Thank you...

My words can't describe what the Lord has done in my life within a years period but I found something in Psalms, that describes precisely what I feel:

How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. Psalms 116:12 &13

God Bless, Lucas Penido.

Michael Tait "right on the money" once again!

Little by little, Michael Tait is becoming a reference to me, I've used many of his examples in habit of paraphrasing; His very short speech during one of his concerts deeply touched me therefore I posted a few of the things he said back when I started the blog, and once again he is right on the money; My favorite comment..."Church is irrelevant to the Youth (nowdays)", and he is right...because first of all... what is "The Church"? Regardless of where you live, your background, what you do or who you are... Christ is relevant...always is; and if you never visit this blog once again, remember that.
Getting back to the church...We are the Church, the body of Christ is the Church...question is, how is the body of Christ nowdays? is it being relevant afterall? You answer that question...and I, I'll stick with Tait's opinion. God Bless, L.P

Andre Valadao - Alegria

This is a song The Lord used in my life to get me through alot...Oddly enough, it's a song I wouldn't listen to, it's not necessarily..."my cup o'tea" if I may say,however the Lord used this and many other songs my this brother... the message behind this particular song is what I want to live for the rest of my life:
"Your joy in my life, gives me strenght every day, You joy in my life, I receive it today, I receive it now..."

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness

psalm 30:11

I was thinking on what to post today, and as I read some stuff many things came to mind, I wrote some stuff and erased some stuff...long story short....the less the better, so this is what's in my heart right now:
"To love God is the greatest of virtues; to be loved by God is the greatest of blessings." - Unknown

God Bless you, Luke.

Just before I go to sleep, I have this...humn...tendency or perhaps...habit, of reading the Bible or a book (mostly, My Utmost for his highest), or listening to Gospel,CCM and sometimes even Hymns; I strongly believe that whatever goes in your mind when you go to sleep...is what you wake up thinking about (or at least that's what works for me). Today, it was no different...so this is what I'm going to sleep meditating on and hopefully wake up thinking about:


"We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours. There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself " by Oswald Chambers

How Great thou art

Life's been pretty busy, thanks to Jesus Christ my Lord and I can't stress how much I'm nothing...but through Christ...I can do it all; I haven't really updated the blog, but as I was working today...and this song came up (How Great thou art) and even though i grew up listening to hymns...It still amazes me how the Lord still touches us through the most habitual things...it's amazing that the One that has created everything...has time...full time to take care of us and so, I really wanna be that full time project on his hands...How Great thou art, How Great thou art! ...God Bless, L.

My Assurance...

My assurance is to be built upon God’s assurance to me. God says, "I will never leave you," so that then I "may boldly say, ’The Lord is my helper; I will not fear’ " ( Hebrews 13:5-6 ). In other words, I will not be obsessed with apprehension By Oswald Chambers

Faith & Faithfulness Quotes

We could go to Bible and find many verses on a particular subject,but I decided to do a little search and find quotes, opinions and points of view on things me and you would or in some cases would not, have a hard time expressing...my subject of choice in this case was Faith and/or Faithfulness...so, I thought it would be cool to post some here, I hope you enjoy it! (By the way if you do, let me know...I'll probably post some quotes on different topics every once in a while):

Quotes

"Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible."

- Corrie Ten Boom

"I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done." Hudson Taylor

"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods."- C.S Lewis

"Without Christ, not one step; with Him, anywhere!" - David Livingstone

"When you have no helpers, see your helpers in God. When you have many helpers, see God in all your helpers. When you have nothing but God, see all in God. When you have everything, see God in everything. Under all conditions, stay thy heart only on the Lord."- Charles Spurgeon

God Bless...L.

You are my eyes when i can not see...

Needful Hands", such a touching song. It's indescribable sometimes, but if I pressure myself enough to explain...I have to say that songs like this one, have taken a total and very different meaning in my life. A beautiful meaning I should say; Before everything was very theorical now it's extremelly literal; It's amazing how God can take something that's so broken and little by little build it up to something that by itself is still nothing, but by Grace and mercy, everything...
"You are my eyes when I can not see...You are my voice, see, sing through me, You are my strength, in weakness be...Holy"
God Bless. L. (Philippians 4:13)

Good Times...Bad Times...Great Times...It is all well...

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,It is well,
with my soul,It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well, with my soul,It is well,
with my soul,It is well, it is well, with my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound,
and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

"By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God" Oswald Chambers

...You're all over me

Sometimes you hear a song way too many times and you tend to forget the true meaning of the words behind it, cliche no? However, let's use this song as an example, take 30 seconds of your day and just meditate on it:

Inside outside, under my skin
Never ending love I don’t know where it begins?
I don’t know where it ends, I don’t know how high
I don’t know how deep, I don’t know how wide
Outside inside around the world
Never ending love envelops me like a cloud
I feel you in front, I feel you behind
I feel you up above, And I feel you at the side

And you, you’re all over me, you’re all over me
Your banner is over me, I give it all ‘cos

You still captivate me, fascinate me
You still captivate me, saturate me

Inside outside, pulling me in
No matter where I run I know you’ll never give in
I see you in the storm, I see you in a kiss
I’ve been around the world and never found a love like this

You’re all over me, you’re all over me
You’re everything I want to be
I’m all over you, you’re everything I want to see
You’re all over me

You, still captivate me, fascinate me
You still captivate me, saturate me
You still captivate me, liberate me
You still captivate me


So...what do you think?
I tell you what I think...let this song be my prayer...for as long as I live! God Bless,L.

CAMPAIGN TO END CONSUMER CHRISTIANITY

This is one of not only the coolest sites I've seen recently, but also one of the coolest concepts that someone had the guts to come up with.
See it for yourself and tell me if you agree with their points:

http://stopconsuming.org/STOPcampaign.html

WHAT IS TOTAL DEPENDENCE?

I read something this week on "Relevant Magazine" that in my opinion simplified and put into words what total dependance is; I've been receiving many emails and comments on this blog...can't wait to hear what your opinion is on this one. God Bless, L.


"...He was right. I should be totally used to the role of being completely dependant, but I’m not. Too often, I forget that nothing I do—not my Bible studies, not my singing on Sunday mornings and not my positions of leadership—made the rescue of my soul possible. Nothing that I do in service to God changes the fact that I do not deserve this abundant life He has given me. There is nothing I can do or have done that changes the fact that I am a sinner who deserves death. Yet, Christ has chosen to redeem me and speaks on my behalf to the Father. This is complete dependence. It is a role I should know, because I’ve been filling it for my entire life." - by Audrey Ferguson

if you want to read the complete story click on the link below:
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god_article.php?id=7360

But...But..

Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues "without ceasing"; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. "Pray without ceasing . . ."— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.

Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered. Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, ". . . everyone who asks receives . . ." ( Matthew 7:8 ). Yet we say, "But . . . , but . . . ." God answers prayer in the best way— not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?


The danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are supernatural truths He reveals to us.-- No author assigned in CUT

from "My Utmost for his Highest" by Oswald Chambers

Our Rights Vs God's Choice for us = ????

As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.


Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.


Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, ". . . walk before Me. . ." ( Genesis 17:1 ).-- No author assigned in CUT

Cego de Jerico - RODOX

Another song that has so much meaning to me, Rodox is the Hardcore band that Rodolfo Abrantes (Lead singer of one of Brazil's most Famous Rock Bands "Raimundos")started when he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. I heard this song so many times and decided to translate parts in the lyric that really caught my attention (and my heart.):

"I've felt the touch from the hands of someone that was alwyas there..."

"I saw Kings falling before a name and it's by love that I exist today, I'm reborn in Christ another blind man in Jericho"

"I know you heard me, when I got on my knees and asked for forgiveness and said goodbye to the sad man."

and its by LOVE that I exist, today Reborn in Christ...another blind man in Jericho...

God Bless! L.

From The Inside Out

What was so "Corny" one day, now is what I believe in; What I had no time for, Now is what I make time for...it's a priority. "Little Wise Boy" is dead...A New me was born not too long ago, Salvation is only the opening to a new life, yet I cherish with all that I am! I thought I'd lose my freedom making this decision...yet, I had no idea of what freedom was...trust me, I had the priviledge of being born in a "Christian Home" yet, had no idea of what I was really missing; Everything is secondary, I'm seeking his kingdom first and everything else should be added; "...In My Heart and My Soul, I Give you control...Consume from the Inside Out Lord"

"From The Inside Out"

A thousand times I've failed
Still Your mercy remains And should I stumble again
I'm caught in Your grace
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame

Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing You praise
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame

In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out

Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart
Is to bring You praise
From the inside out
Lord my soul cries out