Welcome to The Beginning...

Welcome to His Way, His Will, His Word, a weekly blog focused on bringing you God's Word. My motive behind writing this blog is to exercise the gift of writing that the Lord has given me in a way that honors and glorifies Him. I am a food blogger as well and have spent several weeks writing a weekly blog called "Food Is Love" (http://chefserg.blogspot.com/) but it's time now to also write about the fact that God is Love.

So what will you find here? Well it will initially be a 3 part format. Part one will be a weekly devotional, some written by me, others from sources outside of myself, all designed to edify and bless the reader, focusing them on God's amazing power in our lives.

Part two will be a a mini-study that will build weekly, sometimes on a book of the Bible, sometimes about a person in Scripture or an event or doctrine or maybe even a Q&A now and then. However the Lord leads.

Part three will be a "Video of the Week". Music, Sermon clips, interviews, whatever the Lord has for us during each week. I ask for your prayers for this endeavor. That God be honored by this effort, that people be blessed and that many may be brought to saving grace.

My prayers are with you, all Glory and Honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Love one another and spread Christ's love and His gospel...

Sergio Barrera

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Devotional of the Week:

James 1:27 - "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

The true measure of our Christian walk is how we serve others. In today's verse we see James comment on the fact that our commitment to God as Christians is directly linked to how we act, who we serve and what we avoid. When you see James use the example of visiting widows and orphans we must remember that in his time, widows and orphans were in the most need of compassion. When one visited them, prayed with them and ministered to them, one knew that to expect anything in return was unnecessary. This is the true essence of Christian faith. Giving unconditional, sacrificial love to whomever God puts in our path. This commitment to the needs of others goes a long way in keeping ourselves focused on staying the path and staying God's will.

Prayer: Lord focus me on Your plan for my life. Use me to be Your hands and feet to minister to those in need. To run the race for the least of these and to do it only for YOUR honor and glory.

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Mini-Study of the Week:

1 Samuel

Part 1> 1 Samuel 1:1-18

Adventure movies are some of my favorites. The action, suspense and thrills are enough to keep you at the edge of your seat. The Bible has books like that. While some of these books have been turned into movies, none ever come close to matching what is in the Bible we love. 1 Samuel is a book that has been made into a movie more than once. It is ripe with vivid characters, love, deceit, betrayal and ultimately redemption. The people in this book are some of the most recognizable in the Scriptures. Samuel a devoted prophet of God, Saul, a man committed to his own path, and David, seeking to do God's will. As we begin our look at this book we meet another person who teaches us a very valuable lesson. Go read 1 Samuel 1:1-18... Go, get your Bible, read it... Go ahead, I'll wait...

OK, good, welcome back... Hannah is a person in Scripture who almost gets forgotten by us due to the magnitude of the other characters who appear in this book.

Hannah, loved most by Elkanah is nonetheless torn by her inability to conceive. Compounding this is the torment heaped upon her by Peninnah, Elkanah's other wife. Grieved by her barrenness Hannah turns to the Lord. She prays fervently to God "O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head."

So distressed is she, and so intense is her prayer that Eli the priest thinks her to be drunk. When she explains her plight and that she was not in anyway intoxicated, Eli is moved and says to her "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him."

Hannah's prayer is one that teaches us the value of praying for personal petitions. What is critical to learn from this passage is that in praying for our personal needs and desires we need to be willing to give back to the Lord. Hannah desired a son. Her inability to conceive, while a hindrance, was not the issue for she believed that God could make the impossible possible. Her prayer was for a male child, and her commitment was that she would give that child to the Lord. He was to be a Nazirite. Surely she knew that this would mean that he would soon be taken from her to be trained and prepared for the work he was to do. She was willing to give back to God, what she prayed to God for.

Had her prayer not been answered, this would be a very short book. God answered her faithful committed prayer by giving her a son. Her son would play a vital role in the furtherance of the people of Israel, and he would grow to be one of the most influential and beloved prophets in the Bible.

We will learn more about him, next week.

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Video of The Week:

Til I See You - Hillsong United



May your week be blessed! See you next week!

In His Service,
Sergio