Tag Archives: selfishness

Fruits

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

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True Vine
Today’s Reading: Luke 6:43-45; John 15:1-5 Version CEV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+6%3A43-45%3B+John+15%3A1-5&version=CEV

Jesus left us a simple recipe so that we would not be fooled by the demagoguery or the hypocrisy of people: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.”

This emphasis on outcomes accompanied the preaching and life of Jesus. He put an end to the formal, empty and lifeless religion. Love and service to God is measured by the love and service we provide to our brothers. However, what human being, born in sin can put aside selfishness, to live supporting and helping his neighbor selflessly?

There is also another side to the coin. If the fruits are good, they will show the quality of the tree.

We know that a person received from God a new nature and has His Spirit, not from the rituals he practices in his religion, but by the way he acts every day. If we are united to Jesus, our life will show it. He correct our shortcomings, clarifies our distortions, and gives new direction to our values, even the results will be better. Jesus is the true vine!

Ildefonso Torres

Joined Together

16 Tuesday Feb 2016

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File Feb 16, 10 41 21 PM
Today’s Reading: Ephesians 5:28-33; Matthew 19:6 Version ESV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A28-33%3B+Matthew+19%3A6&version=ESV

Marriage is consummated, is completed in the sexual union. However, marriage goes beyond physical union. Marriage includes all other areas of life: social, mental and spiritual.

They are married! From now on, even though they are two different persons, it is as if they were one person, one flesh.

To love your wife is like loving your own body, says the Bible. There are no straight words like these to describe the union between a man and a woman, and that is done through marriage. They describe the union and leave a warning: The body needs warmth, tenderness and resents abuse!

There is a lot of sexual depravity and depravity of character in our society; this generates anxiety, emptiness, and loneliness. Unfortunately, there is selfishness, fights and separations between spouses; they always leave behind a trail of suffering and distress. However, nothing can destroy or obscure the union between a man and a woman who was made before God and with his blessing. Such a union brings life, joy, sincerity, comfort and is the basis of society. What God has joined together, no human being will be able to destroy.

Ildefonso Torres

Service

25 Monday Jan 2016

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Humility of Jesus Final
Today’s Reading: Mark 10:45
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+10%3A45&version=NIV

On one occasion, Jesus took a basin of water and a towel and went to wash the feet of the disciples. When Jesus began to wash and dry the feet of each of them, the disciples were amazed and Peter reacted this way: “You will never wash my feet.”

Jesus was teaching his disciples on how to serve others with humility.

When we serve, we discover that our arrogance has no reason to exist and the act of service gets us closer to people who live with us. By doing this, always serving, we will be freeing ourselves of selfishness and the attitudes that separate us from the society.

Serving is one of the most beautiful ways to show that we love our neighbor, to serve our community and to get closer to the example set by Jesus.

Jesus, being a teacher and Lord, knelt as a slave before his disciples and washed their feet giving them a lesson in love and humility.

Jesus came to serve, not to be served and our Christian life must begin in the same way, serving our neighbor.

Ildefonso Torres

Humbled

16 Wednesday Dec 2015

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Humbled
Today’s Reading: Philippians 2:5-8 Version ESV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A5-8&version=CEV

An athlete said: “when my friend becomes the winner, I die a little bit”. The truth is that we all insist in outshining, to be the best, to put ourselves first. It’s so hard to take second place!

The 21st century has raised the level of our selfishness. “I have to do it by myself”, “I have the duty to develop my skills”; “I must be the best”. “And if loyalty or commitment to others stops me, well, then I put them aside”.

I think it’s very important to be aware of our commitments to each other even in the world of competition and selfishness we are living today. We have to agree that the person, who stands out, should not therefore ensure his own interests but the interest of those around him.

To fight for the interests and welfare of others is not easy, especially in a consumer society like ours. But it is the only thing that can keep our marriage, our neighborhood, our friends, our church, in short, it is the only thing that can sustain us.

Jesus Christ, our Savior, did this as an example for us. “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”.

Ildefonso Torres

 

Our Hope

08 Tuesday Dec 2015

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The Worst Deficiency
Today’s Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9 Version CEV
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%201:3-9

Many people overcome their physical weaknesses and face life in a natural way. However physical deficiency often brings a sense of rebellion and bitterness.

We are talking about physical impairments. However, it is good to clarify that we are surrounded by thousands of people spiritually impaired or poor at heart. You and I have our shortcomings: shortcomings in our emotions, our feelings, our character, and our personality.

It is common to find people who prefer to stay away emotionally. They do not know how to give and receive love. Everywhere we find selfish people, depraved, incoherent, aggressive, and with other aberrations.

The physical shortcomings are obvious; spiritual shortcomings are highlighted in our social relations. It’s good to know that God cares about our deficiencies. God knows the cause, the origin of our weaknesses: our sin. Sin manifests in our selfishness and our natural rebellion against God’s will.

To eliminate the cause and the effects of our shortcomings, God assumed human form in Jesus Christ. Christ died and rose again, he overcame sin and death. He beat forever our deficiencies in body and soul. Jesus is our hope!

Ildefonso Torres

Freedom

13 Sunday Sep 2015

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Liberty Conjuntos
Give me liberty or give me death! These were the words of a freedom fighter of the last century. Today our world is full of the concept of liberty. Any suspicion of oppression, censorship, imposing rules, is reason to shake up the masses and demand freedom and liberty.

Everyone is talking about freedom and liberty, democracy and civil rights. There are large movements, women’s liberation; the liberation of oppressed races; the liberation of the youth; and even sexual freedom and the theology of liberation.

The desire for liberty and freedom is natural in the heart and conscience of mankind. No one has the right to oppress or enslave his neighbor. The only danger is to confuse freedom with irresponsibility; to seek personal satisfaction without serious commitment, without hard work and struggle.

If we are to talk about freedom, we must not confuse it with debauchery, corruption and dishonesty. We will only get real and complete freedom in all areas, when we start from an inner freedom. That is, when free ourselves of selfishness, wickedness, greed and evil.

Remember when Jesus said that if we obey his words we will become his followers and will know the truth. And the truth is: The truth will set us free!

Ildefonso Torres

Love, Fountain Of Life

28 Friday Aug 2015

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Fountain 3
Today’s Reading: 1 John 3:14, 18
A doctor wrote: “Without love, we lose the will to live.” Our physical and mental vitality is unbalanced, lowers our resistance and succumb to diseases that demonstrate, often fatal.

Maybe we escape the real death, but what remains is a poor and empty existence. The alternatives are love and perish.

Love and live! Love is not only felt, but also share. He is giving himself to another person. It seems paradoxical, but according to God’s principles, the more share their lives, more lives will be happier and feel.

Make today a commitment in your life, a commitment of love. Win over selfishness; forget yourself, to be able think of those who are beside you. Ask yourself, “What should I do to make someone else happy?”. There will always be an opportunity to say a word of encouragement, to reach out to the tired, to help a child to smile and understand. All this is possible when Christ is the center of our lives. He is the love that came to dethrone our selfishness and give us life.

A reminder of God in the Bible tells us: “My little children let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

Ildefonso Torres