Testimony Tuesday - Anthony Young

Who Am I?

Anthony Young

To begin, my name is Anthony Young, a 20 year old college student who lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. I have a job at a major electronics store, and I also volunteer at my local church as a youth leader. At one point in time I was a Spiritual Coach for Groundwire.net but found doing all of what I was doing was too demanding and taxing on me, so I have been on break from that.
I love people, and believe that there is good in every single person, no matter how evil their actions may be in this world; and have been spending the past few years of my life helping those less fortunate, or being there for those who feel like they have no one to go to -- and I have been doing this all through The Reading Group.

But I wasn't always so eager to help others; I wasn't always so willing to be selfless and help others, even if they didn't want my help. There was once a time to where the only thing I was worried about was myself and my own gain. There was a time in my life where I didn't claim Jesus as my Lord & Savior.
I don't have a story that begins with "I was raised in the church" or "everything was handed to me". No; my story starts on a much different path.
I come from a single parent home, growing up with just my mother doing her best to support me and my now 2 brothers and 2 sisters. My father was kicked out while I was young, and since then my mom hasn't been able to find the one who one would consider would be "chosen by God" for her. So that has always been a struggle for her, and for myself to watch as I grew older and saw a lot of my friends with happily married parents. I hated my dad for a very long time for not being there for my mother, for not being there for me.
While growing up through school, I never really thought that I would truly use school to get anywhere in life. If my dad has left and is not making much of his life as far as what I knew, how would I possibly do any better? So I did not care about school or succeeding with anything in life. And that was just the beginning of the lies that the devil had filled my mind and my hear with; but at the time I didn't truly know better, even though I knew the 'basics' of right and wrong. So because I didn't care about school, or life for that matter, I didn't try. Once I got in highschool, I never tried - never did my homework or truly applied myself in the classroom. For I was too worried about my friends and being the 'class clown' you can say. I wasn't dumb, for I always did decent or well on my test, but not doing my homework led to bad grades. I also ended up getting into a relationship with a girl who I had a few classes with, so she was the only thing on my mind while in any of my classes. And with all of that adding up, it ended with me failing the 9th Grade (Freshman Year of Highschool)

You can say major reality check. The conversation with my mother once she found out I have failed the 9th grade did not go the way you normally thought it would go. I was expecting a lot of rage, and maybe to get beat. But she barely yelled at me - which let me know even more how disappointed she was with me; and that hurt me more than any beating ever could. I also received a phone call from my father who also told me how disappointed he was with me for following in his footsteps - for he failed the 10th grade when he was in school. And that made me hate him even more, for that was the only reason why he had called.

I was put on punishment for an entire year. For a 15 year old kid, that is the end of the world. No internet, no phone, no friends over. The only things I was allowed to do was go to school, then come home and go to my room. But I rebelled against my mother, and found ways to sneak out of the house to see the now new girlfriend who I had. But I wasn't a completely bad child. For after experiencing letting both of my parents down, I took it upon myself to make it up to them and I applied myself to school, getting straight A's

(High Marks) in all of my classes. Luckily, God saw my hard work, and I was presented with an opportunity to get back into my correct grade. I took it and began to get back on the right path. But that wouldn't last very long. For after that I would find myself heading right back on the road to destruction that I was on before.

 

THIS IS THE DEATH OF ME.

[This section contains content some may not find suitable for younger people. Just a warning. Don't worry, there's no cursing]

The following year, I began talking to yet another girl, who I eventually started dating. My life was 'back together' - from my own perspective - for I was no longer on punishment, and I could actually 'have a life". But the relationship would be the most toxic one I've ever had. I've became sexually active at this time, and the relationship became so unhealthy that the only reason why we were together was because of our addiction to lust. We've cheated on each other, because our 'love' was based on a lie. I found myself addicted to pornography. As my relationship started to drag on with this girl, I noticed myself becoming less and less happy with my life. I began to hate everything about myself because I wasn't satisfied with her or myself. Yet I could never bring myself to leave the relationship. We argued and fought, and I began to drink alcohol. My grades in school began to fall once again, and I started to not be very social with my friends.
I became so depressed with my life that I began to take pills in an attempt to numb my emotional pain and fill what was missing in my life.

And when that did not work for me, suicidal thoughts began to pour into my head. I started thinking things like "why am I even here" and "no one would care if I just ran away and died". And I began to honestly believe that to be truthful. So one day, I finally decided I would give up on life. I went to a local bridge in my town, prepared to jump off into the river and forever disappear.
I ended up telling a friend my intentions, and she pleaded for me to not go through with it. But I decided otherwise. But as I sat on the bridge, I couldn't bring myself to jump. For something just would not allow me to do so. So that attempt turned out to not happen. So I ended up going back to pills, trying to purposely over dose and not tell anyone until it was too late. But I could never successfully do that either.

The Genesis | A New Beginning 

I now see why I was always unsuccessful with taking my own life. It is because God had a bigger plan for my life than I had for myself. I didn't notice it at first, but He had placed someone in my life at a very young age who He would utilize to bring me towards Himself. A friend of mine, my very best friend since the 3rd grade, was one of the few people who I would go to with my issues. I knew his parents went to church often, and one day it was just on my heart to ask him to take me to church with him since my family didn't go. He agreed to take me with his family to church every week. It was after then that I found happiness and peace coming slowly back into my life. But still yet I was battling depression and suicidal thoughts. But another friend of mine who also happened to be a Christian invited me and my best friend to his church for a youth outreach event that they were having. And from that very day, I knew I was home.  I began going to that youth ministry on a weekly bases, and I became as involved as much as I possibly could as the Lord began to fill me with peace and the comfort of knowing the Holy Spirit. And I soon gave my life to Christ.

I have always had compassion for others, and I always went out of my way for my friends, always being that person who they could go to just to have someone who would listen to them and allow them to vent, but I was never a person who would tell people about Christ, for at that time I was not an all out Christian.

But that would all play into my role here at The Reading Group.

A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS WITH ONE STEP.

The Reading Group started off rather coincidentally. It began with me and a Christian friend of mine, Emma, keeping each other accountable for reading our bibles. I was struggling with doing it on a daily basis, but I knew I really wanted to grow more in God. We began by both doing a reading plan together and checking on eachother on a daily basis to be sure we've read out bibles. We've like that idea so much that we brought some more friends on board to join us. We made a Facebook Group with our friends to try and get more people reading their bibles consistently. As we began to make more people join the group, we've noticed that we had reached around 100 group members. That was when I felt God calling me to make it more than just friends and classmates, but to spread this idea to as many people as I possibly could. And thus The Reading Group was born. Over the course of little under a year, our Facebook page had grown to about 1000 followers, and then Twitter had around 500. Since I was in college I knew I couldn't always be able to be online to post, so I started looking for more people to join, and that's when I started meeting some of our amazing Leaders online via Twitter and Facebook.

Now, 2 years later, The Reading Group is on almost every major social network, from Facebook, to Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and an inactive Pintrest account :P

With over 2000 followers on Facebook and Instagram, and a team of over 20 leaders from all over the world. I would have never thought that God would have brought me this far, and the journey is only just beginning for this ministry. Our leaders are so amazing, for everything that they do is volunteer, out of the goodness of their hearts, willing to do whatever it takes to change the world. Because that's what this earth needs - World Changers. I would not be able to do any of this without them. [For a list of our leaders, please visit www.myreadinggroup.com/aboutus]

Too often, people live a life similar to what I have lived, living in sin, but they aren't as lucky as I am to have friends or people who they are able to go to church with, or they don't have a Godly individual to guide them to the right path. Too often, Christians just watch these people waste their lives away and say "what a shame" instead of getting up and reaching out to those people like Christ reached out for many of us who didn't just grow up in the church. That is why we are here. To do what many refuse to do and be that friend who tells people "I know someone who loves you so much that they gave their life for you.. would you like to know more about them?", or to bluntly say "the way you are living is going to land you in a pit of fire for you being stupid and wasting your life, you need to change it now." That, and so much more is The Reading Group itself. For we all love people so much that we cannot afford to see those around us perish and go to hell when we can do something about it.

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

I have not only been blessed with an amazing and wonderful team, God has been positioning this ministry to be able to work together with other ministries and organizations to help further spread the Word of God and His unfailing love.

______________________________
Anthony Young
Founder | The Reading Group
anthony@myreadinggroup.com

The Reading Group - To bring together the body of Christ in fellowship through the Word of God.
www.myreadinggroup.com
www.facebook.com/dailybiblereadings
www.twitter.com/reading_group

Member of The NEGU Family Network.
www.NEGU.org

The Warfare of Words

 The Warfare of Words

By: Elaina Grace Morgan

He sent down His Son.
Choose the blood.
Receive His love
And put down your selfish ambitions,
Ugly traditions.

And pick up your cross
So you can lead the lost
And not lead them astray
For your own display of blame.
Choose real change.
Repent from the lies that lead them to shame,

That cause them to lose everything.

And even if you succeed
When they fall to their knees
The trees will hold them up
Because it's in God that they trust,

Not lust.
Not money.
Not words that drip like honey

Which actually sting like a scorpion...
Factually, their words become like a ROAR of a lion.

Their prayers..are now burning with fire.
Their shields protect them from evil desires.
And as the end keeps drawing near
They fight with faith instead of fear.

(Follow me on Twitter and on Instagram @1C3N4Given)

Tap To Retry

                          

    Some of ya'll be like I'm not pretty enough, handsome enough, skinny enough, muscular enough, good enough, cool enough, creative enough, chill enough...the list goes on.  Genesis 1:27 - "So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them." Some of ya'll need to tap to retry until you load not your image, not the world's image, not your friends' image, not your enemies' image BUT GOD'S image. YOU are FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made! Now let's be even more real here. Everybody on this earth has struggled with self-image at least once. You are not immune. Your self-image is something that can make you or break you. If you never believe in yourself then you're never going to DO, whatever that may be.

    We know from John 10:10 that the enemy has come to steal, kill, and destroy. You better believe he's going to target your self-esteem! If he can cause your confidence to cave then he can get you to fall into the traps of comparison, condemnation, and competition which are not of God. Whoa. Now don't get discouraged just yet. First we need to realize just how amazing we really are. Let's take it back to the last paragraph: "YOU are FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made." 

    We're fearfully made? Well we are also told to fear God, right? (Luke 1:50, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Psalm 33:8, Proverbs 1:7 etc.) Most of us know this kind of fear means being in awe of God by respecting and loving Him. So we can make the connection that us being fearfully made doesn't mean God's afraid of us, but that wow! We are the most beautiful creatures to Him (or handsome for you strapping men of God) and He loves us! I know you guys aren't stupid and can figure out what wonderfully means, but just take a second to soak that all in. Crazy, right? God is in awe of US! 

    It reminds me of my reaction to the leaves changing colors this time of year. The once green leaves are now dipped in gold, covered in a blanket of scarlet, and burning with bright orange fire all because the season has changed. I take thousands of pictures of the trees this time of year and I'm not joking! I absolutely can't get enough pictures even if many of those look the same. It's breathtaking. As humans we're constantly changing as well, and hopefully for those of us who are Christians we're changing to look more and more like Jesus. But when we go through an easy breezy season we forget how to fight and then hard times creep up on us. We forget to make war in the spiritual realm. If you recognize that you're a child of the Most High and you know that in the end He wins then why not fight?

    The cool thing about trees is that the brightness of their leaves' colors are based on the temperature and the delay of the leaves changing color is based upon the amount of rain we get that year. The rain that year might be uncomfortable and the leaves may shrivel up on the tree's branches, but the beauty of change ends up coming sooner.. The warmer temperature might be uncomfortable, but the brighter the leaves end up being because of it! So hang on to that tree, lovely ones. We may be going through a rough time of insecurity in ourselves, in what God is calling us to do or if He even has something for us, and we may be going through many other different types of challenges that just seem so hopeless to us but look how much more beautiful we will be because of it if we can only hang on to that tree.

"Staying the same produces pain and negative consequences while change may produce pain, but the results are good!" - Elaina Grace Morgan

   

    However, it doesn't stop there! WHATEVER challenges you've faced, WHATEVER challenges you are facing know that you can use that experience to help someone who is going through the same thing. The challenges you're facing are not only for you to be more beautiful and able to help others; they're also to make you look more like Jesus! They're to make you STRONGER. So next time a thought comes into your head, next time a person discourages you, next time Satan screams in your ear whether it's about who God made you to be or where God wants to take you start declaring your confidence. Count it ALL joy! If you believe in yourself and above all, believe in God to do the things He wants to do in you and through you then you will see it happen. Remember, knowing your worth isn't thinking that you're more worthy than anybody else and it isn't thinking you're less worthy than anybody else. God made YOU unique. There's NOBODY else like you!

James 1:2-8 - "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do."

*Challenge yourself - Spend time with your Lord in worship. Listen to Oceans by Hillsong United, Hold Us Together by Matt Maher, Who I Am by Casting Crowns and Redeemer by Nicole C. Mullen. Don't just sing the words, sing them from your heart and believe them.

Help The Harvest

    When a plant sits in the sun a long time and isn't being watered enough it dies. I remember back in elementary school when I chose to do an experiment involving plants for my science project. I had to switch to doing something else because my plant still hadn't grown when it was less than a week before the project was due. I knew I had to expose it to sun and provide it with water but I just kind of, sort of forgot. How many of you just kind of, sort of forget to encourage your friends, children, employees, and maybe even your spouses?

    Well if you can't encourage someone when they do right then who says you have the right to discourage someone when they make a mistake? When we're always telling people what to do it comes off 100% of the time as nagging. Let's be real for a second. The majority of the time many people mistake telling the truth as being bold when in all actuality it's not going to do a thing (See "Judge and Judge Not" for more). Yes, we should tell others the truth and let God talk to the person if it offends them, but think about yourself for a moment.

    Who's really telling the truth in love? Who's really helping the person by telling them what to do without telling them how? It is by the GRACE of God that we have been saved (Ephesians 2:8) and it is by the Holy Spirit doing His work in us (1 Peter 1:2) that we may be obedient. So telling someone to do this and that is ineffective without a humble, gentle, loving explanation of this.

    Without the focus being on God's grace we're focusing on OUR work and when we focus on our work we're the ones who get the glory when we do "good" or when we "fulfill our call". We know that NO ONE should get the glory except Jesus Christ. Without Him we could try our hardest to do what is right but we would still be bound by the law. So build each other UP in your faith. Encourage others in doing what is lovely and pleasing in the sight of the LORD. Love on them! Most importantly encourage yourself to do the same in doing what's right by being the example, love yourself so that you may show others how.

*Challenge yourself* - Go out of your way to build someone up who looks downcast whether you know them or not whether it's buying them coffee or giving them a compliment that shows the love of Christ. #LoveLikeChrist

Hebrews 3:13 - "But exhort one another every day, as long as you call it today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."

Ephesians 2:8 - "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

1 Peter 1:2 - "...who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance."

A Reason for Every Season

    When a baby wants his mother's milk he cries and cries until he gets it. Humankind is impatient. We were all born into a sinful world so until someone taught us the art of being patient or until we ended up learning for ourselves down the road it was our nature. I assume that you're all Christians, but if you're not don't stop reading - this could apply to you too!

    If you are a Christian you were made BRAND NEW. You have made a commitment to die to your flesh daily and let the Holy Spirit take control of your thoughts, desires, words, and actions. You then are choosing to live in GOD' S will for your life. Then comes the question that we're all impatient in waiting for the answer: what is my purpose? Maybe for you that question looks like: what should I go to school for, who should I marry, what job should I take, OR maybe God's revealed something to you and you're trying to make it happen in your own timing. Let me tell you that it won't work.

(Left to right: Erika, dad, Evan, mom, Elyse, and me (Elaina lol))

    I think I was four or five the one Christmas where my mum told me I got less presents than all my other siblings. My lower lip started quivering and I ended up crying these big "crocodile tears". I didn't wait for her to tell me that it was because one of my presents was more expensive than any one of my other siblings' and that's why I had fewer presents than them. So as the other kids opened up the rest of their presents I waited for my last one while I sat on my daddy's lap crying. Then it came the time when I got to open up my last one. I waited in sour anticipation as they were bringing it up from the basement because I was hurt my mum told me earlier that I had to wait. My dad brought it into the eighties decor family room. It was a big present! I opened it with excitement and it ended up being the dollhouse I REALLY wanted. 

    The point of that story was that we already know that God has a great and fulfilling purpose in store for us. There are times where sometimes we have to step out in faith but when we are waiting for His answer we're often not patient (that includes having a good attitude) and then when we do have the answer we try to make it happen instead of learning the lesson He meant for us to learn on this journey: to trust in HIM and HIS timing and HIS way of doing things. We need to realize that some seasons are for planting, some are for growing, and some are for reaping the harvest. Don't try to rush to the season you want; you might miss a very important step.

    So when it seems like all of your friends, family, or even your enemies are ahead of you in life remember trust in God. (Read Ecclesiastes 3)
that we're not in competition with them. We are to walk where God wants us to walk in anticipation of good things, wait patiently where God wants us to wait, and praise Him joyfully no matter where we are. You never know where He's going to take you or what He's doing in you. So your task is easy: sit back, relax, and

Ecclesiastes 3:1 - "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest...."

Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in ALL you do, and He will show you which path to take."

Ecclesiastes 7:8 - "Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride."

Romans 15:5 - "May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus."