WATCH: PCSO 9 PM Lotto Draw, September 18, 2021

WATCH: PCSO 5 PM Lotto Draw, September 18, 2021

WATCH: PCSO 2 PM Lotto Draw, September 18, 2021

Start Creating Healthy Habits

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.   And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  1 Corinthians 6:9-11

When an engine blew on the Airbus that United Airlines captain Ed Palacio was flying, the instrument panel lit up like a Christmas tree.  “Ed,” I later asked as we were talking about the incident, “What did you think about when this happened?’  His reply: “I didn’t have time to think.  I instinctively did what I had been trained to do.”  His passengers were glad that Ed hadn’t been sleeping in class when they covered those procedures.  He was so well trained and disciplined; his reactions were instinctive and habitual.

Do an experiment for a moment.  Fold your hands together.  If you’re driving right now, you are exempted from this one, but if you can, yes, fold your hands together.  Now, look at them.  Now unfold them and do it again.  I’ll tell you one thing for sure.  Should you do this 100 times, you will do the same thing 100 times.  It’s a habit and a long-standing one, too.  Habit is the flywheel of society.  It keeps the fisherman at sea in the winter and keeps the miner going down the shaft into darkness day after day.  It sends the farmer to his field no matter what the weather, and keeps the prostitute on the street and the alcoholic and addict looking for a bottle or a fix.

Habits, of course, work both ways—good ones and not-so-good ones.

Years ago, a Harvard University psychology professor, William James, wrote, “If we realized the extent to which we are mere walking bundles of habits, we would give more heed to their formation.  We are spinning our own fates,” he wrote, “good or evil–and never to be undone.”

Walk into an auditorium you’ve never been in before, and sit down.  Come back a week later and where do you sit?  Exactly where you were the week before.  After three times, you’re hooked.  You park in the same spot, sit in the same seat, eat at the same restaurants, and do the same thing time after time, month after month, year after year.

Question:  Are you a victim of your habits?  Or can you change your habits and lifestyle?  Is the potato chip addict stuck for life as is the person who can’t live without TV soaps and vodka?  No, habits can be broken.  But if they are, it has to be because of strong motivation, something stronger than the force of habit, which created motivation to change.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come!”   Being a new person, a new creation means new habits.  The following guidelines can make a difference in your life.

Guideline #1:  Break with old habits decisively.    Don’t cut a dog’s tail off an inch at a time.  The Ephesians burned their magic books in one great fire.  Draw a line and by the grace of God cross it, never to return.

Guideline #2:  Establish a new habit immediately.   “In the main,” wrote Henry James, “all experts agree that abrupt acquisition of the new habit is the best way.”  You’ll also find God’s help and strength which takes you beyond where you are in the natural.  There is God’s help to overcome man’s failure—your failure.

Guideline #3:  Go public with your commitment.   Run up the flag.  Tell your friends.  Sign a pledge. Paint a sign, or fly a banner, but don’t go back.  Make a clean break with past habits and friends which drag you down.  Nobody but you can do this, but you can.

Guideline #4:  Reach out and find God’s strength.  The Bible is full of promises of help.  “The power that works in you,” using the biblical phrase, is the Holy Spirit.  His hand within gives you strength to be the person without.  He makes the difference.

Resource reading: Colossians 3:1-17.

https://www.guidelines.org/devotional/start-creating-healthy-habits/

WATCH: PCSO 9 PM Lotto Draw, September 17, 2021

WATCH: PCSO 5 PM Lotto Draw, September 17, 2021

House lauds BARMM poll resetting

A House leader on Thursday hailed the House of Representatives’ passage of the bill resetting the first regular elections of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as “a victory for the Bangsamoro people.”

Voting 187-0-0, the legislative chamber on Wednesday approved on third and final reading House Bill (HB) 10121 postponing the BARMM polls from 2022 to 2025. 

The approval came on the same day House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco received correspondence from Malacañang informing Congress that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has certified the measure as urgent. 

Deputy Speaker Bernadette Herrera, who presided over Wednesday’s session and co-author of HB 10121, said the postponement would “allow the peace and development thrusts of BARMM to fully take off for the benefit of the region and its people.”

“We cannot agree more with the President that the postponement of the BARMM elections will give the Bangsamoro transitional government ample time to fulfill its mandate, establish a strong bureaucracy, and enact foundational codes essential to the achievement of the aspirations of unity, genuine autonomy, and development in the BARMM,” Herrera said.

By postponing the BARMM polls to 2025, Herrera said the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority, or BTA, also known as the interim BARMM parliament, will be given an additional three years to put up service facets essential to good governance. Maricel V Cruz

According to Herrera, this includes the creation of the electoral code and the accomplishment of other deliverables, which have been hampered by the challenges brought about by the ongoing pandemic.

Earlier, Speaker Lord Allan Velasco expressed jubilation over the measure’s imminent enactment.

“We are one with the government in providing the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) its first electoral participation in the national elections in 2022,” Velasco said in a statement

“It is unfortunate, however, that the pandemic has exacerbated an already delayed transition period of the BARMM—a process that is exceedingly nuanced, and one that requires no less than the full and undivided attention of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority to strengthen BARMM’s foundations for a stronger regional government and economy,” Velasco. added. 

https://manilastandard.net/news/national/365124/house-lauds-barmm-poll-resetting.html

The World Tonight | ANC (16 September 2021)

THE 700 CLUB ASIA | Katatagan | September 16, 2021

What Does It Mean That God Is A Father?

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.  Psalm 103:13

“It is a sad fact but it is true,” writes John Nagle, “when people today hear of God being referred to as ‘father’ it often creates more mental barriers than open hearts.  Unfortunately for more and more in our culture, the term ‘Father’ causes individuals to think of someone who was absent, abusive, addicted, or all of the above.”

He’s right.  More than a few times I have had people, usually young women, tell me how thinking of God in terms of being a father to them, in spite of the fact that He is God, is difficult if not outwardly painful because of the distrust and anger they have towards a dad who wasn’t there, who didn’t care, who abused them, ignored them, and let them down.

“So can I expect the same thing of God?” asked one person.  How sad that in a culture of brokenness the picture of a loving Father who is there for his children has become so maligned, so abused and out of focus.  But there is one powerful truth that you need to confront: God is not a man, weakened by the failures, scarred by the passions of the flesh.  Moses put it like this: “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.  Does he speak and then not act?  Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19).  What does it mean when we address God as Father?  Among many things, focus on several truths.

Calling God “Father” means there is a relationship with Him.  He’s not your “uncle” nor is God “the Man Upstairs,” or a “weak-kneed, bearded Old Man.  Jesus taught us to pray saying, “Our Father….”  The relationship of a father to a child can come through natural generation or adoption.  From the days of Roman law to the present, courts recognize both as having equal force, but adoption brings with it beautiful pictures.  It means that you were chosen.  Adopting parents made decisions and when they adopt, it is because they want the child.  Does that tell you something?  Writing to the Ephesians, Paul said, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world…” (Ephesians 1:4).  God had a plan which included you even before He spoke the Word and brought our world into existence.

Calling God “Father” brings an intimacy with Him, a connection whose links are chains of love and compassion.  In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that we are to look to our heavenly Father for “our daily bread”—the most basic of our needs.  He taught not only that Father knows best, but He knows what you need even before you ask.  The New Testament also promises that your Father will provide for your needs.

Calling God “Father” also means He will be there for you!  He sent His Son as His personal representative to show you the way back home.  Like the prodigal, though, we have wandered far away from home, and the loving Father sent the gentle shepherd to pick us up, give us robes of righteousness, and provide the means of finding a new relationship with God, the Father.  Jesus said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Don’t base your relationship with the Father on your feelings but on what the Word tells you about God.  A final thought.  In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, there is a rather sad lament.  God says of Israel, “How gladly would I treat you like sons…I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me” (Jeremiah 3:19-20).  Find out about what it means to know God as Father, and then call Him “Father” with joy and gladness.

Resource reading: Jeremiah 3:19-25.

https://www.guidelines.org/devotional/what-does-it-mean-that-god-is-a-father/