About MyLocalStory

MyLocalStory – Your story of your hometown

MyLocalSTory is a compendium of short stories, news, blogs about towns in the philippines written by local passionate writers.

VISION – Our vision is to tell the story of every town in the Philippines for the locals and by the locals.

“for the locals by the locals” — we want to be able to preserve the beauty of your hometown through stories throughout generations.We envision people writing about their localities so that when time comes, they have a local story to show and tell their children and grand children.

MISSION – Our mission is to empower and grow local passionate writers by educating and providing them a venue to exercise their passion as a profession.

http://mylocalstory.wordpress.com/

Being a child (child-like) has its perks, at 24. ;)

The big day is here and I still have 3 chapters to go! haha.

Will be finishing the rest today. Tomorrow, we celebrate!XD

Celebrate the new found knowledge, celebrate the enlightened mind, and celebrate the new found faith.

Then, prepare…

Prepare to live a life of faith, a christian life, as they say.

Apoint2ponder: Being a child (child-like) has its perks, at 24. 😉

You won’t really know, until you try and a kid tries almost everything he/she is curios about. Combine that enthusiasm with your knowledge now and you can do great things.

Life is a test of many things but above it all it is a test of faith.

Do your part and stay in faith, leave the rest to God…

We are called to be faithful not successful.

Success is simply one of the many rewards when you stay faithful: to your work, to your family, and to God.

For the past months or so, I’ve been given a lot of opportunities, great and small. Today, I received yet another great opportunity: an opportunity that I thought would only come to me in the midst of my daydreams, and yet here it is.

 So, here we go again…

I was really excited but I was scared at the same time. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve already been given a lot of opportunities of different magnitudes. I wanted to commit with all my heart, but deep inside I felt that something had to change first.

To say “I commit” is very easy but I guess the real question behind there was how much commitment was I willing to give.

Something’s never change…

THIS IS IT! – conceived by my overly optimistic mind.

Knowing me, I would never turn down an opportunity such as this one (specially this one). But I also knew that something had to be different.

This time, it won’t be a chase for fame and glory but a journey of faith.

Everything works for good, as long as you stay in faith.

apoin2ponder Life is a test of many things but above it all it is a test of faith.

I’m as close to God as I chose to be.

DAY TWELVE (Developing Your Friendship with God) – The Purpose Driven Life

A relationship whether it be marriage or friendship, has to grow in order for it to last. It takes time, effort and desire. It doesn’t simply happen. Again, a relationship is not a one time big time decision. It is a choice we make and act on every single day.

As I reflect on this chapter, I thought of taking vitamins.

Taking vitamins is essential to living a healthy life in today’s time. You don’t take it just when you’re about to get sick. You take it everyday. At some point, you’ll learn and accept this, given enough knowledge and research. But to be convinced is one thing, to embrace it is another story.

Building our relationship with God is essential to living an eternal life. You don’t befriend God only when you need him. You develop this relationship everyday. At some point, you’ll learn and accept this, once you get to really know him and yourself. But embracing him in your life is another story.

I find it hard to embrace God in my life because I always end up thinking of myself.

apoint2ponder It is not what you need to think more of but what you need to think less of.

God wants to be my best friend.

DAY ELEVEN (Becoming Best Friends with God) – The Purpose Driven Life

He made everything so that we “COULD” be friends with Him. He gave us everything, even the power to decide for ourselves. This is best demonstrated in relationships. In a relationship, you have to trust one another and care for each other. You have to constantly communicate and think of each other. It simply is a two-way thing and will not work otherwise.

“With great power, comes great responsibility.” – Uncle Ben (Spiderman)

Now, how do you react when God wants to be your best friend?

I think it is a wonderful thought but not to be taken lightly, as it is one of those decisions that will shape your life, forever. Although in the end, it all boils down to how you live your everyday life. After all, friendship is a decision you make not just once, but every single day.

The heart of worship is surrender.

DAY TEN (The Heart of Worship) – The Purpose Driven Life
People really are creatures of emotions rather than logic. Our mind bends the truth just so we can experience happiness. It literally synthesizes happiness according to Dan Gilbert on his Ted Talk (Why are we happy? – http://bit.ly/cKB5Uf)

Surrender is not the best way to live; it is the only way to live.

You might not notice it but you are also living a surrendered life. You are surrendered to your emotions.

Emotion, is one of the main reasons why it is so hard to surrender to anything or anyone else; even if you are called to; even if it is the only logical thing to do; and even if you want to. Surrender has a negative appeal to human emotion. It gives us the sense of loss or defeat. Aside from fear and lack of trust, we simply are confused. We often if not always let our emotions get the best of us.

Everybody eventually surrenders to something or someone. If not to God, you will surrender to the opinions or expectations of others, to money, to resentment, to fear, or to your own pride, lusts, or ego.

Surrendering all to God means to yield upward rather than to our current circumstances. To whom else would you rather surrender?

God smiles when I trust him.

DAY NINE (What makes God smile?) – The Purpose Driven Life

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

A relationship with the source of it all, wouldn’t that be nice? According to the the book “The Secret”, you channel everything that happens in your life. I believe that building a close relationship with the one who created you and making him the center of your life, will bring you all the joy, all the luck and all the life that you will ever need.

Sounds simple enough, but it’s one of those things that is easy to say and hard to do, specially for me, as I struggle at building relationships. I am good at making friends, but keeping one is another story.

…

Complete and exact obedience, is what pleases God.

God doesn’t owe you an explanation or reason for everything he asks you to do. Understanding can wait, but obedience can’t. Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions. In fact, you will never understand some commands until you obey them first. Obedience unlocks understanding.

Obedience is easy when you have a good relationship with whom you will be obedient to. Children are obedient to their parents, but not all. Only children with good relationship with their parents have complete and exact obedience.

To make God smile you have to love him. To love someone you have to know him. And to know him you have to build a relationship with him.

You can know Obama by reading his biography, but you can never “really know” him without a relationship. – d.grace

I was planned for God’s pleasure.

DAY EIGHT (Planned for God’s Pleasure) – The Purpose Driven Life

God’s heart is not touched by tradition in worship, but by passion and commitment. The Bible says, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”

One of my goal for reading this book is to boost my faith in God. As the quote above explains, God’s heart is not touched by half-hearted and hypocritical worship. Church masses/services are always started with songs. Different churches have different music styles. They say that it is a very important part of the service. But to be honest, the part that I look forward to the most really is the sermon because it’s the only time that I can relate. I understand that music is one way to worship but as this chapter explains, worship is far more than music.

Every part of a church service is an act of worship: praying, Scripture reading, singing, confession, silence, being still, listening to a sermon, taking notes, giving an offering, baptism, communion, signing a commitment card, and even greeting other worshipers.

Worship is really multifaceted but one thing is sure, anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship. I guess in my heart, I want to worship in a way that I am passionate about. When I sing, I want to sing from the bottom of my heart.

It’s all for him.

DAY SEVEN (The Reason for Everything) – The Purpose Driven Life

Yep, life is for God, not for you, not for your loved ones or anyone else. We are created not for our own sake but for the one who created us. If you think about it in our perspective, we create/build things for us, for our own purpose (e.g. building a house). I think the same analogy applies to the universe. We are here for a purpose and that is to bring glory to the one who created us.

PURPOSE #1 – YOU WE’RE PLANNED FOR GOD’S PLEASURE

For God has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory. Isaiah 61:3 (LB)

It is indeed a challenge to conventional thinking, to the human nature, to your own thinking. Knowing your purpose and living your purpose is a very different thing. It is best to read this book with a mindset of more than just knowing your purpose but knowing it so that you can PURSUE it.

It’s been seven days and I’m really learning a lot about myself, about my nature and about God’s. I am doing this for you, Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you.

This world is not my home.

DAY SIX (Life Is a Temporary Assignment) – The Purpose Driven Life

To make the best use of your life, you must never forget two truths: First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief. Second, earth is only a temporary residence.

If life is so short… what’s the best thing I can do with my life? Based on what I’ve read so far, the best thing I can do is to reconcile and grow my relationship with God for this will determine where you will spend eternity.

Earth is only a temporary residence. This world is not my home. Now, I wonder how home feels like?

Key points to living an abundant life (Sunday service @ UPLB)

1. Word of God
2. Presence of God
3. Obedience
4. Generosity
5. Complete surrender
6. Thanks Giving