FOX545

Yeah pretty much. I think there's still a few of us who lurk around and occasionally check things out, but this place has been slowly dying of the past few years.

There's not many left, at least that I know of. The popularity of online forums has really decreased with an increase in other social media platforms

@joelle857 Peace is from God, while the fear and anxiety you're experiencing is from Satan. But don't get fear mixed up with conviction, it sounds like God is convicting you of some sins and calling you to make changes. If you keep trying, but continue to backslide, then I recommend confessing those sins and struggles to someone you trust, and ask that person to check up on you and hold you accountable for your actions. I know it's really hard, especially to admit your sins to someone, but it really helps, Jesus even instructs to confess your sins. Remember that you've been saved by faith and not by works (Ephesians 2:8) so the "best of your ability" will never be good enough for God (because God is perfect and we're obviously not), that's why God send His son Jesus to die for our sins. Don't get caught up in your multitude of sins, we're all sinners, but remember that "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst" (1 Timothy 1:15) Now that's Paul talking, the guy who wrote multiple books in the Bible, and he's saying that he is the worst sinner out there. So don't think that your sin prevents God from using you at all; He can still use you, but not nearly as well as if you get rid of the sin in your life. You mention that you feel called to "preach" to your friends. That means God is probably calling you to evangelism, which is basically sharing youth faith and the good news (the Gospel) with those around you. Getting started talking about youth faith is the hardest part, once you start talking to people about God it becomes easier and more natural. Dare2Share has some great resources for sharing your faith, especially for youth, they also have a really nice and clear format to share the Gospel with. Just remember to spend lots of time in prayer, about getting rid of your sins and about sharing the Gospel.

So you and your girlfriend are planning to go to get closer to get closer to God or to each other? No person, no matter how important, should be the deciding factor in someone's life on if/ how they grow closer to God. If you believe that she truly needs you to get closer to God then I recommend talking that through with her, as God is infinity more important than your relationship. Try to talk to your parents and ask them their motives behind not letting you go if your GF is going; try to talk it through with your family and with your girlfriend's family to come to a compromise, or at least an outcome that everyone understands.

Nailed it. Though it's good to remember that saying a sinner's prayer doesn't make you a Christian, it's actually believing in your heart.

You should try asking your parents why they don't want to let you date until college. At your age there is no immediate problems with dating, especially if you're both Christians and stay pure. Legally at that age you don't have to confine to your parents' dating rule, but the scripture tells us to honor our parents, so try to work something out with them. It would also be a good idea to spend a lot of time praying about it, and asking God to tell you what to do. Talk with the girl and ask her to do the same thing (prayer and waiting on the Lord) and after a couple days see if you got the same thing from the Lord.

Haven't heard of many of those before. I like Skillet, Red, and Nine Lashes

Will be praying

This topic probably belongs in the 16+ category. It's great that you are convicted and seeking help. The first step is actually wanting to stop. You have to make the conscious decision to say no to the pleasure and temptation. After saying no enough times you slowly loose the desire to sin. This topic, A Reason and a Way to Fight For Purity is a great resource which helped me with my struggles in the past and will probably help you. I've gradually put together this document which is a collection of resources from overcoming temptation called Victory, I'll attach it to this post. It consists of physical, social, and mental aspects of resisting sexual temptation, it also has a few links to sites and songs I've found helpful. Victory.docx

Just a heads up: this post ended up being advice to @Marvin's question, mixed with a few questionable things I wanted to point out and ask @paraskeve regarding her post. Just realized how long this reply is, sorry about that, but I implore you to read through all of it, most of the stuff about approaching non-Christian friends in answer to the original question is near the bottom. I'm afraid that's not quite the Biblical solution to this situation; as Christians, we are instructed to be the light of the world, and to share the Gospel with all of creation. This is the polar opposite of not bringing it up, and trying to avoid controversy. What society defines as controversial is something which they may not agree with- we are not to conform to the ways of this world, and thus shouldn't be afraid to speak about controversial topics (especially the Gospel). If you're not sure Christians are supposed to share the Gospel check out this set of verses, as well as these verses. I have a large number of friends who are atheist, agnostic, Mormon, a handful who would call themselves LGBT, and beyond. I love having logical, theological, and Biblical conversions with them, especially the atheists, and at the end they enjoy the discussion as well, because we keep everything civil and well thought out (There's huge amounts of logical, historical, and scientific evidence out there for God and the Bible, I'd highly encourage you to look into it. A few of my favorite sites include Christananswers.net, Answers in Genesis, The Institute for Creation Research, Always Be Ready, Answers for Atheists, Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, and Lee Strobel's book The Case for a Creator) Most of the time when talking to someone about God, and debate/ argument will never be necessary, in a few cases it is (even Jesus debated with the leaders of His day) It's always best to approach everyone- especially those you want to talk about Jesus with, in love. Love conquers all, and is mentioned over 230 times in the New Testament alone. When approaching someone with God's word, don't come in guns blaring, shooting holes in their beliefs and arguments, but rather approach them softly and curiously with love and compassion. I've been a missionary since I was nine years old, and that's what I've found to work the best. Your first sentence there is so true. There is no way we can win or successfully bring someone to the Lord by ourselves; that's why God gave us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will give us what we need to say and how to say it if we just listen and obey. Remember not to get caught up in identifying Christianity as just a religion: it is a relationship with God. I'm not going to get too into that because it's a huge separate topic, but you can read more about it here. Not sure where you got that Christianity is dying in the U.S. According to the Pew Research Center the percent of Americans who identify themselves as Christians has decreased from ~78% to ~70% in the past decade or so. I personally was shocked to see that so many Americans identify themselves as Christians, and even though there has been a decrease, 70% of the population is still huge. Please please please don't ignore the topic of God- it should be the most important and urgent and pressing topic to talk about with everyone you encounter. Sin is a toxin, it's a disease which everyone has yet doesn't realize. It's a terminal condition which every human is plagued and has no cure. It kills everyone at different and unexpected times. This sin sounds like a pretty darn disease to end up with, and it is; but Christians have an immunity, we have a cure. That cure is Jesus and is His Gospel. If you know the people around you are hopelessly dying, and you have the cure, why would you not share the cure (the Gospel) with them? Wouldn't that even indirectly make you a killer if you could save them from death yet don't? If you want some more motivation for sharing the Gospel (aside from the above lists of verses) you could check out this dramatic reading of A Letter From Hell made by Dare2Share; the premise is that imagine you have a friend who you could have shared Jesus with, but didn't, who then died and went to Hell and wrote you a letter from there of his thoughts. You're right: no Christian should "play" the missionary. Every Christian should be a missionary. If you share the Gospel correctly there should be almost no arguments/ bitterness raised (You'd only possibly see it when sharing with someone who is really entrenched in Satan's ways). Don't forget The Great Commission which was the last instruction Jesus gave mankind while on earth. He instructed us to share the Gospel with everyone. Do not fall into fear or apathy! Go out and share the Good News, go deliver that cure; by some you will be rejected, but don't get down from those encounters, try sharing again with those who reject later, and in the mean time go and share with someone new. I've mentioned the Gospel a lot in this post, it's good to make sure that you know what it is. This answer gives a nice overview of what the Gospel is, and Life in 6 Words, as well as Falling Plates both have videos which explain the Gospel in creative ways. Dare2Share also has great resources to help share your faith. Another great way to familiarize yourself with the Gospel is to read through the book of John, or by listening to it on something like the Streetlights Bible App. So for sharing the Gospel with friends, it's important to do it in a loving and not condescending way. Before you go in to share the Gospel with anyone it is important that you pray for them first, during prayer God can reveal ways to you of how to approach them and share the Gospel with them. It's also just good to pray that the person will be receptive to the message you bring to them. It's also a good idea to familiarize yourself with the other persons beliefs before talking to them, Dare2Share has huge amounts of resources on sharing your faith, including this page on different worldviews and how to approach them. Unfortunately I've got to get back to studying for exams tomorrow so I won't be able to get too much into Gospel sharing tactics, but thankfully much of what I have to say is already online. When sharing the Gospel with someone remember the 3 A's: Ask, Admire, Admit. Ask questions about what the other person believes, this helps you get to know them and breaks down walls- also people like talking about themselves. Admire what you can about what the person believes, this really helps build a connection and trust with the other person, as well as breaking down further walls. And finally admit the reason you're a Christian is because you're a sinner and needed Jesus to save you from your sins. You can read more about AAA here. Another thing to remember is called THE Cause circle. (THE Cause is something Dare2Share which is basically the cause of Christ and of spreading the Kingdom of God, you can read more about it here) THE Cause circle basically says that for everyone you want to share the Gospel with, first pray for with passion, then pursue them with love, and finally persuade them with truth. The full explanation with a video can be found here. Be ready to defend your faith, especially when talking with atheists, they generally like to debate the Bible. You may have people ask you hard questions which you don't know the answer to. When you don't know the answer it's important not to just make something up on the spot, you can just admit that you don't know the answer right now but will get back to them when you find out, then do one of these things: pray for an answer, ask a pastor/ youth leader, ask Google/ the internet (Here's a few really good sides for answering tough questions: Christananswers.net, Answers in Genesis, The Institute for Creation Research, Always Be Ready, Answers for Atheists, Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry and Lee Strobel's book The Case for a Creator) God loves your passion for wanting to share Him with your friends, remember He gave you that desire. Don't give up on it when things get rough, remember that most people will initially be resilient to the message. Make sure to spend lots of time in prayer, check out those links and resources mentioned above. Let me know if you have any questions, I'll try to get back to them as soon as I can.

Nice job starting a Bible study, it takes a lot of commitment so be ready for it. I've started/ lead a couple Bible studies/ Jesus clubs and have quite a few resources. Make sure you remain in prayer and stay in God's will, not end up going off on your own agenda- that's something I've struggled with before. As for dealing with people older than you, remain bold, confident, and genuine, it shows them you really care about what you're doing and they'll respect you for that. Don't forget that they are older than you and have more life experience, so be open to suggestions from them, and if you're ever really struggling with something don't be afraid to ask one of them. I'd recommend not getting too caught up in any book, training, or curriculum. I went to a really cool youth leadership this summer called Lead The Cause and got really into trying to take the training from there back to my friends, and after spending a fair bit of money on books I eventually learned from one of the conference speakers in a follow-up Skype that it's not about training, but just about Jesus. I'd buried my real priorities under a pile of trainings, so I'll advise you to set clear priories (hopefully based around Jesus and prayer) and keep your eyes fixed on them. Anyways, here's a list of resources I've found over time. I've found to be especially helpful: https://www.dare2share.org/ Really great Gospel centered youth leadership organization https://www.lifein6words.com/ You can get 100 free books at this one, just make sure to know how to use them before your request them https://www.gotquestions.org/ Good place to find answer to your own challenging questions, or any challenging questions you may be asked during the Bible study http://www.412teens.org/ Answers for many modern teen questions and doubts http://www.fallingplates.com Nice Gospel message with good analogies and video in many languages Haven't used these ones much before but they seem good: http://www.youthalive.ag.org/ https://www.everyschool.com/ http://youthministry360.com/ http://www.yfc.net/ http://fervr.net/ I hope these few resources help. I'll be praying that things go well. Let me know how the study goes, and if you have any questions about things.

Yeah what Marley said above. It's very usual to question your beliefs, and is usually a good thing, because when you come through you're even stronger in your faith than where you started and can then help out people struggling with the same thing. Here's a couple good sites I like to reference when I have questions about Christianity: evidenceforchristianity.org and http://www.christiananswers.net Let me know if you need to talk or have specific questions, I'm no theologian but I'll do my best to help out

Love this song so much. So applicable to so many Christians on so many levels

Is she a Christian? In general just try to show God's love for her and how much you love her. Suicide is a dangerous and scary thing to deal with; you can find good online help in places like this one. It's also good to go to a trusted adult or pastor about such things. I have a friend who struggled for multiple years with depression, suicide, and homosexuality. She heard the Gospel and came to Christ after hitting rock bottom, and has since dropped all of that. Try to share the Good News with her, and take her to a positive youth group where people can be a good influence on her. The Gospel changes lives, please try to share it with her; and if you're not too familiar with it yourself you can see a quick overview of it in this video and this slam poetry presentation. I've also found Falling Plates to be a good video in sharing the Gospel. Dare2Share also has great Gospel sharing resources. But there's no resource as true as going back and reading the Word, maybe starting with the Gospel of John. Don't forget to pray for her. I'll be doing the same.