TEEN CHALLENGE

      Saying "what if?" is often frowned upon, but I've been doing a little bit of that lately, and I think it's been healthy for me. Before I begin I want to say that by what I'm about to say I don't mean that you should be worrying all the time. We are supposed to live by faith and living in constant fear is sin. That being said, I do have some thoughts on a healthy amount of "what if".      Two weeks ago, one of my favorite coworkers, an older gentleman who is always so happy and fun to be with, had a terrible heart attack. He came very close to death. Last week a young guy at our church got in a car accident that totaled his car. Now my coworker just got out of the hospital, and no one was hurt in the car accident. But what if?      Again, I'm not saying we need to live in a constant state of worry. However we must be aware, we need to make our days count. When you leave the house to go to work, yell goodbye to your mom and say I love you...

      I really have been having a terrible time thinking of a post for today. Nothing very significant happened last week and I haven't thought of anything to write. As I was thinking about how much I just wanted to go to bed and not have to think of a post, a verse popped into my head. 1 Peter 1:4, where it says, "Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises..." . So I thought today we'd enjoy some promises from the One who's absolutely crazy about us.  Philippians 4:19 says " But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." God promises to supply all our needs. He will never let us go without something we need.  1 John 1:9 says " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".  He promises to forgive us merely at our request. What kind of love is this that a perfect God will forgive any sin if we ask Him to? We cannot ...

      This past Friday night we had a youth activity at my church, and when it came time for the devotional, our youth leader asked if any of us had an idea of why we don't see revival. We threw out a couple ideas and then my cousin piped up from behind me. "I think sometimes people get on fire but then they just don't talk about it." 'Brilliant', I thought. Because I happen to know that Jane puts a lot of time and study into her personal devotions, but I only know it because I saw her notebook when I was at her house. And I know that Fred asks older wiser people a lot of questions and asks for advice, but it's not because he told me(both those names are entirely fabricated by the way). I know that my friends want to live for Jesus, but we definitely don't talk about it as much as we should.       We all know it can be awkward to try and start a conversation about something spiritual- it shouldn't be, but it is. People are always talking about ...

    It's been a long week...I took a trip to Pennsylvania, got my wisdom teeth out, and we had our church's spring revival. I'm tired, so I'm cheating a little bit and taking advantage of the incredible messages we heard the past few days. It was very obvious that both the speakers put much time, thought and prayer into each sermon and the Lord blessed the entire weekend. I encourage you to take the time to listen to some of the messages, I believe you will be blessed by them.  Heritage Baptist Spring Revival

      The past couple of days I've been dealing with some pain from one of my wisdom teeth. It hasn't been fun, but this afternoon I started thinking about it and here are some thoughts for you that I hope are helpful. In our Christian lives sometimes we will have problems, but we're not sure why. We don't know where it's coming from or why it's happening. I have three points about how to fix problems like these.      1. Look Inside     When I got to church this morning and wasn't talking because of the pain involves in moving my jaw, my best friend started looking at my face from multiple angles to see if my face was swollen and it wasn't. From the outside, it didn't really look like I should be in pain. It didn't look like I was in pain. But when my sister looked inside my mouth this afternoon, she spotted the problem right away.  The Bible says  " ...   for  the  LORD  seeth  not  as  man  seeth...

"It  is  good  for  a  man  that  he  bear  the  yoke  in  his  youth" Leviticus 3:27      On a scale of one to ten, how involved would you say you are in your church?  I know that not every church has a lot of ministry opportunities, but every church needs to be cleaned. Today in his sermon my Pastor said to "dedicate your life the body Christ died for; the church." There are so many places to be involved in a church. Music ministry, children's ministries, outreach, the list goes on. I'm involved in the music ministry at my church, I work in the nursery, and my mom and I clean bathrooms together. I have friends who work in the nursery, clean the church, and work in the media ministry.      You might say, "well, I definitely can't sing in church, and I don't know anything about websites, and we don't even have a children's church". Well, there's still things that you can do! Every Sunday ...

"Just because you are struggling doesn't mean you are failing"     I have this quote taped to my music stand. I love it because when I mess up the same measure of music for the 274th time I read it again and go back to playing. The Bible says that a just man falleth and rises up again.  It teaches us to persevere; in Galatians 6:9 it says " And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." We can't expect to accomplish everything we want the first time we try. When we learn to walk we all fall down. Just because a kid doesn't get up and walk around the first time they stand up doesn't mean that they've failed at walking. They're still learning.      The same is true with us and our spiritual lives. No, we cannot allow our sin to control us and use that as an excuse, but we also can't allow our mistakes to control us. We are covered by the grace of God, and we are all simply sinners saved by the bloo...

      Think back on the past week- how many times have you taken a few seconds to make someone's day a little bit better? There's so many small ways we are presented with every day that allow us to help someone out. How good are you at looking for those opportunities?      Some things seem so insignificant to us could mean a great deal to someone else. Taking ten minutes to entertain a couple toddlers so their moms can have a conversation might seem like nothing to you, but to a mom with young kids it could be a very special gesture. Taking a package for someone with an armload of stuff can be a big help. "Thank you" is powerful. Smiles are beautiful. "You look nice" can make someone's day. A cousin of mine once commented to me, "why is it so hard for us to compliment people?" If you think someone's hair looks good or if the color they're wearing looks good on them, just say it.      The Bible commands us to be kind and to encourage one...