The Privileged Sinner

When Jesus was resurrected, he first appeared to Mary Magdalene. When I realized what I had read in this passage, I started thinking and wondered: Why? Should he not have first appeared to his disciples, who were always with him? His disciples spent all their time with him, they saw healings, miracles, they were his servants. But when Jesus was resurrected, where were his disciples? The Bible tells us in Matthew 16: "The disciples were very sad. Some were still crying," in other words, while they were being emotional, Mary Magdalene was taking action, acting on her faith, looking for something to offer the Lord, she went to the tomb, she was at the feet of Jesus, making the most of her time by looking for Him, even though everyone else said he was dead, she went to seek Him. What a wonderful passage!
Jesus appeared to her, even before his own disciples, and she went to tell them all of this wonderful miracle, but those disciples who had been with Jesus all the time, could not believe it.
Many people go to church, talk about Jesus, and serve God, but when the hard times, problems, humiliation and injustice come, instead of being at the feet of Jesus, depending on Him, pleasing God, unfortunately, they get sad and cry. Some even abandon their faith.
It is during these moments and many others, the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We will always make mistakes, but spiritual maturity comes with surrender, practicing the Word of God and with time. But on this journey of faith, we are certain that those who trust in the Lord will never be empty, they will run and not grow weary, they will remain forever, same as the mountains of Zion, because they are born of God himself and truly know him. Therefore, we cannot seek the glory of this world, everything in it passes, it is all vanity. But the glory that is to come cannot not even compare with anything that we have here.
The struggles and sufferings cannot make us give up. On the contrary, they should serve as a bridge to a wonderful life with God, looking for a perfect daily relationship, being filled with the Holy Spirit, because He is the greatest gift: heals wounds, molds us, makes us happy, makes us stronger, gives us a new life, comforts us, renews us... Ultimately, I have no words to express the importance of the Holy Spirit and what it does in the lives of those who are at his disposal, to receive him and serve him.

SACRIFICES THAT PLEASES GOD

very day we make sacrifices without noticing it, some people sacrifice for themselves, others for their family, others for friends, because a sacrifice is really to stop doing our own will to do something that in truth, we do not want do, which is going to cause pain, or seem like a great loss. Now that, is a true sacrifice when it hurts. We make sacrifices for example, when we lose weight, especially us women, when she wants to be thin, she does not measure efforts to do what she needs to do. She does not eat the candy she love, pies, cakes and all that she knows that will prevent her weight loss. She don't sleep as much to take walks, or rather she sacrifices to have her body as she wants it, and determines exactly how she wants her body. Another sacrifice is when a young lady wants to study in college, she may not have conditions within her family, no one to help, but if she wants it she will work for it, she will study more, she will get scholarships, she will sacrifice the weekends to study more, she will become a good student because she wants to have a good future. Their are young people who never go out because they are sacrificing their will to achieve something that they really want. Others sacrifice for their children, she stop eating so her children can eat, she don't dress better so she can buy clothes for her children, or rather she lives more for her children than for herself, a mother's life is always a life of sacrifice, it is for a lifetime. But those are personal sacrifices that you make to please the lives of others. What about pleasing God? How must the sacrifice be?
The sacrifice pleasing to God is not only financial, but also the spiritual and this is really one of the most difficult to do, because it means change of character, behavior, addictions, hobbies, thoughts, etc. ..
When we make real sacrifices, acceptable to God it is impossible not to have the response fast in our lives, for example:

1) Stop talking about when we are right: many are the times that you get into an argument with your family, for wanting to be the right one, you never want to lose, and in doing so you prevent the action of God within your family, you do sacrifice for them, but at the same time you prevent the action of the Holy Spirit at Home when you do not show them humility
2) You want to be exalted when the right thing to do is be humble: There are always daily situations that you always want to be the best, attract more attention than the others, but the Bible teaches us: He who humbles himself will be exalted and he who exalts himself will be humiliated, so then, live the word of God daily it is the word that will help you have a blessed home and your family converted, but the first person that has to change would be yourself.
3) Make a decisions today to let go of old habits, customs, everything that prevents you from having a communion with God, read the Bible daily, live in the dependence of God by faith. Many know they have to read the Bible, pray, seek to have an intimacy with God, but when do they do it, only in the church, and they're always very tired and preoccupied with their own doings, this prevents God to truly enter into the this person's life
4) Controlling your tongue is difficult, but this is part of the body and the major cause of division and problems within families and between people. They are many times complaints of people who frequent the church that says oh she said this and that or he said that and the other, or rather you have faith to sacrifice financially, but you lack faith in the spiritual sacrifice, and that is why we do not receive the response, sometimes we participate in many campaigns, but we don't see the answer and the fault is not and will never be of God but of yourself because you disobey the direction that is being taught to her.
5) They are always in the gossip: Getting rid of this defect is highly dependent on the totally surrendering yourself to God, because many come a long time with this bad habit, so many surrender their lives to Jesus, they are baptized, but still they continue to judge, pointing others errors, and worse of all they forget to care for their own life. This is also a spiritual sacrifice, looking only to your own life, worry about you, and pray for others. It is up to you now I can not make this true sacrifice, do not waste time, take advantage of this opportunity. "
Straighten up, Jesus said, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? And she said: No man, Lord. Jesus said: Neither do I condemn you. Go, sin no more. "Change your behavior, your thoughts, please God, as Jesus says, Do not sin again, and take to the Altar your true sacrifice which is all of your life, all your thoughts, its you emptying yourself and filling yourself with the presence God's, living in total dependence of Him and exalting your perfume wherever you go.
God bless ...

learning from children

After many years of working with many children of different ages and countries, we understand why God teaches us that we must have the heart like a child because they automatically belong to the kingdom of heaven. I love learning from them, I have spent several years developing methods for learning the Bible and we can really see the wonderful results. We can learn a lot from them:
Perseverance = At a certain age, when children want a candy or a toy, they first ask, then insist, scream, even kick their mother and do not give her peace until they get what they want. Remember the story of the unjust judge? Did you see how the widow’s persistence helped her win her case? There are people who leave their faith and cannot achieve great things from God's hands because they do not have this wonderful quality that children often have.
Forgiveness = Innocence is the symbol of a child. It's amazing the power of innocence in children. If they fight with a friend today and say, "I do not love you", tomorrow when they see their friend, it’s as if nothing had happened, they give kisses, hugs, want to be together and even hold hands. Sometimes adults only want to be friends with those we like and accept everything we do. When the "friend" does something that displeases us, they are no longer useful and we walk away no longer wanting to talk to them or see them, much less hug them! Imagine those friends who actually have defects, also their many qualities and how much we can learn from mistakes and qualities. So we need to have many friends and every day a heart like a child.
Trust = the trust that all children have is very impressive, especially towards their parents. Children always see their father as a hero, their mother is always the most beautiful and the best, and they cannot live without them. If the parent puts him up high and tells him to jump, he jumps and smiling throws his arms because he knows and trusts that his father will never let him down. How many times God wants us to play in his arms, knowing that he will never disappoint us, but the disappointments in life make the adult heart severely injured, and wickedness prevents the action of God for lack of confidence in his word.
Good Eyes = the child has good eyes towards everyone. Show him a sweet and he will start to smile. Everyone is good in their eyes. The child never thinks someone will do them harm. Adults usually see the wrong in everything. If someone shows them love, they automatically think they must want something, want to borrow money. If someone gives them a gift, they think they are trying to please him because they want something from him. They even see the bad where it doesn’t exist, because when the eye is bad, the whole body is sick.
Sincerity = the sincerity of a child is wonderful. They say what they think, sometimes leaving their parents in an embarrassing situation. They cannot lie, even if they try, the parent perceives it and knows they are lying. Many times adults see the bad behavior of a friend and tell everyone, except the friend. They even gossip, but don’t act with sincerity. There are also those who are afraid to talk, they keep everything in their heart, end up sick and lose their salvation for not having a heart that pleases God and not being sincere.
See how many things we can learn from children. Turning our hearts to a child's heart, and we will undoubtedly have a much happier life; pleasing to God and thus achieve eternal salvation.

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.” (Matthew 18:3-5)