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Check out our Creation News Section!
Weekly articles, daily Q & A, and a Creation Comic!

http://www.heart4teens.com/

If you enjoy this free email service, I encourage you to spread the word
to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of teenagers
everywhere! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you,
you can join Heart4Teens.com readers around the world by visiting:
http://www.Heart4Teens.com/Heart4Teens

Stop by our web site to view past stories or to browse through the tons of
resources we have there for teens!

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http://www.hearttouchers.com/filter

Finally there is a great filter to block Internet pornography and other
objectionable content! Kristi and I have used this filter for 6 years now
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http://www.hearttouchers.com/books

Michael's updated book Heart Touchers "Life-Changing Stories of Faith,
Love, and Laughter," is finally here! ($13.95)

Visit the link below to preview the book. Autographed copies are available
at no extra charge and we will pay the shipping for you. An e-book is also
available for $3.25.

http://www.Heart4Teens.com/books

Be sure to let us know who you would like it autographed for and then allow
about two weeks for us to sign it and send it on its way to you.Credit card,
PayPal, Checks, and Money orders accepted! The book is also available
through Amazon.com, Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Booklocker.com

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MARKING THE LINES


You and your friends want to play some pickup football (touch, flag, tackle--whatever you prefer). You've got a ball. You've got a wide-open place to play. And you've got even teams.

Before you start the game, though, there's one important thing you have to do. You have to set your boundaries--sidelines, goal lines, and end lines. You have to determine what's inbounds and what's out-of-bounds.

You could try playing without boundary lines, but things would probably get frustrating and confusing pretty quickly. If you're going to play the game right, you need to know how far you can go. You need to know how much room you have to work with.

The same goes for sex.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "SEX"?

God's plan is for guys and girls to save sex until marriage. (That sound you hear is millions of Christian parents and church leaders nodding their heads in agreement.) But that leads to a pretty obvious question: What is sex? And what, exactly, are you supposed to save?

To put it in football terms, where are the boundary lines? How much room do you have to work with? How far can you go? (That sound you hear is millions of Christian parents and church leaders going, "Um, um...")

It's not like there's a shortage of opinions on the subject. Lots of Christian guys have set boundaries for themselves, sexually speaking. The problem is finding agreement on where those boundaries belong.

Tony
When the Bible talks about sex, it's talking about intercourse. Or whatever you want to call it. That's what "two people becoming one flesh" means. That's what I'm saving for marriage. So if somebody asks me if I'm a virgin, I say yes. Even though I've had oral sex and stuff like that. Because those things don't count. They're not really sex.

Luis
I think there's a difference between teasing and sex. Teasing is when you're just messing around. You know, exploring bodies and stuff. How else are you gonna learn? You've gotta find out what feels good to a girl. Otherwise your wife's gonna be bummed on your wedding night. I say as long as you don't have an orgasm, it's not really sex.

Justin
I believe there's a difference between having sex and making love. I don't think God wants people doing it just because they feel like it or because they're drunk or whatever. But if you love someone, it's different. Then it's making love. It's something beautiful instead of something sleazy.

Mike
I think it depends on the person. There are some things I can do and not feel guilty about. But if another guy does the same thing, he might feel guilty. You have to be true to yourself. Don't make decisions based on what other people do or what other people tell you is right. Do what's right for you--and the person you love.

Shon
I don't really have a choice. My girlfriend won't let me do anything more than kiss her. I tried to get a little more a couple times, but she threatened to dump me. So now I'm a good boy. Well...almost. I told her I'd do the kissing thing. But I also told her she had to make it worth my while. And she has. She's a great kisser.

Kip
I made a pledge to save sex for marriage. To me that means not doing anything with a girl that I wouldn't want my future wife doing with another guy. I know it sounds weird. Especially since I have no clue who my future wife will be. But it just seems fair, you know?

How do your views of what's "too far" compare with these? How would you explain your boundaries when it comes to sex?

How do you think God feels about your boundaries? Think carefully before you answer. Raging hormones and wishful thinking have been known to cloud guys' judgments. With enough incentive, you could justify an orgy. And if you're really good, you could even make it sound biblical.

But God isn't swayed by lame excuses or desperate rationalizations. And fooling yourself is never a good idea, especially when the stakes are so high.

MYTH BUSTING

So how does an unmarried guy like you come up with a clear guideline for his love life? How can you enjoy the pleasures of the opposite sex without misusing your body?

You can start by finding out for yourself what God expects of you. You'd be surprised by how many well-meaning Christian guys have set sexual standards for themselves based on myths and mistaken ways of thinking when it comes to God and his Word. To help you avoid that mistake, let's take a look at three of the most common myths that can trip you up.

Myth #1: The Bible's silence is our gain.
You can search every book of the Bible and not find a verse that says oral sex before marriage is a sin. Nor will you find a passage about undressing a girl or tongue kissing. In fact, you won't find many specific guidelines about what's okay and what's not for sexually curious guys.

Some people use this fact to support the argument that (almost) anything goes. Their attitude is: If the Bible doesn't outlaw it, I'm allowed to do it.

The problem with this line of thinking, however, is that it assumes the Bible is nothing more than a rule book. A list of do's and don'ts. A fat book with countless ways God wants to ground us. And that's a really lame way to look at God's Word.

The Bible is actually more like a treasure map. A detailed plan for discovering the awesome things God has planned for you. A guide for making the best possible choices for yourself in every situation.

There's an old story about comedian W.C. Fields, who was quite well-known for his drinking, fooling around, and unwise lifestyle choices. Toward the end of his life--while Fields was living in a sanatorium--a friend entered his room and found Fields thumbing through a Bible. The friend was astonished. "Bill, I've never seen you with a Bible or within a mile of a church. What are you doing?" he asked.

"Looking for loopholes," Fields answered.

That story's kind of amusing as a joke, but it's tragic as a human episode. Now, if you are looking for loopholes in God's Word, you're missing about 99.9 percent of what it has to offer.

Besides, the Bible isn't nearly as silent on sexual matters as some people would like to believe. You can find plenty of clues scattered throughout Scripture that reveal God's attitude toward sexual experimentation.

One of the first clues can be found in 1 Corinthians 6:18: "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body."

Look at that first sentence again. Run away from sexual immorality. Think of it as a ticking bomb at the beginning of an action movie. The people who see it and run away as fast as they can will probably survive. But the arrogant "expert" who thinks he can defuse it by himself will end up getting smeared across the room.

That's the kind of danger sexual temptation presents. If you're conceited enough to believe you can mess around with it safely, you're in for a nasty surprise. It's a matter of direction: If you're running away from sexual temptation, you're heading in one direction. If you're trying to see how close you can get to the boundary line without going over, you're heading in the opposite direction. And you have to admit that doing the opposite of what God commands is always a bad idea.

Clue number two can be found a few books later in the New Testament: "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people." That's what Ephesians 5:3 says. Not even a hint. Talk about setting the bar high!

Guys can make all the pitches they want about why certain things technically shouldn't be considered sex. But if those things have even a hint of sexual immorality, they're off limits.

Ephesians 5:3 makes that crystal clear.

And then there's clue number three, which comes courtesy of Colossians 3:5: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry."

That doesn't sound like a God who's wishy-washy when it comes to his people playing around with sex. As far as he's concerned, you're in a fight to the finish with sexual sin. If you don't destroy it, it will destroy you. No matter how harmless it may seem right now.

Like it or not, God isn't going to spoon-feed you every bit of information you need to stay sexually pure. He's not going to supernaturally highlight every relevant verse in your Bible. Discovering his truth is your job. And it's not always an easy thing to do. Especially with so many other so-called truths competing for your attention. But if you commit yourself to learning what his Word says about sexual purity, he will help you discover his truth.

Myth #2: Setting sexual boundaries for yourself will take care of your problem.
Don't get me wrong. When it comes to sex, setting physical limits for yourself is a great idea. Especially if you commit yourself to respecting those limits. But it won't solve your problem completely.

You see, your fight isn't just physical; it's mental and spiritual, too. Jesus made that clear when he said, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). How's that for a standard?

You can keep your pants zipped from now until your wedding day, but it won't keep you safe from sexual sin. The male imagination is a state-of-the-art, industrial-strength machine--especially when it's churning out sexual fantasies. Guys are ingenious when it comes to imagining erotic scenarios. There's no situation we can't turn into a sexual one if we just put our minds to it. So no matter where you draw the line physically, you still have to contend with your eyes and your thoughts.

Myth #3: More than anything else, God wants us to enjoy his gift of sex.
Don't be fooled into thinking that your enjoyment is at the top of God's priority list. It's not. "It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God...For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life." I didn't say that; the apostle Paul did in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, 7.

God wants you to be pure. He wants you to obey him. He wants you to honor him in the things you do and say. He wants you to live your life as an example to others. That's what God wants. You can certainly enjoy yourself doing those things. But enjoyment isn't your ultimate goal--not if you're serious about living a life that pleases God.

You see, this isn't about getting what you want. It's about giving up what you want--for God's sake. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." Those are Paul's words again, from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

God has a purpose for you. And getting as much as you can from girls isn't part of it. Living a holy life is a 24-7 commitment. You can't call time-out, go mess around for a while, and then come back to it. To be holy you have to completely change your perspective on satisfying your urges.

That doesn't mean you have to live like a monk and shut yourself off from the world. God's not boring! As I mentioned in chapter 1, he's the One who created the pleasure centers in your body. But living a holy life does mean you have to learn to say no to your body--even when it's screaming for action.

**

Taken from "When Young Men Are Tempted" by Bill Perkins and Randy Southern, copyright 2007, Youth Specialties/Zondervan. Used by permission. Order the book here.
https://shop.youthspecialties.com/store/product.php?productid=538

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Creation Q & A

Question: Is the Earth a special creation of God or just a "hunk of rock"?

A: When you read the creation account in Genesis, you find that the Earth is very special--actually it is really center stage. In fact, all the other heavenly bodies, the sun, moon and stars, were made for signs and seasons for the Earth. The Earth is the center of God's attention--it's not just an ordinary hunk of rock.

But the influence of evolutionary ideas has indoctrinated many people into believing the Earth is not special.

One of the most influential evolutionists, the late Carl Sagan, said this to the world just before he died:

"We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy, which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe, which may be one of a very large number, perhaps infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and culture that is well worth pondering."

What hopelessness there is in that statement! But what purpose and meaning there is in the statement from Genesis: "In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

To learn more about special features of our planet visit this page:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v23/i1/howold.asp


Source: AnswersinGenesis.org


http://www.hearttouchers.com/Creation_News

Creation News

Click on the Bible above or visit the web site listed below!
http://www.HeartTouchers.com/Creation_News

This new addition to our web site will give you an article on the leading news
in the Creation/Evolution controversy each day.

This section also includes a rotating Question and Answer feature and a
weekly Creation Comic strip from the people at AnswersInGenesis.org.

Be sure to come back and visit each day for an informative article that will
help you keep up to date on the latest news in this controversial area!


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Thought For The Day

"Guilt is concerned with the past. Worry is concerned
about the future. Contentment enjoys the present."

Verse for the Day

"Not that I am implying that I was in any personal
want, for I have learned how to be content in
whatever state I am."--Philippians 4:11


Teen Guy Thought For The Day

"Play Dough and Microwave should never be used
in the same sentence."


Parent's Thought For The Day

"The phrase 'Working Mother' is redundant." --Jane Sellman


Coach's Thought For The Day

"Many men fail because they quit too soon. They
lose faith when the signs are against them. They
do not have the courage to hold on, to keep fighting
in spite of that which seems insurmountable. If
more of us would strike out and attempt the
"impossible," we very soon would find the truth
of that old saw that nothing is impossible...Abolish fear
and you can accomplish anything you wish." --C. E. Welch


Creation/Evolution Thought For The Day

‘Biologists would dearly like to know how modern apes, modern
humans and the various ancestral hominids have evolved from a
common ancestor. Unfortunately, the fossil record is somewhat
incomplete as far as the hominids are concerned, and it is all but
blank for the apes. The best we can hope for is that more fossils
will be found over the next few years which will fill the present gaps
in the evidence.' The author goes on to say: ‘David Pilbeam
[a well-known expert in human evolution] comments wryly,
"If you brought in a smart scientist from another discipline and
showed him the meager evidence we've got he'd surely say,
‘forget it: there isn't enough to go on'." --Richard E. Leakey,
The Making of Mankind, Michael Joseph Limited, London, 1981, p. 43



Deep Thought For The Day

"I had to go on two diets at the same time because one diet
wasn't giving me enough food."



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 http://www.heart4teens.com/

Author MICHAEL T. POWERS
Contributing Author to Chicken Soup for the Christian Teenage Soul and
26 other inspirational books.

Over 125,000 people have listened to popular Chicken Soup Author Michael T. Powers'
free inspirational message entitled: "Breathing Life into Others". If you aren't one of them
just visit:
http://www.Heart4Teens.com and click on the link to listen to the free
streaming audio message!

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live
in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galatians 2:20

__________________________________________


http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/Youth

ALL-STAR Youth Ministry

--The Youth Church of Faith Community Church in Janesville, WI
 
If you are in 7-12th grade and live in the southern Wisconsin/northern Illinois area and
would like to check us out, we meet every Sunday night from 6:30-8:00 PM at Faith Community
Church which is located at 2931 Lucerne Dr. in Janesville, WI. (About 3 blocks south-east
of Menard's.)
 
Currently we have students from Edgerton, Fort Atkinson, Milton, Janesville Craig, Janesville
Parker, Marshall, Franklin, Clinton, Beloit Memorial, and Beloit Turner. E-mail me back if you have
any questions about our weekly meetings or would like to come to any of our events that are listed
below... We have way too much fun and then, most importantly, talk about issues that are relevant
to you as a teenager.


This Week:

Continuing in our series entitled: "Demolishing Strongholds"

March 9:  Counterfeit Reality Part 2


Next Week:

March 16: Journey to the Cross
Visit our youth website to see our topics for 2008!

http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/upcoming_topics


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http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/Small_Groups

Teen Community Groups

6:30 - 8:00 PM Wednesday nights -- These groups are limited to no more than ten teens
and are split into Jr. High and High School ages. This night is for those teens who want to dig
deeper than what we do in All-Stars, but may not be ready to be a part of the Xtreme Teens.
These cell groups will also be doing special activities with each other as the year goes on to
build community.

Jr. High age meets at 2109 N. Pontiac and are led by Kent & Rachel Martin
(Call 373-0886 if you have any questions!)

High School age are led by Tedi Knox: 1110 Nantucket Dr. (Call 774-2592 if you have any questions!)

Xtreme Teens: Xtreme Teens meet on Wednesday nights from 6:30 - 8:00 PM all year
round at the Powers' house. This group is very extensive with weekly homework,
memorization, service projects, etc. Students interested in this group will have to fill out an
application, provide references as to why others think they should be involved with this, and sign
an agreement as to what is expected of them. Admission into Xtreme Teens is on a case by case
basis. Contact Pastor Michael for more details!

This Week March 12: The Arranged Marriage (Isaac and Rebekah)

For more info on our small groups, visit: http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/small_groups

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