Author: Ray Evangelista, RN

I was born an "Evangelista", I didn't choose to be in the ministry, the ministry chose me. I come from a long line of "evangelists" and although it would have been more glorious to have been a leader behind a pulpit, I chose to be a servant as a nurse and have been on ground zero helping the sick for over 27 years.

QOTD: Jesus Christ The Same Yesterday Today And Forever. 

52-0810E

“…in the garden of Eden, there’s two trees; one was knowledge and one was faith. One was Life. One was death of knowledge, other one was life by faith. And as long as they eat by faith of this tree, all right, they lived. But when he got on this tree, he died. The first bite he took, he separated himself from God. And man continually has been biting off of that tree. And every time he takes a bite by knowledge, he destroys himself. God destroy nothing. Man destroys himself through knowledge. 
Look, he bit hisself off some gun powder, kills his comrades. He bit hisself off of an automobile off the tree, kills more than all the wars put together. Is that right? Knowledge, knowledge, eating off that tree. He has got hisself an hydrogen bomb now; I wonder what he’s going to do with that. See? 
But the trouble of it is, these people, they figure up so much, on this tree of knowledge, then when they can’t figure it out any longer, they say, “bosh with all of it.” 
Listen, in the Name of the Lord, listen: When you can’t figure out any more, that’s the time to believe.”

Rev. William M. Branham

My “Christmiss” Message. 

Mankind has been studying the written Word since it was given. What was “perfect” found a way to be expressed in man’s futile imperfect symbols, letters and language.  

Prior to Creation, there was only one language or tongue that was spoken. The only thing needed to be written was already expressed perfectly in the heavens, and creation.

There was no need for man’s understanding or translation because our purpose was to believe in God and not to become a God.

To follow His precepts and not to create our own. 

Creation had no business in creating anything, not even in child bearing if it was outside God’s will.  But because we fell from God’s will, everything that man had created since then has created more death than life.

We were made in the image of God but WE WERE NOT GOD nor did we have the maturity to take on more than what God provided and advised. 

And if we studied the Tower of Babel, we can now understand why God was angered.

Because nothing will ever replace God’s original language or line of communication via our intimacy with the Holy Spirit. 

But if there is a lesson to be learned by the religious people during Jesus’s time and throughout history, and even here in 2016, it is that there is a difference between what is “written” and what is prophesied.  

Many knew, studied and recited the written “Word” but missed the “Word” when it became flesh in Jesus Christ, go figure? 

John 5:46 NIV

“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.”

The same goes with the prophecy of Moses, and all of the martyrs of the gospel before and after Christ.

Our faulty hearts want knowledge, but we really want faith, we think we want gifts, but we want the giver of the gifts, we want healing but we truly want the healer.

We think we need “counseling” but we really want The Counselor. We have been deceived that it is all about sacrifice, when it is love that we truly desire.

I can go on forever on these examples, but let us go to a book that is heavy on prophecy, the book of ISAIAH and may the Holy Spirit speak to you intimately as it has spoken to me. 

◄ Isaiah 65 ►

New Living Translation
Judgment and Final Salvation

1The LORD says,
“I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.

I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.

I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’

to a nation that did not call on my name.

2All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people.

But they follow their own evil paths

and their own crooked schemes.

3All day long they insult me to my face

by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens.

They burn incense on pagan altars.

4At night they go out among the graves,

worshiping the dead.

They eat the flesh of pigs

and make stews with other forbidden foods.

5Yet they say to each other,

‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me!

I am holier than you!’

These people are a stench in my nostrils,

an acrid smell that never goes away.

6“Look, my decree is written out in front of me:

I will not stand silent;”

May this chapter humble your hearts as it has humbled mine.  

My Lord, I come before you voluntarily to be humbled. No longer do I desire a Father’s scorn or discipline from you to be moved into the right direction.

My humility and pride I surrendered this year and now for 2017.

I desire a ministry like yours, a ministry that many do not desire. A ministry that builds faith and love vs. pride and sacrifice. 

I desire a more intimate relationship with you in 2017 my Lord. A relationship that is more than a father is to his son and more than that of a friend, I desire a love and bond that is sacred between a husband and his bride. 

Your people the Jews, and your Word also prophesy that the number “17” is about “complete victory and overcoming our enemies” and that is what I ask for the new year.

In accordance to your will of faith, hope and love in your name, Jesus Christ, amen.  

“In the book of 1Corinthians the thirteenth chapter, the seventeenth mention of the word ‘love’ comes when the apostle Paul states that it is the GREATEST gift of all (1Corinthians 13:13).”

The Meaning of 17 in the Bible

Brotherly love,

Ray Evangelista

The Fate of Faith in Perfection. 

John 1 NIV

“45Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”46“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.”

People will always go and listen to God where they have the faith to listen to Him. 

Whether it is a priest, ordained bible scholar, or even someone non-ordained (like a simple son of a carpenter).  It solely relies in one’s child-like faith to lead us into a more intimate relationship with God. 
Now the entity that takes the greatest FAITH to hear the gospel is what is pleasing to God.  For what we often deem FOOLISH,  God holds very great in His heart.  

It takes great FAITH to be reverend or to be still and to “hear” God in creation. How can something that is temporary point to something eternal? 

But this is the FATE of FAITH, it will always take great FAITH to receive a gospel of perfection from imperfection or a gospel of maturity from us who are immature.  However this is God’s will. 

The TRUE meaning of PERFECT biblically via Hebrew/Greek translations is simply about being mature. 

“The word “perfect” that we often use in religious conversation is frequently misunderstood. We tend to apply an unqualified philosophical meaning to it and have it mean “without flaw” or “without error” or put it into other absolute categories. It then becomes easy to say that Jesus’ command in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:48), “Be therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect,” is a laudable goal, but one that is impossible for human beings to achieve sicne we cannot possibly be perfect. That is even easier to do from certain doctrinal or theological positions that assume human beings can never respond to God beyond their contaminated sinful nature (see Body and Soul).

The problem in this thinking is that the Hebrew word (tam or tamim) does not carry the meaning of “without flaw” as does the term “perfect” in English. It normally means complete or mature or healthy (for example, Lev 22:21). That meaning of mature dominates most use of the equivalent Greek term in the New Testament (telos). Something, or someone, can be complete or mature yet not be “without flaw.” In fact, it is much easier to be mature and still have flaws, than it is to be without error or without flaw. Many people are mature, but few if any are “without flaw.” A six year old can be mature, and still have a lot of growing to do, just like a person can be “holy” and have a lot to learn about spiritual maturity.” – Dennis Bratcher, PhD

Dennis R. Bratcher: Is a Treasurer and Executive Director – A retired professor of Old Testament; he has earned the PhD in Biblical studies from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, and has served as a educator in the church for more than 25 years. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene, and has recently served on staff at a United Methodist church.

So hopefully this short note had planted a seed of compassion, love and an open mind to how God can truly use anyone and anything to draw us nearer to Him.   

It is simply a matter of faith and where we choose this relationship with God starts and ends.   

So to truly grow as a Christian, is to desire to be more intimate and mature on the things of God.   And as we grow, the less offended we become because there is something about feeling loved that inspires, encourages and produces confidence and compassion.

If we are to be the light and salt of the world, I pray it is because of our maturity and compassion in Christ.  

As always, God’s speed and love.

Ray Evangelista

Intro: The Origin of Dreams

“dream interpretation becomes very difficult due to the fact that the left hemisphere is forced to interpret what the right brain has created using a language the left brain does not understand.” – The Dream State

“While your whole brain works together, there are certain things that the right side and left side specialize in. The left side is the timekeeper, is concerned with words, reading, talking, math, logic and all that jazz. The right side is visual, spatial, emotional.

I was reading an article that explained how dreaming is unilateral, or, the majority of only one side of the brain is functioning at a certain time while asleep. The reason it’s so hard to write down dreams is because REM sleep is driven by the right side of your brain. Since the right side doesn’t care about time, it’s often difficult to figure out the sequence of events, or about how long it took for something to happen. 

It’s why you can’t read anything in a dream… that’s the left side’s job! Telling time also gets funked up because of this. The lack of the logic part of your brain makes you believe that stupid stuff in your dream is completely natural.
“Therefore, due to the lateralized remembrance of dreams, the left hemisphere of the brain must access the memories of the right brain when a person is asked to describe a dream or even to remember it. To access the memory banks of the right hemisphere, the left hemisphere must use the corpus callosum or anterior commissure. The left hemisphere of the brain is involved primarily in the encoding and recall of verbal, temporal sequential, and language related memories. As a result, dream interpretation becomes very difficult due to the fact that the left hemisphere is forced to interpret what the right brain has created using a language the left brain does not understand”

I think that’s so cool! I guess when you go lucid, you make the left side of your brain wake up to a certain degree.” – link

REFERENCE

Interesting isn’t it? 

I believe that when we dream, either good or bad, both are positive signs that our body, Spirit and soul is finally leaning on the “philosophical” or abstract side of our brains for answers vs. the concrete intellectual answers that will never fill this void in our heart. 

I have faith that this revelation will plant a seed of love in your heart and til my next note on this topic, I pray that you all will stay reminded of God’s unconditional love, even in your darkest hour. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, who defines what is abstract and what is unpredictable as the wind, 

Amen. 

Brotherly love, 

Ray Evangelista

Don’t Doubt, Wait on God. 

Genesis 3:17 “To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.”

Genesis 5:29 

“He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.”

Calvary was supposed to had freed us from a “curse”. Remind us my Lord what this “curse” was. 

Let me feel the LOVE only to the things that draw me nearer to you my Lord and may the things of SIN be the only time I feel the sacrifice and the sweat of my brow.

John 3 NIV

“17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

Romans 14:23 NLT

“But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.”

Wait on love. If you doubt anything, wait on God. Don’t just try to achieve a simple result and sell your birth right for bean stew or for a honeycomb.

For there is not enough sacrifices we or mankind can give that will even touch our our debt of sin. 

Only Christ can pay that debt in your heart and give us that joy and peace that we repeatedly try to find in sin.

Just receive it and receive it daily brethren. 

What separates LOVE and SACRIFICE is INTIMACY with God. 

It is what separates a Father’s love or a friend’s love from that of a love of a bride. 

To those who remain in the old, they only know sacrifice and will preach sacrifice.

But to those of us born of the Spirit, the old is gone and the journey of our rebirth has begun towards our intimacy and maturity with God and His love.

Apostle Paul knew love but his “Thorn” was that the “good” that he was suppose to do was still “sacrifice” to him. He was a “swordsman” and he still struggled with his nature, like we do.

His life by no means was it perfect my man’s standards, but “perfect” by God’s standards. And this maturity had set and example for the “Church” that to be mature is to know where you are immature. That our lives be symbolic of a life that represents a shield vs. a sword.

Because “perfection” is about maturity and to me, the Apostle Paul had more maturity than ALL the of old testament prophets combined. 

In the name that has fulfilled the prophecy of old and gives closure to all things, our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Amen. 

Brotherly love, 

Ray

 

Allergic to “SIN”. 

Had a revelation this morning.  
Being in the medical field for over 25 years I would always have people tell me that they were allergic to something but when I asked them what kind of reaction they had to the drug, many would reply,
“I don’t know, my mom told me when I was a kid and just stayed away from it.”

And I have heard this hundreds of times before and heard it again this morning from a 45yo but the Holy Spirit added a twist to this routine reply.  

“If we can avoid a drug simply by the word or the faith of a person we trust and love to stay away from something because of a “reaction” or a “side effect” or its potential that it can kill you, then why is it so hard to avoid the other things that also have “adverse reactions” in not only our bodies, but in our soul, relationships, homes and finances?”

I don’t know the answer quite yet, but this revelation this morning has given me a bit more compassion and hope that advice from someone you love and truly trust is powerful.

Brotherly love, 
Ray

Rebirth: The Beginning of Giving Freely. 

Matthew 16:19 NIV

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Today’s 13th reminder of God’s love. 
Luke 22:27 NLT (2+2+2+7=13)
“Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.”

And in our family group Friday we spoke about how much we gave or if we gave a “TIP” at some places like Sonic, Golden Corral, Furrs, etc., it was surely eye and heart opening discussion.

It was a blessing once again to gently (Galatians 6) wise, to be reminded of why we give via tithes, offerings and all of us who serve the “Church” in where we all have the faith to embrace God’s blessing of drawing nearer.   
And to be encouraging, and to defend those that religion frowns upon because you are not doing “enough”, my message to you is that if you help a christian brother or sister, or show love to the unlovable, then you are serving the “Church”.   

It may not be associated or in the capacity of the walls of a “church” building, but it is what Jesus stood for and that is serving “outside” of the walls of a temple and serving the “least” of his brothers and sisters”. (Matthew 25:40)

Now those of us that serve at a church, thats where it starts and where it should start, but just know that it also doesn’t end there. For me, I spent a lifetime around religion where people didn’t have the FAITH to take what was “in” the “church” outside into our communities, our jobs, schools or even in our homes. And we wonder why “christian” principles are leaving our schools and workplaces? 

What was once a feast of the gospel in our country has now become a famine. 
Now tithes and offerings is not rocket science, its really not even left brained logical. Its about being liberated from the legalism by the gospel and helping others in being freed from a life of “having to do” something out of expectations and compulsions to now “wanting” to do something out of love. Calvary should have CHANGED everything in the OLD TESTAMENT and in our hearts.
It should have changed our hearts from what we do for God and for each other from obligation to love, from “needing to do it”, to “wanting to do it”. 
From “God said so”, to a now more intimate, “I feel led to do it”.  
You heard me say before, “What was the difference between Jesus and the Pharisee’s or the “religious” people of His time?”

They both had the Holy Spirit, both served and even both were obedient to scripture. Jesus even bragged about their obedience. (Matthew 5:20)

The difference you may ask? 

What separated Jesus from the “Old” ways was in His intimacy with God. One served out of sacrifice and the other served out of love.  

One wanted to do His will and the other had to do His will (Levitical law). To the religious, it was a Father’s love, and to the disciples, a love of a friend and now to us, an even more intimate love of a Husband via the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)
So the blessed tithe and offerings and serving is about examining our hearts.  

For ANYTHING that God asks us to do POST Calvary, should now be on behalf of love. For let NO debt remain other than the debt to LOVE one another. 
So simply, The Blessed tithes and offerings is about funding those who preach the gospel of God’s love and keep in mind that what we sow is what we produce.  

Now ofcourse I will be more “loving” when it comes to my definition of “Tithes and Offerings” because I don’t have the pressures or the overhead of a physical church. Believe me, my family started churches that still exist today and remember the hardships of having the “funds” to continue. 

 And sadly you have to take on a legalistic mindset and cadence when preaching about giving because here is the TRUTH, if you don’t make it like the Old Testament and imply sacrifice and obligation than the people just won’t simply give.   

We won’t do it on our own because in our “mind” our money represents what we “earned”. We do not see it as something sown by God’s love. 

In our hearts we earned it with our own “hard labor” and why should God have some of it!” 

A great pastor said, 
“It is easier to tithe when it is someone else’s money, amen?”

And it is, and our salaries should reflect that. We just had the blessing to “earn” it. But it was not ours because although it may feel like sacrifice to you, it was truly sown out of God’s love.  

So unless our heart changes, unless we can end the curse of receiving things out of sacrifice and into a heart that receives things out of love, then the curse never changes.

This is why we should receive everything with thanksgiving. 
1 Timothy 4:4-6 NIV

“For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.6If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed,”
So now on serving, serving is about giving and “giving” is like the manner we give “gratuity” at a restaurant.  
By definition via dictionary.com, “gratuity” means; “something given without claim or demand.” And in my heart it lines up with scripture on being a “cheerful giver” without obligation or reluctancy.  

I believe that it is the Holy Spirit speaking to us that reminds us gently and out of love and compassion.  
I don’t believe that Jesus gave anyone guilt trips, for even Jesus knew that Judas’ deeds were evil and yet he loved him extra because that is what Jesus did, He loved the unlovable.  

Evil will often remind you of evil, but good will always remind you of good. 
Now “Sin” is a tricky thing. It is written, 
James 4:17 NIV

“James 4:17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”
“Sin” like you heard me before is nothing less than the state of being SEPARATED from God.  

Now the “Acts of sin”, or bad works is the product of being separated from God. However the “acts” good or bad mean nothing alone but just shows a peak in one’s heart and maturity.

This is why “works” alone won’t save you because good works done out sacrifice to me remains just as much separated from God as an evil work.   
God just doesn’t want a exterior result, He wants our heart.  

Psalm 51 NLT

“16You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering.17The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”

Psalm 40 NLT

“6You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand—you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings. 7Then I said, “Look, I have come. As is written about me in the Scriptures:

8I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.”

Matthew 12:7 NASB

“But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”

Hosea 6:6 ESV

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

God DOES NOT desire our sacrifices no more than our spouses or loved ones do, all we want and they want is our love.   
As men, we should provide for our families because we WANT to and not just because we HAVE to. Because when something becomes like we have to, then we LOSE our love for it.  
God didn’t curse Adam, He cursed the ground which meant Adam lost the connection from what he once did for love to now a sacrifice of labor. Jesus, the “second Adam” restored where Adam failed. He restored God’s will of FAITH, HOPE and LOVE first. 
You heard me say before, the scriptures in 1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “THESE THREE REMAIN, faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love”. Now if we look at that scripture, it says, “these three remain?”  
So my question, “Remain from what?” 

I believe the Old testament has 10 Commandments and the New Testament had these 3 (Faith, Hope, Love), which totals 13. And after Calvary, the 10 commandments or “The Law” ended and grace via faith, hope and love began.  
The Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes and the San Hedrin all were divided on how many laws they should observe. They knew about the 10 but some also knew that there should be more. This is why from the time God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, to the time Jesus came, it turned into over 600 laws!  
Really people? 

So one attribute of our failure in Eden was what we once did out of love, has now become sacrifice or work. 
Genesis 5:29 NIV

“He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.”
Jesus didn’t die on the cross because He HAD TO, but because He wanted to. 
Hebrews 12:2 NLT

“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the JOY awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”
Imagine that “joy” that He was awaiting? Kinda like Christmas morning! Lol
I want that joy too where I can endure all things where I have disregarded its shame and persecution. Don’t matter what this world throws at me, there IS a JOY awaiting me! The jokes on yall! Lol
John 15:13 NIV

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Jesus was speaking of Calvary. He loved us so much, that God was literally willing to do anything to get our FELLOWSHIP back via the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)
Now do you believe God gave His Son out of compulsion or out of reluctancy? Because he Had To or because He wanted to? 

You decide.  
I like the ISV of this blessed scripture. 
John 10:18 ISV

“No one is taking it from me; I lay it down of my own free will. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back again. This is what my Father has commanded me.”

This is why Jesus was not taken via force or when it was not the appointed time. Because IT HAD TO BE SOWN IN LOVE! His HEART had to be ready for this day because it was the beginning of a new covenant! It was the BIGGEST most important SEED to be sown!  
Mark 14 NIV

“48“Am I leading a rebellion,” said Jesus, “that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? 49Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.” 50Then everyone deserted him and fled.”
Notice the emphasis of Jesus not being taken by force or not by His will. 
Odly enough, how 1 John 3:16 complements John 3:16. 

1 John 3:16
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”
And with emphasis on laying down His life “willingly” out of love AND we should observe this SAME LOVE to willingly follow His commands of love in wanting to do good things because God loves a cheerful giver.  
Don’t get me wrong now, what made Jesus a man was that He too felt the “sacrifice” of His labors.

Mark 14 NIV

“35Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36“Abba,fFather,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

The word “Abba” translated is aramaic for a word used as “daddy” as I would like to believe a son would talk to his father when frustrated.  
So we were not alone. But you have heard me say many times the last few years that in all things we wait on God and if God is love than we wait on love. Just like the example Jesus set for us. Willingly the scriptures said He gave His life. When His heart was finally right with God, then it was time to assemble the Last supper.

Jesus was believed to be 33 years old. In the Jewish faith, it was an age of MATURITY. This IS the definition of maturity, to simply know when it is time do something. It is self discipline. As the scriptures states, that HE is the author and perfector of our FAITH. And the Hebrew word for “perfector” is “Tilos” meaning mature or maturity.  
At 33, Jesus came of His age of perfection, the age of maturity and this was His maturity in love and then it was finished. 
For if we cannot do it in love we do it out of sacrifice and sacrifices will produce great things but doing things with love comes with a promise of producing greater things for this life and the life to come

Lastly,
For those of you who have yet to observe Acts 2:38 out of love I close with this;
John 12 NIV

“23Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
27“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.”

Once again

“28Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.”
Acts 2:38-39

“38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
There is a Kingdom of God and this Kingdom has a door who is Jesus Christ but this door has a lock of revelation that was to Peter who holds these keys to unlock the mystery of Jesus Christ which is via the Holy Spirit. Its the most intimate of the triune God, more intimate than a father’s love and more intimate than a love of a best friend, it is a love of a spouse or a husband, its a love that a groom has for His bride. 
Ephesians 5 NIV

“31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”c32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.”
It was God “above us”(Father), God “with us”(Son) and now, God “in us” via the Holy Spirit. 

  
Make sure you have it brothers and sisters. This is the gospel, this is the true Good news, draw nearer than the love of a father and a friend, become one with God by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit via baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.  
And by His name, a name by why a bride will take on the name of her husband and lose her own, a name that does not deserve to be left out in our baptism which is the most intimate testimony that a Christian will publicly observe, the name above ALL names, the name by which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

With Agape love, your brother in our war against sin, 

Ray Evangelist

“What defined a great teacher in Jesus Christ will define a great husband, wife, father, mother, brother and sister.”

And for me, a great teacher is patient and creative.  

Giving Is Ilogical. 

Matthew 6:3 NLT”But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

No doubt a parable and figuratively speaking.  Because how is that possible logically?  Both hands will know because its one body?  How do I keep my left hand from knowing what my right hand is doing? 

In other words, don’t over think our giving. Because giving will always be illogical when we try to do the “math”.  

Why?  

Being truthful, because we can find better ways to utilize that money.

Amen? 

So when “giving” finally becomes “logical” to us, it loses its ability to please God because FAITH alone pleases God.  

This is what makes the New Testament “NEW”.   The Old way of giving DID NOT WORK.  It produced great external things, but it did not do squat for our hearts. 

Now, it is not about much you give and how frequent anymore, but instead God searches the motive of our hearts and he does not desire our sacrifice.  He rather see us mercificul, have compassion and feel sorry for those who are struggling.  

God loves a cheerful giver, not one who gives out of reluctancy or compulsion. 

So here is a bit of advice from Jesus himself, just give out of love and don’t even allow our left brain the luxury to over analyze it!  

Amen? 

Praise God, 

Ray Evangelista