7 Friends That Will Ruin Your Life

http://www.churchleaders.com/youth/youth-leaders-articles/255805-7-friends-will-ruin-life.html

Boldness

Courage is an area that we all struggle with. We all have said at some point in our lives "I'm scared".

Peter and John are the individuals speaking in this verse, and you would think that courage would be something they weren't lacking because they had the opportunity to live with Jesus!

However this verse shows us that we are all human and that even when we are lacking in courage, we can pray to God and He will fill us with the boldness we need to speak His word in confidence.

Prayer: God, thank you for allowing me to have opportunities where I can ask you for boldness. Whenever I am fearful, fill me with boldness and remind me that I have no reason to be afraid.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Courage is a virtue. Virtues help build character.

Here is a website with a list of virtues to help build your character. 

http://www.virtuesforlife.com/virtues-list/

So you say you're young?

Many times Christians tend to discredit themselves simply because of their age. They tend to think "how could God use me? I'm so young" or "I can't tell people about God now, that's for old pastors". Honestly that's an absolute lie. God desires to use you now in your youth! Each one of us posses individual talents that we can use to bring glory to God's kingdom and the best time to start is now! So forget about your age, and let God begin to use you today.

The Story behind the hymn: It Is Well With My Soul...

Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a wealthy Chicago lawyer with a thriving legal practice, a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son. He was also a devout Christian and faithful student of the Scriptures. His circle of friends included Dwight L. Moody, Ira Sankey and various other well-known Christians of the day.

At the very height of his financial and professional success, Horatio and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of their young son. Shortly thereafter on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed almost every real estate investment that Spafford had.

In 1873, Spafford scheduled a boat trip to Europe in order to give his wife and daughters a much needed vacation and time to recover from the tragedy. He also went to join Moody and Sankey on an evangelistic campaign in England. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him while he remained in Chicago to take care of some unexpected last minute business. Several days later he received notice that his family's ship had encountered a collision. All four of his daughters drowned; only his wife had survived.

With a heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his grieving Anna in England. It was on this trip that he penned those now famous words, When sorrow like sea billows roll; it is well, it is well with my soul..

Philip Bliss (1838-1876), composer of many songs including Hold the Fort, Let the Lower Lights be Burning, and Jesus Loves Even Me, was so impressed with Spafford's life and the words of his hymn that he composed a beautiful piece of music to accompany the lyrics. The song was published by Bliss and Sankey, in 1876.

For more than a century, the tragic story of one man has given hope to countless thousands who have lifted their voices to sing, It Is Well With My Soul.




It Is Well With My Soul


When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

What's the Point of Valentine's Day?

The first time I saw my wife in person, I was standing across the street from her apartment. The sky was gray and about as dark as it should have been for a March afternoon in the Midwest. She came out to the front porch—and I ran across the street. Cars screeched as I held up my hands in hope it would prevent an impact. I reached her side of the sidewalk as she came down the front steps. We smiled at each other ... I think. I'm a little foggy on the details, but I absolutely remember what happened next: I took her face in my hands and I kissed her. Standing there face-to-face, I kissed her before we ever even had the chance to say hello or exchange a single word to each other. (You're probably thinking this is either the most romantic thing you've ever heard or you're asking your co-worker if leaving, "Get a room!" in the comment section still has the same effect as it would in person.)

However, every time I recall this story, I can't help but wonder if I'm putting romantic love on a pedestal. Does it deserve more attention in our lives than any other form of love?
What of sacrificial love? Unconditional love? Comfortable love? The love Ryan Gosling had for Rachel McAdams in The Notebook? Are they all one and the same? And does love begin and end with romance? I love my sisters and parents, the homeless and the broken, but not nearly in the same way as I love my wife.

On Valentine’s Day—a holiday set aside for a chocolate-fueled celebration of all things romantic—the question resounds deeper than ever: What is love?

What Love Isn’t

Since we have the unfortunate disadvantage of being fallen humans, we are the last ones who should be able to define love. We have broken what love was intended to be.
Humans have made love conditional. It has become an entity that judges and asks too much. Spouses and significant others have made it physically and emotionally abusive, and the entertainment industry has turned love into an emotional fairytale of perfectly unachievable bodies always ending in Happily Ever After.

Which is perhaps why so many confuse love with lust and infatuation. An individual sees an attractive person on the street and declares, "I’m in love," without knowing what love really is. They love him or her for being beautiful,but beauty is only temporary, and makes for an equally fleeting form of love.

And then, of course, people are prone to using the term loosely. We “love” the drama of the Kardashians and the music of Coldplay. We “love” frozen yogurt and we “just love” to gossip.
The root of this perception problem is that everyone just wants to be part of a tangible love that is returned—even if it is sometimes destructive. People "love" alcohol because in return it alters their state of mind and makes everything seemingly easier to tolerate. They "love" pornography because the actors don’t talk back and do whatever the viewer likes. They "love" movies because they offer an escape and help them temporarily forget. They "love" food for its ability to fill stomachs and give energy.

Yes, these things we love offer us something in return. It’s easy to fall for them. The problem is these things keep us coming back for more because they never really satisfy. They promise what they cannot deliver. We love them and they end up owning us—forgetting that real love frees, rather than enslaves.

Redeeming Romantic Love

Romantic love is perhaps most glorified because it feels like the truest form of returned love. A romantic story, a romantic dinner and a romantic first kiss—these things make people fall in love and feel loved.There is the promise of mutuality and commitment—even when we've seen (or experienced) it fail before.

Unfortunately, Hollywood and Hallmark have led consumers to believe this romance is the main event, and if you are alone on Valentine’s Day, you are unloved and unromanced.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to spend Valentine’s Day with someone else. Human beings were built for companionship. After all, life is meant to be done together. The good news is, whether or not you are alone this Feb. 14, each and every one of us is already part of a romantic story—a story we can in turn invite others into. God has been romancing us with every sunset, every blossoming flower, every crashing wave and every star in the sky since the moment we entered this world.
God knows the desires of our hearts better than anyone. Like a lover, He wants us all to Himself. He offered His Son because He loved us, and this sacrificial love made the love we so desire possible. It provided an example and an incentive to love, romance and sacrifice ourselves for others—friends and enemies, spouses and significant others, strangers and family, rich and poor, near and far. We love because He first loved us.

Having romantic love on a pedestal isn't inherently wrong. I love to make my wife swoon. Romance keeps relationships fun and exciting, and should be desired and elevated. But love is more than that.
Perhaps our culture isn't guilty of raising romantic love up. Perhaps it is instead that we are guilty of pulling down and cheapening what love really is—truthful, continuous, unconditional and sacrificial.

By max dubinsky

February 14, 2012

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationship/features/28272-whats-the-point-of-valentines-day

You'll Live

Do I choose the strawberry Banana, or pick up Odwalla's? I pondered, wondering which one was a better buy in nutritional value. My night at Starbucks should be be nice, and the last thing to make it sour will be choosing the wrong fruit juice for company---let me take a closer look. So I thought, and thought, and read the labels over and over again, trying to find a reason to pick one over the other.

“Mommy!” came the murmuring voice of a child next to the fruit juice section. “Mommy!” the voice came again, and followed by a plaintive, buzzing plea. “You'll live,' I heard an adult female voice say in response. 

 

How fitting these words are for what I was internally contemplating throughout the week. I turned to see a pretty mother with her son clutching onto her right leg. Her son seemed about 5 years old, and was all up in complaint for the cold temps in HEB's fruit juice and vegetables section.

“Mom, it's cold!” He went on. His mom without looking downward at her son, and purposefully looking to pick out her vegetables, assuredly repeated: “You'll live.” I turned a quick glance again, and saw the certainty of her words on her face: She knew beyond all doubt that the cold would do her son no harm.

I got engaged with this scene. I repeated her words to draw her attention, which she gave, and looked down at her son with a smile, who also realizing my presence looked up at me. I sent a hello his way, which he hid from, holding onto mommy's right leg much more firmly. “Why don't you say hello back?” His mom said. 

 

We got into a quick chat, the lady and I. I asked of her family, and she readily told me of her four children, three of whom were also in the store with her, but were with their dad, an isle way, towards the bread section. Her fourth, a baby girl, she pointed at to show me---she was strapped into her carriage and placed safely within the front part of her dad's shopping cart, his eyes close-by for guard. A nice family, I thought to myself, and I enjoyed the exchange. 

 

Small talk all this was, so soon it was time to part ways. She walked farther down the fruit juice section, son in tow.

I walked away thinking it all over, after I choose both Odwalla's smoothie and Bolthouse Farm's Strawberry Banana---why not try them both, I had decided. 
 

You'll live? I questioned. How fitting, these words, and perfect dose for most of life's ails. The odds may be stacked against us, the circumstances (to us) may not bode well, the job is in a little way fulfilling, and the relationship is locked in stalemate, or headed for the rocks and often the search long. 

 

Yet the parallels of that and the scene in the store are not stretched---the settings are not very different from the cold temps in the store that day, for the little boy. But her older and wiser mom, loving nonetheless, knowing well what the end is, and the benefit of the moment for years to come in perseverance, assuredly says: You will live. 

 

And so the the great One above, of greater love, and understanding, and purpose, often in response to our ceaseless cries for relief from cold or hot temperatures, says: You'll live. And in living, hope. 

 

Thanks, everybody.

A Dime

Oliver Wendell Holmes once attended a meeting in which he was the shortest man present."Doctor Holmes," quipped a friend, "I should think you'd feel rather small among us big fellows." "I do," retorted Holmes, "I feel like a dime among a lot of pennies."
                                                                
                                                                                                    ----Source Unknown.