Tag Archives: sfc

The 7 People of Lamentations

Here’s something I learned last Saturday at the SFC Metro Manila Leader’s Assembly (MMLA). The theme of our community for this year is “My portion is in the Lord, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him.” (Lamentations 3:24) and everyone’s been talking about this ever since some big things happened in our community. Kuya Cocoi was the worship leader last Saturday, and in the middle of the worship, he talked about the book of Lamentations. Lamentations is a book in the Bible full of just that: lamentations. It’s a long list of complaints that the Israelites (God’s chosen people) to God. Inside this book, Kuya Cocoi gave a list of seven people of Lamentations, and they are:

The Seven People of Lamentations ((To read through the entire explanation, read this entry))
(From SFC MMLA, 5/19/2007)

  1. The Guiltless One
    – those who feel no need to repent
  2. The Stiff-Necked One
    – those who persist in their infidelity/sinfulness
    – they think that their sin is not that serious and fail to think that any sin, no matter how small, blocks God
  3. The Impatient One
    – they repent, but they do not pause to learn the lessons God wants to teach
  4. The Shallow One
    – takes repentance forgranted, keeps on repeating the same sin, undermining repentance
  5. The Comfortable One
    – no problem with obeying God, but cannot appreciate the need to be purified by fire through trials and even persecution
    – to lament is to have a posture where we reflect on the purpose of God.
  6. The Clueless One
    – those who do not understand the concept of command responsibility for collective guilt
    – we are one body in Christ, we are a part of one community and we should not be apathetic.
  7. The One of the Other Side
    – the attackers

What’s even more interesting about this is that even if it classifies the Israelites of the early time, this could very well fit these times. Each of us could be one or two of them. Sometimes we even shift from one kind of person to another.

Who are you among the seven people of Lamentations?

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"You're standing on my neck."

DariaThank God for DSL, I am now enjoying watching Daria. For those who don’t know, Daria is a spin-off of Beavis and Butthead. I got to watch Daria once in MTV, and as much as I wanted to watch it religiously, I couldn’t because I didn’t know the schedule. Now I just finished downloading Daria season 1. Wohoo! I’ve been watching since Friday and I’ve been giggling like an idiot here in my room. I love, love, love this cartoon. :) Ah, Daria, you are so hilarious. :) And yes, I was told I looked like Daria when I am wearing my glasses back in freshmen year in high school. :D I’m biased. ;)

Anyway, my long weekend was…well, long. Friday caught us with being half afraid of the typhoon, but rain didn’t even appear that day. How fun. I spent the day at home, doing some random testing and watched videos/TV.

Saturday, I was out half the day for the East A Sectoral Christmas Musicale. Stressful day, stressful pre-performance, but everything turned out well. It was then I felt that I belonged in the group, that East A2C is where God wanted me to be. :)

Finally, today, I spent the day watching Joan of Arcadia and Daria, and then went to my cousin’s house to eat for our grand aunt’s birthday. Now in some way, that is the highlight of my weekend. Because of my NaNoWriMo 2006 novel, I’m sorta kinda thinking a lot about cousinhood, and how we would get along and how I could get closer to my cousins, ever since it hit me again how we all don’t seem to be cousins at all. In fairness today, I listened and talked to my cousins after eating, and although we didn’t share “moments”…it was good enough for now. I’m patient. Although I really wish we’d get to share some more stories or something.

I noticed some things too, like how they talked about not going to Mass anymore. Maybe it’s just me, being that going to Mass is already part of my Sunday, and if I don’t get to Mass, I feel like my day isn’t complete. The way they talked about not having been to mass for more than a year was…well, shocking. It’s not something to be proud of…but they sounded like it. :( Okay, Lord I can feel a prayer urge coming in.

This has got to be one of the most boring entries I’ve ever written. Hmm. I shall write my usual ones within this week, hopefully. Gimme time, gimme time! And I should make the new layout this weekend. This long weekend hasn’t been a waste, although I could have done so much more.

On other news, my bedroom is looking less like a storage room of stuff and becoming more of a bedroom. :) I still want a bookshelf.

It’s DECEMBER! Wohoo! 22 days till Christmas! :) Have a great week everyone. :D

New layout among other things

Hello, what do we have here? :) Finally a new layout. :) I wasn’t supposed to let this out until Wednesday but I decided to go ahead and have this up now before I lose interest in it. So here. Layout information will be updated here by tomorrow. This is the first dark layout I’ve done for my website! Like it? Comments are appreciated. :)

I missed RJ‘s celebration today because I fell asleep during the afternoon and missed the meeting time. Oh well. That’s why I went to finish this layout. And okay, fine, I was feeling a bit lazy to go out already. I swear, I have no social life. Well, little. I wish I have enough drive to go out and gimmick every weekend so at least I have enough activity. Haha. I feel like such a social loser. :P I need to get my act straight. Anyway, tomorrow is another Monday, and I am facing a lot of work for this week, I’m pretty sure of that. I’ll take it one day at a time, thank you very much. :) There’s a mid-week “vacation” for All Saint’s Day, and I kind of wish Thursday would be off too, but then, that’s work for you. Things to look forward to next week: payday and the possible lunch out with some officemates on Tuesday. :) Yeah yeah.

This weekend felt long. I need to fix some things here first before hitting the sack. Good night everyone! :)

Steady now, we're in this together

My dad arrived today. :) Yay. After fetching him at the airport, we headed to Duty Free and got lots of chocolates again (goodbye diet! Hahaha). I almost broke a bottle of Vodka for my brother’s birthday which goes to show how much of a klutz I am. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon (very unique novel…at some point I dreamt I was also autistic), and sleeping. I ate some Holy Kettle Corn (and felt really fat afterwards) and then prepared for the CLP.

Tonight’s talk was an old talk I’ve heard so many times already: Who is Jesus Christ? Being a part of the community for seven years, I’ve heard many versions of this talk many times. I’ve shared for this talk once, and to be honest, I don’t think it was a good sharing. :P I can’t remember what exactly I said then, but I don’t think I answered the question of who Jesus Christ is to me clearly.

Anyway, so tonight they needed a sharer and Kuya Gary got me, joking that I’m always mission ready. Right. I took the opportunity and the speaker, Ate Bev, told me to just share about who Jesus is for me. Then I was faced with the same question that I didn’t get to answer before: who is Jesus Christ to me?

Continue reading Steady now, we're in this together

Obey and Enjoy

“Tell all fearful souls, ‘Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on his way to put things right and redress all wrongs. He’s on His way! He’ll save you!'”
– Isaiah 35:4 (The Message)

It’s moments like these that I realize that I’m not as much as I think I am. I’m not as nice, as friendly, as “big shot” as I used to think I was. I’m not putting on any airs; but I admit that I used to think that I am, well, that much. Without being boastful, that is. I tend to keep it to myself, telling myself that I’m special, that people would love to have me as a friend and those who don’t…well, it’s their loss.

Okay, to myself, I’m full of pride, but I try not to show it to other people. That’s why when I get disappointed, it hurts twice as much because I hide a big ego. Because of that, I’ve lost something that I know is an important part of me.

See, I’m not really much of a big dreamer. I’d like it if someone dreams with me, because at the back of my mind, I know that I could at least rely on that person to dream the big dream while I work in the background. I’m somewhat of a control freak. I like it when things are under my control, when things are predictable. I don’t really jump into things unless I am about 75% sure that I can do it. My being a control freak stopped me from dreaming big dreams for myself. I guess you could say that the bigger the dream, the bigger the risk, and I don’t want that risk.

Lately…the control freak is panicking because the control freak can’t seem to take things under her control. I’ve tried to lose my being a control freak and live a bit spontaneously but it’s hard. I am not a spontaneous person. I try to be, but I end up looking silly. And big dreams tend to be spontaneous…and I’m afraid to look silly after dreaming big dreams. It’s not that I don’t think it’s useful to make them…it’s just that I can’t bear the possibility of not reaching it and disappointing myself. And that just sucks.

It’s funny how God chooses these moments to really get to your heart. I read an email before about how God keeps you in certain places just so He could get ahold of your attention. Holding patterns, as we call them. It’s like what God did to Jonah: Jonah was afraid to obey God’s command, so he ran away and he got so messed up that God had to bring him inside the belly of the whale just so He could talk to Jonah without any other distraction.

I believe God works in that way for everyone of us. Me included. Sometimes being in a holding pattern is hard because I don’t even recognize it. Right now, I feel that God is urging me to move forward, to take the risk. To really leave my comfort zone. To be more of the person that I used to think I am. To grow. Not to be afraid of the opportunities that are being presented in front of me for fear of looking silly or being disappointed. To trust Him fully in this part of my life. Not to give up. And most of all, to start dreaming BIG. Because like what Kuya Jomai said last night…God is a big time God.

After all, He has promised that He will take care of me. And if there’s anyone who has ever been true to His promise, it’s Him. God.

When we decide to obey God and follow His will, we shouldn’t forget one thing that obedience also entails: to enjoy. God won’t lead us to places where we would be asked to obey but end up being miserable. He wants us to OBEY AND ENJOY. I shouldn’t forget the enjoy part, because in this particular phase of my life, I should enjoy every bit of it.

Lord, I’m still scared. There are so many unsure things right now that I just feel like quitting this early. But I’ll follow You. I’ll obey AND enjoy this entire trip, because I know that You’re bringing me higher. Calm my heart Father, that I may stop fearing what tomorrow will bring, but be always trusting that You will never leave me alone. Help me to believe and to dream big dreams that You want to fulfill for me. Help me to take risks, knowing fully that You will never let me get hurt. I love You Lord. ♥