Trafford Publishing: Living a Life on Fire

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Living a Life on Fire

by David Hernandez Jr.

108 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-1380; ISBN 1-4120-3552-X; US$13.99, C$18.00, EUR11.70, £8.11

Teenager, are you ready to change the world for God? Do you want to be a history maker? A book written for teens by a teen - Living a Life on Fire.

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About the Book About the Author Table of Contents and Excerpts Catalogue Information

About the Book

Living a Life on Fire is both inspiring and practical. David Hernandez Jr. thoroughly explains how a Christian teenager can come into a closer fellowship with God, walk in freedom, be used by God in a greater way, become powerful through prayer, and become mighty through the reading of God's word. If you know a Christian teenager who is struggling to serve God, this is the perfect book for that teen, and if you know a teenager who just wants to know God in a greater way, this is the perfect book for them also. Living a Life on Fire is full of powerful testimonies of God's saving power, captivating word illustrations, answers to some tough questions, interesting yet purposeful stories, extreme challenges, and much more! Living a Life on Fire makes the perfect gift for a teenager who wants to serve God in this ungodly generation. This book will not only challenge teenagers, but this book will also encourage, strengthen, bless, and change the teenager who reads it and applies the principles within the book.

About the Author

David Hernandez Jr. is a teenager who loves God. At this time, David is only 15 years old. He currently is a youth leader in the youth group known as Fresh Fire Youth Ministries, which is based in the city of Paramount, CA. He currently runs two youth Bible studies, ministers to youth groups, preaches at youth rallies, and runs a video ministry by the name of Diga Studios. Apart from being gifted as an evangelist, David, who also goes by the nickname Diga, is also gifted to minister in the prophetic, pray for the sick, and pray for deliverance from bondage for teenagers. Apart from being a minister of the gospel, more importantly, he obeys his parents, and strives to please God in every way. If you would like to get him to come minister to your youth congregation, your sick, or your adult congregation, feel free to contact him at digadude@msn.com.

Table of Contents and Excerpts

Table of contents

Chapter 1...........Where do I start?

Chapter 2...........The Sacrifice

Chapter 3...........Persevering

Chapter 4...........Letting Go

Chapter 5...........A lifestyle of prayer and The Word

Chapter 6...........Your relationship with The Holy Spirit

Chapter 7...........Worship

Chapter 8...........Anointing

Chapter 9........... Inspiring others

Chapter 10......... Over comers

Do you still have to obey unsaved parents?

This is a tough question. Well, the answer is not what everyone would expect, but the answer is yes, you still have to obey unsaved parents. The only time you do not have to obey them is when they are making you do something that is a sin. But if your unsaved dad asks you to serve him a beer then serve him the beer with love. Let your parents see the change in you. What if they don't let me go to church? Here's what you do. You obey your parents. Disobeying them would only make it worse. Try to get as much fellowship as possible. This is where prayer and reading the word come in. Pray for your parents. Trust God to do the miracle. Well, aren't you supposed to obey the Bible? Yes, you are, and in obeying your parents you obey God's word. Of course some situations may vary. If your unsaved parents are abusing you, then you need to tell your pastor, youth leader, or the police. Get help! But if your parents treat you right and tell you not to go to church then you need to obey them. If your parents disagree as in one says you can go and the other says you can't, then I would say don't go. I'm not trying to be insensitive, but try to trust God. He will do a miracle in your life. Just keep praying. The walls will come down.

Was God Selfish in Creating Man?

Here is a question that pops up very often. I have been asks this more time than I can count. If God knew some people were going to hell then why did he create us? Well, I believe that God has some negative attributes. For example, God is forgetful, He ignores us, He is unfair, He is jealous, and He is what some believe to be selfish. These are negative attributes, but He has them for our benefits. Don't get me wrong. God is perfect. But to us it would seem as though God is really weird. The truth is that He has no bad attributes as in mistakes, but He does have the because of His mercy. He is forgetful. He forgets our sins when we repent. He "ignores" us. He doesn't really ignore us, but sometimes it seems He does. He just wants to do things in His timing so that we won't be hurt. God is so unfair. If it weren't for this "unfairness", we would all be going to Hell. He is jealous. Isn't that a sin? No, not for God! You see His jealousy keeps us from worshiping false gods. In the end we would just come up worse than before. It's an unselfish jealousy. He is selfish. He wants us all to Himself. Well, duh! He created us. He has the absolute right. He knows that He is the only one who can give us true fulfillment and peace. I think that God was very unselfish in creating man. When someone goes to Hell, it breaks God's heart. When we go to Heaven God will rejoice. He is willing to go through great heartbreak so that we can enjoy Heaven.

Randy's Story

I do not really have a whole lot to say, but I do want to say this: He was once a rebel for the devil, but now he is a rebel with a cause. That cause is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is Randy's story.

Hello my name is Randy Marquez. I am the youth leader of Fearless Youth Ministries based in the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado. I was raised in church ever since I was about 4 years of age. My family being saved never really was enough of a good reason for me to give my life to the Lord. I don't really expect you to all of a sudden start believing in Jesus just because you read this. But I would like to share something with you-my testimony. Now plenty of people can say that they don't believe in the Bible or that they don't believe some other things. But a person can never tell you that your testimony is not true. In my life, since I was little, nothing has ever touched me more than people's testimonies. So here we go! I started going to church when my aunt and uncle started a small church in Paramount, CA, and I hated it. (Well, just getting up every Sunday morning). But then, as I got older, I started getting a little bit more interested in church. Things in my life seemed to be going pretty good. I always looked up to my parents-they were my heroes. But then, all of a sudden, when I was twelve years of age, things started to change for me. My mom and dad began to start fighting a lot. So my friends became my heroes. Just like you would follow any one of your heroes, I began to follow my fiends. Their habits were now my habits. I started smoking weed, and I liked it. I thought, "Hey, if I always get high, I won't have to deal with anything." But I was wrong. When I wasn't high, instead of just being mad at my parents, I was mad at the world. My life had made no sense. I was always watching my parents fight. I saw my pastors always coming over to council my parents, but the counseling didn't seem to help. I figured this: If they do all this stuff and go to church, I can do what I want and go to church. By the time I came to that conclusion, I was about 14 years old. I now had become very very angry and distant from my parents. I tried to drown all my pain with girls, pot, and music. I felt like my parents arguing was entirely my fault. The reason I felt it was my fault was because my real dad was a big problem. And the reason a lot of the arguments between my parents had happened were because of him. My mom and step dad raised me. My real dad is the one who caused a lot of the problems. Anyways, I started viewing everything different now. I thought every thing was fake- God, my parents, the church, and people-EVERYBODY! I was now headed completely in the wrong direction. Before, I had a little bit of conviction, but now there was nothing. It was just me and whatever. Music seemed to help me with my problems. Little did I know, one day God would use music to help me through my problems as a Christian. I started playing drums when I was about 12 years old. I became well enough to play for the worship team (well that's what my pastor thought). The only problem was that I wasn't saved. Despite that major problem, I started practicing with the worship team. I was practicing with them for a while, and felt nothing. But one night at worship practice, something happened. It was just another routine practice, but I started singing the song that we were practicing. I began to feel this comfort. At the time, I had no idea what it was. I knew of it, and I knew what every one else called it. But I myself had never experienced it. After I felt whatever it was I began to open up to it. Then, miraculously, I started getting convicted. The next week on a Wednesday night I herd my pastor, pastor Omar Lopez, preaching. He was saying that just because you grow up in church or just because you have ministry does not mean you are saved. So that night, I gave my life to the Lord. Little by little, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I began cutting off different things that were not of God. I know now that what I felt at that worship practice was the presence of almighty God

A Hunger for God's Word

You walk into your room. You get out your Bible. This time you really mean business. You're going to start reading your Bible from now on. So you start to read. Then, all of a sudden you find yourself staring at the wall, or being distracted by something or someone. Then you get frustrated. You tell yourself that you really really mean business now, but eventually you put away your Bible. I myself have been in this situation, and so have countless Christians around the world. How should you go about fixing this problem? The answer is really simple. Don't start off big. Start reading your Bible in small portions. At first, just try reading your Bible for at least five minutes a day. Then, once you have built discipline for five minutes, try reading for ten minutes. Don't try to rush things. Just be patient. Use this same method for prayer. Try putting away the video games. Try not watching so much television. Make time for God. He made time for you. He's the one who gave you your whole life. I mean think about it. Compared to eternity, our lives are nothing more than a quick vapor of smoke. So, if you think about it, we hardly ever spend time with God. If you want to start reading and praying, then ask God for a hunger for His word, and ask Him for a desire to pray. He'll give it to you. Just be patient, and don't get tired of doing well. When the timing is right, you will reap the blessings of God.

Those who have not heard

One of the questions that I am usually asked is, "Where do people, who never heard the gospel, go?" This, I believe, is an invalid question. I believe that the right question to ask is, "Does such a person exist?" If someone, who hasn't reached the age of accountability (the point at which you can comprehend God's plan of salvation), isn't preached to, I believe God will somehow reveal Himself to that person. It could be through nature, a vision, etc.

Emptiness Filled

Earlier I told you about one of my friends, Brian Perez. As far as I know, he is living a life on fire, but he, too, has a testimony of God's saving power. So here is his story. "Where do I start? Well, my name is Brian Perez. I am sixteen years old. I live with my dad and step mom. I didn't always like my step mom, but because of God and being saved we get along. I guess every stepparent and kid dislike each other in the beginning. I also live with my four sisters and three brothers, but I can't forget about my other brother Ralph. Ralph lives with my mom that I so dearly love but is so far away. At the moment she lives in Texas. What part? I can never remember. Another thing about me is I really don't like to talk. I suppose you could say I'm shy, but once you really know me then you'll be able to hear my wonderful voice that hardly gets out. No, just kidding. Well, I guess we can start with my oldest memory. It's about my parents. Well. That's the thing. I don't ever remember seeing them together. I guess that's what really always kept me sad. My mom could never hold a steady job, but I think that was because of us. Even though we loved her a lot, we never listened to her. But the thing that used to get me to cry all the time was when I saw my mom all alone and crying because we had no money for rent. I got in trouble by the police. She started crying as she told me that if I kept on doing stupid things they were going to take me away from her. But I got really out of hand. So my mom sent me to live with my dad, who, at the time, to me, was living like a baller. I wanted to live with him, yet he had a new wife and new kids who I really didn't like. But I learned to deal with it through sports. I played baseball, football, and wrestling. No, not the fake one on television! I thank God for sports, though, because it kept me out of a lot of things that could have changed my life like drugs, alcohol, and girls. Girls-now there's a tricky subject. Even though I wanted a girlfriend really badly, because I was shy, I never had one. My reasons for wanting a girlfriend were not for the same reasons as everyone else's. I wanted one for love. I was empty on the inside, and I just wanted someone to hold and hug and never let go of. But again I never got one because I was too shy and still am. I don't have a girlfriend because I'm saving myself for my wife. That's right! To all of you people who read this book. I'm staying a virgin until I get married, and that's that! But that's enough about that subject. My relationship with my dad wasn't really good. I was more afraid of him than I loved him, but because he had a really tough childhood I really couldn't blame him. I was so afraid of him that I didn't want to do anything wrong, and I always wanted to win in the sport that I was playing to make him proud. I wanted to make him feel so proud that he would show me more love than discipline. Discipline gave me both good and bad habits. I remember the first time I tried a form of alcohol. It was at this girl's party that I had the biggest crush on. But I couldn't tell her because I was afraid. Anyway, her parents left the house, and we broke into her parent's liquor cabinet. I can still remember the taste of that stuff. It was nasty! But I had to pretend it was good because I wanted to seem cool. Then one day I found out that we as a "family" were going to start attending church. I really didn't want to go. I remember going inside. Everyone was clapping and singing. I was thinking to myself that some people looked stupid."

Ok. So here we have a young man whose parents have divorced. He was looking for his emptiness to be filled. He tried different things to fill his emptiness. None of them worked. He played sports to try to fill the emptiness and make his dad proud. But what he really needed to do was to surrender to his dad in heaven- He needed God! All right let's continue with Brian's testimony!

"Then I got saved and I became active in the church. I started being apart of Fresh Fire Youth Ministries. Fresh Fire was small at the time, but now it is big and still growing. I now understand who God is. I know he's real. I know He's not just some person that you can't get to know. Now, thanks to God, my whole family is saved. My dad is a Bible study leader, and our relationship is now better than it was ever before. It is no longer based on fear but on love and care. And my hatred toward my step mom and brothers is gone. And me, well, I guess you could say I was a good kid, but without God I was still going to Hell for eternity."

My God, I love hearing how God changes lives! Today, even though his parents have divorced and he was once a wretched sinner, he is now living a life on fire for God. I have the privilege of watching him grow in God, and be raised up in ministry. Despite his shy personality, Brian is now teaching youth Bible studies and prayer meetings. His life is a perfect example of God's saving power. I have talked to him and asked him if the emptiness was gone. His reply was yes! What a mighty God we serve! I would just like to say this to kids whose parents have gone through a divorce. It's not your fault! Despite what lies the enemy throws your way, know this: It's not your fault!

Do you still have to obey unsaved parents?

This is a tough question. Well, the answer is not what everyone would expect, but the answer is yes, you still have to obey unsaved parents. The only time you do not have to obey them is when they are making you do something that is a sin. But if your unsaved dad asks you to serve him a beer then serve him the beer with love. Let your parents see the change in you. What if they don't let me go to church? Here's what you do. You obey your parents. Disobeying them would only make it worse. Try to get as much fellowship as possible. This is where prayer and reading the word come in. Pray for your parents. Trust God to do the miracle. Well, aren't you supposed to obey the Bible? Yes, you are, and in obeying your parents you obey God's word. Of course some situations may vary. If your unsaved parents are abusing you, then you need to tell your pastor, youth leader, or the police. Get help! But if your parents treat you right and tell you not to go to church then you need to obey them. If your parents disagree as in one says you can go and the other says you can't, then I would say don't go. I'm not trying to be insensitive, but try to trust God. He will do a miracle in your life. Just keep praying. The walls will come down.

Supremacy?

I'll have to admit that I am not a normal thinker. I have come up with questions that I thought would never be answered. The purpose of me putting this question in here is not to challenge you, but to put those, who have thought of this question, at ease. The question is as follows: How do we know that God is supreme? I mean how does He know that there is no one above Himself? This question plagued my mind for days. Some people would answer me by saying, "God says in His word He is supreme." "Well, duh, that's God talking", I would answer back "But how does He know that?" Some people get angry when people ask these kinds of questions. But the truth is that some people go through mind battles with these questions. The answer to my petty little question of human doubt was fairly simple. I felt God speak this to my heart. The following dialogue is very similar to the "conversation" that I had with the Holy Spirit about this question. Me: God, how do you know that no one is above you? God: What if there was someone above me? Me: Then he would be God. God: And how would he know that he was God? Me: Well, because God knows everything, He would know if He was God or not. If He didn't know then he wouldn't be God. God: Exactly!

I know. I was a little confused a first too. But just think about it. The question we are really asking is," Is God God? " The answer is yes. The question should not be is God really God, but it should be who is God? We know his by the Bible, which I believe is God's word. I know this confused some teenagers, but I also know it helped those who knew what I was talking about. The Devil sends questions like this to my mind all the time, but the key is to fight the questions with God's word. I go through mind battles all the time, but I know that Jesus paid for my peace of mind.

Was God Selfish in Creating Man?

Here is a question that pops up very often. I have been asks this more time than I can count. If God knew some people were going to hell then why did he create us? Well, I believe that God has some negative attributes. For example, God is forgetful, He ignores us, He is unfair, He is jealous, and He is what some believe to be selfish. These are negative attributes, but He has them for our benefits. Don't get me wrong. God is perfect. But to us it would seem as though God is really weird. The truth is that He has no bad attributes as in mistakes, but He does have the because of His mercy. He is forgetful. He forgets our sins when we repent. He "ignores" us. He doesn't really ignore us, but sometimes it seems He does. He just wants to do things in His timing so that we won't be hurt. God is so unfair. If it weren't for this "unfairness", we would all be going to Hell. He is jealous. Isn't that a sin? No, not for God! You see His jealousy keeps us from worshiping false gods. In the end we would just come up worse than before. It's an unselfish jealousy. He is selfish. He wants us all to Himself. Well, duh! He created us. He has the absolute right. He knows that He is the only one who can give us true fulfillment and peace. I think that God was very unselfish in creating man. When someone goes to Hell, it breaks God's heart. When we go to Heaven God will rejoice. He is willing to go through great heartbreak so that we can enjoy Heaven.

How do we know that Christianity is the real Religion?

Well, first of all Christianity is not a religion; it is a lifestyle. We know that Christianity stands out from all the other religions, but how do we know it is the right one? First, you can know by the way God changes lives. Second, we can know by the Bible. There is no mistake in the Bible. Also all the prophesy and prophesy fulfillment is accurate. Science supports the Bible. But he greatest way we can know if we are right is by faith. God gives just enough evidence in order for us to have to have faith. He doesn't give us so little to where we won't be able to believe, but He doesn't give us so much to where we require no faith. We know by faith. I know this doesn't exactly answer the question. I know. I was sort of disappointed when I found the answer. But even after all of the evidence our belief still requires faith. That's the way God made it! Faith comes by the hearing of God' word.

Music

I was at first very fearful to share my opinion on this matter. I know I wrote this book for teenagers, but right now, I'm probably going to sound just like your parents. I disagree with listening to any ungodly music whatsoever. I mean ungodly music. Remember, there is no such thing as Christian music, and there is no such thing as worldly music. There is, however, such a thing as Christian and worldly lyrics. If the lyrics are ungodly then don't listen to them. And when I say don't listen to them, I don't mean to just ignore them. If those lyrics reach your ears then it could corrupt your spirit man without you even knowing about it. Your spirit man is the one who battles against your flesh. It's like bank deposits. If you deposit into your flesh then your flesh will be stronger than your spirit, and if you deposit into your spirit then your spirit man will be stronger than your flesh. This same thing goes for movies and things such as that. There is nothing wrong with love songs. Hey, sometimes I sing those to God. All I'm saying is that you need to guard your mind; because once it is corrupt then it is corrupt. It's hard to get back to incorruption.

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