Choose Your Friends Wisely

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, you probably see other people at least once a week.

Maybe you see some of them consistently. Maybe you consider yourself friends with some of

them. We are supposed to spread the gospel and witness to others, of course, and that requires

being friendly with people, but being too friendly with un-saved people can be very dangerous.

This may seem like an exaggeration, but it isn’t.

Friends will influence your life and you may not even realize how they’re influencing you. This

could include how you spend your free time, how you speak, or how you dress. Solomon, who

was likely the wisest human being to ever live (in exception to Jesus, of course), fell to idolatry

because of who he surrounded himself with, and the kingdom of Israel split in two.

It’s easy to think,

‘Well, if we become friends, then I can help him/her with their sin’

. It’s a

mistake. You are a sinful human with a sin nature, meaning that if you become closely

associated with somebody who is clearly living in a way they shouldn’t, they are almost

guaranteed to drag you down instead.

Now, you may be thinking,

‘Well Jesus ate dinner with a bunch of not-so-nice people’

. Yes. Key

words ‘ate dinner’

. Jesus wasn’t afraid to be kind to or talk to a bunch of ‘not-so-nice people’

,

but do you see Jesus making a known criminal one of his disciples (yes, Judas stole money and

later betrayed Jesus, but that would likely be an entire other paper on Jesus’ behavior)? No. Did

he still love and care about the thief on the cross? He did.

That’s the key: you can, and should, still care about, be polite, kind, etc. to other people, even if

they’re not saved, but don’t surround yourself with them. You will come to regret it eventually.

Your friends are some of the biggest influences in your life, so make sure they’re good influence.

-John

Fruit of The Spirit, Part 4-Longsuffering (Patience)

Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Patience is one of the hardest things to practice, whether it’s focusing on a hard project, teaching a young child, or even just putting up with some people. Whenever you are having a hard time being patient, remember how patient God is.

Many times in the bible, God keeps giving second chances to many people, including the Jews, and many other people, including Paul the apostle. Paul was persecuting and arresting Christians, but God gave him a second chance, and he trusted Christ as his savior, and was able to do so much for God.

He has patience with us as well, and even though we do some pretty stupid things, and he always gives his children so many chances to follow him.

-Natalia

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff- Week 4

Hello everyone. Welcome to “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff” week 4. I know I keep saying this but I need to. Please remember that everything in quotation marks is straight from the book.

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“Nothing helps build our perspective more than developing compassion for others. Compassion is a sympathetic feeling. It involves  the willingness to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, to take the focus off of yourself and to imagine what it would be like to be in someone else’s predicament, and simultaneously, to feel love for that person. It’s recognition that other people’s problems, their pain and frustrations, are every bit as real as our own - often worse. In recognizing this fact and trying to offer some assistance, we open our own hearts and greatly enhance our sense of gratitude.

Compassion is something you can develop with practice. It involves two things: intention and action. Intention simply means you remember to open your heart to others; you expand what and who matters, from yourself to other people. Action is simply the What do you do about it?  You might donate a little money or time ( or both ) on a regular basis to a cause near to your heart. Or perhaps you’ll offer a beautiful smile and genuine Hello to the people you meet on the street. It’s not so important what you do, just that you do something. As  Mother Treasa reminds us, “We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with great love.”

Compassion develops your sense of gratitude by taking your attention off of all the little things that most of us have learned to take too seriously . When you take time, often, to reflect on the miracle of life - the miracle that you are even able to read this book - the gift of sight,of love, and of all the rest, it can help to remind you that many things that you think of as big stuff are really just small stuff  that you are turning into big stuff.”

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Well thats all for today see you next week. 

                                 Sophie Shearman