Private: Celebrating the true

One of  the thing in life that brings joy, vitality, happiness, forgetting sorrows or problems can be considered festal occasion. It is that moment of peace and unity when people really live their lives. Such a celebration is Christmas, a very desired moment for humanity, actually for Christian humanity. mensajes cristianos or bible teaching, proclaim that Christmas is about something that people around us seem to forget: the birth of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world. This celebration is not about us, about our pleasure and desire, but it is about giving glory to Jesus who came to saved our planet from sin.
And yet, there is a strong tendency nowadays to point to something else during Christmas. One can see the cities putting lights and banners and beautiful ornaments earlier and earlier. Christmas moments are strongly associated with reindeer, lights, Santa coming with presence, carols and the famous Christmas tree nicely decorated with expensive ornaments.
It will unfair to say that  there’s no hope left, because there is hope! People can change their perspective and wrong habits, they can turn to the real celebration of Christmas. The one in which Jesus is at the centre of our discussions, songs, thoughts and acts. That will truly make a different year for us! Maybe the solution, in order to make things easier, is to give some Christian clues:

1. See Christmas as a chance for to give, to help the homeless. This can be a financial gift to a humanitarian organization. Or you can be part of the Samaritan Purse project, a project that motivates people to make a present for the poor with all sorts of things: toys, blankets, socks, dolls, things for school etc. I thing that you heart will flourish by the act of giving, helping people.
2. If reading the Bible, especially in Luke, the first chapter, one can discover that the essence of Christmas is the idea of giving. So you may also give in different forms: write letters or card of encouragements for friends or family or card presenting Christmas events, the humble birth of Jesus and the impact that it should have in our lives.

Thus, the return of the biblical perspective on celebrating Christmas is actually a return to the right principles, a return to the true that can change humans’ lives.

Private: Reaching a different life

Every human being desires to reach the essence of life, that life which is really worth living, full of success and fulfillments. It is the unspeakable search of man, the desire never to forget nor to leave. Still, in the middle of routine, stress and daily responsibility one can hardly have a time of silence when he can have the opportunity to meditate and see his priorities in life.
Two years ago, when I had these controversial thoughts in my mind, regarding the purpose of life, I received another perspective from my friend from Spain, Fernando Navarro. He started to talk about Bible preaching, predicas cristianas as he called them, and the power of the Bible in the every domain of his life. At the beginning I was shocked than I started to be more open to his advice and wisdom. His preaching was about living the true, the principles from the Bible, practicing the spiritual discipline such as: fasting, meditation, reading the word of God, prayer, solitude. The one which kept my attention was the one referring to prayer, but not only the usual prayer but the walking prayer.
It is important to know that his point regarding walking prayer has its support in Bible, as it exists since the beginning of Christianity. Actually, street prayer represented un important way to spread the word of God.
Walking prayer can be practiced anywhere, anytime. It only depends on your availability to have an open heart, ready for praying, for fighting in your prayer for people who doesn’t know that different life. It is very welcomed in a sweet spring or a sunny summer day, while walking the roads full of people in a big rush, full of stressed people, sick and homeless ones, it is welcomed for such moments to walk and only to pray in your mind to God that these human beings will be saved, helped by the power of the Divinity.
Also, by keeping a heart of praying, you will always be open to what the Providence wants to tell you, wants to learn you and more important what He wants to do through you! It is widely known that prayer keeps you away from the sin, actually it straightens you, giving a pure perspective on people, context, suffering, problems, routine etc.
Thus, a different life can be reached by praying, because prayer enlarge the Kingdom of God and it helps you in every field of your life.

Private: Studying in a different way

Known as the only creature able to speak, act and think, human being has the chance to learn his entirely life. And it is not only about learning in school but also to learn from life, by living in society and communicating with people from your peer.
And yet, I think that there are some books worthy to be read and even study not as a way of information but as a way to improve your life, your character, you way of thinking.
Last summer I was in Spain. A wonderful country, indeed! But the thing which has remained in my mind since then, is a group of teenagers who were used to meet every Friday for estudios biblicos as they called, which means Bible study. What amazed me was the leader, a very nice person, with a huge kindness. He was very receptive of me, of my life, my needs. I started to attend that meetings and I really liked them.
Estudios biblicos mean that each of us had to get the bible with us and start read some verses from different authors from the bible. The next step was to point to the verses that I liked the most, that stirred something in me, then we had to extract the principles from the verses and try to apply to our own life. It really changed my life!
During that summer I learned some things about studying bible. One of them is that when studying the bible you have to vary the style, by trying to bring a balance between the many and sometimes controversial opinions of the members from the group. When varying the style it is important to abolish the monotony and the routine. It is the role of the leader to make the discussions not boring but exciting and interesting.  There are some ways which can help a leader to improve his style:
The style based on questions and answers. In this case, a question is asked and the members have to write down the answer by sustaining it with verses from the bible.
Another way is to take a passage from the scripture and to study it, to analyze it and to apply it to members’ lives.
Another style concerns the entire bible, by making interpretation on it, extracting principles and applying to their situations, contexts.
A modern perception and way of studying is to split the members in several groups and each group receive a question. The discussion and small groups will help the members to open their mind, to express themselves and to become even vulnerable, sometimes.
Therefore, my experience has brought me a lot of benefits only when I learned how to study in a different way.