God Uses Evil To...

*All credit for these words and verses from my Pastor*
A few weeks ago at church our Pastor talked about the word compatibilism.


Compatibilism, sometimes called soft determinism, is a theological term that deals with the topics of free will and predestination.
Another way to describe this definition is: everything is determined and ordained by God.

A verse that shows God's great plan for our lives is Genesis 50:19-20. After being sold into slavery by his brothers and then put into prison Joseph told his brothers,

¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

God uses evil to...
I. To chasten God's people
So that his Spirit may be saved but his flesh destroyed.
1st Corinthians 5:1-5 says,
³ For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. ⁴ So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, ⁵ hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,^[a][b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.


II. To fashion God's people
For my power is made perfect in weakness.
2nd Corinthians 12:7 say,
⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

III. To glorify God
He did this to make known the riches of his glory.
Romans 9:22-23 says,
²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—

III. The end of evil
The last enemy that he shall abolish is death.
1st Corinthians 15:24-26 says,
24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Why this meant so much to me was because I knew it was true. That everything really is according to God's good plan for you. And even though it looks like the evilest of evil, it's God's plan for you. It's all to prosper you too. Isn't that awesome?!






So much this week I've been  reminded of how great God is. Last year I went through a tough thing, changing churches after being at my original church for all I can remember. I felt like we were doing everything wrong changing churches. Even that very hard time for me, he had a plan. Over the year we've been going to my new church, it's been so awesome. My walk with God has grown so much over the time that we started going here. I've done so much with my church. And I'm so thankful that God's got my life in his hands. Because if he didn't I would've stayed at my old church and I maybe wouldn't be the person I am now.






What I'm saying guys is, let God have your life. Like the song Take my Life and Let it Be. Give your  life to God. He's in control. He's got a plan. Trust in him and know that's he's got it all in his hands. Because he does.






I apologize AGAIN for not posting a lot. It's been busy around here (still not an excuse) and I just don't have a lot of inspiration. So even though this post might be a little rough, I hope you understand it.






Thanks for reading.
bouncing in to say bye,
                                   bernie

Bernie's Random Ramblings // Carmi Trip w/ Youth Group

Welcome to Bernie's Random Ramblings. 

A couple weeks ago we went to Carmi. It was my first year going with my youth group but they've went plenty of times. Carmi is a children's home for teenagers. It's also a Christian place. Firstly, Friday night we came up there. We first went to Cracker Barrel. When we got up there we played basketball. It was hot, but I love basketball especially with my friends.  Then, we took a shower and hung out. About 30 people stayed in a house with about 6 bedrooms. The living room was small but we managed to fit almost everyone in there. I loved just hanging in the living room. 

Saturday, we got up early and got outside to work. About 15 people got to weed eat *is that how you spell it?* I was a little nervous because I've never done it before. So they just literally handed me one and I was like " I don't know how to do this thing." And they're like talk to Caleb. I go to Caleb and he just starts the thing for me and leaves. I'm like " I don't know to do this." So he shows me, then later it's not working. I go and tell my friend and she's like "Go and talk to Caleb" 

"But I don't want to talk to Caleb. He doesn't help me!" Well we fixed it. Anywho, there's my little adventure. These weed eaters were very powerful sometimes pine cones would hit you really hard and it would sting. We weed eated a lot. Finally we were done. 

We had lunch, took a shower *hallelujah* and got ready for meeting the kids. The girls made fleece blankets together and the boys played games outside. I was nervous about doing the blacker because I didn't know if it was this complicated project. Someone also told us we had to say 3 facts about us. My friends were horrified about that so we prepared like 30 minutes before. My three facts were:

I like playing the guitar.

I love playing football and gymnastics.

And my favorite color is lime green. 

While we were in our room planning our facts we almost got forgotten. We were laughing so hard being super loud. Finally I hushed everyone because I didn't hear anyone in the living room. We go into the living room and everyone was gone. So we ALMOST got forgotten. 

  

Anywho, the blankets went well. It was so easy and fun. We got one partner to do the blanket with. I was nervous, but we talked a lot and it was very fun. After that, we went back to our house. I would tell you all the hilarious things that we did, but it's just so hard to explain. 

 

That night we held a service for the kids. I didn't do anything but it was still fun. Then we got to pray with some of the kids. It was very awesome to pray with the kids. Then we had brownies! 

Bright and early Sunday morning we got ready to go to church at 10. Of course it's hard to get 30 people out of a house at 8 so we can get to church. We were only 10 minutes late though. That was awesome. 

The trip was very fun. 

Oh and wait,

I got a funny story. 

Friday night in the living room we're all talking about sleep walking. I don't sleep walk so I'm not worried about doing it that night. Well that night I get up. I literally jump off my bunk bed and bolt out of the room. I thought I was late for getting up so I go out to the living room and see nobody. I look at the clock and it says 2. So, I go back to bed. And that's my story.  My friend who was up saw all this. I'm just totally amused when I sleep talk to sleep walk this time. 

Thanks for reading!

 

Have you ever went on a mission trip?

Have you ever slept walked?

bouncing in to say bye,

                                bernie

History, Biology, and Gymnastics

HEYYYY EVERYONE

I just realized how horrible my Bernie's Random Ramblings was so I went to update that.

Then, I really wanted to talk about my life. Cause it's been awesome.

So I decided to make a little my life post.

Last Thursday was our first church history class for the school year. My dad and our Pastor are teaching it. I knew it was going to be fun because all of our close church friends we're doing it. And it was! Our Pastor explains things really well. After the audio everyone was like "wait so what did I just hear?" and Pastor Ed helped us understand it by explaining it and helping us learn some new words. That was really fun. Everybody was doodling too. (one reason why I didn't understand the audio very well.) I don't usually doodle in class, but I was. Man, my handwriting was awesome that day.

Before the class I was talking to my friends. I told them, "I'm the kind of person who doesn't even answer the question who died for your sins. I know it Jesus, but I'm to shy to say it." So then after that I was answering ALL these questions in class. Which I think I was doing that because I was more comfortable about these people. It was still funny though.

I also did my biology test today. In this test I needed to memorize these really long and complicated words. What was hard about it was I had to memorize the definition. I know that sounds dumb, but my family has always done spelling where you say the definition and we say the word to the definition. So that was something new to me. Anywho, I think I did okay..... I had to guess for two of the questions. Sarah, who's already done this class looked over my answers after I took my test and told me some things I might've got wrong. So, I'm pretty comfident about it. Hopefully I get a good grade though.

These past few weekends it's  been really nice out. Of course we like to take advantage of that by going outside. Basically, we grill out. Eat outside. Play games with each other. Then just hang around outside doing what we want. I like to play on my balance beam and my mat. I do workouts on it, gymnastics games, and fun stuff. A couple days ago my brother joined me. We did balance beam competitions. Of course we're horrible and we make up rules so we said that you can have 10 retries. yeah our balance wasn't so good that day.

Speaking of gymnastics......IM SO EXCITED. Yesterday I had my gymnastics class. I wasn't there last week because of my back and my it was still hurting a little bit, but I decided to go. I was super nervous coming in there thinking that I would start hurting. I was fine though. I never hurt and I could do my skills just like normal. I was so happy! We got to do backhandsprings (my favorite). I'm so excited because I've getting better at my backhandsprings. I'm starting to get the feeling of it. First when we started the coach said, "okay let's just do roundoffs." I was sad because I wanted to do roundoff backhandsprings. Later then he said you can do them now. I was so excited. A couple weeks ago I was doing a roundoff, stop, and then do a backhandspring, but it's supposed to be connected. I'm finally getting to connect those better. And it makes me happy! So there's my gymnastics talk that I've been dying to tell everybody.

I was really excited about this week because I was going to be busy. WHO LIKES BUSY? ME. On Monday we had our girls bible study. Tuesday was piano and gym. Today was guitar and Wednesday night meals at church. Tomorrow is biology and history class. Friday is going to our apple festival. Saturday is going to the apple festival parade and hanging out there with our family. We're also taking these little kids there to because we're babysitting them. So, I'm excited!

Woohoo!
Tell me about your week.
Is there anything you're just dying to tell everybody about to? Tell meeeee!
What are some interesting things you learned this week?
And if you like gymnastics, TALK TO ME!

bouncing in to say bye,
                                 bernie

GOOD APPLES FRIDAY // WHY YOU SHOULD GO TO CHURCH

Welcome to Good Apples Friday

After my camp they gave me some cool books to read one called "Live Smart."

It's a really good book that I recommend you to read.

But I'm reading about You+God.

1. Fear God.

2. Know the Bible and Pray like Crazy

and 3. Love the Church.

I decided I wanted to talk about 3. Love the Church because it's a topic that I really agree on.

One reason why kids who go to camps can often stray away from Christ after the camp even though they loved God at the camp is because most of them do not have a church that they go to.

The church is one of the main reasons why I love God so much.

Because I see all the people who love God and I want to be like them.

When I go to my church I always see happy faces hugging and loving others while encouraging them.

And that makes me want to be like that.

One reason why kids can often stray away from God is because they don't have a church.

And why does that matter you ask?

Because all around you in the church is people who have the same problems as you do?

They all have struggles obeying and putting Jesus first.

A lot I can find myself discouraged to do something like fast internet or read the bible because all around the world people don't care about that.

And it's very encouraging to go to a church where people want to read the bible and want to put God first.

In the book it said that the church is not perfect but it is healthy.

It might not be perfect, but these are the things that we need to look in a church.

The Fellowship of the Believers

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

1. They Were Devoted to the Apostle's Teaching

Sometimes you can find churches that don't always use the bible as their main tool.

the apostle's teaching is actually the New Testament.

Next time you are at church or are visiting a church listen carefully and see if they use they're bible a lot. Do they base their sermon on a scripture? Do they use scriptures to make points?

2. They Were Devoted to One Another

The people in the church encourage you to deepen you love for Christ. They mourn and love you when hard times are in your life. And they care for each other by helping them. This week some of the men of my church went to build a ramp for a man in the church for his wheelchair after his surgery. They helped him by making him a ramp in this hard time for him. When you look at your church do you see people talking after the service or do they all just leave quickly? I know just even talking to someone who is going through someone can help. Even if you don't even talk about this matter together they are encouraged and know they have someone to go to.

3.  They Were Devoted to the Gospel

In Acts 2 is shows how they people were dedicated to the gospel. After the author of this book was saved on June 22, 1986 he said his life changed greatly because he trusted Christ and he became apart of a local church. Seeing people just like you loving God and wanting to deepen that relationships helps and encourages you A LOT.

"I wish I'd have been a believer younger in life, so I could have taken advantage of all the things you can. I missed out on all the camps, the church groups, the Sunday school classes, Dan Dumas the author says. But since I became a Christian, I've been a part of the church, and I haven't left. I don't want to leave either. There's too much to gain from belonging to something so big, so important, and so glorious. Jump in with both feet!"

just like he said it guys jump in if you haven't.

if you're not so interested in being apart of helping the church with events.

do it.

it will change you life.

and also read this book.

Dan gives a plead to you.

To be apart of a church.

Because he didn't when he was young.

And he regretted it.

bouncing in to say bye,

                                 bernie