Everybody Gets The Blues

But it's God that lifts us up!

Psalm 42:1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, "Where is your God?" 4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help 6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me. 8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I say to God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?" 10 As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.

A newer version of the Bible, The Message, has the psalmist saying, "I'm on a diet of tears - tears for breakfast, tears for supper. All day long people knock at my door, Pestering, 'Where is this God of yours?'" Either we have been there or close to there; days where sadness takes over our lives and we find ourselves thinking that God has abandoned us. The great thing about the psalmist was that he knew he had been the one to allow this to happen to him, thus the first line - he must be like the deer seeking "flowing streams" because in finding God would be where he would find the power to uplift his spirit. Yes, it can happen on a Monday; the thought of getting back to the routine (or rut) of everyday life, the challenges that were out of mind on Friday come back to needing fulfillment, etc. It is easy to get the blues, even after a great weekend of worship and praise.

The "fix" or cure is to set our eyes on God again, and God will bring smiles to our faces and praises to our lips; in everything and everyday, our lives should be about seeking and praising God. A dear member of one of my churches died this past Saturday. She had liver cancer and being the widow of a serviceman, she received treatment at Brooks Army Medical Center. Her son shared with me how even undergoing treatment for this terminal disease, she made it a point to know her neighbors and visit them and share how God had blessed her life and how she was changed because of the love of God. Dinorah Cloyd was an artist, who used her talent of painting to share beauty and hope with so many. She had gone from painting canvases to note cards to bookmarks, that she used to share with other patients. The doctors and nurses gave witness to her life and compared her to Ghandi; she loved others because she loved God and she knew God loved her. When she was released to go home it took several minutes because so many wanted to thank her again for her visits and sharing of her faith, which gave many of them hope.(Please pray for the Cloyd family, including Rev. Carlos Cloyd, her son and her two daughters.)

What witness do we have about our God? Do we let the geography get to us, the lows of valleys and highs of mountains? Do we let the "whitewater rapids," and "breaking surf" crash and crush us? The answer should be no. These are but temporal things, the big picture of faith says, God is still in control and God is still worthy of our praise!

Let God dry the tears and let us turn to God so that we can give witness to the living God, the God of hope and life.

PRAYER: Loving God of life, we ask for your blessings on those whom we have not yet blessed. We ask for comfort for those who are on a diet of tears. Comfort them and give them hope and let us have from You the words that we can share with others. Whatever need I may have, I turn over to You for your blessing and protection, and all this I pray in the name of Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior, amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!

Eradio Valverde

Personal Privilege: Happy Birthday to my wife, Nellie. She is my biggest fan and devoted reader of ConCafe since day one. May God bless her with many more, because I need her!

God Forgives Our Sins

Still we go scuba diving!

Hear these words, people of God: Micah 7:18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency. 19 He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. From Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. And from the last book, Revelation 21:1: 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

God forgives all of our sins. It seems too good to be true, but it is. Hear it again: God forgives all of our sins. And the Bible says there is an action on God's part that should speak to us. And this comes to us as a promise and as a help; God takes our sins and "cast(s) all our sins into the depths of the sea." Hebrews then adds God saying, "For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." God has trouble with His memory, like us older types, God forgets those sins for which we have asked forgiveness. Here begs the questions, why don't we?

Memory is a great thing most days. It is precious to remember loved ones. It is priceless to remember good things done for us or that we have done for others. It is powerful to remember what God has done for us. Yet, memory sometimes comes to haunt us. We confess to God that we are sinful and ask for forgiveness. God forgives our sins, casts them into the sea, forgets that we had even sinned, and in Revelation we see that that part about all our sins being in the "depths of the sea" becomes even more powerfully absent because "the sea was no more." Yet, we scuba dive in our memories and remember things. It's part of our conscience to let those past sins creep into our thinking, but here is where grace overrides conscience. God forgives and forgets. Oh, if only we were so gracious ourselves. We hold grudges. We shouldn't. We say we can forgive but not forget. We declare ourselves, though we are children of God, to be anything but Godlike. And it comes back to haunt us when it comes to such words and actions, and our words and actions said or done against God or God's people. Still, we scuba dive. We go lurking in the depths of the sea every time we let a memory of a past sin come to haunt us. What do we gain from that? Absolutely nothing, except to come face to face, as the diver in this graphic, with a monster of the deep.

I have a dear friend and brother in Christ whose second home is the sea, the underwater part. And he takes beautiful photos of the deep and shares them with me and those who are his friends on Facebook. And in all the pictures and movies he has taken underwater, Rev. Virgilio Vasquez Garza has yet to show me my past sins. At least in photographs! ;) And were he to come face to face with his or anyone else's sins, that would probably be the day he quit going under there looking for beauty.

Say this to yourself: My sins are forgiven. My sins are forgotten. My sins for now are sleeping with the fishes, but the day is coming when they will be no more.

PRAYER: Thank You, Loving God, for Your mercy and grace. My prayer is that You would help me and those reading this as their own prayer, to rely on Your grace to forget our sins. We are a people sent, not sit or set; so help us move towards You. We ask this in Our Lord and Savior's name, Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!

Eradio Valverde

To see the photo of the scuba diver and this in another format: http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=ddb0d8e9e8610bb92960afa4d&id=30c5e7a3b4

Forgiveness of even my sins!

Christ's love hits close to home.

From Luke 7 & 8: 36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. 37 And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38 She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner." 40Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "speak." 41 "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?" 43 Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly." 44 Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." 48 Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." 49 But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" 50 And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." 1 Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 2 as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

Somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, during a violent storm, a difficult question was asked of a little man who was afraid to die. The storm made him question survival and seeking a place below deck where he could die, instead he encounters a group of Christians celebrating their pending death. The leader of the group had to ask this man if he knew Jesus. The man replied that he knew Jesus to be the Savior of the world. The leader then asked if he knew Jesus to be his savior, and he had to confess that he did not.

The man asked that question could have been me or you. The man was very religious, but was not in a relationship with Jesus. The same is true about the man who hosted Jesus to supper. He wanted to know a little more about Jesus, but did not show any genuine signs of hospitality one would show to a friend or an honored guest. This mysterious woman did; weeping, she used her tears to wash Jesus' feet, and used her hair to dry them. She kissed His feet and used ointment to anoint Jesus' feet. She was in relationship with Jesus; she had know that she had made some wrong choices in her life; we call it sin. But she also knew that in Jesus she could find forgiveness for those sins, this the acts of gratitude toward Jesus. And the passage ends with with a partial list of wonn who followed Jesus and out of their gratitude, financially supported Jesus' ministry.

The man I mentioned above was a very religious man until he understood the need to have a relationship with Jesus. It would be a bit later when John Wesley went to a lay-led meeting at Aldersgate that he felt his heart "strangely warmed" and he understood that Christ had died for his sins, "even mine."

There should be no room in our hearts for sin. Sin kills. It's a slow, painful process and takes victims with it if we are not careful. But the Good News is that Jesus takes away our sins, even mine, for the asking. It's a message too good to keep to ourselves. Transformation begins from within, and taking away our sins is the first big step.

PRAYER: Living and Loving God, help me to stay in relationship with You. Forgive my sins and cast them into the deep part of the sea. Remove from my memory the harm they may have caused me and others. Let me be all about telling others about Your love. This I ask in the Name of He who came to take away my sin, Jesus my Lord and Savior, amen.

Happy Aldersgate Day!

May 24, 1738

"I felt my heart strangely warmed..." It was 275 years ago today, that John Wesley was invited to a meeting at church. John was an ordained Anglican priest and the last thing he wanted was another church meeting. It hadn't been that long since he had just gotten back from the colony of Georgia where he failed miserably. He came back to England feeling a complete failure. He was just going through the motions of serving God. I'll let him tell the rest of his story:

"In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter to nine, while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

Wow. Raised in a parsonage by a loving father and mother; taught the basics of Christianity by mostly his mom. Attended Oxford University, then became his dad's associate pastor, invited back to get a Master's Degree. Joined a religious group that did things in a methodical way. Jeered for the time they spent in prayer, worship, Bible study and helping orphans and widows; they were called "Holy rollers, Bible moths, because they took their Bibles everywhere with them. And the worst name they could think of? "You are a bunch of Methodists!" A name that John liked and adapted for this new group interested in living out the faith they had learned.

But it was not until he stopped to listen to God and the power of God to change hearts and remove sin, that John Wesley truly became a Christian. He needed salvation; that right relationship with God that begins with having our sins removed and our hearts renewed, that he was able to say the words we read above. Read them again. Now he "trusts" Christ "alone for salvation." He received an assurance that his sins, "even mine" he writes, "and saved me from the law of sin and death."

What good came of that? 1) He started preaching outdoors. As unheard of as today. He even preached on the tomb of his father because his father's old church did not want the likes of Wesley preaching this "good news" stuff. 2) He starts an orphanage. And it was needed. 3) He started a Sunday school, literally a school that taught the 3-Rs, since children were required to work and not to attend school. Once that changed, the Methodists kept the idea of a Sunday school to teach about God. Yep. We started Sunday school. 4) He travels over most of England by horseback, preaching every place and every chance given. 5) He preaches outside of coal mines to workers with dirty nails and hair that would not be welcome in the "proper" church. One time two men were so angry of what he was preaching they resolved to kill him by stoning him but stopped when they no longer saw John Wesley's face, but that of an angel. They could not stone an angel. A revival breaks out in England that some scholars credit with preventing a Civil War in England; people actually got along! 6)The Methodist Church is established in America by lay preachers that John sent to preach the gospel to all people, moving westward as the country grows, establishing churches and schools, universities, colleges, and hospitals.

The Methodist Church was a movement. Its members were open to God's Holy Spirit to do uncomfortable, outrageous and courageous things; completely different from the state-supported church that cared little or nothing about reaching outsiders. The state-run church was an institution not a movement.

How are we? Sad to say we resemble more the Church of England than we do the Methodist movement. We have turned inward and care more about our buildings and furnishings. Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday and we celebrated the coming of God's Holy Spirit on that day of Pentecost; the question becomes what have we done about it?

May our prayer this special day be that we would become a movement again, caring for our neighbor and that means recognizing all people as our neighbor, and doing what it takes to reach them for God's Kingdom. Could we preach outside again? Could we start Sunday schools in areas outside of our church, like housing projects or poor neighborhoods? Could we live lives that show that we truly love one another?

Happy Aldersgate Day! May your heart be strangely warmed again or for the first time!

Eradio Valverde

You'll Understand Later

Trust, Learn, and Obey

Understanding comes with maturity

John 16:12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

We have a birthday tradition that has become everyone who wants it; that of buying and breaking a piñata. For those, especially children, who have never had that experience, it is a scary one. The design of the piñata usually catches their attention, but the next step is the frightening one. "You take this stick and you hit it as hard as you can, to break it!" The child must be thinking, "You bought 'My Little Pony,' my favorite cartoon character, the one I love, and you want me to hit her/him as hard as I can, to break him/her?" Pretty much. What the children don't know, and I suppose for some this does not necessarily make it better, that the piñata is filled with candy. Once broken, the kids make a mad dash for it, pushing each other out of the way, fighting each other for Tootsie Rolls. Why did I choose this illustration for today's text? I don't know. It probably makes it as clear as the disciples must have felt as they heard Jesus explain the Holy Spirit to them.

Jesus says that they had a lot yet to learn, but He was not going to share it all at one time. Jesus knew that the more they heard at one time, the more they would forget. But, Jesus says, there will arrive the Holy Spirit, a person in the Godhead (part of the Trinity; Father, Son, Holy Spirit), who will guide you into all the truth, meaning, your education and walk with me will continue in this new fashion. The Holy Spirit will hear from God and will share that which he hears, and reveal and teach you as you journey with me. Jesus adds that the Holy Spirit will glorify Him, because he will teach the disciples in that which the disciples did not know at that point. And Jesus knew that after the crucifixion and resurrection, the questions about Him would increase, and the answers would be needed from Him. The making of new disciples would require being spiritually led by Jesus and it would be done by the Holy Spirit. Christ wanted them to mature in their faith so that they could share that faith with new believers.

Discipleship is never ending. Some of what we encounter on our journey make not make sense or it may seem difficult, yes, we may even have to break some spiritual "piñatas", but once we do, the greater thing, the sweetness of discipleship will be ours. What piñatas you encounter will take many shapes and may be held as sacred or traditional or territorial, but be guided by the Spirit to the newness and the sweetness of faith.

PRAYER: Journey with me, Dear God. Help me mature in my understanding and discipleship. Help me to make new disciples. Guide me through Your Spirit; this I pray in Christ Jesus, amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!

Eradio Valverde

Formula for Success!

Setting Your Sights on Success

St. Paul explains it from his perspective From Romans 5: 1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We all have our own definition of success. Some count it by the amount in the bank, wallet, or purse. Others by accumulation of material possessions or goods. Some by the joy received in doing the job they've always wanted. Paul saw success as being in relationship with God. Success is having peace. Peace comes from the knowledge that inner strength will see us through anything. And seeing us through anything will bring us a share of the glory of God. Even in the face of suffering comes that peace. Paul sets out a formula of sorts for this success: First, comes suffering in whatever form it may present itself to us. Moving forward and positively through suffering brings us endurance. Endurance brings us character. Character produces hope, the kind that does not disappoint because God has poured God's love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. At that low point of knowing that our sin had separated us from God, God gave us the news that Jesus died for us, which brought us justification, meaning we have been made right and accepted by God when we were, for all practical purposes, unacceptable. God's love is that amazing that we will are made right when we have been wrong. We have been lifted up when we have fallen down. We've been given a helping hand when we felt we were alone and not able to do anything.

The photo I have shared this morning speaks to my heart of that formula. The young woman is being pinned by the associate dean of the nursing school. The pin she is receiving is recognition that she will be, once all state exams are complete, a registered nurse. That young woman is my daughter, whose faith had allowed her to reach this even while enduring some trying times that would have made others give up. Her faith is strong. She has endurance. She has character. And she possesses a hope that nothing can defeat. And since she has been a child she entered into a relationship with God through Christ. And that, dear friends, is available to all who seek and receive that.

Are you feeling weak and alone? You're not either. Feeling like you have nothing to offer to others? Through Christ's love you can have the character that will bless others, and you will share with a world lost in the darkness of hopelessness, the bright light of God's power to see us all through so many things. And the good news? It is ours for the asking.

PRAYER: LOVING God, speak to my heart. Grant to me that which I need; I seek strength and hope in what I have experienced; and above all I desire the love you offer to us. This I ask in Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!

Eradio Valverde

Wisdom is Ours for the Asking!

If anyone lack wisdom, they should ask...

1 Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? 2 On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; 3 beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: 4 "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live. 22 The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. 23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth— 26 when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first bits of soil. 27 When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

Why is making decisions so hard? Not all decisions are hard, but some seem almost impossible. There are some who spend what seem like hours staring in their closets thinking they have nothing to wear; others look around the floor and pick up what they think is the least funky of the "closet" on the floor by the bed. Some ponder whether or not to sign a long term lease on a home or a vehicle. Others worry they are about to make the wrong decision on a life partner. Others worry about the challenges of life that come their way.

Jesus Christ's mission was to share His wisdom with us. This passage from Proverbs speaks of both the Divine wisdom and the wisdom imparted by the second part of the Godhead (John Wesley's Explanatory Notes). Wisdom was present at the creation of the world and Jesus brought God's wisdom to the world. Wisdom is ours for the asking. We also know that as United Methodists that we should rely on Scripture, draw from tradition, reflect on experience, and certainly reason it all out. But firm it all together through prayer and listening.

The best decision is to trust Christ enough to invite Him into our hearts and lives. Then we should follow that with a daily decision to connect with Him so that we may know that which can best bless God and God's people when we face major life-decisions.

If you do not know Jesus as Your personal Lord and Savior, the opportunity to invite Him into your life is always present, why not do it today?

PRAYER: Loving God, may the wisdom of the ages be ours when we seek You and Your Son's guidance and strength. Bless us in the making of all decisions so that we might glorify You. Bless those who are making decisions to follow You as Lord and Savior; and this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!

Eradio Valverde