Origins - God knows the end from the beginning

When God created us He wanted to have someone to love, so He didn't create anything inferior to Him, but something just like Him, equal to him so His love could be complete. He didn't create a robot or a machine because that would not reciprocate his love. He created us in his image and likeness so we could in turn love him back.
I say this because I want us to understand our value and our dignity. Jesus came to uncover this value and dignity in each one of us. He came to reveal our ORIGINS and say, "look, you are just like me, what I do you can also do, you are the sons and daughters of the Most High". His message is kind of scary and awesome. It's tremendous!
It's like he was saying: "You've been lied to, deceived into thinking that you are nothing, just slaves and that you deserve to die. I came to wake you up to the truth. My message is of liberation. Believe in what I say, because if you do you will be saved from this soul slavery you have been under ."

From the Foundation of the World

IMPRESSIONS OF A MISSIONARY. 

 

(You are entitled to have your own opinion.) 

We are spirits having a human experience.

 

When Did God created us? 

 Genesis 1, verse 2

1st day:

“The earth being without form and empty, and darkness on the face of the deep.”

1. without form

2. empty

3. darkness

In the same day God "takes care" of the darkness

"God said, Let light be! And there was light." and the darkness was gone.

Some people believe that the light was actually us, the spirits of human beings being created. Jesus said, "you are the light of the world" (Matthews 5:14). He also said: "I am the light of the world". (John 8:12)

John said in the first chapter of his gospel. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it".

His life was the light of man. Does this means that light of man was his life? In other words, he was so in love with the light of man, the creation of man that that was his life? He lived for that, his pleasure was in that, and we were his pleasure. 

No One Has 100 Percent

Deeds of Forgiveness

It's not the big acts of forgiveness that usually make a difference in anybody's life because those are quite rare. But it's the day by day little things that get stuck in your heart and mind and you find it hard to just let go, those are the ones that actually spoil your hapiness. So learning to forget and forgive those little small and "unconsequential" things that happen day by day, hour by hour, make a huge difference in the long run to your hapiness and freedom.

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. 
(Song of Solomon 2:15)

The Secret Place of Prayer

The place where we find the guidance of the Lord is in the secret place of prayer – “When you pray, go into your room and shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:6)

The place of prayer is a place of solace and strength and a source of victory over temptation. But it is also a place where God gives you His leading, where He tells you what turn of the road to take, what path He wants you to tread: It’s where He tells you just what He wants you to do.

When Jesus called His disciples to Him and gave them their first public teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, He gave them to understand that prayer was a vital part of the new kingdom that He had come to set up, and that we must have a solitary place where we can be alone with God, some fixed spot where we can meet Him daily: There He promises to meet us.

The Impatience of Job!

The Book of Job is a lesson in faith and patience (James 5:11), but more than anything else, the main lesson it contains is against self-righteousness! Job's sin was that he was so confident of his own righteousness and proud of his "perfection"! We've all fallen prey to this same sin many times, but may we – like Job – learn that only God is righteous! "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9)

So, why not shut the world out for 10 minutes and let the words of this story feed your spirit?

The Impatience of Job!

High above far, far beyond the dusty plains and mountain of Uz, in an indescribably beautiful Realm beyond the sight of Man, a very unusual scene was taking place.

The sons of God, Angels great in power and magnificent glory, were presenting themselves before the throne of God. Suddenly a herald Angel announced, "O Lord God, Satan requests an audience with You!"

In Defence of the Poor

Blessed is he who acts wisely toward the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the day of evil (Psalm 41:1) Acting wisely toward the poor, considering wisely their needs, as we read in the literal translation of the Bible, brings deliverance in the day of trouble.
What a promise and what a blessing.
The Word Adventure for this week is the struggle of a wise leader in the Bible, Neehmiah, against the selfish rich of his day.
So, sit down and relax, and enjoy 

 

Nehemiah warning the rich to take care of the poor!

It was the year 444 B.C., during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, that Nehemiah, the Jew who was royal cupbearer to the king, embarked on a courageous mission to rebuild Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the city of his fathers and the once-great capital of Israel. Because of their sins and rebellions against God, the Jews had been conquered and forced to serve as captive slaves of Babylon for many years. Then the Medo-Persians under King Cyrus came along and overthrew Babylon, establishing a vast empire which lasted for more than 200 years. Cyrus, who was both a friend and patron of the Jews, issued a decree in the first year of his reign that the Jews could begin their return to their own homeland, Israel.

Are you lonely? Here's the cure!

God didn't intend for people to be lonely or to live alone. He intended for us to live, love and share our lives TOGETHER with OTHERS in FAMILIES. "God sets the lonely in families."--Psalm 68:6. So, with the great fragmentation of family life that has taken place in modern-day culture, it is hardly surprising that loneliness is a greater problem than it has ever been since the beginning of history!

Research shows that people who live alone require medical treatment much more frequently than do married people. Loneliness also can bring on self-destructive behaviour such as increased smoking and drinking, and can make people more prone to risk-taking behaviour such as reckless driving. The suicide rate of people who live alone is FIVE TIMES HIGHER than "the norm".

The lonely need companionship, someone with whom he can share his life, but in today's World people somehow tell themselves they can make it alone! This independence talk is a myth, we are told that individuals should look out for THEMSELVES first and foremost, and, above all else, live for "ME FIRST", not caring about others.

There was a very lonely woman once who was always seeking a new lover, a new love, but never finding one that satisfied or lasted or that relieved her loneliness. But when it was suggested to her that perhaps she needed to learn how to GIVE love, and to love UNSELFISHLY for the benefit and happiness of ANOTHER, after years of searching, this struck her as an entirely new idea that had never occurred to her before! She went out and soon found what she was looking for all the time--true love!

So there's the key, the simple solution to loneliness!--The same as it's been since Man was first created: If you GIVE love, you'll GET love!

Jesus has created a special place in our hearts that only HE can fill. For although the BODY is of this EARTH and is satisfied with the THINGS of this Earth, the human SPIRIT, that intangible personality of the real you that dwells in that body, can never be completely satisfied with anything but utter union with the great and loving SPIRIT Who created it.

It reminds me of the story of the famous Christian songwriter, George Matheson. He was deeply in love and soon to be married, when he was told by his doctor that he was losing his sight and would be a blind man within six months! He was heartbroken of course, but he didn't think it fair to his sweetheart not to tell her and give her the choice whether she still wished to go ahead with the marriage or not. He felt that if she really loved him she would still want to live with him and take care of him.

So he went to her house that night and they sat on the couch holding hands and chatting about this and that, until finally he plucked up the courage to tell her, "Honey, I have some very, very sad news. The doctor tells me that by our wedding date I will be completely blind!" All of a sudden he felt her hand quiver and loosen its grasp. Then icily, coldly, it was withdrawn from his as she turned away and burst into tears and said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, George... but I COULDN'T be married to a BLIND man!"

Crushed, and heartsick, his whole world falling apart, he walked despondently back to his home where he sat down alone at his desk and thought about how the only thing that he had left in the whole World now was JESUS. Then he took a piece of paper and his old quill pen and he wrote the famous hymn that has since been a comfort to millions, "Oh Love that will not let me go"--JESUS!

"Oh Love that will not let me go, 
I rest my weary soul in Thee,
I give Thee back the life I owe, 
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be!"

The Parable of the Sower

When speaking to the multitudes, Jesus often taught them in PARABLES, simple stories about common events, circumstances and things that His listeners could easily relate to. Most of the people that Jesus addressed were simple folk, and He knew that even the CHILDREN would be interested in His message if He presented it by using such illustrated stories.
The “PARABLE OF THE SOWER” is one of the few parables that is found in three different Gospels: In Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8. This wonderful parable reveals the four different states in which the hearts of men can be classified. As we now read Jesus’ Own words, you could ask yourself which of these four categories describes YOU!…

The Book of books

Bible belonging to Elvis Presley with handwritten notes by him.
Auctioned on the 35th anniversary of his death.

 If you struggle reading the Bible lately, and the words lost their meaning because you read them so many times, and "you know what that means" and so on, try this: Pray and ask Jesus to take the words straight to your inner self, your heart of hearts, without allowing them to get stuck in the interpretarions and jugdgements of your mind. Do not expect instant results but you will see that pretty soon life and joy come back to you. What the Word does to you is God's business, not yours, so let yourself go. Also remember that the primary purpose of reading the Bible is not to know the Bible but to know God. 

One of the notes written by Elvis in his in Bible:
To Judge a man by his weakest link or deed is like
 judging the power of the ocean by one wave.

 Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them. —Attributed to Charles Dickens

The immortal Book has survived three great dangers: (1) The negligence of its friends, (2) the warfare of its enemies, (3) and the false systems built upon it.—Isaac Taylor

Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.—Helen Keller
 
Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.―D. L. Moody

Impressions of a Missionary, Chapter 2

My First Month and Nova Jerusalem

After this “grand” entrance at The Children of God, my first month seemed like a dream. We lived in a small apartment with a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom. We were 6 boys and 1 Spanish girl, and I was the oldest one, 24 years old. The boys were from various nationalities being at least one from Angola (apart from me). All the boys slept in the living room and the girl slept in the room.

About one year after I joined

She would wake us up in the morning by playing usually the same tape starting with the typical song “Good morning God’s children, take a look outside, it’s a brand new morning, it’s a new life”. The girl was called Nova Jerusalem1 (There was a custom of choosing new names and that was the name she chose for herself). She was cheerful, had long curly black hair and a happy disposition. After a slight meal we would all leave to the streets of the Porto, two by two, to approach people and hand them the so called MO Letters and ask for a donation. (MO Letter: short publications that the founder of the Children of God, David Berg – also called Moses David – wrote to members and the general public).

Turn on the Light

Turn on the Light 

Newsletter, March 2014                      

Dear Friends
What impact these first 2 months of the year had on you? Please don't worry about the seemingly "bad things" that happened already, or the things that "could have been better". This year is going to be a blessed year; you just have to turn on the light.

Switching gradually our thoughts from bad to good may involve a lot of prayer and time with Jesus but it's well worth the effort. The book of Psalms it's always a positive influence for good. Many of those prayers in Psalms were actually prophetic prayers of Jesus (Psalm 16, Psalm 22, etc.; Acts 2:29-31; Acts 13:22). Jesus went through a lot of difficulties but He overcame the world (John 16:33) and He is inside of you so the force for good in you is stronger than the force for evil (1st John 4:4).

Prison Ministry

There is a group of prisoners that meet every Friday morning. They are about 30 men. First they sing, share testimonies of answers to prayer and of God's guidance in their lives. Then it's our turn to speak and share what we have for them.

If we count by numbers, what's 30 among 1,000 men? It's the seed of the Gospel and God is not limited by many or by few (1st Samuel 14:6). If we count the success by numbers then Jesus was a failure. The Son of God only manage to get 12 strong followers?! And He almost lost them after His sermon of drinking His blood and eating His flesh (John 6:25-71). That's what we told them last week.

A lunch bar, a bag of chips and a thank you note

A few days ago, I went to the prison to visit my friends. I decided not to preach at all, just sing with them and listen to what they say, watch, learn the songs, and even a bit of their language. No pressure for me or anyone else.

Around 10 am I had to tell them that unfortunately I couldn't stay any longer because I had an appointment that I could not miss. I said goodbye and one of them accompanied me to the patio and gave me on behalf of all a lunch bar and a packet of chips saying that he, on the behalf of all, just wanted to thank me for my visits and encourage me to continue to come. It was a gesture of gratitude sincere and profound.

But it wasn’t all. Half an hour before that, when we were still in the room and someone was reading and commenting on an interesting verse of the Bible (Ecclesiastes 7:16-18), a young man left his seat and came over to another man seating near me. I knew they were talking about me because they kept looking. I tried not to get involved nor pay much attention and instead focused on what was being discussed. Soon after that the man by my side handed me a piece of paper with the following message written in broken English: "we thank God with you are a blessing to us".

It was inspiring to read that and I realized what had happened. The boy approached the man beside me and asked him for a piece of paper because he wanted to write something for me. The only piece of paper was already scribbled with comments on the verse but nothing else was available. He wrote the message and asked the other to hand it to me.  It touched me to know that they were so thankful for my visitation.

I believe that they value the fact that I visit them much more than what I say to them, what they appreciate is the time I spend with them.

Life's Challenges