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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Be careful when choosing friends...
You might remember this story that came out in June of 2006: FBI: Mich. Girl Held in Jordan on Way Home
DETROIT — A 16-year-old girl who flew to the Middle East to see a man she met on MySpace.com was detained in Jordan and was headed home Friday, an FBI spokesman said.
U.S. officials persuaded Katherine Lester to take the return flight from Amman, FBI Special Agent Robert Beeckman said from the agency's Detroit office.
Katherine had disappeared from her home in Gilford, in eastern Michigan, on Monday and apparently planned to visit a man whose MySpace account describes him as a 25-year-old from Jericho, said Tuscola County Undersheriff James Jashinske.
The sheriff's department contacted the FBI, which traced the teen to a flight from New York to Amman, Jashinske said. On Thursday night, her family received word from U.S. officials that she had been stopped as she arrived in Amman en route to Tel Aviv, Israel.
Katherine's mother, Shawn Lester, said her daughter had persuaded her in April to help her get a passport so she could go on a two-week vacation to Canada with a friend's family.
On Sunday, they drove to a bus station for that trip, but the family didn't show up. Shawn Lester said she called them, learned there was no trip and brought her daughter home. The next day, Katherine was gone.
Jashinske said it remained unclear whether any law had been violated. An online conversation with a 16-year-old is not illegal in Michigan, but solicitation for sex would be. He said deputies confiscated the family's home computer and were taking it to the FBI's Bay City office Friday for analysis. FBI spokesman Brian Endrizal declined to provide any details and would not comment on the man's identity or background.
WHAT DOES TODAY'S SCRIPTURE TEACH US ABOUT CHOOSING FRIENDS?
The teenage girl from Michigan made a poor choice in getting to know the twenty-five-year old man from Jordan. She lied to her parents to go see the man. Thankfully, the authorities found her before what might have been a very sad ending to a disturbing story.
This does not mean that followers of Christ should not become friends with unbelievers. That's the best way to communicate Christ's love. But we must be smart about who we hang out with.
Ask yourself if unbelievers are being drawn to Jesus because of your friendship, or are you being pulled away from Christ by them? Are your closest friends people who want to be close to Jesus?
* Write out an honest evaluation of your friendships. List your 10 closest friends. Which ones are helping you become like Jesus? Which ones are not? Are you making progress in helping them learn about Christ's love or are they pulling you away from Christ?
* Spend some time with an older Christian friend who can share Godly wisdom with you. If you don't have a friend like this, pray for God to bring this kind of friend into your life.
* If you are a MySpace user, evaluate if it is a positive or negative influence in your relationship with Jesus. BE HONEST!
U.S. officials persuaded Katherine Lester to take the return flight from Amman, FBI Special Agent Robert Beeckman said from the agency's Detroit office.
Katherine had disappeared from her home in Gilford, in eastern Michigan, on Monday and apparently planned to visit a man whose MySpace account describes him as a 25-year-old from Jericho, said Tuscola County Undersheriff James Jashinske.
The sheriff's department contacted the FBI, which traced the teen to a flight from New York to Amman, Jashinske said. On Thursday night, her family received word from U.S. officials that she had been stopped as she arrived in Amman en route to Tel Aviv, Israel.
Katherine's mother, Shawn Lester, said her daughter had persuaded her in April to help her get a passport so she could go on a two-week vacation to Canada with a friend's family.
On Sunday, they drove to a bus station for that trip, but the family didn't show up. Shawn Lester said she called them, learned there was no trip and brought her daughter home. The next day, Katherine was gone.
Jashinske said it remained unclear whether any law had been violated. An online conversation with a 16-year-old is not illegal in Michigan, but solicitation for sex would be. He said deputies confiscated the family's home computer and were taking it to the FBI's Bay City office Friday for analysis. FBI spokesman Brian Endrizal declined to provide any details and would not comment on the man's identity or background.
WHAT DOES TODAY'S SCRIPTURE TEACH US ABOUT CHOOSING FRIENDS?
Proverbs 13:20/ NLT says, "Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; whoever walks with fools will suffer harm."
Friends can make us or break us. We must be careful whom we choose as our closest friends.
The teenage girl from Michigan made a poor choice in getting to know the twenty-five-year old man from Jordan. She lied to her parents to go see the man. Thankfully, the authorities found her before what might have been a very sad ending to a disturbing story.
This does not mean that followers of Christ should not become friends with unbelievers. That's the best way to communicate Christ's love. But we must be smart about who we hang out with.
Ask yourself if unbelievers are being drawn to Jesus because of your friendship, or are you being pulled away from Christ by them? Are your closest friends people who want to be close to Jesus?
Thank God for His practical Word. Ask Jesus to help you be honest in evaluating your friendships. Ask Jesus to help you choose friends who will help you be "become wise" rather than a "fool" who "gets in trouble".
While you're at it, try this to:
* Write out an honest evaluation of your friendships. List your 10 closest friends. Which ones are helping you become like Jesus? Which ones are not? Are you making progress in helping them learn about Christ's love or are they pulling you away from Christ?
* Spend some time with an older Christian friend who can share Godly wisdom with you. If you don't have a friend like this, pray for God to bring this kind of friend into your life.
* If you are a MySpace user, evaluate if it is a positive or negative influence in your relationship with Jesus. BE HONEST!
Monday, January 28, 2008
the becoming
Life is a process of becoming. A caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. A maggot mutates into a fly. A teen morphs into adulthood. Creation is in a process of transforming, mutating, morphing—becoming.
This becoming, however, is harder than it seems—especially for young leaders in the church. As young leaders, there is a burning God-given desire in all of us to be more than we are today. My pastor calls this desire a “holy dissatisfaction.” We are content in our relationship with Jesus Christ and His blessings, but we are not satisfied at our current level of productivity. Our talents and abilities are destined by God to grow into maturity and perform at an optimum level, but in our current state we are unrefined and awkward. We are the caterpillar inching our way around, nibbling on leaves, anxiously waiting to be transformed into something more . . . more beautiful.
So we wait. We live. We learn. We lead. Aspirations exasperate. Potential frustrates. Pressures mount. If only we could rush the process. If only we could hit fast forward and skip to the good part of the story. If only we weren’t so young with so much to learn. We are going to be stunning someday . . . right?
Yes. “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3.11, NKJV).
Did you know that it only takes a maggot six days to mutate into a fly? A caterpillar, on the other hand, usually emerges from a cocoon after a year-long process of change. Depending on weather conditions some caterpillars stay in the cocoon two to five years before becoming a butterfly.
Maggot + days = fly. Caterpillar + year(s) = butterfly.
The length of the process determines what we become. The longer we allow our lives to be shaped by our current life circumstances, the better the end result will be. When we rush this process we forgo the very cocoon that God is using to transform us.
For heaven’s sake, don’t rush the process.
Believe me; I know it’s tempting to want to rush the process. I feel like I’m walking in waste waist-deep manure most of the time—it’s hard to move forward and everything around me stinks. I just hold my nose and endure the stench. With patience and persistence Jesus will somehow makes sense of our efforts. Give it time.
Thankfully, God’s grace (and the grace of our followers) allows us the opportunity to lead while we’re learning. “Don’t let anyone put you down because you're young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given . . . keep that dusted off and in use” (1 Timothy 4.11-13, MSG).
This is the becoming. Be patient. Live. Learn. Lead. Become.
Destiny will be waiting.
This article was written by Seth Simmons and is the Youth Pastor at New Life Church in Austin.
This becoming, however, is harder than it seems—especially for young leaders in the church. As young leaders, there is a burning God-given desire in all of us to be more than we are today. My pastor calls this desire a “holy dissatisfaction.” We are content in our relationship with Jesus Christ and His blessings, but we are not satisfied at our current level of productivity. Our talents and abilities are destined by God to grow into maturity and perform at an optimum level, but in our current state we are unrefined and awkward. We are the caterpillar inching our way around, nibbling on leaves, anxiously waiting to be transformed into something more . . . more beautiful.
So we wait. We live. We learn. We lead. Aspirations exasperate. Potential frustrates. Pressures mount. If only we could rush the process. If only we could hit fast forward and skip to the good part of the story. If only we weren’t so young with so much to learn. We are going to be stunning someday . . . right?
Yes. “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3.11, NKJV).
Did you know that it only takes a maggot six days to mutate into a fly? A caterpillar, on the other hand, usually emerges from a cocoon after a year-long process of change. Depending on weather conditions some caterpillars stay in the cocoon two to five years before becoming a butterfly.
Maggot + days = fly. Caterpillar + year(s) = butterfly.
The length of the process determines what we become. The longer we allow our lives to be shaped by our current life circumstances, the better the end result will be. When we rush this process we forgo the very cocoon that God is using to transform us.
For heaven’s sake, don’t rush the process.
Believe me; I know it’s tempting to want to rush the process. I feel like I’m walking in waste waist-deep manure most of the time—it’s hard to move forward and everything around me stinks. I just hold my nose and endure the stench. With patience and persistence Jesus will somehow makes sense of our efforts. Give it time.
Thankfully, God’s grace (and the grace of our followers) allows us the opportunity to lead while we’re learning. “Don’t let anyone put you down because you're young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given . . . keep that dusted off and in use” (1 Timothy 4.11-13, MSG).
This is the becoming. Be patient. Live. Learn. Lead. Become.
Destiny will be waiting.
This article was written by Seth Simmons and is the Youth Pastor at New Life Church in Austin.
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