Lured by the "up to" promises of the world

Up to 15mbps internet speed.
This was what my landline/internet provider offered me for a minimal amount as a bonus for my being loyal to them for so many years.  It was an offer I couldn't refuse, after realizing that the amount I would pay was so low compared to what they usually offer for that internet speed.
And the speed did increase dramatically!  What took hours to download a movie now takes an average of 45 -50 minutes.  I know it's still slow compared to other countries, but compared to my old speed this was a significant jump!  Even the opening of websites is faster.
This made me curious.  I now decided to upload an internet speed app to check just how fast my internet really was.
In the past I never really bothered to test the speed of my internet since it was just average and I was not expecting anything great.  But now that they gave me the "up to" 15mbps I wanted to see if it really reached that point.
After a number of days of testing the top speed so far averaged between 12.5-12.9 mbps.  Fast.  But not 15mbps.  I am so caught up in wondering if the speed will actually reach 15mbps that I test it about twice or three times a day!  So far it has never even reached 13mbps.
I felt like sending a note to our provider, asking them why they promise something, and then do not really deliver.  Then I realized what they actually promised - UP TO 15mbps.  They never told me that they would give me 15mbps.  They said the speed would reach up to 15mbps.  So, it could be less (which happens almost always), or it might actually reach 15mbps when they probably feel like giving it.  When it will actually happen I'm not sure.  There's a big possibility that it won't.
So, I can't argue or complain.  They are keeping their promise. 
There is obviously a play of words.  And they can't be accused of lying.  What they used to attract me, and other subscribers that they have, is the 15mbps.  Compared to 1mbps, or 3mbps, it's an attractive speed!  And that's what made me bite the offer.  I'm not complaining.  I just realized how I was lured into accepting an offer.

It reminds me of how we are so tempted to bite the bait that Satan, or the world, offers us.
Genesis 3:1-5  Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  (2)  The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,  (3)  but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "  (4)  You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman.  (5)  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

I want to focus on the last statement of the devil, in verse 5.  Satan said that God knew that when she ate of it her eyes would be opened and she would be like God, knowing good and evil.  I want you to notice the "up to" of Satan.
He said "YOUR EYES WILL BE OPENED".  But he did not say how open it would be.  At that time Adam and Eve did not know evil.  All they had was the garden and God.  Yes, their eyes would be opened, but Satan did not tell them that once their eyes would be open to evil they would begin to lust for it. 
Then Satan said "YOU WILL BE LIKE GOD".  Notice his next "up to".  Satan did say that she would be like God.  But he did not tell her that she would not be God.  No one can be God.  Satan offered her "UP TO being like God", but did not tell her that it would not be exactly like that.
Eve did not notice the "up to" of the promise of Satan, and so she bit the bait.  Yes, their eyes were opened, but because they were not God sin took over their lives.

Brethren, friends, be careful of the offers of Satan, and the world.  They will offer us "up to" a certain amount of happiness, satisfaction, pleasure and fun.  But they will not tell you that it will not completely make you happy, satisfied, or filled with pleasure and fun.  In fact, the lack of satisfaction and happiness will just make us look for more, which will make us slaves of these things that only promise "up to", but do not give us the fullness of what God has to offer.

When Jesus was offering living water to the Samaritan woman in John 4, He told her:
John 4:13-14  Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  (14)  but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."



God promises us a greater joy than what the world offers
Psalms 4:7-8  You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.  (8)  I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

When it comes to peace, don't you want a total peace that can truly satisfy?
John 14:27  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Do not be satisfied with the "up to" promises that the world offers, that Satan uses, to lure us away from the total, fulfilling and satisfying promises that our Lord has to offer!
God doesn't fool us to try and keep our loyalty to Him.  We just need to know, experience and see for ourselves that with God is a fullness of life that no one, or nothing, can offer us.

The Best Brew

When you get used to something that, for you, is the best, it is hard to settle for less.  For the past years I have been enjoying the taste and experience of brewing coffee fresh from the bean.  At first I would buy fresh ground local barako coffee from the market, and then brew it.  Until a friend of mine who was a coffee enthusiast told me about brewing from newly ground coffee.  This friend also blessed me with a grinder.  Ever since then I have been buying coffee beans, and grinding only exactly what I would be brewing for one mug.
Aside from that I also buy the kind of coffee blend that I enjoy.  A friend of mine sells coffee beans that he imports from the Mountain Province - Benguet, Sagada, Kalinga Apayao and other places.  He has more or less a dozen coffee bean blends to choose from!  After experimenting with almost all I found the blend that I enjoy - the Kalinga Dark Roast.  It's Robusta, from Kalinga Apayao.  For me...the best.
I don't buy any other blend.  I don't drink any other coffee except newly ground coffee (except maybe when it is brownout, and I have no choice but to drink 3-in-1!)

In a recent meeting I was in, we were also served brewed coffee.  But nothing beats the personal choice of coffee beans that I buy.  In the apartment where we stayed the owners made sure that we had coffee - instant coffee.  Out of habit every morning I would prepare myself a cup of instant coffee, but I wouldn't finish it.  I would just wait for our meeting to start so I could enjoy brewed coffee.  But that wouldn't fully satisfy.  For the meantime, yes.  But I still longed for my personal choice - freshly ground Kalinga Dark Roast in a mug.  Every morning.  The best...for me.

O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
(Psalms 34:8)

Have we had a taste of who our God is, of who the God of the Bible is, to the point that nothing else, and no one else can take His place in our heart?
Sadly, today, people settle for a 3-in-1 God, a generic God, and do not go out and really taste and see His goodness.
Everyone knows the line "God is good all the time, and all the time God is good", but do we really know this in our life?  Have we tasted that He really is good?

Just like for coffee lovers like me, God wants us to have a taste of who He is, and realize that there is no one or anything, that can beat Him.
The difference between God and coffee is that, unlike coffee, God does not have different blends.  He is who He is.  And He has revealed Himself through His word, the Bible.
And it is when we respond to this revelation of God that we begin to taste and see who He is!
When we realize who He is - our Creator, and yet how many of us realize that we have rebelled against Him, that we do not live according to how He originally designed us to be - like Him.
And even more, how many of us know that He has  graciously provided a way of escape from this enmity we have with Him, by sending His Son to die for us.  This was the initial expression of God's love for us - by sending us a Savior.
And through His Son we are forgiven, redeemed from sin and adopted as His children - even as we put our faith in Him, in who He is.
When we realize that a God like this would show His love in this way, even while we were still sinners Christ died for us - when we have tasted of this love, there will be nothing and no one else who will be able to satisfy us as He did.
He is the perfect blend, the only blend, that will really satisfy our soul.

How I pray that we will all have a taste of the grace and mercy of our God, and that through this taste may realize that nothing else can replace Him, that He truly is good.  It begins with our salvation, but continues on in our everyday life.
 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
(Romans 8:31-32)
And yet even "all things" will never replace the love of God that He showed us when He did not spare His own son to die for our sins and deliver us from sin.

Is God the "perfect blend" in your life?  I pray that, as you seek Him, you will realize this too.

Someone Prayed for My Salvation

There is a song that we used to sing often in church services titled "I stand in Awe of You".  That song just became more alive and real in my life after hearing a short story from a very close brother in Christ and friend whom I invited to share in our midweek service.

This brother was my schoolmate in De La Salle University.  We became white belts in TaeKwonDo in DLSU together, and we got our black belts together.  We also became "brothers" in the TaeKwonDo blackbelt brotherhood, both of us belonging to the first batch of this brotherhood, which is still alive up to today (going 36 years).  We trained together, ate together...we were like brothers really.

Then time separated us when we graduated from college, and when we both became inactive in TaeKwonDo.  But the long separation became good to us when we both found out that we were born again Christians!  What a joy it was to know that both of us were being used in the Lord's kingdom, preaching the gospel and His word.

God was also so good in allowing this brother to visit Bacolod city often with a church that would hold seminars for pastors and leaders.  And every time he would visit I would always try to invite him to speak and encourage the brethren in our church.

It was in this latest visit that he shared something that utterly blew my mind, and made me stand in awe of how compassionate and loving this great God we serve is.
He simply shared that when we were in college, he already was a Christian.  And he also shared that he was also praying that one day I would be a Christian!  I had no idea - first that he was a Christian (although I can testify that he had a character that we could call Christ like), and second that he, and his wife, who was his girlfriend then, was actually praying that I would also know Jesus as my Savior and Lord.  He shared how he had a picture of me in his desk that he would use as a reminder to pray for me - and in that picture I was "high" (on marijuana).  How did he know I was high - his answer "his eyes".

As early as that time my Savior was already moving in my midst, moving the hearts of His children around me to pray for me.  Unknowingly He was already moving, making a way for me to finally open my eyes and recognize Him as my Savior and the Lord of my life.
Oh, how my heart bursts in thanksgiving, worship and honor of this compassionate and loving God, even when I was so far from him, living a life dependent on other things that replaced Him - and yet He reached out and saved me.  And He was using His children, specifically my friend, to pray for me, placing His burden in his heart moving him to pray for my salvation.

And now - many many years after that prayer of my friend began, where am I now?  Not only has my God saved me from my sins, not only am I living under His Lordship, experiencing His grace and change in my life day by day, and not only am I a pastor, humbly taking care of the church that He has entrusted to me and others to shepherd - but now I am continually learning how big and great and loving and gracious my God is.
It's never going to end.  My God is going to continually show me how great and gracious He is.

And this reminds me not to give up praying for my friends, loved ones, who still do not know God has Savior and Lord.  Because as He touches our hearts to pray for them this means that He is moving in their midst, preparing the way for them to hear the gospel and prayerfully respond to it!

Never give up praying.  Nothing is impossible for our God.  I am a living example of that.

And Agrippa said to Paul, "In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?" And Paul said, "Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am--except for these chains."
(Acts 26:28-29)

I asked the Lord to unclog our toilet bowl

I haven't written in a while, but I need to write about this.  Psalm 34 says "Exalt the Lord with me".

Our toilet bowl got clogged.  We suspect a small plastic part of the toilet seat fell in and got accidentally flushed.  We tried everything - we tried using a plunger (even to the point of buing a new one, which might be what the Lord used, don't really know), putting a mixture of clorox, muriatic acid, cleanser, even shampoo!  But nothing seemed to work.

Then I prayed.  Yes, I did.  I asked the Lord to fix our toilet bowl.  Some of us will laugh at this, thinking what a simple and trivial thing to ask the Lord for.  But I did.  I prayed something like this - more or less, don't really remember... "Lord, please fix our toilet bowl.  We are five of us sharing one toilet.  It's going to be hard not being able to flush.  Please command your angel to move that plastic object, or unclog whatever it is that's clogging the bowl.  Thank you Lord."

A few minutes later I tried to flush, and it flushed all the way down!

Some will say the mixture of everything I put eventually did the job.  But nothing could take away the smile in my heart, and in my face, knowing that the Lord answered my prayer.

What an awesome God.  I am humbled that our God would stoop down so low as to listen to a prayer to unclog a toilet bowl.  And then I realize that He did stoop down much lower than that when He decided to become man, die a painful death on a cross as payment for our sins.  And through our faith in who He is will graciously save us from sin.

Thank you Lord.

Settling for Less

If you are using a prepaid sim for your cellphone they give you a number of choices with regards to load.  You can load as low as 10 pesos, and even as high as 300 pesos, depending on your mood, or on how much money you have.  For me, for the past years that I have had a prepaid sim, the 200 peso load has served me well.  I can convert the full amount to have text unlimited to the same network, a number of minutes of free calls to the same network, plus 500 free texts to other networks for a whole month!  I can use it worry free for the whole month and just reload when it expires.  cool deal.

But this week, for what reason I have no idea (have you ever done something for no specific reason at all), I decided to go for the smaller amount.  I loaded 50 pesos, which, when converted, gives me unlimited text to the same network for one week, but later on only realized that it does not give me as much free texts to other networks and no free calls.  So, after around 2 days into the plan, when I tried to respond to a text message of a friend from another work I was surprised to find out I did not have enough load to text to other networks.  What a hassle!  All of a sudden I felt no satisfaction whatsoever in choosing the lower load.  It's not that I couldn't afford my usual 200 load, I just decided to go 50 pesos.  And it wasn't worth it.

That's what you get when you are able to "taste" the benefits of something, and then later on settle for less.  For whatever reason we choose the lesser option it does not become as satisfying as the better offer.

It works the same for those who truly walk with God.

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. 

John 4:13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Many know God, or know about God.  But not many have "tasted and seen" that the Lord is good.  This isn't just the "good" of blessings or of good things.  He who has tasted of God has had a deeper experience than just having prayers answered, or receiving good things.

How many of us know that God is good because though we were sinners made a way for us to be reconciled to Him?  He did this by sending the Son of God to become man and die for us on the cross.  This, and only this, is enough to make someone know that God is "good".  And even if other good things don't happen in our life, just the fact that God showed His love for us through the cross is enough to make us joyful.

How many of us have tasted the goodness of God even in the midst of trials and hardships?  How many of us know that despite the troubles we face in this world, our God has promised us not only eternity, but also that He would never leave us or forsake us, and that He would take care of our needs, give us strength during hard times.  His love, comfort, strength are what we taste and make us know that, despite our circumstances, He is good.

When we have a taste of this God, nothing else satisfies.  As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, if we drink the water that comes from Him we will never thirst!  We will always be satisfied, both eternally and the present life.

So why do we settle for less? We know we are true believers when we settle for less, and then realize it does not satisfy, and seek to come back to the One who alone can truly satisfy.

This is the way sin attacks us, lures us, away from God.  It promises us something better than what God has to offer, or has already offered to us.  When we succumb to temptation we eventually realize that it does not satisfy.

If you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, why go back to what does not satisfy?

Why settle for less?