I like concerts. A lot. No joke.
There is something amazing about seeing bands performing live that gives me a rush, the energy, passion and display of musical talent is always amazing to me (considering that I have tried to play instruments in the past with no success, I just don't have ANY musical talent whatsoever).

But what I like the most is Christian concerts, specially those that more than any of the things I just mentioned above, glorify God.

For some reason, over the last couple of the years I have been very turned off by some Christian bands I used to unconditionally follow, my taste of music has changed a lot. I say this because many modern Christian bands are becoming very secular, I used to listen to the M88, our "local" Christian station (it comes from Albuquerque, which is about 3 hours from here) all the time in my car, but a lot of the stuff they play now just doesn't appeal to me anymore, I don't know why that is. I have also discovered some awesome rappers, who are pretty much most of what I listen to these days, Christian music-wise because they preach the Gospel in their lyrics in such a more real and true way than many of the more mainstream Christian bands out there.

Three of my favorite bands were there among the main performers: The Afters, Thousand Foot Krutch and my main diggy dog Lecrae. Jars of Clay and Mercy Me were there too, who I like but are not in my top rank, they were still pretty good.

Let's start rating my 3 faves of the show:

Bring me to life.

Breathe air into me,

It's taken me my whole life to realize
All the things I've never seen,
Bring me to life.
Breathe air into me,
Take me from the darkness that I've been in
'Cause I just wanna be free,

Bring me to life! Bring me to life!

Right before 2011 started, I came to the conclusion that is worthless to even think of "Resolutions" or personal goals to achieve for the new year, most of the times I have my mind set on doing something that I want to accomplish by the end of the year and then I find myself either forgetting about them or doing something completely different. I guess it is the way that I am wired or something.

There are areas in my life that need work on, many that are out of my control, that God needs to work in and through me so I can be who He wants me to be, that is something that has been revealed to me recently. If you look at some of the blog posts I wrote last year (specially around the summer time), you will see that it seems that I changed my mind all the time about what I wanted to do...that is the key: it was becoming more about what I wanted to do, rather than what God wanted me to do.


Not too long ago, someone confronted me about that stuff, at first I was blown away because it seemed to me that it came out of nowhere, but after thinking about it I realized it could all be boiled down to one simple issue: Humility.


You see, I have allowed pride to take over in the past, as soon as I feel like I am doing good, I allow pride to come in and take place and do with me as it pleases. I have dealt with issues of pride before but it always seems to come back one way or another. It is easy for me to think "look at me I am doing pretty good",  and not give God the proper credit. Other times, I start doing things for myself and not even invite God into them or give Him the opportunity to work and do the work.

So that would be what it all would boil down to this year (and  every year upcoming), to be less prideful and allow God to do the work in my life, to know when to be humble and step down and let others do the work, to not get in the way when God is doing something and allow Him to do it, not me.

From now on, God gets all the credit and I will be consistently praying that God reveals to me the areas in my life that need that improvement, that He will show me when I am getting too prideful and that I know to detect it before it takes over, to not think that I am "all that" and to remember that I am nothing but a vessel that God uses to do His work.

Who knows? This may be a big year full of many changes and I look forward to it.

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

(Psalm 95:1-7 ESV)

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:11-12 ESV)

This verse really encouraged me this morning. As I go out in to the world daily (to school, work, etc), I want to pursue all that is right, godly, and all of the above. I don't want to be complatient or be comfortable or even look at the things of the world. I want to seek God first. It is too easy to do that.

In the end, this battle is all worth it, and God has already won it.

We need to remain faithful to the calling the Lord Jesus Christ has given to us.

Do you really follow Him?
Have you really made that decision?
Are you really willing to surrender it all and go and do whatever He will call you to do?

These have been some questions I have had in my mind lately, not because of being unsure of my salvation, but because I came to realize something in my walk lately...Am I really following Jesus the way He wants me to?

To explain, I will refer to the passage when Jesus meets the disciples:

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
(Matthew 4:18-20 ESV)

This is a verse that jumped out to me as I went to a Calvary Chapel Men's Conference in Los Lunas,NM this weekend. I thought of these exact words and the awesome promise that our Lord makes for those who choose to follow Him. You see, ever since I became a Christian, my walk has been an interesting roller coaster. I've had my up moments and down moments, I've had very strong seasons and others in which I am very content and complacent with life. God has broken me and restored me...only so I eventually start the cycle all over again.

But this weekend, I felt a different kind of brokenness.
As I heard one of the Pastors teach about events taking place in John 21:15-19, when Jesus was already resurrected and spoke to Peter, after He had denied Him:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."
He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep."
He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go."
(This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me."
(John 21:15-19 ESV)

In this verse we see a different Peter...he had gone through a humble and broken moment in His life. The man he had been following, suddenly died, was humiliated and crucified...worse of all, he denied him to the people, he said he did not know him...Peter had been broken. Imagine this in your own life. Now we see, Jesus resurrected and re-encountered with His disciples, Peter included and He asks Peter if He is truly willing to follow Him, no matter what was to happen next.
I could relate to Peter as I was listening to this awesome message (and honestly there was too much in it to write it all down), I felt broken as well. I could hear Jesus asking me those same questions: "Do you love me Luis?" Tears ran down my face and I answered "Yes Lord, of course I love you."


"Do you really love me?"
"Yes Lord, I really really do."


"...Then...follow me"


How awesome...being in that place.
This whole weekend conference was just such a blessing. I learned so much about myself and my walk and what God wants me to do. I feel empowered with His Holy Spirit to be used and share His Good News of Salvation to this lost and wicked world. The key here is to follow Him, and as in my last post, it is not even about seeking a position in leadership, not even about being a pastor or a teacher, but about serving Him, about Following Jesus...and everything else, what He wants for you will fall into place after that.

This morning at church, my Pastor asked me if I would be interested in being a prayer counselor to say, and pray with people who need Jesus, or just need prayer in life. He asked me if I was ready for that. I didn't even hesitate to say yes. In the past I have been hesitant about that, but after this weekend, I feel like a new me has been born. A born-born again sorta...hard to explain and I feel so ready to allow God to use me in whatever way He wants to. I prayed with an elderly couple from my church that have been attending for a while. I feel so sorry for them because they are in so much need, they have children who are in prison, who hate God and want nothing to do with them and I am glad God has given me the oportunity to pray with them. It was a good feeling, words came out without even me thinking about them. It was God's Spirit moving in and through me.

It is a little hard to put in words, but I felt something different.

This is a new stage, a new begining and I am transformed Who knows what God is going to continue doing in my life...but I am ready to follow Him.

This passage in 1 Timothy has been something that I have always struggled with in my mind, not for any particular reason, but I have been unsure of it's meaning recently:

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
(1 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV)

Over the past few months, I had a few friends and relatives of mine get married. It was great seeing each of these couples (to be more specific, it was 5 couples) tie the knot and start their own life in Christ together, as one. While I am happy and thankful for each and every one of them, my mind started to wonder something, I have been able to watch them and notice that it is as if suddenly, they all reached a new level of life of which I am not in yet. I am not even dating anyone right now and honestly, not even planning on looking for a wife.

As I have read this passage several times before, I have looked into the context of it. The ESV version uses the word "overseer", but other versions use the word "leader" and even later on in the same chapter we see similar instructions for "deacons" (or elders), and I have always kind of looked past it and thought "Well, this doesn't really apply to me because I'm not married, I don't have a family to lead." 


So I decided to ask my Pastor about this, since I have been struggling with the meaning of this recently. I asked him, how could this apply to people like me, that are single and don't have a wife or kids to lead? Does that mean I am not qualified to be a leader at the church or a servant at the church? Because honestly, I mean, I live by myself right now, and I often wonder, who can I lead? I don't have kids or wife... So how does this apply to me?


He gave me a good answer that I have been pondering on since. Basically he said that it does apply to me. You see this passage speaks of leading at home, whether you have a family to lead or not. You must be the spiritual leader regardless of your marital status.

Ok....I thought...he continued to explain that I am my own family right now, that I must be leading myself, my walk with Christ needs to be solid and right in order to serve.

It is a tough thing to grasp for someone like me sometimes. I have prayed a lot about this and I have been humbled A LOT lately. I have come to realize that it is not necessarily a position of leader that I must desire, not even a deacon or anything else. It is the position of a servant of Jesus Christ. I must serve and be sure that I am leading myself, that I am in constant fellowship with the Lord, that I am reading, studying and applying His Word in my life. For now, I am single and I thank God for that, because Paul also expresses that a single person has more time, less responsibilities in life and that I can invest that own time in my relationship with the Lord. I have more oportunities to be involved in church and I don't have to respond to a wife or worry about kids.

In the future, I would like to get married and have a family of my own, and while that has been something that I have desired, I have also come to terms that right now, my main focus needs to be my relationship with Christ. Whenever the time comes (if it comes), He will send me that companion, but in the mean time I have an amazing oportunity to serve Him and grow closer to Him in so many ways and that I need to squeeze this opportunity as much as I can.

As I said, this passage has been a constant struggle and question in my mind, and I am so thankful that I got some understanding of it now. I am done complaining about not having a wife or kids and I know that Lord willing, that time will come, I just must continue being faithful and applying the time I have right now and the lack of marriage/ family responsibilities and giving it to Him, so that He can continue using me and preparing me for the things that are to come.

Wow...so it has been a while. I have completely lost sense of blogging lately due to school and other stuff in life. I hope this starts changing as I want to do the effort to mantain this blog.

So something was in my mind a lot this week: How God has us go through things in order to teach us stuff, but then we need to be re-taught every so often. This has been a constant struggle and cause of frustration in my life, if it is not one thing, it is another, but I always seem to follow the same pattern over and over again.

This week, I realized one thing. How I tend to worry so much about money. Recently, I got my hours cut at work (which didn't make me happy at all), it was bound to happen since the summer was over and my work only allows me to work so many hours during the school year, but I was given the oportunity to continue working some of those extra hours even after the summer ended.
Well, I got paid from work yesterday and my paycheck was a lot smaller than it had been since the beggining of the summer, which right away sparked my "I am freaking out about money! I have less than I had grown used to! Oh nooooooo!" mode. I tend to do this panicky thing in which I think about it all day and worry.

After the worry-session, I paused and thought "Wait a minute, God is in control, He provides, He always has and always will" and suddenly this peace that I could not understand took over me and I found myself calm and remembered that I need to rely on Him, always.

It is always funny because I worry, and I know many people who have it a lot worse than I do and honestly, I am not too bad myself. Even in times when money seems short, God has provided exactly what I need for my needs. Isn't that how it always happens? I know we all go through all sorts of things and God reminds us of how He is in control of everything. I think about the times when I have faith and how everything, even if the world is against me, that He is always there...even in those times when I doubt Him, He is still there.

Maybe I shouldn't worry so much, maybe I need to be reminded to always trust Him, no matter what situation is in hand.

Watch this video.

A friend of mine showed this to me and it saddened me because of how low American "Christianity" has fallen and keeps falling . I am so thankful to the Lord that He took me to the right path and lead me to a church that teaches the TRUE GOSPEL and THE WORD OF GOD!
We need to pray for the many many people who fall for the Prosperity Gospel and join churches because they are lied to, told that all their problems will be solved and everything will be perfect.
The enemy enters the churches and attacks those who are weak. That is why it is important to grow in close fellowship with the Lord, read and study His Word, so we can know when to reject false teachings and prosperity "Gospels".

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
(Jeremiah 29:11)

I know I quote this verse a lot in this blog, but it is because of the volumes of wisdom it speaks to me. Every time a plan fails, I have felt down, disappointed at myself for thinking that I knew better than He who is Sovereign over everything, but knowing that God has a plan for me gives me peace and confort and pushes to move on to the next chapter in my life.

Currently, I have entered an interesting stage, I am rediscovering things that I am passionate about and just trying to do whatever He has for me at the moment. A clear example is what I do at my church, I just do what is needed, if it is doing the announcements, working in the children's ministry, working on the church's website (which you can check out here, I have been working hard alongside with my Pastor in it) or just bringing coffee to my Pastor in the mornings and fellowshipping with other believers. I know God brought me to this church for me to grow and bloom spiritually, and I will do it until the day God calls me somewhere else (which is always a possibility, not one I would like but God has a plan).

Instead of holding into the things that could've happened, I need to hold out on to the "now" and the things to come, but my mind tends to ponder in that direction, mainly because it reminds me of the great lessons that came after those things never happened.

As I said in the previous blogpost (Part 1), I ended up expanding the point I was trying to make and it was getting long, so I decided to break it down. This is Part 2:


God provides to those who follow and trust in Him!


Learning to trust in God during hard times is one of those things that are easier said than done. I often hear Christians comforting each other saying "God will provide", "You just need to trust and God will see you through this"...I even say that to people when they in confidence tell me about a particular problem or struggle they have in their lives, but when I go through something...its a whole other story. It reminds me of the famous saying "practice what you preach".


Why do I have such a hard time doing that? It is easier said than done, and when hard times come, I find myself stressing out, worrying and feeling anxious and it is so pointless! This is what I have learned from Job and has stuck with me since I first read the book.

We find Job, after experiencing the horror of losing it all, he receives a visit from three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar that have come to "console him", but it actually looks more like they try to convince him to turn his back on God and blame Him for everything...even his "not very supportive wife" attempts to convince him to curse God (Job2:9-10), but as the end of verse 10 says "...in all this Job did not sin with his lips", meaning that he did not turn his back on God.


Job knew that what happened, was something out of his hands, it was just a trial he had to go in life, it was like the obstacle in an obstacle course. This reminds me of when I worked at Fort Lone Tree in 2006, one of the activities I ran was the "Obstacle Course". The Obstacles themselves weren't too hard (for an adult), but I would often see some of the campers struggle trying to get through them and it would always be an encouragement to see them trying their best to get through them to get to the finish line.


Just like the "O-course", life has obstacles we need to go through to get to the end, there are steps we need to take, sometimes the road is smooth and easy, and in others there is a tree you need to climb or something you need to jump through to get to the other side, and in every step, God is there.


Sometimes, I like to think about some of the trials I have been through, I remember my fear, doubt and frustrations and I remember how God has seen me through each one of them. So far, there hasn't been a trial that God hasn't seen me through. I have seen God work in might ways that for men, would seem impossible.


Job was a perfect example about what dependency on God should be like, even after losing it all, being tested by Satan, confronted by his "loved ones", he never gave up on God and in the end of the book (Job 42:10-17) we see how God provided and even multiplied all he had, gave him more children, grand kids...up to four generations, and blessed him with a long and fruitful life.


Whenever I think of the book of Job, I think of the song by Third Day "Tunnel". There is a "light at the end of this tunnel"...for those who put their full trust in the Lord. Even if things seem hard and it sounds like you will never get out of the situation, there is always an end to it, a solution for those who trust and follow God...which brings us to another point:


I find it sad when I hear of people who "give" their lives to the Lord, only because they want the benefits out of there, I think our "modern Christianity" has raised up a whole generation who just want the benefits and are not interesting in true Spiritual growth. People become members of churches because they offer free services or they can get something out of it and are not honest about their faith. 


GOD DOES NOT WANT FAKE FOLLOWERS! I can not stress this enough. Following Christ is not your ticket to a "worry-free" life, in fact it is the complete opposite, as one of my favorite verses says:

And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
(Luke 9:23)

Walking with Christ is not a thing for the good days only, it is an every day thing, it means a life of sacrificing the pleasures of the flesh and living a life worthy of Him. The Apostle Paul explains this struggle of his that I think many of us can relate to:

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
(Romans 7:19-20)

At least I relate to Paul in these words, I find myself doing what I want to do rather than what God wants me to do. Taking up your cross means to do the opposite of what you want to do, give it up all and follow Him. Easier said that done...The Bible is very clear about this, it is found in many places in Scripture.

Trusting in God means knowing He has a plan, even if you feel like you have reached a "dead end", He always has a way out of the pit, and once you put your trust in Him, you can see the blessings He has in store for you, you are able to understand why He allowed certain things to happen. I can never get tired of Jeremiah 29:11 and I am marveled by knowing that God, the One who created everything, has a plan for ME! I mean, that totally blows my mind away.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
(Jeremiah 29:11)

I invite you to read and throughly study the Book of Job, it will challenge your dependence in God.