Christmas & its entirety

’tis the season for Christmas, New Years (& their resolutions), friends, family, food, & many other things. What I’ve learned in this past week is that we cannot celebrate Christmas without the Cross. Normally the Cross is associated with Easter, but in reality isn’t that what Christmas is about? Jesus came so that he could die on the cross. So I invite y0u to think about the Cross this year during Christmas. Let’s try not to get lost in the busyness of all this mayhem known as Christmas time. It’s a wonderful time of year, but its meaning can be lost sometimes. It’s not about the presents & who gets the coolest new gadgets & trying to out-do your neighbors with the decorations. It’s about Jesus coming to us in a manger so that He could die on a cross to save us so that we can spend forever with HIM. I may not be on until the New Year, due to the fact that I have Christmases galore & a birthday coming up. So I’ll be back in ’09!! Wow..how weird does that sound? To those of you planning to make New Years Resolutions..Congrats! I encourage you to keep them & not let them fall through before February like I normally do. To those of you who are not planning on having a resolution..hm..maybe you should rethink that. Maybe even have a small one?

hope lives!

You can find hope in many situations, big & small.

I’ve become to see both hope & grace nearly everyday. Just the simple fact that I’m still alive is a sign grace, looped in with hope. Think about it, how many of us actually “deserve” to live. We’ve all sinned. It’s part of human nature, & in God’s eyes all sins are equal. That one cross word that you said is the same as if you killed someone. God forgives & shows us His love. Which is a hope for those of us that know Him, for if we know Him, we’ll get to spend eternity with Him. What a way to spend eternity! There’s no other place I’d rather spend it!!! I’ve also come to see a strong sense of hope growing in a small area of my community, this area consists of a room filled with around twenty people every Sunday. This place is a Sunday School Room. A man in my parents’ Sunday School class has been diagnosed with cancer. I’ve never seen such a bond between a group of people. No matter how things have been going for this man, he’s shone the light of Jesus. Instead of others trying to be brave for him, the exact opposite is happening, HE-the man with cancer-is being brave for all these other families. Kagwira, my compassion child, has shown me so much hope as well. She’s told me how Compassion has helped her life change & how much she loves Jesus & what he’s done for her as well. This gives me a hope for a better future for her & her community, if she can reach out to one other person & them to another, can you imagine what would happen in that community in Kenya!? WOW! I’m not sure if I should continue on or if you understand the concept of “hope” yet.

Hope-

Finally, I remember just a few months ago. I knew God, I knew who He was, what He did, all of that. & I knew He was real. Yet I wasn’t submitting to Him, whether it be pride, or I just didn’t want to. Whatever the reason I just wasn’t submitting to Him. This summer Louie Giglio came & spoke at BigStuf camp & rattled my world. I realized what it was that I’d been doing, & that I wasn’t doing what God called me to do. Now I’m hoping to go on two mission trips next summer (one to Ecuador & one to Kosovo). I’ve begun to get genuinely excited about church & digging into God’s word. I’ve even had people tell me that they have noticed some changes going on in my life. THIS is my hope that God is changing me. Revealing His plan to me. Guiding me. Teaching me. & most importantly, using me to help bring others to know him.

more info: a paper i wrote for English on the subject that ended up on the HEY JACK RADIO site!!

music galore!

music monday anyone? i thought you might like one.

Kutless is a pretty neat band. they’re a rock group that came together about 8 years ago in Portland, Oregon. Hearts of the Innocent is an amazing cd. My favorite songs off of that cd are probably Million Dollar Man & Hearts of the Innocent. I saw them in concert with my youth group while we were in Gatlinburg for a Strength to Stand Conference. They’re pretty good performers too.

BigStuf Band. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to actually count them or not…but what the heck why not? You have heard me go on & on about BigStuf if you’ve read much of my blog. (Going on in the best possible way of course) I can’t help it though I’m so in love with BigStuf & everything it provides. I’ve come to know God on a much closer personal relationship because of this camp & have been pushed to the limits here. Not to mention that the band still to this day, having heard them for five years now, brings tears to my eyes. So many memories with this band. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve laughed & cried some more. Anyways, you can’t get all their amazing cd’s on iTunes, but  you can get them from the BigStuf Storehowever, you can get a couple from the iTunes store. I do highly recommend them. They’re a great band with a great message & their performing abilities are significant & their hearts for God are very visible. Even better, I’ve been able to meet some of them & they seem very down to Earth and sweet. Some of them include: Kristian Stanfill, James David Carter, Ben Snider, Steve Fee, Chrystina Lloree Fincher, Casey Darnell, (Chris Coleman has been featured), Neil, Slug, Davis Harwell, ect.

Now I’d like to direct your attention to a song & not necessarily a band. I’m not going to lie to you, I’m pretty sure I only have one song by the band Point of Grace. But I like what I hear. Especially the song that I do have. It’s called How You Live. It’s got a great inspiring message. Everyone should listen to it. It makes me wanna cry every time I hear it.

life is a gift

Last Tuesday I took part in a Pro Life Day of Silence. It was a pretty cool opportunity. To explain it, basically it was a day to stay silent & pray (for everyone that has taken part in an abortion, is considering one, the babies that have been aborted, the doctors, ect). I did really really good too. I talked only when necessary, & got to share my beliefs on abortion in a positive interesting way. To put a twist on things, I’d just finished reading a book on abortion (The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers) which I highly recommend. It’s very very very good & intriguing. Then today I got a YW Magazine from church & it had a neat article in it that I’d like to share.

The Bible doesn’t specifically say, “You should not have an abortion.” But if we dig a little deeper into Scripture & look a little closer at God’s heart, His feelings about abortion are obvious. If you know someone who has had an abortion, you can explain God’s great grace, love, & forgiveness to her, but Scripture is clear–He abhors it. It makes Him angry & sad.
When it comes to abortion, there is one main question to ask: Does the Bible say that the unborn are human beings?
It definitely does. In Genesis, Rebekah was pregnant with twins, Jacob & Esau. Genesis 25:21-22 says: Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife… & the LORD answered him & Rebekah his wife conceived. But the childrenstruggled together within her (NASB). While the twins were in Rebekah’s womb, Scripture referred to them using the usual word for children or sons–the word ben in Hebrew.
& in the New Testament, when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb (Luke 1:41). That baby was John the Baptist & Scripture referred to him using the usual word for baby, or brephos in Greek. The OT & NT refer to the unborn as children & babies–definitely human beings.
Not only are unborn babies human beings, but God knows the babies. God told Jeremiah that even before He made him in his mother’s womb. He knew Jeremiah & had plans for him (Jeremiah 1:5).
God knows unborn babies. We may not know them–there is a bit of distance & separation between us & them–but God does. & He loves them.
The Bible is crystal clear that killing a human being is a vile sin (Exodus 20:13; Matthew 19:18). Abortion–taking the life of an innocent human being–is murder. & there is never a good reason to commit murder.
At one point in Israel’s history, God’s people had gotten way off track & were murdering their children as worship to the pagan god, Molech. In response, God said “It never even crossed my mind” (Jeremiah 32:35) that His people would do something as vile as murder a child. It was so evil that it surprised even God. Abortion is the same action–the murder of the innocent.
God created life & He created every one of us. He values us so much that He made each of us in His image, with the very fingerprint of His character on us. God created life, & He’s still the only One who can–scientists haven’t been able to create life from non-life, even when they have all of the ingredients. Life is a gift that God gives, & when we take that gift away from someone our heavenly Father know & loves, it breaks His heart.
When you talk to your non-Christian friends about abortion, let them know about God’s heart. Let them know that long before a baby is born to us, God knows him or her. Let them know how much He loves life. & let them know how He deeply loves them.

relativism & random odds & ends

first off i just decided a few minutes ago that it’d be a good idea for me to do a weekly (maybe 2 or 3 times a week who knows) devotional. so for this i’m going to create a new blog.

first off i just decided a few minutes ago that it’d be a good idea for me to do a weekly (maybe 2 or 3 times a week who knows) devotional. so for this i’m going to create a new blog. http://studentofgod.wordpress.com/

last sunday a sunday school teacher i’m pretty good friends with gave me a packet to read this week. i just finished the last section of it tonight. the whole thing is over relativism &

last sunday a sunday school teacher i’m pretty good friends with gave me a packet to read this week. i just finished the last section of it tonight. the whole thing is over relativism (this month’s sunday school lesson theme) i thought it was pretty cool & totally relates to problems today, so i thought that i’d share.

“There is no such thing as absolute truth.” “All truth is relative.” “That may be true for you, but it’s not true for me.” Have you ever heard people say things like that? You might have even been taught that. Relativism–the belief that nothing is absoultely, positively 100% true everywhere and all of the time–is one of the main ideas that swims around in our culture. But it’s wrong. There is Truth. It’s in God’s Word. And it can set us free from the snares of relativism.

“I think homosexuality is wrong but who am I to judge how other people live their lives?”
“Christianity may be true for you, but it’s not true for me. You like Christianity: I like Hinduism. You like apples: I like oranges.”

[READ] Relativism. It’s the idea that nothing is absolutely, completely true all of the time and in all places. If nothing is absolutely true, as relativism claims, then how can Christianity be true? But relativism doesn’t hold water–it isn’t true. It can be demolished by its one foundational claim: There is no such thing as absolute truth. How can relativism be dismantled by that one statement? Because “there is no such thing as absolute truth” is an absolute statement. But if there are no such things as statements that are absolutely true, as relativism claims, then “there is no such thing as absolute truth”–an absolute statement itself–can’t be absolutely true either.
But the proof that relativism is bogus is way more extensive that that. The reality is that there is such a thing as truth–absolute truth. Truth exists. And we can know it. In fact, God wants us to know it. It’s why Jesus came to earth: “For this reason I was born…to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listenes to me” (John 18:37)

[THINK] What is truth? Truth is the way things really are regardless of how anybody feels about it. To combat relativism, we need to know what truth is. Norman Geisler and Frank Turek list several characteristics of truth in their book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist:

• “Truth is discovered, not invented. It exists independent of anyone’s knowledge about it. (Gravity existed prior to Newton.)”
• “Truth is transcultural. If something is true, it’s true for all people, at all places, at all times. (2+2=4 for everyone, everywhere, at every time)”
• “Truth is unchanging even though our beliefs about truth change. (When we began to believe that the world was round instead of flat, the truth about the earth didn’t change, but our belief about it did)”
• “Beliefs cannot change a fact, no matter how sincerely they are held. (Someone can sincerely believe that the world is flat, but that only makes that person sincerely mistaken.)”
• “Truth is not affected by the attitude of the one professing it. (An arrogant person doesn’t make the truth he professes false. A humble person doesn’t make the error he professes true.)”

[MORE] Where did relativism come from? Why does it exist? The bottom line of relativism is this: It’s just a philiosophically worded excuse for people to live the way they want to and write God off. Because if nothing is absolutely true then there’s no right or wrong. It’s just what works ofr you. A lot of people want to live the way they want to so they choose what they believe based on how they want to live. All the while, Truth still exists. And He wantes people to know Him.

[NEXT LEVEL] Listen to the song “Please Come” by Nichole Nordeman from her album This Mystery.

fireproof & compassion

last night i went & saw fireproof. pretty much my new favorite movie. i love it! its amazing & moving & even though i’m not married i learned so much from this. & God spoke to me through this movie, my pastor has been basing sermons on this movie for the past couple of weeks, & i know of several people that have been moved by them. if you haven’t seen it yet you should go venture out. let me know what you think of it, if you have any comments or questions i’ll be glad to discuss it with you. but this movie’s my new favorite. this movie ws produced by a church in savanna, georgia. they have 2 more movies that were made previoiusly. i love themas well. flywheel & facing the giants are the other two. most likely flywheel is the least known. i love all three though they’re quite great.

& i start sponsoring a compassion child this month!!! 😀 i’m really really excited about it. i’ll give you more information on it when i get the information on my little girl, i don’t have any yet. i should get it within the next 3 or 4 days though. 🙂 if you would like to sponsor a child, or just learn more about the organization,  you can visit compassion.

have a lovely sunday!