Suffering

If God is so good,
why is there so much suffering in our world?

Does God want you to be rich?

This Time mag. came out a few weeks ago and it asks
a great question, does God want you to be rich?
This is similar to the post I made about WWJD or What
would Jesus Drive?
Have we as American Christans gone too far on the spending?
What does scripture have to say about money?

James 1.19-27 by Trent (Sr. at Topsail)

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it---he will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

I just thought that i would share this with you guys b/c I believe that it is so true. For example when it says "do not merely listen to the word, and so decieve yourselves. do what it says." and it goes on about looking in the mirror. I think that alot of times some of us when we go to church or to youth group and we listen to the teachings and we learn. That alot of times we remember it for that short of time and forget about when really we should be taking that lesson that we learned and using it to bring others to Christ, and also we sometimes do not take that lesson and apply it in our life. It also says "but doing it---he will be blessed in what he does." You learn so much from this that little piece that just makes you think. I thought that I would just share that with you guys and feel free to make a comment. I would love to hear what you would have to say.


"Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."

Doozie #3 "W.hat W.ould J.esus D.rive?"

Here are some thoughts to get the ball rollin' on a new issue:
What Would Jesus Drive?
If JC came to Wilmington today, where would he live? what job would He have? what would He wear? and what would he drive?


**You can still comment on the 2 topics below; War and Worry.
You all have done great...spread the word and keep the comments coming!

Help me answer this question!!!

There are about 10 "doozies" or hard questions that I frequently get asked. I will post one below and I want you to give HONEST feedback....don't tell me what I want to here. Here we go:

Should Christians fight in war?

ooooooooo this should get interesting!!!


( click on the "comment" thingy below to respond and make sure and put your first name down so we know who made the comment)

if you don't like this topic or Rob Bryan's intimidates you with his big words (:
please comment on the topic below called "worry". Trent made a good comment last week on it.

God is Good,
Nate

Meeting!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello everybody, I just wanted to remind you guys and gals about the meeting Wensday for the D-groups and stuff at 6:30. I hope I see you there. Much Love Family!!!!!!

Kara learns to blog!

hey fold! i just learned how to do this and i want to encourage everyone to learn to blog on here and we can all write back! (its kind of like our fold group on facebook, but this is something everyone can use!) anywho, this is just my practice run, ill be writing more later! love you all, God Bless! - Kara

Worry

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own." - Matt. 6:34

For 10 verses in 6th chapter of Matthew, Jesus talks to His followers about "worry",
Telling them to stop fussing over clothes, their bodies, food etc. All the things He mentioned about worry and all the things you and I tend to worry about are usually "things"! Even if we are worrying about bigger issues such as Death, Salvation, or BOYFRIENDS....Jesus still calls us not to worry.

Hear me out....

I believe that the word "worry" in this context means to get so worked up about something that you lose the big picture of what God has called us to see. The other thing is that if we are worrying....we aren't Trusting God. While tests, relationships, our future, war and many other things often cause us to panic....as followers of Christ, He asks us to do something different. JC asks us to place whatever it is that causes us to freak out and to put it in His hands. If we actually did this....it would sound something like this;

"God...I am making myself crazy stressing out about college next year. Tonight I ask you God to take this worry from me and give me the strength to seek your guidance as i get ready to college. Help me to calm down and give me a peace about this big decision:

With a prayer like the one above...God has helped you turn WORRY into Trust.

Proverbs 3:5-6
"TRUST in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge HIM and HE will make your paths straight."

I'm at the Vreelands house as I write this and I found this picture on Marie's computer from the Guatmala mission trip that our church took this summer.
The picture reminded me of TRUSTing that God is taking care of us in many different ways. The children in this picture are precious in God's sight and He watches over them as He watches over us.....as He even watches over the sparrow.

Let Go and Let God!
Nate

( Here is the drill..when you read these little thoughts I put on this blog, I want you to make a comment on the comment thing below, but don't say "that was cool" or something like that. I want all of you to continue the thought by "adding" to my writing. Post your thoughts or prayer requests and make sure and put your name at the bottom if you want. I hope that students, college kids, and everyone else will feel free to post a comment. I'm actually going to give the password to this blog out to several people so that you can post your own thoughts about faith or pictures on this blog.
This is a new idea for the FOLD...........but i think it will be good!