ReBirth is the first step.

I’m sorry for all of my rants on this.

HOT TOPIC HOT TOPIC HOT TOPIC

OH PLEASE STOP THE NOISE.

right now California is talking about what marriage is.

Conservatives say it’s a man and a woman

Liberals say it’s between any two people.

People from the Planet Zeekdnf@@knsdf$% just don’t care.

ok… the last one was fake. But I’m not sorry to say that’s where I am at.

You want to know why? Because I believe no law by man has any say or relevance on the Law of God. 

I want to make this clear… This is not a Christian nation… if you think this is… please go to a public school… say that… and see yourself belittled or escorted of the premises. I think we have too many people out there trying to fit into this world. Yeah yeah, I probably do, so I’m most likely yelling at myself. 

But I do that a lot… so what’s new?

BACK TO TOPIC

OK, so I know an argument is that God has marriage to be between a man and a woman.

If California law changes and gay marriage is legal… does that mean the bible will change and God’s going to buckle down?

No… the world has gone against God for centuries and He seems to carry out his righteousness regardless of the laws of the world. 

 

But Mike… We are called to be good citizens and stand for truth..

 

you know what friend… that’s a great point… here’s a great verse that kinda makes that point

 

¹⁶ “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
Cease to do evil,
¹⁷ Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow. - Isaiah: 16-17

how many of us live this out… really? I do this at a micro level of my life. I hope to do more very soon… But I don’t think Justice will come through the banning of gay marriage… I think it will come when we care for people.. when we spread the love of Christ to those who haven’t heard it. And people please realize that the love of Christ isn’t spread through telling people “YOU’RE WRONG”… it’s through loving them even though they’re wrong. Your life style is what will show them Christ love…

How can we as Christians really defend marriage when over half the straight people getting married are getting divorced… and again how can we defend it when a large percent of those getting divorced are Christians… and unless there a lot of unfaithfulness(which there actually probably really is…but thats for another time…well actually no this might apply here…) There in itself is a prime example of an ungodly marriage… But why aren’t we as Christians putting our energy into showing the world that we believe in REAL marriage. It’s really hard for the world to give to rat tails about what we’re saying about REAL marriage when half the people that have REAL marriage give up on it because it wan’t… REAL enough.

I don’t condone homosexuality… and I don’t think the bible does either…

Romans 1

²⁶ For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, ²⁷ and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

This verse is pretty straight forward that a man and man is unnatural as well as a woman and a woman…

But if we keep reading… I feel like Paul’s next point looks like a lot of people out there right now on both sides of the marriage issue…

²⁸ And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil,disobedient to parents, ³¹ without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; ³² and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

There are so many people that are deceitful in how they present an argument about God or about marriage.

There are people slandering people, companies, organizations, the government, errybody just to make themselves right.

if I kept going on with this list I might say bad things…

but one of the ones that stands out

UNLOVING.

We are so UNLOVING right now  in this time… We seem to put gay marriage on a pedestal of sins and battles…what the heck is wrong with us? People are dying lost and alone everyday and we’re hating on gay people. Am I voting for gay marriage… no… am I going to put energy into this campaign? HECK NO.

I want to put energy into showing people that the love of God is greater than the love of man. That the freedom of Christ is far greater than the freedoms of this country.. That the Savior will save you whether you’re gay or straight, black or white, Cali-resident or Texas citizen. God called us to FAR MORE than battling with the government to uphold something we in ourselves don’t understand enough. This government is of THIS WORLD. It doesn’t understand the word and His ways… why are we trying to force it by protesting.

We help see by love.

Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.

I think Batman has a point.

Jason Todd: Ignoring what he’s done in the past. Blindly, stupid, disregarding the entire graveyards he’s filled, the thousands of who have suffered, the friends he’s crippled. You know, I thought… I thought I’d be the last person you’d ever let him hurt. If it had been you that he beat to a bloody pulp, if he had taken you from this world, I would’ve done nothing but search the planet for this pathetic pile of evil death-worshiping garbage and sent him off to hell. 
Batman: You don’t understand. I don’t think you’ve ever understood. 
Jason Todd: What? What, your moral code just won’t allow for that? It’s too hard to cross that line? 
Batman: No. God Almighty, no. It’d be too damned easy. All I’ve ever wanted to do is kill him. A day doesn’t go by I don’t think about subjecting him to every horrendous torture he’s dealt out to others and then end him. 
Joker: Aw. So you do think about me. 
Batman: But if I do that, if I allow myself to go down into that place, I’ll never come back. 
Jason Todd: Why? I’m not talking about killing Penguin or Scarecrow or Dent. I’m talking about him. Just him. And doing it because… Because he took me away from you. 
Batman: I can’t. I’m sorry. 

I’ve pondered this… do we have right to deal judgement?

In this movie, Robin (Jason Todd) was brutally beaten and then murdered by Joker. In this fictional tale, Jason is brought back to life by Ras. Jason then posses as Joker’s orignal alias The Red Hood. He then rounds the mobs together and kills several while serving as protection for others. In an assortment of meetings Batman discovers the Red Hood’s true identity and figures out his plan. Jason planned to kidnap Joker and kill him. But I think(my memory is fading on this) that He planned to let Batman kill Joker. 

 

The dialogue above was when this all unfolded. 

 

The part that sticks out is “…no. It’d be too damned easy.”

 

We as Christians should be able to relate to this. The world of sin isn’t too hard to get into. The challenge is it is TOO EASY to fall into. It is so easy to say a worldly way is better. In the same way, I feel many Christians loose sight of who bares judgement in this world or the next. We don’t really choose who lives or who doesn’t.

It’s so interesting that Batman drew the line of never killing anyone, no matter the ruthless, heartless, or evil. He made it a discipline, a struggle to not give into killing. 

We in the same way need to choose the way of light, the way of truth above what even we think is the “right way”.

 

 

I don’t know the point outside of Batman is a freaking beast and honestly I don’t know if I could be as good as he is sometimes.

 

 

 

Stories expose such beautiful truths through fictional lives.

I think there’s a misconception of gentleness.
If you are gentle you aren’t upsetting anyone…

I feel like this is a huge lie.

Jesus was gentle, the most of all, and he pissed off just about everyone.

He was gentle with Peter at the end of a couple Gospels and Peter just about freaked out on Jesus.

Gentleness seems to be calm an confident to tell the truth those in need of truth.

Steven was killed for telling the truth, but he was gentle the whole time.

Side note… I would been yelling my head off probably.

Back to the point. We fear to talk truth to people because of upsetting them…

But truth is not what we sinners want to hear. As sinners we want control, power, wealth and comfort…. If I’m the only one the you are some righteous sinners…

But truth of God calls us to all but those things. Well at least not this world’s version of it.

We have no control, the power we have is in the Holy Spirit, our wealth is in Heaven and our only comfort is in Christ.

Those are actually really hard truths that we don’t like hearing.

No matter how gentle you are some will get upset.

But through the power of the Holy Spirit we stay gentle with whatever may come because the truth is the truth. It is pure and right. It is Christ, and sometimes that will go against some people. And that’s ok. That’s no reason to fear.

As much as God is truth, he is in you.

Be gentle, speak truth and always love.

Well, when I come to wake tomorrow, I’ll be 25 years old. I will have lived a quarter of a century, two and a half decades, 9131.054 days, 219,145.296 (or so) hours, 13,148,717.76 minutes, and 788,923,065.6 seconds.

Just so you know… The day part was the only thing I googled…

That’s a lot of time. Honestly, more time than I can really comprehend. Even though I lived it, I have a disconnect to it. With different amounts of life that I can’t remember, different parts I regret, and happenings I wish had never occurred.
But I have become me. Michael Angelo Alvarez.

That comes with a lot of baggage.
As of today, it has been a year since my dad’s passing.

I will admit I tried very hard not to think about it… But it’s hard to forget the person who loved you more than anyone.

I miss you dad, I think I always will… And I’m ok with that. I get to tell people you were the best thing God could have ever given me. You started every passion I have ever had, from cars, movies, and games, to music. You really started.

Oh and soda and good food… That’s your fault too…

But I’m happy in all those things I can remember you and thank God.

So this year has been crazy. I except this next year to be the same. I except in the same way, and more, God will use me.

Stoked.

Happy birthday me.

I’ve had a thought that has challenged me very much the last few days. It challenged me to focus on God more and to be patient and give grace more than I think I ever have. 

“That can’t happen… it’s church… they HAVE to accept you” 

Reality is… false. There is a call, there is a command that the church bring all in, love neighbors as self and love God. But Church, as I’ve heard it put, is redeemed broken people sharing hope to the broken. The big thing here is that we are broken, redeemed, but not yet perfect. We as people have the choice to obey or not. Even then we might not have the choice… 

       bah… I got distracted… oh!

Paul (by the Holy Spirit) describes how we see life with out God and I believe I can boldly say, this is how we see life and sin when we simply loose sight of God…

               We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7: 14-20 NIV)

        This is what I believe our hearts are like for the most part. Unless we are deep in the word, constant in prayer, and focused on the Spirit to speak from us CONSTANTLY. But the road of following Christ is one that is long, life-long, rigorous, and painful… yet is beautiful. In fact, it’s the most beautiful road to ever walk. It is a marathon, and if you’ve ever been in a marathon… and I mean like a 15+ mile one… you know how hard that is. How much training, energy, focus, self-control, and devotion is put into this. (if you dont know… it’s a ship load…)

      With this said… to assume that these broken people are living perfectly and obeying perfectly is a long shot. NOW this isn’t to say that there aren’t obedient people in the church. But I heard it like this once..

      “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals” 

And to whoever reads this… I agree with that statement… not because I’m negative but because I’ve seen it. I’ve been the victim of such a statement. But we’re scared… we’re prideful… and we have something to prove above helping people…

    I read a Rick Warren (Pastor of Saddleback Church) interview and he said something that struck a chord with me…

      QUESTION: What are your greatest frustrations about evangelism?

WARREN: That Christians would rather argue than evangelize. That people are more interested in winning arguments that in winning people. That people are more interested in making a point than in making a difference. That people put politics above the souls of people. That people are more afraid of guilt by association than allowing others to go to hell.

If you believe that you are outside of this circle I ask you to really pray about that and question how you conduct your life. What you put ahead of other things. 

I’ve noticed this trend on Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and social media in general. I’ve seen so many arguments that really make NO sense at all. I’ve seen horrible things written from Christians that made my stomach turn. It made me think of how Christ would want us to respond to such things… 

         Instead, speaking the truth in love,we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

And then I wonder what am I speaking, what am I living… and I don’t really like what I find. But then I see the grace of God… the Glory of what He did…

       Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:15-17 NIV)

And to me that is what the Church should look like. Disregard your pay check, where you live, your social status, your to-do list, who you know, etc. 

We are what people see, we are sinners, but our redemption and rebirth is what people see to then believe. God works in crazy ways to bring people to Him, but for the most part it looks like the church is God’s visual aid to the world. So find grace in the body, give grace in the body. Rather then expect grace, give grace with no limits. 

My issue has been what I expect… honestly, I expect a lot of people screwing up… but a lot of grace making those broken souls into beautiful saints.

God, I pray that you give me a new light in Church, that you let me see that I am part of your bride, and that as your bride we will make mistakes. But your grace is more than what we do and in turn that gives me the patients and ability to give grace to all whom I worship and live life with. Lord, live loud through me. You are so beautiful and I want you to be the light that guides and shows me the beauty in Your people.  

“Shout it, go on and scream it from the mountains, go on and tell it to the masses, that He is God.”

I think it’s about time we do this. How about it beloved?

QUESTION: What are your greatest frustrations about evangelism?

WARREN: That Christians would rather argue than evangelize. That people are more interested in winning arguments that in winning people. That people are more interested in making a point than in making a difference. That people put politics above the souls of people. That people are more afraid of guilt by association than allowing others to go to hell.

when searching Facebook for someone, I found many people I hadn’t seen in…5 plus years… It’s crazy to think (with my 25th birthday on it’s way) how my life has changed. How I am indeed an adult and those I grew up with are in the same way adults. 

I found myself humbled. I was under this mentality that I alone was the only one growing, the only one being formed into an adult. But that isn’t the case, in the power of God’s ways, the world is constantly changing, growing… many amazing inovations that could benefit the world. People are always changing, growing, not always for the benefit of the world.

I just saw all the pictures of some people, and a lot look like they’re doing great. Some…not so much… but all have grown….well how about aged…some are pretty immature… I digress…

some sadly have not made it as far on this journey… and a lot for really awful reasons… Some shot, some drug overdoses, and some suicide.

It’s just crazy to think where everyone has changed in the last 10 years…

Holy cow! I started high school ten years ago…

I just want to look and see what has changed…

- I have an increasing amount of facial hair…

- I have (not happy to admit) lost some hair… I still don’t have a 4-head(still a 3-head) BUT my hair has pulled back a bit..

- My hair is no longer black

- I am a couple inches taller than my brother…(yes)

- I have fluctuated weight so much… but I’m still the same pant size..(lame)

- I have been to over 10 different countries.

- I have had the same taste in music since 2002…(different bands, same genre)

- I have moved some many times I have lost count.

- I am 3 semesters away from my degree

- December 31st I’ll have lived a quarter of a decade.

- I have 5 tattoos now.

- pierced my ears.

- I’ve had 3 cars.

- I’ve been in many bands

- Only 2 were ever really any good

- ok… only one was ever GOOD…

- I’ve played in the same venue that Led Zeppelin played in…

- I’ve recorded drums with one of Jimi Hendrix’s producers.

- I’ve easily seen The Aquabats! 12 times in concert.

- I got to meet one of my favorite bands (Five Iron Frenzy)

- and one of them said they have heard my music and liked it (JEFF)

- I finally got an iPhone…hahaha

- I worked at a camp for a summer

- I played music at that camp for a summer

- Since high school, I could probably count on my hands how many books I’ve read ALL the way through…(not too proud of that)

- I’ve written 2 (failed) albums

- I got a book signed by Bill Clinton.

- I’ve had many a failed relationship

- I do not have a clean driving record…(well actually now I do)…

- I have had 3 dogs…which I don’t have anymore :(

- When I turned 18, I got allergies for the first time.. (what the heck?)

- I am not the exquisite tan I used to be (my white side has been coming in more)

- my vision HAS gotten worse with age.

- My dad pasted away.

- I escaped the grasp of addiction.

- I’ve been in a short film.

- I looked like a GOOBER

- I’ve a wonderful collection of different instruments.

- I still have not seen Blink-182 live

- I think I came pretty close to shattering my left knee cap.

- For those who may know my past, I actually have a pretty decent relationship with my mom.

- My brother got married.

- I lived in Reno for a little (never move to Reno)(sorry people who live in Reno)

- I now live in Coronado.

- I’ve had pretty good writers block for almost a year and a half now.

But the best thing that happened, is God saved me. He took me from the grasps of this world and saved me from myself. It has been a challenging, trying, painful few years. I haven’t slept good in a long time. I have a lot of sorrow…

but most of all, I have so much joy because of God.

I am blessed, love, and saved.