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Thank you for the sorrows - Preacher in exile
The following is an account of systematic attempts to destroy the credibility of the most fearless preacher hereabouts. With faith in his heart, however, he says he cannot stop, delete nor add towhat he is supposed to say. NEVERTHELESS, he thanks his enemies because their persecution has led him to foreignshores and from there, he found many thirsting for truth. With people wanting him dead, he stillgoes on with the work of salvation.
By Jane Abao
Salamat po, gracias, obrigado, arigato,Merci, xie xie, do jeh, ta, danke, terima kasih,Grazie, kamsa hamnida, spasibo,Mahalo, merci beaucoups,Thank you.
Thank you may go to a person who did a good job, for one who had a bright idea, for one whohas rendered us something. Thank you may be said to a person who has helped us, saved us, hadcomforted us. Thank you may be given to one who had fixed problems for us.There are many reasons we can be thankful for - our lives, the air we breathe, the food we eat,the water we drink, the sunshine in the morning, the birds that chirp, the blue skies above. Rarelydoes it come upon our mind that these things should be thanked for – and to whom it should begiven. Sadly, too, there are people that do not know how to give thanks.Taken to another level, people normally give thanks to other people, but not to God. There is agroup that does not thank their peers. They thank God instead – one they recognize as the sourceof all good things – power, strength, talents, life. They realize that they are nothing without God.They do not thank each other; they thank God. While you can hear others say, alleluia, praiseGod, to them it is almost always, Thanks be to God. As almost everybody gives thanks to people,they also thank them only for what is pleasurable.Again, we have this same group of people that thank God even for misfortunes, even for disasters in their life. They know that these misfortunes are but blessings in disguise. They maynot understand what it is at the moment, but later on, at the end of the day, they can findsomething good. All of these strange and new behaviors are part of the paradigm taught in theMembers Church of God International led by Bro. Eliseo Soriano.Take the case of someone who got mad and wrote on the walls with his feces. When theJapanese forces came, they sent him out of the camp as he was crazy – a liability and not anasset. Sometime after that, the place was bombed. Result: he would have died in that place. Helived to tell the story - and thank God he had become crazy.
 
A matronly woman was troubled that the boys didn’t wake up early to drive her to the busstation. She was hurrying, hurrying, but the boys slept like dead logs and rose up only in their own sweet time. Result: she had to take the next trip then to the province, much to her consternation because her mission was urgent. While on their way home, they passed through thescene of an accident. The first bus that she wanted so much to catch in the early morning fell intoa deep ravine where many died.Some thank God for their deprivations in life – physical, material, financial, or otherwise, for it isthese things that have allowed them to have a consciousness of a loving and comforting Creator.Poverty, for example, or similar deprivations, has honed some to be patient and be understandingand tolerant of others. Discrimination in the justice system is one thing difficult to understand;more so when judges who are supposed to dispense with justice are the very ones selling justiceto the highest bidder. When this syndrome gets installed as the very system obtaining, wherewould one go for reprieve but to God?There are yet so many reasons to thank God for, even in instances where everything seems ugly because there can be a way out. When Martial Law was declared in the Philippines, studentleaders were being hounded for their past activities in denouncing the repressive government.One was placed under house arrest by the Southwest Command of the military for a number of months. What was she thankful for? That she was placed under arrest for her political opinions.And the rest is history.Thank you is a word we merely forget to appreciate but it means a lot. The case of Cain killinghis brother Able just because of jealousy over God’s appreciating his brother’s thankfulness is acase in point. The shock the story provides points to the sanctity of God and the importance of  being grateful to Him as expressed in one’s behavior. To give thanks is some sacred duty manhas to perform properly. You do not merely say, “thank you.” Your heart has to be pure and goin tandem with your thankfulness.The people of God in the Church of God thank Him through regular activities. In the Philippineswhere the Central Administration is based, weekly thanksgivings are held every Saturday as areInternational Thanksgivings every quarter of the year. Hook-up monitoring is made possible inlocal chapters all over the country for those who could not go to the Convention Center in Apalit,Pampanga, north of Manila. It is the same with the many Church chapters abroad.The Members Church of God International more popularly known as Ang Dating Daan (ADD)celebrates its thanksgiving days through songs of praise and the rendering of biblical topics bythe church leaders. Individually and in groups, the celebrants express thanks. As normally done,Bro. Daniel Razon would speak on management matters first, updates the congregation of Church development and projects, and then gives an introduction to the topic for the day to bediscussed by Bro. Eliseo Soriano. Razon is the Vice Presiding Minister of the congregation whilethe latter is the Presiding Minister.According to Bro. Eli, thankfulness is part of the prophecy for God’s people mentioned inJeremiah 30:19 – 
 
 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
(KJV)Interacting with the God Almighty, day in and day out, it is not surprising to be hearing themembers thank God instead of persons. Hence, instead of saying thank you to the person givingthem something, they say, Thanks be to God! As in the language of text messaging, it isTnxb2G! To those outside of the church, however, these people simply say, thank you.
Big Mouth: embracing a Jeremiah 26:2 role
Today, in the Church of God, they thanked again The Almighty for Big Mouth’s 46th year of service. Big Mouth is Bro. Eli – the nemesis of false prophets. His enemies call him that for sheer envy. They even draw the figure of a big mouth to go with their tirades. However, asevents prove it, the more they try to destroy him, the more he gets highlighted for his work of salvation. The congregation thanked God for all these miseries Big Mouth is reaping – the veryones that that have driven him away to far-away lands where God has opened the West entirelyto his preaching.People may not like what Bro. Soriano is saying, but he says he gets backing from the scriptures.And God said, I will give you a mouth that others cannot assail – this, much Bro. Soriano hasfaith in. Loathed by some, it is the very instrument in the propagation of His words in the Westas it was done in the East. Consider Luke 21:15 – 
 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.
(World English Bible).With the resultant court troubles he reaps, it is clear that it takes guts to expose preachers whofool people, and the willingness to be a tool for truth. As no other preacher is following his track  but his ministers, it is also clear that people would rather keep quiet to save their tails and stayfree from trouble. However, for one given a commission, it definitely is not the same. That hehas to say what there is to say in his crusade for truth is apparent from his embracing a Jeremiah26:2 role. However, understanding this role and even what he is doing is not everybody. Asstated in the bible, only the wise shall understand. In Daniel 12:10 -
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand 
(KJV)
False prophets revealed
An understanding of the work of Bro. Soriano is necessary to understand these protractedconflicts with others that continue to grow and remain ever blooming. The framework fromwhich he operates may be summed up in some distinct verses in the bible although repeated in somany forms. Two of these are the following: Proverbs 28: 4 and Jeremiah26:2. The former speaks of contention and the latter, of not deleting nor adding a word.
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