Anna's Ideas

Hello again, friends! Today, I'm very excited to announce that I have, well, an announcement!  For the past couple of weeks, I've been praying about and looking at starting a new blog.  One that will be (Lord willing) a lot  more organized and professional than this one. I'm trying to learn from all of the mistakes I've made thus far, and, like I mentioned, be much more organized. See, I even have a bit of a mission statement:   This new blog, called Redeem the Time, will be focused on connecting with my generation, inspiring and empowering today's teenagers to live their lives in devotion to Christ. However! Before I launch, I could seriously use your help. I've created a quick, two minute survey. The responses I receive will shape the direction of this new project. Will you please take a few minutes to: 1. Complete the survey yourself 2. Share this with any teens, parents, or youth workers you think would be interested Here's the link to the survey: https...

Saturday . The longest day in history. The saddest, The heaviest, As we wait, Knowing and Living Between an "already" And a "not yet." Already, We have seen His death. The darkness has come, We have seen The veil torn, Even the dead raised. We know The war has been Won, But we haven't Seen it. Not yet. We know What's coming, But have yet to Live it. We haven't seen His resurrection, Not yet. Our faith is Real, Tested, True. But it's not Complete, Not finished, Not over, Not yet. And so, We continue Waiting. We hope. We trust. For the day Our faith Becomes Sight.

Is God a God of Comfort? A guest post by bestselling author Angela R. Watts It is easy to lose ourselves in the worldly spectrum of fleshly comforts--compulsive shopping, obsessive eating, the list of comforting, yet harmful, things we seek is a long one. But these are momentary bursts of happiness. True comfort does not come from a full shopping cart, a really good pizza, or a day spent binging 90’s sitcoms. Every person faces trials in their life. Some might seem mountainous, some might seem trivial. If you find yourself swamped in trivial disasters with a giant mountain looming ahead--you aren’t alone. We’ve all been there. The best way to find hope, however, is first, to find comfort in the Lord. The Merriam-Webster definition of comfort is this: “: to give strength and hope to: CHEER” Does this sound familiar? “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” J...

There are certain questions that everyone, especially those of us who consider ourselves Christians, will come face to face with at some point or another. Sometimes we ask those questions ourselves, and sometimes, the questions are asked by a non-believer. One of those questions is one I hear often asked by atheists who are trying to prove that God cannot exist: "why does a good God allow bad things to happen?" This question can be challenging to answer. Too many times, Christians shrug their shoulders and slouch down in their seats, maybe hesitantly saying something about God being in control, or sinfulness, or anything else to get the focus onto someone or something else. Thankfully, there is an answer to this question that is rooted in the Bible. It Starts With Creation In the beginning, God created. That first sentence in the Bible is so familiar that many Christians often overlook the power of it. God created everything. That includes you and me. This means that as Creat...

Most of us are familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan as found in Luke chapter 10.  You know, that story Jesus told about the man who was traveling on a road when he was attacked by robbers and beaten badly.  Not long after, a priest saw this man, but not wanting to become "unclean," or ruin his reputation, he passed by on the other side of the road.  A Levite also chose to ignore this man and crossed to the other side of the road to be able to walk around this man.  Finally, a Samaritan, who was not regarded highly in that culture, saw this man and took it upon himself to help this man, and even paid an innkeeper to take care of this man and his wounds.  Yep, that's the parable I'm talking about. Jesus told us to let this be an example of how we are to treat others.  And yet, there are so many people around us every day that we often don't give a second thought.  I'm thinking of that quiet girl who has a locker next to yours, that homeless ma...

In the beginning, God created a perfect world. He then created humans in His image to have a perfect relationship with Him. After came the fall, where our perfect relationship became broken because of the sinful choices man had made. We became separated from God. The Lord promised a New Kingdom to his people, which includes all the nations, for the first kingdom was lost. He chose to create a Holy Nation through Abraham, which became Israel. The Israelites came to live in the Promised Land and live under the law and king, which God gave them. God then sent prophets to tell all that there was a Son of God who would take the form of man to live the life we should have lived and die the death we should have died. Jesus Christ came and fulfilled those prophecies, living a life of service and miracles, proving His position as the Son of God. He then died a sacrificial death so that whoever believes in Him can be reconciled with God and live an eternal life with Him in heaven. He came back t...