Pastor Leo Colon's Blog

Tag: Christian Thought

  • Ferguson: We Need to Pay Attention

    no-tie-head-shot.jpgGrace and peace be unto you. Today, I wanted to speak to you for a moment concerning the Mike Brown incident in Ferguson Missouri and what we should glean from this moment. A few days have passed since the announcement that no charges would be filed by the Ferguson County district attorney as a result of the determinations made by the grand jury. Nothing about the incident can be applauded by any righteous person. Although, there are some obvious observations that have been made that are important and should be made.

    Firstly, Mike Brown may have been a felon by any tangential observer. He had just committed what is called a strong arm robbery (maybe). I say that because the video is not, as of yet, conclusive. Which means, he should be in jail and not dead. Secondly, by the admission of the police department, the robbery was not the reason for the stop. Thirdly and maybe most significantly, the reason for the uproar is because there is no equal treatment here. Just this year, you had a litany of examples where police have waited out felons with guns, so not to hurt these white men (with Guns), yet Mike Brown is gunned down in broad day light, with no gun. There is a different metric, seemingly that police use when the suspect is black. We understand this.

    Beloved, I have a problem and I must admit, we are to blame for some of this. I contend that we are not paying attention. When you live in a town, such as Ferguson, with 67% African American, 29.3% White, .5% Asian, .4% Native American and .4% other races, (Wikipedia, 2010 Census), there should not be an almost exclusively white city government, a nearly exclusively white police department or a white District Attorney.

    Is it possible to have white qualified officers and people in that city government? Of course, and there should be. My contention is, we ought not be so disengaged that we allow this to be the way our cities are run. What we need to do is form and follow a plan that would ensure that this never happen again. By this I do not mean, that we never have another white police officer kill another unarmed black suspect, that would be wonderful, but what I do mean is that we should never see it done and have city government give its approbation for this. We should never have a district attorney do his level best to avoid an indictment as oppose to letting the chips fall where they may. We need to pay attention to our cities and care who we elect. We need to make a big deal about voting in every election.

    Another thing, we need for those brothers and sisters in Ferguson to join the police academy. We are able to police our own community and do it well. We need those brothers and sisters who are fed up with the treatment of African Americans in that county to do what is neccesary. Sometimes, we behave as if it is way more important to criticized, and loot, than to solve. We are not paying attention. If we pay attention, we will elect responsible people to city goverment, have way more people of good conscious in our police force and make a point of knowing that the people we elect are qualified to hold office. Pay Attention!

    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    http://www.ihpfwc.org

  • Don’t Operate In Fear

    20110106-120344.jpgThis blog is really one of the takeaways from the message at In His Presence Family Worship Center on Sunday. Let’s consider the text,  just for a few moments:

    Matt. 14:26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and cried out in fear.

    One of the issues we found in our study of this text is that when Jesus walked on water toward these disciples, they were in the midst of a terrible ordeal, and their fear was actually legitimate. Remember, at least five of these original twelve disciples were fishermen. Meaning these were professionals with a boat, yet the simple instruction, “go to the other side of the lake” was a major problem. Now I did go into detail in the message and the podcast is posted (www.ihpfwc.org),  so I won’t rehearse it here, but the real issue is that these men were frightened. They were scared for their lives, and it is in this construct that they saw Jesus.

    What have we seen through fear, that was meant to deliver us, and caused us to run away from it. We often will fear, the very thing that can help us get where we’re going. Anytime we try to receive instruction from anyone, including God, we tend to get the message wrong because we look at it, hear it, from the position of fear. What should help us, we flee from because we operate in fear. Now, I do not want to leave any of you with the impression that we will never have reason to fear anything. Life is real and so are many of the problems, but don’t operate in fear. Fear should be a momentary emotion that you never make a decision from. Never commit to anything, while operating in fear. If you are in fear, stop, then listen. We should not even listen to our loved ones in fear. Jesus who is the very fabric of deliverance looked like a ghost, because they operated in fear. Before, Jesus gave them hope, he gave them instruction and the instruction was, “fear not”.

    What could you do this week, if fear was not the focal point of your actions. What promotion could be yours, if you did not fear? What milestone could you achieve if you did not fear?
    Determine, I will not operate in fear! Watch this week change for the better because you did not operate in fear. Take on the challenge of this week in boldness.

    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    http://www.ihpfwc.org

  • Love God with Sincerity.

    no-tie-head-shot.jpgA while ago, in one of my devotions, I came across a truth that inspired me. The scripture reference is Eph 6:24. 

Eph. 6:24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. 

Grace be with all them that love our LORD Jesus Christ in sincerity.

    The word sincere was the focus of the authors of my devotions attention. He wrote this:

    “A Roman artist named Titus was commissioned to carve a statue of the emperor. He did a good job, and at the unveiling everyone was amazed at the striking resemblance of the statue to the living emperor. Every feature was carved to perfection.
    All went well as the statue was displayed in public until the summer sun began to bear down. Then suddenly the nose fell off. When the statue was inspected it was discovered that although the rest of it was carved out of marble, the nose was made of wax.
    So Titus was banished from Rome in disgrace, and a law was passed decreeing that from then on all statues of the emperor were to be made without wax.
    The Latin words for “without wax” are sine cera. From those words we have derived the English word sincere.”

    ”

Excerpt From: William L. Banks. “Daily Manna.” CLC Publications. iBooks. 
This material may be protected by copyright.

    A few observations:

    The Apostle Paul is pronouncing Grace, (may God give you all the things you don’t deserve) but only to those who love Jesus in sincerity. Meaning you love Christ without wax. What that means is that my love for Christ needs to be that which can withstand heat.  The heat of everyday life. The heat of depression, the heat of peer pressure, the heat of discouragement.  I cannot be the kind of believer that only loves God when the weather is such that comfort is the assumed, but my love for God needs to go through some things and discover that my love is made from marble. There is no wax there. 

I don’t want my love to fall off when trials come, when it gets hot, when trouble comes. I want to my love to withstand extremes. When its hot, it’s standing, when its cold it’s standing. If you don’t like it, it’s standing. My love for Christ needs to be one that is sincere. “Sine Cera”with out wax. How is your love for Christ?

     

    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    http://www.ihpfwc.org.

     

     

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  • Oil for the Light

    no-tie-head-shot.jpgToday’s devotional, my Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening Devotional, was so powerful I just had to just copy and paste in it’s entirety. I pray that you are blessed by this. I promise you, I will be preaching one day soon, but sometimes, some things don’t need commentary. I was blessed. I hope you will be to.

    August 28 (Morning)

    “Oil for the light.” —Exodus 25:6

    My soul, how much thou needest this, for thy lamp will not long continue to burn without it. Thy snuff will smoke and become an offence if light be gone, and gone it will be if oil be absent. Thou hast no oil well springing up in thy human nature, and therefore thou must go to them that sell and buy for thyself, or like the foolish virgins, thou wilt have to cry, “My lamp is gone out.” Even the consecrated lamps could not give light without oil; though they shone in the tabernacle they needed to be fed, though no rough winds blew upon them they required to be trimmed, and thy need is equally as great.  Under the most happy circumstances thou canst not give light for another hour unless fresh oil of grace be given thee.
    It was not every oil that might be used in the Lord’s service; neither the petroleum which exudes so plentifully from the earth, nor the produce of fishes, nor that extracted from nuts would be accepted; one oil only was selected, and that the best olive oil. Pretended grace from natural goodness, fancied grace from priestly hands, or imaginary grace from outward ceremonies will never serve the true saint of God; he knows that the Lord would not be pleased with rivers of such oil. He goes to the olive-press of Gethsemane, and draws his supplies from Him who was crushed therein. The oil of gospel grace is pure and free from lees and dregs, and hence the light which is fed thereon is clear and bright. Our churches are the Saviour’s golden candelabra, and if they are to be lights in this dark world, they must have much holy oil. Let us pray for ourselves, our ministers, and our churches, that they may never lack oil for the light. Truth, holiness, joy, knowledge, love, these are all beams of the sacred light, but we cannot give them forth unless in private we receive oil from God the Holy Ghost.

    C. H. Spurgeon.

    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    http://www.ihpfwc.org.

  • RESPONSE TO THE JORDAN DAVIS VERDICT

    clergy-smaller.jpgGrace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. Today’s blog represents a need to respond to recent events concerning the Jordan Davis Verdict. Our Bishop, H. Curtis Douglas has written a response to this verdict and I felt duty bound to disseminate it. While I agree with every painful word, it is not shared as a benchmark for all thought on the matter but as a perspective that needs to be posited. Please read it and consider where we stand in our society.

    Live Life on Purpose and not By Mistake,
    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    www.ihpfwc.org

    BISHOP H. CURTIS DOUGLAS

    RESPONSE TO THE JORDAN DAVIS VERDICT

    IMG_0655This verdict, as the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, clearly states for all the world to see that in these United States of America, under the law, the life of a black person, especially a black man, has less value than that of a white person.
    That the inferred threat of blackness justifies the overt violence of whiteness
that just because a white person thinks a black person might do something, that white person has the right to use whatever force they deem necessary against that black person, and be exonerated by the legal system for that act.

It is interesting to note that this standard is only applied when the victim is black 
and the perpetrator is white.

In our legal system, if one person feels that someone means them no good, they cannot take the law into their own hands.  The law is clear that you cannot act violently towards someone simply because you think or feel that they are going to harm you.

The most the law will do for you is give you an “order of protection” unless that is, you are white and your victim is black. In that case, you can use your fear of an anticipated act as justification of your violent act even if said act leads to the death of someone who, in the eyes of the law, has done you no wrong or harm.

These verdicts remind us that, even in 2014, under the law of this nation, the standard that is applied to people of color, especially Blacks and Latinos, is not the same as that applied to whites.

From Trayvon Martin to Jordan Davis to Renisha McBride; the black young woman who was killed with a shotgun blast to her face, at point blank range, because she rang the doorbell of a white person’s house when her car broke down, looking for help.

It’s the same rationale. He too claimed that he feared that she was coming to rob his house and that he was justified to shoot her in the face.

This verdict, along with many others that can be cited, shows that something can be legal yet not moral.

It is wrong that an unarmed 18 year old black young man can be shot and killed by an armed white man and him not be found guilty of murder.

The message that this verdict, once again sends to America is that it is reasonable for a white person:

    • to assume that a young black man is a criminal
    • to suspect that a young black man is up to no good
    • to shoot at and kill a young black man with the confidence and tacit assurance that the law will back them up.

    With all the advances that we as a people have made in the 150 years since the emancipation proclamation, this mountain still remains to be climbed; this enemy still has to be vanquished. And make no mistake, it will be. 

How, you ask?

    • -the same way our parents’ and grandparents’ generation overcame, slavery and Jim Crow, and blatant racial segregation;
    • -the same way our people have overcome whippings, brandings, and lynching’s;
    • -the same way we have overcome the malevolent attacks on our psyche and human dignity when they belittled us and minimized us, and attempted to degrade us; calling us boy, and coon, and sambo, and nigger.

    How, you ask? I’ll tell you how: through the prayers of the saints, through the spilled blood of our children, through our indomitable spirit that compels us to fight for the right in the face of overwhelming odds.

    In the face of laws that are enacted to frustrate us, we will overcome. In the face of injustice that exists to keep us in our place, we will overcome.

In the face of racists attitudes designed to deter us and crush our resolve, we will overcome.

    + H. Curtis Douglas

  • Day Twenty-Finish Strong.

    casual-smaller.jpgBeloved, today is day TWENTY (20) of our journey. By definition you are already a winner. Congratulations on your journey. Today will be my last blog of the fast. I will be blogging through the year but this ends the daily effort for a while. Today a short word. You are doing this for a purpose. You have some things you are asking the LORD for. You are seeking direction in key areas of your life. You have also made a commitment to renew your mind. Let’s make sure we end this with the mind set for 2014 the right way. Let’s look at the text.

    NRSV
    Rom. 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

    Remember, the reason for renewing our mind is so that we may discern what is the will of God. Beloved, not knowing God’s will is a great way to make more mistakes in life than necessary. The will of God is the plan for your life. A plan makes it possible to live with less mistakes. How do you know the will of God? Search the scriptures. God’s word will give you God’s plan. Make sure your prayer life in 2014 is the best ever. Determine what God says is good, what he says is acceptable. and what he says is perfect.

    Beloved, 2014 will be good, acceptable and perfect. Finish strong and praise God like you have lost your mind. He deserves it.

    Tomorrow is Sunday. Have you decided where you are going to church yet and with whom? Tomorrow morning, I will be the guest speaker at Dabar Bethlehem Cathedral for their 11:00 AM service. DBC is located at 218-38 98th Avenue in Queens Village NY. And of course, I would like to cordially invite you to join me at In His Presence Family Worship Center (IHP) tomorrow at 4:00 PM. We meet at 154 Lexington Avenue @ 30th Street in Manhattan NY. Bring someone to church with you, you’ll be glad you did.
    Live Life on Purpose and not By Mistake,
    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    www.ihpfwc.org

  • Day Nineteen- Don’t be Afraid.

    casual-smaller.jpgGrace and Peace to you beloved. We are on day nineteen of our fast and you are almost done with your journey. This has been a time of prayer and expectation. You are doing so well and you are to be commended. Congratulations!

    Today I would like the privilege of speaking a word into your life. I want to prophesy into your life a word from God that was also given to a group who were fasting before the LORD. This was given to them just before their victory. Just like you. Here is the word of God to you:

    HCSB:
    2Chr. 20:15 and he said, “Listen carefully, all Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat. This is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

    As you go forward in this fast for the next two days, what God would say to you is “Don’t be afraid”. Do not fear what has been plaguing you. Walk into your miracle without fear. Now, the word of God is not saying, pretend the issue does not exist. What God is saying is do not fear it.

    Often, especially in scripture, the word fear is tied to respect. Even in our relationship with God, the bible talks about us fearing God. Now the word fear does not really mean we should constantly be afraid of God, but that we should respect him. If this analogy is true, and it is, we should also take from this, in regards to our enemies that we should not respect our enemies more than God and his word. One thing I have realized, is my fear of a thing often occurs because I respect a thing more than I should. If I fear being alone, I respect the fear more than the witness that tells me “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”. Once I begin to respect the word of God more than what I am afraid of, I find my fear lessens. Do you fear what your supervisor will do? You may find that you respect his authority more than God’s authority to provide for you. Are you afraid of losing that relationship? You may respect that persons value more than God’s promise to take care of you. Don’t respect your fear. Don’t be define by fear. Even if there are more things to fear than you can handle. God said, the battle is not yours, but God’s.

    Today, walk without fear. Live without fear. Don’t be afraid and don’t respect that which you fear. God said, you will not need to fight this battle.

    Beloved, Sunday is upon us. Did you make plans to bring someone to church with you? It’s not to late. Bring someone to church with you. Think about someone you would like to share the Gospel of Christ with and bring them with you to church. Remember, no matter what church you belong to, evangelism is a vital part of every believer’s faith. Don’t come to church by your self. Bring a guest and share the Gospel. Why? Because Christ commands us.

    Luke 14:23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

    God wants his house filled. Do your part. Be a part of God’s plan to fill his church. Think of 10 people you want to come to church with you this week. Write their names in your prayer list and make the sacrifice to get them to church. God commands it. Stay encouraged.

    Live Life on Purpose and not By Mistake,
    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    www.ihpfwc.org

  • Day Eighteen – Clarity (Repost)

    casual-smaller.jpgGrace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our LORD.

    Today we are on day number Eighteen (18) of our twenty-one day fast. Beloved, as our late Bishop use to say, you don’t have three (3) days left, you have two (2) days and a wake up. You are to be commended. You are counting down. There is less time ahead of you than there is behind you. I want to encourage you, drink as much water as possible, and least 10 to 12 glasses of water today. Have your bowl of soup and remember to pray from your prayer list. You want to be specific about what you would like God to do for you.

    Today, I want to encourage you by letting you know that one of the goals of this fast is to get direction from God. Do you need direction? I do. I need to hear from God as to what is the right direction for me, my vision and my plans. All these things are very important to me. So I want to get the benefit of seeking God and getting a reply. Let’s look briefly at the word of God.

    New International Version

    Acts 13:1 ¶         Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.

    Acts 13:2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

    Acts 13:3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

    In this passage, leaders of the church were praying, worshiping and fasting. The leaders were prophets and teachers. Prophets and teachers are revered for being intelligent people. They are not the type to not have a clue as to what to do. So understand, you are not seeking direction because you have no idea what life is about. The issue is there are many things one could do and you would not be wrong, but there maybe one thing that God wants you to do that will be right. Because that is an issue, you do not want to flap in the wind, so to speak. I know I want clarity. Clarity in my vision, clarity in direction and clarity as to where my life should be going. So as you fast and seek the LORD to the 2 days and a wake up, you have left, expect God to inform you of his plan. Now be aware, this is God’s plan for your life and it may not be what you expected. Don’t reject it because it is not what you thought it might be. Don’t imagine it either. You will know it’s God because he will confirm his word. I believe God will speak to us during this fast. I believe we will come out of this fast victoriously and we will get direction and clarity from God.

    Again beloved, I want to encourage you at the mid-week point, to make plans to bring someone to church with you. Bring someone to church with you. Think about someone you would like to share the Gospel of Christ with and bring them with you to church. Remember, no matter what church you belong to, evangelism is a vital part of every believer’s faith. Don’t come to church by your self. Bring a guest and share the Gospel. Why? Because Christ commands us.

    Luke 14:23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

    God wants his house filled. Do your part. Be a part of God’s plan to fill his church. Think of 10 people you want to come to church with you this week. Write their names in your prayer list and make the sacrifice to get them to church. God commands it. Stay encouraged.

    Live Life on Purpose and not By Mistake,
    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    www.ihpfwc.org

  • Day Sixteen – Right Relationships Means Right Living

    Grace and Peace and God Bless you on this Day Sixteen of our 21-Day Fast. You are doing so well. Congratulation on the victory God has assured you. You are on your way. Today, as promised, our friend and brother Pastor Paul Dean, Pastor of Visions of God Family Worship Center, in Plainfield New Jersey is our guest blogger. Here is Part One of “Right Relationships Means Right Living”. Those who have an ear, hear ye him.

    pastorpauldeanGrace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
    It is a privilege to be a part of this year’s blogging under the leadership of Pastor Leo. As I have studied the Apostle Paul I have come across some great information and also some personal experiences concerning the text. I have realized that in all of his letters, Paul concluded with a list of practical duties that were based on the doctrines he had discussed. In the Christian life, doctrine and duty always go together. What we believe helps to determine how we behave. It is not enough for us to understand Paul’s doctrinal explanations. We must translate our learning into living and show by our daily lives that we trust God’s Word.
    The key idea in this section is relationships. The term “relational theology” is a relatively new one, but the idea is not new. If we have a right relationship to God, we will have a right relationship to the people who are a part of our lives. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar” (1 John 4:20).

    1. 1.Our Relationship to God

    There are the fourth “therefore” in the letter. Romans 3:20 is the “therefore” of condemnation, declaring that the whole world is guilty before God. Romans 5:1 is the “therefore” of justification, and Romans 8:1 the “therefore” of assurance. In Romans 12:1, we have the “therefore” of dedication, and it is this dedication that is the basis for the other relationships that Paul discussed in this section.
    In the midst of our annual fast this year, let’s focus on the dedication of our lives to God.
    What is true dedication? As Paul described it here, Christian dedication involves three steps.
    You give God your body (v. 1). Before we trusted Christ, we used our body for sinful pleasures and purposes, but now that we belong to Him, we want to use our body for His glory. The Christian’s body is God’s temple (1 Cor. 6:19-20) because the Spirit of God dwells within him (Rom. 8:9). It is our privilege to glorify Christ in our body and magnify Christ in our body (Phil. 1:20-21).
    Just as Jesus Christ had to take on Himself a body in order to accomplish God’s will on earth, so we must yield our bodies to Christ that He might continue God’s work through us. We must yield the members of the body as “instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:13) for the Holy Spirit to use in the doing of God’s work. The Old Testament sacrifices were dead sacrifices, but we are to be living sacrifices.
    There are two “living sacrifices” in the Bible and they help us understand what this really means. The first is Isaac (Gen. 22); the second is our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaac willingly put himself on the altar and would have died in obedience to God’s will, but the Lord sent a ram to take his place. Isaac “died” just the same—he died to self and willingly yielded himself to the will of God. When he got off that altar, Isaac was a “living sacrifice” to the glory of God.

    Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect illustration of a “living sacrifice,” because He actually died as a sacrifice, in obedience to His Father’s will. But He arose again. And today He is in heaven as a “living sacrifice,” bearing in His body the wounds of Calvary. He is our High Priest (Heb. 4:14-16) and our Advocate (1 John 2:1) before the throne of God.
    The verb “present” in this verse means “present once and for all.” It commands a definite commitment of the body to the Lord, just as a bride and groom in their wedding service commit themselves to each other. It is this once-for-all commitment that determines what they do with their bodies. Paul gives us two reasons for this commitment: (1) it is the right response to all that God has done for us—”I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God” (italics mine); and (2) this commitment is “our reasonable service” or “our spiritual worship.” This means that every day is a worship experience when your body is yielded to the Lord.

    God Bless you, Heaven smile upon you. Go in peace and may your Peace be multiplied.
    Paul Dean

    Thank You Pastor Paul Dean. Tomorrow we will continue with part two of this blog. Join me in thanking Pastor Paul Dean for his steadfastness and service to the Kingdom of God.

    Again beloved, I want to encourage you early in the week to make plans to bring someone to church with you. Think about someone you would like to share the Gospel of Christ with and bring them with you to church. I said this on Saturday, no matter what church you belong to, evangelism is a vital part of every believer’s faith. Don’t come to church by your self. Bring a guest and share the Gospel. Why? Because Christ commands us.

    Luke 14:23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

    God wants his house filled. Do your part. Be a part of God’s plan to fill his church. Think of 10 people you want to come to church with you this week. Write their names in your prayer list and make the sacrifice to get them to church. God commands it. Stay encouraged.

    Live Life on Purpose and not By Mistake,
    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    www.ihpfwc.or

  • Day Seventeen – Right Relationships Means Right Living (Part Two)

    Grace and Peace and God Bless you on this Day Seventeen of our 21-Day Fast. You are doing so well. Congratulation on the victory God has assured you. You are on your way. Today, as promised, our friend and brother Pastor Paul Dean, Pastor of Visions of God Family Worship Center, in Plainfield New Jersey is our guest blogger. Here is Part Two of “Right Relationships Means Right Living”. Those who have an ear, hear ye him.

    pastorpauldeanGrace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
    It is a privilege to be a part of this year’s blogging under the leadership of Pastor Leo.
    In the midst of our annual fast this year, let’s focus on the dedication of our lives to God.
    What is true dedication? As Paul described it here, Christian dedication involves three steps.
    Here are steps two and three.
    You give Him your mind (v. 2a). The world wants to control your mind, but God wants to transform your mind (see Eph. 4:17-24; Col. 3:1-11). This word transform is the same as transfigure in Matthew 17:2. It has come into our English language as the word “metamorphosis.” It describes a change from within. The world wants to change your mind, so it exerts pressure from without. But the Holy Spirit changes your mind by releasing power from within. If the world controls your thinking, you are a conformer; if God controls your thinking, you are a transformer.
    God transforms our minds and makes us spiritually minded by using His Word. As you spend time meditating on God’s Word, memorizing it, and making it a part of your inner man, God will gradually make your mind more spiritual (see 2 Cor. 3:18).
    You give Him your will (v. 2b). Your mind controls your body, and your will controls your mind. Many people think they can control their will by “willpower,” but usually they fail. (This was Paul’s experience as recorded in Rom. 7:15-21). It is only when we yield the will to God that His power can take over and give us the willpower (and the won’t power!) that we need to be victorious Christians.
    We surrender our wills to God through disciplined prayer. As we spend time in prayer, we surrender our will to God and pray, with the Lord, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” We must pray about everything, and let God have His way in everything.
    For many years I have tried to begin each day by surrendering my body to the Lord. Then I spend time with His Word and let Him transform my mind and prepare my thinking for that new day. Then I pray, and I yield the plans of the day to Him and let Him work as He sees best. I especially pray about those tasks that upset or worry me—and He always sees me through. To have a right relationship with God, we must start the day by yielding to Him our bodies, minds, and wills.

    God Bless you, Heaven smile upon you. Go in peace and may your Peace be multiplied.
    Paul Dean

    Again beloved, I want to encourage you early in the week to make plans to bring someone to church with you. Think about someone you would like to share the Gospel of Christ with and bring them with you to church. I said this on Saturday, no matter what church you belong to, evangelism is a vital part of every believer’s faith. Don’t come to church by your self. Bring a guest and share the Gospel. Why? Because Christ commands us.

    Luke 14:23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

    God wants his house filled. Do your part. Be a part of God’s plan to fill his church. Think of 10 people you want to come to church with you this week. Write their names in your prayer list and make the sacrifice to get them to church. God commands it. Stay encouraged.

    Live Life on Purpose and not By Mistake,
    Yours Because I am His,
    Leo Colon
    pastor@ihpfwc.org
    http://www.ihpfwc.org