Restless

In 2011, the alternative rock band Switchfoot released their album Vice Verses. The theme of the album rested on the idea of the polarity of life such as the good and the bad. The fourth track in the album, written by their lead singer Jon Foreman, titled ‘Restless’ was inspired while he was in the UK listening to rain and thinking to himself how each rain drop was in relentless journey back to the ocean. He began to compare that same journey to his own in his reaching and searching and longing for more. In an interview concerning his inspiration to write the song he said, “And I began to think of my own life and wondering if I had that same drive, that same pursuit for that which is right and true." The song goes:

“I am restless

I run like the ocean to find your shore

Looking for you

I can feel you reaching, Pushing through the ceiling

'Til the final healing, I'm looking for you

Until the sea of glass we meet,

At last completed and complete

The tide of tear and pain subside

Laughter drinks them dry

I'll be waiting, Anticipating

All that I aim for, What I was made for

With every heartbeat, All of my blood bleeds

Running inside me, Looking for you”

I believe this song captures this past Sabbath’s message. “[God] has also set eternity in the human heart.” (Ecc 3:11) Therefore, the heart longs for eternal things. As Saint Augustine wrote “our hearts are restless until it rests in you.” All the pleasures of this life can bring us joy, but they cannot bring us lasting joy. They are water, not living water. They are bread, but not the bread that came from heaven. Ultimately, the only thing that will finally satisfy our restless hearts is God himself. Where have you been trying to find joy and meaning? Come to God and find rest for your soul.

~ Pastor Alex Portillo

The Great Controversy

God is love. From the creation of the world, to its re-creation, woven within the tapestry of earth’s history is a compassionate, merciful, patient, loyal, faithful, and just God (Exodus 34:6-7). This is the conviction at the heart of what we call “The Great Controversy.”

As Seventh-day Adventists, we are unique in how we wrestle with the problem of evil. Why is there suffering? Why does sin exist? Doesn’t God have the power to end it? Instead of addressing the issue by referencing God’s sovereignty and omnipotence, we refer to God’s character.

God most certainly has the power to end things, but the Great Controversy is not a conflict that can be settled with brute force. Why? Because the issue is about character, not power. The real questions at the heart of the controversy are: “is God just? Is God fair? Is God loving?” not “Is God powerful enough?”

As the narrative of history unfolds through the pages of Scripture and time, we see a God who, despite being all-powerful, gives freedom to creation because He desires love, and love can only exist in a free world. Freedom, of course, comes with the risk of rejection but with opportunity. With all the pain and suffering that exists in the world, it is hard to imagine that freedom is worth the price we are paying. The Great Controversy is the wisdom that allows us to say now, “Alleluia! heaven is cheap enough,” (Spiritual Gifts 2:34, 35) as we wait for the day of the coming of our Lord. Our prayer is that at the other end of this series you may come to proclaim with all the saints that God is love.

–Pastor Alex Portillo

Humble Beast

This past Sunday, Christians all around the world celebrated Palm Sunday in celebration of Christ’s arrival to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Palm Sunday marks the end of Lent and the beginning of Holy week. Coming out of the wilderness of fasting, repentance, and self-reflection, Christians begin to walk alongside Jesus in the final week of His life. Early on Sunday morning, I read the story of the from the Triumphal entrance to His burial. One thing particularly stood out to me this time: Those who carried him.  

On the first day of the week, Jesus rode past the walls, and into Jerusalem, carried by a donkey. The people greeted Him as their king with palm branches shouting, “hosanna in the highest!” On Friday, He would be completely abandoned and mocked by Roman soldiers. The soldiers would put a purple robe, a crown of thorns, and a sign above His cross that read, “The king of the Jews.” His corpse would hang on Golgotha’s hill, to be carried by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, to be buried in a tomb.

On Sunday He was carried by a donkey and on Friday He was carried by two friends. No one ever talks about the donkey or the friends in any meaningful way. And that is because they are but perfunctory details; they are small details that make the narrative flow. Yet, they had the greatest privilege: 

They carried the king.

I desire to be like that humble beast that carried Him in and those friends who carried Him out. To live my life as one who carries Jesus while remaining a perfunctory detail. What a privilege it is to humbly carry the king.

The way up is down. (Luke 14:11)

–Pastor Alex Portillo

Abide in me

This was one of the last pieces of wisdom Jesus gave the apostles before His crucifixion. Though they were unaware that Jesus would be taken from them that night, Jesus spoke these words to them with this in mind. How were they to remain in Jesus if He was to be taken away from them that night? Fortunately for us, this was one of the few moments that Jesus was clear:

“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love… My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” –John 15:10-12

They were to abide in Jesus by loving each other the way Christ had loved them: through self-sacrifice. This is how we abide in Christ: by laying our life down for our friends.

The timing of these words is important. Jesus could have taught them this important lesson earlier, but He did not. He chose the night of His betrayal because our natural impulse in response to chaos is to protect ourselves. Consider where the apostles were on resurrection morning. In the wake of the chaos, Judas had hung himself, Peter had betrayed Jesus, and the apostles had hidden themselves behind locked doors filled with fear (John 20:19). When their teacher was being tortured and killed, they ran. When chaos came, they did not abide, they did not remain, they did not love. They looked out for themselves.

Abiding in Christ means praying, reading Scripture, meditating on holiness, seeking wisdom and understanding, and developing spiritual disciplines. But we would miss a crucial part of what it means to abide if we do not take Jesus’ words seriously: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love… My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

We do not abide in Christ alone. We abide in Christ together. And ‘together’ means more than proximity, it also means effort. In the wake of chaos, spiritual practices become hard, but abiding with each other becomes near impossible. But the wisdom of Christ challenges us to be steadfast in chaos: to abide in Christ by abiding with each other. In the concluding words of Victoria Wescott’s sermon: “In the chaos that is to come, will you remain in Jesus?”

Lord, may we abide in you as we abide with each other.

—Pastor Alex Portillo

Thank You, Lord

Breathe in… breathe out.

 Do it again, only this time close your eyes and be mindful. Listen, pay attention to your body and your surroundings. Feel the air come through your nose, expand your lungs, and lift your chest. Feel the earth beneath your feet, and hear the world around you. Allow yourself to be bored and unstimulated for just a moment.

 (stop reading, this will still be here when you get back)

 What did you feel? if you actually did it, you should feel more relaxed and in tune with yourself and your surroundings. What did you hear? Feel? See?

 I heard my lungs expanding, my wife laughing, birds singing and water droplets from last night’s rain. I felt my dog's soft coat touching my foot and the warmth of my clothes. I smelled brewing coffee and a burning candle. When I opened my eyes I saw the morning sun beaming into my living room and fish swimming in the backyard pond.

 Before I did this exercise, I was stressed. I was thinking to myself, “what am I going write about? What does God want me to say about gratitude?” I was staring at the blinking line on Word. All I could sense was my work, my computer, and my Bible in front of me. So, as I usually do, I stopped, pulled back, closed my eyes, and breathed. I said a quiet “thank you, Lord” in the exhale, and then, all of a sudden, my eyes were opened to see God's goodness. Breathe in my lungs, a beautiful wife, the song of birds, rain to refresh the earth, a cute dog, clothes on my back, good coffee, a cozy candle, beautiful fish, and the gift of another day of life.

 When we become mindful, we are able to see what is truly there; we are able to catch what we miss when we are in motion. Like a photo, the goodness of God is best captured when we are still. Even if it seems like there is very little, or much, to be grateful for, if we can bring ourselves be still and mindful our eyes would be opened up to see so much more.

 And when we see more, our hearts become all the fuller with gratitude and thanksgiving. The Apostle Paul wrote, [give] thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 5:20 ESV).

 As we all take this time to give thanks, stop and breathe for a moment, that your eyes may be open to see more than you see now. And as you exhale, say “thank you Lord.”

 Happy Thanksgiving.

—Pastor Alex Portillo

Stay Focused

Soon after the 1844 disappointment, Ellen White had a vision in which she saw the “travels of the Advent people to the Holy City of God.” (EW p.14) She saw a straight and narrow path cast above the dark world. A light shone on the path to give light for their feet so that they might not stumble. “If they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe.” (EW p.14)

But many grew weary and became distracted. “The light behind them went out… and they stumbled and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark wicked world below.” (EW p.15) And just as they fell, the eyes of the faithful were drawn to the east where they saw a small black cloud half the size of a man’s fist. Everyone solemnly gazed at the cloud as it drew closer knowing that it was the sign of the coming of the Lord.

The first thing to notice is obvious: those who keep their eyes on Jesus are the ones who remain on the path, those who do not, fall off. The second thing to notice is that had those who lost focus just remained focused a little longer, they too would have seen the fist-cloud. Whatever the distraction was, it was strong enough to remove the Advent people’s gaze off of Christ right before the coming of the Lord.

Have you ever wondered how these companies make millions by giving their apps away for free? It is because we, in fact, are the product, not the consumer. Our attention is the product and companies that desire our money are their customers. By giving us the ability to download from the app “store” and rate their “product”, they create the mirage that we are the customers and completely in control, but we are not.

We often fear the corruption of the mind without realizing the much greater danger of simply being distracted. In C.S. Lewis’ timeless book The Screwtape Letters, the demon Screwtape warns his young apprentice Wormwood, “It is funny how mortals always picture us putting things into their minds: in reality, our best work is done by keeping things out. If this fails, you must fall back on a subtler misdirection…the simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him [God] toward themselves.” (Screwtape p.16)

According to Screwtape, the kingdom of darkness does its most damage not by putting things into our mind, but by keeping things out. There is enough darkness inside each one of us to consume us. All the powers of darkness need to do is keep the light out by keeping us distracted. Notice how this is also true in Ellen White’s vision. It is not moral corruption that causes people to fall just before the coming of Christ, but distraction. It is distraction that corrupts.

Let us lift our eyes to the light that shines our path. Let us look to Jesus and forsake all distractions. For in just a little while, we too will see the fist cloud. Maranatha.

—Alex Portillo

Second Coming

When I first became a Christian there was an urgency in my soul to tell the world about the coming of Christ. When I understood the prophecies, I became excited that I would soon see the One who had mended my soul. This past Sabbath I asked if I was the only one who had experienced this? Throughout the week, I have received many messages and emails with stories that testify of the transformational power of hope.

I was not the only one. Many of us, at one point, opened the Scriptures and felt the moving of the Spirit in our souls, the healing hand of Jesus, and the embrace of God. And with joy, we accepted the Gospel and rejoiced in the coming of our Lord.

But life happens. And the passion slowly fades. Not purposefully, or consciously … it just happens. No one makes a conscious choice to not admire and stand in awe of the beauty and mystery of a starry night. We just quickly run inside because we’ve seen starry skies countless times. We know it’s beautiful, and we do not expect anything new. The same happens to our faith. It’s the slow fade from exciting to mundane which is most dangerous. It is the wise who constantly pray for God to ever fill their souls with awe, wonder, and gratitude.

Ellen White said, “The promise of Christ’s second coming was ever to be kept fresh in the minds of His disciples.” (AA p.33) Paul desired the Thessalonian Christians to encourage each other with the hope of the coming of Jesus. I want to challenge you to take a moment and contemplate the coming of Jesus. It will be like medicine to the soul: to feel hope awaken once again deep within your soul.

Grace and Peace,

—Alex Portillo