Friday Favorites

This is going to be about one of my favorite Bible verses and a personal testimony. When I was 15 years old, this verse helped to turn my life around. As a teenager, I was doing some things I knew a Christian person should not be doing. I won't go into detail about the things I was doing, but I always had this little nagging voice in my mind telling me that what I was doing was wrong. However, I wanted to do these things so I would try to find ways to justify doing it. I would tell myself that the Bible didn't specifically say not to do this particular thing. But then one summer I was at church youth camp and my pastor was speaking to us. He asked us if we knew a reason why we shouldn't do these kinds of things. And then he told us the reason why and he used this Bible verse to explain it. The verse was Colossians 3:17 -- And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by him. As soon as he read that verse, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and showed me that I could not do the things I was doing in the name of the Lord. At that moment I changed and I had a desire to stop sinning and to let Jesus be the Lord of my life. The Bible is powerful and can speak God's word to us when nothing else can.