Jesus meets you where you are

We are continuing our series Tell us about Jesus, and on this very special night we have the visit, the presence of Pastor Mercedes López Miranda, Meche as we know her so dearly, Meche, if you want to say hello to the church?

Pastor: For me it is a joy to be here, there is nothing better than talking about our Jesus, and we could be talking continuously about Him. I am a grateful woman, I know that God took my feet out of the mud and placed them on stone, and we know that that stone is Christ Jesus. So I believe that I do not start any prayer in any of my days that is not with a thank you Lord, I am deeply grateful for your salvation more than anything, the rest is in addition, it was a ñapa that the Lord continues to give me every day and He keeps giving to us every day, but it's thanks for what He has done, He brought each one of us out of the darkness of darkness and brought us on this adventure, we sang a song recently about adventure, and Likewise, the Christian walk is an adventure, it never gets boring, it never stagnates, if one keeps looking for it, it continues to receive something new every day, if we are expecting that we are going to receive it and we go to it with faith.

Pastor: Amen, amen. Meche, one of the questions I asked you, at least in Greg's case, he was the first to start, is that I like pastors to be able to share their personal experience, how they met Jesus for the first time. time, and I would like you to have the opportunity to share with us what that moment was like, when the Lord came into your life, and that you gave yourself completely to Him.

Pastora: Well, I came to Boston at the age of 24, this year in June marks the 30th anniversary of coming here, I came for a year and a half, but like many of you I have stayed a little longer than that and obviously my roots are here, and I don't move from here until the Lord moves us from here, and I hope that doesn't happen, we love you and we want to be here for a long, long time. But anyway, at the age of 24, I left Puerto Rico to come here to pursue graduate studies at Boston University, and I came with that purpose, to come to study here, the year before coming here I worked seven days a week. , because I needed to save a lot of money to be able to pay for my studies here, and it was a time that exhausted me in every way but also spiritually, because it completely dried me up, which was perhaps a good ground for the Lord to put His seed.

I was born in a Catholic home, my parents are Christ-centric Catholics, they love the Lord, they are a man and a woman of integrity, loving, I grew up in a home with a lot of affirmation, but despite that my concept of God was not the concept of the Word, so when I got here I came to the home of two lions of the gospel, Juan and Elsie Vergara, Pastor Juan was the one who founded this church, I got there because I met Elsie from Puerto Rico, she was my teacher in the university, and when I came, I told them that I was coming here to study, they opened their home for me to stay for a few months.

So imagine, from that spiritual dryness, not really knowing the Lord personally, and I heard them talking about knowing the Lord personally, and I started to get interested in that, then they introduced me to a young man (laughs), and to them They knew Roberto, in fact I arrived on a Friday night and we already met on Sunday, so that happened quickly (applause). So he selflessly evangelized me too (laughs), so I saw that Elsie and Juan had something that I didn't have, after meeting Roberto I realized that he had something that I didn't have, later I met his family , to Marina, to Nancy, and I understood that there was a void in my life, and I began those steps of knowing, but it was with some misgivings and not totally convinced that such a thing was true. And it is that when we have a concept that God, which is not correct, that of the Scriptures, is a concept made in our own image and likeness, not the concept of God, it is very difficult sometimes to get rid of that concept, to My God was not a loving God, I did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. For me Jesus was an unattainable being, God was a very impersonal being, He was sitting on his throne, from his throne He looked down, and I was a little ant among millions of other little ants. Yes, I had respect for God, since I was a child I had spiritual sensitivity, I was very sensitive to spiritual things, but I had never really known God as He was, He was inaccessible to me, He looked at me from the throne like that with a very serious face , and it is not that my father is like that because my father is very loving, it was a concept that I perhaps took from my religious experience, I remember that in my house there was one of those Bibles that there are in the houses of many of you, open and there was such a God looking from the throne with a frown, and there was no connection, and for me that was the idea of who this God was that others called Father but I did not feel like my own who was close.

Pastor: Now but, that moment Meche, so to speak, the Lord Jesus said, this is the moment in which I want to reach the heart of Mercedes, what happened that day?

Pastor: I think that this was something gradual, when I saw that these people had something that I did not have, I began to investigate, to read the Word, to observe. Right now you are possibly being watched by many others, I have been watching them very carefully to see how they lived their lives, how they spoke, if they really imitated that Jesus of the Scriptures, so it was a process, until There came a day, I cannot say exactly the time and date, but there came a day where I said I have to make a pact with this Jesus of the Scriptures, I have to do this and give all my heart, all my being to God . So I would say that it was a process that did come a time when I uttered the words in my spirit, Lord, I accept you as my personal Lord and Savior, and I want to live for you the rest of my days.

But even though I said those words, it took a while that I loved God with my mind, I am a pretty rational person, and I loved God with my mind, and it frustrated me to see how many people could raise their arms to say, Lord, You are so beautiful, I couldn't say those things, I think that until a year, a year and a half later I still couldn't say those words with sincerity, I said them but the emotions did not support those words, and I remember how that gradual process was wonderful to understand, oh Lord, yes I am in love with you, and to have that relationship of knowing that my God was not only the God of my mind, but that He also wanted my heart, obviously my spirit, my whole being as the word that we have to love God with all our being, with our mind, with our body, with our heart, with everything.

So it was a gradual process that occurred but it was wonderful, and it required a search, that is, I had to search, God searches us, in fact there is a verse in Revelation, it says: "Behold, I am at the door and knock If anyone hears my voice, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." And so finally one day I opened that door, and I began to love him as he deserves to be loved, and I understood what it is to praise him with joy in my heart, what it is to allow him to enter all areas of my being and allow him to clean everything inside, and made me a new creature, and in that process, I'm still in it, the Lord is still forming the person He wants, as we say an adventure that never ends until the day we die.

Pastor: Meche, you know, a few moments ago you and I were talking about this time tonight, and we were talking about different characters in the Bible with whom we can identify, and something key about each of these characters is how Jesus came to the reality of each one of them, and found them where they were, doing what they were doing, I would like you to talk about one of those characters that I understand to be Peter, that you and I identify very well with that character, and how the image of that event that Peter went through in his first encounter with Jesus, speaks to your life and partly describes your experience as well.

Pastor: Yes, I believe that if one looks in the word at all the examples of people who have lived for God, God has found them where they were, God found some at work, like Peter, fishing, others he found in an illness that needed to be healed, and so on, I interacted personally with each one, so one of the examples that speaks the most to my spirit and serves as a model for me is the example of Pedro, because it is an example where one sees not only an interaction, if not over a period of time, three years, Jesus interacting with Peter, obviously finds him fishing and likewise tells him come, and Peter was not looking, Jesus intentionally looked for him, just as he says I knock on the door, Pedro said yes and followed him.

And then one sees how he learned from Jesus, he was interacting with Jesus very often for three years, many times daily as one of his disciples, as one of his envoys, and then one sees when the crucial moment arrives when Jesus needs him the most and he he denies three times, and after that, one thing that strikes me a lot and is where he points to the commitment that God has with us throughout our lives, our entire career as his children, is the life of Peter because later When the Lord has risen and appears to his disciples, I think this is the last time, he appears to them in Galilee, what happens? Peter sees it from the boat, Peter has once again returned to what is familiar, what happens to us, we sometimes turn a little from the Lord and we are going to do what is familiar and comfortable for us, because Peter was doing that , fishing, and there the Lord, after serving everyone breakfast, everyone eats breakfast with Him, which is what the Lord wants to have with us, a time of intimacy like this to share with Him, note that the verse of Revelation speaks precisely After that, I will invite him to dinner and he will have dinner with me, and I with him, so it is a close relationship that God wants to establish with each one of us.

And after breakfast Pedro possibly in front of the others I don't know or in private, I don't know how that meeting would have been, because I don't think the word says it clearly, He asks him three times, Pedro, do you love me?, and Peter says yes Lord, I love you, shepherd my sheep, and there it is seen that Jesus is approaching the emotional part of Peter and is healing him, and that is what He does with us despite the fact that we can sometimes turn away from Him, be disobedient at some point, the Lord is there because He says in his word that he will be with us until the end of time, He is with you, He is with me, and one has to keep that very clear image of who It is this God that we serve, this Jesus that we serve, it is a personal Jesus, the one who is here next to us, the one who opens paths for us, the one who renews us emotionally, spiritually in every way, and that is wonderful. walk your Christian life knowing that He is with you give us at all times.

Pastor: Meche, I am going to ask you a curved question here, sorry for putting you in the spot even though we are already in the spot, this example that you just mentioned when Pedro approached Him at that moment that restored it again, I often imagine ourselves, our routine in our daily lives, we tend to get so blinded by the pressure and anxiety of that routine, and something that catches my attention is that Jesus comes and meets us wherever we are, but that there are times when We do not realize that He is there, so my question is: what do you think we can do to be alert, for lack of a better word, to that closeness that Jesus has with us?

Pastor: Well, it is the prayer that one has, before I thought, I grew up, my tradition was prayer, it was an impersonal prayer, but I believe that like everything in life you have to have a certain discipline and expectation, I think that if we read in the Word that God answers prayer, we must believe that he answers prayer, that it has nothing to do with our emotions and our feelings, before I thought that God did not listen to me because I do not feel it, that is not so, there is We have to see what the Word tells us, and we have to believe what the Word tells us and fit our beliefs, our experiences to what the Word says.

So it is the search of every day, and not to despair, for me at the beginning it was hard, and I even felt like a Christian, a second-class citizen, because others had what I did not have, and that made me desperate, And it was when I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that revolutionized my life, and I had to search for it madly, I stood in every line that there was to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gift of tongues, there it was, even if it was a day one after the other, I believe that this is how God worked, he put that hunger in my heart to look for him and I found him, and the revelation that I received when I received baptism, the gift of tongues, was that the love of God It is a Father's love, precisely what I needed to hear.

And the first time I received the gift of tongues I began to sing, and God gave me the interpretation and the interpretation that God gave me was Father's love, Father's love is. And that revolutionized my life forever, because I began to believe that this God loved me personally, that I was not just one of many in the whole world, he loved me personally, and wanted to have a pact and personal treatment with me, He he wanted intimacy with me, intimacy means knowing and being known. He wants us to know him by the Word, through the Holy Spirit, and he wants us to let him know us. Of course He knows everything, but it is one thing for Him to know it and another thing is for you to have a deal with Him personally, so I encourage you to do that, to search, to read the Word, not anxiously, calmly. , with relaxation, that, the image of the woman sitting at the feet of Jesus listening, that is what we have to go, to listen, to know that He speaks to us today, before I did not know that He spoke, and in fact when At the beginning of my Christian walk, he spoke to me, and I thought it was my own mind, I did not know that He spoke like that, it is an adventure that we have to explore every day and want to seek Him, not only that He speak to us through the Word , we have to do our part, and tell him, Lord, come in, and then he comes in, and we eat at the table with Him.

Pastor: Meche, I would like that as we get closer to concluding this, if a person finds himself in a stage of his life where everything you are saying can make sense to him, but that person in some way or another makes it difficult how to truly receive those words, and surrender to God's treatment, I think again of the example of Peter, Jesus had to approach him and find him where he was, even after he had denied it, and perhaps deal in a certain sense with the shame that Pedro may have been feeling, and when I say shame it's because I think it's one of the strongest feelings that we as human beings can experience, that doesn't help us but causes us to withdraw into ourselves, and you you are focusing on this idea of this personal Jesus who meets us, who interrupts our reality, so to speak, to open us up or introduce us to a totally new reality, how can such a person, who I don't know if some of whom are here you can identify with what I am saying, what will it take for that person to get out of that hole, and be able to accept that personal treatment that Jesus wants to have with her or with him?

Pastor: Again, I think it is to believe that what He says in His Word is real, that He wants to be found, and from there we must do things as basic as what we are doing, congregate, when we see to others who are also in the same search that encourages us, it encouraged me, at the beginning and it still encourages me, and never despair, because I also had a time in my life that I did not feel, I did not see that anything was happening, I understood that there were layers in my being, in my emotions, that served as a hindrance to God, and God was dealing with me, and I believe that what sustained me was knowing that God's hand is on me, He has personal treatment with me, and knowing that this did not depend on my emotions, so it is simply to continue taking those steps, to continue being as obedient as possible to what He says in His Word, and to know that one day He is going to give you that reward, in In my case, perhaps that infatuation took me about two years, for some it may be less, for others Perhaps it is more, but, again, our salvation does not depend on that, as long as our hearts are open, we are living for Him, the other is going to achieve, it is like having that confidence that it is going to happen, and we have to congregate with others, seek the advice of others, continue reading his word, but again calmly, with passion but knowing that he is going to give us the answer because he knows what we are going through, Jesus came to this earth, left his riches in glory He left that perfection and beauty that He had to come to us, to have personal treatment with us, so that nothing that we are going through scandalizes Him.

Maybe I can finish reading in Hebrews, chapter 4 verses 14 to 16, it says: "Therefore, having a high priest who is passed into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us stop our profession, because we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with him." our weaknesses, but one who was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." So He tells us that He knows what we are going through, that He knows the hindrances that we have in our life, He knows the obstacles that are there that perhaps prevent us from taking steps more quickly, but since He knows it, He is going to keep working in us, He is here forever.

Verse 16 of chapter 4 of Hebrews says: "Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with confidence, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." So that is the Lord that we serve, the one who tells us to come closer to me, and says confidently, tenaciously, with certainty, with total certainty that He is going to be found, it is not like us who sometimes say with one another Others of us who play games of being found or not being found, and we are found sometimes, He wants to be found so our role is just to get closer, and sometimes getting closer takes a while, but let's keep going in the same direction of finding Him because, so when we do that When we go to the throne of grace, not to the throne that I understood to be where God was, but to the throne of grace, which is very different, to obtain mercy and find grace for timely help, that means that not only now do we reach Well, salvation, what we need at the moment if not later as well, He will give us grace for timely relief when any situation in life arises, He will be there to give us what we don't we need

That is a beautiful verse about the accessibility of our God, of His desire to be found, to be found, and to have that fellowship, that intimacy every day of our lives.

Pastor: Amen, Meche would like you to end by praying for the church in light of those words you just said, beautiful words for us to be able to get closer to Him and know that He is also going to get closer to us, and know that with certainty, so Could you pray with us, with a prayer to the church?

Pastor: Lord, we thank you for your presence in this place, Lord, Father, we thank you because you gave your life one day on the cross so that we would not only have eternal life, but life in abundance right here on earth, Lord. Lord, I thank you because the day you stopped living humanly, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, letting us know that we have access to you, thank you Lord, because before there was a veil that prevented us from entering Your presence directly, and now since Your Son came to die for our sins, from that moment we have access, we can enter confidently because the high priest has already done all the work we need to enter the Most High. Thank you God for this privilege, thank you because in your word you say that you will no longer call us servants but friends, because you have come to share the revelation of the Father with us, thank you for your healing work, thank you for everything you do , Father, I ask that in this church, this place, always be the place where, we do not ask tens or hundreds, thousands of people, come to know your God here in this very place, where from here they begin their walk with you, and Father, I ask that each one of us be aware that we are each an example for others, that the way we live our lives will impact the lives of many.

I ask you, Lord, that many come to the knowledge of what they see that each one of my brothers do, how they do life, likewise I ask that they want to imitate you, Lord, because of what they see in the lives of others. Thank you Lord for this opportunity to speak about Your things Lord, thank you for Your Word Lord, and thank you for the wonderful gift of salvation, thank you Lord, amen.

Pastor: Thank you Lord Jesus, thank you. Well, I invite you, let's close this time with one more hymn and affirm that sense of love and commitment in the certainty that He is there accessible to each of our lives, thank you Lord.