I AM loved

                        In the long run, who's going to be feeling like the idiot?  So many times I've shied away in conversations or felt like the odd man out because I don't enjoy discussing casual sex or what kind of birth-control I use, or my weekend I can hardly remember because I was to wasted to recall.  Clearly, I will not be the one feeling like an idiot about yesterdays choices.  When you get just a little bit older past your teenage years you will realize that yes, the wisest man on Earth was right when he said, "youth is vanity."  It will pass, so what will you take with you into adulthood...?  A couple of kids from unwanted pregnancies, innumerable heartbreaks from young love gone sour?  Perhaps contempt for your parents or a chip on your shoulder because the world did you wrong?  Blame for everybody else while never evaluating yourself?
                      Why don't you minimize the many worries in this life?  I have 0% chance of getting pregnant, 0% chance of contracting a sexually transmitted disease.  I will never have to decide between killing an unborn fetus or birthing a child I didn't mean to create.  That's one less choice I have eliminated from my life.  My life doesn't have to be more complicated than it needs to be.  I don't spend my time debating abortion or gay rights.  There are so many things that we focus on that distract us from our relationship with Christ.  Honestly, those things aren't my biggest concern because I will never have to make the choice of abortion and I'm not gay.  I understand that God has a standard, and there is right from wrong.  But there's something more important to me than all those rules and morals and black and white.  It's these questions I ask myself, "do you think young women all over the world would be having to make the choice of abortion if they really felt loved by God?  Do you think young men and women would be turning to the same sex for love if they knew the love of Father God?"  They are confused, and the truth is they have the same void on the inside just like you and I do.  That void is filled by one thing and one thing only: God's love.  When you know the love of God you'll want to be pure.  When you truly experience His love you'll desire to be holy like He is holy.  Maybe we need to stop telling people they're so wrong for all the choices they've made and start showing them what the love of God feels like.  It's not surprising that young people are confused and desperate for love of any kind.  At this stage in our backwards society people will pretty much take whatever they can get to feel loved.
                      For one moment will you ask yourself, what if?  What if there is a God that exists? And this God not only rules over you but created you and cares for you like no one else can, like no one else does or ever will?  What if He loves you just the way you are, yet loves you enough to tell you that you need to change?  What if you live and die and never even try to let yourself be loved by a heavenly Father?  For once just shut off the voice that says, 'what if it's not real', and ponder what if it is?  Keeping yourself pure is important for your self worth and important to God, but the desire to be pure and live a holy life comes from knowing a pure and holy God who loves you.  Don't get caught up in trying to be so pure that you miss the reason why you're doing it.  As the love of God fills your life it changes you.  I would not be who I am today or make the choices I make if I didn't know a love not of this world.  God has a higher standard for your life and it begins with love, not self-imposed purification.  Today, let yourself be loved by God, and see if you don't change your mind about a few things.  I am pure because I am loved by God.  I am not pure to try to win over His affection or appease His wrath, because the truth is He would love me just as much if I were a whore or a saint.  At the end of my life I will feel like a total idiot if I didn't let you know that you are loved by God; messed up, broken, confused, whatever you are...you are loved.  What if this love could change your whole life?  What if you let it?  I did, and I found out that I am loved.  I am always loved, even when I don't feel like it.  I am loved regardless of every circumstance in my life, every failure and every shortcoming; I am still loved.

I Have a Voice

                   I asked myself, "why share an out-dated message? What purpose does it serve?  Why do you try to live a holy life?  What are your goals and motivations?"  Most people just think, Oh that's different, or that's cute that you want to stay pure, but that's not for me.  The other day I woke up with a heavy realization of the need for purity to be talked about pressing upon my heart.  Why?  Because if no one does how will people ever hear an idea contrary to the message of pleasure taught by the world?  Many times I feel like a voice just crying out in the wilderness, but what if John never spoke of a man, Jesus who was coming?  How would that have changed the lives of many who were hearing Johns words, " Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"  I'm willing to bet that there was at least one, if not hundreds or even thousands to which this message reached and caused hearts to turn and repent.  That message still reaches millions today as they read Johns words now recorded in the Bible.  What if John never opened his mouth?  Many would have never heard or realized that they needed to repent.  
                 Purity?  Where can you find that message being spoken?  Is it at school?  Is it on t.v, or in in your favorite magazine?  Not likely!  Sure you can go to church and typically hear a message about staying pure and being holy,  but this message needs to be spoken in public, by leaders, by politicians, by teachers, by peers; talked about in high schools, middle schools, colleges.  I want to hear it on t.v, see it displayed in Ads, performed on stages, seen on the Big screen!  Maybe you're saying, well thats not reality...sex sells!  Sex sells that's for sure, but it accumulates a lot more than money; it takes souls, it takes decency away, and steals self-confidence from young women and men.  It breaks apart families, and makes many feel ashamed and unworthy.  It degrades and demoralizes our entire society as a whole.  What did America once have that's gone missing?  Common values and self respect.  We've twisted our consciences so much that we can't even discern what's right from wrong anymore.  We are driven by our senses; I feel good so it must be good.    
               I went to my friends house recently and saw a porn magazine atop the toilet, which is basically saying I've got nothing to hide, this is normal.  I cringed a little bit inside, and that's only the most minor of things I have seen and heard happening in everyday life.  Earlier this month I went to a poetry slam and heard two teenage boys about 16 or 17 recite a poem about the joys of masturbation.  The crowd went wild, the judges scored them very high and I may have been the only one in the building that didn't clap.  That is a sick picture of society, and what we accept as good entertainment.  I am not disgusted with the people just the ideas and values they were talking about, and I am provoked to wonder where did they get these ideas in the first place?  Where or who did they originate from?  Who taught us that this was okay...and who will stand up and say, IT'S NOT!  I have a voice, you have a voice, will you use it?