4 Countries – (US, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica)

14 States in the US – (California, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois)

14 States in Mexico – (Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Querétaro, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Baja California Norte)

—————–

Favorite city: Antigua, Guatemala.

Favorite sunrise: Happened while reading and discussing life with Phil in Alajuela, Costa Rica, at 5am.

Favorite sunset: Barra de Navidad, Mexico, after a long day of scuba diving.

Favorite day: Goodness, this is hard. Humm, I would say Oct 13th. I was deep in prayer and fasting, when the Holy Spirit gave me incredible insights in varios books in the Bible, specially I and II Corinthians, Titus, Isaiah, Revelations, and the minor prophets. I was overwhelmed. In shock. “Blessed are the poor in Spirit” suddenly took a whole different meaning. Revelations 12 became clearer and clearer. My love for Him was secured. I felt as a child sitting in my Father’s lap. He hugged me, made me feel complete, secure, loved. I am never going to be the same.

Favorite song: Can I pick two, please? As The Deer by Gilman, and I Give Myself Away by William Mcdowell.

Favorite book: Two again? Ok, maybe three? Forgotten God by Francis Chan, Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris, and Prayer by Richard Foster

Favorite movie: Courageous.

Favorite person: Ediee Bracho. When you see Ediee, he seems like your average 22 year old guy. But Ediee is far from normal. He speaks like you and me. He plays sports, loves traveling, knows two languages, and even plays the piano. But he is not like you and me. He is deaf. Yet, this has not stopped him from achieving every goal he sets in front of him. He fights for it, bleeds for it. I have learned so much from his life, character, and testimony. I am proud to call him a friend and brother in Christ.

Favorite  gift: A 2006 Jeep Liberty.

P.S. I will continue to add more and more things as I accomplish some and come up with more.

1. Write a book and publish it.

2. Record a CD and publish it.

3. Plant 465 trees across the world.

4. Give away a car.

5. Sail from Vancouver to Punta Arenas.

6. Complete a triathlon.

7. Run the Paris marathon.

8. Leave my shoes in Sierra Leone.

9. Stand in the corner that connects Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana.

10. Donate a part of my time and possessions to GFA in India.

11. Walk a mile in along the Great Wall of China.

12. Stand in the border between South Korea and North Korea and pray for the unreached. Send a prayer balloon.

13. Write my name in the Berlin Wall.

14. Send a kiss to Miami from La Habana.

15. Have breakfast in Granada.

16. Spend Christmas Eve in NYC.

17. Buy a motorcycle and cross Ireland, then give it away.

18. Swim a mile in the Amazon River.

19. Go paragliding.

20. Watch the Wimbledon match live.

21. Own a restaurant/coffee shop, invite the lame, the deaf, the poor, the blind, the orphan, the widow, and the stranger.

22. Start a band with my brother.

23. Draw a masterpiece on the concrete walls under a bridge.

24. Free-dive 30ft off the coast of Tel Aviv.

25. Master 4 different languages.

26. Stand at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

27.  Serenate my girl from Chicago Millenium Park.

28. Build a bonfire at Puerto Escondido beach.

29. Hitchhike on a cargo ship.

30. Climb a tree in Angok Wat, Cambodia.

31. Take a picture of Matterhorn.

The more purity the more influence. The more purity the more power.

A quote by Rachel Ong from Rohei Corp. in Singapore. In her struggle to help young adults find identity and a place of their own in this planet, she quotes this again and again. The results, phenomenal. The challenge, overwhelming. Purity = influence and power.

Querer brincar sin piernas
Es querer ser libre con cadenas
Es seguir en el mundo
Y para Cristo ser mudo.

No.

Si yo pudiera volar y penetrar
A tus oídos el evangelio predicar
Las palabras de Jesús
El Verbo y la Luz
Sus verbos y predicados,
adjetivos y sustantivos.
Los repetiría en las calles
Para que tu alma se lave.

Uno. Uno somos
Lavados por su sangre
El precio de sacarme
Padre, yo te exclamo
No mas siervo sino hermano.

No. Yo no juego con mi vida
Pues El me compro son su vida por la mía
Dos clavos en las manos
Mis pecados perdonados
Santo y apartado
A su diestra he morado.

Escucha, oh Amado
A tu esposa, a mi, para Ti, menospreciado
Por El, por mi, por la fe de proseguir
a las puertas de gloria entrar, residir.

A Tus brazos correré
A Tu lado sentare.

Mis lágrimas derramare
Y Tu hombro empapare
Tus mejillas con mis besos llenare
Abrazo tras abrazo, no te dejare.

Una sola palabra pronunciar
Solo algo expresar.

Gracias, gracias, Señor.

Tu amor y Tu pasión
Tu consuelo y Tu perdón.

©RHEMANA.COM

Yet, nothing seemed to “pop-out” in my mind, mind full of thoughts and prayers. In my thinking, I walked down to the cafeteria and there I saw a girl that once told a story that opened a new dimension to who God is. Blew my mind.

You see, I have known God as Lord, Savior. YHWH Almighty. God Creator. General. King of Kings. Bridegroom. Judge. Alpha and Omega. God of thunder and lightening. Lion of the tribe of Judah.

But…I had never known God has my Father. MY Father. A Father who’s lap I can sit on and listen to His heart-beat. A Father who stretches out His harms of compassion and love to hold me and sustain me.

AGGHH, I miss it. I have grown so tall and big that I have forgotten what it feels like to feel completely dependent upon someone. I miss the feeling of running past the crowds of people to sit in my earthly fathers lap and smell him, feel him, hug him. I miss it. I want it.

“Remember,” Nina, the girls who told me the story (blog), quoted from the book “You Are Special” by Max Lucado, “’Remember,’ Eli said as Punchinello walked out the door. ‘You are special because I made you. And I don’t make mistakes. For now, just come to see me every day and let me remind you how much I care.’”

Nothing fancy. No long prayers and complicated rituals.

Simple prayer.

Me, a man who has been forgiven from sin and condemnation, going and having a talk with my Creator. A chat with Him who designed me and now calls me son. Me, a man far from perfection, a man who has to fight everyday with sin and temptation. Me, a man who feels weak and childish sometimes. A man who needs to feel loved and approved by those I care for. Me, a man fighting great wars against the enemy yet desperately searching for that God The Father.

I want to feel Him embrace me as a Father. I want to close my eyes tight and press them against His chest, that I may smell Him and breath Him. I want to feel secure and loved by Him and only Him.

And then I realized that, in the same way a small child cannot draw a bad picture, so I, a child of GOD, cannot offer bad prayers. There is no pretense in simple prayer. Just as I am. Bringing ordinary concerns to a loving and compassionate Father who counsels me along the way. A conversation face to face with the One who created me.

A whole new dimension to knowing God, knowing Abba, Father. MY Father.

©RHEMANA.COM

“Love one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

Love. The four-letter word that John Lennon tried to impersonate but failed, Natalie Cole tried to describe but was short from perfection. Even Nicholas Sparks pretended to explain it, though closer than the previous two individuals, still far from the true meaning of love.

What is love?

Jesus. Yes. Jesus. Check it, “As Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2)

Jesus Christ was the full impersonation of love as a noun, verb, subject, adjective, adverb, preposition, and conjunction. From birth to death He lived to teach the meaning of love. Himself. “A force”, Lionel Richie’s best attempt to describe love, yet, we know it is not merely a force, an abyss between two conjugal hearts. It is the nature of God Himself.

Love is living a life that impersonates not a concept, but a God that was once in a human physical structure, Jesus Christ.

It is walking with Him, and then doing like Him. It is talking with Him, and then speaking like Him. It is representing the Rabbi in every relationship in life. Love is imitating the Savior of the world as if seeing our face reflected in a glass. Imitation of perfection rather than a pursuit of a four-letter word that. It is neither a sign nor a symbol. It is the life of a Christian – A “Christian”: an imitator of Christ.

Silence. The terrifying coldness that touches the core.
Silence. The chilling serenate that you cannot ignore.

So you stop and say something.

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel” Mark 16 15
“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” John 20 22

Words from my Rabbi that have been shunned for fear of what people will say

No, they say.
Be cool, they say.
Roll with it, they say.
Don’t worry about it, they say.
Pulpits filled with “pastors” and “preachers” leading people astray

Silence.

Funny? How if no one says a thing
If no one has the guts to stand and stretch out a hand to the dying man
Silence will automatically volunteer to take place
And with an unforgiving chain will drag many to the eternal abyss.

True statement is this

If no one proclaims the creators love
If no one shares of His forgiveness, oh overwhelming grace
Grave’s sting will sweep and many strangle with its claws,
oh terrifying deadly kiss.

Check me.

I was once in the sinking ship
Destined to hell where my body would be stripped.
I was in the condemned list
Waiting my turn to be punished for my sins
And no one stopped and said something.

See, let me tell you about me about where I come from
I used to go out and get high on pleasures that are wrong
See, I know the other side; I’ve lived it myself.
The in’s and the out’s, to be fed by myself

A little taste, a little dip
“It’s just a small quantity”, I would respond
To a wrong filthy conscience that new it was wrong
It did not take long for it to have a grip
I stood and watch while my soul ripped

What started off like a 140 Twitter line
Did not take long before my path start to incline
Till my decisions and my convictions I fed to the swine
Demons I entertained, I invited with me to dine.

But the more I tried to escape the deeper I would lay
The more I tried to leap from my condition
The harder it seemed to accomplish my mission
Grace that taught my heart to fear
Was not present in my dying last beer

And no one stopped and said something.

I called 911 for a heart transplant
From a heart that pumped pure selfishness and unspeakable worldly pleasures.
I desperately needed a superficial masquerade
To cover my bruised face, bruised by bitterness and anger
But no one stopped and said something.

Desperately, trying to escape I tried random selection of churches in the neighborhood
But no one stopped and said something.

Though from pulpits I would hear
Uplifting messages that would tingle my ears
But the clock was ticking and hell’s gates I was reaching
“Good Morning!” “Welcome!” “Good to see you!” the greeters would say,
To me, a walking carcass.

And no one stopped and said something

Silence surrounded me, silence was all I knew
Silence was crushing my bones, as a little piece of nothing
for the Devil to chew on.

Silence.

Nothing but silence.

Shhh.

A summer, not long ago, someone, yes, someone, and thank God for that someone. Some one stopped and said something.

Not knowing that He, my Creator, my designer, was looking down
The Son was watching and ready to catch me before I would drown
In the midst of my despair, someone had the guts to be used by Him,
The cross my sins washed away, His blood my debt paid
Kneeling before His throne that night
My robes He cleaned, he washed them white

You see, I used to think life wasn’t what it is
till God miraculously came and gave me of His
Jesus Christ, He is the way
So man, con mas power, let’s not stand in the gray.

Oh people of the living God! Called to be kings and priests. Are you silent?
Are you plainly living it up, chilling while others out there die?
Couse will you sing, “I got a feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night!”
for many out there this is their last night!

After this, their soul will be incarcerated in an eternal abyss.
The place of eternal condemnation where fire and flame never cease

Oh beloved people, do not be silent!

But dare to stand out from among the crowds,
Couse the kingdom of God is for the violent. Matthew 11 12.

Dare to make a stand in this generation, trapped in quick sand
Like John the Baptist and Jeremiah speak out, and this generation reroute

I keep the faith strong and my head held high
Couse when God looks at me He knows “Yea, you are mine”
I keep loving, keep giving, keep building it up
Couse being a true angel, yea that’s wassap

See guys, y’all know what I mean,
When Jesus Christ returns this whole place is gonna sink.
So yea, till that day comes we aught to rejoice in Him
Bring people to the wedding, to the cross to sing the hymn.

Standing you and me, before the throne of the Almighty God
Our verdict we will each receive. A crown or the ground.
“Well done, good and faithful servant” He will say,
And with a smile in His face He will let you in to enjoy the buffet
Or He will say, “Depart from me, worker of iniquity. I never knew you”
And be forever condemned because He is a just and loving God. YHWH.

Friends, people out there are dying, people out there are hopeless
Silence surrounds them, silence is all that they know.

So you. Yes. You. Stop. Stop, lay it all aside, and say something!

© October 2011 | Rhemana.com

But… thanks to Bethany (blog) and Rachel (blog), what could have been a low key Friday night, turned out to be much more exciting and fun (can I use that word? I feel like it is used too much to describe situations that do not deserve it. “It was fuuunn”. Whatever), with people running all across two buildings.

Team 3; Jordan Ramsey, Valen Copu, Charlie Johnson, and myself.

Yes. We won.

Where is Waldo?

Imitate a painting.

Food on the face.

Holding the moon.

Reading a book.

A penny from 1990.

Jumping.

Good times :]