I believe that one of the bible verses that should be a staple in our christian life is Matthew 28:19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit...
Funny thing is that I have heard numerous preachings about this, I have tought using this verse and believe it 100%. Why is it so hard to apply?
I found myself asking that question lately. Jesus' last commanment was directed to the church. In a sense he is saying that we need to affect those around us. We need to not only interact but have a purpose for that interaction...to share the gospel and to disciple them. We need to be open and honest and to build lasting, meaningful and impactful relationships.
What happens so very often is that we become trap in the Christian bubble. Let me explain, after accepting Jesus christ as your savior you are encouraged to join a congregation if you have not done so. You are also encourage to read the word, which is always important and to pray. All these things are great and should be done. You are also encouraged to leave you former life and everything associated with it behind as well. The problem is that this includes the very people that we should be trying to reach. Now I am not saying that we should continue to relate with people that will hinder our walk with Christ but more often than not we rarely look back at those who were in our inner circle before we accepted Jesus. Once we have a "Christian" inner circle, we cut ties with those that were around us and knew how we were before we accepted. When this happens we become trap in a christian bubble where everyone we associate with knows who Jesus is. From the ministries that we are a part of to the associations we belong to, the events parties and celebrations we participate in we are for the most part sorrounded by Christians. Now this in itself is not bad. The question is when and with whom do we live out Matthew 28 :19? Who are we preaching to? Who are we baptizing? The first part of the verse that says 'Therefore go out' means we are sent. We need to take the appropriate steps to be in the places and with the people that we know need the word of God.
I know that I have fallen victim to this. But I have decided to be proactive and take steps to be able to share and witnes to those around me and live a lifestyle of evangelism. I will seek to share not only on saturday when we have outreach events or inside the church to visitors but also as I live my life. Not only because I know that people need to hear the gospel but because Jesus commanded me to do it.
I am...
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We can all identify with some culture of another, there are things that we do, say or ways we act that either distinguishes us from others or identify us with a group.
I’ve gotten some pretty funny emails; one of them came with a title of “You know you’re Hispanic if…
These stereotypical jokes are funny but they also identify us and groups us within a culture. Many people have tried to answer the question who am i? And not just in stating your name or relevant information but in saying or really knowing who you are. The bible, as our guide gives us many instances where it shows us who we are.
Eph. 1:3-7
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he[a] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
I am blessed!
We, who are in Christ, those who have trusted Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, are blessed with every spiritual blessing. We are blessed. We need to realize that we should be praising God for the things that we have already.
Clothing, food, health, family, home, the basic necessities…. We are truly blessed. I had the opportunity to be part of a show where World Vision made a presentation on adopting a child. I was floored by the statistics. 32,000 kids die a year because they don’t have the basic necessities. They don’t die from incurable diseases, they die because they don’t have access to running water or food to eat.
Sometimes I am amazed how some of us go crazy when we don’t have the opportunity to text, or to email or to get on the computer. We consider some of those things our basic necessities, but in the light of the statistics from World Vision, all this is rubbish.
I am chosen!
We are chosen, even before the foundation of the earth was formed we where chosen by God to be His people, to be holy and blameless in His sight! I don’t know about you but that makes me feel pretty special. Let me ask you this… have you ever been chosen last for a game. You know how it goes… first to get chosen are the jocks or athletic ones, then the friends are picked because well they are friends, then family members cause you know you don’t want them to be last. Then come that ones that you might not really know but they look like they can add to the team and lastly are those who… well the ones that always get pick last.
God saw more value in us than that! There are no last picks for him, we are all picked first! We are chosen you to be his child. God chose you to be with him.
I am His child!
John 1:12 says, for all who believe and for those who receive He has given the right to be called Children of God! You have a father who is omniscient, omnipotent, who is all powerful, who created everything you see here, who take care of you who loves you, who chose you! You have a father who wants the best for you who has given you the best gift that any one can give. He has given you life. He has sacrificed His own Son so that you can become His son!
I grew up in a single parent household. For me it was such a life changing realization that God knowing all my faults, knowing my short comings, knowing my most inner thoughts would chose me with out hesitation. That He would chose me even before He created me. He wanted me as His son. I can not put into words what that means to me.
In these times where more and more fathers are absent from the home we need to share this powerful truth, God wants us to be his Child.
Be proud to call God your father! Be proud to call in his name and talk about what He has done! Be proud to be called a child of God! Many of us try to hide that fact that we are Christians or down play how involve or how much time we spend in church or how much we know about the word. Why? Why do we do that? We can be so proud of so many other things that have no lasting affect in our lives but we can’t be proud of being a child of God, a child of the King, the Creator of the earth! So therefore I will praise his name. My actions, my thoughts, my relationships, the way I treat people, my life will be to praise him.
I am Free!
I am free from all the sins that I have committed before. I am free from the conviction of the things that I am ashamed that happened in my past. I am free from the condemnation that the enemy tries to throw on me. I am free from all the accusations that might creep in my mind… I have been redeemed by the Grace of God. I have been bought back by the riches of God! Let me tell you something… God is rich. I mean He is wealthy! Think about it, if all of us we have all been redeemed here and our price was a high one to pay then My God is Rich… in Grace.
Sometimes we allow our thoughts to run amok and we entertained them way too much. Most times if not all those times that we allow those thoughts to roam without boundaries they become detrimental to our spiritual growth. I am so thankful that we are free from that. We are free from the bondage and captivity or our past and our thoughts.
I am Wise!
Do you know people that learn the hard way? Worst of all they are proud about it! They say, “well I have to go through it in order to learn”. A favorite saying or phrase is I learn from the school of hard knocks… Why? Why would you want to learn by hard knocks? I believe that wisdom is learning from other people’s mistakes and not going through them your self. Don’t get me wrong I get some sort of pleasure saying to someone “ I told you so” but I think I like it even more when I see that they have exercise their wisdom and don’t go through the headaches and hard knocks. I think God has the same pleasure, He does like to see us go through hardships that are unnecessary. Headaches and heartaches that could have been avoided, if we would have just be a bit more wise with our decisions. I know that this might be a little cliché but when you need to make a decision stop, pray and ask what would Jesus do?
I can go on detailing who we are in Christ. You can search through the Bible and you will find verses that identify us and reaffirm our identity with God. I want you to understand that you are not just any one. You are not just some one else you are not just a human, more than a creation; you are not just cell and blood and bones and hair and skin. You are more than that. You are special, you are chosen, you are and heir to the kingdom of God, you are an ambassador, you are royal priest hood, you are the salt of the earth, you are light in this neighborhood, you are a co-laborer with God, and you are the image of God.
I’ve gotten some pretty funny emails; one of them came with a title of “You know you’re Hispanic if…
• You have ever been hit with a chancla as you running away from you mom
• Your mother yells at the top of her lungs to call you to dinner and you only live in a one bedroom apartment.
• You have ever used your nose or lips to point something out.
• If you consider platanos to be a food group.
• If all your pots and pans are kept inside the oven.
• You’ve ever dropped food on the floor, picked it up, ate it after saying, “Lo que no mata engorda”.
• People tell you to stop screaming when you`re really just talking.
• If you can finish this saying… Si es Goya…
• You have or had plastic slipcovers on your sofas.
• You know at least one person in your family named Maria, Carlos, Papo, Juan, Jose, Tony or Luis
• You constantly refer to cereal as “con flei”.
These stereotypical jokes are funny but they also identify us and groups us within a culture. Many people have tried to answer the question who am i? And not just in stating your name or relevant information but in saying or really knowing who you are. The bible, as our guide gives us many instances where it shows us who we are.
Eph. 1:3-7
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he[a] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
I am blessed!
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
We, who are in Christ, those who have trusted Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, are blessed with every spiritual blessing. We are blessed. We need to realize that we should be praising God for the things that we have already.
Clothing, food, health, family, home, the basic necessities…. We are truly blessed. I had the opportunity to be part of a show where World Vision made a presentation on adopting a child. I was floored by the statistics. 32,000 kids die a year because they don’t have the basic necessities. They don’t die from incurable diseases, they die because they don’t have access to running water or food to eat.
Sometimes I am amazed how some of us go crazy when we don’t have the opportunity to text, or to email or to get on the computer. We consider some of those things our basic necessities, but in the light of the statistics from World Vision, all this is rubbish.
I am chosen!
4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love
We are chosen, even before the foundation of the earth was formed we where chosen by God to be His people, to be holy and blameless in His sight! I don’t know about you but that makes me feel pretty special. Let me ask you this… have you ever been chosen last for a game. You know how it goes… first to get chosen are the jocks or athletic ones, then the friends are picked because well they are friends, then family members cause you know you don’t want them to be last. Then come that ones that you might not really know but they look like they can add to the team and lastly are those who… well the ones that always get pick last.
God saw more value in us than that! There are no last picks for him, we are all picked first! We are chosen you to be his child. God chose you to be with him.
I am His child!
5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
John 1:12 says, for all who believe and for those who receive He has given the right to be called Children of God! You have a father who is omniscient, omnipotent, who is all powerful, who created everything you see here, who take care of you who loves you, who chose you! You have a father who wants the best for you who has given you the best gift that any one can give. He has given you life. He has sacrificed His own Son so that you can become His son!
I grew up in a single parent household. For me it was such a life changing realization that God knowing all my faults, knowing my short comings, knowing my most inner thoughts would chose me with out hesitation. That He would chose me even before He created me. He wanted me as His son. I can not put into words what that means to me.
In these times where more and more fathers are absent from the home we need to share this powerful truth, God wants us to be his Child.
Be proud to call God your father! Be proud to call in his name and talk about what He has done! Be proud to be called a child of God! Many of us try to hide that fact that we are Christians or down play how involve or how much time we spend in church or how much we know about the word. Why? Why do we do that? We can be so proud of so many other things that have no lasting affect in our lives but we can’t be proud of being a child of God, a child of the King, the Creator of the earth! So therefore I will praise his name. My actions, my thoughts, my relationships, the way I treat people, my life will be to praise him.
I am Free!
7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace
I am free from all the sins that I have committed before. I am free from the conviction of the things that I am ashamed that happened in my past. I am free from the condemnation that the enemy tries to throw on me. I am free from all the accusations that might creep in my mind… I have been redeemed by the Grace of God. I have been bought back by the riches of God! Let me tell you something… God is rich. I mean He is wealthy! Think about it, if all of us we have all been redeemed here and our price was a high one to pay then My God is Rich… in Grace.
Sometimes we allow our thoughts to run amok and we entertained them way too much. Most times if not all those times that we allow those thoughts to roam without boundaries they become detrimental to our spiritual growth. I am so thankful that we are free from that. We are free from the bondage and captivity or our past and our thoughts.
I am Wise!
9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
Do you know people that learn the hard way? Worst of all they are proud about it! They say, “well I have to go through it in order to learn”. A favorite saying or phrase is I learn from the school of hard knocks… Why? Why would you want to learn by hard knocks? I believe that wisdom is learning from other people’s mistakes and not going through them your self. Don’t get me wrong I get some sort of pleasure saying to someone “ I told you so” but I think I like it even more when I see that they have exercise their wisdom and don’t go through the headaches and hard knocks. I think God has the same pleasure, He does like to see us go through hardships that are unnecessary. Headaches and heartaches that could have been avoided, if we would have just be a bit more wise with our decisions. I know that this might be a little cliché but when you need to make a decision stop, pray and ask what would Jesus do?
I can go on detailing who we are in Christ. You can search through the Bible and you will find verses that identify us and reaffirm our identity with God. I want you to understand that you are not just any one. You are not just some one else you are not just a human, more than a creation; you are not just cell and blood and bones and hair and skin. You are more than that. You are special, you are chosen, you are and heir to the kingdom of God, you are an ambassador, you are royal priest hood, you are the salt of the earth, you are light in this neighborhood, you are a co-laborer with God, and you are the image of God.
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