Straight From Pastor Ey

Even if Halloween seems to be a western festival, we Filipinos are into it also. Just stroll in the mall and we see a lot of fake cobwebs and plastic skeletons. Horror movies are popular movie genres nowadays. TV news programs are now working 24/7 just to make sure their Halloween episodes would be the scariest. Thus, allow me to debunk some myths on ghosts. Myth # 1: Ghosts don’t exist. Yes, they do. We can’t deny the supernatural. We can’t always dismiss ghost stories as exaggerations, imaginations or indigestions. We have to accept that there is an invisible world which is as real as the visible one. Jesus taught about the after-life. If you can’t accept what he taught about life after death, don’t accept any of his teachings at all. Myth #2: Ghosts are spirits of dead people. No, they’re not. In Luke 16, in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus made it clear that “between [paradise] and [hell] a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to [hell

Michael Monsoor always dreamed of becoming a Navy SEAL, one the most elite, top-secret military units of the United States. To become one, Monsoor had to go through a 25-week grueling training, one of the most punishing programs in the military. Observers actually christened it hazing. In fact, the dropout rate is more than 50%. But Monsoor had to quit when he first went through the training due to a broken heel. Yet that did not deter him. He worked out for two more years then reentered the training. This time he passed. According to his family, when he finally graduated, “It was his proudest moment.” In an encounter last May in Iraq, despite heavy fire from the enemy, Monsoor with another SEAL pulled an injured team member to safety. He got a Silver Star for his courage. Then last September, Monsoor with his team was providing sniper security in a mission. A rebel threw a grenade into their position. According to an Associated Press report, it hit Monsoor on the chest then it bounced

Unless we are soldiers, we have no idea how intense a battle can get except by what we see on CNN. Let us watch a portion of the movie “Gladiator” by Russell Crowe so we can visualize the spiritual armor that God gave us. [Watch the opening battle scene in “Gladiator”] Your battles in life are as real as that battle scene. And there are times you just want to surrender. But the Bible assures us that we can wage a winning war for life. We are not just survivors. Romans 8:37 declares that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” [1] Last time we looked into the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness and the sandals of the gospel of peace. We are to live committed, consistent and confident lives. To continue our study, let us read Ephesians 6:16-17... “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the

Suppose you need to cross a hundred feet away from one cliff to another. You get dizzy just by looking at rocks 1,000 feet below. But you really have to cross. Your very life depends on you getting on the other side. You have a half-inch-thick steel cable. The tensile strength of the cable can carry up to several tons without snapping. But you discover that you only have 99 feet and 11 inches of cable. You are short of one inch. Then you hear me say, “I’ll take care of that. I have a nylon thread here. I will tie the thread to end of the cable. Don’t worry about that inch of thread. You’ve got almost 99 feet of cable anyway. Now, you can cross!” Would you? [1] Almost is never enough. It’s the same with getting into heaven: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, NIV). No matter how good we are, even if we are almost there, still we fall short. If you want to get into heaven on your own merit, you have to be 100% good, not 99.9%. As in you will not com

We are the right people at the right place at the right time. Make no mistake about it. Acts 17:26 says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. ” God decided when and where we should be. Mary Lance V. Sisk in her “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” wrote: “Where you and I live is no accident! ...God could have chosen for us any city, any neighborhood, any street, but He chose to send us to the neighborhoods we live in right now.” God placed us in our spheres of influence for such a time as this. This coming December, My Hope Philippines will air a three-part evangelistic program over major TV networks. The goal is to reach over 3 million Filipinos with the Good News. Our part is to open our homes. We invite our friend and relatives to watch the program with us. You can actually have it as Christmas party for them. Then we give them an opportunity to put t

I read that it costs America $400,000 a year to keep one soldier there in Iraq. And this figure does not even include basic pay. That’s how much they spend per American soldier. [1] But that’s nothing compared to what God has done, is doing and will continue to do just to make sure we live victorious lives here on earth. He really has spared no effort. Let’s read Ephesians 6:13-17... Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. [2] Our battle is very intense. We are facing a