Pre-Boarding – August 17, 2023 (218/365)

August 17, 2023
4:25AM

Currently in NAIA Terminal 2, Gate 2. Our plane for General Santos leaves in approximately 2 hours from now. Or we board in approximately 2 hours from now, at least. We’re all here, save for one last man who said he’d come and see us here at the airport directly. Last we heard of him, he said he was still on his way.

Well, he has approximately 2 hours from now.

I lack sleep, and my tummy is unnecessarily stuffed from an mandatory Subway sandwich on our last stop on the drive from Baguio straight to the terminal. I’m watching as my phone is getting juice from a community charging station. I had the opportunity to use this laptop and connect to airport wifi, but I’ve learned that’s the last thing I wanted to do. My attempts to avoid being directly connected to an unsecured wifi network were thwarted by the browser login page – seems there’s a little more to it than just trying to open it through a virtual machine. And that’s the reason why, right now I’m just typing whatever comes into mind through here in Notepad.

I’m told that the flight is going to last just around an hour or two. I still insisted on a window seat.

Yesterday evening we pushed through with our prayer meeting, even if it was going to be a little bit of a hassle. It was still a good time with my group, especially since in our discussion, we decided to encourage each other from the book of Ephesians:

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:15-23

First thing that comes to mind as we go through this particular set of scripture is the revelation that any faith that is established in us through Christ and His finished work automatically enables us to love one another in the body, saints loving each other as Christ loves them. This in itself would cause anyone among us – apostles, or not – to give thanks to God and to give glory to His name, for the love we receive from one another.

Seeing as I was going to be travelling, and this was going to be one of the very few times I would be leaving my church ministry for others to handle, I thought it proper for me to pray for them according to how Paul so eloquently put it – starting with praying that they would appreciate the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that they have through their knowledge of Christ and His finished work. Let it not be said that only the pastors receive such a spirit, for this divine wisdom and this supernatural revelation is made available to all who have come to receive the knowledge of Christ and His finished work.

I remember telling them that, indeed, as they enjoy said revelation and wisdom, their eyes would be opened to the divine providence that they receive only through Christ – that they would see blessings as only God, through Christ, would give them, and in the process, they would truly realize the absolute greatness – the infinite superiority of our Creator.

It’s as if the wisdom and revelation that we received through Christ as that moment we enjoyed each other in fellowship tells us: We realize how God is good and great through the blessings we receive, and we realize the blessings we receive through our immersing in the truth of God’s goodness and greatness.

Indeed, as I go forth in a little more than an hour from now, I pray and I declare: As this week continues and concludes, may any and all who come into remembrance, and may any and all who stumble upon this poorly assembled set of words, that we who call ourselves part of the body of Christ do not merely have a belief system or a mindset, but an actual and absolute reconciliation – a full and irrevokable restoration, an inseparable relationship with the Creator of the universe… and the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, this Holy Spirit is the guarantee of such salvation and reconciliation. As we continue to realize how blessed we are, we not only realize for ourselves, but project unto the world and all those who see us that the God we have is THE God of gods, who is as good as He is infinitely great.

On the flip side, as we continue to realize how our God is absolutely great and definitely good, we also see how, even if all is taken away from us in this reality, we continue to be blessed, and not necessarily with what the world calls blessings, but those as defined by Christ.

This marks the end of this set of a thousand words, but I imagine as I will have a little more time for myself in what I’m calling durian land, I will also try to record what else has been going on prior to these travels – well, for clarity and for posterity’s sake.

Until the next post, God bless you.