IS MY FATHER AT THE HELM?

Good morning from Canada on this beautiful sunshiny June day! This is our first opportunity to post a blog as it took a little time to get reconnected in our new suite. Our address is: Bicento & Betty Henriquez, #158, 211 Pinehouse Drive, Saskatoon, SK., S0K 5G0, Canada. And our phone Number is (306)978-5882.

We surely experienced the heading of our POST today in our travels from Aruba to Saskatoon "IS MY FATHER AT THE HELM? He was surely at the Helm all the way! We sensed His help, through others, all along the way! We felt we could not have made it in our own strength and endeavour. We are greatful especially to our niece Verna Ratzlaff, my nephew Bruce's wife, for all the unseen preparation she did to make our trip so smooth. The Airline special service to us, Verna and her daughter Wendy meeting us in Newark and flying back to us to Calgary, and then the prayers of many Aruba and Canadian believers. We are thankful to our Heavenly Father Who was at the helm all the way. Now sit back and enjoy the message Bicento wrote in Papiamento many years ago in his early Christian experience, and I translated it into English, and we will also post it on the Papiamento blog. The picture is Bicento and I posing with Lucy Semeleer Blanca with her sencond son named Samuel. It was the first time and the last time we say him - a day or so before we left. And in an email this morning she said, "I left my heart in Canada!" She said our letter to her mom and dad had made her homesick.

IS MY FATHER AT THE HELM?
Considering the international unrest that exists today with all its injustice and violence that is taking place in different parts of the world, we may ask:
"Why is God quiet?"
"Why does He permit so much injustice to triumph?"
"Why does He not punish the rebellious that are disquieting the world?"
The Psalmist Asaf must have passed through similar experiences when he wrote the following words in Psalms 74: 10,11: "How long will the enemy mock you, O God? Will the foe revile your name forever? Why do You hold back your hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them." Why? Why? For what reason?
We ask today: Why does God not reveal the insaneness of communism?" "Why does he permit for them to blaspheme His name?" Listen to what God says in Psalms 110:5,6: "The Lord is at your right hand; He will crush kings on the day of His wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth." It is important for us to consider and understand that TODAY God is slow to punish, but quick and eager to forgive. However, if the Lord would punish sin today without showing mercy, who would be able to withstand? It is as the prophet Jeremiah entreated in Lamentations 3:21-23. "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."
We are warned again and again to not become impatient, but to trust the Lord. He cannot err. He cannot fail. He cannot contradict Himself. No matter how tempestuous the storm, or how much the nations rant and rave, our Heavenly Father is the great captain of the universe! He formed the heart of man, and of a certainty the wrath of man will yet praise Him.
There was this time when a large ocean liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean from England to the United States found themselves confronting a formidable storm. Soon it was tossed from side to side by enormous waves. All the people on board were in panic and hysteria with the exception of one little eight-year old boy, the son of the captain. "What is happening?" he asked abruptly awakened from his sleep. His mother explained to him the danger they were in. "Is my father at the helm?" he asked. Assured that he was, he said: "Then I am going right back to sleep." He crawled under the covers and in no time was fast asleep.
What a lesson this should be for us today as we see and watch the uproar of the nations! We need to ask ourselves the same question the little boy asked: "Is my Father at the helm? If my Father is at the helm, there is then no need for me to be afraid." Listen to what Psalms 4:8 says: " I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety."
Any king can err, and any great and powerful ruler or leader can blunder, but our Heavenly Father can never fail. All His blessings are within our reach today through His Son Jesus Christ. Through His death on the cross, and by His resurrection, the sinner can be forgiven of all sin and have peace with God and the peace of God. Our world is full of pain, and the worse is yet to come; but we who are in Christ have joy and peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7
Though the angry surges roll
On my tempest driven soul,
I am peaceful and I know,
Wildly though the winds may blow,
I love an anchor safe and sure
That can forevermore endure.
And it holds my anchor holds,
Blow your wildest then, O gale,
On my bark so small and frail
By His grace I shall not fail,
For my anchor holds, My anchor holds. Song by W.C.Martin

PENTECOST

PENTECOST
Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles celebrate Pentecost as a special day. Since childhood we can recall this word or expression mentioned. But we never paid much attention as to its meaning of its importance.
But dear friends and bloggers, the truth is that Pentecost embodies all the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures. E word Pentecost in itself means "the fiftieth day", and it was a Jewish celebration to commemorate the Jewish Passover, which took place e night when the Lord passed over Egypt, and killed all the first-born males, as well as animals (take time to read Exodus chapters 11 & 12). Year after year, the Jews would come from far and near to celebrate that day in Jerusalem.
For us today, Pentecost has a complete different meaning than what it was for the Jewish nation at that time. For us it means that on the Jewish day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the believers, in agreement with what the Lord Jesus Christ promised to give to the Apostles. Please take time to read John chapters 14,15 and 16, and also chapter 1 & 2 of Acts. You will notice the importance the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is to every person in the world today. That includes every Aruban and every Antillean as well – without exception! To begin with the Holy Spirit was very important in the life of Jesus Christ Himself, and an absolute importance in the proclamation of the Gospel, salvation and forgiveness of sin for every person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches clearly and emphatically, that if a person does not have this Holy Spirit, he/she does not belong to Christ. (Read the complete chapter of Romans 8.)
What’s more, the Scriptures embody the words of our Lord Jesus where He Himself tells us very clearly that if He did not return to the Father, the Holy Spirit could not come, but when He would return He would send the Holy Spirit as we already alluded to. In the book of John chapter seven, verses 37-39, Jesus said in a loud voice: "If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scriptures has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." But He said this of the Spirit Who His believers would receive. Up to this time the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Dear friends beloved by our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave His live voluntarily to every human being that ever lived or will yet live. Today we cannot say that Jesus has not yet been glorified. Because that took place after His death and resurrection, and His disciples saw Him, how He was taken up into heaven and disappeared before their very eyes! (Read this entire happening in Acts chapter two. The time has come that each and every one of us examine him or her self and see if we are in the faith – either we are or we are not. (Read 2 Corinthians 13:5; Ephesians 1:13, 14 and also 4:30.) If one does not have this Holy Spirit in his or her life, that person is living under continuous condemnation. Therefore, repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your only Savior, and you will receive this Holy Spirit. There is no other way.