late update

i kind of forgot to tell y'all this but i got my license!! it is very exciting!! yep, so there is that.
and then.....
the man that got killed in Afghanistan on september 24, was the husband of a friend that went to my old church. Joseph is the husband's name and Jessica is his wife's name. they were married in may of this year. she is doing really bad. so i would ask you all to pray for her and their families. i would greatly appreciate it and i know that they would also.

confronting people

so i might not make sense on this post. i'm not really sure how to explain what i want to say. so if you know what i'm trying to say but don't think others will please write a comment. or even if i am completely wrong with how i am writing this write a comment. i would greatly appreciate it.

why don't friends confront their friends when they are sinning? why do you just let them keep scooting backwards from God? why don't you just ask the Lord for strength and confront them in a godly, i want to help you follow Christ way? is it because you don't want to lose them as a friend or is it because you just can't do it? those aren't very good reasons. do you know how important it is to tell someone that they are sinning? if no one ever did that we would have really no Christians.
i have recently confronted one of my friends and if i hadn't who knows what would have happened if she kept on sinning (just so you know she repented and is right with God now). who cares if you lose their friendship? well, you would. that is what kept me from going to my friend. i had told myself for the longest time that i needed to talk to her but i then told myself that she would not be my friend after i talked with her. that was on my mind alot. i was thinking like a week later and this is what i thought, "trying to win her back to Christ and telling her that she is sinning is way more important then our friendship." it might seem like i don't care about my friend but i do. i love her to death!! i had wrote everything down that i wanted to say to her and was going to call her, actually i was going to call her today, but Christ had His own plan and brought it before today. but i was prepared to talk to her. and like i said she saw that she was sinning and repented! that made my day! to see her come back to Christ was just wonderful!
but if you are planning on going to someone and tell them that they are sinning you need to first make sure that you are not going to be a hypocrite and tell them something that you yourself are doing. you need to get the log out of your own eye before you go after the speck in your friend's. (Matthew 7:5). BUT if you are the one who is being confronted and the person who is confronting you didn't get the log out of his own eye first don't go and attack him (so to speak). say to him, "thank you for telling me. i appreciate you coming to me." and if it's true, then you should go and take care of your sin and repent. then after you have done that you can go to that person, IF they have not themselves repented of that sin, and tell them that you have seen a pattern of sin recently that you think they need to take care of. it is so important to go to or friend or your sibling and tell them that they are sinning. if you don't that sin might cause them to keep scooting farther and farther from God.

Bible class

in my Bible class today my teacher, mr. brix, told a story. he was on a plane ride and was seated next to a man who happened to be a muslim. the man was very nervous about something. he was shaking that's how nervous he was. that made mr. brix nervous because it was the year 2001 right after 9/11. so mr. brix decided to share the gospel with this man. the problem with this man though was that he would not admit that he had done anything wrong in his life. he said that he wasn't what mr. brix told him that everyone else is, a sinner.

mr. brix asked, "you have never done anything wrong? not even something small?" the man said , "well, i guess i have done something really small. but that doesn't matter."

mr. brix thought of an illustration. he said, "i have a clean, white sheet of paper here. lets say it represents perfection. lets also say that any mark on the paper represents sin." mr. brix started to put pen marks all over the paper. in the man's mind most people had many marks on their paper. but he did not, he lived a good life. mr. brix asked, "if you have a sheet of paper and it represents your life and it only has one dot on it. is it still a clean sheet of paper?" the man said, "no, its not." mr. brix said, "so it doesn't matter if it has many marks on it or just one. neither of them level up to the perfection of God. and neither can enter His presence of holiness. sure some have sinned more than others. but all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

I have fulfilled Christ's command!

yesrerday evening i was baptized along with 12 others. it was a pretty awesome experience. i got to share my testimony in front of the entire church. now i'm going to share it with you all. a friend of mine has suggested that i write it in sections so then you all come back. :) that is what i'm going to do. i will give the first part of my testimony tomorrow. and then from then on you'll just have to keep checking to see if i have posted any other parts of it. haha. no i'll try to have a section of my testimony posted every day until i'm done.
come back tomorrow.

Questions

in my small group, at ichthus, there were two questions that were asked.
the first one was: why does satan try and tempt us when he knows that we are apart of God's elected people?
my small group leader wanted us to try and figure it out on our own. so some said because satan is evil and that's why he tempts us. others said maybe he thinks that we can lose our salvation. then i said that satan doesn't want us to do as God commands so then we don't obey Him. satan hates God and so he doesn't want us to do anything that would glorify God. and satan does know that we cannot lose our salvation.

the second question was: why are we to go out and evangelize to others, when we don't know if the person that we are evangelizing to is apart of the elect or not?
people gave some answers but i don't remember what they said. but i said we are to go and evangelize to people because that is what God has commanded us to do. we are to spread the Gospel to everyone (Matthew 28:19, Mark 13:10 and Mark 16:15) even if they aren't apart of the elect. the Lord commands us to do that so we must obey Him.
(i did not say this part) this goes back to the first question, the second question is a temptation to say well if i don't know if they are apart of the elect then i don't want to waste my time evangelizing to them. that is a temptation to not obey the Lord's command. we are to obey Him. we are also called to have the right heart attitude when we do obey Him. if you have a slothful heart then you are not having a servants heart. therefore you are not obeying the Lord. you have to have a servants heart, a godly heart, to be able to serve the Lord.

more from Hope For Each Day

okay so i love Hope For Each Day ALOT!! so you are going to be getting alot of the days that i read and want to share with you all. this books makes me think and see how the day that i am reading pertains to me. i see it and ask the Lord to change that in my life and help me work to keep that an ongoing part of my life. hopefully you see something in one of these days that pertains to you and you also change it. but remember you need the Lord's help to change it. remember from Ichthus; you are totally depraved! you can do nothing without Christ.

June 27
Trust and Obey
Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust
Psalm 40:4

Some years ago someone gave my little boy a dollar. He brought it to me and said, "Daddy, keep this for me." But in a few minutes he came back and said, "Daddy, I'd better keep my own dollar." He tucked it in his pocket and went out to play. In a few minutes he came back tears in his eyes, saying, "Daddy, I lost my dollar. Help me find it."
How often we commit our burdens to the Lord and then fail to trust Him by taking matters into our own hands. Then, when we have messed things up, we pray, "Oh, Lord, help me, I'm in trouble."
The choice is yours. Do you want to trust your life in God's "pocket" or keep it in your own? The Bible's promise is true: "Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust."


June 29
Peace, Perfect Peace
I will give you assured peace in this place.
Jeremiah 14:13

"Worry," says Vance Harvner, "is like sitting in a rocking chair. It will give you something to do, but it won't take you anywhere." Worry and anxiety have hounded the human race since the beginning of time, and modern man with all his innovations has not found the cure for the plague of worry.
What is the answer? Imagine in your mind a ferocious ocean storm beating against a rocky shore. The lightning flashes, the thunder roars, the waves lash the rocks. But then imagine that you see a crevice in the rocky cliff-and inside is a little bird, its head serenely tucked under its wing, fast asleep. It knows the rock will protect it, and thus it sleeps in peace.
God promised Moses, "I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand" (Exodus 33:22). That is God's promise to us. Christ is our Rock, and we are secure in His hands forever. The storm rages, but our hearts are at rest.


July 2
The Call of Christ
The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
1 Corinthians 3:19

Some may contend that the way for the Church to make the world a better place is to become like it. But whenever the Church does this, it ends up compromising its spiritual authority and losing its influence. Instead of changing the world, the world changes it.
God doesn't want us to isolate ourselves. In praying for His disciples Jesus said,"As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world" (John 17:18). If we isolate ourselves from others, we have no impact and demonstrate a lack of love.
But neither does God want us to become like the unbelieving world. We are to be separate, refusing to adopt its motives, attitudes, and patterns of behavior. The Bible warns, "All this is in the world-the lust of flessh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but of the world" (1 John 2:16). Let Christ fill your life, and there won't be room for the world.

Hope for each day

Hope for each day is a book i read every day when i do my quiet time. i would like to share with you some of the things that has made me think.
this is what i read on June 11.

The Privilege of Prayer
Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
John 16:24

What privilege is ours: the privilege of prayer! Just think of it: you and i have the incredible privilege of approaching the God of the Universe, "the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy" (Isaiah57:15)! We can only do this because Jesus Christ has opened the way.

We are to pray in times of adversity, lest we become faithless and unbelieving.

We are to pray in times of prosperity, lest we become boastful and proud.

We are to pray in times of danger, lest we become fearful and doubting.

We are to pray in times of security, lest we become self-sufficient.

Pray, believing, in the promise of God's Word that, "If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us" (1 John 5:14)

June 15.


Accept God's Freedom
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
James 4:8


One day a little child was playing with a valuable vase. He put his hand into it and could not take it out. His father, too, tried his best to get the little boy's hand out, but all vain. They were thinking of breaking the vase when the father said, "Now, my son, make one more try.Open your hand and hold your fingers out straight as you see me doing and then pull."

To the father's astonishment the little fellow said, "Oh no, Daddy. I couldn't put my fingers out like that because if i did i would drop my penny."

Smile if you will- but thousands of us are like that little boy,so busy holding on to the world's worthless trifles that we cannot accept God's freedom.
What "trifle" is keeping you from God? A sin you won't let go of? An unworthy goal you are determined to reach? A dishonorable relationship you won't give up? I beg you to drop that trifle in your heart. Surrender!Let go and let God have His way in your life.

June 21.

Free But Not Cheap
If anyone desires to come after Me, let him.....take up his cross, and follow Me.
Matthew 16:24

During the early years of the twentieth century, Bill Borden turned his back on one of America's great family fortunes to become a missionary to China. He only got has for as Egypt where, still in his twenties, he died of typhoid fever. Before his death he wrote, "No reserves, no retreats, no regrets!"
Discipleship is always costly. No, it may not cost us our lives. But it will cost us. It will cost us our plans, our wills, our selfish desires. Jesus' standard has not changed: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24). Instead of controlling our lives, we turn them over to Christ as Lord.
Someone has said, "Salvation is free but not cheap." It cost Jesus His life, and it will cost us as well. But could anything be greater? Could anything be more fulfilling?
Follow Christ, and at life's end you will be able to say, "No regrets!"

So that is what i have been reading this month in Hope for each day. I hope it made you think.