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.
Because the Our Daily Bread booklet was the first devotional in faith that I happen to browse through out of curiosity as a kid when I saw it lying in my grandma’s desk and I happen to receive an email today regarding it, I thought it would be best to give back to the ministry which contributed so much in strengthening my grandma’s faith and now mine by sharing this event sponsored by the Our Daily Bread Ministries Philippines with speaker Rev. Bill Crowder.
Do check out the details for the Bible Conference 2015 event:
“Constant and rapid change is a cultural hallmark of this postmodern age in which we live. Living in a secular culture tests our convictions and standard of life. How do we live a life pleasing to God when facing cultural pressures? The Old Testament character Daniel provides an example of a lifestyle that honors our God through trying circumstances and uncertain times. It is our joy to announce that Our Daily Bread Ministries Philippines will host a Bible Conference that will examine the life of Daniel and discover how he lived for God in the midst of life’s pressures.” – David Harvey, Country Director, Philippines
Date: October 20 & 21, 2015 Time: 6:30 to 9:00 PM
Venue: Greenhills Christian Fellowship (GCF) (Corner of Ruby and Garnet Roads, Ortigas Center, Pasig City)
Theme: DANIEL—Living For God In Your Culture
Session 1: The Pressure to Conform
Session 2: The Pressure to Perform
Session 3: The Power to Confront
Session 4: The Pressure to Pray
Admission is without charge; so don’t come alone! Invite your family and friends. Please come early since seating is limited.
Free copies of Rev. Bill Crowder’s booklet from the Discovery Series entitled Daniel: Spiritual Living In A Secular Culture will also be given away.
Hope to see you there my brothers and sisters in Christ! 🙂
I have long given up this thing called “race in life” – to earn more in this world i.e. higher education, promotions, accumulation of possessions, bigger titles, etc. If it comes to a point that I acknowledge such achievement or honor, that is not for my glory but for God’s glory and to thank the people responsible in making that achievement happen.
Why give up the race in the worldly life and focus more in running the race towards the eternal life? They can become a “leech” to our souls – the worldly things. It spurs greed, envy, and discontentment leading to an unsatisfied, unhappy and tired soul.
If I have decided to pursue my graduate study, it is not for my glory but because it is a commitment I made to my family years ago even before I got saved – a way to honor them and a responsibility that I had to fulfill as a sister and a daughter. Honoring them will honor God too.
If I decide to work, that is because I need to earn money not to get rich but to survive and serve others including my future family.
I’d rather learn how to live righteously devoid of all these worldly things than to live with them but live a corrupted life. It isn’t easy though, this thing called living life righteously. For we are in a world with its double standards where sin and corruption of the soul are everywhere. They are a black hole which consumes us if we allow ourselves to even get near it.
God never called us to live a life of fame and fortune but He called us to live otherwise. As it was written:
“God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8
We will never have a need for God if we are getting everything according to the worldly standards. Though we get everything that this world offers but not have God as the number 1 priority in this life, we’ll still end up unhappy, discontented and unsatisfied.
For we all know that though we may have everything except God, then we really have nothing. And yes we have all that we needed in this Earthly world, now what? What will we do with all the fame, with all our money, with all our possessions, with all our titles? Do you think it will please God when we have all those? 🙂
If we are all laboriously working in preparation for our future, who are we to say what our future holds? Did not God say this:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” – Matthew 6:25
Where is our faith?
Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” – John 20:29
As it is said, “Faith is not achieved by good deeds coming from our own efforts but by trusting God that He is completely in charge with everything.” It isn’t easy to have blind faith and yet God made it possible through the Cross. 🙂
This article has 2 advertising purposes: product review and faith.
I seldom review a product unless it is for sales and marketing purposes, but let’s just say that this product requires a review to highlight its role in the early Christian faith.
Spikenard Magdalena
Spikenard Magdalena is a perfume that my fiancé’s Dad gave me as one of his presents from his travel to Jerusalem. Ah yes, it is one item in my bucket list that I would love to do someday – to go on a pilgrimage to the holy land, Jerusalem. 🙂
And yet if time comes I won’t be able to do it, I am just extremely grateful God used my fiance’s Dad to be a channel of blessing by giving a memorabilia from God’s chosen land and people.
Spikenard Magdalena packet.
The perfume comes with a small packet that has details about the origin of the perfume as well as biblical significances of it. And this got me really interested because I know God has a reason why I was given this gift. Thus, the research began.
I have found articles about Spikenard and its origin as well as when it was first used, and you can read some of them through the links below:
But I will be sharing some details here in this article, and first among them is the reason for the name Magdalena. Biblical history has it that Mary Magdalene used it to anoint Jesus’ feet when He was eating at one of the Pharisees’ houses. Which will lead us to knowing who Mary Magdalene was in Jesus’ life. It was described that Mary Magdalene was possessed by 7 demons before Jesus cast them all out. And to quote from one of the articles,
“Saved from the terrible power of hell, she gave of her best to Him who had fully emancipated her from demonic possession. When Christ saved her, He liberated the highest virtues of sacrifice, fortitude and courage.”
There were at least 12 times that her name was mentioned in the bible. One of these can be found in Luke 7: 36-50.
Jesus Anointed By A Sinful Woman
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat.[a]37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume.38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”
40 Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”
“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.
41 Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver[b] to one and 50 pieces to the other.42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”
43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”
“That’s right,” Jesus said.44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon,“Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet.46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.
47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”
50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
And another interesting find, Spikenard was used by the Catholic church to represent St. Joseph. So there goes my fiance’s name again. 😉
I was just surprised after using it for the first because it reminded me of my maternal grandmother’s favorite perfume. I can tell with utmost sureness it is the same perfume that she uses. Because every time my grandma would drop by our house and pick us up before going to my mother’s Protestant church (my Mom and Dad never went to church with us, btw, but I love them still. *wink*), I could tell that she was already in our house because of the perfume.
The perfume is not musky nor too feminine, flowery, or sweet. It smells like classic perfumes. I don’t recommend putting too much of it, though, as it can be too overpowering. And it wouldn’t mix well either if you are using fabric conditioner or a detergent that already has a strong scent.
Just like God, you need not put anything alongside Him. He deserves to be the One and Only. 🙂
Going back to my grandma, just to give you a brief family background, she was born to a Protestant minister. Our great-grandfather was one of the pioneers of the Protestant church in our town. My grandfather and my grandmother are very active in their faith. It was from my grandma that I got to know about the Our Daily Bread devotion booklet when I was a child. She reads it every time she wakes up.
Little did I realize that I am now doing the same thing out of my passion for seeking Godly wisdom. I am grateful too that it was through my fiancé’s Mom that I got hold of my first ever copy of Our Daily Bread, which I am now reading daily. She gave me a pair of shoes from the Celine store as a Christmas present last year, and Celine gives away copies of Our Daily Bread during the holidays. There is no such thing as coincidence with God, is there? 😉
I really believe that it was one of my grandma’s prayers for us, the future generations, to come before God and worship Him as they did in the times to come. I know of no other person who prays as passionately as my grandma. The moment she utters the first word in her prayer, tears start to stream down her face. And that went on the moment I was a bit old to understand what was happening around me, until now, when she is 90 years old. Yes, she will be celebrating her 91st birthday this September 5, and my Mom on September 7.
And I can only be grateful to God for carrying her all throughout these years, despite the sacrifices of growing up during the Japanese occupation, losing two of her brothers who were enlisted in the military during the war, and not receiving any news regarding their whereabouts afterwards. I cannot tell what kind of emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual turmoil my grandma and her sister went through at that time, worrying every day if their brothers were killed in the war, taken as prisoners of war, tortured, and an endless wave of “what ifs.”
Now I understand why her prayers are so heartfelt. I know because that is how I pray too now – I cannot finish uttering my prayer and just find myself in tears – a combination of hope, gratitude, and humility amidst failures, setbacks, disappointments, successes, victories, and triumphs. But for the greater part of the prayer, I know it was just the overwhelming and amazing fact that our God is the most wonderful thing in this world. She became the “Great Matriarch” of the clan when my grandpa passed away 13 years ago.
My grandpa was a historian, not by profession, for he was a farmer, but out of his hobby of being a wide reader. I could remember that during Sunday school, I would always witness how my grandpa would participate actively in discussions about biblical ideologies. And he delivers it with such vigor, straightforwardness, and passion that I honestly can say, other than being a farmer, he’d be good enough to be a courtroom lawyer. That is, a lawyer of faith, God‘s defender. 😉
When I go back to my hometown this holiday season, I just can’t wait to ask my grandma where she got her perfume. And if she is not using one anymore, I’d be glad to give mine to her as a birthday present. I know she will love it. I only used it once because I intend to preserve it.
And I will tell her this:
“Mama, your prayers were never unanswered. They may not be for the time being, but they will be in His time. For some, God has answered them already.”
P.S.
I intentionally included the price tag in this photo if ever you are interested to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and take home a Spikenard Magdalena as a memorabilia, you have an idea how much it costs. 🙂
The Journeyman's Moments 