LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “…`whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’…” (Jesus, our God and Savior, in Mark 10:43-45, the Holy Bible).
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A CALL FOR BELIEVERS TO BAND TOGETHER FOR 2016 POLLS: To all voters who profess faith in God, no matter what your religions maybe, let us band together now and assure the election of candidates in the May 2016 elections who fear and love God, and who have a track record of publicly displaying that fear and love of God everyday, not only during election time.
For too long a time, we have given our votes to people who do not deserve to be elected because they have no agenda for God but only agenda for themselves and their families, and it is clear that this has caused misery, pain, suffering, and utmost poverty to many of us. For too long a time, candidates who were even ashamed to talk about God in their campaign—and thus took God for granted when they ultimately won—have been winning.
If we want to change ourselves and our country for the better, we, as believers of God who fear and love Him truthfully and sincerely, must now insist to ask candidates if they even have any plan to pursue spirituality and righteousness if they get elected, and, if possible, to ask them to write down and sign this plan and its specifics, so we can hold them accountable to it afterwards.
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THE DOCTRINE OF CHURCH AND STATE, WHAT IT MEANS: Marietta Reyes, an avid reader of our daily Facebook posts our English and Filipino columns at www.facebook.com/attybatas, sent a question to me: if we require candidates to present an agenda on God, or on how to strengthen the spirituality and righteousness of our people, are we not violating the doctrine of the separation of Church and State?
Well, this query is not new, and, in fact, had already been explained in the past by a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Artemio Panganiban. As we said in our past items here: “Indeed, as former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban so ably pointed out, there is no separation of the Philippines, as a state, from God even if in its Constitution it has decreed a separation of the church and state.
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PUSHING SPIRITUALITY DOES NOT VIOLATE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: “Basically, Panganiban is saying that the Philippines as a state believes in God, and that even its present Constitution, promulgated by the first President Aquino in 1987, confirms that belief in God by its invocation of the Almighty God’s aid.
“That being the case, there should really be no problem as there should be no serious objection if government leaders, no matter what their religion maybe, would be pushing spirituality as a way of life, as distinguished from mere religious affiliation among Filipinos, in an attempt to improve their economic status.”
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JESUS, AND WHO HE TRULY IS: If Jesus Christ is preached as someone other than what He truly is, are we, His believers and who have been inspired to know who He truly is, to remain silent and simply allow that preaching to happen? The answer is no, and that anwer is not even from me, but from Paul, the lawyer who wrote almost half of the New Testament of the Bible.
Here was what Paul wrote: “… For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough… such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ…”
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PLEASE LISTEN: “Ang Tanging Daan” (The Sole Way): a Bible study and prayer session online could now be heard, 24 HOURS a day, in the Philippines and the world at www.facebook.com/angtangingdaan or www.facebook.com/ANDKNK (and look for “Ang Tanging Daan” broadcasts). Phone: 0922 833 43 96, 0918 574 0193, 0977 805 9058. Email: batasmauricio@yahoo.com.
