more shameless plugging, I suppose

I'm not going to post any contact numbers explicitly here, because I just got spammed & I hate it. I suggest you'd go easy on your contact information as well, so again, let me direct you to Facebook.

& please e-mail me for inquiries here. It'll be safer for everyone to leave important information like mobile phone numbers & other contact information in that channel. I'd like to thank everyone new, though, whom I've met & already for this year!

Anyway, I've really been busy, & I'm thinking of getting into flower arrangement again, but this time as in SERIOUSLY, haha, no thanks to this book. 5-minute florist, I will become! HAHA. Remember how I'm also musing on learning how to make scented candles? I should be ready just in time for All Saints' Day then. NOT. Hehe. But I really want to get into those, for my own amusement, & to add a really personal touch to my offerings for my late father & youngest sister. Wish me luck.

I've also fallen in love with The Message//Remix - The Bible in Contemporary Language by Eugene H. Peterson. I'd like to thank our communications coach Gayle for lending it to me for a full week. I was thinking of wallowing alone last weekend, but thank God I didn't! It's a rather fun read, actually, & I just flipped through Zechariah (8:14-17) & here's what caught my attention tonight:

"Don't be afraid. And now here's what I want you to do. Tell the truth, the whole truth when you speak. Do the right thing by one another, both personally and in the courts. Don't cook up plans to take unfair advantage of others. Don't do or say what isn't so. I hate all that stuff. Keep your lives simple and honest."

Awww. Haha, bibliomancy, here we go!

I love this blurb describing this particular fare:

Have you ever leafed through a Bible and thought, It's got to be easier than this!

It is easier — lots easier — to understand. After all, if anyone knows how to communicate with you clearly, and wants to, it's God. That's why the Bible was originally written in everyday language — so everyone who read it could instantly grasp its meaning. And that's why this Bible was created — to make God's message once again instantly understandable.

Created by Eugene Peterson for today's reader, The Message reads as if God were sitting across from you, talking with you over a cup of coffee. And the REMIX restores verse references to The Message so you can quickly relate the place you’re reading to other Bibles if you want to.

I wonder if the revised //Remix (v. 2.0) will be more readable. :D I've been interested in modern Bibles, especially after learning more about the New Testament available in glossy pages in the Stephen Colbert show. & now, look what I found! The Holy Bible, courtesy of Lego! HAHA, so cute! I'm getting a kick out of reading my most favorite book there (the Book of Revelations, what else? HAHA — check out the Dragon!) now. Talk about getting a clearer picture! :))



But this what I actually liked about The Message//Remix... from Galatians 5:19-26...

"It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental & emotional garbage; frenzied & joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes & divided lives; small-minded & lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled & uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

"But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard — things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, & a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things & people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal & direct our energies wisely.

"Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better & another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original."

Now THAT blew me away. But I only got to take note of this verse now within that excerpt: "Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way & mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good — crucified." I hate how the Bible has to be scary like that. Actually, with the help of The Brick Testament, I've just re-realized how it's the most violent book to date. If not for the Gospels in church during Mass, I'd be dreading this book all over again. But I'm perfectly OK with that Galatians passage. Now I oughta find my New International Version that I've been using since college that I got from my mother (she's not really using it anyway) to compare notes. It's funny how that passage has eluded me all along. For me, it's an in-your-face depiction of how egocentric (ergo, chaotic) this world already is, & we really should rise above it all to be at peace in God's grace.

I know, easier said than done to live for inheriting the Kingdom of God someday. Just don't talk to me about hell, as I believe in what Dante of The Divine Comedy had said how hell is here in the very world which we inhabit, hehe, & I've had enough of it to last me my entire lifetime, really. Sakto I might be going to church this Tuesday, hehe. Oh, well. I need to clear my head.