God bless,

One of the key items in an emergency kit is a flashlight. Why do you think this item is so important? The answer is quite simple: we need it for the light it projects so we can see better when things get dark. The light it projects helps us find our way as well as it allows us to see the dangers that may be approaching. If we face an emergency situation where the flashlight is needed but we don’t know we have one what is it good for? Do you think the flashlight has a sensor to know we are in trouble and automatically turns on? (They don’t make those flashlights yet lol) The answer is no, we need to know where the flashlight is so we can grab it and put it to use. Now, if we grab it but it doesn’t have batteries, is it going to serve its purpose? Of course you all know the answer is: NO. Now if we get batteries for it but fail to turn it on, will it light up the way for us? Once again we all know the answer is: NO. Why am I talking about flashlights today? I am writing about flashlights today because they remind me of God’s power that lies within us. We are God’s flashlights…when Jesus comes into our hearts his Holy Spirit deposits his power in us (putting on the batteries) but we have to do our part in studying the word and seeking him through obedience in order to activate that power (turning the switch on). It’s not enough to just say we are Christians and go to service on Sundays (doing this alone is as if we wait for the flashlight to show up in our hands and turn-on, on its own). We need to understand who we are and what power has been given to us (we need to know we are the light and understand our purpose), we need to do our part (prayer, obedience) so that the power can activate (turning the flashlight on) and we can truly be the light of the world…the power is already in you…turn on your light!!
 
Pastor Laura Palacios
 
Matthew 5:14-15 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”
 

God bless!

           For someone like me the verse of today is not very embraced. When I was living “La Vida Loca” I have to be honest and say that “revenge” was my middle name. Though today I find myself seeking God, I can’t lie to you and say it still doesn’t entice me. It’s hard to walk away from something or someone that hurts you without giving them what your brain says they deserve but we all have to come to a point in life where we realize that there has to be change. It goes without saying that this process of change is extremely hard, but it is possible. Over the years I’ve seen it in my own life and it has made me feel much better about who I am in Christ. It has given me a good sense of pride to know that even someone as messed up as I used to be, can also change. This should inspire you to know that if I can be in this process of change then so can you! Let’s finish this week strong and start pressing in to be the better person.

Reminding you that you can do it!

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

God bless!

      You are above All! Not beneath, not less than but above All! How do I know? His word tells me this and He can’t lie! Why can’t He? It would be contradicting Himself and He simply won’t do that. Today I encourage you as I do myself to look on yourself the way He does, as the apple of His eye, as His longed for special treasure. When we do this we will begin to walk in the prosperity He predestined for us. Time to believe for more, you deserve it!

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Deuteronomy 14:2 "For you are a holy people [set apart] to the Lord your God; and the Lord has chosen you to be a peculiar people to Himself, above all the nations on the earth."

God bless!

      Have you ever felt alone, exposed, vulnerable or simply weak? I'm sure we all have but God has a special message for us today. He goes like a devouring Fire before us! He stands with us, He fights for us, He simply loves us! Though many times we feel at our wits end today He wants us to be sure that He won’t leave us, forsake us and forget us. His promise hasn't changed and His desire for you remains the same and that is: TO BLESS YOU! Hold on to that truth today and realize you weren't a mistake and your destiny hasn't changed. There is greatness in and around you!

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Deuteronomy 9:3 "Know therefore this day that the Lord your God is He Who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall dispossess them and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you."

God bless!

        Are you blessed? Do you realize how you got that way? Many of us put a great deal of stock into our education, upbringing, etc. when talking about our success but, are they really the source of our blessings? Don't get me wrong, I'm all about bettering oneself through whatever available venue there is but as Christians we have to always keep in mind all of our blessings come from God and Him alone. When we disconnect from this Truth we find ourselves walking in our own strength and we end up in a state of poverty quickly as our strength is extremely limited. So where to now? An awesome destination I like to call reality and humility. If we don't go there our end will be an unhappy one.

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Deuteronomy 8:17 "And beware lest you say in your [mind and] heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth."

God bless!

         He is our father! There is no greater piece of information than what I just shared with you! He is there to protect us, love us and lift us up! Just like we treat our children and love them (assuming we have good values) He loves us and then some. When we give up He keeps going, when we get tired He is not, He is the definition of consistency! Today I encourage you to recognize His love for you and walk in it. What do you have to lose? Receive your Daddy God today.

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Psalm 103:13 “As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear Him [with reverence, worship, and awe].”

God bless!

      You are almost there! I know you have thought about giving up but don't do it! Your breakthrough is as real as the light that shines from the morning sun. Don't let go when you have come this far. Is there an easier way? No. Everything that seems easy will lead you astray. You have greatness inside of you and great people do great things! Great people don't give in to resistance and obstacles and neither will you! Today is your day!

Pastor Joell A. Perez

God bless!

           I remember the first time my wife read me the verse below and how I had to do a double take but when all was said and done I realized it was 100% right. We all want to instruct and train our children our way, that’s not the hard part but where I saw the challenge was in the “not exasperating them”. As many of you know I am quite wound up at times (many times J) so it becomes a natural occurrence to push my children to the point of at times exasperating them. Do I do it to be bad to them? No, the reason it happens is because at times I simply forget they are children. The purpose of this devotional today is not to expose more of my deficiencies but rather to bring to light the fact that many of us may be getting from our children exactly what we are giving them. Don’t delete this yet! We all have to learn that whether it’s our kids or anyone else the more we push, the more resistance we will get. Instruction on the Truth is the only way to get the message across correctly. If we invest the time into instructing rather than commanding we will begin to see fruit quickly. Many of us simply have to come out of our aggressive state of mind.

Trying to keep the peace.

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

God bless!

        Have you ever had a leaky faucet and though you knew it was leaking you left it as is? Many people are ok with leaving issues open but speaking for myself I can’t do it. It is the most annoying thing in the world for me to know there is an open issue or a problem without resolve. My attitude towards it is simple: “Just fix it”. Is it easy? Not a bit! With that said there is no reason for us Christians to recognize a problem and not apply our multi-purpose fix (Jesus). It is silly for us not to put a demand on His power especially when He challenges us to do it. The moral today is simple, Just fix it and if you feel like you can’t do it on your own then pray and ask Him to do it through you! Nothing is stopping you but you.

Pastor Joell A. Perez

God bless!

     Today is the perfect day to recognize our Lord! He is so amazing and so loving that words truly can’t describe all He means to us. I encourage you today to recognize the great things that are happening in your life today and thank Him because you realize its only there because of Him. Once you realize what He is and has done then go and tell someone about it! Have a blessed day!

Pastor Joell A. Perez

God bless!

      Isn't sad how we see such division amongst the churches today? You can walk down one block and see multiple churches, all the same religion but none will even speak, why? I'm not pretending to sit here and tell you I have the answer but I will say, it's wrong. Who's fault is it? All of ours! We all seem to think we have the true religion, the right vision, the inside on what God really wants. But do we? Does God not require of us unity and understanding? Can we really understand Him (who we don't see) but not understand each other who we see every day? Where is the fault found? In our communication, if we all spoke less of us and devoted ourselves to speaking more of Him then we would all find that unified state of serving. Isn't interesting how the world has unified and we quietly have increased our division? The reason this is the case is because people put aside their differences when they have a common cause but the church can’t seem to do the same. Why? I guess the best question is: what is our cause? What are we really seeking? Who's message do we really want heard? None of us are perfect and I'm sure we all have much wrong but can’t we all just get along? If we don't figure this out soon our division will prove to be our demise. Christianity is not about you or me, it's about Him and us as one!

Getting past my own pride!

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Mark 9:38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

God bless!

      You would never think putting terror into someone would be part of a promise but it is. God has promised to put terror in the heart of the enemy toward us. The enemy is afraid of us, yes us! He trembles when we realize who we are. What do I mean? If I attacked you and you had a pistol but you didn’t know it, what good is this weapon to you? It serves no purpose unless you acknowledge it and put it to use. The same applies to the knowledge of who we are in God. If we don’t know who we are in Christ then what value does it hold for us? Today is the perfect day to put our call and weapons to use. What weapons? Our Bible! Let’s get it out and read it, then apply what it says. We are all it says we are!

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Deuteronomy 11:25 "No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go."

God bless!

        Most of us become satisfied with the minimal as time passes by, we stop fighting, we stop trying we simply give up! I’m here today to remind you that you can do better! You can press in harder, you can gain more, you can be successful! Don’t give up hope on who and what you are. Your best days are just about to begin! How do I know? He promises us the best of the best, when we don’t fully attain it we have to review our actions and make some radical changes. What kind of radical changes you ask? Whatever will put you out of your comfort zone and make you push again! Start with a little something different today but start with something!

Pastor Joell A. Perez

God bless!

        Many of us know people that are innocently gullible and at time here or there we may laugh at their outright belief in silly things, we may even go as far as to string them along on an occasion of jesting. Though we see it as innocence in the long run this sense of gullibility can prove to be a major hindrance in their lives. Why? If we allow ourselves to remain in a state of innocent gulliblness we can be severely misled in our spiritual life. If you read the verse below you will notice how the writer emphasizes that “He turned his mind to understand”. When we don’t spend the time to understand things we can easily be misled and deviated from God’s master plan for our life. Words like stupid, wicked, madness and folly are used in the verse to express the schemes of the evil one. Though these attributes do belong to him, if he is able to convince us of “his truth” then who really falls under that description?  We have to turn our mind to the Truth (God) so we don’t fall out of understanding and into one of his traps. How do we do it? We have to INVEST time and energy into knowing Him more. When we do this we will be able to discern the path of God as compared to the path of this world. What appears to be confusing today will be obvious when we turn our mind to His understanding.

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Ecclesiastes 7:25 “So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.”

God bless!

        Have you ever found yourself complaining because you had to spend money or time on something that you didn't expect to see an immediate result from? Did it bother you because in your mind it was a waste? Did you ever consider the fact that you may have been investing into having something better? A good example would be college, some people avoid college because they only look at the price tag of the semester but many neglect the fact that the degree you receive can increase your wages and opportunities dramatically. Is it a big investment at first? Of course but if I told you to give me $5 today and a week from today I'll give you $100, wouldn't you do it? The same principal applies with investing but not only in the physical but more so in the spiritual. If we invest a prayer today it will prove to produce a great fruit right away. How do I know, the Word of God says if we ask (pray) we shall receive. It also speaks of how many have not because they ask not! The moral of the story today is invest into your tomorrow, don't live just for today because that will lead you to being broke and being broken in general. Many live off of a Sunday brush with God but I'm sure if you are in a relationship you would want to see the person or hear from the person more than one day a week, wouldn't you? Today I leave you with one word "INVEST"! It's never a waste to invest and if you are patient and studious (don't just invest into anything, you have to research your investment) every wise investment will lead to great fruit!

Pastor Joell A. Perez

God bless!

        In life we all have to realize too much of anything is no good. We have to learn to keep a fine balance or we will end up in unhealthy extremes. How do I know? My middle name is Extreme! I'm an all or nothing type of guy (I could lie but why do that?). In life I've devoted all or walked away totally from things and many times in life this proved to be detrimental. So how do we know the right measure of something? We have to be able to have a bit of independence from whatever it is. We shouldn't "die" if we don't have something or someone. The only full dependence we should have is to God. Other than that live your life healthy and always maintain options (I'm not talking about options out of marriage or anything righteous) as you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Pastor Joell A. Perez

God bless!

     So many of us live for the moment to say “I told you so” to others, am I right? We wait and seek for the opportunity to prance on someone in their faltering moment, why? What benefit do we find in saying “I told you”? Does saying “I told you” fix the issue you are confronting? Does saying “I told you” justify a separation? Does saying “I told you” make anyone feel better? Doesn’t it in fact make you the aggressor or perpetrator in the scenario? Doesn’t it take away your ability to do the right thing in a moment of another’s weakness? What benefit do we find in being arrogant, cocky and simply not nice people? Do we get to heaven faster? Do we gain an income or power? Why am I asking so many questions, you may ask? It’s simple because the initial act of rubbing an issue in someone else’s face answers nothing and simply opens us up to more problems. Does this make sense? If it does I encourage you today to look for an opportunity to look past someone else’s mistake. I’m not saying make believe the mistake didn’t happen but what I’m saying is allow them to be forgiven and help them to rectify the issue instead, just like you would like to experience for yourself. When you do this please let me know because I want to tell you “I told you so!”….

Just joking J

Pastor Joell A. Perez

I told you so...

God bless!

           There is no better feeling in the world than to know someone truly loves you from the heart. Now I’m not talking from the lips out but from the depth of the heart out. What’s the difference? Everything! When you are loved from the heart out there are no limits to what they will do for you. There are no limits to the level of forgiveness and patience they will have with you. This love is the love that God gives to us and it is the same love He requests from us as well. Is it easy to love this way? Not at all. It takes a great amount of sacrifice and plain selflessness. Can we do it? Of course we can, we’ve been designed for it! So what do you do now? Show Him you love Him, dig deep and ask yourself what has He been asking of you lately? We all know the answer but only a few of us will actually do it.

Trying to show His love,

Pastor Joell A. Perez

Deuteronomy 6:5 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might.”

God bless!

      Have you ever found yourself in a difficult situation because of a swift decision you made on a temporary problem? I’m sure just like I have, you have many times made a hasty decision to “fix” something to then find yourself in a world of trouble. So what do we do when we find ourselves there? Pray! On top of praying we have to learn our lesson, we can’t allow temporary situations to affect our permanent stability. When we do this we are sacrificing something greater for a quick fix or a quick “feel good”. We become spiritual “Junkies”, why do drug addicts use drugs? To find a quick fix to an outstanding problem. We have to begin to push through those temporary things enduring whatever hardships may come knowing plainly that all things work for good for those that love the Lord! The moral today is simple, don’t allow your temporary issue to become permanent. We are better than that!

Pastor Joell A. Perez