"Lord, I will lay down my life for you."

From Pastor Maria

"Lord, I will lay down my life for you."

Have you ever made a promise to someone in a time of excitement and after the emotion had passed that promise has been forgotten? How do you feel when this happens? You feel embarrassed or sad? Remember the promise of Peter to our Lord before He was crucified. "Lord, I will lay down my life for you" Peter was sure he could keep his promise and was sincere in his promise to Our Lord. Jesus knew the weakness of Peter and knew how Peter would behave in the moments that he faced the danger. How did Peter feel when he realized his actions by denying the one he had promised to give his life for hours earlier? The Scripture says that Peter wept when he realized his action and his weakness. I think, his crying was for pain and shame when he realized what he had done. What about you? Have you ever felt like Peter? Have you ever made a promise to Christ, and for some reason did not keep it? Do you believe that Jesus does not know in advance that this will happen? Do you think that He will condemn you? There have been occasions where some brothers and sis­ters had made a promise when they are leaving the wor­ship services very excited and said to me: "Pastor, I will not fail to attend services anymore. Today, I realized how good I feel here and how important this Church is for me I want to serve Christ in this Church with my heart". Unfortu­nately, in most cases those moments were moments of emotion. For that reason, these emotions could easily have been forgotten. The consequence of this is, believing that there will be condemnation from God for their weak­ness, they stop attending worship services, thus depriving themselves of the opportunity to see and feel the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ through his Spirit. Brothers and sisters, Our Lord Jesus Christ is always waiting with open arms to give you a hug as a loving Father, rather than to condemn you He welcomes you. Recognizing our weak­nesses is a sign of humility, come to Christ with our needs is to recognize that He is the only one in the world able to understand and accept our faults. If at this moment, you find yourself reading this message, and for any reason you have walked away from the Church where one day you had promised to serve your Savior, and for any reason you didn't fulfill you promise and fell disappointed or frustrated, I want you to remember: The body of Christ has many parts, all are important even those that are considered the weakest or unimportant. You are important because you are a part of this body where Christ is the head. The most important thing to remember is this: you have the love of Christ. Come back to Him, Serve only him and get the reward from Him.

May Lord bless you all! Pastor Maria