You can’t leave me alone in my thoughts too long…because it’s then when I start to think. And it is when I start to think, when really random, and I mean REALLY random, thoughts come to my mind. Seriously folks, sometimes I scare myself…

So yesterday as I was thinking, I had yet another one of my random queries: Is it me…or are Disney movies seriously disturbing once you’re older?

Honestly! When you are a kid, you are wrapped up the story of a prince and a princess and love and magic and all that stuff. But when your 17, and you sit down to watch The Little Mermaid with your little sister, the whole concept comes alive to you…

Let’s use The Little Mermaid in our example, shall we? We have a 16-year old girl named Arial who is forced to stay in her cove at all times by the ruthless dictatorship of her father. Meanwhile, she sneaks out every night and ends up falling for a 20-something year old dude named Eric. To spend the rest of her life with Eric, she goes to the hit woman of the sea, Ursula, and trades in her right to speak for legs. I’m sure we all know how the deal turns out, so skipping ahead some time in the movie, we have Arial’s daddy battling the one woman mafia boss of the ocean and inevitably, she dies. Arial’s gets her voice back, and she gets to keep her legs, and in the end, the 16 year old and her rather older suitor are betrothed. And they lived happily ever after.

Another example? We all love the story of Snow White, with the dwarfs and the happy ending n’ all. But in all reality, this is the one that freaks me out most of all. We have a girl who lives with her evil stepmother, and because her stepmother is so jealous of her beauty, she sends some guy out to go chase Snow White into the woods and CUT OUT her heart. The end…and sweet dreams kids!

Really people…we all say that we wish that our lives could be like a Disney love story. But if half of this stuff happened in our real lives, I’m pretty sure we would end up in jail, on the 6 o’ clock news, or on some trashy talk show. In some cases, you might just wind up on all three.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love Disney movies…but sometimes, you’ve just gotta laugh at life. Let God write your love story, with Him, it will be always be perfect (because if Disney were to do it, you might have someone wanting to execute you midway into it.)

This is the end of my random query.

Is it me or did this year come and go by very fast? It seams like every year has felt like the time span of a month or two…I can remember exactly where I was when the clock hit 12:00 on January 1st, 2008. It feels like it literally, was yesterday. I was watching the ball drop on TV and this rush came over me, that a new year had begun. 2007 was a big year of growth for me and I could hardly wait to see what God was going to lead me to in 2008.

And now here I sit once again in front of the computer, just mere hours from the bal dropping in New York City once again and it’s hard not to think back on the year…I’m not trying to sound all mushy, really, but a new year really does make you look on the year past. It makes you wonder if you’ve grown. Not physically (although that happens from time to time…people getting taller, I mean), but how we’ve grown as people. As sons and daughters, as friends, as spouses, and parents, as grandparents and hopefully most of all, as believers. It’s a time to look back at goals. Some we hit on target, and some we missed completely. A time to look on the good things that happened in the year, and hopefully a time that you kiss the bad ones good-bye for good. It’s a big time for emotions to conflict. We somehow wish that the year wasn’t over…sometimes we wish it had been over 11 months before. And sometimes we look forward to the New Year so much that we start to plan a bunch of resolutions and goals.

It all leads me back to what it says in the Word in Ecclesiastes 3. There is a season for everything, and there is a reason why you do exactly what you do in that season. I don’t know about you all personally, but for me 2008 was a season of growth and change. I saw the vision that the Lord has for me and I started to run with it and along the way He has provided and been there just as He always promises He will. Even when it looks impossible, it’s not with Him.

Maybe for you, 2008 was just a season of spiritual harvest. You felt like you worked and labored and for some reason you just didn’t see what you wanted to see by now. Maybe it was a year of hurt and pain; maybe it was a year in which you didn’t know if there was going to be a next year.

I want to encourage all of you to look ahead to this New Year as a new season. A clean slate, and a fresh start. To come to God before you do anything else this year and call upon Him. See what His will is for you…see what He would have you stick with, and, what is the most painful for most Christians…see what He wants you to give up.

What does 2009 lay in store for me? Only God knows…but I can truly feel that it is going to be a big year. For me, and if you allow God to let it be, for you as well.

So as we watch the ball fall on TV tonight, watch all the guys and gals smooch and see confetti fall and fireworks blast…think of it as two things. One, waving good-bye to a year that might have been bad or good. Letting go of the bad, and holding on to the good. And two, as a new God given season of your life…it’s the life you have been given to live. How will you live it? And most importantly…who will you live it for?

Talk about an adventure…it was only two days ago that my mom and I found the one town in California that didn’t have a Starbucks on every corner. We spoiled ‘city folk’ drove around for about an hour in a town where we were going to be working at a concert, looking for a Starbucks. Imagine the frustration when you’re working on five hours of sleep and then you’re expected to be wide awake and aware to work and you CANNOT find a coffee shop for the life of you.

An hour into our little excursion, we had decided that we were going to give up and head back to the concert hall. Totally bummed (and at this point, going through extreme coffee withdrawals) we drove further to see where we could turn back around…and that is when we saw it: a drive-thru Starbucks! *Que Hallelujah Chorus HERE* …At this point I know what you’re thinking: ‘you spoiled brat! You could have gone without coffee for an hour’…while I might disagree with you on that (seriously people, I’m hooked on coffee) as we were paying for out coffee in the drive thru- I felt like the Lord was trying to teach me something. No- not how to get off the Starbucks bandwagon. But something deeper that should really apply to all of our lives at one point or another.

How often do we quit? Back in the day when there was no computers, no telephone, no ‘handy-man’ or anything for that matter, people actually had to work to get what they wanted. Even if that meant shedding blood, sweat, and tears, but in the end it was worth it too see what had produced for all of the patience and hard work. Now these days though, if we can’t get what we want right at this very second when we want it- it’s game over.

We as followers of Christ live our live that same way…but in a very different light. When God makes a promise to us, it says in His Word that He is always faithful to keep it. He is not a man who can lie, nor the Son of man that He should ever apologize for NOT keeping a promise (Numbers 23:19). It says in Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Think about that! How can He NOT. When God gives us a promise…how can He NOT accomplish it?

But it all goes right back to the waiting game. And how when we don’t get what we want right now, then we just assume that God has given up on us…so we go back to our old ways and instead of waiting patiently with perseverance to see the wonders that God has for us, we are back at square one, trying to make it on our own. And I promise all of you…this is about half of the reason why Christians today are so unhappy. They think that our God isn’t capable to keep His word when it states so blatantly in the Bible that He is literally obligated to keep it. And because there was no higher name to swear it by, His swore it in His own name. Can you ever claim to swear anything in your own name?

The point of this message is a simple one, but one that far too many people need to hear: wait. Don’t give up, don’t turn around, don’t think that God isn’t faithful and PLEASE don’t try it on your own (because I’m pretty sure we all know that on our own- we suck.) But with God on our side, giving Him all control of whatever situation it may be, more is possible than you can ever imagine. How can He NOT do this?

Stay with God, hold on to His word, and keep on driving…because you might just be one turn away from that Starbucks.

Romans 12:2 (NKJV)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:21 (NKJV)
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:9 (HCSB)
Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good.

How much do you act like the world? I know this might seam like a silly question but really, how much? How often do you spout out a cuss word? How often are you at the bar instead of being at the altar? How often do you get mad and fly off the handle? How many times a day do you say things that you wish you hadn’t said 5 minutes later?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that none of us are perfect people and that we all do stupid stuff- that is why Christ did what He did…to forgive us. But do you also realize that He came to do more than that? He also came to save us from our sin. Saving us and forgiving us are two different things. Forgiving us means, well, forgiving us from all the things we did and will do (Praise God for that!)

Saving us is a whole new story. By saving us, that means He was literally saving us from our sins. Better said? Saving us from ourselves and the way that we are. Pulling us out of all of the junk and bringing us into a whole new mindset. But often, more so now these days, I see Christians act like church is a Sunday thing. Going, getting saved, and then Monday through Saturday living life as if it were one big party with no consequences for our actions. When Christ saved us from our sins, that was the time for us to drop the evil act and start letting Him change our mindset and overcoming evil with the good that He has placed inside of us.

But how can we overcome evil when we hang out with it?

I said it before and I will say it again, that none of us are perfect and we all say stupid stuff and do foolish things…but just because we are capable of doing them, doesn’t give us the right to take advantage of God’s grace by running around saying ‘oh yeah, that? Yeah, He’ll forgive me.’ Yeah He will, but after a while when He starts to see a pattern immerge He won’t put up with it anymore. It says in the Word that there will be some who are gonna be surprised on the day of judgment. When they claimed to know Christ but deceived Him by their deeds. God isn’t stupid and to put it into modern lingo- He don’t play that way.

When we come to Him and ask forgiveness, we should have the desire to drop the sin once and for all. Will you sometimes do something unwise? Most likely, but the desire of our hearts should be to NOT do them and then to simply, NOT do it! It’s so easy if we would just do what God says to do!

I swear guys, I can see this world being so much of a better place to live if we just did what God says to do and do the right thing when given the chance. That means me, and that means you reading this: will you desire to be different? Will you allow God to change your heart and your mind? Not just on Sundays but every second of every day of your life? Will you chose to overcome evil instead of partying with it? And most of all, will you desire to do good works of God in all that you do? It’s your choice…but I think that I’ve made the right one.

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Heaven. What do you think about when that word is said? It says in Revelation 21: 3-5 that heaven is a place where there will be no more tears, or suffering or pain. To most of us that sounds like, well, heaven (pun intended). But to a lot of people, heaven seams like a big fluffy white place where people sing all the time eat food. But when you really take the time to sit down and think about it, it is SO much more than even just these things alone.

I was at a concert once. It was once of those concerts that didn’t require tickets so it was a’ first come first serve’ thing. And if you know me, you know for a fact that I am that girl who is first in line 5 hours or more before they actually even do a sound check.

My mom and I were waiting patiently for the flood gates to open and to run and grab our seats (ever notice that when the nice concert people tell you ‘no running’ that you end up running anyway?). The concert started at 7:30 and it was only 5:30 or so- told you I’m an early person.

Behind us were two people waiting to get into the concert too. And for the next few hours, my mom and I got to talk to them and get to know each other. Before we even got inside the arena, we could have easily explained one anothers life history.

Once we were inside the concert (and we got front row seats…early birds get the worm!) we saved seats for the two we had met in the line. We still had time before the show started so we chatted a little more, and we went and bought merch together (you’ve gotta love artist merch!) They were even nice enough to buy my mom and I a treat for the show. We couldn’t believe how nice these people were!

A few hours later the concert was over (and what a splendid one it was…) and these two people gave my mom and I a hug and without even giving us a way to even stay in touch, one of them looked at us and said ‘if not before, we will see you in heaven…’

That phrase echoed in my ears on the way home. ‘We will see you in heaven’. As we were driving home my mom told me how much she enjoyed the company of the two people we had met and how they were some of the most interesting people she had ever met. I had to agree. It’s not often you meet two people and by the end of the night claim that you could be close as family.

I had forgotten about these two. But recently for one reason or another (and we all know Who did it), they came back to mind. And those words started to echo in my head again. ‘We will see you in heaven…’

Think back in your life as FARRR as you can remember. How many awesomely cool amazingly nice people have you met in your life and never seen again? Now answer me this: how many of them, knew Christ?

Over the course of my life I have met some really cool people. Most of them I insist on stay in touch with. But it’s the people like we met at the concert that night, that baffle me. I always wonder where they are, what they are doing…if they still love God as much as they did when they really spoke into my life. It’s a really thought provoking thing.

But then it comes right back to the phrase: ‘we will see you in heaven…’

Heaven is not just a place with no suffering or pain, although it is. It’s not just a place where we will always be happy and singing with joy up in the clouds, although it is. It is also like one big giant family reunion. We were will meet people we’ve always dreamed of meeting but for one reason or another didn’t get to. Where we will meet our great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents and hear stories about when they were kids. Where we will see family and friends that we miss so dearly. Some family that you may even be meeting for the first time.

And you will meet people who touched you life, even just once, and proved to you that it’s really not that hard to be the hands and feet of Christ. People you met in line at a concert who bough you a churro and laughed and some silly joke.

Most of all, you will meet the One who paid for us to be there in the first place.

And that is the person I look forward to meeting most of all.

With all that in mind, heaven doesn’t sound so boring after all, does it?

Princess and Frogs. It’s a story people in Christianity like to use for purity purposes all the time. Ya know the whole thing, girls should wait for their prince because you never know when you going to kiss a frog. It’s an analogy I personally like.

But as you can tell by now, the Lord has things hit me at different times, in really random ways. Weird? No…But I really do believe that our God is a comic genius…

Anyway, I was watching ‘The Princess Bride’ the other night for the first time ever. Yes, I’m just now 17 and I had never seen The Princess Bride. Not the point… somewhere along the movie there was a scene where Wesley and his new found friends were trying to stop Buttercup from marrying the evil prince. They had many obstacles to go through, but once Wesley has fought them all, it was then that he found his princess.

In a reality distorted way, the same applied to guys today.

You see, girls have to wait for their princes to come and get them, that means straying away from the frogs. But guys have a hard battle too. They have to battle dragons to get to their princesses.

‘English Please’ your asking? Guys have a hard battle out there too. They have to fight dragons every day, dragons that come in all forms of temptation and lust that would try to make them fail. Don’t get me wrong; life isn’t all about getting ‘the right one’, but about LIVING for the right One, Him being God. But all the while, God still has a future for us, that most likely including a family. But what is the one thing satan will try to do? Steal it from us any way he can. That is why girls need to stay away from frogs and that is why guys battle dragons.

It all sound very complicated but it all really amounts to one thing. For the girls: Knowing that fact that there is a guy out there fighting to wait for you. And for guys: Knowing that there are girls out there cheering you on your way.

It might all sound extreme but really it’s not. God said out life was going to be a battle and that we needed to fight. Not just here and there, but in all aspects. That is why we’ve been told to ‘run the race with endurance’.

I see so much stuff out there today. For girls and guys, and instead of indulging in these things that will only eventually make us crumble, it’s about time we began to step up and support each other. Not just in our faith walk alone, but in all aspects of it. Including the walk to stay pure and to wait for the person God has planned for you to be with.

A little help goes a long way. Even the smallest prayer can change something in the blink of an eye. So guys and gals, here is the moral of my message: run the race, flee the frogs and fight the dragons. Not only God, but your future family, will thank you for it.

Here is a question for ya: How well do you hear God? And i'm not talking like 'oooh ahhhh creepy!' hear God, I mean how well to we hear Him speak to us. And more important than that, how well to we actually listen?

Growing up when your parents told you to clean your room and you refused to do it, you probobly got punished. Whether or not it was severe or not, you still learned your lesson and you knew better than to ever disrespect your parents again.

Our God isn't like that. When we mess up, He's not waiting up in heaven with a belt in His had ready to 'teach us a leasson'. He leaves that up to the choices we make and the options we put upon ourselves. Let me explain:

It happened about a year ago. I walk my little sister home from school everyday. And while she might complain that 'it's torture', I know that it is only a mile and that it's good exersise. I mean really...a mile isn't that far.

One day something came up and my mom had to head into work early, so it was my job to walk my sister TO school and my parents would pick her up. 'No problem' I thought. Well from some reason as I was getting ready to leave that morning, I felt the Lord telling me to 'take a cell phone with me'.

'A cell phone?' I thought. I NEVER walked with a cell phone, because like I said, it was only a mile...what could possible go wrong?

'Okay God' I said, 'i'll bring a cell phone.'

So my sister and I begin walking to her school and it is midway there that I realized that I FORGOT to bring a cell phone. I paniced for a moment but I figureed that we were too far gone to go all the way back for a cell phone. So I took her to school and began to make my way back home.

Just as I began to make my way home, I noticed an adorable cat in the driveway of a house. Me, being the animal lover, stopped to pet the cat. I had pet him befpre so I knew he was harmless. But for some reason today the cat kept walking away from me and to the other end f the driveway.

Brilliant me, decided to follow the cat to see if it was alright. I reached out to pet him when suddenly he snapped. And I mean literally...his sharp teeth bit into my arm and locked.

It SERIOUSLY hurt and I screamed so loud that I thought people on Mars could hear me. After a few moments I was able to rip the cat off of my arm. I looked to survey the damage: your basic swollen, puffy, multi-colored and painful cat bite. I was in shock for a moment, so when I began to bleed I didn;t know what to think.

It hurt soooo bad that I felt like going into a little ball in the driveway and crying. I couldn't walk the rest of the way home...so I reached out for the cell phone to call my dad to pick me up and I realized.

I forgot the cell phone.

I wasn't going to hickhike but I knew I had to get home and fast. So like the speed of light, I started to run and run hard to make it home. And suddenly that short mile I walked seamed a whole lot longer. My arm was turing a nasty color of purple and it was bleeding pretty bad, once I saw my house in sight I knew I would be okay.

But running in the house with a bloody purple arm isn't your parents favorite sight to see. They cleaned me up and made sure I was alright. Alas, I am. But I have NEVER gone back to pet that cat again. That's for sure...

You see guys, God didn't use the cat to punish me. He knew. He KNEW. He wanted me to be safe and bring a cell phone so that I wouldn't have to run home like a maniac in a horror movie. Bu because of the choice I made, I had to deal with what I did.

The moral of THIS story is this. If you feel the Lord leading you to or fro, or if He is telling you something really specific, please don't brush it off. God loves us soo much and He only wants the best for us. If that means doing random tasks, do them.

Cause you don't want to wind up with a a cat named Fluffy stuck to your arm.

I can go on and on with the fact that Jesus died so that not only could we be saved, but that we could also live a happy and prosperous life. But today I’m feeling rather frank and to the point so answer me this would you: Why are Christians so angry?

You may not agree with me on this. Not too many people I know have (probably because they are the angry ones…).

Now more than ever in a time of not only economic distress but spiritual and moral bankruptcy have I seen more and more Christian opting for the easy way out. Instead of loving one another the way Jesus loves us, we would rather whine, and complain and judge others and do anything that will get our minds of whatever situations we are in. And excuse me if you are getting offended by this but I’m not afraid to be honest!

I’m not perfect by any means I still find myself struggling with the whole ‘slow to anger’ thing. But I know that at i'm least doing everything I can to not let it win in the rough times.

I think it’s time that we as followers of Christ took a good look in the mirror, and by mirror I mean the Bible. The Word is the believer’s mirror. It maps out how we are supposed to live our lives, what we are supposed to say, what we are meant to do…IT defines us.

For far too long now we have been acting no different then this word acts. And yet we STILL wonder why they think they are better than Christians, often times, they might just act better than we do…is that the way God wanted His children remembered on this earth?

Here a few steps that I seriously think we need to try implying for just one day, who knows, you might actually like it and want tot stick with it.
-Be SLOW to anger and quick to love. You know satan just loves it when we begin to curse our enemy’s instead of proclaiming prayers and a heart change for them.
-Okay people, enough with the Judge Judy act. It says in the world that we have NO right to judge anyone. Yet why do I see Christians call people fat, ugly, stupid, lazy, idiots, and a bunch of other stuff more than I do children of the world?
-Pray and pray HARD. Pray is one of the best tools that we as Christians have been given. Whether it’s in the rough times or the best times, God deserves our thanks, our prayers and our praise.
-Be careful of your influences. What we watch on TV in moves, hear in music, see on video games and even the people who we hang out with and the things they say and do. You can deny this till your face turns blue but it DOES affect our lives and how we live. When we expose our ears and our hearts to garbage, you may not see the side effects right now but take it from someone who has had to deal with it…it will come back and bite you later if you keep letting it in now. Change the what you watch, see and do. Even if they are small, or even if it’s cutting off something or someone totally. You’ll be thankful that you did it in the end.

Moral of the story here peeps? Take some times and realize that we have been set apart by God. That although we have made mistakes that we can be forgiven, and most of all: to not go back that way. To start living as children of the Most High God, children of the Light. And to not let anger rule over us anymore.