Who you are before God?

by Randy Tudy

Friends, I invite you to listen, sing or pray with this song.  It is a song with very deep meaning highlighting our nothingness before God.  Indeed, the Lord is great and almighty.

Knowing the greatness and goodness of God, you may ask this question, "Who am I?"

How Great Is Our God

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Sometimes I accompany my wife to their church.  As usual, the service would start with praise and worship.  One of the songs I like is the title of this article.

God is indeed great.  He does marvelous things in my life.  My wife is indeed a testament how great is my God.

Watch, listen and sing with this beautiful song.  Proclaim that our Lord is great!

The POWER of God's LOVE

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A popular preacher was approached by one those who attended his sermon.  “Father, you are so good.  Your message really touched my heart.”  The priest jokingly replied, “I am also beginning to believe what I have been preaching for so long.”

It was a joke but the preacher meant something.  In his explanation he said that the core of his message is always about love.  It is the same message repeated and repeated every time he preaches.

Well, have we also noticed that the whole Bible is about love. It is about God’s love to humanity.

It is His love the brought the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.  It is His love that Jesus came to be with us.  It is His love that the church continues to exist and brings us together as one big community.  It is His love that we are still alive and happy.

If we have God in our life, then we are full of love.  Let us be reminded by what St. Therese once said, “God alone suffices.”

Let us pray that we will be continually nourished and transformed by His love. 

Let this song remind of His power-LOVE.

You are part of God's plan

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I learned in my philosophy class in college that the moment you question about your existence and your purpose in this world you are "phiolosophising".  I thought philosophy is only for the intellectuals. 

I also ask this question many times.  What is really my purpose in this world?  What will I contribute to make a difference?

As a concluding topic in the retreats I would facilitate, I used to remind the participants of their mission in life.  Whatever they do in life is their contribution to the greater plan of God.

Like the song of Joey Ayala entitled "Ang lahat ng bagay ay magkaugnay" (All things are interrelated), we are related to each other.  Thus, what you do is your contribution to the cosmic world.  

However, you need to ask this question, "Am I doing the will of God?"  

Friends, watch and listen to this song.  Know your place in the greater plan of God.

Make miracles happen

by Randy Tudy

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I attended for the second time the celebration of The Feast at SM Lanang, Davao City, Philippines last night.  Our speaker was Bro John, a feast builder in Makati City.  One of his powerful lines was  “Miracle can happen if you believe.”

Indeed, miracles happen because people give their full mind, heart and soul that these will happen in their lives.  Very powerful words!  

I would add with a powerful video.  If this man can do this thing despite his situation, how can we not in pursuing our dreams when we have everything? 

Watch this video and be inspired and the miracles happen if you believe in God and in yourself.

What do you do as God's steward?

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In our gospel today (21:33-46), Jesus is reminding us on our role as stewards.  The gospel talks about a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. When it was a time for the harvest, he sent his servants but were either beaten up, killed or stoned.  Same happened to another servants.  Finally, he sent his son thinking they will respect him.  Same thing happened.  Obviously, Jesus was speaking about Himself and those ahead of Him.

The message of the gospel is about stewardship.  It could be stewardship on our talent, gifts, family, work, relationships,  or responsibilities.  What is stewardship?

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1. Gift receiver.  Stewardship is a gift. God gives us properties, people, things and wisdom.  Some of us are gifted more than the others.  Others have more properties. Some have more relationships. There are also few people who have excellent intellect or wisdom.  Whatever you have it is a gift.

2. Developer. Having received gifts from the Lord means you accept and develop them.  If you have a gift of music, hone your music skills.  Those who have the gift of speaking or writing are called to develop more this skill.  Whatever you receive you ought to develop it. A developer of God’s gift means he/she is good caretaker.

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 c. Sharer.  Your gift is not just given for you alone to enjoy.  God gives you a gift so that you can bless other people.  For instance, my mentor has gift of preaching and writing.  He uses this gift to spread God’s kingdom here on earth.  My students who have the gifts of singing are members of the school choir.

d. Co-owner.  The problem with the tenants in the gospel is that they think they own the vineyard or think they can if they kill whoever will claim possession.  While we can claim our own gift, we are not the sole owner.  The concept of co-ownership comes from the concept of co-creatorship.  All of us are God’s co-creator.  This is the meaning of stewardship.  Since creation is gift from God, we are called to receive, develop and share it to others.  It’s the same with talents or whatever gift we have.

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 Stewardship means we recognize that God is the ultimate owner of everything.  However, being the most privileged of all creatures, we have the mission to safeguard, develop and share our giftedness so that God will be glorified by in all of creation.

Let us glorify the Lord through the things we religiously do as His stewards.

Simple ways to enjoy life

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Have you heard someone commented, "Ang baba naman ng kaligayahan ng taong 'to!", literally translated as shallow happiness.  

I thought about the comment and tried to reflect if it was a negative or positive compliment.  I would rather focus on the positive one.  If little things can make me happy, I would continue enjoying them.  Before I used to bring some of my choir members to the beach where we had bonding time while smelling the freshness of the cool air and watching the moon and its reflection on the water.

Truly, I was enjoying life.  Just thinking about these experiences, I could relate to the joy of children playing in our neighborhood.  While writing this, I could hear their laughter.

There are many ways to enjoy life without looking for it somewhere else.  It's ok if people will tell us to have shallow level of happiness, after all it is still happiness.

God has given us everything to be happy.  His beautiful creation alone is a source of joy in many ways.The key is to discover God's blessings in our life.

Watch this video fro my mentor Bo Sanchez and learn how to enjoy life the easiest way.