BEEN this familiar route not so long ago;
To climb a flower that i long bestow;
But that was early morning in spring when sun was low;
Where warm vigour and carefree existence was unbeknownst.

Having step a few past the high sun in mid day;
And that constant gaze of that flower makes me want to go astray;
Oblivious to the perils that may go our way;
Just to come through the bloom of the flower named dolce.

EVERY living Christian knows the story when the Jews cried for release of Barabbas over Jesus and shouting, “Give us Barabbas! Give us Barabbas!”. Barabbas was a thief and a murderer of the most devious kind and surprisingly yet, they demanded for his release. Jesus on the other hand, though deep in pain, expresses an air of unusual calmness and peace despite the fact that he was judged unfairly by the angry crowd.

Why would anyone, in the right frame of mind, persecute an inocent man who barely lifted a finger to hurt anyone? A man who only spoke the truth that would eventually bring salvation to many? As puzzling as it may be, exposing simple truths can sometime bring so much inconveniences and complexities that we become afraid to face them head-on.No matter how enormous these challenges become it has to be made open for everyone to accept.

Last Sunday, a few good and well principled men and women, stood up in front of an angry church congregation, to expose only the truth about the church’s dirty politics and corruption within. The intent was only to correct people who are accountable and make necessary improvements going forward. To mum us from uncovering it, a mock court was set up to judge us unfairly in front of the heckling and jeering mob. This immediately brought me back to the scenario very similar to when Christ was traded for Barabbas. They wanted to free the dejected (Barabbas) over the few who has the rightful authority.

Despite all the misdemeanors and misunderstandings, I know they are still good people inside but somehow failed to open their eyes wide enough to accept the truth probably for fear of uncertainty and the cost of severing relationships with other members of the church. Relationships that may not be worth keeping at all if at the expense of good governance.

Just like Christ himself, hope is never lost, the movement to pursue the cause continues on but this time on a different battlefront – His battlefront. If its Barabbas they want, then it is just a matter of time before he robs and burn their houses down to the ground. A consequence that may be a little too late to save. Go ahead and shout, “give us Barabbas!”

Never accept anything (including challenges) by face value alone as it is often deceiving. Be discerning, probe deeper and be critical to uncover only the truth that is found hidden within. Face alone has no value at all.

YESTERDAY, my family and I went out to a pizza place to claim our free promotional dinner from points earned using our credit card. My kids love pizza and we are excited to have one for dinner that evening until our excitement was temporarily interrupted by the news – the promotion has already ended.

My wife and I looked at each other from disbelief and informed the clerk that somehow they made a mistake because we knew the promotional mechanics as read to us by another clerk from another store branch. Despite the repeated rejection by the clerk for our claim, I continued to object her rejection as well, though in a nice way, and insisting that there were some miscommunication somewhere. We know we were right to make such objection and we are not letting up on this.

The talk was getting repetitive and the line was getting longer. It was easy to just give up and not come back to that pizza place ever again but I resisted the temptation; so we forged on. Eventually, I talked to the store manager and insisted that they somehow misunderstood or misread the mechanics and that they should honor my claim for free pizza. The store manager excused himself to read the memo again and came back five minutes later with a very apologetic and pathetic look.

Lesson Learned

Its easy to walk-away from small setbacks like this since the cost on my part is small. However, having known the fact (truth) and considering the people who will benefit from it (my kids), I pushed on a little further to get what is rightfully ours in the first place. In this case, I’ve learned not to take things by face value while enduring a little discomfort to succeed on everyday challenges like this. In the end we got what we wanted without disregard to governing rules, principles or sever any relationships relationships.

IT WAS an evening like no other
Great minds with strongest conviction
gathered and made an allegiance of faith
so that others may see the true light

Truest strength of these few good men and women
need not seek the refuge of the number to impress
but only from the wisdom endowed no less
A gift not even a legion of fools can repress

Soon the dawn will shine brighter like never before
All because of the tenacity and audacity of the few
believing that change must come to whom it is due
and recasting the gash to make things like new

Oh, the conviction, the strength and the audacity of these few;
is all that is needed to gain the multitudes in the end
the cause to unbind us from long euphoria of false bliss
shall only come after the night of the blood moon.

LET ME tell you a short story. This story is about six young monkeys raised and caged in a back room of a pet shop. Aware that these are the smartest and most loved among all his animals in his care, the shop keeper planned to dress them up a little to put up for display in the main store room soon. These are a happy bunch of monkeys he has ever had as a shop keeper and even once intended to keep them for himself and take it at home.

Since they will be put up on display soon, his monkeys need to look attractive so one afternoon the shop keeper asked his wife to make six blue scarves for his six monkeys. The shop keeper’s wife, expectedly, was dumbfounded to hear her husband’s peculiar request. Nevertheless, being an obedient and loving wife as she always has been, made six blue scarves anyway without question. The following day, the shop keeper brought in the six blue scarves and straightaway wore it around the necks of his six playful monkeys. Almost immediately all six monkeys shot up excitedly, danced around and shrieking with joy as if to proudly announce to every animal in the shop keeper’s store “we have a new toy to play on!”. Oh it was a sight to see, the shop keeper thought, and he has never seen his monkeys so happy and invigorated like ever before. He was so proud of what he has done that he even invited some of his friends to see his happy dancing monkeys. It was one of the happiest days he has had as a pet shop keeper while at the same time the owner commended him with full confidence on his wonderful upkeep.

A day before all his monkeys will be moved to the main display room, the shop keeper decidedly wanted to add more color and vibrancy. He got home that evening and asked his wife one more time to make another set of scarves only this time just three yellow scarves. His wife, unusually reposed from a baffling request, made the three yellow scarves and was quite anxious what his husband will do with just only three scarves. The next day, the shop keeper hurriedly ran to the pet shop, got to the monkeys cage, took the scarves of the three monkeys and replaced with the new yellow scarves his wife has made.

The monkeys were again were jumping, dancing and screaming with joy except only this time those that still wore the old blue scarves remain unusually silent and unmoved. The monkeys that wore the old blue scarves remained quiet and slowly, yet progressively, distanced themselves from those other three with the new yellow scarves. The monkeys also began to group themselves according to the color of the scarves they wore and only played among themselves. The store keeper observed that it was like there was another wall separating the groups (blue and yellow) inside the cage though he was tempted to take them all off but held it back for very good reasons. It was a highly unusual sight to see that all six monkeys he raised together and equally loved discriminated one another just because of the color of the scarves they wore for a very short time.

On that day, the shop keeper moved the first two monkeys with yellow scarves to another bigger cage near the display window in the main room; a place where the owner can see them in full loving view. So, there remain only four in the back room; three monkeys with old blue scarves and one with new yellow scarf. However, the shop keeper took a little more time to get back as he moved his first two monkeys to its new place which he had prepared days before for all his six monkeys he dearly loved. As he got back, seeing the cage in the back room from a distant corner in his shop, he only saw three monkeys standing tensed and huddled snuggly in one corner, all three except one.

As he got closer, one monkey was laying flat on the cage floor, not moving, bloodied and lifeless. The once youthful, jolly, playful and trusting monkey has languished in fear and extreme pain before his soul departed his now lifeless body. He was bitten, smitten, pulled and broken by the other three monkeys all because he was different as was expected of him to be by the keeper. The difference that could have brought fresh vibrance in his shop has instead caused his monkey’s very dear life in the end. Wrapped tightly on the neck of that lifeless body is a worn-out and bloodied scarf that used to be the color of the lustrous sun – yellow.

The Author’s Message:
All of us are made equally the same. Neither anyone can say that the other is far better or far worse, right or wrong, saved or expelled. However, we are discriminatingly made diverse according to His grand plans that our crude brains can’t fathom. What made us different from each other is our very own unique set of personal philosophies, principles and morals standards – our colored scarves of our choosing. Although, unlike the monkeys in the story, we all chose to be different as formed by our environment and experiences. In our case, we chose to be yellow.

If you are with me and willing to see beyond what we all both feel, let us join together, take away all that may distract our view, work together, know together and discover how we can uncover the truth. Just take that chance and wear our yellow scarves just for once and we’ll show you what we see from this end unencumbered.

And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

– Book of Revelation 14:19

BELIEVE me when I say this, the wrath of the Law of the Land will soon sweep the house like a relentless storm. It will howl loudly, it will pound endlessly, and it will devour almost everything on its path one after another. On its course, it will continue spreading havoc everywhere and ends only until it reaches the wolves’ lair and their spoiled sucklings. The lair that courts chaos from within. What shall remain then will just be those that are firmly grounded on our Master’s instructions.

Who are these that will be spared you ask? These are the low laying, subservient and inconspicuous many who heeds. The high-strung, prominent and prideful shall all be uprooted to the very tips of their roots and be blown away to oblivion and despair. They will be scattered everywhere like before, become disoriented and lost. They will confuse the night from day and find it hard to sleep for the storm will hound them tirelessly like a calculating sparrow watching closely its prey at a distance.

The Master’s House needs clearing to give way to new life. It is essential, in the natural course of things, that order and youthfulness be restored. Rebuilding those that were lost and make new ones to strengthen its foundation. The wolves lair and its suckling shall be gone soon but not for good. Surely, new ones will arise long after the storm but we all must remain on guard and unforgiving to those who break the Master’s rules.

I call those who heed to stay strong in faith yet remain vigilant to those who are loftily bent to take away our Master’s House and sell it to the thieves. It has happened before on a land not far away from us and we now must ensure and do whatever it takes to keep ours. Brace yourselves my humble friends, the storm is coming and coming hard!

MY FAMILY and I has been attending a protestant church for several years now that is not only a historically important landmark in the City but it is also pregant with leadership conflicts and controversies in the past that eventually caused a serious congregational breakup atleast at one point in time . A dark past that is not only shameful but outright irresponsible among some previous Church leaders. Sure, no church is perfect but this one never seem to learn from it’s mistakes and get back on track.

I am a Catholic all throughout by birth and education but has been attending a Protestant Church primarily because my wife is one and my kids attend Sunday School which they enjoy and learn very much. A Protestant Church somewhat has a different form of governance with a leadership structure that is not the same as the Catholics. It didn’t really matter to me where I attend so long as my entire family is together praising Christ.

This year, my wife got elected as the new officer in the Board of Council (a governing body in a Protestant Church) with a position as Financial Auditor. A very important and critical organizational function however, it is also a position popularly disliked (and quite understandably) by many Church staff. Despite the numerous challenges, it is a task that must be done objectively if it is to ensure sound financial positioning to sustain longevity in any organization – this Church is no exception.

From then on, showing active participation and genuine concern, much of our meal time (and bedtime) talks now involves church affairs among others, and unfortunately it was always an unpleasant and an emotional one. Overtime, what apparently seem to be a superficial and fleeting Church concerns now seem to be a deeply rooted problem as old as the Church itself – a complete disregard to the Church Laws by the loud few. This Church has long been governed by cultural beliefs, traditional practices, subjective opinions and personal wisdom. While all these may prove practical at some point, it is also the root of the problem we are having in this Church. The dangerous ideologies of some men(and women) of the cloth that the Cross should be the Gavel in church governance.

The Church Law (the Gavel) was made to protect, equitable for all, and pursue the true Christian cause. It is specific and objective as it can be and intended to remain that way. It serve as a guideline for people to be also efficient, organized, and productive while eliminating all human biases. The Church Constitution may be man-made but it is firmly grounded and balanced on Christian Principles and Biblical Truths. Running an organization (or in this case the Church) by theology alone is insufficient.

Theology (the Cross), as the sole basis for governance is very much not enough. It does not mean it lacks the moral groundwork to be effective for management use, but because it is easily made subjective and highly maleable from its true meaning by people with incongruous visions of the Church. The very same acts now practiced by the loud and highly boisterous few.

In my wisdom and understanding, for the church to stand the test of time while continue to be the support for all Christians, first it has to make everyone undserstand the timeless value of the Church Law and why it should be held as the guiding principles. If this fails, governance and leadership also fails as what is happening to this church now – the rule of the mob.

Very recently, my business just went through minor management setback. From out of the blue, employees began questioning about their salaries and benefits.Though it was previously made clear on their contracts, they wanted to know more how pay is computed, benefits are given and how much they should ought to be receiving after they compared their pay with other co-workers. In my business, I operate on the premise of Christian principles of honesty and fairness. I always make sure that I pay proper government taxes and give to employees what is due to them. What is even more unusual is that this happened coincidentally after hiring a new staff a little over ten days ago. This worlplace phenomena is disturbing but nothing unique so I went on to investigate.

This new employee’s job has many administrative and people managment functions. Part of the requirements to fill-in the position are: good PR skill, self-reliance and can lead a small group of people. On her first day, she was able to blend in so well with the rest of my old staff. It’s not difficult not to like this person in fact, I began confiding to her some information not many employee has privilege of knowing. Yes, she is that good. Probably, too good that it has caused this problem in the first place.

It was brought to my attention that the new employee (office ‘goat’) was the one who started the turmoil and created an unwelcome stir in the workplace. I was hesitant to believe at first since we were both doing well personally and I cannot see a flaw in her character that will make me believe so. However, I did not turn a deaf ear on them and continue to listen to their (including my wife) counsel. After close deliberation and interviews with some trusted employees, I was able to gain enough hard evidences to boot the office goat with no second thoughts.

Office goats are complainers and naturally loves to court troubles everywhere they go. There are many goats in workplaces and the biggest challenge is identifying and strategically removing them without involving a number of good people. Office goats are highly influencial and can easily find strong group support for every cause they make.

I managed my office goat by removing her right away. I Informed her that no matter how good the intention of her cause was, it is insignificant unless it was delivered in a proper manner. Creating a tension on the management by spreading malicious rumors was never a good move. The best thing she could have done is to talk to the management and let the management deal with the people accordingly. It is also worthy of noting that after having the office goat removed, talking to the entire staff about it and confronting the problem head on to come up with a resolution. The moment you see a goat in your workplace, don’t take too long to talk to them and remove them the soonest possible before it becomes unmanageable.

Everyone has a metaphor for Life. Some say Life is like an ice cream – irresistibly full of colorful indulgences. Or, a roller coaster where you get all the highs when you’re up but gloomy when it’s down. There are many things we can compare life with but for me, Life is a game of Chess.

A chess piece (in a standard 40 piece chessboard) have limited yet unique movements and individually can’t do much. When played, however, it has more than the number of subatomic particles in the known universe of combinations to play it! Possible combinations of the first four opening moves alone is 318,979,564,000 and that’s a whole lot of options! The objective as we all know is simple, whoever captures the king first wins. Life, like a game of Chess, has three basic elements to be successful. First, the will to succeed (aggressive movement); second, knowledge (mastery and decision making); and third, wealth (number of chess pieces). Coincidentally, these are also the three main kinds of power according to Alvin Toffler’s book “Powershift”.

Power may be held through in a variety of ways such as: the power of physical or moral expertise, the power of persuasion, the power of knowledge, the power of force, the power of group dynamics, the power of social influence, the power of charisma, the power of delegated authority and the power in relationships.
We all live and breathe by it and attaining Power is probably the most basic human need that feeds our very existence. A natural compulsion to survive, to belong and be functional in this temporary universe we call life.

We can learn a great deal to attain power in this ancient game. Principles, we can use in our everyday lives in the pursuit to control our environment or behavior of different entities. Principles that prove essential for living.

Principle #1:

Always have a plan. Each move should have a purpose

Principle #2:

Know when to sacrifice pieces to save the king

Principle #3:

Know when to retreat

Principle #4:

Create a diversion to hide your game plan

Principle #5:

Spread your chess pieces well

Principle #6:

Know your opponent

Principle #7:

Patiently wait for weak openings

Principle #8:

Play aggressively

Principle #9:

Value each piece as if each piece is a king

Principle #10:

Be confident or pretend to be one if you aren’t

Principle #11:

Gain control of the center of the board

Principle #12:

Don’t expose the queen to early

Principle #13:

Do not move pawns indiscriminately. They cannot move back

Principle #14:

Play only to win

Principle #15:

View the entire board

Principle #16:

Know and understand your opponent’s every move

Principle #17:

Attack with more than two pieces at different areas

Principle #18:

Plan every move with the opponent’s threats in mind

Principle #19:

Move with the least possible threat and time

Principle #20:

Make each opening a race to control as much of the board as possible

• Ephesians 5:22-24 (above),
• Genesis 3:16: “…Your(the wife) desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.“; and
• 1 Corinthians 11:3: ” But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God“.

The Bible is as vivid as the clear water in spring time on the authority of husbands over their household and to their wives as well. He didn’t say:

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands when… or
Wives submit yourselves to your own husbands if…

No!

The command is absolute, unconditional, and all encompassing. It is neither vague in meaning, contradictory nor subject to any other forms interpretation. Submission IS a must to make a marriage work according to God’s plan. I know many women today, my wife included, finds it unfair or unjust but there shall only be one driver in every household – the husbands.

The Psychology
In my personal opinion (because don’t have the numbers to support it), this is one of the primary causes of marriage breakups among modern families today – wives having too much liberty to go against the their husbands will. Consequently, husbands feel less important in the decision making process on affairs of the household leaving them feeling diminutive, resentful and hurt at the same time. The only pride every family man has is his authority and respect at home and if he cannot have that, he will surely look somewhere else where he can regain it. I am not justifying this action just stating the obvious possible consequences of wives’ resistance.

The Bigger Picture
Women today asks: “Is it rightfully just to submit when he (husbands) is making wrong decisions every time?” My answer is still a resounding yes! Not because I am also a husband, but because it is the right balance. The bigger picture here is not about who is in control or if it is justifiable, but it is about building the strength of every relationship through unconditional submission. Submission supports pride to a man; submission bring comfort; submission brings confidence and complete trust to wives; and submission brings strength, happiness, and above all love to the entire household.