30 Days Last Week

Here is the last week of my 30 Day challenge to listen to a new Christian song everyday.

Monday: Casting Crowns- Somewhere in the Middle~ I love how this song talks about how we can not play it safe and still follow Jesus.
Tuesday: Sidewalk Prophets- You Can Have Me~ I love the message of the song about completly giving your live to Christ and letting him hav control.
Wednesday: Chris Tomlin- Crown Him (Majesty)~ I love how this song gives all the glory to God for all that he has done for us.
Thursday: Joy Wiliams- Hide~ I love how this song talks about how we do not ned to hide anymore, but we can come out and be who we really are.
Friday:Santus Real- I'm Not Alright~ I love how the song talks about how I can not do this on my own and that I need help from God.
Saturday:Brandon Heath- Love Will be Enough for Us~I love how this song says that no matter what in life you are going through, love will be enough to get you through the storm.
Sunday:Micheal W. Smith-Come to the Cross~ I love the idea that no matter who you are or what you have done, Jesus is still able to forgive you.
Monday: Rend Collective- Lighthouse~I love how this song says that Jesus is our light house, and when we follow him we will be able to find our way.

Trust

Many of us have someone in our lives we trust, whether it is a teacher, a family member, or a closer friend. But what if all those things went away, who would you trust.  The things of this world that we trust will either let us down, or one day they would be gone. But there is one thing that you can always trust no matter what happens. Psalm 25:1 says, “In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.” When you give up control of your life then who knows what can happen. God can do great things with ordinary people. Look at David, he was a shepherd boy watching over the sheep.  He trusted in the Lord, and he ended up becoming a king. Who knows what you can become when you place your trust in Jesus. And when you place your trust in Jesus, you can feel confident that he is not going to forget you because it is said, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) We can put our hope in God with our trust because God knows the plans he has for you. While the other people you trust don’t know how your life is going to end, and who you will be, and what you will do, but God does. He already knows all about you, and he knows what you will do in your life. He knows what college you will go to, who you will marry, where you will live, the job you will have, and so much more. You may not anything about what your life will be, but all you need to do is ask. Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” If you ask God, he will answer. It may not always be obvious, and sometimes you have to listen real closely to hear it, but he will answer you. It may not always be the answer you want, but it is the answer that is needed to fulfill God’s plan for you.

When you add it all together, when you are putting your trust in God, you are putting your trust in someone who knows all about your life, and knows the plans for you to prosper, and he will always answer your questions. I don’t know anyone else who I trust that I can do that. So are you willing to put your trust I God?

God's Not Dead

Spoiler Alert: The following post contains some endings to the movie God's Not Dead.

Over the weekend, I went and watched the new movie "God's Not Dead." I loved the movie so much. One of the big ideas that stuck out to me were reflected in the verses, Matthew 10: 32-33. The verses go, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven." And not only did the movie state these verses over and over again, they showed how to live it out in life. The movie showed the action behind the faith. The main character, Josh Wheaton, was faced with a choice to denounce God to not be singled out, or he could hold his faith. He at first didn't really even know what to do. The pastor at the church he was at gave him this verse to help him make up his mind. In the end, he did stand up for God, and slowly he started to see the results of his actions, some good, some bad. 
Now we may not be asked to give a whole presentation about your faith, but even saying to your friends that you believe in God is acknowledging him. You may lose some friends, stop and think for a minute. Would you rather lose some friends to know that Jesus will acknowledge you in heaven, or would you rather keep you friends and lose Jesus being on your side. I don't know about you, but I would want Jesus on my side. And you may lose some friends, but you will gain others, and they might share the same faith as you. Josh did lose his girlfriend, but he made other friends in the class who were willing to learn about God. Just because you stepped out in your faith, may help others to grow in theirs or come to know Jesus. It may not be easy to acknowledge God before man, but the rewards that come afters are so much greater.

30 Days Week 4

My 30 day challenge this month is to listen to a new Christian song everyday. I am also making up for last Sunday, when I could listen and post the song in time.

Sunday: Sanctus Real-These Things Take Time~I love how it puts in perspective how things don't happen over night but they instead happen over a long period pf time and meanwhile I need to have patience.
Monday: Sidewalk Prophets-Save My Life~I love how this talks about us having the ability to help God save anyone's life when we give them a chance.
Tuesday: Newsboys-One Word~I love how the song puts together that the God who lit the sun and made earth, can speak life into me with just one word.
Wednesday: Jeremy Camp-Take You Back~I love how this song states that no matter what you did, or how fall you fell, God will always take you back.
Thursday: Newsboys- Restart~I love the lyric video to this song. I also love how when we accept  God, he hits our restart button like on a came consul.
Friday: Newsboys-That Home~I love how it talks about that one plays where you feel safe, and the people help you grow up.
Saturday: Newsboys-Love Like I Mean It~I love how it talks about how when we love we have to mean it, not just do it.
Sunday: Newsboys- Disaster~I love how this song says that I can't fix my own life but God can.

P.S.- The song on Saturday didn't have the artist. The artist is The Afters.

Doing School

 Many of us go to school, because it's another thing that we have to do. Some of us really enjoy school, while some of us just plain out do not like school. But I bet for most of us, we like school half the time, and the other half we just don't like. I am in classes with smart students and they don't even want to be at school on some days. School can be hard, I get it. I found this verse that can be encouraging when we are down and don't want to go to school. Colossians 3:23-24 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart, as for working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." When we go to school, we are suppose to do it whole heartily, because we are working for the Lord. And just like good grades that we get for good work, God will give us a reward for the good work we did when we reach heaven. When we think about going to school to serve the Lord, and not humans, then it can be a big motivator for us to do well.

We were talking in one of my classes about what it means to go to school. We divided it into three sections: Learning, Doing School, and Cheating. The conversation that we had made me more aware of how I treat school, and where I can improve, and I would love to share what I found out with other people my age.

Learning-This is where you are growing as a learner. You ask question on topics you may not understand. You do and understand you homework and turn it in on time. You take time to understand what you are learning, and you study for any up coming tests. You can more about the learning then the grades.

Doing School-This is where you do the bare minimum that is needed to pass the class. You do the homework just so you can turn something in. You don't really study for the test, and if you don't understand something you don't ask for clarification. You care about the grades more then the learning.

Cheating-This is where you aren't evening trying. You are coping off other peoples work, and you aren't learning anything.

Take time to evaluate where you are. Are you actually trying to learn, or are you just getting by. I understand if you are to busy every once and a while and you do need to do school, but we should all be striving to actually learn at school. If you struggle in this area, then pray to God that he will help grow into a learner. But school is so much more then something that we just have to get through in life.

Productivity

Growing up, we have all heard our teachers say at some point that we need to be productive. That means actually working in class and not goofing off on our phones and other electronic devices. When you are actually productive, you can get so much done like getting your homework done before it is actually due. And just as our teachers wants us to be productive in class, God wants us to be productive in our lives. 2 Peter 1:5-8 says, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now that's a lot so let’s break it down into steps.

Faith to Goodness-Faith is believing that Jesus died for you sins so that you may live with him in eternity. To add goodness to your faith, that could be reading your bible, or praying to God more than once a month. 

Goodness to Knowledge-When you are being good at reading your bible then you start to acquire the knowledge of who God is and what he says is right and wrong. 

Knowledge to Self-Control-When you get the knowledge of what is right and what’s wrong, you are able to stop yourself doing things you know are wrong which builds self-control. 

Self-Control to Perseverance-As you start to gain more and more self control, the harder that it will get and if you preserver through than your perseverance will grow.

Perseverance to Godliness-When you preserver, it would begin to show in everyday life, because you could be slow to anger, or you think before you act. You are then reflecting God more and more that you have godliness.

Godliness to Mutual Affection-When you are reflection God, you don't hate your enemies but you are able to hold a mutual affection, where you don't hate them, but you aren't the best of friends with them.

Mutual Affection to Love-The last step is having the ability to go beyond just being able to stand someone, to actually loving them. God is love and this is the end goal where we all want to reach. We want to be able to love anyone no matter who they are or what they have done.

Now let’s think realistically for a minute. Think of one person that you hate most. Do you ever think that you could love that person. Most of us would say "No" and I get that. But when we walk through all these steps, eventually we will be able to get to a point where we can love that person. 

Now we are looking at the list that I have laid out, and it is really long. And as we do with our homework, we say that we will get to it later. But putting this off to later isn't going to work. This is lifelong thing that we work on and we can't keep putting it off because sooner or later, hopefully later, we will be dead, and we would have lost the opportunity to develop into the person who can love anyone. The last verse describes that if we have these qualities in "increasing measure" then we will be able to be efficient and productive in our knowledge of God. Increasing means that it will never stop, so right know we need to get a head start of increasing our qualities of the things on the list above. It may seem difficult or a really long process, so I suggest with just starting with the first quality, "faithfulness to love." Once you get the first step then the next step will happen and so forth. All you need to do is to get started.

30 Days Week 3

My challenge for 30 days is to listen to a new Christian song everyday.
Monday: Shane Harper-Hold You Up~I love this song, and it's from the new movie, God's Not Dead. I love the idea of someone to hold you when you are down.
Tuesday: For King and Country-People Change~It is the basic forgiveness that some people need when they truly change for the better.
Wednesday: Chris Tomlin-Awaken My Soul~ I love how it says that I need to wake up and start living for God.
Thursday: Relient K-The Best Thing~ I love how God is the best thing that has happened in my life.
Friday: Newsboys- One Word~ I love how this song just says that if God did all that he said he did, then he is able to get me through any trial in life.
Saturday: Never Going Back to OK~I love how it talks about how I'm not going back to the way it was but I'm moving forward.

I'm going skiing with my family, so I didn't have a chance to listen to a noon song before this posts on Sunday.

Gain the Whole World and Lose My Soul?

WE all have dreamed at some points in our lives of what it would be like if we were a millionaire. You would have lavish parties, and a huge house with a pool and a butler. Your closest friends are celebrities and you have very successful children. You would have the whole world, and have a carefree life. Sounds like a good life, right? The one thing that is missing is Jesus in your life. You have spent your whole life building yourself up that you left Jesus in the dust.
Now most of us won't be millionaires, but we each have our own definitions of success, and our own plan of where we want to be in 10, 15, 20 years. Maybe at the end of your life, you feel like you did everything you could do and you have no regrets. You have gained the whole world, but was Jesus a part of it. If he wasn't a part of it, then you have lost your soul. Luke 9:25 says, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his soul." You are only on earth for 100 years but you have the rest of eternity to either spend with Jesus or not. Everything in this world will pass, and if you spend your whole life trying to get what temporary and not whats eternal, then you have lost. I would rather be homeless, broke, barely living if it means that I can spend eternity with Jesus. For the verse before says, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but who ever loses his life will save it." If you lose all control of your life to Jesus, then you have gained a spot in heaven for eternity. If you choose to not let Jesus come into your heart, then you will lose a spot in heaven. The song "Lose My Soul" by Toby Mac and Kirk Franklin and Mandisa is a song that speaks directly to this topic. If you have a free moment please listen to the song, and decide if you want to gain the whole world and lose your soul.

Lose My Soul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coHKdhAZ9hU&feature=kp

Psalms 119:105

I love Psalms 119:105 which says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path." Many people love this verse, but when they are asked what they have read in the Bible, they can't give me an answer. Or when they are asked when the last time they read the Bible, they haven't read it in a while. Those people are missing the point of this verse. If you don't read the Bible daily, then how are you suppose find the path you are suppose to take. It's like saying that you are going to be a math major, but you don't study math how are you expecting to major in it.  It's not like the knowledge that you need is going to fall out of the sky. You have to make time in your busy day to read the Bible. Just five minutes a day can make a difference. I know that it is hard. I struggle with it some days where I have more stuff to do then there are hours in the day. But if you do take the time to read the Bible there could be huge rewards. You learn more about who God is and his love for us, and the love you reflect to the world. You read great stories of miracles God has done to ordinary people. It is wondrous what God has done and what he can do for you. you also learn about what standards God holds you to, and you learn that you can't reach those standards on you own. You find comfort through the trials in you life, and strength to get through them. All of this and more can be found in the Bible, you just need to read it. If you are struggling, here are some pointers to help you, so that you can know the word of God, and you can follow the path God wants you to take.

~Find someone to hold you accountable.
~Instead of flipping randomly through the Bible, find a devotional you can do.
~Find a set time in the day that you set aside to read the Bible.
~Pray to God to give you a heart that wants to read the Bible. 

30 Days- Week 2

This is the continuation of my 30 day challenge where I'm listening to a new Christian song for 30 days.
Monday: I Wonder by Leeland - I love the simplicity of the song, and how it just gets you to sit there and wonder about the greatness of God.
Tuesday: Count Me In by Leeland - The song says that you are going to accept the love that God gives and that you will follow him.
Wednesday: Prayer for a Friend by Casting Crowns - I heard this song on Pandora, and I loved it because I can't save my friend but only God can.
Thursday: Thank you God for Saving Me by Chris Tomlin - I think that we could all take some time to stop and just thank God for what he has done.
Friday: Don't Stop the Madness by Tenth Avenue North- My friends and I were talking about how God will give us what will turn us back to him, and this song just fit into the conversation.
Saturday: Pushing on a Pull Door by For King and Country- I love how this song, shows how we can't do this with our God's help.
Sunday: Happy by Ayiesha Woods - This song just reminded me that nothing in the world can make me as happy as God can.

"Stonewall" Jackson

Time for a little history lesson. During the civil war in the United States, in the first battle of bull run, the confederates were losing. (The confederates were the one's who left the United States temporarily.) But there was one General that turn the battle around for the confederates. His name was "Stonewall" Jackson. He got the name "Stonewall" by using him and his army as a stonewall to stop the union army from advancing. This gave time for more confederate soldiers to arrive on the front, and to beat the union. Jackson, didn't win the battle by himself, but he allowed time for reinforcements to come help.
In our faith, we to need to be like a stonewall. 1 Corinthians 16:13 says, "Be on your guard; stand firm in your faith; be courageous; be strong." We are suppose to stand firm in our faith and not sway under pressure. This could be staying at school, when all your friends are ditching, or staying away from drugs to show respect for your parents. We can't show people that we are Christians if we don't show our faith, and how we aren't going to sway from it, and you may not be able to do this alone, like Jackson. You just need to stand firm until reinforcements come, then you have someone to help you stand firm. This could be another friend, or a teacher, or a family member. When they see that you are standing firm in your faith, they would love to come and help you. So are you being a stonewall when it comes to your faith?

Blind Worship

In my Theory of Knowledge class, we were learning about Asch Experiment. Now many of us don't have a clue what I'm talking about. To sum it up, Asch conducted this experiment to see if people would conform to the majority in a group. To do this he had one test subject in a group of eight people. He would ask the group a question, and seven of the eight participants would agree on a wrong answer, because they were told to. Asch found that 75% of the test subjects he tested conformed to the group with the wrong answer. When the test subjects were asked later why they chose their answers, some said that they had a fear of being ridiculed if they stuck out.

Now lets take this experiment to our churches during worship time. If a stranger were to walk in during worship, they would probably see everyone doing the same thing. Why? Many of us are afraid of sticking out and being ridiculed. If we fit in then there is nothing to be afraid of. But worship isn't about fitting in. Psalms 95:6 says, "Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker" God made us, he protects us, and if you are worried about what the person next to will think of you, then you aren't truly worshiping God. One of my favorite verses is Matthew 15:7-8which says, "You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.'" You may know all the lyrics of a song and you may be the loudest person in the room, but if your heart isn't in the right place, then your worship is useless. Every time you sing a song of worship, but your heart isn't into it, then you are being a hypocrite. Sure other people aren't going to be able to tell where your heart is, but the Lord knows. If you are singing a song, but in your heart you are more worried about fitting in, you aren't worshiping. We have turned worship into something that is a part of the Sunday routine that we don't even think about anymore. 

I liked what my church did one time during worship. They gave each of us a blindfold to cover our eyes. Then we continued with worship. It was a neat experience, because we didn't have to worry what other people thought about us because we couldn't see them. We were forced to listen to the words of the songs, and listen to God, because our hearts were finally in the right place, we stopped trying to fit in, and we finally let go of everything. We were ourselves in the presence of God. That is an experience to treasure. Now at regular worship, you don't have to wear a blindfold every time, but if you just close your eyes you can get the same effect. With you eyes close, you can't see all the people who are thinking you stand out. You are just being yourself in front of God. And that can mean a lot of things. Maybe you raise your hands during worship, or you fall face down on the floor during worship. What ever it may look like for you, you are truly worshiping God. Don't be a part of the 75% of the people who conform to the group, but be the 25% of the group who will stick out, and who are truly being themselves.

30 Days-Week One

I am only two days into this challenge. I'm trying to listen to a new Christian song every day. Yesterday, I listened to "In the Dust" by Brandon Heath and today I listened to "Hostage of Peace" by Tenth Avenue North. In the song "In the Dust", I love how it continually points everything to God's creation. We were made from the ground and to the ground we will return. I also love the country feel of this song. What I love about "Hostage of Peace" is the message about not falling for things of this world, but to fall for God. God will give us peace. Psalms 29:11 says, "The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace." I would love to be a hostage to someone who blesses me with peace.

30 Days

Studies have shown that it takes thirty days to learn a new skill, or to make a new habit. In the beginning of the year, I talked about doing the 30 day challenge the K-Love talks about which is listening to nothing but Christian music for 30 days. Then I saw a Ted Talk at school, about doing other things in 30 days. So today I encourage you to try something for 30 days. We are still young and we are able to experiment some to find out what we really want to do with our lives. But you can't know what you love to do if you never try. So try to come up with an idea that you can try for 30 days. If you are stuck and you can't come up with any ideas, below I have brainstormed a list of ideas. While you are trying something new for thirty days this month, I will be trying too. Every Sunday this month, I will show/talk about what I did for that week. so I challenge you to try something for 30 days.

Ideas

*If you want to grow closer to God, try reading the bible every day for 30 days. Psalms 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Read so that you can see the path to take. 

*If you want to write a book, try writing 500 words a day. At the end you would have a 15 thousand word book.
*Try taking a photo of something you love for 30 days to keep the memories of things you love.
*Try to listen to a new Christian song everyday to find new inspiration.
*Try to learn five new vocab words to build up your vocabulary.
The Ted Talk video.
http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html