A model of hospitality

I was walking to my hotel one evening when I noticed someone following me not too far behind. The street was poorly lit so I couldn’t clearly recognize the person. I paced faster. The one trailing me did as well. I could see the gate of my hotel from a far distance but it was quite awkward to run.

That day, I had befriended the locals. From the boys on the streets to the motorcycle drivers, to the street vendors and just about anyone I met. This somehow jaded me on my first day while making acquaintances in that foreign country.

As I walked faster, I tried to comfort myself that it just could be one of the locals I met earlier. I decided to shake my fear off. I was too soaked in my thoughts that when I looked back, I was surprised to see the person gaining speed and was pacing along.

Brushing off my fear I blurted, “Hi, good evening!”

The lady replied, “Good evening, too.”

In her early 20s she was obviously uneasy in the dark. This time I was relaxed and started talking to her.

“Where have you been?” I inquired.

“From the salon to have my hair cut,” was her kind reply.

I asked her name and told her mine. “Where are you from,” she asked. I told her I came from the Philippines.

“Surely?” she exclaimed, “You know what, I’m going to the Philippines tomorrow. And I’ll be there to represent my country for the Miss Earth 2008 beauty pageant in Manila,” she proudly added.

I never expected to meet and talk to a beauty queen that night, more particularly in a dark street.

Sometimes, on unexpected circumstances and unholy hours we meet special people.

While Abraham was sitting by his tent door on the plains of Mamre (Genesis 18) he noticed three strangers at a distance. He ran to meet them and with utmost respect invited them to drop by his place. They accepted his sincere invitation. He gave them water that they might wash the dust of travel from their feet.

While the visitors were resting under the shade of the tree, Abraham ran to the flock and took a good and tender calf. When the bread and the meat were ready he took the steamy food to his visitors and they ate under a cool shade and Abraham stood respectfully beside them while they partook of his food.

Ellen G White related: “Abraham had seen in his guests only three tired wayfarers, thinking little that among them was the One he might worship without sin and this act of courtesy God regarded of sufficient importance to record in His word” (Patriarchs and Prophets, 138).

We usually give value to a person based on how we know him. And that value is usually associated with how we treat him or her. A person who is unknown to us is always of less value even though we know that he needs help. In my case, my reactions could have been different had I already known that the person walking behind me was a beauty queen.

Usually, we change our treatment toward someone if we already know something about him or her. That lady was not comfortable to be walking alone in the dark but I misunderstood her predicament and attempted to flee from her.

Abraham executed that utmost hospitality no matter how unknown those men were to him, notwithstanding the fact that entertaining strangers is not always safe to do. He cared for them though it was not evident that these strangers in any way could repay him.

Thousand years later this incident became a reference to this text: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:2

Can’t this be our model in helping, accommodating, and entertaining people including those unknown to us? [Jerson Paican]

God is faithful to fulfill His promise

Fear gripped a lot of people as 2009 sipped in with the reality of economic meltdown creeping through the New Year. The United States government was quick to pump in trillions of dollars to save the fledgling economy, hoping that it would arrest the sliding trend sooner. Other governments followed suit.

The church employed measures to keep liquidity of church funds at normal levels despite the crunch. The first quarter of 2009 is about to end and the governments and church institutions are optimistic that the financial threats would not plunge their operations to abnormal bottoms.

Within the region of the southern Asia-Pacific, thus far the church is glad to find insignificant dents caused by the recession. Church members prove that faithful returning of the tenth of whatever increase in wealth—financial or material—the good Lord keeps His promises to open the “windows of heaven” where no room can contain them. Indeed, what a sight to see church people providing liberally for the Lord’s work all over the world.

Faithfulness is at work in any situations, and church members cling to God’s faithfulness to fulfill His promises as His children partner with Him in their endeavors.

“Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the doors will be opened…” (Luke 11: 9-10), is never an idle talk. It is not conditional. It is God’s character at work! But you will ask, “Why did the petitioner in the story need to ‘pester’ her neighbor, leaving him no choice but give what she asked for?” Would God similarly need prodding before He grants our requests?

To me, the transition between asking and receiving was a period of self-examination whether or not we trust in a Provider-God; a moment of proving the faith that knows no doubt that God answers our prayer. In other words, we confirm our belief that He provides our needs. It was to our faith-building advantage that such space existed.

One theologian said, “God is always at work but that work is not always visible.” Yes, it is in the invisible that our faith is confirmed and established, erasing any doubt!

2009 and beyond!

Economic and financial analysts forecast a gloomy future as globaleconomy slumps. The economic crunch is not sparing anyone—and any company—big or small. It is hard to believe that as 2008 ticked its way to the finish line hundreds of big companies including banks and once invulnerable giants in business closed down.

In a December 24 Internet posting by Reuters in New York, analysts say that rebounds in U.S. company earnings do not show financial turn-around in 2009. These analysts abandon their expectations of recovery in the immediate future.

In the Philippines, close to a dozen banks had been taken over by the Central Bank and were placed under receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation due to liquidity problems.

In a conversation with a businessman a few days ago, I was told that his company has started retrenching its employees due to extremely low exports of products in comparison to months earlier. “We are getting less and less orders from world markets and closing down is inevitable if the downward trend goes unabated,” he said. How does the crippling global crisis affect us and our individual Christian life?

We look at it as though the slump is temporary—hoping that the looming crisis, like all other things, dies a natural death. A tinge of complacency dismisses the phenomenon as nothing but a “bear” in the cycle of investment—goes up, goes down—but in the end it ends well!

In a last quarter 2008 survey conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS),92 percent of Filipinos were hopeful that 2009 will be better for them. Their optimism was anchored on “faith in God.” This response, though, may have been influenced by the benumbing effect of poverty or by a genuine faith in a God who lets them live a day at a time.

My faith in God, indeed, gives me the same feeling, minus the complacency nurtured by others. It would be a ‘faith journey in Jesus’ through the roller-coaster economy that the world faces.

End-time events hinge on economy—the ‘buy and sell’ of Revelation 13:17. I hope the ‘carnival’ scene is preparing us to go through the harder yet episodes of our spiritual journey should odds strongly counter our direction.

Yes, the world is not as settled as it once was. Our time suggests the fragility and vulnerability of an age that is not anchored on solid ground—faith in God. Scriptures says that we don’t have to fear about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). Let us then put our trust in a God who knows our future!

Regardless of what 2009 and the future bring, I am convinced that the best is yet to come. The preludes to the John 14: 1-3 scenes need not trouble or scare us.

The scenes don’t convey complacency. They are anchored on true hope for a coming glory. Praise God!

Drive out merchants

And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. John 2:15-16

What a mess! Jesus goes to the temple and what does He find? A marketplace! Of course, this situation did not always exist. There must have been a time when people dared not come into the courts with their animals and money to trade. But things must have gotten worse. Both the merchants and the worshippers had become careless with regard to keeping the precincts of the temple holy. The former saw an opportunity to make huge profits by providing an essential service for the latter. The arrangement was both convenient and necessary, wasn’t it?

It made a lot of sense.

That’s how it is, dear friends. Sometimes we lose our sense of what is right and wrong, preferring to think of what is convenient. Sometimes we forget about that which is holy, paying greater attention to that which goes along with our own ideas of success. Sometimes, like those merchants in the temple, we misuse good things for our own selfish benefit. We mix the holy things and the common things. And mind you, it doesn’t
happen overnight. Gradually, little by little, we allow those things to come into our lives and
crowd out the things that are most important. As bad decisions are allowed to grow into habits, those things which bothered us at first cease to do so. Our temples become houses of merchandise.

Well, this state of affairs still bothers Jesus. When He comes into the temple of our lives, He has to get rid of whatever we have permitted to confuse the real issues: the clutter of business, the improper health habits that are weakening or destroying our bodies, the wrong decisions that are hurting our relationships, the morally degrading stuff on the TV, and so on. Our lives were meant to be places where God can receive
honor, worship and glory. We were made for a holy purpose, and God says to us today, like He said to the merchants, centuries ago “Take these things away. Let there be no merchandise in my temple.”

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I surrender to you this temple of mine. Do whatever you need to do to cleanse it Amen.

ERIKSON FABIEN is the church pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Community Church in Thomson Road, Singapore

You can’t tire God

The widest highway where traffic goes unchecked and uncontrolled, I believe, is the World Wide Web or the www. The www has nets of varied snapping tolerance; some stronger. And the stronger ones persist. The traffic successfully touches your senses—disgust or anger, among them.

Competing websites dominate the cyberspace. Many are within the realms of advertising, and they come uninvited into our inboxes in electronic mails.

They intrude our privacy in appealing packages. And we are awakened to accessing these emails fully unaware.
Curiosity influences. Web designers capitalize on the influencing power of curiousness. This leads subscribers to accessing these pop-ups. When a printed material comes to the marketplace with an attractive cover, a shopper spends a bit of time to decipher the content. That curious mind begins to work. Based on this premise, therefore, why should we not knock at someone’s door too? If our life-saving message comes in a label that leaves no doubt for good reading, then what hinders us from employing such strategy?

If you are an Internet user, you are not on your own anymore. Your email address has been known by someone from nowhere. One ‘googler’ says,“If you don’t find yourself in the Internet, you do not exist!”

We do exist but we are not on our own. God who owns us desires that we live to our potential through His grace. Internet gives us the access to reach anyone anywhere in a tick of a timepiece. How can we engage that power to reach out to someone in need of Jesus’ love?

One prominent characteristic of web advertisers is their persistence to sell their trade even if you have repeatedly deleted their ads. No amount of deleting works. This teaches us a lesson: “…persistence pays off.” A persisting joy that wells up from experiencing Jesus’ saving power is ‘undeletable’! Also, if we reach out to people “in season or out of season,” someone out there will receive our offer.

Sometimes we feel trapped when caught in Internet traffics. When falling into a quicksand of life’s turmoil I don’t mind getting trapped in God’s undying love. Do you? God’s offer of life keeps popping up and no rejecting or ‘deleting’ would tire Him to get us to His side. He is not employing His trade cunningly. Was His death a trap? His death gave me the assurance of a life beyond the present and gives me every reason to tell others the availability of that life. Access it!

Through a hostile environment

A book entitled, Into Thin Air (Anchor Books, 1999) by Jon Krakauer gives a personal account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster when eight climbers died in a single day. Fifteen died in that entire year making it the deadliest year in Everest’s history.

The book details Krakauer’s ascent to the world’s highest peak which turned catastrophic and cost well-known New Zealander mountain guide Rob Hall and American climbing legend Scott Fisher their lives. While they were on the top of the world, they were caught up in a rogue storm that blew almost without warning.

As I browsed through the pages, I figured out that the equation leading to the tragedy was neither due to lack of preparation nor of equipment and mountaineering technicalities, for Hall and Fisher were both professionals in mountain guiding business.

I believe this tragedy stemmed from little things the climbers overlooked: turn-around times, placing a fixed rope in advance to avoid delay, watchfulness at diminutive signs of climate change, limit in number of climbers to hit the route on a single time, and a few others.

If ignored, these minute yet important things contribute to a failure of an expedition. And in their case, a disaster that killed both the veteran Himalayan guides and six of their clients!

Carelessness is a human tendency. As we get adept to certain capabilities we tend to disregard little things that may have big impact in the outcome of every endeavor.

As Christians, we trek on slippery paths in a hostile environment. The world is so dangerous that in a wink of an eye we slip away from the path if we aren’t careful. We need crampons* to get a firm grip on solid rocks at every step of the way. We need to brace ourselves with a clear understanding of the doctrines that will guide us in everyday decisions to make. Furthermore, prayers are ropes that keep us attached to the strong cornerstone of our faith.

Steel ladders are the encouragements from our fellow believers to help us get across crevasses of disappointments and discouragements. Ice axes enable us to have a strong grip on the things that matter most not only in this life but thereafter. Thick clothing represents the fellowship of the brethren that keeps us warm on chilling conditions, while the supplementary bottled air is the word of God that gives oxygen to our blood to keep us strong as we walk into hostile environment.

When we become too self-confident with our spiritual walk, we are likely to neglect some things that contribute to the success of our journey toward our heavenly goal. Apostle Paul counsels us, just as he counseled the early Christians, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”(2 Cor. 13: 15).

The most experienced Himalayan guides would be reduced to neophytes in the most unfriendly situation on this planet. No man can help us in this expedition!

Our journey to heaven is an individual quest. Sometimes we become too confident with ourselves when we get acclimatized to the intimidating environment. Christians should be aware that sheer precipices are few side-step distances from where we walk. Bulges of ice may cause us to stumble. In this hostile world, keeping watch on important spiritual things are of great import. Focusing our eyes on Jesus is recognizing that He, indeed, is the captain of our journey.

*crampon is a grid of two-inch steel spikes that is attached to the sole of each climber’s boot for purchase on ice.

by JERSON PAICAN is manager of Sunplus Accounting Services Center of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

No Earthly Kingdom

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” John 18:36

It’s early on Passover Friday morning. In the judgment hall of Pontius Pilate, symbol of political power, stands a determined group of Jewish clerics—symbols of ecclesiastical power. Across from them stands a sleep-deprived, tired-looking itinerant preacher named Jesus of Nazareth, an ordinary man whose current following indicates that He is growing in power. The stage is set for a showdown—a clash of powers. Let’s follow the dialogue for a while using the New International Version:

“Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, Are you the king of the Jews?’
‘Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’

‘Am I a Jew?’ Pilate replied. ‘It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?’

Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.’

Little do power players in Pilate’s hall realize that the One they accuse of being a pretender to the throne of Israel is the very One who holds all power in His hands. They have completely misunderstood Him. They think He’s talking about an earthly dominion, one that will break the Roman yoke and restore David’s powerful dynasty. They are not alone in their misunderstanding, for we read in John 6:15 that some of the five thousand men whom Jesus had fed with five loaves and two fishes tried to take Him by force to make Him King.

But to them, and to all who, down through the centuries, have tried to squeeze Jesus into their political molds, Jesus says, “Mine is not an earthly kingdom. It’s not about getting ahead in this world; it’s about preparing for the next. It’s not about what appears outside; it’s what’s on the inside. It’s not about your kind of power, wealth or fame; it’s about “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom.14:17).

PRAYER: Lord, help me to understand the true nature of your kingdom and to crown you as King of my life. Amen.

AdventSIM -Committed to Tell God’s Love

In May of 2002, we launched the mobile phone ministry at the southern Asia-Pacific region of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The concept was to encourage Adventist mobile phone users—the young people especially—to dedicate some time, money, and effort to reach out to other mobile phone users with the message of hope.
Today, that ministry has developed into one of the most modern ways of proclaiming the gospel of salvation.
Christened Project Saturday by Globe, it had its soft launching in the Visayas and Palawan provinces during the last week of May, where 4,000 SIMs were distributed to pastors, church workers, and members. About a thousand more were distributed in the Davao areas this June.
While most of the value-added services (VAS) became available only in August, the SIM had to be in the hands of church members so that at the signal of activation everyone would have the new chip especially dedicated to the Adventist community.

How did the project originate?
For more than three years the communication department, in consultation with mobile phone providers, was looking for possibilities to engage their services to make the mobile phone an instrument in advancing the church’s mission of telling the world about God’s love.
While the possibility seemed remote three years back, a program of development continued.  By the middle of 2007 the capabilities of cell phones multiplied, making the concept earlier advanced a possibility.
Toward the end of the year a tangible plan was laid. Globe Telecom presented a scheme that enabled church programs to become features of a dedicated SIM card.
And the Advent SIM was born!

But what is a SIM? And how does it work for the church?
A SIM card, or Subscriber Identity Module, is a portable memory chip used in cellular telephones. Globe Telecom, Philippines, the company that developed the program for the church, has provided special features that add to the regular services of cell phones.  These value-added services (VAS) included the 28 fundamental beliefs of the church, Bible study outlines, prayer requests, directory of churches in the Philippines, G-cash (a mobile wallet that does away with cash or credit cards), and a lot more.
With a simple command, the features are downloaded free of charge, and can be sent to a person the sender wants reached.  The fundamental doctrines were formulated in short but with appealing statements. “Tired of old self? You can be born again!” With appropriate Bible texts incorporated in the message, this reconstructed paragraph corresponds with the doctrine on Baptism. “Jesus is coming! What a blessed hope! Are you getting ready for this glorious event?” is the doctrine on the Second Coming of Christ.
And one thing more, for every centavo spent for automatic load obtained from Advent SIM retailers, a percentage goes to church programs such as those of Hope Channel productions.
Why not own an Advent SIM now! Provide each member of the family with a SIM in order to enjoy reduced rates as you establish connectivity with loved ones and reach out to someone with the everlasting message of God’s wonderful love!

Grow and Go

John 15:5: I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

I hardly noticed a mango shoot spring up just across from our house. That was many years ago, and as I returned home after years in a boarding school, my sense of direction was disturbed for a while, because right in front of me was a mango tree displaying its sturdy trunk and verdant foliage. The last time I visited home, I enjoyed munching its luscious fruit. That shows a fact: The tree has been growing—first the shoot, then the trunk and leaves and finally the fruit.

If Jesus is the Vine, it’s incredible to see branches growing the same number of leaves for years; slim branches as they were five, ten, twenty, or forty years ago. Incredible indeed, but that was what actually happened—to Jim. Jim had been attending church for more than ten years. Since his conversion in high school, he felt not much had changed in his walk with the Lord. He was the same hot-tempered but weak-willed Jim, easily giving in to his heart’s selfish desires.

Sensing something was amiss, Jim did his best to straighten out his life. His effort didn’t seem good enough until he realized, from a book he read, Jesus’ declaration: “Without Me you can do nothing.”

Jim became penitently shocked. Tears welled up in his eyes as he re-examined his life: How can I claim to be a Christian all along while I don’t have a real practical connection with Jesus!

Determined to lock his life up in Jesus, Jim turned to the 15th chapter of John for guidance. And he found some helpful thoughts in verse 7:

If you abide in Me. Right then and there, Jim recommitted himself to Jesus, singing the song “…No turning back, no turning back.” He decided to make Jesus his Lord, pleasing Him above himself or anyone else.
My words abide in you. Jim started to reorganize his life by making a schedule for regular reading and studying the Bible. In one of his group’s Bible studies, he testified on the power of God’s word that snatched him away from sin.
Whenever I am faced with a hard situation, I would remember first what God says before I react,” he declared. “I learn my personal duties to God from my readings, and I am thankful God soaks my head with His useful promises.”

You will ask what you desire. This time Jim’s life takes on a different spin. Where, before, Jim would ask God for material favors in his rather scarce prayers, now he asks God for the real wants of his soul. He pleads for spiritual blessings more than earthly goods. He daily asks the Holy Spirit to lead his day. Expressing his desire to bear the fruit of the Spirit, He prays God to help him overcome his temper and make him more and more Christ-like. He also prays for opportunities to share to someone the living experience he now has in Christ.

Not only does Jim notice the changes his life takes in Jesus; his wife, Shiela, does too. “I wonder why he’s getting more responsible. And he’s no longer rude to me and our children,” she confides to an old college friend.

An old quote says, “When a tree stops to grow, it starts to die.” Grow or die down in stagnation. These are the only choices we have in our Christian walk. Jim, however, has chosen to grow in his relationship with Jesus.

MICHAEL T DALIDA is copy editor of Philippine Publishing House

Setting the Trend

I received an invitation late last year to be baccalaureate speaker of the high school graduating class of South Philippine Adventist College this month of March. I requested the officers to send me their class philosophy sooner so I would have enough time to prepare for my message.

Months went by I didn’t realize the event was only a couple of weeks to go. I called the college president requesting information about the class’ philosophy so I could write down my thoughts to address these young people. I was intrigued by their chosen philosophy. It does not only appear paradoxical, it was a revelation of young people’s assessment of the present societal culture. It was a downright opposition to the existing worldly lifestyle of greed and avarice.

“Descending into Greatness” What a philosophy for a Class!

I asked one of the student leaders what influenced them to come up with this philosophy. The answer was revealing—“The youth of today are tired of ‘upward mobility’ that is fueled by greed.” I pressed a bit further to comprehend what this kid was saying. I understood that they were fed up by the display of corruption at every level of governance as exposed by whistle blowers over what appear anomalous transactions by public leaders. But what relation has this to their philosophy? Isn’t greatness synonymous with upward mobility? And why descend to greatness if upward mobility is the norm? Could there be downward mobility to greatness?

I searched the Scriptures to find support to this adopted philosophy. And I have discovered this passage:

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:5-11).

This ‘going down to go up’ was modeled by Jesus when He was born human and lived to serve the poor, the needy, the sick and the outcasts. Eureka! Descending into greatness would then mean following the path of service Jesus had trod. Leadership is service! So is greatness! It is a total riddance of greed or even “moderate greed.”

These young people have seen a better direction for their life even before working toward a college degree. They said they would set a new trend—attain greatness through service, putting wealth—time, effort, money and riches to help others enjoy life. What a noble aim! Indeed, this pathway is not easy. I am sure there are many who will chose to counter the flow. But the possibility is not remote for the coming generation of leaders if we who precede them will model it now, set the trend ourselves!

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