What Have You Connceted with this Week?

[Admin]

You guys have the floor....Aliens, Boldness, Calling etc....

[goldfishYUM23]

I personally connected with the thought that we as disciples shouldnt connect to a society thats extremly out of touch with Christ. And that we should be different by the way we talk, our values, and our priorities. Thats something i need to work on; is the way i talk. Many times i come home from school and look back on the day and think "if i died today, would ppl know i loved Christ and that im in heaven?" So my goal is to talk more like a disicple and less like someone of this worlds culture.

[goldfishYUM23]

[b]I liked what it had to say about the authority, especially that diciples of jesus can have authority no matter what age. Which stuck out to me because at small group we menched that sometimes the older ppl in the church don't always think that the youth idk like they don't expect much from us or they are suprised if we do something mature or showing our relationship/love for christ. But back on track, haha, the story was a little corny or extreme but....it did make me think. I wanna live my life for christ, especially to the point where my peers know im love jesus. And i personally wanna be the guy that kids go to if they're in trouble, have questions 'bout god, or just need to open up. So i guess what i got from this is i need to live more like christ (in school, home, public, everywhere, etc.) and less like derek.

[goldfishYUM23]

In day three i really liked what it had to say about being bold. Plus it really kinda went along with Youth Quest! Being bold is being firm, confident, fearless, strong, and not intimidating. I wanna be all of those things. I wanna live a life for christ being bold, not fearing what others think or say. i wanna be confident, resilient, sure in what i believe in, and not be ashamed or scared. I thought that the story 'bout the daughter sticking up for what she was feeling was right and being bold and strong when her rents wanted her just to go to college where it was "safe" and "after all they did for her". I liked that the girl knew that god wanted her to be in South Africa and that she wanted to go and do a mission trip type thing. Sooo thats what i was thinking and yepp:)

[Admin]

I affirm what your saying Derek (LG). Reading about being bold made me nod my head in aggreement. One cool quote I liked said, "boldness is a secret strength that others respect even when they act like they don't." That strength is what I think you're getting at - a strength to be who God calls us to be no matter what, when or where. And hopefully that boldness will cause us to do crazy stuff for God like that girl in the story. Though its only crazy because our culture is so off-whack!

[goldfishYUM23]

well to start i really liked the opening of this section
"Called is a strange word. You don't hear it much. You hear career;
you hear job; you hear interest. People usually ask you about what
you do, not what your calling is. But a calling is more than a job or
career or something you do. A calling has to do with who your are."
That part really spoke to me. I love that the calling who we are not what we like. I also liked that it said that a callling is where gifts, feelings, and abilities all meet! And that a calling is accompanied with passion. Whether its music and your worshiping or glorifying god, or athletic and you use that talent for christ, it comes with a passion. We are diciples and we are to do more than just believe in him, we are to live, glorify his name, live for wat he made us for. use that passion, talent, calling; god gave us these gifts to use them for him, not use them for our own purposes. so thats my im put. i not sure if im just rambling away. so yeah

[goldfishYUM23]

with clueless i agreed with it but dont have much to say. other than it does get easier to hear what god says to you. for me personally i used to never understand what ppl really meant when they said god spoke to them, or god told them to do something, but the older i get and the more i grow in christ i begin to feel this tug on my heart at certain times telling my this is what god wants. On easter when i was listening to the sermon, my mind slipped away and started thinking about baptism. My heart began get real heavy, and i could feel like a pull on it! its unreal! but so exciting, i felt so happy to get baptized cuz i knew thats what god was calling me to do. ive had that feeling before forr other things, and it never gets old. But the baptism was the most recent. But anyways, as i get older (like it said in the book) it becomes easier to understand what god wants for you, we become less clueless, he opens our eyes as we become mature in our relationship with him. And for me i find myself happier, and smiling because thats just awesome!

[<3Littlemissashypoo<3]

This week I could really connect with the being bold section. I not really sure how to word this though...but yea...here goes...recently a person i know needed to make a difficult discision. She keep going back and forth with her discision but then just said to herself...it needs to be done, i am going to do it...like the girl in the story just tells her parents that she is leaving because it is what she is suppose to do....idk its hard to word in a short paragraph....but thats my attempt...haha...

[Daring:)]

so i read daring and i think its the best one so far. in my opinion.I loved the line that said " Daring diciples are truely different, and when you are different in this culture, you make ppl nervous" i thought that line was awesome. Because thats my overall goal, to be different, to be daring, to be loving. And one of the main reasons thats my overall goal is because thats what god calls us to be, and do. Be different, show his love to the world so others may know what we are about, touch the ones who are "untouchable". Like it said in the book, being daring is to be crazy, we are the crazy ones cuz we are crazy for god:) .....i like this book haha....and it mentioned something that kinda went along with youth quest again, being daring means having the willingness to go anywhere. For me i struggle, alot, with having that willingness to leave my comfort zones. I don't wanna leave cuz i feel safe, but if i wanna be a light for christ and do what im called i can't do it without leaving the harbor;) for those who were at youth quest haha, but anyway yes that can be a struggle for me, and i really am working and striving* to become better with that. so thats what i connected with till next time so long:)

[goldfishYUM23]

so i read daring and i think its the best one so far. in my opinion.I loved the line that said " Daring diciples are truely different, and when you are different in this culture, you make ppl nervous" i thought that line was awesome. Because thats my overall goal, to be different, to be daring, to be loving. And one of the main reasons thats my overall goal is because thats what god calls us to be, and do. Be different, show his love to the world so others may know what we are about, touch the ones who are "untouchable". Like it said in the book, being daring is to be crazy, we are the crazy ones cuz we are crazy for god:) .....i like this book haha....and it mentioned something that kinda went along with youth quest again, being daring means having the willingness to go anywhere. For me i struggle, alot, with having that willingness to leave my comfort zones. I don't wanna leave cuz i feel safe, but if i wanna be a light for christ and do what im called i can't do it without leaving the harbor;) for those who were at youth quest haha, but anyway yes that can be a struggle for me, and i really am working and striving* to become better with that. so thats what i connected with till next time so long:)

[spontaneouscombustion]

now that my computer has stopped being IDIOTIC! i can comment on these things haha...anyway, just reading discouragment a small part struck home with me. although i'm not really sad or discouraged all the time i really connected with with the girl/guy when he/she mentioned that she "feels close to god" when she's dancing. i feel "closer" to god when i play basketball outside; for some reason it is really relaxing to me and i can just think about other things even when i'm doing the activity that i really enjoy. I also appreciated the comment about "waiting out" the bad days. When i have one of those i can get agitated really easily, especially with my family; but hearing that days like that aren't the end of the world reinforced for me that its ok to be discouraged because God can help you get out of that funk...since i haven't responded to any of these yet i wanted to mention that i was also a fan of the "daring" day. i don't always do a spectacular job of being a "noticable" chrisitian. like many of my peers i struggle with staying out of some of the conversations that go on at school on a daily basis. But when i have had those days where i got it right, it did make others feel "nervous" like the book mentioned and they talked to me about it. There's god showing up right there...oh by the way, goldfish: I you!

[spontaneouscombustion]

this one is gonna be short...the story about thomas not believing that jesus was alive until he saw the wounds on his hands really illustrates for me this topic but as it explained, jesus accepted and welcomed the doubt. i'm sure we've always had doubts about some part of our religion but for me that was a big help.

[goldfishYUM23]

Doubt was interesting to me cuz at first i was thinking it was gonna be talking about us doubting ourselves more or something idk....but anyway as i read and it said we are doubting when we dont know, or when were afraid to know. thats where it hit me because thats me right there. alot of times when idk or am afraid haha like it said i doubt, i think of the worst possible scenario. many times as, for me, when it comes to talking to someone new bout christ i doubt myself that im prepared for it. o yeah and awhile back when i was at jeffs house we were talking bout baptism, and i told him that i wasnt sure because i was doubting myself, and i wasnt sure i was a good enough christian. which in the end he helped me realize that god doesnt care how perfect of a christian we are, its giving him our lives. but anyways. thats an example of me personally doubting myself, and my relationship. but to finish i liked when jesus said " i wish you didnt soubt, but i love you because your faith is so important that you are brave enough to ask the question of your soul"
BTW: im madyl in love with spontaineous combustion* or however you spell it....jordan we dont have to hide this relationship any longer!

[spontane]

even though we already discussed this at our little youth nature gathering i definitely think there is even more that comes out of this day. i might of mentioned before but the story about cheryl as it comes to the end and she realizes that God is sooooo much bigger than she initially thought and that she might not fully understand the extent of his creation and power; that really struck me. I never really thought about that as much as i should've or could've. I have heard plenty of sermons, lessons, or songs that have lines in them saying something about the expansiveness of creation, but really none of them ever stuck until recently. We have to read a book for english class called the Martian chronicles...even though the book has nothing to do with religion and is about like on other planets, a line that said "we're from earth we came from 60 billion miles away" or some outrageous number of miles really got me realizing that creation pretty much has no end; no one has ever found it and its seems like it will be a long time until we do; all that to say that yeah, that is SCARY!!!! talk about our lives being a needle in a haystack...however, that scariness and fear is what allows us to be humbled by God so i guess its a good kind of fear.
P.S. goldfish i don't know that these people should be hearing our adult conversations; we should type in webdings.

[spontaneouscombustion]

i forgot to sign in...spontane is spontaneouscombustion a.k.a. AMAZING!

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