Coffee and Shoes in the Doorway

This is a really cool post i read about how we know Gods law but will be making excuses at the end. Great quick read.

Coffee and Shoes in the Doorway.

Faith

You gotta have faith… That can easily be said by most people now a days for a number of reasons, but what does that really mean? Faith, according to the book of Hebrews, is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Heb 11:1). Meaning that we continue to keep the faith in our hope, Jesus Christ. That means that although we can’t see the future we understand that He is in control of our paths.
The apostle Paul wrote much of faith, about righteousness through faith and about faith and the works that come as a result of persevering in it. Jesus himself said, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can certainly move mountains. Of course he was talking about the mountainous problems in our lives and trials. He rebuked His apostles for having too little faith when they were in the storm and when it came time to feed the multitudes with just a couple of loafs and a few fish. The patriarch Abraham was credited as righteous for his faith in the Lord.
What im getting at here is that the bible, the God inspired word, gives us plenty of examples of circumstances where faith was at the forefront of the miraculous. And only because they believed in the all mighty God was all these things possible. Not because of the strength or knowledge of the people mentioned or of our own, but because of the power and faithfulness of the one in which we put our faith. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness.

Grace and Peace!

Make Joyful Noise!

 

Switch it up.

Hey everyone today I’ll be talking about my favorite artist when it comes to what I listen to. I first started listening to Christian music back in 2004 (whoa seems like such a long time!). With artists like Audio Adrenaline, Aron Shust, Mercy Me and DC Talk. These are artist that helped me through the transition into my new found faith. But, I was still very much into the secular music I grew up listening to.The more I read and got onto the word God gave me revelation about what I was listening too. And let me tell you that it wasn’t a good felling. Gangsta rap, regetton, spanish rock, and many other genres still had a hold of my flesh, it was time to switch it up. I started analyzing my life and started noticing all the areas that would be a distraction in my walk with God, and mu-sick was one of them.

 

Why would God create something that would not glorify Him? I often wondered to my self. It wasn’t Him who did that it was us in our self centered nature that we perverted His way for us to worship Him. I truly believe that what we listen to has a big impact on our personal relationship with God. And I for one am eliminating anything that would keep me from that. So I went strictly God worshiping and  praising music since 2009.

Not the same? I think not.

At first I felt great with  my new found freedom from the secular influence music had over me, but I wont lie, I felt like I fell short of the variety that the other side had. Then God introduced to me so much more, almost as if to say,”Don’t go thinking I’m not powerful in the music biz”. I heard awesome guitar Duets that praised Him. Great jamming rock. Rap that had way deeper messages than any of the so-called most prolific rappers in hip hop(you know who I mean). Even some good ol, spanish country music. All of it Praising God, All of it Showing me the majesty of the Lord, All of it helping me realize that it’s NOT about me but about HIM. till this day I refuse to listen to secular music. Like Paul writes as long that its in my power of course. So know I have discovered many awesome artists and plenty of cool radio stations that give me that fix of Jesus juice. Here is a list of some artists and stations:

Cool Stations.

• S O S radio
• Air 1 radio
• The Fish
• Hype the Jam
• CSN Radio (Awesome Sermons)

  Great Worship

• Third Day
• Mercy Me
• Building 429
• Mikes Chair
• Audio Adrenaline
• DC Talk
• The Kitanas
• The City Harmonic
• Jeremy Camp
• Jason Grey

Hip Hop

• Lecre
• Flame
• Shai Linne
• The Ambasador
• Trip Lee
• Andy Mineo
• Da T.R.U.T.H,
• Katalyst
• Bizzle
• S.O.

Rock

• Red
• Disiple
• Skillet
• Fireflight
• Plum

Now these are some of the artist that have got my attention. Listening to secular music is being part of the world, when we are called to be “not of the world”. I exhort you to analyze what you and most important those that you are an influence to, are listening too. . I’m sure I didn’t mention all that I would like to but I’ll let you fill in the rest. Please be my guest and leave any artist that you like and comment on anything .

Grace and Peace!

So I want to be a developer…now what?

Well lets start at the beginning. I’ll make it quick.

As far as I could remember, I’ve been drawn into art (no pun intended). From doodling, to painting, graffiti even. But one has captivated me more than others and for a long time now and that is the graphic arts. In Jr. High I would look at illustrations in my art class and wonder how they drew that? It was so vivid and colorful that it seemed fake. Then Mrs. Carter ( My art teacher ) revealed the big secret to me – It was done on a computer. Although I did not pursue what I had just learned, it would be something I would always think about for years to come, . I went in a different direction for the time being. And then it happened .  “Toy Story”. This was the movie that would put that, “that’s what I want to do when I grow up” idea in my head.

“I’m an explorer, some my say A.D.D., but I stick to my guns, Explorer! I have tried so many different things, and enjoyed doing most of them.   “

I was very fascinated with graphic arts and animation, but computers and mentorship where hard to come by as a kid. A couple of my friends had pc’s and I found Corel draw. I fiddled with that thing and also illustrator but again not enough to fully submerse myself. So time past and I kept a fascination with this awesome technology.

Fast forward to about 2011 when something caught my eye on the web. Now mind you I used the internet and knew about it, I’m no hermit. I saw a key word that just opened it all up again. Adobe. It brought back all sorts of thoughts, so I looked into it. And one thing led to another, and I found Dreamweaver, which again fascinated me.I’m an explorer, some my say A.D.D., but I stick to my guns, Explorer! I have tried so many different things, and enjoyed doing most of them. Now I feel that I started the whole web development and design way late. When I started reading about it, css3 was already well into use. And HTML5 was all the buzz in most of the articles I was reading. But I was determined to make this, finally part of my “grown up plan”. I’ve married a beautiful woman, have 3 kids, and settled down. Career time had to be next.

I scoured the web for tutorials and found some very informative videos and tutorials. The problem was, every time I opened a file, I would have more questions than when I started. So needles to say it was a slow start. Eventually I started getting the hang of what sites helped and what sites gave out of date or overwhelming info. Youtube gave me the best start. I found channels like “create the web” and “mlwebco” “dreamweavertutorials” and a couple other. These where the free resources I could find. Of course there are the paid sites. Like “Treehouse” and “Lydia.com”. Due to the amount of time I would be able to dedicate, at the moment, to actually sitting and studying, I had to avoid those sit

Now, the last couple of months I’ve been looking into making time in my day, to dedicate to my studying, reading,blogging, and working on Photoshop. This year has been pretty productive so far, more consistent in my goal. Now mind you that I do have a fulltime job(thank God), a wife and kids to interact with and I make time for the reading of my Bible. So, this is an undertaking to say the least, but, I have resolved to stay in it and make this my career. Thanks to some new blogs and sites I found as of late, I can totally see that happening. Sites like Adbuzzebo.com,csstricks.com and all the tuts.plus.com have given me some good tutorial material. For my awesome blog and inspiration sites, I found places like dustn.tv which has been a huge part my recent inspiration, a Christ following creative  like my self, how awesome! Also Churchmag .com and 8bitare some great blog spots. Have a look into some of these and find what inspiration you can find.

Grace and Peace!

Not resolution But Resolve.

Well it’s 2013 and the resolutions have been made, and some even broken already. But what does it take to reach a goal or resolution?  Choosing commitment. In everything we do we have to start with a choice. A choice to start, a choice to stop, a choice to commit to what we set out to do. The journey of a thousand miles, starts with a single step. Or you can look at the journey and and say ” yea, that’s my destiny” but sit down and never actually step forward  and commit.

The same is said of the things of the Spirit. We can say we are good people and see the things laid out in front of us by God. But how many of us leave the work up to God?  Let me be the first to raise my hand. (pause to raise hand) I see myself lacking the zeal i had for reading the word of God. I know that i should, and that i want to but it seems to fall further down the list of thing to to. And that’s where the resolution comes in. No, i’m not talking about a new year resolution, i’m talking about the seriously committing resolution, the Courageous movie do it for your kids and wife resolution, the i’m sliding down a     cliff  let me resolve to fight for my life resolution. Sorry got carried away a bit. Never the less, it is a decision to make a resolution to get in my word more, not this year, or this week but from now on. The bible says, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Mathew 4:4.  I believe God is telling us that we cant simply live on the physical, but we find our needs in His word. And how many times as Christians do we hear and nod our heads to it but not practice this teaching? We are specifically told  to meditate on His word,

1 Blessed is the man

   Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

   Nor stands in the path of sinners,

   Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

   And in His law he meditates day and night.    

Another  part of this resolution is a good ol fashion “beat down”, Paul wrote about that. Beating the flesh daily, into submission. That means that the flesh who we died to, when we accepted the grace and gift of God, is still fighting back. Many people will say that we should have no need to have quarrels with the flesh, if, we are Christians. But that’s just it, When you are in Him the enemy will be after you more, so you will have to make the decision to force the flesh into submission. Choose, daily to force the reading of your bible. I say it because you wont want to at first. It goes against the very nature of the flesh. The spirit that now dwells in you must be exercised and allowed to flourish in you. So this is the time that I go into battle with the King of Hosts, and beat this flesh down and bring every sinful thought into submission under Christ Jesus. I will not let myself drag my family down either. By lacking in your daily Word, you lack the wisdom necessary to lead and teach your family. In the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord commands to meditate on the Law and to teach to our children. He constantly tells us to remember what He has says. How will you remember something you don’t know? That’s where my conviction came, not fully grasping the very thing that i am to teach my children.

So for my resolution, I’m giving up and taking a stand. Hah, in and with Jesus is the only instance where that would make any actual sense. I’m giving up this flesh, and daily, to my Lord. I’m also making a stand against the fleshes laziness to read my Word. 

Get in it!

Grace and Peace!  

His canvas.

Good day, while driving back from the Hoover Dam, I was serenaded by God’s beautiful canvas. He stretched out the heavens and the stars, the bible tells us. And what an amazing pallet He has at His command. Being an aspiring designer and a follower of the creator of the universe, I see His creation and marvel at the intricate beauty.

Grace and Peace.