TO THE GRADUATES

Human life is a journey. It is much like sailing in a ship towards a desired destination in the four winds of the earth. Earning an education is a vital cog in the voyage. Momentarily we are making a stopover to celebrate a turning point  in our lives. Amidst the scorching heat of the sun and the breezing rain, we made it triumphantly.

Life does not end at this remarkable accomplishment, though... Not at the unsealable euphoria of the victory in academic pursuit. At the moment, it is apparent we are headed towards a new infinity. What awaits us on our next sojourn remains to be a conjecture.

(USM AB Psychology graduates class 1998-2002)

Like millions of people in this sea of humanity, we stand on the verge of an overwhelming turnaround sailing towards an uncertain horizon. We are challenged by the anticipated pressures of the new age. It is now a question of how we choose to live with the basics -earth, economics, energy and ethics.

Life poses a more complex form of destination. We are now moving IN A NEW DIRECTION. Yes, there are more tasks ahead... More unknown voyages... But come hell or high water, we should not be caught flat-footed. Our best tool in coping with them, developmental or otherwise, remains to be our education.

The moment we judiciously use the good seed of knowledge sown in us, a new light will surely spark the brighter side of life.

To chronicle the journey of that light rests in us.....because....in essence WE ARE THE CAPTAINS OF OUR OWN SHIPS

excerpt: USM-Tanglaw, 2002

THOUGHTS ON ABORTION

During college days, our class was divided to groups in order to research about abortion since this topic was one of the hottest issues that teenagers were facing even before. The groups were divided in two to stand for ANTI-ABORTION and PRO-ABORTION. We had draw lots so we can not choose our own preference. And unfortunately, we needed to represent Pro-Abortion side. As a Roman Catholic, i really did not have the appetite to defend the topic since it was against my principles in life. However, to comply to academic requirements, i needed to make a stand about Pro-ABORTION. As much as i did not want to write the pros of abortion but i needed to do so because i was tasked. I needed to pretend. So let's check the other side of the coin. Let's check on my thoughts below.

ABORTION IS NOT ANTI-LIFE, IT IS LIFE

         Life is a choice and choice is an act. It is not what people say but what we do. The choices we made now affects the rest of our lives. Individual is a person best qualified to define and create his/her destiny. Within the context of individual stand on abortion, which is the constant debate for years, women should not be forced to bear children when they are not yet prepared to be mothers or parents to carry the burden when they truly unable to support their children. Having abortion outlawed means preventing many women to achieve their maximum potentials, denied them their rights and liberty that they've known for centuries – the right to choose what is best for them. Abortion is an important choice that calls for serious consideration.

          When women denied of abortions that they seek because of religious convictions or simply abortions are against the rules of social convention, these set up a standard that clearly favors one resolution over another, restricts the reproductive choices of women, and forces some to bear children that they don't want to bear. Abortion rather than bear a child. Teenagers with unplanned pregnancy face difficult choices. If the teen gives birth and keep the baby, she will be much more likely to drop out of school, develop health problems, or have her marriage end in divorce. Unintended or unwanted childbearing have been linked with variety of social problems, including divorce, poverty, child abuse and juvenile delinquency. Some research shows that the ability of women to make decisions about their own childbearing (e.g., timing) is a necessary condition for their health and mental health, as well as for their families. Abortion is a safe medical procedure that carries relatively few physical and psychological risks and that yields positive outcomes when the alternative is unwanted pregnancy.

          Individuals are basically good, striving for growth and self actualization. Resorting to abortion doesn't mean resorting to the most inhumane act. It is a solution, a choice in which our beliefs, actions, emotions, hopes and aspirations underlies. Again, life is a choice. It is not selfish to know what is right for oneself, we all come to reality in our own time. Actions you take now are forever. Abortion is not anti-life. Abortion is pro-life, a choice, a decision and that is life.

Apollo Quiboloy--Annointed Son-of-God Truth or Sarcasm? by ED Rosario

Why it is that you prefer an active volcano than a mountain to erect your kingdom? Did it not occur to you the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo overlooking Pampanga and Zambales? In case of an eruption, your efforts shall all be in vain and have to start from zero. The wise man built his house upon a rock, as quoted in the scriptures. You should have choosen PC hill in Cotabato City. However we pray that may God forbids. It is very dangerous to claim by merely revelations that you are the Christ. Why beating around the bush by ascribing the word with "appointed" or "annointed"? The insinuation of what you are saying is that you are the Messaiah of the present world. It may be the accomplishment of the prediction in the scriptures that a false Christ will situate himself on the Earth and claim to be the Son of God. That's exactly what you are telling. 

To be able to attract  a lot of people, you use the biblical truth" to obey the will of the father, Not my will but your will" And since man can either be a spiritual open or close stack system, so i wonder who was that spirit who possessed you and incorporated in you a devised method of biblical instruction. The devil can be an angel of light. He knows what is written in the scriptures more than Eli Soriano, more than any living creature. Notice that during the temptation of our Lord Jesus, Satan quoted a verse from Isaiah. But the Lord himself, knowing everything and is under control, drive the devil out.  He may quote a biblical truth as a bait, or something that would catch attention. And the most vulnerable prey are the people whose integration are not well-founded, people who were former believers of the same cult belief. Is it really the will of the father that a single man will claim to be the Son of God. Therefore, in like manner you are telling that your leader must be worshiped. If you said NO it would be contrary to what your leader is telling that the  wholeness of Being of the father and son is within him. What about the Holy Spirit? You do not seem to mention that He dwells within you. For I believe, nowadays are the dispensation of the Holy Spirit; He is at work. He convicts every man. No human intervention can replace the transforming power of God's healing love. 

When I watch and listen the man Apollo on the air, like Eli Soriano said, I can't help but laugh at the stupidity of your doctrine. It is a mixture of Biblical truth and deceit. Why is that so? It is biblical to obey the will of the father .The will of the father is really to restore the relationship between God and man. Sin came into the world when the first couple disobeyed. What you call the serpent seed, we call the carnal nature. This is the tendency of man to commit sin from within himself, with or without the influence of Satan and his evil spirits. As soon as disobedience was committed so the carnal nature dwells within the structure of Adam and Eve. Hence, their offspring up to the present generation bore that carnal nature as if a hereditary illness been transferred from one biological object to another. When a baby is born, he already has that acquired sinful nature. The carnal nature itself is not a sin. It should be distinguished from sin, that it is the tendency to commit sin. Sin therefore is the willful, or conscious violation of God's law. And God's law has sanctions or penalty for sin. As an example, if the baby dies before he came to understand what is good and evil, the carnal nature within him is not a barrier to enter the Kingdom of God. Because he has not yet committed sin. 

The journey begins as soon as a sinner or a lukewarm or a backslider hears the word of God. It doesn't matter where or when, but it matters on" how" It is a work of God, through the holy spirit to convict a sinner. Since we already heard that Jesus Christ, God himself became flesh, died a ransom for many, and rose from the dead to justify the decree of eternal death, that you and me and anyone was vetoed or paroled from eternal death. But its a tragic note to end on that. The good news now is that He is now the way to eternal life. As the sinner acknowledges, he has violated God's commandment, he will experience a deep sorrow, it is a stage called crisis experience. Next, the sinner feels emptiness that without which he would die, a thirst of righteousness. He now asks God to forgive all sins, from d past to d present. This is done by faith for this time is also the time of faith. That is hoping for the evidence of things NOT SEEN. It has to be done in a sincere prayer of asking forgiveness. No doubt the Lord will answer that prayer. The Bible says for every penitent sinner that repents the whole angelic hosts in heaven rejoices. That prayer is claiming the word of God as he promised accompanied by a vow to live a new life. Salvation is a gift of God by grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a divine influence when a person wants to live a new life. He cannot simply use his freedom of choice. It has to go with a divine guidance and grace that will empower him against temptations. The carnal nature, the serpent seed remains. The tendency to commit sin remains after the erasure of your sins in the record of god. Right after claiming that forgiveness, you begin a new life: a prayerful life, reading the Bible, learning the doctrine through a PROPERLY SOUND biblical interpretation by divinely inspired scholars and are accepted as Spirit or Godly inspired interpretations of summary of God's word; and everything that the commandment of God requires. This is our belief of which the witness is the Holy spirit and ourselves.

A renewed person's model is God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Personally, I cannot be convinced that the Lord dwells in you otherwise a strange spirit possessed you. I noticed when you stumble to John 14:6 and speak on your own the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, "I am the way the Truth and the Life, no one cometh unto the Father but by me" you have no sincerity---it was aided with a "ngising aso" (smirk) and I’m glad by that external gesture the Holy spirit gave me a premonition that the authority you have to tell that did not came from God. You may be deceived by the serpent you are trying to attack. He's going to play football with you unless you are not conscious of a grand design with a bottom line of trading the Gospel on and for the benefit of your generations and ascendants. But if you are, then the living God is an all knowing God who can give justice to every act and deed whether under the sea, on the ground, or in the air. Nothing is concealed in His devastating scrutiny.

This is just my observation. Sabi nga nila "diskarte nya yan, wag mong paki alaman. Hayaan mong mabisto" (According to them, its just his strategy, do not mind it, so he will not be caught).  I am not attacking you as a person, nothing personal but the doctrine you are putting in the minds of many is a great threat to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.