Into the Sky

For Sky,

Every once in a while in the life of every genuine believer in Christ, you tend to ask the question: "LORD, what are we fighting for?"

And the question is bigger than just a sentence.

Lord, what are we fighting for? Why does it seem that the Devil is winning somehow in our society today? How come kids whose love for Christ seemed so strong at first somehow vanishes over time?

WHY ARE WE, THE CHURCH, DOING NOTHING AS MILLIONS AROUND SUFFER???

And every once in a while God answers in a whisper, in a still, small voice.

His name was Bryan, friends call him "Sky." He attended a youth camp eager for fun, life and just living it out to the fullest, never knowing that God was already there waiting for Him--in fact God planned everything out for Him all Bryan's life. But Bryan's story wasn't just about himself.

It was also the story of how a young man desperately yearning to change the world found the true meaning of Christ's death and resurrection. It was also MY story, too.

At first glance, Sky was a true-blue gangsta, street-wise, living a very colorful life. At that camp, however, in God's careful scrutiny, I saw the real man from the inside. Bryan was, in God's eyes, "a man of steel with a heart of gold." Right then and there in those short five days of that camp I watched how God's love and justice forge this man. I was completely overwhelmed.

Then the first word God ever spoke to me for a very long time.

"See, my son. It is possible."

Whatever I wanted this nation to be, a people who would be holy, merciful and just before the LORD, it is most certainly possible. In five days he made a miracle out of Bryan. But I never knew He would make a miracle out of me, too.

Bryan had potential. Somehow inside his soul I can see eagles' wings. His nickname, Sky, was most definitely appropriate for him. God built this man to fly, farther and higher than what I could ever possibly achieve. I wish there was some way I could communicate this to him, that God most certainly had great things in store for him: but there's a catch.

I wish I could tell Sky that God chose him and set him apart because God knew he would understand the meaning of the word "Loyalty." The word "Faith" in the Bible was translated from the Latin word "Fides" which means "Loyalty." Having come from a fraternity, even heading one at that, God knew Bryan understood what God demanded out of him: Loyalty, to the death, no turning back now.

"For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His." -2 Chronicles 16:9

Unfortunately, the man in the Bible whom God told this to, King Asa, failed to be loyal to the LORD his God. I know Bryan is not like this king, so God tells him before hand.

Before a great victory there must be a great war. The greater the war, the greater the victory.
But the war Sky would have to face for the days ahead would be a war unlike anything he has ever encountered in his entire life. It would be a war done not by weapons like knives or guns. This would be a war inside the hearts of men. God wants souls saved and lives changed. This was a war that involved courage and conviction, love and truth.

"We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient." -2Corinthians 10:3-6

It would also be my war as well as I would have to fight along side him.

But the greatest of these would be this: I have never seen a man who has genuinely loved other people as Bryan did. Being given so little love in his lifetime, I find it so amazing that he has given so much away for others. I was one of them that was blessed by his heart. A close friend of mine even commended him saying, "Tol, iba yan si Bryan. May matinding calling yan sa LORD."

And in this God showed me more than just a battlefield of souls being won or lost.

I saw something far more.

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." -Matthew 6:19-21

Hence the second whisper of Jesus to my heart:

"The only treasure you have in heaven are relationships. Friends, family, loved ones--these are the treasures that Jesus Christ died for and thus prove their true worth. And He lives again to take good care of them."

Bryan is a treasure to me as I was to him. Not only him, but the rest of the people in that camp whom I've been friends with. Jesus Christ did not die for programs; not for presentations; not for politics; not even for power.

Jesus Christ DIED and LIVES AGAIN for PEOPLE.

He loved us with an everlasting love. And that was why He was demanding loyalty from all of us, me, Bryan, and the rest of the Church.

The world needs God and we will be the ones who would share Him and His love to them.

I stretched out the wings of my soul in the pages you have thus read before you, hoping that you too would spread your wings with me.

To fly into the sky, towards the ends of the earth shouting what great love has been given to us and to make our dreams alive once again, that happiness and peace was possible in this planet despite the existence of pain, that forgiveness need not to be faked out anymore.

Yes, as Christ Jesus flew away 2,000 years ago we too would fly with Him into the sky. And we wish as many as possible could join us.

"We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words." -1Thessalonians 4:15-18

Looking forward to flying with you, bro. Godspeed!


-Into the sky, Andrew Caleb T. Gorospe, 28th of April, 2009 1:48am

Wood (results from a quiz in Facebook)

You are Wood, an interesting element indeed. Made of tough stuff, you are. You have an outer shell that can protect you from most things and, unlike Metal, your shell is one built on logic and experience instead of one hastily put up to protect you from being hurt (though it functions in that way as well). Wood has the least personality of the elemental personae and is the most effected by the other elements (needs water to breathe, water to drink, earth to grow from, fire destroys it). Though to balance all of that out, you can heal far more easily than the rest (which is good, because if you do fall, bouncing back will be horrendously difficult). You are stable, stubborn almost, but smarts and common sense are your roots that keep you in place. Your place in the world: You are the wizened old soul whose mere existence proves that anything's possible.

And

Freedom is scary. Why? Because freedom will compel you to face the consequences of your actions. Freedom means when mistakes happen there will be no one to blame, not even yourself, for everything within freedom is a learning experience.

And here's something I've discovered lately. Freedom can be lonely, too. Few dare venture into freedom, and even fewer respect it with dignity. Freedom is about responsibility.

And costly, too. It took no less than the life of a God's Son to buy it for us. It is not something cheap that we should play with it as if it were a toy. But if it were not exercised it's as if you have treated Christ's sacrifice as worthless and irrelevant.

And freedom requires that you learn all things the hard way. Freedom means to live in a fallen world, a lonely world, a world where people forget that they need each other too. Not as in the sense of food and water just like we need God. But need in the sense that even in perfectness God in His infinite wisdom declared it not good for one to be alone.

And freedom is lonely when one forgets this fact. Freedom was meant to be enjoyed with responsible hearts AND with beloved friends.

Yes, AND.

Christ, the Absolute

Whether we like it or not, Christ and Him crucified has become the center of the universe. Redemption in Him is the only Absolute. A resolute anchor to hold onto. A refuge from any situation. And sometimes, you just have to return to Christ.

These are such days. Sigh.

Renovation

Okay, maybe Rei isn't the one for me after all. But there are some things that must be settled straight in me.

The LORD's infinite wisdom does not allow itself to be boxed in with human restraints--it goes beyond. That there is a multiplicity of His Will scattered all throughout our choices, that His view of things, since He already knows all things from their beginning to end and the courses these things take in their journey towards completion--this means that God honors our freedom to the very point of protecting it from the limits of our reason.

That I have the power to choose if Hannah Rachel will be the one or not. I can make her to be the one, and I can also choose not to make her.

God wanted this principle to be alive in me for the reason that He wants me to take full responsibility for my actions. That the very mistakes I've committed weren't all mistakes--most were just good choices with relatively bad consequences. But my childish way of treating the bad consequences blinded me to the good, unseen, eternal consequences that were entwined with the
good ones.

And this time, He would not be put in a box any more. New chapter, new paradigms, new ways of handling life--with its highly eccentric seasons.

And this time, it will still be about what Christ can do, not what Caleb can do. So this time, I will just hold on to what I still have, let go if I must, endure until perseverance finishes its work and let God be God. Amen.

Renovations.

"Up" days and "Down" days

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22

As long as we live in this planet, these four laws apply, always, even within the Kingdom of God.

What we sow we reap--seedtime and harvest. Sometimes we grow cold in ministry, sometimes we're on fire--cold and heat. Some days people are warm to us, but sometimes cold enough to hate us to death--summer and winter. There are moments when everything we do are so right, and moments when everything we do seems to fail, darkest moments of our lives--day and night.

But the wonder of wonders is that a constant remains, an unchanging absolute where we can all cling to.

"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand forever." Isa. 40:8

We cling to the Word--the Scriptures, His very great and precious and unchanging promises. We cling to Christ--the Word incarnate, His very great and precious and unchanging character.

We cling. Whether it be seedtime or harvest, cold or heat, summer or winter, day or night, in God's Word, within the shadow of His wings, in the shelter of His promises we are safe.

Ways of God

"Trust in Him at all times: ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us. Selah." Psalm 62:8

Just recently God restored a a wounded friendship of mine. And it was such a beautiful thing, so beautiful I had a hard time swallowing the truth that was happpening right before my eyes. But before that, the crisis.

You see, I vividly remember the few steps I embarked entering her church. I loved another woman whom I deeply believe is the "one" for me, but she was a friend of mine. A friend deserves to hear the truth. This was my conviction, and it led me to draw lines between me and my friend because of my love for my "one." It made terrible repercussions and it really hurt the both of us.

Somehow, my integrity was on the line. And shame was a word I kept hearing in my head. But then, this verse kept me strong. I didn't hear it verbatim, but its soul, its heart, its message glowed within me like the surface of the moon when faced into the sun.

"God is a refuge for us." That was the essence. That this really is a new chapter, about what God, not Caleb, can do for me.

Wisdom, Jesus said, is proven right by her actions. The wisdom was found scattered all throughout the psalms.

"In God I have put my trust: I will not be afrain what man can do unto me." Ps.56:11


"Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver them from death, and to keep them alive in famine." Ps.33:17,18

And my eyes testify these words are very much true. They reflect the new chapter, and God is establishing the foundations of this new chapter in my life.