Lord Jesus Christ's last commandment given to His disciples was to "love one another as I have loved you"

As a Christian born in the only Christian country in Southeast Asia, I came to a point of realization since 1988 when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. It was then that I began questioning the relevance of the fraternity system and its culture, proven to be violent all these years, to the development of man in particular and the Filipino people in general. With a despicably awful track record of deaths due to hazing and fraternity wars, it is therefore important for men, especially my countrymen, to find time and reflect on the relevance of this brotherhood system especially in relation to their coexistence with other sectors of society and to their spirituality.

I dedicate this blog to the victims of all these mess all these years, to all the people especially the love ones of the victims affected by it and to all fratmen who honestly and sincerely desire for genuine change.

This is a challenge to all fratmen. If you so desire to be real men let's therefore face the real problem squarely and act to find the real remedy to it. And since the reasons behind all these conflicts is hatred, it is therefore right to start forgiving because after all most of us are Christians and because it is the right thing to do.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Men... and Fathers

By Joel Ferraris

The realization of the parents' role in protecting their children became apparent to me when I became a father nine years ago. In the past I did not want to have children because, after experiencing a lot of hardships in life not only physically and financially but also emotionally and spiritually, I have seen that the world is a messy place to live in.

I am now in my midlife but I still hear the child in me longing for a peaceful place to live. My only real happiness is that despite the death of my biological father I have finally found my real Father and Almighty God in heaven to guide and protect me. It is therefore right to share this immense wealth of spiritual realization to others, especially young men who themselves will one day become fathers and role models to their children.

I believe that men, like me, are given the chance to see a lot of things and to realize what is the best for them. But the choice of what is best is determined by how they are spiritually awakened and enlightened. Very lucky are those men whose hearts are touched by God the Father Almighty and are given, by His grace, the kind of Wisdom only He grants to those pleasing to His heart.

As children grow into young boys they are prone to become misled amd willing victims to peer groups that peddle wrong ideologies. As a father I have seen and experienced these things and I believe that it is my responsibility to educate my children about the things that are right to keep them away from the things that are wrong. I believe that a father's life is a part of the chain and a link to a past full of errors. It is therefore the responsibility of the father to cut this rusty, unwanted link to give the next generation a better way and outlook of seeing things to live a better life under God the Father Almighty's guidance and protection.

This early, I exhort my sons not to join fraternities because after all there is only one brotherhood in the family of God the Father Almighty. The rest are clear abominations because they have revealed themselves all these years by their fruits.

Since 1988, after my baptism in the Holy Spirit, I have decided to burn my bridges from the past and look forward to a new beginning and I hope that other fratmen will do the same. Goodness is inherent in all of us because we have our conscience installed in us by God the Farther Almighty since we formed in our mother's womb. In the Philippines we enjoy a kind of freedom and general peace and it is therefore a privilege to study deeply the real essence of our faith and apply what we have learned in helping our country out of its current mess.

Kindly read HELPING MEN BE FATHERS

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