Taking A Stand

The day of purity is a day when youth take a stand and make a public demonstration of their committment to stay sexually pure, in mind and in actions. All of us knew that people were going to make fun of us and say rude comments but me and my friends decided to take a stand for what we believed in. On thursday night of last week we gathered together at our church and we all made shirts that said different things like "Abstinence is Awesome" and "God is writing my love story." On the back of are shirts we put Day of Purity '11. The next day we all wore them to school and I knew that we were going to get some sort of response from other students but I never expected us to get as much response as we did. All day my friends and other students I didn't even know were asking me why I was wearing that shirt and it was cool because I got to tell them why and it even opened up opportunities to share the gospel. Some students weren't so nice. Throughout the day students were swearing at me and at lunch someone tried to throw food on me. One of teachers told me that we weren't allowed to talk about that kind of stuff at school. This ended up being one of the hardest things I have ever done but at the same time it was SOOO worth it!!! Even though I was swore at and I had someone try to throw food at me it was ok because in the end something good came out of it! I got to tell people about Jesus and show them just how much there father loves them! To me that is the coolest thing in the world.

Day of Purity

"Blessed are the pure at heart, for they will know God."
{Mathew 5:8}

Over 1,000,000 teen girls will become pregnant this year and  EVERY DAY in the U.S. 8,000 youth will contract STD'S. That is more than 1 every 11 seconds. Don't let yourself be another one of those statistics. Take the stand and stay pure. To learn more and join a movement of teens making the decision to obstain from sex go to dayofpurity.com



Vomit!

           

Every time I go to something like Winter Retreat with my youth group I always expect it to be the same thing. I expect to learn about God, to be totally changed, and then to come back home and slip into the same old way of living and forget all about what happened at Winter Retreat.  The first night of Winter Retreat Steve Hays the speaker started out by saying this weekend is going to get WEIRD and honestly I really didn’t understand what he was saying or what he meant by it at all.

            Friday night ended up being the WIERDEST night of my life. Steve talked to us about vomiting as an analogy. I know, weird! Right? You know when you are sick and you have all this poison in your stomach that makes you feel like throwing up. What happens when you drink a bottle of red Gatorade!? When you are sick and you drink something like red Gatorade that is pure it turns into poison and makes you throw up. After that you feel better!

           

The same thing happens in our lives. We hold onto all this baggage and we never let it go so then we continue to feel horrible about ourselves. In order to get rid of the “crap” we have to admit to God how we really feel. We have to be vulnerable and give whatever is bother us and weighing us down up to God. By doing that we “vomit all the crap out” and then we feel better.

Friday night Steve had us “vomit our crap to God.” We each found a spot in the room where weren’t next to our friends and he turned the lights off. We all sat there in the dark and one at a time “we vomited our crap to God out loud.” God helped us identify the baggage that we needed to get rid of in our lives. At first I really didn’t want to do it because it was something that was way outside my comfort zone.

I didn’t want to say anything out loud because I was afraid of being vulnerable. All my friends will tell you that I am not the kind of person to just say how I feel. Especially, in a room full of people. Inside of me I could feel God telling me to do it and I could feel all the crap just waiting to be vomited out. I just sat there and I fought God for as long as I could until I couldn’t hold onto it anymore. All of a sudden it just burst out of me like a tidal wave.

At the top of my lungs I said God I am mad that all these expectations that have been put on me, I am mad that I can’t tell people how I feel, I am mad that people have said words that have hurt me, and I am mad that you let Satan attack my family! After I got done my whole body started to shake uncontrollably from head to toe and it felt so good to GIVE up everything that I have been holding onto for years to God. It felt WEIRD! Right after that Steve asked me “how do you feel about yourself?” I said I feel angry and then Steve said come on I know there is more then that “how do you really feel about yourself?”

I said back I feel rejected. This is the first time ever I had been vulnerable and it felt WEIRD but it was WEIRD in an AMAZING way! We sat there vomiting our crap to God for a really long time and when we were done Steve turned the lights back on. He talked to us about how when we live in our “crap” for too long we become comfortable with living in the darkness and then when the light is turned back on it is shocking. Even though it may be a step outside of our comfort zones we have to give all of our crap to God so that we can see the light and live in it.

I personally realized how comfortable I had been living in all my “crap”. I was comfortable because living in all the darkness was my comfort zone. It was like a sealed box that I couldn’t get myself out of. Friday night was the WEIRDEST night ever but I gave all my crap to God and now I feel different! I am different!

It helped me to uncover some of the struggles and insecurities I have had for years but because I let God have all of it he is able to walk me through it. It was really painful and it definitely wasn’t easy but it was the best thing I have ever done!

Your Hands... By Jay Jay Heller

I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn’t there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That you would take my pain away
You would take my pain away

I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn't there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That You would take my pain away
That You would take my pain away

I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crookedly lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

When You walked upon the Earth
You healed the broken, lost, and hurt
I know You hate to see me cry
One day You will set all things right
Yea, one day You will set all things right

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

Your hands
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave You when...

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave...
I never leave Your hands

Healed...

Hey! Here is my latest post! I have not done any editing on it but I will later!           

There have been times in my life where I have felt like everything in my life is spinning out of control. I have literally felt at moments that I have fallen off a ledge and into a dark and bottomless pit where I just keep falling further and further away from God. He promised that he would never leave us or forsake us and that he would always protect us, but honestly there was a time where I seriously questioned that. Why, if he promises all this does he allow me to go through so much pain? How do I know that he is all powerful if he doesn’t stop all these bad things from happening to me?

One night I sat in my room when I was in seventh grade and I cried for hours on end and I begged God to show up and give me some answers, I begged him to give me peace that he was all powerful and that he would always be my security. He led me to Psalms 135:5-6 which says “For I know that the LORD is great, and that are LORD is above all GODS.” In that moment God brought me to my place of brokenness and I felt a sense of love and security that was unfailing, I found peace again and all fear was lost. In all my pain and brokenness God was still protecting me even when I doubted him and I knew that he could bring something beautiful out of something that seemed so horrible. Through all my pain I had lost myself but God still had a hold of me.

All I had to do was live within his promise and my life would be more then just fine because of the plan he had for me. Nothing just automatically got easier after that but everyday God walked me through it and it got to be easier until I got to where God wanted me to be. 

Have You REALLY Let This Change You?

Your walking down the hallways at school with your friends. Your all making jokes about the people around you, laughing at the kid who sits alone at lunch, talking about people behind there backs. Then you go to church wearing a plastic smile on your face, saying all the right answers, and knowing all the bible's stories. Sadly this is the way a lot of christians live; sadly this is the way that some of you, who are reading this, are living. You can know a ton of scripture, you can read your bible everyday, but unless you let it change you, from the inside out, then what is the point of all of this if you aren't going to be different?

The Lies of the Darkness...

Faith is a private thing and people kinda get offended so I don't think I should have to share my faith.  It's all about being cool, I mean who doesn't want to be cool! As long as I am a good person it doesn't really matter what I watch, listen to, or read. It's a good thing that there are shows and channels made for teens that teach us about safe sex and stuff that is really important to us. It really doesn't matter who or what I worship.

This is how darkness rules the hearts of youth. Are you trapped in any of these lies? Are you living your life saying that you are a christian but yet you still believe these things. Get out of  "Satan's" youth and into something better. Get into a movement and live for something that is bigger then yourself. Live for the king who had no army and won no military battles, yet kings feared him and he conquered the world.