FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


ESSENCE OF FREEDOM: BEING RIGHT WITH GOD


Consider yourself driving along a busy five-lane expressway. You enjoy freedom of transportation as long as you obey the prescribed traffic laws all designed to promote safety of the motorists. You definitely shall reach your destination in complete liberty of the road.

Once you violate the laws by swerving from one lane to another without using your signal lights, you deny yourself freedom to use the road safely in order to go where you want to go.

You are no longer free because the other car hit you hard and disabled you to drive to your destination. You also deny the freedom of the other motorist. For that violation, you deserve the right punishment.

This, I believe, is the essence of freedom or the “perfect law of liberty.”

Freedom, therefore, is always governed by law or principle. Without such, there is no liberty.

Freedom is not to do what you want to do to satisfy your foolish self.

Freedom is to think, act, or move subject to governing laws designed to enforce what is right and proper for the benefit of everybody, not for one person or a group of persons.

As long as our planet Earth and other heavenly bodies in the universe follow their paths or orbits subject to the gravitational forces of the outer space under the control of God, our world still exists.

As long as laws are being respected among all peoples and among all nations in this world, life in this world continues to exist.

As long as one’s blood is free to flow normally subject to biologically laws and principles along his or her veins and arteries, one’s life is maintained.

In short, any violation or deviation of the essence of freedom according to God’s design is violated, death comes in.

The essence of freedom, indeed, is to be right with God who created everything.

End

FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


“THE LORD GAVE, THE LORD TAKETH AWAY, BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD”


Calamity and death struck again! This time the victim is Haiti, an island nation in the backyard of America.


The worst earthquake in 200 years with a magnitude of 7.0 followed by twelve aftershocks with a magnitude more than 5 hit the Caribbean city of Porto au Prince, in Haiti in the morning of January 12th. It is predicted that about half a million people died and about 3 million is feared injured or missing.

When the killer floods and typhoons hit the Philippines in October of last year, I referred my readers to the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible authored by King Solomon, the wisest king of all times. He said “no man knows when his hour will come as fish are caught in a cruel net and birds are ken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly on them.” In other words, our life here in this world is governed by time and chance according to God’s timing.

As mere creations, can we question God the Creator for all these unfortunate events? No way.

In the Book of Job in the Old Testament considered by theologists and religious scholars as the most profound book in the Bible, Satan requested permission from God to test the faith of Job, a man endowed by God with wealth and other material things. He challenged God that without his prosperous life, Job would rebel against his Creator.

Satan destroyed all of Job’s possessions and later took away his seven sons and three daughters. Job remained steadfast in his faith. God again allowed Satan to hit Job’s physical body without killing him to test his faith. So Satan caused painful boils to cover Job’s body that even his wife urged him to curse God. He refused even to repent from his sins as suggested by his friends because he believed that he has never sinned against God.

However, Job felt without questioning God’s justice that his sufferings are not justified because he has not wronged the Creator. In this instance, God spoke in a divine voice like coming from a cloud or whirlwind that God is the Creator of all things including men and Job has not experienced of being the Creator. God is saying that Job does not fully understand the reasons for his sufferings because as God says “where were you when I created the world”

The Book of Job teaches that God is God and He is free to do what He wants. What He wants from His creations is total faith without question.

Job passed the test of faith. Satan failed. God restored Job’s health and doubles his wealth; God also gave him back his seven sons and three daughters.

One thing God asked Job to do before his restoration is to pray for forgiveness for his friends who urged him to question God for his sufferings.

Moral lesson: The most POWERFUL weapon against evil things and events is PRAYER.

End

FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


LOVE IS ETERNAL!

After an unfortunate car accident, reporters found a young baby alive under the dead body of the mother. That is a good example of a mother’s love.

At a very heated incident of a man held hostage by a group of kidnappers, the man’s brother offered himself to take his place before negotiations with the police would start. So he took his brother’s place as the hostage. When negotiations failed and police decided to rush the kidnappers, the man’s brother got killed in the shooting. That is a good example of a brother’s love.

A woman’s husband was about to be shot by a crazed killer when she lurched forward and took the bullet intended for her husband. That is a good example of a spousal love.

The element of sacrifice forms the core substance of love, the strongest emotion that a normal person has. Without sacrifice, there is no love.

A house was burning but the father jumped out of the door leaving his wife and children to die in the fire. That is a good example of a father without love.

A husband learned about his wife’s fatal disease. Instead of caring for his sick wife, he vanished into thin air. That is a good example of a husband without love.

In the Old Testament, Cain noticed of his brother Abel’s getting favors from God. He killed him. That is a good example of a brother without love.

We all say that God is Love. I believe that is very true. So many stories have been told that God has given His people ways to love one another as He loves them but they failed to see and feel it. That is why we still have wars and rumors of wars, murders and rumors of murders.

Who is God’s Sacrifice to show His love to the world? Didn’t He allow His Only Son, Jesus Christ, to live with us and to die on the cross crucified to save us from destruction?

Let us remember that Jesus’ story did not end on death at the cross. For Christians like me, we believe He resurrected from the dead on the third day, Easter Day, to show to the world that those who believe on Him shall not truly die but will live forever with God in Heaven.

Though Death is a sacrifice for the sake of love, eternal life is the reward, for Love is Eternal.