Spirit Led Living

I moved stateside in 1972 from Puerto Rico and have been living here ever since.  Most of my family still lives there and I celebrate my Hispanic heritage.  While I am proud to be an American, I still am a Boricua through and through (Term for authentic Puerto Ricans that comes from the Taino name for the island, Boriquén). I was born and raised there. When I saw the devastation caused from Hurricane Maria it was like a gut punch. I watched to pictures and videos as they became available on the news and on Facebook and I was devastated. Puerto Rico has been called “The Enchanted Island” and the “Pearl of the Caribbean” for a reason. It is gorgeous. What I saw in those pictures what a place that was devastated and denuded of its natural beauty and lush vegetation. Then reports came in from my family and our church friends with no water, electricity or access to food and my heart just ached for them. Slowly a recovery has been going on. The stories our sister chu...

Whenever I work with people coaching them and helping make plans for ministry, the first thing I ask them to do is write a personal mission statement. What has God called you do? This is a critical exercise that takes time and makes you think and pray. But what is God’s mission? Simply put it is this; God’s engagement with God’s world through God’s people for God’s purpose. That purpose is the redemption of all of God’s creation. In Genesis, before the creation of man, God said, “let us make man in our image”. The “our” of course refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From the beginning, He created us to be in a relationship just as the Godhead was in a relationship with each other. Jesus defined our mission in Matthew 28 when He said, “GO and make disciples”. Whatever role he is calling you to have in your personal mission, it must fit with His mission for all of us. You cannot be a Jesus follower filled with the Holy Spirit in obedience to the Father if you daily go...

Growing up in Puerto Rico I went to a church where the worship team was made up primarily of people from the youth group. Yes, we sang a hymn or two but we also sang "coritos" or choruses that were a reflection of our music style and our spiritual experience. Worship was typically 30-40 minutes. I loved to worship. When I came to the states to Bible college I suffered from culture shock. The service was no longer than an hour and "worship" consisted of 3 hymns led from a pipe organ. I've seen more life at a funeral service. Drums and guitars were of the devil. None of the hymns were written in the 20th century. The hymns were for the most part theological songs about God or that expressed a particular theological truth. "Worship" was not a goal in itself but instead was supposed to set the table for the sermon. It wasn't until the Vineyard and John Wimber when I was able to get back to what I felt was true worship. Here are some of the dist...

With this post I am starting a new series that is going to address values and distinctives of the Vineyard as I understand them. The first thing is about who God has called us to be. While I am asking this of us as a church in general I really want to drive this down to us as individuals. People think that only pastors and ministry leaders have callings. In fact, each and everyone of us has a purpose that we are called to in God's kingdom. How do we go about getting back to that calling or maybe finding out what it is? When each one of us came to the Lord and started exploring the Scriptures there were certain verses that stood out for us that became engrained in our lives. Psalm 46:10-11 and Jeremiah 29:11 are some of the verses that were pivotal for me. However, as I began to read the Word for myself to intepret it for myself beyond my Sunday School teachings, the verses that stood out for me were the verses in the Gospels where not only did Jesus perform miracles but he s...