foreigner and pilgrim

My brothers, First Peter, chapter 2, beginning with verse 9. Let's read from verse 9 to 12, perhaps a text known to many. I am going to confess something to you my brothers, I fought with the Lord about this word because for me this word was like lightning that fell -I don't even know where- this text was not following my study pattern, it was a word that came to me suddenly

This morning asking for a word for today, for tonight, and I wrestled with the Lord until let's say 45 minutes ago saying it an hour ago and saying: “Well, Lord, if this is the word, Great! What does it have to do with me and this town?” What does it mean to us? It didn't take 5 minutes when the Lord not only answered me, but He answered me in a way that I will never forget, and I have a testimony to share with you. Now I believe that this testimony is going to be very familiar to you.

First Peter, chapter 2, verse 9: “But you are what? chosen lineage. Royal priesthood, holy nation, people acquired by God, so that you may announce the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his admirable light. You who in another time were not a people, but who are now the people of God. That in another time you have not obtained mercy, but now you have obtained mercy”.

And then he says in verse 11: “Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims to refrain from carnal desires that battle against the soul. Maintaining good your way of living among the Gentiles, so that those who murmur about you as evildoers, glorify God on the day of visitation, considering your good works ".

The phrase that came back to me over and over again was that phrase: foreigners and pilgrims. I looked for the text and asked the Lord: "Well, Lord, how do I explain this? "And instead of explaining what he wants, when the Lord declares that you, brothers, let us know that if you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ, if you consider yourself a Christian, the Lord considers you all this. Royal Priesthood, holy nation, a people chosen by God and at the same time, the other side of that coin, is that at the same time, for this world, we are pilgrims and we are foreigners.

And he was asking the Lord: “Father, how do I explain this?” And the Lord revealed it to me in perhaps one of the most special places that I know, I go to where I eat sushi from time to time before the service and there I am reading this word, asking the Lord for part, knowing: “Well Lord and… that?"

Within five minutes the young woman who was serving me approaches me, while I am reading this word, and she asks me: 'Is that a Bible, right?' : "I have never read a Bible" "I've never read the Bible".

Now, my brothers, I'm not talking; This is a young woman who speaks very good English, very educated, I would even say professional. The young professionals group which identify remarkably with her. A young woman is supposed to have gone to college. She's a woman who knows, knows that she studied, that she has studied.

And for me someone who has never read a Bible and I asked him: 'And you've never been curious about the Bible? Never, never in your life have you read the Bible?' 'No'. And what is that? You know, for 'What do you get out of this? She tells me: 'well, I considered myself an atheist, but I'm not sure about that. I am exploring and once I visited a Church maybe in High School but I have not returned after that.

I said, 'Sir, this is here in Boston, I'm not talking about the other side of the world.' This is here in Boston, but I can't, I don't have to go far from it. This weekend wow! I felt, I couldn't be more different than a Martian here in this situation. But this weekend I felt the same way and that was even among my own family. And we were at a family reunion celebrating an anniversary, and I had to choose, even within my own family: 'Lord, they are, you know? It wasn't crazy, but I didn't feel 100 percent comfortable with the whole celebration and I found myself super weird.

I am going to tell you the truth, I did not like feeling weird especially among my family. I didn't like feeling weird. I didn't like that. And they know me, you know? clearly as their family, but brothers, at the same time I feel privileged to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But with each day, I have to ask myself, what does that represent? What does it really mean? To my society, even to my own relatives who perhaps do not follow the Lord, or do not know the Lord as I do.

What does this mean? And it means that at the same time we have a great privilege, we are royal priesthood and at the same time we are, for the same reason that we are royal priesthood, we are pilgrims and we are foreigners. What does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean? First of all, it means that we, not merely, you and I, if you consider yourself a Christian, if you consider yourself - for you to be a royal Priesthood, a holy nation - means that there was something much more than just a change of religion for you.

And that's the first thing talking to this young lady, that was one of the things that came to mind. I was instinctively trying to explain what a Bible was and what a religion was. That was what he was trying to do. Because she asked me and that, the Christians and it's as if it were, there are Christians and there are Catholics and 'How is it?' And I had to explain to her: Christians, Catholics, whatever, all these people have something in common: they believe that Jesus Christ is God in flesh.

That God visited the earth and came with power to rescue us and rose from the dead and so we worship him as God. But I found myself explaining a religion to him, when the truth is, brother, that's not what makes you, that's not what makes us a real priesthood. I myself fall into that same trap, it is not a Religion that unites us, it is not a Religion that makes us brothers. It's a miracle that unites us. It is a miracle that makes us brothers.

There was something, there was a spiritual earthquake in our lives, an experience that is as if we had passed through an invisible filter. God came to meet us. Explain to her what happened to me, and maybe what happened to you and brothers if this is not what happened to you, if you don't understand this, I don't want you to leave here without being sure of this, without experiencing this. Explaining to her what makes me a follower of Christ is the same as explaining to someone, perhaps an alien encounter.

Oh, I had a meeting and I finally realized that and I gave him the address of the Church, and I said: 'You know? We believe this and this and that, but do you know how we know that this is true? The proof is in the evidence. There are lives transformed, there are people who are not the same. And I told him I have worked in the legal system, I have worked in the Social Services system, I have seen millions of dollars spilled over problems, I have seen the power of the Judicial System perhaps more exalted than all the municipalities in the United States: New York City, pouring out on a young man, surrounded by Professionals. Probation officers, judges, psychologists and I have seen changes in a humble Church where this Bible is preached, that this entire system has not been able to achieve.

And I say that is Church after Church, life after life. Brother, what makes you a Christian, what makes you a follower of Christ is a miracle, not a religion. It's an experience and like any experience one has, don't feel bad if you might struggle with trying to explain what happened to you. That's just like the people you've been in, you know? Trying to explain a symphony to someone: "How was it?" What does it tell you how it was? How am I going to explain how he was, he didn't hear it, he didn't feel it, he didn't see the musicians playing, he wasn't there at the moment, he lost it, he lost it.

When you got married what did you feel? What am I going to explain to you how I felt! When your first child was born and you carried it, what went through your mind? Does matters. I lost my mind at that moment many parents would say, as I am going to explain. Brother, the most beautiful, greatest, most impressive thing in your life is at the same time the most inexplicable. Know it, don't try to reduce into words what has happened to you because you will lose your power, that's what happens. That's what happens to poets-the poor-that's why many of the most powerful poets are the ones who say the least.

The most powerful poems are the densest, the shortest, because they leave gaps that only those who have had that experience can share.

What makes you who you are is a miracle. Then one tries to explain it, then - what's more, one doesn't try to explain it - one goes to this book so that it explains what happened to me. So we open this book, to see what happened to me, and what it means and what do I have to do with it and what are the consequences of having lived that experience and how can I guarantee that this experience is no more than merely an emotion that the Lord, please cover this that I, I see here and that's how I had to explain, I see in these pages not people from the past, from antiquity; I see myself, I see my friends, I see my family.

These people can even be my family, I live this, I tell him, we are not there when we read the Bible, we are transported to it, we believe that we are walking those streets, because we see the truth. Do we know why it is true? Do you know why it's true? Do you know what he assures me as it is, why is it true? With a Prosecutor's mind. If a story is too perfect, there is something wrong with it.

If all the details fall into place perfectly, I already know that witness is lying to me. Did something wrong when it's too perfect. Here I see a lot of imperfection, many wasted lives, even among the heroes of the faith, even among Adam himself -the first man- had a terrible mistake, Moses, Abraham, David, Peter, Paul and you and me.

And that is the most I love about the Bible, that is the most I love about the Bible, because I see reflected people like me who had this experience, and after having this encounter with the living God "Pum!", change something happens. But then she said something interesting which brings us to our next point.

Then she asks me this: “But you say that they are imperfect people. Doesn't the Bible say that we should not sin? Doesn't the Bible say that we should not sin? And I was like 'Wow! She has never read the Bible, but she knows. She who has never read the Bible, she knows that the Bible says that we should not sin "

Do you know what that tells me, brothers? They may not read the Bible or they may not share our God, but if at the time you identify yourself as one of those aliens following a living God, they expect something different from us. There's a different standard. Still in the year 2009, still in this new century.

The Christian is supposed to have another unit and they measure us for that, they measure us for that, we are under a magnifying glass, we are under a light, we are being watched very closely and brothers that brings me to mind, that brings me these words 'foreign and pilgrims' even more emphatically. Because every day, brother, you know what has happened to you. We know what happened to us. We know that it is real, we know that it was not merely an emotion, we know that God touched our lives, and the moment he touched our lives, something happened.

But at the same time, brothers, we are in this world, we are in this world. And I know my brother that day after day I have to do it, I have to remind myself - just as Peter reminded the Church - I have to remember that for this world and these people, I will always be a little strange. They will never fully embrace me, and if they fully embrace me something has lost the gospel of its power.

They brothers are looking for and I noticed that even among my family talking with me, sharing with me: 'Doesn't Samuel want this? Samuel, don't be so boring, this is the other'. But at the same time, do you know what they were doing? 'Tell me', they want: Will this be true? Will this be true? Will this be true?

Don't be surprised that the same people who might forget or invite you to forget that you are a royal priest are the same people who will ask for your prayers. Consider that a privilege, consider that a privilege; when they call you Being two thousand miles from your home, being at a distance of two thousand five hundred miles from your village, they call you and ask you for Prayer. You know why? Because the moment you have this experience, you become a Priest of that home.

And everything we do, everything we say, even what we think: counts. Everything we say, everything we do, everything we think at that point it counts. And you know what? That is part of the privilege, that is part of the privilege, that is part of having entered a path of existence. This is merely a test. What you truly are is yet to be revealed.

The price that you are paying between little says the Lord: "Do not worry, do not worry if they murmur about you, do not be sorry, they will murmur". The word says when they murmur. When it happens. Do not worry, because on the day that God visits us and that day will come, on the day of the visitation the Lord will be Glorified. Because? For your life and that gives us a turn of one hundred and eighty, three hundred and sixty degrees and we end up where we started.

Brother, your life is the Bible. Our life, the power of the Gospel, comes from every miracle that the Lord does. Each life transformed before the presence of the Lord. Brethren, this is an invasion and the Lord will be producing more and more and more pilgrims and more and more and more foreigners and he will do it through the power of the testimony of their lives.

Let's stand up my brothers.

Before concluding, it occurs to me -and this may not be for everyone- but if what I have just said sounds strange -as they say- I know that about a religion or being a Christian. But what you describe Samuel as a transformative, impressive experience; Samuel, I have to confess to you, I don't know what, I'm not sure what you're talking about.

I would say that in my own experience I have not felt that, I want to feel it. I long to feel it, I long to feel it, I want God to transfer me to that and I feel that I am close, but no, I have not passed to that. If that's you? I invite you not to leave here without asking the Lord: “Father, give me that. Jesus give me that. Spirit of God, I do not want to leave here without knowing that you have visited me with power."

Let us bow our heads. I want to pray for you if that's you. I don't know if... but I want to pray for you if that's you. Lord in the name of Jesus that every… Lord we thank you for the light. Master, may we never forget the darkness, may we never forget those days, those moments, that nightmare in life when we didn't have you.

Because there was darkness, and there was another experience, Lord, I will never forget; The one who knows you and has experienced that will never be forgotten and first of all, Lord, we thank you. Thanks for finding us. Thank you because when we didn't have the ability to ask you, you gave us the most we needed.

You literally pulled us out of hell. You brought us out of death, you brought us out, Lord, from a life of confusion and a life without answers, a life without hope, a life without joy, a life without purpose, a life without a goal, a life that was going nowhere. , a life without miracles, a life without hope, a life without even hearing of the power of the Most High God.

Lord, we thank you that now our lives are unrecognizable, even though we cannot explain how you did it and we are going to live an eternity without knowing exactly what you did. But we know that if it hadn't been for you, Jesus, it wouldn't have happened and it happened because of you. It happened because of you and we kiss your feet and we give you glory and we will love you forever, for doing that, for taking us out of the darkness.

And Lord, if there is someone here who does not know what that is, they are still living in darkness, they still do not know what hope is, Lord, they want that, that is why they are here, extend that miracle to their lives. Wake them up Father, take them out of the darkness bring it to the light now in the name of Jesus.

Lord, now we present all the light to us, all the darkness around us. We thank you for the privilege of being pilgrims in Boston, for being foreigners in Massachusetts, for being Pilgrims in Colombia where we were born, or in Puerto Rico or in the Dominican Republic, or among our family in Florida. Of being foreigners even among the people who love us and know us. And I ask you Lord in the name of Jesus your anointing on your people.

I ask now in the name of Jesus, your anointing on your children. I ask you, Lord, for your enlightenment.

Father, that you put the word of life on the lips of each one who is asked, Lord, the reason for their joy; who is asked for the reason for their joy, that they do not, Lord that the smile only says it all.

Lord let joy nothing else be your message. The transformed life we would not change it for anything Lord. We wouldn't trade it for anything, we wouldn't trade it for anything. Thank you Jesus.