May God Rebuke Him

In the Name of Jesus, I take authority and I bind all powers and forces in the air, in the ground, in the water, in the underground, in nature and in fire. You are the Lord over the entire universe and I give you the Glory for your creation. In your name I bind all demonic forces that have come against us and our families and I seal all of us in the protection of Your Precious Blood that was shed for us on the cross. Mary, our Mother, we seek your protection and intercession with the Sacred Heart of Jesus for us and our families, and surround us with your mantle of love to discourage the enemy. St. Michael and our Guardian Angels come defend us and our families in battle against all the evil ones that roam the earth. In the Name of Jesus, I bind and command all the powers and forces of evil to depart right now away from us, our homes and our lands. And we thank you Lord Jesus for You are a faithful and compassionate God. Amen.

Well, I got back home safe and sound from Mexico. It was a good pleasant trip although there were a lot of interesting things that happened:

--Due to high winds, I missed my connecting flight to Mexico in Phoenix and had to spend the night there (It sure beats Detroit!) When I got to my hotel, I felt the urge to call a friend of mine who was just recently laid off. As it turned out, he had just arrived into Phoenix the night before. So, that evening, we were able to get together and spend some time.

--In Hermosillo, Mexico, I met up with a gentleman whom I met six years ago in another city about 500 miles from Hermosillo. I only met him a couple of times and we were at most mild acquaintances. Anyhow, he took me to his house to meet his wife (whom I had met before) and his kids. In his kitchen, I saw a picture in the center of his refrigerator. I examined it closely and realized that I took that picture six years earlier! Talk about weird!

--In Chihahua, Mexico, I met up with a gentleman whom I had never previously met. In the evening, we got to talking and it turned out that he had lived in Detroit about 15 years ago for a year. At that time, he went to my church! (at least my old church). Talk about a small world.

In these 3 instances (and a few other smaller ones), I could really sense God was present and that he wanted me there for a reason. Why? I don't know. I just need to trust His lead.

In the last week, I have been sensing another presence. One that's not so welcome. In the last week:

--My home computer where I write my posts completely broke down

--My daughter got very sick--just as I was leaving.

--I missed my flight down to Mexico (as stated previously)

--I kept on getting stopped by security and customs

--My flight home was delayed.

I sense a presence that is trying to discourage me. It's trying to afflict me and take my focus away from God. Were all the above instances caused by the Devil? I don't know. I just know that I need to have my love for God stay focused on Him and Him alone. We cannot let the Devil distract us.

For he hates us. His goal is not to get us to worship him. His goal is to turn us away from God and get us to focus inwards to ourselves. (Genesis 3:4) His sin is a sin of pride and he wants all of humanity to share in it with him. We cannot let him do that to us. We need to turn away from pride and focus ourselves on God and His love for us. When Satan tempts us, we need to turn to God and cling ever closer to Him and His cross and not let go.

We can't do this alone.

We can only do this with God's help and we can only receive that grace through prayer. The above prayer is a prayer that I learned from my parents who are/were members of a Catholic Charismatic Community. Unfortunately, my father passed away a couple of years ago. We used the above prayer for his prayer card at the funeral.

I need to remind myself and ask all Catholics who read this to pray the above prayer every day. There is a spiritual war going on and the only way we can win it is by completely turning to Jesus and helping others turn themselves to Jesus as well.

For my Protestant brothers who are probably uncomfortable with the above prayer, I understand and ask you to remind yourself to pray the prayer below or use your own words to ask God to help you reject Satan on a daily basis.

Above all, please pray from the heart.

As has been stated earlier in my posts, we cannot do this without God's help.

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray this prayer in the power or the Holy Spirit

In the name of Jesus Christ, I bind, rebuke and bring to no effect, all division, discord, disunity, strife, anger, wrath, murder, criticism, condemnation, pride, envy, jealousy, gossip, slander, evil speaking, complaining, lying, false teaching, false gifts, false manifestations, lying signs and wonders, poverty, fear of lack, fear spirits, murmuring spirits, hindering spirits, retaliatory spirits, deceiving spirits, religious spirits, occult spirits, witchcraft spirits (including Jezebel, Delilah and Apollyon) and spirits of antichrist

I bind all curses that have been spoken against me. I bless those who curse me, and pray blessings on those who despiteful use me

I bind all spoken judgment made against me and judgments I have made against others
I bind the power of negative words from others, and I bind and render useless all prayers not inspired by the Holy Spirit; whether psychic, soul force, witchcraft or counterfeit tongues that have been prayed against me

I am God's child. I resist the devil. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. I put on the whole armor of God. I take authority over this day, in Jesus' name. Let it be prosperous for me, let me walk in your love, Lord. The Holy Spirit leads and guides me today, I discern between the righteous and the wicked

I take authority over Satan and all his demons, and those people who are influenced by them. I declare Satan is under my feet and remain there all day. I am the righteous of God in Christ Jesus

I am God's property. Satan you are bound from my family, my mind, my body, my home and my finances

I confess that I am healed and whole. I flourish, I am long lived, stable, durable, incorruptible, fruitful, virtuous, full of peace, patience and love. Whatsoever I set my hand to do shall prosper, for God supplies all my needs. I have all authority over Satan, all demons, and beasts of the field. God, I pray for the ministry that you have for me. Anoint me, God, for all you have called me to do for you

I call forth divine appointments, open doors of opportunity, God ordained encounters and ministry positions. I claim a hedge of protection around myself, spouse and children throughout this day and night

I ask you God, in the name of Jesus to dispatch angels to surround me, my spouse and my children today, and to put them throughout my house and around our cars, souls and bodies. I ask angels to protect my house from any intrusion and to protect me and my family from any harmful demonic or other physical or mental attacks.
I ask this prayer in the name of Jesus AMEN.

On Obedience to God's Will

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?' Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.' "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined." (Matthew 7:21-27)

These verses in the Bible frighten me.

Not because of the fear of eternal damnation that I may face but rather because if this were the case for me, I obviously did not love Him enough.

By loving God and being obedient to Him, He will give us a foundation built on rock. Not because we are obedient mind you, but because He loves us and through His grace we will receive it.

If we're not obedient, our faith is built on sand and can collapse in times of duress...and God may reserve harsh judgement on us.

Let's all try to love Him as I know that's what He really wants.


Well, I'm going to be on the road for the rest of the week in Mexico. I might have access to the internet and I might not. I'll find out when I get there.

May God bless all of you.

Augustine and Free Will

4. Augustine and Free Will

This will be my final response to Mike Garner's comment to my post. I honestly thought I was finished but I think God wants me to do one more. I may do another one outside of this series about who killed Jesus but right now, I'm being pushed this way.

Mike graciously suggested that I read A Treatise on the Predestination. He is correct that it is very well worth the read. I've done a cursory read although haven't had much time to digest it.

Interestingly, in our latest comments, he suggested that I was reading my own opinion into John 6:45. "Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. "

First of all, I will admit that when I read scripture that I look at it with a jaundiced view...that God loves you and He wants you to love Him back. That's not in one line of the Bible, it screams out at me throughout the whole of Scripture.

Secondly, upon reading Augustine's book upon Mike's recommendation, I stumbled onto this in chapter 14:

And yet in a certain sense the Father teaches all men to come to His Son. For it was not in vain that it was written in the prophets, "And they shall all be teachable of God." And when He too had premised this testimony, He added, "Every man, therefore, who has heard of the Father, and has learned, cometh to me."

I didn't read this until tonight but apparently, if Mike disagrees with me, he also disagrees with Austine's writings that he recommended to me.

I also think Mike (and all Calvinists) will disagree with Augustine in regards to his thoughts on Free Will (which makes me wonder why they would refer to themselves as Augustinians). He wrote a whole treatise on it titled On Grace and Free Will.

I have only read the first few chapters and skimmed the rest of it (but I'm sure it's also definitely worth the read). Augustine writes this in Chapter 2:

Now He has revealed to us, through His Holy Scriptures, that there is in a man a free choice of will. But how He has revealed this I do not recount in human language, but in divine. There is, to begin with, the fact that God's precepts themselves would be of no use to a man unless he had free choice of will, so that by performing them he might obtain the promised rewards.

The only difference between what I was saying and what he's saying is that he says it better than I do (and I erroneously preached the Semipelagian heresy...thanks again, Mike for catching that).

So, according to Augustine (and me):

Man has free will.

God loves us. All of us. He wants us to love him back freely and the whole of scripture does not make sense without free will.

I honestly don't think there's anything more I can write about this. When I started last week, my plan was to write about something completely different but God pushed me in this direction and I didn't understand it at the time.

I want to thank Mike Garner for this as it's helped me have a much better understanding of the subject. It's also given me a better understanding of the Catholic Church's teaching of Free Will of which I honestly only had a vague understanding.

I really hope that all who read this will be drawn closer to Him. I am not looking for division because that's not what He wants.

He wants us to love Him back.

May the Grace and the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all who read this post.

Through our Faith that we Love God

3. Through our Faith that we love God


Hello everyone, first of all, I would like to thank Mike Garner for spotting an error in my logic. In my ignorance, I misinterpreted a Bible quote in Romans 1 and said that "us giving Him glory and praise comes first..."

Mike lovingly told me that what I said was incorrect. I did more research and reread Romans 1 and realized that he was correct. Before today, I did not know who Pelagian was or what a Semi-Pelagian is. Mike, you're helping me become a better Catholic! (Talk about irony)

Anyhow, God gives us the grace to love Him and as I had quoted Romans 1:20 in my misinterpretation, I failed to note that in Romans 1:19, that "God made Himself evident to them." The way that I read this (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that He has made Himself evident through His grace.

And through Jesus, we have received grace in place of grace.

Does He give everyone that grace?

I don't know. I'm not God.

What I do know is that He's asking all of us to respond to His call. He has given us the grace to respond to Him and from that response, then we freely choose to love Him.

When we freely respond to His call and listen to Him, He will grace us with the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. (John 6:44-45)

In regards to why I love God while our neighbors (or family or church...etc.) do not...I guess my answer is, "I don't know."

God doesn't want me to compare myself to my neighbors. That's like Cain comparing his sacrifice to Abel's. And that is frowned upon very strongly by Jesus (regarding the Pharisee comparing himself to the tax collector.) I can't judge them (although if they are doing something wrong, I can tell them that what they are doing is wrong...as Mike did earlier today); I can only love them as Christ loves me and of course, bring them closer to God.

I have a hard enough time with my own relationship with Him to compare myself to my neighbor.

As always, may the peace and love of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with everyone.

Corruption of the Fall of Man?

This is a continuation of yesterday's post regarding Mike Garner's response to my initial post about Free Will. I think that his points are interesting and would like to cover them through a series of posts as the breadth of what he is saying is too broad to cover in one post (let alone in one comment box.)

2. Corruption of the Fall of Man?

From Mike's comment:

I would agree that Adam freely chose to sin against God. The question becomes if the rest of mankind has this same freedom. The question can be asked differently: Does the corruption of the Fall affect Man's free will?

Mankind did not lose their free will through Adam's fall. What mankind lost was the access to the Tree of Life as punishment for Adam's original sin. Because of the loss of access, we were all destined to die. Why? Because we bear the stain of Adam's original sin.

This is the original sin that Paul refers to in Romans 5. Because of Adam's sin, we are all inclined toward sin (or rather enslaved in sin). This is what Paul is talking about and not that we have lost our free will.

How can I be sure of my interpretation regarding the non-corruption of free will in Genesis 3?

By reading Genesis 4.

The very first story immediately following the Fall of Man is the story of Cain and Abel. In Genesis 4: 2-5, it talks about how the two made offerings to God. Why did they (and especially Abel) make offerings to God? For Salvation? To get back in the Garden? That was lost to them. They did it because they loved God for God alone (at least Abel did). Not for reward and reading this passage indicates that it was all a free choice.

Side note regarding Cain and Abel:

When I first read this passage, I struggled with it. Why was Cain's offering displeasing to God? Well, for two reasons...

1. He was not giving his best fruits of his labor.
2. He was paying more attention to what his brother was giving than choosing to love God.

Moral of the story: God wants us to give Him our best...also note that Abel was a keeper of the flock who was killed as a result of his brother's sin...a direct point from the Old Testament to the Passion.

So, how does one get eternal life? By coming back to the Tree of Life! Jesus Christ (the New Adam) restored that Tree when He came down as a man and fixed Adam's original sin by remaining obedient to God's will. Choosing to die for our sins (note: He was not murdered. True, we nailed Him to the cross with our sins but He chose to be sacrificed; thus God did not want to be murdered. He freely accepted death on a cross. There is no contradition in Scripture.)

What does He ask from us in return? To love Him. To keep His commandments. To deny yourself and follow Him (to death on a cross if necessary). To be His friend.

Does this guarantee us eternal life? No. His grace does.

So when is the Tree of Life that's discussed in the beginning of the Bible (at the beginning of creation) restored?

At the very end of the Bible in Revelation 22 at the end of times.

I think that's enough for tonight. Hopefully, God willing, I will continue tomorrow.

Peace to all who read this.

On Free Will (Continued)

May the Grace and the Peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with all who read this.

A fellow Christian has asked me to go deeper into the discussion about Free Will. In my comment section, he left a lengthy rebuttal to my initial post and comment. In order to better organize my thoughts and ease of use (regarding hyperlinks, etc.), I will respond in post form.

1. Biblical foundation for Free Will.

In my comment section, I noted that man has intellect and free will as he is formed in the image and likeness of God who has intellect and free will. Free will and intellect (I would classify "thinking about thinking" as intellect) are what separates us from animals (along with a soul which I carelessly forgot to mention in my comment). Animals act instinctively and we have the tendency to act instinctively as well.

Anyhow, regarding Biblical foundation, there is Biblical foundation for this
thought and it's found in Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus) 15:14.

" When God, in the beginning, created man, he made him subject to his own free choice."

For those of you who aren't familiar with this book, it's because it is not generally found in a Protestant Bible. It's part of the Deuterocanonical /Septuagint books (or Apocrypha). Why it's not in the Protestant Bible, I don't know. It was generally accepted as Scripture at the time of Christ...anyhow, I know that some of my Protestant brothers in Christ don't accept this as Scripture and that's fine. I do. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this point.

Additionally, me being Catholic, I'm not bound by the Sola Scriptura philosophy. Two Doctors of the Church, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas adequately argue on Free Will and the Catholic Church accepts their arguments as Catholic Doctrine. I won't reiterate their arguments but have hyperlinked their names to their thoughts on Free Will.

That being said, I stand by my thoughts regarding Genesis 1:26. Am I reading my free will view into the text? Possibly...as did the author of Sirach. I admitted that my beliefs color my reading of Scripture in a previous post as it is inherent in our humanity.

Without Free Will, the Bible would not make sense as there would be no sin. How can we sin against God if He programmed us to do it? That cannot be what God wanted. He had to want man to freely choose Him or else the whole of the Bible does not make sense.

That's all for now...I'll continue on my response hopefully tomorrow.

God Bless.

My Thoughts on Free Will

My plan tonight was to write about something totally different. However, I am entrusting God and letting go of my planned writing.

About fifteen years ago when I was younger, more arrogant and knew everything I needed to know about life, I reasoned out that free will doesn't exist. Man is guided by his decisions using the pleasure principle. In other words, a person will make his decisions based on whatever derives the most pleasure. To do otherwise was illogical. Why would anyone do something that would derive more pain than pleasure?

This argument worked for everything. Every decision that is made is based on an outcome and as such, a person can reasonably deduce what decision will be made. Therefore, how can there be free will?

An example of this would be as follows:

1. Somebody you know loses $100 and asks you if you've seen it.
2. The next day, you find the $100. Do you return it?

Person A may return it because if he kept the money, it would be stealing and thus a sin and he didn't want to go to Hell. Thus, his keeping the $100 wasn't worth eternal damnation.

Person B may not return it because he doesn't think about Heaven/Hell and he could use that new DVD player he's been wanting and there was no way that the guy who lost it would figure out that he found it.

Either way, each person really doesn't choose freely, they are letting the perceived rewards guide their actions. My above argument makes a whole lot of sense and I couldn't see around it.

Well, around 9 years ago, I underwent a conversion experience that shook me to my foundation (another post for another time.) It came like a bolt of lightning for which I was truly not prepared. I could see so clearly how misguided I was regarding my theology, my understanding of the Catholic Church and my understanding of God.

At that time, I started to grasp the whole idea of free will. Our gift of free will has nothing to do with every day decisions for in a large part, our decisions are (or can be) determined by what derives the most pleasure.

Our gift of free will comes in our ability to choose to love God with all our hearts, all our mind and with all our strength.

Why should we choose to love God?

Because.

And for no other reason. Not for salvation. Not out of fear. Just because. It's in that choice that God gives us free will. To choose Him above all things. As a result, we choose to follow His commandments. Why? Because. This is where Adam failed. He actively chose to not love God. If Adam knew the consequences of his actions, he probably would have thought twice about eating that fruit.

So, regarding my dillemma, I guess I would fall under "Person C" who returns the $100 because God commanded me not to steal and I love Him and choose to follow His commandments for no other reason than because I love Him.

And loving Him is the only real free choice I have.

Somebody's Knocking at Your Door

Did you ever wonder if God hears our prayers? I spoke with a friend of mine this evening who is feeling bereft. He doesn't think God is hearing his prayers. That conversation got me thinking more about prayer. Are we praying because we want something from God? If we don't hear a response, is it because God isn't listening?

No.

God hears all of our prayers and He responds to all of them...in His time not ours. And His answer may not be what we want to hear.

God is calling us (and I mean ALL of us). He's knocking at our door and he's waiting for us to answer Him. (Revelation 3:20) That's what prayer is. Us responding to His call.

When you let Him in the door, He will deliver graces to you that will knock you on the floor. Not because you let Him in but because of His limitless love for you.

How do we respond to God?

1. By loving Him above all things
2. By thanking Him for all that we have
3. By repenting for our sins
4. By bringing others closer to Him
5. By LISTENING to Him (that's a hard one)
6. And ultimately by conforming ourselves to Christ

It is through prayer that we open the door to our hearts and let Him in. He thirsts for us. He wants us to be a part of the flock. It's why He gave us free will. So we can choose to do His will and love Him unconditionally for who He is (as He loves us for who we are).

We shouldn't be praying for things we want (e.g. a new job, a girlfriend, Salvation, etc.) That's not what God wants from us.

He just wants us to open the door; so that He can dine with us.

And He wants us to pray.

Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly king, almighty God and Father,
We worship you, we give you thanks,
We praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
You take away the sin of the world:
Have mercy on us;
You are seated at the right hand of the Father:
Receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One,
You alone are the Lord
You alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
In the glory of God the Father.
Amen.

For those of you who are not Catholic, this prayer is said every Sunday in Mass (except during Lent/Advent). In church today, I heard the prayer and started thinking about it and couldn't get it out of my head.

I did a little research and this exact prayer can be traced back to at least 380 AD. Something like it can be traced back to the second century so it's a very old prayer.

If you're Catholic, the next time you're in Mass and this prayer comes up, we may have a tendency to just say it without really thinking about it. If you know what I'm talking about, catch yourself and really work to give Glory to God. Also, for all Christians, think about what giving glory to God means in your life and how is this achieved. I have my thoughts however, I think this is something that individuals need to figure out for themselves.

May God bless all who give glory to Him.

Being Fanatical

I just read a good post about sports in our society and how it can conflict (if you let it) with our Christianity.

In case you didn't know, the Super Bowl has descended on Detroit. Living in the area, it has been non-stop coverage of the activities that accompany it. I see people all dressed up in black and gold or blue/green and they're all out having a great time. The big celebrities are here going to lavish red carpet parties and the media is eating it all up.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a big Lions fan and I like watching the Wolverines (who in my opinion should have been the sole national champions in 1997--Stupid Missouri can't do anything right--Sorry Daniel) but I don't lose my perspective. Sports is not the be all and end all for me.

God is.

We are living in a culture today where people stick chunks of cheese on their head to show they are fans of the Green Bay Packers and yet, if you asked them to follow Christ, they'd probably give you a blank stare. (If I'm generalizing, I apologize...just my perspective...on Packer fans)

God wants us to be fanatical. He wants us to worship. It's in our natural blueprint to worship. Everyone is fanatical about something. Unfortunately, for most people who wake up early on Sunday mornings to watch NFL Countdown, they're fanatical about the wrong thing.

Simplicity in Prayer

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." (John 2: 1-3)

I've been thinking about this line all day today and decided that I should probably write about it. Note that what I'm about to say is not some newfound revelation but rather something given to me at a retreat about four years ago that I thought was fascinating and has helped me in my prayer life.

When Mary was in Cana and they started to run out of wine, she approached Jesus and said, "They have no wine."

What can we learn from this?

Before I answer that, I know that Catholics and Protestants differ on our views of Mary (and I really don't want to argue about that) however, I think there's a lesson for all of us in this text. I think one thing that we can all agree on, however, is that Mary knew and loved her Son as any mother knows and loves her son.

When she approaches Him, all she says is, "They have no wine." At that point, Jesus knew exactly what she was asking Him and responded.

This is a great lesson on how we should pray. We really need to keep it simple when we approach Him. Why? Because He already knows what you're going to ask and He knows what you want. The words just get in the way.

We don't need long wordy prayers to God. Just nice short simple ones. If your child is sick, in prayer, just say, "Lord, my child is sick."

He knows what you want and will answer your prayer.

God and the single guy

Hello all,

Yesterday, I mentioned how God has graced me in so many ways. Well, the greatest grace next to His death and resurrection for me has been my wonderful and patient wife.

Back in 2000, I was a happy single guy who loved God and tried to be as obedient as I could be to Him. On Christmas Eve at Midnight Mass, I made a simple prayer. "Thank You God for all that You've given me. I want to know Your love more. If it be Your will, I would like 2001 to be the year that I meet my future wife." At that point in time, I felt a rush of the Holy Spirit pour into me (I really do feel that a lot...it's VERY cool) and I knew that God's answer was "Yes." At that point, I got very excited. Who would she be? How would I meet her? But then I realized, just follow His will and He'll lead me right to her.

Since I was single and not dating anyone, I decided that I would treat God as my significant other that year. Really try to make time for Him. (Weird...sounds like something out of Brokeback Mountain except it's NOT). Anyhow, as the year progressed, I realized that I'd take God for granted or not do everything He wanted and thought to myself, "God, if I treated a woman the way I'm treating You, I'll never get married." That was an amazing grace as God was showing me faults that I would need to fix if I were to ever have a girlfriend (let alone wife).

Over the year, God kept on bringing really wonderful women in my life and my thoughts would be, "Is she the one?" And the little voice inside me said, "Follow His will and don't worry about who it will be!"

Of course, my friends all thought I was crazy. They were telling me, "You're setting yourself up for a big fall!" And my response was, "God made me a promise, I'm trusting Him!"

By around August and no girl in sight (alas, I met a lot of women but to no avail) I started to worry--not doubt--just worry. Maybe I wasn't following His will. I know the promise was real. At that time, an old girlfriend of mine and I started talking. She was telling me that she had met a guy and that she was hoping he'd be the one for her and although I still had feelings for her, I hoped that he'd be the one for her too because I wanted her to be happy.

So, I prayed in front of the Blessed Sacrament one hot night in August two prayers. I prayed to God that He leads her to her husband and I prayed that He lead me to my wife.

Oh little did I know.

At that point, my old girlfriend and I started rekindling our relationship. We started out as friends, talking every few days. Pretty soon, she realized that guy wasn't the one for her and we started getting closer and closer.

And on December 28 of 2001, we started dating again and God delivered His promise.

We got married on June 14, 2003 and my life has never been the same.

Thank you God for making me so happy and teaching me more about Your love. She's been a true blessing to me. May I always have faith in You alone, hope in your promise to me, and most of all, may I love You with all my heart, all my mind and all my strength.