From distress to a living hope!

2008 has been a good year... and here comes 2009.
With only one day left, I reflect on the things that happened this year... and I also look to Jesus for guidance in this next year.
To tell you the truth, I am kind of confused.

My plans are not His plans. Hmmm.
I can strategize and plan, but at the end not be at peace with what is about to be done.
I'm in turmoil right now.. Its turbulent and I look to Jesus to calm the storm.

I repent.
Seriously, man, He feels so far away, but still feels so close that I can smile and be reassured that everything will be OK... one day.

My life as it is, is fine... its good.
I mean, I can have more, but I have everything I need.
I am learning that Jesus is all I need.

I can conform to this world and say:
-If I only had a little bit more money.
-If I only had a better car.
-If I only had a better house.
-If I only had more name brand clothes.
-If I only had more... more... more...

God, I repent for my foolishness and immaturity when I start to desire things that don't bring glory to you and only bring glory to me.

I hear the apostle Paul muttering these words while in a prison, writing to the Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

How can a man having had everything and now had nothing wrote to the church like if he had everything?
He says in Philippians 4:11-13 "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

How can someone say all that while being beaten and put in jail?
Ahh, the glorious Jesus.
I tell you, when you recognize the beauty of Christ, you can say the same thing.

In my weakest moments, I turn to Christ on the cross and like that thief, I say, "Jesus, remember me... remember me."

Some may see this post somewhat depressing in such joyous times as the new year begins, but others may see that in this post, there is an abundance of humanity, sin and weakness in my part.

And also a hint of living hope... the hope that Peter wrote about in his first letter.
"According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" I Peter 1:3b

I have that living hope...

Why do people go to church on Sundays?

I know I'm getting myself into a hole here... some will take this the wrong way, and that's okay. I don't mind.


2 Sundays ago I missed church... on purpose.

I have been visiting churches these past Sundays. Ive been to Fellowship of the Woodlands, Kaleo Church with Bill Streger, The Promise Church that my friend Daniel Espinoza pastors, Community Of Faith Church, River Pointe Church... and other churches.


A couple of weeks ago, I told my pastor that I would be looking for the next step in my ministry life and, although that was the hardest thing to do, since Pastor Rios has been my pastor forever, it had to be done.

It has been a good experience to go to these churches and see the way they do church. Some worship differently than others. Some teach different than others. Some pick up offering different than others. It has and still is an awesome learning experience.

2 Sundays ago I decided to stay home and not visit or go to a church.
Dude, when I woke up, I realized that I had slept in and I felt good!
I slowly got ready, put some relaxing clothes on and ran an errand that I had not done that Saturday. After taking my time, I went over to one of my favorite places, Starbucks, and sat outside enjoying the breeze and reading a book and my bible. It was great, man.

I started thinking, "Why do people go to church on Sundays?"
Tell me guys, why do you go to church?

Do you go because you have always been to church every Sunday of your life?
Do you go because your youth buddies will pass notes during service making fun of the lady that has big hair and gets a "breakthrough" every 5 minutes during service?
Do you go because "if Jesus hung on that cross for 6 hours, you should at least sacrifice 3 hours on a Sunday and go to church, brother."

Why do you go?
More importantly, why would any unsaved person go to your church?
Think differently. Think about your lost friends.
Why would they go to your church?

Is there a strategy that's in place for every lost person that sets foot in your church?
Is there a process?
Is there biblical teaching in your church... or does the pastor talk about tithes and picks up an offering whenever you bring a friend to church?

Why would anyone after working hard the whole week, plus Saturday, maybe worked overtime and has Sunday as the only day off....
Why would that person wake his family early and dress them up to go to a service that will not benefit his spiritual life and will cause him to dislike church? How do you think his kids will view church when they grow up?

Ah, I just wonder.
NOTE: I went to church yesterday and will "not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:25)

Hey yall!

Well, well, well...

I have not blogged since forever.
My laptop has been acting up and have been getting on from random computers every once in a while to check my email..
Boy, I'm addicted to the computer.

We got so much to catch up on... so much to catch upon.
I have been having this overwhelming feeling that I have for the year 2009.
Some dramatic changes will be coming to my life and I'm ready to go to another exciting phase in my life. I'm excited.. I can actually jump for joy! Hehe. God has been good.

2009 is MINE baby!
OK, forget that I said that. Cheesy...

Lets do this.
This is what you, my friends, have missed on.
Its not that important, but lets go for it:

• I went to a holiday party with my girl 2 Fridays ago... Pretty good, pretty good. My girl was looking fine, I tell you. She always is tho.
• It snowed about a week ago (?) in Houston, TX. Yes it did! (Go global warming! Hehe)
• I did not go to church last Sunday... on purpose. More on that later.
• Ive been hittin the Panera and Starbucks every evening after work to read and to study.
• I recently caught up with a friend that has some talent when it comes to computers. George, it was good to get some Denny's at 10 pm with you... and thanks for fixing my laptop. You re the man.
• My girl is excited that she is going to be moving to Huntsville (1 hour away from home) to go to school (Sam Houston State University). Friends are asking us how we are going to make it.. Hehe. Its funny, we crack up. We've have been going at this relationship for yeeeaars! Haha. No really, it seems that nothing will change since I just see her, maybe once during the week and shell be home for the weekends. Lighten up guys.
• I went to Community of Faith this Sunday and took a friend. Really good message by Mark Shook. Ive been there twice and both times they have shown the different things that they are doing for the community where their church is located... and they're awesome!!
• It was cold today
• Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow, again!
• Did some Christmas shopping for the family.
• Reading The Big Idea by Dave Ferguson. Really good book.
• I saw "The Tales of Despereaux" today with Ruthie, my girlfriend. It was a hilarious movie! A kids movie, but hilarious.
• I love my girl. She is perfect for me.
• 3 more days for Christmas.

Peace and joy to all.
Hit me up.

Consumerism.

Consumerism.
Yep thats the word...
I looked it up on Wikipedia (hehe) and the definition summed it up for me.

CONSUMERISM: The equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions.

I was thinking about the whole "financial crisis" that Americans are going through... it seems like everyone is being bailed out... Where is the application? I gotta sign up and stand in line.
I'm thinking of gifts for Christmas. What to give people...
But here is a question: What do you give to someonethat already has everything?
Huh...

Really, it seems tha everyone has everything they need.
More than 10 Billion dollars were spent on Black Friday, the day after thanksgiving, at malls and stores.
Did you get that?
More than 10 BILLION!

Here is another question:
Where are the days when a kid could ask for a toy truck or a doll? Where are those days?

I remember as a kid, opening up my presents on Christmas Eve... not Christmas morning. We were too anxious, so that became our tradition.

I remember unwrapping the gift wrap... opening the box and finding out that there was a TOY FIRETRUCK inside... Yea, man, Those were the... Im telling you, man. I vroom-vroomed it all day every day in the hardwood kitchen floor.
I also remember opening up another gift and was so happy to find out that I had a new TOY JUMBO JET!
Oh, I loved that one.
The funny thing is that my brother Abraham had gotten the same identical one. Haha!
But they were fun.

I was not asking for an Ipod Touch.
I was not demanding an Iphone.
I did not desire a laptop computer.

I swear... (forgive me) the next kid that I see at Wal-Mart throwing a tantrum, screaming, demanding that he NEEDS that Wii... Im gonna punch... er, pray for his parents.
Boy, if I ever did that as a kid, my father would have taken off his belt in the store and I would not have felt the seat of my pants for days, man!
I just dont get it.
The world has dratically changed in the last 15 years.

Personally, in my family... It will probably be the Gift Card Christmas this year.
No expensive gadgets, no expensive clothes... just simple, inexpensive gift cards.

Listen, where is Jesus in all your hustle and bustle?
Whereis Jesus when you are standing in line for 30 minutes paying for a gift that maybe the recipient wont even like?

Remember the real reason for Christmas.
These 2-3 weeks of the year, remember the gospel.
Rememner that if Jesus had not been born in a manger your sins and mine would not have been taken away.
Remember that if Jesus had not been born, you and I would not have the hope we have today.

I pray that in my shopping for my gift cards, I can ultimately remember that I am blessed to live this life and that I need more of Him.

He became a curse for us.

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by

becoming a curse for us—for it is written,

"Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree."

Galatians 3:13

Wow, what a scripture... I was talking to my youngest sis, Tey! Hehe. We were talking about things and touched on the subject of God's unconditional love for us.

Is it not amazing that Christ died for us?

Ok, you knew that...

But think about it.

God is a just God.

So, if you are a rapist... a murderer... a thief... a liar, God has to be just!

He cannot just say, "Ahh, thats ok... youre alright. Ill let you pass."

He cannot sweep your sin under the rug.

Where is the Justice?

If God would do that, He would not be a just God.

But He is just.

What does God do?

God becomes a curse for us.

God becomes human and bears what we are...

A rapist, a murderer, a thief, a liar... whatever you are!

Jesus becomes our substitute.

Jesus says, "Listen, Tony, I know you are a sinner, but I love you so much that I will bear your sin and... instead of you dying, I will die."

He says, "I will become what you are in order to save you."

God is angry at your sin. He is mad.

But when Jesus steps in and dies for us, he becomes our substitute... and God's wrath and anger is absorbed in Jesus (through the sacrifice of the cross).

And God's anger is satisfied, being able to forgive our sin.

Jesus takes in the anger of God on the cross.

When we sin, we look towards the cross and repent saying, "God is mad, but his anger was spent in Jesus and now I can accept his forgiveness."

What love!

What grace we have found in God, guys!

As I told this to my youngest sister last night, I could not help but think about what God had done for me. We also shared this verse in 1 John 4:10 and I literally received strenght as God's child when I read it.

"In this is love, not that we have loved God

but that he loved us and sent his Son

to be the propitiation (the wrath-absorbing) for our sins."

Think abou that verse.

Recognize his sacrifice.

See his love.

Repent because Jesus paid it all.

Thanksgiving.

Does it feel like Thanksgiving to you?
I don't know you'll, but it does not feel like it.
Maybe its just me, you know? Maybe.

I personally have not heard about turkey much... and the weather in Houston was so warm.
For thanksgiving, I'm used to it getting cold.
What do you think?

Anyway, it does not matter if its cold or hot...
It does not matter if your family is cooking or not...
It does not matter if your cousins are coming over to your house or not to eat on thanksgiving day...
Let me take you to a scripture in the Bible, where we can focus on this last part of the week.

Although we can look at the context of the scripture and come out with some good things.

But concentrate on this verse and look at it closely.

Ephesians 5:20

"giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

Remember:
IN everything that happens in your life... give thanks to Jesus.
FOR everything that happens in your life... give thanks to Jesus.

I thank God for the life that He has given me because of His sacrifice on the cross.
I thank God for my loved ones that surround me in my everyday life.
I thank God for the calling that He has place in my life.
Thank you, Jesus!

People are in need of Jesus.

People are in need of Jesus.
Really. we are so used to "just" saying that and we don't really know how much they are in need of Him... or know of any friend that needs God.
I was that type of person.
I used to say to all my friends, "People need Jesus."
Of course, all my friends were Christians... and we HAD Jesus, you know? We had Him!
Now that I look back on it, we were thought we acted like Jesus, but were so far from it. We were full of arrogance.

I cant tell you about it enough without bringing up that one time where Jesus was hanging out with sinners.

Matthew 9:10 says,

"While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples."

He ate with them at their house. Imagine that!

I bet he heard a couple of words that were inappropriate.
I bet he heard some nasty jokes from these men.
So, when you meet someone that does not go to your church... does not go to your youth group... does not believe the way you believe... then and only then, (hehe) you can ask that one question, WWJD?

Really, what would Jesus do?
He would sit and talk to them.

I was waiting for my friend Joe at Starbucks and was killing time. I opened my calendar and was thinking about Thanksgiving, Christmas, my girl, the upcoming weekend (already!)... you know, just killing time.
On my right side of me there was this young guy that was reading his bible.
I was intrigued.
I started to make conversation with him.
We eventually got the point where I asked him ,"What church do you go to?"
He responded, "I don't go."
He then told me that he had moved here from another state, so I thought, well, he has not found a church.
He then told me, "No, I just don't approve of churches."
Oh God, this is about to get interesting, I said to myself.

If I was still hanging around my "Christian pals", I would have said, "Sinner!"
I would have said, "He is not part of us."
I would have said, "He doesn't get our vision, lets move on. Forget him."
I would have judged him wrongly.

But, I asked myself, WWJD? (Yeah right! Hehe)
For the next 30 minutes (Joe was taking too long to meet me), my new friend took me through 1 chapter of Acts and 1 chapter of Galatians.
We talked about God's righteousness, the law, believing in Jesus through faith...
He obviously knew his stuff.

People are in need of Jesus.
I have come to realize firsthand that they do.

I came out of that conversation kind of shocked at the views that many people have about the church.
Its one thing to hang around with your church camp friends... its another to make friendships with people that need Jesus.

People are so full of bitterness towards the church, but yet they still realize that they need Jesus.
We all need Jesus.
Go out there and make a friend this week.
Talk to them about Jesus... because deep down... deep, deep down, they know they need Him so much.

"I pray for my friend. I pray that God reveals to him that Jesus said that the church was His... That He was going to build it. I also pray that the church starts acting like the church. Jesus, help me act and be your church."

Church Planting Boot Camp: Day 2

Im so tired... but its all been worth it.
It took me 4 hours to get to Houston from Dallas, but it was 4 hours of dreaming, some phone calls, listening to John Piper and dreaming some more... I actually dozed off a couple of times on the road.. Not good.

Before I go to bed, let me leave you with the experience that I enjoyed so much today.
As you all know, I have been learning some amaing things at an Acts29 Church Planting Boot Camp in Dallas, Tx.

Well, here we go.
We started out with JR Vassar telling us to go deep with the Sabbath rest.
Ministry will disorient you at times, thats why you need to Sabbath.
Disconnect from TV, myspace, facebook, email, blogs at least one day a week. Huh? Yea, that was harsh to hear.
He talked a little about not abusing people to build our ministries but build our ministries by building people. Wow.
Hey guys, Christ died for you. Jesus did it all... get out of "performance mode" and chill... take a nap. The Kingdom wont desintegrate.
Sabbath deflates our inflated selves.

Jonathan Dodson was amazing.
He talked on this topic: Spirit-led Ecclesiology, Following the Spirit through Church Planting.
We sometimes rely on our research, books, timelines, and blogs to plant our churches.
We sometimes just plow trough all "obstacles" that arise while we are planting a church.
For example, a guy commits a sin, and is supposed to teach next week. What do you do?
I often see pastors just call that "an attack from the devil." Hehe... and they just rebuke it and continue with their plans, leaving the "brother" to fend for himself.
I learned that the question we must ask is this, "What would the Holy spirit have me to do in this situation?"
Lets restore our brother. Lets help our hurt brother.
What a difference that would make.
What do you do when the unexpected and unplanned things happen?
Stephen gets killed in Acts 7.
Angels tell Peter to go to Cesarea to talk with a gentile named Cornelius.
What do you do? You rely on the Holy Spirit.

Matt Chandler talked about Jesus deconstructing worldviews in Luke 15.
Real quickly. this is what got me the most.
When the prodigal son came back to the house, the father made a party for his son sayiong, "My son was dead, but now he lives."
The older son gets angry and jealous because they are throwing a party for the unfaithful son.
Look at me. Ive been here my whole life "serving" in the "house." I have always "obeyed" my dad's orders.
What does the father do?
Does he tell his servants, "My older son does not gt it... turn up the music and lets party. We get it. Forget him." No Way!
The father goes outside where his older son is at and PLEADS with him to come inside.

If you are reading this bulletin/post/blog and you find yourself feeling like you have serves Jesus and have been faithful to Him your whole life, but still feel down and out, ready to give up, feeling anger, jealousy, bitterness....
I encourage you to drop me a message, send me an email, text me... whatever.
Lets pray together so that we may both go in the house and glorify God.

Goodnight.

Church Planting Boot Camp: Day 1

Humility.
Reluctance.
Repentance.

These are the words that are on my mind as I come out from the first night of the Acts29 Church Planting Boot Camp.
I just couldnt ask for more..

Matt Chandler started off this morning saying, that if we build our churches on INFORMATION ALONE and not TRANSFORMATION, we are headed into big trouble.

He also said (and this is for the legalist religious people), that you cannot have a doctrine of grace and still walk with a swagger.
And thats so true...
You cannot preach grace...
You cannot preach that you are a sinner that needs Jesus every day...
and walk with pride.

Matt Carter followed by declaring that there is a big difference from the Christianity that Jesus taught and the Christianity that we live out.
We must be for the poor, for the needy and not only for the rich.
He described in Amos 5 where people come together for church and God literally says, "Stop it... just shut up." He would not accept their offerings or their noise (songs), because they were not caring for the poor and needy...
Looks like the church that we have today in America and God is telling us to stop it.

Darrin Patrick talked about Cultivating a Culture of Repentance. What a message!
I literally teared up, recognizing that we need to repent well.
These words burn in me.
I am afraid for my life that my gospel proclamation will outpace my gospel application.
We, as leaders sometimes must be weak, because in our weakness, He is made perfect.
He also talked about the sins that pastors face.

We must memorize James 3:16, "For where JEALOUSY and SELF AMBITION exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice."
But James 5:16 says, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Mark Driscoll basically called us prideful and arrogant because we think that we can do it better than anyone else.
He told us, that as church planters, we must strive to make Jesus look good because He is good.
He told us to walk in the light.
He told us to be humble and not prideful.
He admonished us to repent well... to repent of our sin publicly.
He told us to turn critics into coaches.
He finished the first night by telling us to persevere.

Without the hubba hubba...
Without anyone falling down their chair because... well just because.
Without the heavy breathing of the preacher catching his breath...
these preachers called every one of us to repent of our sin and look to the work of the cross.

Tomorrow we continue this journey.
I met a couple of people... some young, some older, putting small differences away but all with a heart to serve one another.
What an amazing thing the body of Christ is.

The City: Dallas

Dallas, baby, Dallas!
I'm here and its nice.

4 hours away from Houston and my car did just fine, thanks Jesus.
Its nice... and I find it very different than Houston, but its cool.

Although I have to say, it seems to me that the cops here have noting better to do than to hide their cop cars and stand right next to it and point the speeding gun towards incoming traffic.
Since I'm not very popular with the 5-0 (They like giving me speeding tickets for some reason), I assure you that I'm being careful.

I would like to to give a shout out to a special family, the Perez family, that is housing me for the duration of this chuch planting bootcamp here in Dallas. I have known this fam. for about 6 years and I remember Israel and Sam being 15, 16 years old.

Now, they are older and have their responsibilities... and Sam is still proud to be an avid skateboarder while his older brother Israel rides on his motorcycle. Pretty cool guys.
They live about 20 minutes from The Village Church where the conference will be held.

Well, so far so good!
Tomorrow, I turn on my mind towards church planting 100%.
Can you believe it?
2 full days of straight talk from some amazing teachers.

Can't wait.

Acts29 Church Planting Boot Camp!

Am I excited or what?!!

I just registered and went on mapquest for directions and packed!
I'm going to the Acts29 Dallas Church planting Boot camp!

Pastor Mark Driscoll from Seattle founded this network to help church planters start churches... To give future church planters resources and training on how to plant a church that is bible-based. Really bible-based.

I'm ecstatic, man!
I pray that my car makes it all the way, since it ONLY has 205,000 miles. Only... Hehe.

I will be learning things such as:
-"Developing a Missional Core."
-"Pitfalls of Church planting."
-"The Role of Social Justice & Poverty in Discipleship"
-"Cultivating a Culture of Repentance"
-"How Firm a Foundation: The Sufficiency of Scripture"
That's only the first day!!!

The second day, I will be exposed to:
-"Going Deep with Sabbath Rest"
-"Developing a Repentance Ministry"
-"Spirit-led Ecclesiology: Following the Spirit through Church Planting"
-"Vivification & Mortification: A Process to Holiness"

I am ready to meet some other guys that have planted, are planting or are wanting to start a church.
I pray that I can absorb everything that I hear, see, imagine...

I have not been to a conference in a very long time (2 years maybe), and I am in need to learn something.

I cant wait to get on my car and drive 4 hours all the way into Dallas for this event.
I'll let you'll know how it goes.

Pray for my car.

23 years ago.

November is always an awesome month for me. Important dates fall in this month...
My father's birthday, Ruthie's birthday, our "anniversary", Thanksgiving... you get my drift.

Well, 23 years ago on November 10, I came out of my momma's deal, and I mean womb, crying with a lot of hair. Ironic, now Im just losing hair.

So, last night, I along with some family and friends, celebrated at BJs Brewhouse. Oh man, talk about some good food. I got the Chicken and Ribs combo with the baked potato the size of a football and a coke. I think coke is killing me. But wow... some good food.

The highlight for me was to see and hang out with some special people last night. Thank you guys for coming out and celebrating my "oh so young age" with me. You know who you are.

I was glad to spend this day with my brother, my 2 sisters and my mother.

Ruthie, my girlfriend is just.... simply.... amazing.

It takes a special kind of love to put up with this guy, right babe? Hehe.

I do have to thank her for my wonderful gift.

I got a new Dell Mini9 and now my man-purse wont be so heavy.

I love this thing.

Its so small and it feels like it can get the job done. Hopefully it does.

To all my firends that came out, your presence there was all I could ask for. Thank you.

Well, enough of that.

Why?

Because I just get to feel special for that day.

Huh?

Yeah, Ruthie steals my thunder, since her birthday is Friday!

Dang. Hehe.

My Father.

A tribute to my father...

I use this blog for many things.
Sometimes, I write about what I'm reading. Sometimes, I write about what is happening in the world and sometimes, I write about what I'm doing in my life.

But today, I want to write about my father.

He turned 48 this Monday on November 3.
I called him up and wished him Happy Birthday and I truly hope he gets to live over 90.
You see, I love my dad.

Even though, he has made mistakes as a parent, his qualities and what he has taught his sons and daughters surpass all of them.

My dad is a calm guy.
I remember one time getting into trouble and him sitting me down at the kitchen table with a belt in one hand and very calmly asking me if I would ever do it again.
I obviously said no. Hehe.
Yea, those were the times where parents would not let their kid talk back to them. They had a belt. Hehe. That was a symbol of authority way back in the day. Smile.
Although, he punished us (his children) many times. The times that I mostly remember were the times that he would talk to us so that we would understand.
He rarely raised his voice.

My dad is a working man.
The guy did not need an alarm clock. He was up way before the sun rose. He would get dressed in his work clothes and put on his boots. He does not like shoelaces. He always wore boots. Hehe. Now that I remember, my dad always used to tuck his shirt in. He always looked funny. He used to tell me that a man always need to wear belts. Ah, my dad.
He is a bricklayer. He built some of the most beautiful homes that you have ever seen. He worked from sunrise to sunset. I know because I did it for a year with him and my brother.
My dad always provided for his family.

Even if my father is away in El Salvador for now, I wish him the best.
It wont be long before I see him again and I cannot wait.
I miss him dearly...
I'm just being a son.

I could keep going on and on about him but I'll just keep it short.
But once again... Happy birthday, dad.

New Life Church

Last night I did something that I had not done in months!
I preached from a pulpit that I never would have thought that I would prech from.

Last week, I got a call, inviting me to preach at New Life Church.
I was ecstatic, focused, contemplative and I aint gonna lie...a bit nervous.
Wha? Can I tell you the truth?

So, I show up at Pastor Joel Montes church, thinking I was going to be greeted by young people.
Yea right. This was a full service filled with young people and old people that were there to hear something from the Bible.
And if you know me... I didn't waste any time.
We preached the gospel of Jesus and I hope people left saying, "I need Jesus in my life. I need to follow Him."

I thank the friends that showed up and backed me up. I was glad to see some familiar faces. Thank you guys.

I am forever thankful... forever honored and forever humbled by God's calling.
Sometimes, we think that we are ENTITLED just because, "Well, brother, I am called of God."
You know what? We need to get off the high horse and always know that we are sinners saved by God's grace that was shown as he bled on the cross.

We deserved death... but I give thanks to Jesus that he loved me so much that he died for me.
Just because of that, I am thankful.

I know that other things such as ministries and titles can be taken away in a blink of an eye.
But if you have Jesus... Oh God, thank you.

Remember, Religion is about you.
but the Gospel is about Jesus.

I choose the gospel!

UPDATE...

I have not done a lot of blogging in a long time. So lets do this. Here goes.

- I had an awesome but short weekend.
- I was supossed to meet a pastor friend of mine on Thursday, but he ended getting nasty flat tire and did not get home until 2 AM.
- I got a call on Thursday from a church leader asking if I could preach at his church this Wednesday (tomorrow). I said yes.
- My best friend and love all in one, Ruthie, and I went to Joe and Priscilla's wedding on Saturday afternoon. Congrats yall. Time to reproduce and fill the earth.
- Sunday! We went to Pastor Daniel Espinoza's church. I wore a sweater... It was kinda cold when I left the house. When we got there, I was told that the church was having service outside in a tent because hurricane Ike had flooded the sanctuary. So, then it got hot! Dang.
- Daniel took us to Pappas. Dude, thanks bro.
- My mother's birthday was on Monday.She does not read this, but Happy B-day mom!

Well, I have not preached in a while. But I will be doing so at an "apostolic" church tomorrow night.
We'll see how that goes over.

I got some people coming along with me.
Thanks, your support is welcomed...... and needed. Hehe.
I need to see some familiar faces

Preaching The Cross.

What a day!

Rainy and humid... Thank you Jesus.

Hey, if we can give thanks to Him when its cool and nice, we gotta thank Him when its... um.. ugly outside? Hehe.

Well, I finished reading "He is not Silent: Preaching in a Post Modern World" by Albert Mohler. The guy.. oh man. That man can break expository preaching down. Before finishing that one, I read "What is a Healthy Church" by Mark Dever... All I can say is Wow!

Because I loved the passion that these men have for a healthy church and biblical preaching... guess what I did today?

Yep, I walked into Lifeway Christian Bookstores and looked these guys up...

I was in for a TREAT, No tricks... Huh?

I guess Halloween came early. Haha..

Uh-oh. Watch out for the Religious people.

They'll have my head because I mentioned "Halloween". Hehe.

Anyway, I got a book that Mark Dever, ALbert Mohler, C.J Mahaney and Ligon Duncan wrote together.. The bits and pieces that I skimmed reading it, made me rush to the cashier and buy the book.

The title of the book is "Preaching The Cross"

Its dedicated "...For the next Generation of Preachers of the Cross." Oh man!

Gotta get back to that fundamental truth.

We have been so used to preaching about the power and the manifestaions of the Holy Spirit that we see in Acts... and thats ok, because 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,"

...but we have skipped over 4 major accounts of the humbling experience that Jesus endured to give us that power... which is the suffering of the cross.

Can preachers bring all their preaching back to the cross?

Can we bring everything back to the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross?

Can we be reminded that we have 1 purpose in our preaching... and that is to "preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, " 1 Corinthians 1:23

Im going to enjoy this book.

Starbucks and Citizen Cope.

Its the weekend!
Wheew... Finally! Hehe.

I'm meeting a friend at Starbucks and go over Acts 1 to 5. Some call it the Birth of the Church... and I'm excited!
It's an awesome feeling that you have when you meet with people during the week and share the words of Jesus. You don't only get a sermon, but you also get prayer for people's needs.. and I tell you, prayer still works.

Later on today, Ruthie and I will go to a concert at the Verizon Wireless theater, where Citizen Cope will be singing. We got hooked to his song "Sideways" a long time ago... We found out that he was coming to Houston, so we bought the tix a couple of weeks ago. My girl is super-excited and I am excited too! Haha. No... We will have a good time. Any day with my love... is a good day.

So, everyone...
Good day!

Open the Bible.

I'm sitting at Starbucks right now... I came here after work to relax and wind down. What a day!
What I'm looking forward to tonight is one of my passions.

Last week, I met with some friends at their home to read the Bible and dissect the book of First John (Thanks Bill for the outline. Hehe).
Today I will go back to Josh's house and open the scriptures and go verse by verse and study them.
I enjoy getting together with people and opening God's word to read and explain what it says. God's word is amazing!

It helps you, it comforts you, it guides you... but it also convicts you, puts you to shame and reminds you that we are just sacks of dirt. Ooooh. Hehe.
It messes you up and stirs in you a change.

I'm excited for tonight.

The book and the date!

Well, I actually finished "What is a healthy Church?" by Mark Dever. What a book! I really enjoyed and took some things from it...
Here are the 9 marks of a healthy church and my thoughts are in parenthesis:

1. Expositional Preaching. (Lets get back to what Jesus has to say and not your bad feelings that you got when you woke up on Sunday morning concerning "that" pastor that dissed you. Hehe)
2. Biblical Theology. (we desperately need SOUND DOCTRINE)
3. A Biblical Understanding of the Gospel. (What really is the good news?)
4. A Biblical Understanding of Conversion. (People need to know what does Conversion hold you to)
5. A Biblical Understanding of Evangelism. (Is evangelism a department or a lifestyle. Oooh!)
6. A Biblical Understanding of Membership. (is there a need to BE a member of a church? Yep)
7. Biblical Church Discipline. (Umm, this chapter should be read by many people in church leadership... all I have to say. Hehe)
8. Biblical Discipleship and Growth. (The church has to grow in numbers but also in holiness, grace... Peter said, "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord..." 2 Peter 3:18)
9. Biblical Church Leadership. (Elders and Deacons. Blows me away every time I read about this model of Leadership)

Well, I'm done with that one! Hehe.
All I know is that I will reference to that book many times in ministry and apply those marks to the church. We gotta be in healthy churches.

Switching the subject, I'm ready for the weekend!
I'm taking my lovely lady out on a date to a "surprise" restaurant and catch "Nights in Rodanthe" starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane (talk about a chic flick).
They say it is "The Notebook of 2008". We'll see.
Hopefully, Gere does not start forgetting Diane Lane at the end of the movie and I find myself sitting in the middle of the room with people crying all around me... Hehe.

Goodnight.

I have a Problem!

Ok... I have a Problem. I need some self-control in an area of my life. I really don't know why I do this. I am starting to act like I did before.

I am starting to read one particular book and have not even finished it when I pick up another book!

That's not a very good problem, because I get confused. Hehe.

No really, in all seriousness... I started reading "Elders and Leaders" by Gene Getz and got up to Chapter 10 and I picked up another book. This book is like a textbook because before reading every chapter of the book you must read large portions of Scripture. For example, a chapter from Titus where he talks about Elders in the church.. or Acts where Paul goes on his missionary trips. I only made it to Chapter 10. Ugh...

The next book that I picked up is called "He is Not Silent" by Albert Mohler.. This book deals with the art of Preaching in the Postmodern World and its one of those books that you really need to focus on what the author is trying to let you know. An amazing book that you will not understand if you are reading another book. In other words, I'm screwed.

This Monday, I was drawn to buy and start another book called "What is a Healthy Church?" by Mark Dever.
Dude, I should not have picked it up!

This book has only 120 something pages (small and short). This book answers the question of what is a healthy church and how can you tell that it is. Its one of those books that once you start reading you get momentum and suddenly I'm halfway done with the book... a very practical book.

So, I am reading about Church Leadership, Preaching, and Church Growth, along with my daily reading of 1 John. I need to focus, right about... NOW!

Pray for me.
I think Ill finish "What is a Healthy Church" first, then work my way up.
I need to stop buying books.

Did you know that Mark Driscoll came out with a new book called, "Death by Love -Letters from the Cross"?

Uh-oh.

Fema Pod on Saturday.

What a weekend!

I tell you, when you have electricity in your house... when your TV works, when you can charge your phone, when you can flick the light switch on and the light comes on in your closet, we sometimes forget what it is not to have that luxury. Well, because of Hurricane Ike, my family and millions of other homes in the Southern part of Texas did not have that luxury. We were without power for 6 days, until all the lights came on Friday around 2 AM. Thanks Jesus.

Saturday morning, I decided to go to a FEMA POD and help out by passing ice. I loved it. Its priceless the look on people's faces because they are getting a couple of bags of ICE.

I got to meet so many people that were volunteers. I met a guy that his power had not even been turned on and he decided to come out and help.

I met 2 Hispanic guys that were there volunteering and went to Lakewood Church (Spanish service, of course).

To see so many cultures and races... so many types of people with different backgrounds really sets your perception on another level concerning "your community."

I think I will do it again this Saturday coming up.
Wanna join me?

Let's see if they have the PODs up this weekend... then we'll go.

Where is the Church?

The weekend is finally here and the Centerpoint electricity trucks have finally made it to my area of my zip code. For the last 6 days, because of the challenge of Hurricane Ike, there are still more than 2 million people without electricity (the last report I heard).

But the people of Houston, overall, have been patient and helpful... not all of them though.
I got flicked off at a streetlight because I didn't go when it was my turn to go. It's kind of confusing to treat those traffic lights that don't work as 4 way stops, because there are soooo many cars. Ahhh!

Anyway, I got an announcement and an invitation to make.
Although, we all have suffered in varying degrees this past week from the devastation of Hurricane Ike, we still have a mission.
While some may think that their mission is to sit in a pew all their life, I believe that we were created for a bigger purpose.
We see the behavior of the Church in the book of Acts and there is a strong need to restore that picture of Church.
Sometimes, the church looks to help with an intent to get something back. I am glad that tomorrow, the only thing that you will get back is the satisfaction that you are helping your community.

FEMA has stationed PODs all over the city of Houston and surrounding areas. PODs are Points Of Distribution where people that need ice, water, and a meal can come and get what they need.

I am asking all of my friends and family members to get together and volunteer at a POD tomorrow. Maybe some of you have already done so and you have made a difference in people's lives.

Tomorrow, Saturday, Sept, 20 at 12:oo (Noon), I will be at the Church Without Walls parking lot. The address is 5314 Bingle Rd. Houston, Tx. 77092. (Click on the address to get a map).

Mapquest it and try to make it out there.
We will be there for a couple of hours... so wear comfortable shoes and bring that bright smile of yours.
Let's impact this city and be the Church that God called us to be.

If you need more info, you can call me or text me at 832-309-0312.
God bless you guys.

Hurrican IKE Update 2!

Well.. I am tucked away in a small couch with my lovely lady by my side at a Panera that is open for business. After a hard day of work, I decided to take my girlfriend out to eat. We decided to hit the Fuddruckers that was open in 1960, right next to the Willowbrook Mall. I had a Chipotle BBQ Specialty burger which tasted D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!

But after getting in the car to come to Panera to relax and get online, it did not feel so good. Apparently, eating a hearty meal after eating "hurricane food" since Friday, is not a good idea. Hehe.

I love my girlfriend. She is amazing and I am grateful that she has been there for me at my lowest points in life. I believe that marriage will be fun (when the time comes) with our 6 kids. Ha. I'm not joking. Maybe the Lord will change my mind after the first one.

I still don't have power at my house, but thank Jesus that I can open all my windows and let the cold breeze in...
I cannot complain. There are people that stand in long lines for hours at the gas station to get gas and at FEMA's PODs (Points of Distribution) just to get a bag of ice and 2 water bottles.
I hope things get back to normal soon.

Galveston will not be the same. They will have to rebuild that city.
We will have clear blue beach water after this is over. I guarantee it. Hehe.

This too shall pass.

Hurricane IKE Update!

Ok... I finally could get to a computer at work. My job warehouse office complex has electriciry and thats why I HAD to come to work. Sucks! At least its better than staying home without electricity and food.

It has been a crazy 4 days. Here we go:

• Crazy winds on Friday night.
• Electericity goes out on Saturday around 2 AM.
• My cell phone does not have service, so I cant get ahold of no one. Sorry guys, if you called me. I'll get back with you as soon as I am able to.
• Saturday, during the daytime, it was HOT!!!
• No. You do not understand how hot it was.. I literally slept outside my balcony.
• I reread Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll... Hey, no TV, no Internet, no ANYTHING!
• Can you sense my frustration?
• It rained Sunday night... so I started to feel the cool breeze coming in.
• Thanks Jesus for the cold front.
• I went out a couple of times to McDonald's, gas stations... and its amazing to see how people act when they are in need.
• It was pitch black on Sunday night. Not even one streetlight on!
• Monday? We had some good weather. I felt like I was in San Diego... but no electricity or gas or comida (food).
• Apparently, we did not stock up on canned goods.
• Oh, I also smelled B-B-Q, and for once, thought I was going crazy... just to find out that my neighbor accross the hall was cooking B.B.Q on his grill. AAAAHHH!
• I really miss my lovely lady. I have not seen her in 5 days. I love you babe.
• Why am I at work?
• About to go hunting for food and maybe end up standing in line for 1 hour at a Panera somewhere... maybe in between a lady that has not showered and a smelly old man.. Way to be community minded, Tony. Hehe.

Through all this, I am thankful that God would not allow my situation to get worse. I think of the people that had homes in Galveston and other parts of this great city of Houston that got more damage. I ask that Jesus helps them and gives them peace.

God, I am thankful in everything. Thank you.
I smell... Pizza?

One of the first emotions of humankind... Fear.

"It's also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master's investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master's money.

"After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: 'Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.'
"The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master's investment. His master commended him: 'Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.'

"The servant given one thousand said, 'Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.'

"The master was furious. 'That's a terrible way to live! It's criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest. 'Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this "play-it-safe" who won't go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.'

That was Matthew 25:14-30 from The Message.

As I talked with my pastor last Friday and poured my dreams and visions of ministry, I realted to him that when I think about planting a church, I sometimes have fear of failure.
Can I tell you Im not perfect?

He reminded me of this story and told me that this guy hid his talents becasue he had fear. When the master came back, it did not go real well for him.
He then told me that I would fail. That was encouraging (Smile). It really was. Everyone in ministry has failed before one way or the other. You just have to get rid of this "play-it-safe" plan and go out on a limb with a plan.

We must understand that we must be like the first 2 servants. They went to work. Read it again.
My ESV translation says thatthey "went at once and traded with them"

So, in my churchplanting journey... I must go to work.
Instead of digging a hole and worrying about small irrelevant issues, I must go to work.
Instead of fleeing God's calling like Jonah and paying my own way, I must go to work.
Instead of not answering God's voice and hiding in the garden because of my fear like Adam, I must go to work.

Kaleo, A wedding and Small Groups.

A lot of things happened on Sunday.

-I visited a church that I had missed out on since February.
-A friend of mine, Danel Hernandez, decided to take the plunge and say, "I Do." Hehe. That was cool.
-I got to spend some time with a friend (pastor's kid) that is passionate about helping his father (pastor) with small groups at his church. I was impressed with the knowledge that this guy posessed on ministry.

But, let me focus on my visit to Kaleo Church.
At the beginning of this year (2008), I met with a pastor of a somewhat new church (3years old at the time). They will be celebrating their 4th anniversary this coming Sunday. I had breakfast with Bill at la Madeleine that February... and he asked me about my story and we talked about ministry. I made it a point to go to his church, but never ended up visiting until this past Sunday.

What a message! Bill started a new series based on teh first book of John and for a couple of weeks will be teaching from that book with the series title: Walking in the Light. It was a simple teaching but insightful. It was an awesome experience.

They currently meet in a YMCA gym and had a very organized service order. I think that they did everything with excellence. The people were friendly. I was so moved when a total stranger that I had never met before but is a brother in Christ nudged me and ask me if he could serve communion at the end of the service.

I am looking forward to talking with Bill some more. I believe that I can learn a lot from him in my churchplanting endeavors.

I'll visit again this Sunday and I believe that a good friend of mine will accompany me... so Im excited.

And may I add that the WHOLE service only lasted about 1 hour and 15 mins!
Short but effective. Hehe.

Random weather/prayer post

It was a beautiful morning today. There was a breeze in the air and the sun was not that strong. That was around 7 AM in the Northwest side of Houston. Fall is coming and although we (Houston) just get summer all year long, sometmes we feel hints of spring, fall and winter.

I found myself walking and thanking God for this day.
Have you ever done that?
Have you ever talked out loud to God when no one is around?

I am a quiet guy, my girfriend will differ.
But, really... If I'm alone, I just think hard and say things in my head.

But, I have found that it is liberating when you talk to God out loud.

Anyway, this post was random.
I am just greatful that I get to communicate with my Creator anytime, anywhere and anyway I want to.

Thanks Jesus.

Theology and Practical Evangelism.

I was at Ed Stetzer's blog catching up on some posts that he was writing and I came across an article that he wrote for Outreach Magazine...

Can I be transparent?
This is where I'm at.
I need to find a balance between these 2 forces...

Theology and Practical Evangelism.

Here is part of Ed's article:
"Theologically Preoccupied" vs. "Evangelistically Fixated"
Blogs seem to magnify an existing problem in the body of Christ: We don't do a very good job listening to and learning from one another.
It seems large numbers of the Theologi­cally Preoccupied scowl across the pages of their study Bibles at the Evangelistically Fixated and accuse them of being culturally adrift--in some cases rightfully so. Many of the Evangelistically Fixated chuckle when they see books on evangelism written by many of the Theologically Preoccupied who sometimes consider the smallness of their churches a sign of their faithfulness.
Let me propose a different way: Learn from one another and take the best from one another's approaches. Theologically deep believers with a passion for those far from Christ--I want both."

Wow... I too, want both.

Panera Bread.

Yep, that's where I spend a lot of time. I spend 4 hours in the evening at least 3 times a week in this place.

This is where I research Churchplants...
This is where I conect with churchplanters through emails and blogs.
This is where I write goals and expectations.

I am currently researching on Membership Courses for churches.
What goes into these classes?
What are some examples of doing membership at other churches?
When to do them?
How to do them?

Also, Ministry Job Descriptions, Launch Team curriculum, etc.

Preparation... preparation... preparation!

My lovely lady has urged me to go home and study there, but I just can't.
I think better here.
I read my books at home... mainly reading.

It might change though, because these sandwiches and soups are starting to hit me hard on the wallet... or maybe just the temptation. Hehe.

God wants His will done more than we do.

I have started to get momentum on what Jesus has called me to do... Since July 2007, I have seen the dream of a 16 year old in High School start to unfold. Thanks to my mother and father that taught me the ways of God when I was a kid. Since childhood, I have always thought I would be a pastor of a church. Disappointment filled my life after seeing ministries crumble... I still wanted to pursue the dream and vision that only Jesus could put in my heart.

This past year has been a wonderful time of learning and researching the world of Churchplanting. It is scary, though (and I only speak of what I feel). Sometimes, I think I have read so many books, prayed enough, researched enough data, interviewed countless churchplanters that I think I'm ready... But at times, I think to myself, What if I fail? A frightening thought.

A friend told me this week that God wants it more than we do. Thats true. I believe that God wants His will done more than we do.
All I know is that God's plan will succeed.

In these last 4 months of this year, I have committed myself to a period of what people may call "consecration." It will be a time of fasting, more praying, and since God speaks through His word, more Bible reading.

I don't want to start another church just to call it home.
I don't want to start another church just to have recycled christians come.
I don't want to start another church just to add another church to this city.
I do not want anther church just so it can be a burden and an eysore to the community.

I want a church that can teach the bible.
I want a church that can preach Jesus.
I want a church that embraces the community... even on the weekdays.
I want a church that produces life-change.

Elders And Leaders.

I was reding Ed Stetzers blog and he wrote a something that I wanted to share with you.

He was writing about Todd Bentley, the guy directing the LakeLand revival. "Now it appears Bentley is stepping down after filing for separation from his wife and admitting to an inappropiate relationship with another woman," Ed Stetzer writes.

Ed also says, "A prominent Pentecostal evangelist called me this week after Bentley's news hit the fan. He said to me: "I'm now convinced that a large segment of the charismatic church will follow the anti-Christ when he shows up because they have no discernment."

He continued saying that no one in ministry today should be out on their own, living in isolation without checks, balances and wise counsel.

Those are some pretty strong words.

I can honestly say that going into ministry is one of the most frightening things that a person can do... and lately it has been real easy to just say, "I am called of God, give me a mic and a pulpit." I am convinced that if we look in the bible we see qualifications for pastors (Elders) and most of the people inpultpits nowadays, are so disqualified.

The apostle Paul writes the quealifications for a pastor... the conduct of a leader, and I tell you I had to check myself.
If we will impact this generation, we have to have biblical leadership.

My friend, Daniel Rodriguez, recommended a book to me that I had hears another pastor talk about. So, I made a little field trip to Lifeway Christian Store and got me a book by Gene Getz, "Elders and Leaders- God's plan for Leading The Church"

I have read the first 10 chapters and it has been amazing!
I know that this book will have to be reread again and again.

It is a "Biblical, Historical, and Cultural Perspective on ChurchLeadership."

Go and get it.

Gessner Rd.

I love driving through Gessner Rd in the Spring Branch area of Houston, Tx. It's hectic going through that street. But I tell you, you can smell the need for Christ in that community.

Let me take you on a cruise.
As soon as you get off the I-10 and see Memorial City Mall, you just take Gessner all the way. You encounter Long Point Rd. If you turn to the right and follow Long Point for a couple of miles you will see that there are a lot of hispanics that need Jesus here.

I'll bring you back to Gessner. You keep driving on Gessner and pass neighborhood after neighborhood until you reach Hammerly Blvd.
On your left hand side you will see Spring Woods High School. The High School that I graduated from. Go Tigers!

If you keep driving on Gessner you will get to Kempwood. Here is where the demographics change. There are neighborhoods on these streets if you turn left or right. On Kempwood... On Clay all the way until you reach 290. That is where you stop and go back down on Gessner and pray that God will start a work in this area until you get to I-10 once again. Redo that all over again.

I'll take you into the neighborhoods of Spring Shadows, the ones on Blalock St., and on Bingle another day.
I noticed that there are a lot of churches on Gessner Rd not counting the ones that are all over Spring Branch. There are about 5 churches that have their own building and seat around 250-350 people each Sunday just on Gessner Rd.

There are many churchplanters that will not start a church here bcause of the overpopulation of churches, and I understand.

Here is the problem.
On any given day of the week, there is no BUZZ... there are no COMMUNITY EVENTS... there are no SIGNS that there is a church that cares for the people that live around them.

What is the purpose of the church?
To seat lots of people in a service for 2 hours on a Sunday?!
No way, man!!
We need a church that is more concerned of the SENDING capacity than the SEATING capacity.
That's where new vision comes in and let's Jesus transform that situation.

Whats the point of this post?
One of these days there will be a church in the Spring Branch area of Houston that exists: To be biblical and relevant to the culture, bringing the people to JesusChrist and sending them out to bring others.

Still gotta work on that Purpose Statement. Hehe.
Pray for me.

Special Petition.

Back in the day.. back, back in the day.. when I was a kid.. I'm not that old either, Hehe.
I remember going with my mother to laldies prayer meetings.
You remember those? No, ok.

It consisted of a bunch of ladies standing in a circle and letting their needs be known to the group so they could enter into intercessory prayer and sabotage the enemy with loud voices... You know those. Hehe.
I remember some ladies saying, "Pray for my husband because he is __fill in the blank__" Others would say, "Pray for my kids because they are..."

But there were those that when it was their turn to lay their need before the Lord, they would just say, "I have a special petition."
Huh?
What just hapenned?

What is a special petition?
I never got the meaning of that, until I had a special petition of my own.
A special petition was a need or a problem or a situation that you wanted someone to pray for but did not want to tell them what it was. It was too personal. More known as a special prayer request.

Ahh, good times.
Well, Let me tell you... I got a special petition.
Anyone that reads this, when you kneel for prayer tonight or tomorrow morning, I ask that you think and pray for me.
Im not going through depression or anything like that. Hehe.
So, rejoice with me while you pray.

God will do awesome things.

And this is my meditaion of today:
"1I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. 2He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure." - Psalms 40

Has God ever drawn you out?
Maybe you did not want to come out, but... He.. DREW you out! I feel a praise comin. Hehe.
He has drawn me, taken me from destruction.
He is an amazing God.

Pray for me and rejoice with me.

It has been awhile...

I have taken a break from blogging...
Dont get me wrong, I have been reading a few of the blogs that I like since March... but have not written any myself.

I guess I'll start again. Hehe.
Maybe.

OF FIRST IMPORTANCE...

Guys like Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler... John Piper are rocking my world right now..
These guys can teach the Word...

I'll give you some of Matt Chandler...
Here we go..

We find ourselves within the confines of the Bible Belt, and there’s all these kind of oddities and kind of weirdness to a life in suburbia, Bible Belt, (Houston) area. And as a pastor within that cultural context, I find myself in the same conversations over and over and over again when it
comes to spirituality.

Like, people want to talk traditional vs. what we would call ourselves, more missional and focuses. They want to talk music.

They want to talk about dress, whether it’s right or wrong for me to be wearing blue jeans right now,
-whether this angers the Lord or not if we should wear hats or not wear hats,
-how loud should the music be.

You know, you have to deal with weird statements like, “Well, I want my kids to know the hymns, and they don’t know the hymns.” In the end, I want my kids to know Jesus. I don’t care what song they’re singing.

-I end up getting into these questions about whether beer or wine is sinful whether it’s not. I always try to be really honest: light beer is sinful, regular beer is fine…according to the Scriptures.
-We get into whether we’re allowed to see certain movies or not.
-I always end up once a week, no matter how hard I try to find it, over a cup of hot tea, talking about the end times. And I try to be honest: I don’t know. I know He’s coming back. I know I want to live today like I actually believe that, but if you get too deep outside of that, you’re
going to get into a lot of conjecture. And so, we end up talking about that often.
-I end up talking a lot about philosophy of ministry in terms of small groups and Sunday school
and why we do them. And on and on and on it goes.
-Eldership vs. deaconship vs. staff led. We’re in the Bible Belt, this is what we do.

I’ll even find, “Hey, what do you think about this church? What do you think about that church?” Like, everybody’s been wounded by some church around here. If you stay here long enough, we’ll light you up too, but that’s a part of…everybody’s sinful.

You’re not going to find a non sinful place. It’s going to happen. Wherever you gather sinners, redeemed or unredeemed, sin happens. They’ll try to bait you, “Did you hear what such and such is doing? Hmm?”
-This is what I find myself in. And then, if the seminary guys get through the filter that we’ve built to try to avoid them, I end up having to talk Calvinism vs. Arminianism and I end up talking gifts, whether the gifts are dead or whether the gifts are alive and well. And this is what we do, because if you’re a churchman in the Bible Belt, these are kind of consuming ideas.

I mean this is what we talk about, “How do we…My church doesn’t do Sunday school…Well, beer is evil, it’ll kill you…”

And we love to get together and talk about what in the end, although important, are peripheral things.

They’re not the main thing.
In fact, in some of those instances, they’re so far down the line, they’re not even
numbered. So, what’s the main thing? What is, as the apostle Paul will soon tell us, what
is of first importance? Because I think that if you get the main thing down, then there’s
all this grace all over the place. If you get the main thing down, then all of a sudden,
there’s a lot of grace and there’s a lot of freedom and there’s a lot of friendships vs. nonfriendships and a lack of grace and a whole lot of judgment. Yeah, if we could just get
the main thing down, then all of a sudden, maybe all the other things aren’t as important.
Maybe I’m wrong, but maybe I’m right.

Let’s get into 1 Corinthians 15:1-2. “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I
preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance...” Everything else gets melted away here because Paul, who wrote 75% of the New Testament, the guy that wrote this book that we’re in, is going,
“Of everything I wrote, of everything I talked about, of everything I unpacked for you, let me give you what’s of first importance. Let me give you what you can’t mess up. If you mess this up, everything else is off. Even if it’s right, you’re off in how you operate in it. You’ve got to get this right.”

Okay, so here we go. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”

And then, God in the flesh, Jesus shows up on the scene and has His blood
drained and carries away the sins of the world. So, what's of first importance? The
sacrificial, ransoming, expiating, propitiating cross of Jesus Christ.

But he doesn't stop there; he keeps going. “For I delivered to you as of first importance
what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Now, here's something very intriguing.
Mainly, when you hear the cross of Jesus taught, it just kind of stops there. But it doesn't stop there when New Testament writers address it. They don't address the cross of Jesus Christ and the resurrection as two separate instances but rather one in the same event.

Over and over again, you'll hear about the cross and the resurrection, the death and the resurrection. These ideas are inseparably linked to one another. Christ died on the cross, absorbed the wrath of God, carried away the shame of mankind, was buried...this is the idea that He actually died. There's a lot of National Geographic and Discovery Channel speculation about whether He was dead or not.

I still contend that when you get beat nearly to death and hung on a cross for at least eight hours, lungs filling up with blood, and then get stabbed in the heart underneath your ribcage by a spear, you don't pop up two days later.

I'm just contending that you don't just show up two days later going, “Touch My side. Go ahead, feel My hands, Thomas.”
I'm just contending.

MY NOTE:

Let's focus on the thing of first importance... not the peripheral things.. not the opinions based on speculations... not man-made traditions that we are so full of.
The thing of first importance is that God loved you so much that he came down and clothed himself in flesh and dwelt among us... and he Died and Rose again.

done.

More Matt Chandler...

I love the way Matt Chandler demonstrates the points that we sometimes miss when reading the bible...
This guy preaches sermons an puts them on the church's website so you can download the sermon notes. Unbelievable!

Matt Chandler got it going on...
Take a listen.

Let's look at one more, and then we'll go ice down our drinks. Let's go to Matthew 19. We'll pick it up in verse 16. “And behold, a man came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He said to him, "Which ones?"”
I love this dude. He is all of us. “You want eternal life? Keep the commands.”
“All of them?” I love this guy.
He's like, “Surely there are certain ones that are more varsity and then other ones that I don't really have to follow.”
I love this guy because he is us.

So Jesus plays the game and He says to him, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Now, let me talk with you because I want to give you a type of person in here, I want to give you some insight. If you tend to fall into the category of those who struggle with religion, and what I mean by that is if I could type cast it, it's a person who's grown up in church their whole life and for whatever reason, everything in you makes you want to be the “good kid” and you do everything you can to follow all the rules and you do everything you can to appear like you're perfect, if you struggle with that, then you need to pay attention to what happens next, because listen to what the rich young ruler says. “The young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?"”

Did you see what just happened here? All the rules, everything he's supposed to follow, everything externally that he's supposed to look like, he looks like. He's obeyed the commands, he's done what he's supposed to do and he's following Jesus around now going, “Something's still missing. Something's still wrong.”

Could it be that observing religious rituals just might not bring you anywhere close to salvation? It seems so. Let's finish this story out because Jesus is going to do what Jesus does.
Verse 21, “Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."”
He just did it again. Jesus never asked that of anyone else.
He goes to the fishermen and goes. “Hey, follow Me and I'll make you fishers of men.” He never tells the Pharisees, “Quit being Pharisees.”
But this guy? This guy says, “How do I follow you? How do I have eternal life?”
“Alright, sell all you have, give it to the poor and come on.” Now his response is going to be wildly different from everyone else's response that we've read so far. So let's watch him. “When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

Now, the similarity is the sorrow. Zechariah had sorrow, David had sorrow, Paul has some sorrow in him and the woman at the well definitely had sorrow. So the sorrow isn't the difference. The difference is this man's sorrow led him away from the Lord rather than towards Him.

So in every other moment, this catastrophic thing and men and women humble themselves before God as God presses on that raw nerve, they press into Him and they find Joy, depth and salvation.
This man gets that nerve pressed, and instead of submitting to it, he immediately goes, “I'll find another way,” and he leaves the Messiah and we never hear from him again.

The difference between this man and everyone else we read is that in everyone else we read, there is a rejoicing, a transformation of life, a fullness of life and a conversion that takes place. And in this man's life, we never hear from him again. The last we hear from him is he's
filled with sorrow as he walks away.

So here's the spiritual truth. Maybe when we get busted in our sin, when He disciplines us when we're defiant, when He confronts us in our ignorance or He wounds us in our strength, when business starts to fail, when marriage gets difficult and we don't understand calamity, when disease infects the body and isn't going anywhere, when sorrow enters the life, what if these things aren't happening to us because God's angry with us?
What if they're happening because God loves us too much to save us from them?
What if in them God is displaying His deepest mercy?

Who are you to counsel God?

More from Matt Chandler... Im enjoying this

"For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" (Romans 11)

Now, to some degree, we do have revelation from God, so we do know some of the mind of the Lord. He gave us the Scriptures, He speaks to us in dreams and in visions and in words of knowledge, never that go contrary to the Scripture, but He speaks to us in all these varying ways.
The Bible says He speaks to us through creation. So, God has, in some sense, revealed Himself at some level to you and me, but not so much that we would ever be able to counsel Him.

So, He might have revealed some of His character, some of His attributes, some of His will to mankind, but He has not given us enough information to ever go, “Um, I've got to ask You something here. I'm watching what You're doing here, and I just think... just hear me out, have You thought about this?” and have God go, “Well, holy Me. I have never thought of that. Thank you. What would have happened right there? I would have messed the whole universe up. Praise Me, you are awesome.”

Nobody gets to counsel God. Nobody gets to give God advice. Nobody gets to straighten God's path, no one.

It's this next part of the text that I think is absolutely terrifying. Let's look at it.
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
Alright, if everything is His, you have nothing to give Him that He doesn't already own. Which means, if you cannot give gifts to God, you cannot put Him into your debt. Which means, in the end, God owes no man anything. He owes us nothing. Your very existence has been gifted to you by His grace.

Every bit of laughter, every great morsel of food, every smile is His mercy and grace, and He owes you nothing.

Now let me tell you why this is so terrifying. Because now if this is true, we have nothing to negotiate with Him on and nothing to bargain with Him on.
But most Evangelicals believe that we have a position of bargaining.
And so, we come to the throne and we say, “I'll do this, and You'll do this. And if I do this, then You'll do this for me.”
And in the end, God says, “You keep trying to pay Me off with stuff that's already Mine.”

“I'll give You my life.” (us)
“Please, I'll take that life if I want it. I'm God.” (God)

“Well, I'll serve You.” (us)
“I'm not served by human hands as though I needed anything. What are you going to do, give Me something to eat? What are you going to do, fix My house? What are you going to give to Me, as if I'm lacking? I'm not lacking.” (God)

And so, here's where it starts to reveal idolatry and pride in us. We want to say, “I'll do this and then God will bless me with this.”
Wrong, who says? Well, bad preachers do.
Besides them, who says? Ministers with no respect for the Scriptures say, who preach out of emotion instead of texts, who tickle ears with no fear of God.

He owes you nothing, nothing. Not health, not long life, not love, not a husband or wife, not healthy children. He owes you nothing. And you have nothing to give to Him that He doesn't already outright own or possess. And so, most people want to go, “Well, what about serving Him and following Him?” Well, in reality all God has to do is reveal Himself to you fully and you'll gladly with full joy serve Him. He won't force the issue, He just has to reveal Himself as He is.

No man goes back to saltine crackers when he's had fillet. For you college kids, no one goes back to Ramen noodles when they've had other stuff. I mean, nobody eats a piece of fillet and all of a sudden never wants it anymore. God never forces anyone to love Him, but as He reveals Himself, men follow. They can't help it.

Out.