A Heart Capable to Love

In Jeremiah 17:9 the Word declares that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Perhaps it’s the same reason why king David cries out to God saying, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). The plea of king David is like no other. But not only he understands that he has sinned against the Lord of hosts by sleeping with Bathsheba, but he also comprehends that he is in desperate need of a new heart; A heart that is capable to love and that only God can create.

Genesis 1:1 uses the word בָּרָ֣א (barah), which means, “to create.” However, it signifies a work that only God can make, and this verb, in relation to the creation of God, is only mentioned in two events in the WTT Hebrew Old Testament: The heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1) and mankind (Gen 1:27). And king David understands such concept. Therefore, in his supplication, he asks the Lord to “barah” a new heart; A heart capable to love.  

Many people who have developed a special relationship with Jesus have let the Lord “barah” a new heart in them. Such is the case of my good friend Chanty Alicea as she writes passionately about this Man, who not only has created a new heart in her, but has also conquered it with His inexplicable romance:

“So what if I can't stop thinking of him? What's the problem with constantly talking about him? It's more than love; I'm obsessed with this man! I mean, how can I not? He is the total romanticist! To him, it's never enough to just say, "I love you". He does the impossible to prove it. He is not satisfied with just giving me a flower on a special occasion; he prefers to give me the stars every night to remind me of all his plans for us. To him, there is no ‘till death do us part’ because he promised he'd love me forever.
I never heard of a man who was willing to fight for someone as much as he has fought for me. He was willing to give up his life to set me free.

I was heartbroken when I found out about the cross, even more so when I knew that I didn't deserve such a romance. But three days later he appeared back at my door more alive than ever. He said that the cross was his way of engagement. And although he didn't give me a diamond ring, he promised me roads made of gold and a mansion by crystal clear waters! What more can I ask for?
He conquered my heart and made me feel love in the fullest of all forms. I was so alone when we met, so afraid of being rejected, of being broken and mistreated like everyone else in the world had done. He seemed too good to be true! His promises were just too grand for me to take him seriously.

I will never forget the first time I heard him call me by name... I felt like my heart was going to stop! Then, he took me from my messy life and chose to love me. ME! Crazy, weird, random and easily distracted me! He just didn't care! Before him, I was clothed in rags; my poor bare feet were sore from walking endlessly in search for freedom. But when we started dating, he brought me a whole new wardrobe! He clothed me with splendor and beauty. He covered me with his jacket of grace and carried me so that my feet would never again hurt. He turned my life around. In him, I have purpose. With him, I feel a freedom that nothing in this world has ever before been able to offer me. 


So forgive me if he's all I talk about. I may seem crazy and silly and weird...but I will never give up this love. Even if I seem to be the only one standing, I will never again have to feel alone because he is always with me. 
And even though he had to go work some things out with his father before we could complete the marriage, long distance is never a problem for us. He's always there to listen whenever I need to talk to him. And I may not be able to see him yet, but his love is so true and pure, that it follows me wherever I go. He sends me flowers in the summer and spring, and whispers love poems to my ears with the soft winter wind. I can't wait until we meet again. I feel joy in knowing that each passing day only brings him closer and closer to me. And I know that he will never give up until he can finally take me home with him. And we will share our love forever.”

So, has the Lord created a new heart in you? Can you hear his whispers of love through the soft winter wind?

May your prayer on this day may be, “Create in me, O Lord, a new heart capable to love… To love you!”

Blessings!

License to Sin

Ten very long years had gone by since the first time this man had received the promise; ten long years. I’m wondering, how long have you had to wait for a promise to be fulfilled? When you proposed or you were proposed to? Six months? One year? I doubt that it was ten years. At any rate, I’m not a parent nor I’m married, but I believe that these are two of the few things in life a man or a woman desire (at it’s appointed time of course) the most, and in many occasions become very impatient when waiting for it’s fulfillment.

Ten very long years had gone by since the first time this man heard, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). The promised son seemed to be delayed. I can imagine Sarai and Abram speaking to each other over dinner saying, “perhaps God is waiting for us while we are waiting for Him? What if God wants us to do something about it? Maybe God needs a little help?

So the next morning while Abram was enjoying a nice cup of non-caffeinated coffee (he must have been SDA), he notices Sarai somewhat quiet. This worries him because he knows that a quiet man is simply a thinking man, but a silent woman is hatching a plan! But finally, Sarai, walks in, and her following words knocks Abram off his seat spilling his coffee all over his chest: “Honey, I’ve been doing some thinking. We know that the Lord has prevented me from having children. So, go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her. Plus, the law of this land gives you legal authority to have more than one wife. So it’s all good in the hood.” Oh my friends, Abraham had just received his license to sin!

Abram’s ears cannot believe what she is saying! “Are you ill, honey? Are you feeling ok? Is it April’s fool’s day? haha you got me!” Sarai replies with a very serious face, “No, honey. I’m not kidding.” “You know”, Abram replies, “I know that I have failed you sometimes, but playing with my head like this is simply cruel. Is this some kind of trick you are playing on me to see if I fall?” But Sarai simply stays silent. “Alright then” Abram answers. “What my baby wants my baby gets. I’ll sacrifice my self. I’ll take one for the team!”

You know, some say that life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get. But my brother differs. He argues that life is more like a jar of jalapeños; what you do today might burn your rear-end tomorrow. And I must say, I completely agree with him. All of our decisions have consequences. Some deserve celebration and others deserve mourning.

As for Abram’s and Sarai’s decision, well let’s just say that they had to wait fifteen additional years for the promise of God to be fulfilled, caused marital problems between Abram and Sarai to the point that he had to kick his second wife and his own son out of the house, and till this day blood sheds in the middle east between Jews and Arabs because of the little help Abram and Sarai wanted to give God.

Scriptures states that there is an appointed time to everything, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. God certainly doesn’t need any of your help for Him to fulfill His promises in you. He has an appointed time to give the gifts He has fervently prepared for you, because God is the most interested in seeing you happy. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

So, whatever you are going through today, stop and don’t rush it. Learn to wait upon Him because those who wait upon the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Wait upon Him even though it doesn’t make any sense. Even though it seems that He has forgotten about His promise. Even though it’s been too long. You know why? Because “people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Blessings!

Friends With Benefits... No strings attached!

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

She is a woman of experience. When you look straight in her eyes you can tell that she has been through a lot. The kind of person you wish you would sit down with, on a rocking chair, in front of a fireplace, sip on hot chocolate on a cold winter, and listen to all the stories about her crazy and fun young days. Her 65+-year-old body, wrinkles, and lazy eyes do not trig you to do anything else but hug her. Her husband, you might say, must love her to death. I looked at a picture of her and her husband that hangs from the wall in the living room, and thought, “Man, I would give anything to have a long-lasting happy marriage like. They must be married for decades.”

But very few things in life in fact are what they seem to be. “We have been married for about 11 years”, she said. “He lives in his house, and I live here. He has his own car, and I have mine. He cooks for himself, and I cook for my own. He hates to do laundry and iron his clothes, so I do for him… but I charge him. The thing is, Sergio, that it’s so annoying to have a person with you all the time. You know?” For a second I completely understood and was in agreement with her –Seriously, some people are just annoying. But during the following second I thought, “He is your HUSBAND for crying out loud!”

“So, are you guys fighting?” I asked. “No”, she replied calmly and with a smile. “Ever since we got married we have lived like this. We see each other once or twice a week. On the weekend we see each other at church, have lunch together, and in the evening we go out on a date. At night we usually come back to my apt, do what we have to do like any other married couple. I was paralyzed for a few seconds, probably with my mouth wide-open, cause my mind was thinking something that I would consider impossible for them to perform at their age, but then again I didn’t want her to give me the details so I kept quiet.

She continued saying, “Perhaps watch a movie afterwards, and at the end of the night he takes off back to his house. That’s usually our routine.” Wait a second, I thought, this sounds familiar. Yes! “Friends with benefits!” I said loudly in my head. “No strings attached!” The difference between them and these other couples are a couple of signatures on a legal note. “It’s better this way, Sergio. I don’t have to deal with his crap, he doesn’t have to deal with mine (I don’t know if she was speaking metaphorically or literally, but I, once again, kept quiet); and we are both very happy with the situation.

I couldn’t help thinking how sometimes our relationship of God is so similar to the relationship this couple have. We see Him, we meet Him, we like Him, we “fall in love” with Him, so we get married with Him through baptism, but don’t even go to a honeymoon with Him. When I asked my friend if they at least went to a honeymoon with her husband she asked, “What is that?”

After the wedding, we went our separate ways. God went back to heaven, and we went back to our house. But even though we don’t spent time during the weekdays, we make sure we spend a WHOLE day with him on the weekend. Instead of Him coming to our house, we go to His. We sing to Him, we smile at Him, we listen to His word, and we even share a meal together. In the afternoon we might take a nap, but in the evening we go out on a date, perhaps to a nice place where we can see the sunset. We smile at Him, give Him a big hug, say our goodbyes, and say, “It has been an awesome date today. See ya next week!”

He gives you a hug back, and whispers, “I… Love…. You… So much…”

Perhaps angels witness, once a gain, a tear rolling down His cheek…

So… What king of marriage do you have with God? What kind of relationship do you have with Jesus? How much do you really love your Creator? How often do you spend time with Him?

The five foolish bridesmaids that couldn’t get into the marriage feast did not enter for one and one reason only: The bridegroom did NOT know them (Matthew 25:12).

Do you want to be friends with benefits with God? No strings attached?

The Mirror Effect

The purpose of the mirror is to tell you exactly how you look; it will never ever lie to you. Try it. Pick up a mirror right now and look at your self. It will tell you how many wrinkles you have, whether you need make up or not (perhaps surgery), maybe a little less make-up (seriously. Guys don’t like clowns), it’ll suggest some shaving, or some pimple popping, and/or getting a haircut. I really do not know, what I do know is that a mirror will never lie to you; it will show you reality even though you may not like it.

On the other hand, some people, after hearing the ruthless-unforgiving truths of a mirror, will search for other opinions. “Honey, does this dress make me look fat?” “How do I look?” You see, these are questions that must be considered intelligently before answering them. If you say, “Honey, you are fat regardless of what you put on”, then most likely you will sleep on the couch for the following few days. On top of that, you will now have to wait at least another hour for her find and put something new on. You will have the same outcome if you look up and down and think about your answer for more than 2 seconds.

Now if, you want her happy, have been waiting for more than an hour, don’t want to sleep on the couch, and need to get out of the house ASAP because you are 45 minutes late, then your answer must be “Honey, you look great! Get in the car! Let’s go!” But perhaps you might have said a “little” lie or a “white” lie just to get what you want.

Among the seven abominations that Proverbs 6:17-19 mentions, we found a “lying tongue” (17) being one of them. He detests such thing so much that in verse 19 He mentions it again saying, “a false witness who pours out lies,” making “lying” 2 abominations out of the 7. Bottom line is that God condemns with passion he who speaks lies. Proverbs 12:22 declares again that the Lord “detests lying lips,” perhaps for the fact that “Satan is the father of lies” and we become his children when we do so (John 8:44).

But things get more real when we consider our daily lives in the light of the mirror effect, because God regularly uses this method to show you what you are really made of. God often will snatch your relationship by causing a break-up between you two. At the end of the day, when you consider how childish and obstinate you reacted in the process of the break-up, He will put up the mirror and show you how you have lied about loving Him more than anybody else. You will see, through this mirror, that your ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend sat deeper in your heart than God did.

In other occasions, you will find yourself trying to sell a car that is damaged. The cost of repairs will simply sacrifice your budget. But you can figure a way out to sell the vehicle without the buyer noticing the defects; otherwise you will get next to nothing. “Each man for himself” says society. “Get rich or die trying,” says 50 cent. “F life before life F’s you” said my high-school friends. But what hurts God’s heart the most is when you don’t believe in society, 50 cents, or your high-school friends, but believe and profess that God is your God, yet do not live by this same faith.

Whether you sold the car or not, ripped off your neighbor by selling him a piece of junk or not, sooner or later God will put up the mirror and say, “and you often announce that I am God and have never forsaken my children? Look how much you love me.”

So let me ask you, what situation are you going through right now in which you can see God putting up the mirror and asking you a few questions? Are you living but what you preach? Do you walk the talk? What do you see in this mirror? What are you really made of?

I praise Jesus for there is hope in Him. Because “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more!” We are all damaged and tend fall very often. But, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!” For in Jesus there is victory, in Jesus we are made new, in Jesus we find second chances, and through Jesus we are justified and sanctified (Romans 5:20; 6:1-2).

You know, the mirror in your house and the mirror that God shows us may tell us things that we may not like. In fact, sometimes it hurts very much. But the great news about this fact is that its simply reality. But through Jesus we can make drastic changes to better our lives.  There are sooooooooooo many promises in the Bible the follower of God can claim; yet we do not. So, today, get on your knees, meditate on the image you see through the mirror God is holding up, say what you have to say to God, ask for forgiveness, and CLING onto those promises, because He who started this work on you will be faithful to finish it!

God bless you.

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man

 I’ve heard it all from people: “The sixth sense of a woman is to make our lives impossible.” “Men are just pigs; all they want is sex” “All men are the same” “All women are alike” “Men fall in love for what they see, and women fall in love for what they hear. That is why men lie and women wear make up” “Men are from Mars and women are from Venus…” And I could go on and on about our differences. It seems we are a different specie.

But the major lie society has sold to us is that the primary need of a man is to have sexual relations. In the film Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve Harvey suggests that if a woman is capable of holding the benefit package from her partner for at least 90 days, she will have conquer the man and his love for her. Why? Because it seems that men are just after the benefits, and women only want to be truly loved.

Society and Steve Harvey do have a common argument with Scripture: Men and women have needs. However, Scriptures lays it down differently.

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his BENEFITS (Psalm 103:2).

           1)   Forgives all your sins (verse 3)

           2)   Heals all your diseases (verse 3)

           3)   Redeems your life from the pit (verse 4)

           4)   Crowns you with love and compassion (verse 4)

           5)   Satisfies your desires with good things (verse 5) 

           6)   Renews you like he renews the eagles (verse 5)

Since the Lord is your Creator and engineered every single intimate detail of your being, He knows what your major needs in life are. He, through His constant love and sacrifice, has given you the gift of salvation along with a benefit package. He understands the number one need you have in life: Forgiveness of sins. But he doesn’t just want to cleanse you, He wants to heal you, deliver you, love you with the love you have ALWAYS been looking for in a relationship, satisfy the desires of your heart, and give you a fresh new start.

So… Today, go on and claim the gift of salvation along with the benefit package the heavens have in store for you. Because it is TODAY that God wants to start to transform your life. Today He wants to give you the benefits with no strings attached. It is today that He wants to give you life, and give it to you abundantly (John 10:10).

Blessings!