All posts tagged: Faith

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!

John 14:23-27 Part 1

May 6, 2013 Merlin Gonzales KIOM, Message, Speaking Engagements

John 14:23-27, “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

²⁵“All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ²⁷Peace 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.”

Let me give you a background of these verses to help us understand its context or the circumstances that precede this situation.

The Sunday before Jesus was crucified, he entered Jerusalem. This day is what we now call Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week. It’s the Sunday before Easter that was called “The Triumphal Entry”.

The following day, Monday, Jesus entered the Temple in Jerusalem and He drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the moneychangers and the chairs of those selling doves.

On Tuesday that week, He had confrontations with the religious leaders who were trying to trap Him with a question about paying taxes to Caesar to get evidence for His arrest.

The following day, Wednesday probably was a day of rest.

That Thursday, Jesus asked His disciples to find them a place to observe the Passover on an Upper Room. This was the night of the Last Supper. This was the time when Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and that was the same night that the Bible records as John Chapter 14, which is our Scripture reading today.

Jesus talked about love many times before these passages. In verse 23, He said, “All who loves me will do what I say.”

Love and obedience are a single package; they come together. Love manifests obedience and obedience manifests love. Jesus is saying to us that if we love Him, we should obey Him. This verse is described well by these verses in John 8:3-11, ³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” ⁶They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Jesus is saying to us today, that He loves us as He loved the woman who was caught in adultery. However, He told the woman to obey Him, to stop doing what she had been doing – adultery.

Friends, God loves us that He does not want us to hurt ourselves. Although God had forgiven our sins (that is, if you received Jesus Christ in your heart) like the adulterer, there is consequence when we continue to sin.

Let’s continue on verse 23. Jesus also said to His disciples that His manifestation to the disciples’ lives would be in response to their love and obedience – that’s why Jesus said that God the Father and Himself will make their home with those who love and obey Him. Not only Jesus would take residence in us but also God the Father. In addition to loving us, but He takes pleasure in loving obedient believer.

In our lives, we catch ourselves praying for God’s power to manifest in our lives and wondering why (after months of praying) His power is not manifesting to us. We can pray for God’s help but if we don’t help ourselves, meaning, we disobey Him, we therefore do not receive what we pray for. We are actually hindering ourselves for the manifestation of God in our lives and robbing ourselves of the blessings.

On the next verse, He said “Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”

Here, Jesus is saying the same thing in different way. Not obeying Him, is not loving Him. Saying I love you to your spouse is not enough; it’s loving him or her with action. Taking action in loving your spouse is a demonstration of real love. Disobedience is a serious matter. There are consequences for our disobedience.

I would like to pause here before we move on to the next verse. Like many of us, I used to live in sin and continue to do the same thing even though I know I am disobeying God. The harder I tried to keep away from sinning, it seemed like I cannot get away from them and do the right thing.

I tried going to church every Sunday and still finding myself failing.

I tried going to Bible studies and still disobeying God intentionally

I started volunteering thinking that doing good things will get me to heaven.

It was until I decided to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior that I had the strength and grace to break away from the bondage of sin. Friends, the Bible said that God sent His one and only Son to the earth to be one of us. He was tempted in everyway possible, but never sinned. He came to this earth to release us from our bondage to sin by dying on the cross. The Bible said that those who confess their sins and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be saved from their sin and will inherit eternal life. When the sinner repent of his sin, trust Christ and confess Him as His Lord and Savior, he is born again. His sins are forgiven and He can be assured that he will go to heaven when he dies. Jesus paid the price for us by dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin. He rose again and is now in heaven. If you are ready to accept Jesus in your heart, please repeat this prayer. “Jesus, forgive me. I sinned and I am sorry. I repent from my sin. Jesus, please come into my heart and be the king of my life. I accept you as my Lord and Savior, in Jesus Name, Amen.” If you pray that prayer and you are serious about it, you can be sure that you now have eternal life.

If you have questions about finding out more about Jesus, His death and His resurrection, please contact Merlin by responding to this Blog.

The Next Step

April 6, 2013 Merlin Gonzales Backyard Missions, FHL Indiana, KIOM

Previously, I wrote the article about Missional Community and the most recent one was about taking the time to be intentional to have a transformational community.

I mentioned that I will be writing about the next step towards building missional community. In order for us to have lasting changes, we need to build a strong foundation. Our foundation is the Biblical Principles.

I am currently conducting a teaching series on “a study on Living in God’s Dominion Here on Earth.” Here’s Session #1 Introduction to the Kingdom

Be blessed!

Merlin

Take the time and be intentional

March 26, 2013 Merlin Gonzales Backyard Missions, FHL Indiana, KIOM

Completed illustration of the KIOM Video Trailer

You are probably wondering what the heck the image above is. Well, check this video to see Take a fresh look at your communities.

In my previous Blog, I asked you to take a second look at your community. What did you see? Did you walk your neighborhood, did you talk to the people in your church or in your school or the Cashier at a grocery store?

If you were not able to, there’s grace for all of us. But if you did take the time to “explore the land”, you should notice some obvious things that became familiar or were neglected – in the physical, emotional or spiritual realm.

Two years ago, I found out that my cholesterol was high. I tried to eat healthy foods and I exercised regularly. However, the busyness in my ministry prevented me from following through what I’ve started. Last Saturday, I found out that my triglycerides was very high. If I wanted to live longer and live a healthy life, I need to take the time to exercise and to be intentional to eat healthy foods. (I’ve started eating healthy foods and did some exercise last night and this morning – shoveling snow).

So the first step in order for us to have healthy neighborhoods, we will need to the take time to see what’s happening and we need to be intentional. In order for a change to happen, we need to know what needed changes. We need to find what the problem, then we can start finding the solution.

BTW, hope you liked the video trailer; please consider sharing it with others as we work towards missional communities.

a Study on God’s Dominion: Session 2

January 28, 2013 Merlin Gonzales KIOM

Week Two: Signs of the Kingdom

Read The Kingdom in Our Midst (KIOM) Part 2 and answer all the questions.

Study Is. 35:5-6

And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind
and unplug the ears of the deaf.
⁶The lame will leap like a deer,
and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!
Springs will gush forth in the wilderness,
and streams will water the wasteland.

~ Isaiah 35:5-6 (NLT)

Based on the verses above, what are the signs of the Kingdom that Jesus will bring to the earth?

‎”Our future is affected by our response and action today.”

Someone once said, “I don’t regret the things I’ve done so much as I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance.” Have you found yourself saying, “I wish I would have, should have and could have”? What can you do now to live the life you meant to live?

Jesus taught the Kingdom of God through His ___________and ___________. Pg. 66

Jesus came not only to give us freedom from the ________________ but also to be “Christ-Like” in the world. Pg. 70

What is the main focus of FHL Week? Pg. 74

Jesus had more conflicts with the ______________ than the _____________ and the ___________. Pg. 76 Why?

Based on Matthew 23:23, what are the things that the teachers of the law and the Pharisees neglected?

Why were the sinners attracted to Jesus? Pg. 79