Closer to God: Speaking of the Devil

But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" –Jude 9, NIV

Y’know the awkward part of getting closer to God?

We have to get rid of ourselves and of everything we know.  Yes, even of those little things we love that tickles our fancy, but what has to be done has to be done.  (This goes for me too, I’m the one writing this.)  And getting rid of ourselves is way worse than fighting with the Devil, the Enemy…Satan.

Okay, talking about Satan is awkward-totally awkward.  But sooner or later, we have to understand that resisting him doesn’t come from our own strengths.  We don’t fight against flesh nor blood, so it’s pointless to wage war against things that we see, like friends, family, enemies, (and that one person on your class that you really want to wring his/her neck on your hands because of…Never mind…)

We fight against the things unseen, those pleasures that can cost us our lives and drag us to Hell.  We fight against the currents of this world, striving to be renewed in all ways, shapes, or forms.  We have a shield, a God-given shield that protects us in our minds, our hands, our feet, our shield and our heart.  We know what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s right over wrong.

Unfortunately, I find it sorta hard to stop rebuking everything.  The enemy has been defeated, and I listen to these daemon-beatdowns that aren’t even to be taken in place.  Yes, we have to fear that our souls aren’t taken to where they shouldn’t be, but isn’t it obvious that we’re free?  God gaves us self control –Lord, please give me the strengths to resist the Temptor and win this battle for Your glory.

“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”, says the second part of James 4:7. More than self-explanatory, this will bring us closer to God.

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God willing, I’ll be working out a few things, y’know –trying to make the blog more dynamic.  Even if I bother to write a post once a week or so, I still care about this blessing that God gave me.

Oh,  next Monday is all about forgiveness and purity.  Let’s see how that works out…

Now that it’s Halloween, I guess it would be appropriate if I would write something about it sometime over the week-Sunday, maybe.  I don’t know, maybe I’ll plan something…

Blessings from Puerto Rico, and your cristino preferido,
José E.

Closer to God: I Surrender

Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last. –Luke 23:46, NIV

Whad’dya think?  A picture/silhouette of someone on a beach raising his hands, a silhouetted man on a prairie raising his hands, a picture of God raising His hand to reach out someone else’s hand…

Oye, surrender is more than raising hands.  Or at least declaring to raise them.

Aye, it’s one of the most (nominally) tough and awkward things to write about.  It involves experience to declare with one’s lips (or computer screens, whichever comes first) who will we serve.  As for this house, I know I serve the Lord-but for my tutela, they will serve the Lord soon…(but that’s for another day).

Sometimes, I think that surrender is saying, “God, do whatever You want with me…Do what You please”, and switch to listen Christian music all day long.  (Could be, could be…)  So little do I understand God if I go this way, because that’s the surrender we mostly see on YouTube and Tangle and GodTube videos.  I mean, anyone can utter those words like the next guy, but God really wants them to be made heard in our LIVES.

What Jesus said on the cross (I feel like I’m singing a worship song) was true.  Even when He was agonizing over His people, even when He was getting lashed and flagellated and booed by His own, even that…that didn’t stop His love from overflowing.  Acho, that just made Him eager to die for us!  That made Him eager to present Himself to the father as the Ultimate Surrender –the Ultimate of Ultimates- that this world has ever had!  He never wanted to intrude our hearts, but to let Him intrude our hearts!

And to utter those words in Spirit and Truth are so powerful.  We’re not the rulers of our own lives, nor are we the rulers of this world –even though God called us to take care of it.

There is a generation who loves God, a generation who craves for more.  So let us say, “Father, make me willing to give You our everything, what we love and don’t love, what You want and don’t want, EVERYTHING… like You did.”  And that will make us closer to God.

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Next week, it’s about resisting the Devil.  Can I get palero on this one? :P (joke)

For now, I have to deal with some work, yet I hope this refreshes your hearts.  And leave me be, struggling with my internet.

Blessings from Puerto Rico, and your cristino preferido,
José E.


My World in Your Hands

Who has followed avidly the Chilean miners’ rescue? 

The world was watching the miners reach the surface for the first time in two months.  Goggles on their eyes on a tiny capsule, their embrace with their families seemed eternal…until they had to go to the hospital.  Pneumonia, dirt, and bath teeth aside, they were in great shape.  (Yes, even the one with two chicas, yeah, him too…)  Only God can do that –and what surprised me was seeing this quote on the back of their t-shirts…

In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. –Psalm 95:4, NIV

Well, it’s not the exact translation as I saw at the The Guardian website, but you get the idea. 

His hand held those thirty-three miners. 

His hand held the rescuers.

His hand held the families.

His hand held the copper mines around Copiapó, Chile, and the rest of the Earth.

What didn’t God hold?  What is not of His belonging?

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Nothing like a little R&R to get your spirits raised up.

On another hand, I’ll suffer the gauntlet of the Puerto Rican College Board tomorrow.  The fact that worries me is not me sitting on the same chair for seven to eight hours; it’s the reason that the closes thing to have a quick bite is a BURGER KING!!!!!!!  Otherwise, I pray –and I know by His name- that I’ll do great.  I am no newcomer at this, though –I’ve taken the SAT twice back in Maryland.  However, what are the odds of a major desorden on my test center in Fajardo?

Closer to God

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. –James 4:7-10, NIV

Yesterday I was at a church retreat, and one of the brothers spoke about this.  Basically, he talked about the practicality of the Book of James, with the focus on five things that make us closer to God:

1. Obedience and Submission to God
2. Resistance to the Enemy
3. Purity
4. Sincerity
5. Humbleness

These five things are the ones that will make us reach greater heights and bigger blessings.  For a few weeks, I’ll devote five Mondays to explore each topic, and do my best to lose myself –and you, too- in His glory.

Next Monday, I’ll talk about Obedience and Submission- Surrender, which is a really hard one!

Hope everyone has a great Monday and a jump-start to the week!

Blessings from Puerto Rico, and your cristino preferido,

José E.

Something More

Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." –John 13:7, NIV

Let us fast-forward a bit into the Gospel of John.

Jesus is doing something unorthodox; someone named the Messiah shouldn’t even bother to do: wash His disciples’ feet.  (Can you believe what the disciples were thinking!?)  Even so, they let Jesus serve a lesson to His followers. 

But for now, let’s focus on Peter, ‘cause he had something interesting to say.

He actually asks God why will he wash his feet.  Looks like the same thing John the Baptist said to Jesus when he was going to baptize the Savior –“I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” (Matthew 3:13)  Sounds odd, because the Savior of the World –who doesn’t need ANY help of ANY kind- is asking someone HUMAN to do something for the Divine!?!?

Who would understand? Was the world going upside down?

Jesus, with all His peace and tranquility and humble heart, says to the impulsive peter: “You will not realize now what I am doing,  but later you will understand.”

In Spanish, I have this bit on my cellphone.  Because I don’t understand many things going on.

One thing is clear, though: God’s timing is not our timing, yet what God does is everlasting.  That we know what we will do, that’s one thing, but what God will do…we may have to wait a bit to look for His favor.

Maybe Job didn’t need God to answer why was he suffering –he wanted to listen to His voice.

Maybe Asaf didn’t need to learn that God will actually show vindication.

Maybe Peter didn’t need to doubt that God brings all nations together.

Or Jonah would’ve followed God’s plan to the T.

And Peter again, maybe he should’ve trusted God from the get-go. 

There’s something more in You
That I cannot understand
Something more in the veil, in the dark
In the open for me
Cover me from favors and mercies
Because I depend from Thee
There’s something, oh, there’s something
There’s something more in You          



My Hope and My Defense

I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant. -2 Kings 19:34, NIV

I am definitely upset right now.

When I heard about the FBI police arrests in Puerto Rico, I felt disappointed.  Being back in home country, how can men and women who are supposed to help us and our children to live safer lives are tracketeando behind our backs?  Unfortunately, those are the same men and women who believe they’re invincible, that they can oh, so fool the people.  They can line their money with pockets and bleak allegiances all they want…

But pride lasts for only a season.  (And I refuse to make political statements.)

And yet, Someone greater than us says, “ I will defend you…because I love you.”  For who?

His glory.  Who couldn’t be better than God (don’t even try it) to showcase His everlasting power to the world?  God will save His own city, His own people, so they could know He is near.

For love of David.  God will always fulfill His promises with His people.  Many things that happened on that time were averted OR mitigated because of David (we’ll talk about that later).  Why?  From him, the Savior would come and restore Israel –and the world.

Yes, I may still have to run into the councils of human police when necessary, but for now, God is my hope and my defense.  He is never corrupt, He will never go corrupt, He will always help me along the way.

Someone Else

Everyone wants to be someone else.

Man hardly ingrains change.  Peacefully or violently, we will resist the calling to be transformed or renewed in any matter.  Our blood pours out opposition to ways higher than ours.  Yet deep inside, a part of us, deep inside of us, wants for new blood, new oxygen, and a new thought.  It breathes for something new; it craves anxiously for a clearer revelation.

Change does only not begin when we crave something new: it starts on a greater longing.

I don’t know, God will NEVER take away the essence of our being, for it’s too precious to lose that!  But He does modify our character to conform it to a Higher will.  The problem, though, is not on looking to change: it’s when we don’t choose to be ourselves for some ill-conceived image of faint purpose.  Well then, what is the point of trying to be something I’m not!?

Am I irresponsible? No, but I do need to work on being pendiente of my surroundings.

Am I nice?  Yes, but this doesn’t mean that I should become a living melcocha and let people step on me.

Can I take decisions easily? Nope, not even if I had a cheesecake or a chocolate cake in front of me.  (Guess I don’t want to lie…)

Should I stop writing? Oh, hell, no!  But I can’t obsess over putting every detail to bed if it won’t turn to a blessing for my life and others.

Transformation takes more than willingness; it takes balance, truth and action to discover what will we turn out to be in life-what we want to be, what we hope to be, what we’d love to be.

For we know, we know we will do great things –although we are great as we are right now-, but don’t worry if we can’t see things overnight.  (This goes for me, too.) 

Off to work out on my change.

Blessings from Puerto Rico, and your cristino preferido,

José E.

As Long As Today Stands

(I wrote this post on January 21, 2010.  I was back in America, inspired on Skillet's "One Day Too Late and on certain things in life.")

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:12, 13, NIV)

Today is a day where we have stuff to do. God gave us 24 hours to spend (or waste!) wisely, but we like to chew a little bit more, huh? (I know the feeling.) Plans may not work, reasoning may fail, but God will still find a little empty niche in the deep of our hearts to say, “It is still Today, My love”. I have never realized the power of Today…

As long as this earth keeps running, there is still a chance to know His heart. Even with the entire hoopla going around the world, our future, our schools, our churches, and in our lives, Today means the value of Jesus knocking and saying, “I am still here.” There is still a spirit groaning in us that pays attention to the will of the Father, at least convincing us of opening our eyes, even though we are not willing… This is Today, where God can fill the empty hearts and He can raise the dead again.

Today… is hard to say. Fear will still evade us, and we are to do good ALWAYS! What will it be if our light is dimmed by will? What would Jesus do? When will His return come by and pass? Expectation, anger, anxiety, fear, hope, and love just mix together at the grasp of a moment… And God is still there!

As long as there is a Today, be it this second, this hour, this day or whenever, we know that by grace we will still make the best of it in our lives. (Why did the Lord made us a sense of humor?) Regrettably, the night will end, the day will soon shine with justice. Let us hope that our lives are not hardened, and that His Spirit resounds brightly over us.

Sweep Throughout This Place

And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.” –John 20: 22

What were they thinking!?!?  Was it inconceivable?  The same Savior they saw agonizing in the Garden, the One who saw lashed and flagellums from His own verdugos, the same One they left to save their behinds…The same Jesus who died on the tree…is…Alive!?!?

The whole point of the Book is to let people realize the witness of the Christ.  The same witness, of which the apostles saw the Living God face to face, risen, transformed, and glorified, who was giving them breath of life.

In the beginning, wasn’t God the One who gave breath of life?  His own nature became canvas of man, the most important piece of the created Earth.  Even if we failed to rise above our first trial, God kept breathing hope through His people –and then, to the whole world.

The same wind that flies above our heads is the one that Jesus –the Ultimate Respite- gave to the apostles to empower them on their days.

We can’t breathe without oxygen –pure, clean, crisp, and fresh.  Likewise, we can’t live without the Counselor in us.  Can we make it through without His glory touching us through the hardest of our lives?

Love finally completed its course…Love finally breathed through its pores.