PUSO

KUMUSTA ANG PUSO MO?

(my #PUSOexperience at the PUSO CONFERENCE, held on August 20, 2019 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum)

Photo credit PUSO OFFICIAL

Nag attend.

Nabasag.

Nag worship.

Puso conference is nothing short of extraordinary.

In 1996, I attended a global conference called Target:World by Youth With A Mission. It was in that conference, in a humongous tent, in hot and humid Atlanta, Georgia where I committed my life to full-time ministry and to become a missionary. There, God met me, in mind, spirit and heart. I remember also crying out to God, with the desire in my heart to see this kind of a meeting happen again in my home country - the Philippines. My deepest desire, "Lord, make this happen in the homeland. Not anywhere else in the world where we will need to travel so far, crossing the sea and going through immigration, just to experience something like this." 

Through the years that followed, there were moments where I thought I would see it happen again, but they didn't pull through. At some point in 2000, a national congress we called NAYC went underway in planning, but it didn't pull through.

And so, it has been a long, long while since I've last attended a conference that spoke straight to the heart of those in attendance. 
Yung...whoosh, tagos sa puso! The one that hits on target.

Then PUSO Conference happened. Faythe, a young pastor, received this vision for PUSO two years before, and this had been brewing in her heart for that time. In December of 2018, she share this vision to me. It was exciting to think of it. I began to remember when I was in her place, sharing the vision back then about NAYC, to others. So I recognised the heart, the excitement, the hesitation and the yielding. But I also recognised the prospect of it not happening, as I remembered the hurdles that we had to face back in 2000. But I decided that I will not be like those before me, and will support this vision.

And alas, PUSO happened!

On August 20, 2019 history was made.

Photo credit PUSO OFFICIAL

HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT?

1. PUSO spoke to the head and to the heart, and to the spirit and to the soul.

PUSO lived up to its name...it went straight for the heart - front and centre, while at the same time, it ministered to the soul, and enlightened the mind. We do need conferences that speak to the heart as well...so that we can balance what we have in our heads J Knowledge is not enough. We need to connect the knowledge with our heart for a deeper application to life.

Didn't our Lord Himself say, we love Him with all our heart, mind and soul? 

2. PUSO had one focus.

Oftentimes, conferences make you want to go because of the foreign celebrity-status speakers. You'd know from promotions who the speakers are, and that would be a sure pull. However, promotions for the PUSO conference did not have speakers advertised. There was only one person who was the star and the centre of this conference and that was GOD. PUSO promotions was loud and clear who the celebrity speaker was - God. And during the event, it was clearly all about God. 

3. PUSO was local

Speakers were revealed only the moment they stepped on the stage. But what was applaudable was that the speakers were local, no foreign celebrity-status speaker, singer, testimony sharer. Every inch was Filipino. So proud to be Filipino seeing this!

4. PUSO follows through

While conferences reminds us, inspires us and even rebukes us, we often fall short of the mandate passed on to us when we get back to our realities. So soon after attending a conference, you begin to wonder, “What now?” 

"I have all this information and knowledge…what now?"

Here's the thing. Application is easier said than done, especially if a conference has simply scratched the surface. It just inspired you. That's it. You go out smiling from ear to ear....then what? Maybe it even rebuked, pricked on the surface a bit, but that's it. The next day, you are back to "business as usual".

But to really reach in, with a scalpel, to grab the heart and pump it to beat to God’s heartbeat again! We need this. We need the heart surgery, even if it takes a lot of them to transpire. Because we have been so used to piling all the knowledge in our head, and not letting it really reach the depths of our heart, we end up like aliens with big heads strutting around in false self-confidence, too slow to move or respond to the realities of the people around us. Kasi ang bigat na ng ulo!

           

Here's the thing. Oftentimes, we park it in the head. We become content with that. It's comfortable, thus we are not moved. But Jesus wants us to be moved and He wants us to move - mind and heart! 

Because when we do not let the teachings of Jesus move in our hearts then we end up...

...doing ministry like a robot. Power on, power off.

...running the church like a stage or events manager.

...leading in worship, but simply performing for the crowd..

...preaching the Word, which never ministered to yourself first.

...leading a small group Bible study/discipleship, but not being transparent because you're the leader. Just them, not me.

...lacking in passion because the Holy Spirit is not with you in the process.

All head, no heart.

Now here is my experience.

BROKEN

Basag.

I entered the venue expectant that the Lord will move. He always does, I know it, without a doubt. 

Photo credit Jamey Santiago-Manual

December 2018, when the PUSO vision was shared to me by a young, vibrant, passionately on fire for God lady named Faythe. PUSO was but a mustard-seed vision that God had planted in her heart a few months before.

Dun palang naiyak na ang puso ko, the Lord stirred my heart and soul. This is gonna be big, sabi ng Lord, because I (God) will be there!

Lord, gusto ko yan. Work mo yan eh. Sali ako.

I offer myself, my skills, my abilities and my time for this. 

I want to be a part of your work!

"Sure", sabi ni Lord. 

Pero pakiramdam ko, nung sinabi nya yun, may sine-set up sya sa akin. For more than seven months, di mapakali ang puso ko kasi alam ko may gagawin si Lord sa akin. 
I just didn't know what.

Excited, expectant pero kinakabahan ako.

Sure enough, God did something sa akin that night.

He broke me, again. Binasag nya ulit ako…ang puso ko... kasi “kulang pa 'yan anak” (sa words ni Bishop Manny Santiago). "Kulang pa ang pagkabasag ng puso mo for the lost, for the oppressed and for this nation. Kulang pa 'yan anak."

Kaya ayun, inilatag ako ni Lord sa operating table for an open heart surgery.

Not to give me a healed heart, for my heart was healed. I had no  hurts then that needed major healing. But nonetheless, I needed a heart surgery! 
I needed a TRANSFORMED HEART.

Not a healed heart, but a transformed heart!

Woah!!! What? 

Yes, that's what I said to God, too, when I began to fully realize what He was saying.

You see, we may have had our hearts healed - of all the pain and bitterness of the past. Problem is, we have spoiled  our hearts, we have protected it too much from being broken again - even by God! We have kept our hearts in a double-lock safe where no one can ever ever touch it again lest it might get hurt again. Yeah. Kaya lang naging matigas na. It has become calloused. 

The Lord said, "I healed you not to fix you, but to use you for others!"

"God has to break you to build you."

Healed hearts become whole, happy and content. But transformed hearts cannot help but do more with their wholeness and happiness. 

Transformed hearts will begin to feel broken again, but this time for others. 

Transformed hearts will cry again in pain, but for others. 

Transformed hearts will not rest, won't yet be happy and content because until there is a single soul left in this earth that is not won for Him. 

God still mourns. Basag na basag ang puso ng Diyos, kaya ganun din dapat tayo.

Jesus still bears the wounds from His suffering on the cross because the world still suffers.

LOST ALL HOPE

Yung, totoo? 

Dumating ako sa point na nawalan na ako ng pag-asa para mundong ito. Mahirap aminin, but I have lost hope. “Dumating ka na Lord, wala na eh, wala nang pag-asa!” Wherever I look, I see despair, lost beyond redemption. 

Nawalan na din ako ng pag-asa sa kapwa kong mga Kristyano. Nananakit lang eh. Nasaan ang pagbababago na sinasabi nilang ginawa ng Diyos sa buhay nila?

Nangunguna pa sa paninira ng kapwa kristyano, sa kasakiman, puno ng inggit. Porke’t “saved”, kung maka-judge wagas! Pastors backstabbing other pastors. Brothers and sisters in Christ daw, pero attacking one another naman ang hobby, 

Kaya tuwang-tuwa ang kaaway, kasi hindi na nya kelangan mag-effort. Madali na mag-focus nalang sya sa patuloy na paninira sa mundo, kasi yung mga dapat maging agents of peace and reconciliation, messengers of God's love and Gospel ay busy sa sariling mga petty issues. 

God reminded me that night… there is hope, my child! 

Hope is in your heart, you just need this surgery to open it up again for hope to come out, because it has been covered by too much of the good things in life.

God rebuked me...because my heartbeat for what he loves was slowly waning. 

Photo credit PUSO OFFICIAL

And my lenses were cloudy. I lay on the operation table for not just a heart surgery but an eye surgery as well.

Matthew 9:36, they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ... My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, causing them to roam.

How is your heart?

What does our heart beat for? 

PUSO! It takes heart to have the Jesus-kind of compassion.

To get others to JESUS...

Love is the bridge.

Gospel is the answer.

Puso for God.

Puso for others.

Puso for the world.

PUSO.

      

P.S. Okay. I just have to mention the logistics of this conference which was ahhhhmazing! Kahit basag na basag na ako, at may mga hagulgol moments, hindi ko maiwasang mapansin ang sobrang ganda at excellent ng production itself. Sabi nga ni Ruther Urquia, “The Biggest all-filipino organized Christian conference” Woohoo!!!

Kristyanong Pinoy! Kaya natin basagin ang spirit of mediocrity and the spirit of “pwede na yan”, and offer the best of the best, our most excellent offering to our God! Enough of the “walang-kasi-budget-poor-lang-ang-church-and-ang-christians mindset and deliver a world-class conference that will in itself be a testimony to the world who will say “ay Christian pala gumawa nyan? Ang galing!’ and could cause them to say “I want to be part of that”. 
After all, it is not about money or budget, really. The soul that gets saved is priceless, and that could could be yours.

Photo credit PUSO OFFICIAL