The Blog

Hi Everybody! I am a christian teen who wishes to share his ideas on the web, and ultimately, create an online christian teen community. This blog is new, but I am hoping that you will be impacted by what I write and become a member of this online community. I have been greatly inspired by Alex and Brett Harris at www.therebelution.com and David Platt at www.radicalthebook.com thank you for reading!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

If I Die Today

Alex and Brett Harris, two teenagers (now in their twenties) wrote a book called “Do Hard Things” that talks about teenage rebellion against rebellion. More specifically, rebellion against low expectations. We tend to meet the expectations we are given. Adults have very low expectations of teenagers, therefore, teens meet them. We need to raise the bar. How? By doing hard things for God.
    This inspired me, and I was eager to do hard things for Christ, but soon, I was discouraged. The book talked about teens doing amazing things for God, but I am just thirteen. What could a young teenager possibly do?
     Mid winter retreat. One of the lessons was on tithing. A powerful atheist, Peter Singer, said that one good idea Christians have is tithing.  He calculated, DOUBLE CHECKED, that if all Christians in America tithe 10% of their income, we will raise $156,000,000,000, or one hundred fifty-six billion dollars, A YEAR!!!!!
     We would have five billion to stop most children’s death from sickness, and 7 billion for education for most children. That would leave part of the remaining $144 billion to start the largest evangelical movement the world has ever seen-and that much a YEAR. I know this is probably not going to happen, but what if it did? If all American tithed, then we could END WORLD POVERTY. Think about that.
     BJ Higgins and Rachel Scott. Two ordinary names, right? Not exactly.
     BJ Higgins was a kid who knew. He knew to share the word, and he would share as much as he could. He got it. He wrote amazing papers found after his death. He understood what it meant to be a disciple. At age fifteen he died. But even after, his ashes were spread over a hill overlooking a Muslim town. No one there thought as they recounted his story that anyone non-Christian noticed-except the tour guide, who after hearing about this kid’s dedication to Christ, became the leader of a very large underground church. Even long after his death, BJ impacted people.
     Rachel Scott too died at an early age. Papers were found in her room also. They talked about a chain reaction of kindness. Now there is a whole organization with her ideas.
     Now we’re at the center of this whole thing. This is based off a mid winter retreat service, but I’m gonna take it a little further.
     Even after death, these two amazing kids impacted hundreds of lives, if not thousands. What would happen if I die right now? Would I impact a single soul? Would anyone be impacted if you died? What would you do if you knew you only had a week to live? What would you do? Only what you think funnest? Would you have a good time? I last meal kind of thing? Or would you do whatever you could to impact as many as you could? Does fun matter when you are about to spend eternity having fun? What would you do? Probably the former. It’s ok, you’re not the only one. Many would. And if you say “well, I know I’m not going to die in a week”, then I’m not done here.
     2 Peter 3:8-“A day to him is like a thousand years.” Well, what if you treated life that way? What if, you said, instead of “I got a whole lifetime”, you said “I only have a lifetime”? What is a lifetime of work compared to eternity of being in Heaven with God? What if we said that we would spend our life impacting people, and maybe even after life?
     The only question is, are you willing to make that sacrifice? Are you willing to surrender your life to God, and do His will? Are you willing?
     I’m a sinner. I’m not being all righteous, telling you what to do. I’m a wretched sinner, just like you and everyone else on the planet. And it’s your choice whether you are willing to make the sacrifice. So, will you? Are you willing to take your cross up and follow Christ?
     God bless you.