Lyrical Friday - Next Time

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This was not like any Friday...
The Environmental students were given an all day passes to skip other classes in order to spend that school day working outside. I spent all day with my fourth period class pulling weeds, planting, trimming, watering, moving many things around, among other garden work. Being teenagers we didn't just work hard outside, we killed time too. We talked, we laughed, we enjoyed each others company and at the end of the day we all said good-bye and went our merry way.

The weekend faithfully rolled in and with it much excitement. Saturday morning arrived with Prom preparations: hair, nails, makeup, dress, drive, arrive and party on. Sunday was more of a day of rest. And so the weekend had come and gone.

Monday Morning is a day I will never forget, along with the days leading up to it. We were greeted at school with the tragic news that three students had passed away during the weekend: two Senior boys right after Prom in a freak car accident and one teenage girl committed suicide. Horrible way to start the week. I didn't ask to many questions as too the who's and what, I just minded my own business. That is, until my first period class when someone asked me how I was coping with Susy's death.

It was as if they were talking about another Susy.
This couldn't be real. Susy. Susy!? But I had spent all Friday with her. We were talking, laughing and having a good time... suicide? All sorts of thoughts kept crossing my mind, nothing making sense. Still the fact remained, Susy had committed suicide Friday evening after school.

Susy was dead and I was left alive with questions, doubts, fears, guilt, regret and many days ahead of no sleep. She had spent all day with me, and I was too consumed with myself to see her need. I had spent all week and all day with her yet was too self-conscious to speak up and share with her what God had been prompting me to tell her. I spent all day with her and I was too self absorbed to offer her the only solution to her problems: Jesus.

It wasn't too long after that I vowed before the Lord that I would never be ashamed of the Gospel or hide it from anyone. With blood on my hands, tears in my eyes and after many years still heartbroken, I owe it to God (who has restored me) and Susy to speak up for the sake of the cross. Jesus died for you, for me, for that coworker of yours that seems fine, for the student that sits next to you in class, for the guy who you cross paths with on random days, He died for all... you may never have a next time to share Christ with those around you. I beg you, do not be to afraid to intrude with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Next Time, The Arrows Band


I never get tired of believing You
I never get tired of trying to breakthrough
I just get tired of myself sometimes
Cus' you know that it's so easy to be human
It's so easy to make excuses
But the simple truth is I was too scared of intruding

These are peoples lives you're playing with He said
Every time you get a little bit scared
You let another one slip through the net He said
They need Me more than you need to be comfortable
I said stop listening to your head

Oh and Listen to Me
Your mind doesn't understand the things that I see
Next time next time next time listen to Me
Because my voice should be louder than your reasoning, your reasoning
Those human things

Cus' if I don't go when you say go
If I don't speak when you say so
We might find that we run out of pace to see the world around us changed
If I don't move when you say move
Cus' I don't trust what you told me to do
It might never come around again
Heeeeey, next time I'll do it your way

You never know where the Spirit has been whispering at night
You never know where the angels have been putting up a fight
We cannot see with our own eyes
Everything is organised
We can only view when it’s our turn to go
Switch on the lights!


But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? Romans 10:14

his name is Rudy.

We were about 12 people driving south bound from Merrit Island to Miami.

Someone, I don't know who, made an executive decision to get off at West Palm Beach and stop for food.

When we arrived at Chillis everyone else went in. But I sat outside on a bench talking on my phone. As soon as my conversation ended, I looked up and a very petite man was standing before me.

"Excuse, do you speak Spanish?" he asked in a very broken English.
"Si Señor." I replied.
"Pordone la molestia. Necesito tomar el auto bus y no tengo un $1.50. Seria posible que me regalara esa cantidad?" (Translation: Sorry to bother you. I need to ride the bus but don't have a $1.50. Would it be possible that you could give me that amount?) He asked me. His eyes looked weary.

A beautiful dialogue continued on in Spanish.

His name is Rudy.
He isn't married.
Has no children.
He works the field.
Probably lives in a space to small to call a walk in closet.
He was in the shopping center that day soliciting work in the parking lot, willing to do odd jobs to make ends meet.

Among the things we talked about, Rudy shared with me that due to the cold front that South Florida has been experiencing, He has lost his job as a field worker. The crops have gone to waste, and with this loss, the peace and hope of many migrant workers. He shared with me the struggles that most of His friends, who do have a wife and family, are going through. He looked away from me, and said that He was most likely going to lose the place He slept at.

For those of you who don't know me, If I see the slightest crack to speak to someone about my God, I will drive a freight train through that door. I called for my friend Ramon who was sitting inside Chillis. And so the glorious Gospel went out. It was beautiful as we talked with Him. I sat back and prayed for the Holy Spirit to speak through Ramon. He sure did. Rudy prayed with us and asked Jesus into His life.

While Ramon was talking, Rudy listening and I sat on the bench praying, God prompted my heart to collect money. I sent a text to my friends and they put money together. Not just that, one of the guys had a brown paper bag carrying a sandwich, an apple, a bag of chips and a bottle of water. How we had that bag of food is another great story. I will never forget how his eyes watered up as I handed him the paper bag. "Lo que hay aqui no viene de nosotros, es un regalo de Dios." (What's inside this bag does is not from us, but it is a gift from God.) I told him.

Rudy thought his need was only for a $1.50 and He found more than that.
He is now a brother in the Lord.
He now knows His Savior.
He now knows that He is not forgotten.
He now knows that God is his provider.
He now knows that God is intimately acquainted with all his ways, all his needs and worries

Please keep Rudy in prayer.
Unfortunately, He didn't have a phone or cell phone to follow up with Him.
He was also too embarrassed to give us the address to mail Him a Bible.
But Ramon did give Rudy his number. I pray He calls Ramon soon.

birthday surprise! It's Christy!

Hi Friends. Today's guest blogger is my amazing friend Christy. The best way to describe her is Proverbs 31:26, "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness." I know that God will speak to all of you through her post. May the Lord bless you abundantly as you seek to know Him and make Him known. 

Whenever food comes up in conversation with anyone I have to mention Latin House Grill. It's a restaurant on wheels that travels throughout the city serving the most amazing Mexican/Cuban inspired dishes. I feel like I'm holding back and depriving you if I don't let you know about this delicious place!  Imagine the kind of friend I would be if I didn’t tell you about this life changing restaurant (seriously, the place will change your taste buds).  Imagine if you found out through someone else and then found out I had been going to this place all this time. This desire to share good news (hint hint) about the restaurant, can be likened to my desire to share with people whose lives need fixing, the amazing power of my Lord and Savior, who changed my life when I was 17 years old.

I'll spare you all the details, but I pray as you read this tidbit on my life you recognize that God sees you, knows you, and loves you unconditionally in spite of you :)

In high school I was pretty popular.  I had a group of friends who I partied with, a car, money for whatever I needed and the freedom to use all these things at my leisure, however, like all people, I always wanted more.  And the more I wanted, the duller life got. I remember driving home from clubs at 2 and 3 in the morning wanting to cry or leaving a party and asking about my self "who was that in there?"  I was empty, I had a void in my heart I felt no one could fill, however, for years, I strived desperately to fill it with myself.  Something was missing and I never could figure out what that something was.

Around the time all this was going on in my heart, my mom, who had recently been saved, invited me to church.  You would think that a person living in the rebellious state I was in would automatically say no, however, I went without much hesitation one Sunday morning.  The night before I had partied so late that the following morning I still had on the same make up.  Tears streamed down my face as I felt God begin to work in my heart and show me my need for Him to fill the void I desperately needed filled.   That morning, the void was filled, however, my life didn’t change much. 

The year that followed was brutal.  I spent the rest of my junior year in high school battling conviction and struggling to live a life both in the world and in the Lord, something Jesus makes clear is impossible (Matt 6:24).   It wasn’t until my senior year that I finally gave up the battle to live two lives and surrendered my life fully to the Lord.

In the coming weeks after my encounter with God my junior year, the rest of my family followed. One Sunday afternoon I was trying to rush through lunch to go to the beach with some friends (Sundays, I thought, were for the beach) when my mom casually turned to me and said I wouldn't be going to the beach, from now on we were going to be together on Sundays (a tradition we've continued for 8 years now). Part of me was angry, but a greater part of me was relieved. I felt as though I was beginning to take off some of the masks in my life.   Again, it wasn’t until almost a year later that I finally allowed God to begin changing my life, however, God was faithful, despite my faithlessness, and never gave up on me.

See God had started a work in my life which He has been perfecting ever since. He gently began taking away the people, hobbies and desires that were not only unpleasing to Him, but were killing me.  The things I thought would be impossible to let go, the wounds I thought would be impossible to heal, the life I thought would be impossible to restore, He healed, He restored and He transformed. 

I share this with you because Jesus changed my life. You may have seen that on a billboard or bumper sticker somewhere but the truth behind the words run deep in my life and the life of so many others. He is the only One who can fill our emptiness.  Some of you right now may think that your life is unfix-able, the place your in is unreachable.  Let me share something with you: It has nothing to do with us and everything to do with Him.  “God gave Christ for us.  God hates our sin but loves us.  We can be so quick to buy into the lie that we first need to fix ourselves, then find Him.  Reality is we need Him before we can ever be fixed.  Wherever you are today, wherever life has brought you, you aren’t too far away from Him. As Paul said in Acts 17:26-28, “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, for in Him we live and move and have our being”  All you have to do is open up your heart, no matter how broken, no matter how small, and let Him mend it and enlarge it.

A New Thing

Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth, shall you not now it? I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19 (NKJV)

Welcome dear readers to this new blog.

To be very honest with you I really don't know what I am doing, but that is not strange coming from me. For some time now God has been prompting me to do a new thing. That "new thing" has come in the form of a blog... Ta Da! I am not a writer, but I am a messenger of the Most High. Through this blog, I hope and pray that both you and I may become true lilies among thorns. In this world of darkness, wastefulness, of valleys, thorns and hopelessness I invite you, encourage you to:

Be the light of the world.

Be the salt of the earth.

Lead many through the valley to Jesus.

Be a lily among thorns.

Live a life that speaks the Gospel.