Want to see the cutest fight ever? Watch this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl6H2fWsEPg

Even though the little kids in the video are cute when they argue, real-life arguments are not always cute! Sometimes at school, our friends might take our pencil without giving it back. At home, your parents might move your toys to a place you didn't want them to be. Your brother or sister might hit you for no reason. All of these things can result in an argument.

So how should a Christian behave during an argument? (I will be putting in Biblical references. Try to see if you can find them in your Bible!)

First of all, it's important to remember that Christians do argue! Christians are no different from non-Christians. We have the same sins, the same human urges to fight back, and the same feelings as non-Christians. This is exactly why we need Jesus-- so that He can redeem the sinful qualities that we have.

However, as a Christian, we are called to behave differently during an argument than non-Christians. We must first love our God and then love our neighbors (Matthew 22:37-40). A way that we can love our  neighbors is by putting their interests before our own interests (Philippians 2: 3-4). So what does that mean? It means that when we are in an argument, sometimes we have to put the interest of  the person we are arguing above our own interest, which may mean trying to understand their point of view even though you just want to make them hear what you have to say. Sometimes it means letting go of the argument altogether and letting them have their way (which can be okay if it's not a matter of sin).  Sometimes it just means softening your heart to them and saying, "I love you more than winning this argument."

So the next time you find yourself arguing with a friend or a family member, whether big or little, remember that
Christ has called us to love one another in the way He has loved us (1  John 4:19)

Until  next time,

During my visit, I went to Santa Cruz, which was about an hour away from where I was staying.The drive was beautiful with winding roads surrounded by tall, evergreen trees. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy, winter day in Santa Cruz, so  there wasn't much to do. After a while, we decided to head back, especially  since it was about to rain.

As we started driving back on that same highway, the sky became darker, and the rain began to fall. We drove along the same winding highway taking the left lane  to avoid puddles on the side. As we rounded a curve in the road, we saw a line of red lights. There was traffic! The driver braked to slow down, and we should  have been able to stop well away from the car in front of us. However, California does not get much rain, and the tires weren't made to stop in rain.  The car started to slip on the wet road. The driver kept braking, but there was  no point! The tires just couldn't stand the wet pavement. I was in the passenger seat, staring at the two red lights in front of me growing larger and larger as  we neared the car in front of us. In my head, I knew, "We are going to hit the car in front of us. We are going to get into an accident. There's nothing else we can do."

All of a sudden, the driver swerved into the right lane and  then continued onto a temporary shoulder and halted to a stop. After we collected ourselves and calmed down, we continued back home. A few minutes   later, we saw the cause of the traffic. Someone else had gotten into an accident  because of the slippery roads.

We knew that we were only safe because of God's grace. Grace is receiving a gift that we do not deserve. We, as sinners, do not deserve safety and protection. Without grace from God, we would live in a world  without safety, without protection, without love, without kindness, without structure, without anything good. But because God has grace, we are able to love one another, have families, eat every day, and live in safety. We do not deserve a single blessing because of our sins, but we receive so much because God graciously loves and provides for us.

It was by God's grace that we did not hit the car in front of us. It was by God's grace that the driver made the snap judgment to swerve into the right lane. It was by God's grace that the car in the right lane was not close enough to hit us. It was by God's grace that there happened to be a shoulder in that section of the  highway (other parts did not have one) so that we could stop. And it was by God's grace that I was not the one who got into an accident that night.  

Knowing God's grace,we, as Christians, should make every effort to be thankful for everything that we have because they are all gifts from God. We should not see things as our own, but as blessings given to us by God.

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 

Until next time,

Greetings from sunny (but cold) California!

I wish that I could have stayed another week with you guys, but I hope that all of you have still remembered some of the things I have taught you about discipleship and knowing how to be closer to God. 

Next week I will be going back to school, and I am looking forward to seeing my friends and meeting new ones along the way. How was the first day of school for you after a long break? Was it great to see some of your friends that you haven't talked to in a while? Maybe you were able to share some cool stories about things you did over winter break or maybe you told them all about the presents you received. Hopefully some of you even told your friends about going to church and how God loves them!

It is always a wonderful thing to see a good friend because we know that we can play with them, share with them, fight with them, and still love them. That friend is always there for you no matter what! If you haven't found a friend like that, I know of a really great friend that can be all of that for you: Jesus Christ. Jesus is the best friend we can ever have, and is even the perfect role model for what a friend should be like. Because Jesus is the best friend that we can have, it is important to spend time with Him to build a friendship with Him.

The best way that we can do that is through prayer. Sometimes praying feels like a burden...especially when they are really long prayers right before eating a delicious meal! However, prayer has been given to us as a privilege through grace, a way that we can freely speak to God without having to do anything. We don't have to walk around a huge building seven times, and we don't have to go through a priest to talk to Him either. He wants us to get to know Him wherever we are. He loves to hear us talk to Him and loves to hear what we have to say to Him (even though He already knows what we will say before we even say it!).

Because Jesus is an amazing friend to us, we want to be an amazing friend to Him too! A great way to do that is through hanging out with Him through prayer.

I have been blessed to see a lot of my friends on my trip to California who also pray for me and with me!

Until next time,

Last week, I was able to introduce the idea of discipleship. This week, I want to take it a step further by talking about how sometimes it's good to be FAT. FAT doesn't stand for how your body looks! It acutally stands for: Faithful, Available, and Teachable. I didn't come up with on my own, but I've seen it used many times to teach discipleship. Here's what it looks like:

Faithful
Being faithful means not only being faithful to God, but also being faithful to your family, friends, work, school, and obligations. It means practicing faithfulness in all situations because the more faithful we are in one situation, the more faithful we can be in another. For instance, we can practice faithfulness by always attending our swimming/piano/soccer lessons or Sunday school so that we build up the habit to be faithful to God.

Available
Being available means that you open yourself up to being changed by God and others. To be available to be changed by God requires that you come to God willing to give up your sinful nature, even if it might be super hard to give up. For example, it might be very difficult to stay patient with others, but when we make ourselves available to God, we humbly ask that God help us to stay patient when we don't want to be. Also, we make ourselves available to others by asking them to help us grow by pointing out sins in our lives or being available to serve them if they are in need of help. 

Teachable
Being teachable requires humility in front of God and others by saying "God, I am a weak sinner and I can't do this on my own. Would you teach me how to be more like You?" We know that God has a perfect nature, and that He also has the power to change us. Therefore, only God can teach us the right ways! However, we can also learn about how sinful we are or how we can lead more righteous lives when we interact with others. So being teachable in front of others means that we accept that sometimes, someone else might know more about something than we do, and we ask them for help or prayer.

So these are three ways that we can become better disciples of Christ!

Also since you guys wanted some videos, I attached below links:
This is a dance in an outreach event a few years ago. The original version of the song by the artist John Mark McMillan- one of my favorite artists!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkpwS5qN0GI&feature=fvsr
And a cool video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtSMlNizIWM&feature=related

Until next time,

Matthew 28: 18-19 (NIV)
"Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

This is what is known by Christians as the "Great Commission," that we as Christians should take steps to share about who Jesus is to everyone we know and even those people in other areas of the world. But to "make disciples of all nations," we must first understand what it means to be a disciple!

A disciple is a follower of someone who has more knowledge, wisdom, and guidance. As a Christian, we know that the person who has the most knowledge, the most wisdom, and the most guidance is God! That means that a Christian must follow Christ because He has all knowledge, wisdom, and guidance.

The first thing we should know about being a disciple of Jesus is that Jesus must be in all parts of our lives. Most of the time when we think of disciples, we think of the 12 men who lived closely with Jesus as he went around to various places to preach. (check out this song about the 12 disciples if you don't know who they are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiNJ4ATJVQk&feature=related). They ate with Jesus, prayed with Jesus, talked with Jesus, learned from Jesus, and did everything with Jesus. They give us a good model of how to be a good disciple of Jesus.

Being His disciple means that we also eat with Jesus, pray with Jesus, talk with Jesus, learn from Jesus, and do everything with Jesus. That even means that Jesus is there when we are doing homework, when we are spending time with family, and even when we are playing Just Dance! All things can be shared with Jesus. By allowing Jesus to be in all areas of our life, we can learn how to be a good disciple of Jesus and how to make disciples in all nations.

When I was learning this, I found a great saying, which I shared below with you. I liked the saying so much that I decorated a sign that I could hang up in my room to remind myself to let God into all areas of my life. You can do this too with any verse or quote or saying that you think will remind you how to be a good disicple of Jesus.