Dig Deep

Our Church History class were privileged to have Errnie Manges. We tackled about church history yet more on with Catholicism since Sir Manges studied about it. While listening at him, I got amazed of how he discussed and explain things that can be understood by an AB student.



The Philippines as what he said was not really a devoted Catholic but more on believing spiritism and animism. He usually corrected his US friends who would thought that Philippines was a catholic country but whenever you knew the inner and have been in the Philippines, then spiritism and animism can be manifested. However, with its strong catholic belief as what they say, was influenced by Ferdinand Marcos on the year 1951. It was the Spaniards who inflected Catholicism in our country. Thus, causing it to be the largest religion in this generation today. In our discussion in class, I've learned that the Spanish missionaries made our islands one nation, though our country has many islands yet they had fused it into one people sharing common identity and common belief. They as well succeeded in creating a Christian nation that eventually overthrew Spanish rule without rejecting the Christian faith by introducing books, printing, literature, western science, medicine, music, architecture, technology, and others.

On the other hand, political power and authority are the main aim of the emperor, pope and even politicians 

and sadly some pastors are included. It's a sad reality that they wanted unity in order for them to control the whole nation and be the lord of all. I believe it is biblical. That whenever the earth will be in one nation, we thought that there will be peace but NO! Chaos it will have instead. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places (Matt. 24:7, ESV). 

The Prince of Preachers

Education is a process of facilitating learning through teaching which is done by the teachers for the students. There are many methods in teaching such as storytelling, discussion, training, and directed research. Many people were depraved from having education. Some desired to study in order to improve status and in order for them to have the confidence to face people.I am a believer of education. That through educating oneself, we can learn and interact with others. Yet there are some people who excel though they were uneducated and one of them was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. 

Spurgeon was born in England on June 19, 1834. He was a reformed baptist.  His formal education was limited, even by nineteenth-century standards: he attended local schools for a few years but never earned a university degree. He lived in Cambridge for a time, where he combined the roles of scholar and teaching assistant and was briefly tutored in Greek. Though he avoid formal education, all his life he valued learning and books—especially those by Puritan divines—and his personal library eventually exceeded 12,000 volumes. He was known as the "Prince of Preachers." He had preached nearly 3,600 sermons. He produced powerful sermons of penetrating thought and precise exposition. His messages to be among the best in Christian literature. It was on October 7, 1857 when he preached to the largest crowd ever at the Crystal  Palace in London and at the same year, a galleries worked man were converted after hearing his loud voice. He pastored Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, which is the largest church. Usually, he never gave altar calls at the conclusion of his sermons, but he always extended the invitation. He brought note card with an outline sketch in the pulpit. His weekly sermons were sold for money. And their congregation sung in acappella. In addition, he as well pastored at the Baptist Church at Water beach, Cambridge Shire. He was a Sunday school teacher, where he published his first literary work which is a Gospel tract in 1879. Moreover, he founded the Charity Organizations called "Spurgeon's and works globally" and Stock Well Orphanage which became Spurgeon's Child Care opened for boys and girls. Also, he was a prolific author. His types of works including sermons, autobiography, commentaries, and books on prayer, devotionals, magazines, poetry and hymns. He published 49 volumes of commentaries, sayings, anecdotes, illustrations, and devotions and a hymn book called "The Rivulet" and a new collection of worship songs in 1866 called "Our Own Hymn Book."

I have seen in Spurgeon's biography that he ostracized education yet it was indicated based on my research that he loved to read most especially the Puritan teachings. He do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist but his creed was Jesus Christ. I am inspired with his life. Though I may gain bachelor degree unlike Charles yet I do not know if I can do things that he had done. He was used by God and I believe that the Lord will use me as well depending of what desire or holy discontent He implant in me. But same with him, I would love to have orphanage too. Catering and helping to have healing for those who are sexually abused, abandoned and broken people. 

HiStory

Every people has different stories to tell. This week, I am amazed of my classmates' conversion stories. God indeed is an author who is not boring. He really planned every plot and details in our lives. I have just realized that whenever we share our conversion stories or our life stories and certain stories in life, I can see
God's goodness and grace working each in the lives of every people. God is so amazing!

This time, I want to share with you my life story.

I grew up seeing and knowing that my father was a drug addict. My mother worked in a club as a Guest Relation Officer just to sustain and feed us. I have one older sister. My parents quarreled a lot. No days I can share that our home was not a chaos. Every day, I have seen how my father maltreated my mother. At that moment, I hate my father so much. That early, I learned to put an anger and hatred in my heart. I am an ongoing grade 3 student when my mother left us. I, with my sister was left with my father and his relatives. Since then, I lived with and grew up on my aunt's (my father's younger sister) house. I became timid and shy and I guess that's because of my experiences in life. There in my aunt's house, I was loved and treated well. There were times that I envy my cousins for having such wonderful family - a family who follows God. Every Sunday I go with them in the church. Though my parents were Catholic but gladly I was living with my aunt, I go with them in a Christian church which in the Mandaue City Baptist Church. Also, I was a sponsored child in Compassion before that probably contributed a lot of who

I am today. Going back to the story, ever since my mother left us, I lived with my aunt's house until I was 4th year high school. I transferred only when the time that my sister got pregnant. At first, she was staying with me in our aunt's house but then since she was a woman who liked to go out at night, she cannot bear the rules in my aunt's house. We have curfew and because of that she transferred to my grandmother and grandfather's house who was just a walking distance with where I lived. My sister got pregnant at the age of 17 and now she has 2 daughters already. She's now 25 years old. Anyway, after I graduated high school I went to college at Cebu Technological University took up BS Hospitality Management. But then I stopped due to financial reasons. My mother could not sustain my schooling anymore. I just studied there for a year. After a year, I worked on an internet cafe. I was 17 years old at that time. When I turned 18, I applied call center and I got hired. I worked for a year. I was the one who work for the daughter of my sister since she stopped working by the time she gave birth to her 2nd daughter. I was the acting mother of my two beautiful nieces. At an early age, I learned to budget my salary and share it with my family. It was a nice experience. I love to treasure those moments. It made me mature though I was deprived of having what I want. Since then,I wanted

to do things for my family. Nevertheless, there came a point in my life that I wanted to study in Bible School. I was involved in the ministry since the day that I accepted the Lord. So, I stopped working though it's hard for me because I am the one providing for my family's needs already. But then there was an urge inside me to study in bible school. But at first I considered going back to CTU, my former school or else transfer to Cebu Normal University since their tuition is way cheaper than the other schools here in Cebu. Obviously, I ended up studying here in Baptist Theological College. I am happy. I am glad. I learned a lot from this school not just academically but in every aspects of life. Now, I am a graduating student and I have seen God's faithfulness in sustaining and providing my daily needs. Every year was an exciting year since I experienced different things in a way that I am mold through those experiences.

My point on sharing my story is that, the Author and Writer of my story is my Heavenly Father. I cannot put into details the things happened in my life because it will be too long. But I am sure that the Lord is the one who is molding me throughout this year. The Lord has blessed me so much in a way that I can be a blessing to others as well. Yes it is my story, but in reality, it is His Story being portrayed in my life. In sharing this, I am aiming and hoping that people might see God's working in my life. I have been abandoned with many people in the past but there's someone who won't ever leave me nor forsake me (Deut. 31:6). Pain, hurt and tears are part of my life and I appreciate those because it made me stronger and closer to my God. One thing is for sure, the Lord is always with us and every circumstances that we are facing, though we are broken, the Lord will make us whole again.

In relation to church history, the historians has their own stories to tell. Clement, Ignatius, Calvin, Arminius, Justin, and those people we have discussed and tackled in class I'm sure has their own stories to tell. Though the motive is bad but the Lord has His reasons and purpose in which it will end up seeing the whole picture that He, working in the lives of every people on earth just to declare His glory and might!

To end this up, I am encouraging every one not to be shy of our past but instead see the other picture that God might be glorified in our lives. The very purpose we are here is to give glory to our Father and we ought to do that.

Are You A People Pleaser?

Who is JC? Others who loved wrestling would probably conclude that it's John Cena. However, those who are fanatic of a matinee actors would probably thought of JC de Vera. Hence, it is not about them neither Jesus Christ nor about a classmate whose name has an acronym JC (e.g John Christopher). But it is all about someone who contributed the Reformation and had a group of believers called by the name Calvinism which was being based by his family name, John Calvin.

In our Church History class, I was assigned to report about John Calvin's life and his contributions in the church history. So, I researched his life and I've learned that he was the very reason why
Calvinism was born. Indeed, he had a great contribution of the reformation just like Martin Luther, Zwingli, and others. John Calvin was born 25 yrs. after the birth of Martin Luther in Northwest France on July 10, 1509. His actual name was Jean Cauvin and became “Calvin” yrs. after when as a scholar he adopted the Latin form (Calvinus). He was given birth specifically at Noyon, an old and important center of the Roman Catholic Church in Northern Europe. His father was Gerard who happened to be from the middle class status. His father after serving the church in various offices including notary public, had risen to become the bishop's secretary. As a result, young Calvin was closely tied to church affairs from the beginning and to enable his son to advance to a position of ecclesiastical importance, his father saw to it that he received the best possible education the reason that at the age 14, Calvin enrolled in the University of Paris, the intellectual center of the western Europe. There, he eventually attended the College de Montaigu, the same institution that Erasmus attended. After a few years, his father had a falling-out with the church officials in Noyon including the bishop. In 1528, just as Calvin had completed his master of arts degrees, his father sent word for him to leave theology and study law. Dutifully, he migrated to Orleans, where France's best law faculty was located. In my surprise, he often taught classes for absent professors there in the University. After 3 yrs. of study at Orleans, Bourges, and Paris, he had earned a doctorate in Law and his Law license. Along the way, he had learned Greek and had immersed himself in the classical studies, which were of great interest to the contemporary humanists. In 1531, his father died that caused Calvin left to choose the career he favored. Thus, he moved to Paris to pursue scholarly life. Between 1532 was the year of his conversion but it was not discussed further what happened. In early 1534, his first religious work was published which was a commentary on De Clementia by the Roman philosopher, Seneca. On the same year, he returned to Noyon to resign his ecclesiastical benefits such as regular income the church had granted him which had supported him during his studies. This year, Calvin burned his bridges to Roman Catholicism permanently behind him with his resignation. And when the French

King, Francis I learned about such, he decided that persecution was the solution to the Protestant problem and Calvin realized that it was no longer safe to live in Paris or anywhere else in France. For the rest of his life, he was a refugee. In 1536, Calvin published the first edition of his “Institutes of the Christian Religion” which underwent several revisions before its final exhaustive edition in 1559, was one of the most influential handbooks on theology ever written. It's publication marked Calvin as a leading mind of Protestantism and kept him from pursuing the quiet scholarly life he had hoped for. As he described it, “God thrust me into the fray.” The same year he traveled to Strasbourg, a free city between Northern France and Germany wherein Calvin stopped for the night in Geneva, a small city at the eastern end of the Alps. A man named William Farel who was a fiery reformer who declared allegiance to Protestantism in Geneva. He has been working in Geneva for nearly yrs. He had learned of Calvin's presence in the city and asked him to join in the task of teaching the Genevan church. Calvin on his part declined, explained that he desired only to find a quiet refuge for study. But Farel said that Calvin's refusal to help in Geneva would bring God's condemnation down upon his head. Calvin accepted Farel's invitation as God's call. He was 28 yrs. old at the time. The rest of his life was given mostly to the work of reform in Geneva. The following are the major contributions of John Calvin: 1.) Education, 2.) Church Government. John Calvin reorganize the church and its worship. He decided to have a monthly observance of communion instead of 2-3x a yr. He also instituted a church board (the Genevan Consistory) and introduced congregational singing into the church - "to incite the people to prayer and to praise God." Calvin spent 3 yrs in Geneva. He associated closely with Martin Brucer, whose ideas particularly on predestination, Lord's Supper, and church organization, markedly influenced Calvin. Calvin married Idelette de Bure. He died on 1564 without me knowing the reason :D

What I've learned from Calvin's life is that WE CANNOT PLEASE EVERYONE. I have introduced and somehow had a glimpse of who John Calvin was but as I did my research there were few historians who doesn't like him because for them, they found him as someone who was cold, unfeeling, and calculating man, who imposed his will on a helpless or cowed people. Due to this opinion, I came to conclude that every people has different view and opinion to each situation and man. Even I, myself has different perspective of the thing that I have seen while others has theirs as well. As the popular quote says "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Most probably I agree with this one. Indeed, WE CANNOT PLEASE ANYONE. When we do ministry, a lot of people would disagree with our ideas and would not like who we are. However, we are created by God individually as unique and we are created in His own image and likeness (Gen. 1-26-27). Others may not like us but what's important is to PLEASE GOD not other people. Human beings has to aim for God's glory to be revealed in our lives than to think of what others think of you.