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This page is a collection of articles that I have written about and have been submitted for the youth newsletter at our church. These articles are mainly about concepts in the Bible. Some are about verses in the Bible that are interesting, and some are about topics. I hope you like them.





Missions



The Bible covers a lot of topics either directly or indirectly. Some subjects are easier to find than others, this means that some are easy to understand and some you have to use other Scripture or sources to find out what the author meant when he wrote it. Inside the Bible, it covers love, grace, giving, God, the Son, the Holy Spirit, Satan, Hell, marriage, leadership, taming the tongue, and much more; one of the other topics that the Bible discusses is missions. To be more specific-witnessing, telling others about Jesus. During the year of 1999, I held Missions as an office in our youth council at church, and through the year I learned that missions covers a wide range or duties--doing work, serving others, planning events, working with people, witnessing, and of course mission trips. A lot of people I know can do most of these things. They can do work, serve others, plan events, and most people I know can work and get along with others, but they have problems with the last two. The last two are things that most people generally do not like to do. Out of all the things that we are to do as Christians, the last are two are easier said than done. Now let's take a look at a Bible verse that has to do with my particular office and can be applied to anyone else.

Then Jesus came ot them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and taching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of age." Matthew 28:18-20


This verse is a verse that almost everyone knows. It is the Great Commission that Jesus gave with His final speech to His disciples. In this verse, it tells us to do two things. The two things are the ones that I mentioned above as being easier said that done. I agree that that is hard to go and witness to our friends or someone on the street because we are afraid of rejection. But what irrates me is when people say, "Missions is a good idea, but I don't feel like I'm called to missions." I heard someone say that whenever he hears people say that, it can only mean one thing--that that person does not read their Bible. Because in that very verse above, it says to "go out into all the world..." I'm not saying that everyone should go to Africa for a mission trip, but people can go on a mission trip in their own towns, at their own schools, throughout their own neighborhoods.

I have gone on two mission trips in my life, one to Haiti and the other to Indianapolis, Indiana, and in those two trips, God used me for a unique and specific purpose. I want everyone to know that if you feel led to go on a mission trip, God will surely use you. Whether you go to an inner city mission trip or a mission trip overseas. I would like to encourage anyone who is thinking about missions to get in touch with someone who is in charge of missions at your church to see where God can use you.



Read the Directions



Has anyone ever heard said to you, "When all else fails, read the directions." This expression can be applied to almost all situations in life. If a coumputer won't run, most people go to the manual for instructions. If a carpenter doesn't know how to build a house, he turns to the blueprints. Turning to the manual makes jobs a lot easier because we have a guide to go by. It is ironic because when people can't beat a Nintendo game, they know excactly what page of the magazine to turn to in order to find the codes needed to beat the level, but when a problem comes up in their lives, they have no clue where to turn. It is funny because the Bible has everty answer to life that you could ever need. The first and second chapters of Ephesians outlines basic Christian doctrine that I never know was in the Bible. You can find advice on communication In Proverbs 10:8, 11:13, Luke 6:49, and James 1:19. You can find advice on leadership in 1 Chronicles 21:7-8, Matthew 12:18-21, Matthew 20:26-28, and Titus 1:7. You can find advice on any subject if you just look inside God's word. So, when problems arise, do you know where to look?



Let's Make a Deal!



Picture this: someone is driving around in the afternoon at about 3:00 PM. As he makes a turn, he sees a car dealership with huge, bright signs all around. As he comes closer, he notices that the signs say things such as "ONLY $O.39!" and "BEST DEAL OF THE CETURY!" He doesn't know that they mean, so he decides to check it out. On the lot, he sees people having a goood time. Walking up the man in charge, he says, "What do all these signs mean?"

The dealer replies, "If you want any car on the lot, you can have it for only thirty-nine cents!"

The man doesn't believe it! What a deal! Any kind of car, new or old, big or small, for just thirty-nine cents. He quickly picks out a car and leaves to tell everyone he knows. The point is that you or I wouldn't be afraid to tell people about an amzing deal like that, but God gave us an even better deal through his son Jesus (John 3:16), and a lot of people are too scared to share it. The keep it bottled up for years while they watch their friends and family die and go to hell. "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12). We have to be ready as we fight this battle. We have to put on the full armor of God because it says, "Put on the full armor of God," it doesn't say, "You might want to consider putting on the full armor of God." It is NOT a suggestion. It is a command! It is a battle for lost souls, and "no one can enter the kingdom of God unless...he is born again" (John 3:5-7). For the Bible says, "Salvation isn't found in anyone, for there's no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). How do we know if we are saved? Joel 2:32 says, "Everyone that calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." It also says the exact same thing in Romans 10:13.

Paul says in Acts 20:35, "I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of Jesus, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' " We need to exercise Matthew 28:19 and tell people about this awesome deal that god has given to us. In conlusion, when you get to heaven, how many people will be there because of you.



Purpose



Last April I had the chance to go to Aquire the Fire's Day One in Detroit Michigan. When I was there I heard Dr. Miles Munroe speak on purpose and what the Bible says about it. This was his main idea:

"The tragedy in life isn't death. It is life without a vision."


A lot of people are mislead by the idea that God made some things for a purpose and some things God made have no meaning. They also believe that some things are overlooked by God, that He can not be in total control of everything all of the time.

That is why I am writing this article. To let people know that God is in control and that He has reasons for everything that He does.

The key verse in Proverbs 19:21, which says, "You will make many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail." Everyone has to know that God is a God of purpose. He has a specific reason for everything. Nothing happens by coincidence, nothing escapes God's eye. Whether good or bad, there is a legitimate reason for it. No matter what you plan, God's purpose will always prevail in the end.

Like what was stated before, "The tragedy in life isn't death, it is life with a purpose." If you think about it, some of the richest places on earth are cemeteries because when those people died, they took with them all the ideas that they didn't follow through with in their life. Whenever you want to discover your purpose, there are five questions that you need to ask yourself:

If the answer is "no," "nothing," or "nowhere" to any of these questions, you will lead a useless life.

In Ephesians 1:3-8, it says that God has a plan for your life. Even before you were conceived, God all ready had a plan for you. He knew what kind of person you are going to be, what you were going to say, and what you were going to do. Knowing this from the text we can say that God does not create for experimentation. God has a purpose for everyone. Some people think that the Haitians and people in other poor countries just had bad luck and that God doesn't want to deal with them, but the truth is that God has a purpose for even those people.

Purpose is the original reason why God creates people. Purpose is the cause of creation, and purpose is the destination that starts the journey. Knowing all of this about purpose, everything we discussed can be simplified into seven principles. These seven points are:

  1. God is a God of purpose. I discussed that earlier. Using this principle, everyone knows that there can be no accidents. Nothing happens by chance.

  2. Everything in life has a purpose. This means that no matter how big or small, important or insignificant something or someone is, God created that object with a specific purpose.

  3. Not every purpose is known. There are some things that God has not told us. There are things that God has chosen to keep hidden from us and we will know these things when we get to heaven.

  4. Where purpose is not known, abuse will be inevitable. This principle means that when people do not know the purpose of something then people will abuse it. An example of this is marijuana. Some people ask the question, "If God has a reason for everything, then why did He make marijuana?" the truth is that God created marijuanaaa for a very reasonable purpose-in order to heal people of certain diseases such as glaucoma, but because people did not know the purpose, they abused it.

  5. If you don't know the purpose of a thing, never ask the thing what its purpose is. You might be thinking, "Huh?" This means that if you want to know the purpose of someone or something, never ask that person or thing because if you ask the person or object, they won't know, they'll only be guessing. You need to ask the creator of that person or thing. Which leads to our next point.

  6. Purpose is only found in the mind of the creator. For example, in order to find the purpose of a toy, you have to ask the toy maker. The samee principle applies to other things as well. If you want to know the purpose of a person, you have to go to the creator, which is God.

  7. Our last principle of purpose is that purpose is the key to fulfillment. Purpose determines potential. If you want know the purpose of something or someone, then you have to go to the creator, and once you have figured it out, then you will know how it fits together in the grand scheme.


I hope that this has enlightened you about the meaning of purpose. Many people have a distorted view on why things are the way they are, but if you realize that God a reasonable specific purpose for why everything is the way it is, then we too will be able to accept things and people as they appear.





Leadership



Last November 19, and 20, 1999, I had the opportunity to go to Cedarville College to attend a leadership conference. We had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Dixon, the president of Cedarville College, participate in praise and worship; we were able to room with Cedarville College students, and listen to Dr. David Robey. Dr. Robey is the professor of drama at Cedarville. After I got back from the conference, I noticed a very important verse, or verses that have to do with leadership. These verses are located in Titus. The verse is: Since an overseer is entrusted with God¡¦s work, he must be blameless¡Xnot overbearing, not quick tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable; one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it (Titus 1:7-9). This presents many characteristics that one needs to be in order to be a leader.

One could use this for a ¡§leadership checklist.¡¨ One may ask, ¡§What does it take in order to be a leader,¡¨ I believe that Paul addressed it very forthrightly. To know if you are a leader or not, just go down the list of characteristics, are you entrusted with God¡¦s work? Blameless? Not overbearing? Not quick-tempered? Etc.

  1. Entrusted with God¡¦s work?
  2. Blameless?
  3. Not overbearing?
  4. Not quick tempered?
  5. Not given to drunkenness?
  6. Not violent?
  7. Not pursuing dishonest gain?
  8. Hospitable?
  9. Loves what is good?
  10. Self controlled?
  11. Upright?
  12. Holy?
  13. Disciplined?
  14. Hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught?
  15. Encourage others?
  16. Disprove others who oppose it?


Paul discusses sixteen qualities here. Do you possess all these qualities? I know that I do not. I have a long way to go on some of them. That doesn¡¦t mean that I can¡¦t be a leader and it doesn¡¦t mean that I can¡¦t continue to work on each one of them. I just want to share with you a couple topics that Dr. David Robey discussed at the conference. One of the things that I found interesting is he discussed what leadership is not. There are four things that leadership is not. The first is that you don¡¦t need to be popular. You don¡¦t need to be the star quarterback, or student council President, a leader can be anyone. The second point is that you don¡¦t have to have a dynamic personality. Bill Gates, the richest man on earth, didn¡¦t have the most dynamic personality. In fact, he failed out of school at the age of nineteen, and he was fired from his job at IBM. The third point is that you don¡¦t have to have unusual intelligence. Paul was a leader, and I¡¦ll guess that he never received a degree from Harvard. The last point is that you don¡¦t have to have personal courage. You don¡¦t have to have the ¡§go get ¡¥em attitude¡¨ that you see on TV. When Moses was told he was to lead the people from Israel, he said, ¡§Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?¡¨

The second topic that I will discuss is risks. When one becomes a leader, he/she also has to face risks of being a leader. There are four main risks. The first is, leaders make enemies. If you tell people what you stand for, people will oppose you. This concept goes along with this point, if you do not know who the enemy is, you will never be a successful leader. The second point is leaders are always involved in change. The next point is leaders always face temptation. Joseph was tempted when Potiphar¡¦s wife enticed him when he was in charge of Potiphar¡¦s house. The last point is the mistakes of a leader are far reaching. People will always remember where and when you messed up if you are a leader. There is an old saying that goes, ¡§The actor is only as good as his final performance.¡¨ Just remember that anyone can be a leader, and you will face trials and risks if you do become a leader.

If you want to read about a specific leader, you can find him in Judges chapter 8. I want to encourage all of the new members of the youth council to be leaders, and to let people know that they can be leaders.





Tuned Into God



Key verse: ¡§For I know the plans I have for you,¡¨ declares the Lord, ¡§plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.¡¨ Jeremiah 29:11

There was an old lady in the church who was diagnosed with cancer and now was living in the hospital. This particular lady was one of the charter members in this church. She had been attending it for over fifty years. At this point in her illness the doctors had told her that she only had a couple of weeks to live at the most. The pastor of the church decided that it would be good to spend some time with her in her final days her life. So the pastor went in and they talked about old times and what the church has been through over the years. Before the pastor left, the elderly woman requested something from him. She asked him if he would sing ¡§Jingle Bells.¡¨ At first the pastor was skeptical but he just assumed that it had some sentimental value to her. He stayed for a little while longer, and then left.

About a couple of weeks later, the woman died; the pastor gave the eulogy at her funeral. After he was done, he paused and began to sing ¡§Jingle Bells.¡¨ He sang all the verses to ¡§Jingle Bells.¡¨ After he sang, and the funeral was over he decided to comfort some of the people there. He came up to a couple of her close relatives and they asked him, ¡§Why in the world did you sing that song?¡¨ So the pastor replied by saying that she had said that her favorite song was ¡§Jingle Bells.¡¨ And the relatives replied back by saying, ¡§Pastor, her favorite song wasn¡¦t ¡¥Jingle Bells¡¦, her favorite song was ¡¥Ring the Bells of Heaven.¡¦¡¨

Now there is something that I want you to understand from this story, and that is that this man did NOT choose not to listen to her. He tried to listen to what she said, but he couldn¡¦t because he wasn¡¦t in tune to her. He wanted to hear what she had to say, but he just wasn¡¦t in tune to her. It¡¦s just like a radio station. A really good radio station where I live is called Radio U. The call numbers are 88.7 FM, but if you are at 105.9 FM, you can¡¦t hear what Radio U is saying, but that doesn¡¦t mean that Radio U is still sending out messages. Radio U is still sending out messages and songs on the air, but you are not at the right frequency to hear it. The sad thing is that so many Christians are at 105.9 FM spiritually, and then there are Christians that are at 88.9 FM¡Xand just like that man, they hear God speaking, but they can¡¦t understand Him because they aren¡¦t exactly tuned into God and to what He is saying.

For us as Christians, it is not a choice whether we have to be tuned into God or not. It is a necessity. In order to live the Christian life the way it is supposed to be lived, we absolutely need to stay tuned into God because He has a plan for us, and in order for us to know that plan, we need to be in the Word, we need to be in prayer, we need to be in fellowship with other Christians, we need to be seeking His will, we need to be where He is working¡Xwe need to be tuned into God.





Crown of Life



In this article, I am going to talk about hope and what the Bible says about it. The verse that I am going to use is found in Revelation 2:10: ¡§Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.¡¨ Now let¡¦s examine this verse and how it applies to hope.

First, ¡§Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.¡¨ This tells us that we are going to suffer through bad times. It doesn¡¦t say not ¡§¡Kto be afraid of what you might suffer,¡¨ it says ¡§¡Kwhat you are about to suffer.¡¨

Next, ¡§I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you¡K¡¨ This tells us of the persecution that we will suffer. Then it gives the reason why we will suffer persecution. The reason is that we will be tested. Now one has to ask them, ¡§Why do we even need to be tested?¡¨ The answer is so that we can become better Christians in whom God can use. Proverbs 17:3 says, ¡§The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.¡¨ This verse says that silver and gold have to be put into a furnace that burns away the bad so that only the good remains. In order for us to be refined into better people that God can use, He has to put us into His furnace so that the bad can burn away and only the good remains. So when bad things happen in your life, just remember that God is not punishing you, He is just putting you through His furnace to prepare you to be used by Him.

¡§¡KAnd you will suffer persecution for ten days.¡¨ Now this does not literally mean two hundred forty hours. Whenever you think of ten days of time, it doesn¡¦t seem very long, and because it is a frame of time, you know that at some point, it has to end. The period of ¡§ten days¡¨ has to come to an end. This is exactly what John was trying to say in this part of the verse. The persecution may last, a day, a week, a month, a year, or even for several years, but you have to realize that it will come to an end, it won¡¦t last forever.

Finally, ¡§Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.¡¨ This last part tells us what to do and the results concerning persecution. It tells us that we need to be faithful¡Xeven if it means giving your life. If we are faithful whenever problems come our way, God tells us that He will give us the crown of life. He will never let His children suffer for nothing. This is the hope that we have. If we remain faithful here on earth, He will present us with the crown of life when we arrive in heaven.

The whole point is that in order to receive the crown of life, we need to have the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. We need to have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at mission_man_2001@hotmail.com.





Looking for the Answer



Everyone has a ¡§God-shaped¡¨ whole in their lives and in this article, we are going to examine of part of Scripture and see how it can apply to the Christian¡¦s life about looking for the answer¡Xthe one thing that will fill that whole. This article is mainly for the Christian, but God could still use this for someone who is not a Christian.

This story comes from John 4 verses ten through fifteen:

10Jesus answered her, ¡§If you know the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.¡¨ 11¡¨Sir,¡¨ the woman said, ¡§you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?¡¨

13Jesus answered, ¡§Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.¡¨

15The woman said to him, ¡§Sir, give me this water so that I won¡¦t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.¡¨



Most everyone knows this story, but I want to point out that I believe that this woman was looking for this living water, because she said, ¡§Where can you get this living water,¡¨ (vs. 11). Another distinction about this verse is that I believe that this woman represents every lost person in the world. All lost people are looking for that one thing to fill that void in their life. That void is a God-shaped whole and unfortunately; everything else that you try to fill your life with will not completely fill that emptiness. Some of the things that they try may last for a while, but it will always fail to complete them¡Xalways fail to fill that void. Some people try to fill it with drugs, food, alcohol, friends, sex, music, lifting weights, and religion¡Xsome people try different religions to fill their lives. I¡¦m here to tell you that the only One that can fill your life is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you accept Him as Lord and Savior, He will fill that vacuum in your life in every way possible. When you have Jesus in your life and in your heart, it¡¦s not a religion it¡¦s a relationship.



Change



In this article, we are going to discuss, change. The verse comes from I Corinthians 15:51. This is what it says: "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed." I believe that everyone can be changed and will be changed if they let God do so. That is what He has done in my life. I went on an inner-city mission trip to Youngstown, Ohio, and at first, I did not want to go, but after some encouraging words from a dear friend of mine, I decided that I should step out on faith and go on the mission trip. I can't explain how He has changed me. I feel that everyone needs to change at some point in his or her lives.

For those of you who know me, they know that during the summer before my senior year, I worked at a day care center. While I was there, I worked as a maintenance man. I wasn't the main person, but I was one of the guys who did odd jobs around the place. My boss had me do this huge outdoor sand project, painting inside and outside, cleaning, organizing, and washing windows. One of the jobs that I also had was to wash walls before I painted them. I had to use a brush to scrub the walls, and then I had to use a washcloth to wash off the suds from the wall. As I was using the washcloth, I realized that if I used the same side of the washcloth to wash the walls, that side would get so much dirt on it and it would eventually make the walls more dirty than clean. I needed to periodically change the side of the washcloth that I was using in order to get the walls cleaner. And as I was doing this, I realized that this is a lot like our Christian lives. If we don't allow God to change us at all, the things we do as Christians actually do worse than good. We need to allow God to change us so we can be effective Christians to do God's will„ojust like I needed to change the side of the washcloth that I was using in order to get the job done effectively. So as you go through your life, remember to step out on faith and let God change you so you periodically so you can follow His will.





Got any questions, feel free to e-mail me at: mission_man_2001@hotmail.com