“Flowers, chocolates, hugs, kisses, and stuff toys”, we used to know them as a sign of being romantic. They are used in every reason just to express love. These things could seldom catch the hearts of people. They are a guide of giving or expressing importance to someone. But do we know who gave the most romantic love?
Before anything else, what does being romantic really mean? According to some, it refers to another way of portraying love or an act of giving material things. It may also mean to a way of sacrificing something.
In our world today, love is expressed in various ways. They may be found in friendship, courtship and in family relationship. Thus, we can always see to it that worldly love is of one purpose which had no absolute assurance. Mostly, they may end up in hatred, gone of trust and loyalty, divorce and even great hurts. This worldly love, which has a part of having selfish desires or discontentment or even just for self-beneficial, is temporary. They won’t last a long time.
The good news is, there is one kind of love that never fails; a love for everyone, with or without a sweetheart. Everybody knows how He gave His only Son and how He portrayed it. GOD has given us the most romantic love. His being romantic is far more valuable than flowers, chocolates, hugs, kisses, and stuff toys. To be one of the reasons why Someone died because of love is such a very romantic reason; because in our time today, no one could dare to do it. And God did it!
For us, if being romantic is in giving and receiving flowers and chocolates and we will suddenly fall in love, then why don’t we fall in love with Jesus Christ who has given us everything? Why don’t we say YES to His plans and promises for us rather than to those who courts us?
In starting our life right, when we express our undying love and faithfulness to this world, let us not forget that God gave us His only Son as the most perfect and romantic love. The more we understand God’s love for us, the more love we’ll show to others, the stronger our race in life we’ll be.

*Jofferson Panos
*Apple Cayubin

The New Year has just started with lots of challenges in life and even at work. Some are overwhelmed with the complicated issues they deal in their lives while others remain faithful to God’s will and purpose.

I’ve learned that a real Christian believer does not falter or lose hope easily. He or she will always hold on to God’s promises much more in times of crisis in life as the two months’ theme is focused on “Starting Right, Finishing Strong.”

Indeed, we cannot do anything without God in our side. He is our source of inspiration, our source of Hope and Refuge.

We, the staff of Vision 2010, have decided to make a different issue this time. Instead of publishing a once a month issue of the church’s newsletter, it will come out bi-monthly.

Hoping that the articles we will be sharing with you today will somehow bring more inspiration to you as a Christian believer trusting that God is able to provide everything that you need.

Having faith in God is all that we need to do because there is nothing more or no else who can truly satisfy our needs and longing but JESUS CHRIST. Have a Blessed Sunday to everyone!

Starting Right, Finishing Strong: What’s in between?

In every process, there’s always a beginning and an end. But have you ever wondered what is found before the latter? You might be surprised to know:

Committing mistakes
Young as we are, we commit mistakes. Big or small, it’s just the same. Each one of us has a choice, and as human beings, we are naturally weak. The Holy Spirit guides us in every step that we make.
Committing mistakes are natural, but don’t make it a habit. In this experience, we learn. It is a matter of responsibility and control. Some people experience depression when they have a mistake. People forget that someone is challenging them. It is God.
How we deal with life is really a matter of personal choice. When times are difficult, we are reminded that no pain comes to us without a purpose. God has a handcrafted plan that He has made just for you. Let Him love you through life’s joyous and painful aspects. If you do, you will find inner peace and unending joy.

Realizing, meditation, internalize
Often it is through the most difficult days of our lives that we come to know ourselves and what is truly most important to us. No matter how sad we may feel at times, we should be confident that hope will awaken us tomorrow.
Believing in the impossible produces extraordinary results. The darkest cloud produces the brightest light. God knows when the impossible is just about to get us down, and he lets us know how much He cares. Faith and courage reaches out. Take hold of it and you will find that you will be able to smile again and truly be happy once more. God is always there to give us a rainbow for every rainy day.

Finding a solution
Every math equation has a corresponding formula. That goes for everyday life too. Like a teacher, God doesn’t send us problems without knowing the answers. All we have to do is check the Bible and find out the right method.
When we read the Bible, we would find a three part formula: Understand, Pray, and Trust.
Understand. Proverbs 2: 9-10 says “Then you will understand what is right and just and fair- every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” God doesn’t want us to just read the Bible, He wants us to understand it as well. When we understand the Bible, God would bless us with wisdom and knowledge to solve whatever problems we may have.
Pray. A lot of people in the Bible were guided by God through their prayers. One of them is David. God blessed David not because he was smart, brave or because people looked up to him, but because he humbled himself in prayer before God.
Trust. Prayer and understanding the Bible would be useless without believing and trusting in God. Above all God wants us to trust that He knows every solution to every problem, even the ones that seem impossible.

Learning from your mistakes
God didn’t allow us to make mistakes so that we would humiliate ourselves, but instead, that we would realize that we are in need of His help.
Sometimes it is quite hard to think that the mistakes we make today would be of any use in the future but shame and pain. But we should also remember that everything works for the glory of God, no matter how impossible the situation may seem.
In this sense, we should also understand that the mistakes are intended for use to learn. It may seem unbelievable but we should be confident that God really wants us to be more like Him day by day. And what better way to teach us than by mistakes we ourselves made.
When we make errors we should not box our thinking in the present, instead, let us think ahead to the future. In that way we would learn a great deal more, than waiting for the future to come and regretting what we could have learned in the past.

One may be too busy concentrating on his starting point and where he would end up. Failure to see the best things that he could carry throughout his lifetime are the lessons he learned in between.