Paano tayo nakarating sa kalagayan kung saan, maging meron man ng lahat ng pangangailangan, o mawala ang mga nakasanayang sandalan, salapi o kagamitan, kapag naging desperado, ang tanging nagiging pag-asa ng tao ay sa kamatayan o sa pagpapakamatay na lang?

How has the value of life sunk so low when the ultimate sacrifice and blood-price has been paid by the Almighty Father, who, in love so beyond human comprehending, gave His ONLY Son, who shed His precious blood that ANYONE who believes might LIVE!*

As brought out in the message during the start of the Passover Feast, beginning the seven days of eating Unleavened Bread and taking the leaven out of our lives, our elder Raul de Asis-Hipe reminded us that far from being confined to Egyptian history, or any tyrannical regime since, SLAVERY now takes all forms of material promises, to which participants willingly offer themselves, later wanting to break free, yet unable and even not wanting to break free, grasping it, seeing no other hope...

Should the disposable value put on life today cause us to resign to unseen taskmasters who take hostage of our mind and attach a price tag to each human life with utility even lower than animals? Is there a call that rings true across time and space calling out to each human being ever born, to break free?

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW to listen to the podcast or download the encompassing call available to EVERY human being, from the Almighty Eternal GOD, who made man “fearfully and wonderfully,” breathed the only physical life through which He could work the glorious gift of eternity...

In temperate Occidental countries, spring is the time when sunlight brightens the home and fresh air blows in after a long winter spell. As the days become longer, the light and fresh air reveals what has not been noticed during the dark, cold days of winter. In warmer Oriental climates like ours in the Philippines, we don’t have the luxury of “springtime”; instead, we have this long, hot, dusty, and dry period, which is now exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon.

In both cases, our houses are a mess and it’s not fun to see the clutter and dirt that needs to be cleaned around the house, but the more light and air flow in, the more motivated you are to do some spring cleaning (“summer” cleaning in our case). As we approach the Passover, now is the time to cleanse our homes from leavening products and to “purge out the old leaven” so to speak.

Romans 13:11-13 11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.

While spring cleaning your house or dwelling place is important, it is essential to also clean our own spiritual house, our mind, which resides in our own physical house, the body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body[a] and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Here are six (6) practical ways in which we can clean our houses, both physical and spiritual:

Un-Leaven, for Passover 2010 –What’s a believer to do who wants to show himself “approved unto God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,”¹, but is forced to job hours that claim nearly every breath and motion from dawn to dawn, a routine that claws and strips at the armor of God² barely allowing time to think before leaping on the MRT to long hours in a workplace soaked with spin and trivia, where the mantra of “whatever makes you happy,” rules, and resulting tortures are treated with medication but no self-correction?

Sanity is dismissed with “Pera-pera lang ‘yan,” lawbreakers assured that “everything will be fine”; mockers shrug at death, “Pag oras ko na eh di oras ko na...” All this assaults in half-truth half-lie, on-air, off-air, group-think convinced that every feel-good is God’s will, every warning and calamity is “Siguro pagsubok lang ito kasi wala naman akong ginagawang masama...” piling up debris of hubris like calcified toxic waste...

What freedom then to know of the Passover! And partake of it with our families! To think that we are people of the islands so far removed from the genealogy of “keepers of the oracles of God.”³ “Only in the Philippines” is our unique brand of “tigas ng ulo.” Yet “the LORD, the God of all flesh”⁴ “demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us...”⁵ 

Imagine if we did not know this, or if our elders before us did not hold fast to the knowledge and pass it on...

But while we live we still need to grow in appreciation of this. An undeserved sacrifice. From being total nobody, we each were granted a “leap over” (pesach) “sins previously committed”⁶ by the precious blood of the Lamb “slain from the foundation of the world”⁷ shed “once for all.”⁸ Even for us.

How are we then to live as freed men of the Lord in an age where fathers, mothers, sons, daughters have “no choice” but to yield mind, body and spirit to labor in virtual slavery in foreign lands apart from each other? How can we build whole families after God’s own heart, in a rage of wants and buys and casual liaisons? How can we live truth and speak truth to anyone, anywhere, alive, clear without fear, about the faith, about the coming kingdom of God, in a Pinoy culture hysteria that is, in most qualities, beliefs, preferences, as leavened, modified, weak-doughed, and full of air as the current pan de sal?⁹

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit...

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness...

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you... ” –letter of Paul the apostle, to the believers in Rome, ch. 8:5, 9-11

New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

¹ 2 Timothy 2:15; ² Romans 6:13; ³ Rom. 3:2; ⁴ Jer. 32:27; ⁵ Rom. 5:8; ⁶ Rom. 3:25; ⁷ Revelation 13:8; ⁸ Hebrews 7:27; ⁹ Wikipedia entry

Meetup for Wives & Mothers – How to deal with home issues when the husband works abroad? How to know what the husband really means? When to take messages seriously? How to manage time? How to divide work at home? When to have a sense of humor? How to reach someone really stubborn? How to be an example? How to trust completely in God? How to budget without regular income? How to be firm with the children? How to let go? How to pray?... One whole afternoon can barely wrap everything in the heart of a woman of faith trying to weave a life as daughter, sister, wife and mother... Thank You Great God, for women whose desire is to seek Your will and be perfected for Your coming kingdom... thank You for the provision of time and place to come together, here and now. What multiple skills they employ! What inventive tasks they fulfill in a “woman’s work where there's always something to be done...”