So…I’ve been just thinking a lot lately… not really about anything in particular…just thinking. There  really is no point to this message…other than the fact that I am bored… sitting in my school library (waiting for my track meet to come…) …Today has been a great day. Nothing super “great” happened…but today has just been good. I feel like whenever I think about God more and put Him first in my life, then my days just go a lot smoother. I find it a lot easier to deal with the poohy situations that I’m going through whenever I rely on God. Isn’t God just amazing? I am so thankful for what He has given me…. I’m thankful for both the “good” and “bad” things He has given me…. For example, I am thankful for the friends that I have and their love for Jesus! And, also I am thankful for some of the “crumby” situations I have been put through in my life…because they have brought me closer to God…. I love looking back on my life and being able to see God’s Hand and see that He was there holding me throughout my “bummer” situations of the past.  It makes it a lot easier for me to see Him right now, as I, once again, go through situations that I don’t like. God will never leave us or forsake us…Never doubt God’s unfailing love for us.

Speaking of God’s unfailing love…isn’t it just amazing?! God loves us…no matter what… He loves us. Even though I might have doubted His prescence in my “aweful” life situations in the past, He still kept loving me and holding me in His hand. He kept (and still is) saving me. I would post the lyrics of a song  I really like, but the school computer is restricting me from looking up lyrics…bummer. But, anyways, look up the song “Savior, Please” by Josh Wilson. I really like the song. One of the lines says something like “Savior,please keep saving me”..and that makes sense to me…because I haven’t fallen short of God’s glory once–I’ve done it many, many times…. and a lot of times I feel like I have passed over the “limit” of how many times I’m allowed to “fall- short”… but the thing is…God is still saving me… There is no limit….He will always love me. I know I don’t deserve it…I know that I don’t, but it is such an amazing gift that I just can’t refuse… God loves me, He sent His son to save me… God is amazing!!! :)  I’m not really sure how to end off this randomness…but I’ll end by saying this… “God is bigger than the ‘boogy-man’, He’s bigger than godzilla or the monsters on T.V. O, God is bigger than the ‘boogy-man’ and He’s watching out for you and me!” So, whatever your “boogy-man” is, God is bigger than it…and  if you feel afraid of it, God is there and He is holding you in His hand. Nothing will happen that He can’t see coming–God is in control!

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (NIV)

karena

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Hey guys!!!  This is just hannah here…i sometimes understand that it’s hard to commit to God 100% of the time but here are a few random ways to think about God durring your day:

♦on 11:11…make a prayer to God about something that you are thinking about.

♦when you find yourself being angry or something, think about God and how he would have handled this situation

♦when you are in your room doing nothing but listining to music, get out your bible and open to a random page and read a chapter…you will be surprized what God will lay on your heart that day

♦when you find yourself thinking bad thoughts about someone, say a quick prayer for that person

These are just some random tips of things you can do to add more of God to your life…he will rock your world and you will be surprized how many of your prayers will be answered!!  Take it from someone who knows.  I started doing this about 2 months ago, just randomly praying throughout the day.  So many of my prayers have been answered!!  you really don’t realize it till you try it.  Just try it for a couple weeks.  you will be amazed at the results!!!

-Hannah

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:) So, the other day I was just being bored and  I just so happened to come across some cool randomness :) Here’s what I found…. There was this T-shirt that I saw in a magazine and it said : 

 Christianity is not Religion.     Religion=Humans  trying to work their way to God.    Christianity= God coming to men and women through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  

I read that and was like, “Yes! Exactly!” :) It made me happy, so I wrote it down…

Also, recently, I was listening to this Christian radio station and there was this dude talking. He was talking about how him and his wife lived next to two men(who lived together). The men he lived next to were a gay couple. The christian guy–lets call him Bob– Bob and his wife would talk to the gay couple and were friends with them. Well, one day, one of the gay dudes–lets call him Joe–Joe was trying to get a reaction out of Bob about his gay-ness(because Joe knew that Bob was a christian, and he knew that Bob didn’t agree with homosexuality).  Joe went to Bob and talked about his gay-ness and asked what Bob thought about it. Bob said, “Well, Joe, you aren’t a christian are you?” Joe said, “No,” so then Bob said, “Then I don’t expect you to act/live like one.”  After I heard that I was like WOW! I’ve never even thought about it like that before! So, what that guy talked about on the radio really made me realize that I can’t expect everyone to have the same values and live  as I do when they aren’t Christians! I mean, just because I realize that, it doesn’t mean I have to change how I feel about certain things…it just gave a me a new way to deal with people with differing views.  I feel that sometimes when I’m talking to someone who isnt’ a christian about certain topics that have to deal with my christian values, and they disagree with me and then ,I think, “How can they  not  agree with me?!” But, now it makes mores sense…how can I expect a non-christian to live like one?

Now, this doesn’t mean that you should stop talking to non-christians about christian things…it just means that now you can have more understanding for them when they disagree or agrue what you tell them! :)

-Karena

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It’s funny how sometimes you really don’t feel like God is telling you what you need be doing–and then there are those certain times when it is so obvious! Recently I checked my e-mail and saw that I had recieved my daily devo message. Opening it, I saw that it was titled “Unpopular”. Reading it, I found that it was discussing how when you follow Christ, you will be persecuted. It basically discussed how being a follower of Jesus is not going to be easy–and how you shouldn’t expect it to be anywhere near easy or simple. In my opinion,if I get to spend eternity with my savior, then  its worth all of the pain and suffering on earth.

Now, here’s where “God’s Way of Communicating” comes in…. After I read the first devotional,5 minutes later, I read another different devo, and it said almost the same thing as the first, then I get this feeling that God is trying to make a point to me. Sometimes I get kind of like “Okay God, I already know this”–but whenever I see the thing I “already know” two times consecutively, then its kind of like, maybe I should think about it more deeply.

Anways, The second devo was titled “The Easy Way Out”. This devo talked about how there is a wide path you can take and a narrow path you can take in life. The Narrow one being a more difficult route, and leading to Jesus/Heaven. The Wide one being the more easy route, and leading to Satan/Hell.  Obviously, I have already heard this point made over 300 times! Sometimes the wide path seems so attractive, but it is only “good” for the temporary…the affects of taking the wide path are not very nice (eternal seperation from God,etc.).

Anways, The point of this message? Well, I’m not exactly sure…I mainly just felt like rambling…. But, the main thing I am trying to get across is this…Sometimes its hard to know what God is trying to tell you to do and sometimes its simple. There is no formula for finding exactly what God wants you to do–you just got to listen, wait and watch for any little sign that God might be trying to show you :)

(Sorry if this was confusing–or dumb),

Karena

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Sometimes i think we all are too busy or too worked up over something.  We tend to get carried away with sports, school, or even busywork.  We live in a world where if your not busy, your “lazy” and need to get up and get active.  The thing is that sometimes we need to just stop.  We need to think about why we are doing what we are doing.  I more than anyone need to think about this.  I tend to put off God because “I have a test” or “I got home late” or “i’m too tired”.  There is no excuse.  We don’t need to find time for God, we need to find time for all the other things that distract us and God needs to be put first on our priorty list.  Not our homework or our boyfriend or sport practice.  Now there is nothing wrong if you read your bible before you go to bed as the last thing you do in the day but just make sure that you always do that.  Don’t decide to put it off till morning cause if you do that, God will get your attention (in not always a good way) and you will realize that you need to be with him every day.  If you have a friend (which we all do), you spend time with that person.  You listen to them and they listen to you.  That is how you build relationships.  Your best friend isn’t someone you talk to once a month or someone that you see maybe once every 4 years, it’s that person that you see almost every day and that you talk to all the time.  That is how you need to be to have a close relationship with God.  You need to spend time in His word and spend time talking to Him and also listening to what He has to tell you.  It might just  be inportant. (aka…it is inportant what he is trying to tell you otherwise he wouln’t waste his time)  One of my favorite quotes is “good better best, never let it rest, untill your good is better, and your better is best“.  This is how we need to think about God and our relationship with him.  Don’t just use him as a “get out of hell free” card!!!  You need to love Him and he loves you.  He wants to spend time with you and he wants to be with you forever!!  ”In all your ways acknowledge him and he will lead your path straight” Probverbs 3:6!  Try it.  Read the bible and see how it shakes your world.  I bet you it will :).

Your loving writer,

Hannah

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Whoo guys! I got the website pretti-fied and functional! Now all you have to do is sign in to your account (I am giving you a sticky note at school with your username and password on it) and start posting devotionals, videos, random thoughts (God-related, haha), good verses you found…whatever! I also thought it’d be a good idea to start posting a copy of the journal after you get home from the meeting, journal keepers! You don’t have to type out your whole letter if you don’t want to, but you can.

I will be trying to keep the website organized and troubleshoot any problems, since I know it can be kinda hard to get the hang of all this :) Let me know if you are having any problems with anything!

Okay, so what are you supposed to be doing with the site? Well…

• Click on your name on the members page and edit that page to your liking. You can write anything you want, and put pictures of stuff you want (not yourself…but turtles, rats, the beach, crosses/bibles, random sparkles (…you catch my drift) is okay)
• Go through the “P.O.C.K.Y.” page and add/edit whatever you want.
• On the ’stuff’ page, you can leave that alone if you’d like since it isn’t that important — or, if you’ve figured this system out, you can start adding pages.
• For ‘links’…just add links there to important Christian sites you use a lot. You don’t have to, but if you can think of anything that’s great!

Oh, and I am in the process of asking my mom when the next meeting can be. I am supposed to be the host next time, right? Ha ha.

lovelovelove,

Kaytlin

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