Dear friend,
Today, a family perished in a fire. 3 days ago, a tsunami hit Japan and killed more than 10 000 people. That tsunami was caused by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake near the coast of Japan. That earthquake wasn’t alone. It merely followed the earthquake disasters in China, Haiti and New Zealand. Seems like magnitude 8 earthquakes aren’t so rare anymore, are they?

Friend, I want you to know that, more than 2000 years ago, all these catastrophies were predicted in the Bible. Jesus told us that these events are early warning signs that He is coming back. Don’t believe me? Check this out: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but THE END is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be FAMINES and EARTHQUAKES in various places. All these are the begining of birth pains.” (Matthew 24:4-8)
I don’t want to scare you, but we are running out of time. When Jesus comes back to take His children up to heaven, Satan will be left to rule the earth and the 7 most terrible years this planet has ever seen will take place. There will be a worldwide earthquake such that has never been seen before. Stars will fall from the sky and only 1/4 of the population will be left when the 7 years are over. Jesus told us,”For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one will survive…” (Matthew 24:21-22) The only way to escape these disasters is to believe in Jesus and be taken up with Him when He comes for His people before the 7 years.
Problem is, nobody knows when He will ba back and, friend, I don’t want you to go through thos terrible years. I want you to be certain that when you die tonight you will go to heaven. I also want you to be sure that whenever Jesus comes back, you will go back home to heaven with Him. All you have to do is BELIEVE. Believe that Jesus died for your sins on the cross. Believe that He died, but also that He rose again on the third day.
If you are ready, pray to God. Confess your sins and tell Him that you are sorry. Tell Him that you believe in His saving grace and that you want to have a personal relationship with Him.
God always listens to us. If you are sincere in praying that prayer, you need not be afraid of hell anymore. YOU ARE SAVED.

However, if you are not ready, yet, I would just like to make a request. Please grab hold of a Bible and see if what I’m saying is true. At least see where I am coming from and discern for yourself if what I believe in is worth believing. I really hope that you will realize just how much He loves you.

In the name of Jesus,
ROX:D

PS If you have any personal questions or comments, drop me a line at zed_rox_10@yahoo.com.

Posted on March 14, 2011

JS Program 2011: Stairs

JS stands for Junior- Senior program and it is sort of like a despedida or farewell party for the graduating seniors by us, the juniors.

Joshua and Sharmaine both did a swell job at hosting, though Josh could still use a bit more polishing. Forgivable, given that this seems to be his first time hosting.

L t. Col. David Isaac’s message was truly inspiring. Though he is a little bit off with what’s in right now (what are baton jeans??), his message was timeless. He taught us three basic life principles and used three Bible verses to explain his point. The first verse is from Ecclesiastes 3:1 and it says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” His second point comes from a very familiar passage, Proverbs 3:5-6, whih states,”Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” His third and last point was taken from Psalm 109:105, and it says,”Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

The passages really hit home for me because they are the very verse that have been guiding me everyday. Not only have I kept these words of God’s in my heart but they are also practical help to me everyday. They also served as reminders and as principles to live by as I start preparing for my exams this week.

I congratulate Princess and Jeffrey for being crowned Ms. and Mr. Junior, respectively. You guys deserve it. :)

I also want to appreciate everyone who participated in the Special presentation. I felt as if I were watching GLEE or High School Musical, where people sing and express how they feel through music. Maganda. My favorite number was the performance
of Gift of a Friend by Pam, achi Charlene and Rholyn. Gabby sang The Climb really well, too. YOU GUYS WERE AWESOME. I wish I sang like you. :D

A special shout out to the director, our class head and birthday boy, Goodwin. You are outstanding, Good! Idol kita. :)

All in all, the JS program was a resounding success and the next batch will have a hell of a time topping it next year. It made me realize, also, that though our batch may not the most academically gifted of all, our batch is brimming with talent. We have so many singers, actors, dancers, artists and leaders who have not been given their due recognition just because they are not in the top section. So, SSHS Batch 2012, i just have one more thing to say: I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Till next time,
ROX:D

P.S. No pictures for this post because my camera conked out and wouldn’t turn on. Sayang. :|

Posted on March 5, 2011

Like Israel, Like Me D:

Exodus 20:19

“They said to Moses, “You speak with us and we will hear; but not let God speak with us, lest we die.”

This passage really hit home to me. I just realized how much I’m like the Israelites. The Israelites relied on God when they were in trouble. But when their obedience brought prosperity, they would turn away from God and start worshiping idols. God would get very angry at them and bring down judgment upon them. The Israelites would suffer terribly in the hands of invaders, plagues, famine, etc. and they would purify and cry out to God again. And God, being the merciful God He is, would save them from the hands of their enemies. And so the cycle continues…

And so it is with me. God made me successful and I started to think that I was the one who did everything, then God would bring temptations and hardships into my life. I would turn back to Him, taste success for a while but soon I would do something wrong and the cycle would start all over again. Frankly, I am sick of this! Why can’t I just be more consistent in my faith and never turn my eyes from God? Until today, I didn’t know the answer to this question.

I reflected on the lives of the Israelites. What made them turn away from God? What was it that pushed God’s buttons, that He would rain down plagues on them if they did it? I found my answer in the Old Testament, as a whole. IDOLATRY. THis drove God to allow the Israelites to be invaded by Assyria, Babylon and, Rome and, finally, Greece. The Israelites loved to go with the flow and worship whatever wood, stone or animal their neighbors worship. They wanted to fit in, to be like the other countries. It sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

As a teenager, I have friends. From my friends, I learned to text a lot, to listen to Pop music, to create a Facebook account and to read Nicholas Sparks books. I’m not saying any of this is wrong (well, except, maybe, for the text a lot part.) but, little b little, they pushed me away from God. Friends aren’t the best role models and neither are most famous singers and writers today. These people tend to focus on worldy things, on gaining material wealth, on their emotions and on falling in love with the right person, especially. Though, as humans, these are normal things to focus on, obsessing about these things are a big no-no for Christians. A Christian must always focus his/her eyes on God, the Author and Perfector of their faith. I now know this.

Do you remember the SPAM week I wrote about a few weeks ago? I felt great that week and I felt really in tune with God. Right after that week though, I Facebooked (a new verb my English teacher coined), and read “secular” books like there was no tomorrow. I even “forgot” to have quiet time thrice! Even my personal convictions started to suffer. I slept late, became lazy to study, became hot-headed and tended to focus on my *ahem* non-existent love life.

Now that I know the problem, I’m asking God to fix it, please. I cannot do this alone. :)

Yours truly,

ROX:D

Posted on February 12, 2011

Justin Bieber Loses His Hair! XD

http://omg.yahoo.com/photos/top-shots-of-the-week/4585He’s wearing a bald cap lang… But it still looks real.. XD

Posted on February 12, 2011

Mission Statement

After almost 2 years of posting in this blog I have finally the purpose of this site! (Applause, please. Thank you.)

I believe in understanding the purpose of doing things so that I would always work towards that end. And now that I know why I created this site I won’t waste any more time writing stuff this blog isn’t about. Without further ado, may I present to you, the purpose of this site: To use my God-given talents and the wide reach of the internet to plant seeds of the gospel in everyone who reads my blog.

Jesus Christ Himself has given every Christian the important commission of telling others about God’s gracious gift of eternal life through Jesus. This blog is my own little way of fulfilling that purpose in my life. This site, I am proud to say, will no longer be self-centered (me) but will now revolve around Him who saved us. Thus, the change in title (and subtitle).

As that very nice song goes, as you read my posts, Come and listen to what He’s done.

In the name of our Lord,

ROX:D

Posted on February 5, 2011

This Week: SPAM Week

I read a book this week entitled, The Prayer of Jabez. The prayer itself is so simple. It goes,

“Oh, that You would bless me indeed,

and enlarge my territory,

that Your hand would be with me,

and that You would keep me from evil,

that I may not cause pain.”

We are told that God answered Jabez’s prayer.

The book inspired me to try God out with this prayer. I prayed this prayer while having my SPAM week. The SPAM challenge is to fast from things and pleasures of this world, ie secular TV, magazines, books, music, etc for a span of time, from one week to 2 months. It wasn’t easy, let me tell you. I had to resist listening to even the “harmless” artists, like David Archuleta, Ne-Yo and Taylor Swift. I couldn’t read the book The Last Song because it isn’t very glorifying to God. The worst part? I couldn’t use my computer except for school and, ok, my blog, Sad to say, I couldn’t resist the lure of Facebook; I HAD to check it. I failed in that aspect. I pray that God will give me strength to go all the 7 days next time.

Hardships and temptations aside, I drew my strength from my daily quiet time in the morning, before school, and from praying the Prayer of Jabez. Indeed, God blessed me this week. Among His numerous blessings are these:

My group’s investigatory project in Chemistry was chosen to be a part of the Science exhibit, to be held next week. (I assume this also means a perfect score for us. :D)
My group was the only one that got a perfect score in our Lab Activity in Chemistry last Thursday.
The doctor allowed me to train already. (Well, not really training because I can only do easy swims and wade in the pool, but than that’s a lot better nothing at all!)

And that’s just God’s response to the first part of Jabez’s prayer. I believe that God will soon give me numerous opportunities to share His Word to others. I believe that God was with me this whole week and that He will keep me from facing temptations, in line with His will.

The fast this week also helped me re-focus and look at God. I had been angry and frustrated the past few weeks because I kept comparing myself to others. I felt unimportant. I felt that I looked so plain. I mean, why couldn’t I look like my friend? I wanted to change myself so bad. There are many aspects to my personality that I so want to fix. There isn’t anything wrong with wanting to change for the better, but I was trying to do all the fixing on my own; I wasn’t seeking God’s help. And I wanted to change for the wrong reasons; I wanted to change to make other people like me. I realized, now, that I had a wrong perspective. I see now that I am a person made in God’s image, what more could I want? I look exactly like how He wants me to look, and I shouldn’t change that. Beauty comes from within and only God could change me inside.

I can’t believe how much I’ve grown spiritually this week! I am so glad that God has chosen to work in me. I’m thinking of having a SPAM week either once a month or right before big competitions to put me in the right perspective. This is because I tend to lose focus on God and look to myself whenever I am preparing for a big meet. Losing my focus on God when I’m preparing for competitions would be like studying a Computer textbook for an English exam, wrong. From now on, I’ll look to God no matter the situation and let Him work out the details.

Till next time,

ROX:D

Posted on January 22, 2011