Congratulations Pastor Lito

I can still fondly remember meeting Pastor Lito, in my early teens when he became my councillor in one of Grace Bible Church's youth camps. Looking back now, I cannot begin to say how blessed I am to have Pastor Lito, as a mentor and friend in my many years as a Christian.

His personal journey of faith for me is always a constant call for a theology that offers honest answers which ring true within the innermost recesses of the heart, mind and soul. He was among those who first encouraged me to pursue further theological education at the Asian Theological Seminary.

Lastly, his life and ministry is an example of theological resilience and pastoral integrity that affirms the centrality of Scripture while at the same time recognizes the need for contextualization. Hearing, the great news of his completion of his MDiv in Pastoral Studies is a blessing that I count as a friend who will always be thankful for his guidance and friendship.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Bearing witness to the Green Life

Earlier I was invited as a Greenpeace activist to give a short talk at an event in the Asian Theological Seminary entitled The Green Life, organized by a care group called Friends of Life.

As a Christian coming from an environmental organization I count myself blessed to be a part of that ceremony because it is a wonderful thing that is experienced rarely inside Christian churches.

I shared a bit about the Greenpeace core value of ‘bearing witness’ which I defined as an obligation to act according to our conscience –and it is my hope that the event would sow the seeds for more Christians to ‘bear witness’ to the need for a greener and peaceful future where life in its fullness is shared and enjoyed by all creatures great and small.


For those of you interested in the details of the talk I gave click here for the transcript

In the End...

I remember reading about how in the end of all things there will, only music – the rhythm of our triune God who loves us.

I remember feeling this vivid singing in the middle of Grace Bible Church’s 61st Anniversary service where church goers from the generations that have been involved in the church sang the hymns and anthems of their eras in sobering act of worship to the God who sustains –His body His church. A few days later a young Andrew Caleb Gorospe led the Asian Theological Seminary’s chapel with his personal songs of worship and awe at the God who inspires art and music…

I see these experiences as glimpses of this celebration that Hans Urs von Balthasar was talking about at the end of his epic 5-volume work on 'theodramatics' entitled: Theo-Drama: Theological Dramatic Theory where the action of God and the human response, especially in the events of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday are examined unto which he concludes: “It is, finally, a word …beauty is the word that shall be our first. ”1

But for now I can only anticipate, with hesitation, with anxiety and constant expectation that in the middle of all this dissonant noise right now, there is hope that in the end there will only be music…beauty and the triumphant realization of this now omnipresent reality: that indeed God is all in all!
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1 Urs von Balthasar, Hans. Theo-Drama: Theological Dramatic Theory (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988) p. 609

Creation, Fall and Reversal

It has been said that Genesis is the book of beginnings, and as an individual who is embarking on a new beginning I would like to use the word – serendipity to describe how timely the study of the book was for me as I start my life as a theology student at Asian Theological Seminary.

I have always believed that I already know the book --after all, I could no longer count how many times I have finished reading and hearing about it, and how many times I have studied it at church. After all –most of the Bible lessons that I’ve heard as a kid or have watched in Superbook are there: Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; Noah’s ark; Abraham sacrificing Isaac; Rebecca’s marriage with Isaac; Jacob and Esau; Joseph the dreamer etc.

Re-reading Genesis has jolted me out of my ‘born again Christian’ complacency, that has been borne out of my belief that I already know all that there us to be learned from the book as I have already studied it a number of times at church. But as I have said earlier, reading it again in light of its original context has opened my eyes to God’s story that seems to be intricately related to me and how I live my life as a human being, especially if I were to relate it to its overarching theme that I consider as: creation, fall and reversal.