Good Bye 2009 & Welcome 2010!

Good Bye 2009 & Welcome 2010!

You want to change your season that you are in but sometimes you can’t. I have learned to trust the Lord this year in my life. This year I wanted a new career and to move forward in my life but nothing was changing in my life. I started to see everyone else life change before my eyes including my own roommate. I started to see new marriages coming into place, my friends having babies, buying new houses, going to the mission field, and even getting new jobs. I wasn’t in their seasons. When I started to look at everyone else’s life then I started to question in my life. Where was my life going? What directions and where was I was going to be in the next four to five years of my life? It didn’t changed until one September late night when I talked to a good friend to help her in her life’s situation. The answer came to me when I woke up the next morning. I was going to make a stand in my life and I know the Lord help me give me confidence in myself. All year it seemed that I was living my daily life in a routine each day. I did my best to change my daily routine after work but nothing was working for me. I was trying too hard to change things for myself. Working out, going to community classes or even going to the library that it did not help me find my answer. Being single has it priced to pay because you are always searching to find what you need to do next in your life.

My goals didn’t happened until I went into prayer each morning or having late night prayers in my room without anyone around me. I was praying for change. You see G-d has always been my side in my life and even the small or the big struggles that I faced in my life. I am not perfect gal who has everything together. In my outside appearances I look like that I do but I really don’t have together. Some of us feel like as a woman we have to try to keep it together for yourself or our families. We all need have to stand in place as women of the Lord and ask the Lord to give us guidance in our lives.

My answer did not come to be until at the end of November. I had received a letter from the University of Arlington and I was not accepted because of my GPA from the last 60 hours in my undergrad program. I was feeling down but I was awaiting the answer from Dallas Baptist University. The answer came which was yes. I agree to get my Master in Liberal Arts this season in my life. I felt peace about my decision and the next step of where I was going in my life. A new place that I will move in at the end of February and new direction in 2010. Also, I will also be a new aunt to a new upcoming nephew from my little brother’s wife. I can’t wait!!! A new season will arrive very soon…. Look to the Lord and trust him.

Be Blessed
Isleen

Check out this verse that has helped me recently comes from Jeremiah 1:4-10 (Amazing verse in the Bible)

5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
6Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
7But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
8Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
9Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
10See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.”

How He Love Us

There was a time when I was on the mission field in Israel and I came down with a cold in the summer of 2001. (It was a bad cold and I could not get out of bed because I was feeling dizzy.) I was with a team of 10 people who went on a field trip to the city while I stayed alone in a room sick. In my room, I did not have a nice comfortable bed, a TV to waste the time away while I was sick, AC or any company. I was all alone accept only with my Bible. There was another point where I cried my self to sleep because I was in so much pain. I cried to the Lord with my Bible asking the Lord to heal me. At the end of the day, my friend Flori came to my rescue to give me some food to eat and to prayed with me. The next day, I received a call from my dad asked if I was ok which my friend told my dad that I was feeling under the weather. I was happy that my dad called to checked on me because I missed my dad while I was sick. As I reflect those moment which I will never forget when I was sick but I thought of this song as I was singing this morning call “How He Love US ”.

Be Blessed.
Isleen

http://johnmarkmcmillan.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-he-loves-david-crowder-and-sloppy.html

How He Loves US
Verse: 1
He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.
Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.

Yeah, He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves.

Verse 2:
So we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean we're all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way

That he loves us,
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves

He loves us,
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves


Pre-Chorus
Cause He loves us,
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves

Chorus: 1
Yeah, He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves

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…….