Well everyone, we are now back from Orlando.
Is anyone as... man.. this kind of stinks, as I am?
WEll, anyway, I had a blast, it was freaking awesome.
God was so good, the services were great, and most of all:
My friends are amazing!
You guys rock, every single one of you made this trip an absolute blast.
I  had sooooo much fun with every one of you.
Not to mention that I KNOW you all LOVED every minute you spent with me ;)
No, but seriously, I'm so glad to have friends who make trips like this so worth the week, and SOMETIMES venture out into the same level of weirdness that I seem to always walk in.

So I"m here in Orlando, and today we went to the beach, and it was pretty freaking awesome.
Since we went to the gulf side of florida, we got to see the sun set over the ocean, and it was pretty flippin sweet.  And just being at the beach and everything was a super blast.  O yeah... amazing.
Tomorrow at 11:40 I'm going to do my drama solo, and I"m really not that nervous at all.  I'm just... going to do it... and I guess we'll see how it goes.
Yep, Orlando is definitely an amazing place. 
Tomorrow should be interesting all of my youth group is going to go to universal, but I'm going to hang out with my old youth pastor.  He doesn't get done judging until six, so maybe I can hook up with some of my Texas friends, or just get to watch some hype competitors.
So yep.. GOod times ;)

So you guys have already heard about the death to mr.clique service, which was pretty cool. 

NOw here's another part of our adventure last night.  So the youth pastor gives an invitation at the end of the service, basically saying something to the effect of " If you want to come back to "consuming fire" ( youth group name) next week and be more friendly and inviting, stand up."

Well Hooper and I have no intentions of driving 1000 miles to come to a youth service next week, so we sat: and were the only two of the forty or so students who weren't standing. 
THEN the Youth pastor says " I don't think there's anyone sitting down."
Haha, so then of course everyone looks at us, and I can only imagine what the kids in the youth group were thinking who didn't know us. "Wow, look at them, they don't even want to be friendly to people.  THose heathens."

So the rest of the night hooper and I had a lot of fun anunciating our Christianity.  "So hooper, how far are you from being a CREDENTIALED MINISTER?"
Hooper: "Well Adam, I'm taking my credintial test in October, but how's life down at your CHRISTIAN COLLEGE?  Or how about that BIBLE AND THEOLOGY MAJOR?"
I could go on forever, but it was a lot of fun.
So yeah..... Tomorrow we leave for Dallas.  Yippee.

So here you go everyone, a plethra of pictures of me and my sexy, yes i said sexy, new accord, because apparently sexy in reference to a car seems to freak out some of my friends.  O well ;)
So yeah, i like it a lot, tis quite nice, and I'm glad to have one now.

I know this entry might be a bit long, but I think it's fairly humorous and interesting, highlights being two major gringos trying to understand spanish, and my sexy new accord.

Texas

So here I am in Midland TX con mi padre.  Haha, with my dad, but since i've been here i'm getting right back into trying to decipher what little spanish I can, especially considering the fact that my step mom speaks practically no english.

Today Hooper and I went to my dad's dealership, and pretty much every conversation with any customer was entirely in spanish, and we both spent most of the time clueless, while at the same time pathetic due to our immense excitement when we would translate words such as "shoes" and "women" and "coche" (car)

So it's been fun, but by far the best event of today was seeing my soon to be ACCORD.  O yeah, she's QUITE PRETTY.  It's black, and the letters on the back that say accord and lx are in gold, so it looks pretty darn spiffy.  I reallllly like the way it looks, black with a great looking interior, sleek, and most of all, amazing gas mileage compared to my current vehicle.  So I am QUITE excited, because I think my dad may be bringing it to his house tonight so we can go ahead and make the trade.

And once that happens, when we have a good car for gas mileage, I think Hooper and I are planning on going to the mall in Odessa, about twenty minutes from here.  So yep everyone, that's the current life of Adam. Yipppeeee!!!

COmments..?

Okay, so it's not  100 PERCENT for sure, but I'm pretty postive, after talking to my dad just now, that when  Hooper and go down to Midland TX here in a few days, ( well, Springfiled AG headquarters first to see my old youth pastor, then texas ) I will be driving back a...

2000 HONDA ACCORD!!!
Trading it for my truck, yes, I must say goodbye to The Beast, but I'll be trading around 15-18 MPG to 23-30 MPG!

The Accord is black, four door, has 120,000 miles on it, which is NOT bad for one of the longest lasting cars in the automobile industry.  This thing will last forever before it breaks down.  I mean, IT'S AN ACCORD!!!

God is so stinking awesome!! Blessings are great!! If you can't tell, I'm excited.  I guess you'd have to drive a truck that guzzles gas like mine in times of nearly three dollars a gallon to truly understand.  And not only that, be getting an Accord, I mean, honestly, that was THE economical car out of all of them I would have asked for!
Finally, I can drive places and not be emptying my wallet all the time.

Here's somewhat what it will look like, and the different specs and such.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/15904.shtml

Some good stuff.  Hope it brightens your day.  Got if from a friends post off xanga.

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that
ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA
scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero
gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at
temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 C.

The Russians used a pencil.

~~~

When Bruce Banner gets mad, he turns into the Hulk.  When the Hulk gets mad,
he turns into Chuck Norris.

The start of the song is that "when I go down, I go down hard," and in the end comes the resolution. (Relient K)

Any control I thought I had just slips right through my hands
while my
ever-present conscience shakes its head and reprimands me
reprimands
me
then and there
I confess
I'll blame all this on my
selfishness
yet you love me
and that consumes me
and I'll stand up
again
and do so willingly

You give me hope, and hope it gives me
life
you touch my heavy heart, and when you do you make it light
as I
exhale I hear your voice
and I answer you, though I heardly make a
noise
and from my lips the words I choose to say
seem pathetic, but it's
fallen man's praise
because I love you
oh God, I love you
and life is
now worth living
if only because of you
and when they say I'm dead and
gone
it won't be further from the truth

When I go down
I life my
eyes up to you
I won't look very far
cause you'll be there
with open
arms
to lift me up again
to life me up again

So all around tonight was probably the most incredible evening OF MY ENTIRE LIFE.

The end.

As much as I can emphasize without getting the improper message across that I am in a personal life and death situation ( as in me backsliding ) I want to do so in saying please pray for me.
I'd appreciate it.

.I must put this in here, what I am saying is that MY WALK WITH GOD IS FINE.  Don't worry about that guys, there is just a situation going on around me, my life, whatever, that I really need prayer for.  Trust me, you don't need to worry that Adam Rodrigues is questioning his salvation, as one person was concerned about.  PLEASE don't think that. 

Just pray ;)

I could go on and on about how I am continually moved by the lyrics to their songs.  To me, this song is just so, powerful.  Especially the way it's put to music.

Sometimes I'm a selfish fake
You're always a true friend.
I don't deserve you cause      
I'm not there for you
Please forgive me again.

I wanna be there for you.
someone you can come to.
It runs deeper than my bones.
I wanna be there for you.

Swirling shades of blue,
Slow dancing in your sky
The sun kisses the earth.
And I hush my urge to cry.

*Cause I hear the whispered words,
In your masterpiece beautiful
You speak the unspeakable through
I LOVE YOU TOO.

.Man, that last verse and the bridge are so awesome.  See, this girl's testimony is one of the most incredible I've ever heard. 
I'll post about it later, but basically, if someone's going to feel too dirty for God to love her, it was her.

Guys, no matter what, or how unspeakable it may seem.
He still going so say He loves you.
Okay, that's my serious/spiritual spiel for you ;)

http://www.flyleafmusic.com/
Go to this link.  And so you know, when the first song "i'm so sick" starts playing, the screaming is being done by the girl.
Yeah.
It's pretty insane.

To me, one of the hardest things sometimes..

Is being who God wants me to be..
Even when people don't seem to notice.

I don't believe existence to be entirely dependent upon physical perception.  If that were true, then when I was first conceived, then it was not until I was able to perceive my own existence that I in fact existed.  If God knew Jeremiah before he was formed in the womb, then obviously Jeremiah existed before he had the capacity to perceive his own existence.  And if the bible is not a source for you, then a fetus will suffice.  All of us were at one point the initial conception of an egg and sperm cell.  Meaning our existence began there.  Had we been aborted, we would not be here, we would not exist, because our existence would have been halted. 
So obviously, some type of existence had to have been there. 

But in response to something chris asked, if someone was born without senses.  Once again, just because they couldn't perceive their existence does not mean, in my opinion, that they exist.  Why?  Well, if there is a God, ( which there is, and His purpose of making us with relationship with HIm, is an apologetics spiel I don't feel like going into right now ) and He is all powerful, totally supra natural, then He is capable of anything.  Meaning He could, if He desired, create someone to be born without a perception of their existence, and then heal them so that they could perceive their existence. 
The question is, if they existed before they were healed.  I would say, yes, because we have a spiritual perception.
You can say that spiritual perception is somehow related to a physical feeling.  In feeling God's presence, I relate it to a physical feeling.  I say no, it is a feeling in and of itself, one beyond the natural, one not capable of being described in the natural, because it is SUPER natural.
You can't naturally describe an emotional healing that from that point on is proven through how I behave differently.  I really don't want to go there, but if you don't believe that something beyond your natural perception can happen when you experience God's presence, then I worry if you believe you can ever experiece His presence.
Go to a camp service and mean it if you disagree.
But anyway, every person is God's child, His creation, and so capable of experiencing that. We are spiritual as well as physical beings.
NOw a bit complicated....
For that person to exist, they have to have a spirit. People are not strictly physical.  I don't want to go here either, but the simple mechanical workings of your body components are not what give you life.  God is the life behind it ( the whole.. two cells through sex made YOU )
So that person does have a spirit, as any one else does.  But their physical being isn't aware of anything.  So God heals the physical, so then they can perceive the natural, but the spirit has always been there. 
You say "no" for whatever reason.
So I ask this: If that person died, wouldn't they go to heaven or hell?
No, they weren't really a human being...
Right.....
So there's my argument.

Psalm 16:2

I said to the Lord," You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."
. Do we believe that? I
mean really.  In this context, the psalmist has probably lost
anything of natural value ( from material to like um, a significant
other )Can we say that to God? ( I say we because I definitely include
myself)

And please, don't just look at this as another one of those " Do you
really mean this" verses, where you think " ooo, mmmm, yeah, that's
good, we need to stop over looking that verse and really think about
that."

Don't do that.

I think we're too used to that thinking, of, you know, when someone gives a verse, we now know to look at it more closely.

But I think that's starting to become empty, because we've been pushed
to reconsider so many times, we don't REALLY reconsider any more.

It's more like a "motivating afterthought" than a deep life changing commitment.

BUT I'M SERIOUS GUYS.  if everything was taken from us, Can we
really look at God and say " Apart from you, I HAVE NO GOOD THING." Can
we?

Can we do that?  Is He that important to us?  Because I'm saying THIS to myself:

HE NEEDS TO BE.

I hate how I can get so wrapped up in everything else, and not come to grips with this, because WHEN ALL THIS IS GONE, HE IS ALL I HAVE.  And NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

I know I can let this pass me by, so I'm asking everyone else as well
as myself, to really stop and get God to where He needs to be:

You're absolute everything, your one care more than all things, so much
so, that in Him, you could be completely satisfied, if everything else
was taken from you.

   

The extensive
grasp of limitation intrinsic in this natural realm indeed has no
application in prayer. I am in no way constrained, restricted, or
bound in any way from anything I might say or wish for when I am in
the presence of Almighty God. Once I am entered into the realm of
supernatural supplication, all rules, limitations, physical laws, and
biological standards are no longer applicable, and furthermore, even
taken into the slightest bit of consideration. For in His presence
we come imploring of His hand: a hand no one can fathom or attempt to
adequately describe, that at a whim slighter than a feather's touch
instantaneously brought the entire universe into existence, and in
doing so only displayed a minuscule portion of its power.
Furthermore, it is my opinion that once we come to the realization
that through prayer we have access to this hand, one of such
boundless potential, capable of over riding any and every natural
limitation, that we can experience the true power of God in our
lives: a power completely devoid of absolutely any restriction.

I am

I'm the God above
everyone.
I'm the God you
can't understand,
The one at then
end of all things,
I am the I am that
I am.
I'm the one at the
end of every tunnel.
The lighting on
every hill.
I'm the one who
brought everything to be.
I am the one
bringing all under my will.
I am the one with
an eternity of love,
and even more to
give,
I am the God who
is forever,
And with whom you
will forever live.
I am the one who
loves all,
Even if they feel
unworthy,
I am the God who
couldn't stop loving,
Even if all
disowned me.
I am the God who
couldn't give you enough
To tell you who I
am.
I'm the God who is
over everything
Your will, and
purpose, and plan.
I'm the God who
couldn't stop giving,
Even if I tried,
For I'm the one
who gave such much,
I even came down
and died.
I'm the one over
everything,
I am the one over
every man,
I am the
unthinkable, indescribable, incomprehensible,
I am the I am,
That I am.

Well, I guess that's the last time I put anything serious on phusebox. 
Wow, no comments, I must say, xanga won on this one..
But anyway, this should be interesting...
SCARY DREAM
So you ever have one of those SICK and weird dreams?

I had one of those last night.

In short, I watched Noelle Troudt, Jessica Hodson, and a couple other
people I can't remember, die. ( those are two of my friends from lee,
and I know the others were lee people as well, the dream was a "lee
friends" dream )


Now that i have your attention:


So basically, there was this new disciplinary standard enstated that
gave you three chances for mess ups, and on the third, THEY HANGED YOU.

I, seemed to be the only one who saw this as TWISTED.

I tried to chase down Paul Conn to talk to him, but he drove off in his golf cart, didn't have the time.

It was pretty messed up.  I think what happened is I saw a couple
of people get killed I didn't know to well, and then it got more
personal by getting to my friends.

What really sucked was when they put Noelle up on the gallows, I was
arguing with this, get this, old lady who was the person who would push
the button to drop the floor from beneathe her, and I tried to tell her
this is RIDICULOUS. 

I mean, I was freaking out, one of my friends was about to DIE IN FRONT OF ME, FOR NO GOOD REASON.

So what happens?  The lady starts giving me marks for arguing with
her, and I looked and saw noelle drop, and the whole thing, neck snap,
death, yeah

Gruesome.

I saw the same thing with Jessica.  I then remember talking to
donnie ( my chaplain ) and how terrible it was to have to be the ones
to tell her boyfriend Corey.


And that's all I remember.  So when I woke up, needless to say, I was relieved it wasn't real.

Comments anyone?

.I know we frequently say it, but I do feel this is "original," if that makes reading it any more intriguing....

Furthermore

Furthermore, for
what it's worth, there has never been anything of the sort!

Could there be, or
would it be, even considerable?

Fallacy! Never
would I conceive such an abomination!

Furthermore, and
for the record, it couldn't be done with any amount of effort.

What is there to
explain? It's all so insane...Why am I even thinking this way?

Why do I face such
gruesome reality? I'm not capable of such atrocities!

Well... maybe I
am.....

No!

Blasphemy!

Am I out of my
mind, what could I be thinking!

I won't be
convinced! I know I couldn't ever do such a thing! But why even the
consideration....


And why does it
even seem like someone's trying to convince me in the first place!

Who are you! No
one knows me that well!


NO ONE!


Unless....

Unless....

I mean, You're
not!....

NO! It can't be!
I wasn't ever going to....believe.... What? It can't be!...

Can it?

You? You, all
along? In every one of my convictions?

My unexplainable
guilt?

Revealing my true
wretched self....

.....I'm so
oblivious....

It WAS You.... all
along......

All along.....

In the midst of my
internal conflict...

It HAS been You...

My conviction....

My revealer.. of
things... I didn't want to see..

Or even believe,
about myself...

It all makes sense
now.

My ever present
Conscience.

My truth deeper
than my finite mind could see,

And You've always
been there...

O God, I was so
blind!

But You showed me
who I was, when I didn't want to see...

By showing me, who
YOU were,

The Saving
Mystery.

The whisper behind
every guilty thought...

The check behind
every wrong decision..

That pressure when
I was under the wrong thinking..

That rightness
when wrong was pending..

And all this time
I'm knowing..

but unable to
understand..

Until you came and
removed the blinders...

With your all
revealing hand..

Making my
furthermore, and its empty reassurance,

No longer fool me
in their ruse,

Because my
furthermore, has now forevermore,

Been put to rest
in You.

What is maturity?