I was working on another article and read this. There’s not much to add or to say about it other than it is a great wake up call for everyone.
Galatians 5:18-24 (The Message)
“My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified”
I think one of the things Christians, especially new Christians struggle the most is condemnation. We live in the world of “forgive and not forget” and we have the tendency to look at God in the same light.
I have said many times that understanding God’s mercy was hard for me. How could he forgive the things I had done when his Word said that those things were against his will? Then I discovered Grace. That favor that God gives us that covers all our sins. That which brings to life the sacrifice of the cross.
Even after salvation we are not perfect, and there are times when we life in this fear of when will be the day when he will say enough, you’ve crossed the line of unforgiveness. But lucky for us that day will not arrive. As long as we repent we will be covered once again by the blood of the lamb, because Jesus died for ALL our sins. The ones we did and the ones to be done.
1 Peter 1:18-20
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
All your children unite today to praise you and worship you. We thank you for your love, your mercy and your forgiveness. Father we are grateful for your everyday provision. For everyday you give us breath, health, a roof over our heads we are thankful.
Today we ask you to protect our nation. We are grateful for those who everyday give their lives to defend our country, defend our right to peace. We pray protection over them and over their families whose lives are just as sacrificial as those in the field.
Lord forgive us for the inactivity of your body. For our refusal to move out of our comfort zones into the fields that you have called us to work. We ask you to refresh and revive our spirits. Give us your heart so that we see the pain in our brothers the way that you see it. Give us your mind so that we can purify our thoughts and work according to your purpose. Give us your wisdom so that we can make the right decision in our lives.
We ask you to protect our leaders, government and religious. These are the people called and chosen to guide our nation. They are in need of wisdom, they are in need of a compassionate heart, they are in need of a strong sense of justice that only you can provide.
We ask you for those who are suffering. Allow us to recognize their pain and give us the steps to follow to heal their wounds.
We ask you for the lost souls, that we are able to exemplify a life in Christ that they desire. Open their hearts so that they receive the invitation of the Holy Spirit. Give us boldness to preach your Word and life by it.
In closing, continue to teach us how to live our lives closer to you. That our lives become truly “ more of you and less of us” and that when the day comes we are able to celebrate the final victory with you in heaven.
It is time to rejoice! There’s a party in heaven and in earth. The best party ever. They saw him bleeding, battered and bruised. Once he had exhaled and taken down from the cross his breathless body lied in the arms of his mother who cleaned his face with her tears. He was probably getting cold real quick as he had lost so much blood.
A friend of the family had a tomb that had not been used and gave it for them to put his body in there. Because it was the Sabbath and nobody was supposed to do anything, everyone left. The women came the next day to do the habitual embalming of that time and guess what? He was nowhere to be found.
Some thought that maybe someone had stole his body and they were starting to feel sadness, but then two angels told the women that he had risen as he had promised. (Rephrasing from Luke 23 and 24)
If we think about the purpose for which we were created and how well we do (not really) and that even then we obtain redemption because on a day like today he lives.
If we think about other religions who worship someone who was a prophet, but there is an actual grave site where their body lies. Or those who believe that an unanimated object is their god. We have a living, breathing, Almighty, All Powerful GOD!!!!
In life, He won! In death, He won! The movie has a happy ending. Rejoice, he’s alive, he’s risen from the dead, he won it for us.!!
I was listening to the lyrics of this song by John Newton and the reality is that there’s not much to be said, each word says it all. To those of us who have experienced the mercy of Christ sometimes it is hard to express the awe of gratitude we have towards our Lord.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
When we’ve been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’ve first begun.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Watch this video that reminds us that “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise” Matthew 21:16
As some of you know, I’m participating in a WordPress challenge to increase my blog postings this year. To assist us in the challenge, WordPress sends us daily prompts to help with topic ideas. If they are appropriate for my blog I use them or a modified version of it, or I don’t. Sometime in the last few weeks the prompt was: Can you live without the internet? I said no, end of discussion, not much to write about it.
God has a way to show you things. I was watching stand up comedian Billy Gardell (the guy from Mike and Molly) and he was saying that he wanted for people under twenty five years old to put their phones away for two hours a day and have a real conversation. Then after the whole Super bowl facebook news read spitting car I had to give that subject a little bit more thought.
Can I live without the internet? Yes. The reason why my knee jerk reaction was to say no, it’s because we have come to a point where the internet is so accessible that I can’t see how that would happen. I have internet at work, home and on my phone, so I guess the response was more geared to the accessibility of it.
Like I said in a previous post, society is slowly drawing us to a dependency. You can’t find a job by knocking door by door and being met as a person. Your information precedes you electronically. My poor elderly mother couldn’t get some information from her doctor’s office because she doesn’t have internet access (of course I pulled it out for her) Technology is a good thing and I think if all of the sudden we lived without internet some of those in my generation and older would be able to adjust. I’m not so sure about the newer folks.
We’re not teaching handwriting in schools anymore, or mathematical thinking in paper. We are relying on the unreliable. Why do I say that? Give or take 75% of us work with a computerized system (that’s to be way conservative) and how often does the system crash and loses information? We hear in the news all the time how digitalized personal information is stolen by identity robbers. Is that where our trust is?
So in perspective, I can’t live without God, water, food, clothes and shelter; everything else is truly a luxury and a blessing given. We should appreciate what we have been entrusted and be good stewards of those extras. As a nation we are filthy rich even when we don’t think so. If we look at other countries, some people live without clean water, something that we take for granted.
Every day I’m thankful that God is God and he doesn’t react like we do to situations. Every day we make decisions based on impressions, emotions, hormones (both men and women), pressures and they’re not always the best route. Imagine a God whose mercy depended on the weather outside, or how upset He was about the things we did? I think this would be a very empty world. I mean that literally.
We all have been in places were raw emotions have taken over, but as we grow in our spiritual walk we tend to be able to manage those better. It’s not an exact science and it doesn’t mean that we always react the best way to upsetting situations. This is definitely well described in Proverbs 14:29”Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly” Folly in case you don’t know means a fool; and don’t we make a fool out of ourselves when we lose our cool. But when we lose our cool or make a mistake the Grace of God can restore us through repentance. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19)
It still amazes me how God can love us through our sins, how he never loses his cool with us as we are too quick to lose ours sometimes for the smallest things. He doesn’t want us to stay there and wants to restore us to peace; therefore the quicker we come to repentance the faster we can continue our life of peace. Psalm 103:10“he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
So my invitation for today is to be” slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:9) to prolong our peace on earth and enjoy our everyday relationship with God.
I have a few non Christian friends; some belong to other beliefs, some non active Christians (saved but not living for Christ), “spiritual” (those who know that God exists somewhere but have no desire to live for him) and some professed atheists. Ironically, we have a lot of religious conversation and to my surprise sometimes they know more about what Jesus said and his expectations than some of my own Christian friends. Some of them ask me to pray for them when they are in the middle of a situation.
In our conversations I’ve identified certain trends of why some of them are not attracted to Christianity, so I wanted to share them with my fellow believers, because they do have a point.
It’s not Him, it’s y’all-I’ve never heard even atheists’ bad mouth Jesus or Christ. It’s not Him who bothers them, they don’t like Christians. As soon as someone proclaims to be a Christian in front of them they form an expectation of how we should behave and we tend to fall really short in that expectation, giving us very little credibility to our words. In other words, our walk doesn’t match our talk.
Judgment-We are perceived to function out of judgment and not out of love. Some unbelievers are living lives that according to the Christian walk is outside of the “acceptable”. Some of them have had experiences were they have attempted to reach out to learn about Christ and have been received with judgment about how they are going to “burn in hell” for their actions instead of loving them through their circumstances. I have to stop here and say that this happens to Christians who leave the faith as well or to some of those non active Christians that I was talking about. As humans, we can all fall short of the glory and what are we to do. Galatians 6:1 reads “’ Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted” If the sin of that person is a personal struggle for you, don’t go there, the point is not for you to fall, but help directing the person to someone that can actually help, in love. If it’s a struggle for you, seek help, because it means that you have unresolved situations yourself. Be honest about it. But how many times have people been humiliated and condemned for what they have done instead of pursuing their restoration.
We also sometimes forget how we got to the feet of Christ. I’ve been on both sides of this equation. Personally, when I became a Christian I was very young, so I didn’t experience the redeeming life with Christ after big fallout. I was prideful. I didn’t understand why people couldn’t get it together, until I fell on my face and didn’t know how to come back. It was then when I understood mercy and grace. God placed loving people in my life to show me the way back, but those people never made me feel like I was scum and they were holy, which brings me to my next point.
Being genuine- Life in Christ is a journey not a destination. I think much is emphasized in the church and the rules than the relationship with God. With this I’m not saying that church and guidelines are not important or necessary, but many times we try to make people act a certain way that they are not ready to instead of loving them through the process and allowing the Word of God and their personal relationship to Jesus to flow and do the changes that GOD wants to make in a person, not the ones we want to see.
Just like a child knows when someone loves them or not, wounded people know too. If you honestly don’t love someone, don’t try to fake it, they will know and your words will mean nothing, especially if you’re saying that you love them in Christ.
Authenticity-Trying to fake life and present a holier than thou image just because you’re a Christian and present that once you received Christ live was a bed of roses repels unbelievers more than anything. When people are struggling, thinking that there’s no way that God would accept them where they are now, keeps them away from Christ.
I have a friend who has had some of my same struggles, she was key in my return to Christ because I saw how even though she had gone through, God made it happen for her. She taught me the steps to take out of the gutter and how I had believed the lie of no redemption and how God really wanted me, but she didn’t do it by Bible thumping although we did speak of the Word. She did it by sharing with me how through the Word, God spoke to her in her darkest moments. Wait! She has dark moments being a Christian…Huh, there’s hope for me!
I knew then what to pray for and how to stand on the Word of God, because of her story. Is she perfect? No! Is she living a perfect rosy live now? No! She has a real life with the same struggles that everyone has, the difference is how she overcomes them and that inspires me to overcome mine and hang in there.
Why was this instrumental? Because even though I knew the Lord, up until that time those speaking into my life were just pointing out what I was doing wrong and how I was going to burn too if I didn’t get it together. If I, who knew the Lord couldn’t get back, how do you think someone who doesn’t know his love would feel even compelled to try? Someone said that you may be the only bible someone reads. If you’re condemning other people’s lives, that’s what their erroneous bible is teaching them about a life in Christ. If you’re not real with your own struggles and your own difficulties then, they will know that you’re not trustworthy and that the god that you claim to serve is just as phony as you are. Is that how you want to present Christ to others?
When this subject has come up I’ve told my friends to look at Christ and not at us, because we are human and jacked up. All I can do is try to live as genuine as possible, pray and allow God to work in their hearts and in mine (because I’m still a work in progress), because at the end of the day Salvation is a personal decision and it’s not me who saves, but He who lives in me. So you my fellow believers are you living an authentic life or do you wear your Sunday mask every time you have to talk about Christ? Do you talk about Jesus, or do you try to live like Jesus?
Like I said in 
Naty Matos 