The Kerygmatic Life
by Pinky Peregrin
When I first attended an SM area prayer meeting (prayer meeting joined by students from different schools in Sta. Mesa and Mandaluyong), our speaker was the great Rohel Plata, CYA former national director. He talked about a love called kerygmatic love (kerygma is a Greek word which means "proclamation of the gospel"). He defined it as a love that proclaims the gospel; this is shown in the way we relate with God and with one another. When we relate to God, He wants us to be ourselves. When we enter His holy presence, two things should happen: we should experience Him, and He should experience us. When we pray, He wants us to speak to Him the way we speak to a friend. God wants us to use our speech not only in talking to people but most especially in talking to Him. In a Christian program in TV, I heard the preacher said, "Prayer is the highest gift we use to which speech can be put." The Lord wants us to be active, natural and easy in relating with Him especially in prayer. One way of doing t his is by praying vocally especially when we are in a prayer meeting. Vocal prayer helps us to focus more on the Lord. This kind of prayer allows us to talk to Him as a friend and as a father who is with us. God wants us to tell Him everything about ourselves. God is our father who always wants to listen to whatever we want to say to Him. He wants to hear our stories, our victories and difficulties our joys and sorrows, our secrets, our anger, our confession, our questions in life, our kilig, even our jokes and kababawan. One of the things that helped me to be so at ease with God whenever I talked to Him is telling Him jokes. If other people enjoy my humor, I believe that God also wants to enjoy this humor that He has given me. In one of my prayer time in our Women Staff Team building last year, I remember asking God to show His face to me. Then I lied on the ground looking at th sky. I noticed the clouds forming to circles of almost the same side. And I said to God, "Lord, is that your n ose? Ang laki pala ng butas ng ilong mo. Now I believed that you are really a BIG God." I felt that God laughed at my joke. I also felt that God enjoyed our time together because I was able to relate to Him freely and naturally. Our God is someone who also enjoy the good things that we enjoy.
God also want us to use our body to worship Him. Raising our hands, clapping, dancing, doing sign language, and other gestures that use in prayer are expression of praise and worship to Him. This has been the practice of many people since the Old Testament time to express worship to God. 2 Samuel 6:5 describes that David and all the Israelites were dancing and singing with all their might to honor the Lord. David was not ashamed of what he was doing even though his wife was disgusted when she saw him. Some of us may feel awkward in doing things maybe because we're thinking of what people would say when they see us. But remember that we are doing this to give due honor and worship to the King of kings and Lord of lords. If we are not ashamed to let other people know that we love God, then we should not also be ashamed to let them know how we expresses our love to Him. If we are able to enjoy our time with God in prayer, he will also enjoy His time with us.
Our relationship with one another is another expression of our love for the Lord. 1 Timothy 5:1-2 says, "do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father, to younger man as a brother, to older woman as mother, to younger women as sisters- with absolute purity." This is how we are to relate to one another, as brothers and sisters. There are three areas that this passage talks about. First is the area of speech. The passage says that don't speak harshly to others but to speak to them with respect. God gave us the gift of speech to build up his body and not to destroy it. Positive and up-building speech is what we want to promote especially to the youth. It is not only pleasing to hear it but it also pleases and glorify God.
Secondly, the passage tells us to show respect and care for one another, to older people like our Action Group leader, service council, staffer, teachers and parents. We are to show respect to them by submitting to them, obeying them, respecting their decisions they make. To younger people, to show our love and caring them: helping them in their studies and services, welcoming them in our meetings, taking initiative to greet them, sitting beside them during prayer meetings, prayer for their concerns, etc.
The third thing that the passage says is that we relate to one another as brothers and sisters absolute purity. We should be natural in relating with each other. We don't need to pretend to be someone else for other people to accept us. At this stage of our life, we should not look at one another as potential boyfriend or girlfriend. We should not also be choosy and exclusive. Our father wants to build good and strong relationship with ALL our brothers and sisters. We proclaim the gospel through life we live out because it is the first Bible that people around us will read. We may not realize it but many people around us are affected by our way of life.
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Site Update
August 20, 2001
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Birthday Corner
August 2
Rose Parel
August 9
Adrian Albano
August 13
Fred Lachica
August 14
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August 19
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August 24
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Mah-ann Perez
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