We Will Sing of Your Love Forever

Alpha & Omega Prayer and Praise Team

The Supper Episode

Team >2

Icthus

Bambang Prayer and Praise Team

Rich of Glory

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By Jed Gregorio

It was in the fifth century when Augustine said “Those who sing pray twice.” If that were the case, IEMELIF’s youth could well have prayed ten hours non-stop last July 12 in >2’s Worship concert.

This was an occasion of more than five hours of unprecedented worship through roughly a lineup of 30 songs, participated by youths, pastors, and members of the IEMELIF community—from host Katedral and other congregations including Bambang, Malate, Novaliches and Alpha & Omega.

The concert was held in celebration of >2’s first anniversary and Katedral’s Kabanatang Ilaw’s (KI) 79^th. Worship is third in >2’s “4 W’s” series.

At 3 p.m. the Morga Worship Hall was jampacked with more than thrice the regular KI attendees, clearly surpassing Matthew’s “more than two” standard, that where two or three are gathered in the Lord’s name, He is there with them. (Matthew 18:20)

Along with the opening melodies carried out by home band Icthus, we professed through song that our redeemer lives, that all of our days we will sing of his greatness and speak of his grace, that there is power here for a miracle—words that may now seem alien when not sung!

Clear in this instance is what John Calvin, a pastor during the Protestant Reformation, meant when he talked about the psalms of David. When we sing, “we are certain that God puts in our mouths these, as if he himself were singing in us to exalt his glory.” If the KI organizers were to borrow from Calvin’s reflection, the fructification of the Worship experience, like every time music and song are present in our fellowships, was when we spoke to God using His own words.

It was more than fitting that General Superintendent Bishop El Lazaro asked: Are our songs enough for the level of praise that is for God? (Don’t worry Bishop El, in due time the speakers will be booming!) Bishop El also burrowed into the significance of having music played and songs sung in our local congregations be rooted from uniquely Filipino perspectives.

In fact, IEMELIF band Supper Episode, who played second in the lineup, answered to this right away by churning out an original song, Binhi (Seed). Guest band Rich of Glory, who played last, did the same while lifting from the book of Psalms: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.” (Psalm 98:1) They played songs like Wala Akong Masabi (I’m Speechless), fresh from their new, independently produced album.

Mostly youth-composed bands Alpha & Omega and Bambang Prayer and Praise Teams and Katedral home bands Ichthus and Team >2 played a musically diverse selection, getting us to either sway steadily on our seats—like when we sang, “All for love a Father gave,  for only love could make a way… All for love the heavens cried, for love was crucified…”—or clap while on our feet: “We are the redeemed, we are the ones who are free, and we belong to Jesus!”

There were times when amid the songs, in internal solitude, we prayed. Some of us shared, in consolation, with our friends the moment when they were consumed in blessed emotion that brought them to tears. “I’m happy to be in the truth and I will daily lift my hands, for I will always sing of when your love came down. I could sing of your love forever,” Icthus sang.

“Sama-sama”, co-composed by Icthus and KI President Noemi Mayor, couldn’t have better encapsulated the night that was: “Kaya’t kami ngayo’y naririto, sama-samang nagpupuri’t sumasamba, nagsasabing Panginoon, dakila ka! Iisang damdamin, iisang hangarin, ang ngalan mo Hesus itataas namin! (We are here now, together, praising and worshiping you, Lord, with one goal in mind: to glorify your name!)”

This we all did, sama-sama, to do just as it was written, to “sing for joy to God our strength, shout aloud to the God of Jacob!” (Psalm 81:1-2)

KEEP COMING BACK, GOD IS HERE WITH US!

If you have questions, suggestions, comments about >2: More Than Two, send us love at: ki.morethantwo@gmail.com or text us here: (0915) 985-2910. We’d love to hear from you!

L’amour

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The second to the last topic of our Blueprints series was a topic that is, let’s say, a crowd favorite. This is the topic that most teenagers (not only teenagers, actually) nowadays look forward to: Relationships. For when you speak of this word, the boy-girl relationship first comes to mind. But in this More Than Two episode, we tackled God’s will in not only this kind of relationship but also the ones we have with our parents/family, peers and friends and, ofcourse, with our Savior.

Our speaker for this episode is someone who is knowledgable and is someone who actually talks about the said topic for a living, is none other than Tita Malyn Cristobal. First, we were asked, “How do we find God’s will?” We simply have to consult the Bible for it gives us values and guidlines for life. The Spiritual Disciplines we know will also help us in knowing what really is the will of God for us.

The burning question was asked: What is Love? and the answer that we got was “Love is not a feeling, it’s hardwork.” It’s true, when you love someone, you work hard to keep that relationship going on. It’s something you have to do every single day.

It was said that falling in love is not love, it is consciously and unconsciously sexually motivated; only an attraction. It may be followed by falling out of love. Sometimes, we may not be in love, we are in need. Falling in love is an ecstatic feeling while Loving is an action to be done. Keep in mind that true love starts with yourself. We cannot give something we don’t have.

Another answer to the “What is Love?” question was, God is Love. No matter what, keep seeking Him. Release, and trust only in God totally. This is something we hear all the time, though we think of it as a cliche, this episode gave us the opportunity to think about this saying more deeply.

KEEP COMING BACK, GOD IS HERE WITH US!

If you have questions, suggestions, comments about >2: More Than Two, send us love at: ki.morethantwo@gmail.com or text us at these numbers: (0915) 985-2910 / (0921) 252-1888. We’d love to hear from you!

You Got Talent!

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“How do we discover God’s Will in our ministry?”

This question was the key to >2’s 3rd episode of the Blueprint series which was Ministry. More about what we do in church, for others and for God, this episode was filled with more than just information and words of wisdom, its was a gathering with a mini-talent show!

With Team >2 kicking off this episode with a fun filled Worship, together with a new front man (woman rather) of the group leading the crowd was Ate Miles Depatillo! Singing out Every Move I make, an all time classic, Lord I offer my life, All of my Days by Hillsong and My Redeemer Lives. It was a true expression of God’s love and grace for everyone that He is worthy of our praises.

For the Work It, we had a mini-talent show that everyone has to participate in.  First, we had to pick out stars as many or as few as we like. Then, the stars represented each talent we had to show everyone. Jimbo, who has 14 stars (probably the one who got the most!) had a hard time thinking for a unique talent, but it was really fun watching everyone share their abilities like singing, dancing, playing instruments, reciting a poem, making weird sounds and a lot more! It represents the talents we share to the church and for God’s glory which is “Ministry”.

To dig further about God’s will in our Ministry, we had someone familiar but still has a lot to say. None other than Ptr. Ding! He shared to us the difference between Ministry and Job. That Ministry is Spiritual while a Work/Job is Secular and Worldly. He also stated the 2 types of calling which are:

~General
~Specific – maybe as workers/other professions as stated in Luke 4:18-19

Lastly, he said that Ministry is tied up with gifts likewise what is said in Ephesians 4:11-13:

¹¹It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,¹²to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Some of our >2ers still had questions after the talk so the panel for this episode’s Worthwhile was consisted of Ptr. Ding, Diak. Francia and Ptr. Jonah. Someone asked if Ministry will be enough, Ptr. Ding said that Service is not enough that there’s always a hole for us to fill it up. Some more questions were entertained by the panel for the benefit of our >2ers and we learned a lot from what they said.

KEEP COMING BACK, GOD IS HERE WITH US!

If you have questions, suggestions, comments about >2: More Than Two, send us love at: ki.morethantwo@gmail.com or text us at these numbers: (0915) 985-2910 / (0921) 252-1888. We’d love to hear from you!

Love Your Work

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“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”
- Arnold Toynbee

One of our ultimate goals in life, as young ones, is to graduate college, finish our schooling and to get a job that would provide for our needs and wants in the future. And this episode on God’s Will in your Career helped us to understand more on what feild of study to choose and how to get the right job for us after we graduate.

Ichtus Band led the >2ers as we worship our God through prayer and praise. After which, we played Human Bingo, roaming around the room searching for people and their career choice and filling up our “bingo cards”. It was chaotic, but that what makes it so fun! Haha! It’s a bit disappointing when you only need one last person to finish your card :))

We had a special guest speaker for this episode. She is Tita Rea Cristobal and she talked about finding God’s Will in our career and/or field of study. There are several issues affecting our decisions in this matter, such as our financial needs, our abilities, the posssible jobs to get in line with our course in college, fulfillment and personal passions, our parent’s wishes and the will of God. She said that there is nothing wrong with getting a high paying job and what is wrong is making career decisions based primarily on future income considerations. So the the question is: how do we weigh income against career satisfactory? and the answer: should one be chosen over the other?

So how do we choose which career or field of study to pursue? first we have to look at our God-given talents and our KSA: Knowledge, Skills and Attitude. And therefore we should ASK ourself and God if we have the knowledge, skills and the right attitude for a certain career. Tita Rea reminded our parents that we are not their second chance, which was, needed somehow to be heard by some parents nowadays. Hehehe. Also, it was made clear that a big problem in our society today is job mismatch, something we MUST avoid.

Again, as a uniform Worthwhile activity for this series, we had our panel after the talk. With Ptrs. Jonah and Ding, Diac. Francia, Tita Rea, Pred. Rene Cristobal also joined the panel, being in the recruitment business.

KEEP COMING BACK, GOD IS HERE WITH US!

If you have questions, suggestions, comments about >2: More Than Two, send us love at: ki.morethantwo@gmail.com or text us at these numbers: (0915) 985-2910 / (0921) 252-1888. We’d love to hear from you!