process.
A natural process which involves opposition, oppression and persecution.
In the life of Joseph and in our Christian walk, we will undergo the same processes.
But if we remain faithful he will be with us, even in the darkest season of our lives.

If we remain in Him we will let us see in our own eyes the ENDPOINT He showed us from the beginning.

GOD'S INTENTIONS VS. MAN'S INTENTION

God is GOOD and will never LIE, this means all his intentions will be for good.
Jeremiah 29:11

Man's wisdom is very limited compared that of God.
Man's heart is very vulnerable to corruption, hatred and envy.
Seeing the from God's point of view compared to man, requires a new level of maturity and relationship with Him.

SEASONS

We will undergo through a lot of changes in our lives, we call that seasons.
For every season ENJOY it, for it will come to pass.
For season of plenty, don't forget what is due to God and to SAVE.
Stand firm in Faith until JESUS comes.

God is faithful as the sun rises from the east each day.

Deuteronomy 7:9

Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands

God is FAITHFUL!

Nine LOVE Years

2010-10-29T00:45:00.000+08:00

Nine LOVE Years

It's our 9th wedding anniversary today, I am still here at the office in General Santos City, waiting for my turn to present to the boss. I have planned to surprise my baby tonight with a bouquet of flowers and a dinner to a restaurant with a nice table cloth. Then watch a movie......Eat, Love and Pray. Since it will not happen tonight, it is such a sad part of the story. But still I want to thank God for His blessings in our marriage. For being together in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer till death do we part is enough to give him thanks. For giving us two cute kids, Samm who is starting to walk on her own and Yohanne's smile can suck those negative energies we get on our day job. For the supportive family we have both from the natural and spiritual.

I have seen how we have grown from the day we shared our vows at the Garden in Waterfront Hotel, Davao. I can say that LOVE indeed is AMAZING! 1 Corinthians 13:13. It has the power to bond two different souls coming from a unique mold. It was double delight when we started serving our God faithfully, praying together, having devotions together it was heaven. Though Christian walk is not a bed of roses, we see to it that we nurture the relationship, guided by His word and committed to make it grow, for us to enjoy up to the golden years.
Nine is history and tomorrow will be the first day of the 10th year, I know it will be more fun and exciting.

Happy Anniversary!

Proverbs 20:28
Unfailing love and faithfulness protect the king;his throne is made secure through love.

Farmville: Planting and Harvest

2010-08-11T07:57:00.001+08:00

It has been long that I have not written notes for my devotions. Time flies faster than I thought; I have finished 1 and 2 Corinthians without any notes. Don't blame it on busy schedules cause by work and cares of this world. Be responsible enough to take the blame and shape up for God.

Mark 8:26 (KJV)

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Please put God the FIRST priority above all else.

One natural principle is discussed by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthian church is farming. Yes agriculture is the oldest profession; Genesis 2 when God started farming.

Genesis 2:4-6, 8-9

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, ⁵ neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. ⁶ Instead, springs^[b] came up from the ground and watered all the land.

⁸ Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. ⁹ The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

The scriptures below proved how God is honoring this principles, it doesn't require rocket science to comprehend. Most of us are not farmers, but some of us do have farms at FARMVILLE (Farmville song playing-I love the guitar part) at least this gave us an experience on what the word of God is saying on planting, harvesting and sometimes withering.

2 Corinthians 9:6-8,10

⁶ Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. ⁷ You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. "For God loves a person who gives cheerfully."^[c] ⁸ And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others

Below are some points that I wanted to share, If we give generously and cheerfully, it is not only God will love us BUT God will generously provide.

All – not just some of my needs, or portion of what I need but all.
Always – not sometimes, or most of the time but the frequency is always.
Everything – not some of the things but everything.
Overflowing – plenty of left over to share with others

2 Corinthians 9:10

¹⁰ For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity^[e] in you.

We reason out and say I don't have any seed to plant. V10 is clear that God will provide seed for the farmer, food to eat, increase my resources and produce a great harvest.

Why is this made simple? This is because God himself had His farm at the Garden of Eden.

Happy Farming!

Dekalb 878 RR/YG farm in Sultan Kudarat

LIVING RIGHT: Fit n’ Right

2010-06-05T10:15:00.001+08:00

I am enjoying the book of Romans that I was able to finish the 16 chapters in less than a week. My day job required me this week to be waking up early, time flies so fast, that I failed to notice it is weekend again. Well welcome to life, as long as the Lord is allowing us to breathe; we are still part of the "cycle of life". It is a debate on opinions on how we live this life. As human beings we are given the freedom on what we want to do with it, because of the free will that God will bestowed us. God is full of grace and mercy; He had provided us with a brain to think and unlimited abilities, for we are created in His likeness.

Paul in his letter to the Romans, beginning Chapter 1, is consistently reminding Christians on how to live right. It is a bit subjective because sometimes, what is right is relative to somebody's interpretation. But God never failed to show to us, through the life of Jesus and through His words, the Bible what is the right way of conduct. Why it that people is very much inclined to sinning? It is like a particle with opposite charges, it automatically attracts, and once attracted it is difficult to neutralize. It requires power to pull, in order for it to be free. Romans Chapter 8 describes and described the solution on how to be out of this Sinful Nature. There are no
reasons that I can not get out of sin, if I am in it, is because I love doing it. Please see the verses below.

Romans 9:9-10

⁹ But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) ¹⁰ And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life^[^d] because you have been made right with God.

In addition are some powerful words from Paul in Romans 11, on how we should behave.

Romans 11:2

² Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

This is a command with a promise; maybe we can answer first the Why? It is because we are CHRISTIANS, we are CHRIST LIKE, we live a life like Christ. You might say, are you nuts? Can you do that? Jesus came to earth as a complete human being, this means that in all aspects, body, mind and spirit, he feels like a human being. Emotionally affected, he can be depressed also, he is physically tired, hungry and also be tempted, and yet HE overcome.

Romas 11:2 clearly states on how to do it, it is by changing the way you think. We are given the ability that our brain can process millions of information in a second. In a second we can filter what is right and pleasing to God immediately. What we are doing is we are ignoring the nag; a nag is like a pop up balloon in your computer screen, which pops up when it has something to say. What we do is we shut down the nag right away and do what we please. It is time to take time and listen to what the nag is telling us, always remember it is for my own good.

And the promise is, we will learn to know the pleasing and perfect will of God will be known to us. Two positive words, PLEASING and PERFECT: Other words with the same meaning to pleasing
admirable, charming, delightful, delicious, easy, fabulous, good, gratifying, sweet. And other words with the same meaning to perfect, clean, clear, mastered, errorless, faultless, immaculate, impeccable, flawless, unflawed, ideal, uncorrupted, undefiled. From http://www.synonym.com

And lastly, we are made conquerors when it comes to our battle between good and evil.

Romans 11:21

²¹ Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

I will be in the book of 1 Corinthians tomorrow, Praise Him.

See you

CREATOR

2010-05-29T11:36:00.003+08:00

I was busy running this week. I had two episodes of getting on the road by 4am, on Wednesday and Thursday. The end result, I was not able to write down my devotions in my blog. It was the first week of May when I started the Book of Acts, with a goal to finish it at the end of the month. It was indeed amazing that, by Monday, May 24^th, I am already in the Book of Romans.

If you are following Paul's ministry, It is his letter to strengthen the Christians in Rome,and became the 6^th Book of the New Testament. I am already on the 9^th Chapter and it came to my attention the Creator: Creation concept on Chapter 9:20-21.

We love to create, is it because we are created in the image and likeness of God? I have friends who are into creation of buildings, art, music and for me in agriculture. Wait a minute, you mean you create plants and animals? No, we can't create but we imagine on how to improve them. The outcome of a creation is being determined by the creator, the design and its result is conceptualized for specific purposes and functionalities.

What marvels me is GOD being the CREATOR. My friend told us recently "The Devil doesn't have the power to create from nothing, it is only God who has the Power to do that, and in fact He even created the Devil". The creation displays God's ultimate power, imagine Him creating the world and what's in it just 6 days, and on the 7th day he rested. Consider God being all knowing, He knows the future will bring, and what will happen to His creations, if you play as God will you be doing the same?

Romans 9:20-21 (New Living Translation)

²⁰ No, don't say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, "Why have you made me like this?" ²¹ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn't he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?

From these verses I come to realize that as Human being, your full humility and adoration should be to your creator alone. Remember he is your created you according to His specifications. We tend to question a lot why a lot of things are happening not in the way we wanted to. But have you considered God and look to from the CREATOR's perspective?

In my human wisdom you I will not question God's wisdom because Paul says in I Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 1:25 (New International Version)

²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

Seeing His creations should always makes me reminded of God's power in display to humankind.

See you!

GOD'S GOODNESS REVEALED

2010-05-16T09:18:00.000+08:00

It was a very busy 2nd week of May, there is a big challenge on the job since February. With El Niño phenomenon adding to it made it double difficult. As a child of God, I am focusing my eyes on Him and get my wisdom in the word of God.

My devotional blog got lost for this week, I thank God I still manage to have good readings it is just that I was not able to write it in this blog. I am still in the book of Acts and the Lord is adding my knowledge on the operations of the early church. Considering its setting as the 1st century, ministry during that specific era is totally different comparing it at present. Let us take information for example, it travels in a tortoise speed during those years but now information travels in the speed of light. But what is notable during the early church is that the Power of God is very evident, it is tangible. Miracles, Signs and Wonders and Healing are happening everyday. Sad to say not all of Christian churches are seeing that today, and some are not even preaching it.

My study on the book of Acts is augmented by Pastor David Sumrall's preaching. As I have said I must have driven 2,000 km last week. My companion during those very long hours of driving is Pastor Sumrall's sermons. They are available in Catheral Of Praise website, here is the link of the sermons http://www.cathedralofpraise.com.ph/cop_v3/html/insideCop/downloads.html. I must have listened 6 of them playing 1 hour each sermon in my car last week. It is of great help for me on my walk with God, his words are full of Gods wisdom and is helping me to live right. Please visit the site and download yours now.

Going back to my devotion, I have learned good things in the verse below:

^{Acts 14:16} In the past he permitted all the nations to go their own ways,
¹⁷ but he never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness. For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts.”

God will respect your free will, that he can't imposed and control my life like a robot. But God's love is unmatched. We can have full liberty on all actions we wan't to do good or bad. Now take a look at this, in our own ways, he never left us without evidence of Himself and His Goodness. I can not expound more on that thought.

He even gave specific examples of blessings, which is rain for us to have good crops, food and joyful hearts. I wanted to focus on joyful hearts, if the Lord is the one giving us joyful hearts then it being joyful is not just a choice. I mean if you forced yourself to have a shift of paradigm on how we see things can we be joyful? The answer is no, as his words describes, real joy comes from Him. Joyfulness comes from the inside, it is the state of being blessed or happy. The Lord touches the heart to soften it that it responds even to the weakest stimulus of joy.

God is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Alpha and Omega.

Praise Him!

See You!

GOD Turning a MONSTER into SAINT

2010-05-08T13:18:00.000+08:00

I am very happy waking up this morning, I had a good rest waking up at 10am. When God blessed us with babies, sleeping patterns became erratic. And going to work on weekdays will let you sacrifice an 8 hour of sleep or in my case sleeping on our bed. Most of the time you will find me sleeping on Samm's room because she tends to be awake in the middle of the night. She needs someone on her side to put her back to sleep.

I tried to have my devotions at 6am a while ago, after I turned over Yohanne to ate Pilar but my eyes are falling. It is our agreement with my Bb (that is what I call my wife, Bb or Mahal), that from 4am to 6am I will be responsible for our 7 month old Yohanne. After 6am it will be with the Yaya, so guess what I did? I went back to sleep and regained consciousness at 10am.

Going back to my devotions, I am still in the Book of Acts and I am learning each day with the help of the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 8 and 9 talks about a lot of things form having the right heart in the ministry, the conversion of a Ethiopian finance director, How a Christian killer Saul turned to be a Powerful Preacher and another miracles with Peter, Healing and raising the dead.

What strikes me is the story of Saul, how a high profiled persecutor turned by God face to face, to suffer for His name. I just picked up 2 verses below, but if you want to read the whole chapters please follow this link http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+8&version=NLT

     Acts 8:1 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.
   Acts 9:22 Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.

     As always here are 2 points the Lord is wanting me to learn.

It takes only GOD to change us and in that process He uses people.
Our character will always be questioned after the change.

As per Saul's case He needs a face to face encounter with God and after that Ananias came in. God has His own ways for Him to get our attention, all we need is the sensitivity to recognize that. What are the events that are happening is it telling you something. A person with intelligence will always have a reason for events happening and they call that coincidence. But a person who has that spiritual aptitude knows in his heart that it is God working.

The best part of being with God is the testing, I am blessed sharing good things to my Bb and to my friends who loves God. Questions arises from family, friends, neighbors, officemates and to all your acquaintances who knows you inside out. Saul needs Barnabas to prove that Saul is a change man. For us who doesn't have Barnabas, we are known by our fruits. What is changed therefore if it can't be seen on the results.

Don't wait for GOD blinding you with His POWER, make a decision NOW.

First Option or Last Resort

2010-05-07T10:04:00.025+08:00

I remembered that I have a blogspot account it. It was October 2006 when I first wrote a note, for the purpose of documenting my little angels progress. It was not a successful feat as it only contained 4 entries. I decided to have my devotions everyday and in order for me not to fail, I need to have it written in my blog. I started it with windows live but I was having a hard time on the format, the site is not that user friendly. I manage however to import some of the entries to my facebook notes which is linked on this site. I published 2 devotions on wall, you can follow the linked as you click facebook notes. Now wanted to do reverse, I will write my devotions on this blogsite and have it linked in my facebook wall.

I don't have a digital bible on my PC, I am reading my bible online. In my windows mobile phone I have olive tree and a version of New Living Translation (NLT) in it. That is what I am using during Sunday service and to take down notes also. I am using online bible by Bible Gateway, here is the link http://www.biblegateway.com. Some quick review of the site, it has the most digital versions of the Bible online in many languages. And it is incredibly fast and easy to use.

So much for the introduction, I am still in the book of Acts and had read chapters 5 to 7. It was a vivid description on how the ministry of the early church operated in the Power of the Holy Spirit. It accounts from the death of a liar, Ananias and his wife Sapphira to the death of a saint Stephen. But what strikes my heart is the move of God in Healing. Let me share to you the particular verse in Amplified Bible Version:

^{Acts 5:15}So that they [even] kept carrying out the sick into the streets and placing them on couches and sleeping pads, [in the hope] that as Peter passed by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.

This is after the lame since birth already walked, and earned Peter and the ministry instant celebrity status. I wonder if it is done today, maybe it is already in your facebook wall. The ministry had grown tremendously in numbers not in hundreds but in thousands, because of the display of the Power of God in the name of JESUS. This is not new to Peter and the apostles because they already experienced it during the ministry of Jesus. Let me share to you 2 things:

Sick people are desperate of healing.
Faith also increases when we people see it in their very eyes the Power of God working.

We hear family members of patient talking to the Doctors, "Please do anything to make him well". If medical science can't do miracles they are willing to resort to Traditional Medicine, Drugs with No Therapeutic Claims etc. My question is do you put God as your last resort for healing or your first option?

We can not stop the God from displaying Power. He does things on purpose, one of these is the increase of people believing when they see miracles. We are conditioned since birth to see is to believe that is why.

I must be sure that I must be always online with God to be always updated. Remember He is the same YESTERDAY, TODAY & FOREVER.

Precious Sunset

2007-07-12T08:54:00.001+08:00

Precious Sunset
Originally uploaded by efrensalvador

I am 200km away from home, driving past this sunset made stop. It's pure gold, its so precious that I can't help but take a picture of it. The site is a resettlement are for Muslim Minorities, they are luncky they go to see God's Spectacular Masterpiece.

GDD is just but nothing compared to God's wonderful grace and mercy. That in just His words he made this precious sunset. But in His hands he made us into His own Likeness.

Flickr

2007-07-12T08:15:00.001+08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

2006-10-12T02:42:00.000+08:00

SPEECH PATHOLOGIST

Sam met her speech pathologist today, after going through the usual long interviews , we were given some lessons on what to do with Sams speech therapy.

Teacher Rorie educated us the importance of INFORMATION TALK (INFO TALK)

provides auditory bombardment of the target vocabulary engage in activities of daily living.
names of family, common objects being used everyday, and actions being done everyday.

example: 1. "dede.....dede Sam....dede"

2. "papa....carry by Papa....Papa"

3. " mama....carry by mama.. mama"

reduplicated babbling

It gave us a better perspective on Sams present stage. Speech according to Teacher Rorie is a fine motor skill, where in it involes smaller groups of muscles. Part of the therapy is continuing oral stimulation excercises.

It is quite a challenging task but we know we will hear someday Sam will say "I LOVE YOU DADDY".

2006-10-08T02:22:00.000+08:00

LAUNCH PAD

Samuelle Eanne is alredy 2 years 4 months old at present. She has grown to a little girl already. Time is being so fast that it seemed just like yesterday when she was just a cute baby, very behave and not crying too much. First we thought it was the effect of successful parenting. Not knowing there was something wrong, until one afternoon she just stop drinking milk. It seemed she lost her sucking reflex that she don't want to suck. There it all started the seeking of answers to questions through families, friends, clinics, and of course google. It didn't stop untill now and we will not stop learning what will happen next after Global Developmental Delay (GDD).

This will be our Launch Pad, together as we will go on with this lifes challenges. Join us please, you are most welcome.