Young Promises

When you make a promise to someone, a promise that you probably shouldn't have made, it makes it harder to let go... especially when you made the promise before you were old enough to know what you were saying.

It's hard for me to see little kids run after each other, having 'boyfriends" and "girlfriends" and telling each other they "love them".  It's got to be important to us to teach our kids and our younger peers in school that things like this aren't important--that it's more important to become a better person for God.  I don't like young relationships, mostly because I was in one that's been affecting the rest of my life, and I don't want some of their innocence to be ruined by a pitiful, easily avoided mistake.

But to keep this brief, I will admit, maybe it's good for them to learn young.  Not that they should have relationships in elementary, but that when they are a teen, they can learn somehow what is truly important to them and to life, somehow, someway, by God's plans.

I guess I wouldn't be writing this blog if it weren't for those times when I found myself crying out to God for help because of what I'd done.. but I still can't help but wish I hadn't said some of the things I had, like "I promise to always love you" when I was only fourteen years old.  But I do believe in God's promises--that he will use everything for our good (Rom. 8:28)--and so I just hope that he turns this into a good thing.

But what do you think?  What part should we play in young people's lives?

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will."
- Romans 12:2

Spiritual Truths

I have a creepy feeling inside of me.  Some part of God's spirit in me is predicting things and preparing my heart for things I do not know will happen.  How do I know this stuff??  Nothing in my body can tell me what I've known before it happened, and yet, somehow I knew it?
The night before Mrs. Hoffman died, I read Isaiah 57:1-2, and I prayed to God, "If you take her, keep her in heaven, because she is a wonderful woman and has done many things for You that no other woman I know has done."
A couple of hours ago, I read in Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, "There is a time for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die..." ...and as I read that, I knew somehow deep inside that this, in this moment, was talking about sweet little Julia... and now.. I hear that she has passed away... How can this happen?
The words of one of my new favorite songs screams out to me at this moment, because it's message is lining perfectly with my life, every second God is in control of me.

Alive Again - Matt Maher

Yes, I can see the light before I see the sunrise, and I can feel the wind before it hits my skin... it's so weird!
If anyone tries to tell you that the Spirit does not do things inside of a person that makes them know, say, or even understand things that cannot be understood by your body's senses, they do not know God!
God works amazing wonders.
I found it hard to believe such things even when my Bible teacher tried showing us it last year.  Honestly, he spoke in "tongues"--and it was weird! No idea what he said, and walking out of that class, all of my friends were like "Wow, do you believe that stuff? I think it's kinda crazy. Well, I don't really know, but yeah it was weird. I'm not sure."
But in that class, when he spoke whatever he did, it gave me some weird calmness.. and when he translated what he said... it spoke directly to me, into my life, and what I was going through at that time. He wasn't directing it toward anyone himself, but he faced me when he spoke it too. Interesting, huh..

Ever since then, I've looked for the Spirit, and I've found it here and there, in my life, and in others.
People find it hard to believe such a thing is true. Dying on the cross and being raised to life is a little less hard to believe than this, because this is something present.

Am I making any of this up? No; I wouldn't dare make a claim this big anywhere if I was not being truthful.
Does it line up with scripture? That someone can know things beyond herself because of the Spirit?
See for yourself:

    We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.  No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.  None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
    no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
   what God has prepared for those who love him" —
but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
    The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgement:
“For who has known the mind of the Lord
    that he may instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Reaching Out

Hey God,
How do you reach out to others?

Like the people so glued to their passions that they don't see You?
Those who believe they are doing right, but aren't seeing clearly?
Those so caught up in being worldly that they loose sight of what truly matters?
Those who cannot get past the lies of the world because they are too caught up in the imaginary utopia it impossibly promises?

How can I help them?
How do you plan on teaching them?
How do you show these people whom want to change the world that You are the answer to their problems?

How do you reach them in love?
How do you answer their questions?
How do you change them?

If you could let me know, or help me somehow, that would be great. I hate seeing them practically unreachable, and my attempts always appear 'forced upon them' or 'close-minded'.

With love,
Emily