Dear friends,

We are in much need of prayer because we are in pain.
We are under siege in need of a rescue operation.
Counting with your prayers we send you this love letter.

Gerry Gutierrez

DEATH HAS BEEN KILLED ONCE AGAIN

PROPOSITION:

“Fighting Death to the death on behalf of my wife and myself.
A War of words and thoughts in the Battleground of the mind.
The object is to remove the fear of death and live in freedom.
The strategy will be to put a black hat on the head of death.
My hope is to comfort us and comfort others as well.
We will comfort others with the same comfort with which we
have been comforted. We are coming from weakness.
As every comforter should be nothing but “A wounded Healer”.
Like Peter the fearful who after a look of Jesus was transformed.
He remembered the orders of Jesus to encourage the brothers.
Peter did just that in the midst of weeping and sobbing bitterly.
We are useful to God only in the midst of pain and tears”

An Asian servant went to the market and returned pale as a ghost.
When his master asked him what was the matter, he answered:
I met death in the market and he looked at me strangely and I was
scared to death. Master, I have served you faithfully all these years.
Please lend me your fastest horse so I can flee from death to Samarkand.
The master answered: “Do as you wish; my horse is yours”. Thus the
servant took off as fast as he could on a one-day trip to the city of
Samarkand.

The master was curious and went to the market where he found Death and
asked him, “Why did you scare my servant?” Death answered: “I'm sorry
about that. I did not mean to scare him. But I was surprised to find
him in the market, because I have an appointment with him tonight down
in Samarkand” People say that there are two things from which we
cannot run away.
The RIP, that means Rest In Peace through death. (Latin: requiescat in pace).
And the IRS, that means the Internal Revenue Service by which you live
in peace only as you pay your taxes. Death is an enemy of the living.

I remember a one-liner in a movie, where the protagonist says:
“My name is Diego Montoya. You have killed my father. Prepare to die”.
In the same way, I have a quarrel with a mean enemy that has made me cry.
I am angry with this enemy virtual or real but its name is Death.
This bully called Death has brought into our lives its ugly shadow
more than once.
I have a dispute with death and I am preparing to fight death to the death.
O death, “My name is Gerry Gutierrez. You have killed my father and my
first-born.
You have scared my family and made us cry too many times. Prepare to die”!

Like David of old, who armed only with five small stones, confronted Goliath,
I too am equipped with sixty-six small stones and will confront the
fear of death today.
For David the five stones represented his Bible, the five books of the
Pentateuch.
By faith and experience in God’s faithfulness David faced a grand
enemy and succeeded.
By faith alone David defeated Goliath who represented the fear of
death to the Jews.
By the same faith and trust in God’s word Jesus smashed the head of
Satan on the cross.
In the same way, by faith I hope to attain victory over the fear of
death in our lives.
I must win even if only in the mind and for no one else but for my
family and myself.

I, armed with sixty-six round stones of proven accuracy am confronting
death itself.
I have equipped my mind with five stones out of the sixty-six for my
conflict with death.
Not that I ignore the other sixty-one books or think less of them, not at all.
But can you imagine a fighter with sixty-six stones in his bag? He
only needs one stone.
The five stones are the four Gospels and the book of Acts. How Jesus
and the Holy Spirit fought.
The mind of God is perfectly and fully revealed in Jesus and the gift
of the gift of God the Spirit.
I have ventured to come down to the valley of the shadow of death by
faith in the mind of Jesus.
I intend to remove the fear of death from the minds and hearts of my
family and friends.

When I was young I was a shepherd boy of a small flock of sheep of my
grandfather.
With God's help I did not lose any sheep to hungry wild dogs or country thieves.
My slingshot and my rod were my effective weapons of defense and confrontation.
Today the laughter of Goliath and his friends of this world will be
silenced in our minds forever. We have been scared too long of this
tyrant. Death has offended God and his people.
“I am Gerry Gutierrez Santillana son of Gerardo Gutierrez Villanueva,
you have killed my father, my first-born son and have scared my family
and friends for too long”. “Prepare to die.”
You come to me with a collar of skulls around you neck; I come to you
with the mind of Christ.

You are not what I imagined you to be in my ignorance.
You are despicably horrible and can be also a reasonable partner.
You are a friend of the believer when you serve God’s purpose.
You are as elegant as a gentleman without black hood and sickle.
You are truly hated by those who do not know Jesus.
You are loved by those for whom “death is gain” as they go home.
You are toothless and there is no reason to be afraid of you.

If it were not for you I would have settled for Earth and not for heaven.
If it were not for you I wouldn’t long for the glory of Heaven where God lives.
If it were not for you I wouldn’t be prepared properly to meet my maker.
If it were not for you I wouldn’t see ceasing to breathe as a blessing.
You are taking me out of an old house to a new mansion in heaven.
You are not God’s will for me therefore you are not welcome.
You are a friend of the faithful and a foe to the wicked.
You are an indispensable and necessary evil.

I did not seek to be born nor can I avoid dying. It is not for you to
decide my hour.
You have followed me from the cradle to the grave as the old scavenger vulture.
Everyone will celebrate your death and when you die no one will cry.
You will never die because you do not exist. Among the immortals there
is no room for you.
No one will have sinned by hating you. There will be no virtue in
loving you either.
No one will ever think happy thoughts of you. I'll not run away from
death anymore.
Where I am going death cannot come. I am going to the land of the
living where God dwells.
The kingdom of light waits for me and there is no shadow in trusting in God.

Life and death is not the same thing. The former is and the second is not.
The First one is a person and the second is not a person.
Death is just as real as a shadow, but it has” acquired a life of its own”.
Jesus is life and light and death is only a shadow. Life smells nice
but death stinks.
Death is not omnipresent but is everywhere I go. Death is our creature.
I cannot run far or away from death even though death is slower than a snail.
I will ambush death in the bump of time and bury it in the pothole of space.
Let space and time where death dwells be absorbed by the infinite and
the eternal.

O death your house is space and you exist only in time.
Time is but a bump in the eternity. Space is but a pothole in the infinity.
I will speak about death without reverence now. The giant is now on the ground.
I will have as much fear of death as I have of my own shadow
Death has no sting because death has no body. Death is dead in my mind.
Death cannot posses victory I am not afraid. Its head has been cut off
in my mind.
The rest of its body cannot eat me up. Death is only an experience.
Death is nothing.
Death is but a twinkle of an eye. At best a short little bridge over
the deepest abyss.

My beloved has lost the fear of death. In a dream my Ruthie tasted heaven.
She did not want to return to her family or friends. Earth has lost
its worth for Ruthie.
Death has no power over her anymore. Death, where is your victory?
Death where is your sting?
You never had it to begin with. Bark now and bark louder because I
cannot hear you anymore.
Jesus has opened my eyes and ears. Death you are nothing. Yes you are nothing.
Stop scaring my sisters and brothers. I will not dig trenches or build
walls against you anymore.
You are a shadow but Jesus is my reality. A shadow has never eaten a reality.
I dare you to try me. You have no teeth to bite me. I have life and
light in Jesus.

O death I have more fear of a tiny cloud on a blue sky in a calm
afternoon than of you.
In the afternoon of our lives, you have become the longest shadow that
starts at my feet.
Remain where you are, at my feet. That's where you belong, at my feet.
You long shadow.
When I am lifted up from the ground to go home, you will disappear to
follow me no more.
O death you are a citizen of space and time, you are a small pothole
in the eternal.
O death you are a little bump in the infinite, soon you will not be
even a memory.
Once I cross the smallest bridge over the deepest abyss, you will stop
following.
For in the kingdom of light there is no shadow of death but light
surrounding it all.

Because of Jesus you cannot be. You and Jesus in the same place? Impossible.
Jesus entered into the pothole of space and was wounded by the bump of time.
Rejoice fellow traveler and fear no more for all under the sun is but
a pothole and a bump.
Just an air pocket. A small turbulence. A hiccup. A snooze. A single
tic on a clock.
No matter how long the nap, in the eternal it is but a closing and
opening of the eye.
You, who have been rescued from troubled waters with a strong hand,
look back no more.
There is nothing to look back at but the site of the valley of the
shadow of death and turbulence. Look down and see the rock over which
your feet have been established for your goings.

Look at your feet and see that there is no shadow anymore and say with
the living;
			"Our rock is not like their rock".
Sing a new song. A song that many will see and fear God. Ours is a
visible song.
For others to see, not only to hear. We learn more from what we see
than from what we hear.
Salvation is a heavenly song to be sung in the here and now in order
for people to be saved.
Sing while you can. Learn to sing now, for later you'll sing with many
angels with perfect voices.
Sing for the King is listening. The King is looking. The King is on his throne.
Let's enter his gates with thanksgiving. Let's cross this small bridge
with confidence.
Let us follow the captain of our salvation. Death is truly dead
because of Jesus who is life.
Resume speed, the pothole has been fixed and the bump has been removed by Jesus.

In the eternal and the infinite arriving does not exist because it
doesn't make sense. Arriving is a space temporal term that implies
motion or at least the idea of “FROM” and “TO” therefore our
illustration of the Eternal and the Infinite as a highway and space
and time as pothole and bump is inadequate. It would be better to
start training our mind to ideas such as ever-present for the eternal
and heaven for the infinite. For if we force finite and temporal terms
to the world yet to come we run the risk of creating an idol of a
thought that will deem the heavenly realities to grotesque lifeless
and meaningless futilities unusable for the good of our soul’s heath.

History as we know it is but a hiccup in the eternal. It is not my
intention to reach earthly conclusions as unmovable landmarks with
equal value for eternity. No. But I do want to trigger daring ideas
that minimizes size and duration as we know it to its minimum
expression in order to treat them for what they are in relation to God
and the infinite and the eternal. It is my intention to see things
with the eyes of God’s given faith. I want us to lose fear of that we
are not to be afraid of as children of God. I cannot be more than a
conqueror on the one hand and be afraid of things on the other hand.
Fear is contagious. Especially the fear that comes from not believing
what we say we believe. Death, you are a lifeless Idol worshiped by
our feeble imagination.
But even if you are real, you have no sting, no power. Even if you
were strong and swallowed Jesus for three days. At resurrection Jesus
broke your jaw and teeth to pieces. You have no power over those who
are of God.
“Father God please forgive me for having fear death over you,
For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom but fools despise wisdom”.
You have no inside to engulf me and keep me there.
You are dangerously large at our birth with the sun at our back.
You are the smallest when we are adults and strong at our noonday.
You are the largest at the sunset of our lives with the sun in our face.
It was my flesh that projected you existence soon you will be no more.
It was the Sun your involuntary creator. The sun will be destroyed for
having accepted worship from fools.

The valley of the shadow of death is behind.
The kingdom of light of our God is ahead.
To go back, not even to take an impulse
Imagine, as soon as you enter heaven make an experiment.
Look at your feet and you will not see shadows anymore.
Kneel down next to John on your mind on the Island of Patmos
Look under your feet; there is no shadow-- but light all over.
The enemies of God are destined to die and die in ridicule.
Goliath was destined to die in the hands of a shepherd boy.
Satan was destined to be crushed by Jesus the Carpenter.

Every enemy of God’s children is to be crushed forever.
Enemies virtual or real are to be obliterated by Faith alone.
Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, the flesh and the devil.
Faith and not courage as courageous one may dare to be.
Faith on the accomplished work of Jesus the Christ of God.
Faith in God who through life has helped us slaughter Bears and Lions.
Faith in God’s proven and never failing faithfulness and love.
Faith in the mind of God revealed in our Lord Jesus.
Faith in the knowledge of the Truth that sets people free.
Faith that comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God.
Faith that makes all things possible. Faith that without you cannot please God.
Faith that is the gift of God and precious possession of the believer.
Faith that makes an ordinary man FAITH full man.
Faith that makes the world unworthy of the FAITH full.
Faith that made David step down into the valley to face Goliath.
Faith separated David from Philistines and Israelites on the valley.
Faith is nothing but trust. Faith and trust produces love.

You cannot love him whom you do not trust.
If you love, you cannot but trust. Faith, love, trust, must go together.
The more that you trust the more that you will love.
The more that you love, the more you will trust.
Trust is expressed in obedience. Jesus said:
The reason why my Father loves me is because I obey his commands.
There is no mystery in faith. Faith is very practical. Love, trust, obey.
Faith does not come as result of pushing hard and there “a baby is born”
Faith is a child like trust on God and his word.
Faith is a gift you receive, not a goal that you achieve.
Faith is not for the sinless only; otherwise Rehab the prostitute would be out.
Abraham the Father of our faith would be disqualified for laying.
Jacob whom “God loved” was well known as a deceiver.
David who committed adultery was “A man after God’s own heart”.
Beloved we are in good company under the tent of the Covenant of Grace.
Let us pray and take more seriously the words of our Lord Jesus.
“You will do these things and greater things than that in my name”.

54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the
mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come
true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[h] 55 “Where, O death
is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?”[i]56 The sting of
death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to
God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul our older brother said with a tone of sarcasm in his words:
Death where is your victory? Death where is your sting? It is a
foolish thing to challenge him whom you cannot overcome.
In 2 Peter 10 to 12 we read the following
 Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial
beings; 11 yet even angels, although they are stronger and more
powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on
them from[d] the Lord. 12 But these people blaspheme in matters they
do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of
instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they
too will perish.
Jude 1: 8 to 13 says:
8Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise
dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9Yet Michael the archangel,
when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord
rebuke thee. 10But these speak evil of those things, which they know
not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things
they corrupt themselves.

Should we be prohibited to medal with spirits on the one hand? And be
so bold as to challenge such a great foe as death on the other hand?
Unless that spirit has been defeated and powerless or none existent or
an imaginary idol?

Far be it for us to speak of things not understood or revealed.
May the Lord himself protects us from ourselves should we be looking
for quarrel for which we are not equipped or called to fight. But fear
of death is not for the saint who has been redeemed by the precious
blood of Jesus.

To encourage each other in the face of great fear is a holy duty that
escapes protocol.
To encourage is to bring courage where there is little or none.
To encourage someone you do not have to be full of courage and fearless.
To encourage in our present situation is trying to be strong for the other.
To encourage is love in working clothes with orange overalls, boots and helmet.
To encourage is to ignore your own fears and fight by faith in Jesus’s name.
To encourage is to discover courage from above dwelling within.
To encourage is like loving, it does a lot of good to the lover first
and then to the loved one.
To encourage apart of faith is the worst kind of discouragement,
because it kill hope.
To encourage without faith is like prayer without faith; there is no
answer and brings doubt.

As my beloved for whom I write this words proof read the content of
this letter: A great smile of peace surfaced on her tired and aching
beautiful face. She told me that I was her Knight in Shining Armor
fighting for her to a Knight on Black Armor and Black Horse. For me it
was worth it all.

FOR GOD, FOR RUTHIE, FOR MY FAMILY AND FRIEND: DEATH-TO-DEATH!!!!!

Gerry Gutierrez