A WHOLE MAN

“Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die: 8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.” Proverbs 30:7-8 (NIV) In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us." Agur’s prayer in Proverbs provides us with a beautiful glimpse inside...

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith" Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV) Also, please read Ecclesiastes 12:1-7. Why is it that we (maybe I am just speaking for the men) love danger? During one of my morning drives I decided to drive with my lights off (This was around 4 am). And it may seem like that is something that is not very dangerous at all, but there was a very thick fog that morning and I could not see more than 5 ft. in front of my car. No matter how dangerous or stupid it was, I still wanted to do it. I wanted to drive blind. I finally get to my neighborhood and, at this point I’m about half-way through my neighborhood, I realize that if someone is running in the street I am going to hit him. Why? Because I am not able to see and by the ti...

"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1 Timothy 4:8 (NIV) This past weekend (Month even) has been a very busy one. It often happens that when life ramps up, we cut the unimportant things out of our lives in order to accomplish the tasks we identify as most critical. To all my followers, I want to apologize for my having cutting this portion of my life out for a period of time and I will do my best to have more consistency. A years ago, the United States Army deployed a digital "fitness" test to its soldiers and certain respondents received a message that read, "Spiritual fitness may be an area of difficulty. You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and to others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your ...

"Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them." Deuteronomy 11:16 I read the story of a man who took a slip of paper and wrote upon it only three letters spelling "G-O-D." He showed it to his friend, who was plainly overcome with greed and the worship of wealth. He took a coin, and after having placed the coin over the slip of paper, asked his friend the same question from a different perspective, "Can you see God?" Of course the man’s friend said that he could not. So it is with all men and women in this life. Whatever things that we place in front of God will block our view of God. Especially in this day and age with technologies like the internet nearly everything we can imagine can be bought from our fingertips. Now I am not saying that objects are evil, or even that the desire for things is wrong. The point that I am trying to make is that when our passions, motivations, desire, will, and purpos...

“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” 1 Timothy 4:15-16 (NIV) As we approach the 6 month mark since the inception of this blog and I wanted to take some time to look at where we were and compare it to where we are now. It is always a good idea to look back at where you have come from in order to ensure that you have not lost your original focus and that you are improving. I wrote in my first post that the purpose of this blog is to help motivate me to grow physically and spiritually and to provide encouragement to others who want to do the same. So let's take a look. Physically, I have made leaps and bounds in my training. I have PR’ed every movement and have been consistent in reducing the time and increasing the reps of the workouts I have done. For those of you reading/following...

I just wanted to say thank you to all the judges, volunteers, athletes, and audience members for making the Fittest of Overflow competition a success. We had a great turnout for the event and only had two guys "decorate the pavement" (if you know what I mean). This year's two-person team champions are Alex and Ramon Galvez, taking 1st in two of the three events and having the lowest overall score of 6. They were followed very closely behind by Joel and Herson Garcia who finished only two points behind first place. Also, the female team (Eva Estrada and Lili Peralta) did very well, taking first in one of the three events and finishing the competition in 5th place. We had a large age range of competitors from 13-60+, but the competition was very tight still with only 5 points separating first from last place. For those who are sore, I recommend taking a nice cold shower, stretching out those sore muscles , and drinking plenty of fluids to rehydrate yourselves as...

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." 1 John 4:4 (NIV)   I don’t know if any of you have ever found yourself in a situation where you thought that everything was going wrong and there just did not seem to be any sign of it stopping. Or maybe you were in a state where you did not think you had any strength left to keep on keeping on. Situations like these can be extremely discouraging and depressing if you allow them to be.   We are all going to face challenges and trials, but we all should understand that we have the capacity to overcome them. It may take a little blood, sweat, and tears but we can overcome them. Beethoven lost his hearing, but was still able to overcome this disability to become of the greatest composers of all time. Abraham Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private. Albert Einstein could not speak until he was four years old and could not read...