Coffee and Conversations

Tattoos. I was thinking about what to write here in regards of where I am at in my own personal life journey. And for some reason I keep looking at my tattoos, so maybe that's what I should write about. However, I'm not writing about ink on this spaniard body of mine but of the Spirit of God who will not fade away. My tattoos tell of a story of how God has and is revealing more of Himself in this temple which contains His living Spirit.

Grace. This was a start of a new understanding and knowing Christ more. I can only know God by His grace for it was how I even began to see the gospel and even hope to experience the gospel on the day to day basis. It is only by God's grace that I desire Him, long for Him, and want to taste Him. Apart from that, I would be prone to live freely in the desires of the flesh and not seek God.

Yes, I am. My understanding of my identity in Christ was another huge moment in my life that is a continuing journey for me. I know that my heart longs to see myself as how God sees me in Christ. I feel compelled to teach about our identity in Christ because I've seen the lack of teaching in this area. We've all received messages about ourselves from hurts, wounds, and pain and ultimately we must receive and believe that Christ is our all in all.

Vine and Branch. Another analogy of our relationship/identity with God. God has taught me through difficult circumstances that I am nothing apart from Him. He is my very life and the producer of anything good that people see in me. I can only be me and noone else, and that's exactly how God meant it to be. I am the branch that God chooses to show that His surpassing power belongs to Himself and not to me. Freaking sweet.

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about the ministry of the new covenant which is the ministry of life, namely Jesus Himself. He says is verses 2-6, "You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life".

This is my heart here in East Texas Mineola. I desire to be a minister of the new covenant to those around me. I am not sufficient in myself and my tattoos remind me of this everyday. I want people to read my story, my friend's stories, see the life of Christ and experience this ministry of the new covenant called Teleo Ridge. We are letters written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, freely moving and being Christ in us.

A letter,

John Cordova