I have just spent this very blessed weekend at a conference about the Prophesies of Israel being closer than we think. With the participation of Christian Jew brothers Marvin and Stan Rosenthal and my church's Pastor Miguel Nuñez. It was an enriching, eye opening conference about Israel and the end of Days, all which was practically new to me, well almost everything.

What they basically talked about was the signs of the end of days and Israel's part in all of it. Being the history, present and future of Israel one of the key element which signals the End of days. But before I begin I want to write about Hope. The Hope that we were talked about in the conference. You see, people hear about the End of Days, the Apocallypse and they feel fear. Yes, a lot of horrible things are to take place during these days. Jesus said in Mathew 24:4-13 "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold..."

The highlighted part is to make clear that, sure we have heard rumors of wars and have had many wars as well throughout the years, of course there are and have been for a long time deceivers of the truth and false Christs, there have been and still are famines and earthquakes. The highlighted part says "These are the beginning of birth pains" For all of you who do not know, women before given birth start to have birth pains which are contractions of the muscles of the uterus. You see these contractions start very mild and at irregular rates and are barely felt but as the pressure amounts the contractions start to happen more regularly and stronger and more painful. The highlighted part means that these signs will be more obvious to everyone, it'll be the world against itself.

You must be thinking "Where's the hope in all these scary words?" On Paul's letter to Titus Chapter 2 Verses 11-13 he says the following:

"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ"

The Blessed Hope. We were taught that the word Blessing biblically talking means "the giving of life and goodness", the dictionary states that it is "Something promoting or contributing to happiness, well-being, or prosperity; a boon". Meaning Hope is living and good and certain. Our HOPE is that after all these awful things happen our LORD AND SAVIOR AND KING OF KINGS JESUS CHRIST WILL INFACT RETURN WITH GREAT GLORY!! AND THAT IS OUR  LIVING, GREAT AND CERTAIN HOPE.

Mathew 24:29-30 says the following:

 

Nevertheless ladies and gentelmen we cannot wait for the blessed hope with our arms crossed, there are things that need to be done. We have to prepare ourselves and the world for those times of tribulations to come. With God in our hearts to give us strength and to help us endure what is to come. The Lord says in Proverbs 8:34
"Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway."
Watching meaning looking out for the signs of those final days so when they come we will be ready to face them. And waiting, well waiting for Jesus' return.

Luke, concerning to why its important for us to watch and wait and be ready, says: "You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." 

 

 

Have you ever seen that part in Amelie when they both find out who the guy in the picture really is? And they have that glow in their faces like they've discovered something incredibly amazing. Well that's exactly what happened to me when I met Jesus. The Amelie effect. You see most people when they ask me how it all happened think that I went to some church and was brain washed. But it wasn't like that at all. It had been in me for a long time. I felt like God was asking me, "when are you gonna start looking for me in the right places?" And I always pushed him away. And then that day came, when a friend whom I hardly ever spoke to said to me the 8 words that changed my life completely. And those words were: "Jesus is waiting for you to come home". And then boom, the amelie effect. Only in this occassion it wasn't as much a glow as it was tears of joy and sorrow at the same time.

It also happens whenever I read something in the Bible and God reveals its true meaning while I'm reading it. The Amelie effect.

Or when I read the lyrics of a song that I had already heard before I was a christian but never really understood until after I became a christian. The Amelie effect.

It's the surprise and Joy of the unkown revealed to you by the Creator of it all. And you ask yourself in amazement, why me? And then you read,

God Bless you all!

Rita M.

The worst part about knowing an absolute truth is being the perfect example of it.

You see, last week, thursday to be more precise my brother got into a minor accident while using my dad's car. He of course had no permission to use it but, although he's 24 years of age, he has not quite matured yet. I was kind of sorry for him because not too long ago he crashed his car, yet again. But none the less I told him to tell the truth because my dad is no idiot and nothing ever escapes his mind. Like when I lost my cellphone and decided not to tell him, just to avoid his scolding and constant nagging that would come from the disappointing knews. But like an obvious crime you can't get away with, things got out of hand and before I knew it there was a bill for my cell phone unbelievably expensive revealing that the company never canceled my phone line(i had asked my brother to cancel it, since he and my dad have the same name). If I had told my father instead, he would have canceled it from the begining and he wouldn't have ended up paying almost 5,000 pesos. So anyway, my brother decided he wasn't going to tell my father, to avoid the "scolding and nagging" that were to come. And since I felt sorry for him I promised him I wouldn't say anything. But again like an obvious crime you can't get away with, The guy that bumped my dad's car reported it, not only did he remember the license plate number but he's a Captain and getting a hold of us wasn't too hard for him at all.

 

Today my dad called me and said that he wanted to talk, he was surprised that I lied to him and was deeply disappointed. I had never felt so sad, disappointed and angry at myself. You see there are no exceptions to the rule "Thou shalt not lie", there's no "in case you're trying to protect a family member..." nothing. My nerves were narling at my stomach as I went into my dad's room. He was so disappointed in me, he didn't actually blame me, he just said that he expected more of me. I'm sure God was looking down on us thinking the same thing. My dad said some things in there that actually surprised me, It sounded like something God would say to me,"You see I expected more of you because through out the years I have seen that you are very grounded person, with strong moral grounds. Someone that can actually make decisions on her own. When have we ever taught you to lie? Don't you ever try to cover for anyone's dirty actions ever again! Not even if they're your family, people have to take responsability for their own actions".

 

But, lesson learned. Tough way learn it but that is just how life goes. So remember kids:

What a day!, I can only imagine the look on mary's face when she turned around and cried out "Rabbi!" (Lucas 20:16). Wow!, such privilege to be one of the first to see Christ alive after three days of mourning. Just like He said He would be. The funny thing is that even though He told His apostles over and over that this would happen, it's like it went through one ear and came out the other because when they saw him again they couldn't believe it. One of them even said no no no I have to stick my finger in his wounds to see if its really true (Lucas 20:25). But that is how we are. Even though we should trust God with all our hearts in moments of crisis we fail, we trust men and things go unexpectedly wrong.

There will come a day when we will have that look on mary's face when she finally recognized him, but until then we have to live our lives like Jesus did. It is the reason He died on that cross and lived so righteously. To save us from sin

], to give us a chance to start over, to set an example of how to live in sanctity, to care for others (even on that painful cross bearing all our sins Jesus never prayed for himself, he prayed for others saying God forgive them for they do not know what they are doing, he took care of his mother by sending her off with John his bestfriend, he saved one of the criminals that was crucified along with him), and last but not least to love God, our dearly Father and to turn to him ALWAYS like he did.

Now all we have to do is live and wait, wait happily for His second coming.  

 "But in those days, following that distress,
   " 'the sun will be darkened,
      and the moon will not give its light; 
 "he stars will fall from the sky,
      and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'

 "At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens... (Mark 13:24-26)

...But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

 Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. (Mark 13:32-33)

 

God Bless You all!!

Rita

Why is blood the necessary payment for our sins, John Fischer asks in today's devotional. You see throught the old testament there are thousands of animal sacrifices that symbolize the payment of each person´s sin. So I started thinking, the price to pay forsinning is death, and if blood absolves the comitted sin it means that our life is preserved. When Christ died in the Cross, being him the purest lamb enough to pay for all of our sins, gave life to all of those who accepted his sacrifice. Reason why we are called "Born Again"', because we are re-born in Spirit, the spirit that Christ sent down as he rose up. So as a doctor to be, I started thinking of all the characteristic blood has. Here are some of them: 

1. In the blood stream, oxigen is carried through out the entire body, oxigen is what keeps our lungs "running" and the air that keeps our cells alive. One could say that blood is the breath of fresh air that gives us life.

2. Not only does it transport oxigen throughout the entire body but it also carries the necessary nutrients to keep our tissues and organs alive. One could say, blood is the bread that keeps our stomach full.

3. Blood carries the Toxins out of our bodies, it cleanses our bodies if it can be put that way.

4. The Hormones that keep our emotions alive are transported through the blood.

5. Blood regulates the body temperature, keeping us warm when needed, and cooling us off when needed.

6. When we are injured, blood carries out platelets. Their sticky surface lets them, along with other substances, form clots to stop bleeding. When bleeding from a wound suddenly occurs, the platelets gather at the wound and attempt to block the blood flow. If God wouldn´t have given us platelets we would literally bleed to death.

7. When "evil" agents attack our body, White blood cells in our bloodstream run to our rescue and defeat the "evil agents" that try to harm our body. After doing this they create a memory of the battle so they'll know what to do next time if the "evil agent"  tries to enter our body again.

 

So basically, in our bloodstream is everything our body needs to be alive. Makes you wonder, if our blood does all of that, can you imagine what Jesus' blood can do for us?

      You see as human beings that we are, there's a thing in us that tells us what is right and what is wrong, that thing is called conscience in a non Christian, and in a "Born Again" (as my pastor calls us), its called the Spirit of God or Holy Spirit. When I used to be a non-christian I used to say that I wanted to live in a place where my kids wouldn't grow up among "bad people". But what I didn't know back then is how horrible of a person I was, so how could I ever protect them from people who are no different of who i was?

      Well my question was answered the day I became a christian, now I'm not saying I'm perfect or a saint, but we are to separate ourselves from the "world", and from anything Sinful because our goal is to try to be like Jesus as much as we can by each day following Gods commandments and trying to reach Sanctity. So God, our dearly father has done just that. He thought hmm how can I possible keep my kids from the hands of the evil one in this world? I have to tell them to draw a line between what I love and what I hate. And what does God love? Purity, Goodness, Sanctification, Obedience, Truth. And what does He dislike? SIN! But don't get me wrong he can protects us from anything no matter where we are, but if we can be in a "safer" place and out of trouble the better.

      Like when God told Abraham, "you know I'm gonna train you to become a Nation but the first thing you need to do is leave your land, leave your family and come with me." by the way I'm paraphrasing there but that's the idea, the reason he had to leave was because that land and that family were completely pagan, so God wanted him out of that sinful place and off to somewhere God could teach him to be Pure. The pastor was talking about exactly this today at church, it was a very confronting sermon, but an understandable truth. Jesus said it in the Gospel of John while praying to our dearly Father ,

     So after we've drawn that line perfectly well, after we've built a perfectly unbreakable faith, after we've seeked sanctity, we have a job to testify to others, to tell others what the Lord has done in our lives. A very important thing we must know is that even in those "safer" places we can be tempted and tried but for our love to our Father we must persevere. When we do fall we must remember that even when we were God's enemy He gave His Son as a perfect sacrifice to forgive our sins, so chances are he can forgive us again, as long as in our hearts we truly repent and try as hard as we can to never comitt the mistake again.

   Again I see how my dear Father tries to make my life a little easier by giving me tips on how to walk this precious road and yet at the same time He gives me warnings of the things to come, always guarding me and protecting me, all He wants us to do is to follow Him, trust Him and love Him, the way He loves us, for our own Sake.

God Bless,

Rita

I've heard people say "He created us to worhsip him? Thats kind of selfish" But what they don't know is that whenever they're not worshipping God, they're worshipping some other god. The god of money, the god of sexuality, the god of vanity, the god of drugs, the god of alcohol, the god of power, among others. How many times have you heard someone say "If only I had X amount of money, i'd be the happiest person on earth"? Or how about "If only I were prettier, or skinnier, I'd be happier". Or a more "innocent" way of idolatry, "If I ever met X artist I could die right then and there as the happiest person on earth."  These are all chains that ensalve us to this awful world.

But God gives us a liberty that no other "god" can give us, because although it seems we are "chained" to him, the only God that gives us peace, Joy, self-esteem, Love, everything we need, while making us his "servants" is God. The only one who gave HIS life in order to guarantee our savior. If people want to call him selfish, then they haven't gotten quite yet the story of Jesus Christ. If they want to call this a slavery then I'm obliged to say they've never served anyone in their lives.

All they have are mere assumptions of things they barely know anything about. Read the bible, investigate what this God has done for you and me, that no other "god" will ever do or has ever done for you. They all ask without giving anything in return, anything worth living for anyway. God on the other hand gives you everything in exchange of your heart, your love, your attention, your obedience, Your Self. Not a prettier version of you, or a richer one, nor a smart one, nor a skinnier one, just simply You. And please never exchange the eternal rewards God offers you for the temporary ones this world sells you, it will only lead to emptyness of heart and soul.

God Bless you all,

Rita

       They say that we should give ourselves to others without expecting anything in return. I agree with that, but when it comes to friendships there are a few twist and turns to that rule. Friendships need to be cultivated, just as our friendship with God has to be cultivated for it to grow. Meaning, I get to know my friend by hanging out with him/her, talking to my friend whenever I can (which is probably most of the time), sharing moments with my friend, and so on, building trust, confidence and love between us. Thus I give my entire self to that person by being always there no questions asked, being a shoulder to cry on, a confidant, among other things. But like I said friendships need to be cultivated and when one of the two stops doing his/her part then the friendship like a flower starts to wilt away, and there is only so much one person can do to save it before it is too late. So please don't let that frienship you so enjoy wilt away, talk things over, stop poingting fingers and rescue it back, friends are rare thing these days.

God Bless,

Rita