CATALYST LITERATURE

I’ve come across many inspiring stories today, of people being desperate. Desperate for one thing: to pursue the only ONE worth pursuing, Jesus. It’s great to hear and read such stories. It just helps me cry out to be desperate for HIM, the only one worthy.

Desperation. I don’t know how Merriam Webster defines it, but this is how I define it: an insatiable hunger, an unsatisfied longing, a struggle to reach out to the only thing that can bring hope, an all consuming desire. Heavy? Yes. Because it is.

Paul wrote the following to the saints in Philippi, urging them to continue on. Continue on in the context of God’s grace, to put every effort unto knowing God and doing His will.

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” Philippians 3:7-9

Paul has been through a lot. He has been a murderer and persecutor, thinking that he was doing it all for the glory of God. Yet, God in His mercy has chosen Paul to be His messenger to the Gentiles—non-Hebrews—us. If it weren’t for God’s work through Paul, our race wouldn’t even hear the Gospel.

I am sure Paul experienced ALL the convenience during his day. He was a Pharisee, which to this day is something equivalent to the most respectable group in society. He had the privilege of being invited always to parties, social events open only to the rich and famous. He had the honor to be a VIP whenever the king has a banquet for the people of Judea. He was known by everyone…and mothers want their kids to be like him, a very good man, someone who will surely end up in heaven when he dies.
Yet the moment he encountered God while on the way to Damascus, his whole perspective changed. His experience changed. He no longer enjoyed the privileges he had as a Pharisee. In its place he experienced persecution, rejection, countless floggings to the point that he was almost at the point of dying. But, he delighted in it. If that’s not crazy, I don’t know what to call it.

In fact, Paul continued on in his letter: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:10-11

Something isn’t right! How can a man like Paul want to suffer? Why will a former Pharisee trade his privileges for a life given up for Christ? Simple. He has tasted and seen that the Lord is good. And because of that single encounter with God, he has seen that living for Jesus is the only life worth living for. His eyes have been opened to the eternal, not the temporal.

If ice-cream was around during Paul’s time, I’m sure he would like to have it every day. With the kind of climate they experience in Israel, ice-cream will surely be a hit! But in comparison to the delight Paul might have—and we all have when we get ice cream—the delight he gets from God is more. Unimaginable. Out of this world. Supreme.

So great to the point that he craves for more. “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14

He is desperate for one thing. To take hold of what Christ did for him. Unfortunately, he never will. We never will. Yet that fact didn’t stop Paul from straining towards that anyway. If we will probe through the mind of Paul, he’d surely say something like this: “Why should I stop wanting to get that thing that is just so good?”

Let us go back to the ice cream illustration. If you will know that you will never get to the point of being satisfied by ice cream, will that stop you from wanting it? Nope. Because ice cream just tastes so good, you’d go after it! You’d do everything just to have it! You’d buy it, wherever, whatever the price! That’s if you’ve tasted ice cream.

It’s the same thing when you’ve truly encountered God. You’d just be so desperate to have more. You will have an insatiable hunger to know and do the ways of God. You will have an unsatisfied longing whenever you read His Word, because you know deep inside that it is nothing in comparison to what you will have the moment you will be in your glorified body. You will struggle to reach out to God, even though You know God is the ONE reaching out to you. You will just have a desire so consuming, it burns and you want it out and be spread to others.

Reading all this, you may get the feeling that it’s just so hard. “Gee, I don’t think I will reach that point in my life.” Let me ask you one thing, have you really encountered God the moment you thought you got saved? If you think and believe you did, then it’s about time to ask God to birth in you desperation. But if you are not sure, then it’s about time that you should be desperate that you encounter God.

How desperate are you?

Or better yet, how aware are you that God wants and is desperate to have you be desperate for Him? Let’s look at the account of the bleeding woman in Mark 5:25-34. After the woman touched Jesus’ cloak, Jesus felt power left him and then he turned to the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” The disciples pointed out to him that there are just a lot of people mobbing him that it’s impossible to pin point who touched him. Yet Jesus “KEPT LOOKING AROUND TO SEE WHO HAD DONE IT” (Mark 5:32)

Jesus was DESPERATE to know who touched him. And after the woman spoke up, he added more to the healing. He freed her from all suffering.

Now, shouldn’t that be enough reason to be desperate, knowing that the object of our desperation has been desperate all along?

Hey guys!

Catalyst Youth is having a Christmas play titled: “Christmas With a Twist.” It will be presented this Sunday, December 21, during COOK’S Christmas Sunday Evening Service. So far, the production team is in need of the following for the props and set:

(Note: This article was originally my
contribution for my friend’s (Kurt) magazine requirement he have to
comply in one of his subjects in school. But then I decided to post it
here and share it with you all. Hope you’ll read it. Enjoy!)

    The parable of the talents has some touch of fear into it.

    We all know how it happened.

    There was a rich man who left for some place doing something
that is in line of his business. Before he left his home however, he entrusted
different amounts of money to his three servants. To the first servant he gave
five talents (the currency used during that time), two to the second and to the
third he gave one. Upon the rich man’s return, he asked for an accounting of
what the servants did to their different talents. The first servant told his
master that he was able to generate five more, which made the rich man happy
and asked the servant to join him in his happiness. The same thing happened to
the second servant, who was able to generate two more. But the third suffered
the fate different from the others. When he told the rich man that he hid the
talent because of his master’s hard character, he was thrown out and his hidden
talent was given to the first servant.

    Now when you come and think of it, it does have a “fear
factor”. Just imagine when instead of money being taken away from you, it’s the
talent that you have that will be taken away.

    Here’s a trivia: the word talent—or synonymous to gift which
is our modern understanding of it—actually originated from Jesus’ parable of
the talent! Look it up in the etymology of the word in the dictionary or better
yet check it out in the website of Merriam Webster.

    So you see, the “talent” that Jesus talked about in Matthew
25: 14-30 is the root of our modern understanding of the word “talent”.

    Do you want to have your talent taken away from you because
you hid it, and didn’t use it, hone it and improve it?

    Imagine you are a basketball player, someone of Dwayne Wade
or LeBron James caliber. You’re playing in the NBA, get paid well and enjoy the
luxuries brought to you by your multi-million contract. Then suddenly one day,
you wake up and discover that all that talent disappeared. Then next, you’re
kicked out of the team and you lose a lot of money!

    Or if you can’t relate to the first example given above, imagine
that you are a famous diva, someone that gives Mariah Carey and Celine Dion a
run for their money. Then one day you wake up losing that golden voice which
brought you to stardom!

    Those thoughts surely give you the chills.

    Everyone has their very own set of talents. When God created
man, He created him in His likeness and His image. No ifs, no buts. He created
us the way He wants us to be. That verse is just so familiar. We either got it
from our Sunday school or our religion classes. And with that, our talents are
included. A package deal as many people would say.

    Those talents are supposed to be developed by us—the way
Jesus illustrated it in the parable.

    But a lot of young people today forget that and instead of
honing them for God’s business, they use them for self gratification and in
their dealings with worldly business. They miss out on God’s purpose and lean
more to their self-purpose. They tend to forget that the talent they have is
God-given and that the Source can easily take it away from them in a twinkling
of an eye.

    Some young people may not fall to the first category, but
they belong to the next one. They think that they don’t have the talent or at
least the potential just because they see other people as more talented
compared to them. They also think that they don’t have a talent at all—that
they’re hopeless when in it comes to art, music, sports or whatever those cool
kids at school possess. But talents don’t deal with the arts alone! A person
known to be a jack-of-all trade has something they don’t know how to do. Or
perhaps they know how but the results are BETTER if YOU do it.

    You may be this person: you don’t know how to kick the ball
when you play soccer or shoot it when you play basketball, but you know a lot
and is revered at when it comes to computers. Why keep on feeling sad about not
being able to do something you are not good at when at least you know something
and you are good at it? If you focus on that single talent you have for now, it
will grow, and it will be your trump card when you deal with others. And when
you diligently work on it, it will multiply! That’s how God illustrated it to
us through the parable!

    Have you considered helping out in your church, especially
your youth ministry, but often asked yourself how you can help out? Your gift
doesn’t have to involve on playing an instrument or dancing or preaching to
help out, your gift in meeting people or making their day brighter with your
smile is enough, and in most cases very much needed in youth ministries today.
It’s not only through the efforts of the leaders that keep the ministry
running. It also involves the young people that comprise the membership body!

    Hopefully you’ll realize that you’ve got immense potential
inside you and that you will be encouraged to tap them after reading this
article. Always remember that a potential will remain a potential unless you do
something about it. We all have our very own unique talents, and that makes
people different from each other.

    But if not, think about what happened to the third servant’s
talent when he just hid it. It was given away to the first servant. Aren’t you
afraid of losing the one thing that maybe only you know how to do? Think about
it!

by: Ruvs

Funny how God can call your heart back to your real purpose. Why do i say this? Just yesterday, I was so blessed by the Lord that He spoke to me in a way that I would have never thought of.

Lately, you could say that I’ve neglected my spiritual duties. He he! (sorry Kuya Ades) And instead of reading my Bible, and spending some quality time with the Father, my ears are glued to the latest tunes of McFly (my fave band—as of the moment), and my eyes explores their website and pictures, my hands busy typing messages in the McFly forum, and giving out reviews and feedbacks. You could clearly see those in my friendster profile and blog, which happens to be all McFly-inspired! But anyway, I am not here to campaign about this band (they have a website to do that). Instead, I am here to tell you how blessed i am.

Yesterday, a few minutes away from my History class, I was at Netopia doing some final research for our report in Entrep 35. However, because i’m a girl, i can multi-task. I was also checking out some music videos of McFly that i don’t have. I guess I’m starting to take a trip down memory lane with my craze for bands and such. I mean, these things happen in high school! I never thought I would be this obssessed since I THOUGHT I am mature enough in college not to be smitten by cute bands which will never know me at all! Anyway, since Netopia is the only place I could actually open YouTube, I took advantage of it by viewing lots of music videos by McFly. Never thought ONE video would make such an impact.

One of the videos is You’ve Got A Friend, a track they revived from James Taylor to serve as a fund-raising song together with All About You for Comic Relief.

Comic Relief is a charity organization that uses the entertainment industry to raise funds to have outreaches and stuff for poor countries. McFly and together with other actors and actresses serve as ambassadors to other countries. McFly currently came back from Uganda after two years and saw a newly constructed building (i think it was a hospital), which was put up because of their single All About You that earned about 500,000 pounds. To know more about comic relief and how YOU can help, visit www.comicrelief.com

Anyway, the video moved me like no other. I was starting to cry in the middle of the video, and i’m still teary-eyed. I actually had to stop the video halfway because I couldn’t take it anymore.

The video is so touching that you would have to be a stone if you don’t feel anything. It showcases children who lost their parents to AIDS, and who has AIDS—the catastrophic epidemic in Africa. And you can just see how these boys (band) were greatly moved when they were playing with the kids, and talking to them as they lie on their hospital beds (or even worse, death beds)….and what crunched up my heart was the scene where Danny, one member, had to hide to wipe away his tears. As far as i know, you don’t get to see genuine help already from bands and artists, they do it only for publicity. But this changed my mind. Comic Relief is a great organization, and it’s going to be BIG! Though I’m not from UK, I would really love to help out. It’s one way of reaching out to other people through this organization. And it also gave me this suddent urge to go on an outreach together with the church. I never tried, but now i really want to.

Just last night, I continued reading on the book i bought from MV Duolus, The Prayer of Jabez for Teens. This book has been lying on my dusty drawer, and last night, i read on. A lot of thoughts came into my mind that I would like to share to the rest of you who are reading.

One, in the prayer of Mr. Pain, as I would like to call Jabez, he asked God to bless him and expand his territories.Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that Thou would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast [territory], and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!’ And God granted him that which he requested."  1 Chron 4:10

Mr. Pain here would love to be blessed so he could bless others. Don’t we want that? It’s so ironic really. Because ones we have the things that we need, we don’t turn to God already and ask for blessings. God in His own capacity is capable of showering us with blessings but WE NEED to go to Him like a child would do to a Father, and ASK for blessings. While reading, I saw that we need to ask God for the blessings, and with His will, and "blessing", He would give it to us.

After viewing this video, I realized that I want to bless other people. It doesn’t have to be in Uganda but just to offer prayers for the people we know, love, and people we don’t even know of but are suffering. And even one way of blessing other people is sharing what you’ve gained when God spoke to you. That is why I was so excited to write this blog not because I want to show off but to be a blessing to you.

Two, Jabez didn’t have a whole book in the Bible that tells about his life like David, Noah, or Abraham. He didn’t even have one chapter. He only got a verse! But he is this really BIG inspiration to a lot of people. He definately is to me. It only shows that you don’t need to a big superstar, or popular to be a blessing to other people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that big charity foundations, big-name philanthropist cannot be blessed with the prayer of Jabez. It simply means that they should be motivated to do more to help without getting their head big, or shall I say, remaining "small" and humble.

Guys and gals, you don’t know how lucky we are to be here healthy and breathing. We have a family, a home, clothing, school, and believe it or not, money. Let’s take a moment to thank the Lord for the blessings received, and say a few words of prayer to help our suffering brothers and sisters, not only in Uganda but all over the world. We are not left alone because we have a God, and these suffering people are not alone too because they got us to help them in the smallest ways, and a BIg GOD to back them up. They got a friend. And we do too. I love you all and life is short, so don’t complain. Make the most out of it, and you’ll realize what great impact your actions are going to be.  DO what YOU CAN! Be Blessed so you could be a blessing to others.

**The video is in my media box. It’s the first video. or you could check it out in Youtube -click. Guys, I really encourage you to view this video to see what i mean. Or, you could view it in my Friendster Media Box. It’s the first video.**

–Wendy

    Today, January 27, 2007 is CATALYST’s "Blockbuster Saturday." It means we’re going to watch a movie! We watched "End of the Spear,"a true story and a great movie! =]
    The film is about five missionaries who bravely left the comforts of their lives and their families to go the jungle and reach a little tribe known to be violent. But the tribe killed them. However, it didn’t stop the family of the missionaries to continue what their husbands had started, which is to share the Gospel.
    At the end of the movie, Tita Chris shared about the fact that the world is not our home. We should be thankful for everything and live a meaningful life so that when the time comes, when we meet face to face with God, we will be confident.
    There is no language that God can’t speak! When you know that God is calling you to do something, don’t hesitate even though you’re unsure of it. Besides, God knows best, just give it up to Him! Jesus sacrificed His own life for us. He was innocent yet He took the spear’s end for us to be forgiven, redeemed and saved.

by Nikki and Arshy

    January 13 served as the starting point of Catalyst Youth (formerly Youth-M/YM) for the new year.
    Gathering inside the newly-opened Bytes & Brew.net Cafe, Catalysts, clad in their rain gear, shared their new year resolutions. People had fun laughing at the funny resolutions and encouraging the person who shared that he/she can keep it.
    Tina, a fellow Catalyst and now a full-pledge missionary, also shared her testimony and announced her departure for the Visayas outreach she’s involved in. She’ll be gone for two months and will be back this coming March.
    Exciting activities are lined up for the next youth gatherings. This coming Saturday (January 27) will be Catalyst’s Blockbuster Saturday.
    Catalyst Youth gathers every Saturday, 2:30 - 5:30 PM at the COOK Center, 2nd Level Mango Square Mall beside Bytes & Brew.net Cafe and Monster Radio.

by ruvs

Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown around the splendour and glories of the universe by a senior and experienced angel. To tell the truth, the little angel was beginning to be tired and a little bored. He had been shown whirling galaxies and blazing suns, infinite distances in the deathly cold of inter-stellar space, and to his mind there seemed to be an awful lot of it all. Finally he was shown the galaxy of which our planetary system is but a small part. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.
    "I want you to watch that one particularly," said the senior angel, pointing out with his finger.
    "Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me," said the little angel. "What’s special about that one?"
    "That," replied his senior solemnly, "is the Visited Planet."
    "Visited?" said the little one. "You don’t mean visited by—?"
    "Indeed I do. That ball, which I have no doubt looks to you small and insignificant and not perhaps overclean, has been visited by our young Prince of Glory." And at these words he bowed his head reverently.
    "But how?" queried the younger one. "Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince, with all these wonders and splendours of His Creation, and millions more that I’m sure I haven’t seen yet, went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?"
    "It isn’t for us," said his senior a little stiffly, "to question His ‘why’s,’ except that I must point out to you that He is not impressed by size and numbers, as you seem to be. But that He really went I know, and all of us in Heaven who know anything know that. As to why He became one of them—how else do you suppose could He visit them?"
    The little angel’s face wrinkled in disgust.
    "Do you mean to tell me," he said, "that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?"
    "I do, and I don’t think He would like you to call them ‘creeping, crawling creatures’ in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him."
    The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension.
    "Close your eyes for a moment," said the senior angel, "and we will go back in what they call Time."
    While the little angel’s eyes were closed and the two of them moved nearer to the spinning ball, it stopped its spinning, spun backwards quite fast for a while, and then slowly resumed its usual rotation.
    "Now look!" And as the little angel did as he was told, there appeared here and there on the dull surface of the globe little flashes of light, some merely momentary and some persisting for quite a time.
    "Well, what am I seeing now?" queried the little angel.
    "You are watching this little world as it was some thousands of years ago," returned his companion. "Every flash and glow of light that you see is something of the Father’s knowledge and wisdom breaking into the minds and hearts of people who live upon the earth. Not many people, you see, can hear His Voice or understand what He says, even though He is speaking gently and quietly to them all the time."
    "Why are they so blind and deaf and stupid?" asked the junior angel rather crossly.
    "It is not for us to judge them. We who live in the Splendour have no idea what it is like to live in the dark. We hear the music and the Voice like the sound of many waters every day of our lives, but to them—well, there is much darkness and much noise and much distraction upon the earth. Only a few who are quiet and humble and wise hear His voice. But watch, for in a moment you will see something truly wonderful."
    The earth went on turning and circling round the sun, and then quite suddenly, in the upper half of the globe, there appeared a light, tiny but so bright in its intensity that both the angels hid their eyes.
    "I think I can guess," said the little angel in a low voice. "That was the Visit, wasn’t it?"
    "Yes that was the Visit. The Light Himself went down there and lived among them; but in a moment, and you will be able to tell that even with your eyes closed, the light will go out."
    "But why? Could He not bear their darkness and stupidity? Did He have to return here?"
    "No, it wasn’t that," returned the senior angel. His voice was stern and sad. "They failed to recognize Him for Who He was—or at least only a handful knew Him. For the most part they preferred their darkness to His Light, and in the end they killed Him."
    "The fools, the crazy fools! They don’t deserve—"
    "Neither you nor I, nor any other angel, knows why they were so foolish and so wicked. Nor can we say what they deserve or don’t deserve. But the fact remains, they killed our Prince of Glory while He was Man amongst them."
    "And that I suppose was the end? I see the whole Earth has gone black and dark. All right, I won’t judge them, but surely that is all they could expect?"
    "Wait, we are still far from the end of the story of the Visited Planet. Watch now, but be ready to cover your eyes again."
    In utter blackness the earth turned round three times, and then there blazed with unbearable radiance a point of light.
    "What now?" asked the little angel, shielding his eyes.
    "They killed Him all right, but He conquered death. The thing most of them dread and fear all their lives He broke and conquered. He rose again, and a few of them saw Him and from then on became His utterly devoted slaves."
    "Thank God for that," said the little angel.
    "Amen. Open your eyes now, the dazzling light has gone. The Prince has returned to His Home of Light. But watch the Earth now."
    As they looked, in place of the dazzling light there was a bright glow which throbbed and pulsated. And then as the Earth turned many times little points of light spread out. A few flickered and died; but for the most part the lights burned steadily, and as they continued to watch, in many parts of the globe there was a glow over many areas.
    "You see what is happening?" asked the senior angel. "The bright glow is the company of loyal men and women He left behind, and with His help they spread the glow and now lights begin to shine all over the Earth."
    "Yes, yes," said the little angel impatiently, "but how does it end? Will the little lights join up with each other? Will it all be light, as it is in Heaven?"
    His senior shook his head. "We simply do not know," he replied. "It is in the Father’s hands. Sometimes it is agony to watch and sometimes it is joy unspeakable. The end is not yet. But now I am sure you can see why this little ball is so important. He has visited it; He is working out His Plan upon it."
    "Yes, I see, though I don’t understand. I shall never forget that this is the Visited Planet."

J. B. Phillips, New Testament Christianity (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1962), 27-33. As printed in the "Jesus I Never Knew" Study Guide by Phillip Yancey with Brenda Quinn (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan), 23-26

    It is the most anticipated date of the year. Almost everyone smiles
when they know that this date is near. In fact, everyone keeps a
countdown. December 25. People’s responses vary from the sweetest to
the sourest. Businessmen hear the sound of the cashier’s register and
the sound made by counting pieces of paper. Workmen looks up to bonuses
and a week or two from work. Students rejoice because there would
surely be no classes, but at the same time get upset at the lots of
back to school stuff that needs to be taken cared of before school
resumes. And children will get to stretch those vocal chords and make
money at the same time by singing songs to strangers. Now talk about no
talking (or singing for that matter) to strangers.
    You would
surely know what people celebrate on the 25th of December unless of
course, you are living somewhere aside from planet Earth! Christmas is
indeed an event to look up to every year, and it is just so fitting to
schedule it at the last week of the year, when everyone’s getting weary
from the year that it has been and prepare themselves for another year
of existence in this world.
    In the Philippines, Christmas is
celebrated as early as the last week of September. Maybe some Christmas
lights, some Christmas objects being displayed in the malls and other
things related to Christmas. "Only in the Philippines!", as the famous
one-liner would say.
    But I noticed something, and in fact this keeps on happening every single year people celebrate Christmas.
  First is the extravagance. Compared to the past years, this year’s
Christmas is a bit silent. I can still hear the sound of fireworks
every now and then, but not as numerous compared to last year. Perhaps
this has something to do with the moderation on the sale of fireworks,
but if it really is part of the tradition of people to do such, they
would certainly push the limit to continue the tradition and not break
it. Most Filipinos are bound to such tradition. So it comes as a bit of
surprise for me.
    Second is the "Christmas feel". There is such
thing as "Christmas air". And using my senses I came to realize that
there is indeed a huge difference between the "Christmas air" of this
year and that of last year. In fact, I feel it getting gloomy at a very
alarming rate. Five years back I recalled people here in our
neighborhood hosting house parties for kids, teenagers and adults. But
now, I didn’t noticed any house parties. What I noticed is a
karaoke-jukebox with different people singing, sharing alcohol. And
another thing is, people are drinking a lot of alcohol compared to
those of the past years!
    The things I stated above surely are
the results of the economic crisis taking over the Philippines. It not
only produced more holes on the pockets of Filipinos, it produced holes
in the physical and spiritual aspects as well.
    The Philippines
takes its distinction in Asia as the only "Christian" country. But the
people’s lives are stating things that are contrary to what should be
evident in a  "Christian" country.
    Instead of being joyful and
merry in the most important celebration in a Christian setting, most
people feel remorse, anguish, stress and other negative emotions and
feelings. People think more on what should be prepared for the Noche
Buena, what clothes to wear for the Church services, and what gifts to
buy for the people that matters, and the people who asked.
   
Because of this exterior things, people tend to forget that December 25
is a celebration because it is the day we remember Jesus’ birth. The
greatest gift of all that God could give. His Son. Sent to our planet
to live the way we live and experience everything a human being
experiences in his/her lifetime. His life could be summarized into
three short but stirring words, "Lived to Die."
    I just hope that
next year, instead of bringing down the "Christmas air", we learn to
lift it up and sustain it at the level of contagious joy, knowing that
we celebrate Christmas because of JC’s birth and not because there will
be presents under the Christmas tree. Christmas is more than just
receiving presents from people like us, it is about receiving the gift
that only God can give to us.
    Merry Christmas and a Joyful New Year to you all!

by Ruvs

Hey guys!

- by Abby