We must always be prepared to testify of our faith

I want to talk about this experience that I had Thursday morning at this ecumenical service here at the Boston Cathedral where, as you know, the president and a number of other dignitaries were there, and I was allowed to offer a reflection, a meditation regarding this terrible terrorist incident that we experienced here in the city of Boston.

I have been thinking about it and as you know, on Sunday we had some glorious services where the congregation was able to express their hearts and it was a healing time and as a church, I think we had a very therapeutic, very healing time as a church.

We also had the opportunity to pray and minister on behalf of these lives that have been so terribly affected by this entire incident. But I was thinking and what I wanted was to share with you what I learned, some lessons that I learned from this experience that I hope will be a blessing to you.

Jokingly, if I had to give this meditation a title I would say, “My day with Obama”, very pretentious, because it was not my day at all, but a brief moment with him, but there are a few things I want to point out about that.

Number 1. In terms of what I learned from this, is that first of all we must always be prepared for when the Lord calls us to testify of our faith. A passage in Scripture that I didn't have time to find, but I know it in my mind, where it says that we have to always be ready to give an account of the faith that is in us.

And you don't know when the Lord is going to call you to testify about your faith, your belief in the Lord. You do not know when you are going to be called to give your testimony, when you are going to meet someone on the road and it may be your boss at work, or a teacher at the university. And we always have to be ready, we have to be ready.

Our identity as children of God, as witnesses of the Lord, always has to be there in our mind, and we have to live a lifestyle that keeps us prepared so that when the time comes for one to have to testify or speak about the faith that is in us, we do not have to run desperately to fast and to look for that anointing that we do not have because we have not been praying, we have not been fasting, we have not been reading the word or meditating on the things of the Lord and we do not have the wealth of knowledge and the anointing we need. But we always have to be ready, so that when that time comes we know exactly where to go to get the word we require. This is very important, that you always live your life as if today is your day and today is perhaps the moment for which God has been preparing you. Don't catch him off guard and whatever it is.

It is very important, we must always be ready. We must always be preparing ourselves like a soldier for war, we always have to be prepared to be called at any time and activated as happened at this time.

I was totally unaware in a sense, or rather, unaware that I could be a part of it. In the morning they called me on Wednesday, to invite me rather to that and I said, "Of course, I'm going to go." And it was in the afternoon that they extended the invitation to me and at night when I was here – long story short – they confirmed to me that they wanted me to testify or to speak that day at such an important event, which I myself did not even imagine. When I asked you for prayer on Wednesday night, I did not even imagine the magnitude of that moment. When I saw myself there with two thousand people in the Cathedral and with a tower chamber, and I realized all that this meant, this was there…

But one does not know when God is going to call us. I believe that in these times that humanity lives, where there are so many things that can happen, we have to be alert and alert as never before, ready at all times to shoot if the Lord wants it. That's one thing.

The other thing is that I have learned that you cannot say no when the Lord calls you to do something. If you are afraid, all my life I have had to fight with the fear of certain interventions, certain things, but I have always promised myself that I cannot let fear take away my willingness to serve the Lord. My temptation was to tell them, and I actually told them when they invited me that day, “Look, aren't there other people out there who are more capable?” Honestly, God knows, I told them, "Let me pray for them, I'll call them in a few minutes if I can."

But I felt clearly that I couldn't say no and that if this is what God wanted, amen, we were going to do it like this and we were going to go ahead. Never let fear stop you from doing what God wants and what you need to do. If God calls, God also enables. We have to entrust ourselves to the grace of the Lord and believe that God is faithful to supply everything we need.

Another third thing is that I believe that we must always let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit and be alert to the voice of the spirit in our lives. Getting ready to walk up the pulpit here on Wednesday night, my eyes fell on Psalm 125, verse 3. At that point this was already cooking, where it talks about the scepter of wickedness not resting on the land of the just so that the just are not led to do evil.

When my eyes fell on that passage, I clearly felt that there was something in that passage for me, regarding what I had to say the next day. I didn't have much time to prepare that. I had to go home, and thank the Lord that flowed in a beautiful way and in a short time that meditation was finished.

I have always learned in my life that God is a God who speaks and every time I go to preach I always ask the Lord, “Lord, what do you want me to say? Not what is easier for me, nor what I have worked on before, which is not very difficult for me.” Sometimes God changes my sermon on the way to church. Sometimes the sermon changes me sitting there. And I have learned to let myself be guided by the spirit. Like tonight, for example, the only thing I've had on my mind…

Every day I have learned more and more to let myself be guided by the Holy Spirit. We have to live a life guided by the Holy Spirit. Brothers, God speaks, what happens is that many times we do not listen to him. We have to always be alert to the Holy Spirit in our lives and have fellowship with and hear from the Holy Spirit.

Many times it will not be an angel that will come and say with a glow, "My son, do this or that." God speaks in many ways. God speaks to me continually, for example, through his word. When my eyes landed on that text I didn't know exactly, but it was like there was a bold face, like that text suddenly stood out and then I left it there calmly, I let it soak, working in my spirit. When I got home, I prayed to the Lord to give me the meditation and the word, and then when I saw him I understood clearly.

The Lord began to guide me through the text. The first thing I saw in the text was that, the scepter of evil. So, I said, that's where this idea was born that evil is a reality in the world. Because it says the scepter of evil will not perch. Evil is a power, it is an authority, it has a scepter. Who has a scepter? A king, a person of power.

So when the Bible acknowledges that there is evil in the world, that's very important, but what that text also says is that it won't stay for too long. So what he's saying is that it won't last, that evil can come for a while and God can allow it. There is evil in the world. The devil is real, the spirits are real, the demonic and hell powers are real, but the important thing is that God is more powerful. And that is what we have to understand.

Satan is a defeated being. He has power in the lives of those who recognize power, but if you know that you are washed and bathed and saturated with the blood of Christ, there is no devil, there is no demonic power that can have superiority over your life. The enemy may come for a moment, but the Lord makes him flee again. If you stand firm in your position. That is very important that we understand that.

So God was opening that text before my eyes that night, and when the text began to speak to me, rather my problem was not that it didn't have enough to say, but rather that it had too much to say. And then I had to cut. But that is very important when we are in contact with the word of the Lord.

It is important that you live that word, that for example Máximo, who now begins the ways of the Lord, other new people, brothers, the Bible, the word of God, this is your world, this is your life, this is your universe. You have to learn to swim in the depths of this water. This word has to be your daily bread. You have to read it, study it, that is why it is so important that you take your discipleship courses when you can.

We are going to start a series of lessons shortly, about 6 lessons for new believers, people like Máximo who receive the Lord. My wish is that these people sign up and that for 6 weeks, only, 6 Sundays, they come for an extra hour. We are going to do it probably between 11 and 12, between the two services, so that those who finish the 9 o'clock service can stay, and those who come at 12 can come an hour earlier, and can learn the basics of the Gospel, what is salvation, repentance, salvation by grace, baptism of the Holy Spirit, very basic things about the Christian life. Because if we do not understand the things of God we cannot grow. It is not a matter of simply coming to church, and listening Sunday after Sunday. One has to enter the word, know the word because then that word will speak to you.

When you have problems in life, when you are in crisis, texts will come to your mind. When you are in a difficult time in your life, the Lord will speak to you through the word that is already within you and that you know very well. That is very important, because then in moments like this, the Lord… I know how to search in the word where those things are. And that is very important.

And that rootedness in the word gave me a specificity in my presentation, my meditation, that I was able to pack many biblical concepts in what I said. Many times without referring directly to the Bible. But that word speaks and impacts hearts and lives.

I thank the Lord that so many people outside of León de Judá in many parts of the world were impacted, even though they were not believers, or some were simply explorers of the word of God, simply restless. When the word is within your expressions and the concepts of the word, it gives any advice you can give a very powerful weight. It is important that you live and that we are always in the word.

Another thing that I have learned from all this is the following, many people have congratulated me because I was by Obama's side and because I shook hands with him and was by the side of these great celebrities. Brothers, thank you Lord and I appreciate your congratulations and all this, but let me tell you, it is not a correction, thank you, but brothers, I can tell you before the Lord that this does not affect me at all.

We are not movie stars. This from the Gospel is not like at the moment you were there in the presence of this great man and your ministry has risen. I am the same person, before going up here I ate a mashed plantain with tuna and onion. I have learned that one should not be dazzled by anything or anyone in this world. Being a servant of the Lord is something very different from any other type of work in the world. A servant of God should never seek glory for himself, nor should he allow himself to be affected.

Just like this happened, amen, God can just bring me back to things. Look at me here, among my people, I am happy that way and our hearts should always be like this. I sometimes see so many pastors seeking personal glory today, and that has been throughout the history of humanity, lobbying, seeking to have a large church, or make a name for themselves, or have a television program. Sometimes we invest so much of our own people's money into a program or whatever, that sometimes it doesn't even have the impact it's supposed to have and so we're taking money from our sheep just for projection. Not all, but there is a lot of ego today in the ministry.

We have to absolutely reject that. I repudiate that attitude in the name of the Lord. For me, simply my great joy is to have been able to share the Gospel with many people through that moment and to be a blessing. But I want you to be clear about it.

I have always told the Lord, I will never start making prophet or Apostle cards and handing them out. I have always learned one thing and that is that God is the one who lifts, not man. When I look in Scripture, I see God always taking his servants out of anonymity, he took David out of the sheep so much that not even the prophet Samuel dared to think that this could be his father, he didn't even suggest it.

He took Moses out of the desert, 40 years of anonymity. He found Gideon in a cave over there, threshing wheat. He took Elisha from the oxen, working. Saulo was also brought out of anonymity by persecuting the church. Some of his disciples he took from a table as a money changer, another as a fisherman.

God is the one who calls. God is the one who brings us out of anonymity, brothers. And no one should ever take the lead like… no. now, I tell the Lord, yes, God knows my heart and God knows that if he wants to use me, I am more willing and willing. I have always told the Lord that God… I thank the Lord because God has invested a lot in my life, he has given me many opportunities to educate myself and do many things and have a lot of experience and I believe that he could use me, but he always I have declared my heart and it is that I want him to be the one who takes me out of anonymity, not me. Because I think that's the biblical pattern.

Now, I do everything that is on my part and let God know that I am available and I prepare myself and I feel that there is a call, but he is the one who has to do it. We have to put aside the ego, the world is already tired of men with too big an ego. The world wants humble people, simple-hearted people, modest people, people aware that we are nothing, we are worth nothing.

At one point I can make a fool as the Dominicans say, a disaster. And we can't, we are fragile. We have to continually entrust ourselves to the grace and mercy of the Lord. It is the mercy of God and when God puts us in places of prominence we have to be so aware of our fragility and that only by the grace and mercy of the Lord, we can do something that is of glory for his name.

I believe that one has to cultivate a sense of weakness, rather, weakness in the sense of how Paul says, that when I am weak then I am strong. When a man or a woman knows that they are fragile and that only the grace and mercy of the Lord is what allows us, that then covers us and the devil cannot attack us because we are...

Who can report someone who has already been reported? It is important that that aspect of things, I thank the Lord and appreciate his joy, but brothers, I assure you that the most appropriate thing is to simply give glory to the Lord and continue with our lives in a totally simple and normal way.

Another thing that I have learned from this whole process is the following, we have to be very careful as a church when we are witnessing in certain situations in the life of a nation or a culture. When at a time when so many people are fearful, panicked, some feeling guilty about whether God is truly punishing this nation, who are not Christians, feel fragile, that is not the time for us to offer a word of condemnation or judgment. .

There are many high profile Christians who, for example, when the twin towers, the first thing we do on television and in public forums, is to talk about how it is the sin of this nation that has brought about that, and that God brings judgment. . It may be true, but we should reserve that type of comment rather for the intimacy of our family of God. Because we understand each other and we know what we mean by that and what we are talking about. But what the world hears is more like people enjoying their pain and the world at that moment is not prepared, I assure you, to hear words of condemnation and judgment.

For example, if you are going to see a patient who just had an accident and was drunk driving on the highway, had an accident and is with one leg up on the bed and nails everywhere and his mouth shut that you can only take for a Hoyito, you are not going to tell him at that moment, "You see, so-and-so, look what happened to you because you were drinking, I don't know what, I don't know how much." Of course not. what he is going to do, he is going to get away as much as possible and with the same cast he is going to want to give you everything he can. Because that's not the time for you to tell him that.

It is time for you to pray for him and to tell him about the good purposes that God has for his life, how valuable he is and that God loves him and that God is going to get him out of there safely and that God has a purpose for him. he. Even if you know that he is a scoundrel and that it is good that it happens to him, but at that moment you have to offer... one has to be tactful, brothers.

And we evangelicals are very quick to announce judgment and condemnation to a people that they know, they are not stupid, the people know what is going on in their lives. That is the time for us to win them over many times. And that was one of the things that I proposed to myself in those minutes that I was there. I had to take advantage of those 6, 7 minutes that had been given to me before a world audience and before the President of the United States himself and his wife, and so many other dignitaries. One cannot, at that moment, nor is it the moment in 6 minutes, what can you say in 6 minutes? Don't end up stuck in your own language if you don't take care. The only thing one wants to leave is a good taste about the Gospel in the mouth.

At that time what people want to know something. Look, what I wanted to project through those minutes was the following.

1) Evil exists and it is true, it is real. There is pain in the world, there is tragedy in the world. There is evil, there are terrible things that happen in this world.

2) These terrible things can happen to innocent people who have not done to deserve it.

3) God also exists and God is almighty and God is the one in control of the universe and not evil. Because? Because people are thinking that the world is ending, other bombs are going to explode, when I get to my house I'm going to find it burned down because another crazy person thought of throwing another bomb in my neighborhood. People are full of fear and you have to tell them, no, God is in control. Bad things can happen in a moment, as it says, the scepter of evil can have a moment, but God limits it, God is in control.

Now, the question of many people is, if God... the other thing I also want to tell you is that God is good and God is benevolent, God is merciful, God does not want anyone to be lost. God loves humanity. So the question arises, well, if God is so good and if he is in control of the universe, then why does he allow these things to happen? Why is my son dead or why am I missing two legs when three days ago I was running a marathon? That is a good question.

Because if he's good and in control, then why does he allow that? Why is he cruel? Why do you like that? Why do you take pleasure in suffering? No. You have to tell them, look, we live in a mysterious world, a complex world where good and evil are in conflict, where there are three – I always tell people, what happens is you don't have as much opportunity to say this – when people say, why does God allow such a thing to happen? As if God was the only player in the universe.

He knows that God is almighty and he is in ultimate control, but there are two other protagonists in the drama of history. There is God with all his power and all his absolute control of the universe. There is also Satan, and there is power, there is a kingdom of great power that is on earth, it is evil, wickedness. Satan with all his demons, all the power of evil, psychopath, who, like those youngsters who were under the power of Satan, delights in destruction, as the Bible says, kill, steal and destroy.

And Satan doesn't know how to do good or get paid. He is a totally pathological sick being. Satan defines what a psychopath is. He has no hatred for humanity, he simply does not know how to do good, the only thing he knows is to do evil and his demons are the same. They are beings who do not enjoy a drop of grace and mercy and love from God. What makes a human being, no matter how bad he is, can love his son, even if he later goes and kills 10 people or his brother or his wife, what makes that being have a drop of love for someone who is not a perfect demon, devoid of all grace, is the touch of God that is still in his life. But demons don't have that privilege.

Those fallen angels are already doomed. There is no alternative for them. None of them can regret it. In them there is not a drop of grace and mercy, love, goodness, beauty of God. They are pure evil, totally void of all good things. As is the totality of good. And those spirits are preternatural spirits, they have access to forces and mechanisms that we do not understand and they move in the world with a capacity not, by far, equal to that of God, but superior to that of men. And that is a subversive kingdom, which moves in the world and manipulates governments, corporations, cultural movements, universities, university professors, journalists, people in power, criminals.

That power moves in all parts of the world and for some reason that power is allowed to influence history and the events of every day of humanity, in all parts of the world, of creation. Because? Because there is a third player in the world and who is it? Man, humanity. God gave that humanity dominion over the earth.

When in the garden of Eden he said to him, rule, be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth. God delegated to man, to humanity, authority over his realm. So, the man God created him with a freedom that God himself cannot violate, is not allowed to be violated because God plays by the rules.

If God is going to change the universe, he has to change it by playing by the rules he established. God does not chirea, as Puerto Ricans say, God does not deceive. God doesn't start a game and then in the middle of the game change the rules. No. When he says that it has to be a certain way, even though it is difficult for him, he follows the rules of the game and those rules of the game dictate that he cannot prematurely take away man's power on earth. Man will always have the right to choose between good and evil, to whom he gives the land. And for this time, humanity has turned power over to Satan.

So, when we see these things happening in the world, wars, oppressions, slavery, death, poverty, all this is the result of the interaction between those three great powers: God who is leading history towards a benevolent culmination; the power of the devil that wants to undermine the benevolent purposes of God in history; and the man who as an heir who has handed over his power to someone else is just like an inept who has great authority on earth but does not use it and does not appeal to Christ who is the only power that can subdue the powers of the devil, his blood and his work on the cross of Calvary.

As long as humanity is in that game and does not humble itself before its creator, these things are going to happen and the first one that is going to suffer when these things happen is our heavenly Father, seeing his creatures suffer and die the way they die and suffer.

Satan does many of these things to cause pain to the heart of that loving Father who is God, who bleeds when he sees his creatures dying and suffering needlessly. So when we say why does God allow? No. many times why man allows. And why does God in his mystery allow these things to happen while he is taking this world and this history of man to the point where he wants it to be?

So, we have to make people understand these things. The church has been placed here as an illuminating voice for humanity. When humanity finds itself in perplexity, the church has to tell them, look, this is what is happening, present them with a God of love, of mercy, present them with hope. And also at the time tell them, but look, this is mysterious, there are powers, there is evil in the world and you have the right to choose one thing or the other.

I hope that the Lord gives me more opportunities in the future to talk about these things, because I feel that the world is ready to hear the Gospel announced in a complex and credible way, that does not deny certain realities of the world in which we live. Do not give them more importance but do not give them less importance than they deserve, and then use the word of the Lord and express love to them.

You know what has been quoted the most from what I've said, and one of the few quotes from people who spoke, except the greats like Obama, to the glory of the Lord, was when I said, 'God has not abandoned Boston, God has not abandoned this nation, he just weaves a bright and colorful tapestry, although sometimes he uses dark threads.' That has been repeated, it has been repeated. Because it encapsulates this idea of God's love, that God hasn't rejected, God hasn't finished working yet. God does not want anyone to be lost. God has not yet consigned this world, this nation to hell. I still do not yield this nation to Satan.

We still have to fight for these souls. I believe that God still has great things that he wants to do in this nation and the church, by saying that this nation has already gone to hell... I believe that there are many of us who secretly want this to be lit in a great hell to secretly enjoy it. see people roasting. Honestly, I think there are many of us that if the world repented, we would go home and kick the soup because we are upset with God that all these people repented, like Jonah.

Do you know the story of Jonas? He did not want to speak to Nineveh because he was afraid that if he spoke to him, they would repent and God would forgive them. So bad they were! There are many Christians who are like this. We secretly have ill will towards people and we want like yes, that there is another terrorist act, because how interesting... how much we enjoyed ourselves on television that Friday, stuck there, it was better than any soap opera. Yes sir.

And many of us secretly like these things. Look, what we have to have... that's why God said to Jonah, "Listen to me," that's why he put a gourd on him and when it dried up and the sun began to fall on it, he became furious and God told him, " Look, if you bother with a pumpkin dying, drying up, how much more than thousands of people who could die, who sometimes don't even know how to differentiate between their left hand and their right hand."

For me it has always been a mystery because we still don't know what God wants to do with this nation. I feel that what God wants rather, God wants to save many souls, before Christ comes, who is going to come, and there is going to be a definitive judgment, but before that happens, I feel in my heart every day that a great love grows for this humanity and that God wants many to still be saved.

And I'm rather preparing myself. I am preparing my nets to save many people. Still the apocalypse scenario, in my book it still lacks a little time. Meanwhile we are going to save lives, we are going to announce the love, the power of God. I do not cede a square inch of ground to Satan. He is defeated in the name of the Lord.

God is more powerful. God's love is more powerful and I rather want to be filled with a great sense of paternal mercy towards so many people who are lost and I want the opportunity to speak to them about God's love and to express to them a generous and caring church that wants people to repent of your sins and come to the ways of the Lord and be treated by him.

These are some of the things I learned from my day with Obama. And there are others like that too, but at least I wanted to clarify some of those things that were in our hearts, because God also wants to speak to us as a congregation at this time so that we are ready. Because I know that other moments will come.

God is doing something that we have been waiting for a long time and in his way God is going to do it. There is no need to rush. You don't have to be breaking down the doors. No. God does. God is in control. But we are preparing. Get ready, study the word, pray, fast, sanctify yourself, cleanse yourself so that when the Lord calls you you can be prepared. Amen.

God bless you. Let's stand up and thank the heavenly Father for his presence. It seems that everyone is awake, no one fell asleep. Glory to God. We spent a little time, I know. I felt from the Lord that this had to be declared in the air and that it remain there on the internet as a testimony simply for the glory of the Lord.

Father, we give this time to you. Thank you for the privilege of coming before your presence as your people, Lord, to rejoice in being part of a glorious family. Thank you, Father, because this bus we are on is not going to go off the cliff. We are on our way to our heavenly homeland and there is no demon that can make us fall off the cliff or stray from the path that you have declared for us.

Thank you because we are safe in you and as your word says, Lord, no one will be able to separate us from the love of God who is Christ Jesus, neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, neither the future nor the past. neither the present nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God. And that is clear, Lord, and for that we thank you.

May our hearts be full of security in you tonight. I bless your people. Thank you for the privilege of serving you. You are a good God and we want to enjoy more of your goodness every day. To you glory and honor, in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.

Brothers and sisters, God bless you. The grace of the Lord be with you. Say hello to each other and you're fired.