Come and See: A Call for Intimacy.

John 1:45-46. If you're familiar with this passage, you'll remember that after encountering Jesus Christ, Nathanael realized that he found the Son of God, the King of Israel. How many times we've failed to hear Jesus' voice when He was knocking at the door of our hearts? How many times we heard his voice but refused to open the door? Revelation 3:20. Then one day we opened our hearts and Jesus entered and He ate with us. But as time went by, we lost our first love and our desire for intimacy with Him, our fellowship with Him that once was precious and constant, became casual. Revelation 2:4. Unfortunately for many people, Jesus from being their first love, became unwanted and was replaced with another "lover" (money, pleasure, religion, etc). More and more i can see that only those who are willing to take their cross and follow Jesus Christ are the ones who will have intimacy with Him, who will become His close friends. Proverbs 18:24. In order to become Jesus' friends, we must do whatever He tells us, otherwise we will never experience the fullness of His friendship. John 15:14. The best example of intimacy with Jesus was John the Apostle. They became so close that Jesus called John the son of Mary: John 19:25-27. John was the only disciple who stood by the cross, he wasn't afraid to die for the One he loved, because the One he loved was dying for him. Love was the reason why John was following Jesus, even facing death. 1 John 4:18.

Corruption: The Evidence of a Sinful Nature.

Few weeks ago, i took a client to the airport (i'm a cab driver), we were talking about politics and corruption and i told him that for me, lobbying is a "legal" corruption. Thankfully he agreed with me, because the first time i said that to another client, he never called me back. I knew that my statement was true, but i didn't have the "evidence" to prove it. My client told me about a man called Jack Abramoff, a famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) lobbyist that literally bought (with gifts and such) a few politicians here in America. I came home and watched his interview on CBS' 60 minutes (Jack Abramoff: Inside Capitol corruption). In this interview, Abramoff explains how he bribed politicians to "change laws" to benefit his clients, just by inserting a few words that opened the way to personal gain. Then, my client explained the difference between ethics and morals. It's very easy to condemn Abramoff, but in reality we are all alike, we are "corrupted to the bone". Why? Because we are born in sin: Psalm 51:5. We are all corrupted by the sinful nature that lives in us! Romans 3:23. Financial corruption is just a consequence of this sinful nature in action! Why do we see so much greed and unthankfulness nowadays? 2 Timothy 3:1-5. The sin is different but the root is the same: The sinful nature. By the way, what does corruption mean? Corruption: Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery; the action of making someone or something morally depraved or the state of being so. Besides the financial aspect, corruption is changing the "state" of someone or something, e.g.: Sex trafficking. The perpetrator abducts a young girl and change her "state" of freedom into captivity, from being a morally correct person she becomes a morally depraved one (prostitution). The antidote for this deadly poison called sinful nature is holiness or Christlikeness. Hebrews 12:14. How can we grow in holiness? Psalm 119:9; Ephesians 5:26; John 15:3.

Impartation: You Can Only Give What You Have!

First of all, let see what the dictionary says about the word impart: The verb impart has 4 senses: 1. tell or deposit (information) knowledge; 2. bestow a quality on; 3. make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret; 4. make known; pass on, of information. Now let's see what Paul told the Romans about impartation: Romans 1:11. Here Paul is talking about his desire to see the roman brothers and sisters and PASS ON or SHARE some spiritual gifts he had. Impartation mostly happens through the "laying on of hands", as in Paul's case when he was filled with the Holy Spirit: Acts 9:17. As i always write: Spiritually speaking, you cannot give what you don't have. You can see that Paul could only "give" spiritual gifts to others because he received before, some through the hands of Ananias. Another example is Timothy: 1 Timothy 4:14. The same happened to me, God used His servant (Marco Barrientos) to deliver and anoint me, when Marco laid his hands on me i was filled with the Holy Spirit and received some gifts, like the gift of discernment of spirits. Jesus Christ says that His disciples would lay their hands on the sick person and the person would be healed: Mark 16:17-19. See that Jesus says that "those who believe" would heal the sick. The problem with us today is that we think Jesus is only saying "those who believe that He is God", but He is also saying those who believe that in His name they could heal the sick. It goes back to the beginning: Hebrews 11:6. Do you understand it? It's not enough just believe that He is, we must believe that He is a rewarder. So, SPIRITUAL GIFTS ARE REWARDS to the ones who believe and diligently seek Him! Do you remember this passage? Mark 5:22-23. That's Impartation! Another aspect of impartation is to transfer authority: Deuteronomy 34:9. God chose Joshua to replace Moses, so Moses had to transfer his authority to Joshua. God chose Elisha to replace Elijah: 2 Kings 2:15. This is not "replacement theology". We also must be careful when laying hands on people: 1 Timothy 5:22.

Go Back to Your First Love!

Revelation 3:14-16. Sometimes Jesus sounds extremely harsh, He doesn't seem to care about peoples' feelings, He goes straight to the point. If He was invited to preach in our church today, the message would be the same, He wouldn't bargain or be afraid to speak the Truth "as is", no nice words, no emotional appealing, just the Truth, after all, He is the Truth! In the text above, Jesus is dealing with a church that grew proud of the riches and wealth they acquired, so much that they thought they didn't need anything else, instead of being filled with the Holy Spirit, as Paul commanded the believers, Ephesians 5:18, they became full of themselves. If you think about "vomit", you'll realize that most of the time when you vomited, the food that came out was partially digested, for one reason or another (infection, overeating, etc), your stomach couldn't fully complete the eating process. Now, if you apply this notion (halfway) to the text above, you'll see why Jesus was so UPSET (as your stomach when you vomit) with the Laodiceans, because His goal in discipleship is perfection or completeness: James 1:4. Unfortunately, we bought into that worldly mentality that "nobody is perfect", therefore we don't even bother seeking holiness, since perfection and completeness is impossible, we don't believe that God is able to perfect us and make us complete for His glory. How would Jesus deal with the "prosperity driven churches" today? The same way He dealt with the Laodicean church! So, is there a way to reverse the curse of lukewarmness? Yes there is! Jesus told the church of Ephesus how to do it: Revelation 2:4-5. It starts with repentance. Repentance (not remorse) is the first step to restoring the first love. This also applies to marriage. Unfortunately, along the way we became influenced by the culture, which says that once the flame (passion) is gone, the marriage is over. It happened because christian leaders failed to understand that love is not passion. Love produces emotions that may produce passion. Emotions do not produce love, they only produce passion! Paul gave us the perfect definition of love: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. So, what does it mean to be Hot? To me, hotness is: Unconditional obedience to Jesus Christ. Today, because the "cheap gospel" is all over, we think that everyone is Jesus' friend, since everybody is singing that song: "I am a friend of God, He calls me friend", in reality, just a few "believers" are Jesus’ friends: John 15:14. To be friends with Jesus Christ is necessary to be obedient to His words, to do whatever He tells us. I spent a couple weeks writing this post, at the end i struggled to find the title. This morning i was checking the "fakebook" and a friend of mine posted a link there, a preaching from a well known pastor from Brazil, his name is Caio Fabio, he says that when he fell was the time when God lifted him up, after being on top, he realized that everything he had done, was just a show, he had it all but lost his first love for Jesus Christ, that was the time when Christ brought him back and he says he despises people's recognition, applause, etc, or what i call, "the entertainment gospel". At the end he gave me the title: GO BACK TO YOUR FIRST LOVE! God has been so good to me, i'm speechless! I'm not saying i agree with everything this pastor preaches, absolutely not.

Perseverance: The Key For Character Development

Romans 5:3. Paul is full of crazy (humanly speaking) concepts, like this one: Tribulation produces perseverance. Even if this concept sounds crazy, if we think for a moment, we will reach the following conclusion: All the major inventions came after many trials and failures, but as the inventors persevered in building it, they got the final product working properly, and today we benefit from their perseverance. When talking about biblical perseverance, there are some people who stand above the others, e.g.: Noah (about 120 years building the arc in the desert); Abraham (100 years walking by faith); Job (satan struck him with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head), etc. The dictionary defines character as: The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. I would redefine character adding another quality to it: The spiritual, mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. If we consider what Paul wrote in Galatians, when talking about the fruit of the Spirit, we'll realize that those "characteristics" are part of Jesus Christ's character: Galatians 5:22-23. If you read the Gospels, you'll find all of those characteristics being displayed in Jesus' life, E.g.: Peace: John 14:27. As i wrote before, spiritually speaking: You can only give what you have! E.g.: Peace: Luke 10:5-6. Here Jesus sent His disciples (seventy others He appointed besides the Apostles) to practice what He taught them. Jesus is clear that the disciples' peace would rest in that house if there was a son of peace there. Why? Because Jesus gave His peace to His disciples and His disciples should give their peace to others. I would call this: Sharing the blessings. I hope you don't mistaken it with "pay it forward", which some christian churches are doing. It goes far beyond this "to do something good for someone in response to a good deed done on your behalf" concept. I’m not saying that you shouldn't do good deeds, what I’m saying is that you should do something good for others even when others did something bad for you. The world’s concept is "pay it forward", but Jesus’ concept is this: Luke 6:27-36. I know Jesus’ concept is way too radical for the post-modern christianism we have today, that’s why we must go back to the beginning, learn with the Master Jesus Christ how to persevere in trials and tribulations and be inspired by godly people like Job, who persevered to the end: James 5:11.

The New Ecumenism: Rebuilding the Spiritual Babel.

If you never heard about the tower of babel, you can find the story in Genesis 11:1-9. The purpose in building the tower was to be one inseparable people and reach to the heavens, where God is. The first problem was that they were disobeying God's commandment given to Adam and Eve: Genesis 1:27-28. God's purpose for mankind wasn't just to fill the Garden of Eden, but the whole earth. The other problem was that no human being can reach God, that's the reason Jesus Christ, the Son of God became man in order to reach mankind. The word babel means "gate of god", it is also the hebrew name for Babylon. At that time, people believed that heavens were not far from the earth and they probably thought they could reach the place were God was, and hopefully becoming gods themselves. The idea of becoming god was not original, lucifer was the first one to try it, then Adam, then the babel builders, then Herod the king: Acts 12:21-23, etc. I think that the "new world religion" that is coming soon, where the high priest will be the false prophet, will be the new ecumenism. Why? Think about this: Do you really think that you can convince muslims, christians, buddhists, spiritists, etc, to abandon their religion and costumes and follow your own? I bet you don't. But what if this false prophet comes with a way to unite all religions, telling them that they have something in common, "god", it doesn't matter what his name is or how it (god) manifests himself, what matters is that their "gods" can coexist, their religions can intermix, their faith can be expanded to insert new beliefs, etc. The word ecumenism comes from a family of classical greek words: oikos, meaning a "house", "family", "people", or "nation"; oikoumenē, "the whole inhabited world"; and oikoumenikos, "open to or participating in the whole world". Again, as my writing is personal, i think (God knows for sure) that the false prophet will find a way to unite all religions, of course the only ones who won't participate of this new ecumenism, will be the ones who won't receive the mark of the beast, as described in Revelation 13:18. So, are you prepared to overcome the beast? Revelation 12:11.