Warning: This post will be in Davao-Tagalog-English. So bare with it.

Remember the time when you were graduating from high school and you were all mushy and medyo dramatic na because you and your best friend will have to go on different colleges the next school year? That means, di na kayo magkasama during CR breaks, class breaks, lunch breaks at kung ano ano pang breaks! Well, I can vaguely remember mine (since it's almost 5 years ago hahaha) but one thing I'm sure of is that we promised each other to keep in touch and remain Best Friends Forever. BFF in short. I know it sounds cliche to hear people call each other 'BFFs', pero that's just it. I guess, we're one of them.

Faye's my long time best friend since highschool and I'm grateful for the 8 long years of friendship that we have since then. Back in highschool we used to hang out A LOT (parang 'you and me' against the world ang peg), go to different places that I think we were the only ones who'd enjoy, eat at karenderias, spend overnights at each other's places, and just talk about the things we go through as love-crazy teenage young girls (love crazy talaga huh? haha. how embarassing pero yun ang totoo! hahaha).  When one of us gets lonely, sad or heartbroken, all we need to do is just be with each other. Tapos okay na! Hay those memories hahaha nakakahiya! We went through a lot too. May times (sophomore and junior year) na we did not talk to each other for a week just because.. I forgot. Petty reasons? Haha. And we were brought into the guidance counselor's room, left there for an hour until one of us talk. Of course, I was not the one. Ma pride eh! Yayks. :)) I get a lot of questions on HOW did we ever become best friends kasi complete opposite daw talaga kami. She is very articulate, she writes and draws well, while ako.. nevermind. I can't even draw a straight line. Hahaha. She's so mahinhin and quite, on the contrary, I am loud and medyo careless. So HOW? Well, I don't really know! I guess we're just meant to be friends! :)

If I were to write everything that we've been through before, then I think you'll just get tired reading all of it! Kasi sobrang dami. So to give a you glimpse, here's few of our throwback photos together.

NENE + YAGIT DAYS

NOT SO YAGIT DAYS HAHA

RANDOM HANGOUTS

PHOTOSHOOTS "DAW"

Not my will but Yours be done

Hi! It's 3 am in the morning and as usual, I cannot sleep. Maybe it's because I slept kanina. Hmf. So I thought of giving a quick update. Finally, after the grueling months of studying, board exam's over. By God's grace, we survived the most awaited 2 days of our lives! I'll blog about it in detail soon, basta the night before our first day of exam, I literally had 0% sleep! I don't know how I got through that day, but thank God for sustaining me. The second day was not about being sleepless but about the difficulty of the exam! Graaaaabe! Ang hiraaaaap. Pero kahit ganoon, I'm amazed by the peace God has given each of us. Knowing that He holds our future, that His plans are always for our good - it's just overwhelming! Whatever the result may be, His plans are always pleasing and perfect. And all we have to do is T R U S T Him.

" This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."

1 John 5:15

4 more days

Photo source

Good morning!

See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us - even eternal life.

1 John 2:24-25

Purity

Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte

"No religious ritual will ever make your heart pure, No religious ceremony will ever make your heart pure, No outward reformation will ever make your heart pure. Purity is an inside job by the power of the Holy Spirit. Only God can give a pure heart." Steve Lawson

By Him and for Him

Preboard's done and finally, one night of rest. Just one night. But before I go to sleep, here's a little reminder. Goodnight!! :) 

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

Colossians 1:11

What I think You wanna hear

There are times when I need to be reminded of every little thing God has done for me. When doubts and worries start to creep in, I have to wake myself up and remember the goodness God has been in my life. And everytime I do that, it always flashbacks the life I had before I truly knew Jesus.

I grew up in a typical christian family and just like any other, I cannot exactly remember how many times I received Christ as my Lord and Savior. I heard His story countless times (that He loves us so much and He died for us) that I thought "I know! I know! Ughh I get it!!!". So I went on thinking I figured things out already. Basta feeling ko, as long as I don't do drugs or do crazy things, okay na! I lived life for myself just like the usual teenage girls you see in tv. I was OKAY. I thought I was okay. But I'm not. I had insecurities. And my security was not hinged on my creator but on someone else. So when God took that away, I thought it was the end of me. I was wrong. It was then that I had a full grasp of His love and finally understood the Cross. I started to experience God in a more personal way and slowly, He began to change my stubborn heart, gave me security and let me experience His love. He filled me with so much joy and peace that I cannot find anywhere else but in Him. Looking back, I can say that He has done amazing things for me since then. He is not done with me yet. He continues to change and mold me. And I continue to tap on His grace.

'Father, thank you saving me. Thank you for letting me experience this life that I don't even deserve. Thank you for your unfailing love. Thank you for your grace that is new every morning. Thank you for reminding me to trust your perfect plans. Thank you because I can do all things through you who gives me strength. Thank You for everything. Thank You!'

You guys should listen to this song by Mikeschair :)

He promised

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 

Hebrews 10:23

Reminder of the day

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknessess, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12: 8-10

The perfect reminder for me today. Thank You Jesus.

A different kind of sunset

"One of the most poisonous of all Satan's whispers is simply, "Things will never change." That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. To keep desire alive flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to "make all things new." Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers, which does not mean "we have no clue so don't even try to imagine," but rather, you cannot outdream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation. We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope."

-John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God

February 23: Freedom

John 8:31–59
“Even though I know it’s wrong, I sometimes think, ‘If I hadn’t accepted Christ, I would have so much more freedom.’ And then I venture down that road and realize just how terrible it is. It takes me to a very dark place.”

This deep, heart-wrenching statement by a friend made me realize there are countless people who probably feel this way about Jesus. And what if, unlike my friend, they hadn’t figured out the latter part of this statement? They were probably walking a road closer to legalism than the road Christ envisions for our lives. Or they could be so far from actually experiencing grace and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that they have yet to see how incredible a life lived for Jesus can be.
Jesus promises freedom: “Then Jesus said to those Jews who had believed him, ‘If you continue in my word you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free’ ” (John 8:31–32). What we often gloss over in this passage, though, is that Jesus is speaking to believers. If you haven’t begun to fully trust in Jesus, the thought that He gives us freedom is difficult to understand. Someone could ask, “Isn’t He creating a system that forces us to live a certain way?” The answer is no: Jesus is setting up what will be a natural response to His grace.

The context of this verse also makes me wonder if someone who hasn’t yet truly sacrificed for Jesus, beyond just a simple tithe, would fathom what freedom with Him looks like. The Jews Jesus is addressing would have already been experiencing some sort of social ostracism for their belief in Him—they would have understood that sacrifice brings spiritual freedom.
This concept isn’t easy to grasp, but in the simplest terms possible, Jesus frees us from religious systems and gives us the Spirit to empower us to do His work. This Spirit guides us and asks us to make sacrifices for Him, but those sacrifices are minimal compared to the eternal life He gave us through the sacrifice of His life. These sacrifices don’t become a system with Christ, but something we strive to do because we want to. That’s the freedom of the Spirit.

Have you experienced freedom in Christ? How can you seek the Spirit’s presence so you can experience more freedom?

John D. Barry

Source: FaithLife Study Bible App