Joanne Rosario Concert at The Gate

This past Friday, we were so blessed to experience an amazing concert by Joanne Rosario! I don’t even know if there are words to describe the feeling in the house of the Lord! The concert took place at The Gate, which is a Friday night service for youth (up to age 30) at Times Square Church in New York. The night started off like any other Friday night, with amazing praise and worship music performed by our youth choir. As we continued to praise and worship, the Spirit of the Lord filled the sanctuary. It was so apparent and we all knew that the Lord would be glorified that night. Once we had finished our praise and worship Joanne Rosario came out to start her concert.

Rosario was born in Chicago to parents of Puerto Rican background. Her father is a pastor and she sang in his church as a child. Her professional career began as a member of Fred Hammond's Radical for Christ. Hammond helped her launch a solo career in 2002 with her debut album More, More, More. In 2003, Rosario was diagnosed with nodules on her vocal folds, and took an extended hiatus to treat the condition. (Bio courtesy of wikipedia)

Rosario has an amazing voice. Her songs struck such a cord in my heart and spirit. I don’t know if there was a dry eye in the sanctuary. One paster described it as, “a shower, a constant flow of the Holy Spirit.” Throuhgout her singing Joanne stopped to talk about various subjects, like needing more of God, friendship and relationships.

The concert was followed by a great service and when it came time for the alter call, so many young people floaded the stage, reaching out to the Lord for salvation. It was such a wonderful sight!

Below are two clips from the concert. If you are in New York I would like to encourage you to come out to The Gate! You will truly be blessed. Also check out Joanne Rosario’s web site (http://www.joannrosario.com/) and music.

Walking among the Living Dead

I was talking to couple of my friends about the Body of Christ and how we are walking among the living dead. We were discussing how many Christians are concerned about their own comfort and life instead of reaching the lost. Many of us think that all we have to do is go to Church, pay our tithes and live our lives according to the Word of God. We should be doing these things but we have forgotten the one job Christ commission us to do before he ascended into heaven. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV

Now you might say, "but I am not called to be a preacher, missionary, prophet or teacher. I don't believe that is my calling. Besides, that's what pastors are for, right"? Wrong! Your pastor is your leader and he prepares you and trains you for the job/call. That is one of the reasons we go to church. The sermons are to encourage us to do the Lord's will. If you are a born again, bible reading, Holy Ghost filled Christian than you know that your body is an empty vessel for the Lord. The Holy Spirit possesses your body to bring glory to God and to do His will.

Well, you might say, "I am shy and what will people think of me? What will my peers say or do if I tell them about Jesus? They might laugh at me or stop being my friend." I have had those same feelings and still do. Then I remember what Jesus said at the end of verse 20, "and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Christ knows the struggle and he understands persecution and ridicule. He tells us he will be there all the way. He will protect us and comfort us while we go through the storm for His name sake. I have been praying for the Lord to make me a mighty soldier in His army and to recruit others to join. We as Christians have to look at things with our spiritual eyes. There is a war going on between the Devil and us. Satan cannot battle against God because the Word tells us he has already been defeated, Genesis 3:14 and Revelations 12:7-9 (click to view verses). So his mission is to steal, kill and destroy us. Now since we know that we are on the winning side because of the Blood of the Lamb, wouldn't we want for others to be free and safe in our Lord's embrace?

We should understand that there are people walking around us dieing. Yes, they are breathing and look healthy but they are dieing a spiritual death that is far worse than the physical. The enemy is killing people slowly and softly without them knowing. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to work within us to breathe life back into others. We cannot continue to stand back and watch people die in front of our very eyes and do nothing about it.

Please ask the Lord to give you strength to do what he has called for us to do, which is to preach the gospel. We have all been given many gifts and talents to use in the Body. You can spread the gospel at your job, school, neighborhood, community or organization by just living your life for Christ, praying for unsaved people around you, giving your testimony, helping those in need, lending your ear to someone who needs to let out their feelings or problems, donating to ministries, volunteering and obeying the Lord when he tells you to speak a Word to those who are in need. I hope that we all pray together and motivate one another to bring the living dead to the Light. It's dark out there and our light has to continue to shine bright to lead people to the Way, the Truth and the Life!

Can Anything Good Come from Nazareth?

A couple of weeks ago I was walking to the laundry mat and I passed this ugly fenced field. It was overrun with weeds and hundreds of vines hugging the diamond shaped rings of the fence surrounding it. I stopped to look at it for a moment. Wondering why no one cared enough to make something out of the space. It could be replaced with a playground for children, maybe another apartment building, or just anything that would do away with this eye sore. As I continued to pass by the fence the most beautiful purple flower caught my eye. I marveled at the beauty of that flower for several minutes and then looked back at the eye sore that it was a part of. I decided that I had to get a picture of that flower. As I continued my walk to the laundry mat, I thought about that flower and how it is a representation of so many people in the world. I decided to write a post about realizing that no matter what mess you are in, or how many problems you have, God can make you bare beautiful fruit and you become a light to people around you. Well I never wrote that post but I thought about that flower for days. One day, Jovita and I were heading to the grocery store and I stopped by the fence to show her the flower and take a picture of it. As we stopped I noticed more beautiful purple flowers that had developed from the time I originally stopped at the fence and the time I decided to take a picture. They were so vibrant and beautiful and I took several pictures. That night, I was thinking about what to write for the blog and the Holy Spirit gave me the following scripture.

And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” John 1:46

I meditated on this scripture for a while and was so inspired. Often times we have preconceptions of people and places. We assume that we know all that we need to know without ever really knowing a person. This may be true for you. I am sure there have been times in your life where you have been judged without people knowing you. Sometimes people may have thought that you were a hopeless cause based on where you come from. Other times it is what you say about yourself, that causes you to diminish your greatness as proclaimed by the Lord. Nathanael knew nothing of Jesus, only that He came from Nazareth. Based on this knowledge, Nathanael didn’t see what the big deal would be concerning a Nazareen. He already had his mind made up about Jesus, without even speaking to Him. The rest of the passage says:

47Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
48Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
49Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

In that moment, Nathanael knew that nothing else mattered and that he had met the Messiah. Often times in life, people judge us by outlying factors. However when they meet us they see the light of God within us. Please remember that no matter where you are from, no matter what you have done in your life, God makes all things new. When you ask Jesus to be your savior, to come into your life and to change you, He will. You may still look like a mess, but slowly God is making beautiful flowers appear in your life. Out of all your bad attributes, God makes beautiful things arise. So don’t worry about what your life looks like now. God is working on you, making you a new beautiful creation. Take the time to recognize and glorify the Lord for all the beautiful flowers (or fruit) he is adding to your life.

The 44th President of the United States of America: Barack Obama

We watched last night as a nation filled with hopes and dreams of a brighter future! A future that now includes a new president, Barack Obama. In his victory speech last night, President Obama stressed the point that he will need all of our help. As Christians, we understand that we have no personal power. We are granted power by our Father in Heaven and he has given us a mighty power called prayer. Let us pray for our leader. We will not be privy to his executive conversations with other heads of states and nations nor will we be privy to his decision making. It is therefore our jobs to now help him by offering sincere prayers to our Lord. We know that life and death rest in the tongue. So let us speak life over the Obama family. We should pray for him to hear the voice of God and more importantly that God's will be done. Let us also pray that he selects the best and the brightest cabinet members, chief of staff, advisers etc. Let us not make the same mistakes we made with our previous president. I think we spent too much time criticizing, mocking and bad mouthing him, when we should have been praying for him. Now, more than ever, we need to pray for the advancement of this nation and that God's will be done. President Elect, Barack Obama, is still a man. He will make mistakes, but let us pray that he recovers quickly, learns from his mistakes and seeks the Lord's guidance. Please do not put all your faith in this man; rather, put your faith in the Almighty God, that he will do a marvelous work through President Obama.

To all my black American friends, please realize now that you will be held to a higher regard. There are no more room for excuses; no more blaming the "white" man for why you fail to get ahead. Stop looking at what the world says about you and the limitations you believe that they have placed over you and realize that you were created by God and he knows you and calls you by your name. Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven! Learn what the Lord says about you for that is what's most important. Realize now that Obama is the President for all Americans, not just black people. Barack Obama should be commended for his achievements, but should not be heralded as a hero. He is not our savior and you should not set him as the benchmark for what all black people should be, because he is not perfect. Let the Lord define you and not man.

Our next steps should be praying for our leader, not focusing on the fact that he is a black man, and recognizing that we need to ask the Lord for patience. President Obama's job is going to be a long hard road and he needs our prayers. Change does not come over night. Pray for patience, pray for your nation, pray for the Obama family and pray that God's will be done.

Election Day! Who are you voting for?

Tomorrow is Election Day, as most of you know. We have not addressed politics on our blog because it has not been a major topics of ours. But we wanted to give you some food for thought. Make sure you are voting as a Christian and not because of your race or sex . I have heard comments from many friends and strangers that say “don’t you want to see history made?” “Why would you not vote for a black man?” You see this is the problem:

1) No one should be voting for someone because of race and history. Dr. Martin Luther King said that, “he dreamed of the day when people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.” So urging people to “vote black” is a racist statement. We as Christians should know that we do not make decisions by our emotions because it is flesh. We base our decisions on truth, which is the Word of God.

2) Why do you care about making history? Isn’t our primary goal as Christians is to live our life holy and righteous for the Lord and to spread the gospel to everyone? We are supposed to be concern about God’s Kingdom and the Church. All these things will pass. We will not even remember this world when Christ comes for His people (us). So let us be concern about preparing ourselves for our Lord instead of focusing on having a black president of the United States of America.

3) My last problem is Christians putting aside their faith for so call “change”, not another 4 years of Bush or religion should not play a part. Let me tell you what actions could come about:

Homosexuals will be allowed to get married, abortion of all types of procedure will be legal, our core Christian beliefs and values will no longer be accepted by the world and soon we will become a Socialist Country! So regardless of who is the next president, let's make sure we pray for them and ask the Lord to give them guidance. Also I hope that we know not to depend on Men or Government to dictate how are lives are going to end up. Remember God provides and takes care of his people.

I have listed some listening and reading material from exministries website that will give you facts on both candidates. Please pray first before you decide whether to vote or not and ask the Lord to give you a conviction on who you are to vote for.

http://gcraige.blogspot.com/2008/10/vote-black.html

http://www.exministries.com/debate08.html