Jun P. Espina 8 min read
Updated on September 7th, 2024
Welcome to My Blog
I struggled to understand the meaning of death—why do people die?—for three years after I witnessed a loved one, my father, stop breathing. A pastor friend told me the answer to my quest is found in Hebrews 9:27, where it says death is an appointment.
It happened after I asked a co-employee, a ranking Catholic nun, who—just like me—didn’t know death’s meaning. She just told me to find an answer from the church’s tradition.
“Sister,” I said, “please give me Bible, not church; give me the truth, not tradition.” She walked away.
The pain caused by embracing a dying father at age 49 did not go away until I was told that death is God’s appointment.
I checked the Bible myself and found the verse. “What kind of Book is it?” It moved me.
This truth affected me both intellectually and emotionally. I wanted to know more.
So, I attended church, listened to just one sermon, and got saved. I was born again in 1984.
I experienced the courage to keep on keeping on—until today! All the things I did for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—all the posts I wrote about Him—got their starting point from this story.
Hi there! I’m Jun P. Espina. Welcome to my blog. I’m interested in living a peaceful life. I hope we agree to this campaign.
Gathering . . .
We can move forward only by gathering the facts that stagnate our being and life journey. Transformation follows information. We have a joyful advantage in Christ. More information . . .
Writing . . .
Writing to those seekers of life’s real meaning is both a privilege and a challenge, given people’s appetite for fiction books and legends. This blog aims to inform its readers…
Understanding . . .
We know all the roots of our peace and happiness, but we are just unwilling to trade our preconceived principles against ourselves. Remember the treasure to be found in Christ!
Hello! I’m Grateful That You Came to My Website
OVER 30 YEARS ago, I asked myself how to cure boredom, aimlessness, and the fear of the unknown, such as losing a livelihood, family, or sound health. For three decades, almost all my acquaintances were careless about these issues—most of them didn’t even bother about the reality of our coming death. The thought of dying had not crossed their minds for decades. I wrote books and created this website for the same purpose of giving people the courage to move forward—the education to brave the unknown. Read More ►
“Depression (major depressive disorder),” according to the American Psychiatric Association, “is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act.” Christ’s promised light has helped many depressives rebound and become positive about this life and the things to come. I have a book on “Born Again Christ’s Version: Understanding the Biblical Born-Again Experience“. It contains biblical meditations and messages for the soul searching for the Book of Truth and God’s faithful presence in life. Read More ►
The family institution is the unit of society. The problem is radical leftism, wokeism, communism, and other “isms” hating what is God-ordained. The goal of the Luciferians is the abolition of the family. I wrote, The Biblical Blueprint to Keep the Family: Saving the Family from Radical Leftism as civilization—more so in the West—gets so shaken already by relativism, radicalism, and atheism. This book deals with biblical precepts concerning the family and the major globalists’ goal to abolish the family. Read More ►
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The Courage to Move Forward Despite Obstacles
LINKS: Overcoming Adversities by the Power of God. EBook / Paperback
Grit is a word used to describe a trait that brings both passion and perseverance into service. It “is a personality trait possessed by individuals who demonstrate passion and perseverance toward a goal despite being confronted by significant obstacles and distractions.” The problem with psychology is that it does not acknowledge the fact that human nature has a spiritual dimension to it—the mysterious in us if you will. Your spiritual side should mold your courage to move forward despite obstacles.
You can hinge on the theory that grit is the most reliable gauge to predict a person’s career, not his IQ (or other “Qs” like EQ and SQ). Most industry leaders believe that what they need is a person who has a high “Adversity Quotient” or grit score. But the strength and courage to move forward are not just built on your fortitude (mental strength), but the sense of dependence on Someone Bigger.
I had a friend in college who thought he had mental superiority over all of us. He told me his goal was to be president. After passing the bar, he entered politics, and by his early 40s, he committed suicide.
He had grit, okay, but life has a mysterious something, its spiritual side, that you need to appease. Whatever resolve that has encouraged you to move forward, you must never neglect God in your pursuit of whatever level of achievement you desire.
How to be Found in Christ to Have the Courage to Move Forward Despite Obstacles?
LINKS: Born Again Christ’s Version. EBook / Paperback
Old age is a different stage in life since you don’t care so much anymore if you will be accepted socially or not. You have a sense of being a throwaway. But the courage to move on, albeit slowly, remains ablaze in your heart when you have hope in God. As Christ said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
How to be found in Christ to have the courage to move forward despite obstacles? Well, the difference between genuine Christianity and the mere positivism (or call it “grit”) embraced by most non-Christians lies in how we give value to a successful achievement. In Christianity, we always dare to move forward in the strength of Christ. Success—of whatever nature—is not our God. It is not everything.
Our struggles to beat the odds of life are always based on our hope in our Lord’s intervention and will. And faith in the gospel can only find us in Christ. It is how we draw our courage to move forward despite unthinkable difficulties. First, we trusted Christ and gave our souls to Him by faith. Then, we entrusted every aspect of our lives to His loving arms.
It is born-again Christianity that keeps us moving forward. The apostle Paul wrote: “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13-14) “I press on toward the goal… the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
How to Have the Courage to Move Forward When the Problem Involves the Family?
LINKS: Biblical Blueprint to Keep the Family. EBook / Paperback
All you care for in this world is yourself and your loved ones. But after your funeral—after their weeping and mourning—all your family will return to the Internet, and they will slowly accept their sense of loss as a fact of life. Your wife will meet her friends on Facebook again, with her fingernails well-trimmed and her hair newly colored. Let your courage to move forward grow organically in your heart, insulated from the inroads of family opinions. That is where you and your Lord Jesus have to make headway in life in a manner of an alliance.
The family is just the nesting place to grow either the seed of peace or chaos. The Christian family—where Christ is Lord—is proven to produce more balanced and successful children. But the devil hates the Christian family. So he sought the help of the government to ban the Bible in schools and to call the Bible truth hate speech. The parliaments of the world support and celebrate sodomy and the LGBT, while they see Christianity at home as repugnant and, therefore, needing a violent break and disruption by legitimizing abortion and divorce.
As the world has drifted into the last days, we should have the courage to move forward through the keeping of God and not the uncertain and corrupt model of the post-Christian family.
The Courage to Move Forward by Dependence on the Word of God
LINKS: Christian Teachings Revisited. EBook / Paperback
We are taught at home and in school, and by our own experiences, observations, and self-discoveries. We are always schoolkids at the university of life. The courage to move forward in the face of obstacles or even tragedies in life always depends on our knowledge or estimation of the amount of pain required to achieve our goals.
The thought of facing more pain, unless you move forward, will drive you to act and stay out of your comfort zone. The Russians supported Putin, for example, because they didn’t care about the war with Ukraine. But when their president ordered their children to fight in the war, they were enraged and went to the streets, and they were never afraid of Putin anymore. The principle is the same: it was more painful to fight the war than to fight Putin. Our decision to move forward in life works like that.
As Christians, our resolve to go ahead with our life goals highly depends on our understanding of the Word of God. We will never embark on a journey we are ignorant about. Therefore, biblical Christian teaching always helps us muster our courage to keep going in life.
The Courage to Move Forward Should Not be Based on the Wrong Interpretation of the Scriptures
LINKS: Pentecostalism, Its Theology & the Charismatic Chaos Revisited. EBook / Paperback
Some use the Holy Bible as a device to strengthen their organization or church. The Catholics went as far as selling salvation by quoting the Scriptures. False teaching happens because, if it were a product, it would have consumers. Paul said some loved having their ears tickled with myths. (2 Tim. 4:3-4) From the rubble of your painful past, you need the pure juice of the truth from the Holy Bible to move forward in life. Be very sure you are not feeding your soul with false doctrine.
The incubator for myths and fables of the Christian community is “signs and wonders.” Wonderment is a part of human life because we are created in God’s image, who is a miracle worker. The devil, however, wants to show off his miracle skills too, to deceive, if possible, the children of God.
Christ said,
They say most cults have been founded by leaders who love to say, “Jesus spoke to me.” Although we cannot stop our Lord from speaking with you, as He did with the apostle Paul, the Bible has been completed, and everything about our faith in Christ is found there. The insinuation that God speaks with you because you are more spiritual and holy than your community poses a grave problem. You cannot move forward in life on that doctrinal foundation.
Some stayed on their verandas alone late during the night, hoping for Christ to come and speak to them. But our Lord has already spoken about this fanaticism. He said, “‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.’ And He left them and went away.” (Matt. 16:4)
Never exchange your physical study of the Bible with false teachings that tickle your ears.
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Jun, I’m pleased to read your blog and rejoice in the Name of Jesus. Jeremiah 10:6 is my praise to God today : “No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your Name is mighty in power.” – a good meditation. I’m reading a wonderful book by R.A.Torry called, How To Pray. It is an old book but worthy of your time. You can find it on-line for free, I think. It is in the library of my Bible software. I’m living in a corrupt culture and in a country that is experiencing judgment, and it is difficult, but to the Cross of Christ I cling and find my peace. I’ve been quoting 1 Cor 1:18 to people who reject the Word of God. We recently left a Baptist church we were serving in and returned to a non-denominational church that is thriving and not dying. The Pastor had an issue with my wife who stated that tithing is not in the NT and has been replaced by giving. And, it went down the hill from there. The way he expressed himself was not proper. I do pray for him and that church but will not worship with them again. Now, we are looking for ways to serve the LORD in our new church home. I hope you are well and taking care of yourself. May the blessings of the LORD always be yours. Rick Clough
Rick, you really are exceptional as a Christian. Because of your encouragement, I compiled into a book my Facebook posts that were written because you told me we needed to share (distribute tracts, so to speak) the gospel. Thank you for your positive comments.