MikeLigalig.com

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

The Old Testament (Psalm 32:1, 2) and the New Testament (Romans 4:7, agree: "Blessed (or fortunate) is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity." Therefore, both, by implication, agree that the person whose transgression God does not forgive, and whose sin is not covered but open in all its offensiveness before the face of a holy God, and to whom the Lord does impute iniquityâ€"this person is not blessed but is very, very unfortunate. Even if the unrepentant and unforgiven sinner prospers in this age, we may be sure on the authority of God's Word, he will not escape judgment. For it says in Romans 2:4, 5, "Do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed."
The Deceitfulness of Sin

If this is true, and if our worst imaginations of what the outpouring of the wrath of an infinite creator might be like are but a shadow of its real horror, then there is nothing more important for any person in this building or in the world than to recognize his sinfulness and find a way of forgiveness before God. But one of the characteristics of sin is that it is deceptive. Hebrews 3:12, 13 says,

    Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called 'today' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

At the heart of all sin is a lie. The lie says to all of us in our sin, "The act you are now doing, the desire or attitude you are now feeling is not very bad because there are much worse things, not very bad because everyone else experiences the same things, not very bad because you can't help it, not very bad because there is no God, or, if that won't work, God knows you are but frail and weak and he will tolerate and pity your sin." There are a thousand distortions of the truth which sin brings with it into the human heart, so that Jeremiah cries out, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?" (17:9).

Sometimes I despair at the subtlety of the sin in my life; how it manages to distort reality and blind to truth and spark foolish and evil inclinations. And when I look at the world, the small world of my neighborhood with its thievery and drunkenness and sexual promiscuity, or the larger world of horrible torture stories from Garcia Meza's Bolivia or the Gary Hastings slaying their wives and then trying to blow their own brains out with a shotgun but instead leaving themselves alive with no faceâ€"as it were, a symbol of the horror of sin in the worldâ€"when I look at the subtlety of sin in my own life and its iron clad grip of deception on the world at large, I sometimes ask what hope there is of opening anybody's eyes to the ugliness of sin and to the awful peril of condemnation if we fail to repent and be forgiven.

But then I remember the promise concerning the power of God's Word in Hebrews 4:12, 13.

    For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Nothing exposes our sinfulness like the Word of God. It blows away the thick fog of deception and lets us see sin for what it really is. Not that we might wallow in it, but that we might flee from it.

Therefore, my goal today is to let the Word show us what sin is, and why it is sin. There is seldom a cure to any disease without a diagnosis. That is what I want to offer today: God's diagnosis of our human disease called sin. If we don't know what it is, it will have a great deal more power over us. If we do know, then we will be able to avail ourselves of the Best Physician, who is a sin specialist, and of his medicines which are needed to keep the disease in check.
What Is Sin?

The most penetrating and devastating definition of sin that I am aware of in Scripture is the last part of Romans 14:23: "Whatever is not from faith is sin." The reason it is penetrating is that it goes to the root of all sinful actions and attitudes, namely, the failure to trust God. And the reason it is devastating is that it sweeps away all our lists of dos and don'ts and makes anything, from preaching to house-painting, a candidate for sin. In the original language, this is stressed even more than in our versions: it says, "Everything which is not from faith is sin." Anything, absolutely any act or attitude which is owing to a lack of trust in God is sin, no matter how moral it may appear to men. God looks on the heart.

In Romans 14, Paul addresses a situation in which some believers thought it was wrong to eat meat (they were vegetarians) while others thought that all foods are pure (they ate everything). Some were teetotalers; others drank wine. Paul agreed with those who saw all things as pure in themselves but something was more important to Paul than making all the Roman believers into meat-eaters or wine-drinkers. He wanted both groups to walk in love and not do anything to injure the other's faith. Notice verses 2 and 3:

    One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables; let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him.

Then verses 14 and 15:

    I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.

Then verse 21:

    It is right not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble.

Therefore what Paul is doing in this chapter is redefining sin for these people. Sin cannot properly be defined in terms of mere acts like eating and drinking, it must be defined by its root. An act of eating meat may or may not be sinful according to whether it springs from love (verse 15). But there is yet a deeper root than love or lack of love and that comes out in verses 22, 23: "Do you have faith? Keep it to yourself before God." I think Paul means here that if your faith frees you from feeling guilty about eating meat, for example, don't think you have to flaunt your freedom at the expense of injuring others. Then he goes on, "Blessed is the person who does not judge himself for what he approves.'' In other words, it is a joy to have a clear conscience, not to feel guilty for what we choose to do or not do. Then he concludes, "The person who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not act from faith; everything which is not from faith is sin." What Paul is saying here is that if you are not sure whether eating meat is wrong and you think it might be, but you go ahead and eat it anyway instead of denying yourself to avoid what you think might be sin, then you are condemned, that is, guilty of sin. The reason he gives is that such eating is not from faith and whatever is not from faith is sin. Now the assumption here is that to go ahead and eat meat when you think it may be wrong is an eating which does not come from faith. Why? Why can't such eating be from faith?
The Nature of Saving Faith

If we can answer this question we can know more precisely what Paul means by faith in verse 23 and in turn what the nature of sin is. Why is it that we are not acting from faith when we go ahead and do something we think may be wrong? The answer jumps out at us, I think, when we ask another question, namely, "Why do we go ahead and do something we think may be wrong or harmful to others?" Isn't the answer that we feel that if we don't do it we won't be as happy? We are willing to risk hurting someone or doing what we feel may be wrong, because that course of action seems to hold out the most happiness to us. We do what we do because we think doing it will make life more pleasant or at least bearable. But if that is so, it is easy to see how our behavior is not from faith. Faith would see the possible wrong or injury which our action may cause and would feel no need to risk it in order to make our future happier, because faith trusts God to construct a future for us which is vastly to be preferred to the one we could make for ourselves. Therefore, it is obvious that when we try to make our own future happy at the risk of wrong or harm, we are certainly not acting from faith, for faith rests in God to shape the best future for us.

Here we get a glimpse into what Paul means by saving faith and why it is that genuine faith always changes lives. What comes out of verse 23 is that faith is confidence in God to work in the affairs of our lives so that only what is best for us happens to us. What a power would be unleashed in your life and mind if we really believed that the almighty God, whose counsel cannot be frustrated, is this very minute, as I preach, busily at work making sure that what happens to us this afternoon and tomorrow at home and at work is only what is best for us!

There is a grave error in the church today which says that saving faith focuses mainly on what God will not do to us, namely, hold our sins against us. This is a grave error because in the Old and New Testaments an essential (not optional, but an essential) element of faith focuses on what God will do for us now and in the age to come. Saving faith is confident not only that God has forgiven our sins through the death of Christ, but also that God is now at work in the everyday affairs of our lives to do us good. According to Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?" Yes, he will, and saving faith is confident of this. Of course, "all things" means all things that are best for us, including all sorts of tribulation. Which is why Paul said in Romans 5:3â€"4, "Let us rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance approvedness, and being approved produces hope." Saving faith is primarily future oriented. And I don't mean merely heaven-oriented. I mean it is oriented to tomorrow morning and is confident that God is going to work that worrisome situation out.

Abraham was justified by his faith. He stood clean before God. But what was his faith? Romans 4:20 says, "He did not doubt the promise of God in unbelief but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised." Saving faith means resting in the promises of God. What promises? All the promises, including, God works everything together for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28); he will follow you with goodness and mercy all your days (Psalm 23:6); he will not leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). Saving faith is confident in the promises and power of God. Therefore, it is not anxious about tomorrow but has joy and peace, taking God at his word. So Paul says in Romans 15:13, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Trusting the God of hope gives joy and peace. And the reason it does is because our confident hope is that God is at work right now and tomorrow in the everyday affairs of our lives so that only what is best for us happens to us.

This, I believe, is what lies behind Romans 14:23. Sin is anything, any act or any emotion or attitude, that does not sprout from the soil of such confidence in the God of hope. "Whatever is not from faith is sin."
Unbelief: The Root of Sin

There are three implications of this definition of sin which I want to try to drive home. First, the all-pervasive fault in every sin is its character of unbelief. Let there be no confusion here. By unbelief I do not mean a refusal to accept the truths of the Bible. We are not saved by giving mental assent to the promises of God. We are saved by whether we hope with our hearts in those promises. The failure of the heart to be confident in the promises of God and to rejoice and find pleasure in his provision for the future is the root and essence of all sin. Unbelief is what mainly displeases God in every sinful act. As Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God."

And rightly so, because unbelief is a terrible insult. If a friend offers to do you a favor and promises by his honor to see it through, but you decline the offer and say, "No, friend, I've decided I just can't trust you any more,"â€"if that is your response to his promise, the friendship is over. You have insulted his integrity and robbed him of his honor. And there is just cause for animosity against you to rise in his heart. Moreover, the offensiveness of your insult would increase in direct proportion to the dignity of your friend. In other words, the greater his wisdom and honor and dependability, the uglier and more inexcusable would be the insult of your failure to take him at his word.

This helps me feel a little bit of how horrid sin is, because God is infinitely wise and infinitely honorable and infinitely dependable, and has paid an infinite price to put all this at our disposal for our good. What an intolerable offense it is then for a puny little human, absolutely dependent on this God's grace for every breath he takes, to say with his behavior to God, "I don't really think you can be counted on to make a better future for me than I can make in following my own way." If such unbelief persists there will be judgment (which is what I want to talk about next week). A failure to delight and trust in the promises of God is the greatest insult you can pay to God and therefore the primary offense in all sin.
Sin Is Not a List

The second implication of Romans 14:23 is that we cannot view sin any more merely as breaking the ten commandments or transgressing a list of dos and don'ts. "Everything that is not from faith is sin." Coming to church may be sin, staying home may be sin. Eating steak may be sin and not eating steak may be sin. Sexual intercourse with your own wife may be sin and the refusal of sexual relations may be sin. One of Satan's most successful lies is that sin can be limited to a manageable list of dos and don'ts. The reason this is so satanic is that it causes thousands of churchgoers to think that things are OK between them and God because they avoid one list of don'ts and practice another (much shorter) list of dos; but in fact may be sinning all day long, incurring the wrath of God, because their attitudes and actions do not come from faith in the promises of God.

Please don't think that this cannot happen to people in the church, in our church. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "When I could bear it no longer, I sent that I might know your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and that our labor would be in vain." Among churchgoers, Satan is primarily in the business of replacing vital faith with mere morality. He loves to take a life flowing from happy confidence in God and turn it into a perfunctory religious regimen. Don't let him do it! For "whatever is not from faith is sin," including religion.

The real battle of life is not fought at a low-lying delta where the river of our inclinations flows into action, but at the high, less accessible spring of faith. If the stream doesn't start in the spring of faith, it does not matter where it flows, it will issue in sin. Therefore, as Proverbs says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life" (4:23).
All Things Are Sin for the Unbeliever

The third and final implication of Romans 14:23 is a warning to those who have not sought Christ for forgiveness or placed their hope in him. If there are any among you like this, do not say to yourself, "'My sins are slight, or my sins are few." For according to Romans 14:23, everything you do is sin. If you are not trusting Christ for forgiveness and are not resting in his daily work on your behalf, then none of your actions comes from faith, but every one of them (even the most noble) is sinful and an insult to the infinitely trustworthy God. And I hope, if you have not received Christ with all his forgiveness and all his hope, that this week you will not be able to shake loose the thought that everything you do is sinful in God's eyes, for whatever does not come from faith is sin.

I have a better suggestion for you who have not entrusted yourself to Christ or received him as your Savior and the Lord of your life. Do it right now, and you can enter the week with no condemnation.

I am going to pray a prayer which I hope every person in this room will pray with me. If you are Christ's already, the prayer will confirm it. If you are not and now want to be, this can be the moment of your conversion. Pray with me silently if you mean it.

    Almighty God, I cannot escape from your pursuit. You have found me and inclined my heart to believe in you.

    I confess my great sin and I know I deserve to be condemned for insulting you by my lack of faith.

    But I believe now in Jesus, that as your Son he died to bear my sin and punishment, so I could live forever and walk in newness of life. I take him as my only hope and acknowledge him as my Lord.

    Thank you, Father, for your forgiveness and your promise to be with me. Guard me now from the evil one.

    Amen.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

    Psalm 40:1-3

One of the great benefits of reading the psalms is that they present us with patterns of life that the godly go through in every age. And in doing that they encourage us that we are made of the same stuff as the saints of old, and they give us guidance how to follow the pattern of godliness through to the end.

One of the patterns of life recurring in the psalms is getting in the pits and getting out again. And my favorite statement of this pattern comes from David's experience found in Psalm 40. We are going to focus only on verses 1â€"3 but we will read the whole psalm so as not to miss any insight the context might give.

    I waited patiently for the Lord;
    and he inclined to me, and heard my cry.
    He brought me up out of the pit of destruction,
    out of the miry clay;
    And he set my feet upon a rock,
    making my footsteps firm.
    And he put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise to our God;
    Many will see and fear,
    And will trust in the Lord.

    How blessed is the man who has made
    the Lord his trust,
    And has not turned to the proud,
    nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
    Many, O Lord my God,
    are the wonders which thou hast done,
    And thy thoughts toward us;
    There is none to compare with thee;
    If I would declare and speak of them,
    They would be too numerous to count.

    Sacrifice and meal offering thou hast not desired;
    My ears thou has opened;
    Burnt offering and sin offering
    thou hast not required.
    Then I said, "Behold, I come;
    In the scroll of the book it is written of me;
    I delight to do thy will, O my God;
    Thy law is within my heart."

    I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness
    in the great congregation;
    Behold, I will not restrain my lips,
    O, Lord thou knowest.
    I have not hidden thy righteousness
    within my heart;
    I have spoken of thy faithfulness
    and thy salvation;
    I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
    and thy truth from the great congregation.

    Thou, O Lord, wilt not withhold
    thy compassion from me;
    Thy lovingkindness and thy truth
    will continually preserve me.
    For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
    My iniquities have overtaken me,
    so that I am not able to see;
    They are more numerous
    than the hairs of my head;
    And my heart has failed me.

    Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
    Make haste, O Lord, to help me!
    Let those be ashamed and humiliated together
    Who seek my life to destroy it;
    Let those be turned back and dishonored
    Who delight in my hurt.
    Let those be appalled because of their shame
    Who say to me, "Aha, aha!"
    Let all who seek thee rejoice
    and be glad in thee;
    Let those who love thy salvation say continually,
    "The Lord be magnified!"
    Since I am afflicted and needy,
    Let the Lord be mindful of me;
    Thou art my help and my deliverer;
    Do not delay, O my God.

Verses 1â€"3 present a pattern of life at least part of which every Christian knows about first hand. My goal tonight, though, is that we all be enabled to follow the whole pattern all the way through to its exciting conclusion. David leads us through six stages of his experience, and I want us to follow him closely. First, David is in a muddy pit; second, he cries to God for help; third, he waits for the Lord; fourth, God draws him out of the pit to safety; fifth, God gives David a new song to sing (probably the one we are reading); sixth, many others come to trust God when they see this pattern of life. The king's pit, the king's cry, the king's patience, the king's rescue, the king's song, and the king's influence. Here is King David, a man after God's own heart. Let us see if we can make his pattern part of our life.
David Is in the Pits

First, the king is in the pits (v. 2). What is this experience? What are we supposed to feel with the king when we read that it is like being caught in a desolate pit and in miry clay? I looked up this word translated "destruction" in the NASB and "horrible" in the KJV and "desolate" in the RSV. What I found was that it refers elsewhere to roaring or tumult, like stormy waves. When you consider that the usual meaning of "pit" is a well or a cistern, the image you get is striking. It is as if David had fallen into a deep, dark well and plunged not into a clean placid pool but a roaring storm like Hurricane Allen, only all dark and underground.

Then alongside that picture is the image of mire and mud. The two don't seem to go together. But don't forget these are images that are supposed to make us feel what David was feeling. They are not photographs. It helped me to get a picture of this mud to read what King Zedekiah did to Jeremiah when he wanted to get rid of him. It says in Jeremiah 38:6, "So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire." There is one other time David wrote about an experience similar to the one here in Psalm 40, and there, too, he combined the images of mud and flood. Psalm 69:1â€"2 says, "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my soul. I have sunk in deep mire and there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters and a flood overflows me."

So perhaps what we are to imagine is falling into a well and sinking deep in the sludge at the bottom and going deeper every time we try to lift a foot and then all of a sudden there is roaring water coming from somewhere and it rushes around us in the dark. And then comes the sense of helplessness and desperation, and all of a sudden air, just air, is worth a million dollars, worth more than all the cars in Michigan and all the cabins in Minnesota. Helplessness, desperation, apparent hopelessness, the breaking point for the overworked businessman, the outer limits of exasperation for the mother of three constantly crying children, the impossible expectations of too many classes in school, the grinding stress of a lingering illness, the imminent attack of a powerful enemy. It is good that we don't know what the experience was. It makes it easier to see ourselves in the pits with the king. Anything that causes a sense of helplessness and desperation and threatens to ruin life or take it awayâ€"that is the king's pit.
David Cries Out to the Lord

Now the king's cry (v. 1): "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.'' One of the reasons God loved David so much was because he cried so much. Psalm 6:6, "I am weary with my mourning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping." Psalm 56:8, "Put my tears in thy bottle; are they not in thy book?" Indeed they are, because, "blessed are they that mourn." It is a beautiful thing when a broken man genuinely cries out to God. Not like the jock who gets a cramp while swimming but struggles to get to shore unassisted lest he appear to be weak, but like the little child who wanders too far out in the turf and starts to get taken by the undertow and cries out immediately, "Daddy! Daddy!" God loves to answer childlike prayers.

But make sure the cry is to God and for God, not to man. Notice the inference David draws in verse 4: "Blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, and has not turned to the proud." Some are willing to say they need help but will seek it anywhere but from the Lord. But God is very displeased with such behavior. A good example is King Asa. God punished him for relying on Syria as an ally instead of relying on God. But Asa refused to learn his lesson and at the end of his life, it says in 2 Chronicles 16:12, "In the 39th year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians." The point here is not that doctors are bad, but that it is bad to make a doctor your God . . . to think that with him alone is healing. Whatever benefit comes through physicians comes from the Lord and therefore his help is to be sought. Psalm 118:8, 9: "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man; it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to take trust in princes." Or as one of my favorite passages puts it: "Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is the Lord his God!" (Psalm 146:3â€"5). Therefore, when you are in the pit, you do not just cry out to anybody, you cry to God.
David Waits for the Lord

And thenâ€"and then is a very important part of the patternâ€"you wait. Verse 1: "I waited patiently for the Lord." Or more literally, I waited intently for the Lord. The reason this is so important for us to hear is that it guards us from unbelief when God's help seems long in coming. We can draw no deadlines for God. He hastens or he delays as he sees fit.

    He knows the time for joy and truly
    Will send it when He sees it meet,
    When He has tried and purged thee duly
    And found thee free from all deceit.

Waiting for the Lord is a great part of the Christian life. There are at least two essential elements in the way we should wait with the king: humility and hope. Look back at Psalm 37:9, "Evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land." Then in verse 11 the same promise is repeated, but in the place of those who wait it is the meek or the humble: "But the humble will inherit the land, and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity." Those who wait are the humble.

Have you ever been in a large waiting room at a doctor's office when the doctor is late returning from a call and the patients are stacked up? Who are the ones who get feisty with the receptionist and grumble to everybody? Not the meek, not the humble. Humble people can wait. They are not so presumptuous about their rights. So it is in waiting for God. We simply show how badly we need the chastisement of his delay when we do not wait patiently.

Secondly, those who wait patiently hope in God. Psalm 39:7, "And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in thee." Psalm 130:5, "I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in his word do I hope." The soul of one who waits for God is not listless. It is not like a weather vane pointing this way, then that. But it is like a hungry animal straining toward his food, longing for his food. "As a deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Psalm 42:1, 2). Those who wait like David strain toward the moment when God will come, and they hope in him. When will he come? At the right time. That is all we can know. And that is enough.
The Lord Delivers David

When he comes he will lift us out of the pit. Verse 2: "He brought me up out of the pit of tumult, out of the miry clay; and he set my feet upon a rock making my steps firm." There is a world of difference between quicksand and rock. God moves us, when he comes, from a sense of desperation to a sense of security. In the pit we had not forgotten God, but our sense of his presence and comfort was not as lively as when he rescues us. In fact, the essence of the rescue is the restoration of that strong feeling of God's nearness and help.

For David, the rescue may have been the healing of some disease as well. This was the case in Psalm 30:2, "O Lord, my God, I cried to thee for help, and thou didst heal me." Or it may have been deliverance from his enemies as in Psalm 69, "Save me, O God . . . those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me are powerful." Or it may have been deliverance from the oppressive guilt of sin he had committed as in Psalm 51, "Be gracious to me, O God, . . . wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin."
The Lord Gives David a New Song to Sing

God can deliver from every sort of pit and mire and will deliver his servants from any plight that would destroy their faith. And when he does we will sing. Verse 3: "He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God." People who never sing, at least in their heart, are people who do not cherish anything very deeply, or feel intense gratitude for anything. They are the sort of people who take all life for granted. They never soar with a sense of joy in their heart.

All of us gravitate to that condition because of our fallen nature. And one of the ways God keeps us awake is by letting us hit the pits, leaving us there a while and then bringing us out into the fresh air of his grace again. Do you know of any other way to get someone to love air besides letting them almost be suffocated and breathe again?

I was swimming at the bottom of a pool one time, about nine feet down, and I got my finger caught in the drain cover. In a matter of seconds air was almost all I cared about. I was good for about thirty more seconds and I cried out to God and he loosed my finger and set me upon the concrete deck and put a new song in my mouth, a hymn to air, precious air, sweet air, priceless air, and to God.

That is the kind of love God wants from us for himself. And if he must, he will get it by hiding himself for a season, until we crave him like a drowning boy craves air. And when he shows himself again and we come up gasping into his presence, we will sing like never before. All the old songs will be new. And if they are not adequate we will write our own.

The church ought not merely sing the songs of yesterday's saints. There ought to be new songs and they ought to come from you, because God has put them in your mouth. Let all the poets of Bethlehem Baptist Church come forth. Let us make a book. We will call it Patterns of Praise. Somebody start the collection!
Others See and Are Saved

Who knows how many people might see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. That is the end of verse 3, and the final step in the pattern of life described in these three verses. Isn't it tremendous that whenever God gives us deliverance from the pit and puts a new song in our mouth, his aim is not only our benefit but also the benefit of others through us? Let us never view our own song as the stopping place of God's mercies. God aims for us to sing others into the kingdom. How does this happen?

They see, fear, and put their trust in God. What do they see? They see a person who, contrary to human nature, was humble in distress and who never lost hope and banked on God and who when he was delivered gave God the glory. They see something real, genuine, authentic, something that rings true in the human heart. And as the conviction starts to build in the unbeliever that there is truth and reality in the life of the godly, he begins to fear, fear the implications of his own unbelief. If God is that real and can be depended on to help those who hope in him, then probably those who disregard him and pin their hopes on all sorts of other things are in trouble (cf. Phil.1:28). And by the grace of God many will make the final move and put their trust in the Lord. The music of the rescued saints is a tremendous means of evangelism.

What a surprise! The whole story turns out to be a lesson in personal evangelism. How shall we win others to Christ? When you are in the pits with the king, cry out to the Lord like a helpless child; then humbly and hopefully wait patiently for the Lord; and when he comes in his own time and makes you secure, then sing a new song to his grace so people can see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

    Romans 8:18-28

    I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. 27 And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.

Before I entered college I hardly gave a thought to cancer and terminal illness. But ever since those college days death by disease has walked beside me all the way. Two of my college acquaintances died of leukemia and cancer of the lymph glands before they were 22. At seminary I watched Jim Morgan, my teacher of systematic theology, shrivel up and die in less than a year of intestinal cancer. He was 36. In my graduate program in Germany my own "doctor-father," Professor Goppelt, died suddenly just before I was finished. He was 62â€"a massive coronary. Then I came to Bethel, the house of God! And I taught for six years and watched students, teachers, and administrators die of cancer: Sue Port, Paul Greely, Bob Bergerud, Ruth Ludeman, Graydon Held, Chet Lindsay, Mary Ellen Carlsonâ€"all Christians, all dead before their three score and ten were up. And now I've come to Bethlehem and Harvey Ring is gone. And you could multiply the list ten-fold.

What shall we say to these things? Something must be said because sickness and death are threats to faith in the love and power of God. And I regard it as my primary responsibility as a pastor to nourish and strengthen faith in the love and power of God. There is no weapon like the Word of God for warding off threats to faith. And so I want us to listen carefully today to the teaching of Scripture regarding Christ and cancer, the power and love of God over against the sickness of our bodies.

I regard this message today as a crucial pastoral message, because you need to know where your pastor stands on the issues of sickness, healing, and death. If you thought it was my conception that every sickness is a divine judgment on some particular sin, or that the failure to be healed after a few days of prayer was a clear sign of inauthentic faith, or that Satan is really the ruler in this world and God can only stand helplessly by while his enemy wreaks havoc with his childrenâ€"if you thought any of those were my notions, you would relate to me very differently in sickness than you would if you knew what I really think. Therefore, I want to tell you what I really think and try to show you from Scripture that these thoughts are not just mine but also, I trust, God's thoughts.
Six Affirmations Toward a Theology of Suffering

So I would like everyone who has a Bible to turn with me to Romans 8:18â€"28. There are six affirmations which sum up my theology of sickness, and at least the seed for each of these affirmations is here. Let's read the text:

    I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

    Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

    We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. (RSV)

1. All Creation Has Been Subjected to Futility
My first affirmation is this: the age in which we live, which extends from the fall of man into sin until the second coming of Christ, is an age in which the creation, including our bodies, has been "subjected to futility" and "enslaved to corruption." Verse 20: "The creation was subjected to futility.'' Verse 21: "The creation will be freed from slavery to corruption." And the reason we know this includes our bodies is given in verse 23: not only the wider creation but "we ourselves (i.e., Christians) groan in ourselves awaiting sonship, the redemption of our bodies." Our bodies are part of creation and participate in all the futility and corruption to which creation has been subjected.

Who is this in verse 20 that subjected creation to futility and enslaved it to corruption? It is God. The only other possible candidates to consider would be Satan or man himself. Perhaps Paul meant that Satan, in bringing man into sin, or man, in choosing to disobey Godâ€"perhaps one of them is referred to as the one who subjected creation to futility. But neither Satan nor man can be meant because of the words "in hope" at the end of verse 20. This little phrase, subjected "in hope," gives the design or purpose of the one who subjected creation to futility. But it was neither man's nor Satan's intention to bring corruption upon the world in order that the hope of redemption might be kindled in men's hearts and that someday the "freedom of the glory of the children of God" might shine more brightly. Only one person could subject the creation to futility with that design and purpose, namely, the just and loving creator.

Therefore, I conclude that this world stands under the judicial sentence of God upon a rebellious and sinful mankindâ€"a sentence of universal futility and corruption. And no one is excluded, not even the precious children of God.

Probably the futility and corruption Paul speaks of refers to both spiritual and physical ruination. On the one hand man in his fallen state is enslaved to flawed perception, misconceived goals, foolish blunders, and spiritual numbness. On the other hand, there are floods, famines, volcanoes, earthquakes, tidal waves, plagues, snake bites, car accidents, plane crashes, asthma, allergies, and the common cold, and cancer, all rending and wracking the human body with pain and bringing menâ€"all menâ€"to the dust.

As long as we are in the body we are slaves to corruption. Paul said this same thing in another place. In 2 Corinthians 4:16 he said, "We do not lose heart, but though our outer man (i.e., the body) is decaying (i.e., being corrupted) yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." The word Paul uses for decay or corrupt here is the same one used in Luke 12:33 where Jesus said, Make sure your treasure is in heaven "where thief does not come near and moth does not corrupt." Just like a coat in a warm, dark closet will get moth eaten and ruined, so our bodies in this fallen world are going to be ruined one way or the other. For all creation has been subjected to futility and enslaved to corruption while this age lasts. That is my first affirmation.

2. An Age of Deliverance and Redemption Is Coming

My second affirmation is this: there is an age coming when all the children of God, who have endured to the end in faith, will be delivered from all futility and corruption, spiritually and physically. According to verse 21, the hope in which God subjected creation was that some day "The creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." And verse 23 says that "We ourselves groan within ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." It has not happened yet. We wait. But it will happen. "Our citizenship is in heaven from which we await a Savior, the Lord, Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our lowliness to be like the body of his glory" (Philippians 3:20, 21). "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). "He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and there shall be no longer any death; and there shall be no longer any mourning or crying or pain; the first things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4).

There is coming a day when every crutch will be carved up, and every wheelchair melted down into medallions of redemption. And Merlin and Reuben and Jim and Hazel and Ruth and all the others among us will do cartwheels through the Kingdom of Heaven. But not yet. Not yet. We groan, waiting for the redemption of our bodies. But the day is coming and that is my second affirmation.

3. Christ Purchased, Demonstrated, and Gave a Foretaste of It

Third, Jesus Christ came and died to purchase our redemption, to demonstrate the character of that redemption as both spiritual and physical, and to give us a foretaste of it. He purchased our redemption, demonstrated its character, and gave us a foretaste of it. Please listen carefully, for this is a truth badly distorted by many healers of our day.

The prophet Isaiah foretold the work of Christ like this in 53:5â€"6 (a text which Peter applied to Christians in 1 Peter 2:24):

    But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (RSV)

The blessing of forgiveness and the blessing of physical healing were purchased by Christ when he died for us on the cross. And all those who give their lives to him shall have both of these benefits. But when? That is the question of today. When will we be healed? When will our bodies no longer be enslaved to corruption?

The ministry of Jesus was a ministry of healing and forgiveness. He said to the disciples of John the Baptist, "Go and tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me" (Matthew 11:4â€"6). Offense? Why would anyone take offense at one who raises the dead and brings in the long expected kingdom? Easyâ€"he only raised about three people. He left hundreds in the tombs all around him. Why? Because not enough relatives had faith? O no! When Jesus raised the widow's son in Luke 7:13, 14, she didn't know him from Adam. It was not because of her faith. All it says is, "He had compassion on her." What then? Didn't he pity all the other bereaved in Israel?

The answer to why Jesus did not raise all the dead is that, contrary to the Jewish expectation, the first coming of the Messiah was not the consummation and full redemption of this fallen age. The first coming was rather to purchase that consummation, illustrate its character, and bring a foretaste of it to his people. Therefore, Jesus raised some of the dead to illustrate that he has that power and one day will come again and exercise it for all his people. And he healed the sick to illustrate that in his final kingdom this is how it will be. There will be no more crying or pain any more.

But we do have a foretaste of our redemption now in this age. The benefits purchased by the cross can be enjoyed in measure even now, including healing. God can and does heal the sick now in answer to our prayers. But not always. The miracle mongers of our day, who guarantee that Jesus wants you well now and heap guilt after guilt on the back of God's people asserting that the only thing between them and health is unbelief, have failed to understand the nature of God's purposes in this fallen age. They have minimized the depth of sin and the cruciality of God's purifying chastening and the value of faith through suffering and they are guilty of trying to force into this age what God has reserved for the next.

Notice the flow of thought in Romans 8:23, 24: "We ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, for in hope we have been saved." Because of Christ's purchased redemption, believers already have received the Holy Spirit. This is like a down payment of our full redemption, but it is only the first-fruits, a foretaste. And when Paul stresses that we, even we ourselves, who have this Spirit groan awaiting the redemption of our bodies, you can tell that he is warning against the false inference that because we've been saved, therefore our groaning with decaying bodies is over. So he goes on to say in verse 24, "For we have been saved in hope." Our salvation is not finished, it is only begun. We are saved only in hope. This is true morally; Paul says in Galatians 5:5, "We through the Spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness." And it is true physically; we wait for the redemption of our bodies. Christ has purchased that redemption, demonstrated its physical reality in his healing ministry, and given us a foretaste of it by healing many people in our day, but some very slowly, some only partly, and some not at all. That is my third affirmation.

4. God Controls All Suffering for the Good of His People

Fourth, God controls who gets sick and who gets well, and all his decisions are for the good of his children, even if they may be very painful and long-lasting. It was God who subjected creation to futility and corruption, and he is the one who can liberate it again. In Exodus 4:11, when Moses refused to go speak to Pharaoh, God said to him, "Who made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I the Lord?" Behind all sickness is finally the sovereign hand of God. God speaks in Deuteronomy 32:39, "See now that I, I am he, and there is no God besides me; it is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal; and there is no one who can deliver from my hand."

But what about Satan? Isn't he the great enemy of our wholeness? Doesn't he attack us morally and physically? Wasn't it Satan who tormented Job? Yes, it was. But Satan has no power but what is allotted to him by God. He is an enemy on a chain. In fact, for the writer of the book of Job it was not wrong to say that the sores afflicted by Satan were sent from God. For example, in Job 2:7 we read, "So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and afflicted Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head." Then after Job's wife urges him to curse God and die, Job says, "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not receive evil?" And lest we think that Job erred in attributing to God his sores afflicted by Satan, the writer adds in verse 10, "In all this Job did not sin with his lips." In other words, it is no sin to recognize the sovereign hand of God even behind a disease of which Satan may be the more immediate cause.

Satan may be sly but on some things he is stupid, because he fails to see that all his attempts to despoil the godly are simply turned by God's providence into occasions for the purifying and strengthening of faith. God's goal for his people in this age is not primarily to rid them of sickness and pain, but to purge us of all the remnants of sin and cause us in our weakness to cleave to him as our only hope.

    My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives . . . he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (Hebrews 12:5, 6, 10, 11)

All the affliction that comes to the children of God, whether through persecution or sickness, is intended by God to increase our holiness by causing us to rely more on the God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9). If we get angry at God in our sickness we are rejecting his love. For it is always in love that he disciplines his children. It is for our good and we must seek to learn some rich lesson of faith from it. Then we will say with the psalmist, "It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn thy statutes . . . I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me" (Psalm 119:71, 75). That is my fourth affirmation: ultimately God controls who gets sick and who gets well and all his decisions are for the good of his children, even if the pain is great and the sickness long. For as the last verse of our text, Romans 8:28, says, "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose."

5. We Should Pray for Healing Power and Sustaining Grace

The fifth affirmation is that we should therefore pray for God's help both to heal and to strengthen faith while we are unhealed. It is fitting that a child ask his father for relief in trouble. And it is fitting that a loving Father give his child only what is best. And that he always does: sometimes healing now, sometimes not. But always, always what is best for us.

But if sometimes it is best for us not to be healed now, how shall we know what to pray? How shall we know when to stop asking for healing and only ask for grace to trust his goodness? Paul had faced this problem in his own experience. You recall from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 that Paul, not unlike Job, was given a thorn in the flesh which he called a "messenger of Satan." We don't know what sort of pain or malady it was, but he says that he prayed three times for its removal. But then God gave him the assurance that though he would not heal him, yet his grace would be sufficient and his power would be manifest not in healing but in the faithful service of Paul through suffering.

In our text at Romans 8:26, 27 Paul addresses the same problem, I think: While we are waiting for the redemption of our bodies "the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he (God) who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." Sometimes all we can do is cry out for help because we do not know in what form the help should come. The Spirit of God takes our stumbling, uncertain expressions of need and brings them before God in a form that accords with God's intentions. And God responds graciously and meets our needs. Not always as we at first hoped, but always for our good.

So let us not be proud and stand aloof from God stoically bearing what fate has brought. Rather let us run to our Father in prayer and plead for help in time of need. That is my fifth affirmation.

6. We Should Always Trust in the Power and Goodness of God

Sixth, and finally, we should always trust in the love and power of God, even in the darkest hour of suffering. The thing that distresses me most about those who say Christians should always be miraculously healed is that they give the impression that the quality of faith can only be measured by whether a miracle of physical healing takes place, whereas in much of the New Testament you get the impression that the quality of our faith is reflected in the joy and confidence we maintain in God through suffering.

The great chapter on faith in the Bible is Hebrews 11. It begins, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." What is often overlooked in this chapter, though, is the final eight verses where we get the balanced picture of faith as that which lays hold on God for rescue from suffering, and as that which lays hold on God for peace and hope in suffering. Verse 33: "By faith they conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection." Now if we stopped reading here our conception of how the quality of faith manifests itself would be very distorted, because here it sounds as if faith always wins in this life. But here a shift occurs and we find that faith is also the power to lose our life: "By faith . . . others were tortured, not accepting release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheep skins, in goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy) wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground . . . And all these gained approval through their faith."

The glory of God is manifested when he heals and when he gives a sweet spirit of hope and peace to the person that he does not heal, for that, too, is a miracle of grace! O, that we might be a people among whom God is often healing our sicknesses, but is always causing us to be full of joy and peace while our sicknesses remain. If we are a humble and childlike people who cry out to God in our need and trust in his promises, the Holy Spirit will help us and God will bless our church with every possible blessing. He will, as the text says, work everything together for our good.

That is my theology of sickness in a nutshell. First, in this age all creation, including our bodies, has been subjected to futility and enslaved to corruption. Second, there is a new age coming when all those who endure to the end in faith will be set free from all pain and sickness. Third, Jesus Christ came and died to purchase our redemption, demonstrate its character as both spiritual and physical, and give us a foretaste of it now. Fourth, God controls who gets sick and who gets well, and all his decisions are for the good of his children even if they are painful. Fifth, we should pray for God's help both to heal and to strengthen faith while we are unhealed, and should depend on the Holy Spirit's intercession when we don't know which to pray for. Finally, we should always trust in the power and love of God, even in the darkest hour of suffering.

O, that we might be an assembly of saints who echo from the bottom of our hearts the faith of Joni Eareckson after a long struggle with paralysis and depression. She wrote at the end of her book: "The girl who became emotionally distraught, and wavered at each new set of circumstances is now grown up, a woman who has learned to rely on God's sovereignty" (Joni, p. 190).

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

Years ago I went to the Billy Graham crusade in Anaheim, California. There were about 50,000 people there that night, I think, and I sat in the left field bleachers and could see the whole massive crowd wrapping around the infield. When we sang "How Great Thou Art," I managed to get out a few notes and then could scarcely sing any more. I had never heard anything like that. Fifty thousand voices singing praises to God! It so stunned my heart that I have never forgotten that moment. Nothing had ever seemed to me more right or more beautiful or more profoundly joyful than for 50,000 creatures to sing together with all their heart to God.

I really believe I got a little, tiny glimpse of heaven that night, because Revelation 5:11â€"13 pictures heaven like this:

    And I beheld, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."

    And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, "Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.

The vision of heaven is the vision of innumerable myriads of creatures praising the Father and the Son with all their might. And those who have tasted the glory of the Lamb would not miss it for the world.
God Pursues His Own Praise

The Lamb is worthy. God the Father is worthy. And therefore we ought to praise them. And we will praise them. Most believers have no difficulty with that truth. But for two weeks now we have seen from the Scripture that God has not merely acted so as to be worthy of praise, but more, he has made it his aim to win praise. God does not merely wait to be exalted for his power and righteousness and mercy, he has taken the initiative from all eternity to exalt his own name in the earth and to display his glory. Everything he does is motivated by his desire to be glorified. Isaiah 48:11 is the banner over every divine act:

    For my own sake, for my own sake I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

Jeremiah 13:11 puts it like this:

    For as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory.

God's goal in all he does is to receive praise for the glory of his name.

And lest we think that this is only an Old Testament emphasis, look carefully at the morning text: Ephesians 1. What a grand book this is!â€"with sentences that reach not only to 11 verses in length but also to heaven in height. There is a phrase repeated three times in verses 6, 12, and 14 which makes it very clear what Paul thinks is the goal of God in saving us from sin and for himself. Notice verses 5 and 6:

    He predestined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace.

Then verse 12:

    We who first hoped in Christ have been predestined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.

Finally, verse 14:

    The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

From the past eternal decrees of God in predestination to the future eternal enjoyment of our inheritance in the age to come, God's goal and purpose has been that his glory be praised, especially the glory of his grace.

That God is praiseworthy, that we ought to praise him, that we will praise himâ€"these are common truths among Christians, and we affirm them gladly. But less often do we hear the truth that the praise of God's glory is not merely the result of his action but also the goal and purpose of that action. He governs the world precisely to the end that he might be admired, marveled at, exalted, and praised. Christ is coming, Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1:10, at the end of this age, "to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at by all who believe." But it has been my experience that people receive this truth with some uneasiness. It is all right for God to be praised, but it doesn't seem quite right for him to seek praise. Didn't Jesus say, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted"? Yet, God's clear purpose from Scripture is to exalt himself in the eyes of man.

My aim in this message is to show, as best I can, that God's aim and effort to glorify himself is wholly good and without fault of any kind and is very different from human self-exaltation because it is an expression of love. Then I hope we will affirm this truth gladly and join God in his great aim.
Two Ways to Stumble over God's God-Centeredness

There are two reasons, I think, why we may stumble over God's love for his own glory and his zeal to get men to praise him for it. One is that we don't like humans who act that way, and the other is that the Bible seems to teach that a person ought not to seek his own glory. So people take offense at God's self-exaltation both because of their own everyday experience, and also because of some Scripture.

We just don't like people who seem to be very enamored by their own skill or power or looks. We don't like scholars who try to show off their specialized knowledge or who recite for us all their recent publications and lectureships. We don't like businessmen who go on and on about how shrewdly they have invested their pile of money and how they stayed right on top of the market to get in low and out high every time. We don't like children to play one-upmanship hour after hour. And unless we are one of them we disapprove of women and men who dress, not functionally and simply and inoffensively, but instead aim to be in the latest style so they will be thought in or cool or punky or laid back or whatever the world this week says you're supposed to look like.

Why don't we like all that? I think it is because all those people are inauthentic. They are what Ayn Rand calls "second handers." They don't live from the joy that comes through achieving what they value for its own sake. Instead, they live second-hand from the praise and compliments of others. And we don't admire second-handers. We admire people who are composed and secure enough that they don't feel the need to shore up their weaknesses and compensate for their real deficiencies by trying to get as many compliments as possible.

It stands to reason therefore that any teaching which would seem to put God in the category of a second-hander would be suspect by Christians. And for many the teaching that God is seeking praise and wants to be admired and is doing things for his own name's sake does in fact seem to put God in such a category. But should it? One thing we may say for certain: God is not weak and God has no deficiencies: "All things are from him and through him and to him" (Romans 11:36). He always was, and whatever else is, owes its being to him and so can add nothing to him which is not already flowing from him. That is simply what it means to be the eternal God and not a creature. Therefore, God's zeal to seek his own glory and to be praised by men cannot be owing to his need to shore up some weakness or compensate for some deficiency. He may seem, at a superficial glance, to be in the category of second-handers, but he is not like them and the superficial similarity must be explained another way. There must be some other motive that prompts him to seek the praise of his glory.

There is another reason from experience why we don't like those who seek their own glory. The reason is not merely that they are inauthentic, trying to conceal weakness and deficiency, but also that they are unloving. They are so concerned for their own image and praise that they do not care much what happens to other people. This observation leads us to the biblical reason why it seems offensive for God to seek his own glory. 1 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Love seeks not its own." Now this, indeed, seems to create a crisis, for if, as I think the Scriptures plainly teach, God makes it his ultimate goal to be glorified and praised, how then can he be loving? For "love seeks not its own." For three weeks we have seen Scriptures that teach that God is for himself. "For my own sake, for my own sake I do it, my glory I will not give to another" (Isaiah 48:11). But if God is a God of love, he must be for us. Is, then, God for himself or is he for us?
The Infinite Love of God in Pursuing His Own Praise

The answer which I want to try to persuade you is true is this: because God is unique as the most glorious of all beings and totally self-sufficient, he must be for himself in order to be for us. If he were to abandon the goal of his own self-exaltation, we would be the losers. His aim to bring praise to himself and his aim to bring pleasure to his people are one aim and stand or fall together. I think we will see this if we ask the following question.

In view of God's infinitely admirable beauty and power and wisdom what would his love to a creature involve? Or to put it another way: What could God give us to enjoy that would show him most loving? There is only one possible answer, isn't there? HIMSELF! If God would give us the best, the most satisfying, that is, if he would love us perfectly, he must offer us no less than himself for our contemplation and fellowship.

This was precisely God's intention in sending his Son. Ephesians 2:18 says that Christ came that we might "have access in one Spirit to the Father." And 1 Peter 3:18 says, "Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God." God conceived the whole plan of redemption in love to bring men back to himself, for as the psalmist says, "In your presence there is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures for evermore" (16:11) . God is after us to give us what is bestâ€"not prestige, wealth, or even health in this life, but a full-blown vision of and fellowship with himself.

But now we are on the brink of what for me was a grand discovery and, I think also, the solution to our problem. To be supremely loving, God must give us what will be best for us and delight us most; he must give us himself. But what do we do when we are given or shown something excellent, something we enjoy? We praise it. We praise new little babies that manage not to be bent all out of shape in birth; "O, look at that nice, round head; and all that hair; and his hands, aren't they big!" We praise a lover's face after a long absence: "Your eyes are like the sky; your hair is like silk; O, you are beautiful to me." We praise a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth when we are down by three runs. We praise the trees along the St. Croix during an autumn boat trip.

But the great discovery I made, with the help of C.S. Lewis, was not only that we praise what we enjoy but that the praise is the climax of the joy itself. It is not tacked on later; it is part of the pleasure. Listen to the way Lewis describes this insight from his book on Psalms:

    But the most obvious fact about praiseâ€"whether of God or anything â€"strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praiseâ€"lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite gameâ€"praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians and scholars. My whole, more general difficulty, about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value.

    I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are, the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. (Reflections on the Psalms, pp. 93â€"95)

There's the key: we praise what we enjoy because the delight is incomplete until it is expressed in praise. If we were not allowed to speak of what we value and celebrate what we love and praise what we admire, our joy would not be full. Therefore, if God is truly for us, if he would give us the best and make our joy full, he must make it his aim to win our praise for himself. Not because he needs to shore up some weakness in himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because he loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can only be found in knowing and praising him, the most beautiful of all beings.

God is the one Being in all the universe for whom seeking his own praise is the ultimately loving act. For him self-exaltation is the highest virtue. When he does all things "for the praise of his glory" as Ephesians 1 says, he preserves for us and offers to us the only thing in all the world which can satisfy our longings. God is for us, and therefore has been, is now, and always will be, for himself. Praise the Lord! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

Text: Psalm 32

The psalm we want to ponder tonight is Psalm 32, and what we want to find out from it is "How Not to Be a Mule."

    How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
    Whose sin is covered!
    How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not
    impute iniquity,
    And in whose spirit there is no deceit!

    When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
    Through my groaning all day long.
    For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me;
    My vitality was drained away as with the fever-heat of summer.
    I acknowledged my sin to Thee,
    And my iniquity I did not hide;
    I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord';
    And Thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin.

    Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to Thee
    in a time when Thou mayest be found;
    Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not reach him.
    Thou art my hiding place; Thou dost preserve me
    from trouble;
    Thou dost surround me with songs of deliverance.

    I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
    I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
    Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
    Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check.
    Otherwise they will not come near to you.
    Many are the sorrows of the wicked;
    But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.
    Be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous ones,
    And shout for joy all you who are upright in heart.

Don't Be a Mule, Go to God in Prayer

Last week we only looked at two verses of Psalm 127. This week I want to look at all of Psalm 32 to see if we can understand the psalm as a whole. Let's move through it together in a summary fashion and then we will conclude by looking at verses 1â€"5 in more detail.

Verses 1â€"5 are clearly one unit which deals with confession and forgiveness. The main point is in verses 1 and 2, namely, to be forgiven is a very happy condition. Verses 3â€"5 tell us how to attain that happy state: first, negatively, don't try to conceal your sin from God (verses 3 and 4), then, positively, acknowledge your sin and confess it to God (verse 5). So the point of verses 1â€"5 is: the person who does not conceal his sins but confesses them to God will find the tremendous happiness of a clean conscience and peace with God.

Then the first half of verse 6 draws an inference from verses 1â€"5: since this is the case, therefore, "Let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found." If such great blessedness follows the prayer of confession, then, for goodness sake, let's all pray!

Then in the second half of verse 6 and all of verse 7 there seems to be a shift of concern away from confession and forgiveness to the protection of God in the troubles of life.

Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not reach him (i.e., the godly). You are my hiding place; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with songs of deliverance.

But in fact the shift in David's mind is probably not as great as it looks at first. Probably he intends for us to understand that the blessedness of the forgiven man in verses 1 and 2 consists not only in his peace of conscience but also in the protection that God now gives him in the midst of troubles. Or, to put it another way, the man who prays and confesses his sin to God is blessed not only because of what God does not doâ€"namely, impute iniquity to himâ€"but he is also blessed by what God does doâ€"namely, preserve him from trouble and surround him with songs of deliverance. God is not only not against him, he is mightily for him. So the second half of verse 6 and verse 7 function as an added incentive for the godly to pray and confess their sins to God, because the forgiveness of sins is the basis and prerequisite of all God's subsequent blessings.

In verse 8, God takes the pen in his own hand, as it were, and promises not only protection but instruction and counsel for how we should live from day to day: "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you." The blessing of protection in verse 7 is great indeed, but it would be incomplete if it were not accompanied by the blessing of direction. What good would it be if he guarded us from destruction but did not tell us which way to go? Protection with direction, care with counsel, that is the happy condition of the person who prays to God and receives forgiveness for his sins.

So the main point so far in verses 1â€"8 is that all the godly should pray to God in a time when he may be found. And as incentives David gives the promises of forgiveness (vv. 1â€"5), protection (vv. 6â€"7), and direction (v. .

Up until now, verse 6 has been the only imperative, namely, the positive command to pray. Now in verse 9 comes the second imperative which I think is the negative counterpart to verse 6. That is, verse 9 and the first half of verse 6 are really commanding the same thing but using different words; one saying it positively (what we should do), and the other saying it negatively (what we should not do). "Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check; otherwise they will not come near you." Don't be that way; instead come to God freely in prayer.
God's Farmyard

Maybe we should try to picture God's people as a farmyard of all sorts of animals. God cares for his animals, he shows them where they need to go, and supplies a barn for their protection. But there is one beast on this animal farm that gives God an awful time, namely, the mule. He's stupid and he's stubborn and you can't tell which comes firstâ€"stubbornness or stupidity.

Now the way God likes to get his animals into the barn for their food and shelter is by teaching them all a personal name and then calling them by name. "I will instruct you and teach you the way that you should go." But the mule will not respond to that sort of direction. He is without understanding. So God gets in his pick-up truck and goes out in the field, puts the bit and bridle in the mule's mouth, hitches it to the truck, and drags him stiff-legged and snorting all the way into the barn.

That is not the way God wants his animals to come to him for blessing. One of these days it is going to be too late for that mule. He's going to get clobbered with hail and struck by lightening and when he comes running the barn door is going to be shut. Therefore, don't be like the mule, but instead let everyone who is godly come to God in prayer at a time when he may be found.

The way not to be a mule is to humble ourselves, to come to God in prayer, to confess our sins, and to accept, as needy little farmyard chicks, the direction of God into the barn of his protection.

The main reason I think David intends for us to understand verse 6 as the alternative to mule-like behavior is because I think verses 3 and 4 are a picture of David the mule before he learned to pray. "When I kept silent (about my sin) my body wasted away through my groaning all day long." There he is out in the middle of the field, stubborn as a mule, refusing to acknowledge his need. Stiff-legged, heels dug in: "I am not about to go in that place with all those little critters, especially those helpless little chicks skittering about between my legs and singing songs of deliverance as if it were some great victory to take refuge in somebody else's barn. No sir, I am not going to bend my knee, as if I had done some great wrong. I can handle the consequences of my own behavior. And I don't need that barn, either." That's mule David talking.

So here comes the pick-up truck with bit and bridle in verse 4. "Day and night thy hand was heavy on me. My moisture was turned into the drought of summer." When David acted like a mule God put the bridle of suffering on him and dragged him to the barn. A guilty conscience and all the agonies that go with it is a merciful gift to the unrepentant.
The Upward Spiral of Joy

The main point, therefore, of verses 1â€"9 is "Let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found," because the contrite, un-mule-like heart which comes to God in prayer is forgiven (v. 5), protected (v. 7), and counseled how to live (v. . And that is the whole argument of the psalm except for verses 10 and 11. Verse 10 is essentially a repetition of verse 7â€"a promise that God's love will surround with love the person who trusts him.

And verse 11 is a final command to "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones, and shout for joy all you upright in heart." I think this command relates to the main point in verse 6 as both cause and effect. When it is the Lord who makes us glad, we will find ourselves coming to him often in prayer rather than seeking our kicks somewhere else. So being glad in the Lord is a cause of our praying to him. But also when we pray to him and discover in his fellowship the sweetness of forgiveness and protection and counsel, then the delight we have in him only increases. So being glad in the Lord is an effect of our praying to him.

The image I get is of a spiral. We pray and praying discover the delights of God's benefits. Then because of this discovery we are moved to pray more. And praying more we experience more of God. And so our experience spirals further up and further in to an ever more intimate relationship with God and an ever deeper enjoyment of his forgiveness, protection, and counsel for life. Therefore, let everyone of you pray to God while he may be found, because the contrite, un-mule-like heart which prays is forgiven, protected, counseled, and made ever more glad in an intimate fellowship with the Lord.
Focus on Forgiveness

That is the argument of Psalm 32 in summary. But now to be fair to David's concern we should probably spend the last few minutes focusing on the issue he devoted most space to, namely, confession and forgiveness in verses 1â€"5, about half the psalm. As I meditated on these verses I tried to answer three questions: What is the prerequisite of forgiveness? Why is this necessary? What is so blessed about having our transgression forgiven? I'll tell you briefly what I came up with and then draw it all together.

First, the prerequisite of receiving forgiveness is confession or acknowledgment of our sin to the Lord from a spirit free of deceit (vv. 5 and 2). When you put these two things together, acknowledgment of our sin and not deceiving God, a very precise meaning for confession emerges. Confession to God is not merely admitting our sin as real but also rejecting our sin as repulsive. There is deceit in the spirit of the person who admits with his mind that he sins but feels no revulsion in his heart at those sins: his bad temper and irritability, his hypercritical attitude, his gossiping, his lukewarm love for Christ, his failure to discipline his children, his dishonesty on tax forms and financial reports, etc. This is deceit because sin is repulsive and horrid in God's eyes and ought to be hated and shunned. So to come to God admitting sin and feeling no grief or repugnance is to come with deceit, for what you are acknowledging is not really acknowledged as sin. The prerequisite therefore of divine forgiveness is admitting our sin as real and rejecting our sin as repulsive.

My second question was, Why is this necessary? Why doesn't God, in his great grace, just forgive all sin in everybody, no strings attached? Why does there have to be in every individual's case the prerequisite of confession? Every sin we commit is an insult to God, a slap in his face, whether we see it that way or not. This has to be seen if we are to understand the dynamics of confession and forgiveness. When two people offer you contrary advice for how to live and stake their character on the wisdom of their counsel and you choose to follow one and not the other, you defame the other's character. It is inevitable. And that is what we do to God every time we sin instead of following in his way.

Now the aim of all forgiveness is to restore a damaged relationship. God's aim is to bring his people into perfect harmony and union and fellowship with himself for his glory and their joy forever. To that end, he is willing to forgive the insults that threaten to ruin that fellowship through sin. But can there be fellowship when one of the parties in a relationship is perpetually devoted to offending and insulting the other? Conceivably, God could disregard such continued insults for an eternity. But what for? That wouldn't bring about union with his people, and so neither his glory nor their happiness would be achieved. Only the perpetuation of sin and defamation of God's character.

The only way for God to reach the goal of glorifying his name and making his people happy is not just to overlook sins but to change sinners. That is what God was doing with David, and that's what he is doing through Christ with us who believe. And this is why there is a prerequisite for forgiveness. God demands that we turn from sin with repugnance because he is in the business of not just covering our sins but also of shaping our characters. The person whose sins will be forgiven is the person who hates his own sinning and is on the way to Christ-likeness. If this were not God's way there would be no heaven of holiness to hope for, no company of just men made perfect, and no divine glory unsullied by the insults of unpunished creatures.

My final question was, What is so blessed about having our transgressions forgiven? O, that we might cherish our forgiveness more! But I am convinced that until we fear sin and its consequences more keenly, we will not prize our pardon very highly. The degree to which we feel sweet gratitude for being forgiven is directly proportionate to the degree that the alternative of being forgiven strikes dread into our heart. The horror of sin and the fearfulness of hell are the only backdrop that will let forgiveness shine for the infinite blessing it really is. If we do not see the gigantic tidal wave of God's wrath rushing toward the little raft of our sin, then we won't kiss the feet of the helicopter pilot who plucks us out of the ocean just in time. That is why I aim to preach on the essence of sin in a couple of weeksâ€"because I want us to cherish our forgiveness and kiss the feet of Jesus unashamedly.

But until that time, ponder the value of your eternal pardon. Compare the affections you feel for things and people in this world with the affection you feel for Jesus and for being forgiven through his death. And if you find that your heart leaps up more vigorously for anything else than it does for the forgiveness of God, repent.

Don't be like the mule but run headlong to God in prayer while he may be found. For the contrite heart which prays will be forgiven and protected and taught the way to God and will be glad in the Lord forever. Amen.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

In the year AD 42, Herod, king in Judea, killed the apostle James with a sword. When he saw it pleased the Jews, he threw Peter, another apostle, in prison. The night before Herod was about to dispose of him an angel of the Lord woke Peter and led him out of the prison unharmed. After going to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where the disciples were praying for him, Peter left town.

The next morning Herod was enraged that Peter was gone and had the guards put to death. Then he left Judea and went down to the coastal town of Caesarea where a very strange and terrible and instructive thing happened. Herod had a grudge against the people of Tyre and Sidonâ€"we don't know why. But at the same time he had them over a barrel because they were dependent on him for food. So holding the purse strings like he did, Herod enjoyed making himself scarce and watching the people be pinched. It gave him a great sense of power to have others so dependent on him.
So the people of Tyre and Sidon tried to get an audience with King Herod by going through his personal chamberlain named Blastus. This attempt succeeded and a day was appointed for King Herod to make an appearance and an oration. The rest of the story is very brief. It is recorded in Acts 12:21â€"23: "On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne and made an oration to them. And the people shouted: The voice of God and not of man! Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory and he was eaten by worms and died."

Not everyone who tries to deceive God like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 drops dead on the spot. Not everyone who fails to give God glory like Herod is eaten by worms. But God has brought such judgments upon some in this life to warn us all that in the age to come there is a judgment which will be infinitely more severe upon those who have not lived for God's glory.
The Goal of God's Glory

Last Sunday we saw from Isaiah 43:7 that God's great goal in creating and governing the world was to be glorified. That is, he created us for his glory. Not to increase the beauty of his perfections or fill up some emptiness in God, but rather to display his glory in the way we live and to win praise for himself. Isaiah 48:9â€"11 drove the shaft of God's glory deep into our minds:
"For my own sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you that I may not cut you off. Behold I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another." To maintain the honor of his name and display his gloryâ€"these are the driving motives in all that God does in history, in the church, and in individual lives.

At the end of last week's message two crucial questions remained:

1) How do we bring our lives into alignment with this goal of God to glorify himself?â€"a tremendously crucial question in view of what God did to Herod when he failed to give God glory but took it for himself.

2) The second question was: Why is it loving and not selfish for God to seek his own glory in all he does, especially since we are commanded not to seek our own glory among men?

Since we don't want to treat the Lord's table in a hurried or pressured way, I have decided to answer only the first question today and the second one next Sunday.

The three small texts that were read earlier from Matthew (5:14â€"16), 1 Peter (4:10, 11), and Romans (4:20) contain the answer to how we must live so as to be at one with God's purpose and not at cross purposes with him.
How We Bring Glory to Our Heavenly Father
Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."

Three observations go a long way to answering our question. First, Jesus clearly commands that the goal of our lives should be to behave so that God gets the glory. Live so that men will see your life and give your Father in heaven glory, not you. So it should be very clear that glorifying God is not merely an act of worship on Sunday. It is a peculiar kind of living.
Second, in order for God to get glory from the way we live, we must be engaged in good deeds. It is not so much by avoiding gross sins that God's people display his glory, but rather in the pursuit of good deeds, acts of generosity, works of kindness, ways of love. Since it is God's goal to be glorified in his people, and since Jesus says this happens when his people do good deeds, we would expect the Bible to tell us that God's goal in redeeming a people is that they might do good deeds. And this is exactly what we find. Paul says in Titus 2:14 that Christ "gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds." Christ died that we might do good deeds and so bring glory to our Father in heaven.

God created us for his glory, says the prophet. We bring him glory through our good deeds, says the Lord Jesus. So we are not surprised when we hear the apostle say, God created us for good deeds. Ephesians 2:10: "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good deeds, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Created for his glory, and created for good deeds, because it is by our good deeds that God gets glory.

One final observation from Matthew 5. It is possible to be a kind of do-gooder that brings no glory to God. There are philanthropists and benefactors and others who for one reason or another spend time and money to alleviate suffering, but who may not even believe in God let alone do it all for his glory. So when Jesus says, Let your light shine that men may see your good deeds and glorify God, the light must include more than the mere action of the good deed. "You are the light of the world!" (5:14). Not just your bodily motions but your attitude and your motivation also. There is a spirit from which the good deeds must flow if they are to bring God glory and so be pleasing to him. That is why I entitled the sermon for this morning, "How to Do Good So God Gets the Glory."
Serving in the Strength That God Supplies

To answer that question, we turn to 1 Peter 4:10, 11. Probably no other New Testament book besides James reflects an acquaintance with the teachings of Jesus as clearly as 1 Peter. In 2:12, Peter gives a loose quotation of Matthew 5:16, "Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles so that in case they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." But in chapter 4, verses 10 and 11, Peter shows more explicitly what it is about the good deeds of Christians that makes them a means to God's glory.
He says:

    As each has received a gift, employ it for one another as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks (let him speak) as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service (let him render it) as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies, in order that in everything God might be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Here we have one of the clearest answers in the Bible to the question: How do we serve or do good so that God gets the glory? The answer is, in order for God to get the glory we have to do good as one does it who is depending on God's strength. Not mere good deeds, but good deeds done in a spirit that comes from a joyful dependence on God's helpâ€"this is what glorifies God.

Picture two people this afternoon pondering whether to come help clean the church tomorrow night. One is young and healthy and says, "O, I suppose I'll go. Be worth a few brownie points with the leaders. Maybe they'll have some snacks. Besides, I'm pretty good at that sort of thing, maybe I can give the rest a few pointers." So he comes and he grumbles about the tools, he criticizes the way things are planned, he talks on and on about his abilities and his experience, and in general exudes a spirit of vanity. But he works. He may even get more done than some others. Some employers may want such a man if they judge him solely by his efficiency or productivity. But God looks on the heart and takes the whole man into account. And his assessment is: I have received no glory from this supposedly good deed of service, for it was not done in reliance on my power. There was not about it the spirit of joy and gratitude and humility that comes from being borne along on the wings of mercy.
But there is another person this afternoon who is planning his Monday night. He is older and has been quite ill latelyâ€"a good deal of pain and stiffness in the knees. There was a time when he worked hard in the church and loved every minute of it and never made a big to-do about inconvenience or sacrifice. "O," he thought to himself, "how I would love to help out on Monday night. I could encourage some of the downhearted maybe. Or maybe just keep the coffee poured." So he prayed. And lo and behold, Monday morning there was no pain and no stiffness. So he came. With bells on. He did what he could with a rag and broom and he did it well. But above all he exuded a joy and a sense of gratitude for life and strength that cheered everyone and pointed them to God. He knew that what strength he had was a precious gift of God, and his whole bearing and demeanor gave God the credit. That's what it means to let your light shine.

But now here's the hooker. Everyone of us owes every ounce of strength we have to God, just as much as that sick man did. We owe every fiber of intelligence to God, and the slightest resolve to do good is a gift from him. Apart from him we are all cripples. And worse than cripples. We would fly into nothingness without his sustenance, and we would degenerate into devils without his grace. If the totality of our dependence on God would hit us full force, O, how differently we would live and do good. We would "serve as one who renders service by the strength which God supplies." We would not boast in our achievements, nor criticize the speck in our brother's eye, nor grumble about inconveniences, nor be presumptuous in any way, as if even existence itself could be taken for granted! No, a person who truly owns up to the fact that he exists by the word of God, that all his strength and moral resolve is a gift of God, that person will have a spirit of joy and gratitude and lowliness. And in serving this way God gets the glory.
O, how I want to make sure that the image in your mind of how to glorify God is not wrong. For many it's like waking up in the morning, looking up to God and saying, "You are worthy to be glorified today, Lord, and I will do my best." Then they look over and on their Bible is a big block of lead with shoulder straps. And on the block is inscribed: "The duty to glorify God all day." They strap it on, muster their strength and resolve, and head off to glorify God.

If that image, or one like it, is the way you feel about glorifying God, please look and see that 1 Peter 4:11 shatters such an image. May I suggest a more biblical image? There is a man, and I know him well (he is the husband of my wife and father to my sons), who wakes up in the morning and looks up into heaven and says, "You are worthy to be glorified today, Lord, but there is in meâ€"that is in my fleshâ€"no good thing. I have no strength, no wisdom, no resolve to do good but what comes undeserved from you, O God. And I love you. It would be to my greatest fulfillment, my highest pleasure, my richest treasure, my popcorn and my chocolate ice cream if at the end of this day I could believe that someone has come to cherish your power and wisdom and love more intensely because of me. God, let it be."
And then he looks over and on his Bible there is this strange contraption of straps like a harness. And on the back of this harness there is a rope attached that runs up through the roof and into heaven. And he gets up, straps on the harness, gives a little jerk, leans into it, and God supports him all day. On the broad, brown leather strap across the front you can see the lettering: "My harness is easy and my burden is light."

God gets glory not from our heroic exertion but from our reliance upon his strengthâ€"when we serve as one who serves with the strength which God supplies.

    God's will himself to glorify
    Is not a weight
    to make us sigh
    For it is wings
    to make us fly.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

Read: Psalm 127

Wherever there are people whose hearts are not fretful or anxious or in a resentful frenzy, but instead have a tranquility of heart and a kind of peaceful abandon in which they take thought for other's concerns instead of being all wound up in their ownâ€"wherever there are people like that, the world sits up and takes notice. And rightly so because in all likelihood something out of this world is at work there, something that people everywhere are hungry forâ€"even if they are not sure what it is. The world is full of anxious people: students anxious about whether people will laugh at their new shoes, about getting good grades, about giving a book report in front of the class; adults anxious about impressing the boss, losing a client, finishing a report on time, getting out of a foolish investment, a strange pain in the chest. From time to time there settles over everyone that dark, grey, heavy blanket of depressing anxiety that in the moment makes everything look dark and seems impossible to throw off. The experience is so common, that those who live in peace and freedom and joy shine like stars in the darkness. Those who have found the way to obey Jesus' command, "Be anxious for nothing" . . . these are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. They bring savor and sunshine to places where the creeping grey fog of anxiety has made everything tasteless and dark.
Don't Be Anxious

In the past year, one text above all has blown away more of that fog for me than any other, and I've used it repeatedly. I can remember time after time going out of my office door on the way to teach my classes on 1 Peter and Romans 9-11 with a stack of books and notes under my arm and saying: "Father, unless you teach the class, all my preparation is in vain." And I would comfort my heart with the good news that ultimately it was God who would bring fruit from my efforts or not.

The text is Psalm 127:1â€"2. "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved in his sleep." I think the main point of these three verses is: "Don't eat the bread of anxious toil." It means just the same thing Jesus meant when he said, "Don't be anxious about what you shall eat." When we grow up we must all work for our bread. And we can either work nervously, worrying about what men will think of usâ€"and so eat the bread of anxious toil. Or we can work with serenity in our hearts, as serving Christ and not menâ€"and so eat the bread of peace. God's will for his children, indeed the sign of whether we are children or not, is that we not eat the bread of anxious toil.

God does not lay down specific rules for how early we rise for work and how late we knock off at night. But he does lay down this principle for his beloved: Don't rise early and go late to rest out of anxiety, out of fear and fretfulness. If the joy of fruitful labor lures you to work 12 hours a day, so be it. But take heed lest you are really deceiving yourself, and in fact are being driven by anxiety, or by her twin sister, selfish-ambition. Christians will work hard, but they will work more for the joy of all the good their work can bring to others than they will out of fear at what men will think if they fail. So,

    Be diligent as God may lead
    And eat the bread you earn,
    But fret not over what you need
    And let not worry burn.

Four Ways to Labor in Vain

That is the main point, I think: God's beloved ought not to undertake his labors fretfully. Then besides the main point I see two reasons given why it is pointless and unnecessary and indeed wrong for God's beloved to eat the bread of anxious toil. The first reason is given in verse 1: "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." What would it mean to build in vain and to watch a city in vain? How might the efforts of a man to build himself a house be shown to be futile and empty and vain? I can think of four ways:

1) If God Isn't with You

First, if God isn't with him in the building he simply may not be able to finish it. You remember of course the builders of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. They built, but God was not in it, and so they labored in vainâ€"he did not allow them to finish it. That is the first way our labor could be shown up as vain when God is not in it.

2) If the Building Collapses in a Year

The second way is that the building may in God's providence be completed and yet later collapse because of a poor foundation. "The foolish man built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell and great was the fall of it." God might sustain us and allow us to go right on building utterly oblivious to his secret support; and then when our buttons are bursting and our nose is in the air, the sand crumbles and we fall flat on our backs, and hopefully learn before it is too late that unless we rely on the Lord in our building, we labor in vain.

3) If You Die Before Entering

But there is a third way that my labor may be in vain. The project is completed with no interruptions, the achievement is sound and long lasting. But on the very day for entering, I drop dead of a heart attack. Solomon was painfully aware of what he wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:20f.:

    So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

Life and death are in the hand of the Lord and none of us can lengthen our lives one cubit beyond our appointed time.

But someone may argue, the psalm says that our labor is in vain only if the Lord isn't in our labor, but people die even when the Lord is in their labor. Can it be that they too have labored in vain, even though they relied on God for help in their building? My answer is, No indeed, for death is not the end for God's beloved. When they die, to be sure, they do not take their house or business or family with them, but all their labor done in reliance on the Lord does go with them and testifies to their faith before God. As Revelation 14:13 says, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth. Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them." And as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

Yet for those who labor in this life without relying on the Lord a third way that this is shown to be vain is that when the achievement is complete and ready for their use, they may die and get no pleasure from it.

4) If It Becomes a House of Tragedy

The fourth way that our labor may be in vain if God is not in it is this: the mansion may be completed smoothly; it may be fine and long lasting and we in God's providence may be granted to enter and live in it only to find it has become a house of tragedyâ€"a broken marriage, rebellious children, amid an abundance of meaningless knick-knacks on marble shelves. Emptiness, futility, vanity because God did not build the house.

It seems to me that the point of verse 1 is that no matter how hard you work to achieve anything, its achievement and the fulfilling enjoyment of it depend decisively on God. If we do not trust in God with all our heart but instead rely on our own insight, then we might, if he wills, produce a monument, but in the end it will only be a monument to futility.

I said that verse 1 was the first of two reasons why God's beloved should not be anxious in his labor. How does it, then, help us overcome anxiety? It worked like this for me. As I walked out of my office on the way to class, I reasoned that if my highest efforts are only in vain without God's special help, then the success or failure of this class lies ultimately on him, not me. And with that a weight was lifted off my back that I was never created to carry, namely, the final responsibility for the success or failure of any venture. Sometimes the truth of that would well up in me so much I felt as light as a butterfly. I can't carry the weight of whether this class likes me today, Lord. I can't carry the weight of whether they may ask me questions beyond my ability, Lord. I can't carry the weight of opening their hearts to believe the doctrine of your sovereignty, Lord. These weights are too heavy! They are yours! And I have found that God is not only willing but eager to take the burden of final responsibility for whether the house gets built and the city is saved. And for me that is a great reason not to be anxious in my labor.
God Gives to His Beloved in His Sleep

The second reason is given in verse 2: Don't eat the bread of anxious toil because "God gives to his beloved in his sleep." Some translations say, "He gives his beloved sleep." Either is a possible translation from the Hebrew. One implies that God helps a person rest at night, the other implies that while a person is resting God is busily at work in the world to bless him. Which fits the context better?

The first half of verse 2 says that it is vain to rise early and go late to rest, but how would the simple statement that God gives sleep discourage a person from rising early and going to bed late? He is not interested in his sleep; he's worried and wants to be about his work. But if Solomon meant, as I think he did, "God gives to his beloved in his sleep," then there is a tremendously strong incentive to stop being anxious and cutting our sleep short. The incentive is this: God can perform more good for those who trust him while they sleep than they can perform with anxious labor for themselves while awake. Can you think of a better reason not to rise early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil?

Have you ever wondered why God made us in such a way that we have to sleep away a third of our lives? God could have designed a human being that was always fresh and rested and needed no sleep. Why did he decree that sleep be part of human experience? I'll give you my opinion. He wanted to give a universal reminder to the human race that we are but children and ought to own up to it. We are so frail that we have to become helpless and unconscious and blind and weak every day in order to live at all. Sleep is a terribly humbling experience. We are never more weak, never more childlike than when we sleep in faith. And has not God said, "My power is made perfect in weakness"! And, "Unless you turn and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of God."

If God's power is made perfect in our weakness, then surely we may believe this psalm that when we hand over our anxieties to God and lay our heads down in peace, God works with all his might through the night on our behalf.

The great test of faith is to believe that when we can see only a bleak outcome to some situation and no good coming of it, yet the sovereign God can and will bring out of nowhere, as it were, a turn of events or attitudes that brings great blessing. And he can do it while we sleep! Beware lest you try to interpret his work too hastily; it may not be what you expect and he may not be finished. William Cowper wrote a great hymn that has helped me a lot at this point.

    Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
    But trust him for his grace,
    Behind a frowning providence
    He hides a smiling face.

    His purposes will ripen fast
    Unfolding every hour.
    The bud may have a bitter taste
    But sweet will be the flower.

    Blind unbelief is sure to err
    And scan his works in vain.
    God is his own interpreter
    And he will make it plain.

I close with a personal experience. I remember a time a few years ago when I went through some weeks of not being able to get to sleep. Even my reasonings about why it was futile to be anxious kept me awake. The solution finally came in the form of a scene that I brought before my eyes each night.

I was on a boat in a rough sea and the crew was working with frenzy to keep the bow into the wind and secure all the cargo. As I climbed down into the small hold of the ship there was Jesus asleep on the cot. There was no tension in his face and his head rocked back and forth with the waves. I walked over and shook his shoulder, "Jesus, I can't sleep; please help me." He got up slowly, moved to the end of the cot, and sat down. He motioned me to lie down and put my head in his lap. Then with his hand on my shoulder he said, "I'll take care of you tonight, and don't worry. I'll be sure you are ready for class tomorrow."

I can't tell you how many nights I went to sleep in that position. But there were a lot. And I still go there when sleep won't come. For he gives to his beloved in sleep.

So don't eat the bread of anxious toil, because no matter how hard you work to achieve anything, God has lifted off your back the final responsibility for its success, and God can accomplish more good for those who trust him while they sleep than they can accomplish with anxious labor while awake.

Supplemental texts:

1 Cor 3:7; 15:10; Phil 2:13; 1 Pet 5:7; 4:19

Who is the "beloved"? Cf. Ps 146:8 (Ps 32:8, 11); Jn 16:27

1 Kings 3:3â€"15â€"Solomon's reception of promise in his sleep
Is 43:13â€"I work and who can hinder it
Ps 60:11; 108:12â€"vain is the help of man
Jer 46:11â€"in vain you used mediums

Ang mga tinaguan nga balak miguwa na jud...

Kuyawa nimo, Ate Bambi...

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

Read: Isaiah 43:1-7

If there is a God, as I believe there is, and if he rules the world in his sovereignty, as the Bible says he does, and if he will bring human history to a close according to his plan and appoint to every person his eternal destiny, as Jesus taught that he will, then two of the most important questions for any human being to answer are these:

      1) What is God's goal in creating and governing the world?
      2) How can I bring my life into alignment with that goal?

For if we don't know his goal and our lives are not in alignment with it, then we will find ourselves at cross purposes with God and excluded from his kingdom in the age to come. It is a fearful thing to be at cross purposes with your maker! But on the other hand, nothing inspires courage and endurance and pluck for daily living like knowing the purpose of God and feeling yourself wholeheartedly in harmony with it. Nothing has nourished the strength of my Christian faith like knowing God's ultimate goal for creation and discovering how to bring my heart and my behavior into alignment with that goal.
God's Goal in Creating Israel

So this Sunday and next Sunday I want to talk about these two questions. First, What is God's goal in creating and governing the world, especially in creating and overruling humanity? Then next Sunday, How do we bring our lives into harmony with that goal?

The text I have chosen to focus on is Isaiah 43:1â€"7. Let's read it in context:

    But now, thus says the Lord, your creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed even whom I have made." (NASB)

The main point of the passage is to encourage God's people not to fear what man or nature can do to them. This is the command repeated in verse 1 and verse 5. After each of these commands not to fear God gives his reasons why his people should not fear. In verses 1â€"4 God argues like this: You should not fear because what I did for you in the past proves my love to you and my care for you. "I redeemed you (from Egyptian bondage), I called you by name, you are mine!" (v. 1). So you can count on me to help you when deep waters and raging fire threaten to destroy you (v. 2). "I am the Lord your God, your Savior, you are precious to me." Look, have I not subjugated other peoples in order to save you (vv. 3, 4)? So don't be afraid of the trouble coming upon you. That is the first argument why God's people should not fear.

Then verse 5 repeats the command, "Don't fear," and gives a new argument in verses 5â€"7. "I am with you! The judgment of being dispersed into captivity away from your landâ€"this is not my final word. I will gather you again. For you are called by my name, I created you for my glory."

What is it that at rock bottom moves God to help his people? Verse 4 says, "You are precious in my eyes . . . I love you." Is that the answer? In a sense, yes. When John said, "God is love," he no doubt meant that no matter how deep we probe into the motives of God, we will never arrive at a layer which is not love.

But this text lures me down, down, down into the heart of God. It raises a question. In order for Israel (God's chosen people of that era) to be precious in God's sight, they had to exist. I have three sons and they are precious to me and I love them. But they were not precious to me and I did not love them in 1970; they did not yet exist, they had not been planned nor conceived. So the deeper question is, Why was Israel even conceived or created? Why did God bring into existence a people whom he could regard as precious? What was his motive before there was even a people to love?

Verse 7 gives the answer: God created Israel for his glory. The existence of Israel was planned and conceived and achieved because God wanted to get glory for his name through her. Before we ask just what it is for God to seek his own glory in this way, let's see if this goal of God has motivated more than just the election of the nation Israel.
God's Goal from the Beginning

In one sense we can speak of the exodus out of Egypt as the birth of Israel as a nation. At this point God gave her the law to regulate her life as a nation, and this law and covenant have been the backbone of the nation ever since. But if the exodus was the birth of Israel, then the election and call of Abraham back in Genesis 12 must have been the conception of the nation of Israel, and the period of the patriarchs and slavery in Egypt would then have been the gestation period. So when it says God created Israel for his glory, I take it to mean that the purpose of God to be glorified in Israel was the purpose which motivated God at every step: conception, gestation, and birth.

If this is true then we are put onto an interesting link between the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and the call of Abram in Genesis 12, which will, I think, show us that God's goal of glorifying himself did not originate at the creation of Israel but that this is what he was up to from the beginning.

Look at Genesis 11. The key phrase to show what caused God to become angry with these tower builders and disperse them comes in verse 4. "They said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.'" Ever since Adam and Eve had chosen to eat of the forbidden tree in order to be like God, independent of him and wise in their own right, the human race has been enslaved to a rebellious heart that hates to rely on God but loves to make a name for itself. The tower of Babel was a manifestation of that rebellion. They wanted to make a name for themselves and reach even to heaven, but God frustrated their designs.

But instead of abandoning the human race God starts a new thing in chapter 12 of Genesis. He chooses one man, Abram, and makes him a promise in Genesis 12:1â€"3. Listen to what God says and contrast it with what the tower builders said:

Now the Lord said to Abram: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great."
The people working on the tower of Babel said, "Let us make a name for ourselves!". God chooses the father of the Jewish nation and says, "I will make your name great."

Now, what does this show about the goal of God in the world? I think Moses is telling us, as he writes this primal history, that when ancient man refused to align himself with the goal of God, God set about a very different way of achieving that same goal. Man was made to rely on God and give him glory. Instead man chose to rely on himself and seek his own gloryâ€"to make a name for himself. So God elected one small person and promised to achieve his purpose through that man and his descendants. He would make Abram's name great, so that he, and not man, would get the glory.

In other words, the goal of God in creating Israel, namely, for his glory, is not a goal that took effect only at that point in history. It is the goal that guided his creation and governance of man from the start. Man was created from the beginning in God's image that he might image forth God's glory. He was to multiply and fill the earth so that the knowledge of the glory of God would cover the sea. And ever since the fall of man into sin, people have refused to align themselves with this divine goal. But all God's acts have been aimed at seeing it through.

So it is not just Israel but we whom God created for his glory. This is why the New Testament again and again calls us to do all to the glory of God. "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). "Let your light so shine among men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven" (Mt. 5:16). This is not an admonition to do God a favor. It is a command to align our lives with his eternal goal. He created us for his glory. God's great aim in creating and governing the world is that he be glorified. "I created you for my glory. I formed you, I made you."
What It Means to Be Created for God's Glory

Now, what then does it mean to say that God created us for his glory? Glory is a very hard thing to define. It is like the word "Beauty." We all can use it and communicate with it but to try to reduce it to words is very frustrating. It is easier to point to examples. A sunset seen from the top of the I.D.S.â€"that's glory. Or the I.D.S. itself almost invisible, like crystal against a grey-blue skyâ€"that's glory. A perfect performance on the balance beam by Nadia Comaneciâ€"that's glory. A perfectly executed 30-foot jump shot with one second to goâ€"that's glory, too.

The glory of God is the beauty and excellence of his manifold perfections. It is an attempt to put into words what God is like in his magnificence and purity. It refers to his infinite and overflowing fullness of all that is good. The term might focus on his different attributes from time to timeâ€"like his power and wisdom and mercy and justiceâ€"because each one is indeed awesome and beautiful in its magnitude and quality. But in general God's glory is the perfect harmony of all his attributes into one infinitely beautiful and personal being.

Now when God says that he created us for his glory, it cannot mean that he created us so that he would become more glorious, that his beauty and perfection would be somehow increased by us. It is unthinkable that God should become more perfectly God by making something that is not God. It is a staggering but necessary thought that God has always existed, that he never came into being, and that everything which exists which is not God is from his fullness and can never add anything to him which did not come from him. That is what it means to be God; and it should humble us, O, how it should humble us, when we ponder his reality!

But this means that when God says he made us for his glory, he does not mean he made us so that he could become more glorious in himself. Instead what Isaiah 43:7 means is that he created us to display his glory, that is, that his glory might be known and praised. This is the goal of God with which we must be aligned in our hearts and actions if we hope to escape his wrath at the judgment.

This becomes clearer as we page through Isaiah. Isaiah 43:20â€"21 says, "I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise." Isaiah 44:23 says, "Sing, O heavens for the Lord has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest and every tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and will be glorified in Israel." In response to her redemption Israel will join the skies and valleys and mountains and forests in singing praise to the Lord. The Lord's glory will be known and praised and displayed to the nations.

But Isaiah 48:9â€"11 makes even clearer what it means for God to seek his own glory in creating and redeeming his people:

    For My name's sake I defer my anger,
    for the sake of My praise I restrain it for you,
    that I may not cut you off.
    Behold, I have refined you but not like silver;
    I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
    For My own sake, for My own sake I do it,
    for how should My name be profaned?
    My glory I will not give to another.

What an amazing text this is! How wonderfully un-modern and anti-20th-century this text is! How ugly and repulsive it must appear to the god of this age, the prince of the power of the air. But how sweet, how clean and high and bright and full of allurement to those who really love God above all else.

Even though this text deals with God's Old Testament people Israel, we have seen that his motives do not change from era to era and so we can apply at least that aspect of this text to the people of God in our dayâ€"those who follow Christ as Savior and Lord. Two things cry out to be stressed in our day. First, our salvation is for God's sake. "For My name's sake I withhold my anger. For the sake of My praise I restrain it for you." To be sure, God will save his people, he will bless us infinitely! But it is for his name's sake, for his praise, for his glory that he does it. "For My own sake, for My own sake I do it, for how should My name be profaned." Where this perspective is lost, and the magnifying of God's glory is no longer seen as the great aim of redemption, pitiful substitutes ariseâ€"man centered philosophies that exalt human value in a way that distorts the work of redemption and belittles the primacy of God. And surely I don't have to tell you in detail that this perspective of God-centeredness has been lost in our day, even in the churches. Man is the star in our contemporary drama and his comfort, his prosperity, and his health are the great goals. Of course God is there on the stage, but only as a kind of co-star or supporting actor to round out the picture for religious and cultural expectations.

What a world apart is Isaiah 48:9â€"11, and even more so Ezekiel 36:21â€"32. Parts of this text are very familiar promises of the New Covenant, but O, how we need to read what comes before and after these promises, lest we lose the biblical perspective of our salvation.

    But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord God, 'It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord," declares the Lord God, "when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, that you may not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. I am not doing this for your sake," declares the Lord God, "Let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel!" (NASB)

That's the first thing that needs to be stressed from Isaiah 48:9â€"11: our salvation is for God's sake. He created us for his glory!

The second thing that needs to be stressed is this: God will not allow his name to be profaned indefinitely. Though he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, he will not tolerate forever those who do not give him glory, but instead regard something else as more glorious, more worthy of allegiance. "My glory I will not give to another." That's why I said at the beginning, it is a fearful thing to be at cross purposes with your maker. There is a judgment day and the issue for every one of us will be: Have we been with God in his great goal to glorify himself or has his glory been a matter of indifference to us or even animosity?

We are left with two great questions, which I am to answer next Sunday, if God wills. One is: How do we bring our lives into alignment with God's goal to glorify himself? What sorts of things must we think and feel and do for God to get glory from us? Is it another weight to make us sigh or is it wings to let us fly? And the second question is: Why is it right for God to seek his own glory when he tells us in his Word we should not seek our own glory? How can it be loving and not selfish for God to create us for his glory?

But even before next week when I try to answer these two questions all of us here need to align ourselves more fully with God's goal. And my assumption is that some are here who up until this very point in your life have lived it at cross purposes with God. I urge you, do not wait until next Sunday to be reconciled to God. Repent and give your life to God for his purposes now. Any help that I can be in that decision, let me know.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

Read: Psalm 1

For some people the word "argument" only means "dispute" or "haggling" or "wrangling." But I want to use the word "argument" in its more positive sense of the giving of reasons and the drawing of inferences. I don't like haggling and wrangling but I love to ponder the arguments in Scriptureâ€"the way the inspired writers give reasons for their assertions and the way they draw inferences from shared facts. My heart gets stirred and my back has chills run down it sometimes when I find a solid argument about sanctification. For example: God sanctifies his people by means of truth. Thy word is truth. Therefore, we should give ourselves heartily to the Word for our sanctification.

Last Sunday evening I said that one of my goals for Bethlehem was that we become a people for whom nothing is trivialâ€"a people who see things with the eyes of God and so see in everything and every person a reflection of eternity, a glimmer of something infinite and startlingâ€"a people of whom visitors will say: In that church worship and prayer and fellowship and singing are not trivial.
Head and Heart

Now there is a second little goal I want to mention. I want Bethlehem to become a people who do not believe or feel that argumentation (just as I described it) and deep emotion are opposed to each other. For many people the work of the head and the overflow of the heart are at odds. Thinking and feeling are like oil and water; they repulse each other.

Whatever the reason for this tension that exists in so many people, my own experience, my awareness of the experience of others in history, and my understanding of the Bible teach me that it is neither a necessary tension nor a healthy one, at least not to the degree that most people experience it. My goal is to help us all become the kind of folk for whom sound thinking kindles deep feeling and for whom deep feeling motivates sound thinking. Most of the opposition we feel between the heart and the head is, I think, due to learned behavior patterns which do not necessarily result from the nature of our emotions or our thought. We have been warned so often about not becoming a cold intellectual that we have trouble imagining the possibility of intellect that lights fires instead of putting them out. Or on the other side we have been taught to be so wary of fanatic emotionalism that we can scarcely believe that a tear in someone's eye might be coming from a holy syllogism instead of a pathological passion.

God has given us minds and demanded that we use them in understanding and applying his Word. And God has given us emotions which are equally essential and which he has commanded to be vigorously engaged in his service.

If we neglect the mind we will drift into all sorts of doctrinal error and dishonor God who wills to be known as he is. And if we neglect the heart we will be dead while we yet live no matter how right our creed is. "This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me." So my goal for us is that we put together what so many keep apart to their own hurt. Let us be clear in our heads and warm in our hearts. Let us feel with all our might and think with all our might.

Now what does all this have to do with Psalm 1, which is our text for tonight? This: I want to do a series called Summer Psalms. But as I began to think about Psalm 1, and others that we will look at, I realized that my approach might strike some people as strange. My approach will usually include the question: What is the argument of this psalm, or this passage in the psalm? And I could imagine someone saying: He is really in a rut. Doesn't he know that psalms are songs. They express the feelings of God's people of old. They are not treatises to be dissected. They are songs to be sung. What is all this talk about arguments and reasons and inferences?

So, since I know some might respond like that I've started with a little plea not to jump the gun and rip apart what might belong together, namely head and heart, thought and feeling, argument and song, reasoning and poetry.

My case is that good poetry or good songs will usually have sound argument. If a song has a bad argument it ruins the song, including the emotional impact. For example, Sonny and Cher had a song back in 1966 which had a line that went "I'd live for you, I'd die for you, I'd even climb the mountain high for you." What's wrong with that argument? The word "even" implies that climbing mountains is more drastic or sacrificial than dying which is false. The logic of the poem is contradictory and so the song is poor and its total impact is weakened.

You may say, "It was only weakened for youâ€"you are probably the only person who heard the problem." I hope that's not true. But if it is, that is exactly what I want to changeâ€"the separation of our minds and our emotions so that shrewd advertisers and entertainers (who know us better than we know ourselves) can hook us in the nose of our emotions and pull us wherever they want because our minds are shut down. They have taught us to shut them down when the music begins.

But in Bethlehem Baptist Church we will not shut them down when the psalms of God begin. I will sing with my spirit and I will sing with my mind. If I don't, my mind will be lifeless and my spirit without truth and substance. Let's be whole people and not let the stereotypes of intellectualism or emotionalism force us into their mold. Let's make a new moldâ€"fashioned by the Spirit of Godâ€"the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of love.
A Poem That Argues

One other illustration to press home the point. I love to read and write poetry, and I hope the pressures of pastoral life don't wring all the juice out of me so that there is none left for writing. I brought along one example to show how for me things deeply felt are always expressed in some form of argument. The poem was a 1977 Mother's Day poem entitled "To My Sons' Mother."

    TO MY SONS' MOTHER

    Were there a price that I could set
    Upon my sons, it would surpass
    What I with goods and life could get,
    Or in a thousand years amass.

    They bear my image, flesh and bone,
    My language and my inner thought,
    And in their soul there is my own,
    By God's design inborn and taught.

    They've been my long day's sweet dessert:
    How can I ever once forget
    The father-fan-club in concert
    The front porch "Daddy's here!" duet!

    And they will be my old man's joys
    If by God's grace I live so long
    And they, no longer little boys,
    Be men whose love for God is strong.

    And yet these lines I do not write
    To give my sons a praise supreme;
    These I extol so that I might
    Their mother's value more esteem.

    The more I love these little men,
    The higher does my joy ascend,
    That Karsten and his brother Ben
    Have you for mother and for friend.

    JP
    Mother's Day, 1977

To write a poem as simple and homely as that requires a great deal more than an outburst of emotion. There is an argument that hinges on the phrase so that: These I extol so that I might / Their mother's value more esteem. Noël would miss the love of my heart if she didn't see the point of my head that the four verses of praise to Karsten and Benjamin are really praise to her. Hopefully that is not hard to see, but my point is that it takes the mind to see it. And I reject the stereotype that says: If you exercise your mind to see such things in a poem, there will be no tears of joy on Mother's Day. It is Satan's lie that would rob us all from the fullness of life and especially from the fullness of God's Word.
The Argument of Psalm 1

Let's look at Psalm 1 together for a few minutes. This little song is worth several sermons so don't feel bad if we emphasize some parts tonight and not others. We'll be back to it some day.

    How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
    Nor stand in the path of sinners,
    Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
    But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    And in His law he meditates day and night.
    And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
    Which yields its fruit in its season,
    And its leaf does not wither;
    And in whatever he does, he prospers.

    The wicked are not so,
    But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
    Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
    For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
    But the way of the wicked will perish.

Now I think this psalm has an argument. Let me sketch it briefly as I see it and then we will focus on the main point.

The psalm presents the reader with two alternatives of ultimate seriousness. Verse 6, "The Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish." You can either be among the righteous or you can be among the wicked. These are the only two categories of human beings the psalmist is concerned with, and everybody belongs to one or the other.

Along with these two alternative kinds of persons, the psalmist warns of two alternative destinies in this life and at the judgment. If you are righteous you will be like a tree (v. 3). If you are wicked you will be like chaff (v. 4). If you are wicked your way will end in destruction (v. 6b). If you are righteous your way will be known and attended and protected by God even unto glory (v. 6a). For the wicked: chaff-like and ending in destruction. For the righteous: treelike and ending in the glorious congregation of the righteous.

And then along with the two alternative types of persons and two alternative destinies the psalmist tells us one of the essential differences that distinguish the righteous from the wicked. The righteous delight in God's revealed word and meditate on it (v. 2). The wicked scoff at God's word and heap scorn on those who follow it (v. 1).

My conclusion is clear: Blessed, fortunate, happy is the man who delights in God's word rather than joining the scoffers, because he will be treelike not chaff-like and will experience God's care forever rather than perish in the judgment.

Of course the resounding but unspoken implication of the psalmâ€"the cry of the psalmist for all of us to do is what? Delight yourself in the law of God! And meditate on it day and night. That is the main point of the psalm. It stands at the doorway to the Psalter as if to say: All you who enter here, delight in what you hear, do not scoff.
The Righteous and the Wicked

Before we look more closely at this main point there is a part of the argument that needs to be cleared up. Many of us who love the doctrine of justification by faith may have swallowed hard when I said, "There are two categories of humans: the wicked and the righteousâ€"the one will perish, the other enjoys God's saving attention." We know from Romans 3:10, "There is none righteous, no not one." How then can the psalmist say, "The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish"?

It is very helpful to look at the psalm Paul is paraphrasing in Romans 3:10â€"12. Look at Psalm 14:1â€"3.

    The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."
    They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
    There is no one who does good.
    The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men,
    To see if there are any who understand,
    Who seek after God.
    They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
    There is no one who does good, not even one.

Paul uses the word "righteous" (there is none righteous) where the psalmist uses "do good" (there is none that does good). But they both seem at first to rule out a category of people called the righteous. But when we read on look at what we find. Psalm 14:4, 5:

    Do all the workers of wickedness not know,
    Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
    And do not call upon the Lord?
    There they are in great dread,
    For God is with the righteous generation.

Here in Psalm 14:1â€"5 it is perfectly clear that the psalmist does not mean there are absolutely no righteous people. There is a generation of righteous ones! What he means is that outside the sphere of God's special sanctifying work (which was going on then mainly in Israel) men are enslaved to sin. But within the sphere of God's sanctifying work people can be righteous.

We can be almost sure that this is what Paul meant too in Romans 3:10 because he concludes his indictment of the human race with the words, "There is no fear of God before their eyes!" (Romans 3:18). But that cannot be said of everybody absolutely because in both the Old Testament and the New Testament the saints have feared God. What Paul means then is that, outside of God's gracious work to change people and draw them to him, people do not fear him and there is none righteous.

So it is not contrary to Paul's teaching or to other psalms that humanity is divided into wicked and righteous and that only the righteous will be saved. The one other misunderstanding that needs to be avoided is the error of equating righteousness with sinless perfection. We balk at claiming to be among the righteous because it implies to us perfection, never sinning, and we know that is not true of ourselves. But to be a righteous man in Old Testament language does not mean to be perfect. God required that the saints be righteous in order to be saved (Psalm 1:6); he never made perfection a prerequisite of salvation. The whole sacrificial system was designed to impart forgiveness to sinners so God could save them.

The easiest way to see that being righteous did not mean being perfect in the psalms and to see what it did mean is to look at Psalm 32 . Note especially: 1) David sins and is forgiven; 2) he says there is a group called "godly" (v. 6); 3) the wicked are contrasted with those who trust in the Lord (v. 10); 4) these trusting, forgiven ones are called the righteous and the upright in heart (v. 11). So whenever you read about the righteous, think: those who trust in the Lord for their joy and repent of their sins in earnestness.
Delighting in God's Word

And now Psalm 1 adds one more and very essential characteristic of the righteousâ€"he delights in God's law, God's instruction, and meditates on it day and night. God wants us to be righteous. I want this church to be a righteous people. And the first thing the book of Psalms chooses to say about the righteous is that they do not follow the advice of the world, but they find pleasure in listening to God in his Word.

    O, how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
    How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (119:97, 103)

Never reduce Christianity to a matter of demands and resolutions and willpower. It is a matter of what we love, what we delight in, what tastes good to us. When Jesus came into the world humanity was split according to what they loved. "The light came into the world and men loved darkness rather than light" (John 3:19). The righteous and the wicked are separated by what they delight inâ€"the revelation of God or the way of the world. But someone may ask: How can I come to delight in the Word of God? My answer would be twofold: 1) pray for new taste buds on the tongue of your heart; 2) meditate on the staggering promises of God to his people.

The same psalmist who said "How sweet are thy words to my taste" (119:103), said earlier, "Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (119:18). He prayed, because to have holy taste buds on the tongue of the heart is a gift of God. No man naturally hungers for and delights in God's wisdom.

But when you have prayed, indeed while you pray, meditate on the benefits God promises to his people and on the joy of having Almighty God as your helper now and eternal hope. Who would not delight to read a book, the reading of which would change one from chaff to a cedar of Lebanon, from a Texas dust bowl to a Hawaiian orchard? Nobody deep down wants to be chaffâ€"rootless, weightless, useless. All of us want to draw strength from some deep river of reality and become fruitful, useful people.

That river of reality is the Word of God and all the great saints have been made great by it. Let me give you one example in conclusion to spur you on to more meditation and more delight. George Müller lived from 1805 to 1898 and is famous for establishing numerous orphanages and relying on God for help in remarkable ways. Listen to his testimony about how and why to meditate on Scripture.

    While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now, while preparing the eighth edition for the press, more than forty years have since passed away. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as a habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning.

    Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

    The difference then between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events, I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer. But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even an hour, I only then begin really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.

    It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.

    I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully in the fear of God, commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

1 Corinthians 2:6-13

Last week our text was 1 Corinthians 2:1â€"5, and the main point was that we should make it our aim to base our own and other's faith not on the wisdom of men but on the power of God. I came down really hard on the "wisdom of men" or as Paul calls it in 1:20, "the wisdom of the world."

One of our visitors last week was a former student and a friend of mine, Paul Widen, and his wife, JoLane. As they walked out after the service I asked him what he was doing now after seminary and he said he was studying philosophy at the university. Later in the week when we sent out letters to our guests I added the note: "I really do believe in philosophy, in spite of all I said about the 'wisdom of men.' Come back this week and get the other side of the coin."
Lovers and Seekers of Wisdom

As most of you know the word "philosophy" means "love of wisdom." Christians would be hard put to oppose philosophy in principle since the next verse after last week's text, 1 Corinthians 2:6, says, "Yet we do speak wisdom!" There is a wisdom which we are commanded to seek and which we should cherish and which we speak. In that sense all Christians should be amateur philosophersâ€"lovers and seekers of wisdom.

    My son, if you will receive my sayings,
    and treasure my commandments within you,
    make your ear attentive to wisdom,
    incline your heart to understanding;
    for if you cry for discernment,
    lift your voice for understanding;
    if you seek her as silver,
    and search for her as for hidden treasures;
    then you will discern the fear of the Lord,
    and discover the knowledge of God.
    For the Lord gives wisdom. (Proverbs 2:1â€"6)

Of course, there always have been and are today philosophers who have taught utter nonsense. So the university faculties don't enjoy a very high esteem among ordinary folk. But let me give this one caution. Probably for every university philosopher who teaches irrelevant or unchristian things, there are a hundred ordinary folk whose view of life is just as godless and destructive. The difference is, the ordinary American pagan only corrupts his children and acquaintances, while the teacher has a much larger audience.

The point is: watch out lest Satan deceive us into thinking that the "wisdom of men" or the "wisdom of the world" is only found in the ivory towers of our universities. Brothers and sisters, it is everywhere, and we must be on guard against it even in our own minds. It was to Christians that Paul said, "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

You recall I argued from 1 Corinthians 2:1â€"5 that there can be no saving faith that rests on the wisdom of men, because the wisdom of men considers salvation through a crucified Christ to be foolishness, and the reason it does is because, on the one hand, the death of Christ is a severe indictment of our hopeless, sinful condition, and utter insufficiency, but, on the other hand, the wisdom of the world is devoted 100% to achieving and maintaining its own self-sufficiency and ground for boasting. It should be evident from this that:

   1. No group of people has a corner on this sort of wisdom: it is the mark of poor and rich, educated and uneducated, old and young, and every race. Apart from the work of God's Spirit we all (whether consciously or unconsciously) are bent on using our minds to show off or at least to save faceâ€"to preserve a semblance of cool self-sufficiency.
   2. A second thing that should be evident from this understanding of "the wisdom of men" is that it is not the use of the mind per se that is evil but what the mind is used for, what it comes up with, what it is motivated by. Which means that the alternative to a proud use of the mind should not be no use but rather a humble use. The alternative to proud competence is not incompetence but humble competence.

The Bible may condemn the wisdom of men but it will not surrender wisdom to the enemy. The Bible may claim that man's mind is darkened but its remedy is not mindlessness; it is light. That's why Paul goes on to 1 Corinthians 2:6â€"13 after leveling his guns against the wisdom of men in 1:18â€"2:5. And that's why we must go on and not leave things where they were last Sunday. Let's look together at 1 Corinthians 2:6ff.

    Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,

    'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,' God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit. (RSV)

As I pondered over this text it seemed to me that Paul was answering at least four questions about "the wisdom we speak," which I would like to answer with him. I think it would be helpful to answer them in this order:

       1. Who cannot receive or know this wisdom?
       2. Who can receive and know it?
       3. How is it imparted from God to this group?
       4. What is it?
       5. To these I add my own at the end: So what? What difference does it make to me or you if we know this wisdom or not?

Who Cannot Receive the Wisdom of God?

First then, Who cannot receive or know this wisdom which Paul speaks? Two times in our text Paul refers to the "rulers of this age." The wisdom we speak is not "of the rulers of this age" (v.6). And none of the rulers of this age knew it (grasped it) for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (v.. Why this special interest here in the rulers who put Jesus to death? Why not refer to the Athenian philosophers that laughed him to scorn earlier at the Areopagus?

Probably for two reasons.

1) The Corinthian church was being misled by false teachers who had caused them to be caught up with not only wisdom but also powerâ€"the stuff that rulers have. You can see this in 1:26, 27, "Not many of you were powerful . . . God chose what is weak in the world to shame the powerful." You can also see it in 1 Corinthians 4:8 where Paul puts in his own words what they are claiming for themselves: "Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings (rulers)!" In other words, you claim to experience in this age already things that God has reserved for the age to come! So with biting irony he says, "And would that you did reign as kings so that we might reign with you!" In other words, Paul knows that he surely has not attained the status of a ruler, and in ironically wishing that they had, he implies that they had not yet attained it either, no matter how powerful or wise they thought they were. So Paul refers to the rulers of this age to show that the wisdom that can get one into power will not get you to God. That's the first reason for focusing on rulers of this age.

2) The second reason for focusing on rulers of this age is because the rulers who put Jesus to death are probably the most vivid example of the fact that you can measure a person's true wisdom by whether they recognize Jesus as the Lord of glory: "If they had known the wisdom of God they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." You can tell whether a person's mind is dominated by the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of God by whether he acknowledges the crucified Christ to be not a criminal but the Lord of glory.

In answer to our first question then (Who cannot receive or know the wisdom of God which Paul speaks?) our answer would be: people who are so enamored by the wisdom that leads to power and acclaim that they do not recognize Jesus as the Lord of gloryâ€"these cannot receive God's wisdom. It is not simply being in a position of power that closes one off to this wisdomâ€"God has chosen to save powerful people and to give some of his people earthly power. It is not having power but hunger for power that blinds a person to the glory of God in the suffering Messiah. It is not having acclaim among men but hungering for that acclaim that makes Jesus as he is unbelievable.

We can see this if we go back and look at how some of the rulers of the people related to Jesus. For example, in John 5:42â€"44 Jesus exposed why the Jewish leaders could not believe him: "I know that you have not the love of God within you; I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name him you will receive. How can you believe who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?" Or to put it another way, you can't believe on Jesus as the Lord of glory when you are more eager to maintain your own glory than you are to seek and find God's.

Another example of why the rulers were blind to the divine authority and glory of Jesus is in Mark 11:27â€"33.

    And they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, and scribes, and elders came to Him, and began saying to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?" And Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me." And they began reasoning with one another, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Then why did you not believe him?' But shall we say, 'From men?"'â€"they were afraid of the multitude, for all considered John to have been a prophet indeed. And answering Jesus, they said, "We do not know." And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." (NASB)

The amazing characteristic of these priests, scribes, and elders is an utter indifference to the truth and a desire to maintain their image. Jesus asked them a question and instead of asking themselves, What is the true answer? they asked themselves, How can we avoid being thought inconsistent? (For if we say John's authority is from heaven, then to be consistent we should believe him); and they asked themselves, How can we avoid being hurt? (For if we say John's authority was only human we might be stoned). Pride on the one hand, fear on the other, but no love for the truth. They were more interested in being thought wise by men than in seeking true wisdom from Jesus! And so Jesus says, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." In other words, it is possible to be so enamored by the wisdom that leads to power and acclaim that all access to the wisdom of God in the Lord of glory is cut off. Like Jesus said in Matthew 11:25, "I thank Thee Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes." So in Matthew 16:17 when Peter, unlike the Jewish rulers, confessed Jesus to be the Son of God, or we could say the Lord of glory, Jesus said, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven."

In answer to our first question then: no one can receive the wisdom we speak who loves power and acclaim so much that they do not see that the suffering Jesus is really the Lord of glory.
Who Can Receive the Wisdom of God?

The second question Paul answers in this text (1 Corinthians 2) about the wisdom we speak is, Who can receive it? Or, who can understand it in such a way that it is welcomed and affirmed, not rejected as foolish?

In verse 6 Paul says, "We do speak a wisdom among the mature." The King James Version says, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect." In our day that is a very misleading translation because perfection implies flawlessness and sinlessness, but that is surely not what Paul meant because then he would have no one to talk to. The RSV, NIV, and NASB are right to render the Greek teleios as "mature." These are the ones who grasp and welcome the wisdom we speak. Who are they?

I think verse 13 gives the answer, but there is a translation problem here. The Revised Standard Version says, "We impart this (divine wisdom) in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit," or more literally "to those who are spiritual." If this is correct then the "mature" of verse 6 are explained as the "spiritual" of verse 13. We speak a wisdom among the mature, that is, we interpret the wisdom revealed by the Spirit to spiritual people.

But the footnote in the RSV as well as the texts of other versions show that verse 13 can be translated differently. Instead of "interpreting spiritual truths to spiritual people," the last line can be translated "comparing spiritual things with spiritual." The problem is not two different Greek texts. The problem is that the same Greek words really can mean both things and so only context can decide.

I think the correct translation is that Paul is communicating spiritual truths to spiritual people and that these spiritual people are the same as the mature of verse 6. These are the ones who can grasp and receive divine wisdom. The reason I think this is that the verses immediately following verse 13, namely 14â€"16, talk not about comparing spiritual things with spiritual but rather talk about what sort of people will receive the spiritual things Paul has to say. "The natural man will not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him" (v. 14). This is why in v. 13 Paul says he can only interpret spiritual things to spiritual peopleâ€"they are the opposite of natural people.

A second reason I think v. 13 refers to spiritual people who are the same as the mature in v. 6 who receive God's wisdom, is that in 3:1 "spiritual people" are contrasted with babes in Christ. "And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as to fleshly (or carnal), as to babes in Christ." It is clear that being a babe is the opposite of being "mature." But in 3:1 the opposite of being a babe is being "spiritual." Therefore being mature and being spiritual are probably the same. So one answer to the question, Who can receive the wisdom of God which we speak? is the mature, that is, the spiritual.

But now what is it that characterizes this group and enables them to embrace the wisdom we speak? When Paul speaks of a "spiritual" person he does not mean an especially religious person, or a person who spends much time in prayer and Bible reading. He means a person who is led by the Spirit of God and bears the fruit of the Spirit. We know this from Galatians 5:16â€"6:1 where Paul calls believers to walk by the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, and to bear the fruit of the Spirit, and then in 6:1 says, "If anyone is overtaken in a trespass you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness." In other words, the spiritual people are the people in whom God is at work producing the fruit of meekness, love, joy, peace, kindness, and the rest.

It is helpful to see here too that in Galatians 5:19 and following the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit is the works of the flesh, like enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, etc. So the opposite of the spiritual person who is bearing the fruit of the Spirit is the fleshly (or carnal) person who is doing the works of the flesh. One is being transformed by the Spirit of God, the other is enslaved to his old, self-sufficient nature called the flesh.

This is helpful because when we come back now to 1 Corinthians 3:1 we see exactly this sort of contrast: "I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as spiritual but as fleshly." Here is the same contrast as in Galatians 5. The upshot of this contrast is that we can now see in more detail what it is that characterizes the people who do receive the wisdom of God, namely, the mature or the spiritual. They are the people who are characterized by the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

This was a surprising discovery for me, namely, that the prerequisite for grasping the wisdom of God is not a certain level of intelligence, or education, or experience. The prerequisite is moral, not intellectual. It has as much to do with what you love as with what you think. Not education but sanctification is what makes one receptive to the wisdom we speak. Not natural ability but spiritual humility opens a person to the wisdom of God.

Notice how Paul develops this in 1 Corinthians 3:2, 3. "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were not able, but neither still now are you able, for still you are fleshly. For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and walking as mere men?" In other words, the only people who are going to be able to receive the solid food of the wisdom we speak are the people who by the power of God's Spirit have overcome jealousy and strife.

In God's order of things you cannot separate the holiness of your life from the depth of your understanding. God has revealed his very wisdom, but he has chosen to do so only among the mature, that is, the spiritualâ€"not a religious elite or a pious cliqueâ€"but any and all who by resting in God's promises are becoming loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, meek, and self-controlled. This is the person who will have a heart for God's wisdom rather than man's.

There is a remarkable confirmation of this in the book of James (3:13â€"17). Look how in this text the wisdom of God is described in moral terms.

    Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

Therefore, in answer to our second question, the people who can receive the wisdom we speak are the people in whom the Holy Spirit is at work overcoming jealousy and envy and strife and selfishness and replacing them with the fruit of love and meekness and patience and goodness. These are the mature, the spiritualâ€"the ones who see Christ in all his suffering and meekness as the Lord of glory.
How Is the Wisdom of God Imparted?

But now how is it that a human being, even a spiritual one, can know the wisdom of God? This is the third question Paul answers in 1 Corinthians 2. How can a person make such a high and exalted claim as to know the very mind of God?

Verses 9 and 10 of 1 Corinthians 2 give the answer: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him, God has revealed to us through the Spirit." The answer is revelation. The wisdom of God would have never been discovered by man on his own. It would have never occurred to him. For as verse 7 says, it is a "secret and hidden wisdom," or it is a wisdom "in a mystery and concealed." So the only way for a mere man to know it is for God to reveal it. Revelation is the act of God whereby what once was concealed from men is now made known to them.

Paul tells us something about this process in verses 10â€"13. He uses an analogy: among men a person's thoughts and concerns are only known to the spirit of that person. And only if he wills can another person become privy to what those thoughts and concerns are. If he desires he can reveal his thoughts. So it is with God: no one knows his mind except his own Spirit. But God has willed to impart his wisdom by his Spirit. Verse 12: "We did not receive the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God in order that we might know the things graciously given to us by God."

There are two ways to understand who the we is in that verse. Some think it means all Christians, i.e., people indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Others think the we is the persons that God inspired in the days of the apostles, who then taught the rest of the believers with authority and wrote the New Testament books. It may not be possible to decide with complete certainty but I think the second view is correct because of how verse 13 continues the thought of verse 12. The flow of thought seems to go like this: God gave us the Holy Spirit to reveal to us apostles things no one ever imagined and now in turn as God's inspired and authoritative spokesmen we speak in words taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people.

So the way we come to know the wisdom of God is that God revealed it to the apostles by the Spirit and they taught it to others who were prepared to receive it by that same Spirit. In our day the teaching of the apostles and the wisdom of God is thus given to us through their writings in the New Testament. That is the answer to our third question, How we come to know the wisdom of God.
What Is the Wisdom of God?

The final question, which shows the importance of all the others is, What is the wisdom of God? I think it will take an eternity to answer that question. We will never exhaust the wisdom of God, no matter how much we discover. But from verses 7 and 9 we can say somethingâ€"something very encouraging and full of hope. Verse 7: "We speak a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory!" Whatever else the wisdom of God is, it is surely this: it is the exercise of the infinite, eternal mind of God devising for his people a glorious future. Christ was meek and lowly, despised and wounded for our transgression, but he was the Lord of glory! So it is with those who love him: they may be despised and rejected and suffer now but they are the children of glory. As Paul said in Romans 8:18, "I consider that the sufferings of this present age are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

Imagine a fatherâ€"a tremendously brilliant father, whose son is coming home. And all the brilliance and insight of this father is in the sway of his love so that every fiber of his wisdom will be employed to make his son gloriously happy. By his wisdom he knows every inclination and desire and preference of his son, he knows the joys that will go down deepest and last longest. He has all the power he needs to shape everything to his son's delight. If you can imagine what such a homecoming might be, you have a little inkling of what the wisdom of God has foreordained and prepared for his children. "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor ever even entered our farthest imagination, God has prepared for those who love Him!"
So What?

Finally, remember this: the rulers of this age who did not receive the wisdom of God, who did not see in Jesus the Lord of glory and the hope of glory, are coming to nothing (v. 6). They are doomed to pass away. It is not for such that the wisdom of God has promised and prepared a glorious future. Rather it is for those who love him, for those who cherish Christ precisely in his suffering, as the Lord of glory. These are the ones who have ears to hear the wisdom of God and who will be glorified by it in the age to come. So let us make every effort to lay aside all hunger for power and all jealousy and strife and in meekness open ourselves to the wisdom of God.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

Isn't it the extremely high and the extremely low occasions of life that trigger in us a hunger that life not be so trivial most of the time? Every human being now and then feels a longing that life not dribble away like a leaky faucet. You've all tasted the desire that day-to-day life be more than a series of trifles. It can happen when you are reading a poem, when you are kneeling in your closet, when you are standing at the lakeside at sunset. It very often happens at birth and death.

When my mother died in December, 1974, I had to go home and help tend my dad's injury. I didn't know what, besides grief, I might feel. But one thing that happened was this: I wrote to Dr. Glenn, chairman of my department at Bethel College and said: "I know you want me to teach an overload in the spring but unless my job depends on it I'd rather not." The reason I gave was: "When I stand beside my mother's coffin and then look at my wife and son, the $1,000 extra which I would make teaching the overload simply loses all its attraction because it would rob me of some of the quality time with my family." In other words, the crisis time of my mother's death awakened in me a longing that my family life not be trivial.

Why does this happen? I think it's because at these moments of intense emotion we see life for what it really is. The non-essentials get stripped off and life essential shines for what it really isâ€"and it is not trivial. We see things in the light of eternity, we see the way God sees, and triviality has no place in God's life.

The world is hungry for people for whom nothing is trivial, people who ooze with life because in everything they see a reflection of eternityâ€"even in a fish and a blade of grass.

Last Thursday Noël and I got away to a lake for the day. Before we went Karsten picked out and read for us Psalm 104 at breakfast. This was a great preparation for a day out of doors. It is a nature psalm and says, for example, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom thou hast made them all; the earth is full of thy creatures. Yonder is the sea great and wide, which teems with things innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathans which thou didst form to sport in it."

Well, one of the things I did at this small lake was put bread balls on a little gold hook and pull up a dozen or so fish that were swimming under the dock. They all looked about the sameâ€"ordinary little panfish with yellow bellies. Then I pulled up one that really took me by surprise and awakened me. I held it there in my hand after I took the hook out and just looked at it. It had olive-green stripes wiggling backwards from head to tail. Then sprinkled all over were light blue luminous spots. On the back of the gill there was a black protrusion about the size of a fingernail, and right on the tip of this was a deep red dot. I held it there in the sun and turned it back and forth and said: "You know what, little fishy? God thought you up. He thought up the olive stripes and blue dots and the deep red spot on black." How manifold are his works, in wisdom he has made them all. By the grace of God that little fish that day was not trivial, because Psalm 104 had opened my eyes to see the way God sees.

Another example of seeing reflections of eternity in something commonplace happened to me a few years ago. A student of mine asked me one day with a gleam in her eye, "Have you seen the grass growing up through the new asphalt walkway?" My answer was a sort of yes and no. Yes, I had seen it but, no, it hadn't struck me as noteworthy. But it had struck her and as we talked I came to feel that it should have struck me. Is it not astonishing that a soft blade of grass can push straight up through solid asphalt? What an amazing thing. When you see things with the eyes of God nothing is trivial.

If that is true of a little fish and blade of grass, how much more true must it be of Jesus and his Word and the worship of his name! Doesn't it make your heart ache when suddenly you wake up and realize that for some time past you have been going through the motions of devotion and worship as if it were all a very trivial affair? I have an emerging vision for Bethlehem Baptist Churchâ€"which I will be sharing along the way, but I can say now that an essential of that vision is that we become a church of people who see with the eyes of God and who see nothing as trivial, especially the Word and worship of God.

Moses said to Israel in Deuteronomy 32:46ff.: "Lay to heart all the words which I enjoin upon you this day, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no trifle for you but it is your life." It is no trifle for you, it is your life! O that we might be such a people that when strangers come they will say, "The Word of God and worship is certainly no trifle to that group." For it is not a trivial thing to hear God speak, it is not trivial to pray to our creator. It is not trivial to sing his praises. My prayer is that God will awaken us ever anew to see life the way he sees it. To see in every little fish and blade of grass and every human face a reflection of eternity. And above all to see in God the source and sum and satisfaction of all our longings, so that we say with the psalmist: Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart may fail. But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Amen.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org
delivered on July 13, 1980
   
1 Corinthians 2:1-5

    In coming to you brothers and sisters, I come proclaiming to you the testimony of God not according to excellence of word or of wisdom. For I decided not to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and this one crucified. I come to you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. My word and proclamation are not in persuasive words of human wisdom but by the demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith might not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God!

I would consider my life well spent if I could preach and live and die like the apostle Paul, who wrote these words in 1 Corinthians 2:1â€"5. If you would open a Bible to this passage in the New Testament, I think we could get a glimpse of what a preacher should aim at in his work and how he and his people can be sure to hit this target.
Under the Authority of the Word

W.A. Criswell, the pastor of that giant church in Dallas, was asked one time by a man who had a business across the street: "Dr. Criswell, I thought you were the pastor of a Baptist church. How come all your people carry prayer books to church on Sunday?" Criswell smiled and said, "Sir, we are Baptists and those are Bibles not prayer books."

Baptists the world over have a reputation of urging every man and woman to read the Bible for themselves. And I want to preserve that great tradition. If I could choose a symbolic sound that Bethlehem Baptist Church would come to be known for, you know what it would be? The swish of the pages of 500 Bibles turning simultaneously to the morning and evening texts.

The reason is this: the source of my authority in this pulpit is notâ€"as we shall soon seeâ€"my wisdom; nor is it a private revelation granted to me beyond the revelation of Scripture. My words have authority only insofar as they are the repetition, unfolding and proper application of the words of Scripture. I have authority only when I stand under authority. And our corporate symbol of that truth is the sound of your Bibles opening to the text. My deep conviction about preaching is that a pastor must show the people that what he is saying was already said or implied in the Bible. If it cannot be shown it has no special authority.

My heart aches for the pastor who increases his own burden by trying to come up with ideas to preach to his people. As for me, I have nothing of abiding worth to say to you. But God does. And of that word I hope and pray that I never tire of speaking. The life of the church depends on it.

Dr. Criswell gives an admonition to pastors which I think is right on the money, and I take it as a great challenge. He says:

    When a man goes to church he often hears a preacher in the pulpit rehash everything that he has read in the editorials, the newspapers, and the magazines. On the TV commentaries he hears that same stuff over again, yawns, and goes out and plays golf on Sunday. When a man comes to church, actually what he is saying to you is this, 'Preacher, I know what the TV commentator has to say; I hear him every day. I know what the editorial writer has to say; I read it every day. I know what the magazines have to say; I read them every week. Preacher, what I want to know is, does God have anything to say? If God has anything to say, tell us what it is.'

The Aim of Paul's Ministry: Faith in the Power of God

So let's look at 1 Corinthians 2:1â€"5. Paul had spent about 18 months in Corinth on his first visit there. Now he writes his first letter to warn the believers against basing their faith on the wisdom of men instead of God's power. One of the ways he does this is to remind them of what his aim was in first coming to them and how he came. First we'll talk about the aim of Paul's (and our) ministry.

Verse 5: his aim, his purpose was that "your faith might not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." Paul stated it again and again: "I was given the grace of apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations" (Rom. 1:5). The aim of Paul's life is the aim of mine. And it should be the aim of every pastor, every seminary intern, every Sunday School teacher, and every believer who speaks to another person: to beget and build faith.

But it was possible in Paul's day and I believe it is rampant in our dayâ€"in churches and TV and radioâ€"to try to build faith by calling attention to the wrong things. This has a devastating effect on the mission of Christ and the church, as I think we can see by looking more closely at verse 5.

Why is it so crucial that our faith not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God? Does it really matter what your faith is based on as long as Christ is the object of your faith? For Paul it made a great difference what a preacher offers as the basis of faith. Why?

The reason can be found in chapter 1. It is this: if you try to base saving faith on the "wisdom of men" it ceases to be saving faith because the content of that faith is regarded as foolishness by the world's wisdom. The genuineness of faith, and with it eternal life, is at stake in the basis we offer for faith. It is possible to offer a basis for faith which ruins faith. There is a kind of foundation which will destroy the superstructure of faith. That's why it is so crucial for our faith not to rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of Godâ€"because if it rests in the wisdom of men it is a mirage, a bogus faith.
The Wisdom of Men

Why? What is it about the wisdom of men which makes it destructive to faith? In verses 1 and 2 there is a contrast between trying to deliver a testimony of God with superior words of wisdom on the one hand and preaching Jesus Christ as crucified on the other. Would it not be right, then, to say that for Paul the "wisdom of men" is, at least, a use of the human mind which comes up with ideas contrary to the meaning of Christ's death. Or to put it another way, if we are following the dictates of merely human wisdom, the claim that the King and Creator of the world was executed like a criminal because we are such horrible sinners will simply be regarded as an intolerable foolishness.

Look at 1 Corinthians 1:18 for a confirmation of this. Remember, what we are asking is: What is it about the wisdom of men that makes it so destructive when we try to make it a basis for faith? Verse 18: "The word of the cross is folly (or foolishness) to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" The way God made foolish the "wisdom of the world" (which is the same as the "wisdom of men" in 2:5) is by planning a way of salvation which would be offensive to the wisdom of the world: namely, salvation through the ignominious execution of a lowly Jewish carpenter's son turned preacher, who happened to be the Son of God.

The word of the cross is foolishness to the wisdom of this world. That's why the wisdom of men is destructive to faith and why Paul was, and we should be, very eager that no one turn to the wisdom of men as the basis of faith but that all turn to the power of God.

So the wisdom of men is destructive to faith because it regards the word of the cross as foolishness. But why does it? What is there about human wisdom which causes it to regard Christ crucified as folly? Paul gives us the answer, I think, in chapter 1, verses 26 and following: "Consider your call brothers: not many of you were wise according to the flesh (i.e., worldly standards), not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise." Now drop down to his purpose in verse 29: "so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." God has set himself against the wisdom of the world so that no one might boast before God. The clear implication is that at the root and core of what Paul calls the "wisdom of men" is pride.

So from all these verses, then, I suggest this definition of the "wisdom of the world": it is the use of the human mind to achieve and maintain a ground for boasting before God and man. Now it begins to become really clear why merely human wisdom regards the cross of Christ as foolishness. The death of Christ on the cross is such a radical indictment of the hideousness of our sinfulness that human wisdom has to mount all its biggest guns to destroy the cross, lest it lose its ground for boasting.

There are two possible responses to the death of Christ for our sin: we can regard it as foolish and so maintain our self-sufficiency and pride, or we can regard it as wisdom and die with Christ. There is only one way that leads to life. Here's how Paul expresses it in Galatians 6:14: "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." If we put our trust in the crucified Christ for salvation, we die to the world; which means we give up every ground for boasting that the world, including our own minds, can offer. But since the "wisdom of men" is devoted 100% to maintaining its ground for boasting, it will always reject Christ crucified and attempt to defuse his power by calling him foolish.

So, here is what we've seen so far: First, the goal of Paul's ministry and mine and, I hope, yours is to win and to strengthen faith. But, secondly, it is possible to try to win faith by calling attention to the wrong things and giving a faulty basis; in this case the wisdom of men rather than the power of God. And it's destructive to faith if we try to base it on merely human wisdom. The reason that this is so, thirdly, is that the wisdom of the world regards the word of the cross as foolishness and so leads men away from the cross. And fourthly, the reason the wisdom of men regards the cross as folly is that human wisdom is the use of the mind to achieve and maintain pride, but faith in the crucified Christ is death to pride and the giving up of all grounds for boasting, except one: Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord!
The Power of God

So is it not reasonable and is it not very urgent that in all our efforts to win and to strengthen faith we draw people's attention not to the wisdom of men, but to the power of God? And so now we must ask, what is that? Chapter 1, verse 18: "The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Verse 23 and following: "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

Therefore, the power of God in 2:5 in which our faith should rest is the divine power unleashed by the death of Christ to save sinners, to justify the ungodly. When Jesus was at his weakest in the agony of the cross, God's power was at its strongest, lifting the infinite weight of sin and condemnation off the backs of all who would believe on him. Because Jesus died and bore the punishment of our sin, all the power of God, who created the universe, was loosed for the benefit of God's elect. As Paul said in Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, surely (by his infinite power) he will give us all good things with him."

But don't make a mistake here. Just as the wisdom of God is foolishness with man, so the power of God is viewed by men as weakness. God wills it that way: chapter 1, verse 27: "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong." The divine power in which our faith rests is not the power of a May Day in Red Square; it is not the power of big business or bloc voting; it is not the power of personal savvy and cool self-assertion. The power in which saving faith rests is the power of divine grace sustaining the humble, loving heart and radiating out through weakness. That is the inimitable power that we see in Christâ€"meekly, humbly, lovingly mounting the cross for our sin. The power of God's grace sustaining the humble, loving heart of Christ and radiating out through his weakness: this is the resting place of saving faith and this is the demonstration of the Spirit and power (2:4).

So I commit myself as your pastor and call upon you to commit yourself as ministers in the church to act and speak in a way that will lead people to trust not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
The Means of Paul's Ministry: Suffering and Weakness

Now let's shift the focus from the aim of Paul's work to the way he achieved it. I mentioned earlier that in our day, just as in Paul's day, there are peddlers of the gospel who seem to have forgotten that at the heart of our faith is "an old rugged cross, an emblem of suffering and shame," and that to trust Christ crucified is to be identified with him in the humiliation of his death, and that only in the age to come will we be glorified with him, and that while this age lasts we walk the Calvary road. Oh, to be sure, not without joyâ€"indescribable joy and full of the hope of gloryâ€"but always joy in weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities.

Watch out for the slick preachers who never mention these things, for whom the cross is a mere token symbol, for whom the exceeding sinfulness of all our hearts is scarcely mentioned, who use power, wisdom, fame, and luxury to beckon the self-centered middle-class American to consider himself Christian at no cost to his pride and self-sufficiency.

Contrast the apostle Paul: 1 Corinthians 2:3, "I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling." Paul would have never made it on the major networks. You remember what his enemies said of him in 2 Corinthians 10:10, "They say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account.'" There is a brand of Christianity today that would have asked of Paul, "What good can he do for Christ? Why, he'll just turn everybody off. What Christ needs is shiny people, people with education, power, status, flair. Otherwise, how are we going to be able to sell Jesus to the public and get America Christianized?"

Paul's question was not so much, "What good can I do for Christ?" but rather, "What good can Christ do for the world through unworthy me?" It was not, "How much power can I muster for Jesus?" but, "How much power can Jesus show through my weakness?" Remember 2 Corinthians 12:8 and following? Paul said about some special infirmity that he had: "Three times I besought the Lord about this that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Paul knew that, if he was to be an agent of the crucified Christ to win people to faith in him, then he had to follow the way of Calvary. That is, he had to draw people's attention not to his own power, wisdom, status or flair, but to the power of God made perfect in weakness. He knew that if human power or beauty or intelligence or class got center stage, whatever conversions happened would not be conversions to the crucified Christ.

If it is the power of God manifest in the weakness and death of Christ that kindles and sustains saving faith (as 2:5 says), then the way to reflect that power in our lives for the sake of others is to carry the death of Jesus in our own bodies. This is how Paul described the power of his own ministry. He said in 2 Corinthians 4:7â€"11: "We have this treasure (of the gospel) in earthen vessels (our weak bodies) to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh."

Now I hope you will understand when I say: I come to you as your pastor today with weaknesses (which you will learn soon enough) and in much fear and trembling. Not that I distrust the power and promise of God but that I distrust myself. Not so much that I will failâ€"as the world counts failureâ€"but that I might succeed in my own strength and wisdom and so fail as God counts failure.

There is a kind of paradox here. We are told: Be anxious for nothing. "Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold you up with my victorious right hand." Yet Paul trembles as he undertakes to preach the gospel, I tremble at the awesome responsibility of ministering the word to this church. Is it because Paul and I lack faith? Partly, yes. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

But there is another reason why we tremble. During this age in which the sinfulness of the human heart remains even among God's people, and in which the temptation to self-exaltation and self-sufficiency is relentless, God has appointed that his servants tremble with a profound sense of insufficiency so that we will never forget that it is God's power and not man's wisdom which creates and sustains saving faith.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

God is God-Centered

Yesterday, in an attempt to torch the glacier and to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples, I tried to make the point that God does everything he does for the glory of his name. God magnifies God. The most passionate heart in all the universe for God is God's heart. That was the main point. Passion '97, as I understand it, is about God's passion for God. Everything he does, from creation to consummation, he does with a view to displaying and upholding the glory of his name.

God's God-Centeredness Is Not Unloving

The second point from yesterday was that this is not unloving. The reason it is not unloving for God to exalt himself in this way is because knowing God and being swept up into the praises of God is what satisfies the human soul. "Thou hast shown me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11). Therefore if God's exalting himself--to the degree that we can see him for who he is--satisfies our souls, then God is the one being in all the universe for whom self-exaltation is the highest virtue and the essence of love.

You may not copy him in this. To the degree that you exalt yourself for another person to enjoy you are hateful--not loving--because you distract them from the one being who can satisfy their souls. Therefore, we may not imitate God in his God-ness. God is the one and only absolutely unique being in all the universe for whom self-exaltation is the essence and the foundation of love. It has to be this way if he is God.

We might want him to love like humans love, by making others central; but he can't do that and still be God. He is infinitely valuable in himself. There is none besides God. Therefore he is--to put it bluntly--stuck with being magnificent and glorious and all-sufficient and self-sufficient, without any need of you whatsoever. This is the foundation of grace. If you try to make yourself the center of grace, it ceases to be grace. God-centered grace is biblical grace.

My delight is not in God making me the center of the universe. My delight is in God being the center of the universe, forever, and drawing me up into his fellowship, to see him, know him, enjoy him, treasure him, be satisfied in him, for all the days of eternity.

That was yesterday's message.
The Implication of God's God-Centeredness for Mankind

Now today...if what I have said so far is true, if it is biblical, then there is a stunning implication for your life. It is this: when you leave this place, and you go back to your churches or your campuses, what you should do is make it your vocation to be as happy as you possibly can be...in God. So my call to you now, in the name of God Almighty, is that you might make it your eternal vocation to pursue your pleasure with all the might that God mightily inspires within you.

My problem in life, and your problem in life, is not that you are pursuing your pleasure when you ought to be doing your duty. That is not my or God's or the Bible's assessment of your problem. C.S. Lewis had it exactly right in his life-changing sermon called "The Weight of Glory" when he says that our problem is that we are far too easily pleased, not that we are pursuing our pleasure too eagerly. He says that we are like children fooling around with mudpies on the slum because we cannot imagine what a holiday at the sea is like. Our problem is that we are clutching tin idols to ourselves when golden reality stands before us. We are far too easily pleased. The problem with the world is not hedonism; it's the failure of hedonism to go for what is truly satisfying. That's my point this morning.

And the implilcation of that, if it's true, is that you should get up in the morning and, like George Mueller, say, before he goes out and does anything, "I must have my heart happy in God or I will be of no use to anybody. I'll use them and try to get them to satisfy my cravings and my vacancies." If you want to be a person of love, if you want to be released to lay down your lives for other people, you must make it your aim to be happy in God. That's today's message: we are far too easily pleased.

We have settled for such small, short-lived, inadequate, non-satisfying pleasures that our capacities for joy have so shriveled up to the point that we have made joyless duty the essence of virtue so as to conceal our untransformed hearts that cannot be moved by God. You see how escapist that is? I am on a campaign this morning against the Stoics and Immanuel Kant, the philosopher of the Enlightenment who said that to the degree that you seek your benefit in any moral act, you diminish its virtue. This is not in the Bible... and it destroys worship, virtue, courage, and God-centeredness everywhere. It elevates man, the virtuous one who does his duty without any view to God to satisfy his soul. Fie on it! May it be gone from our hearts forever.

I'm on a campaign against what hangs in the evangelical air. I got on this campaign about 25 years ago, and I've been on it ever since, trying to raise my family in it, build a church on it, write books about it, trying to live it. Little by little the objections come. That's the way you grow. Several of you have said to me that you feel like your world is being turned by this conference. Paradigms are being shaken. Copernican revolutions are in the offing, and that's just the way you start changing. It may take 15 years...objection after objection. In 1968 I started seeing some of these things with the help of Dan Fuller, and C.S. Lewis, and Jonathan Edwards, and King David, and Saint Paul, and Jesus Christ. And the way that my mind works is that one objection after the other comes up and I cringe, and then I go to the Bible and I weep and cry and struggle and ask and pray and talk. Then little by little the objections refine the vision.
Objections

   1. Does the Bible really teach that you should pursue your joy with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. Or is that just John Piper's clever homiletical way of getting attention?
   2. What about self-denial? Didn't Jesus say, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself?"
   3. Doesn't this put too much emphasis on emotion? Isn't Christianity essentially a matter of the will, whereby we make commitments and decisions?
   4. What becomes of the noble concept of serving God as a duty when it's hard and you don't feel like it?
   5. Doesn't this just put me--and not God--at the center of things?

Answering the Objections

1. Does the Bible really teach that you should pursue your joy?

My answer is yes, and it does so in at least four ways:

a) With commandments.

Consider Psalm 37:4 - "Delight yourself in the Lord." This is not a suggestion, this is a commandment. If you believe, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" is something you should obey, then you should also obey, "Delight yourself in the Lord."

Or Psalm 32:11, "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice O righteous ones and shout for joy all you upright in heart" or Psalm 100, "Serve the Lord with gladness." That's a commandment: "Serve the Lord with gladness!" To the degree that you are indifferent to whether you serve the Lord with gladness or not, you are indifferent to God. He told you you must serve the Lord with gladness. Or Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say, rejoice."

They're all over the Bible. We're talking commandments. That's the first way the Bible teaches this.

b) With threats.

Jeremy Taylor once said, "God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy." I thought it was clever when I first heard it. It's not clever...it's a quotation from Deuteronomy 28:47, and it's devestating. "Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you." God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy in him. Is that a warrant for hedonism or what? Is that a warrant to making it your life vocation to pursue your joy in God with all your might?

c) By presenting saving faith as essentially being satisfied with all that God is for you in Jesus.

For example, Hebrews 11:6: "Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who would draw near to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him." If you would please God you must have faith. What is faith? Coming to the one who is precisely with the deep conviction that he is going to reward me for coming. If you don't believe that, or if you go to God for any other reason, you do not please God.

Or, take John 6:35: Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst." Mark that: he who believes in me will never thirst. What does that mean about faith? What is faith? Faith, in John's thheology, is a coming to Jesus for the satisfaction of our souls such that nothing else can satisfy. That's faith. Faith is not something else than what I'm talking about. I'm unpacking basic Christianity in language that you're less familiar with.

d) By defining sin as the insanity of forsaking the pursuit of your pleasure in God.

Sin is the insanity of forsaking the pursuit of your pleasure in God. Here's the text: Jeremiah 2:12-13: "Be appalled O heavens, be shocked. Be utterly desolate, says the Lord. For my people have committed two great evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters and have hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Tell me, what is evil? The definition of evil, that which appalls the universe, that causes the angels of God to say, "No! It can't be!"...what is it? It is looking at God, the fountain of all-satisfying, living water, and saying "No thank you," and turning to the television, sex, parties, booze, money, prestige, a house in the suburbs, a vacation, a new computer program, and saying "Yes!" That's insane! And it causes all heaven to be appalled, according to Jeremiah 2:12.

In those four ways, at least, the Bible says that John Piper is teaching truth this morning when he says to devote your life to the pursuit of your satisfaction in God. So objection number 1 fell.

2. What about self-denial?

Didn't Jesus say in Mark 8:35 "Whoever would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross." The cross is a place where you die, a place of execution. It's not a cranky mother-in-law, or a bad roommate, or a disease in your bones. It's death of the self. So Piper, you are heretical in calling us to pursue the satisfaction of our souls as a life-vocation. I've felt that...and then I read the rest of the verse (it just helps to read contexts sometimes): "for he who would save his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will save it." What's the logic here? What is Jesus' logic in those verses?

The logic is this:

--"O my disciples, don't lose your life. Don't lose your life. Save your life! Save your life!"

--"How?...how Jesus?"

--"Lose it."

--"I don't get it.... I don't get it Jesus."

--"What I mean is--my disciples, my loved ones--lose your life in the sense that you lose everything but me. 'Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies it bears much fruit.' Die to the world. Die to prestige, die to wealth, die to sinful sex, die to cheating to get ahead, die to the need for people to approve you. Die, and have me."

I believe in self-denial. Deny yourself tin to have gold. Deny yourself sand to stand on a rock. Deny yourself brackish water to have wine. There is no ultimate self-denial, nor did Jesus ever mean it that way. I believe in self-denial. I believe in this word about Jesus from Jesus: Matthew 13:44. "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who found a treasure hidden in a field and, in his joy, he went and sold everything he had to buy that field." You call that self-denial? Yes! He sold everything. He counted everything as refuse and rubbish that he might gain Christ.

So, Yes it's self-denial; and No, it isn't self-denial. There is a self that should be crucified: the self that loves the world. But the new self--the self that loves Christ above all things and finds its satisfaction in him--don't kill that self. That's the new creation. Glut that self on God.

O, I believe in self-denial. I believe in the self-denial that the rich young ruler couldn't understand but that Jesus taught in that moment:

"Go sell everything you've got young man and come follow me, and you'll have treasure in heaven." And he wouldn't do it. And Jesus said to his disciples, "It is really hard for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for rich people to get into the kingdom of heaven." Then the disciples were absolutely stunned, and they said, "Who then can be saved." And Jesus said, "With men it is impossible. Nobody can have the heart I'm calling for on their own. But with God," he says, "all things are possible." And then Peter pipes up, "We left everythig to follow you. What about us? We really sacrificed." And Jesus responds--I wish I knew the tone of his voice--and said, "Peter, no one has left houses or mother or father or brothers or sisters or lands or children for my sake who will not receive back one-hundred fold of mothers, sisters, brothers, lands, and children, in this life--along with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life. You cannot sacrifice anything that will not be repayed to you a thousand-fold. Dont' pity yourself when your head gets chopped off for me" (see Mark 10:17-31).

Yes I believe in self-denial. I believe in denying myself everything that would stand in the way of me being satisfied fully in God, and that's how I understand what the Bible means by self-denial. I believe that David Livingstone and Hudson Taylor--these great missionaries--were absolutely right, having come to the end of their lives and having lost wives and health and everything else except one thing, to say to Cambridge University students and people elsewhere, "I never made a sacrifice." That's right! I know what they mean and you know what they mean. And I believe that Jim Elliot who laid down his life as a young man was absolutely right to say, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." That's what I believe about self-denial. So objection number 2 fell.

3. Aren't you making too much out of emotions?

Isn't Christianity essentially decision? Committment of the will? Aren't emotions just tag-along, optional, icing on the cake? Your way of talking about Christianity, Piper, I think, elevates emotions to an unbiblical place of prominence.

But then I read the Bible--it helps to read the Bible when you're in an argument--and I saw that:

    * We are commanded to feel joy: Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord."
    * We are commanded to feel hope: Psalm 42:5, "Hope in God."
    * We are commanded to feel fear: Luke 12:5, "Fear him who can cast both soul and body into hell."
    * We are commanded to feel peace: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts" (Colossians 3:15).
    * We are commanded to feel zeal: Romans 12:11, "Be aglow (literally 'boil') in the Spirit, never flag in zeal." This is not optional, this is not icing. It's a commandement! "Never flag in zeal."
    * We are commanded to feel grief: Romans 12:15, "Weep with those who weep." You don't have an option. You've got to weep, you've got to feel weeping with those who weep.

    * We are commanded to feel desire: 1 Peter 2:2, "Earnestly desire the sincere spiritual milk of the word." It's not an option. You can't say, "Well I can't turn desire on enough, so how can I obey this? It can't really be a command." Wrong! Yes, you cannot turn these feelings on and off at will. No, they are still obligations. Therein lies our desperate condition that we heard about last night.

      Everything I'm telling you that you're commanded to do right now, you cannot do in this moment, by willpower or decision or commitment. You can only do it by miracle. Aren't you desperate? Isn't it a desperate thing to be told by Almighty God that you must do what you cannot do? If your heart were right you would do them. We are depraved and we are commanded to feel tender-heartedness: "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted." You can't just say that forgiveness means saying, "I'm sorry." You've got to feel it.

    * We're commanded to feel gratitude. Take a child on Christmas morning who gets a present from grandma... and it's black socks! Yuck! No kid ever wants to get socks, let alone black socks, for Christmas. And then you say, "Say thank you to your grandmother." And then the kid says, "Thank you for the socks." That's not what the Bible is talking about. The kid can do that by willpower. But he cannot feel gratitude for those socks by willpower. Neither can you feel gratitude to God by your willpower in accordance with the command in Ephesians 5:20 to "be thankful for everything." Well then, we're done for, unless Almighty God works.

Objection number 3? I don't buy it. I don't believe that I'm elevating affections and feelings and emotions higher than the Bible does. I think I'm reinstating them from where a decisionistic, commitment-laden, willpower American we-can-do-it religion dropped them because they're out of our control.

4. What about the noble vision of serving God?

Isn't it a duty to serve God? It doesn't sound like service in your way of talking about Christianity, Piper. It just doesn't sound the same as service--dutiful, rising to the challenge of performing the will of God when it's hard.

To which I have learned now to respond, "Let's look at a few texts that shape the metaphor of servanthood." All metaphors about your relatiohsip to God, whether it's as a servant, or son or daughter, or friend, have elements in them which, if you stressed them, would be false. They also have elements in them which, if you stressed them, would be true. Now what is false and what is true in the analogy of servanthood?

The texts that help you separate the two so that you don't blaspheme when you serve are texts like Acts 17:25: "God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything. But he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything." God is not served folks. Be careful. He is not served as though he needed you or your service. He doesn't. Or take a text like Mark 10:45: "The Son of Man came not to be served but to give his life as a ransom for many." He came not to be served. Watch out! Watch out! If you undertake to serve him then you cross his purpose! Perplexing though, isn't it. Paul called himself the servant of the Lord in every letter almost. And here in Acts 17:25 and Mark 10:45 it says that God is not served and that the Son of Man came not to be served. There must be a kind of service that is evil and a kind of service that is good. What is the good service?

The good service is 1 Peter 4:11: "Let him who serves serve in the strength that God supplies, that in everything God may get the glory." God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything. You've got to find a way to worship, type papers, listen to lectures, drive a car, change a diaper, preach a sermon, in such a way that you are always the receiver. Because the giver gets the glory, and the receiver gets the joy. Anytime we cross Acts 17:25--"God is not served by humans hands [as though he were a receiver,] as though he needed anything"--we blaspheme.

I gave the illustration yesterday, to the leadership crew of this conference, from Matthew 6:24 about service where it says, "You cannot serve two masters. Either you'll hate the one and love the other. Or either you'll be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." So here we're talking service. How do you serve money? You do not serve money by meeting money's needs. You serve money by posturing your life relentlessly, with all of your energy and time and effort, to benefit from money. Your mind spins with how to make the shrewd investment, how to find the best deal, how to invest where it's low so that it'll go high, and you're consumned with how to benefit from money, because money is your source.

If that's true about the way you serve money, how then do you serve God? It's exactly the same: you posture yourself, and you maneuver your life, and you devote energy and effort and time and creativity to positioning yourself under the waterfall of God's continual blessing, so that he remains the source and you remain the empty receiver. You remain the benificiary, he remains the benefactor; you remain hungry, he remains the bread; you remain thirsty, he remains the water. You don't ever do the blasphemous role-reversal on God. We've got to find a way to serve in a way that is in the strength that God supplies. I am on the receiving end when I am serving. Otherwise I put God in the position of a beneficiary; I become his benefactor, and now I am God. And there are many such religions in the world. So objection 4 fell.

5. Aren't you just making yourself central?

"You talk about pursuing your joy and your pleasure. You talk about duty as something else than what we've always known, and you say that we must be careful about service. It sounds to me like you're maneuvering and manipulating Biblical language just to make yourself central." That would be the most devestating criticism of all, wouldn't it?

Here's my answer: I've been married for 28 years, as of the 21st of December. I love Noel a lot. We've been through a lot together, really hard times and really good times. We've seen our teenage kids through some incredibly difficult teenage years. I cry most easily when I think about my sons and my little girl. Suppose on December 21st that I came home with 28 long-stem red roses behind my back and rang the doorbell. Noel comes to the door, looks sort of puzzled about why I would be ringing my own doorbell, and I pull the roses out and say, "Happy Anniversary Noel." And she says, "Johnny, they're beautiful! Why did you?" And I say, "It's my duty."

Wrong answer. Let's back it up.

[Ding-dong]

--"Happy anniversary Noel!"

--"Johnny, They're beautiful! Why did you?"

--"Nothing makes me happier than to buy you roses. In fact, why don't you go change clothes, because I've arranged for a babysitter and we'll go do something special tonight, because there is nothing I would rather do tonight than spend the evening with you."

Right answer.

Why? Why wouldn't she say, "You're the most selfish Christian hedonist I've ever met! All you ever think about is what makes you happy!" What's going on here? Why is duty the wrong answer and delight the right answer? Do you understand?

If you get this then you got it, and I can go back to Minneapolis and praise God. My wife is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in her. If I try to change our relationship into a service relationship, into a duty relationship where I do not pursue my pleasure in her, she will be belittled... and so will God. When you get to heaven and the Father looks at you and says, "Why are you here? Why did you lay down your life for me?," you better not say, "It was my duty to come, because I'm a Christian." You better say, "Where else would I want to go? To whom else could I turn? You are my soul's desire!" And that is what this conference is about. This conference is about two great things coming together in the 268 generation from Isaiah 26:8: it is the passion of God for his name and renown and the passion of my heart to be satisfied in all of my desires. Those are two unshakable things in the universe. And what I hope you have seen is that they are one, because God and his name and his renown are most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him.

By John Piper
www.desiringgod.org

Reason #1

I want to begin by telling you some of the reasons that I'm here. One of the great advantages of being in a local church as a pastor for 16-17 years is that over the months and years the vision of the church and the vision of the pastor become one. About a year ago we produced a vision statement that goes like this:

    We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.

I think I can say without any hesitation that that's my life mission as well as the mission of Bethlehem Baptist church. So when I got an invitation, read about this conference, saw the word "passion," and saw the truth behind Isaiah 26:8--"We wait for you; your name and your renown is the desire of our soul"--I was hooked.

I want to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all of you and all the peoples of this world. So that is reason number one for why I'm here.

Reason #2

Reason number two is that I want to be a little match set to the kindling of your joy. I want you to leave from this place thrilled and happy in God.

Reason #3

And the third reason is I want you to see from Scripture that both reason one and reason two are the same reason. They are one. That is, to spread a passion for the supremacy of God and to be happy in God are virtually identical. Because God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him.

There is the sentence that I'll come back to again and again: God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him. So the songs that we've been singing and the thirst we've been expressing are ways of giving glory to God. Because the more we find our satisfaction in him, the more we drink deeply from him and eat at the banquet table which is him, the more his worth and his all-sufficiency is magnified. So there's no competition--and this is the marvel, this is the gospel to me, that I discovered in '68, '69 and '70 as God was doing a work in my life. There's no competition between God's passion to be glorified and your passion to be satisfied, because they are one.

There's another way to say this third reason for why I'm here: I'm here to torch a glacier. I have in my mind a picture. It came out of Matthew 24. In Matthew 24:12, looking at the end of the age, Jesus says: "Lawlessness will be multiplied and the love of many will grow cold." I'm scared to death of growing cold. I hate the thought that my love for God or my love for people would one day dry up or freeze up. Yet Jesus says "It's coming!" It's coming like a glacier across the world. So part of my expectation for the last days is that lawlessness will be multiplied and that the love of many will grow cold. Now that could be a very bleak description of the last days. But if you keep reading in Matthew 24, down a verse to 13, it says, "But those who endure to the end will be saved"--so somebody is going to endure. And the next verse says, "And this gospel of the kingdom"--paraphrase that "this gospel of spreading a passion for the supremacy of King Jesus--"this gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." Now put verse 12 alongside verse 14 and see if you feel the tension. "Lawlessness will be multiplied and the love of many will grow cold," but "this gospel of the kingdom"--of Christ's sovereign rule--"will spread to all the nations and then the end will come."

Now there is a tension between those two verses. The reason I know there is is because it is not cold people who are going to take that gospel back to your campuses. It's not cold people who are going to get it to the unreached peoples of the world. Now how do I know that? Because if you just go back up a couple of verses, to verse 9, you find something in a prophetic word that is very, very different. It says, "They will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death. You will be hated by all nations on my account," Jesus says. Now if that's true--if we will be delivered up to authorities in our missionary labor, if we will be killed, if we will be hated by every nation to which we will go--I know one thing for sure: it isn't cold people who are delivering that message. It's white hot worshippers of King Jesus who will get that done. Therefore, what I see in verses 9-14 of Matthew 24 is that, as the end of the age draws near, there are going to be people who are getting ice cold and there are going to be people who are white-hot enough to lay down their lives for Jesus among all the peoples of the world.

So my ministry at Bethlehem Baptist church and my arrival here is to torch a glacier. I gave this image one time in my church and a little girl, 6 or 7 years old, came up to me after the service--I encourage the children in my church to draw my sermons--and she said "Here's what I saw." She had drawn a marvelous glacier with Minneapolis written on it; it also had a little stick man holding up a torch and there was a hole in the glacier, at the top. Over it was a lot of sunshine, coming down through the hole.

Now here is my eschatology in a nutshell. If you wonder what your campus is going to look like when Jesus comes, or what Austin or Minneapolis, or wherever you're from is going to look like: the glacier is moving, and a lot of people are growing cold towards God--drying up, freezing up--but there is nothing in the Bible about the end times that says, "Bethlehem Baptist church," or even "Minneapolis," or, say, "the University of Texas at Austin has to be under that glacier." Nothing! If there are enough people with torches lit white-hot for God, torching the glacier, a big hole can be opened up over your campus, over your local church, and even over your city. And that's why I'm here: I want to lift my torch.

Spurgeon used to say over in England about a hundred years ago, when he preached at Metropolitan Tabernacle, "People come to watch me burn." They come to take their flickering little torch and stick it in my torch and go out and burn for another week for Jesus. I would be thrilled if you brought a flickering torch in here this morning and put it in my fire. That's why I'm here.
The Purpose of This Message: Forming a Foundation

There is a foundation for what I want to do. My task here is to talk about living for the glory of God, having a passion for the glory of God. I have two messages: this morning and tomorrow morning. This morning is foundation, and tomorrow is application.

The foundation is this: your passion for the supremacy of God in all things is based squarely on God's passion for the supremacy of God in all things. Your God-centeredness--if it's going to endure--has to be rooted in God's God-centeredness. If you want God to be supreme in your life, you have to see, and believe, and love the truth that God is supreme in the life of God. If you want God to be your treasure--like we've sung about here--so that you value God more than anything, you have to see and believe that God's treasure is God, that he treasures God more than he treasures anything. We may not withhold from God the highest pleasure in the universe, namely, the worship of God. That's foundation; that's what I want to talk about today.

And then tomorrow I want to talk about your pursuit of joy in God, and that this pursuit is necessarily implied in God's pursuit of his glory in your life.
God Is Passionate for His Glory

Let me begin with a little story: I spoke at Wheaton college--my alma mater--about 8 or 9 years ago. It was my first chance in this big, chandeliered, blue, beautiful chapel. And I stood up, and I said, "The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy him forever." And all my friends who were up in the balcony just went, "Oh no, he blew it on his first chance at his own alma mater to speak to these students, coming back after 20 years, and he misquotes the Westminster Catechism right off the bat and says, 'The chief end of God' instead of 'The chief end of man.'" And to their great relief I went on to say, "I really meant that." And I really mean it this morning: the chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself forever.

I grew up in the home of an evangelist. My dad, Bill Piper, taught me from when I was real little, the verse 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whatever you do, whether you eat or whether you drink, do everything to the glory of God." But I never heard anybody say that God does everything to the glory of God. And that the root of my living for the glory of God is that God lives for the glory of God.

I have never seen a Sunday school paper brought home that says, "God loves himself more than he loves you, and therein lies the only hope that he might love you, unworthy as you are." Never read that in any Sunday school paper, which is why we're working on curriculum at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Most of us grew up in homes, and in churches, where we got excited about being Christians to the degree that we thought God was excited about us, not to the degree that we got excited about a God-centered God.

It's very easy in a man-centered world, where self-esteem is the highest value, to be a Christian to the degree that it buttresses what you would've done anyway, without God. Who wouldn't be a Christian? Well, you're not a Christian if you only love what you would've loved without being confronted with the beauty of a God-centered God. If God is only a means to your self-advancement and exaltation, rather than your seeing in him something infinitely glorious, as a God consumned with the manifestation of his glory, then you need to check your conversion. So this is a big reality check, here in Austin at Passion '97. Very few people have ever said to me or shown me what I've now seen in the Bible, that God chose me for his glory.

I remember teaching a class on Ephesians 1, in 1976, in what we called "Interim" at Bethel College in those days, and working my way systematically through the first 14 verses of Ephesians and having my world just blown open, again. Because three times--verses 6, 12, and 14--it says that he chose us in him before the foundation of the world and he predestined us to be his sons, unto the praise of the glory of his grace.

He chose you. Why? That his glory and grace might be praised and magnified. Your salvation is to glorify God. Your election is to glorify God. Your regeneration was to glorify God. Your justification was for the glory of God. Your sanctification is for the glory of God. And one day your glorification will be an absorbance into the glory of God.

You were created for the glory of God.

Isaiah 43:6: "Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; everyone whom I created for my glory."

God rescued his people Israel from Egypt for his glory.

"Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your ways or your wonderful works. They rebelled against you at the Red Sea. Yet you saved them for your name's sake, that you might make known your power and your glory." Psalm 106:7.

In other words, he split the Red Sea and saved his rebellious people, so that he might make known his mighty power. And it spread all the way to Jericho and saved a prostitute, so that when they got there and got ready to blow the trumpets she was born again because she said, "We heard your name and your renown." And one woman and her family believed in a God-centered God and escaped destruction.

God had mercy on Israel in the wilderness for his glory.

God spared Israel in the wilderness over and over again. "The house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness," Ezekiel says, quoting God, "and I thought I would pour out my wrath, but I acted for the sake of my name lest it be profaned among the nations." And then finally God sends them into judgment in Babylon, and after 70 years mercy warms to them. He will not divorce his covenant bride and he brings them back. But why? What's the motive rooted in God's heart?

Listen to it from Isaiah 48: "For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another." That's a God-centered motive for mercy.

Jesus came and died for God's glory.

Jesus came into the world for what reason? O how many times we have quoted John 3:16. And it is gloriously true. And before we're done this morning, or at least tomorrow morning, you'll see that this emphasis right now and that emphasis, which you've known for a long time probably, are not at odds.

But why did he come? Why did Jesus come? According to Romans 15:8 he came for this reason: "Christ became a servant to the circumcision to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy." Christ came to earth, clothed himself with flesh, and died so that you would give glory to his Father for mercy. He came for his Father's sake. That's the main reason why he came, for his Father's glory. And his glory reaches its apex in the overflow of mercy.

Listen to this word from Romans 3: "God put Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood to demonstrate God's righteousness. It was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous. That's why he died. He died to vindicate the righteousness of God who had passed over sins like David's adultery and murder. Did it ever trouble you that God just passed over it and David just went on being king? Well it troubled Paul to the depths of his being that God is not righteous to pass over sins. And it wasn't just David. There were thousands of saints in the Old Testament and today whose sins he simply forgets and passes over. And Paul cried out, "How can you be God and do that? How can you be righteous and do that? How can you be just and do that? How can you be worthy of worship and do that?"--if any judge in Austin did that he'd be off the bench in a minute, if he aquitted a child-abuser, a rapist, a murderer--"and you do it every day, so what kind of God are you?"

The cross is the solution to a mega-theological problem, namely, how can God be God and forgive sins? Christ came to vindicate God in the saving of people like you. Salvation is a grandly and gloriously God-centered thing.

Jesus is returning to get glory.

Why is he coming again? Jesus is coming folks, he is coming. And let me tell you why he is coming and what you can do when he comes, so that you'll be ready and do it.

2 Thessalonians 1:9: "Those who do not obey the gospel will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in all who have believed." You see those two things? He is coming to be glorified, magnified in his saints, and to be marveled at. If you don't get started on that now, you won't be able to do it when he comes.

This conference exists to light a fire in your bones and ignite a fire in your minds and in your hearts to get you ready to meet King Jesus, so that you can continue throughout all eternity doing what he created you to do, namely, to marvel at him and magnify him.
We Must Magnify God like Telescopes

Magnify him, but not like a microscope. You know the difference between two kinds of magnification, don't you? There's telescope magnification and microscope magnification, and it's blasphemy to magnify God like a microscope. To magnifiy God like a microscope is to take something tiny and make it look bigger than it is. If you try to do that to God you blaspheme. But a telescope puts its lense on unimaginable expanses of greatness and tries to just help them look like what they are. That's what a telescope is for.

Twinkle, twinkle little star--you look up in the sky at night and they just look like pin-points. That's not what they are. You know that, you're in college right? They are big. They are really really big, and they are hot! And you don't have a clue except that once upon a time somebody invented a telescope, put their eye to it, and they thought, "It's bigger than the earth, millions of times bigger than the earth." That's the way God is. Your life exists to telescope God's glory to your campus. That's a big calling. I'm gonna talk about how tomorrow.
If God is God-Centered, How Can He Be Loving?

Here's the key question that I want to close with, because I know that it starts to rise here. I've said this truth, that God is a God-centered God and that his God-centeredness is the root of my God-centeredness. I've said that for twenty years to people, and the question begins to rise: "This does not sound loving, because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:5, 'Love seeks not its own.' And you're telling us now, for the last fifteen minutes, that God spends all of his time seeking his own. So either God is not loving or you're a liar." And that's a big problem. So let me try to answer how it is that God is loving in seeking his own self-exaltation.

Help from C.S. Lewis

I found the key in C.S. Lewis. If any of you have read Desiring God then you remember this quote. Lewis was a pagan till his late-20s and he hated God's vanity. He said that every time he read the words in the Psalms, "Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord"--and he knew Christian doctrine, that the Psalms were inspired--he knew that is was really God saying, "Praise me, Praise me" and it sounded like and old woman seeking compliments.That's a quote from Reflections on the Psalms. And then suddenly God came into C.S. Lewis' life. And this is what he wrote:

    The most obvious fact about praise, whether of God or anything, strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows in praise, unless sometimes we bring shyness in to check it. The world rings with praise: lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poets, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite games, praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians and scholars. My whole more general difficulty with the praise of God depended on my obsurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely valuable, what we delight to do--even what we cannot help doing--with regard to everything else we value.

And then here comes the key sentences:

    I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the joy is not complete until it is expressed. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are. The delight is incomplete until it is expressed.

Now, that was a key for me that unlocked something with regard to how God can be loving and self-exalting in all that he does. It goes like this. Let me put the pieces together for you.

The Answer to the Question

If God is to love you, what must he give you? He must give you what is best for you. The best thing in all the universe is God. If he were to give you all health, best job, best spouse, best computer, best vacations, best success in any realm, and yet withhold himself, then he would hate you. And if he gives you God and nothing besides, he loves you infinitely.

I must have God for my enjoyment if God is to be loving to me. Now Lewis has said that if God gives you himself to enjoy for all eternity, that joy will not come to consummation until you express it in praise. Therefore, for God to love you fully he cannot be indifferent to whether you bring your joy to consummation through praise or not. Therefore God must seek your praise if you are to be loved by him. Did that make sense? I wonder if I should run that by you again. That's the essence of my life. I believe it's the essence of the Bible.

To love you he must give you what is best for you. God is what is best for you. "Thou hast shown me the path of life. In thy presence in fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures, pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11). God gives himself to us for our pleasure. But Lewis has shown us that unless those pleasures find expression in praise to God, the pleasures are restricted. And therefore God, not wanting to restrict your pleasure in any way, says, "Praise me. In everything you do, praise me. In everything you do, exalt me. In everything you do, have a passion for my supremacy," which simply means that God's passion to be glorified and your passion to rejoice and be satisfied are not at odds. They come together. God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him.

Now that's the end of this morning's talk. Let me tell you where we're going with this tomorrow, so you can be praying toward it and so that you can, I hope, come and let me finish, because I'm not finished. If this is true, that God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him--and therefore there is no tension or contradiction between your satisfaction in him and his glorification in you--then the vocation of your life is to pursue your pleasure. I call it Christian hedonism, and I want to talk to you tomorrow about how you do that and why it will transform your relationships, your campuses, your worship, and your eternity.

hi blueangel, you are from Anda, Bohol?

can you send me a PM? I would like to know your real name.

Mr. Egg, himamata ang atong mga TB ladies diha sa eskina sa imong mga damgo.

By Loy Palapos
Bohol Sunday Post

Managers take varied sizes, forms, shades, and peculiarities; but one thing a person needs to succeed in the hierarchical ladder of responsibility and significance is the capability to go the extra mile.

A college graduate, or even an undergrad, who works in an establishment, always exhibits signs of competence or incompetence. There are those who toe-the-line using the house rules as a guide. There are misfits who don't even appreciate the job assigned to them. Those who prove loyal to the company are assets. Those who kill time and don't possess the necessary work attitude are liabilities.

But if there is one person top management values intensely, he is that one who can readily adjust to the work climate, can inter-relate positively with his peers, is goal-oriented, and who can go the extra mile.

Going the extra mile is anathema to many lazy bones; but to the purpose-driven, it is a way of life. He who arrives in his work-place and keeps on glancing at the clock on the wall or his wrist watch is not the goal-oriented, but the profiteer who cannot give a minute of extra time to his work, whether it is finished or not. The worker who goes the extra mile is engrossed in his task and forgets time, and willing to go on toiling past his scheduled time even without the material equivalent of his work rendered. After all, he believes that when one loves his work, it is not work at all, but pleasure.

Dennis Pascual Tan Du (DTD) belongs to this elite category of workers who, even at the dawning of an employment, exhibited that managerial capability to go the extra mile. He started working at Dunkin Donuts when it opened in Cebu City in 1986, simultaneously taking up Bachelor of Science in Commerce (Major in Banking) at the University of San Carlos. He worked his way through college, thus imbibing love for work that has become his trademark since then.

Starting off as an ordinary Finisher, he climbed his way to the top via a laborious route of learning one skill after another as he escalated the corporate ladder.

Before his accolades as a full-pledged manager, complete with administrative skills, he was already a highly congratulated marketing man.

This interview took place at ICM last Wednesday, a few days after his arrival form Davao City where he relinquished his single-blessedness when he exchanged nuptial vows with Mrs. Pearl Marie Gumera Du.

LMP: What was your first job?
DTD: At Dunkin Donuts. After I graduated in high school, I went to Cebu to study in 1986. I had my first job when Dunkin Donuts opened in Cebu on December 15, 1986. Our first store was in Fuente Osmeña. That was the first store in the Visayas.

LMP: What was the position?
DTD: First, I was assigned in the production area as Finisher. Then later, I was promoted pag-ka Baker. Then after that, Stock-In-Charge sa stockroom. Then, I was assigned in the sales area, also as a Cashier until 1995. After 1995, I was transferred to Cagayan de Oro as Production Supervisor.

LMP: Was that the time that Cagayan de Oro opened?
DTD: No. Cagayan de Oro opened in 1991. After Cagayan, we opened in Iligan City on December 8, 1997. I was promoted to Officer-In-Charge. I was in-charge of the sales, the production, and also the admin. That was for 5 years. Within those years, we opened 13 branches in Iligan alone. In 2003 to 2004, I came back to Cebu to help out with Jonies Flavored Chicken. It's a sister company of Dunkin Donuts. I was the manager. Then in 2004, when ok na ang Jonies Flavored Chicken, I was transferred again to Dunkin Donuts Cebu, as a manager also.

LMP: Was that the entire area of Cebu?
DTD: Yes, the entire operation. The owner decided to have two Operation Managers because with 50 outlets, dili na kaya sa isa ra.

LMP: Until when was this?
DTD: Mga 6 months lang to siya actually, because we opened a branch here in Bohol last June 30, 2004. So on May 2004, I was transferred here. We opened 6 outlets simultaneously that time.

LMP: How many outlets do you have in Bohol alone?
DTD: It's already seven.

LMP: How many in the entire country?
DTD: We have branches here in Bohol, Cebu, Iligan, Cagayan de oro, Butuan. Around 130 plus outlets in the entire Philippines.

LMP: Where did Dunkin Donuts originate?
DTD: It originated in Massachusetts in 1950. They started as cart-on-wheels.

LMP: What's the name again of the one who originated Dunkin Donuts?
DTD: William Roosenberg.

LMP: Is it already global? Naa na ba sa China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong?
DTD: Most are in America, and countries affiliated with America.

LMP: What is the advantage of Dunkin Donuts?
DTD: Aside from the quality and also the product which is lami, ang donut also doesn't necessarily have to be hot all the time. You can bring the donut anywhere. Whether it's hot or cold.

LMP: Isn't that also true with the other donuts? Comparatively?
DTD: Mister Donut was already here when we came. They have been operating for 6 years already, but it's a cart-type lang. The disadvantage there is that they don't have their own commissary. They get donuts from Cebu. With Dunkin Donuts, it is mandated that we have our own commissary. Also Dunkin Donuts is territorial. If you get Bohol, imu na jud na. Not like others nga kung di nimo kayang mag-abli ug outlet ana nga lugar, then they will give it to another operator. So it would become a competition already. But for Dunkin, naay policy nga kung ikaw, ikaw ra gyud. Then there's a limit nga way gawasay sa imong territory. It's a form of discipline.

LMP: That's good. It's self regulation.
DTD: Kay kung madakpan ka, you'll pay a big penalty.

LMP: How would you describe the acceptance of Dunkin Donuts here in Tagbilaran City?
DTD: Nakaila ang Bol-anon ug donut dugay na, because mapalit man na nila sa airport. If they go to Cebu, pwedi pod nila mapalit before coming home. Na educate na sila although not thoroughly.

LMP: That's the reason why it became the "pasalubong ng bayan".
DTD: Before it was"sounds good, tastes better". When we found out nga it has become a pasalubong, we changed it to "pasalubong ng bayan". Our packaging is designed nga dili siya ma-bulky. Honestly Sir Loy, when we opened last June 30, we sold around 80,000 units. We had a sale of 1.1 million for just 1 day.

LMP: Are there other outlets in the municipalities?
DTD: No. We tried that before. We stayed for a month, but we found out that the sales was kulang. So what we're trying to do now is that everytime there's a tabo or fiesta, we just visit them. Mobile ra.

LMP: What do you like to consider as a number one characteristic of a successful marketing guy?
DTD: Being humble. Consistent.

LMP: When you say consistent, what does it mean?
DTD: Murag win-win ba, Sir Loy. Because I have observed nga kon kita na ang manginahanglan, parang they tend to forget nga naa tay pinagsamahan. So ang ako gyud, ang importante sa business, sa PR and marketing, you have to give. It's not always nga maghunahuna ka nga kailangan take lang nang take, we don't give na.

LMP: Is that a policy with Dunkin Donuts? Or it depends upon the one who is managing?
DTD: Yes. As long as you know how to justify. It's like if you're giving this much, you will likewise receive this much. The owner doesn't ask you kon unsay imong strategy but as long as you give them the profit and everything is justifiable.

LMP: One way of empowerment. Is it one of your policies to promote as managers those from below?
DTD: Not necessarily, but preferably, because we know each other already. Ganahan lang nako is ang mga tawo nga natudluan nako before, ka level na nako karon in other branches. But the bottom line there is ang teaching nga gikahatag ug nakat-unan.

LMP: You teach them the craft?
DTD: I teach them everything because I believe that you are successful if you make others successful as well.

LMP: Let's talk about your marriage.
DTD: I met my wife just last June 25.

LMP: A whirlwind romance? From where is she?
DTD: Her father is from Zamboanga. Her mother is from Bohol.

LMP: She lives here? What was she doing here?
DTD: That time, she was the secretary of Dr. Joy Yap sa Dental Clinic sa San Jose Street. I brought my mother because she complained nga nipis na iyang gums. Iyang ngipon pod sakit. Kaila mi ni Dr. Yap so I brought her there last June 25. Then I met her.

LMP: That was love at first time.
DTD: Definitely. It's like magic. I never felt in love for 38 years. Karon lang.

LMP: How about your plans for the future? Would you be a Dunkin Donuts guy until forever?
DTD: The owners are very supportive man pod. Actually Sir Loy, Rosa Jesalem and Jonathan Jesalem, the owners, are like my second parents. It would take the most lucrative offer for me to consider leaving for another opportunity.

LMP: It's like you're a member of the family.
DTD: Yes, and they consider me as that. There are times when I treat the company like mine.

LMP: Would you say that with that attitude, treating the company like yours, has helped you a lot in terms of developing the company?
DTD: Yes, it does. But I also have to remember that I have some limitations as an employee. Naa may uban nga mo-abuso na. But I am always true to my responsibility.

LMP: What are the next plans of Dunkin here in Bohol?
DTD: Actually right now, we are renovating. We adopt the new image outlets in our stores.

LMP: What do you mean new image outlets?
DTD: Every 3 years, there's a new concept of outlets for uplifting the image or the looks of the store. We are making it bigger.

LMP: How about the sales crew, uniforms?
DTD: We're actually suggesting that. Hopefully by next year, ma change na pod na.

LMP: In Tagbilaran, how many employees do you have?
DTD: Now, we have 50 employees. Including the sales crew, production, and admin.

LMP: Where is your commissary?
DTD: At San Jose. Beside Plaza Marcela.

LMP: In every outlet, how many people do you have?
DTD: It depends. If it's a big outlet, mga 4 people including the supervisor. If gamay ra, mga 1 or 2.

LMP: How about your production, is it expanding?
DTD: No. Our production is designed to cater 10 outlets.

LMP: So what are the strategies that you are using now?
DTD: We cannot really change the mix of our products. But we make it lighter, and sweeter.

LMP: In America they have bigger donuts.
DTD: That's the standard size.

LMP: So you mean the economy is reflected in the donut?
DTD: Yes, before when we started, the donut was really big. And it only cost P3.00. But last 2005, the donut became 18 pesos na. But if our target are the children and masses, who would buy from us if it costs that much? So that's why, we had a concept; we call it fan-size. We made it a bit smaller but the price has become 10 pesos.

LMP: I also noticed that you have a lot of varieties.
DTD: Yes, we have around 100 varieties of donuts.

LMP: Are you ahead of your competitors as of now?
DTD: For me, yes. Right now, we consider our competitors as tanan na. Not just other donuts but also food chains. Even sa terminal, we are competing with the egg vendors.

LMP: When you will have children, will you encourage them to be a part of Dunkin Donuts and be Managers?
DTD: Sure. Why not?

LMP: Are you a happy man?
DTD: I am. My mother has been given a second chance at life kay naayo na siya sa sakit sa liver. I also have my wife.

LMP: Your personal life is okay. As a manager, it's also okay, how about the people?
DTD: You meet different people everyday because of your work. You just have to be patient, consistent and disciplined. With your subordinates, you have to teach them to go the extra mile. Nga dili magkwenta ug time. Ang ako pa nga mga tawo karon ang mosulti nga "lakaw ta dinhi Sir, mgawas ta sa store". Because if you will just stay there, kuwang ang kita. If the employees are like that, sila na ang mo-motivate nimo, you could say nga successful ka. Sila na mismo amg mi-motivate sa manager, which is a good thing.

Still in his honeymoon stage, Dennis T. Du exudes contentment in the highest order, like a lot of debonair swains who have found the love of their lives. For him it was love at first sight, one day last June. The receptionist-secretary took his fancy, and with it his whole heart, which culminated in total surrender from his total freedom as an unattached bachelor.

Now that he is starting his own family, he asked his beloved to resign from her job and be a full-time housewife, which she readily consented. It takes two to tango, and now that they are together, their future has started to be more rosy.

Perhaps, a baby a year from now would make his family complete. Any alteration of his dreams?

"None as of now; my association with Dunkin Donuts makes me a fulfilled man," he told this writer. In the 21 continuous years he has been with this company, he feels he is a part of the family. Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan and Rosa Jesalem, the Philippine franchisers of Dunkin Donuts are just like his parents. He cannot afford to disappoint them, more so with his performance. He takes pride with the thought that he has trained several of his staff during the past many years, some of them now at his level of competence and rank. Working with those he has trained before is a great source of satisfaction, knowing that he has helped his subordinates grow.

And all the time he is still looking for more who can go the extra mile.

By Lucy Laing

As a first-time mother, Sara Herman thought it was only to be expected that she had an enormous bump after five months.

What she and doctors failed to realise was that the petite mother-to-be, who is only just over 5ft, was expecting a giant.

When Jack eventually arrived at 37 weeks he weighed an astonishing 14lb 8oz.

And now, after health problems kept him in hospital for four months, he is enjoying life at home in Manchester with 37-year-old Mrs Herman and her husband Keith.

"At five months I looked like I was going to give birth at any moment and the size of my bump meant it was difficult for me to get around," said Mrs Herman, a product sourcer.

"But because it was the first time I'd been pregnant, I just thought this was normal."

Mrs Herman became pregnant in September last year, shortly after marrying Keith, who runs a sales promotion business.

A scan at 14 weeks showed the baby was growing fast and doctors even thought that the due date was wrong as the baby was so large.

"When they said they thought Jack was going to be big, I imagined a 9lb or 10lb baby at the most," she said. "And that's what the doctors thought too."

When she was five months pregnant, the couple went on holiday to New York, where strangers asked her if her baby was due any day.

She said: "Jack was actually about 7lb then, so he was actually the size of an average new-born baby.

"I was finding it very difficult to get around the department stores, and had to lie down in the afternoons as I was so exhausted from all the weight I was carrying."

At 37 weeks, Mrs Herman was admitted to Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester as she had not felt the baby move much for the last two days.

"He was actually so big that there wasn't much room for him to move around, which is why I hadn't felt much movement," she said.

"I was taken straight down for a caesarean. The doctors actually gasped when they brought him out."

Tests showed that Jack had grown so big because of a condition called hyperinsulism which causes the body to produce too much insulin, leading to weight gain.

His heart muscle had thickened since it had to work extra hard because of his size.



source: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/womenfamily.html?in_article_id=496335&in_page_id=1799

Organizers of a beauty pageant in Puerto Rico are investigating a case of sabotage after a contestant's evening gowns and makeup were doused with pepper spray, causing her to break out in hives.

Ingrid Marie Rivera beat 29 pageant rivals to become the 2008 Miss Universe contestant â€" despite the hives.

Ms Rivera was composed while onstage before the cameras and judges, but once backstage, she needed ice packs on her face and body.

“We thought at first it was an allergic reaction, or maybe nerves,” said pageant spokesman Harold Rosario.

"But the second time, we knew it couldn't have been a coincidence."

Later tests revealed the presence of pepper spray.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Ms Rivera’s bag containing her gowns, makeup and credit cards was also stolen.

And the last day of competition was postponed due to a bomb threat.

Unsurprisingly, Ms Rivera said she had considered quitting the contest.

"At one point I said, 'Am I a masochist?"' she said.

"But I said, 'I am with God and this is my goal, regardless of the results."'

source: http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22822116-5012788,00.html

published by the Bohol Chronicle on March 7, 2004

Some 2,000 Boholanos will gather this morning at Malacanang Park to initially launch the new kick-off of the Boholano Association of Metro Manila, Inc. (BAMMI).

The huge flock of Boholanos will be hosted with a luncheon gathering by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, representing Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Napolcom Director Bernie Calibo, reelected president of BAMMI and realtor-civic leader Purita Soliven, reelected chairperson will lead the Boholanos in today's affair at the park.

This activity will preempt the scheduled induction of BAMMI at the Heroe's Hall of Malacañang with Pres. Arroyo as inducting officer. This induction rite is set on March 17.

Of the 47 Bohol towns, some 36 municipalities have their respective associations in Metro Manila.

The "adopt-a-town" project will be formally launched during today's affair.

By Michael Ligalig
Published by the Bohol Chronicle on March 7, 2004

Pamilacan Island's former whale hunters now turned tour guides on Friday asked the National Ecotourism Office of the Department of Tourism (DOT) to stop DOT's "unequal treatment" and to abolish the alleged business monopoly by a travel operator.

"ââ,¬Â¦we felt (the) DOT has given false promises in their project in Pamilacan as none of the benefits reach the majority members of the local communityââ,¬Â¦," read a resolution passed last Friday by the Pamilacan Island Boat Operators and Spotters Association, Inc. (PIBOSAI).

PIBOSAI officials complained that Travel Village and Tours, owned and managed by Walter and Lourdes Sultan, allegedly monopolized the dolphin and whale watching enterprise, "to the disadvantage of the other DOT accredited travel agent and tour operators in Bohol."

The officials said it was the Travel Village's complete contact information which was being printed in the posters used in the marketing and promotion of the so-called marine tour. The colored posters were printed at government expense promoting a private travel operator identified closely with Gov. Erico Aumentado.

"ââ,¬Â¦prudence and ethics dictates that any support intended to enhance the delivery of the tourism services should involve the maximum participation of all the affected stakeholders regardless of religion and political affiliationââ,¬Â¦," the resolution said.

The Marine Life Tour is a project supported by the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAid), DOT, provincial government, and the local government of Baclayon.

Jojo Baritua, PIBOSAI manager, told the Chronicle that if the project is under the government, it has to benefit for everybody. He said the DOT envisioned to professionalize all former whale and dolphin hunters, but that vision has failed since only few were benefited by the project.

"The benefit should not be consigned to one business entity," Baritua said.

"We are in a disadvantage because they (Travel Village) get free production of advertisement," he added.

Printed in all materials and brochures produced through government funding were the following contact details: "for inquiries and bookings, please contact: in Bohol, telno: (038) 411 3510 local 607 | telfaxno: (038) 411 5928, in Cebu telno (032) 231 1495 | email: tvillage@mozcom.com or PIDDWO mobtelno: (0917) 971 3101 or contact your favorite travel agent:."

The Chronicle checked the landline numbers and it was confirmed that the no. 411-3510 local 607 is the front desk number of the Bohol Tropics Resort where Travel Village's office is located while 411 5928 is the Travel Village's direct number.The number for Cebu is that of the IslandSkipTrip, a business partner of the Travel Village.

Lately, new brochures were reportedly circulating but now without the name of Travel Village. However, the same contact numbers appeared in the brochures.

PROMISES

The resolution noted that the DOT, in partnership with the New Zealand, "promises to provide livelihood opportunities that will benefit the majority of the people of Pamilacan."

"Majority of the people of Pamilacan has not felt the assistance of the (DOT)ââ,¬Â¦," PIBOSAI officials said in the resolution.

They said that since the banning of catching dolphins, whales, whale sharks and manta rays, the islanders' livelihood now largely depends on watching tours, looking forward to DOT's promise of assistance.

Even so, the officials said they noticed that the DOT "has concentrated only its assistance to a few people who were not directly involved in the hunting (operations)."

Baritua said Travel Village is working with the Pamilacan Island Dolphin and Whale Watching Organization (PIDWWO). He said PIDWWO has only two boats being used for whale watching.

"We pray and request the National Ecotourism Office of the Department of Tourism to give equal treatment to all organized group and tour operatorsââ,¬Â¦," the group appealed in the resolution.

The resolution was unanimously approved on March 5 by Baritua, Maximiniano Valeroso (chairman/president); Teotito Valeroso (vice president); Nonita Baugbog (secretary); Moises Opada (treasurer); Oseta Rodulfo (auditor); Teresito Arano and Marcial Aguipo (PROs); and Rogelio Arano, Teodoro Miculob, Victorino Araula, Nazario Valeroso and Teodoro Pioquinto (board of directors).

Copy of the resolution has been furnished to DOT Manila, provincial tourism council, Bohol Tourism Office, and the DOT-Region VII.

SULTAN

Sultan was used to be the technical consultant on investments of Aumentado. However, Sultan filed his resignation after tourism industry players demanded his ouster due to glaring conflict of interest being a tour operator himself.

However, even after his resignation, Sultan continued to attend government meetings as shown in the recorded meetings of the Regional Tourism Council (RTC) chaired by Aumentado.

The local tourism industry, led by top hotelier Anos Fonacier, has expressed surprise why Sultan continued to act as if connected with the governor's office.

REPLY

Sultan, in an interview yesterday, said it was the decision of the PIDWWO to choose Travel Village as its partner because "PIDWWO requested our support and they recognize our capability."

"PIDWWO cannot run its own business without marketing network," Sultan said.

Sultan said that long before the New Zealand Aid came in, Travel Village has been supportive to PIDWWO through training.

When the NZAid was looking for beneficiary, Sultan said, the choice was PIDWWO "because it's a people's organization," unlike the PIBOSAI, a private group.

"PIDWWO was the only qualified and accredited group. The organization's members have been professionalized," Sultan said.

He said he had no problem working with Baritua's group as long as they would meet the standard.

"The (DOT) program has benefited both the PIDWWO and the PIBOSAI," noted Sultan.

"On the issue on equal treatment, the DOT will be the one to answer that," Sultan said when pressed to comment.

published by the Bohol Chronicle on March 7, 2004

A homemade grenade exploded as a drug suspect was cornered by CIDG-PNP operatives at his residence at Airport Road, corner Lamdagan Street, early Friday morning.

Police Inspector Joe Pacito Yape Jr., chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), identified the suspect as Paul P. Dagamac, 34, of Cogon district, this city.

In the search warrant issued by RTC Executive Judge Fernando Fuentes, the area raided was pinpointed as a drug den, a venue for the sale of shabu.

CIDG agents PO1 Renato Garcia and PO1 Herold Bihag alleged that the suspect was engaged in the distribution of shabu.

When operatives surrounded the area, the suspect noticed their presence. It was at this juncture that Dagamac allegedly threatened to release the grenade, and barred the operatives to go near him.

Sensing the arrest, he released the grenade. However, a shrapnel strayed upon explosion and hit him.

Operatives said that neighbors interviewed confirmed that the suspect is peddling drugs at said residence at the corner before entering the City Airport.

Dagamac was brought to the Gallares Memorial Hospital for treatment. Afterwhich, he was transferred to Camp Dagohoy stockade.

Seized by the operatives were two decks of suspected shabu, plastic with traces of shabu, empty plastic of various sizes, twisted foil, rolled tin foil, syringe, improvised sealer, forcep, a cutter and tooter. Also seized from the suspect's bedroom were an improvised hunting knife, a shirt with PNP markings, leather wallet containing the badge, ATM Landbank card and notebook with calculator.

The city PNP operatives who joined the raid were led by Police Inspector Miguel Jimenez.

With the raiding team were Zacarias Castro of DOJ, Cogon barangay kagawads Jeremias Pabe and Philip Besas, Cogon Barangay Chief Tanod Generoso Diez and DYRD radio reporter Willy Maestrado.

PO2 John Guilbert Basalo conducted the inventory of seized items inside the Dagamac residence last Friday.

The suspect will be formally charged for violation of Sec. 6, Art. 2 of RA 9165 known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

By Michael Ligalig
published on March 7, 2004 by the Bohol Chronicle

The independent composite evaluation team (ICET) dissecting the alleged anomalies in the construction of the new City Hall still cannot proceed its "technical" probe after the city engineer's office on Friday failed to provide the other "crucial documents."

However, the legal and auditing aspects of the investigation will commence this week.

City Hall sources privy to the multi-million project have described the lacking documents ââ,¬â€œ as-built plan of the realized building ââ,¬â€œ a "smoking gun" of the controversy.

City engineer Pianicita Castolo only provided the blueprint of the "proposed architectural and engineering plans and specifications" but without the as built-plan of the realized building, according to probe team member, architect Socrates Fucanan of the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP).

Fucanan and engineer Wellington Pilongo of the Federated Parents and Teachers Association (FPTA) told the Chronicle the lacking documents were vital in finding out if what was proposed was actually implemented in the construction.

"We will check if what was planned was really implemented," Fucanan said.

Fucanan and Pilongo noted that any glaring overpricing (or anomaly) in the project would be unmasked by examining the lacking documents.

But while the technical work suffered delay, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) were due to start reviewing the legal and auditing/budget aspects respective-ly, noted IBP president and probe team leader Florendo Columnas.

DARE

"I challenge the City Hall to produce the lacking documents," replied Columnas when asked if City Hall can fulfill what it promised to the public: to be transparent to the people of Tagbilaran.

Earlier, mayor Joe Torralba indicated that all the documents pertinent to the project were open for public scrutiny, saying "I have nothing to hide."

Columnas quoted Castolo as saying there was already an agreement between the latter and Ariel Migriño, staff of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, to have the documents ready for photocopy on Friday.

But Migriño had denied there was such an agreement.

A letter on Friday from the ICET was sent to Castolo asking her office to provide the documents.

NO FUNDING

The team also failed to take off its technical work when it cannot reproduce the gigantic sheets of documents.

Measuring 48 inches on all sides, some 50 sheets of the blueprint of the proposed plans and specifications and another 40 sheets of the as-built plan could cost around P17,000 for reproduction (each set for four persons).

During the team's meeting on Thursday at the second floor of the new City Hall, none had the personal cash to spend for the photocopy.

According to the resolution that created the ICET, expenses for paperwork and documentation will be taken from the SP fund.

However, the SP fund source was not specified except that it will be taken from SP's "other available sources."

Confronted with tight finances, Migriño asked the opinion of city vice-mayor Jorge Cabalit who advised that the matter had to be canvassed first.

There is only one establishment in the city that can serve "large paper xerox."

The team, which members are working voluntarily (without even budget for snacks), said the canvass was no longer necessary.

RESOLUTION

Probe member lawyer Salva Diputado of the Bohol Times said the resolution creating the ICET had a lapse when it was not accompanied with specific funding for expenses.

He said that the city councilors had overlooked future expenses the team would incur.

INHIBIT

Public works and highways district engineer Celestino Adlaon, representing PICE, did not attend the meeting. He had been absent twice in a row.

Columnas on Friday sent a letter to Adlaon clarifying the latter's commitment to the ICET.

Earlier, Adlaon expressed reluctance about the ICET, saying he was a government employed.

Although there was yet no immediate report he was pressured by City Hall, Adlaon had earlier expressed hesitancy to the team, saying "what if the findings would be adverse to the Torralba administration."

Columnas said there has to be a representative from PICE if Adlaon backs out.

Adlaon, for his part, reasoned he was not informed about the two meetings.

On the other hand, PICPA's Leah Tirol-Magno, niece of Nuevas Tirol-Montes (vice mayoralty running mate of Betty Torralba), did not also attend the meeting twice in a row. Last week, she was represented by Merlinda Mendez.

The team had agreed to meet every Thursday of the week.

Published by the Bohol Chronicle in 2004
Reported by Ric Obedencio and Danny Reyes

Two members of the New People's Army were killed during a 45-minute gunbattle with government troops in Sitio Ipo, Barangay Bigtik in Catigbian town about 3 p.m. Friday.

The rebels, led by Kumander Domingo Samuya alias Ka Minggoy or Ka Jake, numbering to about 40 were chanced upon by troopers of the 17th Special Forces Company under Capt. Dennis Cuaresma.

The armed clash resulted to the evacuation of some 116 families, comprising 528 residents.

Intelligence reports revealed suspicion that the rebels were about to hold a conference in the secluded sitio when they were spotted by the government troops.

The slain rebels were among those assigned to guard the area. Their bodies were recovered during clearing operations conducted by elements of the 6th Special Forces under Col. Abundio Cases based in Bilar town.

Senior Police Officer 3 Modesto Renoblas, Catigbian PNP station commander, told the Chronicle that the suspected leader of the rebels is a resident of Catigbian, a brother of a chief tanod working under Catigbian Mayor Aurelio Dinorog.

The slain rebels, identities still unknown, were in their middle 20s, with height measuring 5'2" and 5'6".

After five days, if no claimants will come, they will be buried, Dinorog said.

BETTER INTELLIGENCE

The military is on the upper hand of the drive against insurgency after a much improved support of the civilians, according to Col. Juanito P. Gomez, commanding officer of the 302nd infantry battalion.

He said that it was the fourth encounter during the first quarter of the year, an indication that rebel operations can easily be aborted by the military.

Working under Col. Gomez are the 15th IB, 6th Special Forces, engineering battalion and the scout rangers.

EVACUATION AND FEAR

In a separate interview, Triple Union barangay chair Cresencio Lupian, 50, confirmed that some 40 families evacuated to the barangay hall and St. Vincent Chapel. The barangay about seven kilometers from the town proper, has 216 households.

After the pulong-pulong conducted by the Special Forces, the residents were allowed to go back home.

Residents of puroks 1 and 3 evacuated due to proximity to the encounter site.

Daguing said that some 68 households took shelter at the barangay hall after the first volley of gunshots.

The barangay chair said that burst of gunfire prompted him to suspend a session with the barangay council. He immediately called his tanods to urge residents of sitio Ipo to evacuate to nearby elementary schools.

Fear still gripped Teodora Batestes, 45, a resident of Liboron; and Ciriaca Tortor, 54, of Triple Union when both were interviewed by the Chronicle yesterday. Tortor expressed relief when she was allowed to go back with her husband Nicolas Tortor, 55, and their only child Richard, 19.

RELIEF GOODS

The evacuees will be provided with foodstuff during their stay at the barangay halls.

Dinorog and his archrival in politics, Bert Salinas, sent sacks of rice and canned goods for the evacuees.

The mayor mobilized the municipal health office personnel to attend to the health needs of the evacuees while the provincial Social Welfare Office led by Constancia Tuñacao delivered goods yesterday.

Liboron and Triple Union as well as nearby barangay Bagtic are recipients of the provincial government's poverty reduction program initiated by the Bohol Poverty Reduction Management Office under the governor's office.

published in 2004 in the Bohol Chronicle

City Hall authorities released last Monday the lacking documents vital to the investigation on the construction of the new City Hall.

Lawyer Florendo Columnas, head of the Independent Composite Evaluation Team (ICET) said that, as promised by City Engr. Pianicita Castolo, the documents were released to the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

However, Columnas (as of 7 p.m. last night) said that he has to check if all the lacking documents are intact as released last Monday.

Columnas said that the probe team will convene at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon for its second meeting at the office of the city lawmaking body.

Archt. Soc Fucanan, representing the United Architects Association of the Phils. (UAP) was commissioned by Columnas to conduct an inventory of the documents released last Monday. He said that Archt. Fucanan will be more familiar with the documents since majority of the "missing" documents are technical in nature.

The ICET asked the office of Engr. Castolo to release the following documents: architectural and engineering plans for the first contract of P49.9 million; architectural and engineering plans for the additional works of P25.2 million, bill of materials and estimates of the revised or additional works of P25.2 million, specifications for the additional works of P25.2 million; as-built plan for the realized building and supplemental documents of the additional works, namely supplemental contract, and availability of funds.

Columnas said that these vital documents will be taken as the basis of the investigation.

The ICET head reminded the public that the ongoing investigation is an off-shot of the resolution approved by the SP creating the said body and at the same time commissioning it to conduct a truly "independent investigation."

The latest documents released last Monday will be evaluated by the probe team when it convenes tomorrow.

The body met last Thursday for their first meeting. However, it failed to proceed since vital documents were not included in the documents released by the office of the city accountant through the Commission on Audit.

The non-availability of the vital documents surprised members of the probe team.

Together with Atty. Columnas in the probe team are Archt. Fucanan of UAP; Leah Magno of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), Engr. Welington Pilongo of the Federated Parents-Teachers Association and lawyer Salvador Diputado of Bohol Times, representing the media. Highways Dist. Engr. Celestino Adlaon failed to attend the meeting last Thursday.

The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has been active in the Philippines for more than 40 years and established an office in Manila in 1977. To complement its growing investments, IFC is expanding its advisory services to include public-private partnerships and private sector development. IFC is focusing on Mindanao and opened an office in Davao City in 2006. As part of its advisory services, IFC with support from the Governments of Australia and Canada, established a multilateral program to support the development of small and medium enterprises.

To further its Advisory Services work,

IFC is currently looking for a RESEARCH CONSULTANT

to evaluate the Project: Establishment of Farmer-based Seaweed Nursery Enterprises

Scope Of Work: The research consultant will conduct a qualitative and critical evaluation of the progress of the two established seaweed nursery enterprises located in Arena Blanco and Manicahan in Zamboanga City. The consultant shall look at the activities that had been implemented, ascertain the successes and failures, and draw lessons that could be used to replicate or improve future similar projects.

Overall, the objectives of the assignment are as follows:

   1. Assess the overall post project situation in relation to its impact on the seaweed sector in Zamboanga. This will also include the analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of project implementation and management, including technical, financial and managerial aspects of the nursery enterprises. 
   2. Evaluate the impact and relevance of the project and determine to what extent the project has contributed to efforts towards providing a sustainable and profitable source of livelihood among farmer beneficiaries
   3. Define and assess any unexpected event, effect and impact, either harmful or beneficial, and offer explanation for their occurrence.

The consultant is expected to come out with a proposal which contains a research design detailing the proposed list of information to be obtained, data collection, analysis and reporting plan, cost and timing estimates. This proposal will be finalized in collaboration with IFC Philippines. The evaluation is intended to be qualitative but the consultant is encouraged to recommend the most-appropriate and cost-effective methodology that is best suited to accomplish the evaluation objectives. The study must be completed before January 31, 2007.

Qualification and Requirements:

1.    Graduate degree holder in aquaculture-related courses or production-based business courses

2.    Demonstrated project monitoring and evaluation skills (proven field research and analytical capabilities)

3.    Knowledge of the seaweed industry is a must

4.    Experience in working with seaweed farmers especially in Western Mindanao area

5.    Fluency in English

6.    Good technical writing skills

Interested parties will be assessed against the following criteria:                       

       1.    Background and experience                         15%

       2.    Technical Expertise                                     55%

       3.    Timetable                                                   10%

       4.    Cost                                                           20%

All submission of interest and proposal should be sent in electronic format to Darrel Flores (dflores1@ifc.org) not later than the close of business on December 3, 2007. Please indicate in your proposal your World Bank Vendor ID if you already have one. All proposals will be treated with strictest confidence. For corporate information, please visit www.ifc.org. You may email Darrel N. Flores for complete Terms of Reference.

For those already registered with the PCCO CV database, you do not need to submit your current detailed CV (just update online thru your personal account, if you need to). For those who have not yet registered with us, please do so online by accessing the CV registration page of our website (http://www.pcco.org.ph/pcco3/register.asp) and submit a copy of your current detailed CV.

We thank you in advance for your interest. 

ELSA BAYSIC - SUMIDO
General Manager
Philippines-Canada Cooperation Office (PCCO)
The Program Support Unit of CIDA in the Philippines
www.pcco.org.ph

By Angela Sanchez
published in 2004 in the Bohol Chronicle

The Israeli government has again strengthened its ties with the provincial government when it sponsored the On-the-Spot Course on Integrated Rural Development Planning, Micro-Enterprise and Rural Tourism Development.

Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Yehoshua Sagi keynoted the opening of the 12-day training, which is running from March 1 to 12, here in Tagbilaran City.

Gov. Erico B. Aumentado was on hand to welcome Sagi and his wife, Hanna, upon arrival in the city last Monday. Sagi is the second Israeli envoy to visit Bohol, following his predecessor Amb. Irit Ben-Abba.

Two Israeli technical experts are here to lecture on integrated rural development planning, micro-enterprise and rural tourism development to 45 selected participants from the provinces of Bohol, Cotabato and Sarangani.

In his keynote speech, Sagi pointed out that development and tourism cannot thrive so long as the government carries the burden of safety in its back.

At the same time, he called on media to keep to the facts without blowing them up.

By way of explanation, Sagi cited his native land, Israel, where the reports from CNN and other international news organization picture it as a dangerous place to walk in. He said, however, that in reality, this is not the case. Although bombings go on, life also goes on as usual in Israel, Sagi pointed out.

"If we bow our heads to the terrorists, it will be the end of the free world. We have to keep our heads up and continue on," the envoy advised.

Aumentado, on the other hand, thanked the Israeli government, particularly its Center for International Cooperation (Mashav) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for authorizing the 12-day training, which is being handled by Michael Gorelik, the deputy director for international cooperation of the Weitz Center for Development Studies and Ben Josef Ilan, a professor and technical expert in rural tourism.

The governor said that the data, information and knowledge shared by the two experts would help the local governments of the three provinces move forward, and with the introduction of rural tourism development, we could develop the industry.

At the same time, Aumentado pointed out that the training is also significant because micro-enterprise is one of the key components of the provincial government's poverty reduction programs, and small and medium enterprises, the hope of providing progress and economic development.

Sagi, who was treated to a cultural programme last Monday evening, said the province has the potentials to become the leading tourism destination in Asia.

After half a day of touring the interior portion of the province, Sagi said he has fallen in love with Bohol, and its nature has a lot to offer, the people are nice and one can still see the skies and stars at night, unlike in the big cities.

Prior to this training, the provincial government was also the beneficiary of a greenhouse, which is now set up at the Ubay Agri-Tourism Park and a training on mango culture, under the auspices of Amb. Ben-Abba.

published in 2004 in the Bohol Chronicle

After being adjudged the Best Provincial Peace and Order Council in the regional level, the Bohol Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) is now among the finalists for the national competitions.

A team of national evaluators composed of Commissioner Linda L. Malenab Ornilla of the National Police Commission, senior state prosecutor Purita Deynata of the Dept. of Justice, Atty. Allan Montano of the Federation of Free Workers and Dir. Verulo Mapanao of the Napolcom Legal Affairs Service were in Bohol since Sunday until yesterday to conduct on-the-spot inspections and validate the report of the Bohol PPOC for 2002.

During a special meeting of the PPOC, which Gov. Erico B. Aumentado called for the purpose, the council presented to the evaluators its accomplishments for 2002, the year under review.

The meeting also gave the evaluators and opportunity to be clarified on some important aspects of the PPOC that were not discussed in the report submitted as part of the provincial government's entry to the competition.

Montano particularly commended the provincial government for creating the Bohol Poverty Reduction and Management Office, and said that, where it is possible, he would recommend to other local government units to replicate the program.

The province's poverty reduction program provides for the economic component of the campaign to maintain peace and order, and has built the confidence of the people in government, the governor said.

Apart from the Bohol PPOC, the Tagbilaran City Peace and Order Council and the Lila Municipal Peace and Order Council have been chosen as finalists in the national level in their respective categories. The victories of these three councils make Bohol a virtual grand slam winner in the regional search for the outstanding peace and order councils.

By Danny Reyes
Published in 2004

A suspected military asset of this town was found dead in an area believed to be an abadoned campsite of the New People's Army.

Local police chief Francisco Alburo identified the victim as Olimpio A. Crame, 50, of sitio Tarahan, barangay Suhoton, this town.

Crame was last found in his home on Feb. 24 before he was reported missing.

Major Jacinto Cesar of Camp Dagohoy intelligence section told the Chronicle that reports bared that the body of the victim was exhumed from the said rebel campsite yesterday morning. A joint team of the Calape PNP and the Regional Mobile Group led by P/Insp. Jacob Crisostomo found the body of Crame. No medical details of the body's condition were released as of newstime as the autopsy is yet scheduled to be done today.

Calape Health Officer Dr. Sulpicio Yu will conduct the autopsy to determine the time Crame was killed and to determine if there are wounds in the body.

The area where the body was recovered is nearby the site of a brief encounter between government troopers and the rebels in sitio Manga, barangay Suhoton.

By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle

City Mayor Dan Lim yesterday declared that he will subject the new city growth center to a referendum to allow the people the opportunity to take part in the decision-making process.

The new growth center concept had been questioned by some city residents whose lots are within the project area including a group of geodetic engineers who expressed doubts over the project's feasibility.

Speaking during his weekly "Mayor's Report" over dyRD, Lim said that the development program would be pursued only if it gets the support and confidence of Tagbilaran residents.

The mayor said he wants the issue discussed thoroughly particularly the pros and cons of the project so the people will understand it clearly.

Lim revealed that the project, which will be the centerpiece of the city's development thrust in the next 20 years, will require some P350-million for the land acquisition component alone.

He said the project will require 12.5 hectares for the road network while another 12 hectares will be set aside for the industrial zone.

Lim said this requirement will need a sizable appropriation so that the city will be able to offer a good price for the lot owners.

"This is to show our respect for the land owners who will be required to give up their lands for the said purpose. Let us bear in mind that they did not offer their lands, it is the city that requested for this," he revealed.

The total cost of the project will run up to P750-million, the mayor bared.

Due to the size of the project and the amount involved, the city will have to enter into a loan to finance the new growth center, Lim said.

A copy of the new growth center development implementation strategies provided to the Chronicle showed that the loan will require payment amounting to 8-percent annually for 15 years.

This means that the city will be paying P28-million every year for interest alone.

Lim however pointed out that there is no such thing as a free ride in this world and that a project of this magnitude will require sacrifices and sound financial management.

He admitted that it is not easy to enter into a loan, the reason why he did not want the city to borrow in his first three years.

"It is not because the city cannot pay but because I have to pay off the loans that I inherited from the previous administrations. While I am not aware how those loans were spent, I am obligated to pay them as part of my responsibilities," the mayor added.

The mayor said the city is like a man who has to cross a deep cliff because he is being chased by wild animals. To be able to do that however, he has to walk across a single piece of wood.

"He needs to walk across slowly because he might fall into the cliff. On the other hand, if he won't cross it, the wild animals will be able to catch up with him," he said.

Lim said progress is waiting on the other side but crossing the cliff is dangerous.

He stressed that if the city will not do this now, the problems due to past failures like traffic because of undersized streets, flash floods due to the absence of a drainage system and the failure to attract investors who will improve the economy and the people's lives will catch up with Tagbilaran.

"In all this, let us bear in mind that we are doing all of this for the next generation," Lim pointed out.

By Kit Bagaipo

Police arrested 12 swertres runners and operators two weeks after Bohol PNP Director SSupt. Edgardo Ingking called for an intensified and relentless crackdown against the illegal numbers game.

Reports reaching the Chronicle bared that most financiers have stopped accepting bets during the swertres mid-day draw where their runners are more at risk of being arrested.

Instead, financiers are only operating during the nightly swertres draws based on results from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) lottery.

Even as nightly bets continue, it had been observed that ushers and coordinators of the illegal numbers game are presently more cautious and discreet in their operations.

Last night, Inabanga police captured one John Vincent Añana Jr., alias Junjun, 35, a resident of barangay Poblacion, Sagbayan town. Añana was arrested in barangay Dagohoy, Inabanga and was found in possession of swertres tally sheets and paraphernalia.

Arrested in separate raids conducted by police were Luciano Melenores and Galo Aparicio last November 14 in Poblacion, Inabanga town.

On the same day, Arthur Palado was arrested in Kawayanan, Mabini town while Benjamin Lumapat was likewise arrested in barangay Tangnan, Tubigon town.

One Carlos Garcia y Polistico was nabbed by police in barangay San Isidro, Talibon town last November 12.

Victor Ramos y Eronico and Romeron Autentico was arrested also in separate police raids in Talibon town.

Police collared one Wilson Saldo last November 9 in Loboc town and another operator in Talibon town was also arrested identified as Warren Auxtero y Martonia.

In Guidulman, one Rodulfo Eyas y Castro, resident of barangay Tabajan, Guindulman was nabbed by joint operatives of the CIDG and Guindulman PNP in his residence.

During the suspect's arrest, his two sons identified as Sherwin and Darwin Eyas were also found in possession of illegal drugs.

Police also apprehended two other swertres operators identified as Eliseo Basio y Alipoyo and Geraldo Quinga y Gamorot in separate operations last November 21.

According to Bohol CIDG team leader C/Insp. Germano Mallari, three of these arrests involved financiers.

All of the suspects are now facing charges for violating RA 9287, the anti-illegal gambling law.

Aside from hunting down swertres operators, Ingking likewise declared an all out war against other forms of illegal gambling activities in the province.

Ingking has designated a provincial task force on illegal gambling headed by Supt. Ernesto Agas.

The Bohol police chief has been holding a series of gatherings in the towns involving different sectors of the society.

Ingking called on local officials to educate their constituents regarding the "evils of illegal gambling and the possibility of curbing the menace thru the involvement of the citizenry."

The police provincial director likewise asked the support of Tagbilaran Bishop Leonardo Medroso during a meeting.

Meanwhile, Napolcom-7 Director Atty Bernardo Calibo Jr. who made an executive visit to the police provincial office, the city police station and 47 police stations in the province last week, expressed support on Ingking's move to weed out illegal gambling.

By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle

A schedule for the election of the presidency of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) and the Federated Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) in the city, municipal and provincial levels was released Wednesday by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2007-151 sets the dates and guidelines in the holding of municipal and component city chapters of the ABC on December 11.

Winners of the municipal and city level will then elect the league's president in the provincial or metropolitan level on December 29.

Election for president of the ABC national chapter will be on January 29, 2008.

Meanwhile, the DILG also issued Memorandum Circular No. 2007-150 establishing the date and guidelines for the election of the SK federation.

On December 6, SK chair in the municipal and city level will hold elections.

Winners in the municipal and city level will then elect the provincial or metropolitan federated president on December 17.

The SK national federation election is scheduled on January 17, 2008.

Federated presidents of the ABC and SK will sit as ex officio members of the Sangguniang Bayan, Sangguniang Panlungsod or the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle

Alburquerque residents opposed to the hosting of a cluster sanitary landfill are asking for the cessation of works now ongoing at the project site.

Meanwhile, Gov. Erico Aumentado reassured that he will not allow the project to proceed further if his request for experts and scientists in the field of sanitary landfills would not be able to conduct dialogues with Albur residents.

Hugpong Alburanon Nagpakabana (Hugalna) president Lourdes Pinlac told the Chronicle yesterday that construction works at the cluster sanitary landfill site in barangay Dangay started last Tuesday.

In fact, the project's contractor started clearing operations at the project site and were hiring workers for the construction.

Pinlac said Albur residents were "surprised and shocked" when they learned that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for the project.

The ECC was issued October 10, 2007 by the DENR's Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Region 7 chief Alan Arranguez.

The start of construction works is being challenged by Hugalna as there are still requirements and queries posed by the group on the project.

According to Pinlac, the group opposed to the project may have to seek a court order to stop the implementation of the project.

However, a court action will be "a last resort", Pinlac said, as they want to allow the governor and the project's proponents to hear their pleas and cancel the cluster sanitary landfill project.

The project is being funded by the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) as a component of the Panglao Island Tourism Estate and the Panglao international airport project.

SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY

In a letter to PTA General Manager Robert Dean Barbers and several town mayors, Pinlac cited that the project's proposed site at barangay Dangay violates Article 6, Sec. 40 of RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

"The area is one of the sources of potable water of Albur residents," she said.

Another requirement of RA 9003 is social acceptability of the cluster sanitary landfill project, which according to Pinlac, is not achieved as "there was no transparency and honesty in the conduct of information dissemination inasmuch as the people were not asked whether they are amenable or not to the establishment and hosting of the cluster sanitary landfill."

Under the memorandum of agreement (MOA) of the Albur cluster sanitary landfill project (now named Metro Bohol Cluster Sanitary Landfill Project) the town will host garbage from some 11 towns who are signatories of the MOA.

However, there is no assurance that only the 11 towns will be dumping their wastes in Albur, according to Hugalna, as there have been no other similar projects being planned in other towns.

The DENR is mandated to close down all open dumpsites and waste disposal facilities that do not qualify under RA 9003. Hence, Hugalna fears that their town will become "the garbage capital of Bohol."

'DECEPTION'

According to Hugalna, they were "denied access" to documents relative to the project.

Since September 2006, written requests were made by Hugalna to former mayor Efren Tungol asking for the project proposal and feasibility study, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the town's comprehensive land use plan (CLUP) and the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan (ISWMP).

However, it was only after the May 14, 2007 elections when mayor Jose Ugdoracion assumed office that they were able to get a copy of the ISWMP.

"After [getting a copy] of the ISWMP we found out that the said plan is filled with inconsistencies and the data gave a false picture of the municipality relative to the project," Hugalna claimed.

Based on the ISWMP, it was found that the local government unit, "offered to host the cluster sanitary landfill" through former mayor Tungol.

The document also cited that Albur, a fifth class municipality, generates some 4.2 tons of waste daily.

According to Hugalna, the figure is "bloated" to justify the offer of Albur to host the landfill.

The ISWMP and the project's feasibility study presented by the proponents included Tagbilaran City in the computation for IRR despite the fact that it is not a signatory of the project MOA since Tagbilaran City backed out from the cluster, Hugalna said.

"This is again another tactic to mislead and make the project appear to be viable.

The garbage from Tagbilaran City constitute about 85% of the total garbage among the cluster members. Without Tagbilaran City, it is very difficult to sustain the project," the group argued.

Hugalna also uncovered inconsistencies in the study made by the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) regarding the project.

When the town's Sangguniang Bayan (SB) requested for a copy of the Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) of the project, they learned that there is no IEE for the project.

An IEE is a requirement for the issuance of an ECC.

HIGH MAINTENANCE

Hugalna said a study on sanitary landfills constructed here in the country shows that LGUs fail to sustain the project due to its high maintenance costs.

Other sanitary landfills became open dump sites because the government failed to sustain it, according to Hugalna.

The group cited the Bais and Clark Sanitary Landfill which is the model of the Albur landfill.

The Bais landfill devolved into an open dumpsite because the LGU of Bais had difficulty maintaining it after the German support group completed the project, Hugalna claimed.

If the project fails in Albur, however, the group said it will affect the source of potable water.

The Bohol Chronicle

Bohol has excess power now, but unless new sources are tapped, a shortage looms in as early as three years.

Gov. Erico Aumentado who chairs the Panglao Island Tourism Estate Inter-Agency Task Force (PITE-IATF) Friday invited top officials of the National Power Corp.

(NAPOCOR) and the National Transmission Corp. (TRANSCO) to give the lowdown on their respective expansion plans vis-à-vis the drastic need for power when the Panglao Bohol International Airport (PBIA) operationalizes in 2011.

"With the present production, Bohol is in for a serious problem when, aside from the operationalization of the airport, the big tourism industry players like the Bohol Regency Hotel and two Korean investors come in next year, not to mention the expansion of the Bohol Beach Club and other establishments," Aumentado said.

The airport alone needs 20 megawatts (MW). The Bohol Regency Hotel that straddles Dauis and Panglao towns and starts construction in June 2008 will need power for its 250-300 rooms plus other facilities and amenities. The Koreans will invest in hotels, resorts, spas and golf courses, too, he bared.

NAPOCOR Senior Vice President Silvano Zanoria who flew in from Manila that day reported that Bohol's nighttime power demand today stands at 58 MW.

He pegs the production of the Bohol Diesel Power Plant (BDPP) at 18 MW, the Loboc Hydroelectric Plant at 1.2 MW, the Janopol Hydroelectric Plant at 2.5 MW for a sub-total of 21.7 MW.

The Leyte Bohol Interconnection Project (LBIP) contributes a maximum of 100 MW for a total of 121.7 MW. Less the forecast peak demand of 58 MW, the maximum reserve stands at 63.7 MW. Deducting the maintenance reserve, however, leaves a net reserve of only 50.96 MW.

Given the increasing demand, Zanoria said an immediate solution NAPOCOR can offer is the transfer to Bohol of land-based generating sets from Subic in Olongapo City capable of at least 160 MW.

Aside from attending the PITE meeting, Zanoria said he was to inspect that afternoon the foundation for the generating sets at the BDPP in Dampas District in Tagbilaran City.

On the other hand, Vice President Dominador Geonzon of TRANSCO reported that the company's upgrading project will make more reliable whatever power NAPOCOR produces. TRANSCO takes charge of the transmission of the power generated by NAPOCOR.

Up in TRANSCO's plans is the Bohol Backbone Transmission Project. Stage 1 comprises the stringing of a 138 KV transmission line from Ubay to Corella through high-tension steel towers. Being taller than coconut palms and most trees, trip offs will no longer be a problem because falling fronds, branches and other debris can no longer straddle the cables. A 69 KV tie line will also be installed from Dampas to Catigbian town.

On the other hand, an expansion substation will be constructed in Ubay and a new one in Corella.

At 2006 price levels, the project is estimated to cost almost P.4 billion. The feasibility study was completed last April and approved by the Management Committee two months later. The project is now for endorsement to the National Economic and Development Authority Infrastructure Coordination Committee (NEDA ICC).

Meanwhile, the governor announced the interest expressed by Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co., Ltd. to establish a shipyard in Bohol. In his meeting with Hanjin President and Chief Executive Officer Kang-Rock Lee at his head office in South Korea last October, the latter said such facility would require at least 200 MW of power and at least 30,000 welders, among others.

As such, the PITE-IATF passed two resolutions - requesting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, TRANSCO and NAPOCOR to upgrade LBIP by tapping another geothermal power plant, this time in Southern Leyte, and requesting President Arroyo and NAPOCOR President del Callar to transfer to Bohol the excess power generator from Subic.

Aumentado is apprehensive with a coal-fired power plant. He said the former governor of Pangasinan said such plant in Sual has been wreaking havoc to the environment of the town and province.

He does not want Bohol to be similarly affected.

"After all, Bohol's tourism is based on ecology, culture and heritage," he said.

As Panglao Island takes on a new face with the airport and verticals (structures like hotels, etc.), some agricultural lands necessarily need to be converted into residential, commercial or industrial. To speed things up, the PITE-IATF also passed a resolution requesting Agrarian Reform Secretary to authorize Region 7 Director Datu Yusoph Mama to approve the conversion of land classification from five hectares to 100 hectares, but for Panglao Island alone, which is Bohol's main thrust for tourism and in the light of the international airport.

By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle

Bohol policemen are asking that they be allowed anew to apprehend traffic violators as a series of complaints were lodged by the public against motorcycle riders who are drag racing in various points in the city and in some towns.

Provincial PNP Director SSupt. Edgardo Ingking met last Wednesday with Tagbilaran City Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Joel Maloloy-on to address the motorcycle drag racing problem involving minors here.

The public have expressed alarm on the situation asking for immediate intervention from the police.

LTO chief Reynaldo Berroya recalled the deputation it issued to police officers all over the country after receiving reports that some PNP officials have been extorting from motorists.

During their meeting, Ingking and Maloloy-on agreed that drag racing in the city streets and in some towns should be stopped as it poses danger not only to the motorcycle riders but also to residents.

Residents likewise complained of the noise as motorists often race during nighttime and during the wee hours of the morning.

Ingking voiced the sentiments of policemen here relative to the revocation of their authority to apprehend traffic violators.

Maloloy-on told the Chronicle that he will officially request Berroya to exempt Bohol policemen from the recall of LTO deputation and that local police should be allowed to issue temporary operators permit (TOP) to erring drivers.

Maloloy-on, who was previously assigned at the Jagna-LTO, said he has not heard of any complaints regarding unscrupulous policemen who victimize motorists here unlike in the other provinces and in Metro Manila.

The Tagbilaran LTO chief likewise denied any knowledge of individuals who have managed to secure deputation from the LTO.

According to Ingking, solution to the problem also depends on the parents of the youngsters involved in drag racing.

"Parents should monitor and have direct control of their children with more emphasis if and when [they] can use their motorcycles," Ingking said.

Enforcement of the traffic code is now the sole responsibility of the LTO which lacks field personnel to apprehend traffic violators.

How will the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) work as executive and legislative bodies of the youth in the barangays if only the chairman was elected with no SK kagawads running and elected in the recent elections?

The question was raised following the separate poll results in the municipalities of Loboc, Lila, and Buenavista. The election turnout showed that only SK chairman was elected with no single SK kagawad filing his certificate of candidacy (COC).

There are six barangays of Loboc, two in Lila and one in Buenavista, which experienced this kind of sad state of SK affairs after the polls.

The causes of this scenario are not yet known and as to how to remedy this remains a question, according to the Comelec provincial office in an interview last Friday.

Carol Tayem was unopposed and became SK chairman-elect without kagawads running in barangay Taytay, Loboc, Bohol. She got 8 votes out of 12 registered voters, according to Loboc Comelec office.

The same is true with Jake Jala, who got 17 of the 26 votes and became SK chair in barangay Poblacion Sawang, Loboc town. But he has no SK kagawads to deal with.

SK chairmen-elect Mary Rose Salig of barangay Ondol (Loboc), garnered 25 of the 37 votes; Ian Glenn Anino of barngay Gon-ob, had 7 of 11 votes; Lord Michael Calacat of barangay Kamayaan, got 21 of the 42 votes; and Mark Sabandal of barangay Kalunasan Norte, had 25 of 29 votes. All of them also have no SK kagawads.

In the town of Lila, Rex Ryan G. Tagac was uncontested and elected SK chair garnering 22 votes of barangay Candulang and Dyan Campilan of barangay Calvario was unopposed and got 20 votes. All have no kagawads.

Ronalyn Pacaldo obtained 25 votes and became SK chairman-elect of barangay Bato, Buenavista with no SK kagawads.

According to Angelita Sarigumba, Loboc assistant election officer, there were those interested to run for SK kagawad but probably it cost them money to have them drug tested, if not to stay away from being caught of drug use.

To cure this, certain guidelines through the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) must be followed, Benjie Oliva, a Boholano commissioner of the National Youth Commissioner, said in an interview yesterday.

Based on the presidential Executive Order issued in 2002, the vacancies of SK kagawads shall be filled up through appointment by the DILG secretary, Oliva said. But prior to this, the SK shall recommend who shall be appointed to SK kagawads.

He said however the said EO is only applicable in 2002. The NYC, in its meeting yesterday, would likely recommends for another issuance of the presidential fiat.

By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle

By a unanimous vote, the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) approved on Wednesday the much talked about supplemental budget requested by City Mayor Dan Lim.

While councilors who earlier challenged the request for additional budget have voted in favor of the fund release, they vowed it would be the last time that city lawmakers would be made to approve a budget request that is not supported by a program of works.

City Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso himself declared during an interview over dyRD's top-rated "Inyong Alagad" on Thursday that government guidelines required of legislative bodies in approving budget requests must be strictly followed and complied by the requesting party.

Supplemental Budget No. 5, series of 2007, amounting P10,803,024 was endorsed by the mayor since October 3.

Veloso explained that contrary to claims that the SP delayed deliberations of the mayor's request, it was because there has been a demand for a program of works from the city engineer's office which was not promptly complied.

Likewise, Veloso, who chairs the SP committee on appropriations, had to assume as acting mayor for three weeks when Lim was in the United States for the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA) global governance summit.

In fact, it was the city council which recommended that deliberations on the supplementary budget request be deferred until the vice mayor could reassume his post.

The supplemental budget intended for funding of the city's multiple intelligence program, payment of road lot (at Calceta and Rizal Streets), transportation vehicle for the City PNP, sports activities, repair and maintenance of city roads and early retirement package of city government employees.

By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle

The Philippine Army's 302nd Infantry Brigade (IB) based in Carmen town is being accused of harassment of civilians and farmers whom they alleged as members of the New Peoples Army (NPA).

Last Friday, human rights group Karapatan reported to the Chronicle that two farmers and a leader of a peasant group in barangay Montesuerte, Carmen had been harassed by elements of the military unit.

According to Karapatan-Bohol chair Liza Serenio, the peasant leader identified as one Leonardo Aparece, 59 and his wife Eugenia Aparece, 56, and two others were accused by Army troops as members of the NPA.

Aparece, a press relations officer of Humabol-Carmen chapter, said in his affidavit that last November 22, around 9 a.m. he arrived at his residence when he saw his neighbors gathered in their house.

He was told by his wife and neighbors that members of the 302nd IB wanted to get inside their house. The neighbors, most of whom were also members of the farmers' organization, went to Aparece's residence after seeing the troops going there.

Eugenia, who is ill, was alone when the Army troops came who questioned her how often their group hold meetings.

Two other farmers, Jason Socorin and Lito Quinsena, also residents of said barangay, where present when the troops came.

In a joint affidavit, Socorin and Quinsena claimed that they were in Aparece's house to borrow a straw mat where they would dry their palay.

They said four military men in full combat gear approached the Aparece house while they saw several others who concealed themselves in a grassy area near the residence.

According to Socorin and Quinsena, the military men, who hid their name tags, pointed their weapons at them while asking them questions.

When asked by Eugenia what they wanted, one of the troops said they were looking for a cow that was allegedly stolen from a nearby village.

However, Quinsena said he was shocked when one of the soldiers aimed his camera at him and took a picture.

According to Serenio, barangay Montesuerte farmers have organized themselves as part of the village is covered under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. The farmer-beneficiaries were already given certificates of land ownership.

According to Aparece, this was not the first time military troops harassed his family and members of their organization.

Last year, Aparece claimed, the chairperson of their peasant organization, Epifanio Estillore, was also shot by CAFGU men.

In 2003, Aparece's son, Leonardo Jr. was also accused as member of the NPA by elements of the 302nd IB.

Leonardo Jr. was allegedly tied-up by the soldiers which bore frightening memories to his, according to Aparece.

Serenio said Karapatan will file complaints against the 302nd IB at the Commission on Human Rights based on the affidavits of Aparece, Socorin and Quinsena.

By Ric V. Obedencio
The Bohol Chronicle

The aggressive campaign of Bohol's growing tourism industry, dubbed as the number one tourist destination in the country, was bolstered with the visit last week of a 36-member multi-race group called "Friends of Philippines."

Public Relations Officer Rosario "Chit" Afuang of the London-based tourism office confirmed this in an interview with the Bohol Chronicle.

Former British ambassador to the Philippines Paul Dimond, in a separate interview, said he would help promote Bohol in London.

Afuang and Dimond accompanied the group composed of expats - British, American, French and even Latin American. Most of them are members of the Overseas Women's Club and had worked, studied or lived in the country before.

"Friends Philippines program" is organized by Department of Tourism in London, England. It was launched during the 2005 World Travel Mart held in London.

The program is to tap the expats as "marketers" of the Philippine tourism, including Bohol, and help DOT promote the country in areas where they are now.

The whole program runs for 16 days (Nov.15-30, 2007) and Bohol is a major highlight of the itinerary.

DOT-London also organized "Travel Philippines," tapping Filipino overseas workers to be marketers of the country.

The group was very much impressed of the living voices of the world renowned and multi-awarded Loboc Children's Choir performed for almost 30 minutes at centuries-old Loboc Music Museum.

After that, they cruised the Loboc River upstream and took their lunch at floating restaurant prior to scaling to the world famous Chocolate Hills in Carmen town.

Paul Dimond said he was amazed of the beauty of the place (Choco Hills) because this was his first time to crisscross the countrysides here since he was assigned as envoy in 2002-2004. But this was his second time in Bohol.

"I fully support the program that the DOT in the United Kingdom to promote the Philippines," Paul Dimond said.

He added that London has already supported the promotional campaign such as the putting up of "Wow Philippines" on the side of "black" cabs and recently the use of double-decker buses in London.

Carmen Mayor Manuel Molina welcomed Dimond and his group at the Chocolate Hills complex.

By Leo Armando Boncales

Adding feathers on her cap, the University of Bohol College of Education congratulates its new batch of teachers who passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers given last August 26, in Cebu City.

Carol O. Belarmino, Dean, College of Education bared the partial list of successful examinees: BEED - Abelada Jelyn, Ajoc Jasmen, Amoguis Lina, Arancon Alfe, Aton Lendon, Banalo Juliet, Bautista Romulo, Boyore Alberto, Bunac Julius, Buslon Rubisita, Buslon John Lennon, Caguisa Noeme, Cempron

Madilyn, Cenia Sarah Jean, Cornesio Geralyn, Damalerio Ma Jessica, Ejorango Joseph, Eramis Jozenne, Esperanza Niña, Estoque Mae Cheryl, Fullido Jonnah, Galanida Maiza, Gallo Ruthcie, Ganzo Helen, Garcia Hanny, Genosas Shiela, Marie, Geolagon Carolyn, Guarte Erwin, Guillena Marichu, Ibaoc Junerey, Limocon Velyn, Liray Lina, Loquere April Joy, Mendez Helen, Nalla Rachel, Nalla Ruben, Odtohan Ma Corazon, Oracion Marilyn, Pantollana Carmelo Jr., Perocho Ronelo, Piquero Senonita, Puquiz Sheryl, Ramirez Niño, Recente Jennifer , Grace, Requiz Evelyn, Romanda Reyna, Ruaya Portia, Saren Charlyn, Tadena Estela, Tambis Mary Grace, Trazo Lailane.

BSED - Ando Mechel, Ayuban Exober, Balistoy Froilan, Enojardo Junrhey, Fermo Nancy Jeannette, Galagar Genevieve, Gingoyon Catherine, Mahumot Medardo, Mercado Nelmie, Padillo Lucy Mae, Pingal Ma Fe, Renegado Ma Corazon, Sevilla Naneth, Telempros Glenda, Villamor Ellaine Jade.

Other alumni who took and passed the August 2007 Licensure Examination for Teachers are requested to see personally Mrs Carol Belarmino or Contact Tel. No. 411-3484 for acknowledgment and recognition.

NEW MIDWIVES

Twenty one examinees of the University of Bohol successfully hurdled the Midwifery Board Examination held on November 6-7, 2007 in Cebu City.

The new midwives are Aparece Maria Cristina, Aparre Eugenia, Barnaja Johanna Kei Jeneth, Barol Vanesa Kay, Blanco Cynthia, Butong Shiela, Cutanda Zenisa, Dansila Liza, Digal Liza, Galao Sarah Marie, Gallogo Anie,Garjas Maria Teresita, Hingpit Cristine, Lungay Ma. Reggiena, Maama Cristita Irene, Oncog Anna Marie, Pantalita Niza, Polinar Justine, Tadlip John Niño, Vitor Jasmin, and Zayas Darra.Amor.

Isabelita G. Margate, Dean, College of Nursing and Midwifery noted that for the recent board examination the school posted a 75% passing mark or 21 out of 28 examinees.

The new midwives will take their oath on November 28, 2007 during a fitting ceremony to be held at Jjs Seafoods Restaurant.

NEW CRIMINOLOGISTS

The University of Bohol College of Criminology produces anew twenty criminologists who took and passed the recent Criminology Licensure Examination held last October 23,24 and 25, 2007 in Cebu City.

Atty. Dodelon F Sabijon. Dean, College of Criminology bared the following successful examinees: Arizola Armie Cory Castelve, Bacareza Robert, Bagondol Joel, Bibat Irenely, Cahucom Ralph Robert, Calvo Jundrie, Dajang Josie May, Melencion Jonathan, Melloria Amelito, Missiona Gil, Morgia Eugene Jay, Quimson Jhuna, Rebuyon Ronald, Roslinda Richen Graham, Sabana Mark, Saligumba Norbert, Solijon Alexander, Sumampong Gina, Vergara Joel, and Vistal Alchir.

The new criminologists will take their oath during the honoring party to be held at the University of Bohol gymnasium on December l3, 2007.

The Bohol Chronicle

Bohol residents are expected to have an extra-special fun filled Christmas as Timezone, managed by Leisure & Allied Industries (LA) Philippines, opens a branch at BQ Mall before the year ends. This soon to open center at BQ Mall joins Timezone's roster of regional centers located at Visayas and Mindanao as the favorite Family Entertainment Center (FEC) in the country continues to expand its business.

In just nine short years, more than 50 Timezone centers have opened in major malls nationwide. Its first-ever stand-alone center opened late last year at Bonifacio High Street in Global City, Taguig. For 2007, four new centers have already opened in Market! Market!. Bluewave Macapagal, Robinsons Ermita and Timezone's largest center at Trinoma Mall in Northern Quezon City. Aside from BQ Mall in Bohol, three more stores in Cash & Carry Makati, 168 Mall and Trinoma Arena are soon to open before the year closes.

Timezone has consistently kept pace with the latest innovations in the family entertainment center business by constantly acquiring the latest operating systems for its Timezone outlets. Through the trailblazing Powercard system for instance, Timezone altered the industry forever by eliminating tokens in favor of a card system akin to the ones used at ATM machines. These convenient, easy-to-use Powercards have helped define and differentiate Timezone from its competitors.

The company distinguishes itself from the competition by constantly applying innovative concepts. Through its tie-up with Disney, Timezone widens its family appeal with special-edition Disney Powercards, authentic Disney prizes, exclusive Disney-themed game machines and Disney movie-themed giveaways.

Timezone also hold the exclusive rights to the Super Trivia game that provides the world's greatest and most interesting collection of facts, trivia tidbits, interesting details and answers to the most frequently asked questions on places, movies, events people, nature and sports.

All Timezone centers offer and exciting variety of simulator games, redemption games, and kiddie rides. The company continues to raise its hip-factor by introducing the newest games in the arcade industry such as the Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova, Super Trivia, Jumpin' Jackpot, latest installments for Maximum Tune - version 3 and Initial D - version 4 and, the Deal or No Deal game machine from the mega-hit TV game show.

Timezone reinforces the "winnability" of its redemption prizes by providing a selection of prizes for an exchange value of as low as one ticket, thereby reinforcing the notion that "In Timezone Everybody is a Winner".

With all the new stores to open and the preparations for next year, there is no doubt that Timezone continues to adhere to its objective of providing quality entertainment for the entire family. This is the reason why for two successive years, the brand Timezone has been awarded the Superbrands seal as proof that it is the top brand among all its competitors in the family entertainment center category.

Timezone branches are located at Glorietta 4 & 2, Greenbelt 3, SM Megamall, SM San Lazaro, SM Mall of Asia, Greenhills Theatermall & Promenade, Gateway Araneta Center, Alabang Town Center, Robinsons Galleria, Robinsons Ermita, Robinsons Metro East, Robinsons Lipa, Market! Market!, Bonifacio High Street, Pavilion Mall, Bluewave Marikina, Bluewave Macapagal, Waltermart Makati, Metropoint, Ayala Center Cebu, NCCC Malls Davao & Tagum, TriNoma Mall. Watch out for the opening of Timezone at BQ Mall this December!

The Bohol Chronicle

After the successful "Creek Clean Up Activity," the Tagbilaran City Host Lions Club and the employees of Tagbilaran Coca-Cola Plant has another joint Environmental Services - a tree planting at Taloto District surrounding the creek area.

During the regular meeting of the City Host Lions last Nov. 11 at the PDG Zoilo Dejaresco Hall, Lion Louie Ytol, chairman of the club's Environmental Services, received a full support from the Lions in his motion for a joint tree planting with the employees of Tagbilaran Coca-Cola Plant in which Lion Louie Ytol is the present plant operation manager.

The City Host Lions unanimously approved the motion of tree planting by Lion Ytol considering of the following benefits of planting trees: Trees can reduce global warming because trees use carbon dioxide in the production of chlorophyll. It can prevent soil erosion thus preventing flooding in the lowlands. It provides habitat for numerous species of birds and other forest wildlife. Trees beautify the surroundings.

The joint tree planting activity was successful done last Nov. 17 at Taloto District.

The acacia trees and 100 mahogany trees was planted surrounding the creek area.

Lion president Fely Lim led the City Host Lions namely Lion Velma Lim, Lion Rose Soy, Lion George Lim and Lion Louie Ytol.

Informatics holds IT camp
By Glenn A. Manigque

Informatics Computer Institute (Tagbilaran), the global leader in information technology (IT) and educational services, will be holding the 1st ever Informatics IT Camp on December 1-2, this city.

The IT camp is expected to be participated by roughly two hundred senior high school students all over Bohol who are members of the Junior Information Society (JITS), and international IT organization of Informatics which opens opportunities and exposure to members of various fields of IT.

Victoriano "Ryan" Tirol III, center manager, said that the event is organized to bring IT closer to the Boholanos. He added that this will allow JITS members the chance to convene and meet with their fellow JITS members.

The two-day IT camp will be held at three different venues, namely: Informatics Computer Institute (Tagbilaran), University of Bohol and Cristal e - College.

Participants will get to join various state-of-the-art IT competitions, strategic digital computer games, PowerPoint presentation contest, among others. Furthermore, they will undergo up-to-standard It server 2008 training and will get the chance to meet Informatics' very own anime 'Sarah'.

Exciting prizes will also be given away to lucky students such as computer units, printers, USB flash drives, speakers and many more.

Informatics IT campers will be housed in the modern facilities of Cristal e- College in Panglao, Bohol.

Meanwhile, students of the participating schools that are not registered participants may attend the said event on December 1.

For interested parties, they may contact Informatics (Tagbilaran) at telephone numbers (038) 411-2509, 235-5980, 501-8400 or 0917-376-5404 and look for Marigold.

Mr. Egg, ikaw ang nakapapukaw sa nahikatulog na untang pagbati sa mga TB girls...

By Bingo P. Dejaresco III
The Bohol Chronicle

Bohol - specifically the towns of Loboc and Corella - guns for two World Guinness Book of Records distinctions this December during an event called "Yam Gin Festival."

The town of Loboc featuring Bohol farmer wives will attempt to have the world's largest fresh ginger muffin Christmas tree at the Loboc auditorium.

Ginger, a product with a large demand in China, is extensively grown in Loboc. The historic event is strongly backed up by Mayor Leon Calipusan and the town legislature.

On the other hand, ubi-growing town of Corella will concoct the world's longest "ubi jam" chain, an event endorsed by Mayor Vito Rapal and the town assembly.

Tourists, food growers, government officials and media have been invited to the affair.

Scheduled to attend the festivities are the Department of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and Francisco " Bong" Ramos III and tourism Secretary Joseph H. Durano.

President GMA and her family have also been invited to the festival.

The festival set for December 22 - 29 also aims at environmental awareness of the need for support for biofuels and the growth of agricultural products in Bohol.

According to Ramos, DA will distribute free seedlings for vegetable, fruits, trees and ornamental plants. An informative seminar on the propagation of Jatropha Curcas will also be conducted.

Agriculture products will also be set for display during the festival.

The Project is managed and conceptualized by the Center for Continuing Cultural Exchange (CCCE) in cooperation with the municipalities of Corella and Loboc. Among its major sponsors is Nestle Phils.

At the helm of the "Yam Gin Festival" in former Assumption School (Makati) professor and administrative officer Marietta Biliran (of this city) as Executive Director of CCCE and assisted by Maria Ulfa Obrowski, program Director and Cultural Exchange Consultant.

Other details of the festival will be provided in the coming days, according to Biliran.

By Ric V. Obedencio
The Bohol Chronicle

At least one person was dead and millions of pesos worth of seaweed farms in Bien-Unido damaged in the aftermath of typhoon 'Lando' last week even as tornados hit two islets in Pres. Carlos P. Garcia, destroying some 100 households.

Sketchy reports reaching the Chronicle bared that a landslide occurred in barangay Lusong, Buenavista town along the highway to Danao town but no one was injured nor casualty. Also, a river in San Miguel town overflowed and some farms of barangays Poblacion and Bayongan adversely affected, the report said.

This came despite exclusion of the province of Bohol from pathway of "Lando" by the Philippine Atmosphere Geo-sciences Astronomical S Administration (Pag-asa).          

In an islet of Mawmawan, off Bien-Unido town, Lalaine Abrasada, 13, was hit by a falling G-melina tree that destroyed the house while she was sleeping in the afternoon of nov. 19, 2007 as confirmed by Mayor Nino Rey Boniel in an interview yesterday.

Officials here said that more than 1,000 hectares of seaweeds farms off island-barangays of Bilangbilangan and Hingutanan were partly devastated by 'Lando.' But Boniel said there was not yet estimate of the damage of the multi-million dollar seaweed farms.

Boniel minced no words of assailing Pag-asa's failure of providing accurate forecasting since they thought "Lando" would not hit the town ased on its prediction. But when it reached the town, it was no ordinary wind blow but really a storm that caught everybody flat-footed, he said.

The mayor said that he will utilize the 30% of the calamity fund of his town for rehabilitation and preparation for up-coming super-typhoon "Mina." He also alerted the residents in or near the coastal areas.

In island town of CPG, two islets of Butan and Gaos were badly ruined by twisters, said Vice-Mayor Nestor Abad in an interview.

He said that initial findings of the Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council (MDCC) that conducted ocular inspection bared that some 50 houses in Butan and another estimate of 50 houses in Gaos were damaged. But there were no injuries nor casualties wrought by the tornados in the evening of November 19, 2007.

The extent of the damage was not yet available, Abad said.

He said that MDCC is contemplating to use the calamity fund to help the affected families. But he has to coordinate with Mayor Tesalonica Boyboy, who was out of town last week when contacted for comment.

He said most of the families affected by "Lando" d epend largely on fishing as their source of livelihood.

This is posted in Friendster bulletin. Do you agree?

Akala ng mga tao na nasa Pilipinas
kapag nasa America ka...

Akala nila madami ka ng pera. Ang
totoo, madami kang utang, dahil
credit card lahat ang gamit mo sa
pagbili mo ng mga gamit mo. Kailangan
mo gumamit ng credit card para magka-
credit history ka, kase pag hindi ka
umutang o wala kang utang, hindi ka
pagkakatiwalaa n ng mga kano. Pag wala
kang credit card, ibig sabihin wala
kang kapasidad magbayad.

Aka la nila mayaman ka na kase may
kotse ka na. Ang totoo, kapag hindi
ka bumili ng kotse sa America
maglalaka d ka ng milya-milya sa ilalim
ng init ng araw o kaya sa snow. Walang
jeepney,tr icycle o padyak sa America.

Akal a nila masarap ang buhay dito sa
America. Ang totoo, puro ka trabaho
kase pag di ka nagtrabaho, wala kang
pangbayad ng bills mo kotse, credit
card, ilaw, tubig, insurance, bahay
at iba pa. Hindi ka na pwedeng tumambay
sa kapitbahay kse busy din sila
maghanap buhay pangbayad ng bills
nila.
Ak ala nila masaya ka kase nagpadala
ka ng picture mo sa Disney, Seaworld,
Six Flags, Universal Studios at iba
pang attractions. Ang totoo, kailangan
mo ngumiti kase nagbayad ka ng $70+
para makarating ka dun, kailangan mo
namnamin ang 10 hours na sweldo mong
pinangbayad sa tiket.

Akala nila malaki na ang kinikita mo
kase dolyar na sweldo mo. Ang totoo,
malaki pagpinalit mo ng peso, pero
dolyar din ang gastos mo sa America.
Ibig sabihin ang dolyar mong kinita
sa presyong dolyar mo din gagastusin.
Ang P15.00 na sardinas sa Pilipinas $
1.00 sa America, ang isang pakete ng
sigarilyo sa pilipinas P 40.00, sa
America $ 5.00, ang upa mo sa bahay
na P 10,000 sa pilipinas, sa America $
1,000.

A kala nila buhay milyonaryo ka na
kase ang ganda ng bahay at kotse mo.
Ang totoo milyon ang utang mo. Ang bago
mong kotse 5 taon mong huhulugan. Ang
bahay 30 taon mong huhulugan. Ibig sa
bihin, alipin ka ng bahay at kotse
mo.

Madaming naghahangad na makarating sa
America. Lalo na mga nurses, mahirap
maging normal na manggagawa sa
Pilipinas. Madalas pagod ka sa
trabaho. Pag dating ng sweldo mo,
kulang pa sa pagkain mo. Pero ganun
din sa ibang bansa katulad ng
America. Hindi ibig sabihin dolyar na
ang sweldo mo, yayaman ka na, kailangan
mo ding magbanat ng buto para
magsurvive ka sa ibang bansa. Isang
malaking sakripis yo ang pag alis mo
sa bansang pinagsilangan at malungkot
iwanan ang mga mahal mo sa buhay.Hindi
pinup ulot ang pera dito. Hindi ako
naninira ng pangarap, gusto ko lang
buksan ang bintana ng katotohanan

Quote from: C2H4 on November 25, 2007, 02:15:10 AM
Ahahahaha!

Ka sexy sa post oi...

Actually, dili naman ni kinahanglan ning mga 'How To' ug unsaon pag attract sa mga babae...

The Golden Rule is: Just be yourself! Magpaka totoo ka...

you can't force yourself to be funny, unsaon man jud kung seryosohon jud diay ka...

ayaw ka guol kay naa man pud mga babae ganahan ug seryus type...

My belief is, every person on the planet, will attract someone else at a certain point...

God made us in such a way, that no matter how ugly, how un-funny, how fat, how undesirable we think we are...there will always be another person who'll see beauty in us...

Lisud bitaw Thyl ipredict ang tawo or babae. Naa man babae gani nga ganahan nimo bisan wa pa kay hilam-os.

"Home"

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home
Mmmmmmmm

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

Let me go home
I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not
Come along with me
'Cause this was not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all be all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsiXBrGncs8

This song is heartily and lovingly dedicated to Lumine and Herman and their next baby: Baby May.

Home by Michael Buble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhMdxT0WOyM

Nine Millions Bicycle (Versión Original)
Singer: Katie Milua

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That's a fact
It's a thing we can't deny
Like the fact that I will love you till I die

We are twelve billion light years from the edge
That's a guess
No-one can ever say it's true
But I know that I will always be with you

I'm warmed by the fire of your love everyday
So don't call me a liar
Just believe everything that I say

There are six billion people in the world
More or less
And it makes me feel quite small
But you're the one I love the most of all

(Interlude)

We're high on the wire
With the world in our sight
And I'll never tire
Of the love that you give me every night

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That's a Fact
It's a thing we can't deny
Like the fact that I will love you till I die

And there are nine million bicycles in Beijing
And you know that I will love you till I die

Lumine, life is full of trade-offs.
There are things that you can't find in Europe.
There are things that you can't find in the Philippines.

But one thing is sure: parting time is such a sweet sorrow.

Ensakto ka, Blue Angel.

Quote from: dakog_itlog on November 24, 2007, 01:20:43 PM
pa bibo lang na orchids... ug pasalamt ko sa mahal natong admin dire kay iya akong gidawat dire ginamit king maong dagnay.... didto sa pikas website www.bo____.com na dismaya ko kay gi delete akoang account sa bugtong sala nga wla mauyuni sa admin kining maong dagnay....

salamat kaajo my dear admin

Mr. Egg, I agree with Orchids. Dili man ngil-ad paminawon ang dakog_itlog. It can mean many things kay daghan mang itlog sa kalibutan. But if you say "dakog_lagay" or "dakog_oten", I will personally ask you to change your display name. You can never be kicked here out so long as you maintain decency and respect towards our friends here, especially towards our lovely, sweet, kind Tubag Bohol ladies... The ladies of Tubag Bohol are very much protected and cared for...

Mr. Egg,

Buot ko untang ipadayon ang akong tambag ug tubag sa imong mga pangutana, apan nagmakuli na ako karon unsaon ko pagpadayag sa akong mga huna-huna kay sa kalit man lang milurang ang imong pagbati ni Faye ug didto mihuros ang imong pagtan-aw sa kaanyag ni Mari.

Mr. Egg, pagsulat nalang ug laing sulat-suliran nga nanginahanglan ug tambag nga dili na bahin ni Faye kon dili bahin ni Mari.

Tinahud nga Dakog_Itlog,

Sa dili ko pa batbaton ang mga tubag sa imong mga pangutana, tuguti kining imong ubos nga igsuon ug higala nga magpasalamat kanimo kay ikaw nagpakatakos man gayud sa pagyagyag sa imong gibati dinhi sa Tubag Bohol. Daghan kanatong mga lalaking Filipino ang maulaw o kaha mataha pagmantala sa gibati tungod sa daghang mga katarongan ug tungod kay kadaghanan kanato nagapos pa sa naghingapin nga pagtago-tago sa tinuod nga pinitik sa kasing-kasing. Apan lahi ka, Dakog_Itlog, kay bisan dinhi sa publiko, imo man gayud gisangyaw ang imong tim-os ug tiunay nga pagtan-aw kang Faye. Sa among atubangan, imong gihukad gikan sa kinauyokang bahin sa imong dughan kanang naghaguros mong kahidlaw ni Faye. Sa among mga mata, among nabasa ang naglagobos mong pagdayeg sa kaanyag ni Faye. Sa among mga dalunggan, among nabati ang nagpungasi mong paghandum nga ugma damlag lingion ni Faye ang imong pangaliya sa iyang kabuotan.

Ayaw ikaulaw ang imong pagkamanananggot. Ang angay maulaw kadtong mga giingong "alagad sa katawhan" nga nangawkaw sa salapi sa katilingban. Ang angay maulaw kadtong nanglupig sa ilang isigkatawo ug dili kamaong molingi sa mga kabos ug timawa human sila makatongtong sa pader sa kahamugaway. Ngano man diay tuod ug manananggot ka? Kung ang imong kinitaan gipuga gikan sa singot sa imong mga agtang ug ilok, nan angayan kang magpasigarbohon nga ikaw mibarog ug nangita ug kabuhian sa putli nga paagi. Kung ugaling tamayon man ni Faye ang imong pagkamanananggot, ayaw lang usab kini ikahimangod kay lagi ang kinabuhi makulob man ug mahayang usab.

(...ipadayon sa sunod hugna...)

kawang ba ang balak kung kini dili mabasahan sa hingtungdan?

Quote from: balong on November 23, 2007, 04:14:44 PM
maajo unta nga kining ahong pag pangandam, adunay sangpotanan. kay mao juy ahong damgo nga mosod sa langob ni ginger. mahimo ba mr. bohol nga ahong hulaman ug balik ang yawe nga ahong gi uli nimo. kay basin kanang yaweha mao ang maka abli sa poltahan ngadto sa ahong mga damgo. aron mag pa tolo na pod ko sa  mga luha sa kalipay. tagok tagok dIYOTay.

Balong, ang yawe nga akong gigunitan mao kini ang yawe sa kasilyas diin didto ka pwedeng magpabuhagay ug magpahungaw sa imong mga luha sa pagmahay. Kung buot kang makahulam ning maong yawe, isaad lang pud nga imong iuli kay basin pud moabot ang higayon nga ako na usab ang magdangoyngoy ug mangita ug dapit nga kaagasan sa akong mga luha.

dinhi sa una ko kutob... ug hangtud sa sunod natong panagkita diha sa mga eskina sa atong damgo...

Love thy neighbor, Paul...

Higala, alang ba kini ni Faye?

alang kanimo faye,

hangtud kanus-a imong ablihan ang ganghaan sa imong kasing-kasing aron imong madungog ang yagubyob sa pagbati ning maong balak?

Alang kang Faye ba kining maong balak?
Si Faye ba ang natingban sa imong pagbati?

Faye, paminawa usab intawon ang gihagawhaw sa dughan ni dakog_itlog.

Leo, asa gilubong si KC Estremos?

Below is an e-mail I receive today from a friend of KC Estremos, who died in a hit-and-run accident on the first week of November in Loon, Bohol. Anyone based in Bohol, please post any updated information on the victims of the hit-and-run accident. The driver is Engineer Maurito Lim. I think he already surrendered, and is now detained in jail.

-----

Dear Sir

Forgive me for emailing you directly but I am hoping you can assist me. I have good connections with the Philippines, Bohol and Cebu in particular. Two days ago news reached me that a very good friend of mine, KC Estremos, has been killed in a road accident. Having done a Google search I found the report you posted on the Tubag site, which confimed what I had been told.

The report is inaccurate in that KC was a 17 year old girl from Cebu who was staying in Loon together with her boyfriend Carmen. She was a sweet and loving girl who did all she could for her family. To be taken in this way is truly shocking. If the report about the driver is accurate then that is appalling. To claim that such an incident can be an accident when under the influence of drink and falling asleep is nonsense. In my country he would be locked up for a minimum of 15 years for such a crime.

I am still in total denial that KC can really be dead. Such a lovely young lady with her whole life ahead of her. Her friends in Cebu, along with myself, are very distressed. Do you have any information about what has happened to her body, whether she was buried in Loon or taken back to Cebu? I ask because we would like to visit her to say goodbye and to show our respects.

Any further information regarding this matter that you have will be very much appreciated,

Yours

(name withheld)

Hello Faye,

Welcome to Tubag Bohol.

Hope to see you here always.

mike

Filipino Global Charity Association (FGCA)

FGCA was founded by Ms. Alicia Andersson of Umeå, Sweden in 2005. I am the secretary of this association and our purpose is to help some deserving students in the Philippines to get a college education.

We have awarded our first scholarship grant to Ms. Glend Mae Gallego who is presently attending a teaching course at HNU (Holy Name University) in Bohol.

Our membership is open to everyone who wants to be of help. We encourage our kind-hearted, blessed and fortunate fellow countrymen to join us and be one of us.

The more members who participate, the more help we can extend to the would be chosen scholar in the next years.

We accept members, donors and sponsors from all over the world. Please visit our website here: www.filipinocharity.org


Sincerely,

Maria Nenita Frondell
Web Administrator, Swedish Filipino Friendship Association in Jönköping
Secretary, Filipino Global Charity Association
Member, Ugnayang Pilipino

source: http://www.gmanews.tv

Quote from: Lorenzo on November 22, 2007, 11:31:08 AM
im crying as i write it, 'te.
I've been crying the whole day
i dont know, i feel so very depressed, Ate...

Bran, just pour it out. Write and write and write... we're here for you...

Sirhan Ko Ang Akong Ngabil
sinulat ni mike ligalig

Sirhan ko ang akong ngabil
kay ang pulong moabli
sa bintana sa imong mga luha

Dili ko na ikaw pangutan-on
giunsa mo pagsugat ang kadlawon
nga wala ako sa imong kiliran -
kay bisan diay ang usa ka pulong
nga mahagbong sa akong dila
makapatay-og sa imong kalag

Sirhan ko ang akong ngabil
pugngan ang bul-og sa pulong
nga buot mogakos kanimo

Dili ko na ikaw pangutan-on
unsa ka haw-ang ang mga oras
nga wala nagapos sa atong mga bukton -
kay bisan diay ang usa ka pulong
nga mohalok sa imong dalunggan
motay-og sa atong kalibotan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YspLsX6VTYg

God Will Make A Way
by Don Moen

God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength for each new day
He will make a way He will make a way

By a roadway in the wilderness
He'll lead me
And rivers in the desert will I see
Heaven and earth will fade
But His word will still remain
He will do something new today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUAz6HgNfnM

I Will Sing by Don Moen

Lyrics:

Lord You seem so far away. A million miles or more it feels today.
And though I haven't lost my faith, I must confess right now that it's hard for me to pray.
But I don't know what to say and I don't know where to start.
But as you give the grace with all that's in my heart.

I will sing.
I will praise even in my darkest time through the sorrow and the pain.
I will sing. I will praise.
Lift my hands to honor You because Your word is true. I will sing.

Lord, it's hard for me to see all the thought and plan You have for me.
But I will put my trust in You. Lord will meet Your guide to set me free.
But I don't know what to say and I don't know where to start.
But as you give the grace with all that's in my heart.

I will sing.
I will praise even in my darkest time through the sorrow and the pain.
I will sing. I will praise.
Lift my hands to honor You because Your word is true. I will sing. (2 times)

Hello Bran, I am reading your thoughts and emotions and I know and understand your feelings of grief and sorrow.

May you continue to be a blessing to the rest of your friends.

Mari, what a beautiful work of art for a beautiful Boholana in Norway.

we are proud of you, Mari.

Ginger, i will drink 3 cups of Ginger on your birthday...

Hanggang kailan ang pagdamay?

Nais ko lang itanong kung marami sa ating OFW na minsan ay nagtatanong kung kailan matatapos ang ating pagdamay sa ating mga pamilya sa Pilipinas. Namimili ba kayo ng tutulungan, o dahilan ng pagtulong?

Naitatanong ko lang ito dahil sa aking kalagayan. Apat kami na magkakapatid, ulila sa ama, at ang aking ina ay matanda na.

Hindi ko na iisa-isahin kung ano ang tulong na nagagawa ko. Ang tanong ko ay responsibilidad
ko pa ba na maging maginhawa ang buhay ng aking dalawang kapatid at ang kanilang pamilya?

Tumutulong na ako sa pagpapaaral sa kanilang mga anak na nasa kolehiyo ngunit, ang aking ina ay parang hindi makuntento at malungkot na hindi kasing-tagumpay ang buhay ng dalawa niyang anak na nasa Pilipinas. Kaya naman ang perang padala namin sa kanya at pension niya ay nagagamit sa pagtulong sa kanila.

Alam ko na mahirap ang buhay sa Pilipinas, ngunit mahirap din ang buhay sa Amerika. Ang lagi kong dasal ay mapasaya ang aking ina.. Ngunit ano man ang gawin ko, hindi ko madama na masaya ang aking ina, lalong-lalo na sa aking kalagayan ngayon.

Palagi kong nararamdaman ang hinanakit niya na hindi ako lubos na makatulong sa lahat ng bagay sa kanilang kalagayan.

Alam ng Diyos na maraming pagkakataon na binigyan ko sila ng puhunan sa negosyo; binigyan ng bahay na matutuluyan. Ngunit tila hindi pa rin sapat at tila mas lalo silang naghihirap.

Ito ba ay dahil sa gobyerno, o dahil dumadami ang kategorya ng kanilang pagangailangan?

Mabigat sa dibdib ko na isipin na hindi maalwan ang buhay nila, ngunit mas mabigat isipin na alam ko na limited ang aking kakayahan na makatulong ng lubos lubos.

Masakit sa akin na makita at maramdaman ang labis na lungkot ng aking ina na hindi lahat ng anak niya ay matagumpay. Masakit din na maramdaman na hindi ma-appreciate ng aking ina ang aking tagumpay sa ibang bansa at tulong na aking naibibigay.

Wala mang sustento ang aking mga kapatid, pero sustentado ko ang aking ina, at dalawang pamangkin sa kolehiyo. May mga anak din ako na pinag-iipunan, may mortgage at may ibang pangangailangan dito.

Gusto ko mang magtrabaho ng extra para may maipadala, ngunit mahirap dahil sa aking responsibilidad sa aking mga anak at asawa.

Paano ko maiiba ang pananaw ng aking ina na kung kailangan ng mga kapatid ko ang tulong para maalwan ang buhay nila, mas kailangan ako ng aking mga anak para masubaybayan na tama ang kanilang paglaki.

Nahahati ako kung paano ko gagamitin ang aking oras: magtrabaho ng extra para masustentuhan sila gaya ng hiling ng aking ina, o gabayan ang aking mga anak sa kanilang sports at homeworks?

Saan magsisimula at magtatapos ang pagdamay sa pamilya sa Pilipinas?

Alam ng Diyos na kapag may emergency or ano man na kailangan sa Pinas ng malaking pera, lagi akong nagpapadala.

Paano ba ang mabuhay sa Pinas ngayon? Ang balita na nababasa ko ay minsan contradicting.

Kailan ba nating maituturo sa ating pamilya na hindi natin kailangan ang maraming bagay at teknolohiya para mabuhay ng marangal at maalwan.

Ako ay nalilito at nakukunsensya. Hanggang saan ang responsibilidad ko sa aking ina? Sa aking mga anak at asawa? Mahirap sa akin, sapagkat kung ina ko lang ang aking iniintindi, alam ko na maalwan ang kanyang buhay..ngunit isusubo na lang ng aking ina...ipamimigay pa niya sa iba.

Ang aking dasal ay ma-enjoy ng aking ina ang buhay na maalwan kung hahayan niya na ibigay ko sa kanya nag nararapat at para lang sa kanya.

Sana maliwanagan ang aking ina na ako ay ina rin, natatakot na mapabayaan ang aking mga anak at hindi masiguro ang magandang bukas para sa aking mga supling.

MST in Florida, USA

- GMANews.TV

Bran, just continue to express your emotions here in Tubag Bohol and we are all here 24 hours open ready to hear your written voices and thoughts.

I know this is a traumatic experience for you and your circle of friends for Rob left you with a sad note.

I wish to thank Rob for helping you and being with you when you made the Tubag Bohol youtube video. We didn't know him then; we had not seen him then. Rob is gone now and we feel your pain.

Bran, please extend our deepest sympathies from all of us here in Tubag Bohol to the bereaved Matson family especially to his mother and father who brought Rob into this world and raised him.

May God bless Rob's soul.

Maybe Nene had no one to talk to in the U.S. Maybe there were things that she wanted to say but she found herself alone or maybe she refused to talk about these or maybe her friends are too busy to listen to her woes.

Nene could have poured out her heart before Jesus and talked to Him. The Lord never rejects anyone who would call upon His name. Jesus said: "Come to Me who are weary and are heavily laden and I will give you rest." There is rest for anyone who would run to God for rescue.

Of course, we need friends with whom we could share our joys and sorrows.

A forum site can be one of the channels through which a person can scream and unleash the content of his or her heart. Releasing unspoken thoughts and feelings can actually help ease a nagging burden.

Reach out to someone today.

By Joe Espiritu
Columnist
Bohol Sunday Post

The first week of November has passed. Except for the political circus nothing has happened except in some barangays, there is a changing of the guard. That and nothing more. The fishing season for striped and dogtooth tuna has not yet started. The rice-planting season came late and the harvest may not be in time for Christmas. There are some remarks that the weather maker is getting old. He is getting his seasons mixed up.

During these months, storms are supposed to pass our latitudes. Not that we are praying for them but that is a common natural event at this time of the year.

What had occurred was an earthquake. Geologists say that the source was tectonic, that means the shifting of the earth's crust. The fault is somewhere in the mountains of Gunldulman. Reports say that the tremor was 5 in magnitude but we hardly felt the shake.

There was a warning that Southern Bohol might experience a tsunami. Some years ago an earthquakes did happen. One toppled the bell tower of the Jagna Catholic Church. The other was the so-called tsunami. In this earthquake, there was something like a comedy of errors. Records say that there was a tsunami that occurred years ago. There was a submarine disturbance somewhere in the Bohol Sea off the waters of Baclayon. We wonder if a tsunami really occurred. There was a water disturbance but the wave did not even reach the highway.

According to accounts, there was really a shake. The sea did recede. A ship moored in the Jagna wharf sat on the bottom. Some fishes were stranded. Some places in the shoreline cracked. When it closed again mud and water spurted from the closing cracks. The sea surged back but it barely topped the high water mark.

Most of the people took alarm. They first fled to the hills leaving everything behind.

Later on, they came back for some necessities. The beauty is; nobody did have time to steal. They were all afraid of the tsunami. This time, the folks discovered the beauty of the hills. They pitch tent cities and made the hillsides park like. We appreciated the event because it made our inland place lively. The moon was full and the weather was dry making nights beautiful.

It is our opinion that a tsunami of a disastrous magnitude like the one that hit Aceh province of Indonesia and beach resorts of Thailand will happen here. The earthquake was also tectonic but it happened when the continental shelf somewhere in the Indian Ocean shifted. Fifty feet high waves were generated by the submarine disturbance and it reached as far as Madagascar in Africa and Bangladesh. Thousands were killed.

We had received posters on how to cope with tsunamis if they might happen. This may happen not here. The Marianas Trench or Philippine Deep, the submarine canyon off Surigao and Samar seas could be the edge of the continental plate. If any shifting would occur, only the provinces facing the Pacific Ocean would be affected. Since Bohol Sea is practically an inland sea, ant undersea disturbance would be lesser in magnitude. Anyway, there is no harm in preparing. The faults found here are small. We hope.

“Public officials and employees shall at all times be accountable to the people and shall discharge their duties with utmost responsibility, integrity, competence, and loyalty, act with patriotism and justice, lead modest lives, and uphold public interest over personal interest.”

This government statement of policy is now being put to test by a taxpayer demanding copy of the city government’s Summary of Budget and Expenditures.

Former OIC Governor and bar top-notcher Victor de la Serna went to city hall Wednesday morning requesting copy of the city’s annual budget and expenditures for the year 2006.

City Budget Officer Rosemarie Palma, however, resisted De la Serna’s move by demanding that the former write a formal letter first.

Wasting no time, De la Serna right there and them made a handwritten Letter-Request as required by Palma. To the lawyer’s dismay, Palma again refused to provide the requested copy which was readily available that time and instead told De la Serna that she will first endorsed the request to the office of the Mayor for further instructions.

Section 5, Duties of Public Officials and Employees, Paragraph (e) of the “CODE OF CONDUCT AND ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES” (R.A.6713) provides that: (e) “All public documents must be made accessible to, and readily available for inspection by, the public within reasonable working hours.”

Despite the initial resistance, De la Serna said he will wait.

The request was also submitted to the office of acting City Accountant Eleonor Beniga. The same law, RA 6713 Sec. 5, (a) states that: “All public officials and employees shall, within fifteen (15) working days from receipt thereof, respond to letters, telegrams or other means of communications sent by the public. The reply must contain the action taken on the request.”

“If they have nothing to hide, then they will give copy of these documents which every taxpayer has the right to scrutinize and look into.”

“From these documents we can determine how the city mayor spent the taxpayers’ money and where he got all those huge expenditures for travels, in and outside the country,” De la Serna said.

source: www.theboholstandard.com

By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle

An operator of the illegal numbers game 'swertres' was arrested with his two sons who were found in possession of illegal drugs by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Guindulman town last Saturday.

The suspect, identified as one Rodulfo Eyas y Castro, resident of barangay Tabajan, Guindulman was collared by joint CIDG operatives and Guindulman police in his residence around 8 p.m. by virtue of a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 50 Judge Dionisio Calibo.

According to P/CInsp. Germano Mallari, Eyas was caught in possession of paraphernalia used in the illegal numbers game, a cell phone, P1,550, 4 pieces of caliber .45 mm ammunition; and 3 pieces of caliber 38 mm ammunition.

During the course of the suspect's arrest, his two sons identified as Sherwin Eyas and Darwin Eyas were also found in possession of shabu and marijuana.

The three suspects are now detained at Camp Dagohoy while charges in violation of the illegal gambling law and Comprehensive Anti Illegal Drugs law is being prepared.

The arrest of Eyas and his two sons is the ninth successful apprehension of the Bohol PNP in the past two weeks after Provincial Police Director SSupt. Edgardo Ingking declared a provincewide all out war against swertres.

Of the nine apprehended, six come from the town of Talibon.

The suspects are identified as Wilfredo Cabulao, Romero Renomeron, Warren Auxtero, Victor Ramos, Carlos Polistico and Wilson Saldo of Talibon.

In Tubigon town, one Benjamin Lumapat was also arrested while the eighth suspect is identified as a certain Arthur Palado of barangay San Rafael, Mabini town.

Cases are now pending against the suspects at the Provincial Prosecutors Office.

Some P1.2-million is believed to be the daily revenues derived by illegal gambling financiers here from swertres operations.

By Fred C. Amora
www.theboholstandard.com

Now it can be told!

Bohol’s dream of having its first state university is still a long, long way because of parochial reasons. Local officials continue to find it heavy for them to part away government lands where campuses of the Central Visayas State College of Fisheries and Technology (CVSCAFT) are built on.

The application for CVSCAFT to be converted into a state university, until now, suffers a big flaw since it does not own the land where their campuses are standing, notwithstanding provision in the CVSCAFT Law (RA 8659) Section 18 that says: “All assets, fixed and movable, personnel and records are hereby transferred to the college. All parcels of land belonging to the government occupied by the schools being integrated are hereby declared to be the property of CVSCAFT and shall be titled under the name of the college: provided, that should the state college cease to exist or be abolished or should such parcels of land aforementioned be no longer needed by the college, the same shall revert to the Province of Bohol.”

CVSCAFT has its main campus in Bilar, and also maintains one in the city, in Candijay, Calape, Clarin and Balilihan.

The CVSCAFT law creating Bohol’s only state college was approved in 1999 but until now the provincial government had failed or “continue to refuse” to adhere to that particular provision “ceasing title of lands to the school.”

A bill authored by first district congressman Edgar M. Chatto is now in the Lower House committee level but still lacks documents to support such application for state university conversion; which includes endorsement/ resolution of support from the provincial and city governments.

In a report of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Joint-Committees on Education and Government Properties, Enterprises and Related Undertakings dated Oct. 25, 2007, it said that “they cannot just disregard the possible consequences they might face in the event they (legislators) gave up the lands.”

They were one in letting out their apprehension that they might be blamed for their actions later on.

But other reasons in the report revealed “fiscal” concerns that make legislators hold on to these lands and decide to forgo the benefits of quality education from a state university.

Provincial board members had reservations on the land title issue since provincial lots are reportedly tied up/ used as collateral to loans by the provincial government.

Also, in the event the province losses these lands, the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share of the province from the national government might be affected and will subsequently reduce its status as a first class LGU.

Observers from the academe noted that local officials worry more in their “loan capability” and “allotment share” than providing a better education, global competitive edge for an incoming generation.

Third district board member Esther Corazon Galbreath chairs the committee on education with second district Josephine Socorro Jumamoy as vice chairperson, and Cesar Tomas Lopez, member.

Second district board member Amalia Tirol, who belongs to the clan that owns the University of Bohol, chairs the committee on Government Properties and Related Undertakings, with lawyer Aster Piollo as vice chair and Alfonso Damalerio II, member.

The two committees, however, said they are supportive of the move for CVSCAFT to become a state university.

The land issue is now being reviewed by the office of Provincial Legal Officer Atty. Handel Lagunay who promised to submit to the joint committee a written opinion as reference when the matter is deliberated in plenary.

"Merry Christmas to Mama Bebe Ligalig and to my sister Florabelle... Let's pray that I can go home this Christmas and we'll visit Papa together."

By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) is seeking to require stringent rules for mining and quarry operations here in the province.

This as First District Board Member Alfonso Damalerio II submitted for approval on first reading the "Bohol Mining Ordinance" during the SP session yesterday.

In his privilege speech, Damalerio cited that provincial revenues from mining operations rose to 85-percent from P2.1 million last year to P3.98 million this year.

While revitalizing mining and quarry operations is important, Damalerio said, adopting limitations to its operations here is likewise critical.

"Provisions and adequate safeguards for environmental concerns are also embodied [in] the proposed ordinance so as to mitigate the impact of the operation and ensure environmental sustainability," Damalerio said.

In the proposed regulation, local government units (LGUs) are required to monitor quarry operations within their respective areas.

Transparency is also required in obtaining permits for mining from operators at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and other government agencies.

The total revenue represents 10-percent of the market value of the minerals extracted based on the province's Revenue Code.

The revenue sharing under the revenue code is 30-percent for the provincial government, 30-percent for the municipality where the operation is conducted while 40-percent goes to the barangay where the quarry resources had been taken.

According to Damalerio, "the sharing scheme clearly illustrates the economic benefits of the proposed ordinance," as each government unit (province-municipality and barangay) collects a share of the taxes and fees imposed.

The approval of the proposed ordinance is also within the 10-point agenda of Gov. Erico Aumentado which calls for "environmental sustainability" while "expanding economic opportunities," Damalerio said.

Happy Birthday, Paul!

May you have more ICM movies to watch.

God bless you, Paul!

Quote from: balong on November 21, 2007, 02:43:31 AM
wa jud koy tsans ni ginger ani. wa man mo tubag si ginger sa ahong pangaliya.  na hala, manamilit na ko ninjo mga pipol. unsa pa may poy-an naho dinhi sa tubag bohol nga wa naman koy paglaom. daghang salamat sa injong gihatag nga friendship and forgiveness para niining usa ka kalag nga alaut. adto na ako sa yuta diin ang mga alaut ray nasayod. i will miss you all. wa na koy labot sa ginger love triangle, quadrangle. ibilin na lang naho si ginger sa mga maayong kamot ni sigbin. hinaut unta nga ikaw maoy mo gulang mananaog sigbin . adios amigos and amigas.

Balong, sa ngalan sa atong tim-os nga panaghigala, ayaw kami ug biyai kay mailo na unya kami sa imong mga pangindahay.

Buot kami moduyog sa imong kasubo ug mosalo sa imong kalipay bisan pa man ug kitang tanan dinhi sa Tubag Bohol gibulag sa daghang kadagatan ug kabukiran sa kalibutan.

Buot kami mobalik ug simhot sa imong sugilanon busa ayaw intawon pakyasa ang among pangaliyupo nga imong ipadayon pagyagyag ang imong kagahapon dinhi sa Tubag Bohol.

Buot kami mouban ug lubong sa imong mga luha kung ugaling mapakyas ka sa imong pagkatkat sa hagdanan sa gugma.

Balong, ang imong mga pulong daw punyal nga duhay suwab nga mitaroy sa kinauyokan sa mga dughan sa mga magbabasa dinhi sa Tubag Bohol.

Buot ko untang ibton ang maong punyal nga giagasan sa dugo sa kaguol apan palabihon kong padayon magbasa sa imong sugilanon taliwala sa walog sa mga luha ug lawod sa mga kasakit.

The story and image of Rob Matson did not leave me this morning. I was alone in a classroom here in Thailand, waiting for my students to arrive. I remember Bran's post on Rob Matson and I remember my father saying to me during his last days on earth, "Gusto pa kong mabuhi kay mag-alagad ko sa Ginoo." Tears welled up my eyes. I wanted to write a poem for Rob Matson but I was overwhelmed with mixed sorrows and pains.

Happy Anniversary Lumine...

Akong pangaliyupo ug panghinaut nga padayon magdilaab sa inyong mga kasing-kasing ang gugma alang sa usag-usa.

God bless Lumine and Herman couple...

The death toll from a tropical storm lashing the Philippines rose to 10 on Monday, officials said.

Landslides killed seven people on the north coast of the southern island of Mindanao and the central islands, while three other people drowned in the southern city of Iligan, they said.

Two other people were still missing while five were injured in the landslides, the civil defence office said in a statement.

Packing winds of up to 65 kms an hour, the storm was over the Sulu Sea on Tuesday after hitting the islands of Bohol, Cebu, Negros and Panay overnight, the weather office said.

source: ndtv.com

This is my lola, Flora Ligalig. She's 86 years old now and four of her sons, my father the fourth one, have passed away. The irony of our time is that the mother is burying her children.

Two days after Papa died in Velez Hospital in Cebu, Nay Flora had not known of her favorite son's death. The other children had difficulty telling her of the truth.

Again, I would like to thank you, my Tubag Bohol loved ones, for standing by us in our times of grief.

November 4, 2007 in Virgen, Anda, Bohol, Philippines.

This is the front door of our house. Papa's casket is being carried out of our humble dwelling.
My mother (the woman on the far left of the picture) was wailing. I was weeping
by the road. The three other women on the far left of the picture are sisters of my
father.

To my friends here in Tubag Bohol, I can't thank you enough for your prayers, support,
and comfort.

Every picture about my father that I will be posting here is lifetime keepsake of how kind you have been to me and to my family.

Salamat kaayo ninyong tanan...

Jun, thank you for this flower that you sent to us during our days and nights of sorrow.

I'm posting it here in memory of my father, who is you kumpare.

Once again, I'd like to thank you for visiting him in the hospital.

God bless you, Jun...

Gem, thank you once again for the flowers that you sent during the wake of my father.

Here's the picture, Gem...

Bran, there are things that are beyond our comprehension. There are things I wish to ask from God but I let Him to be the God and accept my humanity and my limitations. He is GOD after all and no one can question Him.

Bran, my question is: If God knew that Lucifer would rebel him in the end, then why did He create this angel in the first place? God is omnipotent and omniscience and there is nothing beyond the reach of His infinite power. He knows the past, the present, and the future. So He must have known beforehand that Lucifer would rebel Him. So if He knew this in advance, then why did He still create Lucifer and give this angel the loftiest beauty and supremacy among the millions or billions of angels in heaven?

In a split of a second, God can even wipe out Lucifer and all his legions of followers from the face of the universe, yet God allows their existence.

Again, God is God. There are things that He alone has the understanding. I am His creation and He is my creator.

Written by Loy Palapos
The Bohol Sunday Post

Arcadio Dominado Sarmiento (ADS) was already the accomplished Archie Sarmiento even before the early 90's when he came back to Bohol to become the City Administrator of Tagbilaran, and later as a two-term Councilor; while simultaneously managing the Travellers Inn, the first tourist home-away-from-home before Bohol became the number one tourist destination.

This interview took place at D' Buzz last Wednesday, a day after my hectic schedule deprived me of an earlier opportunity to see him at McJack, which he manages. Seeing Archie after some months was a refreshing experience… he was, and still is, the soft-spoken gentleman whose coolness and confidence makes him very reachable. His is a confidence not wrought with arrogance, nor tinted with condescension, but an innate outcome of exposure to varied cultures all over the world.

For indeed, Archie Sarmiento has been to different countries of the globe, as a part of his responsibilities as National Director of the Bureau of Fibers Inspection and Development Office. For this job, he equipped himself with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree from UP-Los Baños and Araneta University, aside from being a Career Executive Service Officer at the DAP (Development Academy of the Philippines), and from another Master's degree in National Security Administration, that he got form Fort Bonifacio. He also had a study grant in Agricultural Development in Australia by the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

For him politics in the Philippines is a way of life and, being an optimist, he believes improvement on it is still very feasible. He compared the leadership of the present and past administration, by focusing on the good points, a manifestation that his brand of public service transcends political colors.

LMP: Let me start with the latest incident, the bombing of the Batasan. What is your comment about it? Is it something that is terrorist-oriented, or politically motivated?
ADS: I think it is mainly political, but the one who did it is laing mga taw.

LMP: As far as you are concerned was it initiated by the administration or the opposition?
ADS: The administration cannot get anything from it. I would say that it would be the opposition. But not exactly the opposition, there would be a third party involved. Not the opposition perse. It's like they are trying to stir an outcry to disturb the administration.

LMP: I remember during the time of Marcos, there were some incidents which were reported to be initiated by the administration in order to support the declaration of Martial Law. Do you see the same scenario today?
ADS: No, I don't think so. The public will not tolerate it anymore. Unlike before, some of our neighboring countries are not so involved in the affairs of the individual countries.

LMP: So self-regulation.
ADS: Parang self-regulation. It is the decision of the people if they will go back to Martial Law.

LMP: So, you mean to say that there's a possibility that the administration will tell a lie because there are some people who will critique whatever is the outcome?
ADS: Yes. In fact the President has called the National Security Council inviting everyone to clarify matters.

LMP: Now, talking about the administration and the rise of the peso, do you see it as a very good sign? I attended a meeting at the Philippine Conference in Manila last month. There was a sector, which was negatively affected, especially the import-export sector. But generally speaking, would you consider the rise of the peso against the dollar as very advantageous?
ADS: I think we have to look at the fact where our economy is dependent so much. On local production ba or on importation?

LMP: In my observation there is not much production here.
ADS: Kaya nga. Even if local producers will import their raw materials, and the peso value is higher than the dollar, then it is really cheaper to import, unless the dollar value is so low, alkansi ta. Maybe we are dependent to 60% or 70% of the importation.

LMP: Another consideration would be the OFWs, the dollar remittances. Is this really something good for the Filipino? Because there are two sides of the coin.
ADS: I think these are excess money of the workers abroad. If you're out, you will see that people spend their money on basic goods.

LMP: Along that line, I talked to somebody who said that it is a Boholano custom to go abroad and send money and build a house. It seems as if the house is the trophy or their symbol of success. Would you share that same idea?
ADS: This is a good investment pod. Maybe they are thinking nga after retiring they can have something to go back to. A good house and a car for instance. We cannot blame them. What else are you going to do with the money?

LMP: You consider houses and cars as good investments?
ADS: Yes. Of course.

LMP: Do you believe that this so-called "brain drain" will go on for generations and that there is no way of stopping it as of now?
ADS: Here in ICM, many of your workers are college graduates. They have good jobs, but there are still some opportunities. If they go into business, they need money, they need capital. Their families from abroad will send money and start a business here. The dollar earnings would be a good advantage.

LMP: There's a misconception nga hayahay ang kinabuhi abroad which is not. Todo gyud ka ug kayod taman sa ginhawa.
ADS: I think travel agencies have faults, too. Congress should regulate these agencies.

LMP: You mean hatagan sila ug quota?
ADS: Yes. Because there is no control sa mga mo-abroad. Kana untang qualified mo-adto.

LMP: Most of these people who really go there are skilled laborers and those who are certified by TESDA. They must be good in order to compete. Now, would there come a time nga mahurot ang professionals sa Pilipinas kay tua na mgtrabaho in other countries?
ADS: Unless stagnant na ang state sa atong country, maybe that would happen.

LMP: Now, the acceptability of GMA is questioned most of the time. Sometimes it is negative, other times, it's positive. From your point of view, how is GMA to the eyes of the world.
ADS: I think it is not GMA. It's the government itself. GMA is a part of the government. If there's corruption, then it's the fault of the whole organization, the whole country.

LMP: Is it a negative perception? Do you believe in some statements of the people that hope is very slim in this corrupt country?
ADS: It's not only Filipinos who are corrupt. The foreigners are also here corrupting our country.

LMP: Are you one of those who believe that some people don't know how to practice democracy the way it should be practiced? With big responsibility?
ADS: The Philippines is one of the most corrupt. Even without GMA, that will always be there.

LMP: If you can make a comparison when you came here in Bohol from Manila in 1991, can you say that we have improved a lot?
ADS: There's a big improvement, especially in economics. I find Boholanos are really friendly, approachable and carefree. There are already street lights, the drainage system, improved na ang interior roads. A good indication of an improved city.

LMP: How about gambling? Is it a business that we cannot get rid of?
ADS: Gambling is a tool that precedes evil. So it's hopeless. But a little control for the young should be practiced.

LMP: It has become a passion. As long as there's hope nga maka jack pot, padayon gyud na.
ADS: But there must also be a way to generate income.

LMP: How do you compare the city administration now and before?
ADS: The former administration was very consultative, before making a big decision. The administration now has an aggressive approach. Both are very positive depending upon the circumstances.

In his travels abroad, he expressed special affection to the European cities. Paris, he said, had a unique charm, despite the people all the time speaking the French Language, even if they know English. He finds the Londoners, cold and disciplined gentlemen. Admiring Canberra, the capital of Australia, as a man-made city and therefore well-planned, he does not hide his dismay in viewing over-congested and unplanned cities which just sprout without any projection. He can recall the heart-rending mud houses of China before it opened all doors to foreign business. The cities of Germany evoke strength and prosperity. The catacombs of Rome, the eternal city of seven hills, reminds him of the early Christians being persecuted.

Geneva is peopled with warmth. Bangkok, Seoul, Singapore and other Asian cities are enjoying economic development, with Tokyo as the biggest spender. The cities of USA cannot compete with the historical significance of Europe. Athens still retains the glory of ancient times.

On a wall at the lobby of Travellers Inn is a framed display of coins of different denominations Archie Sarmiento has collected all over the world. Just for remembrance of past travels. "How is life now?" I asked. "Retired but not tired", he answered. And how would he wish to be remembered? "A common man with big dreams."

By Jhunex Napallacan
PDI Visayas
November 20, 2007

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) hoisted Public Storm Signal No. 2 in Cebu, Bohol, Northern Negros, Guimaras Island, and Iloilo Monday afternoon as the weather disturbance “Lando” intensified from a tropical depression into a storm.

The storm blew through Central Visayas around 4 p.m., packing winds of 65 kilometers per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 80 kph near the center and was expected to cross the inland waters of the Visayas, moving west northwest at 13 kph.

Signal No. 1 was raised in Aklan, Antique, Capiz, the rest of the Negros provinces, Siquijor, Cuyo Island, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Dinagat Island, Western Samar, Eastern Samar, Camotes Island, and Biliran Island.

"Tropical Storm Lando is moving west northwest and is expected to cross the Visayas this evening," said Nathaniel Cruz, PAGASA weather branch chief.

The storm did not weaken despite making landfall since it did not hit a huge mass of land when it left Surigao and hovered over the seas on its way to Cebu, Cruz said in a television interview.

"Definitely, the Visayas will continue to experience stormy, especially in areas where storm signals are up," Cruz said.

A woman here was injured when a landslide hit her house in La Guerta, Barangay (village) Lahug .

At the height of the storm, the strong winds felled trees and some billboards, causing traffic jams in major Metro Cebu streets.

PAGASA said the storm will be in the vicinity of Cuyo Island, 130 kph west of Iloilo city on Tuesday afternoon.

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. â€"Lamentations 3:22

When London’s red double-decker Routemaster buses were withdrawn from regular service in December 2005, many people felt they had lost a friend. The Routemasters had provided reliable service for 51 years, and they were popular with Londoners and tourists alike because of their easy jump-on, jump-off rear access. A few of the old buses still run on two Heritage tourist routes, but in the rest of the sprawling city, they’re gone.

Many changes in our lives represent loss, whether as small as the cherished memory of a bus or as large as a destroyed family home, a thwarted dream of success, or the death of a person we’ve deeply loved. In every loss we long for a touch of healing and hope.

The book of Lamentations has been called “the funeral of a city.” In it, Jeremiah mourned the captivity of his people and the destruction of Jerusalem. Yet in the midst of sorrow, there is a celebration of God’s faithfulness: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’” (Lam. 3:22-24).

When our hearts hurt because of loss, we can find hope in our Lord, who never changes.
â€"David C. McCasland

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain. â€"von Schlegel

When the sunshine of God’s love meets the showers of our sorrow, the rainbow of promise appears.

source: www.rbc.org

Quote from: bulak on November 20, 2007, 02:15:22 AM
oi sorry happy..karon pako kabalik..saon life is busy naman tawn oi bisan unsaon..salamat sa imo recipe ha kay nahurot jod as in...

back to the story ni Balong..hehehe,basin pa diay sa sunod na nakong duaw dire maka desisyon na si inday Gin kung kinsay tugyanan sa iyang pagbating hilabihan..bulahan og palaran ang  nilalang nga maoy maka papitik og subli sa iyang nahikatulog nga pagbati!!!hehehhe

Bulak, ug bulahan ang linalang nga maoy makapamulak sa tugkaran sa kasing-kasing ni Ginger.

Written By STEVE LOHR
Manila Bureau Chief of the New York Times
Published on September 22, 1985

When the beach resort on Panglao Island in the Philippines was founded last year, the idea was that it would be mainly a dive camp - an outpost for seasoned and aspiring scuba divers and snorkeling enthusiasts.

Within a half-hour boat ride of the alabaster beaches there are a dozen diving spots where the colorful diversity of the coral formations and sea life is stunning. The elaborate formations, often shaped like cabbages or intricately branched bushes, are found in green, blue, orange, brown, yellow, beige and other hues, and there are schools of iridescent fish.

It didn't quite work out that way, however, as the resort's management admits. Plenty of people, it seems, are content to bask on the beach, read, relax, swim, play tennis or tour the countryside in this idyllic setting without feeling any overpowering urge to don a mask and flippers. Nondiving Europeans, in particular, tend to stay for several weeks at a time. ''Look,'' one Italian woman explained, ''the place is like paradise.''

That seems only a mild exaggeration. And while the Philippines has its problems these days, Panglao Island, a dot on the map about 400 miles southeast of Manila, is not one of them.

Panglao Island lies at the bottom of the cluster of islands in the central Philippines known as the Visayas. These islands occupy a central place not only in the country's geography but also in its history. Ferdinand Magellan, the first Westerner to find the Philippines, landed on Samar in 1521 by accident, looking for a Pacific route to the riches of the Indies for Spain (Magellan was killed shortly afterward in a battle with tribesmen). In 1565, the Spanish adventurer Miguel Lopez de Legaspi landed briefly in Bohol and signed a blood compact with Datu Sikatuna, a local chieftain. Then Legaspi proceeded to Cebu and claimed the whole 7,100-island archipelago for King Philip II of Spain - and named the country after him as well.

Panglao belongs to Bohol province and is connected to the main island by a narrow bridge. This means that the island's resort, the Bohol Beach Club, is just a 30-minute ride by van along a dirt-and-gravel road from the provincial capital of Tagbilaran. And Tagbilaran is a 20-minute trip in a low-flying propeller-driven plane from Cebu, which, in turn, is a one-hour flight from Manila. So Panglao is a couple of hours, counting the stopover time in Cebu, from Manila, not a couple of days including boat trips, as are some of the other remote islands of the Philippines.

There is a good bit more than the setting and travel convenience to recommend Panglao and the Bohol Beach Club, however. The accommodations are far better than at most other provincial resorts in the country, especially compared with the places on far-flung islands, which can be bracingly Spartan. By contrast, the Bohol Beach Club has electricity and it is on for 24 hours a day, except for occasional brownouts that are common almost everywhere in the Philippines. There are no telephones at the Bohol Beach Club. Some might consider that an advantage - if you've got phones and television you're not in a certified island paradise. The resort does have a two-way radio link to Cebu. So, if an emergency develops, you can get in touch with the outside world.

The 40 double rooms, in 10 thatched cottages, are simple but comfortable. Each room has twin beds, some light rattan furniture, a dressing table, a ceiling fan and a bathroom. The cottages are made of native woods, mostly bamboo and coconut palms. The beach is dotted with parasols fashioned of thick cogon grass hung on conical frames supported by a palm-tree post stuck in the ground, like orderly toadstools. The dining room is open on three sides, overlooking the pool and the beach. The chairs are rattan and the ceiling is a latticework of coconut palm. The dinners are usually buffet style and the food, kept warm in locally made clay pots, is labeled. Three recommended dishes: Adobo, the principal dish of the Philippines, is chicken or pork stewed in vinegar, garlic and soy sauce served with rice. Kinilaw, the Philippine version of sashimi, is raw fish marinated in a vinegar and onion sauce. Lapu-lapu, a type of grouper, is a fish with light, delicate flesh.

The amenities include a tennis court, swimming pool, sail boards, sailboats, diving gear and certified instructors, and two miles of that extraordinary beach with hardly a soul on it.

Panglao is also outside the main typhoon belt of the Philippines, so that even during the rainy season, from late June through August, the downpours are usually confined to evenings and usually last less than an hour. The chances of a vacation, even one of just a few days duration, being ruined by bad weather are extremely slight.

One reason the Panglao beach area now occupied by the resort remained undeveloped for so long is that during World War II, when Japan occupied the Philippines, it was used as a burial ground for Japanese soldiers killed in battle. Fearful of disturbing the spirits of the dead, villagers preferred to settle away from this particular stretch of shoreline. But a Japanese invasion of another sort - by tourists, this time - is under way in the central Philippines, with nearby Cebu as the main staging area.

To many, one of Panglao's great assets is that the Japanese package tours have not yet found it. More accurately, Tokyo tour operators avoid Panglao because the runway at Tagbilaran is too short for the larger planes needed for big tourist groups. Late this month a private airport a mile from the resort will open. Its longer runway will make the island somewhat more accessible. But now, and perhaps for a while, Panglao is a tranquil haven. As a diving site, Panglao's great attraction is the diversity it offers. Along the reef off nearby Balicasag Island, for instance, are giant fan-shaped corals up to 12 feet across - so big some divers play hide-and-seek around them. One coral arch, just a few minutes' boat ride from the beach, is a 15-foot span called the Cathedral. To this novice snorkeler, the surprising thing about an underwater excursion, besides the sheer beauty of the terrain, is that everything seems to be alive and moving. The spines of prickly sea urchins wave at you. Starfish twitch an appendage here and there. A big grouper swims by, trailed by a school of fingerlings known locally as clown fish.

The resort has two instructors certified by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, a United States-based organization that sets standards for scuba diving and instruction. The Bohol Beach Club requires divers to have certification cards showing that they have taken a training course and passed a standard test.

For those interested in learning to scuba dive, the resort's instructors give a one-week course and are authorized to issue certification cards. The cost of the lessons, equipment rental and license is $300. For scuba diving, the rate is $30 a day a diver. Many other places in the Philippines will issue scuba gear to anyone with foreign currency to pay for the rental. And the scuba equipment at Bohol is excellent; some diving camps around Cebu have been known to send neophyte divers into the surf with cracked masks and one flipper to a customer.

The natural attractions underwater for more adventurous divers are plentiful. The Cerrera Shoals, a 30-minute boat ride from the resort, is known as the home of black-and-white tiger-striped sea snakes. The snakes are poisonous and the current near the shoals is strong, about eight knots. Along the reef off Pamilacan Island, 35 minutes from the Bohol Beach Club, is the home of manta rays and sting rays. Sharks, barracuda, mackerel, lapu-lapu, angel fish, parrot fish and other varieties can be seen at several of the dozen diving sites close to the resort.

There is one other attraction that carries a strong personal recommendation: the countryside tour. It takes about three hours by Jeep and, considering the roads and terrain, those given to car sickness need not apply. Yet it includes not only some memorable natural landscape, but also a glimpse of what provincial life in the Philippines is like. The trip traces a route marked by a handful of sightseeing spots, highlighted by Bohol's Chocolate Hills. After crossing the bridge to the island of Bohol, the first stop is the Hinagdanan Cave, an unusual underground limestone cavern with stalactites. At its base is a pool fed by a natural spring, which makes an ideal sheltered swimming hole for the local children. In the early 1500's, when the Spaniards arrived, they thought, according to local legend, the spring might have youth-preserving properties.

The next stop, on a rise overlooking the Mindanao Sea, is a roadside plaque that marks the blood compact between Legaspi, the adventurer, and Sikatuna, the native chief. Their agreement, according to the plaque, is ''the first treaty of friendship and alliance between Spaniards and Filipinos.'' In fact, a great deal more blood on both sides was spilled in the more than three centuries of Spanish colonial rule that ended in 1898, when the Americans took over.

The next stop is the Church of the Immaculate Conception, which claims to be the oldest in the Philippines, having been built in 1595. In fact, Roman Catholicism, the religion of 85 percent of the population, is the most lasting evidence today of the Spanish period. The walls of the high-arched interior, now dappled with watermarks and age, are finished with a plaster-like amalgam made of sea mud, lime and egg whites.

From there, the Jeep proceeds into the countryside through several small villages. The villages in this part of the country are supported by agriculture, mainly coconut and rice farming. The province, though undeveloped, is comparatively well off.

On the way to the Chocolate

Hills, you pass through hill country with dense stands of mahogany and another area of untouched tropical forest that is the home of the tarsier, considered the smallest monkey in the world. It measures four to five inches, has large eyes and a triangular-shaped head. It looks like a tiny version of Yoda of ''Star Wars'' fame.

The Chocolate Hills are a collection of 1,001 natural mounds averaging more than 300 feet high that dimple a broad plateau in Bohol. These formations, composed mostly of limestone, reputedly get their name from their appearance during the dry season when their grass covering turns brown. The rounded humps are closely spaced, but stretch out as far as the eye can see. On the plateau from which they rise are scattered stands of coconut palms, and villagers have planted rice paddies, as though oblivious to the strange mounds in their midst.

The top of one of the highest hills has been flattened as a viewing site for tourists. A road snakes up to near the top and stops beside a small restaurant. From there, a stairway of more than 200 steps goes the rest of the way. At its base, a wizened old gentleman approaches with the question, ''Do you know the legend of the Chocolate Hills?'' And the designated legend teller then continues with the story of Anob, the giant who once inhabited these lands. One day, for reasons unexplained, his wife, a local woman, disappeared. Distraught, the giant wandered the countryside looking in vain for his vanished spouse, sobbing. His giant tears became the mounds of the Chocolate hills. If you go Getting There For travelers going to other East Asian destinations, Panglao is an accessible and rather inexpensive side trip of a few days. To make arrangements from Manila to go to Panglao Island, ask the concierge at your hotel to book you, through Philippine Airlines, on what is called a PALakbayan tour. The cost of a recent three-day trip for two people on one of these tours - including all meals, a day trip by Jeep through the countryside and round-trip plane fare from Manila - came to less than $400.

Brochures and other information on the Bohol Beach Club are available at the sales office of the Bayview Plaza Hotel in Manila, where you can also book a PALakbayan tour or make independent arrangements at slightly greater cost. The phone number for the sales office is 58-07-85. The number for the hotel is 50-30-61.

There are direct flights to Cebu from Tokyo. Round-trip tickets on Philippine Airlines range from $350 to $950. The mailing address for the resort is Bohol Beach Club, Panglao Island, Bohol Province, the Philippines.S. L.

source: www.nytimes.com