Age..... Who Cares?!?!?!?!?

The other day I was thinking about my age 16.... and sometimes I hate it when people ask for my age and I say 16. The look on there face is like I thought you were older but now I'm gald that I'm able to say that I'm 16.

I'm glad about this because this should be a way of me saying if God can use me a 16 year old then he can use someone thats older than me and some one that is younger than me as well. God has taught me that if you are willing to let God use you he is not going to say hold on until you are 18. In the Bible God considered 13 year olds men. One scripture that I like alot is the one found in Jeremiah

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew [a] you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
6 "Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."
7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.
9 Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

I like what it says here because I replace Jeremiah's name with mine (you should do the same). The firs time I read this verse was when Jessica gave me a card when I first started serving and It had this verse and I though cool and I reda it and didn't think much of it but now that I read it takes on a whole new meaning for me.

His Way or the High Way

OK ever since I became a senior or even before that people would ask me what I wanted to do with my life. My answer would be I have no clue. After I would ask people what they see me doing with my life and this is what some people told me....

I see you being involve one way or another in youth ministry, like Doug Fields, big business man, pastor. I would pray about this and I felt convicted by God because I felt like I was letting those people dictate what I was going to do with my life. God was telling me "Hey I'm God and none of the people that you are asking know your future so stop doing that!!!" This reminded me of the verse where it says "I alone am God"

OK so now to what I really wanted say. Last week I was thinking and praying about what God wanted to do with my life and I was telling god my passion the things I like to do the things I'm good at and I was like all this equals youth pastor. When I thought about this I told God that this is what I want to do after looking at what I like to do but let your will be done not mine and if this isn't your plans I'm OK with that because I want what you want.

So help me pray about this and please pray for God's will to be done.

I Come Clean

I said it last week in the Big Welcome that Peter is my mirror. To be honest I said that because that's what came to my mind and I have taken time to think and Peter is my mirror. He is the only person that I can talk to and I know whether I like it or not I can't keep anything from him. I picture him like a cop who is prosecuting the suspect and the suspect all the time. The thing about this cop is that when he looks at this prosecutor is that the cop doesn't have say a word all he has to do is look at me and I crack open. This is good but sometimes this doesn't feel good at all. Even though at the end I feel better but its the process that gets me there that i got so use to avoiding that since I have been meeting with Peter is this process that now I'm willing to face it because I know that its worth it at the end.

So get a mirror because this way you are going to be able to look deep inside of your heart and dig out those things that are deep down inside.

Jessica remember that lesson that you shared in bible study last school year about how we must stop and ask God to show us the things in our hearts that we need to change well Peter has helped me and also my alone time with God.

p.s. (Bible study went good except for three of the kids talking and laughing I felt like kicking them out but besides that everything else was good Missed You. Hope you enjoyed your cult.)

"IT'S UP TO YOU"

That's how we sometimes are. Acting like someone that we are not and when I saw this picture it reminded me of that. Why do we try to hide the real us? Why do we try to impress that girl, guy, group of people or whatever other people or things we try to impress that we start acting like Venom.

Not only those this happen in the our physical lives but in our spiritual lives. We hear a lot about people who claim that are "Christians" but that act a totally different way. What about the ones that are Christian and that they don't try to pretend but they go with the crowd and they never say that they believe. This is where walking with God gets hard when you have to choose between God or the world and although we say that we would take God but It's a hard decision to make. When we try to be both part of the world and part of God is when we start struggling. In the Bible Jesus says that you cannot serve to masters you will either love one and hate the other. This means that if we pick God and we choose to love him we will have an amazing life it might be tough but it will be worth it. That's the good side of the decision but others will pick to hate God and to love the world and I know that this sounds hash or whatever but that's how it is.

So think about it what side are you on the world's or God's?

The Choice is yours I can't make it for you, your friends can't make it for you, your family can't make it for you, and God can't make it for you!

The Time Has Come!

So what I have begun to do is start hangingout with my family and you know what its fun! I didn't know how much fun I could actually have with them. My first adventure with them has been going to eat with them, wathching soccer games, whatching movies or just talking I have so much fun with them.

What made em spent time with my family is that 2 weeks ago in class my Algebra 2 teacher always has a quote of the day and on one day the quote was "No matter what you've done for yourself or humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?" So as soon as I read this it made me think would I want to be known as someone that did so many great things for others and having given nothing to his family or would I rather be known as someone who didn't make a notible diference in mandkind but was loving to his family? The answerwas easy the second choice.

So thats what I try to do now spent time with my family because thats one way of avoiding to fall into my biggest fear which is to grow up and be like my dad.

So I will leave you guys with that thought in mind!

P.S.(Bibi you still owe me my day!)

FINALLY!

Well I'm back well at least that's the plan and although its really hard but i need to do this wait let me rephrase that I want to do this, so i have constructed a plan how about you (Jessica) keep me accountable for this.

So today was my last AP test of the year and I'm so glad that I'm finally over it.

Last Tuesday was my first AP test it was the Spanish Language and it was fairly easy.The only bad thing about the test was that it was too long and after that day i was tired of testing. I was at school from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. It was long and by the end of the day I was frustrated.

I go to bible study which i shouldn't of but oh well. The word was great Evelyn did a great job of sharing and she shared about temptation and how Joseph got tempted. I really like the last points that she shared when she said that we have to FIGHT the temptation, FEAR to sin against God and that opened my eyes because I realized that sometimes I'm not afraid to sin against God. I'm more afraid to do other things than to sin against God thanks for opening that up for me Jessica!

So that was the word of bible study but I was still frustrated and I wasn't in the mood to interact with people. That's when I realize that I should of listened to my mom.

My second AP test wasn't as bad it was harder but it wasnt as bad as the Spanish one. The U.S. history test sucked out of all the test that I took that was the test that I was worried about.

My last and final test was the English was today it was easy but it felt long I'm glad that I'm finally done testing and now I'm hoping to start blogging consistently.

That's it for now and umm I will hopefully write soon.

It Really Is My Name!

To all of you that have called me at one point Germany I have good news My name really is Germany.

I came up with this about 3 weeks ago. So my full name is German Enrique Contreras but if you right my midle name initials this is my name German E. Contreras. If you don't get the joke then thats your lost because Jessica, Janette, and I had a real good laugh after I said this.

So if I have ever gotten mad at you calling me Germany I'm sorry its jsut that I didn't know my actual name was Germany

Sincerley, German E. Contreras

Its Not Me!

Ok so in bible study i have given the word twice and after both of them i have had people coem up to me and tell me that I did godd or that the word spoke to them. To hear this makes me happy but Its not me. Its God and if you have ever shared the word then you know what I mean. When I'm giving the word I feel like God's spirit consumes me and he takes over. Its a feeling that its like no other. In both times that I have shared the word things have comeout of my mouth that I'm even like what the heck is that. Giving the word has blessed me alot it has made get closer to God and for me this is kind of scary because last year was an amazing year in my spiritual life I got closer to God like never before. In the begining of the year I had told God that I wanted to get more challenged this year I wanted to get closer to him and so far I have. I have been challed in my faith in school, home, and church and its amazing. One person that really helped me was Jessica and I want to thank You. If it wasnt for the devotional that you gave me for my birth day then I don't think I would be this strong in my faith. This book has challenge me in lots of ways. I also want to thank you for believing in me and for being tough on me because although I don't like it I learn from it. Your an amazing leader and an amazing friend. God is going to bless you soooooooooo much!!!!!!!!! I know that I don't say this to you alot but I Love You!

Its Been A While!

So the last time i was on here lots of things have happened! I almost got ranned over like 7 times. I got an accountability partner Perter! I gave the word twice in bible study and i have loved both the experience. I have fallen like 3 times cried like 2 and learned lots in school and about the word of God.

So this is what i'm going to do I'm going to write about all of these thing (or at least try to that a promise!)

Lets start with me getting ran over 7 times preatty cool experiences and a litle bit scary as well. Ok so I got my bike on the one day where Cindy had the event the Fun Night Thing. I didn't use it till the week after and i didn't start getting the problem of almost being ran over till early in the year. Ok so my first time was on my way to school I was in a hurry because the trady bell rings at 7:30 and I had left my house at 7:20 so there is a street by Nichos Pizza and as I was crossing this red truck didn't stop and it kept going. So i stoped and in my head I was like what an idiot. The rest are kind of the same and although I almost got ran over like 7 times i still ride fast.

R.I.P. 2006

2006 came to an end on Sunday it was good while it lasted. It was an amazing day we took Peter to Panda Inn and we had a great time. It was 16 of us Peter, Melissa, Paco, Gus, Aileen, Alex, Valerie, Leo, Jennifer, Angie, Cookie, Cheezy, Rene, Howard, Jessica, and myself. We all played spin the soy sauce and if the sauce landed on u then that person had to say something nice about Peter. I was acting really silly because I was trying to keep myself happy because of a promise that I made and I think that I did really good. After we ate Gus, Melissa, Peter, Valerie, Alex, Aileen, Leo Fabian, Leo Zambrano, Sam, Jose, Paco, and myself went to Paco's house. BTW thank you Jessica and Howard for caring for me and advising me to stay at Paco's house, and congrats to all the people that got baptized like Cheezy.

It was a great way to end 2006 with the people that I love although the was there was a couple of people that I wish that they were there but hopefully we can get together to finish 2007. On New Years Day Gus, Peter, Leo, Alex, Peter Sr. John, Adrian, Moses, Paco, Sam, and Jose we went to play at Reeves. I got home at about 5:30 p.m. I did my home work and I finished my day by talking to Evelyn and that made my day I went to sleep happy! So now I have to go back to school but its ok because I had a great time during my 10 days of rest.