Straight From Pastor Ey

An American, an Italian and a Filipino visited St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. They were awestruck as they beheld Michelangelo’s Pietà. The American could only mouth the word, “Amazing!” The Italian could not contain his joy and exclaimed, “Magnifico!” But the Filipino immediately got his cell phone from his pocket, grabbed a companion’s hand, posed as close as possible to the sculpture and shrilled, “Picture! Picture! Post ko sa Facebook!” ( “I’ll post it on Facebook!” ) Yes, we are a certified Facebook country. “Of the more than 496 Facebook aficionados worldwide… The Philippines ranks seventh in the world with the most number of Facebook users at 15,935,880 ” (Source: http://inquirer.net/ ). In fact, the number of Filipinos riding the Facebook wave is growing so fast that it seems we can overtake Italy at the sixth spot, which has only 16,858,340 users. Also, we still reign as the SMS capital of the world. And according to the latest Young Asians 2010 Survey conducted b...

David Koepp. Image Source:  http://wegotthiscovered.com/ We crave to be in control. “Spiderman” screenwriter David Koepp believes that is one of the reasons why superhero movies are in vogue nowadays. “ They’re empowerment stories , and what’s better than that. The golden age of fantasy is often when society is going through a hard time. I think 9/11 and the souring of the economy have had a lot to do with it, because people want fantasy. They want to escape to a place where they feel a fantasy of success and omnipotence, you’re safe and you’re protected. ” (Source: “ Superhero Obsession: Why We Love Fantasy ” )  Deep within us, we don’t want to end up weak. We covet to conquer our challenges. If it is a problem as tall as a building, we want to be able to leap over it in a single bounce. We want to solve it faster than a speeding bullet. Artist and author Arlen Schumer agrees, “ Superhero stories, all heroic myth stories teach us and tell us that it is possibl...

“How much do your kindergarten teacher and classmates affect the rest of your life?” (Source:  The New York Times ) Raj Chetty (third from left) and his team of researchers. Image source: The New York Times That’s the question Harvard Economist Raj Chetty and his team sought to answer in his research that scrutinized the “life paths” of about 12,000 adults, who were subjects of a famous education experiment in Tennessee when they were just kids 30 years ago. Chetty presented his “fairly explosive” findings in an academic conference in Cambridge, Mass. (USA).  According to the Chetty research, “Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more.” (Ibid) In short, due to early education, these people b...

The story was told about a country that was experiencing an epidemic of psychiatric problems. The doctors could not handle all the mental health cases brought before them. In short, many people in that country were getting crazy. But later on, a civil war broke out in that country. It was a terrible, destructive war. Yet, to the surprise of the doctors, the war “had the unexpected effect of ‘curing’ many of [that country’s] thousands of neurotics. When they became concerned about the welfare of their families, friends and country instead of their own, their neuroses disappeared and hospitals and clinics were almost emptied of such cases. ” (John MacArthur, Jr., “Ephesians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary.” ) They were cured when they stopped concentrating on themselves and started caring for others. We are commanded in James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as i...