In the interview done by GMA News Network, he said he saved his family 1st, then the other people whom he didn’t personally know by bringing them to a Mango tree. After bringing them to the tree he went back to the house where they were staying, got electrical wires and extension cords then used it to tie them to the branches of the tree so that they won’t be swept away by the rushing flood.

During the 7 darkest grueling hours he encouraged and humor the people with him while he himself was very much afraid because the tree was being tossed by debris and logs rushed by the flood. He asked everyone to pray while they heard drowning people shouting and pleading for help, he knew that despite of what he did it is only God alone can save them from the devastation. And God did!

When the dawn came and the flood receded he emotionally said, ‘Kulang pa rin ang ginawa ko kasi ang dami pa ring hindi nakaligtas!”

One of Sendong's victims!

I was amazed and touched by the story and I deduced pregnant lessons for evangelism. Let me enumerate these lessons:

1. First, our world is in a devastating universal calamity called SIN like a rushing deadly flash flood. Everyone will die unless we do something about it by bringing them to a secure place of salvation. The Bible mentions that there is one tree called “Cedar of Lebanon” and  it represents Jesus Himself. We have to lead them to have a personal relationship with JESUS CHRIST alone, not to a religious institution and the likes, not even to ourselves!

2. We have to help 1st our families, then people who are around us, even those whom we do not know personally.

3. We have to secure their position and that position is in the local churches! In doing so we have to be very sensible and wise by using every means as long as it is not a sin!

4. We have to care for them and encourage them though we maybe afraid of the great devastation and we have to be totally dependent on God’s mighty saving power through PRAYER!

5. And lastly, though you dear readers can still get more lessons from this story, we have to have the mind set that we need to exert our efforts and do our very best to help people because at the end of times there will still be thousands that if we won’t do our roles will not be saved and die in that eternal hell!

Church leaders and fellow Christians, I ask you to please be sensible in doing the calling that God gave us. And let us pray for the mercy of God while we do this WONDERFUL TASK of LEADING people to SALVATION!

God is with us – in answered promises, realized dreams, and refreshed hope. How could we help but sing? Let’s explore the songs born from our joy that Christ has entered the world.

This December, LifeChurch.tv is taking a look at the meaning of familiar Christmas songs during the message series, Carols. To get in the spirit of the season, you can download the featured songs – along with a few others – for free.

Please share this page with your friends and family so they can enjoy the carols.

Download

Click here to download CAROLS Christmas Album

Carols by lifechurchtv

Sunday Experience

LifeChurch Makati meets every Sunday at 3:30 pm, Glorietta 4 Multi-purpose Hall.

We’re celebrating Thanksgiving, Pinoy style, at LifeChurch Makati!

Bernard and Jasnia is hosting a thanksgiving celebration this Saturday, November 26 at their residence at Rosewood, Taguig. Event starts 3 pm onwards.

Lifers, your friends, everyone who wants to hang out with us, celebrate and EAT — a lot — are welcome.

How to get there:

1. Meeting place

We’ll have a group that will meet at Glorietta 4, Food Choices with Prudy (09172462587). They will leave at around 2 pm.

2. Commute

From Ayala MRT Station proceed to the ground level parking on the right of the escalator. Look for the van with the signage Pallar. Tell the driver or barker to drop at Pallar. At Pallar ride a tricyle going to Acacia Estate Rosewood. Proceed to club house.

What to bring?

Yourself. And some swimming gears if you want to dive in the pool

See you all!

View Larger Map

Volunteers doing team activity during one of the dinner & vision nights!

Our church is passionate in leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ and we are establishing it as a church where people who are far away from God would love to attend!  These are the things we strongly believe God would like us to do in Makati City.

More so we are so much blessed with a team of leaders who owned for themselves the church’s mission and vision and a bunch of strong dedicated volunteers whose transformed lives are sold out to what LifeChurch Makati has to accomplish!

Because of these we are assured that when we do anything, short of sin, we will be able to accomplish our calling!

OUR 2011 MOVES…

The LifeChurch Makati Band

1. Despite of the comfort we had at Glorietta 4 Cinema 1 as our Sunday Experience venue, for more than a year, we decided to move to Glorietta 4 Multipurpose Hall and adjusted our time schedule from 10:45 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon. We did that to be strategic in our time because our target population were mostly available during the Sunday afternoons. Doing so the lifers were given an enjoyable team effort in transforming the venue to a theater-like ambiance, hanging draperies and the screen, set up the stage and some signage. That happened last September 18, 2011!

Just a note: We also put up a LifeChurch Café where our guests can chat with the lifers over a cup of coffee before the start of the Sunday Experience.

The result of this was the increase of the weekly attendance and we never saw a Sunday where there were no new guests! Lifers were encouraged to bring their friends to a more convenient time and an accommodating venue!

Praying Team

2. Another Makati Lifers’ big move was setting up a Prayer Team who prayed for the prayer requests written in the provided Connection Cards. We have organized our team to pray for every request during the week and made it sure that the prayer messages were sent to those who requested either by mobile phone text message or through their email addresses.

We found out that people appreciated very much being prayed for and they acknowledged that this church really cared so they came back!

3. Then we moved to make our praise and worship time up to another level by organizing three LifeChurch Makati Bands. They sing positive music with state of the art equipments and performances to lead the guests and attendees to worship God in it’s fullest!

The Glorietta Activity Center

OUR 2012 MOVES…

This coming year we were impressed by God to saturate the city in an intentional way!

1. We will start to make the presence of God felt through LifeChurch Makati in the mall where we are house. We plan to have activities such as events in the activity center and the hallways, awareness of our existence through print ads and movie commercials in the Glorietta cinemas. Through these we will shout out that GOD CARES for this city, for its workers and residents!

2. Another move we will do this coming year is to multiply our LifeGroup meetings during the week nights to enhance the way how we  lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ (Disciples) by developing and training leaders, as we end 2011, to create new LifeGroups!

We know He will bring many lives back to Him through what we are going to do…THESE ARE BIG MOVES FOR GOD!!!

To all Lifers, Volunteers, Friends and prayer and financial Partners we would like to thank you for being with us in doing church for God…We do these MOVES to bring life to the people of this city because we believe…WHOEVER FINDS GOD FINDS LIFE!!!

The negative neighbor. The critical co-worker. The manipulative family member. We all have difficult people in our lives. Let’s learn how we can live with—and show love to—Those People, a brand new message series starting this Sunday at LifeChurch Makati. Glorietta 4 Multipurpose Hall, 3:30 pm.

Then this Monday afternoon I attended a Pastoral-Mentoring group lead by Manong Don Cua (founding pastor of Philadelphia Christ-centered Fellowship). I was gladly surprised when Manong Don shared with us, the pastors he is mentoring, the same passage yesterday. (Posted in  picture above).

Let me share with you here what Manong Don presented…

Here are 4 facts about problems that come into our lives (according to the letter of James):

Problems are inevitable. James said “when you meet trials” NOT “if you meet trials.” By that, he meant problems will definitely come in our lives. Problems will come for sure!

Problems are unpredictable. It is a fact of life that we cannot say when is the exact time a problem will come. It will come whether we are ready or not. Whether we are capable of handling it or not. You do not know what kind of problem will attack us. And it comes in the most unexpected time, in the most unexpected way.

Problems are of many kinds. Problems that will come our way are in many varieties. It will be petty, controllable, tremendous, unimaginable or out of this world. And to say the least, it comes also in different sizes and forms.

Yet the good thing is, with God problems are PURPOSEFUL! God has always a way to make all of these problems that come our way to give purpose, meaning and reason in our lives!

To end Manong Don stated the 3 purposes of the problems God allowed to come in our lives:

• Problems PURIFY our FAITH!
• Those FORTIFY our PATIENCE!
• And they SANCTIFY our CHARACTER!

All of my fellow pastors who were struggling in their personal and in their serving lives were so much blessed with these thoughts. And I was doubly blessed by hearing the thoughts on the same passage two times, in two different ways.

I pray that you my readers are blessed alike!

Some tests aren’t about what we put down on paper. The most important tests reveal deep, core truths about who we really are. Come explore what it looks like when we’re Passing the Test.

October 16, 2011 – When God Tests Us
October 23, 2011 – When We Test God

LifeChurch Makati meets every Sunday, 3:30 pm at Glorietta 4, Multi-purpose Hall (4th floor), Makati City.

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they
were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note
that these men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13 NIV)”

“Ordinary men”, “Idiotes” in greek, literally means unschooled,
unlearned, or idiots. Idiots who are clueless about what they’re doing
but passionate about pursuing the vision God has given. Idiots who do
not know what may happen in the near future, but trust that God
controls everything including the future.

We’re a bunch of idots. Not ordinary idiots. But idiots who are
willing to take the risk just so God will get the greater glory, not
us.

Lifers, tomorrow, September 18, marks the next phase of LifeChurch’s
journey. Together, we’ll pursue the vision to be the church where
people far from God love to attend. Let’s all be “idiots” for God! ]]> http://lifechurchmakati.com/idiots/feed/ 0