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Is it August already? How many years have I started the month with that sentence? This year, I say it with a new fervor. Tomorrow, August 2, is opening day for the NextGenWriter’s Conference. What is that, you ask? Well, it’s an online, FREE writer’s conference for author’s under 20 (I know, I get so much flack from authors over 20 for this one, but hey, we’re talking about the next generation of literary leaders here…they need their own conference, don’t cha think?).  Want to know how it works? Click here. Or who’s presenting? Here. Ready to register? Here. And of course, want to pick up one of the presenter’s books? Here.

by Rayna (14)

I can’t say the exact moment when Jesus came into my life, changing me. You see, I had been going through an extended period of conviction and guilt. And numerous times, I knelt and gave my life to Him. But nothing really seemed to change, and even now, almost a year since my baptism, I don’t feel like a completely different person. I still fail daily. With my siblings, with my parents, I struggle most with controlling my tongue. But His grace is great, and plentiful, and I beg for it every evening.

But here is the truth: The moment (even though I don’t know that moment) Jesus entered into my heart, I became a new creature. “Old things were passed away, and all became new.” So even if the change wasn’t entirely visible, and even though I may not feel it, I know it’s there. Because the Bible is to be trusted.

So how has Jesus changed me? The simple answer is: in everything, because I became a new creature. And as a new creation of Jesus Christ’s I want to become more and more like Him, until I enter the shining, marvelous New Kingdom some sweet day.

Thank you Rayna!

So how has Jesus Changed You??

“My heart is breaking

Right down the middle.

There’s a void within me.

And within that empty place,

That’s where You should be.”

I penned those words on a hot June night. I sang them over and over in my mind for weeks. I needed the comfort of God’s love in the hole in my heart that summer more than I ever had before. I was discovering that Jesus was the faithful Rock that I could stand on when all other ground was sinking sand.

I had just turned fifteen, an age when a girl needs friends. Well, I had none. My best friend deserted me to hang with the in-crowd. I was devastated and I knew that I could not follow. On the one hand, I didn’t desire to be a part of that group. I didn’t understand them.  I wasn’t experiencing what they were experiencing, thinking what they were thinking, or struggling with what they were struggling with. But on the other hand, I wanted to be with the girl I had called my sister. I felt cut off and alone, because I knew I didn’t belong in that crowd but neither did I feel completely at home where I was. I was lonely. I needed friendship, communion, and fellowship.

I finally found it in the presence of my Savior.

I was saved when I was really young, so that I don’t even have a memory of the first time I accepted my sinfulness, my fear of death and the reality of a Shepherd to cleanse me and guide me. However, I remember clearly the morning I walked down the aisle and told my pastor it was “real this time.” Afterward, I was encouraged by my Sunday school teacher to spend time with God each day, “even if it’s only a little bit, even if it’s only five minutes, have a little quiet time every day.” Those words made all the difference as I began my journey of faith. In those five minutes I found a Love that satisfied my longings and made me want to sing.

I still pray for my best friend. It is painful to look back, but it is sweet, too, because the summer I lost my best friend, I gained a new One. He is my Best Friend now, the one I trust with my past, my hurts, my present, my desires, my future, and my dreams. As awful as that experience was, I am thankful for it, because in it, I found Jesus.

“My heart is healing

Right up the middle

There’s a void within me

Right in that empty space

That’s where You will be.”

“How Jesus Changed My Life?” By Georgia.

A simple question, which has a not-so-simple answer.

I was brought up in a Christian home, and I was the youngest of six children, which means I have siblings, and lots of ‘em.  Most of the time, they were busy getting into trouble. I was a silent spectator to their misdeeds and often found out, before my parents, that my older siblings weren’t the cool and grown up teenagers, I truly thought they were.

When I was 5, I got saved. It wasn’t because of a sermon in church, but rather because of my sister, Jennifer. She sat up with me one night, trying to explain what Heaven and Hell were, and why some people went up and other went down.  I knew Jesus liked sleeping in mangers and that he had died on a cross to save us from our sins, and that God was fond of the color white and I thought I knew all there was to know.  So, I got “saved.”  But that same year, I experienced something I pray no one will ever have to.

I was only 5, when my brother raped me. Looking back, I was glad I had no idea what raped meant, or that, that was what had happened to me. Sadly, I wasn’t the only one, the sister who helped me get saved, fell victim to my Brother. For years, I hated him. He never asked for forgiveness, and I felt until he did, he certainly didn’t deserves it from me. My parents were shocked and devastated when my sister and I told them. They called the police.

Though it was the most painful thing they’ve ever had to do and my brother was made to pay his dues for what he did, but I was still resentful. Until two years ago. That year, I read this book, A Passion Most Pure (by Julie Lessman), and it changed me. It really wasn’t so much the book, as it was Jesus using the book to pluck at my heart strings. It was 5 am, and I wasn’t even half way through the book before I was crying, begging Jesus to help me forgive my brother, like Jesus had already done for him. Because, it wasn’t until that moment that I realized, I can’t have the full and loving relationship with Jesus that I saw in the heroin of A Passion Most Pure, with hate and resentment in my heart, blocking the way in from Jesus. I knew that I had to forgive my brother in spite of everything and see him only with love, not hatred. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do, but I didn’t do it alone, I had Jesus by my side, helping and healing me. He changed me then, and started molding me into His perfect vessel. For that is what I am now, a clay vessel for Jesus to use to show others, and sometimes myself, that He is love.

How has Jesus changed you?

by an anonymous teen writer.

Everything was crashing down, and then my world was turned around. I was dealing with many things, everything was pouring in, burying me it seemed. My father’s relationship with my family was never a superb one. Even so, I was always considered to be ‘Daddy’s Little Girl’. Then he got a job across the country. It was supposed to be temporary but then the phone rang one evening, and everything changed.

He had decided to leave that night, and there I was… abandoned.

Four years later the divorce was finalized. I was angry with everything and everyone; I shut down emotionally, wanting to disappear into my own world of writing. This went on for a long, long time, I was trapped. A bit later an opportunity to go to a Christian conference in Colorado came up. It sounded fun and it was a way to get away, so I took up the offer. I soon found myself in Colorado Springs, Colorado for a week of ‘escape’. Then on the third day I was in the conference listening to the speakers, nothing seemed special that night, until worship began.

After the speaker they put music on, it was a song about surrendering. I was listening to the words when I was overcome with emotion, I began crying. I was supposed to surrender something to the Lord, but I had no idea what. I was frustrated with the fact that He wanted something that I didn’t think I had. Suddenly an arm was wrapped around me; a friend of mine had come over to comfort me. We sat in silence for a minute, and then he began to speak. He told me that I needed to surrender the broken half of me, and that I was a person with spirit and joy who couldn’t be both broken and joyful at the same time. He said that he saw Christ in me and that God wanted me to completely give Him my burden so I could be what He wanted me to be. I needed to surrender the pain, the anger, the abandonment. My friend told me that I was God’s daughter, no matter what. I came home from that conference changed. My family noticed it, and I noticed it too.

The Lord became my Shepherd, I was done wanting.

My life changed on my third day, the world changed on His third day. So when everything was crashing down, my world was turned around. I’m a child of God, and Jesus changed my life.

As the last week of March heats up, I’d like to post an extra life-changing entry. This one comes from a sweet gal who at the age of 13 has a better grip on this topic than I do most days. Thank you, Arianna for sharing your story…

My Life-Changing Moment

by Arianna

“Jesus has changed my life by always being there for me. I can be so stupid! I run from God, and try my own way. I like it too….for awhile. Then its over and I am left in a puddle of broken dreams and fears. And he’s always there, just waiting for me to come back, and take His hand. I have ditched Him so many times, but He’s loyal; He always waits for me to come back.
For this, I think I must say God is changing me. He’s not done. So, my life changing story is still in the process.”

How have you been changed?

by Rayna (14)

I can’t say the exact moment when Jesus came into my life, changing me. You see, I had been going through an extended period of conviction and guilt. And numerous times, I knelt and gave my life to Him. But nothing really seemed to change, and even now, almost a year since my baptism, I don’t feel like a completely different person. I still fail daily. With my siblings, with my parents, I struggle most with controlling my tongue. But His grace is great, and plentiful, and I beg for it every evening.

But here is the truth: The moment (even though I don’t know that moment) Jesus entered into my heart, I became a new creature. “Old things were passed away, and all became new.” So even if the change wasn’t entirely visible, and even though I may not feel it, I know it’s there. Because the Bible is to be trusted.

So how has Jesus changed me? The simple answer is: in everything, because I became a new creature. And as a new creation of Jesus Christ’s I want to become more and more like Him, until I enter the shining, marvelous New Kingdom some sweet day.

 Thank you Rayna!

So how has Jesus Changed You??

Ever feel like you had this Jesus-thing down pat? Knew it all? Coasting in your relationship with God? Join us tomorrow for another Life-changing moment with a special 16 yr-old author. She might just challenge your perspective…

**Tomorrow’s post is PG-13 (due to difficult content). Please read it with your parents or parents, read it with your teens.

“My heart is breaking

Right down the middle.

There’s a void within me.

And within that empty place,

That’s where You should be.”

I penned those words on a hot June night. I sang them over and over in my mind for weeks. I needed the comfort of God’s love in the hole in my heart that summer more than I ever had before. I was discovering that Jesus was the faithful Rock that I could stand on when all other ground was sinking sand.

I had just turned fifteen, an age when a girl needs friends. Well, I had none. My best friend deserted me to hang with the in-crowd. I was devastated and I knew that I could not follow. On the one hand, I didn’t desire to be a part of that group. I didn’t understand them.  I wasn’t experiencing what they were experiencing, thinking what they were thinking, or struggling with what they were struggling with. But on the other hand, I wanted to be with the girl I had called my sister. I felt cut off and alone, because I knew I didn’t belong in that crowd but neither did I feel completely at home where I was. I was lonely. I needed friendship, communion, and fellowship.

I finally found it in the presence of my Savior.

I was saved when I was really young, so that I don’t even have a memory of the first time I accepted my sinfulness, my fear of death and the reality of a Shepherd to cleanse me and guide me. However, I remember clearly the morning I walked down the aisle and told my pastor it was “real this time.” Afterward, I was encouraged by my Sunday school teacher to spend time with God each day, “even if it’s only a little bit, even if it’s only five minutes, have a little quiet time every day.” Those words made all the difference as I began my journey of faith. In those five minutes I found a Love that satisfied my longings and made me want to sing.

I still pray for my best friend. It is painful to look back, but it is sweet, too, because the summer I lost my best friend, I gained a new One. He is my Best Friend now, the one I trust with my past, my hurts, my present, my desires, my future, and my dreams. As awful as that experience was, I am thankful for it, because in it, I found Jesus.

“My heart is healing

Right up the middle

There’s a void within me

Right in that empty space

That’s where You will be.”