44″The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

45″Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

In order to obtain heaven Jesus tells us that we must be willing to give everything we have to obtain it.

Unfortunately the words grace and mercy have been mistaken for leniency and tolerance.

I am realizing more and more now that God’s grace is Him enabling us to overcome sin and other obstacles that stand in the way of our relationship with the Father.

Be careful which road you choose because remember, there are many who will be looking for the gate but won’t find it.

Mathew 7:12-14
13″Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Don’t be deceived friends. Many who are looking for the gate will NOT find it. Therefore how can you who hardly search expect to find anything?

You will not stumble into heaven as many have supposed. You will not accidentally be saved while living in your sin. By the grace of God the standards of righteousness have not been lowered. In fact if anything they have been raised.

Mathew 5:19-21

¹⁹Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Because Jesus is the full revelation of God’s word. Many have supposed that perhaps God gave up on trying to get people to live righteously and in holiness so he gave them/us an easy out.

That couldn’t be further from the truth friends. In fact because God the Father gave us his Son we are now indebted to a degree that those before Jesus never knew. We owe him more than an annual sacrifice, we owe him more than a tenth, we owe him everything.

Jesus suffered, died and was resurrected to save us all. Now we have to grab hold of that gift tightly and never let it go.

Please whoever is reading this, reconsider what you have been taught or what you may have assumed thus far. Especially you brothers and sisters of mine in Christ. In the name of grace and mercy we have been taught to be lenient and tolerant when it comes to sin.

Many of you, even myself have been mistaken and it’s time to take a stand. Many of us, and many of our brothers and sisters assume incorrectly.

Mathew 7:22-24

²²Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ ²³Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

As those who are forgiven we are to forgive and as those who have  been shown mercy we are to be merciful. However, we must not mistake tolerance of sin as love for the person. If we truly love people then in the grace of our God and by the power of his love and mercy we will do all we can to stand against the sin that wishes to enslave us all. We must minister to our brothers and sisters who are struggling and fight with them. That’s what it means to war against sin. We have to stand united and struggle.

Yes we will fail at times and even make mistakes along the way. But truly, where is your heart. Do you stumble because you are weak? Do you struggle with sin because you are defeated? God’s word says we are more than conquerors.

Yes, we all struggle with sin and we will until the day we die but we are mistaken if we think by God’s grace the standards have been lowered and we don’t have to worry about it as much. If sin wasn’t a big deal then Jesus wouldn’t have said these words.

Mathew 5:29-31

²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

What are you willing to do to enter heaven? Hell exists and yes I know some of you don’t believe in hell but Jesus talks about hell more than heaven in all the gospels. Why? Because he came for the sole reason of saving us from it.

Just in case anyone had any questions Jesus came to fulfill the law and make everything very clear to us.

God went out of his way in order to show us the true way to salvation. He did more for us than anyone else in our human existence ever could. God our Father sent his Son, his only Son to die for us. That’s an incredible gift. We have been given an incredible opportunity to be a child of God and live forever in his presence.

Remember that before if you weren’t a Jew or on their side you had no chance. But our Father who loves us so much gave everything to save us.

Now friends, heed these words.

Luke 12:48

⁴⁸ But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more

So, what is it worth to you? What are you willing to do? Will you struggle? Will you war against sin? Will you serve and help others? Will you get out from the pew and add to the Kingdom? Will you give faithfully and serve for the sole reason of receiving your reward from our Father? Most of all will you refuse to be deceived by the idea that somehow you can continue in your sin and still be saved?

By God’s grace I pray that the Holy Spirit reveal to your hearts the importance of these words. The importance to break free from the bondage of defeat and social apathy. We are more than conquerors brothers and sisters.

I hope to see you all on the other side of the gate at the end of the narrow road.

Peace be with you all.

Are you ready?

I’m sure whoever has read this knows that I was not born into a Christian family. Well, being raised in a Mexican-American family were pretty much Roman Catholic by default. My grandparents were actually upstanding and loyal members at our local church. My grandfather was an usher and they were always involved in all the events.

I had a lot of fun, went to Sunday school and really enjoyed being at church. To this day my grandparents have family friends there.

All that was great and I have great memories at that Catholic church however, in the entire time although I learned some “believe-in-God” basics I never learned about anything written straight from the bible. Stories from the Bible yes, but I never learned any of the actual word.

Maybe God was laying down a foundation, maybe it was my youth and lack of dedication to scripture. Maybe it was the vagueness of growing up in church life. Where going to church is about going to church. Giving your hour or so of weekly sacrifice so you can clean yourself of all of last weeks sins.

Typical, we go every week and yet nothing changed. In fact as soon as we hit the door my grandfather starts yelling at my grandmother.

For any and all of you who have experienced this and if this is the notion of what you think about church life I would first like to extend my deepest apologies. Unfortunately, church folk who are church folk  just for the sake of being able to say they go to church are pretty much all the same no matter what religion you belong to.

Jesus our Lord is the only reason to be there. Unless you have a relationship with Him going to church really doesn’t matter or make any difference. In fact I would say that if you do struggle with this, it’s not your knowledge or the people preaching to you. It’s Christ, fix your eyes on Him. Get to know Him, talk to him, tell him all your silly ideas and thoughts. Tell Him your dreams, thank Him and smile at Him when your happy. Cry to Him when your sad.

So yeah, I got saved and all that changed for me. Over the years I’ve gotten to know Jesus and it’s changed my life. Getting to know and having a personal relationship with God is a phrase that is said so much in our church circles that it’s become cliche. It’s not any less important than it was on with Adam and Eve however because the word God has  become so vague in our society that you might as well be saying you need to have a personal relationship with the Easter Bunny.

You will find that most non-atheists will say they believe in God in some form or another. They believe that there is a creator and perhaps someone or something watching from somewhere, sometimes not. But what does it mean to have a personal relationship with God?

First of all God is not just God but he is Yahweh, or Jehovah and his many descriptive titles. He is referred to by many titles and names in the Holy Bible but one of my favorites is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now without getting off track, what is he the King of? Who is he the Lord of?

Look up! See everything in the sky? Buy a telescope and look up as far as it will allow, if you want to get crazy check out some images from the internet from the Hubble telescope. Scientists figure that there are billions of stars in our galaxy and there are billions of galaxy’s in our known universe. Do you realize that each dot in the sky is a star similar to our sun? Perhaps there are planets around that dot and perhaps some of those planets have moons around them. Each one and you can do the math.

Now look down, look at the earth. Count each grain of sand on the beach the next time you go. Multiply that by the number of beaches on the earth and for good measure go ahead and throw in all the sand in all the desserts as well. Then look at the dirt that is like coffee grains, go ahead and count all the little dots of dirt in your yard, multiply that by all the yards in your neighborhood, then all the neighborhoods in your city, and all the city’s in your state, all the states in your country and all the countries on your continents and all the continents on earth.

Count the blades of grass, the grains of salt in your salt shaker, the pepper corns. For good measure why don’t you start counting the hairs on your head and then count each hair on your skin from head to toe.

Mathew 10:30

³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

You can count the hairs on your family members, friends and well you get the picture. You can count all the cells in your body and so on. All the components of each cell.

You could count the molecules in the air, the atoms that make up the molecules, the protons, neutrons and electrons that make up each atom and son and so on and son on.

Do you know what? God, Yahweh, Jehovah made each one of those with a purpose. He knows them all by name and created each one in accordance with the universal balance that allows for each individual and unique form of matter to live in harmony with each other.

Try imagining a puzzle whose pieces are about the size of a bean and it would take a puzzle the size of North America whose unique one-of-a-kind pieces were all hues of blue just to color your eyes. It is  much bigger and much more complex than that.

Do you know what? Each grain of creation is subject to his rule. He is the King of all creation, he is the Lord of all matter, physical and metaphysical, in each of the four dimensions  that make up our existence, length, width, height and time(duration).He is the King and creator any and all dimensions that are beyond our finite existence. He is the King and creator and the eternal dimensions.

Heard of the speed of light?

Genesis 1:3

³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”

To create man God had to form some mud and then breath his breath into to the form to create him. To create woman he had to anesthetize Adam, remove a rip then construct each cell and grow them around that one rib using it’s unique DNA and having to add to the information to create a second unique being that although being completely human was complementary and not in conflict with his existing creation.

But light, the speed of light which as of now it is impossible to travel at. It is impossible to experience, he created with four words.

Hopefully you know where I’m going with all this so now I will make my point.

God is a personal being, he is a person for all intents and purposes. Not a person in our limited sense but a person nonetheless. He is unique, identifiable, intelligent and universal all at the same time.

When I began to grasp the personal identity of God then and I began to learn who He was as a person in the personal sense then I began to truly understand what it meant to have a relationship with him.

It’s difficult to grasp the idea of having a relationship with an unseen universal being but it’s much easier when you consider that he is as uniquely identifiable as your father, mother, brother, sister or friend then the Bible begins to make much more sense. The term, having a personal relationship fits in a way that vague concepts don’t.

My friend, are you going to church for the sake of going to church? Is it a choir? Do you hate missing football on Sundays? If your parents are dragging you then you complain about it?

Husbands, is your wife nagging you to go? Do you do it just to appease her and avoid a week of hell?

My friends, I have been there in all those instances. Please consider all that I have said and begin to speak to God, tell him all your dreams, your fears, concerns. Express to him your doubts, your hopes and even confess your failures and ask him for help. Build that relationship, God is personal.

On the subject of him being a King, he is the ruler of well, everything and you have an opportunity to have a personal, one on one relationship with THE KING, not just a King but THE KING of The Kingdom of Everything!

God sent his son to die for you, to pay the price so you no longer had to go through complicated processes to have communion with him. You are free from traditions, free from systematic religiosity. You are free from all the red tape.

Why are you in church? Are you missing out? You have an opportunity to a much greater, and deeper relationship that will lead to greater understanding. Peace a level that you have never understood and even been able to fathom.

The King invites you to his house. In fact, he has at your house, at the door of your heart. He is asking you if you are willing to let him in.

Revelation 3:20

²⁰“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

Will you get to know him and reap the rewards of being friends with the King of the Kingdom of Everything?

John 15:9-16

⁹“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

Then the Father will giver you whatever you ask in my name? That’s one heck of a claim.

So then, what are waiting for?

Ok, so my summation and what I found to be one of the most profound statements in literature I have ever read.

“Freedom is the freedom to say that 2 + 2 = 4.”

I don’t want to ruin it for you but in Oceania truth is subject to change at a whim of Big Brother. If Big Brother decides that two plus two equals five then that’s the truth. It could mean three, it could mean seven and what Big Brother said was always correct.

In a totalitarian state being politically incorrect will not only make you unpopular but it means that you would could be in the words of my new friend Winston, “Arrested by the thought police and vaporized.”

What does that have to do with us who serve Christ?

EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!

My friends, please allow me to explain.

Today we live in a time where all truth is subject to the speaker. People say things like, “Hey well that’s good for you but I don’t believe in that.” Or they say, “Well my god isn’t your God.”

Anyway I’ll try to keep it simple.

Is truth absolute? Does two plus two equal four? Can it ever equal five? NO!

Because of social conditioning some of you reading these may even say, yeah it’s possible. It is never possible my friends. The truth is always the truth and it’s not subject the speaker, truth is subject to the facts.

If I take two oranges and get two apples then I have four pieces of fruit.

Why is this important? Because today the truth is under assault. Not always out in the open but sometimes in subtle ways.

Know the truth my friends. Know it and hold on to it no matter what. We love, we are merciful, we are saved by grave and we forgive those who sin against us. Heck, I will have a conversation and respect anyone and everyone who disagrees with me. But I WILL NOT! I will not pretend that my truth is questionable. I will not say that, or consider that in any way THE TRUTH is subject to change.

In the word of our Lord….

John 8:31-32
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

And to what truth was he referring to?

John 3:3
3In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

John 3:16
16″For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Enter through the narrow gate my friends. The gate of absolute truth.

Freedom is the freedom to say what is right is right and even were the last person on earth who still believes in the truth, it doesn’t make it any less true.

P.S.

And for the non-readers out there, lol shame on you but there is a movie, haha! Here’s a great video that shows some of it.

I just woke up with a revelation that it’s time to begin again.

This is where it all gets weird folks…lol.

2 Samuel 23:9-10

⁹ Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty men, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim for battle. Then the men of Israel retreated, ¹⁰ but he stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.

In the NIV bible Eleazar is refferred to as one of David’s mighty men. When the Philistine army charged the Israelites they ran. The bible says they retreated which means they ran for their lives rather than face death in battle.

What are you running from? Why are you running? At what point will you grow tired of running and stand your ground and fight. We have nothing to fear because the weight is not on us. Although we are the ones physically doing the fighting it’s God with us who will give us victory.

This not a motivational line or a way for me  to convince you to stand strong and charge. This is the word of almighty God. Our Father who is merciful and loves us so much that he saved us by sacrificing his own Son.

Now this is what the word of God says.

Deuteronomy 20:4

⁴ For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

2 Samuel 22:36

You give me your shield of victory; you stoop down to make me great.

Psalm 18:35

³⁵ You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great.

Psalm 44:3

³ It was not by their sword that they won the land,
nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
and the light of your face, for you loved them.

Psalm 44:5-7

⁵ Through you we push back our enemies;
through your name we trample our foes.

⁶ I do not trust in my bow,
my sword does not bring me victory;

⁷ but you give us victory over our enemies,
you put our adversaries to shame.

Romans 8:28-39

²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Brothers and sisters I have a confession to make. I have been running all my life. In one way or another I have ran and ran and have only taken a stand when the Lord has made all other paths impossible. Even now I am running.

What are you running from? What are you afraid of? Consider these things. Part of change is to stop pretending that war is not at hand. Know that God could miracle your problems away. He could miracle you the dream life and give you everything now. But if your honest with yourself you know that although that would be great you would not learn much and it would only be a matter of time before your in the same situation all over again.

Now, what I am running from I need to face. I don’t like the idea of having to go into battle and possibly being wounded but it’s not a matter of opinion. By the word of God I will have victory. I will stand strong and strike down my enemies until the war is won. Not by my strength but by his strength.

I’m tired of running.

Sure, he exists and would destroy us if he could but if Jesus is with us and the Holy Spirit lives in us then how can he harm us?

I’m beginning to think we give him too much credit.

More on this later.

¹“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ²Five of them were foolish and five were wise. ³The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. ⁴The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. ⁵The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

⁷“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

⁹” ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

¹¹“Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’

¹²“But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’

¹³“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Yes, brothers and sisters the world is full of darkness. But many of already knew that. So therefore let’s be prepared and keep our lamps lit. If Jesus is the light and we are supposed to be the light of the world then one way we can ensure that our light shines brightly is to keep it filled with Jesus.

Practically speaking we can fill our lamps through prayer, through reading his word and by walking in his ways.

It doesn’t mean that were always going to be motivated or that our walks will be completely sinless and blameless. What it means is that as we know that we walk in darkness we do what we can to keep our lamps lit.

If you don’t then you risk the possibility of not being able to see clearly and being mislead in the darkness by those who walk in darkness.

Therefore, keep your lamps lit and you will be able to see clearly. Even in darkness.

We have many freedoms that we take for granted. Let’s not forget our brothers and sisters who suffer for Jesus. They deserve more than our casual acknowledgment. They deserve our prayers.

Right now our leaders want us to believe that everything is terrible. They are pumping us with fear because people who are afraid are easier to control.

Even if we lose our jobs, our homes, our family’s and our health we still have it better than most of our brothers and sisters around the world.

We should not feel guilty that we have it so good. We instead should cry out to God and give him thanks for his love and wonderful mercy. Let’s give our Lord thanks for his abundance and in turn pray for our brothers and sisters who are suffering.

How do we repay God for all that he has done for us? We can’t. But how do we give thanks in a way that exceeds mere words? Love.

¹ This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush : ² At that time King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, ³ and in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. The military leaders of Persia and Media, the princes, and the nobles of the provinces were present.

⁴ For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty. ⁵ When these days were over, the king gave a banquet, lasting seven days, in the enclosed garden of the king’s palace, for all the people from the least to the greatest, who were in the citadel of Susa. ⁶ The garden had hangings of white and blue linen, fastened with cords of white linen and purple material to silver rings on marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and other costly stones. ⁷ Wine was served in goblets of gold, each one different from the other, and the royal wine was abundant, in keeping with the king’s liberality. ⁸ By the king’s command each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished.

⁹ Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes.

¹⁰ On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carcas- ¹¹ to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at. ¹² But when the attendants delivered the king’s command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger.

¹³ Since it was customary for the king to consult experts in matters of law and justice, he spoke with the wise men who understood the times ¹⁴ and were closest to the king—Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memucan, the seven nobles of Persia and Media who had special access to the king and were highest in the kingdom.

¹⁵ “According to law, what must be done to Queen Vashti?” he asked. “She has not obeyed the command of King Xerxes that the eunuchs have taken to her.”

¹⁶ Then Memucan replied in the presence of the king and the nobles, “Queen Vashti has done wrong, not only against the king but also against all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of King Xerxes. ¹⁷ For the queen’s conduct will become known to all the women, and so they will despise their husbands and say, ‘King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come.’ ¹⁸ This very day the Persian and Median women of the nobility who have heard about the queen’s conduct will respond to all the king’s nobles in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and discord.

¹⁹ “Therefore, if it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes. Also let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she.

If God who is our King is calling you then answer that call. We have an opportunity and should be encouraged that we have been given a position that we did not earn nor do we deserve. We have been washed and made clean by the blood of Jesus. It’s not something that we should take lightly.

If you are not saved and are reading this then this is your call. If you are saved and call yourself a Christian but haven’t been answering God’s call then remember that God is patient but we do not have forever. Heed his call on your life before your position is given to someone else.

We cannot lose our salvation but we can reject our salvation. Vashti didn’t lose her position, she rejected it by rejecting the call of her king Xerxes. What was so important that she rejected him? What is so important in your life that your are too busy or too distracted to answer His calling on your life?

God’s call is a call of mercy, grace, peace, friendship, sonship it is a call of salvation. She would have remained queen if she had just come when he called. Silly right? Let’s not follow in her footsteps.