Category Archives: Teens

“Choose the Potter’s Hands” – Paige Timberlake

Posted on by Olivia Mancini
20 Oct
By Paige Timberlake
I recently saw this quote..
“A piece of clay must be perfectly centered on the potter’s wheel so that it doesn’t wobble, then, just a light touch will transform it into something beautiful.”
Thinking about it, I realized that it is the same way with the Father. He calls us to be Perfect, and not to waver or compromise…
“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:48‬
But sometimes the clay isn’t perfectly centered on the wheel, we make mistakes and as clay we become uneven and smushed. But, with the Gentle, Loving and sometimes Pressing hands of the most talented Potter of all, with the lightest pushes and presses, He transforms us (smushed, dirty, and uneven) into beautiful vessels that He designs uniquely, then polishes, only to fill with His Spirit, His Love, His Joy, all that He is He pours into us so that we can go out and be used to further His kingdom.
“God is my strength and power, And He makes my way perfect.”
‭‭II Samuel‬ ‭22:33‬ ‭
First, we have to choose to be in the Potter’s hands and we have to be willing to let Him push and press us, to carve and mold us, then we have to be willing to be washed daily. As a piece sits and gets dusty or gets used and dirty, we have to be washed. He washes and cleanses us and rids us of our filth, our greed, our doubt, our pride, our selfishness, our worry, our unbelief.. By His Word we can renew our minds daily and be cleansed.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:2‬ ‭
Ephesians 5:25-27 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
He cleanses and purifies His bride! Yeshua gave Himself for us, He was the word! That cleansing and washing us makes us “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”.
We need to be washed, daily in the word. No more 15 minute devotions! We need to be spending all of our extra time seeking His face! We need to be on our faces before Him, praying for His mercy on the earth and on our lives! We need to have a spirit perfectly set on Him. We need to give Him everything we have and “present ourselves a living sacrifice”, to Him. We need to believe that what He says is true! ..These are the things that are lacking in our walk with Him. We haven’t given ourselves fully to Him, we have held back because of the comfortable convenient lives we live. We have put Him on  the back burner only to be used when we are in times of need or trouble.. and in times of trouble we doubt what He says and we don’t believe His word!
If our minds are set on Him, and we love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with the strength that comes from Abba Father, through His joy and peace and so much more, we can live for Him, fully.
I hear too many people say, “we can’t be perfect, it’s impossible.” But I have to say with Yahweh, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! Stop making the excuse that you can’t live a perfect life just so you don’t have to try. That’s a lie from Satan! We are to make it an effort, everyday, walking in the spirit, to be perfect as He is perfect… and He shows us the way to do so.. and even when you do fall, and fall hard, don’t let the enemy condemn you and make you feel like a failure! You get up, spend more time in His presence, in His word, and in prayer, so that you have the armor on, to withstand the fiery darts of the wicked one!
He loves us with an everlasting love, and that’s intense! He is a good good Father and wants us to trust Him. We need to have Faith in Him, in times of pain, in times of Joy, in storms, and in sunshine.. Hebrews says, “without faith it is impossible to please Him”. I want to please my Father! Abba, give us faith to move mountains!
Lastly, we are to be like Him. It’s not all about finding who we are in Christ, but about knowing who Christ is in us! 
“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5:1‬ ‭
“To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1:27‬ ‭
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:5‬ ‭
So seek Him with all of your heart because He says… 
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29:13‬ ‭
And then we will be like Him…
“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” ‭‭I John‬ ‭3:2‬ ‭

Body of Christ

Posted on by Olivia Mancini
23 Jul

Read: 1 Corinthians 6

I love this chapter in 1 Corinthians! Verse 1 says, ” Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before unrighteousness, and not before the saints? ”

If you continue reading Paul talks about how we have NO right to judge each other, we that are in the Church, we who are believers. Believers need to stop persecuting believers! We are not all the same. If you believe in the Savior Yeshua Messiah ( Jesus Christ) and if you believe in God and the Holy Spirit then you are a believer! You believe God is true and every man a liar. Yes, we need to keep Torah! I am not preaching against it at all! Torah is truth! Every Word of God proves true. But what I am saying is knit picking each other on how we perceive the Word is wrong. If you know keeping Gods law is Torah and Torah still exists today then you should be keeping it. But if you don’t know, and have never ever been taught it then you will know that the Old testament isn’t done away with! Yeshua keeps Torah. We as believers need to be focusing on the ” Big Picture”. Spread the gospel like wildfire! Go out to the nations and preach the words of our Lord! Pray for people, encourage, enlighten, teach, serve, be who God has called you to be.

Guys, internet fighting, Congregations breaking up, people arguing, people beating others with the Bible has to stop. I am just as guilty! I have gotten into some pretty pointless Facebook fights over holidays. Could I make a difference by speaking out in anger against the church? Against Christianity? Against the world? No. Being an angry person isn’t going to help anyone! Speaking negatively about others is wrong. God doesn’t like it when we fight.

If you’re a Mother or Father, or even just a babysitter, then you know that when kids fight it makes you upset as well! You just want them to stop and get along. Everything is easier when we get along. Imagine this, a room full of people, standing hand in hand, singing praises to our King in Spirit and in Truth! With no fighting, no hatred, no anger. This can happen! You have to decide what’s important to argue about. If you want fellowship, then you have to be loving to one another NO MATTER what. If you agree on Kosher, abstain from sexual immorality, keep the Feasts of the Lord, keep the Sabbath on the 7th day, and believe that Yeshua is Lord then you can absolutely fellowship! There is no excuse. You agree on what’s most important. Why can’t you fellowship? Maybe you spell the name of Yeshua different, maybe you say Jesus instead of Yeshua, God instead of Yahweh? Maybe you have a strict dress code? Maybe you’re modest but you’re not as strict? Maybe your movie selections and music selections are different? There are so many things that make us different from each other, but we all have two things in common.

1. We are ALL born into sin. “ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23

2. We can all be saved through the blood of the Lamb.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.

 

We are all condemned. But we all have access to freedom in Yeshua. All you have to do is turn, ” Teshuvah” from your sin, STOP DOING IT and ask for forgiveness! That’s it. Our lives change when we say YES to following Him, when we turn, when we declare that Yeshua is our savior! We need to stand together as brothers and sisters in Him, One Body, one people, all sinners redeemed, all saved and all seeking the face of God. Stand firm in your faith! Focus on helping unbelievers. When they see you setting a good example, loving others and serving others, then they will see that God is good! They will see the blessing in your life and want the same. All you have to do is live for Him and when someone asks ” How? Why?” All you have to do is say, ” God.”

“ By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

 

Follow Yeshua!

Posted on by Olivia Mancini
12 Apr
By Nathan Mancini

So many people seem to focus only on the death of Messiah, and are all about Him saving us from our sin. He did save us, and He did die for us, and I don’t minimize that at all; but He also LIVED for us. He set a perfect example for us, and He showed us much more than we might realize.

The deal isn’t that He dies for us to save us from our sins so that we can just go off sinning all we want, His sacrifice does not give us a license to sin, at all. We need to give our lives to Him as He gave His life for us. We need to love Him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength.

Luke 9:23

“And He said to them all, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’”

Yeshua is saying that we need to be a living sacrifice to Him and The Father by living each day following His word and being devoted to Him forever. Love Him above everything in your life!

Romans 12:1-2

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of YHVH, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto Elohim, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of YHVH.”

John 15:13-14

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, is ye do whatsoever I command you.”

Yeshua is our friend if we do what He commands, and if we lay down our lives for Him, then we fulfill the love that we need to have towards Him.

He has laid down His life for us, He loves us with a love so huge that there is no greater! He deserves our obedience, and all the glory that we can give Him!

So take up your cross daily by keeping everything that He commands, and present yourself a living sacrifice, laying down your life for Him each day for your entire life. You will be rewarded so greatly, with things so awesome that we can’t even imagine, with eternal life! That’s not a thousand years, it’s not a million, not a billion, and not even close to a trillion… It’s forever and ever! Hard to even imagine that, isn’t it? His promise is awesome! Yeshua is the way, the truth, and the life. Follow Him.

“Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”

Revelation 5:11-13

Hallelujah!!!

Fear vs Faith!

Posted on by Olivia Mancini
24 Mar

Servent-Leader-700x441

 

Faith- A strong trust or belief in something you cannot see
Fear- Unbelief, Doubt; To dread; to be afraid of; to be anxious.
These are the definitions of fear and faith! As you can see they are completely opposite. Fear and faith cannot occupy something at the same time. Except for when you fear someone out of respect. Like God says we are to fear Him, He doesn’t mean to be afraid of Him! He’s our Dad! He wants us to respect Him and love Him. Have a deep respect for the Father. So let’s talk about fear. FEAR is NOT given by God.
“ For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

A sound mind! That’s something we should all have! That never-ending trust in the Father! The complete faith in Him, no fear, no worry, no anxiety, none of that. But, we are human! So this isn’t the case for us. We do worry, we do fear sometimes. But that’s okay! Just know that when you feel that way you have to stop what you’re doing and pray! Pray for it to leave you, pray for peace and a sound mind! He is our comforter! He will get us through. Nothing good comes out of fear. We can’t live our life being afraid of everything. We need to be positive! We need to live our lives boldly so that all can see God’s power working in your life! People will see you and in a stressful situation, you could be the calmest person and everyone is going to think you are crazy! And they will ask, “ Are you crazy? Why aren’t you freaking out right now?” And then you can say. “ Because God gives me peace. I know He’s in control.” And they will be amazed. That’s all you have to do. And you can be that person that they will go to for advice and they might even start to ask you some things about the Bible. So you can really change someone’s life by just making a small change in your thinking process.
So what happens when you walk into a room with no light? It’s overtaken by darkness. You start to get scared! It’s unfamiliar, you don’t know what’s in the room, if there is a hole somewhere, you know nothing! You are completely surrounded by darkness. So you just curl up in a ball, start to panic, cry, or whatever it is you would do in that situation. But then, you discover, there’s a light switch! That light switch is faith! And all you have to do is flip the switch and then what? What happens when you turn on a light in a dark room? Darkness HAS TO FLEE! It has no choice! It cannot stay! It cannot occupy that space anymore. Sure that light might create some shadows, because our lives aren’t perfect, but we know that God will always make the darkness go.
The Bible says a lot about faith!

“ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
“ But WITHOUT faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. ( And it continues on explaining the faith of Noah) By FAITH Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with Godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of righteousness which is according to FAITH.” Hebrews 11:6-7

You can also continue to read and it talks about the faith of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the harlot Rehab! And the writer of Hebrews keeps going on how things were done by FAITH! These people of God lived by faith! They believed and they overcame many things because they had faith! We can look to them for example! They were just ordinary people like you and me! But what made them go from ordinary to extraordinary? Having faith in God! They accomplished amazing things because our Father, who still does amazing things today, used them because they had faith! God is always working “behind the scenes” in our lives. He does things for us that we probably don’t even notice. So we must thank Him always and trust Him with our lives! He has already done so much for us that we take for granted! He gave us life! He breathes air into our lungs! He gives us power to heal the sick and to lead nations to Him! He gives us everything! He IS our provider. He gives us faith. How do we get faith?

“ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the WORD of God.” Romans 10:17

We get faith by HEARING! Hearing worship music, by hearing a good teaching, by HEARING the Word of God! Not just reading it in your head, but declaring the words out loud so that you can hear every word! It gives you faith. Try it out and see! It really does work!
Spend time in prayer and worship in your secret place and establish your relationship with the King of Kings! Trust Him. We CAN lean on God! We can depend on Him and Him alone! Faith does not mature or strengthen without trial or persecution. We need to go through things to learn and to get a deeper faith! Going through trials is a stepping stone closer to God. You can either trip over it and curse God, or you can use it as a step UP! Use them as stairs to go up to the throne of God! He sustains us to keep us coming closer and closer to Him! If you fall, stand back up and keep going! When you’ve done all you can to stand, just stand.

Your identity is in Yeshua not in your Boyfriend or Girlfriend

Posted on by Olivia Mancini
15 Mar

Hope. Hope is in us! We have hope that Yeshua will return just like He promised: to renew the earth and  to build His kingdom here for us to live and worship Him for eternity.

Like I have said before in one of my other blog posts: ” I would hate to wake up every morning and not know that I have a purpose.” I would hate it. But I have hope! My identity is in Yeshua! I have faith! I have a purpose! When you have hope, you have strength. Hope pushed off makes the heart sick… Looking at life negatively instead of positively is not how you should live your life.

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

You have to have hope, you just have to. The Hebrew word for hope is ” tikvah.”  It means to wait, expect, hope for. Focus on being positive, know that the next day is going to be better, everyday you wake up with the hope of Yeshua inside of you!We have Yeshua inside of us! Isn’t that awesome?

Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Wait upon the Lord. But wait with hope. What are you waiting for? I know that for most of us as teens and young adults, we are waiting for our future husband or wife. And it’s hard to wait. We see others getting into relationships, we get jealous. You might feel that you are doing everything right! You’re keeping Torah, the Feasts, Kosher, and you love God, you worship Him and pray, so why is everyone else so happy? Why can’t I be happy like them? Do you see what’s wrong with this? If you are not happy, and content, and confident in who you are in Yeshua, then being in a relationship isn’t going to make you a better person. You have to be confident in Him first!

Hebrews 4:16Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Having hope gives you strength. Being in the wrong relationship will make your heart sick. It’ll feel great for a while, but in the end you will have heartache. What if you stayed in that relationship, and ended up getting into a covenant with them? What if you get married but all your ” love ” was just purely based on emotion and physical attraction? That’s not true love. That physical attraction can’t be the highlight of your decision to move into marriage. You have to actually be in love.

The world’s view of love is not what God says love is. 1Corinthians chapter 13 tells us what love is. Also God shows us who love is: Yeshua! He is true love! And He sacrificed Himself for us! He laid His life down for us.

1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Yeshua Messiah laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

How do we learn about God? How do we get to know Him? We get to know Him by reading His word! We learn His likes and dislikes, what He’s passionate about. We learn who He is! Fall in love the way God loves us! Put that person before yourself, learn everything about them! Learn about that person before you get physical. You can’t start kissing a person and get physically attracted before you really know that person. You could end up marrying a complete stranger. You’ve got to learn about that person, and fall in love with who they are.

We are imperfect people. Fall in love with that person’s imperfections. To you that person will be imperfectly perfect! True love is knowing everything about that person. It is not just based on how you feel when you hug them, or how your stomach fills with butterflies when they smile at you (Yes, those things are wonderful and important) but they are not the deciding factor in your next step to marriage. That person’s love and desire to follow Yeshua and to keep His Word should be the number one thing on your “list” of a potential wife or husband. You have to both have your identity in Yeshua first. You will love each other better if you love the Father first! He demonstrates what true love is! Put your hope, faith, trust, and love in Yeshua. And I promise you, He will give you the desires of your heart in His timing. Because His ways are higher than ours. He knows us! Your identity is in Him and Him alone!

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

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