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Homeless and Extremely Blessed
This is Gloria Perez. I met her last night when we went with “Taking It To The Streets” Ministry to feed the homeless people in Downtown San Antonio. It was such a blessing to spend time with her and hear about her unwavering faith in Jesus Christ. She has gone through so much since she became homeless 3 years ago but she told me that “God has a good reason and purpose why I’m homeless right now. I’m okay. I’m content. I have hope.” WOW! That’s Romans 8:28 for my friend Gloria.
She told me about this book that strengthened her faith in God. She really loved it and wanted to finish reading it but she decided to give it to another homeless lady because “she needed hope. She needed the book more than I do.” I couldn’t believe it! This woman, who literally has nothing, selflessly gave that one thing that she treasured. She reminded me of what a friend said a few months ago: “The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least.” She is rich in Jesus. She is blessed. She has Hope that does not disappoint (Romans 5:5).
She asked about me and why I’m in Texas. After I told her what I am doing as a missionary, she encouraged me and said: “Keep doing what you’re doing. You are right with Jesus. There’s no better place to be than that.”
Before leaving, she asked me what my name is, so I told her that it’s Grace. She said that it is so she can remember me in her prayers. I will keep her in my prayers too. I hope that you do too.
Fellas, listen and hear what these men have to say:
Lecrae:
Momma want some Obama in me
The hood want PAC hip-hop wanna see the common in me
And since its a senseless contradiction
I end up a misfit trying to fit in
This ends when I stand up
And see the hands that are standard
Holy is The lamb huh(holy is the lamb)
Now we holding you to man up
Cause we were made in His image start looking at what you came from
KB:
Right after Adam every atom in our anatomy’s Adamic adamant after what Adonai is against
Let me take you back to the tree in Eden
If you read it, you’ll see that Eve was deceived
But Adam is the one who let her eat it
Instead of leading, No we ain’t leading - we bump that
Basically lil boys with muscles and a mustache
To femininity…we need a remedy that God made:
100% masculinity
Trip Lee:
We the last…..
Where the men at, seems like they all lost
None of them are on the scene, seems like they died off
They extinct but my dream is to rise up
We chasing the prize of the King the divine boss
But we fell away, now we ungodly
We lose and we really got the blues like Na’vi
I want to celebrate the dudes that’s beside me
Fellas let’s elevate, we through with the lobby
Tedashii:
Go ahead say boy get your shine on
And if a sucker try to block you get your 9 homes
That’s what I heard you gotta do to be a man now
Stand up for yourself so I took it in my hands now
And that’s the problem man we busy trying to solve it
All the while we walking dead, man somebody bring the coffin
Voice drop peach fuzz now you think that your a man cause you feeling yourself
You need to man up!
Sho Baraka:
There’s many things
Man is chasin’ after
They got some questions
We got some answers
Sex and models and tipping bottles
Pack a pile of excuses right next to your bottle caps
A roll of decks filled with names that you aim to please
Next to the stack of money building up a heart of greed
Ice on his neck, givin’ jokers the cold shoulder
You drunk off pride plus you loving the hangover
You gotta whole lotta stuff that won’t amount to gain
Life will never make sense because you never made change
PRo:
We got it twisted, sick like a fever
Lil man live to stack dough, Keebler
Man up!
Get up out of that treehouse
Leave the cookies alone it’s time to eat meat now
Trying to show you a new way to live now
No charge, you can call it a freestyle
Without Christ you wont know what a man is
You a boy in a man’s body like Tom Hanks in Big
Andy Mineo:
Being a man got nothing to do with age
You can be a boy til the day you lay in your grave
None of us behave in the image of who we’re made
Cause we fallen the ways it’s better known as depraved
Running from responsibility really we crave
The easy way out of places that call us to pull our weight
Man there going through everyday decisions are made
Responding to the call God’s giving em from the…
All:
Man Up!
Andy:
Let the process begin, separate the boys from the men
All:
Man Up!
Andy:
It don’t matter how you started, partner, it’s about how you end
All:
Man Up!
Andy:
Jesus is the model follow us we gon follow him
All:
Man Up!
Andy:
We the- we the last of a dying breed
It’s time that we
All:
MAN UP!
i was just recalling the things i read about the “young, restless and reformed”, then i saw this. i’m cracking up!!!!!!!!!!
September 26, 2009. Do you remember this day?
To me, it seems like just yesterday. And although that day is still so fresh in my memory, the date wasn’t. I had totally forgotten what date it was.
Until 2 years later, on Sept 26, 2011 when a certain Pastor at a missions conference gave me a verse and I mentioned to him about the “Future Grace” fundraiser that we did when I first set off for missions. (Disclaimer: it was actually September 25th here in the US, but my iPod is still in Manila time)
Do you remember that day?
The fundraising event was perfectly planned and organized. Many people prayed for the event… Then Ondoy happened and we had to postpone the event. With the many needs of the Ondoy victims, we wondered if people would still give financial support. I had so many doubts, questions and fears… And although Jesus didn’t calm the storm that day, I remember how he calmed the storm within me. And I look back at that day with a smile (my heart smiling too!).
Who would have thought that exactly 2 years later, God would send me to a missions conference led by the author of the book “Future Grace”? Coincidence? I doubt it. The Bible tells us that: “In Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. (Psalm 139:16)” It was God’s perfect timing. It was all in God’s plan. And oh, was it such a great gift from God! God knew exactly what I needed, and He met them in such a way that’s beyond anything I could have ever imagined! God’s gifts does put man’s best dreams to shame.
I’m writing all these to encourage you to keep living by faith in future grace from living by gratitude for past grace. Don’t hold back. Give your all. Set your hand to the plow and do not look back until the Lord calls you home.
I would like to end this blog entry with an exhortation from Piper’s Future Grace (I can’t really end without a direct quotation from the book, right?)
“My concern is not primarily where you begin, but where you end. Will it be with deeper faith in future grace? I pray that it will be. I pray that you will hear and follow the call to find your joy in all that God promises to be for you in Jesus. And I pray that the expulsive power of this new affection will go on freeing you from the fleeting pleasures of sin and empower you for a life of sacrificial love. If, in this way, we prove that God is prized above all things, then living by faith in future grace will be to the praise of his glory. For God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” -John Piper, Future Grace
Grace and Peace be with you.
6 months ago, I posted a bunch of videos on prayer and this is the reason why: At that time, in March, it seemed like I was going to stay in Manila (which I was absolutely happy about, I was in fact very excited at the idea of getting my MBA). But for me, this meant that I wouldn’t be able to attend Desiring God’s conference on Missions. And that made me very sad. And I mean very very very verryyyyy sad. So I prayed and prayed and prayed… later I asked my prayer group to pray for me too. Then last week (on the week of the deadline for registration), when things weren’t looking very promising, God did a little miracle. And I’m leaving for Minneapolis in 3 hours! =)
I am very excited especially because John Piper thinks that this year’s conference is the most strategic ever:
( http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/looking-forward-to-the-national-conference)
So thank you to everyone who believed, trusted, prayed and gave. And thank you, Father, for all that You are and for delighting in showering blessings upon blessings upon blessings to your children.
A Challenge and A Prayer for Women (by John Piper)
My earnest challenge and prayer for you is …
… That all of your life—in whatever calling—be devoted to the glory of God.
… That the promises of Christ be trusted so fully that peace and joy and strength fill your soul to overflowing.
… That this fullness of God overflow in daily acts of love so that people might see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in Heaven.
… That you be women of the Book, who love and study and obey the Bible in every area of its teaching; that meditation on biblical truth be the source of hope and faith; that you continue to grow in understanding through all the chapters of your life, never thinking that study and growth are only for others.
… That you be women of prayer, so that the Word of God will be opened to you, and so the power of faith and holiness will descend upon you; that your spiritual influence may increase at home and at church and in the world.
… That you be women who have a deep grasp of the sovereign grace of God which undergirds all these spiritual processes; and that you be deep thinkers about the doctrines of grace, and even deeper lovers of these things.
… That you be totally committed to ministry, whatever your specific calling; that you not fritter away your time on soaps or women’s magazines or unimportant hobbies or shopping; that you redeem the time for Christ and His Kingdom.
… That, if you are single, you exploit your singleness to the full in devotion to God (the way Jesus and Paul and Mary Slessor and Amy Carmichael did) and not be paralyzed by the desire to be married.
… That, if you are married, you creatively and intelligently and sincerely support the leadership of your husband as deeply as obedience to Christ will allow; that you encourage him in his God-appointed role as head; that you influence him spiritually primarily through your fearless tranquility and holiness and prayer.
. . . That, if you have children, you accept responsibility with your husband (or alone if necessary) to raise up children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord—children who hope in the triumph of God—sharing with your husband the teaching and discipline they need, and giving them the special attention they crave from you, as well as that special nurturing touch and care that you alone are fitted to give.
… That you not assume that secular employment is a greater challenge or a better use of your life than the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home, the neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world; that you not only pose the question: career or full-time homemaker? but that you ask just as seriously: full-time career or freedom for ministry? That you ask: Which would be greater for the Kingdom—to work for someone who tells you what to do to make his or her business prosper, or to be God’s free agent dreaming your own dream about how your time and your home and your creativity could make God’s business prosper?
And that in all this you make your choices not on the basis of secular trends or upward lifestyle expectations, but on the basis of what will strengthen the faith of the family and advance the cause of Christ.
… That you step back and (with your husband, if you are married) plan the various forms of your life’s ministry in chapters. Chapters are divided by various things—age, strength, singleness, marriage, employment, children at home, children in college, grandchildren, retirement, etc. No chapter has all the joys. Finite life is a series of tradeoffs. Finding God’s will, and living for the glory of Christ to the full in every chapter is what makes it a success, not whether it reads like somebody else’s chapter or whether it has in it what only another chapter will bring.
… That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might and maximizing your joy in ministry to people’s needs.
… That in all your relationships with men (not just in marriage) you seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in applying the biblical vision of manhood and womanhood; that you develop a style and demeanor that does justice to the unique role God has given to man to feel responsible for gracious leadership in relation to women—a leadership which involves elements of protection and provision and a pattern of initiative; that you think creatively and with cultural sensitivity (just as he must do) in shaping the style and setting the tone of your interaction with men.
… That you see the biblical guidelines for what is appropriate and inappropriate for men and women not as arbitrary constraints on freedom, but as wise and gracious prescriptions for how to discover the true freedom of God’s ideal of complementarity; that you not measure your potential by the few roles withheld, but by the countless roles offered; that you look to the loving God of Scripture and dream about the possibilities of your service to him.
Excerpted from Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism by Pastor John Piper. (Crossway Books)
got this beautiful photo here:
Aslan Is On The Move
Today I got a Narnian loot bag (see picture above)- a survival kit for the Underland (Silver Chair). Narnia has been SO awesome, I even had some bear meat recently HAHA (if you’re intrigued about this, you may ask me later). So the kit came with a note, a note from God. May it speak to you as it did to me. =)
May today there be peace within
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith
May you use those gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you
May you be content knowing you are a child of God
Let this presence settle into your bones and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love
Eric Ludy knows a lot about Wrestling Prayer - the best way any one can know anything: He lives it. So blessed by your example, Eric. Thank you so much.
O, For Grace To Trust You More
Well, it’s been over 2 weeks since I sent the e-mail that could possibly change the course of my life. I was so excited and nervous at the same time. The last time I felt that nervous was when I arrived at the Denver airport waiting to go to Ellerslie. God has been SO good to me and I anticipate only the best from Him. Faith, as I’ve been learning is not just positive thinking or wishful thinking. Faith is a confident assurance that God is in control of the future and that He plans what is best for my life for His glory and because He loves me. My Precious Father is directing my footsteps preventing me from going where He doesn’t want me to go, testing and instructing me all along the way (Psalm 32:8).
I want to encourage all of you to launch out in faith, and to not let fear or doubt get hold of you. If there’s any of you who needs prayers or would like to talk more about faith - PLEASE let me know by sending me a message. I am no “expert” of faith, but I am one who strives to take one step of faith at a time and I’d love to walk alongside you. In this world where walking by faith seems so foolish, we’d need all the edifying fellowship that we could get. =)
Also, may these words from God through David’s Psalm uplift you and cause you to “believe your beliefs and doubt your doubts (wise words from our Pastor, Charlie Pridmore)”:
“I would have despaired unless I had
believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.”
-Psalm 27:13-14 | NASB
