Grace Encounter Community - CSJDM, Bulacan

09/01/2023

HARSH TRUTH

But it is true nonetheless, and it is something those of us here on social medial need to understand:

Just because a Christian leader is "popular" DOES NOT mean they are Biblical, or that what they are saying is true.

So much stuff is "popular" that is both unbiblical and definitely false.

How do we avoid believing things people say just because they are popular? Here are some guidelines:

1. Know WHAT is true

The first and primary thing you need to know about your Christian faith is WHAT is true. However, this is always tied to...

2. Know WHY what is true is actually true

You cannot settle with just knowing "what." Why? Because once you are given a good reason for another "what," even if it is false, you will be swayed to believe that other thing. Knowing WHY you believe WHAT you believe will provide you a good foundation to fight against falsehoods.

3. Know what is false and why it is false

Often we can know why we believe what we believe, and why we think it is true, without understanding how to dismantle what is false. This causes us to fall into a slippery slope of being indecisive, tossed and turned by every new thing we hear.

4. Study Scripture

Yes, study. Not just read. Not devotionals. But actually study what Scripture teaches, and use good commentaries, lexicons, and bible dictionaries alongside your study. Yes, it IS a lot of work. Yes, it DOES take a lot of time. Yes, you WILL NOT be used to this. But you need to do it so that you can learn to sift biblical truth from false claims about the Bible.

For the sake of our faith and the greater body of Christ, we need to do these things.

If we don't, who else will?

Keep Thinking!

+ The Christian Think Tank PH +

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(Three Commentary Recommendations: Expositor's Bible Commentary, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, IVP Bible Backgrounds Commentaries.)

06/05/2022

YOUNG PEOPLE NEED ADVICE

Just like all of us do, but you young people need it more readily. Not because you are dumb (far from it!), but because you're just beginning your journey through life, and life is extremely complex.

The writer of Ecclesiastes in the Bible says this,

"Young people, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do. So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless.

Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, 'Life is not pleasant anymore...'

Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well.

For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 11:9-10; 12:1, 6-7 NLT)

What is the advice for young people from the Bible here?

(1) Enjoy your youth - it is a gift from God!
(2) Savor your youth - it won't last forever!
(3) Do what you want - but know you are accountable to God!
(4) Do what you do morally and with integrity - that's what God wants!
(5) Be healthy in body and mind - don't stress about what you can't control!
(6) Choose not just for your youth - choose also for your future!
(7) Be excited about the things of youth - but don't forget the things of God!
(8) Honor God in your youth - don't wait until you're old, cynical, and dead!

Young people, God cares about you.
Young people, God wants the best for you.
Young people, God wants to know you personally.

Love your youth, enjoy your youth, act morally, be a person of integrity, live healthily in mind, body, and spirit, make good choices now and for the future, be excited, and, most important of all, honor God with your youth!

Your youth is a gift.

Use it well.

Keep Thinking!

+ The Christian Think Tank PH +

YOUNG PEOPLE NEED ADVICE

Just like all of us do, but you young people need it more readily. Not because you are dumb (far from it!), but because you're just beginning your journey through life, and life is extremely complex.

The writer of Ecclesiastes in the Bible says this,

"Young people, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do. So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless.

Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, 'Life is not pleasant anymore...'

Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well.

For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 11:9-10; 12:1, 6-7 NLT)

What is the advice for young people from the Bible here?

1. Enjoy your youth - it is a gift from God!
2. Savor your youth - it won't last forever!
3. Do what you want - but know you are accountable to God!
4. Do what you do morally and with integrity - that's what God wants!
5. Be healthy in body and mind - don't stress about what you can't control!
6. Choose not just for your youth - choose also for your future!
7. Be excited about the things of youth - but don't forget the things of God!
8. Honor God in your youth - don't wait until you're old, cynical, and dead!

Young people, God cares about you.
Young people, God wants the best for you.
Young people, God wants to know you personally.

Love your youth, enjoy your youth, act morally, be a person of integrity, live healthily in mind, body, and spirit, make good choices now and for the future, be excited, and, most important of all, honor God with your youth!

Your youth is a gift.

Use it well.

Keep Thinking!

+ The Christian Think Tank PH +

20/02/2022

Amazed at the Resurrection

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. (2 Peter 3:1)

As Easter approaches, let’s stir up our thankfulness and joy and admiration and amazement at what the resurrection of Jesus means for us. The curse of our fallen nature is that what once thrilled us becomes ordinary. The reality hasn’t changed. We have changed.

This is why the Bible exists. Peter says of his two letters that they are written to “stir up” or “arouse” by means of “reminder.”

So let’s stir up our sincere minds by way of reminder.

What has God done in raising Jesus from the dead? Here are a few biblical answers.

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we are born again to a living hope.

1 Peter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Because of Jesus’s resurrection, he now has the glory for which we were made. Our ultimate destiny is to see him as he is.

1 Peter 1:21: “God . . . raised him from the dead and gave him glory.”

John 17:5, 24: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. . . . Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

May the risen Lord Jesus himself arouse your sincere mind to new depths of worship and allegiance and joy.

18/02/2022

When Obedience Feels Impossible

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. (Hebrews 11:17)

For many of you right now — and for others of you the time is coming — obedience feels like the end of a dream. You feel that if you do what the word of God or the Spirit of God is calling you to do, it will make you miserable and that there is no way that God could turn it all for good.

Perhaps the command or call of God you hear just now is to stay married or stay single, to stay in that job or leave that job, to get baptized, to speak up at work about Christ, to refuse to compromise your standards of honesty, to confront a person in sin, to venture a new vocation, to be a missionary. And as you see it in your limited mind, the prospect of doing this is terrible — it's like the loss of Isaac.

You have considered every human angle, and it is impossible that it could turn out well.

Now you know what it was like for Abraham. This story is in the Bible for you.

Do you desire God and his way and his promises more than anything, and do you believe that he can and will honor your faith and obedience by being unashamed to call himself your God, and to use all his wisdom and power and love to turn the path of obedience into the path of life and joy?

That is the crisis you face now: Do you desire him? Will you trust him? The word of God to you is: God is worthy and God is able.

15/02/2022

23/12/2021

Mission Update A Personal Message for the End of 2021 from Paul Washer Dec 22, 2021 Watch Listen Paul David Washer Paul David Washer Watch Listen Author More By Paul David Washer Paul David Washer Paul is the founder of HeartCry Missionary Society and currently serves as its missions director. He al...

27/11/2021

08/11/2021

FROM RED PEN LOGIC WITH MR. B

There is a tendency to want to make God in our own image. We like the idea of an all-loving God. It makes us feel good. On the other hand, we don't like the idea of God's wrath, condemnation, and judgment. This makes us feel bad.

Unfortunately, facts don't care about our feelings.

In Psalm 50:21, God rebukes the people of Israel because they thought God was just like them. God says, "You thought that I was one like yourself." But God isn't like us. And we don’t get to tell God what He is like. Only God can tell us what He is like. And He has.

If we want to be faithful to Scripture, we must be willing to accept what it teaches whether we like it or not. Scripture is clear: God is kind and loving. But the Bible doesn't stop there. The same inspired text says He is also just and holy.

26/10/2021

"Ptr, bakit hindi kayo nagi-endorse ng kandidato? Kahit sa FB man lang? Di ba tungkulin nyo rin yun?" tanong ng kakilala ko.

Sagot ko: "Ayaw ko. Kasi...

Una, mali na paasahin ko ang mga tao na nasa pulitiko ang pag-asa ng ating bayan. Hindi pulitiko, kundi si Kristo ang Pag-asa ng bayan natin. Pitong (7) presidente na ang pinagdaanan ko, wala sa kanila ang pag-asa ng ating bayan. Kahit sino pa ang mahalin natin, paniwalaan natin, ipangampanya natin, ipang-away natin, at ipagbunyi natin kapag nanalo. Pagkalipas ng 2 o 3 taon, tiyak frustrated na naman tayo. Babatikusin na naman natin sila. Ayaw ko umasa sa tao, at ayaw ko din bigyan ng false hope ang iba.

Pangalawa, mas malaki ang itinataguyod kong adhikain, mas halaga ang aking mensaheng dapat ipahayag, at mas dakila ang lider na pinag-aalayan ko ng aking katapatan. Ayaw kong masapawan iyon ng usaping pang-pulitika. Mas mahalaga pa ba ang pulitiko kay Kristo? Mas mahalaga pa ba ang plataporma nila keysa sa Magandang Balita? Mas mahalaga pa ba ang pangakong pag-unlad ng bansa keysa sa pangakong buhay na walang hangan? Ayaw ko na masapawan ng temporal ang eternal. Mas mataas ang langit kesa sa lupa, hindi ba?

Panghuli, nagkakasakitan na nga pati mga kapatid ko sa simbahan, dadagdagan ko pa ba? Mas mahalaga ba ang pulitika kesa sa pagiging magkakapatid? Mas mahalaga ba ang Pilipinas kesa sa kaharian ng Diyos? Tama ba na magkahati-hati ang simbahan dahil sa mga kandidato nila? Nagalit nga si Apostol Pablo sa mga taga Corinto noon dahil sa pagkakahati-hati nila dahil sa loyalty nila sa mga human leaders.

Seryosong usapin ito sa Biblia.

Ang sabi ng 1 Corinto 3:16 "Hindi ba ninyo alam na kayo'y templo ng Diyos at naninirahan sa inyo ang kanyang Espiritu? 17Paparusahan ng Diyos ang sinumang magwasak ng templo niya. Sapagkat banal ang templo ng Diyos, at kayo ang templong iyan."

Opo, boboto ako at magbibigay ako sa church ng biblical na pamantayan sa pagpili ng tamang lider. Pero hindi ako magpapakapanatiko sa tao dahil si Kristo ang ipinangangampanya ko, ang Mabuting Balita ang mensahe ko, at ang kaharian ng Diyos ang bayan ko, kasama ng mga kapatid ko. Iingatan ko ito at walang dapat sasapaw sa mga pagpapahalagang ito.

[Kaya mga kapatid, paalala lang, hinay-hinay tayo. Tandaan, Kristiano muna tayo bago Filipino]

// Ronnel Banico Delima