Hey everyone!

I haven't wrote on this blog in nearly a year. I was wondering if anyone thinks I should start writing again. If you think so comment this, or message me on Facebook. Thank you very much.

Starting Anew,
Tyler Thomas

Long time no see dear friends,

Well this has been a wild summer, and I wish that I had never stopped writing this blog, so lets get right back to business.

Through a weird set of circumstanses I found myself witnessing today to a girl, whom I have never met, by text messaging. Ironic how there is now a stigma, to some, about text messaging from the reports about "sexting" and Christ has led me to witnessing through this method. I think its kind of funny to be honest.

Well, back to the story. I turned on my phone and was flooded with texts, which is somewhat unusual with the weekend being pretty much over and all, and I found a few messages from a close friend telling me that I needed to speak to a girl who didn't believe in God. At first this was a shock, since I figured that my friend would just do it himself, but it turns out that he already had spoken to her along with a few of my other friends.

I started texting her and it was kind of awkward since I haven't seen this girl in my life. After about 20 miniutes of texting her she sent me a message that said, "Oh yea so not to be pushy or andything but r u gonna tell me to go to church too?" That was kind of a shocker since we were just talking about me coming home from Okc. I ended up telling her that I wasn't going to go to church, I justed wanted to see what she thought about God and stuff like that. As the conversation went on I feel that we made progress since she did admit that there was a chance out there that God could in fact exsist, which made me very happy to know that she wasn't an atheist, but is agnostic (doesn't know if there is God out there or not).

We ended up talking for close to an hour about God and historical proof that stories in the Bible did happen. I feel like I made a difference in her life and I helped plant a seed, along with the countless others that have, that will hopefully end up leading to her salvation through Christ.

Remember, "You will recieve power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." - Acts 1:8

Don't expect to move mountains on your own, but through the power of the Holy Spirit you will make an amazing impact on the lives of others.

He still amazes me,
Tyler Thomas

Its Been Awhile

I haven't blogged in awhile, but I'm going to start again. Stay tuned

Good evening,

How often do you get angry? For some its a lot, but for others its not. I get very annoyed easily, and that is almost the same thing. It is a sin to be angry at another person, but we should be angry at the sin in the world.
Today I had a friend tell me that during a class, her "Christian" teacher was telling his class about how he believes in the big bang and evolution. My friend told me that while she was sitting there listening to him she became angry at the things he was saying. She said she felt bad about it, but I told her I was proud and glad she was angry. She wasn't angry at the teacher, but at the things he was saying while still claiming to be a Christian.
What she was feeling was righteous anger. This isn't a sin, but can turn into one. What she was feeling was a need to tell him the Truth. She wanted to turn the teacher away from his hollow beliefs, but admitted to me that she didn't know how. This brings up two questions: How do we have righteous anger, and What should we do to turn these people from their beliefs.
These are two great questions. I personally have faced these questions and the way I have found them is from studying. I have asked pastors, read books, studied scripture, and stuff like that. All of those are good ways to learn about righteous anger. I hope that you will search and find different ways to find your own answers.
I believe that if you read Matthew 21:12-13 it will give you the answer. Jesus was angry at the sin being committed, not the people. This is how we should be. We should love the people no matter what, because they are children of God. This sin, however, isn't of God so we should hate it.
The second question: How do we turn these people from their beliefs? Great thing that you want to do. I love your thinking. The simple answer is that you can't force someone to believe something. What is in their heart is what they believe, and no one can change that. We can, however, tell them the Truth and be persistent and pray for them to find the truth in Jesus Christ. That is all we can do. We can argue, plead, even threaten them, but it is up to them to accept the truth laid before them. It is our job to witness to these people, though. If they don't believe then it is between them and God, but if we don't give them the facts, then we have sinned against the person for not having enough love for them to try and get them to the Truth.


Thank You,

Thomas

Good Evening,
It seems like a lifetime since I have last written on here. I had a lot of things come up during the past week and I'm sorry that this meant I couldn't write. Oh well, I'm here now.
This afternoon I received a text that I would like to share with you.

Its funny how ninety people get swine flu and everyone wants to wear face masks, but millions get AIDS and no one wears a condom.

This is kind of exaggerated, but we should get the point. People overreact and under react to things based on being complacent. What I mean is that people aren't used to the idea of another influenza pandemic, so they go over board to protect themselves. I'm not saying that they are being insensible, but chances are, you aren't going to get this virus. What is insensible, however is not defending yourself from something that is as deadly as AIDS. In the U.S. 583,298 total people have died from AIDS over all. The swine flu has killed only one person in the U.S. and only 354 reported cases. AIDS, as we can see, is way more dangerous to us as a country.

How does this affect us? Great question. First of all, we should realize that we should try and prevent all types of sickness, because if we are sick, we probably won't be up to living as Christ-like as we should. Secondly, we are without a doubt, living in a time that there are many ways to prevent physical ailments, but only one for spiritual ones. That is knowing and doing what Christ has commanded us to. This means studying your Bible, doing what your parents ask, and overall living the Christ-life. This is the same old thing you have probably always heard, but the only reason preachers and people witnessing are redundant is, because its pretty important. It is the equivalent of AIDS, and the swine flu is losing at tic-tac-toe. Tic-tac-toe isn't very important all, but doing the things that the Creator and God of the universe is.
We should follow what Ephesians 6 tells us about preparing for the spiritual warfare we as Christians will face. I challenge you to read this on your own as your daily quiet time. This is a chapter that is talked about and probably well known, but it is becoming something we just hear and don't follow. Don't let the Devil lead you into complacentcy. You should have the fire and drive to live the way Christ has told us. It is the least we can do for Him, since He gave it all for us.


Thank you

Thomas

P.S. I didn't mean to talk down on the swine flu. It is still a serious matter, even though it may seem trivial. Take precautions, just please don't some to school in a hazmat suit :)

P. S. S. Please feel free to sontact me. I don't mind if you email me, talk to me on Facebook, pretty much anything. I would love to see how many people are reading this blog, and hear your opinoins on these subjects, or even give me ideas for later posts. Anything would be great. My email is any1wins@gmail.com. Thanks.

Greetings,

What is the first thing we think of when you think of being humble? I think of a servant. In today's culture, it is a bad thing to be humble and be a servant. We are looked down upon and thought of weak or inadequate. I don't think that this is true. Jesus came to serve, but not be served. Does that make Him weak? Not, at all. He is God. The alpha and omega. The Truth. He is perfection, and I don't think that He can be weak and be these things. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God tells us to be humble, pray, and seek His face.
God makes it clear that He wants us to be humbled, so that we can do things to His glory and not ours. If we do that then people will begin to notice what exactly we are living our lives for, God. When they ask us why we don't try and take worldly glory, we can tell them because we want Christ to have it. That will be an amazing act of witnessing. It isn't anything huge and grand, but it is probably very effective. Even if the people that notice are already Christians, it will remind them of how they should be showing the Christ life.
This is a very important part of witnessing that we often forget about. We forget that we are to encourage and help other believers as well. As their brothers and sisters in Christ it is partially our responsibility to keep them on track. Two of the most clear verses that tell us this are: Proverbs 24:11-12, and Hebrews 10:24."Rescue those being taken off to death, and those stumbling toward slaughter.

If you say, "But we didn't know about this," won't He who weighs your heart consider it? Won't He who protects your life know? Won't He repay a person according to his work?" Proverbs 24:11-12.

This means that if we know someone is sinning and falling from the straight and narrow we should help them stay on track and keep from being taken captive by sin.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Hebrews 10:24.

This verse is pretty clear on what we are called to do for our brothers and sisters, and those who are still lost. We should make this a priority. It will give you a way to witness the good news and will bring out the Christ lives of others. Believe me it will change your way of life, but all for good in the end. It will also give you a great mood. Being a humble servant of God, who promotes good deeds among all, will definitely give you fulfillment in your life, where living for yourself won't. Make it your personal goal to live for Him, because He died and rose for you.

By His Grace,

Thomas

Greetings,

I love sweatpants. OK, that was random, but just go with it. Sweatpants are comfortable, but they will seem tacky if you wear them a lot. Like most people, I only wear them once in a while. Like, when I'm feeling lazy or need comfort over style. When I want more style, I'll wear jeans or shorts. The jeans and shorts are probably more appealing to look at. Would you rather ask someone out if they were wearing sweatpants or jeans? Most people would answer jeans, because they just seem to give a better first impression of someone.

The same thing is applical to believing something someone will tell you. If someone sugar coats something and "dresses" it up in "jeans" then we are more likely to believe them, and if it is in sweatpants then we won't belive them as easy. This is very true. We can see it in advertising a lot. The big flashy logo or slogan will bring in more more customers than the boring black and white one.

The Devil knows this and is probably the best advertiser ever. He is the king of lies, so he should be able to decieve us into buying into something that we shouldn't. He will use asssumptive language, convince us ignore what should ethically be done, and flat out lie.

By assumptive language I mean that he won't out and out say something, but it implies something else. Like Carl Sagan said, "The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be." These words were the opening statement on his hit television show Cosmos. It implies that there is no God. If he were to say, "There is no God," his show would have never aired. Satan uses things like this to influence us into believing false philosophies. If we believe these philosophies, then we won't be able to follow the Truth, because we won't be able to distinguish Truth from lie anymore.

He also convinces us to ignore the ethical truths that God has given us in His word, the Bible. He does by twisting scripure, and telling us that the things we do won't matter. If we give into the twisted scripture then we have made ourselves slaves to the Enemy. Like it says in John chapter 8 verse 44, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

This is a very strong verse, pretty creepy as well. I tells us that since our father is the devil, while we are still unsaved, that we aren't holding to the truth that God has given us. We are going against the Creator of the universe, which is something that is pretty futile. We won't be able to stand against Him forever, so we should repent now. If we repent now, our lives won't be wasted on flesh desires and the deeds of Satan. We will stand for God and lead others to do the same. That is a amazing thing to do. I love the feeling of knowing that you are making a difference in not only someone's mortal life, but also their eternal one. There is no more important favor to do for someone than to lead them to God's loving grace. I pray that these words will speak to you and lead you to do something for God and his kingdom.


Saved by Grace,

Thomas