Teens Draw Near to God
Teens Draw Near to God utilizes creative arts and life lessons to Deepen Your Relationship with God. Have you ever been inspired by a poem, a song, a painting that brought you to tears, your knees, or even back to the arms of God? Well, I have, and I love to use art as motivation to do good and to love God more If you long to deepen your relationship with others, yourself, and God, then listen to this podcast weekly to get a double dose of poetry inspiration plus the Word of God. Subscribe to this show to receive a new show every week. Visit http://www.shirahchante.com/podcast for more inspiration.
Teens Draw Near to God
God With Me 2: Dream With Me
Faith and Dreams: Drawing Near to God
In this episode of Teens Draw Near to God, host Shirah Chanté shares an original poem from her book 'Jaundiced View,' available on Amazon and Audible. The episode emphasizes the importance of drawing near to God and overcoming fears. Shirah Chanté recounts her personal journey of leaving a lucrative job opportunity to attend divinity school by faith, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The episode explores themes of faith, dreams, and perseverance using biblical references, particularly focusing on the poem 'God with Me.' Listeners are encouraged to follow their God-given dreams despite challenges and to rely on faith and support along the way.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:40 About the Book: Jaundiced View
02:23 Audience and Today's Topic
03:24 Personal Faith Journey
06:52 Reading the Poem: God with Me
08:28 Discussion: Dreams and Faith
14:45 Support and Overcoming Challenges
18:47 Conclusion and Prayer
Follow Shirah Chante
Buy Jaundiced View: Desire Love Hate Religion book of poetry.
Draw near to God. Don't fear. Draw near to God. Don't fear. Draw near to God. Don't fear.
Hello and welcome to Teens Draw Near to God. I am your host, Shirah Chanté, Relationship Artist. Blessing God's people. Welcome to Teens Draw Near to God. Poetry podcast, where I share an original poem I wrote from my book, Jaundiced View, go to Amazon and buy this book. You can read it as an ebook, or you can get the print copy, or there's even an audible book of Jaundiced View.
I sat down one day and I recorded it myself. It's my voice. I remember when my daughter was, Oh, some months old, maybe four months old, maybe six months. I, took her to my mom's house and I sat down and recorded every poem in this book. So go to Audible and listen to it. It will bless you. It's very fresh and it's poignant poems that will help you in life.
And cause you to have emotions and feelings and thoughts that maybe have been dormant. Maybe you've been in a daze. Maybe you've been messed up in some way, you know, like I was messed up as a teenager. So, there are some things that poetry can help exude out of your soul. If you will just, give it a chance.
I've been reading poetry since I've been a little girl and I loved it. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is my favorite poem. Or The Road Less Traveled, The Road Not Taken. Yeah, it's, Jaundiced View. Go buy it. Desire, Love, Hate, Religion is the subtitle and just be blessed. Be blessed.
Welcome teenagers, parents of teenagers, youth coaches, anyone, youth mentors, anyone who works with teenagers who want to see them reach their God given destiny. Welcome to this. So, and I am talking about my poem today, God with me. We started God with me last week. So this is part two of the poem, God with me.
And today the name of the show is called dream with me. And you will see that I took that right out of the. One of the verses in the poem, so I'm going to read the entire poem, then we're going to go back line by line to talk about the words in the poem to see how these poems can help us draw near to God.
So we are getting close to God, we are growing close to God, we are getting to know God. That was what I wanted when I went to divinity school many years ago when I was 24 years old and I, I had it, I had a decision to make. I had an important decision to make and there's going to be times in your life, teenagers, parents of teens, you are going to have to make a decision and it's going to affect the course of your life.
And I was at that time, I was living at that time with my mom in Houston, Texas, with my family in Houston. And I had the opportunity to get a job in a medical center, which Houston has. At that time, I don't know if it still does, but it had the biggest medical center. In the world, and so a very lucrative job, and they were going to decide on me and another person.
And I knew in my heart that they were going to pick me and so, but I also heard the call of the Lord and. And, one day I was standing on the side of my house, in Texas. And it was stormy, the clouds were thundering. It was a scary moment. It was like, I felt the Lord was talking to me in the clouds, in the thunder.
And he was saying, you need to go, you need to leave. This is not where I want you, this is not where you need to be. And I knew at that moment that I had to leave Texas. I had to leave. And that was by faith. I left Texas. I left the job that I, that could have been very lucrative for me, that, that could have, you know, you know, put a lot of money on the table.
And instead I decided I want to know God. And so I decided to go to divinity school. And divinity school is basically where you go and you study the Bible. And I found a divinity school in Rochester, New York called, Colgate, Rochester, Crozer divinity school. And honestly, the reason I chose that divinity school out of all of the divinity schools in the United States of America was because of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I did some research and I said, what, what theological seminary did Dr. Martin Luther King go to? And it was a seminary called Crozer Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, but Crozer had since closed down and they had joined with Colgate Rochester in Rochester, New York. So that's why it's called Colgate Rochester Crozer.
And so. I said, well, I want to go there, you know, because it was associated with Martin Luther King jr. And so that's where I went. I packed my bags. I packed my dog all in my Jeep and me and my dog went across country. I drove from Texas to New York and I got to know God So there that's what we're gonna talk about today. That was faith By faith, I did that.
I didn't know, you know, I didn't have any money. I didn't have anything. I just was like, I just want to know God. And so dream with me. We're talking about faith today. Let's read the poem. I'm going to read the poem to you, God with me. And then we're going to go back and discuss this God with me. I asked God for a particular being.
This being was beautiful to me. Magnify my magnificence with thee. This being came to me in a dream. An elevated experience proves existence. Actuality is more than enough for well being. Thank you, Lord, for answering my plea, for I am most happy and pleased to see Thee with me. Everything can be as I dream.
If so, then there will be no dream with me. I could not perceive reality, only if it was desolate to me. So I see Thee as need. Want is entirely different indeed, have as much as you heed, and love in thee spiritually. God gave thee to me, but I did not grasp thee indeed. Please do forgive me for seeking pleasure without thee.
Cell endings and white lies proves only God knows my cries, and that is the poem, God with me. So let's talk about this. Everything can't be as I dream. If so, there would be no dream with me. It sounds like it's a little bit of a paradox right there, right? Like what? Everything can't be as I dream. If so, there would be no dream with me.
What I'm saying is if my dreams were reality, there wouldn't be dreams. A dream is not reality until you make it reality. It has to manifest. You have to manifest the dream. So Martin Luther King had a dream. I have a dream, but the dream, just because he had the dream. Didn't make the dream a reality. He had to work at the dream.
And like I said, last show, he had to do the dream. He had to get a following to help him accomplish the dream. There are so many things that had to go in place to work that dream out. But by faith, and that's what I'm talking about, by faith, he went forward with what he dreamed. He went forward. He knew that this dream was from God, that this is, this is how the world should be.
And this is, I'm going to help change the world so that the world can have more love for one another, for humanity, that humanity can love each other despite the color of their skin. My God, what a feat. What an accomplishment.
It reminds me of Joseph and the Bible who had a dream. He had two dreams. He had a dream that he was going to be this big person that the sun and moon were going to bow to him, that his family, his family members were going to bow down to him. So he's saying that he's going to be some kind of ruler, some kind of leader.
And his life didn't go so well. He got into a lot of. Issues and struggle because of the very people in his life who should have loved him, who should have supported him, his brothers, instead of joining with him, instead of following him, like the followers of Martin Luther King did, joining him with his vision and dream, they shunned him, and they hated him, and they were jealous of him, and sometimes when you have a dream and you're dreaming big, There are going to be people who shun you and who hate you and who are jealous of you.
It just comes with the territory of dreaming, of having faith to pursue your dream. So you're going to have to get used to it. You're going to have to learn how to handle it and you're going to have to continue and keep on and not allow the shunning, the hate, and the jealousy to stop you. Because nothing should stop you from accomplishing the dream that you have been given, that God has given you.
There's a scripture in the Bible, in the book of James, that talks about dreams. Everything can't be as I dream. If so, then there would be no dream with me. I could not perceive reality unless it was desolate to me. So it's, it's not here. It's desolate. There's nothing in my life that's showing forth that this is going to happen.
However, my faith in the dream brings forth this reality. No, I'm going to make this a reality. You're going to make this a reality. So in a book of James chapter two, verse 17, it says, thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead. So you have the dream and by faith, you have to fulfill it.
Faith is believing in your dream and doing the things that need to be done to accomplish it. It's the works. Yep. I said it, Shirah Shante said it, works. You're going to have to work. Yep. Cause when you hear dream, it's like, oh, a dream, a dream, you know, it doesn't seem like it should involve work because it's a dream.
A dream is fun. A dream is beautiful. I have a dream and it is, it is fun. It is beautiful. And like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stream, it changed the world, but it involves work. Yeah. We're going to have to work. You're going to have to work. I'm going to have to work. We just have to put our hands to the plow.
We're going to have to work it out. Are you with me?
Say yes. I'm Shante. So I see thee as need. Want is entirely different indeed. Have as much as you heed and love in the spiritually. So I see the, as need, what does that mean? That just means along the way and fulfilling your dream. You're going to need some help. You're going to need some support. You're going to need some emotional uplift because it's going to get hard.
There's going to be struggles. There's going to be fights, there's, there's going to be stuff, you know, there, in, in the civil rights movement, there was, all kinds of, protesting, there was nonviolent movements, that, Dr. Martin Luther King adopted from, from Gandhi, who, who, who fought with nonviolence to free India from the English rule, and so there's going to be different, things that happen that you're going to need help with, that you're going to need God with.
So God is with us. Emmanuel, God with me. Dream with me, knowing that God is with you, you can dream, you can continue your dream, you can get solace, you can get help, God will give you friends, he will give you people, he will give you loved ones, who will actually love you and help you, and not hate you. You know, everyone didn't hate Joseph, his father didn't. His father says his father kept the dream close to him. He, he pondered it. He was like, Hmm, maybe, you know, my, my son is special. He loved Joseph. Joseph was his favorite son, which was why the brothers, part of the reason the brothers were jealous of him. And so he thought, well, maybe this dream could come true.
So there will be some people who support you. And that's all you need. You don't need everybody, just the ones that are there. They're sent there to help you and who support and love you. Take that love and run with it. And just forget about what the naysayers say, what the people who don't dream say, the people who aren't going anywhere say, just go where you're going.
Go. You know, I had to leave the side of my house. I had to, when I heard those clouds and I heard the voice of the Lord in those clouds. I mean, there are some, there are some times when the voice or, or the God's voice is very silent and very soft, like in a book, when he was talking to Elijah, Elijah, the prophet, he didn't come in the, in the thunder, but at this time he did.
There are going to be, sometimes he does come in the thunder and it's, yeah. And you know, he probably came in a thunder because I wasn't, Listening, because I was close to making a decision that would alter my destiny. Ooh, alter my destiny. That doesn't sound good. I want the destiny God gave me, not a destiny that I created on my own.
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. How many people are living a destiny that they created, but not God? Are you living the life God gave you that God wants you to live? Or are you just living your life? That way you want it to, so I decided I want God's life. I want the life God gave me. So I called that job up and I said, look, before you make the decision, I'm going to make it easier for you.
I'm not going to take the job. I'm going to go back to school. And they were like, okay, thank you for letting us know. And, I packed up and I left, drove through Mississippi, drove up through. What is that? Ohio, New York, and I was there in divinity school learning about God and it was beautiful. So father God, in the name of your son, Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah, I pray for the teenagers for the parents of teens, everyone listening today that their dream would come forth, would manifest, that they would follow the dream you have given them and not their own. Amen. Well, that was God With Me part two and I will see you next time. Remember, Jaundiced View. Go buy it. Desire, love, hate, religion, and remember to love God, love you, and love people.