The Hulk Within

Ever been at a point in your life when you feel like you are the worst person on the planet? When you realize that the person at fault is not those around you, it is not the circumstances you're in, it is not even the devil! It's just you! And there you sit, baffled at the conclusion that the problem here lies within you. What do you do then? What do you do when you realize that there is a hulk inside of you? A green monster that has forgotten to love, to forgive, to have faith, to believe in God's promises!

If you have ever felt this way, you're on your way, because the first thing to do is to ADMIT YOU'RE WRONG. This takes guts. The easy road takes us to blame others, to blame the world, to even blame God; but the courageous way, the bravest thing to do is to admit that the problem is us. Yes, it's my fault. Yes, it was me. Yes, I knew and I still did it. Yes. Yes. Yes. And after admitting comes confessing. We can run to Jesus, we can tell him everything we've done, and ask him to forgive us. Jesus died for that moment. What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! It says in Romans 5:20

But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.

You see? We don't have to stay hulk-like.  We can run to Jesus, and because of His grace, He forgives us and makes us new.  And it is only through an intimate relationship with Him, that His Spirit gives us the strength to walk hulk-free.  We can walk in freedom. No more hiding. No more fighting. No more fear. No more doubt. No more, no more! His truth sets us free.  And it is in this relationship with Jesus and the Spirit's work in us that we can finally live the life that we were meant to live.

Welcome to hulklessness. Welcome to freedom! Only through Jesus Christ.

All I Want for My Birthday...is You!

Every year when the day of my birth arrives I like to ask my beautiful Heavenly Father for one special present :) He has already given me so much, but I use my birthday as an excuse to ask Him for more! Gasp! The audacity! But I'm grateful that He wants me to ask! For He says, "Ask, Seek, Knock!"  I especially like what He says on Psalm 116, 

"I love the Lord  because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!" 

Two or three years ago I asked Him to give me a song for His beautiful church to sing, and He gave me "Heme Aqui." But today I have one special request...The one thing I want the most with all my heart is to love Him.  Nothing more and nothing less. To love Him like never before. When God is all I love, everything in my life falls right into place. I am able to love those around me more, I am able to love the lost more passionately, I am able to love in my service and in my ministry. When I love God, when He is all I desire, He adds on everything else. I am complete. I am whole. So that is my petition to my God. That His gift to me will be beautifully wrapped up in His mercy, and that inside the perfect little box, I'll find gallons of love for Him :)

Liar Liar Pants on Fire!

My dad is the worst liar on the face of the earth! Whenever we're playing and joking together he'll say something like, "It wasn't me," with a huge grin on his face. His words say he didn't do it but his expression says, "Did you see what I did there!?" Gotto love a man who can't lie! But it's all in good fun! He jokes with us and we tickle him till he cries! It's true! Ok, on a more serious note, I wanted to share something along those lines but in a more serious sense. Something MIND-BOGGLING!

The other day I was going about my day when all of a sudden I had a frightening thought! It was a discouraging and terrible thought, about myself, about my future, about everything! It was for a few moments that I began to ponder this thought and I was greatly discouraged. But then I came to this amazing discovery: IT WAS A LIE. The thoughts that I was having, believing, even "living" for those moments were all LIES! The sad thing was that I believed them! And because believing something leads you to act upon it, I was already living in total defeat, in total failure, for no reason at all, for a lie, a vanishing cloud without substance!

No doubt you have also been in this position. You're going about your day when out of nowhere it hits you! A lie! A lie that distorts who you are, who God is, what your future holds. The sad thing is that it leads us to act in failure; we can't do our devotional the same way, we can't pray the same way, we can't worship God as we used to! Because the LIE HAS BECOME ACTIVE in our hearts!  So what to do when this happens?

#1. Know where it comes from! It comes from the devil. The father of all lies. He is such a liar that indeed his pants are on fire!! Anything that brings conflict and discouragement to your heart is a lie from the devil. Anything that wants to destroy your peace and separate you from God is a lie! Usually he will try to tell you who you are, who people are or think about you, who God is and what he won't do or can't do in your life. But they're all lies! Learn to detect them! Detecting them is key!

#2. Tell that lie to GET A LIFE! That's right! After you have detected the lie, defy it, forbid it, challenge it, don't accept it. Don't let it settle in your spirit. Don't let it get acquainted with your life! Don't let it rent the room of your heart! Don't even let it be a "guest"! You have to stand against it and refuse to believe it!

#3. Cling to what is TRUE! All truth comes from God and His truth is found in His Word. Read it! Believe it! Live it! Challenge every lie with His Word. If the lie is about who you are, declare who you are in Christ! If it's about your future, declare God's promises for your life. If it's about God's love, remember that Christ died for you and declares His love for you over and over in His Word.

After discovering they were all lies, I decided to stop them.  I decided I was not going to let my life be based on lies. I am who God says I am! I can do what God says I can do! I will be who God says I will be! I will see the things He says I will see!  My prayer for you is that you will do the same; that you will stop any lie that comes your way, that you will take a stand against them, and that you will live in the truth that sets us free! :)

Destroying "Can'ts"

"I can't!" Have you ever said that? Have you reached a moment in your life when you simply say "I CAN'T! I just can't!" And no matter how much you try it's like there's a wall there, and there you are, without a rope to climb it.  But there is an amazing promise in the bible that boldly and unapologetically says, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength"!!!! (Phil. 4:13).

What? I CAN do ALL things? So why do I feel like I can't? I "can't" get rid of my ugly past, I "can't" get closer to God, or I "can't" give up this or that addiction. The truth here is, that in reality, the bridge to cross from the "can't" to the "can" lies in ONE decision.  That's right. All it takes is a decision! And you are the person that can indeed make such a decision.  Yes! You CAN get rid of your past, you CAN get closer to God, you CAN give up any addiction you're struggling with. Yes you can! Yes you can! Why? Because God says so! The devil wants you to think you can't. He lies to you telling you that there is no other option but for you to fail, to stay where you are, to be stuck in a rut and never get up. Why? Because he wants to see your life destroyed. Don't believe him. It is all a lie!

Yes YOU CAN! What impossibility are you going through at this moment? What is it that you keep saying that you can't do? What is it? Is it that you "can't" be happy? That your ministry "can't" grow? Is that you "can't" speak in public? That you "can't" read the Bible? Is it that you "can't" forget the person that hurt you? Take this promise from God in Philippians 4:13 and believe that you indeed can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. You make the decision to say "YES I CAN" and then the Lord Jesus gives you the supernatural strength you need to do it!

Believe me when I say this...YES YOU CAN...I pray you believe this for your life! Yes, in Christ all things are possible!

Believe it! :)

KT

True Beauty

Growing up I never thought I was beautiful.  I always compared myself with the prettiest girl in school or with the actress on TV or the model in magazines. I would always say, "If only I had her eyes! Her hair! Her skin color!" All I knew was that for some unfair reason, I was given skeleton-like fingers, crazy hair, and that I was late in the distribution of perfect features!  It was an even greater torture when I found myself in the U.S; in a school where I was the minority and the definition of beauty did not include me.  Oh how I tortured myself! I would go home and cry because I couldn't be that "beautiful" person I wanted to be. But I was wrong. Oh So Wrong! I learned that God created me unique and perfect in his eyes. And that true beauty is the result of what is inside of our hearts.

True beauty has nothing to do with a person's appearance. True beauty has to do with the quality of who we are inside. We all know that Jesus was BEAUTIFUL, the most BEAUTIFUL person on earth! But the Bible describes Him in Isaiah 53:2 as one who "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."  The message version says, "There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over."  According to this world's definition of "beauty" Jesus was "looked down on and passed over", yet we all know that there is no more beautiful person in this world than our beloved Jesus! Our Savior! Who gave it all for us! Oh how beautiful our Lord is!

So what is true beauty? It is the quality of our hearts, our intentions, our feelings, our thoughts toward ourselves and others.   Do you want to be more beautiful? Then you must turn to the Maker of all things beautiful.  Our beautiful Jesus! Only he can beautify our hearts and our lives in general! He took this empty, shattered and tasteless heart of mine and has and continues to miraculously turn it into His perfect masterpiece. He can do the same with you. Only then will you be truly beautiful.  He will make of your heart His home. He will turn your thoughts into a place of faith and love.  He will destroy all the ugliness of your past mistakes, sins, and shameful ways. And He will make you beautiful.  Yes, beautiful! Truly beautiful!

The Power of our Words

Lately I've come across this very important fact: We are what we say, and what we say impacts our world. We are and become the message of our conversations, phone calls, texts...etc. Not only that, but people can change by the things that come out of our mouths. So, what are we saying? What am I saying to myself and to those around me? One of my all time heroes is Mother Teresa. I remember I went through a period in my life in my late teens where I had decided I was born to live like her! I love her devotion to God and the passion she had for the lost, the sick, the helpless, the dying. One of the things she was known for was her ability to change the lives of everyone she came in contact with. Her words were uplifting. Mother Teresa once said, "words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness." What we say will cause others to enjoy the light of Jesus through our lives or be led to darkness. She also said, "let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier." Are our words making people feel the light of Christ? Are they leaving better and happier because what we are saying!? Who is the last person we encouraged? Oh my goodness! I know I have a lot of work to do here but I am excited to begin. It is never too late to begin. I challenge you this week to encourage somebody. Let's start an encouragement revolution and spread the light of Jesus! (lastly, try not to do it over Facebook message or text, but one on one! ;)

By My Side

Being sick is never fun! But one of the most vivid and life-changing memories I have of my childhood happened when I was sick.  I was 8 years old.  At the time we lived in the roof of a house that they had accommodated so it would serve as an apartment.  My sister and I shared a room which was actually part of a bathroom; instead of the bath tub it was our bunk bed. Luckily the toilet had a curtain that separated it from our "room"!   My sister slept in the upper bed (always the daring one!) and I slept in the lower one.

I remember that I was so sick that night that my body was burning up.  I had fever, chills, and a terrible bitter taste in my mouth.   And then I remember my mom.  On her knees, by my bedside, praying, holding my little and sickly hand and interceding for me.  It must have been past 1 or 2am because it was dark and the rest of my family was sleeping.  My mom spent that whole night holding my hand, praying for my healing. The whole night! I could hear her prayers, I could see her tears, I could feel her love.  And despite the high fever and whatever virus was attacking my body, I felt safe, and I felt loved.

I don't remember how I woke up the next day, if I was better right away or if it took some days for my health to improve; but what I do know is that that night I felt the love of God through my mother's prayers, knowing she was by my side painted the picture of how God is consistently by my side, also interceding for me.  In Romans 8:26 it says the Spirit of God intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  Let us be reminded that our God is by our side.   He is interceding for us with so much passion and love; like my mom held my little hand God is holding yours. He will get you through the seasons of pain and sickness, through the valley of the shadow of death, He will lead you beside quiet waters, He will make you lie down in green pastures, and He will restore your soul. :)