The musings of a wandergeselle about faith, literature, music, dancing, culture, food, travels, art, fashion, photography, life experiences, and everything in-between from journée to journée.
I’d like to start this article by saying that my civil wedding posed a lot of interesting questions based on two grounds:
I am a devoted believer.
The assumption that I am yoked to an unbeliever.
The following two questions are the frequently asked and I believe it is just right that these questions popped up for a lot have been under the cloud as to what really is what, causing some to stumble in their faith which, as believers, we are not supposed to do to others. I admit I, myself, am being corrected each and every single day. And I mean, each and every single day. So these questions and the answers to them are a breather to me as well. 🙂
First question:
“If you get married through a civil wedding, does that make your marriage unholy or a sin?”
Second question:
“How would you know if your future spouse is a believer or not?”
For the first question, we were already informed during our Engagement/Wedding Preparation seminar in church by our pastors that there is nothing wrong being married through a civil wedding. Tradition, which is cultural, and social norms (which can be a misconception) imply that a couple be wed in church with all the grandiosity of the entourage and the reception. I intend to share this in another article for I did find a lot of blogs of unhappy brides during their grand, dream weddings.
I cannot claim expertise on this matter and our pastors only shared a few insights as to why it is okay to get married through a civil wedding but I did find this article on one of my favorite websites when it comes to dealing with familial and relational issues Christian-wise.
I highly recommend you to read this article and read more related articles in their site as they were all insightful:
For the second question, I honestly admit I struggled with this in the early stages of my relationship with my husband back when we were still dating. And I believed I made two common mistakes that believers do unknowingly: judge and condemn. Reading this article came as a rebuke. And if you are to read my previous articles too, you will know that the Spirit also made the rebuke through the Scripture and selected bible verses that are truly answers to questions and doubts I have been brooding over for a time. I hope to share this article with you as again, I cannot claim any expertise on this matter as I am no minister or theologian, I am just a writer who writes from her soul. 😉
This is a very long read but please do take time to carefully read through the important points:
And since I have posted articles here written by people I do not personally know, I’d like to post a disclaimer that it is best to read through all of them with the guidance of the Spirit. And by the end of the day, it is still the Scripture that we should rely more for Godly wisdom. But these articles were written by people who also composed the body of Christ and I believe they were also called to do the mission/task that God has appointed to them. As my brother would always say,
“It is always a matter of faith. It has been and always will be.”
And for my personal advice as a sister in Christ, I recommend consistent praying and undying faith will lead you to where God would want you to be. I had a lot of fears, I used to, had a little bit now but this is what God particularly assured me for my relationship with my husband now (shared this revelation in my previous articles):
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” – 1 John 4:18
08/17/2015 – Sealing The Commitment
Hold on to God, hold on to His Word, seek His counsel and as one brother in Christ of mine advised, “overload yourself with prayers.” What matters is the commitment – honor the commitment, honor the decision you made out of love for your partner, honor your God-given free will when you used it to make that decision, then you honor God.
Of course, I am looking forward and very much excited to have our church wedding wherein all our beloved families and friends are complete to witness our re-affirmation of wedding vows to God officiated by a minister this time. 🙂
P.S.
What was so funny during our civil wedding ceremony was that we were told by the clerk that our signatures were almost similar. When we looked at the marriage certificate, we can’t help but agree.
AND I really wonder why I decided, decades ago, to use this signature of mine which is so, so far from my initials. It doesn’t look like a letter “C” or letter “L” or even a “G.” My husband’s signature looked closer to his initials though. Oh well, the wonders and the mysteries never end, do they? 😉
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:13
My sharing the gospel is intentional. It is not for popularity nor to appear as the good, blessed, perfect girl. I am not that. Because my Fb, Instagram and Twitter accounts all serve as a testimony of my walk in faith through ups and downs. Not just the good stuff. 🙂
Bible verses and quotations on faith rarely get people’s attention. That is our culture and that is why the more that faith should get a voice on social media.
If you are a believer, share your faith. What we are afraid of is that when we make a mistake again, we might not be credible enough in sharing the gospel anymore.
But here is my challenge:
Did God tell us that our mission is to back down when plans fail and things go bad? Would God want us to hide behind the sins of our past and live in fear and condemnation? What if our failures are the work of the enemy to hinder us from fulfilling God’s mission for us? Who will we give the glory, God or the enemy?
2 Timothy 1:7 NLT
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
Today I experienced 3 somewhat peculiar scenarios:
1. I heard a sudden, shrill buzzing tone in my left ear during my Discipleship training in church this morning when one of our Pastors was praying. It went on for just a couple of seconds then stopped. I heard the same buzzing sound twice when I got home while resting. I did not experience it anymore for the rest of the night though.
The first time I heard it was during the last prayer meeting of Prayer and Fasting 2013 which was the first prayer meeting I attended.
2. While I was on my way to meet my fiance later this afternoon inside the cab, everything we passed by were all blue – the same color as my shirt: people walking, cars and buses.
3. When my fiance and I were on the bus, I was seated near the window and in the opposite lane, most of the cars I saw were white L300 vans, like 50 of them within just the how many seconds that we were traveling along Edsa. And the one near me I was able to catch a glimpse of the company logo and underneath it was the word “casket.” They make caskets, I presume? 😀
As of writing, I am here at my fiance’s house with his family in Laguna. In just 2hrs, we will be heading off north to Baguio City along with his childhood friend and his gf for a road trip.
If this is my last post that I will be writing, the interpretation of my dream 2 nights ago (please refer to the article I posted before this) and the signs today are all correct.
My dream could be a premonition, a prophecy – there will be an accident. I talked to my fiance’s Mom earlier tonight and she advised me we should pray before leaving as she is not feeling too sure re our safety. The buzzing sound I heard could be the Spirit telling me something. Blue is my favorite color because it makes me calm, it gives me peace. All the “blue” I saw today could be angels actually guiding and preparing me. And the L300 vans I saw will be the type of vehicle that we’re gonna have a collision with causing my death thus the word “casket.”
Yes, it could be representing my death. The familiar faces of women I saw in my dream who boarded with me on the bus headed to Baguio City are actually the angels and I can see their faces in my dream that is why they somehow look familiar to me, but here on Earth they are the ones in “blue.”
And Baguio City, the “heaven here on Earth” as I call it, actually represents heaven for real. 🙂
This could be a product of my wild imagination as a writer or it could be all true or maybe they all signify a different meaning. I guess one way to find out is to PRAY and enjoy the exciting journey ahead, here or up there. *wink*
I just never felt more at peace in my life than what I have felt today. So yes, today was not my ordinary kind of day. And I praise God for that. Because peace is the one thing that is hardest to attain in everything nowadays. I know you will agree with me. 😀
Keep the faith, do the mission and glorify God always my dear friends. 🙂
I do not intend to tell the world about the second coming of Jesus in a way that most people know i. e. placards with those words written on it, preaching about how sinful men are, that our time is short, etc. for back when I was still a non believer, I used to treat them all nonchalantly with a little bit of contempt, cynicism and scorn. I may have received it that way but I didn’t know that the seed was already being implanted.
I believe those who preached the Good News this way in the past were God’s disciples called to do exactly that at that time. Now, I believe, God has a different set of tasks to the newly saved believers to continue the mission that those before us have left in our charge now. There was no social media at that time. 🙂
I don’t need to tell people anymore of what they already know – Jesus’ second coming is near. What I intend to do, on the other hand, is to share to people how it is to prepare for that second coming and the things that most people clearly do not understand. These are the things that are far too basic, far too common and yet most commonly misunderstood and oftentimes disregarded.
Which leads me to the concept of this very simple word: LOVE.
Love is the overused word in the dictionary that permeates with everything. It goes on with a lot of definitions, given in a whole lot of different contexts and manifested in a whole lot of different actions.
So why this word?
I may not understand how everything is interrelated in the following series of events that I will discuss but all I know is that they all centered on one common theme which is LOVE and I have to share them all because the Spirit has prodded me to.
Scenario 1
I lead a small bible study group in church of young, single, female professionals.
Scenario 2
I am in a relationship now and engaged to a fellow Christian.
Scenario 3
Dreams, signs and wonders.
For Scenario 1, it started through my coaching group when our coaching leader assigned chapters of The Purpose Driven Life to each one of us to discuss. It was my first time to read the book. I believe God intended I read it just now. It is this book that spearheaded my passion in fulfilling the mission that Christ has left for us to do. I used the chapters on missions as our discussion platform for my small group. Which led me to buying my own copy of the book but I ended up buying a different but somehow similar book also by Pastor Rick Warren called “Better Together: What on Earth Are We Here For?“.
Better Together by Ptr. Rick Warren
And it was also through this book especially with the first few chapters that led me to the concept of LOVE and what it means in God’s eyes which I am now discussing with my bible study group. To quote some passages:
“Life is all about love and developing relationships – with God and with other people. You may succeed in many areas, but if you fail to love God and love others, you’ll have missed the reason God created you and placed you in this planet.”
“Real love is placing the needs of others before your own. It is making your problem, my problem…It is giving to another without any guarantee of getting anything back. It is giving others what they need, not what they deserve. Although love can create feelings, love is not a feeling. It is a choice, an action, a way of behaving, a commitment. Love is sacrificing for others.”
I remembered a few days back, I saw one status update on my Facebook news feed that really touched me. I wanted to share it at that time but something held me back so I just saved the link. I didn’t know that I would be needing it now to emphasize more of the passages I have written above. It is a short film entitled “Blind Devotion.”
And this will lead us to my Scenario 2, my relationship with my fiance. He is not as devoted as I am, but I can feel that the seed is already there. God gave him to me at a time that both of us did not expect. I was a patient due for eye surgery and he was the nurse. Our love story started there and the rest was history. But as times passed by, we went through what every couple would go through – conflicts, happiness, rage, patience, forgiveness, hurt, pain, joy, laughter…every emotion, every situation – we went through them as a couple. We have been together as a couple for only a year but we have learned so much about each other, how to value a relationship and having God in it except for this: LOVE as how God would define it.
Then came a point I wanted to give him up, he wanted to give up too. We talked but still ended up together. Then he asked me this question, “What is it that makes you stay with me though I have hurt you so many times, you have suffered so much for me, I have made so many mistakes, I keep on failing you and yet you always forgive me? I want to know why.”
I was silent for a time and this thought came to me and I explained why I am like that to him is because of God and my love for Him. God loved us so much He gave us His only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins though we do not deserve it. I told him I want to honor my God that is why I want to honor the commitment and honor him by learning the art of God’s love expounded in 1 Corinthians 13.
This happened just yesterday and when I woke up today, I read my devotion of the day in Our Daily Bread and I broke into tears, because it was an affirmation that I said the right thing to my fiance. This was the bible verse:
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” – Matthew 18: 21-22
March 6 Devotion: ODB
God has forgiven us. So we, too, should forgive those who sinned against us. To quote yet again passages from “Better Together”:
“Jesus says we are to be to one another what He is to us. The love of Christ is self-less, sacrificial, and submitted to the Father’s will. His standard of love is personal – reaching out to the undeserving, looking past their faults and into the desperate needs of their hearts.”
This kind of love now leads us to Scenario 3 – dreams, signs and wonders. I have been having dreams about me and my fiance the past several days which are bad dreams that dealt with my fears of him doing what he is not supposed to do and yet I felt they were all too real in those dreams. I always wake up with a heavy feeling until this morning.
My dream was about my fiance and I and we were supposed to board a bus headed for Baguio City but we got separated because of the huge crowd of commuters. I hopped in on a van instead and was surprised to see my ex boyfriend inside. We chatted for a while but then I noticed the destination name plate of the van and it was headed for Laguna (both my ex and my fiance now reside there). I asked the driver to stop then hurriedly went down the van and waited beside the road for a bus to come along headed towards Baguio City.
Then came a group of women who looked familiar walking towards me but I haven’t seen them yet in real life. Found out they were also headed for Baguio City so we waited for a bus then when one came, we boarded the bus, which was like a 12-seater, and there were only a few of us inside. Then that’s the time I woke up.
The night before, one of the verses in my devotion was Matthew 13:36. I read it but was too sleepy I didn’t understand it clearly. When I woke up today, I felt the urge to reread the verse but I forgot the verse so I randomly chose Matthew 13:3 which led me to the parables. It was all about the harvest and almost the entire chapter are highlighted in red which I don’t normally see in the bible app that I am using. So it means, the chapter I am reading is very significant.
The Parable of the Farmer
It is not a coincidence that my Discipleship 2015 training in church tomorrow has a key verse which is all about the harvest and the ministry that I volunteer in, which is a community outreach ministry, has a training on Urban Farming come this Sunday.
Neither it is a coincidence that after my devotion when I woke up today and checked my phone, I got a notification from a friend of mine regarding a video that she shared with me on Twitter. Here it is:
I cried after watching it. Because I now know the significance of it all. Everything is now crystal clear to me. It is indeed near. And what God was telling me the past days about love is that it is this kind of love that we need to exert to bring more people closer to Him despite of the conflicts and the differences.
“God says we must DECIDE to love one another. We’re to love other believers regardless of how we feel about them or how unlovable they may appear. No matter how difficult it may seem, we’re to actively, consistently, and deeply love the believers God brings into our lives, our congregations – and our small group.” – Better Together
“As members of God’s family, we must choose to love, not who to love.” – Better Together
And I believe this is the message that God wanted for us to understand now. The second coming is near, the more that we have to exemplify what Jesus did extending His love not just to His disciples but to those who are least likely to be loved. Just like the way that God is using my relationship with my fiance to master having that kind of love that is of God’s and not our worldly definition of it. I have been stumbling upon random verses from different books in the bible that have his name in it since last week, which is Joseph. I even joked my fiance our first baby boy will be named Zaphen derived from Zaphenath – Paneah which is the Egyptian name that the Pharaoh gave to Joseph when he appointed him as leader of his officials. This was one of the bible stories I read just a couple of days ago.
The story of Joseph, the dream interpreter.
I now understand why God gave him to me – I am being prepared for a mission and as my mate, he too is being prepared by God because the time is near for the harvesters to harvest this land. My interpretation of my dream today was very overwhelming, I wept. I wept because I know what it means – the message is very clear.
My fiance and I are due for a road trip with his childhood friend and his girlfriend to Baguio City over the weekend. I have visited the place countless of times and it was during one of my hikes at La Trinidad in Benguet, a province in Baguio City, that I was completely amazed by God’s bountiful and beautiful creations at its best. I was on top of a very high mountain after a treacherous hike and what I saw in front me was what I called in my previous article as “heaven here on Earth” because you see nothing else but a sea of clouds. And for me, it was very symbolic of my faith. The treacherous hike, wherein I almost fell off a cliff, was a matter of pain, suffering, life and death. But if you were able to overcome it all, the Kingdom of Heaven is waiting for you above, on top of it and no amount of words could describe how it feels to be there.
Last 3/3 marked my 3rd year since I got saved as a Christian last 3/3/13. The movie Son of God was released on that date too. And this coming 3/13, which falls on a Friday, I have a great feeling it is going to be a significant date as well. The verse regarding the parables can be found in Matthew 13:3 too. Most of my daily verses that I encounter came from the Gospel of Matthew. I did my research and the Gospel of Matthew is considered by scholars as the summary of Jesus’ ministry. It tells of Jesus sending His disciples to preach His Gospel to the whole world. It is also one of the four canonical gospels and it connects the old and the new testament. (wikipedia.org) I know for a non believer you will say it is all coincidence. But I say, as a believer, they are all signs from the Spirit.
Which led me to wonder on these passages written in that chapter:
“That is why I use these parables,
For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear but they don’t really listen or understand.” – Matthew 13:13
After these revelations, I only wept. And in between sobs, this was all I could utter in prayer:
“Lord help me to make them understand. Teach me to love them like how You have loved us.”
My brother is one of my spiritual mentors. He was the one who introduced me to the church and eventually to my faith. I know God appointed him to be that and I can attest through the role that my brother is playing in my life right now. He gave me a planner last year by Paulo Coehlo which contains quotations on life and faith. Each month has a designated character trait and last Christmas, he gave me the same planner. And now I know why. For this month, the character trait is this: COURAGE.
March: COURAGE
And this is the quotation for today:
“The only sin is a lack of LOVE. Be brave, be capable of LOVE, even if LOVE seems a treacherous, terrible thing. Take pleasure in LOVE. Take pleasure in VICTORY.”
The Valkyries by Paulo Coehlo
This may be the longest post I have written here on WordPress but I know every word here is all God’s plan because the mission for us all is starting to get clearer and He requires us to act on that mission. 🙂
Paulo Coehlo Planner 2015, The Holy Bible, Our Daily Bread, Better Together – my daily meal. 🙂
I would like to start this write up with a reminder that this is not a “spoiler” article. So no reasons to hate me, alright? lol 😉
I was actually thinking if my title will be giving away so much of the movie’s much awaited ending. But I believe you really would have to guess if it ended with a bang literally or figuratively. Well, that is already one reason for you to not miss it.
BUT all I can ever promise is that watching the movie is ALL worth it. Though my bf and I had to bypass one city after the other (4 all in all) just to watch it first as only a few selected SM Cinemas will be showing the film, it was all worth the hassle of traveling that far, getting lost PLUS all the rain.
Another Kenshin Himura fanatic.
Lucky me I have a companion who, despite all the odds, had the will to watch the movie BY ALL MEANS. 😀 (Thanks, Hon! I salute you.)
But that is because we both LOVE Kenshin Himura that much we are just on energy booster, high-spirits-filled-stamina we just don’t care how we will get to the destination as long as we get there and be able to watch the movie. Yes, that is how I define a DIE-HARD fan. Absolutely. 🙂
General Overview
It was the well-carried out plot that fascinated me most. All 3 Rurouni Kenshin movies satisfied my expectations on the filmmakers’ ability to deliver a movie played in different eras. The movie is an interplay of somewhat similar events dominated by upheavals but socially, politically and historically all differed in context. Oftentimes, the problem with a flashback or a replay of the past or history can sometimes complicate or totally cloud not just the story in the present time but the overall plot thus confusing the viewers.
As for the characters, it was a perfect choice of actors which totally and I must say TOTALLY captured the persona of the characters that they are trying to portray from aura, to looks, and to attitude or behavior. Watching them perform is an exact adaptation of the manga series itself except that the characters are now more “alive” as portrayed by the actors.
This is an action-packed movie thus this review won’t and cannot end without giving credit to the superb fighting scenes set in just the perfect locations. Superb is an understatement actually as I was all mouth agape the entire movie time. Speaking of being totally caught up in the scenes, eh? 😉
So there you go. I will cut this short lest I divulge too much details about the movie already. It deserves my two thumbs up – let the legend live by watching it too. 🙂
I usually hang out around Sunken Garden in the UP Diliman campus after church service because I got used to it during college days watching the joggers, the people playing Frisbee or soccer or just the regular strollers like me. It is such a great breather to be with nature every now and then.
After eating my favorite snack which is “siomai (steamed dumpling) & pancit canton (noodles) combo meal,” I usually buy a drink before heading to the jeepney stop. The moment I laid my eyes on the set of drinks lined up at the store, one instantly caught my attention and yes, my purse.
I bought a bottle of Mountain Dew with a neon green color. Very catchy, indeed. I believe manufacturers of this drink came up with this idea to compete with Coca Cola’s everyone’s-name-on-the-bottle stint.
Went to the same food stalls last Sunday and I was overwhelmed by the buyers of this neon-colored Mountain Dew, I just see green everywhere. Very nice marketing strategy, I must say.
BUT it would’ve been made better, in my opinion, if the bottle indeed glows in the dark. I can imagine joggers around the UP Sunken Garden strutting their stuff either holding a glowing bottle or having one on their belts while jogging. That would be a fantastic sight. 🙂
The Journeyman's Moments 