God is very important. He is the Creator and He wants all of his creations to live with Him in eternal splendor. That is His plan. And we, as Christians, are going to have that. What about the rest of the world? They need to know too! What good is it for us to be Christians if we don't tell anyone about Christ? As my pastor says, "We love all our family and friends to hell." We love our family and friends, but we never tell them. We are too caught up in worldly things. We want to be famous, and lave good lives, and reach our goals... Wait! What goals? Worldly goals? Or the goals that God sets for us? I want to follow God and reach his goal for me. What about you? Are you trying to achieve worldly goals like jobs and fame with only your human effort? Are you asking God for help? I am not saying that there is anything wrong with goals or jobs but we have to want His goals and strive to achieve them... and with His help, we will!
On that note, what are your goals? Me? I want to be an author. I have dreams and goals that I want to acomplish and achieve, but are they worthy goals? Do they need help? I say YES. We need help from God in everything we do! Especially me! We need him to take a look at what we are doing and let Him do what He wants to do. Our hearts are His home, so when we let him in, we also have to let him clean house. Everyone needs that! We need to have God's perspective on things and we need Him to help us live the way that He wants us to.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Butterfly Misses
Butterflies are very interesting. The float around on empty air and look very pretty. People find that interesting... but if you were to take a fake butterfly and a real butterfly to a child, the child would pick the fake butterfly becasue the colors are more elaborate or it's bigger than the real thing. The church is like that. We decide that we want the fake butterfly. The "butterfly" is not an actual butterfly mind you, it is just something that illustrates all the things that the Church would rather do and have more than they want Jesus. They put fake ideals and morals before the real Jesus. I find that wrong. Me? I want the real deal. Jesus is better than any fake butterfly.
This effects the Church greatly. Nowadays the Church goes for the fake "butterfly", the things that seem better and more cool than Jesus. They come in different forms though. One way that the church prefers the fake butterfly is when they burned bibles! The church believed that the King James Version was the only "true" bible so they burned a whole bunch of other bibles! Also, they are churches that except homosexuality. It says several times in the bible where that is wrong but still they do it. These things are unbiblical but they are becoming more and more popular. These are our fake butterflies.
That is a problem for me. I want the real butterfly before any fake one and I also want to show my real butterfly to my friends who don't believe. Now how do I do that? I show them forgiveness and love and try to be everything that the bible tells christians to be, but how do they respond? Usually they walk away, still walowing the disbelief and the void of emptiness. That is sad. They don't all see it that way though. Some see the real butterfly for what it is but have doubts about it because the church is playing with the fake butterfly. So how can we help them see? Without their consent, they never will.
We can't give up though. We must always try.
This effects the Church greatly. Nowadays the Church goes for the fake "butterfly", the things that seem better and more cool than Jesus. They come in different forms though. One way that the church prefers the fake butterfly is when they burned bibles! The church believed that the King James Version was the only "true" bible so they burned a whole bunch of other bibles! Also, they are churches that except homosexuality. It says several times in the bible where that is wrong but still they do it. These things are unbiblical but they are becoming more and more popular. These are our fake butterflies.
That is a problem for me. I want the real butterfly before any fake one and I also want to show my real butterfly to my friends who don't believe. Now how do I do that? I show them forgiveness and love and try to be everything that the bible tells christians to be, but how do they respond? Usually they walk away, still walowing the disbelief and the void of emptiness. That is sad. They don't all see it that way though. Some see the real butterfly for what it is but have doubts about it because the church is playing with the fake butterfly. So how can we help them see? Without their consent, they never will.
We can't give up though. We must always try.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Busyness Bashed the Believer
Busyness it not a sin, but it is a great time waster. Everything seems to take time today and everyone is so busy! We all have "super important" things to do and we ignore everything to do it. That effects everything. It effects me quite often. Instead if reading my bible and praying I sometimes find myself talking to a friend on the phone for a bit or maybe watching a movie with my sister. For me, at the time, they seem like good reasons, but neither my sister (no offense) or my friends are more important than God. I know it and he knows it, but he sees it in a different light. He sees it like I am randomly doing anything and spending no time with Him and considering that that is the creator, that is a very bad thing. I am busy too. I have homework and little things that seem important but aren't, and everyone around me knows it.
That's one of the problems that we have to face. So what do we do about it? We take a break! We set aside an hour or two and just pray and read the bible and listen to God. You have to do this alone though. If you do it with someone else, you are sure to get distracted. Maybe you could do it with two but you would have to be very focused. Well, the point is, you have to listen to God. It is kind of like a coffee break from the world. And believe me, every now and then, we all need a cup of coffee.
Speaking of coffee, think about your daily routines. Do you get up and immediatly make yourself a cup of coffee? Maybe, but what does that do? It might keep you awake for a moment, but how long does a moment really last? IT flies by and is gone. Now, let's take that moment and think about it. Here we have a piece of time. The only piece of time that matters because when it gets there, that's all the time that there is. Now, let's say that in this moment, you make yourself a cup of coffee. WAIT! We have just wasted the moment. Rewind. Now we have no coffee, and we still have the same moment. Let's do something with it. Let's go and help the lady crossing the street, or let's go and talk to the kids down the hall. Be nice to someone and pray in that moment. Now, what is better, coffee, or Heaven?! With God, heaven is the reward. With coffee? Well... not so much. Now, let's look at that moment again. By talking to those people or by helping them. You could change their lives. you could help them make a decision about something. You could even impact the future! The future of even 1000 years, so would the coffee be worth it?
That's one of the problems that we have to face. So what do we do about it? We take a break! We set aside an hour or two and just pray and read the bible and listen to God. You have to do this alone though. If you do it with someone else, you are sure to get distracted. Maybe you could do it with two but you would have to be very focused. Well, the point is, you have to listen to God. It is kind of like a coffee break from the world. And believe me, every now and then, we all need a cup of coffee.
Speaking of coffee, think about your daily routines. Do you get up and immediatly make yourself a cup of coffee? Maybe, but what does that do? It might keep you awake for a moment, but how long does a moment really last? IT flies by and is gone. Now, let's take that moment and think about it. Here we have a piece of time. The only piece of time that matters because when it gets there, that's all the time that there is. Now, let's say that in this moment, you make yourself a cup of coffee. WAIT! We have just wasted the moment. Rewind. Now we have no coffee, and we still have the same moment. Let's do something with it. Let's go and help the lady crossing the street, or let's go and talk to the kids down the hall. Be nice to someone and pray in that moment. Now, what is better, coffee, or Heaven?! With God, heaven is the reward. With coffee? Well... not so much. Now, let's look at that moment again. By talking to those people or by helping them. You could change their lives. you could help them make a decision about something. You could even impact the future! The future of even 1000 years, so would the coffee be worth it?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Beyond the Pole
In my opinion, the media has a very warped view of todays culture. Yes, I admit that there are a lot of kids who would rather play video games and not do anything but it is the human nature to seek purpose. Everyone once and awhile questions what there purpose for being here is. Teens do this as well... and during their search, the do things. They help out at a library or something, trying to find out what they are good at and what they like doing. They help people around their communities and do new and inventive things. The media sees us all as one big blob, but we are more than that. We are more that conqueres!
This applies to everyone. Everyone can be seen by the media as worthless, but that is more because they don't knoiw us. It is very easy for someone to be sterotypical when they don't know the person. Once you get to know us though, you will se what we are. We are people who do things. Take me this past summer. I helped my aunt reorganize the whole church library. It took two days of working eight hours straight. It was fun though, and they library had never been nicer. Also, the prayer-a-thon which my sunday school class/ youth group are going to be doing. We will be praying for the people of the church and everyone and everything. That is our purpose and our difference.
We all need to do something though. We feel a compulsive need to do something and not to just sit around and do nothing. That is good. It inspires creativity, and creativity is from God. So think about it readers. What do you want to do? Do you want to sit around and play video games just like the media blames us for, or do you want to be more than conquers for Gods and do something? Think about it. I know what I am going to do though. I am going to try to get a prayer time for my family to pray for things. You could to the same! I dare you to!
This applies to everyone. Everyone can be seen by the media as worthless, but that is more because they don't knoiw us. It is very easy for someone to be sterotypical when they don't know the person. Once you get to know us though, you will se what we are. We are people who do things. Take me this past summer. I helped my aunt reorganize the whole church library. It took two days of working eight hours straight. It was fun though, and they library had never been nicer. Also, the prayer-a-thon which my sunday school class/ youth group are going to be doing. We will be praying for the people of the church and everyone and everything. That is our purpose and our difference.
We all need to do something though. We feel a compulsive need to do something and not to just sit around and do nothing. That is good. It inspires creativity, and creativity is from God. So think about it readers. What do you want to do? Do you want to sit around and play video games just like the media blames us for, or do you want to be more than conquers for Gods and do something? Think about it. I know what I am going to do though. I am going to try to get a prayer time for my family to pray for things. You could to the same! I dare you to!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Beware the Bear
Satan is always prowling like a hungry bear. If he is not after you, he is after someone else. He usually does it all at the same time though. That is bad because probably let's say, 10 peope are being temped this very second, probably 8/10 will be sucessfully tempted and lose somethign to the devil. That happens a lot and we have to guard against it. I am not without fault here. I am as much a victim as anyone. The devil is constantly barging into my prayer and reading of the bible time by giving something more interesting. He always says "this would be more interesting" or "that would be fun to do. A lot more fun than this is." Most of the time I fall for it though. So it is really my fault. It is the devil's fault that me is tempting me, but it is my fault for giving in.
I am aware of these schemes for a simple reason. It has become a habit to skip out on prayer time and to not read the bible, and that source of the habit is Satan. That is how I know it is him. The flesh would want me not to read my bible and to do something else. That is our sinful nature...but guess who started that! Well... actually it is Adam and Eve's fault but that was before the sinful nature... but I am not going to get into that. The point is that the Devil always gives us something more interesting for us to do and we do it because our flesh it weak. That is how we know we are being tempted.
That's when the fishing holes come in. Every once in awhile, the devil comes and attacks of hangouts and what we do for fun in our free time. Those places or things are our fishing holes. The devil knows what we like doing and then he attacks us there. If it is with your friends, he tries to get you to do bad things with them. If it is in front of your computer he gives the ideas to look for bad things. Evil is all around so sometimes, we just need to change holes. Find a new place to hang out and do new things. Make it harder for him to tempt you by being in the most safe fishing hole. God's!
I am aware of these schemes for a simple reason. It has become a habit to skip out on prayer time and to not read the bible, and that source of the habit is Satan. That is how I know it is him. The flesh would want me not to read my bible and to do something else. That is our sinful nature...but guess who started that! Well... actually it is Adam and Eve's fault but that was before the sinful nature... but I am not going to get into that. The point is that the Devil always gives us something more interesting for us to do and we do it because our flesh it weak. That is how we know we are being tempted.
That's when the fishing holes come in. Every once in awhile, the devil comes and attacks of hangouts and what we do for fun in our free time. Those places or things are our fishing holes. The devil knows what we like doing and then he attacks us there. If it is with your friends, he tries to get you to do bad things with them. If it is in front of your computer he gives the ideas to look for bad things. Evil is all around so sometimes, we just need to change holes. Find a new place to hang out and do new things. Make it harder for him to tempt you by being in the most safe fishing hole. God's!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Been Walked On?
The way I see it, comparing a carpet to our Christian lives and walks is a very accurate analogy. People who aren't Christians think that Christians are all hippity-hoppity happy all the time but that is not true. We act like other people and we do the same things, but we have God with us to help us. We also have God to help clean the carpets.
Cleaning the carpet is a very important thing to do. If you walk into a house and cringe because the door mat is dirty, you start making inferences about the people who live there and you feel like leaving. Most people don't like that so they think of something they can do to fix it. The obvious thing to do to make the house more welcome is to clean the carpet. So, they get the vacuum and clean it all up and the house resumes it's friendly attire. Then peopel want to come in again. This is like our Christian lives.
If people look at your Christian lives and see a dirty door mat, they aren't going to be too impressed and are probably going to walk away thinking that Christianity is just doing the same thing as them, so they walk away and never even consider it again. How can we fix that? We clean the carpet! How do we do that though? It's not like a regular vacuum will work this time, we need something with more power to do this job... and what has more power than God!!
That;s right, you have just gotten a live time guarantee that "Jesus's Vacuuming service" will always be there when you need it. You just call him up and tell him what the problem is. Tell him all that is happening in your life and ask for forgiveness. Then "BAM!" No more dirty carpet. Suddenly all the muck is gone!
So you can see, the carpet analogy is very accurate, and it is easy to understand. We arre carpets and God is the only thing that can clean them. All you have to do it ask.
Cleaning the carpet is a very important thing to do. If you walk into a house and cringe because the door mat is dirty, you start making inferences about the people who live there and you feel like leaving. Most people don't like that so they think of something they can do to fix it. The obvious thing to do to make the house more welcome is to clean the carpet. So, they get the vacuum and clean it all up and the house resumes it's friendly attire. Then peopel want to come in again. This is like our Christian lives.
If people look at your Christian lives and see a dirty door mat, they aren't going to be too impressed and are probably going to walk away thinking that Christianity is just doing the same thing as them, so they walk away and never even consider it again. How can we fix that? We clean the carpet! How do we do that though? It's not like a regular vacuum will work this time, we need something with more power to do this job... and what has more power than God!!
That;s right, you have just gotten a live time guarantee that "Jesus's Vacuuming service" will always be there when you need it. You just call him up and tell him what the problem is. Tell him all that is happening in your life and ask for forgiveness. Then "BAM!" No more dirty carpet. Suddenly all the muck is gone!
So you can see, the carpet analogy is very accurate, and it is easy to understand. We arre carpets and God is the only thing that can clean them. All you have to do it ask.
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