PhilPop Music Festival

How many great Filipino songwriters does an everyday Filipino know? Chances are they only know a few.

 “The First Philippine Popular Music Festival” is a songwriting competition open to all amateur and professional composers who are Filipinos or of Filipino descent residing in the Philippines. The competition not only aims to celebrate the talent of Filipino songwriting but to glorify the contributions of songwriters and composers to the Filipino music industry.

Orchestrating the competition is no other than Maestro Ryan Cayabyab, the country’s prominent songwriter, musician, academic, and the Festival’s Executive Director. “Mr. C” plans to bring together the Filipino talents into one grand event.

The event is the outcome of Overall Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan and Organizing Committee Chairman Ricky Vargas’ desire to help revive the Philippine music industry.

 For more information click here:

If you’ve got the music, then you’ve got our ears – and 1M cash! Join the #PhilPop Music Fest! Submit entries now!

#musicfest #philpopmusic #ryancayabyab #songwriters

Struggle

Struggle..proceed with difficulty or great effort? Struggle..make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or opposition? Struggle..decide which action to take? Struggle..choose between what is convenient and what it needs to be obedient? Struggle..go over the practicality or the hardship? Struggle..feel it..you can sigh or cry. Torn between two principles, it's difficult to proceed. You have to make a strenuous effort to face it, to choose and decide. Is it convenience over obedience? The struggle for convenience is choosing the practicality of it all. Letting go, pick up the pieces, have it your way, move on and tell the world where you are, ready to face another new life without him, his pain, and his demon-like attitude...But, still, .. struggling.. with the thought...struggle for obedience. Choosing obedience, from One Who ruled, from One Who Lord it over, from One Who made it happened...it's hardship along the way. Hoping and waiting. Painful and lonely. Sadness and tears. Ridicule and insult. What could have been so beautiful has gone awry...gone were the days of fruitful memories. The path to obedience is hardship, but why is it important to take heed? What lies ahead the hardship is a morning sun promised by One. Struggle to keep the faith...struggle to hold on to the promises..struggle to proceed .. struggle.. for man is weak but needs to keep his senses for the One ..for man knows at the end of the road is a bright light waiting for him..convenient for a moment?.. or be obedient and walk into the light?...

The Cross

'Ants are crossing through a stick leading to the water. A child noticed that the ants might get drowned, so he was shouting at them. "Hey, ants, don't go there! You might get drowned, go back!" He keeps shouting at them then came his father and said, "my son, they would not understand you. You are human, they are ants. You should be one of the ants so they would be able to understand you.' 

This short story tells us that God the Son was to be like us for us to be understood and for us to understand Him. So we could be saved just as he wanted us to be saved.

The cross where Jesus was crucified took on a new significance whereas before, the cross had been used as an instrument of torture and death in Babylon and Rome. On the cross, Jesus Christ shed His blood as God wanted to rescue us from the dominion of darkness and for Jesus to bring us into His kingdom. On the cross, we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. 

Before, we were enemies of God because of our evil behavior, but now He has reconciled us by Christ's physical body through death to present us holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusations. We have to know, understand and believe what Jesus did for us on the cross. We must humbly come to Him in faith. All our efforts are nothing but Jesus' work is everything, His work on the cross as He declared "it is finished." When it's done we receive full forgiveness of our sins.

The cross of Christ is the bridge between man and God. 

When Jesus breathe His last breath, the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom. For many years before Jesus' death, the most sacred place on earth had been the temple, where the presence of God dwelled behind a thick curtain. Only one person a year, the high priest, was allowed to pass by that curtain and enter the presence of God on one day, the Day of Atonement. At the death of Jesus Christ, the temple curtain ripped from top to bottom, signifying that God had opened his presence to the world through the cross of Jesus.

 " Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV John 14:6)

Pleasure or Joy

Giving time to God in a solitary place is like having a date with Jesus, talking, and being with Him the whole day. The time spent is not in vain. It was confirmed to me today through my daily Bible reading this morning. It is about the joy in our hearts and the passing pleasures in our environment. Despite the storm and the loneliness, I have many reasons to be joyful. Talking to God, asking for His guidance, the faith in Him, and His assurance. I've got joy in my heart. A real joy..complete.

To share with you In the Our Daily Bread article, joy was differentiated from pleasures.

                                                                                                                        

* For a joy that will last, always put Christ first!

*Acknowledgement to Henry Bosch of Our Daily Bread