JonnyAndy http://virb.com/jonnyandy Virb 2.0 (@jonnyandy) en subway vanishing point http://virb.com/jonnyandy/photos/1223325

Red Line - Union Station, Los Angeles

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@ Revelle, UCSD

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UCSD

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@ UCSD

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Geisel library @ UCSD

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need I say more

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from Starbucks, La Jolla

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@ Pasadena (Old Town)

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I like this one

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@ Wyndam Emerald Hotel

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@ Wyndam Emerald Hotel

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@ Wyndam Emerald Hotel

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@ Wyndam Emerald Hotel

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@ Wyndam Emerald Hotel

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@ Wyndam Emerald Hotel

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Red line - Union Station, Los Angeles

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...and there are about 700 college students in-front of me gathered for a worship service.

]]> Fri, 20 Apr 2007 03:24:57 -0700 http://virb.com/jonnyandy/photos/1223300 Harsh realities: 2 http://virb.com/jonnyandy/posts/text/142023
A dear friend captivated my attention for a good week with love and wisdom that came from a place of maturity that I didn't know was there. Same age as me, this person gave two truths that all would benefit greatly from!

Truth #2:

It's not about you and your relationship with God; it's God and your relationship with Him. I have been very stubborn about my dreams for my life...and it's cost me in my relationships, including God. I allowed my concept of God's will for my life to be more important than God's relationship with me. And all along I wondered why I felt stuck! How 'bout that?! The hand I extended to reach out to him was the hand I used to push him back.

One of my major problems is I'm over analytical and it's because I take myself way too seriously. Even when I mean well, I sometimes face resistance in my prayers and my worship. Amazingly, I know what He's thinking towards me: "Trust me...trust me...trust me..."

This is not a race. There is no need to have to prove to anyone how spiritual you are. Regardless of how far along or how much to come short in comparison, this is about simple purity, simple truth, simple faith. We are in Christ. He is in us. When you have Christ, you have everything. Why do we need more?

To look to yourself is to not look to Christ. To not look to Christ is to not see him as the only one. He is therefore insufficient to you - His blood, His favor, and His benefits. Living life is something that God has given to us to indulge in, with what he has predestined us for. We are not wanted by God for what we do FOR Him, but for what we do TO Him. God's commitment to us is relentless and for lack of a better term: stubborn. There is no escape from God's favor and love, as His own. An honest answer to God for the way he is towards us would be, "Leave me alone!"

Can anyone put a restraining order on God? You'd have to have God himself to carry it out.

The question that I'm sure the reader is left with is, "Why, then, am I not convinced of the presence of His benefits in my life?"

I say again...cast your eyes upon Jesus. Look full to his wonderful face and the things on earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

The cool thing about a relationship with God is that it's personal. It is not dependent upon the people around you and it is not dependent upon your performance. Love keeps no record of wrongs and rejoices with the truth. When I see how much God loves me, I find that I am right where I belong: In him and having him in me.

I now have a hard time beating myself up for my failures because the standard that I held myself to is no longer in sight. Yes there is a holy and sacred standard...and it is LOVE.]]> Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:55:32 -0700 http://virb.com/jonnyandy/posts/text/142023 Harsh realities: 1 http://virb.com/jonnyandy/posts/text/118122
A dear friend captivated my attention for a good week with love and wisdom that came from a place of maturity that I didn't know was there. Same age as me, this person gave two truths that all would benefit greatly from!

Truth #1:

Consider your community among your greatest priorities. A pastor friend of mine always reiterated with his 200+ congregation that the first things in his life was God; second, his kids; third, his wife, and fourth, "you". Then he had the rest of his businesses, his horse ranch, his ministry projects, etc. If the man were to up and leave, or drastically change careers, it would affect more than just himself or his family or people he knew, it would affect people he didn't know and would affect the social change that he was fueling. I wonder if any of us would consider ourselves as cornerstones in some structures that we have be grafted into by our communities? Do we see what God sees for our lives, in the context of the season that we are presently in?

There is a degree of leadership that we already have which we will give an account for in our stewardship. No matter how big or small, if you take your responsibilities seriously, you will be confident enough to handle anything. If you take your role as a parent seriously, you children will later look back and realize who lucky they were that you were their mother/father. Relationships in the Kingdom of Heaven last forever and are an investment that carries over into the New Earth. How are we treating the relationships we have now, knowing that we would treat everything in Heaven as heavenly?
"The earth is the Lords and everything in it."
"What you do unto the least of these, you do unto me."

God's work is in people, and God's will manifests and is expressed through people. Our decisions on what we want to do with our lives should consider this. Otherwise, we will always live unto ourselves and remain empty.

To bring it all home, my dearly beloved friend told me, "In our conversations, I've shared with you how I consider the communities I am with (or want to be in) as the basis for where I want to live and what I desire to do. So far, all I have every heard you talk about is yourself, with no regard that the things you do would severely impact the people who love you." I never thought I could have ever been so selfish in all my life! I never really thought I was loved as such, to begin with!

Truth #2 in next blog entry.]]> Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:58:15 -0700 http://virb.com/jonnyandy/posts/text/118122