Prayer of a Teen for Christ

“Dear Lord,
May I not be complacent. The world has low expectations for teens like me, and I’m tired of just being the average teen. I want to step out of my comfort zone. I want to live this life that you’ve given me for you glory. May You be glorified in all that I do.
Lord, You have done so much for me. You died on the cross, and took the punishment of my sin so that I wouldn’t have to pay. You didn’t have to do it, but You did it because you love me.
Show me what you would have me to do. Help me to be willing to give up everything for You, to You. I’m tired of being quite. If I truly call myself a Christian, a follower of Christ, I must live for and imitate You.”
-Anonymous

As followers of Christ, we are called to live for Him, and we are called to imitate Him.

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.” -Ephesians 5:1

What does it look like to you if you are imitating and living for Christ?

What should it look like?

The aroma of our lives

Back in March, the youth group leader of the church I attend asked a question that caught me off guard, but is an important one none-the-less.
“Does God have a sense of smell?”
In Genesis 8:20-21 we read that after the Flood, Noah built an alter, and praised the Lord by burning a sacrifice on it. In verse 21, we are told that God the pleasing aroma of the sacrifice.
Throughout the Old Testament, we read that when someone whose heart was right burned a sacrifice before the Lord; He smelled it, and was pleased.
God smells the aroma of your life as well.

2 Corinthians 2:15 says, “For we are the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

What kid of smell are you giving off?
Is your aroma pleasing to the Lord?

2 Corinthians 5:17- “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Ephesians 5:1- “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”

If you have accepted Christ as your personal Savior, then you are a new creation, and you are called to become an imitator of Christ.
Your aroma needs to be pleasing to the Lord. Your actions, appearance, choices, and thoughts need to imitate that of Christ’s.

Ephesians 5:2- “…live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Your life becomes a sweet smelling fragrance when you live you life in love instead of bitterness. Christ chose you to be a shining light to the world. Are you representing Christ well?

Trusting In The Lord In Every Aspect of Our Lives

There is a verse that constantly comes to my mind when I think about the hard decisions I have to make, and about all the confusing things that this life brings. That verse is…

Proverbs 3:5-6–Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your pathes straight.

Sometimes life seems difficult, and at times unbearable. We as followers of Christ are commanded to trust in the Lord.
When I think of the phrase “with all your heart” I think of something along the lines of “with every part of my being. A willingness to die for, and give your all for”
According to the dictionary the word “trust” means reliance, implicit faith, to have faith in, to give credit to, to belive, hope, or to confide in.

So we are to give credit to, believe, hope, have faith, and confide in the Lord with all of our being. Not trusting in ourselves (because we are wicked sinners (Romans 3:23), and we’re in need of a savior (Hebrews 9:22) (1 John 3:16))), but in everything we do acknowledge the Lord and He will make our paths straight. He will lead us in the way that we should go.

Now the word acknowledge is a very interesting word. It simply means to admit as true, or to give thanks for. We as Christ followers are to give thanks to God, admitting that He is true in every aspect of our lives.

So in closing, I want to encourage you all to rely on the Lord with every part of your being; giving thanks to God.

Will We Go?

Recently, in one of my courses for school; I needed to read through the book of Isaiah. There’s a scene in Isaiah 6 that caught my eye…

King Uzziah just died, and now the Lord showed Himself to Isaiah…
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I (Isaiah) said, “Here I am. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8

Isaiah was willing to be sent. He was willing to go. Isaiah knew what it meant if he went for the Lord. It meant that he would have to give up everything that he held dear, and maybe even his very life.

Are we willing to forsake all else for the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Are we willing to give up the comforts of this world to go where the Lord leads us?

“He (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Matthew 28:19

And now the final question is…

Will we go?

Trust God in Life

I’m confused. I don’t know what to do. I fear going forward…I’m determined not to fall back. I close my eyes to try and block what I see only to find out that the images in my head are just as clear as the ones I truly see. I try to harden my heart to the emotions I’m feeling, but only to find it’s no use.
The only thing I can do is trust in God. He holds my future. I don’t see nor do I understand what my future holds, but God does. And for that I’m thankful.
I’m tired. I’m always “on the go”. I want to stop and just give up, but I must run with endurance the race that is set before me. If I stop I will loose and fall. I have to plug along even though it’s hard.
So what if I’m confused? So what if I’m tired. So what if I feel I can’t go on? I’m an overcomer! I put my trust in Jesus. I have lived most of my life for myself and my own selfish ambitions. I will live whatever life I have left for God. He’s all I need. He’s all I should ever want…

Does that sound familiar to you? Do you ever feel that when it gets to hard that you want to quit?
I know that sometimes life gets hard. Sometimes you may feel like you want to just give up. DON’T. When things get hard, trust in God. When you’re confused, trust in God. When you’re tired, trust in God, and He will carry you through.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”

Prayer As A Part Of Our Lives

I’ve recently been studying the Gospel of Luke during my quiet time with the Lord, and I came across this verse that really made me think.

“One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” -Luke 6:12

A normal person sleeps about 8 hours a night. Jesus spent at least 8 hours praying to the God of the universe that night. And I don’t believe this was some repetitious prayer that so many people repeat from memory.

How much time do we spend praying to the one who loves us so much that He died on the cross for us? I’d have to say that I don’t do it nearly enough.

Another thing that strikes me is the fact that He went to a lonely mountainside to pray. He went alone; no followers, no friends, no teachers of the Law, nobody. It was just Him and God; no distractions.

How many times do we as true followers of Jesus get distracted with all the noise around us? For most of us (including me) the answer is a lot. We tend to start praying then all of a sudden we hear something that catches our attention, and Jesus is forgotten. And then maybe a few hours later we remember that we never finished praying. “Oops, sorry, God. I won’t do that next time.” But odds are we probably will.

“When He (the Lamb of God) had taken it (the scroll), the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.” –Revelation 5:8

Focus on the last part of that verse for a moment. “…golden bowls full on incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.”
God loves us so much that when we pray to Him; He puts our prayers in a golden bowl. Our prayers must be really precious to Him if He does that with them.
Prayer isn’t just a quick thing you say before a meal, or bed. It’s a communication with God Almighty. He talks to us through His word (the Bible), and we talk to Him through prayer.
So why can’t we spend more than 5 or 10 minutes talking to Him, but we can spend hours talking to our friends?
He loved us enough to die for us. We can show our appreciation and love by spending more time in prayer with Him.

As a side note, I have a page on this blog called More Testimonies. I created this page because I believe Testimonies of how a person came to know Christ in a personal way are very powerful. At this time I have only 3 testimonies on that page, but if you or anyone else you know would like to share your testimony with those who visit this blog please just shoot me an email at revitalize_our_youth@yahoo.com. I will then post your testimony up on Revitalize Our Youth. Thanks!! God Bless!

Homosexuality And The Bible

Yesterday, as I was getting ready for church, I was thinking about a question that I just had to answer. The question was, “Did Jesus ever talk about homosexuality, and how it is wrong?” I immediately wanted to say “yes”. But how can I prove that it’s wrong, and that Jesus Himself said it was wrong?

Well, I continued to think about it till at last I figured out the answer. The answer is yes. Homosexuality according to the Bible (God’s holy and perfect word) is absolutely wrong. I also found out that Jesus did say it was wrong; a sin in fact.
I’m going to take you step-by-step, and show you how I came to this conclusion.

1. God said it was wrong in the Old Testament. The Lord spoke to Moses saying… “Do not lie with a man as with a woman; that is detestable.” -Leviticus 18:22
In the Dictionary, detest or detestable means hate. So in other words God said He hates it when someone one did this.

2. Jesus and God are one. In other words, they are the same. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” -John 1:1
Since the word Word is capitalized in the Bible; it means it’s a name for Jesus. So “In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.”

3. Jesus said that homosexuality is wrong. If Jesus and God are one, then it was also Jesus who said that lying with a man as with a woman is detestable.

4. Jesus never changes. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” –Hebrews 13:8 This verse could also be translated that Jesus is the same in the past, present, and future. So is Jesus said in the past that homosexuality is wrong, then it’s still wrong today and forever.

There is consequences when commits this sin. Many people will tell you there isn’t, but the Bible says there is. “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust with one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received the due penalty for their perversions.” –Romans 1:26-27

The due penalty is diseases like AIDS, Herpes, Syphilis, and Chlamydia.

“The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. You were bought at a price. There honor God with your body.” -1 Corinthians 6:13b, 20

Now, I’m not saying I hate people who are homosexuals. Jesus hated the sin, but He loved the sinner. (He loved them enough to die on the cross for them.) Jesus calls us to be imitators of Christ. (Ephesians 5:1) So we also must hate the sin, but love the sinners. We ourselves are also sinners, and deserve the same punishment of Hell as everyone else in the world.

The only difference between us and the world is that Jesus Christ has radically changed our lives. We’ve accepted His Son as our personal Savior, and let Him take control.

We have a message. We need to get out there and share our message.

Age Doesn’t Matter

How many times have you felt like you couldn’t do something God wanted you to do because of your age? Have you ever felt like you were too young? I know I have. Maybe you thought something like, “I can’t do that, Lord. I’m just a kid. I don’t have enough experience.”

Though out the Bible, God used people who’s hearts were turned towards Him; regardless of age.

When Goliath challenged the Israelites and God; the Lord sent a young boy named David to kill the giant. (1 Samuel 17) Why him? Because his heart was turned towards the things of God.

God called a child named Jeremiah to be the mouth (so to speak) of the Lord. (Jeremiah 1:6-8) Why Jeremiah? Because his heart was turned to God.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a young girl who God used in a mighty way. When God wanted to send His only begotten Son to the earth; He used Mary. God Almighty used Mary because her heart was turned towards Him. (Luke 1:26-28)

In the Gospel of John, it is recorded that a young boy gave his lunch of five loaves and two fish to Jesus Christ. Jesus took those loaves and fish, and fed 5,000 people with them. Why was the boy used? Because his heart was on God.

Do you see the pattern?

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” -1 Timothy 4:12

God doesn’t care if you’re young. If your heart is on Him (like the young people I mentioned in this post) then He will use you.

Thankfulness

What are you thankful for?
The Bible talks a lot about being thankful. Psalm 100 and Psalm 107 are just two different chapters in the Bible about thankfulness. There are several more.
A lot of times when I ask ‘what are you thankful for?’ I get the standard answer of ‘I don’t know’.
In our culture, we are bombarded by commercials, billboards, movies, etc. telling us that we need more stuff to be happy when in reality, we need the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only one who can fill that void in our hearts. No amount of “stuff” will fill it.
What a radical change there could be if everyone in America would just stop chasing after more stuff, and be thankful for what they have.
The United States of America has truly been blessed by the Lord. We have one thing that virtually no other country has, but greatly desires. That one thing is called Freedom.
Our nation has way more than the average person in most if not all the other countries. Yet we are always looking for more.
Why is that?
The answer is pretty simple really. It’s lack of contentment. Our nation is very ungrateful. Most Americans do not stop and thank God for what He has given them.
I know I haven’t always been thankful, but you know, when we are thankful for what God has given us (whether it be our toothbrush or our car); our whole outlook on life drastically changes. Instead of chasing after more stuff; you find yourself chasing after what really matters, and that’s God Almighty.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” –Matthew 6:19-21
Nothing here on earth is going to last. It will all vanish away, but everything that’s laid up in Heaven (the things that have true value) will never vanish away.
God didn’t have to give us anything. He doesn’t owe us one thing. The truth of the matter is that we owe Him everything.
So why did He give us these things?
Because He loves us! It’s written throughout the entire Bible. It started way back in the beginning when God created man and woman in His own image. (Genesis 1:27)
They sinned against God, but because He loved them; He didn’t kill them where they stood. God clothed them and sent them out of the garden. But He was still with them. He watched over them to the day they died.
The greatest show of love was when He sent His only begotten Son to pay the penalty for our sins. (John 3:16-17) Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, willing died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the grave three days later defeating sin and death.
I’d say that’s something to be thankful about!
The last point that I want to bring up is that thankfulness (the act of being thankful) is a choice.
You have the God-given ability to choose whether you are going to be thankful for what you have, or ungrateful and wanting what you don’t have.
It’s a choice we all have to make. Being thankful is not a choice we make once then forget about it; it’s one we must make everyday of our lives.
So what do you choose?

Not Ashamed Of The Gospel

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”-Romans 1:16

I recently read this verse in my quiet time with the Lord, and I had to ask myself, “am I ashamed of the Gospel? Am I willing to get out there and proclaim Jesus among my non Christian friends?” The Holy Spirit within me said “yes”, but my flesh said “no way!”It’s a spiritual battle. As a true follower of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit within us says, “I can do everything though Him (Christ) who give me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) Yet our flesh tells us, “What if they laugh at you? What if they don’t listen? You can’t go tell them; you’re not smart enough.”The Holy Spirit and our flesh are constantly at war with each other.
Let me ask you a question…
Are you ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? In other words, are you afraid to go tell you’re friends at school or work about the Lord Jesus Christ?
Let me tell you something…we don’t need to fear when we are on Jesus’ side.
There are Christians all over the world today who die just because they preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You know, all these people have one thing in common. They feared God more than the feared man. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
-Matthew 10:28 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why am I unashamed of the Gospel? Because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
I have a Bible study at my church every Wednesday. Well, my leader was sharing with us some things on witnessing. One of the things she said was this, “We don’t need to be afraid when we go out and witness because if it is the Lord’s will that they hear the Gospel, then they will.” *(not exact wording)*
It is only by the power and grace of God that any of us are saved. So with this in mind, we don’t need to ashamed of the Gospel.