All around the world, families are suffering and facing serious problems.  The world has forgotten the Creator’s design for raising families.

When God created the first man and woman, He began the family institution. Male and female were created in the image of God and were designed to reflect His nature.   The goal of marriage is two-fold, to reveal the glory of God and to enhance the glory of one’s spouse.  There are important roles that were intended for families in God’s plan – the care and nurture of godly children and all members must learn how to give and receive affection and love.  But when husbands and wives fail to follow God’s plan for the family and marriage, they aid Satan in His war against God.  It is time for God’s people to recognise the battle for what it is and take a stand against the enemy and win the war for our families.

It is sad that many have never known God’s master plan for families. God’s plan for every family is found in his Word.   How can we plan for our families?

-  Take time to learn what God says about families

-  Spend much time in prayer and discuss goals for the family with your spouse

-  Make bible reading a priority in your family life

We praise God for the families of our church, who reflect God’s love as they inspire our community as a complete basic unit in society in serving Jesus. May they continue to be advocates of this mandate with their godly examples.  Always remember that the family was God’s idea.  It has been neglected for so long and allowed to follow any design other than our Lord’s.  But with His help and our part to follow His plan, understanding the enemy’s schemes, and obeying His precepts, we can build wonderful families.

Ptr. May Shah

Pastor’s Talk

We will soon be launching a campaign on “I Love my Church” and it will run from September to December.  We had been running campaigns quite successfully in the past.

Why have we been successful in our campaigns? Several reasons:

• We saw the need – (if no need, then no reason!)
• We devised a plan – (planned our work and worked our plan)
• We set necessary, reasonable, and reachable goals;
• We involved a lot of like-minded people;
• We under girded everything with prayer;
• We have the ultimate goal of honoring our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why can we say with such certainty that the Church will always succeed? There are four obvious reasons:

1. The church will succeed because it has been programmed to succeed!
2. The church will succeed because it has the Lord’s promise to succeed.
3. The church will succeed because the Lord gives it the power to succeed.
4. The church will succeed because we are part of God’s plan for it to succeed.

So the Church will not, shall not, cannot fail! It can succeed. It will succeed. It shall succeed!

The idea behind this “I love my church” campaign is to get all our members to really love our church with all our heart  and be totally committed to the church. In Ephesians 5:25 the Bible tells us that “Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it!” Each of us who call ourselves Christians ought also to faithfully love and support our local church.

There are many reasons why people love their church, below are my personal 10 reasons:

#1 – We have leaders that lead!

Be it our pastors, elders or homecell leaders, we do have people who leads the church well and I am very proud of each and every one of them.

#2 – We have desperation for God’s power!

Our congregation are legitimately desperate for the power of God.  We had a powerful visitation of God last week at the second service  and we look forward to more of His visits.

#3 – We believe that greater things are in store.

We  don’t just pray big prayers…but they have a sense of anticipation that is contagious!  We don’t read Acts 2 and think “those were the good ‘ole days” but rather we think, “that’s where God STARTED this thing…we should be WAY ahead of this!!!”

#4 – They are full of ordinary people.

God always uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.  Jesus didn’t choose one scribe or Pharisee when He launched the church…and Acts 4:13 talks about how He used ordinary people to absolutely turn the world upside down.  The staff LOVE the church…so much so that they would actually attend there even if they were not on staff!

#5 – We leverage technology.

We don’t view technology as of the devil but rather as a tool given by God to reach as many people as possible for Jesus.

#6 – The church is full of passion.

People in the church actually LOVE the church and do not attend because they feel like they have to!

#7 – We take ownership of the great commission.

We refuse to be “keepers of the aquarium” and instead embrace the COMMAND of Jesus to reach the world for HIM!  This is evidenced in our weekly services especially in the second service where we seen remarkable  growth.

#8 – There is a willingness to change and adapt, even when it means we have to go against the very “innovative” ideas that we ourselves once established!

Anyone can change the traditions of the past…but true innovation occurs when we’re willing to change the ideas that we once thought were innovative and ground breaking!

#9 – Generosity is embraced.

The world has never been impacted in a positive way by people that were greedy.

#10 – The people in the church are OWNERS, not merely “members.”

Members have rights, owners have responsibilities.  It is my hope that the people in our church understand that it is not the pastors job to minister to the people but rather the bodies job to minister to the body!  And as a result people serve Jesus by serving others.

God has been so good to each of us! Let each of us show our love for our Lord and His church by not forsaking her “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25

Let me also encourage you to bring an unsaved or unchurched friend with you this week! It could change their life and their eternity! The psalmist said, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.” Psalm 122:1

God bless you!

Ptr. Brian Shah

“ Old but excited” . This best describes the group in Mabini homecell.  Most of them were the retirees from the primetime group but still have the zest and energy to fellowship. Nana Ulling would testify that she loves to attend their homecell for she lives alone and doesn’t have a family but considers her homecell as family. She calls them for help whenever need arises even late at night. Brother Ding and Sister Cely would bring her to see a doctor during emergency, as she can count on their kindness.

People of this age group would not usually stay out late but they hang around for fellowship until past nine. They are always excited to share their testimonies of God’s love and faithfulness. The neighboring Christians would also join them every Friday as they are delighted by their camaraderie. Aside from fellowship, there is also feasting as the members bring food for potluck.

I believe that intercession is their ministry. Although they may not be involved in the preaching , teaching or worship  ministry, they do have the burden to pray for the needs and leaders of the church.  This is the most essential ministry of the church but only a few would make themselves available to pray. May God bless the primetimers with good health and strength as they continue to serve the Lord with enthusiastic  faithfulness.

Ptr. Beth Lafrades

In following the call of our Lord Jesus to make Him known, we are grateful to the Lord for the privilege of “open doors” in Laoag City, at Dept of Education, Chow King, Andres Accounting, Regional Trial Court, KMBI (Kabalikat sa Maunlad na Kabuhayan Inc) and Datamex.   We are also thankful to our partners in the business cells for making this possible.

“It is a big world out there” is an expression that is not uncommon to us.  But the world is a subjective reality.  For many, it relates to the geographical locations of cities or countries, while for others, it is a personal sphere of existence.  There are many different pillars of influence that constitutes a culture within society  – religion, education, media, arts, home, banking, finance, commerce, science, medicine, politics, government and construction.  Jesus Christ has set His people in place according to their gifts and abilities in the market place.

Revelations 11:15 tells us that the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and He shall reign forever and ever.  He advocates that we revolutionise and transform the market place with His cultural mandate, becoming like candles that illuminate the darkness or glowing cities on hills.  Let Christ’s moral standards be raised in our market place.  It may not be spoken with many words, but our lifestyles, influence and character should be enough to impact our spheres of influence in the market place.

Author : Ptr. May Shah

Pastor’s Talk

What do you want to do in life, what do you want in life? Those are questions we have asked ourselves at some point of time. Perhaps some of you are still asking.

There is a little post-it stuck to my desk board that says 10,000 hours to achieve mastery

3 hours/day = 10 years

5 hours/day = 5 years

10 hours/day = 2.7 years

Got this off a book by Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers’. In one of his social surveys he’d found that in approximately all fields of expertise, all it’d take is 10,000 hours to achieve mastery.

That is, if you want to be a really great musician, you need 10,000 hours of playing your instrument.

If you want to be a great writer, you need to spend 10,000 hours writing.

If you want to be a singer, you need to sing for 10,000 hours.

If you want to be a great photographer, you need to spend 10,000 honing your photography skills.

If you want to be a great baker, you need to spend 10,000 hours baking.

If you want to be a great computer programmer, scientist, lawyer, accountant, businessman, you need 10,000 hours of practice, experiment, studies..

Perhaps you have you have been thinking a lot about what you want to do. You wonder if you spent too much time thinking about what you want to do instead of just doing it. Or if you have already figured out what you want to do but am just wasting time counting your costs and walking in circles because you are too scared, or because you’re ready yet to take the plunge.

It’s an awful waste of time and energy – walking in circles. It’s time-wasting to know what you should do yet keep looking back at what you are leaving behind. If you are so unsure of what you will be leaving behind why don’t you  just stay behind? Why even bother walking? Why even bother taking those steps if you are not 200% sure of where you are going?

Why should you put 50% behind and only 50% ahead? You are just wasting your time.

I want to just walk and walk. I want to spend 10 hours a day doing what I know I need to do to achieve what I want. I don’t’ want to spend 10 hours a day practicing hesitation and procrastination. We spent so much of our lives practicing the negative, unedifying things that bring us nowhere in life. We become so good at procrastinating, at being fearful, at being slow and uncertain, at being indolent and walking in circles.

You want to stop being good at this and start working hard at what you want to do. At what God has called you to do.

Author: Ptr. Brian Shah

“The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” – James 5:16b

“ Whatever  you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive “. These are the words of our Lord Jesus with which the members of Vintar homecell are anchored to.  Indeed, God is true and faithful to His words as they testified on their answered prayers. Their faith is strengthened as they continue to receive more from God.  They don’t ask amiss and hold stronger  on to His promises.

May Ann passed the examination in Social Works which she said was a difficult one. Angie was told by her doctor that she will most likely give birth through caesarian operation because her cervix is not opening. Considering  that she would be spending much for the operation, they specifically interceded for a normal delivery. Sister Cora, her cell leader and the team constantly prayed for her. Praise the Lord, He opened her cervix and she had a normal delivery. Estella’s daughter who works in Singapore lost her job and they prayed that she will find an alternative empolyment in the soonest possible time.  God indeed was faithful and granted her request.

God is really working wonders in their lives and this added more people to their homecell as they testify of His mighty works. The strong presence of God is prevalent in their bible study fellowship.  As we live by His word, He is glorified and His presence in our lives becomes contagious as we impact people with the power of the gospel. Come and be a blessing! Testify the goodness of our Lord whenever doors of opportunity are opened.

Author: Ptr. Beth Lafrades