Filthy Rags to God’s Grace

I realized that just because our maid whom I am evangelizing to is financially poor
and even abused most her life
doesn’t guarantee that she wants a Saviour
she may want to have this release from this uncomforting life
she may want to avoid the dangers of hell
but she couldn’t accept the fact that she has offended an almighty God
in her first week staying with us I evangelized to her
she realized how dirty she was
how filthy she was in the sight of God
she never realized that if one offends one point from the law is guilty of them all so says St. James
I even saw her broke down in tears
she attended our regular biblestudies
perhaps its because she is part of the family
or she is really interested
we didn’t know at that time
until when we were discussing old testament stories
I saw her face brightened
I realized that her IQ was so low
that she couldn’t understand the things we were studying in the process
even the practical things
it was so hard discussing to her the principles of the Scriptures
not only can she not understand academically but she can’t understand spiritually as well
we saw her excitements in knowing some things in the Bible
like the doctrine of Election
and some other various doctrines that contradicts that of the Catholics
but still it wasn’t a guarantee that she’d be saved at all
what I learned from these biblestudy sessions was that the listeners may nod in agreement to what was discussed
even perhaps attended religiously with no absence at all
even perhaps shed tears out of guilt
but still the bottom line is the same
they still can’t commit their lives to Christ
now I don’t have to think whether this person is highly educated
or poor
or abused
or down to earth
or socially responsible
…these were some things that I used to find in a person for me to know if I have better chances in convincing them of the Truth
of having them repent and turn to Christ
perhaps by their ethical standards we could meet a decent common ground wherein I can share them the Truth
but no
even if they have all that even plus more
if their heart is hardened
even if someone was risen from the dead, they still won’t buy themselves into it
I saw the hardness of man’s hearts

step 1: create .htaccess file with ff codes

#RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]
RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]


step2: upload this .htacces to you subdomain

step3: login to wp-admin and go to settings/permalinks

step4: change the permalinks to your favorite reader-friendly URL

step5: go back to your uploaded htaccess file

and just comment on the first part of mod_rewrite.c tag


#RewriteEngine on
#RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]
#RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]


# END WordPress

and thats it!

Parable of the Tares
Mt 13:24

I.Introduction
Christ once again tries all ways and methods to do good to the souls of men
and to make impressions upon them; if men will not be instructed and influenced
by plain preaching, he will try them with parables;

and the reason for doing this is to fulfill scriptures:
Psalms 78:2

Christians are in the business of revealing to everyone the mystery hidden for ages
Ephesians 3:8-9

Revealing the mystery and not revealing man’s talents and capabilities:
1 Cor 2:1-12

This mystery is now revealed to his saints
Col 1:26

and only the poor in spirit will be able to comprehend because
Psa 25:8-9
Mt 13:36

II. Parable of the Wheat and Tares

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,
but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.
And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’
He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’
But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Mt 13:24-30

This time this parable emphasizes on what will happen to the “soil that did not bear fruit” to the bad seed
we already knew the results of the good soil
but what will the bad soil be in the future or in the coming end of the age

v 24
Wheat:
The good seed is assumed to fall on fertile ground, take root, and grow into healthy wheat
Wheat was used for bread
the most basic staple food of the Palestinian diet
it was also eaten parched
used in ceremonial offerings
and also for trading
this is not a mediocre seed. it is good seed.

v25
his enemy always watchful for opportunities to creep in like a snake
Tares = Zizanion
also called darnel in other versions
is a poisonous grass resembling wheat, but with smaller seeds
the tares were usually left in the fields until harvest time,
then separated from the wheat during winnowing
if the wheat grain is contaminated with the bitter darnel grains subsequent poisoning causes illness and vomiting
sowing darnel in a field for the purpose of revenge was a crime under Roman legislation
this would suggest that this action was common in those days

it was commanded that the Hebrews are not to sow different kinds of seed:
Deuteronomy 22:9

the enemy creeped in while the hired men were sleeping during the night
they were sleeping not because they were lazy, but because it was nighttime

v26-27
it is common to have weeds in the field
but in this case the weeds were so plentiful that it caught everyones attention
the hired men were shocked because the field was full of weeds

v28
the owner recognizes that this is not the common weed that they experienced.
but this was obviously done by an enemy
the hired men were concerned about the wheat knowing that these weeds are poisonous they asked if they could gather these weeds

v29
there are two risks that the workers would face if they uproot these weeds:
1. pulling out the tares would result in rooting up much of the wheat with them because the plant roots would
have become closely intertwined.
2. since the weeds and the wheat looked very similar, theres a big chance of pulling up the wrong weed

v30
only at that time of harvest could the good and bad plants be distinguished with certainty
because at that time both will bear fruit
and they can distinguish between the two plants by their fruits
example: Mt 7:17-19, Mt 12:33

—
after speaking these parables, Jesus spoke 2 more parables
the disciples then asked Jesus what the parable of the weeds are
take note they didnt say “parable of the wheat and the weeds”
v36

Interpretation:

v.37
the sower
the sower is the “son of man” not mentioned as “son of God” to emphasize the humanness of Jesus preaching the gospel
“man” = anthropos
human being, whether male or female
man
made for God - Prov 16:4
unworthy of God’s favour - Psa 8:4
Jesus is emphasizing that He came here as a man to fulfill His mission: to save sinners

“Son of Man” also is recognized by the Jews (Daniel 7:13)

v.38
the field
-the world
-owned by Christ (v.27, Col 1:16-18)

the good seed
-materialized (Mt 24:14,Mt 28:18-20,Mark 16:15-16,Luke 24:47)

the weeds
John 8:44
1 Jn 3:8-10
False Christians will always co-exist with True Christians
2 Corinthians 11:13-15

False Christians Creeping in
Acts 20:30-31
Gal 2:4
2 Ti 4:3-5

v.39
the enemy - the devil
-is always deceitful (2 Cor 11:13-15)
-with this we must be watchful (1 Peter 5:8)

The harvest - close of the age
-represents God’s judgement

The Reapers - the angels
-only the reapers can discern which are wheat and which are weeds
Mt 13:49

the church age is meant for evangelism not for judgement

v40
judgement against weeds

v41
The Son of Man will send his angels
materialized (Mt24:31)

THey will gather
(mt13:49,Rev 21:27)

v42
cast them into fiery furnace
(Mt 3:12, Mt25:41, Mark 9:44, 2Thes 1:8-9,Rev20:10,Rev 20:15,Rev 21:8)

there will be weeping
(Mt13:50,Mt 22:13,Luke 13:28)

v43
what will happen to the righteous?
Mt 25:34

III.Conclusion:
—He who has ears let him hear
the person who is not certain of their relationship with God should ask himself if he is wheat or tare
doctrine of election
Rom 8:28
Eph 1:4-11
just because we realize we are wheat doesnt mean we can disobey the great commision because:
2Thes 2:13-14
a true Christian will produce good fruits: Mt 7:16

The End is Real
the death of Adam and Eve materialized
the world will perish by water materialized
babylon would fall
jerusalem would fall
messiah would come
messiah would be born of a virgin
messiah would be born in bethlehem
messiah would speak in parables
messiah would be slaughtered
the future record would be just as perfect as the past record
all must be fulfilled

no matter what you do
if you’re speaking the gospel
they will ridicule you
they will speak all kinds of evil against you
they will persecute you if they had the chance
you offended their pride
the pride that they are trying to protect
using a shield that has these words written on it “do not judge me fool!”
who are you to lecture them?
who are you to “judge” them?
who are you playing the “holier than thou” role?

you will be hated
you will lose friends
even family
and you cant help but feel miserable
feeling miserable because you are still in the flesh struggling with your emotions
even if you knew that you planted the seed on the wrong kind of soil (Matthew 13:1-23)
and yet you still felt the pain as if you failed God
as if you felt that you are a worthless servant of Christ
for years you’ve been a Christian, and you can’t even convince your own mother?
even your best friend
even your brother or sister
nobody listens to you
and you think nobody listens to you because you are not an effective Christian
but no
we Christians should know better
we know that there is no problem with the seed we are planting
no
for to say so is concluding that God’s word has a problem
because the seed is God’s words and not yours! (Luke 8:11)
therefore the problem is actually in the condition of the man’s heart
because it is the man’s heart that couldn’t accept the seed
it couldn’t accept the word of God
it couldn’t accept because the Gospel is offensive
its heart is not willing to be ruled by God
not willing to be dethroned
but you be of cheer my friend
for if they are offended because of the word of God
you can be sure that what you sowed is God’s words and not yours

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12

it is not that you are not an effective Christian
it is because that the soil is not good
be commited to spreading the seeds and not your words
don’t think that you can change the message of God just for it to be acceptable
this is blasphemy
let the word of God be the WORD OF GOD
as its original intent of the message
even if the message offends
because the Gospel IS offensive no matter what you do

“and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ” Matthew 10:22

“You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. ” Luke 21:17

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. ” Matthew 24:9

“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. ” John 7:7

“We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. ” 1 Corinthians 4:10

“If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” 1 Peter 4:14

“But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. ” John 15:21

we walked together
we fellowshipped together
we prayed together
we shared the same doctrine
we spent hours and hours discussing  doctrines
we shared the same stand
but all of a sudden you changed
because of your sin
you refused to be corrected
and left me
and our agreement on this doctrine
you turned your back on me
we were more than friends
brothers in Christ
you were a son to me
but you refused to be rebuked
and moved elsewhere where other people wont know of your sin
i thought we agreed that we will follow the pattern of Christ
i thought we agreed that no matter what, it is God we must aim to please and not man
but how do i deal with this
you dont even know the suffer and pain im going thru because of your rebellion
come back and be wise
for this burden of mine is too heavy
but i couldnt let go
i couldnt let go because of my love for you
hoping everyday that youd come back
- - -
from the thoughts of my pastor whom i left for 6yrs due to my rebellion against God
the poem is talking to a lost son, which is me
read full story of my rebellion here

should we still be surprised if society stomps on God’s words?
should we be shocked when we see preachers fall into heresy?
should we be surprised if we see churches commit to idolatry, to hypocrisy?
as if saying
this must not be
i wasnt expecting such things
no
not in my lifetime
people must be God-fearing
people must be loving
people must know by nature that they need God
but no
scripture is clear
we are all haters of God by nature
no one seeks after God
no one understands
no one even attempts to
no one is righteous before God
everyone sets their own standards
and calls those standards their god
their god is their stomach
feeding their self-esteem
no
there is no one righteous (see Romans 3:10-19)
so why else should we be surprised if we see acts of evil
its in the scriptures
we already saw the trailer
the “warning its a spoiler”
we already know what to expect
the reason why some people are surprised at what they see
is because of what society taught them what to expect
a Christian must be all smily
must be stiff
must be wearing whatever kinds of clothes
must be using the right jargon
must be listening to the right music
must be eating the right food
must be attending the right Christian school
must be corny
must wear glasses
and on and on it goes
these things
society teaches
id rather hear what the scripture says
than trying so hard to please society who are by nature in rebellion against my God

what is the difference between witnessing to a socially acceptable man
and to a man who is not
the socially acceptable man is decent to talk with. educated. charming. have followed all the rules to ethical standards.
while the other who has many wives, irresponsible father, hatred amongst neighbors, unforgiving attitude, stubbornness.
what is the difference between the two in terms of their passion towards God
nothing
both have hard hearts
both hearts are rebellious and its best good works combines are filthy rags in God’s standards (Is 64:6)
the latter will bluntly refuse the gospel of Christ
while the earlier will simply deceive that he has received Christ
probably even read the whole scriptures
probably even preach in the pulpit
but both hearts are in rebellion against God (Mt 7:21)
to my experience
the earlier, the man who is socially acceptable, is worse than the latter
his heart, even when he praises God, is simply insulting Him
he insults Him because he does not know who God is to him
and yet he praises Him and give Him glory with the hope of God will be deceived that the reason he is praising God is because he understood the gospel
not only is his heart in rebellion against God
but he also deceives himself thinking his salvation is secure but is not
so the only difference between the two is that the socially acceptable man is deceitful and other not
but both hearts are the same: rebellion towards God

i have my host Site5
and had several subdomains
im using cakephp in my main domain
and because of this, the rest of the subdomains wont work
the solution here is to create an .htaccess file with the ff codes:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
#RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule    ^$ app/webroot/    [L]
RewriteRule    (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

take note the commented “RewriteEngine”
place this under your subdomain
example:
public_html/mysubdomain/
and thats it

thanks to our pastor who gave me this solution

Matthew 1 - showed the messianic line (Mt.1:1)
Matthew 2 - Magi affirmed His right to reign (Mt.2:2)
Matthew 3 - John the Baptist affirms the kingship of Christ (Mt.3:11)
Matthew 4 - Christ was presented as God’s chosen King by showing to us that He conquered Satan’s temptation (Mt. 4:8)
Matthew 5,6,7 - Jesus, on the Sermon on the Mount, spoke with authority as testified by the people (Mt. 7:29)
Matthew 8-10 - credentials of the King:
Miracles - v2, v5-13, v14-15, v16-17

Why does Jesus need to do miracles:
to fulfill scriptures; Jesus displays His Kingship then gives importance to God’s words.

Nature obeys Jesus (v.27)

Matthew 9 - Healing of a paralytic (v.1-3)
Authority to forgive sins (v.6)
Christ’s kingship over sinners (v9-10)

teaching: Christ drawing the line (v.13)

Christ’s authority over death (v.25)
Jesus heals blind and mute

Matthew 10: teaching: Jesus drawing the line (v1-42) (v34-37)

Matthew 11: Drawing the line:
act of Judgment (v20-24)
act of Mercy (v25-30)

Matthew 12: Jesus Lord of Sabbath
Jesus drawing the line again (v.30)

Teaching Jesus drawing the line (v.38-45)
judgment among unrepentant hearts
mercy among the Ninevites
Inspite of Christ’s display of works and kingship, Christ is still rejected and not considered as their King (Mt 11-12)

we had a great morning
we went to the park with bruce and the kids
the field was huge and green
we played frisbee
ran around with bruce throughout the field
it was tiring and fun
then we walked around
and finally sat down under a huge tree
we chatted a little
having bonding moments together with the kids
it was fun
we hope to do this every saturday morning
it would be a good opportunity for us to open up the gospel to them at those times
we pray that we’d have the commitment to share to them the gospel
share to them the things we learned
living here up north is fun as compared to living in the city
in manila everything is far from each other
streets are busy 24/7
people make friends for money
but here everything is laidback
and we are so thankful to God for giving us this wonderful blessing!
hopefully next week i’d bring my camera to get a few shots of us together