tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23840319187747081232026-09-11T00:38:34.962-07:00Norberto L. Mercado's BlogLetters, Novels and Written Works by Norbert L. MercadoBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.comBlogger190125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-3168763612899533902018-06-27T19:55:00.002-07:002018-06-27T19:55:24.860-07:00Hadrian's Curse & Balfour's Error
“The land of Israel was promised to the Jews by the Lord God who created
the heavens and the earth, and all things which the universe and this
earth contain. Israel and the city of Jerusalem will never be extinct
because of God’s promise to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people,”
the American missionary Reverend Kent Hutcheson told the students who
composed the All-Men Bible Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-26385786155911823742017-12-08T01:57:00.002-08:002017-12-08T01:57:56.426-08:00The Great White Throne Judgment
“Sir, is it alright to ask a question? I just want to clarify
something,” Nathan Ong asked the American missionary who had been
conducting the Bible Study series on End-Time Prophecy.“Yes, Nathan. What’s your question?” Reverend Hutcheson asked the newcomer.“Sir,
isn’t it true that a person who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ as his
God, Savior, and Lord, goes to Hell right after Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-23753517583471930272017-11-11T02:24:00.002-08:002017-11-11T02:24:20.292-08:00The Fourth Temple
“The Fourth Temple which will be built on the same site where the First
Temple was built, will be called the Millennial Temple. It will be the
temple of worship during the 1,000 years reign of the Lord Jesus Christ
all over the world,” Reverend Kent Hutcheson told the members of the
All-Men Bible Study Group composed of UP students and one male student
from the University of the Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-73579400508330623552017-10-25T07:55:00.001-07:002017-10-25T07:55:20.494-07:00Hell And The Lake Of Fire
“Rudy, you’re smiling. Did you once think of wanting to go to Hell?” Reverend Hutcheson asked.Rudy’s smile faded. He shook his head.“Never, Sir! I never thought of wanting to go to Hell. Not even once,” Rudy said. The American missionary turned his sight to Philip Tarroja.“And what about you, Philip? Did you ever want to go to Hell at one point in your past?” the missionary Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-79740181626199465352017-10-20T19:57:00.001-07:002017-10-20T19:57:15.922-07:00The Grand Archon
“A Sigma Rhoan should believe in the existence of the Almighty God who
created this earth and the whole universe. If he does not believe in
God, to me, he is not a true Sigma Rhoan,” Attorney George Briones
firmly stressed to his brothers, or brods for short, with his oratorical
voice his conviction of what a true Sigma Rhoan is.The founders of
the UP Sigma Rho Fraternity Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-71487887375900914202017-10-18T00:13:00.001-07:002017-10-19T01:58:20.043-07:00The Death Of Emperor Augustus Caesar
Emperor Augustus Caesar looked to the dark southern sky on the balcony
of his palace in Rome one early evening, as he had done in two nights
before. He was spending the past two nights simply gazing at the dark southern sky.
His
wife, who had accompanied him at their palace balcony for the past five
nights, wondered why the emperor had been constantly gazing at the
southern Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-63045332216053347322017-10-13T21:12:00.001-07:002017-10-13T21:12:01.921-07:00Saints And Angels In The Second Coming
“The Lord Jesus Christ will be accompanied by His army composed of the
saints and the angels when He will return to earth from Heaven,”
Reverend Kent Hutcheson told the students of the University of the
Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City during their Bible study in the
front lobby of the Institute of Mass Communications (IMC) building.All the members of the Bible study Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-3181950171625533072017-09-24T16:32:00.001-07:002017-09-24T16:32:08.876-07:00One Autumn Night In Rhine Falls
It was one autumn night in 1984 when Carl proposed marriage to his beloved Linda.“Let’s get married in December,” Carl appealed to her.They were looking at the exhilarating sight of the Rhine Falls, with resplendent lights beaming on the rushing noisy waterfalls.“What
did you say? I can’t understand you. Why should we get worried in
December?” Linda said with a laugh. Of course, sheBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-44630536056682471242017-09-16T19:15:00.001-07:002017-09-16T19:15:23.687-07:00Miracles Never Stop
Jerusalem Angela Mercado was not so sure if she was prepared to take the
2016 Medical Board Examinations in Manila, Philippines after her
classes in a review center in Manila ended in January 2015.When her
father, Norberto, asked her if she would take the physician’s
examination the following month, she couldn’t readily reply to the
former’s query. She was, in fact, speechless.“HowBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-56017114584402527512017-09-12T18:18:00.001-07:002017-09-16T19:11:36.669-07:00Seeds In San Manuel
“Good morning, Maestro,” a mother who wanted to enroll her ten-year old
son in grade five in San Manuel Elementary School greeted the teacher,
Aurelio Mercado.It was enrollment day in the largest public school
in the town of San Manuel, the northernmost town of Tarlac bordering the
barrio of Carmen in the town of Rosales, in the province of Pangasinan.Maestro is the title given to a Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-73507211797415115492017-09-07T17:34:00.003-07:002017-09-07T17:34:35.987-07:00A Lady From Saint Lucia
Nadine Joseph, a lady from Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, was one of the
more than 200 students and speakers of English as a second language who
were listening to the speaker in the conference in Baguio City. It was
held in a big hotel in the summer capital of the Philippines.Nadine
used to work in the United States before she came to the Philippines to
study in a school in Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-4265990144458861132017-08-31T10:57:00.001-07:002017-08-31T18:49:34.439-07:00The Towns I Love So Well
There is an adage which states most aptly that home is where the heart is. This is true for me.An American president also once said, “I love them more whom I loved first.”I say this is true, even for places. San Manuel and Moncada are towns I loved first because these are the towns where I grew up.
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Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-35371166478738925502017-08-25T08:21:00.001-07:002017-08-25T08:30:00.967-07:00Destroy The Bandits
Andrea Gonzales has been a newscaster and program host in DWRD Radio Davao for five years.
The
first news item she was to read that day in August 2016 stirred her
emotions, for it was about the beheading of a local teenage boy by the
Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic bandit group in the island province of Sulu.
The
Islamic bandit group had kidnapped both foreign nationals and locals
for Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-22086587329459766682017-08-18T17:23:00.001-07:002017-08-18T17:26:02.999-07:00Sink Altalena!
The French government wanted to have influence in the British-controlled
Palestine after the United Nations’ 1947 partition of the ancient land
to the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs. The French government of Charles
de Gaulle donated 5,000 rifles, 250 Bren guns, 5 million bullets, 50
bazookas, and 10 Bren carriers. These arms and ammunitions were carried
by the ship Altalena when Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-14976599013913634442017-08-08T21:41:00.001-07:002017-08-08T21:41:02.657-07:00Catherine's Homecoming
“I have always longed to come back to the Philippines. It is my home.
Everything in my life started in my country,” Catherine told her
seatmate, Laura Khristenson, in the plane on a long flight from Denmark
to Manila.Laura was surprised.Her seatmate, a Caucasian from
Denmark, was visiting the Philippines for the first time. She was with
five other tourists from Denmark. They would Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-13471163414967327002017-08-04T16:50:00.004-07:002017-08-08T21:45:05.819-07:00Ricardo Sapelino, USM, And The Vietnam War
Ricardo Sapelino of the United States Marines, or USM, was a Filipino
combat soldier during the Vietnam War. He joined the United States Navy
or USN in 1965, during the middle period of the Vietnam conflict. He
received training as a member of the Marine Corps, which was under the
USN during the long American involvement in the Vietnam conflict.
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Josephine Marquez watched on television the live nationwide media
coverage of the announcement of the government’s response to the
massacre of thirty-six soldiers under the command of General Teodolfo
Bautista on October 10, 1977 by Muslim rebels in Patikul, Sulu.
The
Muslim rebels led by the bandit Usman Sali, who tricked General Bautista
by pretending that he Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-63606972818125411932017-07-18T17:44:00.001-07:002017-08-08T21:45:45.471-07:00The Silk Trade
Menachem was a young Jew who had been engaged in the silk and spice
business for almost two years. The silk came from China, and the spices
from India.
Menachem and his friends bought the silk and the spices
from Parthian businessmen in the city of Petra. Parthians bought these
goods from China and from India, and sold these to enterprising Jews who
traveled in caravans using camels,Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-1307348866444966952017-07-11T20:29:00.003-07:002017-08-04T16:59:44.202-07:00Strangers In Egypt
The town of Rhinocolura had a seaport called Al Arish. Passengers from
the town of Raphia in Judah travelled to Egypt by crossing the river
using the boats operated by Egyptian entrepreneurs. This is the town
where Joseph, Mary and the Child Jesus first entered when they escaped
from the town of Bethlehem in Judah.
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“Why would King Herod look for my Child to kill Him?” she asked Joseph.“I don’t know…” Joseph replied.Mary asked him where they would go.“The angel told me to go to Egypt with you and our Child, and stay there until he tells us to leave,” Joseph replied.Mary
felt a certain joy when Joseph stated “our Child” to her even though he
knew that the Child Jesus was miraculously Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-3566104898492167362017-06-23T09:07:00.000-07:002017-06-30T02:49:13.276-07:00Parched Fields
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
This question of Uncle
Gadong rang in my ears as I sat at the base of the Ambuklao tower in the
western field of Lanat, San Manuel, Tarlac, my birthplace.
He asked
me this question sometime in November 1961 when he visited us. He is
the younger brother of my mother Francisca Lacierna Mercado.
My
mother and Uncle Gadong Lacierna Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-31216261160334652622017-06-19T10:41:00.003-07:002017-06-30T02:49:32.840-07:00Sunflowers
Edmund de los Reyes and Carla Quinzon were both sophomore students of
the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. They were
also members
of a Christian campus organization called Campus Crusade for Christ.
In
September 1973, a year after the declaration of martial law all over
the Philippines by President Ferdinand E. Marcos, a very strong typhoon
struck Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-36668089807653422802017-06-13T19:50:00.002-07:002017-06-19T10:36:22.323-07:00Coming Home
Kara sang well. It was amazing how she memorized the lyrics of the song at such a young age.As
she sang, my thoughts wondered to the time when my mother Francisca
Lacierna Mercado, and her younger sister Ninay, fetched their sick
brother Gadong who escaped from his Japanese captors during the infamous
Death March in April 1942…
Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-84843382427727883272017-06-01T05:36:00.001-07:002017-06-04T19:31:53.244-07:00Back To The Parthian Empire
The Magi, their families, and their servants slept in the tents they put
up in a field near the house where the Child was. It was already past
midnight when they slept, and the big star which they saw in the east
shone over the village.That night, Melchor had a dream.In his
dream, he saw the same angel who spoke to him, the one who told him to
see the Child in Bethlehem and bringBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384031918774708123.post-58710401874096780552017-05-20T05:00:00.001-07:002017-05-20T05:00:16.386-07:00Peace Time
Aurelio Mercado was one of the individuals who attended the Conference
of Industrial Arts Teachers in Baguio City in the last week of April,
1930.It was summer. He and Francisca just got married on the second
Sunday of that month, after the end of classes of the 1929-1930
schoolyear. They were married by the Aglipayan parish priest of San
Clemente in the Philippine Independent Berthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16086330016388429620noreply@blogger.com0