Who are called to be saints?

" . . . through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." - Romans 1:5-7

In the beginning of the letter that Paul wrote to the Romans, Paul says he is called to be an apostle and then in v.6 he writes that we are ". . . called to belong to Jesus Christ." and again in v.7 Paul writes "To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints." Paul puts an emphasis on a calling.

The good news is that we are all called. We are all called through Jesus Christ. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we are called to be with him! God uses the Gospel to call us into him. He wants us to belong to Him.

The tougher pill to swallow is not everyone will accept the calling. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will be heard by everyone. When the Gospel is heard not everyone will accept it. Some will accept it in the moment but then later on will fall off. The ones that do hear the Gospel and accept it and live it out by holding on tightly to God's love are the ones called to be saints. 

We are all called to be saints! It comes down to the matter of us accepting that loving call.

Hillsong UNITED Relentless Music Video from Hillsong Church on Vimeo.

Time to Celebrate!!!

The L/\UNCH youth group is at Daytona, Florida attending the Student Life Conference and I couldn't be more excited about the news I received today!

Here at home a few of us got to stream the audio at Daytona live and were listening to the sermon that Louie Giglio was delivering. He spoke about being dead. Giglio said our sin doesn't make us a bad person but something far worse; our sin make us dead. If we think sin makes us just a bad person and we somehow have to clean up our act to be presentable to God then we are just being religious. Only God can bring us back to life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God is calling us to be ALIVE! Free from sin! Not trying to pull off some Weekend-At-Bernie's skit disguising ourselves trying to pass through life as if we're alive but in reality we're dead.

Such a powerful message about how deadly sin really is and how Jesus came and conquered death, defeated the grave and rose back to life. This allows us to be fully alive.

Towards the end of the sermon Louie asked everyone in the building who were once dead but are now alive at that moment to stand up walk down towards the lower level. Back at home we could only stream audio from the conference but we could hear shuffling of the feet of all the people who were once dead but now God has brought them to life.

We immediately started praying for everyone in the building and were hoping that all our kids in L/\UNCH were saved from death and brought to life.

Today, we received news that my little brother, Joshua "Handsome" Herrera had an amazing night that night and was saved from the grave and brought to life!!!

"I used to be dead and now I'm alive." - Joshua "Handsome" Herrera


It is now time to rejoice and celebrate! Luke 15:10