JAM - Picturing Our Stories

PICTURING

OUR

STORIES JUDSON ARTS MINISTRY

This semester, our JAM students were challenged to examine their stories and identify key moments in their walk with God. It didn’t have to be a big moment; it simply had to be a time when something changed.

Maybe it was a time when they recognized that something was really true about God or His Word or a moment when they realized He really is for and with them, that He truly does keep His promises. With some help and training from JAM leaders, the students wrote about this moment in their walks with God, took a photo to illustrate the key theme, and chose a verse of Scripture to accompany both.

BECAUSE YOU ARE YOUNG

Riley Howell My perspective on life has shifted since I read a book written by teens for teens entitled Do Hard Things. The authors, Alex and Brett Harris, encourage their readers to break habits of complacency and mediocrity to challenge the status quo in the lives of modern adolescents. Many times, I’ll find myself only doing what is required of me, though I know I’m capable of pursuing excellence.

Surprisingly, the word teenager has only been in the dictionary since 1941. But despite this fact, people still view teenagers through the disparaging filter that society has created.

Teens have just as much of a responsibility to be leaders as adults do. I can be a light in the darkness no matter what my age may indicate as long as I aim to glorify God with every step I take.

After finishing the book, I asked myself a question, “How can I glorify God and defy the restrictive label of teenager?” The best answer comes straight from the Bible: Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. —1 Timothy 4:12

MY TESTIMONY

Faithlyn Hall When I was eight years old, I asked Jesus into my heart. Even though I was young, I realized that I needed Him to save me. I had grown up going to church weekly, memorizing Bible verses in Awana and singing in JAM. I was surrounded by the teachings of the Bible. I realized that even though I knew about Jesus and had grown up in His Word, He was not Lord of my life. I needed a savior, and His name is Jesus.

I recently read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. It really changed my perspective on God’s love for His prized creation, us. The short version of the book is, a godly man is led by the Lord to marry a prostitute. Even though she goes back to her sinful ways many times, the man still takes her back. God, like the man, takes me, the sinful prostitute, back again and again. All because God loves me so much.

When I read Redeeming Love, I cried so much because of how much love God has for me. I do not deserve to be loved by God, but because of Jesus’ death, I am forgiven and a child of God. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Even though we are filthy sinners, God still loves us. It just blows me away how much pain and suffering Jesus had to go through so believers could spend eternity with God once they die. Where we see sin, God sees perfection. And that’s why when I see roses, which are a symbol of love, I think of how much love God has for me.

But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

—Romans 5:8

EYES ON THE PRIZE

Macy Henning It’s as if I’m constantly running a race without an end. The finish line is far away, and it’s impossible to reach. I keep telling myself if I could just run hard enough, I might finally pass it.

But I never do.

Suddenly, distractions are everywhere. People boo from the stands, telling me I’m doing everything wrong. Obstacles start popping up everywhere. All of the distractions, the complete darkness, and the absolute chaos makes me feel so lost that it’s hard to push forward. It seems like everything is trying to keep me from seeing the one thing that matters, the finish line.

Then in the midst of all the chaos, the finish line starts shining brighter than anything. It cancels out all distractions and guides me around the obstacles. It silences the booing crowd.

The light is my constant guide in this never-ending race.

This is the race of life, and you are the only runner. These distractions are the world, and God is the finish line. We run this race of life with God as our destination. We can see Him and know Him and love Him, but we will never meet God’s standards. No matter how strong we are or how fast we run, we will never cross His finish line on our own.

The good news is that we don’t have to.

When God sent us Jesus, He gave us a light. He gave us a light that guides us through any obstacle that Satan might throw at us. He keeps us on a steady path when everyone else in the world tells us we are wrong.

Keep your eyes on God, and He will guide the way.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. — Psalm 16:8

REFUGE

Garrett Howell The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and he is my place of safety. — Psalm 18:2

COMING BOLDLY

Jamie Weathers I always thought I had a good prayer life. Not as good as some, but I was confident it was solid...until it wasn’t.

You see, I felt like I prayed all day. I have friends in a text group who pray for each other. I prayed each time a request came through. If it came to my mind later, I prayed again. Pretty good, right?

The Lord started working on my heart, like He has a tendency to do. I didn’t say anything to anyone!

What would they think of me if I am questioning my prayer life, especially when I am sharing my prayer requests and asking them to pray?

In the coming weeks, I was meeting a friend from one of the text groups for dinner. She said, “I have been searching for a way to keep prayer requests in front of me and wondered if you would keep me accountable?”

Then she handed me this prayer journal.

Of course, I shared my story with her, and we rejoiced ... and maybe cried a little too.

The Lord not only put this on my heart, but He also provided a way for me to fulfill it! Wow! Thank you, Lord, for showing me the way to fulfill your purposes!

Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

—Hebrews 4:16

RUNNING, RUNNING, RUNNING

Ethan King Running, running, running through the forests with my friend Raymond, running from one of the Devil’s minions!

I went down the road to see if my friend wanted to play, and he was playing with a new kid named Travis who had just moved in. So, I said, “Sure. Why not?”

Little did I know that he was going to ask me questions and say things that I didn’t feel comfortable about the rest of my family hearing. We decided to go into the woods and play for a while, but that’s when I got the idea for Raymond and me to run away in the woods to talk for a while since I knew the woods better than everyone else.

So, we ran away, and I got to let Raymond ask me some questions about Christians and Christ. So, while it was bad that Travis came over, it also worked out well that I was able to talk about Christ.

But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness. —2 Timothy 2:16

A CLOSING DOOR

Mandy Crow I knew the door was closing, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

This job, these people I loved like family, this work with its eternal focus—it would all continue. But it would continue without me.

God had opened the door that allowed me to serve here for a season, but He would also be the One to close that door.

I had known for months that the door was closing. I had cried. I had prayed. I had held on so tightly that my fingers were about to slammed in the door. For more than a decade, God had allowed me to do work I loved alongside people I respected. But quietly, He had begun to move me toward the next step, inching the door shut even as He made a way for a new adventure.

I didn’t know how or when exactly that door would finally close, but at some point, when all my protests had grown silent, I felt His peace. In the quiet, I knew with certainty that the Lord who led me there would lead me on to the future.

I had mistakenly believed that this job, this work defined who I was. But what God taught me as He closed one door and opened another was that He knew me better than I knew myself. That his plan was better than mine.

He closed the door.

And when He opened a new door, He led me to a place where I felt joy and purpose in ways I never could have imagined.

“For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the LORD’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” —Jeremiah 29:11

UNEXPECTED FAMILY

Laura Griffith Most take for granted just how long 17 years actually is, but a lot can happen in that kind of time.

People come, and people go. As time moves forward, life begins to march all over you, and you start to wonder what’s your purpose in life. I believed for the longest time, even as a child, that I was destined for a life of solitude, a life void of real and lasting relationships and filled with only duty and responsibility.

I didn’t feel as though I had a place in this world until I joined the Centennial High School band.

Finally, I understood what family is. Christ thrust a marriage I scorned at first into the path I had planned for myself, leading me to the lessons in life and the love I’ve learned through these people, just as deserving and vulnerable as I was. God made me stronger when He challenged me with the unknown and frightening—and ended up making me a vessel of strength for my makeshift family at Centennial and loved ones I’m surrounded with daily.

LEARNING TO TRUST

Tim Henning Learning to trust God has been a journey. I remember when I was a kid I trusted my parents for nearly everything. I didn’t really have a concept of trusting God other than for my salvation. When I was in college I began to understand more what trusting God looked like in everyday life. Not fully, but in a way that I had never needed to in the past. I found myself needing to make decisions about things that were going to affect my future to some degree. More and more I was seeing that there were fewer and fewer people speaking into my decisions. It was starting to be up to me now. I didn’t trust myself much.

I never did growing up. I usually doubted if I was right about things and would go with whoever else was in the same boat as I was. Now it was feeling more and more like it was just me. Well… me and God. After getting married and starting a family I have really begun to have opportunities to exercise my trust in God as we have been faced with many decisions about our lives, our kids, their education, our family direction, our careers, our ministry opportunities, our friends, our kids friends… I get exhausted thinking about all of it. But God. God has been with me. God has been showing me how to trust Him. Showing me I can trust Him. Showing me I must trust Him. I haven’t learned it completely, but I’m getting it “day by day and with each passing moment…”

THE GOD OF HEALING

Scarlett Henning I believe in a God of healing and that He has the power to do miracles. He has done many things in my life, however, there is one in particular that I will remember for the rest of my days. This one experience will impact my life forever.

I was sick, very sick. It was highly possible I would live, yet at nine I had a great imagination. I had been sick for only nine days, but apparently that was enough to put me in the hospital. Pneumonia is frightening at a young age. I was certain of one thing: I was terrified.

The hospital smelled like medicine and hand sanitizer. The beeping blaring machines, the small red lights and light up screens of things whose names I had yet to learn. The thing I found most terrifying was that none of it made sense and that I felt those things could somehow predict my death. I’ve never been scared of anything, save spiders, not even a storm would make me retreat into my parents’ bedroom.

My left lung was almost completely conquered by bacterial pneumonia, and I was on an antibiotic which was administered through an IV. Things seemed bleak through my eyes.

The day after I was admitted into the Sparrow Children’s Hospital I was told I needed a tube in my left lung. This was because I had fluid in the lining of my lungs. They scheduled a CT scan to find out where it was. The pastor of our church at that time prayed with me the morning of the scan. The CT scan went as planned. After I got back to my room, a nurse came in. She said that somehow the fluid disappeared!

However, I still had a very bad case of pneumonia. At the time my grandparents, aunt, and cousins were visiting from Louisiana. It was a very good thing they were in town, because they visited me. My church and family prayed for me until after four days in the hospital I finally returned home. The longest four days in my life were spent in that hospital!

Through all this I learned to trust God. My faith grew and grew. Like a feeble tree that was in a drought, heavy rains came, and the tree was then strong and tall. If you make it through tribulation, your faith will be stronger. It is not to say that faith can’t grow without trial, but that it can be made stronger through it.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. —James 1:2-4

RAISED TO WALK

Emily Traylor I was almost a senior in college; I’d been a follower of Christ for several years, but it had just started to make sense to me a few months earlier. My life was being transformed, I was growing in leaps and bounds, and I was soaking in the Bible every day. The summer before senior year, following a conference that I went to with my church, my college pastor called me into his office. I showed up, expecting an entirely different conversation, but instead he asked me to be a facilitator for one of the college-age Bible studies. I told him that I was honored and that I would pray about it; I left, knowing that he needed an answer in the next couple of days.

The Saturday night before I needed to give him my answer, God would not let me sleep. I felt God was calling me to say yes, but I knew that I had another step of obedience to take first. I had not yet been baptized. I could not reasonably obey the Lord in the Bible study if I was unwilling to obey him in baptism. I decided that in the morning I would tell my college pastor that I needed to talk to him the following day, so that I would have an excuse to wait. God had a different plan. I was the only one in college group that morning; of course, my pastor asked me what I was thinking.

I looked at him and said, “I think I need to do this, but first, I need to deal with a sin of disobedience.”

He looked at me, a little nervous about what I would say. I told my pastor what I needed to do, and he smiled, and said, “We can handle that!”

The sermon that morning was about obedience. Little did I know that restless night before what God had in store for me. He had orchestrated those moments to lead me to obedience and to be a testimony of His redemption work in my life.

I was baptized the next month, and let me tell you, there was such a celebration in church that day.

BEING A LIGHT

Seth Robertson God calls us to be a light unto the world. And I’ve learned over my years that your example is your most powerful witness to the world.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. — Matthew 5:14-16

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