So I'm coming into Session from Leonard Wood, and for some reason the traffic staring over at around Barrio Fiesta turns terrible, close to Manila-Rush-Hour terrible. Turns out that there was a parade that was about to start, and everyone who was going to be walking down Session Road was already stationed over at that road which circles around SM. Hooray, I think. That just happened to be the road the jeep I was in was supposed to take. What comforted me was the fact that I wasn't chasing a scheduled meeting or anything like that. It was just that our jeep was one out of a whole bunch of other cars making their way up the hill to SM - the only way out at the time.
When we finally descended the hill, I had all sorts of thoughts in my mind, mostly negative stuff - Who has a parade during rush hour, right? As traffic eased the further away we were from SM, I happened to see a traffic enforcer busy doing his job, and I imagined giving him a piece of my mind. What struck me was how I imagined he would respond - 'Someone has to do it.'
I couldn't imagine how a person would do a possibly harmful task - like telling cars coming from all directions to pass through a commercial road which eventually turns into a one-lane bottleneck - just because he or she felt like it. No, sometimes it takes something out of ourselves to help. I would like to think that the sacrifice of these policemen was worth the bedlam that could have ensued without them. Some sort of order was established because these stalwart men and women chose to obey a command.
I've heard a lot of people say that they have been 'set free' when they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Indeed, Jesus Christ came to set the captives free (Luke 4:18-19), but is this the freedom to do what we want? Jim Caviezel, who happened to play Jesus in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, says this:
"Freedom exists not to do what you like but to have the right to do what we ought."
And what ought we to do? The real Jesus Christ says,
John 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
No matter how any valid and true translation of the Bible says, I'm pretty sure that it will never say that Jesus said, "If you feel like it, love one another as I have loved you." No sir, that's a commandment. When we realize that love is a command that we can choose to follow or not, we can definitely be sure that we don't need to involve how we feel just so we can love. We are free to love - to love one another, as Jesus loves us. We are to love our parents as Jesus loves us. We are to love our partner as Jesus loves us. Friends, we are commanded to love even the unlovable as Jesus Christ loves us.
You may not see it for yourself, but making the choice to love, as Jesus Christ loves you, can lead us to say simple words, or simple actions. While it may be true that our actions out of this love may not have as much visible impact as directing traffic can have, let us remember that it could take a well-thought word spoken out of love to lead a man or woman out of hell and into a life of hope with Jesus Christ.
With love, even the smallest of things count.
Dear reader, I tell you all this, because Jesus Christ loves me, and I love you that much to tell you that establishing a relationship with the Creator of the Universe through accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior is all that you'll need.
God bless you.
When we finally descended the hill, I had all sorts of thoughts in my mind, mostly negative stuff - Who has a parade during rush hour, right? As traffic eased the further away we were from SM, I happened to see a traffic enforcer busy doing his job, and I imagined giving him a piece of my mind. What struck me was how I imagined he would respond - 'Someone has to do it.'
I couldn't imagine how a person would do a possibly harmful task - like telling cars coming from all directions to pass through a commercial road which eventually turns into a one-lane bottleneck - just because he or she felt like it. No, sometimes it takes something out of ourselves to help. I would like to think that the sacrifice of these policemen was worth the bedlam that could have ensued without them. Some sort of order was established because these stalwart men and women chose to obey a command.
I've heard a lot of people say that they have been 'set free' when they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Indeed, Jesus Christ came to set the captives free (Luke 4:18-19), but is this the freedom to do what we want? Jim Caviezel, who happened to play Jesus in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, says this:
"Freedom exists not to do what you like but to have the right to do what we ought."
And what ought we to do? The real Jesus Christ says,
John 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
No matter how any valid and true translation of the Bible says, I'm pretty sure that it will never say that Jesus said, "If you feel like it, love one another as I have loved you." No sir, that's a commandment. When we realize that love is a command that we can choose to follow or not, we can definitely be sure that we don't need to involve how we feel just so we can love. We are free to love - to love one another, as Jesus loves us. We are to love our parents as Jesus loves us. We are to love our partner as Jesus loves us. Friends, we are commanded to love even the unlovable as Jesus Christ loves us.
You may not see it for yourself, but making the choice to love, as Jesus Christ loves you, can lead us to say simple words, or simple actions. While it may be true that our actions out of this love may not have as much visible impact as directing traffic can have, let us remember that it could take a well-thought word spoken out of love to lead a man or woman out of hell and into a life of hope with Jesus Christ.
With love, even the smallest of things count.
Dear reader, I tell you all this, because Jesus Christ loves me, and I love you that much to tell you that establishing a relationship with the Creator of the Universe through accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior is all that you'll need.
God bless you.