Not My Own

I don't need to hear it's not my fault and I don't need anyone to explain to me why I should or shouldn't feel this way. I am a writer. I just need to write. I welcome those who care to read/listen and learn from whatever God is doing in my life. I am not my own, so everything He puts on my heart to write is for His glory. I pray He uses my life as an open book to help others grow closer to Him. When I tried calling Andrew I bumped some numbers that somehow had my dad's phone number on speed dial. When I saw his name pop up in my phone my heart sank. This is for real... not a dream. He really is gone and I should probably delete his number in my phone so that I can live in the reality that he is gone. There is no reason to keep his phone number any more. Yet, I cannot seem to make myself delete it. Maybe if I call the number I will hear his voicemail and I can just hear his voice! No, that's so stupid. Wake up Sam. He is gone. I hit send anyway and listened

A few days ago when I was getting a drink of water in the youth kitchen I heard something rustling around behind the cupboards. It scared the junk out of me for a second because I knew I was the only one in the youth area at the time. Then I remembered it was just my friend Stewart, the mouse. I saw his tiny gray body dash across the counter top and instead of shreaking in terror and complaining to the trustees I just smiled and calmly said, "Hello Stewart." I could stress out about the mouse and worry what others would think if they saw him, or I could make a new friend and maybe even create a new youth game called "Catch the Mouse and get a prize!". This new attitude started making me wonder why I stress so much about little things in life. I have been at our church for four years now and mice in the youth area have always been a problem. I try to remind everyone not to leave food out and to clean up etc. We have left mouse traps and had pest control come. Ho

This is a sermon written by one of my AMAZING students! I am blown away by his words and can hear God speaking clearly through this. I hope you can to!!!! Congregation, what should a church be like? I think it shouldn’t be a place to be at by 8:30 and squeak through, but a harbor for the lost and a spring of renewal for the redeemed. Let’s be honest though…is it really like that anymore? Do people come here to be rejuvenated in fellowship so that they may better spread the love of Christ? Or is it merely a place to come get your slate wiped clean so you can go about your life as normal? I see it every day, people who I KNOW are Christians, I know they love Jesus, but they’re sinning right along with rest of them. I’m not excluding myself, how else would I see it if I wasn’t right there with them? But today, on this great day celebrating our savior’s resurrection, I want to set things straight. Welcome to Sinners Anonymous! Now I know we can’t break this addictio