well, basically the Classroom of God is the world. we learn from God all the time, through the Bible, but also through what we see & experience around us. God using everything to teach us something (whether or not we pay attention is another thing ;) ). i just wanted to see what everyone was learning from God. it could be what He's been showing you through prayer, the Bible, your friends, or even your english class.

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God has been showing me lately how much influence i've had. i've always looked at myself as a guy who fits in with the background. someone a lot of people know, but rarely anyone ever notices or really takes time to know. but lately i've been seeing the influence God has used me to make. it's so awesome to see how many lives i've touched. & i know it's not even a full list. a week or so ago i was just so struck with that feeling that it was all i could do but fall on my face & worship God for how awesome He is that He would use me, even tho i how awful my sin is to Him. He is so good. sometimes i just want to shout it out. ;D :o

I've always loved this thread. :)

Lately God has been reminding me that I need to always praise Him, and always be diligent in my walk............no matter what. Even when I don't feel like it, He still wants me to. Sometimes I am just too worn out and tired and I don't feel like reading my Bible....but He honors my "sacrifice" when I do. Sometimes I feel down and out and I don't feel like praising God....but I still should because He deserves it. I think that the dry, hard times when we are going through the "valleys" in life.......those are the times that God strengthens us and teaches us and streches us. Lately there have been several times where I just wanted to take a break and be completly absorbed in myself, but Jesus persistently called to me asking to spend time with me. He is so faithful, and so patient, and so forgiving. I don't understand why I wouldn't want to be worshiping Him every moment. My lasy flesh gets the best of me.

So, I guess the whole point of that was - if you don't feel like doing it.......do it anyways, lol! ;)

ditto, i guess. God's always doing a lot for me, but that's one of the most important right now. i need to commit more to devotions. God's reminding me that if there's anything to make time for in my day, it's Him.
I'm also really trying to rely on God for my future and not just run my own life. Mainly, figuring out where I'm gonna go to college: He's called me to youth ministry, but i need to figure out what college. and the rest of my life, too. So God's reminding me to let Him decide.

God's been teaching me that I can influence people I know, in a good way, and that he can use me. I'm just blown away that I'm able to do what I can for him.

I'm also really trying to rely on God for my future and not just run my own life. Mainly, figuring out where I'm gonna go to college: He's called me to youth ministry, but i need to figure out what college. and the rest of my life, too. So God's reminding me to let Him decide.


that is another God is showing me. He is smarter than i could ever hope to be. add on His Wisdom too & He can figure out the best course for my life sooner than you could figure out 4 - 3. there are so many different paths to choose on the Road of Life that it's only reasonable to let Him choose them for you. doing that is another thing, however. ;) but i'm right there with ya bluflame.

& Skelfy, it sounds like you're learning along the same lines as myself. :) isn't it cool to think how God can use us even tho we see ourselves as faulty? i mean, we are faulty. sin makes us so. but God is able to go past the faults. :D it's great!

My lesson for today: No matter how many times you fall down, there is always another chance to get back up and try again.

God is soooooo merciful and patient! It amaizes me how He always gives us more chances. 2nd chances, 3rd chances.............57th chances, lol! I am in awe of Him right now and I am at a loss of words to describe it.

The lesson I learned this past week:

If you take a burning ember out of the fire and set it on the ground by itself, it will slowly cool off and die out..............but if you put it back in the fire with the others it will light up and burn again. :)

Amen to that Ember... It's always good to be reminded of that...

Ember that's so true. God showed me that on Monday, we had a cell meeting at the hostel of my high school. And it was just amazing as we prayed for each other, the presence of God, was there.

We need each other. It is one of the most important lessons that we can learn. I've not fully learnt it yet, cause there's still some things I can feel God poking a t in my life, but I know that he will help me deal with it in due time.

I'm listening to Savior. And it is just awesome, the part where John sings:

There's nothing left to loose,
There's nothing left to prove.
Surrender your love, it's all you can do.

What you got.What you want, what you need
Gonna be your savior
Everythings gonna crash and break.!

It's time to redefine, your diaphobic mind
Don't hesitate, no escape from secrets on the inside

There's nothing left to loose,
There's nothing left to prove.
Surrender your love, it's all you can do.

Lately God's been telling me to watch my witness. Like, He keeps reminding me that I need to be more Christ-like around everybody so that they can see Him in me. Yeah.

that's something we all need to remember inscrutable, constantly.

i've begun praying for God to give me the fear of Him. i've always grown up thinking of God as my Father & the Lover of my soul, but i've never had that "fear of the Lord" you read about in the Bible. let's see how God responds to my requests. :)

yesterday in church, I was going through proverbs in the prayer time. And God showed me in proverbs:

The unrighteous walks a path and the say that they know where they are going. The righteous walks the path that they have CHOSEN and don't turn from it.

And last night, I just started to think of how it would be if I didn't serve God ne more. And it feels empty. Graciously the Lord knows what will happen and gave me that verse hours before satan/demons tried to convince me that it is helpless to serve God. And when I was down I remembered the verse that I have read. And then I knew who I was. God stays faithfull, and Ive am in him.
Jesus is Lord.

Praise God for that! ;D :)

Praise God for speaking to you through His word and casting out the lie of the enemy! Satan will do whatever he can to discourage you and make you feel like you can't do anything............and pritty much just render you uneffective toward the kingdom of God. Stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. God is always faithful. :) Like He just was in drawing you back to Himself. You have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. You know the truth.......stand firm on the rock. :)

I'm really encouraged to hear that God did that for you. :) He is soooo good!

Yeah, God has a way to deal with everyone. Thanks for the encouragement. Glory to God, who is well able to keep us standing until the final judgement.

be warned, long post coming up. ;)

God showed me something the other day while i was praying. but before i get to that, let me give you a little background. :c) a couple months ago on the Alienyouth message board, there was a guy who was causing a lot of trouble just to cause trouble. from what his posts said, he seemed like he had once been a Christian, but was now on the opposite side of the spectrum (not demon worship, but simply against Christians and God). in fact, the only reason he came to the message board was to have something to do. anyway, getting to the point, this guy once said something to the effect of "I don't want to follow a God who thought of me as a runner-up behind the Jews."

it took me a while to reason out my own problems with that (he made a lot of people question their faith. even though i didn't go that far, he did make me question some of the things i had always taken for granted. a good thing actually). at the time i originally thought it out, this is the conclusion i came to. God was gonna save Israel through Jesus, but He knew the Jews would not accept Him as the Messiah. so He then opened it up to the Gentiles. but something about it was nagging me. it wasn't something that was eating me away, but it was nagging nonetheless. God revealed the fallacy in my original thought & showed me the true way.

God doesn't change His mind like we do. we change our minds on any old whim. but it takes strong prayer to get God to change His mind. (Moses did it) but even then, it's not really Him going back on His original decision. (but that's another subject for another day.) so since God doesn't change His mind, He must have had salvation for the Gentiles as the plan all along. so here is His plan as He revealed to me. i know i probably am getting some things wrong, but i'll use the excuse that i'm human & therefore imperfect. :cp

God would start a nation, but it would be a small one so nobody could say that they did it all on their own. this nation would be His chosen. but unlike what the Jews throughout the Old Testament thought, they weren't His only chosen. they saw themselves as God's nation, the one that would last forever while all the nations around them would fall. but being God's chosen really meant that they were the ones through which God would save the entire planet.

God is constantly using the small, the weak, the unassuming to change everything. He did it here too. He chose a small, weak, unassuming nation to send His Son, in a small, weak, unassuming way. but this man, though unassuming, was by no means small or weak. He was the purpose behind the entire nation of Israel all along. the only reason the Jews were chosen at all was because they were the "means to the end." although that was the best way i could think of describing it, that by no means does it. it makes God seem cold & cruel. but He's not. He didn't use them then turn them aside. He continues to protect them because even though they have fulfilled their purpose, they are still chosen. like i said before, God doesn't change His mind. once He says a nation is chosen, they are chosen.

and just think, this season coming up on us is the celebration of that plan coming to fruition. God coming into our skin, making this nation we call Israel the true chosen nation, & through them, everyone. because Jesus lived in a manger & died on a hill, we have become God's chosen. how awesome is that?! :c))

Ro 15:12
And again, Isaiah says: "There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope."

Isa 11:10
"And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious."

I agree with you unshakeable. Never do we have to feel that God didn't have us in the plan. Isaiah prophesied that all gentiles will be (is) part and can share in God's promises, cause we have a hope, even though we have nothing else, we have a hope in Jesus Christ.

We are part of God's plan. We always were.

Ga 3:8
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."

ok guys, in my job im extremely blessed in that i work within a great Christian team, and at the start of each week Mo (my boss), Nicole and myself have a get together and talk about our weekend and things happening in our lives and anything we would like prayer for....then we have prayer time but we also do this thing were we have a thought for the week.....just something that we feel God has been revealing to us lately and want to share.....so i thot this would make a good thread here....we can share something that we feel God has really put in our hearts....so here goes the first thought of the week (tho it cud be day/week/month/year, it doesn't really matter as long as u share)


Do we hold on with both hands?

hopefully some of you guys have seen the film...Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade....cus this kina helps to give you a picture of what i wanna say.....well in the film Indy is looking for the holy grail.....he finds it and takes it from the cave it has been guarded in for many years....and uses it too save his father who had been shot by the bad guy....the father is saved but then there is an huge earthquake (i imagine God's wrath because the holy grail...which is supposedly the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper....was taken from the guarded cave) and the ground begins to split and move causing everyone to fall...the cup rolls down one of the cracks and you see it rest on a ledge.....well a girl who had come along with Indy on his journey (who in the end turned out to be working for the bad guy) fell near the same place but Indy grabs her hand just in time and tries to pull her up....she sees the cup and tries to reach for it.....Indy tells her that he is losing his grip on her and that if she doesn't forget about the cup and reach out her other hand to him she is going to fall.....she keeps reaching out saying that she can almost get it....and then u see Indy's grip fail and she falls into darkness....causing Indy to fall too and then we see his father grab his hand.....so now Indy is in the position of the girl....he sees the cup and can almost reach out and take it...if he could only get a lil closer......his father is holding on tightly to one of his hands.....he tells him that he needs Indy's other hand to pull him out....but Indy says just a lil closer and he can grab the cup....his father then says to him, what is more important.....the cup that is just an object or his life..... Indy thinks about this and then turns his head looking at his father and reaches out his other hand to him and his father pulls him to safety.

yes a happy ending.....but think about this.....are we aiming so much for the material things in life that we are holding onto God with one hand while reaching out with the other for wealth, a good job, a big house, lotsa stuff, etc.....are we willing to let go of all these material things (that really truly mean nothing compared to what we could have in eternity with him) and give Him both our hands so that He can pull us to safety...are there things in our lives that we think...just a lil more...if i had just a little more money....a better car.....everything would be great.....we need to muster all our strength and reach out with both hands to God and let him save us.

forget about the material things in this life....we are already rich beyond anything our imaginations can comprehend because we are God's children....and to those who follow Him He gives abundantly....


Matthew 19:29
"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."


sorry this is so long guys but i just really wanted to share it with you... :)

That's a really good thought. Good example too.

Sometimes, in this material country/world, we need to hear things like that to remind us of who's truly important in our lives: God.

Definitely a very good thread. :)

(i squished your thread together with one i made a long time back with the same intent. hope you don't mind. ;))

God has been teaching me too trust Him-- ive heard that i need to my whole life but until you actually believe it 4 yourself it doesnt do anything-the knowing part----- also hes been convicting me of a friend-- shes not the best influence on me- but shes cool and a christian-- my parents have been hounding me about her- but untill u understand it 4 yourself hounding does nothing! so im just gonna be more cautous in my relationship with her--- i think its cool how God still spaeks to me even when i was goin thru such a hrad time jus a couple dayz ago--- Hes awesome!!

coolness.....didn't see this thread...oops....heehee.....thanks :)

that's 'cause it was buried way in the back. ;) it's ok. carry on!

weebird , thanks so much for sharing that word.. truly awesome.


within the past couple weeks, God has been talking to me about relationships... between us and God... christians and christians.. christians and nonchristians..

and i am still way floored by all the information...
what i've learned is that God made us to be relational, (i think thats part of God's image that we inherited)

so it goes:
god was lonely so he made adam. adam was lonely so God made Eve.... it seems like all of us really strive on relationships,
whether romantic, congenial, family-oriented or whatever. and SO many ppl are out there looking for that true love that wont let them down. its like God inbred in us to look for that someone - and surprise! the whole time it's God we are looking for. by our mistakes and trials we learn that we canNOT rely on other ppl to be everything for us. they will fail- guaranteed. and so we're left, betrayed by multiple ppl, and God comes around and says "hey, how bout you and me in a relationship." "i wont fail" "as a matter of fact, you will fail, and i'll still love you, how bout it??"

anyways.. all my thoughts are a bit scattered and not at all organized about all this.. theres so much more - but gosh, ive just been in awe over this simple concept lately..