Bro. Eddie C. Villanueva
Salutations to all Filipinos and, also, to all Philippine-loving people!
I have always been a fighter. When capitalist owners tried to suppress the rights of labor workers, I fought. When hospital administrators refused to admit a gravely wounded patient, I fought. When notorious syndicates attempted to grab various lands in my province, I fought.
I have always fought, but I have not always won. I can still vividly remember that instance with the land-grabbing syndicates: I even sent letters to the highest person in the land, the president himself, but my efforts then seemed to fall on deaf ears and blind eyes.
Well, until I asked the help of someone higher: the all-powerful ruler and owner of things in heaven and on earth, THE LIVING GOD.
What took me months of painstaking effort, God did in only five days! This is simply because He is “far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” (Ephesians 1:21, NKJV)
Brothers and sisters, this is the God we serve. Everything is under His sovereign control. Just look at how He masterfully created the eight planets, aligning them with such precision that any collision would not be possible; or how He powerfully defeated Satan, taking away the sting of death when He resurrected from the dead.
And so, just as He could perfectly arrange the planets and the entire universe and just as He could easily kill death, we could all be assured that He could also put together the broken and disordered pieces of our lives and, even, of our beloved nation.
You see, our country has been stricken and battered here and there—from the first and second world wars to the Martial Law in 1972, from Pinatubo eruption in 1991 to Ozone Disco fire in 1996, from Smokey Mountain landslide in 2000 to Typhoon Milenyo in 2006, and from Bohol earthquake in 2013 to the many other problems that beset us throughout history.
Add to that persisting problems such as the intolerable Metro Manila traffic congestion, rampant crime and corruption, and the surplus of jobless, homeless, and penniless, among many others, and we can really say that the Philippines has gone through countless difficult times.
While we should do our part in becoming responsible, law-abiding, and nation-loving citizens, the hope of our nation ultimately and primarily lies in GOD. Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” (NIV)
This means that, as I myself have experienced, we can exhaust ourselves rallying in the streets or involving in philanthropy and charity, and yet those will not be enough—until God is given the rightful authority in all the eight pillars of our society, namely: church and family, government, business and economics, education, science and technology, media and entertainment, arts, and environment.
Therefore, my fellow kababayans, if we want our dear country to win, let the prayer of your hearts be this: that God would rule and reign over each of the 7,107 islands and, even, in each of the 104,280,890 people of the Philippines.
Jesus is Lord over the Philippines!