Remember the days of your youth

God’s Love for Jerusalem

Ez.16:1 "Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, ³ and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: “Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴ As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. ⁵ No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.

⁶ “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ ⁷ I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

⁸ “When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God.

⁹ “Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. ¹² And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. ¹⁴ Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.
 
¹⁵ “But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. ¹⁶ You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be. ¹⁷ You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them. ¹⁸ You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them. ¹⁹ Also My food which I gave you—the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you—you set it before them as sweet incense; and so it was,” says the Lord God.

²⁰ “Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, ²¹ that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire? ²² And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.

²³ “Then it was so, after all your wickedness—‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord God— ²⁴ that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street. ²⁵ You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry. ²⁶ You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger.

²⁷ “Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. ²⁸ You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. ²⁹ Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.

³⁰ “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord God, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.
 
³¹ “You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment. ³² You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. ³³ Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. ³⁴ You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”

³⁵ ‘Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord! ³⁶ Thus says the Lord God: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, ³⁷ surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. ³⁸ And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy. ³⁹ I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

⁴⁰ “They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. ⁴¹ They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers. ⁴² So I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more. "

O how humbling is this to me. I was that baby, and He had pity on me, He cleansed me and washed me, and dressed me with the best. Then, I prostituted myself and prefered other sins than my Lord. I was even worst than a prostitute, since I was not being paid to sin, but did it for free, out of my own evil desires! O may I never forget the days of my youth, remembre where He took me from, and that all in me if I have anything good at all, is His mercy poured out for me. Then, my Sovereign Lord ,decides after long suffering, to punish the prosititute... and strip her naked infront of his lovers, and be stoned, and pour out His wrath over her... yet, He poured it all on Jesus Christ (my Redeemer!), and on me... nothing! just the words: "My wrath was satisfied, now you are mine! and I am angry no more." O, what a merciful God. I am clean, forgiven and clothed!

signs

I am a bit worried about writing this post as I know it could cause much controversy, but I am writing it as a reminder to myself and I pray you may be blessed by it.

Butterflies have became very special to me. They remind me of my baby Erica Faith, because her room was all decorated with them (walls, crib ...). At her funeral I wore a butterfly necklace and I got another one, just because it was a settle reminder of her (but my sister gave me a necklace with her name on it and that is the one I wear now all the time). But any ways, you get the picture... butterflies became special to me.

Well, very soon after my baby died, I went to this park with some friends, and there was this butterfly that came to me only and flew all over me. It flew inside my hands as I am trying to cover my face, as I am shocked by the boldness of it. It stands on me over and over again. Of course I burst into tears. Since then, there have been a few experiences like that, of butterflies come and stand on me.

Not long ago, the Lord was merciful to me and gave me peace as He graciously has done in the past. And as I visited the grave where the body of my baby lays (even the marker we chose has butterflies in it), all I could think of was: she is not here! her body is here, but my baby is in absolute complete satisfaction, that she needs nothing! not even me! She does not see me, she does not think of me, she does not misses me or hopes to meet me. All of her needs are perfectly met by the Lord. What a beautiful thing that is! To also, look forward to that day, where I will also need nothing, or no one! not even her! For some this may sound mean or cold, but to me, it gives me great hope and joy.

Last week, the same happened with a butterfly fluttering all around me and stood on my head and flew all around my face for many minutes and my mind went right into the "signs" mode. Is this a sign of God giving me to remind me of her, is this an act of a loving God to give me a little of her? And then, I had to stop myself and look at my Lord and remember what His Holy Word says: God is enough! And then I saw this "experiences" as something I was enjoying, something dangerous to hold on to. Because God has been enough, I need no sign, I need nothing other than His precious word to sustain me.

Satan is very crafty, even using God's creation to play with my emotions, knowing that I am in a vulnerable position. Knowing that he can distract my attention from the One who sustains me and strengthens me, and the only who gives me peace and instead, put my hope in "signs" that I can easily find all around me and depend on them instead of depend on God alone.

So, I thank God again for His mercies towards us. For His peace and for the great confidence of His sufficiency. For the future hope and for the great gift of not needing signs to know that He is enough and to know He cares for us.

FB before 13?

I have been on FB since 2007. For the most part it has been fun, sometimes a waste of time, and others a way to encourage and be encouraged by others. I am now in contact with friends from when I was a little girl, met women that I have never met personally, I read great articles, and hear great music. All while I am sitting at home with a cup of tea.

I have 2 boys who wanted to join FB soon after I did. Why? not so much because I was in, but because friends the same age as them were on it. So what can be the big deal right? They will have friends the same age, keep in touch with them in a virtual world an that is it. No harm done.
Well as I started being part of FB, I realized some things besides the obvious (time wasting machine and pointless status updates) but my concern was their soul. That is my number one priority for them, my main responsibility before the Lord.

First of all, a secular world, who cares none about the soul of my children forbids them to join their social network until they are 13, that should be a good enough warning for me. If I want them to join before the age 13, I have to lie about their age. There is no way around it (unless I do not know about it of course). So by me agreeing to lie about their age, is to say that lying is really "not that bad".

Another reason we are waitingfor my younget to join, is because as parents we have some "cards" that we can play wisely or we can throw them all at once in raising our children. At least for our family, there are privileges in growing up that are worth waiting for (staying alone at home, having a cellphone, joining FB, watching certain movies, and so on). If we give them all those perks at a young age, we have no cards to play later! So when they are in their youth, what else can they look forward to? they already have it all and have seen it all. So they have to find something more exciting for themselves that is more thrilling or that feeds their need of accomplishment. But in our family, we decided to wait for those privileges. To have them looking forward to reach that age where they can join, or get the "cool phone" or look forward to be old enough to earn privileges that come with maturity and responsibility.

We want our children to know how to use wisely social media. To watch what they write, what they read, where they comment, what they comment, who the allow as friends, who they reject. If they use it, is to be used for a purpose, not for simple amusement or because they are bored. Their identity and reputation is on the line and they need to be wise about it.

It is hard. But we strive not for what is easy but for what is good for their souls.

To be Known by God!

There is a great difference between knowing about someone and being known by them.

I can read a great biography of my Prime Minister, I can even know what his favourite dessert is. How his house looks like, where he went to school and who his friends are. I may know what he believes about God, education, if he is a good administrator of his money or not, if he is liberal or conservative in his thinking, if his kids are well behaved... and the list goes on. I may know a lot more about him, that you. Or a lot less than you, yet at the end of the day, if we decide to go to his house and knock on the door, it does not matter how much we know about him but the person who will be allowed in and sit with him is the person the Prime Minister knows.

The same is with God. There are people that can recite every verse from the Bible by memory, they know all history and people. They know much about theology and can win an argument quite easily. Yet, they are not known by God. Others, know little about Him, their knowledge is increasing slowly and with much effort, their memory is not that great, they forget passages they "should" know, they read slower than others and their list of books does not seem to add as fast as others with more knowledge, they need much prayer because their flesh is weak, they battle constantly with the desires of their own heart. Yet, they are free to sit at His table, and eat with Him. They are known by God.

Now, I am not saying that reading and learning is useless. But the opposite! One that is known by God will naturally want to learn more about Him, because God himself will increase their love for Him, so that person will want to study and live a life that is holy.

Private prayer is essential, because it gives you assurance of your salvation. To pray and to read His word when no one is watching. You do it, because you truly love Him.Because He has given you love for Him. And that love, becomes irresistible!

O, to be known by God! That is the essence of Christianity! That is the why all works are useless, unless they are motivated by Him who give us the will to act according to His good purpose. O, to be known by God! Is the rest of mind to know that we can approach His throne with confidence, to be soaked by the blood of Christ to be His own. O, to be known by God! and know that every good act will be remembered, every tear kept, every prayer heard, through every trouble sustained. O what a comfort that is! ...To be known by God! To be welcomed into His house, comforted by His love, saved by His blood, forgiven by His grace.

Why?

My baby girl has gone to be with this precious Lord 10 months ago. What a beautiful life she had. A life with no knowledge of sin and corruption! If you ever question why this happened to us. Please read and and I pray you will understand.

God made this world prefect, it was sinless. It was beautiful and no sadness  was ever there. Yet man, rebelled against God and sin entered this world. Sadness, death, corruption, lies, vanity, greed ... man wanted to have their own choices apart from God. Man died that day. His desires were not for God, but for himself, shame covered them, man knew evil, and death entered the world. What a sad day that was. Yet, God in His mercy, because He is a merciful God, had compassion on men and love them so much that offered a way of salvation. He did not have to do that. Men deserved the full wrath of God for rejecting all that was good and perfect and disobeying the one command God gave them.

God cursed the ground, and labor and pain was going to follow the rest of his days. And promised a Savior who was going to come and save His people from their sins and conquer death and give eternal life. And while this Savior came, He chose people for himself to show us who God was and explain us through history who this Savior was going to be. So he saved His people out of the slavery of Egypt, to show us how Jesus was going to save His people from the slavery of sin. He had a mediator between God and man. Someone who would plead their case before God. To show us how Jesus would be our mediator between God and man.. to plead for us.  They had to sacrifice a perfect lamb before the Lord for the forgiveness of sins and place the hands of the person over the lamb to pass the sins of the person unto the lamb, then, the lamb had to die. Because without blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. They had to do this to realize the ugliness of sin, how sad it was, and what terrible consequences it brings. God gave them 10 commandments  for them to know what sin was. To know that even stumbling in one of those points, was enough to have to sacrifice a lamb. They had to followed them perfectly.  Well, as you can imagine, it was, and is impossible for any man to follow the 10 commandments perfectly. But that was God's plan. This way, they realized that for men it was impossible, but not for God. Only God can save us. But how? Well, Jesus came "The Lamb of God". He fulfilled, all the requirements of the law perfectly. Not one of the commandments He broke. He lived a sinless life and as a young man, perfect and holy, fully human, and yet fully God, died on the cross. His blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins. With His blood, he bought us back so that we can have access to the Father. On the third day, He was raised from the dead conquering death as promised from the beginning. And now, Jesus is sited at the right hand of God, praying for us. Pleading our case before the Father.

He purchased people for himself. Those who were not His people He called His people. Those who were unbelievers, He gave saving faith. And His Holy Spirit, comes, and give us life so that we might believe in Him. So I say to you, repent of your sins, look upon that cross and pray that the Lord may grant you repentance unto life.

So why my baby died? Because we live in a broken world. Sinful and cursed. Jesus came not to make our lives happy and rich, painless and magical; but to save us from our sins and give us perfect, eternal life, to live with Him forever. To save us from His coming wrath.

Was God able to save my baby from death and spare us from pain? Yes. But He did not, because His plans are better that ours. He knows what I do not, He loves us so much that He chose this to be best for us, even in a broken world full of pains and suffering, He is merciful to His people and uses even the bad of this world to show us more of who He is, to show us His goodness and our dependency upon Him. To make us more like Jesus Christ.  And to long for heaven, where the perfect rest of all suffering, pain and sin is our hope. But not a hope that is based on nothing, but a hope based on assurance.

To follow Christ will not be easy, but His love will be more beautiful to you the moment you know Him. Because He will fill every corner of your heart. You can know much about God and the stories written in the Bible, you can know much about religion. But O, to be known by God! To be called by Him and be His own possession.... there is nothing that compares.

Repent and follow Christ. Ask for mercy. And see how beautiful the Lord is. Pray to Him alone through Jesus Christ who gives us access to the Father. Pray to the One who can save your life and give you eternal life.

To Whom O Lord?

To whom O Lord can I go to? Who O Lord is enough for my soul? Is it not only You who can feed my soul?The only One who can comfort the inner parts of me? Who can I pray to that has the power to do wonderful things? Only You my Lord! Only You.

Who loves me with everlasting love but You O Lord? "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there."(ps.139)

Doubt my love for You, how can I? If it is Your Word who keeps me, Your love that sustains me, Your grace that receives me, Your mercy that forgives me, Your tenderness that captures me, Your love that ties me to You, Your faithfulness that keeps me, Your beauty that surrounds me, Your goodness that conquers me.

Beautiful Lord, there is nothing I desire more that to know You more, to live for You, to cherish You more and to surrend to You.

When I see the greatness of Your love, my mouth is without words. I can only bow my knees and thank You for saving me.

Monday

Monday. The first of the week. The day most hated by most people. Most people live for Friday afternoon. The goal of the week, is to get to Friday. Nothing else matters. Friday! people love Fridays!. On Monday people complain, On Friday people rejoice.

I just finished studying Ecclesiastes with my children (we have not read it in a long time). I started reading it as a "Monday" , I even warned my children: "it is a very depressing book, but is God's Word... we must study it"  at the end, I fell in love with the book I finished reading it as a "Friday" :) When we arrived at the last chapter... I was sad it finished! I wanted to read more, I could not get enough of it.. there is so much to learn, so much hope, so many great warnings and counsel. It finishes leaving you with hunger for more. For a hope for Heaven.

So, living for "Friday" it is a clear chase after the wind. There is nothing exciting... we work all week, just for the great weekend of party and rest. Just to realize, we need to do this again on Monday. There is no end. And after, we start living for the end of the month. What for? just to start again another week, another month, another year.

O, but as I was reading in His beautiful Word: "Then I realized that it is good for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God gas given him-for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work- this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart... God gives man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them and a stranger enjoys them instead..."Ecc. 5:18 - 6:2

O how much truth in this passage! Even our ability to enjoy our work is a gift from God.This man is so busy working, that he has little time to reflect on his own "issues of life" (what he has and what he doesn't, what he wants, what others think of him, what is the latest on-anything, what someone's life is like compared to mine, why am I better than ...) but keeps himself busy and glad. Not feeling miserable of the lack of free time, of his lack of this or that, or how every day he wakes up to go to work, or "while my friends are having fun, I have to work"...) but his heart is glad. Because he is busy, enjoying God's gift - the ability to enjoy it!

So today, as we start our Monday, let us be glad and rejoice in it. For the Lord made it, gave us this lot and let us not be idle but keep ourselves occupied with gladness of heart. The rest will come. But chasing after the wind will take us no where, but to the place we started. We live for that eternal rest, and the days we are here, God will enable us to accept our lot and be happy in our work.