The HOPE-A-THON.

In the Ukraine, when an orphan girl becomes 16 years old she ages out of the orphanage system and is forced to leave and live on her own. Most of these girls have no place to go and if someone does not do something to help them, then they are likely to end up in sex slavery. Doesn't that break your heart? It crushes ours, and on November 15-16th, with your help and the help of your friends, we are going to rescue one of these girls; maybe two, three or even more!

Join us for the HOPE-A-THON, a 24 hour live stream event to raise up money to relieve an orphans misery. Every dollar given goes directly to Engraved Ministry. They will be on the ground in the Ukraine providing safe homes, caring mentors and relevant training for the girls we rescue. Sure, we're just teenagers, but we've heard our leaders tell us to live for something other than ourselves, to have a cause. So here we are with a real cause, about real girls who really need rescuing. We've taken up the cause and we need you to take up the cause with us. 

Tune it to our 24 hour webcast starting on November 15th at 6pm! Join the live chat and give us crazy challenges. We'll do just about anything to give hope to these hopeless girls! For a donation, we'll do back flips, front flips, hand stands and face plants all while blind folded and eating a "mystery food". Whatever you request, we'll do (please don't kill us, remembering it's about saving lives not losing any) because some girl in Ukraine is about to turn 16 in November and together, we're going to fill her broken heart with HOPE!! 

Follow #hopeAthon on twitter for moment by moment up dates and spread the word. Take up the cause! 

In Regards to Haters.

In fairly recent days, I have had some anonymous people talk about me and some of my friends on social media. While the person did not say rude things about me specifically, they did say awful things about some of my very good friends. The person in this situation may be joking, but I hope you would agree with me, that anonymously saying discouraging things about others is not funny. I have also had people text me saying hurtful things, but then the next time I see them they act like nothing happened. I am sure some of you have experienced things like this as well. It is sad how many people try to hide behind their electronics, so that they can throw hate in other people’s direction. 

First off, I would like to say that I feel sorry for the person that thinks they have to hate on others in order to find any worth in themselves. These people are not usually just flat out mean, inside they are just very insecure. If you are one of these people, you do not have to be. There are always going to be people who are better than you at something. You do not have to hate on others to make yourself look better. Christ did not do that to you, and He actually IS better than you. He is the only One Who has every right to make you feel bad about yourself. However, Instead of putting you down, Christ raises you up. And that is exactly what He tells us to do to others. He says to “Encourage one another and build each other up.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) You certainly cannot encourage and raise up someone else by anonymously posting hurtful things about them. 

Another thing I have noticed is that people will say so many things online that they would never say in real life. I see it happen just about everyday on social media or over texts. People use their electronics as a shield to say things they would otherwise never say. If you cannot say it to a person’s face, then you probably should not be saying it at all. There are also the people who choose to remain anonymous. They try to mask themselves with the internet. The anonymous person, when they post mean things about others, says more about themselves than they do about the people they are actually posting about. They try to portray someone else as a monster, and end up becoming one themselves. If you have a problem with someone, I urge you to go confront them in love and in person. If you really care about someone and want to see them grow into a better person, then you will privately tell them how you feel and how you think they could improve. When you confront someone publicly, you are showing that you do not actually care about that person improving at all. 

Also, if you are on the receiving end of hateful or maybe even flattering words from an anonymous person on the internet, then I would encourage you to ask yourself if this person’s opinion should mean anything to you? In my experience, I have found that a compliment from an unnamed person is not going to mean very much to me, but a compliment from someone who knows and loves me is going to mean much more to me. As far as hateful words go, haters are really not your motivators. Hurtful words have a way of tearing your heart apart piece by piece. However, if you are getting bullied by an anonymous person, remember that they have done nothing to deserve your respect. If you are receiving rude, or even kind, comments from an anonymous person, don’t blow it out of proportion. Look at what the person is saying, and evaluate yourself to see if it is true. If it is true, then take the criticism and try to make changes in your life. If it is false, then simply move on. Do not let the words of a person, who really does not care about you, bring you down. As my Dad has always told me, “What’s true about you is what God says about you!”

In closing, I would like to remind us that, if we call ourselves Christians, then we misrepresent Christ if we lash out at people on social media. Our words are suppose to reflect God’s love, and that includes the words we choose to use on social media. If people are saying hateful things that are directed toward you, then your response to that is also suppose to reflect Christ. If you say hateful things back to them, then you are just the same as they are. So, watch your words for “they have the power of life and death.” (Proverbs 18:21). I want the world to see that Christians are different, even in the way they post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and all social networks. 

If you have any questions, comments, or topics you would like me to write about, then please email me at christy@tonynolan.org . I love hearing y’all’s feedback. Thanks for reading.

So What's the Next Step?

To be honest, I’m in a really weird time of my life right now. It’s a good time, but it’s also a scary and stressful time. I’m almost finished with high school and I’m trying to figure out what the next step is. I have so many dreams, and I don’t know where to start. I can get so overwhelmed, and it’s like I just want God to write on the wall and tell me exactly what He wants me to do. However, more times than not, it doesn’t work that way. God has been teaching me so much about trust that I thought I would share some of it with you today. 

Sometimes, I can get so frustrated that I start questioning God’s plan for me. I don’t know what the next step is, so I start to think maybe God does not know what He is doing after all. I start to wonder what God’s plan for me actually is and if it really is a good plan. Have you ever been there? I’m sure some of you have. Satan loves to make us question God’s true intentions for us. If the Devil can get us to doubt God, then I bet he could get us to disobey God. In 1 Samuel 7:12 it says, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” When Satan tries to feed me doubt, this small verse gives me such assurance. The 7 words of this verse teaches us that we can look back at God’s faithfulness in the past when we start to doubt His plan for the future. Even when you don’t know what God is doing right now, you do know that He has been faithful to you in the past. He has never forgotten to sustain your pulse; He’s sustained you throughout your life thus far. He hasn’t failed you yet, so what makes you think He is going to start doing so now? That’s one of the beautiful things about the Gospel; you can have complete faith in God without having complete understanding of what He is doing. So, even when He isn’t writing on the wall and telling me exactly what the next step is, I can still “sing the Lord’s praises, for He has been good to me.” (Psalm 13:6)

While this is all great insight, my question still stands. What’s the next step, God? I have wrestled with this question for quite some time and continue wrestling with it.  However, I feel God has given me an answer. I think it can apply to a lot of our situations. It’s not really the answer we want when we are asking God what to do, but it’s the answer I think He is trying to give all of us. God is calling us to trust Him. It’s that simple. He just wants us to trust and follow Him. We might not know where we are going, but we know Who we are following. Do you hear the tender voice of our Savior? He is asking us, “Do you trust me?”  It’s a yes or no answer, yet we try to fit in our how, when, where, what, who, and why.  We try to ask about every detail and God is just saying, “Trust me, I’ll guide you where I want you to go.”

I do not say this truth to you lightly today. This is hard to swallow and difficult to do. However, it is so necessary for us to trust God. We have to realize that we can’t do it on our own. Our best option really is to trust God to guide us to the next step of our journey. 

If you have any questions, comments, or topics you would like me to write about feel free to email me at christy@tonynolan.org . I love getting emails from my readers and I try to give the best advice and answers that I can. Hope to hear from you soon and thanks for reading. 

The Comparison Trap.

This semester I have started working toward my psychology/ counseling degree. I’m not super far along in my studies, so I’m certainly not the person to come to with any of your psychological questions. However, one of the most recent things I studied was the concept of social comparison. I think that everyone can relate to the idea of social comparison, because everyone has done it. Sometimes, we do it unconsciously, but we do it, nonetheless. While it is almost instinctive for us to compare ourselves with others, I think doing this can come at a cost that, in the end, we will not want to pay. It looks innocent enough, but really comparison is a trap we set for ourselves.

Pastor Steven Furtick once said that “the death of contentment is comparison.” Often times, we can look at what others have and suddenly feel that what we have is not enough. We have the capacity to become discontent when we see someone with a nicer car, or a higher paying job, or a better relationship than we have. We can be so obsessed with the worldly things we do not have that we miss all the blessings that God has entrusted to us. God gave you the things you have for a reason, and He made you the way you are for a reason. Yet, we get so caught up in what others have and what we think we want. We live in a culture that tells us that we have to have or do certain things to be accepted. I’m so glad that God does not require us to have or do anything special in order for us to be eligible for His acceptance. All to often, we will compare ourselves to the world and give up anything necessary to fit in with it. We compare ourselves, because we seek the approval of everyone else. I think something that every Christian must realize is that we only need one person’s approval, and that’s Jesus Christ. I do not need the approval of everyone else, because I already have the approval of Christ. Comparing yourself with and fighting for the acceptance of others is exhausting and, in the end, disappointing. However, God stands ready to give you His acceptance and approval, you just have to accept it. So, why get discouraged by not having an earthly possession, if you have the priceless treasure of calling God your Father?

There is a flip side to comparison, though. One part says that we don’t measure up to other people, and the other part tells us that we are better than other people. Individuals, who often times have low-self esteem, try to make themselves feel better by comparing themselves to people who seem worse than they are. I see this happen all the time. I’ve even done it in my own life. We make ourselves feel better when we look at others’ faults and mistakes. If the majority of people were honest, they would admit that they try to justify their actions by saying that they are not as bad as someone else. We say, “Well, I may have done this, but So-And-So did that.” We say we are not nearly as bad as someone else we know, so, in our minds, we are good people. However, everyone is a sinner, so when we compare ourselves with the world, we are comparing ourselves to a sinful standard. In 1 Corinthians 10:12, it says, “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” We may look like good people compared to everyone else, but the One we should really compare ourselves to is Christ. We might exceed the world’s requirements to be a good person, but we fall extremely short of God’s righteous requirements. When we compare yourself to Christ, Who was in every way perfect and sinless, we see just how sinful we are. In the light of God’s presence, we see the full darkness of our sin. We realize that we cannot meet God’s standard, so we need Someone else to meet it for us. Jesus lived a sinless life and became the only One who could save us. All we have to do is repent of our sins and accept His gift of salvation.

So, in closing, do not compare yourself to others and get discouraged about what you don’t have, because God loves and accepts you, and He is “able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8) I also challenge you to stop justifying your actions by comparing them to that of someone else’s. Sin is sin. I encourage you to compare yourself to Christ, strive to be more like Him, and be thankful for the grace God gives you when you are not like Him.

If you have any questions, comments, or topics you would like me to write about you can email me at christy@tonynolan.org or just leave a comment below. God bless and thank you so much for reading. 

You Better Believe It.

I read an article yesterday that broke my heart. The article was talking about Pope Francis. I was shocked to hear that he has recently said that an individual does not have to believe in God to go to heaven. He was assuring the atheist by saying that, “the issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience”.  I am in no way trying to hate on the Pope, but I am outraged at this statement.  

In the very first sentence of the article I read, it said that Pope Francis was most likely making these statements “to enhance his progressive reputation”.  I thought that was interesting. Whether it is true about the Pope or not, it is true about many Christians today. I’m broken hearted over all of my brothers and sisters in Christ that are trying to change or sugarcoat the Gospel in the name of their own reputations. While I wish that hell was not a real place, it is. I wish that everyone could go to heaven, but, unfortunately, everyone is not. This is reality. It’s uncomfortable for people to hear, but that doesn’t mean we should simply neglect it or feed people lies that are more comfortable for them to hear. Whether you are the Pope or just a teenager, you cannot rewrite the story of God. 

The first part of the Pope’s statement is that one does not have to believe in God to go to heaven. The word “believe” is found over 120 times throughout the New Testament. Something mentioned that many times in the Word of God deserves our attention, don’t you think? John 3:16, one of the most widely known verses in all of the Bible, says, “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”  Whosoever BELIEVES. It does not say “whosoever follows their conscience”.  Where did we get off thinking that we could change the very words of God? This is not something we can redefine. God makes it clear in His word that the only way to Him is through belief in His Son. When you die, the only thing that is going to matter is whether or not you believed in Jesus.

The second part of the Pope’s statement is about following your conscience. If we follow our conscience, then, according to the Pope, we are good people, thus forgiven by God. Isaiah 64:6 says that, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”  Even our best acts are still not enough to get us into heaven. So, there is no such thing as a good person. We have all sinned against a holy God.  If we could get ourselves to heaven simply by being good people, then why would God send Christ to die for our sins? Galatians 2:21 says, “if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” There would have been no reason for Jesus to die on the cross, if we could attain salvation through our own good works. So, there are no exceptions to this, we must believe in Jesus to get to heaven.

Let us get back to talking about conscience. It is defined in the dictionary as, “an inner feeling or voice acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior.” However, if we are not perfect people, then how can we have perfect consciences? What if every person’s view of right and wrong is different? Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of over 11 million people, once said, “I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator”. Can we justify Hitler’s actions because he “followed his conscience”? He thought what he was doing was a good thing. There is no real right and wrong if every man makes up his own version of what right and wrong looks like.

John 3:18 clearly says, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”  Again, I wish I could say this was not a big deal and, like the Pope, say that the atheist will make it heaven. However, this verse makes belief a huge deal. We cannot sugar coat this. If you do not believe in God, then you will not go to heaven. You will be cast into a burning lake of fire, completely separated from Christ for all eternity. We have a sin nature in us, so we surely cannot always trust our conscience. We cannot get to heaven by being good people, because we are not good people, according to the Word of God. We cannot earn a place in heaven by being good. Thus, the only way to get to heaven is belief in Jesus. He made a way for us. He took the wrath of God on the cross for us, so that we can go to heaven, but we must believe in Him. Please do not be lead astray from the truth, the only way to heaven is through belief in Jesus.

If anyone has any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at christy@tonynolan.org . Also, if you have a topic you would like me to write about,  simply email me and I will do my best to write a Biblical perspective on that topic. Thanks for reading.


Works Cited
Day, Michael. "Pope Francis Assures Atheists: You Don't Have to Believe in God to Go to Heaven." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. 

Miley Cyrus; A Product of a Culture Without Boundaries.

If you have social media of any kind, I am almost certain you have heard about Miley Cyrus and her disturbing performance at the VMA’s. I’m deeply saddened by what she has morphed into over the years. The past few days, I’ve been thinking, “How does innocent little Hannah Montana turn into one of the most scandalous and sickening performers of this day and age?” I think God has an answer to the question for us, and I think we can learn a lot from it.

Before I proceed, I would like to remind us that Jesus said in John 8:7, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first throw a stone at her.” None of us can throw a stone at Miley Cyrus, because we have all fallen short of the glory of God. We are all sinners. Jesus did not respond to our sin with hateful words, so let us not respond to Miley’s sin with hateful tweets and blog posts. We must approach her in love and mercy, the way Jesus does, but we should also learn a great deal, as we ponder the key contributors to creating the performer we see in Miley today.

We live in a culture in which everything goes; anything is acceptable. What God has defined as black and white, the world is now painting grey. It’s constantly pushing the limits. Miley Cyrus is not what is wrong with the world, we all have a sin problem.  Miley is merely a product of a culture without boundaries. 

Do you realize that, at one point, Miley claimed to be a Christian? She was once a role model for young girls all over the country. She went from saying she was a follower of Christ to doing a performance that would cause any strong Christian to change the channel. One might ask, “How does that kind of transformation even happen?” Well, it happens by letting culture tell us where the boundaries are, instead of the Word of God. Before you think about how terrible of a person Miley is, I want you to take a look at your own life. How often are we going by “what’s cool”, instead of what God says? Look at the movies you watch, the songs on your playlist, or the other activities that fill your time. Most of the things the world defines as acceptable, God defines as sin. I don’t think Miley is the only one turning to culture to show her where the boundaries are. We can all struggle with that, because we all have the inward desire to be accepted by others. We want to be cool and the sad reality is that many of us are willing to compromise our own beliefs, in order to reach that status. We are letting other sinful people, who really don’t have our best interest at heart, tell us how to live, instead of listening to a God who loves us so much that He sent His Son to endure the punishment we all deserve. 

I’m really heartbroken for Miley Cyrus. Culture is constantly encouraging her to push the limits, yet when she does it, they mock her for it. The media laughs and scorns her for doing the things they pushed her to do in the first place. She feels like she has to take off most of her clothes to be loved. She does not even realize that there is a God out there that loves her, despite her sin. Hollywood is acting like they love her now, but in a few years, they will abandon her and she will be on one of those “Where Are They Now?” shows. Miley hasn’t even realized that there is a God out there who will never leave or forsake her, no matter what she does. Are some of you in that same position? Maybe not at the same degree as Miley, but are you striving for the approval of the crowd. It’s exhausting trying to get the status of “cool” in a culture that is constantly changing. You don’t have to live that way. There is a God standing with His arms wide open to you. Fame, fortune, and popularity are all just an illusion. The American dream turns out to be a nightmare. But then, there is God, who will never leave you high and dry. He doesn’t just say that He loves you and then leaves you, like the crowd that many want the approval of so desperately. No, God didn’t just say that He loves you, He showed that He loves you, by giving His life, so that He could offer you the gift of salvation. 

So, here’s the question, are we gonna let culture tell us what to do, or are we going to stand by the Word of the never-changing, always faithful, perfectly loving God? Because, if we do not stand up and say, “enough is enough” at some point, things are only going to get worse. We may be appalled at first, like we are now with Miley, but if we do not draw the line somewhere, the world will continue to push the limits. 

I pray for Miley Cyrus, that she would know that she is not too far gone; God can still save her. I pray that God would have mercy on us, who call ourselves Christians, yet listen to what’s popular, instead of what God says. I also pray for you. I pray that you would turn to the Word of God for your boundaries, that, like insects to a light, you would let the love of Christ shine so brightly in you that others see it and want some of it, too. 

Know that there is still hope, friends. God is on the throne. He is not surprised by how far our world has fallen. God is still God, no matter what Miley Cyrus does on a stage. The fact that our God is still greater than the darkness around us should give us strength to shine even brighter for Him as we walk in it.


If you have any questions, comments or prayer requests, I hope you will email me at christy@tonynolan.org . Thank you so much for reading. 

In the Waiting Room.

I am not a big fan of waiting rooms; I am not sure if anyone really is. Being in them usually feels like the biggest waste of time. You have things you have to get done, places you need to be, but you have to just sit and wait.

I think there are times in our lives that are a lot like a waiting room. There are seasons where God tells us to wait. There are times where I just wanna go, I want to move on, but God tells me to wait till He gives me the okay to proceed. I can get so frustrated in those seasons. I start to wonder, “What is God thinking? We are just wasting time here.”  Then, God reminds me who He is. He’s God. His timing is perfect. Who am I to tell God when we are going to wait and when we are going to move ahead? God has never been off on His timing, so when He says to wait, it’s to our own benefit that we obey.

When you’re waiting, there is still that feeling that all you’re doing is wasting time. However, waiting time and wasted time are not the same thing. Any moment you spend bringing glory to God is never a waste. So, waiting time will not be wasted if you worship Christ in the waiting. God does not call us to be a light sometimes, He calls us to be a light all the time, even in the waiting room. Just because you’re not in college yet, you’re not married yet, or you don’t have the job you want yet, it does not mean you can’t still bring glory to God. You can do great things right where you are. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am very aware that waiting is still very hard. I am not trying to make waiting sound more fun to you, because it can still be frustrating and difficult to do. I think the story of Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 24 can help us here. We see in the first few verses that Abraham sends one of his servants to find a wife for his son, Isaac. The servant has to travel very far with ten camels. I cannot even imagine how difficult that journey would be. I can complain if I have to drive for a few hours in my air conditioned car to go on vacation. This servant must have had an incredibly hard journey. However, in all 67 verses of Genesis 24, there is not one of them that says how bad the journey was. In the end, it didn't matter. The hardships in the journey didn't even compare to the pay off in the end, when he found Rebekah. I think the same can apply to our waiting rooms in life. How hard it is will not even be worth mentioning in comparison to the joy we find in trusting God through every step of our journey.

So, waiting rooms can be frustrating, but if you are illuminating praise to God while you are in it, then, you are not wasting your time. God has a plan and His timing is perfect; we just need to trust Him. I pray that, no matter what your season of waiting looks like, God gives you strength to continue to glorify Him right where He has you today.


Also, I have loved getting emails from all my readers! Keep them coming! Email any of your questions, comments, or prayer requests to christy@tonynolan.org . Thanks for reading!

Sing or Stand?

 Penny Lea is a pro-life activist. After giving a speech, an elderly man came up to her to tell her his story. With tears rolling down his face, this is what he said:

 "I lived in Germany during the Nazi holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. I attended church since I was a small boy. We had heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews, but, like most people today in this country, we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really taking place. What could anyone do to stop it?
 A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track. We became disturbed when, one Sunday, we noticed cries coming from the train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews. They were like cattle in those cars!
 Week after week, that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us, as they passed our church. It was so terribly disturbing! We could do nothing to help these poor, miserable people, yet their screams tormented us. We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow, and we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns. By the time that train came rumbling past the church yard, we were singing at the top of our voices. If some of the screams reached our ears, we'd just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more.
 Years have passed, and no one talks about it much anymore, but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. I can still hear them crying out for help. God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene.”

 This story always sends a shiver down my spine. There are those who may be quick to judge and would say, “who could possibly just sit by singing while something so horrible was happening?” However, before we look down upon some of the churches during World War II, let’s take a look in the mirror.

 As terrifying as the thought may be, is it possible that modern day believers are starting to act like the singing church in the story? Babies are being murdered by the thousands in America through abortions. There are 27 million people still stuck in the chains of slavery. There are children around the world that are desperate for a loving mommy and daddy. Drugs, rape, abuse, the list goes on and on.  Are we going to be the church that sings to God and yet refuses to obey Him when it conflicts with our convenience? 

 During the same time period of World War II, there was a man, named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a man who knew that believing in Jesus must lead to action. He was a huge voice against Nazi rule in Germany and he served as a double spy during the war. Bonhoeffer spoke for those who couldn’t speak for themselves and eventually gave his life for the cause. Eric Metaxas, in his book entitled “7 Men”, recorded this:“At one point Bonhoeffer made the incendiary statement that “only he who stands up for the Jews may sing Gregorian chants.” What he meant was that if we were not heroically and courageously doing what God wanted us to do, God was not interested in our public displays of worship. To sing to God when we are not doing what God called us to do was to be a hypocrite.”

 So, here is my question to you, in this day and age, are we going to be Bonhoeffers or are we going to be singers? Are we going to obey God by doing something about the evils around us, or are we going to just sing over the cries of hurting and dying people? The world doesn’t need anymore singers, but we are desperate for more Bonhoeffers. If we really believed the songs we were singing, we would not just sit idle, while people around us are spiritually, emotionally, and physically broken. Is it possible that we can sing “How Great is Our God”, but live like He’s not great enough to use us to put an end to the injustices around us?

 I think my family friend, Jimmy Needham, says it best, in his song “Speak”.

“So open your mouth, open it wide. 

Quit singing songs for a minute tonight. 

You can love with your hands, you can love with your deeds. 

How will they know if we won't even speak?”

 I pray, as the old man in the story, that God forgives his children for singing when we should have been taking action. I hope that you will be like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and obey God, by taking action against evil. We cannot be satisfied with singing, while the darkness consumes us, but we must illuminate the darkness with God’s truth. Are we going to sing, or are we going to stand?

 If you have any questions or comments, you are welcome to email me at christy@tonynolan.org . Thank you so much for reading.

This is my Story.

        I like to think of this blog as an opportunity for me to point others to Christ and one of the biggest ways I know how to do that is to share how God has changed my life. My youth pastor recently challenged us to share our testimonies with boldness and to make it known to everyone that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. So, in the paragraphs that follow, I would like to tell you my story. 

I was born and raised in a Christian home. My dad is an evangelist and, as long as I can remember, he has traveled all over the country telling people the Good New of Jesus Christ. I always knew about God growing up and I knew all the Sunday school answers.  I thought, for sure, I would make it into Heaven because my parents were Christians and because I was a “good kid”.  However, in reality, I was not a “good kid”. No one is good; we are all sinful people, but in my mind I was “good” because I wasn’t as bad as other people I knew. I thought I was doing okay, but in actuality, I was a lost and broken soul on the road to hell.

One Sunday morning, when I was 7 years old, I was listening to Dr. Junior Hill preach a powerful sermon. He was speaking about how you never know when death is going to come and, once it does, you need to be ready for it. After you die, there is no coming back and making a decision to follow Christ then; you have to do it now. It felt as if Dr. Hill was speaking directly to me as he shared the entire Gospel. He said that I was a sinner and that Jesus came and took the punishment I deserve. He lived a perfect life, He died on the cross, and then rose to life 3 days later, all because of His vast love for me. I remember realizing that I needed my own faith and that I couldn’t get to heaven just because my daddy was a preacher. I was overwhelmed with the love of Christ as a 7 year old girl and, that night, I gave my heart and life to Jesus Christ. I was no longer held captive to sin and I became a willing servant of God. 

As the years went on, my faith became stronger, but it really started to grow once I hit middle school. All through my life I had seen God work in amazing ways. My dad had preached in many major arenas around the country, and we saw thousands come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. In fact, I had seen it so much that I was almost numb to it, until about my seventh grade year. I could see hundreds of people come to know Christ at one time and it wouldn’t even occur to me how astounding that was, because I saw it every night. However, while I was in middle school, God became so much more real to me. I was moved by His presence and I started to crave it more and more. 

Part of the reason I grew so much during my middle school years is because of a girl named Brittany. She worked for my family and would go with us when we traveled places. I can honestly say this girl is one of the most pivotal people in my walk with the Lord. She is quite a few years older than me and, at the time, I wanted to be just like her. I wanted to be like her in every way. So, when I saw her reading her Bible, it inspired me to read mine, as well. I started doing some of the same devotionals she did and they helped me as I launched deeper into God’s Word. I will never be able to thank God enough for putting Brittany in my life. Even now, I strive to be the “Brittany” in other people’s lives. I want to inspire others in their walk with Christ, the same way Brittany inspired me in mine. 

In my 8th and 9th grade years, I went through some hard times. From some difficult friendship troubles and significant life changes, it was a lot for me to handle during such a tough age. I made a lot of mistakes and I am so grateful that God’s grace knows no limits. Even in recent years, I have made mistakes and been through some very difficult times, watching people I care deeply about choose to make very harmful and hurtful decisions, but God has been with me through every one of them. I have learned to trust God on a whole new level, because of the trials I have been through. Because of all God showed me through these hard years, I wouldn’t trade any of them.  Through the hurt, the life transitions, and relationship changes, I have experienced immeasurable growth and I’ve come to know Christ in a more intimate way.

Today, I strive to grow more and more in Christ. I am continually amazed that God would love a wretch like me. When I look back on my life I can say, without hesitation, “Thus far the Lord has helped me” (1 Samuel 7:12). I can trust God with my future, because He has always been faithful in the past.

Well, that’s my story, the one He is writing through me. I am nothing without Christ. He is my Redeemer and I am dependent upon Him. I pray that, if you do not have a relationship with Jesus, you would cry out to Him and make Him the Lord of your life. He loves you so much that He sent His Son to give His life for you. No matter what you have done wrong in life, He knows and He still loves you. I pray that you would come to know Christ in a very real way. If you have any questions about anything I have said, feel free to email me at christy@tonynolan.org or leave a comment. Thank you for taking the time to read about God’s work in my life. I hope you will stay connected with my blog and read more of the story that He is still writing!

Welcome to the IllumiNATION.

       Hello, my name is Christy Nolan. I am an ordinary girl who serves an extraordinary God, and I would like to invite you to join me on a journey. Let me first tell you the direction in which we are going. I don’t think I have to convince you that the world we live in is a dark place; you already know that. As it seems to me, the world is only getting darker. Culture today is continually painting grey what God has already clearly painted black and white in His Word. You don’t have to go any farther than your own heart to know that sin is real. Divorce rates are higher than ever. Murders happen every single day. Rape, slavery, and other forms of abuse are happening all over the world.

Here’s where our journey comes in. I invite you to join me in striving to be the light that God calls us to be in Matthew 5:13-16. He says to us, “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.” I invite you to the IllumiNATION, where we are not satisfied with living in the dark, but where we let Christ shine through us. As I said before, this is a dark world getting darker, and now is not the time for us, Christians, to keep our light to ourselves. It’s time for us to illuminate this world with Christ’s love. We cannot conduct ourselves like darkness and expect to change the darkness around us. As one of my biggest heroes, Martin Luther King, once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.” 

So, the invitation stands. Will you join the IllumiNATION? I pray that you will. I hope that you would not be satisfied with settling into the darkness, but that you would be bold and be the light of the world, as Jesus called us. I pray that you would walk with me on this journey and that it would challenge and encourage you in your walk with Him.

So, I hand this blog over to the Lord. I pray that every single word I type will bring glory to His name. I hope that God will use my posts to inspire my readers to be illuminators in a dark world, that they would let Christ shine through them in everything they do. If you have a question, comment, or prayer request, please feel free to write it in the comments. Also, if you have a topic you would like me to write about, you can also tell me about it in the comments and I will try my best to give you a Biblical perspective on that topic. 

Thank you so much for reading and welcome to the IllumiNATION.