Feet on the mountains

"And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:15 (NIV).

How beautiful are the feet. This text from Romans 10:15 is a widely known text. Here Paul makes reference to the prophet Isaiah, as we read:

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" " Isaiah 52:7 (NIV).

There is a slight difference, however, between the two texts, and this difference has caught my attention. Isaiah says: "on the mountains". So are beautiful the feet, but when they are stepping over the mountains, when they are printing their footprint, their mark.

The text from Isaiah suggests that the feet are beautiful when they are in the full exercise of proclaiming the good news. The mountains were here, in historical context, the places where the people were, since they could not return to Jerusalem. The text speaks of someone who decided to leave, and decided to go where those who were lost and isolated were located. Someone that not only remained in a place of peace, in the City of Peace, enjoying what the Lord conquered for him, but decided to leave and go to the place where those that need to hear about good news are.

Let this be our heart and our attitude. Let us that not only wait for the lost come to us, but let us be the light in an active way, and let us seek those who need the Gospel of Peace so they come back to the City of Peace.

In the peace of Jesus Christ!
Saulo.

Try to be weak, while He is strong

Hello friends and brothers!

Today I inaugurate this blog with the objective of helping the christians to fulfill the calling of the Church of Jesus Christ, which is to preach the gospel, and make disciples.

This is an actual and urgent calling. While you read this blog, it is certain that there are people from  our relationship living in sadness, distress, without hope and salvation. It is time for us to preach the message of salvation.

In these days God is awakening the Church with a revival like no one has seen before. The glory of the Lord is being poured over the Earth like the waters cover the sea. I want to be part of it! I want to  be part of the movement of the Holy Spirit in these days, and I know that this is a longing that permeates the whole Church.

One of the major impediments somebody that one can have for the preaching of the gospel is to consider his/her own person as the limiter. We all know our strengths and weaknesses. We all know our limits and weaknesses. We could say, for example, that we could never speak in public. Or we could say that we don't have the profile of an evangelist. We could say that we could never learn an instrument, or a foreign language. You could maybe say that you may never forgive someone. And we get too conformed by being "this way".

Paul, the apostle, however, writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9 saying: "(...) Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses". The things we often say that makes us sad and stops us, Paul claimed to be the reason for his joy.

You can ask: How is that? How can I be joyful when I'm weak in something? However, this is the will of God. That you and I recognize that we are weak; that we finally admit it. Because if I move in the things that I know, who moves: me or God? Certainly I do. This way, all the fruits that I gather is of my own glory. And if I cease to move because I don't know something, who cease to move: me or God? Certainly I do too.

(NIV) John 3

6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

This way, if I move or cease to move based on what I know or what I don't know, I do it based on my own strengths and weaknesses. Look that the human strength is illusion. All strength of the man is weakness before God. So... to move or not to move based on me, will always be based in the weakness of man.

Reading again 2 Corinthians 12.

(NIV) 2 Corinthians 12

9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

How can I do? What must I do? I must recognize, every day, before God that I am weak and give up to be strong, so that He might be strong in me. Our joy is based on the fact the only way we may the power of God fully manifested is if we let Him live in us, if we let Him be the strength in us.

This is delivering, because we don't need pre-requisites to preach the gospel. None, but being in the presence of God. What we do need is to hold a relationship with the Holy Spirit. The only way we may have extraordinary results is to do extraordinary things, and this things are impossible for us to do! So, the only way we could live extraordinarily is living by the Spirit of God.

So my brothers, while considering witnessing about Jesus, make sure that your central concern is to depend on the Holy Spirit of God. Of course we must know God, and the Word of God, but the Holy Spirit of God is the center of evangelism. What His presence does, no man can do.

Stay in the peace of Christ Jesus!

Saulo Oliveira Santos.