This is not a suggestion…

Matthew 28:19 is a call for the church, the body of Christ, to go and make disciples of all nations. In other words, to go and share the good news, what Jesus has done and is doing in you life, with the hope that some will come to know Him through our testimony. Many of us hopefully do this locally, while others ventured out and travel to other countries to fulfill this calling. Nevertheless its a calling, a command, not a suggestion. Therefore we should all be engage in missionary work. 

I am responding to this call and for the next week I will posting updates as I, along with many others, share the gospel through love, compassion and deed, in Santiago, Dominican Republic. I can’t promise you moving pictures or picturesque scenes, but I can promise to share with you my impressions, stories, interaction and the work of God in my life and in the lives of those I will encounter.

I do ask one thing. Please keep me and my team in your prayers. May God use us to show love, compassion and bring His peace and hope to children and adults that are looking for something different for their lives. 

I hope that you join me in this journey. 

Count your white hairs.

Most people say that white hairs are a sign of experience and wisdom. In that case I must say that I am getting more and more wise every year. Unfortunately, according to scientist, white hairs are a product of an increase of hydrogen peroxide as we get older and has nothing to do with wisdom or experience.

Proverbs 8 uses personification to project wisdom. Unlike the previous chapter in which we see the adulterous woman leading the young man astray, Wisdom is seen as teacher who teaches about what she knows and has experienced. Why should we prefer wisdom over folly? According to verse 18-22 there are great blessings in following wisdom. Kings and rulers use her to rule wisely and her fruit is better than fine gold. There is enduring wealth and prosperity with wisdom. This wisdom is for all without prejudice. Verses 35-36 read “For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.”

Wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing. Knowledge comes from books, classes, learning, in other words, education. Unfortunately some take this knowledge and use it as a tool to keep others subjugated, knowledge is power, instead of helping. Rick Warren states that knowledge without love in action turns into pride, and pride leads to downfall.

On the other hand wisdom come from life lesson’s, from experience, from age. Wisdom is acquired through time and not necessarily in a classroom setting or through books. Wisdom seeks to protect, to help and to contribute for the betterment of others. Those that are wise are the ones that should be sought out for counseling, they should be listened to when they speak, and they should be respected for their judgement.

Though wisdom might not be characterized by the amount of gray or white hairs, one can easily see that those that are wise are blessed, have life, give sound judgement and find favor from the Lord.

 

Burn baby burn…

Proverbs Devotional Day 7

“If you play with fire, you will get burn” is a common quote. It is used to indicate that if you do something dangerous or something that is not appropriate you will eventually get hurt or caught. In Proverbs 7 we find a father giving advice to his son regarding adulterous relationship. Verses 6-27 the father tells a story of a young man with no sense who falls for an adulterous woman. As he is walking by the house of this woman, she comes out to seduce him with the way she dresses, with her words and with food. Verse 18 says “Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love!”  Some might look at this story and think that she is at fault since she is the one that is seducing him. The truth is that the young man, who had no sense, understood what he was doing, and I would dare say, went looking for it. He directed his steps towards her house. The result is, perhaps, what he expected. “With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.” 

There are some occasion in which we are inadvertently misguided and seduced to do something unforeseen, but the truth is that most of the time we are seduced is because we ignore the warnings or we chose to go down that road. Unfortunately there is always a consequence to this. “All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose” 

The father ends the story with a warning. “Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.” At the end, the father is saying that she is like fire and all who venture to play with fire will ultimately be burned.

What is your fire? What is that thing that seduces you? Is it money? Power? Is it lust? No matter what your fire is remember that fire burns and leaves permanent scars.

Proverbs Daily Devotional Day 2

One day I found myself speaking with a brother from church, and after a couple of minutes he made a reference to wisdom having something to do with the amount white hair someone might have. I am sure that many of us have heard this before, having white hair means that you are wise. If this was the case, I am on my way to becoming a wise man (not a wise guy) at my young age. Scientifically speaking, this is not the case. The cause of white hair is color-producing cells stop producing pigment. Therefore wisdom does not come from the color of your hair, but from another source. Wisdom comes “from the LORD who gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” We all desire to be wise because wisdom can help us out in times of need.

According to verses twelve and sixteen, “Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse… Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words,” These verses speak of being wise when it comes to making sure we don’t fall in the path of the wicked and perverse people. Perverse, according to the dictionary, means someone who shows a deliberate and obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable, often in spite of the consequences. It is not hard to see that many are living this way. We watch the news and hear of stories of people who commit crimes and atrocities because they so desired. We might have encounter others in our daily walk which fit the description of a perverse person, someone who is obstinate and acts in an inappropriate way based solely because they feel like it. However, Proverbs says that wisdom comes with great benefits.

Wisdom can be the light in the midst of darkness, the life preserver that keeps us afloat in the ranging sea of wickedness. Wisdom will allow us to “walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.” With the amount of sexually explicit images everywhere, it is almost impossible not to be tempted. Nevertheless, wisdom will save us from adulterous people, from the wayward man or woman and their seductive words. Wisdom will help us to know right from wrong, to keep us holy and pure in a perverse and unholy world. Wisdom comes from God, not from the amount of white hairs we might have. Therefore, ask God for wisdom, listen to His words, read the Bible and allow the Spirit to guide you.

One of the hardest things to do…

One of the hardest things I have had to do as a youth leader is to let go. In other words, after four years of walking, teaching and spending countless hours with students there come a time when we need to give them space to make their own decisions, but sitting in the sideline is hard to do.

Being a youth group leader is similar to being a coach. There are long hours at the office followed by long hours of training, conditioning and making sure that they are ready. During this process it is inevitable to become attached to your students, especially if your youth group is not too large. After their time has come and they graduate from High School, some go away to college while others stay, find a job while going to school. This is Prime Time, they are on the field and they are playing for keeps. As a coach, your remind on the side lines while they are in the field. As you see the plays unfold you cringe when they make a mistake. You want to run out into the field and help them up, get them back in the game. You want to run out and review the play book with them just like you’ve done countless times in the past, but you know that you have to remain on the side line. You cheer when they succeed, when they made the right choice, when they accomplished to get ahead, but still you remain in the sideline.

This is all part of the growing process, the maturing process, a part of being a youth leader, but none the less it’s hard to be in the sidelines. This will happen once again next year, and it will be one of the hardest things I will have to do again.

Coffee with God (part 2)

I like to drink coffee, for no other reason than the taste of it. Especially if it’s lite and sweet. Others might like it with no milk, no sugar or with creamer. In fact there are many ways to prepare a cup of coffee. Though my preference is lite and sweet with milk, I occasionally like to change it up a bit.

I remember when my wife and I were dating. We would plan to spend a day together and maybe take a walk in the park, watch a movie and/or participate in a church function. Then afterwards we would spend more time together. I would leave to go home at about 10pm and get home in an hour. After putting away my coat and getting comfortable I would pick up the phone and call her. If you were to ask me about our conversations and what we spoke about for such a long time I would not be able to tell you. I don’t know what we spoke about for such a long time. All I know is that if our conversations became repetitious and lacked substance the relationship would have fizzled out and I would not be including her in this post.

I am calling this type of communication the Decaf, because we need to have some substance, some oomph in our relationship with God.

Can you imagine if this is the way we communicated with God?

Lord thank you for everything, thank you for all that you done. Thank your for hmmm my family and friends and everything. Lord thank you for who you are…

How am I doing? Well, I okay oh and thank you for that, thank you for all that you done, for everything.

Awkward Silence –

But yeah did I mention that I want to thank you God for everything, for all that you are doing, for all that you have done, for who you are.

Some expert say that if something is done for more than 21 days it becomes a habit, a routine. Sometimes our conversations with God become a routine. This can be good and bad at the same time. It is good that we take time to spend with God and that we do it consistently. It’s bad when what we do consistently becomes a routine. We pray the same way for the same things all the time. We sit down and pray for breakfast “Lord thank you for this food, thank you for providing and bless the less fortunate, Amen” pray for lunch, “Lord thank you for this food, thank you for providing and bless the less fortunate, Amen” pray for dinner, “Lord thank you for this food, thank you for providing and bless the less fortunate, Amen”

We can and should break out of this routine but how? When we begin to think and believe that we are speaking to a person, when we think about who you are speaking to, God, the creator of the world, that one that made all of this and that made you. The one that never changes, that is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Alpha an Omega, the one that love us so much that He gave His only son to die for us in the cross so that we can have eternal life with Him in heaven. When we start to think about who we are speaking to, praying to, things begin to change. My prayer time, my time with God is much more different. Is not about what am I doing for God, but is all about being who God created me to be. It is not about repeating words that lack meaning and substance. Is about love and a relationship with the one who gave it all.

When we establish a strong and meaningful relationship with Him then we can hold on to Hebrew 4:16 –

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

This is how then we can approach God when it comes to prayer. We can come to His throne of grace with confidence, confident that He will hear our prayers, confident that we can communicate with Him, confident that because our relationship is strong and healthy He will not only listen but also help because He is not just a mysterious force, a supernatural entity, He is not a spiritual entity that does not care, or would prefer no to be bothered. He is our creator, He is our father our Abba. He is the one that sent His son to die for us so that we can have a relationship with Him. His son was sacrificed so that we can come and sit and have a cup of coffee with Him, spend time with Him and be in an intimate and loving relationship with Him where we not only speak to Him but He speaks to us!!!

Why do we pray? We pray because prayer works, we pray because through prayer we find the strength, the wisdom and the courage to face this world.

Romans 12:2 says Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Yes, we will encounter problems, we will face trails, we will go through situations that will wear on us. The answer to all this is prayer. Come to God in prayer.

Coffee with God (part 1)

Last month I talked about how having a daily cup of coffee with God is vital to our growth as a believer. In other words spending time with God in meditation and prayer is essential to cultivating a healthy communication and relationship with God. I liken different types of coffees to some of the most common ways in which we end up praying.

Prayer boils down to simply having a conversation with God. There are several ways to approach prayer and equally numerous things we pray for. Many of us, including myself, overlook the fact that prayer means having a conversation with God, but in the course of time we end up doing all the talking and neglect to listen.

The fist type of prayer i would like to present is the Espresso prayer.

Have you ever been in a conversation where you are counting the minutes till it ends because you have other things to do? And you have been trying to avoid this person cause you now they like to talk and go deep and like to share. You are there and you are talking but cutting your sentence short, nodding and not wanting to answer cause you know if you do that can lead to another question or more conversation and you have so much to do. You fidget, you move your body, your turn sideways and then you look at your watch or cellphone… you are thinking “Come on get the hint!” I need to go.

Speaking with God

Hey God, I know that I have been a little distant and I have stood you up many times. Its just that I have a lot to do. You know life gets in the way. I have classes, which by the way, take up a lot of my time especially with all those papers I have had to write, but am learning more about you. Oh and thanks for the grades I could ask for anything better. But you know I also pick up my daughter from school and spend time with her, Saturdays are of course family days and let’s not forget all the other work I do for you, here for church. So some times I run out of time. 

What kind of relationship do we have? Well…I think we have a good one, I do all the things that you want me to do, I work in church I run the sound, the youth ministry, I am in the planning committee, I…when do we spend time together? Well, we spending time now, but we need to hurry cause I need to you know preach. So thank you God for all that you done, all that you are doing and all that you will do Amen.

If our time with God is always rushed and our minds are on a thousand other places and on a million other things we need to do then how effective is our conversation? How much are we paying attention and how much do we value that relationship? How would you feel if you were on the other side of that conversation? These are just some questions that can help to gauge the type of relationship we have with God.

If prayer is communicating with God and communicating involves sharing but also listening, then when do we listen if we are always in a rush? I pray that we slow down a bit, lay off the Espresso style of prayer and take time to have a conversation with God. A time when we can talk and listen to His answers.

 

Where’s God when Tragedy Strikes?

This is usually the first question that comes to our minds when we hear of a tragedy followed by;

How can this happen?

Why did it happen?

Who is capable of doing something like that? and Where is God in all of this?

As a father, my heart breaks for those who lost a child in this tragedy in Connecticut. It is at this time where I want to hold and have my 8 year old daughter closer than ever. My mind tries to make sense of all of this, of the motives, the reasons why this happen and the mentality behind the person responsible for this.

As I scroll through some Facebook and Twitter comments, I have read many heart felt condolences, but I have also read comments such as “this is what happens when we take God out of school” or “such events happen when prayer has been banned from school”. Others champion gun control as a possible remedy, and tighter security. Though I believe that all these things might help prevent or lessen such tragedies I think that we are focusing on the external and not on the internal. We are reacting on the physical level but not in the spiritual level.

I don’t think that taking away prayer in school should affect us as much as some say it has if we are praying with our children at home. My daughter never prayed in school but she knows God, we’ve taught her about the importance of prayer and we make it a point to pray with her everyday and have her pray as well.  Taking away the 10 Commandments from a public place should not mean God commandments are not present in our lives and written in our hearts. “Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” I do understand the injustice and the ideologies behind the “world” that conspire against God and His church. I see that struggle and most times the one-sided battles that the church confronts and it is disheartening and infuriating at times. I do however also realize that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12). If we recognize that there is sin in this world and that people are sinful,then we can see why tragedies like these happen. If people do not come to the light and they do not admit their sinful ways and repents then we can see how far the deprave and the wicked person can go to inflict harm. Tragedies, afflictions, problems and disasters will come because there is sin in the world.

The initial question was where is God when all this happens? I would like to counter that question with this one. “What would be the outcome if God was not there?” If grace was not present and humanity would act and do whatever they pleased. If humanity would completely be given over to their fleshly, sinful desires, what would the world look like? Some might ask, “What kind of loving God might let this happen?” I can only imagine He might ask. “Why is my creation ignoring me, cursing at me and forsaking me?”

I believe that God is hurting and sadden by this tragedy and all other tragedies around the world. I don’t believe that He is a callous, insensitive, powerless or vengeful God. I believe that He wants to restore, redeem and renew everyone and therefore He sent Jesus, His only Son, to die in the cross for us. Maybe the question should not be “Where was God when all this happened?” maybe the question should be “What is my relationship with God?”