Monday Messages: "Back To the Beginning Again"

This morning, I was sitting on the bus thinking about a few things. For one, I was on the way to my last day of my 3rd year of college. Then I thought "what album really resonates with this event?" I kept going back to Switchfoot's "Fading West" album. That album really tells the story of their band the past 20 years so I figured I could relate. As I am now finishing up the album front to back for probably the 20th time, I confirmed my original thought. I am writing this in my school's cafe for what's going to be the last time for a few months. I really can't help but get emotional. There have been many times college sucked and I just wanted to say "screw it!" I mean, Youth Pastors and Musicians don't need college degrees, so why keep going? But then I felt God tell me "What if those don't work out?" And He had a point. Which leads us right into today's Bible Verse.

Proverbs 2:1-5 says "My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God."

There were points in this semester even where I had a paper due the next day but I was working until like 9 PM. Its all just a test. At the beginning of 2016, I said this is going to be MY year. I'm going to focus on me and not let anyone get in my way. So far, that has proved pretty good. I started going to a new church (one different from my family although they switched too). I saw Underoath which was amazing. So far, it has been pretty successful. 

Of course I can't have a good year without God's help. I probably would have quit this semester and not accepted the offer for my job back if He didn't want me to. 

Now let's go back to my first year of college. Are there things that I would change? I want to say yes SO BAD but the answer is no. God has everything happen for a reason so, no I wouldn't change one bit. Even though I performed really poorly, it was a lesson for me to get my butt in check. And it really worked. I have done way better since then and am proud of it. So thanks God. 

Until Next Time, Alex

monday messages: "You can have my life. i'm sad." (100th post!!!)

have you ever been like just emotionally done with life? i know that i have been and it hurts. but you have to push through. when you're sad, you are more than likely missing something in your life. 9 times out of 10 that missing thing is God. you have to turn everything over to Him when you're feeling sad. think about the last time you were really happy and satisfied with life. that's when you last had God. so what happened? let's talk.

1 peter 5:7-11 says the following:
6 humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8 be alert and of sober mind. your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 and the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 to him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

what Peter is trying to tell us here is that even though suffering doesn't come from God, He allows us to suffer to get closer to Him. now you might think what I just said is a little controversial. but seriously, have you read the story of job? that guy is a freakin' beast! he lost everything except his wife. his house. his children. his crops. i wasn't kidding when i said everything besides his wife. one of my pre-monday messages posts when it was still kind of a one off message, explains this. but his wife told him to curse God. he just said "nope!"

there are a lot of us (me included) that get sad or depressed when we are just rejected by the person we liked. now just take a second and imagine you lost everything. what would you do then? it scares me to say this but a lot of us would follow job's wife. i don't know you personally but the way this world is headed, most of use would curse God. 

life gets better. i know from personal experience that it may suck but keep your eyes on God and don't lose sight of Him even in hard times. it has helped me so much. Trust me, it'll help you too.

until next time, alex

p.s. everything but God is lowercase to really emphasize God in this post. another reason is because the title is from relient k's newest song "bummin'." when they say You in that song, they are referring to God. 

p.p.s. this is post 100!!! thank you to the 10,200+ people who have taken a few minutes out of your day to read one (or several) of my posts. i thank God for everyone. love you all.

Monday Messages: Unashamed

These days, its hard to find someone, including pastors, that are "unashamed" about their faith. You will see them talk about it to their Christian friends but once they are outside of that circle of people. It's an even bigger issue for celebrities. There are a lot of celebrities that are Christians but know if they say something about it, they will get shunned for it. Its sad the world that we live in. We live in fear of sharing out our faith. That's what I'm going to talk to you about today. Lets go straight into the Bible verse.

Romans 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,[a] for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”[b]

Today, there are two very successful mainstream musicians that don't care what anyone says, they share their Christian faith enough that it can get into people's heads and help them. The first one is Tori Kelly. You may or may not know this about her, but if you listen to her or wear one of her tshirts, you likely see her faith every day without realizing it. Her leaf logo is based off of Psalm 91:4, which reads as follows: "He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler." One of her biggest songs, (and one of my personal favorites by her) "Hollow," is a worship song. She has said in interviews that it is her worship song that she wrote to honor God for giving her the gift of singing. And don't be surpised if Tori one day comes out with an entire worship record.

The second celebrity is Justin Bieber. You may bring up his past few years and question his faith. This following passage is from his song "Purpose": "I don't know if this is wrong/Because someone else is telling me that it's wrong/But I feel this so let me just like, try my best not to let this happen again/We weren't necessarily put in the best position to make the best decisions. /You can't be hard on yourself/For these were the cards that you were given so you have to understand that these, like.../That's not who you are/You're trying to be the best you can be but that's all you can do/If you don't give it all you got, you're only cheating yourself/Give it all you got/But if it ends up happening, it ends up happening./That's what it's....that's what's happening with me/It's like God I'm giving it all I got, sometimes/I'm weak and I'm gonna do it, and it's like I'm not giving myself grace/I'm just like understanding, that's just how it is." If you didn't catch it, he is talking to God.  We have all made mistakes. Some bigger than others. The thing is, though, is that it doesn't matter if you killed someone or stole a candy bar from a store. It's all the same thing to him. Bieber changed himself and is a new person. He is unashamed that he rediscovered his faith.

All of us Christians are here for a purpose. Each of us may have a different purpose but we were all put on this Earth to bring more people to Jesus (Matthew 28:19). That has been the mission for us from the beginning. Maybe yours looks like taking your friend to Starbucks and talking about Jesus or if they are going through a hard time, invite them to church. Once it happens, you will want to keep doing it and will give you a better addiction and high than any drug or alcohol ever could.

Until Next Time, Alex