Month: July 2015

Not Marry Yet? A Word of Advise


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“I want to share the rest of my life with you.” This is a very common expression for people who want to get marry. The older I get, the more I discover that this expression is just wrong!

What makes a marriage great is a “mutual” commitment to God. Do you both share a passion for Jesus and a passion to serve His people? You can’t have one spouse pressing on to God in holiness and the other listening to Snoop Dogg’s music and bringing R-Rated movies and immoral garbage to the home. Believe me, that’s not going to work. This issue of unequally joke (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) is not just a thing of Christians not allowed to marry people outside of the faith. This unequally joke thing is applicable among Christians themselves. That is because today’s days we have an approach to the Gospel where it seems like there is no absolutes, everybody is doing whatever they want. This is the Burger King Gospel, where everybody have it their way!

What makes a marriage great is the sense that we can count on each other, no matter what. It is the embracing of the Agape love, the unconditional love, the love that is able to see beyond toilet seats left up, bad breath, bad cooking, in sickness, in the good times and even in the bad times, when there is money in the bank and when we can only afford Ramen Noodles with hot dogs. I am talking about a marriage where even as not exempt from issues; at least they both know that divorce is not a constant threat or, one mistake away from reality.

See beloved, we have believed so much fallacies concerning marriage. We hear things like, “Love never hurt.” Really? LOL!!!!! My Bible tells me that love suffers long (First Corinthians 13:4) Furthermore, First Corinthians 7 is dedicated to discourage marriage; however Paul establishes, very clearly, that because of fornication is better to marry (First Corinthians 7:9) Furthermore, First Corinthians 7:28 closes the case on the nightmare that a marriage can be,

“But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.” (NIV)

Finally, even as the list is longer than this, let me finish with something the Lord told me some time ago; it is not about sharing our lives, it is about sharing our passions. If you and your spouse do not share some similar passions, you are up to a tough ride in your marriage. Do you like the outdoors? Are you passionate about going outside and enjoying God’s creation? Make sure your spouse do also because if she acts as if she is allergic to vitamin D you are going to be taking those long walks by yourself.

What about if you both already have children? Are you both “old school” in your parenting styles or, is one of you embracing this new way of parenting where parents do not correct their children for fear of hurting their feeling? You better get that straight before marriage because it will be a nightmare. Over 80 percent of blended families end-up in divorce and parenting styles is the number one reason. What do you like to do for fun? Any similarities there? Pay attention to that before you get marry or you will be in a very boring situation.
Beloved, sharing our lives is not enough; that is because, if my life stinks, then I will just be sharing my stinky life with you. But if we share similar passion, from the bed to that long walk, we will, in the mix of all, enjoy good times, special moments and eternal memories together.

How Loving God Above All Things Looks Like in Real Life?


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This is perhaps, the most important topic to be discussed in the whole world. Loving God above all things is not a recommendation; it is indeed the first commandment. Loving God requires more than just words, more than just going to church, more than just be involved in ministry or carry a clergyman title. Because our flesh comes against God (Galatians 5:17) and also comes against our soul (First Peter 2:11) loving God above all things is virtually impossible on our own strength. Romans 5:5 tells us, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (NKJV) It is indeed the Holy Ghost that places that kind of love in our hearts. We need the Holy Ghost in order to be able to love…period!

As fancy and theologically complicated as all these things may sound, loving God above all things has a face, it is tangible and it is practical. These are a few characteristics to take into consideration when assessing our love for God.

  1. Placing God first in our lives means that we make time for intimacy with God: This time is not taken as a chore, but as a time we desperately look forward to. This is the pursuing of the first commandment. Mark 12:30 tells us, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.” (NKJV) This first commandment involves passion; it involves our will and a mind that is constantly thinking on the Lord. The closest thing to this radical passion is our romantic love. Another verse that illustrates this passion is Psalm 42:1, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.” (NKJV) This is a deer that is running for her life. That kind of thirst is the thirst we should have for God.
  2. Placing God above all things in our lives means that you are hungry and thirsty for His righteousness: This is a heart that loves God so much that he/she wants to do things God’s way and not our own. Matthew 5:6 tells us, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.” (NKJV) This is not a holier than thou kind of personality, this is simply somebody that loves God so much that he/she desires to do the right thing before God out of reverence and love for HIM. A person who loves God above all things understands that he/she is called to “…seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness…” Matthew 6:33 (KJV). It is no longer about doing things our way, but about surrendering all to God. It is a place of total trust in God.
  3. Placing God above all things is a constant diligence to get to know God through Scripture: The Bible is the foundation to the believes of a man and a woman of God. It is not the world, it is not ideologies, whatever the culture approves or not and, it is not philosophies of men. A person who loves God is not satisfy with what others have to say about the Bible, they are diligent in studying the Scripture and showing themselves approved according to 2 Timothy 2:15. People who love God look forward to opening the Scriptures and reading God’s love letter for us. This is not a person that is into denominations, but into the truth. The truth does not offend them, for love delights in truth (First Corinthians 13:6), they actually look forward to hear it. A person who loves God above all things actually understands the power found in truth. Our freedom depends, not in the freedom of our nation, but in knowing the truth that can make us free, according to John 8:32.
  4. Placing God first above all things means that you embrace your divine vision and purpose for life: Habakkuk 2:2 encourages us to write the vision down. That vision gives us direction for our lives. We walk as people that are going somewhere, not just walking around going any kind of place, stuck and unmovable without purpose. You can easily distinguish a person with vision and a person without vision, in how they spend their time. People that love God are not easily distracted and placed in demonic agendas of wasting time, laziness and diverse forms of evil. Because they are going somewhere, they are constantly making efforts to move in that direction. If they are called to go north, you can’t convince them to go south. Even as we can’t fully understand our purpose; a person that loves God has a clear sense of purpose according to Jeremiah 29:11. That sense of purpose is what wakes them up excited in the mornings and ready to roll. This is a person with a great self-esteem, because they find self-esteem not in the opinions of men, but in their heavenly Father.
  5. Placing God first means that listening to His voice is our priority and our source of life: We look forward to listening to Him because we know that our spiritual lives depend on that kind of connection. Matthew 4:4 tells us, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” (NKJV) A man or a woman of God is always listening to God; a man or a woman of God should always have a Word from the Lord, in or out of season (2 Timothy 4:2), it does not matter, because they are always listening. A person that loves God prays differently; the emphasis is not on their words to God, but in listening carefully and, obviously, in applying God’s instructions. We serve a God that speaks and He has placed listening to HIM as a high priority; our spiritual lives depend on it.

I hope that as you read these characteristics you be able to sense a personality. Perhaps that is the peculiar personality the Bible tells us about in First Peter 2:9,

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” (NKJV)

Are you peculiar or are you conformed to the ways of this world (Romans 12:2)? In the answer to this question we can really see, how you look like!

The Teenage Crisis in the United States of America


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I feel like society, the culture and even our own families are rejecting people like me more and more. Fathers like me are considered old-fashioned and outdated. The old-school approach of parenting was not perfect, but compared to this liberal approach; I rather keep the old ways.

         We, as fathers are competing with a culture that promotes the self-expression of our children. It is funny to me, because they know nothing yet (They are kids!!!!), but they think they know, so our culture promotes them expressing their ignorance and stupidity.

         The culture promotes them having rights for privacy, cell phones with internet access to the whole world and a constant social media that keeps them focus on themselves and totally disconnected from God and family. A culture that highly promotes an open and constant seduction expressed in the way they talk, in the way they text, what they watch on TV, Hollywood, in their clothing with, short dresses that keep very little to the imagination, legging, tight shorts and teats everywhere.

         The authority of fathers is challenged every. Our importance in the homes is diminished. What we do is rejected and made fun of and the worst part, many of us are not really taking our place. Many fathers are absent and continue to give grotesque examples of irresponsibility.

         Many other fathers are not absent, however, they are silence by their wives. Many have to choose between keeping their wives and confronting their children with their foolishness. So they stay quiet, go with the flow and lower the standards. They are afraid of hurting their kid’s feelings for fear of making “mama” upset. Disciple is out the door and disrespect is welcome with open hands. What is the result of this value system change? According to the Child Defense Fund (1992) these are the facts of what is happening to teens in the United States of America EVERY DAY:

  • EVERY DAY, 6 teens commit suicide
  • EVERY DAY, 7 kids, ages ten to nineteen, are murdered
  • EVERY DAY, 7 juveniles, ages seventeen and under, are arrested for murder
  • EVERY DAY, 8 teens are raped
  • EVERY DAY, 500 teens begin using drugs
  • EVERY DAY, One thousand teens begin using alcohol
  • EVERY DAY, One thousand unwed teenage girls have a baby
  • EVERY DAY, more than one thousand teenage girls get abortion.
  • EVERY DAY, more than twenty-seven hundred kids watch their parents separate or divorce.
  • EVERY DAY, more than four thousand teens contract a sexually transmitted disease.
  • EVERY DAY, more than one hundred thousand kids bring a gun or other weapon to school. (Clinton & Ohlschlager, 2013 p. 18-20)

         Beloved, it is so bad that discipline now is viewed as lacking love and being mean-spirited. These are lies from hell; but the problem is that the culture is taking those lies as Gospel truth, our families are taking those lies as Gospel truth and the preacher in the church lacks the courage to teach and preach about these things for fear of loosing his congregation. Because we understand the damage that legalism caused and continue to cause, we now embrace a friendly liberalism that is just as bad or even worst.

         But what does the Bible has to say about all these things? Did God run out of answers for our present cultural crisis? No! Take these verses into consideration,

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32 (NKJV)

         What we need is truth; yes, the tough truth that nobody wants to hear. But truth is not enough, it most be balanced with grace (John 1:17) We most give people an opportunity to come the way they are; we most be ready to receive them with open arms when, finally, their hearts be consume by repentance, when, finally they see the fruit of their ways. Pastor Jeff Oden from North Pole Church of God said it best, on a recent sermon as he refuses the idea of having babies out of wedlock be rise outside of the church. Indeed that will make matters worst. We most trust the Living God for our children, for our neighborhood and for our churches. Evil will always be out there, it will get worst; but we will bring them in with truth and with grace.

         Our children need discipline; discipline is an expression of love (Hebrews 12:6). Those tough conversations most take place. Several years ago they did a show on TV in Puerto Rico amongst the toughest criminals in prison. They all stated that they wished their parents would have being tougher with them, that the parent would have question them more…disciplined them more, etc. Those were the exact words I recently heard from a father, whose adult trouble step son told him, “I wish you would have been tougher with me.”

         I love all of my children and I face the same challenges all parents face; I am no difference. Statistics actually show that the challenges of blended families are even greater. However, I insist on a verse that keeps me going,

Train up a child in the way he should go,

And when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)

         I will continue, in the mix of my own imperfections, to train up my kids, to give them something to remember. They may not apply it now; but perhaps when I am gone with my Heavenly Daddy, they can remember the good things I say and find forgiveness in their hearts for the other things I said and did that were not Godly. Perhaps they can remember, when they are old themselves, that even as we are not perfect, we have a mandate to pursue holiness and not use our pitiful state of being human, as a reason to expand in our evil ways. The crisis is before us; it is a reality. However, the solution is also before us. The solution is Jesus Christ and not this liberal, Obama backing, Oprah Winfield intellectualizing and Hollywood glorifying garbage.

 

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Reference

 

  • All scriptures quoted from the New King James Version Bible
  • Clinton, Timothy & Dr. Ohlschlager, George, Competent Christian Counseling, Water Brook, Volume I

Are You Listening?


The other day I was riding my bicycle around the beautiful city of Fairbanks. From the beginning of my fifteen-mile ride I kept hearing the Holy Spirit telling me, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 (KJV) I heard those words before, it was one of the answers Jesus gave the devil as the devil was temping him right in the beginning of the Lord’s ministry. But I kept hearing this Bible verse like a song or a melody that get stuck in your brain.

The last four to five miles of my bicycle route are the toughest one because it is all up hill. My heart rate was going up, I could feel my legs feeling every inch of those hills. Then I asked the question, “Lord, what do you want to tell me?” As I started to listen to His voice, I started thinking less and less about that hill and how tired I was feeling and more and more about the curiosity of God’s answer to my question.

The revelation was simple; we have a wrong idea of what it is to live “the life”. Many think that money, parties, relationships, having things, eat well, etc. is the good life, but the reality is that we can do all of those things, appeared to be doing well and be nothing but dead people walking.

Food helps us to sustain the body; if we don’t eat, eventually we will die. However, Jesus is making the point that food is not the only or most important supplier of life, listening to God is.

On this verve, the word, “Word” is the word Rhema, which means, “That which is spoken, a statement, word. (I) Particularly a word as uttered by a living voice.” [1] This is not an article against the written Word; the Rhema Word must be inline with the written (Logos) Word. However, what give us life is not the reading or study of God’s Word, but to listen to the Father.

To understand what I am trying to say, I have to use the example the Holy Ghost told me to share. Imagine as a parent, you start writing a special book with all you want your children to know. After you complete that book you supply each one of your kids with a copy. After that, they are no longer allowed to speak to you; every time they approach you, you redirect them to read your book. They may have questions about the book, but you stand firm that all they need is to read the book. Don’t you think that is just terrible?

God wants to speak to us; He establishes that His spoken Word for us is life. However, the enemy is doing a good job in keeping us distracted. The reason the church is dead is because people are dead, spiritually dead. Every born again believer should be able to answer this question, what is the Lord telling you?

If you are waiting for Sunday to hear what the preacher has to say and that is the only thing you hear from God, you are a dead man walking. Are you listening? Many feel that if they just read the Bible, if they just “go to church”, if they just listen to this or that TV Evangelist, if they just read this or that book, if they join this or that denomination, if they just surround themselves with worship music, if they join the men’s group, or the women’s, or the youth group or this or that Bible study, etc. they be on fire for God. I have news for you, you can be involved in one, two, three or even in all of these activities and, still be a dead man walking. You know why? Because you are still not listening.

The greatest problem of our world is not the economy, is not illegal immigration, racism, the homosexual agenda, government corruption, etc. The greatest problem in our world is sin and, the sin that we violate the most is the first commandment to love God above all things. God is not our priority! Not in our time, not in our money and not our commitments. For many, God is not even on the top ten list of what is really important.

Beloved, we are dead because we are not listening. The moment God’s voice become our priority, we will experience life, we will experience God’s presence and we will experience Re-vival! The greatest teaching our pastors can give us is to learn to hear God’s voice. Are you listening?

[1] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

Puerto Rico, Los Estados Unidos no es tu Esperanza


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Puerto Rico, tu esperanza no está en los Estados Unidos, tampoco en el Partido Nuevo Progresista, el Partido Popular Democrático o ningún otro partido.

US National Debt

¿Para que buscas a los Estados Unidos? Su deuda nacional es de sobre 17 trillones de dólares. ¿Para que inviertes en poner tu esperanza en partidos políticos y en cartuchos quemados que sembraron las semillas de los frutos de politiquería, promesas huecas, faltas de respeto, falta de moral, corrupción y falta de conciencia que hoy tenemos.

Romero y colon

El Salmo 121:1-2 nos dice,

“…ALZARÉ mis ojos á los montes, De donde vendrá mi socorro.

2 Mi socorro viene de Jehová, Que hizo los cielos y la tierra.” (RVA)

Puerto Rico, Estados Unidos no es tu esperanza. El celo de Dios se levanta en contra tuya. Mira la grandeza de los montes; es desde arriba de donde viene tu salvación.

Agárrate de la verdad que solo se encuentra en Cristo. Las denominaciones no salvan, los pastores no salvan, el ser una buena persona no salva, el hacer buenas obras no salva. El único que tiene el poder de salvar las almas es Jesucristo.

El Rapto

El rapto viene, es un evento real. ¿Estás preparado para el rapto? Si te quedas atrás después del rapto vivirás el tiempo de la manifestación del anticristo, un hombre completamente apasionado con el pecado y con la maldad. Mas antes de quitarse la máscara, será un hombre poderoso, de buena palabra, de gran inteligencia, muy carismático y quien resolverá muchos de los problemas del mundo.

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Mas el exigirá que lo adoren, después de tres años y medio será el comienzo de la gran tribulación, tal tribulación como nunca se ha visto en la historia de la humanidad. ¿Estás preparado?