It's almost October...?

Wow. So...I only have 8 months left of my high school career.  That's pretty crazy.
Overview of my life currently:
I've babysat ~75 hours this month (which is why I haven't had time to blog..)
My wisdom teeth extraction went totally fine, as did my post op...:)
I took the ACT and got my not-so-great scores, but hey, I have 8 months to take it again, right?

New favorite way to study the Bible from my Youth Pastor:
Find a passage: Ask Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.  Then Interpret it (what it means to everyone...) then Apply it to your own life.

I've used this 'system' for a week now and it really is my favorite.  Note: When you have no idea where to read in the Bible, go to Bible Gateway and read their verse/passage of the day.  And, of course, ask these questions.  These questions can be over 1/2 a verse or a whole chapter, but IMO, passages are better studied slower.  I've been trying to stick to 1-2 verses.

-K

Be Still

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 46:10


Do you ever wonder if God laughs at you?  I sure do.  I am going to Israel in March, I'm starting my Senior year soon, I have a consult with my oral surgeon to have my wisdom teeth taken out, and I am taking the ACT in less than a month.  As you can imagine, I am going nuts and worrying about every little thing.  I want to get a good grade on my ACT :Math and Science are not my strong subjects, and I don't like them on top of that...I'm gonna fail and not get into a college...then not get a job, then be homeless, then.....I want to get good grades in school this year : But I can't do this, I am not smart enough....I want to get the most out of going to Israel :but what about the plane ride? Is it safe there? Wait...I'm gonna be where Jesus actually walked on this earth? But, He's everywhere now....But in the flesh He was actually there. I am not worthy to be walking where He walked.....My wisdom teeth are being taken out: There will be a ton of pain, I won't be able to handle it, on top of my ACT, school, babysitting, ect...
Hey Kathleen?
-Sup, God?
CHILL.
I don't know what it sounds like to you, but it sounds like the devil is trying to get a hold of my life.  Jesus is trying to tell me He's got it.  He knows the plans for my life (Jer.29:11) and He knows the grades I will get on my ACT and my senior year, He knows the exact day my wisdom teeth will come out, He knows how going to Israel will impact my spiritual walk... He knows everything and He is trying to get my attention to tell me to be still and not worry. 

You may not be taking the ACT, starting your senior year, getting your wisdom teeth taken out or going to Israel next year, but I assure you there is something in your life Satan is telling you that you cannot do.  Remember, God is God.  Be still and know that He is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipresent (all-present..He is everywhere)

He is Light

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
This is the message we heard from Jesust and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
1 John 1 (NLT)

Okay, so the whole Bible is about the Trinity (God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit) and proclaiming the good news.  Right? Right.  So, He is the only way we can get eternal life and He IS LIFE. So, without God, there is no life.  Because (In  the Beginning God made the heavens and the earth..Gen 1:1)  I often say that God is the only reason I am on this earth, and this is the verse that shows why! Without God, there is no earth, there is no life.  Yet, we often "don't have time" for Him.  He could very easily end our glamorous lives at any moment, either by snapping us out of our "perfect life" and making us poor, or even ending our life.
There is no darkness in God at all, because He is light.  In Revelation, it says that there will be no light (sun/moon) because God is/will be the only light we need.  We cannot have fellowship with darkness, as well.  This is a touchy subject because we are supposed to reach those in the dark.  Funny thing is, many people go "into" the dark to reach those people. The problem that presents itself, is there is now no visible difference between Christians and nonbelievers.  If Christians drink, party, swear and sleep around, why would nonbelievers have any interest in becoming a Christian?  Also, once we realize that we are sinners, we cannot just go on living and think we are saved, we have to repent, not only when we ask Jesus into our lives, but when we sin, we need to ask God to forgive us.  The cool thing?  He is faithful and just (fairly doing the same to everyone) to forgive us! 

Just remember, even if you are a Christian, you can't live a different life away from church. 


Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

2 Corinthians 6

-K

All Scripture is useful...in righteousness

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
-2 Timothy 3:16

I can't remember if I've blogged my thoughts on this verse yet, or not...if so, here it is again :)
Okay.  So, at the surface, this verse says that we can use Scripture to teach, rebuke, correct and train...
Well, if you think about it, there are so many different passages that just 'appear' right when you need them; whether you're looking for a random verse or reading your daily plan. 
Another cool thing is, all Scripture is useful IN righteousness. That doesn't mean you can rebuke someone with Scripture unfairly.  The cool thing is, God judges with righteousness.  Although we cannot judge others, only God can do that, we can correct them justly (the definition of righteousness).  Pretty cool task given by and through God, hm?

-K

He restores my soul

He restores my soul. -Psalm 23:3a

Wow. A simple verse with SO much meaning.  Lately I've found myself not nearly as close to God as I have been in the past.  The world teaches us that everyday life just 'gets in the way' of reading the Bible, and taking time to strengthen a relationship with God.  The really amazing thing is, no matter what the world says, once God gets your attention again, you are always welcome right where you were. 
When I hear the word 'Restore' I think of a computer or iPhone (yes...this is a major geek sign...)
In computer language, it really means to erase everything and begin anew. All of the distorted files are wiped away, everything is gone and you get clean slate. When you think about that happening to your soul, it is overwhelming. I, a sinner, get a clean slate when I mess up. Granted, God does not love that people walk away from Him, but it doesn't matter what you've done.  God searches for you, well for all of us. (Matthew 18:12)  He is so greatful when we come back (as told in the parable of the prodigal son)  He forgets that you ever went away, and you start anew.  I am so grateful that nothing matters except for the present and the future.  My past has been forgotten and yours has too!

God bless.

-K

Mission:Nashville

This is most of our group playing Silent Football at the church one night.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. Acts 4:8-10 (NKJV)
This past week, I went to Nashville, Tennessee with 26 other people to serve people less fortunate than me. This trip just showed me how blessed I really am. Even the first day, I learned that there are so many people that live on so little. Thousands of people in Nashville live on less than $10,000 a year and over 13% of the population lives on under $20,000 a year.There is government housing (where the tenant is only required to pay a percentage of what they make) but that only does so much. Many people still are homeless because they just can't afford to pay for a place to live.

Our church sent 27 people on this mission trip, 5 adults and 22 teenagers. We had way too many people to work in one place, so we were split up into 'Serve Groups' for most of the week. This way, we could help twice the amount of people and didn't have anyone sitting around doing nothing. This post will be from my serve group's perspective, which is different than the other serve group. :)

Every morning we went to Y-CAP. (YMCA's Community Action Project) and played with middle school aged kids. They allowed us to put on a skit every morning pertaining to a Bible story. The skits included the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, the Good Samaritan and Daniel and the Lions Den. A lot of the children enjoyed the skits and seemed to get a lot out of them. After the skits, we would play a game to get them all moving, such as Sharks and Minnows. Then we would break out into groups called 'Breakouts' and some kids were in a cooking class (my group :D), some reviewed movies, and others played sports. When the Breakouts were done, we would leave. The kids were loud and crazy and at times I didn't know how to respond because my parents raised me so differently than these kids are being raised. But, I had to remind myself that these children don't all have the luxury of having 2 parents, or even having a meal. You could just tell that there was hurt inside them.

We would then go eat our lunches at the church, a park, or downtown with homeless people. The first afternoon after lunch, we packed nearly 1,500 boxes full of food via 'Feed the Children'. The boxes were going to be sent to the tornado victims in Alabama. They were filled with water bottles, canned green beans, canned pinto beans, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, canned carrots, spaghetti noodles, rice, boxed macaroni and cheese and cornflakes. It really felt like we were doing something to help someone, and at the end, we realized that we had aided in feeding nearly 1,500 families of 4.

That night, we went on a Prayer Tour of downtown Nashville. We saw the 'pretty' side of downtown (Music Row) and tons of recording studios followed by the part of town where people live way below the poverty line.  It was just so sad to think that so many people are so wealthy, while others cannot even feed their family. During the prayer tour, we made a stop in front of the capitol building and prayed for the government on government property. Most countries don't have the freedom to pray in public, let alone on government property, so it was really cool. We also laid on the sidewalk between the stadium that the Tennessee Titans play at and a juvenile justice center. It was crazy to think of how much hurt goes on at the juvenile justice center, while a football stadium right across the street is packed with people seemingly oblivious to this hurt, at nearly every game. We just prayed for both sides of the road. We prayed that the people at the stadium would come to know Jesus and that although we seem to worship football, that it is NOT Jesus. We also prayed for the kids at the justice center, that they would know that there are people that care about them.

The next afternoon, we went to NICE, which helps immigrant children learn how to read and write in English. It was really cool to see all the different walks of life and cultures and how well they have adjusted already. Some of the kids had only been in the states for a few months, others for nearly their whole lives. This program will help the children so much during the summer as they prepare to go to school next year. The kids were all so different, yet were so similar in the fact that they all were in the same boat. They were all new to America and were learning to live outside of their country and culture.

Let me explain dinner! The first night, we went out for Thai food, which was pretty good. The next night, we ate Swett's Soul food (fried chicken, mashed potatoes...). The following night we went for Ethiopian food. We got platters of food and baskets of sponge bread. You ate it without silverware only picking up the food with pieces of sponge bread. I think Mark (our CSM leader) and I were the only ones who liked it  everyone else wanted to go to White Castle afterwards. Then, the last night we went to Cock of the Walk where nearly everything was fried. It was really good as well :)
One night, we went out onto a bridge and prayed for the city as we were looking out over downtown. The diversity of the city is just so sad. There are so many people hurting, whether they are living way under the poverty line of are in the nightlife of the city. It was so sad to think that while I am by no means rich myself, I go to Starbucks every once in awhile, and go out for meals without even thinking how much it will cost.  We learned that many people are day laborers who make minimum wage and then have to rent the tools to work with.  So many people are taken advantage of and therefore cannot afford anything. 

One of the afternoons we went downtown to try to find a homeless person to eat lunch with.  We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked and walked some more and still only saw people that were in town for the CMA awards. Finally after nearly 3 hours of walking around, we spotted two men.  We approached them and asked them if they wanted some lunch their response was "We are alcoholics, we don't know what lunch is...we just eat whenever." They did agree to let us sit with them, though.  We got them to tell us their stories which were pretty interesting.  Charles was standoffish at first and said that his story made him cry, so he wouldn't tell it to us.  So, then David started to tell us his story and Charles interrupted him with his own story.  Charles seemed to be under the influence of some drug or alcohol, so his story may not have been accurate, but he seemed to be hurting very much.  He said that when he was about my age he shot and killed both his best friend and girlfriend.  He then went to jail, I believe for 20 years, and then when he got out, he moved out to the streets.  He felt as though God could never forgive him for what he had done.  We tried to explain to him that God loves us and forgives us despite what we've done in the past, but he just felt he wasn't worthy of God's love.  This just broke my heart, he knew so much of the Bible but didn't feel as though he could accept the only gift that could give him eternal life. 

This trip just opened my eyes to the fact that not all people are homeless or below the poverty line because they are lazy and never work.  So many people work their tails off and just can't afford to make ends meet, while homeless people sometimes don't even remember what it is like to live a normal life.  Homeless people are hardly ever given a chance because of their appearance, but they really can't take a shower, or get clean water, food, or clean clothes to go get a job.  I realized how blessed I am and how much I take for granted.  I just wish I could have helped more and stayed longer, but CSM (Center for Student Missions) that organizes everything that youth groups do there will have other youth groups coming in all summer to help more and more people.  This was an amazing and life changing opportunity and I hope to be able to do something similar in the future.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
-Matthew 25:34-36, 40 (NIV)

Other Religions....

Currently in my youth group, we are doing a series called "Confident Christian".  It's basically just showing us what other people believe (Buddhists, Muslims, Jews....) and how to show them that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. 
A cool thing we learned last Wednesday is that even though what these religions believe is not exactly right, they have some things right. 

I know, I know...You think I'm crazy....Keep reading, I'm not done. 

What they have right, is that they are so faithful to pray at certain times, or to keep every law that was spoken to Moses.  If we could just adopt some of their faithfulness, we could prosper much more as Christians.  I began to think, 'What if I prayed 5 times a day instead of just when it's convenient for me' or 'What if I began wanting to read my Bible instead of making myself read it at times'.

While we are on the subject of Bible reading and praying, have you thought lately how blessed we are to be able to read about Jesus and how to be more like Him? Or how much we take for granted knowing that every prayer we pray is heard, even if we don't get an answer right away?

Put a note card on your mirror reminding yourself to thank Jesus, learn more about Him through His Word and just talk to Him like you talk to so many other people throughout the day.

You are blessed, whatever your situation may be right now. 
SMILE!!!!!
-K