My Graduation Testimony

It is a privilege to be used by God but it is more honored to be a minister of God’s Word. And I thank the Lord for this grand opportunity to be trained to become a mighty vessel in the expansion of His kingdom in the coming years.

The Lord has used Biblical Seminary of the Philippines (BSOP) as a pruning tool—the Lord has cleanse me from the ignoble things, so that I could be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Lord and prepared to do any good work. Moreover, BSOP is instrumental in imparting to me the importance of relationship, excellence, abilities, and practice.

Relationship. The inter-racial and inter-cultural community of BSOP was a challenge. Living together with people of different culture is challenging and a great opportunity to adjust and understand them in order to live harmoniously.

Excellence. The training that I underwent was tough. The assignments were thought-provoking and the exams pushed me to my limits. However, I never regretted these ordeals since the Lord made me realize again and again that He will continue to sharpen me so that I would become the kind of servant He wants me to be. As what Paul said, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Abilities. The encouragement of the BSOP administrators and professors in each student’s unique ability allowed me to sharpen my God-given abilities and talents. The Lord has helped me discover some of my untapped potentials through the challenging tasks that I had engaged in.

Practice. As God’s shepherd, I have learned that we must live out servant hood and to practice what we preach. I have to lead the sheep that the Lord has entrusted me by example.

Through my four years of seminary training, the Lord has shown me my weak spots and that I had to depend on Him for wisdom, illumination and guidance.

It is my prayer that everything I learned in BSOP may be passed on to the churches or institutions where I will be serving. To God be the glory.

Good Advice vs. Good News

“At the core of just about every major religion is something we call advice, or a set of instructions intended to help you live a better life. But is that what lies at the heart of the Christian faith? Tips and instructions for personal transformation? Whatever happened to the Christian gospel?” - Michael Horton [Feb. 10, 2008] (http://whitehorseinn .org)

Indeed, more and more preachers are preaching “Good Advice” yet when they preach “Good News” people tend to go home and never come back until a new “good adviser” would come and touch their hearts on Sunday Worships.

Whose fault is it? The preacher’s? or The listener’s?

Singaporencore

Wow!!! Great experience, good food, nice people and the best Jazz music that I have heard so far… I truly thank Rev. Anthony Ang for inviting my wife and I to be his guest in the “Singapore Encore” January 31, 2008. The event was organized by Singapore International Foundation, in partnership with the Singapore Embassy in Manila at One Esplanade, Pasay City. The event was in celebration of the Singapore spirit through music, food and art. They were proud to present a night of enchantment, with performances by Singapore’s premier musicians. Reputed for its exponential growth, Singapore has an ever growing vibrant arts and cultural scene.

This premier musician made my night. I can only stare, listen and open my mouth in awe as I listen to their music. Mr. Jeremy Monteiro is a pianist, vocalist, composer, jazz educator - has won critical acclaims worldwide. He is dubbed as “Singapore’s King of Swings”. He is sooooo great. I love his composition. Indeed, music alone can talk. His quartet was also remarkable; Alemay Fernandez - vocals; Tama Goh- drums; Andrew Lim - guitar and Colin Yong - bass and flute. But their performance would never be as great without our very own filipino musicians: Tots Tolentino - saxophone and 75 years old, Sotero “Terry” Undag - trumpet.

Satay, Laksa, Chicken Rice and Nyonya Desserts were prepared by Chef Sunny Goh, the Executive Chef of the Heritage Hotel Manila.

With us as Rev. Anthony Ang’s guests were my favorite pastor Rev. Dr. David Cheung of ATS, brother Sam and sister Esther of UECP/CEF.

Meeting Singaporeans are like being in Singapore. The accent was there to stay and their hospitality will never be taken for granted. That was the place were I learned many things about Singapore, especially foods :). And the experience was unforgettable.

Mind you… the event was strictly formal…

Your Body Can Burn Fat on Its Own

Your Body Can Burn Fat on Its Own 

Wouldn’t you just love it if your body decided to burn fat and calories on its own?
It can:
1. Exercise in short, intense bursts (interval training) for effective fat burning after exercise.
2. Increase the amount of resistance/strength/weight training you do, to build more lean muscle. Muscle is ‘metabolically active’ and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you’re not moving.
And of course, for best results:
3. Chill on the amount of food you are eating.

Technically:
1. Our bodies are built to survive, so when you exercise for long periods of time (often and consistently) your body thinks it needs to hold on to fat for energy. Doing short (12-15 minute), intense exercise sessions builds strength and burns calories, but not fat, so it “feels safe” using fat stores for energy after exercise.
2. Resistance training (using extra weight) helps build lean muscle mass (and strong bones), and muscle burns more calories than fat.
3. If you are obsessing over things like fat grams and not eating a nutritious diet, your body will reserve energy (store fat) to survive.

Realistically:
1. Varying your exercise is the most effective and efficient way to stay lean and healthy. You must do some longer exercise to build cardiovascular endurance, burn lots of calories, and yes, even burn fat during exercise - your body will not click in to “save” mode unless you exercise for long periods of time, regularly and often.
2. You must do resistance training in order to build muscle and strong bones.
3. Nobody wants to exercise more - and we don’t want to train our bodies to need more exercise to stay fit. So exercise efficiently – two short, very intense (relative to your level of fitness) training sessions weekly, like a 15-minute fast run/walk or fast cycling sprint intervals, and two moderately long, moderately intense sessions (30-45 minutes) of strong walking, cycling, or yoga, with one long day (60-90 minutes) of a moderately paced walk/hike. That’s a great five-day/week training schedule.
4. Instead of adding more days to your workout schedule, add a weighted vest to your training. I have said this before, but this is the most efficient way that I know of to build muscle while burning calories. For more information, go to http://www.walkvest.com/.
5. Eat moderately - stop counting fat grams and calories and look at how much food is on your plate! And eat more nutritiously by eating foods that are natural and unprocessed.

Keep it real -
Debbie Rocker

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/rockertraining/1899/your-body-can-burn-fat-on-its-own/