It's His

You know, if we're honest with ourselves, living out your faith can suck sometimes. We always say that we "want to show Christ in our lives" and we "want to shine God's light" but, do we ever actually do it? Sure, we might wear a t-shirt every now and then that might say something slightly religious on it but, do we ever get out there, roll up our sleeves, and SHOW God to our friends? Some of you might. I know that I have been struggling with living out my faith recently. I get this stupid idea in my mind that what people think of me is more important than glorifying my God. Dumb, right? I try hard to live a life that reflects God but this little thing called "the world" keeps getting in the way. Y'all know what I'm talking about. You get everything going how it's supposed to be and then Friday night comes along. You hang out with friends that might not be Christian and you joke around and, all of a sudden, that Christian life you were living is out the window. It says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” See, God made us. We are a temple of Him. Why would we not glorify the Creator of...well...everything? Give God the glory. He deserves it.

[re]mix

This blog doesn't have much of a theme. I have just had some things on my heart this week. This past week, I was at Passport camp with my youth group. I've been struggling with a lot of things recently like breakups and other drama that doesn't need to be happening in the first place. All of those things have brought me away from God and I was scared. Austin, the camp pastor, BROUGHT it this week. He wasn't scared to step on toes, and that's what I needed. My life was messed up and I needed God to get down here with me, roll up His sleeves, and get messy with me. I thought I had control over my life. I thought things were okay. I was completely wrong though. You see, God has to be center of EVERYTHING if your life is going to work. Relationships without God are useless. Pointless. A waste of time. God is the Creator of this world and we think we can leave Him out of our lives? We couldn't be any more naive. Honestly, do you think you can do a better job with your life than the God who created you? Do you think you can do better than the God that gave you life and can give you death? I've come to the realization that I am NOTHING without Christ. If He's not the center of everything, anything I do is for not. This life that I live right now is my one shot to bring others to Christ. Why should I waste it by trying to do things myself?

-Carter L.

Testimony...

I had to write my testimony for Work Crew so I thought I might as well post it on here...

I was raised in a very Christian, southern family in Florence, South Carolina. I went to church every Sunday and every Wednesday and I was in all of the church plays as a kid and sang in the children’s choir. I basically lived at my church. One summer, I went to my friend’s church for Vacation Bible School. During the week, I felt like God was moving in my life. Sure, I might have only been 10 years old but, I felt something. I felt like there was something there that I had never felt before. So that day, I accepted God into my life and became a Christian. A few Sundays later, I stood in front of my church family and proclaimed my faith. I was baptized a few Sundays after that and finalized my faith. Ever since, I have had struggles and triumphs while being a Christian. When I was younger, being a Christian just meant that I went to church every Sunday and wore cool t-shirts. As I grew older, things became more evident that I needed to be living out a Christ-like life. I needed to act more like the Father that I claimed to follow. I went to a great church with an amazing youth group that tested me daily to be more like my Savior. I grew immensely in my faith over the years that I lived in South Carolina. Just as I was getting a fire for God that I had never seen before, I got the news that I would be moving to Waynesboro, Virginia. I was torn to pieces by the news. How could I leave the place I grew up? How could I leave my friends and family and the best church ever? I asked God these questions at least 100 times a day. I moved around a lot when I was younger but this had been the hardest move of my life. I got to Waynesboro and slowly started making friends but things still weren’t the same. I went to First Baptist Church of Waynesboro, a church with a significantly smaller youth group. I struggled to get anything out of the sermons and I struggled to keep my faith as strong as it had been. A girl I was dating at the time told me about Young Life and how awesome and fun it was. I had been to a few Clubs when I lived in Florence so I thought it would be a good place to find friends and, hopefully, grow some more in my faith. So I went to Club and Campaigners regularly and things were slowly starting to look better for me. My faith was pretty lukewarm at this point. I was still mad at God for pulling me away from Florence but, I was starting to realize what was in store for me in Waynesboro. I knew that He brought me here to spread my faith and bring what I had learned in Florence to my friends and church in Waynesboro. Over the next two years, I had a few ups and downs with my faith because of death, break ups, and other problems that arose. Recently, I had a very rough break up with my girlfriend that I had been dating for a year. I was mad at God for taking her away from me but, I still found myself going to Him for everything. I would ask Him to bring her back to me but I would also thank Him for that day’s advances in me and my ex-girlfriend’s relationship. I tried to find some good in the break up. I spent more time with my other friends and tried to strengthen those relationships. I have also tried to strengthen my relationship with God. I’m trying to make my relationship with God the most important thing in my life. It’s tough but, I know He needs to be first priority.

Carter L.

Why?

I have a few things to get off of my chest so I apologize in advance. Sometimes I'm no sure what God is trying to tell me. Things go wrong, I ask questions. I know I need to trust God. A lot of people try to do things for themselves and not rely on God. Myself included. Things have seemed to not been going the way I would like recently and so I've been asking "why" over and over again. Why do people I love have to pass away? Why do my friends leave me and disappoint me? Why do the people I love decide I'm not quite lovable enough? I ask God all of these things but, guess what He says? Trust Me. It's hard to trust Him with everything in my life. Especially when I try my hardest to fix everything and yet everything STILL goes wrong. But God still says "trust me."

Proverbs 5:3 says "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." God wants us to trust Him and not rely on ourselves to solve all of our problems. He knows what to do. He knows everything. All we can do is hope to fix everything but, God has the power to do whatever He wants. He will do what is best for us and we will be tested and in the end, we will be stronger. God has everything under control, guys. So just trust Him.

-Carter L.

Bow Ties and Believing

When holidays roll around, we all think about the traditions and fun times that are associated. For Easter, I get excited about getting on my nice khakis, a crisp, white dress shirt, a paisley bow tie, and a nice blue sport coat. Why do we focus on these things during these amazing holiday seasons?? The Son of GOD died on a CROSS for us and we're worried about buying a new bow tie or sun dress! Sure, I'm just as guilty as the next guy so we all need to get our priorites in order and realize that God doesn't care what we're wearing on Easter Sunday. All He cares about is that His Son died on a cross two thousands years ago to save OUR lives and take away our sins. And guess what?? We should be doing the same thing. We should be reflecting on what Easter is all about. We should be thinking about the pain and suffering that Jesus went through. We should be thinking about the glorious ressurection of our Jesus Christ. He did it for us, guys. For each and every one of us. We are no longer burdened by sin because our Savior, our EVERYTHING died to set us free. THAT is the real Easter. Think about it.

-Carter L.

Work Crew

As many of you know, I have a strong passion for YoungLife and I feel that it is a great tool to bring students to Christ. Therefore, I applied and got accepted to YoungLife's work crew this summer at Lake Champion in New York. I will be at Lake Champion for the whole month of June doing different jobs around the camp ensuring that things run as smoothly as possible for the students there. I could either be doing dishes for a month, doing landscaping, or other things like that. Work crew is strictly volunteer but I think it will be the greatest opportunity of my life. I'm asking for as much prayer as people can give because I am very nervous about this. I know that God has everything under control and He will definitely be close by my side for that entire month.

-Carter

It's ALL Good!

People complain about different organizations that are, supposedly, "cults" or places that all of the bad people go. One of these places is Young Life. Even though thousands of people come to know the Lord through camps and club. The reason Young Life gets the bad wrap about being a place that all of the bad people go is because Young Life is an organization that tries to get people who don't have a relationship with God to come and hopefully learn something. Who cares if it's not led by a youth pastor and who cares if it's not in a youth building?? It's led by people who love God and it's a place where friends and fellow believers come to have fun and fellowship. I'm sorry if I hurt someone's feelings but, guys, get over it! Everything doesn't have to be done by the book. If Christians were the only ones that went to Young Life then, what would be the point?? The point of Young Life is to give students a place to go on Wednesday nights that is safe. A place that they can learn things about their Creator and a place that is filled with people who love them. So be happy that people are coming to Christ and get over your own preferences and wrong ideas. Be happy.

-Carter L.