Encouragement

Since the missions trip, I have been thinking a lot about encouragement. One night, as I was talking with Christa, she asked how I thought I had contributed on the missions trip. I thought she meant on how I helped with the Bible Story team, but she didn't just mean that. She also meant how I contributed in other areas, like encouragement. During that discussion, she mentioned that she didn't think I was as 'on top' of encouragement like I normally was. She said she knew I was tired and was assigned to the Bible Story team, but that didn't mean I was exempt from encouraging others like normal. That really made me think and has kept me thinking about it since. Encouragement is so important and no matter the situation, I realized I still need to be encouraging others.

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
~Hebrews 3:12-14 (emphasis added)

As it says in these verses, encouragement is daily. It doesn't say weekly, or monthly, or whenever I think of it or get around to it. These verses say why encouragement is so important between Christians: so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. Without encouragement, people are hardened by sin! In James it says:

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
~James 4:17

That verse is so intense! By not encouraging others, its sin. That is really hard-hitting. So, no matter how tired, or busy, or any other excuses people come up with, including myself, daily encouraging one another in the body of Christ is a must!

In the Bible, a man named Joseph is a great example of an encourager. His real name was Joseph, but the disciples called him Barnabas:

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sols a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.
~Acts 4:36-37

When I heard about this at the Women Discipling Women Conference, I was like, whoa, that is really cool. This man, Joseph, got the name Barnabas from others because of how encouraging he was to others! Throughout Acts, Barnabas is mentioned along with acts of encouragement. What a model of encouragement in the Bible!
This verse here shows how important our words are:

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
~Proverbs 18:21

Wow, our words can lift up or lower a person in the matter of seconds. In the verse it says they have the power of life and death! Encouragement should bring life by being: affirming, comforting, caring, motivating, joyful, and wise. In the Bible, there are so many verses talking about this!

Encouragement is so important in the lives of Christians and ever since the missions trip, I have really been thinking about the importance. I hope this will show, or remind you of the power and importance of encouragement.

A Loving Heart

Recently I went to a Girl's Workshop taught by Christa Blakey. It was one of my favorite so far. The teaching greatly impacted me and made me look at 1 Corinthians 13 in a whole new way than I had before. The teaching that is being focused on in the most recent Girl's Workshops has been the attitudes of the heart. This past teaching was on A Loving Heart. The main passage we looked at was 1 John 4:7-11:

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

There were three main points to the teaching as Christa broke down the passage and presented a truly loving heart from a Biblical perspective:

1) Test your faith by your love for others. (v. 7-8)

1. Only Christians can love how God loves


2. Loving others is an example of our salvation


3. You need to ask yourself, "Do I truly love others?"

A huge point Christa made that shows if you truly love God or not is:

If you love God, you put Him first!

She pointed out that this is a Deal-Breaker! If you truly love God, then you will love others. Loving God and others are linked together and you can't have one and not the other. Like Matthew 22:37-40 says:

" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Just like these verses say, these are the two greatest commandments and with these two commandments, follow all the others.

2) Define your love by how God loves you. (v. 9-10)

1. By... Doing what God says to do


2. By... Being Biblical in how you love others


3. We are to love how God loves us... God "sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins". Just like this, we are to sacrifice ourselves for others, whether it be by sacrificing our time or money, we are to sacrifice ourselves for others to encourage and show our love for them.


4. Another thing Christa said that really stuck out to me was, "If you do anything without love, then it doesn't mean anything!" That is so amazing to think of. If you do anything with a motivation without love, then it won't count for a thing when we get to heaven! (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

3) Choose to act selflessly! (v. 11)

1. Love is a Choice, not a feeling!


2. You can make yourself love others.


3. Actively love others

She said when she is tempted to treat someone unloving, she hits herself with the gospel! A motivation to love is from verse 11: "... since God so loved us." Since God loved us, we also should show love to others.

We went through 1 Corinthians 13 to look at genuine love.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love...

1. Is Patient: takes a very long time to get upset (Proverbs 15:18)



2. Is Kind: useful in serving, gracious, gentle in words (1 Thessalonians 5:15)



3. Is Not Envious: love is glad for others for what they have (Romans 12:15a)



4. Does Not Boast: giving glory to God instead (2 Corinthians 10:17-18)



5. Is Not Proud (arrogant): humble servant (Proverbs 11:12)



6. Is Not Rude: don't blame being rude on your mood- be considerate and gracious of the other person (Ephesians 4:32)



7. Is Not Self-Seeking: How can I help someone else, before me? (Philippians 2:4)



8. Is Not Easily Angered: has self-control- guards against being irritated or upset (James 1:19-20)



9. Keeps No Record of Wrongs: Forgive and Forget!!! (Colossians 3:13)



10. Doesn't Delight In Evil: hates sin- something Christa mentioned that is a struggle for many people is gossip which is relaying something about someone carelessly and that includes listening! (Proverbs 8:13)



11. Rejoices With the Truth: rejoices in righteousness- encourage others to live righteous lives (Hebrews 10:24)



12. Always Protects: protects from their own sin (rebuke), from harm, and from ridicule (Proverbs 10:12)



13. Always Trusts: not suspicious or cynical- always believes the best about others and trusts that God can work in any situation- considers someone innocent until proven guilty! (Romans 8:28)



14. Always Hopes: God is in control- says, God use me! (Psalm 25:3)



15. Always Perseveres: endures at all costs- "Love never stops loving." (Psalm 118:1)

A quote Christa gave us about love not being boastful that stood out is"

"It is impossible to build ourselves up without putting
others
down."
--John MacArthur

This past Girl's Workshop totally changed my outlook on love and how it is Biblically in the Bible. It also gave me a new perspective on 1 Corinthians 13. Before I would pretty much just read through that passage and say, ya ya this is love, but I never looked at it this way ans thought about each individual aspect of love. It was a very eye and heart opening workshop and the application handout we received has been very helpful in applying God's Word to my life.

Staying on Track

Wow!!!! The Lord is so awesome and amazing!!! I can't even describe Him!!!
This weekend I got baptized with about 60 other people!!! That means 61 people followed the Lord's command to get baptized and have dedicated themselves to following the Lord!!!! How amazing is our God?!!!
The first time Pastor Bobby announced in church we could get baptized I knew I wanted to and was going to. I want to always follow the Lord and do His will in my life. Getting baptized in His name was... I can't describe how wonderful it was to be baptized, to come out of the water being raised with Christ(symbolically).
It is so cool seeing how the Lord is working in everyone's lives at True North and seeing fellow teens not conforming to the patterns of the world. I am so glad to have everyone at True North to keep me accountable and I know that they are backing me in this defiled world.
I want everyone at True North to always keep me accountable in the Lord; so no one feel bad about coming up to me and telling me I shouldn't be doing something. I want to rep the Lord and not hurt the church like was spoken through Pastor Mike this weekend.
Thank you everyone at True North for helping me grow in my faith and walk with the Lord. Praise the Lord for His good, pleasing, and perfect will!!!!

My Testimony

Ok, well I am going to get baptized on the 21st of October and I am super excited!!! I thought I would share my testimony of living for Christ:



I was born into a Christian home. I have grown up being taught about the Lord and how I should accept Him as my Savior. I went to Stoneybrooke Christian School K-8 and had to memorize verses and was taught about the Bible, etc. I thought all this stuff was great, and sure, of course I would like to go to Heaven, so I "asked for forgiveness". I thought all I really had to do was every night "ask for forgiveness" of my sins and I would be ok. I totally thought I was a Christian. If someone would ask me if I was a Chritsian, of course I would say yes, because I thought I was. Growing up I wasn't a "bad kid" but I wasn't doing what the Lord wanted at all. I didn't have the Holy Spirit convicting me and telling me that's not what God wants. I would sin, and I would know did something wrong, but wouldn't feel to bad about it.



Now, I am not trying to put down our jr. high ministry at all, but it was way more of a social scene. I went there just to be with my friends and have fun, it wasn't about the Lord and glorifying Him at all. Before jr. high I despised going to church. I would beg not to go! When I got to jr. high, though, I had more fun. I liked going to church, but for the wrong reasons completely! This summer I got to move up to the high school ministry; True North! I was excited, because it was high school.



Going to high school was completely different than jr. high! The people were different and it confused me, but I liked it. I think some of the first people I met were Brandy, Matt, and Dillon; they were so welcoming! which I didn't expect because I was the little freshman. As I kept going to True North, I could tell the people there weren't there for a social scene, they were there for the Lord. I saw the zeal many people possesed for the Lord. I was thinking about all of this a lot this summer. At the beach nights, we would talk about how God needed to be first in our lives, and we were supposed to give our whole lives over to Him; for Him to not just be our Savior, but also our Lord. Now that I look back, I can tell the Lord was pulling at my heart, telling me I wasn't living for Him, I was living for myself and only thought I needed Him when I "asked for forgiveness", when He wanted complete submission. On July 27th, I was reading my Bible and it just completely hit me that I wasn't a Christian! I was just like all of a sudden, wow I am not living how I am supposed to; I am talking the talk, but not walking the walk. That day I gave myself fully to the Lord.



Being a true Christain has totally changed my life. I am in my Bible everyday, and enjoying church, and going to glorify God, not for friends. I have done a 180 and am now striving to do the Lord's Will. I also have the courage to go and talk to others about the Lord, a courage I definitely didn't have before I was a Christian. The Lord is now in the driver's seat and I am so happy, because without Him I would be crashing and burning. I want to thank all of you guys at True North who have shown me that we are supposed to set Christ as Lord over our lives and for encouraging me in my faith! Praise the Lord!!!!!


Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
1Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Let's Step It Up!!!

I like this Christian girl band and today I was thinking of one particular song today. It's called Million Voices by Barlow Girls. Some verses go like this:

How can we keep quiet
When a fire burns inside us
We're a million strong and
Getting stronger still
They'll remember we were here
With a million voices breaking silence
Till they'll remember we were here

Just like the song says how can we keep silent about Jesus if we have a fire burning in us? I want others to have this fire from God I have. I can't believe how I was able to live without Jesus. I was dirty from sin and my life was a mess. With God came cleaness and He is organizing my life (still).
I was reading Jude today and I found some verses I really liked.

Jude 1:22-23
Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear- hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

We need to tell others about Jesus to help them get away from fire and sin devouring their flesh. We want them to have an eternal flame of salvation burning inside them and sustaining them forever. God loves us and wants us to follow His commands; that includes telling others the Good News. I am personally working on this. It's not the easiest thing, and we may be persecuted, but we can suffer a little for God to help Him further His kingdom.
To do this we need to study God's Word everyday to help us and give us wisdom. God talks to us through the Bible just like He was saying to us in church this weekend.
Let's not keep quiet and let's not keep this awesome gift of eternal life for ourselves when we don't even deserve it.
Let's Step It Up For The Lord!!!!!
Another thing, I want to start seeing people commenting on Scripture of the Day. It's good fellowship and it's for the Lord. I am hoping to see more and more people commenting each week, especially with how many people we have in True North.

For God's Glory.

James 1:22-25
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Giving our all for the Lord

Today my sister had a soccer game. Before the game i told her to do her best. After church today I asked my parents how she did. They said she did horrible! (Not to offend her by writing this, I have a point.) They said she did nothing, gave no effort at all and normally she does pretty well. I asked them why she did so bad. I asked if it was because she was thinking of going to her friend's house after and they said no, they didn't really know. My grandma went and she said my sister made excuses of why she didn't do so well.

Colossians 3:23
23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,

Unlike my sister did, we need to do our best in all we do for the Lord. Whether it be school, sports, honoring our parents and obeying God's Word. We need to do our absolute best in everything. It may be hard at times, but we need to persevere. We need to give our all to God by reading His word and praying daily, fellowshiping with other Christians, etc. God knows if we are giving our all to Him or not and other people can tell sometimes also, like with my sister and her pooly played game today. Sometimes I just want to give up on my homework and go and do something else; sometimes I give in to that temptation and then do a sloppy job on my homwork- God knows I didn't give my all. He expects us to give our all.

Colossians 3:23 (B)
23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,

The second part of this verse tells us to do everything for the Lord not men. When doing our best in homework and sports, ect., we need to do it for the the Lord, not for our parents or ourselves or someone else. We need to do everything for God only. We need to read our Bibles and pray for Him and to learn more about Him, not to look good or whatever other reason there is.
I still need to work at this. I'll either not give my all in everything for the Lord, or I'll do it for my own selfish desires. With God's help though I can accomplish this and so can everyone else. I want to give everything I have for God all the time and only for God.

I want No Fear!!

The past few days I've been in school, I have really realized how many people are in need of Jesus Christ. Before Aliso Niguel this year, I went to Stoneybrooke Christian. Yeah, I could tell some people needed God in their lives, but they knew about Him and were learning about Him everyday. A lot of people have no idea what Jesus did for them, maybe they've heard His name, but never really heard what He did and what He can do in their lives. Today as I was sitting in health class doing my homework, I was also paying attention to what was going on around me. there were the quiet studious people, the talkers, and the "cool/bad" girls. I don't know any of these people's backrounds' or what their home life is like, but I know they need Jesus. It sort of surprised me to see in class, people not caring about school and not even bothering to do the work, or them using cell phones in class and getting them taken away and being rude to the teacher for it and calling him names. My old school was nothing like this. We all did our work, whether we cared about it or not, and we respected the teachers, and most people followed the basic rules.

I want to bring the message of Jesus to them and bringing it to some people will probably be eaier than others. I can probably relate to the quieter, studious people mor than the talkers or "cool/bad" girls. Its actually scary to talk to the "bad" girls let alone being a witness to them. I know we are supposed to only fear God, but its hard to get over my other fears. If you glance at the girls it seems they have a cold glare on their faces most of the time. If they had Jesus, it would be warm and they'd probably be totally different. I'll look at them and feel sorry for them not having the realtionship of Jesus and the assurance that they'll be saved. I want to talk to them and I plan on it. I am praying God will give me courage and no fear. Their lives would be so different if the had Christ as their Lord and Savior. Its getting over the initial fear of talking to them and directing the conversation to Jesus and their salvation because I am positive that most people will go on the defensive when it comes to their lives and their salvation and their sin.

Please pray that I will have no fear, courage, the words to speak, and that I will take the opportunities given to me, not watch the door open and let it close. Please pray for these girls in my class, that God will soften their hearts and minds and that He will be tugging at their hearts.