Author: Jacinta da Cruz Rodgers

I have been committed to teaching the truth of the Word of God beginning with Trans World Radio on Bonaire, N.A and Swaziland, Africa (1969-1980), then through churches in the United States in both English and Portuguese and then through ministry in Israel (2005-2006). This ministry continues through local Bible studies and outreach to the world via the internet. I have written a book about my life from that of an orphan in Brazil to missionary in 5 countries. You can find out more on the "Book" page of our blog site.

Teach Us To Number Our Days

(Palm 90)

Moses, the man of God, was well acquainted with life’s brevity. Although he lived long, he saw many young fall dead in the desert through God’s wrath expressed in judgment against his people. Psalm 90 is a psalm that expresses Moses feelings from his experiences while wandering through the desert, leading his people to the Promised Land. In this psalm, he shows the intimacy he had with God by the freedom of expression directed to God. We can also see this in other instances when he pleaded for his people. The desire of Moses’s heart was for him to understand the span of life time on earth, in order to acquire a heart of wisdom. Knowing and understanding the fragility and shortness of life we can pray with Moses, “So teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom” (Vs. 11,12). The span of one’s life when filled with sin is rather short and unfulfilled. We read this in Ecclesiastes 7:17: be not wicked overmuch or willfully, neither be foolish -why should you die before your time? How many lives have gone before their time because of their wickedness and foolishness?  A life that lives to satisfy pleasures of the flesh is a life that does not consider its fragility and its uncertainty of existence; it is a foolish life. To live for the moment carries a weight of consequences for eternity. The fragility of this life is worthy considering in order to gain a heart of wisdom. A heart that understands the limited time span given to it to pump life is a heart that prays like the psalmist, O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am. Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in Your sight. Truly every man at his best is merely a breath! Surely every man walks to and fro- like a shadow in a pantomime; surely for futility and emptiness he is in turmoil; each one heaps up riches, not knowing who will gather them (Ps. 39:4-6).

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Chosen To Salvation

(I Thessalonians 5:1-11)

Children of light, children of the day, so are we who have been born again! Here, Paul opens our eyes to understand why we are not going to suffer Tribulation, the Great Tribulation, that is: We belong to the day…for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord YAHSHUA the Messiah (vs. 8-9). Chosen to salvation, we are destined to share in God’s protection and deliverance from His wrath which is coming upon the wicked people. This is an uplifting hope we carry with us in the midst of a stormy world. God will regard those who love Him and reward them with deliverance from His wrath. In his Psalms David prayed asking God to make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, at the time of His judgments: Gather me not with sinners, he prayed, and sweep me not away, nor my life with bloodthirsty men (Ps. 26:9); drag me not away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace with their neighbors, but malice and mischief are in their hearts (28:3). God has a special place of refuge for His saints, for He is consistent in what He is and how he acts. Examples are seen in the lives of Noah and Lot in the times of God’s judgments that came to the earth.  For those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High, they shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty (Ps. 91:1). There is no other more secure place than that of “under the shadow of the Almighty.”  The Bible promises those who do so that no evil will befall them, nor any plague or calamity will come near their tent, for He will give His angels charge over them to accompany and defend and preserve them in all their ways; they shall bear them up on their hands, lest they dash their foot against a stone.. (Ps. 91:9-12). That’s a promise for God’s saints in His purpose and will for them.

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Spiritual Detox – The True Fast

(Isaiah 58; Psalm 139:23-24; I John 1:9; Psalm 32:1-5; 51:2-12)

At the end of forty days and forty nights fast, YAHSHUA was hungry. The devil then came to tempt Him by suggesting, “If You are the Son of God, command the stones to be made bread.”  Satan found YAHSHUA physically weak (hungry) but His Spirit was and would never be weak. YAHSHUA replied, It has been written, man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:2b -4).  Here the Lord expressed that man is not only flesh and blood, but also spirit and soul. When the physical body is in need of cleansing through a fast, the spirit and soul are also benefited. Fasting should be done not only for physical purposes but also for the spiritual. Here is the kind of fast chosen by the Lord from Isaiah 58: Is not this the fast that I have chosen; to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hunger and bring the homeless poor into your house – when you see the naked, that you cover him and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh and blood? Then these  promises: Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing  shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard; then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression, the finger pointed in scorn, and every form of false, harsh, unjust and wicked speaking, and if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hunger and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday. And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

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For Your Dew O Lord Is a Dew Of Light

(Isaiah 26:19-21)

Life sustaining in that small sparkle of condensed water called dew is formed when the temperature is low and the atmospheric vapor is condensed. When we walk in the early mornings being greeted by those crystals like drops of water, with the sun barely shinning its light on it, making its sparkle more visible, we think nothing about it. But in reality, these little drops speak of life. It is life sustaining for the grass and plants, especially in dry climate, as in the desert.

Anxiously, the vegetation waits for them to fall over them in the dawn on the day to be refreshed, after a day of intense heat, for their roots depend on its water which slowly, slowly  penetrates deeply enough to moist them, for it is the only source of water they have for sustenance, besides occasionally some rain. Its silence contrasting with the noise of the rain, is gentle; it nourishes the vegetation one drop at a time. If we could only take the time to learn the importance of little things as dew, we would appreciate God’s wisdom in His creation and His love toward us, in His care for us by providing means to sustain life through a small drop of water, called dew.  The word dew is mentioned more than thirty times in the Bible, symbolizing blessings. Used poetically and symbolically, dew is light out of darkness, as it comes with the dawn of a new day. It speaks of bounty, as we see in Isaac’s blessings over Jacob: May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine (Gen. 27:28).

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YAHSHUA

YAHSHUA is the seed of eternal life that had to die in order for Him to see His spiritual offspring through the travail of His soul; He is the source of men’s eternal salvation and there is none other in heaven or earth that has been given the power to save.  By one single offering He has forever completely cleansed and perfected those who are consecrated and made holy. Therefore, there is no longer any offering made to atone for sin; now with purified hearts and sprinkled from a guilty conscience, let’s seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess our acknowledgement of it; for He Who promised is reliable and faithful to His word (Heb. 10). In His death, He carried our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses and distresses), He carried our sorrows and pains.  His Father shone on Him our guilt and iniquity and considered Him the guilty one deserving of the cross in our instead. Yet we turned away from Him; we like sheep rejected His leading and followed our own way. But He took all upon Himself as if He deserved, in submission without a word coming from His mouth; just like a lamb led to the slaughter. He was taken away by oppression and unjustly judged; He was cut off out the land of the living, He was stricken to His death- yes for the transgressions of us all. He was assigned with the wicked, as if He were one of them, although He was innocent and pure of all sins; He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth (Isaiah 53). How can we escape the eternal punishment, if we continue rejecting Him? The Word of God says, If we go on deliberately and willing sinning after once acquiring the knowledge of the Truth, there is no longer any sacrifice left to atone for sins; [there is nothing left for us then] but a kind of awful and fearful prospect and expectation of divine judgment and the fury of burning wrath and indignation which will consume those who put themselves in opposition [to God] (Heb. 10: 26, 27). The love of our YAHWEH extends to all men, apart from race and color. His love is unconditional and infinite; it is available at all times with opportunities for all to receive His Son. However, opportunity we have only now. Tomorrow it might not be available.

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God’s Perfect Plan of Salvation

After the fall of men God’s plan of salvation surfaced when He told Adam and Eve that His Son was going to strike the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). What does this mean to us? It means victory over Satan and over death, when YAHSHUA took upon Himself our sins and carried them to the cross and there God disarmed the principalities and power that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it (the cross) (Col. 2:15). We read in 1 Peter 1:1 the involvement of the trinity in the plan of men’s salvation in its several aspects: God the Father chose and foreknew us; the HOLY SPIRIT consecrated and sanctified us for obedience to YAHSHUA; and YAHSHUA sprinkled us with His blood. The meaning of His blood being sprinkled on us is the process of cleansing us from our sins followed by sanctification by the Holy Spirit. Glorification is the next step of the process at the consummation of our salvation. This proves that God is three in One taking individual part in our salvation. It is a beautiful picture of God’s harmonious and perfect salvation.

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