Victoria’s Friends

TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman
09-16-2008

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9-10).

Victoria grew up like many middle income families. She loved school and was even the in her homecoming court all four years in high school. After some tragic family deaths during her teen years, she began to experiment with alcohol and drugs. She was raped, underwent multiple abortions, and began working as a dancer at local nude dancing club, which she continued for more than four years.

After suffering nosebleeds from her cocaine addition, Victoria became very involved with the new age movement, nearly had a nervous breakdown, and eventually became suicidal. By the age of 28 she was homeless, stranded and fired from her job as a strip-club dancer. Barely 100 pounds, she was no longer profitable to the industry. Then a Christian gave her a Bible. The first book she read was Job and something gripped her heart. A church family took her into their home. They surrounded her with love and pointed her to who she was in Christ. Victoria says, “Jesus is the only healer of deep, deep wounds.”

Now, years later, Victoria’s compassionate heart is focused on reaching other lives on the brink of life or death. She founded a ministry called Victoria’s Friends, which goes into the heart of the darkest places of the city in the strip clubs. Trained women ministry volunteers bring baskets to the dancers in their dressing rooms with no motive other than to show they care. Men stay outside the clubs and pray for the women going inside. It is the ultimate rescue mission. It is the love of Christ expressed in a simple, but powerful way. This act translates into relationships that are formed between those who continue to show their love for them.

Hundreds of young women have come out of this lifestyle because one woman decided to do what others had done for her – rescue her from the pit of darkness.

What type of rescue mission might God call you to lead?

Integrity Test

TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman
08-24-2008

“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl” (Job 31:1).

n Genesis 38, we read how Judah, one of Joseph’s brothers, allowed his purity – and the staff that represented his stature and position in the community – to be taken from him.

Tamar was deprived by Judah of having children in memory of her husband which was the custom of the day if a husband died. Under the law, Judah did a great injustice to his daughter-in-law. Although Tamar lived in Judah’s house, Judah withheld his son from her.

So Tamar devised a plan. Hearing that Judah planned to go to the town of Timnah, she disguised herself with a veil and hurried to the village of Enaim. She posed as a Canaanite prostitute and waited for Judah to pass by. Soon, Judah came up, saw a prostitute sitting at the gate, and propositioned her and promised a goat for payment.

Tamar asked for a pledge – the personal seal and the staff in his hand. The staff was the symbol of Judah’s position in the community. So Judah gave her the staff and the seal with its cord. He slept with Tamar, and she became pregnant.

Time passed and Judah discovered Tamar was pregnant. He knew that there was only one way this could have happened – she had prostituted herself! Enraged, Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”

As the people brought Tamar out to be executed, she cried out, “I am pregnant by the man who owns these!” She held in her hands the seal and staff of Judah. Seeing them, Judah knew he stood convicted. He broke down and confessed, “She is more righteous than I am!”

Sexual sin can take everything away from a man or woman; their reputation, their career, and even their family. No matter how strong we think we are, no one is immune from temptation. Pray that God’s grace keeps you pure.

Very interesting speech

Speech at NTU Law Convocation 2008. Read until the end!

Life and How to Survive It

I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It’s a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.

My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.

On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.

Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.

And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you’ve already won her heart, you don’t need to win every argument.

Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You’re done learning.

You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process” and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they’re wrong.

The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.

The most important is this: do not work.

Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Work kills. The Japanese have a term “Karoshi”, which means death from overwork. That’s the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there’s nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.

There’s a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are “making a living”. No, they’re not. They’re dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.

People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan “Arbeit macht frei” was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.

Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.

I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn’t do that, I would’ve been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction, probably a sports journalist.

So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don’t imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I’ll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.

Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don’t, you are working.

Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.

In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.

I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it’s often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one’s own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.

The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn’t say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one’s looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work, the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

Don’t work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.

You’re going to have a busy life. Thank goodness there’s no life expectancy.

Stuff – When you start reading the Word

Psalm 1:1-3

Church! We continue on our theme for this month – the authoratative power of God’s word. We learnt last week that when we starve our spirit of the Word of God, something happens. The soul famine of the Word slowly eats away at our intimacy with God, at our single-mindedness in Christ, and could eventually cause us to fall away. This week we continue our series and ask the opposite question. What happens when we STUFF our spirit with the living word, when we plant our lives along streams of living water, what happens when we meditate on God’s word day and night? Let us look to the psalmist.

The psalm opens up with the refrain, “blessed are those…” we all want to be called blessed, there is hardly a soul who would want to knowned as cursed. So who are the blessed? The first chapter of Pslams essentially spoke about two groups, one group who does not do something and another who does, both are called blessed. It is interesting to learnt that to be called blessed doesn’t always mean doing something, the first verse spoke about the blessed as people who avoided company that takes away their focus on God. It goes deeper than that, but you’ll need to hear the entire sermon to get a better picture. Anyways, we want to focus on the second group whom are called blessed, these are the people whose delight is in the word of God, meditating on it day and night. Church, people who stuff their soul and spirit with God’s word are called blessed. Before explaining the result of this day and night delight for God’s word, let’s learn a little hebrew. The word delight here is Chephtso, meaning, will, desire, affection, every motive in one’s heart, every moving principle in one’s soul. The delight used here is a very strong word, same word for the sort of emotion felt when you first fell in love. That is the kind of hunger God wants us to have for His word.

So what happens when we meditate on God’s word day and night. 3 things happen. Let’s go.

Thing #1(Verse 3) – Fruitfulness
The first thing that will befall you as you stuff yourselves in God’s word is fruitfulness. You will become frutiful. As we abide in Him, we will be fruitful and we cannot much bear fruit apart from being in God (John 15:4-5). Imagine a tree planted by the river, source of life for it and another planted smack in the middle of a desert, same tree will grow very differently. The tree by the stream will grow and bear much fruit, while the tree in the desert would probably die (unless it’s a cactus), even if it produces fruit, it might be small, little etc. The key is this. How fruitful you are, depends on how close you are to the river. The key to kingdom multiplication is not how much you expand energy to try and be fruitful, but how much you draw strength and rest in His grace and power. To be still and know He is God.

Thing #2 (Verse 3) – Resilient
Their leaves will not wither. Stuffing yourself with God’s word will cause you to become a Christian who is not easily shaken, but one that is resilient and not easily swayed by situation or circumstance. Leaves wither because of change. Change in seasons, nutrients, rainfall, etc In order to be a strong Christian, our source of growth must be from a changeless source. The only thing that doesnt change is the Word. Heaven and earth may pass away, but the word of God will resound through eternity. As we built our lives upon the word of God, we will be like the wise man who build His house upon a rock (Matt 7:24), come wind, rain or flood, the house will continue to stand. God promised that everything that can be shaken, will be shaken. Will we buld our life on the one thing that cannot be shaken?

Thing #3 (Verse 3) – Prosper
They prosper in all they do. As we meditate on God’s word and be careful to do all it commands, we will proper (Deu 28:1). The word prosper used here came from the hebrew word Tsalach, which means to bring to success. I find this amazing. Not only will you prosper, but God promises that if you meditate on His word and make it the foundation of your life and obey everything it commands you, you will bring to success everything you do. Work. School. Relationships. Ministry. Family. Everything.

The is much favor in store for us as long as we learn to Chephtso the word of God and meditate it day and night. But do not forget that we need to respond to what we read and hear. Mary, mother of Jesus, heard from the angel Gabriel that she was going to give birth to the messiah. She was a virgin and in spite of the impossibility, she simply obeyed. I am your servant, do to me as you will. Having access to the word of God and not using the power it gives us is like a soldier going to war, knowing and having access to all the best weaponary on earth, but chooses not to use it…. and fight with a chopstick.

So church, let’s learn to stuff ourselves with the word of God, meditating on it day and night and see the floodgates open for you!

God bless,
Charles Peh

STARVE – When you stop reading the word…

(Amos 8:11-14)

Church! This is week 4 talking about the power of the word of God, we know that the God’s dabar power has the power to create, to heal, to change. We have learnt that the word of God is alive, speaks to us during good times and tough times. We learnt that the word will remain, even after heaven and earth passes away. We have learnt all that. Today, I ask, what happens when you starve your soul of the word… will anything change? if the bible was an ordinary book, uninspired by the Most High, reading it or not will not make a difference, but it does. Slowly but surely, you start drifting away from the Creator. Let’s look at Amos.

This all happened during a time of great stability and prosperity, and people started to forget God and turned to idols. God through Amos said that there will come a famine, not of naturals, but of the WORD. God withheld His word. As a result of the lack of God’s word, people started to fall away, not immediately, but in 4 distinct steps. Let’s go.

Step 1 (Verse 12) – Wander
The word spoke of a people who will wander from place to place. When you starve yourself of the word of God, the first thing that happens as a result, is that you start losing focus. When you are hungry, the first thing to go is concentration, it becomes hard. You start losing focus on the things eternal, it becomes hard to put on the mind of Christ, you start focusing on other things - relationships, problems may start appearing bigger etc. The word of God keeps us from wandering (psalm 119:9-10)

Step 2 (Verse 12) – Running
Once our focus gets compromised, our lives will seem to get more cluttered. Busyness sets in, you try to accomplish many things but always come up feeling empty and lost. You start running to and fro, seeking answers to your problems.You buy books, talk to many people but nothing seems to work, and soon ask why God is no longer talking to you. Alot of us, seek God when we have a need. Unless we cultivate an intimate relationship with Him, coming to him in our distraction and stress would make it hard to hear. Elijah had trouble hearing God in his desperation when God was hidden in the quiet places. Psalm 119:105. His word keeps you on the right path.

Step 3 (Verse 13) – Faint
If we keep starving our souls of the word of God, we stop functioning as we were created to. The young generation in mentioned in the book of Amos should be the very people buidling the nation’s future, to fultill the plans that God has for them, but they faint. When the word of God is taken out of our lives, we will slow cease to function in a way God wants us to. We run and grow weary, we walk and faint. The word in Isaiah reminds us to wait on God and we shall mount up with wings like eagles. It is only when we wait on God, to speak to Him and wait to be spoken to are we able to soar high and live our lives as we are meant to.

Step 4 (Verse 14) – Fall
The final thing that will happen when we stop reading the word is we start falling away. We will inevitably replace the emptiness and desperation in our spirits with counterfeits. We have no weapons against the enemy, the only offensive weapon is the armour of God is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, all else are defensive. We slowly turn back to the world, to things which we can see – success (drowning in work), sex, fame wealth. The people in Amos’ time experienced the same thing, they turned to the gods of Samaria, Dan and Beersheba. These people eventually fell, never to rise again.

Matthew 7:24-27 tells us of 2 men, a wise man and a foolish man. The only difference between the 2 was 1 thing, where they built their houses on – rock or sand. Rock here symbolises the word of God, those who build their lives on God’s word will stand strong, no matter what comes. Those who forsake the word will eventually fall away…

So church, as we learn about the power of God’s word, let’s renew our love for the love of God for man truly do not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

God bless,
Charles Peh

I am a Christian

When I say… I am a Christian
I’m not shouting “I’m clean living”
I’m whispering “I was lost
Now I’m found and forgiven.”

When I say…I am a Christian
I don’t speak of this with pride.
I’m confessing that I stumble
and need CHRIST to be my guide.

When I say…I am a Christian
I’m not trying to be strong.
I’m professing that I’m weak
and need HIS strength to carry on.

When I say… I am a Christian
I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting I have failed
and need God to clean my mess.

When I say… I am a Christian
I’m not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
but, God believes I am worth it.

When I say…I am a Christian
I still feel the sting of pain,
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say… I am a Christian
I’m not holier than thou,
I’m just a simple sinner
who received God’s good grace, somehow.

God lives under the bed!!!

I envy Alex. My brother Alex thinks God lives under his bed. At least that’s what I heard him say one night.

He was praying out loud in his dark bedroom, and I stopped to listen, ‘Are you there, God?’ he said. ‘Where are you? Oh, I see. Under the bed…’

I giggled softly and tiptoed off to my own room.

Alex’s unique perspectives are often a source of amusement. But that night something else lingered long after the humor. I realized for the first time the very different world Alex lives in.

He was born 30 years ago, mentally disabled as a result of difficulties during labor. Apart from his size (he’s 6-foot-2), there are few ways in which he is an adult.

He reasons and communicates with the capabilities of a 7-year-old, and he always will. He will probably always believe that God lives under his bed, that Santa Claus is the one who fills the space under our tree every Christmas and that airplanes stay up in the sky because angels carry them.

I remember wondering if Alex realizes he is different. Is he ever dissatisfied with his monotonous life? Up before dawn each day, off to work at a workshop for the disabled, home to walk our cocker spaniel, return to eat his favorite macaroni-and-cheese for dinner, and later to bed.

The only variation in the entire scheme is laundry, when he hovers excitedly over the washing machine like a mother with her newborn child. He does not seem dissatisfied.He lopes out to the bus every morning at 7:05, eager for a day of simple work.

He wrings his hands excitedly while the water boils on the stove before dinner, and he stays up late twice a week to gather our dirty laundry for his next day’s laundry chores.

And Saturdays-oh, the bliss of Saturdays! That’s the day my Dad takes Alex to the airport to have a soft drink, watch the planes land, and speculate loudly on the destination of each passenger inside. ‘That one’s goin’ to Chi-ca r-go!’ Alex shouts as he claps his hands.

His anticipation is so great he can hardly sleep on Friday nights.And so goes his world of daily rituals and weekend field trips.

He doesn’t know what it means to be discontent.

His life is simple.

He will never know the entanglements of wealth of power, and he does not care what brand of clothing he wears or what kind of food he eats. His needs have always been met, and he never worries that one day they may not be.

His hands are diligent. Alex is never so happy as when he is working. When he unloads the dishwasher or vacuums the carpet, his heart is completely in it.

He does not shrink from a job when it is begun, and he does not leave a job until it is finished. But when his tasks are done, Alex knows how to relax. He is not obsessed with his work or the work of others. His heart is pure.

He still believes everyone tells the truth, promises must be kept, and when you are wrong, you apologize instead of argue. Free from pride and unconcerned with appearances, Alex is not afraid to cry when he is hurt, angry or sorry. He is always transparent, always sincere. And he trusts God. Not confined by intellectual reasoning, when he comes to Christ, he comes as a child.

Alex seems to know God – to really be friends with Him in a way that is difficult for an ‘educated’ person to grasp. God seems like his closest companion.

In my moments of doubt and frustrations with my Christianity I envy the security Alex has in his simple faith. It is then that I am most willing to admit that he has some divine knowledge that rises above my mortal questions.

It is then I realize that perhaps he is not the one with the handicap, I am. My obligations, my fear, my pride, my circumstances – they all become disabilities when I do not trust them to God’s care.

Who knows if Alex comprehends things I can never learn? After all, he has spent his whole life in that kind of innocence, praying after dark and soaking up the goodness and love of God.

And one day, when the mysteries of heaven are opened, and we are all amazed at how close God really is to our hearts, I’ll realize that God heard the simple prayers of a boy who believed that God lived under his bed.

Alex won’t be surprised at all!

When you receive this, say a prayer for all the people on your list and ah… don’t forget me! That’s all you have to do. There is nothing attached. Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost, but a lot of rewards.

FRIENDS ARE ANGELS WHO LIFT US TO OUR FEET WHEN OUR WINGS HAVE TROUBLE REMEMBERING HOW TO FLY.

A touching true story

and a life lesson learned from a young kid and his cow..

Take a few moments to listen to this remarkable phone call from a 12-year-old boy to a Christian radio station in Houston. This was so profound, the station has it posted on their website. Click below to listen to it.

Friendship

Friendship is one of the greatest gifts anyone can ever receive from a person. Just walking up to a person and saying hello, introducing yourself, and continuing to do that can change a person’s whole life. I have moved at least 4-5 times in the past 8 years. I am 14 at the moment and am living in OH. And in those times of moving I have had to make new friends, I am always the new kid… there has not been a time in the past 8 years of my life when I have not been the new kid.

I know, I know; your thinking no big deal right. I am home schooled and a lot of people think that because I am home schooled that I don’t go through peer pressure, violence, and …. I see violence around me every single day in this world. And as for peer pressure, I get made fun of and picked on by kids for not dressing like them and saying the words that they say, or doing what they do. And you know what these kids were kids at church.

So many of people have told me that for me to be a Christian I have to go to church and be a member of the church. In fact in the past 6 months I have been attending a southern Baptist church…. and we were pressured to join, what is even more sad was that not many of the people there were very nice. They seemed cold and distant, basically the message was “we have friends and don’t have time to make new ones or welcome you into our community. That’s not right… I no longer go to that southern Baptist church, it broke my heart that I couldn’t go anymore because I had met a few very nice youth.

I know what your thinking, no big deal that she got made fun of. She’ll live, right? Wrong! Every night I cried my self to sleep because my life was falling apart. My family really wasn’t a family, ever since my little brother died in birth all my Dad ever does is yell at us because we were so imperfect. I know he loves me but it scarred me badly and permanently. He still yells. That will probably never change. I basically got to a point in my life where I just wanted to end it all, I thought about it day and night.

Shortly after the time I started feeling this way we moved again, that depressed me more than anything because everything just got worse and more worse. One day we were driving down a road in this beautiful neighborhood and my Dad stopped and started to talk to this guy who lived there. The guy invited us in to meet his family and see his house. It was not a coincidence that he had two girls around my age, it was not a coincidence that they were also home schooled. Those two girls are now my best friends, if it were not for them I don’t believe I would be here writing this. I would have eventually ended my life I think. These two girls are the strongest Christian I know, and you know what?? They don’t even go to church! They have made me realize that there is hope. It was not a coincidence, God was looking out for me, though I don’t feel like that most of the time. I do know that things will be all right.

So, I challenge you…next time in youth group or school or anyplace you see someone new or someone you don’t know, go up to that person and talk to him/her. You can change a person’s life or look at life in a instant! Don’t miss an opportunity, if you don’t do something there might never be another chance because it will be to late!

Written by:
Stephanie, 14

Source: youth4him.com

Is religion an illusion?

“Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses.” – Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud only had it half right. Yes, our impulses are instinctual but why? It is because God made us like that. We are made to worship something be it God, sex, money, life, academics, sport or anything else. By making us God took the risk that we would worship something other than Him, and he was right, we do everyday. But what God waits for is when we turn back to Him at the end of the day.

So the question on everyone’s mind…is religion an illusion? No! How can it be? Just a look in the mirror defies that very thought. The greatest thing satan ever achieved was to convince people he never existed, or more to the point, does not still exist today. There are some people (including Christians) that see satan as an evil being from long ago who now represents himself in the ‘negatives’ of this world. Many people believe he is not a single being but rather a representative of sin.

I’m afraid to say God disagrees. Jesus spoke about the devil coming into the wilderness to tempt Him. Satan sits on his ‘throne’ of sin and darkness and like a spoilt, selfish brat gets his demons, his principalities to do his dirty work for him. Religion is not an illusion but rather a result of a fallen world. The word ‘religion’ itself portrays a fallen relationship between us and God. God did not send His son so that we could follow a set of rules but rather so that we could engage in conversation with the wisest, loving, compassionate and thoughtful warrior of all time…and even before then.

‘Compassionate warrior’ sounds like an oxymoron to me. Jesus has always been portrayed as meek and mild holding sheep but he is denied glory for fighting the biggest battle, the battle of the souls.

And I hate to ruin it for you, but as my friend Brett says: if you read the end…we win! Say it with me “We win.” So why the hesitation? Why the lukewarm-ness? Because satan’s demons whisper in our ears doubts and fears. Because as Paul said: his mind chooses one path but his body insists on taking the other! It sounds like a vicious circle, how do we get out? By engaging in conversation with that compassionate warrior.

It sounds easy. I won’t lie to you, it’s not. It is harder that you could ever imagine. “Following Jesus’ footstep, and trying to live a righteous Christian life is the most difficult and extreme challenge ever.” But that’s why God gives us grace. “It [God’s grace] is free but it’s not cheap!” No, not cheap…Picture this: an innocent man given unfair sentence and killed; but not just killed, crucified. The only sin they had against Jesus was his disregard for the laws of the Sabbath. (Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath). The Pharisees however forgot that “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” –Mark 2:27.

So finally my point: for those of you who don’t believe, give Jesus a chance to touch and change your life; you will never find a better friend. For the “head believers but not heart believers” take this to heart and release yourself from that psycho mumbo-jumbo satan uses to defeat us. And finally for those of you who are on fire for God, denying yourselves and living everyday for Him: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, forevermore, Amen!

By:
Stephanie, Grade 11, South Africa

Source: www.youth4him.com