Month: July 2023

ABSENT FROM THE BODY

~ Tony Busquets ~ Leave a comment

One morning a man of faith went for a walk along his favorite path that took him by a river and provided a beautiful view of the mountains.  During the walk, he is joined by God.  At first, the man was surprised and stopped in his tracks and knelt before God.  God asked the man to get and go walking with Him.  God asked the man to point out his favorite things he likes to see on his walks.  During the walk, the man and God went in front of the river and watched as the fish were swimming up the river and the ducks were playing on the water.  They walked a little further and looked at the mountains in the distance and saw the snow on top of the mountains.  They went up a little further and looked at the valleys from atop the mountains, seeing the lakes, the forests, the blue sky with the clouds, and the sun peeking thru the clouds.  As they continued to walk, they looked out over the lake and the mountains behind it as the sun was getting ready to set.  The man realized they had been walking most of the day but did not realize how much time had passed.  He and God had a great time together.  The man turns to God and says he is a long way from home.  God looked at the man and said that he had so much fun with him that he wants the man to stay with him at his home.  God brought the man to His home in heaven and placed his body back in his house letting his family know that He was at home with the Lord.

Even though it is not Biblically correct, God walks with each of us who are called “God’s Children” or Christians.  And on the appointed day God will call you home to be with him.   And at this time all of us have a 100% chance of experiencing death unless the Rapture happens.

As saved Children of God, we will spend our Eternity with Him.  At the moment of our death, we will be “Absent from the Body and Present with the Lord” 2 Corinthian 5:6. It is at this moment we come face to face with our Lord.

While we are in the body, meaning alive, we must live as Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church in the 2d letter to the Corinthians – “We need to walk by Faith and not by Sight” 2 Corinthians 5:7.  We know what is waiting for us when we pass into death because of our faith in Jesus.  Jesus has told us that We, God’s Children, have a place in Heaven and He (King Jesus) is preparing a place for us.  And know that Jesus is preparing a place for us, we know that we have a place in Heaven when our time on Earth has ended. 

Paul, who by profession was a tent maker, wrote the following “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 5:1.  The basis of this verse is something Jesus told the Twelve Apostles at the Last Supper “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:2-3.  This is the faith we have, the assurance that Jesus is coming back for us at the time of God’s choosing.  But also, when we have shed our earthly tent, meaning our earthly bodies, we will be present with the Lord and will be at home with Jesus in Heaven. 

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith in the following manner “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  By Faith, we know we are saved since we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  By Faith, we know Jesus is preparing a place for us.  By Faith, we also know that those Christian Brothers and Sisters that have gone before us are in Heaven waiting for us, but are having the time of their Eternal Lives because they are in the company of God and all the Heavenly Saints.  We have conviction that thru our Faith we will have Eternal life once we leave our Earthly Tents, our Earthly Bodies, and are brought forth in the presence of our Lord. 

While we are here on earth we will have trials, good times, bad times, bruises, skin knees, sunburns, and all the things that come with life.  “Once we shed this body, we will be given new bodies in the Eternal Life to come.  For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” 2 Corinthians 5:4 

I have this hope.  In the same way, Jesus gave the same hope to the Thief on the Cross beside him.  Even at the last moment of his life, the Thief asked Jesus to remember him in Paradise.  Luke 23:42-43 records the conversation this way “And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  God gives us a time frame – while we are alive Our Father gives us time to accept Jesus as Our Lord and Savior.  It is when we have passed into the afterlife that it is too late. 

During my time on Earth, I want to be a good ambassador for Christ.  I don’t want to be known as a Sunday Christian and a Monday – Saturday normal person.  I want to be known as one who walks in the light, walks with the Word of God written on my heart, and is pleasing.  For it is written in “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” 2 Corinthians 5: 8 – 10. 

Walking as a Sunday Christian means I have one foot in the world and one foot in the Kingdom of God.  What that means in reality is that I have not completely surrendered to Jesus, and I am walking in the world.  You cannot be a Sunday Christian or a part-time Christian. Either you have given your life to Christ or have not.  I know some struggle with faith or go thru trials and may feel that they are not completely Christians.  Those people need to look in their hearts to determine if they are truly saved, truly Christians, or not.  And if they are not, then they need to decide if they want to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  I am speaking about those who say they are Christians, might attend a bible group and go to Church on Sunday, and the rest of the week act like everyone else in the world.  Those are the people that need to think about where they are in their walk with the Lord and determine where they want to spend eternity – in Heaven or Hell. 

As 2 Corinthians 5:10 says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”  We will all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ.  Everyone who existed will be gathered before Him and he will separate everyone into two groups.  One group Jesus will invite into Heaven to spend eternity with Him.  The second group – I will let you read it from Matthew 25:41 and 44-47 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not [e]take care of You?’  Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’  These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  We will all face Judgement.  I hope to be in the group that is brought into Heaven.  I hope you are too. 

The chain of events for the end of our lives is simple.  We will be present in the body absent from the Lord while we are alive.  However, as a Christian, we have the Lord living in us.  As death approaches, we instantly are absent from the body and present with the Lord.  We face our Eternal Judgement and learn our fate – Heaven or Hell.  I hope you accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  

There is an old saying:  For Christians, the Earth is the only Hell we will ever know.  For the Non-Christian, the Earth is the only Heaven they will know. 

If any of this has touched your heart and you want to have a relationship with Our Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ, and you want to spend eternity in Heaven and Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or you feel you have backslidden and want to repent then please pray this prayer:

DEAR LORD, I KNOW I AM A SINNER.  I KNOW I HAVE HOPE IN JESUS.  I WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS AND COME TO YOU TO ASK FORGIVENESS.  I WANT TO ASK YOU TO FORGIVE MY SINS, CLEANSE ME OF MY SINS, GIVE ME THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE WITH JESUS, AND I WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE JESUS IS MY LORD AND SAVIOR AND HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR ME.  I ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT TO COME INTO ME AS THE GUARANTEE OF MY SALVATION AND WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS.  ALL THIS I ASK IN JESUS HOLY AND PRECIOUS NAME, AMEN

If you prayed that prayer then I want to say CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO THE FAMILY OF BELIEVERS.  The Angels, The Saints, The Lord Jesus, and all who have gone before us are having a party in Heaven because you chose Jesus.  And I want to welcome you to the family.  Find a good Bible-based church and continue to learn about Jesus.  We are all on this Journey together.  And in the end we will hear God say “Well Done my good and faithful servant!”

FEEDING OUR MINDS

~ Tony Busquets ~ Leave a comment

My diet consists of hamburgers, French fries, pizza, tootsie rolls, and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.  As you can imagine my weight is a little high, along with my cholesterol, and my blood pressure.  But I think I can manage it since I don’t really exercise and sit around watching television binge-watching the John Wick movies and any of the recent comedy movies.  My health will be ok.  Or will it?  Even though what I said above is partially true, I do enjoy those foods, I am keeping active and spend time in my Bible, but I don’t watch as much TV as I stated above. 

I try to exercise, keep my home clean and maintained, and make sure I eat well and watch what I am reading or watching on television. 

In the same way, the food we ingest can affect our health, the information we intake can affect how we think and our moods. 

Jesus used the example that the foods we eat pass thru our systems and must exit.  In the same way, what passes thru our minds can defile us as is written in Matthew 15:17 – 19 which says “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?  But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”  We might not think that looking at a magazine or watching a movie with questionable content does not affect us, but it is placing a seed that can affect our thoughts.  The thoughts that go into our minds can manifest in our minds causing us to have unrealistic expectations or fester to create a behavior that is contrary to the good or holiness that our Lord wants us to have.  Some people say having thoughts is nothing unless we act on them.  That is not true.  Negative thoughts can affect us in ways that can come out as negative behavior, affect our health, and temperament, or affect our mental health.  In taking care of what we feed our minds we can help ourselves be better prepared and have a positive outcome.

We need to control our thoughts.  According to the writer Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, we should take our thoughts captive and beat them into submission.  He wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”.  By controlling our thoughts we can control our passions and redirect them to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Backing up to the fourth verse he reminds us “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”  These strongholds can be our temperament or our health – mental and/or physical.  The weapons and the fight for our soul start in the Spiritual Realm where Angels and Demons are fighting the battles.  That battle is raging as we speak and is now taking place in our world.  Satan is trying to control our thoughts by telling us that there is no such thing as Hell, the ungodly actions occurring today are ok to do because everyone is doing it, anything wrong is ok if it feels right, there are no genders, pre-marital sex is ok, homosexuality is not a sin, and that there is no God or that there are many paths to Heaven.  These things are lies that are originating from the Satanic realm and must be fought with the truth and destroyed.  Any lie that is contrary to the Word of God must be taken as it is, a lie, and replaced with the truth from the Word of God – The Bible.  Unfortunately, the Word of God is unpopular today, and in some places is considered Hate Speech.   Even though they are unpopular they are still true based on the Moral Compass of the Word of God.

The truth is the Word of God is the most loving thing we have.  Only the Word of God encourages our Brothers and Sisters to tell us the truth in Love.  It tells us to be united in Love so we can live in Peace with each other.  The Word of God also provides instructions on how to be a good husband, good wife, good child, good friend, good employer and employee, good with finances, and to be good neighbors to those around us.  I don’t know of any other book that offers instructions on all parts of life and is relevant today.  The Word of God even tells us how to have a relationship with our God and assures us of Salvation and our Eternity.  I don’t know of any other book that tells us how to have a relationship with a Loving God that wants to spend Eternity with us. 

The truth is that any argument in our minds that goes against the commands of Our Lord Jesus should be destroyed and replaced with the truth from God.  “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”  (Luke 6:44)

Thru our own words and actions will we create our future.  It all falls with the saying “We reap what we sow” As written in Galatians 6:7 “For whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”  All actions come from the heart and manifest into the resulting words or deeds.  If the conversation or the action is an ill-advised action, meaning it should not have been said or done, nothing will change the fact the words were said or the action was taken.  And if the words were hurtful or the actions caused damage to property, then the consequences of those actions will be felt by the person who took the action or made the statement.  The recipient will not be able to change their feelings or turn back the clock to before the act. 

That is the reason we need to control what is coming into our thoughts and verify the appropriateness of those thoughts.  We need to be careful what we allow into our minds and be careful what is coming into our minds.  Our minds empower how we think.  Our thoughts build a habit, habits build character, character builds our reputation, and our reputation shapes our destiny.  Our destiny is the legacy we leave behind for our Children, and it also leaves the way others remember us. 

I will leave you with one final thought from Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.”  Let us leave a good name behind. 

If any of this has touched your heart and you want to have a relationship with Our Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ, and you want to spend eternity in Heaven and Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or you feel you have backslidden and want to repent then please pray this prayer:

DEAR LORD, I KNOW I AM A SINNER.  I KNOW I HAVE HOPE IN JESUS.  I WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS AND COME TO YOU TO ASK FORGIVENESS.  I WANT TO ASK YOU TO FORGIVE MY SINS, CLEANSE ME OF MY SINS, GIVE ME THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE WITH JESUS, AND I WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE JESUS IS MY LORD AND SAVIOR AND HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR ME.  I ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT TO COME INTO ME AS THE GUARANTEE OF MY SALVATION AND WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS.  ALL THIS I ASK IN JESUS HOLY AND PRECIOUS NAME, AMEN

If you prayed that prayer then I want to say CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO THE FAMILY OF BELIEVERS.  The Angels, The Saints, The Lord Jesus, and all who have gone before us are having a party in Heaven because you chose Jesus.  And I want to welcome you to the family.  Find a good Bible-based church and continue to learn about Jesus.  We are all on this Journey together.  And in the end we will hear God say “Well Done my good and faithful servant!”

WHAT IS LOVE?

~ Tony Busquets ~ Leave a comment

Many Philosophers, Writers, and Singers have pondered the question “What is Love?” since time began.  There are many movies with the name Love in it: PS I Love You, Crazy Stupid Love, Everyone Says I Love You, Love and Other Drugs, and finally From Russia with Love.  Books with the title Love in it include: Love, Love in Disguise, The Truth About Love, An Inquiry into Love and Death, Book Love, and Love is Blind.  A small list of song titles with the word Love in it includes: What is Love?, Endless Love, All You Need is Love, What’s Love Got to Do with It?, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and What if I Told You I Love You. 

Many have tried to define love as a feeling.  The dictionary defines love as strong affection for another coming out of kinship, desire, or sexual desire.  Urban Dictionary takes the definition of Love a step further by stating “The act of caring and giving to someone else. Having someone’s best interest and well-being as a priority in your life. To truly love is a very selfless act.”  In an article from Marriage.com Love is defined in the following way: “Love is a holistic feeling. It involves many elements, words, and actions which define love. What love means to you depends on how it makes you feel and the experiences it brings into your life.”  They even go further to say “If you want to define love in one sentence, love is one of the most profound emotions humans experience. It is a combination of attraction and closeness.”  Many times, Love is defined as a feeling of attraction to another person, an emotional feeling.   

I can love my wife, or I can love a hamburger, but it is not the same type of love.  Even love for another can be mistaken for lust if we are not careful.  The Bible has the best definition and examples of love. 

Paul gives us the best definition of Love in the First Book of Corinthians Chapter Thirteen: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  A person who can master all those qualities would be a great human being and an awesome spouse.

Paul further explains that Love is one of the greatest qualities to have and that Love will always be present: “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”  Many different qualities are described here.  Some are stronger than others and some will last longer than others.  But only one quality outlasts all other qualities.  Paul completes this chapter of First Corinthians Chapter 13 with the best quality to have and the one that will outlast all other qualities in life: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

With all this God gives us great examples of Love and how to love each other.  

In the book of Ephesians Chapter Five God thru Paul tells the Church in Ephesus how a husband is supposed to treat his wife:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”

The main idea God, thru Paul, lets the husband know that his wife is an extension of his body.  He is not to abuse her or treat her in an improper way.  He is to love her, provide for her, and sacrifice himself for her.  He is also to be the spiritual leader of the family.  This does not mean he is the dictator of the family.  The man is to provide a good environment for the family to learn about God and to feel safe when discussing family-related matters.  I am not going to discuss the wife’s role because women are great at nurturing and loving their families.  Men, me included, need help in loving and this verse is a great follow-up to the lessons in the book of Corinthians. 

To be honest, the abusive man is not a man.  Those men who raise their hands to physically abuse their wives and raise their voices to mentally and emotionally abuse their spouses and children have stopped being men.  Even those men who force themselves on women and children need to stop this action.  Many people do not know that a married man can rape his wife.  If she says no, then no means no.  If you are engaged in any of these actions, please seek help.  No matter how bad things are with your wife, please do not engage in a manner of abuse. You will be a man in my book if you seek counseling, repent, and seek God’s forgiveness.  God will help you and forgive you of your sins.  And He will help you overcome them. 

Many military members, Law Enforcement Officers, Firefighters, and other first responders have used the following Bible verse as their motivation: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13.  And truly there is no greater sacrifice than to lay down your life for your friends, loved ones, and those you are entrusted to protect.  All First Responders take it a step further, they protect those whom they do not know.  They put their lives on the line for people they have never come into contact with and probably never will again.   God calls us to have this kind of love for our neighbors – whether we know them or not.  We should be willing to lay down our lives for those we know, those we do not know, and especially those we know are not able to repay us.  But this verse of scripture also takes into account helping feed those who are not able to take care of themselves – like giving to children in orphanages, providing help to widows who are not able to provide for themselves, and helping the homeless by providing a meal.  It does not mean giving to those who take advantage.  This verse is to help by providing a meal to the homeless.  Those who are in need but are trying to help themselves can be given help from us as well.  I keep thinking about a lady I ran into who worked the midnight shift at 7-11.  I made a comment about how some people were taking advantage of the welfare system.  She corrected me, in a genuinely nice and funny way, by saying she is working two jobs to feed her three children at home.  For those people, I have no problem giving assistance because she is trying to help herself.  She is showing how she is sacrificing and laying down her life for her children because she loves them.  That is a great example of Love. 

Going back to The First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter Thirteen I can give you the greatest example of Love to us.  John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  This verse is a powerful verse.  I was at lunch with someone who has kids and I asked her if she could watch her own Son take the beating, the disrespect, and the execution in the manner Jesus did?  Without hesitation, she told me “Absolutely Not!”  Another person told me that when she looks at her children playing in the yard, she is watching her heart, but they are playing in the yard.  The ultimate act of love for us happened on Calvary when God allowed His own Son, Jesus of Nazareth, to be beaten, disgraced, flogged, humiliated, and crucified in place of the rest of us.  His son who did not commit any sin, took the punishment for us to have a relationship with us.  He allowed His Son to bear the price for sin as foretold in the book of Isaiah Chapter 53 verse 5 written 800 years before his crucifixion:

 “But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.”

Jesus knew He was going to face crucifixion and was going to be flogged and beaten, but He did it for us as the ultimate example of Love.  John wrote in 1 John 3 verse 16 “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”  Jesus’s example leads us to follow His lead and have a sacrificial love for our Brothers and Sisters, Spouses, Children, Family, Friends, and those we cherish. 

With these examples, Jesus left us with several commandments and with His final commission.  Mark 12:29 – 30 says “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  Love God with all you have, and love your neighbor, your friends, your family, your spouse, and your children with a sacrificial love.  Jesus’ Last Request before He ascended to Heaven was written in the book of Mark Chapter 28: 18 – 20 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  The reason is documented in Mark Chapter 16:15 – 16 which states “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  Jesus does not want you to be condemned into an eternity separated from God.  His love for you and His sacrifice to take on the sins of the world so you can have a relationship with God and have eternal life in paradise (Heaven) was of great importance to Him and God (Our Father).  That is true love, pure love, and the best example of Love.  God gave His Son, Jesus, for us to have eternal life.  He sacrificed His Son to open the door to have a direct relationship with Him.  And to Live with Him in Paradise for all eternity, instead of separated and in torment in the lake of fire (Hell) for all eternity. 

This is Love – That we would give up our own lives for others, that we would give ourselves beyond our limits.  There is no jealousy, no envy, no lust, no rage, and no anger.  There is only trust and a desire to give of ourselves without hesitation to provide for the other person.  We can also empathize with the other person – when they are happy, I am happy; when they are sad, I am sad; when they grieve, I grieve with them and support them during the sadness and grief.  And we try to build them up, not tear them down.  We are there during the good and bad times without any expectations of them.  That is true love. 

If any of this has touched your heart and you want to have a relationship with Our Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ, and you want to spend eternity in Heaven and Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or you feel you have backslidden and want to repent then please pray this prayer:

DEAR LORD, I KNOW I AM A SINNER.  I KNOW I HAVE HOPE IN JESUS.  I WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS AND COME TO YOU TO ASK FORGIVENESS.  I WANT TO ASK YOU TO FORGIVE MY SINS, CLEANSE ME OF MY SINS, GIVE ME THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE WITH JESUS, AND I WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE JESUS IS MY LORD AND SAVIOR AND HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR ME.  I ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT TO COME INTO ME AS THE GUARANTEE OF MY SALVATION AND WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS.  ALL THIS I ASK IN JESUS HOLY AND PRECIOUS NAME, AMEN

If you prayed that prayer, then I want to say CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO THE FAMILY OF BELIEVERS.  The Angels, The Saints, The Lord Jesus, and all who have gone before us are having a party in Heaven because you chose Jesus.  And I want to welcome you to the family.  Find a good Bible-based church and continue to learn about Jesus.  We are all on this Journey.  And in the end, we will hear God say, “Well Done my good and faithful servant!”