We Christians use this expression a lot: “accept Jesus Christ as one’s Savior”. But what does it mean?

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First of all, let’s look at the problem. If someone needs a savior, it is because they need to be saved from something, right? So what do all humans need to be saved from?

The quick answer is: we need to be saved from our sins. Why are our sins a problem? Because our sins keep us away from God. That means that all humans are, by default, doomed to living apart from God in this life and through all eternity.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

The Bible refers to being away from God as “death”. So even though a person may be “physically” alive (breathing, heart beating, etc), spiritually they are dead if they are away from God:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1)

When we think about Easter, we often think about what happened on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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If you think about the disciples of Jesus who lived through those days, maybe you can imagine the mixed emotions that they felt.

On Friday, Jesus was taken by the guards. Then He was tortured, crucified, and then He died.

The One they were following for a while now, the One they believed was the promised Messiah, was now dead. They were hopeless, desperate, afraid. They probably lost their faith.

At this point, we usually fast forward to Sunday, when Jesus resurrected and many of His disciples saw Him. In a matter of seconds, they went from feeling total hopelessness to extreme joy.

Jesus was alive! If they ever had any doubts, now they were all gone.

But we often don’t mention Saturday. When we talk about Easter, we usually skip from Jesus’ death to His resurrection. But unfortunately to the disciples, they weren’t able to fast forward through that Saturday.

God created man. Man fell, by disobeying God. The perfect relationship between Creator and creature was broken. What could be done?

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When God created man and gave him free will, He knew that He was giving man the opportunity to choose between having a relationship with Him or walking away. Man chose to walk away (Genesis chapter 3). That choice affected every human being that descended from the original couple, so everyone is born apart from God.

What was God willing to do to allow man to have access to Him again? The answer is: everything!

From the beginning, God knew that what man did by himself, by choosing to break the relationship between them, man could never mend by himself. No ordinary man would ever be good enough and worthy enough to be able to do it.

So He did the unthinkable: He sacrificed Himself.

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31-33)

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We have already talked before about our treasure, the things that are really important to us. And also about handling money. And in my previous post, I shared about the recent scandals in Brazil involving leaders that are being accused of using their churches financial resources for their own benefit.

Looking at the accusations, and the way that those leaders react, it’s the complete opposite of what Jesus has told us to do in the verses of Matthew 6:31-33. According to those verses, they’re behaving like pagans, not like God’s children.

But Jesus is emphatic in those verses: we must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That should be our goal in life.

In the past few weeks, we’ve been watching a battle between a few leaders of large protestant denominations here in Brazil. The reason for this battle? Sadly, scandals involving money.

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We have seen several scandals related to churches leaders in Brazil in the past years. A week or so ago, a TV news program reported that one of these leaders allegedly bought a gigantic farm, worth several million dollars, with money from the church. They also claimed that several temples of that denomination are behind in rent and the vast majority of the members are poor, in need of financial support.

A few days later, the leader of another denomination (who himself faced several similar accusations in the past) attacked this one, then another leader jumped into the battle too.

I’ve just finished reading the book Untitled: Thoughts on the Creative Process by Blaine Hogan, and I’d like to share a few thoughts about it with you.

First, let me talk about the intriguing title. “Untitled”, as Blaine explains in the book, is usually the default name of a new file in most Word Processors. So when you create a new, blank file, it is called “Untitled”.

He talks about the challenge of the blank page, and how the creative needs to fill it with something beautiful and meaningful.

The book is divided into four parts: the work; the inside out; failure, fear and making mistakes; and worth it. He focuses on different aspects of the creative process in each part.

In the first part, for example, he explains why he thinks that having ideas are not what matters. What really matters is how you execute your ideas.

You probably have already heard someone say that “all paths lead to God”. Well, not according to the Bible, no, they don’t.

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When it comes to God, there is always right and wrong, good and bad, light and darkness. So you should expect that there is a way that leads to God and at least another way that doesn’t.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

So there it is. Indeed, not all paths lead to God. Not only that, but the right path is harder to find and most people don’t go through it.

So what is the right way? How can you identify the correct path to follow?

Remember, LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, LORD, are good. (Psalm 25:6,7)

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David wrote this Psalm during the time when Saul was persecuting him. He had been anointed king a while before that time, and then he had to flee because his life was in danger. Saul wanted to kill him. He probably didn’t understand why this was happening to him.

So he cries out to the Lord for help. But before asking for anything else, he asks God to remember His great mercy and love. He needed them! Then David asks Him not to remember the sins of his youth and his rebellious ways. And finally, he asks God to remember him according to His love.

He knew that, if it was only up to justice, maybe he wouldn’t deserve to be rescued from that situation. If God measured his righteousness according to His memory, he would be in trouble.

A few years ago, when I was in vacation with my sister in Orlando, Florida, I remember listening to the song “Blessed Be Your Name” by Tree63 on the Christian radio quite a few times.

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I loved that song, and when it started playing, soon I was singing along (I love to sing along when I drive).

During that vacation, we went a few times to a church near the hotel we stayed in. In one of the services, the worship team sang this song too. I loved it, because it was the first time I was singing it in a church. It felt more special than ever.

When the pastor was about to start the sermon, he first talked about this song. And he asked us if we had ever noticed that this song was actually based on the book of Job.

Believe it or not, it wasn’t until then that I realized it. When he said that, I started playing the lyrics on my head, and yes, he was right, the verses matched Job’s story indeed!

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)

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Money is one of the most powerful tools in this world. It can be a tool for blessing, but most often it is a tool to enslave people into serving it, pursuing it, dreaming of it, and so turning away from God.

We all need money, that’s a fact. But the key issue is how we relate to it.

That brings to my mind a quote from Leigh Anne Tuohy from the book “The blind side”, by Michael Lewis (she was played by Sandra Bullock in the movie that was based on this book):

“God gives people money to see how you’re going to handle it”.

That quote showed up in the book after Mr. Lewis described a lot of things that the Tuohys have done to help their community, mainly poor african american students. They had already helped a lot of people before they had contact with Michael Oher, which is the starting point of the plot of the movie. If you only watched the movie, you don’t know about that.