This week has changed my views on life. I have been reminded that this life is very short. I have also learned that we waste a lot of time worrying and doing things that are off course of God’s plan for our lives. Lately I have been very distracted by the world and ignoring God. When I heard that a close friend of mine (Paul Pohnert) was diagnosed with cancer and was told he had only hours to live I was very scared. I kept thinking: Does God exist? What if I was in my last moments of life? Would I go to heaven? and a number of other questions that really shook my faith.

When I went over to their house to visit the family I was very nervous that I wouldn’t know what to say. When I got there his son (Nathan Pohnert) came out and said to me “Are you sure you really want to go in?” I really didn’t want to go in the house because I was scared of what I would do. Would I cry? Would I be overwhelmed with fear that I wasn’t living up to God’s standards. We ended up talking for about 45 minutes outside about the past days and how things were going. The stories Nate shared with me really showed me their family’s faith in what God was doing. They weren’t mad at God for taking Paul away, they we overjoyed that Paul was going to be with the creator of the universe! When we were talking I brought up that I wasn’t where I wanted to be in my life and Nate said that maybe its a wake up call from God. Which turns out that it is.

I was so affected by Paul because he was the person who taught me how to run sound. He would come to church every sunday morning and come upstairs and teach me how to do stuff. One night he came to check on things and he watched me run sound for a show and I asked him if it sound alright and he said sounds great! He may have never knew it but his approval was important to me and he really made me fell good about what I did. He never once got mad at me for touching stuff and messing things up that he set. He would just laugh and give me a hard time, in love of course! I didn’t know him extremely well but what I did know about him was that he was always shining God’s light!

I thought New Beginning Church had a really cool video intro for their church.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfTJ0O20sCc

At our church we love God, make no mistake about that. At our church we believe in God’s radical, unconditional and unwavering love for us. At our church we believe that Jesus is God. We also affirm that you may or may not believe that Jesus is God, and we’re not asking you to change your belief system before you attend our church. We’re simply inviting you on a journey toward Jesus. For year’s churches had placed a high priority on Jesus as the “get-out-of-hell-free “card, at our church we place the highest priority on Jesus as the “live-life-to-the-fullest”

Well, its been a while since my last post…. lol sry about that. I haven’t been gone though! I have been working on some new stuff for the fwil. For one we have a new thing called FWIL Live which is pretty cool check it out. www.fallwriteinlove.com/live we haven’t used it yet but I want to! So stay tuned haha. I also made the themes for the blogs look like the rest of the site finally haha That took a while to do, I tried before, didn’t work out so well. Hopefully everyone will find the sites easier to navigate. Besides all the fwil stuff, I have been working hard at remedy on video stuff for this Sunday at 3DYC. I made promo videos for the talent show Remedy.fm is hosting. I have been really busy lately with stuff but at least I don’t have school.

The Big Topic
I have been talking to a girl for about 2 weeks now. I don’t know how it will turn out. I can’t really make up my mind, if I want to date her. That sound pretty 7th grade to me. I like, like you, haha and then you talk on the phone and hold hands haha. idk, I just feel like I’m not meant to have a girlfriend/wife(someday) sometimes I feel like I’m just being the stupid little boy that isn’t doing the right things. I feel like I can’t be that perfect boyfriend/husband. Like Eric Ludy says I don’t feel like I’m God’s Gift to Women. I feel like having a girlfriend would make people think of me different then that “tech guy” Ross that’s in love with his MacBook Pro. I asked one of my friends what it meant to date and like have a relationship. He was like you love that person so much that you would do anything for. I was thinking about that and it scares me that I can’t live up to that. He said that the hardest part of a relationship is loving them after the “fuzzy” feelings are gone. I was thinking to myself “Am I ready to partake in this journey with this girl?” “Should I wait?” “Why is this happening now?” “Do i have the right intentions?” “Is this the right girl?” “Is she ready?” “Am I letting God lead this?”. I think its really important to have God be the center of a relationship. I really want this to be a God satisfying relationship. Am I even at the right place with God? Should I focus on that instead of this girl? I feel like I’m not ready for this. Then I think to myself that will I ever be 100% ready? idk I just know that God will do with this as he pleases and I can’t change that! If you guys have anything to say drop me a comment. I would love to take to you!

Thanks,
Ross Stratton

AIM: rossor10
E-Mail: ross@fallwriteinlove.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=825555513

Think about this. How many of you girls want to be called beautiful and be told “I love you” by the opposite sex? Guys, how many of you want to be told how amazingly talented and good looking you are? The vast majority of you will say that you do. Not all, but most will say so. If you are one of the people who admitted this, then I would encourage you to read the rest because I am about to tell you like it is. LISTEN UP!

I most deffinately what to be called beautiful and be told ”I love you”, but it’s not my number one priority. It shouldn’t be your’s either. Your number one should be your relationship with Your Lord. Nothing else should matter. Not the way you look, who you’re dating, and most deffinately not how much money you have. REMEMBER THAT!!!!!

At Camp this year, God reiterated this concept to me in two different ways. First, Fop was constantly talking about how precious we are. He talked about how God created us just the way we are, fearfully and wonderfully made and beautiful in his eyes. Second, the remedy fm band members showed so much respect for girls. I read on one of the guy’s blogs, called “Fall Write In Love”, this, and I quote, “I will end by saying this last statement that no man can disagree with, Women are far to complex and beautiful to be accidents.” That is what I call respet.

The world defines beauty as something that is accomplished, sexy or easy on the eyes. God defines beauty as something in your heart, soul, and who you really are. Guys, it’s not about how you look, or how many girls you’ve you slept with. You cannot accomplish girls. As much as you think so, girls don’t find it attractive when they find out how many girls you’ve slept with. IT DOESN’T MATTER TO US, AND IT DOESN’T MATTER TO GOD, SO GET OVER YOURSELVES AND GROW UP! Same for you girls, IT DOENS’T MATTER WHO YOU’VE SUDUCED, HOW GORGEUS YOU ARE, AND HOW YOU ARE IN BED. YOU ARE NOT A PIECE OF MEAT, SO DONT’ LET PEOPLE TREAT YOU LIKE ONE! Your relationship with God is the most important thing…I promise. Don’t listen to the world around you. It’s full of a bunch of lies, and it doesn’t matter.

All of this to say that our beauty and good looks do not define us. What really matters is your realtionship with God. Honestly think about this, one day your going to get old, fat, saggy, or whatever, so why waste so much time on looking good when you know how it all ends anyway? The bible specifically says that beauty isn’t the most important thing. Proverbs 31:30 says this, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” That doesn’t go just for girls, it works both ways.

So do you really want to be beautiful? Feel loved? READ YOUR BIBLE! Get to know YOUR God, because He’s the ONLY ONE who can provide you with long lasting beauty. Surrender yourselves to Him wholeheartedly, and I guarantee you He will be everything you need! He will show you what true beauty is…all you have to do is look and listen for God.

Next time you feel unloved, ugly, worthless, overly confident, and self-conscious, read a chapter from the Bible. It’s there you’ll find the cure. I know what it’s like to be a teenager and live is this messed up society that surrounds us. It is HARD. I’m not going to lie to you. I will say this though. The Bible clearly states that God will never give you more than you can handle. He also says that He will be right beside you every step of the way. You don’t have to face it on your own. God loves you, and He will provide you with true beauty. Love GOD more than anything because He loves you unconditionally.

~God is good, all the time; all the time, God is good.~

*Whatever God wants*

~Ashley Fulp
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Hey everyone!

I have never actually blogged before about any other topic then technical stuff so I decided to start!

I am gonna start a new series “Boys Like Girls” because I have thought about starting a series that is kind of like the Sex Series you might of heard about at your church. At first I didn’t want to say the word “sex” because of what people might think if I do a series on it, but I believe this is a very important topic of today’s culture. I will try to help you understand “sex” from God’s eyes.

The first thing I’m going to say is that “sex” isn’t just the physical act. It has much more meaning. You might be watching TV, reading a magazine, driving your car down the street, or the number one, on the Internet, and you will almost always or always see sexual ads. This generation is attacked by “sex”. Sex get used to sell everything you buy. On TV you see people having sex all the time. 99% of the time they aren’t married. Society is saying that sex is okay before marriage, sex isn’t a big deal. We fall into the Lie that sex is okay and that it isn’t a big deal. We need to stand up and say sex is not okay and it is a big deal if you want to pursue intimacy with your future spouse.

The weird thing about “sex” is that we can’t control it by ourselves. We must have help from God to over come sexual temptations. The reason for this is because we are to become more like Christ in our walk with him. He say to flee from sexual immorality. Sexual immorality isn’t just the act of sex, it is also lust. Lust is when you think of someone in a sexual way and think of what you could do with that person sexual and is also more. This use the people you lust over for your satisfaction, treating that person like a piece of meat. We have no right to do this to people because they are not ours, they are Gods he bought them at a price as well as you.

You are also pressured to date from your peers. You are pressured from your body to do physical things while dating. As my youth pastor would say “Dating = Pain”. The reason why this is, is because the odds are that you will break up and you start to think what is wrong with me? Or you will end up doing things you wish you wouldn’t have sexually. In the original plan of “sex” that was set by God, all the physical stuff that you do from holding hands to having sex, was meant for marriage. It was meant for marriage for a reason, when you do things out of the plan, you will have consequences.

Song of Solomon 2:7

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse awaken love until it so desires.

In this verse it is saying not to mess with sexual things until marriage. Sex is thought to create intimacy by the world today. Intimacy is not created by having sex, sex is a “bonus” for when you are married and have oneness with your spouse.

I’m not sure if I got everything very clear seeing as it is my first time actually blogging ha ha. If you have questions leave me a comment, or email me at ross@fallwriteinlove.com, or use our connect feature on the home page!

A lot of what I talked about in this blog came from the teachings of Jesse Hanna, Youth Pastor at Blackhawk Ministries Church. 212°.