"For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3: 16 . One of the most popular descriptions of how God loves us.
Again, it is a rainy Saturday night. We're off to the first talk of the program. Everything went well, as always.
The talk started at around 8. We have to wait for the other participants to come in before session went on. New faces, new people, new conversation. These greeted me on the second day. I was looking forward to the main theme/talk since it's been a while since I had one like this. Off we go.
To heat things up, the usual two-praise songs and a worship song put everyone on fire (especially me). I recognize some of the songs from my first CLP experience, so I can't help but smile all the way until the last line of the songs 'coz the nostalgia is just overflowing in me. Another LSS, it seems. Here goes:
And you lived
You died
You rose again on high
You opened the way
For the world to live again
Hallelujah
For all you've done
Another one! Here's the song that brought memories back to me.
And I will climb this mountain
And I'll step off the shore
And I have chosen to follow
To be by Your side forevermore
Our worship song:
You are God of this world I am living
You are God of these dreams I've been longing
You are God of this life that I've been striving for
You're larger than life
"We feel Love when there is acceptance, belongingness, companionship, encouragement, and so on."
"When we are alone, grieving, lost a loved one, abused and hurt, we tend to doubt ourselves and the love of God."
I admit that at a certain point in my life, I have experienced both. But after I have seen that light once more, I will no longer doubt the absence of love. I may be alone sometimes, I may lost another love one, I may be rejected and be hurt once again, but this time, I won't question the existence of God and the love He has given us. His Love gives me the will to accept anything. I'm holding on to this Love, and make this my guiding light.
Bro. Rodel from SFC Taguig Chapter conducted the talk. His presentation contained the definitions of love, a flashback of the stories from the Bible (Creation, Original Sin, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, The Promise to Abraham, Tower of Babel, destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc), and some video clips. The first one was from the movie "Most". It was the second time I have seen the clip "Bridgemaster" , which shows the same sacrifice God has done to save the world he loves the most. Another clip reenacting Einstein's discussion with his professor on the Presence of God, on how the some things (cold, darkness, evil) we're not really present as they were only there due to the absence of their counterparts. As parting theme, there's another presentation on "God's Love Letter to You", a well-crafted "letter" from several bible verses (fathersloveletter.com). I remember hearing this once in my Faith and Revelation class 8 years ago. Good thing I got to learn of this again. And of course, one of the "twists" I really liked from the presentation was the "theme song" on God's Love. "Wag ka Nang Umiyak", by Sugarfree, my favorite band. Let me sing again.
Kung wala ka nang maintindihan
Kung wala ka nang malapitan
Kapit ka sa amin
Kumapit ka sa amin
Hindi kita bibitawan
I never thought of singing this song as a manifestation of God's love. Now that I've "heard" of it, I'll be playing this song over and over again.
And since this is the start of the Talks, we also had our group sharing. I was group with fellow brothers Cyril, Rix, and Bent. Bro. Den and Vic were our facilitators. It was a fun sharing that we had. Bro. Den epitomized the "age doesn't matter" factor and kept the discussion lively (I guess I have to do the same, being one of the older participants). I also can't help but smile as I hear the young ones say that they believe that joining the CLP will change their life and make it better. In that group sharing, I was able to speak myself out, freely and spontaneously. I hope to be better at this, in sharing my experiences, and how God has been a great part of it.
Not to miss is the sharing of two SFC members. Sis. Melai and Bro. Elmar, two of the first from the group who entertained me. Sis. Melai had such an upbeat tone, and story of course. She said that nobody from her class and circle of friends thought that she really joined SFC. But look how she's doing now. Inspiring stories indeed. I'm looking forward to hear more stories, the same way I wanted to share mine.
Til my next tale. See you in Day 3.
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