Beautiful Feet

                Lotus feet is a custom in China in which the feet of women are bound and tied to prevent their growth and reach the ideal length of 3 inches (imagine that!). This was done to make feet small and therefore look desirable according to their belief but this custom is eventually banned in 1912. Nowadays, modern lotion, foot scrubs and moisturizers are the formulas that promise to make our feet look beautiful.

                But as Christians, “beautiful feet” means a different thing. Romans 10:14-15 speaks of it.

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? 

And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? 

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 

And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? 

As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

                  We are sent. “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

                  Go and tell. “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.” (Mark 5:19-20)

                  Tell them about Jesus. “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

                  Invite them to a personal relationship with Jesus.  “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelations 3:20)

                    As MSUans, it is normal to have calloused feet. We always walk (or more appropriately, hike!) from our houses to the classrooms and ComCent. We walk in an average of 3 km per day. We wear slippers and, though it is not encouraged, some students even wear it inside the classrooms because of the place’s climate. Depending on the weather, we will have either dusty or muddy feet. But, who cares if we get all these just to proclaim the Good News?  Isaiah 52:7 says, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

God bless us all. ^^,

*italics are mine and picture was from Google.

Family Tree Zion Music Video

This is the music video we made for the song Family Tree by Matthew West. Be inspired and laugh! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mqFtlUALfw

Raytersblak

Mula sa kawalan ay isang silahis ng dagitab ang sa isip niya’y gumising

May dapat kang isulat, sigaw ng kanyang utak

Mayroon kang pangarap, hiyaw ng kanyang puso

Siya namang karipas niya sa paghahanap ng pluma at papel sa kung saan

Dadaloy na ang mga ideya mula sa ugat ng kayamang nasa loob ng kanyang bungo

Daraan sa hiyas sa kanyang dibdib…

Patungo sa dulo ng kanyang mga daliri

Nariyan na at kailangan niya ng ipakawala

Ngunit…Malabo, madilim, hindi mahagilap…

Isang napakalikot na obrang matagal ng nais madakip

Mailap…di mawari kung maamo ba o sadyang ubod ng bangis

Siyang ganda kaya o walang pinagkaiba sa iba?

At sa dulo ay naisip niya na lamang…

Marahil ay hindi pa handa, sa susunod na lang…kapag perpekto na.

(Kapag wala na akong maisulat... :D)

the last train

(I made this short story as a practice for my writing skills. The task was to make a story on which the main character is a father and on a first person viewpoint. Please feel free to put comments. :D)

                I lit up another cigarette and watched as the end of the stick burned red ashes. I inhaled a puff of smoke with exhaling. This, I know, did not help me feel calmer. I sat here on a rusted bench with my wife on the city’s train station for almost three hours. Two trains have already come and gone. The next train will be the last. The place was full of other people sweating because of the heat of the noonday sun. Everybody hardly talked. I guess they, too, were waiting for the last train bringing the news that would either make us or break us.

                Last night, my niece told me that today the soldiers who fought on the war will go home riding the last train for the day. The war had happened so suddenly that one night someone called over the phone. My son, Fred, took the call and learned that it was his battalion leader. He left the next morning. My wife had nothing to do but hugged him and wished him luck. I, despite the urge, have not even had the chance to tell him I was proud of him or even say “good luck”.

                I was awakened from my wandering thoughts by an approaching low rumbling sound. The train came toward the station and stopped with a screeching sound. Everyone stood up eagerly. Soldiers on their khaki military attires, some with bandages and splints, started to disembark the train. My wife and I watched patiently for our son to appear and come running to us. A tall man with a bandage on his left arm, the last passenger of the train, went out the train and slowly walked towards us, probably because he noticed that our worried eyes are fixed at him.

                “Good day, Sir. I am Lieut. Stradford. Are you Mr. Pryster?”, he asked.

              I nodded. He handed me a small white envelope…a letter from the US Air Force. I took it with trembling hands. I looked at him eye to eye, searching for an answer to a question I could not bear to ask. He just looked back at me with sorry eyes.

                I opened the letter. Every word hit my heart like the bullets that killed my son. I stared blankly at the empty train in front of me while my wife embraced me, sobbing.

 

                If life is a journey, we are all like riding trains of experiences and opportunities. We ride, go around the town, meet people and see places. But there is only one train, may be unexpectedly our last, that will bring us to our true home.

I WILL PERSIST UNTIL I SUCCEED

please watch it at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrGFRK_B30I

my inspirations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cS2Hd1B9WA

please do watch and be inspired too. :D

Worn-Out Badge

(This blog is dedicated to my brother. Bro, now that you have stepped onto college life, I hope you will learn many things and continually grow up as a man.)

                Once in Manila, as we were going home from a camp, I saw this vendor’s stand with various badge pins. Being a collector of badges myself, one particular badge caught my attention. It is a size of a small circular compact mirror with a yellow background and black bold playful print of “Good-For-Nothing-Student”. My co-camper saw it too and we bargained on who will have the badge. I won and bought it.

                Come my last year in high school when I wore a sling bag strapped with different badges along with that “Good-For-Nothing-Student” badge, somehow the badge proved to be wrong. However, if I could turn back time, I should have not bought it.

                Sometimes, I just need to be careful of what I label myself. Even though the effects of the words did not show up during that time, I think it does now in college. It was an autopilot etched on my subconscious. As I labeled myself “Good-For-Nothing-Student”, it crept through my brain, through my veins, and through my entire system. I realized that my primary purpose when I bought that badge was to “put myself to that level and live showing the opposite”. But, I made an unnecessary enemy out of thin air.

                In high school, I admit I spent only 20% of my time studying, that was during our time to practice for a practicum, during the four periodical exams, and when I am in a class of a monster teacher when I need to focus or else I will be devoured…exaggerated. The other 80% were, well, anything under the sun.

                But college is different. A lot different. Being passive, lazy, “parbol”, not doing my assignments, not reviewing for quizzes and exams, not taking notes, not listening to teachers, just hanging out with friends and not thinking about what could happen to my future, and if I consistently and passionately do this process, surely I will be a certified “Good-For-Nothing-Student”, not a Certified Public Accountant.

                Whenever I don’t feel the pressure and the motivation to strive with my studies, I remember the lesson from the ant which says…

“You lazy fool, look at an ant.

Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.

Nobody has to tell it what to do.

All summer it stores up food;

At harvest it stockpiles provisions.

So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing?

How long before you get out of bed?

A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,

Sit back, take it easy--- do you know what comes next?

Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,

Poverty your permanent houseguest!”

+Proverbs 6:6-11+

                Now I have a better idea of what badge to wear. It is something that says, “Study as if you have not prayed, and pray as if you have not studied.”