bathsheba

Recently I've received some insight into sin that I hadn't considered or given much thought to before. Certainly it's nothing out of this world, and it is knowledge that can be found in the Bible by simply reading it, but for whatever reason, it is knowledge that had eluded me until now. I hope it will be as useful to you as it was for me. Feel free to contribute your thoughts on the matter, so that I may grow as well.

As we know, sin is what we struggle with on a daily basis. Many people have different definitions for sin (some definitions more complex than others) but for this discussion, we will simply define sin as "disobedience to God."

As I mentioned in my Third Day concert post, I received a free book called Glory Revealed, by author David Nasser. It's a great book, and David Nasser is a great writer. What I like the most about it, is that each chapter makes me stop and think about what is being discussed, and answer some questions that the author offers to help you meditate. In the chapter I read this past weekend (yes, I've taken my sweet time in finishing this book), the author talks about how God reveals his Glory through sin. He goes on to say something to the effect of: "if you were to ask someone in prison, 'when you were five years old, did you know you were going to be killing/stealing as an adult, and get put in prison?'" and the gist of the discussion is that most everyone will say "no," and go on to explain that it all started with stealing a piece of candy, lying to their parents, breaking 'silly' rules, etc. Small stuff. I'm sure Cain would tell us the same thing after killing his brother, Abel. Greed kept him from offering his best to God. It led to jealousy, resentment, and finally, murder.

The author then proceeds to remind us of King David's story with Bathsheba (see 2 Samuel 11-12.) Every time I read this story in the Bible, all I could think of was how low David sank by not only sleeping with (and impregnating!) his soldier's wife, but then setting it up so the soldier would be killed in battle! What I never considered was - how did it all start? Going back to the prisoner's example, David Nasser presents the imaginary situation of asking King David: "when you were in your father's pastures tending the sheep, did you imagine you were going to be someday not only committing adultery, but killing the husband of the woman you commit adultery with?" He would've given you a redundant "no." I mean, this was the average-height dude that stood his ground in front of the giant Goliath, for goodness' sake. So, what was David's "small" sin?

The author explains (and this was the revelation for me) that King David's first, small sin was pride. Back then, kings would lead armies in battles and wars. So why was David in his palace while the rest of his army fought for Israel? Maybe he thought the battle wasn't important enough for King David to be bothered to even leave his palace? We don't know for sure, as the Bible doesn't say, but, we could be led to think so. In any case, that was his small sin. If he hadn't stayed behind, he wouldn't have been exposed to watching Bathsheba take a bath. Even if he had seen her at a different time (when everyone was around and not in battle) he could've probably controlled his lust for her.

And there you have it. Obviously, there's a reason for me to write about this subject. I have been struggling with a situation lately, and can't help but relate to David's story. It blew me away when I read it. It has made me stop to think: what was the "small" sin that started all of it? What could I have done (or not done) to avoid it? In any case, I am in the situation, and I've been praying for guidance from God; that He may bless it, or blow it up.

I don't remember if the book outlines what I'm going to talk about next, but in any case, all I could think about the day I read it was David's small sin and his downfall. Needless to say, a huge sense of guilt swept over me, causing me much grief. During the week, I met at Starbucks with a lady from church, who I love very much. I see her as a mother figure, and I sought her motherly (and Christian) advice. We discussed many things, and I mentioned how I had been convicted during the weekend by being reminded of David's story. She agreed, but then completed the revelation for me.

The great news is that there's hope. We haven't finished David's story yet. You remember how God sent the prophet Nathan to expose David's sin, right? David's grief was great, and he repented. The child that resulted from David's sin died, causing David even more grief (and we can imagine it grieved Bathsheba as well, even though it's not written.) However, in the end, out of all of David's wives, God chose Bathsheba - the woman that David committed the sin with - to bring Solomon into the world. Solomon, the next king of Israel. King Solomon turned out to become the richest and wisest (second only to Jesus Himself) man to ever have lived, and one in the very bloodline of Jesus, the Son of God.

David committed such a big sin, yet he was referred to as a man "after God's own heart." So we see that no matter how great our sin, God extends to us His mercy and grace if we but just repent. I can't help but to think about what an awesome God we have. I know that God has heard me, and I am hopeful that He will give me revelation for my specific situation. Thank you, God, for your love.

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Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. -James 1:2-4

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. -1 Peter 1:6-7


May God bless you and keep you always,
Pedro

october 2009, continued

October has been quite the eventful month. I attended Kevin's wedding, went to the Mary Poppins musical, helped out at the Plano International Festival, went on three dates with a girl (*ahem*), went to the Third Day concert, Tekken 6 came out, and I gave a talk at church, in front of the whole congregation.

...Yep, it sounds amazing (to me, at least). It's just hard to believe that I went from being a guy that didn't want to go anywhere near a church, to somehow serving God by talking at church on a Wednesday evening service. But, that just goes to show how awesome God is, making something out of nothing.

The talk was titled "Sharing our faith". I discussed what, how, when, where and why we share our faith. I mainly focused on Scripture throughout, meaning I didn't really "preach" or anything. I explained "what" the Christian faith is about using various verses from the Bible, with the "mindset" of having a situation where someone asks you to share your faith with them. The "how" wasn't as straight-forward, as many different situations call for different approaches, and honestly, I don't know. It's one of those "say what God puts in your heart" and "do what He tells you to do" kinda deals. The "when" and "where" were pretty easy (anytime, anywhere). The "why", well, was pretty easy too. God gives us so much without us even having to do a single thing (all we need to do is receive it), that it should be motivation alone to share it with others. I provided some Scriptures throughout the whole thing, and shared my testimony in the "why". Also, I threw in a story and/or joke here and there throughout the talk.

Overall, I think it went well. People seemed to have a good time.

Anyway, I don't take credit for it. I recognize that God helped me every step of the way, and that if it wasn't for Him, I wouldn't even be attending church in the first place. It felt kinda weird to have people congratulating me and thanking me after service was over. I mean, I guess I wanted to say "thanks" to their gratitude, but I recognize that it's God who deserves the glory and appreciation. All I did was read the Bible and talk about what I read. In any case, I'm glad they liked it. :)

I'll conclude by saying that I'm thankful to God for bringing me this far, and for putting me under my Pastor's guidance (I'll put up a picture of him sometime). I just can't imagine where I would be or what my state of heart and mind would be like if God hadn't rescued me from where I was three years ago. Words can't describe it. I love God so much. I never want to let go. The kicker is that He loves me more than I love Him. Who can understand Him?

summer 2009, continued

A lot has happened since the last time I posted.

I went to Puerto Rico in July! I didn't stay there too long this time, though. Actually, I flew on Friday, then flew back to TX on Sunday. I went for my good friend Jennifer's wedding. I had a great time seeing old friends, and being able to see an old childhood friend get happily married. I was able to meet her husband, which seems like a cool, Godly man. I pray that God may bless their marriage as they continue to grow. Another cool thing about the wedding - I had a date! My good childhood friend Xiomara insisted that I go with her as her date (she could have just asked), and so I did. We both had a great time at the wedding. However, I gave her a hard time for not dancing with me. :-P

Here are some pictures:

Cute couple.

With Xiomara.

With my friends!
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Another cool event that happened this summer, in August, was that I had the opportunity to attend the Miss Texas Teen pageant to support my good friend Hoang-Kim. She obtained a boat-load of trophies, and placed 2nd runner-up overall. It was awesome to see her do so well. Her family looked so proud of her. I also had the chance to finally meet her brother, who's a pretty cool guy himself.

Here's a picture:

With her parents

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One of the areas that God has been blessing me greatly this summer is with relationships. I have made many great friendships, and existing ones continue to grow with time. After the retreat, I have really connected with the Tres Dias community, which has been nothing but a blessing. I've met great people that have encouraged me in different ways. I also now meet weekly with a great group of guys to fellowship with over breakfast. I thank God continually for all these great people that He has brought into my life.

A result of these relationships has been that I now am involved with a prison ministry called From Pain To Joy Prison Ministries. I am not directly related however, in the sense that I don't actually go to the prisons to visit. Basically, one of the inmates, who some time ago received Christ and has been completely transformed by God, has written many many articles to encourage other prisoners who either don't know Christ or are struggling in their faith. What's remarkable about this man is that he used to be like the big leader of the Crips gang before he went to prison, and now is a humble, faithful servant of Christ¹. Well, the thing with the articles is that they have been very effective in prisons, internationally. However, as of right now, they are mostly in English. So, the way I'm helping is by translating these articles into Spanish. It's a blessing to be able to serve my Hispanic brothers in this way. What's great is that I not only get to be a blessing to them, but I myself am blessed by the encouragement that these articles bring me as I grow in my faith. I thank God for this opportunity, and I pray that I may be able to continue to serve in this way.

¹You can read more about him here.

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I used to be big into First-Person Shooter (FPS) games, namely Quake. Well, for a long time, I always wanted to go to QuakeCon, a convention that is held each year in the Dallas area, but so far hadn't gone (I mentioned I had pretty much stopped playing) since I moved to Texas. Since about a year ago, a friend of mine had been inviting me to go with him this year. I gave him my word, but I wasn't really excited about it. Anyway, the weekend finally came, and man, was I pumped when I got there. It's like a geek's paradise, in that you get to see a lot of new technology gaming-wise, and get to be in an environment with people that share an interest for gaming.

I set up my computer on Thursday, but couldn't actually play until Saturday (had other things going on Friday). Anyway, I played Quake Live nonstop for most of the time I was there, it was great. On Saturday night, they were drawing some raffle tickets that they had given out to people when you checked in to the event. There were about 5,000 tickets in the tumbler, according to the people there. Anyway, they had another drawing with only 100 tickets with a Ford Mustang as a prize, which were drawn from the 5,000 ticket tumbler plus other events they had going on. Long story short, they pulled my name out of the big tumbler. However, I wasn't present. I hadn't left the room for ten minutes, when my buddy calls me on the phone yelling that I had been picked. I ran all the way to the stage (encouraged by my friend), and was even told to go up. Suddenly, the dude tells me that I have to perform a dance or something to convince the people that I deserved the ticket. I was confused, nervous, and fatigued from running so much, I couldn't come up with anything. At the end of the day, what had happened was that my name had already been looked over because I wasn't present at the moment of the drawing. So, naturally, the crowd booed me off the stage. It was sorta embarrassing, but it was even worse knowing that I had a chance to get into the smaller drawing to win the car, but lost it for stepping out of the room. Ugh. Anyway, my friends got a kick out of it, and were even teasing me saying stuff like "don't worry dude, I'll walk you to your Mazda", hahaha. Next year I'll actually stay in the room as names are called. :|

Here's a picture:

May God bless you and keep you.

Until next time,

Pedro

Life is great. God is awesome.

It's been some time since the last update. Quite a few events have happened since then. Before I get into those, one of the things I failed to update on my last posts has been my salsa class with the kids! At the end of the semester, we put together a show for the teachers and parents. The event wasn't exclusive to us, though - I guess all of the different after hours "clubs" put on a show, we just happened to be the closing event for it. ;-)

Anyway, the kids did great! It was quite a tiring week. We only started -really- practicing for it like one week in advance, so we had to practice for an hour or so each day. The kids, even though still being kids, put quit a bit of effort into it. We assigned partners (frustrating but hilarious process, as you can imagine with 10 year olds) and we practiced and practiced old and new moves. All in all, it was a routine that lasted roughly 60 to 90 seconds. Not much, but the crowd ate it up. I taught the kids how to do a dip at the end, and the audience really liked it. The kids dressed up and looked great. If you have me as a Facebook friend you can find the video of it in my profile. Otherwise, I can put it on Youtube if someone requests it here. For the moment, enjoy some pictures:

The boys.

Goofing off with the boys. =)

Ms. J with the girls.

The kids making their way onto the stage.

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A couple of weeks ago, work led me to New Jersey for a week. I went with people I hadn't really worked before, and had a great time. I got to know more of them at lunch/dinner and just being at work. They are good people, and I pray that God continues to bless them in all they do. We finished up pretty early on our last day of work in New Jersey, and decided to take the train up to New York for the rest of the day. What a blast. We visited Ground Zero (I hadn't been there before. What a blessing to be able to see the Ground Zero cross and listen to the story behind it!), had a hot dog, had a slice of New York pizza, walked through Central Park, went to eat dinner in Chinatown, played Tekken 6 at the Chinatown Fair arcade, had New York cheesecake, and concluded the night with a visit to the Empire State Building. Needless to say, we were super tired by the end of the day, but it was definitely worth it. The only sad part of the day was that it was the same day that Michael Jackson died. It was a weird feeling. We heard the news of him being in the hospital around the time we were visiting Ground Zero, and then late at night we heard the news of him being dead as we walked past MTV and saw all the fans displaying their RIP signs. Anyway, we took the ~11pm train back to New Jersey, and flew back to Texas the next day.

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I mentioned in one of my older posts that I was considering re-taking Vietnamese I and II again in the summer. So I did, and it was tough. The class itself was ok, but it's Monday through Friday from 5:30 to 8:30, which became exhausting after a while. After Viet I was over, I decided not to take Viet II. Well, I signed up for it, but ended up not attending. I went yesterday for the first time to help my friend with a class presentation, and plan to attend next week, but I don't think I'll put time/effort into it outside of class. Don't get me wrong, I'm still fascinated by the Vietnamese language, it's just that it takes quite a bit of time, which I seem to cherish more and more now. Anyway, I leave you with a picture from after our presentation for Vietnamese I:

With my partner and friend Hoang-Kim (she's the one I mentioned won the Miss Texas Jr Teen pageant)

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The final event I'll talk about happened this past weekend. I went to a Christian (non-denominational) retreat called Tres Dias. What a blessing. It's an experience beyond words. I'll just say that a lot of prayer and effort is put into it by the Christian community, and is aimed at the attendants experiencing God in a new, refreshing way. God really revealed himself to me this weekend, and renewed my strength and my faith, reminding me what He's done for me and what He continues to do. It was also a blessing to share the weekend with so many brothers in Christ. I met so many new people which I will call brothers and friends. I look forward to growing in my renewed relationship with Jesus Christ and my relationship with my new brothers, and I also look forward to serving in future Tres Dias weekends, that others may experience God in the way He chooses for them.

I invite you to take a look around for information on Tres Dias. It's an international organization, which means you can have that experience in many parts of the world. You can only attend if you're sponsored by a person that has attended previously, so if you feel that God is tugging at your heart for you to go and experience Him, I suggest that you ask around. I would also feel honored to sponsor someone to attend, so feel free to ask me.


May God bless you and keep you.
Until next time,
Pedro