My Wife......10yrs later.

Today we are celebrating our 10yr anniversary. We decided to go to the Body Worlds Exhibit in Los Angeles and then head over to the Grove in LA. Stopped by Wood Ranch for dinner when I was finally able to conduct the interview of my beautiful wife...

Favorite color? Yellow

Favorite TV show? Lost

Favorite christian song? I can only imagine
Favorite movie? Grease

Favorite book? The Bible

Favorite author? Mary Higgins Clark

Favorite restaurant? Wood Ranch!

Favorite store? Target

Favorite sport teams? Lakers, Miami Dolphins!

Favorite Hobby? Reading books/blogs

Top 5 happy moments of the past 10 yrs?

- Getting married to the love of my life.

- Having Matthew and Justin.

- Club Med Ixtapa

- Finding Christ through Revolution Church

- Going on a mission trip to India.

Top 5 worst moments of the past 10 yrs?

- Giving back 2 beautiful boys back to God. (we love you, Daniel and Aaron)

- My mom getting cancer

- Revolution Church getting an unexpected makeover.

- Rene's dad going to federal prison.

- Rene going through back pain

Where do you want to be in 10 yrs?

With family on a long term mission trip.

Whats your greatest challenge?

Letting God lead the way...

I can't believe it's gone by so fast!!

I love you soo much. Thanks for great time tonight :-) The last picture was during our honeymoon. 10yrs ago?!

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Summer just got better!!!

We ended up with a redneck pool?! By the way I asked the same question, whats a redneck pool? Well according to our neighbor who was nice enough to give us this pool, oh, and by the way, thank you Becky!! It's basically a giant above the ground pool, and its from.....Wal-Mart. Whatever.....the kids like it, so now we are the proud owners of our own giant pool. filters? chlorine tabs? algae? uuhhhhh.....does it come with a diving board?

San Diego ComicCon 2008

I started collecting comics when I was a kid and have gradually grown out of collecting them. I have always loved the creativity, artwork, storytelling, and just the imagination of people out there. Weird and different is good. One of the places that I started going to, and see how my artwork "measured up" was here...San Diego. About 9 years ago, it wasn't this fancy but they must be doing something right if over 100, 000 people decide to stop by now. Here are some pictures Jen and I took...

LONG BEACH RESCUE MISSION

It's been awhile....who reads this stuff anyway? Well here it is, the Long Beach Rescue Mission is a freaking amazing place with some dedicated staff members.



Just to start off our Lifegroup has been volunteering at the RM for about 4-5 months now, we've made some friends and along the way have seen the growth in some and the challenge in others. It's a daily battle no different from you and me. I had the privilege of sharing a few thoughts on "independence", real independence. Don't confuse independence with self worth or confidence. First......


Romans 7:14-25 Paul says.." We know that the law is spiritual:but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do good but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do, no, the evil I do not want to do...this I keep doing. Now if I do what I don't want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is the sin living in me that does it.


So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law: but I see another law at work in the members of my own body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

The Bible shares 3 lessons in Paul dealing with his sinful nature....

1. Knowledge is not enough. We usually know enough, we just don't do it. For example, we all know not to drive drunk, but how many people still do it? We know the consequences of speeding but we do it anyway. We knew that the Lakers were going to win the championship and what happened? <----sorry bad example... Anyway, we know enough, we just chose not to do, whatever "it" is. Bible studies are great, and its great to know what eschatology and exegetical mean, but if we can't even reach out to our neighbors.........is it that we don't know enough?
2. Self determination is not enough. I don't want to imply that our own determination is not good, because it is, but if that is the only thing we have in this is a daily battle, what happens when everything starts caving in around us, things go sideways and we begin to feel the weight. There are times when we're in those "valleys", when I don't care who you think you are, we just need help getting up. Those that avoid this help, are frantic and usually find either something to numb them out or their hearts are hardened just a little bit more. They don't want to feel their own need. Self determination, by itself, out the window.
3. Becoming a Christian is not enough! The word "Christian" has such a negative connotation in this society and its not by accident. Just because some say they are Christians doesn't mean they've officially removed every trace of sin from there lives and every decision will be easy and life will get better because now God is on their side!....whatever! If I look back on my life, I think "Christians" kept me further from God than anything else. I'm sure even today I'm not the best example, but we are all poor imitations of the truth in Jesus Christ. It's not enough to say it, our lives must reflect His glory, not ours.

This is who we are, this is how we were created, we are wired to need not only each other but our creator. At times christian maturity comes through suffering and rarely through blessings. In your pain don't immediately pray for deliverance, but seek God first. Don't waste the pain, by numbing it away.Romans 5:2-8 Paul says..."And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only so but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

"Hope" is the expectation of the future that sustains us in the present. Sustains us in the present. Sustains us through trial. God is carrying us through. But still the world echoes another message. We're constantly under attack with a message of dissatisfaction. Things sell around us everyday with the promise of making us better than we are. The "self help" industry is a huge money making industry. We all buy in and getting nothing in return. But when life is great everything is fine. But for many of us, we're still in that valley....reaching for the big empty. Reaching for ourselves and finding there nothing left anymore. Where is our independence, then? Because we know in our hearts its more than knowing, more than wanting and more than just a "religion", its in the dependency of Jesus Christ. Listen to your life. Life is more than just the sum of its events.....its not about us.

Ecclesiastes 6:7 "All man's efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.

Ecclesiastes 2:10 " I denied myself nothing my eyes desired: I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun."

The Long Beach Rescue Mission is definetly a great place to stretch ourselves into new territory by not being in complete control and letting God do what he does best by using everyday normal people and empowering them to understand when they can't, He can.

Larry Shewfelt - Happy Birthday!

For those of you who don't know who Larry Shewfelt is, you are missing out.... The first time I saw Larry was on the stage of Revolution at the El Dorado Campus when we would meet in this small auditorium. He went up on stage and looked very confidant and when he started to share his testimony he began to cry. Cry!? I was touched by his honesty and his willingness to open his heart to everyone. He spoke, we listened....
How would I've known? Little did I know that I would later have the privelage of being his friend, serving with him side by side in India, serving with him at the Long Beach Rescue Mission, playing music with him or even being in the same Lifegroup sharing our faith and experiences while growing in our walk together. I am thankful for his wisdom in Lifegroup, and his boldness in playing guitar and taking me with him.
Larry you are great friend, and happy birthday! I'd say wishing you another 60yrs, but there are a couple problems.....
1. Another 60yrs puts you around 120yrs old....not good.
2. 60 more years wouldn't help your golf game....hah!
Anyway, Larry we love ya, let the good times roll, and just so you know, the first time, when I went on the stage and shared my testimony, I cried too.....see what you started! Have fun bro!

Battle at Kruger

When one can't, many can..cool video

Staying focused.....

We are studying Philippians 3:12-4:1.

Basically, Paul tells us to always press on toward the goal. He says " Not that I have already attained this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead..."


If you don't know, a quick explanation, Paul used to be named Saul and he used to persecute (kill) Christians with a passion. He would literally hunt them down and it wasn't until he was on the "road to Damascus", when the Lord spoke to him, from that point on Saul was then named Paul and he dedicated his life toward being a servant of Jesus Christ. What amazes me about Paul is that he dedicates his life to Christ and basically suffers more any of us will even dream of, for the grace of God. (Grace is defined as undeserved favor.) While going through his pains and struggles, he never boasts about what he has done for Christ but says he has not taken hold of what Christ has called him do. I wondered, if Paul, experiencing a life of discomfort, pain, humility, jail, never submitting to life's "status quo" is still focused on Him, then what about.....me? Can I stay focused? Can I be strong? Can I look beyond what's in front of me?

I asked a lifegroup member about Christian maturity, we talked about attaining "maturity"? How do we know, is it through reading more, studying more, education, loving? He thought for a moment on his own life and then calmly said, " His own maturity, has comes through suffering, never through blessings." Yeah, that sucks...but it makes sense.

This took me to Romans 5:3-5: "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

This scripture never says we should rejoice of our suffering, but in our suffering. (Hope - an expectation of the future that sustains us in the present. Does not disappoint us.) I could think back at some horrible experiences in my own life, either decisions I made or just situations beyond my control. In those moments, I wanted nothing more than to all of it to just go away. But today, would I want someone to take those things away from me? As bad as they were...never. Because those moments shaped who I am today and important lessons were learned. Even when I didn't believe in Jesus, He was still shaping my heart, molding my life and carrying me through it.

So today my challenge is to "Be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be." To not dwell on those things that cripple me but to use the pain and experiences to focus back on Him and his direction. Despite of all of our technology, all of our advancements, all of our knowledge, we're still very human, continually lacking and in need of God's grace. I like how Paul describes moving forward as "straining ahead." It's never easy and now I know its not suppose to be.

Lifegroup was really fun this last Tuesday, thanks guys.