The Lord Is About To Return

WHY HASN´T JESUS RETURNED TO FETCH HIS CHURCH YET?












By: Gladys Raquel Hernández



“I am coming soon! And when I come, I will reward everyone for what they have done”. (Revelation 22:12)

What does it mean that the Lord is about to return or that Jesus is coming back soon?. Will the Lord be referring to a chronological period of time, which sounds reasonable for our quite limited human understanding?

It is important to analyze the following concepts:

The last order Jesus gave to His disciples before He were raised to the sky in His glorified body, was that they should be spread throughout the countries bearing the Good News about the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Go and preach the good news to everyone in the world”. (Mark 16:15)

Furthermore, the Great Commission states:

“Jesus came to them and said: I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world”. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Jesus also promises the following:

“I will send you the one my Father has promised, but you must stay in the city until you are given power from heaven”. (Luke 24:49)

Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit, who would remain definitively on earth until Jesus´s second return, in order to fetch His church: the Lamb´s bride. (Revelation 19:7)

We should consider the following biblical verses when Jesus appears in front of His disciples after having been raised from the dead:

“After Jesus had greeted them again, he said: I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me. Then He breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit”. (John 20:21-22)

Likewise, Jesus promises:

“Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don´t see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you. I won´t leave you like orphans. I will come back to you”. (John 14:16-18)

After Jesus were raised from the dead and taken up to heaven where His Father is, the Apostle Paul also refers to His second return to the earth, which is very important for the church.

“With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God´s trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever”. (1º Thessalonians 4:16-17)

These events have been foretold two thousand years ago. Therefore, What do we understand when it is said that the Lord is about to return?

The Sacred Scriptures state that neither Jesus nor the angels know the day or hour of Jesus´s return, as only the Father knows. (Matthew 24:36 – Mark 13:32)

One of the signals registered in the Bible about the Lord´s return is:

“When the good news about the kingdom has been preached all over the world and told to all nations, the end will come”. (Matthew 24:14)

At present, God´s people are working all round the world in order to spread the good news to the people who have never had an encounter with Jesus, specially in those countries wherein the Sacred Scriptures´diffusion is forbidden. Likewise, God warns us to continue evangelizing people these days as Jesus Christ´s disciples did two thousand years ago, by making us feel interest in His kingdom of love, peace and joy.

Why hasn´t Jesus returned to fetch His church as He promised, in spite of the great effort in evangelization carried out up to now?

The answer to this question is that we are more than six thousand million people living in the planet and everybody should have at least one encounter with Jesus Christ, the Savior, during his life, and most people haven´t had any opportunity yet due to different reasons. In general, God´s Work is developed slowly, due to the negligence, carelessness, laziness, disobedience, incredulity, disbelief and even lack of organization on our part to spread the good news effectively. The Lord yearns to reach a great number of people worldwide who have accepted Jesus as their savior and have repented of their sins, in order to get the eternal salvation of their souls.

Pursuant to God´s criteria, He still feels mercy for us and wants to go on giving us redemption opportunities in order to reach a greater number of people He will consider suitable to constitute His great chosen people, before His coming anger is manifested against the wicked people and the rebels who will not be raised to heaven in order to encounter the Lord and who will suffer the Great Tribulation.

We can appreciate the following biblical verses that express the concepts hereinabove mentioned:

“From heaven God shows how angry he is with the wicked and evil things that sinful people do to crush the truth”. (Romans 1:18)
“But you are stubborn and refuse to turn to God. So you are making things even worse for yourselves on that day when he will show how angry he is and will judge the world with fairness”. (Romans 2:5)
“They also tell how you are waiting for his Son Jesus to come from heaven. God raised him from death, and on the day of judgment Jesus will save us from God´s anger”. (1º Thessalonians 1:10)
“This will be the worst time of suffering since the beginning of the world, and nothing this terrible will ever happen again”. (Matthew 24:21)

Other biblical verses that mention God´s anger are in Revelation 16:1 – Romans 5:9 - Luke 3:7 and Matthew 3:7

God is good and merciful, but according to the biblical prophecies, He will spread His anger over the wicked people and the rebels who have not accepted Jesus, during the time of the Great Tribulation and He will save His church from His anger (dead in Christ raised to life and alive people transformed who have accepted Jesus), who will live with Him forever.

According to God´s time, the period is already fulfilled to send Jesus to fetch His redeemed church. It was fulfilled on June 7th, 1967 when Jerusalem, which had been in possession of the Hachemite Kingdom of Jordan, was recovered by Israel. (Luke 21:24)

We can appreciate the following biblical verses:

“So be on your guard! You don´t know when your Lord will come. (Matthew 24:42)
“Always be ready! You don´t know when the Son of Man will come”. (Matthew 24:44)

Despite the fact that God has drawn our attention and has warned us about all these events to happen, His Word has been distorted throughout the centuries with the introduction of the many diverse religions and sects which have confused the human race and have diverted people from Jesus Christ´s doctrine (His correct teaching). We can only understand the spiritual world and Jesus´s wise doctrine, when the Holy Spirit is revealed to our lives, because God gives us understanding and wisdom to that effect.

We should consider these biblical verses:

“Don´t keep changing what you were taught about Christ, or else God will no longer be with you. But if you hold firmly to what you were taught, both the Father and the Son will be with you”. (2º John 1:9)
“If you teach these things to other followers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. You will show that you have grown up on the teachings about our faith and on the good instructions you have obeyed”. (1º Timothy 4:6)
“Titus, you must teach only what is correct”. (Titus 2:1)

At present, God is looking for servants (men and women) engaged in their responsibilities, in order to spread the good news all round the world effectively because His purpose is to fulfill His Work in our lives and He will do so as it is already foretold in the Bible. God yearns to touch you with His Holy Spirit and that you allow Him to mould you so that He can guide you and direct your life according to His purposes.

“They replied, Have faith in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved! This is also true for everyone who lives in your home”. (Acts 16:31)

I would like to finish this article with a biblical verse that is a noble and marvelous God´s promise that springs from His tender heart. It is the promise that encloses all the promises. It is the plan that God Father, God Son and God Holy Spirit sealed at any time of the eternity, when you and I did not even exist, when the world did not even exist. The Three of Them in One (the Holy Trinity) thought about you and me and loved us so much that they decided to create us to be like Them (Genesis 1:26). Furthermore, they wanted us to rule all over the world!!! (Genesis 1:28). How much love to us! But all of us disobeyed. In spite of it, our heavenly Father amazed us with the good news of getting the redemption of our souls through the sacrifice of our faithful savior: Jesus.

“You died, which means that your life is hidden with Christ, who sits beside God. Christ gives meaning to your life, and when he appears, you will also appear with him in glory”. (Colossians 3:3-4)

We should receive this marvelous promise on the part of our Creator and good God who will always love us !!! (Jeremiah 31:3)

AMEN!!!

Jesus: My Owner, My Lord, My Boss

By: Gladys Raquel Hernández




How many people would like to have a boss like the multimillionaire businessman, mister Bill Gates?

It is such an impossible dream, isn´t it? It is true that this important international businessman has got a quite great number of people employed at his company, but it is a minimum number of people compared to the many million inhabitants who live in the planet, isn´t it?

Many people would like to be related to very important people, to well-off people, in order to have access to higher incomes and to live a good life quality, wouldn´t they?

All of us like to be well: to have a good standard of living, to enjoy good health, to give and receive love in the family. But, many times, in spite of all this, which is good and healthy for our lives, we feel an emptiness inside our souls and generally we cannot explain the reason of it. What is happening to us?

When we encounter Jesus, we start feeling and experiencing that He is who starts filling that great emptiness inside our souls with His love, peace and joy. The Lord is who fills the hollow of the soul. The hollow of the soul takes the shape of God, considering that He is the only One who can fill that place, through His Holy Spirit. Our souls are our true “me” (including our mind, thoughts, intellect, emotions and feelings), and our souls have been created and deposited into our bodies by God. Therefore, they belong to Him exclusively.

As God is the owner of our souls, we start feeling, at any time during our lives, that we need Him badly, that we are hungry for Him. Therefore, we start depending on our good God, by surrendering to Him completely, because the souls act as a magnet and they always try to encounter their Creator and heavenly Father.

Thus, we start discovering that Jesus is our owner and our Lord. If we let ourselves be guided by His Holy Spirit, if we surrender completely to Him and if we start following and serving Him, we will discover with love that He is the best boss we can have: the Almighty and eternal King who lives in a glorified body, who has promised to us an eternal body such as the one He lives in (1º Corinthians 15:52-53). Jesus will always train us in order to work for Him and He will highly reward us.

We can appreciate the following biblical verse:

“We will be rewarded if our building is left standing”. (1º Corinthians 3:14)

Furthermore, God has promised to us that He will always love us and will give us eternal life!!! (Jeremiah 31:3 – John 12:49-50)

AMEN!!!

Who Are God´s People?

By: Gladys Raquel Hernández



“But you are God´s chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that he has done. The Scriptures say, “Once you were nobody. Now you are God´s people. At one time no one had pity on you. Now God has treated you with kindness”. (1º Peter 2:9-10)

God´s people comprise all human beings who, after having had any personal encounter with Jesus Christ, have been taken aside from the world´s system, have accepted Jesus as their personal savior, have regarded themselves as sinners, have humbled themselves and surrendered completely to the Lord.

God´s people include all the people who have decided on their own to go out of the darkness where they were confined to: some of them were oppressed, others were captive (tied to alcohol, to drugs and to all kind of dependencies), others were imprisoned (blind: out of panic, obsessions, anxieties, conceit, pride, arrogance, etc.), others were broken (damaged and hurt in their heart, shattered and broken down), others were sick, and God took them to His admirable light.

God´s people include all the people who, even though they are living on earth, they are governed by spiritual laws and are included into the greatest group of people (all the inhabitants of the world) who are governed by the world´s system.

It is important to consider the following biblical verses where God calls Abraham, who is considered the faith´s father:

“Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you”. (Genesis 12:1-3)

We can appreciate through these biblical verses that God´s chosen people arise as from Abraham´s call, as God promises that all the families on earth will be blessed through him. Abraham believes and obeys God, his Creator. Therefore, he is our faith´s father.

We should consider the following biblical verses:

“The Scriptures say, “God accepted Abraham because Abraham had faith in Him”. (Romans 4:3)
“God promised Abraham a lot of descendants. And when it all seemed hopeless, Abraham still had faith in God and became the ancestor of many nations”. (Romans 4:18)

Likewise, God´s people have received revelation on the part of God in order to start viewing the spiritual world, to know their Creator and to have an encounter with Him, to have intimate communion with Him, to be despoiled of themselves, to follow and serve their God with all their hearts, as their father Abraham did, just by being faithful right to the end of their lives, in order to get eternal salvation. (Matthew 24:13).

God´s people have decided on their own to follow their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, considering they have free will to do so, and no one compels them to follow Jesus.

God´s people have decided to pay the obedience´s price, to make a great effort and to be brave in their ministerial works, which have been granted by their Creator and they are not ashamed of the good news.

We should consider these biblical verses:

“I´ve commanded you to be strong and brave. Don´t ever be afraid or discouraged! I am the Lord your God, and I will be there to help you wherever you go”. (Joshua 1:9)

“I am proud of the good news! It is God´s powerful way of saving all people who have faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. The good news tells how God accepts everyone who has faith, but only those who have faith. It is just as the Scriptures say, “The people God accepts because of their faith will live”. (Romans 1:16-17)

God´s people are God´s chosen and special people. They are a holy nation, that is, the faithful are called God´s children upon having accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, and who have been washed and hallowed by Jesus´s blood. This makes them different from the rest of the world´s human beings.

We can appreciate these biblical verses where God regards us as His children:

“Think how much the Father loves you. He loves us so much that he lets us be called his children, as we truly are. But since the people of this world did not know who Christ is, they don´t know who we are. My dear friends, we are already God´s children, though what we will be hasn´t yet been seen. But we do know that when Christ returns, we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is”. (1º John 3:1-2)

“Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us to live with him and to be his holy and innocent and loving people. God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us to be God´s own adopted children”. (Ephesians 1:4-5)

“But if we live in the light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus washes all our sins away”. (1º John 1:7)

God´s people constitute a “group of people acquired by God”, who have been taken aside from the ordinary world in order to enter a spiritual world on their own, having got mercy on the part of God. Even though they can view the spiritual world with their spiritual eyes, they can also view the world´s system perfectly well (the one we all know) around them. But, those people who belong to the world´s system can neither view nor understand the spiritual world and God´s people, because there are things which are discerned spiritually when the individual makes up his mind to open his heart to God.

We should consider the following biblical verse:

“That´s why only someone who has God´s Spirit can understand spiritual blessings. Anyone who doesn´t have God´s Spirit thinks these blessings are foolish”. (1º Corinthians 2:14)

God´s people comprise different human beings who are part of Jesus Christ´s Body: The Church, the Lamb´s bride (Jesus Christ: the bridegroom)

We can appreciate these biblical verses:

“But God has put all parts of our body together in the way that he decided is best”. “It takes many parts to make a single body”. “Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of his body”. “First, God chose some people to be apostles and prophets and teachers for the church. But he also chose some to work miracles or heal the sick or help others or be leaders or speak different kinds of languages”. (1º Corinthians 12:18-20-27-28).

Every human being who wishes to get out of darkness (the world´s system), may do so, and he may enter the spiritual world on his own and be part of God´s people, because God does not make any difference among people and He yearns that all of us repent for our sins.

We can consider the following biblical verse:

“And God created us all; he has no favorites, whether rich or poor”. (Job 34:19)

You must decide where to live all your eternity, as you are a soul created by God and the same will never die. Even though the church of the Lord will be taken to His presence, according to the biblical prophecies (1º Thessalonians 4:16-17), all the inhabitants on earth who have rebelled against God, or have not encountered Jesus during their lives for different reasons whatsoever and, therefore, have not been taken to heaven, will be raised to life after Jesus Christ´s Millenium´s Kingdom on earth (Revelation 20:4) and they will undergo the Judgment at the Great White Throne. Those people whose names are not written in the book of life, according to God´s will, will be thrown into the lake of fire and burning sulfur. (Revelation 20:11-15 and 21:8)

If you have not encountered Jesus yet, you are still in time to be part of God´s chosen people!

AMEN!!!

The Church Of The Lord

THE CHURCH OF THE LORD (Concept of “Church”)

By: Gladys Raquel Hernández

God´s Word establishes that the church is the body of Christ and that each christian person is a member of that body that constitutes the church. The head of it is our Savior, Jesus.

We can appreciate the following biblical verse:

“Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of His body”. (1º Corinthians 12:27)

The church of the Lord neither comprises all the religious denominations, nor all the structures or buildings, temples or churches whatsoever, which are built in all the cities all round the world. All of us constitute the church, that is, the ones who are Christians, who love God with all our heart and obey Him, by fulfilling the different requirements He has ordered us, so as to help to spread His kingdom throughout the planet and to glorify Jesus, the Son of the Living God and the One who is exactly like God, who cannot be seen. (Colossians 1:15)

We can appreciate the following biblical verses:

“The Spirit will bring glory to me by taking my message and telling it to you”. (John 16:14)

“There are different ways to serve the same Lord”. (1º Corinthians 12:5)

Thus, this means that the Lord distributes gifts and ministeries, within the body of Christ, as He wishes, by calling each person and by making him/her feel in his/her heart which part of His body He wants each person to represent.

We should consider the following biblical verses:

"First, God chose some people to be apostles and prophets and teachers for the church. But He also chose some to work miracles or heal the sick or help others or be leaders or speak different kinds of languages”. (1º Corinthians 12:28)

“The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others. Some of us can speak with wisdom, while others can speak with knowledge, but these gifts come from the same Spirit. To others the Spirit has given great faith or the power to heal the sick, or the power to work mighty miracles. Some of us are prophets, and some of us recognize when God´s Spirit is present. Others can speak different kinds of languages, and still others can tell what these languages mean. But it is the Spirit who does all this and decides which gifts to give to each of us”. (1º Corinthians 12:7-11)

The church of the Lord is God´s people. They are included into the greatest group of people: The world system. There are more than six thousand million people all round the world, of which, a minor number constitutes the church: Faithful hearts to God. There is a great number of congregations all round the world approved by God and comprised by faithful people who carry out different activities.

We should consider the following biblical verses:

“Christ chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors and teachers. So that His people would learn to serve and His body would grow strong. This will continue until we are united by our faith and by our understanding of the Son of God. Then we will be mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like Him”. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

According to these biblical verses, the faithful people who attend the different congregations, must entirely obey their pastors, leaders or teachers, just trying to always be within God´s will and please Him, in complete order.

“But do everything properly and in order”. (1º Corinthians 14:40)

Furthermore, when Jesus Christ rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples, He gave them an order:

“Jesus came to them and said: I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world”. (Matthew 28:18-20).

This order given by Jesus known as “The Great Commission” (what Jesus´s followers must do) was the beginning of what constituted the primitive church of the Lord, leaded by Jews converted to Christianity. The apostle Paul was one of the Jewish apostles who seconded Jesus´s order, by taking the Good News to the gentiles (Non-Jewish people) pursuant to God´s order, fulfilling, in part, the Great Commission and establishing different churches in different places and countries.

At present, there are many interdenominational organizations all round the world which fulfill the Great Commission established by Jesus, with the only purpose to make each individual have an opportunity to encounter Jesus and learn His teaching in order to achieve the redemption of his/her soul.

In order to understand which the church approved by God is, it is necessary to understand Jesus´s doctrine (His correct teaching). Once more, we are not talking about a building, but faithful hearts to God. The Word “doctrine” means: What do I understand about anything or anybody? In order to understand Jesus´s doctrine or His correct teaching, I must open my heart and allow His Holy Spirit to enter into my life and start treating with me. The Holy Spirit is the One who reveals the truth to us and glorifies Jesus.

We can appreciate the following biblical verses:

“Dear friend, I am not writing to tell you and your children to do something you have not done before. I am writing to tell you to love each other, which is the first thing you were told to do. Love means that we do what God tells us. And from the beginning, He told you to love Him. Many liars have gone out into the world. These deceitful liars are saying that Jesus Christ did not have a truly human body. But they are liars and the enemies of Christ. So be sure not to lose what we have worked for. If you do, you won´t be given your full reward. Don´t keep changing what you were taught about Christ, or else God will no longer be with you. But if you hold firmly to what you were taught, both the Father and the Son will be with you. If people won´t agree to this teaching, don´t welcome them into your home or even greet them. Greeting them is the same as taking part in their evil deeds”. (2nd John 1:5-11)

Pursuant to the biblical prophecies, Jesus (the Bridegroom) will come to take the church (the Bride) with Him (Revelation 19:7). The church will be raised, in order to encounter the Lord in the sky and to live with Him forever. (1st Thessalonians 4:16-17)

This event will occur suddenly, quicker than the blink of an eye.

“I will explain a mystery to you. Not every one of us will die, but we will all be changed. It will happen suddenly, quicker than the blink of an eye. At the sound of the last trumpet the dead will be raised. We will all be changed, so that we will never die again. Our dead and decaying bodies will be changed into bodies that won´t die or decay” (1st Corinthians 15:51-53)

Jesus will not come to take with Him any institution, any building, any religion or denomination whatsoever. He will take with Him those people who had faith in Christ before they died who will be raised to life and the ones who are still alive who have faith in Him. All of them will be together taken up into the clouds so as to encounter the Lord in the sky. From that time on, we will all be with the Lord forever. (1st Thessalonians 4:16-17)

We should consider the following biblical verses:

“So we will be glad and happy and give Him praise. The wedding day of the Lamb is here and His bride (the Church) is ready. She will be given a wedding dress made of pure and shining linen. This linen stands for the good things God´s people have done”. (Revelation 19:7-8)

“After all, Christ will judge each of us for the good or the bad that we do while living in these bodies”. (2nd Corinthians 5:10)

“Whatever we built on that foundation will be tested by fire on the day of judgment. Then everyone will find out if we have used gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw. We will be rewarded if our building is left standing. But if it is destroyed by the fire, we will lose everything. Yet we ourselves will be saved, like someone escaping from flames”. (1st Corinthians 3:13-15)

It is certainly convenient for us to follow God, to accept His Unique Son as our Savior and to belong to His body: the Church.

We can verify what God thinks about the world´s system and ideas.

“Even when God is foolish, He is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak, He is stronger than everyone else”. (1st Corinthians 1:25)

“But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame. What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important. God did all this to keep anyone from bragging to Him” (1st Corinthians 1:27-29)

“This is because God considers the wisdom of this world to be foolish. It is just as the Scriptures say, “God catches the wise when they try to outsmart Him. The Scriptures also say: “The Lord knows that the plans made by wise people are useless”. (1st Corinthians 3:19-20)

We should consider the following God´s advice.

“So if you want to brag, do what the Scriptures say and brag about the Lord”. (1st Corinthians 1:31)

“And now, because of Jesus Christ, we can praise the only wise God forever”. (Romans 16:27)

AMEN!!!

God´s Grace...

GOD´S GRACE: IS IT A GIFT FALLEN FROM HEAVEN… OR DO I OBTAIN IT DAY BY DAY THROUGH MY PERSEVERANCE AND MY THANKFUL HEART?


By: Gladys Raquel Hernández

God´s Grace has been spread out in abundance over the human race that wishes to encounter our Creator, since the raising of Jesus Christ to heaven who was brought back to life, up to now, and the Grace time will come to an end with the raising of the church of the Lord that will be taken to His presence at any time from now on, pursuant to the biblical prophecies.

The following biblical verses refer to the concepts hereinabove mentioned:

“With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God´s trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to encounter the Lord in the sky. From that time on, we will all be with the Lord forever”. (1º Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Those people who wish to accept Jesus Christ as their only savior and to apologize for their sins, may do so during this time, and God´s Grace will be spread out over them without any reproach whatsoever. That is, the Grace is a gift given by God and we are not worth of it. As God is good, (Psalm 107:1) He wants to redeem us and give us eternal life, as Jesus has already paid a high price: His cruel death in a cross with that purpose, so that we do not spend the eternity in the lake of fire and burning sulfur (Revelation 21:8), because all of us have sinned and fallen short of God´s glory. (Romans 3:23)

We should consider the following biblical verses which state these concepts:

"He told them: The Scriptures say that the Messiah must suffer, then three days later He will rise from death. They also say that all people of every nation must be told in my name to turn to God in order to be forgiven. So beginning in Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:46-47)

Now, How many years of life are ahead of me since I have received Jesus Christ in my heart? How many days of my life are ahead so that God´s Grace covers me in times of trials, anguish, hindrances and difficulties whatsoever? Is God´s Grace enough for me? Do I endure the trials that come to me, even though Jesus´s Grace covers me, protects me, shelters me and backs me all the days of my life?

On one occasion, the Apostle Paul told the Lord that he no longer endured a suffering he was undergoing, during his great and extraordinary evangelistic ministry to the Gentiles (non-Jewish people).

The Apostle Paul said:

“Of course, I am now referring to the wonderful things I saw. One of Satan´s angels was sent to make me suffer terribly, so that I would not feel too proud. Three times I begged the Lord to make this suffering go away. (2º Corinthians 12:7-8)

The Lord replied:

“My kindness is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak”. (2º Corinthians 12:9)

How interesting the answer Jesus Christ gave to him, isn´t it? Jesus meant that the more attacks, struggles and trials we have to face in our lives, the weaker we will feel; thus, we will allow the power of Christ to rest on us and strengthen us as well. Therefore, our service to God will give a better result if we allow Jesus Christ to live into us.

We should notice the reflection on the part of the Apostle Paul:

“So if Christ keeps giving me His power, I will gladly brag about how weak I am. Yes, I am glad to be weak or insulted or mistreated or to have troubles and sufferings, if it is for Christ. Because when I am weak, I am strong”. (2º Corinthians 12:9-10)

Thus, the weaker I am, the more I will allow that my “Me” dies and that the Spirit of Christ lives in me; therefore, I will be strong in the Lord!!! (Galatians 2:20)

We can appreciate these biblical verses:

“You don´t gain anything by being punished for some wrong you have done. But God will bless you, if you have to suffer for doing something good. After all, God chose you to suffer as you follow in the footsteps of Christ, who set an example by suffering for you”. (1º Peter 2:20-21)

The Christian life is difficult and requires a certain spiritual maturity to endure and to face the trials and difficulties of life in peace, to love and respect God in spite of adversities.

Therefore, the Lord tells us:

“All you need is my kindness, my love, my mercy, the salvation of your soul and your incorruptible and eternal body that you will get provided you keep on being faithful right to the end of your life”. (1º Corinthians 15:52-53 – Matthew 24:13)

The Christian career is a difficult, hard but beautiful task that is worth undergoing in this earthly life, which is built day by day by God´s Grace, just by being faithful right to the end of our lives. Then, we will be saved!!! (Matthew 24:13)

AMEN!!!