Friday, April 27, 2012

Lyrical Friday - Beautiful

Happy Friday!!! Praying that as you watch these two videos, God would reveal His heart to you. He loves you and nothing you can do or anything anyone has said or done can change that truth. God bless YOU!





But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved! Ephesians 2:4-5
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This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:10
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What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? 
If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? 
Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one— for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. 
Who then will condemn us? No one— for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. 
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below— indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39

You are altogether beautiful, my darling, 
beautiful in every way. Song of Solomon 4:7 nlt
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You are all fair, my love,
And there is no spot in you. Song of Solomon 4:7 nkjv 
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All beautiful you are, my darling; 
   there is no flaw in you. Song of Solomon 4:7 niv
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You're beautiful from head to toe, my dear love, 
   beautiful beyond compare, absolutely flawless.
Song of Solomon 4:7 the message 
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Toda tú eres hermosa, amiga mía, 
    Y en ti no hay mancha. Cantares 4:7 rvr

Thursday, April 26, 2012

finding a pot of gold

 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. 1 Thessalonians 1:2

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, 
and give thanks for them. 1 Timothy2:1

We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God,
 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:3

As for us, we can’t help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. 
We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation—
a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:13


Prayer defined: a spiritual communion with God, as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, or confession. My prayer life goes a little like this: First Place goes to supplication, runner up and Second Place is awarded to confession, Third Place (sad but true) is adoration and lastly but in the run Fourth Place to thanksgiving. It's so easy for me to cry out to God and spend my time with Him reviewing my long list of supplications and even interceding on behalf of the needs of others. If your anything like me there is an equally long list of confessions. And as for adoration, what kind of a Christian would I be if I did not praise and adore my God? Even adoration can easily become a routine or a scripted praise. Thanksgiving, oh that doesn't come naturally... it isn't learned, it is worked. Thanksgiving is described as an act, an expression, an acknowledgment. 

Reading the scriptures above felt like finding a hidden pot of gold. Though I have read these verses in the past, I had overlooked an important and essential part of communion with God: Thanking Him for my brothers and sisters when I pray for them by name. When I pray with people, I do give thanks to God for their life, I praise Him for their life but it usually comes to a halt there. When we pray, we should give thanks to God, not just for His goodness and faithfulness (among all His benefits and awesomeness) but for our family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, fellow brothers and sisters of the faith, as well as for the lost, unborn babies that are being formed in our friend's wombs- all by name. If God created each one, loves each individual, and has beautiful plans for each one, who are we to not pray for, and thank God for the people He has placed at our hand's reach? Imagine all the good works of thanksgiving being offered to God if we all gave thanks to Him for the those He surrounds us with. I challenge you, as I challenge myself, when we pray for people let's give thanks to God for them. 

PS. I give thanks to God for You my readers.

A thankful life is a prayerful life. 
A life void of prayer is an unthankful life. -Allan McNabb

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Saturday's story

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved youGreater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:12-13
These things I command you, that you love one another. John 15:17
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:11
Let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1
Above all things have fervent love for one another, 
for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8

Dear friends, you are about to watch Saturday's story. A real story that brings all of the above verses to life. I pray that you may understand how love can change everything. God's love is powerful and He wants to manifest it to the world through you and me. 




Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 1 Peter 2:17
Your act of love can be the game changer for someone today. 


*shout out to Shessy Pacheco soon to be Moreno! 

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Sentence Tuesday

Life isn't limited to what we can do, 
but unlimited because of what God can do in and through us! 

{photo credit}

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Friday, April 13, 2012

Lyrical Friday - Buried in the Grave

Happy Friday dearest friends.
Today's post is a two video-gig. The first is the behind the lyrics and boy, it is so good! Then below is the song and lyrics. May you be encouraged and faith-filled after hearing and meditating on these words.
God bless YOU!


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Buried in the Grave, All Sons & Daughters

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There was a day we held our breath 
And felt the sting of bitter death 
When all our hopes were buried in the grave 
Our eyes awake our hearts were torn 
Between our faith and what we knew 
Before our king was buried in the grave 
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And grace was in the tension 
Of everything we've lost 
Standing empty handed 
Shattered by the cross 
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Chorus:

All we have 
All we had 
Was a promise like a thread 
Holding us keeping us 
Oh from fraying at the edge 
All we knew 
All we knew 
Was you said you'd come again 
You'd rise up from the dead 
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There was a day we looked for proof 
That you had risen from the tomb 
And all our doubts began to roll away 
We touched the scars upon your hands 
You kept your word 
Oh son of man 
You buried death by taking on the grave 
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You came here to save us 
Cuz everything was lost 
No longer empty handed 
Clinging to the cross 
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It is is well 
It is done 
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All we have all we had 
Is the promise like a thread 
Holding us keeping us 
Oh from fraying at the edge 
All we know 
All we know 
Is you said you'd come again 
You rose up from the dead

Thursday, April 12, 2012

a little push

God doesn't just move once in our lives but He moves again and again and again and again again and again... -Pedro Garcia 

{photo credit}
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And I am confident that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6
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So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:18
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But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. Acts 20:24
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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
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The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. Psalm 138:8
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Commit everything you do to the LordTrust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the Lordand wait patiently for him to act. Psalm 37:5-7
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Tuesday, April 10, 2012

divine appointment

Earlier today, I received a text message from my cousin Cindy asking me to pray for her and she then continued to share a horrifying experience. About an hour after her text was sent we spoke on the phone and we prayed. A few hours ago, after the chaos, she was able to share details with me that  would become today's post. I asked her to write her experience and email it to me. May God speak to your heart through Cindy's story: 


April 10, 2011
Let me start by saying that God’s always good about putting me in situations to bluntly teach me things.

I woke up at 4 am this morning to study for an exam that would determine whether I would pass or fail my Stats 1 class. My scholarship riding on whether I passed or failed the class, I was motivated to review as much of the information I could before I took the dreaded exam.
After all the studying, I blanked out on the exam and turned it in incomplete. I left the class discouraged and drove off campus worried about where God was leading my life. I decided that I needed to spend some alone time with God and went to a park close to school.

Once at the park, I grabbed my bible, Ipod, and phone, and began to walk over to the swing set located in the middle of the park. The only person visible in the entire park was an  elderly man with a walker standing under a covered patio nearby with his car parked behind him. As I got closer, I became a little skeptical of the man. What would an elderly man be doing alone in a park, I thought.

Being the only girl in the park, I didn’t think it was wise to get too close to a man with no one else around, but he hadn’t moved in the minute I had been looking at him. I put on my headphones, and decided it would be best to pretend that I was casually jogging by. As I got closer, a brown rope became more visible, and what I thought was a walker was a step ladder! He was hanging! Fear sunk in. My immediate reaction was to run to a man in orange that had been smoothing out the red sand in the baseball field.

As I told the man in orange what I saw, and pointed in the direction of the hanging body, he quickly pulled out his phone and called 911. We began to hurry over in the direction of the  elderly man, and another park employee ran toward us as we neared the covered patio. The man in orange passed the phone to the park employee, and ran in the direction of his car. The officer on the phone screamed at the park employee, yelling to cut the elderly man down. I ran towards the elementary school with the park employee and motioned for the teacher to take her students inside. The man in orange returned with a machete and passed it to the park employee who cut the elderly man down as the man in orange caught him. They laid him on the ground, and within a few minutes we were surrounded by cops and paramedics who tried to bring the man back to life.

It was too late. He successfully took his life.

One of the cops motioned me over and proceeded to question what I had seen and why I had been at the park. Aware that God had me there for a reason, I shared with the officer and many others that questioned me later that I had gone to the park to read my bible, and became suspicious when I saw that the elderly man wasn’t moving. The officer then commented on how I seemed so calm, and how I was able to explain the deaths that I had already dealt with.

 The entire time I stood there waiting for homicide detectives to arrive, I couldn’t believe the situation that I had found myself in. I had heard of suicides many times before, but never did I imagine that I would witness a scene like that. In fact, at the very moment that I was worrying about keeping a scholarship this elderly man was contemplating and successfully committing suicide. Looking down at the elderly man that took his life, I began to compare the life of the unbeliever to the believer. One can’t go on for very long without a Savior that promises eternity, a future, and a hope. One could go many years chasing after dreams and bettering life on earth, but nothing else guarantees true joy the way that Jesus does. Trying to better this life and walking away from God is like walking into the hands of a murderer that is meticulously waiting to take your life.

In fact, Jesus says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10 

After inviting the man in orange and the park employee to church, I drove away from the park in awe that God would use me, an unworthy sinner, in a way like that. I knew that even the fact that I failed my exam today happened for a reason. If I didn’t, I would’ve never walked on to that park or been able to share the strength the Lord gave me.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing 
with the glory that will be revealed in us.” – Romans 8:18

Please join me in praying for the old man’s family. Thank you.
Cynthia Almonte 


*If you are hopeless and/or contemplating a way out of life, please email me. 
Your life matters and you are valuable. 

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