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Podcast Episode: The Fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT – LOVE #3

The Fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL. There is no law against these things.” [Galatians 5:22-23 NLT]

We need to understand that LOVE is the first characteristic of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is well placed at the head of the list, for it permeates all the rest of the attributes. Somehow, if we live a life of LOVE, the other virtues will attend us all the days of our lives. LOVE is the key that unlocks the entire fruit basket of Galatians 5:22-23, as well as permeating in the Love Chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians 13 – New Testament – in the Bible.

If you already knew, understood, received the divine revelation and the truth that sets us free from sin, and from what is in The Gospel – The Good News, and especially you have experienced the Born-Again spiritual awakening (See John 3:3-7), you may skip The Gospel – The Good News below and browse all the way down to the Podcast Message. Thank you.

The Gospel – The Good News

In John 14:6-7 NLT says, “6 Jesus told him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me. 7 If you had really known Me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him!”

This is one of the most basic and important passages in Scripture. How can we know the way to God? Only through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Way because He is both God and man. By uniting our lives with His, we are united with God. Trust our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit to take you to our Father God, and all the benefits of being God’s child will be yours.

Our Lord Jesus Christ says, He is the only Way to God the Father. Some people may argue that this way is too narrow. In reality, it is wide enough for the whole world, if the world chooses to accept it. Instead of worrying about how limited it sounds to have only one way, we should be saying, “Thank you, GOD, for providing a sure Way to get to You!”

As the Way, our Lord Jesus Christ is our path to our Father God. As the Truth, He is the reality of all God’s promises. As the Life, He joins His divine life to ours, both now and eternally.

In John 3:16-17 NLT says, “16 “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.”

The message of The Good News – The Gospel comes to a focus in these verses. God’s love is not static or self-centered; it reaches out and draws others in. Here God sets the pattern of true love, the basis for all love relationships – when we love someone dearly, we are willing to give freely to the point of self-sacrifice. God paid dearly with the life of His Son, the highest price He could pay. Our Lord Jesus Christ accepted our punishment, paid the price for our sins, and then offered us the new life that He had bought for us. When we share the Good News with others, our love must be like our Lord Jesus Christ’s – willingly giving up our own comfort and security so that others might join us in receiving God’s unconditional love.

Some people are repulsed by the idea of eternal life because their lives are miserable. But eternal life is not an extension of a person’s miserable, mortal life; eternal life is God’s life embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ given to all believers now as a guarantee that they will live forever. In eternal life there is no death, sickness, enemy, evil, or sin. When we don’t know Jesus Christ, we make choices as though this life is all we have. In reality, this new life is just the introduction to eternity. Receive this new life by faith and begin to evaluate all that happens from an eternal perspective.

To “believe” is more than intellectual agreement that Jesus Christ is God. It means to put our trust and confidence in Him that He alone can save us. It is to put our Lord Jesus Christ in charge of our present plans and eternal destiny. Believing is both trusting His Words as reliable, and relying on Him for the power to change. If you have never trusted our Lord Jesus Christ, let this promise of everlasting life be yours – and believe. Amen!

The entire Gospel comes to a focus in this verse, John 3:16. God’s love is not just to a certain group of individuals – it is offered to the whole world. God’s agape and unconditional love is not static or self-centered; it reaches out and draws others in.

Again, here God’s actions defined the pattern of true love, the basis for all love relationships – when you love someone, you are willing to sacrifice dearly for that person. Sacrificial love is also practical in seeking ways to meet the needs of those who are loved.

In God’s case, that love was infinitely practical, since it set out to rescue those who had no hope of rescuing themselves. God paid dearly to save us; He gave His only Son, the highest price He could pay.

This offer is made to everyone who believes. Again, to “believe” is more than intellectual agreement that our Lord Jesus Christ is God. It means putting our trust and confidence in Him that He alone can save us. It is to put our Lord Jesus Christ in charge of our present plans and eternal destiny. Believing is both trusting His Words as reliable and relying on Him for the power to change.

Our Lord Jesus Christ accepted our punishment and paid the price for our sins so that we would not perish. Perish does not mean physical death, for everyone has an appointment with God, and will eventually die. Here it refers to eternity apart from God. Those who believe will receive the alternative, the new life that our Lord Jesus Christ bought for us – eternal life with God.

All people are already under God’s judgment because of sin – specifically the sin of not believing in God’s Son (John 16:9). The only way to escape the condemnation is to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, because God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it but to save it. He who believes in Him is saved from God’s judgment. And God wants people to believe.

God may have seemed slow to most if not all of us Born-Again Christian believers, as we faced persecution every day and longed to be delivered. But God is not slow; He just is not on our timetable (Psalm 90:4). Our Lord Jesus Christ is waiting so that more sinners will repent and turn to Him. We must not sit and wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to return, but we should realize that time is short and we have important work to do – sharing the Gospel. Be ready to meet our Lord Jesus Christ any time, even today; yet, let’s plan our course of service as though He may not return for many years. (See 2 Peter 3:8-9).

When we consider ways to communicate the Gospel, we should follow our Lord Jesus Christ’s example. We do not need to condemn unbelievers; they are condemned already. We must tell them about this condemnation and then offer them the way of salvation – faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. When we share the Gospel with others, our love must be like our Lord Jesus Christ’s – willingly giving up our own comfort and security so that others might join us in receiving God’s love. Amen!

We are glad to invite you all to join us in our Zoom Services; Sunday Service at 6 pm and Bible Study on Wednesday at 6 pm, and Praise & Worship/Karaoke on Friday at 7 pm Central Time (CT). Karaoke location TBA.

To Join our Zoom Meetings, just click the link below:
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If you have any questions and/or concerns, please don’t hesitate to send them to:

Email: trinityblessings@homefellowshipchurches.org

Podcast Messages & Bible Studies Topic: Fruit of the Holy Spirit, God’s Promises for All Our Every Needs, Books of Leviticus, the Gospel Books (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John), Revelation and Romans, Pastor/Chaplain Elias’ books – “From the Words and Thoughts to the Swords and Battlegrounds”, and “From the Battlegrounds and Wars to the Overcoming and Victories” portions (to be published soon).

Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples,

Pastor/Chaplain Elias Aguilar Busuego Jr PhD DTM

Founding Pastor – Home Fellowship Churches – https://homefellowshipchurches.org

Chaplain – American Legion (AL) District 10 – Texas, AL Post 302 Hutto, TX, formerly at AL Post 447 Round Rock, TX

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Hosea’s Wife is Redeemed

In Hosea 3:1-3 NLT says, “1 Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.” 2 So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine. 3 Then I said to her, “You must live in my house for many days and stop your prostitution. During this time, you will not have sexual relations with anyone, not even with me.”

This short chapter pictures the nation’s exile and return. Israel would experience a time of purification in a foreign land, but God would still love the people and would be willing to accept them back. God commanded Hosea to show the same forgiving spirit to Gomer. Although Hosea had good reason to divorce Gomer, he was told to buy her back and love her.

Apparently, Gomer was on her own for a while. Needing to support herself, she must have either sold herself into slavery or become the mistress of another man. In either case, Hosea had to pay to get her back – although the required amount was pitifully small. Gomer was no longer worth much to anyone except Hosea, but he loved her just as God loved Israel. No matter how low we sink, God is willing to buy us back – to redeem us – and to lift us up again.

After this, Gomer is no longer mentioned by Hosea. This is explained in Hosea 3:4. Gomer’s isolation showed how God would deal with the northern kingdom (Hosea 5:6, 15). It is dangerous to rebel against God. If He were ever to withdraw His love and mercy, we would be without hope.

The prophet Hosea is commanded by God to buy his wife, Gomer, back from a slavery auction block. Gomer has been unfaithful to him, having lived as a prostitute. But Hosea’s love for his unfaithful wife is a sign of God’s love for the unfaithful nation of Israel.

The parallels between adultery and idolatry cannot be denied. Just as Gomer has been unfaithful in marriage, so has Israel been unfaithful in its covenant relationship with God. As Gomer has given herself to other lovers, so Israel has pursued idols, having abandoned the loving God.

But neither Gomer nor Israel feels chastisement from their true loves. In spite of her infidelity, Gomer is yet loved by her husband. Israel, in spite of its idolatries with foreign gods, is yet pursued by the unforsaking love of God.

Through this account of forgiveness and love between husband and wife, we see that God is in love with His people, and His love is totally undeserved. His love has nothing to do with good things we have done, nor the time we have given Him in prayer and adoration. God is God! God is love! Our Lord Jesus Christ saves … period!

The very definition of God is love. If 1 John 4:7-8 states this definition, Hosea 3:1-3 demonstrates it.

In 1 John 4:7-8 NLT says, “7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

John repeated his call to Christians to continue to love one another (see also 1 John 3:10-18, 23). God is the source of all love; therefore, love comes from God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, sent from God the Father, embodied love and demonstrated that love in His life on earth. Such love does not come naturally for humans. We are not born with it, neither can we learn it. Born-Again Christian believers receive God’s love only through the Holy Spirit.

The phrase anyone who loves is born of God does not trivialize the relationship with God as given to anyone who simply knows how to “love.” Only those who have experienced the new birth are able to have the love described here. Those who have received this gift are endowed with the nature of God and thereby become partakers of the divine love. Love for fellow Christians provides proof of spiritual birth and relationship with God.

In addition, John says, anyone who loves knows God. This speaks of an ongoing knowledge “getting to know” God – a continual, growing, spiritual knowledge based on actual experience of God in believers’ lives. It follows, then, that a person who does not love other Christians has never known God. The Greek verb for “know” is in the aorist tense, thereby indicating that this person not only doesn’t know God now but has never known Him.

The statement God is love ought not be turned around to say “Love is God” or watered down to “God is loving,” as if this were just one of God’s attributes. Rather, love is God’s very essence. It is not one of God’s many activities; instead, all of his activities are imbued with love. When He disciplines or teaches, for example, He does so with love. And conversely, because He loves, He disciplines and teaches. Because He is love, He can do nothing without love. Praise God!

The Potter and the Clay

In Isaiah 29:16 NLT says, ” How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and He is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid”?

Judah’s secret mission, acting without divine direction and approval, reversed the proper order, like the clay from which a pot is formed giving orders to the potter. Such a notion is absurd. So is Judah’s diplomatic maneuvering.

Our love for God is displayed in a state of yielding that forbids all back talk. Our love for God says, “Yes, Lord” to whatever it is that God asks of us. Isaiah, in describing a “sassy pot,” makes the point that it is the potter who forms, and it is the clay who yields. When the clay becomes resistant in the hands of the potter and refuses to be shaped according to the potter’s desires, then the purposes of the potter are brought to a standstill. Similarly, in our relationship with God, when we resist God’s will for us, we stand defiantly before God’s all-shaping love and refuse to accept His divine purposes for our lives.

What then is the next step for such defiant clay? Brokenness, but brokenness is painful for both the potter and his recalcitrant, unruly, disobedient, wayward, headstrong, unmanageable, stubborn clay. God is a loving parent who does not enjoy breaking His self-willed children. He would much rather they yield to Him of their own accord. We must never suppose that the breaking process that God uses to change our lives ever brings Him any delight. Indeed, He weeps for the process of forcing our stubbornness into usefulness.

This is God’s love for us: that He cares for us enough to bring about His will in our lives. But we must mark this love as behind all of God’s dealings with us. He celebrates our instant yielding as a triumph of His love. When He has to break our hard hearts, He celebrates that, too. He is willing – if we will have it no other way – to use a Cross to fashion us in the image of His dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!

Psalm Tune with Doe of the Dawn

In Psalm 22:1-5 NLT says, “1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? 2 Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief. 3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4 Our ancestors trusted in you, and you rescued them. 5 They cried out to you and were saved. They trusted in you and were never disgraced.”

David gave an amazingly accurate description of the suffering the Messiah would endure hundreds of years later. David was obviously enduring some great trial, but through his suffering, he, like the Messiah to come, gained victory. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, quoted this verse while hanging on the Cross carrying our burden of sin (Matthew 27:46). It was not a cry of doubt, but an urgent appeal to God.

The continuance of the psalmist’s cry is contrasted with the lack of God’s response. This intensifies the psalmist’s suffering as his experience seems to contradict the core of what he believes about God. He cannot deny his experience or explain why God has not answered.

In Verse 3 described that God is “enthroned as the Holy One” (NIV), referring to God’s enthronement between the cherubim over the mercy seat. God is holy; therefore, He should deliver the righteous sufferer. His holiness also triggers the idea of separateness. This disturbs the psalmist.

In Verses 4-5 described that the psalmist raises his lament by contrasting God’s involvement with the fathers with the feeling of desertion which the psalmist has experienced.

It seems at times that God is silent. At such times, we stare, gaze, watch, or look intently into the gales or gusts of those storms that threaten us and beg the God of storms to cry, “Quiet! Be still!” But in spite of our desperate cries, the quiet does not come. The thunder rolls. The earth quakes beneath us. However, we must not suppose at such a moment that God laughs as our tears flow. It is not so.

This is the psalm our Lord Jesus Christ quotes as one of the last words spoken on the Cross. Theologians largely agree that our Lord Jesus Christ cried the words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) because of a great separation between God and His Son. God in His holiness could not bear to look on His Son who bore the hideous and grotesque sins of humankind. God is holy and cannot gaze upon the kind of universal sin our Lord Jesus Christ had to carry to save us.

I try to remember during these times when it seems God is silent, that the promise of Scripture is that the Holy Spirit is answering our groaning needs not from beyond us but from within us (see Romans 8:26). God is never really silent; He is in constant concourse or meeting with our pain. Our tears are so precious to Him that He cries out from within us, constantly making intercession for our sin.

There may be moments when we feel an unresponsive silence from God. But we know that our Lord Jesus Christ, who also lived as a human, experienced the same discouragement and sorrow. We know that He cried out to God, pleading for a response, just as we do. Isn’t our Lord Jesus Christ the ultimate picture of love? He came to earth to suffer for us. He came to earth to save us. The next time we feel abandoned by God, we can look to our Lord Jesus Christ and know that He felt the same sorrows that we do. But we can also look to our Lord Jesus Christ and know that God is love and will never leave us. God gave us His Son to seal that promise. Amen!

The Messenger Who Brings Good News of Peace and Salvation

In Isaiah 52:7 NLT says, “How beautiful on the mountains “are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation,
the news that the God of Israel reigns!”

God says that the feet of those who bring good news are “beautiful.” It is a wonderful privilege to be able to share God’s Good News with others, His news of redemption, salvation, and peace. To whom do you need to give the Good News?

The feet of the messenger running to tell the good news about what God has done. In Nahum 1:15, the good news is that Nineveh, the Assyrian capital from which so much oppression had come to Israel, was destroyed. Here the good news is that Babylon is defeated and Israel will be restored; this was proof that Yahweh reigned supreme. “Good news” in the Septuagint is rendered by the word euangeliomenos, whence comes the word “Evangel,” or “Gospel” (Mark 1:1). Undoubtedly, Paul’s quotation of Isaiah 52:7 in Romans 10:15 was influenced by this word. In Isaiah and Nahum, the good news announced was the defeat of Babylon and Assyria respectively and the deliverance of Israel from a certain death. The heart of the Gospel is the Good News that God has triumphed over Satan, sin, and death. Hallelujah! Praise God!

Love motivates the feet of the messenger. The messenger’s “going” is just as much a part of the victory of grace as his/her “telling.” Going and telling are a part of the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ (see Matthew 28:18-20). Many scholars translate the subjunctive force of the Commission this way: “Since you are going into the world anyway, preach the Gospel as you go.” In other words, since all of us are called by God to tell the story, let us do it as a natural outgrowth of our everyday involvement. Telling and going are a single action.

This is the spirit of Isaiah 52:7 – the “going” is part of the “telling.” Going is part of the spirit that permeates the Scriptures. Indeed, the feet are what bring us to the place where we can tell the old, old story.

Can you recall the one whom God sent to reveal to you the Good News that God in love sent His Son to reconcile us all to Him? The story brought to us made us alive in our Lord Jesus Christ, but in truth the walk – the person coming to us – was a part of the gift. How beautiful the message that redeems us, but how lovely also the obedience of those who have felt compelled to tell us of His love.  My older brother, Ferdinand Aguilar Busuego who brought the Gospel and persisted for 2 years, from 1972 to 1974. Praise God!   

God is the Rock and Our Faithful God

In Deuteronomy 32:1-4 NLT says, “1 “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak! Hear, O earth, the words that I say! 2 Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew. Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants.
3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord; how glorious is our God! 4 He is the Rock; His deeds are perfect. Everything He does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright He is!”

Moses was not only a great prophet but also a song leader. After three sermons, he changed the form of his message to singing. Sometimes reciting something in a different form makes it easier to remember. This song gives a brief history of Israel. It reminds the people of their mistakes, warns them to avoid repetition of those mistakes, and offers the hope that comes only in trusting God.

In this passage, Moses is an old man. The Bible says he was 120 years old and in full health and strength. What do old men who have spent 120 years measuring the faithfulness of God do? They sing! Do not argue that these aged, faithful watchers of grace can’t sing. They sing incontrovertible, unquestionable, indisputable, undeniable, incontestable, unassailable melodies, and the world is hushed by their praise.

God led us into the glorious promised land of our relationship with Himself. To be saved is to be released from our commitment to things that don’t matter and to develop a larger commitment to the things that do.

But following our salvation, it is those secondary issues of love that really define God. Like an eagle teaching its young to fly, God pushes us into new, exhilarating levels of flight, never allowing us to fall very far before He catches us on His wings, and we are secure during every lesson of flight. At last, we soar into the fullest, loftiest relationship of love.

Moses, who uses the book of Deuteronomy as the format for his three farewell addresses to Israel, exults in praising the gracious love of God. What is the nature of this praise? It focuses on the God who rescues us and the God who keeps us. These two images are worth our celebrating, for they call to mind our own pilgrimage with God.

After all, He went before us through the barren fields of our pitiful, trivial commitments. Then, right there where He met us, He saved us. But that wasn’t the last we saw of Him. We soon discovered that His saving grace or redeeming feature gave way to His keeping grace. Then we could see what Paul meant in 2 Timothy 1:12 when he said, “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.” Amen!

This concludes our 3rd Series of the “Fruit of the Holy Spirit – LOVE

Coming Soon!

The author’s next book entitled,

“FROM the BATTLEGROUNDS and WARS to the OVERCOMING and VICTORIES”

Prayer is important (Luke 18:1-8), but the attitude of prayer is vitally important. The people who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone were the Pharisees and other religious leaders who saw themselves as the only ones righteous enough to be acceptable to God. To these people, our Lord Jesus Christ told a story about two men who went to the Temple to pray. These two men were as different as could be: the one was a law-keeping and religious Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax collector.

This Pharisee’s actions and his prayer provide a picture of his life and occupation – he was a separatist, but his separatism and desire to remain clean before God had hardened into a lifestyle of self-righteousness. He stood by himself and prayed.

The words of this prayer, however, while probably true, were not prayed in the correct attitude of humility before God. He thanked God that he was not a sinner like everyone else. While the Pharisee was probably not like everyone else in a lot of ways, he erred in thinking that he was “not a sinner.” This Pharisee knew that he was far better than the tax collector he saw praying across the way. Tax collectors were not noted for their honesty, so this Pharisee compared himself favorably, telling God that he himself had never cheated or sinned or committed adultery. And, by the way, he also fasted twice a week and tithed from his income.

This Pharisee was confident of himself and his righteousness, while at the same time despising this other man, even though he, too, was in the Temple praying to the same God. The Pharisee did not welcome the tax collector who may have been seeking God; instead, the Pharisee gloated that he was so much more righteous.

The focus shifts to the tax collector who had come to the Temple and seems to have known full well the extent of his sin. He felt so low that he did not think he could even lift his eyes to heaven into God’s face; instead, he beat his chest (a sign of sorrow), praying for God to be merciful to him. He recognized himself as a sinner. He had been convicted of his sin and had come to the one place where he could find forgiveness. He had come to God, humbly recognizing that he did not deserve mercy.

Surprisingly enough, only the tax collector returned home justified before God. The word “justified” means God’s act of declaring people “not guilty” of sin. Only the tax collector recognized his sin; therefore, he was the only one God justified. The self-righteous Pharisee had said that he had no sin; therefore, there was nothing for God to justify for him. He returned home no different than when he had entered.

The principle is that no one has anything of value to bring to God in order to deserve salvation, mercy, justification, or even a second glance from God. The proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored. Acceptance before God cannot be achieved by good deeds, piety, or any amount of self-proclaimed righteousness.

This passage illustrates why most of us would rather deal with an honest sinner than an ego-driven church member.

Those who focus on how they look to others are those whose religion is mostly performance. Those who know they are sinners, on the other hand, find their needs too great to imagine that they could achieve actor-status before God.

We must remember that our Lord Jesus Christ called the Pharisees hypocrites, and that word means “actor’s mask.” But gentleness is naked – stripped and vulnerable. It never argues that its face is pretty – only honest. So, the tax collector goes home justified because integrity has replaced egotism. Gentleness never appeals to people of power, but it learns worship in the simple acts of openness and integrity. Amen!

Please continue below for the Invitation to meet our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you all!

Now, let’s talk about “Prayer and “Salvation”.

Prayer is the key that unlocks and reveals faith. Effective prayer needs both an attitude of complete dependence and the action of asking. Prayer demonstrates complete reliance on God. Thus, there is no substitute for prayer, especially in situations that seem impossible.

So, let our hearts and minds in tune with God, in the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Let’s continuously and persistently pray for God’s perfect will be done. We as Born-Again Christians have been tried and cleansed, we have moved freely into a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ that is more powerful than it was before our trials. We are at home in the presence and fellowship of God, for we are heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ, more like Him that we could ever have dreamed possible. So, let’s continuously and persistently pray for God’s perfect will be done. Amen!

The principle is that no one has anything of value to bring to God in order to deserve salvation, mercy, justification, or even a second glance from God. The proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored. Acceptance before God cannot be achieved by good deeds, piety, or any amount of self-proclaimed righteousness.

Let’s never get over the effect of God’s saving transformation on people’s lives. People who were lost in sin, filled with anger and bitterness, give up their hatred and become approachable as we have studied and learned last time. That is, of course, why we minister to others. Those of us who minister are not people to whom (fruit of the Holy Spirit) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control comes naturally. We are people who have been remodeled by grace. We thankfully leave our old natures far behind as we embrace the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, the first of the list > agape love of God, and in our treatment of others. Amen!

Sunday by Sunday as we come to worship, let me encourage our brothers – and sisters-in-Christ, and I want my readers and listeners to be both strong in the faith and sensitive to others’ needs. Because all, we as Born-Again Christian believers are strong in certain areas and weak in others. We constantly need to monitor the effects of our behavior on others.

In these LOVE Series of Podcast, we will learn the following PURPOSES of this fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT:

• To truly experience love and forgiveness
• To learn to love unconditionally
• To learn how to give and serve with love
• To know and understand the true definition of love
• To understand and capture the passion of God
• Learn to be compassionate and how to worship
• To understand that love is the first characteristic of the fruit of Spirit. It is well placed at the head of the list, for it permeates all the rest of the attributes. Somehow, if we live a life of love, the other virtues will attend us all the days of our lives. Love is the key that unlocks the entire fruit basket of Galatians 5:22-23, as well as permeating 1 Corinthians 13.

On every Podcast, I always have three (3) questions we can answer from only these two (2) Sources: The Bible and the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. The following are:

First is about our > Observation: What do these passages or Scriptures say to you?

Second is about our own > Interpretation: What do these passages or Scriptures mean to you?

Third is about how we can apply > Application: How do the meaning of these passages or Scriptures apply to you or to your situation?

If you are not sure that you are Born-Again Christian believer or you have relatives, loved ones, friends, neighbors, and people in your circle of influence, please take a look and/or guide them to one of our ministries, “An Invitation to Meet Our Lord Jesus Christ” at https://homefellowshipchurches.org/an-invitation-to-meet-our-lord-jesus-christ/

Let’s give an opportunity for the lost souls to experience on being Born-Again Christian as explained by our Lord Jesus Christ in the book of John 3 in the New Testament of the Bible.

It is as simple as A, B, & C > Admit, Believe, & Confess. All Born-Again Christian believers prayed this simple prayer, we called “Sinner’s Prayer”

“Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I acknowledge and admit that I am a sinner and I need a Savior. I believe and have faith in Jesus Christ who was born of Virgin Mary, died on the Cross for the penalty of my sins, and rose again that I may have the eternal life. I confess and declare Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord of my life. Please comfort, guide, and help me Holy Spirit to live and grow in my spiritual life according to Your Words, purpose, and perfect will of God, in my Lord Jesus Christ name, Amen!”

If you prayed this, “Sinner’s Prayer” sincerely in your heart, you are Born-Again Christian believer. However, you are a spiritual baby who needs to grow up. (See 1 Peter 2:2). You need to find a church or fellowship to grow spiritually. We are glad to establish or bring the fellowship to your own home if it is safer by appointment.

Now, let me pray for all of you:

Father God, we come into your presence in our Lord Jesus Christ name, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ for Your agape love and forgiveness you have done on the Cross of Calvary, and continue to intercede for us in prayer. Thank you, Holy Spirit as our Helper and Comforter. Thank you for the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, courage and strength. We cling, yield, plug-in and tune-in to you Holy Spirit to help us understand God’s Words, obey them, receive Your divine revelation, know the Truth that sets us free, and apply them in our lives, in our Lord Jesus Christ name, Amen!”

Let’s praise and worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Give all thanks to God for all answered prayers.

Please send your > Praise Reports (answered prayers) and New Prayer Requests via email to: trinityblessings@homefellowshipchurches.org. God bless you all and our families!

A Message to be Blessed:

A Call to Repentance and Be Blessed

In Malachi 3:7-15 AMPC says, “7 Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’ 8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! “But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’ “You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. 9 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. 10 Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it”, says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” [Malachi 2:2.] 11 “And I will rebuke the devourer (insects and plagues) for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruits before the time in the field,” says the Lord of hosts. 12 “And all nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight”, says the Lord of hosts.

If the people would obey God, giving as they should, God would flood His people with blessings. There would be an overabundance of God’s blessing if He was given what He requested.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse – See 2 Chronicles 31:11; cf. 1 Chronicles 26:20; Nehemiah 10:38; 13:5, 12. If the temple storehouses were empty, it was the people’s fault. God had already blessed them with enough to give a little back to Him.

Instead of destroying our crops (blessings), God would make them come in greater abundance than we had ever imagined possible (Amos 4:9; Haggai 2:19; Zechariah 8:12). The devourer – probably referring to locusts, though the word here is general in meaning (Baldwin). In the Near East, locust swarms are known for their ability to damage huge tracts of agricultural land (see note on Joel 1:4).

A delightsome land – All of the blessings promised to Jacob would come to pass if the people would obey God (Deuteronomy 33:29; Zechariah 8:13). Their land would be a delight to all who saw it (Daniel 8:9).

The problem in Malachi 3:7-12 was the people’s departure from God as reflected by their neglect of tithes and offerings. Two annual tithes were required according to Israelite law – one for the Levites (Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:21), and one to be used in worship at the annual feasts in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 14:22). A tithe was required every three years to provide for the needs of the poor (Deuteronomy 14:28-29). There is debate as to whether this tithe for the poor was in addition to or served as a substitute for the tithe used in worship.

The New Testament pattern for tithing is proportionate giving – a person is to give “in relation to what you have earned” (1 Corinthians 16:2). Certainly a tithe should be given proportionate to one’s wealth, but not all proportionate giving is a tithe.

The anticipation of blessing for obedience to God’s command to tithe was based on the Mosaic covenant, which promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (Malachi 3:10; cf. Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Generally, God will meet the needs of His own people (Psalm 34:9-10; Philippians 4:19), but that is not an unconditional guarantee. There certainly were and are exceptions. Yet, where God chooses not to provide physically, He gives sufficient grace to go without (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The problem in Malachi 3:14-15 was that the people were guilty of arrogant words against God. They were saying, “There is no prophet who is serving God,” and “God is not concerned about justice.” God responded by showing that He did distinguish between the wicked and the righteous. The righteous would be blessed, and the wicked would be judged.

A Call to – Make A Difference – Generous Giving

In 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 NLT says, “1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in His kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. 3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. 5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do. 6 So we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to return to you and encourage you to finish this ministry of giving. 7 Since you excel in so many ways – in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us – I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving. 8 I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches. 9 You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. 10 Here is my advice: It would be good for you to finish what you started a year ago. Last year you were the first who wanted to give, and you were the first to begin doing it. 11 Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. 12 Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. 13 Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. 14 Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. 15 As the Scriptures say, “Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough.”.

Paul, writing from Macedonia, hoped that news of the generosity of these churches would encourage the Corinthian believers and motivate them to solve their problems and unite in fellowship.

During his third missionary journey, Paul had collected money for the impoverished believers in Jerusalem. The churches in Macedonia – Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea – had given money even though they were poor, and they had sacrificially given more than Paul expected. Although they were poor themselves, they wanted to help. The amount we give is not as important as why and how we give. God does not want us to give grudgingly. Instead, He wants us to give as these churches did – out of dedication to our Lord Jesus Christ, love for fellow believers, the joy of helping those in need, as well as the fact that it was simply the good and right thing to do. How well does your giving measure up to the standards set by the Macedonian churches?

The Kingdom of God spreads through believers’ concern and eagerness to help others. Here we see several churches joining to help others beyond their own circle of friends and their own city. Let’s explore ways that we might link up with a ministry outside our city, either through your church/fellowship or through a Born-Again Christian organization such as Convoy of Hope – The Bridge Church -Hutto, Texas (My adopted local home church). By joining with other believers to do God’s work, we increase Christian unity and help the Kingdom grow. Amen!

The Corinthian believers excelled in everything – they had faith, gifted speakers, knowledge, enthusiasm, and love. Paul wanted them to also be leaders in giving. Giving is a natural response of love. Paul did not order the Corinthians to give, but he encouraged them to prove that their love was real. When we love someone, we want to give that person our time and attention and provide for his or her needs. If we refuse to help, our love is not as genuine as we say.

There is no evidence that our Lord Jesus Christ was any poorer than most first-century Palestinians; rather, our Lord Jesus Christ became poor by giving up His rights as God and becoming human. In His incarnation, God voluntarily became man – the person Jesus of Nazareth. As a man, our Lord Jesus Christ was subject to place, time, and other human limitations. He did not give up His eternal power when He became human, but He did set aside His glory and His rights (see Philippians 2:5-7). In response to the Father’s will, He limited His power and knowledge. Our Lord Jesus Christ became “poor” when He became human because He set aside so much. Yet by doing so, He made us “rich” because we received salvation and eternal life.
What made our Lord Jesus Christ’s humanity unique was His freedom from sin. In our Lord Jesus Christ, we can see every attribute of God’s character. The Incarnation is explained further in these Bible passages: John 1:1-14; Romans 1:2-5; Philippians 2:6-11; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 1:1-3.

The Christians in the Corinthian church had money, and apparently, they had planned to collect money for the Jerusalem church a year previously (see also 2 Corinthians 9:2). Paul challenges them to act on their plans.

Four principles of giving emerge here: (1) Our willingness to give enthusiastically is more important than the amount we give; (2) We should strive to fulfill our financial commitments; (3) If we give to others in need, they will, in turn, help us when we are in need; (4) We should give as a response to our Lord Jesus Christ, not for anything we can get out of it. How we give reflects our devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!