For a few weeks, a fellow christian from a congregation near mine had been in the ICU. Her situation grew more and more severe after she was admitted at the hospital. Several churches, including mine, had been praying for her, asking God to intervene and restore her health.

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On Monday, we were all shocked by the news that she had passed away. In spite of all the requests from the people of several churches, God chose to say “no”.

Something like this might make people question God’s decision. How could a loving God allow people to go through a tough time like this, if He can prevent it?

We will never be able to understand God and why He makes His decisions. But as a loving God, He revealed a lot about Himself to us in order that we have a tiny glimpse of Him through the books of the Bible. We are still not able to fully understand Him (and we never will), but we have enough information to know that, no matter what happens, he is indeed a loving God and He always makes the best decisions.

There is one book in the Bible that deals specifically with our difficulty in understanding suffering: Job.

Jesus came to earth to save mankind and show us God’s love. He offered His life as a sacrifice for our sins, so we could be redeemed.

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If anyone would ever request God a proof of His love, I am sure there couldn’t be a greater proof than sending His own Son to die for us. And what about us? Can we do something to show our love for God?

In fact, we can:

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15)

This is love for God: to obey his commands. (1 John 5:3)

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. (2 John 1:6)

Do you love God? Do you love Jesus? Then, according to Him, you will obey His commands. It’s that simple.

And this is not about proving our love so we are worthy of anything. We will never be worthy of His love. But when we show our love for Him, we are giving back something that He gave to us: true love.

Have you noticed how our culture became the culture of “I”? Everything is about oneself. Everyone is trying to find pleasure, happiness, satisfaction – for themselves. People talk a lot about love, but do they have love in their lives?

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Try to ask someone how they know that they love someone else. They will tell you all about how they feel when they think about that person or when they are together. What if that feeling vanishes? Does it mean that their love is gone? If so, was that ever love, true love?

More and more we see that the focus is on ourselves. However, Jesus taught us the exact opposite: love is all about the other person. And it’s not about what we feel, but it’s about what we do.

A while back we talked about how love means action, not just a feeling or words. That’s what Jesus showed us with his own life. And there is another lesson that we must learn regarding love: it is completely selfless.

Jesus used many parables during His ministry to teach us deep truths about God’s kingdom. He also used daily situations as comparisons to show us more about His character (for example, He pictured Himself as the Good Shepherd so we could have a first glimpse at His amazing love).

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And one of the most beloved and known parable He told is the one about the lost sheep:

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:3-7)

There are a few things that fascinate me about this parable.

Identity is essential to anyone. It tells people who they are. But not everyone identifies a certain person the same way. They may be trusting someone else to give them the perception of a person instead of coming to a conclusion themselves.

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Jesus had a clear identity. He himself affirmed it many times. But that doesn’t mean that people got it. We can see that in the following excerpt:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16:13,14)

First, let me make one thing clear: these verses don’t mean that the people of that time believed in reincarnation. If they did, they wouldn’t have mentioned John the Baptist in the list because Jesus and John were alive at the same time for many years.

In case I haven’t mentioned before, I love reading fiction books, specially christian fiction books. I think they provide excellent tools for the writer to teach us something and to make our minds “travel” to a new world created by their imagination.

Jesus Himself used those tools when He told amazing truths about God and the Kingdom of Heavens through fictional stories (also known as “parables”).

Recently I’ve read a delightful book that I wanted to share about with you. It’s Stardust, by Carla Stewart.

Imagine yourself living in the times of the early Christianity, during the second half of the first century. Christians were persecuted. Many of them knew that following Christ could mean death, and probably a cruel one.

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Many people among the early followers were eye witnesses of Jesus’ miracles and wonders. They heard the good news from His own lips.

After Jesus resurrected, He spent 40 days among them. Those people were also witnesses of His resurrection.

They had all the physical and rational evidence they needed to believe. Then later, they received the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised:

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)

About a month ago, we had a special visit in our church: David de Vinatea came to share his testimony with us. David is a former colonel of the Peruvian Army. A few years after accepting Jesus as His Savior, he was wrongfully accused of dealing drugs and sent to a maximum security prison because, due to his faith, he refused to play along with the corrupt Army officials and government, who received bribes from the drug lords.

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David was arrested in 1995. Two years after that, representants of Open Doors, a ministry that serves persecuted christians worldwide, learned about his situation, and after confirming that the accusations raised against him were indeed not true, they started a legal battle to get him out of prison.

During his imprisonment, David and his family received support from Open Doors and the local church for many of their needs. They received thousands of letters from people around the world, encouraging them. Several people also came, through Open Doors ministries, to visit them in person. That was true Christianity in action (see Matthew 25:35-40).

He went through many experiences in prison, including starting a church there that brought many inmates to Jesus. Then, in 2003, he was finally set free.

A couple of days ago, Michael Perkins published a beautiful post at his blog, The Handwritten, that talked about fear. In just a few words he expressed how fear trick us into doubting the amazing plan that God has for us.

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The interesting fact is that it is not the first time I get a message about letting go of my fears in a short period of time. You know when you hear or read something, and it seems like a little bulb has been turned on inside your heart, and you know that God is talking to you? Yes, this is what I am talking about.

Just to list a few messages I got: there was a chapter in the book “Untitled” by Blaine Hogan that talked about it; the preface of the book “48 days to the work you love” by Dan Miller that I started reading a few days ago also talked about it; a sermon that one of the elders of my church preached a few weeks ago focused on the verse 36 of Mark chapter 5; and even this picture in Pinterest that I stumbled upon a few days ago! Yep, God is talking to me indeed.

So I decided to check the Scriptures and dig a little deeper into the subject of “fear”. Let’s take a look at a few examples when God tells someone to not be afraid (or “fear not”, in the classic translations):

About ten years ago, I was going through a tough time at work. I was praying to God asking Him to change something, because I was tired and bored with the job I was doing and I wanted Him to change something, anything. I needed something different. But nothing was happening, so I asked God why He didn’t answer my prayers.

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Then one day I was watching an episode of the series “Touched by an Angel” when the character Monica, who was an angel at that TV show, said this to her assignment:

“Every prayer is answered. But sometimes the answer is ‘no’. And sometimes the answer is ‘not yet'”.

Not in my wildest dreams I would have expected God to talk to me through a TV angel! But I got it. The moment she said the words I realized, without a doubt, that the answer to my prayer was ‘not yet’…

At that moment I realized that God does answer all prayers, I just didn’t “count” it unless the answer was “yes”.

And soon I realized that I have a really hard time handling the answer when it is “not yet”.