Living in the Wetland

Dear Partners, friends ug mga Igsoon,
Last night before I slept I shared with you why the "Lordship of Christ" is the culmination of the Gospel and therefore a very Good News for all of us. Recognizing the Lordship of Christ does not only put God in His right place but also putting us in our right place, to the very purpose of why God created us. To give Him glory and worship Him as our King and Lord. There is no other way we can be His true worshipers but under His Lordship. In my illustration of the fish, this is the chance of a lifetime that we will experience the place where we really belong!

But many of us including myself, is like a fish that after God brought us to life prefer to stay in the wetland where we both like/dislike the life in the seashore but also afraid to launch into the deep blue ocean of His Lordship where we can experience God. When we donot plunge ourselves into the Lordship of Christ, we are like a fish trapped into a small pond in a wetland (Hunasan), we are alive but always fearful that anytime the pond will run dry. So we do anything we can to make the pond bigger and deeper but at the end of the day we realize that we are just a small fish that can only move not even a stone but only a grain of sand. Our growth is very limited, because we can only grow according to the resources in that small pond.

But, while in that small pond God has never forgotten us. He sends a regular hightides in order to replenish the water and bring in new food, BUT most of all, hightides are His INVITATION for us to go with Him into the deep. His invitation for us to be at home with Him, where God will be everything to us, He is incharge, His will is our guide, His joy is our joy and His heartbeat becomes our heartbeat.
Hightides happen when we are fully aware of Him and we feel that He is asking us to step by faith and trust Him that He will see us through. But sadly, when the current of God starts to carry us into the deep, we resist with all our might and when the low tide comes we find ourselves into the same little pond, hoping that someday another hightide will come again.

Mga Igsoon ko, living in the wetland (not plunging into the Lordship of Christ) is quite dangerous because anything that would create a splash in that small pond might bring you back to the dry land and we know what will happen to a fish in the dry land. Surely the Lord does not want us to stay there forever. He wants us to plunge early into His Lordship because His Lordship is non-negotiable, every body will recognize it either now or later. His words declare that every toungue will confess and every knees will bow declaring that He is LORD of all, but the bad news is not everyone who will declare Him Lord later will be with Him for eternity. The demons, the people who did not surrender to His Lordship in their life time will be in the different place where He is.

Now how about those who are in the wetland?... I am not to judge, nor wanting to create a contrversy, go to the Bible and ask God, be at peace with what God will reveal to you. But for me, the safest place for a fish is the ocean and not in the wetland. Same with man, the safest place for man is in Jesus, being the only savior and Lord of our lives. This simple Gospel, who is Jesus has far greater implication than the different forms and legalistic rituals and activities of Chritianity today.
If our Christian life does not start with confrontation of who Jesus is, and if it is not settled to us that Jesus is the only Savior and LORD of our lives, there is no Christian life to live with. We thrive only in Christian groups and environment because they are nice people, they are our former classmates and friends back in college, they are safe to be with, but deep inside us, we do not care who Jesus is. We never consider Him in any area of our lives not even in our decision much more in our actions. Oh yeah, we call upon Him to assist us, we call upon Him when we mess up our lives, we call upon Him to bail us out of the mess and trick Him with some promises that we will be good and go straight after He bail us out. We call upon Him when we do not have money becuase of our indiscreminate spending. We call upon Him when we get sick because of stress in putting all our efforts to secure our future. We call upon Him during examinations and forcing God to let us pass etc... Sure God loves to hear those prayers... but how He wish that He will be more than just an assistant to us. HE is the LORD!!! and that's what we need. We need Him as our Lord because that's the way He created us.

I'll stop here, and again as I am sharing this to you I am also preaching the Gospel, (Jesus) to my self.

RG.

The climax of the Good News

Dear Partner and friends, In my other egroup few months ago we statarted discussing about the Lordship of Christ. We called that sharing as Hisgot-Hisgot. Since we started sharing in our HIsgot Hisgot few months ago, thought of Jesus as the pure Gospel had never got out of my mind. I was so facinated with its simplicity at the same time its greatness. I wanted also to here about JESUS as the gospel, infact for me, if we talk about the pure Gospel it will be Jesus alone, other addition or subtraction or multiplication or division of this pure gospel would make it irrelevant or difficult to permeate in some culture like the place where we are now. So sharing the pure gospel is bringing Jesus in the attention of man and let that man be confronted with the person of Jesus. We who are bearers of the gospel then must have a clear understanding of who Jesus is. Little by little I am beginning to understand the simplicity of the Gospel as Jesus alone and nothing else. Yet this simple Gospel is so profound that when we are given the grace to know who Jesus is it would really make us see the seemingly elusive "Abundant LIFE" that He promised and we also desire to have. The simplicity of Jesus as the Good News (Gospel) lies on His being the Messiah (The Only Savior) and the Son of God (The Lord of All). These two is really the Good News and we can not separate them and consider one (His being the Savior) as the Good News and the other (His being Lord) as something we would struggle with. The Lordship of Christ is part of the Good News in fact it is the culmination and the climax of the Good News. I want to share with you why the Lordship of Christ is the epitome of the Gospel. When God created man He created Him for His Glory. Man's design and make-up is to give glory to God. In other words Man's make-up is to live and recognize God as LORD. Apart from this purpose man will be disoriented and lost. Imagine a fish in the seashore, it will try to jump and jump with all its might gasping for oxygen and hoping that his last jump he end up in water, this is simply because fish are made to be in water. My friends we are made to make God our LORD, that is why when Jesus is not LORD of our lives we are like that fish in the seashore, struggling, gasping, just to live for few minutes. That's what exactly happen when Adam and Eve sinned against God and tried to live without making God as their LORD. they tried to jump out of the water and started to struggle to live and died. And this is the life and death that we inherited when we also jump out of the water and we too did not recognize God as Lord. We did not give glory to God the very purpose why He created us. Now my friends, ones in our life, He has given us the Good News that He want to resuscitate us, bring us back to life, yet He also said that He is not just bringing us to life (Jesus as Savior) but He wants us swim back to where we belong!!! recognizing God (Jesus) as our Lord because ORIGINALLY that is what you are!!! Isn't it a GOOD NEWS!!! that at last we are home. The Lordship of Jesus is indeed the culmination of this Good News!!! because like the fish in the seashore,dead after minutes of struggle, was not only brought to life BUT now given a chance to swim back into the water where it truly belong!!!! Now we can Glorify God!!! if we live under the Lordship of Christ. That's what we are mga kapayid ko WE ARE CREATED TO GLORIFY GOD and the only way to be back to that state is TO MAKE JESUS (GOD) OUR LORD... that is why Jesus as LORD is a Good News!!! But, many of us just wanted the idea of being resuscitated back to life but still wanting to stay sa "HUNASAN" (wetland) and do not want to swim back into the water of the Lordship of Christ. As a result we continue to gasp for oxygen, continue to be jumping and struggling to live the life Jesus gave us. Sometimes we end up in a small pond of water in the wetland and feel some relief and taste of life but that is not what our life is, that we live in that small pond Mga kapatid ko sa Pangnoon throw yourself out into the water of the Lordship of Christ.... and begin to experience, the beauty of the ocean bed with God. While sharing this to you, I am also, again preaching the Gospel to myself.. the Gospel, of who is Jesus the only Savior and Lord.. RG.

Why Lordship of Christ a Good News for Us.?

Dear mga Igsoon, Since we started sharing sa atong HIsgot Hisgot few months ago, thought of Jesus as the pure Gospel had never got out of my mind. I was so facinated with its simplicity at the same time its greatness. I want to continue sa atong hisgot hisgot about JESUS as the gospel, infact for me, if we talk about the pure Gospel it will be Jesus alone, other addition or subtraction or multiplication or division of this pure gospel would make it irrelevant or difficult to permeate in some culture like the place where we are now. So sharing the pure gospel is bringing Jesus in the attention of man and let that man be confronted with the person of Jesus. We who are bearers of the gospel then must have a clear understanding of who Jesus is. Little by little I am beginning to understand the simplicity of the Gospel as Jesus alone and nothing else. Yet this simple Gospel is so profound that when we are given the grace to know who Jesus is it would really make us see the seemingly elusive Christian life that we desire to have. The simplicity of Jesus as the Good News (Gospel) lies on His being the Messiah (The Only Savior) and the Son of God (The Lord of All). These two is really the Good News and we can not separate them and consider one (His being the Savior) as the Good News and the other (His being Lord) as something we would struggle with. The Lordship of Christ is part of the Good News in fact it is the culmination and the climax of the Good News. I want to share with you why the Lordship of Christ is the epitome of the Gospel. When God created man He created Him for His Glory. Man's design and make-up is to give glory to God. In other words Man's make-up is to live and recognize God as LORD. Apart from this purpose man will be disoriented and lost. Imagine a fish in the seashore, it will try to jump and jump with all its might gasping for oxygen and hoping that his last jump he end up in water, this is simply because fish are made to be in water. Mga Igsoon ko we are made to make God our LORD, that is why when Jesus is not LORD of our lives we like that fish in the seashore, struggling, gasping, just to live for few minutes. That's what exactly happen when Adam anf Eve sinned against God and tried to live without making God as their LORD. they tried to jump out of the water and started to struugle to live and died. And this is the life and death that we inhirited when we also jump out of the water and we too did not recognize God as Lord. We did not give glory to God the very purpose why He created us. Karon mga igsoon, ones in our life, He has given us the Good News that He want to resucitate us, bring us back to life, yet He also said that He is not just bringing us to life (Jesus as Savior) but He wants us swim back to where we belong!!! recognizing God (Jesus) as our Lord because ORIGINALLY that is what you are!!! Isn't it a GOOD NEWS!!! that at last we are home. The Lordship of Jesus is indeed the culmination of this Good News!!! because like the fish in the seashore,dead after minutes of struggle, was not only brought to life BUT now given a chance to swim back into the water where it truely belong!!!! Now we can Glorify God!!! if we live under the Lordship of Christ. That's what we are mga Igsoon ko WE ARE CREATED TO GLORIFY GOD and the only way to be back to that state is TO MAKE JESUS (GOD) OUR LORD... that is why Jesus as LORD is a Good News!!! But, many of us just wanted the idea of being resucitated back to life but still wanting to stay sa "HUNASAN" do not want to swim back into the water of the Lordship of Christ. As a result we continue to gasp for oxygen, continue to be jumping and struggling to live the life Jesus gave us. Usahay maka timing ug libaong nga naay gamay tubig, medyo malipay gamay But that is not what our life is, nga mabuhi sa libaong Mga Igsoon ko throw yourself out into the water of the Lordship of Christ.... and begin to experience, the beauty of the ocean bed with God. While sharing this mga Igsoon, I am also, again preaching the Gospel to myself.. the Gospel, of who is Jesus the only Savior and Lord.. RG.