Are you looking?

Well, I have decided to add another hit to my blog. Have any of you found a talent that you can use for God? Have you practiced your testimony? Have you even thought of these things on a day other than Sunday? I will not make this long, but sometimes we just need to stop and try and grade ourselves on our Christian walk. I have found that I am doing ok at thanking God for different things, but that I have been slacking in my overall prayer life. That is something that I want to work on this week and next. Having Jessica go on this youth trip has moved prayer back to the top of my list. We all go through different stages of our Christian walk, but it is important not to become stagnant in our growth. Or, more importantly, to continue to move forward. In Isaiah, and I love this, it says, Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?" We can not hope to progress in our relationship with God if we are trying to hide things from him. Even when we decide to do things without God, he is still with us, and know ALL!

last week of school

Well, the year is finally over. As summer gets closer and closer by the day, I want you guys to stop and think about the fact that you may not see some of your friends, or others, until school starts up again in August. Or will you! A lot of things could happen between now and then. We should treat every person and every day like it could be the last. A last chance to show that person love, a last chance to invite them to church, or a last chance to let them see that Jesus is your reason for joy. Mark 9:37 says, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." This could be the last time that you get to welcome some of the people around you. If Jesus were to come into your school today, how would you treat him? What would you say? How would you act? It really makes some of our little problem seem very small. If you were having lunch with Jesus, would you be worried about if JimBobJoeDave called you a name or not. I would guess that you would be focused on Jesus and not worried about the small things. In Matthew 25:40-45 Jesus teaches that the things that we do for the least of them, we do for him. And the things that we do not do for the least of these, we do not do for him. Ouch! How hard is that. I want you guys and gals to try something for the rest of this week. I am not going to ask you to treat everyone you see like they are Jesus, just treat them like God is their father. He created everything and everyone for a reason, so go out this week and do unto the least of these. God Bless You All, and have a great week.

Said and Done! Matthew 1 &2

Just as you need to get yourself ready each morning before starting your day, so you need to ready your heart before you journey through Bod's Word. The best way to do this is to spend a few minutes in prayer. It doesn't need to be long--a simple sentence expressing a heartfelt desire will do. Each time you journey in God's Word, ask Him to open your eyes, and give Him permission to teach you.

Have you ever been amazed when something you were told would happen actually happened? How about being told 300 different things about something--with all of them coming true exactly as said? Sounds impossible. Not in this case!
Perhaps Joseph wondered if this was all a bad dream. Over and over he rehearsed it in his mind. He loved Mary. Mary loved him. They were engaged to be married. They had never done anything to be ashamed of, yet Mary said she was pregnant! It just didn't make sense!
It didn't at least, until the angel explained it to Joseph. Mary's baby was from the Holy Spirit and was one of a kind.
"You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins," the angel had instructed. That was what the angel had said, and yet the words had also been spoken hundreds of years earlier by the prophet Isaiah when he wrote, "The virgin shall bear a Son and they shall call His name Immanuel, meaning 'God with us.'"
When a census required Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem, another prophecy was fulfilled. It stated that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem! These events were not merely coincidence!
On the night Jesus was born, angels joyfully annouonced the Savior's birth to shepherds, and told them to look for specific signs that would prove their message was true. When the shepherds came to the stavle, they fell to tehir knees in worship. The baby fulfilled all the signs the angels had spoken of!
The same night, wise men (who were advice givers to kings) noticed an unusual star in the sky. They knew from Scriptures what it meant and began their journey to find teh newborn Savior. When they arrived in Jerusalem several months later and asked where this newborn king might be found, King Herod became jealous. In fits of anger, he ordered a decree that all baby boys age two and under be killed! As great weeping and wailing rang out in the land, more prophecy was being fulfilled.
Joseph was forewarned in a dream about Herod's decree and fled with his family to safety in the neighboring land of Egypt until King Herod died. Upon leaving Egypt, ("Out of Egypt did I call My Son," Hosea 11:1) you guessed it--another prophecy came to life.
Herod's son was now King, so Joseph took his family to a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled the prophecy "He shall be called a Nazarene!"
Time and again Jesus' life fulfilled prophecies about a Savior who would come and save people from their sins. There are more than 300 prophecies concerning Jesus. Jesus was no ordinary person.

Anything worth having usually requires a little effort. In Climbing Onward, you will need to use a little energy. (Don't panic!) Your Bible is all the equipment needed for guaranteed success. Just look up the verse and answer the simple question. This simple exercise builds spiritual muscles and makes you strong in the Lord.
Turn to Luke 22:67-71. This is one of Jesus' predictions about Himself. Here, Jesus is standing before the religious rulers just before dying on the cross. What does Jesus say about Himself? (Do you believe it?)

friends

Does it ever seem to you that there is no one that you can count on? Friends let you down, relationships end, and parents just are to unfair. I think that anyone reading this would agree with these statements, except parents just seem to be to unfair. lol I know that you think that I am getting ready to say that Jesus is a friend who will never leave us or stab us in the back. But that is not where I am going to go with it today. Today, I want to look at the other side of the coin. God must look at us the same way. Everyday we do something that is against God. It might be doing something that you promised him that you would not do, or just not invite him along when you and your friends are going out on the weekend. How do you feel when your friends leave you out or stab you in the back? In our class we have been talking about our relationship with God, and how we can make it stronger. How do you make your friendships stronger? Spending time together, respecting each other, and getting to know each other are the ways to make your relationships stonger. Today though I only want to focus on respecting each other. We can do this the same way that we do with any of our other friends. When we say that we will do something, we should do it. If you told your best friend that you would meet them at Pizza Hut at 7:00pm, how hard would you try to be there? If someone else was talking bad about your friend, how long would you listen before you stepped in and defended your friend? If your friend was in some serious trouble, how long would it take you to decide to help them? My guess is that you would do what ever it was that your friend needed you to do. I just want you guys to stop and think about the way that we act on a regular basis toward God. Do you treat him as your best friend and take him with you everywhere you go, or do you treat him like a friend that you only like to hang out with when someone better is not around. How do feel if you get stood up by a friend, because that found something better to do? Or how do you feel when a friend only wants to do something with you because everyone else is busy? After you read this, just stop and think about the way that we treat God as a friend. We can all treat God better, so just try and be a great friend to God. I think that the one thing that can hurt a friendship is being two-faced, that is a sure fire way to hurt a relationship. The worst part about being two-faced with God is that unlike our other friends, God always knows. We can not hide anything from him. Just some things to make you think. Thanks for reading. PJ

Now is the time.......

Now is the time to start feeling better about the holidays. School is out, most of the pre-Christmas parties are over and we can start to focus on the birth of Christ. For adults and those of you with jobs, we still have some work to do before it is JUST Christmas. The Holiday always seems to get here way to fast, and be gone just as fast as well. But for me, it is not until school is out that it really starts to feel like the holidays. I love having the kids around, most of the time lol, and being with ones family should start to let you guys and gals know how blessed we are, and how much God loves us. I want to ask each one of you to do something for me. Take some time this weekend and sit down and think about everything that God has given you. Then decide what you are going to give God, on his birthday. Just something to think about, don't be wrapped up with what YOU are getting on Jesus's birthday, but try something new and give Jesus a gift. It might be a habit that you know he wants you to give up, or to do something that he has been asking you to do. Giving, if you are not in the Christmas spirit, that is what may be missing. I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas.

I have one too

Well, it seems that everyone has one of these things. So I thought that I would create one and use it so that those in my class that do not like to recieve E-mails from me, will not have to. And those of you who like to hear my thoughts will have a place to do so. I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas, and that you will all take time to remember why Jesus came to earth in the first place. This weeks lesson was on Love and next week we will discuss the perfect gift. Have a great week. PJ