Monthly Archives: December 2013

Who is God?

Jesus is Immanuel!

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Jesus is Immanuel
Thomas F. Torrance

The late Thomas F. Torrance has really inspired me and led me to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. I now understand better that Jesus is Immanuel! Here are some excerpts from his book, Preaching Christ Today: The Gospel and Scientific Thinking on page 13:

“What bowls me over every time I read about Jesus in the Gospels is not the wonderful things he did, not the so-called nature miracles in which the wind and the sea obeyed him, or even his making the dead alive again, for if Jesus is really God, as John Polkinghorne the Cambridge mathematical physicist has said, one would expect that, for he was the Creator personally present in the midst of his creation. If you really believe that Jesus is God become incarnate you will have no trouble with the miracles. No! What overwhelms me is the sheer humanness of Jesus, Jesus as the baby at Bethlehem, Jesus sitting tired and thirsty at the well outside Samaria, Jesus exhausted by the crowds, Jesus recuperating his strength through sleep at the back of a ship on the sea of Galilee, Jesus hungry for figs on the way up to Jerusalem, Jesus weeping at the grave of Lazarus, Jesus thirsting for water on the Cross—for that precisely is God with us and one of us… Far from overwhelming us, God with us and one of us does the very opposite, for in sharing with us all that we are in our littleness and weakness he does not override our humanity but completes, perfects, and establishes it.

“What I find always most breathtaking, however, is that in Jesus the Lord God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible, stoops down to be so fully one with us… In Jesus, the Word by whom all things in heaven and earth were created became human and communicates with us and addresses us in the frail creaturely form.”

Jesus is Immanuel — the Christmas Message

This is good news — the gospel! This is the Christmas message! Jesus (the God who saves) is Immanuel (God with us)! Yes, Jesus is Immanuel! In Jesus, God who is our Savior is with us and fully one of us! In Jesus we have already been reconciled and included in God’s life and love! Nothing whatsoever can separate us from God’s love.

What great good news! Believe it and enjoy life and love in Jesus Christ!

 
Life & Love, Photography

A Family of Photoshop Artists

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The other day, I took several shots of my wife while we were brisk walking in the park early in the morning. This evening, she surprised me by showing me her work of merging two images of herself in one photograph. She definitely has gone a long way in manipulating photos using Photoshop! It used to be that she did not even know how to start a computer haha! I now have a family of Photoshop artists!

My two daughters learned Photoshop way, way ahead of me many years ago. When I first began to learn Photoshop—and I’m continuing to learn more—I normally would ask my two daughters how to do it. And now my wife is beginning to learn it quite well too. Hmm…

Life & Love

Old and Rusty Pipe

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At a memorial park where my wife and I do our brisk walking and jogging, there are water pipes placed strategically all over the place used for watering the plants and greenery in this really big and wide park. When you go around the perimeter, it’s some 1.5 kilometers in my car’s odometer.

This old and rusty pipe is exposed to the weather 24 hours a day but it still continues to serve its purpose. This reminds me that as I reach 60 next year, I may be old and already considered a senior citizen but that should not stop me from doing what I can to be of service to others.

Life & Love, Photography

Giant Lantern Festival

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Last night, we went to the giant lantern festival. It was our first time. It’s a big event out here in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga every year. From what I’ve learned, this has become a tradition in this locality where a contest of really giant lanterns with a diameter of about 20 feet are held each year among the barangays of this city. These lanterns are intricately designed with all the dancing lights with thousands of bulbs and intricate electrical wirings controlled and operated by expert electricians and lantern designers. I understand that last night, the grand champion got One Hundred Twenty Thousand Pesos if I’m not mistaken.

giant lantern festival
Click to zoom.

Too bad, we did not have a good vantage point for me to take good photos. There were just too many people eagerly watching and we were stuck behind where the TV production crew and their monitors were placed. We were stuck and squeezed unable to move! Oh well, I just watched the TV monitor instead once in a while haha! It was fun though as my daughter enjoyed it as she really wanted to see the TV production crew do their thing because her college course, Animation, is related to that kind of stuff.

Life & Love, Photography

Abandoned Rocking Chair

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I once knew an old man. He was about 96 years old when we first met. Having spent all his life in the construction business, he was a strong and healthy man for his age. I admired the man for reaching that age and for having accomplished a lot in his life. But years later he got sick as everybody does. The last time I talked to him, I asked how he was doing. And he answered me in Tagalog, “Heto, buhay pa” meaning, “Here I am, I’m still alive.”

I thought that was an amusing answer coming from him but that was the last time I talked to him. He passed away already a few years ago. But I do remember him from time to time because of an abandoned rocking chair. What is left now is just the metal frame of a rocking chair once owned by a man I once knew and learned to admire and respect.

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Life has Meaning

Thankfully, life is not just “here today, then gone tomorrow.” It’s more than that. God has created us to live a life of love, joy and peace not just here on earth right now but also for all eternity. The Lord Jesus became one of us to bring us into union and communion with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that great?