Holy Thursday's Reflection : God’s Mercy

To the parents, how much do you love your children?

To the children, how much do you love your parents?

Parents love their child so much that is why they are very hardworking just to give their child a brighter future. They work so hard day and night to give the needs of their child. They send them to the best schools and give them the best education they can have. They even sacrifice their own happiness to fulfill their duties and obligations to their child. They would even trade their lives just to meet the needs of their child.

I remember my father and mother worked so hard to gives quality education. My father worked as a marble contractor. He used to earn more than enough for our family. Our family that time was well off that we could afford a luxurious life. But things fell down easily. My father had a tuberculosis and been in and out of the hospital. The doctors had to remove the water out of his lungs. During those times, we were too young to work for our family, so my mother step on. She worked for our family even harder this time. She sells variety of food at the street from morning to afternoon. I worked along with her selling foods in the street in the morning and I go to school in the afternoon. It is hard for us but we have to do endure it. We helped each other to build our family back again. We get strengths from each other and support each other’s battle. Today, everything was change, Mama is gone, and Papa is 650 kilometers away from me and its my time to be the flag bearer of our family. But with God’s grace I can pass all the challenges I may have meet along the way and fulfill God’s plan for me and my family.

Just like any other parents in the world, God is very loving. He showed his unconditional love for us by sending his begotten son to wash away our sins – John 3:16. Jesus died in the cross to redeem us from our sins and lead us to God. God loves the wicked and sinners. The bible said that he loves bad people “We somehow know this already, but it still jars our sense of “justice”” Luke 6:35-36. God gives his mercy to those who do not deserve His kindness at all. In another part of the Bible, it says, “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” Titus 3:4-6. Even the bible said that Jesus eats with the sinners; Mary Magdalene, Levi - Tax Collector, a sinful woman etc. God’s mercy is undeserved kindness. Jesus said “I don’t condemn you—now go and sin no more.”

As Brother Bo Sanchez said to his article, forgiveness isn’t the result of Repentance. Rather, repentance is a result of forgiveness. Repentance comes when God’s kindness invades our soul. Change of heart is a spontaneous result of being loved! Let God’s mercy overflowed to our life and we’ll share to the rest our the world.

Money Money Money !!!

This afternoon I was singing along with Jessie J’s Price Tag, and chorus has the lyrics that goes: ‘Its not about the money, money, money.. We don't need your money, money, money We just wanna make the world dance, Forget about the Price Tag.’ And it made me think that indeed, the world today is all about MONEY. The humans today are obsessed over money, wants, things etc. When we are obsessed over these things, we encounter problems. Worst is, we became distracted from God; we starts to hate others because of greed and envy and we became unhappy and ungrateful of what we have and instead, we focus on what we do not have.

How many homes were broken because of money?

How many relationships were wrecked because of greed?

How many lives were lost because of envy?

 

God think about what we do with our money. Jesus told us that we should not put money and other things in the highest priority in our lives. He taught us to give a portion of our income to him. A British evangelist and social reformer John Wesley once uttered: “Make all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can”. As we work hard for our future, God wanted us to share a part of our hardships to everyone. Not only to those who need it but to everyone. As we seek to honor the Lord by asking for his counsel and guidance in terms of money and work, He will meet our needs.

Let me tell you story, a friend of mine rushed his father in the hospital due to some attacks of high blood pressure. My friend used to work in a community social welfare and a call center representative at the same time. At the time he rushed his father in t he hospital, he does not have a single cent in his pocket. Upon knowing the incident, his family and friends came in to pay sympathy. His worry is, how will he going to provide the medication of her father? He is very worried of his father’s health, so as the waits for the doctor he asked God to give him all he needs – including courage for himself for him to survive this trial in his life. The next day, the doctor told my friend that they can be discharge soon. His father had some unserious attack, and he may be able to rest at home. He was shocked to found out that his friends and some relatives contribute and gathered money for him and his father.

The lesson we need to remember is God has been so generous to his children. And in return, we should learn to give back to him. Not just to the beggars on the street, to the homeless people but also to those strangers who needs us. Why not offer a single day to work in our community and let us help. Let me leave you by this scripture from the book of Matthew 6:33: “The thing you should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you.”