Archive for November, 2007

Wasting My Slipped Disk

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
(My
struggle to glorify God in my sickness)
 
I’m in this
pain again. I was quite paranoid. I’m thinking that I might possibly experience
difficulty in walking and standing again. That is why I decided to go Dr.
Chua.
 
Dr. Chua
said that I have slipped disk. I was asked to have bed rest and to have MRI. He
also said that I’m a candidate for surgery.
 
Just
thinking about a possible operation on my back literally chills my bones… I
mean… chills my spines.
 
Before and
after my checkup, I had asked several officemates and friends to pray for me. I
asked for a miracle so that I will be healed rather than undergoing operation.
I also asked for provision.
 
It’s quite
difficult to stay in the bed or just stay in the house. I grow anxious every
time I think about not earning a few days salary and the there are household
needs to be met and the need to be diagnosed through MRI. Where am I going to
get provision for all of these? I’ve been in this kind of situation early this
year. It was really a period of testing. And now my faith is being tried again.
On my own, I would have given up. But I know that God supplies me the faith to
trust in Him.
 
I remember
our discipleship cell Bible study on Romans 5:3-5, which says, “More than that,
we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not
put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
 
I can still
remember how Bro. Oscar has asked us, “What difference does it make if you’re a
Christian? Why would someone be a Christian if he will also suffer?” I can’t
recall how I answered the question but I’m in a situation now that fits rightly
to the questions.
 
I would
perhaps answer it through a story.
 
It was kind
of difficult to get a ride the day I went to the Orthopedic Hospital. The traffic was heavy
because of road construction. I prayed for a passenger taxi. I prayed that I
will be able to ride in front or in the middle because of my low back pain. I
waited and prayed for more than an hour. My back is already stressed and I’m
already late. I was a bit angry. I was frustrated but I have nowhere and have
no one to turn to but God.
 
I was able
to ride in the middle section of a FX. My mood hadn’t changed. Then the lyrics
of the song Trust His Heart was playing in my mind. I suddenly remembered to
thank God for the FX and for being in the section I have asked. Then I became
calm.
 
I don’t
know where the Orthopedic Hospital is. I asked Dad, the
jeepney drivers and the bystanders to give directions. I was able to get there
without getting lost.
 
I had my
appointment. I was fairly diagnosed. And I didn’t pay the consultation fee! So
I had money to buy the medicine I need!
 
But then
I’m still troubled.
 
Where am
going to get the money for my MRI? What? Bed rest again? No salary for a number
of days. We haven’t received the electricity bill yet. Our landline is no
longer working. There are other things I need to buy. I still need to do sound
editing for the church. We have practices for the church’s Family Day. I have
to prepare the presentation for the office’s Monthly Fellowship.
 
But I
followed the order of the doctor. I want to get well.
 
As of now, there
is not much improvement. The pain is still there. And I don’t think I’m taken
cared by my family. I got angry just awhile ago because those who are able to
prepare food didn’t care if Dad and I are already hungry. Don’t they really
care that Dad is blind and I’m having this temporary disability again?
 
It’s a
struggle. It’s easier said than done. By just looking at my story, my answer to
my cell servant’s question would have been unsatisfactory. But I really wanted to
hope in God and give Him the glory in what I’m experiencing.
 
Then I
remember John Piper’s article “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” He said:
 
1. You will
waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
 
2. You will
waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
 
3. You will
waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.
 
David Powlison
adds, “With God, you aren’t playing percentages, but living within
certainties.”
 
4. You will
waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.
 
5. You will
waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather
than cherishing Christ.
 
6. You will
waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not
enough time reading about God.
 
What a
waste of cancer if we read day and night about cancer and not about God.
 
David Powlison
adds, “What is so for your reading is also true for your conversations with
others. Other people will often express their care and concern by inquiring
about your health. That’s good, but the conversation easily gets stuck there.
So tell them openly about your sickness, seeking their prayers and counsel, but
then change the direction of the conversation by telling them what your God is
doing to faithfully sustain you with 10,000 mercies. Robert Murray McCheyne
wisely said, “For every one look at your sins, take ten looks at Christ.” He
was countering our tendency to reverse that 10:1 ratio by brooding over our
failings and forgetting the Lord of mercy. What McCheyne says about our sins we
can also apply to our sufferings. For every one sentence you say to others
about your cancer, say ten sentences about your God, and your hope, and what he
is teaching you, and the small blessings of each day. For every hour you spend
researching or discussing your cancer, spend 10 hours researching and
discussing and serving your Lord. Relate all that you are learning about cancer
back to him and his purposes, and you won’t become obsessed.
 
7. You will
waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your
relationships with manifest affection.
 
8. You will
waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.
 
9. You will
waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.
 
10. You
will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth
and glory of Christ.
 
There are
times in these past few days that I have wasted my slipped disk. I have thought
of dying rather than accepting this gift of pain. I have thought of death but
not in terms of redeeming the time. I was sort of revolting in my mind. I
sought comfort from the idea that I will feel better anyway through medication
and therapy. My desire to learn more about slipped disk have outweighed my time
of reading His Word. There are occasions in these past few days that I have
lost my passion for holiness. It appears that I’m just like one of those who
have no hope.
 
But I am
confronted by His Word that says His love has been poured into my heart (Rom. 5:5). He loves me.
Therefore I have hope. My greatest need have been given and secured in Christ
Jesus. I am saved. I am His child! He is my Father!
 
My slipped
disk? I’m placing them in His hand. God will be the one to take care of it.

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The Sinfulness of the Tongue: Talking To People Rather Than Talking About Them

Saturday, November 17th, 2007
Ephesians
5:4 (ESV) says, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking,
which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”
 
How often
do we get involved with the proliferation of rumor? How often do we get news
about a friend from another friend or group of friends whenever there is a
reunion? How often do you talk of someone who doesn’t have an opportunity to
lay down the facts about her life? How many hearts have been broken because of
your careless divulgence of stories you should have kept in your heart? How
many lives have been destroyed because their life has become an open book
because you exposed their story for others to feast? How many people have left
the church because they see the Christians there as no more than the
chitchatting old ladies in the sari-sari store?
 
Do we tend
to go directly to the person to know him and what’s happening in his life? Or
do we tend to go to the grapevine to know the latest about her?
 
I would
often experience awkwardness whenever I’m in a group of friends and they seem
to be updated with the latest news about our other friends. There are times, I
think, that I’m always the last to know. I’m always surprised whenever I would
hear that a certain friend will be married in a few months time or realizing
that two of my fiends already broke up without knowing that they become a
couple.
 
This would
just prove that I’m not close with all of my friends. Thus for the sake of
“updating” myself, I would get news from the grapevine. I would even share my
own “scoop.” This also proves that I’m a gossiper.
 
Why is it
that a rumor is so palatable to the tongue? The tongue inclined to the desires
of the flesh will not just find rumor material tasty but would even share it to
others. And others are even more excited to partake! Don’t think that I’m just
referring to the unbelieving world. Christians are guiltier of this offense!
 
Gossiping
is foolish talking. Other descriptions of this ungodly activity in the Bible
are “tale bearing,” “false witnessing,” slandering,” “tattling,” “lying” and
“backbiting.” Gossiping involves discussing intimate details of people’s life
for injurious or malicious purposes. Often, the gossiper fails to clarify the
facts with the relevant persons involved.
 
Such
activities are those esteemed by heathens. Such are the activities of the
fools, of the indiscreet and of the wicked.
 
The Apostle
Paul says that such activity is out of place, particularly to Christians. It is
improper. It is not fitting for Christians to gossip! It brings a great deal of
mischief to the one who brings the tale but also to the hearer. It pollutes and
poisons their conscience. Matthew Henry says that it is “very unsuitable to
[the Christians’] profession and character.” John Gill said that it is
“disagreeable to the will of God.” John Wesley adds that foolish talking does
not increase one’s faith or holiness.
 
My personal
stance is that unless a person directly relates to me things about herself I
have nothing to do with things about her life. Even if what is circulating is
factual and validated by others, it is still unfitting for me as a Christian to
know stories from others. My sinful tendencies could betray me. My tongue could
slip in any moment I become careless.
 
I believe
that it is better to talk with the person. Get to know him. Build my
relationship with him. And get the information I need to know or get the
information that is profitable for my growth as a believer. It would be better
not to be updated with my friends rather than fall in to this vicious sin of
foolish talking.
 
With this
kind of attitude, I am more constrained to build relationship directly with
people or to communicate regularly with my friends. Participation with
gossiping is proof of one’s poor communication skills or interpersonal skills.
 
Another
area that Paul mentioned that is related to the sinfulness of the tongue is
crude joking. In a culture where standup comedies are increasingly accepted, we
tend to become unaware that even are jokes are not pleasant to the Lord. Paul
used the Greek word eutrapelia, not used elsewhere in the New Testament, to
describe this unfitting activity. Jamieson, Fauseet and Browns said that crude
joking or jesting is “implying strictly that versatility which turns about and
adapts itself, without regard to principle, to the shifting circumstances of
the moment, and to the varying moods of those with whom it may deal (emphasis
mine).”
 
This is the
case when teasing someone with another person. We could be so careless with our
joking that it doesn’t edify the person or it doesn’t increase her faith. There
are occasion that it fudges someone’s emotional attraction for a certain
person, instead of grounding his feelings for the girl on Biblical truth and
principles.
 
What does
Paul recommend? Let there be thanksgiving! He used the word eucharistia, as
opposed to eutrapelia. The tongue should be used for much better purposes and
that is to give thanks to God for the blessings that He gives us.
 
Don’t
gossip! Talk to people rather talk about them. Let us not waste our lives to
useless tittle-tattle. It’s better to use our tongue to praise God and to share
His message of grace to others!

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A Call for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood… Na Naman?

Friday, November 9th, 2007

May mga Kristiyano na di maitatanggi na nai-in love din naman sila at
gusto rin naman manligaw ng mga lalaki at maligawan ang mga babae. Pero bakit
parang ambivalent ang mga Kristiyanong lalaki at babae sa ideya ng courtship?
 
Natotorpe nga ba talaga si guy… iniisip niya ba na si girl ay “out of
my league” kasi mayaman siya o mas malaki ang suweldo… kasi masyado maganda ang
girl… baka naman mas mature si girl spiritually at tila holier-than-thou…
sosyal kaya siya at tila di mayaya ni guy sa simpleng karinderya o sa Jollibee
man lang… dahil walang car si guy o naiilang siya na sa jeep niya lang pwede
mailibre ng pamasahe si girl?
 
Nakakatawa talaga pero tanong ko rin yan mismo sa sarili ko. I was
browsing my Multiply site once when I stumbled upon this poem by Celeste V.
Lumasac. Quite Biblical naman ang tenor kaya I got her permission na hiramin
itong poem niya, (thanks, Celeste!). Initially I thought this poem are
applicable sa mga guy lang pero girls should also consider the words.
 
are you man enough?
 
unless you are
equipped to comprehend why you will always be only next to God, yet the only
one to be that in my life
 
unless you have the
sensibility to recognize that in the context of home and family, one can only
love unconditionally and sacrificially
 
unless you are
prepared to take on the responsibility of loving and being loved
 
unless you are
downright definite that you have never known someone like me and that you never
will
 
unless you are
resolved that though i am not perfect, i am the right and only girl for you
 
unless you learn the
language of my soul and understand the declarations of my eyes
 
unless you see for
yourself that my heart, though eternally turbulent, can only hold good
intentions
 
unless you fully
grasp the complexity of my being yet choose to believe that you will never run
out of understanding
 
unless you are
willing to fight each battle with me until we emerge victorious and joyfully
exhausted
 
unless you can assure
me that you will rise up for me when i am not able to defend myself anymore but
let me be otherwise
 
unless you can walk
beside me even when you know that i am taking the rough road
 
unless you can
accept that there are times when my best may still fall short
 
unless your presence
brings peace and security and you can calm me down during tumultuous situations
 
unless you
acknowledge that i may not always have the same opinion with you but i will
always understand you
 
unless you have the
courage to correct me when i’m wrong but accept the blame when you are
 
unless you are able
to accept my honesty ‘til it hurts
 
unless silences
between us bring comfort
 
unless you realize
that, if it is necessary, you are willing to look silly and perform ridiculous acts
just to make me laugh
 
unless you can come
crying to me when the going gets real tough yet know that i will not think you
are less of a man than before
 
unless you recognize
that holding my hands has become one of your needs
 
unless you too
believe that the best things in life have nothing to do with money
 
unless you are worth
comparing to my father
 
unless you can
describe my face in detail even when i’m not around
 
unless you can
endure my eccentricities and habits and see them as charming instead of
annoying
 
unless i am able to
comfortably sing an entire song in your presence
 
unless you are
definite that you can only offer good old, plain old, concrete, everlasting
love
 
unless you were
destined to make me smile every morning for the rest of my life
 
unless you are
convinced that i can be and am all these to you too
 
then you’re not…
 
so
 
please,
 
don’t!
 
For the girls naman… ayaw nga ba talaga magpaligaw… mas mahalaga nga
ba sa kanila ang career at graduate degree… nawawalan na ba sila ng pag-asa sa
mga Kristiyanong lalaki na ayaw mag-take ng initiative at mag-step up…
tumitingin lamang ba sila sa mga kamukha ni Hugh Grant o Josh Harnett… masyado
bang takot si girl na umasa at masaktan kaya umiiwas siya sa mga gusto manligaw
sa kanya… o baka tulad ng iba kong kilala na nalunod na yata sa mga love song
at romantic movie na di naman nagtuturo ng Biblical perspective about
relationship?
 
 
I would quote another female friend, si Rae, who wrote me a month ago.
Her words encouraged me. I told myself na may pag-asa pa pala kami sa mga
Christian girls. She said…
 
…in behalf of most
Christian females, I would like to apologize that many of us have not responded
well to many men’s proposals. We have been deluded by our own unrealistic
fantasies of who our prince charming should be, how the proposal should have
been carried out and how it should all end. We have buried ourselves in books
and drowned ourselves in music and movies that feed into these romantic dreams.
Often times, when men from the real world, like you, burst our bubbles of
fantasies, we become disappointed that we didn’t have what we always hoped for.
Thus, when caught off guard, our flesh makes us naturally react sinfully and
obviously it is you, men, who get the brunt of it. Any reaction that is not in
line with this is simply by the grace of God in that woman.
 
Iniisip ko minsan ang mga bagay patungkol sa pag-ibig at patuloy pa
rin akong nahihiwagaan. Iilan pa lang ang nababasa kong libro patungkol sa
Biblical manhood at womanhood. Wala rin ako masyado alam sa theology patungkol
dito. Ang napagtatanto ko lamang ngayon ay tila masyadong malaki ang epekto ng
kasalanan sa puso’t isipan ng lalaki at babae.
 
Madalas o minsan ay pasaway talaga at ayaw magpasakop sa kalooban at
grasya ng Diyos. Yung iba nga malalaman mong nabasa na nila halos lahat ng
libro tungkol sa love, courtship at marriage pero puno ng takot at pangamba na
para bang wala silang Diyos na bibigyan sila ng sapat na grasya. Parang ako.
 
Patuloy ang panawagan sa mga lalaki at babae na maging Biblical at
maging masunurin sa Diyos. Naniniwala naman ako na binigyan tayo ng laya ng Diyos
para umibig at magpa-ibig. Ang Kristiyanong takot umibig at magpa-ibig ay
walang tiwala sa Diyos, sa Bibliya at sa komunidad ng mananampalataya na
tutulong sa paggabay na maluwalhati ang Diyos sa bahagi ng buhay nilang ito.
Siya rin ang Kristiyano na madaling matisod at masadlak sa kasalanan.

 

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