- There is no work, as we understand it, without people. So the purpose of work rightly begins by bringing people together, and in that way work is an extension of the loving family structure.

- The kingdom of God is the range of God’s effective will or where His will is done.

- Loving God is about transforming work into a place of discipleship and loving service to others.

- Business is a matter of human service.

- Without a real sense of how their job matters to the company and the community it serves, employees are more apt to be out for themselves.

- As we pray each morning for our daily bread, people are already busy at work in the bakeries (Lee Hardy)

- Every day, whether we see the loving nature of work or not, we contribute to fulfilling “daily bread” prayers.

When I Became a Christian

by Adrian Plass

When I became a Christian I said, Lord, now fill me in,
Tell me what I’ll suffer in this world of shame and sin.
He said, your body may be killed, and left to rot and stink,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen – I think.
I think Amen, Amen I think, I think I say Amen,
I’m not completely sure, can you just run through that again?
You say my body may be killed and left to rot and stink,
Well, yes, that sounds terrific, Lord, I say Amen – I think.

But, Lord, there must be other ways to follow you, I said,
I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed.
Well, yes, he said, you could put up with the sneers and scorn and spit,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen – a bit.
A bit Amen, Amen a bit, a bit I say Amen,
I’m not entirely sure, can we just run through that again?
You say I could put up with sneers and also scorn and spit,
Well, yes, I’ve made my mind up, and I say, Amen – a bit.

Well I sat back and thought a while, then tried a different ploy,
Now, Lord, I said, the Good book says that Christians live in joy.
That’s true he said, you need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow,
So do you want to follow me, I said, Amen – tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Lord, I’ll say it then, that’s when I’ll say Amen,
I need to get it clear, can I just run through that again?
You say that I will need to joy, to bear the pain and sorrow,
Well, yes, I think I’ve got it straight, I’ll say Amen – tomorrow.

He said, Look, I’m not asking you to spend an hour with me
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sanctity,
The cost is you, not half of you, but every single bit,
Now tell me, will you follow me? I said Amen – I quit.
I’m very sorry Lord I said, I’d like to follow you,
But I don’t think religion is a manly thing to do.
He said forget religion then, and think about my Son,
And tell me if you’re man enough to do what he has done.

Are you man enough to see the need, and man enough to go,
Man enough to care for those whom no one wants to know,
Man enough to say the thing that people hate to hear,
To battle through Gethsemane in loneliness and fear.
And listen! Are you man enough to stand it at the end,
The moment of betrayal by the kisses of a friend,
Are you man enough to hold your tongue, and man enough to cry?
When nails break your body-are you man enough to die?
Man enough to take the pain, and wear it like a crown,
Man enough to love the world and turn it upside down,
Are you man enough to follow me, I ask you once again?
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said Amen.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen; Amen, Amen, Amen,
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said, Amen.

In this fast-paced culture we find it hard to slow down and be still. Even our leisure times often get packed with endless activities. “Perhaps you can judge the inner health of a land by the capacity of its people to do nothing,” wrote Sebastian de Grazia in 1962, “to lie abed musing, to amble about aimlessly, to sit having a coffee—because whoever can do nothing, letting his thoughts go where they may, must be at peace with himself.” The biblical command to rest for one day of the week is an important God-given principle for our health and sanity. We neglect it at our peril. Some people feel very guilty if they are not doing something “worthwhile” with their time. They cannot rest with a clear conscience. The Christian understanding of the sabbath is that it is given by God as a symbol of our being able to rest in his presence with easy consciences. Knowing that we are forgiven and accepted by him, we do not have towork to earn our salvation because Christ has done all that was necessary for us to have a relationship with him. We can, as the Bible says, “enter God’s rest” (Heb 4:1-11). We need to take time for our minds and bodies to re-create and recover from being driven so hard. This also allows time for a renewal of perspective.

Leisure time is often when we rest and relax, but it is also good for us to know how to play well. We live in a time when entertainment comes to us while we watch, and though that is not all bad, it is important forus to engage in active as well as passive play. We listen to music, we watch sports on television, we go to movies—but how often do we make music? How often do we get out and play a sport ourselves or go hiking, climbing, biking or sailing?

Some people think of Christians as being joyless and sober, suspicious of any earthly pleasures and preoccupied with spiritual things, of being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. On the contrary, when truly understood, Christianity sets us free to enjoy leisure andpleasure in the way God originally intended. It affirms the goodness of the creation, of food, of drink, of beauty.

For around a year now, the young professionals have been meeting (and eating) in Ate Jeanette’s place in Labangon to spend time together and study the Bible. Lately we have been taking up the book of Romans, and after that a book about one’s job, The Gift of Work, by Bill Heatley.

Hope to enjoy the company of more YPs soon.

leony, ate jeanette, edna, monique, ate elvs

A thoughtful article about our consumption habits, human nature, and business opportunities. By Denis Haack of Ransom Fellowship.

Here’s what we came up with.

Date        Location and Activity

Feb. 28     Gaas: Students’ Trng. Culmination, Z’s Commissioning, Outreach/ Bundles of Joy

Mar. 7      Labangon: Despidida for Z

Mar. 14    Edna’s place at Mandaue: Bible study on John 17 (facilitator: Ana)

Mar. 21    Laag/Videoke/Taboo/Board Games. Invite friends. Also CIT graduation (invite graduates to YP eventually).

Mar. 28    Monique’s place at Labangon: Bible study on John 18 (facilitator: Danny)

Apr. 4      Eunice’s place at V. Rama: Bible study on John 19 (facilitator: Eunice)

Apr. 11     Break for Holy Week. Those remaining in the city can still meet.

Apr. 18     Mister Coffee at Mango: Bible study on John 20 (facilitator: Kevin)

Apr. 25     Ana’s place at Banawa: Bible study on John 21 (facilitator: Edna)

May 2       Camotes outing, with games, snorkeling (overnight?). Invite friends.

May 6       Dan and Hazel’s Wedding at Bohol

May 9       (Moriah?) Seminar/Talk on the Father Heart of God. Invite alumni, students, community.

May 16     Talk on Managing Finances

May 23     Labangon: Topical Bible study on the concept of church

May 30     Topical Bible study on another topic

June 6      Next planning

Everyone is also encouraged to book early for the National Alumni/Professionals Conference this August 21–24 at Rizal.

Christmas is in the air. I came across this interview of author Frederick Buechner that made some points worth pondering. Here’s part of it. You can click here for the full article (worth the read, I guarantee–or maybe I say that simply because I’m a fan ).

It seems to me one of the miracles of the Christian faith is that the feast of Christmas survives what we have done to it — all the hoopla, clap-trap, commercialism and all the rest of it that I don’t even need to go into because everybody knows what it is. Yet, somehow it does survive. This extraordinary moment when the whole year slows down and you point to this unimaginable event where God somehow became made flesh. It is so cataclysmic; it is so extraordinary; we try to make it habitable; we try to make it cozy; we make creches and we sing Christmas carols. At best, it can be touching and real. At its worst it can be cheap and banal. What often occurs to me about Christmas is that if it is really true, if the word really became flesh, if the mystery behind all that really took the form of a human life, this vulnerable, tiny human life whose skull you could have crushed with one hand, then there must have been extraordinary anguish and intergalactic struggle to have this extraordinary thing come to pass. It wasn’t an easy thing to happen. There is a kind of terror about Christmas, a kind of holiness and awesomeness about Christmas that we tend to forget. The resurrection and the life came down and tasted the bitterness of death.

Hardin: It is almost as though we say, “I’ve got to get through this. As soon as I’m through it, then I am going to sit back and take in Christ and this wonderful event of God’s gift to us all. But, I’ve got to get everything out of the way and usually that ends at about 6:00 PM on Christmas eve.”

Buechner: Do I have time to tell you a story about Christmas?

Hardin: Sure.

Buechner: One Christmas Eve, exhausted, about to go to bed having put all the presents under the tree, I remembered that our neighbor had asked us to feed his sheep every day he was gone. The snow was falling — this was in Vermont — my brother and I went down the hill to feed the sheep. We went into the barn and we got the bales of hay. We took them out into the sheep shed, cut the string, turned on the forty-watt bulb and began scattering the hay. The sheep came bumbling up, getting close to it. With the smell of the hay, the smell of the sheep and the snow coming down, all of a sudden I realized where I was. I was in the manger and I almost missed it.

Hardin: You were in the right place.

Buechner: I was in this holy place and I might not even have seen it. I happened to see it. It seems to me that in a way, you could say that the world itself is a manger where God is continually being born into our lives, into the things that happen to us. Most of the time, if you are like me, you are looking the other way.

—Frederick Buechner, interview with David Hardin http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/Buechner_3305.htm

“Lord Jesus, come yourself, and dwell with us, be human as we are, and overcome what overwhelms us. Come into the midst of my evil, come close to my unfaithfulness. Share my sin, which I hate and which I cannot leave. Be my brother, Thou Holy God. Be my brother in the kingdom of evil and suffering and death. Come with me in my death, come with me in my suffering, come with me as I struggle with evil. And make me holy and pure, despite my sin and death.” Every day, despite its location on the calendar, a still, small voice answers our cry persuasively, “Behold. I stand at the door and knock.”

The company where I’m working is hiring for the following positions. So if you or someone you know is qualified and interested, please contact me (Kevin). Thanks.  (You can e-mail me.)
Development Engineer
Software Test Engineer
Product Assurance Engineer
RAS (Reliability, Availability & Serviceability) Engineer
Software Tools Developer
Advanced Manufacturing Engineering (AME) Mechanical Engineer
Mechanical Engineer
Electrical Hardware Engineer
Software Engineer
Hardware Engineer
Embedded Software Image Quality Engineer 
Firmware Development Engineers
Firmware Test Engineer
Test Coordinator
Test Team Lead/Test Specialist

Company Nurse (w/ experience)
HR Officer
Recruitment Assistant
Safety & Security Officer

IT Account Manager
IT Project Manager
Software Build and Library Administrator

Industrial Designer
Technical Illustrator
Technical Writers

Application Support Analyst
Project Manager for Asia Pacific Finance
System Analyst
Supply Chain Data Owner