Guest Post from Sarah

Dear Followers of Praise Him with dance,

Hello! My name is Sarah and I have been blogging for almost a year now. Noelle's blog was one of the first blogs I followed. Actually, Noelle was actually the first person who followed by blog before I followed hers. I really like Noelle's blog because of her passion for Christ. I mean her blog is called, 'Praise Him with dance', but you can totally tell Noelle wants to praise Jesus with dance and you can totally tell why she wants to do that. Because of that, I really look up to her even though I don't know her personally.

The reason I'm posting on this blog is because Ellie and I got second place in her Valentines' Day contest. Ellie is my younger sister and 'blogging partner'. Our blog is called Forever Changed.

Well, I wasn't really sure what to post. I mean, I could tell you a little bit about me. I am a writer all the way. I LOVE reading. I LOVE music. But the most important thing you can ever know about me is that I am a total failure, but God love me and redeemed anyway. Don't get me wrong. I still fail, but God is still with me and He gets me through all my failures, and trials.... and everything that else that comes along the way.

Okay, enough about me. I want to talk to you now. About what, you ask? About God. I almost want to talk about a certain word, a weird word. I think about this word when I'm about to take a shower,when I'm taking off my clothes. The word I'm thinking of is, 'strip'.

I've always thought this word was weird, but I've never really thought of the depth of the meaning. When I was thinking about it, in the shower, I discovered something. In a way, God strips us. To explain myself, how the word 'strips' relates to our faith in three points.

1.  He 'strips' us help us to see our need for Him.
When you have a lot of friends, a happy family, talents, good grades, success, you think you have it all together, right? Isn't it hard it see how much you need God when you got it all together? Because we think we don't need God, we ignore him or put Him aside for later. After awhile, God shows us how much we need Him. He takes away the nice things, the fame, and the success. He says, "Hey, remember, without that stuff that I gave you, you would be nothing."

Even when it seems like you have everything you need, if you don't have Jesus, you're not complete, no matter who you are. Remember, God was one that blessed you with all the success, friends, and family.
Okay, so you might not believe that there's a God. If you do, I'll use this simple illustration. When you see a painting, you automatically know that there was painter, just like with building, books, etc. What about a tree? Man can't make a tree. Think about it. Have you ever heard of a tree maker? There has to be some supernatural power behind it.

Or maybe you believe in evolution. Well, if you do, I'm just going to tell you right now. Something can't evolve out of NOTHING!

When you get into a bad situation, just remember that God is with you. Don't avoid the truth. You need Him more than you need oxygen.

2. Once we've trusted Him, he 'strips' us of our worldly desires, and gives us a new desire for Him.
Before you put your trust in Him, you have sinful desires, but after you realize your need for Him and put your trust in Him, He gives you a desire for Him. So instead of wanting to sin, you go away from it. Instead of dreading and hating God's word, you love it!

3. We need to 'strip' ourselves for Him.
No, I don't mean actually take your clothes off to make yourself noticeable. I mean, we need to stand up for Him. That's hard for me to say since I used to be one of the shyest people on the planet, but trust me, ever since I became a Christian, I've actually gotten better about it. We need to stand up for Christ and tell everyone about him even if it means losing all of our earthly treasures. If you ever don't want to share Christ with someone, think of one of your Christian friends that perhaps introduced you to God or influenced your faith. Without them, you might not have this unbeatable joy for Jesus. Remember, He gave everything for you and He's given you the ability to do that too.

So, I'll stated my case. Just think about it, okay? Please check out my blog at: foreverchanged13.blogspot.com

In Christ,
Sarah