Wow it's been awhile since i've been on here. I was just reading my older posts it was weird. I've been working at a new job for the last month. Praise God cause he always provides. I'm currently listening to society's finest crazy to think how great this music is. I remember listening to societys finest and going to see strongarm on weekends. Praise God for bands like them for keeping it real. I just read an update on the lead singer and it encourages me to see him seeking God and putting that first. I always used to think about christian hardcore bands and how their walk would be once on the road. I have been a roadie a few times for a few bands and some of things I would see made me question a few things. Either way I made great friends on the road and I got to see some awesome shows.
So a real update
I've gotten an offer to go to the bahamas for 4 months in a discipleship school called PATMOS. They only take about 20 people every 6 months. My friend from childhood runs the admissions. Crazy story but my brother goes to the same church that funds the whole thing. Its a mega church actually. My friend Gio who runs the admissions was in town promoting it and passing out flyers and such. He asked about me and asked for my number. My brother obliged and we started talking. So we will see where this leads.
Also my mother is thinking about going to a womens rehab center. Its also a christian place. She has bad depression as well as anxiety. Its actually something with her chemical make up. Its a three month long program. If she goes that will be hard on my family but we fully support her decision to get help. My walk has gotten harder with all this happening, but i have faith that God will pull us through.
Only love can fill the void!
dennis
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thanksgiving....
This isn't about the holiday what so ever. Its actually about being grateful. At times i really don't feel like i have a lot of motivation or encouragement. I have to say the last 2 days have been different.
Last night my friend and mentor Magdiel called me out of the blue. He was just leaving his bible study. He lives directly west of me on the other side of the state in a town called cape coral or as the homies call it "da cape". He told me i was on his mind and he wanted to encourage me. Completely out of the blue. We talked for a bit about a few different things but overall it was a call of encouragement. It was uplifting to know that i have it like that. Cause at the beginning of my walk I didn't have anything like that at all. Maybe it was a lack of relationships with other believers or maybe just that i didn't know that in a persons journey with Christ that having that connection with other believers is essential. Well...needless to say that conversation was awesome.
It was today that i was just sitting around playing fifa 07 when my sister texts me asking me how the job hunt is going. I was a little down about that cause i was pursuing this job that looked somewhat hopeful and they hadn't called me back. After i placed 2 calls to them with no response. Well i to be honest i didn't expect the response that i got from my sister. She told me to keep on working at it and that God has an awesome plan for me and that i will see that. Me and my sister have always gotten along and she was an integral part of my younger life thru middle school and high school. She's NEVER told me something like that. Not sure why but with family it always seems different cause talking about it and actually doing is 2 different things. See with my family they dont talk about love they show love. They dont talk about encouragement they give encouragement. When i speak of family i dont only talk about my immediate family i also talk of these people that have become an important part of my walk .
Dream big and live large
Last night my friend and mentor Magdiel called me out of the blue. He was just leaving his bible study. He lives directly west of me on the other side of the state in a town called cape coral or as the homies call it "da cape". He told me i was on his mind and he wanted to encourage me. Completely out of the blue. We talked for a bit about a few different things but overall it was a call of encouragement. It was uplifting to know that i have it like that. Cause at the beginning of my walk I didn't have anything like that at all. Maybe it was a lack of relationships with other believers or maybe just that i didn't know that in a persons journey with Christ that having that connection with other believers is essential. Well...needless to say that conversation was awesome.
It was today that i was just sitting around playing fifa 07 when my sister texts me asking me how the job hunt is going. I was a little down about that cause i was pursuing this job that looked somewhat hopeful and they hadn't called me back. After i placed 2 calls to them with no response. Well i to be honest i didn't expect the response that i got from my sister. She told me to keep on working at it and that God has an awesome plan for me and that i will see that. Me and my sister have always gotten along and she was an integral part of my younger life thru middle school and high school. She's NEVER told me something like that. Not sure why but with family it always seems different cause talking about it and actually doing is 2 different things. See with my family they dont talk about love they show love. They dont talk about encouragement they give encouragement. When i speak of family i dont only talk about my immediate family i also talk of these people that have become an important part of my walk .
Dream big and live large
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Who cares if you look like a supermodel if your soul devours pork rinds for breakfast and then potato chip cookies all day long? Spiritual health and vitality is more important than any other help because it is the foundation for correctly viewing your physical, mental, and emotional health. So let’s get on a spiritual diet of bread and wine! Here are ten great ideas to kick off your new year in a way that you are growing in your spiritual life.
1. Praying the Daily Office. Waking up in the morning, sometimes you might feel too groggy, or maybe too busy or too unprepared, for silent, spontaneous prayer. Praying the Daily Office at morning (and mid-day and night as well) helps develop a rhythm in your life that spontaneity cannot always accomplish. Also, praying the Daily Office of a denomination you are unfamiliar with helps broaden your spiritual life to incorporate the ways and interpretations of a religious community you may have never considered before.
2. Lectio Divina. As the Daily Office is to prayer, lectio divina is to Scripture reading. Daily devotions can seem a nuisance or disappointment. Reading random passages of the Bible is not devotional, yet it passes as typical devotions for many people. Instead, try devoting yourself to the Scriptures in an organized, methodical way, reading the Bible. Lectio: Read the passage slowly three or four times. Meditatio: Reflect on the text of the passage, thinking about how it applies to your own life. Choose one particular phrase or word that seems to be of particular importance to you this day. This is not an interpretation of Scripture but a personal observation of how the Holy Spirit is moving your reading. Oratio: Respond to the passage by opening the heart to God. Do not try to interpret the passage but instead have a conversation with God about the passage. Contemplatio: Listen to the words God is speaking to you. Continue to free yourself from your own thoughts and listen to the voice of God. Throughout the day, repeat the passage over in your mind and think about how it can mold your thoughts during the day.
3. Make Your Own Prayer Beads. Sometimes you just need help to remember God throughout the day with all the hustle and bustle of life surrounding you. You always remember your keys in your pocket, so try to make a small set of beads looped with a cross to remember to pray without ceasing.
4. Confessions Journal. You do not need to write down all the naughty stuff you did, journaling is an exercise that frees your mind to wrestle with prayer, devotion, and Scripture in a self-reflective environment, like Augustine in his Confessions. Let your soul pour out.
5. Follow the Church Calendar. Remembering the Church Calendar is far more integral to a cohesive spiritual life than gaining more feast days. The Church Calendar reminds us that we are not part of this world, with its own calendar of bank holidays and remembrance of military victories—we are part of the Church and celebrate the Kingdom of God.
6. Five Minute Timeout. Remember when you were little and you had to sit in silence for five minutes if you did something wrong? I would always try to fill my silence with Legos or Highlights for Children. Silence is a very effective way of calming your soul down and preparing yourself to re-enter civilization, whether after a temper tantrum or after a long day at work. Silence quiets our hearts before God.
7. Read a Book from your Polar Opposite. Are you an Anglican or Lutheran wanting to rejuvenate your spiritual life? A Baptist yawning about immersion? A Presbyterian tired of singing Psalms? Instead of picking up the Ninety-five theses or hymnal again, try to reach out and expand your horizons a bit. If you’re a Baptist, read the Church Fathers. If you are a mainliner, try to read some Pentecostal or charismatic works. Open your heart up to the possibility God is moving in mysterious (to us, anyway) ways.
8. Practice the Sabbath. Seriously, stop doing chores and work for one day a week and let yourself unwind. Busyness is an enemy of spiritual health, slamming the door on communication with God by jamming the line with empty static. Even in college, I would not do any schoolwork from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday. It worked wonders for my emotional, mental, and spiritual health.
9. Have a Eucharist. Too often we forget that communion was a love feast, a reversal of the stoic Passover feast into a celebration of not only God’s sacrifice but his conquering of death as well. If you are in a small group or meet with Christian brothers and sisters regularly, would you consider having communion with them? _And as a tangent, try to practice hospitality and guest-having more often. Guests help us break out of our close knit family and marriage conversations and fellowship with others who may encourage us as we take up our crosses each day.
10. Tithe. In our insulated, American pipe-dream, many of us have too much, and God has richly blessed us with an abundance. Now the hard part, we need to use it wisely. Giving money is an act that should remind us not only to support the Body of Christ monetarily but also tithing serves as a remembrance that we are not in control, God is. If you are not giving money freely, examine yourself, and see if you are serving Mammon more than God.
Found this on http://www.burnsidewriterscollective.com. A great blog of writers expressing different things about their world.
Well yesterday was valentines day and a pretty good one at that. It seemed almost everywhere you went there were tons of people just lined up to eat.
Psalms 47:2a ---> "For the Lord Most High is awesome."
Everytime i think about how the Lord is awesome i think about a guitarist who shreds a solo that would resurrect jimi hendrix from the grave. Its easy for me to equate awesome with music cause most of the music i listen is well........awesome! Whether its the poetry from mewithoutyou or the electro mixes produced by daft punk.....its all awesome!! As is the Lord Most High.
Last night i set out on this scriptural mission to find something profound. Instead i found something awesome. Most of the time we look to the scriptures its very selfish. We look for something to speak to me me me!! Last night i was just looking for something for me. Instead i found something about the Lord. I read 2 chapters after that of psalms and all i could think about was that verse. I was like "Is this it?". You just want to tell me that you're awesome?! Well little did i know that was just the beginning. Read on after that you'll see that he "Subdues nations" whole nations man! After that he chose the Promised land. This is a really intense chapter cause there are shouts and trumpets blaring and this awesome Man ascending to heaven. All the people do is shout praise to God. I realized that in everything i do i should give praise to God. Not just any God, but an AWESOME GOD!!!
This is truly an advent of a miracle.....
1. Praying the Daily Office. Waking up in the morning, sometimes you might feel too groggy, or maybe too busy or too unprepared, for silent, spontaneous prayer. Praying the Daily Office at morning (and mid-day and night as well) helps develop a rhythm in your life that spontaneity cannot always accomplish. Also, praying the Daily Office of a denomination you are unfamiliar with helps broaden your spiritual life to incorporate the ways and interpretations of a religious community you may have never considered before.
2. Lectio Divina. As the Daily Office is to prayer, lectio divina is to Scripture reading. Daily devotions can seem a nuisance or disappointment. Reading random passages of the Bible is not devotional, yet it passes as typical devotions for many people. Instead, try devoting yourself to the Scriptures in an organized, methodical way, reading the Bible. Lectio: Read the passage slowly three or four times. Meditatio: Reflect on the text of the passage, thinking about how it applies to your own life. Choose one particular phrase or word that seems to be of particular importance to you this day. This is not an interpretation of Scripture but a personal observation of how the Holy Spirit is moving your reading. Oratio: Respond to the passage by opening the heart to God. Do not try to interpret the passage but instead have a conversation with God about the passage. Contemplatio: Listen to the words God is speaking to you. Continue to free yourself from your own thoughts and listen to the voice of God. Throughout the day, repeat the passage over in your mind and think about how it can mold your thoughts during the day.
3. Make Your Own Prayer Beads. Sometimes you just need help to remember God throughout the day with all the hustle and bustle of life surrounding you. You always remember your keys in your pocket, so try to make a small set of beads looped with a cross to remember to pray without ceasing.
4. Confessions Journal. You do not need to write down all the naughty stuff you did, journaling is an exercise that frees your mind to wrestle with prayer, devotion, and Scripture in a self-reflective environment, like Augustine in his Confessions. Let your soul pour out.
5. Follow the Church Calendar. Remembering the Church Calendar is far more integral to a cohesive spiritual life than gaining more feast days. The Church Calendar reminds us that we are not part of this world, with its own calendar of bank holidays and remembrance of military victories—we are part of the Church and celebrate the Kingdom of God.
6. Five Minute Timeout. Remember when you were little and you had to sit in silence for five minutes if you did something wrong? I would always try to fill my silence with Legos or Highlights for Children. Silence is a very effective way of calming your soul down and preparing yourself to re-enter civilization, whether after a temper tantrum or after a long day at work. Silence quiets our hearts before God.
7. Read a Book from your Polar Opposite. Are you an Anglican or Lutheran wanting to rejuvenate your spiritual life? A Baptist yawning about immersion? A Presbyterian tired of singing Psalms? Instead of picking up the Ninety-five theses or hymnal again, try to reach out and expand your horizons a bit. If you’re a Baptist, read the Church Fathers. If you are a mainliner, try to read some Pentecostal or charismatic works. Open your heart up to the possibility God is moving in mysterious (to us, anyway) ways.
8. Practice the Sabbath. Seriously, stop doing chores and work for one day a week and let yourself unwind. Busyness is an enemy of spiritual health, slamming the door on communication with God by jamming the line with empty static. Even in college, I would not do any schoolwork from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday. It worked wonders for my emotional, mental, and spiritual health.
9. Have a Eucharist. Too often we forget that communion was a love feast, a reversal of the stoic Passover feast into a celebration of not only God’s sacrifice but his conquering of death as well. If you are in a small group or meet with Christian brothers and sisters regularly, would you consider having communion with them? _And as a tangent, try to practice hospitality and guest-having more often. Guests help us break out of our close knit family and marriage conversations and fellowship with others who may encourage us as we take up our crosses each day.
10. Tithe. In our insulated, American pipe-dream, many of us have too much, and God has richly blessed us with an abundance. Now the hard part, we need to use it wisely. Giving money is an act that should remind us not only to support the Body of Christ monetarily but also tithing serves as a remembrance that we are not in control, God is. If you are not giving money freely, examine yourself, and see if you are serving Mammon more than God.
Found this on http://www.burnsidewriterscollective.com. A great blog of writers expressing different things about their world.
Well yesterday was valentines day and a pretty good one at that. It seemed almost everywhere you went there were tons of people just lined up to eat.
Psalms 47:2a ---> "For the Lord Most High is awesome."
Everytime i think about how the Lord is awesome i think about a guitarist who shreds a solo that would resurrect jimi hendrix from the grave. Its easy for me to equate awesome with music cause most of the music i listen is well........awesome! Whether its the poetry from mewithoutyou or the electro mixes produced by daft punk.....its all awesome!! As is the Lord Most High.
Last night i set out on this scriptural mission to find something profound. Instead i found something awesome. Most of the time we look to the scriptures its very selfish. We look for something to speak to me me me!! Last night i was just looking for something for me. Instead i found something about the Lord. I read 2 chapters after that of psalms and all i could think about was that verse. I was like "Is this it?". You just want to tell me that you're awesome?! Well little did i know that was just the beginning. Read on after that you'll see that he "Subdues nations" whole nations man! After that he chose the Promised land. This is a really intense chapter cause there are shouts and trumpets blaring and this awesome Man ascending to heaven. All the people do is shout praise to God. I realized that in everything i do i should give praise to God. Not just any God, but an AWESOME GOD!!!
This is truly an advent of a miracle.....
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Finding hope in something that was always there......
"Faith you can have in a moment; faithfulness takes a bit longer."
- Erwin Mcmanus
Today i woke up giving God praise regardless of my circumstances. So i continue to do so.......i find myself thinking of how great God is. Yesterday i had a breakdown right in front of my mom, why it happened in front of my mom i don't really know. We didn't fight she pretty much sat there and took it all in. She realizes my pain and understands it. She knows my struggle all too well. So praise God for that. I realized despite my problems with my family that Gods love conquers all.
"When God is your desire, you can trust the passions of your heart."
- Erwin Mcmanus
My friend called me today........(I won't mention names cause in this situation it isn't appropriate) she just recently had an abortion. She is jewish. She was afraid to tell me cause she knows where i stand on that subject. Now i always heard about abortions people that i knew that they knew had and the impact it has on people. I've got to say it's very different when it impacts someone very close to you. In turn that directly impacts you. She's afraid of intimacy with her boyfriend of 5 years now. She's mad at him cause he was more worried about this well being then hers it seems, and how the baby would effect his career and schooling. The boyfriend happens to be one of my best friends. Needless to say its hard for me to see him in the same light i've seen him in for the last 10 years of friendship. To be honest i've become more concerned with her well being then his. I don't support the decision they made to have an abortion one bit and they know that, but i feel it is my job to show them love despite the decision. I truly believe that is what God would do. So i find myself hearing her frustrations of life and relationship almost daily now. It's actually very nice and a breath of fresh air to have a woman like her to speak with and to hear out and not worry about anything else happening. I still have very much respect for her and love her very much cause of who she is. As for my friend her boyfriend i still love him, but i'm very let down to feel like she couldn't trust him to step up and be responsible.
Last night i read Psalms 42-44. Psalms is a beautiful book very encouraging and seems very easy to interpret. This is where the headline of this post comes from. Very practical yet very hard.
"Why am i discouraged? Why am i so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again-- my savior and my God!
Now i am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you- even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan from the land of Mount Mizar. "
Psalms 42:5,6
Amazing grace.......how sweet the sound.
- Erwin Mcmanus
Today i woke up giving God praise regardless of my circumstances. So i continue to do so.......i find myself thinking of how great God is. Yesterday i had a breakdown right in front of my mom, why it happened in front of my mom i don't really know. We didn't fight she pretty much sat there and took it all in. She realizes my pain and understands it. She knows my struggle all too well. So praise God for that. I realized despite my problems with my family that Gods love conquers all.
"When God is your desire, you can trust the passions of your heart."
- Erwin Mcmanus
My friend called me today........(I won't mention names cause in this situation it isn't appropriate) she just recently had an abortion. She is jewish. She was afraid to tell me cause she knows where i stand on that subject. Now i always heard about abortions people that i knew that they knew had and the impact it has on people. I've got to say it's very different when it impacts someone very close to you. In turn that directly impacts you. She's afraid of intimacy with her boyfriend of 5 years now. She's mad at him cause he was more worried about this well being then hers it seems, and how the baby would effect his career and schooling. The boyfriend happens to be one of my best friends. Needless to say its hard for me to see him in the same light i've seen him in for the last 10 years of friendship. To be honest i've become more concerned with her well being then his. I don't support the decision they made to have an abortion one bit and they know that, but i feel it is my job to show them love despite the decision. I truly believe that is what God would do. So i find myself hearing her frustrations of life and relationship almost daily now. It's actually very nice and a breath of fresh air to have a woman like her to speak with and to hear out and not worry about anything else happening. I still have very much respect for her and love her very much cause of who she is. As for my friend her boyfriend i still love him, but i'm very let down to feel like she couldn't trust him to step up and be responsible.
Last night i read Psalms 42-44. Psalms is a beautiful book very encouraging and seems very easy to interpret. This is where the headline of this post comes from. Very practical yet very hard.
"Why am i discouraged? Why am i so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again-- my savior and my God!
Now i am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you- even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan from the land of Mount Mizar. "
Psalms 42:5,6
Amazing grace.......how sweet the sound.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Keeping in the word.....
So i was looking at dan kimballs blog just now actually. I was snooping around and i saw one of his passages about how he preached to his congregation the importance in studying and reading the Word on your own.
Basically to be theologians of your faith.
"A person who is well versed in the study of the nature of God and inquires into religious questions".
Then he took this saying and flipped it.
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
flipped --
"Give a man (or woman) a sermon and you feed them for a day. Teach a man (or woman) to study Scripture on their own and you feed them for a lifetime."
I found it funny to be reading this today.
The last 3 months have been a plethora of emotion and thoughts. I have battled bouts of depression, happiness, and indifference. Asking God daily what it is that he wants of me. I've been lying to myself giving into false hope waiting for something to just fall in my lap. By something I mean a job. I've been unemployed and feeling like I live in this cave that I can't get out of. My pastor told me you do something for about a month and it becomes a habit. So i started reading my bible everynight before bed. Finished Ecclesiastes and 1st Corinthians. Slacked off for a week and feel so lost. Its so great to read the bible everyday and have fresh knowledge in your mind cause there's always something to take away from the word. Even if at that moment you can't apply it to your life you can always apply it to someone else's. Funny how that works.
So i realize that i read to equip myself. It's like missing school for 2 weeks then showing up again to be totally lost and confused cause you missed out on 2 weeks. Sure the teachers saved your work and you can make it up but you're left far behind playing a game of catch up. I'm tired of playing "Catch up". I want to start playing "Getting ahead".
"Then it starts to rain, it always rains doesn't it?"
-Rob Bell
I'm hungry to start. I'm hungry to start a community that stops caring about what other people think and start caring about where God's heart lies.
Basically to be theologians of your faith.
"A person who is well versed in the study of the nature of God and inquires into religious questions".
Then he took this saying and flipped it.
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
flipped --
"Give a man (or woman) a sermon and you feed them for a day. Teach a man (or woman) to study Scripture on their own and you feed them for a lifetime."
I found it funny to be reading this today.
The last 3 months have been a plethora of emotion and thoughts. I have battled bouts of depression, happiness, and indifference. Asking God daily what it is that he wants of me. I've been lying to myself giving into false hope waiting for something to just fall in my lap. By something I mean a job. I've been unemployed and feeling like I live in this cave that I can't get out of. My pastor told me you do something for about a month and it becomes a habit. So i started reading my bible everynight before bed. Finished Ecclesiastes and 1st Corinthians. Slacked off for a week and feel so lost. Its so great to read the bible everyday and have fresh knowledge in your mind cause there's always something to take away from the word. Even if at that moment you can't apply it to your life you can always apply it to someone else's. Funny how that works.
So i realize that i read to equip myself. It's like missing school for 2 weeks then showing up again to be totally lost and confused cause you missed out on 2 weeks. Sure the teachers saved your work and you can make it up but you're left far behind playing a game of catch up. I'm tired of playing "Catch up". I want to start playing "Getting ahead".
"Then it starts to rain, it always rains doesn't it?"
-Rob Bell
I'm hungry to start. I'm hungry to start a community that stops caring about what other people think and start caring about where God's heart lies.
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