La Gracia de Dios

    Hey! I hope you are doing well! This week's question is: If you could time travel, would you rather travel to the past or to the future? Let me know in the comments! Me encantaría. I'd love to hear from you. : )

    Last Thursday, I took a train to the past, back to Toledo, where I studied Spanish and encountered God's glory and the city's rich history. This weekend, I've really enjoyed being able to slow down and walk around, soaking in the nostalgia and surprises of things that have changed. I also loved spending time with friends from many years ago. We got to "ponernos al día", telling each other about how our lives have been through the years and how we are doing now. And undercurrent throughout this trip and the week has been an ongoing conversation about the importance of our faith in God's grace for us. 

    

    A few days before I left for Toledo, I had a suddenly deep conversation on the phone with my friend, Alvaro, who is from Bargas, the city just outside Toledo. We discussed how faith is more important than works. We've both seen how tradition and works can blind people from the true motivation and intention of having faith. The routine can easily make it seem like it is simply something that is done, but not with a real reason within the heart. Many people in Spain who practice Catholicism have fallen into this routine of going through the motions for tradition's sake. It is better to seek after faith in God's grace rather than to reach for the standard of earning salvation. 

    My friend, Ana, and I got to spend some time together last night. We had met in 2019 through a bible study I joined here in Toledo. She got married this year and has a new job! Throughout our conversations, she said a couple of times that I was asking a lot of deep questions. I tend to do that... especially when I haven't seen someone in such a long time! I was curious about how she likes her new job and what she's learned about marriage lately. One of the questions that got a really interesting answer was about how she came to know Jesus for the first time. She mentioned that she came to know him through a bible study similar to the one in Toledo. I asked her what it was about Jesus that made her want to follow him and know him more. La gracia. It's the grace of God. She said that she had never known anything like it. It truly is an amazing gift. What makes it so amazing and exciting is that we don't deserve it. We never could. But Jesus meets us where we are and offers us eternal life through faith in him. A free gift? Yes, please! Sign me up! 

    Oh, but it might not actually be that easy. Hay que arrepentirte. We have to surrender our lives to Christ. Repent. Meaning to make a 180 degree turn and live in a way that honors God. I was reminded of this hard truth this morning at La Iglesia Cristiana Presbiteriana. That is the same church I went to four years ago. I was so glad to be able to go this morning. I got to say hello to many old friends and I was delighted to be in the Lord's presence, praising his holy name. The sermon was about salvation in grace alone, by faith. We aren't given salvation because of good works, but al revés. It's the opposite; We ought to do good things because of our salvation through grace alone. It is essentially putting our faith in action. Paul writes about this very thing in Ephesians 2:10, but I encourage you to read all of the verses that come before it too. Trust me, you won't regret it. En ellos hay buenas nuevas. You'll find such good news in these verses. In the end of this passage, it says, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do so." An exciting thing here is that God prepared us for this! We are not alone. We are not left to our own strength. Hallelujah!

I thought it was neat that I could (sort of) see the church from here. It's a little bit past that white and black modern looking building in the middle.  

    When I was walking through town back to the fundación to write this post, I kept saying to God, "Hallelujah!" Praise the Lord! Do you know that's what the word means in Hebrew? I actually had such a neat conversation about going back to the Hebrew meaning of words with a man who owns an organic lavender shop! It was such a cool thing. A God thing! I started to share that I follow Jesus and trust in him, and then he said, "Me too!" He said that when he talks to the Lord, he uses the name, "Yahweh," because it's going back to the roots. Back to how Jesus spoke to the Jews about the Lord. We then talked about how we are all in need of Jesus and his grace. I thought this timing was incredible because I had just finished thinking about this from the sermon an hour or two before. It's neat to see what kind of doors God will open if you allow him to... sometimes those doors can be conversations about God's great grace. 

Outside the Lavender store.

Looking up from the streets in Toledo.

Plantas! Me encantan! : )

    Hallelujah! For we don't have to strive for our own salvation anymore. Ya no tenemos que laborar para nuestra salvación. Hallelujah! For our Creator is holy and perfect. Hallelujah! For He is always good and kind to us. He is faithful. Hallelujah! Because I got to meet with my friend, Alvaro, and meet his family. It was fun to spend time with them and take part in the sobremesa with tea and coulant, also known as lava cake. Hallelujah! Because I got to spend time with Ana at a cute Arabic tea shop. Hallelujah! Because His timing is perfect, He is faithful, and His love and grace is great! הללויה

Lava cake! We learned that if you want Álvaro and to Fabián to bring the dessert so that the chocolate filling runs down the middle, you have to make sure they heat it up for at least a minute and a half. Pero, no pasa nada. It tasted great anyway. 

On a beautifully sunny walk back from the church

~Kthnxbai! (Okay, that's all for now. Thank you for reading. Bye! I'll see ya next week!) 

{Also, you might notice that I did a bit of what the TESOL field calls translanguaging... I hope I did it alright...}