So she ran to her father’s gardener, and when he came to look at it, he said, “I will make it a nice garden for you, that you may grow whatever you want.” He fetched a pick, and when the little child saw the terrible pick, she was afraid for her little garden. The gardener struck his tool into the ground and began to make the earth heave and shake for his pickaxe had caught the edge of a huge stone which underplayed almost all the little plot of ground.

All the little flowers were turned out of their places and the garden spoiled for a season so that the little maid wept much. He told her he would make it a fair garden yet, and so he did, for having removed that stone which had prevented all the plants from striking root he soon filled the ground with flowers which lived and flourished.

Just so, the Lord has come, and has turned up all the soil of your present comfort to get rid of some big stone that was at the bottom of all your spiritual prosperity, and would not let your soul flourish. Do not weep with the child, but be comforted by the blessed results and thank your Father’s tender hand!

(The Story Of The Gardener by Charles Spurgeon)

The perennial statement: “I need to go on a diet.”

Not sure if you’ve said this before.  If you’ve never, congrats.  You’re either a hunk or a hottie.

But to the ‘average’ person like us, we’ve said this time and time again.

Thus, the invention of ‘lite’ foods – Coke light, Breyers light, Mayo lite, Coffee Mate light, Spam light, Tuna chunks light plus all the other products you can think of.

Even iPad apps have them – from Angry Birds lite to Fitness lite.

Their tagline?
Same flavor; less filling.
Great taste; less ingredients.

But we carry that over, unfortunately to our life with Christ.

Same flavor; less filling.  Great experience; less ingredients.

Jesus just becomes one of the ingredients of our week – 1 cup of work, 2 teaspoons of friends, 5 pints of family plus a dash of Jesus to cover all bases.

No wonder why we see ‘lite’ transformation… ‘lite’ lifechange … ‘lite’ adjustment … in our lives.

Same person; just different packaging.

Now we to church.  We carry a Bible around.  We say the right words like ‘Praise God’ and ‘God is good’ (‘all the time’).

But after peeling off the veneer, it’s the same rotten, depraved, lost person.

Jesus doesn’t want to just be one of the ingredients in your near perfect life.  When He comes in, He takes over.  He is not just Savior (to get us out of the mess we got ourselves into).  He is LORD.  And that means boss, in charge and the One who calls the shots.

When we surrender our lives to Christ, we die … so that He can live in us and through us.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

This morning, in our Metro Manila Staff Meeting, Lynn Nawata who is the Executive Director of Real Life Foundation shared what happened last Sunday.

Joshua Suarez ran 102 kilometers during the “Death March/Life March” and in the process raised 130,000 pesos for Real Life’s Scholarship Fund.  People gave 1,000 pesos for every kilometer he ran.  But since more than 102 people wanted to give, the money raised reached 130,000.00.  Imagine how many high school and college students are helped through this.

I love what Lynn shared from the book, “The Hole in our Gospel” by Richard Stearns.

“We, as Christians, can look at our broken world, shrug our shoulders, and say, “That’s just the way things are.”  Or we can instead embrace a vision of what could be – if we’d each pitch in.  Isn’t it better to light a candle than curse the darkness?  And what could be accomplished if we lit not one candle but many?  The light of even one challenges the gloom, but the light of a million could obliterate it.”

One can make a difference – as each in unison determine to work together for a common goal.