For such a time as this

Today is the day the vision will come to pass. Our campus ministry will simultaneously lunch eight youth fellowship in our university--one for each college. It has been our prayer to reach more students and saturate the campus so that Christ's message will be made known to all. We are taking the Great Commission to another level through this ministry--to go intentional in our strategies in making disciples for Jesus. And we're excited about the greater things God is about to do as we move to "enlarge the place of our tents" as mentioned in Isaiah 54. We've decided to never hold back and aim for more! And praise God because He is answering our prayers and desire to raise up a generation of youth that is passionate for Jesus; and to raise up CLSU as a Christ-Led State University.

What we are about to experience is a greater season of revival, a greater season of expansion and taking possession of God's promise, a greater season of harvest and making Christ known. This is our season, our time. We are grateful because we are living in such a time as this!

I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the way God responds to prayers. For so long in my journey with the Lord, prayer and seeking God in His word seemed more like routine than affection expressing itself into craving for His presence. There are countless times when my prayer life and devotion appear powerless just because there was still that part of me that wanted to exert control over things in my life, not really embracing the reality that God is supreme and He knows best. In the process of being so naive and reserved, I have limited God in what He can accomplish to me and through me.

But thankfully, it wasn't the end of my story. God had met me in the middle of my delusions and offered me clarity. If it wasn't for His abounding grace, I might have been a person with no cause to fight for other than to exist and just be gone. It's still mind-blowing--the fact that this God of the universe have left His place in the high heavens not only to pacify the tensions in my heart but to give me an entirely new one.

Since then, I have learned to depend on His grace alone and trust in His love so that even if things appear irrational and utterly absurd, I will be comforted by the truth that this exceeding love will never lead me to a place where I shouldn't be.

And here I am on this place, talking about the goodness of God and looking back at how He revealed Himself through people I have met and will yet meet. Here I am thinking about His wonderful plan for my life, being assured of the promise that faithfulness and obedience have blessings.

I have thus decided that the overarching purpose of my life is to declare Jesus Christ. Nothing more, nothing less.

It will happen!

It was exactly this time last year when we came together as "partners for the gospel" to pray fervently for more breakthroughs in our campus ministry; when we asked the Lord of the heavens to pour out anointing on His people; when we tarried with eager expectation for the Kingdom to come here on earth; and just humble before His mighty presence.

One year ago--and we are beholders of what the Lord has done and about to do in our campus. Truly, God is not only a Promise-giver but a faithful Promise-keeper!

Looking back, it was one of our most exciting year yet! Our weekly Youth Fellowship at the university has been sustained with an average attendance of 500-600 students. Last year, we peaked at 1200 in attendance at our fellowship at the University Oval. And just last February this year, LAYF was awarded the Best Student Activity of a student organization, and our youth group, LASO was declared as the Best Student Organization under Non-college based/campus ministry category. We've seen more cell groups being formed, and more lives being led to Christ. But the best is yet to come. God is truly unstoppable!

This week, we will simultaneously launch eight college youth fellowships inside the CLSU campus. After a year of prayer, planning, and preparation, we are now ready to conquer the land with and for the Lord. Realizing that it's about time to expand and to reach and to saturate, these eight college fellowships will serve as a platform to intentionally make Christ known and His name glorified. We're just excited to see our prayers coming to pass. We're excited to see a passionate generation coming up!

A good friend have asked me one time when I finally decided to leave my work to serve full time in the ministry, "why do you do what you do?" I replied: because it's the only thing I know that's worth doing. I never thought about the magnitude of my answer the moment I said it. It was for me an impulsive and romanticized reply back then. But I clearly see now. I have answered correctly and reasonably. And there's no taking it back.

I have found something that's worth giving my life to.

To win the world

"Ultimately, why do we share the Gospel? Why do disciples of Jesus make disciples of Jesus? Certainly the answer is not because we are forced to, nor is it because we are guilted into doing so. 

The clear and simple motivation is a disciple's passionate longing to see more and more people know Jesus. For when our thirst has been eternally quenched by the infinite goodness, greatness, grace, mercy, majesty, strength, and sufficiency of God in Christ, we will excitedly and eagerly tell all who are thirsty where they can be satisfied.

MAKING DISCIPLES OF JESUS IS THE OVERFLOW OF OUR DELIGHT IN BEING DISCIPLES OF JESUS."

                                                                                -David Platt, "Follow Me"

It's time for an Outbreak

We are believing God to bring an expansion on this new season in our Youth Fellowship. We are praying that an outbreak of God's glory and love will saturate all corners of our university as we endeavor to make His name great. We are crying out as one Body of Christ that indeed there will be a deeper hunger in our hearts to reach and to saturate this place which the Lord has given as our inheritance.That there will be more people who will respond to the message of God's grace; that there will truly be an encounter experience every time we gather together to pray and to praise.

For this unique season, the Lord has put in our hearts to expand our reach and our influence in the campus. Claiming that the time is already ripe and that the harvest is plenty and is ready, we've decided to intentionally saturate the university by bringing LAYF to the eight colleges of the Central Luzon State University.

We are claiming this command and promise of the LORD in Isaiah 54:2-5,

"Enlarge the place of your tent,

stretch your tent curtains wide,

do not hold back;

lengthen your cords,

strengthen your stakes.

For you will spread out to the right and to the left;

your descendants will dispossess nations

and settle in their desolate cities.

“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.

Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.

You will forget the shame of your youth

and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.

For your Maker is your husband—

the Lord Almighty is his name—

the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;

he is called the God of all the earth."

In God's Kingdom, there's no holding back! We are called to literally break out from the comfort of our place to bring God's glory to desolate places; we are called to be radical Christians by claiming communities and nations under the authority of Jesus Christ! We are called to saturate the world and make His name known in all the earth. And with God, this can be done.

Through our youth fellowship, we are praying to:

         a. To reach: get out to a more massive and intentional campus evangelism, classroom witnessing, soul-winning. The first step is to get out and share the Word. If we want God's will to be done on earth, then Christians must not get so comfortable with just watching from the sidelines. It's time that we intentionally fire up the Gospel in our respective places and make the name of Jesus known wherever we go. It's time to share the best thing that we have: a relationship with a living Savior.

         b. To saturate: get into a more intentional consolidation through established college LAYF; respective college LAYF will serve as training grounds for leaders and committed attendees. This should be done by mobilizing current leaders to internalize the importance of consolidation, or preserving the harvest. We must not content ourselves by just proclaiming the Word. We need to water it, nurture it, and make it grow and bear fruit eventually. The need to nurture the seed of faith planted in the souls of those we have witnessed is a hard labor, but it is not without a promise. It's time to intentionally impact lives that will impact other's.

I believe that the campus is a great place to impact the nations and change the world. If we want to see a greater collective transformation in our community, there must first be a tangible individual transformation. And If we are to create a movement that will again turn the world upside down, we have to do it in the campus, and we have to do it now. 

We have to begin changing the nation one campus at a time; the campus, one college at a time; and each college, one student at a time. This comes with an assurance that there's no campus which is beyond the reach of God's grace; and there is no student who is beyond the reach of God's love.

God is now ready for an outbreak. And we better be.

Crush your walls!

God could have allowed His people to crush the walls on that first day at Jericho. He could have allowed them to cross over this city without difficulty and give them an easy pass from their enemy. But He did not.

God restrained until the seventh day because He wanted something more than victory for His people. Just like before, He wanted His people to trust Him, His ways, His means, His timing. God wanted them to put their confidence in Him alone--not on their army, not on their strategy.

In the end, what has broken down the walls that blocked them on the way to the Promised Land is their own faith in the power of God; what has brought the walls crumbling down was their submission to God; what has made them cross past the ruins was their own obedience to a miracle-working, sea-parting, wall-breaking, all-knowing God.‪

*Reflections on ‎Joshua 6‬‬. Part of what I shared during the regular Midyear Youth Fellowship in our Church.

Love Revolution now!

Today, the terms LOVE and RELATIONSHIP are two of the most commonly misunderstood concepts in human interactions. Popular culture exerts pressure on what should relationship look like, and how should love be interpreted or demonstrated. And due to heavy influences of the mass media and social media in our society today, sometimes even the negative interpretations of love get in the mindset of people, especially the youth.

So how should love be demonstrated? What should relationship be about? In this world of many conflicting narratives about love and relationship, where can we find a common ground? Does true and unconditional love still exist?

This four-week series titled “Love Revolution” will give students and youth a deeper understanding and appreciation of human relationships, in view of God’s truth. It will focus on other more important dimensions of love that we often take for granted: sacrifice, honor and dignity. 

We believe that today, the Christian and biblical version of love has a lot to offer to the seemingly distorted concepts that our culture has perpetrated in young minds. But we have to know it in order to appreciate it—and eventually, to demonstrate it to the world. 

Let the revolution begin.

LAYF to the fullest!

This is a picture I took from the upper deck of the CLSU auditorium right after our first youth fellowship this semester last August 19. The sight of hundreds upon hundreds of students and youth waving excitedly at the camera's direction is truly heartwarming, knowing that earlier, these students were passionately praising and worshiping the Most High King.

It was only the first LAYF meet up this new semester, and youth hungry for God came in troves--500 plus of them. I was hyped to know that this is now happening in our generation. And God is not finished yet.

I can't keep but burst with gladness. 

Alright, I cried. But I managed to snap a shot before tears came and my heart break gloriously one more time.