Beautiful

Field of Flowers

photo source

Immediately I was in the Spirit;
and behold, a throne set in heaven,
and One sat on the throne.
And He who sat there was like a jasper
and a sardius stone in appearance;
and there was a rainbow around the throne,
in appearance like an emerald.

- Revelation 4:2, 3




For the Lord will comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

- Isaiah 51:3




Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.
Also there was no more sea...

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it,
for the glory of God illuminated it.
The Lamb is its light.
And the nations of those who are saved
shall walk in its light,
and the kings of the earth
bring their glory and honor into it.
Its gates shall not be shut at all by day
(there shall be no night there).
And they shall bring the glory and the honor
of the nations into it.
But there shall by no means enter it
anything that defiles, or causes abomination or a lie,
but only those who are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life.

-Revelation 21:1, 22-27

My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.”

- Song of Songs 2:10-13

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us or we find it not.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

March comes to an end today.

And as I sit here preparing to write my usual month end post, I listen to my heart, waiting for the word that will be the appropriate name for this month.

The word BEAUTIFUL resonates within my spirit.

Both my wedding anniversary and my birthday are in March, so this month will always be my favorite.

But that is not the only reason.

March is such a beautiful, in-between month - coming between winter and spring. I imagine that the season in heaven will be eternally spring. Each season comes with a beauty all its own... but I picture spring to be the most beautiful of all.

Spring comes as a season of new birth, of new life. The month of March comes at a time when nearly everyone is ready to say good-bye to the cold winter months and open the doors to let the freshness of spring fill every room in the house.




Beautiful God, Indescribable God

Something is said to be beautiful when it brings delight to the senses.

Beauty is not only for the eyes... beauty can also be heard, or felt.

Surely, heaven will be the most beautiful place any one has ever seen; all of heaven will be a beautiful experience.

What makes heaven beautiful is the fact that God is in the center of it all.

God is Beautiful.

He, the Author of Beauty, is the Creator of all the earth.

Beauty is intrinsic in everything He has made.


We need not look very far to encounter beauty.

There is beauty in the everyday.

The stars, the quiet sunrise, the majestic sunset...

The snow-capped mountains and the rolling hills... the flowers in the fields...

The rivers... the lakes... the waterfalls... the clouds in the blue skies... the gently falling rain...

The smile of a little baby... a poem... a song...

The love between a man and a woman, between a mother and a daughter... between friends...

Beautiful words... a beautiful garden... an act of kindness...


A beautiful God created a beautiful world, and all creation was declared good by God Himself.

If ever beauty was marred or shattered, it was never God's doing.

Choosing to believe Satan's lies, man corrupted... defiled... twisted... destroyed... this beautiful world.

The ugliness of death entered the picture. Blinded from the Truth, men turned away from God.

Nevertheless, all around us beauty still abounds.

Deep inside we know what beauty is... deep inside our hearts we long for the eternal and the beautiful.

If God were not at the center of heaven, heaven would not be a place worth longing for.

Hell is a place of eternal damnation and torment simply because God is not there!

Everything about God is beautiful in the same way that the elements of a work of art exude beauty; there is balance, symmetry, and harmony.

Like a masterpiece, the attributes of God are all beautifully and perfectly blended together. Even in my finite understanding, I know that God's wisdom, love, holiness, mercy, power, justice, knowledge... all the components of God's character... are all beautiful.

It is difficult to explain what I mean and what I feel... Somehow it escapes me, the right words to express the kind of beauty that I believe and understand God to be.

John, when he saw an open door in heaven and received a vision of God, had this to say:

Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.

Even John could not find the right words.

No matter how articulate or eloquent a poet might be, words are never good enough to describe the beauty of God.


Going Deeper

What fills my heart with humble awe is that even though God is unfathomable... and indescribable... deep calls to deep. From the depths of His heart, He reaches out to us.

Hebrews 11:6 states this so clearly - "...He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

God is willing to be known and to be discovered. When someone earnestly seeks Him, God allows Himself to be found.

This is God's beautiful mercy at work. He knows how much we need Him, though we may not see it that way.

God says, And you will know Me, and find Me, when You seek Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13

Any one who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8


Our beautiful God fills our hearts with a longing for Him.

All God wants is to be sought after diligently. He responds to the deep longing of our hearts. He rewards the one who honestly longs to know Him more.

To know.. encounter... understand... experience God's beauty means that I am constantly willing to empty my cup, offer my emptiness to Him that He may fill me to overflowing.

In spring the earth is reborn only after a season of dying.

In my younger years, I had embraced a theology, a set of dead doctrines about God. Thinking that I needed to guard these doctrines with my life... I stayed away from so called Christians whose belief systems did not match mine.

Your prejudices prevent you from knowing who I really am, God spoke to me one night.

His words caught me by surprise... but He was right.

Henry Blackaby is one of the Christian authors who have influenced my Christian thinking in a radical way. In his book Experiencing God he said that sooner or later, we will reach a crisis of belief, a point where our faith has to be met with a response of obedience... and, in order to move forward, we must be willing to re-adjust... unlearn... what we were so staunchly defending or holding on to. Because as long as we believe only with our minds, without the required response of obedience, there is no real growth.

If we really want to grow mature and to experience God, we have to be willing to discard our wrong notions of God before we can rediscover Him at a deeper, or higher level.

This is what I call intellectual honesty, or better still, intellectual humility.

To be willing to admit that we need to re-discover God at another level.

My faith is anchored on God... but faith is never the goal...

God is the ultimate goal of my faith.

Therefore, my faith has to be examined, proved, and tested.

Allowing my faith to be tested means that at some points in my life there are some beliefs about God that will be proven wrong... and I will need to re-align my faith with the new things God is showing, to be willing to receive a correct understanding of who He is.

Paul admonishes us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.

To experience the beauty of God at a deeper level, I must be ready to grapple with my faith... not let it remain stagnant.

Because faith, like a muscle, atrophies if it is not used.


This month I realized that if I do not exercise my faith at a higher level, then I can't fully appreciate the beauty of who God is... in the new season I am in.

All I will have for food is stale bread...and old wine... and my understanding of God eventually becomes insipid and tasteless.

My faith will be spineless... powerless.

But faith cannot remain at a standstill ... it is meant to mature and draw me ever closer to the fullness of God.

God is always inviting us to taste and see Him in a new light.

Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me,
and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me.

Hear, and your soul shall live...

- Isaiah 55:1-3

Let your soul delight itself in abundance...

Incline your ear, and come to Me...

Hear, and your soul shall live.

He desires that we move on in our knowledge of Him, experiencing Him from glory to glory... ever moving upward, growing closer to His heart.

And this is really the reason why I take time and effort to maintain this weblog - even if my words are not adequate, I can still try to share what I feel, what I understand, why I believe in God.

Hopefully, in doing so, I may whet someone's spiritual appetite... give another person a desire to discover the God whom I have personally known and experienced... remove the veil from someone's eyes... lead a thirsty traveler to the well that never runs dry, point to him the way to heaven.... and experience for himself that Jesus is indeed Who He says He is - the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

A Beautiful Month

As I look back over the past thirty one days, I can say that my heart encountered so much beauty.

In the midst of the events taking place in Japan and in the Middle East, there were also many changes around my personal and family life... my childhood best friend's brother died at a young age of 51... a church friend died of lung cancer even though he was "given" five years to live... threats of earthquakes... rumors of war... a nuclear disaster happening right here in Asia where I live...

I don't know anymore how to pray or what to pray for... except for this word rising in my spirit:

When you see these things happening, rejoice... for your redemption is near.

The beauty that I saw was not so much in the external dimension, but from realizing that God is Sovereign.

He sits on the throne, high above the heavens, but also within the hearts of people who are hungry, longing to know Him more.

Life is beautiful because my God holds not only my own life, but that of the whole earth, in His hands.

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
- Psalm 46:1-5

In Him I am safe and secure.

God's love gives beauty and meaning to my existence.

At the start of the month, I coordinated an Ancient Paths seminar for ten participants. No two seminars are exactly the same. But one thing is constant. Each seminar is filled with ministry breakthroughs where the lies that people have come to believe about themselves, or others, or God Himself, are exposed, and replaced with truth. The circumstances may differ, but the work of healing and restoration is the same. Jesus can always be depended on to bring light into the darkness and pain of our lives!

March 3-5, 2011
Ancient Paths in Bacolod City

I went to Manila on the second week of March and was able to spend some time with my high school friends. For twelve years, from Kindergarten to Fourth Year High School, we were together. We graduated from high school 40 years ago. But the years we spent together in school has created a bond so special, that each time we see one another, it is easy to reconnect at a deeper level!

This month is also a special treat for me because my best friend Melanie who resides in Virginia is in town. We spent a lot of time together!




And just last week, it was a week-long celebration of my 58th birthday. Family and friends made me feel so special.

Mayang, me, Menchu

March 25, Menchu hosted a birthday lunch for me and another friend Mayang.

March 27, early morning on my birthday, my friend Melanie arrives at my house with a bag of freshly baked bread, and a gift for me.

Pat, me, Buddy, Tata
some of my friends from the Family Foundations team who treated me to a birthday breakfast

First Born Son with his son Forerunner (Matthew)

Worshiper's wife, Chosen One with her baby Mighty Warrior / Full of Hope

My family


A beautiful family

March 27, First Born and God Given celebrated their third wedding anniversary at By the Sea, together with the rest of our family. Dear son and "daughter in love" I want you to know I truly am proud of both of you... how you are committed to your marriage, to one another, and to your son Forerunner.

March 28
with my friends Jing and Melanie, at the birthday dinner hosted by my sister in law Sue

March 29, at Bascon Cafe...
Jing hosted a birthday lunch just for the three of us

This picture of my miniature rose was taken at 6:17 a.m. after a night of rain. I believe that God made it bloom right on my birthday.

In the midst of all the uncertainties around me, it has truly been a beautiful month...

And I give glory and honor to my God who alone is truly Beautiful.

He has made all things beautiful in His time.

Indescribable
by Chris Tomlin

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to it's light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
Incomparable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God
You are amazing God


Indescribable by Chris Tomlin

How Beautiful
How beautiful the hands that served
The wine and the bread
And the sons of the earth
How beautiful the feet that walked
The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ

How beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sin and bore it instead
How beautiful the tender eyes
That choose to forgive and never despise
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ

And as He lay down His life
We offer this sacrifice
That we will live just as He died
Willing to pay the price
Willing to pay the price

How beautiful the radiant bride
Who waits for her Groom with His light in her eyes
How beautiful when humble hearts give
The fruit of pure lives so that others may live
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ

How beautiful the feet that bring
The sound of good news and the love of the King
How beautiful the hands that serve
The wine and the bread and the sons of the earth
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ

How Beautiful by Twila Paris



This post is lovingly dedicated to Judith Guerino, one of the most beautiful women I have ever known.

Visit her amazing weblog (which I have read several times over) entitled A Doxology in Darkness and you will understand what I mean.


On her blog sidebar is this quote:

To be grateful for an unanswered prayer,
to give thanks in a state of interior desolation,
to trust in the love of God
in the face of the marvels, cruel circumstances,
obscenities and commonplaces of life
is to whisper a doxology in darkness.

- Brennan Manning

My Fifty-eighth Year

The grand show is eternal.
It is always sunrise somewhere;
the dew is never dried all at once;
a shower is forever falling;
vapor is ever rising.
Eternal sunrise,
eternal dawn and gloaming,
on sea and continents and islands,
each in its turn,
as the round earth rolls.

- John Muir





All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
- Psalm 139:16

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
- Psalm 16:5, 6




You enlarged my path under me,
So my feet did not slip.
-Psalm 18:36




I waited patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
-Psalm 40:1




The LORD your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.
-Zephaniah 3:17

Today is my 58th birthday.

The story of my life is being written by the One who created me, my Creator God. He is the Scriptwriter.

Some of my favorite Bible passages are shown above, including the quote from John Muir.

I look to today in a very special way.

God created me for a purpose, and He gave me a unique personality... one that is tailor made for all the plans He has in store.

No other person in this world has the same chromosomes, cells, and genetic combination that I have. Even my spiritual DNA is not found in any other person.

My life experiences have been used by God to shape me into the woman that I am today.

To celebrate, my two daughters in law, God given and Chosen One, have planned something special. So have my Family Foundations family.

This is how it has been the past years. It usually takes more than one day to celebrate my birthday.

But now, in the first few minutes of this special day, in the stillness of my bedroom, I thank God for creating me. For bringing me into this world. For granting me the privilege of owning all the beautiful experiences I have been through. There are painful experiences that have only become beautiful because God enables me to look at them from a healed perspective.

Yes, it is indeed a privilege to have lived my life the past 57 years. And now as I enter my 58th year, my heart is full, overflowing with thankfulness to God...

For what I have become.

For the many beautiful lessons I have learned.

He has taught me how to live well.

One day at a time.

With open hands.

Giving, without expecting to be thanked
or appreciated
or even to be repaid.

He has taught me that less is more.

That the way up is to take the downward path.

To let my words be few.

To cease striving.

To give the other person the benefit of the doubt.

To welcome adversity as a friend.

To embrace obscurity as a brother.

To choose my battles...
for there are battles that I do not need to fight.

To remain silent in the face of false accusations.

To walk only in the calling that God has assigned to me.

That I am not the savior of the world.

I can leave some things undone...
and many words unsaid.

What seems urgent is not always important.

Some battles can be won
by choosing to put my weapons down,
by walking in the opposite spirit.

That the unfortunate events in my past is not a statement of my worth.

That I am not defined by those who do not love me,
but by those who do...

I can rest in the love of my Father.

That sometimes, the greatest act of love and kindness
I can show a loved one is to move out of her life.

Humility is the character of heaven.

I can choose to forgive.

And above all, to always live in hope,
even when there are no answers.

I will be honest... in my heart are many fears that I dare not voice out. But I talk about them often with God. And I know that the best antidote to fear is to trust God completely... to trust in His unfailing love.

The Lord Almighty is with me. The God of Jacob is my fortress.

He whispers: Be still and know that I am God.



My heart responds:

Yes Father, I know.

It is a lifelong learning process. You are shaping me, chiseling off the rough edges. It is painful... and it hurts to kick against the goads.

But I want to cooperate with You.

You are re-fathering me, re-building me, showing me what it means to be a woman of dignity... because I am of noble birth... and royal blood runs through my veins.

I want to cooperate with You. My life is all about you... and the making of a woman after Your very image.

Thank You for this special day, the start of my 58th year.

Another year in my sacred journey.

Another year closer to Your heart.

The birthday girl

Menchu , Marie Rose, April, Mayang
Jing, Elena, Pat, me

These are some of my friends from church. Every week we meet to do a study called Women at the Well. Last Friday, Menchu threw a birthday lunch for me and Mayang at her lovely home. She prepared such a lovely meal!

Standing: Nanette, Candy
Sitting: Cynthia, me, Ines

These are some of my high school friends. Last week around ten of us met for lunch at a Greek restaurant in Manila. We had a "hilarious" time!

...have patience with everything unresolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves
as if they were locked rooms
or books written in a very foreign language....
And the point is to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually, without even noticing it,
live your way into the answer.

-Rainer Maria Rilke


My Stargazer plant had five lovely flowers waiting for me when I arrived from Manila three days ago!

Songs in the Night

Evening Primrose

photo source




I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places
That you may know that I, the LORD
Who call you by your name;
Am the God of Israel.
-Isaiah 45:3




If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me,"
Even the night shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light
are both alike to You.
- Psalm 139:11-12




I call to remembrance my song in the night...
- Psalm 77:6




When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
-Psalm 63:6




You, LORD, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
- Psalm 18:28




For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may remain for a night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.
-Psalm 30:5




There is a river whose streams make glad
the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High,
God is in the midst of her,
she shall not be moved;
God shall help her
just at the break of dawn.
- Psalm 46:4, 5

I awoke this morning with these two Bible passages clearly impressed on my heart:

I will give you the treasures of darkness
and hidden riches of secret places...


God shall help her just at the break of dawn....

These words were so reassuring to me.

After spending twelve days here in Manila, the time has come for me to once again return to my home city of Bacolod.

Bacolod has been my home for the past 32 years, but saying good-bye to Manila always makes me feel sad.

It is understandable. I was born and raised in this city, and a part of me recognizes that. The home where I grew up was filled with such love and tender memories, so that even if my parents have long gone, this house still feels very much like home to me. Another important reason of course is that my only daughter now lives here, and at twenty six years of age, Obedient One is no longer just a daughter... she has also become my close friend!

Many beautiful events took place within the twelve short days that I was here.

Among other things, on Tuesday, my dear friends Rosemarie and Tina treated me to an early celebration of my birthday. We had lunch at my favorite place, the Cyma Greek Taverna in Greenbelt, Makati City. I had my fill of roca salata (authentic Greek salad) and paidakia (mouth watering roasted lamb chops) and baby clams in angel hair pasta. On top of the sumptuous food, Rosemarie lent me her MP3 of The Bible Experience audio Bible which I was able to load on to my laptop's MP3 player.

For the past two days, my spirit has been feasting on hearing the word of God. I just could not have enough of it!

There are just too many sad and painful things going on around the world, even right here in my own country.

And in the midst of all these uncertain times, I still choose to let the word of God speak hope to my inmost being.

My heart chooses to see the beautiful.

It was with much joy that I received the verses that were on my heart to greet me as I woke up to another day.

Indeed, there are treasures that the dark seasons of our lives give back to us. God does not willingly afflict the sons of men!

There are flowers that bloom only at night!

The songbird learns to sing its sweetest songs in the dark!

In Nature Lessons it is written:

In the full light of day, and in hearing of the music of other voices, the caged bird will not sing the song that his master seeks to teach him.

He learns a snatch of this, a trill of that, but never a separate and entire melody.

But the master covers the cage, and places it where the bird will listen to the one song he is to sing.

In the dark, he tries and tries again to sing that song until it is learned, and he breaks forth in perfect melody.

Then the bird is brought forth, and ever after he can sing that song in the light.

Thus God deals with His children. He has a song to teach us, and when we have learned it amid the shadows of affliction we can sing it ever afterward.

These powerful words of Scripture

I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places
That you may know that I, the LORD
Who call you by your name;
Am the God of Israel.

have spoken to me many times in the past and they continue to speak. God's Word is so rich a gift... it is a gift that keeps on giving... it is a word that keeps on speaking!

My best lessons were learned, and my faith was broken and reinforced, during the darkest moments of my life.

Indeed, as I prepare to leave my Manila home in a few minutes, I have these words of encouragement safely tucked within my heart.


Dearest Father, thank You for being with me in every season of my life.

Thank You that Your words are alive, and through them You continually give me hope, courage, and joy.

How I want my life to be a garden where flowers bloom even in the night seasons, and where songs I have learned in the dark will continue to be sung.

--0--

Below are some snapshots taken from our back garden this morning. This garden does not receive too much care and tending aside from the daily watering... Obedient One does not have time to do it. Many parts of the garden are suffering from neglect. Yet, I am surprised at how willingly it "gives back" - probably it still recognizes the love that has been poured into it in times past. These past days, I have spent time pruning and cutting back the overgrowth, and pouring compost material into the planters. Despite the lack of attention, the garden still gives off a rugged kind of beauty:









Word of God Speak by MercyMe

A Gentle and Quiet Spirit

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment,
such as elaborate hairstyles
and the wearing of gold jewelry
or fine clothes.
Rather, it should be that of your inner self,
the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit,
which is of great worth in God’s sight.

- 1 Peter 3:3-4

It's a cool Sunday morning, and outside my window I hear the birds chirping merrily.


Many thoughts are going on in my mind.


Next Sunday, a week from today I will be turning 58.


I arrived in Manila last week to spend twelve days with my only daughter, who lives in this city. We will have a special lunch at my favorite restaurant today to have an advance celebration of my special day.


Then I will return to Bacolod City just a few days before my birthday, so that I can celebrate my birthday with my two sons and their families.


Surely that day deserves a special blog post... but this morning I just want to share some of the thoughts going on in my mind.


Right now my heart bursts with thanksgiving to my Creator God for making me who I am.


I feel so loved, and I feel so special.

...My parents brought me up in an atmosphere and environment of love.

...My one and only sister loves me.

...My husband loved me with a selfless love.

...My children love, honor, and respect me.

...My husband's family loves me and has a high regard for me.

...I have many friends - and my friends love me!


It is worth saying it again: Yes, I feel so loved, and I feel so special.


And the greatest thing I am thankful for today is that my heavenly Father loves me. He is for me, He is on my side!


And what's more, probably because I feel so loved, I feel beautiful... even if people may not always agree with that.


Yesterday, I got an email from my only sister. She always wants the best for me, and toward the end of her letter, she wrote, "Oh, by the way, I think you should put on more make-up when you go out...."


Bless my dear sister's heart. I know she loves me, and I understand what she meant when she said that.


In response, I just had to smile at her well-intentioned words. Her suggestion is well taken, and of course, I will heed her advice, when the occasion calls for it.


Honestly, for daily wear I do apply very light make-up... probably too light, it's not obvious.


And anyway, with or without it, I still feel beautiful.


Please don't misunderstand. I'm not in any way fishing for compliments. My heart is just overflowing this morning, and I want to share the joy surging through my veins.


There is something about being loved that makes one feel beautiful inside.


There was a season in my life when Ugly was the label I wore. The story about this chapter of my life is briefly mentioned in my introductory post for this blog, What's In A Name.


For months I refused to look at my face in the mirror because I couldn't stand the ugly face staring back at me.


Then God stepped in.


In an incredible encounter I had with Him one night, He gave me a new name. He said, You are a Crown of Beauty, a Royal Diadem, in My hand.


That was a major turning point in my life.


And He opened my spiritual eyes to see the beauty in the midst of my painful circumstances, the beauty of His purposes unfolding before my eyes. He gave me a new perspective from which to view my life, and taught my heart to respond in acceptance, joy, thanksgiving, and hope!


He showed that there is beauty in pain and disappointment! He led me to the wellspring of hope, to drink often from it, and fill my cup to overflowing!


This is the truth I declare: Jesus is my Crown of Beauty... He has made all things beautiful, in His time.



So here I am today, on the threshold of my 58th year. Eating healthy... walking as much as I can... feeling young, not old... and yet knowing that each day, I am one day closer to eternity!


Thank You dear Father for gracing my life with Your love. I surely do not deserve it... but I gladly receive it.


This song, another of my favorites, says it all:


The Stand
by Hillsong United

You stood before creation
Eternity within Your hand
You spoke the earth into motion
My soul now to stand.

You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand.

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One Who gave it all

So I'll stand
My soul LORD to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

This year, mend a quarrel.
Seek out a forgotten friend.
Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust.
Write a letter.
Give a soft answer.
Encourage youth.
Manifest your loyalty in word and deed.
Keep a promise.
Forgo a grudge.
Forgive an enemy.
Apologize.
Try to understand.
Examine your demands on others.
Think first of someone else.
Be kind.
Be gentle.
Laugh a little more.
Express your gratitude.
Welcome a stranger.
Gladden the heart of a child.
Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth.
Speak your love and then speak it again.

- Howard W. Hunter


This is me with my childhood best friend, Cynthia. We went to school together for twelve years! She arrived in Manila for a week for the burial of her baby brother Norby who passed away on March 12. Yesterday, she returned to San Francisco where she resides. This picture was taken during the lunch we had together with our other high school friends.

We Will Dance

Heaven's Gate

by Jay Patel





Now when these things begin to happen,
look up and lift up your heads,
because your redemption draws near.

- Luke 21:38




And I heard, as it were,
the voice of a great multitude,
as the sound of many waters
and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying,
“Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and His wife has made herself ready.”

And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and bright,
for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Then he said to me, “Write:
‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’”

- Revelation 19:6-9 NKJV




But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.
The heavens will disappear with a roar;
the elements will be destroyed by fire,
and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way,
what kind of people ought you to be?
You ought to live holy and godly lives
as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire,
and the elements will melt in the heat.

But in keeping with his promise
we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth,
where righteousness dwells.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this,
make every effort to be found spotless,
blameless and at peace with him.

- 2 Peter 3:10-14

When someone you love becomes a memory,

the memory becomes a treasure.

- Unknown

Today I remember Ernie in a very special way.

It's our wedding anniversary!

Thirty-three years ago, on March 18, 1978, I walked down the aisle, a glowing and radiant bride, to be wed to my bridegroom, Ernie.

We have a beautiful love story. I keep telling myself that thirty years of a beautiful marriage was much too short... it ended too soon.

Before I knew it, it was all over.

We had spent one year in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he worked as an international consultant at Maejo University to help set up their International MBA program.

As the contract was about to end, President Thep invited him to stay for one more year, to continue what he had begun. Ernie declined the offer.

"I really want to go back home already," my husband had said to me.

We packed up our belongings and returned to the Philippines on September 28, 2008. (Read about it at Home Again, or New Wineskins).

Little did I know that that was to be the last year of our married life together. (Read Given Wings, a post I wrote on our 30th wedding anniversary which we celebrated in Chiang Mai, Thailand)

On November 23, 2008, less than two months after we returned to our homeland, Ernie did "go back home."

Back home... to his Creator. Back home... to his eternal abode.
(Read Songs of Deliverance, a post I wrote a day after Ernie went home to heaven.)



Many of my friends know that heaven is a subject quite dear to my heart. Even more so now that the man I love, the person with whom I shared my life in a very special way for thirty years, is already there.


I understand full well that the human relationships we loved and cherished here on earth will be seen in a different light in eternity.

It is often believed that there will be no marriage between a man and a woman in heaven.

I find this hard to accept.

After all, the teaching about this in Scripture isn't very clear, probably because our finite minds cannot grasp eternal realities. There is no hard and fast doctrine in the Bible that supports this view.

No one really knows for sure, except God alone.

The nature of heavenly relationships will be fully revealed to us only when we reach heaven, when we will no longer see through a blurred mirror, but we will see and understand heavenly things as they are.

So, I'll wait and see. But I truly believe that the beautiful relationships we enjoyed here on earth will not go to waste. Our meaningful relationships here shape and mold and prepare us for heaven.

When the Lord returns, He will usher in a new heaven and a new earth... but I believe that there is a sense in which heaven will be a continuation of our earthly lives.

Surely, it will be in a different dimension... far above what any human mind can conceive or imagine. Yet, I believe that heaven will not be a strange place...

And I also believe that heaven will be the perfection, the completion, of our relationships here on earth.

To anyone who has loved God, and has a heart to heart relationship with Jesus, heaven will be home... the culmination and the fulfillment of all we have ever desired, dreamed of, and longed for.

We "see" and understand heaven in an immature way because our minds cannot comprehend the beauty of this eternal heavenly place; nevertheless, you and I have been given glimpses of eternity here on earth.

Our heart knows what heaven must be like.


God intended marriage to be beautiful. Indeed, when a man and a woman marry, they enter into a covenant with one another and with God... a relationship meant to be full of depth and meaning - maturing, growing deeper, and becoming more beautiful through the years.

Marriage here on earth was intended by God to be a mirror of how God intends the relationship between Him and His people to be. The commitment, the faithfulness, the loyalty, the devotion, the submission to one another... all these are a reflection of the enduring love God has for us.

It is a beautiful picture, a foretaste of the heavenly relationship that we will be enjoying in eternity with God.

God is at the center of it all - and we will all be beautifully aligned to one another, flowing as it were in an eternal dance, where all the moves are perfect, and the music is unending!


The recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, leaving in its wake untold grief, devastation, and loss of catastrophic proportions, have once more impressed this truth in my heart - the Lord is coming back for us soon.

My heart breaks as I watch the news and the videos of the massive destruction... the economic repercussions, the possibility of a nuclear meltdown...

In the midst of the intercession being offered, the truth stands out: there is nothing permanent in this life. A loved one can die, material possessions can suddenly be wiped away.

But God is our solid rock... a firm foundation.

And He has prepared a safe place for those who have put their trust in Him...

And Jesus His Son is coming back for us...

Yes, Jesus is coming back for us, the way a bridegroom comes back for his bride after he has prepared a place for her...

Heaven is the place that Jesus has prepared for those "who have been called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb."



My husband loved to dance. He was such a graceful dancer; I, on the other hand, never learned to dance very well. But I do feel that I'm a dancer at heart; somehow I know that in eternity, I will be one!



Today as I remember my wedding anniversary, I thank You my heavenly Father, for having given me a good husband, and for giving us thirty years to enjoy life together.


I have loved and honored Ernie, and I continue to treasure the memories we have made together.

Thank you for being with me in my grieving season... and thank you for the way Your comfort and Your hope strengthened me in and through the process.

By Your grace, I am emerging from the tunnel of grief.


Thank you that out of Ernie's death, I have received new life, a deeper understanding of Your purposes, a clearer view of eternity!

And today, I am thinking of heaven in a very special way... where there will be no other God but You.

You alone will be worshiped, and adored, and You will be at the center of everything.

It will be beautiful because everything will flow, and the heavenly music will be harmonious. There will not be anything that is out of place there.


In You, all my questions will be answered.

I can only imagine what it will be like - but heaven will surely be beyond anything that I can hope for or imagine.

What a beautiful way to celebrate my wedding anniversary, Lord... by remembering that this earth is not my final destination.

Heaven is! You are!

And because I am looking forward to heaven, I can look at what is happening around me with hope, not with a sense of dread or fear.


Death is not the end, but a new beginning!

You fill my heart with rejoicing!

The song We Will Dance by Steven Curtis Chapman below will always remind me of Ernie. Our love for each other was not perfect, but it was beautiful and full of meaning.

Another song, also entitled We Will Dance by Andy Park is about the dance that we will dance and the song that we will sing in heaven, a dance and a song of rejoicing. It has always been a top favorite of mine.

Another song, I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe is another beautiful song; each time I listen to it, it inspires me to think of heaven and to respond in worship!


I have shared these three songs at the end of this post. May I invite you to stay a while, worship God with me, and listen to these beautiful songs?

(Note: Please turn off the music player at the bottom of this blog before clicking on the YouTube videos posted on today's entry.)

We Will Dance
by Steven Curtis Chapman

I've watched the sunrise in your eyes
And I've seen the tears fall like the rain
You've seen me fight so brave and strong
You've held my hand when I'm afraid

We've watched the seasons come and go
We'll see them come and go again
But in winter's chill, or summer's breeze
One thing will not be changin'

We will dance
When the sun is shining
In the pouring rain
We'll spin and we'll sway
And we will dance
When the gentle breeze
Becomes a hurricane
The music will play
And I'll take your hand
And hold you close to me
And we will dance

Sometimes it's hard to hold you tight
Sometimes we feel so far apart
Sometimes we dance as one
And feel the beating of each others hearts

Some days the dance is slow and sweet
Some days we're bouncing off the walls
No matter how this world may turn
Our love will keep us from fallin'

And we will dance
When the sun is shining
In the pouring rain
We'll spin and we'll sway
And we will dance
When the gentle breeze
Becomes a hurricane
The music will play
And I'll take your hand
And hold you close to me
And we will dance

The music will play
And I'll hold you close
And I won't let you go
Even when our steps
Grow weak and slow
Still I'll take your hand
And hold you close to me
And we, will dance

We Will Dance by Steven Curtis Chapman

We Will Dance
by Andy Park

Sing a song of celebration
Lift up a shout of praise
For the bridegroom will come
The glorious one
And oh we will look on his face
We'll go to a much better place

And dance with all your might
Lift up your hands and clap for joy
The time's drawing near
When he will appear
And oh we will stand by his side
A strong pure spotless bride

We will dance on the streets that are gold
The glorious pride at the great son of man
Let every tongue and tribe and nation
Rejoice in the song of the lamb

We Will Dance by David Ruis

I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe