The cross I bear

Some brother wrote this comment:

"My wife is a heavy cross I pick up everyday. For me I find comments in the bible like Blessed is he who finds a wife and your wife is your help mate hard to believe and am personally not experiencing that at all. I knew Marriage was going to be hard but I had no idea it would be this hard. It's obvious to me that I've picked the wrong person for marriage. Does that mean I get a divorce? No! Because I have entered into a sacred covenant with my wife before God for better or worse. Unfortunately for me I got the later and I'm sure that I am not the only one."

I know this brother is just being honest and I have to say this: Yes you are not alone; in fact there are many men that feel the same way, their wives are heavy crosses, but they are not supposed to be. It is heart breaking; whoever you are, if your wife has become a burden to you. At the same time I really don't think that is something I can give advise on; all I can say is what the Word of God says:
Eph 5:15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Those are profound words from Paul, think about what he is saying, be wise, redeem the time, understand what the will of the Lord is, don't get drunk, be filled with the Spirit, sing songs one to another, give thanks for everything, submit to one another, love, give yourself, if you don't you're only hurting yourself; if you love your wife you are really loving yourself, she is your flesh and your bones.

I really believe that, even when my spouse is not a believer, God will honor the fact that I have purposed in my heart to love my wife and die for her. That is die to my desires, to the way I want to be treated, to my expectations about her, die to self. That is what Jesus meant when He said, pick up your cross and follow me, He not only said it but demonstrated how is done and died on it. He didn't say a word, He just prayed: Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing.

You are right, God chose your wife for you, He knew you would marry her, and even though you feel you made the wrong choice, it really wasn't you. God never makes mistakes. He is perfect in all his ways; whether we believe it or not, He is in control of all things, and therefore all things work together for good for them that love God. Read the last part of Romans 8, you'll see.
I don't know the circumstances under which someone can say that his wife is a heavy cross; but God told Hosea to go and marry Gomer, a prostitute; to show the children of Israel how God felt about them, Gomer commits adultery and sells herself into slavery; and then God tells Hosea to go and buy her back and lover her, again, to demonstrate the love of God for His people.

That is what God wants for us to do, even when she is gone into full adultery with the world or the flesh or self; come to me, Jesus said, all of you who are burdened, heavy laden, come to me, I will give you rest.

So come to Jesus, give Him your burden, come to Jesus and sit at His feet, make Him your passion, His yoke is easy, His burden light, He will give rest to your soul, He will fill your mind with peace, with peace that surpasses all understanding. You're not supposed to carry your wife as a burden, but to wash her with the word of God, you're supposed to give yourself for her, what does that mean? It means that she becomes more important than you.

"let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each of you consider others better than himself" Phil 2:4, if she is better that yourself, she will not be heavy to carry, she will no more be a cross but a treasure chest.

If you "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and humbled himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Phil 2:5-8

Your wife will become your treasure when you make Jesus your treasure first, if you desire God first, if you give yourself to God first. She will have no option but to give herself over, that will be her response. Since marriage is a representation of our relationship with Jesus, whatever He does for His church, we need to do for our wives.

Rom 2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.
But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?
Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

Woe her back with kindness, she will be led to repentance.

Don't carry that heavy cross no more, nail yourself to it.

I don't feel spiritual

I'm going to be honest: sometimes I just don't feel spiritual at all, sometimes I think life sucks, sometimes everything seems vain, sometimes I get irritated by almost everybody, and sometimes death sounds attractive, the reason? The curse of sin.

I have to admit that I sin everyday, that shouldn't surprise anybody, for sure it does not surprise God, in fact He knows all my sins even before I commit them, all my thoughts before I think them, my life is an open book to Him, there is nothing I can hide from His ever present gaze.

Sin is the cause of all depression and anxiety; sin is the source of worry, sin is the reason why lions eat zebras and antelopes, sin is the reason why black widows eat their mates, sin is the cause of the praying mantis is not really praying but preying; sin is the reason why rattle snakes are poisonous; sin is even the reason why there are hurricanes in the Caribbean. Sin is the reason why my bones are brittle and my hair is turning gray, it is the reason for entropy.

All creation groans with the desire for the freedom of the children of God, for the liberty that our redemption will bring to this planet and the whole universe; the earth shakes, volcanoes erupt, blizzards blow, and glaciers die. Viruses mutate and E Coli kills human beings; cows become mad, birds get the flu. The hole in the ozone layer is there because of sin, the earth is heating up because of sin, millions of chickens die everyday because of sin, and there is no life in the desert because of sin.

My grandson throws fits because of sin, my granddaughter lies because of sin, husbands cheat on their wives because of sin, people starve because of sin, people die because of sin.

I'm feeling a little more spiritual, I'm getting there.

I had a great conversation on the phone with a friend today, I had the honor of giving her the Gospel and make a difference in another life, another chosen daughter of heaven has been brought into Jesus' sheepfold, all by the amazing power of His spirit. Sin is the reason for the Gospel. No sin no Gospel.

It seems that when I feel the most crappy, is when God uses me more; it is obvious to me that it is because He is the one working, and because when we are weak He is strong, His grace is made perfect in weakness. I know a man who, even in the middle of tremendous suffering, pain, tragedy and despair, gave the Gospel to a person associated with the cause of all the pain. Another demonstration of God's strength during the weakness of one of His children.

I don't have to feel spiritual, I have to walk by faith, Hab. 2:4: "the just shall live by his faith"; so by faith I trust, by faith I believe, by faith I stand on God's promises, by grace was I saved through faith, it is not of myself but the gift of God, so that I can't boast about it and say: "I chose to believe", no, impossible, I didn't choose to believe God, He chose me and gave me the faith to believe in Him. What pride and arrogance to think I had anything to do with His salvation, if I ever did anything, it was to sin, and no more.

Sin is the only reason He sent His own Son to pay for the depravity of my heart; for my iniquity, for my transgressions, and sin is what causes men to think they deserve to be accepted by YAHWEH because they believe. Men, the human race, the natural man, is sunk in darkness, bound by sin and completely corrupted, man is a natural enemy of God, he can never be in agreement with God, with His law, and with His Son, the only thing we deserve from God is His justice; the fair penalty of our deceit and our pride is death.

By grace I have been saved, He determined that I should believe, and I have no escape from Him. He chose me, and no one can snatch me out of His hand: John 10:29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

That is what Jesus said:
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
I and the Father are one."

Whoever tells me that I had anything to do with my salvation is lying, he is not only lying but trying to deceive me; they don't rest from trying to gain followers to their ignorance, they claim to know the truth but in fact they err, just like Jude said:
Jud 1:10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.
Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.
These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

Whoever tells me that it is my responsibility to keep me saved, he is lying, whoever says to me that my actions need to be based on ordinances and to do lists, he is being deceived and has never understood the doctrine of justification by faith; whoever tries to put a burden on me with rules and regulations has a filthy mind.

Jud 1:24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

He made His chosen ones spiritual beings, it is His work, we can rave and kick and complain and mount the horse of our pride because we don't like it, but there is no way out of the truth. He is holy, we are not.

I feel spiritual now.

Men's fellowship

Today I was present at a men's fellowship, (I should say last night, since is already Tuesday). I learned something: marriage has become something strange to me; of course the reason I say that is because I am not married, but I was, almost 23 years. When men get together with other men to do menly things, they have menly conversations (yea, yea,I know it should be "manly"), men fix the world in about 35 minutes talking, men dig trenches and solder pipes, men are computer geeks, men conquer, men hunt, men wrench on things, men fix things, what we can't seem to fix is the marriage relationship. I trip out on that.

The church has a great incidence of divorce, according to secular studies and "christian" studies, there is as much divorce in the church as in the world at large; of course what the students (or organizations that conduct these studies) don't get into account for the analysis of their investigations, is that not everybody that goes to church is a real christian, they don't know who is and who is not a believer. They base their research on the fact that people claim to be born again christians, but the reality is that not everybody who claims to be one is one.

Even taking into account that factor, the divorce rate among believers is still high, I really don't know the numbers, I should do the research before I speak but it doesn't matter, I know from experience that a lot of people divorce, even when they are real born again christians, mainly due to sexual immorality and adultery. Men and women alike are guilty of that fact. We are all susceptible of falling short.

This is odd, I can't sleep and I'm thinking about marriage, the lights are on, did I mention I'm not married?

In the Gospel of Matthew the pharisees came to Jesus to trick Him and asked Him if it was lawful to divorce a wife for any reason; they had these old teachers Hillel and Shammai, that interpreted the law of Moses and were in argument about the valid reasons for a man to put away his wife; one believed that anyone could divorce his wife for almost any reason, the other said that divorce was only allowed for reasons of impurity; the text for their argument was Deuteronomy chapter 24; (I could be wrong on this but that is what I was taught a long time ago) they had at the time of our Lord, the custom of divorcing for just about anything. If your wife had bad breath, ciao baby; if your wife burned your beans, sayonara Mara; if your wife looked like a ghost, frightening, in the morning, arrivederci Roma; if she turned into a monster every month, adios muchacha, etc. But the other school of thought was that divorce was only permitted if your wife didn't achieve your expectations as housewife, meaning it was more tolerable. At any rate, for whatever the reason, these guys are trying to trick Jesus, in answering either against the law of Moses by saying that divorced was not allowed, or not perfect enough by answering they were allowed for whatever reason; no wonder He called them somewhere else "brood of vipers".

I'll be done with this when I get sleepy. Jesus said: Mat 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
They say unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

Very cool, who is wiser than Jesus? do you know anybody as wise, compassionate, kind and shrewd than Him? To start with, He answers with a question, you guys are teachers and don't know? Haven't you read? Haven't you understand what you read? Don't you know that the original design of God is for marriage to be a symbol of God's love for you? Don't you know that cleave means to "glue" and if it's glued by God, no one can un-glue it?
And by the way, you snakes, divorce was not even a command, it was something that was allowed, why was it allowed? Because of the hardness of your heart. Even then, God hates divorce: Mal 2:16 "For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with wrong," says the LORD of hosts. "So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously."

Adultery was not a reason for divorce, it was a reason for death; if a woman was caught in the act, both, the man and the woman were supposed to be stoned to death (Deut. 22:22, also Lev 20:10), they tried to trick Jesus with that one too in John chapter 8, remember?

Anyway, the hardness of the heart is the main cause of divorce today also. If you are married you have to ask yourself a question: is my heart hard? why? Am I being disobedient? Do I have to have "my own time" apart from her? Could it be that the reason my wife complains all the time is because I am selfish? Do I really consider her to be my sister in Christ? Do I wash her with the water of the word? Do I take the initiative to ask her to pray and read the Word with me? Do I tell her that she is a gift from God to me? Do I serve her as the queen she is? Do I even see her as a queen? Am I willing to die for her? Do I complain about her all the time? Do I want to fix her? Is Christ my passion and devotion?; ok, that is more than one question, but you get the point, I hope. Do we see women, our wives, as daughters of heaven?

God in His providence and wisdom provided a wife for you, He know exactly what you need; when we rebel against our wives, we rebel against God. Marriage is a mystery, says Paul, and it is in fact an image of our relationship with God, it was His invention in the first place; designed to demonstrate the Love of Christ for His church, and the extent of the sacrifice He made for us. He bled for His church, He laid down His life to rescue Her, He endured the contradiction of our sin in order that He may present her to Himself as a pure and undefiled bride, we ought to do the same and be real men.

By the law of Christ we are to be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another just as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us, that was the topic at the men's fellowship, and that is the reason why I was thinking about marriage, we were discussing Ephesians chapter 4 and ended talking about marriage, but that is going to be the case no matter what we discuss, we will always end up talking about the wives. We are the bride of Christ, Jesus sees all of us as His wife, He is always talking to the Father about His wife, did you know that? Jesus loves his wife.

Ok, I'm sleepy now.

Yet another birthday

Today is my birthday, and I'm thinking why do we celebrate birth dates? Are we celebrating that we were born into this world? Is that a cause of joy? Should anybody be joyful that I am here? I know God is.

On my birthday I should be celebrating that God made me; that He knew me before He created me, that He chose me, that He predestinated me, that he saved me from myself and this corruption.

One more year has gone by, I am closer to my departing, that is enough reason to celebrate. If I didn't have God, if I didn't know Him, I would be fearful, the terrors of death would compassed me about, I would despair, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

My days are as grass.

I often think, if at the end of my life I would be sure that I gave it away in service to others; was I faithful?, was I a servant of Jesus?. Paul said "I am ready to be poured out as a drink offering", I wonder if could say the same thing, "I have kept the faith", I wonder if would be sure of the same thing, "I have fought the good fight", I wonder if would still be fighting then, "I have finished the race", I wonder if I would have considered me to be racing.

I thank God that He began a good work in me, and that He will be faithful to complete it. That is a comforting thought. Blessed be the name of YHWH.

Psa 103:1 A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;
Psa 103:18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

My days are as grass.

According to Psalm 90, we have 70 years to live, and if by reason of the grace of God, we live 80 years, then it is just pain and suffering:
Psa 90:10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.
Who understands the power of Your anger And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

So numbering my days would look like this, 365 days per year times 70 years equals 25,550 days; but I'm already 50 years old so I only have 20 years left on my account. Let's say that I live for the weekend, as most of the population does, so 20 years times 365 days equals 7,300 days, divided by 7 for each week, equals 1,402.86 weeks, or 1,402 weekends, same thing.

That means I have 1,402 Sundays, if I were to live for God on Sunday only, He would be getting my attention only about 14% of the time in my life, I would be king over the other 86% of my time. On the other side, God is 100% King, 100% of the time, whether I put attention to Him or not; if I were to give 100% of my time to God that would only be what my duty is, I would be left an unprofitable servant:
Luk 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Whatever I do for Christ is no more than my duty to do; whatever time I devote to Him, is all His at the end, He gave it to me, whatever talents He gave me, is my duty to multiply them in all diligence, it is my duty.

My days are as grass.

I spent time with my daughters at dinner, they took me out to dinner for my birthday; that was a precious gift. Just to sit there with both of them, and listen to their conversation, I was quiet most of the time not because they ignored me or anything like that, but because I was transported to the past when they were babies. I could see their little faces, hear their little voices, enjoy their laughter. They are in God's hands now, I have raised them in the best example I could be,to the best of my ability, by God's grace; I still pray for them every day, sometimes with tears in my eyes, but I know for sure they were also chosen, for I was His instrument for them to know Christ, what a privilege to lead my own kids to Christ, what an honor to be a father for the Father, a brother for His daughters. No matter what they do, I will love them forever, my daughters of Heaven.

My days are as grass.

Church anyone?

I just came back from church. An amazing sight to behold indeed, I can just imagine millions of people all over the world, worshiping the only true God, singing, some hymns, some country, some rock, some soul, some without music because of fear of persecution, like in China, or Afghanistan. No matter, people everywhere being drawn by God to himself, to enjoy fellowship with His creation, to display His glory.

I wonder how many people go to church on any given Sunday in the world, I wonder how many are really believers, I wonder if I could just go every Sunday just to get my wife off my back, I'm not married, I'm just saying. I wonder how long could I do that without believing, just going through the motions, I wonder if there are people who think they believe, but they don't, I wonder if they just do it to check the box in the list of good things to do on Sunday.

A few years ago, I read this news paper article that talked about a certain man, a very respectable member of the community where I lived, he had a great business, had a great house by the golf course, he had a great family, two or three kids I can't remember; he attended church on Sunday with his family, I think he had a Spanish last name, he was involved in the PTA at his children's school, he volunteered for all kinds of community activities, everybody respected him, clean good looking guy, beautiful wife, beautiful kids, picture perfect life of a guy, maybe movie perfect.....it was all a lie. He was a drug trafficker, he looked good though; The DEA arrested him, no one could believe he was such a bad guy being such a good guy.

What was the motive? To keep an appearance of something he was not so he could do what he knew was unlawful and make a profit, a lot of profit. The guy was not even interested in following Christ. But what about those who are?
Mat 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
"For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS."
(I'll talk about deeds some other day, is tempting to get on that wagon right now though).

A lot of people go to church to keep the front, is just religion to them; they are very sincere, some of them, they are sincerely wrong; God is not pleased; the sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight; but even the righteous can fall into the trap: he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

I've got to check my motives when I go to church, mostly because I do sound for the worship band; I have to ask God to make me humble, it really doesn't sound good because I am the sound guy but because God is in control and He is the one who makes our ears perceive, I ask Him to remind me that worshiping Him is a serious matter; I have to pray for his help in guiding my ears and my fingers, my thoughts and my emotions so He gets all the glory, even as I move those faders.

YHWH, The Great I AM, The Self Existing One, lives in the midst of worship, eternally; angels sing to Him and worship Him constantly, non stop; they were created for that specific purpose, to sing to our God, to lavish Him(if that can ever be possible) with adoration, forever and ever....Rev 4:8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" , did you catch that? "never cease", the KJV says "and they rest not day and night"; "worship will change your life" said Eddie, my pastor, today.

I pray that God will help me to deeply understand His holiness, his majesty; I pray that He will make me see who is He, to remember that His name is Holy: Isa 57:15, For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

I think that sometimes we don't worship as we ought to because of the lack of understanding of our depravity, we don't really realize from what depth of darkness we have been rescued from, so we tend to think that we are not that bad. I'm really not that bad, I never murdered anybody; Jesus proved me a malicious killer when he took the Law to the utmost and said, to hate is equal to murder. So then, yes, I have murdered many people, sometimes I still do on the freeway. Sometimes I quite don't murder some of my brothers, I just knock them unconscious when I get irritated because "that song sounds country, and I don't like country"; who cares what I like, did God like it? Did His people sing this "country" song and they worshiped Him in spirit and in truth? Did HE get glorified?

I am so prone to bring my deficiencies into our worship, my worldly thinking, I like Satriani, Vai, Jeff Beck and Queensriche and Savoy Brown, King Crimson and Hendrix, and really dig Janis Joplin and guess what, God doesn't; I don't think He does, so who cares if I do. What now? Am I supposed to bring the world with me into the throne room, or am I going into the throne room so God can get the world out of me and I may find mercy and grace in time of need? Ultimately, is it really important I am in need? God must be worshiped and adored because of who He is, not because we need relief; but He gives us relief anyway because of his great mercy. Is it possible to be taken captive with philosophy and empty deceit, according to the basic principles of this world, even in our worship of YHWH? (I talked about his before) I think it is, it is not only possible but indeed happens all the time; I just remembered my worship leader and best friend, talking about some church where they were actually singing a Sting song, "how fragile we are" during worship; we both were irritated by the idea, actually not irritated, but offended by the fact, not because we are not fragile but because Sting's focus and motive was self when he wrote the song, not the glorious God who made him.

I know, I am not "Super-saint", I suck at walking with Jesus, My walk becomes a crawl some times, but come on, I must seriously consider my motives when I dare to approach His Majesty, I think the line has been crossed.

Do you want to go to church?

War in the heavenlies

Gee, there are some bizarre writings out there. You have problems? You can find millions of possible answers to your problems in the internet. Maybe you're just curious, be careful; seemingly innocent sites are awaiting your clicking dispositions. This world is really decaying. Everything is corrupted. Life sucks entropy.

"Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil (the slanderer), as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour". 1Pet:5:8. This word -devour-katapino, means to drink down, gulp entirely, swallow up; modernized it means to suck up, just like a vacuum cleaner (I'm probably wrong on that one, but what, it sounds cool), obvious to me is the fact that the adversary, the accuser, is actively seeking whom to suck up into his schemes. Whether by television, Hollywood or the world wide web of lies and deceit that so easily besets us, or just by pure religion, which is the same thing.

"Beware, lest anyone take you captive (suck you up, seduce you, literally to plunder you), by philosophy and empty deceit, after the tradition of men, after the basic principles of this world, and not according to Christ", Paul writes to the Colossians. Col:2:8-10

I think about what he is saying, "take you captive", spoil me, "according to the traditions of men and not according to Christ". How can this be? Does it mean that I could also be taken captive according to Christ? I thought I was a captive already, a bond-slave. Am I also susceptible to be fascinated by Christ? And if so, is that good or bad? I should keep on reading: "for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power".

I'm going to take a little detour here, I'll take the real trip later: In Ephesians 6:12, the Greek reads: "pros tas archas pros tas exousias", I am not a Greek expert, but transliteration of the Greek into English reads: "against (pros) the (tas) principalities (archas)=a commencement, chief-in various applications of order, time, place or rank-beginning, corner, first-estate-, magistrate, power, principality, principle, rule) against (pros) the (tas) powers (exousias-in the sense of ability-privilege-, subjectively-force, capacity competency, magistrate, superhuman, potentate, of delegated influence: authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength) [Strong's Greek Dictionary], wow, I thought it was going to go on forever. Anyway, my point is that some versions of the Bible say principalities and powers, and others say rulers and authorities, it may just be semantics but I like the KJV better since it is the one I memorized, but the bottom line is that these powers, rulers, authorities, are real beings, with real powers, and real influence; so much so that Paul calls this world the kingdom of the prince of the power of the air. In the book of Daniel, we have an example of what kind of war is being waged in the heavenlies:
Dan 10:12 Then he said to me, "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.
Dan 10:13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia,( I am sure that this angel is mentioning the amount of time it took to get where Daniels was, for Daniel's sake, this was part of God's message to Daniel so he knew that the battle is real, He wants me to know also, so I don't despair in prayer and to ask, and seek, and knock; I finding comforting to know that)
Dan 10:14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come."
Dan 10:15 When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute.
Dan 10:16 And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, "O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength.
Dan 10:17 How can my lord's servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me."
Dan 10:18 Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me.
Dan 10:19 And he said, "O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage." And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened(I love this about God,He makes sure that Daniel knows that he is greatly loved, to take the fear away, to fill his heart with peace, notice that as the message gets delivered Daniel is strengthened, the word of God is quick to revive our weary souls, powerful to equip anyone for war, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and the bone of our affliction and the marrow of our adversity) and said, "Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me."
Dan 10:20 Then he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come.
I don't think we should mess with these guys on our own, but at the same time we are dealing with them on a day to day basis. It is only by the awesome power and supreme authority of the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, that they are kept at bay, held back as it were, as rabid dogs chained to an iron pole. I thank God that I am his, that nothing can snatch me out of his hand; at the same time I pray for my children's protection, you should too.

Ok, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers" Eph:6:12; uhmm, interesting, so I see Christ is the chief, the boss, (as the head He is the one that not only created them, [Colossians 1:16, read it], but also rules them) of all principality and power, the same principalities and powers that I wrestle against, and that are trying to take me captive through philosophy and empty deceit; but, I reason, if I am complete in Christ, filled up (literally filled to the brim, crammed), how could I be taken captive?

Ok then, I have to think here, what are these philosophies and empty deceit? What are the traditions of men, the basic or rudimentary principles of this world? I fear I'm about to start to tangentially travel, or simply put, trip out, but so be it, excuse for a minute.

Philosophy: Philo=love, sophia=wisdom, love for wisdom; I like one of the definitions I found: a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs; basically, the wisdom of this world. Wisdom is so appealing to the mind, the natural mind that is; man likes to think of himself as always wise in the affairs of this world. This world, is deceitful, but so is the heart: "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?" Jer: 17:9.

The basic principle of the world, is, as always has been, the thought system that says that man is essentially good; that we have been endowed with the ability to change our destiny, that we are all children of the universe, that we can achieve whatever we can dream about because we are potentially divine, that we need to know "The Secret", that everything is relative, that there are no absolutes, that if it feels right it must be right, that there is really no heaven and no hell, that we should sing John Lennon and imagine all the people living life in peace, it's easy if we try, that if God is love, how can a loving God allow so much evil in this world and at the same time allow his precious creation to go to hell; that Darwin was right and God is dead; that we must have a checklist filled with resolutions; with do's and don'ts; that we must set our goals on paper, we will be important if we do or at least feel better because we really tried hard, that is ok to be gay because love is what matters, that God unconditionally loves everybody, that everybody loves Raymond, we are a big family, God loves gay people too, they should be allowed to get married and raise kids and teach them how to be gay and dandy and peachy king so they can occupy positions of leadership and redundantly lead this world into economic prosperity and universal peace; that is ok, if there is no God anyway because we should only be accountable to our own consciences; that the creed "to thine own self be true" is what freedom is all about; that adultery is okay as long as is once in a while; that it's alright if we are honest about it; I think I'm getting sarcastic, but you get the idea.

I think I'm going to make sense soon......"But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." 2Cor. 11:3; aha!! I'm getting closer; let's see if I understand this line of thinking here: I am commanded to be sober and vigilant because I have an adversary, who is a lier, who slanders me constantly, who is walking around this kingdom (he is the prince of the power of the air, and the airwaves I might add) with his minions seeking to gulp down anybody that will let him, or that Christ will let because He is the boss; at the same time there are people who will try to plunder me, deceive me by appealing to my mind, my thoughts, my emotions, by trying to teach and preach that we should be conformed to the world and be successful as the world, by bringing into the camp the love of self and human wisdom and the idea that I should tolerate the ungodly and the unrighteous acts that they perform in unrighteousness, after all we are, again, a big happy family. I think I'm making progress.

Without a trace of sarcasm I firmly believe that we are in a battle; we struggle, but we really don't need the adversary or the world to make things worse; we have our flesh, our fleshly minds, our fleshly desires that war inside of us, and it even gets worse if you are an "educated" man or woman, because you have been brain washed since early adulthood to believe in relativism, existentialism, naturalism and all the isms they could push into your brain for whatever length of time your college degree took to be completed, and worse if you are a "doctor"; because it took another 2 to 5 years of additional indoctrination in the basic principles of the world, in the traditions and knowledge of men, "theories and science", and now you know it all and you don't need need humility, what you need is money, mammon has become your god, and you must worship. Am I getting sarcastic again, or is this just called realism?

I shall sleep for I am tired.

Who comes to Jesus?

In my mind it is a miracle that anyone comes to Jesus in the first place; here we are walking around this world in our tiny universes, we are the center of them, everything revolves around us; all our thoughts are being consumed on self: what am I going to do today? We ask, what should I wear?, how do I look? Does this make me look fat? How do I look in my car? Is my hair fluffy? Do I smell good? Do I have bad breath? Where did this wrinkle come from? Is that a pimple I see on my chin? When will this pain go away? Poor me, I have no money; I wish I was rich. I really like that corvette, red would be better. I hate Fords, Mustangs are ugly, I don't even have a car. I don't like this house, the floor is ugly. Why doesn't anybody call me? I don't have any friends. People are so ignorant. He shouldn't be doing that, and he calls himself a Christian, bah; he is not trying hard enough. He smokes? I don't, I am not like that. He cheated on his wife? Not me, I just watch porno. No matter what you say, I am right, and I know it. I just don't agree, I don't believe that.....and so forth, and so on; there goes our life......always learning, never coming to the knowledge of the truth.

"Therefore I said unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father"; from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him" Jn. 6:65-66.

Our minds are so dark, so opposed to God, so centered on self, on the flesh; that it takes the supernatural intervention of God himself to change it.

How will a corpse react if I say anything to it? What kind of question is that? Are you messing with me? Corpses don't react to anything, they are dead; I can go the the morgue tomorrow, and spend the day trying to tell all the corpses there that they need to try a little harder, it is just not acceptable to be like that, so set in their ways, why can't they just believe, or at least love each other?

We were walking corpses, our little worlds were the coffins. We were dead in trespasses and sins, Paul says, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom we also had our way of living in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

God has to give life to us in order that we might even hear anything from Him. "It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not"

Even after hearing the words of Jesus, words of life, some believed not, some just flat out walked away from him. That is why He explains that no one can come to Him except it has been given to him by His Father.

"He that is of God, hears God's words," He said, "you therefore hear not, because you are not of God". Later He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death"; so I see that life has been given to those who believe so they can hear the words of life, but life has only been given to those who are of God, because they hear the words of God; they hear the words of God because it has been given to them by God himself, and all that hear and believe come to Jesus inevitably.

Thousands of people will die today without hearing the words of God, the words of life; obviously, it was not given to them to hear the words of life, it was not given to them to believe, it was not given to them to never see death.

So clear, who comes to Jesus.

In the beginning God...

We, as christians, believe that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing, He just spoke everything into existence, by the power of his word. If I ever have a problem with the first 3 chapters of the book of Genesis, how can I make sure that everything else written in the Word of God is true?

When I read that God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus, why do I believe that? when I read that He chose me before the foundation of the world, before verse 1 of chapter 1 of Genesis, what makes me believe that? when I read that apart from Jesus I can do nothing, do I say: yes I can, or do I just admit it? why?

Do some meditating, some righteous pondering and see what the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead tells you. Am I still kicking against the goads?

The Lord is my sheperd

I shall not want, but I do, the wanting here reflects the need of every human being for the physical necessities of life; those that we know that God has promised to supply. I look at the birds of the air, and just as Jesus said, I see them not gathering anything into barns; I could just imagine a little bird barn, made with twigs, hanging from a branch somewhere on a tree, and the little sparrows freaking out, flying all over the place trying to fill it with worms or something. The thoughts filling their little minds: where am I going to get the next worm? or, this barn is too small, I need a bigger one, I need more worms!! What a ridiculous thought! I shall not want, said David, I am completely satisfied, that is what makarios means, to be completely satisfied in God, not in your favorable circumstances; so, are you?

longing for righteousness

"He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgement as the noonday". Psalm 37:6 KJV

I wait for my God to do in me what He purposed in His heart to do. When I think about the goodness of the Lord and his holiness, I can surely say as Isaiah: Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. There is always this peculiar longing for holiness in my heart, a certain thirst and hunger for righteousness; I know I don't have it on my own, so I long for it. I ask then: where is this desire coming from? Surely we all know; it is God who is at work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.

The one who believes, hungers, the one who is being sanctified, thirsts; the one who admits that he is a man of unclean lips, longs for cleansing; the one who knows he has been chosen, surrenders. I ran out of options, have nowhere to go, "to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life"; have you run out of options? have you surrendered? I have to admit that I think I have but I don't know; there is always this fear of giving up control. Someone said to me once: "I am afraid not to surrender", how can that be possible? If you are not afraid to loose control over your life, I think you are lying or you are just too prideful; come on, be honest; are you willing to burn all your idols, are you willing to admit that you are not humble? Someday you will.

What a wicked thing to do

To make me think of you....and so goes the song; that might be a wicked thing to do, to make someone think of me, but what a blessing that God makes me think of Him. I really believe that all my actions and all my thoughts are known to God in advance, in fact I think that every deed and every thought have been predestined, to the praise of the glory of his grace...

I am not a theologian, but in a sense I am; every believer needs to be a theologian. A theologian is someone who knows about God, but it goes farther than that, just knowing about God is not enough; knowing God is what really matters: Jesus said, this is eternal life, that you may know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent; so I see what it is to know God, and that makes me a theologian, that I know God. Of course I am not claiming that I know everything about God, that is impossible because God is not knowable, that is one of the things that makes God God; but I personally know Him because He knows me and he has chosen to make Himself known to me.

I hear some brothers deny what the Bible teaches, and it concerns me that the church in general has been fed a bunch of junk in the last few years. I have not been a christian for very long, but in the last 19 years I have read the Bible, and God himself has revealed his son to me. He has taught me that the best that I could ever bring to the table, the best sacrifice that I could make, even if I gave my only son, it would be as filthy rags before the Holiness of God.

I needed God to save me, and he has. What a blessed thing to do, to make me think of you Jesus. How can I not think of you when I see something like the sunset pictured above?

creation

The heavens declare the glory of God, when I look at the works of the only artist who can paint without a brush, I have no other choice but to know that this universe did not come into existence by evolving from some soup of singularities, as some would like me to believe; that would take a quantum leap of faith.

"Bless YHWH oh my soul. O YHWH my God, you are very great, you are clothed with honor and majesty. Who cover yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. Who lays the beams of His chambers in the waters: who makes the clouds His chariot: who walks upon the wings of the wind"
King David.

"Do not marvel that I said unto you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wants, and you hear the sound of it but you cannot tell where is coming from, and where it is going, so is every one that is born of the Spirit"
King Jesus.

the moon from my balcony

I wasn't going to say anything on this one just because I was speechless when I saw the moon from my balcony. God is so good to me, He lets me see and be awed by Him.

My grand daughter is awed by God's creation and I want to be like that.

Jesus my valentine

Today is Valentine's day, I don't have a lover on the earth, maybe my kids. Nevertheless, I have a lover in heaven, Jesus the lover of my soul.

I remember Him, specially today, for nineteen years that I have been kept from drugs and alcohol. I celebrate my new birth today, He made me alive nineteen years ago today and I remember.

He wrote me a letter saying that he had me in his mind before He created the universe, He says that I was lost, that I was blind, that I was sick and stuck in the mire, and I was, He saw me wallowing in the mud of my depravity and He had compassion on me. He says that I could not help myself, and I agree, He saw my addictions and my despair, He knew about the darkness of my heart, He says that he knows how deceitful my heart is, how desperately wicked, He only knows, He says that he thinks about me so much that I could never put a number to the quantity of his thoughts toward me, He then went on to explain that God's justice had to be met, that I deserved to die and be obliterated into hell, I broke all of His laws and even boasted about it but He says He had a plan to pay for my debt, to wipe it clean; to make me new, as white as snow.

His plan includes my re-generation, He says that He would give me a new heart, a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone, and the only way He could do that was to take my place in the judgment, He sat on the seat of the accused, and was declared guilty for my sin, He is perfect and took my imperfection, He was rich and became poor so that I would become rich, He knew no sin and became sin for me so that I could become the righteousness of God in Him, and God was pleased to bruise him, my iniquity was laid on him, and the chastisement of my peace fell upon him. He was tortured and rejected; brutally murdered for my sake, He declared me guiltless before the judge, He lay down his life for me, and He took it up again.

He wrote this letter, a love letter on a tree He created, and signed it with his blood. He made a public declaration, a universal statement that He loves me.

Jesus is his name, the son of God, the God-man, the mighty I AM, the one who made all things and the one by whom all things hold together; the Logos, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Messiah.

He is my valentine, my heaven's valentine, I long to see his face, I long to feel his touch, so I read his letter and wait, I hear his voice and I follow, I wait for the lover of my soul, heaven's valentine, Yahshua the great I AM.

more to say about being chosen

Paul the apostle says that God the father has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we (that includes Paul) should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.

This word predestination is also a strange word, it basically means to set boundaries beforehand, to set a horizon beforehand, so i understand that this boundary, this horizon is in the future, is the end result.

I know people who say, I don't believe in predestination, well that is fine with me, but when we read the Bible we can't pick and choose what we want to believe and what suits our preconceptions of who God is.

The Bible is clear and it clearly teaches predestination, whether we like it or not. We cannot put God in a box and think that He should conform to our philosophy, Paul puts it clear when he asks: "who are you that you should complain to God? does the clay argue with the potter and complain: why are you making me like this?"

the fact is that we are worms and we don't deserve anything from God, except his justice, we don't deserve mercy and much less grace but either he is completely sovereign or He is not, either He is in control of everything or he is not, there is no riding the fence in His kingdom.
Do you care to comment? Maybe not, unless you have read the word of God and have seen with your own spiritual eyes that, yes indeed, He chose you. Instead of getting defensive and trying to save God from the bad press he gets from his own statements, why don't we really look into this doctrine (it is in fact a doctrine) and allow Him to show us, in his own words, how sovereign and holy he is?
Then you can comment.

the darkness of the heart

It is a fact that my heart is dark, I could say that all people's hearts are dark but I know someone out there will get defensive, so I will volunteer to be a representative sample of the general population; again, dark, I said, my heart is.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? Is that a rhetorical question? Would you dare to elaborate? There is only one God, He is holy and I am not, but he says that he chose me to be holy and without blame. Chosen. A strange word. Elected, another strange word, (English is a strange language if you grew up thinking Spanish), the very term implies the taking one from among many.

Elected, not by general vote but by a theocratic executive consensus, only three persons voted on this and they won because there was no one else to vote against it, so it was more a decision, but the correct term is elected; that is what the book says. In fact it says that this election took place before anything was there, of all the things that are, nothing was there yet, not even time. Wow, I can't, like my best friend says, wrap my brain around that one, I just believe it. Predestinated to become children of God, through adoption by Jesus Christ.

Elected, chosen, predestinated, accepted in the beloved. Anyone who realizes this by looking into the scriptures, has no choice but to be awed and comforted, overjoyed and in perfect peace, but sorrowful and even pitiful for those who have not been chosen.