Peace Be Still

     I was going over my Bible class a few weeks ago, and it was the story of when Jesus calmed the sea just by saying, "Peace! Be still." One of the things you'll notice all throughout the New Testament, is that when Jesus is near, everyone is safe. Just like when Peter was walking on water, all he had to do was trust that Jesus wouldn't let him drown, he wouldn't. We need to remember that Jesus will always be there to take care of us, even if we don't realize it. All we have to do is focus on Jesus and He will take care of us. We don't always see it at the time, but we can trust that no matter how long it takes, Jesus will always take care of us. All throughout the Bible we see instances where Jesus took care of the people who followed Him. So next time you feel a bit down in the dumps, remember that even though it may not seem like it, but things will always turn out well for us in the end.

God's Promise

     A little while ago, I talked about our ultimate goal (Click here if you want to read it) and today I'm going to be talking about the promise that God made about that goal.
   
     In Deuteronomy 7:9 it says, "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations," If you remember, God had promised Abram that he would have children that numbered as much as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). And even though he was old, Abram believed God as you can see in verse 6. And God kept His promise. You can see that in Genesis 21:5 that even though Abraham was 100 years old, Isaac was still born. God kept His promise.
   
     Even though it seemed impossible at the time, Abram knew that God would keep His promise. There are several other instances of when God made a promise and kept it. Take the Israelites for example. God promised that He would take care of His people and deliver them from the Egyptians. And as you probably know He did. God has always kept His promises whether good or bad. So always remember that God made a promise that unless we were baptized, we cannot enter the kingdom (John 3:5). But if we are baptized, then we will get to enter the kingdom. So remember, God always keeps His promises, no matter how impossible they sound at the time. Thank you for reading. :)

Our Ultimate Goal

     In life, we set up many goals for ourselves. We have long term goals, and short term goals. You might have several long term goals, like I want to go to college and become a photographer, while one of my short term goals is finishing this article. As humans, we have a natural habit of setting up goals for ourselves, whether long term, or short term. But what should our ultimate goal in life be?

     Our ultimate goal should be heaven. In Isaiah 40:8 it says, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever." Fun and money only lasts a little while. But if we serve God for the little while that we're here, then we'll spend eternity in a place so wonderful, that it can't even be imagined. My favorite verse in "Amazing Grace" is the one that says, "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we first begun." We will get to spend eternity with God. In Matthew 6:20 it says, "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."

     So next time you start thinking about your future, remember to keep God as the center of your plan, because no plan can fail when it's based around God. Because He has made us a promise that if we follow His word to the letter, we will have eternal life. :)

Beauty That God Sees

Yesterday we talked about what society thinks is beautiful, and how it is ever changing, and sometimes not even good for our health to try and conform.

Today we'll talk about just a couple of things that God has said are beautiful.

1. A gentle and quiet spirit, as found in I Peter 3:4. I've talked about this before, so I won't go into too much detail, but as a general rule, society doesn't value gentleness, or silence. There is great power in a gentle and quiet spirit, and a woman of God realizes that. It's hard to hold your tongue, and it's hard to not lash out whenever someone does you wrong, but if you can show self-control in such matters, you will be beautiful to God.

2. "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" says Romans 10:15. If people who bring good news, like, "We're having pizza for dinner!" or "A package came in the mail for you today" are received with joy, how much more will someone who brings the Gospel be worth? The only way you can truly show your love for someone is show them how to be saved.

Before I end this, I want to show you something. It says in Hebrews that God found Moses beautiful. How was he beautiful? He was meek and humble, and God so valued these traits that he and Moses talked together, face to face. Can you imagine having a conversation with God that way, like old friends? That is an honor that we will only be able to have when we get to Heaven.

~Sarah

Beauty Without Change

    Girls have always wanted to be pretty. Different cultures over time have different views of beauty, and sometimes the way they try to acheive beauty is extreme. For instance, have you ever heard of foot binding in China? Luckily, it's not done anymore, because it's horrific. It involved wrapping up little girls' feet while they were still growing to give them a desired shape. They bound the foot in such a way that the toes touched her heel, and then they made her walk on them. The foot was broken and mangled, and she was permanently handicapped that way for the rest of her life. As a grown woman, their feet would be merely three inches long, and they looked like hooves.

     "Why on earth would they do that?" you may ask. They did it for the same reason the Mayans made their babies cross-eyed and flattened their foreheads by tying boards to them. They did it for the same reason that women used to remove ribs in order to tie their corset laces tighter. They did it for the same reason that women have plastic surgery today. They did it for the same reason that girls have anorexia and bulemia today. They did it so others would think they were beautiful.

     Society will always have a new way to be pretty. Tans are popular right now. Looking malnourished is popular right now. Braids, boots and t-shirts with pop culture references on them are popular. In fact, everything that my mom wore in the 80s is back in style. This will change. Styles will change. The world always changes.

     God doesn't change, and what he thinks is beautiful will never change. That's what we'll talk about tomorrow.
~Sarah

The Bible And How Much Of It We Should Follow

We have been given the Bible for a couple different reasons. We have been given it to teach, (2 Timothy 3:16) so that we can learn what God wants from us (Deuteronomy 17:19) But how much of it should we follow?

Imagine you get a recipe for of the most amazing cookies you have ever eaten. And you start making them right away. The recipe calls for flour, and sugar, chocolate chips, quick oats, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs, vegetable oil, and other things that go in cookies. Now, do you think that because they are the most amazing cookies that you have ever eaten, you'd want to follow the recipe to the letter? Of COURSE you would! They're awesome! If you add anything to it or take anything away then they're not going to be the best cookies in the world. The recipe knows better. The recipe always knows better when they're the best cookies in the world. The same thing goes with the Bible. If we follow the Bible, the whole Bible, then we're going to get to heaven. So yes, we do have to follow the whole Bible, and we cannot add to it, or take any away. Thank you for reading. :)

The Great Sacrifice

     In 2 Corinthians 8:9 it says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." All the time we hear about Jesus giving up his life for us, and dying on the cross for us. It is very important to remember, but what also needs to be thought about is what he left so that he could die.

     Imagine you lived a life fully dedicated to the Bible, and when you died you got up into heaven and saw just how wonderful it was, and God said to you, "You're going to go back to earth. You'll leave all this behind so that you can die for millions of people who, most of which won't even listen to what you say, not to mention follow it." How happy do you think you would be about that? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be very happy. But Jesus had more than that, because he had never been to earth. He had everything. He had never sinned or done anything wrong, and yet He came anyway. That was the great sacrifice.

     Every day we are challenged by Satan, who is trying to get us to turn away from God and sin. But if God is our refuge (Psalm 46:1) and Satan is the lion waiting to devour us (1 Peter 5:8) then why should we leave our shelter just for even a little bit, and sin against the one who gave us a sacrifice so that we could have that shelter , so that we can be devoured by that lion? Every day we need to remember that Jesus died for us and taught us how to be safe, and we need to remember what he gave in order for us to go to heaven, and we need to make sure and not take that for granted. I know that no one is perfect,  (Romans 5:8) because if everyone was then Jesus wouldn't have had to die. But just remember that we serve a God who loves us, and we need to try our absolute best to live our lives dedicated to Him. Thank you for reading. :)

Hypocrisy

     In Luke 6:42 it says, "How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye." Sometimes, when we try to help others, it can be very easy to forget that we have faults of our own. And we have to be very careful about this, because no one will listen to a hypocrite. 

     Let's say you're having a hard time with gossiping, and two people talk to you about it. The first one does nothing but talk bad about people, and the other one has never had anything bad to say about anyone. Who would you be more willing to listen to? Sometimes, we not only need to teach others, but we have to also remember that we have to be taught as well, and apply what we learn to our lives. So next time you see someone struggling with something, check yourself first. You'll end up fixing a lot more problems when you fix yours first, than if you didn't. :)

The Influence Others Have on Us

     A while ago, I wrote an article on influencing others, but today I'll be talking about the influence that others can have on us. This is equally important. No matter what we do, no matter who we are around, we will be influenced. It can be very difficult to see these changes at first, which is why we need to be careful about who we are friends with.These changes can be good or bad, and some just don't matter at all. But they do happen. 

     It's like when I was younger. I always had my hair up in a pony tail. So did all of my friends. But then I moved, and no one wore their hair up there. So after a while, I stopped liking having my hair off of my neck. Now, changes like this really don't matter. But when we start hanging around people who don't read their Bible, or don't even try to be good, pretty soon we'll start acting like them. Now, there is a way to influence people for the better, but have you ever had a tug of war with someone while standing on a chair? It pretty difficult. It's much easier to be pulled down than to pull someone up. Now yes we need to teach others, and yes we need to make sure that we don't grow to hate people, or treat them badly because they're not very good people. But we do need to be careful. This is why God wants us to be strong in the faith. So we can pull others up with us. :)