Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not 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 Lord’s 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]

I approached him and revealed my growing desire to venture to the Philippines to participate in missions, particularly his student ministry in Bacolod. We exchanged our excitment and he encouraged me to pursue this yearning of my heart to reach the nations with missionary work.

Then he prayed for me.

He was a loving husband and father, a leader and evangelizer, a faithful servant of the Lord, doing great things for God’s kingdom until his last day of his unexpected death. Although we mourn the physical death of our brother, Pastor Aboi del Mundo, in his early 40s, we also rejoice that he is undoubtedly celebrating a life in heaven with the very God that he dedicated his life to serving. Praise God for his example and may his family and friends be comforted by the sufficient grace of God.

So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
[Psalm 90:12]

We do not know how long God will allow us to live here on this earth, but my hope is to use this short time I am given to express gratitude to my Father in heaven. Yes, life is short, but I don’t want that fact to permit foolishness. I want to give my life to the One who gave His life for me—- I would rather lift it up with full assurance than live it up, searching for the next high, exhalting idols and chasing things that do not satisfy. Dear God, give me grace, be my strength, I cannot do this alone. Teach me to number my days, pursuing only things that are pleasing in Your sight.

so encouraged!

i just wanted to share a blog post by our friend, marc, a new believer and already going strong with a desire to learn and grow in the knowledge and love of God! PTL!
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Page by Page Struggle

It’s either ALL the Word of God, or it isn’t.

Something that is a constant battle for me and I’m sure will continue to be, so long as I continue to grow in my faith.

I’ve been attending Creekside Church every Sunday for the past couple months or so, and when I can’t make it to Irvine from being out of town or other circumstances I listen to the sermons online once they’re posted to get caught up. The series of messages are called Kingdom Living and have all been about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount which is a compilation of Jesus’ teachings on how to live our lives. Each week a different section of the Sermon on the Mount is discussed at Creekside, and each time I learn something new about myself that I have to change or adjust in order to better follow God’s Word. Now these changes don’t come immediately for me, or for anyone I presume, but with prayer and just continually studying the Bible it becomes easier and easier to try and mold myself into the person God wants me to be.

Now I guess the next question is why should I continually have to change how I act or think each time I read something in the Bible that conflicts with how I think or act already? Well to put it simply, it’s because I’m a believer; I believe that Jesus Christ is my savoir who died for my sins and all sins of the earth. I invited God into my life because I’ve learned that I need His guidance. Along with allowing God to enter my life came some rules that I have to obey and things I must do, not to prove to Him my self-worth and not to buy my way into His Kingdom, but instead to thank Him for what He has given me. Trying to do good works and live a perfectly moral life in order to prove to God that I am worthy doesn’t really make sense because I have sinned and unfortunately I probably will sin again because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Basically, I can’t claim my worth to God based on my obedience to Him because I fall short of God’s standards. Sounds discouraging? Not to me, because I know that due to sin I would not be allowed to live in Heaven with God; however, God provided me and all of us an opportunity to be with Him because HE LOVES US. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). It’s this love, this unconditional love that provides the reason to why I am trying my best to re-shape my life to glorify God because I cannot possibly thank Him enough for saving me. “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9

So that pretty much covers the reasons as to why I am trying to do things differently in my life nowadays. The problem is that it isn’t always easy to just change the way you live and believe me I have plenty more to work on in my life. But I am trying and I am proud to say I have made some significant changes in my life that I am very proud of and thank God for answering my prayers about them and giving me the strength to change. Ok, so why did I title this post “Page by Page Struggle”? Well, mainly because the more I read the Bible the more I come to agree with and the more I also come to discover “oops, I’m messing up.” These mixed feelings come from reading the Sermon on the Mount or any part of the Bible really, and it’s a struggle because when I come across something I don’t necessarily agree with or something that’s hard for me to change, what do I do? Do I ignore the parts that challenge me and disagree with my previous beliefs and focus on all the awesome parts that I do agree with? That doesn’t really make sense because that’s basically me cherry picking which parts I like and dislike; or, agreeing and living by what the Bible says on one page but then turning the page and if I dislike it, just ignore it and continue to disobey it? That won’t quite work out because “it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Romans 2:13). It’s not enough to just read/hear the Word of God, I have to ACTIVELY follow God’s Word. Definitely not always an easy task and I know that I am only just beginning the long journey that is to come which will be filled with difficulties that will push me and only help me grow further in my faith. If I come across something that I disagree with in the Bible, or is hard for me to obey I know I just need to pray about it and continually try and work towards correcting that fault in myself because “the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:25). I know I’ll make mistakes along the way, after all I am only human, but the comfort in knowing that God will be there every step of the way to help me out makes me understand that this is a journey I’ll be able to handle. Consciously trying to make an effort to change and follow the Word of God will be rewarding, as it already has been. PTL!

family at zee fair

Last Tuesday, the Cruz sibs and the bro’s gfriend excitedly drove up from sd to the OC fair, with growling tummies and intense cravings for anything deep-fried, dipped, battered and/or covered with anything unhealthy. But we were literally stopped in our tracks as it turns out the fair was closed Mondays and Tuesday (i know, who does that?!) We made the most of it and had a delicious dinner at Haven gastropub instead, which left our tummies quite satisfied in the mean time.

BUT our appetites for fatty fried fair food had not yes been fulfilled, so attempt #2 came the following Sunday. This time, we had our eyes on the prize with double the determination and double the hunger… and ah yes, our eyes were definitely bigger than our bellies. We were completely stuffed after the chocolate covered bacon (super yuck), zucchini weenies, deep fried sweet potatoes, garlic fries, italian sausage, icee, deep fried s’mores, deep fried oreos, turkey legs, shaved ice and some funnel cake. Mmmmm. We shall rest our bellies and arteries til next year OC Fair!!















I thank God for my two sisters (perhaps soon to be 3!) and my favorite brother (yes, it was a hard choice). We don’t all get to hang out altogether, considering the bro and gfriend live way over in NY, but when we do, it’s so refreshing. Obviously, no one knows you like family—- the ones you grew up with, the ones who played with you, the ones who bullied you, the ones you could share your deepest thoughts with, the ones who teased you, the ones who told you it was going to be okay, the ones who braided your hair, the ones who shared, played and prayed with you. We’ve been through a lot together, but God has sustained us. And I highly doubt you’ll ever read this—- but thank you mommy and daddy for raising us exactly how you did. I know we’re not the easiest kiddos to deal with. We don’t tell you enough how thankful we are and how much we love you, so I hope we try to do that way more often.

Thank you so much God for these lovely people I am blessed to call my family.

Psalm 94:18-19

When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
your love, O LORD, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought joy to my soul. (NIV)

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When I thought,(A) “My foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O LORD,(B) held me up.
When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul. (ESV)

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Your Word is so rich with truths and encouragement. It speaks to my heart and my soul at the exact moment when I need it the most! It transcends time and applies to every experience in life. Oh awesome God, grow me to crave Your Word, to love Your Word, to follow Your Word, to obey Your Word, to share Your Word.

backwards thinking.

“We may feel our faith isn’t strong enough to see miracles and move mountains in our lives. Some well-meaning friends may tell us we need “more faith” or “greater faith.” But this is backwards thinking. It’s not so much great faith in God that’s required, as it is faith in a great God” - Pastor Greg Laurie

soon.

Lord-willing.

restless.

I don't know what it is, but lately I have been feeling a little restless. I crave adventure, but few open slots in my day-to-day. While, I am a fan of structure, I often want to scream without the luxury of a flexible schedule. Perhaps it's because I've been sitting comfortably in this Irvine bubble for five years and the OC just ain't cuttin' it anymore. Maybe it's because I feel like God's calling me to do some big things somewhere else. Nonetheless, I trust that God has planted me here for a reason and I hope that I'll be able to accept His current mission with a joyful heart and not a bitter flesh. It's so easy for us to fix our eyes on our problems instead of Your promises. Enlarge my heart, increase my faith, God.

I have been praying for God to grow me to be content, to be patient in these current circumstances and to understand that there are opportunities no matter where I am... but I truly believe God is calling my little heart elsewhere. Now is the time to really pray without ceasing, to align my desires to His as I seek to honor Him with whatever He has in store for me...

Exciting opportunities have been presented for 2011 and I pray that I would be granted the discernment to make some big decisions. Lord, guide me because the future is unclear and I fight the temptation to be anxious, but I rest in the fact that You are real and You work all things together for good for those who love You.

...and friends, how may I pray for you?

say y-y-y-YES to v-v-v-v-VBS!

Ah yes, August has snuck up on us, which means deep-fried everything at the OC fair… but also it’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) time! Last week, our church united to serve the children of the community for a week-long event of delving into God’s Word, singing silly songs, grubbin on delicious home-cookin’, arts-and-crafting, and learning about how awesome Jesus is! After each day of VBS, the staff was exhausted, but we re-energized for these kiddos in hopes that we would be effective witnesses of the gospel.

This year, God presented me with the challenge of teaching grades 4 and 5 with my awesome assistant duo, Derek and EJ! Although this rowdy group of “Space Rangers” were unable to maintain focus for more than 3.5 minutes, they were such a blessing! Their eagerness to learn and understand the gospel transformed into big, heavy questions. It was a test of our patience, of course, but praise God because we could experience their true child-like faith that He calls us to have. I pray that these kids will one day learn to know and love Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

I could see God moving for sure through the week. It was such a beautiful sight to be in the main auditorium for worship, seeing everyone from toddlers to the elders singing together and reciting memory verses. It was awesome to know that in each class from babies to the “more mature”, people were hearing the gospel and how absolutely relevant it is to their lives. What an incredible display that there is no age limit to when a person can learn about God, especially because God is so infinite that we’ll never understand Him completely. But what we do know about Him and what He offers is more than enough to have true assurance in a God who loves, cares, strengthens, forgives, etc etc etc. PTL f’sho! :)