Joseph's Republic

It's that time of the year again when we at the Church of God offers our sacrifice of thanksgiving to our Father in heaven. For three glorious days on December 27, 28 and 29, we shall again be awed witnesses to his righteousness and words of wisdom.

Personally I thank the Father for taking good care of my family, especially of my wife who went through two surgical operations this year.. I thank God all the more, however, for keeping me and my wife in the faith in spite of all our shortcomings. I thank God most of all, that He continuously bestowing me, as with the rest of the congregation, the gift of understanding His divine words of Truth!


Thanks be to God for keeping brother Eli Soriano and brother Daniel Razon safe amid all the threats to their lives.

Thanks be to God for the trials and tribulations He allow, especially those instigated by our Church's enemies. Because of such trials and tribulations, several hundreds of new members in the Church of God can now be found in Africa, the Americas, East and South East Asia, Europe and in practically all parts of the globe, in fulfillment of the biblical prophecies!!

Indeed, there's just so much to thank God for that words simply don't suffice...

To God be the Glory!

Prior to being in the Church about four years ago, I was a Catholic and looked forward to Christmastime just as much as many Filipino Catholics are. I know the excitement the christmas season brings... the cultural message quite literally runs in your veins and your senses gets intoxicated in the hype of it all... and people casually calls it "the spirit of Christmas" as spooky as that may sound to the uninitiated... ;-)

Much as I know what Christmas means to a Catholic (and all the rest of them supposed Christians who should really admit to being pseudo-Catholics) I find it hard to explain to Catholic friends and family why such celebrations are not just un-biblical but actually anti-biblical. The biggest reason for this of course is that they are in no mood to listen. For one, it spoils the holiday fever they are so into.

Put it another way, it simply spoils "everything". Everything as in this whole illussion of peace, happiness and abundance. Being quite reasonable folks, however, they'll admit to it anyway and say its all in the name of indulgence to merry-making... and "hey, why so serious.. don't you guys celebrate Christmas too?!"

At that I just have to smile and say "it's complicated"... or else explain "of course we celebrate "Christmas" too but not in the same way as you do. We celebrate the birth of Christ in our lives everyday... we celebrate it the way He want it celebrated..."