the theosopher photographer

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[theosopher16]

Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows

This is a nice book, a memoir of Ravi Zacharias. I find it interesting as I could relate to this man in some ways. If you love Ravi, you would not want to miss this one. Here is one of my favorite parts :

I was in Vancouver for a lecture when my phone rang late

at night. “Hello?” I answered.

“Brother Ravi.” With that one sound, I knew immediately who it was —

Hien.

After Vietnam, I hadn’t known whether my young

interpreter friend was even still alive. Now, as my excitement

gushed forth, he explained, “I amin San Francisco.”

“What are you doing here, Hien?”

“Have you got time to listen?”

If ever I had the time for anything, it was this.

After Vietnam fell, Hien was captured by the Vietcong and imprisoned. They accused him of collaborating with the CIA,

since he had worked with missionaries. In prison, they worked

him over, telling him again and again that he had been

brainwashed by Westerners. They took away his Bible and

forbade him to speak English, the language he had loved,

permitting himto use only Vietnamese or French.

“There is no such thing as God,” came the refrain from his

captors, day after hellish day.

The hour finally came when Hien wondered, “Maybe they

are right. Maybe there is no such thing as God.” As he thought back to some of my sermons and the shared blessings we had enjoyed, he wondered if perhaps I had been deluded too. That night he went to bed, muttering to himself, “I’m through with God. When I wake up in the morning, no more God, no more prayer.”

The new day dawned, and the commanding officer of the

prison barked out the assignments for the day. Hien was to clean the latrines. He cringed when he heard it. It was the ultimate form of indignity for the prisoners. The latrines were the absolute dregs of human filth, and Hien spent the entire day in those inhospitable surroundings.

His final task was to empty the trash cans, which were filled with soiled toilet paper. All day long, he labored with reminders to himself — “No God today.” But as his work was coming to an end, something in the last trash can happened to catch his eye. It was a piece of paper with printed type. As Hien looked closer, he saw it was in English. Hungry to read this language again, he looked around to make sure nobody was watching. He hastily rinsed off the filth and tucked the paper into his pocket.

That night, after everyone had fallen asleep, he carefully took out his flashlight and removed the still damp paper from his pocket. In the upper right-hand corner of the page were the words “Romans 8.”

The Bible.

Hien, in a state of shock, began reading.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of

those who love him, who have been called according to his

purpose.”

He read on.

What, then, shall we say in response to this?

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along

with him, graciously give us all things? Who

will bring any charge against those whom

God has chosen? . . . Who shall separate us

from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or

hardship or persecution or famine or

nakedness or danger or sword? . . . No, in all

these things we are more than conquerors

through him who loved us. For I am

convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height

nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of

God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hien began crying. Of all the Scripture verses he had

known, these were the ones he most needed to hear, and now

they had come back to him. “Lord,” he realized, “you would not

let me out of your reach for even one day.” He turned over in

his bed that night and prayed.

The next morning, when he saw the commanding officer,

Hien asked him, “Sir, would you mind if I cleaned the latrines

again?”

The officer stared at him, quite puzzled. Thinking Hien was

being rather arrogant, he decided to assign him to the latrines

indefinitely. “You are going to clean them every day, until I tell

you to stop,” he commanded.

Hien did not know it in the beginning, but the officer

himself had been tearing out those pages from the Bible and

using them for toilet paper. Now, each day, Hien rinsed them

clean, hid them in his pocket, and used them for his devotions

at night. He ended up collecting numerous passages from the

book of Romans, as well as from other books of the Bible.

After a while, he was let out of prison, and he started to

plan his escape from the country. Some fifty others, including a

high-powered political family, were involved in this attempt,

Hien’s third after two failed previous attempts. As the days passed, they worked to build a boat that would be able to navigate the high seas.

A few days before they were to leave, two Vietcong

confronted Hien. “Are you planning to escape?” they

demanded.

“No.”

“Tell us the truth.”

“I am telling you the truth.”

“Are you lying to us?”

“No.”

As they left, Hien was filled with remorse. He’d felt he had

no choice but to lie, especially since it would have put the

others at risk. Now he prayed, “Lord, I want you to be in

control of my life again. I am sorry that I lied. Here I am again,

depending on my own wisdom. If you want me to tell those

men the truth, send them back to me. I promise I will tell the

truth.”

They did come back — just hours before the group’s

departure time. Only now, there were four Vietcong, and they

grabbed Hien, pushing him against a wall.

“We know you’re going to leave,” they said.

“Yes, I am,” he admitted, “with fifty-two others. Are you

going to put me back in prison?”

“No,” they whispered. “We want to go with you.”

Hien was rendered speechless. At first, he wondered if it

was a trap. But it wasn’t — the four Vietcong did go with them.

Once they hit the high seas, the boat was rocked by a

terrible storm. “Brother Ravi,” Hien told me, “if it weren’t for

those four men, we would not have made it. They had a

tremendous ability to sail.”

Days later, they arrived safely in Thailand, and Hien was free. Eventually, he made it to San Francisco, and, after earning

a degree from the University of California (Berkeley), he now

ran a financial planning firm.

“Brother Ravi, I am getting married,” he said, “and I

wanted to ask if you would officiate at my wedding.” I was

overjoyed when my friend later visited our home in Atlanta and

spent time with my family. His words carried real weight as he

spoke tenderly to our children about what real intimacy with

God means, and what it means to live a successful life.

[theosopher16]

Aside from the powder-fine white sand (which is perfect for beach volleyball), sunset in Boracay is equally awesome.

Paraw sailing  is one of the best activities during this time.

Paraw sailboat is a typical Filipino double outrigger sailboat. The traditional Visayan sail boats are originally used for fishing and transport of goods and people to sail between the islands

Taken two years ago when I was beginning to learn and love photography (not bad for a novice, I think)

[theosopher16]

A lesson from a good acoustic guitar…

The older it becomes, the better it sounds. Similarly, love must be like this. It must get better (& sweeter) as time goes by.

But what it takes? A lot… a lot of commitment, a lot of maturity, a lot of effort…

Ergo, you must work it out. You see, love is more than an emotion. It is a decision and it requires a commitment.

Okay, the photo above (beside the boy) is not a guitar. I just like to feature my son

[theosopher16]

Lovely sunrise…Oslob, Cebu… #sunrise #Oslob, Cebu #photography

[theosopher16]

FAITH + WORK = SALVATION?

 Ephesians 2:8-9

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” When the bible says “we are saved by grace through faith and not by works” it means that way and not the other way around. Grace means unmerited favor, it is a gift. You can not do anything to earn God’s grace. When someone gives you a gift, do you ask how much i must give so that i can have this? What will i do to have this gift? That would not make sense, would it? Notwithstanding, some unwittingly teach that salvation is grace plus works. James 2:17 is often quoted “ Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”. Does James contradict the teaching of Paul? Surely not. James only argues that an authentic faith bears good works and obedience, thus he says in the following verse “ and I will shew thee my faith by my works (James 2:18)”. Obedience is not an option, we must, by all means obey. Obedience though is not a work (as to the concept of work in the epistle of Paul). The essence of work is not anything that we do, it’s anything that we do to earn salvation. When I get baptized and follow the teachings of Christ as an act of faith, then it’s not a work. If i do this or that, avoid doing this or that to earn God’s grace or salvation then i become legalistic. I am now frustrating the grace of God! I am now trying to work for the grace of God! So be sure that your obedience is an act of faith.

[theosopher16]

FAITH + WORK = SALVATION?

 Ephesians 2:8-9

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” When the bible says “we are saved by grace through faith and not by works” it means that way and not the other way around. Grace means unmerited favor, it is a gift. You can not do anything to earn God’s grace. When someone gives you a gift, do you ask how much i must give so that i can have this? What will i do to have this gift? That would not make sense, would it? Notwithstanding, some unwittingly teach that salvation is grace plus works. James 2:17 is often quoted “ Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”. Does James contradict the teaching of Paul? Surely not. James only argues that an authentic faith bears good works and obedience, thus he says in the following verse “ and I will shew thee my faith by my works (James 2:18)”. Obedience is not an option, we must, by all means obey. Obedience though is not a work (as to the concept of work in the epistle of Paul). The essence of work is not anything that we do, it’s anything that we do to earn salvation. When I get baptized and follow the teachings of Christ as an act of faith, then it’s not a work. If i do this or that, avoid doing this or that to earn God’s grace or salvation then i become legalistic. I am now frustrating the grace of God! I am now trying to work for the grace of God! So be sure that your obedience is an act of faith.

[theosopher16]