A Rare Moment!

Today is one of those rare days where I believe God. I believe when He says that I'm going to be a pastor one day. I know what I must to to achieve that goal. I know That God has gifted me in specific ways and that I must grow in others.

I am reading a book called Confessions of a Reformission Rev. It's written by one of my favorite Pastors: Mark Driscoll. It is about the struggles and challenges he had starting out his small 10 people church only to expand it by the grace of God into the 13,000 plus people Mega church that he pastors today!

As I said, i see my strengths and weaknesses today. I see my talent and the areas I need to work on. I see who God wants me to be and who I am. It's a rare moment today...I actually believe God.

Randomness: December 22, 2010

1. Only moments away from our company’s Christmas Party… if they give me the opportunity to do Karaoke, I WILL make a fool of myself!
2. Grey days bring a smile to my face!
3. Glad to hear Francis Chan and his family are back from Asia!
4. Finally got a new phone and it looks like this:

5. Little Fockers this year for Christmas day… Let the tradition continue!
6. What is everyone doing for new years?
7. Quote from Mark Driscoll about doctrine: “a people united around core biblical doctrine can be used by God to bear much fruit by grace”
8. Only a few posts away from 500! My how time flies when you’re deep into blogging, lol.
9. Come the end of the year I will release my list of this years top songs. You can download them or just imagine what they might sound like…
10. I hope everybody has a great Christmas!

Thankful List for 2010

Here are 50 things that I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving. hope you enjoy my list and make your own!

1. My salvation through Jesus Christ!
2. My awesome family even though we are like cats and dogs.
3. The most amazing woman in the world being my girlfriend
4. Football
5. Turkey
6. The Damnwells
7. Hunting with Shotguns
8. The ability to write
9. My job
10. My church
11. Driving with the windows open, arm hanging out, and good tunes playing
12. My calling as a pastor
13. My good sense of humor
14. The San Francisco 49ers
15. $5 pizzas at little Ceasars
16. Freedom!
17. 45 lb weight plates!
18. Skype so I can see my baby!
19. Francis Chan
20. IPods
21. Monterey, CA
22. Sherman Alexie, Tim O’brien, Dan Brown and other contemporary fiction writers.
23. Classic fiction writers! – Steinbeck, Hemingway, Fitzgerald
24. Pollo Encebollado.
25. Cold days
26. Chico, CA
27. Black Niner hats
28. The Church
29. Spoken word Poetry
30. Starbucks, Dutch Bros. and all coffee!
31. Mark Driscoll
32. Stair masters (even though I hate them!)
33. Dimple Records
34. Warm summers
35. The Double Western from Carl’s Jr.
36. Corona’s with salt and a slice of lime
37. Rachel McAdams! Lol
38. Community on NBC
39. My best friends
40. Hip-hop
41. The beach
42. The Bible
43. Las Vegas Nevada
44. My Durango
45. Good times with great friends
46. Filet Mignon
47. Rainy Days
48. Fishing
49. Chocolate
50. Feeling infinite!

New Friends...

New friends…
This is taken from Donald Millers tips on growing up for those in their twenties.

“1. Lose your friends: If your friends aren’t ambitious, if they don’t have clear plans, you probably won’t either. This doesn’t mean to reject them, but it does mean if your friends want to lay around doing nothing all day, get some new friends. The single greatest influence playing on you is your friends. You will become like the people you hang around.”

So let me first clarify that this is not so much a “mad at my friends so I am talking crap” blog entry, this is actually about me. At some point I wanted to write an entry about “quarter life Crisis” and how my current situation had finally been diagnosed but apparently I was too lazy to do that. Well either way, I think my life is a living testament to that concept!
So for a while now I’ve been plagued with ideas about this concept or “condition” and my honest belief is that God is giving me a nudge in the direction that I am supposed to be heading. I am in the process of doing a few things that will change the direction of my life forever.
I have read a few articles about the masculinity crisis in the US. It seems that in the past the trajectory for a Male’s life has been going from boy to man. Apparently at some point being a “teenager” was accepted as another step in this path and now there is a new step called “extended adolecense.”
I think Mark Driscoll explained it best when he said:

“It’s just extended adolescence, where 20s, 30s, sometimes even in his 40s, he doesn’t really want to get married, doesn’t really want to have kids, doesn’t really want to pursue a career. He has a lot of hobbies, got a lot of buddies, watches a lot of porn, gambles, has a lot of fun, maybe plays in some band or is in a guild of World of Warcraft, or something ridiculous like that. And they’ve even got little [mottos] like, “It’s all good” and, “Bros before hos.” It’s just this whole adolescent, juvenile culture.”

And ladies and gentleman, I have allowed this description to lord over my life for way too long. So I am making changes. But what about the people that I hang out with?
Here is the truth: most of my friends are irresponsible, have REAL dead end jobs, are not going to school, are in no position to get married, even less to have kids, have a lot of hobbies, have no word as men, and play ridiculous amounts of time playing video games. These are the people that are hanging around me. And the truth of the matter is that:” birds of a feather flock together.” But “It’s difficult to soar with eagles when you are scratching with the turkeys”. My mom always used to tell me, “dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres” = “tell me who you hang out with and I will tell you who you are.”
And apparently this is true. I am my friends. And yet I want to be so much more than that! I am in the process of becoming the Man that God wants me to be and right now I feel that these guys are holding me back. I love them and I always will but they are dragging me down and right now I need to soar with eagles. so here's to growing up!

To Live The Dream...

In my mind I can imagine being the next young pastor that confidently preaches the word of God and touches people’s lives in the process. I’m talking about lead Pastors of huge churches such as Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan or Rob Bell. Young men that at a younger age than most, are boldly proclaiming the Word of Christ to a lost and dying generation and actually seem to be getting the point across. These are the guys I look up to!
It’s hard enough being young but to be young and to purposely decline the invitation of the flow of society, to create counter culture instead of adding to current culture, to be considered out-dated when the message is timeless, that is reason for persecution and poverty. And nonetheless you find these men standing tall, standing up against the culture that reviles them and standing on the Rock which is Jesus Christ. These guys are young, brilliant, self-confident, funny and the future of Christianity. I want to be like them.
Sometimes I think to myself that I would like to be the next Mark Driscoll, the next Francis Chan. But to be honest I don’t want to be any of them. I want to be me. I want to be the version of me that God wants me to be; the version of me that is confident, courageous and Christ like. I want to be used by the creator of all things to live out the purpose for which He has created me. May God Help me to become that person and to live the dream that he has placed upon my heart!