Orlando Rodriguez

Orlando Rodriguez
Psalms 103:3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,

Sunday, December 5, 2010

The glue that holds us together

Think about this !!!
 
Subject: AWESOME :The glue that holds us together


A couple of days ago I was on my treadmill, watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio...and I was BLOWN AWAY! I want to share what I learned.... but I fear not being able to convey it as well as I want. I will share anyway.

He (Louie) was talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is...how He spoke the universe into being...how He breathes stars out of His mouth that are huge raging balls of fire...etc. etc. Then He went on to speak of how this star-breathing, universe-creating God ALSO knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder. At this point I am LOVING it (fascinating from a medical standpoint, you know.) .....and I was remembering how I was constantly amazed during medical school as I learned more and more about God's handiwork. I remember so many times thinking...."How can ANYONE deny that a Creator did all of this???"

Louie went on to talk about how we can trust that the God who created all this, also has the power to hold it all together when things seem to be falling apart...how our loving Creator is also our sustainer.

And then I lost my breath. And it wasn't because I was running my treadmill, either!!!

It was because he started talking about laminin. I knew about laminin. Here is how wikipedia describes them :"Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue." You see....laminins are what hold us together....LITERALLY. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart. And I knew all this already. But what I didn't know is what laminin LOOKED LIKE.

But now I do. And I have thought about it a thousand times since (already)....
Here is what the structure of laminin looks like...AND THIS IS NOT a "Christian portrayal" of it....if you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see...


Amazing!



The glue that holds us together....ALL of us....is in the shape of the cross. Immediately Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind.
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth , visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;
all things were created by him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things HOLD TOGETHER."
Colossians 1:15-17


Call me crazy. I just think that is AWESOME!
Nearly 2,000 years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words. And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint, we are held together...one cell to another....by the cross.

You would never in a quadrillion years convince me that is anything other than the mark of a Creator who knew EXACTLY what laminin "glue" would look like long before Adam even breathed his first breath!!

JESUS REIGNS !!!!!!!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

WHO CARES BY WILLIAM BOOTH



William Booth 
(1829 - 1912)
Founder of the Salvation Army



On one of my recent journeys, as I gazed from the coach window, I was led into a train of thought concerning the condition of the multitudes around me. They were living carelessly in the most open and shameless rebellion against God, without a thought for their eternal welfare. As I looked out of the window, I seemed to see them all... millions of people all around me given up to their drink and their pleasure, their dancing and their music, their business and their anxieties, their politics and their troubles. Ignorant- willfully ignorant in many cases- and in other instances knowing all about the truth and not caring at all. But all of them, the whole mass of them, sweeping on and up in their blasphemies and devilries to the Throne of God. While my mind was thus engaged, I had a vision.

I saw a dark and stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hung heavily; through them every now and then vivid lightening flashed and loud thunder rolled, while the winds moaned, and the waves rose and foamed, towered and broke, only to rise and foam, tower and break again.

In that ocean I thought I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and drowning; and as they cursed and screamed they rose and shrieked again, and then some sank to rise no more.

And I saw out of this dark angry ocean, a mighty rock that rose up with it’s summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the stormy sea. And all around the base of this great rock I saw a vast platform. Onto this platform, I saw with delight a number of the poor struggling, drowning wretches continually climbing out of the angry ocean. And I saw that a few of those who were already safe on the platform were helping the poor creatures still in the angry waters to reach the place of safety.

On looking more closely I found a number of those who had been rescued, industriously working and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats and other means more effective, to deliver the poor strugglers out of the sea. Here and there were some who actually jumped into the water, regardless of the consequences in their passion to "rescue the perishing." And I hardly know which gladdened me the most- the sight of the poor drowning people climbing onto the rocks reaching a place of safety, or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those whose whole being was wrapped up in the effort for their deliverance.

As I looked on, I saw that the occupants of that platform were quite a mixed company. That is, they were divided into different "sets" or classes, and they occupied themselves with different pleasures and employments. But only a very few of them seemed to make it their business to get the people out of the sea.

But what puzzled me most was the fact that though all of them had been rescued at one time or another from the ocean, nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten all about it. Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger no longer troubled them at all. And what seemed equally strange and perplexing to me was that these people did not even seem to have any care- that is any agonizing care- about the poor perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes... many of whom were their own husbands and wives, brothers and sisters and even their own children.

Now this astonishing unconcern could not have been the result of ignorance or lack of knowledge, because they lived right there in full sight of it all and even talked about it sometimes. Many even went regularly to hear lectures and sermons in which the awful state of these poor drowning creatures was described.

I have always said that the occupants of this platform were engaged in different pursuits and pastimes. Some of them were absorbed day and night in trading and business in order to make gain, storing up their savings in boxes, safes and the like.

Many spent their time in amusing themselves with growing flowers on the side of the rock, others in painting pieces of cloth or in playing music, or in dressing themselves up in different styles and walking about to be admired. Some occupied themselves chiefly in eating and drinking, others were taken up with arguing about the poor drowning creatures that had already been rescued.

But the thing to me that seemed the most amazing was that those on the platform to whom He called, who heard His voice and felt that they ought to obey it- at least they said they did- those who confessed to love Him much were in full sympathy with Him in the task He had undertaken- who worshipped Him or who professed to do so- were so taken up with their trades and professions, their money saving and pleasures, their families and circles, their religions and arguments about it, and their preparation for going to the mainland, that they did not listen to the cry that came to them from this Wonderful Being who had Himself gone down into the sea. Anyway, if they heard it they did not heed it. They did not care. And so the multitude went on right before them struggling and shrieking and drowning in the darkness.

And then I saw something that seemed to me even more strange than anything that had gone on before in this strange vision. I saw that some of these people on the platform whom this Wonderful Being had called to, wanting them to come and help Him in His difficult task of saving these perishing creatures, were always praying and crying out to Him to come to them!

Some wanted Him to come and stay with them, and spend His time and strength in making them happier. Others wanted Him to come and take away various doubts and misgivings they had concerning the truth of some letters He had written them. Some wanted Him to come and make them feel more secure on the rock- so secure that they would be quite sure that they should never slip off again into the ocean. Numbers of others wanted Him to make them feel quite certain that they would really get off the rock and onto the mainland someday: because as a matter of fact, it was well known that some had walked so carelessly as to loose their footing, and had fallen back again into the stormy waters.

So these people used to meet and get up as high on the rock as they could, and looking towards the mainland (where they thought the Great Being was) they would cry out, "Come to us! Come and help us!" And all the while He was down (by His Spirit) among the poor struggling, drowning creatures in the angry deep, with His arms around them trying to drag them out, and looking up- oh! so longingly but all in vain- to those on the rock, crying to them with His voice all hoarse from calling, "Come to Me! Come, and help Me!

And then I understood it all. It was plain enough. The sea was the ocean of life- the sea of real, actual human existence. That lightening was the gleaming of piercing truth coming from Jehovah’s Throne. That thunder was the distant echoing of the wrath of God. Those multitudes of people shrieking, struggling and agonizing in the stormy sea, was the thousands and thousands of poor harlots and harlot-makers, of drunkards and drunkard makers, of thieves, liars, blasphemers and ungodly people of every kindred, tongue and nation.

Oh what a black sea it was! And oh, what multitudes of rich and poor, ignorant and educated were there. They were all so unalike in their outward circumstances and conditions, yet all alike in one thing- all sinners before God- all held by, and holding onto, some iniquity, fascinated by some idol, the slaves of some devilish lust, and ruled by the foul fiend from the bottomless pit!

"All alike in one thing?" No, all alike in two things- not only the same in their wickedness but, unless rescued, the same in their sinking, sinking... down, down, down... to the same terrible doom. That great sheltering rock represented Calvary, the place where Jesus had died for them. And the people on it were those who had been rescued. The way they used their energies, gifts and time represented the occupations and amusements of those who professed to be saved from sin and hell- followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The handful of fierce, determined ones, who were risking their own lives in saving the perishing were true soldiers of the cross of Jesus. That Mighty Being who was calling to them from the midst of the angry waters was the Son of God, "the same yesterday, today and forever" who is still struggling and interceding to save the dying multitudes about us from this terrible doom of damnation, and whose voice can be heard above the music, machinery, and noise of life, calling on the rescued to come and help Him save the world.

My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters, you are on the rock, He is in the dark sea calling on you to come to Him and help Him. Will you go? Look for yourselves. The surging sea of life, crowded with perishing multitudes rolls up to the very spot on which you stand. Leaving the vision, I now come to speak of the fact- a fact that is as real as the Bible, as real as the Christ who hung upon the cross, as real as the judgment day will be, and as real as the heaven and hell that will follow it.

Look! Don’t be deceived by appearances- men and things are not what they seem. All who are not on the rock are in the sea! Look at them from the standpoint of the great White Throne, and what a sight you have! Jesus Christ, the Son of God is, through His Spirit, in the midst of this dying multitude, struggling to save them. And He is calling on you to jump into the sea- to go right away to His side and help Him in the holy strife. Will you jump? That is, will you go to His feet and place yourself absolutely at His disposal?

A young Christian once came to me, and told me that for some time she had been giving the Lord her profession and prayers and money, but now she wanted to give Him her life. She wanted to go right into the fight. In other words, she wanted to go to His assistance in the sea. As when a man from the shore, seeing another struggling in the water, takes off those outer garments that would hinder his efforts and leaps to the rescue, so will you who still linger on the bank, thinking and singing and praying about the poor perishing souls, lay aside your shame, your pride, your cares about other people’s opinions, your love of ease and all the selfish loves that have kept you back for so long, and rush to the rescue of this multitude of dying men and women.

Does the surging sea look dark and dangerous? Unquestionably it is so. There is no doubt that the leap for you, as for everyone who takes it, means difficulty and scorn and suffering. For you it may mean more than this. It may mean death. He who beckons you from the sea however, knows what it will mean - and knowing, He still calls to you and bids to you to come.

You must do it! You cannot hold back. You have enjoyed yourself in Christianity long enough. You have had pleasant feelings, pleasant songs, pleasant meetings, pleasant prospects. There has been much of human happiness, much clapping of hands and shouting of praises- very much of heaven on earth.

Now then, go to God and tell Him you are prepared as much as necessary to turn your back upon it all, and that you are willing to spend the rest of your days struggling in the midst of these perishing multitudes, whatever it may cost you.

You must do it. With the light that is now broken in upon your mind and the call that is now sounding in your ears, and the beckoning hands that are now before your eyes, you have no alternative. To go down among the perishing crowds is your duty. Your happiness from now on will consist in sharing their misery, your ease in sharing their pain, your crown in helping them to bear their cross, and your heaven in going into the very jaws of hell to rescue them.

Now what will you do?

THE REVIVAL HYMN


Revival Requires Repentance


OH GOD GIVE ME A HEART OF REPENTANCE  
Psalms 85:6 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

•• Revival begins with us, with “[God’s] people.”
In revival, God first refines and purifies His people, then He fills them with His power. 

Then He places in their heart His love and compassion for those who are lost without God and without hope in the world.

Revival normally begins among God’s people, but soon it affects society. The power of God is so strong that prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, and those addicted to gambling, pornography and lust are set free and gloriously converted.

 In past revivals, saloons were closed for lack of customers, jails were empty for lack of criminals, courts were empty for lack of disputes, dance halls and theaters were empty for lack of customers. 


MIRACLES PROOF OF GOD'S LOVE

From the book by Dr. T.L. Osborn
MIRACLES PROOF of God’s Love 



Miracles for Multitudes 

The Gospel Says, Christ's followers went forth, and preach every where, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following. Mark 16:20

they were messengers with evidence. What they taught was demonstrated! the gospel preached by them was their witness. They were preachers with power- full of God, full of faith, full of the Holy Ghost. They were witnesses for Christ.

Dr. T.L. Osborn

“LOVE OF THE miraculous is not a mark of ignorance; rather it reveals humanity’s intense desire to reach the unseen God.”

Dr. T.L. Osborn

 “Christ died to redeem us so He can live in us. Now we express Him. He is our Spirit. We are His flesh. Together, that is a Christian.”

Dr. LaDonna Osborn

“Christ’s passion drove Him to the cross. Now it drives believers to the lost. The world is the heart of the Church, and the Church is the hope of the world.”

Evangelist Tommy O’Dell

“Allow the Holy Spirit to brand these truths into your spirit until they produce in you indomitable Hope, unwavering Faith, and enduring Love.”


You can also order a set of the Osborn's book's by going to www.osborn.org you will be blessed





Tuesday, November 23, 2010

HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH

HOW
MUCH
ARE
YOU
WORTH
GOD THINKS YOU’RE
WORTH
THE DEATH OF HIS
SON
 God didn't go to
all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling
the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever.
YOU ARE LOVED
 The value of anything is shown by the price
someone is willing to pay for it. God values you so much that He send His only
begotten Son to die for you. Jesus paid for your sins with His blood! He had
you in mind when He send Jesus to die for you. God is not mad at you He loves
you so much.
John
3:16
“For God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life.
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God
says to you today, “I LOVE YOU.” He offers you Himself, His love, full
forgiveness, peace, and the gift of eternal life. Jesus stands with loving,
outstretched, nail-scared hands, crying.
Mat 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Come confidently…His
love is all forgiving.
BEGIN YOUR BORN AGAIN EXPERIENCE WITH THIS SIMPLE
PRAYER:
“Jesus, I accept
you as my Lord and savior. I’m a sinner, come into my heart and cleanse me.
Make me a new person. I turn away from my old life, and receive a new life. Jesus
thank you for loving me.
Now you can
thank Him and live for Him, because He will never turn you away.
John 6:37 ALL that the Father gives Me will come to
me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
Thank Him that he saved you and thank Him for Jesus
Christ who died on the cross for your sins and that He heard you call upon Him.
For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be
saved.” Romans 10:13.
WE BELIEVE
THAT GOD ANSWERS PRAYER
 When we pray we look to the cross of Jesus
Christ where the price was paid for the blessing we seek.  That is the only foundation for receiving the
blessing we ask for in payer. Understand that Christ’s death on the cross
provided those blessings. Remember that when we pray our confidence is based on
what God has done, and not in anything we have done. Christ is the only reason
we receive answers.
We Are a Value
Driven Church
Believers in Action
Living Life in
the Presence and
Power of Jesus
Christ.
We Believe in
Walking with God in the Love of Christ Through the Power of His Written Word.
For more information about the new life, contact: Empowering
Ministries Church
Sunday service 1:30 PM
Thursday Prayer & Bible Study 7:00 PM
6018 N. Church Avenue
Tampa, Florida 33614
(813-394-6016)
www.empoweringministrieschurch.org

Monday, November 22, 2010

BELIEVERS IN ACTION

From the book BELIEVERS in ACTION by
Dr. T.L. Osborn
Introduction by Dr. LaDonna Osborn







The CRUX of Christianity

A GROUP OF Christian women gathered
at their prayer meeting. Their guest speaker was an enthusiastic soulwinner. He
overheard them discussing disreputable women in their neighborhood so he asked:
“what are you doing to show the love of Christ to that lady?”

The group leader spoke up, “We’re
praying for her salvation every time we meet.”

“Fine,” the evangelist remarked. “But
she’ll go to hell if all you do is pray. Have you visited her? Have you shown
God’s love to her? Have you gone to visit her in her home?”

Christians often seem to want God’s
Spirit to carry the message of His love to lost and hurting people. But
believers are the ones to share the gospel. Church members spend much of their
prayer time urging God to do all of the things that He chose them to
do-visiting the poor and needy, comforting the feeble, blessing and providing
for the destitute, encouraging those in prison, sustaining the week, witnessing
to unbelievers, etc.

How can God’s Spirit communicate His
message to human person without a Christian to express Himself though? What can
Jesus Christ do in any town or community without a body to function through?...........
Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.


Act 1:8  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." 


Mat 5:16  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Mar 16:19  So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 


Mar 16:20  And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.