We're in a battle

Fight,  Charley, fight!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a Facebook status saying this:

"Sometimes it's easy to forget we're in a battle. We lie down and give up trying because things get tough, and life is tough! We then ask ourselves why we are weary and weak, because we've just let ourselves been trampled all over. But what we need is to get up and fight! God gives strength to those who ask! Let that be your strength to carry on."

What God has really been revealing to me over the past few weeks is that life is indeed hard. I never really had to work for anything when I was younger, I took life as it came and to be honest, it was a breeze. But my eyes are being opened to the trials we have to face - and that life isn't a dream. We don't always get what we want, or have things go the way we want them to. But I am learning that when trials come, I know that God is good! The verse that has been implanted firmly in my mind lately has been this:

Matthew 22:37

And Jesus said: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."

These instructions are giving us strong advice and providing us with a form of protection. What we need to do is love God with all of our being. It is then that we will know the beauty, faithfulness, goodness and love of God. We need to believe all of the things that we read about God in the Bible - for he is so good! I am praying for the spiritual armor of God to clothe me against the enemy, and I am asking God to be my strength throughout the storm. I am going into battle; and I will fight against all of the evil thoughts that attack my mind and aim to blur my vision. Let us cling to the truth.

A True Community?

Thoughts on community

Over 30 times Paul writes to the churches he looks after and tells them to 'one another'...

'Be devoted to one another in love.'
'Honour one another above yourselves.'
'Live in harmony with one another.'
'Accept one another.'
'Greet one another with a holy kiss(?!!)'
'Agree with one another,'

Are we a community that cares for each other? Do you phone people for help when you're low? Do you encourage someone when they do something well or when they take a risk? Do you notice when someone's not there?

As a youth group we have a mission to accomplish and it starts individually in your own heart, it's to do with how you think about and treat other people. That's your relationship with others - horizontal, from you out to the world around you.

Jesus made some big statements about his followers (light of the world, city on top of a hill, salt of the earth etc.) and all of them point to the fact that we are supposed to be a force for good and for God in our town. True is meant to be a place that is different from the rest of the town's youth groups; it's a place where Jesus is lifted up in the way we live, the way we speak to one another, the way we care about each other. Horizontally (our relationship with others.)

What can you do to play your part to be the youth group you want to see?

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

Love

'So, today, as I was leaving his house, Jez shouted after me 'Fitz!
Write a blog!'. What about, I wondered? 'Anything,' as I walked out

the door, highly sceptical of the chances of this happening. English
exams are out of the way, why would I WANT to write ANYTHING that is
vaguely lengthy and requires thought and effort?

But, here we are. The now not-so-early hours of the morning are here,
and I'm thinking? Why not give it a go!
After a quick thought after my nightly bible readings, I figured
there's loads of things I could talk about. Quite a few which could
fill a page of God inspired thoughts, but there's one which sticks out
to me as I think about it now. It's something that I think we all
know, and kind of take for granted: God's love for us. And even that,
on it's own, sounds kind of cliché and unreal. Fake, you know?
Something said so many times, as lyrics or by preachers.
there's lots of things that I feel weren't quite realistic to me, and
this is definitely one of them.
One way I like to tackle this unearthly face of this henchly important
part of God, is to picture it as something you know, in life. 'Love'
is thrown around a lot these days, and I don't have a problem with
that: but, just stop and think about someone you love. Who loves you
back, okay? I don't mean, marriage love, it doesn't have to be.
There's many-a-people whom I love, male and female who are all close
to my heart with whom I would trust with my life. So you've got a
person, yes? Now just try and picture it, the sorta things you'd do
for them. Stay up late to talk, if they were having trouble? Be a
shoulder to cry on in the bad times, and someone to celebrate with in
the good? Be someone who'll try and make things better, and offer
advice: even if it is the stuff you don't want to, but need to, hear.
And they'd do the same for you, right. Because they love you.
Well, pretty much, God's the same. He's got nothing but your best
interests at heart. It's that kind of love that the bible is talking
about; in fact God is love: (VERSE). So under our understanding, God
is all those things!

Tell your problems to God, because He'll be up all night anyway.

That shoulder to cry on? He's ALWAYS there, literally, (VERSE) and if
you look around there's plenty of physical shoulders that He has put
in your life exactly for this purpose. ( Yeah, see? He's thought about
that. Because He loves you.).. And as for the good times, He's brought
them, so lift up your hands and praise Him for all his good work.

Someone who'll try and make things better? Wow, haha, no offence to my
bezzie mates but the Lord has quite a bit more power than them when it
comes to helping you. Just pray! (VERSE in james, about praying and
results.)

And finally, offer advice. Isn't that what the bible is there for?

That's kind of my final point, I think, then. The bible. The word of
God. Again, another cliché phrase.. Yes, I could go on. Every single
word in it is there from Him, to guide you every step of your life;
good times and bad. Don't think it's just to put on your bedside table
to look good, or that it takes a few highly religiously educated
intellectuals to decipher the secret code. No, not at all. If you just
take a look, you can find something that the Lord has put there for
you: to help you through your time.
He loved you so much, that he wrote you an entire BOOK filled with
what to do, advice and words to help you. That's a hench gesture of
friendship.

Oh, gosh, this is going on longer than I thought... I'm sorry! That
wasn't my final point. :S.
I was just going to mention, you know, just a casual aftercomment...
That place they call Heaven? Ooh, haha, yeah. There. Well, that's the
proof of the pudding. The icing on the cake. This guy, has pretty much
prepared the party of our lives up there! And it's going to be good..
Check out revelations for the details! Has your bestie ever consoled
'it'll be okay in the end' in a wishful tone of disbelief to comfort
you through a bad time? Well, we know for sure, that at the end it is
going to be a lot more than 'okay'. A guaranteed (VERSE) illness and
sin free world?! Yes pleasee!
Yes. He loves us that much. That that's prepared for us.

Actually, I'll stop, after this one more thing that He did for us.
Well, something Jesus did when he was put on this earth. This guy was,
literally, perfect. No kidding. But not in a swarmy, horrible
way...just innocent and pure. Well. He loved us so much that, totally
undeservedly, he died an intensely painful death.
Like, for us. Ever had the blame shoved on you for something a friend,
or enemy I suppose, did? It's kinda annoying, right. Because it's
unfair. Well... He did it. and it's a lot more than just being wrongly
accused for talking in class.. It's death. That little sacrifice that
was made...

Yeah.

That, is God's love for us.

Now, my hands are kind of tired, from typing on the small keyboard of
my bb in the dark. I didn't get through all the points I had vaguely
mindmapped in my head, but I've done my best to illustrate what
exactly this odorless-sounding phrase actually means.. In the real
world. To me.

So, I guess, I'm kinda thankful to Jez for casually asking me to write
a "blog', goodness knows what for. I meant to go on into what that
means about my love for him, and I've hardly whacked in any verses to
back up my thoughts.. There are many. We'll see.
But I'll go, now. So, yeah. God's love for us. What does it mean to you?(:
xx