Character over credentials

Over the years, the value of credentials have vastly overcome the value of character. So many people now live their life in search of gaining as many credentials as they can whether it be through degrees, cars, jobs, friends or money. While there is nothing wrong with having a good job, lots of money, a good education and home, God called us to value character above all those. Credentials are transient; character is permanent. Credentials tell the world what we have accomplishes ourselves; character shows others how we should live. Credentials are for one person alone; character is for everyone to share. Credentials get us places; character keeps us there. Credentials evoke jealousy; character attracts respect and stimulates others to develop character as well. Jesus Christ came down to earth and made a difference not because of his credentials but because of his character, his love, kindness, mercy and grace. We have been called to be like him and during this stressful time of finals, let us not change our character.

Yellow Roses

My mom sent me this story called "yellow roses" as an encouragement to my faith. I found it to be quite inspiring and uplifting so I thought it would be nice to share. I you have the time, please read and then share with others.

"Yellow Roses" I walked into the grocery store not particularly interested in buying groceries. I wasn't hungry. The pain of losing my husband of 57 years was still too raw.

And this grocery store held so many sweet memories.

He often came with me and almost every time he'd pretend to go off and look for something special.

I knew what he was up to I'd always spot him walking down the aisle with the three yellow roses in his hands.

He knew I loved yellow roses. With a heart filled with grief, I only wanted to buy my few items and leave,

but even grocery shopping was different since he had passed on. Shopping for one took time,

a little more thought than it had for two.

Standing by the meat, I searched for the perfect small steak and remembered how he had loved his steak.
Suddenly a woman came beside me.. She was blonde, slim and lovely in a soft green pantsuit.

I watched as she picked up a large package of T-bones, dropped them in her basket.. hesitated, and then

put them back. She turned to go and once again reached for the pack of steaks.

She saw me watching her and she smiled. 'My husband loves T-bones, but honestly, at these prices, I don't know.'

I swallowed the emotion down my throat and met her pale blue eyes.

'My husband passed away eight days ago,' I told her. Glancing at the package in her hands,

I fought to control the tremble in my voice. 'Buy him the steaks. And cherish every moment you have together.'

She shook her head and I saw the emotion in her eyes as she placed the package in her basket and wheeled away.

I turned and pushed my cart across the length of the store to the dairy products.

There I stood, trying to decide which size milk I should buy. A quart, I finally decided and moved on to the ice cream.

If nothing else, I could always fix myself an ice cream cone..

I placed the ice cream in my cart and looked down the aisle toward the front.

I saw first the green suit, then recognized the pretty lady coming towards me.

In her arms she carried a package. On her face was the brightest smile! I had ever seen.

I would swear a soft halo encircled her blonde hair as she kept walking toward me, her eyes holding mine.

As she came closer, I saw what she held and tears began misting in my eyes.'These are for you,'

she said and placed three beautiful long stemmed yellow roses in my arms.

'When you go through the line, they will know these are paid for.'

She leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on my cheek, then smiled again.

I wanted to tell her what she'd done, what the rose's meant, but still unable to speak,

I watched as she walked away as tears clouded my vision.

I looked down at the beautiful roses nestled in the green tissue wrapping and found it almost unreal.

How did she know? Suddenly the answer seem ed so clear.. I wasn't alone.

Oh, you haven't forgotten me, have you? I whispered, with tears in my eyes.

He was still with me, and she was his angel.

Every day be thankful for what you have and who you are.
(Please read all of this, it is really nice)

This is a simple request. If you appreciate life, send this to your friends, including the

person that sent it to you !

Even though I clutch my blanket and growl when the alarm rings.

Thank you, Lord, that I can hear. There are many who are deaf.

Even though I keep my eyes closed against the morning light as long as possible.

Thank you, Lord , that I can see. Many are blind.

Even though I huddle in my bed and put off rising. Thank you, Lord, that I have the strength to rise.

There are many who are bedridden..

Even though the first hour of my day is hectic, when socks are lost, toast is burned,

tempers are short, and my children are so loud.

Thank you, Lord, for my family. There are many who are lonely.

Even though our breakfast table never looks like the picture in magazines and the menu is at times unbalanced.

Thank you, Lord, for the food we have. There are many who are hungry

Even though the routine of my job often is monotonous. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to work.

There are many who have no job.

Even though I grumble and bemoan my fate from day to day and wish my circumstances were not so modest.

Thank you, Lord, for life.

Full of God

My mind is always wondering and dreaming of new things. So much to the point that when I pray I must do it with my eyes open to stay focused. Recently one of my friends said over facebook "When we fill our mind and hearts with God, there's no room for anything else" This little line was just so inspiring to me and makes me want to work to fill my everyday, every thought and every breath with Jesus and when I do, I won't have time or room for sin to enter my life. I will never be perfect or even close to it but with this mindset, I can start going into that direction.

God listens

Oh what a wonderful day. The weather is absolutely gorgeous and just as i was starting to feel overwhelmed with school, my mother texts me with great news. I got into UIC!!! God answers prayers in due time and only when you put absolute trust in him. Not only that but God somehow managed to make my family more open to each other too. My family is usually the non intimate type. No hugging to say goodbye or say what's really on our mind but today my mother also texted me words of encouragement and to trust in the lord and to persevere to the end.

Look for God, even in the litle things.

We all know how great God is and how big and powerful he is. how he sent Jesus to die on the cross for us and was the ultimate sacrifice. So much that there is nothing we can bring as a sacrifice that will please God. Sometime's it's just nice to see God in his creations on earth. We are always so busy with the world weather it be school or life and never take the time out to just look around and see what God has made for us. How many mornings do we wake up complaining about how early it is and how tired you are and instead just look outside and see the sun that God has given us to keep us warm or nature that is so in balance. I might sound like a tree hugger right now but all those were created by God and have a part of him.

Walking alone or walkign with him?

Being a Christian, our walk with God is very important but how many times do we try to do it ourselves? God is right by our sides and he knows our struggles and weaknesses and is holding his hand out to help us. Yet so many times we ignore him and try to do things ourselves. How many times has God reached out to us and said take my hand and i will guide you but we try to do it ourselves and push him away. That's kinda opposite of what we are trying to do. We want to build a relationship with God and grow closer to him so we must seek him that much more and take his hand when he reaches out to us. Walk with God together.

How much longer till we are content

Greed is evident in every part of our lives and in the world that surrounds us. Money talks in the world and for those who do not know God, that's all they live for. More money, more cars ,more women ,more power and it never seems to satisfy their need for more. For those who do claim to be Christian, we are also guilty of this, me especially. I always want more or even just things that I don't have and during those times of greed I somehow forget that everything that I try so hard to get will just be of no value to me in a few years. When will I be able to realize that everything that I have is from Jesus and he himself is all that I need and he is the only thing that will last for eternity. Contentment frees the heart but my heart is still in shackles.

surrender and praise

During my devotion today, it got me thinking to why we live the way we do. Why push away lust? Why sacrifice our time and money for others who sometimes don't deserve it? Why do we live our lives so differently from the world? The simple answer is because it pleases God but is that the real reason we act the way we do? Do we only do good in the eyes of others but when we're all alone and there's no one there to see us sin and disobey God, do we act differently? I sure hope not. The person we are at church should be the person we are wherever we go. We need to FULLY surrender our lives to God and not just fool people to think that we are.

Gotta get back on track

Wow I just realized how much I've been slacking recently, both academically, spiritually and physically. Haven't blogged in over a week, devos have become less and less, can't study to save my life, haven't worked out in a while and I missed church today for the first time for as long as i can remember. Sometimes it takes falling so far and just looking at your life to realize that all you can do is go to God for help and that he's the only thing that's gonna last. My body will die in the end and 90% of the stuff i learn in school will be completely useless to me once I get in the working world. My faith however is the only thing that will carry over to heaven. So it's time for me to get back on track and rebuild my faith and have everything else fall second to God.

We should know our place

During our usual Wednesday night prayer meeting, the message really spoke to me and made me realize how out of line we are. We call ourselves servants of God but if i had a servant and he acted the way I do, i would replace him immediately. That is the thing that makes God so great and worthy of serving. He loves us and still allows us to serve him even thought that what we bring to him is near worthless. We are all replaceable by God and time and time again we fail God's demand yet he still chooses to love us and give us another chance. In the end we will all fall short but God will still love us. So in return during the time we have here on earth, we should act like the servants we say we are and fully submit to God. We can only serve one master.

God always provides

I admit that I am a materialistic person and I love my name brands and love nice things that I can definitely live without yet I somehow dare to ask god for more. Then I hear about people who don't even have a house to live in or parents who can support them or they don't even know where their next meal is coming from. Even though all that, they manage to stay faithful and praise God through it all because they know that everything they have is from God and that God will always take care of his people.

so blessed yet so lazy

As I sit at my computer at 3am because I took too long of a nap earlier today, I had the time to reflect and just see how blessed I am and yet how lazy I've become. In high school I would wake up everyday at 6:30 rain or shine and go to school for 6 hours straight and then do sports for 3 more hours after school. Now I can barely get up for my 9:30 classes and I complain about waking up for church and leaders meeting. Sometimes I just need to remind myself that I should be thankful that I have a church to go to and be able to become a leader.

Good guys and Bad guys

There are many people in this world and there's always going to be someone that just rubs you the wrong way. That person who disagrees with you or just comes off as a prick. The person who is extremely stubborn and selfish. It is so easy to just completely ignore those people and block them out of your life. That is the easy way out and sadly, that's how I think most of the time. My mentality all my life is that I don't have to take crap from anybody and that I am my own boss other than God obviously. I've always been rebellious to my parents and other people to a certain extent where I am extremely firm in my beliefs and views. So whenever I meet someone new and I find something that I don't like about them, chances are that you won't ever see me talking or interacting with that person ever again. However, during my devotion today, i was reminded that when Jesus came to the world, he loved everyone, not just the people who worshiped him. He hung out with all the people that were rejected from society and hated by everyone. It's going to be hard to change my ways of thinking and giving other people a second chance or a third but I claim to be a Christian so mow I must act the part and show the love that God has shown me onto others.

slap in the face

watch this video: http://vimeo.com/6463076

slapped me in the face this morning and made me realize that I MUST worship God with my ALL

God knows your pain

Sometimes we go thought life and we know that God is in control and has a plan for us but yet we treat him like someone who has never experiences pain or what we go through. We need to remember that he came down to earth and experienced pain, temptation, hunger, thirst and all the other things that we feel as humans. On top of that, he is the one who allows each and everything that happens to us both the good and the bad and he knows exactly how we feel in every situation

Learning from history

Today while doing my daily devotion, it dawned on me that God's word has been proven to be true time and time again throughout history and yet so many people deny God. through all the tyrants and rulers of many nations who tried to say that they were gods of the earth and yet they all died just like anyone else and all that they said to be true were later on proven to be false. Yet to this day, people deny that God exists and that his word is false. Are people really that stubborn and stupid that they can't see what is right in front of them? Then again it doesn't all that surprise me seeing all the stupidity that goes on in this world. Thank God that this life is only temporary.

God's bleesings

There are days that you just take a step back and realize just how nice you have it in life. Today was one of those days. i mean there are always things that I can nit pick at and complain about and I'm sure I do that everyday but after I pick at everything that I don't like, i usually realize that I'm lucky to have that thing with the flaw that I'm complaining about. If you can understand what I'm saying. All in all is that God is good to me, much more than I deserve and it's sad that a lot of times, I forget that.

Love so amazing

Just yesterday, my friend sent me a link to a few youtube videos of some Chinese guy rapping about Christ and at first i didn't think much of it and just thought it was kinda cool. Then i took a look at the comments and realized that the guy rapping was Jin. Now I've listened to Jin rap before and although his rhymes are really clever and funny, they were in no way uplifting to God at all and it did not show him as a Christian at all. Along with the Christian rap that was on youtube, there was also a video of Jin's testimony about how he became Christian and how God has worked in his life. Never would I have ever thought of Jin turning Christian and doing a complete 180 of what he used to do. He still raps but everything he talks about in his rhymes are completely different. It's truly amazing how God could work in someone's heart like Jin's and just change him like that.

confused but faithful

Right now I sit in my room in the usual chair in the usual place listening to the usual music doing the usual thing. Not much has changed since I went back to Chicago and came back. Saw a few friends and just had some good food. But sitting here I feel just so alone and empty, something I haven't felt in a while but as bad as it feels, it's finally setting me straight. In this time of emptiness I'm finally taking my devotional book which i haven't touched since i came back to Purdue and opening where I left off. I know it's not much but this sadness is the push I need to finally get back on track. I've had a lot of time to think about what has happened this past year between all the people I've loved and I'm really surprised at what has happened to some of the relationships. However, I strongly believe that God made and broke all the relationships that he did for a reason. Even if I can't see any reason for him to I know he knows better than i do and I'm gonna hold on to that till the day I die.

The first of many

While I sit here watching the end of the Bears game, I finally took some time out to evaluate how my walk has been after a week of school. I was also able to just look back at what I thought in high school and just stare in amazement at what God has paved my life to be. First off, I would have never seen myself at Purdue and neither did I ever see myself having to transfer from Purdue shortly after. Ever since being in college I've also realized just how blessed I am to have a family like mine and to have parents that just support me so much. To be able to provide for me and not having to worry too much about money or how we're gonna get by. Also being at Purdue really opened my eyes on how corrupt the world has become. I always had a feeling that things were gonna get bad just by seeing what they allowed to be shown on TV and in movies. However, never would I expect such a large university with a so called "zero tolerance" policy to do next to nothing about the underage drinking. Sometimes I just look at America and i shake my head in shame. Don't take this the wrong way, I love America and the freedom we have to worship our God freely. However, for such a powerful country our reasoning and moral standards are pathetic. We create rules and regulations in hope to keep our country on top yet when you look at our youth, I'm sad to say I have little faith in them. before I can worry about that though, i must start by working on myself. To be honest I haven't done a devotion since summer ended and my prayers with God have not been too frequent either. I know this school year is going to be hard and I know there are going to be many obstacles in my way but I hope that being a leader this year and with the help of God, I'll get my act together and be the man that God has called me to be.