Last weekend, CCF held their annual singles conference at Hotel Stotensberg in Clark, Pampanga. From April 26 to 28, singles from different parts of the Philippines, albeit mostly Manila, gathered in one location for the CCF retreat dubbed “Step Up.”
Praise and Worship opened each session and the messages by the different Pastors and the testimonies by the speakers were truly blessings – food for my soul. I’ve heard the message of the Cross before but I still felt so blessed after listening to Pastor Peter Tan Chi’s message regarding the Significance of the Cross.
Photo Source: CCF Page
The Significance of the Cross begins with God’s love, our Heavenly Father’s love. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have eternal life.” In this, we can see that God’s love was demonstrated. It wasn’t only spoken but it was shown. Action does speak louder than words. Faith is never a vacuum. Faith is DEMONSTRATED.
When we talk about our spiritual life, what moves us? Some say, you are a body with a spirit. But we are all actually spirits inside / contained in human bodies. Someday, the body will perish but our spirit lives on. Will our spirit live an eternal life with God or damnation for the sinful choices we’ve made? What moves you? The spirit or the flesh?
How do we begin to understand what The Cross is about? Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.”
Until we understand and acknowledge our own sinfulness, we will not understand the Cross. Until we have truly humbled ourselves and acknowledged each and every sin we’ve committed, even the shameful ones we are too prideful to even admit to ourselves, we will not be able to grasp the MAGNITUDE of what Jesus has done for us in the Cross.
1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God.”
If we were sinners and have come to know and accept Christ and the Significance of the Cross, we have been reborn. We are gifted with a new life. Would we loosely guard this new life and still keep doing the same sins Jesus died for in order to bridge us to the Father? When we ignore the call of the Holy Spirit and to live in His righteousness, don’t we undervalue what Jesus’ life was for?
Doesn’t this movie reminds us of how awful sin is? How ugly and hurtful it is?
Do you wonder if He still feels the nails every time you fail? Do we continue to crucify Jesus because of the sins we cannot let go?
What do people do to deal with the guilt of their sins? Many different things: lie, cover up, deny, do good deeds… but even with numerous good works, God looks at the heart. God hears our thoughts as much as He hears our prayers. That includes your dirty thoughts. He hears the whispers of our deceitful heart. He knows if we are doing something out of love or out of selfish desires… if we are moving by the flesh or moving by the Spirit.
Sometimes in order to be oblivious to sin or disregard it casually, we tend to JUSTIFY. Be alert, every time you start to justify, it’s already an admission to sin. If you find the need to justify and explain, you already know that something doesn’t feel right.
Pastor Peter Tan Chi came back for a joint session and talked about “God’s Hand in Your Life.” This message was also brimming with blessings and at least one revelation for me… It was more a confirmation of what has been revealed to me weeks prior.
Saturday late evening, we listened to Edric Mendoza and his wife, Joy Tan Chi (daughter of Pastor Peter) as they spoke about the roles men and women play – specifically, husbands and wives. In this case since everyone in the retreat is single, they applied it to what to look out for in a husband and who I am to be as a wife… and vice versa.
Edric on the mic and Joy looking lovingly at Edric
At the time of writing this, I googled Edric and Joy in the search engine and found this article regarding their love story.
Love Story of Edric and Joy Mendoza
I was blessed by their separate messages and answers to our questions during the forum on love, relationships and marriage that night, but I also feel blessed after reading their story (purposeful breakup, struggles with purity in the relationship, obeying the will of God and setting the limits of intimacy in a relationship). Their relationship had a happy ending or more appropriately, a happy new beginning… but sometimes, our happy ending is only with God. Or make that happy new beginning with God.
It’s amazing how simply we can be blessed by testimonies of God’s love and faithfulness and just by listening to God’s words. My brother-slash-Twin also says that with obedience come blessings too, as long as you set your heart to obey and not for the blessings. Thank you brother for blessing me with this CCF Retreat.
I was just too happy (and amused) to see my brother dance. I needed to get it on video.
Allow me to share more of the CCF Retreat in the coming days (my struggle during the first night, Friday). There were a lot of good talks and I just feel so blessed with all the sessions and activities, leading me to self-realizations and eventually revelations.
Since I’ve already mentioned activities, I’ll give you a quick peek. We were “Team 16” and we ranked 7 after Friday night during the initial game night that preset Saturday afternoon’s activities. During game night, there were different challenges to the theme of Minute to Win It. Rank 1 scored 130 points while we scored 90 points so it wasn’t that bad. Game night was a good ice breaker to get the team acquainted with each other.
Saturday afternoon, we were randomly teamed up and set to accomplish challenges in an “Amazing Race” type of adventure. I’m happy that our team found the balance of only being slightly competitive and finding fun and laughter in every corner of the challenges. Everyone had a smile on his or her face, if not a mouth wide open laughing our hearts out. Albeit we all helped coach and encourage each other, side comments, teasing and laughter were so much more audible than strategizing or a game plan.
It was a weekend of fun, meeting new friends, team spirit, laughter and deepening our spirituality in Christ.
Thank You Lord for Your protection, provision, Grace and Love! May the Holy Spirit always be in motion to lead me to God!
Other Random Photos:
