Jojo Agot

Hello From the Other Side

Just some random thoughts about common grace and the wild success of AlDub and Adele.

In the local scene, Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza did it again, only this time it was much bigger than before. I am sure that I don’t need to belabor the fact that their event at the Philippine Arena was unprecedented. What I am more fascinated about is the reason why we are all going crazy over this two. What were Mendoza and Richards doing in Bulacan anyway? The short answer, I suppose, is that they were falling in love. Or at least they were acting like they were falling in love. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the remarkable proof they give us that love is probably the most compelling force in the world.

Continue reading Hello From the Other Side

Shout-Out to the People I Love

October 24.

There’s so much to be thankful for today. Every time I look back at the last few years of my life, I am amazed at how God brought me here by his grace. My heart overflows with joy right now. King David was right. Who am I that I would be a recipient of much of God’s loving-kindness?

I thank God for giving me one of life’s constant graces: the Agot family. I love this family to bits, especially during those times when we had our bitter fights and we were all sagging under the weight of our strained relationships. This family gives me a living picture of the triumph of grace over sin. Grace wins every time. We remain closely knit until today because God is the one pulling our heartstrings together. Continue reading Shout-Out to the People I Love

This Ginormous Misunderstanding

When people talk about the Holy Spirit today, the conversation usually revolves around the question on spiritual gifts. Is speaking in tongues still operational today? What about prophecies? Why is the baptism of the Holy Spirit weird?

Few years ago, I had a friend who came out of a Victory Weekend session crying. When I asked her what happened, she told me she was scared of the speaking in tongues. She was ready to bolt out and go home but I convinced her to stay and read the Bible with me. We skipped lunch that day as we opened the Scriptures and did some digging about the gifts of the Spirit. She later returned to the afternoon sessions and got baptized the following day. Continue reading This Ginormous Misunderstanding

That Thing That Triggers Your Strongest Reactions

Worship is one of the ultimate themes of this life, regardless of whether you are a religious person or not. Many of us may find that hard to believe but it is true. It is never a question of whether we worship or not because in reality, we do worship someone or something. We simply don’t call it worship. We prefer to use neutral terms like passion, commitment, or focus.

I believe one of the ways we can identify the object of our worship is to see our reaction when it comes up in a conversation. Whatever that thing is, it always triggers our strongest reactions— our greatest joy or fiercest anger. It’s that topic we passionately talk about for hours on end. It is that person or thing that answers this statement: If only I can have ________, then I would finally be happy, or fulfilled, or satisfied. Put another way, it is the thing that if taken away from us, we will be truly devastated. Continue reading That Thing That Triggers Your Strongest Reactions

Why ‘Character Study’ Approach is Problematic

There are many more real-life situations to draw from in the Old Testament than in the New— many more historical narratives that reveal to us men and women who are realistically portrayed, ‘warts and all’, in their encounters with God. But the difficulties we met in the historical narratives of the Gospels and Acts are increased when we come to the Old Testament narratives. We cannot simply transfer the experiences of the past wholesale to today. There are two dangers to avoid in regard to historical narrative: Continue reading Why ‘Character Study’ Approach is Problematic

The Second Greatest Activity in the World

The most crucial issue in missions is the centrality of God in the life of the church. How can people who are not stunned by the greatness of God be sent with the ringing message, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods” (Ps. 96:4)? Missions is not first and ultimate; God is.

All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and his Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world.

Source: John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Academic, 2011) Kindle location 600