I loved studying about the Spiritual Disciplines when I took part at Shiloh University’s Spiritual Formation Class. I often go back to those lessons, seeking a practical application in my life. This blog is about an experience I had with the discipline of solitude. Recently, I took part in a Somatic Movement Class with a focus on breathing and gentle …
Today I explain the importance of having a revelation of God’s love for us. When God saved us, He opened the door for us to have a deep relationship with His love and His promises. His provision of everything pertaining to life and godliness, is available to us when we choose to open our hearts and receive His love.
On my last blog I started to write about the process of the restoration of the church. As I continued to meditate about this, one thing became very clear to me, one of the first things that must be restored is our revelation of God’s love for us. This revelation can only come when we trust that He is willing to have a relationship with us, even when we fail and make mistakes. If I believe that He is just waiting for my next sin to reject me, my walk with God will always be based on a fear of rejection, instead of a revelation of His unchanging love. “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). One of the ways to translate this last part is: He loved them eternally.
Jesus Christ taught His disciples to pray to the Father. As a Father, God may discipline His children, but He never rejects them. In reality, in His love He wants us to grow in our relationship with Him. Sometimes it is very easy to confuse discipline, correction, and even punishment with rejection. In God’s faithfulness we see that He is not rejecting His children, even if for a while He has to discipline them. “He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:9–11).
The restoration of our relationship with God will never be based on our own religious merits, but on His faithfulness and unchanging love. “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love” (Micah 7:18). On the other hand we must be open for the discipline and maturing in our relationship with the Father, and also to become channels of the same love and acceptance to others.
John 3:16-17
Psalm 136
Luke 15:19-20
Hebrews 5:7-9
Romans 11:32
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As we approach the time of the Feast of Passover we are filled with anticipation to celebrate it as a family. The Feast of Passover is inexhaustible in its significance for us today because it represents the love and drive of God to see His people delivered from any obligation so they can come to worship Him only. During the first …
I have been writing about the process of restoration of the church, and one of the things that impact the way I walk with God is the way I apply, in my life, the principles established by God. Sometimes we may have a sense that we have lost our closeness with God and that we are not being blessed. When …
Today I link our personal walks with God to Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” We must have a drive and determination to walk every day in a way that will bring forth God’s presence.
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Today I dive into the keys of effective prayer. We no longer come as beggars before the king, but enter into prayer as sons relating to a loving father. Find out what is yours according to the sacrifice of the son.
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Today I illuminate Psalms 51 through the context of David’s life. We know David as a worshiper and a man after God’s own heart, but it is important for us to study his life and understand the man behind the Psalms.
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The history of the Church is a very interesting subject, but it is not always easy to understand why so many things went so wrong. On the other hand it is important to remember that from the very beginning the church started with this idea of restoration (Acts 3:19-21). There are so many scriptures that point to the fact that …
Today I relate God’s presence in the book of Esther to God’s presence in our daily lives. God is behind the scenes orchestrating our lives, but we still have to accept and walk in the authority He has given us.
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A while ago I took part in the Spiritual Formation class my husband teaches at Shiloh University. In it, I learned about the Spiritual Disciplines. We studied several messages by John Robert Stevens and also a book titled Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster (I highly recommend this class). It was an amazing experience to participate in this course. My …
Today I talk about giving the Lord the new worship He is looking for. Worship is not about performing a lot of earthy habits, it is about presenting ourselves as we are. We must be an honest and living sacrifice to God.
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This week in our Spiritual Formation class we are studying prayer and I started meditating on the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray. Sometimes it is easy to think about prayer related to the things that we need, things we are looking for, problems that need to be solved, and circumstances that we think that …
Today I connect fasting with Matthew 22:37-40. God is not looking for us to fast in a way that shows off humility with a pious face. He is looking for us to fast in a way that changes us. What is the fast that He chooses for His disciples now? That we love one another.
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Don’t you love stories with happy endings? When the evil plot turns on its head, there is an amazing last minute deliverance and a threat is reversed that brings so much joy to all the people? If you do, you should definitely read the book of Esther in the Bible. Get a good translation like the NASB and enjoy yourself! …
Today I teach about our reaction to hearing the truth. Both Saul and David were chosen by God and both made mistakes, but only David broke his heart before the Lord when he learned the truth. Psalms 51:7 “Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
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Our youngest daughter started having nightmares a couple weeks ago and it disturbed her to the point that she was afraid of going to sleep and only wanted to stay in our bed. She kept asking me why this was happening and when it would stop. I know as a mother our kids look to us to solve all their …
Today I relate God’s working in our lives to a contractor remodeling a home. God inspected the house and saw all its flaws, but still paid the highest price and sent the Holy Spirit to remodel it. It might hurt when the carpet gets torn out but we must trust God’s love during this remodel and let go of anything that would deter Him from dwelling in us.
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Today I speak about our pursuit for God’s love. Our walls protect us from the depth of love that can change us. It is time to knock the walls down and receive that God loves us to the uttermost. 1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
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I just came back from visiting my family and church in Niteroi, Brazil. It was a very good time and I was invited to bring a message while I was there. The message will be published in Portuguese but here is the summary: When you look at what Saul and David went through in their lives, one thing becomes evident: …
Today I express the need for us to relate as part of God’s Family. In a family you are always learning something, even when you make mistakes you never stop belonging to God’s family.
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“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12, NAS) I want to pick up the thread from the last blog. I’ve been thinking about how we always think we know everything; you see …
Today I bring a communion message which encourages our daily appropriation of Christ’s provision. Christ’s love for us is the same today as it was the day he went to the cross. When we receive communion it is a matter of faith and spirit that deepens our connection with Christ’s love.
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“…but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ” (1 Corinthians 13:10, NAS) Last week as I was talking to my daughter the Lord started talking to me about how life is one big and long transition. When you think you have things figured out, there comes the next change in our lives! A baby is born, …
Today I continue teaching out of Luke 11 where Jesus follows the disciple’s prayer with the parable about being persistent for bread. We must keep asking for bread, not to meet our personal needs, but so we can meet the needs of those God places around us.
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If you are in Christ, you are to have abundant life, increasing and overflowing. Why is it then that sometimes we don’t feel the flow of life and joy? A lot of times it is because we simply disconnected from the flow that is in our relationship with Christ. In the book of Zechariah, we read about the vision of …
I convey the difference between knowledge gained through a relationship with Christ and knowledge gained from human efforts. God wants to give us knowledge, but if we are not careful our desire for knowledge will result in the same separation that Adam and Eve experienced. Philipians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
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What is God doing now? God is working on you! So the question is, how are you relating to God’s gifts in you? How are you relating to yourself as the temple of the Holy Spirit? How do you relate to the fact that God chose you? God so loved you that He gave His Son in order for you …
As I meditated on the Lord’s Prayer I noticed some deeper truths that sometimes it is easy to forget. The first thing that we must always remember is that prayer is a relationship. It is also important to know that the Father already knows what we need (Matthew 6:8). Prayer is not giving God a to do list. Prayer is daily partaking of the bread from heaven.
We must also remember that Christ is the bread. As Jesus continued talking to His disciples after teaching them to pray, we can see that He was teaching them to not be worried about what to eat or drink (Matthew 6:25-27). And on another occasion He said, “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh” (John 6:50–51).
If God already knows our needs, then why do we pray for bread? In Luke 11, we can read some more details of the context of Christ teaching the disciples to pray. “And He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’’” (Luke 11:5–6). We understand that this is teaching about our persistence in prayer, but it is also teaching us that we ask for bread to feed others. We ask for the Bread of heaven to share with those in need around us. As Christians we ask the Father for our daily bread because we want to share the life of Christ that we have received.
Luke 11:2-13
Isaiah 58:6-10
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I connect our Christianity with the example of Love that Christ gave us. If we want to be like Christ, we must study how he related to the world. His life was an expression of Love and forgiveness, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” John 3:16 & 17
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I started meditating on the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray. Sometimes it is easy to think about prayer related to the things that we need, things we are looking for, problems that need to be solved, and circumstances that we think that need to change. The Lord’s Prayer starts with an identification of a …
