Stars for Christ

Hey there!

Yeah, yeah, I know, I've been gone way to long, BUT I am back, so yay!

So as of late, here's what's happened:

• I told a few of the members of my church about my project and may soon start apprenticing with them. Hopefully I will learn a few more things that will make this project more successful.
• My church has been doing a series called "Radical" about Paul's letters to Gallatia. Here's what I've learned:

We are all hypocrites. And you know what? It's okay! Obviously we shouldn't run around saying that our sins are good, but we tend to take things too far; we reflect on our evil deeds and think that God won't accept us as much as He would if we were more perfect. We don't need to, He already loves us, so we don't need to beat ourselves up so much.

When we believe that we need to work to gain God's aproval, we basically tell ourselves in a non-verbal way that our Savior is still dead. If He died a martyr and never rose again, we have to work to be able to spend eternity with God. But if He, indeed, did rise again for us, He paid our debt and gave us freedom to live without the need to prove anything; we can stand before Him shameless and fearless and know that He truely, madly, deeply loves us.

So why do we still have to do good things? Because it is what God tells us: Don't murder, don't lie, treat those around you with kindness and care, etc. but it's not because he wants to ruin our good time (becuase... apparently as I'm saying, it's fun to just willy-nilly murder people. ), but because everyone around you is your brother/sister. They are exactly like you despite your differences; we're all humans, we all sin and feel pain, and we all are looking for someone or something to live for. If you follow the Ten Commandments, it makes it much easier to love people to christ.

Hopefully this has inspired you to move forward in God's work throug us.

~Jessica Repp

Happy Jubilie! It's been fifty years since my church was founded, and I must say, I was truely inspired. And I discovered a few things:

~ Fear the Lord: doesn't mean being terrified, but instead fearing that you won't be able to fit all of your discovery and love of the Lord in your life time on Earth.

~ Legacy: Have you ever thought that God lets people die to inspire you? It sounds awful, but the way I think about it is that I've lost two friends, Kyle Chapman nad Savanah Veil. When they died, I was more compelled to be like them: fearless like Savanah when it came to faith and like my friend Kyle (who was known as "The Bible an" by a few people), I want to be reaching out to people concstantly. I'm sad they are gone, but now I feel more like carying their legacy on rather than sit still in the rain.

~ Freedom: Sure, many people who look at Christians say "your life must suck; you can't do anything" or "how blind are you? There is no God!". But  think about it: because I believe in a God who cares when I am down, who wants to hear from me and what I want, who provodes for me, who loves me so much He chose to die an excrusiating death, that He could have simply avoided by wiping out the troublesome nations with a singe breath, for me; me: a messed up, sinning, some times resentful woman.

I know I am not a horrible person, but I look at some of the things I have done, thought and said some days and think "... And you still love me after that?" That is utterly shocking and awestriking. And even more up-lifting: He takes time out of his life to pay attention to me. He hears me talk to Him, keeps me under a roof, has given my dad a job so he can feed me, my mother and my sister, and makes me feel safe when I am in a moment of parylizing terror.

I'm praying for you, and I hope you are faring well so far.

May God bless your journey!

~Therepplicas

Wait, where's act 1? Well, I have already done my first gift, "The Shack" sent to Tom Hiddleston.

So, act 2: I plan to send books and letters o these people:

~Chris Hemsworth

~Scarlet Johanson

~Crystal Reed

~Tyler Posey

~Dylan O'Brien

~Natalie Portman

~Jeremy Renner

Now I have to chose between Chris or Scarlet because I have money to do one, maybe both, but if I only have enough for one, who should I send my gift to first?

Another thing about this: I'm also saving up for a few other things, some personal, but one of the things 'm raising money for is my mission's trip I plan to go on. This all really depends on the jobs I get, the money I raise and, with autumn coming on, how often I can work. I'm a little conflicted be cause I know I have the ability and resources to get what I need, but I'm also wondering where I can begin; I'm alittle impacient when it comes to doing mission's trips/projects. Hopefully, I will find ways to do fund raisers and/or get a well-paying job.

On another note, I'm writing about a mission's trip I want to take. It takes place five years from now in London, England and is about how I think the trip would go "if *most* everything went right". I might upload it here sometime later on, but I'm still transfering it to the computer.

~Repplica