Sunday, December 19, 2010

Ask Dennis Dec. 2010: Why is CHRISTMAS significant?

Everyone has their own say on the significance of Christmas. Their opinion ranges from the very material to the very spiritual. LWA explains the biblical significance of Christmas through a poem. Watch the clip below featuring several of the volunteers working at Living Waters Asia:




Thursday, October 14, 2010

ASK DENNIS: What do you say to someone who does not believe in hell's existence?

In sharing the Gospel, we aim to make people realize what danger awaits them if they continue in sin. But what if the person you are trying to convince to evade the danger awaiting him does not believe in the existence of hell? This month's edition of ASK DENNIS will give you two arguments you can use to people who take the principle "To see is to believe" when it comes to that scary place in eternity called HELL.




Wednesday, September 15, 2010

ASK DENNIS: What are the personal benefits for the Christian who shares the Gospel?

The statement, "Evangelism is a difficult task" probably is one of the biggest understatements about the Christian life. We often hear of persecutions of Gospel ministers in countries who are still not open to the truth about Christ. Many Christians who are preaching the Good News in public have suffered ridicule upon ridicule from people who do not understand the danger awaiting them in the afterlife. But despite these sad experiences of our brethren, there are also benefits to be enjoyed by the Christian who faithfully heeds the call of the Great Commission. This month's ASK DENNIS talks of these benefits. We hope this month's edition will be a big encouragement to you.




Monday, August 16, 2010

ASK DENNIS: Why is the modern gospel message unbiblical?

For this month's Ask Dennis, Dennis Mark Y. Aglosolos explains why the modern gospel message that says "Jesus will give you love, joy, peace, fulfillment and lasting happiness" or in short, "God will give you a wonderful life if you will have Him in your life", is NOT Scriptural. Dennis explores the true reason why Jesus came to Earth and how He accomplished the task given Him by the Father.


If you have comments regarding this month's video blog, send them at comments@livingwaters-asia.com. And if you have a question related to evangelism that you want Dennis to answer next, you can email him at AskDennis@livingwaters-asia.com


Friday, July 16, 2010

Is REPENTANCE really necessary?

For this month, Dennis Mark Y. Aglosolos will answer why REPENTANCE is needed in order for God to accept the faith a person is showing Him. Be ready with your pen and paper as this edition of Ask Dennis will give you the verses that will prove the necessity of repentance.




Wednesday, June 16, 2010

ASK DENNIS: Purgatory and how long before one gets to his eternal destination

The concept of an intermediate place between Heaven and Hell like the purgatory has given many people a false of hope of another chance to get things right if in case they fail in their first try to reach God's standard for entry into Heaven. There are also those that spread teachings that say that man, after he dies, has his soul roaming around places for a period of time before he gets to his rightful eternal destination. Both beliefs make getting right with God less urgent for a person.

So what does the Bible really say about these beliefs? This edition of ASK DENNIS exposes the errors of these teachingss.



For your questions related to evangelism, email us at
askdennis@livingwaters-asia.com

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Ask Dennis --- Why Use the Law?

Starting this month, instead of a written article, Dennis Mark Y. Aglosolos will be posting a monthly video of him answering issues in evangelism. If you want Dennis to answer your question, don't hesitate to send it at askdennis@livingwaters-asia.com.

For this month, Dennis will answer why we need to use the Law whenever we are witnessing to the unsaved. We hope that this video will be of help to your evangelism efforts.



And here's a bonus video for you showing how man, on his own, can never be good enough to get to heaven. The video shows that if Jesus' goodness will not be imputed on us, our efforts to be good will only bring us to eternal damnation.



If you want to give your comments to this month's video, send us an email at
comments@livingwaters-asia.com

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Drawing close to God

Can we really accomplish things apart from God? The obvious answer is "NO". He is the power behind every effort we exert in the goal of glorifying Him. Every muscle in our body that works to make us move will not work if God will not cause it to work. Every idea we develop for the advancement of the ministry comes from the Lord and not a product of our intelligence. Gal 6:3 says it so plainly... "For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." Without God we can do nothing.

So if we will never accomplish anything without God, how can we be assured that He will always work through us so that we can accomplish things for Him? The answer is "to draw close to Him". To draw close to Him is to acknowledge our helplessness and our inability to accomplish anything on our own. Our pride will always push God away from helping us. But the opposite happens when we draw near to Him in humility. James 4:6 tells us that "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble". It is His grace that grants us the power to do great things for Him. When we are proud, we sort of tell God that we can do away with Him because we believe that our strengths can easily get us through any challenge.

There's a saying here in the Philippines that goes like this, "Tinutulungan ng Diyos ang tumutulong sa kanyang sarili" (God helps those who help themselves). I remember my late grandfather, Rev. Telesforo B. Yague, Sr., during my childhood years, explained to me that this belief is so erroneous as God helps those who come helpless to Him and not those who appear to be very much capable of doing things on their own. This is so evident, even in the salvation we received from God. Are we saved by our efforts to look good in the eyes of God? No! Ephesians 2:8-9 makes this very clear. It is only by God's grace that we are saved. The same goes for whatever we accomplish in life (or should I say, whatever God allows to be accomplished through us).

So how do we draw close to Him? My answer is by focusing on Him. And how do we focus on Him? By spending intimate and uninterrupted time with Him through the reading of His Word and through prayer. The more we read His Word, the more we hear from Him. The more we spend time in prayer with Him, the more we acknowledge to God how weak we are. I believe that the reason why we hear less of God is because we are too caught with the affairs of this world. Remember how Jesus rebuked Martha for her preoccupation of doing what she thought should be done and how He commended Mary for listening to Him? He was telling Martha that every task must take a backseat when His lips are uttering words. Why? Because His words is life. In Matt. 4:4, Jesus himself declared that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God". It is His words that make us alive! Imagine how full of life every Christian will look if all of us would just keep our mouths shut for even just a while so that we can hear what God wants us to understand about Him.

That's what happened to us when we (the people behind Living Waters Asia) recently spent almost a whole day in prayer and fasting. Oh, the things God made us realized when we allowed Him to speak to us! God really exposed our hearts and showed us the things we've been doing that we never thought was so displeasing to Him. He also impressed to our hearts what other things He wants each of us should be doing for Him when all along, we thought that we were already doing everything He wants us to do. Not only that. He also strengthened us to do more for Him and in fighting sin in our lives. All of these things we experienced just because we stopped and gave God the microphone for about 16 hours.

But I believe, the power to do things for God we receive is not the biggest benefit of drawing close to Him. I have proven during the weekend we prayed and fasted that the greatest benefit of keeping ourselves close to God is the satisfying experience of feeling more of His presence and seeing more of His glory. Nothing could ever beat that. When God's presence and glory is so evident, you can't get enough of it. You want more. Do you understand what I'm saying? You are so satisfied and yet you can't get enough of Him. That's what's great when He is close to you. That's the reason why you are able to forget hunger when you are praying and fasting. He becomes everything for you when He is close. You will understand why Moses wanted to still see God's face when He was already talking to Him in person in Exodus 33 once you get even a small taste of His glory.

A lot of Christians sadly are seeking to be satisfied with material things when the very Source of satisfaction is already in them. The Psalmist expressed very well what is in store for us when we are in His presence... "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Psalm 16:11). Oh, if just all of God's children will seek His face!

If you want to give your comments to this month's article, send us an email at
comments@livingwaters-asia.com



Monday, March 15, 2010

Results or Obedience

Here's a question for everyone--- In your effort to share the Gospel, what is more important? Results or your obedience to the Great Commission?

In a world that gauges success by business principles, most would answer that results are more important than one's obedience to God's call for every Christian to share the Gospel. And so, evangelism success is measured by numbers. How often do we hear in our churches, after a whole afternoon of street evangelism, reports like "Christian X was able to lead 5 people to Christ making our conversion total to 30 for this afternoon." In evangelism crusades, the number of commitment forms gathered from people that went forward to the altar when the invitation was given is the basis for the success of the event. I once heard of a Bible seminary that requires its students to lead a certain number of people to Christ every semester. Someone I know who went to that seminary told me that students, out of desperation to reach that number, would cheat their records so that they will not have to be punished for not reaching the target.

"Professions of faith" have become the more important thing instead of changed lives caused by the Gospel. And so, churches have focused on bringing people in their services even if the means are unbiblical. If numerical results are gained by making the Gospel message less offensive (but in truth, less effective), then that's what is done. There are even churches that have succumbed to the temptation of conforming to the ways of this wicked world out of a deep desire to show numerical results to others. To make matters worst, they would carelessly declare the people whom they've coaxed to attend their services as Christians just because they have attended the church several times already. And what have Bible seminaries done to add to the injury? They've replaced subjects dealing with doctrine with subjects that deal with marketing the church.

Was Jesus concerned about numbers when He was doing His ministry on Earth? I don't think so. If He was then he should have quickly led the rich young ruler to what we call today as "the sinner's prayer" when the later asked, "How can I have eternal life?" instead of showing him how he has failed the first of the Ten Commandments (Matt. 19:16-22). The encounter ended with the rich young ruler leaving Jesus because he could not bear the thought of him selling his possessions to give to the poor. If Jesus was all about getting the attention of people so that He had numbers to show His critics to prove that He had followers, then he should not have told one person he had healed not to tell others of what He did to him (Mark 1:40-45). If Jesus was all about selling Himself as a charismatic leader worthy of people's affection, then He should not have called His audience "vipers" one time when He preached (Matt. 12:34). Clearly, Jesus was more concern about the inner change that could take place in a man's life if he repents.

Results are good if they really are the results we're hoping to have. A big congregation will be something to be happy about only if everyone in the church have been truly converted to Christianity, proof of which are changed lives. Honestly, will we be happy about numbers if most of the people in our churches whom we've cleverly brought to our services someday still end up in Hell? I don't think so.

This is the reason why I believe, obedience is more important than results. How should obedience be reflected? First, in heeding Christ's call for all of us to be engaged in sharing the Gospel. I completely agree with Ray Comfort when he once said that "the success of our evangelism program should not be measured by the professions of faith we generate but instead, by the number of Christians in our churches that join the pastor in sharing the Gospel." Come to think of it. If I want to report to my pastor that I was able to lead someone to Christ, I can pressure anyone to follow me in prayer even if he/she is not sincere about it. Or in a crusade, I can tell everyone to follow me in a simple prayer of "acceptance". I then ask everyone who followed the prayer to raise their hands, I count every hand raised, and there you go, I have numbers. C'mon! The Bible says that it is "by their fruits that we shall know them" and not by their raised hands.

We must also realize that obeying God's command for us to share the Gospel to the unsaved with us putting no pressure on ourselves to deliver results gives God the glory if ever a soul experiences conversion. Preoccupation with us delivering numerical results is another way of saying that it is us that saves and not God.

Second, we must be obedient (and faithful) to Christ's way of sharing the Gospel. Biblical evangelism has always been "Law to the proud, Grace to the humble." If I will just give grace to everyone I witness to even if that person is self-righteous, I will just set that person to the path of destruction unknowing to him. People should be shown how they have offended God with their sins if we really want them to repent of their sins. It is only after they have seen how wicked they are that they can appreciate the grace of God.

It will be great to have both results and obedience seen in our Christian walk. But we should realize that (true) results do not come all the time. Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost and three thousand got saved. Not the case with Noah though. He preached for so many years before the flood and yet, he had only his family to show as results of his preaching. But we can be obedient to God at all times. Obedience always brings delight to God. But the numbers we call "results" do not impress God all the time, simply because, most of the time, they're just that, numbers. So in the debate of results vs. obedience, it's a no contest. Obedience to God must always be the focus.

If you want to give your comments to this month's article, send us an email at
comments@livingwaters-asia.com



Monday, February 15, 2010

Reaching the rich and powerful

Mark 10:25 tells us that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. This verse gives the reality of the difficulty of reaching the rich, and also the powerful and famous, for Christ. If you've come across rich and powerful people and got to know them more closely, you will find out that their power and wealth give them a false security. You may not hear them directly saying this, but you will observe that the worldly things they have make them less interested with spiritual things.

This does not mean though that we should not anymore try reaching these people to Christ. Jesus died for them too. If they die without Jesus' righteousness imputed on them, their wealth and power will not be able to buy them a ticket to Heaven (Prov. 11:4). And so, we should try our best to deliver the Gospel to them.

Prayer, as always, will play a significant role if you do want to reach them. Why? Getting to them will be a big challenge. You can't just expect a very rich and powerful person to give you an appointment just because you ask for one. You have to pray for that opportunity to come. I believe that prayers for opportunities like this is something God enjoys answering. The Bible says that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us (1 John 5:14), and it is very clear that God is not willing that any should perish (including the rich and famous) but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). So if we ask for an opportunity to share the Gospel to basically anyone, that is in line with God's will and we can be sure that He will hear us. In the past 3 years, I have prayed for opportunities to share the Gospel to rich and powerful people from the president of the Philippines to Manny Pacquiao, the boxing pound-for-pound king. All the opportunities I'm asking have not arrived yet, although God has allowed me to give out tracts to a few of them like sports and TV personalities. I'm confident that God will someday give that one chance for people I'm praying for to hear the Gospel. I really don't care if that will be through me or through another Christian as long as they hear the Gospel.

Once given the opportunity, we must be sure that we do not preach a prosperity gospel to this people. Please be reminded that they have everything that they want in life and any more prosperity promises you give them will just make you foolish in their eyes. And "NO", they don't have a God-shaped hole in their heart that only God can fill. What they have is the same as what any person has--- a wicked heart that God hates looking at. And so, it is crucial that our presentation focuses on man's standing in front of a just and holy God. If you can make them understand that despite their wealth and power, they don't look lovable to God's eyes because of their sins, they have all the reason in the world to listen and consider what you are telling them. The Gospel will appear very desirable to them once you've made them understand their true state before God.

Then after that, continue praying for them.

In the past 5 months, God has given me opportunities to deliver the Gospel to the rich and famous. The picture above is an example. Last December, God allowed me to be in the same restaurant wash room as former actor and politician, Rey Malonzo. I'm not a fan of his or his martial arts skills but when I bumped into him, I appeared as starstruck as I can so that I can hand him a Milion Dollar bill tract. I was so happy to see him later in the lounge of the restaurant reading the tract. Just a week ago, I handed a congressman from Bulacan a Giant Money tract which he really liked when we shot a video of him giving his well wishes to graduates of the school I work at. I also wrote a letter each to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet explaining their need for Christ. I have no knowledge if the letters reached them, but I'm praying that God would make a way for them to read my letters.

Maybe you also know some rich and powerful person out there. They also need Christ just like all of us. You can do something to deliver the Gospel to them. All it takes is a little initiative. Yes, the camel has a better chance of passing through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter into Heaven. But we can help them. Let's give them a little push.

If you want to give your comments to this month's article, send us an email at
comments@livingwaters-asia.com



Friday, January 15, 2010

A Time to Wake Up

Year 2010, the start of a new decade. Despite that it’s another new year, life is, for all of us, still uncertain, in terms of what will happen on a daily basis. Looking back at 2009, we can’t help but be amazed with how many times we woke up to something that either surprised us or shocked us. Life can truly be described with one word… UNPREDICTABLE.


This early in 2010, God has again demonstrated how shocking the next day could be. Just days ago, the country of Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Buildings and houses collapsed that trapped and killed tens of thousands of people. Up to this time, thousands are still trapped in fallen buildings and houses, hoping that rescuers would come and save them. Not even the presidential palace of the country was spared, a testament that man’s power cannot counter God’s power. In light of what occurred in Haiti, let’s see what God could be telling each of us.


To the non-believer, God is showing you how He can just end life for you. No matter how strong the fortitude you call your home may be, if He decides that He has given you enough time already to get right with Him and you did not, your precious life can’t be safe from the timetable of God in terms of when you’ll have to leave this world. The event that happened in Haiti shouts at you, “You could be the next one to die!”



In the private school that I help manage, there was one graduating high school student that experienced how life could just end in a blink. 2009 was almost over. Their class was already preparing for their annual Christmas party and looking to March 2010 when all of them will finally graduate from high school. But the party and the graduation never arrived for this student. On his way home driving his classmate’s motorcycle, in a matter of seconds when he felt the need for speed, they crashed against a vehicle that caused him to fly from his ride hitting another vehicle coming from the other lane of the road. He was rushed to a hospital but to no avail as life ended for him after two days. How I wish he listened and made a decision to get right with God the morning he was involved in that accident when I preached for the nth time the Gospel to our students.


To the atheist, God could be introducing Himself to you. For a long time now, you have denied His existence but instead, tried to explain how everything began using science. And what do you have to show for? Still a declaration that somewhere out there is the “missing link” that will prove your point.


This was not the first time God made Himself a reality to you. Remember the complexity of the DNA. That’s God telling you that He’s real. Remember how you were confronted by the fact that the eye has 137 million light sensitive cells each with its own purpose for the eye to function correctly which you and Darwin concede its development is so difficult to explain via the theory of evolution? Well, that’s God showing how intelligently He has designed the eye. Do you want more? Then look at yourself? Do you honestly believe that with all your intelligence and abilities, you just developed randomly from a simple organism and that your nearest ancestor is an ape? Look at yourself at the mirror now. Do you now see God? You should for the Bible tells us that we were created in His own image. And the quake at Haiti? Can’t you see how the science-oriented man with all its bragging of how great he is, up to now, has not found a way to prevent these natural disasters every time God decides to step in to wake us up a little from our failure to recognize His existence? Unless you accept the reality of God now, you will someday have no doubt that He is really there when He in person brings His judgment to you on that scary day.


To the Christian, God could just be simply telling you to “Wake up!” From what? From our failure to do our duties of worship to Him, to live a holy life, and to preoccupy ourselves in telling others of the Gospel. You have lived a double life. You’re God’s child but after some time living like one, you have decided to play with this sinful world. Yes, you still go to church from time to time and still pray, especially when things aren’t going well for you. But have you truly loved the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength all your Christian life? When was the last time you really cared enough to tell another person about his true state in front of a powerful, just and holy God and how His judgment to a sinful man could be evaded? How dare you call yourself a “Christian” when all that is important to you is yourself. See the quake at Haiti. It calls you to once and for all live like a true child of God.


And finally, to the modern Gospel preacher, God is shouting at you, “My judgment is scary!” You have been preaching only half of what God is for a long time now. You only talk of His love and never about how He hates sin and how one day He will pour down his wrath on man’s transgression of His moral standards. And because you only preach half of the truth of God, you really never declared the truth in the first place. People who should have been walking now on the road to glory, because of your erroneous gospel preaching, are making their way to destruction. And what did you get in return for your irresponsible preaching? You have fame, you have wealth and you have man’s adulation. You’ve made your belly full and you’re not about to change things because of these. The cries of the nation of Haiti is God shouting at you for you to straighten up your message or else the blood of the sinful He will charge at you.


Time is so not on our side. The signs of the times prove this. Unless we wake up now, we will someday have the unenviable experience of waking up to God’s judgment. So wake up now!


If you want to give your comments to this month's article, send us an email at
comments@livingwaters-asia.com