On The Mount Of The Lord It Shall Be Provided.

Genesis 22:14 So Abraham called the name of that place, "The Lord will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided". The context of this verse is when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. This story is very profound, because until this point, Abraham had been faithful to the Lord, even having another son, Ishmael, which was not what God intended for him, yet, everything God told him he did. Abraham had been growing in faith by walking WITH God. But God's plan for Abraham was for him to be "blameless" (perfect, guiltless, impeccable, etc.). So, at this point Abraham already knew the Lord enough to believe that Isaac was not the sacrifice God wanted and that even if he (Abraham) had to kill his son, God was going to fulfill His promise and had the power to raise Isaac from the dead. Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named". He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. What is very interesting to me, is that it took three days to get from the place Abraham was to the mount of God. Do you perceive the resemblance between Jesus Christ's and Isaac's sacrifice? Jesus LITERALLY rose from the dead in the third day and Isaac FIGURATIVELY rose from the dead in the third day. We can say that in this manner Isaac was a "shadow" of Christ. Through Abraham God was announcing the death of His Son, the "Perfect Lamb of God" for the redemption of our sins. I always wondered about the meaning of this saying: "On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided". Is the mount a literal place? Is it a symbolic place? What could we call "the mount of the Lord" today? To me (personal), this saying refers to a "place closer to God", the higher in the mountain, the closer to God. Moses had an encounter with God on Mount Sinai; Elijah had an encounter with God on Mount Carmel; Jesus had and encounter with God on the mount of transfiguration (some say it was Mount Hermon). Those are some account about men of God meeting their God, for them it was a literal place. For us today, not always is possible to go to a mountain to encounter God, so, the mountain can be any place where we can be quiet in God's presence, as Jesus Christ said: Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. We christians, most of the time try to "sanctify" a place, as if God really cared about the place. Sometimes, we've been living a selfish lifestyle and yet "go to the mountain" thinking God will someway, somehow, overlook our lifestyle and send "fire" on us. God is so merciful that He doesn't send "fire", otherwise we would be "consumed" (killed), not "purified". The closer we are to God, the more we will experience His provision. Intimacy with God brings us everything we need. That's what Jesus said: Matthew 6:31-33 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Is Jesus saying that we don't need to work? Of course not! He is talking about "where the provision comes from". According to Jesus, our provision comes from God. Yes, we need to work! But if we cannot work (disabled), we don't have a job, etc., What shall we eat or wear? Again, "On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided". If we are the "house of God", 1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, would God NOT provide for His own house? Lack of faith creates anxiety. The times when we are the weakest are the times when we see the most of God's faithfulness, His provision, His love, His care, His goodness. If we don't trust God is because we don't know Him, the more we know Him the more we will trust Him. Abraham is referred as the "father of faith" because one day, he decided to "take the first step": Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to To a land that I will show you, and "step-by-step" he walked WITH God and became His friend: James 2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness". And he was called the friend of God. Next time when you sing that song "I am a friend of God...", think about what it took to Abraham to be called "friend of God".

Walk Before Me And Be Blameless.

Last Sunday i was visiting a local Baptist Church and the youth pastor was in charge of preaching. He started saying that for 20 years he DID the work of God as a pastor, to him, all those years he did it right. Then, after 20 years he realized that what he did (work), was something FOR God, not WITH God. few weeks before, God started speaking to him about the ministry. One day at the youth ministry, he was asking the kids about working for God, when one of the kids said something that shook his "faith": Working WITH God instead of working FOR God. Paul wrote this in 1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are co-workers in God’s service. Co-worker means: A person with whom one works. The work (service) belongs to God and we suppose to work WITH Him, being Him the Head (Leader). The weekend of this account, the youth group had a "retreat", Friday night they went to a meeting with youth groups of other Baptist Churches in the vicinity. When the speaker started "preaching", this youth pastor said he was "blown away", because he heard the preaching he had prepared for Sunday morning, even showed to his kids his sermon's outline. The speaker's preaching was all about "working WITH God". Sunday's preaching was very profound, probably a few believers in the church really understood what he was talking about. Anyways, since we set our feet in the "church", we are taught that we must DO something FOR God. IF WE DON'T DO, WE ARE NOT! What i mean is this: IF WE DON'T GOOD DEEDS, WE ARE NOT CHRISTIANS. Don't get me wrong, IF WE DON'T GOOD DEEDS, WE ARE NOT CHRISTIANS! Let me explain the difference between the two statements: Doing good deeds do not make someone a christian, BECAUSE WE ARE christians WE DO good deeds. Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Good deeds are the result (fruits) of the "new birth". Jesus explained this in Matthew 7:17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. I wrote about this in this post: "The Tree, the Branch and the Fruit". To work FOR God is not the same as to work WITH God, to walk FOR God is not the same as to walk WITH God. Let's give an example: You can "Walk to End Alzheimer's" (annual event) and yet not be "engaged" to "end Alzheimer's". You can walk just because you "like" walking, because it is a "good cause", but you heart is not committed to "end Alzheimer's". A good example of this is Abram: Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless". To walk before means to have a "relationship", "to walk with". On the other hand, we cannot walk before God unless we walk by the Spirit, Galatians 5:16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Only if we walk by the Spirit we will be blameless. What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? It means to walk by faith: 2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. But how can we trust (faith) God if we don't know Him? How can we know Him if we don't have a relationship with  (walk before) Him? Since the beginning God wanted to have a relationship with mankind, Adam broke it, Jesus Christ restored it. In Christ we can walk before Him and if we walk by the Spirit we will be blameless. John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent". Our work is to believe in Jesus Christ and to walk by faith. Unfortunately, we make things hard for ourselves and for the new believers. When we're born again, we're "on fire", we "walk by faith", we "love" our neighbor, we are willing to "die" for Christ, etc. As time goes by, the "fire extinguishes", the "faith" becomes "works", the "love" becomes mere "acceptance" and we're not even willing to "live" for Christ, much less, to "die" for Him. We must "go back to our first love". Read also the post: "Go Back to Your First Love!".

The Fly and the Perfume

Ecclesiastes 10:1 As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. The word perfume comes from the Latin "per fumum" which in English means "through smoke". The ancients used to burn herbs, which released various scents, it was in this context that the word "perfume" came to exist. Whenever i read Ecclesiastes 10:1, i remember Paul's words: 2 Corinthians 2:15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. In the wilderness, God told Moses to make "incense" to burn in the altar (tabernacle): Exodus 30:7 Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. God was specific on what to use and how to do it: Exodus 30:34-35 And the Lord said to Moses: "Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy". God did not permit any personal use of this incense: Exodus 30:37-38 But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition. It shall be to you holy for the Lord. Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people. Scriptures tells us that the burning of incense was a type of prayers going up to God. Revelation 5:8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Revelation 8:3-4 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Now, let's talk about the "flies". One of the plagues in Egypt, the fourth plague, was a judgment against the Egyptian god called uatchit, the "fly god". Another ancient god (idol) was baal-zebub of Ekron, the lord of the "fly". Later, baal-zebub was know as the "prince of demons", as in the Gospels (Matthew 10:25; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15). Before writing this post i didn't know how bad even the house flies can become, this is what i learned: "House flies are strongly suspected of transmitting at least 65 diseases to humans, including typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, poliomyelitis, yaws, anthrax, tularemia, leprosy and tuberculosis. Flies regurgitate and excrete wherever they come to rest and thereby mechanically transmit disease organisms". Wow, before i thought they were just annoying. Now let's talk about the "bad smell". If a decomposing fly can give a perfume a bad smell, so our sins can give us a "bad smell" (lose "Christ's fragrance"). Whenever our sins are not dealt with (repentance), they start "corrupting" our values and morals, until they become "part" of our conduct (practical sin). What would be "Christ's fragrance" in us? To me, it means Christ's character (fruit of the Spirit) being displayed through us. When we show love, joy, peace, etc., towards other people, we are "exhaling" Christ's fragrance, people can "smell" Christ in us. When there are "practical sins" (iniquity), instead of "exhaling" Christ's fragrance, we will "exhale" the devil's "bad odor". Jesus Christ addressed this issue when talking to the pharisees: John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. So, don't be deceived, as a "little fly in the perfume", so it is a "little lie" in your life, and believe me, there's no such thing as a "white lie". As the TRUTH came through Jesus Christ, so the LIE comes from the devil. Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. Through Isaiah, God is saying that our "practical sins" (iniquities) give us a "bad smell", so God won't hear our prayers. 2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. Can people "smell" Christ's fragrance in you? Are your prayers ascending to God as an "incense"? Are you "displaying" Christ's character to other people? It is very easy to be a light in a sunny day or a good fragrance in the midst of a flowery garden, in other words, to be a believer in the church. But, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:15 ... among those who are perishing, are you the "fragrance of Christ" among the unsaved? Are you the "light" in this present darkness"? Are you the "salt" of this insipid world?

Revival: Cause and Consequence.

I remember as if was yesterday. I was part of a small hispanic church in Illinois, a "family" kinda church, the one where people "spend" themselves taking care of one another, where needs are  promptly met. At this time, we started praying, we had prayer 6 days a week. The most amazing thing was that we didn't have an "agenda", no "script", just prayer and worship. As time went by, we started seeing God's move among us, we saw things that i never heard before (doesn't mean it never happened),  PRAYING WAS A PLEASURE! We delighted in God's presence, there was days of joy, days of extreme brokenness and days of peace were we just stayed in God's presence without saying anything (started praying and this happened). I already spoke about this in other post, so on this one I will talk about what brings revival and what it does to the people involved in it. In our case, we MISSED God's revival, sadly,  we're were unprepared for it. Let's talk about the real revival they had in the Early Church (Acts 2). Where did it start? The answer is: With John the Baptist! He was the "pioneer", the one who open the way for the Lord. It was prophesied by Isaiah many years before his birth: Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God". What did John the Baptist preached? REPENTANCE! Please, read the Gospels about it, you'll see that REPENTANCE is the "foundation" (cornerstone) of a true revival. Then came Jesus Christ and in his "first sermon" He preached REPENTANCE: Matthew 4:12-17 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, He withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned". From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". See that Jesus didn't started His preaching with another "subject", He continued were John the Baptist stopped. From this point Jesus announced the Kingdom of God. So REPENTANCE is the first step towards a true revival. The second step is UNITY (oneness). Only after achieving repentance we can have unity. Jesus in His last priestly duty, prayed to the Father for His disciples to become ONE as He (Jesus) and the Father are one: John 17:21 That they may all be ONE, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Paul describe very well what Jesus prayed, when he taught about the "church as a body": 1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. In this chapter, Paul talks about the need for the church to be one, as our body is one, though we have different members in our bodies. Pay attention to yourself and see how amazingly perfect your body works, when there is any problem (sickness, brokenness, etc.) you feel the effects (or should i say "defects"). Because we failed to understand and practice UNITY,  our churches are defectives! The "organization" (we call church) works wonderful, but the "organism" (body of Christ inside the organization) is malfunctioning. The "main" problem (malfunction), is that the HEAD (Jesus Christ) is out of place, as Jesus Himself said to the church of Laodicea: Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Sad as it sounds, many times Jesus Christ is at the door of our churches, we don't even allow Him to enter, much less to be the Head of the Church. The third step is LOVE: Colossians 3:14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Love is the only thing that will keep us together, will "bind" our hearts towards one another. Paul tells us that we can have every gift, gain everything and yet without love we will gain nothing (nothing will remain). I believe revival is not an easy thing to accomplish, but the "formula" God gave to a true revival never changed, even knowing it from the back of our minds, we fail to practice it, that's the reason we don't experience revival as the Early Church did: 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Of course you are intelligent enough to realize that even with the revival the Early Church experienced (2 Chronicles 7:14), God didn't heal Israel (political land), maybe that's why even John the Baptist was "disappointed" when he was in jail, the nation (Israel) was expecting a POLITICAL MESSIAH, someone who was going to restore the political kingdom. In fact Jesus restored the Kingdom, just as He said, His Kingdom was not of this world. Nowadays, there are many prophets "prophesying" that God will "restore" our nation (country) when the Bible says that this world (system) lies in the power of the devil: 1 John 5:19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Besides, Jesus Christ said that when He returns, the world will be like in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot, any expectation that things will turn good is a false expectation. Things maybe temporarily good, but don't be deceived, they are not. The LAND God wants to heal is our lives, He is interested in saving lives, restoring lives, to give us eternal life. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. The Consequences of the revival in the Early Church is described in Act 2, they "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved". The Church was alive, had no physical or spiritual needs, they were ONE BODY being Jesus Christ the HEAD!