~~~MaRtIn LuThEr~~~

Martin Luther was a Christian theologian and Augustinian monk who's teaching and criticism of the Roman Catholic Church inspired the Protestant Reformation. He was born in November of 1483 in Germany. Luther didn't plan to become a monk. He was actually enrolled in law school until in 1505 during a thunderstorm a lightning bolt struck the ground near him and he cried out "Help St. Anne! I'll become a monk!" Although he regretted making the bargain, he followed through and dropped out of law school and joined a monastery. Luther struggled to find peace with God. He devoted himself to fasts, long hours in prayer, pilgrimages, and constant confession. The more he tried to do for God, the more he seemed to become aware of his sinfulness. Luther's superior, Johann von Staupitz, sent him off to pursue an academic career. Luther was ordained to priesthood in 1507 and began teaching theology at the University of Wittenburg in 1508. The preparation for his sermons and lectures caused Luther to study the scriptures and teachings of the early church in depth. Luther came to the conclusion that salvation is a gift of God's grace received by trusting in His promise to forgive our sins through Christ's death on the cross. This conclusion convinced him that the Church had lost site of several central truths. He believed that the selling of indulgences (prayers that people bought in order to save their soul or the soul of a relative from purgatory) was a scam. In response to the indulgence preachers he nailed his famous 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg and before long Luther's 95 Theses had been copied and published all throughout Europe. Luther's new Protestant views were condemned heresy by Pope Leo X and on 17 April 1521 Luther was asked if he was going to renounce the claims he made in his writings. After being asked if he would renounce, Luther asked if he could have time to think about his answer. Luther was granted one day and after consulting with friends and praying about it he stood before the assembly and said, "Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen." On May 25, the emperor declared Luther an outlaw. Luther's friend, Prince Frederick the Wise, ordered him to be kidnapped on his way home from the trial before anyone else could get to him and took him to the castle of Wartburg. While he was there he began to translate the Bible from Greek to the language commonly spoken by the German people. The Luther German New Testament was first published in 1522 followed by the Old Testament in 1534. Luther died in 1546. (http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/martin-luther.html)

Don't waste you life - Chapter 8

So this chapter is about making much of Christ in you job. It talks about how you don't have to have a "church vocation" to be able to glorify Christ through your work. I'm glad we read this chapter because I have actually thought about this before, because I've never really seen myself as being a full time missionary or some type of church leader. That's just never been the direction I wanted to go with my life and sometimes I've thought to myself Is it a bad thing to not want to have a "churchy" job? Obviously the answer is no, it's fine. You just have to make sure you honor God in you workplace and just because your job doesn't revolve around God doesn't mean you can't make him present through your attitude or actions. God tells us to be "in the world" but not "of the world." (John 17:15-16) So that right there is a free invitation to have a "secular job" just make sure we don't start to get pulled away or drug down spiritually by the job. Also the bible says "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Collosians 3:17) Although your job isn't directly connected to God you should work as though God is your boss and you want to honor him through obedience of your worldy boss.

Undercover Millionaire!

So, I had seen this show advertised and I thought it looked pretty cool so i'm glad we watched it in class. It is interesting to think about how someone who may not be a christian would feel the need to give so much money just out of the goodness of their heart. Usually, christian or not, people are pretty selfish. Even though the guy had soooo much money he still gave alot! I think this show could show people the needs of some that need to be met and could also motivate us to do better. I really liked watching this :)

Don't Waste Your Life.

In chapters 6 and 7 it talks about worldly possessions and how we as Christians should treat them. I think it is a challenging thing for me personally to be able to give and give and give. It's one of those things I need to work on and get better at. It's hard to give people things sometimes. When i'm in church and it's offering time sometimes i'm happy to give and sometimes I have to check myself because i'm sitting there thinking I only have like 5 dollars with me and what if I need it later... but I know i'm really not going to need it. So I just always have to remind myself that God gave me the money in the first place I shouldn't be so selfish with it. It's sometimes hard to give people time too. You can be too busy or too tired or something. Sometimes it's hard to really focus and talk to someone when i'm really tired and when i'm tired I get annoyed really easily which is so bad and I always feel bad when I look back and think about how disrespectful I was to them. Sometimes it's hard to give advice because sometimes you just don't know what to say or think the person doesn't even care what you have to say.

Now i'm supposed to talk about TV and internet. I think a major problem with TV is that people know that almost everyone watches it so they use it to manipulate people into thinking things that aren't true. Things like if you buy this car it'll make you so much cooler or if only you could look like this person then you would be so much better. Which is totally a lie and it's sort of disgusting when you really think about it but that's just how the world is and we've all become sort of numb to stuff like that just taking it as it is. Also I think that everything you see on TV has to be sexual.. like really? Even Disney Channel pushes the limit sometimes which is crazy that's like a kid station! Sexual content is everywhere and it just influences our minds to think that its okay. It's not though. I think the internet can be used in a bad way because we can get information so quickly and people can use the internet to ruin someones life. I mean if you look on your Facebook homepage some of the stuff you see on there is just so terrible and personal it's kind of weird to think that people would actually post things like that.

If someone was to look at my life and and compare tv/internet to worshipping God... This is a tough one. And it's kind of hard to answer because of course I want to say oh yeah worshipping God is way more prevelant in my life, but is that really true... I do spend time with God everyday but I also spend time on the TV and the computer and I probably spend more time on the tv. So, once again Don't Waste Your Life has convicted me.

Lord Save Us From Your Followers

I enjoyed watching this video in class. I personally think it is pretty good. I pretty much agree with Dan Merchant. He spent so much time walking across America just trying to find out how Christians are doing. It really hurts to be told how easy it is to judge people in your mind right when you see them because it's true that everyone does it and it's wrong. It's sad because you don't even know the person or their story. Like that one guy Sister Mary something, at first glance your like oh wow.. what a wierdo but then whenever the guy says that his mom died and he was abused and he has HIV you feel really really bad and try to be nice to him. But shouldn't we always just be nice and love people? Not because where they come from but just because God loves them.
One part of the movie that I really liked was the confession booth. I thought it was interesting how some of the people he talked to grew up with a Christian background. So obviously they know scripture, one girl even says she has alot of it memorized. Those people really do believe that God made them how they are and saying that that's dumb and yelling scripture at them really isn't gonna get you anywhere. That's why I like the confession booth. It's something that would get your attention and once you get in there it would be a really cool experience. Although some people still didn't really buy it, alot of the people were very thankful that someone would be loving enough to apologize to them and really listen and care about them. Just think of the kind of crap they get. Especially some who grew up in the church. They kept saying how this was so different from all the other Christians who are always rude and mean. I don't like being a part of that, like just because i'm a Christian i'm mean and judging because that is the total opposite of who Jesus Christ was when he came to die for us. So I have to start making the changes in my life which will be hard.
I think it was cool how the Enid how a version of Bridgetown Ministries! Going out to the park with the forgotten church is really alot of fun. At first your a little nervous but then after a couple weeks you make friends and it's really cool.

Jesus Camp

Okay, so I think it's interesting that this lady likes to work with young kids because she says that whatever you teach a kid or whatever they learn before they are 7-9 years old they will have with them for the rest of their lives. I think it's great, young kids are always willing to learn and love to learn new things. That's where the other side comes in. You have to be sooooo careful when you teach kids stuff because they are so willing to believe what you tell them and if you teach them something that isn't true then all you're doing is hurting them. I think the little boy and girl that they show alot in the video are awesome. It's pretty obvious that they love God alot. That little boy stood up and preached infront of all the kids at that camp and it sounded like what he was saying was pretty good. And that little girl straight up walked over to someone and gave them a gospel track and said that God loves them. I think that's really hard to do that.

On a different note... What kid needs to know about abortion? Or about all the horrors of the government? They are kids, innocent kids. You can help kids get on fire for God without driving them to tears about their own sins or about the problems with our government. We shouldn't rebel against the government in such crazy, radical ways. God's got it. He knows what He's doing. Romans 13:1 says, "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Clearly God is all over the government. I like how really all she wants to do is to bring the kids into a fighting passion for God, but do they really understand what they are praying about? I think some of them do, I don't underestimate them but some of those kids looked so young. From such a young age they are being hit with "The government is bad" but really it's not. God controls our government.

In the end, I don't really know what to make of Becky Fischer. I love how she just wants to bring lots of people to Christ and to have people willing to fight for God. I just don't know if she understands or realizes what she may being doing to a good part of our future generations. I just hope that some of those kids will take the time to think about what's being told to them and not just pack it in their brains as true. 

Don't waste your life.

1. Boasting in the cross happens when you rejoice in something good that you know was bought for you on the cross. I need to always be reminding myself that everything good comes from God and was bought on the cross, i'll probably forget sometimes but in everything I need to praise God for what it really is.

2. The "I" who died is that one that was still stuck on the world. The "I" that takes everything for granted as their right but the "I" who lives is the one that has God in their heart and who realizes that God is the center of everything and without him you are dead. Key words would be the parts where it says I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live except he lives in me. Also, where it says the life I now live in the flesh I live by FAITH in the Son of God.

3. Right now, I live by faith in that I trust God will always be there for me and take care of me. I don't doubt that. But sometimes I just wonder why he does what he does, sort of like why do bad things happen to good people.

Walk the Aisle

My church doesn't do this but I go to a camp called Falls Creek which does. I've never really thought of the "altar call" as being a bad thing. To me it always just seemed like the people wanted to pick out the ones who were ready to make a decision in Christ so that they could have someone talk to them and answer their questions. I still think that it is good for that, but also when your at a camp like Falls Creek and the music is playing and you're in the moment I can see where someone would just walk down to the front from their emotions rather than an actual desire to know Christ. I'm not gonna hate or oppose the altar call or judge every single person that wants to walk the aisle, but I do see where this can lead to alot of false commitments.

Grilled Cheesus

One thing that I noticed they said was God is just a santa for adults like it's just something that we believe because our parents and friends and teachers tell us it's real and that really someone just made it up like a legend or something. They also think that he is just some magical being that grants all your wishes. They also brought up the issue of the whole different denominations being right whenever one of the girl's said something like We're both from different denominations so we thought one of our was bound to be right. This is inaccurate because yes, there are different denominations of the Christian faith and it doesn't really matter what we disagree about on the little things. The only thing that really matters is that Christians believe there is a God that he sent his son to die for our sins and was ressurected 3 days later. When you believe that and really build your relationship with God then you'll want to grow in him and study His word and then gather up your own particular set of beliefs. Nobody agrees on everything. Also, the very last part of the show when Kirt said I don't believe in God but I believe in me and you. They ended the show by kind of pointing towards that God and prayer didn't make his dad better but that their relationship did. Some parts were good though! Like one I can remember when that principle's sister said that God doesn't make mistakes. I kinda like the show Glee, I've only seen it like 3 other times then this but I think it can be funny and they all seem pretty good at singing. But the writers of this episode seem to be maybe a little confused about Christianity.

Sermon on the Mount.

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

Matthew 6:19-24

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your you whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

I like this passage alot. It's message is pretty straight forward I think. You shouldn't spend all your time trying to be on top in the world and trying to have the newest stuff all the time. God and doing his will is the priority!  It will be okay if you have lots of hand-me-downs or things from the thrift store. God is clearly telling you that the things you gain in this world will come to an end where in Heaven nothing you gain there will ever end! It also talks about the eye being the light of the body. I think this refers to how you need to stay innocent and pure. If you lose that in one area it says your whole body will be full of darkness or sin. Sort of like it opens the door for more sin to enter into your life.

Carving Justin Bieber’s face into a pumpkin doesn’t bring to mind protection against evil spirits.

Okay, so my preacher preached this exact same thing last Sunday! I don't think it's wrong to trick or treat and carve pumpkins on Halloween. Yeah, its wrong to sit around and chant devil worship and everyone should watch out for that because that stuff is REAL but no, I don't think its wrong to have a little holiday fun. I thought it was interesting how he compared Christmas and Easter with Halloween. Obviously those holiday's are very different but we should look at them the same way. Why do we celebrate them? Christmas for Christians is viewed as the day of Christ's birth and Easter is the day that Jesus rose from the grave and Halloween is just a fun holiday to get candy on. So overall, I don't think Halloween is bad.

And I shouldn't get a bad grade on this because I was gonna write it last night but my parents surprised me with JUSTIN BIEBER tickets and I left at like 5, so yeah. :)

Special Olympics Bowling!!!!

Okay, so yesterday we went to help with the Special Olympics Bowling. And i'm not gonna lie I was really REALLY scared at first because working with mentally handicapped people is so far out of my comfort zone and I was freaking out up until I met my people and they were so cute and nice. I had 4 girls. Carol Stansil, Helen Davis, Sheri Townsend, and Sherry Manthy. They were all business. They came to win! Helen would always ask me what place she's in and she was usually in first or second and when I told her that she'd always say something like "I'm knocking the socks off everyone else!" It was funny. I also got to talk to some of the people who were in other lanes around me and they all just thought it was so cool how we were from Oba and how we came out to help. Whenever they would get a strike or a spare it was funny how they would yell and dance. Two of the girls in my lane were kind of shy but it was really cool to see how excited they got when people cheered for them even if they got a gutter ball. Sheri Townsend's outfit must have been brand new or something because like every five minutes she was showing it off to someone and she wouldn't bowl unless everyone in her lane was watching. She would just stand there with her ball and point at anyone who wasn't looking until they looked at her. Well, it was really fun to get to go and help yesterday and meet everyone. They are so thankful and joyful all the time no matter what. And they all love kids everyone I made eye contact with wanted to know my name and would ask me random questions like where I ate for lunch that day. So yeah, I went in there afraid but I came through and had a great time. It would be fun to do stuff like that more often.

Spiritual Emphasis Week

This week Andy Braner came to school to be our speaker in chapel for the week. He's pretty good. He keeps it interesting and says some really cool stuff! On Monday he basically just introduced his family and what he does. It's cool how he has his own camp called Camp Kivu and has adopted two kids. On Tuesday his main focus was BELIEVE?  He was challenging us with what we believe and how we can stand firm in what we believe. He talked about the two kinds of truth, Subjective Truth and Objective Truth. Subjective Truth is what we decide for ourselves that we believe is true like he used the example of ice cream. Everyone thinks their favorite kind is the best, so therefore everyone's personal truth varies.  Objective truth is what we know is true or not. Like we know that if you eat alot of ice cream then you're not going to lose weight, you are most likely gonna gain some. How can we prove that Christianity is 100% true? He said that we can't and that it is impossible to totally prove the bible is true is true there is proof, but you can't totally convince someone on the facts part of it just has to be faith. He explained that the basic foundation of our whole religion of Christianity is based on Genesis 1:1. If God didn't create the world then God couldn't have created Adam and Eve, then there wouldn't have been The Fall, then Jesus wouldn't have had to come and so on. Which was really interesting to me because i'd never heard that before. One Wednesday his main focus was BEHAVE? Ideas have consequences. He emphasized that what you put in is what you get out and gave up 5 points to write down he said:
1. You are what you eat
           -What you put in your body is what your body becomes
           -Same is true for your spiritual life
2. Junk food changes your physical shape just like thoughts change your behavior
           -What you spend your time thinking about is what you become
3. Junk food causes heart problems and confuses your body's natural function, just like unhealthy spiritual things can confuse your spiritual life
           -What you put in is what you get out
4. Junk food tastes great in the short term, but in the long term leads to adverse side effects
           -Watch what you put in your head
5. An apple a day keeps the doctor away
           -Put good spiritual things in your body at least once everyday

On thursday he talked about how the media affects our dating like how Facebook has given us the dating "status" and commercials use sexual ploys to get teenagers to use their products. He told us how music reflects some dating patterns he used Bruno Mars song Just the way you are to show a good relationship then went on to see how it can turn bad with Katy Perry's teenage dream. He showed how relationships can get obsessive with Rihanna's song Rehab and then showed us the extreme of people hating each other but not being able to force themselves to leave each other with Eminem's love the way you lie. Which I thought was a very good and interesting way to illustrate that subject. He showed us that what we put in our body, what kind of music we listen to, will ultimately start having effects on our lives.
Friday he wrapped everything up with BELONG? We want to be with other people. Three things we need to keep in mind as teenagers in this world is
1. We gotta know what we believe
2. We gotta know how to act in the world
3. We gotta know how to relate to people

Over all, I really really enjoyed have Andy come and talk to us.

Friends!:)

I think that friends are great! They are there for you when you need them and are fun to be around. In the bible it tells us it is important to have friends. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:  If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Clearly God is telling us that we need friends. Some qualities I look for in friends are:

1.) Honesty
2.) Trustworthiness
3.) Good sense of humor
4.) Common interests
5.) Someone who will build me up and support me
6.) Someone who will tell me when I'm doing something wrong

And more. I want my friends to be honest and trustworthy, because I want to be able to tell them things I'm going through and have them help me without having to worry about them telling other people my personal struggles. I want them to have a good sense of humor because I love to laugh and if you never make any jokes or think anything is funny, then I'm just not gonna want to be around you! We need common interests so that we can have something to talk about. I don't want someone who is always rude and tearing me down, that would just get old and annoying after a while. Especially if they are trying to make jokes all the time about me. The bible says we need to build each other up in love and not tear each other down. (1 Thessalonians 5:11) I want a friends who will tell me when I'm doing something wrong and not be afraid of me. Who will care enough about me so that they will tell me to stop doing something that could hurt me. One thing I don't think that is necessarily for someone to be my friend is the Christian quality. Yeah, yeah the bible says not to be unequally yoked and my best friend isn't gonna be an atheist, but how are you supposed to reach out to people and talk to them about God if you're not their friend? Jesus' friends were sinners also. He has his main circle of good friends, but he almost never hung out with priests.

I definitely need to get better about gossipping and talking about people behind their backs. Sometimes people will tell me their secrets and I'll tell someone else which is terrible and I need to stop, so basically I need to get better at being trustworthy. Also, I need to be nicer. I can get pretty mean sometimes. Especially if I'm tired or hungry or something, which isn't an excuse but I can have a bad attitude about things sometimes.

One of my best friends goes to Enid High, her name is Kylie Castillo. She is the grade above me and I've known her since I was little. We go to the same church and she's my neighbor. She's super funny and nice and I look up to her alot and she helps me through my problems and gives me good, christian advice! We talk about everything, it's pretty nice.

Lyrical Study!

Secrets - One Republic

I need another story
Something to get off my chest
My life gets kinda boring
Need something that I can confess
Til' all my sleeves are stained red
From all the truth that I've said
Come by it honestly I swear
Thought you saw wink, no
I've been on the brink, so

Tell me what you want to hear
Something that were like those years
Sick of all the insincere
So I'm gonna give all my secrets away
This time, don't need another perfect line
Don't care if critics never jump in line
I'm gonna give all my secrets away

My god, amazing how we got this far
It's like we're chasing all those stars
Who's driving shiny big black cars
And everyday I see the news
All the problems that we could solve
And when a situation rises
Just write it into an album
Singing straight, too cold
I don't really like my flow, no, so

Tell me what you want to hear
Something that were like those years
Sick of all the insincere
So I'm gonna give all my secrets away
This time, don't need another perfect line
Don't care if critics never jump in line
I'm gonna give all my secrets away

Oh, got no reason, got not shame
Got no family I can blame
Just don't let me disappear
I'mma tell you everything

So tell me what you want to hear
Something that were like those years
Sick of all the insincere
So I'm gonna give all my secrets away
This time, don't need another perfect line
Don't care if critics never jump in line
I'm gonna give all my secrets away

So tell me what you want to hear
Something that were like those years
Sick of all the insincere
So I'm gonna give all my secrets away
This time, don't need another perfect line
Don't care if critics never jump in line
I'm gonna give all my secrets away
All my secrets away, All my secrets away

Okay, so I love this song and I'm pretty sure one day when I was on the computer I listened to it like 25 times in a row, and I think it has some cool things in it. The whole song is talking about how he has these secrets that he's been hiding from people, sorta like he's being fake.  And now he's gotten to the point where he's sick of it.  He's doesn't want another lie that he comes up with that sounds good.  He's sick of having to play this role and now he's gonna come clean and he doesn't care who criticizes him.  Then he goes on to talk about how now he has no shame or anyone he can blame it on he's just hoping someone will stay with him and not "let him disappear."  Personally, I think this is a good song and it's not bad to listen to.

My future Hubby:)

Lots of teenage girls obsess over marriage and married life and having a husband.  I am one of the.  Well, not really but sort of.  Obviously the most important thing any Christian looks for in a spouse is a strong relationship with God.  So that's just a given.  So this "blog" is going to be over the second most important characteristic.  It's kinda hard to narrow everything I'm looking for down to one, but I think I can do it.  One day last year me and my mom sat down and had a talk about what I was looking for in a husband and we came up with 21 pretty broad things.  Some of course weren't as serious as the others like "has to be attractive" and "has to be taller than me"(Yeah.. like that's even an issue).  But anyways we came up with that list and number one and two both have to do with Christianity but the third is "Has respect for my friends, family, and myself."  I think having respect for someone is very important.  Not just the actual person but what the person has to say as well.  It's okay if someone doesn't agree with you but they shouldn't be rude by telling you that your opinion sucks and theirs is right.  Also, you can't always be putting someone down, even if you're joking it shows a lack of respect for them.

TEEN SEX IS NOT ALWAYS BAD.

Ha, just kidding.  A university in Colorado, I think, did a study to see if there was a difference between teens who had sex or were abstinent.  They found that there was hardly any difference between the abstinent kids and the teens who were having sex but were in a committed relationship.  However, the teens who had sex "freely" had lower grade point averages.  And overall the teens who had sex were more truant aka missed more days of school.  Okay, so first off I believe that any sex before marriage is wrong.  There is some kind of truth to this study.  I mean if someone is in a committed relationship they are better with responsibility and stuff like that, where someone who just has sex for fun would not hold themselves to as high of a standard.  If they don't care who they have sex with they probably won't have as good of grades.  But you could compare this to almost anything.  They could have done the same study but replaced sex with something different like sports for example.  If teens aren't committed to sports they might not be committed to school work so in some ways the study was good, but in some ways it was just obvious I guess.