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“As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone,” Scripture says. But it is entirely different from being a people-pleaser.
Being at peace with everyone doesn’t mean we avoid conflict. It means we choose to be kind, compassionate, even when there is conflict.
“…with everyone,” myself included. I must be at peace with who I am and honest with how I feel so my important, closest relationship/s can be fully, wholly real.
What could’ve been a major milestone in Rene Baterbonia and Chukwuemeka Divine Adili’s journey became a millstone that drowned their dreams.
We continue to grieve with and pray for the people of Talacogon and Nigeria as the full, unadulterated truth remain shackled.
Can you see it?
Recent news reveal the sinister spirit that’s long been at work not just in the school system but in families, in communities and even in churches.
Here and abroad we hear of teachers caught in indecent acts and sexual harrassment cases. How many of those have been solved?
As the Philippines continues to struggle and regain its wobbly footing from the tragedy of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, we hear of the macabre, untimely death of students brought about by two gun-firing youths.
It is not surprising, given that our very own Senate recently had its halls echo with gunshots.
A tangled weave of ball-passing negligence hangs in the air and though many of us are alert enough to perceive it, we remain powerless to do anything – except, perhaps, temper our responses and shift our focus.
Satan is not backing down.
Being the father of lies, he is a master con artist, venturing out to steal, kill and destroy all that is good.
He does so through these channels: appetite, beauty, and knowledge. It’s an age-old tactic that he used to entice Eve – and Adam – in the Garden.
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.” Genesis‬ â€3‬:â€6‬-â€7‬ â€BSB‬‬
I remember when Charlie Kirk was a**a**inat*d in 2025, he was speaking in a school, in the middle of laying the groundwork for the Gospel. The enemy tried to silence his voice, to extinguish his light and though his case remains unsolved, it ignited an unquenchable fire in the hearts of many teenagers who followed him.
The picture around the world is going to get from worse to worst before it becomes good.
It’s going to take a while.
Yet we can CHOOSE.
In the basic pursuit of satisfying our human appetites, we can choose: to tend our own gardens, mind our own businesses, stay in our lanes, protect our bubbles and let evil run its course.
Or we can pray.
We can PRAY not only “in church”. We can pray in our beds, in our homes, in the kitchen, in the garden, in schools, in the play areas, in the basketball court or in the courts of justice, in the streets…
Let us REPENT and RETURN not “to the church”. Let us return to God!
Let us return to Him in the midst of the mundane, in the little things, the unpublished things, behind the curtains, and certainly off cam!
Let us BE the church whom God has called us to be: men, women, children, families who prevail in prayer.
Let us be courageous and unwavering in the pursuit of truth and the beauty of His design.
Let us be so intimate with the Holy Spirit in a way that shuns all noise and empowers us to follow His signal towards what is truly good and eternally beautiful.
Nakapiring man ang mga mata ni Lady Justice as she balances the scale, hindi siya ang magpapataw ng sintensya. Siya ay bulag, pipi at bingi – isang estatwa na hindi nakakakita, walang boses, at hindi nakakarinig.
Ngunit ang Panginoong Diyos, our Creator God who is Good personified in Jesus Christ, ang May-akda ng buhay, ang Diyos ng Hustisya, ang Siyang magpapataw ng sintensya.
Hindi Siya bulag, hindi Siya pipi at lalong hindi Siya bingi.
Ang pag-ibig at hustisya Niya ay walang sini-sino at walang pagkiling.
Hindi man natin maunawaan ang Kanyang pahintulot sa bawat trahedyang ating kinakaharap, ang Kanyang mga plano at pangako ang mananaig.
God gives us not only perfect peace in the midst of the chaos and noise; He renders perfect justice and opens doors that no man can ever shut.
Pray with me.
Father God, You know all things, You search all things and nothing is ever hidden from You. All things are naked before You and opened to Your eyes. You are to whom I must give account.
Father God, I have no kindness, no goodness, no compassion apart from You. Forgive me for the times I rely on my own morality instead of Your Word.
By Your grace, Father God, I choose today to put my trust in You. I will keep choosing to do what is right even when no one is looking.
Thank You, LORD Jesus for making a way for us. Holy Spirit, please fill me, empower me to always choose to be truthful, to be kind, to be compassionate, to do good, and to be courageous over evil. Even when nobody else will go with me, I will follow You.
For Yours alone is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever, Amen.
“I can do…”
(don’t stop there)
“I can do all things…”
(not quite there yet)
“I can do all things through Christ…”
(keep going)
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
(wait, there’s more)
There’s MORE?!?
Yes. Check the context.
This verse has nothing to do with will power or goal-setting or goal-getting or team spirit or community vibe.
Let’s go back to the actual words on the page and the situation that gave birth to them.
The apostle Paul is not standing on a stage with lights and loud music. He is sitting in a Roman prison—chained, probably cold, writing by the light of whatever small lamp the guards allowed. He does not know if he will live or die. He is not crafting a motivational speech. He is writing a thank-you note to a small, struggling church in Philippi that had scraped together money and supplies to help him while he was in need.
Here is the fuller picture (Philippians 4:11-13):
“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
Paul is not saying, “With enough faith and positive thinking, you can achieve any dream you set your mind to.”
He is saying something far quieter, far stronger, and far more comforting:
“I have learned the secret of being content—no matter what season God has placed me in. Whether life feels abundant or painfully empty. Whether my body is healthy or breaking. Whether people are kind or cruel. In every single shifting circumstance, I am not left to survive on my own willpower. Christ Himself gives me the strength I need to remain faithful and steady.”
The “all things” is not a blank check for personal ambition.
The “all things” means all the ordinary, hard, confusing, and sometimes terrifying things that God’s people are actually called to walk through in this broken world.
It is the strength to rejoice even when the prison door stays locked.
It is the grace to keep loving when you feel empty.
It is the peace that holds your heart when the future looks dark.
It is the endurance to keep trusting when every feeling screams “give up.”
So the verse is not mainly about what you can accomplish.
It is about Who holds you when you feel you can accomplish nothing at all.
That is why a chained apostle could still overflow with joy.
He was not announcing his own unlimited potential.
He was announcing the unlimited sufficiency of Christ.
And that, dear reader, is the push that takes you farther than your self-talk ever could.
I did… the night of December 19, 2012.
I was all alone in a food court in Ortigas. I didn’t have a bag with me. I had less than Php100 in my pocket and my nearly-drained tablet.
I left my mom with a lady friend in the hotel we were booked in for my DIY breakfast wedding.
I thought things through for the nth time. All details were set. People we invited confirmed they’ll be there.
“Will it glorify God?” was the question.
Will it glorify God if I just… disappeared?
I woke up the next morning, mom and I and my lady friend were even able to have a short devotional. Mom braided my hair with DIY hairpins. I did my own makeup.
For some reason, another lady friend thought it best to lock me in a friend’s car with the aircon off for so many minutes before letting me in.
Perhaps to ensure that I won’t run away?
Anyway, by the grace of God, our small wedding pushed through . We exchanged our vows. Everyone came and went, until it was only my husband and I left.
We got enough cash to settle the restaurant bills.
We had enough to last our first week together.
And we had just enough to cover the first three months of our rented home.
Just enough.
It’s been almost 13 years since then.
The question I have now is: “Is God more glorified in and through me today than He was, 13 years ago?”
Meanwhile.
A bride-to-be disappeared on December 10th this year, just 4 days before her wedding. She fit her wedding dress. Last communication with her fiancé was about wedding shoes: she was going to buy a pair.
She wore a black jacket over black pants, and rubber shoes. She left her phone at home and only had a coin purse with her.
I’m not imeldific – I can’t afford to be one. So it takes a looooot of time for me to find “the perfect fit” by myself. Thankfully, my fiancĂ© back in 2012 mall-hopped with me so I can decide and find the pair that would best fit my dress. (I actually wanted for us to wear running shoes but he didn’t agree.)
Anyway. So where is the bride-to-be?
I can only guess, in the simplest of ways, that perhaps she got awfully tired of looking for the perfect pair of shoes and chose to disappear.
People say there are monasteries in the vicinity where she was last seen. Perhaps she’s there.
Will this missing person search glorify God? I have no doubt it will – it does, as we speak.
Proverbs 25:2, NASB: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
ancore!