Inside Out

Well today my wife Clarinda suggested during her lunch break that I go out back to our patio to work. Every Monday I work and study on the message I'll be teaching on Wednesday to our youth and send parents emails and stuff. I also try to fit in a blog here and there. I do it all inside my house and it's all fine and great (So I thought). What a good idea it was to suggest to go outside! It was great changing up my regular routine on Mondays and just going outside to do everything. For most of us we can get used to the things we do on a regular basis and not even think about changing them. Maybe it's just all we know so we don't think about it and just settle. Just being outside in my back yard on my patio was really relaxing and refreshing. Being outside made me think of alot of things. First, how awesome the creation of God is! The birds flying, the wind and all the sounds I heard other than my A/C unit turning off and on when I'm inside, but in particular our new 4 week series were doing on Wednesday and the challenge to move past the ordinary. You know just by changing something like going outside today really tied into our series. I was able to experience and feel from just being outside, a move from what I do ordinarily to something different that I truly enjoyed! Being outside is great! Even now as I write this I'm outside. You see, God wants us to experience much more in our lives than what we just know or do. All we have to do is move past the ordinary! With fall here already and the cool weather coming I'll be doing this more often. Just not in shorts and a shirt. Peace out Ya'll!

New Fall Super Series!

Starting this Wednesday October 1st FSM will begin our New Super Series "Rescued From An Ordinary Life". We will explore John 10:10"A thief comes to steal,kill and destroy; I came so they can have real eternal life, a better life than you've ever dreamed of". Our youth will learn about the necessary tools they need to live life "out of the ordinary". Jesus doesn't wants us to settle for small living, but BIG LIVING! This series is 4 weeks and it breaks down like this:

Week 1: Watch Out for the Thief

Week 2: When God Came Near

Week 3: Living Today With Hope for Eternity

Week 4: A life Well Lived

I will posting each week about each message so be sure to stop by to see what our youth have been learning. Please pray for our student's hearts and minds to be totally focused on Christ during this series.

To contact me visit http://www.fosm.net/ and click on the youth link. Peace Out ya'll!

The Rock That Rocks!

Sunday night Firehouse took off to New Braunfels, Tx to rock out with Superchick,Stellar Kart,Starlit Platoon, and Article One! What can I say it was AWESOME! Tree of Life church was jammed packed and the music was absolutely ear drum popping loud! Everyone was jumping around and just having a good time. At one point the bass player from Stellar Kart came out to the audience and rocked out by us. All the bands put on awesome shows. It was a great night to rock for the Lord. Rock on ya'll! Peace out.

Movies and BIG living

We had our Firehouse movie night yesterday. It was cool being outside with everybody and watching Facing The Giants. When I say cool I really mean that literally. This weather has been great lately! I think this Monday is the official start for fall. We watched the movie in the back yard and had popcorn and pickles. All the great stuff you need to enjoy a movie. I'm really excited about next week. We're starting our brand new message series "Saved From an Ordinary life". Our youth will learn what it takes to live a life that God intended for us to live, but far to often most youth settle for the life that this world offers and they often think that's good enough. Not that everything is bad out there, but it can get pretty tempting for our youth to settle for just "ordinary living". Not so for our Creator! Our God who spoke this world into existence knows with out a doubt that thinking like that is just small. We need to think BIGGER than that! That's what our youth will be challenged on. It's going to be an awesome opportunity for youth to take lessons from the Bible and hear what God say's about BIGGER living! More details later. Peace out. P.S I don't think I'am Super Man! lol..

Firehouse updates for 9-15-08

• 
  
  No regular meeting on Wednesday September 17


• Movie night Friday September 19 at my casa 313 Cordero Drive 7:30 pm


• Superchick and Steller Kart concert at The Tree of Life Church in New Braunfels Tx 7pm on Sunday September 21.


• New message series next week!! Not saying just yet...shhhh


• That's all for now folks! Peace out.

Love and Grace

Last December I decided to get some tattoos. I knew that there would be all sorts of different opinions about them, so I was prepared to engage that. One of the first things I heard and is something that usually is the first thing people say. It's that Christian aren't suppose to get tattoos. That it was a sin against God to do such a thing. You would think that after you read Leviticus 19:28 that it's pretty cut and clear right? But it does not say that tattoos are a sin! As a matter of fact nowhere in the Bible does it say that it is. I think that the text really needs to be read and studied carefully. This passage in Leviticus, including the surrounding text, is specifically dealing with the pagan religious rituals of the people living around the Israelites. I think this topic is something that you have to decide for yourself. If you read the text before verse 28, it talks about many other things not to do like wearing clothing woven of two kind of material(verse 19), and not cutting our hair at the sides of our heads or clip off the edges of your beards(verse 28) or not eating any meat with blood still in it(verse 26).Well, certainly many Christians today eat non-kosher meats and get haircuts without participating in the forbidden worship of pagans. Back then these customs were associated with pagan rites and rituals. Today they are not. Like I said you have to form your own opinion about it, as for me it's quite fine to get tattooed. Again, that is my own opinion. This post is for me to express why I got them in the first place. First to honor God. Defiantly not for my own attention, but His! I believe that God knew my intention in getting them and He honors that. On my right fore arm it says "love" in the exact same way that it is written in the Bible font and all! In my left it says "grace" the same way. On top of the words there are hands inside a circle with holes in the middle of the hands, both representing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It's based on the scripture in Ephesians 2:4-7 it says..
4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. I was in a place where I didn't have Christ in my life and because of His love and grace I am able to experience a real awesome relationship with Him! I'm grateful every single day for that. Peace out!

Steam Rolled!

One of the thing's that I enjoy doing is learning about youth culture and the machine that it is. I truly believe that as a youth leader to teenagers, and a father to one, that we need to engage ourselves in this rapidly changing culture that our teens are in. I had a great talk with some friends from church yesterday and we discussed about the topic a bit. Man, looking at everything from media whether it's through music, movies, TV shows, commercials or any thing of pop culture, is alarming as youth leader and parent. Theres no doubt in my mind that we need to keep up with youth culture and have a better understanding of what our youth encounter, because if we don't this world is more than happy to take them in. There are just too many media outlets that teens can can plug into today. As parents it can be something that is just plain discouraging and at times is just something we don't want to deal with. Big mistake! It's an issue that we must face head on and seek with Godly wisdom. What are our teens listening to? What movies are they watching? Are these thing's shaping there values? If so why? One important thing we need to remember in all the madness is that kid's and teenagers are a gift from God!(Psalm 127:3-5) Because God values them so highly so should we. I mentioned that youth culture was like a machine and it is! It's showing no signs of slowing down and takes with it what ever it can. Can it be slowed down? Yes, it can ! By equipping ourselves as youth leaders and parents with a better understanding and knowledge of it, and in doing so pointing our youth in the direction of Jesus Christ, and helping them have a better understanding of who He is and what He can do in there lives. Jesus is Himself was very much involved in culture. I believe even now He would command us to "get with the program". The MTV VMA's(video music awards) were on last night. I stayed up last night to watch it and take in somethings. This year the host of the awards show was awful! God bless that guy and pray for him! One of the thing's that caught my attention was how he really put down The Jonas Brothers. For what? The three of them wear purity rings. They believe that you should wait until your married to have sex. Awesome! Great values that they have are unfortunately an easy target to make fun of by the host. Sad, very sad that this culture thinks that's it's the "norm" to have sex before marriage. God certainly didn't intend it to be this way, but sadly that's the way culture presents it. How many teenagers do you think stayed up to watch ? What message was communicated to them? I love what Walt Muller says... " culture is the "soup" in which our teenagers swim around and soak every day. The soup's ingredients include values, attitudes, and behaviors-as well as the media, peer group, language, and so on that express them. To know kids, we must lift the lid of the soup pot and see what's in the mix." Some serious stuff ya'll! Peace out!

Back from New York

What a weekend it was! Clarinda and I had the great opportunity to head out to New York City with some good friends of ours. We left on Thursday morning and came home on Monday around 4 or so. Wow! Were do I begin? Let's start with the obvious. New York is a fast pace city!!! I couldn't believe how fast everything was there, especially in time square. Every single person seemed like there were in a hurry to get someplace. Talk about bobbin and weavin! I think I hit every single person in New York, it was nuts. Time Square was so bright with lights that at one point getting out of the Broadway show The Lion King (which was awesome) in the lobby area I commented to Clarinda "is it still daylight outside?". It was 11pm at night folks! I don't know what I was thinking, but it really did seem like daylight! Craaazy! It was a sight to see so many things going on at one time you really had to be on your toes, or you'd get them run over by a taxi. Saturday we took the subway from Grand Central Station and took a ferry boat to Liberty Island. The Lady with the torch! The Statue of Liberty was awesome! Climbing about 130 steps to get to the top of the pedestal we were able to view the sky line of New York Harbor, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey. A beautiful sight to see. From there we took another boat to Ellis Island. After arriving back on land we went to visit Ground Zero, the sight wear The World Trade Center once stood. What an emotional sight to witness. Work was being done to build the Freedom Tower which was awesome to see as well. Took a double Decker bus tour around the whole city, China Town, Little Italy just to name a few. Walked around Central Park ate then ate some more. New York pizza! Delicious! Did I mention we did alot of walking? My feet felt like they were about to come off. Sunday Clarinda and I went to The Journey Church in Manhattan. Great service by the way! Over all we both truly enjoyed our experience together In New York. Being with our good friends just made it alot better!