Going back to move forward

*cough* *cough* pfftt!! No worries, I’m not sick. I’m just trying to dust this place. Wow, it’s been more than a year since we’ve been able to check on each other. Time really flies. Now this is not necessarily an update post, we can do some of that in the next few weeks. But let’s talk about what’s really in front of us.

People, there’s a virus out there! I know, this came super fast and we’re having to adapt very quickly to a new normal. From someone who doesn’t like change, trust me is not easy.

Now, I must admit, that the last year of my life was a training for quarantine. Right now, my mom is in the hospital and although I’m concerned for her; I’m technically just responsible for me right now. My heart goes out to all of you with big families having to balance many things.

Everyone is getting how to’s on taking care of yourself physically, but let’s not forget that we’re not solely a body; we also have a mind and soul. Let me try to give you some pointers on how not to lose it right now. (I need them more than you)

  • Stay away from the news! – Now, I’m not going to tell you to not be up to date with what’s going on. We must know what’s happening. From experience, when something big is going on, I start binge watching news outlets, and searching through social media during commercials. I’m obsessive and crazy, but you already knew that. That’s not going to help you. That’s not going to keep you or your family any safer. Restrict your diet of news to once or twice a day to catch an update and do something else the rest of the time.
  • Try something new or finish something old – Keeping ourselves busy helps with not dwelling into our anxiety thoughts. The actress Gwyneth Paltrow said she’s learning a new language. I had started that before the crisis. I’ve been relearning French for the last 4 months. If you’re interested, there’s an app, Duolingo, that makes that possible for free, just 15 minutes a day. If that’s not what interest you, go to that pile of books that you were going to read one day, the book you were going to write, the diy project that has been on hold; watch cartoons. Resurrecting this blog is one of mine, lol
  • Fill your life with music. I haven’t met someone who doesn’t like music. If you don’t like music, there’s something wrong with you, go fix yourself! Music allows us to connect our spirits with something higher than us. Now listen to something uplifting and not chaotic or depressing. That will defeat the purpose. Below I share one of my favorite songs.
  • Remember who you are – Try to connect to that part of you that has conquered challenges in life. For my fellow believers, I had to go back to the Word and remind myself the promises of God.

After reading this I remembered how many times my life has been in danger and how God has delivered and protected me every single time. He’s still God and in the throne. What shall I fear?

  • Be wise! – Not being afraid doesn’t mean to forfeit wisdom. Stay your happy self at home. Wash your blessed hand. Worship at home. God is not in a building, it’s in YOU!
  • Stay connected– Social isolation is really a bad term. It should be named physical isolation. Again, keep your happy self at home and away from anyone who doesn’t share your address. But make phone calls, have family meetings via web conference, write a snail mail. Connect, connect, connect.

We’re in a time in which we need to take a step back from pushing through the grind, to place ourselves in perspective, so that we can move forward in an emotional and spiritually healthier way.

Stay safe my beloved. God Bless!

Naty

Arguing About Faith on Social Media

I was having an interesting exchange with a gentleman on social media the other day. His wife had responded under an article regarding debating with people in social media about values. Her position was that she felt that defending her values and point of view was basically was she was called to do.

I decided to reply. I had recently read Proverbs 23:9 “Do not speak to fools, internet 3for they will scorn your prudent words”. No, I didn’t just post this scripture and moved on. I said that after reading this I had changed my point of view.I explained that sometimes I felt like defending my values in social media, but I took a step back and started observing before speaking. I realize that there are people who like to say outlandish things just to get a raise out of others and actually enjoy debating with people just for the fun of it. While your blood pressure rises, they are laughing on the other side until they burn you out and they move to the next victim. The exchange is futile and fruitless.

I shared my experience and observations. I said that I had opted for demonstrating my values and beliefs in my daily life. I post things I wish to share and if anyone approaches me I’m always willing to share my testimony. That arguing in social media, in my opinion was not an effective tool of evangelism. That’s when the fun began.

Her husband came to the thread and asked me why was I against people speaking about God publicly? He said that my scripture was out of context and that I was trying to impede the furthering of the Gospel. For a little over an hour, that I will never get back, I attempted to explain to him that I was doing nothing of the sort. Until a light finally went off and realized that I should have followed my own advice to begin with and I walked away.

One of his challenges was that we as Christians needed to defend God. I honestly laughed. Me, little human dirt is going to defend the Alpha and Omega, Almighty God. Yes, to me it was funny. God doesn’t need defending in my mind. As far as I’ve read in the bible, he’s asked us to remain in his Word and love others while speaking the truth in love. He’s asked us to defend, protect and provide for the orphan, the widows and the needy. I haven’t found a single request to defend him. If someone has the scripture I’m always open to learn something new.

As I was meditating about this post I remembered that he doesn’t even ask us to defend ourselves.

  • In Matthew 5:39 Jesus tells us, “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek”
  • Then in Luke 12: 11-12 “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
  • Matthew 10:19 “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say”

Yes, 2 Timothy 4:1-22 tells us “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, grandmawho is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. ..”

So yes, we are called to reprove and rebuke…but keep reading; it says with complete patience. It calls us to be sober minded, and endure suffering. How much teaching can we provide when we’re spending our energy defending our points of view? How do we model Christ in our interactions; face to face or online   ? How attractive (and by that I don’t mean putting a dog and pony show) are we making the Gospel to the lost? Does my life shows something that they would want for theirs?internet

I have to ask that myself that every day to stay focus into what God has called me to do.

Be blessed

Not just serve, but how to serve

serving We are no looking at:

Romans 12:11-13 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

 

When we serve we need to check our attitudes and motives in check. We start a new service assignment with excitement, like all new things. At the beginning we are learning the ropes, then we go through the phase of knowing our roles and probably improving our service. But like everything in life, not every moment is a happy and stable one. We will run into moments of discontent, burn out and stress.

Those difficult moments can’t be avoided, but how we address those is what could make the difference. We can choose to run away from our commitment due to offense or burn out. In those moments we need to make the decision. Who are we serving? Are we serving God or the people who make our lives easy? Are we followers of Christ? If we are, we need to remember that some of those who followed him throughout his ministry were chanting “Crucify him!” right outside Pontius Pilate’s doors. That didn’t change Jesus’s mind to complete his mission.

We need to serve with joy, hope and in prayer. Only keeping our connection with God will give us the strength and serving2peace to get the job done. Remember, he never sends out to the field the equipped, but equips the chosen ones.

Finally remember that every act of service has to be with the same final purpose, to spread the Word of God, to show his love to others. It’s not for us to look pious in front of others. We are just ambassadors of the true message.

Until then, be blessed.

Love in Action Romans 12:9-10

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 

actionThe tricky part about love and honor is that it’s not just for those who we like. Being devoted to love those who are mean to us is no easy task. But this is something we really need to get serious about, after all is our second commandment right up there with loving God above all else.

The other misconception is that love is just tolerating everything others do and that’s not what love is. Love also brings correction and boundaries. Honoring others above ourselves doesn’t mean idolize them, it means to honor them in spite of our rights, hurts and emotions.

But in all we must be sincere about our love for others. Yes, no fake it until we make it. real loveWhen that love is not possible, it means that we don’t understand the love of God. Its at this time that we need to have Him show us his love and show us how to love others.

This also means that we are not happy when something bad happens to someone we don’t like and let me say, that means everybody. It includes, the neighbor, the coworker, the politician of the other party, the player of the opposite team, the driver who cut us in traffic and the person who did us wrong. It means that the most important muscles to workout are love and forgiveness.

That’s plenty to process, until next be blessed.

More on serving Romans 12 :4-8

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to showmercy, do it cheerfully.

Just as I closed the last post, verses 4-8 talk about being humble into our gifting. Sometimes we have the tendency to forget that not all of us are really created equal. Each of us has a gift and a purpose. We were each given a personality as a tool for our specific mission.

Sometimes in serving we get hung in terms of titles within our ministries. Who’s the greatnessleader, the elder, the minister, the main person? Honestly we were not all created for every job. Yes, some positions have more exposure than others, but it doesn’t make it more meaningful. In their immaturity people want to be in the center of a stage or the center of attention and those who are not place there by God will not thrive.

Recognize your gifts and thrive within what God has given you. For example, I have the gift of writing, some administrative gift that comes along with leading. I’ve always been involved in some sort of leadership position; in ministry, school, work, etc. Even when I’ve hid myself away from it, it finds me. That doesn’t make me great or the most important person. I alsohappen to be a big picture person, details tend to elude me. Every day, in all my life scenarios I have countless stories of those with better administrative gifting than mine who take care of those details that I don’t even think about. Those details are just as important and sometimes more than the work I do.

conformOn the opposite side of the spectrum, yes I have the opportunity to speak in front of people. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but I know I do it well and its part of my mission. Now, if you ever catch me with a microphone ready to sing, you all have open permission to knock me out of the stage before your ears start bleeding. Both the worship leader and I are in front of people, but we both have very different roles. At the same time, if the person behind the sound system is not there in their gifting, it doesn’t matter because nobody is going to hear us.

Do what you love and what you’re good at. Those gifts and desires were placed in your heart by God to guide you in through your purpose in live.serving

 

Until next time, be blessed

Humble Service in the Body of Christ Romans 12:3

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

 

In this part of the letter from Paul, I see a reminder of the older brother in the prodigal son story. It is very often that those who have not come to the feet of Christ because of our behavior. I know there was a time in my life when I thought my sins were too unforgivable. Sometimes looking at those around me with their pretend perfect lives made me feel even more unworthy to come closer to God. We are called to love the sinner, not the sin. How many times we are judgmental just because someone sins different than us?

If we are ambassadors of Christ, how are we showing his love? Wasn’t Jesus who said that he wprideho was free from sin to cast the first stone? Wasn’t Jesus who said to the woman at the well that she was forgiven even though she had been promiscuous? So who are we to judge?

There’s an old movie from Al Pacino, which I don’t recommend anyone to see, but in my time I did. It’s title “The Devil’s Advocate”. The storyis of a man who basically gives into the devil to gain worldly things. Once inside he realizes that he was losing more than gaining and he rejects him. But in the very last scene, the devil comes back in a different shape and lures him again. Why? Pride is the most common sin among Christians, when we think we are better than “those” people because we go to church or serve at one. Even among each other, fighting over position and places within our service within the church.

Instead we are called to be sober, to remember where we came from. We are called to body of christremember that we are administrators and not lords. We need to recognize that we each have a place on a mission that was specifically designed for us. In other words, in the eyes of God the CEO and the janitor are equal… and sometimes the janitor gets extra points for doing his work for God.

Here’s plenty. Until next time, be blessed.

Do not conform Romans 12:2

As we continue to go through the Study of Romans 12. Last time we heard about our bodies being a living sacrifice to worship God.  Let’s see what Verse 2 brings us.

 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

differentThere are two things that catch my attention on this verse. First we need to recognize that although we are in this world, we are not of this world. You can laugh, but yes we are kind of aliens. We belong to God whose kingdom is way beyond this earth. As adopted children, His home is our home.

I tend to see life, like an out of town work related trip. When you’re outside of your home you may have some of the things that you have at home. You may have a television, a bed, a bathroom and many amenities depending on the hotel. You get as comfortable as possible but you don’t bring all the things you have because you know that eventually you’re going home. You enjoy the time, but know for sure that after a few days you’re missing your own bed.

We don’t change our mailing address to our hotel room, that’s because that’s not where we live, that’s just where we are staying. Life it’s not too different.

We have the tendency of conforming to what society is doing. We tend to forget that we were sent here with a mission. Just like our work trip, it was not a vacation. Yes we may go roam this new city at night, but during the day we’re here to work.

Imagine this work trip again, in which you decide to maybe stop by the office every now and again but not every day as you’re supposed to. Instead you go touring the city, sleep late, and do any or very minimal of the work you were sent to do.  Just like life, this trip has an expiration date. When you get back home, how is your boss going to receive you?  How are you going to account for the time you were entrusted to do your job.

Talking about things to account for, let’s say you have a business credit card.  Can you go and buy brainyourself new clothes, gifts for your friends, have a spa day on your business credit card? Isn’t the company paying all your expenses? In life, God is providing for you to fulfill the mission that he commanded you to do. How are you going to account for what you did?

The second part of this that really caught my attention was the way we are to be transformed is by renewing our minds. It’s been said that we are what we eat. But we eat a lot of things mentally and spiritually too. What are we feeding our spirit and our mind will determine how we allow the Holy Spirit to do a transformation in our lives.

Until next time, be blessed

A Living Sacrifice Romans 12:1

body Sometimes as Christians we get hung up on religion. We hold on to a single scripture that may be out of context. Or better yet, we think that if we say the right things at the right time we’re part of the “club”. For those of us, especially those who are new to the faith, that’s not enough. We want to know what really pleases God. We want to be doers of the word, so what’s the answer?

I’m sure there’s a tons of scriptures that guides us into God’s will. However I found a letter from Paul to the Romans that basically sum it up for me. In this letter we get to see the distinction between living by the law like Pharisees, and living by the love of God as Christians are called to. If you allow me, I would like to spend the next few days going through this scripture thoroughly. I’ll be using the New International Version on these posts.

A Living Sacrifice

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 

 

This is a very powerful thing to read. We should know that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. A lot is heard about how men or women are owners of their own bodies and can do as they please with them. Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Our bodies are supposed to be a living sacrifice to please God.

What does that mean?sacrifice

  • Do I take care of my temple properly? (rest, food, exercise)
  • Do I partake in high risk endeavors that could place my body at risk? (risky ventures, drugs, alcohol)
  • Do I utilize my body outside of God’s will? (Yes, I’m talking sex)

I think that’s plenty to think about for today. On our next time we will be talking about Verse 2

As always let me know your thoughts and send me any prayer requests.theresa

Until then, be blessed.

Me Time

In the crazy world that we live, the last person that we tend to think is about ourselves. I’m not talking about being selfish, but about actually taking care of ourselves. It’s very easy to get lost in the routine of work, family demands and ministry, if you have it. Paying bills, chores and making sure that everyone around us takes precedence because we think that if everyone around us is fine then we’re fine.

time.

Think about it this way. You rarely take care of your feet, but they take you everywhere you go. However if you happen to hit a corner it would be all you will be thinking about. You may not be able to go where you need to; the pain will blur any other thought. The rest of you are just the same. If you don’t take care of you spiritually you won’t be able to guide others. If you don’t take care of your body you will not be good to do any of the things you are called to do.

Me time is more than sleep. Me time is a moment of enjoyment or rest. Make a date with yourself; it doesn’t have to be long. An hour a week is not much to ask. Use that time to read a good book, go for a walk, sit in a park and just enjoy the gifts that God has given you. But stop before God stops you. (“He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters” Psalm 23:4)

Life is not a race is a marathon and the best of them slow down to drink some water.

Until then, be blessed.

runner

Return to Eden

I should be the last person to talk about this subject. I love technology, my eating habits are not the best and I drive a regular gas running car. What I’m trying to say is that I’m far from a tree hugger. As live evolves instead of being easier it gets more complicated.

PRI was having a conversation with my mother in which she was telling me how easier my life was. When she was growing up the television was black and white with no more than 5 channels. She had no microwave, no washer and drier and no car. She had to use public transportation to go anywhere. As much as I agree that I’m glad that I don’t have to walk everywhere or wash my clothes by hand, we have also lost a lot in the “evolution”

Technology has brought a new level of expectation on humans that weren’t there before. Companies require faster and more complex workloads because there’s more information available. Familiesphones do not interact the way they used to. At the dinner table each person has their own gadget to play with while eating, if they eat together at all. I told my mother that as much as I love my cell phone, it really takes a lot of time. In her days, she would leave work come home and then take care of things. On my way home, I get two calls and three text messages that may require me to deviate from my commute to do 3 other different things and probably not even make it home until 3-4 hours later than usual.

Then we end up buying something out of the supermarket or a drive thru, not necessarily out of laziness, but out of lack of time. There goes our health. I also find disturbing that healthy foods are more costly than healthy foods.

foodLike I said, I’m not a tree hugger, but I’m also not against technology or society advances. God is not against them either. He gave man the tools and wisdom to create them. I just think that at a personal level we need to take an inventory of how our resources are spent. Our current lifestyles take us away from the path God had for us. We were built to have relationships, to be healthy, to work but also to rest.  We need to be careful, like it says in  1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. I think that’s the issue, the role that all these things have in our lives. 

How many times I’ve caught myself staying up super late watching something on television or one of my gadgets that is not live and I could watch at any other time? Then the next day I’m useless. How much time do we spend on social media vs how much time we spend with the Word? When was the last time you just sat with your family and talked, really talked?

Do you know that if you try to eat as closer to nature as possible, most of those medications you take, may not be necessary? I know the burger and fries are delicious and so it’s that piece of cheesecake, but is it worth it if it’s going to shorten your life?

I want to start a new page in my life in which I’m more conscious of these things, in which I live a fuller life, a better life that looks more like the Garden of Eden before the fall.

Who wants to join me?

Until then be blessedglory