Saturday, September 25, 2010

Sorry for not blogging lately

Posted by lguerrero at 11:27 AM / / 0 comments
So this semester in school has been one of my busiest so far. Not just because of classes or homework, but it has just been busier than usual in all areas of my life and I have found myself with less time to do the things I enjoy doing.

One of those things has been blogging.

During the summer, I could write a new blog post every few days, I had a lot more extra time in my hands and a lot more time to think and do stuff.

I wanted to share something that God has been showing me lately though: my time.
As I have been noticing, not just in me but in other people, is how hard it is to handle our busy schedules. We live basing our daily routines in what we do, when we do and the time of the day we have to do things. I think it is engraved in our mindset the need to follow a schedule. We have to be at work or in school or other commitments (church activities in my case) and we fit everything else around them. In my case, I tend to fit God around everything else I do.

I was thinking last night about this before going to bed. It is sad that I fit God into my schedule, when He should be the number one priority in my schedule. When I think about how He saved me, how He picked me out of the chunk of the world, words are not even enough to express my gratitude. But I often tend to treat Him as "I will spend time with You, if I can get up early enough, or if I am done with my daily activities and don't feel too tired". Why do I do this?

As I was reading Psalm 25 this morning, I was reminded of how important it is to know the ways of the Lord, and growing closer to Him. To know the ways of the Lord, means to fellowship, spend time with Him and learn from Him. This has been a constant struggle of mine as I have seasons in which I do really good, and others in which I send Him back to the back of my schedule and spend time with Him when I have the time to.

So even if it means getting up earlier or sacrificing the little free time I have, I must commit to spend more time with Him. Always and every day.
Sunday, September 19, 2010

Hossana in the Highest

Posted by lguerrero at 3:50 PM / / 0 comments
We sang this song at church this morning and it reminded me about how praising God in all situations is important. Watch this video and let the Holy Spirit comfort you!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Psalm 15

Posted by lguerrero at 8:35 PM / / 0 comments
I read this Psalm this morning and it made me think about my walk:



A Psalm of David.
O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
(Psalm 15:1-5)

My friends, as I read this Psalm, I thought about my walk and my unworthiness. It humbled me so much, it is almost as reading what our goals as followers of Christ should be. It did the same that Psalm 1 does for me, when it speaks about how a man walking with the Lord should be.

I pray that this encourages you the way it did to me. We serve and follow a Sovereign and Powerful God, one who guides us at every step, yet we are so easily distracted, so easily forget about Him, we forget that He calls us to live a life of righteousness and honor.

Thank you Lord for these small reminders that I find in your Word!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Sprechen Sie deutsch ?

Posted by lguerrero at 9:35 PM / / 0 comments

For my language credits in college, I decided to go with German. Why? I have always found it an interesting-sounding language, not to forget I always found it funny when I heard people speaking it because they always sounded like they were yelling or angry, even if they had a big smile on their face.

Now I am no expert in linguistics, but I have come to learn how hard it is to learn a new language, specially as an adult.

For those who don't know me that well, I grew up in Mexico City (I have said that before in this blog I am sure), but I grew up in a multicultural home, meaning with a Mexican Dad and an American Mom, so both english and spanish were spoken when I was growing up, this caused me to be fluent in both at a young age. I think my parents made a good call when they decided how to handle the language learning situation at home.

Anyhow...I went to a Mexican school, which was bilingual and English was a pretty big part of learning, many of my classmates were Mexicans who had little or no knowledge of English, so I remember growing up seeing how frustrated some of them would get when they couldn't get it right. I always found it easy and got the best grades of all my school life in English, it was always easy for me, but now that I am 24 (actually 25 in a few days) and learning a different language, I have come to understand how hard it is to grasp different concepts and rules from what I am familiar.

For example: sentence structure and verbs are what I have the hardest time with, putting a sentence together and conjugating a verb is so different than in English or in Spanish! I am currently in the 3rd semester of German classes and I can say I have learned...maybe what a 5 or 6 year old German kid knows.

It is fun though and a break from other tedious and not so fun college classes I've had to take though.
Monday, September 6, 2010

The Power of Intercessory Prayer

Posted by lguerrero at 1:06 PM / / 0 comments

Sunday Services are the main event most churches have, our church is not any different. While I think many people grow acostumed to the routinary procedure that they do on Sunday, we must remember to faithfully be interceding for everything that goes on, from the sound ministry, worship, Sunday School classes to the Pastor delivering the message.

As Spiritual Warfare is always present when we are trying to serve the Lord, I have come to realize that as a church, we need to live a life of prayer more. Praying and interceding for the work of God, for the reaching of the unbelievers or those curious that are looking for a church. I am glad that I belong to a body of believers that takes prayer as such an important and vital activity. I have seen many fellowships (not saying that my church is perfect or the only one) that fall and crumble because of lack of prayer and direction of the Holy Spirit.

In these days, and more specifically in "Modern church America", many are drifting away from the basics of what it means to do church, focusing more on gimmicks and techniques to attract people to their churches, forgetting that the only way to succesfully bring those whom the Lord is calling, is through relying on the Holy Spirit. We are called to intercede for the lost, we are called to intercede for our Pastors and Leaders as they struggle in studying through out the week, we must pray for our Worship Teams to remain humble, remembering that all they do (music wise), is to lead people into worshiping God and not to themselves.

You see the warfare that goes on for only an hour and a half of one day of the week? Not just that, we need to pray and continue in fellowship every day. Church is not just once a week, it is an everyday fellowship and community. This is what I have learned.

Continue praying, PRAYER WARRIORS!
Saturday, September 4, 2010

Attitude: [check]

Posted by lguerrero at 1:52 PM / / 0 comments



Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
(Colossians 3:23-24)





I came across these couple verses this morning as I was reading my Bible. I have read them several times before and I quote them every now and then, but they served me as a reminder this morning about something I have been letting getting away with: Attitude.


Working with kids has taught me a lot of things, but one thing that I always think about is their attitude towards things. One of the most frustrating things about my job is coming up with activities that the kids will like. There are some kids that are happy and have fun no matter what you have them do, but there are others that always have something to complain about. It is hard to please everyone, but one thing I have noticed about those that have a good attitude VS the ones that don't is that they enjoy things a lot more, they don't mind having to run or play a sports game, they have a good time and enjoy the activity.

As I have grown up and matured as a person, I have noticed how much my attitude towards things influences how well I do them. For example, if I have to write a 10 page paper about a subject I don't care about, I will probably have a terrible time and dread it to the last minute, but if I have to write an article for one of my Journalism classes (which I really enjoy since that is my major), I can do it in a hard beat.

Attitude also changes how we do things for the Lord, we can do sloppy jobs for God and good jobs for Him, but one thing I am often reminded is to do EVERYTHING as if it was for Him, not just at church or ministry, but EVERYTHING! It makes things more pleasing and fun to do, not just fun, but you always do best if you have a better attitude.

I like how Paul reminds the Colossians here about doing all things as to pleasing God and not men. Pleasing men is one of the hardest things to do as everyone has a concept or idea of things and it tends to be different depending on the person. God is pleased when we are living a life for Him, when we are walking according to His ways. At church, of course I want other people to like the way I do things, but "who am I doing things for?",  is it to get a pat in the back from my Pastor or others at church or to please God?

I would choose option #2. Our goal should be please God, not men. To serve God, not men. To do everything in God's name, not for man. This is where the world VS the church differ. The ways of the world are to get to the top, kicking anyone who gets in your way and hurting whoever crosses paths with you just to get what you want. God wants His people to be different, He wants us to do EVERYTHING for Him, care for others and always represent His name in a manner that is worthy.

Hard to do? Of course it is, because we are daily influenced by the ways of the world, but with God all things are possible. We are called to live for Him, not for man.
Friday, September 3, 2010

Blogging about Blogging

Posted by lguerrero at 9:23 PM / / 0 comments

I have learned a lot since I first started blogging in February, roughly only 8 months ago. I have learned to use this tool for sharing my thoughts, experiences and the things that God has been teaching me in His Word. As a new month begins, I thought it would be a great way opening up with why I believe this is a great tool.

There are many of us bloggers out there and there are many different kinds of blogs. Some people use it to chronicle their daily lives, others showbiz, others just like to vent and get things out of their mind. Whatever it is, I am glad to be a part of this community.

For the last 8 months, "The Three-Twelve" has been my way of sharing God's Word, seen through my eyes. I am the type of person that likes to talk and likes to share, sometimes I do it too much, but there are things that for some reason I feel more comfortable sharing through this venue. There are very few people that I fully open my heart too and share my deepest feelings and thoughts too, I think it is just a mechanism of defense I have built up through out the years.

The Internet is such an amazing tool and I am glad of being part of a generation that has learned to use it. I first remember using the internet when I was in Elementary School and it was still in its initial stages of becoming popular. Internet has pretty much almost become a replacement for other types of media, you can get your news, gossip, even talk with friends you have not seen in years and catch up with them through social networking. Even my parents seem to have caught up to the "Facebook trend".

But I firmly believe it is also a great venue to reach the lost of this world and encourage other Christians. I have read several blogs that have encouraged me and challenge me to share God's Word more with a world that is falling apart day by day. I have heard many people talk about the dangers of the internet, which are present, but you can also look at it as a tool God can use and does use.

I like sharing what I read in the Bible and the lessons of life that God teaches me, I don't title myself an "Internet Preacher", because I know that I am not, I am just another guy who is doing his best to walk with the Lord. I have my ups and down in life and there are days when I don't even feel worthy of calling myself a follower of Christ. I fall and I stumble, but by the sovereign grace of the blood of Christ, He lifts me up and renews me when I do.

Lately, I have been posting devotionals and lessons that I learn from teachings at church and I want to continue doing more of that. I want to give less of my opinion of things and more of the Truth spoken in the Bible. I want to do less of my point of view of things and more of God's point of view.

Phew..................get what I am trying to say?


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