Hello Champion, thank you for reading this. I hope that you are blessed by this article.

As Christians we all struggle with some form of weakness. Some struggle with Girls, some with Boys, some with money, some with lustful thoughts, some with masturbation, the list could go on.

The point i am trying to make is that the Devil is going to use your weakness to bring you down. Your Weakness is the Devil's Strength and the Devil's Strength is your weakness. Let me give you an example.

Lets say I have a passion for money. I love money. Money is my weakness. Now I am also heavily involved in Ministry in my church and the Devil knows that and doesnt like that. So what the devil does is create an opportunity for my weakness to be exposed and hopefully I will fall. So he may go and play with my Boss's mind and tell him he thinks I should get a raise. Now the Boss in my work may tell me he is going to give me a raise next month but I will have to work extra hours on a Friday. Now Friday is when i minister at Youth Group and the Devil successfully puts me in a trap here. Im torn between my desire to make extra money or minister in youth group. The following day i go up to my Pastor in church and I tell him that I cant minister in Youth Group again because my job needs me to work extra hours and I must obey my boss. Did you see how easily I was captured by the enemy.

The devil is going to use your passions and use that against you. Your passions become your weakness. Whatever you love to do is what the devil is going to bring more of into your life so that you would be distracted. What are your passions? Are you making your passions your idol?

Moses' weakness was his temper and he ended up hitting the rock twice, Solomon's weakness was women and was led astray, Samson's weakness was women and he ended up being defeated because of that. What is your weakness? Remeber your weakness becomes the devil's strength. The devil is going to aim all his strength on your weakness to bring you down. Are you going to allow that?

We spend so much time working on our physical flaws e.g straightening our hair, working on our acne, exercising in gyms, eating properly, etc but how much time do we spend working on our spiritual flaws.

Im sure some of you have certain secret sins that only you and God knows about. The devil knows it too. Are you going to allow those sins to take over. If you give the enemy an entrance he is going to come in.

Here's what i want you to do.

1. Spend some time and think about your weaknesses.
2. Acknowledge that they are your weaknesses and that they could be hindering you from your walk with God.
3. Ask God to help you to overcome this weakness..Make this your prayer everyday..
4. Find yourself people you can hang out with who can help you to overcome this weakness.
5. Continue to ask God to reveal to you areas where you might not be pleasing him in and to help you to fix them.

If you carry out these 5 steps you will slowly but surely begin to overcome these weaknesses and live the overcoming life you were saved to lived. Remember no one is perfect.

I hope this has blessed you. Please leave your comments on my page of what you thought of this article and feel free to share it.



Brian Ramdhan

pic of me 

AWAKEN THE GIANT WIT

AWAKEN THE GIANT WITHIN
     The story of David and Goliath is a very powerful story. In it is a message that if we really comprehend it, we will begin to realize the tremendous power of God, dwelling in each of us. I would like to point out three things from the story.
     Firstly, the difference between David and the rest of the Israelites is that David knew who he was, the rest of the Israelites didn’t know who they were. If they only knew who they were, none of them would have feared Goliath. David knew that he was an Israelite and the Israelites were God’s chosen people and as a result of this, no one on this earth could do him anything because he had God on his side. Today we have Christians suffering from the same thing the Israelites suffered from. We do not know who we are. Some Christians today are the most depressed people you could ever meet. They constantly see people who are better than them. They look at the riches of some people, the popularity of some people, the strength of some people etc and they feel inferior to them. They see these people as giants compared to them. If only they would realize who they are. If they would only take a closer look at themselves they will realize how much they have to boast about. You may not be the strongest, richest, prettiest person in the world but as a Christian you are a child of God. Jesus is the king and you are a prince or princess in this world. God chose you and thus you are extra special. You should walk with your heads held high. When we get to heaven we will be shining for the whole world to see. All those so-called Goliaths we see in the world today will be looking at us and envying us. I tell you, we are the true Goliaths because of who is dwelling in us.
     The 2nd thing I want to point out is that Goliath was a problem. A 9-foot problem! A humongous problem for the Israelites to deal with. Albert Einstein said –‘The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we first created them.’ When the Israelites saw Goliath they began to think logically. There was no way for a giant of a man to be defeated by small people such as them. But David’s method of thinking was different. He knew that a big problem couldn’t be solved using small means. He had to find a solution bigger than the problem. That was when he relied on God to help him overcome this problem. We as young people have a lot of problems. Problems even bigger than Goliath. We have relationship problems, peer pressure, drug problems, sexual problems, and satanic problems etc. We all have Goliaths of a problem in our lives. But as David showed, your problems can be solved no matter how big it is. For 40 days Goliath kept showing up asking who will challenge him but everyone was too scared. Today we have people who struggle with their
Own personal goliath not for 40 days but for 40 weeks, 40 months, 40 years etc. I want to challenge you and let you know that your problem can be solved. David can still beat Goliath.  
     The 3rd thing I want to point out is that David knew Goliath could be beaten but in order for him to be beaten he had to beat him himself. Notice, David didn’t just trust in God alone and say a silent prayer for God to smite Goliath with a thunderbolt from heaven. No, he put his trust in God and then he whipped Goliath himself with the help of God. I want to let you know that even though you have problems, its up to you to solve them yourself. God is not going to solve it for you. He will help you to solve it but its up to you to solve it. E.g. if you have an important exam coming up and you refuse to study for it but you put all your trust in God to pass the exam, do you think you will pass. Of course not. God helps those who help themselves. The bible says faith without works is meaningless.
     In conclusion, remember David defeated Goliath because he knew who he was and he knew that with God on his side every problem could be solved.
     So why did David meet Goliath? To meet the Giant within himself. All of us have a David and a Goliath in us. The giant within us is the spirit of the one triune God. Awaken the giant within!!!! Jesus said in Mark 9-23- if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FELLOWSHIP

THE IMPORTANCE OF FELLOWSHIP
What is Fellowship?
     According to the dictionary, fellowship means the friendly association with others. Notice; the key word there is friendly. Some people may feel that just talking to someone is fellowshipping but if you’re not talking to the person as a friend then all you’re doing is talking-not fellowshipping.

How does People Fellowship?
     If you look at the world today, you will see a lot of fellowshipping. If you go to those clubs on a weekend you will see a lot of young people fellowshipping? What it is that drives these young people to those clubs? Is it because of the cool music or those beers? I think the main reason why young people flock to those places is because of the wonderful opportunities to fellowship over there. I mean, think about it. You can meet new friends, hang with current friends, you can probably pick up a girlfriend, boyfriends etc. Imagine a club that may have the best music and the best alcohol but they don’t allow you to speak to others. If you’re caught speaking to someone they will throw you out. I’m sure you will realize that such a club won’t last very long because they are taking away the fellowship from everyone.
     Look at families that have lots of family gatherings with lots of alcohol, secular music etc. Some Christians may look at such families and criticize them for their way of celebrating but if we as Christians take a closer look at such families we will realize that even though they may be celebrating in the wrong way those families tend to have a lot of bonding, a lot of healthy relationships, they are united and where there is unity there is strength. I believe that such a family will be more effective than a Christian family in which no one really communicates with each other. So you can see that fellowshipping is a vital thing.

Why do people Fellowship?
     As you can see there are lots of reason for fellowshipping? But why do we fellowship? Why don’t we just keep to ourselves and let others keep to themselves? I thing the answer to that question can be found in the book on Genesis. When God created Adam, he gave him everything that he could possibly want. He had dominion over the animals, he had access to all the fruit trees, he had the rivers and seas to swim in but he was lacking one thing. God realized that Adam didn’t have someone he could relate to. He didn’t have someone he could fellowship with. Thus God created Eve. The reason why we love to fellowship is because we were created wanting someone we could relate to. Its only human nature. We all depend on each other. We are interdependent. So now when you see people flocking to the wrong places, know that they are just acting normal.
     Look at how fellowshipping as changed over the years. We spend so much time fellowshipping in chat rooms, just by typing to someone who we’re not sure if they are a boy, a girl, a killer etc and talk to them for hours. What about text messaging. There are some people who are always texting someone. What about the time we spend on the telephone. We spend hours talking to people on the telephone and when the phone bill comes well- we blame the telephone company for robbing us….lol

Christian Fellowship
     As you can see, we all love to fellowship. God intended it to be so. But what does fellowship as to do with us as Christians. I believe that we should fellowship for 2 reasons.

1. To grow in our walk with God


2. To grow in our relationship with others

We grow in our relationship with God by going to church on a Sunday, by going to youth groups, to prayer meetings etc. when we go to such meeting we meet people just like us, who are going through the same thing as us, who are trying to live the same life we are trying to live and when we come together as a body our souls are strengthened because of this knowledge that we are not alone in our quest for reaching the promised land. We know that we aren’t the only ones who are traveling the road less traveled. People who call themselves Christians and aren’t in any local church usually don’t have much strength to continue pressing on for the prize and when trouble comes their way it is easier for them to backslide than someone who is already involved in a church and has the support of its members.

How do we grow in our relationship with others? I believe that there are times when as young people we need to come together outside of church related stuff e.g. going on a field trip, having a cook, playing some games etc. When we do these kind of things we get to understand each other more, and when we understand each other more we can relate to each other more and when we can relate to each other more we can serve each other more. There is too much backbiting and gossiping among us Christians today that I believe it is hurting the church on the whole. If there is a certain youth who you do not like I would like to encourage you to start fellowshipping with that person and maybe you will begin to see that you had the wrong opinion of that person. Maybe there was a total misunderstanding between you and that person and you can resolve that and start a whole new relationship. There is nothing to gain by having an enemy but there are tremendous benefits in having a friend. Why not turn that enemy into your friend?

Those are the 2 reasons I believe we, as Christians ought to fellowship. The church today basically focuses on the 1st reason I gave you all but I believe that both are just as important as each other. If young people only see the pastor as the pastor and does not seem him as a friend who they can relate to then I think that defeats the whole purpose of the pastor, which is why I believe the second type of fellowshipping is just as important as the first. We need to stress on both. I believe that if we as young people start focusing on those 2 reasons for fellowshipping and start putting it into practice, we will achieve a lot of tremendous results in our lives. As someone once said- ‘my popularity, my happiness and sense of well being depend to small extent on my ability to deal with people.’
  
     Thank you and have a good day. Please reply and tell me what you think about this article. Feel free to print it out and share it with others. If you can get other people to join this newsletter please tell them to email me requesting to be in the newsletter.

Your friend

Brian Ramdhan