Do business until I come

I recently had some fellowship with a brother who shared something with me that I really enjoyed. Or at least, something that really touched me and opened my eyes. I just want to write it here to be able to remember it better.

So he started off saying that the enemy, Satan, works just like the financial system. He firstly comes to you saying, "Andrew, give me $10."
"No," I say.
"Fine. How about $9.99?"
"No."
"$5?"
"No."
"OK. How about a penny? It's just one penny."
It's just a penny. "OK, one penny," I respond.
The next day, Satan comes back to me and says, "Hey Andrew, how about giving me another penny?"
Eventually, I'm bankrupt. Satan is just like the financial system. He doesn't kill you all at once, he makes an investment. He's just like a business man. A business man, when making an investment, thinks, "In 5 years, I'll get X out of this deal." Satan is just the same way, saying, "In 5 years, I can zap brother X."

This is why we need to also be like businessmen, having certain indicators of our spiritual life. We need to see how much we're praying, how our Bible reading is doing, how our ministry reading is doing, how our morning revival is doing, etc. This is not introspection, it's measuring where we are in our spiritual lives by looking at these indicators. Any businessman needs to look at how things are going in his business in order to see if he's doing well. If he doesn't have numbers, he doesn't have a business. We need to have the same attitude toward ourselves in our spiritual life.

"And he called ten of his own slaves and gave them ten minas, and he said to them, Do business until I come." (Luke 19:13)

Trust in the Lord

"Trust in Jehovah with all your heart, And do not rely on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him; And He will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

I'm not into quoting Proverbs. I'm not sure what my concept is concerning this book... perhaps that it's a bit cliché, that everyone quotes Proverbs because it's a simple book and easy to understand, that I want to avoid it and appear to be a much "deeper" Christian... At any rate, this is the verse that came to me tonight, and I felt it was well needed in my present state and current pursuit of the Lord.

I want to learn to trust in the Lord—yes, with all my heart, but at least for now only some specific parts, or part, of it. If I could just manage to let go of a certain matter, my life would be so much easier, my mind much less an abyss. And I do believe He will make my paths straight—He always has, faithfully. But there's always been that annoying tendency to want to make my own path straight. Gain this, Lord! Gain ME!

....

Apart from that, it's the end of my first week of school! I do miss the classes, and although I'm not looking forward to the work that lies ahead, I'm feeling pretty confident about things. I'm finally in my last semester, and I'm lovin' it!

But I'm really not back into the rhythm of being a student. I've been at the beach all month up until this week. I can't wait to again tomorrow, though I'll have to bring my books to study at the same time. Waters are cold but the sun is hot! And I'm not gonna miss out on it! 

Be Who You Are

So in the middle of this sleepless night, I remembered that I actually have a blog that I just kind of forgot about for a few months, and decided to pay it a visit. I'm back! At least for now....

It's actually quite an interesting time for me to be blogging. I've just returned from being out of the country for nearly 3 months, and I'm still trying to get back to the routine of work, scehool, and church life that I'd left behind. To be honest, I'm not sure I'll pick it up again in quite the same way. A lot of things have changed, both within and without. I'm not sure things should be the same.

One thing I want to note here is a quote that somehow popped into my head as I was wrestling with a few thoughts trying to get to sleep. "Be who you are until you're different." If I'm not mistaken, the quote was initially directed at young trainees aspiring to achieve a certain level of spirituality, whether that entailed overcoming a certain weakness, being able to behave in a certain way, or something along those lines. I like to be reminded of the quote when these kinds of tendencies come around, but tonight I thought of it with a slightly different perspective. This perspective included only a consideration of the first part of the quote, "Be who you are...."

So the question is: who am I? I think this is something every person, believer or not, should ask themselves—and in an honest, sincere way. There's no sense in deceiving oneself, getting oneself to believe something that simply isn't the case. So really, who am I? Well, getting to the point (I don't know how much longer I'll be awake), up until about 5 years ago I was a certain person on the way to leading a certain kind of life that, in the end, would have amounted to nothing genuinely significant. Actually, though, I was a person chosen by God in eternity past to be a son of God and to participate in the carrying out of His heart's desire. I, of course, had no clue. Actually, I take that back—there were a few clues along the way. Anyways, in time I was called by Him—about 5 years ago—and would no longer be allowed to live the same kind of life I knew before. Now, many things have happened, and the Lord's desire is to go on in me, growing more and more intimate with me and discharging all the things that are in me that are not pleasing to Him, and adding His very self to me little by little to replace those other things.

So who am I? God? Not exactly, although I can't say today that I'm entirely just myself anymore either. I am a human being chosen by God to contain His very life, nature, and to express Him to a certain extent—components essential to the meaning of human existence. My destiny is to be one with God for eternity. "And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called; these He also justified; and those whom He justified; these He also glorified." (Romans 8:30)

So if this is who I am, it says a lot about who I am not. I won't make a list or get into specifics. I am not anything or anyone else. Since this is who I am, it doesn't make sense to think about being something else. It doesn't help to be political about it. I am a man of God!

Violence in Schools Calls For Cultural Reform

I just finished reading an article for my Portuguese class about problems with the educational system in Brazil. The article addressed a number of issues found in primary and secondary schools, including violence, drug trafficking, gangs, hostility, disrespect, etc., and was really quite depressing. Teachers expressed their concern for safety in the school environment, being hesitant to reprove certain students due to threats on their life. One teacher event recalled an experience of having a gun pulled on him by a student in a school bathroom.

Reading the article and being shocked at the various accounts given, I recognized that the situation there isn't so alien to what we have here in certain places in the US. Kids cause problems everywhere; they insult teachers, fight with each other, and attend school in similarly hostile environments. What do we, Brazil, and other countries have in common that would produce such an environment in schools of all places? I believe that the importance of schools to the youngest members of society is second only to the very homes these kids come from, given that these are the two places young people spend most of their lives until after adolescence.

My hypothesis, as you might call it, is that the health of the school environment in any given country in the 21st century is directly linked to the culture of the new generation that is being developed with influences from technology and globalization. Of course, violence and delinquency have always existed everywhere, but I believe that these have taken on new elements in the current generation that can take them to another level. My solution would be to reevaluate and reform culture, eliminating certain elements that damage and introducing new ones that help.

What do I mean by "reform culture", and what are the "elements", both negative and positive, to which I am referring? I'll elaborate when I have more time. To be continued...

Bye bye, Facebook!

Bye bye e-mails. Notifications. Farmville and Mafia solicitations. Gossip and small talk. Won't be seeing you for awhile!

So I decided, after realizing that I'm a full-time student and part-time employee in the church life and with a house to take care of, that I'm better off without this social network, this vice, this time-drainer. At least through this semester, I won't miss it. I'm too busy for this. Tchau! See you when the semester's over!

If anyone wants to get in contact with me, you can do so by e-mail: a.delosreyes@live.com.

For our God is also a consuming fire.

These simple words someone said in a meeting are reverberating in my being. They don't seem too deep, but every day they seem to describe my experience. This new one was sharing a testimony of speaking to someone about the Lord and said, "All you do is receive the Lord Jesus one day, and things just start happening." This is the story of my life.

One day I received the Lord, and after that—although not immediately—strange things began to happen in my life. Things I can't ignore or get away from when they come up.

Today I read this verse, "For our God is also a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). And for some reason, it all makes sense. I can't get away from Him. He's in me, and He won't let me go. When He moves in my life, He exposes, burns and consumes. Everything that isn't God Himself must go. But as He consumes, He also supplies. He really does supply Himself to me, and I gain more of His very self. I learn Him more. I treasure Him more. The Christ who is all-inclusive becomes my everything, more and more. I love Him!!

I was going to list more verses I enjoyed from this chapter, Hebrews 12, but I decided it was all too good to pick a few verses and leave others out. Please read this chapter! Again!

Ok, just a few verses with a footnote:

12:15 Looking carefully lest anyone fall away from the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and through this many be defiled;
12:16 Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one meal gave up his own birthright.
12:17 For you know that also afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for repentance, even though he sought it with tears.

Footnote 16-1

Two Words:

in Christ.

What is the overcoming life? And how can we live a life that overcomes?

The standard set forth in the Bible is not one of sin and failure, but of reigning in life through the abundance of grace and more than conquering through Him who loved us. Why then does our experience so often seem to contradict the words of the Bible?

The first thing to realize is that we cannot overcome. As men in the flesh we are good for nothing but death and burial. The reason why God has crucified the flesh on the cross of Christ is because He has lost all hope in it. God's evaluation of the flesh is that it is utterly hopeless. We, however, still have confidence in our flesh. Realizing we are weak, we strive to do better thinking that one day our flesh will improve and we will overcome. God is all-powerful, more than able to make us overcome. But as long as we're still living, striving to do good in our flesh, He has no way in us to give us the overcoming life described in His Word.

Our need is thus to agree with God concerning this matter. We need to see that God's evaluation of is is that we are good for nothing but death and burial, and we must forget about having any hope in ourselves. Secondly, we need not only to agree with God's evaluation, but also to stop trying to overcome. We may agree with God, yet still try our best to overcome. We are a lingering tenant that needs to move out. Christ has moved in, but has no way to carry out what He desires until we move out. When we realize we cannot overcome and stop trying to overcome, this wonderful overcoming life will be lived out by Christ in us.

What about our experience? Our experience will follow if we believe in the fact. We need to hold to this fact, praising God for what He has already accomplished and for what is revealed in His word. Our faith in this fact will be followed by our experience of overcoming. But if we focus on our experience, trying to make our experience match the fact, we will not know the overcoming life.

Praise the Lord! We cannot overcome! We would even give up trying to overcome! With men, overcoming is impossible, but with God all things are possible! Praise Him for His wonderful overcoming life in us!