Message

I am thankful for you!

November 28, 2013 Merlin Gonzales Message

Family vacation

Happy Thanksgiving from Biloxi, Ms.

First, I want to thank you for your unfailing prayers and support. The FHL Breakfast Fundraising was a success. With God’s grace, you made it happen!

After more than 5 years, I am also thankful for my family vacation. God has shown my family and I things that we have not noticed in our lives while being with each other for almost 2 weeks together! We are learning a lot about and from each other. Nothing more exciting than loving and being loved by your family.

This Thanksgiving, please slow down and put a set of eyes as you spend time with your loved ones. You just might see the obvious things that are just behind the facade of our paradigm.

God bless you!

Merlin

Thanksgiving and sound of melody

November 28, 2013 Merlin Gonzales blog, Message

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please take a few moments to ponder what you are thankful for. Then, take another minute to think about the instances in your life that you should be thankful for. Consider this except from the FHL Blog:

I thought of asking you rhetorical questions. Feel free to make Comments on this Blog as well.

Which one would you rather be:
- a person who has the ability to donate food and time or a person who rely on others for the next meal?
- a person who can help someone to do strenuous physical activities or someone who is hindered physically?
- a person who give his/her time, talent & treasure because God had graced you or a person with different circumstances who receives from you?

Keep in mind that it could be reversed. For example, by helping those who are “weak”, you realized you are strong. By giving of yourself to others without expecting anything in return, you suddenly receive blessings in unexpected ways.

What if we take a few moments to meditate on the passages of Isaiah 51:3,

“Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion;
He will comfort all her waste places.
And her wilderness He will make like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
Thanksgiving and sound of a melody.”

Whatever situation you found yourself in, you can release the joy and gladness and thanksgiving to provide a melodious aura in the atmosphere.

Happy Thanksgiving!

NOW, NOW, NOW

October 11, 2013 Merlin Gonzales KIOM, Message, Ministry, Testimony

On early Sunday morning 10/6, I was awaken by a short but vivid dream. I was looking at a piece of white bond paper. On the top of it (the Title) was written 2 words.

(I can’t remember the first word) but the second word is NOW.

There were 2 subtitles, each with a descriptive paragraph. Both of the subtitles were a single word that has NOW in the middle of it. They look like this:

____NOW____

I didn’t remember the exact words but here’s the example – ackNOWledge.

So, my dream contained 3 NOW words and all capitalized. I’m not a dream interpreter but when a same thing appeared 3 times, it means it’s happening now!

For those of you who are parents, you can appreciate this – parents want to speak to their children all the time. However, when children grow up, they are normally too busy to talk or to listen to their parents. As adults, we have crammed so much in our 24-day. Many times, we miss some intimate and sacred moments with God.

Biblically, God speaks to us in many ways, one way is through dreams. I believe that God is reminding us that the Kingdom of God is in our midst (Luke 17:21) – NOW. Where ever you are, if you are a Christian, the Kingdom is within you…NOW.

Similar to the 2 words that encapsulated the word NOW, our lives could be busy or we are just not paying attention to what God is saying to us. If you look closely in life circumstances, within a seemingly chaotic event, God is there with you. You might be traveling, doing business transaction, happy or sad…God is saying to us, “look again!”

Apply this principle with your family and friends who are in a difficult situation. Encourage them; you can actually speak life in their lives that can change their perspectives and give them hope. A simple word change a person’s eternal destiny.

Last Sunday, at a church, I shared my dream with 3 people whom I thought would be receptive to the word NOW. Although each of them are in different stage of their lives, I saw immediate change in their posture and demeanor. They were very thankful and it gave them courage and confidence that God is always there for them.

If we ackNOWledge God, we will experience more of His Kingdom manifesting in our lives. Even if you think NOWay or you are sNOWed under. He is there with you. Look again!

I know, there’s more to the dream, so I encourage you to give me feedback or let me know what you think. God bless you! Believe me He is with you right NOW.

I have more to tell you…

June 14, 2013 Merlin Gonzales KIOM, Message

Why do kids ask too many questions? Not only do they have endless questions, but they also have weird observation. Children are in their developing age and they may imitate their elders. The younger children do know a lot yet, and they have not discovered the world properly.

Many years ago, my nephew drives me crazy every time we’re together. He would ask one question and when you answer him, he would ask endless “Why!”

Kids are observant and they want to know what you know and why you do the things that you do and the things that you talk about.

Remember when you were in elementary school? You ask your teacher what they know about your class project because you were really interested to learn what your teacher knows.

Just like you and me, everyone is interested in something but the kids are most interested in many things because they don’t know much about what it is, how it is and why it is.

For those of you who are parents, what do you do when it’s not the right time to answer questions that are beyond your children? – “I will answer you those questions later. This is not the right time because you will not understand it yet.”

John 16:12-15, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.¹³But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Jesus had taught His disciples many things in many different ways for 3 years

He introduced them to the Kingdom of God – the main message of Jesus
to the works of the Father – working from the different worldview
the presence of the Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit was foreign to the early disciples of Christ

The Disciples witnessed Jesus proclaimed and demonstrated the Kingdom of God

He taught people in the synagogues and the streets
He healed the sick and raised the dead
He turned the water into wine and multiplied the bread and the fish

The Disciples saw Him operated His ministry through the Holy Spirit

Before He started His ministry here on earth, He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness to be tempted
The Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove after He was baptized
When He went to a synagogue in Nazareth, He read the scroll of Isaiah the prophet containing these verse, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…”

All these things were new to the disciples and so they ask so many questions

The disciples have not heard of the Kingdom of God
They have not seen the miracles that Jesus did
They have not heard of the Holy Spirit

So, like little kids, they ask many questions; they want to know more!

In verse 12, Jesus said, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”

Christ is the Great Teacher

Jesus knew the present weakness of the disciples
- There are things in life that we cannot comprehend in our present time. Some of you may have circumstances that may seem unbearable. When certain calamities such as the deadly and humungous tornado in the suburbs of Oklahoma city.
- Some of us may blame God for a tragic event that happened in our life, loss of job, broken relationship
- And all of us have many unanswered questions.
- No one is like Jesus for His abundance of
  - knowledge
  - wisdom
  - revelation
  - None like Him for compassion
    - He could have told His disciple more about the coming Kingdom but the disciples would not bear it or understand it
    - He loves them so much that He does not want them be confounded
    - His compassion is so great that He does not want them to stumble on the revelation that they may not ready to understand yet

We will continue this article in my next issue. God bless you!

Living by the Spirit; not by flesh Part 1

May 29, 2013 Merlin Gonzales FHL Indiana, Kindness Weekends, Message

Galatians 5:16-25 (NIV), “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever^[a] you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

When we live by the Spirit:

We live by grace and not under the bondage to the Law
- Grace is unmerited favor, which means we receive what we don’t deserve. Grace is based on our relationship with God
- The Law is the commandments from God in the Old Testament. The Law is based on our performance. No one is perfect to follow God’s entire commandment. Only Jesus was the perfect one and lived a sinless life.
- We are controlled by the Spirit instead of the flesh
  - We are led by the Spirit
  - We have the grace to withstand the desires of our flesh
  - We live for God’s Glory rather than for ourselves
    - We start living with Biblical worldview; being aware of God within us
    - We become aware of our selfish actions and we start to think of others first before ourselves

The Spirit and the flesh are at war with each other. They have different appetites and different perspectives. Our “human body” is not sinful; it is neutral. In verse 16, Apostle Paul said “the desires of the flesh” not the body. So if our body is neutral, and the Holy Spirit controls it, then we keep in step with the Spirit.

However, if the flesh controls our body, then we walk in the lusts or desires of the flesh. We live by the worldview instead of living with Biblical perspectives.

This is a brief overview of living in the Spirit. In my next issue, we will take a look at the second part of the equation. Until then, live in His blessings!

Merlin