Faith

"It is given to us by God the Holy Spirit, and until we have it grace can not be ignited in the souls of men." (Matt Chandler)

But what exactly is faith? Hebrews 11 says that faith is the assurance of the things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

And what is hope? It is a state of discontentment. If we hope for more money some day is because we are not content with what we have right now. If we hope to some day be married is because we are not, if we hope some day to have a job is because we don’t have one. If we are not content is because we know there has to be something better, something beyond our reach and we want to have it. Discontent is the hope that there is something more, that there is something greater, that is unseen. Faith is such a beautiful thing because when this hope becomes a desperate cry that we need Jesus, that He is so much bigger and that only in Him we can find true life and meaning we draw near to Him.

Don’t you think that the worst thing that can happen to you is to be content, to be rich, and to have peace? With contentment in your life you do not have that hope that is the foundational piece of our faith.

By faith death is not an enemy, but it becomes our friend and just like Enoch we will know that the whole purpose of our creation is to be next to Jesus, we know that when we die we would go home where we belong.

By faith we have the capability to follow the absurd just like Noah did by making an Ark so big like no other in his time, far, far away form the ocean. What are some absurd’s in your life right now, God will lead you and give you the freedom, the faith and the hope for the things not seen so that even if it seam craziness to the world we will attain, just like Noah did, the inheritance of the righteousness that comes by faith, so that we might believe in God, walk in His will, so that we can find joy and purpose in the forward progress of the gospel in our life.

Fear not to embrace discontentment as a friend, and may God make you restlessness push you into him and in him be able to find the assurance of the hope that put us in this path, in this life, in this faith.

------------------

Check out the sermon on faith in Hebrews 11 from the http://www.thevillagechurch.net/

Letter to a friend

This is part of a letter that I wrote to a friend that I made while traveling, she ask me what did I learn from traveling, to what I answer the following:

In Seattle I had the opportunity to interact with the owners of the Hostel Seattle, young couple with a great heart, I told them about the Mars Hill Church and gave them a Bible and a indie rock Christmas CD before I left my first time there. When I came back they had send a few of their travelers to the church which they loved!! Non Christians sending people to the church, that is incredible.


In Minneapolis, after Pipers sermon I had the opportunity to write a simple Christmas letter to family and friends highlighting the importance of Jesus birth, life death and resurrection and I encourage them to remember the true meaning of Christmas, I prayed that God would work trough such a simple thing such as an email and so far I have gotten great feed back from believers and unbelievers. Minneapolis was altogether a wonderful experience.


Through out the trip God blessed me with great people, like you and the guys from group and many more in Seattle, I come to realize that you are all very solid people that still struggle in life but love Jesus with all of your hearts, this is so encouraging to me, you have no idea.


This is just a few of the events that happened over the course of my trip, I had the opportunity to share of Jesus with believers and non believers, family and friends and some how I see it as "Juan' s first missionary trip". I understand, and had the opportunity to experience the strength of God through times of temptation, of loneliness and exhaustion. I felt that I did not spend a lot of time in prayer, but I realize after listening to the Pipers message yesterday that I did pray more than I though and it was not something that I initiate, and with a few tears falling from my eyes I thank him for the great honor of serving him, for sharing with others, for all the stories, for all the people, for all the prayers that I recognize that did not came from me, and some how I can not understand why did he allowed me to have such an amazing trip because I am no worthy of such a blessing, it is a humbling experience because I know that non of it would have been possible apart from Him.


Now I come back to the same question, what did I learn...

God is alive, He provides, He is merciful, He creates situations where I get to share of his love and goodness with and without words, His word is beautiful and precious and I should read it and study it more, I have true brothers and sisters all over the place, Faith does get renewed, I am a sinner and God works despite of me, my testimony is important, I should be honest and real with the guys of my group when we restart it at the end of this month, every thing I do I should do it for the Glory of God, men all over the place struggle with similar issues than me and we should talk about it openly and encourage each other to repent and cut the sin in our generation, I discover the profound desire to respect and love woman (sisters and non sisters alike) and in the process of doing this honoring God and my future bride, I am learning what real manhood is and where to find it: in Jesus Christ... Most of this things I already knew them, but to live them is a very rich and powerful experience.

You did not have to read all, but if you made it to the end... :-)

God Bless you and thank you for being part of my amazing story!

In Him