A Quick Thank You, and a Prayer Request

I've been thinking about the last nine months I've been blogging, and how it has been so beneficial to my soul in many ways. The main reason being the way you guys have encouraged, exhorted and even once or twice corrected me. I thank God for you, it's been a blessing having you pray for me when I ask, and taking the time to spur me on to good works.

Now I'd like to ask you to pray for me and my family, my dad is about to leave for Iraq for a job he got there. He'll be gone for about a year, maybe getting to visit us once. I realize this is going to be hard, and I am asking God to help us through this time.
I regret I cannot give any further info on what my dad will be doing there for his job.

Merry Christmas!
-cj

The Reasons for Suffering, and the Reasons for Blessings

I've noticed that, often when someone is suffering. People seem to think that because they are suffering, God must be punishing them for a certain sin. This is not so, even though all suffering is a result of the fall of man, all our suffering is not always a punishment for a particular sin. Suffering has more purposes in our lives than just punishing our sin. Lets look at what James has to say.

James 1:2"Count it all joy my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For we know that the the testing of our faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have it's full effect, that you may perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

From this passage it is obvious to us that there are more reasons for suffering than just for punishing sin, as many people tend to think.
If you read the book of Job, you will find that just because we are suffering doesn't mean that we are being punished for a particular sin, as Job's friends thought. The Bible says that Job was a righteous man, not perfect, but he was righteous. And from the conversation God has with Satan, it is obvious that he was not punishing him. Therefore, we know that God uses suffering to do many things, not just punish sin.

God may use suffering in our lives to teach us to trust him more, to test our faith or maybe he his doing it for a reason he does not want to reveal to us.

Now let's look at the opposite side of this. What if we are being blessed by God? Does that mean that we are being rewarded because of a good deed that we preformed? This can be the reason, but to say that our good deeds are the only reason for our blessings would be sort of placing credit where credit isn't due. The only reason we are even able to do good is because of God's Grace. We are blessed because the goodness of God's heart, not ours.

Barrak Obama, Our President

With the arrival of the news that Barrak Obama is our next president, there is one thing that I do not regret about this. I am glad that we now have a president who is African American. But what makes a man qualified to be president? Is it the color of his skin? Or his experience and knowledge of how to efficiently do the job? America was so anxious, so ready to get a black man in the White House that we were willing to turn a blind eye to everything this man stands for, to sacrifice everything America stands for and to embrace what America has fought against since the day it was founded, namely socialism. For those who doubt that Obama could possibly be socialist I have a few words for you. Obama's "Spread the wealth" idea is the very foundation of socialism. I quote Karl Marx(founder of socialism)



"To those according to their need, from those according to what they have."

In other words, Give to those who do not have(and will not labor for) what the man who has worked hard owns.

But what will we do? Will we sit back and watch our country turn against the very principals that it was built on? No! I urge you not to give up, but to continue to fight for what is right and good. So please, do not be discouraged, be encouraged! For after all, God always has the first, the present and the last word in everything.

-cj

Written for Teens Set Apart

Teens Set Apart

Many of you do not know this, but in the past few weeks, Josiah Robertson of "Pro-Life Teenagers" and I have been busy creating a website called "Teens Set Apart" (T.S.A.). The official launch date is Tuesday, October 7.

What is "Teens Set Apart" about? As Christians we are called to stand out, to be different from the rest of the world. The world says we should "Go with the flow" and be more tolerant of sin, but God has called us to live a life that would glorify him, tolerating sin maybe easier but it does not glorify him. We have created this website to encourage other Christian teens to strive for rightousness, to have a place where we can share our prayer requests and simply to have a good time:)

Here is the link: http://www.teenssetapart.com/

Enjoy!

Serving

Jesus came to serve us, and we must follow his example

Matthew 20:28- "Even as the son of man came not to be served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom to many."What an amazing example he set, that even "The King of Kings" would serve sinners. We must follow his example and serve others, by serving others we are serving God,

Matthew 25:40- "And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." (Galations 5:13, Chronicles 28:9, John 12:26, Deuteronomy 10:12, Romans 12:11).

We should be excited to serve

Romans 12:11- "Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord."

~"There must be no hesitation or sloth in Christian living. The Christian should be "fervent," living for Christ with enthusiasm and energy." -Note from the "Reformation Study Bible"



I know that I have a hard time getting excited to serve, I pray that God will make me strong in this area.



Serving in the small areas of life is just as important as serving in the large areas.



Serving is a way of humbling oneself, which God has commanded us to do, James 4:10- "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." If we humble ourselves and serve God, he will exalt us. Serving in the small areas where our work will probably not be noticed is a very important form of service. When God sees our devotion in the those areas he will exalt us to a higher form of service(Small areas being, daily chores, serving our siblings ect. Large areas being, missionary work, a ministry ect.).

Fear Not

When life gets hard, and we don't understand why, it can be easy to become afraid and doubt God; it may even seem that he is not there. But just because it seems that he is not with us in those hard times, and we can't see what he is doing through it, Isaiah 41:10 says "Fear not for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." No matter how hard it gets, we know from God's promise in Isaiah 41:10 that he will uphold us and strengthen us through our hard times.

John 16:33- "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. but take heart; I have overcome the world." We don't need to understand why God is putting us through these hard times, we just need to know that he will help. He will strengthen and uphold us. We don't see the big picture, but God does and he is in control. It lends great comfort to know and believe that everything God does is for our good even when, through our limited vision, it may not look like it.

"Jesus Freaks" by dc Talk and the Voice of the Martyrs

It is said that there are more Christian Martyrs today than in any other time period. This book is a collection of amazing stories of people who risked their comfort, their family, their friends and even their lives for the Gospel and Jesus Christ. It tells only a few of their stories that must be told. It is a must read, I highly recommend it.

Complacency(more on the conference)

Brett talked about complacency; that even if we are excelling in an area, if were not pushing ourselves to do our best, then we are not growing in that area. However if someone is not excelling in that certain area, but is doing his/her best, then they are the ones who are growing(in that certain area). Brett used the example that if he is lifting a ten pound weight without breaking a sweat and his little brother is struggling to lift five pounds, then his little brother is actually getting the better workout and therefore gaining more muscle. God is more pleased with the person who is doing his/her best than the person who is excelling and not and doing his/her best.

I'm Back!

I just got back from the "Do Hard Things" conference, it was great! First Alex and Brett opened by telling us how the Rebelution started. Then Alex talked about "The Myth of Adolescence", how teenagers these days only rise to meet our culture's low expectations, and no more. Our culture tells us that the teen years are the time to have fun and to do what we want, they have conditioned us to believe that we are useless and unable to "Do Hard Things". But the Bible tells us that we can do all things through Christ. So through God, teenagers can "Do Hard Things".

More to come.

-cj

"Do Hard Things" Conference

Tomorrow, we(some of my family and I)will be leaving to go to the "Do Hard Things" conference in Colorado. If you already know we live in Texas, then your probably wondering why we don't just go to the Dallas conference. Well, we're also going to see our friends who live up there(we knew each other when we lived in California). We haven't seen each other in a long time, so we will be staying there a few extra days.

Please pray that we have a safe flight there and back.

Due to our leaving, I will not be able to post until Monday.

-cj

Did Jesus 'do Hard things?'

''I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me''(phil 4:13). This is an encouraging verse, it's telling us that nothing is impossible for our creator no matter how hard. If we follow Jesus' example we will notice that he did 'hard things' in fact he did the hardest thing of all, he paid for our sins. If Jesus can ''do hard things'' and if we gain our strength through him, then 'doing hard things' should be a cinch. But sometimes they're not, sometimes we fail because Satan, the world and our own sin nature convinces us that it's too hard, even for God. They don't come out and say ''it's too hard for God'' they say it quietly, so that we are easily persuaded to think like them. But don't lose heart, because we can do all things through him who saved us.