Giving Thanks

BBQ Thanksgiving was awesome yesterday! My Aunt made her delicious beans and rice with home made tortillas. And me....well I was the grill master! It was definitely a thankful time to share with my family. I love them all! We all had a great time together. Then it was the Dallas Cowboy game and their beat down on the Seahawks. I can't wait for that rematch with the New York Giants. Bring it on! RRRRRRRR!!!!! Peace out.

Weekend Shots

• Friday was awesome! Me along with my brother in law and his son went to Shoreline in Austin Tx to ROCK OUR FACES OFF at The Creation Festival Tour!!! Thousand Foot Krutch, Kutless,Pillar, KJ52 bringin the old school, Fireflight and many more. Everyone ROCKED the rafters off!
• Saturday we had Thanksgiving early with Clarinda's side of the family. This is something we have been doing every year. It works out great all the time. On Thanksgiving Day were going to my aunt's house to spend it with my mom, brothers and all the familia!. Check this out though! It's going to be a BBQ Thanksgiving!! Yep, I'm throwing down on the grill! SIZZLING DELICIOUS!!
• Sunday we concluded our message series FANATIC at church. Pastor Randy did an excellent job in sharing what God has given him through this series. It's given me personally many thoughts and questions of what I worship and what is it I'm investing my time on? Does it bring honor to God? Is it helping in building His kingdom? All great thing's to think about. Awesome job Pastor Randy! Gods hand was in everything. And for that I'm very grateful. What else? Oh yeah, Da Boys put it on the 49ers! Went to my brother in laws to watch the game. Man, I'd like to have DVR. I love it that we can fast forward through all the commercials. Ate dinner there and watched the AMA's. Why does everyone have to take shot's at the Jonas Brothers? Just because of there purity rings. That just makes me upset! More on that later. But for now peace out ya'll!

Amazing Crumpled Paper

Allow me to introduce you to our house cat Cashew! Also known as Da Fusa. He's been known to some as "The Devil Cat". Why your probably asking right? We'll he likes to bite and paw at people. He doesn't have any claws so no scratches, but his teeth definitely are still there! Your probably thinking that other name suits him better. Well, believe or not Cashew is not as bad as he sounds. He's still considered according to cat age a kitten. You wouldn't think so if you saw him. He loves to play, purr, pounce and all those other things cats his age enjoy doing. Why I'm I blogging about our cat? Let me tell you. You know all those toys that cat's have at pet stores, the jingle balls(I said jingle balls lol), the cat nip filled mouse, and all those other fancy expensive thing's cats supposably need? Cashew does just fine without them. The pictures you see of him with that white ball looking thing is the best toy any cat owner can ever have! Can you guess what it is? Let me tell you, or better yet let me tell you how to make it. Get a sheet of paper and simply crumple it! Yep, folks that's all it is, crumpled paper. It's fun for the cat and best of all it's totally free! Our cat LOVES IT!!! He can play for hours with it. It's just so funny to see how something so simple as a crumpled paper can amuse Cashew. I was looking under the couches in our living room and there must have been about 10 of those crumpled up papers under there! So if your a cat owner, try it out! Your cat will love it. Any funny thing's your cat plays with? Peace Out!

Firehouse Students

This Wednesday November the 19th Firehouse Student Ministry will be meeting at our new church location. The time will be from 6:30 until 8:30. We will be doing our part in service for our church building. Parent's are invited and encouraged to stay and join us. NO SPECIAL SKILL'S REQUIRED FOLKS!! See everyone out there. Go to www.fosm.net for information on our building.

I Still Believe

This morning I was listening to one of my favorite Cd's by Jeremy Camp. Back in May of 2003 I first trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and that CD from Jeremy which was titled "Stay" was one of the first full Cd's I bought in which someone sang about Jesus. I remember thinking to myself, man... you can sing about Jesus and still rock out? That's awesome! After listening to that Cd over and over again I began to see who Jesus was through music. The lyrics Jeremy Camp wrote were like a love letter to God. There was one song I heard this morning that I remembered really spoke to me personally. It was titled" I Still Believe". Here are the lyrics you can read. Scattered words and empty thoughts seem to pour from my heart I've never felt so torn before seems I don't know where to start but it's now that I feel Your grace falls like rain from every fingertip, washing away my pain[Chorus:]I still believe in Your faithfulness I still believe in Your truth I still believe in Your holy word even when I don't see, I still believe Though the questions still fog up my mind with promises I still seem to bear even when answers slowly unwind it's my heart I see You prepare but its now that I feel Your grace fall like rain from every finger tip, washing away my pain[Chorus]The only place I can go is into your arms where I throw to you my feeble prayer sin brokeness I can see that this was your will for me Help me to know You are near
I was very new in my faith and I didn't have all the answers. There were times when I was asked questions about my faith in God and I didn't know how to respond. The thing was that the questions that people asked weren't because they really wanted to know, but rather to test and mock me. I started feeling frustrated and at one point just wanting to give up. I started asking God where He was in all this. This song gave me hope and understanding of who God was in my life. At the time I didn't have all the answers(and I still don't),yet God was faithful and true! Through this song He reminded me that His grace covered everything I did. That even though I couldn't see Him I could still walk by faith. So this morning as I was doing the dishes and listening to the song and it reminded me that even now and forever our Creator Jesus Christ in all of His greatness is faithful till the very end! Is there a song like that for you? I know it could be anything for that matter. Peace Out!

Weekend Shots

Man, has the weekend already ended! It was a good one though. Some of the thing's I did.

• Eat some awesome hot wing's from The Wing Stop(first time eating there)
• Present my daughter her true love waits ring! Beautiful experience. The ring she had was to big so we had to order one just her size. Then we went out to eat.
• Watched the movie We are Marshall with my wife. Let me say...WHAT A GREAT MOVIE! If you haven't seen it yet what are you waiting for. I learned many thing's from that movie that I can apply as a youth pastor. No joke ya'll! It's great stuff.
• Church was awesome! We had new guy's up on stage Sunday and they sounded great together! Awesome job guy's. We continued our series [Fanatic] What Do You Worship? Randy and Brian have done a great job in teaching this. Preach on fella's!Elena performed at the Goodnight vs Miller football game. The team all performed great! Miller D-Backs though didn't fair so well. They lost to Goodnight. Great effort on Millers part.No Dallas Cowboy's on Sunday so the familia just chilled. My fantasy team did great! (7-3 maybe?)

A very enjoyable weekend has come and gone. Bring on the week! Peace out.

Throw me that life line so I can throw it to others!

• Loving toward others (Romans 13:8)
• Investing in significant relationships(Ecclesiastes 4:10)
• Valuing life vs existing(Phillipians 1:20-21)
• Expecting to grow(Hebrews 6:1)
• Displaying Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15)

What does that spell? L.I.V.E.D! It can be very challenging. We can be selfish by nature and just think of our own needs. I'm guilty of that. But how can we move past all that selfishness? Jesus said it well in the last part of John 10:10. We can all live a better life when we come to realize that it ain't about us at all! It's about Jesus coming down to live with us and giving us a better life! The focus comes off us and goes to Jesus. Lord knows I'm not perfect, but He continues to use me. Imperfect people! That's His love for us. Look at these people.

· Joseph was abused
· Moses stuttered
· Gideon was poor
· Rahab was immoral
· Elijah was suicidal
· Jeremiah was depressed
· Thomas had lots of doubts
· Samson was insecure
· Zacchaeus was mean & unpopular
· Martha struggled to make good decisions

We all can be used to make our lives and the lives of others better than we've ever dreamed of! Theres so much to be done. I often ask myself, I'm I doing all that needs to be done? What's missing in my life that need's to be exposed to Jesus? Jesus came! He simply came. He say's I can answer all your question's if you just ask! You see I can't do it by myself. None of us can.We have to rely on Jesus and only Him. His presence in all our lives can be the start of moving past the ordinary and into a life well lived. Teenagers need to know this fact as well. More than ever! There are lies out there, but only one truth! Just like Ephesians 4:14-16 say's, Then we will no longer be babies. We will not be tossed about like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to fool us. They make plans and try any kind of trick to fool people into following the wrong path.15 No! Speaking the truth with love, we will grow up in every way into Christ, who is the head.16 The whole body depends on Christ, and all the parts of the body are joined and held together. Each part does its own work to make the whole body grow and be strong with love. Peace out!