intergrity - honsty

"Honesty is the best policy" This is a phrase that you will probably heaqr many times in your life, and it is true. Honesty is something that your charcter, personality, and intergrity all depend on. N o one want s to be your friend if you are not honest and even more peopel will avoid you completely. Even friends won't share personal things and you are probably under suspicion of your teacher. With God's help you can change that though. Hoesty is something that a relationship with God hinges on and without it you can't have that relationship.
Honesty is also important in teh family. No one will want to be around you if you re nto honest and the peopel who live with you in your home will avoid you adn stat in their corners. Honesty is very impotant in teh family because it can hinge the pride your parents have in you and the pride you have in yourslelf. It also helps your self esteem.
Honesty is not only important for other peopel but it is also important for your person. If you are holding lies in your heart it can cauase you phisical problems as well as problems oncentrating or think about anythgn else. It is better to just tell the truth even if the end results could hurt you because in the long run it is a whole lot less pain and problems to just tell the truth. God likes it when you tell the truth too. : )

Wisdom and knowledge

Wisdom and knowledge are gifts from God. They are not things that we obtain through human triumph. God gives wisdom and knowledge to those who are upright and just adn those who are lotal to him. These are things that we should all aim and strive for. To be loyal to God is on of the greatest things you can be but to love God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul is the greatest.
There is a lot of knowledge to be gained in this world but none of them compare to the wisdom of God and even though peopel think that they are wise, it is only human wisdom which is weak and small compared to the wisdom of God. We also think this with knowledge. There are peple in the world who think thatr they know eveyrthing but their knowledge is nothing compare to that of the Lord and He give His knowledge to the loyal, the upright and the just.

Integrity

I think integirty is the ability to make the right decisions even if it might hurt you. Like if there is someone who you don't like, you chose to be nice to them even though they will make fun of you. I think integirty is also part of a person's personality which really effects if you are trustworthy or not.
Intergrity is very important and without integrity many people won't trust you decisions or find you to be a good friend. To make a decision about other people is quite easy because it won't actually effect you but making decisions based on the people you know and the friends you have is very different;.
If a friend is trying on clothes at a store and she tries something on that really doesn't look good on her but she likes it, what would you say? That it looks great and have the friend's feelings hurt later on or just tell her the truth and have her mad at you? This is a question of intergrity. You friend's feelings or your friendship. They both amount to pretty much the same thing don't they?
I would tell the friend that it doesn't suit her because even if she is mad at me then, it would save her in the long run and she might be my friend again after a time. It is hard to do it though. It is hard to make a decision like that because you know it would hurt you but what would be the right thing for your friend? What would you tell her?

Deep dive 14 -

Churches are very importtant to our christian walks. Church is kind of like our chritian gas-station in which we fill up on the word of God and the love that He has for us. Without church, we get low in our "followship" (this is a word that was made up by the RIKKS which is like fellowship but with following) and eventually putter out. Church is important to keep us on our feet with the other christians that lead, guide, and even follow us in our faith.
We need to re-fill on faith everyone in awhile so we don't run out of gas and end up stuck on the side of the road, and we need to help the others in our life who are stuck on the side of the road. God charged us to help people so we must help the people of the world to see His love for them and to understand how He loves them. 

Deep Dive 14 - 1 Corinthineans 12

God created the world, and everything thing in it. That is a fact. God also created everyone with a purpose. Everyone has something they want to do and  be in their lives and God is the one that forms that, but only if we are open to Him. He has the greatest plan for our lives and He should be the one that we listen to.
It is kind of hard to do if we are closed to Him though and if we are not open to doing anything other than wbhat we want. I want to be an author, and spend my life writing books, but God might have a different plant for ma and it is up to Him to decide, but it is not only Him, we have to decide to listen to Him.
When God creatred the Church, He created us Christians to be a body. The body of Christ, and we must all work together to be that body, just as our body works together, and in this body, I always thought that I would be a hand or a figure. I alwasy figure that that is what I would be because I am a writer. God might not have made me like that. He might have made me a toe. If he wanted me to be a toe, I am a toe, but I have to accept being a toe. That is a hard thing to do but it is worth it.

Deep Dive 14 - Ruth

I do not know anyone who feels completely isolated from everyone, but I do know people who need a friend. Usually the people who need friends are the ones that the worl sees as outcasts, but God loves them so He puts people in their lives to be their friends. Most of the time, that peson is you. I know people like that and I know there is someone who needs it but there is fear that stands in the way. In almost evrything you are asked to do, fear will stand in the way and try to prevent you from doing it. Especially when God asks you to do somehting.

This was also true for Naomi of the bible. Naomi felt isolated but God sent Ruth to her to go with her and to stop the isolation. We must all be like Ruth and say yes to God so when there is someone like Naomi, she will not feel isolated and alone but she will have a friend and someone to depend on. If there is a Naomi in your life, go and be their Ruth, for the bible says "I was lost and you accepted me".

Deep Dive 14

It says int he bible that we are to sharpen each other. That means we are to encourage anad help each other along in our daily walks. This is a very easy thing to say, but a hard thing to do. Encourageing others for an upcoming test is easy, and encouraging kids to pursue what they enjoy is a piece of cake, but encouraging others with somehting you struggkle with is hard. We must do it though, and just as I need sharpening there are also many who also need it. How can we sharpen people though? How can we encourage them? Thsi is a question that I cannot answer, but God can. So pray to him, O Saints of God, tha5 He may lead, guide, and direct your path.

This also applies to the people at church. For christions church should be like the sharpener they use for skatesk constantly turning and constantly sharpening. We must constantly be helping and sharpening each other. We can do that to. Everytime you are at church, you don't have to stand and yell it out at the pulpit, but say an encouraging word to them. Pray for them. That is hiw you can sharpen people.

Saying "No" to the Holy Spirit

The word 'no' is a very simple word. It is made up of two letters, N and O. They are even right beside each other in the Alphabet. The word "no" cna be a very dangerous word though. If you say it to anyone a whole string on consiquences are likely to follow. Especially if you say it to God.

Saying 'no' to God is somethign that we do on a regular basis, wether we are christians or not. We always try to say "yes" and sometimes we say no without even noticing, but we all use the word no. This is very dangerous water we are treading though. We say no and then ask why there are bad things happening. Here is an example.  Say you had a cookie tin, and in that cookie tin was your favorite kind of cookie. It is before supper and you asked your mom if you could have a cookie. She says you can have  one, but after you eat it, you decide that they are soo good and that you can't help buyt eat another. Then two becomes more and more and more until you get sick. They you have to tell your mom what you did and face the consequences. This is a mild example, but what I the Holy Spirit tells you to do something? If the Holy Spirit tells you to do something and you don't do it, it could be a life you are losing to hell and not just risking a stomach ache.

That is our nature though. We say no because it won't benefit us and it won't help us in anyway. I know a person, we will call him "Calvin." Well, I know someone named "calvin" and Calvin and my family were going to help move a frind of ours. Calvin had 2 friends named "Nick and Murray" and they were going to come and help too, but right before we all left to help, Calvin, Nick, and Murray decided not to help because there was no gain to it, another friend named "Imelda" had to bribe them into helping with a trip to a restaurant. That is our human nature though. We say no unless it helps us.

We also have to be listening to God though. If we are not listening, we cannot hear, and we cannot do. It is hard to listen sometimes and I still haven't really know if what I was hearing was my thoughts or Him, but we have to listen and we have to always try and never give up. We have to be willing to listen and to do what he tells us. Are you listening? 

Ignorance is Not Bliss

It is interesting that with many things we do, it usually backfires on us. Even notice that? And ever notice how when you ask God to help you with it, it doesn't back fire? That is because He loves us and nothing we can do can change that. But we don't really asee that, so in return for his love, we act like animals to him. We run away down the wrong path and we sin agianst Him constantly. We are like dogs in fron t of Him. Maybe not all the time but for a approxomately 99.99% of the time. We do what we want all the time and usually don't even consider God. I have been like that. Dogs like to whine at evrything and we were tqalking about whining in my sunday school class on Sunday. We were doing an experiment and seeing how many times we whined in a week. I whined alot. I am one of the biggest whiners that I know and I complain constantly. I am like a whining dog in front of God, and that does bold well because no one likes a whining dog.

After saying that, is there a way that we can stop being like dogs in front of God? Not by ourselves I can asure you. We need the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit if we really want to change and since we ae in front of God, whining, we really do need a change. People don't really think about it, but we are in front of God right now and all the time. We stand thaere and we whine and we act like animals in front of the king of kings. It is embarrasing if you think about it. We are making fools of ourselves in front of the Master of the Universe! I can tell you it makes me sheepish when you think about that part. But He loves us, so it doesn't matter if we feel sheepish or not, he will never let us go.

We are liek whining dogs in front of God and we are also ingratful. We take everything for granted and never really understand that amount of stuff that God has given us. We just sit there and go along but we never really do anything. God made the world for us and he knew we were going to muck it uip, but he still gave us a chance! We don't even care though. We can't do anythign that God doesn't see and know and we can't think anything that God doesn't hear. He knows us better than anyone and for all He has done for us, all He wants is not only to be the God and Masters of our lives, but also to be our friends and companions. That is one way that we can appreciate all the things that he has done for us.

Who let the dogs out?

Being a Christian is a big responsibility. We are the ones who have to show the peopel of this lost world the way to Jesus. That is a big job. And He is the one who leads us and helps us to show those people the love of God, but can I ask you a question (besides the one I just asked)? When you serve God to please Him, is it because of guilt because all the things that he did for you, or is it because of grace because he loves and died for you? For me, the answer is grace. Jesus loved me so much that he would die for me so that I could live and I will serve Him.

Indirectly, this bring up another question. When you serve God, are you doing by yourself? Are you trying to spread the Word of Gof by yourself? Because I will  tell you right now, you will fail. The Holy Spirit is in enabler and you need Him to help you. I weord for God with the help of the Holy Spirit. I asked him to come live in me and now we are buddies. I rely on Him to help me through the trials and to help me spread the word about him.

Now that we have that covered, we have to work on the mission field. In my church before it got painted, there use to be a sign over the door on the inside that said "You are now entering the mission field." This is true. There are many christians who think that the church is the mission field but when God cam into the worl, he preached in the towns and the countries to teh people, but not to the people in teh church. He siad to the Parisees "Why would you heal the ones who are not sick?" He is saying, why preach tot eh peopel who know the word? We are supposed to spred the word with the people who do not know him. Do you have people in your life who needs to hear the word of God? I do. I have friends and Family who need to to hear the word of God and it is my job to help them hear. By the Grace of God.