Seeking the Gospel Truth

As a kid, growing up Catholic, I don’t remember  ever “saying grace” before a meal. My dad worked in retail and most of  the time he was rarely home for dinner. So, it was me and mom and we ate  sitting in front of the TV. (Do you remember TV Dinners?) We never got  into the habit of thanking God for providing the meal. On occasion when  we went to someone else’s house for...

A friend told me once that God never answers his  prayers. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to answer him at the time.  Now I do. God isn’t your magic genie. Yes, prayer is just talking to God  and Jesus did say, “Ask and you shall receive…” ( Matthew 7:7-8 ). However, you must pray with the right attitude — an attitude of gratitude. Now, you don’t have to open every prayer  wi...

There are only a few weeks left to 2020 — Thank  God! Ah, but what will 2021 hold for us? There is no way we can know.  Will there be a COVID-19 vaccine? Will it be available to everyone? Will  it work? Are people going to feel safe enough to venture out, go  shopping, travel and/or socialize again? We don’t know. It’s really hard  to look forward to a happy new year when...

Growing up Catholic, I was never encouraged to read the Bible ,  never mind thanking God regularly. Being Puertorican, we heard or said  the occasional, “Gracias a Dios!” or “Thank God!” But, it didn’t really  mean anything. It was just an expression. I don’t even remember ever saying “Grace” before a meal. Also, I only learned 3 prayers: The “Our Father”, “Hail Mary” and the  ...

Providence — that’s another “churchy” word. It  basically means seeing the hand of God maneuver what happens on earth.  Some say miracles. Some say coincidences. But if you truly believe in  God, you know that there are no such things as coincidences! Here’s the  dictionary definition: prov·i·dence| ˈprävədəns | noun The protective care of God or of nature as a s...

When I wrote my novel, Deo Volente: God Willing ,  I did a lot of research on slavery in the Roman Empire. Slaves at that  time were mostly people captured from all the lands the Romans  conquered. What’s different from first century slavery than slavery in  early American history and the human trafficking slave trade that goes  on now, is that a slave could be freed if on...

This is the true Lord’s prayer! What we have in  Matthew 6 and Luke 11, that is known as “The Lord’s Prayer”, should be  called “The Apostles’ Prayer”. Jesus would never pray, “Forgive us our  sins” — he never sinned! No, this prayer in John 17 is the real Lord’s Prayer. It’s  the final conversation that Jesus had with His Father before He went to  the cross. Jesus knew ex...

What is atonement? What does it mean to atone for your sins? Look at  the word “atone”. Let’s break it up: “at one”. At one with what or whom?   At one with God. Here’s the dictionary definition of …Atonement... Keep reading in my blog where there are links so you can dig deeper.... If you want to reap all the benefits of salvation including the 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven then… Bel...

Is your faith genuine? Is your faith based on what a church says or a true relationship between you and God? The difference between the two means where you spend eternity: with God in heaven or apart from Him in hell . Yes, that’s the brutal reality, like it or not. Paul addresses this in the last chapter of 2 Corinthians… Keep reading in my blog where there are links for you to dig deeper.... If...

Reading this next chapter in Paul’s second  letter to the Corinthians reminded me of my mom’s rose garden on one  side of our house in upstate New York. You learn very quickly that you  have to wear thick gloves if you want to cut roses. Those thorns are  sharp and they hurt. God didn’t make it easy to pick roses. Living in Phoenix, I admire the desert landscaping in some house...

A fake gospel, that is. You know, the Good News about the true salvation of Jesus Christ. Is the church you’re attending preaching the truth about Jesus? Or do they teach a twisted , watered-down version? How can you tell the difference? How can you know the real Jesus? Believe it or not, Paul faced the same problem back in the first  century. There were false apostles who talked a good talk,...

Pride, one of the 7 Deadly Sins, gets in between you and God. Pride  says, “I can do it by myself. I’m strong and can handle anything.” God  says, “No you can’t. You need me.” You can’t know God until you break  through any proud obstacles keeping you from Him. Let’s take a look at  what Paul has to say about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 10…  Keep reading in my blog where...

To save time, I’m going to combine the next 3 chapters of 2 Corinthians —   7, 8 and 9. I want to stress the main points of them without boring  you with parts that you can read on your own later. Not that they’re  unimportant, but the major ideas can get buried. I’ve included links to  the parts I’m skipping over. Click on over to my blog for the links and to read along.....

You might wonder what 2 horses ( see the picture at the top of my blog ) have to do with salvation. You’ll see and  hopefully get Paul’s point in a bit. Paul, here in 2 Corinthians  chapter 6, stresses several main facts of salvation and living the  Christian life. He also explains some of the hardships he and his fellow  apostles have been through. Let’s read it…. Keep reading...

Why are butterflies associated with Jesus? It’s  because of metamorphosis. The butterfly lays an egg which hatches into a  caterpillar. The caterpillar will at some point create a cocoon around  itself. After a while, a butterfly will emerge from it. It’s a totally  new life — a new creation. When we are born again through God’s gift of  grace in Jesus, we die to our old s...

This next chapter in Paul’s second letter to the  Corinthians is like a vow or a Christian Constitution. It would be  wonderful if ALL Christian pastors and preachers would adhere to it,  but, alas, they don’t. The Roman Catholic Church certainly doesn’t . They’ve lied to and deceived their parishioners for centuries. I did an in-depth research project on where the Catholic Church w...

For the longest time after I became a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, I couldn’t understand why the Jewish people  didn’t get it. Some time ago, I attended a memorial service for a  colleague who was Jewish. It was in a Reformed Jewish Temple. The  Reformed Jews are the most liberal of the Jewish denominations. The lady  rabbi read from the psalms that I knew, but other th...

Apparently, there was someone in the first century church in Corinth who  was bad-mouthing Paul by saying he didn’t have the authority to preach.  In the 2nd chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul tells the church leaders how  they should deal with this guy and it’s all about forgiveness. However,  something he writes at the end is very important. We have to look back  at the end...

Today we start a Bible study series through  Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians. This is a candid and personal  letter from Paul to a church that he started years before. We covered his 1st letter to the church in Corinth previously where he set them going on the right path rather than letting them go astray — as a good pastor should. Now, they were questioning Paul’s authority . &nbsp...

My intentions today was to cover the history of the Day of the Dead (Dia del lost Muertos) or All Saints Day and All  Souls Day. I started watching some videos on the history of these  festivals until the Holy Spirit urged me, “You don’t want to go there.”  In a nutshell, it’s all paganism . I already did the History of Halloween which started with All Saints Day, and I opted to tak...

What would any of Jesus’ Disciples say if they walked into your  church? If Peter walked into the cathedral built in his name, I think  he’d start tearing down statues — including those of Mary — and candle stands and scream, quoting what Jesus said when He cleared the money changers from the temple… The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turne...

Free will. God created us with free will. He  could have made a bunch of robots who just walked around doing His  bidding, but He created humans in HIS IMAGE .  And He gave us FREE WILL. Now, had He just said, “Do what you please!”  We’d be living in eternal paradise. But, no, He gave Adam and Eve one  rule, one commandment… Genesis 2:15-17 NLT15 The Lord God placed t...

Bible prophecy is fascinating! I first became  interested in end times prophecies at the end of the last  millennium/century. That’s how the Lord lead me to salvation ! Lately, I’ve been listening to several Bible Prophecy preachers and J.D. Farag is one of them. He’s an interesting person. Born in Lebanon, he  emigrated to the states as a baby. His parents became U.S. citizens &nbs...

While I was on my spiritual journey — from Catholic to Prodigal , then to Progressive and finally to becoming a born-again Christian believer — God wanted to connect with me, however, I didn’t know how to  connect and stay connected to God. I wasn’t walking in faith and  victory. Why? Besides my years a prodigal — not going to any church —  the churches I did attend never taught SAL...

Living in today’s world is stressful! Besides  the fact that we have a worldwide pandemic, whole industries have been  affected, many people’s lives and livelihoods have been shattered,  sequestered and shutdown. Kids can’t go to school and miss their  friends, people can’t go to work and miss their colleagues. It’s a mess! Jesus warned us… 33 “I have told you all  th...