Fear

I personally have had many fears during my lifetime, many of which I constantly struggle with today. Everyone will at sometime have to face a fear of some sort. If you're fighting with any kind of fear right now, just know you're not the only one. Here are some encouraging tips to take your mind off of your fears, and encouragement to help you face whatever fears come your way.

1) Sing hymns to God!! Every time I have a fear, I sing my favorite hymns. It takes every fear you have away when your mind is focussed on Christ.

2) Some fears can start to feel like heavy burdens. All it takes is to cry out to the Lord and spill out every fear or concern you have. No matter if you feel that Jesus is not present at the moment, he's there, and he wants to lift those burdens away from you. For Matthew 11:29-30 says:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -Jesus

3) Read scripture. Here are some encouraging passages you can find in the Bible:
Matthew 11:28-30
Psalm 68:19-20
Galatians 5:1
1 Peter 3:13-14
Psalm 91

The Lord knows your needs. If you need encouragement, sometimes you will open your Bible randomly and there will be encouragement. This has happened to me several times, and it not only gives encouragement, but reassurance that Christ is right there with you.

4) Get one of your closest friends, prayer partner or someone you can trust, and sit down and chat. Pour out your worries and tell him/her what your fears are. Galatians 6:2 says:
"Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."
Having a Christian friend to encourage and help you, and in the same way you encouraging and helping your friend, is exactly what Christ wants his believers to do.

5) No fear comes from God. It comes from the devil or his bad angels. Most fears are there to take your mind off of what is pure or holy. However, God could use fears to test your faith him. Ask him for his sustaining strength, and you will find it. It may not seem like you were given any strength, but if you keep your eyes on Jesus, there will be strength for you. Your fears will subside eventually. So be patient and keep your eyes on Christ. You can do this!

6) You are not the only one that is having to face fears. I myself have terrifying fears that I have to go through. Fear of death, sickness, disease, our house burning down, germs (haha) and so much more. The one thing that keeps me fearless is keeping my eyes on Jesus. This kind of fear and God do not go together. You can either have fear- worrying about things that tend to take your mind off of Christ- or you can keep your mind on Jesus and have no fear. This is more difficult than it seems, however. It takes much endurance. But I promise, with God's strength, you can do it!

7) Nothing is going to happen to anyone unless it goes through God's hands first. God has your life, your family, your friends and EVERYTHING in his hands- and nothing is going to happen to anyone of them unless it's marked with God's "approval". Bad things could happen, yes, but through everything you have to put your faith and complete trust in God. 

Remember, you can do ALL things through Christ who give you strength!!
-Philippians 4:13. Now, go jump off a cliff. You should have no fear. (Ok, really, you might not want to do that. Don't test God, either.)

Have faith!! You can do this!!

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WINTER JAM 2013

And the picture (above) says it all. Thousands of people gather at the Colonial Life Arena in downtown Columbia, SC, for a spectacular time of worship. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, March 15th 2013. Show starts at 7:00 p.m. No tickets are required, it's just $10 dollars per person at the door. And seriously, if you don't mind loud music then it's so worth the $10! Winter jam features Christian singers such as Tobymac, Jamie Grace, Newsong, Sidewalk Prophets, Red, Matthew West, Capital Kings, Royal Tailor, and more. Come and enjoy this awesome time of praise and worship!

Are Dance Parties OK to Have At Church?

Share your opinion! Click on "comments" to start or join the conversation. Whatever opinion is shared the most before July 29th 2013 will get published in this post. Here are the opinions you can share, or just type a short opinion of your own:
1) I think Churches should never have dance parties with non-Christian music.
2) Churches can have dance parties, just with Christian music.
3) Dance parties with Christian music and non-Christian music is fine at a church.
4) Churches can have dance parties with or with out Christian or non-Christian music as long as it's somewhere else but the church.
The Church I attend, First Baptist of Columbia, hosts an annual Valentines Dance Party. You eat a nice dinner then dance with your friends. High schoolers and middle schoolers dance together with blasting loud music, most of it non-Christian. I wanted to know what other people thought of having dance parties (no matter what kind of music) at a church.

Believe it or not

Ok, so the last thing I want is this blog to be extremely opinionated. Please note that anything you read you can trust, but it's your choice to trust it or not. Some things may be slightly opinionated, but I'm trying to avoid it as best as I can. I promise, you're not going to go to hell just because you don't believe what I believe, unless it's the Gospel itself. There is one post that proclaims the Gospel, and that you will need to believe. All true Christians know that even God wants you to believe in the story of his grace. Apart from this, you will find some of my opinions, but you make the decision to believe whatever you want.

I won't give you more...

"I won't give you more, more than you can take." Isn't that encouraging? Have you ever heard that song on the radio station-89.7 WMHK-by Group 1 Crew? It goes a little like this:

"I won't give you more,
More than you can take and
I might let you bend
But I won't let you break..."

At first, I found this encouraging. But after putting a little thought into it, and after searching for a passage of scripture in the Bible that contained these words, I found nothing. "Were these words not true?" I thought. Then it occurred to me. Though it might seem encouraging at first, I found that they are merely just man-made words to make Christian's feel better. After all, my mom has twins, which are my dramatic sisters. Did God really give her less than she could take?

Now if God will give us more than we can take, is there any hope? Of course! Why do you think Paul and Timothy wrote in Philippians 4:13:
"I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength?" God will give you more than you can take, but he will give you the strength to be able to get through those depressions, troubles, spiritual battles or whatever you're facing. If you feel like something is burdensome, Christ is always there to help you. He will carry your burdens if you cry out to him. As Paul wrote to the Galatians, he stated that: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1.) Christ has set you free from the chains of sin. He does not want you to be burdened. If you feel burdened, ask him to help you. For you can "ask and it will be given to you." (Matthew 7:7.)
So don't be discouraged; just know that God will give you more than you can take, yet he will give you the strength to endure whatever you face.

About the Adds...

Sorry about the advertisements that might show up on this blog. This blog was free, so the people who put out blogger started putting adds on some of the blogs. I haven't seen any adds on this blog yet, but incase they ever do show up, please know that I didn't choose to put them there. :)

Sheldon

Some unique American history lies behind the walls of the Church of Prince William's Parish, also known as Sheldon. From what the sign reads on the ruins of the Church, it says that it was built between 1745-1755, burned by the British army in 1779 (during the American Revolution), rebuilt 47 years later in 1826, and finally, burned down by the yankees in 1865. After that, the Church was never rebuilt, sadly, but it left an interesting history and historical ruins behind for hundreds of people to observe freely.

Here is the sign on the Church that has all of Sheldon's history inscribed on it.  

I am not sure, but I think this is the pulpit that the Pastor preached at. 

Right in front of the pulpit lies the grave of Sheldon's Pastor, who probably was Prince William.

This is the Pastor's grave and pulpit together in front of an opening in the Church.

When entering the historical Church sight, you can see a large tree carved out, with many bricks filling it. I'm not sure what it was for or why it was carved out and filled with bricks, but it is an interesting piece of work to look at.  

There are four columns standing side by side in front of the Church. The columns are made of brick from top to bottom, each with a crown-like top. 

This is a side of a burnt brick wall from inside the Church. 

Near the tree filled with bricks (three pictures ago), is a small well. The well stands on a platform of bricks, the platform expanding a little more on the opposite side of the well next to the hole. 

This is the front of Sheldon Church. You should visit sometime, because it's a great place to learn some fascinating American history! 

Other details: Surrounding Sheldon are many other people's graves, some graves even from the 1700"s!

Teaching Children About God Through His Creation

 God's Creation is a beautiful display of His Glory! Don't you think? Teaching children about Jesus through plants and flowers is something I love to do. If you like gardening, and want to do it with your children or little kids, here's an idea: Let the kids help you plant about four plants. You can have many more, just one must be a little larger than the rest. The largest plant can be planted in the middle of your small garden, or anywhere you'd like. All the other smaller plants can be planted around it. As you and the kid's plant, you can plant the largest plant first, saying, "This is like God." As you and the kid's plant the other smaller plants, you can say something like this: "These little plants are like us. God is our Father, which is what the big plant is like."

Easter

How do you view Easter? Is it an extra holiday on the calender that you have to pretend you're the Easter bunny and leave small presents for little kids? Or do you view it as the Resurrection day of the LORD Jesus Christ? I hope your answer is the Resurrection day of Jesus Christ. Do you realize what Christ has done for you? Do you truly believe that Christ died for YOUR sins? Yes, God himself gave His only Son, Jesus, to the world. God came to earth in the form of a man, and preached and healed, performing many miraculous wonders. But the main reason he came to earth was to die for our sins on a wooden cross with nails in his feet and hands. Jesus, a perfect and sinless man, and the only sinless person who has ever been on this earth in all history, became sin for us. He took all our sins, buried them in the depths of the earth, and here's the AMAZING part: 3 days later, he arose from the dead! Death was conquered by our LORD Jesus Christ. Jesus did this for you, for your family, for your friends, for the world. And all he ask us to do is to believe. That's all. He did all of this painful suffering for the world, and all he asks us is to believe. Do you believe? Do you know Him?

HAPPY EASTER!!!!   

Your Life Verse

What's your life verse? Acts 20:24 is Cayli's life verse (above). A life verse is a verse that you keep through out your life, and to keep you close to Jesus. It can be used to encourage you when you are in need of encouragement- There has been many times when I was in need of an encouraging verse, and my life verse was the perfect one I could quote to encourage me in those times. It is something you live out through your whole life, but you can change your verse if you need to. I chose Acts 20:24 as my life verse a few years ago, when I felt like I was being called to be a missionary. I was about nine years old when that happened, but since things have changed. But a while ago I realized that I could be a missionary right now at this very minuet, so this verse still applied to my life. Paul, one of my very favorite writers in the Bible, wrote these words, and I still think they are very encouraging and helpful in times. So what's your life verse? If you don't have one, just open your Bible and pick out something that applies to your life, and something you can keep through out your life and to remind you of Jesus in the most difficult times.