By. Dr. Gold

LIFE’s ENDURING QUESTIONS

Is there a God? Why did God put so many stars in the sky? Why is the universe so vast? Why are we here on earth? What is the meaning and purpose to our life? Is it just to live for just a very short while, and then to die? Is death the end of our life or is there a life after death? Is there such a thing as a heaven and a hell? Where do you plan on spending eternity, and with whom? What is God’s ultimate plan and purpose for us? What is ‘..the eternal purpose which God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord’ Ep3:11?

For every believer in Jesus Christ, life is all about God, what He wants to do in our lives. Is64:8 states that God is the Potter and we are his clay. God has a perfect plan for us, but we must each learn what it is for ourselves. If not, we will come short of God’s glory Ro3:23, and His inheritance for us! God wants to transform us into His own image. 2Co5:17 tells ‘..if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’. 

Life is all about God. It is about God’s great plan and purpose for us before the world began; why we are here on earth; about what Jesus has done for us, and what God is doing today; about things that must happen before Jesus returns, and about His soon coming kingdom on earth. 1Co2:9,10 state ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit..’. Unless we understand, desire, and pursue what God has prepared for those that love Him, we will not receive the great reward and inheritance that He has for us.  This paper will look at God’s eternal purpose and how it is tied in with the sons and daughters that God so desires to have ‘according to the good pleasure of His will’ Ep1:4,5. The apostle Paul, whom God gave the revelation of Sonship, wrote ‘I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus‘ Php3:14. This is the Sonship Message- the high calling of God, to be a son or daughter of God like Jesus Christ!

Life on the High Seas- the Miracle in Manila Bay: Missionary Dr. Gigi Valencia Story

In 2005 while visiting and speaking at a church in Calasiao, Philippines, I heard this very stirring testimony. Facing certain death, Filipino missionary Gigi Valencia pled with God to save her, reminding Him about her many sacrifices to serve Him. Gigi asked ‘God, is this how it is going to end?’ On Feb 27, 2004, somewhere in the vast Manila Bay after midnight, Drs. Ed and Gigi Valencia were on board a huge 12-story Super Ferry, with 23 boxes of medical supplies, equipment, and all their life’s possessions, heading south for Mindanao, the 2^nd largest of over 7000 islands in the Philippines archipelago, to do medical mission for the needy in Lanao Del Sur. A planted Abu Sayyaf terrorist bomb exploded causing the huge ship to begin sinking. Separated from her medical doctor husband and two little daughters, Dr. Gigi called upon God for help. Losing her glasses, she could hardly see. She reminded the Lord how she left her $200 per day dental practice to do medical mission for the 700 Club Operations Blessing in Thailand. The Lord said ‘Gigi, life is not about you, but about Me’.

After jumping into the bay from a height of about 50 feet, Gigi was miraculously saved by a rescue boat. Her husband Dr. Ed, with two little girls in tow all with life vests on, could not jump into the ocean. Then Ed saw a strange man dressed in blue with a flashlight beckoning, ‘there is another way out- follow the light’. Dr. Ed and girls found themselves safely on the lower deck where they were able to disembark the sinking ship. Dr. Ed did not recall going through any doors or down any stairs, but rescuers helped him, his daughters, and their two young nannies off the ship. Of the 899 people on board, 116 died that day in this major Manila Bay terrorism incident. Photos and stories of Gigi, Ed, and daughters were plastered on the front pages of the major Manila newspapers, testifying of God’s mercy, power and love. Life is not about us, but it is all about God!

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Categories: Bible Prophecy

Tags: Abu Sayyaf, Christ, Gigi, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Manila Bay, Philippines