Daily Archives: 08/05/2013

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“An Offer we don’t want to resist”


“An Offer we don’t want to resist”

“Remain in Me, as I remain in you.”

This was Jesus’ candid proposal, on the eve of His death as he revealed: “I am the vine; you are the branches…”

Even if He knew that He was about to depart, He assured: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
What a great bid!! A deal for Personal Relationship coupled with Sure Rewards – if we will only TRUST and COMMIT.

Jesus the VINE has offered and promised us this much, yet, more often than not, we waiver in our faith when God the GARDENER cuts off every branch in us that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” – thus, we are allowed to experience difficulties, trials and even sufferings. We usually feel BITTER and would even just choose to depart as BRANCH from our Vine because we do not want to realize that those bitter things would soon make us BETTER persons if we would strive to understand God’s message each time.

This offer of LOVE & CARE is to a large extent which Jesus wants to remain in us even when He is no longer with us in flesh so that we can make the branches grow by sharing the legacy of love to others.

To bring this Gospel alive in John 15:1-8, the family is always the first-tasked society where us, Parents strive to model Jesus’ legacy. We exert every effort to inculcate good values to our children. We give all out support each time the kids would venture on things; we commend when kids perform well, we always remind so that kids would not falter; yet, if they get hurt because of wrong decisions, we strive to mend until they get better again – and at most, we hope that as we do it to our kids, we expect that they will regard our efforts important by being the person that we taught them to be. We expect that “we remain in them” each time they go out of the house.

However, due to peer pressure and other influences, they tend to refuse obedience and would at times fight off when we struggle to make them understand our intentions of pulling them back so that they wont eventually break off from our vine – and this , we do, because…

Just like Jesus, we want to make sure that even when we depart, our children’s life will become fruitful and that they will not only be better persons as we taught them to be – but the BEST legacy which would prove that we have been good parents after all because Jesus has remained in us while striving to be the best parents our kids would remember ‘till they also become good vines to their branches.#

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“Are you aware when you seem to be heading the wrong way?… “


When you travel to a place you’ve never been to before, and you failed to ask the right person to tell you how to get there,  it would help to travel with a navigator (that from a cellphone or an iPad or an independent device) which would supposedly direcmy navigation guidet you from your current location to your place of destination; from the “search for satellite” que, through out the “turning points”.

Along the navigation period, you would even be told to prepare to turn left or to turn right prior the distance of 300m, or to stay on a certain lane, or to make a U-turn until the device tells you that you have successfully arrived to your target place.

However, there are unexpected instances when you would fail to obey the “voice prompt” from your navigator because of some misleading or currently-changed road signs.  At times, you may have mis-interpreted the direction and you may have advanced or delayed your turns. You  kept on driving, but you suddenly thought of confirming if you’re on the right road,  so you had to push your hazard light and stop to ask someone where the road is leading, only to find out that you’re already heading the wrong way.

In effect, because you wanted to make sure by then that you’re already heading the right way, you kept on pulling over just to confirm.  At such consequence, some people may have been kind enough to advise the right road to take; some would even give you options, but some would be seemingly eager to give you directions which would cause you even more to get lost.

What you did not notice after all is that, your navigator kept on RE-ROUTING each time you make wrong turns.  It has been so striving to guide you still and lead you to the right direction until you eventually found out that you no longer need to pull over because it has rerouted correctly and finally prompted that “you have arrived to your target destination.”

In life, there could be some instances when we are not so aware that we are already heading the wrong way. There could have been times when we should have done certain things since there are already signs that it is the right point, but due to some misinterpretations and misunderstandings, we suddenly take wrong turns because of swift mind-shifts.  We would at times keep on gathering opinions before making decisions, but instead of getting to the right verdict, we abruptly lead ourselves to complications instead of solutions because we opted to consider wrong suggestions.  We have  already started making ourselves better, but out of the blue, somebody so influential in our life would comment that what we are doing is “korny” [hehe!] … so instead of pursuing for betterment, we fall back in dragging our feet back to our old-self once more.

What we do not notice after all is that, we have a human navigator who intend to propel our every action to save us from getting lost  each time we make wrong turns.  More often than not, we would tend to negate the effort of this person whom we push to the limits of sacrificing so much for us.  We instead listen to the so-called “hired hand” in today’s gospel who makes us blinded with his “make believe” tactics; but would suddenly abandon us and run away when he sees that we will already suffer the consequence of our indecision because he doesn’t really care at all.

Just like Jesus in the gospel of John 10:11-18, who revealed that “He is the good shepherd who lays down His life for his sheep…”, what will survive of us when our intention to guide is persecuted, is none other but “love” — that which not only “survives” but also rises and bounces again and again while confirming that ALL IS WELL.

Despite the difficult task of being God’s marshal, may this gospel teach us NOT TO GIVE UP; instead, to listen attentively to God’s voice which would make us endure some more and tell our loved-ones:

”fret not, your Good Shepherd is just stickin’ around !” 

visit my other site too: profgail67.blogspot.com

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"All is well in a Zip-Life Ride"


the bravest ride ever
with my husband Pete Montero

Have you ever had a “zip line” experience?

Would you trust the crews when they say that it is safe and stable to go through the LONGEST and the HIGHEST Zip-line in Asia specially that you’re just about to do it for the very first time?
Oh yes, you’d 100% doubt it! 
Just the mere thought of falling  when the cables and harness accidentally break and the slider malfunctions, you wouldn’t really dare to risk your future, specially that you still have three kids looking forward to grow up with you and that you have a husband to whom you promised “walang iwanan”.
But, if and only if you would strive to gather the courage to give it a try, and if you’ll TRUST the words of the crews that “all will be well”, plus if you’ll learn to look up and whisper a silent prayer “I entrust this to you, Lord!” while going through the strong cables, believe me, you will successfully conquer the 1,250m and 1,100m long and the 500m high Zip-line @ Hoyohoy Highland Stone Chapel Adventure Park, Hoyohoy, Tangub City, Misamis Occidental, Philippines.

Sometimes, we tend to be a “doubting Thomas” in the gospel of John 20:19-31. We wouldn’t believe unless we’ve seen and experienced. Just like Thomas before he finally became a full pledged disciple — “He would only believe what he had heard about Jesus’ appearance if he could touch the wounds in Jesus’ body.”

Just as Jesus promised, “the people who believed without seeing or touching will be truly blessed”.  The life that we have nowadays is just like a zip-line ride where we would tend to fear and be afraid to risk because of the gigantic coward thoughts which hinder us from enjoying an exciting and challenging journey.  But if we will only trust without yet seeing for ourselves and if we will strive to break through our doubts, we would eventually prove that God is always fulfilling His promise that He will keep us blessed.
We will 100% enjoy and conquer our fears — all because we believed that ALL IS WELL!#

visit my other blog too:  Profgail67.wordpress.com