'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' ' I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper not to harm.' ' I have come so that you may have life and have it to the fullest.'---God

Who likes the curveballs of life that God throws at us and what do you do with it?

why is hitting baseballs at 10 at night by the lights of cars the most fun i have had since i got back in town?

YAY finally got baptized in the ocean in Trinidad. There are tons of pics on Facebook and I will have some up here sometime soon I hope.

    Was doing a quiet time last night and was reading Leviticus, hence the title.
    The names of God and Jesus always have a significance that is somewhat lost in our modern days. The Great Physician, the Alpha and Omega, Prince of Peace, Creator, Savior, The Lamb of God. All of these are names that we have heard people call the One who created us or the one who came to save us. But what does the last one mean, the Lamb of God? That is where Leviticus comes in. The worth of the animal to be sacrificed is proportional to the amount of standing or leadership a person had in the community. The priest had to sacrifice a bull and if the community as a whole sinned a bull would be sacrificed as well. For the ordinary Israelite it was a lamb, a pure, blemish free lamb. Christ became that lamb for us as he died upon the cross. The amount of blood that was present in Israel was incredible but that blood could only cover the sins that had already been commited, not those they were going to commit in the days and weeks to come. The blood of Christ which was spilled once for me to cover my sins forever can and do cover the sins of every Israelite and every person that has ever lived and ever will live. He is called Lamb because he came to die for the common man, not just for the leadership or the priviledged, but for everyone. Jesus loves us so much. He gave up His life, the cross could not kill Him, so that we could have victory over death through Him. He had to watch as His Father turned His back on His Son because of our sin, because of my sin.
    So after reading this God said to me 'I have provided a way for you to be with Me' this way is gift to everyone who accepts it. Then He said 'I no longer remember your sins, they are forgotten. Come My son we need to talk, and you need to learn to listen and be patient. When you ask Me for help let me come to your aid, don't rush to get the things you want because I may have something better for you or you might not yet need it or ever have a reason for it again.'

I thank my God every time I remember you. Philippians 1:3
Thanks Chris Walker for all that you have helped me understand about Christ's love and get through. I can never express how grateful I am for you.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre.

And so my world stops . . .

Wow I kind of miss this whole blog thing. So here is the last three months in a nutshell: sleep, change rooms, eat, study, drive, eat, Christmas, sleep, New Years, drive, skiing, sleep, study. Yea that is about it. So Im getting ready to go to Trinidad playing some basketball with the team and just hangin out like you do. I got to watch Monty Python is my engineering physics class, it was amazing.

Why is i that we pay thousands of dollars to go to school and learn things that we don't really want to learn? I am tired of writing english papers. Shannon and I went to watch Jarhead last night, it was amazing, if you don't mind the cussing to much. It is a true to life movie if you want to know about hte life of a soldier. It made me realize a lot of the aspirations I have to be a sniper for the Rangers, they are truly the best of the best. And the bast part about it is that it fits my personality very well, and it probably doesn't hurt that I am not scared to die. God will show me what to do though and His plan is better than any plans I could make for myself. Well UT is getting the crap beat out of them. . . . GO IRISH!!. I know that I shouldn't say that but come on RUDY remember. These guys are good and they play with heart. Well I guess that this is all that I have time to write at the moment. Hasta la victoria siempre.

Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. Sweat drops mingled with blood falling to the ground. 'Why are you sleeping?' Why are the people I love the most asleep when I need them to be there for me? My close friend, Judas, in an act of love, betrays me the Savior of the Earth. I still love him; he had to do it to let me fully be who I claimed to be. Finally, one of my friends, Peter, does something but it is violence, don't cut off someone's ear. I perform my last miracle, still they all doubt me. I go peacefully; I don't speak against any of them. The men who are supposed to know me best have no clue of who I am. They are the ones that want me to die. It may have something to do with that I told them they were hypocrites and that they would be humbled. But the healthy are not the ones who need a doctor. I spend the entire night on trial; first in Jewish court with a man who was the father of the man who wanted to spill the blood of one man to save the rest, man he was on to something. Then I went to his son, the high priest. On the way to Pilate I saw Peter deny me and then the rooster crowed. Then I was sent to Herod then back to Pilate. I am only in Roman court since the Jews can not order anyone executed. The governor of the province and his wife found no reason to kill me, so he tried to have me freed by letting the people choose between a murderer and I. However, the leaders of the church wanted me dead, the just couldn't handle the truth, so they chose the murderer and despised him. Once again trying to spare my life he had me flogged to near death. The flesh was ripped off my back and when they had their fun with my back they rolled me over and started with my stomach. Then the guards placed a crown of thorns on my head so that the thorns were in my scalp. Then they beat me again and asked which one of them hit me. Then I got to carry my cross.

In the gospels we are called to pick up our crosses and follow Him daily. We have to prove ourselves worthy to make it to the cross. We can't die in the beatings or give up during the trials. We have to have Jesus' mind set, not my will but yours. Are we going to be there for our friends when they need us the most or will we be sleeping because they don't mean enough to us and we are too tired to worry about them? We have to beat the flesh out of us, those evil desires, and master our body and let it glorify our Father in Heaven. The disciples were ordinary men, full of sin, none were scholars, and most were from the same area except Judas the traitor. But they all had faith that Jesus was the Messiah. He spent three years teaching them one on one and at the end of it all they acted like He hadn't taught them anything.  If the men that walked and talked with Jesus could fail, how much easier is it for us to? The point is that we are not perfect; we all have qualities that are not pleasing to God. It is those imperfections, our weakness, that He can show His strength. So lean on Him when you're not strong, with Him you can overcome anything. Doubts, ask me, I can tell you stuff that only He could pull me through. Hasta la victoria siempre.

I know that it is not for my wonderful speech, I think I got mine from MMoses. I know that it is not because of anything that I can do well, because the only reason why I can do it is because of Him. I am of no use to Him, so why does He want me. All I can do is let Him do everything for me, we are supposed to have a servants heart but how can we compete with a God that wants to do everything for us? I am the reason that Jesus had a crown of thorns thrust upon His head. I hammered those nails into His hands and feet. And the whole time He looked at me and smiled and said 'I, the King of Heaven, Creator of All Things, The Beginning and the End, love you. We are both doing what we have to do. Those sweat drops of blood, I was thinking of you. This is only the beginning. Father forgive my brother.' I crucified my Savior, my Redeemer, my King, so it is only right for me to have to crucify myself. I made Him carry His cross with a little help from a reluctant bystander, so what gives me the belief that I can do it all by myself. He is more than willing to carry my cross for me, and carry me at the same time. And we say that life is too hard. Jesus was physically beaten, almost to death, forced to carry a cross, was denied, betrayed, all for being who He is. What have I done for Him? He did all this for all of us individually, He would have done it all for you, just one of you. Yes I know that we have pain and suffering, He knows about all of that, He has overcome all of that. And I can't find the time to talk to Him, to read what He has inspired. He knows everything about me and all I know is His name. He called me brother, but it only feels right to call Him an acquaintance. So why does He want me? He doesn't need me, He just wants to use me to tell people what He has already taught me. What does He want of you? Hasta la victoria siempre.

And why am i listening to Josh Groban? Well school is awesome, the last few days have rocked. I got to talk to some friends I haven't talked to in a long time. I never really realized that I missed them this much. But it is all good since they are either here or at MTSU so I will get to see them occasionally. But more importantly why am I not in Bolivia or Colombia? My heart is there not here. And there are no physics tests waitng for me there tomorrow. Sleep is good, very good, but God is so much better. Everything makes so much more sense when you wait for Him and see all the perfection in His timing. I am tempted to go join the Army but that won't allow me to go to Latin America for the reasons that I would want to go there. But i digress. I don't like classes. I love my adopted family up here, they are awesome. I now have 3 little brothers and an sister who is a freshman at MTSU. So that is rockin. I can't wait to go to Trinidad over Spring Break, I get to play basketball against the national team if all the plans stand for that. I hope the do even though we will probably lose, but everything is not about winning. I am ready for the semester to be over I want to see all of you back home. Especially those who end up in my car at 1am listening to Coldplay. Well I must go to class. Hasta la victoria siempre.

Getting ready for Fall Break, thank goodness. 4 hours of sleep is no where near enough for me to operate in class. The classes aren't too bad it is just all the homework that I have to do before I leave to go home, so I have 2 days to get a lot of stuff done and I don't get out of class till 6:30 tuesday night, ggrrrrrr. There is nothing for me to do now that softball season is over, wait no football season has started and I have game tonight, one less hour to do homework. I have an adopted family up here and they rock. I now have three little brothers. I can't wait to actually get to hang out with them sometime. And I also have an adopted brother who played softball with me, we are going to have a great year. I'm praying about going to Colombia for missions sometime, if God wants me to go he will work it out in His perfect timing. But I will probably go to Bolivia too if I go. I'm also thinking about minoring in Latin American Studies, that would be awesome. Man this is pretty funny, me complaining about not having enough time but still writing this much for a blog, pure insanity.
Hasta la victoria siempre.

Today a bunch of older gentlemen are handing out bibles on campus and it makes my heart happy. Why do people always like free stuff until it has something to do with spirituality? Its not like the New Testament is heavy. Yes it does deal with rules but it takes you out of the bondage of the law and puts you under grace. To me, since I have no hope of not breaking the law, grace is a good and is my hope of spending eternity with the Father who will never leave you, and a brother who was willing to die for you and did it. And he never blamed you for it, he just said that we didn't know what we were doing since we didnt know God as our Savior, I will gladly take a family like that. Guys I don't know about you but our struggle should be getting a little easier in the months to come. Hasta la victoria siempre.

WOW we played a full game of football. I had to waste an entire 3 hours not just one quarter. Well enough about football, I had a great day even though i slept through most of it. Why is it that the things we didn't do until like our senior year are the cool things to do when you are in 7th grade. Well it is about two in the morning, see freedom to sleep when you want. Well church starts in 7 hours need to sleep some. Hasta la victoria siempre.

I thought that when I got to college everything was supposed to change. Now that I have been up here for a little while all I can see are the similarities between the real world and all the things I had to go through in high school. The only differences are that I have to drive and waste my gas to go places, I have to pay for my food, and I don't have a curfew, that's the best part. You have to worry about time management and whether or not you will sleep through your 8 am class or even your 11:15. But the things that I have to hold on to are all of the things that God taught me in high school. Yes he continues to teach me and guide me but my character has already been determined by what I did in high school. Yes as a colege student I have more freedom but I also have a higher price to pay for my lack of character. Hasta la victoria siempre.