WHEN GOD CALLS YOU

Most of the time, when we are at the most comfortable moment of our lives... God will suddenly instruct us to stand up from that lazy boy couch and asks us to step out from that cozy place. 

When you can see the beautiful life ahead of you and all your dreams seems coming true...  He will make you realize that these things aren't the one that really matters. 

For quite some time now, God has been asking me to move out from my comfort zone. Admittedly, I am hesitant. I tried to make excuses, and I mean really good excuses... but when He calls you, I believe we can only delay but we can never say no. 

It's been years of constant struggle, the burden is there. I know there is something else that He wants me to do, however, I have many lousy reasons not to respond... 

Onwards and Upwards

Hello 2015!

I am looking forward to the bestest year ever...

I have my first-7-days reasons why:

01 Jan is FAMILY | This is the best place anyone can be... when we are with family.

After 7 years, I was able to celebrate New Year at home with all the "rounded" fruits on the table, colorful fireworks, loud firecrackers and a happy noisy extended family.

The First Big Four

No, this is not about Daniel, Jane, Mariz or Vickie...
More so not about Kuya who is leading the Pinoy Big Brother house.

This is about the first Big Four converts of Jesus' public ministry, that can be found in John 1:32-51.

Few weeks back, I was able to share the same message as I was given the opportunity to share the Word of God in Faith Hope and Love Assembly church in Angat, Bulacan, Philippines. This is an excerpt...

The story started the following day after John the Baptist was introduced in the Book of John. He was standing with 2 of his disciples when Jesus arrived.

36 and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"

And right there and then, they followed Jesus...

Stand Firm

Last week, our church celebrated its 16th year of standing firm in faith, united in doing the mission of God. It was victorious. The program runs smoothly, the message was very clear on the presentations, the Word of God was delivered with great impact by the guest pastor, and more importantly, many visitors took the step of faith and accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Indeed, our labor is not in vain.

And as expected, the enemy will work double time to destruct us. We cannot expect them to simply sit and watch us as we celebrate.

Bathroom Diaries

Yesterday, I had a really interesting bathroom conversations with different people; its not new, but its refreshing...  

"I'm soooo done with this. How can people be so inconsiderate?" - My colleague suddenly burst out her emotions while we were in the toilet to freshen up before the start of day... I looked at her and ask: What happened?

Rejoice!

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! — Philippians 4:4

Rejoicing is easy when everything else are falling into places. 
But how can we practice Philippians 4:4 when things are broken into pieces? 

There are many commandments in the Bible that was given to us as a guide for a true Christian living. Romans 12 is a good example of the guidelines that we can use. We also have the Love one another verse in John 13. 

Compared to those not-so-easy-to-achieve-commands, Rejoice in the Lord always, seems less complicated to obey.

Yeah. IT SEEMS...

Are you enjoying your silence?

My colleague who sits in front of me just asked that question...
Today is not a busy day for me, or shall I say, not a working day for me.
Uhhmmm -- Holiday in the office!!!
And the cold weather makes it just perfect...

Since morning, there are very few things. No red flags. No WIP. I just released several materials yesterday for my account. Today is indeed a rest day, if I may say.

Yet, times like these are crucial... Idle times are the most dangerous time as the 'enemy' uses this to put several things on our mind... Things that we should not even think about.

Start Your Year Right...

For a believer, life is a growing collection of God stories... 

See beyond your vision.

One Peace

On our travel every morning, the traffic is getting worst. The 45 minutes travel time is now 1 hr. and 5 mins. Accident is always present on the road which adds few more minutes... But despite the heat and  the hot headed drivers, my extended morning nap re-charged my battery for the day.

Office as usual is busy and stressful - for them. But on my corner, being isolated from the rest is quiet and relaxed, as if there is a blanket that shields me from tension from the outside forces... work flows smoothly on my side. Follow ups were made, deadlines were met and everything is organized. And as I always say, I am blessed with kind hearted superiors... they are God's bonus gift to me.

Solid

What are you depending on?

What is solid in your world? Relationships? Money? Work? 

Almost all of us have learned that these things have a breaking point... Solid is relative.

Unless, of course, your life is built around God.
God neither bends nor breaks. He doesn't change.
He doesn't disappear. He doesn't fail.

God is the only "solid" that is truly solid.
All other things will let us down;
the unchanging God will be there until the end of time.

What's on your mind?

Familiar question?

We answer it every day if you are not the type of user who change their "Facebook - mind status" every minute. Who doesn't have an FB account? I know some who cancelled theirs already, for some personal reasons. I have thought of cancelling mine too, at one point...until I realize that somehow, we can use this as a tool for spreading the Good News.

If you are my friend, you can surely read Bible verse and some preachings or Biblical phrase on your news feed or ticker from my account, whether you like it or not! And that's what I like about it... being able to reach other people and share God's Words even to those who weren't reachable before.

Another Summer Passed...

It's a lovely day out there! Bright sunny day with cool breeze of winter wind.
Summer is finally over... just as quick as October.
Time runs fast; I have counted several summers here in UAE and have waited with enthusiasm for winters. This transition is significant for me. If you have noticed, I have written few blogs about this, annually -- when its almost winter.

What makes this time remarkable for me?
I guess, being in the Middle East, knowing that you are in the desert, having experience the heat of summer and have survived it,  makes this time an extra special above the other phases.

During this time, it feels good to look back few months back... while you are covering yourself from the sun and the hot wind that blows on your face. The feeling of survival and victory that you have overcome the scorching heat of summer.

This year, blazing wind blew several times... I know its not only me, but many of us had a searing summer.

It's A Beautiful Day

I initially started my post with these lines - I missed blogging because...

And I came up with 6 excuses. 

As I continue on my 7th, I realized that I was just fooling myself with all those reasons... 

and the bottom line is that I failed to manage my time and I was not focus at all. 

To be fair with me :), I was also pre-occupied with many things... both on work, personal and extra curricular. At office, I was given additional accounts to manage; on personal note, my parents and auntie just left after a month of vacation here in UAE, and my extra curricular - are the most important things among the three, for those are my commitment to WIN Sharjah church ministries. 

Now, are my reasons valid? :-) 

Maybe, but still I found myself guilty. 

Guilty for not fulfilling my promise to you and my commitment to share how marvellous God is. 

I know I have said I MISS YOU several times already. I have expressed my innermost desire to be with you on the pages of KALI. But I have failed you many times... 

Now, I'll try again; let me start by saying: KALI's back! TODAY ---

Today, I do not have a huge story to tell. 

But I have a huge God Who do mighty things that I can share...

Do You Have The Key?

This is one lesson that I learned from the forty five days gap, I MISS YOU, remember... and as I promised, I will share stories that happened  in between :-)

As the clock ticks at 5PM, my adrenalin goes up... I will cross-check all my to do list for the day and will immediately follow up all the pending jobs that were needed. I usually put pressure on my colleagues esp from finance by pointing finger on my watch...
Some walking along the hallway, few phone calls, and before I knew it, its already 6pm... finally!!!

That is me, normally.

Today, admittedly, not all jobs on my list were checked, and not all the mails were marked completed... I left my desk with some pending jobs... I was rushing to go home because there are some things that I wanted to do. That's why even if there were some jobs that needs to be sorted, I shut down the computer and ran...

I Miss You

It's been one and a half month since you read something from me.
I am sorry for the gap... for the silence.

The past 45 days was not dull nor empty that there was nothing to write...
Instead, it was a very hectic 45 days for me that might equal to 90 days to others.
Most of the time, my 24 hours was never enough for one day and it usually ends with another day.

I may be as busy as a bee... but I was never been this happy.

I had several experiences that I should share...
I have compiled them in my mind and in my heart. The lessons that I learned, the people that I met, the moments and the experiences... you can read them all in the coming days.

For now, I want to tell you that I really do miss you.
Its been a week that I have this passionate desire to say something again here in my blog... To open my dashboard and write.
In the past week, I felt guilty for not fulfilling my commitment of sharing something to you.

I know I am not oblige.

My Route

This is my daily route.

From my place to office.

1 hour and 30 mins travel - one way.

---

This is my pick up point.

It's along Al Khan.

This is where my journey begins, every morning...

Am I Late?

Let me start my first blog of 2011 by a late greeting of  
A Blessed New Year to you and your family!!! 
I hope and pray that my blog reached you, just on time...

Why am I late?
How come I missed posting blogs for Christmas day and New Year on this page?
 
2010 for me is one of the best year of my life.
I was able to enjoy life.
I still have my family, my relatives and my friends... all in good condition.
And most of all, I have God and He keeps me.

What else can I ask for?
 
Many...

hOUR Glass

In this world, we were moved by our ambitions of who we want to become, what we wanted to have and how we can achieve it. We also planned where it should happen and when the time is.

We spent our lives trying so hard to accomplish things on our own ways... our mind never stops thinking on how well we can be and how beautiful life can become...

But more often, we missed THAT MOMENT without realizing that it already passed -- when we already lived with our dreams... because we are so busy looking forward to something better.

A for Effort

Few days back, I wasn't sure if I was just experiencing another 'holiday hang-over' -- but that was not the first time that I felt bored at work... it's all over my head and I felt that I do not want to create another job nor talk to anyone regarding work again.

I missed the thrill... the excitement in coming to the office everyday.
Everything seems monotonous... numbers and computation irritates me... not to mention some people who I felt were insatiable and so insensitive. I know it was alarming -- because I started to hate my job :(

I somehow felt depressed... but I have to drag myself to go to work. There are days when I will just sit and stumble at the net, replying only to urgent matters... the rest of the jobs... I just ignore them. My self-esteem was so low... thinking that this is not the job for me...

Everything changed after one phone conversation that I had with my Ninang.

Wrap Up

Have you noticed how quick August passed?
Today is the last for this month, while the rest were history.

Personally, this month was somehow memorable to me.
Being with my Nanay and Tatay until the10th day made it extra special. Happiness Overload! Every second was so valuable; as my tita said, it's priceless...

The 11th was the start of Ramadan, and since I am in a Muslim country and most of people are fasting, it is a general rule that the working hours were shortened from 8 to 6 :-) Aside from the 2 hours extra, work load was near to nothing... there were only few jobs to be done on this season...