A life of perpetual growth

In honor of our men and fathers of the Congregation, I want to share with you this meditation that invites us to live a life of perpetual growth. Repeat after me: perpetual. This means that we want to be continuously in the process of growth and development.

And the Lord put it on my heart this morning to read, rather, a portion of a book that I started years ago before all this construction started, I had started writing, and it stayed there halfway, still I have not resumed it, it is waiting there in the most meek way for me to come back again to finish it. I want to share some pages, I'm going to read it; I don't normally preach by reading, but I want to share this with you so open your spirit to these words and I hope the syntax of Scripture isn't too complex, this is going to be easy. But open your heart to this call from God to a life of perpetual development and it is always more and more, and to grow more in the Lord because that is what the Lord wants, that we be more conformable to the character of Jesus Christ.

And that's what Paul talks about in Philippians chapter 3, in verse 12. If we read the context of Paul's words in verse 12 you'll see that it's in terms of: "Being more like Christ, getting to know more of the Lord, the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" says Paul: "of knowing Him and participating in His personality, the power of His Resurrection," he says: "Participating even in His sufferings, becoming like Him" in all level, all expression. And that is what the life of a man of God, a woman of God is about, and it is always looking more like ourselves, trying to be more and more like Christ.

And we know that we never reached that full measure of fullness, the stature of Christ Jesus. But our life must be a perpetual ascent, a perpetual going more and more in the direction of the ideal that is Christ Jesus.

And Paul says in verse 12: "Not that I have already reached it" in other words, we never become perfect, right? in the sense of having nothing more to achieve or achieve, "Not that I have already achieved it, nor that it is already perfect, but" what does he do? "I continue." Are you "following" the target? that is your life, do not stagnate; keep going. "I continue to see if I can grasp" a fine word that means: if I manage to seize, take possession of, "if I manage to embrace that for which I was also taken" seized, attracted "by Christ Jesus."

Brothers: I myself do not claim to have already reached it, but one I do, if you can do something in life, this is what you have to do: "Forgetting what lies behind, and reaching out to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal, to the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Say: amen.

Brothers: the essential vision of every child, every man, every woman of God must be to reach the highest level of personal and spiritual development throughout our journey on Earth. Even secular people who do not know about God, understand that the greatest virtue of a human being is not wealth or power, or physical attractiveness but his character, the total configuration of his personality.

Henry Ford, the famous businessman and inventor has said and I quote: "Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, although it is sometimes difficult to realize or perceive it, because the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the failures and pains we experience in life help us in our march forward." Our life program should be to reflect more and more the perfection and character of Christ over time.

By fully understanding the fact that God is glorified not so much by what we do as by who we are, we will be motivated to make our journey on Earth a sweet-smelling holocaust to the glory of God. Our experience then should be governed by the fact that, much more important than living superficially respectable lives: going to Church, giving money to the Church or to the poor, externally respecting the laws of society, in truth we are supposed to reflect rather the character excellent, the ethical and moral greatness of Christ Jesus.

By understanding this fact, that what we are is more important than what we do, we will understand that external behavior must be based on deep foundations of solid spirituality, love, mercy, humility, compassion for others and recognition of our own essential fragility.

That is why the believer who has penetrated the essential feeling of Scripture is not fooled by the false idea of the Christian life as a rudimentary project of superficial reform of behavior, it is more than that. The mature servant, the spiritual woman clearly understands that the way to please God involves continuous death and resurrection, the total surrender of self. Nothing less than continually submitting to radical treatment by the divine surgeon, until the image of Christ is formed in us.

Paul expresses it this way, I quote: "My children, for whom I travail again until Christ is formed in you" Galatians 4:19. That expression of the apostle Paul denotes the deep feeling of the Holy Spirit. Desiring to form a people that lives up to the example of Jesus, that reflects His Grace, His love and His Mercy, manifesting at all times the fruit of the Holy Spirit. God will not settle for anything less than men and women who honor him with an experience of excellence and moral greatness.

That greatness in turn can only emanate from an inner moral richness, gestated throughout a life that has been committed to the sublime values of the Kingdom of God, and that has allowed itself to be treated by the divine sculptor. We can never please God with mere acts of good behavior and religious respectability. We will not be able to bribe him with just large offerings and ultimately superficial heroics.

First Corinthians 13:3 declares: "If I distributed all my goods to feed the poor, and if I gave up my body to be given" what happens? "useless." Above all, God seeks internal quality, the quality of the heart. The soul yearning to live in harmony with His holiness and His justice, with His Mercy and with His love. The psalmist declares: "The sacrifices of God are the broken spirit. To the contrite and humiliated heart you will not despise, O God" the internal of the heart, the internal quality of the human being, not necessarily the superficial external sacrifices that we bring to him as if to bribe him and pay a debt, right?

Before making this statement, the psalmist says: "Because you don't want a sacrifice, which I would give, you don't want a holocaust." Sometimes the easiest thing, brothers, is to bring a sacrifice to the altar. Offer to God an external and hasty offering leaving the interior, the heart untouched. But what God wants is to do a deep and radical work on our souls, to align ourselves with His absolutely integral and harmonious personality.

What is truly difficult and, incidentally, beautiful for human beings, is to die to their own priorities and desires, to everything that gives them great pleasure, but at the same time impoverishes and weakens them, and prevents them from being able to be blessing to his fellow men. The hardest job for every human being is to adopt a long-term plan, listen to this, it's very important, the hardest, most difficult, weirdest job actually for every human being is, or should be, we could say, in adopting a long-term plan of radical improvement. So we must live our life, with a commitment: for the rest of my life I am going to perfect myself, polishing myself until there is a transformation in me.

Paul talks about how we are transformed through the renewing of our understanding. The Bible is full, incidentally, of allusions and references to the fact that we must always be a perpetual sacrifice placed on the table and the altar of God, consuming ourselves little by little as a pleasing holocaust to the Lord; that is what it is about, that perpetual improvement, development, perfection that comes through the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

Our comprehensive vision must consist of undertaking a life program that involves our entire being and that has as its goal nothing less than the total reconstruction of our personality, until it is conformed to the perfect image of Jesus Christ. Any trait that does not glorify God: addictions of any kind, rancor, sensuality, phobias, fears, insecurity, pride, ambition, materialism, complexes of all kinds, must be removed one by one from our being.

From that transformed life, carved blow by blow by the divine chisel along an intentional and deliberate career, then will emanate the noble acts that the world can observe and celebrate, and that only then will bring delight to the heart of God, because they will be born of an authentic and truly moral subsoil. All Scripture insists on this essential truth, it is the following: the heart of God can only be reached through the cultivation of a generous heart, a humble posture, a lifestyle like that of Jesus Christ.

That is why the agenda of our life should always be the development of a balanced and generous personality that reflects as much as possible the specifications and qualities of the original creature that God installed in the Garden of Eden before the fall; in this consists the true moral and spiritual success.

Our supposed virtues are like filthy rags, the prophet Isaiah reminds us. "Though we are all as dirt and all our righteousness as filthy rags." Again, our own virtues are like filthy rags unless they are sustained by a spirit dealt with by God and purified to the uttermost.

What God requires is actually very simple, my brothers, and also very simple at the same time. The prophet Micah expresses this through memorable and poetic words. Says the poet Micah: "With what shall I appear before the Lord, and worship the most high God? Shall I appear before Him with burnt offerings, with calves one year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand streams of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my bowels for the sin of my soul?"

In other words, the prophet rhetorically asks himself: how am I going to please God? Will God be pleased that I make sacrifices, that I walk to Rome on my knees, that he whip my back all night until I bleed, my skin wants to fall off? Will God be pleased with those external and heroic sacrifices, and numerous? look how he responds to your rhetorical question. He says: "O man" in other words fool "God has declared to you what is good, and what does Jehovah ask of you? Only to do justice, love mercy and humble yourself before your God."

No sacrifice that we can offer to God, no matter how significant it may seem, is capable of making us worthy of His acceptance. We cannot pay God with external actions for His love, we cannot bribe Him or win over God only by doing external things that are not born from the internal heart, that are not united. My point in all this is that the external of our experience has to be in perfect conjunction with the internal. Our external acts have to express the internal richness of our life and that is why the life that pleases God is born inside, and then it is expressed outside.

What many of us want is to express a life on the outside, assume a series of behaviors, duties, tasks, external behaviors and many times we leave our inner being without God touching it; We tell him: You can stay there in the waiting room, okay? I'm even going to put you in the dining room if you want, but don't go into the living room or the bedroom, and above all, don't go into this internal dwelling here, right?

And we cannot put barriers to God. All the keys of our being have to be in His Hands, all of them, even the subconscious and that is what pleases God. And when God sees a heart totally delivered to Him, then God takes care of putting in us the virtues that will make us men and women who with our actions will reflect the character of Jesus Christ, and we will be pleasing to Him, and a blessing to others.

No sacrifice that we can offer to God, no matter how significant it may seem, is capable of making us worthy of divine acceptance, only the excellence of the heart, that doing justice, loving mercy and humbling ourselves before our God of which the prophet Micah speaks, only that can give us entrance to the Throne of Grace and attract divine approval on our lives. Paradoxically, the recognition that we will always be far from achieving personal justification through our actions is precisely what will make us worthy of that justification that we so desire; Knowing that we are short, we are weak, we are poor, we are sinners, we fall short of God's Grace and His justice, that makes us deserving of His justice and His love.

The foolishness of wanting to reduce spiritual greatness to a project of accumulating points through good works and good social behavior only manages to bring contempt for God. The pursuit of respectability through works only leads to spiritual pride and self-righteousness. But God, the Bible tells us: "He is exalted and attends to the humble, but to the haughty he looks from afar."

One of the deepest and most revealing parables of Jesus shows us two characters who approach the temple to pray: a religious man who is too sure of himself and a sinner overwhelmed by the recognition of his sin, Luke 18:9 to 14.

The first figure is the very embodiment of good behavior, morality reduced to good works. This man is saturated with a deep sense of his own justice and his irrefutable right to appear before the Throne of God. The Bible says that: "Standing on his feet, he prayed with himself in this way: God, I thank you that I am not like other men, thieves, unjust, adulterers, or even like this publican; I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I earn."

The tax collector, for his part, was overwhelmed by the awareness of his immoral behavior and knew that he deserved divine punishment. He had abused his governmental position, had betrayed his compatriots by cooperating with the invading Roman government, and he said to himself, says the Word: "The tax collector, being far away, did not even want to raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his chest saying: God, be merciful to me, a sinner."

And what is the moral lesson of this whole story? The Bible says that the repentant and humble sinner descended to his house justified before the other, because whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

In the Kingdom of God moral qualities such as: humility, repentance are much more valuable than cosmetic and superficial works. Relying on good works often only succeeds in fostering in us spiritual pride and contempt for others.

Now, everything that I have been saying up to this moment pursues a single goal and that is to make you and me aware of the deep scope of what success truly is, a successful life, a life of greatness, a life of development.

I say here: since we will talk so much in this book about what greatness and success is, we need to define it well now, I want to define for you what an accomplished life is, a truly successful life, because there are many people out there talking about success and prosperity and blessing.

I want us to place that concept of a successful life within the proper frame of reference: the biblical framework, the context of God's Word, and the sublime values of His Kingdom. We do not want this term to be confused and its meaning to be lowered, limiting it to the pedestrian and superficial level to which it has often been reduced even by many teachers of the Christian religion.

Brother: if what we want to achieve is successful and fulfilled lives, and we have to define that concept in the light of the values of the Kingdom of God, then our primary purpose should be, listen to this, this is a successful life, a life that has managed to eliminate from our own life everything that does not resemble Christ Jesus, what does not align with His impeccable character. Everything that contradicts the beauty and excellence that Christ came to restore on Earth. Everything that limits or impoverishes us. Everything that stands in the way of our happiness and our physical, moral or spiritual development must be identified as an enemy and submitted to the corrective treatment of the Holy Spirit.

By this, what I mean is that: our goal in life should be to bring our inner being, our moral and spiritual constitution of character, our way of being, our personality to such a high level of development that when God looks at us, he is pleased. and say: This man, this woman reflects My greatness, My beauty, My excellence, My holiness. And that is why I speak then that we cannot be satisfied only with the exterior, work to always ensure the interior because everything else will be born from there, and that we have to consider our life achieved not by the money we achieve, nor the titles , nor anything but: to what level has a man, a woman come to develop to the maximum according to the character of Christ Jesus?

So that is why, everything in your life that contradicts that character of Christ, you have to always measure yourself in light of the character of Christ, Christ is your standard. How would Christ have done this? What is the quality that Christ manifests in this situation, this relationship, this moment? and if you see that yours is far below what He reflects, then you have to work on that continuously.

On the other hand, everything that exalts the Name of Jesus in our lives, anything that proclaims the beauty and excellence of the Kingdom of God, any quality that points directly or indirectly towards what Christ came to make possible with His Coming into this world should to be exalted and integrated into our own experience so that our life, even silently, declares the excellence of the Son of God.

Philippians 4:8 calls us to focus our thoughts on anything that reflects the attributes of the Kingdom of God. Paul says: "For the rest, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honest, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of a good name; if there is any virtue, if anything worthy of praise, think about this." We must always focus our lives and our goals on greatness, beautiful things, the attributes of the Kingdom of God.

That should be the program that governs our self-improvement efforts every day of our lives. We must continually strive to incorporate into our personality new attributes that manifest the virtues that make up the divine character.

We want to actualize the DNA, the divine genetics that is in us through our earned adoption as children of God. Our life project should be to make what we already are a reality, do you understand? God has a picture of you in His mind. You are a new creature for example. You are a child of God for example. You have overcome principalities and powers says the Word of the Lord. You have inherited every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. You have been configured according to the image of Christ. That is the program that you have inside of you.

God continually sees you as infinitely valuable, as powerful in Him, as filled with the Holy Spirit, as you can do everything in Christ who strengthens you. That is God's vision for you. And then your goal in life should be every day to unite the potentiality that God has installed in you and the great way in which He sees you with your reality on Earth when you walk every day. This giant man, this giant woman that is there next to you, which is what God sees, must align more and more with the man that you are or the woman that you are now, today so that they become consonant with one with the other.

One by one we must get rid of our bad habits and self-destructive practices, and replace them with behaviors in accordance with the character of Jesus, so life will become a beautiful and admirable project of continuous improvement. As we have said before, if the radical purpose for the Coming of Christ into the world is so that we have life and have it in abundance, then everything that contradicts that essential program of Christ in our lives must be realigned and submitted to the benevolent, benign intention of God.

Everything that is out of line and in accordance with what God has wanted for us by saying: I have come so that they may have life and have it abundantly. You have to ask yourself: what is in me, this trait, this character, this behavior, this way of being, does it express the abundant life that God has come to give me? and if it does not express it, write it down and name it: it is an enemy that you have to demolish, it is an opponent that you have to defeat; put it in your improvement program, write it down: hmm, I'm going to cut your head off one day too. And then you live your life, right? paying attention to it There are many enemies that are in your field, you know?

Life is a continuous battle. The man, the woman of God never takes off his armor, never takes the sword out of his hand, he always has to be there because there are many enemies of that perfect personality, of that image of Christ that God has declared over his life and everything that opposes you have to cut it, because God says: I have given you all the land that the soles of your feet tread on, but look, I command you to make an effort and be brave.

We have to continually behead giants that oppose the powerful and abundant life that God has declared over us. And under that category of adverse and negative elements that need to be confronted, all kinds of obstacles and challenges may enter. It may be about defects in our character, shortcomings in our personality, it may involve a circumstance in our lives that, like a tumor, prevents divine energy from circulating freely within us. It may include a troubled relationship: marriage, parenthood, a friendship, work.

Any problematic relationship may involve an emotional wound that steals our peace, a distortion of the past, a bad memory, abuse received. Positively, it may be a noble dream that we want to realize: buy a house, get a university degree, I don't know, learn to dress better or whatever. Anything, a noble dream that we want to realize or a relatively small goal that we have set for ourselves which would give our life a certain enhancement; all this should constitute raw material for our efforts of greatness and personal development.

Here I am going to insert the needle perhaps a little but we are among the family. For example, something so simple, I chose something very basic, very crude and everyday: the goal of losing weight, for example. This might seem trivial to us and even funny in a way, but for many people it is a matter of life and death. The United States right now, for example, is facing a terrible obesity epidemic, children are being, and brothers: let's take care of our children, let's take care of ourselves, that's what I mean, right? Let's make sure that our children create healthy eating and nutrition habits from an early age; We set the example, right? we can't preach morality in our underpants as someone out there said.

Obesity robs many of the joy of life, lowers their self-esteem, and greatly limits their social choices. I know people who have spent a lifetime fighting uselessly against fatness which brings frustration to their lives and although it seems funny, you know what? Christ also came to give us victory over fatness. I use the word fat instead of the more elegant one, obesity, because sometimes "I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me" right? and we think of legions of demons. But sometimes it's just, look, brushing your teeth every morning or taking a bath, simple things, right? The power of God is for all dimensions.

Ultimately that kind of fight we have right? it is part of the great victory over the works of the devil that the Son of God appeared to undo. God wants to provide us with the resources and the willpower that allows us to have healthy and balanced bodies, forging a clear and detailed goal, declaring it with our mouth, praying about it, exercising patience and long-term vision, persisting through small prayers and With small, incremental actions, we can defeat that giant and gain control over that aspect of our life.

And perhaps you have wanted for many years to eliminate your debts, establish healthy savings habits and buy your own home. For many this will require a long-term strategy made up of many small interventions along the way. That goal is entirely feasible in light of the promises of God's Word. They are goals towards greatness, right?

Any project, anything, right? It can be positive or it can be negative. It can be heroic and sublime or it can be very basic and everyday. The thing is that we have to make an agenda to achieve goals in life that increase our spiritual and moral height.

And maybe you have a spiritual or professional goal that you want to achieve. Or you want to see significant changes in your married or family, or parental life. Or perhaps that your marriage goes from being a mere coexistence characterized by emotional distance and becomes a full and satisfactory relationship characterized by transparency, love and good communication. Did you know? the resources of heaven are waiting for your initiative to align in your favor and give you victory in the name of the Lord.

It is possible that all your life you have wanted to develop a hobby, play a sport or learn a new language, it is never too late. The excuse that we are too old or that our mind is no longer capable of processing new challenges is never valid. On the contrary: our brain, you know? retains its vitality. All neurologists and psychologists say this: our brain retains its vitality and flexibility for longer than we think.

There are people that you see at forty: no, I'm too old to change. God already made me like this and that this and that the other. That futility and that, how did I say, fatalism, that's the word, Meche is used to correcting my mistakes and me putting into practice what I preach too (laughs). That fatalism that many people: I hear people at forty years old, at fifty years old saying as if they were already old and can no longer change, there is nothing else to do, it is simply living life fatalistically because that is my destiny , I am already like that.

You see today, many of the things that happen in modern culture today, justifying a lot of immorality and many spiritual ties that the Bible calls sin, people say: no, God made me like this, I am like this and therefore I I can not change. Don't ask me to change. So we convert what is a defect, something that God is willing to work on and improve, and that can even be a stepping stone towards moral greatness, because many times the internal struggle generates in one the power to become a spiritual hero, but many times what we say: no, I am already like this, God made me like this, I already tried, I can't take it anymore; so then we go from lamenting, to accommodating, to celebrating and attacking others when they don't see us as we want to see ourselves, and even wanting to conform others according to our fatalistic identity, that's what this culture is experiencing.

Instead of being able to say: no, I can do everything in Christ who strengthens me and even in my struggles, even in my falls, even in my agony I am going to become a representative of the glory of God, I am going to be a hero , a knight-errant always battling to reach what God has destined for my life. It seems to me a much grander life than simply adjusting ourselves: oh because God already made me like this, I tried, I'm too old, I can't change anymore.

It is possible that all your life you have wanted to change something: learn a new language, learn to play the piano, go to university, learn to drive. The excuse that we are too old or that our minds are no longer capable of processing new challenges is never valid. On the contrary: our brain retains its vitality and flexibility for longer than we often think.

One of the secrets to avoid senility and some say Alzheimer's disease and dementia is precisely to keep our mind active, trying new things, undertaking new challenges, learning new skills, challenging our mind to new levels of exercise. Keep your mind always active my brother even if it's doing crossword puzzles, whatever but keep your mind always restless by going to the next level. This is a muscle like any other; if you don't use it, it atrophies. Use it, God has given you a precious muscle there, in Christ Jesus you have a privileged mind, you have the mind of Christ says the Word of the Lord, so use it. That mind does not grow old, that mind does not atrophy, that mind does not harden, that mind is always porous, penetrable, agile because it is the mind of God, it is the mind of God, you have it.

The older you get the stronger you get, the wiser, that's what the Word of the Lord says. It says: "The righteous will flourish like the palm tree, will grow like a cedar in Lebanon; planted in the House of Jehovah, in the courts of our God they will flourish. Even in old age they will be fruitful. They will be vigorous and green to announce that Jehovah, my strength is right, and that in Him there is no unrighteousness" says the Word of the Lord. There is nothing impossible, you are neither too young nor too old to achieve goals in your life and reach all the greatness that God has for you.

For the person in a perpetual state of growth, entering old age or even old age can be a time of great beauty, an opportunity to make peace with our loved ones or with ourselves. It can be a time of inner healing when we finally get rid of all those negative energies that have caused us so much pain and conflict throughout our lives. Old age can represent an opportunity to develop new facets of our personality that have been repressed for a long time, to try new colors in our clothes, to broaden the circle of our friends. Finally undertake those projects that we wanted to undertake during our youth but for some reason or another we could not. An old Jewish saying declares: "For the ignorant old age means winter time, for the learned, harvest time." Amen.

I recently read the moving story of a beautiful old lady named Rosa, which reminded me of the power of a positive attitude to banish the supposed ravages of aging and keep us vital and attractive despite the years. This illustration says like this: "The first day of school our teacher introduced himself and invited us to say hello to someone we didn't know in the room" this is the illustration I want to leave, this young man is on the first day of school. The teacher invites them to say hello to someone they don't know in the classroom.

"And when I stood up" says the writer "to look around me, a soft hand touched my shoulder. I turned around and discovered a wrinkled old lady, focusing on me with a smile that lit up her entire face. She said: hello handsome, I My name is Rosa, can I give you a hug? I laughed and responded enthusiastically: of course I do! and she gave me a big squeeze."

"What are you doing studying at the university at such a young and innocent age? I asked him. Laughing, he replied: I am here to get a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children and then travel."

"No, really, I told her. I was curious as to what had motivated this woman to take on such a challenge at such an advanced age. I always dreamed, she said, of getting a college education, and now I'm finally getting it, answered me."

"After class we walked to the student lounge and shared a chocolate milkshake. We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we hung out of class together and talked nonstop. I was mesmerized listening to this time machine , while sharing her wealth of wisdom and experience with me. Over the course of the year, Rosa became a sensation on the college campus and easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to put on her makeup and feel good, and enjoyed the attention she showered immensely on her all the students." He was enjoying it all.

"At the end of the semester we invited Rosa to speak at our soccer banquet. I will never forget what she shared with us on that occasion. She introduced herself and went up to the podium. As she prepared to give her speech she dropped the cards with her notes on Frustrated and a little embarrassed, she leaned into the microphone and said simply, I'm sorry, I'm feeling pretty tense. I'm fasting beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me. I know I'm not going to be able to organize my business cards. again in time, so let me just share with you what little I know."

"As we laughed he cleared his throat and began. He said this: we don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, happy and successful. Number one: you have to laugh and find the humor that encloses each day." Amen, we can hallow these teachings, okay.

"Number two: you have to feed a dream" feed a dream. "When you lose your sleep you die. We have so many people walking the Earth who are dead and don't know it."

"Third: There's a difference between getting old and growing up. If you're nineteen and you lie in bed for a whole year doing nothing productive, you'll still be twenty. If I'm eighty-seven and I lie on bed for a whole year doing nothing, I'll still be eighty-eight. Anyone can grow old, it doesn't require any special talents or skills. The key is to mature through constant discovery of life's opportunities and that contain the changes."

"Last: do not stay in the past feeding remorse or guilt. Generally, the elderly do not regret what we did as what we did not do. The only people who fear death are those who have some kind of remorse that possesses it ."

"At the end of the year Rosa obtained the university degree she had begun so many years ago. A week after graduation Rosa died peacefully in her sleep. More than two thousand university students attended her funeral, paying their tribute to the wonderful woman who taught us through his example that it is never too late to be young."

"With her positive attitude, her humor and her willingness to take risks, despite her advanced age, Rosa showed that we can achieve our dreams no matter how old we are. Life is waiting for us to embark on the journey of knowledge, triumph and self-improvement." All this and much more is within your reach, child of God, it is within your reach through the Power of God that moves within you. Using the principles that God has provided in His Word we can confidently declare, like the Apostle Paul: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

For the person committed to taking advantage of all of life's circumstances for personal growth, there are no insurmountable barriers on the way to the top. Even failures and adversity, even those obstacles that cannot be entirely overcome can constitute our raw material for success and personal fulfillment. Through a close union with the power that is in Jesus we are prepared to break the force of malevolent gravity that drags us to the ground, strengthened by the Lord and in the power of His strength we obtain the authority and power that we need.

We can overcome the uphill struggles that we will inevitably face on the path to personal greatness. When we launch ourselves towards the conquest of our true destiny we can hear the loving words of Jesus: "Remain in Me and I in you; I am the vine, you are the branches. He who remains in Me and I in him bears much fruit."

Brethren: let us make a determination this morning to launch ourselves on the path of greatness, the path of perpetual growth. May the Lord bless you and may these words help us believe that we can achieve great things with the Power of Christ within us.

Let's stand up for a moment, receive God's challenge this morning, tell yourself: I can achieve the impossible with the Power of God within me. God has called me to greatness and excellence, God has called me to be a knight-errant, an accomplished lady on a perpetual journey toward an exalted target. God has not called me to subject myself to anything, as the apostle Paul says: "I will not be enslaved to anything, but I strike the air, I strike with a goal in mind to knock down all thought and take it captive to subjection in Christ Jesus."

What are the areas in your life that need to be subjected to God? Any spiritual bondage, any complex, any fear? Any wound from the past that haunts you? received any abuse? Some moral failure that you have not been able to forgive yourself even though God has already forgiven you? some childhood memory you play like a tape recorder there, like a tape stuck in the past? low self-esteem?

What is your fight? Where are those areas of your life that say lies to God's declaration: "I have come so that you may have life and life in abundance"? God can use everything in life; the failures, the struggles, the losses, the pains. None of it is designed to bring you down, destroy you, defeat you. God has allowed it to be a stepping stone to your greatness. Come to be more like Christ who, through His sufferings became obedient, and obedient even to the cross, and God gave Him a Name above all names and raised Him to the highest.

We can use the losses, the sufferings of life, the defects as stepping stones to greatness. They are exercises that allow them to come to our environment so that, through struggling with them, our spiritual and moral muscles develop and we can become those spiritual giants who help the weak, rescue the lost, inspire the fearful, renew the illusion in a society that every day becomes more and more cynical, that is what God wants you to be.

And God says: You know what? I will allow pain to come into your life. Since your childhood I have allowed this to happen, the other to happen, but it is all because I want to use you so that you become like My Son, an element of renewal and life for humanity, because after all I have the entire universe to give you. when you finish your degree here. And when you get up there you will understand that everything you went through here was mere illusion, mere exercises because what is true is what I have set aside for you, so do not be obsessed with the small discomforts of this world. Think about what awaits you up there and live your life exalting the values of My Kingdom and reflecting the spiritual greatness of My Son.

So I invite you this morning to embrace the ethics of a spiritual giant, a warrior of God, an excellent and suitable woman to do the works of Your Kingdom. I invite you to believe that everything is possible for those who believe in the Lord Jesus. Name your giants and proceed to defeat them one by one until death surprises you and then they all fall at your feet, because then you will be like Christ Jesus, perfect in everything.

Father: thank you. We bless this Word shared with Your people, we sow it, Lord, in their spirits, even though we do not remember everything we have heard, but I ask that this reverberate in our hearts, Lord, until Christ comes, and that it be a Word of encouragement to undertake the great projects and the small projects of life too. Thank you for the privilege of coming to Your House Lord.

We bless our brothers, especially our parents on this day. We praise Your Name and we give glory and honor exclusively to You Lord, in the Name of Jesus and the people of God say: amen. God bless you my brothers.