Resurrection power!

/0 Comments/in , /by

He has risen indeed!

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” – 1 Corinthians 15:20-22.

I love this time of the year when the global church is celebrating the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It’s good to be reminded of the amazing truth that Jesus is alive, and because He is alive, we too have the promise of resurrection. As the apostle Paul tells the church in Corinth, if Christ is not raised then our faith is futile and in vain; but he emphatically states that Jesus was indeed raised from the dead. So, our faith is not in vain, but is alive because He is alive. Hallelujah!

And it is because of this good news, this gospel – “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.” – 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 – that we are so excited every week to be sharing the truth of Jesus with young people in Llandudno and beyond.

The world might be in lockdown due to Covid-19, but the gospel of Jesus certainly isn’t in lockdown.

So, last night we had another brilliant Redefine session online, meeting with young people via the wonders of modern technology. We continued to look at the gospel of Mark, specifically Mark 1:16-20. We looked at Jesus calling His first disciples; Peter, Andrew, James & John. As we studied this passage we asked ourselves the following questions – Who does this passage reveal Jesus to be? What did Jesus come to do? and What about Jesus, made these 4 young men leave everything immediately? (Read the passage yourself and answer the questions)

We also had a time for worship and prayer. It was great.

This isn’t the only event we are hosting for young people during the lockdown. We also have a Thursday night and Friday night Instagram event for young people, and our very own Vlog callled RE:TV.

So just as we serve a living Saviour, the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ is very much alive and kicking. If you want to and are able to support us in this vital outreach, we would be so grateful. One-off gifts are wonderful but monthly commitments help even more. Could you prayerfully consider partnering with us at this time. We are not being held back during this crisis and we’d love to move forward with you! Please go to https://www.give.net/20105661

You can also support us by praying for the young people that come to our events, that they would realise how much they are loved by God, and how much blessing they have in Jesus, our risen Saviour.

Be blessed!

Christian Barbecue Anyone?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Last Easter Saturday we held a live event via our YouTube channel ‘RE:TV’. It was a Q & A session that we titled ‘Grill a Christian’.

Please see the whole event below:-

We hope you enjoyed this video. Please check out our YouTube channel for more content here.

Be blessed!

The true meaning of Easter?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Happy Easter everyone!

I pray that despite the social distancing due to Covid-19 that you had a blessed Easter.

Here at Llandudno Youth for Christ we have, despite the restrictions in place, had a great Easter connecting with young people in Llandudno and beyond. One of the new and innovative ways we are connecting with young people is via our brand new YouTube channel ‘RE:TV’.

This is a great new resource and over Easter, our centre director, Mr Tim Gough asked other youth workers to send him their thoughts on what Easter meant to them. He compiled their responses into a great video that you can watch below:-

You can watch more of our ‘RE:TV’ content here.

Please do continue to support us in prayer and financially during this time in our nation, help us reach out to more and more young people with the life changing message of Jesus.

Hope you enjoyed the video and be blessed!

τελέω (teleō) – It is accomplished!

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Today is Good Friday. It is the time of the year when Christians around the world remember the death of Jesus for the sins of the world. “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.” – 1 Peters 2:23-24

It is both a sad and a joyful time. We grieve over the thought of what Jesus endured on the cross as He took upon himself the sins of the entire cosmos, but we also rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus won the victory on the cross and brought righteousness and reconciliation for all of us. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” – Colossians 2:13-15

Also, Jesus didn’t stay dead. Three days later he rose again, conquering death. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he 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

Jesus did it all for us. On the cross his last words were ‘it is finished’. He had done it. He took the sins of the world upon himself and triumphed over, sin, death and the devil. That is why Easter is such a great time of celebration. A time where righteousness defeated sin, where life conquered death and where our freedom and reconciliation was bought with the precious blood of Jesus. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

Have a great Easter and please be praying for the young people in you area, that they will have a deeper and richer understanding of all that Jesus did for them on the cross.

Be blessed!

Hosanna!

/1 Comment/in , , /by

“The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

‘Hosanna!’

‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’

‘Blessed is the king of Israel!’

Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written:

‘Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.’

At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realise that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.” – John 12:12:16

The above Bible excerpt described Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on the week leading up to the Passover and His impending crucifixion. Nowadays we remember and celebrate this event as Palm Sunday. It’s where we remember the truth that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords.

I wonder how you celebrated Palm Sunday during this time of social distancing and self isolation. I’m pretty sure that a lot of people celebrated via the internet, with online church services and social media gatherings.

We held another great online ‘Redefine‘ Sunday evening Bible Study group. We are currently working our way through the gospel of Mark and we looked together at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and the beginning of His public ministry. It was a really great evening as we discussed what the short passage we looked at revealed to us about Jesus. There was a lot of good discussion and revelation.

We are so grateful that we can still meet up with the young people in some shape or form during this time. We are also holding live instagram meetings for the young people on Thursday and Friday evenings at 7pm.

Going back to the Palm Sunday passage, something really stood out to me. It says that Jesus’ disciples didn’t fully understand what was going on during the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. It was unclear to them at the time everything that was going on. It was going to be even more devastating and confusing for them in a couple of days as Jesus was betrayed, put on trial and then crucified.

For us and the young people going through this global pandemic, it can feel at times confusing and anxious. We don’t know what is going on, but we need to trust in God through it all and believe that He was be bringing life and redemption in a world where there seems to be so much fear and death.

Perhaps like the disciples we will see, when this current global situation is resolved, the God’s hand at work in love bringing life and redemption to the world, just like Good Friday wasn’t the end of the story, but as we will be celebrating next Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead, defeating sin and death and bringing life, love and liberty.

Please do continue to pray for young people at this time of uncertainty. Pray that they would come to know Jesus and trust in Him.

Have a great holy week.

Be blessed!

New Year, New Opportunities!

/0 Comments/in , /by

Well we’ve all returned from our week away in Manchester at the Youth for Christ National Conference. It was as usual a brilliant conference with encouraging talks, stimulating Bible studies and thought provoking seminars.

We as Llandudno Youth for Christ even ran one of our brilliant ‘Nerf Wars’ on the last day of the conference. This was a definite hit with all who took part.

We’re now back and raring to go. Ready for all that God has in store for us in 2020.

We’re looking forward to our first Redefine of 2020 this coming Sunday 12th January; and the rest of our various projects and ministries will all be starting up again after the Christmas break.

Thank you for all of your prayers for us during the conference. We were certainly encouraged and blessed by all the great input we received.

Please continue to pray for us and the work we are doing.

Please pray for the coming week with all of our projects starting up again. Pray that we would be able to share more of God’s transforming love with the young people; telling them about the good news of Jesus.

Thank you and be blessed!

Celebrate the day!

/0 Comments/in , /by

Merry Christmas to all our amazing volunteers and supporters!

We pray God’s richest blessings upon you as you celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Saviour of the world!

Be blessed!

The holidays are here!

/0 Comments/in , /by

Well, we’ve only got just over 1 week left of 2019. It’s been a great year for us here at Llandudno Youth for Christ. We’ve seen young people make decisions to follow Jesus, we’ve seen others grow and develop in their relationship with God. We’ve shared the good news of Jesus with thousands of young people.

In our different projects we’ve seen God graciously growing a community of young people that are engaging with questions of faith.

We’ve seen God come through for us in so many areas including financially. It truly has been a blessed year.

So much so, that we are moving into 2020 with expectant hearts, looking forward to seeing and partaking in all that God has in store for us.

Please do continue to support us in prayer, with finances and with your time. We really do appreciate it, and let’s see God do amazing things in the lives of young people in Llandudno and beyond in 2020.

Have a truly blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year from everyone here at Llandudno Youth for Christ!

Celebrate Good Times!

/0 Comments/in , /by

Last Sunday night we held the last Redefine of 2019, in fact it was the last Redefine of the decade. Wow!

To celebrate we had a sumptuous banquet of Christmassy food and an epic Christmas Quiz!

We had decorated the main hall for the evening with Christmas trees and fairy lights festooning the walls. It was brilliant!

Everyone got stuck into both the food and the quiz.

It was so much fun and the brilliant send off to what has been a fantastic year.

This season we have looked at what worship is. How we worship God, how we encourage ourselves in our worship of God and how we encourage each other in our worship of God. We’ve also looked at who Jesus is in the lead up to Christmas and gone through our brilliant ‘We believe’ series.

It has truly been a brilliant and blessed year and we are so grateful to God for all that He has done in and through the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ.

We thank you for all your support in 2019. Support that allows us the privilege to share the amazing good news of Jesus with an amazing bunch of young people. Thank you.

That said, let us look forwards to a blessed and prosperous 2020.

Be blessed!

Noel!

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Well, Christmas is almost upon us. Only 22 – 23 days to go. I’ve put up my Christmas decorations and soon will be up to my elbows in wrapping paper. Here at Llandudno Youth for Christ we are also preparing for Christmas. We’ve just finished our series looking at what worship is at Redefine and for the next 3 weeks we will be looking at the Christmas story and its significance for us as Christians.

We will be especially looking at the fact that Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us.

We will be looking at His Godhood and His humanity. What does it really mean for Jesus to be both fully God and fully man? Why does He need to be fully God and fully man?

I love this time of the year, where we get to sing songs about Jesus and we focus on the amazing truth that God himself became a baby. Weak, little & dependent upon Mary & Joseph to look after and care for Him.

Wow!

God comes to us in the most unobtrusive and humble way, but that is more often the case, that God meets us in our day to day lives, not with fanfare and pomp, but in humility and love. Coming to meet us where we are at to bring us hope, joy & love. To lift us up to where He is.

We have such an amazing God and Saviour.

Please be praying for us at this Christmas time. Praying that the young people will be excited by the Christmas story. That they will see how amazing God’s love is and why Jesus had to come as a little baby.

Thank you and Be blessed!