us as the prodigal son some qiick thoughts

as i read the parable of the prodigal son in luke 15:11-32 i reflected how it is true of us in our relationship with sin. meaning sin tempts us to demand from God His blessings or what WE think as blessings now or else.(taking a good thing from God or somethig God has forbid us because it is sin) and we seize it not as his child but as rebels or we deluded ourselves to think we are god...and sin in the long run gives us our wages our rewards and we like the prodigal son found ourselves mired,living in mud and eating garbage fit only for pigs...

I am back after a time of reflection and sadness concerning the presbyterian church in america and their failure to reach or in most cases to reach the old hispanic minorities like puerto ricans and domincians. When i spoke about pca and their lack of reaching out to hispanics i spoke as someone from the inside and not someone from the outside acting on hearsay,presumption,lies and gossip. And when i spoke i always held back not to air out dirty linens---and the reason is not to provide ammunition,show or stumbling blocks to the church and to those seeking God or to young babes in christ--so now i will take it to the next level which i should've done in the first place and stop pouring my heart over pca and its failures and sins againest hispanics and leave it all in God's hands who is all-wise,holy,sovereign,love,mercy,just etc

sola deo gloria

reformed plants,tim keller,redeemer and hispanic candiadates...

Ever since i recieved the sad news of the candiate's denial in accepting to come here to plant a reformed church(PCA) here among the hispanics in new york city backed by Tim Keller and Redeemer(They have been wise,gracious,compassionate etc in recognizing not only the God given needs,GOD GIVEN GIFTS of the hispanic population and their GOD GIVEN CALL and Purpose to praise,serve,love and worship the True God of the Bible here ,heaven and the future kingdom( rev 5:9-10)but have backed their talk with actions by attemting several attempts to plant a church among nyc hispanics. BUt they have failed and this latest one was for me the most depressing(it has left me in that state ever since myself)because i truly felt God had called me and my family to use the gifts He has given us to nurture,train,love,cherish that baby church by the experiences He used to mold,shape,give birth to and sharpen our particular gifts us to who we are now... to get that sad news was like a nuclear bomb blowing inside my heart and mind and soul....and i wondered why would a hispanic candiate perhaps deny a calling to plant a church here among hispanics in nyc? here are some:
1. truly God revealed to their hearts that they were not the men He would call to this particular work( And not use this excuse as a pieus,holy,christainize,religous garb cope out if they were used for the next reasons.

2.for safety reasons lets face it nyc is not as safe as a church in a rich part of the city or a rich part of the surburbs or in the country.

3. lets face it it would be a poor church and a lot of pastors join the ministry as a career and not as a God given calling it it biblically truly is and their motto is lets keep up with the joneses....

4. lets face it a hispanic pulpit will not be prestigous,socially appealing or bring fame or status to them.
Christ the foundation of the church and His apostles would give a hearty amen to reason number 1 but for reasons 2-4 tears and anger would be their response. for a pastor is not a career choice but a calling from God supported by the witness of the Holy spirit,His church and God given ministerial gifts that
the candiate has shown in their life along with their christain testimony.

My final words is just pray that God will send a man(not neccesarily hispanic)who loves the hispanic people enough to be their shepherd in the midst of poor and sadly violent neighborhoods shaken and shaped by crime,drugs,hoplessness,illiteracy and a government system that most of the time is like a caste system,indifferent,uncaring and unsympathic towards us(till its election time.....

hispanics,reformed faith and reformed churchesand mna 2

I was taking to my wife this morning about mna conference on reaching hispanics...i asked her who should lead that discussion and she answered with her God given common sense: who better than reformed hispanics! well she was surprised when i told her no...two white americans! it was not as if mna had no qualified reformed hispanics to speak advise on reaching hispanics...you have eugene pinero reformed baptist pastor,jon seda pastor,orlando crespo and if you wanted some big name with degrees and credentials you had manny ortiz professor at westminister seminary who wrote countless books on urban churchplanting and especially among hispanics!!! (the last 2 you check online at cbd,barnes noble and amazon books)
i had to reflect why this happend and i came up with some possible reasons:

1.ignorance

2.stupidity

3.pride

4.racism

5.indifference

hispanics and reformed theology

here is a interesting link on a article in which a conference is held on reaching hispanics and not one key note speaker is hispanic:


http://rufmiami.org/2006/08/mna_hosts_another_hispanic_ame.html

In a world where where women...

In a world where women can no longer have or bear children is the premise of the book and the upcoming movie sept 29th 2006. check the trailer out at:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/childrenofmen/large.html

It makes you appreciate and cherish more the God given gift of child conceiving and child producing--that in the real world is being abused, wasted,offered and descreated on the altars of abortion by the priests callled: womens rights, premartial sex, non committed sex and sex without responsibility and consequences etc

sesame street and the biblical teaching on womanhood

I came across this interesting article-check it out:

http://www.henryinstitute.org/commentary_read.php?cid=297

False prophets and their greed for wealth

Here is a great link to provide info on false prophets whose only concern for you is how to separate you from your money. They appeal to your greed,insecurities,problems,ignorance etc.


www.forgottenword.org/

dangers of the internet

Here is a link to a sermon in pdf conecerning the dangers of the internet:

http://sermonaudio.com/mediapdf/22206222853.pdf

Love your neighbor

Recent days I see the biblical wisdom of love your neighbor as yourself verse. I have been temporarily wheelchairbound and now till I get special shoes I am wearing heavy metal foot brace-that makes me walk like a night of living dead zombie. Honestly even then I would hold doors and help my neighbors in the limited way I can. And WOW some of my neighbors have shown me no courtesy,mercy or compassion--they see me struggling and they look the other way....This what God's wise counsel has shown me:

1. It is our God given responsibility we have to be a Christ to our neighbor...

2. And the good we do to them will either bring them blessing or heap further God's judgment on them.... And

3. We if we deny helping our neighbors may one day God forbid find ourselves in a situation were we need the same mercy,love,compassion,respect and courtesy our hard hearts denied them!!!

bibliodaltry and me

I remember one of my sunday school teachers accused me of being a bibliodaltrer(He was Liberal)-i told my former sunday school teacher and he told me some sound biblical advice:

a idol directs you away from God and to it

the bible directs you to God and away from it

children and child predators

Here in New York there is a helpful web site-that informs you of convicted sexual predators who live in your neighborhood.

Here is the Link:

http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/nsor/index.htm

Sadly i found out there are 50 listed sex offenders and most are level 2 and level 3 criminals-meaning they are likely to commit this perversion again. It seems also in one apt building a couple blocks away is a nest of these vipers having 5 living there. Now that i am aware there are certain areas i allow my son to go with me and his father and where to avoid and where to be on alert.

Remember childeren are a blessing,gift,stewardship and heritage from the Lord-so as parents,friends,relatives and child care givers we must treat them as such.

Ps 127:4,5 ps 128:3 prov 17:6

and if you are from another country and state please check your local law enforcement agencies to get info on sex predators in your area.

new christain links to enjoy

www.ecbragg.net/

www.inplainsite.org

www.e-n.org.uk/

www.theologian.org.uk/

www.valleybible.net/

www.bibletopics.com/

www.geocities.com/Athens/thebes/4610/index.html

www.christiantruth.com/

diabetes and instant healing

I was surfing the channel recently and a morris cerulo program caught my eye-not because he was fundraising for his prayerline but because of a testimony from one of the callers. He said that he had faith that God had healed him of his diabetes. This is not because God can not heal today but i was hoping he had not just stopped cold turkey:stop taking their meds ,proper diet ,excersise and daily monitoring of thier sugars-but they had confirmed this healing not by fickle feeling but thru God's instruments of healing-his primary physician. If God did let us praise Him if He did not let us be like paul and bear our particular thorn of the flesh,rest securly in His sufficent grce and through our ouselves into His word,worship,prayer and fellowhip at our local church....

universal church and the bible

Here is a quick thought about the church and the bible:

The church did never create or give authority to the Bible. BUT the Bible Christ used to create ,gather and give the church its authority.

The church recognized the Bible as God's final word to man and did not add(or subtract because certain inspired books crippled or curtailed their power)to His final word then and today. Rather the church added those books and writings that pointed to christ(written by a apostle,written by someone close to a apostle or was in harmony with their inspired teaching)from those that pointed away from Christ and rather served,glorified,promoted the self deification of man his sins,speculations and rebellion againest God.

The church did not create the Bible for power,control,wealth and enslavement But the church recognized by Holy Spirit's guidance the word of God from the counterfeit words of man.

And rather when the church does seek power,wealth,fame and peddles man's word and superstitiopns wrapped in a thin facade of God's word-that is a red flag that the church has wandered away from God's word usurped,plundered ,overthrew and stole it from our rightful king:Jesus Christ and His royal law: the bible.

what are we doing in the name of Christ?

check this link out:

http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/archives/2006/07/cornerstone_fes.php

Everything goes for a christain,ministry and church when God's word as a anchor and as a founndation as a compass is missing,replace or distorted...

Is there a christain version of star wars "the force"

The answer is more than NO-the no is the starting point that should lead you to the root source which is: What does the Word of GOD declares?

united parcel service and theology

Recently my wife ordered a replacement cell phone from her cell phone company who shipped it ups. Well,the intercom in our building is broken and has been broken for many months(thats another story) so i know the regular time ups comes to our building so i waited in the lobby the FIRST DAY i tracked the package on our home computer which gave us the delivery date. So wheelchair and all i waited in front of the building with the broken intercom right next to me where the ups man would come and press to be buzzed in. The ups man passed the building with no packages at the usual time. Iwent back upstairs said maybe they will come back in the afternoon which sometimes they did. Yet or some reason i said let me check ups online and SURE ENOUGH it read attepted first delivery logged in at 11 am---I was fuming i was there and well beyond the delivery time he had lied in his log. My wife called ups customer service to complain--this is where the lies from ups snowballed: ten hours later the first log was "coincedently" by a second log at 12 midnight which read address incorrect ups will look for correct address and my wife's complaint was logged in as a customer requesting new shipping address. SO THE SECOND DAY it was cool and rainy so i waited in the lobby with the broken intercom right in front of me in perfect view(ups tracking said it will be delivered that day)and once again i see the ups man pass the building empty handed and i said to myself no he wouldnt?--YES HE DID! WHEN I got home and unto my computer it was logged deceitfully again as attempted first delivery at 10:56 am. I called my wife pleaded with her to cancel the delivery and reorder it again and this time have it delivered by fedex. she did not and complained and once again shameful lies contuined her complaint was again logged in as customer requesting shipping address and once again at night it was logged in as wrong address again from second delivery attempt would be on....well to bring this horror story to an end my wife had to go to the ups depot to pick it up herself........


well what does it teach us besides: truthfullness,responsibility,honesty,going the extra mile(for example by this tim he should know the intercom has been broken for a year and say to himself gee let me go upstairs and double check to make sure nobody is actually home) and bad customer service=losing customers?

well to the christain it means:

1. we dishonor God by not putting our faith into action outside the church.

2. we try to cover up our mistakes and sins with one lie we start a dominoe reaction because then we need to utter another lie to coverup that lie so on and so forth.

3. God will call us out and be responsible for our sins and lies directly or indirecly like the prophet nathan and king david.

4. we are to do all for the glory of God 1cor 10:31

5. we can lie and coverup our sins or help others to do so but God sees. (psa 139)

6. we can give false info and wrap it up in the guise of truth to make it us look good or diffuse the situation But God is truth...

7. we are to love our neighbor as yourself.

8. we can possibly play with justice here but God is justice.

9. we become stumbling blocks for others.

10. one bad apple ruins the apples that are good.


some verses on work for futher study:

eph 6:5-8 col 3:22-25 prov 6:6-11

2tim 2:6 col 3:7 1 cor 7:17

what has sin made of our spiritual bodies

Here are brief thoughts on the spiritual anatomy of all mankind past,present and future(including myself):

Stomachs: would rather hunger,digest like the prodigal son the garbage(wallow like pigs in filth) sin makes of the good things God created for man to enjoy and use to Glorify God as tthey lived out their faith in this world.

Knees: would rather bend and worship the idols sin bewitches us with rather than bend and worship our sovereign God.

backbone; rather depend drawing strength and courage on the world's might than God and all who He is and His word.

Eyes: blinded by the fleeting enticing mirages of sin.

Ears: deaf to God's words of hope and life.

Nose and Lungs: able and willing to breathe the foul pollution of sin and unable to breathe the healthy clean air of heaven.

Heart: provides the factory where the materials sin has harvested and grown in the mind is forged and asembled to produce its products.

Mind: the planning board where sin directs the seeds of the imagination and thoughts to be borne,planted and nurtured.

Mouth and Tongue: willing and able to savour the intimate kisses of sin and to spread its poison to others.

Arms: raised always as a clutched fist of defiance againest God and always ready to lovingly embrace sin.

Feet: always walking towards sin and away from God.

what do false pastors/teachers see as they survey their flocks?

What do fale pastors/teachers see as they survey their flocks? They see:

1.dollar signs

2.fools

3.prey

4.slaves

5.toys

6.foot soilders to spread their message

7.source of their ego

8. harem

9. tax shelter/tax exemptions

10.clay to mold them whatever he wishes

11. customers

12. stepping stones

13. powerbase to wield in the political arena

14.disposable assets: meaning when they no longer serve a purpose or are on to their con game -they can just abaddon them and go elsewhere to find new assests.

15. subjects