Hallo, quick intoduction, my name is Nathan. I am a person. God does some pretty cool things through me. Now on to the main event…

You are different. I am not just talking about your personality; I am talking about physically and spiritually. Anyone who has declared Jesus Christ their Lord has gone through a transformation that made them a new creation. Do you know what it means to be a redeemed believer? Do you know who you are?

     “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). At creation God created man in His own image. Adam and Eve knew only Good. To create the humans, God opened the side of Adam to create Eve, through whom all men would come (keep this in mind for later). At the fall, as the devil said, Adam and Eve were now “knowing good and evil.” Now knowing evil, Adam and Eve realized they were different than an only Good God. They hid because they knew they did not belong, for being sinful in the presence of God was dangerous! This one sin cursed the rest of mankind with a sinful nature that was spread through the seed of Adam. This meant that every human was born sinful. Even if someone were to go their whole life without sinning, they would still be sinful, “…by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…” (Romans 5:19). In the Old Testament where people lived their whole life with this sinful nature, unless someone was purified by sacrifice or divine intervention, no one could touch the presence of God without falling down dead. God and sin could not mix! Having the first creation cursed forever, God needed to create a new and redeemed creation so that God could live with His people.

     To solve this issue God created a second Adam, Christ. Looking back, we know Adam was cut open in his side to make Eve to reproduce. In the exact same way, Christ was pierced in His side and shed His blood so that we may become a new creation and part of the family of God. We are no longer a sinful human being, we no longer have a sinful nature, and we no longer are under the power of sin.

     Let’s look at Romans 6:5-11: “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

     We are freed from sin! We are in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection. The same redeemed body He had to come see His disciples we have. It was a physical body, for He ate and touched the disciples. You must know that we are a new breed of creation; we are no longer human. Now that we have new bodies, God can dwell with us! In Matthew chapter 9 Jesus talked about not being able to put new wine in old wineskins. Now we have a new wineskin that can hold the new wine of God! Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:3 asks why the Corinthian church is “acting like mere humans.” We are no longer humans and should not act as if we were.

     “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11). We have put off our sinful nature/body of sins of the flesh. Just as Adam we are not prone to sin, our bodies are in a neutral state. Though, our transformation did not end there, God has tipped the scale to the His side!

     Hebrews 10:14 tells us that we have been made perfect by the sacrifice of Christ. This means we have been made spiritually mature and lacking nothing. If we look at all of the parts of the sinful nature that has plagued mankind and prevented one from living a sinless life, we see God has gotten made a cure for every single one.

     A phrase you may have heard before is “The heart is deceitful above all things.” This is obviously true for an unredeemed believer, but for the new creation it is no longer so. Ezekiel prophesied of this change that was to happened by saying, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgements and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). God has given us a new heart so that we will walk in his statutes and keep His judgements. So just like that we have a fresh start, and then in Ephesians 3:17 mentions that Christ can dwell in our heart. Our heart is our desires, so we have been freed from the desires of the flesh and have been giving Christ to be our desire in our hearts.

     A second problem that may stand in the way would be our tongue. James chapter 3 talks about how the tongue is very evil. Even going as far to say, “If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” Although, back in Chapter One James says that if you claim to be religious but cannot control your tongue, that you deceive yourself and your religion is worthless. Thank God that He has given a way to conquer the tongue. James said no man can control the tongue, but we have the creator of said tongue on our side. Isaiah realized that His tongue was a roadblock in the old testament, too. The angel of the Lord fixed his problem by touching His mouth with a coal from the altar of Heaven, Isaiah was cleansed with fire. Fast forward to Pentecost when there was literally… tongues of fire. The Holy Spirit fire is the cure to our tongue.

     Finally, the Bible says in 2 Peter 1:3 that we have everything we need to live a godly life. Some may say that they do not have everything, that they still need to grow. Yes, there is growth, but it is not to gain anything. We have the Holy Spirit who provides everything. If we continue that verse in second Peter we see how we must grow, “through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.” We grow by learning and increasing in knowledge. This is why the Bible says in Hosea 4:6 that God’s people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge. When we do not know who we are we are deceived easier. This is precisely what happened to Eve. The devil told her she would become as God when she was already made in the image of God. God wants you to know who you are so that you cannot be deceived and instead stand firm on the Word.

     Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice, He paid too high of a price for you to not understand who you are as a redeemed believer, both spiritually and physically. Let me ask again, do you know who are? And now, how much more do you want to know about who you are?

As I considered what I should write about I questioned myself, “What is a “Christian Teen?” Are we, as Christians, different from other typical teens? Are we acting, talking, and behaving differently than the average teenager? Are we called to a higher standard? Are we as Christian Teens assimilating to the “norm” of this world or are we truly being “transformed by the renewal of our minds”? Are we lowering our own standards to the world’s expectations of what a teenager of today should be, or giving in to peer pressure?

The first question I asked was “Are we as Christians different from other typical teens? Are we acting, talking, and behaving differently than the average teenager? Are we called to a higher standard?” As I thought about each of these different questions I remembered the story of Daniel. When Daniel was a teen he was taken from Jerusalem as a captive to Babylon. In Babylon the King wanted all of the smartest teen boys to go through his school so they could have Babylonian educations. Out of the smartest boys who were chosen were Daniel and his three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. As they have to start their lives all over again they were served their first meal in Babylon. As they looked at the food set before them they realized the food is not only biblically unclean but also offered to pagan gods. They had a decision to make. They could either eat the food like their peers around them or they could refuse to eat the food and honor God. The decision they made was unpopular and could have cost them their lives, but they knew that when they met the standard that God set for them they would be protected by Him who set the standard. As you might already know Daniel and his friends chose to serve God and the result was that they were ten times healthier and smarter than the other youth around them. By choosing to serve God they were blessed and became brighter beacons for God.

The following issue I asked myself was “Are we as Christian Teens assimilating to the “norm” of this world or are we truly being “transformed by the renewal of our minds?” As I thought about the following issue I really wanted to know what “renewal of our minds’ ‘ means. I found out that the word ‘renewed’ in Greek is ANANEOO which means to be renovated by an inward reformation. What is that inward reformation? The inward reformation is an acceptance of Christ into our lives. So with that, we can say, “Are we as Christian Teens assimilating to the “normal” of this world or are we truly accepting Christ into our hearts every day?” We need to be waking up every day and giving our own wants and plans to God. We need to let the Holy Spirit guide us so we can be transformed by the renewal of our minds. And as we accept Christ into our lives every day we will come closer to the standard that Christ has set for us.

My closing issue was ”Are we lowering our own standards to the world’s expectations of what a teenager of today should be, or giving in to peer pressure?” As I thought about this final question I was brought back to think of Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I thought about the story of when the King of Babylon made a giant statue made of pure gold for the people of Babylon to worship. As the men played the music, it was time to bow and worship the statue. Everyone around Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bowed down and compiled. They stood firm and did not bow. We can only imagine the peer pressure they had. Imagine thousands of people around you bowing down around you and having to stand alone with your friends. Not only did they have the fear of peer pressure but also of death. As the King lost patience, he finally had enough and asked the soldiers to toss them into the fiery furnace. The King was so angry that he even commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter. As the soldiers bound up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and got close enough to toss them in, the flames killed the soldiers that had thrown them into the furnace. As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got in the fire, it burned the ropes away but it did not touch Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. As the King looked in he saw four men and said: “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” And the people around him answered “Yes”. Then the King said “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking amid the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted God and did not fall into peer pressure Jesus walked with them through the flames. As we trust God and not fall into peer pressure Jesus will walk with us through the “Flames” of our life and people will see Jesus through us.

In conclusion, we as teens need to accept Christ into our lives daily and give him our wants and plans. We should be calling ourselves to a higher standard. We need to surround ourselves with friends like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We need to stand for what is right even when everyone around us is doing wrong. And as a youth, we should be spreading God’s word to everyone around us and be beacons of his truth.

Today is the day, our blog tour starts!!! I am so excited!

We have a great line of people and I cant wait for you to see what we have!

Also dont forget about the short story contest this week

The short story contest is simple.

• Story prompts
  • Write a 700 word story in the magical realism genre. It’s about a lion trainer and should include a space ship. Also use the sentence ‘There is no time.’ Bonus prompt: Winter is long and extremely cold.
  • Write a 1000 word story in the science fiction genre. It’s about a golfer and should include a time machine. Also use the sentence ‘Aren’t you afraid?’ Bonus prompt: Civilization has come to an end.
  • 200 words starting with “The storm raged on outside the window, and the world in all its chaos was truly coming to an end, just like they had warned.”
  • 350 words Write a conversation between the different words on the pages of a book.

• When you finish writing your story, email us at confessionsofawriter.blog@gmail.com
• Make sure the subject of your email is “Short Story Submission.” and in the body of the email please include the prompt chosen.
• Your email can include a Google Doc link, a PDF or simply the text of your short story, but however you submit it, make sure it is something we can access!
• The judges for the season will read and judge your short story, and the winner’s short story will be published in one of our blog posts. They then have the choice to help judge the next set of stories. Additional prizes change every season as well!
• Be CLEAN. We WILL NOT accept stories with explicit or inappropriate content. We expect all stories submitted to be family-friendly!

Hello Beautiful Friends!!! I love you all so much (virtual hug)

So today I am sharing about our FUN short story contest which starts now and ends in exactly two weeks. Now this will be apart of our blog tour which takes place next week, and I will have a little ,not to spoil everything, information on that below. Without further introduction here is all you will need to know about the contest…..

Short Story Contest

The short story contest is simple.

• Story prompts
  • Write a 700 word story in the magical realism genre. It’s about a lion trainer and should include a space ship. Also use the sentence ‘There is no time.’ Bonus prompt: Winter is long and extremely cold.
  • Write a 1000 word story in the science fiction genre. It’s about a golfer and should include a time machine. Also use the sentence ‘Aren’t you afraid?’ Bonus prompt: Civilization has come to an end.
  • 200 words starting with “The storm raged on outside the window, and the world in all its chaos was truly coming to an end, just like they had warned.”
  • 350 words Write a conversation between the different words on the pages of a book.

• Directions
• When you finish writing your story, which we cant wait to hear, email us at confessionsofawriter.blog@gmail.com
• Make sure the subject of your email is “Short Story Submission.” and in the body of the email please include the prompt chosen.
• Your email MUST include a Google Doc link, a PDF, word doc, photo of handwritten story or simply the text of your short story.
• The judges for the season will read and judge your short story, and the winner’s short story will be published in one of our blog posts. They then have the choice to help judge the next set of stories. Additional prizes change every season as well!
• Be CLEAN. We WILL NOT accept stories with explicit or inappropriate content. We expect all stories submitted to be family-friendly!

So you now have all the information so get writing and please share this to everyone who loves to write!!!

Have a great week, Kersha

Good Morning everyone! So next week is our blog tour and I am looking for 2 more people to take part in it soooooo, if you would please share this and tell as many people that are bloggers about our blog it would be amazing and we will be able to reach our goal!! Also please share the link with all the information below! https://confessionsofawriter4.home.blog/2020/04/03/fun-announcement/

Also below I attached a few of our recent posts to check out, like and comment.

Hey y’all Kersha here.

I thought that I would share about my favorite band ~ One Direction!

I AM THE BIGGEST ONE DIRECTION FAN! Many people say that but I am!

One Direction was formed on the UK X-Factor on July 23, 2010 and since them they have been HUGE! They have a large fan base from every part of the world.

Their first song released was a great one ~ What Makes You Beautiful, and just writing the song name I can hear it in my head

They have won about 50 awards in there almost 6 year career together.

They have 5 albums and 5 members

they were on about 40 different tv shows and some more than once.

They sang about 100 songs including some covers!

On March 25, 2015 was a sad day for Directioners world wide

From the time Zayn left to the time of their hiatus they released 1 album called Made In The A.M., which had 17 songs on it, and they did a partial tour for that album

*UPDATE ON 4/11/2020* I ALSO HAVE SEEN SO MUCH SAYING THAT THEY WILL HAVE SOME SORT OF A REUNION ON JULY 23, 2020 WHICH MAKES ME OVERLY HAPPY!!! YAYAYAYAY

I will be sharing more soon but until then stay safe!

*disclaimer* “I own none of these videos or photos!”