Living for Jesus?

By Shereen Shafiee

The word "Christian", what does it actually mean? How do we live it? 

We live in a world that is becoming increasingly secular. How are we supposed to maintain a "Christian" status? How do we live our lives for Jesus whilst everyone seems to be doing the opposite?

It's not easy, walking with Jesus. In fact it's one of the hardest things I've ever experienced. You become an outcast, to the world, to your friends and sometimes you think "Is this whole Jesus thing really worth it?" because you don't see results.  I just want to remind you to keep standing. Just keep pressing. Don't give into your past for comfort, let's DO something different. Let's really, authentically seek CHRIST. You've probably heard that one before. But this isn't some little Christian cliche that I'm saying - I'm telling you to go and get on your face before God and just pour your heart out. Take each day, day by day and you will find that your entire perspective will CHANGE. It's not that it will make life any easier and suddenly all your problems will disappear... its just that when those problems come they'll look a little different. You will still smile as if you have this secret between you and God. You'll smile because you're comforted by your Father's arms.  You'll SMILE because... you know that deep down, these attacks are making you better and not bitter.

So, I want to encourage you to be bold. Take a stand for Christ. You shouldn't have to just tell someone you're a Christian, they should see it in you. This is something I have to constantly work on and God is still moulding me. You see, this Christian life, it shouldn't just be words. Let today be the day that you decide who you will serve. Will you serve the living God, Jesus? Or will you continue to live for the god of your emotions,  indulging in a life of selfish ambitions? God doesn’t want us to just attend church, ministry begins outside of the church. Christianity is more than singing or playing instruments, it’s having a relationship with the Creator. When Jesus said “follow me”, He didn’t mean “look at me from a far”, “life will be easy”, nor did He say “watch others”. Jesus simply bids us to follow closely beside Him, having an intimate connection to Him and His presence. So let’s put aside the games and distractions and start actually living what we read. 

Salvation is free and available to all who accept the invitation. Unfortunately, so many “accept Jesus as their lord and personal savior”, but never allow Him to reign on the throne of their hearts. So I want to encourage you today to really live this out. It's okay to be different to the world, Jesus said we would be. But that's what makes us so special! God chose us, loves us and knew us before we were even born. He even knows the amount of hairs on our head  (Luke 12:7)! Sometimes I think, how amazing is it that the same God who called the universe into existence would invest into me?! One person among the billions of people, stars and galaxies- One soul in the entire universe and history of people who ever lived. That's not something you can really fathom. But it does make you think, the least we can do is live for Him. Like really and truly, let Him have our whole heart. 

Now this is something that I have to constantly remind myself as well, I'm always falling short and making mistakes. But I know that He's always there to pick me right back up. 

Luke 12:6-7 "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." 

 Ephesians 1:4 "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes." 

"You did not choose me, but I chose you..." John 15:16.

He loves us, He knows us and He chose us! Let's rejoice in that. Let's allow Him to have His will in our lives. SO, let's start today! We will DESIRE what we constantly give our attention to. So let's start giving our attention to the only living God. Amen

Understanding God’s Love      By Jacob Dann

Almost every Christian book I’ve read, song I’ve listened to, bible verse or preach I’ve heard have mentioned something about God’s love. In fact phrases like ‘God loves you’ are thrown around so much they can sometimes go in one ear and out the other. Or sometimes we just simply don’t believe it. I can definitely relate to that one! From the day I became a Christian to very recently I really struggled to believe that God loved me, every time someone would say ‘God loves you’ I would think ‘how!? How could God love me?’ But in the last few weeks I’ve started to understand that God does love me, and it’s changed my life! Now I get it I just want to shout it from the roof tops, which is why I’ve braved it and decided to write a blog on it. So if you struggle to believe God loves you, please keep reading, because when you get it, it really does change your life!

Firstly it’s important you know where that little voice in the back of your head saying ‘God doesn’t love you!’ comes from, it’s the enemy, the devil, and he wants to do all he can to destroy your relationship with God. But it’s also important that you realise that you have God on your side, who really is greater, stronger and wiser! So what do we do when those thoughts come about? Well it can be very easy to just believe it, give in and give up, but believe me, that helps no one! Instead, pray! That can seem very obvious, but it’s not always that easy, for months I would give in and give up but when I started praying regularly that God would help me to understand his love, he did! The more time is spent with God and the more I got to know him, the more I started to understand that he loved me. Think about it this way, in all relationships it takes a while to truly trust the other person, and believe that there love is genuine, and without spending time with them, how are you going to believe this? It’s the same with God, you can listen to all the preaches and songs telling you that God loves you, but until you start spending time with him yourself, it’s likely that it will just go over your head and that’s when those thoughts can start creeping in. Also spending time with God can strengthen our foundations, and when the devil does attack us, we are more confident to go to God and fight, instead of feeling like we can’t go to him.

Like any battle, you need weapons, prayer can be a very powerful weapon, another one that we sometimes forget about is the bible. The bible is a brilliant source that God lovingly created for us to get to know him better, so use it! Just like praying helps to understand Gods love more, so does the bible, and a lot of the time the answers to our prayers can be found in the bible. So how do we use the bible as a weapon against the devil? Well like I already said the thoughts that God doesn’t love you comes from the devil, but there are loads of verses in the bible that say the opposite, these verses are the weapons I’m talking about! Reading verses about Gods love for me regularly have really helped me to believe it, and when those thoughts do come creeping back instead of listening to them and believing them I can go back to these verses and use them as weapons against those thoughts. This is why it is really important to know some verses, so you can fight!

Addicted to love...

Loving Jesus!

Hey guys, Gilbo here. I wanted to write a blog about something God was speaking and teaching me about at Newday, I want to talk about loving Jesus!

In Mark 12 v 28-30 it says:

'One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him,"Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

I love this verse because Jesus is saying he wants ALL of you!
The most important thing you can do with your life is love Jesus, over and above anything else! Out of loving God comes everything else, it is the foundation for everything. Out of your adoration for Jesus comes submission to him and his glory, it causes you to humble yourself and surrender ALL of yourself to him.

Why do we love Jesus?

It's simple because he first loved us! He is more than worthy to be loved and adored!

I know it's not always easy to love Jesus and I def struggle with it at times, it takes time and discipline. We need to make time and set aside time to spend with God, which i know i need to do and i challenge you to as well, we are building relationship. The more we know about God, the more we know about ourselves. Loving Jesus = getting to know God better. If you love someone you spend quality time with them!
Loving Jesus means your whole life becomes about Jesus, you can'thelp it.
1 Corinthians 10 31 says 'So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it ALL for the glory of God!'

We need to keep reminding ourselves of how worthy and good he is and then we can't help but love him but we quickly forget how good he actually is.
We need to love him in time of difficulty too, this produces character and gives us great strength only God can give. I can defintely testify to that!

When we love God, his heart and his will becomes ours, we get a heart to love others and i really pray and ask that you would daily bless the people around you, ask for God to abundently bless them! When we love God, our hearts are transformed and we become like Jesus!

I also pray that you do eveything you can to make sure your loving Jesus ALL the time, it is well worth your time and your entire life!

Gilbo

Convincing & Explosive Truth

"What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who can condemn us? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."
Romans 8:31-34

I first came across this quote in Saving Private Ryan, where one of the soldiers says it like this 'If God's on our side, who the hell can be on theirs!' It was the first Bible verse I learnt and it's a gooden!

Paul’s reasoning is step by step, convincing and explosive! He starts with the promise that God is for us. This phrase in itself is so glorious it should change everything! If we were to all spend our lives reflecting and living off of this verse alone we would all be radically different.

God is for me and as a sign of His commitment to me, He sent Jesus. He knew what needed to be done to bring me back to Him, and He did it, not even sparing His son. Can you even begin to imagine the torrent of affection and emotion that must exist inside someone who is willing to do this?! The words of the song ‘How He Loves Us’ by ‘Jesus Culture’ go a little way in conveying this emotion; this deep unrelenting affection that He has for me! Check out the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-1Yps

Paul’s statements are logical and ste by step: if A=B and B=C, then C=A!

Each statement flows out of the previous:
1. God is for us. He did not even withhold His son.
2. He will not withhold any good thing from us.

AND

1. God, the ultimate authority, has justified us.
2. Who then can bring charge against us? Who can condemn us?

Do you see how secure you are?! Do you understand?! Do you grasp how permanently you’re loved?! Do you see how deeply you’re cared for?!

If you're a Christian then you can say:

In Christ I am immovably wedged in God.
In Christ I can never be taken or parted from God’s love for me.
In Christ I have seen the passion that God has for me.
In Christ I know how much I’m loved.
In Christ I am secure.

COME ON!!!

What's the big deal?

Our youth leaders share about what Jesus' birth means to them.

First up: Bethan

Christmas to me is when my saviour was born, not only my saviour but my best friend. It never used to mean a lot to me really, just an excuse for decorations, presents and getting excited but i never really knew why it was so special and why i was getting excited.

It's not until I became a christian that I understood what Christmas was and meant, and how it affected my life. God loved me so much that he gave his only son who became flesh. He walked on the same earth, suffered temptation but stayed fully perfect.

God had a solution to sin all along before i was even born he planned it and christmas is the start of it!