March to the Water

Does it seem like obeying God is like following a cloud - something uncertain, something you cannot understand, something that might make the situation worse? Does it seem like "against the cloud" is the better, wiser, more practical, maybe even only way to go? Read on; you're not the first one.

It must have been a horror. Right when they thought they were on their way to a freer, better life, they find their enemies after them, an army prepared for battle. There must have been frantic cries, mothers gathering their children, fathers trying to secure a weapon out of the common household items they carried, and a general cry to their leader, "What now?"

"Run, quickly!" Someone must have cried. But where? There was only the Red Sea in front of them, and nowhere else. 

Behind them death by the sword, before them death by drowning. Oh how they must have regretted seeking for freedom, how they must have thought that anything was better than this, anything - even a lifetime of bondage for themselves and all their children after them.

Why had they left in the first place? And why had they come through here in the second? They followed a cloud. A cloud, of all things!

But suddenly, the cloud moves between them and their enemies. And their leader stretched out his hand toward... the sea?! Okay? drowning, then? 

Yet he looked confident, peaceful. Perhaps it's alright. He has received instruction: "Go forward!" 

Alright. To the water!

How terrible it must have felt! And what a wonder it must have been! When as they moved toward the water that under normal circumstances would have swallowed them by the millions, the water parted before them, making a path of dry land for their feet.

And when they all - millions of them - have passed through the parted sea, and their enemies came after them, the water closed right back in. The trouble before has swallowed whole the trouble behind.

A miracle.

When I face the trials of tomorrow, may I be reminded of this:

A miracle's one of two requirements is the impossible. The other one is a God with whom all things are possible. Never be afraid of the impossibility, for it is only God's backdrop for a wonderful miracle. Simply trust, and obey. 

He bids them seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and His promise is that all things needful to them for this life shall be added. Worry is blind, and cannot discern the future; but Jesus sees the end from the beginning. In every difficulty He has His way prepared to bring relief. Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us, of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service and honor of God supreme will find perplexities vanish, and a plain path before their feet.  {DA 330.1}  

God in His providence brought the Hebrews into the mountain fastnesses before the sea, that He might manifest His power in their deliverance and signally humble the pride of their oppressors. He might have saved them in any other way, but He chose this method in order to test their faith and strengthen their trust in Him. The people were weary and terrified, yet if they had held back when Moses bade them advance, God would never have opened the path for them. It was "by faith" that "they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land." Hebrews 11:29. In marching down to the very water, they showed that they believed the word of God as spoken by Moses. They did all that was in their power to do, and then the Mighty One of Israel divided the sea to make a path for their feet.  {PP 290.1}   

The great lesson here taught is for all time. Often the Christian life is beset by dangers, and duty seems hard to perform. The imagination pictures impending ruin before and bondage or death behind. Yet the voice of God speaks clearly, "Go forward." We should obey this command, even though our eyes cannot penetrate the darkness, and we feel the cold waves about our feet. The obstacles that hinder our progress will never disappear before a halting, doubting spirit. Those who defer obedience till every shadow of uncertainty disappears and there remains no risk of failure or defeat, will never obey at all. Unbelief whispers, "Let us wait till the obstructions are removed, and we can see our way clearly;" but faith courageously urges an advance, hoping all things, believing all things.  {PP 290.2}    

The cloud that was a wall of darkness to the Egyptians was to the Hebrews a great flood of light, illuminating the whole camp, and shedding brightness upon the path before them. So the dealings of Providence bring to the unbelieving, darkness and despair, while to the trusting soul they are full of light and peace. The path where God leads the way may lie through the desert or the sea, but it is a safe path.  {PP 290.3}  

Step forward in faith on to the path of obedience. Follow that cloud. March to the water.

This post is inspired by the experience of my friend, Lorie, who refused to take an important exam because it was on a Sabbath, at the risk of not being able to take her young career forward, despite her potentials. Yet, God honored her step of faith (sometimes manifested by a stubborn refusal to budge, whatever the cost). With much prayer, she was later granted a privilege of taking a special exam alone. But the results proved that she was not, after all, alone. By God's grace, she passed that career exam. And the beautiful thing? She had passed a much more important "test" just a little earlier. God must be beaming, "Well done!"

All Through the Blood

"some through the waters,
some through the flood.
some through the fire,
but all through the blood."

We all go through different trials and tests. often, We don't understand what others are going through, and it seems that no one understands our troubles. Although we are all tried, we are tried in different ways. But whatever we're going through, Jesus loves us. He lived a lowly life on earth and ultimately died for us. Whatever our imperfections are, His blood covers us. We are justified through faith, and are made perfect through His righteousness. Praise and glory be to our Lord and risen Saviour.

* from October 21, 2007

To and Through: The Beginning of My Mongolian Adventures

(A note from Gladys: Hello, everyone. Scribbles and Everday Miracles welcomes aboard Anthony, who will be sharing in this blog how God is leading him in his most recent missionary assignment. The following is only a first. We hope you are blessed by it and the others that will follow.)

On the morning that I received the confirmation of my travel to Mongolia, I was preparing to make an eleven-hour journey by bus to my parents’ home. It has been months since I first received the call to be a missionary in Mongolia, and for a while there it seemed that it would never happen. But it’s true that God does not think as man does.

It was a Wednesday, and I had planned to stay with my parents until the weekend. However, I was informed that I was booked for a flight out of the country on Saturday night. All plans of a nice and fuzzy weekend with family dissolved, and thus began a series of seemingly unfortunate events that turned out to be a story of grace.

I made the trip home to say goodbye to my parents (I’d be gone two full years!). The journey was supposed to be smooth, if not for the typhoon that raged almost all night and really slowed the bus down. As we reached the next province, a major part of the bus got broken and almost sent us rolling off the cliff. By God’s grace, no one was hurt.

From Better Way Foundation in Nueva Era, Ilocos Norte to my hometown in Echgue, Isabela, and back.

I arrived home Thursday morning. That same night I needed to travel back to the missionary campus. My parents sent me off with tight hugs and many tears. Two years would not go by so fast.

During the trip back came yet another typhoon. The stronger the winds blew and the heavier the rain poured, the more the bus shook, and the more intense the prayers.

Friday morning I was back in campus with only enough time to finish packing my things and say goodbye to my friends and fellow missionaries. If I were to make it to my Saturday evening flight, I had to make another night trip by bus.

The rain poured the entire day and flooded the creek that crossed the path to the campus, completely washing away the footbridge. But I and some friends, wet from the rain and wading in the creek, still managed to attend the vespers meeting and the simple farewell program prepared for me. My missionary friends sang “God Will Take Care of You.” I was moved and motivated.

After the program, my closest friends braved the still-pouring rain with me, crossing the flooded creek to bring me by jeepney to the city two hours away, where I could take the bus for another 12-hour trip to the airport in Manila. I would then have 16 hours in Manila before my flight, a safe enough margin – if the typhoon wasn’t there.

But it was.

As the rain kept pouring heavily, the flood water rose until the roads looked like a huge river. My friend drove carefully and slowly. Still one of the tires fell off the road and we found ourselves stuck in the mud. There was no way to move in any direction.

The scene brought to mind an incident about three days back. I had a truck bring my things down from our mountain campus. One tire slid into a ditch and got us stuck there. After hours of trying, my two friends and I could not get the truck out. One phone call later, our friends arrived from the campus, with two carabaos (water buffalos) to pull the poor truck out of the ditch and get us back on the road. Praise God!

But this time was different. We were in the middle of nowhere, too far for our carabaos to come pull us out; and it was literally the middle of the night, too late for phone calls (phone services and electricity were down anyway, due to the typhoon). We spent hours pushing, pulling, doing everything we could, and finally we got through.

Still, the night’s challenge was far from over.

It turned out that all the bridges that led out of our little town were either broken or covered entirely with water. We went this way and that, tried all the routes we knew, all to no avail. We were left with no choice but to wait for the water to subside. Our clothes still wet, we slept in the jeepney for two or three more hours – each minute eating away the precious time allowance before my flight – before the water was shallow enough for us to safely cross the bridge.

By then, dawn was already breaking.

As we drove, we could see roadblocks and fallen trees everywhere, landslides, once-dry riverbeds filled to overflowing, rice fields turned to seemingly endless expanses of water. We could only be thankful.

Two hours to the city. Twelve hours to the airport. Now I just had enough time to make it to my flight.

At the bus terminal, I bid my friends goodbye. What a night we had! I took the bus, and the trip proved so much better this time. But this calm, it turned out, was only as the passing of the eye of a storm.

From Nueva Era to Laoag City to the airport in Manila, to Tagaytay, and back to Manila.

True enough, I arrived in time at the airport and breezed through checking in. But a tint of anxiety grew on me as I went through Immigration.

As it happened, I didn’t have all the needed documents to travel abroad, and I was held in Immigration for interviews.

One hour before the flight. I sent frantic emails to the office in our mountain campus (where there has been no electricity for days), the LIGHT office, and the hosting organization in Mongolia. No reply. Tick tock, tick tock.

“Lord, is it really Your will for me to go?” I have spent the last three nights on one vehicle or another, the last three days saying goodbye to loved ones; I have been through storm and flood, I have prayed and used up the best of my strength. “Is it really Your will for me to go?”

Tick tock, tick tock.

The plane left without me. I went to a friend’s house for a place to stay. The following day, they were leaving for their new house and invited me to come along. We got lost along the way, and they wondered why – but not me. Not anymore.

A couple of days later, the documents were prepared, another flight booked, and Immigration passed.

Mongolia. Finally.

At the Mongolian airport, I was met by my first Mongolian friend who was shaking when I first saw her. I understood why when she told me later that they met a little accident on their way to the airport. Wow.

Baaska, the girl who came to meet me at the Mongolian airport - but not without meeting a challenge first.

The following morning, we prepared to make the eight-hour trip to Starting Point Life University, where I would be serving God for the next two years. But as we were leaving the city, a car suddenly hit the back of our car. Oh, when will this end?

From Manila to Ulaanbaatar (via Incheon) to the SPLU Campus in Bugat, Bulgan, Mongolia.

Still, gratitude and praises to God filled my heart and my prayers as we reached the SPLU campus in Bulgan Province. It was the Lord’s will for me to be here, after all.

The Philippine flag I presented to Academic Dean Cathie  and Khisgee (John), the School President (right). 

In the campus, as I met fellow foreigners who will also be working with SPLU, I learned that they too had their own versions of the long and bumpy ride that brought us together in one mission field. Amazing challenges and miracles filled their joyful stories.

Their experiences and mine helped me understand more clearly the Lord’s ways of preparing a soul for bigger challenges in life. It may be a typhoon, a flood, a ditch, a bump in the road, or getting lost in the dark – all of these remind me that if it is God who has called me, it will be God who will carry me through; If He brings me TO it, it only means that He will bring me THROUGH it.

Now just thinking of what the next challenges will be completely thrills my heart. Anyway, I know that God will take care of me. Like it says in the song my friends sang,

“Be not afraid whate’er betide,

God will take care you.

Beneath His wings of love abide,

God will take care of you.

God will take care of you
Through every day, all o'er the way.
He will take care of you;
God will take care of you."

Do stay tuned for more Mongolian Adventures with the greatest Guide ever.

Are you a Carrrot, an Egg, or a Coffee Bean?

-author unknown-

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life, and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it, and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.


Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first pot, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft. She then asked her to take the egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to smell and sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she smelled and tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What's the point, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity- boiling water-but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When trials and adversity knock on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"


Think of this: Which am I?


Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a passive heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside, am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?


Or, am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you become better and change the situation around you. When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level?

"When weary and longing for rest, we may have to toil on; when faint, we may have to fight; but with Christ as our guide, we shall not fail of reaching heaven." EGW

This is Why I Worship

this was written several months ago. it's actually supposed to be a song, but i admittedly (and quite frustratingly) can only but barely carry a tune. God and i are still working on my musical capabilities. so until we work something out, this'll have to remain a non-song (at least beyond the walls of my heart).

In You alone I find the strength to stand

Amidst the brokenness

In time I know I'll understand

You'll bring together the pieces

Lord, I am broken and I praise You

Savior, I'm in pain but it's okay

I'm coming back to life through You

Jesus, I see the wisdom of Your way

It hurt You to see how I brought this on me

Still You're standing close

When I tried to move farther away

I hurt with the wrongs I chose

Lord, I am broken and I praise You

Savior, I'm in pain but it's okay

I'm coming back to life through You

Jesus, I see the wisdom of Your way

Going away and coming home

Twice I walk the path so rough

This time the pain will lead me back

I'm not alone and that's enough

I Come to Him

When God Is All I Have

WHEN GOD IS ALL I HAVE

Desolate and desperate
I have nothing to call my own.
Empty-handed, empty-hearted
Waiting for the break of dawn.
For just as surely
as day shall end the night,
If God is only with me,
Then I shall never want.

He is my Maker, and Redeemer,
My Brother, Friend, and King.
He is the Bread of Life,
Of Living Waters He's the spring.
He's my Comforter and Perfecter,
My Shelter, Strength, and Shield.
Then when God is all I have,
I find God is all I need.

-o-

need I say more?

This Battle Is Not Mine

 THIS BATTLE IS NOT MINE

Everyday I struggle to be free
Everyday I face the enemy
Alone I fight all sorrow and all pain
Knowing no victory nor gain.

I had strength and wisdom all my own
I wondered why no battle I won
I thought I can make it all alone
But now I know I have been wrong.

Sometimes I think He asks too much of me
If I must overcome constantly.
But now I'm sure each battle can be won
For I am never once alone.

God sends His angels to rally by my side.
He is my Captain, my Comrade, and my Guide.
I may be weak, but He is strong.
I dare not trust my own.
He's made it known,
This battle is not mine to fight alone.

-o-

This was written at a time when I was feeling utterly depressed and helpless. I was pressured to do what was right and I tried. But it was really hard to overcome myself. Then I realized that the reason everything was so hard to do was that I was doing it alone. God is my strength, and I could not rely on myself even for a single moment. He is telling me, "You are never alone, I am with you. The sooner you get that through your head, the better."

I Know The Way You Take

This was inspired by Job 23:10, which says "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold."

I find a lot of comfort in the verse. It reminds me that even when I can't actually see where I'm heading, God does. He sees the past, the present, and the future. He knows where I am, where I'm coming from, and where I'm going.

There is no need for me to worry, even when the road I'm travelling seems tough - because I have a God who's even tougher, and ultimately wise at that.

-o-

I KNOW THE WAY YOU TAKE

Moment by moment I walk life's dreary way.

Weary I may be I carry on day after day.

Sometimes trials are too heavy for me to bear,

Then I come to my Guide in prayer.

Morning after morning to sorrows I awake.

Pain goes before me with every turn I make.

My path is all rugged, my heart seems to break;

So with my Comforter sweet communion I make.

No gem is polished without trial,

No gold refined without fire.

Weak as I am, I stumble, get hurt

Still my Refiner sees my worth.

He says, "I know the way you take,

Every bend, every thorn, every stone,

You are never alone.

With every step you take,

You'll be cleansed, purified, purged, and refined.

When it's through, you will come forth as gold."

-o-

May God grant us enough strength to make it through the test so that we'll all end up as refined gold fit for His kingdom... God bless us all...