Last night, I adjusted the premium on my life insurance, setting it half-lower from the original price I bought it. My insurance agent told me that in case my check up yields negative medical findings, I would have difficulty claiming my medical benefits. Up to this time, I still don’t understand this. My life insurance has a rider which allows for a lump sum amount in case I would be diagnosed with a dreaded disease. And if I get hospitalized, I have hospitalization benefits as well, as long as I provide PHILAMLIFE with the certifications that I was indeed hospitalized. I took all these provisions for granted when I bought the insurance. All I was interested in at the time I bought it was the dividend I was supposedly going to earn, that is, double the amount I would be paying in twenty years.

In my middle age, in preparation for retirement in my 60th year, I race against time to get the lowest premiums on mutual fund investments and insurance. I just recently finished paying for my eternal plan. Two years ago, I decided to invest in a mutual fund. Meanwhile, this would be my third year of paying my annual life insurance premium.

Yet who knows if this world is going to reach the twentieth year – that is – the year 2031. By 2031, according to my insurance plan, I would get back all the premiums I paid, without interest. I would be covered with the same amount as long as I live, from the time I bought it and long after the twentieth year. But would I still be alive at that time? Just in case I would still be alive, I would be 68 years old.

Eight years after I would have gotten my senior citizen card, how many more tsunamis, earthquakes and wars (war is ongoing today in the Arab countries of Libya and Yemen) would have singularly and/or collectively devastated this earth? Add to this men and women’s propensity for destruction of human lives, governments and institutions, intentionally or unintentionally. What would the Philippine landscape be like at the time? How many more areas in all continents would have been erased from the map? And where would all the remaining Christians be in twenty years?

It seems silly to pay a yearly insurance premium unless I console myself that somehow, my premium covers me only for this day, not even for this year. I am much aware that God’s gift to us is a total of 24 hours each day, no more, no less. In fact, I shouldn’t put too much hope on gaining anything from any of my investments. Really, given the trend of fall outs and double crossing among big-time investors in first world countries these days, who wouldn’t be scared?

The best way to live this life, according to the book of Ecclesiastes, is to live it at the moment, spend the money wisely, and save for the rainy day, (maybe not in any insurance firm but in the bank, where one can access his or her money immediately). Furthermore, how can a very small, insignificant amount benefit the living after I die, in the same capacity this same amount will benefit them now? When I’m sixty eight, say, 500,000 could have the equivalent value of 50000 or 5,000, given the fluctuations in money value brought by war, rumors of war, natural disasters and calamities. The beneficiaries would probably have just enough to pay for my casket! Add to this that in my health card – a subsidy of Meralco through my brother’s employment – the medical benefits are more comprehensive than what a life insurance medical rider can give me. So why buy insurance?

While I take care that I stay healthy and sound, I should be able to see beyond present realities. The world is going down, the earth is moaning, twenty years is too long a time to save for retirement, yet too short a time for this world to recover from ages and ages of devastation by the men and women who populate it. How best to spend the equivalent of an annual insurance premium, or how best to save it are not going to give me the ultimate security. If the money stays in the bank, it will still accumulate to its target amount in 20 years, and with interest unlike if saved via an insurance policy. If I got sick on the seventh year of saving, I would have money at my disposal, and I don’t need to pester anyone to claim any insurance benefit for my sake. But even the biggest banks go bankrupt. But really, this is not the point.

The only sure security is the truth that I belong to God. Whatever happens, I know He will be there for me. No insurance or bank money will shield me from the catastrophes that will surely come to every man and woman in every corner of the world. No medical card will suffice for the maiming of human parts and lives via a nuclear holocaust. No hospitalization benefit will prop anyone from poverty resulting from loss of home, business and property.

In the light of these, I am convinced that God’s expectations of me as a Christian – a Christ follower – are twofold. One, watch and be ready for the last days, and two, be alert and discern the signs of the times. These expectations are coupled with the responsibility of staying in the gap to pray for mercy and/or justice where these are warranted. People today suffer from utter confusion, loss and insecurity. Christians have much opportunity to share the security of Hope found only in THE ONE who will not fail, THE ONE who is constant, THE ONE whose blessings are never late to meet every need, THE ONE whose love gives indescribable peace and joy.

In Jesus, THE ONE, we are secure, not from suffering of any kind – although He promises that the chosen ones will be lifted to heaven together with those who died in Christ and they will not experience Armageddon. But our security IN HIM is against the constant onslaught of distress, bitterness and cynicism. These kills the spirit even before any boulder or radiation could hit the physical body, now, and in the future (just in case one gets left behind, and suffers more earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear explosions).

As i post this, another text comes saying, ’3rd nuclear plant explodes. 4th reactor is on fire. Japanese government confirmed fresh radiation leaks.

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Meanwhile, the plan includes David falling in love, and his love interest was supposed to just affect one important political speech that would turn around the people’s votes in favor of David. Unfortunately, David could not fall out of love, and never stopped thinking about the woman Elise. So he exerted all his might, even earning the sympathy of one of chairman’s hat-boys, to insist on his free will and thwart the PLAN. When he kissed Elise, the kiss of true and risked-all love, the Chairman decided to rewrite the plan. And so Elise and David could live happily ever after, hopefully, in line with the Chairman’s rewritten PLAN.

There has been a long-time debate between predestination and free will among theologians. These two theological truths seem to contradict each other. It is interesting to note that in the history of the world, before and after it was created, it is God who has always adjusted HIS PLAN. In the garden of Eden God created man to have dominion over all other creation. Man and woman were created in His image, full of understanding (read-unconfused).

Did God give man free will? Or did He say “Do not eat from the fruit of knowing good or evil” because if they did eat it, the consequence is that they would have free will, and then they would find it more difficult to accomplish anything according to plan? That is, instead of them, walking along God’s path and enjoying the full blessings in His garden, hearing Him, and walking the garden unafraid, they would be filled with conflicting thoughts and emotions that could yield evil, that could give birth to guilt, that could make them hide from God? Or they would be making choices that would diminish their potential as God has equipped them? But this is saying we could take free-will as either a gift or a curse.

The choices we make every day of our lives are so much that sometimes, we are incapacitated by them. Walking the “intended’ path is not anymore a factor, because we’ve lost our sense of direction since the fall. Today we deal with a thousand crossroads. Even choosing what to eat in a fast-food restaurant using the menu before us takes plenty of time. We have long rationalized that this is really what makes life exciting. Maybe this is also what makes free will a gift. So we have intentionally or unintentionally foiled God’s PLAN for our lives. Instead, we insist on being “us”; we pretend to know the way; we fight for how we wanted to live our lives; we take pride in the chances we take.

God’s promise to those who will follow HIM is eternal life. In an eternal life, there won’t be any need for “adjustments.” Once we decide to follow God while in this knot of God’s eternal time, God helps us to understand that all can’t be governed by free-will, but His word explicitly says that we are to live “by faith”. The risks we will take will be risks to please God, and not anymore risks that will please ourselves.

Yet following God requires more than an adjustment bureau. As in The Adjustment Bureau, we enter one door, and we end up disoriented. But if that is what it takes for us to fulfill “OUR OWN” plans, we don’t take a minute to say yes to our desires, wear His hat, and make ourselves “happy.” We prefer to be surprised and disoriented, given our impulses, rather than ensconced in a safe clear-cut destination.

Happily, God is not the chairman of an adjustment bureau. Happily He lets us suffer the consequences of our choices. Happily, all he wants is for us to have REAL and LASTING happiness. That void within us can only be filled with God HIMSELF. When we realize that we’ve been running away too long, He is never too far away to hold us when we ran back to him.

David faces different challenges every day as he tends his father’s sheep. Foremost among these challenges are the loneliness of isolation and the danger of wild animals that prey on his flock. What David learns in the field is valuable as preparation for his future task as King. He first has to gain confidence and learn how to be brave before God lets him face Goliath – this Philistine who “insults the army of the living God.” He has to be alone for long stretches of time to become meditative and sensitive to God’s voice.

David’s call is to protect and preserve the land God gave Israel. His basic ground training for leadership is guiding and leading foolish animals to safety and provision. This he does expertly and with pride, that when Saul tells him you-are-just-a-boy-how-can-you-fight-Goliath, he replies boldly:

“Your majesty, I take care of my father’s sheep. And when one of them is dragged off by a lion or a bear, I go after it and beat the wild animal, until it lets the sheep go. If the wild animal turns and attacks me, I grab it by the throat and kill it.

“Sir, I have killed lions and bears that way and I can kill this worthless Philistine. He shouldn’t have made fun of the army of the living God. The Lord has rescued me from the claws of lions and bears, and he will keep me from the hands of this Philistine.”

David’s confidence comes not merely from his knowledge of what he is capable of doing. He does not boast only of his own strength. He repeatedly stresses that God is the secret of his successes. When Goliath mocks him, saying,

“Do you think I’m a dog? Is that why you’ve come after me with a stick? Come on, when I’m finished with you, I’ll feed you to the birds and wild animals.”

David faces up to the challenge and says,

“You’ve come out to fight me with a sword and a spear and a dagger. But I’ve come out to fight you in the name of the LORD ALL-Powerful. He is the God of Israel’s army, and you have insulted him too!

“Today the LORD will help me defeat you. I’ll knock you down and cut off your head, and I’ll feed the bodies of the other Philistine soldiers to the birds and wild animals. Then the whole world will know that Israel has a real God. Everybody will see that the LORD doesn’t need swords or spears to save his people. The LORD always wins his battles, and he will help us defeat you.”

In all of David’s life as King, through his rise and fall, God is his captain and his shield, the promoter of his causes, the ONE who goes before him in his battles. When this is not the case, he loses the fight. He becomes a poor steward of his skills, and he is defeated. He fails to listen to God’s direction on his leadership, and he gets surrounded by more enemies.

David’s rule is one of the bloodiest times in Israel’s history. But David’s training, interests and ambitions not merely coincide with those of God’s, but rather are God’s own causes. God in His goodness has determined long time ago, that King David, will go down in history as “a man after his own heart.” David fails, falls and flounders but his weaknesses highlight God’s might and strength. His victories promote God’s agenda. His mistakes give way to God’s judgments. His failures underscore God’s mercy. Whatever skills and talents David have gained through the years are never for his self-actualization but for the fulfillment of God’s plan to bless him and Israel. The word “bless” is an understatement, because in order to do this, God has to work through him, a man, using even all the limitations of his earthly life.

Questions to Ponder
Read Also: Psalm 139
1. What are your natural abilities? Have you thought about who gave you those abilities and why?
2. How do you nurture those abilities? Do you take care to become better at them? Do you discipline yourself in order to develop them towards excellence?
3. What skills have you gained through the years in all phases of your life? How are you using those skills now?
4. Have you ever pondered on how God has blessed other people through the abilities, training, and skills He has given you? Or are you using your skills and abilities to the detriment of others?
5. Have you ever praised God for all his blessings in and through your life? Or do you consider yourself self-made?

The Amalekites were cruel to the Israelites when the Israelites passed by their territory on their way out from Egypt. This was at the time of Moses. But remember that to God, a hundred days is as one day, and in His eternity, the transgression of the Amalekites happened only yesterday.

Samuel recites to Agag the sin of his fathers, “You have snatched children from their mother’s arms and killed them” (v 33). Why Saul spared King Agag when God commanded him to annihilate every man, woman, child, and animal among the Amalekites is a mystery. The Bible says that the Lord told Samuel, “Saul has stopped obeying me, and I’m sorry that I made him king.”

Saul was beginning to have a taste of glory and he was reveling in it. “[He] went to Carmel where he had a monument built so everyone would remember his victory,” (v 12).
After Saul’s 210,000 troops conquered the Amalekites, the valuable sheep and cattle they looted and left alive to sacrifice to God did not please God at all. After all, these were blood-acquisitions. How could anything won by sheer murder of the innocents be pure in God’s sight? God wanted everything destroyed; everything was worthless and tainted in His eyes. All have sinned. Everybody was guilty by virtue of their ancestor’s acts of cruelty. Indeed the sins of the Amalekite fathers had been passed on to the next generation.

Saul turns out to be a deeply flawed man, who craved for recognition. It turns out that he wanted to please his men (v 24). But first, he rationalized his actions and belittled his act of disobedience. His pride won’t let him accept that indeed, he committed a serious act of rebellion against God.

What were his intentions? Did he really want to sacrifice the best animals? Or was that a second thought because he was pressed against the wall by Samuel’s accusations? “Tell me,” said Samuel, “Does the Lord really want sacrifices and offerings? No! He doesn’t want your sacrifices. He wants you to obey Him. Rebelling against God or disobeying him because you are proud is just as bad as worshipping idols or asking them for advice. You refused to do what God told you, so God has decided that you can’t be king.”

Once Samuel had declared him persona-non-grata, Saul’s main request was for Samuel to honor him before the leaders of the army and the people of Israel. Saul, who, before he became King, felt little, still felt insecure even while he was King, and this insecurity never left him until the day he died. He remained so in spite of God’s anointing: “You may not think you’re very important but the LORD chose you to be king, and you are in charge of the tribes of Israel.” God placed a heavy trust upon this man who never thought himself important. But Saul wasn’t able to see his value in God’s eyes. Instead, he sought value and approval from the eyes of the people. In doing so, he lost his anointing.

God sees our worth even if we think we are worthless. He puts us in positions of His trust, even if we think we aren’t capable of delivering His assignments. He gives us honor even if we don’t seek it. We sin when we crave to be recognized through acts of patronage to gain people’s acceptance and approval. Often times, we can be truly unpopular, but if we are sure about God’s appraisal, our actions toward goodness and benevolence should be motivated only by love of God and obedience to his will.

Susubukan kong maging payak
Malusog ang sikat ng araw sa ika-walo ng umaga
Ito lamang ang gagawin – maglalakad, maglalakad
Paakyat sa bangketang papunta sa noon ay burol ngayo’y paaralan
Walang reklamong nilalanghap
Ang buga ng usok mula sa mga sasakyan
Kasabay ng mga walang-muwang
Walang hinahabol, walang binabantayan
Payak ang paghingal.

Tutuparin ko ang pagiging payak
Isang tunguhin lang sa bawat pag-alis ng bahay
At pagdating doon ay babalik lamang
Hindi na lilingon hindi na sisinsay hindi mag-aalam
Ng mga pighati
Maliban na lamang kung sa ‘king paglabas
Di man lang masilaw
Pagkat walang araw.

Jophen Baui/ Enero 8, 2010

Walang duda

ang aking damdamin

ukol sa ulan

ay babaguhin

ng aking pagtatanim

ng sanga ng bulaklak

na pinutol

nang hindi kasama ang ugat.

Jophen Baui (c) Enero 1, 2010

We know the way – Jesus is the way – Jesus is the way to heaven – Jesus is the way to the Father. We know, but we’re not yet in heaven. Jesus will have to come back and take us with him. Our knowledge prepares us for heaven – makes us study and learn and live the ways of heaven here on earth until Jesus comes back and takes us. Regularly, we remember in church that Jesus is coming again – in the Holy Communion of Saints.

Thomas asked, “Lord, we don’t even know where you are going, how can we know the way?” The answer is that if we know the way, then we know where we are going. If we believe that Jesus is the way, and follow the way, then we know we’re going to heaven – to occupy the rooms being prepared for us. Knowing illuminates our destination. Knowing shows us a path – points us the direction. So we walk the way – Jesus – to heaven, and we are held on our way while we keep ‘joined’ with Jesus.

Why do we stray then if we already know the way? Christians call this backsliding – literally going back, but not unintentionally; sliding back to a previous way – that is. This happens because we take heaven for granted.  At least at the moment, we think that heaven is still an abstract concept (up there), and we like to refer to it as “sa kabilang buhay,” without actually believing in a life beyond. This is simply an expression for many.  Most of us can’t grasp the truth that all of us have eternal destiny – heaven or hell – or we don’t value eternity. At least at the moment, life is all there is to us, life that we can touch and see and feel and hear and smell. Heaven is a reality beyond, difficult to grasp, like air itself. We don’t crave for heaven, or we think we don’t. Our flesh craves for the enjoyment this world offers. But the things we most wish for are stuff that only heaven can give – deep joy, lasting peace, true love, and concrete happiness. Yet we insist on living at the moment, mistaking the world’s panaceas as heaven itself. We think we have joy but it doesn’t last. Peace is not at all attainable. True love is mostly the stuff of fiction. Happiness runs out of motivation.

When Jesus comes back and takes us, would he find us where we should be? Would we have moved on closer towards our destination? Or would he arrive and for a moment strain his neck looking for us, since we got lost somehow and would not be found? How far would we have strayed that there wouldn’t be enough time to go back?

Jesus is the way – the ONLY WAY wants us to keep walking THIS WAY – because he will come back and take us. When he comes, we should be where we should be, or we will miss heaven. The alternative destination should never be an option.

Portrait of the Damned

The face is glum as always

Drawn lonely drooping lines

On sides of lips convey besottedness

To things unhappy such as pain.

Each day a blot of black on blue

And bluer still it goes,

“Hello to hatred unresolved.”

The perfect host

Hugging fears the moment they approach.

Why! complaining is a truer friend,

Praise, the unwelcome stranger.

Sleek patronage in honesty’s proud name

Dances with all liars

And woe to happy, loving, good…

They can’t be real.

(JCB, October 1, 2009)

Prayer is coming to God fully aware that God already knows what is in our hearts and minds. We come to Him in prayer because His presence compels us to beseech Him. We call on Him because He’s there and He is involved in our lives whether we like it or not.

We come because all that He wants to give us is already there for the taking. We come because as His children, we belong to Him and are comfortable in telling Him everything. To Him we laugh, we cry, we murmur, we shout, we ponder, we act, we despair, we hope.

We make Him happy when we seek Him. We give Him gladness when we obey and follow Him. We allow His love to flow even more when we run to Him for help.

When we come to God in prayer, we experience the mystery of our being – in Him – and we realize even more that without Him, we are nothing. But as we come, we affirm our meaning. Jophen Baui

If God is not sovereign a house will be full of chaos. Tempers flare at the slightest provocation. Sometimes, reason is waylaid and all past hurts and bitterness surface, that the anger of the moment turns out only to be just “the tip of the iceberg.” If God is not sovereign, it will be harder to forgive.

But old hurts and feelings may dominate and rule the day yet in the end, we can run to God and tell all – including the reasons, however illogical, for our own lapses in judgment.

If God is not sovereign, the war in Israel right now would not have a framework. All events going on in the World would be chance events, wrought by chance, propagated by chance, would probably have their day by chance.

But God’s sovereignty makes us understand that there’s an end to all of this, since He has been in control from the beginning of time. He holds the universe in His hands. While we think about the probability of war and Armageddon, God has long ago thought about delivering man from all that the evil of this world can possibly do. He even conquered death. God has given His Son so that those who believe in Him may live even if they die, and so, their lives are not a matter of chance, and are not in vain.

If God is not sovereign, we have a reason to grumble about disorder, the lack of beauty, a dearth of quiet and peace, a shortage of space. We will see every circumstance as unsatisfactory, and each season will only usher in more misfortune.

But God’s sovereignty makes us see beauty in disorder, and our heart is at peace even if the daily news bombard us with endless tales of suffering. In our limited space we can find profound connection with the One who created the world and the universe. We will appreciate the blessings of both sun and rain, and we know that every storm and hurricane is a reminder of God’s mighty power over all that man can ever do or accomplish.

God’s sovereignty teaches us to be still – enables us to hope – makes us pray unceasingly. God is mighty and even those who think this isn’t true aren’t exempted from His grace.