Category: Christ alone

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019

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God sees Us Like Diamonds & Pearls—Precious & Pure!

Precious stones are highly valued. Some of the rarest of gems can cost 3 million dollars per gemstone.

Pearl necklaces can be worth up to 1.5 million dollars. Of course, all these prices are subjective. The beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Yet, most people who appreciate the beauty of these gems, very rarely think of the ‘how.’

What I mean is this—the amount of time and pressure of each diamond results in the incredible allure of the precious stone. The more time and intense stress that gems endure the more valuable and almost perfect it becomes.

Pearls have the same type of pressure but a different adventure.

Most people don’t know that it is a tiny parasite that causes the oyster to try and get rid of it by secreting a fluid called ‘nacre’ into the invading little nuisance.

The more of this fluid is injected into the parasite, the bigger the pearl gets with each layer of nacre. A little less than a decade or so, you get a pearl. Sometimes it takes more than a decade, but that would be an average period to make a thing of exquisiteness. Again, this precious stone is produced by constant friction.

In the same way that precious stones are created, our mental, physical, and most importantly, spiritual health comes from constant friction and pressure.

The more a person works out with weights, the more the muscles have to breakdown and then get stronger. The more medical students are deprived of sleep, the better they will adapt to it until each medical student goes on an auto-drive where pressure becomes a thing that they are dealing with calmly.

As Christians, we too don’t like trials. We want smooth sailing from start to finish. Some people can handle the spiritual warfare that comes when we become disciples of Jesus. Most people will stop serving because of these constant spiritual battles.

Parents see their kids wavering on their commitment to Christ and automatically go and try to ‘save’ their children from harm. This is the worst thing that you can do to your kids. Why? Because with strife, contention, division, anger, envy, and all the rest of the things the enemy uses against them and us, the deeper your children will have to depend on the LORD instead of running to us to bail them out.

The more ‘friction’ we go through spiritually, the more beautiful our spirits are becoming. Just like those precious gems and pearls, the pressure and friction are what causes us to get into more profound dependence, prayer, and fellowship with others.

Parents, I encourage you to do your best and try not to help your kids by bailing them out of critical situations that require the LORD’s help. Some of those perilous situations may be self-inflicted, and all of us need to have our Heavenly Father come to our rescue. This is the only way that we will learn, like the small parasites that embed themselves into an oyster, or diamonds weather the incredible pressure the earth places them through.

So parents, if your kids are wavering on their walks with God and you see their commitment lacking, don’t give up on them. Fasting and prayer, pointing them always to the only One that can help them, will be the way that they will come back to His presence.

Nagging them, yelling at them, forcing them is the human way to try to bring your children or spouse back; and is always detrimental to their relationship with God and you.

Love on them, pray for them, correct them calmly, and tell them that God loves them and has not given up on them!

I am not an expert, but I know who the Great Expert is. God will be the one to mine our kids or dive deep into the dangerous oceans to bring them out of the friction and pressures of life. God will release them from their personal and tight enclosures to reveal their preciousness. Each of us and our kids are one of a kind precious gems to God. Your kids will be so refined and valuable to Christ, that their worth will be known to all.

Just don’t give up on your kids, don’t bail them out all the time and allow God to bring out their worth……

If you’re not sure how God sees you & want to ensure that you are precious in His sight, get to know Him more:

Know God

https://www.topteny.com/top-10-expensive-pearls-world/

REFERENCES:

https://pearls.com/pages/how-pearls-are-formed

September 7, 2019September 6, 2019

Th Altar Of Insanity |Moral Truth Series

There’s not much that I can add to the words below except, it’s time to— Protect the future of our children’s children…

—When people worship at the Altar of Insanity

Morals that are deemed perfect are not.

Morality that should be taught is not.

Unhealthy Lifestyles are deemed clean.

Clean lifestyle is deemed unclean.

Those that worship at the Altar of Insanity

want to drag our kids into this unhealthiness.

People will not worship at

the Altar of The Way, The Truth & Life

because they have bought into the Lie.

They have worshipped at the Altar of Insanity

far too long to know the insaneness of it all.

If you want to walk away from the Altar of Insanity & get to know the real Way, Truth and Life personally:

Know God

August 23, 2019August 23, 2019

Aspects of His Story—For His People |Christian Basics Series

People have asked me what the most important thing about Christianity and its influence on the world are. Some of these I have written about before. Now, I am tasked to give my opinion on five historical events that have influenced the church today. I stand with the following but could also give many different answers for the last one.

A bit lengthy but these aspects are too important to shortchange

Jesus’ Death on the cross.

His life and influence have been felt all over the world throughout history (His Story). We have the Four Gospel Writers giving us the horrific events that took place before and during Jesus’ hanging on the cross.

A copy of the second Medicean manuscript of *Annals*, Book 15, chapter 44,

Non-Christian historians who wrote about the historical figure of Jesus. One was a Jewish historian named Flavius Josephus and the other was a Roman historian named Tacitus (Copy of Letter above). Both wrote about Jesus and the repercussions of His actions, along with his disciples.

Pliny the Younger was the governor of Bithynia et Pontus around 11 A.D. He wrote about Christians following a Jewish Teacher named Jesus whom they called a God. Moreover, Pliny was fearful that this faith would spread like it already was throughout the Roman Empire. Although he did not personally write about Jesus, he did write about the influence of a person named Jesus over His disciples and was not happy with the way Christians were worshipping and taking people’s faith away from the gods of Rome.

All accounts both in the Gospels and by outside non-Christian writers validate that Jesus was a person who came to influence the Judean nation, the Roman Empire, and later, the whole known world.

Without Jesus’ death, there would not be a story of Redemption. The Redemption of grace and mercy given to humanity, to be able to reconcile ourselves back to complete communion with God. Jesus became the Last Sacrificial Lamb to take away the sins of the world. With His death, the final sacrifice on the Temple Mount laid a foundation for all who would come asking for God’s forgiveness.

The Resurrection:

While Jesus’ incredible work of the cross is without compare, the Resurrection of Jesus is as important as His Sacrifice on the cross. Without Jesus resurrecting as He and the prophetic scriptures said would happen, Christians would not be here, able to say that we through Jesus have conquered Death’s sting.

If the cross brought a sweet-smelling aroma to God’s Throne room, the resurrection sealed or stamped the Sacrificial Lamb with the Heavenly Stamp of approval. You see, Jesus had to conquer Death, yet the His disciples, the hordes of hell and his earthly enemies did not understand that.

His disciples were dejected and felt rejected. They had seen The Messiah of Israel do astonishing miracles. Yet, their Rabbi and future’s Hope had dashed and crashed away with Jesus’ Death on the cross. These men, laid hidden, fearful of the Jewish authorities. Not able to understand why their beloved Teacher was now dead.

Most of the Sanhedrin, who opposed this simple, poor, interloper called Yeshua, thought they had gotten rid of this nuisance who called Himself the resurrection and the Life., The Way, Truth and Life, The Good Shepherd, The Bread of Life, etc.. These devout legalistic men who wanted power thought they had stayed in power.

Satan and his hordes who saw Jesus born and made every effort to get rid of this baby God as soon as possible. These evil forces which influenced the soldiers of Herod’s Guard to kill the innocents in Bethlehem and its surroundings. The same evil horde with their leader taunting Jesus as he was being beaten and whipped. What must have gone through satan’s mind seeing Jesus tortured, hanging on the cross, dying a gruesome death, His body buried in a cave? This evil demonic swarm must have celebrated seeing the shocking event of God dying by the hand of His most precious creation. Satan had won, or so he thought.

“How I wish I would have been there,” is every Christian’s thought. The event of the resurrection changed life itself. We are now the heirs of this resurrection and the hope it gives us. The hope of one day resurrecting into eternity, and finally becoming whole once again. This event is the blessed hope Paul speaks of in Titus. The hope of everlasting union with our LORD and Savior Jesus, when He comes for us.

Fire flame on black background. blaze fire flame textured background. Premium Photo — Corutesy of Freepik

Pentecost:

Fifty days after Jesus became our First Fruit of Resurrection, the third most important event happened to the Church of Christ. Without it, the church would have died a wimpy and minute death. You see, what the Death and resurrection were for us, the filling of the Holy Spirit was just as important. This filling is where we as Christians get our power, not through anything we do, but through the Power of God’s Spirit.

Jesus needed to go through this sacrificial Death and why we as Christians celebrate it today as the most important of events in world history. The eye witness accounts of his Death and burial cannot be rebutted by any critic because there were too many witnesses to Christ’s ministry, crucifixion, Death, and resurrection.

We also have the enemies of Jesus who by their silence after the miraculous events, did not deny a resurrection or that Jesus performed great miracles. They tried to bribe Jesus away and force His disciples to not preach in His name.

1517 Basel printing of the Nitey-Five *Theses*

The Reformation

With a widespread movement, there tends to be a downhill period of moral decline and corruption. This corruption happened to the Christian church when it became universal, and its leadership became too powerful.

With absolute power, comes absolute corruption. No checks and balances for its leaders.

There were too many followers and too few who could read the Word of God. Illiteracy was the vehicle for leadership to take grasp for power. God led Luther to pen Ninety-five Theses where Protestants, later on, would protest with The Five Solae or Alone’s or Only’s.

The Reformation revolutionized faith in Christ alone and not the church, the word alone and not with traditions of men, faith, and grace alone without bribing your way to heaven, and God alone instead of a man absolving your sins away.

The Internet

I remember seeing a chart that looked like a hockey stick. It was a timeline showing the technological progress of humankind. We see the agricultural age for most of human history and then the great boom of the industrial age. We then accelerate the knowledge pace when we hit the digital age, and double the knowledge with the information age! The internet can be used for evil, but I am an optimist. The Gospel has been preached throughout the world.

Just this blog alone has made it to 87 countries and counting. From Brazil to China and in every continent except Antartica. Imagine Paul having the internet? What would Christianity look like if he had his hands on such an incredible piece of technology?
This is the Golden Age for sharing the Gospel. This is our time to impact history. We have learned from Scripture and those that have come before us.
Let us make the world know who Christ is and what He has done for them! Go and make disciples of all nations…

If you want to know who Jesus is and what He did for you:

August 16, 2019August 16, 2019

Know God

References:

Flavius Josephus

Full Transcripts of Tacitus letter about Christ

4 Gospels:

I am Willing…Be Free! |Attributes of God Series

He has set the captives free… He sets people chained up free!

Today is a solemn day for me. On this day back in 1996, my brother Eddie went home to be with the LORD. He was 33 years of age. He was not, by any means, a saintly person. He had fought with the wickedness of alcohol and lost the battle.

He had gotten a managerial job in a plush hotel in Mexico City, where he would entertain guests coming in from all over the world, and this was his downfall.
Yet, I know one day I will see him again. You see, we had been going back and forth on my faith. He would call from the hotel he worked at and would quickly say hello and ask about my faith. I was always telling him that we were praying for him. He would just laugh and say goodbye.

I thought he was not interested, but it turns out that he was listening to everything I was saying and by what I was doing as a husband and father to my babies.

He called me and his voice was different, he was not tipsy, and he sounded serious.
“Oscar, I have committed my life to Christ,” he said joyfully.
At first, I was skeptical. But the more my brother spoke to me over the phone, the more I realized he had committed himself to a faith in Christ.
I wish I could say that my brother was able to change his lifestyle. But the job he had was too tempting for him. The tourists my brother would take on a tour of the city would become like friends. These tourists who did not know the LORD allowed the alcohol and partying to start drawing my brother into their circles.

I don’t blame the job he had; I blame him. No one put a gun to his head and made him drink. He knew he was wasting away his life physically. And he understood that he was on his way to losing himself spiritually.
I would hear my brothers voice on the phone, most of the time, he had been drinking.

Now I know that when he would call, it was as if he needed to hear a familiar voice telling him to stop doing what he was doing before it was too late. My brother knew I didn’t drink, and he was proud of me for not touching the stuff.

So when the call came, and my brother told me the great news of his commitment, I prayed harder for him because I knew that the hardest test for him was beginning. The enemy and alcohol would not let a slave go free that easy.

Six months after my brother had committed himself to Christ, his battle with alcohol was over. He had lost the battle, but he had won the war. His body had taken too much of a beating with the abuse. Yet Eddie is now home with the LORD. He had asked for help at the last hour of his life. Did he know he was going to die? I don’t think so. He had plans. He wanted to quit his job and come back State side. He never made it back home…scratch that…my brother Eddie finally made it to his true home…

I write this extremely personal story so that those reading this who are chained up to this horrible sin of alcohol abuse or drugs or whatever else that is holding you captive, by encouraging you. I want to give you hope.

The hope of Jesus the Savior of this world. The same Jesus who set the captives free from sickness, from death and from Hell.

If you are reading this and are struggling with anything, ask God to help you break the chains. If you have seen your father and grandfather, your mother or grandmother in some kind of addictive bondage, it’s time for you to break the cycle!

You can’t do it. I know, because the power to be set free comes from God. Allow Him to break the chains and vicious cycle which has enslaved you and your loved ones.
Ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins. Ask Him to help you break the chains that are keeping you enslaved and not moving forward. Ask him to break the cycle so that your kids and grandchildren will not go through the same hopelessness.

It’s time to set yourself free with the help of the One that came to set the captives free from Hell and the pre-cursers of Hell. Be free!

How to ask God to help you:

August 5, 2019August 5, 2019

Know God

Supernatural Kinda’ Love |Christian Walk Series

I have changed the names of my neighbors out of respect for them and their privacy. This happened on 7-1-2019:

We were woken up by a loud thunderous noise around 5:40ish in the morning. My wife and I knew what that dreadful sound was. Car alarms went off, and I thought it was my daughter’s car parked in front of our house.
I got up, my wife got on her phone right away and called 911. The impact of the collision that happened was pretty damaging.
After hurrying outside, I saw our neighbors across the street, walking out.
“Are you okay?” Dan asked the gentleman who had hit his son Nathan’s car and totaled it.
I saw the man sitting in his car, a little bit of blood running down his nose and knew he was in good hands with our neighbor. My neighbor’s wife Sheryl was in her element, she went back and forth with the man in the car, and then to her son, and to the police officers who had arrived pretty quickly; she remaining calm, cool and collected during these stressful moments.
Sheryl went back into her house to get her cell and started taking pictures of the scene once she was back outside.

“Their poor son was stunned. The nice looking car of his, had been struck hard; the impact opened up the passenger doors and the gas tank opening, which was on the opposite side of the collision. The car is not drivable.“

The man who collided into my neighbor’s car was driving to his new place going West up our street and had fallen asleep from all the busyness of moving. It was his last load, and he must have been exhausted.

“What should have been a left turn at the stop sign for him, turned into one of those surreal tragic moments in one’s life where you wish you could have done a thousand things differently.“

Once I knew the man was physically okay, I asked if he wanted some coffee, and Dan jumped on it, telling the guy that he already had a pot ready. My neighbor dashed into his house to get the coffee for the poor man who was still a little dazed and confused, inside his crashed vehicle.

“The man who crashed had called his wife who came to help him out. She had a baby in her car, and Sheryl dropped everything she was doing, including being by her son’s side to minister to the wife of the man and her baby.“

Sheryl stood next to the window where the baby was and let the man’s wife go and help her husband, or at least, go to make sure that he was all right.

When the incident was all done, and I knew everyone was okay, I went up to reflect on what I had joyously seen.
Yes, I did say joyously.
You see, I know my neighbors. They are Christians. Even in the disheartening event of losing one car and also needing work on their truck, they could have gone into DEFCON 5, but they didn’t.
Instead, both of them ministered to the couple and their baby.

I got to talking to the officer who was at the scene first and left last, said he had never seen such goodness from any scene he’d been in. He thanked all of us for rushing in, and helping the guy and his family out.
Honestly, I didn’t do anything but just reassure the young couple and tried to be there for my neighbors. I encouraged them to take this in stride and that they had been blessed not to have anyone physically hurt.
Dan and Sheryl, also told the young couple the same thing.

“All this to say is, that God’s love and sweet smelling aroma permeated the scene in our street.“

The young guy and his wife went home, thanking God it wasn’t worse.
Our neighbors showed the world what Christian love is.
I got to witness the surprise reaction and ministering to the man and his wife. Also got to talk to the officer and encourage his “cynical”(his words) mentality from years and years of seeing the darkness of this world firsthand.
He said he wanted to move to our block because what he saw was abnormal. He usually has to calm the people at the scene down and take control. He didn’t have to do that this morning, and for that, I am blessed to be part of.

My neighbors, my wife and I know where this superantural kind of love comes from. It is the connection we have to Jesus, the King of this universe. He gives us this kind of love for our neighbors. It doesn’t come from us, becasue if it did, the reaction from Dan, Sheryl and Nathan and the rest of us, would have been different. Had it been different, then there would be no sweet smelling aroma to give but just another pile of rubbish to be added to this hurting world.

The Lord was manifested in the kind of calming peace that my neighbors showed…

Enough to leave a sweet smelling fragrance to the people that had damaged their property…

If you don’t have this kind of calming peace or supernatural kinda’ love, you can have it. Just get to know God personally:

Know God

July 2, 2019July 2, 2019

June 28, 2019June 28, 2019

This Agenda, that Agenda! I Worry Not!

Our country is in an identity crisis. We have lost our way. There are too many voices in our country’s head fighting to get their selfish means.
Some of these voices are from a small minority who have planted an agenda that is going to take our country into chaos.

Additional ideologies are creeping into the psyche of our country. Mindsets that 40 years ago would be laughed out of existence have taken root in society.

I am not here to debate hate or division. I am here to try and bring some sanity back. I will use only one ideology whose agenda has gone overboard…

One ideology wants the whole world to know their sexual orientation 24/7/365 day a year. As if sexual orientation is the only thing that people identify themselves as a whole. This agenda has permeated every aspect of our culture to the point that it has lost its meaning, and rightly so.
You see, when I wake up, I don’t get ready to do battle against everyone else who may not be a Hispanic heterosexual Christian male. I don’t walk out and great my neighbors by saying,” Hey neighbor; you know that I am a Hispanic Hetero Christian male! I just want to make sure you know this!”
Alternatively, if I am at a gathering, I don’t wear a Tshirt stating Straight Hispanic Christian Male in the House! Wouldn’t that be absurd?
So why are we being inundated with an agenda that is sweeping the nation and taking over TV programs, News, Shopping centers, and Public Schools? Me being Hispanic does not make me want to tell everyone that I am Hispanic. I think they’ll be able to tell. Me being a straight male will also not make me want to tell everyone I am. This too, will be evident.

This is the most essential point:
Me being a Christian is also one of those things that people should see. If I have to tell that I am a Christian, then I have failed to show them Christ’s love.
We are in a spiritual-mental battle for the next couple of generations. We cannot be divisive, nor can we just stand there not doing anything about it.
We don’t have to scream They vs. us.

What we must do is:
Pray for guidance from the One who created all of us.
Follow what Our Lord and Savior told us:

 "By this, people will know you are my disciples. What is the THIS Jesus was talking to His disciples about?

It was the selfless and unchanging Love of Christ. A kind of love that moves mountains, and tears spiritual strongholds apart. The type of love that destroys division in families. Love that unites instead of tearing apart. Love that serves others instead of taking advantage of them.

Once we have this kind of love, we can then do the third part without having to tell others what we are doing. We need to go into the world and notify them of Christ’s love for them. The undying-selfless-sacrificial love that has withstood invading armies, Coliseum lions, Roman masters, and Ceasers, beheadings, floggings, crucifixions, burning at stakes and power hungry spiritual shepherds who should have known better.

This is what Christ wants form us. He doesn’t want us to go toe to toe with all these agendas. Because here’s the secret:

Agendas come and go. Ideologies come and go. Political pressure comes and goes. Politicians come and go. Tech company fascists come and go; but God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. His will is going to be done. No person, country, political power, or satanic hordes will ever get in His way. They have tried, and they have failed. These agendas will look influential, but they are already defeated by the Most Holy One of the universe.

We must not waiver; we must stand firm in Him. Not by power or might but by the Spirit of The Living God will He conquer hearts and minds…