GAAAWSH! It is truly amazing how much I am blessed! You know things are going your way when you can’t wait to get up every morning no matter what you are doing. I don’t think I have ever felt so connected to God than I do now. When people you love always are surrounding you, it is hard to have a bad day. This joy was sparked by one day simply having faith in God during a tough time. Once God pulled through, as he always does, it gave me a new love for life. I have always been a person that looks on the brighter side of things and the possible good that could come out of a situation, but recently it is amazing how much God has his hand over my life. It took one of my best friends, Rachel Albertson, to point it out to me that my life is truly blessed and that God’s spirit is clearly revealed through me. It has amazed me these past few years how God has made me into the ‘man’ I am today. God has worked through so many people in my life to mold me and shape me into the kind of man God designed me to be.
As much as I have been blessed and blessed others, none of would be possible without God. I look back now when my heart wasn’t seeking God, and there were many times in which I would be miserable and questioning why things happen and what God was doing in my life. I can tell you from a before and after situation that it is way more worth it to have that faith in God without holding back because there is no one greater than God and when you surrender it all to God, you are giving him that much more of your life to make awesome.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Faith and Seeing
It’s pretty amazing what having faith can and will do for you. We all run into tough situations every now and then and God tells us over and over again to have faith that he will make everything work together for the good of those who love him. This time is one time when I actually listened and followed through and actually just left the entire situation up to God and had faith that it would work out and what do you know? It did. Amazing! Hopefully this will prompt me to listen to God even more when I am felling called by him.
It is one of the greatest feelings when you know you have experienced God moving and you tangibly saw it with your eyes. It is one of the most reassuring things that you can go through.
Many times we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and all we really need is a few minutes to sit down calmly just listening for the voice of God. It is crazy because his voice is everywhere and in everything but we never get a chance to ever look for it. We always seem to have more important things going on to take a moment with our heavenly Father and just observe the blessings he gives us everyday. Even if its as simple as the sun in the sky. God put it there for many reasons. Yet we always just are thankful for it giving us the ability to se things and for heat. There are so many more meanings for everything that we see that we only take for face value. It has been a challenge for me to try this, seeing the deeper meanings in why God puts things on this earth for us to discover and whenever I do it, it is such a blessing because there are so many things God wants to reveal to us but, for some reason, we are too busy….
It is one of the greatest feelings when you know you have experienced God moving and you tangibly saw it with your eyes. It is one of the most reassuring things that you can go through.
Many times we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and all we really need is a few minutes to sit down calmly just listening for the voice of God. It is crazy because his voice is everywhere and in everything but we never get a chance to ever look for it. We always seem to have more important things going on to take a moment with our heavenly Father and just observe the blessings he gives us everyday. Even if its as simple as the sun in the sky. God put it there for many reasons. Yet we always just are thankful for it giving us the ability to se things and for heat. There are so many more meanings for everything that we see that we only take for face value. It has been a challenge for me to try this, seeing the deeper meanings in why God puts things on this earth for us to discover and whenever I do it, it is such a blessing because there are so many things God wants to reveal to us but, for some reason, we are too busy….
Sunday, February 6, 2011
the future is for discovering.
The Future is for Discovering.
“It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” - Acts 1:7
Okay, so this is one of my biggest and most taxing struggles. I can never seem to just surrender it all to God and know that he has the best for me in the end. So when I hear Jesus telling his disciples that we are not to worry or stress about what the future holds for us and we are to simply have faith in God’s plans by what he has placed under his own authority. This is comforting yet I still can’t seem to break the barrier of 100% selling out for realizing God’s purpose in my life and taking it for what it is and making it happen.
I reiterate the title of this post, “The Future is for Discovering,” because God laid out His plan for us before the world was made and we are of no authority to let our minds wander to what may happen in the future when God sees us here on earth knowing full well what will happen eventually. I personally think it is funny to God that our thoughts are so out there compared to what has been set in stone for an amount of time that will never be completely fathomed.
So, our jobs as servants and believers in Christ are to trust God here and now for what his plans are; and when the time comes for us to discover our future, it will be very tangible and visible for us to realize. And by that time, we will probably be wrongly focused on another pointless situation that we will be worrying about.
In closing this short tidbit, I will say, we have no need to worry about what tomorrow may bring because God has his plan, and his plan will stay that way forever. The only thing we can do is follow his guidance that is going on right now because that is what will have the most impact on your life and the lives around you. Lives will never be changed now, while we are thinking about what we’re going to do tomorrow.
“It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” - Acts 1:7
Okay, so this is one of my biggest and most taxing struggles. I can never seem to just surrender it all to God and know that he has the best for me in the end. So when I hear Jesus telling his disciples that we are not to worry or stress about what the future holds for us and we are to simply have faith in God’s plans by what he has placed under his own authority. This is comforting yet I still can’t seem to break the barrier of 100% selling out for realizing God’s purpose in my life and taking it for what it is and making it happen.
I reiterate the title of this post, “The Future is for Discovering,” because God laid out His plan for us before the world was made and we are of no authority to let our minds wander to what may happen in the future when God sees us here on earth knowing full well what will happen eventually. I personally think it is funny to God that our thoughts are so out there compared to what has been set in stone for an amount of time that will never be completely fathomed.
So, our jobs as servants and believers in Christ are to trust God here and now for what his plans are; and when the time comes for us to discover our future, it will be very tangible and visible for us to realize. And by that time, we will probably be wrongly focused on another pointless situation that we will be worrying about.
In closing this short tidbit, I will say, we have no need to worry about what tomorrow may bring because God has his plan, and his plan will stay that way forever. The only thing we can do is follow his guidance that is going on right now because that is what will have the most impact on your life and the lives around you. Lives will never be changed now, while we are thinking about what we’re going to do tomorrow.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Be Yourself!
God is so great! Things that he does when times seem so tough just amaze me. He gives me this joy many times that I just can’t explain. You can say that I’m different from your average guy. People say I’m too happy a lot of the times or that I should tone down how I express my joy. But all I say is I’m just being who God created me as. And when I am being that guy, there is nothing that can hold me back. I don’t know what it is about Thursday nights, but for some reason I am always very excited and anxious for the next day, probably because the next day is Friday. But, something always just brings me joy on these days because Fridays are always the happiest days and I just have the best time whatever I am doing.
Something that has been on my heart for a little while is that you shouldn’t conform to what the people around you say that you should be or should act like. Just go into your days with an open heart and open mind and be yourself not being held restricted to the standards falsely set by those you try to be like. When in doubt, be yourself. First of all, it will be easiest for you because no one is as good as being the person you are as you are. This is a no-brainer, but people still try to copy that which they think is cool at the moment rather than being the person that God has created them to be. Jesus was sent to the earth to be the Son of God. This was the characteristic that he had yet people still didn’t take him seriously. This is how we should live each and every day. No matter how much people are disagreeing with you, be the best YOU that you can be. No one can blame for being who you truly are with any significance or credibility of thought other than what their mind thinks as an insult.
Something that has been on my heart for a little while is that you shouldn’t conform to what the people around you say that you should be or should act like. Just go into your days with an open heart and open mind and be yourself not being held restricted to the standards falsely set by those you try to be like. When in doubt, be yourself. First of all, it will be easiest for you because no one is as good as being the person you are as you are. This is a no-brainer, but people still try to copy that which they think is cool at the moment rather than being the person that God has created them to be. Jesus was sent to the earth to be the Son of God. This was the characteristic that he had yet people still didn’t take him seriously. This is how we should live each and every day. No matter how much people are disagreeing with you, be the best YOU that you can be. No one can blame for being who you truly are with any significance or credibility of thought other than what their mind thinks as an insult.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
February 1, 2011
February 1, 2011
God often takes what our mind thinks and turns it around so we can focus on what our heart says. Often times we get what our mind thinks and what needs to be happening in our heart confused and mixed up. So some things that have been on my mind are way in the future and I felt convicted on putting all my feelings and emotions in the things that are not happening for a while, when I should be focusing on what God has put in front of me at the moment because that is what I am in control of. It is so comforting that God is there in the midst of all my emotions and all I need to do now is to come to God and get over it because in the end God has what’s best for us in the end. Being humble is what I need to focus on now and being myself because it’s obvious that that’s what God has designed me to do. And who knows, it might work out, because “God rewards those who diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
It also is very comforting that God knows exactly what is happening at all times and he has known everything that has happened and everything that will happen in the future. So he knows every time you will be upset or hurt and every time you are gonna be joyous and happy. So it makes me more comfortable to know that everything is all just part of the plan. It is really great to know that the most powerful being ever known has your back no matter what.
The best thing to do in a tough situation is to do your best to support it and make the best it can be, because it is obvious that that is what has been ordained by God since before the world began. Knowing that, everything around us has happened for a reason and it is up to us to get over the things we don’t like and see the possible good in it. Jesus obviously wasn’t stoked about being nailed to a cross…but he did it. So why do we worry about the most petty things?
The things of this world can be so deceiving sometimes. Some of the things that we desire are as for sure as a rickety old bridge. We are so inclined to pursue these things but before we know it we are free falling and we don’t know why.
Another thing is our desires that are temporary are even more hopeless. Why would you choose an apple off the ground that is about ready to be gone and not valuable anymore when there are numerous other apples in the tree that you haven’t even seen or experienced yet.
God will always provide in our time of need and point us in the direction we need to be going in.
God often takes what our mind thinks and turns it around so we can focus on what our heart says. Often times we get what our mind thinks and what needs to be happening in our heart confused and mixed up. So some things that have been on my mind are way in the future and I felt convicted on putting all my feelings and emotions in the things that are not happening for a while, when I should be focusing on what God has put in front of me at the moment because that is what I am in control of. It is so comforting that God is there in the midst of all my emotions and all I need to do now is to come to God and get over it because in the end God has what’s best for us in the end. Being humble is what I need to focus on now and being myself because it’s obvious that that’s what God has designed me to do. And who knows, it might work out, because “God rewards those who diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
It also is very comforting that God knows exactly what is happening at all times and he has known everything that has happened and everything that will happen in the future. So he knows every time you will be upset or hurt and every time you are gonna be joyous and happy. So it makes me more comfortable to know that everything is all just part of the plan. It is really great to know that the most powerful being ever known has your back no matter what.
The best thing to do in a tough situation is to do your best to support it and make the best it can be, because it is obvious that that is what has been ordained by God since before the world began. Knowing that, everything around us has happened for a reason and it is up to us to get over the things we don’t like and see the possible good in it. Jesus obviously wasn’t stoked about being nailed to a cross…but he did it. So why do we worry about the most petty things?
The things of this world can be so deceiving sometimes. Some of the things that we desire are as for sure as a rickety old bridge. We are so inclined to pursue these things but before we know it we are free falling and we don’t know why.
Another thing is our desires that are temporary are even more hopeless. Why would you choose an apple off the ground that is about ready to be gone and not valuable anymore when there are numerous other apples in the tree that you haven’t even seen or experienced yet.
God will always provide in our time of need and point us in the direction we need to be going in.
January 31, 2011
January 31, 2011
Okay, this is day two of trying to hear what is being spoken to me from God, so here it goes.
Its amazing how much God can work through us and we don’t even know it. Side thought “isn’t it crazy that everyone has a reason for being everywhere all the time? And we never think to try to figure out why. I think it would be interesting to figure out why some people were places and others weren’t.” God is always trying to tell us awesome things through anything that we could ever imagine. Our time is so bogged down with worldly things that we never have that time alone with the Lord where he is waiting to tell us everything he wants us to know.
There are times in our life that we feel that there is no hope and we are very lonely and nothing can go our way. These are the times that we need to take advantage of. If we can overcome in hardship we will succeed ever so greatly in triumph.
It shows the true character of a person when they will go out and comfort a friend in a rainstorm rather than watching them from afar in the warmth and comfort of being protected indoors. Many say, “Oh why not just invite them inside?” but what I say is that your love will be so much more to make less of yourself rather than remaining in your comfort zone and simply now just having a companion. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that giving someone shelter is incredible and it is being servant minded. But, how much more would your love be remembered, if you sacrifice yourself to make those around you comfortable.
Sometimes God takes you through many things just to give you insight. Like these past few nights, I have been up past midnight for no other reason than God is speaking to me and I have no desire to fall asleep.
This has been a great experience just humbling myself before the Lord and just listening. To think of how much we take God for granted, think about all the time that we pass up spending time with him. Now think of someone that you would love to meet one day and think of them always being willing to sit down with you and communicate no matter how busy they were, they would always just sit there with you as long as you needed, pretty unlikely right? But God will always be right there waiting, yet we still put all our trust and time into worldly things that will never have a fraction of love that God has. It’s crazy that we continue to attempt to be accepted by this world by not being ourselves, when God, the one that made us the way were intended to be, will always have the maximum amount of love that is possible for us. That’s another thing I don’t get about God, no matter what we do or how much we fall, God will always be right there with the same open arms that your mother holds out as soon as you were born. The bible says we are called to be and are created in His image. So the same love that God shows us, we must show others. This is probably one of the hardest things to understand in this world. To love as the Father loved his church.
It is now February and I am still typing, there are now about three and a half months that I will be at Chiles High School. In other words, that is twelve weeks, or sixty days in the campus that marks the setting of the process that took me from a simple fourteen-year-old that had not yet found his identity as a man of God into the eighteen-year-old adult (man it feels weird to say that) that I am now preparing myself for the real world, graduation, and the trials I will face in college life. There will most likely never be another time that I will be of so much influence over this amount of people. Being a senior is such a blessing; it is something everyone will do at one point. Don’t take it for granted! There is such a high mark placed on you. People are looking up to you (literally and figuratively) because of the esteem that comes with being the big men or women on campus. I am not an underclassman anymore, so I don’t know exactly what we look like, or how much influence we do have. All I can relate it to is when I was a freshman and all the seniors seemed like giants even though I, myself, was around six feet tall. So what I am trying to say is that in your last year of school is the most important because you are the ones people will be looking at to make the most accurate judgment of the particular thing you are representing (Chiles High School). Another practical way to see this is by looking at the branches of a tree. When you see a tree, one of the first things you look for is to see how tall it is, or how much it has gone through to reach that point. You look at the top, the largest, and the most experienced to form your opinion. As well as when you are choosing someone for a job, you will not choose someone that just began working that doesn’t really know how things work. No, you will review the applications and choose the one that has the most experience, the one that has been there before, and the one that knows what is going on.
Sorry, I keep rambling on but it is the Spirit speaking to me. Anyway, now is the time for me and really everyone else that has been convicted in anyway about making a difference on your school campus because it will be over before you know it.
Before I finish with this letter, those of you who are reading this I would like you to try something. If you are willing, it is amazing what will happen if you commit your heart and mind to this activity. I do this often and it has done quite amazingly for the things I need to hear about.
Okay, it really doesn’t matter what is on around you as long as you focus on what God is trying to tell you. And who knows, he may want to say something to you through the television. So I want you to prepare yourself in the way feel most fitting for the Spirit to enter into your thoughts and feelings. Now, simply be silent and pray to God that you want Him to show you something. When you are done saying this short prayer, give God time to respond to you, be silent and undistracted because God may be trying to get your attention from somewhere else. This is a tough and irritable exercise if your heart doesn’t really want to hear from God. So when you are ready to completely immersed in the Spirit… listen.
Okay, this is day two of trying to hear what is being spoken to me from God, so here it goes.
Its amazing how much God can work through us and we don’t even know it. Side thought “isn’t it crazy that everyone has a reason for being everywhere all the time? And we never think to try to figure out why. I think it would be interesting to figure out why some people were places and others weren’t.” God is always trying to tell us awesome things through anything that we could ever imagine. Our time is so bogged down with worldly things that we never have that time alone with the Lord where he is waiting to tell us everything he wants us to know.
There are times in our life that we feel that there is no hope and we are very lonely and nothing can go our way. These are the times that we need to take advantage of. If we can overcome in hardship we will succeed ever so greatly in triumph.
It shows the true character of a person when they will go out and comfort a friend in a rainstorm rather than watching them from afar in the warmth and comfort of being protected indoors. Many say, “Oh why not just invite them inside?” but what I say is that your love will be so much more to make less of yourself rather than remaining in your comfort zone and simply now just having a companion. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that giving someone shelter is incredible and it is being servant minded. But, how much more would your love be remembered, if you sacrifice yourself to make those around you comfortable.
Sometimes God takes you through many things just to give you insight. Like these past few nights, I have been up past midnight for no other reason than God is speaking to me and I have no desire to fall asleep.
This has been a great experience just humbling myself before the Lord and just listening. To think of how much we take God for granted, think about all the time that we pass up spending time with him. Now think of someone that you would love to meet one day and think of them always being willing to sit down with you and communicate no matter how busy they were, they would always just sit there with you as long as you needed, pretty unlikely right? But God will always be right there waiting, yet we still put all our trust and time into worldly things that will never have a fraction of love that God has. It’s crazy that we continue to attempt to be accepted by this world by not being ourselves, when God, the one that made us the way were intended to be, will always have the maximum amount of love that is possible for us. That’s another thing I don’t get about God, no matter what we do or how much we fall, God will always be right there with the same open arms that your mother holds out as soon as you were born. The bible says we are called to be and are created in His image. So the same love that God shows us, we must show others. This is probably one of the hardest things to understand in this world. To love as the Father loved his church.
It is now February and I am still typing, there are now about three and a half months that I will be at Chiles High School. In other words, that is twelve weeks, or sixty days in the campus that marks the setting of the process that took me from a simple fourteen-year-old that had not yet found his identity as a man of God into the eighteen-year-old adult (man it feels weird to say that) that I am now preparing myself for the real world, graduation, and the trials I will face in college life. There will most likely never be another time that I will be of so much influence over this amount of people. Being a senior is such a blessing; it is something everyone will do at one point. Don’t take it for granted! There is such a high mark placed on you. People are looking up to you (literally and figuratively) because of the esteem that comes with being the big men or women on campus. I am not an underclassman anymore, so I don’t know exactly what we look like, or how much influence we do have. All I can relate it to is when I was a freshman and all the seniors seemed like giants even though I, myself, was around six feet tall. So what I am trying to say is that in your last year of school is the most important because you are the ones people will be looking at to make the most accurate judgment of the particular thing you are representing (Chiles High School). Another practical way to see this is by looking at the branches of a tree. When you see a tree, one of the first things you look for is to see how tall it is, or how much it has gone through to reach that point. You look at the top, the largest, and the most experienced to form your opinion. As well as when you are choosing someone for a job, you will not choose someone that just began working that doesn’t really know how things work. No, you will review the applications and choose the one that has the most experience, the one that has been there before, and the one that knows what is going on.
Sorry, I keep rambling on but it is the Spirit speaking to me. Anyway, now is the time for me and really everyone else that has been convicted in anyway about making a difference on your school campus because it will be over before you know it.
Before I finish with this letter, those of you who are reading this I would like you to try something. If you are willing, it is amazing what will happen if you commit your heart and mind to this activity. I do this often and it has done quite amazingly for the things I need to hear about.
Okay, it really doesn’t matter what is on around you as long as you focus on what God is trying to tell you. And who knows, he may want to say something to you through the television. So I want you to prepare yourself in the way feel most fitting for the Spirit to enter into your thoughts and feelings. Now, simply be silent and pray to God that you want Him to show you something. When you are done saying this short prayer, give God time to respond to you, be silent and undistracted because God may be trying to get your attention from somewhere else. This is a tough and irritable exercise if your heart doesn’t really want to hear from God. So when you are ready to completely immersed in the Spirit… listen.
January 30, 2011
January 30, 2011
Okay, so its obvious God wants to speak to me right now. So I’m gonna just keep typing…..
Every now and then we always wait for things to be put out in plain sight for us so we can tangibly accept it and move on and be as simple as possible with our lives. Where is the adventure in that??
Our windows are rolled down….i feel the best way to hear God speak is to just abandon your logic cause all that will do is bog you down, especially if you haven’t been in touch with The Spirit in a while. Because anything that you put in your mind when the Lord is not on it, it will most likely end in trouble. So we must forsake what our mind is telling us and be open to God so this is why I am mindlessly typing this with no structure because those are the ways we make these connections. So forgive me if you get confused because this is God speaking through my fingers and onto this computer. I hope you are blessed
Oh God…my heart is a flower that blooms every hour.
So God has been showing me that he is, in a way, in everything. In everything we say, we see, or we hear. He has put us all on this earth on this time for a reason and a purpose. We always hear that from every pastor you have ever heard, but we will never truly understand God and what he does because if we did, why would we need any faith?
So my time in high school is nearly over yet it seems like I still have so much I want to do. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad for the things that I have been a part of in these 4 years but until the day that every man, woman, and child shouts the name of Jesus as their savior, there will be that emptiness I feel because the fact that thousands of people a day enter into the gates of Hell for eternity. And I wish that meant more to me, but it really doesn’t. I am so selfish. I stay in my comfortable circle of friends that accept me for who I am and I do what I can to share my joy with them, which will never be enough. Simply being friendly to people will not retrieve them for eternal damnation. The harsh truth is that as long as we go on living our lives for ourselves and our selfish desires, the Word of God will stay in our brain for us to remember rather than be spoken through our mouth for others to realize.
God will provide for us, which I freakin can’t make a part of my thought process because my pride is too much to let God take complete control of my life.
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