Gideon: The Mighty Antihero.

Judges 6:12-16. It is impressive how bad things are in our "christianity" today, every day there's a new "hero", a new "star", a new "idol". From Abel to John, every "hero" in the Bible was the antithesis of today's "heroes". They were the meekest and weakest people of their time, the ones who were on top, God brought them down in order to display His glory in their lives, e.g.: Moses, Peter, Paul, etc. Jesus Christ is the biggest antihero (from glorious God to a Servant Man) in human history. This is His description: Isaiah 53:2-3. If you pay attention to the latter days "heroes" of faith, they are the opposite of Jesus Christ: They got the "look"; they are accepted everywhere; they are smiley people; they are praised and idolized, they are the best sellers, etc. If we consider the life of Gideon, he says that he was the least of all and yet God calls him to be a hero in order to be glorified (God) in and through him (Gideon). Why? Paul gives us the answer: 1 Corinthians 1:27-29. The very reason we (church) don't see the Glory of God in our midst is because we (church) are retaining the glory that supposed to be God's, therefore God himself allows us to keep "walking around in the desert" and never enter the "promise land". This is so true that God Himself said to Gideon: Judges 7:2. The fact that we keep shouting "glory to God" doesn't mean that the glory is going to God, otherwise we would be seeing His glory in our midst. My take on that is that we are lacking God's righteousness: Isaiah 58:8. Philippians 1:11. John the Baptist got it right: John 3:30. Because we are full of ourselves we are lacking Jesus Christ in us, if we (church) don't decrease, Jesus Christ will never increase in us, therefore the glory will never be fully God's. God is calling us to be "antiheroes" and never accept the glory that is His in order to display His glory in our lives. God's glory in us is directly proportional to Jesus Christ's increase in us. The bigger we are, the smaller Jesus Christ will be in us and lesser His light will shine on us. 1 Peter 5:6; Matthew 5:16; John 8:12.

Addicted Generation: What's the "Next Fix"?

If you are not familiar with the term "next fix", in the "addicted world" it means: The next drug, the next bottle, the next pill, etc. Using this term in our context (christianity), the "next fix" would be: New teaching, new book, new concert, new diet (believe you or not), etc. Unfortunately, more and more we can see people desperate to find a "quick fix" to their lifetime problems, thinking that if they just apply this revolutionary teaching they read in this best selling book, their lives will turn around and they will be a problem free people. Unfortunately, it's just the opposite, after realizing that the "quick fix" wasn't the solution they were looking for, they give up trying and succumb to their temptation or addiction. I believe the first thing we must do as christians when we have a problem or temptation, is to go before God in prayer with an open heart, open our Bible and allow God to speak to us and do whatever He says (obedience rather than sacrifice). Another "myth" we have in christianity is that once delivered from addiction or sin, we won't struggle anymore with that same "problem", that the battle is over, we are winners and nothing can defeat us. Well, this is what Paul wrote: 1 Corinthians 10:12. Unfortunately, when most people struggle again with the same issue, they fall for lack of endurance: James 1:12. After being set free we receive the power to resist temptations, the power resist temptation, the power to say NO to the addiction or sin that once enslaved us, but we must fight against it: Hebrews 12:4. If you are looking for a "quick fix" to help you fight against sin or addiction, i have bad news for you: YOU WON'T FIND IT! On the other hand, there is FREEDOM in Jesus Christ, not a partial freedom, total freedom: John 8:36. Pay attention to what Jesus said: IF the Son makes you free. Why did He make that statement conditional (if)? Because ONLY GOD can deal with the ROOT of the problem or addiction which is SIN! Let's use drug addiction as an example: I have friends who quit using drugs, they fought against it and won the battle, but, are they free indeed? NO! They are still slaves of themselves or another addictions like, pornography for example, because they are rejecting Jesus Christ's freedom. But i also have friends who Jesus Christ made them free indeed. Am i saying they don't sin? Of course not! 1 John 1:10. There's a difference between "sinning" and being "slave of sin": When you are a slave, you don't have any other option but obeying your "master" which is sin. Paul and the other apostles, when writing they call themselves bond-servants (slaves) of Jesus Christ, because they found "true" freedom by submitting themselves to Jesus Christ's authority. James 4:7. If you submit yourself to God you will receive the power to resist the devil and his temptations and you will experience a life of true freedom. My advice to you, if you are struggling with addiction and sin is that you stop running after "quick fixes" (empty promises) and start running after Jesus Christ, He will set you free indeed!

Empty Mind: The Path to Wonderland.

Many times we forget that this world is not our final destination, the final destination will be either heaven or hell, this is just our temporary residency or the "desert" we must cross to reach the "promise land" (new earth). Of course, if you don't believe in the "promise land" than you'll never live there. At one point in our lives, we will struggle either spiritually, physically or emotionally, and if we are not "grounded" in the word of God we will suffer harm. The question is: How can we be "grounded" in the Word of God? There are few steps to achieve that and they are everything but easy, they involve COMMITMENT and DISCIPLINE: 1) We must BELIEVE in God and DILIGENTLY seek Him: Hebrews 11:6; 2) we must HEAR the Word of God: Romans 10:17; 3) we must MEDITATE in His word: Psalm 1:1-2; Psalm 119:148; 4) we must have His word in our minds and hearts: Psalm 119:11; Hebrews 10:16. Our problem as believers, is that we are always running after things that don't really matter, things that will soon disappear, we are SEEKING FIRST OTHER THINGS hoping that god's KINGDOM WILL BE ADDED TO US: Matthew 6:33. If we don't fill our minds and hearts with the word of God, we will be always WONDERING why we don't hear from God, why it is so hard to live holy lives, why we don't experience the fullness of His love. It doesn't matter how full your mind is, if it's not filled with the word of God, instead of living in the Kingdom of God you will be living in the wonderland, fantasizing that you're going to heaven when you're actually already living a hellish (self-indulgent) life. Romans 12:2; Matthew 7:21.

The Sheepish Wolf: The Art of Pretending.

In this cartoon called The Sheepish Wolf 1942, in his first scene, the hungry and "Shakespearean" wolf, watching a flock of sheep, imagines them as lamb chops, steaks and other delicacies and his first words are: "To eat or not to eat? Baa, what a question"! Then he has a brilliant idea: "I shall disguise myself as a sheep and mingle with the flock". Even if this cartoon is funny, it carries a sad reality, an old trick that many false believers (pastors, prophets, teachers, etc.) have been using for centuries in christian churches: Deceitfulness. Jesus Christ warned us to beware of them: Matthew 7:15. Just like in this cartoon, the false believers (wolves) disguise themselves as sheep, they appear to be very humble and godly, but after a while they start revealing themselves (character), they start saying things people want to hear and unfortunately, most the times the leader of the church is just like the sheepdog in this cartoon, he cannot see the wolf because his eyes are "covered" (lack of discernment). The history of Israel is filled with prophets and pastors who abused the flock (God's people), who fed themselves and let the flock perish. God rebuked them through His Prophets, like in this passage: Ezekiel 34:2-3. If we bring to our context, today in most churches the believers are just "numbers" (numerically and financially speaking), they are just the means that the "owner" of the church or ministry uses to reach his (her) goal. Today, most leaders PRETEND to be SHEPHERDS (pastors), most people PRETEND to be SHEEP (christians) and the organization PRETENDS to be a SHEEPFOLD (church). Jesus Christ was a real Pastor, His disciples were real christians (Judas Iscariot was a wolf in sheep's clothing) and the early church was a real church. We believers (pastors and flock), need the Gift of the Holy Spirit called Discerning of spirits to be able to detect the wolves when they enter the sheepfold (church), 1 John 4:1, and be wise when we are among wolves, Matthew 10:16. At the end of this cartoon, all the sheep were wolves in sheep's clothing (subtle?). The probable reason the writer revealed the flock to be wolves, is because the world thinks that we are a bunch of hypocrites, we are all wolves in sheep's clothing, because we talk a lot about love and we  don't love our neighbors as ourselves; we talk a lot about godliness and our actions show how sinful we are; we talk a lot about mercy and we refuse to help the needy because we think they are lazy, etc. It's time to LIVE what we PREACH and show the world that we are Jesus Christ's disciples: John 13:35.

Whatever God Says To You, Do It!

The phrase "whatever He says to you, do it", is part of Jesus' ministry, even if it is not explicit in the text, it is always implicit. In His first miracle, turning water into wine, we see His mother literally telling that to the servants: John 2:5. When He rebuked the winds and the sea, they "obeyed" Him (did whatever He said): Matthew 8:26-27. When He commanded the fig tree to wither, it obeyed Him: Matthew 21:18-19. Everyone who was healed by Jesus, was healed because he, she or someone else did whatever was necessary for the person to receive the healing: The cleansing of a leper in Mathew 8:1-4; the Centurion's servant in Matthew 8:5-13; the woman with a flow of blood in Luke 8:43-48; the man born blind in John 9; the Gentile Woman's Daughter in Matthew 15:21-28; the paralytic who was let down through the roof to be healed by Jesus in Mark 2:1-12, etc. The demons and the nature had no other option but obeying Jesus, but for the healings (physical, spiritual and emotional) to occur, someone had to exercise faith and obedience (works). Have you ever wondered why we don't see miracles, signs and wonders as they saw in the early church? Isn't it because we don't have faith as they did? If that is the reason, why we don't have that kind of faith? Isn't it because our "faith" is a "hypothetical" assurance filled with religious concepts? If our faith is genuine, why we don't see the results (healings for example)? Is Jesus still the same? Hebrews 13:8. If Jesus didn't change and we are the body of Christ, as the Casting Crowns use to sing, if we are the body why aren't His (Jesus) hands healing? What's wrong with "the body" (church)? The first thing we can see is that the church is not functioning as a body (organism) but as an organization (business); the second is that when the church is trying to be a body, it's a "dysfunctional" body, meaning, there are HANDS talking, EYES walking, EARS seeing, etc. This is what i mean by that: 1 Corinthians 12:27-31. Be honest with yourself, where did you see a church functioning like that? I never saw any like that! Why? Because in our churches, if we believe in the calling and gifts of the Holy Spirit we don't have them working properly (dysfunctional body) or we don't even believe that they are essential. In either case, we read the Bible and choose what we think is more "appropriate" for our church, if we are pentecostal we choose prophets, miracles, gifts of healings, varieties of tongues, if we are traditional we choose apostles, teachers, administrations and if we are liberal we choose administrations and helps. The reason we don't see Glory of God IN and AMONG us today is: WE DON'T DO WHATEVER GOD SAYS TO US!

The Demanding Faith and the Will of God.

Luke 22:41-42. How many times have we prayed or heard someone else praying this type of prayer: God, You said in Your word... and You are not a man that you can lie... so, do it? I confess that i did it before and i am ashamed of doing that. How could i be so ARROGANT? How could i be so PROUD? Today i know the reason: I was extremely influenced by the "christian culture" i was living in. Because i was hearing that type a prayer constantly, i became influenced by it to the point that it became natural to me, i didn't know the difference between BOLDNESS and ARROGANCE. BOLDNESS is praying ACCORDING to the will of God; ARROGANCE is telling God to do something NOT KNOWING His will, taking bible verses out of context and "commanding" God to be faithful to His Words. In human history, there wasn't and there won't be any person BOLDER than Jesus Christ, yet every time He prayed, He displayed His HUMBLENESS. He NEVER demanded the Father to do anything, He always ASKED the Father what was His will and submitted Himself to the Father's will. How HORRIBLE is this thing that we have in our "christianity" today, that we are following satan's footsteps, being PRIDEFUL, ARROGANT and DEMANDING God to do what we want? There are many teachings out there, like "the prayer of Jabez" for example, that lead us to DEMAND God to EXPAND OUR TERRITORY and we forget that Jesus Christ taught us to ask the Father to EXPAND HIS KINGDOM. Galatians 3:1. Doesn't it sound familiar? FOOLISH CHRISTIANS! WHO BEWITCHED YOU THAT YOU SHOULD DEMAND GOD TO... We are lacking many things in this post-modern christianism, but i believe the biggest one is Jesus Christ being clearly portrayed among us as crucified! Answer this question: Didn't Jesus Christ know that He was going to die on the cross? Revelation 13:8. Of course He did, He agreed with the Father to become a Man and die on the cross before the foundation of the earth. So why Jesus didn't DEMAND the Father to take the cup (cross) away from Him? John 6:38. It is horrible to see how far we are walking from the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, JESUS CHRIST. We mistake FAITH with SELFISH DESIRE. The context of Jesus life and ministry, including teachings like FAITH AND THE MUSTARD SEED, revolved around the Will of the Father. When Jesus COMMANDED the fig tree to wither, the will of the Father was to teach Jesus' disciples about faith and authority. When Jesus healed a man born blind, the objective was to show the Father's glory and compassion. When He talks with the adulterous woman He was showing the Father's forgiveness, etc. The church today adapted Nike's motto: Just do it! It doesn't matter if it is God's will to do it, if it is God's time to do it, if it is God's way to do it, just do it! Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? No? It doesn't matter, just go and make disciples, after all that's the greatest commandment, the great commission. Matthew 22:37-40. Do you love the Lord and your neighbor like that? No? Don't worry about it, just go and make disciples, fulfill the great commission and you go to heaven (what heaven?). Pay attention to what Jesus said: John 13:35. What GOOD NEWS are we spreading if we don't love like Jesus commanded us? 1 Corinthians 13:13; 1 Corinthians 13:1-2. Do you exercise a demanding faith? Is your faith based on the will of God? Paul just confirmed what Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40, if we don't love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind and our neighbor as ourselves, WE ARE NOTHING!