Thank you for the broken heart

I didn't like to be hurt. I have ran as fast as I could to spare me from that painful truth that would haunt me for the rest of my life. I've tried to veer away from the high road of moving on and instead preferred to stuck myself in my own, lonely world. I've hoped that this self-inflicted pain would soon drown me relentlessly and fiercely--so that nothing would be left but anguish and regret. All I wanted was to be free and be full and be able to do what I want. Not knowing that the things I could have given my life for were the same things that would take the very life in me.

So I ran away, broken as a man could have never been broken before. I never thought to find grace in the place that I was brought low, and sure to die in. But it was there that you have found me. It was in the pit of misery and sin and hopelessness that your grace have met me. It was in that dark dungeon of self-pity and self-destruction that you offered restoration. You have bought my humiliation and nailed it and left it hanging on a wooden cross so that the world will see that this is how much you love me.

But why? For a sinful, prideful, lowlife like me? How could you ran after a man who have given his life to his own pleasures and vanity and self-seeking ambitions? How could you dare allow yourself and your glory and your royalty to be bitten, spat on and be butchered for me? I have done so much to be more than deserving of what they've done to you. It was supposed to be me!

Now your blood was on me. But instead of blaming me for that, you have pardoned me and have set me free. And in the process you have let me realize that love has to be that way--sacrifice. It's the deepest love, the one that would give life to a person even if it would cause the life of another. Indeed, greater love has no one than this. I thought I've been broken before I've met you. But I was wrong. I was broken on the day you've met me. I had full of pride and selfishness that needed to be torn down. My will and my heart were impenetrable, but your love has broken them down--all for my own good. And it was very liberating.

I thank you for the broken heart, because through it, I have seen everything.

Grace Unlimited

I was reading this morning the first six chapters of Genesis in an attempt to take a coherent grasp of the beginning of creation up to the fall of man and their expulsion from the garden of Eden, up to the time when the Creator destroyed the creation through floodwaters because of man's wickedness.

From that first six chapters of Genesis we will see God at the center of it all, and man trying to make himself the center by virtue of his god-given free will and ability to think for himself. There are way too many themes and topic which can be taken from these six chapters, but for me, what stands out and screaming on the hallowed pages was about God's grace.

It was interesting to take note that even when God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden, God still had the compassion to "clothe them" (Gen. 3:21). God still looked out for their needs that He didn't destroy everything so that the two can still have something to eat and to make their shelter with. That despite their rebellion, God didn't destroy them right away but He gave them a chance to live. Every chapter after the fall we can see man having the chance to choose between offering to God or not; to choose whether to acknowledge Him as the Creator or not.

It was because of His grace why God accepted Abel's offering (Gen. 4); it was because of grace that God walked with Enoch and "took him away" (Gen. 5); it was certainly because of grace that God did not totally annihilate the human race when he spared Noah and his family from the great flood (Gen. 6-7).

Every single generation after the fall of man demonstrated God's grace to people; every single generation after Adam and Eve experienced grace and the chance to repent; every single chapter of God's word breathes His unlimited, unrestricted, eternal grace.

I know for a fact that my generation and the generations after me which will continue to seek God would experience this grace because that was how it has been since the beginning of time. We are all floating in limitless, living streams of amazing grace...

This Grace

The day started with the lyrics of the classic christian song "Amazing Grace" blurting out of the loudspeaker from behind me.

Here in this institute where excellence is upheld and integrity is a byword, it is encouraging to see that in every start of the week, we ask God for His favor and His grace in our work. That although our country is now becoming a highly secularized state with the increase of opposing narratives coming from the extreme liberals and post-modernists of varying tendencies, we still recognize that somehow, there really is a God up there whose grace we need to invoke. 

And even if, for most people, grace is misunderstood, that is always a good start.

Grace. In the Christian perspective, it carries a great weight. This is one of the concepts that is highly misunderstood. In matters relating to salvation, people can not grasp the truth that we need not work for eternal life because Jesus already accomplished that. We just have to receive it by faith. The saving grace of Jesus Christ as publicly demonstrated in the Cross of Calvary is already absolute and final. And any attempt at adding to the work of Christ is an insult to His sacrifice.

Yes. That's why it is hard to understand.

People seem to find alternatives thinking that we don't deserve God's grace, that's why we need to work hard in order to get saved or gain favor from God. People become motivated by reward or fear of punishments, by the appeal of charity and doing good works so that we get God's attention. This shouldn't be so. When in fact God requires that we do that because of love for Him and for other people.

I do not say that we should not do good works, but that our motivation to do good works is because we love God who loved us first. And because we should be in awe of His grace, we can't do nothing but love Him and serve Him with all our hearts. Because we experience God's grace, it should manifest in our lives as well. It should pour out naturally, not driven by emotions or human impulse.

Grace makes it possible for us to feel God's love. Grace enables us to connect with God, and do great things for Him.

John Newton composed the song "Amazing Grace" in the 17th century. But the words still ring true today.

As it was ever since the beginning of time...

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound 
That saved a wretch like me! 
I once was lost, but now am found; 
Was blind, but now I see. 


’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, 
And grace my fears relieved; 
How precious did that grace appear 
The hour I first believed. 




Through many dangers, toils and snares, 
I have already come; 
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, 
And grace will lead me home. 


The Lord has promised good to me, 
His Word my hope secures; 
He will my Shield and Portion be, 
As long as life endures. 


Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, 
And mortal life shall cease, 
I shall possess, within the veil, 
A life of joy and peace. 


The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, 
The sun forbear to shine; 
But God, who called me here below, 
Will be forever mine. 


When we’ve been there ten thousand years, 
Bright shining as the sun, 
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise 
Than when we’d first begun.



Your grace brings me to my knees...