Thank God for Forgivenss

"Praise God for His forgiveness!" Let me say that again, "Praise God for His Forgiveness!"

Have you noticed that whenever we do something short of God's perfect will the evil one is quick to condemn us. Even though he isn't invited to the party he interjects his opinion and attempts to drive a wedge between us and our loving Father.

Let me warn you, this trap will only lead to condemnation, depression, and strife. What we must realize is that God is Love and He has already forgiven us of all things. This may be a little difficult to understand since we come from a world of "righting wrongs". ie if someone does something to us we expect that person to repay, repair, or restore whatever it was to its' prior condition. So when we fail at something we expect God to react the same way.

The reality is that before you did what you did or said what you said, Jesus had already repaid, repaired, and restored it. So when we fall short the best thing we can do is to run to Him, get it off our chest and receive our forgiveness.

He loves us more than we have been able to grasp. Let's RUN to Him and receive His miracle of forgiveness.
Gabriel

Love is God's Base

I am convinced that everything God does is motivated by love. The beginning, the creation of all things, the blessing given to Adam and Eve, the promise of a redeemer, the law, the prophets, the redeemer, the freedom we enjoy in Christ, the power of His Name, His glory, the authority and power to enter boldly to His throne room and receive from Him all are reflections of His Love.

A dear friend and I were talking and reflecting on how Jesus prayed in John 17:23 that we should know that God loves us just as much as He loves Jesus. This revelation is one that should propel us past the petty one-upmanship that plagues so many of our Christian bodies. It should bring us to a level of loving one another and others as Jesus did. After coming to the realization that we as followers of Jesus are loved by God the Father just as much as He loved Jesus, should elevate our rhetoric, our willingness to forgive, and our overall testimony.

We don’t need to fight for His attention, forgiveness, or love- it’s already ours. We don’t need to prove to anyone how much more deserving we are over anyone else to receive His Mercy-it’s already ours.

All He calls us to do is to reflect the same love to others, to show others how much He desires to love them too.

Let’s cast off the struggle to be worthy, and embrace His love that was poured out on us (Romans 5:5) and love our family, and our neighbor.

• John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
• 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
  

Thy Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven

Have you ever thought about what Jesus meant when he prayed this phrase? It came directly after the disciples asked him how to pray. So, He started by making one of the most bold and little accepted statements of His ministry. May the Kingdom of God come to Earth and may His Will be done here on Earth just like it is in Heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

I believe that this statement has been under evaluated, and suppressed. Since it is part of what we have called the “Lord’s Prayer” it has been clumped together with the entire prayer and not looked at and put into practice.

Jesus prayed this and what He prayed came to pass. What he asked His disciples to do it was done and what He asked them to pray came to pass. So here he tells them to pray this way….”Our Father who is in Heaven holy is your Name, Thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.”

Do you dare? Do you dare pray this way and with it take a stand to walk like it is unfolding before you? It is a wonderful thing to be saved and going to heaven but it is the ability to bring the Kingdom of God to the needy and the hurt, to heal the land, to bring stability to the economy, to stand in the way of tyranny and violence and to defy nature that makes us truly Ambassadors of this heavenly Kingdom.

Who are we?

How important is choosing our friends and acquaintances? Many don’t care, and haven’t even thought it through. But it does matter. Even our non-action will cause disastrous repercussions if we haven’t chosen our friends wisely.

Foolish (moronic, ignorant, immature) friends will not only damage our reputation but over time they will affect a change in us. Our paradigms will begin to change over time. We will begin to take on their points of view. We too will become foolish, moronic, ignorant and immature.

Have you heard the saying, "Birds of a feather flock together" Initially I thought that it meant that birds seek out other similar birds, but over time I realized it means something else. Birds begin to look like the birds around them.

The youth today claim that they want to be different, but what they mean is that they want to be different from those people who are not in their group. If you put a “Goth” kid in a rural-farmer high school, (and take away all exterior stimuli from the city and the Goth culture) the kid will begin to transform himself into the "birds" that are around him. (He may not like it but its human nature.) He /she will begin to find pleasure in horse-back riding, nature, and wearing jeans with boots.

Jesus carefully chose those with whom he was to be around. His closest friends (the Disciples) were not chosen randomly. In Proverbs 13:20 we read

“He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm"

It doesn’t say that the person who walks with the wise does it because he is wise…It says that he grows wise.

It is time to reflect on the people we call "friends or acquaintances," and ask the question "Who am I hanging out with?” Let’s chose our friends wisely.

Your Friend, Your Brother
Gabriel G

Quien Eres?

Es muy importante que nos guardemos de las malas influencias. No solamente nos pueden dañar nuestra reputación pero también nos cambian a través del tiempo. Tarde o temprano nuestro paradigma comienza a cambiar asumiendo el punto de vista de ellos.

En inglés hay un dicho que es muy similar al siguiente “Mira con quien andas y te diré quien eres…” En inglés es “Birds of a feather flock together” / “Los Pagaros de un mismo plumaje se juntan.”Antes yo lo tomaba por decir que los pájaros buscan otros pájaros similares, pero a través del tiempo me he dado cuenta que significa otra cosa, que los pájaros se acoplan a los pájaros en su alrededor.

Los jóvenes dicen querer ser diferente pero lo que quieren decir es que desean ser diferentes a las personas que no están en su grupo. Si pones un niño urbano, “Rapero”, en una escuela secundaria-rural-vaquera comenzará a transformarse según los “pájaros” que están a su alrededor. (No es que lo guste o no, es la naturaleza humana.)

Jesucristo tomo cuidado en escoger a las personas con quienes se iba a juntar. Sus mas acércanos (los discípulos) no resultaron ser así por coincidencia. En Proverbios 13:20 leemos ago interesante.

El que anda entre sabios será sabio, pero el que se junta con necios acabará en
al ruina.

No dice que “el que anda entre sabios es por que es sabio” sino que “será” sabio.

Es tiempo de reflexionar en las personas que llamamos “amigos o conocidos”, y hacernos la pregunta “Con quien me estoy juntando?”.

Tu Amigo
Tu Hermano
Gabriel

For us, it may be impossible

We live in a difficult and ever changing World that is mostly inhospitable. We may build ourselves up with schooling, or try to protect ourselves with money but the reality is that there are something we just can’t fight. But all is not lost. Jesus shows us that there is a way. God’s way will always come through. It will always take you to the top; it will always safeguard you and your family.

We must seek Him and let His way be our way and the storms of this World will not prevail against us.

Mark 10:27
27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

What's Your Hobby

So tell me, what are your hobbies? What do you do when you’re not at work? –That’s the question I’ve heard asked in many offices throughout the World. Many times it’s answered easily enough but other times the person being asked the question just looks puzzled. They answer, “Oh I don’t know. I guess I don’t have a hobby.” So the follow up question is –Well, what do you like to do when you’re on your own? — That question will tell you what your “hobby” is.

A Hobby is a beautiful thing that allows us to let down our hair and be who we know we truly are. They don’t just give us pleasure in doing them, they help define us. In many ways we can get to know someone better by watching their hobbies. For some it’s reading, for others it’s watching TV. I’ve found that the majority of the people have more than one thing that they enjoy doing. Being with the family and playing games, driving cars while listening to their favorite CD, or cooking and horseback riding, etc. It’s an expression of our inner self.

That’s why we see in the Bible that we should desire or delight in the Lord. God wants us to spend our “free” time with Him. He doesn’t want to be “fit” into our schedule, for the Sunday usual. And without trying to make this sound trite, He wants to be our Hobby.

I heard in Sunday school once that we should make time for God. At first it sounds like a very good thing to do, right? But we make time for the things that are hard to do or the things that we don’t want to do. “I have to make time to go to the Dentist.” “We really need to make time to go to the grocery store” etc etc. That’s not what He wants. He wants us to enjoy time with him, not make time for Him.

When we turn to Him and make Him our desire, and our delight we will not only develop a deeper relationship with Him but we will define ourselves by Him. And by continuing in Him we will experience the blessing that is associated with this delight. Psalms chapter one says that we will be like a tree planted by rivers of water. In chapter 37 it says that if we delight ourselves in the Lord He will give us the desires of our heart.

Let’s make today different than any other day. Let’s not spend time, invest time, or make time…let’s enjoy time with God and His Word.