Thankful for Safety
So I realized once again today how thankful I am for God's protection and safety. Earlier in my day my status was that I was tired of traffic. I was.
Renae and I were on our way to Chino Hills to get her allergy shots (usually a 25 minute drive). We hadn't been on the free all that long today before we came across the the first accident we saw, a truck was flipped upside down on the other side of the freeway. Our side of the freeway was crawling at 5 mph as we approached the accident, and once we passed it it increase to between 10-20 mph. We continued at that pass for another 25 or so minutes before we were passed most of the traffic and were going almost to the speed limit. (Oh and that whole time we were in the carpool lane). Once we made it up to the place to get her shots we decided we didn't want to jump back on the freeway to sit in the opposite traffic (which was worse), so we went and walked around Target. After that we left and got back on the freeway hoping the traffic was gone. We'll the flipped over truck was, but there were two other accidents - a downed motorcycle in the carpool lane and another accident off to the shoulder. That is when I thought to myself how thankful I am for God's protection.
I have as of this month had my lisence for 5 years. I worked for Enterprise Rent-a-Car for over 2 years where my main responsiblity was transporting cars, I have had my share of close calls, but thankful to not have a single accident. That was until 11 months ago yesterday when I got cut off and a van scraped my front fender and then took off. The hit and run incident was not my fault so it doesn't count for anything. So in five years I have not had a single ticket or at fault accident, so I think it is worth my time to thank God right now for his safety and protection.
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Hold Nothing Back
i praise God because…
this statement was given at mosaic (bethel's wednesday night youth program). we were asked to finish it.
i sat there and considered many things that i could thank God for -- my wife, my job, family, His' provision, friends, bethel, etc.
but i didn't thanking him wasn't really what we were being asked to do, we were being ask what about God caused me to praise Him...
it has taken me some time but i praise God because He forgave me, when i deserved it the least. one of my first posts talks of my salvation. in early 2006, i had been living with sin knowing that something wasn't right in my relationship with Christ, i didn't have one. i had been living a lie for 14 years pretending to be a Christian. i won't go into all of it because to can read all about it in my other post.
God's mercy is the foremost reason for me to priase Him, recieving salvation when i had no reason to deserve it.
Later Pastor Thomas finished the evening with the reading of Psalm 103:1-5 and a song...
Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
that was an amazing passage and the song was based on the passage.
so God, i praise You. thank you for Your mercy, i am so undeserving of heaven, i should have been given death and You have given me life. may i never forget where You brought me from; may i never cease to praise your name. Lord, i still struggle with sin and often grieve You. may Your Spirit bring conviction to my heart, and keep me in Your righteous ways. i praise you Lord, because You are God, because You are almighty, because You are merciful.
help wanted
i am in need of some people to help move furniture into renae and my new apartment!!! we got it!!!! we went to drop off the application today and not ten minutes later they called to tell us that we had been approved. the apartment will be ready for us on saturday so after our friends (russell and heidi) wedding. we will begin to move some stuff in. thanks so much for all of your prayers
hold nothing back
Graduation, and Other Exciting News
Well, I am now a alumnus of Pacific Baptist College. On Wednesday, April 30 I graduated from college. It was an exciting day. My parents drove down from San Francisco to be there for the day. The service was good, a little long, but sometimes that cannot be controlled. I graduated first in my class, alphabetically, not by GPA though. By GPA I graduated second, trust me it helped that there were only three graduates. After the ceremony we went to Famous Dave's BBQ. It was really good. I hope you enjoy these pictures.
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Also there is other exciting news. God is providing so many things for Renae and I. I went apartment hunting the yesterday and found a really nice complex close to Bethel with a lot of the things for which we are looking. I picked up an application and began to fill it out. Maybe it will be the apartment the Lord has for us. I started work down and Bethel and have really been enjoying it. God is so amazing in how He provides things for us just when we need them, and so many times we just overlook His blessings. May we never forget how good God is to us.
hold nothing back...
friday april 11, 2008
well yesterday renae, tim (renae's brother), and i drove down to san diego to watch spencer graduate from the marine corps boot camp. it was really exciting and we enjoyed it thoroughly. spencer is doing really well he lost some weight and trimmed down a lot. the graduation was cool, i had never been to military graduation before. one of the marines in spencer's platoon fainted while they were standing there, they took him to the back of the parade grounds for a few minutes to sit and then he came back.
after the graduation, we (tim, eli, daniel, luis, renae, i, and eventually rebecca) decided to go get some lunch at jack in the box. we followed eli on a wild goose hunt till we finally found a jack in probably the worst part of san diego. after we ordered, we sat down and there was an employee of jack who like would not let us get out of our seats, renae went to grab a straw and he took the straw and started unwrapping it for her. then tim got up to get some sauce then the jack-man came told tim to sit and he would get it for him. he moved my napkins from the edge of the table because he was afraid they were going to fall off. eli waited until the guy was in the back to get up and refill his soda. then we all got a big laugh when i told eli to watch out because jack-man would probably jump over the wall and tackle him. it was pretty awkward, when we left jack-man said, "don't forget to come back."
friday evening we went to the beach with klay (our college-age sunday school class at bethel. we played some football, had some hot dogs and s'mores. then sang some songs as luis played the guitar it was an enjoyably end to a good day.
here are some pictures of the day's events
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New Site Function
so i'm pretty sure you immediately will notice that the picture at the top of the page is different. every time you go from page to page or refresh the page you are on you will see a random pictures some cooler than others. there are about a dozen in all so take some time and refresh the pages or move between links on the site and check out all twelve, then let me know which one is you favorite. i'm kinda partial to the macbook.
Urgent New Update!!
Renae had noticed some pain and swelling in her feet this week, Yesterday she went to the doctor and they diagnosed it as bad circulation that resulted in an infection. They gave her some medication and did some blood work to make sure it was not anything more. Earlier today she got a call informing her that it maybe something more serious, they gave her a referral to a specialist and told her that it would be pretty urgent for her to go. This afternoon she went in a the specialist did not see anything that would indicate it was something worse than just bad circulation and told Renae to stay on the medication that she was already on. All the blood test came back negative. Thank you for all of you who were praying; and please continue to pray that the infection will go away.
Storms
Can you praise God in the storm? Yes! God brings storms for a reason. I don't know why he may have brought a storm into your life, but through the storm learn to praise God and to seek his perfect will.