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Planetshakers Philippines Worship Events Featuring Planetboom This July

Welcome back, my fellow believers of Lord Jesus!

The Lord is blessing the Philippines again as Planetshakers will return this coming July with new worship events featuring Planetboom.

In its official announcement via social media, Planetshakers Live In Manila Featuring Planetboom will be held at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on the evenings of July 17 to 19, 2026. Tickets for the worship events will become available on March 26 via SM Tickets. For the official layout and ticket prices, look closely at the image below.

The upcoming Planetshakers worship events featuring Planetboom here in the Philippines are opportunities for people to worship the Lord and deepen their faith in Him. You can also honor Him, thank Him and connect with Him as Planetshakers plays the music and lead the prayers. These events are blessings from God that you should strive for. That being said, you should get ready for the official March 26 release of the tickets of Planetshakers Live In Manila Featuring Planetboom via SMTickets.com

For the newcomers reading this, Planetshakers is a Christian church based in Melbourne, Australia and their music team is a very blessed group which produced a whole lot of worship songs that resonated with faithful Christians around the world. I myself attended a Planetshakers worship event here in the Philippines in September 2022.

If you want to discover and learn more about Planetshakers, I encourage you to click here (Facebook page), here (Instagram), here (Twitter) and here (YouTube). To know more about Planetshakers itself, visit https://www.planetshakers.com/

In closing this, posted below are a few worship music videos from Planetshakers’ YouTube channel. Jesus is our Lord and Savior and He is also the hope of ALL nations! Move forward with unbreakable and uncompromising faith in Him! Seek Him first and always be the fearless and aggressive church of Lord Jesus!

https://youtu.be/tTFiF2iD-j0?si=uBYd1rRSV1XTd6Sa

https://youtu.be/1DEFmFzxAIU?si=W2ZUnOneMtbBUP4R

https://youtu.be/STsezd6G50k?si=qa_2EA50nYuoSx1q

https://youtu.be/-m9eFWaoN3E?si=YI54JAqPX18t4BJh

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at  @HavenorFantasy as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

“An imagination submitted to the movement of the Holy Spirit is a powerful tool in the hands of God to write testaments of His glory.”
― Alisa Hope Wagner

#Bot #Quote #Faith #Glory #God #HolySpirit #Imagination #Writing

I Love Israel: Israeli Ambassador Pays Respect To Mary Ann De Vera In Pangasinan

Recently in the province of Pangasinan, Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Dana Kursh visited the wake of Mary Ann De Vera to pay respect to her as well as to her family, the Embassy of Israel in the Philippines announced via social media.

Mary Ann De Vera died in Israel as a result of a missile attack committed by the Islamic terrorist regime of Iran. She worked there as a caregiver. De Vera’s family recently met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem and later met with the ambassador here in the Philippines when the remains arrived.

To put things in perspective, posted below is the entire social media post of the Israeli Embassy. Some parts in boldface.

Amb Dana Kursh paid a visit to Pangasinan to pay her respects and extend condolences to the family of Mary Ann De Vera, the Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) who passed away in Israel while serving as a caregiver, dedicating her life to caring for others far from her own home.

Ambassador Kursh joined Pangasinan Governor Ramon “Mon-Mon” Guico III, OWWA Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan,  Department of Migrant Workers Usec. Felicidad Bay, and officials from the Department of Migrant Workers and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to pay their respects and stand with the bereaved family during this time of mourning.

Mary Ann De Vera was known for her kindness, dedication, and quiet strength. Like many Filipino caregivers in Israel, she left her family in the Philippines to work abroad and support her loved ones, while compassionately caring for those entrusted to her. Her passing is deeply felt both by the people she cared for in Israel and by the many who loved her here at home.

The Government of Israel mourns her loss and extends its heartfelt condolences to her family and loved ones. We share in the grief of the De Vera family and honor Mary Ann’s life, service, and the compassion she showed every day through her work. May her memory be a blessing.

To all my readers, I encourage you to pray to the Lord for the protection of all civilians in the Middle East while the joint military operation of Israel and the United States versus the Islamic terrorist regime of Iran continues. Pray to Him for the regime of Iran to surrender unconditionally so that the conflict will end and the economic disruptions will stop.

Also I encourage you to realize the truth that Israel is the land God designated specifically for the Jewish people (read Genesis 35:10-12) and His command must be followed without hesitation. If you want to be blessed further by the Lord, do so by loving and blessing the Jewish people (Genesis 12:1-3). I did my part when I was in Israel. Also, let me remind you all that the ties between the Jews and Christians are truly biblical!

I encourage you all to pray to the Lord God in support of Israel, to love and bless the Jewish people, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

If you truly believe in Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God the Heavenly Father wholeheartedly and you continue to be faithful, you should be aware that Christians are meant to stand united with Israel and love the Jewish people no matter what. You can do your part supporting Israel by donating to Christians United for Israel (CUFI). Do not forget to read the Holy Bible, then pray in tongues to the Lord in the privacy of your room with the door shut.

Always be the fearless and aggressive church of Lord Jesus!

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at  @HavenorFantasy as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

‘Spirit of truth and love: sermon for Pentecost, Sunday 28 May 2023

It is now fifty days since Jesus’ Resurrection at Easter. Many pilgrims have come to Jerusalem for the Festival of Weeks. Luke, the author of Acts, tries to describe the coming of the Holy Spirit, but all he can say is what it is like- wind or fire. He is describing something which cannot really be described. The reading is from the New Testament reading: Acts 2:1-21.

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

A few weeks ago, somebody mentioned to me that it was on Pentecost Sunday 2008 that the three congregations united to create Cambuslang Parish Church. Those of you who can remember that far back might be surprised to learn that that’s fifteen years now!

Earlier, we told the children that Pentecost is the birthday of the Church- so the world-wide church is today celebrating being over two thousand years old!

The word Pentecost means ‘the fiftieth day’: for it is now fifty days after Easter. In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles today, we hear of what happened to the first Christians fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus:

When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

Jesus had promised that his followers would receive the Holy Spirit after he himself had been raised to life. Saint Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, gives us a very vivid account of that moment, when the Spirit descended on the first Christians. He speaks of wind, fire, and the believers suddenly finding their voice- they go out into the street and begin to take the message of Jesus, his death and resurrection, to people from all over the world.

But all this talk of the Holy Spirit sometimes makes us uncomfortable. There is actually a children’s hymn in our Church Hymnary about the Holy Spirit which begins, ‘Is it spooky, is it weird?’, which might be the worst hymn in the hymnbook[i]. When I was a wee boy, we used to hear more about ‘the Holy Ghost’, and for a youngster, well, that is just weird and spooky.

Churches have quite often rather neglected the Spirit, who is, after all, the third person of the Trinity. I have heard it said that for Protestants, the Trinity is God the Father, God the Son and the Bible; for Catholics it is God the Father, God the Son and the Virgin Mary.

Yet the fastest-growing branch of Christianity today is Pentecostalism, a movement which started in the early part of the twentieth century in America and which is now to be found all over the world in various forms, and which takes very seriously the presence of the Spirit of God in the church. Pentecostalism seems a long way from our Presbyterian brand of Christianity; yet often if offers hope to some of the poorest people in the world.

But for people like me- a rational, unemotional, Presbyterian Scot- what does the Holy Spirit mean for me? For in a Scottish Presbyterian church, you don’t really expect to see people come to church as if they had fire on their heads. And if there is a strong wind blowing around this church building, it will probably make our roof make strange noises!

Yet talk of wind and fire are ways of putting into words what as clearly an intense experience which happened on the first Pentecost. Pentecost is the church’s birthday, because it was the day the disciples first felt the power of God among them. It was a power that looked a bit chaotic and messy. Some of those who heard the disciples preaching under the influence of the Holy Spirit thought they were drunk. And our illustration of the work of the Spirit with the children was pretty chaotic, too![ii]

You might remember from a couple of weeks ago that Jesus promised his followers that, once he had gone, he would leave them a ‘helper’, or an ‘advocate’. Pentecost was when the disciples really felt the Helper among them- a Helper so powerful, they used words like fire and wind to describe the experience. But what is Helper, which we call the Holy Spirit?

I think we can understand the Spirit very simply if we think of it as God at work within each of us, and at work in the world. Thinking about the Spirit reminds us that God is involved in the world today.

Our culture is still influenced by the eighteenth century movement known as the Enlightenment. This was a reaction to the wars of religion which had spread over Europe since the Reformation, and an attempt to use science and rationality as a way of understanding the world, instead of more traditional religion. It’s a movement in which Scots played a big part- men like David Hume and Adam Smith. David Hume was, at the end of his life, an atheist, but many of his friends and colleagues among the literati of Edinburgh did believe in God, and indeed some of them were Ministers and members of the Kirk (such as Hugh Blair (1718– 1800) (below).

One way they attempted to understand God was to imagine that God had set up the world like a great machine which God had set in action, and left to run on its own. The world, they said was governed by unchangeable scientific laws, and so while there was room for a Creator, there was no need for God to get involved. So God was a bit like a watchmaker, who creates his timepieces, winds them up, and then leaves them alone. It’s all very predictable (and, frankly, a bit boring).

For if God has made the world, and left it to run like clockwork, there is no need for the Holy Spirit. A world without the Spirit might have been okay for the Enlightenment philosophers in the eighteen century, but the same period also saw people around Scotland discovering that the Spirit of Pentecost was still at work- such as here in Cambuslang in 1742, where there was a surprising religious revival. God is always at work in the world, and there is no knowing when and where the Spirit of God might move!

The Holy Spirit is, simply, God at work in the world. The first verses of Genesis speak of the Spirit creating the world ‘in the beginning’- but really God continues to create. Above all, God speaks to people, leads them in new ways, stirs them up to serve him. Above all, one man, Jesus of Nazareth, is so full of the Spirit of God that it cannot be denied that through him, God is doing something very new indeed. The Spirit which created the world, the Spirit which was in Jesus, is still at work today. A world which just ran like clockwork would be a boring world. But God is at work in the world, the Spirit of God is at work in the world, constantly surprising us and doing new things. And the Spirit works through people.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul says of the Holy Spirit:

the Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all[iii]

The Corinthians had written to Paul to ask him about the Holy Spirit, and the way it seems to affect different people in different ways. And so Paul writes back to them, and one the things he says to them- is ‘the Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all’.

You know, you don’t have to be a genius to be ‘gifted’. I know people who are gifted listeners. I’ve met parents who seemed to me to be gifted in the way they brought up their children. I know people whose gift is the care and compassion they give to an elderly or disabled person whom they care for. I know people whose gift is how they look after those whom they have to manage at work. In all these people, the Spirit is present, for the good of all.

Each person, says Paul, has the Spirit of God present within them- the Spirit is present in each person, in each of us, in each of you. And that is shown in the fact that each of us has different gifts. Some of us are better at some things than others. We have different abilities, and different capabilities. There are different skills needed for the work of the Church, but God has given them. There are different gifts, and they are available in different people.

The great inventor Thomas Edison- a gifted man if ever there was one- famously quipped that ‘genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration’- and he should have known. Pentecost makes us ask the question: ‘How can I use my talents, my skills, my interests, to make my contribution to carrying on the work of Jesus today?’ If we would each of us ensure that our gifts were being used for God’s work, then the Church and the world would be changed and renewed beyond our dreams. For ‘the Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all’.

The Spirit is the Helper Jesus promised us- helping us continue God’s work in the church and in the world. For we have not been left alone, for the Spirit is among us, willing and able to guide us in the truth about God.

A couple of weeks ago, we heard Jesus call the Holy Spirit as ‘the Spirit of truth’[iv]. Truth is something which is not take seriously nowadays. I read the other day of an American politician who thinks the earth is flat. And there are plenty of religious people who want to bend the truth of the Gospel, who want to use religion to attack people who are in some way different from them, and to divide communities. We really need the Spirit of truth today!

Jesus was famously once asked what the greatest commandment of the Jewish law was. And he replied that it was to love God with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul. But then he added that there was another: to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

And ever since he said that, Christians have understood the truth about genuine religion: that love of God and love of neighbour go together. In this First Letter of John, we read:

[O]ur love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.[v]

We baptise children and adults, we do it in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. When we baptise someone, we hope and pray that they will discover the joys of Christian faith. But Christianity is a big ask. We need to learn about God, and we need to what God wants of us- what the truths of our faith are. And it’s not just enough to know Christian doctrine- we need to put our faith into action. Love and God and love your neighbour- put your words into actions of love.

But on this Pentecost Sunday, we recognise that we are not left alone to get on with it. The waters of baptism remind us also of the fire of Pentecost. We have not been left alone. We have Helper, who helps us know the truth (and the greatest truth is that there is a God who loves us). And that Helper- the Spirit of Christ at work in the world- helps us put our faith into action. For the Spirit of truth- who helps us know God- also offers us gifts to enable us to serve God and our neighbour in practical ways.

So on this Pentecost Sunday, let’s give thanks for the Spirit of truth- God still at work in the world, in the Church, and in each of us.

Ascription of Praise

The God of grace who calls you all

to his eternal glory in Christ

restore, establish and strengthen you.

All power belongs to God for ever and ever, Amen.

Biblical references from the Good News Bible, unless otherwise stated

© 2023 Peter W Nimmo

[i]  CH4 602

[ii] We blew shredded paper all over the sanctuary!

[iii] 1 Corinthians 12.7

[iv] John 14.17 (from the Gospel for Easter 6)

[v] 1 John 3.18

God’s Advocate: sermon for May 14 2023, Easter 6

Scripture Reading: John 14:15-21

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Today, we celebrate the new life of young Kennedy, and share in the joy which her coming has brought to her parents and his big sister, and the wider family. And her baptism also reminds us of all about the new life which Jesus offers, to people of any age- the chance of forgiveness, and new start with God. Jesus once said that he had come to bring us life in all its fullness[1]– and that’s an offer which open to us all!

So, it might seem strange, that as we celebrate new life, that we now turn to a story about a departure.

Departures are often hard. An airport terminal, for example, is sometimes a place of tears, as families say farewell to loved ones who are travelling across the world, and who they might not see for a long time. Hospitals, too, can be places of departure- the final departure from this life. It is hard to visit someone in hospital if you know that their life is near its end, and that you may never see them again.

The last meeting of Jesus and his friends was a time of departure. Most of them, I suspect, did not know that this was their last time together. In fact, only one of them realised that- Judas, the one who was about to betray him to the religious authorities. But I think they would have had a sense of foreboding, nevertheless. They had left the comparative peace of the countryside for the hubbub of Jerusalem, seat of the Roman governor, and power centre of the religious establishment. They must have sensed the storm clouds gathering.

Jesus, however, seems to know that his time with his band of close friends is nearly up. And so, the Gospel writers tell us that a lot about what happened at that last meeting together. As I said in the introduction, one of the things he does is to tell his friends that his death will not be the end for him, or for them- he promises them all a place in his Father’s house. And in today’s passage, he makes another promise:

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God.

Jesus is about to depart- he is going to leave his disciples. But he promises his friends he will leave something behind, after her has left- a Helper.

The disciples would have needed to hear something like that. For Jesus and his disciples have been through so much together. He had called them to follow him. They had heard his stories, listened to his teachings, seen his miracles. They have all become friends together. They would be bereft at the though that he was going to leave them. How could they live in his way without him to lead them and guide them?

For in that experience of being friends with Jesus, the disciples learned the truth about God. Jesus taught them, both in words and his actions, that God is a loving God. He taught them about how to live lives of love.

So now he promises his Spirit will remain with them, to continue to remind them of that great truth. This is the Helper, who will stay with them forever.

That word ‘Helper’ can be translated in different ways. The original Greek often meant an ‘advocate’- someone whom you could all in who would stand up for you. In Scotland, we call a senior lawyer who appears in court an advocate. If you are unlucky enough to find yourself hauled before a court, your advocate will try to defend you against the charges you face. She will stand up for you before the judge, and try to put your point of view against that of the prosecutors.

Another use of the word ‘advocate’ I’ve noticed recently is what is called a ‘patient advocate’. In Scotland, some people have a legal right to in independent advocate. If, for example, you have to go into hospital, that can be a complicated and confusing experience. You could be asked about what kind of treatment you think you need. So, for example, a person with mental health issue, or a learning disability, or who has autism or dementia, can have a special person- an advocate- who will help them. Like a legal advocate in a law court, a patient advocate will stand alongside them, and will speak up for them if they need to[2].

It’s great to think that there will be someone who will stick up for you, and be with you to support you, if you need them. As Jesus got ready to leave them, the disciples must have wondered how they were going to do without him. But here he is promising that his Spirit will continue to be alongside them, helping them, being an advocate for them, as they face the world without Jesus himself.

For the disciples already knew that the world could be harsh and unforgiving towards Jesus and his message. Jesus had been teaching about a God of love, but the very next day after their last meal with Jesus, he would be put on trial and executed. It will look like evil has triumphed over love.

And today, still, it is hard for those of us who try to follow Jesus to live his way of love. People scoff if you talk about a God of love. Especially when there are a lot of Christians around who don’t seem to be very loving. Vladimir Putin claims he is defending Christian values in Russia. But he sent his army to invade Ukraine, he has bombed schools and hospitals, tortured civilians and kidnapped Ukrainian children. He doesn’t sound like someone who is motivated by a belief in a God of love.

But the cross of Christ reminds us that the God of Jesus stands with those who suffer- with the victims of war, with the innocents who are damaged by what evil people do to them. If God is love, God is on their side!

I was speaking to someone who isn’t a church member the other day. We were talking about the cost of living crisis, and about how rising food prices and energy prices and rents and mortgages meant that even people in work are finding they are hardly able to pay their way. I said that I wished the government would do more about these things, and she said, ‘Well, you’re the church- you have the ear of the government!’ And she was right! I have, in the past, been part of the church’s attempts to get the ear of government, to advocate on behalf of those who find it hard to speak up for themself. It isn’t easy, and sometimes it can be controversial.

The Archbishop of Canterbury got plenty criticism last week when, just a few days after he had crowned the king at the Coronation, he pointed out how cruel His Majesty’s Government is to refugees and asylum seekers. But the Archbishop was being an advocate for a group of people who need all the help they can get. And I do think that’s an important part of the church’s mission.

In the face of the refugee crisis, with war in Europe, with the effects of climate change continuing inexorably, we may feel that there is little we can do, and that it’s hard to speak up for what is right. And in our personal lives, we may struggle to look after a parent with Alzheimer’s, or a child with autism, or a friend who is mentally ill. We all sometimes feel we could do with a Helper, or an advocate!

But here is Jesus offering us a helper who will not leave us. We baptise people in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus called God ‘Father’, because the God of Jesus Christ is a loving God, a God who calls us his children. And Jesus showed us what God is like- preaching about God’s love for us, teaching us to love our neighbours, because God is love. And the Holy Spirit is that Help, that Advocate, which Jesus promises his followers.

In our reading, Jesus says that

Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me.

In other words, a true Christians is someone who listens to Jesus and tries to live by his teaching. A bit further on from our passage today, Jesus makes it clearer:

Those who love me will obey my teaching[3].

One of the most important things Jesus taught his disciples- perhaps his most important commandment- was to love our neighbour. So, someone who says he follows Jesus and then send his tanks into his neighbour’s country has failed to obey Jesus’ teaching. However, if you love your autistic child, or your parent with dementia, you are obeying Jesus’ command to love. If you stand alongside with someone who needs your help, if you advocate for someone who has no-one else to speak up for them, you are obeying Jesus’s command to love.

Baptism is the start of a new life- a Christian life, a life which identifies with the example of Jesus. But it’s hard being a Christian. We need all the help we can get. So, Jesus offers us help- the help of his Spirit which will never leave us, the Helper and Advocate who will always stand alongside us. May Kennedy, and all of us who have been baptised, know the presence of that Helper and Advocate when we pray for God to stand alongside us!  Amen.

Biblical references from the Good News Bible, unless otherwise stated

© 2023 Peter W Nimmo

Notes

[1] John 10.10

[2] https://www.mygov.scot/advocacy

[3] John 14.23