Jesus was teaching something very important to His disciples, apart from Him we cannot do anything, and to be able to bear fruit it will always depend on us being connected to the Vine.“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you …
Author: Daniel Oliveira
Give Me Eyes to See, and Ears to Hear
I have been thinking a lot about the parable of “the blind men and the elephant.” Each of them was able to touch a different part of the elephant and each had a partial perspective. This parable does not have a clear ending, but it opens the door for each one of us to think about it and make our …
Pruned to Produce More Fruit
Sometimes we may go through times of trials and challenges, and we think it is all negative and the end of everything. In reality, challenging times are what make us grow and mature. Impasses can be used as steppingstones for us to rise to a higher level. It seems like the whole world is going through a big transition, and …
He Gave Gifts to Everyone
In our bodies every member has a function, every member is important, every member must function along with the whole Body. When one organ is not functioning properly the whole body suffers. Not only that, not one member or cell can continue to live without its connection, receiving from and giving, to the whole body. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul …
God Does Not Want Your Religion
A lot of times it is easy to think that God wants us to perform some rituals, attend a service, and do things for Him. If we study the Scriptures, we see the tendency that we have to separate our religious lives from the way that we actually live our lives and relate to others. In this message I read …
Pentecost – It is Better that I Go!
“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. “But when He, the …
Become What God Is Looking For
Sometimes we can make things more complicated and difficult than they really are. We may think that to find God we have to become something special, to better ourselves and try to impress God with what we can do, with the things we accomplish in ourselves, because of our zeal in seeking God. In reality it is easier to think …
The Difference Between Following and Becoming
A lot of times it is easier for us to be followers than to actually engage in the process of changing, of becoming. The disciples of Jesus Christ left everything to follow Him, but at some point, they had to overcome their own resistance to become the ones that Jesus could send to the world in His place. In other …
“It Is Written” and “You Have Heard”
The title of this blog may sound strange, and I hope it caught your attention. The main point that I want you to think about is that there is a big difference between what is actually written in the Scriptures and what you have heard. This is nothing new, it is actually one of the main arguments between Jesus and …
The Importance of Knowing the Scriptures
We have been having classes about the Hebrew Roots of the New Testament and it is always good to remember that the New Testament did not exist until much later in the history of the church. When we read the New Testament, it should be clear that almost every mention of the Scriptures is actually referring to the Old Testament. …
You Are God’s Creation
Have you ever had the thinking: “If that person can’t relate to me the way I am, it is their problem!” That is not the way that God thinks, He found a way to become like we are so that we could relate to Him. He sought us out even before we could relate to Him. “And even if our …
We Are Temples of the Holy Spirit
“Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who …
Choose To Be A New Creature
“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Sometimes you declare your independence before you have it. You cry for freedom because you don’t heave it. But the day comes where you decide to walk away from the old ways of thinking and from the way that people know your or think about you. …
The Messiah in the Old Testament
What we know today as the Old Testament was in reality the only Scriptures that were available at the time when Jesus was teaching His disciples. The Scriptures were not referred to as the Old Testament because the New Testament did not exist. Every reference to the Scriptures that we read about in the New Testament is actually talking about …
The Answer Is Outside Your/Our Walls
Abundance begins when you use what you have – 1 Kings 17:8-12 The widow was living during a time of famine, ready to eat her last meal and die. The prophet spoke to her to find empty vessels. In other words, find the use of your anointing! Use your anointing! Use your gifts! Your anointing and your gifts are not …
What Does it Mean to Pray in the Name of Jesus?
Last week I spent some time thinking about my prayer life and that led me to go back over some of the scriptures about prayer. It is interesting to remember that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, and I think that as a disciple today, I still need to learn how to pray, and find more …
Back to the Roots – The Gospel of Mark
This week we will start the Gospel of Mark in our Back to the Roots series of the New Testament study. As we study each of the books of the New Testament, we want to identify the differences in each of the gospels, and the purposes for each one of the books. For instance, each one of the letters was …