So Christmas is Over Now

So Christmas is over now for another year. Did all the songs on the radio, the shopping, the parties---make you sad or maybe even empty feeling? Maybe it was wonderful for you and you felt great. Either way, we need to look outside ourselves and see what God might be doing during this holiday time. Is He working in your life? What about the lives of the students at your school? Look around. See what you think.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." Matthew 2:1,2

When I was in college many years ago in the mid-southern section of the United States, something fascinating happened. It was incredible. It was glorious. It was frightening---and I missed it.

I had only seen pictures of the beautiful ribbons of light known as Aurora Borealis----The Northern Lights. Living as far south as I always had, I didn't even consider viewing it as a possibility, unless of course, I visited Canada or Alaska. Yet, one day as I began my day on campus, the news of the spectacular show of the previous evening reached my ears. As I recall, it seems that someone had even thought it was the "end of the world." The Northern Lights had actually become visible that night in Arkansas. Where was I? Somewhere inside a building, oblivious to what would have been one of the most memorable experiences of my life. As stories of the red bands in the sky reached my ears, disappointment filled my heart. I wished that I could have somehow known.

The Magi had been looking. They were aware of the methodical changes in the appearance of the night sky. They saw the unusually bright star. They were also aware of the prophecies. They knew there was to be born a king of the Jews. They must have been living out their lives with an attitude of informed expectancy. They were prepared.

How many things in my life would God have shown me---the fascinating things, the incredible things, the glorious, yet frightening things---if only I'd been watching, waiting......expecting.

Lord, help me to learn to look for You---to watch expectantly for Your presence and activity.

Trust Me

Jesus knows just how I feel. He knows what I'm concerned about, He knows my joys and He knows my heartaches. As I was praying about something so very important to me, these words came suddenly to my mind:

"Trust Me."

Those two words are precious to me now as I refer to them often. I don't know how this matter will resolve, but I feel that I must trust Jesus in it. Why should I trust Him?

Colossians 1:15-20 says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross."

That's why.

--mj

Spend Time With Him

When we live out our lives, are we living them out in away that when people see us its not us they see but God? Do they look at us and go "I want what he is having", if not, why not? Why is the Holy Spirit not shining through our eyes and lighting up our face? Why are we not that light in someones life that they need? As you get to know more about God your light will get brighter, and there maybe times when you need to cover up otherwise you will burn out and that isn't good! The power of God is mind blowing and no-one can really understand it, but to get to know God, to get to know his power, then we need to spend time with him!


----Andi (age 20)

Armageddon of Our Life

We are at war and I must continue to filter life through those lenses if not then the enemy has me to his advantage. Learning about life and trying to make sense of it all, I realize that this war runs true through every arena of life. Especially areas that are God centered. Let's think about it... If I was leading a war I would first act on the things or people that are most threatening to me. That only makes sense. So in this spiritual war that we face the enemy is smart and he plans his attacks against the most threatening things which are a man or women fully alive in Christ. What I know is Marriage is a good thing, so it will be a main firing zone for the enemy but being aware of this allows me to be prepared for the fight. I find my strength in the Lord. Rachel has shown me a lot through this learning process and I'm blessed to have her walking along side of me in this battle. When I look at her I see a Woman, Beauty itself, tenderness and intimacy. Guys that's worth fighting for. We are at War, don't be fooled.

---Chad (age 22)

The Best Way I Can

I am an extremely imperfect person that is loved by a God that created me to be a far better man. For your sake I hope you interact with me when I'm listening to Him and His love flows through me to you. All my motivations, although they might seem good, would ultimately boil down to nothing in the end if it were not for the life that Christ provides.
I'm nearing the tail end of my long-winded college experience. Most of it has actually served to teach me more about what I don't want to do with my life than what I do, which is find a way to use the talents I've been given and the knowledge I've acquired to serve the Lord and show His love to others in the best way I can.


Everyone has a hole in their heart that only God can fill... it's how He created us. I've slowly come to realize that the majority of people in our society, even most Christians, including me growing up and to a certain extent now, try to fill that hole in their heart with love from others. While I believe loving relationships with significant others, friends and family is all very vital to the well-being of a person's life, I'd say that when you try to use it to fill the hole designed only for God then you end up putting too much pressure on the people you love and are receiving love from, which can end up hurting relationships. I have great admiration and respect for people I've met in life that really just GET IT. Our love for each other, while capable of being amazing at times, is not what keeps us together, as our world today seems to say even in the most attractive and seemingly harmless ways, but rather God's love through us. I'm still learning about life and love every day... and who knows? My opinions may change even further in the future.

---Thomas (age 24)

Go Out and Find the World!

You want to see everything--find everything. There's the great unknown: where will I live? Who will I date next? What job will I have? The future is inviting.

Before we look out to the great unknown, we need to look inside ourselves. Is God there? Are we allowing Him to guide us out into the future?

You don't need to go on the journey without consulting your guide---and that would be God.

Promises

Hosea 14: 4-8

4The LORD says, I will bring my people back to me. I will love them with all my heart; No longer am I angry with them. 5I will be to the people of Israel Like rain in a dry land. They will blossom like flowers; They will be firmly rooted Like the trees of Lebanon. 6They will be alive with new growth, And beautiful like olive trees. They will be fragrant Like the cedars of Lebanon. 7Once again they will live under my protection. They will grow crops of grain And be fruitful like a vineyard. They will be as famous as the wine of Lebanon. 8The people of Israel will have nothing more to do with idols; I will answer their prayers and take care of them. Like an evergreen tree I will shelter them; I am the source of all their blessings.
It’s all very well and good for God to be making promises, and for non believers its hard not only to maybe believe in God but the fact that God keeps promises. I mean think about it. Man makes promises and granted man does keep some of them but man also breaks them too.
First promise that God makes is that he forgives. That he loves us and will forgives us and bring us. A love that is unconditional.
Second promise is that he will refresh us. I don’t know about you but when I go to church or I spend time in prayer or I am doing bible study when its finished I feel so refreshed especially at church. God’s Holy Spirit filling me up again for another week to be working in my life. God doesn’t leave us. Its one thing to love us and because of that he gives us fuel. Just like a parent feeds a child.
Third promise that when we do things that is with god’s blessing that it will flourish. Ever wonder why relationships may not work? It’s not because that God breaks them up it doesn’t work because its not meant to. I am not saying that God wanted us to have nuclear weapons but what I am saying that nuclear power is a good renewable energy that when done safely is good. It is man that has turned it into a lethal weapon. Fourth promise is that we will be alive. That we will not be boring people with boring lives. We will be boring people with lives if that’s what you want to be. But God promises that our lives will not be like that!
Fifth promise is that we will be beautiful. "Your body is a temple" 1 Corinthians 6: 19. How many temples and churches are beautiful? It may not be that you feel a beauty on the outside but there is an inner beauty. And that will seep through to the outside. God made you how he wanted you to look. He made you beautiful whether you find that easy to believe or not, it’s true.
Sixth promise is that God will protect us. That he will shield us from the enemy. We may let man in and Satan will try to tempt us but Satan will not kill us personally. We are the redeemed through Jesus and we will never die! Already God is pointing to the cross.
Seventh promise is that we will be famous. Maybe not in the sense of Beckham but we will be famous that God will know our name, that people will have known us for the good things we have done in God’s name.
And who do we have to thank for making these promises and keeping them? The God who is the same yesterday, Today and forever. Amen

Andi (age 19)

Radiate and Glorify!

My favorite thing about life is that there is this great, big, GOD that knows me, loves me, and wants me to share this love i've found with anyone i come in contact with. I want my life to radiate and glorify HIM!

--Emile (age 21)

Trust Jesus

Many people feel that they can't trust anyone.


You can trust Jesus.


He will never let you down.

Is Your Life Out of Control?

When things seem out of control, ask God to bring everything back to order. Ask Him for wisdom in knowing what you are supposed to do.

God Cares

Are you happy? God cares about it. Are you sad? He cares about that, too.

No matter what you are going through, God cares. You can pray and tell Him exactly what you're feeling. He is always there for you.

God cares.

--mj

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

FAKE

I grew up in Christian schools from 6 weeks old all the way through high school graduation. My parents didn’t go to church but would always take us if we wanted to go. Usually they would drop us off and either someone would bring us home or they would come back and pick us up. I always knew about God and Jesus. As long as I can remember I knew about salvation and going to heaven. What I didn’t realize until I was older was that knowing about God and Jesus is not the same as knowing God and knowing Jesus. Knowing about salvation is not the same as being saved and knowing about heaven is not the same as the assurance that I will be there someday.


When I was in 11th grade, I was on the praise and worship team at the school that I was attending. Not only was I singing, but many days I was leading worship. Most of the time it didn’t bother me, but all of the sudden one day I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stand up in front of my peers and lead them into worship. I wasn’t sure why, but something in my heart wasn’t right. I asked to be benched until I could work through this and I was. I finally realized that I was fake. I was leading people into the presence of God daily, but I wasn’t really getting there myself. My whole faith walk, wasn’t a walk at all, it was a mirror image of what I grew up around. That is when I really figured out about having a personal relationship with God. It changed my life forever.

To this day my life is not perfect and neither am I. Even after truly coming to Christ, I made mistakes and I did things that I wish I could take back, but through it all I believe that I have learned from those and have grown closer to God each time I stumble. I know that until the day that I die or Jesus comes back, I will continue to stumble but God’s grace will continue to be there to pick me up and dust me off. And my greatest hope is that as my son grows up, that he will see God at work in my life and that he will desire the same type of relationship with God. I don’t want him to be in the place where I was thinking he was ok with God; I want him to know without a shadow of a doubt where he is in that relationship. By the grace of God, I and his father will be able to guide him down the right path and raise him to desire what is good and right.

---Brenda (age 24)

NEW WEEK!

NEW POSSIBILITIES!

LIVE LIFE BACKWARDS SDRAWKCAB EFIL EVIL

I once heard someone talk on living life backwards. It's like you consider what you're about to choose and then you think about what will happen behind that choice. Okay--it's this way. Let's say you're thinking of NOT running track this year at school. Think backwards---if you do that, you'll have more time for friends, but when you apply for that scholarship the coach has been talking about, well, if you quit the team you probably won't get it. What to choose? What's most important to you? You decide.

It's like that with everything. It's your choice what you do, how you respond to things. What you say when someone's RUDE. What to say when you know you're the only one who could encourage a friend. You choose.

Lots of people have put "What would Jesus do?" on everything from jewelry to t-shirts. It's a good thing to think about, even though people may use that phrase so much that they forget what it really means. Maybe it's time to consider that question when a decision has to be made.

Choices. We make them....we live them.

--mj

Have Faith

The only thing I know for sure in my life is that God's watching over me. The past three years have contained inexplicable amounts of pain, and I know that the only way my mother and I made it through was God's amazing grace. My parents went through a horrifyingly messy divorce. The foot prints poem is how I managed, when I could go no further God carried me. The great journey God has planned for me has taken me 800 miles away from everything I ever knew, however the more I'm in my new home I realize how God moves through people. God gave me the amazing gift of being able to relate to people and has given me the resources to be one-on-one with my community. The most important thing I can say is have faith, God will never let you down because you are his child and he loves you. It's always worked for me.
- Victoria (age 15)

The Most Amazing Man

One Day God will allow me to meet the most amazing man. He is going to be everything that I have ever dreamed of. We will be so happy it will make other people sick. He will be a man of God first of all and love me more than words. He was made just for me and I can't wait to meet him. I am def. a believer that God makes that special someone for you and I can't wait to meet my Mr.Right. Ok maybe I am a lil bit of a Romantic...I girl can dream can't she....haha I would love to meet Rebecca St. James...she probably has the best stories on missions in other countries as well as in the states...she truely is a warrior for GOD and I would love to accomplish at least half of what she has in her life for God.
----Brittany (age 21)

Never Too Young

Ever been told that you’re too young? Ever feel that because of your age you can’t do things? Ever felt that there will always be that excuse?

Well tonight I am going to prove that for God you are never too young! God uses young people as well as old and there is no age boundary from which you cant be used! But to make life easy lets start in the old testament and work our way through to the new.

First person that I thought of when I went to write this was Joseph (Genesis 37). This is the guy who Lord Webber turned into countless shows. Yep, it’s the guy with the technical colour dream coat. Now any ideas how old this guy was?

He was 17 years of age. (Genesis 37:2). What did this 17 year old boy do? He made plans so that Egypt could have stores. So he would have been involved with the design of constructing them, may have overseen them being built. Planned how much was needed to be saved and then managed to ration what was saved to save millions of people from starvation. This all by one 17 year old boy who had god on his side!

The Next person that springs to mind is David who fought against goliath. How old do you think this “boy” was? He was between the age of 15 to 17(1). Yet what amazing things did David do? He was a king who ruled a country. And just like us he kept messing up to, he kept doing things wrong. Yet God still used him.

Samuel was called by god. (1 Sam 3:1-10) but he didn’t realise that it was God calling him. He thought it was Eli. Samuel was 12 years of age (2).! 12! And God called out to him. If God calls out to a 12 year old boy what is he doing to do for those that are older? But it doesn’t stop there!

When Jesus was 12 he was found in the temple teaching and talking to the elders (Luke 2). God is never ageist. He uses young and old. He uses men and women. God loves everyone. Never let anyone say your too young to be doing something for God because God calls us all! And God will call you no matter what your age.

---Andi (age 19)

Between the Roots??

Okay. What does "between the roots" mean? Well, it's not a happy thing to remember, but I'll tell you, anyway.

I'm going to bet that I'm not alone in having a "less than perfect" childhood. I didn't live with any brothers or sisters and alcoholism ravaged the parent I lived with. Life was uncertain, depending on decisions the adults made, good or bad.

I walked 6 blocks to school. (but when it snowed, someone usually gave me a ride---I don't have any "walked 3 miles to school in the snow" stories.)

I would often be a little early, and it was school policy to have the students wait outside on the school grounds until the first bell rang. I carried a lot of shame with me, even as a kid, so I was often a loner.

The school had been there forever. My mother had even gone to that neighborhood school as a child. It had GIANT trees that stood tall and strong in front of the school. One tree that I remember had two huge roots that stuck out of the ground and formed what looked like low chair arms leading from the tree into the soil. I would go to the tree and sit in between the two roots, alone, until it was time to go into the school. I think it felt safe there. The big arms of the roots on either side of my tiny body and the big, strong tree at my back. Somehow, it was comforting. Mornings brought with them the memories of the previous night and the fears of the day to come. I needed what reassurance I could get.

Even then, God was taking care of me and little by little I came to understand that He was real--that I could pray and ask for help. I DO have some stories about that...they'll come on another day.

What was really the truth about everything? I'd only been alive on this earth just a few years and already life was filled with conflicting realities. What should have been right was all wrong. Was being a Christian really what it looked like to my hurting eyes? Or was it something different?

I had to find out for myself. God was there all the time.

Don't give up if life seems wrecked to you right now. If nothing's right that should be, there's hope. Don't give up.

---Myra

Psalm 37:34

Need to Belong

Why is it that we feel a need to belong? Who gives us this urge to feel wanted, this need to have a purpose? Why do we try and do what we feel we need to do to fit in? Surely normal is what we make it?

We all belong because we were made to belong "So God created Man and woman" Genesis 1:27. If we weren’t then every time man did something wrong would be the last time. Eating the apple was forbidden, the flood’s from Noah. We are meant to survive if not then God wouldn’t have saved man time after time after time.

We need to think carefully about what we try to do to fit in. Sometimes it can be like having a spade and before we know it, we have dug a hole and life can be like that. We can start doing something which we feel we need to do to fit in but it can end up getting us into a mess. There are examples of this throughout the bible. First Eve had the apple in her hand before she ate it. Haggai 1: 5-6 "Now this is what the Lord almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put it in a purse with holes in it." This passage warns us what can happen. Sometimes enough isn’t enough. We can read the bible and read it and read it and it cant change us and this is not what this is about. We need to change we need to move. Life is a journey. Although some peoples journeys are shorter than others the destination is the same in the end. We may need to stop off on the way but we all need to keep moving. We need to be willing to change though. If we are not willing then we wont. We have the ability to choose what to do!

We can choose to be a mocker or a gossiper, we can choose what we want to do and the part we play. After all Jesus didn’t say it would be easy.
We need to live in a way that is transparent. How can we be lights of the world if all we are is dark? How can we reflect God’s love it we are dull? The Christian life is not dull, it is not like that. It does not say that we are to be depressed, disappointed or lost. We are chosen by God. Everyone was put on this earth was chosen. Perfect to do the plan that god has set before them. "For I know the plans I have for you." "Plans to prosper you not harm you. Plans to give you hope" (Jeremiah 29: 11)

How powerful is the word "hope". Hope is positive, it is uplifting. Hope is believing. If you don’t believe in something you can’t hope it will happen! I am not saying we should all be smiles all the time, but the need to feeling to belong has already been dealt with.
So if we all ready to belong then why do we feel the need to t be ourselves? If we are honest we are not always ourselves. We seem to be one way around one group of people and another way for another. But how many of us actually feel worth something? The media doesn’t make me feel wanted. It makes me feel fat, stupid, and useless and dare I say it boring. It’s not just television, magazines are just as bad. If its not mans magazines showing half naked women on a page then its magazines with an article about feeling great about the way you are with an advert for weight watchers with a slim girl on the other page!

I can’t imagine how alone that girl must feel to have to bare all to feel a sense of belonging. "Your body is a temple" 1 Corinthians 6: 19. How can you put a price on that? How can you put a price on something so priceless? Then there are other things to look at. How holy are our bodies? Yet we all treat them like they are rubbish to be thrown out in the trash. Once again I am not saying we shouldn’t enjoy food that is unhealthy but how many of us think about inside? We focus on the outside. We model it to be what we want. Piercings, tattoos, weight loss all the things on the outside but what about our inside stuff? How often do we stand back and think "wow"? Even if you take something as simple as the heart it is still s complex.

Made of four chambers, can beat on its own, made up of different tissues, is elastic, two way pump, conducts electricity. Then you have each individual cell all of which work together. How long would it take for man to invent such a device? Yet this is just one small part of our bodies made for a purpose. If that doesn’t prove we belong then what does! Hearts are designed to last for as long as they are needed yet God gave man the ability to repair them! God made us from the finest materials and sometimes it’s easy to forget that.

We all belong, and Satan wants to take that away from us. He will make us feel like we don’t belong here and to a certain extent we don’t. As Christian we are children of God and one day we will go and join him but right now at this exact time that your reading this you are meant to be. God has planned it, you have a purpose in life and you are meant to belong. Life is a journey but love is the transportation!

--Andi R. (age 19)

Amazed in His Grace

If You understood the Love that God has for you, you wouldn't wait as long as you have waited to find Him. If you understood the calling He has for you, you wouldn't stare into the sky waiting for a change to pass you by. If you just understood the amazing grace he poured out for you, you would fall on your knees unable to get back up again, why? Because He loves you that much that you wouldn't be able to stand in His presence. If you just understood. I am not preaching a religion or a story, I am preaching about a man who died and gave his life for you, something you can't understand until you ask him. God who Died on a cross for you and me, our sins. I am preaching about the love of a Father that you will not find in any book store, in any magazine, or any shelf. I am talking about a man who decided to do something for your life so that you wouldn't take life for granted and lose it all at once. I am talking about our God who loves you dearly and me, beyond what we can see because He can't think about anything else but give you a real life. I love you so much that I will not be silent and lose this chance to tell you about this Greater love that has found me. Even when I was sick in the hospital, almost dying, His love reached down to me and caught me. My savior, my redeemer, my God has rescued me. He can do the same for you, from your insecurities, from your own misunderstanding, from your guilt. I love you so much and Jesus loves you more than anyone else can ever and will ever love you. Read it right, there is only ONE GOD that is the TRUE & ONLY GOD and HE DIED ON A CROSS FOR YOU, and RESURRECTED, HIS NAME IS JESUS CHRIST. He loves you so much, please if there is one thing that you should understand is this, that He loves you and that He gave his life for you to give you another chance. You have another chance, please, please do no throw it away, please understand this, that without God you will always be lost trying to find your way alone. But with him you will know who you are, a child of God and a man or woman who will spend eternity with him. I love you guys..please listen to this..and listen to what He is telling you. --Eugenia (age 23)

You're a Failure!

You may have heard it before: "It's your fault." "You're a failure." "You ruined it." Those are certainly not words anyone would want to hear. Sometimes we are honestly able to respond with, "It's not my fault." But what about those instances when you did fail; it was your fault. What can you do? It hurts so bad.

Saying you're sorry would be a place to start. Just telling someone you wish it had never happened will not always make everything okay again. Sometimes you actually have to do something to try to make things right.

If you pray about it, God can help you to know what that might be.

What can be done for our hearts inside that seem to always cause us to mess up? Is there anything that can be done for our tendency to wreck things when we are doing it on our own?

God offers forgiveness through the sacrifice of His Son. He chooses to accept us, if we accept His offer. We will not be condemned. He WILL forgive us. Romans 8:1a says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus..." That just means that if we ask God to forgive us of the things we're done or said that were wrong and believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for all those things, He will. He forgives. He really does.

---Myra