What Faith Can Do

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it's more than you can take
But you're stronger, stronger than you know

Don't you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do

It doesn't matter what you've heard
Impossible is not a word
It's just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody's scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
But it'll be alright

Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing

I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do

Overcome the odds
When you don't have a chance
(That's what faith can do)
When the world says you can't
It'll tell you that you can

I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do
That's what faith can do

Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Scott Krippayne / Scott Davis

What Faith Can Do lyrics © Life Of Rhyme Music Publishing, Pirk Music, Word Music, Llc

God Hates Hypocrisy | Luke 12: 1 | Jesus Against the Leaven of the Pharisees | Taglish Preaching

 Jesus constantly attacked the hypocrisy of the Pharisees during his time in the ministry. The elect and children of God are saved by grace through faith and so Jesus was very meticulous about the faith that we have. Fake faith cannot save hence we look at the faith that is coming from God and not any superficial faith that we paint ourselves. God wants our genuine faith..

how is your faith today? what do you do in the dark or when no one is looking? do you do good only if the Pastor is present or if a fellow Christian is with you? do you persevere? Are you having faith in Jesus even if the road has been rough recently?

Nov. 20, 2022 Worship and Fellowship Service at Pritti Place Cafe, Daraga, Albay.

How To Be Genuinely Generous?

God doesn't want us, His Children, to be condemned and suffer in hell, so He gave His only Begotten Son to PAY OUR DEBT, so we can have eternal life with Him. What a generous God! As His elect, we enjoy the benefits of His salvation as we enter His Kingdom and have a taste of it here on earth. As we experience the Lord's generosity in our Christian walk, have we thought of giving back to Him generously too? Should you even give to God even though you know you cannot add anything to Him because He is all-sufficient? Yes indeed! You are a child of God and it pleases Him to see you become generous as He is. So let us all be generous as we serve the sovereign triune God.

 September 25, 2022 Worship and Fellowship Service at Pritti Place Cafe, Daraga, Albay.

The Way You Look At Me | Original Christian Bautista | Female Cover

Yung mag-isa ka sa kwarto pero parang may nakatingin sa'yo, wag ka mag-alala, kantahan mo na lang sya ng.....

Should Christians Celebrate Halloweeen?

 "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." - Matthew 12:30

The "antithesis" can never be negated in our Christian life and theology. This is the truth and reality that we should not forget. There are always two sides of the coin- the good and the bad: God and evil.. You cannot be neutral and say you believe in God yet you support the activities of the evil. As a Christian, we stay on the side of God and make a stand especially in crucial times like this halloween season. Do we support and celebrate halloween? NO. But do we need to go to parties? Maybe, but we should make our goal clear as we go: to be salt and light in that place. As Jesus did in His ministry, there were 3 premises: Christ against culture, Christ in the culture, and Christ over culture. The third one is always given in any circumstance. We follow the first (Christ against culture) when there is already a compromise in our faith and we follow the second (Christ in culture) when we are sent to win souls. Jesus entered the world of tax collectors but did not support their cheating and corruption activities, He went there so they can see the light. The same way, we may go to halloween parties with the same mind of Christ where we get in the culture without conforming to the darkness in that place but to be the light and salt as He has sent us to do so. How do we do this? Ask the Holy Spirit...

Is Philosophy Necessary in Christian Theology?

 

Reading the recent American philosophy was a bit overwhelming and at certain point and degree releases a tingling sensation to the ear because of the twisted understanding of truth. But I must admit, most of their arguments are quite convincing. Nonetheless, the truth evidenced in the Word of God can impossibly be overcome by any secular philosophy at all.

Philosophy may be overwhelming at times indeed that is why I used to stay away from it even back in my early years of being a Christian. But over time I realized that philosophy can be very useful for our theology for as long as it furthers a pursuit of truth.

As the writer of Ecclesiastes said in Ecclesiastes 12:13 that the whole duty of man is to obey God, we are to deal with the many different worldly philosophies without losing our connection to the Divine wisdom of God. I believe that all necessary questions or existential inquiries pertaining to God, eternity, and the godly life are addressed in the Word of God, the Bible. Paul in his accounts implied that he has knowledge of the Greek writings and other philosophies as he was able to deal with arguments with the stoics and epicureans in the book of Acts. Hence it should be normal for Christians to study and use philosophy for apologetic and evangelistic purposes. And as for me, it would also be part of that helmet of salvation in Ephesians 6, which will protect us from being gullible to the worldly philosophies that will draw us away from the truth of God.

Although we can say that faith and reason are in conflict most of the time and that faith is implicitly irrational or anti-intellectual, it does not mean that we are to devalue philosophy at all. The Bible presents us the truth about faith and God and further the Gospel as being grounded in reality and founded upon the history of God's people as recorded by eyewitnesses of extraordinary and divine events.  

We always need to balance things whether in our understanding of the divine realm and matters about it along with the physical. We can never understand the things of the Spirit of God without His special revelation, which is His Word. His wisdom does not come from our natural state of mind for our human reason is fallen. We need God who gives wisdom as a gift to us. Reason that does not come from God is deadly. Hence we need God’s wisdom and not the pride of human reason. As Proverbs 9:10 says, the beginning of all wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Holy Fear- rooted in love- not the idea of fear that this world teaches).

God is the ultimate source of wisdom and we are to ask this gift from Him so that we can think rationally. That way, we are able to say that we have the "mind of Christ".

Philosophy is neutral. It can be used to argue, boast, and be prideful about wisdom. But on the other hand, it can be a beautiful tool that can lead us to enlightening, mature, and healthy arguments that lead all to the knowledge of God. So us, Christian theists, should take philosophy positively and Biblically in accordance to the will of God.

 

 

Who Will Go To Heaven

Looking at these beliefts, we can see five major categories regarding how to get to heaven. 1- Most believe that hard work and wisdom will lead to ultimate fulfillment, whether that is unity with god (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Baha’i) or freedom and independence (Scientology, Jainism). 2- Others, like Unitarianism and Wicca, teach the afterlife is whatever you want it to be, and salvation is a non-issue because the sin nature doesn’t exist. 3- A few believe either the afterlife doesn’t exist or it’s too unknowable to consider. 4- Derivatives of the worship of the Christian-Judeo God generally hold that faith in God and/or Jesus and the accomplishment of various deeds, including baptism or door-to-door evangelism, will ensure the worshiper will go to heaven. 5- Only Christianity teaches that salvation is a free gift of God through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9), and no amount of work or effort is necessary or possible to get to heaven. based on the article by gotquestions.org

https://www.gotquestions.org/how-to-get-to-heaven.html

For us Christians, we believe there is heaven but we are not sure of how it looks like but we have this blessed hope and assurance that it exists. And heaven for us is a realm or Kingdom of God, and since it is His Kingdom, He owns it. If He owns it, He will get to decide who will enter right? we are not the ones to decide. Now God who is a holy God in His holy place will always maintain holiness in His Kingdom. That is the reality of God and we cannot change. He is immutable. If he adjusts to be unholy like us then He is not God anymore.. And all of us humans are unholy and not good enough to enter heaven. none of us.. even the level of Mother Theresa will not enter heaven, because no person in this world has that truly clean slate. Maybe a small sin will not justify us, all of us have records be it a very small sin or big sin. That is why throughout history especially recorded in the Old Testament, no one has ever perfected the law except when Jesus came. God Himself went down on earth to save us because we cannot save ourselves. We cannot give ourselves the ticket to heaven. It is only by the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we can get accepted in heaven. Not by our own good works but by Jesus Himself alone. We are hidden in the glory of Jesus when we enter heaven. This is the mystery of what #joycepring was actually asserting in her interview and we as Christians should humbly present this to the world. That Jesus is the only way to heaven not in an arrogant way but in way that they will understand the love of Christ for them no matter what they have done in their lives. Because if we accept Christ in our lives, it means we are resigning to His will and so we will no longer live according to the flesh but in Spirit. Yes we will still have struggles, we will still sin, but we will have conviction, we will not remain in sin but rather we will repent and turn back to God and ask for guidance so we will be taken away from that path to sin.. and yes, if we don't have Jesus, we will go to hell. There is no other way but Him. Heaven is owned by God. He gets to decide who will enter. And His decision relies on the condition of Holiness that we can only find in Jesus.

No copyright infringement intended for the photos from this post as these are just intended to educate our students in the World Religions Class. Blog: http://www.lanilaneocbina.online/ FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChibiLanilane youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LanilaneOcbina Instagram & Tiktok: lanilaneocbina

Do We Worship The Same God?

 

The Idea of God in the Church

The account about Paul at Athens makes me think about the worshippers in the Christian context where there is always a strong possibility of being  in a church and congregation that worships different versions of Jesus Christ. I once asked my brothers and sisters in the church: “are we worshipping the same Jesus when we sing, pray, and hear the Word during Sunday services? Do we have the same Christ in mind?” And the realizations were surprising. The worshippers of the God if the Bible really need to grow in the knowledge of God or else, many will end up worshipping a different “god”, leading to idolatry, which God Himself condemns. Some of them unknowingly see Jesus as a genie who grants wishes. Some see Jesus as a Santa Claus who rewards nice boys and girls. Some see Jesus as their ATM who would release cash whenever they need and want it. All these  can be really dangerous as these reflect superficial knowledge of God that leads to worship of material things and not God at all.

God is the Creator of all good things, the High Priest who sacrificed Himself as the Lamb to cover all sings once and for all, He is the Messiah and Judge who will come again to judge the living and the dead, He is the God who commissioned us to do a task until His Parousia.

Being a Christian is much more than asking presents and rewards daily from the Lord.

Paul’s Encounter with the Critical Thinkers

Paul’s encounter with the Epicureans and Stoics in Athens makes me think also about the circumstance where we meet unbelievers or even God-seekers or God-fearers. Paul’s strategy was reckoning with homophily conditions as the entry point. The critical thinkers have their own “gods” in mind and Paul saw that there was an “unknown god” and made it as his entry point to introduce the true Gospel of Christ.

People worship the unknown god even though they do not know him and thought it was fine. But God wants us to know Him and so Paul used it to teach about the one true God. Paul tried to reconcile the mystery and he did it with authority and boldness because he knows for sure that what he is preaching is the truth of God.

In our ministry context, we also need to look for the homophilous patterns to relate to the non-Christians and then later redirect them to the one true God. There is always an entry point as the “unknown god” used by Paul. We need the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit as what Paul experienced all throughout his missionary journeys.

Week 7

Digest, Oct. 5-Oct 12, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

 

How Important is Theology for Every Believer?

Some years ago, when I found myself passionate so much for Jesus, I just got extreme in my philosophies. I believed and thought to myself, “I do not want to be a theologian, I want to be a person of God..” This perhaps was not just because of my heart burning for Jesus but because of some arrogant theologians that I met along the way. Nonetheless, as time went by, the Lord taught me that as His follower, as His child, I have to grow in His knowledge. And that a person of God is also a sound theologian.

With sound theology, our faith will not be easily shaken. With the Biblical understanding of God, we are sure that we will also not feed the flock with poisonous philosophies. Hence, as a commissioner of God, we are to be ready to defend our faith because there is a flock under our care to be protected.

Jesus asked Peter three times if he truly loves Him, and everytime Peter says yes, Jesus would tell him to feed and take care of the flock. Thus, if we truly love the Lord, we are to make sure that we know God and His Word well. Apologetics and our grasp of Christian history and facts should be sturdy then.

Apologetics is important and we can only be effective in it if our philosophy about God is truly Biblical. Christian History and facts are important also especially when we go to places where there are many “stoics” and “epicureans” who will shaken our faith or the faith of those who are under our care.

Both apologetics and evidences (history) are God’s tools to save us from false teaching and actually, to save us from ourselves as well. On my end, I still find myself in crisis of some sort at times. I have questions about God and His mysterious dealings in the world from time to time. But the Word of God tells us so much that all these crises do not take so long to linger and that God remains to be God as the absolute authority and Creator designer of all things.

God is eternal, infinite, unchanging holy and so forth. He is not created by anything / anyone but He is the Creator Himself. He is not bond by anything that any of our language could speak, not any third party at all. He exists outside all of these, be it time, language and so forth.

God is absolute. He is God. He cannot be explained fully because if He can be, He is not God anymore. No one is capable of knowing it all about Him but we are called to know Him anyway. We are to understand all that we can about Him and not all that there is because the infinite God forever have the mystery that only Him can decide whether it shall be revealed fully to us or not.

Week 6

Digest, Sept.28-Oct.4, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

Maintaining the Eschatological Perspective

As children of God, we are recipients of God’s saving grace hence we are to act as those who are not just under the common grace. God’s salvation for us has to lead us to the original cultural mandate of God which is to subdue the earth and we are to stick to the Great commission of Christ. The problem in our Church today is the tendency to get stuck in the present temporal issues rather than kingdom purposes of significance for both time and eternity. Most Christians forget to think eschatologically and miss the fact that apart from the common grace, there is also the common curse, and that there is an idea of the catastrophic.

The Antithesis drives us to focus and maintain our journey to win more souls for Christ. This is not because we have the power to determine who are the elect but because we are made to be obedient to the Lord and do as He instructs us to do. It is only God who knows who will be saved and who will be the reprobate and our role is to live the cultural mandate and Great commission of Christ. Having this in mind, we need to understand this and take by heart because it will be dangerous to go forth and win souls and then share to them a different Gospel.

Being a missionary, I met a lot of frontliners in the battlefield who are so bold as driven by Christ’s Great Commission. Most of them inspire me but it hurts me though when some of them criticize theologians because for them, there is an urgency for the harvest and theologians just waste time figuring out and solving many errors when the great problem is actually how to bring more souls to Christ. To me, there should be a balance because missionaries, theologians, and others are all parts of the body of Christ and have important roles to work on. And actually, missionaries really need to be theologians themselves as well because in the battlefield, there will be so many false teachings and errors that will lead to the corruption of their teachings as they share the Gospel to communities. Hence there should be the clarity of revelation as per the Reformed Apologetics is concerned and theologians have an important role in this matter.

Missionary theologians will not be easily swayed by some teachings especially things like the dualism of the Romanists, which apparently introduces a different god. The Scripture teaches us that man was totally disposed to God in the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis and is not having two different natures as in the RC’s teachings of concupiscence. 

The testimony of the Holy Spirit is of prime importance when we serve in the missionfield. It is then always important to base all understanding and teachings on the Scripture which exhibits fully as clear evidence of truth . Anything that is apart from this form of God’s special revelation will lead anyone astray no matter how good the theology of a minister sounds.

  

Week 5

Digest, Sept.21-27, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

 

Roman Catholic Theology of Concupiscence

Reckoning with the Roman Catholic theology about the state of man in the garden of Eden, I can't help but think of the yin-yang principle of the "wise" Chinese men. The concupiscence, having the body and soul or the inclination to higher rational spirit and to lower physical appetite, seems to make sense as it still happens to us even today although the thought or perspective may be quite dangerous. Some people who are not deeply rooted in the Word of God can easily be taken away by this theology since it sounds easy to chew. As it may sound Pelagian, some would see ourselves like Adam who has our own battle and own share of that concupiscence. However the Scripture does not teach us this at all. We are not on our own like how Adam was in the Garden of Eden.

It is not true that the sin of Adam was just of Adam. When Adam sinned, sin was imputed to all humankind. We are all totally depraved and that we all need God's grace so we can be brought back to the perfect eternal fellowship with Him as He originally intended in the Garden of Eden.

God has made a way for us by accommodating Himself to us so we can understand His language. He condescended to reveal it in Scripture.

All throughout the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, He communicated His redemptive plan to us in a way that we understand His revelation of grace. How His covenant of works progressed to His covenant of grace is amazing and how His contextualized manner of explaining Himself and His intention for us is overwhelming. God simply became man so He can speak to man without changing ontologically nor economically as the Triune God.

God's redemptive work was for all, whether the regenerate or the unregenerate. As Van Til said that God is revealed at all, that is revealed in nature[1]. The common grace is not very common for some though. Some believers (or some unbelievers) will mistakenly see it as the saving grace that leads to the view of universalism. But the Bible reiterates that there will be judgment in the end, there will be the saved and the unsaved, the elect and the reprobate.

On another note, I feel sad about some believers who become arrogant and prideful about being in a position of an elect when actually, such gift should lead us to humility and passion for God, leading us even more to doing His will, which is to love, to obey His Great Commission, to become light and salt in this world. I feel sad about seeing Christians who were drawn in a system that is hyper-theological (if you will) where the Sunday school level believers would feel so small about.

I pray that as God has contextualized through the so-called condescension, we as His children will do the same to others. That we adjust to a language that they will learn the truth about God but of course without distorting the whole message of the Gospel. I pray that as the Lord Jesus incarnate blessed us, we will also bless the world with the incarnational ministry that God has entrusted to us.

 

---

[1] C. Van Til, Nature and Scripture (Reading assignment, page 2).

 

Week 4

Digest, Sept.14-20, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

Do I Agree With Barth?

I must say that I agree with Barth in two points: (1) Jesus being the Geschichte in whom the life of all humankind is realized and that (2) Jesus Christ and His work of reconciliation of God and man envelops the entire history of the world and every man. However, when Barth says that Jesus is distinct from God (the Father) I surely disagree because Jesus is the Word.. He is God Himself in flesh.

Jesus was not an agent who came from on high on behalf of a superior God that is outside Him. I believe in the triune God who was, who is, and is to come. Jesus was the electing Christ with an absolute decree and not as what Barth says that Christ is the electing God and the elected man.

The subordination within the trinity is not ontological but economic, as Jesus the Son is not inferior to God the Father nor any distinct from the God the Holy Spirit. The subsistence, aseity and immutability of the trinity are incommunicable attributes of the triune God that would explain such economic or relational subordination of the three Persons.

I must admit that reading the different perspectives of theologians make me think more critical and also lead to some levels of confusion because in some ways, their positions at a certain degree make sense to me. But getting into their teachings, like that of Barth, is like going into a tunnel and the farther you go into it, the more you realize that you are being led into a bad destination.

I believe there is no perfect theology but there is always a sound theology. I would say that we should just go with the sound one but do not worship it. Worshipping God is always the goal not the theology.

  

Week 3

Digest, Sept.6-13, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

The Knowledge of God is of Prime Importance in our Christian Walk

 

With all the different perspectives about God, I always remember the Apostle Paul’s constant reminder in his writings where he would always stress the great need  to grow in the Knowledge of God. This is because knowing God more in the deepest and truest sense will protect the early Church and even us today from the non-Christian philosophies that will seriously shaken our view of history, facts, the Law, the Bible per se and so forth.

The Knowledge of God is such a critical matter in every Christian’s life that will determine his destination of faith. As God’s children, we are taken by Him out from the world of misinterpretation and now placed in His world of truth. Plainly we can see that in His truth, we are truly set free.

I am raised in a place dominated by Romanism and so my worldview was initially shaped in this context of clericalism and all the distortion and offense to the person of Christ. When I met Christ in my early twenties, I have met different kinds of Christians who have views that could have shaken my faith early on. Some of them were Arminians and some were hyper Calvinists. There have been different kinds of worshippers along the path from Pentecostals to Baptists and Fundamentalists. It has also been a common thing to encounter Christians who get confused with the theology of Saving Grace and theology of Common Grace. Sadly, some would emphasize common grace in their own theology leading to universalism.

There were times that I get frustrated with all the various views that seem overwhelming. God and His absolute truth can be taken too much at times that even the teachings about the Trinity basically cracks my brain giving me a feeling of not recovering again but the Lord is good because He constantly reminds us that we are not to depend on our own understanding but in Him alone.

I agree with Van Til when he said that we are dealing with an inexhaustible God and that what we have is an approximation to the fullness of truth as it exists in God. We cannot understand God fully and totally because once we do, He is not God anymore. He is a great God and there is an unimaginable amount of knowledge of Him and relative to that, we all have our limited brains and time on earth to know it all.

I personally am thankful for the Bible, the Scriptures, to which God’s thumbmark is manifested through It’s authority, perspicuity, necessity, and sufficiency for His people, His children.

Week 2

Digest, Aug 29-Sept.5, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

Amazing Love | Guitar Ukulele Piano | Cover | Chris Tomlin | Hillsong | Lanilane

On my birthday, let me pray for you.. I pray that you will have the courage and wisdom from the Lord as you face the storms in your life, that the hurricanes will not uproot you from your faith and that you will soar on wings like eagle above all these impossible trials. I know it's tough but you've got to hold your head up high and let Jesus take the wheel for His love is perfect and amazing! PS: pwede pa hirit ng birthday gift, kahit hindi gcash haha . I'm trying to have my pages rallied by likes and subscriptions and yours will be deeply appreciated! Pa like and subscribe nalang ha? ^_^ Blog: http://www.lanilaneocbina.online/ FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChibiLanilane youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LanilaneOcbina Instagram & Tiktok: lanilaneocbina #amazinglove Chris Tomlin Amazing Love D-Bm-G-A G-A-D

I'm forgiven because You were forsaken, I'm accepted, You were condemned. I am alive and well, Your sprit is within me, Because You died and rose again. (Repeat x2) [Chorus:] Amazing love, How can it be? That You, my King would die for me? Amazing love, I know it's true. It's my joy to honour You, In all I do, I honour You. I'm forgiven because You were forsaken, I'm accepted, You were condemned. I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me, Because You died and rose again. You are my King Jesus You are my King

Modern Lamentation

Painful Night

Part 1

Tonight is a painful night

I watched another prince movie,

Being entertained once again

And strangely hurt by the happy ending for the nth time

As they lived happily ever after

My dream of the same ending is killed at the same time

I realize it won't happen to me

And it hurts

Maybe I desire it that is why it hurts

Well maybe it will happen I just don't know when

I just wanted to destress from the toxic adult problems

I was convincing my younger brother that  

he is never a disappointment when deep inside me, I am the one who is

But I pray to the Lord and ask forgiveness over and over

And I don't repeat the prayer because of doubt but because my heart really yearns for Him

I know and believe that He will make things turn around

He will provide

I am His child

I lack nothing

And so I thank You Lord

For everything that You have done

And for being an awesome God

No matter the circumstance

I will praise and worship You

Jesus, my Lord and Savior

Part 2

I can't keep the tears from welling up

My nose is not serving its purpose

I thank God for giving me mouth in this case

This migraine is killing me

But I will fight for my life until I see a happy soul

There seems no-one around me who is not hurting

Everyone needs healing including me

That is why we need a Savior and Healer

Jesus is the answer

I pray that everyone will put that in their banner

And stop being a bummer

Part 3

I'm drinking my tears and I'm getting drowned

But still I know there will be sunshine tomorrow

My heart is overwhelmed with pain

but I know God is my healer

God knew pain more than I do

Hence He knows how and when it stops

I just trust the sovereign Creator

who died on the cross for me

such pain while being hung on the tree

is far worse than what I feel today

I am grateful for Him who saved me

because I know at the end of it all

He promised that there will be no more tears,

no more pain, and no more sadness.

***

God Can Use Anyone For His Glory.. It's His Call

Cornelius Van Til  was said to be the theologian who was unlikely to accomplish something as great as being the main person behind the reformed Christian Apologetics. But God is a great God who can use anyone for His glory. God , as G. Bahnsen said, “is in a habit of utilizing unlikely candidates to mount great victories for His Kingdom…” (p.7) A supposed to be common man who wanted to be a farmer, Van Til made by God a great Christian apologist of our time.

Van Til’s proposed having transcendental, presuppositional method of argumentation as we reason with non-believers with the goal of reducing  non-Christin worldview. (p. 11) With the advancement of knowledge today, many people tend to not believe in God perhaps due to the power rendered by science or on the other hand, confusion over the many religions that emerge from all corners of the world. People get so detached from God and become more engaged to the pleasures and ever fast and advancing knowledge of this world.

As I would interpret Van Til’s approach, I thought that he was proposing that we try to look through the lenses of the unbelievers so that we will know how and where to start, even so, why to start. This is to recalibrate their thoughts in order to change gear from disbelief to belief in God. Moreso, we are to be prepared to call the pragmatists to conform to God’s plan instead of their belief that the universe is over or created God.

As the Greek word “Apologia” is defined as one’s defense of self against accusations (in the court), I’d say that we Christians are always in the position of being accused of having a foolish religion or belief. In this case, I remember how Paul always reminded (and prayed about it) that the churches are to grow in the “knowledge of God”, which we need in our defense of faith.

As I was reading, I thought of some Christians who do apologetics and sound like they are defending God before unbelievers. This I thought is foolishness because God never needs a lawyer out of us. He is God and He can defend Himself. Hence, in light of Van Til’s intentions as reformed Christian apologetics is concerned, we ought to be ready to defend our faith and be able to win others for Christ as well, not as superheroes who are able to defend God.

Our focus is to reinforce our helmet of salvation and be able to provide one for our accuser/s as much as possible. We are worshipping the one true God and we are to be able to present epistemological evidences that will present our faith in Him that cannot be shaken.

Week 1

Digest, Aug 23-30, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

One Thing I Know | Selah Lyrics| Cover | Lanilane | God will take away your pain

 "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."   -Psalm 34:18

https://youtu.be/iXtFhbPU-qg

#GodWillTakeAwayYourPain

if you choose to #LetItGo

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ONE THING I KNOW

By Selah

Something in your eyes, I see

Reminds me of what used to be

When I was still uncertain of the truth

Sleepless nights that turned to days

Alone inside an endless space

Counting on someone to see me through

And if there's one thing I know

You were never left alone

'Cause you can always call on Jesus' name

And if there's one thing I pray

Is Jesus helps you find a way

To make a change and listen to your heart

God will take away your pain

If you choose to let it go

If there's one thing I know

How can I convince your heart

His light can find you in the dark

And only He can make your blind eyes see?

For if we speak of lost things found

Or lives that have been turned around

Then tell me who knows better, child, than me?

If there's one thing I know

You were never left alone

'Cause you can always call on Jesus' name

And if there's one thing I pray

Is Jesus helps you find a way

To make a change and listen to your heart, ooh

God will take away your pain

If you'll choose to let it go

If there's one thing I know

I would never stake my life on any lesser thing

Than the Cross of Christ, where He gave His life

To ease my suffering

If there's one thing I know

You were never left alone

'Cause you can always call on Jesus' name

And if there's one thing I pray

Is Jesus helps you find a way

To make a change and listen to your heart, ooh

God will take away your pain

If you'll choose to let it go

If there's one thing I know, 

My Mom's Favorite Karaoke Song

This was my mom's favorite karaoke song.. she's truly missed.. today marks her 16th year of not being with us..... For all the motherless or parentless, remember that God and His love will see you through ... Blog: http://www.lanilaneocbina.online/ FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChibiLanilane Instagram & Tiktok: lanilaneocbina

With A Smile | Eraserheads | Cover | Lanilane | Full Female version

Lift your head, baby, don't be scared
Of the things that could go wrong along the way
You'll get by with a smile
You can't win at everything, but you can try
Baby, you don't have to worry
'Cause there ain't no need to hurry
No one ever said that there's an easy way
When they're closing all their doors
And they don't want you anymore
This sounds funny, but I'll say it anyway
Girl, I'll stay through the bad times
Even if I have to fetch you everyday
We'll get by with a smile
You can never be too happy in this life
'Cause in a world where everybody hates a happy ending story
It's a wonder love can make the world go round
But dont let it bring you down
And turn your face into a frown
You'll get along with a little prayer and a song
Let me hear you sing it
'Cause in a world where everybody hates a happy ending story
It's a wonder love can make the world go round
But don't let it bring you down
And turn your face into a frown
You'll get along with a little prayer and a song
Lift your head, baby, don't be scared
Of the things that could go wrong along the way
You'll get by with a smile
Now it's time to kiss away those tears goodbye
Let me hear you sing it

Blog: http://www.lanilaneocbina.online/ FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChibiLanilane Instagram & Tiktok: lanilaneocbina

With A Smile | Eraserheads | Cover | With sound and without sound

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” - Matthew 6:34 Smile my friend! Blog: http://www.lanilaneocbina.online/ FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChibiLanilane Instagram & Tiktok: lanilaneocbina

Messiah | Netflix Series | Reaction | Review

" It's your decision..."

It was one of the phrases that Al-Massih (Mehdi Debhi) uttered in the series that resonated so much in my head, bringing me into some sort of pendulum thinking especially about the doctrine of election. In the last 3 episodes I was on the brink of faith crisis but as I was balancing the reality presented with God's Word, I surely feel there was redemption. 

The series Messiah is a very critical fictional presentation about God but I think it has made a healthy impact on my spiritual and theological perspectives. It was apparently drawn from an Islam perspective, and it makes it more special because it educates people more about the truth behind the beliefs of this religion. Muslims do know Jesus as Isa Al-Massih as stated in the Quoran. I also love how they made it clear that the true Muslims are actually peace loving and not terrorists as many would stereotype them.

If you plan to watch the series, you got to be ready to manage the crisis. It's your decision...

BEFORE I MOVE FORWARD WITH THE REACTION, I WANT TO BRING YOU THIS SPOILER ALERT. IF YOU WANT TO MAINTAIN THE SUSPENSE, YOU GOT TO JUST GET BACK HERE WHEN YOU FINISHED THE 10 EPISODES AND SEE IF OUR REFLECTIONS HARMONIZE.

[Mehdi Debhi is so cute, just saying]

All characters in the story portray our individuality especially how we respond to God. 

What I like about the series is that it presents the authenticity and reality of things about people's faith. It also showed how God is not thrilled about religion at all as Al-Massih said, "I walk with all men". Indeed, it is not religion that will save us but Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him alone.

The time of the parousia or the second coming of Christ remains to be mystery to us. And so being in the same situation when Al-Massih (Payim G.) came in the picture, honestly, I would also confuse him as a terrorist being planted to cause unrest, given all the facts laid on the table about him.

In some episodes I was convinced that he was indeed the Messiah but on the next episode, he seemed to be a terrorist. And it was a constant up and down wild guessing. It was a fast swinging pendulum that would cause stress and strain in your brain if you get critical about every episode.

Nonetheless looking at the characters, 
I was assessing myself, was I Jibril, who was called special by Al-Massih, a good person from the start and finished as a good person too? Or was I  Rebecca (pastor's daughter) who was  a confused young girl, intoxicated by her parents' faith crises, turned out to be a good person and believer in the end, believing God and understanding the beauty of relationship with the Lord? Or was I the pastor who was ministering to people even if he's on the brink of falling, making him gullible about things, got blinded and saw the hope of God as an opportunity for his selfish ambitions? Or was I the pastor's wife who was always skeptical but compassionate yet blind about the truth thinking that she knows the true truth? 

Or was I the CIA officer who never believed miracles and was obsessed with facts, denying every spiritual revelations before her? Or was I Aviram who was a monster in the outside but loving in the inside, who hate Al-Massih but later believed? Or was I Samer who decided to turn back but was not really happy with the decision? Or was I the less exposed character Wallace who thought to be discpiling Al-Massih but turned out to be the other way around? Or was I the father of the CIA officer who believed because he just believed as the Lord showed all the signs around him?

Wow that's a lot to chew and we can go on with the other characters. There were even issues that were left hanging like about gay relationship, where a gay agent happened to be deciding to come out and said he believed Al-Massih, and went to his bf and that's it. Even in the Bible, Jesus did not address any LGBTQ issue although we can say that He talked about marriage a couple of times and He was clear that it is a holy thing that happens between a man and a woman only.

This series is one of those productions that will really make you think and that phrase again holds the entire emotion that you are ought to feel and heed, "it's your decision.."

I find the plot twists as metaphor of what happened also to Jesus when He walked on earth. The investigators are like the bad Pharisees (not all Pharisees then were bad like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea). Their goal was to prove the Messiah as false Messiah and have him crucified. The pastor was like some of them or even some Jews that time who seem to be "good-looking" spiritually but on the inside was not very sure about God, all gullible and easily driven astray by weak faith. 

The American media concluded that Al-Massih was fake and for most of them, it was the end of the story, they were scammed and they moved on with life, without knowing that they were presented with the truth already and they blew it. And here comes the doctrine of election, where God hardens the heart of the people who will never really believe just like the Islamic studies student working at the diner, whom Al-Massih did not even bother to pursue. End of the line for the non-elect so to speak.

The Americans (who represented the NT Jews) fabricated a story about Al-Massih by taking facts about his life: first, being a normal person who had a brother who got trained with him by their uncle to do magic and illusion and second, having been mentally diagnosed as highly intelligent with a Messiah-complex state. It was enough for the Americans to say that he was a false prophet, false god. In comparison to the New Testament, it was also what happened during Christ's resurrection where the Roman leaders fabricated a story about the stolen body of Jesus to make people believe that He was a fake Messiah. 

The series was indeed a good modern context representation of what happened there in the empty tomb.

Now as a bystander or observer, it is for you to decide  where to put your faith in? Presented with the facts, how are you going to weigh them? Can't it be that Jesus really walked on earth and became 100% man yet being 100% God? Can't it be that it was possible that Al-Massih had a brother and family and got trained to do magic for a purpose just as how Jesus was trained to be a carpenter? Can't it be that God uses facts to present to the world that the elect will think and decide according to His will and the non-elect to not think out of the box even though they think that they already do?