You are the salt of the earth

Monday mornings are not my best days out of the week. I hate to see the weekend fly by me because I have short weekend. I work second job on the weekends to get by. When I heard a man on the radio station saying this verse it really touched me that morning but it really made me think deeply about my faith and how I was facing my trials in my life.

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?

We are all salts of the earth and the Lord made each one of us special in his eyes but as Christians are we strong inside? Can Christians stand their faith when they go through trials in their lives? Many of us go through trials but don’t turn to the Lord. Do we get on our knees? Do we read our Bibles? Do we talk to the Lord?

In trials, we sometimes don’t turn to the Lord but to things that are comfortable to us. I will be honest with many of you to say when I have trials in my life I look to TV as my friend instead of the Lord. TV helps me get away from the trials in my life that I am facing at that moment. I don’t want to face the reality of the trials in my life. Watching Ugly Betty will help me fulfilled the void that I have. When I get tired from TV and then I realize my issue of my trials then I turn to the Lord.
It is never easy to face trials in our life but the Lord can take our burden and make it light to give it up to him. Worship is the key to come to the Lord and give everything to the Lord. Sometimes I open my Bible to the book of Psalms.

According to this website the information Psalms:
The word psalm comes from the Greek word psalmos, which means a song sung while accompanied by a stringed instrument. The Hebrews referred to the psalms as songs of praise.

These beautiful verses express the full range of human emotions, but are mainly meant to show praise to the Creator, who, with unconditional love, provides all comfort and joy to religious believers.

Who Wrote the Psalms?

Many of the psalms are said to be written by King David, but he is not the only author. Long before King David, Moses wrote psalms.David’s son, Solomon, also wrote psalms.
http://biblestudies.suite101.com/article.cfm/facts_about_the_book_of_psalms_for_bible_study#ixzz0UUbjH2RZ

If you are going through trials look to the Lord for your answer and don’t turn to something that will fulfilled your comfortable zone.

Matthew 11:28-30
28Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Isleen

Journal Entry on September 13, 2009

Journal Entry on September 13, 2009


I sit in a plane looking outside of my window. I am looking down at the Grand Canyon and I am amazed by the Grand Canyon . I remembered the last time I went to the Grand Canyon when I was 7 years old in 1987. Time passes you quickly when you are not looking.

Going to my high school reunion was something I had looked forward for a long time and being caught up with each others lives. In high school, we were all young and immature and did not know too much outside of the high school. I remembered going to school @ 7am before school started @ 8:10am. I had spoken to my classmates at the lunch table about with the latest news, gossip, or what was happened in their lives. It seemed it was yesterday that I had sat at that lunch table with my classmates.

I went to my class reunion and I saw high school graduates who became mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, college students, college graduates, grads graduates, etc and to become something than just high school graduates. We all made our lives into a different picture than it was in the year of 1999.

I heard from my former classmates of their kids, job careers lessons, struggles in school, relationship issues, family members with cancer, working through school, and the lessons we had learned in life. The lessons we are still are still learning as an adult.

When I look back, I think of how I hated high school. I felt trapped inside of my high school wanted to get out. When I walked outside of high school, the world was a lot different. As I became older, I did not think about myself like I used but now I was thinking of other people who needed me to help them with their struggles, to be encouraged, loving them unconditional. I do not think I was the same person when I was in high school.

Isleen

Humble

Are we humble Christians? Do we pride ourselves to the world that we are better because we are Christians? Do you humble yourself in the eyes of the Lord?

Picking up other people’s trash in public restrooms is not favorite thing to do. Many years ago, I was at local restaurant with my family and I went to the restroom. When I arrived in the restroom, I noticed a vase with fresh flowers and it was different sight than I am usually seen in the public restroom. Out of now, I hear, the Lord says to me, “Isn’t this room beautiful because of those flowers?” I had to agree with the Lord. At the corner of my eye, I noticed there were used paper towels that had been thrown on the floor. I did not want to pick up the paper towels because I did not throw it on the floor. “I did not work for the restaurant and why should I pick up the paper towels as I was saying to myself. I humble myself in picking up the paper towels and in my heart, I knew the Lord was pleased with me. Picking up trash in that restroom many years ago with no one around was done in obedience to the Lord.

Jesus did not have a reputation and he had taken himself as a bond servant. Jesus did not care of what others thought of him but did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Jesus humbles himself by dying on the cross for us. Would you die on the cross for someone’s life? What makes you humble?

James 4:10:

10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.

By Isleen Rodriguez

Autumn Season

A new season has begun and I am excited of what this new season will bring in my life and the life of others around me. At the end of my August, I saw my roommate being proposal by her long time boyfriend on her 34th birthday. Clifford & I were emotional as we saw my roommate being proposal by her boyfriend.

My niece, Raya started to walk her first few steps which we were amazed by her effort to walk and not craw anymore. Her big sister Lily had started kindergarten a week before September. Miss Lily is growing up and it is hard to believe that she was once a baby.

I found out that my sister in law would be expecting a baby in 9 months. May due date is on the calendar. This is exciting news because this will be first child for my sister in law & my younger brother. I have been waiting a long time for this and I cannot wait to be auntie for the third time. Yipe!

What is in store for me during this autumn season in my life? I will be going to my 10th year reunion from my high school. It has been 10 years ago that I was in high school and so many things have changed in my life. I am not the same teenager when I was in high school. I have learned a lot in the past 10 years about life. There are so many stories that I cannot wait to share with some of my former classmates. In one of my classes, I was favorite to have a daycare of my own one day which hasn’t happened. I don’t think I am going to open a daycare anytime soon but I enjoy listening to people talk about their lives. I can spend countless hours just talking to one person and counseling with them.

This month I will be going to Napa Valley in California and experience a California tour with my parents. I am never too old to travel with my parents because I enjoy being around them. Look out for the pictures at the end of this month.

I am also thinking of going back to school to take some career classes in Excel or Access at the community college. I decided to put off Medical Billing & Coding classes until after the winter. I think it is important to keep up with your career and updating your skills no matter what job you are at in your career. You are showing your boss that you care and you are willing sacrifice your time to learn something new.

What is new in your life? What bring new in this new season?

Isleen

Keyna

I have been reading Red Moon Rising and it is amazing book to read. If you don't have this in your libary please go to store and get yourself a copy of this book.

Each night, I come upon an interesting passage but when I was reading this one passage one night about Mikes' story. Mike's life story will amaze you on how thr Lord raised him up from the streets. Here is a section if you don't have the book. Please read on.....

"All things are impossible with the Lord."

Isleen

Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig & Dave Roberts
Kenya P. 40-42


Mike’s instinctive approach to church planting had been simple. He gathered a dozen friends in a room, and they prayed nonstop for forty days. The two who didn’t have jobs had to cover most of the night shifts by themselves, as well a ferry the others to their prayer slots in a beaten up old car. But they did it. They just assumed that this was the way you should plant a church.

Mike Brawan was orphaned at the age of eight when his mother and father were both killed in a car accident. With no one else willing to look after him, he was abandoned and simply left to survive by himself in the streets of Eldoret in Kenya, Africa. For the next six years, Mike slept under the trucks and ate when he could scavenge for rubbish bins. The town’s bus station often provided a place of warmth and shelter and was also a place he learned to steal from the waiting passengers.

At the age of fourteen, Mike situation grew even worse: A friend who had lived on the streets with him was killed when the truck he was sleeping under moved. Grieving from loss again, Mike got arrested for stealing. By the time Mike was released, he had already tried to kill himself. What hope was there for a street kid like him?

Desperate for hope, Mike attended an evangelistic rally at the city stadium. “It was as if the Lord Jesus was speaking directly to me,” he recalled, and that night the orphaned street-kid quietly committed his life to Christ.

Mike continued to live on the street and was eventually poisoned by some food he had scavenged. Taken into the hospital by some kind Christians, his condition became critical. The street kid was expected to die.

But God had different ideas, and that night, a “glowing doctor” (as Mike would later describe him) appeared at the foot of the dying boy’s bed. In the morning, Mike woke to confound the doctors. He had been completely healed. Upon discharge, he was invited to live with a Christian family who taught him to read and write and encouraged Mike to go back to school. It was the first real care anyone had shown him since the day he had lost hi parents.

Eight years later, I met Mike, now twenty-two. He was studying in England with a view of establishing a ministry for street kids like him back in Kenya. I was stunned by his testimony and amazed to hear that impressed me, and with highsight, I realize that his young African understood far more about “God strategy for taking Jericho” than we did with our cool music and our clever books.

After forty days, they went out and began to preach. On the first day, they began to preach once again. This time a crazy homeless kept heckling them, until eventually he gave his life to the Lord. This was their first convert, and the transformation in him was so marked that many others followed. Mike’s church, planted through prayer, grew quickly and now had several hundred members, including a local politician.

Mike’s story has sown a seed in my mind. Even prior to this trip, we had been convicted about continual prayer by Mike’s example in Kenya, and there had been some discussion about the feasibility of a similar forty-day stand. But now, finding myself in Hernnhut, the idea was making more sense than ever. Suddenly. Continual prayer didn’t seem so outrageous or ridiculous. In fact, it was starting to seem like a perfectly natural thing for a church to do.

Just thirty-seven days later a candle would be lit that would unwittingly spark a new Moravian movement of prayer and mission. But first we had to drive south to Prague, on the way. God would hijack us once again…….

10 % of my money is His

10 % of my money is His

There is a good lesson that I have learned so, pay close attention to my story. A month ago, my parents and I had a small talk about tithing in the church. They asked me if I had tithe, which I told them, “yes.” I did not tell my parents that I did not tithe the whole amount because money being tight with my living cost, pay off credit cards & school loans. My boyfriend has been telling me almost the same thing having $1000 in my emergency fund. Thanks Dave Ramsey!!!

A month ago, I had a small accident with my car and so many issues that came with this accident. From the police report, the person who caused the accident, the insurance and getting different quotes in the 100 degree weather. I had a plan on getting my car fixed as soon as possible but it has been a hassle to deal with the insurance. I finally found a solution by getting in touch with the local estimator from a GM Collision center. The estimator contact the insurance and he found out that they were to pay 90 % of my car and 10 % I had to pay due to Driver inattention & unsafe speed for traffic condition. I was upset when I found out that I had to pay 10 % of the accident because it was not my fault. The person who drove a Mustang was speeding and hydroplane on the highway. I felt like I should get 100 % of my car fixed but I had to pray the reason on why I had to pay 10 %. The answer came to me when I was at stop light. 10 % is for my tithe. You see I was covered 90 % in the accident and 10 % is what I have to pay. In a way, I feel like I have been robbing G-d on not paying my 10 % as my tithe out of my checks. I told my dad the story and he laughed because it makes sense.

Are we robbing G-d with our money? Are we tithing in the church like we are suppose to? I looked up one of the verses that really speaks to me which is in:

Malachi 3:8:

“Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!

“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’

“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me.

Another verse is in:

Malachi 3:10:
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,”
says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

Isleen

Marathon Runner

Marathon Runner

Running a marathon is hardest goal for someone to achieve because it takes time and effort to achieve this goal to run for a 26 miles. I have not yet to achieve to run a marathon race but I would like to run in a marathon race in the near future. According to one website which they talk about preparing a marathon race,

“This can be a journey can be prepare by running a few times a week, varying the time, distance and speed in order to maximize his or her training. Common preparations for races up to a half marathon routinely involve running distances exceeding that of the race itself. Most medical professionals, however, recommend that marathon runners not exceed the 26.2 miles before race day, because studies have shown that such long-distance training can break the body down more than can be easily repaired.

A common marathon-training plan has a runner steadily building up the total number of miles or kilometers run per week and the number of miles or kilometers covered in each run. Marathon runners usually have the longest run on the weekend, with the distance of that long run steadily increasing until it reaches a maximum of 20 or 22 miles (about 32.19 or 35.41 km). Shorter runs during the week will be a mixture of time and distance, with the overall goal to maintain fitness and to build strength and endurance.

As with other athletes, marathon runners will need to pay close attention to the food and drink that they consume, not only during training runs but also at other times during the weeks and months leading up to the race. Proper nutrition, with moderated intake of fat and concentration on carbohydrates and proteins, is vital to a marathon runner’s success. The food and drink that a marathon runner takes in during training runs should be first and foremost easily digestible. Especially on longer runs, the body needs increasing numbers of calories that can deliver both quick and long-lasting fuel. Running is an activity that can be extremely hard on the body and its nutritional needs, and a marathon runner especially needs to replenish lost fuel, both during and after a run.

Many sports experts recommend that a marathon runner also do other athletic things. Such cross-training activities can be cycling, swimming, aerobics, skiing, walking or a host of other sports. The idea behind cross-training is to keep the body in shape while giving it a rest from the heavy pounding that running creates.”

Right now in my life, I feel like I am preparing a marathon race with going to these extra classes at the community college and working both of my jobs. I will continue going to community college to prepare of what I need to do in the future.

Folks, this is my difficult season in my life because of many hours taken away from my family, church family and my friends. Please forgive me on not contact you. There are days when I want to cry because of lack of sleep or stress. I ask G-d to help me in these difficult times to get me peace and strength in each day. G-d has a purpose of me and a destiny but each day I have to run this prepare for the big marathon race, which is my destiny. I do not know what to expect in my destiny but I have to have faith in him. I am not giving up on my dreams……

1 Corinthians 9:24
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives(AJ) the prize? So, run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control,[b] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified."

Isleen

http://www.wisegeek.com/how-can-i-prepare-to-run-a-marathon.htm