Sally here. I skipped like a whole week of the 21 day iPod shuffle challenge. O.o Don't worry though, I've still been praying all the same. And there will be 21 of these posts. :)
Today's Challenge: Come Right Out and Say It by Relient K
I think this is the toughest one I've done yet!! This song is about a girl who keeps quiet and won't tell her boyfriend what's on her mind--which is apparently something that's going to hurt him. One of my favorite songs, because most of the time it seems like people...well, just don't tell me the whole truth. They keep things to themselves and they pretend that they're OK with everything, but I can tell that they're not!
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Why IS it that humans are just so worried about being accepted by everyone? Maybe because they want to feel important? I don't know. But they'll just endure and let problems just keep rotting and rotting and getting get worse, because that other person might get hurt. (And I get that too.) But this is a centuries-old lesson: What happens if you get a hole in your favorite pair of pants and you just leave it? Well, the hole's going to keep getting bigger and bigger until it's so big that you can't put a patch on it.
It's the same with relationships. If there's a problem, you need to say something to the other person whether it hurts them or not--because if you don't, they either A) won't even know that there's even a problem, or B) they won't know what to fix! The relationship will keep deteriorating until it's beyond repair.
There's an old word that hardly gets used anymore, because it's a quality that everybody ignores. It's "frank". No, that's not the first name of a popular emo guitarist. It means "direct and unreserved in speech; straightforward; sincere." Not ONLY are you telling the truth, but you're "coming right out and saying it." You don't try to HIDE the truth. You don't keep it to yourself.
I know there's a verse in the Bible that talks about this--something like, "If your brother has a problem, talk to him about it." If anyone knows what that verse is, please let me know in the comments, because I hate not knowing where a verse is. But anyway. This isn't just a rule of thumb--it's a rule that God made. Don't let sleeping dogs lie in a relationship. FIX IT, or you'll regret it later.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Faith in Jesus--
21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
I am taking on a challenge that my best friend, Sally Kurtie is doing on Kingdom Commandos! Go here to see the blog! :3
Have you ever seen miracles happen right before your eyes? I'm sure you have! For some it is the day they first lay eyes on a baby who wasn't supposed to live. For others it is the healing that took place right before their eyes. For me it is both. I still believe that God brings people back to life. If He so wishes He could prevent a death. So, if you have faith in the God of Miracles, He will bring to your eyes miracles small or big. If you walk with Him in the Wilderness, there will be gardens on your way through it. Even if you don't believe that there is such thing as "big miracles" such as bringing people back to life, you can't deny that there has been people on this Earth awakened from that deep "forever" sleep. You need to open your eyes and ears, and shut your mouth at some point to see the miracles of God!
We are saved by grace through faith-- On wattpad I saw a question on the Spiritual Genre saying: "What is faith and what is believing????" and I replied:
"Faith and Belief go hand in hand. You know those games some kids play where you fall into the arms of someone? Faith is the act of trusting that when you fall into this person's arms they won't let you fall. Believing in someone is almost the same thing as it is believing that the person CAN do it. So basically when you say "I have faith in God" You are saying that you KNOW in your heart that he WILL save you. And believing in him is when you KNOW in your heart he CAN."
What is faith and what is believing????
Remember these words and God will (and has preformed) preform miracles in your life and maybe even through you!
~Mari Fahel~
I am taking on a challenge that my best friend, Sally Kurtie is doing on Kingdom Commandos! Go here to see the blog! :3
Have you ever seen miracles happen right before your eyes? I'm sure you have! For some it is the day they first lay eyes on a baby who wasn't supposed to live. For others it is the healing that took place right before their eyes. For me it is both. I still believe that God brings people back to life. If He so wishes He could prevent a death. So, if you have faith in the God of Miracles, He will bring to your eyes miracles small or big. If you walk with Him in the Wilderness, there will be gardens on your way through it. Even if you don't believe that there is such thing as "big miracles" such as bringing people back to life, you can't deny that there has been people on this Earth awakened from that deep "forever" sleep. You need to open your eyes and ears, and shut your mouth at some point to see the miracles of God!
We are saved by grace through faith-- On wattpad I saw a question on the Spiritual Genre saying: "What is faith and what is believing????" and I replied:
"Faith and Belief go hand in hand. You know those games some kids play where you fall into the arms of someone? Faith is the act of trusting that when you fall into this person's arms they won't let you fall. Believing in someone is almost the same thing as it is believing that the person CAN do it. So basically when you say "I have faith in God" You are saying that you KNOW in your heart that he WILL save you. And believing in him is when you KNOW in your heart he CAN."
What is faith and what is believing????
Remember these words and God will (and has preformed) preform miracles in your life and maybe even through you!
~Mari Fahel~
Friday, March 16, 2012
Who am I?
21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
I am taking on a challenge that my best friend, Sally Kurtie is doing on Kingdom Commandos! Go here to see the blog! :3
There are plenty of people who look at themselves and say "I wish I could be anyone but me!" But I must ask, why not you? Not only are you experiencing life with it's beautiful moments and memories, you are God's beloved child. He created you for a purpose and it is certainly not to sit around moping about how you don't cut it! "But, I have so many problems, God couldn't use me! I'm not worth it!" you may say. But, look at some of the Apostles! Simon Peter denied Christ! Paul tried to kill off Christ's people! And there are much more people out there that he used! How are you any different? He is working wonders in your life, all you got to do is let him and look through His eyes!
God does not despise the broken heart, he uplifts it as a father places his child on his shoulder! Let him be with you! He loves you more than you could imagine! Not only ask Him to tell you who you are, let Him say what He means, some people will ask God "Who am I?" and He'll tell them and they'll shrug it of saying "I can't be that! You are mistaken!" Look God isn't EVER mistaken, it's just that you don't truly want Him to say "You are my Beloved." Allow Him, He truly loves you!!!!
~Mari Fahel~
I am taking on a challenge that my best friend, Sally Kurtie is doing on Kingdom Commandos! Go here to see the blog! :3
There are plenty of people who look at themselves and say "I wish I could be anyone but me!" But I must ask, why not you? Not only are you experiencing life with it's beautiful moments and memories, you are God's beloved child. He created you for a purpose and it is certainly not to sit around moping about how you don't cut it! "But, I have so many problems, God couldn't use me! I'm not worth it!" you may say. But, look at some of the Apostles! Simon Peter denied Christ! Paul tried to kill off Christ's people! And there are much more people out there that he used! How are you any different? He is working wonders in your life, all you got to do is let him and look through His eyes!
God does not despise the broken heart, he uplifts it as a father places his child on his shoulder! Let him be with you! He loves you more than you could imagine! Not only ask Him to tell you who you are, let Him say what He means, some people will ask God "Who am I?" and He'll tell them and they'll shrug it of saying "I can't be that! You are mistaken!" Look God isn't EVER mistaken, it's just that you don't truly want Him to say "You are my Beloved." Allow Him, He truly loves you!!!!
~Mari Fahel~
Thursday, March 15, 2012
After a long Abandonedment--
--The Prodigal Co-Host has returned!!!! x3
I've come to re-post an entry from my devotional blog!!!
21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
I am taking on a challenge that my best friend, Sally Kurtie is doing on Kingdom Commandos! Go here to see the blog (Where I posted this)! :3
Suicide is one of those things that is suffered through a lot with those who are hurt or depressed. The only way we (those who are suicidal) know how to relieve it, is to cause pain outwardly. But it never lasts as long as we wish for self-injuring is a dangerous merry-go-round we go on often. We hurt to relieve ourselves of our depression then depression follows suit one after another every time we do so. A lot of Christians would say to commit suicide is an unforgivable sin, but how, may I ask, is killing yourself blaspheming against the Holy Spirit? Yes, that is the ONLY unforgivable sin out there. What God says to his people in there time of need is written plainly in the Bible SEEK the Kingdom of God and ALL these things shall be added unto you!
We ask for love, peace, joy and every ounce of patience that had escaped us. But never have we thought that God is testing us and what does a teacher do when his students are in a test? They are quiet!!!! But I swear to you, it is "Worth the Pain" during the night of our worst fears and agonizing cries, God is waiting with us until the Sun rises and he can open his arms in greeting of the new day he has brought us!
~Mari Fahel~
I've come to re-post an entry from my devotional blog!!!
21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
I am taking on a challenge that my best friend, Sally Kurtie is doing on Kingdom Commandos! Go here to see the blog (Where I posted this)! :3
Suicide is one of those things that is suffered through a lot with those who are hurt or depressed. The only way we (those who are suicidal) know how to relieve it, is to cause pain outwardly. But it never lasts as long as we wish for self-injuring is a dangerous merry-go-round we go on often. We hurt to relieve ourselves of our depression then depression follows suit one after another every time we do so. A lot of Christians would say to commit suicide is an unforgivable sin, but how, may I ask, is killing yourself blaspheming against the Holy Spirit? Yes, that is the ONLY unforgivable sin out there. What God says to his people in there time of need is written plainly in the Bible SEEK the Kingdom of God and ALL these things shall be added unto you!
We ask for love, peace, joy and every ounce of patience that had escaped us. But never have we thought that God is testing us and what does a teacher do when his students are in a test? They are quiet!!!! But I swear to you, it is "Worth the Pain" during the night of our worst fears and agonizing cries, God is waiting with us until the Sun rises and he can open his arms in greeting of the new day he has brought us!
~Mari Fahel~
Thursday, March 8, 2012
He'll never go
The 21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Already Over by Red
There's times in our life when we just want to block God out and push Him out of our lives. We just want to do whatever we want to do, or maybe He didn't "come through" on something we prayed about. We ignore him and we live our lives on our own. The thing of it is, God's not going to just walk away! He doesn't give up on you, like a friend or even a family member might when we deliberately tell them to leave. This song talks about how God will never go. He's all around us. Once He gets through to you, He doesn't stop calling--kind of like an annoying person who keeps your phone ringing off the hook after you give him your phone number.
God never gives up on us, no matter how much we want Him to go away. He's stubborn that way. After all, He created you! So He'll just keep on bugging you and bugging you until you give in again and realize that the fight was already over since the beginning. He owns you, all of you, so why don't you stop fighting Him and let Him take care of you?
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Already Over by Red
There's times in our life when we just want to block God out and push Him out of our lives. We just want to do whatever we want to do, or maybe He didn't "come through" on something we prayed about. We ignore him and we live our lives on our own. The thing of it is, God's not going to just walk away! He doesn't give up on you, like a friend or even a family member might when we deliberately tell them to leave. This song talks about how God will never go. He's all around us. Once He gets through to you, He doesn't stop calling--kind of like an annoying person who keeps your phone ringing off the hook after you give him your phone number.
God never gives up on us, no matter how much we want Him to go away. He's stubborn that way. After all, He created you! So He'll just keep on bugging you and bugging you until you give in again and realize that the fight was already over since the beginning. He owns you, all of you, so why don't you stop fighting Him and let Him take care of you?
A world without God is a world without love
The 21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Love Hate (On and On) by Disciple
This song has been stuck in my head ever since it started playing on my mp3 player this morning. Most of the lyrics copy my own thoughts. It talks about how some--in fact, most--of the world is filled with hate. Mothers kill their own children (yes I mean abortion), sons fight with their fathers, parents beat their children beyond need or reason, teenagers are forced to endure a life of brutal harrassment, innocence is stolen from little children before they can even understand what they're doing. Everyone is born into evil, especially in a day and age where lust and money take precedence over love.
Remember the verse in the Bible, "God is love"? In a world where God is hated and spurned, there is very little love. Sure, you meet someone every once in a while who would give their very life for the people they love. But it's SO RARE. Love, along with God, has been practically burned at stake. People think it's stupid to love someone unconditionally, to let them walk all over you.
Most people don't even know about love. Jesus is the only one who can bring the light of love into their dark souls. The job is given to YOU to show them some of that love, and Jesus will take it from there. Are you willing to sacrifice yourself? Are you up to it? No, it's not easy to love. It's not easy at all. But we're Christians--and that also means we are warriors. Help Jesus stop the hate--you are His tool here on earth.
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Love Hate (On and On) by Disciple
This song has been stuck in my head ever since it started playing on my mp3 player this morning. Most of the lyrics copy my own thoughts. It talks about how some--in fact, most--of the world is filled with hate. Mothers kill their own children (yes I mean abortion), sons fight with their fathers, parents beat their children beyond need or reason, teenagers are forced to endure a life of brutal harrassment, innocence is stolen from little children before they can even understand what they're doing. Everyone is born into evil, especially in a day and age where lust and money take precedence over love.
Remember the verse in the Bible, "God is love"? In a world where God is hated and spurned, there is very little love. Sure, you meet someone every once in a while who would give their very life for the people they love. But it's SO RARE. Love, along with God, has been practically burned at stake. People think it's stupid to love someone unconditionally, to let them walk all over you.
Most people don't even know about love. Jesus is the only one who can bring the light of love into their dark souls. The job is given to YOU to show them some of that love, and Jesus will take it from there. Are you willing to sacrifice yourself? Are you up to it? No, it's not easy to love. It's not easy at all. But we're Christians--and that also means we are warriors. Help Jesus stop the hate--you are His tool here on earth.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
You lift me up with your love
The 21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Lift Me Up by The Afters
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Lift Me Up by The Afters
I turned my mp3 player on shuffle this morning when I was riding my bike with my brothers and sister--and boy, does that make some nice background music for a beautiful day! There's not much to say about it, since the song itself pretty much says it all. The lyrics are beautiful. ♥ So is the video, so watch it!
I've been saying this in the last few posts (actually, hasn't it been in every post by now...?) that humans are not perfect. We're not very strong, either. The devil really hates us, and he surrounds the world with trials and temptations. When he can't get us to turn away from the path of our own free will, he tries to force us into it by putting us through trials. We're in a world of darkness; that's all there is to it. We're born into it and we become it, and even when we become children of the light, it's hard not to go back to our true nature. But you have to remember THAT JESUS UNDERSTANDS!!! All you have to do is go back to him! He'll pick you back up off the ground, brush all the dirt off you, and give you the strength and courage to go on!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Faith and fear collide
The 21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Collide by Skillet
So far, this challenge is definitely working--because God really IS telling me something with every song! My interpretation of this song is that it's about Christians, and how the world tries to "tearing down our lives."
Let's face it. Christians just flat out aren't welcome here. They laugh and point the finger and us because we're "too good" to go to parties and waste our lives away. And here's another cold, hard fact: sometimes we want to join them. It's not easy being a Christian, and we really don't get to do whatever we want. It's hard. The devil will always try to find some way to break our faith. As humans, we have a fear that things won't turn out all right, even if we're doing what God's telling us to. And there's those moments when we just don't know what God wants us to do. We stumble and we fall sometimes. Jesus never said it would be easy.
As Christians, though, we have faith inside us as well. I've mentioned on the past couple of shows that Christians have an assurance in their hearts that God is there for them, and that everything will turn out OK in the end. Even in the darkest of nights, that faith shines bright, like a candle burning in a window. It encourages us to keep going, to hold on, to take just one more step, to fight our way back to the top of that cliff.
Faith and fear collide in our hearts. Like it says in Ephesians, the battles we fight are not of flesh, blood, and bone--it's of the spirit. The spirit is willing--the spirit has that faith--but the flesh, the part where fear comes from, is weak. Think of the spirit and the flesh as oil and water. They just plain don't mix.
We have to hold onto God's hand and commit our lives totally to him. Don't feel bad if you stumble and let go of his hand for a moment--remember that he's always standing there waiting for you to accept his hand again so he can pull you back on your feet. Just hold on.
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Collide by Skillet
So far, this challenge is definitely working--because God really IS telling me something with every song! My interpretation of this song is that it's about Christians, and how the world tries to "tearing down our lives."
Let's face it. Christians just flat out aren't welcome here. They laugh and point the finger and us because we're "too good" to go to parties and waste our lives away. And here's another cold, hard fact: sometimes we want to join them. It's not easy being a Christian, and we really don't get to do whatever we want. It's hard. The devil will always try to find some way to break our faith. As humans, we have a fear that things won't turn out all right, even if we're doing what God's telling us to. And there's those moments when we just don't know what God wants us to do. We stumble and we fall sometimes. Jesus never said it would be easy.
As Christians, though, we have faith inside us as well. I've mentioned on the past couple of shows that Christians have an assurance in their hearts that God is there for them, and that everything will turn out OK in the end. Even in the darkest of nights, that faith shines bright, like a candle burning in a window. It encourages us to keep going, to hold on, to take just one more step, to fight our way back to the top of that cliff.
Faith and fear collide in our hearts. Like it says in Ephesians, the battles we fight are not of flesh, blood, and bone--it's of the spirit. The spirit is willing--the spirit has that faith--but the flesh, the part where fear comes from, is weak. Think of the spirit and the flesh as oil and water. They just plain don't mix.
We have to hold onto God's hand and commit our lives totally to him. Don't feel bad if you stumble and let go of his hand for a moment--remember that he's always standing there waiting for you to accept his hand again so he can pull you back on your feet. Just hold on.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The only one left to listen
The 21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Therapy by Relient K
When this song started playing on my mp3 player, it was like a revelation. First I thought, "Really, Lord? Another Relient K song?" Then my next thought was, "Thanks for the reminder." This song is about a guy getting over a breakup--he's crying, he misses her, he's having a hard time moving on without her. But he takes a drive out in the country so he can have a one-to-one talk with God. He calls that his "therapy."
Life is really frustrating. Why? Well, it's LIFE, that's why. We get harrassed with a billion things that distract us. It gets to the point where we can't even think straight because there's so much drama going on! (Have I been there? Why yes I have, thank you.) Sometimes we vent to our friends, our family, or maybe even a random stranger. But there's other times when nobody's around. Either they can't understand or they just plain get sick of having to listen to you all the time. Or maybe you get to the point where you only wanna talk to that one person you just can't talk to at the moment. Those are the times we need to clear away all the distractions--lock yourself up in a closet with heavy metal music blaring at 31, or walk to the middle of a forest, or drive somewhere just to drive. We need to get alone with God. And once all the distractions are gone, you can have a good talk with Him.
Something I'm sure you've all heard me say on my show is, "When nobody else is there, God will ALWAYS be there for you." In fact, I'm pretty sure I say it at least once a show. I say that not only for your benefit, but for mine as well. As a teenager, I have lots of drama going on around me. Oy vey, I can't even BEGIN to tell you. The people who know me either aren't there for me when I need it, or they're just plain sick of me complaining! It's really lonesome because I feel like no one is on my side. I'll lock myself in my room and cry, mumbling all my frustrations out loud because I wish someone could hear. I need someone to wrap their arms around me and let me cry on their shoulder, and tell me it's all right. I feel alone.
I forget sometimes, though, that there IS someone who hears. There IS someone who wraps His arms around me and tells me it's OK. Sure, it's not physical, but He's still THERE. I may be stubborn and want whatever I want, but no matter what, He's not going to leave. He's the person who's going to take out fresh sheets of paper and a nice expensive pen to take down notes about how I feel--because yes, God DOES listen to your feelings, even if you don't think He does! And unlike those fancy-shmancy therapists in pressed suits who take those notes and make an "educated guess" as to what your major malfunction is, God knows EXACTLY what your problem is. He can administer the best cures because He's inside your mind! He made your mind for Pete's sake!
And you know what? In those moments where I remember God's there, I feel a lot better after venting all my frustrations out on Him. Sure, I'm saying the same things over and over again, but He doesn't mind hearing it. For the past 2 days I've been praying as hard as I can about just one thing, and I can't think of any fancy words to change up what I'm saying. I'm repeating myself over and over. I hate doing that because I'm a writer, and in a piece of writing that's redundant, but to God, it's not redundant at all. He knows we need it.
Today I feel like I let God down because I had to do the prayer during TinyChurch. Who knows, maybe I did. For like half an hour, I locked myself upstairs and cried because I felt like I couldn't do ANYTHING right!! But as I'm writing this, I remembered: well, I'm praying because people need me to. If I need to add a few extra days to my prayer fast because I have to pray during TinyChurch, then I will! I just have to keep pressing on. I can't let something like that bog me down. I have to keep going, I have to keep trying. God knows my heart. He knows what my intentions are, and most of all, He knows I'm a teenager and I can't do every little thing just exactly perfect! So after I vented in a bunch of random gibberish, actually, I set my jaw and I decided I'm going to keep praying about this thing anyway.
Let me tell you a little something. Ever since I was about 13, when I really need to talk to God, I get this picture in my head. It's me, as a little girl in a black dress. There's two rooms with a big brick wall in between--one room has me in it, the other room has Jesus in it, sitting on a chair. When I need to talk to him, I go outside my room and knock on the door of His room. He lets me in, of course, and I just sit down on the floor next to him and tell him all my troubles and ask him to forgive me. He hugs me and lets me cry, and then when I'm finished, I walk out of that room with a white dress on. Silly, isn't it? But we all have our own ways of praying, I'm sure. It helps me to picture Jesus better.
Nope, I'm not perfect. Not even by a long shot. I'm not as smart or as helpful as most of the people on The Endtime Tribune, but I do my little part. God gave me a job to do, and I'm going to do that. I'm going to pray about what I've set out to pray for--I'm going to talk to Him about it, cast it all on Him, ask Him to make things better and help it to work out. I'm sure the devil doesn't like that. But you know what, ole devil? This is me sticking my tongue out at you. :P Nyah nyah nyah! God's my therapist and you can't knock me down.
~Sally Kurtie
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Therapy by Relient K
When this song started playing on my mp3 player, it was like a revelation. First I thought, "Really, Lord? Another Relient K song?" Then my next thought was, "Thanks for the reminder." This song is about a guy getting over a breakup--he's crying, he misses her, he's having a hard time moving on without her. But he takes a drive out in the country so he can have a one-to-one talk with God. He calls that his "therapy."
Life is really frustrating. Why? Well, it's LIFE, that's why. We get harrassed with a billion things that distract us. It gets to the point where we can't even think straight because there's so much drama going on! (Have I been there? Why yes I have, thank you.) Sometimes we vent to our friends, our family, or maybe even a random stranger. But there's other times when nobody's around. Either they can't understand or they just plain get sick of having to listen to you all the time. Or maybe you get to the point where you only wanna talk to that one person you just can't talk to at the moment. Those are the times we need to clear away all the distractions--lock yourself up in a closet with heavy metal music blaring at 31, or walk to the middle of a forest, or drive somewhere just to drive. We need to get alone with God. And once all the distractions are gone, you can have a good talk with Him.
Something I'm sure you've all heard me say on my show is, "When nobody else is there, God will ALWAYS be there for you." In fact, I'm pretty sure I say it at least once a show. I say that not only for your benefit, but for mine as well. As a teenager, I have lots of drama going on around me. Oy vey, I can't even BEGIN to tell you. The people who know me either aren't there for me when I need it, or they're just plain sick of me complaining! It's really lonesome because I feel like no one is on my side. I'll lock myself in my room and cry, mumbling all my frustrations out loud because I wish someone could hear. I need someone to wrap their arms around me and let me cry on their shoulder, and tell me it's all right. I feel alone.
I forget sometimes, though, that there IS someone who hears. There IS someone who wraps His arms around me and tells me it's OK. Sure, it's not physical, but He's still THERE. I may be stubborn and want whatever I want, but no matter what, He's not going to leave. He's the person who's going to take out fresh sheets of paper and a nice expensive pen to take down notes about how I feel--because yes, God DOES listen to your feelings, even if you don't think He does! And unlike those fancy-shmancy therapists in pressed suits who take those notes and make an "educated guess" as to what your major malfunction is, God knows EXACTLY what your problem is. He can administer the best cures because He's inside your mind! He made your mind for Pete's sake!
And you know what? In those moments where I remember God's there, I feel a lot better after venting all my frustrations out on Him. Sure, I'm saying the same things over and over again, but He doesn't mind hearing it. For the past 2 days I've been praying as hard as I can about just one thing, and I can't think of any fancy words to change up what I'm saying. I'm repeating myself over and over. I hate doing that because I'm a writer, and in a piece of writing that's redundant, but to God, it's not redundant at all. He knows we need it.
Today I feel like I let God down because I had to do the prayer during TinyChurch. Who knows, maybe I did. For like half an hour, I locked myself upstairs and cried because I felt like I couldn't do ANYTHING right!! But as I'm writing this, I remembered: well, I'm praying because people need me to. If I need to add a few extra days to my prayer fast because I have to pray during TinyChurch, then I will! I just have to keep pressing on. I can't let something like that bog me down. I have to keep going, I have to keep trying. God knows my heart. He knows what my intentions are, and most of all, He knows I'm a teenager and I can't do every little thing just exactly perfect! So after I vented in a bunch of random gibberish, actually, I set my jaw and I decided I'm going to keep praying about this thing anyway.
Let me tell you a little something. Ever since I was about 13, when I really need to talk to God, I get this picture in my head. It's me, as a little girl in a black dress. There's two rooms with a big brick wall in between--one room has me in it, the other room has Jesus in it, sitting on a chair. When I need to talk to him, I go outside my room and knock on the door of His room. He lets me in, of course, and I just sit down on the floor next to him and tell him all my troubles and ask him to forgive me. He hugs me and lets me cry, and then when I'm finished, I walk out of that room with a white dress on. Silly, isn't it? But we all have our own ways of praying, I'm sure. It helps me to picture Jesus better.
Nope, I'm not perfect. Not even by a long shot. I'm not as smart or as helpful as most of the people on The Endtime Tribune, but I do my little part. God gave me a job to do, and I'm going to do that. I'm going to pray about what I've set out to pray for--I'm going to talk to Him about it, cast it all on Him, ask Him to make things better and help it to work out. I'm sure the devil doesn't like that. But you know what, ole devil? This is me sticking my tongue out at you. :P Nyah nyah nyah! God's my therapist and you can't knock me down.
~Sally Kurtie
Saturday, March 3, 2012
The spirit is willing...
Hey Guys! Sally Kurtie here with a post, after like three months. O.o It would help if you guys posted comments and stuff (as soon as I finish this post, I'm gonna mess with the settings so that people without Blogger accounts can comment). Anyway, I've come up with an idea that will give me ideas to post for the next three weeks!
The 21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Curl Up & Die by Relient K
Now this one's a little tricky! This is actually a love song, and the meaning is a little encrypted. The singer feels bad for hurting the girl--and he's ready to move on, since the relationship is pretty broken. She's not, however; and he feels bad, because he DOES love her. So he says, "I'll just curl up with you and die too."
So how do I make this a Christian value? It's kind of easy, really. It made me think of this verse right off the bat:
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool that returns to his folly.
--Proverbs 26:11
My dad used this verse on me A LOT when I was...oh, 10-14 years of age, which were my difficult growing-up years. For as far back as I can remember, I got in trouble for the same stuff over and over again. Like waiting till my parents were gone and then rifling through the cabinets to steal snacks (I got a little overweight as punishment, by the way). Or I'd continually forget to clean off the highchairs or the coffee maker. Honestly? I'm still doing that. I'm just a backsliding person, honestly. It's hard for me to change my ways, unless I'm praying and reading my Bible every single day--if not multiple times a day.
Remember how Jesus said, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak?" I don't know what it is about humans, but we naturally want to follow the crowd. We want to obey the lusts of our dirt-filled bodies and practice those stupid things that the world thinks is cool. Like lying, for instance. People really don't think lying is wrong--until someone lies to them!
It's so easy to belt out a little white lie, like if you want to check your email for a sec, but your mom walks in and asks if you're done with your homework. Even if you're not, you immediately respond, "Yes." Why? Because for some stupid reason, your flesh would rather go to hell over checking your email than doing your homework like you're supposed to! And then think about the trouble you're going to get into if your mom comes in later and sees you working on your homework again! Either you admit that you weren't really done with your homework (if you ask me, that's the easier route) or you pile on another lie to say "Oh, I forgot this lesson," or "I'm just double checking my work." Or, even worse, you don't even bother to go back to your homework to cover up that little white lie--and get into trouble later because you didn't finish your homework!
Now what does this have to do with the song? Well, let's use some figurative language--personification. Imagine the flesh and the spirit as two people, a girl and a guy for instance. The guy is "breaking the girl's heart" by ignoring what she wants and going with what God wants. It hurts to be spiritual! Like the email story I told you a minute ago. I don't know why, but for me, that darn email is a temptation to me. I'm always wanting to check my email when A) I'm supposed to be doing something else or B) I'm not supposed to be on the computer. (FYI, I've checked my email four or five times in the time it's taken me to get this far in the blog post, and I'm getting that urge to check again.) I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've gotten in trouble because I was "just checking my email." In those moments of weakness when I give in and check my email when I'm not supposed to, that's the guy feeling sorry for the girl and going back to her.
It's stupid. I mean, why would I want to go to hell over checking my email? Well, because it's fleshly to love fleshly desires, and my flesh is a part of me! If I don't keep my spirit strong, going back to God every single day to get my daily dose of prayer and Bible vitamins, I'm going to cave in. Because my spirit feels "sorry" for the flesh, because it gets tired of denying itself, it "goes back"--just for one touch. But that one touch can grow into a whole lot more, and before long, I'll be in a relationship with my flesh again. So I'll be back to square one, and all that work I did to get away from my flesh is for nothing. Kind of like that dog going back to his puke.
So today's lesson: Don't "curl up and die" just because you want to do what you want to do. If you start getting weak, go to God. You don't even have to talk about what you're going through--talk about, I don't know, your peanut butter sandwich! It's human to want to feel accepted by whoever you're talking to, and if you're talking to God, you're gonna want to do what He wants you to. :)
The 21 Day iPod Shuffle Challenge
If you come to the TinyChat meetings on The Endtime Tribune, you know that my dad talks a lot about the 21-day "prayer fast," where you pray about one thing and one thing only for 21 days. Well, I'm taking that challenge myself. But to add to that, I have a hard time having faith that God will even answer my prayers--ya know, cuz God does whatever He wants to. So I have to work on my faith the same time I'm praying for 21 days, so that I have the determination to keep that covenant. The way I'm going to do it is the 21-day iPod Shuffle Challenge--something I came up with myself.
A lot of the time, I'm praying for an answer and I ask God to give me that answer through a song. I just grab my mp3 player and put it on shuffle, and whatever song that comes up--be it a love song or a praise song--is supposed to answer my question somehow. Does it work? Well, sometimes. A few times I think God's sense of humor has kicked in and He gives me a song that has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. Well, for the next 21 days, once a day I'll put my mp3 player on Shuffle and think of a Christian lesson that goes with that song!
Today's Challenge: Curl Up & Die by Relient K
Now this one's a little tricky! This is actually a love song, and the meaning is a little encrypted. The singer feels bad for hurting the girl--and he's ready to move on, since the relationship is pretty broken. She's not, however; and he feels bad, because he DOES love her. So he says, "I'll just curl up with you and die too."
So how do I make this a Christian value? It's kind of easy, really. It made me think of this verse right off the bat:
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool that returns to his folly.
--Proverbs 26:11
My dad used this verse on me A LOT when I was...oh, 10-14 years of age, which were my difficult growing-up years. For as far back as I can remember, I got in trouble for the same stuff over and over again. Like waiting till my parents were gone and then rifling through the cabinets to steal snacks (I got a little overweight as punishment, by the way). Or I'd continually forget to clean off the highchairs or the coffee maker. Honestly? I'm still doing that. I'm just a backsliding person, honestly. It's hard for me to change my ways, unless I'm praying and reading my Bible every single day--if not multiple times a day.
Remember how Jesus said, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak?" I don't know what it is about humans, but we naturally want to follow the crowd. We want to obey the lusts of our dirt-filled bodies and practice those stupid things that the world thinks is cool. Like lying, for instance. People really don't think lying is wrong--until someone lies to them!
It's so easy to belt out a little white lie, like if you want to check your email for a sec, but your mom walks in and asks if you're done with your homework. Even if you're not, you immediately respond, "Yes." Why? Because for some stupid reason, your flesh would rather go to hell over checking your email than doing your homework like you're supposed to! And then think about the trouble you're going to get into if your mom comes in later and sees you working on your homework again! Either you admit that you weren't really done with your homework (if you ask me, that's the easier route) or you pile on another lie to say "Oh, I forgot this lesson," or "I'm just double checking my work." Or, even worse, you don't even bother to go back to your homework to cover up that little white lie--and get into trouble later because you didn't finish your homework!
Now what does this have to do with the song? Well, let's use some figurative language--personification. Imagine the flesh and the spirit as two people, a girl and a guy for instance. The guy is "breaking the girl's heart" by ignoring what she wants and going with what God wants. It hurts to be spiritual! Like the email story I told you a minute ago. I don't know why, but for me, that darn email is a temptation to me. I'm always wanting to check my email when A) I'm supposed to be doing something else or B) I'm not supposed to be on the computer. (FYI, I've checked my email four or five times in the time it's taken me to get this far in the blog post, and I'm getting that urge to check again.) I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've gotten in trouble because I was "just checking my email." In those moments of weakness when I give in and check my email when I'm not supposed to, that's the guy feeling sorry for the girl and going back to her.
It's stupid. I mean, why would I want to go to hell over checking my email? Well, because it's fleshly to love fleshly desires, and my flesh is a part of me! If I don't keep my spirit strong, going back to God every single day to get my daily dose of prayer and Bible vitamins, I'm going to cave in. Because my spirit feels "sorry" for the flesh, because it gets tired of denying itself, it "goes back"--just for one touch. But that one touch can grow into a whole lot more, and before long, I'll be in a relationship with my flesh again. So I'll be back to square one, and all that work I did to get away from my flesh is for nothing. Kind of like that dog going back to his puke.
So today's lesson: Don't "curl up and die" just because you want to do what you want to do. If you start getting weak, go to God. You don't even have to talk about what you're going through--talk about, I don't know, your peanut butter sandwich! It's human to want to feel accepted by whoever you're talking to, and if you're talking to God, you're gonna want to do what He wants you to. :)
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