Jake: A Friend from Miami

I met a new friend from Miami, Fla. just few days ago. His name is Jake Barreth, 28 years old, and a Worship Pastor. I met him right here in Blogger.com when one night here at the office, I run through several blogs randomly. Then I found out that this guy is a worship leader at a church in Miami. Honestly, I was not really supposed to let you know about him but I was moved by one of his posts. It's about the music men, actually, street performers from around the world. The video was tweeted to him by friend. You can view the post here.

Jake is part of the pioneering church known as the Life Church in Miami. The church was conceived two years ago and last year they began holding services at a mall in Miami, in a theater specifically. I was touched by the fact that God is really moving not just in my life but as well as other lives around the world. And for our case with Jake, as he have said, we are half way around the globe apart yet been connected with a single purpose - to proclaim the Good News in our humblest ways we can.

I posted a comment on one of his posts and I get a reply - something that is too unusual for a blogger like me. He said that he would be so happy to recieve pictures that I have. He liked the pictures I posted here.

But as I was saying, I have decided to make this post because of the video. Yes, I was moved by it... I am so fond of music, whatever genre it is. But music today is no more than what the heart speaks or what really it should be about. Simply, it has been too commercialized already. However, the producers of the video that Jake posted have something in mind that really is worth admiring.

I imagined what if Pilipino producers would try to do it here in the Philippines. We also have street performers that are way talented as those in the video. How about a song that will put the Pilipino people again on the flame? How about a calling for political transformation? How about a gospel song of renewal and coming back to the Lord?

I regard the video that Jake posted to have made a great impact on me and I will carry on in my life - forever.

Thanks Jake for sharing the video.

Faith is a Matter of Choice and Conscience

In my Xanga site, I have posted a statement of Dr. Jose P. Rizal regarding faith. But my supporting verses were something like in a different context. I found the other version of that article and it was actually a school project of my girlfriend's sister Ola.

"We are entirely in accord in admitting the existence of God. How can I doubt his when I am convinced of mine. Who so recognizes the effect recognizes the cause. To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything; and then what is life for? Now then, my faith in God, if the result of a ratiocination may be called faith, is blind, blind in the sense of knowing nothing. I neither believe nor disbelieve the qualities which many attribute to him; before theologians' and philosophers' definitions and lucubrations of this ineffable and inscrutable being I find myself smiling. Faced with the conviction of seeing myself confronting the supreme Problem, which confused voices seek to explain to me, I cannot but reply: 'It could be; but the God that I foreknow is far more grand, far more good: Plus Supra!...I believe in (revelation); but not in revelation or revelations which each religion or religions claim to possess. Examining them impartially, comparing them and scrutinizing them, one cannot avoid discerning the human 'fingernail' and the stamp of the time in which they were written... No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However, brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light. I believe in revelation, but in that living revelation which surrounds us on every side, in that voice, mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die. What books can better reveal to us the goodness of God, his love, his providence, his eternity, his glory, his wisdom? 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork'." – Jose Rizal


We are faced with very frightening issues these days and this had to regard several aspects of our lives as Pilipinos and Christians. The degradation of the morality of Pilipinos and values has been one of the reasons why our country is considerably one of the worst in the world. In the count, we are just past Pakistan with 1 point as the most corrupt country in the world. What have happened to our values? What came of the teachings of our forefathers? What has the church done with these surfacing problems these days?

Our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal has laid his faith. He was a Christian though branded to be heretic by the friars. We can say even that Dr. Jose P. Rizal was never a politician. In fact, he was a philosopher, a 19th century Pilipino apologetic Christian. He never condemned the King of Spain nor has accused the Spain because of the situations of the Pilipinos in the Philippines during his time. Rather he was a constant critic of the Friars ruling over the Philippines. He was against the corrupt practices of the Friars before. He was never so happy about the abusive acts the Friars did thwarting their conscience and reverting Biblical principles of faith just to make their plans succeed.

Yes. Jose P. Rizal is a reminder that just like in his days; we are also experiencing a dilemma. We have shattered our conscience and our faiths have been blinded by nothing less than personal greed and the destructive desire of power. We are entangled by the lies set for us by the society, by ourselves, and those powerful factions that we let in our lives.

We need faith to proceed. We still need God to succeed. Dr. Rizal has made it clear in his statement and he affirmed his belief. Though this is actually a personal exclamation from a personal point of view, it create rather a communal effect; that if all Pilipinos think the same way, weighing theology as something not to use to control people but to set them free.

Maybe today we can never point out the problem to be with the government or with the church, maybe the problem is lying inside of us, maybe we have corrupted faith and blur conscience, thus we are left with no choice but to pile up problems adding one after another.

But it’s good Dr. Jose Rizal still educates us even today and reminds us of the role of God and our faith in him in the success of country. Yes he is right when saying: “No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However, brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light.”
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joseph glenn c. austero jr. 10/06/08