In several of His sermons and public addresses, Jesus referred to Himself as the “good shepherd” and to his followers (the Church) as His flock. Back then, shepherding was a common activity, so people were able to fully understand the meaning behind His comparisons.

However, nowadays, specially if you’ve always lived in a big city like I have, you may not be able to grasp all the implications of this illustration.

First of all, nowadays we tend to think of shepherding as a job. The shepherd takes care of the sheep during the day, then late afternoon he puts them all inside a safe place and go home to watch TV, or something like that.

But Jesus wasn’t talking about someone’s job, but about someone’s reason to live. A relationship so strong that the shepherd would be willing to lay down his life for any of his sheep.

At the end of last year, a missionary and singer called Helen Berhane came to Brazil for a series of events where she would share her life story and testimony. I have never heard of her before, but I am sure I will never forget about her.

She came to Brazil through Portas Abertas, a local representative of Open Doors, a christian organization that serves persecuted christians worldwide.

I wasn’t able to attend any of the events, but I was able to watch an interview that she gave at a TV show. It was brief, but when I heard her saying that she was imprisoned for almost three years in a container (like those shipping containers) and was submitted to harsh beatings and torture for refusing to deny her christian faith, I had to look for more information about her. I wanted to know her story.

So I found about the biographical book that she had written entitled “Song of the Nightingale“, and luckily it was available for Kindle, so I bought it and started reading it.

I couldn’t put it down…

Everything about nature, including our lives, is cyclic. We have periods that start, later they finish, then another one starts again.

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This is a characteristic that the Creator assigned to His creation. He created time and He gave us the perception of cycles within it.

At the very begininning, back when God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th day, He established the weekly cycle that we follow up to today.

There are some cycles that have a special meaning to us: birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, etc. Each date marks the end of a period and beginning of something new.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)

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Today we celebrate the birth of a very special person. Actually, the most special person ever.

He was so special that His birth divided human history in two parts.

He was the fulfillment of many promises given by God.

He was the only human ever who never sinned.

He was the one who never had any debt to pay, but He took our debt as His own and paid them all.

He is God with us. He came to show us God and lead us to Him.

One of my favorite songs about Christmas time (the holiday) was released in 1984 and it’s called “Do they know it’s Christmas?”. It was recorded by an ensemble of British and Irish artists, known as Band Aid, with the goal to raise funds to help fight famine in Africa.

Years went by, but unfortunately the problem is still the same. In 2011, the region known as the Horn of Africa suffered one of the worst draughts ever and famine claimed many lives.

And that is not the only region that registers alarming number of deaths related to poverty in Africa. That brings to mind the lyrics of that song…

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I’d like to share with you today a Christmas story. It was shared by Paul Harvey in his radio show, but its author is unknown.

Now the man to whom I’m going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn’t make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus story, about God coming to Earth as a man. “I’m truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, “but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.” He said he’d feel like a hypocrite. That he’d much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

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One of the most important events in Christianity was when God came down to earth as a man, Jesus Christ.

 “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” (John 6:41)

He came  down to earth into a fragile human body.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:14)

In doing so, He was also able to experience first hand what it is like to be human:

Dear readers, I am publishing this post to let you know why I have been away and why I will stay away for a few days more.

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Last week I came down with labyrinthitis yet again. The doctor believes it is related to a sore throat and cough that I’ve had for more than a month, and now the doctor found out it didn’t get better after taking a lot of medication because of reflux (EERD).

Today is the National Adoption Day in the USA. It is a moment to remember all the children who lost their parents and wait for someone to welcome them into their families.

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Through the Internet, I came to know some beautiful adoption stories. Like Megan Hyatt Miller and her family, who adopted twin boys from Africa.

It was such a blessing to be able to read about their story, post by post, tweet by tweet. It was a journey of faith indeed. You can read about their story here.

And most recently, Jason Stasyszen and his family decided to adopt a boy from Japan. And they’re counting on our help to raise the money to travel and bring the boy to his new home. Their journey of faith is starting and we can participate too. You can read more about their story here.

Secular was a word that was never meant to exist. When God created heaven, earth and all creatures, everything was meant to be in perfect harmony with their Creator. He was supposed to be part of our daily lives, involved with us in a perfect relationship.

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But man chose to change the direction of the original plan and now we have two categories for everything we interact daily: secular and religious.

We have secular jobs, secular artists that we enjoy, secular books we read, secular TV shows we watch, etc.

Imagine for a moment that the Fall didn’t happen.