Monday, November 30, 2020
The 5 Critical Questions You Need Answers To
When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” Luke 15:17
When a youth lost his way and ended up having squandered the inheritance he had received from his father, he came to his senses and said, “I’m starving here; I’m going home to my father.” Jesus told the story. We call it the parable or the story of the lost son.
Frankly, nothing much really changes. There are thousands today who have lost their way, and when they hit the bottom they start asking, “How did I get here, anyway? And is there a way out of my distress?” They want to know if God is really there and how can they gain some purpose to life.
Frankly, if I were at that point in life, as perhaps you may be, there are some questions I would ask myself.
First, I would ask, “Who put the longing in my heart to know God?” The very thought tells me that I am not merely homo sapiens, an animal perhaps a bit more highly developed than most mammals, but a person. The Bible says I was created in the image of God. People from every culture which anthropologists have studied have believed in some kind of a god somewhere.
Question #2: I would ask, “Who created this beautiful world, anyway?” Anselm, an eleventh century Benedictine monk, argued strongly that one of the evidences for God–proof is too strong a word–is that the order and symmetry of our world demands a creator. A watch with its intricate mechanism bears witness that someone with intelligence put it together. Today even scientists who do not believe in God recognize the intelligent design of our world, a position that has a trail leading from it to the Creator Himself.
Question #3: I would ask myself, “Who gave me the intelligence and the emotions to reason, think, and love? The human body is an amazingly complex mechanism–the interface of the brain with your nervous system, the ability of your heart to sustain life, the composition of the blood which carries oxygen to your heart, and the complexity of your emotions which give vent to strong feelings and paint the landscape of life with vivid colors.
Question #4: The fourth question I would ask myself would be, “Is there an opposite to what I abhor in life?” Most people never ask the question involving opposites, yet it’s important to do so. Day is balanced by night; heat by cold, strength by weakness, and good by evil. While God often gets the blame for the evil, there has to be an opposite which accounts for the evil in our world.
Dr. C.E.M. Joad (1891-1953) headed the Department of Philosophy at Birbeck College, London. He was a psychologist, philosopher, and thinker. He was also an agnostic. Following the end of World War 2, Joad entered some of the concentration camps of Europe, and what he saw was abhorrent beyond description. He could not believe that anyone would treat his fellowman as the Nazis treated the Jews. He began thinking that this horrible evil which he saw in humankind had to have an opposite. He reasoned that there must be a God who stands in opposition to all that he saw, and he set out to find Him. He did, embracing Jesus Christ as God’s Son.
Finally, I would ask myself, “Who is this Jesus Christ?” John says that God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son to be the Savior of the world. I would want to know, “Was He God?” and if so, “Did He die for my sins and failure?”
The prodigal–the young man who had lost his way–came to his senses, and that’s what you, too, must do if you would find your way back home. God gave you a brain. Use it. Think! You’re the only one who can do an about face and start walking towards home.
Resource reading: Luke 15:11-31
https://www.guidelines.org/devotional/the-5-critical-questions-you-need-answers-to/
Cotabato City formally joins Bangsamoro on Dec. 15
COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao, Philippines — This city will finally be turned over to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on Dec. 15, almost two years after the majority of its residents voted for inclusion in the autonomous region in a plebiscite, according to a BARMM official.
Naguib Sinarimbo, regional interior minister, said President Rodorigo Duterte had decided to follow what was agreed upon in Malacañang last year for a turnover despite an appeal from Cotabato Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi to postpone the event.
Cotabato, an independent city in Maguindanao province, used to belong to the Soccsksargen (Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos City) region.
Although it served as the seat of power of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the city was not part of the ARMM until it ratified the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which created the BARMM.
According to the Commission on Elections, 36,682 people voted for the BOL, or Republic Act No. 11054, in the plebiscite on Jan. 21, 2019, indicating their desire for the city’s inclusion in the BARMM, while 24,994 voted against it.
Sayadi, who campaigned for “No,” questioned the results of the plebiscite.
Keeping promise
The President made the decision to set the date of turnover during the fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Relations Body on Friday, said Sinarimbo, who is also the BARMM spokesperson.
The body is the mechanism mandated to resolve issues on intergovernmental relations between the national government and the newly created Bangsamoro.
“We thank President Duterte for keeping with the spirit of the discussion last year in Malacañang to carry out the BOL mandate and transfer the supervision of Cotabato City to the BARMM,” Sinarimbo said.
During the Dec. 15 ceremony, the Department of the Interior and Local Government in the city would also be turned over to the Ministry of Interior and Local Government, which Sinarimbo heads. INQ
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1366199/cotabato-city-formally-joins-bangsamoro-on-dec-15
Palawan plebiscite tentatively set for March 13
Shiela Mae Guno, designated plebiscite team leader by the provincial poll body and current Araceli election officer, also said in a live podcast they are looking at holding a single-day voting instead of a 2-day exercise already allowed by the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF).
The provincial COMELEC office has proposed a March 13 date for the holding of plebiscite on the law dividing Palawan into three smaller provinces. While the date is still subject to approval by the Commission en banc, a local poll body official said they have begun preparations for the exercise.
Shiela Mae Guno, designated plebiscite team leader by the provincial poll body and current Araceli election officer, also said in a live podcast they are looking at holding a single-day voting instead of a 2-day exercise already allowed by the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF).
“Actually, we have a tentative date, but it requires the approval of the commission en banc, which is March 13, but it is not yet final,” Guno said.
“Last October 28, the commission en banc approved a single-day voting for the plebiscite,” she added.
Guno said there will be about 400 clustered voter precincts with 200 voters per clustered precincts. She did not further elaborate further details on the planned clustering. She added that official guidelines for the plebiscite are still in the planning and preparation stage.
“We have not yet talked about how the Palawan plebiscite will be conducted. We are just coordinating with the provincial government of Palawan with regards the health protocols to be imposed, the possible buying of COVID-19 supplies for workers, and of course the possible addition of the budgetary requirements of the conduct of the Palawan plebiscite,” she added.
Guno is part of a six-person team composed of Palawan election officers tasked to supply data needed to prepare for the upcoming Palawan plebiscite in 2021.
“The Commission created the technical working group for the Palawan plebiscite. It is composed of the directors of the different departments of the commission. Our regional director Atty. Gloria Ramos-Petallo, and our provincial elections supervisor Atty. Urbano Arlando, created the Palawan plebiscite team, which is composed of six election officers coming from the proposed provinces – Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental, and Palawan del Sur – to assist the technical working group in providing data for the upcoming Palawan plebiscite,” she explained in the podcast.
The plebiscite was formerly set to occur in May 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis. In October, it was announced by the national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) that the plebiscite would be held in 2021.
The current administration has long pushed for the division of the province and has already been making moves to get local government officials to support the division. On Thursday, a Liga ng mga Barangay meeting was held at the Palawan Provincial Capitol where ex-officio Liga head and provincial board member Ferdinand Zaballa explained the possible benefits of dividing the province into three.
https://palawan-news.com/palawan-plebiscite-tentatively-set-for-march-13/