Category: Faith

Do Not Fear Those Who Judge Us Before The Appointed Time.

1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV

“Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.“

If you ever been selected for jury duty, you would know that not just anyone gets selected for a trial.

In fact, many go through a selection process where the attorneys ask these potential jurors a few questions.

Basically, what they are looking for initially, are candidates who can think clear, remain unbiased about an issue and exhibit a form of maturity without any obvious signs of confusion.

They should also be living a life that remotely represents what they believe and is not easily offended.

People that are NOT swayed simply by emotions, or superficial factors like money and popularity.

So the main reason that I brought this topic up is because the Holy Spirit reminded me this morning of this simple wisdom.

He reminded me that if our natural Court systems DO NOT ALLOW these confused people to judge others, THEN WHY DO WE allow these same confused people judge us as if their opinions matter?

Sadly, it is those who are confused the most who judge others the most.

Because if they truly understood what was the issue, they would be led by compassion to NOT cast judgement, but to show mercy.

“Confused people are not fit to judge others in a court of law, let alone judge the body of Christ.” – MMA

1 Corinthians 2
“14The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,”

Brothers and sisters,

In the name of Jesus Christ, be freed from the fear of our external critics.

We have only one critic in Christ, Jesus and He is our judge, jury and advocate/attorney.

So let us remember that the evident signs of confused individuals are those who are quick to judge.

John 8 NIV

“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.”

Freedom!

Your brother in our war against sin.

Amen.

Ray Evangelista

Faith IS an Action.

I asked God that I wished I had more time, and He replied, “You think you need more time, but what you really need is more faith.”

And when I look back, I did waste a lot of time over thinking things and did very little.

And where I did have the faith to “rise up and go” to do something, it was not really faith at all, just complacency.

That’s my prayer for us all.

Faith, hope and love are actions. Those things inspire us to do good works or “acts”. #acts2:38

Confessing with our mouths that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior is an action.

Raising our hands or walking up to answer an altar call is an action and finally being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is also an action or work.

Now allow me to FINALLY CLARIFY that these “works” DO NOT save you!, however, it is our FAITH IN these “things” that does.

Luke 17:19 NIV
“Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

So when you have the FAITH to step into His presence today, please remember us all.

God’s speed and love, in the name of Jesus Christ, your brother in our war against sin,

Ray Evangelista

A MUST READ for 2019: What We Should Expect From God’s Love this Year.

INTRODUCTION:

I wish I can say I was a “best-selling” Christian book author, however, that title somehow does not accurately represent what being a “Christian” is all about.

I truly don’t believe that God would endorse anything that we “SOLD” that was given to us freely. Jesus wasn’t angered much, but there was an account of Jesus really making a scene at the Temple, specifically because they were “buying and selling”. What was suppose to be a house of prayer in uniting God with the believer, man had turned it into a market-place where it pushed the believer further away from God. Simply, we found a way to take what was free, and turned it into solely a money making entity.

Now, I am not against making money, but simply on what Christian churches emphasize the most. Put it this way, when Christians know Malachi 3:10 more than they know what Acts 2:38 is, then we have our priorities out of order and this is where we failed as elders of the Church. Give the people what they came for freely, and that is the free gift of the Holy Spirit.

What is a greater promise?

The promises of Malachi 3:10 or the Promises of Calvary via receiving the Holy Spirit?

Isaiah 55 CEV

“1 If you are thirsty, come and drink water! If you don’t have any money, come, eat what you want! Drink wine and milk without paying a cent. 2 Why waste your money on what really isn’t food? Why work hard for something that doesn’t satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and you will enjoy the very best foods. 3 Pay close attention! Come to me and live. I will promise you the eternal love and loyalty that I promised David.”

This is why the Apostle Paul, who was the specific messenger to us Gentiles, didn’t allow people to rob him of this boast to preach the gospel freely and to solely rely on the people’s love to give cheerfully vs. traditional means of “buying and selling” or with a heart of exchange.

1 Corinthians 9 NIV

“13Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

15But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast. 16For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 18What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.”

Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand the psychological and legalistic reasons why we must “buy and sell” things, or why we all should have “skin in the game,” or why people need to place fifty cents in a shopping cart to return it, but let us call it what it is, and may we simply desire to end or quit playing these immature psychological games of deception in the church, to push maturity, and to live by what is pure and true.

The simple truth is that God paid all sacrifices IN FULL by offering his only Son on Calvary for us. And ALL DEBTS were paid in full, all healing, marriage issues, addiction, illness, diseases, cancers are PAST TENSE.

“By His stripes we WERE healed”.

Romans 13:8 NIV

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”

If we do anything outside of love, then the Cross be emptied of its power.

There is nothing that me or you can give as a sacrifice to God or to anyone in our lives that was not already made complete in Christ Jesus our Lord via Calvary.

Hosea 6:6 NLT

“I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”

Once again, outside of the church, those tactics are expected, however among the elders of the church, we should be able to see the need to mature past these “guilt trips” that organized religion resort to to achieve an outcome.

Now if you are a child, then maybe it’s age appropriate measures, but when do we grow up?

When do we push maturity?

18?
21?
33?

Because I am 46 years old now and I’m long over due to move past the mythological stories of Santa Claus and the Easter bunny.

It’s the same parallel of how the Greek God’s were to Christianity, it’s time for us to see clearly how faith in those mythical characters were just a stepping stone to pave the way for our faith in Jesus Christ who is the author and maturer of our faith.

The very core values of Greek wisdom via Aristotle Socrates, and Plato predated Jesus Christ by about 1500 years?

And via Apostle Paul and the gospel of Jesus Christ, this core Greek belief system is now called Greek MYTHOLOGY?

Why is that?

1 Corinthians 13:9-10 NIV
“9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.”

In fact, Hinduism is the oldest of all beliefs, which predates even Greek beliefs, but if you studied Hinduism, there are a striking resemblance of Greek and Hindu beliefs.

The 9 Similarities Between Greek and Hindu Beliefs.

Now in defense of the Gospel, God sent the Apostle Paul to Greece and the disciple Thomas to India. Not that Thomas was any less of a believer, but a matter of order and at that time, Greece was and became the very fabric of infrastructure contributing the design of what a democracy is, to the power of unity via the Olympics.

So it was likewise that God send someone who possessed the very qualifications or credentials that this Greek audience had faith in.

The Apostle Paul was a very learned man and gravitated to a lot of very wealthy, intellectual, and well educated people. Apollos and the physician Luke to name a few.

This is why I believe the Apostle Paul was so important to further the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is a God of order and the priority to be led by truth is always aimed at our leaders.

The leaders of our homes, communities and churches. Now a change can start from the ground level, but let us learn from Jesus Christ.

Let us learn that a healthy change starts from the top-down vs from the bottom-up which is often mistaken as mutiny, anarchy or a rebellion.

Once again, neither way is right or wrong, but there is an order.

And I believe that through the Apostle Paul, God had an obligation to minister to the leaders of this world more intimately than ever before.

Isn’t God awesome? He done found a way to preach to the wise and learned so that no one is without excuse.

So The Apostle Paul literally took the HIGH road and The Disciple Thomas took the LOW road. Once again, not a competition, nor it is about right or wrong but of order. You send soldiers to all regions to defend the gospel.

Here is the rest of the 1 Corinthians 13, it was too good for me to leave it out.

“8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

So now, hopefully I have your attention, so let us move forward to what God placed in my heart today.

So you may have heard me say before that “love” has no expectations, however allow me to clarify this, because what we do out of love does come with a healthy expectation.

Now this healthy expectation however does come with an order and biblically it’s often referred to as a “reward” from God.

And this “reward” or expectation for our good works should always be placed on God before any expectations on people or creation.

This is how placing God or the Kingdom of God first in our lives looks like. For when we seek Him first, then the “rest” will follow.

We are “selling” ourselves short of the full measure of God’s blessings if we simply look first to superficial validation alone either from God, family, friends and people.

May we have learned from Esau, and desire NOT to give away our birthright for a mere bowl of bean soup!

Because God’s reward is far greater than the euphoria that ten thousand “likes” or “followers” can ever provide or the temporary hunger satisfaction of one hot meal.

It’s so far more greater than all the luxuries in this world can offer that Jesus even turned it all down when Satan offered it to Him.

God’s reward is simply the peace and confidence it provides in our hearts to live with ourselves and with others despite our failures and constant struggles interpreting the knowledge of good and evil.

It’s aka “forgiveness” for ourselves and then for others. It’s being able to look back and to finally say, “it is well with my soul my Lord.”

You see, what defines a “blessing” is anything that reminds us of God’s unfailing love and that draws us closer to God vs. pushes us away or further from Him.

We often say that our jobs, marriages and children are blessings from God, but I don’t know about you, but all these things were keeping me away from God and his Church than drawing me closer!

So how can we have the confidence to say that these are all blessings when it is keeping us distant from He that blesses us? How can we receive the healings and deny the healer? Receive the gifts, but never know the giver of these gifts, and lastly be well versed on His scriptures, but never know the author?

Ironically, true blessings are often disguised as “good” and “evil”. This is why it was NOT God’s will for us to even try to interpret or “eat’ of this tree in Eden.

Isaiah 45:7 KJV

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”

We didn’t have the maturity that God possessed to look upon these “good and evil” things and for it not to sway us into anxiety, depression, and anger.

We were suppose to live like children, child like faith.

Children run around with no shame or guilt, they don’t worry about their next meal or the logistics of things, they just live and live life abundantly. A mature parent teaches their children this order of living by our faith in God first before dipping into the knowledge of good and evil.

Knowledge will always complement FAITH, but FAITH will never complement knowledge.

This is why we need the Holy Spirit in us. This is why I lead an Acts 2:38 ministry. An Acts 2:38 Ministry is simply making sure the believer understands what God requires of us to be one with Him.

It is not enough to have God merely above us or with us, or simply around us. Don’t be content with an external relationship with God. This is why the disciples all failed, this is why Jesus died on the cross. So that WE may have what He had. He was the first born of many brothers and sisters, He was the prototype to desire the most INTIMATE relationship of the TRINITY and that is the symbol of a marriage between a husband and his wife as Christ loved the Church.

Its more intimate than a Father’s love, more intimate than that love of a friend in Jesus as He was called Emmanuel meaning “God with us”. It is about “God being in us”, a marriage between our body, soul and Spirit is what constitutes a rebirth. Not just simply an Altar call, although that is where it begins, it surely does not end there.

God’s Spirit in us makes us ONE with God and it gives us the mind and heart of Christ to have the maturity to now look optimistically on the knowledge of good and evil and to finally be at rest or peace with life. A rebirth cannot be defined any other way.

1 Corinthians 2 NIV

“14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.“

God’s WILL was this order, to live by FAITH in God first and then the “knowledge of good and evil” complemented our Faith in God.

No special theological training needed, or works, or dues that needed to be paid, it’s a simple diagnosis and a simple treatment plan. So simple that uneducated shepherds and fisherman understood it. So simple that Jesus not being a sinner was obedient to a sinner’s baptism conducted by John the baptist which specifically was a baptism of repentance.

Once again, no special trained or educated or certified professionals or counselors, NOT by might nor by power but by God’s Spirit alone!

He is “THE” COUNSELOR and He alone is the GREATEST PHYSICIAN. He will diagnose and heal your body, soul and spirits.

Romans 8 28 NLT
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

So do we love God?

And if your answer is “yes” like me,

Then what are we worried about then?

Now can you find healing through those professionals?

Sure, that is the only downfall of grace, that many will find there healing but will never find there healer. Once again, never a matter of right or wrong, but of order. You may want to save your soul before you desire to save your life.

Mark 8:36 NLT

“And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

And if you ever get the blessing to learn this early in life, you will notice that ALL these professionals and experts in “healing” literally preach the gospel. Satan just found a way to re-badge and re-label God’s precepts and teachings, and has found a way to SELL YOU what God has already given to us freely.

If Satan found a way to sell us bottled water, he can find a way to sell you anything that was already free.

We should desire in life a measure of maturity for every measure of blessing and with every adversity that God had entrusted unto us. Yes, you heard me correct, God had trusted us with all the adversity that we experienced.

Now sadly, I have failed the majority of these tests, but this is what love is. It is about facing your fears and not avoiding them.

Its about walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and not going around it. It is about God consistently giving you the same questions that you missed earlier on the test, but rewording it, throwing it back at you again, and to see if you answer it the same or differently. To see if you are genuinely founded on His Word or if you are just simply guessing.

It’s the measure of wisdom and peace that He gives us for past, present and future circumstances.

To fully grasp the order or God’s will on what creation can offer and what it cannot.

To appreciate the gifts but to also desire greater gifts.

To simply quit looking at superficial validation on things solely and to aim higher.

God’s reward is best described as what Peter said about baptism.

1 Peter 3:21 NIV

“and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also–not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”

It cleans the cup from the inside. It provides an atmosphere around others that is unmatched by any man-made philosophy, Creed or belief.

It’s the drawing power of the Cross.

It’s the product of God’s love. And once we feel this love in us, then now we possess the maturity to truly appreciate creation and it’s superficial validations whether it is from one or one hundred thousand.

And those that truly love us with God’s same love, will encourage us, because they too recognize the order and power of validation from God and through His people.

We are in debt, this country is in debt, this world is in debt because we are trying to give what we DO NOT HAVE.

Because of Calvary, there is NO MORE DEBTS remain outstanding other than the DEBT to love one another and we cannot love others in the capacity that God wants us to love them if we are NOT in UNION with His Spirit.

This year, may we be reminded continually that He is our Shepherd, and that He is what we fix our eyes on and that WE LACK NOTHING. Because through Him I see His blessed assurance everywhere.

Desire to repent and to be baptized everyone of you specifically in name of Jesus Christ and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I cannot emphasize this formula any stronger.

Prior to the Passover, Moses gave his people specific instructions on what preparations they must observe so that the Spirit of death would pass over their home. It was simple instructions with simple ingredients commonly found in everyones lives. Make the connection people, we cannot offer God anything more or less. Jesus gave the keys of the Kingdom of God to Peter alone and said He would bind on heaven what Peter bound on earth. Peter made it clear that the way, truth and the life was via baptism in the name of Jesus Christ as our only way to remit our sins and to unite the believer with God’s Holy Spirit.

“The Word of God has to first be a love letter to us before it can be a book of rules and regulations. Obedience without love becomes religion.” – MMA

Your brother in our war against sin.

Ray Evangelista

As 2018 Comes to a Close.

1 Samuel 16:7 CSB

“But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the LORD sees, for humans see what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart.”

Good morning to our humble family of believers which are bound by a name that Jews to this day, would never say aloud in fear of the 3rd Commandment of using it in vain.

But we know now, by revelation that UNLESS we use His name for uniting the believer with the Holy Spirit in baptism, then all other uses are in vain.

Now we can use His mighty name for other things, however we will be avoiding the sole purpose on why His name was given.

Because when we have studied all the scriptures and all the biblical stories both Old and New, we should have come to a conclusion that it was never a teaching of what was right and wrong, but of order.

And the “believer” may want to use His great name in receiving the greatest gift of God, the Holy Spirit via Acts 2:38, before attempting to desire lesser gifts.

1Cor 12 ends it’s last verse 31 that we should “desire greater gifts, and I will show you the most excellent way”,

And then Chapter 12 ends and Chapter 13 begins on what “love” truly is.

As 2018 closes, remember the scripture above, because we often look at the outside of things more than what God is doing to our hearts. And the inside of the cup is where it starts.

In honor of King Solomon, there is no sense in having all the nice external things in life, if we DO NOT have the wisdom nor the maturity for it all.

Circumstancially, Jesus and his disciples were a mess, if you disagree you haven’t been in a life group with a dozen broken men in it! Lol and we had 40!

Man, we were a mess, BUT regardless how much we looked like a bunch of misfits, we made lots of noise and guess what?

It worked! And it continues to work!

Not by man’s intellectual STANDARDS, but by the FOOLISHNESS of God.

So meditate on how God humbled your heart this year.

Also meditate on how God trusted you with adversity and how your heart has matured and lastly, how much we have drawn closer to the Creator than to Creation.

The things of this Earth will only become strangely dim, if only a greater light, comes into our hearts and life. As the MOON 😉 yields to The SUN/Son every morning as a testimony of this.

So let us be CONTENT and NOT COMPLACENT as this year closes everyone.

For this is not only the day, but also the YEAR God had made and let us likewise be glad and rejoice in it!

To the Author and Maturer of each of our faith, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Your brother in our war against, fear, depression, anxiety and everything left brained.

Ray Evangelista,

Amen.

Ecclesiastes 10:2 NIV

“The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.“

WAIT!

One question for you all!

For 2019, will you give God and others FULL CONSENT to “USE” you?

By answering “yes” we understand that we will be “used” in the worse scenarios possible and used without NO expectations of receiving anything in return other than the joy it solely creates in our heart to bless and love someone.

Why Did We Miss The Son of God?

One could ask, “if the pharisees and sadducees all dedicated their lives studying the scriptures, how then did they miss Jesus?”

God made them as an example of what we should not do. This is what happens when we only take what is literal and miss the symbolism in scripture.

Love is a very symbolic expression. Love and symbolism are both very right brain characteristics that complement each other.

Without this symbolism in a relationship there is no expression of intimacy and without this intimacy there is no love.

Once again, this is why the “Word” became flesh. If we understood the symbolism, we would have recognized Him. He had to come to set the record straight. He showed mankind that we were all wrong about our translation of the Word.

This is why He gave us the Holy Spirit. To “remind us” of everything that He taught us from the beginning.

John 5:46

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

Nicodemus was probably so happy to have met the I AM personally. Sadly he could not share his joy with his colleagues. Sadly, that feeling is all to familiar to us these days.

So what can we learn from Nicodemus?

If we can be just a bit “right brain” for a moment, God just maybe able to speak to us.

Why the symbolism?

Because it takes FAITH to see the symbolism and faith is what pleases God.

Next, I have learned Nicodemus made a huge public testimony by helping with the burial of Jesus.

And notice that after he received who Jesus was, The Christ, Nicodemus had the power to overturn the crucifixion because they had to have majority rule. But I believe he allowed it. Because Nicodemus finally understood what Christ came to do.

He did not like it one bit, but I guarantee Nicodemus shortly after left his high position and lived a life sharing his story of how we must be born again.

There should be a movie about Nicodemus. I bet he cried so much. Everything he studied all his life, was now face to face with him.

He had the honor to have shook His hand who formed all things, he probably gave Him a hug and I bet Nicodemus had so many questions and enjoyed Jesus’ fellowship. He probably came to Jesus by night several times.

I bet he secretly gave financially to Jesus’ ministry because he knew that this is where it should go.

So much left out, but by faith I see the symbolism coming to life.

Nicodemus was the “People’s Victory” indeed.

Today, there are many Nicodemus’ out there in organized religion. And this is my ministry to find them.

Nicodemus (/ˌnɪkəˈdiːməs/; Greek: Νικόδημος) was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin mentioned in three places in the Gospel of John:

He first visits Jesus one night to discuss Jesus’ teachings (John 3:1–21).

The second time Nicodemus is mentioned, he reminds his colleagues in the Sanhedrin that the law requires that a person be heard before being judged (John 7:50–51).

Finally, Nicodemus appears after the Crucifixion of Jesus to provide the customary embalming spices, and assists Joseph of Arimathea in preparing the body of Jesus for burial (John 19:39–42).

That Nicodemus was truly a protestant at heart. His story was all to great not to be told and is a blessed reminder of his love For God. I personally thank God for Nicodemus’ faith to live beyond what was written or literal.

Your brother in our war against sin,

Amen

Ray Evangelista.

Literal Symbolism.

There was a time when a Pastor would tell me in regards to scripture, “Don’t read into it”. Meaning that I should not venture off the literal meaning of scripture. However, what message are we sending as elders of the spiritual church of God?

What is “literal” is good, and it is not a matter of right or wrong, but of order.

We, mankind, have been deceived on what we classify of what is “literal” and “figurative” because it is all figurative.

Because what we deem as literal; words, letters, characters, and numbers are really just “symbols” of something true and what is true is that all of creation points to the Creator. When we lose this connection, we lose vital meaning and intimacy between our relationship between God and mankind.

“The Word of God must first be a love letter before it can become a rule book.”

These words are just a basic symbolic expression of what is real and in no way should be taken as truth alone.

The word coffee is not really coffee and the word apple, is not an actual apple.

For example, the word “faith” is not faith. The word “hope” is not hope and the word “love” does not even express a fraction of what love truly is.

In fact, scientifically, when we “see” the word love, it is our right brain that will interpret these characters to us and produce a conclusion by linking our personal experiences of love (good or bad) which creates our own personal definition of what “love” truly is.

So what does this all amount to?

Well, the “Word” became flesh for a reason. The “Word” or what was written had to become an actual being and an expression of flesh because we got the wrong interpretation of what was written in the scriptures.

So if this note will teach us anything, it would teach us that even what we perceive as literal in life and scripture, still has a very symbolic and deeper meaning if we can believe.

A life of literal meanings is what we are trying to escape in this world.

Now if we are still children, yes we need literal boundaries, but when do we push maturity? At what age?

And who around us will we allow intimately to push or encourage our maturity?

These are valid questions that the “church” are obligated to address and yet they do not. Because unless we are preaching about receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, then we remain in a immature spiritual state and require discipline over having the power of self-discipline via the Holy Spirit.

Look around us, we are grown adults that are still fighting childhood demons of envy, lust, addiction, gluttony, and abuse.

Everything in our lives speak that we have a lack of self discipline.

I have been a poor steward of God’s blessings. It was never a question of God providing, but a question of my management.

“Our problem in this country is NOT our ability to make money, but our ability to manage it.”

Let us learn from great men like King David. Sadly, he was more mature as a young man intimate with God then as an adult separated from God with so many distractions. Apart from God we truly cannot do anything.

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Maturity is about living by faith, by hope and most of all living by love. Maturity is about living beyond what is literal and what is “seen” or by what we perceive as good or evil. There is more to it than just “bad luck” or this is what we deserve.

Philippians 4:7 “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Life is about many personal messages and experiences that God sends to us in one of three ways, aka the “Trinity”. And in this “Trinity” comes three intimate messengers of love with the latter being the most intimate;

First, the love of a Father, second, the love of a best Friend via His Son and finally, the love of a Husband to His Bride via the Holy Spirit.

All are in harmony to remind us that there is something greater than what is literal.

I have much more to write, but I trust that by faith, the true Counselor will guide you unto all truth and the mysteries of this blessed subject. May this serve simply as a “Theatrical trailer” to a greater full length feature film.

Now if you still remain a very literal person about scripture, I close with this scripture:

Acts 2:38

“Peter 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.”

In the name of Jesus Christ, your brother in our war against sin.

Ray Evangelista

To Live By More Than Just Bread Alone.  

“You know, there’s a lot of sheep food, and there’s a lot of food you give your sheep would kill it. And I’m so glad that God was mindful enough of His sheep to get the right kind of Shepherd, the Lord Jesus. He knows what sheep food is. And you know what sheep food is? It’s the Word of God. “Man shall not live…” May I change that just a little; “Sheep shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The sheep of God are fed by the Word of God. The Holy Spirit in you, what makes you the sheep, feeds solemnly on the Word. And solely He feeds on the Word. Anything you throw in the pen outside the Word, He will root it out to one side and let it lay there.” – Rev. William Branham
Matthew 4:4 NIV

“Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The context of this verse was that Satan was focusing God’s will on these stones. Satan was testing Jesus to change something that was “useless” in his eyes to something more purposeful like “bread”.

Little did Satan know that Jesus does not live by these labels. That a stone has just as much purpose to God as bread, like a toe just as important as a finger or an eye equal value as an ear.

ALL things speak of God’s glory regardless what mankind labels as useful or useless, good or evil.

This verse is about diversity. God is The “I AM” and is in everywhere and everything, and only an immature mind and heart walks by sight. 

Brothers and sisters, 

It was written in John 3, which was a very rare moment where God took the time to speak to those who were highly fluent in the very scriptures He wrote.

“8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”9“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.10“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”

Remember that perfection is about maturity and maturity sends a message of great faith in God.   Always stay open minded and may we do our best to love people and not things.  Search His will and you will find it. 

In the most honorable name worthy to fight for, Jesus Christ. 

Your brother in our war against sin,

Ray Evangelista. 

Amen.