The Straight and Narrow

Sometimes...

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 03:09:08 -0400

Temptations come when you realize how much easier it seems to be a non-Christian. It looks like life would be soooo much more easier and pleasurable… but God won’t let me leave; not with his Holy Spirit that he has given to me already.

Very encouraging. God is good. Comfort in the midst of the...

Sun, 13 May 2012 03:36:00 -0400

Very encouraging. God is good. Comfort in the midst of the mystery.

Wrestling With God

Thu, 10 May 2012 04:45:57 -0400

I have been learning that it’s ok to wrestle with my anger with God for this season. I know that God is bigger than my anger and he will hold me. I have so many questions and hurts, and even when I’m in this messed up state in my walk he still calls me his beloved child because of Jesus. He is a good and patient Father.

"The essence of the Christian Way is the all-embracing and life-giving relationship of normal human..."

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:37:00 -0400

“The essence of the Christian Way is the all-embracing and life-giving relationship of normal human beings with the living Christ who, following his death and resurrection, is as alive today as when he touched the lepers long ago. Jesus is our contemporary. So being a disciple means much more than going to church, having correct beliefs, or observing Christian liturgy. Being a Christian involves something more than following the teachings of a once-vital but now entombed guru, or living by Christian principles. Discipleship is essentially a transforming relationship with someone who is as influential today—even more so—than he was when the first Christian disciples turned the world upside down. Christianity is Christ, and to be a Christian is simply to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Discipleship implies growth, nurture, education, deepening intimacy, shared goals and life-direction, all facets of a relationship with a person.”

- R. Paul Stevens

"…nothing but transformed lives will be able to intrigue and attract a generation that is bored..."

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 04:34:20 -0400

“…nothing but transformed lives will be able to intrigue and attract a generation that is bored with religion and cynical of pious talk [to Christianity]. Love will do it. Lifestyle will do it. The manifest power of God will do it. And so will the dynamic Christian worship, where the Beyond comes into the midst and deeply touches those who would not even admit to believing there is a Beyond.”

- Michael Green

Come Thou Fount

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:09:00 -0400

My Favorite Hymn.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

"That God in eternity looked upon me—foreseeing my fallen nature, my pride, sin—and said, “I want..."

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:58:45 -0500

“That God in eternity looked upon me—foreseeing my fallen nature, my pride, sin—and said, “I want that man in My family. I would do anything to get him in My family. I would pay for him to be in My family with My Son’s life.” That’s love, folks. That is mega, off-the-charts love.”

- John Piper

Reality Check

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 01:33:00 -0500

How does it feel to know that we have brothers and sisters who are suffering and being tortured for believing in Jesus Christ while trying to bring the gospel to unreached peoples, and others that starving to death with young girls being sold into slavery to be continually raped… All the while Christians here cannot stop arguing over issues of Calvinism and Arminianism, church politics, worship style, teaching style, and other trivial issues, making Christianity entertaining with concerts and church camps for emotionalism and competitive games, excommunicating brothers and sisters over eschatological differences and arguing over the smallest Greek discrepancies. There are places to do some of these things but it’s clear we have our priorities wrong. This is not the heart of Jesus. We’re wasting our lives.

What’s more disturbing is that most Christians who are confronted with this truth will do nothing to help those who are needy and poor in spirit for a countless number of excuses.

Just a Thought

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:10:06 -0500

Maybe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not being heard and falling on deaf ears because the church has stopped taking action and stopped obeying the commands of Christ to go out into the hard places.

How can we say that we highly revere the Scriptures when we don’t obey their commands. I include myself in this critique. Maybe the world will hear the glorious gospel message of the risen Christ when we start taking action, bringing social justice to our communities. We do this so that we may show the world that the Lord is God and there is no other besides him.

Just some thoughts.

"A vibrant and full-orbed spirituality, as exhibited by Jesus, involves active engagement with the..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:43:03 -0500

“A vibrant and full-orbed spirituality, as exhibited by Jesus, involves active engagement with the world on mission for God and as empowered by the Spirit”

- Andreas Kostenberger

Prayer

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:00:28 -0500

Let my sin show your forgiveness

Let my betrayal show your faithfulness

Let my sin show your grace

Let my stubbornness show your patience

Let my shame show your renown

Let my sacrifice show your sufficiency

Let my weakness show your strength

Let my pain show your comfort

Let my obedience show your sovereign transformation in me

Let my praises show your honor

Let my love show your Son

Let my death show your Son’s death

Let my life show your resurrection power

Let my joy show your Gospel

A New Year

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:06:26 -0500

Another retrospective look on this past year brings back sweet memories and a fuller, grander picture of God’s grace and power in my life. My birthday blogs always end up to be a recap of the year’s events so please bear with me.

As I look back on this past year I can definitely see God’s active hand working in my life more clearly than ever before. I have had my ups and downs, but God as always proved himself to be the only stable element in my life time and time again. With him moving me around to different churches I have been able to see God’s work in other local churches in the lives of other brothers and sisters in Christ and it has been so encouraging. I can’t believe how powerfully the Spirit has working in the lives of my peers, who are all in their twenties, who greatly desire and labor to have the God’s kingdom manifest in our world and in our local communities. What a joy it is to lock arms and labor alongside my brothers and sister toward that common goal!

God has also been making his calling on my life more clear to me as I continue to labor and commit my mind to him in my academic studies in school as well. He has been faithful in allowing me to fulfill my desires and contribute to the Christian academic community in a variety of ways that I could never have imagined by putting me in a position to serve alongside and be mentored by my loving pastor who is himself a New Testament scholar. And if that wasn’t enough the Lord provided for me to become a seminary student, molding within me more desires and convictions of wanting to pursue doctoral studies biblical scholarship in the future after my attaining a graduate degree. There was no way I would have ever foreseen events unfolding in this way at the beginning of this year. My God has truly been faithful to me in my academic and intellectual abilities that he has given to me.

Beyond this it has been evident that the Lord has also been careful to reveal to me the goal of my studies and academic endeavors. He has allowed me, by his grace, to witness and experience the sad reality of the social injustices that go on overlooked every day and lack of unity within the church. After ministering to the poor and homeless on different occasions through my church at Antioch, and falling victim on numerous occasions to the disunity that sadly runs rampant within the church, the Spirit has, without a doubt, given me direction in my studies. My goal in my studies is to fight to bring unity within the church, the bride of Christ, so that we can together bring the kingdom into this fallen, broken world, displaying the awesome power of our Lord, Jesus Christ as we help the poor, the homeless, the hurting, the needy, the downtrodden, and the lost to give them the hope of salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I really owe this biblical outlook on the Christian mission to my close friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, who have encouraged me throughout my many mentally and spiritually draining tasks. This has been one of the most difficult and demanding years of my life, but also one of the most fruitful and sweetest years as well. I know that I could not have gotten to where I am now without these close friends of mine; they know who they are. They have helped mold me and shape me in my convictions and character and I am eternally grateful to God for giving me these godly and encouraging friendships.

So at the end of this year, just as I turn 24, I have grown so much in my walk by the grace of God spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. And as I see on the horizon for 2012, I can imagine that much more changes will be taking place (maybe a new location?). Who would have thought that by the end of 2011 I would be writing academic papers, encouraging others, be well on track in my undergrad studies, and be a seminary student working my graduate degree?! God always blows me away by his faithfulness.

Soli Deo Gloria!

I’ve never posted pictures before, but why not? Yes, that...

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:33:00 -0500

I’ve never posted pictures before, but why not?

Yes, that haircut was real. Don’t worry it’s growing back now.

Schooling and Academics

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:40:41 -0500

Today will mark the end of one of the most hectic, intellectually, mentally, spiritually and physically challenging weeks of my life thus far. With finals at my junior college approaching, study time must increase with other exams coming before then in the mix (I really want that 4.0!). On top of that, I have just started graduate courses at Veritas Evangelical Seminary, which is a block of night classes from 6 pm to 10:30 pm all this week from Monday to Friday ending with an all-day class session on Saturday, on top of my other Seminary class in Koine biblical Greek I must study for.

And with Thanksgiving break approaching, my work will not be open, so my work hours have increased somewhat, preventing me from extended periods of time for studying. All I want to do right now is just relax. But I can’t; at least not for long anyways.

Just thinking about where I am in my life and what my goals are and what I’m putting myself through to get there and I think I may have gone crazy. I can’t help but think ten years in the future, if the Lord will be so gracious to give me that much more time, looking back in retrospect that I’m gonna think that I was crazy. But, I know that all of this will not be in vain. I just want to complete Seminary and move on to serve and exemplify Christ in the academic scholarly field by His grace. In the end, that’s what really all that motivates me. My Savior, Christ, has always been the impetus to my studies and that will never change. He has also served as my sustenance throughout as well. It’s hard to believe where I’m at now, looking back from whence I came. All I can do now is pray for strength during these academically trying seasons in my life, and that my brothers and sisters, who I dearly love and appreciate, will be there to support and strengthen me through it all.

Knowing Christ

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:55:59 -0400

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a protection for you. Watch out for “dogs,” watch out for evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh —although I once also had confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ —the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. [Philippians 3:1-11]

As someone who is planning to taking rigorous academic studying of theology and the Bible I always want to make sure that I have a thorough biblical understanding of what true knowledge of Christ is. In trying understand this I feel that true knowledge, as explained in different passages of the Scripture, is never divorced from its existential aspect. True knowledge is never fully considered knowledge until it is implemented in the form of, what Paul always seems to mention and is all to familiar with, suffering. From Paul’s mindset, he embraces suffering because he sees it as a path to understanding and loving Christ more intimately and becoming more united with Him.

Those who know me, know that I have a pretty messed up past that has brought me to where I am now, and that even now I have present physical medical conditions that I must be cautious with today. What I have learned is that there is a kind of suffering that people can experience to achieve a pseudo-righteousness, a false righteousness that I am guilty of trying to attain from time to time. This is an attitude of thinking, “I am better than you because I’ve been through hell and have experienced real hardships that life has to offer, and therefore I know more about life and reality that those who haven’t.” There is an attitude that can come about, thinking that no one has the authority to teach or guide a person unless they have experience similar or worse suffering. I understand that as Christians, the Scriptures are explicit in stating that we will experience hardships and trials and suffering (2 Timothy 3:12). However, it seems that there can be a form of suffering that leads to a hardened heart. There is a right and a wrong way to suffer, and any form of suffering that is not embraced as an opportunity to know Jesus Christ more will always lead to arrogance and sin. I pray that any believer who suffers will not be hardened in their heart but broken before the feet of Jesus. Do not suffer for the goal of false humility or to gain any sympathy from others (I’ll admit I have fallen into this sin in the past and am tempted to do so all the time).

Bottom line: when we do suffer as those who have been redeemed in Christ, the only way we are to view our suffering is as a way of knowing and loving Christ more intimately as we realize that through it we experience the power of Christ’s resurrection from the dead and encouraging others to have the same experience. That is the only way Paul seems to view suffering. You are not more righteous simply because you experience persecution or suffering; you are more sanctified and made more holy because you see instances of persecution and suffering as opportunities to grow, love, and embrace your loving, sovereign, and suffering Savior, Jesus Christ more deeply.

"Nothing is more precious than hearing God say to us personally: No condemnation. Or hearing him..."

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:07:58 -0400

“Nothing is more precious than hearing God say to us personally: No condemnation. Or hearing him pronounce the words over our guilty heads, Justified! If you cherish this verdict and this standing with God, then cherish your union with Christ. Make it part of what you value most in the world.”

- John Piper

"But where can I find such pleasure except in You, Lord—except in You, who teach us by sorrow,..."

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:34:38 -0400

“But where can I find such pleasure except in You, Lord—except in You, who teach us by sorrow, who wound us to heal us, and kill us so that we might not die apart from You.”

- St. Augustine

Reminder in Suffering

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:10:00 -0400

Something I must learn, trust and embrace: God’s sovereignty is the comfort in suffering.
Sanctification August 31, 2010 at 5:30pm

This is something I posted last year on Facebook. It still resonates with me and is a reality to me every day. It seems that almost every time God’s sovereignty is brought up in Scripture it is within the context of giving hope, peace, and comfort in suffering, as a reminder of just how strong our God is in the midst of trials and unpredictable circumstances. I still need to constantly remind myself of this reality. O, how I love and cherish my Savior for enduring the most intense suffering on my behalf on the Cross and for resurrecting for me! Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Reflection Eternal

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:56:00 -0400

So, I just finished writing this huge paper of research on the Old Testament (that’s all I’m gonna say about that), and after all the sacrifices made and the struggles encountered, I have to say that I’m glad I went through it all. I take this as a glimpse of my future life in ministry will look like to a degree. So many countless hours dedicated to studying and writing and researching on top of ministry and teaching and fellowship did take its toll after awhile.

Working through the pressure and stress, pulling all-nighters, writing and researching for twenty hours straight to do the best I can with approaching deadlines have been a new experience for me. I have never pushed myself to these extremes before; mentally, physically nor spiritually. I never knew I had the capacity to go to these extremes before, so I have surprised myself quite a bit to my liking. These were not easy for me, these were very trying times, but the Lord used this season to grow me very quickly. I see that as a pattern in my life, honestly. Ever since the Lord saved me I feel like he’s put me in positions that don’t allow me to be stagnant, that push me far beyond my comfort zone to teach me what he wants me to learn and to mature me.

I have learned so much from this experience. God’s powerful grace sustained me throughout the entire ordeal emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The Lord made my physical weaknesses apparent to me and exposed the indwelling sin in my heart as only the Spirit can do through a time of brokenness. It was the support the Lord gave me through my close friends that held me together the most, I believe. I have to say I don’t think I could have gone through this without the encouragement and prayers of my close friends: Casey, Dan, Derek, Emily, Andrea and Kandis. I love them very much and am grateful to them for putting up with me during our hang out times when I would just be there to be there while I typed away on my computer and read books on the couch. I just wanted to be around them as much as I could even when I was dead tired. I just love their fellowship. Of course I had much support from many of my other friends and I am deeply appreciative of them as well and I love them also! You know who you are!

Andrew Pitts (my mentor), of course, was a great support for me. I’m thankful for him taking me in and allowing me to participate in this labor with him, discipling me in the process. I am just so thankful for his love, patience and support for me. I’m looking forward to more future endeavors with him and studying more under him in seminary. He’s done more for me in my walk than he’ll ever know. I’m just glad I’m able to help him out in ministry and be a part of God’s working in the community here in Temecula. I’m also thankful for Amber, his wife, and the few meaningful conversations we’ve had. I love them both dearly!

All in all, the Lord stretched me beyond anything I thought I could have done through his servants pushing me and encouraging me. This will definitely be an experience I will never forget and will be forever grateful for! I trust that God will continue to sustain me through the trials in my life in the future, especially through the next busy season of my life. I just can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for me for the rest of the year! I’m just working toward the goal of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead, that’s all that truly matters to me in this life (Philippians 2:10-11)!

Dependence Upon The Infinite Sovereign

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:01:07 -0400

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, but it is likely that God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, and that is a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the privilege (the right) of supplying your needs day by day our of an unseen treasury. The Lord will let others be honoured and put forward, and keep you hidden away in obscurity, because He wants some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory which can only be produced in the shade. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will let you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then make your work still more precious, He will let others for the work you have done, and this will make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings of for wasting your time, over which other Christians never seem distressed. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has the right to do as He pleases with His own, and He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you. He will take you at your word and if you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things which He will not let you say or do.

Settle if for ever that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is the have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in way that He does not deal with others. Now when you are so possessed with the Living God, that you are in your secret heart pleased and delighted over the peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven.

-Hudson Taylor

Such powerful words that can only come from a man who was completely broken and captivated by the beauty, love, and holiness of the true and mighty Living God. How I long to make words like these my own, and only by God’s infinite grace will I be able to do so. There is nothing more to add to these words.