Fruit

Yesterday I was in a wedding party and met a former member of the church, someone who had worked very hard there. I told him that is very unpleasant to work hard and do not see any fruit, any progress of a church that in fact is a club. He exhorted me to be in the Spirit and not in the flesh: the Spirit is the One who works, not me; thus I should not be dis-motivated like that.

I told him, that in fact, I see the Spirit acting at least in me, and in my very next ones. He must be right, but not 100% right.

Basically, I have to rest in the Lord - He is really the One who provides growth to his Church. However, I suppose that some of my critics are really right: my local church works in closed doors focusing nikkeis - Japanese descendants. However, I suppose it is really worse: even a Japanese descendant can not go there without being invited. Brazil is violent, but is it really necessary to work in this way? This club oriented behavior is killing the church. It is behaving as still waters where fishes are dying. Today my wife will have to cook in the church. Is it really for God or for a club?

Anyway, I believe that the Spirit is gradually changing me, but I really need much more of the Spirit in me. I am tired of my local church.
I got an idea: there are a lot of good things that are happening to me because I belong to this church. Yesterday, for instance, I visited S with DH - both had strokes. I am learning a lot because I am in the church. There are problems, but there are many blessings too. I need to count the blessings.

Disagreement

Last Sunday, 11, after the cult, I was talking to a urologist that happened to be in our church. As I had recently the Urinary Tract Infection, I thought that the Lord sent him there. 

As I was talking to him, my pastor broke the conversation, asking me to change my preaching day from the first to the second Sunday of October. I agreed with him very fast trying to keep up my conversation, however, the pastor decided to get his free medical appointment. I became angry with this lack of respect, said nothing and left the place.

After the Sunday School, as pastor's wife returned to my preaching day change subject, I tried to understand what caused it. The pastor told me: "you do not preach. Rest on this month!"

I became more angry: are we talking the same language? He is Japanese - issei - first generation with a bad Portuguese. I asked his wife to intervene as he should not be understanding Portuguese. She told him that I wanted to preach. In fact, I did not say that, but it was OK in that context. He began to ask me: "Do you preach on Second Sunday?". 

At this moment, I was very angry to answer, so I answered in low voice. But he is old and did not hear. He asked me in a higher voice: "Do you preach on Second Sunday?". This time, I refused to answer. Is he crazy? He repeated again in a higher voice. For me, it was enough. I stood up to leave the room. 

I am not the kind of sheep that are very meek to any pastor, but I have never been more meek than I am being with this Japanese pastor. I am doing things that are against my will. I was invited to some duties in my former church, but I refused. Here, in this church, I am taking many duties. The worse to me is to be a deacon and approve many wishes from the pastor. I am being a deacon for around 7 years. It is time to say "no" to the next year.

Yesterday, I told what happened to the pastor's wife. She told me to be patient. He is becoming old, he forget things. If I knew he is with Alzheimer, I would be more complacent with him. I really think that he is avoiding me. Any time, I am talking to someone, he comes and talks to the other person, breaking the conversation. It happened many times since this incident. Is it by chance? Is it on purpose? God knows.
Let the Lord deal with this situation. I have to turn my eyes upon Jesus so that the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Perhaps, that is what the Lord wants from me. He wants me to turn to Him instead of paying so much attention to my old pastor.

Talents

In Matthew 25, we read:
 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

I am 53 years old. I am sure that the Lord gave me many talents. I suppose that I have 20 years more of life, because after 73 years old, I am not so confident about my health. Today I went to the ophthalmologist doctor. He told me I am developing cataracts. I mean, I am beginning to decline physically, however, now, I feel I am in a great shape.
I would like to live multiplying the talents the Lord gave me, but until now, it seems to me I have lived to myself only and I am missing something. Lord, what is your purpose to me?
Many pastors would say that the best thing one can do is to bring souls to Jesus. Well, in a more Calvinistic approach, I would say that the best thing one can do is to glorify the Lord and delight in Him. Anyway, I would like very much to lead many souls to Jesus.
However, "lead a soul to Jesus" is translated to take a person (generally a pleasant person) to the church. I myself am really disappointed with my local church, but I can not think of anyone better. What is church? My local church behaves as a club. A lot of people wants the lunch but not the Word. They want to lunch but they do not want to work for it. Thus, few people must cook to many others in name of Love. Most of the members do not seem to read the Bible, meditate on it, and even taking care to put in practice. Therefore, it is very rare to see lives changed, worse, it is very rare to see some passion to Jesus. Is it to lead someone to Jesus? Is not it to lead someone to a club?
The great problem is that I can not think of a local church that is much better than mine.
Returning to the talents.
Around 5 years ago, I would like to retire and dedicate my life to the church; but now I changed my mind.
Brazil is really a dangerous place.
Would not it be much better to create a company in residential automation using some kind of open hardware and open software as arduino and linux? It would be very nice to detect intruders and even command the house by internet. I think I can do it.
I am a teacher.
I thought to open a company at my house, displaying some projects in youtube that automates my house. I can teach about these projects at home and I can sell projects to others residences. I can sell arduino. My company could employ my best pupils. Is it to glorify the Lord? Perhaps a company like that is like a church. A honest company that helps others: Christians and non Christians, can be very pleasing to the Lord.
If the Lord helps me, I can multiply my talents by a company like that.

CyanogenMod

My smartphone android was getting very old, but I bought with a good hardware some years ago: 2Gb of RAM and 32Gb of flash. I decided to upgrade to a new android and installed CyanogenMod12.1. Congratulations to CyanogenMod! Perfect!
In a similar way, Jesus is a new ROM, a new version of me.
My new version is pleasing to the Lord, not by my old self, but by Jesus in me.

September 7th, Independence day

It is told that on September, 7th of 1822, the Portuguese Prince, Don Pedro I, decided to proclaim the independence of Brazil from Portugal and became king of Brazil.
Brazilians became discontent with Don Pedro I. He abdicated his throne in favor to his son: Don Pedro II. Amazingly, he came back to Portugal when his father Don Joao VI died and became king of Portugal, but this time, Don Pedro IV.
For me a very confusing history, since the Portuguese Prince was against his father's (Don Joao VI) will and consequently against his own will.

Although today is a Holiday, I forbid my daughter to go out and study because she needs it. She and my wife became against me, but her doubts in Mathematics confirmed that I was right.  

Rik

Yesterday, I had lunch with Rik, a ex work colleague from 1986. At this time, he was attending to the meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses. I had always seen myself as a more orthodox protestant, but, I liked to talk to him about the Bible. I thought a lot about the position against the deity of Christ. The question is: Is Jesus my object of adoration? For me, it is a clear "yes" and that is the position that more harmonizes with the whole Bible. 

Despite this, recently, I decided to share with him my comments of the Bible, so that he refines it.

He knows a lot about dates, places, persons, and those relationships. As he studied a lot, he saw many  apparent inconsistencies and began to think about explanations to these inconsistencies deriving some kind of deep Bible, I mean, information (really? perhaps hypothesis) that is in the Bible that only appears through solving the inconsistencies. Although I am not as meticulous as he is, I really find interesting his Bible reading. Certainly, I have learned a lot of Bible through him. However, I really put a filter on his information trying to absorb what is good and preventing what is bad.

His "deep Bible" may contain a lot of his own ideas creating a trap to himself. 

Very few people really read the Bible at our local church, however a lot of Bible reading does not automatically translate into more communion with the Lord. 

I pray that my friend finds freedom in the Lord.

Bible based Decision

Although I was not present, a guest pastor told to our church about Abraham, his order to sacrifice Isaac and how he proceeded. The pastor took lessons from the text such as: do not question the Lord's order. 

Certainly, it shocked a physician and professor with a sharp mind that is in his 70's. For him, this kind of sermon would lead a lunatic to make atrocities in God's name.  How to avoid it? He put it as a debate in Sunday School to listen and take his conclusions.

I told that Bible reading and prayer should guide the christian. The World of the Lord is light to the feet of the believer. A lot of people are misled due to lack of knowing the Word, lack of prayer, and their own greed.
He was not very satisfied with this answer. I think that he wants to dissect the reasoning of the guest pastor and his conclusion. In some way he is right. There are many conclusions based on small excerpts from the scripture that are not sustained by a more meticulous approach. 

A new glass

I really do not know why, but here in Brazil, spectacles are three times more expansive than U.S. to my thick lens. I just decided to consult prices in a optician, but my glasses were so bad that, finally I surrendered to the seller and bought a new one. Meanwhile, the seller cleaned my glasses with some chemical and now, I am looking much better.

A glass that I use to read the Bible is from yesterday's post. The Lord established with me a covenant. It is an honor to be chosen by the Lord, to love, adore and serve Him.
Reading the Bible became much more alive after using this spectacle, after believing in my covenant with the Lord.

Human Relationship Types

There are two basic human relationships:

- covenant. Ex: marriage, father-son. These relationships reflect how the Lord deals with the believer. They are a strong relationship. How can a father abandon his son?

- commercial. Ex: seller-buyer. This is very weak relationship. The buyer may choose freely among sellers, so the seller must always improve his business to attract and maintain buyers. 

There are some relationships that are in the middle.

We contracted a housekeeper around 13 years ago. She was very diligent in her service and we were very fortunate to contract her. At first, I was reluctant about her, but I began to develop a very open friendship. 

In Proverbs 29:21

A servant pampered from youth will turn out to be insolent.

I knew this from the Bible and I should have paid more attention because she really became insolent. She does not see herself as an employee. She rejects orders in a insolent way.

This type of relationship is neither a covenant nor commercial. Something in between. I am considering that these are the worse kind of relationships because it is hard to break it without pain as in a commercial relationship although nobody expects the kind of fidelity from a covenant relationship. As it is hard to break, there is some kind of laziness that could not exist in a commercial relationship.

I would like to ask Solomon how to deal with a servant. How to keep things working in a friendly way, but not so friendly to get insolence. 
These thoughts make me ask:
- what kind of relationship should we have in a church? 
Christians call one another brothers in Jesus - a covenant relationship.
Let us suppose that employer and employee belongs to the same church. They are calling one another brothers in the church, but are they brothers in a daily basis? This kind of relationship would not create insolent servants? Would Solomon answer me?

Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)

I could not sleep yesterday night due to:

• A strong, persistent urge to urinate
• A burning sensation when urinating
• Blood in urine.

Around 4:00H AM, when I saw the blood in urine, my wife took me to a First Aid Center near home. Due to the blood, I considered cancer as an hypothesis.

I managed to sleep when I was given a slowly intravenous injection of buscopan.

After some studies, they concluded that I was with UTI.

Now, one day later, using antibiotics (Cipro), I am much better.

I really can not imagine a world without antibiotics. I thought that UTI was a mortal disease.

My heroin was my wife. In the first aid center, I forgot the documents. My wife had to come back home and take them to the hospital. As my passage there was taking hours and hours, she left me there, but she returned just to pick me up. 

In Ecclesiastes 4:

9 Two are better than one,

because they have a good return for their labor:

10If either of them falls down,

one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls

and has no one to help them up.

11Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

But how can one keep warm alone?

12Though one may be overpowered,

two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.