Grand Endings & New Beginnings

To my readers,

I both excited and sad to say that this blog is officially over.
I haven't written in over a year and I've worked incredibly hard to change that.
Without any further ado, I invite you to follow and join me on my new blog,
Texgmrule.org
Come grow and be challenged and catch up with what God has been doing in my life. Join a safe and challenging community that promotes the growth of who God created you to be, anything but mediocre!

Go ahead, feel free to check out the next step forward for us!
Hope to see you there!

Simply,
Tex GM Rule

Math Teachers & Kings

If I asked you who Jesus is to you, how would you respond?

I think we all have an answer ready to speak that would be perfect for church, or our friends, or Bible studies. And that I willing to bet, we believe this response however, what if I asked you, as a Math teacher would, to prove your work?

What I mean is, if I looked at how you spent your time, your words, your money, your work, your family, would it reflect Christ? Would it reflect someone who is pursuing to be more like Jesus? I ask this because if we really meant what we gave as our response to the question asked earlier about who Jesus is to me, then our lives would reflect it.

The author John wrote this in his first letter,

"All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world."

1 John 4:15-17, NLT.

For some of us, this is amazing news to hear.  For others, this is heartbreaking news.  We know we haven't even begun to live a life the reflects Jesus' love in the world.  And to say we lived like Jesus did here on Earth would make many of us cringe with a distaste of failure.

Let me be the first to say, I am the one who cringes the most.  I know my life is far from looking like Jesus' did.  The worst is, I know I will never fully be as Jesus was but I'm called to live up to this standard.  I know I've found myself in the midst of failure and asking myself, "What now? What do I do?"

Return. Return to God and ask Him to help you be more like Him.  The beauty of the Gospel is that we who were completely undeserving of His unfailing, unbeatable, abounding, enduring love were given His grace and mercy on the cross.  And for those of us who choose to follow Him and live our lives as He did, His Spirit is in us, guiding and molding us everyday to be like His Son.

There is mercy given to us new everyday (Lamentation 3:21-23) and His grace is all sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9) and God will give them to His children.  For us, the broken, dirty, and thrown aside can find who our God is in this journey of returning to Him.

Therefore, when I say Jesus is my life-giving savior, the unrelenting lover of my soul, my freedom, nothing will ever be the same in my life. Everyday, I choose to leave the old me full of pain, hurt, doubt, excuses, and lies in the grave, and allow the new me given life by the Spirit to be how I live everyday as I choose to follow Jesus.

What will you call Him?

Grandfather's & Lantern's

My grandfather is a wise man.

I know this because his wisdom has proven itself true time and time again.  Though he isn’t perfect, so often he knows exactly what to say.

One of his favorite phrases is “Tough.” 

Essentially, if you live long enough, you’re going to get burned, hurt, broken.  Life is tough.

I think we can all agree, life is tough.

So often, when life does get tough I’ve caught myself saying, “Jesus, take me now. I just want to be home with you. I’m ready to go.”

Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthians touching on a similar subject.

“So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him [Jesus]. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others." 2 Corinthians 5:9-11, NLT.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be with Jesus. Being with Him is not only where we belong, but our true home.  However, I believe we let this mentality take over when times get tough.

When tough times do come, it is much easier to think about leaving rather than enduring knowing one deep truth:

Many times God has used the toughest of times to bring those far from Him closer to His deep embrace. Although we are hurting, He is with us and He will receive glory no matter the outcome. 

Its easy to forget, we have a responsibility to Him whether we are here on earth or with Him.  That responsibility is to please Him.

A friend would put it this way, “We still have a lot of work to do. Let's get to work!"

I emplore you to use your time in this life to chase passionately after God, and in the hard times pursue Him harder than you ever have before.  Let the tough times be the times where you’re light shines brightest in a dark and broken world that so desperately needs to be filled with the light of Christ. 

Don't give up when tough times come, rather dig deeper into Christ and work harder than ever, here is where your light shines brightly bearing the name Jesus, because He is filling you up, not anyone or anything else, no matter the outcome.

My last words to you are simply to shine, my friends. Shine.

Simply,
Tex G.M. Rule

Prophets & Open Invitations

We have been given an open invitation from Jesus.

If anyone reads the Gospels, you can count the several different times where Jesus says the word, "Come."

It is an open invitation that is all inclusive & open to all who would come.

This invitation has been around since the beginning.

God has constantly invited us to be in communion with Him,

and we so often walk away, wondering why we're empty.

For those of us who are empty

or know of someone who is empty

hear these words, I will let them speak for themselves.

"Is anyone thirsty?
    Come and drink—
    even if you have no money!
Come, take your choice of wine or milk—
    it’s all free!
Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?
    Why pay for food that does you no good?
Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.
    You will enjoy the finest food.
“Come to me with your ears wide open.
    Listen, and you will find life.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you.
    I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.
See how I used him to display my power among the peoples.
    I made him a leader among the nations.
You also will command nations you do not know,
    and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey,
because I, the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious.”
Seek the Lord while you can find him.
    Call on him now while he is near.
Let the wicked change their ways
    and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.
    Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously."
-Isaiah 55:1-7, NLT.

Its time to respond.

No more will we stay unresponsive.

No more will we delay.

Its time to act.

For some of us, its means coming to Jesus,

with everything we have and laying it at His feet.

Turning away from everything else, and putting Him on the throne.

Making Him our everything and leaving the world behind.

For others, we need to invite.

Its time we give others the same invitation Jesus gave us.

An open invitation to all who would come,

not to those we want to come

but to all who are thirsty,

to all that would come to Jesus

Its time to invite the world to Jesus.

Will you come? 

Cover Photos & The Gospel

Today, after working way to long on something way too easy,

 I've added a cover photo for your FB Timeline. 

You can click on the image above and save it to your desktop.

This is a great opportunity to share your faith with anyone who clicks on your FB Page. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Tex G.M. Rule

"He must become greater; I must become less." John 3:30

Graduated & Grand Returns

Unlikely Heroes

Last year I attended the Global Leadership Summit. 

I can not begin to explain how life-changing this conference was. 

However, there was one woman at this conference that astounded me. 

That woman was Mother Maggie Gobrans. 

Giving up everything to live with the poor in Cairo, Egypt, 

Mother Maggie has astounded the world with her devotion & love for our God & the people of Cairo. 

During the summit, she spoke about how difficult it is for people in our day to be silent with Jesus. She later gave this advice that I wrote down & daily remind myself in my quiet times.

"Silence your body to listen to your words. 

Silence your tongue to listen to your thoughts. 

Silence your thoughts to listen to you heart beating. 

Silence your heart to listen to your spirit. 

Silence your spirit to listen to His Spirit." 

-Mother Maggie Gobrans

Sometimes things speak for themselves

There are times when I believe things speak for themselves. 

Let me know your thoughts on the video & this verse

I hope it gives you as much hope as it does me. 

This song comes from these verses: 

"Whom have I in heaven but you?

I desire you more than anything on earth.

My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,

but God remains the strength of my heart; 

he is mine forever." 

-Psalm 73:25-26

Take a deep breath & let go

This is a song called "Bittersweet," by Spencer Schmidt. Though this is a love song, there is a section that completely caught my attention.

"Though i know it's kind of bittersweet, sometimes we have to accept defeat, then ensues the peace like falling snow, take a deep breath in and let it go, I am free I am free"

Truth is, we won't always win.

We can't carry the world.

We aren't always strong enough.

Sometimes, we lose. But the story isn't over.

There is freedom is letting go.

Letting go frees us not to hold onto the past,

but allows us to move forward

This isn't the end of the story

This is a promise that the Lord reminds us-

"The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed"- Psalm 34:17-18, NLT.

Whatever it is that you are going through

Jesus still loves you no matter what it is

He won't give let you go, ever

Take it to the foot of the cross of Jesus

Set aside your pride, take a deep breath, and let go

Remember here you can come as you are

& there is freedom in letting go

Fat Tuesday- Week 2

To my readers,

Here are the results of Fat Tuesday Week 2:

Week 2

Starting Weight: 367lbs

New Weight: 360lbs

Total Loss: 7lbs

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” -1 Corinthians 1619-20, NLT.

Fat Tuesday- Week 1

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” -1 Corinthians 1619-20, NLT.

A Penny for Your Thoughts

To My Readers,

Despite today being Movie-Quote Monday, I believe its more than okay to break the mold in order to better yourself.

As a blog we've grown and we've changed, but this time I want to hear from you! I truly want to be interactive with things you enjoy. What are your ideas? What have you liked and disliked about H4BT? Even what are your off the wall ideas?

Thanks for your help! I can't wait to read all the feedback.

Simply,
Tex G.M. Rule

And We're Back!

To My Readers,

After such a long absence, there are no words to express my excitement for this announcement: Hoping for Better Tomorrow is officially back.  This absence has given me a chance to not only redesign but reevaluate H4BT and give it the appropriate changes it needed.

As you can see there are some new additions to H4BT- The addition of Fat Tuesday and two42 are just the beginning of this.  I encourage you to explore H4BT for yourself and let me know your thoughts! I can't wait to share my new adventures and stories with you.  I can't wait for this next season for Hoping for a Better Tomorrow.  Let the adventures begin!

Simply,
Tex G.M. Rule-

New Years & Kingdom Expanding Resolutions

Camping Trips & Crazy Stories

To my readers,

Have you ever realized what stories you remember?

If you look back on the stories you share with friends and family, most of the time we will find that we only partly remember events, leaving details out. The story isn't always fresh anymore in our minds.

However there is a story that we remember.
We remember the story where everything goes wrong.
We remember the times when the metaphorical bomb explodes on our plans.  

A great example is a camping trip I go on with my best friends/old roommates (The Surfdom).  We go to Enchanted Rock every year over New Years for the first trip that brought us together as close friends.  However, it never fails that every trip we go on, something terrible ends up happening.  

The last trip was no exception.

Weather wasn't supposed to drop below 50.  We had ways of making a small contained fire to cook our food. We had tents.  We also had climbing gear.  We were prepared this trip.  

...or so we thought. 

A Cold front surprised us, bringing 15 degree weather with ice cold rain and eventually snow.  All the wood we had brought was too wet to start a fire.  We nearly slid off the rock as we took the most fastest and dangerous route down the forbidden area of Enchanted Rock.  We nearly fell off a small mountain while rock climbing.  I did slip down a cliff and fell into an entire patch of cactus.  My entire set of clothes for the trip were wet.  My water bottle froze.  One of our tents ended up leaking during the first snow storm and flooded the tent out.  We got stuck in the cave and had some interesting prayerful moments with God.  

Long story short, everything that could go wrong, did.  

But this is the story we remember. We remember the horrible, terrible, crazy, chaotic stories because we endure, overcome, and grow.  Its moments like these that test our faith and allow for us to deepen our relationship with Jesus.

Its these true tough stories that change us. 

Paul shares this story in a letter in the New Testament,

"When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:6-8, NLT.

The most sad and terrible story ever told is how the only perfect person died so that we who deserve death could have the price paid for our sins.  The greatest love story ever told is a story for a father and his children and how nothing can separate them from his love.  

Don't let this be just another story. This story forever changed everything for me.  If we truly let the Gospel into our lives, the greatest loves story, the world would change.  If you hear anything from this, let the story of Jesus be the story that changes your life.  

Who will you tell this story to?

Simple,

Tex G.M. Rule
"When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:6-8, NLT.

Poems & Cubicles

To my readers,

Above my cubicle you'll find one of my favorite poems.  

To be honest with you, I also have it above my bed and have it printed on a small page I stick inside my Bible.  

I guess you could say I enjoy this poem.  

Really enjoy this poem.

Rudyard Kipling's "If" 

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! 

Strangely enough I believe James put it similar:

"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing" James 1:2-4, NLT.

If I can say one thing to you. You can only endure because of your relationship with Jesus.  Pour deep into him and He will pour deep into you.  Don't give up.  There is something more out there, his name is Jesus.  

Find the things that help remind you to endure for His name sake.  Find verses, poems, that help you hold tighter to his embrace and put them where you see them everyday.

Simply,
Tex G.M. Rule
"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing" James 1:2-4, NLT.

Alumni & Tailgating Friends

T0 my readers,

"A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need." Proverb 17:17, NLT.

Simply,
Tex G.M. Rule 

5K's & Tailgating Adventures

To my readers,

Being an intern has its never-ending share of funny stories.  Recently, I've shared stories of tailgating for the first season of UTSA football. We are blessed to have an entire group of men at CBC called the Godly Grillers that through our Men's Ministry does some amazing bbq-ing on three massive grills.  

I had reserved the smallest one. Let me explain that when I say smallest, the grill is on a trailer and easily larger than my entire pickup truck.  For being the smallest its still rather massive.

The trick is that the games are at 1PM, meaning tailgaters arrive at 7AM. Yes, 7AM, which means, yes you guessed it.  I must pick the grill at 6:30A.M., meaning I must leave the south-side of San Antonio at 6A.M.  

No I'm not complaining, I just want to explain for a college student, on a Saturday morning 5 A.M. alarms are tough.  

6:31 I pull into the gates of CBC to see the grill being towed out by another pickup truck! What was happening?

I quickly pulled into the parking lot to attempt to turn around except that the entire parking lot had been marked off for a 5K run that was happening later that morning.  My plan to turn around and flash my lights in order to stop them failed miserably. I was now currently driving the entire 5K while the entire event staff watch me while I did so.  

I'm sure I looked crazy.

Now what was I to do? I had no grill, its currently 6:45 A.M. with no number to call, on everyone's day off and the only thing I had accomplished was driving an entire 5K. 

You never want to call your boss on his time off- especially at 6:45 A.M. Who could I call?

Luckily, a friend answered when I called him.  He was able to get me in touch with the Pastor overseeing our Men's Ministry.  Turns out, it was our Men's pastor that took the grill- the whole situation was misunderstanding of time. They thought I needed it at 6PM rather than 6AM.

He informed me he was on his way to Bastrop to feed the community and firemen fighting the wildfires. 

Boy did I feel guilty.  What a great reason to take the grill! I literally had no right to be upset.

We made arrangements for me to try to tow one of the other larger grills that are stored away from CBC.  I made my way out to this property to find my keys for these locks didn't work.  

Long story short, we ended up cooking 10 lbs of hamburger, 40 some odd hot dogs, & sausage on my baby grill-

This is it.

That grill has always come to my rescue when I needed it.  Don't hate on the baby grill because today it earned its keep and showed its skill by completing the task of feeding over 25 different college students.  

I later told my boss this wonderful story to which he responded, "This will make the blog, wont it?"

"Probably."

"Oh, Tex."

Simply,

Tex G.M. Rule

Braveheart & Freedom

To my readers,

I don't know a man that doesn't love the movie Braveheart.

To men, this movie speaks deep to their heart.  It touches on all three parts of a man as Jon Eldredge discusses in his book, Wild At Heart.  He speaks that every man's heart wants an adventure to take, a battle to fight, and a beauty to save.  The narrative of William Wallace is filled with these truths.

If you have never seen this movie, I would highly recommend it.  However, there is one word that William Wallace constantly speaks about.  

Freedom

He speaks of this word over and over again.  It is what drives him to do what he does.  The chance to finally be free from England's tyrannous rule. The chance to be more than they ever were, free.

During his journey to bring Scotland freedom, William Wallace gives a speech to his men.  Its word move their hearts from wanting to run away to defeating the English in one of the biggest military defeats of its time.

"Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our Freedom!" William Wallace

Freedom. 

Freedom is a powerful thing.  

The scriptures read about Freedom this way:

"So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law." Galatians 5:1, NLT. 

Jesus has bought us Freedom through his own death.  We are free.  But we mustn't let ourselves be taken back into slavery by sin or the even the rules of Christianity. Either extremes weight us down and hold us into a deeper amount of either shame or pride.  

We are free. You are free.

At the moment we start to follow Christ, we have a chance for freedom.  As William Wallace proved, freedom didn't come without a cost.  It cost him his life.  However, because of it, Scotland won its freedom.  

We must fight for ours.  When the enemy tempts you, stand firm and lean deep into Christ.  When your pride tells you that you're more righteous than someone, let the grace of Christ humble and overwhelm you to love them deeper. We must be willing to lose everything we held dear, for the sake of knowing Christ in this freedom. 

Essentially, our freedom was never about us.  It's about Jesus who freed us with his own life and returned to life to prove his love was greater than death.  

What will you do with this freedom? 

Simply,
Tex G.M. Rule
"So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law." Galatians 5:1, NLT.

Anniversaries & 8th Grade Memories

To my readers,

Tomorrow will mark ten years since the world changed forever.

I'll forget when it happened. I was in 8th grade sitting inside our library before school started. On the news I saw the first chaos of the first tower smoking and eventually watched the second plane crash into the second tower. 

America was attacked.  

Violently upsetting the citizens of the United States of America, terrorist sent a message to everyone watching.  Be afraid.

The American people sent a message right back.  We won't be defeated.  We will overcome. 

Here we are ten years later to remember the brave men and women who lost their lives because of this tragedy.  America overcame, we weren't defeated.  We united together as one people.

Around two thousand years ago, the New Testament tells us about Jesus coming to this world in order to free us from sin, to bring us back into a place where we can have a deep and passionate relationship with himself.  Before he is beaten and dies a terrible criminals death in order to pay our debt, he has a conversation with his disciples telling them of these terrible events that were to come.  That he would be die, they would desert him, and people would want to murder them too.  He closes this with saying,

"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.  Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33, NLT.  

He warns them that the world would try to strike fear in their hearts.  He tells them that they would be fearful and would run away.  Fear would strike deep in their hearts but that they can find peace in him because he has overcome.  

Three days after his death, Jesus overcame death and sin.  Their dominion is over.  Not only has the debt we owed been paid, but the debt system is finished.  His love for us is greater than the debt we owed.

Jesus paid it in full.  

While all the powers of hell send the message of fear and destruction into our lives. They scream that we owe a price for the sin we've committed. We are guilty. Their message is sent while Jesus, my King, also sends a message.  

It says, "I have overcome because I love you. My love is greater than death. My love is greater than destruction. My love is greater than the sin that binds you. It's been paid in full."

As we take a moment to remember the tragedy that happened ten years ago, let us also daily remember what Jesus did for us.  Let us remember that his love overcame death.  There is freedom because of Jesus.

Simply,
Tex G.M. Rule
 "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.  Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33, NLT.