fhlindy

Mid-FHL Week 2013

July 26, 2013 Merlin Gonzales FHL Week

The start of FHL Week 2013

It’s hard to believe that more than half-way through the FHL week! God has been blessing us as we continue to lift up the Name of Jesus.

Here’s a quick update for FHL Week 2013:

On Sunday, July 21st, the Prayer Celebration was joined by musicians, prayer leaders, volunteers, partners and pastors and many more. The shofars were blown to start the event followed by a warm welcome by Merlin Gonzales, CEO/Founder of FHL. The FHL worship team led by Donna Cherry provided a wonderful praise and worship songs. Our Prayer leaders for the 7 cultural moders of society led everyone to prayers and intercessions. Iglesia Monte de Sion blessed us with a drama of the story of the 10 virgins. The prayer celebration ended with drum circle.
Many different ways to worship, pray and praise our Lord
- The praises, worship and prayers continued with the 24/7Indy. All throughout the FHL Week, Creekside Ministries is hosting the 168 hours prayer-worship. We have seen the works of the Kingdom inside the building and out in the community.
The following days, we had youths from MI, OH, PA, NC, and other states sent by Group workcamp. The projects range from moving some FHL supplies to storage, home remodel, food drives, toys collections, neighborhood clean ups, random acts of kindness (bottled water, praying for people in the streets and businesses…), painting a school bathrooms and serving families.
Home remodeling

It’s not too late to join with what God is doing in this region in this hour. Don’t forget to join us tomorrow, Friday at 7:30a at Rick’s Cafe Boatyard with Krish Dhanam.

Express God’s love through prayers, praises, worship and helping others in practical ways. More soon updates to come. Stay tuned.

9th Annual FHL Week, a Mission Trip in Your Own Backyard

June 19, 2013 Merlin Gonzales FHL Week

The Official start of FHL Week

Indianapolis, IN – Indianapolis will once again host the Annual FHL Week “Mission Trip in Your Own Backyard” from July 21-to July 28. Since 2005, many churches and various organizations come together for a week of unconditional service in their local communities. It’s like a mission trip without leaving home.

Faith Hope and Love (FHL) www.fhlinternational.org has been gathering different denominations, cultures and social status together through projects and services that are developed by the local communities. Merlin Gonzales, the Founder of FHL said, “On Dec. 12, 2012 (12/12/12), I had an impression that in order to bring deeper revelation of the unity in the Body of Christ here in Central Indiana, we should have extended Prayer, Worship and Praise together.” In addition to projects and services, this year’s FHL Week will include 24/7 non-stop prayer/worship from July 21st 3p to July 28th 3p (Eastern time).

There are many projects and services that are in the planning stage, such as minor home renovation, neighborhood clean ups, providing toys for the children of distressed families, food drives, possible oil changes, and many more.

For more information or to interview Merlin Gonzales regarding the 2013 FHL Week, contact 317-578-3370 or [email protected]

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?

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.