Does God ever feel distant? When is the last time you really spent quality time with God? For me I feel as though I'm an ant stuck in a jar and whenever I try to climb out I fall again and again I am stuck and my life is hopeless. Or have you ever felt like this?: When I was about ten years old I was outside and I found some of those really big bummed spiders by the back door. I decided to get a closer look so I put them in jar. Later as I was walking in the back yard I spotted a grasshopper not any ordinary grasshopper because this grasshopper was missing a leg ( a perfect target) So due to the fact that I was kinda bored with the spiders I thought hey what if I put the grasshopper in with the spiders that would be exciting. So I did and I can still remember that day as clear as a bell. That grasshopper was scared what could he do not only was he stuck in a jar but it had two spiders in there with him. So what did I do? I watched for like two minutes and this feeling of guilt and worriment overtook my body and soul. I quickly got the grasshopper out of there and let him go. The point Im trying to make even though I can look back on this story and laugh, is that many times we are broken and can barely make it in the world and just when we think life couldn't get any worse it does. But instead of laying there in our misery and getting eaten by spiders so to say. Cry out to God even if you only have one leg. He's waiting for you. Once you do you will be free. Yeah you still might have a missing leg.But in time God will heal that too. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and sing to him a new song. Hope thats deep enough for you Trav. And thank you everyone for your replies. May God bless you this season as he creates in you a clean and healed heart for him. JEN FEHR

Would you really die for the person you love? Literally die? The saying " I would die for you" is easy to say, but when push came to shove could you really do it. I'ts hard to fathom that an ordinary man would die for us, give his own life in unbearable pain to pay for our selfihness, greed, and plain stupidness. Yet did he really want to. He cried sweats of blood before he was arrested. He must have been stressed to the max and yet he still obeyed Gods command. So we too as christains are called to die. Physically? No. We are to die to sin. To take up our cross daily our burdens our hardships and follow Him. So how do we do it? Sure it's easy for a day to be devoted to God. To say ok God today I'm going to follow you and nothing is goingto go wrong. Eventually we mess up. We fall and our cross of hardships falls crashing on our bodies. Most ppl including me decide its to hard and give up. But there has to be a point when we decide to stand up again, and we are not alone. Jesus is right there helping us and when we decide to let him take up our cross for us it is a lot easier. So friends and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ I am begging you and pleading with you to take up your cross and let Jesus be in control of your life. Lets remember what he did for us and never forget. God bless all of you.