“The Harvest”
Allow me to quote a famous verse from the Bible, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”
Many people throughout history have come and gone, devoting their lives to find the meaning of it. Many did not find it, some went astray, and only a real few found what they were looking for. Those who did not find life’s meaning wasted their whole life’s time to come up with a conclusion, a theory, or even an equation to equal what they call life. Those who went astray concluded, by their bitter experiences, distorted and hilarious views of what life is. Concrete examples of these lost are the leaders and the members of secret societies persecuting the Christian faith, the Priory of Sion, Freemasonry and the Knights Templar. All of them sought for explanations, more “logical” and scientific”, for things already explained in the Bible. They distorted truths and presented forged “facts” to millions, causing many to fall with them. The few who found it were rewarded great in heaven eternal. They were the ones who founded the Christian churches, who led many to the truth by the grace of God Almighty.
But with all these people who sought for the truth, have you ever thought of finding it as well?
Through my own search and research for the purpose of living and the meaning of it, I have come up with a conclusion, which I am willing to even stake my life for, and that is fulfilling the task God has given us all.
For us, Christians, we are so blessed to have known and received Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior early on. We have been nurtured in His Word and molded in His Commandments. We are sure where we are to go to after our lives on Earth, Heaven, but what about the other millions? Multitudes are lost in false teachings and poisoned beliefs. They are walking and living in utter darkness, falling and stumbling time and time again.
The task the Master has bestowed upon us is the mission of reaching out, pouring light into the drowning darkness of the world. We were made to do this.
‘Why?’ you ask? The Bible has stated three concrete reasons that rekindle the flame of faith and encourage us to do what we were created to do so…
FIRST: We were made in His own Image, His Purpose, and His Cause. His Will for our lives is to reach out and bring others to Him. He gave us such a blessed life with abundant provisions tom bless others and see them as how He did. He saw them as lost sheep without a shepherd to guide them and care for them. He is more than willing to love them and receive them as the father did to his prodigal son. As for the lost sheep from the hundred the shepherd had, he goes out, looks for it, and brings it back home.
SECOND: Reaching out to the lost is every Christian’s responsibility. We were to help others be redeemed, and we were introduced to God to introduce Him to thers.
THIRD: Reaching out to the lost is every Christian’s calling and desire. Every Christian is called to exert effort to help others know God, may he be a missionary, a missionary-sender, a pastor, or an intercessor, he was made to heed His call. Every Christian has his longing of fulfilling their desire of reaping and bearing fruits. Desire, in its Latin roots, means ‘of the Father’, signifying that godly desires come from God Himself, and who are we to disobey it?
God has called us to a mission of light and of hope. He has made us in fulfilling this call to reap his harvest. We now are faced with a battle, a war with two sides, one of the righteous, and one of the lost. We are now fighting for the redemption of lost souls and justifying the truth. We are the few workers faced with the land of a plentiful harvest. We set out each day with a goal, an objective, reaching out the lost and empowering the few in faith. So, set out! Put on the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Sword of Truth, and the Shield of Faith as we go out of our comfort zones and into live battle. We need not worry for God has promised us victory over persecution and unbelief, so go! Let us walk hand-in-hand as we head on to the fight, for:
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”
-END-
Showing posts with label essay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label essay. Show all posts
Monday, February 15, 2010
Essay: On Writing the Essays
Note: This is the afterword in my essay collection made up by On Tolerance, Haunted by Memories, and Journey Back Home
On Writing the Essays
I would never have known the joys of editing if not for this compilation of essays. If a lesson is in order after such a wonderful and tedious experience, then it is this: Writers write in white heat and edit in cold blood. Once inspiration and ideas hit, writers just jab on the keypad keys letting them all flow. As the moment of delirium subsides and the writing comes to an end, a writer feels both the ebbing away of ecstasy and the sinking in of reality: This piece must be perfect. Then the writer takes out his red ball pen and starts whipping his essay bloody. With the dripping paper of corrections, he retypes the final product of his efforts, offering his heart and soul’s masterpiece to the first reader interested to scrutinize it and shout bloody murder over a proofread mistake. He humbly takes his attacked art back and broods over the ‘corrections’ day and night. Once the writer recovers from the shock and the grief, he takes out his pen and writes another one again. Such is the life of a writer.
In preparing my bread and butter, I wrote ‘On Tolerance’ with the initial presumption that my professor’s favors the scientific approach to essays and as hard as it was on me, I had to pretend stiff to come up with it. Initially dealing with smoking, the essay grew to be focused more on the way the majority now willingly compromises its welfare for the cries of the minority, an issue of freedom and rights. A lot of thought and brainstorming went into it, more so that I kept putting it off until I had no choice but to edit it. The writing process was painful but rewarding.
Now, in arranging my appetizers, I wrote ‘Haunted by Memories’ with much more ease. I did not feel the need for false pretenses anymore and so I wrote luxuriously on this one. Writing it felt like being back in my old waters again, familiar and enjoyable. With much disappointment, it was returned to me with a much lower grade than the one I expected. After a chat with my professor, it turns out I left a lot of grammatical errors in the text of this essay. My, I guess I’ll just blame it on familiarity. I realized then how important editing was. When I started editing for this compilation, this was the first one I did right away. I knew in my heart I could have done loads better and knew which ones I’d correct, which ones I’d take out, and which ones I’d need to add from the heart. I had a great time editing it, and I really hope that readers will like it just as I do.
Lastly, in serving the bomb out of the shell, the main course for this meal, I wrote ‘Journey Back Home’ with pretty much enough experiences from the first two essays to tell me I should write with both the heart and the mind. It was hard at first, having written something to start with then right in the middle, stopping, looking over what I’ve got and closing the window of this document numerous times before I finally got what I wanted and stuck to it. I knew from the start I would be writing about my trip to China, but I never knew just how to start or just what experiences to tell, or which trip I’d focus on. When I finally got the ball going after the fourth ‘unacceptable’ trial, inspiration started hitting me again and the words just flowed like red hot lava out of my mind and into the computer screen. Editing it was no simple task; going over descriptions that I would have loved to include in the essay but decided to delete (because it ended up contributing nothing to the general output) broke my heart. Anyway, I got over it about an hour into editing the last essay so everything’s fine now.
In dishing this last part of the meal, the dessert, I just let my heart bleed out with ‘On Writing the Essays’ as I think is quite obvious. I do hope this adds a sweet tang after the tough things you’ve had to chew. I hope this time somebody likes my cooking!
On Writing the Essays
I would never have known the joys of editing if not for this compilation of essays. If a lesson is in order after such a wonderful and tedious experience, then it is this: Writers write in white heat and edit in cold blood. Once inspiration and ideas hit, writers just jab on the keypad keys letting them all flow. As the moment of delirium subsides and the writing comes to an end, a writer feels both the ebbing away of ecstasy and the sinking in of reality: This piece must be perfect. Then the writer takes out his red ball pen and starts whipping his essay bloody. With the dripping paper of corrections, he retypes the final product of his efforts, offering his heart and soul’s masterpiece to the first reader interested to scrutinize it and shout bloody murder over a proofread mistake. He humbly takes his attacked art back and broods over the ‘corrections’ day and night. Once the writer recovers from the shock and the grief, he takes out his pen and writes another one again. Such is the life of a writer.
In preparing my bread and butter, I wrote ‘On Tolerance’ with the initial presumption that my professor’s favors the scientific approach to essays and as hard as it was on me, I had to pretend stiff to come up with it. Initially dealing with smoking, the essay grew to be focused more on the way the majority now willingly compromises its welfare for the cries of the minority, an issue of freedom and rights. A lot of thought and brainstorming went into it, more so that I kept putting it off until I had no choice but to edit it. The writing process was painful but rewarding.
Now, in arranging my appetizers, I wrote ‘Haunted by Memories’ with much more ease. I did not feel the need for false pretenses anymore and so I wrote luxuriously on this one. Writing it felt like being back in my old waters again, familiar and enjoyable. With much disappointment, it was returned to me with a much lower grade than the one I expected. After a chat with my professor, it turns out I left a lot of grammatical errors in the text of this essay. My, I guess I’ll just blame it on familiarity. I realized then how important editing was. When I started editing for this compilation, this was the first one I did right away. I knew in my heart I could have done loads better and knew which ones I’d correct, which ones I’d take out, and which ones I’d need to add from the heart. I had a great time editing it, and I really hope that readers will like it just as I do.
Lastly, in serving the bomb out of the shell, the main course for this meal, I wrote ‘Journey Back Home’ with pretty much enough experiences from the first two essays to tell me I should write with both the heart and the mind. It was hard at first, having written something to start with then right in the middle, stopping, looking over what I’ve got and closing the window of this document numerous times before I finally got what I wanted and stuck to it. I knew from the start I would be writing about my trip to China, but I never knew just how to start or just what experiences to tell, or which trip I’d focus on. When I finally got the ball going after the fourth ‘unacceptable’ trial, inspiration started hitting me again and the words just flowed like red hot lava out of my mind and into the computer screen. Editing it was no simple task; going over descriptions that I would have loved to include in the essay but decided to delete (because it ended up contributing nothing to the general output) broke my heart. Anyway, I got over it about an hour into editing the last essay so everything’s fine now.
In dishing this last part of the meal, the dessert, I just let my heart bleed out with ‘On Writing the Essays’ as I think is quite obvious. I do hope this adds a sweet tang after the tough things you’ve had to chew. I hope this time somebody likes my cooking!
Essay: On Tolerance
On Tolerance
Our society has always been divided up into two: the side of the majority and that of the minority. They may be separated by the ideals they choose to hold on to, by the faith that they stand on, by the culture that may be their grounds for difference, or any other that may mark their uniqueness to the other.
All throughout history, the world has progressed from the oppression of the minority to the gradual consideration given to them. In the past, people were killed for being different from most others. Usually this difference gave rise to a conflict between these two factions and obviously the side with the greater number and strength overpowers the few. In our present times, we try to address the mistakes that happened in the past by becoming more lenient toward those different from us. We now see the minority as more or less equally treated with the majority. Most of the time, we see special consideration and treatment given to those who choose to be different out of respect to their choice. All this respect has been healthy and essential for a growing civilization such as the world we have today, but when we start to see a kink to this system, this demand for respect and tolerance might be in the way of seeing it through for the good of everybody.
Our modern world of democracy and freedom has always taught us that each is entitled to his own opinion and choice, with the set of rights granted us by our sophisticated society, but what if one’s choice harms that of another?
A great example that can be cited to the flaw of this respect system is the global stand on smoking and the freedom smokers have to enjoy their ‘rights’. As everybody knows, smoking harms the body by destroying the respiratory system through inhaling smoke, and the damage brought about by this activity not only falls to the individual who chose to indulge himself in his choice but also to those innocent people around him. A world survey determined that the number of people who chose not to smoke was still greater than that of those who did. Does this mean that the majority bends for the minority and along the way suffer damage they did not deserve? Another study indicated that the number of people who were harmed by lung cancer but are not smokers themselves is growing, at almost equal with that of those who only reap what they sow. A common known fact about lung cancer is that the severity of lung cancer eventually suffered by second-hand smokers (passive smokers, or the bystanders around the smoker) is greater than the damage sustained by first-hand smokers (or the people who actually smoke). Knowing this fact, we are all exposed flatly not only to lung cancer (as grave as it is) but also to other not-so-common respiratory infections that are as deadly as the former.
We’ve read this topic discussed in health magazines time and again but what kept me on this subject is the fact that the people who choose to smoke and even fight for their ‘right’ (for they say they have the ‘right’ to choose to pollute the environment and destroy their physical well-being in the process) disregard the fact that the people around them also have rights, specifically the right to have and live in a clean and smoke-free environment. What they seem to forget is that this is not only a fight of who gets to do what freely, but of who gets to suffer what even without having done anything to deserve it.
Allowing the minority to continue to endanger the welfare of the majority is just absurd. This goes beyond respect and steps over the line of stupidity. This tolerance that we give so freely put the majority in harm’s way, reflecting a society that chooses to please and be politically correct than being protective and geared towards the welfare of all.
Another great example of the flaws in this demand for understanding is the new ‘No Religious Activities in School’ policy approved by the American Department of Education to be issued in their public schools. This recent rule prevents students to practice their faith in school and allows the school to give punishments to students who gather in groups to talk and act on any practice relating to their faith. According to the US Department of Education, this new rule merely emphasizes the difference between state and religion. This was supposedly an answer to complains of the non-Christian minority of parents and students against the prevalent religious activity of Christian communities in schools.
Predominantly Christian, students are now banned from talking of their faith to other students, and showing any religious inclination toward students of other religions. This greatly affects the Christian community of students since their faith is to be lived by daily, that in everything they do, their faith should be a great part of it. This new rule smothers the very foundations of Christianity, which is sharing the Word of God and praying to God in every chance available, and is, on the other hand, quite favorable to the Atheist community, since they have no faith to practice at all. If this rule was to be for the good of all (since policies are made in the purpose of making life better), why then is it suppressing the student’s moral choices? Should millions of Christian children live under the fear of being caught standing on their faith while a handful of non-Christian students savor the absence of ‘annoying’ little clusters? If the policy were to be for the good of all, it would have left the majority and the minority alone to practice their faith anytime as long as they do not force it upon others and maintain a sense of respect towards each other. If it were to be for the welfare of everybody, it should not have chosen one side over the other.
Sadly, times have now changed to favor the minority over the majority. In compensation for the narrow-mindedness of the past, the present tries to please the once slave-driven, persecuted minority. It values the demand of the minority for respect and compromises the majority to do the former’s bidding. In everyone’s efforts to be politically correct and ‘fair’ to everyone else, they have set aside morality and welfare to be considered understanding and respectful. In a desire to go the way ‘sophistication and the modernization of our times lead to’, they disregard the need to be truly just and fair. I guess this gradual tilting of our world to ‘social diversity and consideration’ is the only way to go as pointed by the changing times.
Our society has always been divided up into two: the side of the majority and that of the minority. They may be separated by the ideals they choose to hold on to, by the faith that they stand on, by the culture that may be their grounds for difference, or any other that may mark their uniqueness to the other.
All throughout history, the world has progressed from the oppression of the minority to the gradual consideration given to them. In the past, people were killed for being different from most others. Usually this difference gave rise to a conflict between these two factions and obviously the side with the greater number and strength overpowers the few. In our present times, we try to address the mistakes that happened in the past by becoming more lenient toward those different from us. We now see the minority as more or less equally treated with the majority. Most of the time, we see special consideration and treatment given to those who choose to be different out of respect to their choice. All this respect has been healthy and essential for a growing civilization such as the world we have today, but when we start to see a kink to this system, this demand for respect and tolerance might be in the way of seeing it through for the good of everybody.
Our modern world of democracy and freedom has always taught us that each is entitled to his own opinion and choice, with the set of rights granted us by our sophisticated society, but what if one’s choice harms that of another?
A great example that can be cited to the flaw of this respect system is the global stand on smoking and the freedom smokers have to enjoy their ‘rights’. As everybody knows, smoking harms the body by destroying the respiratory system through inhaling smoke, and the damage brought about by this activity not only falls to the individual who chose to indulge himself in his choice but also to those innocent people around him. A world survey determined that the number of people who chose not to smoke was still greater than that of those who did. Does this mean that the majority bends for the minority and along the way suffer damage they did not deserve? Another study indicated that the number of people who were harmed by lung cancer but are not smokers themselves is growing, at almost equal with that of those who only reap what they sow. A common known fact about lung cancer is that the severity of lung cancer eventually suffered by second-hand smokers (passive smokers, or the bystanders around the smoker) is greater than the damage sustained by first-hand smokers (or the people who actually smoke). Knowing this fact, we are all exposed flatly not only to lung cancer (as grave as it is) but also to other not-so-common respiratory infections that are as deadly as the former.
We’ve read this topic discussed in health magazines time and again but what kept me on this subject is the fact that the people who choose to smoke and even fight for their ‘right’ (for they say they have the ‘right’ to choose to pollute the environment and destroy their physical well-being in the process) disregard the fact that the people around them also have rights, specifically the right to have and live in a clean and smoke-free environment. What they seem to forget is that this is not only a fight of who gets to do what freely, but of who gets to suffer what even without having done anything to deserve it.
Allowing the minority to continue to endanger the welfare of the majority is just absurd. This goes beyond respect and steps over the line of stupidity. This tolerance that we give so freely put the majority in harm’s way, reflecting a society that chooses to please and be politically correct than being protective and geared towards the welfare of all.
Another great example of the flaws in this demand for understanding is the new ‘No Religious Activities in School’ policy approved by the American Department of Education to be issued in their public schools. This recent rule prevents students to practice their faith in school and allows the school to give punishments to students who gather in groups to talk and act on any practice relating to their faith. According to the US Department of Education, this new rule merely emphasizes the difference between state and religion. This was supposedly an answer to complains of the non-Christian minority of parents and students against the prevalent religious activity of Christian communities in schools.
Predominantly Christian, students are now banned from talking of their faith to other students, and showing any religious inclination toward students of other religions. This greatly affects the Christian community of students since their faith is to be lived by daily, that in everything they do, their faith should be a great part of it. This new rule smothers the very foundations of Christianity, which is sharing the Word of God and praying to God in every chance available, and is, on the other hand, quite favorable to the Atheist community, since they have no faith to practice at all. If this rule was to be for the good of all (since policies are made in the purpose of making life better), why then is it suppressing the student’s moral choices? Should millions of Christian children live under the fear of being caught standing on their faith while a handful of non-Christian students savor the absence of ‘annoying’ little clusters? If the policy were to be for the good of all, it would have left the majority and the minority alone to practice their faith anytime as long as they do not force it upon others and maintain a sense of respect towards each other. If it were to be for the welfare of everybody, it should not have chosen one side over the other.
Sadly, times have now changed to favor the minority over the majority. In compensation for the narrow-mindedness of the past, the present tries to please the once slave-driven, persecuted minority. It values the demand of the minority for respect and compromises the majority to do the former’s bidding. In everyone’s efforts to be politically correct and ‘fair’ to everyone else, they have set aside morality and welfare to be considered understanding and respectful. In a desire to go the way ‘sophistication and the modernization of our times lead to’, they disregard the need to be truly just and fair. I guess this gradual tilting of our world to ‘social diversity and consideration’ is the only way to go as pointed by the changing times.
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