Hip Hop Heart Cloggin’

Bouncing back and forth to the beat
as if gravity left and this is a moon bounce seat
bobbing my head with the lyrics of heroes
putting them as men without sin, zero

Not understanding that these are fallen men
not wanting open my eyes or my heart to turn
I hold these songs as cures for my top ten
not seeking the proper ointment for the burn

I’m putting more hot coals on top of the skin
hoping to feel the relief of burning it all away
There’s a lot of losing in this game, no chance to win
Listening to poison, expecting the pain to stay

The rhythm flowing through my body, no hobby, just robbin’
all of my desires of righteousness, no chance to look
at the real God because of my cycle of heart cloggin’
pushing the Truth down while lifting up the crook.

The hate of their speech is easy to relate with, so real
I can feel the anger rising inside of me, no love for you
You offer to love me for nothing of my own doing, no deal
You don’t know my heart inside of me, no love for you

The answer is to lash out, to fight back with my fists
to make them feel the pain that I feel deep down, no choice
but to keep pushing back until you truly get the gist
I scream of anger with no one to hear my cries, no voice

When will the answers that I hear in these songs be seen?
When will my reality line up with what I hear in their breath?
My eyes, heart, and mind have never had a linear theme
and that might because it only comes through His life and death.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas and God bless you all. 

God is good and gracious. He sent His son to the world to save us from our sin and to defeat Satan, sin and death! What a good and gracious God!

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Dear White People - Review Coming Soon

Hello,

It has been a while since I have written much of anything on the website due to the transition in work schedule, but I plan on writing very soon. I hope to be writing a review on the movie "Dear White People."

I have been looking forward to seeing this movie for some time now. At first my motives were of to reinforce my anger and resentment, but now I believe that my intentions are to learn and loving discuss major issues brought up by the movie. I hope that I will reflect on the movie with a righteous perspective that is used to build up my readers. I sincerely look forward to seeing what comes out from my writing.

Look for this post to come out Tuesday November 4, 2014 at 10am. 

Make sure you comment on the post and let me know what you think.

Thanks!

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Photo Update 10.27.14

I love my wife... So amazing of her to come with me to the SKC game!

Triston balancing on this... thing... in the park. Love this kid.

Have you ever seen something freak out over a Crock-Pot? I have...

TMNT at work. Not ashamed.

I think this is hilarious due to being parked in a Steak and Shake parking lot.

Selfie? No, just me thinking that these two are WAY TOO CLOSE!

Sporting Park! Here we go!

Sick stadium, right!?

Got me a new jersey bro. Legit stuff.

Okay, come on... This is a ridiculously cool hat!

Beautiful night with my beautiful wife watching the beautiful game!

Bloodlines - Racism, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation

The Doulgass Park Missional Community (small group) is starting a new series on the book "Bloodlines" tonight, and this is the introduction video about the journey to write the book.

I seriously urge you to watch this video and ask yourself this:

Do I believe that God loves all races, ethnicities, and people groups equally? Do all people need the grace of Jesus Christ equally before God? 

If the answers to those questions are "yes," then do you really believe that for your own heart?

Do you love all races, ethnicities, and people groups equally with no partiality? Do you seek to share the good news of Jesus Christ with any and all people?

Watch this and pray about your heart. I know I will be...

How He Loves Us

845 Days of Marriage

If you don't know my wife, you are missing out. Over the course of our relationship I have realized how much God is working on her heart, her love for Jesus, and her love for me. God has shaped her heart to be compassionate for the "least of these," and I am honored that God would entrust me to love, serve, and cherish His daughter.

Our marriage is not always easy, but our marriage is making me a better man of God. Our marriage is messy, but God is making two sinners more and more like His perfect and sinless Son, Jesus.

We've been married for 845 days (2 years, 3 months, and 23 days). I am excited about the next 845 days of marriage to my best friend in the entire world!

Love you babe.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

A Weekend of Babies

My beautiful baby, Ali.

TJ and AnnDee and their beautiful Lillia. 

Dan and Lori have a baby GIRL.

Drew and Meg having a baby BOY.

Great photo...

Kylen and I taking a selfie. Funny kid.

Derek standing next to his girls, Naomi and Zoe.

Zoe

Naomi

Dental Work Complete

Baptism Sunday at Karis Church

Pretty Little Lies

To set the scene for this post I would like to describe my Saturday night activities.

Ali and I sit across the room from one another as we do separate things. Three light are on in our living room, and one of them is the light from the laptop I am typing on. The glow of her iPhone gives me a vague outline of her face. The last light is coming from a our very small TV, and the show we are attempting to watch is a show based on lying to the ones closest to you. I dare not share the show’s name to remain above reproach to all people groups. 

With all that in mind, it has made me think about a topic that I believe we undervalue:

Honesty.

Honesty is an interesting thing, isn’t it? We would all say that we want to be told the truth. When we are lied to we feel betrayed. I can also make the general assumption that when we find out we have been lied to by our friends we are much more devastated than if we were to discover we were lied to by our barista. 

The closer the person is to us, the more a lie hurts us.

But, do you really want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? 

Well, do you?

This is the part that gets pretty honest. This is where I tell you that you have been deceived and you have actually enjoyed seeking out the lies. You have passionately sought out things that will tear away at your heart. You have mercilessly pursued something that offers the world and gives you death.

The reality of your life is that you have always wanted the lies but you reject the truth. The reality is that the truth is something you have fought with every once of your being. The thought of the lies makes your mouth water with anticipation. An issue with accepting this is that plenty of people will tell you lies as “truth” because they are also deceived. The ripple effect of the very first deception is still creating waves after waves of destruction, so the best way to find an answer is to look at the start of all the lies in the world.

The first lie in all of history was Satan telling Eve that if she ate a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil she would not die. The first ever lie was about the result of her action, not the action itself. He said the result of her disobedience to God’s loving command was not what God had told her. Simply put, Satan called God a liar.

Think about that. The first lie was a created being calling God a liar. Satan deceived Adam and Eve. 

But, if this were the end of the story it would appear that we are victims and not a part of the problem. Take a closer look:

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
(Genesis 3:4-7 ESV)

It said that they were lied to, but it says that Eve looked and thought it was “good,” “a delight,” and “to be desired.” They took the fruit because they thought disobeying God’s commands was good, a delight, and desirable. They wanted to disobey God. 

You are no different. You might think that looking at porn is a good thing. You might think that getting stoned, drunk, or cross-faded is a delight. You also might think that being the best, strongest, most rational, most put-together, most religious, and most responsible person you know is the most desirable thing on the planet. 

Reality check: All of those things are LIES.

To those who believe the lies and disobey God: you are not able to believe God because you actively reject God’s reign. This inability is due to sin’s effect in your heart. Sin promises satisfaction but leaves you wanting more. Your habit, addiction, or passion might feel good, but if this feeling is leading you to death would you want someone to tell you?

All this being said, this may be you. You might believe the lie that you will not die from your sin, but know this: Death only entered the world because of sin, and since we are all sinners you should know that your sin does lead to death.

There’s only two options: believe the lie or believe the Truth.

Jesus is the one man to have ever believed God’s words, spoke the truth in love at all times, resisted Satan’s temptation to doubt God, and perfectly obeyed God’s will for His life. He obeyed perfectly to save you. He believed God was worthy to be trusted in all things, at all times, and in all circumstances. 

God isn’t asking for your perfect faith, but God is calling you to place your life and your small faith in Jesus Christ. He is worthy. He is faithful. He is God.

We can either believe the lie that we can save ourselves or we can believe that the only Way to be saved is found in the perfect Lamb of God — His perfect life, His sacrificial death on the cross, and His triumphant resurrection from the grave.

Don’t believe the lie; even if the lie is a pretty little lie.

May Our Hearts Leak Love

My God,

You reign over all your creation

Not a flake of snow falls

outside your providence and decree

Each particle of dust falls

at your command and your will

with no other option but your own

and we praise You for it falling!

Hearts yearn for your presence

and satisfaction solely and wholly

found in the blessed Trinity.

We give our lives to your purpose!

With each passing moment

we needed and are sustained by

Your love, grace, and eternal will.

Hallelujah to our God Almighty!

May our hearts be transformed

and may our hearts leak love

with the unending Truth and grace

of our Savor, King, and Creator.

It is finished!

Praise Him for His beauty and holiness

and may our cries exalt and worship

our Lord, Jesus Christ!

Be Faithful, Be Passionate, Be Uncomfortable

For those who might not know, I am an intern at Karis Church in Columbia, Missouri. There have been a lot of twists and turns when it comes to who God is calling my wife and I to reach out to, but only as of late do we feel like we truly know where God is calling us to live and pour out our lives.

Ali and I started the internship just starting the transition to a group that focused on the center of the city, but after about 6 months we decided it was best to multiply into multiple Missional Communities (small groups), so Ali and I chose to go to a Missional Community called Ethnos, which translates to “For the Nations.” We have now been focusing our time and effort to making connections with Latino men and women at the University of Missouri. Things have been going well, and only as of late have we started seeing relationships forming. But – as it normally happens - we are now moving to an area of Columbia that we truly believe God is calling us: Douglass Park.

There might be some questions that are arising in your mind, and honestly we have had or still have all of those questions. But, Ali and I are called to follow God wherever He is calling us to live, and we are attempting to follow God as best as we can and that might include bouncing around in the same city. What we have learned in the past year comes to down to sticking to three principles:

Be Faithful

God has called Ali and I to follow Jesus Christ, our Savior, God, King, High Priest, and our Lord over all creation.

The most important responsibility that we have is not each other. Our highest calling is to love God with all of our hearts, our souls, and our might. I have found through trial after trail that what I am called to do is to follow Christ and seek to be faithful. When followers of Christ genuinely seek Him, He will reveal His grace and glory.

God has called Ali and I to be faithful to our calling as children of the living God.

Be Passionate

God has called Ali and I to be passionate about loving people in any area, any people group, and in any situation to show God’s love.

We are to be passionate about Jesus and in turn we are to be passionate about loving people. When Jesus was asked to tell the crowds what the most important commandment was He said to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that we are to love God and that in turn makes us passionate about loving everyone in our lives. Neighbor doesn’t always mean your direct neighbors, but that doesn’t excuse the people that live in your immediate neighborhood. Ali and I are intentionally living in a dangerous neighborhood in Columbia so that we can love broken families, drug addicts, single moms, wandering men, and anyone else that God puts in our lives.

God has called us to passionately love Him and passionately sacrifice our lives so that men, women, and children may come to know our loving, holy, and beautiful Savior.

Be Uncomfortable

God has called Ali and I to be comfortable being uncomfortable so that Jesus may be known deeply in the hearts of who God is calling us to share the gospel with.

Honestly, we have struggled with comfort and complacency. We would rather stay in our house and keep to ourselves, but we are called to be lights to the world. We can’t help but go around and share the hope that is only found in Christ. We can’t help but go and sacrifice our comfort so that we can build relationships, disciple men and women, and boldly preach the gospel in any context. If we are comfortable, we are not being faithful and we are not being passionate – at least that’s what I have noticed in our lives. Being uncomfortable should be so normal that we become comfortable being uncomfortable. Sacrificing our preferences, our habits, and our norms so that people may love Jesus is worth it.

God has called us to be uncomfortable so that our friends, families, and neighbors might come to know the One True God.

These findings go for you all too. God has called you.

Go. Preach. Disciple. Love. Believe.

Be faithful. Be passionate. Be uncomfortable.

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

My Valentine Will Always Be My Valentine