lance’s blog

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.

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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.

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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.

many people think that being holy is an impossible thing. that it is not an easy task to be like St Francis, St Ignatius, St Dominic, etc. well they really are big names in terms of holiness. but we also have little names like St Bernadette, St Dominic Savio, St Therese, though they become magnified due to the impact of their simple lives on the world. everyone of us is called to holiness, in fact, even those who do not know Christ could become holy. it is true that Catholics pride in having the so-called deposit of faith. but let us debate over that now. what matters is that everyone could become holy if only we could LOVE. you see, love is what really matters in this world. without love we could observe and experience indifference, conflict, war, hatred, anger, and many other negative things. but when we love there’s no room for anything negative. when we are friends there’s no reason for conflict, even competition. you know, only humans love to compete. but God doesn’t really care about the records we glory about such as being the fastest runner, the athelet with the most medals in an Olympic, the person whose feat has not been oveshadowed in the Guinness Book of World Records, or the perosn whose capability becomes a subject of Ripley’s. of course God has given us various skills, talents, etc. but these are not for the sake of glorifying ourselves but of giving honor to Him and uplifting the lives of our fellowmen who have less in life. God is not unfair. if He is He would not have made heroes out of children like David. He would not have chosen a poor couple like Mary and Joseph to be the earthly parents of His only begotten Son, Jesus. He would not have given this Son to be crucified on the Cross for our sake. God’s only concern is the good of everyone and He is opening up His doors to everyone through the invitation to Divine Friendship. hence I would like to encourage you to become one of those who respond to this invitation. let us be friends of God for holiness is not that difficult. we only have to LOVE. it might not so appealing or easy to do at first but when you get the feel of it, just like being a great athlete, a record holder, or a famous subject of Ripley’s, you can live your life as holy as others have been while on earth. come one, let us be holy and be God’s friends!

each day of our lives we wake up, do our things, and sleep. many of us do some other things in between waking up and sleeping. but many live their usual boring lives. however, we are being given that option to do more than what we usually do in between waking and sleeping. and we could do things that would benefit all of us instead of destroying some. friendship is one thing that would bring order in this world. this site, friendster.com has been doing something good for us. each one of us who enter into this site could contribute further by being friends with others who do not have access to the Internet. we are only about 45,000,000 out of the total population of the world which is about 7,000,000,000 right now. i am therefore challenging each one to make use of this site not only through the Internet but also through other means of communicating especially without the use of advanced technology because as I have said not everyone has an access to the Internet. let us do our part in spreading the Gospel of Holy Friendship and if ever you do not understand what holy means just consider being love in a general way, that is, being with everyone including the environment. this way we can build a betetr world and sustain nature and everyone else in this lonely ship sailing in a universe of stars and planets and comets and meteors which we call the Earth! God bless us all!

i believe this site has been inspired by God in order to spread something more than mere human friendship, I believe He has made us a site in order to spread the Gospel of Holy Friendship. the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospel according to John, Chapter 15, verses 12 to 17, discusses the invitation of God to man to enter into a divine relationship never before discussed in the Bible. In fact, only one person has been tagged as God’s friend in the Holy Sciptures and it’s only Abraham. even Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, King David and others didn’t earn such a privilege. yet, through the sacrifice of the Lord we became honored to be invited into the regat family of God and be privileged to become His friends. I am therefore inviting everyone to enter in to this divine relationship and spread the Gospel of Holy Friendship to tohers through this site and other sites!

god bless the friendster.com and its members!