God's Darlings

                  Deuteronomy 7: 7-9
                  "The Lord took no pleasure in you, nor you chose, because the your crowd was more than all other people ... but because the Lord loved you ...".


                  Hello! I spent a while without internet, but now I'm back! I've been thinking in these last few weeks about our Christian universe and came across the same problem that the Israelis faced thousands of years ago ... THINK that WE are the "Darlings" of GOD and that nothing will happen to us if we obey God.
               The people of Israel who witnessed many miracles in the desert and saw many times the goodness of God, once freed from slavery,they began to disregard of orders of conduct imposed by Moses.


                Numbers 16: 3 "and gathered against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them: too much is already; because the whole Congregation is holy, they all are saints ... "


                 It is clear that today don't have wars as was at the time of Moses, nor the Earth opens to swallow when disagree the order of father, but surely a few times already happened in our mind the following sentence: "I am much better than the world, think i'm good!" and we think that there not will be judgment for our sins, or any consequences to our actions.


                It's Needless to say that we are completely mistaken. I'm reading the book of Deuteronomy, and the chapter 7 aroused much to my attention, because God are declaring that the choice of it by the people was not by quantity or importance, and yes because he loved his people.


                 By so many times we forget that great detail, and we are proud when in fact we were to be further humiliated in front of the greatness of God. He chose us not by our talents, he chose for himself. And this is what reminds us that we need to improve on a daily basis and that Holiness isn't our goodness, is the gift of God.




Blessings,
MaryGondim,
www.verdadecongelada.blogspot.com

Choose to Act

My father had a scar on his arm.

When I was a child, I asked him about it.

He never gave me a straight answer about it until he thought I was old enough to understand.

It was the result of an accident he had as a young man when he worked for a factory.

He was walking past the loading dock of the factory when a large bale of cotton that was quite heavy fell off the dock and landed on my father pinning him to the ground.

Among the injuries my father suffered was a broken arm that left his arm permanently scarred.

The weight of the bale made it impossible for my father to call out for help.

It also made it difficult for him to breathe.

People began to gather on the loading dock above and simply stared at my father’s body lying beneath this heavy load.

They offered no assistance because they assumed that my father was already dead and concluded that there was no hope.

Then, my father began to move his legs.

Once people above saw this, they realized my father was still alive and it was only then that they moved to free him of the burden that would have eventually suffocated him.

My father was then taken to the hospital and eventually recovered from his wounds.

The scar on his arm always served to remind him of the incident.

As the time to Easter draws nearer, I think of the injury my father suffered and how no one moved to help him thinking he was beyond either help or hope.

I also cannot help but wonder how many people there are who do not know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

Many have not been ministered to because they have been mistakenly thought of as beyond help, beyond hope or too far gone.

No one is beyond help.

No one is beyond hope.

No one is too far gone.

Even the thief on the cross moments from death found hope in Jesus.

Luke 23:43 (NET) - And Jesus said to him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in  paradise."

It is true that some will hear the word of God and reject it.

Yet that does not relieve those of us that believe of our responsibility to share the Good News.

The Great Commission was not an edict for a handful of people centuries ago.

It is a directive that applies to all believers even today.

Mark 16:15 (NET) - He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."

Because of Jesus, no one is beyond hope.

All they need is for someone to move into action and remind them that there is hope.

You can be that someone.

Bring them to the cross.

Jesus will take it from there.


Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com/

Existential Crisis

I can't stop... I have to write ... what's happened believers

in this world! oh Jesus. Few time ago arrived in my hands a video of a guy preaching to believers about evangelism. Among jokes and laughs he said believers have to learn how to reach people. Believers have to understand unbelievers and learn how to evangelism again…
What???
What is happen with this people?
To learn how evangelism? I have to say it doesn’t make sense to me.
When we live indeed with Christ, to love unbelievers and desire them save it is a normal thing, it is like waters’ river running to the sea, a normal thing. I can’t imagine God doing a great effort to teach rivers’ water run to sea because after all these years many things have changed and it is necessary now…. Think!

Did you already listen to about an apple tree crying in an existential crisis? Think it saying: Oh God creator, why? Life is hard and I just bear this red kind of fruit… look around God, many lemon trees, they are green and beautiful and I am here bearing this red fruit!

What I see in these days are many believers crying and facing existential crisis, looking for doctors and medicine that can bring comfort and answers! How it is possible? I agree that everybody face a hard time once but to live in continuous identity crisis is something really unacceptable. My view point: many believers live like that because do not fulfill the God’s ordinance, the GO!
I can’t imagine Paul the apostle asking God WHYYYYY! Or Philip asking God why did you do it with me?! I want to what he has! No because they were very busy doing the God’s will to stop and complain about van or worldly stuff.
The world is there to be used and share the Gospel, unfortunately people are using God to reach worldly things, and it is why we see many crises, people are where God do not put them.
To me what people like is ostentation and when they listen to about a new preacher that arrived teaching a new way to evangelism and re-teaching it, people full churches, lecture halls and pay money to listen what God freely said many years ago:
Mark 16:15 - He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
People of GOD what is wrong with you, folks?!!
We just get comfortable behind our computers and church’s chairs that we forget we are in this world for more than listen to the word! Dear beloveds it is obvious God doesn’t save us to become us knowing of the word. We were saved to save another one and it is unacceptable to forget it and allow people arrive saying that discovered a new way to evangelism! Oh God, with all respect I have to you my readers, our lifestyle just open gaps to us be deceived.

Dear breathers in Jesus name, do what is your obligation in Jesus: RESPECT PEOPLE AND PREACH THE GOSPEL. To do it you do not need year of bible studies even greats seminaries with famous people. What you need is to know your savior, listen to His voice and obey.
Share your life, your personal experiences and bring people to His kingdom!
It will bring peace, joy and comfort to your soul.
Jesus loves you

Friends Indeed

I recently celebrated my 57th birthday, and spent much of it thanking the many friends and family members who sent me warm birthday greetings. Their kindness was so touching; they made me feel loved, more than I regard myself. Even on otherwise ordinary days, I have a circle of friends who ride with me on the bus to work; we laugh and joke together and look out for each other's welfare and happiness. I've developed many good friends at church, and recently reconnected with some old high school classmates whom I haven't seen in decades; we now eagerly share reminiscences and stores about our spouses and children. What a priceless blessing friendship is!

That blessing comes from God, I know. In my younger days I was shy and reserved, and didn't make friends easily. But over the years the Lord has sustained me and my family through the love and support of others, and I've come to value these friends over everything but the Lord Himself and my family--indeed, I count them as virtual family. He has blessed me with more openness and tolerance, as I've come to appreciate how much I owe my friends, and I've learned so many valuable lessons about love and that great Eternal Family that I never would have had I remained shut up in my little shell.

Every day we should remember and give thanks to the Lord for our friends, and never ignore them or take them for granted. We owe our truest friends so much; we know who they are and can always count on them: "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." (Proverbs 17:17).  This was demonstrated just a few days ago when a swarm of tornadoes swept across the American midwest; a mother was grievously injured when she lay over her three young children as their house collapsed around them; the eldest crawled out just as the storm passed and ran to the neighbors for help, and they rushed back, pulled the mother out, bound her wounds as best they could, and carried her to an ambulance, thus saving her life--even though their own homes had just been destroyed in the same storm!

"A friend that sticketh closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24) will also give us the instruction and correction we need, and not just tell us what we want to hear. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." (Proverbs 27:17) The honesty and frankness of genuine friends are set forth in the maxim, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Proverbs 27:6).

The Apostle Paul set the model for how we should live with each other as friends:

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31, 32)

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:12-14, ESV)

If we live this way with our friends, neighbors, and family, we come to understand what Heaven is, and create a piece of it right here on earth. We fulfill a great commandment from our Lord, and follow his example--and are knit to Him in the greatest friendship of all:

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.  (John 15:12-15)

Don't let a day go by without embracing a friend; thanking him or her just for being there for you; or doing a friend some kindness, great or small. The best way to make and keep good friends is to be one yourself!

Tom Fleming

Songs of Praises

Hope, or Faith

What is the difference between Hope and Faith?

I have given this considerable thought as of late because there is a difference.

If you were to ask me differentiate the two, my response would be that Faith is Hope put into action.

Take a look at the shepherds who heard about the birth of Jesus.

The angel told them that the Savior was born in the City of David. A heavenly army accompanied the angel and praised God.

The shepherds did not simply hope that the message was true.

They put their hope into action.

Luke 2:15 (NET) - When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, that the Lord has made known to us."

In Mark chapter 5, we read about the woman who suffered from a bleeding disease for twelve years.

She saw many doctors trying to get well and only grew worse.

She put her hope into action.

Mark 5:27-29 (NET) - When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched His cloak, for she kept saying, "If only I touch His clothes, I will be healed." At once the bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Also in Mark, we read of Bartimaeus.

He was a blind beggar who sat by the road.

How he hoped that might be able to see.

As Jesus approached, he put his hope into action.

Mark 10:47-48 (NET) - When he heard it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"  Many scolded him to get him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

His hope required still more action.

Mark 10:49-50 (NET) - Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man and said to him, "Have courage! Get up! He is calling you. He threw off his cloak, jumped up, and came to Jesus.

Once there, his sight was restored.

Notice that it was Bartimaeus that came to Jesus,.

Jesus did mot come to Bartimaeus.

Then there is the account of the thief crucified with Jesus,

When another of the thieves insulted Jesus, the other put his hope into action.

Luke 23:40-42 (NET) - But the other rebuked him saying, "Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?" And we rightly so, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did, but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom."

Though he himself was hanging on a cross, as well, his hope was transformed into faith.

His faith was rewarded.

Luke 23:43 (NET) - And Jesus said to him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in  paradise."

These are just a few examples of how hope put into action becomes faith.

As Easter approaches, we find our thoughts turning to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

Because of His sacrifice, we have eternal life.

If you only hope that is true, then now is the time to put that hope into action.

Go to the tomb by reading the gospels.

Step  inside and see for yourself that the tomb is now empty.

Thank Him for what He has done for you.

The moment you put your hope into action it will turn into faith.


Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com/