faith & hope 2017

I've learned that the word grace is seldom used in the Gospels, but its concept, the practice of grace is in the Gospels. We understand more clearly that Jesus is indeed full of grace and truth. Everyone that enounters Him is changed, which is evidence that His grace overflow onto those around Him. What I discovered is that grace is given only to those who first repent of their sins and receive the gife of salvation. Then we make a commitment to digently wholehearted decision to follow, obey, believe in, trust in and love Jesus. You cannot have the favor of God without His love because He is love. Since grace cannot be earned by works, and it is neither deserved because we all fall of short of God's glory, we all sinned. But our God still blesses us with His grace. Some receives gifts for doing something remarkable or performing an task that goes beyond the set standards, or in regonition of, but God gave us the gift of salvation. He is ultimate Gift-Giver and He gives to us out of His love for us. God's agape love for us motivate His gift to us in this verse. What God did for us in John 3:16 is the essence of grace. It is the underserved and unearned favor that makes a difference for us between life and death.

The attitudes that cheapen the understanding of grace in Christians is, in my opinion, is selfishness and self-centered. Thinking only of one's own needs and desires and not taking others into consideration. In abiity to love, for Christ is love. The grace of God is not earned by work. However, the grace of God produces work done in His service. Costly Grace produces work. We must seek and follow Jesus. In following Jesus, we are holy because He is holy, we confess our sins and repent. We are righteous because He is righteous. Since we know Jesus is the Father of Life, and that He willingly laid down His life so that we may have life, we recognize that He is the ony true life. We have to understand that it is a gift given to us and we must ask for it, which means we must pray. It cost God to sent His only begotten Son who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we may believe and be saved that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. He paid this costly price because He loves us that much. This is indeed "costly grace."

Yes, there is good in humankind because we are a remnant of the God's image. Humans are considered to be both, basically good and basically bad. Being the remnant of the God's image within us, we are good. However, because our heart being the center of our being is corrupt, deceitful, and cannot be trusted makes us basically bad. We are a mixture of both. When we displays underlying selfishness which is influnced to our genetic character and environment structure. When we do not share, withhold information that may be critical or vital to a situation or person, do things that only benefit oneself. A deceitful corrupts us in a pervasive way by haboring ill feelings and evil thoughts that may destroy the essential of our being. It can overpower a person to lash out destructively harming a person physically or slander a person's reputation. A deceitful heart can breed insecurities and hatred.

Ephesians 2:1-3 teaches that humankinds were spiritually dead in our transgressions and sins. We had no moral standards. We had no standard of uprighteousness. We mindlessly follow the ways of of the world, its culture's values, which is governed by Satan who is the ruler of the kingdome of the air. We were without God. Our actions before coming to Christ was dictate by the value system of our culture. We were highly influenced through media and social things that negatively affected our lives that without any thought of itself surrendered to the cravings of our sinful nature. ****, desires, covetness, jealousy, envy, selfishness and strife are a few of the motivations that we might be conscious of. Since we do have some control over our actions, and thus, we are weak, selfish and spiritually blind in that we break God's holy standards of conduct and righteousness, there is no motivation that is unconscious. Free will has no meaning whatsoever.

In verses 6-8 of the book of Romans, chapter 5, described humankind as being powerless, ungodly and sinners. We are helpless in that we have no ability or moral rights to claim any kind of mercy. No matter the title, no matter how often we pray, no matter how often we attend Bible Study or church services, we all fall short of the glory of God. We all missed the mark. It's not to say that we do not have a relationship with God for indeed we do, it is not an consistent relationship. The most remarkable thing about Jesus' death for us is His willingness to lie down His life each of us. Jesus is omniscient, He knows all things. He knew even the 21st century that we were going to unknowingly or knowlingly reject and rebell against Him. He does'nt hold our imperfections against us, He continues to love us perfectly. Love is what motivate the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

To be in a state of grace is gain access by faith into the grace in which we now stand, to justified through faith and to have a peace with God through our relationship with Jesus Christ. According to the text, our point of access is faith. We gained faith by trusting in Christ. The opposite of peace with Yahweh is to be at odd with Him. Being at odd with Him, is being rebellion, disobedient, living by the imaginary of our hearts.

Yahweh tells His prophet Hosea to marry a girl of ill repute so that the Israelites will see their own ways of unfaithfulness. I can imagine that as the people start questioning Hosea of his relationship with such a woman who is sleeping around, that He was able to responds to them of the things they did in not obeying Yahweh. I can imagine when the people said to him "how do take that, she's no good for you" that Hosea respond "how is that you turn your back on Yahweh when He has been faithful to you"? The story of Hosea and Gomer teaches us many things. For example, obedience. Hosea was obedient when Yahweh commanded him to do things that was truly thought of as despicable. Even though, it may have cause damage to reputation as a prophet, it unmistakeably strengthen his relationship with Yahweh. He married the prostiture (which made her father happy), he gave the children borned to her strange names that depicts how Yahweh felt about the Israelites and he had to care for these children. Then he had to find her and pay for her (he was not a wealthy man) to bring her back home. Amazing. This story also illustrates hope in the worst of situations. Yahweh always presents a "ray of hope." Their relationship was restored. With hope there is forgiveness. The story illustrates God's undying love for His people. Yahweh has given so much to and for us. We should never forsake His love like the Israelites. The story of Homer and Gomer clearly illustrates Yahweh's grace, unmerited favor. His grace is an act of His love for us. His grace never changes. Yahweh is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone, including you and me) to come to repentance--2 Peter 3:9-10.

The great Yahweh forgives all sins, wickedness and rebellion. He is indeed the God of Love. He forgives those who truly repent with all their heart. He is everlasting-to-everlasting. He doesn't need any of us. We need Him. But, Yahweh deeply cares for His chosen and wants us to seek Him in having a relationship with Him, not an one-sided relationship but a relationship whereas we will be submissive and trust Him. Yahweh knows of our challenges and struggles, and He is compassionate toward our sufferings, and He promises never to leave us or forsake us. The sin of rebellion can find its way into a believer's life when we thinks that Yahweh has forgotten us because we failed to wait patiently to hear a word from Him. Sometimes, we get discouraged when we feel our prayers are not being answered fast enough or in the manner in which we want them to be answered. So, we start behaving in accordance to the imagination of our hearts. Now God's Word is being ignored. Sadly, we find ourselves in situations that is hazardous to our wellbeing. But God... Yahweh wants more than anything for us to love and trust Him. He doesn't force any of us to have a relationship with Him. Yahweh being the merciful and gracious God gives us ample opportunities to come to Him. He is a God of many chances. But if one continues to reject Him by refusing to repent simply because He does not believe in Him or have no love for HIm in their heart, He will allow their fate to be their self-destruction. Think about it, The Bible teaches us that those who have faith and believe in Him, were healed. Well, the opposite will happen to those who hate and rejects Him.

Exodus 34 tells us how Moses went back to the mountain to talk with God after he addressed the hebrews for their grievous sin against God by making and worshipping the golden calf Aaron made. Moses had destroyed the first two stones where God wrote the ten commandments upon witnessing the evilness and sins of the hebrews. Now He has returned to the mountain to complete the conversation of Yahweh. Yahweh demonstrated His charactered in being merciful in that He understood their weakness and very gracious in showing kindness that He did not destroy them. He, in my opinion, did not agreed with what they did, but He did not hold it against them. Even though Yahweh was definitely upset with with them but He showed great patience and love. Grace is an expression of love and Yahweh had a deep abounding love for the hebrews. Thank Him for His grace that abound much more and is more than sufficient.

When a person earns wages, they are compensated for adhereing to their part of the terms of the agreement. Meaning if you perform this function for set number or hours, you will be paid accordingly. Well grace is not based upon good works or worthiness of the recipient. It comes soley at the discretion of the giver. It is neither earned of deserved. It is unmerited. A working definition of Biblical Grace is the love God has for those who are saved, delivered through His Son Jesus and demonstrates their love for Him by obeying Him. Grace characterize God as the "the God of all grace" because grace is an expression of love and that is who God is, He is love.

When we repent before the Lord of our sins, it is important to put away the things that facilitate and tempt us because they are things of the flesh. The things of our old life of sin feeds our fleshly nature. It is very important to repent daily, not only at bedtime, but we should repent when we find ourselves surrendering to sin whether it is in our thoughts (lush, jealousy, vindictive, etc.), spoken words (anger, hatred, lying, gossiping) and/or in our action (act against Jesus and heaven). These things of our old sinful life can have a negative impact on our prayer life as well as our service and worship to Yahweh. We should acknowledge that we all fall short of the glory of God. But never, use this as an excuse to sin or an explanations of our failure to do the will of God, we should use this as a reason to always pray for forgiveness. So long as we live in this earthen vessel and walk upon this green earth, we will always be susceptible to sin because the enemy roams the earth seeking whom he can devour. He uses the things of the world (television, social media, etc) to entice, seduce, manipulate us to sin by glorifying sin. But, what I founded, if we read, and study the Word of God daily, apply His Word, pray, worship and serve Him then we shall reap the benefits of God. We will acquire a love for righteousness and a hatred for evilness. If we don't fully accept Christ into our life, we risk being double-minded, lukewarm in spirit and straddle the fence. We never experience the rest of God. We will always be tormented, desolate, and unhappy.

Judgement was about to come on the people for their lack of commitment and acknowledgment of Yahweh. Being the merciful and gracious God, He appointed Elijah to turn the people's hearts who once follow His Ways and kept His commandments back to Yahweh. The people had to be reminded who Yahweh is. Apparently, the people were not totally devoted to following the pagan god,Baal because, as it is noted, some of the people helped Elijah in the preparation of the sacrifice and the rebuilding of the altar. It might have been that the people were submitting themselves to Baal out of fear of the consequences, manipulations and threats from the priests of Baal and Jezebel, the king's wife. However, witnessing Elijah's bold acts of faith in Yahweh, caused some of the people's faith to be restored because they wanted Elijah to succeed whereas Baal's priest failed miserably. The John the Baptist, Elijah successor, also dedicated his life to turning the hearts of the people to Yahweh. In his ministry, he encouraged the people to repent of their sins, to turn their hearts back to Yahweh and be baptized confessing thier faith in Yahweh. Turning hearts to Yahweh, is an act of saving souls from damnation and baptizing is an act of commitment to the faith. It is Yahweh's desire that no one should perish and die the everlasting death but to be saved in glory of eternal life with Him. Therefore, it is the most important ministry of pastors and evangelists to lead, guide and counsel all that they may chose and have life eternity.

The significicance of Elijah rebuilding the altar of Yahweh was first giving honor to God. The altar was consecrated unto God. It was holy. Secondly, He wanted to remind the people who had somewhat forgotten God, who He is and of His miraculous signs and wonders in the lifetimes of their forefathers, and in their own lifesWitnessing the men selected to carry the twelve stones representing the twelve tribes, and attentively listening to Elijah as he ministered to them while placing the twelve stones securely and strategically in place, I can imagine touched their hearts. I need to rebuild in my own worship practices, a stronger lifestyle of prayer and worship. I understand that I will have trials and tributlations and I also realize that through persistence and consistent prayer, and the grace of God, I can overcome. I don't aways recognize the power of prayer. I don't feel this way as often as I used to, yet these insecurities are still there. In my church, I need to rebuild the desires I have of being seen and wanting to be acknowledg for the things I do. I have to realized, and again be consistent, that what I do, I do from my heart in glorifying God, not myself or man. Now, I'm happy to say, I no longer am concern what people think or say about me. I'm working at living my life for Christ. I have learned to pray for those who slanders my name and reputation. I even ask Yahweh to forgive them and to teach me to forgive them and not hold any animosity. I am grateful to say that it works. AMEN

The danger of syncretism is that it steals, destroys and kills your relationship with Jesus. Syncretism prevents a person from being commited to honor, and serve not only the true God but any god. It eliminates hope and faith. Therefore, one becomes double minded and to our God that is a sin. The one thing that competes with my allegiance to Jesus is that I find that after I return home from work, I eat dinner and then I become very sleepy and go into a deep rest. Times passes by, I wake up in the late hours of night, rush to read my Bible and pray briefly. Well, to circumvent this, and Is, I wake up early to rit has been benefical, I wake up early to ead my Bible and pray with fervency. I learned to pray more throughout the day while at work, enroute to work and driving home from work. The one thing I try hard is to not let the things at work determine my time along with Jesus. Its getting better. I believe that competition is a distraction used by the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy our relationship with Christ. I will be prefect when I am called home to glory. Until then, I will continue to press onward in prayer, faith, love in confidence that I am covered by His grace and mercies.

I learned that Obadiah was truly a man of God, and had worshipped from his boyhood. He was a man of great faith and trustworthy. From the position he held in the palace, I believe he worked directly with King Ahab and his wife Jezebel but his faith was strong whereas he did not lose sight of who he was and to whom he belong. I can imagine the numerous conversations he overheard about the king overwhelming desire to seek Elijah since it was he that caused the drought and how Jezebel probably boast of killing God's prophets. The Bible does not indicate whether Obadiah worked along as he cared for the 100 prophets he hid in the caves. But, I can see him working alone. He never had to fear about his secret being revealed. He provided the food and water for the hidden prophets from his own resources so that none of the king's provision would be missed. Obadiah reminds me of Jesus when He was being questioned by Pilate. how he answered him nothing. Jesus stood his ground. Obadiah stood his ground. Obadiah had great faith because he recognized Elijah. Spirit recognized spirit. During his time, there were no pictures of the "most wanted." So, he did not exactly know what Elijah looked like. But what he did know for sure was that in order for Elijah to could cause it not to rain for years, then, he had to chosen by Yahweh and had to have a strong personal relationship with Him. Obadiah knew how intense Ahab had searched for Elijah and the only way Elijah was able to evade being caught was by Ahab for years was through Yahew's grace. Therefore, when he saw Elijah, he knew he was in the presence of greatness and he bowed. Obadiah had little to no fear. But he was a cautious man. He seen first hand what the king was capable of doing and he knew how bad the king wanted Elijah. I would like to think that I would mirror what and how Obadiah did in this situation. But, I'm not sure. I have not mastered the art of "standing still." However, I have gotten better. I'm sure Obadiah had his days when he felt that his action came close to being exposed. Obadiah, I feel, trusted no one and he being a long time follwer of Yahweh, he probably prayed often. I pray often as well but its not always my first reaction.

I believe God sent Elijah to Zarephat to see if he will continue to be obedient. First, he was fed by a "unclean" bird of which he never had anything to do with animals or birds who were classified as being unclean. After the water in the brook had dried up, he is told by God to arise and go to Zarephat and stay there. Zarephat was at least 140 miles away from where Elijah was hiding by the brook. The land of Zarephat was filled with Baal worshippers and Jezebel who had a great allegiance to Baal, father controled the land. But Elijah listened to God and obeyed. The good thing abour Zarephat was that it was less affected by the drought. In addition, God told Elijah that He had commanded a widow to sustain him. Even though the widow woman was preparing for her son and herself to die, I believe that she prayed before to God and my reason being is that God commanded her. We know that God talks to us through or in prayers. So therefore, she had prayed to God and He heard her prayers and answered them. But, I don't think that the Lord answered her prayers in the manner that the widow woman wanted. God does the unexpected and He uses the undesirable. The widow woman was the least of the people of her city. But, later became the most properous because of her willingness to obey God's command. If God had used a rich man, God would not have received all of the glory because the rich man would have been well endowed to provide. To be truthful and honest when I believed that God has told me to provide someone with a blessing of great monetary value, I failed to do so. However, when commanded to bless someone of lesser monetary, I did so. Then there was occassion when I thought I was doing the right thing by providing for someone who was experiencing hardship which turn out to be a greater hardship for me. I was being used by the person. I learned to pray ask God what is His will for me to do to aid/assist a person in need. Ask God if He is speaking to me. Sometimes God has a person to go through difficult times in order to get their attention. To this day, and it has been many years, I regret not following the command of God in being used to bless monetarily a person without knowing their situation. Just think, the blessings I missed out from not being obedient.

Common sense plays a role that enables us to make certain decisions or provide guidance through the things we are taught either from our parents, our community, through education, even the school of life (our experiences). Common sense has its limitation and therefore, it is temporal. At times, our common sense can afford us to make reasonable (good) judgement. But then, sometimes our judgement can be clouded (distracted or distorted) by matters of our emotions (envy, jealousy, etc). However, I believe that common sense does not change a person, for a young fool normally becomes an old fool. I strongly believe that common sense contradict faith in God's ability to work miracles outside the natural order. Reaons being is that we have faith. As followers of Jesus, we don't go by what we see with our carnal eyes. We go by the trusted word of God and the evidence provided in written testimonys we read about and/or the verabal testimonys we hear. From this we are anchored in confidence that the evidence we have will support our hope in the miracles/promises of God will come to be. The Bible tells us that Jesus is faithful to do all that He says He will do and God cannot lie.

God uses the unlikely, the undesireable and the least to do His bidding. God has no respective person or animal or bird. We all belong to Him. The earth is His and the fullness of it all belongs to Him. God is sovereign. God is Omnipotent. He is El Shaddai (God Almighty). He chooses to use whom He wishes or want. His plan is perfect and God has never made a mistake. The raven was a scavenger, an unclean bird that Elijah under normal circumstances would not have associated with or have any dealings with it. But because he was obedient to God and follow His instruction, he neither doubt or complaint about the situation of the raven bringing him food to eat twice daily. Elijah demonstrated great faith in Go. He ate and I'm sure it was fulfilling. God knew everything about Elijah devotion to His faith in being a Jew. Nevertheless, God chose a raven and He does not specify how or what the raven brought for Elijah to eat. The word states that Elijah ate. God promises are true. He is faithful to do that He said He will do. He takes care of those who do His commandment. God's word is faithful and true and He delights Himself in those who are righteous. God cannot lie and is word is immutable. We show our love for God by our obedience to His inspired recorded Word.

Elijah had to have strong confidence, faith and trust in the Lord to go before King Ahab with a message of drought. Ahab had knowledge of Baal but his wife, who was very influential in his life, had a great allegiance to Baal. She was a true worshipper of Baal. King Ahab knew of God but turned his faith to pagan gods to appease his wife Therefore, Ahab probably did not believe Elijah when he told him. The danger that could come upon Elijah was probably imprisonment or death. Elijah did not fear Ahab, therefore, he went before him in boldness. But because Ahab did not take Elijah's message of drought seriously, he gave little to no notion to it. But we know, later that Ahab considered Elijah to be a threat to him. You might say that Elijah was his "thron in his side." Speaking truth to those who are in power and of a corrupt mindset, can be difficult because of the consequences that might arise from it. They have the authority (not necessarily the right) to cause seriouse mishaps such as imprisonment, separation of love ones, slavery and death. Most time corrupt people of power uses tactics of manipulation, threats, falsifying and lying.

When we are not active in a local congregaion, we missed out being in the fullness of Christ, being His representative and living a holy life. In our absence, we are unable as representative of Jesus cannot be a living testiment of His goodness and greatness or encourage other saints in righteousness.

I strongly believe that we often take a pass when it comes to spiritual warfare because we don't really understand the meaning of the concept spiritual warfare. We don't always know when we are in battle spiritually. We heard about it, and was taught of it but we cannot identify when in it. Sometimes, we don't realize we're in the fight until our darkest hour then we pray, we cry out of anguish. We know how to fight in the flesh. Spiritual fights are unseen and we do well with what we are able to see. Christ's exaltation is important for Paul to mention it to his readers because it reminds us of the victory we have in Jesus. He is more powerful than any force of the enemy we could ever encounter. Again, we need this implanted in our mind so that we will trust Jesus and rely on Him without giving our circumstances or situation a second thought. Knowing that He is soveriegn, capable and willing to fight for us. He is our protecter and provider. He will leave us to fight for ourselves.

Christians today appears to be powerless sometimes because of the distractions around us in this world, which could possibly sometimes be derived from negative minded saints (those who operate out of fear or pride), that influence our consistency and persistency of our faith. We lean too often to our own understanding and we fail to cast all our cares to God. We pick and chose what to give Him and when we do ask, its at the last hour, in our darkest hour. Even then, we spend too much time thinking about how He is going to work it out or when and how His help will it come. I am no exception. I honestly believe that if we really understood the power that God has given us how we will never have to worry, doubt, or be anxious for anything. We would never have to be fearful of anything or anyone. Only if we continually and steadfastly walk by faith and not by sight. If we could grasp with the full assurance of faith that the battle is not our and it belongs to God. If we could step aside, get out of the way and allow God to fight our battles. Then I truly believe that all demonic spirits will tremble and the enemy will return to being that serpent he was in Gensis and not the dragon he was in Revelation. Pride or covetousness are strong desires that an idividual have to overpower a person or group of people behavior and lifestyle. These individuals have develop and master the art of manipulation and intimidation wants so that they can complete control of a person's will, heart and mind. They prey on the destitute and feeble. As result, you have those who not so much as having wimpy faith but who are experiencing hardships or who word within them is being choked by their devastating experiences looks for a quick fix. Sometimes saints with miracle-believing faith walks in pride thinking that they are better than others. They sometimes lose sight of who they are and to whom they belong to. Prayer changes people and things. We must stay in prayer at all times. When we going through or in the valley as well as when we are living the abundant life or on the mountaintop, we must pray.

If our God was to bless me with an inheritance of ten million dollars, it would certainly affect my life now. But not to the point that I will conform to the ways of this world. It will affect me because I will earnestly seek God more diligence in how He wants me to bless others. We are taught to be generous with our offering. The enemy will try all to distract my thoughts, steal my inheritance, and distort my thinking with his crafty schemes, plans and attacks. I will need God for than ever to protect me and lead and guide me unto all righteousness. We must continue to do the will of God and know with confidence that our obedience to God's will, ways and word will lead us to an everlasting life wih Him in heaven. We must stay focus, keeping our eyes on the prize, knowing that no matter what is going on around us, regardless of what is being said, or written, God is still on the throne. Jesus is our Savior and He is in control. God forewarns us of the events of this world in His Word that is why it is so important to pray and study the Word of God. God's word is faithful and true. should not affect our fellowship with them at all because we are taught in God's word how to interact with one another as His chosen ones. Our inheirtance with the saints, our Christians family, should not affect one way or another because we are taught through the Word of God how to interact with each other here on earth. When we get to heaven, the Kingdom of God, all we did in our earthen vessel should be enhanced abundantly. The Bible is "basic instructions before leaving earth."

I have learned that hope is having only positive expectation. As Christians, we should always possess a positive attitude, mind-set and belief in Jesus Christ our Lord even through we are faced with what seem like unsummounting trials and tribulation. Which, in my opionion, relates to not having the spirit of fear. We have so much to look forward to. Imagine a life of eternity in God's Kingdom where there is no more sorrow or tears, no pain, everyday is like Sunday Worship. Meeting Jesus face to face and fellowshiping with the saints we were taught of or read about. The God we serve has been and will continue to be faithful of His promises to us. He has proven Himself countless times and we study His Word and develop a passion for praying, and as a result we grow stronger in our relationship with Him. Each day, we drawn nearer to Him. Even when we fall short of His glory, we learn that Jesus is our mediator that speaks with our Father on our behalf because He knows the sincerity of our repentance. What greater motivation it is to have the hope, positive expectation, of being in same place spiritually (mind, body, and soul) with Christ and to hear Jesus say to us "Well done". In having an hope that enables us to continually seek the presence of our God, we are progressly being tranformed into His image. It being shed of the old self and being erected into the newness of Jesus. Which accounts for us not having a desire or thought to do the things we used to do in our past life. We continue to press for mark of the high calling. We listen more readily to the Holy Spirit that dwells within us and we obey more often than beforehand. We are taught that we can do all things through Christ who strengthen us. Therefore, we aspire for the things that are heavenbound which are eternal in turn are exceeding, abundantly, and above all we could ever ask or imagine. Whereas, a non-believer seeks the thing of this world, having aspirations that are temporal. It may yield some success, as defined by man, but it will not last or provide limitless joy.

The "end of the term" occurs at the day of redemption, the day of Christ return and the rapture of the church. The day that all believers, alive and dead, will be glorified. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee that a deposit, the first installment, has been made on us ensuring that we are God's possession. The Holy Spirit validates the contract and secures the claim to right of ownership. This right is sealed in that it is identified to be of God and His protection.