Psalm 137:15 “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.”
I grew up in a small town back in the Philippines. Life is simple. My father back then was a Lieutenant Colonel practicing law and my mother an excellent homemaker. It is easy to draw the conclusion that I and my brothers and sisters were brought up the military way.
My family consists of two brothers and five sisters. I was the second to the youngest. I can distinctly remember helping my mother do gardening stuff when my brothers and sisters are away. I would fetch water from the river, which is at the back of our house, and carry the pail of water back to our front yard. I’ve done that all through my high school years.
I went to a Catholic school all throughout my school years. I grew up in a Catholic home. When as a family we attend the Mass, we would occupy the whole bench in a pew. But even then, I have difficulties memorizing all these “prayers” that the nuns and priests taught us. I knew deep down I have begun questioning their creed.
Mark 16:15 “ And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
But it was in the summer before I turned 12 that my brother had given me the gospel of salvation. He conducts Bible study at our house (my father was rarely at home then) and I would be there listening to them. I even remembered flipping through the pages of the gospel tract that has an illustration in it. Then I remember answering this Bible lessons that were being sent through mail and in the process learning about the Bible. After a few years I have finished the lessons. Then I did nothing more to grow spiritually.
Galatians 1:14 “And profited in the Jew’s religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.”
Then I graduated college, passed the board exams of nursing and then joined a volunteer program. I joined the volunteerism program in the hope that I would find meaning in my life. For a while I thought I have found it. By giving of myself and helping the community through the educational process, I taught high school students. The community where I served is very religious in following every detail of their customs and tradition. I would hear the church bell clanging in the early mornings and people in a procession with prayers being chanted. Students are obligated to attend the morning Mass everyday. Then my year of service ended.
Ephesians 2:2 “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
I was back in the city. Still there was emptiness inside. I wallowed up in the world of flesh hoping to find the peace and the settling down of this void. Every night I stayed out late partying with friends. I learned to tolerate bottles after bottles and glass after glass of liquor. I downed them along with the hope that it will attain what I was looking for. I met people from different walks of life. I lived a compromised moral life. Everything of the darkness I have tried but nothing filled up that void within me. Morning after morning I woke up feeling the same as yesterday. A meaningless, wasted life it was. I was lost.
Romans 5: 8,10 “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
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