Well here is another bunch of stuff I have been thinking. How many times have you had a young person come to you and tell some of the struggles he or she are going through? Well for most adults here in the village,our first impulsive thing to do is to "Give them God".  Another one of those phrases used a lot in the village. Now I am not saying that we shouldn't give our young people God. We should. We just need to be darn sure that what you are giving to this young person is, in fact, God. Not what you think of the situation. Then there is another thing. Sometimes what these kids need is someone who can listen to them. not say a whole lot. Just listen Let them pour out their fears, struggles and pain. Someone who is there for them and let's them know that they understand and that they can make it.
  There are people who are good at giving our you the things that God has for them. Then there are those who are good at listening and being there for them. A few Are good at doing both. I guess all I'm saying in all this is find out what you are. Be careful when you are to give God to a kid, because if you try to "give them God" at the wrong time or in the wrong way, you could possibly be causing more harm than good.
  We have a lot of good kids in this village. We are very blessed to have them and some times I think we forget just how blessed are. I guess it can be kind of easy to forget when you spitting mad because" hoozit" forgot to tell you where he or she was going. (or something)  But they are great kids.
  So, until next time, this is Josh sanders for My Thoughts.

Howdy folks. I'm Back. my computer has been down for the past couple months or so. Actually, it's still down. I'm working on this piece on the computer at YDI.
  Anyway, I've been reading  Myth of a Christian Religion.  It's an interesting book.
  I got to the part where he was talking about pastors and evangelists doing these great things. Saving and converting people to Christ. But it was all done without the love of Christ. So in the end it all counted as nothing. Paul writes in Corinthians, I think, saying that "I can give money to the poor. I can pray to god, even give my body to be burned at the stake. But if I have not love, it profits me not."   It got me to thinking. Do i have love like that? Well, If i'm honest with myself I think the answer would be no. Oh I love people and all that , but not the way that Christ would have me to be. I condemn when I should be overlooking  that "speck in someones eye". I gossip with the best of them when I should be defending who we are talking about. Get short with people when patience is needed. All of these are relatively small by themselves, but it adds up. Especially when you look at how many things in your life God has already overlooked. There is another saying in the bible "He who has been forgiven much, forgive much. Many times we forget how many times we have been forgiven by both God and man. Often we just see what is in front of us and don't stop and think. "Hey wait a minute! I've done stuff like that before."  We fail to check "The log in our eye." Now when I say "We" I mean "I" as well.
  Christ's love is as simple as "Love you neighbor as you would love yourself." or "Do to others as you would have them do to you." There is another part in M.O.C.R. that talks about the church torturing people for not following Christ their way. He said that there was no way that that was Christ. Christ said "Love your enemies".
  Ok, we don't kill and torture people "in the name of Christ" but do we make people want to be with us or do we turn people away with our "zeal" for Christ?  Boyd talks about how Jesus was hanging out with what the Jewish religious leaders considered the bottom of the food chain. Jesus had a kind of holiness that attracted and drew these kind of people to him. We, as a village, I think, are getting more and more like that. Where people feel safe around us, where they won't feel condemned for their shortcomings. So keep up the good work fellow villagers.  

 "My life is my message". -Mahatma Gandhi

Oh how true are these words! So many times we forget this as we do our day to day stuff. Gandhi lived his message and sometimes that meant fasting until all the violence stopped. Even when one of the leaders of the opposing sides came in with his weapons and said he was going to stop, Gandhi said if this man was just doing it because he (Gandhi) was starving to death, it wasn't enough. It had to real, something he believed. Only after the man assured him that he was sincere, only then did he sit up and ask for a glass of orange juice. How many of us have that kind of belief themselves. I Know i don't! Fasting until you are nearly dead and still making sure that they are not doing whatever so you wouldn't die. I have a feeling that if that man would not have been sincere, Gandhi would have continued the fast and very likely died two or three days later.
Gandhi was not the only one who's life was his message. Mother Teressa was another figure Like Gandhi. She did what she Preached. There are so many quotes on love by her. 

  “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” is one of my favorites.She is a good example of living one's message. The people she brought in were the "Untouchables" of the Indian cast system. The bottom of the food chain, if you will. These were, and still unfortunately are, the people that no one takes care of. Many of them just died on the street where they had been laying for some time. I'm sure many of you have seen some of the pictures of the people she took care of. Skeletons with skin on them! Most other people wouldn't get past the smell much less actually holding them. (Some people have a hard time changing a baby's diaper)
Anyway just another bit of thinking I've been doing.

Jesus Said  you must be as a child to enter the kingdom of heaven. He also says that if any one should cause a little one to stumble that it would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea. So God loves children. Why? Well there are a few reasons I think. One would be that they are so simple. They are full of questions, they have an imagination. They are free to express how they feel  even though some times it doesn't make sense to us adults. When they worship, it isn't as if they are forced to. They aren't faking it and it isn't peer pressure. Some times it sounds a bit chaotic. But It does say "Make a joyful noise." so there!

Donna K would, I think be the best example for having the heart of a child. She never acts her age spiritually  and physically. And she will tell you "I will nevah act my age!" Look at her in the gatherings. She is constantly shouting, not just saying, shouting her "Amens!" When she has something to sat she says it with boldness(Again shouting out her praises)

 I mentioned before about Children having a simple faith. They know that God is God, Jesus is their Lord and Savior, and that they should obey Him. What? No Doctrine?! Yup.  Oh that we all could be that way.

  I remember the Story that Pastor Daniel told us about that one man that went looking for someone that could heal his daughter. After passing through many villages, he finally came to a man that told him about Jesus. Overjoyed, he went through each of the villages he had already gone through proclaiming that he had found the Saviour. He didn't know the names of the apostles or the twelve disciples. he didn't know how many books there were in the bible. All he knew was Jesus and that was enough.

Hi folks. This is my first time blogging. My good friend Neharah suggested  it. What a Great idea! Anyway, I hope this will continue for a long time. And These are Some of "My Thoughts"


                    Ok. How to be a man after God's own heart. Does that mean being perfect? Well if you Read through scriptures, it will tell you that you don't have to be perfect. Look At King David. God himself said that David was a man after his own heart. David did some things that make you go"What? No way." But there was some thing about David that God loved. As a human I would've most likely wrote him off. One of the few sayings David loved to say were
"Have mercy on me Oh God."
"Shout joyfully to the Lord"
"Hear my prayer oh lord"
He was constantly Praising God.
One of my favorite stories of David was after he had killed Uriah So he could marry his wife.
After he had married her,a prophet came told him that the child she bore would die. All through the night David,crying and weeping, begged and Pleaded with God to Spare the child. But The lord was adamant. And the child died.
When the news came to David of the death of his child,he got up,washed,put on nice clothes and he went to the house of God and worshiped. His servants were amazed and asked him why, when his son was alive, did he cry and weep. But when his son was dead he praised god and was happy.
His answer was that while his son was still alive,there was some chance that God might have been gracious. Since he was dead,there was no point in grieving because he couldn't bring him back. 
I thought that there was a psalm he wrote for the occasion but I can't find it. If I'm not mistaken, He Praised God for his never ending love and compassion. For his mercy and grace. How many of us can do that? I mean, we get tripped up over not getting to do the things we want to do. We Get mad when he says we can't do something that we've always wanted to do.You Know "But's it doing his work!" David is Praising god After loosing his son. Paul and Barnabas were praising god After they had been beaten and thrown in prison. Job, after loosing EVERYTHING, still would not"Curse God and die!" as his wife said. Amy Carmichael, while permanently stuck in bed and, in some cases, not being able to hold a pen, wrote songs and poems to God. Gorge muller prayed and it happened. And the list goes on and on. What do these people have in common? They all were Praising God Constantly. God loves Praise. He rewards Praise. And with that Praise is a reminder that we are all meant to be men and women after Gods own heart. When we Praise God, especially when we don't feel like it, I think that God smiles and says.
"No you're not perfect. Yes you fall short and sin. But that is not what I'm looking at. I see that you want to be mine. And I'm happy with that."
So the next time your friend says some thing that hurts. When something is not going the way you want it to. Try not to get annoyed or cross with someone. Instead, sing a song to God! you can even pull a Mala and make one on the spot. 
Anyway, these are things I've been thinking about. Thought I'd share it with you all.