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This weekend after the prayer and fasting went by like a whirlwind…

Friday

- After office, I had a wedding to officiate – what an awesome wedding!  A young single mom who found her knight in shining armor.  Almost brought me to tears seeing her march down the aisle and finally receiving the promise of God for her life.  God never ceases to amaze me in how much He takes care of His kids.

- Rushed to a 70th birthday party of one of the guys from church.  In his speech, he mentions that after a quintuple bypass and kidney transplant, it is all because of JESUS that he is where he is today.  I love hearing people give honor to where honor is due.  Amazing man!

- Ran to a family reunion which was happening at our house.  Since my sister, Princess, is here in town, several reunions are taking place because she hasn’t been back in about 3 years.  Love it that my sister is in town.  I really miss her.

Saturday

- Saturday was crazier.  In the morning, I had a baseball game to help coach.  My son, Ryan’s team played.  We weren’t supposed to keep score because at his age bracket, each game should end as a tie every time.  But we all know that a game is not a game if we don’t know who won.  So I made a mental note.  We won 17-9.  Haha!

- Rushed to a baby dedication I had to officiate.  It was a powerful time.  Not too many who attended come to church but God’s presence showed up and it was a touching ceremony.  Any event becomes powerful when God shows up. Galing.

- Ran to Antipolo for a very close friend’s 40th birthday party.  Glenn,  a very good friend, put together a surprise party for his wife.  It was well planned and excellently executed.  Happy birthday, Jeje.

Sunday

- Sundays are always pretty packed for me but this Sunday was extra packed.  Brought the family in the morning to attend church.  Jenn was emceeing the morning services.  Kids attended also.  They like attending the morning services.  I think because I’m not the one preaching (since I preach at 5 and 7 pm). haha.

- Ran to a wedding to attend around 1:30.

- Rushed back to Victory Fort at 5 pm to preach at the 5 and 7 pm.

- Ran back to the wedding reception at Wack Wack club house (yes it was a loooooong reception).  I got to catch the tail end of the party.

Huff… puff… whew!

I’ve learned to declare this statement whenever something incredible happens and I know it wasn’t because of me.

Five Amorite kings launch an attack against Joshua and the Israelites.  That’s 5 kings plus their armies!

The Bible says that after an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took their enemies by surprise.  The Lord thew their enemies into confusion which was the cause of their defeat.  Not only that, many of them were killed because the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them that more of them died from hailstones than by the sword.

Then an interesting occurrence happens – Joshua asks the Lord for the sun to stand still.  And it did!  For a whole day!

Joshua 10:14 says that there has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man.  Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

It was a God-thing!

Two things from this…

1. God listens.

God listened to the prayers of Joshua.  And He still does to this day!  He told us to ask, seek and knock!  Then we shall receive, find and the door will be opened.

2. God fights for His people.

You know it’s God when something amazing happens and it is clearly not of your own doing.  Why does He do that?  So that it will be crystal clear to us that IT WAS ALL HIM!

At the end of the day (or 2 days for Joshua and the Israelites), I’m sure they talked to each other and declared, “Surely, it was a God-thing!”

One of the favorite things my kids like to do before going to bed is to play ’superman’.  It is done when I lie flat on my back on the bed with the 2 legs raised vertically.  They get on their tummies onto my 2 feet and suspend as long as they could.  Nathan used to like it until he got too heavy.  He’s now 14. Ha!

After they fall, their natural response?  Again!  Again!  Again!  From the time they were babies to now that they’re a bit bigger, there are certain things that just don’t get old – fun… especially with people you enjoy being with.

I was reminded of what G.K. Chesterton said…

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged.

They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.  For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.  But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.  It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon.  It may be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

God enjoys spending time with us.

My prayer?  Lord, allow me to enjoy every bit of moment I spend with you… every single day.

When one hears of the word ‘tradition,’ it can either be negative or positive.  However, in our context these days, tradition can carry a negative connotation – from the traditions Pharisees upheld so they can support their legalism to traditional politicians who corrode the very system that is supposed to take care of the people in a nation.

But this word is not necessarily wrong.

Traditions can be a tool to build memories.  And for a dad (or any parent for that matter), these are non-negotiables.

As Christmas hits in less that 2 weeks, let me share with you a few traditions that has helped up build memories as a family through these years.

TREE TRIMMING.  I remember growing up getting home from school and finding the Christmas tree already fixed.  While it looked nice and beautiful, I never really had the joy of putting it together with my family.

Our Christmas tree today doesn’t have a theme.  You see trees that have bells theme or apples theme or snow man theme.  Ours is rather eclectic so to speak.  However, each ornament has a special meaning and story behind it like the very first ornament we ever had (a freebie from Shakey’s pizza) to our kids’ first ornament as a baby to trips we’ve taken, to home made ‘ugly’ looking ornaments yet has a special meaning.

We do a Christmas countdown after setting up the lights and the ornaments – 10-1 while every other light in the house is off and turn on just the christmas lights.  The effect is rather magical for the kids shout in glee.

All this is done over pizza and Pepsi.  This has been the food during tree trimming time through the years which is why a lot of our ornaments are ‘oily’, I guess.

…to be continued…

Spoke to Mommy Academy this morning. I still think they made a mistake inviting. They got the wrong guy. They should’ve invited my wife, Jenn.

This is what I shared… here goes…

Remember the movie “Christmas with the Kranks?” Luther and Nora’s daughter went out of the country to serve in the Peace Corps. Thus, that particular year, they felt that Christmas would be without meaning because their daughter won’t be there. So they thought they’d “skip Christmas” that year and just go on a cruise.

How many of us have probably thought about ’skipping Christmas’ because of all that this season entails. How do we actually simplify Christmas?

Here are a few thoughts.

1. RE-DISCOVER THE PURPOSE.

Last week, Nathan gave our 6 year old, Ryan, a yoyo. I think he wasn’t sure what it was for he kept on tangling the string. I think he thought the purpose was to keep the string entangled.

But the purpose of a yoyo is for it to roll up and down and enjoy it.

Christmas was the time when God thought of the idea to rescue mankind from the mess he was in. The Bible calls that sin.

It is critical for us to understand why we celebrate what we celebrate. That is the starting point of untangling the clutter of Christmas.

2. RE-EVALUATE PRIORITIES

First things first. To play with that yoyo, Ryan had to untangle the string before it can accomplish the purpose it was designed for.

Questions to ask ourselves… what is important to us? What is valuable for our family to do?

Our value systems drive our behavior.

Things vs. Traditions?

Traditions are not necessarily old school or bad. Traditions, especially in Christmas time build memories. Rather than focusing on the stuff, focus on fun times that can be spent with family.

A few ideas – setting up Christmas tree as a family instead of helpers doing it, singing Christmas songs together, watching Christmas movies together as a family over a bucket of popcorn, making ornaments together, walking around the village and look at Christmas lights, and on and on and on.

3. RE-ARRANGE ACTIVITIES

Think. Plan. Implement.

Fill your calendar because of if you don’t someone else will.

My wife prints out a calendar and we’re pretty deliberate about where and what we go to. Because if you let people pull you into this and that party, you’ll be running around like a headless chicken.

Bottomline, remember what Christmas was designed for. And primarily, 2 relationships are critical in this season – relationships with family and our relationship with the One who came, became like one of us so we can be reconciled to Him.

For God SO LOVED the world that HE GAVE…. (John 3:16)