Flying Kites

Matthew 18:3 And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.


Faith, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) It is easy for preachers to talk about faith, it is easy for me, too, but that hard part about faith is feeling it, putting it in action. Jess spoke about children and how we have to become like them in order to see the kingdom of heaven, but why? Why do we have to become lie little children?

Two weeks ago I promised my daughter that I was going to take her to the park so we could fly her kite, the kite she had been asking all summer for. Every Sunday we wake up, get ready, have breakfast and go to church, that Sunday she asked me if I was taking her to the park like I had promised and I just told her that the wind wasn't blowing and that the kite wasn't going to take off without any wind. My daughter asked what we could do and I just answered "well you can pray to God." The thing is that we think that children won't take God seriously and that God will ignore them for that reason, truth is that we couldn't be further away from the truth. Around 3 hours later I was walking in the hall when my daughter asked me again if we were going to the park and I just told her that the wind wasn't blowing, but she told me that it was, and she added smiling, "it is blowing because I prayed to God." When I came to the door to check I saw the leaves in the trees just barely moving, but I realized that Jesus wanted us to be like children because children understand the miracles that God makes when we, as adults, just ignore them because they don't fit our standards for a miracle. Children learn to see miracles when we just ignore or judge them.

When we got to the park I tried flying the kite but the wind wasn't strong enough and I told my daughter that we should just go back home and she just said that she just needed to pray some more, she was just saying "Please, God let there be wind." I asked the lord if that prayer was enough and he answered  the tress stared moving faster, my daughter jumped from the bench where she was sitting and yelled something about the wind, the kite started to rise. We as "mature" Christians often criticize  the way newer or "less wise" Christians pray or direct themselves before God, but we ignore that most of the times God listens to them because they come to God with a humble heart as we see in Luke 18:9-14.

We don't really get a lot of windy days here where I live, but if my daughter would have continued praying we would have had a storm that day or we would still be flying kites.

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Learning it, word by word.

John 5:39  Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

Today I was watching my favorite movie which I hadn't watch in a long time. I was getting some things ready while watching the movie and I wasn't paying all that much attention to the movie, but it was surprising to find out that I din't need to because I knew exactly what was going on and what every character's next line was going to be, I have learnt the movie line by line it seems.

We usually find our selves learning the lines in movies, the lyrics to our favorite songs, the motto our favorite business, but there is one elemental thing that we are forgetting to learn, The Scriptures.

This week I read about a man filing a lawsuit against a couple of Bible publishers, the news date back to 2008 and  the case was dismissed and that makes people think that means the Bible is safe, they could not be more wrong. The Bible is under attack and is not safe at all, if you don't believe me I invite you to read John 5:4, or Acts 8:37 in your New International Version (NIV) those verses have been erased and that's just to name a few. If we don't put the Bible in our heart soon we will be deceived, we'll find that the Bible has been altered and there will be nothing that we can do about it.

God Tells Joshua in Joshua 1:8 "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Meditating in the Bible, searching the scriptures is the only way that we can be ready for the storm that is coming, lets not that storm shake our foundations, lets keep the scripture in our hearts, ultimately we might be the only ones that can teach our children and grandchildren the truth.

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Keeping Watch

Matthew 24:44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

Four years ago my daughter was born, when she was a few weeks old she started sleeping on my chest, I would put her on my chest and we both would go to sleep, it was hard for her to sleep when I wasn't there because she was used to sleeping on top of me. When she was about four months I had to take a job offer in another city, that meant that I would only see my wife and my daughter once a week for two days. Even though my daughter was only four months, I could tell that she missed me because whenever I came home she would go to sleep on her side always facing me. and if I moved for some reason she would quickly open her eyes and look for me, she was keeping watch so I wouldn't go!

Our Lord tells us in Matthew 24:44 to be ready for his coming, to keep our eyes open, for nobody knows or even expects the our when he will come, but it is not an easy task, with all our problems, with all the things that we have to do, how can we have the time to keep watch for him? I learn from my daughter, and what I have learn is this, when we learn to rest in his arms it becomes easier to keep an eye open so we don't miss him.

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Pastors of Israel

Ezekiel 34:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.

In the book of Ezekiel the Lord gives a word for to the "shepherds" of Israel, I began to analyze this text found in the chapter 34 and I found something heartbreaking , this word fits perfectly to the pastors of today! Many churches today are called mega churches, but only by their physical size, not by their spiritual reach. The pastors of today use their time taking care of themselves and getting fatter, while leaving the sheep to their fate. The pastors of today have forgotten that the harvest is plentiful and hide in their office, the real work is in the streets, under bridges, in the prisons!

The words of Ezekiel were written 2,700 years ago, but are characteristic of the "servants" of
God today. Pastors have to understand that they were not called to dominate to the church, if not to serve it, to nurture it.

The coldness, apathy, greed are features that are nothing like the ideals of Christ, but they describe in a perfect way many pastors of our times. It is time to understand our place not as owners of the church, but as persons called to minister to the fallen, find the lost, to feed the hungry. It is time for pastors with true love for the work of God.

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Pearls

Matthew 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Today I was working on a yard, the yard was decorated with rock, my job was to remove the weed so that the decor was clean and presentable. While cleaning I found something white and round, it looked like a pearl, I moved everything around and pull a earring with this small pearl and I left it nearby so I could return it to the owner of the house. I do not know whether this pearl was real, it probably was not, but it made me reflect and wonder how to can anybody find precious stones among so many worthless ones?

The Bible tells the story of a merchant who was looking for pearls, one day he found one of great value which he got even though he had to sell everything he had. Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ looked at your value, even when you were surrounded by so many stones and rocks and you could go unnoticed as something without value, but Jesus gave everything he had, his life, to show that for him you are a pearl of great value.

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Chances and odds

Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Your chance of winning the lottery on a single ticket is one in 175 million.
The chance of an average person living in the US being struck by lightning in a given year is estimated at 1 in 500,000.
Your chances of being attacked by a shark are just one in 11.5 million.
1.7% of college players play professionally, 0.08% of high school players do.

I love reading about odds and chances, how wonderful it would be to win the lottery, or avoid being struck by lighting. There's something that we can't leave to chance, our salvation. Salvation is not about odds, it is about decision, it is about accepting Jesus as our personal savior, but if you like chances and odds here's a fact for you, if you confess Jesus as your savior there's a hundred percent possibilities of you joining him in heaven.

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Roots

Job 11:6 You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by.

Today at work I had too take a tree down. This tree had, apparently, been for many years on the property, so I dig around the tree and saw that the roots ran deep and some ran very far away. Some of the roots were going under the house and got lost beneath it. The reason that the roots were so large is simple, the tree has been there many years, since it was planted and its need was to spread their roots to feed it self water.

In life we accumulate many things that put down roots and many of them last for so many years buried in our hearts that the roots become deep and pulling them up is difficult. The sin, pain, sadness and many more things come to define ourselves due to the depth that they have in our being. Due to the depth of the roots of the tree I took some time and work and cut them out, this is precisely the formula to get rid of those roots that we have so deeply buried, we will not change from one day to another, we will need hard work, but with dedication and support of God one day we will be able to say that there is no longer trace or fruit on the trees of despair and pain for so many years formed part of our facade.

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Murphy's law

Psalms 37:5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:

Murphy's law states that everything that can go wrong will in fact go wrong, how true this is in the daily life. In the day to day there is an endless list of things that have the worst of the end, but many times we  know it in our minds in advance.

One day I was returning to home from work at night, I had to drive approximately one hour. One of the tires on my car was not one hundred percent and I knew it could not tolerate much, but even so, I decided to take an alternate road that would save me approximately twenty minutes. On this road there were no tire shops and I knew one of the tires was about to pop, but I'd save time as well that I thought to myself "as soon as I get to the city I can find a tire shop" I still needed to go about 8 miles to reach the exit that I would take to get home and I thought that the worst thing that could go wrong  was that the tire would pop on the freeway  before I could take the exit, the tire exploded about a half-mile before the exit prior to the exit that I needed to take, well at least I had my cell phone to call someone, but as fate would have it my cellphone died and, sure, I did not have a charger with me. I started walking the five miles that remained to the entrance of the city, and I was walking along the side of a river when I saw lights, it was a community for people aged over 55 years so I walk that way, the security guard let me use his phone and i thought to myself "the worst thing that can happen is that nobody answers," then proceeded to call my brother and my best friend and surprise, surprise! There was no answer, and I started the three miles to the exit to my city and I arrived at the gates of the city and used a public phone and called my friend and that was the day that everything that could go wrong went very wrong.

We are generally pessimistic to what is coming, to the results of what we are doing. Psalms 37:5 tells us to commit our path to God, when we trust to God is when we forget the pessimism that we had and remember that as in Genesis one, everything that God does is good. Let us entrust our path to God and ditch the pessimism and the bad results. When we are with God the law changes to everything that could go well will come out better.

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When columns tremble

John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Almost all of us know a person that we can go by a advice when everything goes wrong, a person we know that will give us encouragement in the difficult times, a person who has the firmness and temperance to stand when the storm is getting stronger, but we all have weaknesses, what happens when this person falls demolished before the storm?

Jeremiah 17:5  tells us that cursed is the man who trusts in man, why? When we look toward the man everything is destined to fail. I have known men and women of God that unfortunately have fallen and the main reasons are many disappointment, family problems, employment problems, but the list is never ending. Men and women we are weak, although we will experience the largest storms there is always one that has the ability to shake us from our roots. A pastor one day he told me that those who are best seeded are the most difficult to lift when they fall.

Peter said to Jesus Christ in John 6:68 "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
There is only one column, a pillar that withstands the test of time, which never fails, that is not pulled down and which we can take to stand up. Jesus continues to be strong and powerful even in storms, even in the struggles, and at the end of the whole is our strong tower when all other  columns tremble.

If you were a column, a pillar, and you have fallen I invite you to get up, it won't be easy, but the strong tower stretches out his hand and tells you, for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but only with the help of Jesus.

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I am a Farmer

Hebrews 10:25 Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Every year when the winter vegetable harvesting time comes my town blooms with work. Every year I work around four months a year harvesting cauliflower then the company I work for goes back to their hometown and I stay here. During the remaining months I work at any job that I can find, I've done everything from construction, to cook, to garbage collector. The point is that it would be unfair to call myself a farmer if I do all these other jobs and I am only a seasonal farm worker. Sure I know people that work all year harvesting this vegetables, and then I know people that have only work in farms one time, one day in their lives, well there are others that work in farms once in a while, out of all this people I consider farmers only the ones that work all year round in the farms either preparing the land or harvesting the fruits of it, the others like me a temporal farm workers.

Christianity is not the way you were raised, not the religion of the country you were born, it's the way that you live everyday, it is waking up and the first thing in your mind being Christ. I don't believe in temporal Christians. I don't believe in hereditary Christianity, or patriotic Christianity. I believe Christianity means living your everyday life according to Christ.

I encourage you to meet up with other Christians and praise the name of Jesus, I encourage you to become a full time Christian, live your life for Christ and work for him.

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The Fragile First Intitutuion

Psalm 127:1 Unless the Lord builds the house,the builders labor in vain.Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.

Before countries, cities, neighborhoods or churches God instituted marriage and being that satan is always trying to sabotage everything that God holds dear is no surprise that he is attacking marriage in this days. 

According to the latest statistics divorce is on the rise, in these times it is much easier to submit an application for divorce that fight to save a marriage. The average length of a marriage is seven years, and one of every two marriages ends in divorce. What is alarming about this is what happens after the divorce. The divorce causes trauma to the two affected and in case of having children these are affected even more. According to the writer Jeannette Lofas only 45% of children outgrow satisfactorily the divorce of their parents. The divorce of a couple brings pain to their loved ones and many times it creates wounds that are impossible to heal. One of the reasons that divorce causes pain in children is that at least one of the parents will give them less attention and in many cases this will happen on the part of both parents. Divorce also causes fear among those who have experienced with their loved ones and this is one of the main causes of the increase of civil unions. What is the key to avoid all of this?

The Bible states that the first institution was marriage, the family and that is exactly what Satan wants to destroy. The key to a lasting marriage is to make a essential part of it the one who instituted it. When you find someone that you know is faithful to God is much more possible that they may be faithful to us. The Bible says that God has to be the one who builds our projects and who the one to protect the,, and the marriage has to be a lifelong project. If you're not thinking of getting married I would recommend that before looking for a spouse you look for God, if you're thinking about getting married asks God to the build your marriage and if you are already married I would like to ask you who saves your marriage?

In this times the institution of marriage is becoming fragile, it is hard to find young people committing to marriage. I usually read an entertainment magazine once a week, the magazine features news of marriages and divorces, I'll have to say that in the last two years I have seen far more divorces that marriages and when I do see marriages it usually see far more gay marriages than man and woman marriages. We have to learn to build our marriage on the solid rock, not in sand.

Alarming Statistics of Divorce

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The alarming statistics of divorce

Fifty percent (50%) of American families today corresponds to second marriages.

The average duration of a current marriage is seven (7) years, and one of every two marriages ends in divorce.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of people who divorce remarry. However, approximately sixty-six percent (66%) of the couples second marriage, with children from his first marriage, are separated.

Fifty percent (50%) of the sixty million children under 13 living with only one biological parent and their new partner.

Fifty percent (50%) of women are linked to a blended family, as mothers or wives of men with children.

Two of three first marriages of couples under thirty (30) years ending in divorce. 8 A study by Boston University reported that seventy-five percent (75%) of professional women who married a divorced man with children say, "If I had to make the decision again, NOT marry me a man who had children. "

Forty-one percent (41%) of the children of separated parents are fearful, aggressive, have low self-esteem and have difficulties in behavior or school performance. Only forty-five percent (45%) of children successfully overcome the divorce of their parents.

Fifty percent (50%) of women and thirty percent (30%) of men remains aggressive with her ex after divorce.

During the first period of divorce, parents have less time to spend with your children and are emotionally least able to support them and discipline them.

Some parents divorced initially lead a disorderly life difficult for them to continue to exercise their role as parents as they did before the separation.
"Only forty-five percent (45%) of children successfully overcome the divorce of their parents"

 Some parents divorced initially lead a disorderly life difficult for them to continue to exercise their role as parents as they did before the separation.

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What really matters

2 Corinthians 4:5  For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

A verse in the Bible that modern day preachers have difficulty understanding is 2 Corinthians 4:5. This verse tells us that you and me are not the center of the message, Jesus is. How many rock star preachers we see making themselves the center of attention? I am not saying that God doesn't talk to through them, the thing is that we make ourselves think that God is looking for the best communications provider as though God has to chose between sprint, verizon, t-mobile and so many others, but he coshes us because we're the most reliable. We have to understand that we are not making God any favors, we're just instruments that God uses, but unlike us when we don't like our company, God doesn't hold a contract so he can change carriers whenever he thinks things are not working, if you have blessed with spiritual gifts be careful how you administer them.

Once I wanted to bring a certain christian singer to my town so I talked with his agent and asked what his demands were, I was in shock, he needed a 10,000 dollars paycheck, first class plane tickets for him, his wife and one member of his band, rented cars, yes cars no car, and two rooms in a five star hotel, well at least the last one was negotiable. Jesus said that he had no place rest his head! We want to be treated like or better Elton John because of whom we are representing and how about acting like Jesus? We are representing him anyways. In another occasion my Pastor contacted another christian singer and ask him to come to our city the singer said that he might, but first he needed to contact his agent, and that's the problem, the first thing that he, and you and me, should do is not contact other  people, we have to contact our Lord in prayer.

We are teaching people how to live, but the very people that God sent us to show his love to are suffering because we have forgotten what really matters, and that is keeping our eyes in Jesus Christ and giving our family the daily bread that God is sending through us.

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A really Old Book

1 Corinthians 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.


Today I was watching the debate about Evolution vs Creation between Bill Nye and Ken Ham and heard Mr. Nye calling our believes as listening to a old book translated to English. And asked for the Bible to provide some kind prediction like science does. I just want to say Mr. Nye, what a great question! Has anything in the Bible been proven anyways?

The Bible says in Genesis 15:5 that starts can't be counted, of course that is a total lie to modern science, right? Well, no, the Bible was right on that one.
Isaiah 40:22  says that God sits above a circular earth, what? When did you discovered that earth was round science? Well science says that the universe keeps expanding isn't that what the Bible also says?
Also how could an old book writer know that earth is suspended on nothing? Job 26:7

Come on science you are making discoveries that have already been in the Bible for thousands of years! And this are just a few Mr. Nye.

Now I know  that Mr Nye will never read this blog and I want you, our reader,  to know that we Christians don't reject science, we embrace it. We embrace science as knowledge, but we also know all knowledge comes from God.

Now God also embraces knowledge he wants us to be smart, intelligent, to discover, but just as he did in Genesis 3:4,5 the devil lies to humans trying to convince us that rejecting God is the way to knowledge ans sadly that is the way most scientists see it today.

Mr. Nye says that he loves discovering, well, let me tell you something when your day comes you are going to discover what my old book says, that there is God and that He alone is the sovereign ruler of the universe.

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Sea Water

Romans 6: 1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

When I think about the the situation of the church today I am reminded of the story of the sailor whose ship wrecked and surviving he found himself without water or food. In the second day he felt uncontrollable thirst and finds himself drinking sea water which far from killing his thirst, kills him instead. His body dehydrated at faster rate due to the high levels of salt in the water. 
We as a church are surrounded by the world and are tempted by it. Wanting to help our cause we start borrowing its music, its trends, its ways, but in our desperation to end our thirst we are killed by its high levels of sin.



I am amazed by the lack of "sin" in today's churches, now I am not saying that there is no sin, it is the word "sin" that doesn't exist anymore so we don't hurt the peoples feelings. We covered it up we, call sin "mistakes," but how different words they are. Today I took a Tylenol by mistake, I meant to take Advil, that is a mistake, disobeying God's word that is a SIN! If we keep calling sin other names and giving it a make over so it doesn't too bad, we will be drinking sea water and you know what the result will be.

Pastors are now saying that since in we live in the grace we can tolerate sin, we haven't been called to tolerate sin! we have been called to eradicate it! When we call pest control to get rid of pest problems we don't tell them to let a few insects hang around because we're graceful. Sin today hangs around every corner of our churches! God is coming for a radiant church without stains or wrinkles, God demands holiness!

So are you waiting faithfully in God or are you drinking sin water?

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Band aids

Psalms 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

I believe in Matthew 11:25 when Jesus declares that the mysteries are hidden from the wise and revealed to little children. God talks to my using my children, Every time my daughter scrapes her knee or gets a little cut in the skin she asks for a band aid, once as I gave her the band aid I asked if she needed help, she said "yes" so I helped, soon as I was done putting the band aid on her little finger she started fixing it apparently I didn't do a good job, I help her fix it and ask her if everything was better, she replied "yes, I you don't see it, it don't hurt" that made me think how different children are from adults, we of course know that the wounds we can't see are the ones that hurt the most. betrayal, lies, and that kind of wounds are more difficult to heal than a scrape in the knee. Luckily there is one that specializes in healing this kind of wounds.

We have the habit of putting a band aid over our wounds to hide them away so nobody sees them and even if they heal they leave a scar, but we don't have to hide them and we don't have to live with the scar. Depression, sadness, need for love, it doesn't matter how wounded  your heart and your soul are, God wants to heal them, he won't just put a band aid over it so people won't see it, he will make it heal and will leave you scar free. Let him treat your wound, let him take care of you.

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You are Batman

Psalms 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
 
Yesterday I was using the computer when my 31/2 years old daughter comes running inside the house and calls me. While she was playing with my son on their little pool a bee fell in water, being that she is scared of insects she needed help taking the bee out of the water, and since it was still alive it was a good idea for her to go and get me. I used one of her toys to take the bee out of the water and everything went back to being normal. As soon as I went back inside she came and said "Thank you Daddy, you are batman." Being that we have the last seven batman movies it is not a surprise that she associates batman with being a hero, but now I have to teach her about the real hero.

I have a hero that unlike batman is real and omnipresent, that never fails to save me. That hero gave his life to save mine! He doesn't need a justice league or avengers to help him, he's efficient by himself. My hero doesn't need spiderweb, or bat mobile, he's right by my side at all times of trouble.              

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Survival of the fittest

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.

All from the beginning humans have fought for survival, trying always to be the stronger ones. It doesn't matter if we are talking about the Bible or secular subjects like science or history, we are always taught that the stronger specimen is always to survive, natural selection, the most fit for an environment will be the survivor. In the Bible we find how satan tried to take God's place as the most powerful being in the universe. We see how Cain trying to be better than Abel took him to a field and killed him, Saul tried to have David killed and even tried to murder him himself and we have many more examples alike in the Bible, but all cases are similar, they have the same result.

Nowadays is no different we have politicians against each other, liberals
against conservatives, communism against capitalism, countries fighting each other for oil and other resources, but it doesn't stop there, neighbor against neighbor, parents against their own children and children against their parents, even the church is involved in this fight for survival. Yes church  against church, non-charismatic against charismatics, Unitarianism against  Trinitarianism, great preachers who are followed by a lot of people fighting each other from the pulpit, pastors who think their church is better and talk smack about other pastors and any church that is not their church. Survival is for the fittest, but the key is to know that in all cases whoever tries to be the strongest always fails, but those that humble themselves and show their weakness so Jesus can show his strength, those have already won.