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!