"EKKLESIA"

What does that mean?
That means Church, Temple!
Church as you know, is the point of reunion in which the followers
or believers, get together to worship something or somebody whom
they consider a “god” or a “goddess”.
The Christian church is centered in Christ as the main head of it!
The main idea of a church is that all its members have the same thoughts!
However, how are they going to be blessed if that same thought it is not
directed to the true God,the Creator of all things,and the people in need?
Needy people in the world always are going to be, not only economically,
or gastronomically, but also spiritually.
Rich people economically speaking, are the poorest, spiritually talking
because they are always centered in the material things of this world!
I am sorry! I think I am walking away from my “writing lines”!
I was talking about a church, and I think it is like a “BARN"
A Barn? What does a church has to do with a Barn?
Let me explain it to you:
The Bible is the Word of God correct?
The Word of God is the seed that needs to be planted in the unbeliever,
So if he or she has a good “ground” the seed grows up into a big plant
and produces fruits to feed people! So the church is the “Barn” in which
the seeds are picked up for the believer to plant in the unbeliever!
It’s not just to sow the seeds in us, but to sow them in other grounds!
That means to all those who are desperately in need for spiritual help!
The seed is the Word of God says the Bible! And when it finds good
grounds, produces fruits at 30, 60 or 100% per seed. Mathew 13 : 23.
There is an old saying that says: “Who ever sows their seeds in some-
body else’s land, even the seeds looses he” however: The spiritual seed
sown in somebody else land, is greatly rewarded by God!
Even knowing that we won’t harvest the fruits, sowing in other’s land,
shows our good feelings, because the only way to save people is to
awake in them their love for God’s Son: Jesus Christ.
What good does it do to us going to church everyday to pick up more
“Seeds” if we are not going to sow them? It is true that to receive them
makes us happy but we should give them away to make others happy!
The true church is not those four walls to get together, but the heart of
the believer who stores these seeds inside, to feed God’s Love to people!
The church of Christ is the heart in which our Lord lives!
“God does not live in a Temple made by human hands” Acts 7: 48.
That is why He prefers to live in our hearts! If we open it…..And….
Invite Him to enter!
Do it! And… Praise the Lord!

José Salazar
S. de C.

"SALVATION"

Are you saved?
Saved? ¿From what?
From the Wrath of God!
Wrath? What is that?
Wrath of God is the anger of God punishing people because of their sins!
So, Salvation is to receive forgiveness in order to be able to escape from
this punishment called “The Great Tribulation”
Oh, forget that!
God is good and He wouldn’t do a thing like that!
Precisely! Because He is good, He wants us to be good also!
And by refusing to change and keep living in sin, He has to show his dis-
appointment! He said:
Be Saint because I am Saint! I Peter 1: 16.
And all who refuse to listen become eligible for his wrath!
We were born in sin!
Lived in sin, and we will die in sin, unless….
Unless what???
Unless we stop sinning!
To stop sinning on our own is not easy!
We need help from above!
That is why God sent his beloved Son to the world, to sacrifice Himself
for the forgiveness of sin!
By dying on the cross He obtained GRACE for us!
Not because He died on the cross because many did before Him, but…
Because He is the Son of the Almighty God! The perfect sacrifice,
And also, because He was Saint, Pure, without sin!

WHAT IS GRACE?
“Grace is the Mercy we receive directly from God when we accept the
sacrifice of his only Son as a full payment for the forgiveness of our sins”.

SALVATION IS:
To believe that Jesus Christ can rescue us from God’s Wrath,
when we open our hearts and receive Him as:
OUR LORD AND SAVIOR!

PRAISE THE LORD!

José Salazar.
S. de C.

For a Spanish translation go to:
sopadepescadoparaelpecador.com

"AMEN IS NOT THE END"

When we pray, we ask the Good Lord for forgiveness, for endurance,
for faith, for patience, for understanding, for love.
And when we finish praying, very happy, and not having any more
to say, humbly we bow our heads, and very quietly say: AMÉN!
Then, we continue doing what we always do, forgetting what we prayed.
In other words, we leave everything “In the hands of God”.
Living our life of sin as before we prayed!
AMEN SHOULD NOT BE THE END, BUT THE BEGINNING OF THE ACTION!
¿Action? What action?
To work harder to accomplish what we are asking God to do for us!
We should try hard before asking for his help and when tired of
trying we found out that we could not do it, then call for His help!
We should not just say: Give us our daily bread, and go back to sleep!
But to wake up in the morning and work for it first!
“Forgive our trespasses as we forgive the ones who trespasses unto us”
We should begin forgiving people before ask God for our forgiveness!
AMEN IS NOT THE END! It is just a turn on the road that doesn’t let
us to see what is ahead of us, but when we get close to the bend,
we do not see the end, we see just the beginning of our new life!
Amen is not the time to stop but the beginning of our action!
It is to start pointing to our goal!
Amen is not a yellow light indicating us that the red light is coming,
But the green one indicating us we have the blessings of god to
begin pointing people that: THE WAY TO GOD IS OPEN!
And this “WAY” is Jesus Christ!
Ask God for faith! Yes! But: PUT IT TO WORK!
Ask God for LOVE Yes! But GIVE IT TO PEOPLE to increase it!
Ask God for Understanding! Yes! But use it to talk people about the
Salvation they can obtain by accepting Jesus Christ in their lives!
Dear God:
Change my mind, my heart, my life!
Fill me up with your Love, so I could reach all people!
To help them to remove from them frustration!
And when they accept in their hearts your only Son…
They will receive from Him…
YOUR SALVATION!

PRAISE THE LORD!

José Salazar
S. de C.

"THREE WINDOWS"

Past present and future are three windows from which we could be able
to see what happened yesterday, what is happening right now, and what
will happen tomorrow. Now, we are watching what is happening thru the
window of present only, because the other two are closed! Are you sure?
Well, to tell you the truth, those windows are not really closed!
Those windows exist in a book, the one is called: The Bible! If we take a
Bible,open it up and start reading from its end, we could see Jesus Christ in heaven along with all his believers, enjoying eternal life with Him!
Can you see yourself with them?
No! I cannot!
That is because you haven’t accepted Christ as your Savior… Yet!
O.K. In the window of the present in which we currently are, every time
we exit the wide road to get some rest, we find us, right in front of the
deviation of those two roads a “Y” and we ask ourselves what is that
narrow road? Both roads has a sign posted at its entrance one says:
“JESUS IS THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE” Follow Him!
The other sign says: “You’re all right! Keep doing what you are doing!
Everything is going to be fine! Who need Jesus any way?”
Then we became curious and started to examine the narrow road, full
of rocks, stones and thorns, who in the world wants to walk on that one?
The other one is wide smooth and paved,full of fun, sex, drugs, liquor etc.
But I smelled something tricky about it! Which one should I choose?
We have been in the wide road for a long time, and now we are trying to
get out, but the narrow one does not seem to be very attractive to us,
making it hard to decide if we take it or not!
Should we continue riding on the “Highway of fun” until the end?
Or investigate further by opening the windows of the past and find out
more about this narrow road? Yes! I will do that!
So I close the window of the future and open the window of the past
and stopped when I saw that they were crucifying a man with a crown
of thorns on his head suffering and crying Abba Father! The place was
full of rocks and stones, I asked a person named John who this man on
the cross was, and he answered me: He is the Son of God, who is dying
to help us! He is our Way to God! He is: The Truth and The Life!
The man was crying and he said: Follow Him if you want to be saved!
I close the window and I found myself right in front of the roads again,
and I said: That’s it! This is the road of forgiveness! He is the forgiver!
The thorns of the road are his sufferings the rocks and stones mean that
it is not easy, but He is with us to help us to reach all the way to God!
I saw some crosses, I picked one up, put it on my shoulders, and ….
I STARTED TO FOLLOW HIM!
As you can see, God already did his part!
Now is your turn! CHOOSE RIGHT!

José Salazar S. de C.
For Spanish please,go to: sopadepescado.com

"CUT YOUR CHAINS 2"

Sin is the exaggeration of the bad habits and as you know, all habits,
good or bad, force us to increase its frequency of use!
Today, we get drunk with one beer, tomorrow will be two, next week
may be three, and then on, until we forgot the count and then…
Our habit becomes an addiction!
Habits dominates us, but it is better to increase goodness than evil!
Tell me: How could eating be bad for you?
If you could maintain your weight won’t hurt you, but if you cannot,
It could weaken your heart!
¿Why?
Because, our muscles are the place in which we store our energy.
Food is like the fuel we use to move our vehicles, but if you fill
your stomach with “fuel” and go to sleep, where do you think it is
going to be stored if you don’t put it in your muscles?
Of course! To increase your weight!
Can you see that?
Yes!
If you drink a lot, you have to pee more often and all your vitamins also
get out of your body, if you don’t put them back, you don’t feel good!
And start getting sick!
You’re right, but, where? Where were we?
We were talking about God that cut the life eternal from Adam and Eve!
Yes! Now I remember! Then,
An enmity between God and man started because of sin!
But we have a HOPE! God sent his Son to give us the opportunity to
renew our friendship with Him thru his Son Jesus!
Christ is united with his Father by life eternal! When Christ forgives
us our sins, we become clean and we could go to his Father!
Our Father too, Thanks to Jesus!
We could cut our chains, denying obedience to sin!
And by obeying Christ, we could reconnect ourselves to the eternal life
God is willing to give us thru his Son!
CUT YOU CHAINS FROM SIN!
And getting close to God and asking for his help, we could become
Friends again thanks to his Son Jesus Christ!

TELL HIM YOU LOVE HIM!
PLACE YOUR FAITH IN HIM!
You will have an eternal life to:

GIVE GLORY TO GOD!

José Salazar
S. de C.

"CUT YOUR CHAINS"

Chains? What chains?
I’ll explain it to you:
When Adam and Eve sin…
Again with the same thing?
How many times are you going to repeat that?
As many as will be necessary for you to understand it!
Do you want me to continue? Or not!
Yes please do!
I was telling you that when God created man and woman of course,
they were united to Him, by an eternal life because of their obedience!
Obedience was the link that united them to the Almighty God,
who created them to live eternally, however, when they disobeyed Him,
the friendship was broken! Because God is Saint and hates sin!
They disconnected from God and chained themselves to sin!
Sin brought to the world death for them and all their descendents! US!
Since then, we receive from our forefathers: Death after life,
Our obedience to SIN is the heavy “chain” that makes us its slaves!
But that is not just! How come God did not punish Adam and Eve,
instead of punishing all of us with death?
We could have had eternal life, instead of eternal death!
How easy isn’t it? Can’t you realize how short sighted we are?
Why?
Because after sinning, the “virus” of sin cannot be removed from us!
On the other hand….
We are criticizing our first fathers without realizing that…
WE ARE DOING THE SAME THING!
Our sins, our bad actions, our bad habits are passing from us, to our
sons, daughters, and probably to our grand kids! At no extra cost!
Cain killed Abel, and their descendants could have in them the “virus”
of hate, pride and envy, ingredients that triggers the weapons to kill!
Sin is like an illness and illnesses can be transferred to our descendants.

Drunkenness sickens the liver!
Smoking sickens the lungs!
Drugs the brain!
Over eating sickens the digestive system and the heart!
Pornography, the mind!
Don’t make me laugh!
Are you telling me that, smoking and eating are sin?
No! Smoking and eating are not sin, but the damage we transmit to our
families makes it a sin!

To be continued….