Living for the Lord

Chosen Generation

2011-02-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

        In the high school ministry of True North, we are singing a new song called, Chosen Generation by Chris Tomlin. The chorus goes like this:

"We are a chosen generation
Rise up, holy nation
God, we live for You"

               These lyrics are so amazing! As teenagers, we are going to be the ones who grow up and might be having kids of our own some day and will be voting and making some huge decisions! In Psalm 78 the title is, Tell the Coming Generation.

"We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and His might, and the wonders that He has done." -Psalm 78:4

      Our generation needs to know the amazing works of God and that He sent His Son to die on the cross for us, so that we can have eternal life with Him and be saved from God's coming judgement!

"That the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments." -Psalm 78:6-7


          But keep His commandments. In Exodus 20:6 it says "but showing steadfast love to thousands who love me and keep my commandments." We are to keep His commandments. God also commands us in Matthew 28:19 to make disciples of all nations. How do we do that? By telling others about Christ and what He did for us!

           I have heard so many people say that our generation is so corrupt and that we are going to change the world in bad ways and that there is no way we can stop this. YES THERE IS! How? By spreading the news of Jesus Christ! I remember in one of Pastor Bobby's sermon's a couple of weeks ago he said, "Do not let the good news of Jesus Christ become old news!" This is such a convicting point! Lets start a revival so that our coming generation will not be "corrupt" but that we will be on fire for Christ! Does this get anyone else excited?! One simple way to start is telling everyone in our high schools who Jesus Christ is!! We need to rise up, let God take the lead, and share the Word of God!

"We run with passion for Your name, we run
Freedom, You've broken every chain, we run
Our God will not be moved
Our God will never be shaken
We run to You, we run"

Venting is a Sin!

2011-01-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

So today in my health class, my teacher was giving us some time to read through the chapter we were going through. I was reading this "Daily Situation" box in the textbook. It gave you this situation where a boy, named David, was told by his mom to come home straight from school and do chores. Well David came home and was too tired, so he decided to watch some TV and then he would do his chores. His mom came home, got mad, and then David went storming off to his room. It seemed like a pretty typical story of teengaers to me! Then I was reading below it and it was giving you advice on ways to deal with this moment. Its #1 suggestion was to call up a friend and "vent" your all of your feelings to him/her and to get all of your emotions out! This came to a surprise to me! Our world today is telling us that it is healthy to go around, vent our feelings and not control our emotions!

"A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back." -Proverbs 29:11

It says right here in this verse that venting is wrong! If you vent, this verse calls you a FOOL! But the WISE man quitely holds [his feelings/emotions] back! Many people will get this confused with telling others what is going on in your life. There is a difference between that and venting! When you are venting to someone, something is usually going wrong in your life, you are usually upset or annoyed at something or someone as well! But it is important to tell your brothers and sisters in Christ how they can be praying for you!

"The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult." -Proverbs 12:16

Words Characterize You

2010-12-23T13:48:00.000-08:00

"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." - Ephesians 4:29

When you read this verse, what first comes to mind? Most people only think of cussing as corrupting talk. But it is not the only thing! Even though I do not have a problem with cussing, this verse still convicts me because I know that this means complaining and gossiping as well!

Numbers 11:1-3 says: "And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them."
God does not like to hear us complaining! God set the Israelites free from the control of Pharaoh and yet they were still complaining because they were hungry and tired!

Today, we complain so much and it is so unpleasing to God! It could be a little thing such as saying "I hate school, why do we have to go anyways?" I know I have said that before! God has blessed me so much and I still continue to complain about a little thing such as school! Going along the lines of my last blog post, even if we do not want to go to school, we need to do it without complaining and with a good attitude all for the glory of God!

"Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets;therefore do not associate with a simple babbler."
-Proverbs 20:19

Gossiping! God also hates gossiping! Just take a second to think about why you gossip? Does it make you feel good? Or are you simply doing it because the person you are talking about did something to you or you just dont like them? I know that when I think of that I get disgusted with myself! Those motives are so wrong! Most of the time people do it for revenge! It is so easy to start gossiping and not even notice you are! But that is why you need to, like the verse above says, surround yourselves with people that will keep you accountable to not gossip or complain!

"Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy.Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure." -Psalm 101:5

For the Glory of God

2010-12-21T13:51:00.000-08:00

"For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." - Romans 14:8
This is one of my favorite verses. I keep it on my binder at school and it is a daily reminder whenever I open up or pick up my binder. As a christian, your main focus is Jesus Christ!
In my ESV study Bible, the reference under this verse says, "Fundamental to the whole discussion is the reality that the Christian's life is not his own. Both in life and death, Christians belong to the Lord, and he alone is their judge." In verse 7 of Romans 14 it says:
"For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself."
The world's view is that you own your own body and therefore you can do whatever you want to it, and that you can believe whatever you want because you have control over yourself. For christians, however, we know that we do not own our bodies. Our bodies are God's and we are only here on earth to bring Him glory and praise.
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own" - 1 Corinthians 6:19

"Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established." -Proverbs 16:3
We just read Proverbs 16 on Scripture of the Day today. It goes along with Romans 14:8 where it says that whether we live or die, we are the for the Lord.
In every single thing we do, we need to be doing not for ourselves, but to glorify God! It is so easy to complain or have a bad attitude about doing homework or studying for tests, but if you didn't study as hard as you could or if you didn't try really hard on your homework, do you think that God would be completely pleased? I dont think so.

Lyrics to the song, None But Jesus, says:
There is no one else for me/ None But Jesus/ Crucified to set me free/ Now I live to bring Him praise/ In the chaos in confusion I know your sovereign still.

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." - Philippians 1:21