Growth Spurts

Becoming an adult is one of the most difficult challenges that I have had to face in my life so far. It's even harder than the teen years. Right now I'm at the place in one's life where they are stuck somewhere between teenhood and adulthood. I want so badly to be an adult, but yet I still often act like a teenager and even sometimes like a child. Now, becoming an adult is hard, but becoming a woman of God, now that is the ultimate challenge!

Right now I am stuck between being a teen Christian and becoming an adult Christian. Believe you me, this is not an easy journey. Already in my life I have been faced with many difficult questions, challenges, and life choices. And already I've chosen some pretty dumb stuff and some pretty good stuff too. Is it enough though? Not even close.

Today I watched a message by this guy called Paul Washer. I started the video thinking, well, nothing much really. I was mostly thinking I guess that I was glad for YouTube because I unfortunetly slept in this morning and so was feeling pretty guilty that I was missing church. I'm not too sure that I have yet found my Yellowknife church, but I know that I still need the Christian fellowship. So anyways, I watched this message by Paul Washer and it really got to me. He talked a lot about how Christians these days in North America live so much in and of the world and are ignoring the fact that it's not only a narrow gate that we go through, but there's also a narrow path that we should be following. He talked about how we so often "re-commit" our lives but it only lasts for maybe a week, sometimes a month, and sometimes even less. He also talked about how so many of us live our entire lives professing to be Christians because we prayed a prayer and we even live like our fellow "Christians" but often those people in our youth groups and churches aren't even Christians at all and we are living up to such a low low North American "Christian" standards. He talked about what we really should be basing our Christianity on, and it's not a prayer, it's our fruit and our lives and whether or not we really are walking on the narrow path, and yeah we all screw up, but as Christians when we screw up God is always there to chastize us and get us back on the right path.

What I got out of the message was mostly that I have been straying too often from the narrow way and have been basing my standard of living on too low of standards. I know that change will not be huge right away, but I think that if I really stick to it and if God is really in it, then anything can happen. I want to start putting my standards up to the way people like John Piper and Martin Luther and Paul Washer live/lived their lives. It's definitely not going to be easy, but I believe with all my heart that it will be worth it.

I recommend that everyone watches this message because it really is life changing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8

I would really really appreciate it if everyone would pray for me right now, because I don't want my convictions to last one day, one month, or even just one year. I have a real desire right now to be more like Christ and I want it to stay that way.

If anyone has any recommended reading either from the bible, or some good book, please let me know in a comment. One thing to keep in mind that Paul Washer said before his message (and I really like this) "If what I say in this message is not the truth, then I am the one who is going to face judgement, but if what I say is the truth and you don't listen to it the judgement is yours." something like that...

Anyways it's baby steps from here on to Adulthood and t0 becoming a Woman of God...