All posts tagged: Blessing

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!

The only one of its kind

June 10, 2013 Merlin Gonzales Backyard Missions, FHL Mobile Food Pantry

As I was looking today at the FHL web responses that we recently had from around the country, and after researching, I found out that FHL is the only one of its kind that intentionally incubates self sustained food pantries in the US.

Here’s how FHL does it:

Identification of food pantry sites
Classroom and onsite classes (8 sessions)
- Based on:
  - Acts 6 – Organized food distribution
  - Mark 16 – Sharing the Gospel
  - Matthew 28 – Discipling the nation
Provides training and grocery items to the pantries for up to 6 months to help them become self-sustained
In most instances, the food pantries experience more salvations during the food distributions than when the church (a food pantry site) hold their weekend services. For example, one of FHL food pantries, Luz de Vida, (a church with less than 20 members) had 3 salvations in February, 6 in March, 1 in April and 1 in May of this year!

I have written in detail how the “Grassroots Movement in the Kingdom” in my book, The Kingdom in our Midst. I will share with you the details next week.

With the gas prices that continues to increase, more food assistance are needed in our cities. Unfortunately, the poor gets hit the hardest. The income/wages remains almost the same in the past few years, so when you divide the household pie (income) there’s less for food and for other necessities due to increasing fuel prices that jacks up the prices of mostly all commodities.

This year’s FHL Week (July 21-28) theme is “Help feed the hungry in your own backyard”. Below is a list of simple things you can get involved with:

Food Drives/Collections – Your church or your places of work and/or business can do food drives/collections during FHL Week. Another way to be a part of food collection is to help us get your neighborhoods involved. By hanging food collection bags on the door knobs, you can address hunger in our city.
Urban Garden starts or maintenance – FHL partners with organizations who are directly involved in gardening. During FHL Week, you can come alongside us to do some gardening.
Volunteer at a food pantry – You can support some of our pantries through volunteerism or through your financial support.
Volunteer at other food organizations – FHL connects volunteers, resources and needs; you can get involved in serving the FHL food partners and sponsors.

John Mott, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner once said, “The person who does the work is not as productive as the one who multiplies the workers.” Faith Hope and Love is an organization that multiplies not only the workers but also the resources. I am appealing to you to help us answer the hunger problem by partnering with FHL in incubating self-sustained food pantries. By the end of July 2013, FHL should have planted 13 food pantries altogether. Currently, FHL is directly supporting 5 food pantries.

Please consider contributing or sponsoring a food pantry that provides physical and spiritual food to the least, the lost and the last. You can respond to this Blog or email [email protected] to find out how you can be a part of this innovative approach to feed the hungry.

Living by the Spirit; not by flesh Part II

June 5, 2013 Merlin Gonzales Backyard Missions, FHL Indiana

In Part I, we discussed about Living by the Spirit; here’s Part II

Let’s read, Galatians 5:19-25, “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

In these verses, the Apostle Paul clearly stated the contrasting acts of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. But let’s look at this more closely.

Acts of flesh

Based on works
- For example, a machine in a manufacturing plant works and turns out products but could never manufacture fruits. Fruits grow out of life and not out of machines that churns out products. The works of flesh is based on performance rather than of grace.
- The acts of flesh is sinful. As mentioned in Part I, our bodies are not sinful but it does sinful acts if it is controlled by our flesh instead of the Spirit. If we are controlled by our flesh, we act on sinful things based on our minds and emoitions controlled by our flesh.

Fruits of the Spirit

When you think of fruit, you think of
- Beauty, peace and the unfolding life. Fruit grows out of life, it is spontaneous and alive.
- Living by the Spirit means growing in our spiritual life through reading the Bible, prayer, worship and praise

We do not have time to define and explain each of the acts of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. I would like to encourage you to spend a few minutes each day of this week and study these verses more closely.

Ephesians 1:13-14, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

We have a sea much more than seal of approval but the seal of the Holy Spirit. Our inheritance is guaranteed for His glory. If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus and would like to receive Him in your life, please contact me by replying to this article or by emailing me at [email protected]

God bless you,

Are you a resource partner? Would you like to know more?

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

John 14:23-27 Part 2

May 24, 2013 Merlin Gonzales FHL Indiana, Message

It’s been almost 3 weeks since my past posting.

So, how can we resist the devil and sin? Jesus said in verse 26, that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things. The Holy Spirit is the same Spirit that Jesus had while He was here on earth. He is our Comforter and He provides us power to live a life of joy and peace. A believer can be filled by the Holy Spirit again and again in his life. The Holy Spirit will reside inside of us. He enables us to be strong to resist the devil.

The Holy Spirit is our Helper, which means that we can do the things through Christ who strengthens us. You may say, I continue to sin but I don’t have the strength to resist it. Ask the Holy Spirit for strength and He will provide you supernatural power not only to resist sin but also to overcome your weakness.

As we yield to the Spirit, our relationship with the Lord will go deeper. We will be able to live a victorious life. As God resides in us, we will hear more from Him, we will have peace that surpasses understanding. Verses 27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

One of the best ways to have a peaceful heart is to immerse ourselves in the love of God. When we become saturated with His love, our heart will beat with His heart, our thoughts will be dominated with what’s pure, rather than unclean thoughts. Our action will manifest our love for God and will be evident by our lives. We will be able to forgive others and release the toxin of unforgiveness.

Let me tell you a story of unconditional love that transcends the life of a person who was abused for many years. This is a story of a woman born in Sudan more than 100 years ago. Her family was rich and she grew up in luxury. But she was kidnapped by Arabs and sold her as a slave. She was forced to walk 600 miles barefoot. She was sold as a slave several times. As a slave, she experienced beaten so bad that she was not able to get up from her bed for a month. One of her masters beat her every day for years. Her suffering was so severe that she forgot her name.

Her most terrifying memories was when her master carved images on her breast and stomach with a razor knife and then putting salt on the wounds to leave a deep scar on her body. She was resold again to an Italian family who was very kind to her.

Later in her life, she served the Lord as a cook and a door keeper for religious organization. She was later known as a missionary. Her gentleness, calming voice, and ever-present smile became well known and Vicenzans still refer to her as Sor Moretta (“little brown sister”) or Madre Moretta (“black mother”). During the Second World War (1939–1945) she shared the fears and hopes of the town people, who considered her a saint and felt protected by her mere presence. The war passed without one single casualty in their town.

A young student once asked Bakhita: “What would you do, if you were to meet those who kidnapped you (captors)?” Without hesitation she responded: “If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian…”.

When she became old, she used wheelchair and was in a lot of pain. But she retained her cheerfulness, and if asked how she was, she would always smile and answer “as the Master desires”.

God is above everything and everyone

Through the cruelty of man, God can show His love to you. Jesus showed His love to humanity through the cruelty of the Roman soldiers who tortured Him and crucified Him.
Through your life circumstances, God can show His power over your life. Many people are hurting right now. You can provide hope to those who are dying for someone to talk to.

As Christians, we can be an example of God’s character in our neighborhoods. God is above everything and everyone.

We cannot do these on our own strength. We need the Holy Spirit to empower us. The Scriptures said that Jesus left the earth but promised His disciples a Helper, Comforter and will bring heaven on earth through the Holy Spirit in us.

Today, you can receive the Holy Spirit again so you can do supernatural things that will expand the Kingdom in your neighborhood.