Author: Cisco Baez

Words from the Pastor
Where do you put your faith brothers and sisters? I mean, I know and understand that if you are reading this you must have some sort of faith in something. Why else would you read something titled, “Words from the Pastor?” And actually, we have to have some sort of faith in something to even sit down in a chair! How do you know that the chair is going to hold you up once you do sit in it? A few years back I did a funeral service for an Army paratrooper. His family told me that he didn’t have any faith. But I knew that he did! He had to have faith in his parachute every time he jumped out of that airplane. And he had to have faith in the person that packed his chute, that they knew what they were doing. And all of these things, whether it’s sitting down in a chair to trusting the parachute packer and/or your parachute, takes blind faith!
Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” So, it takes faith to actually please God! And how do we actually please Him? Number one is acknowledging that Jesus is Lord and that He is the only way to salvation. God sent His Son to the earth to redeem us from sin and death and to show us the way to heaven through His forgiveness of our sin. Now we have to have faith to pray the sinner’s prayer and accept Christ as our Savior, and His grace will save us. We are now a child of the King through FAITH in Jesus Christ. It’s as simple as that. So, we need to have faith to obtain eternal life. Faith is belief in something and a requirement to possess other things, like eternal life.
I read somewhere this quote: “We can trust a puzzle manufacturer to put every piece of the puzzle in the box when we purchase a new puzzle, but we have trouble trusting the Creator of the universe to know what is best in our lives.” That truly takes faith doesn’t it brothers and sisters? When hard things start to happen in our lives (And I will guarantee you that hard things will happen in our lives!!), where do we, as Christians run too?
I want to challenge you to read the 11th chapter of Hebrews. It is called the “Faith Chapter.” The writer talks about a lot of the Old Testament saints and the faith they had in God. God asked them to do some really bizarre things, like building a boat miles from any navigable waters. He asked them to trust Him for a child even though they were close to 100 years old. He asks them to then sacrifice that same child on and alter just to prove how much faith they had in Him. There are multiple stories of people that had faith in God. Now were these people perfect? Did they ever make mistakes? Of course they weren’t perfect and of course they made mistakes, but their faith made them a righteous and a holy people.
How about you? Are you following God’s lead and allowing Him to build your faith? Are you going through hard times and allowing God to grow you, or are you kicking and screaming and asking God to remove your burden? Please, have faith that God knows what He’s doing. He loves you and wants all of the pieces of your puzzle to fit together. I promise.
Please let me know if you need anything. You pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Naomi and I love you all. -Pastor Steve
Events and Activities

Words from the Pastor
Welcome to the last RFFD competition of 2019! Next month we’ll have our End of the Year RFFD Banquet and Awards Ceremony so please don’t miss that. All of these competitors have worked really hard to get here and we are so proud of them. They have run the race and here we are at the finish line! What a blessing!
Isn’t it great to know that God doesn’t look on the outside and choose us that way? If He did, I would never have been chosen to do what He has been doing through me all these years. He’d of chosen someone with a better education or someone that could think and speak better under pressure, or a better public speaker…on and on and on. But He didn’t. He chose me to make a difference in people’s lives through sharing the Gospel with them. I want you to know that in doing that, sharing with folks, I am blessed and grow beyond any of my wildest dreams! I still have a long way to go but God is faithful and He will get me there one day!
If we think back to the men that Jesus chose when He was calling the disciples, they weren’t men you and I would pick to change the world. They were fishermen, tax collectors and pretty much no-bodies until Jesus showed up on the scene. Jesus was looking at the inside, I would have been looking on the outside. Jesus knew their hearts; He knew they were teachable and He knew that they could get the job done!
In reality, even after they had been with Jesus for 3.5 years and He told them everything that was going to happen, they still failed miserably! They tripped and fell and went back to their old ways and even went as far as to deny Him. But Jesus knew this and instead of judging them He looked on the inside. He didn’t see what they were, He saw what they could be! And He’s doing the same with you and me! Please understand, He knew you were going to be here at Canelo Cowboy Church today at RFFD. He sees what you are today and what you can be tomorrow! He knew you from before you were born and He wants to have a personal relationship with you. He wants you to have the peace only He can give. “Turn it over To Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
Think about it. Naomi and I sure love all y’all! -Pastor Steve
Please let me know if you need anything. You pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Naomi and I love you all. -Pastor Steve