awespiring GOD

RESPECT!

“Hindi masarap.” Was the most honest remark I gave when I was asked how my aunt’s macapuno tasted like. I was just a kid and my aunt prepared macapuno for us. After playing outside with my cousins, we were asked to come in to have dinner. My aunt happily served us food and she brought out these transparent-jelly-cubes, which I thought was a tasty delight. I thought it was a new candy and so I chewed one and was surprised…I didn’t enjoy it.

I was still a kid, still naïve and I didn’t really know how to respond to a question like, “masarap ba?” when it really wasn’t. And so with honest words I said, “hindi masarap!” And I remember the look on my mom’s face, disappointed. She whispered to me, “You shouldn’t say things like that.”

Years later, I still remind myself of that funny event. I asked myself, “so why shouldn’t I say things like that?” the answer, “because we should treat others with RESPECT!”

1 Peter 2:17a NIV84—“Show proper respect to everyone…”

RESPECT in gk means “to estimate, to fix the value.” It simply talks about how we as a person would fix a high value towards other people, that we should honor them above ourselves.

When I was a kid, I didn’t know about RESPECT. I think I would have had a hard time understanding that concept without going through that embarrassing moment—both for my aunt and myself (and I guess even for my mom!). But as I matured and relate with other people with different backgrounds, I have learned to RESPECT others.

With my parents training, I learned how to always put myself in the others’ shoes. It’s a habit I gained through years of seeing how my father and mother would act around other people. “Would it be uncomfortable for him/her?” “Should I move a little so that he/she will be able to sit?” Those are my thoughts as I encounter different kinds of people and situations, even to this day. Because I know that people should receive proper respect, even as I desire to receive proper respect from others.

And RESPECT will only come out if we surrender our selfish attitude to God because RESPECT is a selfless act, an act of service to others.

Pastor JP Masakayan said as he talked about Judges 19:25, “What it basically shows is SELF FIRST-NESS. It’s all about me.” That is the prevalent attitude of people, nowadays. And we Christians should not live lives this way because we are called for a higher purpose, a higher way of living. Let us not be selfish in giving away RESPECT to others, but freely give it as an example to the world, “that they might glorify the Father in heaven.”

“To respect others is to die to self”—JP Masakayan

When I was young I was a little bit rebellious and selfish. I would speak with disrespect to my father. When I started growing in the Lord, I realized that no father deserves such a response from his son—more so my dad because he has always been a humble man. So now, even though I’m married and not living with my parents anymore, with God’s perspective in mind, I’m giving back the proper respect that my father deserves because contrary to what the world says, “RESPECT is not earned, it is GIVEN.”

Every time we visit, I’m giving back what he missed seeing when I was growing up and that is my RESPECT to his authority, his love and his humility. I would volunteer to do things for him, speak respectfully to him, and even tell him I love him.

The account in Judges chapters 19 to 21 would cause any citizen from a civilized nation to stand back in shock at the morals of Israel—the people chosen by God. As I sat in the worship hall that Sunday, hearing about man-rape, men giving their wife and daughter to be raped, mutilation, wars, and forced marriages, it almost felt unreal that a nation—that claims to follow God—would resort to detestable practices. But Ptr. JP said one thing that caught my attention, “It all started in the family. When the Levite husband did not show respect to his wife.”

No wonder our families are under attack. Divorce and same-sex marriages laws are being passed. Adultery and fornication are rampant. Since the beginning of the world Satan’s strategy was to attack the family: husband and wife, Adam and Eve. Today, the Enemy’s scheme is still the same: ruin the family, ruin the nation. We may claim that we are following God as a nation. But let’s take a close look at our families. Is it really following God?

Let’s start practicing respect in our families, before it’s too late.

Make Every Effort Count for Eternity

Revelation 3:1c “… I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”

When I was young I like joining competitions. Not usually sports because I’m not that good at all, but when it’s all about the arts, that’s when I pick up my pencil and whatever comes out of my creativity, I’ll just give it. I have joined so many that so many times I am reminded of the competitions that I never really won. And come to think of it, what a waste of creativity and of time. If I have known earlier that I will not win, I shouldn’t have joined. 

That’s when I realized, when it comes to being an ambassador of God here on earth, was there any time that was wasted? I’m sure there was, out of the 28 years I have lived on this earth I can count 20 yearw of it as rubbish. But right now, as I continue to serve and have committed to follow God, was those 8 years I lived for God not really waste? Did I really “MAKE EVERY EFFORT COUNT FOR ETERNITY?”

This is a very crucial reality for every believer, since we are bombarded with so many opportunities, good and bad. Are you taking every opportunity to matter for God. Or did you just waste it on things that will not glorify God or that will not matter for eternity?

Revelation 3:1c “… I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”

Application: By grace, we can wake up in the morning and relish another day, but be careful how you will live it for God because a Day will come when God will account for every day that you have spent here on earth and reward you for it.

1 Peter 4:5 “But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”

Prayer: “Lord, may each day count for eternity. May I not miss your wonderful opportunities to do good and to serve others for your kingdom because we are servant and we want to do our service for our Almighty God and King. Amen.”

Against all evil

^{EPHESIANS 6:12} For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.