Glorify God in You Body

I ate two dinners last night, one in our Bible Study and in the Birthday of one of our young people that turned to 21 years old. My family did not go with me to the Bible study because they must have go to the birthday celebrant's house ahead of me.

Yesterday we have done our parts as minister of the gospel, ministering to the congregation in the morning and a Bible study in the night.  The message in the morning that I tackled  was "Glorify God in your body." Taken from the book of 1 Corinthians 6:20.  And the subject we have discussed in our Bible Study was about "The Believers of the Gospel- Disciples -  were First Called Christians in Antioch."

I discussed in our Bible Study with the audience representing of six families about Biblical Christians, like the Christians found in the book of Acts, particularly in the Church at Antioch - found in Acts 11:26.  We can learn a lot about Biblical Christians if we will take a deeper look on this subject. I will post some insights about it maybe in the next post.

Glorify God in You Body

1 Corinthians 6:20  "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

The Nominal and Biblical Christians

This week we have so many activities. We have attended the two days seminar and workshop last Monday and Tuesday, and on Thursday we have our consultation concerning what is happening in our area particularly here in Mindanao Philippines.

We are so concern about how we could win people to Christ especially those who are with another religion that is not belonging to the Christianity.

    It's me holding the banner setting at the left side



As what the world thinks that Philippines is the only Christian country in Asia, many believe that it is true, but in reality that's only the name. We called it nominal Christian not really Biblical Christian. There is a big difference between nominal and biblical Christian.

As what I know according to what I have read about a long time ago, and I do not know if it is already updated, that Christianity in the Philippines is about 95% that's included all kinds of Christian denominations and 5% is Islam. But out of 95% Christians only 15% is considered Biblical Christians.

What is nominal Christian?

Nominal Christian in my own definition is a person who is born in a Christian family who embraced a Christian religion, being acknowledged as a member of that certain religion or Christian denomination, but doesn't know about the teaching in the Bible particularly in the way of salvation.

Nominal Christian I am talking about is not only belongs to a certain known Christian denomination like Roman Catholic Church, Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) Seventh Day, Jehovah's Witnesses and so forth, but  in every Christian denomination and even among the so called born again churches, evangelicals, Baptists or whatever that bears the name Christian. 

You can witness and even ask a question to the people here in the Philippines most especially those who are in jail, the corrupt politicians, the criminals, prostitutes, gamblers, drunkards, robbers and gambling lords, drug lords, drug pushers and users and so forth.  Ask this question. "What is your religion Christian or Islam?"  Majority or I would say 95% will answer Christian.

If you have seen mostly young people today in the Philippines who are bound with the things I mentioned above are the proof of a nominal Christian. I was one of them, until I reached my age of 18.

This kind of people is named in our language KBL (Kasal, Bunyag, Lubong) that means they go to church when there is wedding ceremony (Kasal) child baptism (Bunyag) and Funeral Service in the Church (Lubong).

Before my age of 18, I never have a single verse in the Bible that I have read. I never knew what is verse, chapter and book in the Bible. I did not know what the gospel means, I maybe have heard that word especially during Holy Weeks but never understood of what it is all about. But I acknowledged that I am a Christian.

What I knew is I had a religion. I am a Christian, and in that young age I have some kinds of vices that do not promote the good moral behaviors especially the behavior as true Christian. Like the rest of today's most young people who are very proud to say about their religion. 



I remember a story of a Christian Missionary who landed on the airport somewhere in the Philippines, who was very confident and very happy because he was assigned as a missionary in a Christian country, expecting that Christian people are good people and he thought that it is not a dangerous place for him.

But he was dismayed when he read the signboard inside the airport building that has a writing "Beware of Robbers." The thought in his mind... "He said that Christians are robbers?" Yes! That’s the nominal Christians. That is the reason why he was being sent to this country because of the 85% among Christians, are nominal Christians. They need to be reached out with the gospel.

What is Biblical Christian?

Biblical Christian is not based on the name of a certain Christian church or denomination. But based on what the Bible has to say. Although we cannot find the words Biblical Christians nor nominal Christians in the Bible, just only the word Christians which has a few times mentioned in the Bible. On that case, I will have to explain about how the people in the Bible become Christians? This is what I meant based on what the Bible has to say.

Christian is a name after the name of Christ. That means people belong to Christ or followers and or believers of Jesus Christ.  How this people become followers or believers of Christ? It is simply because they have heard and believed the preaching of the gospel  about Christ.

The first step of becoming a Christian is having the understanding or being enlightened of the gospel of Christ. There comes the faith in Jesus and should decide now to acknowledge him as savior and Lord in his life.

They have been converted to the teaching of Jesus Christ and have been given not just a literal name but a spiritual identity as a new creation. There must be a conversion.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17.
 
Christianity is not a religion in the sense of spirituality, but an experience of one who have been united in Christ or being in Christ, regardless of the literal denominational names.




What is the teaching of Jesus Christ about spiritual experience?

John 3:3-7 "3  In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4  "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5  Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7  You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'

How to experience born again life? I will tackle next post....  Please keep in touch.

The Story in our Seminars and Workshops

I am not feeling well today due to maybe lack of sleep. How many days and nights already I have been working with my project that is still ongoing, plus we have the two-day seminars and workshops in the past two days.

When I posted some ads on my FB, I was so very sleepy that I have not noticed some errors in my writing.  Anyway for cell phone users we can understand the way we used to send text messages that is always miss spelled and we often times shortened the words and sometimes we used the telegraph style.



The two-day (September 15-16, 2014) seminars and workshops was so very enjoyable and we are all blessed. We extend our gratitude to all who made the event successful especially to Pastor & Mrs Amado Medina and to the speakers from the Bible League in Luzon Philippines.

We have learned so many things in the seminars, there was laughing together with the group of teams that performed the practicums on how to teach the literacy in a very effective way. Also there was a time that we could cry because we really felt that someone or somebody do really loves us.

We were new to the demonstrations on how we feel the love of our parents when they say something that we are very important and valuable to them. Oh! How I wish that all parents will say some very loving words to their children.

There also I ponder as human that we really need to hear good and loving words to left us up especially in the times that we are down.  How a good feeling we feel when we hear loving words that come from the heart not only from our parents, but also from our friends, relatives and people that we admired.

I remember when I visited my home place in Bohol last year, surprising our mother, my brothers and sisters that when I came home my mother embraced me with tears of joy and said "my beloved son has come home" she said those words many, many times. And there I really remembered how my mother loves me since I was a child.

I believe the mothers have the greater love for their children because of the fact that physically children came from their body.

The Story in Our Seminar And Workshops

We were surprised in the workshop and the demonstration in the seminars. There was around 100 attendants in the last days and were grouped into two, that was 40+ each group that participated.  The first group have to set down on the chairs that were in circle inside the church building with closed eyes, but before that our ID tag was pinned on our clothes at our right shoulder, while the other group was gathered at the distance and each member was given a card and instructions what to do to the first group.  Each member of this group representing as mother or father - of course each woman as the mother and each man as the father. All the members have different loving messages/words written on the card.  After the instructions were given all in the groups will surround the other group silently with their leader.

I was in the group that seated. As I have closed my eyes, I noticed that the other group has surrounded us, then each one that seated on the chair has someone standing at the back, later on they begun to whisper on our left ear as they read the message in the card. After they  have said something to each one of us that have seated, they moved on to the next one then to the next and I think up to twenty persons.  Each one of the group that seated heard the whispers of loving words representing as the words of a mother or father. Twenty voices from the women and from the men at the back with different loving words representing as a mother or father would have to say as they expressed how they feel to have son and daughter.

While the whispers were going on, the women that seated were the one who first began to cry... then some of the men I could also hear crying. I don't want to cry but I cannot hold my tears to start falling down, so I fulled up my handkerchief from my pocket to wipe my tears. Later on the whispers stopped and there was a prayer led by the leader.  

It was realy an awesome feeling that seems we could hear the voice of our mother and father the way how they love us. The message that touched my heart that made my tears came out was the message that says "My Son... we are very happy that you have come to our lives." Then followed by another message that says, "My son I love you very much more than my life."

Then after the prayer, it was our turn to revenge ops...nge... not revenge. It was our time to stand and those who whispers first will be the one to set down. The same way of what we are going to do, but there is a little bit different in the messages because we are not representing as fathers and mothers but as the Lord that loves them.  We have been also given cards with messages from the word of God. 

Now the other group may think that what we are going to do is the same thing, so maybe some of them were already skeptic, but they were disappointed because this time they could not hear from their loving parents as they think, but the words that came from God that loves them so much more than the parents.

The same thing of what the other group did to us. While we started to whisper it happened also that the other group was crying, it seems heavily because they responded with worship to God and that seems they felt the presence of the Lord.  The message given to me in the card was "I will reveal the secret things to them that love me."  So I have to say those words nicely with a very good voice as God.  Ngee...! Especially that my wife was one of them seating. So in my mind, I said I will try my best that my wife cannot recognize my voice. So when I came to her to whisper, I made my voice as big and very cold voice as a humble man, but in my mind I was seriously laughing.

Also, it was the same thing; we did not finish all the 40+ on the chairs maybe that was only 20 persons that we have given the messages then a prayer led by our leader. 

When we got home we have talked it about, then I asked my wife if she did recognize my voice, but she said, no!  So we laugh together when I told her that I changed my voice. But when she first whispered to me I can really recognize her voice as it was usual, but it touched my heart because the message that I said above that says, "... we are very happy that you have come to our lives." Then followed by another messages of how our parents valued us so much that will really make you cry.

If you have noticed... She did not really say it to me "My Son... But I added that  as I stated  above because it is understood that's the way supposed to be.  Although, I have not heard that she said that to our children, but the expressions that we have shown to our children is more than that. As parents we are really very happy to have our children. 

The sufferings of the Sinners and the sufferings of the Christians

Our Today's updates!

We have been very busy since September 12, and on that day we have two invitations and a ministry work that I ministered with the word of God in one of the two families who also have birthday celebrations.

And on Saturday September 13, again one of the youth in our church celebrated his 25^th birthday and we came to their house to minister with prayers and short exhortation of the word of God. Then, in the afternoon and the rest is a preparation for Sunday Worship Service.

Sunday - September 14, we have our regular Sunday Worship Service from 8:30- 10:30 AM. We took our rest with the family in the afternoon, and in the evening we have our Bible Service in the family of our friends whose loved ones has departed and after that we went to our other friends who celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary.

Today is September 15, we attended a whole day literacy seminar and workshop, and we have just arrived home around 8:00 o'clock in the evening from the venue which is about an hour travel.  And tomorrow is our church planting workshop at the same venue. I have been very busy, in the work of the ministry. Almost have no time to post anything on my websites.

We enjoy our literacy workshop today with 75 participants. This program will really work for soul winning, we thank God, and  there are people who sponsored for the teaching materials that supposedly we are going to pay for the cost of these good stuff and 1 Bible.

Since I am busy and a very hectic time, I have only just a little note to post here.

Yesterday in my Sunday sermon I tackled about the two sufferings of humanity.




The sufferings of the Sinners and the sufferings of the Christians

1 Peter 4:15-16 "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.   Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." 

From these two verses, generally it is very clear that there are two kinds of sufferings that people today is experiencing - the sufferings as the result of sin and the sufferings as the result of living in a Christian life.

Here we see that suffering is common to all people. No one is exempted from this word suffering. All of us will undergo or have already experienced and or will experience suffering. Human suffering will only end after we will depart from this body.

All of the sufferings are consequences only of our lifestyle. But the word of God is teaching us that if do suffer we need to choose the good kind of suffering which are the consequences of living a Christian life.   The sufferings of the Christians are by far has a very huge different compared to the sufferings as the consequences of evil doings.

Speaking of Christian sufferings, which many of us maybe are experiencing are only trials and testing of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to take note this, that first of all spiritually, emotionally, materially, morally and physically - our sufferings as Christians will turn into blessings.

Take this in your mind that after trials and testing we will have the blessings for our own to enjoy as we have the victory at last, the blessings that our family members will also enjoy and the blessings for the others to share.




In the other hand, the suffering of the sinners is not just a curse in nature but has a curse with it that will destroy the bearers in more likely if they will not repent. And even though, the sinners will repent and the curse is cut off, but the effect is still working.    But there is good news for the sinners. If you only repent from your sin, the nature of the curse is been cut off from you and by the grace of God you can make the effect of it into blessings. 

The Importance of Preaching the Gospel of Christ

Originally written by Pastor Alberto Rendon

Today is September 11, 2014, and again we have our dinner in the home of one of our church members whose 1 year-old son celebrates his birthday today. And tomorrow again there are two birthday invitations for dinners. Wow...! It's good to be a Pastor.

I have been writing in my previous posts in the past few days that we are always having invitations for dinners sometimes lunch. We thank God for that. That's life of a pastor if you have church members and friends.

As I gave my exhortation, I  remembered  the day when the twin towers in USA collapsed. And it reminds me about the importance of preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the sinners.

I want to share to you today a message taken from the book of Philippians which Apostle Paul considered the most important need of humanity in which without it we will not become Christians or followers and or believers of Christ. And, more likely we will not go to heaven.




The Importance of  Preaching the Gospel of Christ

Philippians 1: 16-18 "Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:  The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."

What I saw from these three verses in the book of Philippians chapter one is the importance of preaching the gospel of Christ. What Apostle Paul meant here, is that in his time there were those who preached the gospel of Christ with bad motives, but others in goodwill.  For him, he has no problem of what the motive of the preacher is, as long as Christ is preached and because of that he has the reason to rejoice.

Apostle Paul was rejoicing and he urged the believers in Philippi to rejoice with him because Christ has been preached in any way. 

To the Apostle Paul the preaching of the gospel of Christ is so very important no matter of what has happened to him. In fact, he defended it, he has been loyal to it, he was willing to die for it and eventually he encountered and have suffered the difficulties still nothing could move him.

The Gospel of Christ is the key to heaven

When I was a young people, there was a song that we always rendered in a special song in some of the Bible services we have conducted in our Christian denomination. The title of that song is "Prayer is the key to Heaven".

I am careful of the title of that song because it might be misinterpreted by others that it's only by prayer we can enter into heaven, in other words if you are prayerful you will go to heaven or if you have prayed a sinner's prayer you are bound for heaven, it is because prayer is the key to heaven, and I will tell you it is not prayer that opens the door of heaven, but it's the gospel of Christ.

I believe, prayer is the key to heaven in terms of our needs that we are asking God to give us. But prayer is not the key we can use to enter heaven, although you pray for your salvation, but it is not the primary thing so that you will enter to heaven.

The gospel of Christ is the most important thing before anyone ever known Christ. It is the gospel that the devil is being afraid because he knows that it is the key to heaven. That is why he has blinded many people, lest they will be enlightened by the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4).

The devil has no problem to convince people to believe in God, in fact many people are deceived by him through this doctrine, just believe in God and it is enough. But I tell you the truth, believing in God alone is not the key to heaven.



Faith in God is not enough to go to heaven.

Many known Christian denominations that do not emphasize about the importance of the preaching of the gospel of Christ. They are more on doctrinal issues, like their belief of God. They have been in debate about the belief of God, that God is oneness, trinity, dual and so forth. They have more time on these issues, they spent more money to educate students to depend of what they believe is the truth. They have been concluded that if people do not believe with them in their belief about God,  they are of the devil and will not go to heaven.

It is shocking to know that their salvation is based on the minor doctrines about the belief of God. I tell you, whatever belief about God you have, either you are a trinitarian, a unitarian, only one God the Father and  our Lord Jesus Christ is just a man and others believe that Jesus is only a mighty God and not the Almighty one, and Jesus is only a prophet and so forth.  Your belief is not enough to go to heaven.

To go to heaven is to believe the gospel of Christ. There is a big difference between believing in God and believing the gospel of Christ.  That is why Jesus said.

John 14:1-2 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."

Jesus Christ meant to say here that you must believe in God and believe also in him because he will be preparing a place for you in heaven.  So it is not enough to believe only in God, but you must believe in Jesus Christ.  The gospel that has been preached as recorded in the Bible is about who Jesus Christ is and of what he has done.

Faith in God is believing that there is God existing, and faith in Jesus Christ is believing of what he has done for us. Hence, we understand that there are two kinds of faith - faith in God and faith in Jesus Christ others called it saving faith.

To speak about faith in God, or having a genuine faith in God cannot really save a man and it is not the key to heaven. How can you imagine those people who crucified Christ? These people are religious, they believe in God more than the others, you cannot question  their faith in God, because they have a genuine belief about God. And, I think they have the truth about a belief of God, but they did not believe in Jesus Christ.

Even though, they have faith in God, but they do not have faith in the gospel of Christ. And, by the authority of the epistles in the Bible that it is to believe the gospel (Romans 1:16) of Christ that you can be saved then those who do not actually believe the gospel are absolutely not saved. 

The Saving Faith Brought by the preaching of the Gospel

To have a saving faith means, being enlightened by the gospel. Having the understanding of the real spiritual situation that man is bound for judgement because he is sinner and there is no other means to be saved except by trusting  Jesus Christ and on what he has done on the cross.

But no one is being enlightened or have received the saving faith without a clear presentation of the gospel. There must be a preaching of the gospel. Apostle Paul rejoiced when he heard that there were people who preached the good news of salvation, no matter of the motivation of the preacher. It is because he did not focus on the preachers, but on the people who can hear the preaching of the gospel.

The real Christians are the people who have the saving faith or enlightened by the gospel. They are the true believers of Christ. In the Christian countries most people believe that becoming Christian you must be a member of a Christian church through being listed in the church membership, even if he does not understand or hear the gospel of Christ, so he thought that he is already a Christian.  Biblical Christian is not like that. Biblical Christians are believers of the gospel, they have the understanding of what the gospel is all about.

It's the gospel they have believed, received and is stored in their mind that unlocks the door in heaven. That is why I believe that the key to heaven is the gospel and the key to saving faith is the preaching of the gospel..... It is very important to take note that the preaching of the good news is so very important, so that the people whose actual spiritual situation is destined to eternal judgement might believe and receive and they will be saved. Unless people are enlightened by the gospel they will not be saved from the penalty of their sins.




Preaching of the gospel is considered by Bible scholars the great commission.   It is because Jesus Christ has commissioned his followers to preach about him, of who he is and what he has done for sinners. That's the gospel, it's about Jesus Christ.

Mark 16:15-16 "He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."

 Without preaching of the good news sinners cannot hear about Jesus Christ and of what he has done for them so they cannot receive saving faith, they are not saved and it is sad to say, that they will be condemned, as the word of God says.

This is my desire and intention why I have this website, so that by means of this I can preach the gospel about Jesus Christ. Through this means we can reach the whole world where there is internet connection. And, if it happened you finished reading this message please use the social media logo below to share this message to your friends and you can help  me spread the gospel.

I believe many that can read my articles are already in Facebook, Tweeter, Google+ and so forth. So if you have your social media please share this message and every post on this website to your friends and or email to your email lists.  Let's proclaim the good news together, not only for the sake of Christ and our obedience to God, but for the sake of our loved ones and friends.