Category: Devotional

  • To Every Thing There is a Season

    To Every Thing There is a Season

    Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, our Father, and Jesus Christ. Welcome to my blog! I hope the thoughts you find here will encourage you and inspire you to diligently seek God’s Kingdom. Today, I would like to encourage you from Ecclesiastes.

    “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

    (Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV)

    I presently find myself an administrator in academia. For academia, May-June signals the end of a season. Graduation/Commencement ceremonies have concluded. Graduates are looking forward to college or graduate school. Some may be looking forward to entering the workplace. Whatever the situation, I want to encourage you to celebrate all that you have accomplished this year. You planned well, and you executed those plans. We have lost friends and family, but we have also gained new ones. We should be both commended and encouraged.

    Remember, to everything there is a season. Seasons can be distinct or congruent; they can differ in time or occur simultaneously. With that in mind, recognizing the season you are in is crucial, as it allows you to let go and move forward. The worst thing you can do is practice old ideas in a new season. It is problematic to head north with a southward mentality. For us, June marks the end of one season and the beginning of another.

    Take on the challenge and meet this new season with a determined mind, knowing that you will achieve, succeed, and do well. I decree that you will surpass even what you imagined you could accomplish.

    Again, I would like to invite you to subscribe to the blog. I endeavor to post regularly, with an entry every Tuesday. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page.

    Remember to invite someone to church with you this Sunday. I would like to extend a special invitation to join us at In His Presence Family Worship Center this Sunday. Join me at IHP. We meet at 2418 Church Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. We meet at the Goshen Seventh Day Adventist Church. Join us at 10 a.m. I look forward to seeing you there. Seek God’s Kingdom first.

    Yours Because I am His,

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.,

    In His Presence Family Worship Center

    http://www.ihpfwc.org

  • A Marker and Purpose

    A Marker and Purpose

    Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, our Father, and Jesus Christ. Welcome to my blog! I hope the thoughts you find here will encourage you and inspire you to diligently seek God’s Kingdom. Today, I would like to encourage you from the Gospel of Matthew, the fourth (4th) chapter.

    “Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,”

    (Matthew 4:12-14 KJV)

    Today, I would like to talk about the difference between a maker, and purpose. This is important because we can create huge problems when we mistake a maker for purpose and purpose for a marker. This marker in verse 12 identifies time, a point in time, not why Jesus moved. Verse twelve helps us understand context and not purpose. Purpose was not given to us until verse fourteen. In verse twelve we are told John was cast into prison, but this is not why Jesus left and went into Galilee. It tells when Jesus left. He went to dwelt in Capernaum. The reason he did this was given in verse 14. In the NIV, it is rendered “to fulfill what was said by the prophet Isaiah.”

    Sometimes we find ourselves focusing on the wrong things. If I am focusing on the maker, “John was cast into prison,” then that information alone is a cause for panic. If we think that Jesus moved on because of John’s predicament, we would base our actions on the perceived chaos. But after reading verse 14, I now focus not on the moment of verse 12, but the fact that even in my perceived chaos, there is a word. God operates to fulfill what was spoken. Because there is a word that really defines your circumstances, the momentary maker does not cause me to fly off the handle. I can look toward purpose when I know there is a word over my life. The momentary chaos does not define me or my actions. I can sing when it’s raining. I can strive in a famine. I can bring an umbrella to the desert where no rain is expected, because I have a word.

    God is not moved by what you see, or by what scares you in the moment. There is a word that defines your circumstance. Isaiah lived approximately seven hundred (700) years before Christ. Imagine that what you are going through now, God spoke a word about your situation, 700 years ago. You are tripping now because you just found out. God spoke over your situation several hundred years ago. Go after purpose. Go after what God has for you, not this current mundane worry that easily sets you off course. Trust in God’s word for your life and not a momentary maker that has nothing to do with God’s plan. Trust God Purpose for you. Know the difference between a marker and your purpose.

    Again, I would like to invite you to subscribe to the blog. I will be posting regularly, with an entry every Tuesday. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page.

    Remember to invite someone to church with you this Sunday. I would like to extend a special invitation to join us at In His Presence Family Worship Center, this Sunday. Join me at IHP. We meet at 2418 Church Avenue in Brooklyn NY. We meet at the Goshen Seventh Day Adventist Church. Join us at 10 AM. I look forward to seeing you there. Seek God’s Kingdom first.

    Yours Because I am His,

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.,

    In His Presence Family Worship Center

    http://www.ihpfwc.org

  • Seek the miracle in God’s Word

    Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, our Father, and Jesus Christ. Welcome to my blog! I hope the thoughts you find here will encourage you and inspire you to diligently seek God’s Kingdom. Today, I would like to encourage you from this text that I shared for Resurrection Sunday.

    Luke 24:5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

    This Resurrection Sunday, I preached from this text, and thank God, God truly met us at IHP. I thought it might be a good idea to re-emphasize a key point or two. The context of this pericope is that two women went to the grave to anoint Jesus’s dead body. This was a common tradition for people to go to the gravesite and bring herbs with which they would treat the body of their dead to delay as long as possible the inevitable process of decay. In so doing, it is and still is normal for these ladies to come to the grave site to engage in this activity. If we today felt the need to visit our loved one who has died, it is entirely reasonable to come to the grave site of our loved one. So, we should view their coming to the grave site as entirely normal except for the fact that Jesus is unique in that he had spoken a word concerning his situation.

    When God has spoken a word over our situation, normalcy no longer applies. We need to stop looking for the living among the dead. We need to stop expecting the miracle among the deadness of normalcy. We are so used to death that for us, there is nothing strange about deadness in our lives. So much so that we expect deadness, and when we do not experience it, we turn away from the miracle to comfort ourselves with the death we are used to. Many look for relationships at the gravesite because we cannot envision ourselves in the presence of a miraculous relationship. If we find someone who wants to get married, we would think them strange because we are used to the deadness of the “baby-daddy” paradigm. If you met someone willing to respect you, you would think of them as weak and find the “bad-boy” to commit you to a life of grief. We talk ourselves into the benefit of the dead-end job because the miracle of being a business owner is too much to imagine.

    Seek the living where the living are. Look for the miraculous and expect that as your new normal. Expect God’s best. Except perfect and without blemish, the way God gives. Expect the miracle to happen, just as God said it would. Don’t seek the living among the dead. Seek the miracle in God’s Word.

    Again, I would like to invite you to subscribe to the blog. I will be posting regularly, with an entry every Tuesday. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page.

    Remember to invite someone to church with you this Sunday. I would like to extend a special invitation to join us at In His Presence Family Worship Center, this Sunday. We meet at 2418 Church Avenue in Brooklyn NY. We meet at the Goshen Seventh Day Adventist Church. Join us at 10 AM. I look forward to seeing you there. Seek God’s Kingdom first.

    Yours Because I am His,

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.,

    In His Presence Family Worship Center

    http://www.ihpfwc.org

  • Please God

    Please God

    Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God our Father and Jesus Christ. Welcome to my blog! I hope the thoughts you find here will encourage you and inspire you to diligently seek God’s Kingdom. Today, I want to encourage you as we consider seeking the Kingdom of God. Make it a point to “make the most of every opportunity.”

     

    Ephesians 5:16 (NLT):

    Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

     With this imperative in mind, let’s reflect on this text as we pursue our goal. Consider also:

    Ephesians 5:10 (NLT):

    Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.

     The Apostle Paul teaches us, through his letter to the Ephesians, that we should consider what pleases God as the guiding paradigm for our lives. We are called to search the Scriptures and engage in prayer and fasting to gain clarity on what “pleases God.” The nuance in the NLT version urges us to “carefully determine” what pleases Him. Make it a point to understand fully—leave nothing out, and do not simply trust others, especially if they have no relationship with God.

    It is possible that what pleases the Lord in your life may differ from what pleases Him in the life of your brother or sister. Whatever you discover, pursue it diligently. Pleasing God requires faith (Hebrews 11:6). Pleasing God means believing His word and putting it into practice. Remember, faith in God and in His word is not blind faith—God has always been faithful to us, and His word has always proven true. Trust God, believe God, and do what pleases Him. I want to please God—do you?

    Remember, your orthopraxy is informed by your orthodoxy. In other words, what you do is shaped by what you believe. You will please God because you believe there is a benefit to doing what God wants and doing it His way. Please God!

     Once again, I invite you to subscribe to the blog. I will be posting regularly, with a new entry every Tuesday. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page.

     Also, remember to invite someone to church with you this Sunday. I would like to extend a special invitation to join us at In His Presence Family Worship Center.

     This Sunday is Resurrection Sunday—arguably the holiest day of the year. Make this your opportunity to connect with God in a real way. Don’t go it alone. Join me at IHP! We meet at 2418 Church Avenue in Brooklyn, NY, at the Goshen Seventh Day Adventist Church. Our service begins at 10 AM. I look forward to seeing you there. Seek God’s Kingdom first.

    In His Presence Family Worship Center - 1.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Yours, because I am His,  

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.  

    In His Presence Family Worship Center  

    http://www.ihpfwc.org

  • Loose Him. The project for a disciple.

    Loose Him. The project for a disciple.

    Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, our Father, and Jesus Christ. Welcome to my blog! I hope the thoughts you find here will encourage you and inspire you to diligently seek God’s Kingdom. Today, I would like to encourage you from this text that speaks to our duty to be engaged in our community and seek to be a positive agent of change in our community. 

    Luke 19:30 Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. KJV

     This is the most holy season for the Christian believer. This Sunday, we celebrate Palm Sunday. It is the Sunday before Resurrection Sunday, what many people refer to as Easter Sunday. 

    It means we are coming to the close of Lent and celebrating on Palm Sunday the Triumphant Entry, and on the Friday after that, Good Friday, and ultimately, next Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, never to die again, in a unique victory of the sin that has until then ruled our very existence.  

    It is in that vain that I look at this text, as we celebrate the doings of our God. In this text, we read this fascinating text that precedes Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. This text teaches us so much, even about our contemporary context. It is an opportunity to examine so much, but today I am fascinated by what Jesus says to his disciples. Before he achieves the purpose for which he came, he passes through two towns. In the Lukan corpus, the writer tells us in Luke 19:29 that he passes between Bethphage and Bethany. The meaning of that is very telling, but for brevity, I dare go down that road. Jesus in the text tells two of his disciples to go into a village and lose a donkey and its colt. The donkey and what the donkey gave birth to, its colt. 

    Jesus tells them to bring a specific donkey. I would imagine that there are many donkeys in a given town as they were useful animals. Donkeys were primarily used to carry heavy loads from one place to another. In this text, Jesus made a point of saying to his disciples find the donkey that no one has ever sat on. One that has never been used in the capacity that it was born for. Get the donkey that has never achieved any meaningful achievements in its life. Find the one that has been prevented from success. The one that has been summarily oppressed, suppressed, prevented from doing what it was born to do, and bring that donkey to me. 

     The first question I have when reading this text is: as future ministers of the Gospel, were they expected to recognize oppression? Are those who are disciples of Christ somehow meant to recognize the cruelty of men and sent to do something about it? Is it common for a disciple of Jesus to be confronted with this status quo, and it be expected of the believer to not only recognize, but to engage that oppressed person by doing his or her level best to free one from oppression, without the approbation of the “owner” of the donkey? They have no authority from those committing the oppression, but they do have a directive from the God who created even the oppressor. Loose him and bring him. 

     I do not, as a disciple, need to function within the confines of oppressive paradigms, but I am called to recognize oppression and confront it, loose and bring that oppressed person to Jesus. Knowing that doing so will cause consternation in the community of those who are comfortable with that oppression. I cannot get my clue from those who are comfortable tying up those for their convenience. I am committed to loosing those tied up by society. As a disciple, I am countercultural, not compliant with the notion that certain people should be tied to what makes me comfortable. I am called to loose them and bring them to Jesus. Do you confront oppression as a disciple? Do you engage in your community to ensure that opportunity is afforded to everyone, no matter who they are? I would say to you, we should loose them and bring them to Jesus. 

    Again, I would like to invite you to subscribe to the blog. I will be posting regularly, with an entry every Tuesday. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page.

    Remember to invite someone to church with you this Sunday. I would like to extend a special invitation to join us at In His Presence Family Worship Center, this Sunday. This Sunday the title of my sermon, The Prophetic Utterance of the Donkey. Join me at IHP. W meet at 2418 Church Avenue in Brooklyn NY. We meet at the Goshen Seventh Day Adventist Church. Join us at 10 AM. I look forward to seeing you there. Seek God’s Kingdom first.

     

    Yours Because I am His,

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.,

    In His Presence Family Worship Center

    http://www.ihpfwc.org

     

     

  • Kep Your Focus on Your Purpose

    Kep Your Focus on Your Purpose

     

    Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God our Father and Jesus Christ. Welcome to my blog! I hope the thoughts you find here will encourage you and inspire you to diligently seek God’s Kingdom. Today, I want to continue reflecting on our foundational verse for this year, 2025. I desire to seek God’s Kingdom first and His righteousness so that all these things will be added to me. This week, let’s look again at Matthew 13 for more insight. 

    Matt. 13:27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? KJV

    I believe that any comment received without perspective leads to ruin. Often, people who are not owners of your purpose, who have no skin in the game, so to speak, will often have the wrong perspective about your purpose and context. Be careful whom you allow to define your progress. Be careful whom you allow to influence your perspective. The way you frame a thing depends greatly on whose purpose you are living by, and what word you establish your purpose on.

    This verse shows how people who have nothing invested in your purpose will question the value of your seed based on the weeds they now see. In verse 24, which is as much scripture as verse 27 is, it is clear that the man who sowed seed in his field sowed “good seed.” But people who are servants, not co-laborers, not invested in your seed, not part owners of your field, somehow have the audacity to question the value of your seed.

    Your seed is what God says it is. Your value is what God says it is. Because some “servant” does not recognize that you can have good seed, does not mean you should question your seed. They are focused on your enemies’ result and not your purpose. In verse 26, the scriptures said that blades began to sprout and brought forth fruit. So the intention of the seed is working, but servants will only focus on the intention of your enemies.

    Keep your focus on your purpose. Your seed is still good. God is not deterred by the actions of your enemy, and neither should you be. Keep moving forward. Keep expecting a harvest. Keep believing what God said to you, in spite of the evidence of tares. Tares do not define you; they define what your enemy wants for you. Hang in there. Believe God for your purpose and keep moving forward.

    Again, I would like to invite you to subscribe to the blog. I will be posting regularly, with an entry every Tuesday. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page.

    Remember to invite someone to church with you this Sunday. I look forward to seeing you there. Seek God’s Kingdom first.

    Yours Because I am His,

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.,

    In His Presence Family Worship Center

    http://www.ihpfwc.org

     

     

  • You have Good Seed

    You have Good Seed

    Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God our Father and Jesus Christ. Welcome to my blog! I hope the thoughts you find here will encourage you and inspire you to diligently seek God’s Kingdom. Today, I want to continue reflecting on our foundational verse for this year, 2025. I desire to seek God’s Kingdom first and His righteousness so that all these things will be added to me. This week, let’s look again at Matthew 13 for more insight. 

    “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.”

    (Matthew 13:25 KJV)

    This week I would like to continue our examination of the Kingdom of God/Heaven. The pericope we are excavating this week enhances our understanding of how we should function and what we should expect in the Kingdom. One of the first things that stands out to me in this verse is that we, as citizens of the Kingdom, have enemies. 

    Beloved, if you are a Christian, you have enemies. This is a significant departure from the tenets of Eurocentric Christianity, which often suggests that the goal of a loving Christian—whose purpose is to demonstrate the love of Christ throughout our world—is to live in such a way that you have no enemies. Beloved, bibliocentric Christianity teaches us a different truth. If you are a believer and a subject of the Kingdom of God, you will have enemies. Functioning with this knowledge makes a difference in how we operate. I am not surprised that the goals expressed by God in scripture are met with disdain and incredulity by those who are not part of the Kingdom. The Apostle Paul teaches us this in Romans 8:7-8. So, I plan my life with the understanding that I have enemies. How then do I live with this knowledge? We should understand the purpose of an enemy. 

    In this pericope, the enemy is someone who plants tares where you planted wheat. In the NIV, the word “tares” is rendered as “weeds.” I once learned from my gardener that weeds prevent plants from growing. While you are trying to sow good seed, the enemy is sowing what will prevent it from growing. This is one of the functions of an enemy. There are people in our context who work diligently to prevent good seed from growing. While you were sleeping, your enemy is busy trying to thwart purpose. 

    Take care not to assume that sleeping is the issue. Sleep is beneficial. I came across an author who pointed out that sleep prepares you to achieve your goals. Rest enables better focus, stamina, and strength. We need sleep. It becomes problematic when we substitute sleep for productivity. If you are kingdom-minded, you have a healthy respect for sleep. However, it is when you are sleeping that the enemy engages in their work. There are enemies waiting for you to sleep, intending to undermine your purpose and pursue their own agenda. 

    Here’s something we can rely on: the seed you planted is “good seed.” As we will see later in this text, your enemy does not prevail. What we should take away from this text is not to blindly assume that everyone supports your seed. Enemies exist, so plan accordingly. Expect them to try to hinder your work. Prepare for opposition. Strategize before going to sleep. Rest knowing that your purpose is greater than the enemy’s plan. Be confident, Kingdom seeker. Plant because planting is how purpose grows. Planting is the way we achieve. You are destined to win. 

    Again, I would like to invite you to subscribe to the blog. I will be posting regularly, with an entry every Tuesday. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page.

    Remember to invite someone to church with you this Sunday. I look forward to seeing you there. Seek God’s Kingdom first! 

     

    Yours Because I am His,

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.,

    In His Presence Family Worship Center

    http://www.ihpfwc.org

  • The Kingdom of Heaven is Like

    The Kingdom of Heaven is Like

    Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God our Father and Jesus Christ. Welcome to my blog! I hope the thoughts you find here will encourage you and inspire you to diligently seek God’s Kingdom. Today, I want to continue reflecting on our foundational verse for this year, 2025. I desire to seek God’s Kingdom first and His righteousness so that all these things will be added to me. I strive for a life that reflects God’s intention for me. I am learning that this is achieved by shifting my mindset from personal thinking to a Kingdom mindset. This means I must transition from my current mindset toward a Kingdom mindset.

    King James Version:

    Matt. 13:24 ¶ Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

    There are always subtleties in scripture, and this verse is no different. Jesus takes the time to teach his disciples and the larger public what the Kingdom of God/Heaven is like. In this teaching, similar to much of Jesus’s pedagogy, he uses contexts familiar to the wider audience. In an agrarian society, Jesus discusses the farmer who sows his seed in his field. Naturally, many themes can be emphasized while developing your homily on this pericope.

    The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man engaged in sowing. Sowing involves taking action now to seek a return later. The kingdom is about investing in your future. Being kingdom-minded means thinking ahead. You should not be overly concerned about Friday; instead, we should plan for a year from now or even five years ahead. Do you have a plan? Kingdom-minded individuals should act based on a plan. Often, you plant or sow in March and expect a harvest around October, depending on what you plant. Are you truly kingdom-minded if your focus is consistently on the present and only concerned about today? Being a good steward often entails planning for a five-, ten-, or even twenty-year horizon. Do you have a plan?

    The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man who sows “good” seed. Are you deliberate about your seed? Have you examined your seed? Have you deceived yourself into thinking that because it is your seed, it is good seed? Your seed might be the business you want to bring to life. Have you written a business plan? Your seed needs a plan. Is your seed a viable one? Just because you like your seed does not mean it is a good seed. You and your friends may like your seed, but that does not make it commercially viable. Examine your seed. Define good outside of your emotional attachment to it.

    Last point: the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man who sows good seed in “his field.” Do you own your field? The Kingdom is all about owning the field you are planting in. As a mentor to many young people, I constantly challenge their ideas of success. A young person told me yesterday that he wants to be a basketball player. I asked him why, and he gave me a perfectly acceptable answer: he wants to make the kind of money these players are making. I had him then. I said, you know, all of those players you admire are paid. Someone pays them. Why not think about becoming a basketball team owner instead of a player? If they are making two to three million dollars playing, and the owner is paying them, imagine what the owner makes! Plus, the owner has maybe ten or eleven players on that team to whom he pays a lot of money to play. Our problem is that we are not exposed to those who own the field. We elevate celebrities who work on the field. God is calling us to own our field.

    I aspire to have a Kingdom mindset.

    Again, I would like to invite you to subscribe to the blog. I will be posting regularly, with an entry every Tuesday. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page.

    Remember to invite someone to church with you this Sunday. I look forward to seeing you there. Seek God’s Kingdom first!

    Yours Because I am His,

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.,

    In His Presence Family Worship Center

    http://www.ihpfwc.org

  • Live in Expectation

    Live in Expectation

     

    Last month, we entered a new year with a fresh mindset. Now that you’ve shifted based on the word of God, it’s wise to live with expectation. Too often, God tells us He is about to do something, yet we refuse to believe or even expect it to occur. We should genuinely live with a sense of expectancy. Notice, I said we should live in expectancy. I mention this because the word of God indicates we should operate in faith, but I’m so grateful that God does not wait for us to be in the right place to accomplish what He needs to do. 

     

     

    To make my point, I need to support it with scripture. In the book of Acts, there’s an incident where Peter was imprisoned by the King. He was about to face execution because the King realized that killing Christian leaders pleased the Jews, and this was politically advantageous. The Bible tells us that the saints prayed, and God sent an angel. Here is the text I want to focus on.

    New Living Translation: 

    Acts 12:9 ¶ So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was really happening. Acts 12:10 They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate to the street, and this opened to them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him. Acts 12:11 ¶ Peter finally realized what had happened. ‘It’s really true!’ he said to himself. ‘The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jews were hoping to do to me!’

    The angel of the LORD came to free Peter; he opened the prison gates and led him to the city. The city gates opened on their own, and then the angel disappeared. Only then did Peter realize that this was real. God does not require us to agree, nor does He need us to accept what He is doing; He doesn’t even need us to believe it’s happening to deliver us. God acts according to His will. “Okay, Pastor, then why should we live with expectancy?” Here are some examples from scripture about believing without doubt. Let’s see if you notice a pattern.

    Mark 11:23, Matt. 14:31, Matt. 17:19, and Matt. 17:20

    Jesus shows us that doubt restricts our ability, not His. For the things we set out to accomplish, we must ensure that there is no doubt within us. God’s plans for your life do not require your approval, endorsement, or input. What you declare in God requires you to believe and harbor no doubt. 

    God has spoken a word into your life, and He will bring it to pass. Live with an expectation of all that God has declared for you. What does that mean? Anticipate that whatever God tells you will come to pass. It will. Conduct yourself as if you trust that God will deliver. He will.

    Again, I would like to invite you to subscribe to the blog. I will be posting regularly, with an entry every Tuesday. You can subscribe at the bottom of this page.

    Remember to invite someone to church with you this Sunday. I look forward to seeing you there. Seek God’s Kingdom first! 

     

    Yours Because I am His,

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.,

    In His Presence Family Worship Center

    http://www.ihpfwc.org

  • Trust Christ Enough to Go Public with Your Miracle

    Trust Christ Enough to Go Public with Your Miracle

     

     

     

     

     

    Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. It is a privilege to welcome you once again to this blog site. Thank you for taking the time to share and read these blogs. I am thrilled to see your comments and reposts. It means so much to know that my efforts to brighten your day are meaningful. Please keep posting comments and sharing on your sites, and let me know if these posts have been a blessing to you. I would like to invite you to be my guest at church this week. We meet in Brooklyn at 10:00 AM at 2418 Church Avenue in the Goshen SDA Church. Our midweek Bible study is virtual tomorrow night at 7:30. Here is the link: 

     

     

     

    Join: 797 700 935 Zoom Meeting

     

    https://zoom.us/j/797700935?pwd=TW9WTnROSnBHaGowNnVRRnVxN1Y4UT09

     

     

     

     

     

    Today’s blog comes from our archive (January 13th, 2013). It is still relevant to those of us who are seekers of the Kingdom of God. I hope you enjoy it again. I know I did. 

     

     

     

    Today, I want to encourage you to share your words openly. Your miracle isn’t just found in private obedience. You need to be willing to trust Christ at His word. Let’s examine the text.

     

     

     

    John 2:8 he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. NLT

     

     

     

    Let me share a few observations. Mary prayed. She spoke to Jesus and said, “There is no wine.” Jesus replied, “It’s not my problem.” Mary instructed the servants, “Whatever he says to do, do it.” We don’t know from the text how much time has passed between verse 4 and verse 7, but Jesus instructs the servants to fill the water pots, which are used to wash the feet of guests after their long trip, with water. Have you ever felt misunderstood because of how the result of your prayer looks? You’re praying for wine, and Jesus is talking about water? Maybe Mary wasn’t clear. Have you ever felt that way? Here is my word to you: trust Christ. He’s not finished yet. 

     

     

     

    According to our narrative, the servants do exactly as he instructs. Let’s pause for a moment. There is no proof from the text that the servants knew what was going to happen. There is no evidence that they had seen this before. In other words, they did not need to understand what God was doing in order to obey him. Can you obey God when you don’t understand his ways? Can you submit to him when it seems to be going the wrong way? Why do we so often conclude that our compliance with God’s word must only occur when we understand his message and plan? Obedience is better than sacrifice, beloved.

     

     

     

    Here is what happened next: Jesus tells them, “Now dip some out and take it to the master of ceremonies.” Beloved, there are some people who will only obey God when they know what’s going to happen. People in this situation would never witness the miracle. There are also some believers who are willing to obey Christ, but only behind closed doors. 

     

    God wants you to obey him even when others can see you doing so. When did the miracle occur? Between verse 7 and verse 8—between filling the jars and dipping some out. Not when you understood the miracle. The miracle happened, regardless of your understanding. All we need to do is follow the instructions. We must be willing to act on the direction without tasting the miracle first. Some of us wouldn’t have offered the drink to the master of ceremonies without sampling it. God desires our obedience to be unconditional and free from the need to comprehend it beforehand. He also wants you to trust him enough to go public with it. The word of the LORD to you, beloved, is: Don’t obey only in private; go public with your miracle. Go and take it to the master of ceremonies. Obey Christ in all things and witness your miracle unfold.

     

     

     

    Obedience to God’s will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God’s will that brings certainty.

    Eric Liddell

     

     

     

    Remember to plan to bring someone to church with you this Sunday. Go public with your faith. Invite several people to join you at church. I believe there is a miracle in store for you through your obedience.

     

     

     

    Live life on purpose, not by mistake.

     

     

     

    Yours Because I am His,

     

    Leo Colon, D.Min., M.Div.,

     

    In His Presence Family Worship Center

     

    http://www.ihpfwc.org