The Gift of Reason

"We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right."

"What I believe in my heart must make sense in my mind." 


— Ravi Zacharias

The first part talks about the freedom to believe and also it indirectly speaks about the freedom to disbelieve. The good thing about this is that we are giving everyone the freedom to choose thereby freeing their mind to study and think about certain issues and not merely believing something out of tradition.

Well, tradition is good if it is founded on truth. And tradition should only be accepted after a careful consideration of its history and foundation. Blind acceptance of anything is not a good way to come up to the truth but truth will lead to freedom.

Hear what Dr. Jose Rizal, the National hero of the Philippines said to the women of Malolos, Bulacan during the Spanish Colonial era:
The Filipino woman no longer bows her head and bends her knees; her hope in the future is revived; gone is the mother who helps to keep her daughter in the dark, who educates her in self-contempt and moral annihilation. It is no longer the highest wisdom to bow the head to every unjust order, the highest goodness to smile at an insult, to seek solace in humble tear. You have found out that God’s command is different from that of the priest, that piety does not consist in prolonged kneeling, long prayers, large rosaries, soiled scapulars, but in good conduct, clean conscience and right thinking. You have discovered that it is not goodness to be too obedient to every desire and request of those who pose as little gods, but to obey what is reasonable and just, because blind obedience is the origin of crooked orders and in this case both parties sin. The head of the priest cannot say that he alone will be responsible for the wrong order because God gave each one his own mind and his own conscience so that he can distinguish between right and wrong. All are born without chains, free and no one can subject the will and spirit of another. Why would you submit to another your noble and free thought? It is cowardice and an error to believe that blind obedience is piety and arrogance to think and reflect. Ignorance is ignorance and not goodness and honor. God, fountain of wisdom, does not expect man, created in his image, to allow himself to be fooled and blinded. The gift of reason with which we are endowed must be brightened and utilized. An example is the father who gave each of his son a lamp to light his way in the darkness. Let them intensify its flame, take care of it, not extinguish it to depend on the light of others, but to help one another, seek each other’s counsel in the search of the way. He is exceedingly stupid and he can be blamed if he stumbles in following somebody else’s light, and the father could say to him: “What for did I give you a lamp of your own?” But one who stumbles by following his own light cannot be greatly blamed because perhaps his light is dim or else the road is very bad.


Well, I could not say more. That's Dr. Jose P. Rizal.  A doctor of medicine. A poet, novelist, essayist, correspondent  A Filipino polymath. A polyglot who is proficient in twenty two languages. And a logical thinker. What he said about logic and reason is a universal truth.


Listen to this historical record from the lips of a man who influences the whole world with his teachings: 
The Pharisees and some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. They saw that some of his disciples were unclean because they ate without washing their hands..

The Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples follow the traditions taught by our ancestors? They are unclean because they don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Jesus told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites in Scripture:

   ‘These people honor me with their lips,
      but their hearts are far from me.
  Their worship of me is pointless,
      because their teachings are rules made by humans.’


“You abandon the commandments of God to follow human traditions...Because of your traditions you have destroyed the authority of God’s word. And you do many other things like that.” (Matt. 7: 1-13)

A Mother's Love

                             posted on youtube by :MontgomeryGentry101

We will never forget those times when we needed someone and there she was waiting for us all along. We remember the love that was selfless. The sacrifice that she went through to provide what we need. How can we forget the caring embrace that made us strong. Her life made us want to discover what she has learned. Her faith has been an inspiration. I know her. She had problems too. Big ones. But that was the beauty of it all. She can smile and play with you. She can sing you a song and you'll know that there is something in her that is somewhat extraordinary. In the midst of a troublesome time you'll find in her a different kind of strength. Peaceful.Joyful. A strength of character that can only be molded in the anvil of difficulty and tested in the fire of adversity.

I am the eldest. I know what she had been through. I have two brothers and a sister and they love her as much as I do. And a mother who loves us with her life.

Some say that we don't have a mother anymore who can see the things that we do. She's already gone, you know. But I say she's more alive now than ever because she is now with God who is Life. 

One of the legacy of our mother was that she gave us a love for books and a desire to help others with what we have.But her most important legacy was that she pointed us to an unwavering faith in the character of God.

She loves us. And we love her. And we will love her forever.

Love your mom. Don't break her heart. Show your love by giving her something out of your heart. Or you can give your heart to God and your mom will be fully satisfied.

Happy mother's day mom! We love you!

Happy mother's day to all the mom's out there! 

Thank you for all your sacrifices and love! God will not forget that. He's been watching all along.

The Villager's Tragedy

There was a great commotion going on in that little barangay(barangay is the local term for village in the Philippines).  People were running from all directions to a little prayer house made of bamboo and nipa leaves. The ground is dry and with each feet in haste dust filled the air. Some of the women are shouting. "Hurry!We need to get there as soon as possible". Worry fills the air. There was a kind of dread on the faces of the mothers who knew what was going on. 

This village is like one big family deeply concerned with each other. You can trace their ancestry and you'll find out that most of the people are related by blood. And there were a few who were just neighbors.

A woman was crying vehemently. All others that saw her, cried with her. The men were shocked. On the altar was a 2 year old boy not breathing at all. No pulse. The fingers were violet in color. The face was pale. He was there for almost an hour. Her mother and others found him hanging on a 220 volts of live electrical wire, already dead. He was very dear to her and to that little village.

Emotions rise up. Questions were asked. "Why did she bring the baby on the prayer house instead of bringing him to the hospital?", the women relatives asked. "The boy was already dead. We found him with his hands on the electrical wire already dead and the hospital is an hour from here. Fourty minutes had already gone and we do not even have a car. Don't judge the mother. She loves him and this is her way of grieving", said the men.  "If the same happens to you, you will definitely feel helpless like her and the only hope that you can have is God", said an old man who is respected in that place. And the women were hushed.

Meanwhile the mother was in deep anguished and she was praying in a loud voice asking God for the boy's life. Oh how she loves her child!  She was asking for a miracle. What she didn't know was that her asking for a miracle was a miracle in itself. What kind of courageous faith can true love gives to a man, like this mother, she was able to ask for the seemingly impossible. She stayed there for another hour of intense praying and sobbing and loud cries.  The women left one by one. Only a handful of them remained. All the men stayed together with the husband. The boy still on the altar.

Tragedy due to our carelessness or tragic things that we do not have control could happen to any of us and we can answer one way or the other. We can feel sorry for ourselves and remain unproductive or we can ask for the help of another to ease our pain. 

That incident in a little village called Laiya Ibabao happened 6 years ago if my memory does not fail me. It's the time when the most unexpected and amazing thing happened- a 2 year old boy who was dead for more than an hour was now living with his parents in that same little old village with all their relatives and other's who were just neighbors.

Peace, anyone?

I know you have heard of the story of the little birds resting peacefully under their mother's wings while the storm passes by their nest up on a branch of the swaying tree. They have peace because they trust the mother bird. The little birds know their mom. They know their mom can protect them but that's not all. They also know that she will. They fully understand her character.

Know the person first and then you will be able to trust him to the extent of what you discovered about him. 

Having the knowledge of God's character will give a person a deep appreciation of God and a sense of awe which can translate into an unmovable trusting kind of faith.

Faith is not blind. It rests on hard evidence. Discover the evidence and you will have faith. Know whom you are putting your trust into. Know whom you are placing your life into. Find out what He is saying about Himself and see if it corresponds exactly to what He is doing.  If you find Him trustworthy, that is the only time you will experience peace in the midst of the storm because at the very moment that  you find the truth about Him, you will be compelled to trust Him. 

The moment you realized that one plus one equals two, no one in the world will be able to make you think otherwise.When you find Him true to His words, you are compelled to believe.

You will know that His wings will cover you. He will protect you. And He will never let go of you.

Know Him. Trust. Peace.