I can't think of a title.

When God looks at me, He sees Christ's righteousness. I think that's pretty cool.

That means that when God looks at me, He doesn't see all the sins, or the mistakes I've ever made. He doesn't see anything other than Christ's righteousness. All He sees in perfection, and purity.

I just think that's pretty cool. I never really knew that before yesterday, and it's been stuck to the front of my mind since Micah said it in class. It's so nice to know, to really know, and believe, that the Lord already accepts me as I am.

I don't have some immeasurable standard to measure up to. I don't have to read my Bible so much every day, or tithe so much money for God to love me. He already loves me.

I've always put an unreachable standard on myself, and told myself that I had to reach that standard, or I was a failure, and that I wasn't good enough.

But, through Christ, and the fact that He loved me while I was yet a sinner, I can't be made any better. I am seated in the heavenlies with Him. How amazing!

Who I am in Christ cannot be made any better.

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--

Dan 10-12

Dan 10:5 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz:

Dan 10:6 His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

How amazing of a person is this man Daniel sees? Dressed in gold, a face like lightning, fiery eyes, and an amazing voice. How majestic this man is.

And the amazing thing about this man is that He loves me. This man, Christ, is so amazing, and He loved me while I was yet a sinner.

I like these new glasses.

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--

España

When I was 14 years old, I felt the Lord calling me to be a missionary, and in specific, to the country of Spain.

Thought I've wandered away from the Lord at times, He still loved me, and I've always felt a calling to be a missionary.

Until now, I've always been a bit too dogmatic about going to Spain, though. I'm not entirely sure why, but I've never, ever, not once thought about going anywhere else.

And I still have a burden for Spain, and, unless the Lord changes something, that's the field I'm training to go to.

However, through some wise advice and such, I've slightly changed my view on that. Right now, my burden is for Spain. However, I'm now open to the idea that the Lord may change that. And as much as I have a burden for Spain, should the Lord change that, I'd be willing to follow Him.

Spain, no matter who goes there, is a tough place o be a missionary. It's been called a graveyard for missionaries. It's a tough field. And if I go there, and it isn't the Lord's will, and isn't His plan, I'm going to be in some major, major trouble.

And this isn't me saying I don't feel like the Lord wants me to be a missionary, nor that I still feel called to Spain. I'm just saying that if the Lord decides to change that field, I'm OK with that.

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--

Daniel 4-6 & 7-9

Daniel 4-6
Dan 5:29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

It’s amazing how much God can exalt someone. Granted, not being exalted doesn’t mean that you aren’t important to God, but in this case, God used His servant to do something mighty, and then exalted Him.

Dan 6:23 Entonces se alegró el rey en gran manera á causa de él, y mandó sacar á Daniel del foso: y fué Daniel sacado del foso, y ninguna lesión se halló en él, porque creyó en su Dios.

Dios, Vi que Daniel fue salvado de los leones a causa de ti. Y sé que el poder de creer en ti es un verdemente un gran poder. Ayúdame creer en ti como debo creer.

Dan 7:9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
Dan 7:10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

As far as I can tell, this is talking about the Lord. And He’s a pretty powerful Lord. In fact, he’s more powerful than anything else. And what’s really amazing, is that this powerful, white as snow, almighty God…He loves me. And He loves me as I am.

Dan 9:3 Y volví mi rostro al Señor Dios, buscándole en oración y ruego, en ayuno, y cilicio, y ceniza.
Dios, ayúdame para buscarte en ayuno y en oración. Ayúdame buscar siempre el amor que tienes para mí.

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--

Love.

I have a lot to say, and I'm not really sure how to say it.

When I was little, my dad used to do this thing where he would grab my hand and punch me with my own hand. He would tell me to stop hitting myself, and I would always tell him that it wasn't me. Of course, we were just joking, and my dad would never seriously hit me.

For a long time, and it stops today, I've been spiritually punching myself in the face. Well, in truth, it's worse than that, but the idea is the same. I was always trying to live up to some standard, and all these other things to make God love me. But here's the truth:

God loves me as I am.

I don't have to be this perfect guy who never makes any mistakes, and who never does anything wrong. Granted, I shouldn't live in sin so that grace may abound, but God loves me even if I do sin.

And it doesn't matter how "big" the sin is; God love me no matter what.

And, looking back, I kinda feel a bit goofy, and have to chuckle at myself. I mean, I always thought I had to reach this super-duper high standard for God to love me. And it's good to have goals, but God loves me with goals, the same as he loves me without goals. And nothing I can do will ever change that.

I'm a born again Christian. I'm a saint, a price of God.

And I've had this attitude of, "Yeah...I'm saved...but that's it. God doesn't love me past salvation."

But some people who really care for me decided to help me, because they love me, and take some time aside to help me, and to show me how much the Lord really does love me.

In fact, He loves me so much that I can't know the full breadth, or depth, or width of His love.

Seriously, I have to look back, bury my face in my palm for a minute, shake my head, and laugh a little bit. I almost feel like the man who starves to death in a grocery store. I was working so hard to try to make God love me more, and I was making myself miserable. And no matter how hard I don't work, or how hard I work, God still loves me the same.

For the last three weeks or so, I've been extremely tired all the time. And it's not because I'm not eating right, or getting enough sleep, or anything like that. I've been so mentally worn down that I, at times, have had trouble finishing a full sentence. I've been so exhausted in my brain that no matter how much calcium I get, my bones were hurting. And no matter how much sleep I got, my eyes were drooping.

And it was all over stress. Stress, and pain I was self inflicting, and all this other dumb stuff I was doing. But the thing is that no matter how much I work it won't ever make me any more loved by God.

And maybe I keep repeating that same point, but I never really understood how much God loves me. I've always been afraid to step out of line for too long, because I thought God would rail me into the ground, and tear my guts out. I've always seen Him as angry...and yeah He loves me....but He also gets a kick out of punishing me as well.

But He loves me. And I might get a slap on the wrist, or a mean glare, but that's it. God isn't going to tear my face off if I don't read 10 chapters a day. He won't tear my face off if I don't read at all. He loves me, and I am the praise to His glory. And that's amazing.

My whole life, I've always felt like I'm not quite good enough. I always could have been a second faster, or jumped an inch higher, or this or that. But God says, "Hey, I love you like you are. You don't have to change one bit, and I'll love you all the same."

And for the first time in almost a month (though I'm sure it's longer than that) I have this enormous weight lifted off my chest. I've always had the though "Life goes on...because it HAS to" on my mind. But all of a sudden, I think, "Life goes on...let it! God loves me! Amen!"

And I just feel totally free from all this stress, and pressure, and I feel relaxed, and peace. It's amazing.

I'm probably rambling, but whatever. I just feel so much better to know that I'm loved, no matter what.


--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--

Daniel 1-3

Dan 2:47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.

When you read this whole chapter in it's entire context, you really see how amazing the Lord is. Even the most mighty men of that time couldn't do anything to interpret the dream, but the Lord did.

Dan 3:22 Y porque la palabra del rey daba priesa, y había procurado que se encendiese mucho, la llama del fuego mató á aquellos que habían alzado á Sadrach, Mesach, y Abed-nego.

Muchas veces, las cosas que nos castigan son muy fuertes. En este ejemplo, el fuego mató a los hombres malos, pero no hicieron nada a Sadrach, Mesach y Abed-nego. Los justos aguantaban el fuego. Los Cristianos tienen un poder que los impios no tienen.
Y por este poder, debemos ser un testimonio a los que no han recibido a Cristo.

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--

PCC Trip.

Well, I had a really amazing time at Pensacola with the rest of the crew. (Even though they were the ones everyone wanted to see, and I just came along to help lower the cost of gas and hotel)

I learned a lot, for sure, and got some pretty Godly advice on some things I've been needing some help with.

As best I can, I'll list out what's going on:

-I need to step up, and start being more of a wittness for Christ.

-I need to start actively working on winning people to the Lord.

-It's best to wait and be sure, than to rush in and be a fool.

-By surrounding yourself with people who love the Lord, it makes it easier to want to serve Him, and also makes it easier to make tough decisions.

-One of those decisions that I had to make was that I need to start looking for a new job. Bed Bath & Beyond is great, and I love it, but it's not paying my bills. I'm ranked #2 in the whole store in customer satisfaction, productivity and overall work ethic, but my hours are still getting cut. Please pray about this situation.

-Chris Fies is a UFC fighter. (just joking)

-The people at Vision Baptist, and the OGTC are some of, if not, the best people in the world. I hate using the word "best," since it's so subjective to opinion, but there's just something different between an OGTC kid and a PCC kid. I can't describe it.

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--

An audience of one.

At some point, I lost sight of "I'm going to go to Spain, and work for the Lord, and do what He wants me to do and that's it." and I started to stare at, "I'm going to be a great missionary, and start 244355454615125 churches and train 65652465 nationals to start 6526556562156 churches and start 3254657 Bible colleges."

I started to lose focus of pleasing God, and I started putting my focus on pleasing man. And my pride says that I have to be in Spain for 50 years, and be super missionary man, and do all this stuff. And blah blah blah.

But that's not true, and I really just need to love God more, and doing what gives Him glory, and realize that I might not be in Spain for 20 years, or 10 years, or even a full year. I might not make it to Spain. But as long as it's what the Lord wants, and I follow Him....regardless of what man says, I'm doing the right thing. If I spend 5 years on deputation, and only have 4% support, as long as I'm doing what the Lord tells me to do, and giving Him all the glory, then I'm fine, and man can go throw stones elsewhere.

This probably doesn't make much sense, and I probably seem like I'm rambling. But I dunno. It's been one of those days.

I'm going to Pensacola tomorrow, and I'm pretty excited about that.

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--

Philippians 4.

Php 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

Stop complaning, and just be happy that the Lord loves you! And that He always will love you!

Php 4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

Be a patient, calm, person. Don't be overbearing and pressure people into doing things just for the sake of doing them.

Php 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Be a man of prayer! Pray without ceasing, and always take my needs to God before taking them to anyone else.

Php 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Ad if I do all these things, I'll have a peace in storms., I'll have peace when I have no money in the bank, and no food in the kitchen, and no gas in my car! And it won't make sense as to why I'm at peace, but I will be!

Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

And that thought life we all have problems with...just think on these 7 things, and you won't have probilems with it!

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--