Sparkle & Shine

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This week, wherever I travel, as the sun goes down and the nights draw in; I’m seeing more and more Christmas lights appearing in the windows of houses and shops. All of the lights have been switched on in Llandudno, Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay, indeed throughout the whole of North Wales and beyond, the whole of the UK is ablaze with Christmas lights.

My children love this, and my son and I were playing a game of who can spot the Christmas lights first as we drove home last night from visiting the grandparents’ house. It so glorious to see the lights hanging from windows, trees and lamp-posts everywhere. They bring joy, light and sparkle into the darkness of winter.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:16 (NKJV). Jesus instructed his disciples to be lights in the darkness of this world: to make a difference and by the light that they shine, to direct people to the source of the light within them; Jesus, the Light of the world. “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” – Matt 5:14-16 (Msg)

So in the same way that the Christmas lights sparkle and shine and bring joy to those around them; you too can sparkle and shine with God’s love to those around you.

Another place where there will be sparkle and shine this Christmas is at the ‘Spark‘ North Wales Christmas event.

On Saturday 16th December Llandudno Youth for Christ will be holding another of our ‘Spark‘ events. It will be a fantastic night.

The Spark Christmas Bonanza will feature an epic ‘Hunt for Santa‘ game, some carols by candlelight, a classic Christingle and an optional late night Christmas movie.

We are really looking forward to this night, and hope that those of you reading this blog post will share about it in your church, youth group or Christian community and let any young people you think might be interested in coming along all about it.

The event will start at 5pm and run till 7pm, with the optional Christmas movie running from 7pm until around 9pm for those want to make a real fun night of it.

It will be held at Gloddaeth Church, Llandudno, LL30 2SY.

Please do pray for the night too, that everyone that comes has a fun, safe time, and that lives will be changed by God’s love.

Be blessed, and continue to ‘Sparkle & Shine‘

Amazing Monthly Meet Training with Llandudno Youth for Christ!

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Last Monday night we had a great training evening with our ‘Monthly Meet‘ training event (every 3rd Monday in the month, Llandudno Youth for Christ run a totally free training evening for youth workers, teachers, parents & pastors). We looked at how to manage difficult behaviour in our youth groups.

It was a highly informative and insightful night.We looked at what foundational issues needed to be looked at and thought through when dealing with issues of how to manage difficult behaviour.

What Biblical foundations could we see that point to us to how to manage the spaces where a youth work event or project is run. “Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”-Matthew 20:25-28 was especially good at helping us view the young people we look after and our interaction with them.

We are to create safe spaces for the young people that come to our ministries/projects and events. Part of that safety is for them to know they are in a place where we have put things in place to help cultivate community and where there is consistency in how and why we manage difficult behaviour. A safe space where the young people know what the volunteers and leaders of the space expect from them as regards behaviour, and also what the young people can expect from the leaders in return as regards behaviour.

We also delved into some ‘Do’s‘ and ‘Don’ts‘ of managing difficult behaviour, as well as of course unpacking what difficult behaviour looked like and could mean to each group.

So of these were things like don’t engage with too much ‘shushing‘ or just try to speak louder than the group that you are trying to make yourself heard by as this can lead to them feeling challenged by you in a negative way and the noise levels only increase.

“Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.” – Proverbs 25:15. “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” – Phil 4:5

We learned and saw demonstrated just how effective speaking firmly, but softly and calmly, could be at bringing order and attention to an unruly room of people.

All in all, it was, as with all of the ‘Monthly Meets‘, a great evening that was fun, informative and a great opportunity to meet up with a network with other youth workers, teachers, parents and pastors in the North Wales area.

Our director Mr Tim Gough is an excellent communicator and his training nights are not to be missed. He also has a great youth work blog that is a brilliant resource for youth workers to dip into.

I really do encourage people to come along to our next ‘Monthly Meet’ training evening in December. 18th Dec @ 7pm in Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, Ffordd Yr Orsedd, Llandudno, LL30 1LA. It will be another great evening and there will be mountains of mince pies and other festive treats too.

Be blessed!

Boom, here comes the boom!

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Last Sunday night at ‘Redefine‘ we played a new game called ‘2 Rooms and a Boom‘. It’s a really fun game to play. I’ll let this video explain the basics of how to play.

We played three rounds of the game; twice the blue team won and the president’s life was saved and one time the red team won and there was a boom in the room and no more president.

It was kind of funny to play such a game and it really helped the young people to mingle and relax at the start of the night.

We then went on with the next night in our teaching series on ‘Jesus is..‘ and we looked at the fact that Jesus is God.

Again there were lots of ‘booms‘ in the room as we explored what the Bible had to say about Jesus being God, and it figuratively blowing our minds with how awesome and staggering that fact is.

It’s easy to believe that Jesus is human, but to come to the realisation that he is God is sometimes a lot harder for people to believe. Indeed, it was for the very fact that Jesus made such claims that the Jewish leaders that heard him wanted to kill him. “‘Very truly I tell you,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.” – John 8:58-59. The ‘I am‘ that Jesus said here is ‘ego eimi‘ in the original Greek. Jesus’ listeners would have recognised what he meant when he said this. When Moses is being sent by God to deliver the Israelites from captivity in Egypt, he asks God who he should tell the Israelites has sent him? Essentially Moses is asking God for His name. God’s response to Moses is this “God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I am has sent me to you.”’”- Exodus 3:14

That is why they wanted to stone him. Jesus was calling himself by the same name that God had called himself when he spoke with Moses. After healing a man on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders asked Jesus why he had done this and in their eyes broken the sabbath by working. “So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defence Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” – John 5:17-18

In other places Jesus is worshipped and does not stop the disciples from doing this, or from calling him God.

We then broke into groups to look at Hebrew 10 and look at why, if Jesus is God, and is perfect and eternal, why he would come to die for you and for me.

“For by one sacrifice he (Jesus) has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy.” – Hebrews 10:14

Last week we saw how, only a human could pay the price for the sins humanity had committed, but this week we saw how only God could offer a perfect and eternal sacrifice for our sins. That is why Jesus is both fully human and fully God. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” – Colossians 2:9

Boom!

We finished the night with some time prayer journalling and sang Bebo Norman’s ‘Born to Die‘. One lyric in particular stood out for me from this song ‘And all fell silent for the cry of an infant, The voice of God Was dividing history for those with eyes to see The Son would shine from earth that night.‘ God coming to earth as a baby was truly a ‘boom‘ moment.

As you contemplate the truth that Jesus is God, may you too have a ‘boom‘ moment as you marvel at how great God’s love is, and may it lead you to worship him.

Be blessed!

“All people that on earth do dwell…”

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My wife and I are currently in the process of selling our home. We used to live in Mochdre and have moved to Llandudno Junction. Whilst thinking about this, I thought of the scripture where it says that “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.“- Acts 17:26 (NIV). In the NKJV it goes like this “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,” or in the NLV “He made from one blood all nations who live on the earth. He set the times and places where they should live.”

That then made me think of the Hymn ‘All people that on earth do dwell‘, which is based upon the 100th Psalm. Its lyrics were written by a Scotsman, William Kethe in the 1500s and the tune is ‘Old Hundredth‘ which is said to have been composed by a Frenchman in the 1500s, Louis Bourgeois.

The hymn encourages everyone on earth to worship God as God. It focusses us back to the truth that He has made us all and knows best how to look after us, like a shepherd looks after his sheep. It is a great hymn that gives us confidence in God’s goodness and also His Lordship. He truly is in charge. At times in our lives this can seem hard for us to understand and believe in. Especially when disaster or tragedy befalls us.

When we see all of the troubles in the world around us both internationally and locally, we can wonder, is God really in charge, is He really good, is He really God?..and our faith can be tested.

However, this hymn and the scripture from Acts reminds us of the truth that God IS God and He IS in control. He has even ‘determined their (all the nations of men throughout history) preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings‘. God knows what He is doing. Speaking of the birth of Jesus, when writing to the Christians in Galatia, Paul writes; “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” – Galatians 4:3-7

When the ‘fullness of time had come‘; in other translations it says the time ‘that was set by God the Father‘. God is faithful, and the fact that you were born when and where you were born, He is fully aware of and has a plan for your life.

That plan is for you to come to know Him; “God did this (see Acts 17:26) so that they (all people) would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” – Acts 17:27

So as you look around you and see all of the trouble and strife and even look at your life and wonder why?.., look up and realise you were made to know God and make Him known; so ‘All people that on earth do dwell; sing to the Lord with cheerful voice, Him serve with mirth, His praise forth tell. Come ye before Him and rejoice.‘

With that said, I want to say a big thank you to all of our amazing volunteers that help us to share the good news of Jesus with the young people of North Wales. God set the appointed times and places that you should live; and part of that is being such valued members of our team at LLYFC. Thank you for being obedient to God and being such valued members of this ministry.

If you feel that you would like to volunteer with Llandudno Youth for Christ, then please do contact us.

Be blessed!

Fireworks

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Last night at Redefine we had a fun time watching a firework display and lighting sparklers in the cold and crips air of early winter.

We then went inside to warm up as we continued our series ‘Jesus is..’ This week we looked at Jesus is – human. The humanity of Jesus. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he (Jesus) too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” – Hebrews 2:14-15

We started off the study session with a True or False game about some scientific facts about the human body that boggle the mind. Such as how much saliva your body produces in your lifetime and whether having lots of dreams during the night denotes a higher or lower IQ?!?! It was fun, fascinating and at time a bit gross.

We then settle down to our Bible study looking at Jesus is human, and in particular tackling the whole issue of ‘why’ Jesus had to be born as a human. “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” – Romans 8:3-4.

Jesus was God in the flesh coming to pay the price for our sins; and unlike in the song ‘Human‘ where there is an acknowledgement of the fallen, imperfect state of humanity as a whole; though he, Jesus, was fully human, he did not sin. So he could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins and meet the requirements of the law and restore us back to relationship with God.

Wow!

But, still why come as a baby to die for us? Why?

Because He thought we were worth it (see Romans 5) A bit like in Katy Perry’s song lyrics for ‘Fireworks’, “You don’t have to feel like a waste of space
You’re original, cannot be replaced…you’re a firework. Come on show ’em what your worth.” God has placed immense value upon every human life, and has made a way for us to be in relationship with him; “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:19-25

He want those of us that have come into relationship with him; to shine. To be like fireworks that light up the darkness and point the way to him.

Be blessed and shine!

Will the real Jesus please stand up, please stand up, please stand up…

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Last night at ‘Redefine‘, as explained in last week’s blog post, we started our teaching series looking at the person of Jesus: ‘Jesus is…‘

It was a fun night, with a great talk by our director Mr Tim Gough, as he looked at so many people around the world and throughout history have been influenced by Jesus. He also spoke about how if you google ‘Jesus‘, or look Him up on amazon etc, you can get some pretty strange results.

You’ll find things such as Jesus action figures, which include Him riding a motorbike or surfing a wave. There are bobble-head Jesus‘ for your office desk or car dashboard. T-Shirts and posters with Jesus being used to endorse things such as drugs, guns, tacos & coffee. There have been many films made of Jesus, with different actors portraying Him. He has been depicted in Art & Literature; and He has been adopted by many other faiths and ideologies.

However many of the portrayals of Jesus are far from accurate. It seems like they think the idea of having Jesus is great, but a Jesus that can be shaped to fit their needs, instead of the real Jesus; A sort of ‘have it your way’ Jesus.

He is adopted for their cause and altered to suit their ideology. This is instead of discovering for themselves who He truly is.

The real Jesus is not represented, and for many people it can be confusing to know who the real Jesus is.

Hence the title of this blog post, which is inspired by the title of Eminem’s ‘The real slim shady song’, where the chorus for the song is ‘will the real Slim Shady please stand up.’ Most of the lyrics for that song are highly offensive and I’m not endorsing the song at all, but the whole idea that it gives of a famous person being imitated and moulded to suit the needs of the person that is using their image, is one that does fit. So many people do that with Jesus. Fitting Him into their mould instead of being influenced and changed by Him.

“Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” – Romans 12.

We can be guilty of doing that with Jesus too.

We want Jesus to fit our mould and be safe and comfortable instead of coming to Him as He truly is. Coming to Him as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Coming to Him humbly and being willing to get to know the real Jesus.

When people do get a wrong picture of Jesus it’s because they move away from the source. They don’t hold onto the truth of the Jesus that we find in God’s Word; the Bible. As Christians we believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and that if we want to know more about God, then we need to go back to the Bible and read it.

Many other faiths and cults as I shared last week, recognise Jesus, but He is not the Jesus that you would come to read about in the pages of the Bible. They have their own ideas of who Jesus is. Not the Jesus of the Bible.

He is not God. He is not the Saviour of mankind. He does not redeem us from all our sins. He is not enough. He is often just an add on.

I remember once a pastor talking to me about other faiths and cults and how as a Christian, the best way to discern truth for error is the same as how you study to be able to discern whether money is real or counterfeit. You do not study all of the ways a currency can be counterfeited he said; you study the real money so well that you know when something isn’t genuine.

Because you are so familiar with a genuine banknote, you can spot a fake a mile off.

It is the same with Jesus.

We need to get to know the real Jesus by reading about Him in the Bible and spending time talking with Him in prayer.

 

This is why we are doing this teaching series. We want the young people to know the Jesus that we meet in the pages of the Bible, and have an opportunity to respond to Him (see Romans 10)

To finish, I’ll leave you with a video made to accompany the inspiring words of Dr. S.M. Rockridge as he waxes lyrics about his King; Jesus.

 

Be blessed!

Jesus is…

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This coming Sunday at our Sunday evening Bible Study; ‘Redefine‘, we will be starting a new teaching series as we look at who Jesus is. Hence the title of this blog post, ‘Jesus is..‘, which will be the title of the series, with us fleshing out the rest of the title for each week, to give an outline of what aspect of Jesus we will be looking at.

This Sunday we are specifically looking at the impact that Jesus has had on the world as a whole; so ‘Jesus is – the most influential person in history’. Some people might think that this is an outlandish and exaggerated claim; but as we study and look at it, I’m sure those that come to the study will see that it is not so, and that He is indeed the most influential person in history. As the Paul Oakley songs ‘Jesus lover of my soul’ says “For no one else in history is like You, and history itself belongs to You.” Or as the apostle Paul says “For in him (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” – Colossians 1:16

The Bible makes a big deal of Jesus. God makes a big deal of Jesus: on the mountain of transfiguration, God the Father speaks audibly to the disciples – “While he (St. Peter) was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son (Jesus), whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’” – Matthew 17:5

As Christians, we are followers of Jesus. We make a big deal of Jesus, because to us He is not only a big deal. He is THE big deal.

It is all about Jesus.

Even outside of the realm of the Christian faith, Jesus is a big deal. He is not a myth, or something made up to propel a religious movement. In his book, the Antiquities of the Jews, 1st century AD Jewish historian ‘Falvius Josephus, in books 18 & 20 of his writings, includes references to Jesus and the start of Christianity. This book was written around 93-94 A.D. Tacitus, another famous first century historians and also a Roman Senator, wrote in his ‘Annals’ (which are a history of the Roman Empire) about Christ, his execution by Pontius Pilate and the existence of early Christians in Rome. This work was written around 116 A.D. So we have historical evidence for Jesus. Living, breathing & making an impact.

Even the title A.D. or C.E. to denote the year we are living in refers back to Jesus, for A.D. stands for ‘Anno Domine’ which is Latin for ‘in the year of the Lord’ (Jesus), and C.E. (often mis-referred to as ‘Common Era’) signifies ‘Christian Era’. Jesus has influenced our world so much that we date years either A.D. or C.E for after His birth and B.C. (Before Christ) or B.C.E. (Before the Christian Era) fir before His birth.

So not only does history belong to Him; His coming to earth was of such impact that it divided history itself.

He also features prominently in other religions around the world; in Islam He is called ‘Isa’ and, though they do not believe that He is God incarnate, they recognise Him as the Messiah and one of the most important prophets in Islam after Mohammed.  Some Hindus see Him as an ‘Avatar’ (incarnation of a deity) or ‘Sadhu’ (religious ascetic and holy person). So again, even other religions are being impacted by Jesus.

He has inspired Art & Sculpture, Music, Films, Literature, Theatre, and so many other spheres of life. Famous leader and people that have impacted the world, such as Mahatma Ghandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. have spoken about Jesus. It seems that wherever you look, you can’t but help see Jesus having an influence upon the world in some form or fashion.

Indeed, He has turned the world upside down; but it is His world to do that with in the first place (See Luke 12 & John 1). And He came to change the world forever, and for good.

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.” – Colossians 1:15-20

So this Sunday evening as we start our series ‘Jesus is..‘ pray for us at Llandudno Youth for Christ; that the truth of who Jesus is will impact the young people that come to our Bible studies, and they will have the opportunity to ask questions and discover for themselves all about Him.

We also have our supporters prayer meeting at 7pm in Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, so please do come along if you want to support us in prayer at this time.

Be blessed.

Fortified!

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Have you ever looked at a packet of cereal, on some of them, they say that the cereal is ‘fortified’ with vitamins & minerals. When food is enriched or fortified; trace elements of vitamins and minerals are added to the foods. This is sometimes done to increase the appeal of the food to buyers,  but it is also done from a health standpoint; aiming at reducing dietary deficiencies in people. Making the population in an area healthier.

The dictionary definition of fortify is ‘to provide (a place) with defensive works as protection against attack,’ ‘to strengthen (someone) mentally or physically‘ or as already spoken about ‘to increase the nutritive value of (food) by adding vitamins.‘ The word comes from late Middle English; which comes from the French fortifier, which came from late Latin fortificare, which is from Latin fortis ‘strong’.

The word ‘Fort‘ comes from the same root. A Fort is a strong defensive edifice.

It is a place that is build up to proved a strong and safe shelter from attacks.

“The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” – Proverbs 18:10. There is a children’s song that is based upon this proverb called ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord‘. It’s a bit of a blast from the past; and I remember singing it at open air church meetings when I was at University in the early 1990s.

That is not the only place in the Bible where it talks about God being a strong tower; in Psalm 61, the psalmist sings about this.

The other way to look at fortified, is not only a ‘fortified‘ building, but also something or someone that has been strengthened. We get the sense of the word ‘edify‘ from this. When we ‘edify‘ – encourage one another in our faith; we are building each other up. We are fortifying each other. This is an important thing to do for each other. At our last ‘Redefine‘ we look at the fact that God never intended us to do life alone. He wants us to do life in community with Himself and with each other. Part of that is encouraging one another, edifying and fortifying each other in our faith. The apostle Paul says this to the church in Thessaalonica “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:10-11

This coming Sunday at ‘Redefine‘ we will be having a great night where the young people will be doing just that. They will be fortifying each other with our fantastic ‘FREDtalks‘. These are our take on TEDtalks. “TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.” – excerpt taken from their website.

With our FRED talks we give the amazing young people that come to ‘Redefine‘ the opportunity to share a short talk about a topic and how it relates to their faith. These have always been well received and help to create and build community within ‘Redefine’ and also provide a platform for the young people to encourage and fortify each other in their faith.

This not only strengthens them, but also helps them with their resilience. Their ability to bounce back from some of the things that they encounter in life. A bit like with another type of castle; a bouncy castle!

So thank you for all of your prayers and financial support for the work that we are doing at Llandudno Youth for Christ; you, with God, are helping to make a difference in many young people’s lives.

Be blessed!

Sometimes you can’t make it on your own.

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Yes, it is another song reference for the blog post. This time it comes from a song by U2. It is the third track from their 2004 album ‘How to dismantle an atomic bomb’. Bono wrote the song in 2000 about his relationship with his father Bob Hewson who was at the time dying of cancer. To Bono, his father had always been a tough character, indeed the original title of the song was ‘Tough’. In his own words Bono describes his father as “A tough old boot of a guy. Irish, Dub, north side Dubliner, very cynical about the world and the people in it, but very charming and funny with it.” The song won the ‘Song of the Year’ award at the Grammy’s in 2006.

In the song Bono is crying out to his father to share relationship with his son, for Bono to be able to help his father through this tough battle he was having with cancer. The chorus of ‘sometimes you can’t make it on your own‘ is all the more poignant with the knowledge of what Bono & Bob were going through.

Last Sunday night at Redefine we had the last in our ‘We Believe’ series, looking at ‘You can’t do life alone’. As Christians we are called to live in community with other believers and with God. We are called to ‘bear one another’s burdens‘, to ‘not give up meeting together‘, to practice hospitality, and serve one another.

We were never meant to go through life isolated. Indeed, right at the beginning God said it was not good for man to be alone.

One way to ensure that we do not do life alone is to engage in community with a local church. Now, many people have negative viewpoints of church, due to many different reasons, most involving being hurt in some way or another by churches and the people in them. However, we are all imperfect, broken people, that are being healed and made whole by God, and as a result, hurt and offence does occur. Does this mean we should give up on church? Should we stop doing life with other believers because of past issues and hurts?

No.

Not at all.

Jesus told us offences would come, but we need to forgive and move forward. Continue to do life together. As the Jack Johnson song says ‘it’s always better when we’re together‘. This goes for doing life with each other, and its especially true of doing life in relationship with God. Life is definitely better with Jesus.

The Third Day song ‘When the rain comes‘ talks about how when we go through bad and difficult times, it is better to go through them with God, even if we still go through the tough times; God is with us, holding us.

So I encourage you, as we encouraged the young people last Sunday night. Don’t do life alone. You were never designed that way. God wants you to live life with Him and with each other.

Be blessed!

Mezzamorphis!

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As with soooo many of the titles for my blog posts; today’s post has a music theme. It is in fact the title of a Delirious? Album. The album was released in 199 and it was their second studio album, following on from ‘King of Fools‘. Mezzamorphis was a great album for me and brings back so many memories.

Stu G (the band’s guitarist) states about the album, specifically when talking about the track ‘Metamorphis’, that “the fact that out in the world, although everybody wants to be their own selves, we’re pulled this way and that. Everyone you meet wants you to be something or another. The song asks God to help us to be our own true selves, as God sees us, not the way folk pressure us to be what they want us to be.” In-fact the title for the album as a whole is taken from the track ‘Metamorphis‘ and the first track on the album ‘Mezzanine Floor‘, which is about how they as a band were moving towards new directions musically, but had not yet reached where they were wanting to go.

This idea of aiming towards a goal, and knowing that you are heading in a direction that God intends for you, but that you are not already there yet makes me think of the apostle Paul when he says “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:12-14

There is a sense of journey, of growth, of change in what Delirious and St. Paul are saying. Hence the title of this blog post ‘Mezzamorhpis’: change in transition.

All of our lives are filled with changes and trasitions, and sometimes it feels like we are stuck on a mezzanine floor in our transformation. We are not where we used to be, but we have not reached our destination yet.

This is especially true in our walk with God.

If we have decided to follow Christ, we are no-longer walking blindly in ignorance and alienated from God, but are now citizens of heaven, adopted sons and daughters of the King of kings and co-heirs with Chris. ‘Heaven is our home’ as Martin Smith so aptly sings, but we are still here on earth. Waiting for the fulfilment of all that God has planned for us.

But do we just sit and wait idly by?…

No, we live, we learn, we grow, we change.

In fact the 3rd week of our ‘We believe’ series at Redefine was ‘Growing people change’.

Which is so very true.

If something is alive and thriving, then it will naturally be changing. Even Jesus ‘grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.’

As did people like the apostles Peter & Paul. You can read about the change and growth that happened in their lives from encounters they had with the risen Jesus. Read their before (Mark 14:66-72, John 21:15-19 and Acts 7:54-60, Acts 8:1-3 & Acts 9:1-31) and after stories in the Bible.

I also used the title from the album ‘Mezzamorphis’ as I listened to it quite extensively in 1999 & 2000 whilst I was living and studying in Australia. I was going to Bible college there, and there was so much change and growth going on in my life, that this album helped me keep my perspective on what was happening and where God was leading me.

 

In your walk with God, I want to encourage you to keep learning, keep changing and keep developing as He transforms you into His likeness.

Be blessed!