Have you reached your Potential?

At Flamingo Road Churc h we encourage our staff and volunteers to live accordingly to FRC Ethos: Diversity : Is there someone not like me? Movement : Which direction am I going? Collaboration : Who am I doing life with? Potential : Is this the best that I can do? Environment : How does it make me feel? Thinking : Where am I thinking? God created us with a great potential, the problem is that very often we are unable to reach ours, just because lack of direction. Working for Flamingo Road Church has helping me to understand the importance of this rules in my life and my pastor, Troy Gramling has given us great direction on how to do life together. Living accordingly this ethos is not enough, because I believe I have to teach my little ones about it, I started late in my life to take care of my body, so it has been not easy for me to get in shape, start eating healthy etc... and I'm not there yet... as my friend Heredes said, "The best is yet to come", and now my beloved ...

What do I have to do to reach my potential? Today, my pastor, Troy Gramling shared with us about four things we have to do to continue our potential journey: First thing: Get ready Joshua 1:1-2 1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them When opportunity arrives, is too late to be ready. The question is: Am I ready? What we need to get ready? Fist of all, imagine the big picture, dream of it, because you will never go beyond your own dreams. Second, learn, read, discuss, ask... you have to walk out of your comfort zone. Start walking in the direction of your goals and get trained. Training requires always a continuous effort, persistence and discipline. If you are not ready, opportunity will pass far away from you, and may be you will never notice that. Second thing: Be strong a...

I found this great photo and I was thinking about the things we experience in our lives, like our force, our strength, our abilities, and there is a stated on the Second Law of Thermodynamic that we are going from new to old, from shiny to rusty, from useful to obsolete and that is a law of the life... but there is also something about moving... seeking and reaching what God has for us. We cannot be laying in our glory, because we will stop our movement and become old, obsolete and rusty, so we have to keep moving and may be, just like this picture, seeking for what is next out of the wheel... with the end of movement of the gears, allowed some plants to grow and become alive... and THAT is not on the second or any law of thermodynamics ... Keep on moving... and if you stop... look around to see what is growing aside yourself!!!

I recently got an email of a friend of mine who, on a very polite way corrected me some misspelling I had on my previous post from Holliwood to Hollywood... and that helped me. After editing the post, I was thinking… people is afraid to tell you when you are wrong… is afraid of… why? Because our pride… is hard to accept when we do something wrong further than that… it is even tough when some one else came to us and tell us we are off beam… often our first reaction is: Denial… I’m ok; you are wrong… and that is an internal fight with our pride until we recognize our mistake. Real friends tell you when you are wrong… because they care about you. There is a text on the Bible that enlightens this topic… Matthew 18 1-4 (NVI) : “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will n...

Memorial day was a perfect opportunity to have some family time at the Beach, so I planned a trip to the Cays, depart @ 6:00 a.m., drive, have fun, and so for... but... everyone wanted to sleep a little more... so my older princess were awake almost at noon... so instead of the Cays we went to Las Olas and anyway we had a great family time... a little time at the beach, a little time walking, a little time having fun a nice dinner, even our brand new dog Missy had fun with us… Even we started the day late, we did not waste the morning. At this point, for them the Idea of a nice rest day is to wake up late and avoid any complex activity, but I believe we can change that. One of the values we live at Flamingo and we are learning as family is: Potential. Is this the best I can do? Going early to the Gym is one way to reach our physical potential, help us to create endorphins, to be on better shape and weight... so I Dora and I went to the YMCA to sign in as family and during Summer time ...

Last Night we had a small Group Meeting for Couples at my house. This is the third week on a row we are doing that. We meet and we are following a series called the I-Marriage, and on a very effective way is touching some fundamentals on marriage today. Based on Dreams, Ilusions and expectations, how it turns from a "And they lived happy for ever" in to a nightmare relation. We are broadcasting this meeting from our Internet Campus every wednesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time.

Today, my pastor Troy Gramling spoke about some thing that we have to remember... Satan Values: Pride Gluttony Lust Envy Anger Greed Sloth Because Satan has a purpose and is on the Bible: John 10:10 10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;..." That's why I have to remember... To watch my attitude To watch my health To watch my finances To watch the unity And to schedule a change... Run with intensity Train with discipline Think to build a strategy constantly

Sol and Antonio meet in Acapulco… few days later Antonio was asking my grandpa Eduardo permission to married Sol and to take her to Cozumel, where he was based. More than a permission it was just an advise, because he had to go back immediately to his duties. My grandparents give him a blessing, they married and that was the start of a whole new adventure in their lives. Cozumel Island, it was a primitive tropical paradise, with a rich ecosystem and it was a tactical base, not a touristy destination. The mosquitoes where big, my dad told me that even with leather boots, mosquitoes where able to bite his heel and ankle. Big bugs where all over the place. My dad, Antonio shared with me a story about their first months in Cozumel Island. He started to make home improvements on the house he got at the Island, so he asked some natives to cut some trees to get wood for the construction, and they suggested not to do it, because it was full moon… He was upset and asked some soldiers under his ...

I’m being reading a Book of Josehp A. Michelli, “The Starbucks Experience” and it is the story of some one who was able to transform a regular cup of coffee into an extraordinary experience. The Starbucks coffee shops expanded across the world, and on that book, Michelli shares 5 principles that are fundamental for success on a business: Make it your own Everything matters Surprise and delight Embrace resistance Leave your mark The book is great and is a you-must-read-it book. If I where asked what to add to that book could be an extra chapter about how to revert the process. Starbucks has been a successful company on the last few years, nevertheless, on its last financial report they experienced a step backwards on their numbers, having a negative growing. Why this can happens? I don’t know what’s going on inside the large corporation, but I can tell you something about what I can see as regular SB visitor. Success is not easy to handle… they are now so focused on the growing and open...

Tonight, my pastor Troy Gramling , challenged me to write a name of a person or persons who influenced me on my Christian life, the first name that came to my mind, it was Dora, my beloved wife. When I started dating, she never told me she was a Christian, she never invited me to a church, and she never preached me any sermon. (God knew what was right for me) Instead, she showed me love, patience, understanding, and care. That’s the way I meet Jesus. Every Sunday she was on a congregation… and after few weeks of dating, I ask her to invite me to her meeting. On that day, I surrender my life to God… because her actions, not her words, I got saved. After Dora, there was another person who influenced me on a great way, and his name is Jose Victor Dugand. He pastors a church at Kendall and I got baptized with my daughter Tania at his church, and for me that was the beginning of my ministry. Another man who impacted my life, was another pastor, Vincent Valedon, a man from who I learned many...

John Maxwell said on his book "Today Matters" that we have misconception of life, that some times we believe that life has to be easy, but the true is that life is difficult. If we are able to understand the deep of this thinking, then we will be able to be successful in life and we will be better prepared to face the challenges of every day without quit or drop the towel. One of my favorite poems is from a Hispanic writer, Amado Nervo, and is titled "At peace" and is about a real life, and I tried to translate it, so I hope you can get the essence of it: At Peace And now, near to my Sunset, I bless you, Life, because you never gave me, neither unfilled hope, neither unfair work, neither undeserved pain. Because I see at the end of my rough way that I was my own destiny's architect: If I got the sweet or the sour of situations, was because I put bitter or sweet honey in them. When I planted rose seeds, I always harvested roses. Certainly, after my Fall, Winter i...

Today I was trying to write during my early talk with God, and all I found was a pencil. I sharpen it and I wrote some of my trip memories, while I was writing, I remembered a story I heard some day about a pencil, and to reach our potential we have to look like a pencil… If I remember well it was five similitude’s between ourselves and a pencil: First: We have great potential to do great things, but there is a greater hand that will guide your path, is God’s hand in our lives Second: We have to stop some time our hard work to get resharpened, if we continue with no stop, even when we could be full inside we won’t be able to draw any more. Third: The pencil has an eraser… to erase our mistakes and correct the way Fourth: What is really important is not the wood, the decoration or the shape of the pencil, what is valuable, is the charcoal inside's quality, that’s why you have to take care of your inner self Fifth: Always leave a mark, a legacy… and remember that all your actions alw...

All my life I was lazy about exercise... I thought that I don’t needed but after few years I discover that even when I was skinny, really skinny, (if you don't believe me that's me at 22) and never had discipline practicing any exercise. When you are young, the wonderful body created by God, is able to support overloads, excesses, and laziness, but on your later years you will get the invoice of all of the “advances” and you have to pay it all soon or late (more soon than late). I’m being paying mine with interest. On my visit to my son we talked about one of the first books Troy Gramling recommended me: “Today Matters” by John Maxwell, and one of the subjects of our conversation was “The soonest you make a decision in your life, the longest impact it will have in yours”. I challenged him to start exercising at the Gym early on the morning, and then continue his every day life, and today we went together for the first time to the Gym. If he continues, he is getting a legacy th...

This week I started my GED writing course, and I just entered on the unknown world of grammar. I discover that there are many rules, different from Spanish, about Pronouns, Prepositions, Punctuation and more… and this is just the beginning. Since I started, I continued reading my books, but now I look the text from a different perspective. I star noticing the grammar and punctuation on my reading getting not just the content, but the grammar too. I slowed down my lecture, because now I’m more analytic. On the past, I was able to swallow a book on few hours, but now it is taking me more time to discover a hole new world that has been there always, but I was unable to look at it because my fast reading. To better explain this I'll use a Motorcycle example: If you are going from Miami to Tampa, you could make it in 2 hours on a Ninja Kawasaki ZX6-R or you can expend 4 and a half hours on a Harley Davidson... not just driving, but enjoying the road and the details around the way. Some ...

Every day is unique, irreplaceable, and it only has 24 hours, no more, no less. I was reading about how much time we expend on different activities: We sleep 8 hours a day; we work another 8 hours five days a week, watch TV 3 hours a day, use Internet 2 hours a day, we expend 1 hour eating, we attend church and average of 40 times a year for one hour, and we have about 40 hours a year for social activities. This numbers translated: 2912 Hours Sleeping = 121 days. 2080 Hours Working = 86 days. 1095 Hours Watching TV = 45 days. 730 Hours surfing the Internet = 30 days. 40 Hours social = 1.6 days. 40 Hours Church = 1.6 days. What would you do with extra 45 days a year? I often listen the complain “I don’t have enough time for this or for that…” My question today is: What are you doing with your time? How often do you manage your time? The time… is yours.

Well, today I got my results from last week’s test and today’s test. Reading: 92% at Level 12, so I passed! Math: 100% at level 12 also (Surprised me because I didn’t know how to divide fractions and I just guess the best answer), so passed too. Writing: 72% at level … 5 (Fifth grade), so I’ll start with the classes tomorrow focused on reading & writing because it is related. From this experience, I learned that one thing is to listen and understand, another is to speak but in order to write, you have to suck the culture in order to be able to express on paper. I remember my first trip to L.A. I was working for a production company and according to my understanding all people at LA, speak Spanish, true, except on the facility I visited… Not a single Spanish speaking people, even the janitor was Chinese… so I made my self understandable using signs and gestures, and a little English I learned from Middle School… and because I was a customer, they tried hard to understand me, so I st...

Today I was making some video tests for our next series “ MyNakedPastor.com ” and while I playing with my hands in front of the camera, I was able to turn and watch my self with a 15 seconds delay caused by the live streaming trough the Internet. It was funny to my hands in to the camera and memories came to my mind: I asked once my mother if i was “The One”, the favorite, if she loved me more than my siblings, and she answered me with a great wisdom, she show me her hand and asked me: -what do you see? Five fingers, was my immediate answer, and she told me: “Well, son I have 2 sons and 3 daughters, for me they are just like my fingers; every one is different, but for me the all five are important, I love you as much as the others, but every one of you is special to me. You don’t need to compete for love, because God give me plenty of love for each one of you.” Since then, I start looking at my siblings on a different way, we where able to be united on all the times, for good and not s...

It was a great start the first teaching of "Antology". We got a new and great look on the stage. The Internet Campus Attendance was above 600 people watching the service from all over the world, it was a great weekend. We all love comfort and easy. In fact there is some electronic "Easy" button, that you click and gives you some encouraging words, but in order to reach our God's potential, we have to walk away from our comfort zone and change from being an observer to become an actor, and when we start acting, we will face challenges, difficulties, situations. This weekend Troy talked about that topic and he give us 3 questions that we have to ask ourselves when we are facing a situation: 1. What2. Why3. What. Number one: What is happening? We must become an observer and slow down to think and observe the situation. Second: Why is that happening? Is there something we can do about it? Like Grandma said “if your problem has a solution why are you worried? If it h...