Anna M. Aquino

Yesterday in prayer, I felt as if God dropped a revelation deep within me, and I thought I would share today. Matthew 25:1-13 says, "God's kingdom is like ten young virgins who took oil lamps and went out to greet the bridegroom. Five were silly and five were smart. The silly virgins took lamps, but no extra oil. The smart virgins took jars of oil to feed their lamps. The bridegroom did not show up when they expected him, and they all fell asleep. "In the middle of the night someone yelled out, 'He's here! The bridegroom's here! Go out and greet him!' "The ten virgins got up and got their lamps ready. The silly virgins said to the smart ones, 'Our lamps are going out; lend us some of your oil.' "They answered, 'There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own.' "They did, but while they were out buying oil, the bridegroom arrived. When everyone who was there to greet him had gone into the wedding feast, the door was l...

I grew up in a wooded area in rural Northern country. Way behind my parents’ house was a tower. I can only assume at one time it was built for television signals. But as a child it was my marker for home. No matter where we went we knew when we saw that tower with its red lights in the distance we would be home soon. As a little girl my sister and I used to fight over whose tower it was. She’d say it was hers and I’d say it was mine and we’d go back and forth. We’d even hike through the woods on occasion to have a picnic by the tower. My mom called me last week and that tower was torn down. I guess they hadn’t used it for years and so it was decided it would come down. Change is a part of life. It’s a part of our Christian walk too. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” We have to allow that we go through changes in life so ...

I was reading the Message Bible the other day and came across Isaiah 44:13-20. It rang true and I thought I’d share it today. Isaiah 44:13-20 says, “The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel. He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain. Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships—carves it into a god shape and prays before it. With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: "Ah, this is the life." And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design—a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever t...

I have a very fun family. It wasn’t an uncommon sight at my house for someone to be in a water fight or get thrown into the pool. It wouldn’t take long for the fight to spill over onto the entire family at gatherings. You would think anywhere indoors would be off limits, but that thought would be wrong. One of my earliest memories was my dad taking the jug of water that was always kept in the refrigerator to my mom in our living room and pouring it over her head. There was one particular summer there was a water gun war in which I started. I was probably somewhere in my tween years. It started with what was called a “Zap-It” gun. I bought it at our local Meijer store back when the store was so small it was in a plaza. The “Zap-It” gun was this gun that came with ink that would eventually disappear on whatever it would be sprayed on. So for a few weekends I ran around spraying everyone. Then my dad decided he’d go and buy a squirt gun. But my dad doesn’t do anything half way...

If you live in the Central Florida area the story I’m about to share is currently plastered all over the news. However, being that this blog goes all around the world now, I thought I’d share a bit of God news today. On Friday afternoon, 11 year-old Nadia Bloom got lost in the woods. She disappeared and all they found of her was her bicycle. They assumed she was in a very swampy area, but no one was sure. The area they thought she was in was pure Florida swamp. Gators, snakes, and bugs that are big enough to make grown people squirm. The police started looking for her. K-9 units were released. As the days wore on like sandpaper hope was beginning to fade. I can’t imagine as a parent, the fear her parents continued to fight. There are miles of uncharted swamp in this area and the likelihood this little girl was alive was begging to fade. Enter James King on the situation. He is a fellow church member and according to his wife the church is big and she doesn’t think they had ever met the...

Many of you have probably heard me tell this story before, but I felt to repeat it. God called me into ministry when I was in the 6th grade. I struggled with that call for years. The thoughts of my own inadequacy seemed to plague me. It was as if a beacon of questions to God continued to resound in my spirit, and while I tried to run faster than the questions I began avoiding them. I couldn’t figure out why God had called me and what he was thinking. I don’t know if any of you have ever had moments when you felt as if you were wrestling with God but I sure did. I was getting tired of it. Time after time I would bring an excuse of question up to God and time after time He’d answer me. My excuses were becoming like dominoes and they were falling before me. I kept trying to raise them, but I was loosing my struggle and I knew it. I was now a junior in high school and while I still had plans with eventually perusing ministry, internally my questions raged. One of the last doubts I had was ...

I finished reading the book “and the Shofar Blew” by Francine Rivers earlier this morning. The story almost brought me to tears and has brought me do a lot of self reflection today and I thought I’d share. The book is about a young family in ministry. Husband, wife and three year old son moving across country to take over pastorship of a small church. The husband is the son of a well known televangelist with years of father son issues leaving a root of rejection in this upcoming pastor. In his mind he becomes a one man show. This man begins to neglect his wife and son for the sake of building this ministry. He becomes so focused on building up his own kingdom. It was a sad thing to read. He begins to compromise. He doesn’t preach on everything because it offends some people. His wife, His friends, and a precious elder of the church continue to try to talk to him, but his pride gets in the way. Everyone who will not help him to build up this ministry he manipulates to try to r...

Louis Zamperini is a man that most people have probably never heard about, but his story is amazing. I stumbled upon his book Devil At My Heels some years ago while doing research for another book of mine, and then last week I remembered a scene in this story and wanted to hear it again for research for the one I’m writing now. I went to youtube and found various short films on him. For those of you who don’t know about his story it’s amazing. He was born to poor Italian Immigrants in California. His life was heading not too much. He was a punk kid who had run ins with the local police on a regular basis. He discovered a talent for running, and that was what made him begin to do something with himself. At 19 years old he qualified for the historic 1936 Olympics in Berlin. While in Berlin he stole a Nazi flag because he thought it looked cool, and almost spurred an international incident. Met Adolf Hitler before it came known what was really going on in Germany at the time. ...