A Picture of Love: Nanay's Blood-stain Masterpiece

I was just browsing through my collection of pictures in my PC and I came across this photo, and I remembered Nanay Laida... Yet though I miss her dearly, her light remains in me for all time.

Nanay had the blood of a great artist. I remember this great masterpiece that she created during the last moment of her life as she laid on her deathbed in the I.C.U. of a hospital. At that last hour, even when her body was already rendered totally motionless by physical death, yet mysteriously she was still able to leave behind a great masterpiece. With the bed sheet as her canvass, and her blood as the paint, and the tiny spills of her own blood as her brush strokes, with such unspeakable creativity she was able to paint a picture of Love, a portrayal of the greatest act of Love mankind has ever known.

On that sacred moment of Nanay's life, as we stood by her in her entry into the other side of life saying prayers so fervently as our mournful spirits could say, one after the other we took turns at her bedside and whispered our final words of love to her while crying so hard but as quietly as our very sorrowful hearts could hold. All of a sudden and with no apparent reason, my eyes' focus was turned towards the right side of Nanay's bed as if being gently guided by some unseen hands. To my spirit-uplifting surprise and heart-consoling amazement, I noticed that a somewhat abstract image had somehow gradually formed on Nanay's bed sheet as some of her blood dripped from her operation wound in her right arm and had dropped on that piece of "canvass" and had slowly soaked-in and artistically blotted as if brush strokes by some invisible hands forming what I considered as her greatest work of art which I called "Nanay's Blood-stain Masterpiece".

Like a drop of ink blotting and slowly crawling on the surface of a huge piece of rough paper, my mind is so overwhelmed by the message that Nanay left us with her final work of art. Each time I look at her work and ponder on it, it leads me to glorify God for His Love. Nanay's painting keeps in remembrance how the Lord Jesus Christ, with His precious blood on the Cross, had reconciled prodigal mankind back to God. Nanay also seemed to say in this great "painting" of hers that she is at last finding eternal rest in the Lord's embrace and the sufferings she had endured while she was still on earth were her living sacrifices offered to the Lord. As the scripture had said, "Present your body as a living sacrifice to the Lord."

The scripture also said that "The Life is in the blood", and every person who abides in the Lord, the Lord will become part of their lives. Indeed! The Lord has greatly become part of Nanay's life so much so that her blood painted the Lord on the Cross.

A Reflection: Sum of all Fears

The sum of all fears is that you live your life and it will wind up meaning nothing.

"Spam" has several meanings. One is the canned mystery meat that we all ate as kids. The other is the junk email that will take over your inbox if you allow it. But there's one more meaning for Spam that you may not know about.

Solomon tried to live a SPAM lifestyle apart from God. What he found is that the sum of all fears is to live your life to the end and to discover that it was all meaningless. Solomon found that God has a purpose for your life. Dr. Merritt will help you discover how to reject a SPAM life and how to make your life really count.



‎10 Things God Won't Ask You

1. God won't ask what kind of car you drove. He will ask how many people did you drove who didn't have transportation.

2. God won't ask the square footage of your house. He will ask how many people did you invite into your home.

3. God won't ask about the clothes you had in your closet. He will ask how many did you help clothe.

4. God won't ask what your highest salary was. He will ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

5. God won't ask what your job title was. He will ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.

6. God won't ask how many friends you had. He will ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

7. God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived. He will ask you how you treated your neighbors.

8. God won't ask about the color of your skin. He will ask about the content of your character.

9. God won't ask about the things you didn't understand. He will ask about how well you acted upon that which you did know.

10. God won't ask when you trusted Jesus Christ so He can let you in to heaven. He will ask you how many people did you try to bring with you.

Sailing: A Reflection on Life

One ship sails east and another sails west
With the self-same winds that blow.
Tis the set of the sail and not the gale
Which determines the way they go.
As the winds of the sea are the ways of fate
As we voyage along through life,
Tis the act of the soul that determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox


"A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind." --Webb Chiles

"Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel." --August Hare

"The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator." --Edmund Gibbon

"I can't change the direction of the wind but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." --Jimmy Dean

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." --William Arthur Ward

“It is how the sails are set and adjusted, not the direction of the wind that determines which way the boat goes.” --Jim Rohn

"I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." --Oliver Wendel Holmes

"If something can't be repaired when it gets broken, then maybe it shouldn't be worth carrying on board." --Lin and Larry Pardey

"The sail, the play of its pulse is so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective." --Henry David Thoreau

"It's out there at sea that you are really yourself." --Vito Dumas

"Storms are dreadful. But if all there is is calmness, the easiness could undermine the spirit." --Anonymous

“Here is a hard reality: Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” --Warren Buffett

“Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.” --Jean-Paul Sartre

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” --Fitzhugh Dodson

“I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.” --Louisa May Alcott

"To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift." --Franklin D. Roosevelt

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." --William Shedd

"If one does not know to which port he is sailing, no wind is favorable." --Seneca

Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better

"You always succeed in producing a result. There's always a way - if you're committed. There's no abiding success without commitment. Whatever happens, take responsibility."

"You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action."

"You see, it's never the environment; it's never the events of our lives, but the meaning we attach to the events - how we interpret them - that shapes who we are today and who we will become tomorrow."

--Tony Robbins



"Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character. There is no such thing as failure. There are only results. When it seems impossible, when it seems like nothing is going to work, you are usually just a few millimeters away from making it happen." --Tony Robbins

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Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think; but think reasonably, as according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned to you. [Romans 12:2-3]

For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he... [Proverbs 23:7]

And whatever you do, do it heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men. (Colossians 3:23)