Just a Thought

Hey!!!! It's pretty late where I am right now, but I just really have a thought I'd like to share with you. Have you ever traveled to another country? Have you ever traveled to a poor country? Well, I've visited Vietnam before when I was young, but I've heard so many stories about the country since. My distant cousins are DELIGHTED to get a box of brand new color pencils from us. They're happy over a little thing like that. A lady I know went to Africa a few years back. There, she passed out pencils and erasers and things like that since school's about to start for them. One of the boys that she gave a pencil too immediately broke it in half. Do you know why? It's because that his mother told him that that way he would have two pencils instead of one. Christians, especially Christians at are in wealthy countries with relatively easy lives, listen. We've got to have a burden for these people. The lack of food brings about a weak immune system which means easy death. No gospel brings a weak wall against temptation and Satan which means eternity in hell. Someone's dying each day. That person might possibly go to hell. We can't possibly save everyone, but we can certainly try our hardest to reach as many people as possible. DON'T WAIT!!!!! You don't know if your neighbor or family member will be living for much longer. You don't know if God's going to rapture all the Christians sooner or later. That's why we must "redeem the time [that's been given to us]."  

Greatness

School's coming. It's either already here for some, or it's just around hte corner for others. Either way, we've got a responsibility to do our best. Greatness always comes with a price. Greatness according to God is humbly serving others to bring glory to Him. Success in the world is having a great, well paying job with a nice house, car, and family. Both have their prices, and they're both high. Greatness to God is giving up your abitions and surrendering your life to God. Working your hardest in school but not letting it stop you from going to church or reading your Bible each day. I understand how hectic school can be. I'm in highschool and taking advanced classes! But that doesn't stop me from finding time each day to read a coupld of verse in the Bible and pray about it. School's important to me. Ask my friends AJ and Calyniel Greenleaf. They'll tell you how hard I work, but no matter how hard I work in school, I work harder in my walk with God. Try, when school starts, to keep your focus on God. Work hard in school to please Him primarily. Trust Him to supply the money for school since the economy isn't doing so great. Pray each day for strength and the ability to do well. Don't let school pull you away from God. Make it pull you closer to Him.  

Pride: Man's Deepest Foe

Have you ever thought about why you do what you do? Have you ever considered your motives when you do something? Well, if you think back, a lot of the motives are selfish or prideful. Pride  and confidence are two different things.
Confidence is the ability to do something with certainty. When you're confident about something, you're certain. Pride is thinking of yourself highly, much more highly than you should. Charles Spurgeon said that pride is a "grondless thing" and a "brainless thing" and "the maddest thing that can exist".
If you think about it, it's pretty foolish to be prideful. You're prideful that you scored the winning goal for your team, and you brag about how you brought your team victory. Now, yes, it's great to be excited and happy when you win but not prideful. As you look on that goal that you made then comapre it to the many other goals that others have made, is there really anything to be bragging about? How many others contributed to that game? How many others scored winning goals? Plenty. There's no I in team as the saying goes, and pride is putting that extra I in team whether you realize it or not.
Everyone's prideful, and everyone makes mistakes, but as Christians we learn from those mistakes and try harder not to repeat them. We have a Savior that gave all to save us. He left a heavenly kingdom to come to a sin cursed world todie an agonizing death save sinners. What humility! We have absolutly no reason to be prideful or boast.