lance’s blog

The earth deserves to be green.

Humans have been destroying what God has given for us to oversee. We have been designated as stewards of creation but instead we became attackers. But not everything is lost. We can still do something and we must do something.

One way of saving the earth from being totally destroyed is for us to clean the air we breathe. Another is to save on fuel consumption.

How do we do these?

First we must use products which will help us to reduce gas emissions from vehicles. Secondly, these products must also be able to help us to save on fuel consumption.

We have such product. It is no secret anymore. But I won’t tell you what it is. You just have to find out for yourself and discover for yourself it is worth trying.

Visit my homepage, read my bulletins and be our partner in making a difference because the earth deserves to be green!

God bless

Tomorrow I will be 39 years old. Not too old but not that young either. Still I am alive though with a j stent inserted in my right kidney to be removed or changed this coming May depending on the performanc of this organ - whether it improved or deteriorated.

Tomorrow will also be the last day of my self imposed deadline for Phase I of my Save a Kidney, Save a Family Fund raising program. And so far I have raised not enough money for the scheduled removal or change of this j stent.

But still I am hopeful.

Though I got only a few thousands right now, I also have some pledges to depend upon. And these are not mere pledges I know because they came from people who really care and are really aware of and concerned about the other people’s needs.

Being 39 is great! One more year and I will be starting to LIVE! Remember that life begins at 40!

But I sure hope to start living right now. I have a family to take care of and I have a future to be concerned about. Not only my futrue though - it is the future of others also!

Why?

Because everyone lives for everyone else. As the song goes, "walang sino man ang nabubuhay para sa sarili lamang"!

Alright so being 39 is great and it will still be greater if I would be able to accomplish this small misison that God has in store for me - and us all!

So when my birthday comes, please remember to pray for me and for us all.

God bless and may we have a better world in the Lord.

Sounds familiar? It is already Eastertide and my topic is about a Lenten question.

But it is a question which could still be lingering in the minds and hearts of everyone of us.

Many times we feel very distant from God, as if God is no more, as if God does not exist anymore. And yet at the back of our minds we know (for sure even those who deny God has that feeling which they just can’t understand) that He is still there, somewhere there in what we call Heaven. But we just can’t seem to get to Him.

Why?

It is not because He wants to be distant. It is not because He does not want to be close with us. In fact He really wants to be close to us. That is why He has sent His only begotten Son so that God and man might become one.

And yet we feel alienation, separation, perhaps even divorce from Him.

Why?

It is because of SIN!

Sin is the single most negative thing that keeps man from God. That makes man experience being away from God. That separates man from the eternity which God wishes him to have. That seem to divorce man from being united with his Maker.

Why?

Because SIN is a denial of God, an alliance with the Devil who was the first to alienate himself from his Maker.

Sin is the opposite of GOOD. Sin is bad, evil, dishonesty, unbelief, treason, lie, untruth, immorality, infirmity, moral and spiritual disease, etc. etc.

And since God and sin, Good and evil, truth and lie, cannot go together, man experiences alienation from God when he sins.

Believe me it is true. I have been away from God so many times i do know the feeling. But though I always fail Him, he keeps reminding me that i have to go back because it is only when I am under his grace that I can enjoy His friendship.

Many times i ask Him "why have you forsaken me?" especially when I fail to give my best in what I do, when I fail to get what I think I deserve, when I fail to be what I wish to be in life.

But then He asks me back, "you, why have you forsaken me in the first place?"

Then I realize it is not He who has forsaken me. It is my being sinful which keeps Him from giving me all the blessings that i could have as one of His adopted sons in His Son Jesus Christ our savior!

What a time to realize it than this very season of new life, of new hope and new being!

So each time you feel so far away from God, don’t ask anymore "why have you forsaken me?" instead ask yourself: "why did I forsake my God, Father and Friend?"

__________

Read more at http://save.family.movement.googlepages.com/home

I wanted to write to you for so long. I just wanted to let you know that I need your help. You see, life is so difficult without someone to assist you in times of trouble. But every problem is bearable when you have a friend to lean on.

Right now I need your help. There is constant bombardment against the traditional family nowadays that people seem to care no more about this basic unit of society, this institution we call the first school, and which the Catholic Church call as the domestic Church. Divorce, legal separation, contraceptives, abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriages, per animals as children, etc ect: these are things which cause a slow death to what God has established upon this earth as the source of stability of the society: the traditional family which is composed of a male husband, female wife, and human children.

Because of this I am writing to you.  I actually tried about two years ago in establishing a movement I call "save-a-family, save-the-family movement." But I did not have the courage to proceed with this plan. This time I could see that it is very necessary to pursue the plan, and the movement.

If you care enough, send me an email at save.family@yahoo.com.ph  or save.family@gmail.com and join me in this effort to save the traditional family.

God bless you all and may the Holy Family be our Guide always!

lance

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Many great men in history has claimed to have conquered the world through sheer physical and military might such as Alexander, Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and many more.

But the best conqueror ever who did not even lift a finger to put someone down but has even given himself to die upon an instrument of shame called the Cross is no one else but the Lord Jesus Christ! By dieing upon the cross he has conquered the world not with military power but by the power of God.

Through the Internet we wish to proclaim his greatness and great love. We wish to proclaim his invitation to a divine relationship with the Father (John  15:12-17) through the Holy Friendship.

Let us be friends in the Lord and let us make this world a better place for our friends!

Remembering the words of PJP II regarding the youth as the "Present" and comparing it with the words of Dr. Jose P. Rizal, we could see no conflict. Rizal wrote that the youth is the hope, or the future, of the fatherland. He was in a completely different setting as Pope John Paul II. Rizal was referring to the youth as the hope or the future because he saw that their present generation would only be able to strike the fire of change in the society but it would be the task of the next generation, the youth, to sustain that fire and create a better society for the Filipinos. He saw that through the next generation, the youth of their time, the country would be able to fulfill their dreams of independence and development.

PJP II on the other hand was living in the present and he knows that in the present even those undergoing formation could contribute very well to the task of evangelization in their respective areas of concern - shome, school, workplace, even in the streets, etc. PJP II believes in the capacity of the youth, and he initiated the Wolrd Youth Days in order to show to the world that the young can be the partners of the adults in the various tasks in the different aspects of life.

Rizal believed that the young when they become adults would be able to contribute towards the betterment of society. PJP II believes that young even in their youth could already contribute towards making changes in the society.

Perhaps one of the reasons why the Philippines does not develop is that we keep ourselves hostaged by a wrong interpretation of the words of Rizal. We alwasy remind ourselves that the youth is the hope of the country, that the youth is the future! But as PJP II said, if this is so, when the future comes the youth afre no more because they have already grown up to be adults!

Let us give the youth the chance to prove themselves. They could do great things. We only must give them good examples and we ought to give them truly good examples!

Upon seeing the large groups of young men and women walking the streets of Rome during the World Youth Day in Jubilee Year 2000 one of the bishops remarked that "The future of the Church is here!"

Pope John Paul II corrected his colleague. He told the bishops present that "the youth is not the future of the Church. If they are the future, they won’t be there anymore when the future comes" because they would have grown into adults already. Rather, the youth is, as JP II believes, the present, they are now, they are today!

That is why he instituted the World Youth Days. He believes in the youth and he knows that they must be given the opportunity to contribute in the mission of evangelization because they also are members of the Church.  They have that vocation to holiness also and the vocation to bring others to Christ in the various milieus that they are in.

The youth has a lot to contribute to the work of evangelization. If formation will be seriously given to young Catholics there would be less troubled marriages, less cases of priests and religious going out of their vocations, less Catholics seeking the "true faith" in other religions, less cases of graft and corruption in the secular world, and more people aspiring for holiness.

The Church must take into serious consideration these words of the great Pope who led the Church into the Third Millennium. The youth must be considered as today, now, the present. Their contribution cannot be disregarded. Though they are inexperienced and needs formation, they must be given their particular roles and responsibilities already and not just relegated into the sidelines called upon only when there is a need for messengers, liaison personnel or manpower during Church activities!

just like anyone else i am a sinful man trying to overcome every temptation in my life though many times i fail. but it is not because God has not given enough courage or strength. it’s because i fail to respond each time to His call and invitation to remain in His love.

this is what most of us usually claim - that we are merely humans and therefore we cannot resist evil or the commission of sins. and we seem to be comfortable in the thought that somehow most if not all persons have the same trouble so why worry? after all we are not alone if ever God will finally destroy the world and send evil men and women to hell!

but it is not a good idea. God is greater than sin and if only we will aske His grace we can overcome anything evil in this life. God would not have given us another human as an example of faithfulness if He knows it is futile for man to fight evil and sin. yes it is true that Christ is not merely human, He is also God. but he "took the form of a slave and died on the cross" for us.

Christ himself was tempted not only three times but even when he was about to accept the cup of suffering already. it would have been easier for him to just do miracles and turn the people against the Roman Empire and the Jewish Nation. but God has other plans for us and He doesn’t want us to be complacent and comfort-seekers.

God wants us to understand that life is not that easy and only in Heaven will we finally enjoy the fullness of life.

God is greater than sin so we must not think that we shall never conquer temptations and evil. we only must truly rely on Him and not on our own. let us accept His offer of friendship and we shall conquer!

i was in senior high when this happened. a schoolmate requested me to accompany him to the office of his friends at PAG-ASA. since it was not very far from our school we just walked. the trip on the way to the office was fine. but the way back home was far more memorable because i almost died that day.

it was already dark when we went home and that area of tomas morato before circle theater was not fully lighted. since using the pedestrain lane would make out trip longer we decided to cross the street on that part of tomas morato though it was a bit darker. my schoolmate was able to cross first because i hesitated. then without looking if there were vehicles coming i run across the street. luckily i did not stop nor look anywhere else. as i was about to reach the other side of the street i felt a strong wind rushed behind.

upon reaching the area where my schoolmate was standing seemingly dumbstruck he told me he thought he would see me rolling. as i was crossing the street a car came speeding toward my direction. perhaps it was best that i didn’t notice it because it might have caused me to stop or panic and cause my early death.

———

about six years and a half after my first near encounter with death i was requested by a choir member of ours to accompany her to the regional capital in order to inquire regarding her enrolment for first year in the former Divine Word University. during that time buses still take the old route which is via Buray and the national highway was not yet as good as today. it was muddy and dangerous.

so there were also limited number of buses plying the route and it was common to ride on top of buses just to be able to get to Tacloban City. that day we waited for a bus from 1:00 am so that we would be able to arrive at Tacloban before the school opens and so be able to go home earlier. but the earliest bus passed at about 5:00 am already. it was almost full so i have to ride on top of it while my companion was able to find an empty seat inside.

during the trip i dozed off. i can’t recall how long i was asleep. what i could clearly recall is that when i woke up we were already about halfway to Buray passing along dangerous curves with very steep and deep gorges on the left side of the road. many times the bus had to pass too close to the dangerous side and as many times i have almost fallen down. i realized that i could have fallen and died that day even for a little wrong movement.

———–

there are other occasions in my life when i had close encounters with death. there was also the time when i think i could have fallen from a ship we were riding, or that occasion when we almost got ambushed while i was still a cadet, or when i luckily escaped a bombing incident of a movie house that got bombed a few minutes after i went out of it. but i guess it was not yet my time to die during those times. God must have a reason and a plan for me.

and having been given so many chances in life to live, i guess i have to accomplish the task He wants me to fulfill.