The Fallen!

How many people have fallen? How many times have I fallen? It's hard for me to grasp the reality we live in. Our nature is sin...our very being has evil in it. Evil runs through our veins and the devil is always trying to pump more darkness into you. I never met a person who was not angry in there lives. People love sin! My pastor once told me that sin is pleasurable other wise nobody would fall to it. My heart requires goodness yet my life sometimes has anger and selfishness. Why? The one reason that I came up with is because I fail. We all fail!! No one person in this world can conquer sin by themselves. Here in America we walk around like facades...to everybody we know life is so great. But behind the scenes there are battles within ourselves. Battles that make us warriors or cowards. Our hearts desire peace and yet houses across America are filled with domestic warfare. There are more than 6 billion people in the world today. I have to wonder how many of those are fallen. I have to think that not all 6 billion plus will be saved and it breaks my heart. What's worse than that is for the people that are going to be saved or trying to be saved. That's where the devil attacks the most. When you are part of the world...you are part of the devil's alliance. So there is no need for him to bother you. But when you become Christian as soon as you say yes to Jesus. Your name just went up on the devils most wanted list and the more you glorify God. The more your name gets hated by the devil.

I fail over and over because I try to beat sin on my own. I prostitute God's love because I choose to say when I need him and when I don't. I am unworthy because I use God. This is why the world fails and why so many have fallen. They build them selves up so much that they can't be humble. You can have everything yet still have nothing. Because you don't see the value of God and you don't see what your worth. God values each and everyone of us so much that He is willing to offer you grace. What I come to love about God is that He is your friend for life. He wants only the best for you. He doesn't care that you fail...He cares that you learn. He understands the devils ways and He does everything He can to equip you for the battles. Believe me nowhere does God say you will never fight. I believe you fight only to build up the courage to better resist the devil. We are labeled The Fallen only because we were born into sin and sin is what continues to keep us from God.

The word redeem means to buy back or repurchase. We were once God's people before sin...then we changed ownership because the devil likes that we sin against God. Walk with your head held high because God has redeemed His people. He loved you and I so much that He was willing to buy us back. Live with God in your heart and walk with Him and you will no longer be fallen but LIFTED UP!

Yesus Gitano!

Carlos

Is God Listening?

I thought about this last night and I just had to ask. Is God Listening? I mean it is an honest question especially when the world is the way it is. People losing jobs, losing finances, people even losing there lives. Did you know that 153,000 people die a day. That is roughly 6,300 per hour or even 105 per minute more or less. Still that is a lot of people dying every day. So the question still remains Is God Listening? God is who all powerful and mighty. The one that in an instant can snap His finger and the world can be made better. As I thought about this question and about all the tragedy and things happening in the world. In what I know about God in the short period I've been learning. I came to this answer that is also a question. The answer was Are We Listening? Are We Listening? The way to better explain this is to think of our lives like a movie. God is the director, the producer, and the writer. We as actors need to do our part in the movie. God as the writer gives us a script...we'll call the script The Bible. In the script it explains to us what are our parts in the movie. It tells us our lines, it tell us how to be, and it actually tells us everything we need to know. So we have our script. Now God the producer creates the scenery for us and also creates the scenarios. But He says whenever you come to a part in the movie where the scene changes right away or things are getting a bit crazy...stick to the script. Now God the director says all you have to do is listen to me, whatever I instruct you to do in the movie do it and you'll be rewarded. God the director gives us instructions to follow and that's it. Simple right! There you have it. You have your script, your scene, and you have the director helping all the way. So Are We Listening? I mean you have everything you need to make your movie great but yet we as actors decide we want to do things our way.

For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 It's one of the most poplar verses in your script but so hard to read. There are two kind of people in the world from my point of view. People that live there lives right and people that live there lives right now. People that live there lives right are the people reading off there script. They are the ones trying to follow the director's instructions. They want there movie to mean something, have a purpose. The people that live for right now. They don't read off there script, they don't follow God's ways, and there only care is I Don't Care!! They don't care about security for the future. They don't see past the trials and tribulations. They only live for right now. Out of the statistics I gave you for the amount of people dying every day. The people that live by the script. There hard work, there sacrifice will be rewarded. For the people that don't care they have no reward and for lack of a better word there movies tank. But here is the great news until you die your movie is not yet finished. So I encourage everyone...read your script, live your movie, but above all Listen to God. For those that know of people that don't care...don't give up. Keep trying...and Is God Listening? God is doing more than listening, He's helping you create your movie. The real question is ARE YOU LISTENING?

Yesus Gitano,

Carlos

Am I Weird?

There are times where I do something or eat something and my wife says to me. Your weird!! I started thinking why am I weird? If you have 5 people that watch only movies and 5 people that listen only to the radio. Which ones are the ones that are weird and which are normal? What are the standards by which we are to live normal? What is normal? God created everyone of us differently. No two people on this planet are alike. Not even twins...yes they may look alike but they are different in some way. So wouldn't all of us be weird? I mean if we are all created differently then that makes us all weirdos...lol. Especially us being Christians if the outside world would go to our service and see us worshipping they would be like man those guys are weird. I had the same feeling when I recently went to Africa. I saw the people there worshipping and I thought to myself these guys worship weird. But yet what is the standard for normal? So I decided to look up weird in the dictionary...here is the meaning it says of strange or extraordinary character. Gee that helped...what I'm not getting is who is it strange to? My pastor doesn't have a t.v. in his house...90% of the United States has a t.v. in there house. Does that make him weird? Or is he normal and 90% of America is weird? I'm mean there really isn't any drawbacks from not having a t.v. His electric bill is lowered because of it, He is not manipulated by the worlds views shown on the t.v., he doesn't waste away sitting in front of it, and lives a healthier lifestyle. That doesn't sound weird to me and actually sounds like common sense in which would imply normalness to me. So I came to this thought...If I was brought up in a world where I drank only water all my life and then all of the sudden realized that there is apple juice or soda that I can drink also...I would view the juice and soda as being weird. Why because growing up all I knew was water. So I think the world is confused on what is normal. Here is what I know normal to be.

With the world changing, people changing there is only one constant that stays the same. God!! God will never change and God set the standard for normal. God created you to be you! That's normal. Don't be anything else then what God wants you to be. If you like eating mayo on your tortillas then do that. Everyone is different and that's what makes you normal. My wife is total opposite of me and I love that.. That doesn't make her weird that makes her unique and that's what life is all about. Our uniqueness is what makes us normal. The world is using the wrong standard to view people and so this is where the word weird comes into play. First off only God judges so regardless if people do different things...we are all the same. Secondly it is our nature to view people and assess them...doesn't matter who you are you will always look at someone and think to yourself normal or weird. Although, it is our nature to do that you have to use the only standard needed to view. GOD'S EYES!! View people through His eyes and you will not see normal or weird...you will see brother or sister. So the question was Am I Weird? The answer is I was born weird but that's what makes me normal!!

May God Bless You and Keep You Safe

Yesus Gitano!

Carlos

Pass Away

It's a known fact that life passes away. Everyone you love will pass away...Everything you touch will pass away. Flowers, people, animals, cars, money...Everything in this world dies sooner or later and that brings me down. The reason why it brings me down is because if life passes away without full filing it's purpose then it's just a wasted life. I get up every morning come to work, put in my 8 hours then go home and spend time with my kids every day. Am I fulfilling my purpose or just taking up space? Someone told me today that the world is going to end and they said in 2012. I don't doubt this world will end but what brought me down about this person's statement was that they said they are going to get really drunk that day so they don't have to feel any pain from it. Is this the solution? To drown our pain away or future pain. Is society that lost it's much better to hide your pain then to find a solution? Alcohol and drugs hide your pain but for how long? In a lot of cases it actually makes the pain worse. I saw a movie this past weekend with my wife Sunshine Cleaning. It was a movie in which the main characters clean up a crime scene in which people kill themselves. It was disturbing because I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to kill themselves. By doing that your playing God and taking away the precious gift that has been given to you. I wake up in the morning and my life may not be that exciting but I'm happy that I have life. I can breathe, laugh, smile and enjoy. Yes circumstances cause stress and heartache and can be very hard but not hard enough to end life. Yes I'm sad because people don't see the joy of life. What can I do to help people see that? What can I say to make people see that there life doesn't have to be wasted?

In life everybody has a choice...everybody has a solution. Everybody has a way out from there troubles. Remember I'm saying everybody has a way out...in no way I'm saying you will be free from trouble. In fact when the world ends there will be more heartache and sorrow you will have to endure. I have sorrow because I have to realize that I can't save everyone. Please God give me the strength and the words needed to help as many people as I can. God is your answer. Always was, always will be. He is the First and Last. God knows everything about me and He knows everything about you. When life passes away... always stay focused on Him. Don't let anger, confusion, drugs, alcohol, and especially the Devil take your pain away. Let God heal your sorrows. Let God take you under his wing and protect you. His promise is that He will never give you more than you can bear. But the problem with that is that if your a really strong person you will have a lot to bear. Just stay strong!! Do not break!! Do not give in!! Evil is a very strong word but it's very easy to succumb to. God is good!! Trust God in everything. One day your life will cease to exist...don't wait for tomorrow when you can save someone today! Live for God.

May God Bless You

Carlos

When it Rains It Pours!!

So I'm sitting at my desk today after a weekend that was really difficult for me. As stated in my previous blog me and the family were looking for a house. We had to be out of our present home by 9/18. Me and my wife prayed all week as well as others also. So the Lord heard our prayer and we found a house on 9/17 a day before we had to move out...talk about cutting it close. I took the day off on 9/18 so that way I would be able to move out of the house. Well I was on my way to the bank around 7am and I get pulled over by the police. They ask for my liescence and go back to there car and I was like man I do not need this right now. I just moved into a new house and now I will have to pay a ticket. The officer comes back to my car and asks me to step out and takes me to the back of the car. I ask him what's going on and he instructed me to turn around and was placing me under arrest. I'm a pretty good guy, I don't drink or smoke. Never did any drugs, work hard during the week and you can find me in Church Sunday morning. So what possibly can this officer be arresting me for. Well it turns out there is an arrest warrant for me. Me!! Can you believe that..well I couldn't. Oh it gets better the arrest warrant is for 26,000 dollars. American Dollars!! I looked at the officer and said is this a joke maybe this was a new t.v. show or something and I was getting pranked. But sadly the officer said this wasn't a joke. So there I am for roughly 4 hours sitting in Jail. Not knowing what is going to happen just praying and praying.

See what I've come to learn in my walk with the Lord is that struggles and heartache come in bunches. The devil will seek to destroy you when you are at your weakest. One things goes wrong and your faith can get you through it...but when you have 3 or 4 or 5 things go wrong then your faith is really tested. The devil made it really hard for me this past week. He took away my house, He took away my car, he took away my freedom by putting me in jail. But he didn't take away my FAITH, he didn't take my LOVE, he didn't take away my TRUST, he didn't take away my STRENGTH, and he didn't take away my HOPE. You take all the material possessions away from me and you can even take away my freedom. But my faithfulness and my love to my Father, My Savior will never be taken from me. Life will be stressful and full of pain and hurt. But as long as you have hope you will always have life, joy, and happiness. Pain and hurt are always temporary. But the love from the father is forever. Your happiness will outlive your sorrow. The devil tested me but God gave me. God gave me back a house, my car and my freedom. God has blessed me more than I can ever imagine and forever will I be grateful. God not only gave me a house here on Earth but a house in His Kingdom. Not only do I have my car back but God gave me His son so I can take the road to Heaven. I am happy to be out of Jail I would hate to be there again but God gave me freedom from bondage physically but also spiritually. I am a free man with my x ray glasses(thanks Larry) to see my life the way God wants me to see it. No longer being ashamed of sin but being free from it. Thank you everyone who prayed for my housing situation. I ask God to bless each and everyone of you.

810

May God Bless you and Keep you safe

Carlos

Trust

Trust is a hard word because you are relying on something to happen not knowing if it's going to happen or not. My situation right now has me looking for God and trusting Him to help me. You see my life was great about a month ago but right now it's not so great. I had planned to move my family out of our present house with another house lined up...but the lining up part fell through so in a couple of days my family and I will not have a place to live. This is where the Trust part comes in rather nicely. I Trust in God to make things happen but I have to take the practical steps in order for God to move. I can't just say okay God I have no place to live and I'm just going to sit here waiting for you to give me a house. Doesn't work that way...I mean God is almighty and powerful that if He wanted to He can do that no problem...but what lesson would I learn. That when I'm stuck God can bail me out without me doing anything. Sounds great but no! I understand God is the creator of the universe but He is still my Father. As a Father he wants us to learn from our situation. In life the only way you can grow and move forward is by learning. As I get older everyday I am constantly learning. As Christians as we travel on our road to Heaven we will falter and make mistakes. But we learn...well for some of us...it takes a while of doing the same mistake over and over for us to say wait a second.

Right now I am putting all my faith and Trust in God because only He knows the best road for me to take. I trust in Him because only He knows the best way for my family to travel. Whether or not I get a house in a couple of days or have to live out of a hotel room. That does not change how I feel about God at all. I can never question God's will for my life. I may not understand it...It may frustrate me at times but I know deep down in my heart whatever He plans for me it's to better me as a Christian and as His son. Of course I would love for my life to be all peaches and cream but every Christian knows that sometimes life gives you a heartache and stress. But just take a second and imagine if life was always so grand and perfect. What need would there be for God. None right! So no I rather have the heartache and stress till He calls me home and I get to have a beautiful house right next to a river and live rent free for the rest of my eternity and have Jesus Christ or Paul as a neighbor. How cool is that? Of course my house would probably be small compared to Jesus's house but none the less I would love for God to be my landlord. I'm stressing right now because of my housing situation not for myself but for my family. But the big picture is that there are people dying of thirst, of persecution, people not having any jobs so in comparison my problem is not as great as others. My trust in my Lord is great not only for a house but just in my every day life. Every blessing I have is because of Him. One of the first lessons in learning how to Trust is you have to learn how to let go. Let go of your worries and your stress and let God be Jehovah Jireh.

May God Bless you and Keep you safe

810

Carlos

GOD'S WILL

IT IS BETTER, IF IT IS GOD’S WILL, TO SUFFER FOR DOING GOOD THAN DOING EVIL. 1 PETER 3:17


Wow it's been so long since I've been on here. I hear so many non believers use this term a lot without knowing the meaning behind it. Things like a baby is born without an arm…was that God’s will. Or a fire destroyed my home was that God’s will for me to be homeless. First off let me just say this God created us. And being his creation who are we to question anything he does. He could’ve destroyed us at any given moment because we disobeyed him. We chose to sin against him and because he loved us he sent his only Son to die for our sins. So honestly whatever God wants to do is okay by me. Secondly everybody has a purpose in life. We are designed for a reason. God plans everything out…things you might not understand or might not see at the moment but they are made with a direction.

I spoke to a lady once and she told me that she had a son who was born with a lung problem. He had to be on a respirator since he was born…she prayed to God everyday to heal her baby. After a couple of weeks the baby passed away. Now here is the question did God heal her baby? The outside world would say no. That God let the baby die…I believe not only did God answer her prayer. He healed her baby. He took the baby to be in Heaven with him where the baby will not suffer anymore. She asked for him to heal the baby and that’s what he did. She realized that God had done exactly what she asked for and praised him for it. A year later she had a beautiful healthy baby. Was God testing her faith? I believe so. I believe God wanted to see what would she do…and I think this is where our society loses. Our society is so easy to point fingers without fully understanding why. It is so easy to blame without taking a step back and seeing the whole picture. Most people can only see what’s in front of them. If I ask God make my life better and I get fired from my job. Am I asking for that? Not really but I understand because God knows that if I search for him he will provide. What better way of providing when I need it the most right. I think losing a job would be a perfect time. Or if someone would lose a house or a friend. There are many questions in life that have no answers and if I were, or anybody for that matter was able to answer them all. Then the God of Israel wouldn’t be almighty. The God who I praise and worship wouldn’t be so great. That is one of things I look forward to when I get to Heaven is being able to ask questions, but not now. Who am I to go against God’s will? Who am I to say why God this or why God that? I am a humble servant that needs nothing but grace and gives everything to him.

I understand what God’s will is. I know what his plan is. Is God’s will easy? That is the million dollar question and why so many get lost in the trials. 2 TIMOTHY 3:12 YES, AND ALL WHO DESIRE TO LIVE GODLY IN CHRIST JESUS WILL SUFFER PERSECUTION. I believe this is one of the main reasons why people falter. They don’t know how to rejoice during persecution. Persecution is not easy thing to handle. I remember when I was trying to reach people and over 90% of the people I tried reaching hated Jesus and we’re telling me really rude comments. This was a person who they never met, never did anything to them and they hated him. They hated me for trying to change there life. I found it disturbing that what I was trying to do God’s will and they despised me for it. In society a lot of people get judged because they don’t understand. I think Christians everyday get viewed under a microscope. People are looking for any reason to point fingers because they need a reason to continue to live the way they want. You see if you tell them the truth and they don’t want to hear it they try to find a fault or more simply an escape. Jesus said if you want to be like me then take up your cross and follow me daily. Being Christian is very hard. Believe me the more you try to reach the non believers the more they try to nail you to that cross. Jesus also said that when the world hates you…they have hated me first. So I know that if someone is rude to me. It’s okay because they just don’t understand. We as believers trust in God to give us the strength and wisdom needed to help people understand. God’s will is never easy to do and sometimes very hard to understand because people get comfortable with there lives or don’t see the big picture.

But one thing I do know about God’s will is that we were designed to live it out.


May God Bless You
Carlos