This week, some shocking news left millions of people all over the world with mixed emotions: Osama Bin Laden was killed.

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It triggered discussions throughout the Internet about whether it was something to be celebrated or not. Should we be glad? Should we be sad? Should we celebrate? Should we mourn?

Without a doubt, Bin Laden was an evil man. But the more I think about what he did, the more I think about the darkness he lived in, and how much he needed to see the Light.

I also realized that I’ve never prayed for his salvation. Not even once. I thought about it several times, but I’ve never gotten down on my knees and actually prayed about it.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

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Last Sunday, at the Easter services, our pastor was preaching about how Jesus changes people’s lives.

He told us about a documentary he watched about this person who gave his testimony of how Jesus saved him from a deep dependance on cocaine and how He turned his life around. This person had lost everything: job, family, health. And how Jesus transformed him and got him free from the addiction and restored everything he had lost.

Then the pastor said that some volunteers from our church would show their own testimonies of how Jesus changed their lives.

It was foretold long before it happened. Prophecies announced with details what was going to take place centuries later. They announced the coming of the Messiah (which means one single person that would be God’s anointed prophet, priest and king – the Anointed One).

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If you read the Gospel written by Matthew you will see lots of references to those prophecies.

While they waited, the people of Israel formed in their minds an image of what the Messiah would be like: a powerful conqueror that would deliver them from the ruling of the roman empire.

They didn’t expect a carpenter born in a manger. They didn’t expect someone that would tell them to love their enemies instead of conquering them. Most of all, they didn’t expect a king that would die such a humiliating death on the cross.

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Last week, I talked about our treasure, the things that matter to us, and how Jesus made it clear that we should pursue the kingdom of heaven. He gave this example:

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:45,46)

When I wrote about that, I kept thinking about this merchant…

Imagine what it would’ve been like if most people were not able to distinguish the value of that pearl. They would’ve thought that this man was crazy. They probably would’ve thought “He sold everything he owned in exchange for a shiny little ball? That can’t be right! This guy is insane!”

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

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Every day, we make lots of choices. We chose how we spend our money, how we deal with people, how we use every moment of our time. We may not notice it, but the choices we make say a lot about us and they show what are our priorities. They also show what are the things we value the most, the things we put our heart in, our treasure.

So how can we evaluate our choices, what does really matter when it comes to selecting the things that we should put our heart into, the things that are our treasure?

Those words that Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21 give us a pretty good idea, so it is actually easy to identify what matters in life: will you take it with you when you die? If the answer is yes, then it matters.

At the beginning of my walk with God, I noticed that I needed to work on my dependence upon Him. If I needed help on something that would be nearly impossible to get, I would immediately involve God and ask Him. But if I had an issue that I thought I could handle, I would try to do it myself.

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The first time I realized that behavior was when I visited a church and the pastor was preaching about this topic. He used an illustration in his sermon that opened my eyes.

He told us about when his young daughter wanted to eat a candy, but it was wrapped, and she was trying to unwrap it by herself. But she was too young and he knew that she wouldn’t be able to do it.

He offered several times to help her and she refused. She was stubborn and insisted until she realized that there was no way she could do it alone, and she finally gave in and handed the candy to him. He quickly solved her problem and she was able to finally enjoy the candy.

He said that we do the same thing with God: we struggle thinking that we can do it ourselves. We ask for strength, wisdom, patience, but sometimes we forget to just ask Him for help.

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Jesus’s ultimate goal in His life, the reason He come to earth was this: to save us. In order to accomplish that, He had to give away his life:

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

Due to our own limitation, it’s impossible to grasp what that meant for Him. We don’t know what will happen in a few seconds, so we cannot understand what it is like to live your whole life knowing everything that will happen, knowing that you will suffer and be killed in a cruel way, although you have the power to stop it at anytime.

Jesus’ love for all mankind and his desire to follow God’s will was so strong that giving up was never a possibility for Him.

What plans do you have for your future? What do you see yourself doing in 5 or 10 years?

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Having an answer to these questions are very important nowadays, mainly in our professional career. People are expected to have a concrete plan of how far they want to go in the corporate ladder and how they intend to get there.

I work in a major international company, it is not different there. However, I always have a hard time answering that question, not because I don’t know what I want to do, but because I know exactly what I want to do: I want to follow God’s plan. So I myself don’t have any specific plans. And I only know what He has planned for me when He lets me know about it.

That usually doesn’t sound like a proper answer to managers or HR people. But I must say that it never prevented me from getting farther than I expected in my career. I learned that if you truly trust God, having the “proper” answer to those questions doesn’t prevent Him from taking you where He wants you to be. Actually, I learned that I am the only one who can prevent God from working in my life, by not following His will.

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They were gathered at Matthew’s house, dining with tax collectors and people that were known as “sinners”. The Pharisees couldn’t understand that, how could Jesus and his disciples hang out with “those people”? They had to question Him…

Jesus answered them:

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13)

The Pharisees were the most religious people at that time. They knew all about the Law and they thought they were righteous because of the things they did (the sacrifices, the loud prayers, the “rules” they followed to the letter). They thought they deserved favors from God. They didn’t need a savior because they could save themselves.

But they got it all wrong.

It was the 1990’s, I was in my early twenties. There I was in a prayer meeting, when a woman said that God was telling me that He would take me to the USA and He would show me something very important there.

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My biggest dream was to go to the USA, but I couldn’t afford it back then. You can imagine how excited I was to hear that.

A few years later, in 1997, my manager told me that I was chosen to do a training in the USA. I never saw that coming, and I knew it was God’s doing.

When the trip was confirmed, I decided to submit a message to a couple of christian forums asking if someone in the Austin, TX area could suggest a church that I could go to during my trip. One guy answered and said that he worked at IBM (I hadn’t mentioned that I worked at IBM too), and he and his wife would be glad to take me to their church.

I checked the guy’s name and email address on the employees directory, and they matched. Then we kept contact and he gave me more information about his church, and eventually we made arrangements for me to meet them (he, his wife and two young children) at the airport.