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 saves me once again!!
By Saturday morning I had pretty much made plans to go live on the streets of San Diego.
That morning I moved my two suitcases worth of belongings into a church closet and went to a men's breakfast.
Unbeknown to me the Associate Pastor of this church found someone who was willing to put me up for two weeks.
This weekend, I stayed at the Associate Pastor's house and had an absolutely wonderful time being his guest. He and his wife and family literally treated me like I was family and the Lord broke through in a MAJOR way into my heart as me and the Associate Pastor talked over the weekend.
At one point I was moved to tell the Associate Pastor, whom I have viewed to be a traditional church leader with a generally traditional church mind set, that I loved him.
I really felt a love for Him well up within my heart and had a strong impression to tell him so in no uncertain terms.
Given that I am a man, I of course first beat around the bush and said that I appreciated his taking the time to talk with me...blah, blah, blah...but, then I came out and told him flat out that I loved him in line with what the Lord was laying on my heart to say.
As soon as those words came out of my mouth...it was like some sort of floodgate in my heart instantly opened...and out came the tears. A sobbing, cascading, flood of them.
It was unreal.
That was the first time in my entire life that I think I felt truly listened to by a church leader. And that was the first time I ever felt and was led to tell a church leader, and even more significantly...a traditional church leader, that I loved him.
What a release that was to be able to do that!
Something got healed in my heart when I obeyed the Lord and spoke out what He had laid on my heart to say.
It is so incredibly glorious when the Lord does that. That's the third time in the last two weeks that He has touched me so deeply.
In the last few days I have had $40 in cash money gifts given to me, have had food galore and good food too (I don't even think of where I will get food from anymore...God continues to provide for me...so much so that I just assume that He will continue doing so and just don't sweat it, in short I have had all my needs met and then some.
I did not go out of my way to ask anyone for anything initially but I did not lie about my situation or keep it secret. God moved upon hearts to offer what I needed to me and has granted me incredible favor!
I still don't know what my future will be like. I still don't have a job and have only about $20 in cash in my pocket as of tonight. I still can't get around by bus consistently and I still have no car.
I don't even know where I will be living past two weeks from now. Maybe I will still end up on the streets but you know something?
WHO CARES!! I sure don't.
What matters is that GOD is with me.
I will not fear for God is with me and is my helper. What can man do to me in comparison!
That doesn't mean that I don't need to do all I can to find work or that I should go around with a cavalier attitude. Only that I needn't get all worked up with worry. God is in control. He has allowed every one of my circumstances into my life for His ultimate purposes. Even some of my decisions that have not always been the best, are usable in His hands.
He IS using me and is touching my heart.
Who cares about the rest.
Life is meaningless and not worth living apart from Him. But walking in a forgiven state before Him and having an intimate and growing relationship with Him is all I could hope for out of this life.
The rest is just dressing on the cake so to speak.
I have all the cake I want to eat in Him. Anytime I want it.
I may still be dirt poor on paper but in fact I am incredibly blessed and rich in Him.
I couldn't buy my way into the kind of wonderful circumstances God is teaching me through. I could not do anything to merit the ways in which the Lord is working through my life.
It's the unmerited and wonderful grace of God reaching out to me with His love.
There is such power in being able to love as He loves. In being able to fellowship with those among my brethren that are thousands of times richer than I am in material wealth but where I do not feel the slightest bit of jealousy or depression over the disparity between their material wealth and my lack of it.
I have learned to look upon circumstances in a new way. To recognize that the relative difference between me and others in material wealth pales to complete and utter insignificance when contrasted with the lavish, immeasurable richness that God has bestowed on every Christian through the Presence of His Person within our lives.
We have all of Him that one could want. He is our richest possession. Our highest joy. Our greatest King. The treasure worth giving up one's life for.
Compared to having Him all else is a chasing after wind. And if I have Him I am richer than the richest person alive who does not have Him.
I LOVE the life I am living. I LOVE the way the Lord is touching my heart. I LOVE His real Presence in my life. There is simply and really no other kind of life that I would want to be living. Honest.
I am not talking about being poor. One does not have to be poor to experience this kind of life though it's easier I think, to enter into it when one is poor and has little to depend on other than God.
I am talking about a life with God, the living God, in it. Where He shows Himself real and gets very personal. Where one has a growing and intimate relationship with Him. Where one feels used in the greatest calling one could possibly have...to glorify Him.
That is the kind of life I LOVE!
My cup runneth over. I am filled to the brim and then some. Content in circumstances that He has allowed as I see Him work in and through my life to touch me deeply and others through me.
I am doing the very best that I can to find work and to otherwise do what is seemly in the eyes of man to fend for myself but if my efforts fall short I am learning to accept the result as being from His hand. Of being something that He allows into my life for my good and the furtherance of His Kingdom through my life.
This is not some fairy tale, feel good, theology folks. It's as real as it gets. I am seeing the Lord at work in and through my life and it is an absolutely marvelous thing to behold!!
All praise and honor belong to Him!
Carlos
UPDATE
A brother in the Lord graciously and completely on his own initiative asked me if he could take me grocery shopping. At the time I thanked him but declined since I was expecting to be homeless and could not carry a bunch of food around. Since I will no longer face being homeless again for at least two weeks he will now take me to the grocery store to get me some food!
And...I found some more bread behind Ralph's the grocery store today. I had a lunch of yum, yummy jalapeno bread and some other assorted bakery goods!
I still have some food left over that the Assistant Pastor's wife gave me.
As I said my need for food is amply supplied and in abundance. How neat is that?!
Praise God from whom all blessing flows!
That morning I moved my two suitcases worth of belongings into a church closet and went to a men's breakfast.
Unbeknown to me the Associate Pastor of this church found someone who was willing to put me up for two weeks.
This weekend, I stayed at the Associate Pastor's house and had an absolutely wonderful time being his guest. He and his wife and family literally treated me like I was family and the Lord broke through in a MAJOR way into my heart as me and the Associate Pastor talked over the weekend.
At one point I was moved to tell the Associate Pastor, whom I have viewed to be a traditional church leader with a generally traditional church mind set, that I loved him.
I really felt a love for Him well up within my heart and had a strong impression to tell him so in no uncertain terms.
Given that I am a man, I of course first beat around the bush and said that I appreciated his taking the time to talk with me...blah, blah, blah...but, then I came out and told him flat out that I loved him in line with what the Lord was laying on my heart to say.
As soon as those words came out of my mouth...it was like some sort of floodgate in my heart instantly opened...and out came the tears. A sobbing, cascading, flood of them.
It was unreal.
That was the first time in my entire life that I think I felt truly listened to by a church leader. And that was the first time I ever felt and was led to tell a church leader, and even more significantly...a traditional church leader, that I loved him.
What a release that was to be able to do that!
Something got healed in my heart when I obeyed the Lord and spoke out what He had laid on my heart to say.
It is so incredibly glorious when the Lord does that. That's the third time in the last two weeks that He has touched me so deeply.
In the last few days I have had $40 in cash money gifts given to me, have had food galore and good food too (I don't even think of where I will get food from anymore...God continues to provide for me...so much so that I just assume that He will continue doing so and just don't sweat it, in short I have had all my needs met and then some.
I did not go out of my way to ask anyone for anything initially but I did not lie about my situation or keep it secret. God moved upon hearts to offer what I needed to me and has granted me incredible favor!
I still don't know what my future will be like. I still don't have a job and have only about $20 in cash in my pocket as of tonight. I still can't get around by bus consistently and I still have no car.
I don't even know where I will be living past two weeks from now. Maybe I will still end up on the streets but you know something?
WHO CARES!! I sure don't.
What matters is that GOD is with me.
I will not fear for God is with me and is my helper. What can man do to me in comparison!
That doesn't mean that I don't need to do all I can to find work or that I should go around with a cavalier attitude. Only that I needn't get all worked up with worry. God is in control. He has allowed every one of my circumstances into my life for His ultimate purposes. Even some of my decisions that have not always been the best, are usable in His hands.
He IS using me and is touching my heart.
Who cares about the rest.
Life is meaningless and not worth living apart from Him. But walking in a forgiven state before Him and having an intimate and growing relationship with Him is all I could hope for out of this life.
The rest is just dressing on the cake so to speak.
I have all the cake I want to eat in Him. Anytime I want it.
I may still be dirt poor on paper but in fact I am incredibly blessed and rich in Him.
I couldn't buy my way into the kind of wonderful circumstances God is teaching me through. I could not do anything to merit the ways in which the Lord is working through my life.
It's the unmerited and wonderful grace of God reaching out to me with His love.
There is such power in being able to love as He loves. In being able to fellowship with those among my brethren that are thousands of times richer than I am in material wealth but where I do not feel the slightest bit of jealousy or depression over the disparity between their material wealth and my lack of it.
I have learned to look upon circumstances in a new way. To recognize that the relative difference between me and others in material wealth pales to complete and utter insignificance when contrasted with the lavish, immeasurable richness that God has bestowed on every Christian through the Presence of His Person within our lives.
We have all of Him that one could want. He is our richest possession. Our highest joy. Our greatest King. The treasure worth giving up one's life for.
Compared to having Him all else is a chasing after wind. And if I have Him I am richer than the richest person alive who does not have Him.
I LOVE the life I am living. I LOVE the way the Lord is touching my heart. I LOVE His real Presence in my life. There is simply and really no other kind of life that I would want to be living. Honest.
I am not talking about being poor. One does not have to be poor to experience this kind of life though it's easier I think, to enter into it when one is poor and has little to depend on other than God.
I am talking about a life with God, the living God, in it. Where He shows Himself real and gets very personal. Where one has a growing and intimate relationship with Him. Where one feels used in the greatest calling one could possibly have...to glorify Him.
That is the kind of life I LOVE!
My cup runneth over. I am filled to the brim and then some. Content in circumstances that He has allowed as I see Him work in and through my life to touch me deeply and others through me.
I am doing the very best that I can to find work and to otherwise do what is seemly in the eyes of man to fend for myself but if my efforts fall short I am learning to accept the result as being from His hand. Of being something that He allows into my life for my good and the furtherance of His Kingdom through my life.
This is not some fairy tale, feel good, theology folks. It's as real as it gets. I am seeing the Lord at work in and through my life and it is an absolutely marvelous thing to behold!!
All praise and honor belong to Him!
Carlos
UPDATE
A brother in the Lord graciously and completely on his own initiative asked me if he could take me grocery shopping. At the time I thanked him but declined since I was expecting to be homeless and could not carry a bunch of food around. Since I will no longer face being homeless again for at least two weeks he will now take me to the grocery store to get me some food!
And...I found some more bread behind Ralph's the grocery store today. I had a lunch of yum, yummy jalapeno bread and some other assorted bakery goods!
I still have some food left over that the Assistant Pastor's wife gave me.
As I said my need for food is amply supplied and in abundance. How neat is that?!
Praise God from whom all blessing flows!
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