Strength in the Strain

“God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength. Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? He cannot, unless you will accept the strain. Immediately you face the strain, you will …

Psalms for Teens 10 – Thanksgiving Psalms – Psalm 30

1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. 3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those …

Psalms for Teens 7 – Lament Psalms – Psalm 137

1 By the waters of Babylon,     there we sat down and wept,     when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there     we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors     required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying,     “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord's song     in a …

Serenity Prayer (Full) – Reinhold Niebuhr

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.   Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as …

A Messy World – New Series for MSYG

We are starting a new series in our Wednesday night class called "A Messy World." I thought about this series a year ago but have put it on the back-burner until now. The basic premise is that because of The Fall we all live in a messy world (messed-up) world. Sin is pervasive no matter …

Help! My Teenager is Using Drugs! A Personal Story

Let me start with my story so that you can understand where I am coming from. First, I have to give a disclaimer. I was taught to be careful when disclosing information about my past as it might give license for people to justify their actions. Sort of a "Well Robbie went through it so …

Book Review: Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski

I have read a few books that have changed the way I perceive Christianity, culture and the world but few have changed my life like this book.  Under the Overpass is about a journey of two guys named Mike and Sam who decided to take the words of a sermon seriously and go and live …

Divine Encounters

I work at the YMCA Monday-Tuesday from 5am-8am to make a little extra cash on the side and it helps pay for my membership.  In the few months I have been there I have experienced a few divine encounters that have left me in mourning at how people hurt.  I call them divine encounters not …

A Day in the Life of a Teenager 4 (Drugs and Alcohol) by Robbie Mackenzie

I was sitting in the living room watching TV on a break from college when I received a phone call from an old friend in Marietta, Georgia.  I welcomed the call because it had been ages since I last heard his voice.  I expected a long conversation about how things were going and talks about …

“Yeah but how could God ____________?”

In any conversation with a skeptic (or even a Christian) inevitably this question comes about: "How could God _____________?"  You can fill in the blank.  How could God allow Job to be tempted?  How could God destroy the world in a flood?  How could God command that all the Amalekites be slaughtered including women and …