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Just some thoughts and Questions for Christian Teens:
1. How have your relationships with your friends been?
 Encouraging!
God honoring!
Pure sexually!
Proclaiming Christ?
2. How is your witness for Jesus Christ?
 Would other teens WANT to get saved after watching
your life?
Would other teens BE ABLE to get saved from what
you tell them?
3. How is your family life? Would the Lord be pleased with the way you respond to your parents?
Would the Lord be pleased with the way you're treating your brothers and sisters?
4. How is your involvement at Church? Do you attend faithfully? Do you participate faithfully? What are you doing to help serve the Lord in your local assembly?
These are just some questions to think about! But do more than ponder them!
Hiding God's Word in your heart:
Read the following Bible verses:
Psalm 119:11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!
Psalm 119:16 I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
Psalm 119:148 My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.
Psalm 119:15 I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways.
When was the last time you memorized God's Word? Even just a small portion of the Bible? Perhaps one of the most powerful weapons against sin that the Christian has is the "Sword of the Lord", God's Word. But where is that Sword when you need it? When you're out with your friends and someone suggest doing the wrong thing, where is your Sword? When you find
yourself alone with someone of the opposite sex (which you need to ask yourself "why am I alone?") and your mind begins to think improper thoughts, where is the Sword of the Lord? You see, if you hide God's Word in your heart through Scripture memory, you have it right there to convict you, to call to remembrance and then to use to make the right choice for God's glory. To many Christians put their mind in neutral and then just "let things happen"! That's not what God wants at all. The best way to be prepared for dealing with the situations you'll find yourself in, is to have God's Word committed to memory. But that's not enough. James said, "be doers of the Word and not hearers only." Simply put, Do God's Word! Live it! Obey it! So find a friend who will be a Scripture memory partner and hold
each other accountable to memorize God's Word and then grab for the Sword of the Lord and protect yourself against sin.
Girls Are You Beautiful - on the Inside - from God's Perspective
1 Peter 3:3-4 says, "Do not let your beauty be outward adorning of arranging the hair, of wearing gold, or of putting on fine apparel; 4, but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God."
All it takes is a quick trip to the local shopping mall to prove that this modern age has little affection for the wisdom provided to us in 1 Peter 3:3-4. Innumerable clothing stores...stores devoted
solely to jewelry and accessories...hair salons....counter after department store counter touting the latest makeup shades... weight loss stores, books, videos, and not to mention the
bazillion and one diets, and the list goes on. How we look has become such a major focus in our lives, it engulfs and indoctrinates our minds with the world's beliefs that we HAVE to be beautiful. Are you familiar with the hair color add from a few years back, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful!"...ugghh. We're surrounded by magazine covers letting us know who the "50 Most Beautiful People" in the world are. How many people on T.V. or in the latest music video are truly homely??? Only the radiant faced, flowing
trussed, 6 foot, size 2 models grace the runways of the fashion world. Hmmm, this tells us quite a bit about our society, doesn't it? We are completely obsessed with our outward appearance. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ we are called to be separated from the world. We read in 1 John
2:15 "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him." Have you been sucked into the hip and trendy mindset? Have you rationalized away your modesty with the
attitude of "everyone wears their belly button hanging out, what's the big deal??" From bare shouldered prom gowns to pencil thin, undergarment baring tank tops our sense of modesty has gone out the proverbial window.
"But I won't have any friends if I dress like Laura on "Little House on the Prairie".
Ask yourself this, honestly ....who is the most important person to please? If it's Justin the cute guy in study hall...girl, you've got your priorities mixed up. As a Christian our one focus should be to honor, serve and glorify the Lord in all we say and do...I said ALL !!! Yes, if you're living in such a way, that if Jesus came over your house and looked in your closet, at your reading material, etc. and you would not feel proud to show him.....you've got some major editing to do!!!
It's time to throw out our self-focused, image- oriented self and adorn our bodies with the cloak of Christ-likeness. If you're dressing in such a way that you are calling attention to your body...plain and simple....cut it out!!!.......you've gotta get back to your priorities...biblical priorities;....... the Lord and what He wants from you.
Have you ever thought about it this way? What about your brothers in Christ? The
teenage guys at church or maybe your brother's friends. If you are dressing in such a way that they "check you out", you are putting a stumbling block before them, possibly causing them to fall into sin in their thought life. You need to throw out the mindset of how "hot" can I look..just out of Christian love for your brothers in Christ. Also, the 1 Peter passage talks about not trying to impress people with the costliness or the designer
label (in modern terms) of our clothes. Why do we wear designer's names all over the outside of our clothes? To sell more clothes for
them? (that's what they want ) No, generally (if we're honest) it's so people will say "WOW, she spent $140.00 on that sweat shirt, she must be
cool!!!!! (How icky is that?) Our worth in Jesus' eyes isn't how much "Gap" clothing you own...that might impress the current click at school but it won't impress the Lord and Savior who gave His life for you. Crunch on that thought for a minute....What a truly awesome gift we have been given...Salvation...eternal life to live, serving the Most Holy God of the Universe!! What a small sacrifice it is to die to ourselves a bit, giving up the temporal glories of being the most hip-chick on the block. We should do all within our means, down to the tiniest portion, to honor Him who created us!!!
The Lord looks at who you actually are, not what you "appear" to be (is this scary?). Just as if you are sweet as pie on the outside, yet you are resentful and bitter, seething or lustful on the inside, no outward show is going to hide your inner ugliness from God. When the Lord was showing to Samuel, who was to be king out of all of Jesse's strong and handsome sons, Samuel was certain it would be Eliab since his outward appearance was so grand...but what did the Lord say to Samuel??1 Samuel 16:7
says," But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature. because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' " If your inner-girl is not clean and pure the slickest looking outfit isn't gonna impress or hide your ways from the Lord. You are precious to Him. Take a peek in the mirror........ How's your heart look?
Click here to finish reading "Inner Beauty".
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Masturbation - The sin no one wants to discuss.
Matthew 5:27, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, `You shall not commit adultery.' 28, "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Why Masturbation / Self pleasing Sexually is wrong
What is Jesus saying here in Matthew chapter 5? First of all, the Lord is telling us that the act of Adultery and the act of thinking about adultery are on an equal plain of sinfulness from God's perspective. As Christians, we need to be careful not to do what the world does, that is to view sin from man's perspective. Unsaved man says: "living together unmarried is all right, having children out of wed-lock is all right, having sex outside of marriage is all right and pleasing yourself sexually is all
right!" BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT GOD SAYS !
 What does masturbation or sexually pleasing your self have to do with Matthew 5:28? Plenty! Jesus is saying to us that the act or the thought of adultery are both sinful. The moment a man or a woman begins to focus on pleasing themselves sexually, they're
opening their mind up to lusting in the mind, which is sinful.
The Bible only provides for sexual satisfaction and fulfillment in the marriage relationship, PERIOD!
 1Corinthians 7:2, "Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband."
The Greek word that translates "sexual immorality" is "porneia", from which we get our English word, "pornography". Pornography entices people to think, to look and to please self. This is just what Jesus was saying NOT to do in Matthew 5:28. "Porneia" does not require a picture on paper or a computer screen. "Porneia", sexual immorality can be a picture in your mind. Here lies one of the biggest problems with masturbation. You're setting yourself up to think about or imagine a sexual partner. This is nothing but fornication of the mind, adultery of the mind and immorality of the mind! All of which is Sin before
God. Click here to finish reading "The Sin of Masturbation".
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Developing Boldness for Christ
Charles Sawyer, former US Secretary of Commerce, tells the story of a plane load of people flying across the Atlantic Ocean.
A voice suddenly comes over the intercom:
We now flying at 35,000 ft. You'll notice out the right window, the 2 engines on the right wing are on fire, and the engines on the left had to be stopped. If you look directly below, you'll see a small yellow spot in the ocean with six small spots within the yellow. The yellow spot is the emergency life raft, and the six small spots within are:
the pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, navigator, and the 2 hostesses. This is a Recording!
Now I'm not excited about flying anyway, but that story would feed my fear.
What are you afraid of? What strikes Fear into your heart?
Scientist tell us that man is born with only 2 natural fears. Anyone that's ever observed a Baby knows that babies Jump at loud noises. They throw their arms to the sides. Babies are also fearful of falling! I think most adults have a healthy fear of falling.
As we go through life we LEARN TO FEAR a number of other things:
Acrophobia, Fear of heights
Claustrophobia, fear of closed places
Pathophobia, fear of diseases
Ergophobia, fear of work
Chaetophobia: fear of hairy people
Thalassophobia: fear of being seated. I think children invented this one!!! (humor)
Fear is nothing more than being insecure, or unsettled in any given situation.
Nothing will motivate us to Run or Standstill faster than Fear. Business men for years have learned to take advantage of people during times of Fear, even if it1s just something that's anticipated. The recent Y2K fear is an example of this. Nothing actually happened, but business men made Millions of dollars off people's fear. After Jan. 1, 2000, many families had enough canned goods and dried foods to last for months. They wouldn't normally stock pile food in this fashion. What caused many to react to the Y2K date? Fear!
The Saints are not Exempt from struggling with Fear!
In the Bible we find:
"fear Not" - 63 times
"do Not be afraid" - 48 times
"be not dismayed" - 14 times
And we're just getting warmed up!
Fear has STOPPED and CONTROLLED some of the Saints for Centuries. And I FEAR, that it's still that way today.
Today I want to talk with you about Overcoming the Fear of
Publicly Identifying yourself with Christ. Click here to finish reading "Developing Boldness for Christ".
In Christ, Pastor Terry Aaron
The Christian Teen Corner Web Staff
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