Straight From Pastor Ey

“Bawal lang kung mahuli.” (In English, “It’s only wrong if you’re caught.” ) Yes, that’s what we read in Pepsi billboards nowadays. Another one goes like this, “Better sorry than safe.” (Thanks to Bro. Danny Ching for pointing this out in his blog, “ Danny’s Little Corner,” at http://dlccorps.multiply.com/journal.) These ads are specifically targeting our youth. Parents, that’s my kids and your kids. Of course, the people behind these ads can always claim it depends on one’s interpretations. That the only message they are trying to convey is that we are to live to the fullest. Therein lies the problem. The ads are prone to misinterpretation. I challenge the copywriter to take those ads and conduct an objective survey. Let’s see if those reading it would say they understood it to mean, “Live life to the fullest.” Keep in mind a communication rule: “Don’t just aim to be understood. Seek not to be misunderstood.” I know that the reason why the company came up with radical ads is to se...

Ian Usher, a 44-year-old British immigrant to Australia, wanted a fresh start in life. He desperately wanted it that he is auctioning off his entire life for around Australian $420,000 (or, more than 16 million pesos)! The winning bidder will get his three-bedroom house in Perth plus everything in it including his car, motorcycle, Jet Ski and parachuting gear. The buyer will also receive a one -time introduction to Usher’s friends and a two-week trial run at his job as a shop assistant in a rug store (which can later on turn into a permanent job). Usher decided to sell his life due to a very painful breakup with his wife of five year. “Everything that I have all has memories attached to it. It’s time to shed the old, and in with the new. ” He will close the bidding on June 22. Usher wrote, “On the day it’s all sold and settled, I intend to walk out of my front door with my wallet in one pocket and my passport in the other, nothing else at all. I would then head to the airport, take t...

Thanks to televised Senate hearings, our list of expressions has been enriched with phrases such as “Back off!” and “Moderate their greed.” When confronted with his own shenanigans, the star witness cried out, “Mea culpa.” Image source: Streams of Living Water “Mea culpa” is Latin for “my fault.” According to Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, “[It] is not simply a confession of sins, but rather an admission of one’s flawed nature and the willingness to make amends for it.” We read a similar “mea culpa” in Luke 19. When Jesus went to Jericho, Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, “wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.” (Verses 3-4, NIV) During those times, people hate tax collectors. They did not apply for the position. They bought it. But Rome did not offer salaries. They just asked the tax collectors to remit a certain amount to the empire coffer...