Andrew Adames

(The following post was originally written on Dec. 3rd, 2013. I am transferring it over here from my previous blog site.) This week began the Advent season. Advent is a time of celebration for those who belong to Jesus. It is a season of  Hope ,  Peace, Joy, and Love . It is when we step back from all of the commercialism that life has to offer and we truly meditate on what it meant for God to send His Son to us. I am thrilled that God did this for me and that Jesus is in my heart but I've always struggled with the meaning of  hope ... Is  hope  the same thing as  want ? A lot of the time the things that I  want  are the same things that I  hope  I get. For example, I  hope  that I can get some new clothes for Christmas. I also  want   new clothes for Christmas. So I am a little bit confused I guess as to what the true definition of  hope  really is. My concern is that most of us get the word...

I love new things. I love new clothes, new fitted hats, and a fresh pair of new kicks. Lets just say that I love when things are new. I also love when God brings new opportunities in our lives to pursue a dream. Recently God has done that in my life. He's been moving subtly and strategically and has placed some pretty cool opportunities on my plate. Now the main reason why I love new things is because of what Jesus said in Revelation 21:5 "See I am making all things new." (NLV) In the midst of all of these opportunities I find myself asking one question: how do I handle the new things that God places in my life? Now I know that it sounds like an easy question to answer, but if you look deeply and carefully at it, it makes you think. How do I handle new things? As a child when I would get a new toy, I would get excited and play with it for hours on end. The result from that would usually end up being a broken toy. I share this with you all because I feel that...

I've been here before... Reading Jesus’ words and coming across a familiar passage. I am a true believer in the saying that words speak louder to you depending on the situation or season that you are currently experiencing in your life. I personally feel as if I am in a season of struggle right now. I have a lot of questions that aren't really being answered right now and so I turn to the Word to seek some truth. As I am reading Mark 12:28-34 I am being told by Jesus that I have to love Him with everything. Everything…… Even in my struggle, God wants me to love Him with everything.. That is a big word to use when it comes to love. I love God, I love Jesus, I love my wife, I love pepperoni pizza... But sometimes I don’t love with everything. I honestly don’t know what loving with everything even looks like. To make it even deeper, Jesus then says that I also have to love other people as much as I love Him. That's hard... What’s even more challenging is that ...

(Disclosure: I am in no way bashing single parents in my post tonight. To those of you who have had to separate due to safety, may God bless you as you continue to play one of the most important roles that are out there.) Today at work I over heard a co-worker who also attends the church that I am the student pastor at discussing the concept of children needing both a mother and a father. She was adamant in explaining the importance of marriage and how God didn't create the roles of a mother and father for no reason and how vitally important it is for a child to have his or her parents together... The other co-worker seemed to be on the side that it doesn't matter if both parents are involved or not, what matters is that the child grows up in a house hold full of love... I came from a broken home. I have had to bear the baggage for the past 29 years of never having my mother and father together. I don't have a single memory of seeing both of my parents hugging e...

I am a huge fan of musicals... There is something about the music, lyrics, acting, dancing, and story line that always have me on the edge of my seat. Last week my wife and I went to go see the movie Le Misérables. It was outstanding. If you haven't seen it yet I want to encourage you to go as soon as possible. My wife and I both enjoyed the film and yes, I cried about three times while watching the movie. The next day I shared with my friends as well as some of my students my feelings about the movie and some of them made comments such as: "That movie is for girls, Where's your man card, and that movie was one of the most boring movies ever." (that last statement came from a 17 year old) While I'd like to consider myself to be pretty tough skinned about stuff like this, their comments had me thinking especially the one about the man card. So I thought to myself, what is a man card? What does having a man card give me access to? But more importantly ...

I have been on a journey of silence these past 49 days. When I first started writing I was excited. I had so much that I wanted to share with everyone from the lessons that I have learned from my past relationships and I was in the process of mapping out my first book and something strange happened to me. God called me to take a season of rest. Rest from Facebook. Rest from Twitter. Rest from blogging. Rest from writing period. At first I was in shock because this is something that I absolutely LOVE to do. But at the same time, serving God is more important than any personal goals that one might have. I have been on a journey these last 49 days that I would have never expected to happen. God has shown me so many things and He spoke to me in ways and through people in a season of rest that I really needed. I was wasting way too much time on social networking and realized that my life wasn't really being the type of influence that I am being called to live. It...

I wish that this was my first kiss... I love my wife with every fiber of me. I wish with everything that I could have waited for her in every aspect.  Unfortunately I didn't. You see if my lips had frequent flyer miles, I'd probably be able to circle the entire world twice without paying a single cent.  I'm not saying that to brag. I'm saying it because its the truth.  Here's the other harsh reality.  My lips have kissed women who are now married and have husbands and children.  Wow. We don't really think of things like that do we? I didn't. As a teenager and young adult I just wanted to kiss girls. I loved to make out. I didn't think anything wrong with it at all. Except for the fact that when we do kiss our minds start racing and the temperature starts rising. And when that happens, our thoughts start to wander towards places that they shouldn't be going until marriage.  But back then that wasn't my thin...