KAKAMPI MO ANG BATAS.19 JUNE 2011

KAKAMPI MO ANG BATAS.19 JUNE 2011

Ways to solve Cotabato flooding

LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord...” (Ephesians 6:4, the Holy Bible).

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RIZAL AND THE PROPER TRAINING OF FILIPINO YOUTH: As the nation celebrated the 150th birth anniversary of its hero, Dr. Jose Rizal on June 19, 2011, I was struck by a question over his oft-quoted statement that the youth is the hope of the fatherland. Indeed, the youth is the hope of the country, but only if they are well-prepared and properly trained.

Suppose they were ill-prepared and improperly trained while they were still young, as the example of many Filipinos---leaders and ordinary ones, in and out of government---now show? So the question really is: how do we properly prepare and train our children so they could become the true hope of our nation, as Rizal envisioned?

“Train the child in the way they should go while they are young, and when they grow old they will never depart from it,” the Holy Bible, in its Proverbs 22:6, says. And what is the way to train and prepare these children?

Deuteronomy 6:5-7 shows the way: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up…”

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WAYS TO SOLVE COTABATO FLOODING: The possibility of Cotabato City being totally submerged by floodwaters due to erratic weather conditions in the next few days or even hours is prompting frantic calls for volunteers to help remove water lilies clogging the Rio Grande de Mindanao, but I am convinced that this is not going to be a full solution to this problem.

I suggest that Filipinos everywhere should now gather together, open their Bibles and study the Word of God, and then humbly pray for His deliverance. This is so because rains, floods and strong winds---the most devastating calamities being visited upon many parts of the Philippines and of the whole world in recent days---have a Biblical dimension.

In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus warned about the “great fall”, or the total destruction coming from rains, floods, and strong winds, of people who no longer listen to the Word of God and who longer obey God, or even of people who listen but who disobey just the same.

Indeed, there is nothing man can do to control destructive rains, floods and strong winds on his own---for only God can. But God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, already shared with us, through the Bible, how to avoid these destructive natural calamities. Consequently, coupled with our human efforts, we must read the Bible now and obey God, if we want to avoid total destruction.

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OPPOSITION LAWMAKERS `SLEPT’ ON PURISIMA: Here’s a question for opposition congressmen questioning the capacity of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima to remain in his post: is it not a fact that the opposition was given the opportunity to reject Purisima at the Commission on Appointment? How come they allowed Purisima to be confirmed by the Commission?

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