My Daily Life and Thoughts while in San Diego |
List of Best Posts
This blog is where I express myself to the world or at least to those who might stop by to read what I post 
. Maybe God will use what I post (I am a Christian and this blog will have a most decidedly Christian bent to it) to good effect in the lives of my readers.
I may turn some of my posts into a book. I may cease blogging here altogether. Who knows. But for now..I am content to post away in this, my own little corner of the world.
Rather than reading through my now lengthy list of posts you may wish to read what I consider to be my very best posts or you can just read the posts that deal with a single subject category that might interest you.
Please know that I am open to any input on any topic I write about. If you have something to say about anything you see written here please....feel free to speak up in the form of leaving a comment or sending me a PM (private message).
And if you are in San Diego and wish to meet the one and only Carlos (that's me)...drop me a private message. I always enjoy meeting one of my readers!
Thanks.
Carlos
PS. If you want to follow my blog such that you will get an email when I write new posts you can subscribe to my blog.
. Maybe God will use what I post (I am a Christian and this blog will have a most decidedly Christian bent to it) to good effect in the lives of my readers. I may turn some of my posts into a book. I may cease blogging here altogether. Who knows. But for now..I am content to post away in this, my own little corner of the world.
Rather than reading through my now lengthy list of posts you may wish to read what I consider to be my very best posts or you can just read the posts that deal with a single subject category that might interest you.
Please know that I am open to any input on any topic I write about. If you have something to say about anything you see written here please....feel free to speak up in the form of leaving a comment or sending me a PM (private message).
And if you are in San Diego and wish to meet the one and only Carlos (that's me
)...drop me a private message. I always enjoy meeting one of my readers!Thanks.
Carlos
PS. If you want to follow my blog such that you will get an email when I write new posts you can subscribe to my blog.
God my Father parts the Red Sea for me!
Posted 12-09-2009 at 10:30 PM by carlos123
In the Old Testament book of Exodus the people of Israel experienced what initially seemed like impossible circumstances.
I won't describe the entire account of Israel's deliverance from their bondage in Egypt. Anyone that has a Bible can read it for themselves.
But one particularly trying circumstance has stood out to me and has encouraged me these last few days.
At the beginning of their journey into the desert on their way to the promised land the Israelites found themselves at one point caught between the Egyptian army on the one hand and the Red Sea on the other.
They couldn't move back and they couldn't move forward. The Bible says they "became very frightened" presumably at the prospect of being cut to pieces by the Egyptians.
I too faced a seemingly impossible dilemna as of late.
And I too found myself crying out the Lord in my particular circumstances.
You see I had been running out of money in the last few weeks. With no job, no car, no discretionary income, no social services around me like soup kitchens, and no definite prospect of income coming in...let's just say that by sight I stood a very good chance of going hungry. Very hungry.
By sight I did not know what I was going to do.
Mind you I have faced many such circumstances in the past and the Lord has delivered me from every single one of them. Without fail.
But it's been a while since I last experienced this and given my particular circumstances this time around I just did not see how I was going to make it through.
Yesterday I had exactly $6.56 left in my main checking account. Another $1 in another one, and $1.38 in one more. Oh and I had .20 cents in change for a grand total of $9.14.
I had been trying to find a place to give blood for money but I had not been able to get through to any of them since I had cancelled Skype to save the $2.95 cent monthly cost of it. Most of the blood banks had been long distance calls and my landlord had only wanted me to make local calls using his phone.
Even when he changed his mind and allowed me to make a couple of long distance calls (he did not realize how literally I would take his desire that I not make any long distance calls...he only meant in general) I found out that two such places had closed down and the third one was not available till today not to mention that it was not at all certain that what I had to prove local residency would be accepted by them.
So spending $5 to go to the blood giving place by bus on the chance they might not take me seemed like a long shot at best. Still it was my best hope.
I had a couple of carrots left and one potatoe and I only had a few small pieces of toilet paper left. My bath soap was also down to the left over pieces and I was almost out of that too.
But...I kept thinking about the people of Israel and what they faced and what God did to save them and believe it or not my heart was at peace for the most part during this whole trial.
Whenever I started down the path to growing anxious I just kept thinking about God's provision for the people of Israel and kept focusing on the sufficiency of God. Over and over again I kept looking to God to do the same for me as He did for them.
In the past when I have faced such impossible circumstances I have at times nearly come to the place of pulling my hair out with anxiety interspersed with moments of great peace.
The Lord has been teaching me to trust Him through all such circumstances and His past lessons paid off royally this time around. For the most part peace reigned in my heart. Unbroken peace.
To be sure there was still some anxiety in that I found out the commission check that I had been counting on a few days ago was never mailed to me.
But rather than focusing on the particular provision I had been counting on I kept reminding myself that it was God who was the source. Not any particular visible provision that might cross my path. If one provision did not work out the Lord would provide another.
And so overall...my heart was at peace.
I give credit to the Lord for whatever peace I experienced for under normal circumstances I would have been pulling my hair out. Running around like a chicken with it's head cut off screaming "what shall I do?"..."what shall I do?"..."what shall I do?" and working myself up into a real dizzi of anxiety.
But not this time. With the exception of a short time when I started down the path to anxiety...I chose to look to God and trust Him no matter what and just rested in Him.
My landlord came to me last night and told me that he wanted me to spend time working to get his mom set up on her new computer today and that I would be paid today!
I spent about $4 of the remaining money I had to buy some bread and a discounted, expired box of cereal last night and today I earned $50 from the work that I did for his mom!
And the commission check of another $50 I had been looking to will also be arriving in the next few days (now that a glitch in it being sent to me has been overcome in talks with the hosting company).
The Lord God opened the Red Sea for me too and I walked through on dry land today! Just as He did for the people of Israel!
I had food every day. I did not go hungry.
And I will now have enough to eat for a whole month!
Not only that but when I went to cash the check tonight the bank had closed. I was pretty disappointed until a verse came to my mind about how God works all things together for good. So... I chose to thank the Lord and moved on emotionally from my disappointment.
As I was going through the checking line and buying a thing of chocolate milk with the last $2 left in my one bank account it dawned on me that there was a bank branch in the store I was at that stayed open late.
When I inquired about starting an account there I was told I needed $50 and that I would be paid $50 just to start an account!!
Which I will likely do tomorrow. So what God laid on my heart about all things working out for good actually transpired. If I had cashed my check at my usual bank I would not have had enough to open up a new account and get a $50 reward for doing so.
God knew and led me through my circumstances to enable me to experience a further blessing!
As much as I would like to have an easy life one will not learn lessons in living by faith through such a life. More than an easy life I want to learn to live by faith in an unseen but real God who sent His Son to die for my sins and who loves me.
There is so very, very much more I could say about this and the miraculous nature of God's provision for me once again is much more miraculous in nature than what I have just touched upon in this post.
But I am somewhat sugared out from filling up on chocolate milk and bread tonight and my mind is not real sharp so I think I will leave it at that.
I still can't see God. When I look up into the sky all I still see are the stars in the night sky. God is nowhere to be seen. But I don't have to see Him to trust Him. I can walk by faith in what the Bible says to be true and can bank on that as surely as I can count on my money being in the bank after I deposit it.
Carlos
I won't describe the entire account of Israel's deliverance from their bondage in Egypt. Anyone that has a Bible can read it for themselves.
But one particularly trying circumstance has stood out to me and has encouraged me these last few days.
At the beginning of their journey into the desert on their way to the promised land the Israelites found themselves at one point caught between the Egyptian army on the one hand and the Red Sea on the other.
They couldn't move back and they couldn't move forward. The Bible says they "became very frightened" presumably at the prospect of being cut to pieces by the Egyptians.
Quote:
Exodus 14:5
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, "What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"
So he made his chariot ready and took his people with him; and he took six hundred select chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. ...
... Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD.
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, "What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"
So he made his chariot ready and took his people with him; and he took six hundred select chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. ...
... Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD.
And I too found myself crying out the Lord in my particular circumstances.
You see I had been running out of money in the last few weeks. With no job, no car, no discretionary income, no social services around me like soup kitchens, and no definite prospect of income coming in...let's just say that by sight I stood a very good chance of going hungry. Very hungry.
By sight I did not know what I was going to do.
Mind you I have faced many such circumstances in the past and the Lord has delivered me from every single one of them. Without fail.
But it's been a while since I last experienced this and given my particular circumstances this time around I just did not see how I was going to make it through.
Yesterday I had exactly $6.56 left in my main checking account. Another $1 in another one, and $1.38 in one more. Oh and I had .20 cents in change for a grand total of $9.14.
I had been trying to find a place to give blood for money but I had not been able to get through to any of them since I had cancelled Skype to save the $2.95 cent monthly cost of it. Most of the blood banks had been long distance calls and my landlord had only wanted me to make local calls using his phone.
Even when he changed his mind and allowed me to make a couple of long distance calls (he did not realize how literally I would take his desire that I not make any long distance calls...he only meant in general) I found out that two such places had closed down and the third one was not available till today not to mention that it was not at all certain that what I had to prove local residency would be accepted by them.
So spending $5 to go to the blood giving place by bus on the chance they might not take me seemed like a long shot at best. Still it was my best hope.
I had a couple of carrots left and one potatoe and I only had a few small pieces of toilet paper left. My bath soap was also down to the left over pieces and I was almost out of that too.
But...I kept thinking about the people of Israel and what they faced and what God did to save them and believe it or not my heart was at peace for the most part during this whole trial.
Whenever I started down the path to growing anxious I just kept thinking about God's provision for the people of Israel and kept focusing on the sufficiency of God. Over and over again I kept looking to God to do the same for me as He did for them.
In the past when I have faced such impossible circumstances I have at times nearly come to the place of pulling my hair out with anxiety interspersed with moments of great peace.
The Lord has been teaching me to trust Him through all such circumstances and His past lessons paid off royally this time around. For the most part peace reigned in my heart. Unbroken peace.
To be sure there was still some anxiety in that I found out the commission check that I had been counting on a few days ago was never mailed to me.
But rather than focusing on the particular provision I had been counting on I kept reminding myself that it was God who was the source. Not any particular visible provision that might cross my path. If one provision did not work out the Lord would provide another.
And so overall...my heart was at peace.
I give credit to the Lord for whatever peace I experienced for under normal circumstances I would have been pulling my hair out. Running around like a chicken with it's head cut off screaming "what shall I do?"..."what shall I do?"..."what shall I do?" and working myself up into a real dizzi of anxiety.
But not this time. With the exception of a short time when I started down the path to anxiety...I chose to look to God and trust Him no matter what and just rested in Him.
My landlord came to me last night and told me that he wanted me to spend time working to get his mom set up on her new computer today and that I would be paid today!
I spent about $4 of the remaining money I had to buy some bread and a discounted, expired box of cereal last night and today I earned $50 from the work that I did for his mom!
And the commission check of another $50 I had been looking to will also be arriving in the next few days (now that a glitch in it being sent to me has been overcome in talks with the hosting company).
The Lord God opened the Red Sea for me too and I walked through on dry land today! Just as He did for the people of Israel!
I had food every day. I did not go hungry.
And I will now have enough to eat for a whole month!
Not only that but when I went to cash the check tonight the bank had closed. I was pretty disappointed until a verse came to my mind about how God works all things together for good. So... I chose to thank the Lord and moved on emotionally from my disappointment.
As I was going through the checking line and buying a thing of chocolate milk with the last $2 left in my one bank account it dawned on me that there was a bank branch in the store I was at that stayed open late.
When I inquired about starting an account there I was told I needed $50 and that I would be paid $50 just to start an account!!
Which I will likely do tomorrow. So what God laid on my heart about all things working out for good actually transpired. If I had cashed my check at my usual bank I would not have had enough to open up a new account and get a $50 reward for doing so.
God knew and led me through my circumstances to enable me to experience a further blessing!
As much as I would like to have an easy life one will not learn lessons in living by faith through such a life. More than an easy life I want to learn to live by faith in an unseen but real God who sent His Son to die for my sins and who loves me.
There is so very, very much more I could say about this and the miraculous nature of God's provision for me once again is much more miraculous in nature than what I have just touched upon in this post.
But I am somewhat sugared out from filling up on chocolate milk and bread tonight and my mind is not real sharp so I think I will leave it at that.
I still can't see God. When I look up into the sky all I still see are the stars in the night sky. God is nowhere to be seen. But I don't have to see Him to trust Him. I can walk by faith in what the Bible says to be true and can bank on that as surely as I can count on my money being in the bank after I deposit it.
Carlos
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