Ablaze Youth

Identity - Part 1 'Personality and Character'

2009-09-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

My Testimony

There was a time when i got really stressed about my identity, and the questions i feared the most when i was sat in meetings or lectures were the 'Who are you?' questions. It seemed to be this elusive answer that once achieved would set you up for life. We heard it so much at the beginning of lectures last year on Academy; 'Everything stems from your ability to understand who you are.' Now i know they were only looking out for us and trying to put us on the right path, but those sort of questions used to freak me out! I would be sat there praying they wouldn't pick me out, that they wouldn't ask any scary questions about identity because i was so sure it was obvious to everyone else that i hadn't found my identity yet!! They never did thankfully but it set me on a voyage of discovery about this ridiculous question that had us all quaking in our boots!

Now i may be the only person who used to have this type of extreme reaction to this sort of question, but God was obviously making it very clear to us about the desperate need to understand our identity. Especially when you as an individual and corporately as a church decide to put ourselves on the front line in front of the enemy who would quite happily tear our identities apart given the chance.

So i began asking different sorts of questions, i wanted to dig around this subject of identity and understand why it is the key to our development as 'progressing Children of God'.

Why is this question about my identity so important?
Why do i have such a problem answering it?
Why do i have such an extreme reaction to the question - Is God trying to teach me something?
What is preventing me from understanding this question?

Through a process of elimination i managed to understand my thought process behind my lack of understanding of the depth of this sort of question - The answer lay in my perception of the question and the reality of the answer.

My extreme reaction to someone asking me if i knew who i was, was blown completely out of proportion - i gave this question way too much thought time (which i tend to do a lot) The answer to THIS simple question is that i am a 'Child of God'. I found who i was in the book of Ephesians chapter 1. The Word of God literally jumped out of the page and told me that i am:

United with Christ (v3)
Loved and Chosen (v4)
Holy and without fault in His eyes (v4)
Adopted into God's family (v5)
Free and Forgiven (v7)
I have an inheritance in Christ (v11)

The main verse that struck me though was Eph 1 v 13. It explains very clearly that "When you believed in Christ, he IDENTIFIED YOU as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit"

WOW! Although this question was simple to answer, the ones to follow were more important to answer, but now i had a constant, i had the identification i needed to push through and develop an even deeper answer.

One of my lecturers Jason Gowland took us for a series of lectures on Faith Dynamics, which is interesting now i look back on it - Why should the development of our identity come under a lecture about faith?? He said something that has revolutionised my thinking on this subject.

"Your identity is so hard to understand because you've been living 2 very separate lives. A life that develops out of your Character and the life that develops out of your Personality."

This is why we sometimes feel like we're one person when we are alone with God but somebody completely different when we're out in the world.

When he said this i remember the atmosphere in the room changing, we all knew what we had just said was probably one of the most profound things we had heard that year. Yet we were all a little confused at what this statement actually meant. He followed it up with a question.

"Which is from God, your personality or your character?"

This stooped us for a while and i remember us debating both sides of both theories for a long time but inevitably looking to him for the answer.

Personality - is the person GOD created you to be

Character - is the person YOU create yourself to be

How then do we find out which attributes are from our personality and which ones are from our character?

In the book of Genesis it's very clear that we are created in God's image. the Spirit of God lives in us, that's why Ephesians 1 v 13 says that we are identified in Christ when he gave us the Holy Spirit. Our personality, or the person we were born to be comes out of the Spirit of God. It's the Spirit of God that breathed life into the word of God, and it is there that we find our personality.

God actually gives us our identification in His Word. This doesn't however mean that we are all the same because the Word of God is the same - because it's how we live our unique lives through this word that creates who we are. This is how our Character interacts with our personality. We all have different dreams and plans for our lives, because we have our own understanding of our identification in Christ is designed for us and us alone. Our personality develops as we spend time with God, through His Spirit. We become more like God the more time we spend with Him, so our individuality is formed THROUGH the Spirit.

Our Character however has been learnt through our interaction with our world and the people in it. Our Character isn't bad, it's what makes us who we are and makes us relevant to the world we live in. The problem comes when our character starts defining who we are instead of our personality.

I want to look at the things that i found that shape our character and how they can prevent us from ever meeting the real person underneath.

People in our world - family, friends, work colleagues etc - How we interact with them, what authority we give them to speak into our lives and how much of our identity do we pick up and conclude is true from them.
Where we're from - where we live and the culture found there - We were all born within a particular culture, but it is this culture that can restrict our true personalities coming out as we draw our identity from the way we do things (tradition) rather than the way God wants us to do things.
Our past - is one of the biggest factors to take into consideration when searching for the real you. How life situations in the past have dictated and defined your future - good and bad.
Our current circumstances - where we live, work, go to church, go to school/college/uni - the life we choose to lead and the people we choose to be connected with will have a bearing on the person we become. That's why God says the more you draw near to me the more i draw near to you. You become like the people you interact with - FACT!
Media - our perception of the life as we know it - Media holds so much power over the world, we need to be clued in to what we allow into our lives, some of it we can't change but we can choose to be wise to the type of media we let into our lives.

All these things are catalysts - they force us to adapt to the world we live in. What we don't always realise is that we have the biggest catalyst living inside of us - The Holy Spirit!

So... We need to learn to live within the world, allowing our character to change and develop without letting this over-ride our personality. How do we do this? By bringing everything back to the word of God - which holds the highest authority over all the earth. We almost need to list all the confirmed attributes of our personality with Christ against the attributes that come with our character, checking which ones enhance it and which ones hinder it.

We are responsible for defining our character, these are the things that are under examination in the Bible. Take a look at Galatians 5 - The sinful nature v the spiritual nature. We do have the ability to create and develop a true character as we live this life, it's one of the most important things to develop as this is what leads us to accomplish the work God has planned for us.

Our Character makes us unique when it enhances our Personality, but it is also the thing that will pull you away from your true God given personality if you let it.

So take a look at your identity and ask God to reveal the real you to you!!

Sammi

Take your EVERYDAY ordinary life and place it before God as an OFFERING

2009-09-22T02:48:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right guys, we will be updating this Blog regularly throughout this term so keep checking back to receive awesome new teaching, daily focusses and handy hints from your youth team!

I want to open up this week with a focus point for you -

How much of your everyday, ordinary life do you place before God?

Romans 12 v 1 says "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him."

I've been really challenged by this over the past few weeks. If you didn't know already i had an interview for a new job last week, i was given the opportunity through a friend the week before, and the moment i said yes to her organising the interview i panicked! The interview was for a receptionist position at a solicitors firm here in Newport, and if you know anything about me you will know that this type of job is SO different from the job i had before. I used to work with horses and have done for the last 12 years, so the thought of working within a professional office environment freaked me out!

Why? Because it's so far out of my comfort zone and it will involve me learning a whole new set of skills.

This reminded me of the similarities with my first day at school, and i was prompted to share this experience with those of you who have gone into a new year of school, university or workplace recently (which most of us have!).

Did you know that God chooses to use our everyday ordinary lives for greatness??

We don't just need to work to pay the bills, or go to school or uni to get an education, we do these things so we can be apart of the world - to be living representatives of Jesus within these places. But every now and again we go through an experience that rocks our world, and we struggle to see Gods part in it because of how scary it may look or how uncomfortable it might be.
God LOVES these moments in our lives!! These are the times where he can truly teach you something about yourself! The times where you look to Him for your everyday needs because you literally couldn't even contemplate going through that day without him. That's what He's there for, He's there as a source of strength and comfort, He exists to give you everything you need to accomplish the greatness He has planned within your day!!

And if i'm honest i would have to confess that i knew all these things in my head, but i hadn't fully developed them into a way of living. God spoke to me the week before my interview when i was having a major freak out, and all He said to me was - 'Is my Word only good enough in spiritual matters??' In other words, why can i trust Him with my spiritual matters, those that run within my ministry and my daily walk with Him. Why can i trust Him with the massive visions and dreams He's placed on my heart without trusting Him with simple daily living like job opportuinities and interviews?

This really challenged me, because God was right (duh!) i'm quite happy to look at the dreams he's given me and trust him even though they're far outside of my capabilities, far outside of my sphere of influence, far bigger than me! But when it comes to the everyday stuff, the situations that don't seem to be completely God focussed i freeze up and get scared and worry about the outcome.

Where does it say in the Bible that God's guidance, help and strength only comes within spiritual matters? It doesn't!! Because God is a relational God, He wants every part of us, because it's within all the other parts of our lives that He can best use us to successfully reach other people.

So i prayed about it and explained how stupid i had been to only let God control my spiritual life, and since then i've noticed how much i need it!

To cut a very long story short i did get the job, and im currently sat at the reception desk learning all the new skills i need to, to become the best receptionist i can be. But it hasn't been easy! Just because i prayed to God to take control of every area, and surrendered all my fears and worries to Him didn't mean that life suddenly got easier. It actually got a lot harder, and im having to constantly rely on God's awesome power, strength and comfort to get me through every hour of every day. But that's why He needed to challenge me on it! To make me realise that i needed Him so much more than simply in my spiritual life. He knew the type of situations i would be dealing with and He knew how far out of my comfort zone i would be living in - so He equips me with everything i need for every moment of every day.

So i want to challenge you with the same question God brought to me -

Have you given God EVERY AREA of your life? Now might be the time to ask him to reveal the areas you havn't released to him, because you never know what next week may bring. And i for one want to follow the only one who does - so i can be thoroughly equipped for every good work! (2 Tim 3v16-17)

Check it out!!
And have AWESOMELY BLESSED weeks!!

Sammi

Youth Podcast!

2009-09-14T14:04:00.001-07:00

Welcome to a brand new age in Bethel! The Global digital age!

We will be recording every Ablaze preach and Sunday morning in church and putting it on iTunes for you!

Now you can have Ablaze on your iTunes and iPod wherever you are!

You never need to miss a scripture or a life-changing point ever again!

Use the button on the right to subscribe, which will give you the first episode for free and also automatically download new episodes as soon as they are available! And it's all FREE!

So what are you waiting for? Click now and download the introduction to this term!

Launching Dreams !

2008-11-06T03:58:00.000-08:00

Dream facts – Did YOU know?

1. Time!

• One Third of our lives is spent sleeping. So if you live to the age of 90 you will have slept for 30 years! 30 years asleep imagine that!! 6 years of that time we spend dreaming without even knowing it!
• I don’t think God wants to waste those 6 years of your life. God has given you 6 years purely to dream – lush!

2. Everybody Dreams!

• Everybody dreams, even people who say they never dream – dream! It all depends on how we are woken.
• If you are woken from REM sleep you are more likely to remember your dream more vividly than if you wake naturally in the morning. 10 minutes after the dream ends you will have lost 90% of it!
• That’s why we always struggle to recall our dreams in the morning, or we can remember them but only random bits, which never make sense.
• Some experts say that you should write your dreams down as soon as you wake up – so you can remember the most detail.

3. Multiples

• On average we have 1 or 2 dreams a night; we often have 4 – 7 in one night.
• God wants you to dream! He wants you to be full of dreams – lots of them, never stop dreaming, God inspires your dreams, it’s his way of showing you what he wants to do, what his plans are for you. So if you’re looking for your purpose, your wondering what it is God wants you to do, be open to dreaming!
• Dream BIG! It says in Ephesians 3:20 "God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!"
• So don’t put God in a box, dream outside of your expectations, give God the space to make your dreams come true. What’s the point in dreaming something small that you know you can manage – you wouldn’t need God for anything then.

4. Brainwaves!

• So studies have shown that our brains are actually more active when we’re dreaming than when we’re awake.
• God has given us the capacity to dream massive dreams. To think outside the box, do things we wouldn’t normally think to do. To come up with new ideas we maybe couldn’t think of when we’re awake. No wonder we need 30 years sleep in our lifetimes if we’re so active when we’re dreaming!
• Has anyone ever woken up from a dream feeling exhausted! That explains it – you’re a dreamer! You’re a Joseph!

Joseph was one of the all time famous dreamers in the Bible; you can read all about him in Genesis 37 onwards. God spoke to Joseph through dreams, and he gives you dreams to inspire you to follow his plans for your life. That’s not saying that every dream you have is about God, so I’m pretty sure being chased by a giant sugar puff doesn’t mean anything! (Cough - Lozi).

Definition of Dream/Dreams:
‘A strongly desired goal or purpose’
‘A series of thoughts, images or emotions occurring during sleep’

So if all these things happen when we’re asleep, without us knowing, dreaming must be pretty important on God’s priority list. God’s into dreams!
What was first prophesied in Joel 2 v 28-32 is repeated in Acts 2 v 17-21.
“I will pour out my spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.”
We are all living someone else’s dream, I’m at the Audacious Academy this year, if Glyn Barrett and his team hadn’t dreamt that up and made it happen, I wouldn’t be there – so I’m living my dream through their dream.

When you act on your dreams you affect so many people.
Martin Luther King ‘I have a dream’ if he didn’t believe in his dream and do something about it the world would be a completely different place today. Be a dream launcher, run after your dreams and make them happen!

What are you dreaming about? It’s important to dream and have an idea of where you want to go in the future – Have Vision!
What dreams do you need to set on fire again? Don’t forget about your old dreams, they still mean something - God gave them to you for a reason!
Do you feel like you don’t have a dream yet? Ask God to inspire you, and listen closely he may have already sparked something in you that you’ve ignored!

Tips for Dream Launchers!

• Listen – to what God is putting in you.
• Make a note – write your dreams down, short term and long term. DREAM BIG! Remember not to put God in a box.
• Be creative! – Don’t just sit there with a big dream in your head, get thinking about ways you can make a step towards it.
• Get started – you might have a massive dream, but to God it’s a dream that he wants you to fulfill, every dream has a starting point, it may seem like a really small thing, but then again an oak tree comes from a tiny seed!
• Your dreams will develop as you develop – so persevere, don’t give up on them – This is a long distance journey!
• Put God in the driver’s seat! - Remember your dreams are God inspired, if you want them to succeed you need to surrender them back to God, show that you want his will not your own.

With God in the driving seat you can’t get lost!

Happy Monday (or Perhaps more accurately, Jesus is a Friend of Mine)

2008-09-29T02:28:00.001-07:00

Aloha

Happy Monday! Beat those 'back to school/work blues' by watching this catchy (and very cheesy 80's) video!

Favourite lines:
"He loves me when I'm right
He loves me when I'm wrong
He loves when I waste my time
By writing silly songs"

*Zap!*

Relevance

2008-09-18T08:09:00.002-07:00

Aloha (again!)

We just keep on giving this week!
Here's what we discussed last night in the student housegroup. It's part 1 of our 'Discipleship' course...

Relevance

Let’s talk about relevance tonight. We talked earlier in the year about the relevance of the church and what it meant to us and how God sees it. I want to pick that up again and explore more.

When I was becoming a Christian – for me, it wasn’t a decision or moment – it was a journey. I asked “God, if you’re there – reveal yourself to me” and thus began a journey where God would reveal himself to me.

I began to notice change, I began to pray and all the while in secret. I wasn’t going to throw all my cards in until I was certain. At the time, Linkin Park had a song out called ‘Somewhere I Belong’ which really spoke to me, as I was looking for who I was and where I fitted into life. Hungover in a coffee shop on valentine’s day 2003 – I decided I didn’t like who I was or where I was going or what I stood for. I didn’t know the answer, but I knew it wasn’t where I was, so I had to look for it.

5 years later, I can say that God is real, alive, involved and relevant in my life – so let’s try and explore some issues surrounding it.

Why is Jesus relevant?

Some people will have different opinions on this. And for every reason there is a million ideas of how to express it. But for me, the Relevance of Jesus is not rooted in His message of love, or how we can write songs about Him, make art in His name, have pictures, audio, multimedia etc…those are just means of telling people about Jesus.

There are churches that say “We’re post-Jesus. We don’t need to teach Jesus. Let’s just live better, try to all get along and live in peace.” Wrong. That is not God’s vision for His church. In John 12 Jesus reveals that He is “The way, the truth and life” and that “NO one comes to the Father except through me.”

We can’t get around Jesus. We can’t get to Heaven, be right with God, be able to serve or love God or even confess that God is Lord without Jesus.

But instead of asking; “How do we make Jesus relevant to people?” let’s ask ourselves; “Why? Why is Jesus relevant in my life?”

I believe the answer is found in Hebrews…

“Since He himself has gone through suffering and testing, He is able to help us when we are being tested.”
Hebrews 2:18

Are you a parent? He knows how hard that is.
Are you alone? He’s been there.
Are you sick? He made you, so he knows how to cure you.
Are you suffering? Persecuted? Beaten Up or just broken? He has firsthand experience of all of those things.
Are you tempted to do wrong? So was He.
Does the world ever feel like it’s too much to handle? Yeah.

Jesus is relevant – because he was willing to become like us. He isn’t some impersonal, distant but caring God. The religious leaders of the day, couldn’t believe that Jesus was who He said He was, because they thought they were getting a self-righteous King, a warrior, but one that bowed to tradition and law and reverence.

No, He got down in the mud with us. He didn’t wear whiter-than-white clothing. He was a meek and humble individual. He slept under the stars, dined with the broken, ordinary people and hung out with a rag-tag bunch of fishermen and a tax collector. He spent his days walking around with the sick and even dared to touch them. He suffered from persecution, betrayal, heartache, temptation and tremendous pain. He was even willing to become sin itself, to be separated from the Father and take the fullness of God’s wrath upon himself.

God had to turn his back, because He cannot look on sin. His own Son, willing to take our punishment, so that we could be found right with God. So that we can enjoy a relationship with him. So we don’t have to be alone…

Jesus is relevant because no matter what century we live in, no matter what technology brings or what kind of economic or political culture we live in – we are people. We feel. We hurt. We get sad. We fail. He came to fix all that. He became like us, and He won the victory.

Hebrews 4:15 says:
“This High Priest [Jesus] of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin.”

He didn’t fail in His mission. He didn’t succumb to the pain, or the temptation or the sorrow – but He felt it. You wouldn’t believe how he felt it. But He endured it. And He won.

The Relevance of the Gospel

So what makes this gospel relevant?

The stories of Jesus have not lived on because he was a good man. He is not just a model of how we should be. Nor is he just some symbol of goodness that we should strive to ascertain. His wisdom is not why we believe in him, nor is it because of his prophecies.

No, we love, believe, trust, serve and try to obey Jesus is the simple fact of his gospel – the most fundamental part of the gospel. He rose from the dead.

If Jesus was still dead, there would be no church. The disciples would have returned to being fishermen, perhaps more polite than they were or maybe even a little more inclined to help someone than before – but there would be no transformational power.
The crowds of people that gathered to hear him speak would have long forgotten his words and scattered. The next fad would have come up. Maybe it would be yo-yo’s this time. Or pogs.

No, the reason for our lives, our beliefs and our values is all built on the Resurrection.
“If Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless and your faith is useless” (1 Corinthians 15:14).
Let’s also read 1 Corinthians 15:3-8.
Paul is explicit here in the timeline of events.

Other religions will say “He was a prophet” or “A wise teacher”. Some say “He fainted on the cross” or that “They found the wrong tomb on the Sunday”. Let’s dispose of some of these myths…

• Jesus was flogged, beaten and whipped. Some people didn’t even make it this far. Some men died before even being crucified.
• Jesus, tired, starving, beaten beyond recognition was nailed to a cross that impaled his body and ripped it open.
• Next, Jesus says “It is done” and dies.
• He is pronounced dead by the executioner. He is a trained, and skilled man. His job is to kill people. Every day. If he says someone is dead, they are dead. Final.
• Luke testifies in his Gospel that Jesus is dead. What was Luke’s profession? He was a doctor. He knows what a dead person looks like.
• Next, to speed things up, a spear (or javelin) is thrust into Jesus’ side. It says in scripture that ‘blood and water flowed out’ – water came from his heart. This method pierces the skin under the rib cage and pierces the heart, causing it to burst and leaks water and blood. Without a heart – he is dead.
• Next, Jesus is taken from the cross and wrapped in hundreds of pounds of cloth. He is in a near mummified state and left in a tomb for 3 days. No water, no medical attention, no food, no air, no heart.
• Now, the tomb – was from a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea. Being a wealthy man his tomb would have had prominence, position and place. It would be distinguishable from the others. When Mary came and told the disciples the news, it says that John and Peter RAN there. They didn’t need to ask directions, or work out where it was – they ran. They knew the way.

So what happens then?
Jesus’ tomb does not become a place of worship or prominence – because why worship an empty tomb?

Jesus starts appearing to disciples, crowds of up to 500 people at a time and not as a spirit – Jesus wasn’t raised a spirit of himself – he was a physical being. He ate, drank, touched, embraced, walked, everything…He rose again to a perfected, glorified body and walked the Earth for 40 days after the resurrection, enough time for people to make accounts, history books dating back to the 1st Century depict that Jesus rose again and told the disciples of stuff like the Gethsemane prayer that no one else was around to hear.

Let’s go back to Hebrews: the writer records
“But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lives forever. Therefore, He is able, once and for all to save those who come to God through Him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.” (Hebrews 7:24-25)

Our Gospel is relevant because it is different to everyone else’s. All those ‘all roads lead to heaven’ are going the wrong way. No other God died for his people. No other prophet dared to call themselves God’s son. No one else rose from the dead to lead the way to someone else. And it’s relevant to people, because of what we said earlier about Jesus’ relevance.

Maybe you get that.
Maybe that’s all old news.
But there’s another piece of the puzzle:

Why am I relevant?

John 15:16 says this:
“You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name”

Church today has the ‘Jesus loves me’ down. We’ve got ‘God’s my provider, God’s planned my life, more than a conqueror’ stuff down. These are true, important and encouraging. But there’s more.

• God chose to make man and woman (Genesis 1) Before that, he made them an inhabitable world.
• He made them a paradise and made them to live with Him.
• When they sinned, he cast them out the garden for their own good. Because, the tree of life gave wisdom and understanding that only God should have. If God hadn’t cast them out, they would have ‘become like us’ [Gods] and much chaos would have ensued.
• God made plans to reconcile them to himself. He chose Jesus to do all that we said before about becoming like us to free us and save us, then came back from the dead to guide us to the Father and to intercede for us.

But what else? God chose us to spread the Good News. In the verse we read above it doesn’t say “I chose you because I like you and you deserve to get everything you want. Just ask and you’ll get it”. It says ‘I appointed you to GO and PRODUCE lasting fruit.”

You are part of the plan. Your actions and words are important and can shape those of the people around you. If you are brave enough to take this Christian life seriously, then God will use your appointment to make you more like him. Now, you’ll be the one feeding the poor, living with the ordinary and speaking out against injustice and religion. Why can’t God do it himself? He did.

In fact, God doesn’t ask us to do anything that He didn’t already do for himself.

Why can’t God just make everyone believe Him? He could, but He doesn’t want people forced into loving him. You can accept and reject his love at any time. Just like anyone else. Would you want to be at a party where everyone is forced to like you? No. You want to be around people who choose to appreciate and love you. People who respect you and trust you. We are relevant, because God has included us in the plan.

Y’know, we have it so easy, have so much freedom that we spend our lives praying “God! What do you want me to do? I don’t want to anything unless it’s Your will! Absolutely nothing! Nope, not a thing!” We have so much freedom, we don’t know what to do with it. So we waste it. We indulge in sin, in religion, in time-wasting relationships and other activities.

Start walking – and God will soon tell you you’re going in the wrong direction. Jesus said “Go!” He was OK with the disciples all going in different directions to spread the news – it got done. And that was the important thing. He guided their steps and they showed willingness to move.
Pastor Andrew said to me, when I was becoming more involved in church that my greatest ability – was availability. Making time to do whatever God needed me to.

So to wrap up:

Jesus is relevant. He suffered, cried, felt and was tempted just like you and me – but he didn’t sin. That said, because He didn’t means that he even knows the way to deal with that. Identify with him, trust in him – he’s been to hell and back for you.

The Gospel is relevant – because no other faith has a God who died for them. None will tell you that we can have resurrection and new birth NOW. That eternal life begins when you believe. This is not a multi-faith gospel, or even a crowd-pleasing gospel. It’s revolutionary, radical and relevant to everyone. Everyone needs a saviour.

And we are relevant – because God has chosen the weak things of this earth to confuse the wise and put them to shame. You and me were accepted as we were, but are daily changed into who we can become. Children of grace, ordinary and with a face and a mortgage and kids and responsibilities and feelings and failures. But we have a saviour, an intercessor helping us out who promises to give us what we need in this journey to spread the good news.

Another thought...

2008-09-18T08:09:00.001-07:00

Aloha

After speaking last night, I read some more of Rob Bell's awesome book and something very cool was revealed:

Y'know the first 5 books of the Bible? (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy?) Well, they were written by Moses, and considered as 'the law' and the standard for everyone. Kids even had to learn all 5 books by heart at around age 10!

Anyways, these 5 books were known as 'The Torah'. And 'Torah' has lots of different meanings...one of them being 'Way'.

So, when Jesus announced in John 12 (I think) "I am the WAY, the truth and the life" he was saying "That was me who wrote that. I was there, I am the law."

Wow.
Just thought I'd share.
Be blessed!
-AG

Dispelling 6 Myths of the Bible

2008-09-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

Aloha!

As promised, here are my notes from last night's youth talk. Feel free to pick, question, read, share etc!
Major thanks to Mark Driscoll and Rob Bell, and of course God in the writing here...

Dispelling 6 Myths of the Bible

Usually, teaching about the Bible is like when people teach about prayer. It’s all about guilt.
“You don’t read enough”
“You’re not doing it right”
“You’re not cross-referencing everything”
But you shouldn’t read your Bible out of guilt. Nobody should force you to read it. You should because you want to.

Like worship as well – we encourage you to worship, but only because we want you to WANT to worship.

Bible reading should be inspiring, fresh, vibrant and powerful.
You’re not reading a dictionary or instruction manual.

In fact, let’s get rid of two myths right now.

Myth 1. The Bible is an instruction manual for life.
The Bible is not an instruction manual for life.
It’s not a user’s guide for your body. How many people actually read the instruction manual before they play a game? Or build something? How many times have you been inspired to read an instruction manual for your toaster?

Myth 2. The Bible is like a dictionary.
We don’t look up the word ‘faith’ and it gives us an accurate description of what that is.
We don’t look up ‘love’ and it says “God is love, the end.”
No. Not at all.
We get stories, and journals and experiences of these things. We get to see people who have lots of faith, people’s faith failing like when Peter walked on the water, we see bad things to happen to people who have faith and we see great things. We get stories, stories that show us people who have experienced these things and then that helps us understand. We don’t get a description of love, we get to see what love looks like, see people fall in love, out of love, find love, lose love, try love, hate love and die out of love.

I am so glad the Bible is not some formula. If it was just “do this + this – sin = salvation” then it wouldn’t have all the beauty and brokenness that we have.

Let’s look at Acts 8. (26-40)

I love the honesty here. He could have lied and said yes and tried to come up with something. But instead he questioned it, he asked about it, and in return got so much more from it. Was he talking about himself or someone else?

Myth 3. The Bible is just about some old kings and stuff
The Bible is ALL about God.
Explain the Road to Emmaus. In Luke 24:25-26, it says that Jesus explained all the scriptures concerning himself. It all works out as one big timeline. For example, all the Kings that you read about in old testament had great significance, for they were the predecessors of Jesus. They were attacked and had wars and all had to be recorded so we could see just how much God was in control to bring about Jesus. If the enemy could have got one killed before he had a son, then the family line would not have continued and this would have prevented Jesus’ birth. Wow. It’s all connected.

Myth 4. The Bible is not relevant.
The Bible was not coughed up by God, it didn’t just land on the Earth one day and that was that. God spent thousands of years working it through with people and getting them to write it. It is so much more honest and true and relevant because it happened to real people.

Quote some Rob Bell, "Velvet Elvis" page 64-65 from Paragraph 2.

Myth 5. The Bible is a book.
The Bible is not a book, it is a library. There are history books, journals, letters, poems, thoughts…it’s like a scrapbook of humankind, touched by God. We see their lives in pain, misery and regret, and others in happiness, restoration and healing. It’s got romance, war, action, cliff-hangers and multi-coloured characters. And yet, as we said before – it all fits together around God.

If my story was in the Bible, or if yours was – it wouldn’t be perfect. It wouldn’t be eloquently written. It would contain truth and honesty about our brokenness and weakness, and occasionally, a story about our strength. A time where we were obedient and something amazing happened – we connected with God because we dared to either stand up or get on our knees.

When you start reading the Bible as the stories of real people in real situations, suddenly it has a life – because God gave them those lives and He inspired them to record it.

This isn’t an instruction manual or a dictionary. A dictionary does not profess to be anything other than a ‘collection of words alphabetically’ – but even it describes the Bible as an authoritive text.

This Bible is like God, our Father, reading us a bedtime story to comfort us.
Or giving an encouraging speech during a war.
Or a friend giving us some advice because they’ve been there.
It is so much more than just a book.

Myth 6. The Bible is boring
The Bible is not boring.
Have you seen those adverts for the iPhone? You must have. I really wanted to make a video like that for you, but it would be too long. So here’s a live version. I’m going to pitch my advert for the Bible.
• It’s not new – but that’s OK – Retro is in right now. Plus, it’ll never go out of date.
• It never needs an upgrade
• It comes in different languages and whatever style to suit your taste
• It will always tell you the truth.
• It’s always accurate.
• It’s compatible with all your other technology. In fact, it won’t bother them at all!
• It will give you direction, but you don’t even have to know where you’re going
• No batteries required. It’s always fully charged with power
• No internet connection required.
• Volume control. Sometimes it’s quiet, but it can loud. REALLY LOUD.
• Other audio functions; you can read it, or it can speak to you
• It’s just bigger than your hand – but can come in any size you like
• If colour is your thing, this comes in every single one. Name it.
• It has a lifetime guarantee.
• In fact, it has LOTS of guarantees for your life
• It’ll never break
• Virus proof
• Easy to use
• Always available
• And it’s anti-aging. This can EXTEND. YOUR. LIFE.

In Conclusion....

It’s the only reason I haven’t slipped away.
For fire to burn, you need to throw wood on it. This is your wood.
Man shall not live by bread alone…

Now that you have it – what are you going to do with it?

Will it be your door stop or your soapbox?

If the Bible is really your sword – always know where it is – you’d never lose your actual sword, because what happens when someone attacks you or your faith?

---

Hope you enjoyed it and found it useful!
-AG

What's your perspective ??

2008-09-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

What do you see in this picture ??

Do you see white birds or black ones? Which way are they flying, right or left? Is it day or night ? Are the birds really birds or are they part of the landscape ?

What's your perspective ?

When i first saw this piece of Art i saw the white birds flying to the right, but there was something weird about it, like i wasn't seeing the full picture or something, so i looked in more detail and saw the black ones flying to the left. Then i noticed that some of the birds aren't even birds their just bird shaped fields. And after all that i saw that it's day on one side of the picture and night on the other. Funny isn't it ! How many different ways you can look at something and get a completely different view of it, a different opinion maybe ??

Life is a lot like this picture, there's day and night and in each there are different images. There's light with detail / shadows with outlines. Some things are exactly what they look like, some are just shapes of what we think they are.

Depending on what your focussing on and where your priorities are, will cause you to see things differently to what you may have seen if you looked a bit harder.

First impressions aren't always what they seem ...

It might be like that for you at the moment, are you looking at a situation the wrong way ? Have you only taken a quick glance at it and made up your mind, have you had a little look into it and seen both sets of birds but given up on seeing anything else? Or have you delved into it, inspecting every side, both light and dark, good and bad ?

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our situations we look at them the wrong way, with the wrong perspective ! We try to find a constant in it and panic and struggle when we don't get one. When things go wrong we look to find comfort in something or someone. Unfortunately there is no constant in life, because everything changes, people, places etc.

But there is 1 constant ... God !

Read through Isaiah 40 v 12 - 31 - Awesome !

Our life is always going to change, we will be challenged and moved around, the direction in our life may change, our family, our careers, our finances, our relationships even, but God remains constant through it all.

You may think that God has changed for you, you used to have a good relationship with him, but its different now. You may be going through tragedy in your life, family circumstances or health issues and you wonder how God can let those bad things happen. You may have made some mistakes over and over again and think God's feelings towards you have changed ...

They havn't !! God is constant - He cannot change !

You just need to change the way your looking at the situation, and how your perceiving it. You will see different things from God at different points in your life, It's not that God is changing, It's that you and your life are changing. We were never meant to stand still, we were born to grow and experience life ! So even when it changes and throws us off balance, God is there, our never changing hero, our constant to keep hold of and find our balance again !

So how are you looking at the situation you're in right now?

Do you need to make God the constant in your life ?

Sammi :)

Welcome to Ablaze Youth !

2008-08-27T04:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome !

To the first of the Ablaze Youth Blogs !

Our blog is here to keep you all updated on what's going on @ Ablaze on Fridays and Link Groups in the week. There will also be AWESOME and INSPIRING words from your youth team updated regularly to give you fun and challenging things to think about during the week ! So you no longer have to wait till Friday !!!

So as the new youth year begins in September we will be bringing you NEW and IMPROVED Friday nights and Link groups based on your suggestions ! If you have any more ideas on what you want to see more of at Youth please let us know or leave us comments.

This year we want to challenge you guys to be more interactive in youth, by becoming involved in worship, preaching and sound desk/technical support. So speak to us about what area you're most interested in!

Also during September/October we will be raising money to support Audacious in the great work they are doing - if you have any fundraising ideas bring them along to Youth on Friday!

This year is going to be a B.I.G year for all of us, and it all revolves around you guys !

Bring it On !!