Tuesday 29 April 2008

Younguns!

'Ight!

Currently I am sitting in the library with the burden of a 10,000 word dissertation about mass popular religion in the Middle Ages...so what to I do I write a blog. It is clearly my LAST distraction. I have been at this computer since 10am and its now 1.11pm...I have achieved nothing. Meh!? I'll get it done.

I was watching a Soul Survivor behind the scenes video on their website and it had clips from their summer festivals. Was interesting to watch what goes on behind the scenes to be honest but the bit that really got me *not lying* near tears was this clip, where the camera did a sweep of the front row. The kids in it must of been about 13-15 years old and it got to the chorus of love came down and this one boy just threw both hands in the air as a praise, thanksgiving to his saviour. It was just so beautiful.

I have seen so many more youth get passionate that I have adults. I think personally in one sense that is amazing but in another it is sad. It maybe because of the current society we live in that its it "cool" or "common" to be passionate and events like SS encouraging it, to many of our young people it is encouraged to raise our hands and go mental! Is this a bad thing? It certain situations no! Not at all...I think SS have a good balance of both loud going mental to beign quiet and reflective.
1 John 2:28 "[ Children of God ] And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming"

Here it is clear that it is saying that when Jesus returns we will be unshamed and confident in him. There is nothing wrong with starting that in our daily lives and this includes in our worship.

I think christians struggle with the constant change in trying to keep church contemporary and dare I say it fasionable! Especially concerning youth, in all honesty there are so many "fun" things for teenagers to consume themselves with that the church needs to look as "fun" in order God to save them. I think this is a huge burden upon the modern church of today the need to constantly change in order to accomodate the everchanging society. The most amazing thing about this though is that although society changes God never does.
In Isaiah 40:28 it says this.
""Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom."

This amazing. So no matter how much we change and how much society change God never does. This is inspiring. So we need to keep changing in order to keep up with the current society but our God will always be the same and our God will always save.

What does this mean to our young people? I think sometimes the older people in the body of Christ look down upon on the youth and maybe think they are slightly incapable?! Obviously, I am slightly bias as a youth leader and kinda pretty young myself, however(!) there are churches were the youth are a separate organisation and may not be consider to be part of the church. I think it is really sad because firstly, its not good relationships for the people themselves and secondly, its not biblical at all. There is no where in the bible that it states to keep the young and old separate (if I am wrong please prove to me).

Paul writes Timothy 4:11-13
"11Command and teach these things. 12Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching."

The key part I take from this is but set an example. It says don't let people look down on you but doesn't say get in a mood or dislike them for it but it says set an example. We can do this by devoting ourselves and showing this example in our speech, life, love, faith and purity. Showing this in all aspects of our lives. Just because we are young does not mean we are incapable of being a person going for God. Paul understand this and God knows this otherwise we wouldn't be blessed with opportunities to use our god-given gifts.

Thats all because its lunch time!!! woop!!

Til next time!


xx

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Oit You! Believe in Jesus or Else?!

Heyhey!

I thought the title itself might cause a bit controversy but is the wrong way to evangelise?

Sooo I am on the topic of evangelism. A word which scares some and excites others. Is there a correct way to evangelise?

I have friends who would only ever mention they go to church if asked and some who try to inject Jesus into pretty much every sentence. Which one is advancing the kingdom? Are they both or are they both pushing people further and further away?

Questions, Questions, Questions...Answers, Answers, Answers.

In Matthew 28 it is titled as the Great Commission. The words commission can also mean assignment. Its like Jesus is our MI5 boss giving us a mission, if we chose to accept. He says in Matt28
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations"

Firstly, 'therefore go' is like an immediate start. It doesn't say ok wait and if you fancy it. Its a command. The therefore is after Jesus tells his disciples that he has the authority and power of Heaven and Earth so therefore go. If Jesus was our MI5 its like them saying I have the authority of Gordon Brown and the whole of the house of commons. The authority of heaven and earth so because he has that authority he has the right to tell us what to do now. Now that his physical presence is no longer there what do we do while we wait for him to return.

The next think Jesus wants his disciples to do is to baptise them. This is to make sure people show a public declaration of their faith, a genuine faith.

Finally he tells them to teach them. Often we too often think that as long as they say that little prayer our job is done! Woohoo! Thats 6 converts this week! Beat that J John! Jesus says that we need to make sure that the people we are evangelise to we are teaching them as well not just saying that prayer. If it means become their discipler or making sure they know what they are confirming to.


I am currently reading Acts because I have never fully read it and I am interested in the early church. I think the people who started the early church were the ultimate post-Jesus evangelist. I think the key thing they achieved when Evangelising was adapting to their surroundings. They used the circumstances, they seized their opportunities. When Peter heals a beggar in the early part of the book he uses that to glorify god and to make known why they are doing what they are doing in a apt way. when offered money they refuse as they are doing it for God not for money. (Acts 3). Straight after he gives the J John evangelistic preach the crowd. Even in the face of persecution they are proclaiming Jesus' name.
To make sure we are ensuring that we are good evangelists we need to ensure we are seizing opportunities and adapting to our surroundings.

Do we ignore or not notice opportunities?

There are so many times that I could have explored the gospel with someone but not because I didn't notice or I simply couldn't be bothered. It is shameful to think that I could have helped the conversion of someone but didn't because I was worried what they would think or because I wasn't in the mood to express the work of Christ.
Jesus says in Luke 9:26 says that 'if anyone is ashamed of me and my words the son of man will be ashamed of them'
Even as we get older we can be ashamed of what we believe in, maybe due to the fear of not being accepted or simply because people might laugh at you. I honestly believe them people that we fear are those that need to be evangelised to the most.

I think that sometimes we ignore and are ignorant to opportunities but I challenge you to be more aware of these situations and opportunities because you maybe the only Jesus they will ever see.

What makes a good evangelism?

Is the day of the street preacher over? What about door knocking?
I personally think street preachers are not very successful. However, I may be wrong! Please prove to me that I am. Sometimes Christian get a bad rep from street preachers. Especially the guys that stand in London, I once got told that I was going to hell because I had ignored him. Then another time when I replied preaching to the converted I got a massive hallelujah screamed at me, so I have learnt a friendly nod is all that is needed. There are some street preachers who work very hard and seem to get a very keen audience and Jesus often spoke to big groups about his work as did the apostles in Acts.
However, Jesus often just hung out with people. Just loving them and I personally believe this is the best form of evangelism. Just to love. The gospel and the act of salvation is love and the reason Jesus died was to satisfy God's wrath, he was annoyed because he loves us so much, so why not just show that. If we show love it leads to questions. If we just share at the beginning of friendships that we are Christian people will be respectful and we can just love them hoping God will one day lead to an opportunity.

Ephesians 5:1
'1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us'

This is a long blog so I am going to go but I don't think I am finished on Evangelism..
I think I just need to be more aware of the opportunities and not be afraid to evangelise.

Till next time! xxx

p.s. I haven't proof read because its 2am so apologises for any grammar mistake!

Thursday 3 April 2008

Love Blove Dove McNuv

Hey hey hey!





Its been a while but I honestly haven't had the time to write these bad boys but I have a spare bit of time before I crack on with my essay!





Since my last blog I have bought a rabbit called Hiliary and she is the little light of my life. haha! I will post a picture and maybe you'll understand why. I am going to become one of the crazy people who love their pets too much but hey! All she does is eat and run around not very exciting, except the other day I thought I could trust her in the room on her own whilst I slept but nope she ran into my face just before I feel asleep sooo that isn't happen again. As I write she is smelling everything. As these blogs progress in years to come I might one day end up writing about a baby and hopefully the baby is a little more exciting that a rabbit. Who knows?!





Anyways, lets get on because I have given myself til half past to write this and its now 13:16 sooo lets go.

To be honest I wasn't going to write one today I was going to wait to the weekend but I was on Facebook (what else would I have been doing?!) and wishing someone a happy birthday. On this person page was the daily bible verse application. I have it too but mine never changes so I might change mine to the same as this persons. Anyway! This person has so much "rubbish" on their page so it takes four days to scroll to the bottom to find their wall, but I did come across this bible verse.

..:::.. Proverbs 19:22 ..:::..
What a man desires is an unfailing love

Last night at our youth group we were talking about Love and what it means. In the society we live in today the word is used so easily, and sadly so is the word hate. We say we love our families but we also we love that song. We say we love our boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband but we also so we love this tv show. We say we love our God but we also say we love chocolate. When we say love what do we mean? It is obvious when we say we love chocolate we don't mean we would die for a piece of chocolate or we would go to the ends of the earth for the last rolo, of course not! We merely mean that we do enjoy a good bit of cadburys dairy milk!

I think what proverbs is saying is true for everyone! Secular songs today are all about love, I mean all you need to do is listening to the first 3 songs of James Blunt's album! (To be honest I don't like James Blunt and don't have his album but I am going by what he has released). As a human race we are made to be loved, we are made to love others and we are made to love our God. The word that strikes me there is the word unfailing.

1 Corinthians 13: 8
Love never fails.

So no matter what happens true love never fails. I think it is hard to understand that if we think about everything!!! It NEVER EVER EVER NEVER EVER fails. Then question begs are we as human capable of true love? The act of salvation is unfailing love. If we understand the salvation then I think we have the capability to understand love. I am not saying that those who aren't christians don't understand love and can't experience love. I think as a Christian that you have a better understanding on love.

Love never fails means that nothing can stop it. God's love for us means that nothing can stop it. Nothing! Not one single act! Not a collection of acts! I don't know but that just amazes me!
As christians we are bombarded with Jesus loves you and God loves you but sometime we don't take in exactly what this means!

Paul says in Corinthians if we have all prophecy, tongues and faith but not love we are nothing. He explains that we should have faith, hope and love but the greatest needs to be love. How can we be a Christian without loving the people around us? This is one I struggle with because there are people that I don't like and Jesus is calling me to love our enemies! Meaning that we should love them like we love our friends. That is a challenge and one that I am still trying to achieve not very well but trying. It is easy to love people we care about but Jesus calls us to love those who as Peter from Family Guy says grind our gears.

The bible is quite specific to what love is and here is a list which I have taken from 1 corinthians 13

  • patient
  • Kind
  • does not envy
  • does not boast
  • is not proud
  • not rude
  • is not self seeking
  • not easily angered
  • keeps no records of wrongs
  • Love does not delight in Evil but rejoices in the truth
  • always protects
  • always trust
  • Never fails

These qualities is exactly how God thinks about us. Amazing.

I can't wait to meet that person in which I can show these qualities to but for now I want to show these to the people in my life already. This includes people who I struggle with which is such a convinction. I challenge you to do the same. To love God means we have to love others.

Jesus gave us a new command in John 13:34

Love one another as I have loved you

That is the challenge for you. Love each other as Jesus loves you and the world will be transformed.

If Christians loved as Jesus lived the world would be turned upside down. (Tearfund)

Til next time!

Hollin