Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep … When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” Genesis 28:11b, 16

The mad scramble in our society and the fastlane culture leave even God’s people gasping for breath and on the verge of collapse. With this we realize our friendship with silence and solitude is also strained. We become detached from our inmost selves and become fragmented without a center.

Jacob’s story tells us solitude can be enforced on us. Jacob did not seek to be alone. It was forced on him. He had been traveling all day long and night had come. The sun had set making way for the engulfing darkness. Without control of nature’s course Jacob had no choice but to stop his harried journey and be still.

More often than not, the night enforces quietude. When all sounds cease and lights are off, the night’s silence and darkness become our sole companion. In such union our senses are opened.

The day’s hard travel obviously wearied Jacob such that he succumbed easily to sleep. Slumber is one of life’s deepest mysteries. We all testify that sleep is necessary to sustain life. Enough sleep helps us reach our full stature as humans. We think and act less human when we are sleep-deprived. Jacob’s story tells us of the power of sleep to transport us from the ordinary to the extraordinary where the unseen is perceptible to the naked eye.

The picture of Jacob lying on the open space exposed to harmful elements is a stark contrast of his comfortable life back home. Without linen and soft cushions he stretched himself on filthy ground with only a stone on which to lay down his head. Rebekah’s favourite son was stripped of his social and economic status and was persona non grata. Driven away from the security of home, he was subject to peril and danger.

In such reversed situation, in such unpleasant place, God comes in His glory and splendor and makes an astounding promise to Jacob: he will be blessed abundantly without measure and attended to forever. In Jacob’s story of reversal, we expect God to nullify the blessing Jacob deceitfully secured earlier but He does the opposite. He confirms the blessing and adds to it.

Our own experiences speak of the profundity and mystery of God’s grace and justice. For God comes to our defense, to our aid, when we least expect Him, when we are least deserving, that is. I think of the times when God answers my prayers or surprises me with good gifts, when what I deserve is chastisement – a whip with a rod, a spank in the face, or a lighting strike – for a nasty thing I have committed.

In Jacob’s story, there was not a hint of rejection or of threat of disavowal or of severe judgment from God. We glean, wearied in body and spirit Jacob needed more the reassuring embrace of God rather the punishing affliction of the rod. In this area, we are starkly different from God. Often, when people are plunged into the abyss of their own folly, we give them our crushing comment and cold shoulder, rather than our unconditional love and deep kindness, our harsh and alienating condemnation rather than our profound and unmerited understanding.

{xtypo_info}Finally, Jacob teaches us how we should respond to God’s presence: to tremble in awe. Jacob’s story tells us it is one thing to find solitude; it is another thing to find God in solitude.

Maybe what we need to recover from our fatigue, from our temporary insanity, is a good dose of slumber in order to behold the throne of God. We might discover, like Jacob, that to be asleep is to be truly awake.

Written by Millicent A. Guarin

“Show the wonder of your great love…” Psalm 17:7

When we become adults we realize our capacity for wonder diminishes. Our senses become insulated and dulled. The familiar becomes insufferably repetitive and predictable while the unfamiliar lacks luster, lure, and enchantment. A child’s wonder, on the other hand, is pure and innocent, spontaneous and uninhibited. A child always finds something new to discover and indulges whole self in each discovery.

The Psalmist asks God to reveal to him the wonder of His great love because he realizes that it is the ultimate single reality that holds all things together. It is the one thing that truly matters at all times under all circumstances.

God’s love, the Bible teaches us, is bigger, wider and deeper than we could imagine. Its highest expression is Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. The Apostle Paul dares us to ask God anything and to be afraid of nothing because of Jesus.

To marvel at God’s love, then, is to be constantly awed at Jesus’ sacrifice. We let such constant awe to be coupled by our trusting faith and passionate obedience, as well as by our joyful celebration of the life we have received from God. We open ourselves to all life’s possibilities, trusting God for His ability to provide sufficiently and to orchestrate all human affairs to accomplish His plans and purposes.

To marvel at God’s love is to be childlike. We go through the daily grinds of our lives with bubbling zest and excitement, knowing that each detail or contour of our lives is creatively and wonderfully designed by God. We look forward to each new day as an act of grace, a day of salvation, a door to countless possibilities, a zestful scenting of unplumbed depths, an opportune time to give and receive, and yes, a wondrous miracle.

The Psalmist describes God’s love as great. When we realize that God’s great love is wholly present and manifest in the ordinary we have grasped God’s love with both our hands, and both our feet as well.

Lord, when you do both amazing and ordinary things, help us to wonder at such expression of your great love.

Written by Millicent A. Guarin

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” – John 1:23

Being lost can be caused by a lack of clarity in matters of direction. We are lost when we don’t know where we are or where we’re going. When this happens, we become like driftwood, condemned to aimless living. John the Baptist lived a short but fruitful life because he was not lost. He was very clear about his job (to prepare the way for the Lord) and why he was doing it (for the Lord) (John 1:19-26).

Because of his clarity regarding these two critical issues of his life, John was able to focus his energy and skill on the things that mattered most. Knowing that his job was to prepare the way, he preached a message of repentance and called people to be baptized. He insisted on righteous living because that was consistent with what he was supposed to do. He did not feel threatened when people started leaving him to hear Jesus speak. His clarity about the task at hand gave him an aura of integrity in his preaching and made the boundaries of what he could accomplish obvious to him.

It helped that he also knew that what he did had great value because it served the highest purpose possible: for the Lord. In a world where people have become like rats chasing after the cheese of prosperity and wealth, it is good to be reminded that there is a more fulfilling reason for doing what we do. We can serve God. God is big enough to lose ourselves in, and while John did lose his head in the service of God, we can be certain that he had no regrets.

Knowing what we are doing and why we are doing it is essential in our lives. Such clarity of life magnifies life’s meaning, especially in our time when work has taken on a contractual aspect where we can resign or be asked to leave in unfavorable circumstances. Such clarity of meaning fosters a high level of commitment and conviction. Excellence and productivity come closely after that. Gordon Smith in his book, Courage and Calling referred to this as congruence between our vocation in life (which is what the Lord has called us as persons to do) and the work or career to which we are presently involved with. Knowing what we have been called to do and doing it with gusto produce miracles.

This is a good reminder for us at Inter-Varsity as individual workers and as a movement. While we have a longing for change in the way we see and do things, we need to reflect on the possibility that what we need may be a greater consistency towards what our job is and why we are doing it. When we are clear about these two, we will be liberated from concerns and issues that may be important but are outside the scope of our job. And we will not be anxious about whether we have increased in numbers or expanded our operations as long as we can honestly say that the way we did our job has magnified the Lord.

Gary Celis

“O LORD, you brought my soul up from the grave; you have kept me from the grave; you have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” Psalm 30:3

This cry of relief is attributed to David during the dedication of the temple. It is part of his psalm of thanksgiving to God for his victory against his enemies who sought to destroy him and prevent him from ascending to power as rightful king. Saul lost the crown because of his failure to obey God but he pursued to murder David. Many of David’s Psalms express his anguished cry for help as a fugitive on the run.

The grave or pit experience is a real experience for us Christians. We are familiar with life down at the bottom of the mountain, at the pit, at the grave, because of our familiarity with suffering. We suffer tremendous hurts and pains unjustly inflicted on us by various people, including our loved ones. We suffer grave humiliation and embarrassment due to shabby, improper or prejudiced treatment both by peers and strangers.

Our suffering includes undefined moments of emptiness and purposelessness, when life simply ebbs away and loses not only its luster but also its very meaning and purpose for no clear reason. In such moments we feel hollow, empty, sore, exhausted, lacking in zeal and zest. Such moments, alas, are not always a result of our sins, of our mismanagement of life and affairs, of chemical imbalance, or of a lack or insufficiency in some areas, sneaking at times of gaiety, prosperity, success, and good health.

But more than the reality of our pit and grave experiences is the reality of our salvation from them. We survive, not by mere chance or luck, but by God’s grace. After a crippling disease, a humongous problem, a sore heartache, a deep wound, and a confusing ambivalence we bounce back to life. We regain our senses, our strength, our clarity, our mission and vision. We find ourselves again. In our wonder we exclaim what grace has befallen us!

Our grave and pit experience can serve as a healing balm for others, a source of tremendous hope. It can be their light at the end of the tunnel, pointing to the life available after death. It can give them the strength they need to rise from the ground, from the pit, and embrace once more the powerful reality of life.

At the same time, our familiarity with pain and hurt, ambivalence and confusion, doubt and struggle can be a way for our conversion. We can become more loving, more compassionate, more hospitable, and more understanding of people’s faults, failings, and weaknesses. We can be more accepting too of ourselves.

The cross of Christ directs us to the power of life in the grave or pit – God’s love. It is who and what God is.

Written by Millicent A. Guarin

“Rejoice in the Lord always; Again I say rejoice! Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but for everything in prayer and supplication and thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God which passes all comprehension shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:4-7 (American Standard Version)

We love to celebrate memorable occasions. Whether big or small, we value the meaning of the occasions. We feast on birthdays and anniversaries. Nonetheless, I notice we do not celebrate adversaries we’ve overcome nor ordinary days of struggles. It never enters our brilliant minds to have a good time on such occasions.

A few months ago, I visited the doctors frequently. I had unexplained tremors, muscle weakness, and other unusual physiological problems that created in me fear and worries. The different assessments by the doctors bogged me as I underwent further clinical tests. I felt drained and pushed to the limit. I felt hopeless and tired – tired of trying to reach God’s mind for His purpose in all I was undergoing. I cried much.

My quiet times with God seemed insensitive to what I felt and experienced until He brought me to Philippians 4:4-7, an invitation to celebrate ALL THE TIME. The passage is a call to sing and dance for afflictions! I wondered how on earth could I celebrate my ambiguous condition!

But God talked to me heart to heart. He encouraged me to celebrate His goodness amidst my brokenness. He helped me see the beauty beyond my trial, to rejoice my humanness, my need of a Bigger and Wiser One. I have resolved to offer my thanksgiving of daily groaning and protests, as well as my requests for good health. The time I almost gave up was also the time His sufficient grace overflowed my empty soul. My time of weakness was my divine appointment with God. He hushed me to His loving arms, allowing His love to be real in my weaknesses. He did not answer my questions but offered peace to my weary heart.

I will therefore celebrate His goodness all the time, not just for wellness of life but for my whole being. I will continue to anticipate the grand learning of ordinary days full of questions and trials. To God be praised.

Written by Rhoda Estrada

And they raised their voices saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” – Luke 17:13

The ten lepers whom Jesus met on his way to Jerusalem seized the moment. They pleaded to Jesus that they be rescued from their deplorable condition. We are not told how long they had been there or how they got the dreaded disease. But we somehow have an idea what it meant to be plagued by leprosy during their time. Their loud voices echoed familiar chords of despondency and urgency! Also of hope and faith. Really?

I am working my way around an abyss. Lack (financial or otherwise) is an experience I try to befriend. Work yields unexpected fruit. A loved one has cancer. Another needs a series of medical tests to identify a suspected serious illness. Someone dear to me is in emotional and spiritual rut; still another is going through a season of confusion. We are familiar with such predicaments. We hear or read about them. We see or experience them ourselves.

The reality of sickness and pain, of darkness and sin, of desert and dire need often renders us defenseless, desperate, and at times numbed. Engulfed by a sense of not having any control, we pray, and cry. We cry as we pray or pray as we cry.

What does it mean to be at God’s mercy?

The cry for mercy is a recognition of one’s helplessness, vulnerability and powerlessness. It is a clear relinquishment of the illusion that one has the capacity to make things better. It is a form of surrender, an expression of a desperate need for Someone to come to rescue, to alleviate the pain, or to alter destitute condition. To be at the mercy of God is to be completely dependent on him, to be acted upon by him.

This plea shows not only the state of the one who cries out for mercy but also beautifully reveals the nature of the One to whom the cry is being made. Mercy is love expressed in response to the state or condition of its object. It is a divine disposition. Often undeserved by the object of affection, mercy springs from the character of the Lover, the ultimate dispenser of kindness and compassion. When we cry to God for mercy we not only embrace our limitedness and helplessness but we also affirm God’s nature being love – His very character on which we anchor our hope and faith. To be at the mercy of God is to recognize who He is and witness Him move as he pleases.

What does it mean to cry out to God for mercy?

For the lepers, crying to God for mercy brought about healing. Jesus, affirming their faith, chose to lift them out of their misery. In our own pits, pains, darkness, and sins, may we know the richness of God’s mercy and grace as we cry out to Him, ‘Lord have mercy on us!.’ When all that remains is a groaning too deep for words, may this profound truth that our God looks upon us with compassion and love comfort and strengthen us.

Written by Mary Rose “Mutya” Febre

“And he will be called Wonderful Counselor ….” Isaiah 9:6b

What’s in a name? Artist Anne Geddes lists my name in her Baby Names Keepsake as derived from the Old German words for “labor” and “strength”. I take pride in such meanings although I often feel sapped of strength and tempted to laze around at barren times. I’m glad my name did not derive from some ugly and mean words.

My friends took time finding names for their kids. My former roommate Gerlen named her baby Mayumi, Filipino word for “fine”, “lovely”, and “ladylike.” Another couple-colleague named their baby Eurih Psalm, probably to remind them to constantly break in thanksgiving and praise.

If names were just meant to call our attention and distinguish us from each other then we could just combine monosyllables, numbers, and characters or adopt familiar sounds for our names. We can even use our email password. But I really don’t want to be called “Psst” (produced by pursing the lips) or “Tingtingting” (pealing the bell three times) or 9807M. I don’t have a sheepish instinct to be content with a whistling call for a name.

Names in the Scriptures are significant. Their meaning often relates the parents or the child to God. Hannah named her son Samuel because “(she) asked the LORD for him.” Zechariah insisted that her son be named John “because he will be a joy and delight” and a source of much rejoicing.

The first Name that the Prophet Isaiah calls Jesus is “Wonderful Counselor”. In the New Testament Jesus calls the Spirit by the same Name. He sends the Spirit in His place to testify about Him, to guide His disciples to all truths, to convict the world of guilt, and to comfort the disciples. The Spirit-Counselor is an Enabler.

My work as InterVarsity staff includes counseling which demands attentive listening and genuine interest in people’s lives. It requires the ability and readiness to give. I also see counselors in times of distress. I look at the counselor as a help, as someone ready and able to take up my cause, an ally. The counselor, for me, is a listener, a comforter, a source of wisdom and strength.

Looking at the helpless babe in the manger, it’s hard to imagine that He is what I look for in a counselor. Indeed, He who was dependent on Mary’s breast milk for survival is the world’s Counselor. I recall Jesus’ conversation with so-called unwanted people: Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman, the criminal on the cross, Nicodemus, the disciples. The words He spoke to them are certainly words of comfort, of hope, of life. He neither gave them a string of harsh and condemning words nor a litany of sermon. Rather, He listened to them and responded in love.

Jesus sought us where we are. He came to our place. He identified Himself with our weakness and powerlessness. By doing this, He became our Counselor par excellence. May Christmas draw our hearts to God’s love in Jesus.

Written by Millicent A. Guarin

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people…a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

The visitation of the “gods” is always an exciting and frightening event. Man’s nature is to give and prepare the best for the coming of the “big” people. One visitation that caught the Jews off guard was the coming of the Messiah in this world. The shepherds were frightened by the appearance of the angels but were excited by the great tidings they brought. King Herod and all Jerusalem with him were disturbed by the news of the wise men from the East that the King of the Jews was born and they had come to worship him. Until now, my limited understanding about God can not fully describe nor comprehend the majesty and awesomeness of God becoming man.

The great and sovereign Creator-God has chosen to box himself in human confinement and frailties. The Almighty One, the One who owns all things, the One who sets order, laws, and standards for His creation has chosen to be identified with the poor, weak, and vulnerable. He chose to die for man’s sake! He chose to die in order to save man from his evilness and corruption. He chose to die that man might have new and abundant life and live in and through Him. His death on the cruel cross is for man’s gain. His coming into the world is indeed a great joy and good news for all people who are lowly yet wise enough to acknowledge that they need God’s interruption.

The cross of Jesus Christ is not something I or any of His followers should glory about! Yet the forefathers of the Christian faith had chosen the cross to be the emblem of the incarnate God, the Son of Almighty God, which is Jesus Christ the Lord.

What is in the cross that I should glory about? What is in Christ’s suffering that I should be proud of? I cannot fully understand that the Creator God chose to die a cruel death to save His creation. He chose the worst death for the just and right punishment for the worst sinner! He embraced and submitted to it!

The coming of the Son of God into the world is the good news as the angel proclaimed it to the shepherd. It is good news to those who believe. It is good news to those who acknowledge that they are perishing. It is good news for those who confess that they are poor, weak and needy of God’s salvation.

So, why should I, a follower of God, glory about all these things? Why should I glory about these weaknesses? Why should I embrace this “absurd” and peculiar teaching of the Christian faith? Why?

One thing I know. I was a good-to-nothing rebellious person but I have found and experienced wonderful grace in the arms of this “foolish” God of Christianity, who is willing to embrace the cruel sufferings of the world that I may receive new life in Him.

Written by Eden Malait

“For to us a child is born,to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.” Isaiah 9:6a

We are all familiar with the ecstasy, exhilaration, joy, and relief in hearing a good news. We throw parties and feasts, sometimes in extravagance, to celebrate a good news. We eat, drink, sing, dance, and exchange cheers of congratulations.

What are the good news we celebrate? A child’s birth is a good news. So is a job landing or promotion. We celebrate when we pass a grueling exam or state board or when we finish at last a dragging university degree. We rejoice over a healing, a winning (even a raffle draw), a victory, a conquest (a wife at last!), an engagement, a wedding, a birthday, an anniversary, a christening.

Israel is in turmoil and shame for her defeat, captivity, and deaths in war. The chosen people of God, especially called to bless other nations, wallow in shame and humiliation as prisoners of war. Their city lies in shambles and ruin. In such sorrowful condition and dejection, the prophet Isaiah announces a joyful news: a great light will emerge and will dispel the darkness and the gloom that have enveloped the people. It will usher endless prosperity, joy, and freedom. The people will no longer live in bondage and the sad and grim remnants of the past will be erased and forgotten.

What ushers such rejoicing, joy, prosperity and freedom? The birth of a child! When a child is born to us, we celebrate its safe delivery and its normalcy. We celebrate that we have a child who looks like us, who will continue our lineage, who will take over our business, who will bring us out of poverty, who will bring us honor and prestige, who will give us grandchildren, who will succeed where we failed. Nevertheless, we don’t celebrate our child’s birth because we believe him or her to be a superhero (the next superman or spiderman!) or the savior of the world! This is exactly what Isaiah asks the people to do: rejoice for their savior is born!

The child whose birth Isaiah prophesies is no ordinary child. He is a ruler whose reign will usher in endless expansion and peace. His reign will be marked by justice and righteousness, conquest and peace. Isaiah reveals to us this child is no other than the Mighty God of Israel, their Everlasting Father who adopted them as sons and daughters and given them the nations as an inheritance. He is the Wonderful Counselor who comforts, heals, helps, protects, and leads people to truth.

Two thousand years after, in a rugged plain where shepherds spend the night watching over their flocks, something similar happens. The quietness and the coldness of the night are suddenly interrupted when the skies lit up to reveal a host of shining heavenly beings. Their leader tells the frightened shepherd to rejoice because a child, a child wrapped in clothes, is born in a manger. The child is their Savior, the Christ.

What great sight to behold. What great news indeed for a people who have been waiting for a long time for Isaiah’s prophecy to come true. At last, their Messiah has come. Their Mighty God, their Everlasting Father, their Wonderful Counselor has come to dwell among them. He will save them, comfort them, heal them, protect them, and lead them to the truth. What great news indeed.

We know the rest of the story. The shepherds, excited and awed, go to Bethlehem to find the baby just as they have been told. After their visit to the manger they spread the news and those who hear are greatly amazed.

Luke tells us Mary treasures and ponders in her heart all the things that she sees. Her posture might as well be our posture today. We sit in wonder at the meaning of Christ’s birth for Mary and Joseph, for Israel, for us, for the world. Alas, the Savior of the world whose birth was prophesied thousands of years ago by the ancient prophet Isaiah was born not in a palace, nor in a hospital, but in a lowly place for animals. What humility! And why take humanity’s garb? What is it about humans that the Mighty God finds so irresistible? And the people he chose to know first of his coming, why shepherds and not the elite of society, the intellectuals, the powers that-be, or the influential? Why a bunch of nobodies whose means of living is taking care of animals?

The nativity is a reversal of our human expectations and preferences. We love fanfare, glitz, popularity, prestige. We love the limelight and the headline. We don’t want the backseat, the obscure. But the Savior of the world took the lowliest and the most insignificant. By doing so, he showed us what it means to be human. That is, to be ordinary, weak, helpless, and vulnerable.

Written by Millicent A. Guarin

The LORD bless you and keep you – Numbers 6:24

This is the first part of the blessing the LORD has instructed Aaron and his sons to proclaim to the Israelites. This is also the quickest blessing we say to our family and friends on their way to a special destination, responsibility, mission, or assignment.

What does it mean to be blessed and kept by the LORD? To be blessed by God is to have his favour upon us. We bear his pleasure and delight. And this is only possible when we carry out his will. God’s will and God’s blessing, of course, are not strange bedfellows. They are twins.

When we submit to God’s will we are certain and confident of His safekeeping and protection. We don’t hide like the fugitives to preserve our lives. We don’t need a band of bodyguards to shield us as we go around. Rather, we go out into the world unafraid of all possible threats to our lives. Such courage is not merely Stoic. It is divine.

The blessing in Numbers is unique because it comes from God Himself. He Himself coined the blessing. It is His utterance. It is His direct speech to humans. Hence, it can be relied upon at all times.

Nonetheless, lest we use it as a kind of magical incantation to assure our loved ones of prosperity, health, and wealth, we bear in mind that the blessing stands amidst God’s commands on how we relate to Him and to one another. In the Old Testament, God’s blessing to Israel is conditioned by the latter’s obedience and faithfulness.

While it is true that in Christ God’s blessing comes to us bountifully and limitlessly, it is equally true that His demand for righteousness and holiness comes to us unequivocal.

The LORD bless us and keep us this 2007 and beyond.

Written by Millicent A. Guarin