8 Years...God help me

I am now a member of the 133rd Air Lift Wing of the United States Air Force National Guard

God is good all the time?..........YEP!

I came home from church in the park last night to see and spend time with my little brother Micah who had just come back from the hospital that night. However as I pulled into the driveway I found that someone had spray painted profanity all over MY CAR! On the windows, hood….everywhere! (I had taken my parents car to work that day on account of my car not having a working trunk door) Needless to say i jumped out of the car absolutely livid! and ready to tear someone’s head off! as i ran up to the car i discovered that the paint was still wet, whoever had done it had been there only minutes before. I raced to get the hose before the paint could dry anymore all the while mumbling expletives under my breath and looking frantically around for whoever could have done it, as i was still itching to severely punish someone for the crime!
The long and short of it went that me and my dad were able to wash all the paint off, praise God. and called the cops to report a vandalism. However this incident was only the icing on top of a week that has literally seemed to go to shit……………………………..or so I thought
As many of your may know starting off on Sunday night Micah was admitted to the hospital. Simultaneously however, my car broke down on the freeway. leaving me with very little options for transportation. and in my rush to get to a job site after waiting for my turn to use our working vehicle i stupidly backed into a pole and damaged the bumper. as the week progressed my dad had several computers stolen from masterworks, i got a ticket in my rush to see my Micah in the hospital and overworked doctors forgot! to give Micah anesthetic for a very painful test. However the thing that paled everything else in comparison was the fact that on Wednesday Micah was diagnosed with Crones disease. Crones disease is a chronic disease in which a persons immune system overreacts and causes more damage than good basically hurting your body instead of helping. It is a sister disease to colitis but instead of just effecting your collin like colitis does, crones disease also affects stomach and intestines. And in Micah’s case has caused severe swelling of the stomach and ulcers all along his upper and lower intestine. This disease, if left untreated with extremely powerful steroids would eventually kill him.
So back to last night, in light of everything that had happened my family wisely decided to pray against spiritual attacks and for Micah. However I was not in a spiritual mood and as the first people prayed my mind was mostly dwelling on anger at God for doing this to my brother as i racked my brain to think of who could have spayed my car and what I was going to do to them when I found them.
But then Micah began to pray in a very humble and quiet voice and what he said literally broke my heart because of my sin and sent me praising God. Please allow me to share what he prayed because what he said has encouraged and humbled me so much!…….more or less the words that came out his mouth were “God please bless whoever did that to luke’s car, may you give them joy and may they find you” he then went on to THANK! and praise God for sending him to the hospital and giving him this disease because he was able to grow closer to him and had, had time in the hospital to pray for others!!!! I fought back tears as I heard my brother, the one who had the most to complain about, not ask God why? Or even ask to be healed, but pray for those who had done us wrong and only thank God for his work!
This led to be very convicted and repent of my sin of self pity, pride and anger and also Rejoice in God that he does answer prayers! God is at work mightily in Micah. And its only because of God and the prayers of his people!
So despite everything that has happened this week God is still Good So basically what this note is, is to thank you all so much for your prayers for Micah. God is at work even though I stupidly could not see it earlier this week. I was totally and wonderfully humbled by the spiritual maturity that God has given to my little brother in spite of all he is going through! And I want to praise God alone for that work! Because it cant be any of my influence, I mean if it weren’t for Micah’s prayer to bless our enemies I might be in jail for assault right now :) The main praise is that Micah is home and in extremely high spirits in spite of just receiving the news that he will now have to live with crones. God is at work and i am now under the firm conviction that God truly does use the weak to shame the strong. And God is helping me see bad things and spiritual attacks as complements and blessing for if my car had never been vandalized my family probably would never have prayed for so long and hard. God can and does use evil for good. SO PRAISE GOD FOR HE IS GOOD!!!!
Thank you all for your prayers for Micah we are really feeling them. I was greatly encouraged by being able to pray with the Huerta family and Micah was overjoyed to get the cards and gifts Gabby and Micaela sent him. Scotty also lent Micah his Wii which he has really enjoyed immensely. And then theres the countless other people who have called to pray and lend their support. God has truly blessed us with great friends! Its so good to see how everyone has come around Micah to pray and lift him up.

Please still pray up…….

That Micah would start receiving nutrients from his food (currently do to his condition his body is not drawing and nutrients from what he eats leaving him very malnourished)

That Micah would continue to be in high spirits. he still has a long road ahead

That my parents would be free of a feeling of guilt for what has happened to Micah

That God, if he wills, would heal Micah

1 Corinthians 13:1-7

I cant find the words to say
to show you how you make me feel this way
but even if i could speak like an angel
without you im only a resounding cymbal

And if I had the gift to see
to fathom all of earths great mysteries
and if I had even the faith to move a mountain
i would be nothing if you are not with me

And say I were to give all that I own
to the poor, the broken and alone
and if i gave up my very own life
I would gain nothing if you are not mine

YOU ARE LOVE

you are patient, kind, you don't envy or boast
not proud or rude and you don't seek your own
you are slow to anger and keep no record of the wrongs
you hate what is evil! but the truth is like a song!

This world is dim and getting darker still
but there is always protection and trust
against the heartache and loss of this world that will fail
in a persevering hope from a Love that never will

GOD IS LOVE

A Mist.......

So im in the stage of my life where im trying to decide what college to go to and basically what i am going to do with the rest of my life (I swear people are forced to decide way too much at age 18). Anyway as of right now im going to go to UMD in Duluth and most likely join the Air-Force National guard to pay for school either at the beginning or end of this summer (hopefully the end) mainly because they will pay for all my school and I can finish my obligation to the military while there (also since im two years ahead of most of my piers it wouldn't be the end of the world if I got called up) Ive also been toying around with the idea of joining the ROTC program to not only get the military to pay for my school but possibly make a carrier out of it in trying to become a pilot, but this decision will still requires a lot of prayer.
I know im not the only one with all these decisions weighing on them, now is the time when everybody is trying to make their own path and plan their future, and we all have our own ambition of what we would like to see ourselves become. I know I for one have been completely overstimed with all this......however God led me to a verse the other day that stopped me dead in my tracks
"Now Listen you who say "Today or tomorrow we will to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If it is the Lords will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil"
James 4:13-16

.......Im a mist....here today and gone tomorrow. It really convicted me and got me thinking, if I, with all my ambition and all my goals to do great things in the world and for God were to die tomorrow what would my life be? I ask this because in all the busyness of life I have forgotten what is most important, that is living for God...right now. I was planning so much for myself to be a great missionary someday and have all these great credentials behind me and then I would be satisfied that I did not waste my life and would be pleasing to God (also stupid, im accepted because Jesus died for me not because of what i do) but if I were to die tomorrow would I have wasted my life?
A while ago I had watched my best friend's mom die from cancer, I was in the room when it happed. She and my mom had also been good friend and had planned to my knowledge, to after their kids had grown up, done ministry for orphans in another country, a pretty awesome thing right? Well she will never get to do that now, and although she died she lived a life that was full of Christ. She never really got to do anything extraordinary by worldly standards but she did face some extraordinary hardships and in ever hardship i dont think i ever heard her complained. What im trying to say is that she followed Jesus in every aspect of her life even little things and while by no means do I want to belittle raising a family. What I do want to say is that God tugged on my heart to repent of my pride in my ambitions and goals in life, because I dont know what will happen tomorrow and although to live in this world i have to live as if there will be one I also need to remember that my days are numbered and I dont know what that number is, so I should live in a way where if I died now i could still say that i did not waste my life up to that point. To do this I believe God calls me to just be obedient, being kind to my siblings, respecting my parents, being gracious to everyone (much easier said than done) and most of all no longer letting opportunities slide to represent and talk Jesus saying "ill do it tomorrow, its not the right time" TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION" so I cant waste no more time.

First time

Ok so honestly I am still getting over the my mentality that blogging is stupid! I mean you I am basically writing a journal that everyone else is allowed to read so...whats the point? SO why do I have one? thats a good question. Well basically the reason for not getting one before was my dumb pride telling me that for some reason I was better than those people who did blog because I thought blogging was stupid (wow im dumb sometimes) I dont even know why, I had the same mentality towards myspace and facebook when they first came out. However I have been learning more and more that blogs are just another to communicate socialize and network with others. And me coming to the realization that I am probably not going to see many of my high school friends after this next year, so i might want some more ways to keep in touch. So put the blame on my stupid old fashionness and pride. I only wish I could have not been so dumb earlier
In any case the most and more important reason for me starting a blog is that becasue I am a weak stupid person who is prone to forgetfulness and pride i feel the need to everyday preach the gospel to myself and constantly remind myself of the overwhelming love and grace of Jesus Christ. and instead of just keeping the AMAZING NEWS of Jesus to myself I figured i might as well live out loud and preach to myself on the internet. So although this blog is mainly for my own purpose of getting my thoughts together and connecting with people. I pray that God might work in spite of my weaknesses and inefficiencies to possibly encourage others towards a relationship with him, because honestly I have no idea who is going to read this and frankly don't much care. because if God chooses to work at all its all him and nothing of me. But whatever heres living out loud.