Hebrews 11:39: They were all commended for their faith. . .God had planned something better.

Written for a friend who just lost someone very special

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn something. ~ Oswald Chambers

I read this quote this morning and it stopped me. .

What does this mean? When things are tough, like when I had cancer or when my son was hurt, and things were dark, what did I need to unlearn?

Is God cruel? No. But all the things I trusted weren’t working. I wasn’t strong enough or smart enough to fix it. I didn’t have all the answers, and no one was lining up with a one-two-three formula that would make it all go away.

But I could trust God. No matter the outcome, I had something stable and beautiful and strong. It brought peace into a situation that wasn’t peaceful. It allowed me to celebrate in a time when there was nothing to celebrate. I was able to laugh, to live, and to move forward.

I remember people saying how strong I was in those times, and yet I knew that I was as weak as I had ever been. It wasn’t me. It was my faith in something greater than myself or my situation.

Perhaps what I unlearned during those hard times is my total self-sufficiency. I was strong, but my greater strength came in walking day by day, and at times minute by minute, with Christ.

The Power of Friendship

By Jamin Goecker, RTF Staff Writer

Do you have a powerful friendship? Can you rate it by how many texts you get ending with LOL? What can be expected from a strong friendship anyway?

Writers Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were friends throughout their lives. They critiqued each other’s works which later became known as The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.

William Wilberforce and William Pitt helped end the slave trade in the British Empire. (more…)

Crawl

By Derrick Hanisch, Guest Writer, 21

One of my favorite bands is Superchick. Sad, but true. One of my highlights of Sonshine was seeing them perform. I even stood in line to get a poster autographed. It was really cool. Yes, while Superchick does sing about being a one girl revolution, and about how every girl is beautiful, they have some really cool lyrics.

I was listening to their newest CD today. I’ve listened to it a lot, and there’s one song that really stands out to me. It’s called “Crawl”:

How long will this take?
How much can I go through?
My heart, my soul aches
I don’t know what to do
I bend but don’t break
And somehow I’ll get through
’cause I have you (more…)

Americans are willing to expend some energy in religious activities such as attending church and reading the Bible, and they are willing to throw some money in the offering basket. Because of such activities, they convince themselves that they are people of genuine faith. But when it comes time to truly establishing their priorities and making a tangible commitment to knowing and loving God, and to allowing him to change their character and lifestyle, most people stop short. We want to be ’spiritual’ and we want to have God’s favor, but we’re not sure we want him taking control of our lives and messing with the image and outcomes we’ve worked so hard to produce.” – George Barna

Always Near

By Debra Weiss, RTF Staff Writer

You’ve sat in the waiting room more times than you can count, know more doctors than seems fair for someone your age.

You can probably speak more medical lingo than even the most accomplished doctors—and you’ve yet to graduate high school.

You have withstood test after test. Hospital stays become the norm while doctors scratch their heads. Then it’s on to a new drug, a new list of side effects to be alert for.

Friends are few and far between. Most of them are out doing “normal” teenage things while you’re just struggling to get by.

You try to stay strong. But words like faith and hope seem like foreign concepts most days.

You’ve tried praying but the only word you get out is “God…” before you stop because the pain is just too big for words.

You are the chronically ill teenager. . . (more…)

Barnabas was a man in the Bible who traveled with Paul. His name meant “son of encouragement” and that’s exactly what he did as he moved from place to place.

A group of teens from Central Ohio decided to travel around their nation on a Barnabas bus for the summer. It was a different kind of missions trip. They decided to go where the need was, and to encourage people they met on the way.

They started at the Salvation Army Worship center. They hung out with the kids, dressed up as clowns and ministered, and performed several community projects in the local community such as painting the gym at the Salvation Army and helping build a house for the Habitat for Humanity. They traveled to New Mexico and ministered to the Navajo Indians and then to Los Angeles where they spent time with homeless men, women, and children.

The teens gave up two months of summer vacation, but feel like they gained much more than they gave up.

To read the entire article, go to: Faith Powers Teens on Cross Country Trek, Central Ohio.com, July 15, 2008 – Kurt Moore, Marion Star