God Is For Us

Romans 8:28-39
What is your form of communication with your significant other? Back in the day, we would write letters and have a messenger carry that letter to the person that we wrote to. Then we had the post office, which was a little faster than the messenger. Then the phone was invented, and later on text messages. Now that we have the internet, we can communicate through email, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and video messaging like Skype or Facetime. If you have a significant other, what is your medium of communication?

God communicates to us through the Bible and the Holy Spirit. How do you view the Bible? Is it just another book? A religious object? The truth is that the Bible is God's letter to human kind. Every book points to His only Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible is not a religious object because Jesus was not about religion. I don't know how it is like to grow up under the influence of another "religion," but I learned throughout the years that true Christianity is about having a relationship with Christ and following Him. The meaning of religion, which means "to tie again," has changed. Something needed to be tied again because it was broken by sin. A perfect relationship with God was broken in the Garden of Eden because of sin. Our sin separates us from God. What God offers according to His Word, the Bible, is Jesus Christ. It says in John 3:16 that "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in HIm will not perish, but have everlasting life."

The Bible tells us that God is for us in Romans 8:31. If you were crazy enough to sacrifice YOUR son/daughter for a criminal, what else would you be willing to give up? God's love is crazy enough that He didn't spare His only Son for you and me. God truly is for us because He thought of us before we were even created and He gave us a destination. He has a plan for you but it starts with YOU making a CHOICE to love Him (Romans 8:28). When we make a choice to love someone, we start a relationship. It is the same with Christ.

God is calling us and it goes back to the cross. The cross is screaming salvation, hope, peace, restoration, and redemption. If Jesus was able to conquer death, sin, and hell, what else can stand against Him? When you allow Jesus to become your identity, when He becomes YOUR salvation and strength, YOUR peace and hope, YOUR restoration and redemption, who can stand against you? Even if the enemy will stand against you, Jesus will always be the VICTORIOUS ONE (Romans 8:34).

Christ's love will WORK FOR YOU because when you receive it, nothing can separate you from it. All you need to do is to have a sincere and humble heart to receive His love, mercy, and grace.

The Midget Tax Collector

Text: Luke 19:1-10

What would you do to meet a celebrity? Taylor Swift, a famous pop/country artist, goes out of her way to show appreciation for her fans. On June 2011, Taylor Swift did a 13-hour meet and greet with her fans just so everyone who wanted to meet her could. While she was driving by the mall, she saw a teen wearing one of her tour T-shirts. She made a quick u-turn and searched for the girl inside the mall. After a few minutes of searching, she found the 11-year old girl inside a video game store and introduced herself to her and says, "Oh, hi. I wanted to meet you." The girl was speechless for about 3 minutes. Her mom walks over bursting into tears and explains to Taylor Swift that she drove all the way from Austin, Texas just to see her in concert.

In the first 10 verses of Luke 19, we read about the story of Zaccheus. His name literally means "pure" but everyone hated Zaccheus because he was a publican/tax collector and he was rich. He heard that Jesus was coming to town and he was interested in seeing Him. In the previous chapters in Luke, Jesus performed miracles: He made the lepers clean; He heals the servant of a centurion; He feeds a multitude by the thousands. Whatever miracle Jesus did for other people, Zaccheus wanted it for himself. As a matter of fact, Zaccheus was so interested in Jesus that he had the sense of urgency to find the nearest tree just so he can have a physical sight of Jesus. However, the Son of Man wanted to give Him more than than. Zaccheus had enough faith to not be embarrassed about seeking Jesus. Think about it. A lot of things could have gone wrong that day but Zaccheus was focused on seeing Jesus. A midget tax collector climbing a sycamore tree could have fallen in front of hundreds of people, but that wasn't even on his mind. But before Zaccheus even heard of Jesus, God had a plan to change his life. Jesus would bless Zaccheus' house with His presence in front of a multitude in Jericho to show them that the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.
The same message applies to you. God has a plan for you even before you heard of Him and made a decision to receive Him joyfully in your life. In Romans 8:27-30, it says that He has a plan for those who love Him, and love starts with a relationship.

The Impact of $5 in 2 hours.

At the moment I am shaking from hunger. Maybe I need a McChicken. I haven't eaten lunch because this idea of handing out free sandwiches has been consumed my mind last Tuesday. I am already seeing results starting in my work. We started a collecting jar in my work and we named it Kickface the Bear and its belly is getting bigger everyday!

I wanted to share this idea to a very good friend of mine, Daniella, my brother Ej, and James. Just a day ago, I saw her tweet about wanting Tim Hortons. I saw it as an opportunity to do another local mission trip and share about Mission McChicken. When we think of the words "mission trip," some of us if not most of us think about going to a third world country like Africa, Belize and Guatemala, or Ecuador. For me, doing missions is a lifestyle. It is not limited to one, two, or three weeks of your summer when you decide to go reach out to the poor in another country. My mission site is here, 10 feet away from my lawn. My mission site is here in the heart of the city in Detroit. My mission site is in the drive-thru of Tim Hortons and McDonald's. It says in Matthew 5:13-16 that "we are the salt of the earth." We need to be the flavor in this bland world of leftovers. We can simply do that by sharing or paying for someone's meal in a restaurant or in the drive-thru.

After a few verses and a little motivational speech about faith, we decided to act on the idea of making someone's day by paying for their meal. It was socially awkward for them, but they loved the fact that it would bother someone that a stranger bought their meal. I bought them 5 McChickens to start with and they were very excited to hand them out. We started praying for "the right person" to be the recipient of the blessing. When we saw a boy walking down Telegraph, we offered it to him--he said, "no thanks." We didn't let that discourage us. We were still excited as we were on our way back to the church. We had to tell our other friends about this mission and we did. The kids were excited to be a part of it--so excited that they decided to take the bag of McChickens and attempt to stop cars passing by the road in front of the church just so they can share the blessings. It reminded me of what Jesus what talking about in the Bible--childlike faith that believes. For the kids, it wasn't just a belief because they ACTED in something that they believed in--hence, it's faith.

I decided to take a different approach. My car was running out of gas so I decided to take Daniella and Arielle with me to the gas station, praying that we can be a blessing to someone. When we pulled up, there were two boys in front of the store with their bikes. Daniella's eyes lit up with joy when he saw them. It was now her opportunity to share! Daniella and Arielle hesitantly walked towards them in awkwardness, paused, and then said hi. With the McChicken in her hand, she straightens out her arm and hands the sandwich. They exchanged a few words and walked in glee back towards the car. "That was awesome!" says Daniella. "If we can do it once, we can do it again!" says Arielle. I was in awe. That was totally kickface.
We decided to go back to the church to get the rest of the McChickens. This time, I brought James and EJ with me. As we were on our way back to the gas station, we prayed that the boys will still be there. We pulled up to the gas station and there they were--with 3 or 4 more of their friends! As we drove by them, EJ recognized that they were his friends. Such a small world that we live in. It turns out that they go to school with EJ. They gave the rest of the McChickens to them. They were suspicious at first, thinking that we put something in the sandwiches, but they eventually finished the sandwiches before we can even pull out of the gas station.

The kids were very excited to be part of this short-term mission trip. They are now forming more ideas with what they want to do in their schools, possibly starting a Christian club so they can be a blessing to their classmates. I am also very excited for by brother because a door has been opened for him to share his faith.
I hope that you have been blessed by this story and I pray that you will be a part of Mission McChicken.

Mission McChicken

A few weeks ago, I decided to meet up with two of my friends in a coffee shop. What started as an innocent get together with my friends turned out to be a time to ventilate about our frustrations in life, specifically our financial struggles. As we evaluated our money spending, we realized that we could be saving so much money but instead we like to waste it on overrated things. Like Starbucks. We started comparing our dollar currency with McChickens. For example, if we bought a Frappuccino, we would be spending around $5 on an overrated drink. It's selfishness if you think about it. I could be buying 5 McChickens at the dollar menu and made 5 people happy. I could have been at downtown Detroit and made 5 friends who desperately needed the sandwich. Well, a couple weeks later, I found out that my co-worker broke up with her boyfriend. She was feeling depressed so she decided to go out and spend $200 on going out and getting drunk off her face. I said to myself, "Why would you spend $200 on a glorified hangover? I can just punch you in the face for free and it would feel just the same.."
Soon, a thought came to my head. Two-hundred dollars equal 200 McChickens! If I save up 200 McChickens, I can make 200 new friends in downtown Detroit around Christmas time!
I was too excited. I couldn't wait til Christmas to hand out a sandwich. If I let 5 weeks pass by, a person could be dead by starvation by then. I proposed a plan with my friends and decided to challenge them on a McChicken War. Basically, we would have a friendly competition of handing out McChickens to as many people as we can. We started it this week and so far it has been good. I decided to go to McDonald's and buy 5 McChickens this week..2 for me, 1 for my brother, and one for my neighbor. I went to the drive-thru and also decided to pay for the person's meal behind me. It was 2 random acts of kindness that will make anyone's day.
So. I challenge you guys to do the same thing. Please help #MissionMcChicken (trending topic at twitter--follow me! @eliezersagansay) become international in less than a week! I would love to see you post up some photos/videos/statuses reaching out to people. Remember, the lad in the Bible gave Jesus 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread and He turned it into a life changing miracle. If we can spend $20 (pounds) on McChickens, that's like 4O BREADS AND 20 CHICKENS that God can use to bring glory to Himself. God can use a McChicken to be a bridge to a new relationship. :-

“TATAY BOSI”

02- 15- 11 MI DAILY DEVOTION (John 14:1- 6)
“TATAY BOSI”
1- “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2- In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3- And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4- And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5- Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6- Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
“Tatay” is the tagalog word for “father”, “dad” or “papa”. He is commonly known as “Tatay Bosi” or “Tatay Pedro or Pete”. He is not as popular as Billy Graham or he is not as popular as Dr. Gavino S. Tica but he is the man. He was used by the Lord in a very special way. He has no PHD or Bachelor degree, but he made it in life and he had accomplished what others were not able to do so in spite of their money, degrees and resources in life. He did not start a church or pastor a church, but he is surrounded by pastors and Christian workers in their family circle. Tatay Bosi is from Tuguegarao, Philippines who was raised in a very poor family. Tatay shared to me few years ago that he was an orphan. He grew up not knowing his parents, but tatay is not like some of those kids you know who became a problem in the community. He is not a highly intellectual person, but he knew what he was doing and he is smart. Actually, Tatay Bosi is a World War II veteran. He fought for our freedom and he gave his life for us so we can enjoy the freedom that we have right now in the Philippines and the United States of America. Tatay Bosi raised his children from the Province of Cagayan Valley in Luzon, Philippines. Some of his children, grand children and great grand children are pastors or pastor’s wife, leaders or deacons or Christian workers. Tatay is now living in the United States of America with his wife and some of his children. Some of Tatay’s children, grand children and great grand children are in Canada or at least overseas. I remember Tatay shared to me in the nineties that he would be happy if he would die in his seventies. I said, “Tatay, God can give you more than that and you can even ask Him to give you life ‘til you reach a hundred years old.” And Tatay said, “I don’t want to live that long…” I said, “How about 87 or 97?” He said, “I want to die before I lost my eyesight, or the word that he used was “useless” in tagalong “inutil”. Tatay is a very positive person except for that day when he shared to me that it would not be good for him to live long and be a burden to his family. Tatay is in his eighties and he loves to cook, loves gardening and cut the grass, clean up the church and the surroundings, and he loves to call me and ask me to drive him to the store or the Salvation Army. Last week Tatay said, “I can’t go out right now because it’s snowing hard and I’m looking forward of sitting next to you Pastor (Ely) and drive me to the Thrift Store. Tatay is very weak because he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Today it’s Tatay Bosi’s birthday and the churches and the brethren from around Michigan and Windsor, Canada have joined hand together for a special tribute to him. This is a tribute to an unknown or unsung hero; who made a difference through his life and the life of his children and grand kids. His name is Tatay Pedro Bosi of Dearborn, Michigan. God Bless you and you are special to my family (The Sagansay family) and my church. Happy Birthday!!!
(Titus 2:13) “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14- Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. ”

DOES FAITH AND SUFFERING COME TOGETHER?

02- 14- 11 MI DAILY DEVOTION (Hebrews 11:31- 40)
DOES FAITH AND SUFFERING COME TOGETHER?
31- “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. 32- And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 33- Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34- Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35- Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 36- And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37- They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, 38- (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39- And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40- God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
Does faith and suffering come together? Are they siblings or husband and wife? It’s interesting that when an individual come to Christ by faith for salvation, after that comes the trials and sufferings. Here in our text, we can see how these people were able to go through suffering and pain while at the same time exercising their faith in God. I call them the conquerors and the over comer. They conquered and were able to overcome all kinds of hurdles, persecution and suffering for the sake of Christ. They went through a lot and it was something that some of the Christians of this present time could not even stand and may not even go through. It’s very unfortunate that we all have faith but we don’t stand for God in times of suffering. As believers, your faith and suffering means success and blessings especially if you endure the tribulation by the grace of God. During the times of the prophets and the Old Testament Christians; the swords, the fire, the lions and the mocking and the stones are part of their being the servants of God. (Philippians 1:28- 30) 28- “And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. 29- For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; 30- Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.”

WHERE HAVE ALL THE HEROES GONE?

MI DAILY DEVOTION (Hebrews 11:1; 39- 40)
WHERE HAVE ALL THE HEROES GONE?
1- “For by it the elders obtained a good report. 39- And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40- God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
I’ve taken this phrase from John C. Maxwell book “Think on These Things”. “Where have all the heroes gone?” It’s very true and relevant question for all of us. Our young people and children look at some of the Hollywood stars as their heroes and role model. It’s so obvious that some of the Hollywood stars are not concern about moral values, don’t believe in God and others don’t even exercise religion. Some of those who are so called stars in the Hollywood would even practice same sex marriage or supports the idea of same sex marriage. But our youth look at them as their heroes and role model. They copy and even live up to the words of these people. In the spiritual or religious realm, we have the same things going on right now both in churches and religious organizations. I remember when I was in a Bible College where the President of the said institution was being modeled by many students. They copied the way he preached, his preaching and his mannerism and even his life and personality. I like and love him but I’m a different person with different personality, so when I was learning and growing as a minister I said to myself; “I’m not going to do other students are doing, I want to be different…” I’m not Dr. Gavino S. Tica and I will be different. Our heroes should be the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophets and the Lord’s disciples who lived up to the standard of the Word of God and who was an example of His love and passion. As Christians, we should follow the Lord and follow the example of the pastors and man of God who lives and love the Lord and His Word. We are vulnerable to sin, temptation and even failures and mistakes, but we can be different. We good and great athletes like Manny Pacquiao or Michael Jordan. We have great singers in the secular world and best and talented singers in the spiritual world like Scott Wesley Brown, Steve Green or Amy Grant and others who lived up the Word of God. I have some of my friends on Facebook that are my heroes as Christian singers and talented individual. So the question would be, “Where have all the heroes gone?” (I Peter 1:14- 16) 14- “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15- But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16- Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”