This song by Mat Kearney has been running through my heart recently, and I am glad I have this thing to put down just why it has.
In the chorus to this song Mat says "Do you ever think about me? Do you ever call my name?" He seems to be talking about a girl. I don't know if that was his original intentions, but I think he may have been speaking of God. Or maybe, he's speaking in the perspective of God. I don't know, I'd have to ask him, and obviously, given my inability to see the man, I don't think that's going to happen soon.
Anyway, I think that he's talking from God's view. Because God is always thinking of us, the things that are good for us, and what's not good for us. Another reason I think he's speaking in this way is because in the song he says "Hey, hey! They don't know you like I do." I mean, no one knows us like He does. God knows us more than we even know ourselves.
The reason that this song has been on my heart recently though is the fact that I've been doing a lot of thinking about Christ. I mean, I just have been looking in the past year, because in a short week, it will have been exactly a year from when I handed Him my whole life. I think that the second line says a lot "I heard you would come around" Well, He knew from the start that a year ago I was going to give my life to Him, and I think that it's amazing how much I have grown in Him since that night. I mean, I used to only know the books that we read out of at that very moment. I didn't now any more than I was hearing that day, and now I'm able to name them almost 100% in order. Verses run through my head in almost every situation I get into. That was not the case a year ago. The only verse I knew was John 3:16. Heck, I didn't even know it, I just knew it was a popular one.
Another thing is, I have noticed that every single week, something else has been placed into my heart. I know this is God's work, because it's always got something to do with something we've studied in church, or campaigners, or Fellowship. Whatever the case being, I think it's a great blessing that He's done this. The biggest thing that's on my heart right now is that I need to learn what I do before I can hope to teach it. That's the main thing on my heart at this very moment.
Getting back to the song, in the chorus, he says, "Ask me now, I'll give you the reasons, my love, will not fade". I don't think I need to go too far into this, but God's love is never ending. In this case, never fading. I don't understand why people constantly run away from Christ, because of earthly things. Christ's love won't fade, and nothing that the people of this earth do, even the ones that know Christ are only small showings of the love that He really can give to you. I was told by my brother the other day that the reason he "will never become Christian" is because while he was in New Jersey with my mom, and grandmom, they went to church and the pastor was talking about Wiccans, and how he should have one of them come up and speak or whatever, and someone yells out "That's bulls***." Well, the only thing I can really say to that is that isn't what Christ is about. Christ isn't going to say that. I really hope that if that man knows Christ, that he feels the conviction from it. That's just not right. I also pray that my brother would see that what the people do on Earth is not what Christ has already done for us. I mean, He died for us, and came back. We can't honestly say anyone else has done that for us. No one can.
I feel as if I got a little off topic, but I don't know.
Love you guys
This is where I'm going to tell you a little about me, and a lot about Christ. We're in it together
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Dude, awesome
Today was probably one of my favorite days ever. Not only did we win our soccer game, which always makes me happy, but I got to play kickball and Ultimate Frisbee. All in the same night! Talk about sweet. That's not the whole reason why I'm so happy though.
One of the reasons I am so happy is that I've finally noticed myself going out of my comfort zone, and talking to those kids I usually wouldn't think of associating with. I've noticed myself starting to just be something I've been called to be, and I just ask that it would be continuous. I want to continue being the light I've been recently. That's one thing I love the changes that Christ makes in my life. It's the best thing that can ever happen to someone. The change that Christ makes in you. Amazing to see.
Another reason I'm in a good mood is just the fact that I've had so many blessings come upon me lately. For example, Friday night, a few friends of mine, and myself were going to go to Winter Jam. Well, none of us got in, so we just went to their church, and had a little party. It was awesome. I got to see a few kids I haven't seen in a while, I got to meet a few people, and I got to hang out with the people who I consider some of my best friends, and love to death. Like, seriously, I would take a bullet for those people. Anyway, there are just so many things I could talk about from that.
One of my other blessings is that in around 2 months, I finally get the chance to get baptized. I didn't know much about it, but I have been wanting to get baptized for a while. A few of my good friends and I who have yet to be baptized are going to go into it together, and that's the beauty of it. We're all in this together. I've had the great opportunity to go through life with amazing people. Now, I get to outwardly show what Christ has done for me. :) I'm so excited!
I've been blessed with the fact that God is making Himself known to me. There are so many places I've gone where Christ is just booming throughout the place. I can honestly say there is only one place that I have ever been that has shown me Christ more than what I have gotten to see in the past few weeks. Of course that would be Rockbridge.I just think it's amazing that no matter how many times I have been told that it's finally coming true for me right now. I' starting to feel that natural, "high off life" feeling I haven't really felt in the longest time. It's just one of those times where you know that God always comes in when He knows that you need it the most. I love that
That's all for now my dear friends :) I hope you all have an amazing week :)
Love you guys
TJ
PS, I challenge you to step out of your comfort zones this week. It's a great feeling actually. :)
One of the reasons I am so happy is that I've finally noticed myself going out of my comfort zone, and talking to those kids I usually wouldn't think of associating with. I've noticed myself starting to just be something I've been called to be, and I just ask that it would be continuous. I want to continue being the light I've been recently. That's one thing I love the changes that Christ makes in my life. It's the best thing that can ever happen to someone. The change that Christ makes in you. Amazing to see.
Another reason I'm in a good mood is just the fact that I've had so many blessings come upon me lately. For example, Friday night, a few friends of mine, and myself were going to go to Winter Jam. Well, none of us got in, so we just went to their church, and had a little party. It was awesome. I got to see a few kids I haven't seen in a while, I got to meet a few people, and I got to hang out with the people who I consider some of my best friends, and love to death. Like, seriously, I would take a bullet for those people. Anyway, there are just so many things I could talk about from that.
One of my other blessings is that in around 2 months, I finally get the chance to get baptized. I didn't know much about it, but I have been wanting to get baptized for a while. A few of my good friends and I who have yet to be baptized are going to go into it together, and that's the beauty of it. We're all in this together. I've had the great opportunity to go through life with amazing people. Now, I get to outwardly show what Christ has done for me. :) I'm so excited!
I've been blessed with the fact that God is making Himself known to me. There are so many places I've gone where Christ is just booming throughout the place. I can honestly say there is only one place that I have ever been that has shown me Christ more than what I have gotten to see in the past few weeks. Of course that would be Rockbridge.I just think it's amazing that no matter how many times I have been told that it's finally coming true for me right now. I' starting to feel that natural, "high off life" feeling I haven't really felt in the longest time. It's just one of those times where you know that God always comes in when He knows that you need it the most. I love that
That's all for now my dear friends :) I hope you all have an amazing week :)
Love you guys
TJ
PS, I challenge you to step out of your comfort zones this week. It's a great feeling actually. :)
Sunday, March 20, 2011
This is great
Well, I have successfully gone a few weeks without using facebook. Has it been easy? Not in any sense of the word. The thing is, it hasn't really been hard either. I don't think that's an accident my any means. When I decided I was going to go without facebook for a while, it was for the sole purpose of becoming closer to God. I know that my knowledge of the books of the bible and their order have grown tremendously. That aside, I feel more intent to learn about the things He has laid down for us.
I stil have to go like a month without using facebook, and I kid you not, I almost went there once I got on the laptop just now. I luckily caught myself, because I didn't want to break the chain I've had. Of course, it's very tempting to get on, but yeah. This time off of facebook has definitely shown me that I have much better things that I can be doing with my time than spending it on facebook. Heck, if it weren't for the fact that I am with my friend Michael, watching him play Gears of War, I would probably be at home..... doing nothing.
This next month does not scare me though. I have learned recently that nothing I do in the name of the Lord shall ever scare me, because I know that the whole time that I am doing whatever it is, that the Lord is going to be with me. I know that I should have no fear in what I do, because the Lord will guide me through it all. :) Best news ever
On a side note, I was watching the NCAA National Championships for wrestling yesterday. I must say, best thing I've ever decided to watch randomly with my dad. The very first people wrestling were in the 125 pound weighclass. Well, the thing is, one of them has one leg. He was born with one leg, and at the age of three, he took his prosthetic leg, and threw it away. I don't know why, but this kid has to have a lot of guts to want to go through his entire life with one leg. There's no way I would want to wrestle if I had one leg. Anyway, not only did he fight his way into nationals, but he did it perfectly. He was 38-0 when he went into nationals. Seeded first! He was basically predicted to win the match. He went on to win the match 7 or 8 to 1. The very first words he told the people from ESPN were that God is good. That's the best part about it if you ask me. Not the fact that he won nationals, or the fact he has one leg. The fact that he won nationals, with one leg, and is giving the glory to God.
Well, that's all for now brothers and sisters. See you next time
Love you guys
TJ
"Sometimes the best things in life happen to you by accident"
I stil have to go like a month without using facebook, and I kid you not, I almost went there once I got on the laptop just now. I luckily caught myself, because I didn't want to break the chain I've had. Of course, it's very tempting to get on, but yeah. This time off of facebook has definitely shown me that I have much better things that I can be doing with my time than spending it on facebook. Heck, if it weren't for the fact that I am with my friend Michael, watching him play Gears of War, I would probably be at home..... doing nothing.
This next month does not scare me though. I have learned recently that nothing I do in the name of the Lord shall ever scare me, because I know that the whole time that I am doing whatever it is, that the Lord is going to be with me. I know that I should have no fear in what I do, because the Lord will guide me through it all. :) Best news ever
On a side note, I was watching the NCAA National Championships for wrestling yesterday. I must say, best thing I've ever decided to watch randomly with my dad. The very first people wrestling were in the 125 pound weighclass. Well, the thing is, one of them has one leg. He was born with one leg, and at the age of three, he took his prosthetic leg, and threw it away. I don't know why, but this kid has to have a lot of guts to want to go through his entire life with one leg. There's no way I would want to wrestle if I had one leg. Anyway, not only did he fight his way into nationals, but he did it perfectly. He was 38-0 when he went into nationals. Seeded first! He was basically predicted to win the match. He went on to win the match 7 or 8 to 1. The very first words he told the people from ESPN were that God is good. That's the best part about it if you ask me. Not the fact that he won nationals, or the fact he has one leg. The fact that he won nationals, with one leg, and is giving the glory to God.
Well, that's all for now brothers and sisters. See you next time
Love you guys
TJ
"Sometimes the best things in life happen to you by accident"
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
No fear preface
I think I'm going to try something I've seen a few of my friends doing. I'm going to be talking about Not being afraid. But instead of putting everything I want to all into one blog. Which greatly limits the amount of stuff I can say in the post, I'm going to just put a situation, and then just say why we shouldn't be afraid. Easy enough right?
I'm just going to use this post to kind of continue the last one, because I got cut really short because of some things I had to do. No biggie.
Well, human nature just tells us to be afraid of challenges that we are bound to face whether we want to or not. They say that we shouldn't be confident in ourselves because we are very imperfect. We all know that we aren't perfect. There is something going wrong in all of us. Whether we realize it or not is the key. I know that I tend not to realize a lot of my mess ups, unless they are very obvious. In any sense, the way we all think we are programmed to be tells us that we should basically have little confidence. Since there are very few things you can do that you can really do by your self. The things you can get away with doing it yourself though, we are scared, because we're used to having someone to our lefts or rights to help us out.
This is not the way I think we need to handle things. Whatever we do, we need to go in not only with this sense of urgency, but a sense of confidence that no matter what happens, God will always be there with us.Colossians 3:23 says "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord, and not for men." While it says nothing about being afraid in this one, it does say work at it with all your heart. If you're really giving something all of your heart when you do it, you must have at least a little bit of confidence that you can do it, and get it done right. So, I take away that when we are working with our hearts, nothing related to fear is going to come close to stopping us from being who we are.
I can't explain why people are always so afraid, myself included. I am pretty much a little scaredy cat when it comes to things I'm even a little bit unsure about. Whenever a challenge presents itself, I'll be one of the first people to go out and say I'm not afraid to do it, but then when I really see what the challenge is asking me to do, I'll start to second guess myself, and that's where we are going to make mistakes. When we start to second guess what we're doing we are that much more likely to mess up. One example of such an event happened last Summer, when a few of my friends and I went down to the Maury River in Goshen, Virginia.
We were body tubing down the Maury, and we came to this one part where there was enough water to swim freely. There were also 12-15 foot rocks that we could safely and easily jump off of, and do all this crazy stuff if we wanted to. This was very fun, because we stayed there for hours just being teenagers. Not worrying about life. Then comes the fun part of the story. Trust me, keep reading, this is where it gets interesting.
My friend, Zack found this place to where he thought you could easily jump to the water, and not get hurt. Thing was, it was 30 feet high! Think, we're about to double or more the rocks we were jumping off. Zack climbs up to that part, and then we all realize that if he doesn't push off hard enough....Well, let's just say he would be lucky if he ended off with broken legs, and a few bruises. Thank the Lord that Zack did have that kind of leg power and he landed very safely in the middle of the perfect spot. Whew. But wait, there's more.
My friend Jacob went up there too. Now he's not nearly as big as Zack height wise or weight-wise. But that's really what scared me. It was the fact that there was a kid who is about half the size of Zack about to jump 30 feet to either a fun time, or a one-way ticket to a Goshen Hospital. Thankfully, he also landed in what became known as the safety zone.
I then went up, because I thought, "Hey, this kid who is smaller than me did it, so why can't I?" Well, because I'm a gutless kid who is scared of heights.That would be the only thing that is going to kill me up there. I stood up, looking at the safety zone, and thinking of how a kid who jumps off his left foot is going to jump off this cliff where the right foot is better to push off of. It wasn't a fun time. I eventually said I'm keeping my pride, and my life on this one, and headed back down, but then waited. I was about to watch another
My good friend Eric comes up. He's going to, as Jacob and Zack had just done, and I'd failed to do, jump off this thing. Eric and I are basically the same build, he's just a bit taller, and stronger. I thought, "If I see Eric do this successfully, then I know I can do it." I then stood at the top angle looking down at one of my best friends falling 30 feet right into the safety zone. Thank God. I was scared every time one of them jumped. I didn't want to go to a funeral before Summer Camp. It didn't seem like a very good idea to me.
After I had seen Eric successfully land, I had enough of my being scared, so I swallowed my pride and got prepared to jump. Everyone's telling me to only do it if I feel 100% sure that I can land in the safety zone. To tell the truth, I was only about 70% sure that I wasn't about die. Even so, I was not about to leave that spot without the thrill of falling 30 feet into water. I finally decide, it's now or never. I start to rock forward and back, as if do build some momentum, because from a standing position, I can't really jump that far, and I knew if I couldn't do something to build up any momentum, then I would surely be 6 feet deep.
I rocked back and forth about 5 times, and then I took a strong rock back, and let my leg to the rest of the work. I was airborne. I fell about 10 feet before I thought I was done. I heard 3 people saying "Oh crap!", because they too thought it was the end of me. Well, I can say I got about as close as you can without doing it. I landed in the safety zone, but if it were drawn into a circle, I would be right on the edge of it. My feet hit the water, and because I was wearing shoes, I didn't go straight in, and fell backwards. My back scraped up against some rocks and I thought I had just been stabbed. I thought for sure that not landing straight on the rocks and slowly bleeding out was going to be a worse way than just straight crumbling right then and there.
Thank God I realized about 3 seconds later I wasn't hurt that bad. I had barely hit the rocks, and I was going to be 100% okay. Man, I was thinking, "Never again". It was still fun though. those 4 seconds or so that I was in the air was the best time. That's just because I love being in the air and I will do anything to get off the ground. I was a little scraped up, but nothing anybody couldn't handle.
This story gave me a brand new meaning to the term "Leap of Faith". I was thinking to myself that after doing that, no physical thing was ever going to scare me again. To this day, no physical thing has scared me. There are very many things outside of that that have, but the physical stuff is nothing to me, simply because I came within a foot of no longer being of this world.
This was the most scared that I have ever been in my life. There comes a time though where you have to say "I am not going to let fear paralyze me", and just do it! I wish I could be like this with every aspect of my life, but hey, there is still time for me to have another one of these experiences in another way that will make me not be afraid of something else.
Can't wait to see where this series goes.
I love you guys.
TJ
P.S. Don't jump off 30 foot cliffs if you're not 80% sure or more. It will be very helpful.
I'm just going to use this post to kind of continue the last one, because I got cut really short because of some things I had to do. No biggie.
Well, human nature just tells us to be afraid of challenges that we are bound to face whether we want to or not. They say that we shouldn't be confident in ourselves because we are very imperfect. We all know that we aren't perfect. There is something going wrong in all of us. Whether we realize it or not is the key. I know that I tend not to realize a lot of my mess ups, unless they are very obvious. In any sense, the way we all think we are programmed to be tells us that we should basically have little confidence. Since there are very few things you can do that you can really do by your self. The things you can get away with doing it yourself though, we are scared, because we're used to having someone to our lefts or rights to help us out.
This is not the way I think we need to handle things. Whatever we do, we need to go in not only with this sense of urgency, but a sense of confidence that no matter what happens, God will always be there with us.Colossians 3:23 says "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord, and not for men." While it says nothing about being afraid in this one, it does say work at it with all your heart. If you're really giving something all of your heart when you do it, you must have at least a little bit of confidence that you can do it, and get it done right. So, I take away that when we are working with our hearts, nothing related to fear is going to come close to stopping us from being who we are.
I can't explain why people are always so afraid, myself included. I am pretty much a little scaredy cat when it comes to things I'm even a little bit unsure about. Whenever a challenge presents itself, I'll be one of the first people to go out and say I'm not afraid to do it, but then when I really see what the challenge is asking me to do, I'll start to second guess myself, and that's where we are going to make mistakes. When we start to second guess what we're doing we are that much more likely to mess up. One example of such an event happened last Summer, when a few of my friends and I went down to the Maury River in Goshen, Virginia.
We were body tubing down the Maury, and we came to this one part where there was enough water to swim freely. There were also 12-15 foot rocks that we could safely and easily jump off of, and do all this crazy stuff if we wanted to. This was very fun, because we stayed there for hours just being teenagers. Not worrying about life. Then comes the fun part of the story. Trust me, keep reading, this is where it gets interesting.
My friend, Zack found this place to where he thought you could easily jump to the water, and not get hurt. Thing was, it was 30 feet high! Think, we're about to double or more the rocks we were jumping off. Zack climbs up to that part, and then we all realize that if he doesn't push off hard enough....Well, let's just say he would be lucky if he ended off with broken legs, and a few bruises. Thank the Lord that Zack did have that kind of leg power and he landed very safely in the middle of the perfect spot. Whew. But wait, there's more.
My friend Jacob went up there too. Now he's not nearly as big as Zack height wise or weight-wise. But that's really what scared me. It was the fact that there was a kid who is about half the size of Zack about to jump 30 feet to either a fun time, or a one-way ticket to a Goshen Hospital. Thankfully, he also landed in what became known as the safety zone.
I then went up, because I thought, "Hey, this kid who is smaller than me did it, so why can't I?" Well, because I'm a gutless kid who is scared of heights.That would be the only thing that is going to kill me up there. I stood up, looking at the safety zone, and thinking of how a kid who jumps off his left foot is going to jump off this cliff where the right foot is better to push off of. It wasn't a fun time. I eventually said I'm keeping my pride, and my life on this one, and headed back down, but then waited. I was about to watch another
My good friend Eric comes up. He's going to, as Jacob and Zack had just done, and I'd failed to do, jump off this thing. Eric and I are basically the same build, he's just a bit taller, and stronger. I thought, "If I see Eric do this successfully, then I know I can do it." I then stood at the top angle looking down at one of my best friends falling 30 feet right into the safety zone. Thank God. I was scared every time one of them jumped. I didn't want to go to a funeral before Summer Camp. It didn't seem like a very good idea to me.
After I had seen Eric successfully land, I had enough of my being scared, so I swallowed my pride and got prepared to jump. Everyone's telling me to only do it if I feel 100% sure that I can land in the safety zone. To tell the truth, I was only about 70% sure that I wasn't about die. Even so, I was not about to leave that spot without the thrill of falling 30 feet into water. I finally decide, it's now or never. I start to rock forward and back, as if do build some momentum, because from a standing position, I can't really jump that far, and I knew if I couldn't do something to build up any momentum, then I would surely be 6 feet deep.
I rocked back and forth about 5 times, and then I took a strong rock back, and let my leg to the rest of the work. I was airborne. I fell about 10 feet before I thought I was done. I heard 3 people saying "Oh crap!", because they too thought it was the end of me. Well, I can say I got about as close as you can without doing it. I landed in the safety zone, but if it were drawn into a circle, I would be right on the edge of it. My feet hit the water, and because I was wearing shoes, I didn't go straight in, and fell backwards. My back scraped up against some rocks and I thought I had just been stabbed. I thought for sure that not landing straight on the rocks and slowly bleeding out was going to be a worse way than just straight crumbling right then and there.
Thank God I realized about 3 seconds later I wasn't hurt that bad. I had barely hit the rocks, and I was going to be 100% okay. Man, I was thinking, "Never again". It was still fun though. those 4 seconds or so that I was in the air was the best time. That's just because I love being in the air and I will do anything to get off the ground. I was a little scraped up, but nothing anybody couldn't handle.
This story gave me a brand new meaning to the term "Leap of Faith". I was thinking to myself that after doing that, no physical thing was ever going to scare me again. To this day, no physical thing has scared me. There are very many things outside of that that have, but the physical stuff is nothing to me, simply because I came within a foot of no longer being of this world.
This was the most scared that I have ever been in my life. There comes a time though where you have to say "I am not going to let fear paralyze me", and just do it! I wish I could be like this with every aspect of my life, but hey, there is still time for me to have another one of these experiences in another way that will make me not be afraid of something else.
Can't wait to see where this series goes.
I love you guys.
TJ
P.S. Don't jump off 30 foot cliffs if you're not 80% sure or more. It will be very helpful.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Human nature is awful
There are many things in human nature that I think are not how we are really supposed to be. Human nature tells us to be scared whenever we go into something we have never really done before. I really don't htink there is a point to being so scared of everything you're going to come into contact with, because when you're scared of everything, you are sure to get close to nothing accomplished. People tend to let fear control all of their actions, and when they allow fear to control what they do, they are less likely to be successful.
I used to be horrible with letting fear get the best of my situations. Be it starting relationships with other kids, or even the ever-living fear of rejection. Rejection from girls, sports, or even school stuff. We all tend to live in fear that we aren't going to be accepted into something. Whether we're accepted on the sports team we tried out for, or we're accepted by that group of people we want to hang around, or acceptance into UVA, or Virginia Tech, or Harvard. We want...No, we need acceptance. We just don't know where to turn to in order to get that kind of acceptance. We have already been accepted into the one thing that we need to live a full life.
God sent His acceptance letter in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. This acceptance letter came to Earth, and told us all that we are greatly loved. That He knows none of them are perfect, but that God still loves them all the same. He came so that we might have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10) H came to us to save us from that. We've been accepted into Heaven, and into the body of Christ. We've finally found the place we belong. We're going home. We're coming home to Christ. He's accepting us with love, and open arms.
Now that we have been accepted, why should we have fear in the things we do? As long as what we do is in accordance to God's will, God will be with us, and as long as we faithfully serve Him, and do His will, our blessings will be as numerous as the stars. That excites me. Knowing that just by being a faithful servant to God, that we will be blessed in many different ways. I don't know about you guys, but I love God's blessings. I also love doing God's will for Him. So why wouldn't I do these things I love in order to get things that I love? It only makes sense.
One thing that is kind of off-topic, but I think is very important. The song Don't Waste Your Life, by Lecrae is such a great showcase of knowing the things that you have are not yours. In the last verse, he says "You make a lot of money? Hope you doin' it right. Cause the money is God's you better steward it right. Stay focused. You ain't got no ride? Your life ain't wrapped up in what you drive, the clothes you wear, the job you work, the color your skin, nah you Christian first" and "See your money, your singleness, marriage, talent, your time. They were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is divine." These two lines not only tell me that it's not my stuff, but that it was all given to me to let His light shine off of that. Don't take these things for granted, because they can, and will be taken away from one who squanders.
One reason I want to post this is as a reminder to myself that I don't want to be afraid to go out and be God's faithful servant. One thing that I want to do is stop being afraid to start the relationships within the school. Beginning a new relationship with someone who doesn't know Christ is probably one of the scariest things I could think of doing. It's just something that has to be done, because that's exactly what YoungLife is about. Relationships. Making relationships that you already have tighter can be scary too, because you never know how exactly it's going to affect your friendship how it is. Leap of faith my friends. Great things happen to those who take risks.
My challenge to all of you is to go and start a new relationship with someone. No matter who it is. Then make any of your existing relationships a tighter relationship. I am going to challenge myself to do the same, but I think everyone can do this. I just think there is a great degree of separation between the people who go to the same school. Or are even in the same grade. I know personally, I hate hanging out with most sophomores because they are all usually very different from me. I'm going to stop judging based on the things that they like to do, or how they talk, or the things they say. That is Young Life.
That's it. Will you accept my challenge? Or is this relationship impossible?
I love you guys.
TJ
Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. ~Emily Kimbrough
I used to be horrible with letting fear get the best of my situations. Be it starting relationships with other kids, or even the ever-living fear of rejection. Rejection from girls, sports, or even school stuff. We all tend to live in fear that we aren't going to be accepted into something. Whether we're accepted on the sports team we tried out for, or we're accepted by that group of people we want to hang around, or acceptance into UVA, or Virginia Tech, or Harvard. We want...No, we need acceptance. We just don't know where to turn to in order to get that kind of acceptance. We have already been accepted into the one thing that we need to live a full life.
God sent His acceptance letter in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. This acceptance letter came to Earth, and told us all that we are greatly loved. That He knows none of them are perfect, but that God still loves them all the same. He came so that we might have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10) H came to us to save us from that. We've been accepted into Heaven, and into the body of Christ. We've finally found the place we belong. We're going home. We're coming home to Christ. He's accepting us with love, and open arms.
Now that we have been accepted, why should we have fear in the things we do? As long as what we do is in accordance to God's will, God will be with us, and as long as we faithfully serve Him, and do His will, our blessings will be as numerous as the stars. That excites me. Knowing that just by being a faithful servant to God, that we will be blessed in many different ways. I don't know about you guys, but I love God's blessings. I also love doing God's will for Him. So why wouldn't I do these things I love in order to get things that I love? It only makes sense.
One thing that is kind of off-topic, but I think is very important. The song Don't Waste Your Life, by Lecrae is such a great showcase of knowing the things that you have are not yours. In the last verse, he says "You make a lot of money? Hope you doin' it right. Cause the money is God's you better steward it right. Stay focused. You ain't got no ride? Your life ain't wrapped up in what you drive, the clothes you wear, the job you work, the color your skin, nah you Christian first" and "See your money, your singleness, marriage, talent, your time. They were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is divine." These two lines not only tell me that it's not my stuff, but that it was all given to me to let His light shine off of that. Don't take these things for granted, because they can, and will be taken away from one who squanders.
One reason I want to post this is as a reminder to myself that I don't want to be afraid to go out and be God's faithful servant. One thing that I want to do is stop being afraid to start the relationships within the school. Beginning a new relationship with someone who doesn't know Christ is probably one of the scariest things I could think of doing. It's just something that has to be done, because that's exactly what YoungLife is about. Relationships. Making relationships that you already have tighter can be scary too, because you never know how exactly it's going to affect your friendship how it is. Leap of faith my friends. Great things happen to those who take risks.
My challenge to all of you is to go and start a new relationship with someone. No matter who it is. Then make any of your existing relationships a tighter relationship. I am going to challenge myself to do the same, but I think everyone can do this. I just think there is a great degree of separation between the people who go to the same school. Or are even in the same grade. I know personally, I hate hanging out with most sophomores because they are all usually very different from me. I'm going to stop judging based on the things that they like to do, or how they talk, or the things they say. That is Young Life.
That's it. Will you accept my challenge? Or is this relationship impossible?
I love you guys.
TJ
Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. ~Emily Kimbrough
Friday, March 11, 2011
Lets go
Throughout every thought that I had about the things that I wanted to give up for lent, I have finally decided that I am not going to be able to handle soda and all that good stuff. I have decided to go for the next hardest thing, because I use it a lot.I have decided that I am going to go for the next little less than 40 days without facebook. There are many, many reasons behind this.
The first reason that I am going to go without facebook for this time, is the fact that I am on it all the time. I don't think it's any good for me. I believe that if I can go this whole time faithfully staying off of facebook, then I can get other, more important things done. Even homework might become a little easier if I don't get on facebook the very second I can. It could also show me that there is more to life than the internet.
Another reason that I am going to go without this is that I think it might be hurting my times with the Lord. I would spend almost every waking minute I could on facebook, and giving little time to the Lord. I know that's a bad way of giving God my leftovers. I know that I don't want to do that anymore. I think that this will be helpful in me keeping my eyes set on the goal. I also assure you, the goal has absolutely nothing to do with facebook. So, I'm getting rid of that for a while.
I also believe that if I'm not on facebook, I can definitely try to become closer with my brothers and sisters in Christ. The time that I tend to spend online could definitely be used to hang out with these people. Going outside of them also, I can hang out with the kids who don't really know Christ. The time that I spend on there can be used to help guide someone back home. Back into the light. We'll just have to see though.
I'm pretty excited for this opportunity to try and become one with my God. One thing I know is that if I spend all of this time on facebook, I will be wasting my life. A life is too precious of a thing to waste. So why would we want to do that? I don't wanna waste my life.
That's all for now
I love you guys
TJ
"Don't wanna waste my life, life , life. Don't wanna waste my life, life, life. Don't wanna waste my life, life, life. Don't wanna waste my, don't wanna waste my, don't wanna waste my life" -Lecrae
The first reason that I am going to go without facebook for this time, is the fact that I am on it all the time. I don't think it's any good for me. I believe that if I can go this whole time faithfully staying off of facebook, then I can get other, more important things done. Even homework might become a little easier if I don't get on facebook the very second I can. It could also show me that there is more to life than the internet.
Another reason that I am going to go without this is that I think it might be hurting my times with the Lord. I would spend almost every waking minute I could on facebook, and giving little time to the Lord. I know that's a bad way of giving God my leftovers. I know that I don't want to do that anymore. I think that this will be helpful in me keeping my eyes set on the goal. I also assure you, the goal has absolutely nothing to do with facebook. So, I'm getting rid of that for a while.
I also believe that if I'm not on facebook, I can definitely try to become closer with my brothers and sisters in Christ. The time that I tend to spend online could definitely be used to hang out with these people. Going outside of them also, I can hang out with the kids who don't really know Christ. The time that I spend on there can be used to help guide someone back home. Back into the light. We'll just have to see though.
I'm pretty excited for this opportunity to try and become one with my God. One thing I know is that if I spend all of this time on facebook, I will be wasting my life. A life is too precious of a thing to waste. So why would we want to do that? I don't wanna waste my life.
That's all for now
I love you guys
TJ
"Don't wanna waste my life, life , life. Don't wanna waste my life, life, life. Don't wanna waste my life, life, life. Don't wanna waste my, don't wanna waste my, don't wanna waste my life" -Lecrae
Friday, March 4, 2011
You Are More, Take Two
Okay, so the last post I had went very off topic. I was trying to write about what the song "You Are More" by Tenth Avenue North.
The reason that I want to write about this song is that it has continued to speak worlds to how I have been trying to think about life. The chorus of the song goes:
"You are more than the choices that you've made.
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes.
You are more than the problems you create.
You've been remade."
I really like how this song really speaks about how in the eyes of God, we are more than all of the bad things that we may have done. He sees us as greater beings than even His own creation. Christ thinks so highly of us, that He doesn't even care that we constantly fall short. He still loves us all the same.
On a side note, and hopefully I won't get to into this that I forget again. I was in the library, watching channel one before I went to second period, and there was a story on this soldier who was killed in battle, but was still hated by many people who claim to be Christians, just because he was gay. They held up signs that said things like "God hates you" and "You are going to Hell". This is not the way were are to think of people. The bible says "Love your neighbor as yourself." Just because this man was gay, does not make him any less than us. We've fallen short just as much as he has. While yes, in the Bible it does say in a nutshell that you should not be gay, it does not mean that God hates the people who are. We should love them the same way that we love the people who are not gay.
Anyway, Christ sees us all, no matter what we have done in such a way that I don't think that no matter how many times we could read the Bible, that we still would not fully understand. He chose us before the beginning of time. We can never fully understand how much He really loves us. I can't thank Him enough for this love.
In a nutshell, we are more than the poor choices, we are more than all of the mistakes we've ever made in our lives, and we are more than any problem that comes up in our lives, lets just give it to God, and live by faith. Our lives are in His hands.
That's it for now/
I love you guys
TJ
The reason that I want to write about this song is that it has continued to speak worlds to how I have been trying to think about life. The chorus of the song goes:
"You are more than the choices that you've made.
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes.
You are more than the problems you create.
You've been remade."
I really like how this song really speaks about how in the eyes of God, we are more than all of the bad things that we may have done. He sees us as greater beings than even His own creation. Christ thinks so highly of us, that He doesn't even care that we constantly fall short. He still loves us all the same.
On a side note, and hopefully I won't get to into this that I forget again. I was in the library, watching channel one before I went to second period, and there was a story on this soldier who was killed in battle, but was still hated by many people who claim to be Christians, just because he was gay. They held up signs that said things like "God hates you" and "You are going to Hell". This is not the way were are to think of people. The bible says "Love your neighbor as yourself." Just because this man was gay, does not make him any less than us. We've fallen short just as much as he has. While yes, in the Bible it does say in a nutshell that you should not be gay, it does not mean that God hates the people who are. We should love them the same way that we love the people who are not gay.
Anyway, Christ sees us all, no matter what we have done in such a way that I don't think that no matter how many times we could read the Bible, that we still would not fully understand. He chose us before the beginning of time. We can never fully understand how much He really loves us. I can't thank Him enough for this love.
In a nutshell, we are more than the poor choices, we are more than all of the mistakes we've ever made in our lives, and we are more than any problem that comes up in our lives, lets just give it to God, and live by faith. Our lives are in His hands.
That's it for now/
I love you guys
TJ
Thursday, March 3, 2011
You are more
As many of the people who read this know, Tenth Avenue North recently came out with a song called "You Are More". I really think that this is another song that really speaks the message of Christ to me personally. I haven't really ever said this, but I have a harder time hearing Christ's message to me from just a person talking in front of a room. Especially if that person is older than me. I have a really hard time with really getting the point of each and every talk. Even if I do write things down, sometimes I can't seem to wrap my head around what was said. This can mean a number of things, but I think that for me personally, it shows me that I learn many things better in different ways.
Music seems to be a way that I learn things a lot easier. Another example that doesn't really involve Christ at all is, I wouldn't know all the states of the USA if it weren't for a song that I had to sing in fifth grade. Since I was made to sing that song many times, I eventually memorized every state because I said them over, and over, and over, and over again.
With the message of Christ, it seems that I learn many things from listening to worship music. Though many songs are based off of the fact that Jesus died for us, the other songs that have the other messages that Christ has really teaches me a lot of things that I don't think I could really grasp if it weren't for those songs being written. This is not the only way I learn, because there are times that I do learn by reading, or writing things down. This way just seems easier, and in a sense, more fun.
While reading never really possesses any essense of fun, that is why I am glad there are other ways that I can hear the message of Christ, through things like YoungLife, and other bible studies that I do, or have done. For some reason, I can't help but to have some fun when we're reading through a passage, or even somewhere in the Old Testament, because in all reality, I am like very many other people in the sense that I would much rather just have the New Testament and not worry about the Old Testament because it doesn't have the laws in there, and it doesn't have very many other things. In other words, I find much of the Old Testament boring.
Though I know that I am not the only one who thinks this way, I know that the Old Testament is just as important as the New Testament. There is too much valuable information that I can gain out of reading the Old Testament, and that is why I want to go over it in the bible studies that I am doing, because I know that with the help of all of my friends going through this stuff with me, I can keep my head straight, and listen to what I need to hear. All I can ask is that Christ would lead me to want to hear this, and not just the gospels and all of the New Testament.
That's all for now. This class is about to end, and I won't remember it later.
Wow, this went way off topic......
I love you guys,
TJ
Music seems to be a way that I learn things a lot easier. Another example that doesn't really involve Christ at all is, I wouldn't know all the states of the USA if it weren't for a song that I had to sing in fifth grade. Since I was made to sing that song many times, I eventually memorized every state because I said them over, and over, and over, and over again.
With the message of Christ, it seems that I learn many things from listening to worship music. Though many songs are based off of the fact that Jesus died for us, the other songs that have the other messages that Christ has really teaches me a lot of things that I don't think I could really grasp if it weren't for those songs being written. This is not the only way I learn, because there are times that I do learn by reading, or writing things down. This way just seems easier, and in a sense, more fun.
While reading never really possesses any essense of fun, that is why I am glad there are other ways that I can hear the message of Christ, through things like YoungLife, and other bible studies that I do, or have done. For some reason, I can't help but to have some fun when we're reading through a passage, or even somewhere in the Old Testament, because in all reality, I am like very many other people in the sense that I would much rather just have the New Testament and not worry about the Old Testament because it doesn't have the laws in there, and it doesn't have very many other things. In other words, I find much of the Old Testament boring.
Though I know that I am not the only one who thinks this way, I know that the Old Testament is just as important as the New Testament. There is too much valuable information that I can gain out of reading the Old Testament, and that is why I want to go over it in the bible studies that I am doing, because I know that with the help of all of my friends going through this stuff with me, I can keep my head straight, and listen to what I need to hear. All I can ask is that Christ would lead me to want to hear this, and not just the gospels and all of the New Testament.
That's all for now. This class is about to end, and I won't remember it later.
Wow, this went way off topic......
I love you guys,
TJ