Speculations, Part 1

Dreams

Dreams are an incredible way that our Creator has to communicate with us. They should always be a source of gratitude and inspiration and never of worry. Dreams are blunt and can reveal things we hide from ourselves and others, and this can be a cause for shock or concern. What does the book of Job, in the Bible, says about dreams?

Job 33:14-17 God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man;

On my troubled teenage years almost every night I would awake up with a terrifying dream. To interpret it I read all kinds of books and literature about dreams and it’s interpretations but I admit that it was a terrible waste of time and energy and I didn’t get the peace of mind I sought. It left me more worried and confused than ever. Until one day I read something very simple and childlike: “Dreams are either inspired by God or the devil”. Of course, to people that don’t believe in God or the devil it seems pure nonsense, but I grabbed that sentence and I stopped trying to interpret my dreams and letting them worry me.

Christmas CD / Cards

Christmas Treasures

Songs:
Christmas Tresures Medley
Jingle Bells
Noel
Run with Torches
Unto You is Born this Day
O Holy Night
Let the Whole World Know
Christmas Praises
Glory to God in the Highest
Come and See Jesus
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Away in a Manger
What Will You Give Me?
You Only Left Heaven for Love
Oh, Jesus Come into My Heart
Silent Night

This is just a sample, we have a great variety of CD titles and cards.

Impressions of a Missionary - Chapter 1

Called

 

How can I write a book in a Coffee Shop? Noise of people laughing and talking, dishes, cutlery, loud music… At least now they don't bother me so much with "do you wish to have anything else?". I still have to wait 3 hours before I can go back home, I'm not complaining because I have been learning a lot with these delays.

I would like to write non-stop. After all I've got so much to say. I'm not a man of many words and I keep a lot to myself, but that doesn't mean I don't like to make myself heard. I'm in the third stage of my life (but it’s not the last, pay attention!) then comes the fourth, the fifth, and so on. After all, there are still wonderful things about to happen in the future (near and far).

In my youth, what happened to me is that I was too churchy, amazingly so! Very self-righteous, I could be cruel and vindictive. However I loved Jesus and I loved God, I said many times that He was my best friend. My daily prayer was, “Your will be done.” And He always answered my prayers, except I didn't know that His will was to get me out of that churchy Babylon I was into, God hates that spirit. He replied indeed to this prayer but in way that I had never imagined.

There's a Light

Man creates his own environment

The other day, while doing outreach, I approached a man and he became very angry and told me that I was pushing my doctrine down his throat and I had no right to do so. He introduced himself as a staunch evolutionist and agnostic. He was aggressive in his words and not an easy person to talk to. I listened to him very patiently and at the end of our long conversation he was a lot more calm and even agreeing with me in many things. 

One of the things he said was: “I am a psychologist now and I know that people are the product of their own environment. If you were born a Muslim, you were a Muslim today, if you were born a Hindu you will be a Hindu, etc.” He also told me that he was born in a family of believers, his brother was a pastor in a church, and now he is an evolutionist and agnostic (which actually is the Greek word for ignorant.)

Love Shall Cover the Multitude of Sins

The other day I (Carlos) made a visit to the Medium Security Prison here in Barberton. I went along with a pastor that visits the prison very regularly. This time I didn’t have any books to give them, I was supposed to give them a message, but WHAT message?

And then shall the end come

I was reading Matthew 24 and 25 the other day, what Jesus said about His second coming and all the following things came to me.  So take it for what is worth it. (Scriptures from Old King James Bible – use your own Bible if you wish)

Matthew 24:8-14. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

All these things are the beginning of sorrows. There shall be persecutions, we shall be hated by all nations for Jesus name sake, hated even by our own children and brothers and parents. Many will be offended with this and that, people shall hate one another, amongst the believers and sincere followers of Jesus. Then these smart "prophets" will arise with all kinds of beautiful promises and "don't worries" and blah, blah, and will deceive believers, and the iniquity will abound so much that it will be hard to keep love alive. That's why the importance of calling on the keys of love for one another. But he/she that endures and keeps the faith and the obedience to love another and what needs to be done until THE END shall be SAVED. Saved from what? And what is THE END?

Forgotten Places

The best places on earth are the forgotten places. The places that nobody else wants, the places where there’s not much to be envied. People are making such a buzz in the cities, running around each other, I’ll take the mountains with nothing to be desired.

There was once a man that had no beauty or majesty to attract anyone to him, nothing in his appearance for anyone to desire him, nevertheless he has the living waters, the treasure of eternal life, and is the only one capable of giving it. (Isaiah 53:2-5)

Don’t go after what everybody else wants, but instead search for the hidden treasures of life, the times of silence, of nothingness, to be filled with the biggest treasures you could ever want or need.

Certain things will only be seen by a very small minority that will have their eyes open to see it and their hearts ready to receive it.

Strive to be one of those.

Before you...

 

PRIDE versus HUMILITY

Pay it Forward

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.—Ralph Waldo Emerson

I do not pretend to give such a Sum; I only lend it to you. When you [...] meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the Debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go thro' many hands. … This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money.—Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Benjamin Webb, dated April 25, 1784

Leave the past behind

The Power of Positive Thinking

God’s word says that “He that is in Christ is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new”. Christ is in us – He did His part – and if we do our part to be in Him then all things will become new. Our thoughts will change and we will think His thoughts instead and nothing will be impossible. We will think in terms of possibilities. We won’t see difficulties as negativities but as challenges to overcome and opportunities to become stronger. Christ in us, the hope of glory, then we can do all things in Christ that strengthen us.

There are exercises to be done, we can train our thoughts to become positive and see all life change before us, Jesus can heal us but we have to do our part that shows our belief. Believing is seeing, yes because by believing you transform the world around you and then you see it. Never the opposite. There is power in the thoughts and positive thoughts create positive realities. Do you wonder why things don’t seem to happen the way they should, and why God doesn’t answer prayer? Check your thoughts, in what are you really believing that it’s going to happen.

Jesus said, I came that you have life and have it more abundantly. The only hard part is to believe that, but don’t say: “I am too bad, I don’t deserve this or that, so it’s not even worthy to try” That’s a very negative thought and that’s exactly what you should avoid and instead say: “Jesus is in me, He is good and that’s all it matters, I am untitled to abundant life.” Then start from that fact and ask Jesus to clean your heart from un-forgiveness, from un-belief, from anything negative that you allowed to be sowed in your heart. You will be on your way to total healing, deep happiness, and the power of His Love.

We are offering a free shorter version of “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Normam Vicent Peale. It has beautiful examples, exciting exercises of faith and much more. Try it, it can change your world. Check it on the side of this blog signing your name and email address to receive it in your mail inbox.

Notable Quotes for February

Outreach Moments

While doing our habitual outreach at the petrol station, Sara approached a lady to show our Christian material and talk to her. The lady answered: “I have seen you many times at this and others petrol stations and although I never buy anything because it’s not my type of books, you help me a lot because you persist. You have a smile on your face and never give up. I like to see you.”

Well, at least, even if we don’t sell as much as we want or are outwardly successful, we realize that if we have the right attitude we may impress people the right way showing positive qualities that help them somehow to make the right decisions later on in life.

In Action

Pictures from the "Freedom Within" prison ministry cannot be published to protect privacy.

Your Need to Forgive

How do you know if you need to forgive?

By Sara Maria Ferreira

I want to ask you some questions: do you feel there is a wall between yourself and what you want to happen in your life? Do you feel that something holds you back and is keeping you from receiving what you desire? That blockage you feel might simply be lack of forgiveness. Un-forgiveness brings very negative emotions into your life and like any other kind of negative emotion; lack of forgiveness stands on the way of your ability to have your desires fulfilled.

You’ve learned from childhood that good or bad deeds are rewarded accordingly, and you don’t see any motive in forgiving something that deeply caused hurt, you feel that it is easy to just ignore the deed and the person. This sounds logic to you and it does not look like it should be a problem, but there is a problem because holding on to grudges is like carrying a heavy load, as you have to be reminding yourself constantly of what causes the hurt in the first place.

Forgiveness will solve all these problems and negativities and will free you from the shackles of resentment and grudges, it will heal you.

If you feel guilty or sad about past events or things that happened in the past you have to forgive yourself, even before you forgive others. If you feel guilty or blame yourself for anything in the past you’ll lack the belief to receive anything from God, because when you don’t forgive yourself or others you are limiting your capacity to receive anything, you feel you don’t deserve to have more. – Non-forgiveness in itself is a limiting condition. As Jesus so wisely said: If you can’t forgive others then God cannot forgive you.

To be able to forgive, you have to let go of your judgement. It is judgement of the other person that keeps you from letting go and forgiving. When you give up the stronghold of your personal judgement, forgiveness will be a lot easier to you, you’ll be able to let go of your initial personal judgement and at the same time you’ll see motives to forgive.

Peace of mind is a good motivation to forgive. Holding on to grudges does not give you peace of mind, the resentment will be popping up in your mind constantly and that will keep you from seeing the manifestation of good positive things in your life.

Remember that whatever happened in the past can’t be changed, what has been done is done and God does not dwell on past mistakes, it does not matter anymore. Your happiness, your life and your opportunities are only compliant to what is happening now and what you are planning for the future.

Un-forgiveness and holding on to grudges is a waste of energy, so in the end you are just wasting your time and energy on something you cannot do anything about anyway.

To be able to forgive it is required that you let go of your own judgments and believe that nothing bad has been done to you, as you do that and discard all anger and resentment and begin to form more happier, positive thoughts and emotions you’ll also see the blessings of God showering your life bringing upon you the things you desire and want to see manifested in your life.

(You can make a real good study about forgiveness in the book From Jesus with Love - Forgiveness)