Thy Word is a Lamp

Psalm 119:105 (KJV)
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

         Though born as a pastor's kid, I personally received Christ back in 2002 during our church's first Encounter God Retreat or EGR (now simply called Encounter). After that life-changing weekend, I began trying out to read my Bible and fill the pages of my small devotional notebook. Honestly, it wasn't easy for me. I kept on being inconsistent with my devotions (my former cell leader could attest to this!).

         Conversely, though, as I continued my Christian walk, I eventually saw the significance of God's word-- it has become my faith's foundation and the center of my being. I began to become genuinely hungry and thirsty for God's Word, and I think that was when God started to really move in my life. Now I take God's word not just as vitamins that are supplementary, but as food and water that I basically NEED -- that, my friends, has sustained me and helped me go deeper into my relationship with God. Also, God's rhema word has helped me go through both major and minute decisions I has to make.

         A lot are amazed of what God has been doing in the youth ministry for the past one to two years. I couldn't take any credit for that. My part was only to allow God's word light my path, our paths [in the youth network]... for how could we ever have walked without God's light?

         God's Word has truly been my feet's lamp -- what I've become attests to this. I know it's still a long, exciting journey ahead.. gotta keep the lamp with me!

      

          God's word -- what is it to you?

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Photo details:
My ClearlyU Bible and the night lamp my cell group gave me as their bday present on my desk
f/5, ISO 100, no flash

Birthday

Prelude: Hindi ito mahaba-- just has a lot of photos in it, which you have to click to have larger views.


Nov 7
Vanj was insisting that I bring my *new* SLR. “Wala naman akong pipicture-an sa meeting”, I rebuffed. Went to church at 9AM for a youth leaders’ meeting/ Dclass.
The moment I stepped inside the building, Vanj left me, running towards the office (which they locked for me to just stay outside). I noticed that the sound system, DLP, & laptop were all setup-- there was also a countdown video being played. I kept on knocking at the office, but all I got were giggles!
03, 02, 01--- Happy birthday, Jez! It was a slideshow for me :) the first part contained photos (which I bet most they took from my Multiply), while the second was sweet enough to have made me cry: messages from the youth leaders! Those sweet words of affirmation and love— oh, supreme! Take note, the bg music was Thank you by Ray Boltz :D

As the video ended, one by one they came, each handing me flowers :)
Thanked them, talked about how they planned it, and then we finally went on with the meeting.

For lunch, we’ve decided to go on with our fellowship at our place. We had our first ‘picnic’ at our garden garage using my cell group’s official banig :-D

[Multiply photo album link]



Nov 8

After P&W at church, the emcee called me up onstage. The people sang the most famous song in world for me—the birthday song! After I gave a short message of thanks and testimony about God’s greatness in my life, my girls rushed towards the stage handing me a bouquet of red roses, a gift, and a cute cake. Funny thing was that the cake candle hasn’t been lit kasi nag-mamadali sila dahil mbilis daw akong mag-salita :-D So then I told the people, “ibblow ko nalang po ito by faith!”. Haha.

I so, so, so love them! Their genuine hearts of love and thoughtfulness encourages me to serve the more.
On the afternoon, I treated SOL 1 & 2 students for a simple meryenda.
My birthday celebration ended with lots and lots of jump-shots :-D

I thank the Lord for 16 wonderful years (Nyeee. Nag-sinungaling pa). Seriously now... The past 18 year have been very, very fruitful, but I’m seeing that this new phase God has granted me is bound for greater things that will outweigh what He’s done through and in me for the past.

Cheers Jumps to getting older (but feeling younger!)
[Multiply photo album link]

SLR

05 November 2009. Went to Marquee, a newly-opened mall at Angeles City, with the family.

Mom and dad’s [advanced] present for me:

Yay! My first SLR :-)

At this age, I think I've taken hundreds of thousands of digital photos, but I'm a rookie SLR digital camera user. Throughout my picture-taking life, I've been using just convenient regular digital cameras, so being an amateur SLR user, I'm more than thrilled to learn and to improve my photog skills. Conversely, though, I guess I've already somewhat mastered point-and-shoot photography, so it's just time I shift to this thing :)


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PS. I just changed my header! :-D
Photos on the header were taken by my good ol' Sony Cybershot handy cam :)