Teach Me, O Lord

by Richard Casanos

Life of a teacher, almost always, entails deeper understanding, longer patience, and greater sacrifices
towards lessons and students. Much of it requires shorter sleep, making use of the weekends to prepare
for the following week's lessons, and bringing home papers to check.

Aside from the practicalities of a teacher's life, other aspects are needed to pay attention with. You need
to see the growth of your students in terms of their learnings in class, and even looking at their personal
growth as an individual, and as a person who will eventually be playing an important role in the
community that he/she belongs and for the generation to come.

You need also to deal with the parents concerns, not necessarily negative concerns but concerns that
will help you as a teacher and to the school. You need to deal with them because they are teacher's
and/or partners of the school in the growth of their children. Students may be in school for 7-9 hours
during weekdays, but the rest of the works in a child's growth depend on how the parents go about it at
home. Sad to say, at times, teachers or the school is being blamed on this part. Maybe, one of the
crosses that the teachers/school have to bear.

In our journey as Christians, we consider ourselves on the part of being the students. And as students,
we oftentimes fail our Teacher not being able to follow the instructions, even if the instructions are clear.
And as we fail to follow, the Teacher will always finds ways to help us and assuring us that we are on
track again, and again.

The Teacher gives us different sets and types of exams, day by day. Exams that will help us grow, be
purified, and become more worthy to be called as His sons and daughters, as His people, as His servants.
But as we fail the exams, He continues to teach us that we may be ready for the next one.

The Teacher provides us people also to help us, to remind us, and encourage us to keep on going in this
journey. A way of the Teacher to assure us that we are not alone in this journey. We do have
companions with us. Our companions come in different forms, the good and, ahm, not so good.
Wherein, both forms bring lessons to learn.

But the Teacher taught us the greatest teaching of all - His LOVE. He came to earth and became man. He
stayed physically for 33 years. He was crucified and sacrificed for the sins of many that they may be
saved. He descended to hell and on the third day He rose again.

Our Teacher, Christ Himself, have extended much deeper understanding for all of us. At times, this level
of understanding is not being understood.

He extended much longer patience to all of us. Being patient in our growth and even to the time that all
of us will turn to Him.
He extended much greater sacrifice for all. Even letting His own very Son to die on the cross for the
salvation of many.

Our call now is to do the same, to be understanding, to be patient, and be willing to sacrifice for our
companions, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and even to OURSELVES.

"He took all the sins of the world and bring them all to hell. In our creed we say, 'He descended into hell
and on the third day he rose again'. The same as diamonds came from charcoal so did our God went
charcoal today just to bring the diamonds in us. Today Jesus went totally black." (shared by Bro Sean
Miranda)

Have Blessed Black Saturday to you.

MY WAY

by: Richard B. Casanos

April 8, 2018

"My thoughts are not like yous, and my ways are different from yours." ~ Isaiah 55:8

Animals are naturally selfish, in most cases, in order for them to survive. Human as we are, we are also
like animals in these sense. We want to keep things from others that they may not go above us, or for
them not to be hurt. We want to do things our way for our own gain. Sometimes, we want to keep
things on our own for us not to inflict pain on to others.

Being selfish is not necessarily bad in general sense, wag lang sobra. As others would say, anything that
is too much is not good anymore. Too much eating can lead us to sin, gluttony. Too much exercising can
lead us to fatigue. Overthinking can lead us to wrong or inappropriate decisions and actions. And in a
song, 'too much love will kill you' (in human perspective because we know the greatest love of all).

Balance is necessary.

Oftentimes, our selfish acts lead us to be in pain, lost, wander, and even questioning God. We seek
answers to our unending, and at times unnecessary, questions about the situations we are in. And if we
couldn't find the answer, we rebel agains ourselves, others, and even to God Himself. We tend to
continue doing our ways without minding the corresponding consequences it may incur. There is no
proper discernment of actions. Of such, we unconsciously lead others to be in pain, lost, wander, and
questions God. 'What's happening to this person my Lord? Bakit siya ganyan? Ikaw na bahala Panginoon.
Kunin mo na. I'm done.'

These experiences are,at times, the result of us going against our design, God's design, His will for us. At
times, because God speaks in our experiences. He allows it that we may be creative in our way of
looking at every situations we are in. He wants us to grow. He wants us to trust Him and to seek Him
more due to our tendency to forget about Him whenever the situation is favorable to us.

Our call is to continue to respond to Him positively in every situation. We need to learn to trust in His
ways for His ways is beyond ours (Isaiah 55:9). Its good to be selfish, at times, but let it not be our
driving force in all of our decisions and actions. Let us continue to offer to Him everything, be discerning,
and listen attentively. Spend more time being quite. Call to Him for He is listening. As he said in Isaiah
55:3,

"Listen my people, come to me; come to me that you may have life."

In the end, we can surrender everything to Him. We can say, yes Lord, its not my way, but your WAY.

Have a blessed sunday my friend.

Making Adjustments

April 11, 2018

"Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." (John 21:6).

Jesus stood on the shoreline and watched Peter and a few of the disciples fish. They had not caught
anything. Jesus yelled from the shoreline asking if they had caught anything. He then suggested they
cast their line on the other side of the boat. Without knowing who this person was addressing them,
they took His advice. They began catching so many fish they could not bring them in.

Making adjustment is a way for us to go out from our comfort, unconforming to our own corners of
convenience. These adjustments can be painful or humbling in the process. At times, it is necessary in
order for us not to step down on others, or give a wrong malicious interpretations or even hurting other
people towards our undiscerned or rightful acts. We then find ourselves in the pit of expectations
of others, limiting our thoughts, time, sharing, and actions. But, again, we need to adjust for the good of
everybody.

But adjusting our lives to the will of God is the first thing that has to happen in order to begin
experiencing Him in our daily lives. For some, it is simply following the advice of those above us. For
others, it may require a major change in our job situation. Still, for others it could mean making changes
in relationships. Whatever the case, you can be sure that until we adjust our lives to God we will not
receive the full blessing of God.

Ask Him today where you need to adjust to Him. And ask Him to redirect your thoughts (focus) to what
are essential and necessary rather than being succumb on our own plans and desires.

God bless you more today igsuon!

The Gospel of the Kingdom

April 24, 2018

"This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did" (1 John 2:6).

When Christ came to earth, He came to bring to mankind the Gospel of the Kingdom. Over the centuries
the church has tended to emphasize only a portion of the Gospel. That portion is the Gospel of Salvation.
However, Jesus came that we might have more than just salvation. He came to give us a whole new life
that was accompanied by signs, wonders, and His Spirit living in us and revealing Himself to us daily. He
came so that we might walk on this earth as He did.

If our lives are not reflecting the same things as Jesus’ did, we must ask why?

There are three distinct types of people we can notice in walking with Christ. First, many of us come to
Christ out of a need for salvation. Our heart has been touched by His call on our lives. We reason and
analyze the claims of Christ and make a decision for Him. It is the Convenient time to accept Him in our
lives. This first stage is often characterized by a “Bless me, Lord” attitude toward God. It is the first stage
that primarily brings salvation into our lives. Some never really go past this first stage.

The second stage is the Crisis stage. A crisis takes place in our lives, and we are motivated to seek Christ
with a whole heart. However, this motivation is not out of pure love for Christ, rather, it is motivated by
the desire to get out of the pain of living. The motivation is to solve the “what” versus the “why” in my
life at the time. This stage is best characterized as “Help me, Lord.”

It is in the third stage that we begin to experience the Gospel of the Kingdom. It is the place where Jesus
resided in His walk with His heavenly Father. It is the place of Conviction. The number of people who live
at this level are quite few, but these people are experiencing the reality of a walk with God that is
foreign to all others. They are seeing daily occurrences of His involvement in their lives. They are
motivated by a deep love for Him. They know Him. These people have the attitude, “Have me, Lord”
“Though He slay me, still will I trust Him.”

Igsuon, where are you today? Have you merely accepted His salvation to simply float along? Or do you
seek Him with a whole heart only when a crisis occurs?

His desire is for you and me to live a life of conviction, motivated by our love for Him and His love for us.
This is where we will experience the Gospel of the Kingdom.